Harry Potter and the Black Grimoire

CHAPTER FIVE - EMOTIONS

That was one of the best times in Harry's entire life. It was the first time, in his entire existence, that he had ever had a party in his honour.

And what a party it was. It seemed like July 31st was Harry Potter Day in Diagon Alley. It was a day full of happiness and contentment. From the morning till late that night, there was almost non-stop music, games and fireworks. Florean Fortescue gave out free sundaes for most of the day and a carnival had been set up in the park. If people thought Muggle carnival rides were spectacular, wizard rides were nothing short of mind-boggling. You could take a ride on a tame dragon and fly through the sky. On the wizard roller coaster, there are no tracks. The cars flew through the sky on an invisible course and you would never know where you would go because the route changed with every ride. Another one of the most popular rides flung the thrill-seeker high above the ground before hurtling back to the ground only to be stopped a foot before impact. This was a favorite among daredevils.

Wizards and witches had all kinds of booths set up as well. You could get your picture taken with a magical creature or see what you would look like as the animal of your choice, compliments of the 'transfiguration chap.' And for the children, they could get their faces painted with paint that changed colors and designs.

Many games were also set up. Many based on quidditch. There was snitch catching ("See how fast you can catch the snitch!"). You could also see how well you would do as a chaser, keeper, or beater, complete with rubber bludgers.

All in all, there was a little something for everyone. Harry spent most of his time with Ron and Hermione at the quidditch field in the park. There were games non-stop, all day. Harry even dragged Hermione out to the field to play as a chaser one game. She didn't have to do much though; Harry caught the snitch in about a minute.

As the bright sun fell in the clear sky and the moon took its place, a spectacular fireworks show was planned to close out the day of celebration.

Wizard fireworks are much like Muggle fireworks, except they are bewitched to change color and leap around and form themselves into shapes that would be impossible to achieve with normal fireworks.

The finale of the show consisted of a large rocket that went up, exploded into a person on a broom and plummeted to the ground after a snitch. It then blew-up once more into thousands of different colored sparkles which formed themselves into the words "Happy Birthday Harry" over a gigantic picture of him.

By the time it was over, Harry was almost in tears. People all over the park stood up and applauded to the birthday boy. He had never known so many people cared for him. He stayed on the grass with Ron and Hermione for awhile, just to make sure that he could walk around without bursting into happy tears. Once he was confident enough of this, he got up, said 'Sonorous' and thanked everyone for coming and helping him celebrate his first ever birthday party.

"And it won't be the last!" announced several people around him.

Harry mingled a bit with the various witches and wizards in the Alley before making his way back to the Leaky Cauldron with his two friends. It was the early morning before they finally got back into their rooms. It seemed like everyone they passed had to congratulate Harry on turning fifteen. So much, in fact, that his back was almost surely bruised with all of the 'pats' it had taken in the last couple of hours.

The three friends spent the remainder of their waking hours opening up all of Harry's presents, which was quite a task in itself. There were three of them opening up the multitude of wrapped gifts and parcels and it still took them over an hour to finish and dispose of the garbage. By the time everything was unwrapped and accounted for, Harry had enough candy to last him a whole term at Hogwarts, several sets of wizard chess pieces, other games, the set of solid gold gobstones he had admired on his first visit to Diagon Alley, several sets of exploding snap, a wizard wireless set, enough books to make Hermione jealous and a small fortune in wizard gold, which he figured could go back into his vault and be used another day. But of all of these things he got, he still felt like something was missing.

"I wish Sirius could have been here."

"Oh Harry, I'm sure has a good reason for not attending. He just got freed after all. His has a lot of affairs to sort out," Hermione said, soothingly.

"Yeah, I know that, but still..."

Just then, Harry's snowy owl Hedwig swooped through the open window and dropped a small package on Harry's stomach.

Ron had been staring at the television, watching an infomercial when he came in. He got up and went over to Hermione's bed where she and Harry were lying. Harry took his head off of Hermione's knee, where he was resting and opened the parcel. It was from Sirius.

