Tested In Fire

For my own Daddy, whose constant love and support make me feel very grown-up when I need it, and very much like a child when I need to be reminded that I still am one in his eyes.

Chapter Three

Ginny frowned slightly over Hermione's reply. She knew all about Sirius, of course. Now that he had been pardoned, Ron had taken her aside and told her the whole story. But how to get a hold of Sirius? She bit her lip and thought for a moment. "I'll just have to owl Remus and have him get in touch," she murmured quietly.

"What's this all about?" someone asked over Ginny's shoulder. She turned quickly, and was relieved to see it was her father and not Harry.

"It's nothing Dad, I'm just sort of planning a bit of a surprise for Harry on his birthday."

"A surprise? What sort of a surprise?" Arthur asked, crinkling his eyebrows.

Ginny grinned mischievously. "A surprise birthday party, of course. Just for the people closest to him. I owled Hermione to ask her opinion, and she thought it was wonderful. I was going to ask Mum when you walked in."

Arthur wasn't an idiot, as one could not have seven children and not learn anything. "What you meant is, you just remembered to ask your mother when I walked in."

Ginny's smile grew wider, and she suddenly burst into laughter. "True enough." Suddenly she jumped up and ran across the room to hug her father.

Arthur gave a slight 'oof' when he felt the impact of his teenage daughter against his chest, but he folded his arms around her and patted her back reassuringly. "What was that for?"

"I missed you," she whispered.

Arthur knew that he had been gone quite a bit on Ministry business, but he didn't know how much it was affecting his youngest child and his only daughter. He kissed the top of her head and smiled. Whenever he found himself wishing that Ginny would never grow up, he thought of moments like these and realized that she probably never would, in his eyes. "I missed you too, Little One."

Ginny smiled a bit at that nickname. Her father and her two eldest brothers were the only ones who could get away with calling her that, mostly because they said it so differently than the rest of them. "Little One" didn't refer to her age, but actually her size. While the rest of her brothers towered over her mother, she was still shorter than her. For the longest time, she was fearful she would never her mother's ear, the standard that she had set for herself when she was very young. Petite as she was, everyone had taken to calling her "Little One" and making jokes about not breaking her.

"How about I ask your mother for you? It might go over better," Arthur suggested calmly, without realizing that he had probably fallen into one of Ginny's traps.

"Thanks, Daddy!"

'But,' Arthur reflected as Ginny rose on her very tiptoes to give him the slightest of pecks on the cheek, 'It is all worth it.'

After Arthur left, Ginny smiled a bit and sat back down to write out her letter to Remus.

Professor Lupin,

Hello, I'm not quite sure that you'll remember who I am...

When she was finally finished with her invitation which she had addressed to both Sirius and Remus, she stood up to try and find Ron to ask if she could borrow Pig. However, there was a flap of wings, and very suddenly Ginny found herself face to face with Hedwig.

"How about I give this to you and let you take care of it?" she asked the owl carefully. Hedwig gave a happy hoot and opened her beak expectantly. "Harry's lucky to have such a beautiful and loyal owl," she whispered to Hedwig when the owl was about to take off. After all, Charlie had always said that complimenting these magical creatures even when you assumed they couldn't understand you was a good idea. You could never tell with owls.

"Moony! Wake up you old git! Harry's sent us a letter!" Blinking at Sirius through sleep rimmed eyes; Remus fought both the urge to laugh and the urge to strangle his old friend.

"Couldn't have waited until a decent hour?" he nearly whined, "I mean," here he paused to look at the clock on the wall. "Bloody hell, Padfoot! It's four in the morning!"

Sirius grinned. "I know."

Remus opened his mouth and closed it several times. "You knew it was four o'clock in the morning and yet you still woke me up? When, and seriously consider this Sirius, was I ever a morning person?"

"Harry sent us a letter, mate! I was going to wake you up at two when Hedwig came knocking on the kitchen window, wanting to get some water, I suppose. She looked like she had flown all the way over as fast as she possibly could. It would be easier if he could just stay with us..."

