The following morning the crashing sounds caused by Errol, who clearly had been fed another ditzy blitz, woke everyone up. Fred and George dragged Harry out of bed ignoring his protests for more sleep. He would have slept on the floor outside Ron’s bedroom where the twins had left him but Ginny came strolling by and he didn’t want her to see him in Dudley’s old Smelting knickerbockers. Ron, who was now wide awake, had finished dressing. He rubbed his hands together and pulled his mattress of the bed and into the hall. Harry just barely got a glance of Ron surfing his mattress down the stairs yelling ‘party time!’ Soon the radio had been blasted to its highest volume filling the entire Burrow with sounds of Aurora Borealis’ new hit “Northern Lights.”
Just as he finished dressing Tonks passed by the door of his room singing along to the witch, “Physical phenomenon spellbinds me under celestial skies…” He knew Tonks was a big music fan but was surprised when George came into the hallway singing along with the warlock, “Luminous angel come to me under the northern lights…” He couldn’t help but laugh with George very enthusiastically dipped Tonks and they both went thundering to the ground.
“Hello there Harry,” Tonks got up from the floor rubbing her shoulder, “Happy birthday!”
“Thanks.”
“I’ve got something for you…” she told him shuffling through the various pockets of her cloak which seemed to be made entirely of pockets of all shapes and sizes, “This is from Lupin,” she handed him what looked to be a card. “He told me to tell you he’s really sorry he couldn’t make it to your birthday and…” she tapped her foot while scratching her chin trying to remember, “Oh yea! And he wanted me to tell you to open it in privately when you have some free time!”
Harry smiled; he was halfway through opening the envelope when Tonks remembered the second half of Lupin’s message. He supposed it might have something to do with Sirius or his parents and that was why Lupin would not want him opening it in front of others.
“Right,” he plopped the card onto his bed, “I’ll just leave it for later…”
“HARRY!!!” an almighty bellow came from the first floor of the Burrow.
“Better get the birthday boy downstairs so we can start the fun!” Tonks pulled him down the stairs to the enthusiastic applause of all the Weasley’s and Hermione. Mrs. Weasley stood in the middle of the room with a clipboard in her hand.
“Perishables, check, glassware, check, fireplace, check, owls, check, stove, check…Alright you lot, every thing’s been secured,” she roared into the crowd of people who stood before her, “You may official commence with birthday madness.”
All at once the ‘birthday madness’ began. Fred and George had several new party games they had invented for the occasion. For the first half of the day they played Banging Bowtreakles, in which a hundred small, flying, ugly fairy-like creatures called bowtreakles were let loose in the Burrow. It was a lot like playing hide and go seek except that when a bowtreakle felt it was cornered it could explode in your face. The first to find and disable ten bowtreakle would receive a handsome prize. This was made especially difficult because Errol continued to twirl madly towards all of them forcing them to leap out of his way and thereby giving the bowtreakle time to escape. Hermione stopped playing when a particularly nasty bowtreakle blew up taking half her hair with it. Harry, however, was not the youngest seeker Gryffindor had seen in over a century for nothing, he was the only one able to get ten bowtreakles and received a handsome magical camera for his trouble.
Once Mrs. Weasley restored Hermione’s hair they ate lunch in the backyard. Hermione was reluctant to play anymore of Fred and George’s games until they told her the next one would test a person’s intelligence. ‘Madd Frogg’ was as the title suggested, about a mad frog that needed your help to get through a maze. As it was a game of logic Hermione crushed them all soundly.
She won a book of puzzles and was delighted about it although the rest of them didn’t think it was much of a prize, “We figured only a person who could win that game would like a book of puzzles,” George confided to him.
The last game they played was ‘Truth or Scare’ which was sort of like truth or dare except that points were collected by the number of questions you answered honestly, but if you lied, you would be scared straight and everyone would know you were a liar. Ron looked like he was going to win the game when he pulled a card that read “Who do you fancy?” He sputtered for about a minute and than said no one whereupon the card mutated into a tarantula. It chased him around the house, with a mad Errol twirling and pecking at his head, for a good half hour. It wasn’t until dinner time that they let Ron off the hook by declaring Ginny the winner of the game and awarding her a new telescope for her honesty.
Harry was thanking Mrs. Weasley for the scrumptious feast she had prepared when he noticed that everyone was already tearing at the meal and joined in. Mr. Weasley unbuckled his belt three notches before finally declaring that he was full. After dinner Mrs. Weasley shooed them off to the living room where they lounged about commenting about the hilarious look on Ron’s face when he was hanging from the banister to escape the tarantula, the way he had begged them to call of the tarantula, and considering who Ron’s fancy was. Although he had a strong hunch, Harry suggested it was Moaning Myrtle when it was his turn to guess. The lights went dim and everyone sat up and began to sing the birthday song as a giant chocolate cake decorated with broom sticks and snitches was carried into the living room by Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.
“Don’t forget to make a wish,” Ginny reminded him before he blew out his birthday candles.
