Author's Note: Shoutout to ink-stained dreams, Pesky Ixy Pesternomi, and pippi55 for the reviews! And thanks to Aenaris for the beta help. (:

Chapter 1 - Gluttony

Harry was really excited, because today was July 31 and that meant it was his fifth birthday! He'd been waiting a whole six months – well, almost – since Draco turned five, and if he was really honest with himself, he'd been getting really inpatient. Harry grinned as he remembered those good new words he'd learned from Uncle Severus.

"Mummy, Mummy, guess what?" he said. He was in the kitchen with his mummy, clinging to her robes as he watched her working on his cake. It was going to be a really good cake, with chocolate and frosting and Mummy's special sparkling sprinkles and everything!

"What, Harry?" said Mummy, smiling down at him. Harry's mummy liked to smile a lot. Not like his mother. Mother was always pretending to be stiff and proper, at least when there were other people around, like there would be today. Everybody was going to come to Harry's birthday party!

"I was inpatient about turning five, but now I'm not inpatient anymore!" said Harry, proudly displaying his vocabulary.

Mummy laughed. "Did Uncle Severus teach you a new word, Harry?"

"Two new words!" Harry corrected her. "Bein' honest is when you tell the truth!"

"That's right. What a smart boy you are," said Mummy, and she put down her wand so she could bend down and pick him up. Harry giggled and squirmed when she planted a kiss on his cheek. "Now, what colors do you want for the sprinkles?"

"Purple!" Purple was Harry's favorite color ever. "An' blue an' red, 'cause they make purple!" He'd learned that from cousin Dora and from playing with his crayons.

Mummy smiled again and put him back down on the floor. "You just know all sorts of things, don't you, Harry? Now, why don't you go outside and play with your brother? Otherwise the sprinkles won't be so much of a surprise."

Harry clapped a hand over his mouth like he'd seen Daddy do when he was reminded of something important he'd forgotten. "Oh no, I like it when it's a sprise!" As Mummy laughed and picked up her wand, he ran out of the kitchen to grab his shoes so he could go outside.

Draco was flying on his toy broom, so the first thing Harry did was run to the broom shed and get his own broom out. He took a moment to look longingly at the real brooms in the back, which Mother said he and Draco could try once they were older. They'd belonged to his daddy and his stepdaddy, Regulus, when they were in school and played Quidditch.

"Draco, wait up!" Harry shouted as he mounted his toy broom and flew across the yard to where Draco was trying to push his broom higher than the spells would let it go.

Draco scowled at him. "'m not going anywhere," he said.

"You looked like you were," said Harry. "Wanna play catch?" He held up the small, beat-up Quaffle he'd also retrieved from the shed.

They amused themselves for a while with that, trying to throw the ball as high as they could so it would be harder to tell where it would come down. In fact, they might have kept playing for the rest of the day if Mother hadn't shown up.

"Harry! Draco!" she called from the doorway. "Your father and Regulus are here."

Daddy and Regulus were infinitely more exciting than catch. Harry and Draco put their toy brooms away as fast as they could and then raced each other to the door (Harry won).

"Daddy, Daddy!" they were both shouting when they came into the living room. Daddy laughed and caught them both as they barreled into him, giving them each a good one-armed squeeze.

"Look who it is! Where have you been, hm? You weren't here to greet us." He pulled a sad face.

"We were playin' catch outside," said Draco. "I got the Quaffle the highest!"

"I got to the door first," Harry retorted, not about to be outdone by his brother.

"Let's not get into an argument, boys," said Regulus, grasping Daddy's shoulders to pull him into a standing position. As soon as Regulus was standing straight again, Harry ran over to him and wrapped his arms around his stepdaddy's leg. Draco did the same with the other leg, and they both looked up at Regulus innocently when he pretended to glare at them.

Daddy was trying not to laugh. "Reg, I think you've put on some weight."

"Thanks, James, I really appreciate it," said Regulus dryly. He reached down and ruffled the boys' hair. "By the way, happy birthday, Harry."

Harry grinned up at him. "I'm five now!" he reminded Regulus. "Jus' like Draco!"

"I'm five and a half," Draco corrected him.

"That's still five," said Harry firmly.

