Harry Potter and the Forbidden Passage

Chapter 5: Surprise!

"SURPRISE!" screamed the crowd of familiar faces around Harry.

Harry was so stunned and stood so still that someone might have thought he was under a Petrificus Totalus spell in other circumstances. Immediately he was swarmed by a blur of people greeting him, hugging him, shaking his hand, and wishing him a happy birthday.

"But it's n-not my birthday," was all Harry was able to stutter.

"No, but tomorrow is. It wouldn't be a surprise if it was your actual birthday, mate," came a voice from somewhere to the left of Harry.

Harry turned to the voice and slowly saw Ron come into focus. Beside him were Hermione and Ginny. The twins were there and Bill and Charlie. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were smiling at Harry next to their sea of red-haired children, only one of which was conspicuously absent.

Harry turned around to see the rest of his guests. At least half the Order stood in front of him; Tonks, Shacklebolt, Moody, Arabella Figg, and Mundungus Fletcher. Not to mention Remus, of course, and standing in Hagrid's rather large shadow were Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall. Harry did a double take as he noticed his last two guests.

"Neville?" Harry asked in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

Neville Longbottom, who was standing beside his grandmother, frowned.

Harry, realizing his error, quickly tried to fix it. "I mean, I'm glad you're here. I'm just surprised." He didn't understand how Neville and his grandmother could be here unless Dumbledore had told them about the Order. But perhaps he did, considering that Neville's parents had been members.

"I'll say you were surprised," said Neville with a grin. "I wish Colin Creevey had been here to take your picture when the lights came on. That would have made the front page of the Daily Prophet."

"Yeah, I can picture the headline," Fred added, "Surprise Party Petrifies Potter."

"Fred," called Mrs. Weasley's admonishing voice. "Well, come along everyone, the cake's ready in the dining room. Harry, you first," she said as she opened the doors to the dining room and ushered him in.

Harry gasped when he saw the creation in the middle of the huge table. He would never have described it as a cake, it was really a work of art. It was a huge icing covered replica of Hogwarts, complete with turrets and Quidditch pitch. And there were meringue clouds magically floating above it. Sticking out of the windows in odd places were 16 lit candles.

"Mrs. Weasley, I can't believe you made this. It's…it's incredible," Harry said with astonishment and gratitude.

"Oh, I didn't make it, Harry dear."

"Then who-"

Harry felt a tug at his pant legs and looked down with surprise to see a very familiar face. "Please sir, Dobby made the cake. Does Harry Potter like it, sir?"

"Dobby?!" Harry asked in shock. "Dobby, it's wonderful. I've never seen anything like it," Harry said honestly.

"Professor Dumbledore asked Dobby to work here for the summer, sir, while the students are away. Professor Dumbledore says that Dobby is trustworthy and will keep the secrets for the Order," Dobby said with pride showing in his large round eyes. Dobby lowered his voice so that only Harry could hear, "Dobby would do anything for Professor Dumbledore, sir, but Dobby was most pleased that Harry Potter would be here. Did Harry Potter like his supper last night, sir? Dobby tried to remember all of Harry Potter's favorite dishes at Hogwarts."

"What?" Harry said startled before he glared at Remus, who was grinning like the Cheshire cat. "I thought that you made the meal last night."

"I never said I made it, I just said that the meals were better than last summer and they are, Dobby," Remus said turning to the house-elf and complimenting him warmly.

"Yes, Dobby, supper was great," Harry added smiling down at the elf.

"Potter," Moody's gruff voice called, "Your cake is melting, boy. You might want to blow out those candles before they burn the house down."

"Oh right," Harry said sheepishly as he realized that he had never had a birthday cake with candles before. Nor had he ever had people singing to him on his birthday as he did at this moment. He should have been used to being the center of attention by now, but having a room full of people singing to him still made his face turn a distinct shade of pink.

"Well, what did you wish for, Harry?" Tonks asked after he blew out the candles.

Harry frowned, he had forgotten to make a wish. He had never had candles to blow out before, so he had never been in this position. He thought sadly that he should have wished for Sirius to come back, but now he lost his chance. But this was no time to dwell on Sirius, not with everyone looking expectantly at him. Not when everyone had tried so hard to make sure he had a wonderful birthday.

A thought occurred to Harry. "I wished that you would tell me what you spoke to the Dursleys about," Harry said expectantly to Remus.