Rolling his eyes and sighing, Remus threw his legs over the edge of his bed and gave a hoarse laugh. "It's not safe, Sirius. How many times have we gone over that?"

Despite the fact that it had been years since either of them had attended Hogwarts, sometimes Remus felt like Sirius was still there, mentally. Yet, at other times, he could seem ancient beyond his years... At least he could say that their friendship hadn't changed all that much. Remus was still there to make sure Sirius didn't do anything too insane, and Sirius was there to make sure Remus didn't go insane. Sometimes Remus wondered how he had gotten through so many full moons without the reassuring presence of Padfoot.

"Oh, I'd say about a half dozen or so. Well, open it up and read it."

"Excuse me, but last time I checked you could still read, Padfoot. Do it yourself. Tell me what it says in the morning."

"It is the morning, and besides, you're up now. You won't be able to go back to sleep."

Mentally Remus cursed himself for having a friend that knew him too well. "Just open it. I'm sure he's fine. If he's with the Weasleys, he can't have gotten in too much trouble."

"What if it's not from him?"

Sirius was really grabbing at straws, here, and there was nothing Moony could do but nod his head. "Fine, I'll read the blasted letter. After all, I'm up. What else is there to do at four in the morning?"

He flipped on the light and reached for the pocketknife he kept on his nightstand. Slitting open the seal, he scanned over it. "Well, it's not from Harry."

Sirius let out a muffled curse. "I knew it! I knew he would get into trouble...!"

"It's something equally as good." Remus grinned mischievously, and any observer who had not known Remus for a great length of time would have been shocked at it's intensity. But Sirius, who had known his fellow Marauder for years, knew that Moony was just trying to rile him up.

"Oh?" Sirius asked, raising his eyebrows, trying to irritate Remus just as much as Remus was annoying Sirius by not giving him the reaction that he desired.

"It's a letter from Ginny Weasley." Now Sirius was starting to get worked up, Remus noticed with amusement.

"Ginny Weasley? Has Harry got a girlfriend and not told me about it? Throw back to his father, that one is. Do you remember how long it took James to tell us that Lily and he were going out?"

"I suspect," Remus noted dryly, "That if you hadn't made flashing green neon signs and posted them all over the Gryffindor Common Room that James liked her, we would have found out much sooner."

"Surely that didn't irritate him as much as he said it did, right?" Remus just shook his head. "Well, he certainly wasn't going to tell her any time soon. They both needed a bit of a shove in the right direction, if you know what I mean."

"That was rather a hard shove, Sirius."

"But it was damn funny."

Remus laughed and nodded his head. "That it was, Sirius. That it was."

"Well, are you going to tell me what the blasted letter says or not? If Harry's got a girlfriend and he's writing to you about it, not me, I'll understand, but I really do want to know all the gory details."

"Gory details?"

"You know what I mean."

Remus raised his eyebrows. "Suppose, for a moment, that Harry did write me about a girlfriend, in confidence. What am I supposed to do then?"

"Write him back, tell him that everything is of course top secret, sign the letter, and then tell me all the gory details."

"One thing I've always appreciated about you is your respect for privacy, Sirius."

"Well, thank you. Not that I can say the same for you, old friend. After all, it was you that told Suzy McGins that I liked her in third year."

"No, Sirius. We've had this conversation before. That was Prongs, not me." Sirius's eyebrow twitched.

"Fine then. What does it say?"

"It's an invitation."

"To a wedding? Already? Don't you think they're moving a bit fast..."

Remus wasn't sure whether Sirius was joking or not, but one thing was for certain. Either a) Sirius had had a wee bit much to drink the night before, or b) it really was too early in the morning.

"No, Padfoot. To a birthday party." When Sirius's eyes didn't give any hint of recognition, Moony sighed. "On the thirty-first."

"That's ages away!"

"Make that one and a half weeks."

Now it was Sirius's eyes turn to twitch. "Moony! I just realized something!"

"What is it, Sirius?"

