"For the wedding?" Harry said coyly.
"Of course, dear." said Mrs. Weasley, beaming at him. "And we're holding a birthday party for you, a little one in the morning. The rest of the guests won't be here until early afternoon, and I know you'd like your own friends about you rather than a huge crowd, you've been trying to hide from the spotlight for ages."
Harry was about to say a heartfelt thank you to Mrs. Weasley, but he yawned.
"Bed." Mrs. Weasley said automatically. "I really should have sent Ron and Hermione out a bit earlier, some hours before they got you..."
"The Muggles would have heard us apparating, mum." Ron pointed out.
"Oh...right." she seemed suddenly distracted momentarily, then said: "You'll be sharing with Ron again, Harry. Better get some sleep before your party."
Harry took a look at her and saw that she had alarmingly large bags underneath her eyes, her hair was frizzled, and he face seemed to sag.
"You really need some sleep too, Mrs. Weasley." Hermione said, voicing Harry's own concerns.
"Oh no, dear, I'm fine!" she said happily, swaying slightly on the spot. "Well, better get a move on, you three...it really wouldn't do now to have you yawning around during the ceremony!"
They wanted to greet everyone, but Mrs. Weasley shooed them upstairs with a bewitched pair of bulky wool mittens, which gently but firmly herded them to their bedrooms.
They bid Hermione a sleepy goodnight outside the closed girl's room, where Ginny was presumably having a good sleep. Harry, even with his exhaustion, had to resist the urge to follow just to take a look at her.
Harry spotted Ron's room and lurched toward it. Ron hung back slightly. Before Harry could inquire why, a jet of water sprayed him full on in the face.
"What the - " he yelped. Ron laughed.
"Don't worry, mate. Trust me, you don't want to know how the twins got me."
Harry wiped off his glasses and mopped his face. "Funnily enough, I do want to know. Strange thing, natural curiosity is."
Ron shrugged. "They angled it down so that it made the impression that I went to the bathroom in my pants."
Harry cackled. Ron snorted. "And I forgot to add; the water doesn't dry up unless you use magic."
This said, Harry glanced down at his shirt, which was wet from mopping off his face and glasses.
"Ah well." he said resignedly, yawning. "I'll just change and get Fred or George to do it for me tomorrow. If they don't, I'll jinx them."
Five minutes later, they were both snoring uproariously, blissfully lost in the distant dimension of sleep.
He dreamt that a caped figure in a flowing, elaborate robe of green was holding out something small towards Harry; something shiny. It was Slytherin's locket!
Harry reached out for it, only to have the figure retreat. It took no steps, moving rather like a ghost.
He could not identify a face, even; the hood was drawn up over the person's head and only blackness was visible.
"You must destroy it." the figure whispered, in an ethereal, echoeing voice. "The lives of so many hinge upon a few objects."
"Give it to me so I can!" Harry said forcefully.
"Alas, it is not achived so easily..you will have to prove your worthiness."
Harry opened his mouth for a retort, but the figure raised a hand and a light emanated from it, so bright that Harry raised his arms and protect his eyes.
"Happy Birthday, Harry. Wake up, your guests will be here in about an hour and a half."
It was Ron, bouncing lightly on his bed and vainly attempting to juggle rolls of socks.
"Next time, wake me up before blinding me." Harry grunted, his eyes still sticky with sleep, rolling over and catching himself from falling off the bed. Ron grinned viciously. "Not that side, your presents are over there. Don't want to be stepping on them and smashing them to pieces now, do we?"
"I thought you said that they were coming in an hour and a half?" Harry said, groping for his glasses.
"They are." Ron yawned. "But mum apparently slipped everyone's presents, those who already are here under your bed last night."
"Excellent." Harry said sleepily, slipping his glasses on after he'd rubbed his eyes. "Uh, where'd my clothes go?"
But Ron was gone. Surmising that Mrs. Weasley must have taken them to wash and press, he looked around and saw a rather plain package sitting on his nightside table. Sure enough, it was his clothes, taken out of his trunk. He got dressed quickly, taking care not to step on any of his precious presents.
He contemplated whether to open presents or to go down for breakfast first; both seemed like a very tempting option. Breakfast won out, as Harry hadn't eaten for quite a while and he would be opening presents later anyways.
Ron was wolfing down toast when he arrived at the table.
"Really, can you please keep it down to a dull chomp." said Harry, reaching for a stack of toast himself. "Is your mum getting some sleep?"
Ron nodded. "For once. Hope we can rouse her before the wedding starts, though she'll be peeved to know that she missed your birthday party."
Both of them chuckled. "Where're the girls?" Harry asked, through a mouthful with as much grace as he could muster. Which, sadly, wasn't to his satisfaction.
"They're outside, helping with last minute decorations." Ron said airily. "Why?"
"Just wondering." Harry said, trying valiantly to keep his voice nonchalant. It was likely that Ron had found out about he and Ginny breaking up for good reasons, at least for the moment. They would try to get together after the war.
Assuming that they both survived and won, of course.
Trying not to think about that daunting circumstance, he switched the subject automatically.
"Who's coming for the party, by the way?"
Ron chewed a bit of toast reflectively. "Well, Luna's coming, if you remember mum talking last night. Neville too. There's actually a lot of people coming early who are staying for the wedding, like Hannah Abbot and her dad, and some of Fluer's relatives who all want to wish the famous Harry Potter a happy birthday."
Harry scowled. He hated being called famous, and it was usually thrown in his face by Malfoy or another Slytherin. It rankled much more, though, coming out of the mouth of one of his best friends.
Ron immediately realised that he had erred and said quickly, "Sorry, mate. I didn't mean...you know."
"Yeah." said Harry, shrugging. "I'm going outside for a walk."
Before Ron could protest, Harry wandered towards the front door, intending on talking to Ginny, even if it was 'friendly' rather than romantic conversation. Distracted, he accidentally collided with something a third of Harry's height, travelling at somewhat high speed for indoors.
"Uhn!" Harry grunted.
"Uhn!" squeaked the other.
Both sat down hard, and Harry found himself staring into a bright pair of beaming tennis ball shaped eyes.
"Harry Potter, sir!" Dobby said in surprise.
"Dobby?" Harry said, torn between gaping and grinning.
"Yes, sir, indeed!" Dobby said, giving him such a toothy grin that he would have sent an aggressive dog packing. "Dobby has heard that Harry Potter has arrived yesterday, and was hoping to get a chance to speak to him!"
"Well, you've spoken to me," Harry laughed. "So Hogwarts let you off, then? What about all the other house-elves?"
"They still stay at Hogwarts, sir," Dobby said, his ears slightly dropping. "But the students provide most of our work, and now there are no students, ever since..."
"Yeah." Harry hurriedly interrupted him, anxious not to get into this subject just yet.
"Dobby has brought Harry Potter a present," Dobby said, taking the hint and beaming. "Dobby very much hopes that Harry Potter likes his present."
He sped off again.
"Huh." Harry grunted to no one in particular, standing up again and continuing out the front door.
I'm liking it so far. I asked a question on your other story. Have you or do you, ever post your stories on www.harrypotterfanfiction.com?
I have three stories on there and I am getting 10 reviews a day and am on 53,000 readers. You should go on there, it is better than this. This is just a forum, that is an actual site.
Hope you start on there, unless you already have. Update quicker!
lol, okay. Its only like using this, except it is more set out. Once your semester is up, I think you should give it ago. My Harry/Hermione stories are here:
KMC Community Forums
Jan 12th, 2006 04:59 AM
I'd like to, but I have a busy semester ahead of me.