"Oh is that all? Well I suppose I can make that wish come true," Remus answered with a sigh. "You might not like the answer though."

"I'm used to disappointment, just tell me."

"I thought it only right to invite your only living relatives to your birthday party. Obviously, they declined...to put it mildly. I'm sorry, Harry."

"You invited the Dursleys here?!" Harry was in shock. Even the thought of the Dursleys here with two dozen wizards was enough to put him in St. Mungo's with Lockhart. Of course, they would never have come, but why would Remus think he would have wanted them here in the first place?

"Naturally I invited them, but I knew they wouldn't accept. And obviously you now know why I couldn't tell you about our conversation, since it would give away the surprise. But they did want to give you this," Remus said, pulling out a small rectangular package wrapped in old bits of newspaper.

Harry looked at the package warily, knowing full well that it most likely contained something so pitiful that it would be thoroughly embarrassing to open it in front of all of the people he respected and admired. He gave Remus a pleading look as if to ask, "Do I have to open it now?"

But it was Molly Weasley that saved him. "Presents later, it's time for cake," she said as she passed the first slice to Harry. Harry watched as the cake was magically served up to everyone in perfectly cut slices and soon the only part of the cake left was Gryffindor Tower and a few meringue clouds.

The cake slices didn't really look all that appealing by themselves with their gray icing, and the cake itself was colored gray to match. One look at Dobby's expectant face though and Harry knew he had to sample it. Harry reluctantly put a forkful in his mouth. But there was no need to worry because it was without a doubt the best thing he had ever tasted.

A short while later, the whole cake was gone and Dobby looked very pleased with himself as he cleaned up. Meanwhile, a pile of presents had magically appeared on the table in front of Harry. He was careful to pocket the present from the Dursleys so that he didn't have to open it in front of everyone.

"Open mine, Harry," Ginny said smiling as she handed him a small package from the pile.

Inside Ginny's carefully wrapped package was something Harry would never have expected to receive from Ron's little sister. He might have expected a singing birthday card or some other mortifying thing, but never this. "A knife?"

"It's to replace the one that was damaged at the Ministry, the knife that could open any door. I looked all summer for one and just found it the other day. Do you like it?"

Harry didn't know what to say. The knife that had melted in the locked door in the Department of Mysteries had been a gift from Sirius and nothing could really ever replace that. But Ginny had truly tried hard to find a gift that would please him and must have spent a fortune on the knife from the looks of the very intricately carved handle. He looked at her and felt immense gratitude and true friendship. "Thanks, Gin, this is perfect," he said with a genuine smile.

The next present was a dragon's tooth from Charlie. Fred suggested that he wear it as an earring like Bill and promptly received a death glare from Mrs. Weasley. Ron gave him the usual assortment of candy. Fred and George gave him an assortment of items from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, including the skiving snack box, canary creams, a set of extendable ears, as well as their latest invention, Truth Truffles.

George whispered to Harry, "Use them on Malfoy. The key ingredient is Veritaserum, he'll have to answer any question truthfully."

"Or better yet," Fred whispered with a devilish grin, "Use them on Ron and ask him how he feels about Hermione."

It was painful for Harry to hold back the laughter that was swelling inside him at the thought of Ron under Veritaserum as he opened his next present. Bill gave him a wizard chess set. Harry politely thanked him but wasn't all that excited about it until Bill told him later in secret that the chess set was charmed to always win against Ron.

Mr. and Mrs. Weasley gave Harry his first wizard camera, actually his first camera of any kind. Hermione's gift was hardly a surprise, it was a book. But oddly for Hermione, this was a book about divination, specifically prophecies. Harry didn't really want to think about the prophecy but as Neville handed him his present, it reminded him of something. Neville was born at the end of July too. Was it his birthday today also?

"Happy Birthday Neville," Harry blurted out. "I'm sorry I don't have a present, I didn't know I would see you."

"How did you know it was my birthday yesterday?" Neville asked in shock.

Dumbledore gave Harry a warning look and shook his head slightly. Had he never told Neville about the prophecy either?

Harry fumbled around for an answer, "Um, well, we've lived together for five years, you must have mentioned it at some point."

"Must have," Neville muttered warily, looking thoroughly unconvinced.