"I haven't got him a gift yet!"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Ginny Weasley," he murmured, ignoring Sirius for a moment. "She actually wondered if I remembered her or not. How could I not remember her?"

"What's she like? What is she to Harry?" Sirius asked impatiently.

Remus sighed in response. "Well, she's probably grown up a bit since I saw her last. She's a Weasley to the core. Bright fiery red hair and a temper to match, all though she seems to be shy at first, she really doesn't have any qualms about speaking her mind. Except for when it comes to Mr. Harry Potter, of course."

"Oh?" Again Sirius raised his eyebrows and pretended not to care.

"I imagine it will be interesting to see what happens this year between them. Despite what you think about the prophecy, Sirius, I don't think it's anything to be taken lightly. Every time I think of those two I'm reminded of two things: James and Lily, and the prophecy."

"The prophecy is rubbish. There's no such thing as fate. James was a fool to believe it."

It was Remus's turn to raise his eyebrows. "James was a fool to believe it? When was James ever a fool? Never, except for when it came to Lily Evans, and that was quite understandable."

"If he wouldn't have believed in the prophecy he wouldn't have been so scared, and maybe they would have gotten together quicker."

"What would have helped in what way? I would have considered him heartless if he wasn't afraid."

Sirius shook his head violently. "You expect me to just waltz up to Harry and say, 'Listen mate, we've got to talk about something. You see there's a prophecy about the Potters and their red headed counterparts that I think you should know about...'"

Remus chuckled. "No, I'm sure that you could come up with a more eloquent way to put it."

"The boy's got enough on his mind without having to worry about the prophecy. What with those awful Dursleys, and Voldemort, and life in general, the last thing he needs right now is to know about an old folk tale."

"You would deny him the knowledge of what he is? The son of James would never forgive you. Knowledge is power. There is no way he can protect himself if he doesn't know. You and I, on the other hand, have known for a very long time what our role was going to be in the grand scheme of things, and we've come to terms with that. Harry needs a chance to confront his destiny, his life, and quite possibly his love, before Voldemort strikes again. You know he will."

"Why this sudden insistence that we tell him, Moony? You could have told him his third year what was going on."

"James didn't know until his sixth year, and he had a hard enough time dealing with it then. Did you honestly thing I was going to throw something like that at a thirteen year old kid?"

"Do you honestly think I would throw something like that at a sixteen year old kid?"

"A sixteen year old young man, Sirius, and somehow I think that Harry will be able to cope with this a lot better than he would have as a thirteen year old."

"Tell me more about Ginny Weasley," changing the subject quickly to avoid something he didn't want to talk about was something Sirius had always been good at, Remus reflected.

"She wants us there for lunch. Eleven thirty, I believe she said."

Ginny forced herself to relax. It was only ten thirty. Sirius and Remus weren't even going to be at the Burrow for at least another hour. Until then, Ron and Hermione were on "Keep Harry Occupied" duty, while Ginny, Mrs. Weasley and Prof. McGonagall were decorating. Mentally, Ginny ran through a list of people, locations and things that still needed to be done. Bill and Charlie were at their respective places of work until the noon hour; Fred and George were cooking up a special birthday present for Harry, and Mr. Weasley was wrapping things up at the Ministry. Everything was falling into place.

Telling her brothers about the party without Harry finding out had been the hardest thing about the whole mess. She had had to tell Bill and Charlie separate from George and Fred, and Percy separately from the four of them. Consequently, everyone had found out at different times, making it much more difficult to contain the secret.

Fred and George had positively grinned and ran off to their room as quickly as their four legs could carry them, intent on making something extra special for the party. Ginny shuddered to think what they could possibly have up their sleeves.

