A/N: Glad you liked the last chapter, thanks for all the reviews! Don't
forget to review this one please! Sock-stealing Ginny is Imogen's idea. Go
read her fics "Carpe Diem" and "Alpha and Omega", they're really great!
Secrets of the Past
The next day, Harry awoke to the twittering and screeching sounds of Ron's owl, Pigwidgeon. Muttering to the tiny owl to shut up, he sat up, reached for his glasses, and glanced down at the clock on the wall. It was seven o'clock. Harry cursed Pig for waking him up too early, as he knew that he would not be able to go back to sleep.
He pulled the covers off himself, and looked for the familiar mop of red hair in the bed next to him, but saw that it was not there. This was surprising: Ron never usually emerged before at least eight o' clock, even when they were at Hogwarts.
Sighing, he grabbed a towel and went down to the bathroom, which was situated on the floor below. Knocking first, to check that no one was in there, he pushed open the wooden door, and stepped into the shower.
After a few minutes of standing under the hot jets of water, he stepped out, and groped for his towel in the steam created by the hot shower. Finding the towel, he wound it around his waist, and looked around for his clothes. They were not there.
He swore as he realised that he had left them in Ron's room, and he realised that he was going to have to make a run for it up the flight of stairs, and hope that no one saw him.
He poked his head out of the bathroom, and looked both ways down the hallway. Seeing no one, he stepped out and shut the door behind him, every moment conscious that he was wearing only a small, white towel.
He hurried up the stairs, and into Ron's room, and was surprised to see Ginny searching through her brother's chest of drawers. She seemed to be muttering to herself, and hadn't noticed Harry was standing in the doorway.
Harry unsuccessfully tried to back out of the door, wondering if he could make it back to the bathroom without being seen, and call Ron to fetch his clothes, but in the process, he stubbed his toe on the doorjamb, and involuntarily swore.
Ginny whirled around, a pair of balled up socks clutched in her hands. Her eyes went wide with shock, as she saw Harry, wearing nothing but the towel.
"Harry!" she exclaimed, her voice high pitched and unsteady, "what are you doing here?"
"Um," Harry said, "I am staying in this room. Why are you here?"
Ginny held up the bright orange Chudley Cannons socks she held in her hands.
"You're stealing Ron's socks?" Harry asked.
"Guilty," Ginny said, and Harry noticed that her cheeks had gone a little pink, as if she had suddenly realised that she was having a conversation with someone who was half naked.
"Well. I'll just be going then." She stammered, and pushed past Harry, running down the stairs at top speed.
Harry dressed hurriedly, and wondered why he hadn't heard Ron, or for that matter, anyone apart from Ginny that morning. He shrugged, and then went downstairs. As he descended the stairs, he could smell breakfast being cooked - Pancakes, it smelled like. And not those cheap, American style pancakes his Aunt Petunia always bought, the proper, real English pancakes that he loved.
He thought that the kitchen sounded unnaturally quiet this morning. Usually, when he visited The Burrow, breakfast times were filled with Fred and George's jokes, Ron's exclamations over Quidditch, and Mrs Weasley admonishing one or other of her children. This morning, all was quiet, save for a strange sound that could have been wind rustling through leaves, or whispers passing through a crowd of people.
Harry soon discovered that it was the latter, for when he pushed open the kitchen door, the sound stopped, and was replaced with a chorus of people shouting "Happy Birthday!"
Harry had forgotten that today was July 31st, as he had become accustomed to letting his birthday pass without event.
Beneath a banner painted with the words "Happy Birthday Harry!" stood Mr and Mrs Weasley, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George, Bill, Charlie, Remus, Tonks and three people that Harry thought looked vaguely familiar, though he couldn't remember where from.
Mrs Weasley rushed forwards, and hugged Harry, wishing him a Happy Birthday. Over the next few minutes, nearly everyone gave him birthday greetings, even the three strangers, who Charlie introduced as his friends from Romania: Jamie, Matt and Persephone, who told Harry to call her Sephy.
