Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
More Important Than Any Broomstick - Chapter 17 - Magic, Brooms, and Birthdays
The next day, training found Harry and Hermione outside flying around the quidditch pitch on broomsticks to learn
defensive flying. In other words, how to fly so that someone who's chasing you can't hit you with a spell.
Harry and Sirius were on Firebolts, while Lupin and Hermione were on Cleansweeps that Sirius was kind enough to
provide. He'd bought enough brooms so that if they ever had enough people over, they could have a full quidditch
game. The collection consisted of twelve Cleansweeps and his and Harry's Firebolts, not to mention a set of
quidditch balls.
Harry had spent a few hours with Hermione the previous evening helping her master basic riding skills (after their nonverbal magic and snogging sessions). She always had a hard time controlling her broom, so Harry felt it would be better for her to have practice flying beforehand. They also had the important issue of retaliation for the prank the Marauders had pulled on them a few days before to discuss. They planned the prank to occur during this training session.
"Hermione," said Lupin, "You're actually doing a lot better than I thought you would. Most people who aren't on the quidditch team, especially the intellectual ones, aren't that good at flying."
She chuckled, "You mean bookworms like me, don't you Moony?"
"Er, well," said Moony. "I guess you could..."
"Ouch!" said Hermione, as Sirius got her with a shot that gave her a very light jolt.
"The first rule of defensive flying," said Sirius with a smirk, "is to not get distracted."
She stuck out her tongue at Sirius while Harry yelled, "That wasn't fair. You were supposed to be after me, while Lupin was after her!"
A serious look came on both Padfoot and Moony's face as Moony replied, "Do you think the Death Eaters will play fair? Sirius only gave her a jolt, but it could just as easily been a death curse."
"I guess you're right," admitted Hermione. "I've got to pay attention to everything that's going on around me."
"Exactly," said Sirius.
They continued practicing for about an hour. Harry got a few shots at both Lupin and Sirius, while avoiding getting hit at all. He figured that was due to his quidditch reflexes, always avoiding the bludgers. Hermione, on the other hand, couldn't get one shot to make contact with their opponents, but did manage to avoid getting hit again.
She winked quickly at Harry, who winked back. Harry shouted out at the Marauders, "How about if we practice me simply trying to escape you?"
Sirius and Moony looked at each other for a moment, and then Sirius said, "Alright. Go."
Harry flew off around the yard avoiding them as best he could, which was very good. He kept weaving around avoiding all their shots while Hermione quietly made her way toward the pool. Harry flew under the pavilion with them following behind. When he got out he moved the broom straight up and over the pavilion while his pursuers were still following, taking shots whenever they could, which wasn't often at the velocity Harry made them pursue. Harry flew over the pool, and Hermione, who was now on the ground, started a spell. As the Marauders approached the center of the pool, a cyclone of water came up out of the the pool, surrounding them, and pulling them and their brooms into the water. Hermione walked up to the edge of the pool laughing while Harry flew down next to her. He said to the two men who were now swimming toward the surface, "You've got to pay attention to everything that's going on around you."
"You never know when you're going to be ambushed," finished Hermione. Everyone, even the victims, burst out laughing.
"That's one way to catch Death Eaters!" said Sirius as he climbed up out of the pool. While Lupin was pulling himself out of the water, Harry nonverbally dried Sirius off, and then Hermione did the same for Lupin. "Wow!" said Sirius, "I guess you have been practicing more than just snogging!" Harry and Hermione both blushed slightly.
"Not only that, but we've both finished that book," said Hermione defiantly.
Sirius smiled, "Good! We'll talk about that later. Right now, I'd like to see how much nonverbal magic you can perform."
They then gave demonstrations of various spells, starting with Wingardium Leviosa and ending with the summoning charm (which Hermione insisted on teaching Harry after she found out he didn't know it). When Harry had silently summoned his new photo album from his room, the Marauders both looked at him in surprise. Sirius asked, "Wasn't that in your room?"
"Of course," he said, "Didn't you see it come out my window?"
"Er, no," Lupin replied. "We weren't looking toward the house. We were expecting you to summon something closer. Hermione, can you summon things that far away?" She then summoned Harry's pillow from his bed.
"So what?" asked Harry.
"Most people your age have a hard time summoning something that far verbally. Have you tried any wandless magic yet?" asked Sirius.
"No," both Hermione and Harry replied.
"I'd suggest you try it now," said Lupin. "Put down your wands and try levitating one of these chairs nonverbally," he said, motioning toward the chairs surrounding the pool.
