* * *
On the morning of the thirty-first of July Harry awoke to a terrific breakfast buffet made by Kreacher. Hermione and Ron ate with him; then they all went off to the Burrow to see the rest of the Weasley family.
"Oh Harry dear, Happy Birthday!" Mrs. Weasley practically crushed his ribs when she hugged him. "Everyone is waiting for you in the sitting room to open presents."
"Oh really," Harry said blushing. "There's no need, you shouldn't have…"
"Now don't be silly, dear; we will have none of that. You just enjoy yourself for once."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed Mrs. Weasley into the sitting room, to be greeted at once by Bill, Fleur, George, Percy, Charlie, Lee Jordan, Ginny, Kingsley Shacklebolt, and sitting crammed in the corner, Hagrid.
"Appy Birthday, Arry!" said Fleur throatily the second he appeared in the doorway.
"Nice to see you, Harry. I remember when I first met ya, and now look at you! Eighteen years old, yer all grown up!" said Hagrid with tears in his eyes.
Mrs. Weasley ushered Harry into a chair and handed him a small wrapped box. Harry opened it up to find a new wallet that luckily did not have any fangs on it.
"Thanks, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley," said Harry, a little confused. The wallet was not very big and he could not see how to put any wizarding coins in without them falling out.
"Open it up!" Mrs. Weasley said, seeing the look on Harry's face. "But I would stand back!"
Harry pulled the leather flap open and found that the insides expanded and kept growing until he had a six foot wardrobe standing in front of him, complete with a full length mirror and a shelf for a broom. It even had little cubbies to put his shoes in and nice wide drawers for all his robes and Muggle clothes.
"Wow! Thanks. This is fantastic!" said Harry enthusiastically. He noticed a small handle on the side and pulled it. At once the wardrobe snapped shut and collapsed upon itself and kept shrinking, until it looked like a wallet again.
"Everything you put inside it will compress and shrink when you try to close it so if you are going on a long journey you won't have to carry a trunk!" Mr. Weasley proclaimed, smiling.
"Where on earth did you find this?" asked Harry, grinning.
"Oh, well…" Mr. Weasley said, trying not to look too pleased.
"Arthur invented it!" squealed Mrs. Weasley, looking very proud.
"How come I didn't get one?" Ron blurted, looking enviously at Harry.
"It's not your birthday, Ronald! And besides we don't know if it is possible to make any more of these at the moment!" Mrs. Weasley said, glaring at Ron.
–I er…might have used up all of the materials needed to make that one…†Arthur admitted sheepishly.
Harry grinned again and stowed the wallet safely in the pocket of his jeans.
Next Bill and Fleur gave Harry a book called Finding Adventure in the Everyday Life by Marshcot McDoogan.
"Thought you could use some adventure" said Bill, chuckling, "Not much for the famous Harry Potter to do now, right!"
"Thanks very much," Harry said, flipping keenly through the pages, stopping to glance at a chapter called, "What you didn't know was in your own backyard."
Ron gave Harry a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and a pile of Chocolate Frogs.
Hermione gave him a pair of gold gloves that she had knitted herself. Harry looked at them appreciatively, noticing how much better Hermione had gotten since her first elf hats.
"Okay, George, what was this big secret present that you said you were getting Harry?" Bill asked after Harry had finished thanking Ron and Hermione.
"It's not just me," George said. "Charlie, Hagrid, Ginny, Percy, Lee, and I all chipped in and got him something together." He stood up and walked over to the wall where a cloth had been thrown over something to cover it up. He returned with a large, rectangular cardboard box in his hands.
Harry opened the box slightly cautiously; he didn't know what so many people would all chip in to buy him.
"OH MY!" said Fleur clutching her heart, as a brand new, pristine Firebolt rolled out onto Harry's lap.
"Oh, no," said Harry blushing furiously. "You really shouldn't have, I really can't accept this!"
"Of course you can!" said Ginny looking at Harry for the first time since their last, brief meeting at the Burrow. "It's your birthday and we all thought you could do with a broom, since you don't have one anymore!"
"But this must have cost... quite a lot of Galleons!" said Harry, now looking at Charlie and George.
"You honestly think we don't know that?" George said a little sharply. "Come on, Harry, you think we don't have any money? And Charlie and Percy have a bit saved up from their jobs. Lee and I are doing great at the shop. Hagrid said he wanted to get you something special, and Ginny has been talking about wanting to beat you at Quidditch for a while now," George said heatedly.
Harry glanced back at Ginny at this, but she was conveniently looking out the window. Harry thought he could see a tiny reddening to her cheeks, but he looked away before anyone noticed his staring.
"It's fine, really, Harry, Happy Birthday." said Lee before anyone could say anything else.