Harry suddenly realized why he thought he had recognized Jamie, Matt and Persephone - they were Charlie's friends that had fetched Norbert when Harry was in his first year.
After everyone had greeted him, they ushered him over to the kitchen table, where he ate a pile of pancakes stacked high, and laden with butter. Next to his plate of pancakes, the table was groaning beneath a stack of brightly wrapped presents.
He picked up the first gift, and saw that it was from Hermione. It felt suspiciously like a book. He ripped off the bright paper, and saw that it was indeed, a book, entitled "Quality Quidditch for Quality Quidditch Captains". He looked up surprised, at the beaming faces gathered around the kitchen.
"What?" he asked, bewildered.
"I had a letter from Professor McGonagall, asking who I wanted to vote for as Quidditch captain for next year. She said that if I said you, it would make the voting unanimous." Ron said, beaming.
"I'm Captain?" he asked, sounding quite shocked at this prospect.
"Yep. Now hurry up, open the rest of your presents!" Ron said.
Harry grabbed the next present on the pile, and felt it to be squashy, almost as if it was a Weasley jumper. The writing on the label read:
To Harry,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Love from
The Weasley family (excluding Fred and George)
Puzzled, he tore open the wrapping, and found the contents to be a scarlet Quidditch robe, resplendent in Gryffindor red. Embroidered onto the front of the robe, on the left hand side, were the words "Captain" in gold lettering.
Harry held the robes up, so he could admire them in their full splendour.
He looked up at the Weasley's, and profusely thanked them for their generosity - he knew that such fine robes as this could not have come cheap.
"This is from us, mate," Fred said, shoving a large box towards Harry.
Harry eyed it suspiciously - he'd heard enough tales from Ron and Ginny to know that a present from Fred and George was likely to explode, or turn him into a large fruit-bat, or something of that vein.
Hesitantly, he opened the box, and was relieved when it didn't explode, and that he didn't turn into an animal of any sort. Instead, the box was filled with products from Weasley's Wizard Wheeze's.
"They're from our new stock," George explained, "we've almost got the shop up and running now. When you come to Diagon Alley, you'll have to stop by."
Harry thanked the twins, and opened the remainder of the presents. The first was a large box of Hagrid's jaw-clamping toffee, another was a new Eagle feather quill from Remus, and from Tonks, he got a box entitled:
"The Ten Most Hated Flavours of Every Flavour Beans! Including the top three: Ear wax, Vomit and Blood!"
"Erm, thanks," Harry said, upon opening this present.
"No problem!" Tonks replied cheerfully.
The final present, was large and rectangular in shape. The label on the front read:
Dear Harry
Happy Birthday mate,
Charlie, Jamie, Matt and Sephy
Harry looked at Charlie's dragon fighting friends.
"You shouldn't have," he exclaimed, "I barely know you."
Jamie grinned, "Well, we do have an ulterior motive. We thought that you could leave it here when you go off to school, and we can have a go."
Harry frowned, wondering just what the parcel held within. Thinking that the best way to find out, would be to open it, he did just that.
It was a Quidditch game, similar to a Muggle board game, or so Harry thought, until he opened it up, and saw a replica of a Quidditch pitch, encased in a glass dome. Protruding from the two longer sides of the wooden base, there were fourteen handle type things, seven on each side, which put Harry in mind of the controls on Dudley's playstation, though much smaller.
"Wow," he breathed, and picked up the instruction booklet, to see just what it did.
"Don't bother with that," said Matt, "we know how to play, we can explain."
"Yeah, it's really simple, you'll pick it up no problem," added Sephy.
Most of the people in the kitchen dispersed now, knowing that Harry would want to experiment with the Quidditch game. Left in the kitchen with Harry were Ron and Hermione, Ginny, Charlie, Matt, Jamie and Sephy. Fred and George wanted to stay, but had to go and work in the shop.