Instinctively, each held out a hand toward the chairs they were aiming at, and almost immediately, both of them started to float. Hermione's went about six feet in the air, while Harry's went about eight feet. The Marauders just stood there with their mouths hanging open until both of the teenagers lowered the chairs to the ground.
"Why haven't you tried nonverbal spells in our combat?" asked Sirius.
"We haven't practiced those types of spells yet, and didn't want to leave ourselves vulnerable if it didn't work," said Hermione.
"Well," said Lupin. "I suggest you practice it tonight so that you can try it tomorrow. Also, see if you can fight with wandless magic. You know, stunning spells or anything."
-
In the week or so that followed, Harry and Hermione began using nonverbal spells in combat training. At first they were doing a bit worse than they had been when they used verbal magic, but within a few days, they finally beat Sirius and Remus. After they'd won two days in a row, Sirius suggested that Harry and Hermione start using wandless magic, which they'd continued practicing every afternoon. It took three days of losing badly to the Marauders before they'd finally gotten up to a competitive level. They'd decided not to let anyone else except possibly Dumbledore know about their nonverbal and wandless magic skills.
They also practiced defensive flying every day with the Marauders, who never flew above the pool again. Harry was amazed at how Hermione improved once she'd gotten over her initial fear of heights. He imagined that she probably could make a good chaser now.
Sirius and Remus had answered every question that the teenagers had about animagus transformation. Since both Sirius and Lupin would be at Hogwarts, it was decided that they could take the transformation potion the Saturday after it was completed. Lupin said, "At the rate you're learning everything else, I wouldn't be surprised if you two manage to make your first transformation by Christmas," which greatly pleased the young couple.
On July 31st, Harry woke up to find no owls bearing gifts for him. He walked down to breakfast like any other morning, and was treated no differently by Sirius or Remus. When Hermione came at eight, she gave him her usual 'Good morning' kiss, but didn't act any differently. He was beginning to wonder if everyone had forgotten that this was his birthday. They started their morning exercise, and went on to their combat training. Harry and Hermione managed their first stalemate, where both teams scored the same amount of hits during the hour-long fight, with the Marauders since they began using wandless magic. "Whew," said Sirius. "I thought your were gonna win that. I know we're in for it tomorrow."
"You two really were amazing," said Lupin. "Not to get you conceited, but right now you could probably take out half of the Death Eaters we've ever seen, at least in a semi-fair fight."
"Just remember that the Death Eaters don't fight fair, and there are still a lot that you couldn't beat, not to mention Voldemort himself if and when he comes back."
"We know," said Harry and Hermione together.
"By the way pup," said Sirius, "Happy birthday." Harry smiled upon hearing that someone remembered.
"Happy birthday Harry," said Lupin and Hermione together. Hermione then gave Harry a quick kiss while Lupin and Black looked the other way.
"We wanted to throw you a surprise party here," said Sirius, "but we couldn't let anybody in here without you knowing about it."
"We invited some people to floo here in an hour for a party," said a nervous Hermione, "but we need you to tell Julius to let them in, er if you don't mind." She then pulled a list out of her pocket and handed it to Harry.
He smiled and looked down the list. He said, "I don't mind," and then muttered something like "I suppose we have to let Ron come if we let Fred, George, and Ginny. Although it would be funny to have him stuck in limbo until the party's over." The list included Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny Weasley, as well as Lee Jordon, Lavender Brown, Parvati and Padma (because Parvati asked if her sister from Ravenclaw could come) Patil, Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, and Seamus Finnegan. "I'll head to the library now to take care of this and then clean up."
He walked into the library and called out, "Julius."
"Yes, Harry? It's good to see you. Isn't today your fourteenth birthday?"
"Yes it is, Julius," he said, grinning as he approached the portrait of his multi-great grandfather.
"Well then," the portrait said with a big smile on his face, "Happy Birthday!"
"Thanks, that's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. The others are throwing me a party."
Julius' portrait grinned. "Yes, they told me about that. I told them that you're the only one who can allow the guests access. This way no one can surprise you. Your father liked that aspect of the security system."
Harry grinned. "So do I. I was wondering if I could just allow them access today."
"I see, so that they can come to your party, but not come when you don't want them to."
"Exactly," said Harry. "I don't want to be rude, but I want to limit the number of people with access to the house."
"We can do that. As I understand it, all the guests will be flooing in."
"That's right," said Harry, nodding.
"Just read me the list, and I'll grant them access to the floo until midnight tonight."
Harry smiled broadly. "That sounds perfect."
-
The first ones to arrive were the Weasleys. Fred, George, and Ron were looking around the place while Ginny rushed up and gave Harry a quick hug while saying, "Happy birthday, Harry!" Her cheeks turned red as she backed away and began looking around the house. Harry didn't notice the appraising look that Hermione gave the red-haired girl.