Dear Harry,

Sorry I couldn't be there today, I heard it was a blowout! I was on business from the ministry though, I hope you understand. Enclosed is an heirloom that rightfully belongs to you. Your father gave it to me three days before your parents died. He told me to make sure you got it if anything ever happened to them. I am now fulfilling his request. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

-- See you soon, Sirius

Harry picked up the small box and looked inside. It contained a gleaming golden chain. It was thick and heavy and hanging from it was a golden key with a design of a sun on it. There was a clear crystal in the middle of it. It was a very handsome chain and appeared to be extremely well made.

Harry ran his fingers over the smooth metal, as if he could feel a part of his father surging through it. He put it around his neck and vowed to never let it leave that place.

"It's very beautiful Harry," said Hermione.

"Even more so because it belonged to my father."

Ron went back to the television, Harry resumed his position and rested his head on Hermione's knee and nothing more was said about it that night.

* * * *

The next day, after having a late breakfast in the Leaky Cauldron, the three made their way into the Alley and parted ways. Ron went off by himself and Harry and Hermione went off to the library. Ron had said that he wanted to go looking around and buy presents for his family.

They separated on Main Street, Ron going towards Quality Quidditch Supplies and Harry and Hermione making their way towards the Diagon Alley Historical Library.

Hermione said that she wanted to catch up on her summer reading and get ahead in studies for their fifth year. After all, they would be taking their O.W.L.'s, the ordinary wizarding levels, during the upcoming year. Hermione, of course, wanted to get as big of a jump on it as she could. Harry simply said that he felt like he was in a reading mood and would join her.

Harry didn't know how he could have ever not known about the library in the Alley. It was a large structure, comparable to Gringott's and looked like an old castle. It was very tall and in good condition, like it had just been built the day before. The inside was twice as big. There was eight floors of nothing but shelves upon shelves of books. Who knew how many floors lie beneath the building as well. It was simply huge. Even someone like Harry, who was usually not that interested in books, would have been amazed, as he was. Everything from divination, transfiguration, wizard history, herbology and potions was covered, as well as cookbooks, books of wizarding games and traditional songs and even fiction works. Not to mention the several floors containing nothing but spellbooks. Every subject related to magic and some that weren't, could be found in the library. Hermione was in heaven, off on cloud nine somewhere. By the time she was done gathering books to read, Harry had to claim a different table for himself because hers was completely covered in books.

While Hermione set out on her impossible task of reading the library, Harry settled down in a comfortable, oversized armchair with famous witches and wizards of past and present. It was, in fact, an interesting read. Harry enjoyed learning about the ancient wizards of Egypt and Middle East as well as the Greek and Roman wizards. He read about Merlin, Morgana La Fey and some others he had never heard of. There was a whole chapter dedicated to the witches and wizards who had founded the most popular schools in the world, including, but not limited to, Hogwarts, Beauxtons and Durmstrang.

Harry had been reading for hours before he even realized it. By noontime, he was getting hungry and offered to take Hermione out for lunch. He finally managed to pull her away from the wall of books she was enclosed in and they went to a small cafe where they ordered a pizza, something that neither of them had ever had except for on a few occasions.

They were enjoying a good conversation and the excellent food when the door opened and in walked Ron with another person. It was a girl that they had never seen before. Harry and Hermione's table was at the back of the room, so Ron and his companion didn't notice them. They slouched down in their chairs to make sure they were not seen. They were both very curious as to who this new girl was.

They waited on in silence as the two sat down at a table and began talking excitedly. Ron seemed to be making her laugh a lot and the mystery girl would touch his hand, bat her eyebrows and wave her hair about quite frequently.

Hermione giggled next to him.

"What?"

"Can't you see?" she asked. "They're flirting!"