10:45 - Forty-five minutes until Remus and Sirius were do. They were the guests of honor, of course, as Harry rarely got to see them. Remus had sent Ginny back a formal letter of acceptance, which made Ginny feel very adult indeed. She could remember her favorite part now by heart: "My dear Ginny, I'm not quite sure how you could think anyone would forget you. I assure you, quite the opposite is true." Still a Professor under all of his insentience that he wasn't. Once a Professor, always a Professor. Remus Lupin had been the best Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher she had ever had, and he never failed to make everyone think they were special; if not for their skills in the classroom, then for their personality. Now that Ron had explained to her Remus's condition, she understood why. She was especially looking forward to seeing Harry with his godfather. Nothing made her happier than seeing Harry happy.

"What are you thinking about over there, Ginny? You seem to be in another world," it was Professor McGonagall speaking, who had really seemed to have taken a liking to the youngest Weasley over the summer.

"I was praying that everything turns out all right. Counting down the minutes until, well, you know."

"Yes, I know." Minerva had the slightest of smiles on her face, Molly noticed, which was a very good thing. It was always her opinion that the uptight Professor needed to learn to relax a little.

"You have about a half an hour, dear. Do you want to take a shower and change?" Molly asked, sharing a private glance with Professor McGonagall.

"Oh, thanks for telling me, Mum. I'll be right back."

Molly sighed fondly as Ginny ran off towards the bathroom. "She does enjoy her showers."

"Reminds me of a few ladies I used to know," McGonagall said. Molly laughed and the two of them exchanged Hogwarts stories for a while.

Twenty-five minutes later, Ginny dashed back down the stairs. She had quickly pulled her hair into two plaits and put on her Hogwarts robes. Hermione had promised to buy her a new one for her birthday, but that wasn't until November, and Ginny was reluctant to accept anything that extravagant as a present.

Ginny was scurrying around, making sure everything was in place before she allowed herself the real pleasure of birthday parties. Once she was in the kitchen, she shooed Molly and Minerva out the door, but not before she called out, "You didn't touch it, did you Mum?"

"No! I just put the charm on the tools for you."

"Thanks!" Whistling to herself happily, Ginny pulled out the chocolate cake she had been secretly slaving over.

A look of intense concentration appeared on her face as she began to direct the tools. A base layer of icing was applied, and then the real fun could begin.

Just as soon as she had finished her masterpiece, the doorbell rang. Ginny quickly stuffed the cake into the cold oven and ran to answer it. She smoothed her hair and took a deep breath.

Sure enough, two men in wizarding robes stood on the front porch of the Burrow. One had a silly grin on his face and was tapping his foot impatiently. Ginny didn't know that one, so she thought that he must be Sirius Black. The other was a familiar face, although her former Professor looked sicker than she would have hoped.

"Professor Lupin! Thanks for coming. Come in and sit down. Harry will be ecstatic when he sees you two."

Remus shrugged. "It's Sirius who's been really itching to see him. I had a hard time holding him back this morning. Would you believe he wanted to leave at seven?"

Ginny felt a smile tugging at her lips. "Somehow, I think I can. Ron and Hermione are supposed to come up with a brilliant reason to get Harry off of his Firebolt in about five minutes if you want to wait and surprise him here, or you can find him in the back yard..." At the last of her statement, Sirius stood up in a hurry, and with a grin of mischief changed quickly into his Snuffles form. He was out the back door before Remus could stop him.

"Sorry about that. He's always been like this."

"Always?" Ginny giggled, which surprised her a little bit. She hadn't giggled in ages. But she did have the feeling that this going to be brilliant fun.

"Always. At least, ever since I can remember."

"It must have made Hogwarts more interesting," Ginny said, and grinned.

"Yes well, James and I were always there to keep him in check." Now he had spiked Ginny's interest.

"What was James like? For that matter, what was Lily like?" Remus laughed and held his hands up in protest.

"Slow down. I'd love to answer your questions, but perhaps we should wait until Harry comes inside."

Ginny blushed slightly and nodded her head.

"I assure you, no one will make fun of you for wanting to know. Perhaps you could ask your brother Bill. He knows more than he lets on."

"I get that feeling sometimes. Hey, let's go see if Sirius has found Harry yet."

