Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Harry woke up the next morning feeling refreshed. Not only was he leaving for the Leaky Cauldron in just a couple hours, but today was also his birthday. He glanced at his watch. Eight o'clock.

Geez! He thought to himself, shocked. I've never slept this late! He jumped out of bed, in a frantic hurry to get ready, before remembering that this was the Knight Bus after all; it would come when he put out his hand, not by a certain schedule. He grabbed a towel and some fresh clothes and headed for the bathroom.

Twenty minutes later he was back in his room, running his fingers through his freshly gelled hair to style it. He looked up when he heard a tapping on his window. It was an owl, which was expected, but not an owl he recognized. He walked over to the window.

"Hello there," he greeted the newcomer. "Who are you from? Come to bring me something neat for my birthday?" He was in an extremely good mood. He supposed it was because of the lack of stress about Parvarti and Padma. He didn't have to face them or decisions about them for a full month.

The owl didn't reply, just held out its leg, allowing him to untie the two envelopes tied on there.

"Thanks!" Harry said to the owl, sending it off out the window. He turned back to the letters he had in his hand, but before he could open them another owl came soaring through his open window. This one he recognized- it was Pig, Ron's owl, carrying a small package. Before he could untangle Pig from the ties, another owl came through, and another and another. Four owls were now sitting in his room, one on top of Hedwig's cage, two on the dresser, and one was perched on the windowsill right in front of Harry, glaring at him ominously.

"All right, I'll take your package first!" Harry said to the belligerent owl. He freed the three unknown owls from their burdens and sent them on their way. He turned to his bed, which was now covered in packages and cards. He sat down and picked up the first card he had received. He had just begun to open it when a very insulted "SQUAWK!" came from underneath him. He jumped up, barely swallowing his yell of shock.

"PIG!" He burst out, disgusted. "Why are you always in the way?" Pig didn't answer. He looked up at Harry with a disgruntled look on his face, clicking his beak in obvious anger. Harry relented at once.

"All right, all right, I'm sorry. It was completely my fault. I should have looked where I was sitting. C'mere, I'll take your package off for you." Pig, his wounded pride (and head) apparently healed, walked over to Harry and extended his leg, waiting patiently until the string was untied.

"You sure are acting decent today," Harry told Pig in a conversational tone. "Ron train you up a bit or are you just tired?" Pig cocked his head sideways, uttering a tiny "squeak" for an answer. Harry nodded.

"I see," he said wisely. "That's how it goes, huh? No joke." Finally he freed Pig from the ties and set the owl on his pillow to do whatever it was owls did in their free time. He picked up his first letter for the third time, this time managing to get it completely open. He broke into a smile.

"Look at this!" he said to Pig, for lack of anyone else to talk to. "Parvarti and Padma sent cards!" Pig apparently didn't care, as there was no answer. " 'Best Wishes on your birthday, Sincerely, Padma...' " Harry read aloud. " 'Happy Birthday, Harry!! I'll see you next month, all right? Love,' " Harry choked. " 'Love, Parvarti.' "

Harry laid the cards on the bed, somewhat shell-shocked. "Love?!" He said out loud to himself. He shrugged. It probably didn't mean anything anyway... Still, he couldn't put it completely out of his mind. He reached for one of the packages lying patiently on his bed waiting to be opened. He quickly untied the knots in the string and discarded it. He opened the box and laughed. Apparently Fred and George had wanted to repay him for his generous gift to them earlier that summer. They had sent him a box chock full of their custom made pranks: fake wands, Canary Creams, Flavored Ink, Year-Round Snowballs, and all sorts of other stuff. Enclosed was a note thanking Harry again for the money he'd donated to the twins.

Harry looked up again as he put the box aside and sighed- there were more owls winging their way into his room. One was obviously a school owl, which was carrying a squashy looking package, and the other he didn't know.

"More?" Harry said, half joking, half exasperated. "Yeesh, I've already gotten plenty of presents!! Oh well, make way." He cleared a space on his bed and reached up to untie the two new packages. He untied the first one quickly, subconsciously expecting another owl to come through his window any minute. None did.

"Wow, Hermione!" He said hoarsely as he opened the package that was from her, judging by the enclosed card that she had signed. She had sent him a Quidditch game--a 3-D, realistically made Quidditch game. He glanced at the directions, trying to figure out how exactly to run the thing--and was only slightly surprised to find that the entire thing was run by magic- all the players were suspended in mid-air, and, he suspected, would stay in the air once he activated it.

