Life Goes On
I crashed into the sofa provided by the Room of Requirements with a huff. During the battle, I could see different ways to capitalize using the wind. But I did not have the skill to do it. I had to dump a lot of power from the fourth path to do it. That shouldn't be an excuse next time. Next time, Tom would not walk out of it alive. So here I was, practicing.
The Ministry was in a furor as Amelia and Rufus were cleaning house. Offices like the Floo Network Authority and other essential services that had moles in them were shafted hard. The information extracted from the prisoners was enough to put many people behind the bars and clean up the moles in the DMLE as well. Only Yaxley and Runcorn ran for it before the operation began. Except for those two, they got everyone else.
Currently, they were all locked up inside makeshift cells that the Unspeakables had come up with. Amelia told us that another prison was being constructed in an undisclosed location. It was expedited because there were a lot of prisoners to transfer. They didn't want anyone to find the location of the prison and break them out as well, so it was all hush-hush.
On my end, Caster's Chronicle had been going hard with the propaganda. Ted was doing some fine work alongside his team, and by now, public support for The Ministry and The Knights was at an all-time high. It had just been a couple of days since the battle, and we didn't hear a peep of any Death Eater activity. I figured that they would have all gone to the ground, resurfacing after they licked their wounds. We would be ready by then. Our various information gathering strategies were already at work, trying to pinpoint their location. Apparently, Tom had finally decided to hide behind a fidelius. Nonetheless, their spies were outed, their information network was crippled, their hard hitters were dead, and their boss was missing a leg. We were winning at last.
"Done for the day?" Susan asked me as she sat next to me. She then scrunched her nose after a second, "You need a shower."
"Yeah, just exhausted," I waved my wand, and a strong wind carried away the stench towards the window. She rolled her eyes at my laziness and I couldn't help but chuckle, "It's just a temporary measure. I'll take a shower after I catch my breath. You can take over the room after that."
"Well, at least you seem to be making good progress on your elemental manipulation."
"Afraid that I'll catch up?" I smirked.
"Why fear something inevitable? Speaking of which, we need to work on those combination moves you talked about. I like the idea of setting something aflame and blowing it out of proportion with an abundance of oxygen," she paused for a second and then turned towards the window and then grinned, "Better make sure that none of that miasma is lingering there. She'll pluck your eyes out if she flew into a cloud of your wafting stink."
"Heat signature?" I asked in astonishment. Her progress must have been exponential for her to sense Hedwig's incoming temperature from so far away. I already knew about my approaching familiar due to our link, but for Susan to pinpoint Hedwig, was unexpected.
"Yup. It still amazes me how fast she is. Way faster than any other owl I've seen. Especially now that I've begun training in this stuff, I've never felt any other owl flying with such speed," she said as I waved my wand once more and commanded the wind to carry away any lingering smell both from the room and from the area around the window.
"She's a special girl," I responded right as Hedwig swooped into the room and circled us. She dropped the parcel on the table and perched on my shoulder after she decelerated enough.
I looked around and only saw Luna in the room. She was sitting in her corner, meditating. Pandora's research was almost finished using my mum's notes. Pillaging Pettigrew's mind helped me a lot with this as well, as I was able to fill in some of the gaps in the animagus research. Luna was the one who would start the process first and would then teach us.
Hermione was using Neville as a pack mule and dragging him around to search for some books in the school's library. Of course, she didn't necessarily need anyone to lift the books. But she was still pissed at Nev, so he was reaping the benefits of that. Moreover, Amelia had already sicced Mad-Eye on him, so that was not his only source of misery.
"Where's Hannah?" I asked.
"She was helping professor Sprout with something," stated Susan.
"Alright," I said as I swished my wand at the package. It unwrapped in an instant, and the brown wrapping paper folded beside the package neatly. I checked the contents to see if everything was in order and then wrapped it again with another swish.
"What's this?" she asked.
"It's a gift. Hermione's birthday is this Thursday," I said.
"What?" she shrieked, which incidentally snapped Luna out of her meditative state.
"What?" I asked in return.
"And why haven't you told us this?" she asked testily.
I stopped to think for a moment. All these years there was something or the other, and we did not celebrate in turn. Moreover, Hermione wasn't the type to frolic around. Although I knew now that it was just an empty excuse. What teenager didn't like to have a party with their friends? I could blame my past self because he himself didn't have any parties growing up with the dreadful Dursleys.
"Because we were lousy friends," I breathed out at last, "I… always watched Dudley get all sorts of birthday parties, but I never got any. I yearned for it myself, yet I never took the initiative to throw a party for someone else. As firsties, we didn't know about her birthday. Second year, I was busy reveling in my release from the summer prison. By the third year, it became a habit. I suppose I should have been more thoughtful," I said with my head down. In response, I got cuffed on the back of my head by my familiar's wing. I looked at Hedwig only to see her staring at me with her big round eyes, with nary a blink.
"And nobody in your house threw her a party these past five years?" asked Susan.
"Nobody did that for me in my house as well. But I don't have any friends in my house," interjected Luna as she came over to investigate the commotion.