"It's really great," Charlie began to explain the game, "You can play a full scale game. You don't have to have fourteen players, you can set it so that only the position you want is controlled by you, and all the rest run on their own."
"Turn it on then," Sephy said, "lets see what it can do!"
Harry pressed the little black button, that was shaped like a bludger, and the game whirred into life.
Words appeared in the middle of the pitch, forming out of the thin air. They read:
Welcome to Quicksilver's Quidditch! Please select your team!
At this, a long list of Quidditch teams appeared including:
Wimbourne Wasps Chudley Cannons Falmouth Falcons
"You've got to be the Cannons," Ron said.
"Yeah," Harry agreed fervently, and he looked up at Charlie, "how do I select the Cannons?"
"You need to use a controller," Charlie said. Harry picked up a controller, and moved the Snitch cursor down to the Chudley Cannons label. He pressed enter, and a new legend appeared.
Welcome to the Chudley Cannons! Please select the number of players on the team, and the positions they will play.
Harry quickly counted the number of people around the table, and selected four players for the Cannons team, which meant that there would be three players controlled by the game.
For the other team, he selected the Wimbourne Wasps, and said that four players would be playing for this team too.
"What positions do you all want to play?" Harry asked, after sorting the teams out. Charlie and his friends would be the Wasps, and the others would be the Cannons. They lined up at the edges of the dome, four on each side, and each grasped a controller.
They each selected their positions, and then a loud commentating voice filled the air around them, emanating from the dome.
The game commenced, and lasted for most of the morning, with the Cannons winning by a hair's bredth, at 210-200.
"Fancy a real game of Quidditch now?" Ron asked, and Harry nodded eagerly.
Hermione, however, rolled her eyes disparagingly. "Not more Quidditch!" she cried, "I don't think I can stand it!"
Everyone else, however nodded their agreement to the real game, and ignored Hermione, grabbing their brooms, and heading up to the Orchard.
The hours flew by, as the game was played. When it was near to five o' clock, everyone but Harry and Ron returned to the Burrow, claiming they were too tired to continue play. Ron and Harry however, continued practicing new moves, and planning for the future of Gryffindor Quidditch team.
After another half-hour had passed, they too headed back up to the Burrow. Ron ushered Harry up to the second floor bathroom, and he himself went to the third floor bathroom.
After his shower, Harry wrapped a towel around himself, and found that, once more, he had not brought any clean clothes with him. Sighing, he stepped out of the bathroom, realising that unlike this morning, he had to climb two flights of stairs instead of just the one.
He hurried up the stairs, his glasses still steamed up from the shower, and so it was not really surprising when he bumped into a whirl of red hair.
He fell to the floor, with a loud bump, and after checking that his towel was still securely in place, he looked up, and was able to make out Ginny through the haze. He noticed she was wearing a very pretty blue dress.
"We really should stop meeting like this," he said wryly, as he picked himself up off the floor, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
"Yes, we should," Ginny said, quite quietly. She seemed to mentally shake herself, before she continued, "anyway, I was looking for you. Mum says dinner's ready."
"Oh right, er, just give me a moment to get dressed."
Ginny nodded mutely, and practically fled from the scene, running down the stairs.
Harry buried his head in his hands in embarrassment. He wondered how many more times he was going to forget his clothes and meet up with Ginny wearing nothing but a towel during his stay at the Burrow.
Minutes later, he was in Ron's room, dressed and attempting to make his hair lie flat, but to no avail.
He hurried down the stairs, wondering if the silence meant that they had started dinner without him. He entered the kitchen, expecting to see the Weasley's plus their guests eating at the table, but to his surprise, there was nobody in the kitchen. He frowned, and went into the living room, but found no one there either.
"Hello?" he called, but no one answered.
He looked in all the other downstairs rooms, even the broom cupboard, but found no one. He then thought he heard a suppressed giggle from the garden, and so headed out there.
He barely had time to register that the garden was bedecked with streamers and balloons, before he heard an almighty cry of "SURPRISE!!"