Harry placed Hermione's gift to the side, planning on saving it to play with Ron sometime during the school year. He turned to the squashy looking package that had just arrived. He opened the official Hogwarts seal on the letter and read:

"Dear Mr. Potter,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected to be Gryffindor Captain of the house Quidditch team. We expect that you will not take this responsibility lightly. Enclosed are you captain robes.

Sincerely,

Minerva M. McGonagall

(Deputy Headmistress, Head of Gryffindor House)"

Harry's face broke into a grin. Quidditch captain! He'd never really thought about it before but now that he was captain he couldn't imagine not being captain.

"Oh!" He said aloud in disgust. "I forgot to read Hermione's card!" He finished opening the card, (which proclaimed "To Harry, Love, Hermione, on the envelope) and began to read.

"Hey Harry!

I found this in the Daily Prophet last week and ordered it for you- hope you like it!

Guess what? Ron and I have been made prefects! I hope you don't feel bad about that Harry, but I'm so excited! I'm at Ron's right now but we'll meet you in Diagon Alley sometime before school starts, all right?!

Lots of Love- Hermione"

Harry smiled, happy for Hermione. She'd finally been made prefect- it was exactly what she wanted. He quickly picked up a piece of parchment and wrote-

"Hey Hermione-

Don't worry about it, I'm happy you two are prefects. Besides- I'm Quidditch Captain! Can't wait to see you all--

---Harry."

"Here, Hedwig," he said, standing up and tying the letter to her leg. "Go find Hermione for me." Hedwig took off. Harry sat down again, and picked another package at random. At this rate it'd take him all day to get through his presents!

He looked at the card; it was from Ron.

"Hey Harry--this is called a C-tall, (a see-it-all, get it?) and it's really neat. If you shake it and say someone's name it'll show them no matter where they are. Try it! Mione's here for awhile--she's having fun, far as I can see. She and Ginny spend a lot of time together. We'll meet you in Diagon Alley sometime before school's in- we can figure out dates later. Happy Birthday! ---Ron"

Harry opened the package, untying the string and throwing it to the side. Inside of about three layers of paper a glass ball about the size of a golf ball lay nestled. Harry picked it up and nearly dropped it. For something so small with no discernable matter inside it weighed a lot. Harry shook it.

"Ron Weasley," he whispered into the silence. The ball began to shake and Harry gripped it tightly. A speck of red smoke appeared, twirling in the center of the sphere. It grew larger and larger, still spinning, before it popped and disappeared, to be replaced a split second later by a string of gray smoke- which pulled itself longer and longer until the ends touched the sides of the C-tall- and kept going. It continued stretching until it reached around twelve inches long. It floated out of Harry's hand to hover directly in front of him. Then it began to grow up, stopping at twelve inches again and making a perfect square. A bright, clear image of Ron showed on the miniature screen- and Harry laughed.

Ron was still sleeping by the looks of it. His hair was going every which was and he had a slight smile on his face.

"Wonder what he's dreaming about?" Harry thought out loud, amused. He looked at the screen again, not quite sure how to get it back to normal. He reached a tentative finger out towards it, and just as he touched it the image disappeared and the C-tall landed on the bed with a soft 'thump.' Harry reached over to pick it up and exclaimed

"Pig!" Apparently what owls did in their free time was not what Harry had expected. The minute little owl was having some sort of wrestling match between himself and the discarded string from Harry's presents- and losing.

His feet were hobbled about an inch apart, allowing him no way to move except hopping. He had a strand of string passing through his beak, which then wrapped completely around his head, under his right wing, and around his left.

Pig lay there, making furious sounding squawks and squeaks. Harry erupted into laughter, his mirth greatly hampering his efforts to untie the poor owl. Finally he got the owl untied. Harry sat Pig on a pillow and order him,

"Stay there. Understand?" Pig looked up at him with big eyes. He sat there on the pillow, legs stretched out in front of him, wings limply draped where they had landed, with his beak hanging open. Harry grinned and patted the little owl lightly on the head.

He reached for the package that he was guessing was from Sirius. It was, and it contained- a photo album? Harry glanced at the enclosed note. What...?

"Dear Harry," the note read.

"This was your mother's. Don't ask me how I got it but I thought you'd like it. It's her years at Hogwarts- on film. Please be careful Harry, and don't do anything I wouldn't do..." Harry snorted. That left him a wide variety of things to do. "...and do what Dumbledore says this year. Happy Birthday!