"This is depressing. You lot are busy fighting year after year, and you keep neglecting the things that make life worth those fights," she said with a frown on her face.
I couldn't say anything in response because that aligned with how we had spent most of our time in the castle so far.
"None of this would fly in Hufflepuff. Well, now you have two of us in your midst. You said it's this Thursday?" Susan asked.
"Yep," I replied.
"Well then get up mister. We have a lot of planning to do," she commanded authoritatively.
"Are we going to throw a birthday party?" asked Luna with palpable excitement in her tone.
"Absolutely. Now get up both of you. Hermione has had a shitty year so far. We need to balance the scales. Come on," she said as she rushed out of the room, with Luna hopping behind her in glee.
I smiled, grateful for such friends.
"Go on girl, get some rest in the owlery. I'm sure Sue would have plenty of letters ready to go by the end of the day."
Hedwig nipped my ear affectionately and took off from my shoulder. Before I gave her more reasons to be cross at me, I made my way to the door.
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I wished that I was sorted in Hufflepuff. Susan and Hannah definitely knew how to throw a party. Unlike the abundance of butterbeer and sweets that the twins handed out for the wild quidditch parties we have every now and then in Gryffindor, they knew what they were doing.
I glanced at Nev and he nodded at me in response. It was time to get moving. I sent out a pulse through our connection, and Hedwig swopped in from the window with a rolled parchment tied to her leg. She had been perched atop the tower for a few minutes now, waiting for my signal. Alas, Hermione did not even notice her coming in, too engrossed in her book. Or maybe she did but did not look up because she knew it was Hedwig.
Nonetheless, I made a show of untying the parchment, unrolling it, and then spending a few moments reading the contents.
"Hermione," I called to her, distracting her from her nighttime reading. The three of us were sequestered in the common room, reading up on different things. Well, she was reading up, and Nev was putting up an act. I was just lazing around on a couch, subtly manipulating the wind outside the tower, trying to widen my range.
"Yeah?" she asked, looking up from her book.
"Let's go, something came up," I nodded towards Hedwig and waved the parchment in my hand. I got up quickly and Nev followed suit.
Hermione quickly stuffed her book into her book bag and got up as well. It was close to midnight and nobody was milling around in the common room. Those who were had been discreetly shooed away by yours truly. I already had decoys in place, courtesy of my newly awakened ability to create illusions that were more constructs than illusions.
We used disillusionment charms and a healthy dose of my illusions to erase our presence as we prowled the corridors, heading towards the Room of Requirement.
Since the others were already inside, Dobby had been masking the entrance from the outside. The moment he caught sight of us, he removed it and ushered us in. I reckon it was something similar to how he blocked the entrance to the train platform all those years ago.
Nev stepped in first, blocking the view with his huge physique. It also helped that the room was purposefully dark at present. I motioned Hermione to go in next, and then closed the door behind me, requesting the entrance to fade away.
The next instant, Nev moved out of the way, and the room lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Happy birthday Hermione!" we all shouted in unison.
She stood stock-still for a second before a sob broke out of her façade. Her hands immediately covered her mouth as tears started streaming down her eyes. She quickly wiped her tears and waved us all off as we began to look at her in concern.
"It's nothing. Just reminded me of a party my parents threw for me a few years ago," she said with a bittersweet smile on her face.
"Oh, Hermione…" I said as Nev and I engulfed her in an impromptu group hug. I heard Luna whoop from somewhere as she pounced on us as well. Susan and Hannah didn't want to be left alone as they dogpiled us as well.
"We're here for you. You're not alone," said Susan as she patted Hermione on the back.
"Thanks, guys," she choked out and wiped her face once more, "Let's get this party started," she said with a teary smile.
I then threw an arm around her shoulders and dragged her towards the cake placed on the table. The others repositioned themselves around the table once more.
As we moved forward, Hermione looked around the room in appreciation. Susan had decided on a library theme and asked the room to decorate itself like a library.
"Always wanted to have a birthday party in a Library," I heard her mumble. I beamed at once, glad that Susan was the one who held the reins for this whole shindig.
In between the two tallest bookshelves hung Luna's creation. It was a banner that said 'Happy 17th birthday Hermione'. The background of the banner looked like it was made out of parchment, while the words themselves were emblazoned in deep violet. In between the words were images of tiny books that flapped their pages and flew around the banner like birds.
Paper cranes were floating around the room in concert with the mellow tunes being played over a gramophone. In a corner, all our gifts were arranged in a neat pile. Right in the center of the room was a large dining table with a tiered chocolate cake placed on it. What made the cake unique was that the tiers were shaped and colored like a stack of books. Atop the topmost tier were two candles shaped into the form of the number seventeen.
Surrounding the table were Susan, Hannah, Luna, Amelia, Augusta, the Tonks family, and my two elves. At an unseen signal, all of them began singing the birthday song. I clapped along as Hermione awkwardly stood there, for the first time in months looking like an ordinary teenager. All the pent-up stress and rage melted out of her for this brief moment, and that was more than enough for me.