People seemed to spring out of thin air, and, Harry supposed, that some sort of charm had been cast. He saw people from school - Neville, Seamus, Dean, Lavender, Parvati and Padma, Dennis and Colin and some others from his year.
He grinned at them all, and from somewhere, music began to play, and people began to mingle and talk. Harry headed over to Ron and Hermione.
"Did you suspect anything?" Ron asked, when Harry reached them.
"Nope," Harry said, "I'm still really shocked. How did you-"
Ron cut him off, "Mum's been planning it for ages. She said that as you've never had a proper Birthday party, you ought to."
"Well, it's really great!" Harry exclaimed, "thanks you guys,"
During the course of the evening Harry's classmates gave him birthday greetings, and exchanged tales of their holiday so far. By general consensus, Neville's story was definitely the funniest.
"So we went to my Uncle Algie's house, and I took Trevor with me. Uncle Algie said he was getting a bit boring, and so he decided to make him a bit more interesting. He gave him this potion, which apparently should have turned him into a super-toad, or something, but instead, it turned him bright pink, with fluffy horns poking out of his head! Uncle Algie laughed so much, he almost gave himself a heart attack. As it is, all that happened was his false teeth fell out, into the pond. He still hasn't found them. He's really upset, apparently, they used to belong to his Grandmother."
Everyone laughed when Neville finished his story, and Harry, Ron and Hermione moved off to the food table.
The night wore on, and when dusk began to fall, Mr. Weasley lit little fairy lights all throughout the garden, which twinkled unrelentlessly.
All was calm and peaceful, until Ron and Hermione decided to have an argument. It started as all Ron and Hermione arguments started: over something stupid.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting with Ginny and Neville in a corner of the garden, when the conversation turned to what they'd do if there was an attack on Hogwarts from Voldemort's dark forces.
"I think the Ministry should let us all take our Apparition tests early, so we could all get out if we needed to," Ron said.
"Honestly, Ron!" Hermione said, "how many times do I have to tell you? You can't apparate or disapparate in the Hogwarts grounds! It's in Hogwarts: A History!"
"I was joking Hermione! You and your bloody 'Hogwarts: A History'" Ron put on a high pitched voice in imitation of Hermione, as he said the last bit, "honestly!" he said, again in imitation.
Hermione stood up, her face red, and poked Ron in his chest.
"You are the most arrogant, idiotic person I've ever met!" She enunciated every word prodding Ron's chest repeatedly. At this Ron stood up too, and moved around to the other side of Hermione, so that they were once again facing each other.
"Maybe you should stop being a know-it-all!" Ron yelled.
"Idiot!" Hermione retaliated, not realising that the music had stopped, and everyone was staring at them.
"Teacher's pet!"
"Self-indulgent little twerp!"
"Vickie-lover!"
"Chauvinistic pig!"
"Freak!" said Ron, who was rapidly running out of insults.
"Stupid red-head!" Hermione also seemed to be running out.
Neither had noticed, but with each insult hurled, they had taken one step closer to each other, so that now, they were practically nose to nose.
"Stupid idiot," Ron said, though he said this in a much softer voice, much quieter.
"Honestly Ron! You are truly the most infuriating, waste of space I've ever m-"
She was silenced, by Ron kissing her on the lips. At first, Hermione seemed shocked, but then she began to kiss him back.
When they broke apart, claps, wolf-whistles and catcalls broke out from everyone in the garden, and someone, Harry suspected it was Fred or George called out "About time, too!" which was met by laughter.
Ron and Hermione both had bright red faces, and they looked uncomfortable under all the scrutiny. Ron gave a small embarrassed smile, and grabbed Hermione by the wrist, dragging her indoors, out of the way of everybody.
There was a small silence, before somebody restarted the music and chatter began again.
Harry still sat in the corner with Ginny and Neville, a little shocked at his friends' antics, but amused nonetheless.
"Well," he said, a small smile on his face, "who wants to bet that they haven't gone inside to talk?"