"What did I just say about arguing?" said Regulus. He pressed his hands down on their heads until they were both squirming and trying to shrink down to the floor, but Harry still hung on, and so did Draco.

"If you're trying to get them to let go, that won't work," said Mother, who stood in the living room doorway, surveying everything in a dignified manner.

"I suppose you know that from experience, Cissy?" said Daddy with a laugh. Mother glared at him, and he walked over to give her a big hug, making Harry and Draco giggle.

As it turned out, the boys were distracted enough to let go almost immediately after that, because the Floo went off again to let Uncle Ted and Aunt Andy through with Dora, and Aunt Bella arrived just behind them. The next few minutes were taken up with hugs and kisses and Harry stealing glances at the presents they'd brought, trying to figure out what they were from the shape. After that they were just waiting for Uncle Sirius and Uncle Severus, because the first part of the day was reserved for just their family. It was just for suppertime that Mother had insisted on having a big party with lots of strangers, just like for Draco's fifth birthday in February.

Everyone had settled into chairs and couches around the room when Mummy came in, wiping her hands on the apron she wore over her robes. Harry was safely ensconced in Daddy's lap, while Draco sat with Regulus next to them on the couch.

"What have I missed?" said Mummy. "Sirius and Sev still aren't here yet?"

"Sirius and Severus are always late," said Mother. She was sitting in her favorite armchair, the green and silver one. Slytherin colors, Mummy liked to call it.

Mummy sat on the arm of Mother's chair and leaned against Mother, turning her eyes to the fireplace. Harry and the others followed her lead, so that when the Floo finally flared up again, they were all staring silently for the entrance of Harry's uncles.

Uncle Sirius unfolded himself from his Flooing position and then hesitated, staring back at all of them uneasily. "Um, hi? Is something wrong?"

At that point, Harry could no longer contain himself. He jumped off of Daddy's lap and ran to Sirius for a hug. Draco followed quickly, and the whole room burst into laughter at Sirius's evident relief.

"Sirius, you are far too gullible," said Uncle Severus.

"What's gulble?" Draco asked before Harry could.

"Gul-li -ble," Severus corrected.

"Gul-li-ble," Harry and Draco both repeated obediently.

"It means he'll believe anything you tell him."

"Thanks, Sev," Sirius grumbled as Harry and Draco burst into giggles and latched onto his legs. "Now they'll be trying to tell me the sky is pink and the grass is blue for the rest of the day."

"You deserved it, mutt." Severus brushed past them, evading Sirius's attempt at a kiss.

Before either Harry or Draco could start trying to convince Sirius of anything, Mummy stood up and announced, "Well, since everyone's here, I think it's about time for cake and presents!"

"Presents!" Harry shouted, running into the dining room.

"Cake!" Draco yelled at the same time. They got into their chairs, and Harry bounced up and down as he waited for the adults to come in, until he realized he was being inpatient and tried to calm down again.

Draco was doing no such thing. As soon as Mummy put the cake on the table, he reached out a finger to draw off some of the frosting and then sucked it off.

"Hey!" Harry protested. "That's not fair!"

"What happened, Harry?" asked Mother, giving Draco a stern look.

"He took some of the frosting! Hey!" Harry added, with more distress, as Draco shot him a spiteful look and pulled off a piece of the cake, stuffing it into his mouth before it could be taken away.

"Draco, don't be a glutton," Mother scolded.

"What's a glutton?"

Pansy was laughing hysterically now, clinging to Harry's arm and rocking back and forth. Harry held onto her back with his other hand, grinning like a maniac.

"You cannot possibly remember your fifth birthday," Draco accused, knowing his face must be completely red with embarrassment at Harry's frank portrayal of them as children. "I certainly don't!"

"Oh, I only remember parts of it," Harry assured him. "Mum told me the story once, so I got most of it from that. The game of catch might not be accurate, though. I don't know whether we played it that day or not, just that we did it a lot."

"So you made it up," said Blaise.

"I wanted it to be a good story! Anyway, the important part was the ending, where Draco was a glutton. I remember that distinctly," said Harry, smiling sweetly at Draco's indignation.

Pansy finally calmed down enough to say, "So what about the rest of the sins? What's another one… greed?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "That was half our childhood. But I think I can come up with a specific story. Let's see…"