"Thanks," said Harry a little awkwardly. "For everything." He smiled at George and Charlie, who rolled their eyes.
"Well, shall we have some cake then?" Mrs. Weasley asked, trying to cover up the slightly tense moment.
Everyone followed Mrs. Weasley into the kitchen, except for Hagrid who sat in the doorway.
The rest sat around the table and Harry listened to them chatting with a great feeling in his heart. Even though he no longer had any real family, he still had some wonderful people that loved and cared for him.
After the cake, which had been shaped like a giant golden lightning bolt, Harry, Ron, George, Ginny, and Hermione walked up the hill to the Weasleys' orchard. Hermione said she would watch, so the rest played two aside Quidditch taking turns on Harry's new Firebolt. As they had mostly made up, it was Harry and Ginny versus George and Ron.
"Come on! You can do better than that, Ron!" George shouted as Ginny scored another goal while Ron was keeping.
"I'm trying! It's not fair; you took my Cleansweep the other day and now it's all messed up!" Ron retorted, flying toward George, his ears red and his fist raised.
While they were arguing, Ginny flew back to Harry and gestured to him to follow her as she flew off into the trees.
Harry hesitated, looking back at Ron and George, but they were now yelling at each other and not paying attention to Harry at all. So he turned around and flew after Ginny.
He found her less than a minute later sitting on the ground in a forest clearing surrounded by tall oak trees. Her broom was lying beside her.
"Why are we all the way over here?" Harry asked as he landed on the soft ground next to her.
"I just thought we should get away from Ron and George for a little while" said Ginny with a sly smile on her face as she got up and walked over to him.
"I don't know, Ginny…I don't want to get caught by your brothers again." said Harry as Ginny inched closer.
"Oh, you don't have to worry about them. That's why we are all the way over here."
She was even closer now, her eyes shining, and Harry was suddenly overwhelmed by a fierce urge to get back on his broom and fly away. Then when he was deciding that he was just going to run away on foot, her hands were tight around the back of his neck and she started kissing him passionately.
His urge to leave had gone and he was enjoying himself like he had on his last birthday. His hands where intertwined in her long hair, hers draped around his shoulders and down his back.
Suddenly the realization of what he was doing caught up to him. His eyes flew open and he pushed her away from him.
"We can't…I…what the…" Harry spluttered, staring at her, his eyes wide.
"What's the matter?" Ginny asked, still smiling slightly.
"Ginny, we have to talk," Harry said. "We can't just start snogging and pretend everything is back to normal. We have to…you know…take our time…figure things out." Harry had no idea why he was saying this. It didn't take more than one second for him to figure out that he would always love Ginny. But he felt he should be the mature one and not rush their relationship.
"Oh, really," Ginny said, in a hurt voice. "You think we need time to 'figure things out,' do you? Oh, like maybe, how you're gonna break my heart again? Or how you should trick me into thinking I matter, and then ditch me again?" She was talking in a raised voice now, and her expression wasn't flirtatious anymore, it was furious. "Why do I have to love you so much, and you just play around with me, not caring if you break my heart?"
"Ginny, I didn't mean that at all!" Harry said, utterly dumbstruck at her reaction, "And you know I had no choice not to leave you last year—"
"No choice!" Ginny cried, tears now running down her face, "Of course you had a choice! You just chose to leave me!"
"I left you to protect you!" Harry said fiercely, now angry at Ginny's blindness of his situation, "It would have killed me to know I was putting you in danger. You know that!"
"I don't know if I do!" yelled Ginny, "And, if it even is true, you decided to try and protect me, like I'm some little helpless kid? Is that what you think of me?"
"Don't you ever say that, Ginny," Harry began heatedly. "Don't you ever accuse me of not loving you. Do you know who kept me going all that time when I was away last year?"
"Probably some other girl, or just your obsession with 'playing the hero!'" Ginny screamed.
"That's it, I'm done with this!" Harry roared. He jumped on his broom and soared away, hearing Ginny following close behind on her own broom. When he reached the orchard, he landed and hurried toward Ron and Hermione, the former of whom seemed to be quite over his argument with George, as he and Hermione were both snogging passionately on the grass.
"I'm leaving. See you both at home,†Harry grunted at them as he strode past down the hill. Ron and Hermione pulling apart to goggle at him.
"What? Harry? What happened?" Hermione said, looking absolutely flabbergasted.
But Harry didn't answer; he just turned on the spot, and Apparated away.
Too Good To Be Fake by way 2 HP obsesed
Chapter Notes: Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling, not me
Moving right along! Here is another chapter for everyone, updates will probably slow down a little as I don't want to blow through all of my pre-written chapters and then struggle to write more. Hope everyone likes it!
Chapter Endnotes: I hope everyone liked it! Feel free to drop a review and check my bio for updates!