* * *
A/N: Thanks for being patient in waiting for this chapter. The next chapter should be up soon, hopefully. Thanks for reading, and please read and review.
Secrets of the Past
The next day, Harry awoke to the twittering and screeching sounds of Ron's owl, Pigwidgeon. Muttering to the tiny owl to shut up, he sat up, reached for his glasses, and glanced down at the clock on the wall. It was seven o'clock. Harry cursed Pig for waking him up too early, as he knew that he would not be able to go back to sleep.
He pulled the covers off himself, and looked for the familiar mop of red hair in the bed next to him, but saw that it was not there. This was surprising: Ron never usually emerged before at least eight o' clock, even when they were at Hogwarts.
Sighing, he grabbed a towel and went down to the bathroom, which was situated on the floor below. Knocking first, to check that no one was in there, he pushed open the wooden door, and stepped into the shower.
After a few minutes of standing under the hot jets of water, he stepped out, and groped for his towel in the steam created by the hot shower. Finding the towel, he wound it around his waist, and looked around for his clothes. They were not there.
He swore as he realised that he had left them in Ron's room, and he realised that he was going to have to make a run for it up the flight of stairs, and hope that no one saw him.
He poked his head out of the bathroom, and looked both ways down the hallway. Seeing no one, he stepped out and shut the door behind him, every moment conscious that he was wearing only a small, white towel.
He hurried up the stairs, and into Ron's room, and was surprised to see Ginny searching through her brother's chest of drawers. She seemed to be muttering to herself, and hadn't noticed Harry was standing in the doorway.
Harry unsuccessfully tried to back out of the door, wondering if he could make it back to the bathroom without being seen, and call Ron to fetch his clothes, but in the process, he stubbed his toe on the doorjamb, and involuntarily swore.
Ginny whirled around, a pair of balled up socks clutched in her hands. Her eyes went wide with shock, as she saw Harry, wearing nothing but the towel.
"Harry!" she exclaimed, her voice high pitched and unsteady, "what are you doing here?"
"Um," Harry said, "I am staying in this room. Why are you here?"
Ginny held up the bright orange Chudley Cannons socks she held in her hands.
"You're stealing Ron's socks?" Harry asked.
"Guilty," Ginny said, and Harry noticed that her cheeks had gone a little pink, as if she had suddenly realised that she was having a conversation with someone who was half naked.
"Well. I'll just be going then." She stammered, and pushed past Harry, running down the stairs at top speed.
Harry dressed hurriedly, and wondered why he hadn't heard Ron, or for that matter, anyone apart from Ginny that morning. He shrugged, and then went downstairs. As he descended the stairs, he could smell breakfast being cooked - Pancakes, it smelled like. And not those cheap, American style pancakes his Aunt Petunia always bought, the proper, real English pancakes that he loved.
He thought that the kitchen sounded unnaturally quiet this morning. Usually, when he visited The Burrow, breakfast times were filled with Fred and George's jokes, Ron's exclamations over Quidditch, and Mrs Weasley admonishing one or other of her children. This morning, all was quiet, save for a strange sound that could have been wind rustling through leaves, or whispers passing through a crowd of people.
Harry soon discovered that it was the latter, for when he pushed open the kitchen door, the sound stopped, and was replaced with a chorus of people shouting "Happy Birthday!"
Harry had forgotten that today was July 31st, as he had become accustomed to letting his birthday pass without event.
Beneath a banner painted with the words "Happy Birthday Harry!" stood Mr and Mrs Weasley, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, George, Bill, Charlie, Remus, Tonks and three people that Harry thought looked vaguely familiar, though he couldn't remember where from.
Mrs Weasley rushed forwards, and hugged Harry, wishing him a Happy Birthday. Over the next few minutes, nearly everyone gave him birthday greetings, even the three strangers, who Charlie introduced as his friends from Romania: Jamie, Matt and Persephone, who told Harry to call her Sephy.
Harry suddenly realized why he thought he had recognized Jamie, Matt and Persephone - they were Charlie's friends that had fetched Norbert when Harry was in his first year.