"Yeah, Happy birthday!" said Fred and George together as Dobby took their gifts.
"Er, Happy birthday," said Ron, with his head down.
"Thanks, Ron," said Harry, deciding he didn't want to spend his birthday acting awkward around Ron. "And thanks for coming."
"Sure," said Ron, "Any chance to get away from the Burrow. I heard you have a real quidditch pitch here."
"Yeah," said Harry enthusiastically. "There should be enough people here for a game of quidditch!"
"We didn't bring any brooms," said Ron. "Maybe I can go and..."
"No need, we've got enough! Sirius bought a bunch of Cleansweeps."
"Must be nice to be able to do that," muttered Ron.
"Look Ron," said Harry pleadingly, "Can we just enjoy the day? I hope they told you to bring swimming trunks."
"Yeah," said Ron, sounding a little happier. "How big is your pool?"
Within fifteen minutes, the rest of the guests had arrived, and they quickly migrated outside for a game of quidditch. Lupin was the referee and Sirius was playing. Fred and George were beaters for opposite teams because it was felt that it wouldn't be fair to have them together. The first team had Harry as seeker, George and Neville as beaters, Seamus, Parvati, and Dean as chasers, and Ron as keeper. The other team had Ginny as seeker (no one else wanted to go against Harry, and Sirius let the seeker use his firebolt in hopes of humiliating Hogwarts' famous seeker), Fred and Lee as beaters, Padma, Hermione, and Lavender as chasers, and Sirius as keeper.
In the beginning of the game, Harry was pleased while everyone else was surprised to find that Hermione was actually a pretty good chaser now that she knew how to fly properly. During the game, while Hermione had the quaffle and was headed toward the goal, Padma asked, "How did you get to be good at quidditch?"
Hermione said simply, "Harry's been teaching me," with a smile.
"I'll bet that's not all he's been teaching you." said Parvati, with a suggestive tone, causing Hermione to blush as the other girl took the opportunity to steal the quaffle from Hermione.
In the meantime, Harry noticed that Ginny was marking him, so he started diving toward the ground as fast as he could. As he pulled up, he noticed that Ginny was still where she had been, with a smirk on her face. He flew back up to her and she winked at him and said, "Harry, I've watched every match you've played in since I started at Hogwarts, so I know when you're faking seeing the snitch. I've never understood why the other seekers are always fooled by you."
The game went on and Hermione was thrilled when she managed to score a goal on Ron, bringing her team ahead of Harry's - 160 to 150. Ron cursed loudly and apologized when he saw that everyone was looking at him.
At that moment, Harry saw the snitch for real. It was closer to Ginny than to him. He knew he couldn't fake her out to lure her away from the snitch, and he also knew it was a matter of seconds before she'd spot it herself. He briefly thought of summoning it, but figured that would be a very Slytherin thing to do. Besides, he figured Remus (or Sirius for that matter), who was judging this match, would catch him it doing it and accuse him of cheating. He decided to just go as fast as he could, hoping his experience on a firebolt would help him. Within a second, the redheaded girl was after the tiny winged ball too, and they were flying neck-in-neck for about ten seconds as they closed in on it. They both reached their hands out, and Harry was happy to see that his arm was longer than Ginny's, which got his hand around the snitch a half-second before Ginny's hand closed around his. He heard her swear under her breath as they separated moments later.
Everyone, even Harry, complimented Ginny's performance as seeker. When Harry complimented her, she blushed, but when her brothers complimented her, she said rather crossly, "Maybe next time you play quidditch, you'll let me join the game!"
After the quidditch match, everybody went inside to change into their swimsuits to try out Harry's pool. Harry and Hermione had previously agreed to take off their protective jewelry whenever they went swimming. Harry was already in the water when Ginny came walking up to the edge and said, "Harry, what do you think of my new swimsuit?"
Harry gulped as he looked down to see an incredibly revealing bikini showing him that Ginny was not an eleven-year-old girl anymore. "Er, it's, well, fine. I mean nice," he said, glad he was submerged in the cold water up to his head.
"Thanks," Ginny said with a smile. He saw her expression change to a frown as she looked behind him. She then turned and walked to the other side of the pool.
Harry turned around and saw Hermione glaring in the direction of Ginny, who was now in the water. He swam up to where she was and put his arms around her. He then asked, "Is there something wrong?"
Hermione smirked and said, "That depends on what you think of Ginny."
He looked confused. "What? You don't think that we..."