I glanced at Susan and our eyes met as she nodded at me in understanding. She had been wanting to break Hermione out of her funk for a long time, and it finally bore fruit. We would be hypocrites if we said that we wanted to stop her from fighting or something stupid along those lines. We just wanted her to take a break and spend some time relaxing.
At the end of the song, she blew the candles, gave the cake a once over, and spoke, "Winky, did you make this?"
My elf stepped forward in response and nodded vigorously.
"Yes, miss! Winky followed Miss Bones' instructions. The cake and the food are Winky's gift to miss," she squeaked out.
Hermione struggled for a second, searching for a response. She then squatted to get to eye level with Winky. She ruffled her head affectionately and hugged the elf. Winky let out a strangled noise in surprise and froze up, unsure of what to do.
"Thank you, Winky. Thanks for the cake, and thanks for always keeping us well fed. I appreciate your efforts," she said.
I could see tears forming in Winky's eyes as she wordlessly nodded with such frequency that I feared that her head would fall off.
Hermione then picked up the knife that was placed next to the cake. She slowly cut a slice and picked it up.
"Now. If anyone wastes even an ounce of cake by smearing it on each other's faces, then they would be insulting Winky's efforts. We don't want to do that, do we?" she asked, looking pointedly at Dora, who stilled for a second before raising her hands in a placating gesture.
After we all nodded along vigorously, she fed me the first piece before going around, feeding everyone a piece of the delicious cake. We immediately tried to return the favor, but she stopped after two bites.
"Stop! I'll get fat," she said. The uncharacteristic response from her triggered a bout of laughter around the room as we settled down on the chairs that appeared in front of us.
Dobby snapped his fingers and one by one the gifts rose in the air, joining the pieces of origami in their aerial maneuvers.
The first gift that floated down to her was mine. It was a collection of books that were really hard to find.
"Encyclopedia of Esoteric Evocation! Harry, how did you even find this one?" she yelped in surprise before going through the other books.
"I had some help," I said, nodding at Amelia, "Before you lose yourself in the books, let's move on," I smirked at her pouting face.
She opened the presents one by one, thanking us profusely. Luna had gotten her a copy of A Game of Thrones. That had unnerved me for a second before I chalked it up to Luna being Luna. The book had only been released last month, and I had no idea how she had even heard of it. What made this copy special was that Luna had added magical illustrations to the book that depicted some of the key moments of the book.
Upon Luna's urging, Nev had managed to somehow make a rose plant that bloomed with shining blue roses, the perfect replica of the winter roses mentioned in the book. He had whipped up a whole batch of the things and was planning on selling it to the magical world. Hermione was now the proud owner of the first potted winter rose.
Susan and Amelia had gotten her a set of expensive Dark Detectors. Hannah had gifted her an assortment of magical quills that would cut down on Hermione's note-taking time considerably. Augusta had handed her an old book on charms, which had been out of print for decades, and had some nifty spells which not many people knew.
Dobby gifted her a set of his hand-knit mismatching socks as per his tradition.
Ted and Andromeda pitched in for a set of magical reading glasses. The glasses were quite rare and had a translation function imbued into them that also worked as a dictionary. Lastly, Dora's gift floated down to Hermione's hands.
"Unlike these bores, I am gifting you an experience," she smugly said as Hermione opened up the wrapping and raised an eyebrow at the present. She then lifted the transparent case containing a fancy bottle gingerly.
"Since you are seventeen now, it is legal for you to drink according to the Ministry. So, allow me to be the first person to present to you the wonders of firewhisky. This is the fancy version as well. Sorry kiddies, only Hermione is allowed to drink though," she said, winking at us. Although, her triumph was short-lived as she was struck by a stinging hex from a glowering Andromeda.
We all erupted in laughter and were awarded our own stinging hexes in return.
"As enthusiastic as Dromeda is, I also have to stress the fact that underage drinking is not good for you. Hermione, I hope you don't share with these miscreants," she said.
"Auntie, we all are almost seventeen. Except for Luna," complained Susan, mumbling the last part.
"Almost being the keyword," was the response.
"Don't worry Madam Bones. This will be under lock and key," said an amused Hermione.
"Are you sure that you even have the real one in your hands?" I said, creating an illusory construct in my hands. Once again, I was awarded a stinging hex for my efforts, drawing a round of sniggering from my peers.
As Hermione was putting away the gifts, all sorts of utensils and cutlery began appearing on the table.
"Dinner is ready," squeaked Winky, right on time.
With a whoop, we repositioned ourselves, ready to devour the delicious four-course meal that she had whipped up.
Susan was right. It was times like these that made all the fighting worth it.
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A.N: We have crossed 1 million views! Thank you all for reading!
Over the course of writing this chapter, I realized that I am absolutely pants at writing slice of life. It was a slow process and I had to keep cutting out a lot of stuff because it did not mesh well and messed with the flow.
Anyway, I wanted to keep this chapter light-hearted after all the heavy stuff in the past few chapters. Please let me know in the reviews whether it worked or not.
If you want to talk to me on discord, please find the invite on the auxiliary chapter.
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