After everyone had greeted him, they ushered him over to the kitchen table, where he ate a pile of pancakes stacked high, and laden with butter. Next to his plate of pancakes, the table was groaning beneath a stack of brightly wrapped presents.
He picked up the first gift, and saw that it was from Hermione. It felt suspiciously like a book. He ripped off the bright paper, and saw that it was indeed, a book, entitled "Quality Quidditch for Quality Quidditch Captains". He looked up surprised, at the beaming faces gathered around the kitchen.
"What?" he asked, bewildered.
"I had a letter from Professor McGonagall, asking who I wanted to vote for as Quidditch captain for next year. She said that if I said you, it would make the voting unanimous." Ron said, beaming.
"I'm Captain?" he asked, sounding quite shocked at this prospect.
"Yep. Now hurry up, open the rest of your presents!" Ron said.
Harry grabbed the next present on the pile, and felt it to be squashy, almost as if it was a Weasley jumper. The writing on the label read:
To Harry,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Love from
The Weasley family (excluding Fred and George)
Puzzled, he tore open the wrapping, and found the contents to be a scarlet Quidditch robe, resplendent in Gryffindor red. Embroidered onto the front of the robe, on the left hand side, were the words "Captain" in gold lettering.
Harry held the robes up, so he could admire them in their full splendour.
He looked up at the Weasley's, and profusely thanked them for their generosity - he knew that such fine robes as this could not have come cheap.
"This is from us, mate," Fred said, shoving a large box towards Harry.
Harry eyed it suspiciously - he'd heard enough tales from Ron and Ginny to know that a present from Fred and George was likely to explode, or turn him into a large fruit-bat, or something of that vein.
Hesitantly, he opened the box, and was relieved when it didn't explode, and that he didn't turn into an animal of any sort. Instead, the box was filled with products from Weasley's Wizard Wheeze's.
"They're from our new stock," George explained, "we've almost got the shop up and running now. When you come to Diagon Alley, you'll have to stop by."
Harry thanked the twins, and opened the remainder of the presents. The first was a large box of Hagrid's jaw-clamping toffee, another was a new Eagle feather quill from Remus, and from Tonks, he got a box entitled:
"The Ten Most Hated Flavours of Every Flavour Beans! Including the top three: Ear wax, Vomit and Blood!"
"Erm, thanks," Harry said, upon opening this present.
"No problem!" Tonks replied cheerfully.
The final present, was large and rectangular in shape. The label on the front read:
Dear Harry
Happy Birthday mate,
Charlie, Jamie, Matt and Sephy
Harry looked at Charlie's dragon fighting friends.
"You shouldn't have," he exclaimed, "I barely know you."
Jamie grinned, "Well, we do have an ulterior motive. We thought that you could leave it here when you go off to school, and we can have a go."
Harry frowned, wondering just what the parcel held within. Thinking that the best way to find out, would be to open it, he did just that.
It was a Quidditch game, similar to a Muggle board game, or so Harry thought, until he opened it up, and saw a replica of a Quidditch pitch, encased in a glass dome. Protruding from the two longer sides of the wooden base, there were fourteen handle type things, seven on each side, which put Harry in mind of the controls on Dudley's playstation, though much smaller.
"Wow," he breathed, and picked up the instruction booklet, to see just what it did.
"Don't bother with that," said Matt, "we know how to play, we can explain."
"Yeah, it's really simple, you'll pick it up no problem," added Sephy.
Most of the people in the kitchen dispersed now, knowing that Harry would want to experiment with the Quidditch game. Left in the kitchen with Harry were Ron and Hermione, Ginny, Charlie, Matt, Jamie and Sephy. Fred and George wanted to stay, but had to go and work in the shop.
"It's really great," Charlie began to explain the game, "You can play a full scale game. You don't have to have fourteen players, you can set it so that only the position you want is controlled by you, and all the rest run on their own."