"Never mind," said Hermione, and she gave him a very good kiss right there in the pool, earning catcalls from several people. She could swear she'd heard some of the girls say something about all of them getting to kiss the birthday boy. Harry never saw the glare Ginny was giving them, but Hermione did for a second as they separated. She whispered into his ear, "Hero, I need to go somewhere for a minute. I'll be right back," and kissed him one more time. He saw her whisper something to Ginny, and then they both got out of the pool. He turned around and began talking to Neville.
-
Hermione whispered determinately into Ginny's ear, "Ginny, we need to talk, now!"
Reluctantly, Ginny followed. When they were far enough away from everybody, Ginny innocently asked, "What's this all about?"
Hermione glared at the other girl. "I know what you're trying to do. It won't work, so I suggest you give up before you end up losing friends."
Ginny looked uncomfortable. "Er, I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't play dumb with me! I've seen you flirting with Harry all day, and I've seen the way you've blushed whenever he's been nice to you." Ginny blushed. Hermione continued, "I understand you liking Harry, I obviously like him myself." Hermione then blushed a little. "Actually, we're in love Ginny. Harry's not even aware that you've been making passes at him all day. He just thinks you're having a little fun." Ginny looked hurt. "Listen Gin, it's not that you're not pretty enough, because you probably are prettier than me. He's not noticing any of the other girls there, and even though he disagrees, they're all prettier than me. I don't know why I'm the lucky girl who got him, but I am. It's not that you're not nice enough or somehow not good enough for him. It's just that Harry is in love with me, and I'm in love with him. That makes him unavailable." She could see Ginny's eyes filling with unshed tears. Hermione sighed. "We both want to be your friend, Ginny, because we think you're a wonderful person. But you've got to accept that Harry and I are together, and that's not going to change."
Ginny's head was hung down. "I know. I see the way he looks at you, and wish it was me. I, he's so special, so, I don't know, great somehow. But he thinks he's just a regular person and tries to be nice to everyone, except maybe dark wizards like Tom. I mean, he saved my life when he hardly knew me. He's so brave..."
"I know, Ginny. Believe me, even though he claims he's the lucky one, I know the truth. He is without a doubt the most wonderful guy in the world."
Ginny took a deep breath. "I guess I have to accept that I'll never be more than his friend, but I should warn you." She smirked at the brunette. "I won't come between you two, but if you ever break up, I will go after him."
"Fair enough," said Hermione, smiling at the redhead, "since that's not gonna happen. We should get back to the pool."
-
After another hour had passed, it was time for an early dinner, so Dobby brought food and drinks outside to the pavilion. After Remus and Sirius had dried off everyone (they decided not to tell anyone they could do magic at Potter Manor) and they changed back into their regular clothes, they all tucked in to American party foods, such as hamburgers, hot dogs, potato chips, pizza (although originally Italian, it's quite popular at American parties), and several other good things. To drink they had both Pepsi and Coke products instead of pumpkin juice.
After dinner, Dobby apparated all the presents to the now clean table. Most of what Harry got was quidditch-related products, such as a broomstick-care kit and new quidditch gloves. Remus and Sirius gave Harry advanced books on defense and potions respectively, although Sirius whispered to Harry that his laptop was also a birthday gift. Hermione had given him book on advanced charms. When it was dark enough, Remus and Sirius put on a fireworks show with products they said were provided by the Weasley twins, who stood up and bowed to everyone upon being mentioned. Not long after that, people started going home. Harry thanked everyone for coming, and made sure that everyone knew to tell him ahead of time if they were going to visit because of the security system. He didn't go into any details, because then he'd have to reveal that he was taking them all off of the 'welcome' list, and he wasn't certain how they'd feel about that.
A few minutes after the last guest left Hermione walked up to him with a smile on her face, threw her arms around his waist, and kissed him. "I love you," she told him when she'd pulled back enough to look him in the eyes.
"I love you, too," he responded, kissing her again.
"I never gave you your real present."
"Really," he said suggestively, causing his girlfriend to blush.
"Not that, silly," she said, holding out her hand to wandlessly summon something. When a neatly wrapped box landed in her hands, she said, "This." She then handed him the box, which he eagerly opened to find - another box. Hermione burst out laughing.
"What?" asked Harry.
"The look on your face was worth all the trouble of wrapping it twice. Now open that box."
"Fine," said Harry, faking that he was mad. He finally got it open to reveal a black Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP, along with a dozen games. "Wow!" he said, with a smile on his face.
"I already charmed it to work with magic," she said grinning. "This plays more games than any other portable system out there. It's actually from my parents and me, but it was my idea."
"It's brilliant," Harry said with a grin. He kissed her again and said, "I can honestly say this is the best birthday I've ever had!"
-
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