Neville's gift was a small Mimbulus mimbletonia that he had grown from a cutting of his own plant with Professor Sprout's help. Hagrid gave Harry a small hand-carved wooden figure of a black dog that reminded Harry painfully of Sirius. To break his saddened mood, Tonks cheerfully handed him her gift. Surprisingly, it looked like an ordinary compact disc with the Weird Sisters logo pasted on the top.

"I wanted to give you concert tickets," Tonks said, "But Moody and Lupin here said that wouldn't be such a good idea, taking you out in public and all."

"This is really cool, but…I don't have a CD player."

"Oh you don't need a CD player. Just point your wand at the disc and say Canero."

"Canero," Harry said loudly following her instructions. Immediately, a familiar song from the Yule Ball blasted through the room. It sounded like they were at a live Weird Sisters concert. All of the older adults covered their ears, except for Dumbledore who was tapping his foot to the beat and looking rather pleased.

"Sonus Reducto," Remus shouted over the music as he aimed his wand at the CD. The sound immediately reduced to little more than a whisper.

Once everything became quiet again, Dumbledore handed Harry the last remaining gift. "This gift is from the Order. I'm afraid it isn't quite as exciting as Nymphadora's, but it does have its benefits."

Harry opened the small package to reveal a flat velvet box. Inside the box was a pendant on a golden chain. It looked like a coin, slightly smaller than a Galleon, but engraved upon it there was an image of a phoenix rising out of the flames.

Dumbledore pulled out a similar pendant from his robes and spoke to it, "I am loyal to the Order of the Phoenix." He turned to Harry, "Repeat those words to your pendant."

Harry did so, wondering if it was some sort of strange initiation right into the Order. But just as he finished speaking the words, the metal flames in the pendant turned into real flames, tiny flickering yellow and orange lights against the golden phoenix.

"Only someone with true loyalty to the Order will be able to activate the charm. This pendant will allow you to keep in touch with any member of the Order, Harry," Dumbledore said, "so you won't have to seek out forbidden fireplaces anymore. Just say the name of the Order member you'd like to speak to and they will be able to hear you. We wear these pendants always, as you must from now on." As he spoke, all of the Order members removed the chains from beneath their robes.

"You see Harry," Remus said, "You'll never have to worry again about reaching one of us. When you want to talk to me, you can simply speak through the pendant."

"But this gift does come with responsibilities," Dumbledore said seriously. "Harry, you can never tell anyone about the pendant or let anyone unfamiliar with the Order see you using it. It could place our members in jeopardy if it ever fell into the wrong hands. And that goes for the rest of you as well," Dumbledore said as he looked in turn at Ron, Hermione, and Ginny.

* * * * *

"I don't understand why Dumbledore doesn't let us have a pendant too," Ron argued angrily to Harry sometime later as they walked up to their bedrooms after Harry bid goodbye to the last of his guests. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had opted to stay at Grimmauld Place with Harry for the rest of the summer..

"I'm sure he had his reasons, Ron," Hermione admonished. "I mean we're not even members of the Order yet and Harry is the one who needs protection. He needs to be able to contact them."

"And we don't?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Ron, you know very well that we are hardly in the same position as Harry."

"But we already know about the Order. We were even living at headquarters all last summer."

"But You-Know-Who isn't after us, we aren't the ones in danger," Hermione argued back.

"It's not like our lives aren't in danger too. Hell, every year we find ourselves in mortal peril at some point. First year, I'm knocked out by lifesize chess pieces. Second year, I'm chased by giant man-eating spiders. Third year, Sirius breaks my leg and pulls a knife on me. Fourth year, I'm roped up and dragged down to the bottom of the lake to be held prisoner by merpeople. And fifth year, bloody fifth year, chased by Death Eaters and attacked by a brain's tentacles. I'm surprised we all survived."

Harry gave Ron a cold glare upon hearing those words and stormed off to his room, slamming the door behind him. Through the door, he could hear Ginny shouting.

"Shut up both of you! You argue all the time and you know he hates it. Why do I have such an idiotic prat for a brother? How could you say those things in front of Harry? We didn't all survive. Sirius died and Harry feels it every second of every day. How could you forget, Ron? And on his birthday of all times, what were you thinking?"

A few seconds later, Harry saw his doorknob turn and before he could lock it, Ginny walked into the room and sat beside him on the bed.

"He didn't mean it, Harry. He's just…well you know how he can be, and Hermione too. They can't face their feelings so they argue…about everything."

"Yeah, they're kind of hopeless aren't they?"