This hadn't occurred to him although it was very obvious that the two were indeed flirting. Harry didn't blame him though, as the girl was quite pretty. She looked to be about their age and about the same size as Hermione. She was skinny with milky white skin and black hair streaked with bright red. She had stunning blue eyes that seemed to sparkle. Harry was almost jealous. Both Harry and Hermione found it quite funny to see Ron flirting. After finishing, the two paid and ducked out to leave Ron and his mystery companion. They made their way back to the library through the bright, sunlit streets.

Once back in the library, Hermione said she needed to go down to the basement to get a book she wanted. Harry wondered what other book she could possibly want with all of the books she already had and decided to follow her down.

The basement of the library, that is the very last floor, was dark, dank, and very quiet. They were the only two people on that particular floor.

It took Hermione a while to find the book that she was looking for and when she did, it was on a shelf that was a bit out of her reach.

"It's a good thing you came with me Harry, I can't reach this book. Can you get it? You're taller."

"Sure. Which one?" answered Harry.

"That one. Yes, right there," said Hermione. "And when did that happen, by the way? You were never that much taller than me."

"Guess I grew over the summer," answered Harry, getting down the book.

"You sure did. Getting muscles too, huh?" Hermione said, squeezing his arm, teasingly.

"Stop, you're gonna make me blush!" Harry said, sarcastically.

"Ok, Ok, I'll stop," Hermione said. "But I guess all those chores your aunt and uncle make you do finally started to pay off. But really, you're looking good Harry. The girls should start falling all over you anytime now."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure," Harry said. "And thanks Herm, you've grown up a bit over the summer too."

And she had. Harry had noticed that her hair looked more like it did at the Yule Ball everyday now; brown and shiny and not very bushy. It matched with her brown eyes perfectly. The reduction of her teeth only added to the growing beauty that was Hermione Granger. She had also 'filled in' in other areas as well.

"Thanks Harry. It's just that seeing Ron with that girl got me thinking about things."

"Like what things?"

"Well, how do you feel about having a girl as one of your best friends?"

"It's ok, I guess. Most of the time, anyway. It definitely has its perks."

"Like what?"

"Why don't you tell me what you think," Harry said.

"Nice try Harry! But I asked first, so let's have it."

"Ok, well, what's good about having a girl as a best friend..." Harry said, thinking. "Well, If I ever have a question about girls, I can always ask you. And well, I know there's lots of guys that wished they had a girl as a best friend. Especially one that looks like you.

Harry purposely avoided her eyes.

"Oh come on Harry, I'm nothing special to look at..."

"Well, let's just say that after the Yule Ball, there were a lot of guys that were jealous of Victor Krum," Harry said. "Including me..."

"Oh stop Harry! Now I really am blushing!"

"Sorry, sorry. But I'm serious Hermione, don't sell yourself short. You're a very beautiful girl, and you're a good person. No matter what that Malfoy tells you all the time. I bet he himself is jealous."

"You really think so Harry?" asked Hermione, now moving closer to Harry and touching his arm lightly.

"I meant every word I said."

"Those are the nicest things anyone has ever said to me Harry," Hermione said softly, moving still closer to Harry.

"I only told the truth."

"You're a great friend Harry"

"So are you Hermione."

Their faces were inches apart now and they stared deeply into each other's eyes. Harry could smell the sweet scent of Hermione's perfume. It was intoxicating. His heart was beating faster than it ever had in his chest. Even a duel with the Dark Lord couldn't make him as nervous or afraid as this. But he wanted it. And so did she.

They closed their eyes and moved their moistened lips closer and closer together. They were a fraction of an inch apart. Even less now...

BAM!

The book Harry had taken off the shelf for Hermione came crashing to the floor, causing a noise that reverberated throughout the darkened basement and brought them out of their lust-fueled trance.

"Must have fallen off of the table I put it on," said Harry.

"Yeah."

Harry and Hermione straightened themselves up and grabbed their belongings before leaving the basement and the library to go back to the Leaky Cauldron for dinner with Ron.