The way the candlelight danced in her eyes made them sparkle.
“You make it for me.”
“You’re the birthday boy, you have to make it.”
He looked to the candles, than shook his head.
“I don’t have a wish so if you all want cake you’d better tell Ginny to make one,” he warned the crowd that was watching him.
“Come on Gin, be a sport,” Tonks replied instantly.
“Before the wax melts,” Fred cried out while George gave her a poke.
“Alright already,” she closed her eyes as Hermione shooed Errol away from the cake.
“Anytime this century…” Ron mumbled.
After a minute she opened her eyes up, “Now you can blow out the candles,” she told Harry and he did.
“What did you wish for?” he asked her when they both had a plate of cake in front of them.
“If I tell you it won’t come true!”
“Well considering it’s supposed to be my wish…”
She eyed him shrewdly, “Oh very well! If you must know, I wished that when you finally make a wish from your heart, that your wish will come true. A bit convoluted, I know.”
As they retired to their rooms later that night Harry felt that this had been the birthday of a lifetime. Ron picked up a letter that was sitting on his bed and began to read it while Harry put his presents away. Ginny’s wish was still lingering in his mind. He didn’t believe that wishes came true which was why he never made one in his life, she had looked so serious when she shared her wish with him leaning in so close that he could smell the jasmine shampoo she used in her hair. Before he had time to realize that he was getting giddy over Ginny an angry grunt interrupted his thoughts.
“All right, Ron?”
In a matter of seconds Ron turned white, pink, a curious shade of purple that Harry thought only his Uncle Vernon could turn, and than a bright crimson. He waved the letter he received wildly into the air sputtering. He bound out the room. Harry sat down on his own bed and grabbed Lupin’s card thinking he might as well read it when he heard Ron screaming for Hermione. He followed Ron, Lupin’s card still in his hand, into Ginny’s room.
“HERMIONE!” Ron’s chest was heaving and his face still crimson.
“What is it?
Ron waved the letter in the air madly, “KRUM!”
“What about him?”
He waved the letter crushing part of it in the palm of his hand and threw it at her feet. Hermione picked it up and began to read it.
“How dare you!” she raged jumping up to face Ron, “This is my private mail!”
He snatched the letter from her hand madly tearing it into a million little pieces over her protests. Ginny looked to Harry for an explanation but all he could do was shrug. With two POPS! Fred and George apparated onto Ginny’s bed appearing on either side of her.
“What’s the raucous about?” Fred asked Ginny casually as George sprawled on the bed opening a letter of his own to read.
“I’ll tell you what it’s about,” Ron screamed, “Krum! She’s been to see Krum!”
Harry noticed that Ginny became very interested in her finger nails all of the sudden. Clearly, this was not news to her.
“I can see whoever I want!” Hermione argued back.
“Been cozying with Vicky, have you?” Ron was quickly turning vicious, “Too thick to realize he’s using you to get to Harry?”
“We never speak about Harry!” Hermione protested.
“So you’re sharing information about the Order,” he accused, “So the little junior Death Eater could join Karkaroff and his master!”
Hermione looked too bowled over by Ron’s allegation to speak but somehow she managed, “You are nothing but an arrogant, self-righteous, pompous, jealous...”
“Jealous!”
“That’s right, jealous!”
“What’s there to be jealous of?”
“You’re jealous of Viktor Krum!”
“As if I’d ever be jealous of that…that…” Ron looked lost for words, something Hermione noticed and took advantage of.
“That internationally renowned quidditch player whose autograph is hanging on your wall,” she readily supplied.
“Chasing after an internationally renowned quidditch player, are you?” Ron changed tactics in a flash. Harry noted that during this fight about Krum, as they had fought about it in their fourth year after the Yule Ball, Ron seemed much better prepared.
“He “ wants “ to see me and I find him quite refreshing compared to the dimwitted boys at Hogwarts,” Hermione practically spat out her words.
Ron was seething, “Dimwitted? D’you hear that Harry? We’re dimwitted, we are. Think you’re the only one with admirers, don’t you?” he mocked her.
“I don’t see veela girl marrying you now do I!”
Harry knew instantly that she had gone too far as Ron’s face lost its color.
“Not veela girl, but this one sounds like she wouldn’t mind,” George piped up looking at the letter in his hands. “To my dearest Ronald,” he began, “‘Time teases emotions of the heart…’”
“Give me that!” the words that George read seemed to take him from his stupor.
“A love letter, how sweet,” Fred took the letter from George playing keep away.
“‘…but the spawn must swim with tide.’ Ahhh, loony Luna. I should have known.” Fred commented.
Harry spared a glance at Hermione to see if she would use Luna’s letter against Ron but she looked white as a ghost from shock.
As he looked back at the scene unfolding before him it was evident that a conclusion seemed to form in Ron’s head, “You switched the letters on the beds!”
“Don’t get your britches in a knot,” George answered, “We’ve been with you all day,” he reminded them.
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley appeared at the door of Ginny’s room, “Break it up! What’s going on here?”