Padfoot was busy. He knew he was supposed smelling where Sirius Black's godson was, but this bush was verrrry interesting. Inside of Padfoot's mind, Sirius was getting annoyed. 'Come on now Padfoot. Let's find Harry.' The big black dog shrugged his shoulders gently and resumed sniffing.

Meanwhile, on the makeshift Quidditch pitch, Harry was concentrating very hard on catching the golf balls Ron was throwing for him. Concentrating so hard, in fact, that he didn't see the large black dog that had finally found him.

Watching in amusement as Harry dove fanatically toward the ground at breakneck speeds, Padfoot pawed the ground impatiently. Watching Harry fly was like watching James fly again, and as pleasant as that was, Sirius really needed to see his godson. Finally, he lost patience and barked.

Harry looked over, startled. "SIRIUS!" With reckless abandon, he made his broomstick dive towards the ground and dismounted in the nick of time.

With a quick bark, Sirius transformed, and the two embraced fondly. "How are you?"

"Brilliant, as of just now. Nobody told me you were coming," Harry's face was glowing, and Sirius couldn't help but grin back. The older Harry got, the more he seemed to remind Sirius of James.

"Yes, well, I was told it was a surprise. There are some more people inside the house to see you."

"Remus?" Harry asked hopefully.

"You couldn't keep Moony away with a ten foot pole." Harry jumped in the air and let out a yell.

A surprised laugh made Harry looked around quickly. "Well, I'm glad you're glad to see me," Remus said.

Harry felt that if his grin got any wider, it would split his face. Suddenly, there was a shy voice from behind him. "Happy birthday, Harry."

"Ginny? Wow! This is amazing. This is the best! It's brilliant!"

Ginny couldn't believe how happy Harry was. Seeing Ron and Hermione had made him happy, yes, but he rarely ever got to see his father's old friends, because of the war, and she knew he worried about them constantly. Still, she coached herself sternly. 'Do not blush. Tell him 'thank you', very politely of course, but DO NOT embarrass yourself.'

"Thank you, Harry. Hermione and I thought you might like it." 'You see now? That wasn't so hard..."

"Hermione was in on this, too? And Ron?" Hermione and Ron walked up slowly, and Harry noted with amusement that Ron had his arm possessively around Hermione's waist.

"It was Ginny's idea. But we all wanted to see you happy," Hermione said. "I confess, I wasn't much help, but she owled me right away with an invitation."

"That's Ginny, for you. She doesn't waste time," Fred said, appearing from the house. "Why don't you all come inside? I think Mum's finished making lunch."

"You should have seen the invitation she sent me, Harry," Ron said excitedly, "Can you believe it? I'm your bloody best friend and I got an invitation. It was amazing, though. There was a picture of a Seeker that kept chasing after the Snitch...."

Whilst Ron was talking, a folded piece of pair appeared in the air in front of Harry with a pop! Bemused, he reached out and grabbed it. As soon as he did, words began to appear.

Mr. Harry Potter-

You are cordially invited to your sixteenth birthday party. Lots of fun Fred and George style, with special guests The Marauders.

Mr. Moony is of the opinion that it won't be a party without Mr. Prongs, Jr....

Mr. Padfoot agrees wholeheartedly, and would like to inform the Weasley twins that Mssrs. Padfoot and Moony have cleaned out Zonkos, and have a few tricks up their sleeves. Perhaps the young ones ought not to be so cocky...

Ms. Ginny would like to say that if Remus and Sirius do not leave her invitation alone, she will personally hex them into next year.

R.S.V.P. in five seconds, if you please...

Your hostess

Virginia Weasley

"I'd love to come!" Harry shouted, and Ginny tilted her head back and laughed.

Quick Author's Note: Many thanks and much love to all of you reviewers! At the end of the story, or perhaps the first part, I will take the time to acknowledge you all individually, but I wanted to tell you now that it is your appreciation that keeps me going, some days.

Next chapter: The disturbing similarities between Harry/Ginny and James/Lily are explained...The prophecy is told... but before I have to write all that serious stuff: Harry's birthday party!