"Completely."

An awkward silence followed as Harry looked down at the wooden dog figure Hagrid had given him and turned it in his hands.

Ginny spoke up at last, "You know you're not alone, Harry. I know you feel that way now. You feel like you've lost all your family, but that's not true."

"Ha!" Harry replied sarcastically, "You can't possibly be referring to the Dursleys."

"No," Ginny said seriously, "not the Dursleys. It's not always a blood connection that makes a family, Harry. A family is made of people who care deeply for each other. So much so that they would risk their own lives for one another. Harry, we're your family. So are Lupin and Dumbledore and even McGonagall. You have the biggest family of anyone I know, including me. So many people care about you, so many people would do anything to keep you safe. We love you, Harry…I-"

The door creaked open again and Ron peeked in and cautiously entered.

"I'm sorry, Harry, I…I didn't know what I was saying. You know Hermione always gets me all riled up. I hardly know what I'm talking about when I'm around her sometimes." Harry tried to share a glance with Ginny at Ron's remark, but she was now looking flushed and staring at her hands folded in her lap.

"It's ok, Ron, I know you didn't mean anything by it."

"Oh, um, by the way," Ginny said as she looked up again but did not look directly at Harry as she spoke, "Dean wishes you a Happy Birthday too."

Ron scowled but then put on an impish smile as he looked at Harry. "You know Ginny spent a load on that knife for you, Harry. She really was looking for it all summer. Drove Mum crazy with all the trips to Diagon Alley."

Ginny turned a bright shade of crimson. "Well, you would have been able to afford a better gift for Harry if you hadn't spent all your money last Christmas on that foul perfume for Hermione."

"It was not foul! The shopkeeper said it was what all the French witches are wearing these days," Ron answered angrily.

But Harry was no longer paying attention as his eye was drawn to an envelope that he had just noticed on the table next to his bed. He grabbed the official-looking envelope and opened it, causing Ron and Ginny to immediately cease their bickering in their curiosity to find out what the letter was about. Harry's eyes widened with shock as he read it.

"Well," Ron urged, "What is it?

"Um, the Ministry wants to give me an award for bravery," Harry answered very awkwardly

"Why?" Ron asked confused.

Ginny slapped her brother's arm, "Why do you think, you prat? Saving the world a few times for one." She turned to Harry, "So when is this award ceremony going to be?"

"Two weeks from tonight. This is just…weird. Why are they doing this now?"

"Well, it's probably a political move to help the Ministry's image," Ginny answered.

"Yeah, Harry," Ron interjected, "You and Dumbledore are being praised so much by the press lately. Maybe this is a move to help people forget how the Ministry ignored You-Know-Who's return last year. Anything to make Cornelius Fudge look good to the public probably. Dad says Fudge is very close to being removed from office. Any wrong move and he's out."

Ginny nodded her head in agreement. "In any case, you deserve the award, Harry, so just enjoy it. It's got to be better than last year at least, with no one believing you and all." She rose to leave. "Well, you've had a really long day, so we'll just let you get some rest now. Goodnight, Harry."

"Night, Gin. Night, Ron."

"G'night, Harry and happy birthday," Ron said as he left the room and closed the door behind him.

Harry flopped back onto the bed utterly exhausted, but fell onto something hard. He reached into his robes and pulled out the package from the Dursleys.

"Blast, I had forgotten about this. Well, at least no one's around this time," Harry said to himself as he removed the newspaper wrapping from the parcel.

Inside was a small old looking book with a tattered purple binding. It looked like a piece of rubbish the Dursleys would have thrown out, which didn't exactly surprise Harry. They had never given him a present of any real value. Aunt Petunia had cleaned out the garage shortly before he left, so she probably just decided to give him a piece of the rubbish she found.

Harry flipped through the pages, all of which appeared to be blank. He was about to toss the book into the garbage can when he noticed something. In the lower right corner on the front of the book, there was a tiny image. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a white flower - a lily. Harry's heart thumped quickly and he held his breath. It couldn't possibly be her's, could it?

* * * * *

Author's Note:
Sorry to leave you with such a cliffhanger but I have to keep you interested. There are enough clues to guess what the book is and what its contents may be (Hint: recall a certain "blank" book integral to CoS). And to anyone wondering who stumbled in the previous chapter, it was Neville, but of course you don't find out he's there until this chapter.

Thanks for reading, please review!