"Turn it on then," Sephy said, "lets see what it can do!"
Harry pressed the little black button, that was shaped like a bludger, and the game whirred into life.
Words appeared in the middle of the pitch, forming out of the thin air. They read:
Welcome to Quicksilver's Quidditch! Please select your team!
At this, a long list of Quidditch teams appeared including:
Wimbourne Wasps Chudley Cannons Falmouth Falcons
"You've got to be the Cannons," Ron said.
"Yeah," Harry agreed fervently, and he looked up at Charlie, "how do I select the Cannons?"
"You need to use a controller," Charlie said. Harry picked up a controller, and moved the Snitch cursor down to the Chudley Cannons label. He pressed enter, and a new legend appeared.
Welcome to the Chudley Cannons! Please select the number of players on the team, and the positions they will play.
Harry quickly counted the number of people around the table, and selected four players for the Cannons team, which meant that there would be three players controlled by the game.
For the other team, he selected the Wimbourne Wasps, and said that four players would be playing for this team too.
"What positions do you all want to play?" Harry asked, after sorting the teams out. Charlie and his friends would be the Wasps, and the others would be the Cannons. They lined up at the edges of the dome, four on each side, and each grasped a controller.
They each selected their positions, and then a loud commentating voice filled the air around them, emanating from the dome.
The game commenced, and lasted for most of the morning, with the Cannons winning by a hair's bredth, at 210-200.
"Fancy a real game of Quidditch now?" Ron asked, and Harry nodded eagerly.
Hermione, however, rolled her eyes disparagingly. "Not more Quidditch!" she cried, "I don't think I can stand it!"
Everyone else, however nodded their agreement to the real game, and ignored Hermione, grabbing their brooms, and heading up to the Orchard.
The hours flew by, as the game was played. When it was near to five o' clock, everyone but Harry and Ron returned to the Burrow, claiming they were too tired to continue play. Ron and Harry however, continued practicing new moves, and planning for the future of Gryffindor Quidditch team.
After another half-hour had passed, they too headed back up to the Burrow. Ron ushered Harry up to the second floor bathroom, and he himself went to the third floor bathroom.
After his shower, Harry wrapped a towel around himself, and found that, once more, he had not brought any clean clothes with him. Sighing, he stepped out of the bathroom, realising that unlike this morning, he had to climb two flights of stairs instead of just the one.
He hurried up the stairs, his glasses still steamed up from the shower, and so it was not really surprising when he bumped into a whirl of red hair.
He fell to the floor, with a loud bump, and after checking that his towel was still securely in place, he looked up, and was able to make out Ginny through the haze. He noticed she was wearing a very pretty blue dress.
"We really should stop meeting like this," he said wryly, as he picked himself up off the floor, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
"Yes, we should," Ginny said, quite quietly. She seemed to mentally shake herself, before she continued, "anyway, I was looking for you. Mum says dinner's ready."
"Oh right, er, just give me a moment to get dressed."
Ginny nodded mutely, and practically fled from the scene, running down the stairs.
Harry buried his head in his hands in embarrassment. He wondered how many more times he was going to forget his clothes and meet up with Ginny wearing nothing but a towel during his stay at the Burrow.
Minutes later, he was in Ron's room, dressed and attempting to make his hair lie flat, but to no avail.
He hurried down the stairs, wondering if the silence meant that they had started dinner without him. He entered the kitchen, expecting to see the Weasley's plus their guests eating at the table, but to his surprise, there was nobody in the kitchen. He frowned, and went into the living room, but found no one there either.
"Hello?" he called, but no one answered.
He looked in all the other downstairs rooms, even the broom cupboard, but found no one. He then thought he heard a suppressed giggle from the garden, and so headed out there.
He barely had time to register that the garden was bedecked with streamers and balloons, before he heard an almighty cry of "SURPRISE!!"
People seemed to spring out of thin air, and, Harry supposed, that some sort of charm had been cast. He saw people from school - Neville, Seamus, Dean, Lavender, Parvati and Padma, Dennis and Colin and some others from his year.
He grinned at them all, and from somewhere, music began to play, and people began to mingle and talk. Harry headed over to Ron and Hermione.
"Did you suspect anything?" Ron asked, when Harry reached them.
"Nope," Harry said, "I'm still really shocked. How did you-"
Ron cut him off, "Mum's been planning it for ages. She said that as you've never had a proper Birthday party, you ought to."
"Well, it's really great!" Harry exclaimed, "thanks you guys,"
During the course of the evening Harry's classmates gave him birthday greetings, and exchanged tales of their holiday so far. By general consensus, Neville's story was definitely the funniest.
"So we went to my Uncle Algie's house, and I took Trevor with me. Uncle Algie said he was getting a bit boring, and so he decided to make him a bit more interesting. He gave him this potion, which apparently should have turned him into a super-toad, or something, but instead, it turned him bright pink, with fluffy horns poking out of his head! Uncle Algie laughed so much, he almost gave himself a heart attack. As it is, all that happened was his false teeth fell out, into the pond. He still hasn't found them. He's really upset, apparently, they used to belong to his Grandmother."
Everyone laughed when Neville finished his story, and Harry, Ron and Hermione moved off to the food table.
The night wore on, and when dusk began to fall, Mr. Weasley lit little fairy lights all throughout the garden, which twinkled unrelentlessly.
All was calm and peaceful, until Ron and Hermione decided to have an argument. It started as all Ron and Hermione arguments started: over something stupid.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were sitting with Ginny and Neville in a corner of the garden, when the conversation turned to what they'd do if there was an attack on Hogwarts from Voldemort's dark forces.
"I think the Ministry should let us all take our Apparition tests early, so we could all get out if we needed to," Ron said.
"Honestly, Ron!" Hermione said, "how many times do I have to tell you? You can't apparate or disapparate in the Hogwarts grounds! It's in Hogwarts: A History!"
"I was joking Hermione! You and your bloody 'Hogwarts: A History'" Ron put on a high pitched voice in imitation of Hermione, as he said the last bit, "honestly!" he said, again in imitation.
Hermione stood up, her face red, and poked Ron in his chest.
"You are the most arrogant, idiotic person I've ever met!" She enunciated every word prodding Ron's chest repeatedly. At this Ron stood up too, and moved around to the other side of Hermione, so that they were once again facing each other.
"Maybe you should stop being a know-it-all!" Ron yelled.
"Idiot!" Hermione retaliated, not realising that the music had stopped, and everyone was staring at them.
"Teacher's pet!"
"Self-indulgent little twerp!"
"Vickie-lover!"
"Chauvinistic pig!"
"Freak!" said Ron, who was rapidly running out of insults.
"Stupid red-head!" Hermione also seemed to be running out.
Neither had noticed, but with each insult hurled, they had taken one step closer to each other, so that now, they were practically nose to nose.
"Stupid idiot," Ron said, though he said this in a much softer voice, much quieter.
"Honestly Ron! You are truly the most infuriating, waste of space I've ever m-"
She was silenced, by Ron kissing her on the lips. At first, Hermione seemed shocked, but then she began to kiss him back.
When they broke apart, claps, wolf-whistles and catcalls broke out from everyone in the garden, and someone, Harry suspected it was Fred or George called out "About time, too!" which was met by laughter.
Ron and Hermione both had bright red faces, and they looked uncomfortable under all the scrutiny. Ron gave a small embarrassed smile, and grabbed Hermione by the wrist, dragging her indoors, out of the way of everybody.
There was a small silence, before somebody restarted the music and chatter began again.
Harry still sat in the corner with Ginny and Neville, a little shocked at his friends' antics, but amused nonetheless.
"Well," he said, a small smile on his face, "who wants to bet that they haven't gone inside to talk?"
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A/N: Thanks for being patient in waiting for this chapter. The next chapter should be up soon, hopefully. Thanks for reading, and please read and review.