--SB"

Harry opened the photo album. There was his mother and father, page after page of them, all moving, smiling, when they had been his age. His eyes smarted and he quickly put the album away for later.

He reached for his last present, sending a chastising look at Pig, who immediately climbed back up on the perch he had been inching down from. Satisfied, Harry looked at the card.

"Happy Birthday, Harry!

I'm looking forward to you visit to the Burrow- we'll have fun. Hermione has been teaching me all sorts things for fourth years so I'm really getting a headstart! This present was a little expensive but I know you'll like it. It's a sound thing for the C-tall Ron gave you. When the screen of the C-tall is full size, just touch this little gadget to it and you can hear the sounds that the person on the screen can hear. Happy Birthday again!

--Ginny"

"Whoa..." Harry muttered. "This is incredible." He unwrapped the present Ginny had sent to him and sat looking at it for a minute. It was complicated looking, with lots of unlabeled switches and dials. One end was shaped into an arrow, while the other end was a semi-circle, which sported on large dial, painstakingly labeled in large letters: "VOLUME." Harry bit back a grin.

Picking up his c-tall, he once again asked to see Ron. When the picture was full sized, he held the new sound gadget to it, turning the dial up slightly from zero as he did so. A faint sound of snoring issued into the room. Pig hooted in what sounded like owl laughter.

"Sod off," Harry said automatically. The owl gave him a disgruntled look, hooted rebelliously and settled down again to stare into space, probably thinking of how great the world would be- if mice were actually smaller than he was.

Dropping the c-tall and its sound piece onto the bed, Harry opened the user's manual for the speaker.

"1. Use only the dials that are clearly labeled."

"As opposed to what? Unclearly labeled dials? Sheesh," Harry complained to himself, picking up the speaker again. A thorough inspection of the contraption revealed no more "clearly labeled dials," or any unclearly labeled dials either. Harry glanced back at the manual.

"2. If you're stuck already, you shouldn't be allowed near this machine. Enjoy!"

Harry laughed aloud, startling Pig, who toppled down from his pillow perch, landing in an undignified position with his large eyes blinking out at Harry from underneath his feet.

Harry glanced at the directions one more time, back at Pig, erupted into laughter again, and tossed the paper and speaker back onto the bed. He turned to the c-tall still in his hand. He shook it.

"Parvarti Patil," he said clearly. A few seconds later the screen was intact in front of him and Harry looked eagerly at it, hoping he could see her smile again...

"Whoa!" He exclaimed in shock, quickly reaching out to touch the screen. "Sorry, Parvarti!" He blushed bright red. "That was stupid," he berated himself, more softly. "It's late morning in the middle of summer--of course she'd be getting dressed... agh, I'm an idiot." He shook his head, the blush fading some from his cheeks. He looked again at the c-tall, a slight smile lighting up his face. It had been interesting, at that. The smile disappeared, to be replaced by a light frown.

"I wonder..." he said softly, thinking out loud. He shook the ball.

"Lily--" Pig looked up at Harry with a worried look.

"Lily--" Harry tried again. "No. No, I can't do this..." He dropped the c-tall onto the bed again. He couldn't do it- he couldn't ask to see his mother- or his father. Who knew how they'd appear? Skeletons? Harry shuddered. He didn't want to think about it.

"All right, Pig," he said in a somewhat subdued tone. "Get lost. I'm leaving now." Somehow Harry had lost his appetite, and so he passed by the kitchen without stopping, laden down with his trunk and school things- on his way to the bus.

Three blocks later, Harry pulled out his wand and held it out. With a loud BANG the Knight Bus appeared out of nowhere, nearly knocking Harry over. He recovered his balance just in time to catch a glimpse of a familiar face of acne...

"Knight Bus, travels anywhere, excepting underwater and aerial travel--Oi, Harry Potter! 'Ow ya doin', Neville?!" Stan Shunpike jumped down the steps to welcome Harry, winking conspiratorially as he did so.

"How ya been lately Harry? Here, let me get you trunk-- Jump up, pay your bill- price still the same..." Stan prattled on to no one as he disappeared down the aisle, lugging Harry's trunk behind him.

"Eleven sickles?" Harry asked Ernie Prang, the driver. Ernie nodded curtly.

"Where to?" He barked.

"Er... as close to Diagon Alley as you can get me."

"Right," Ernie jerked his thumb over his shoulder at Stan coming up behind him. "Pull up a bed and siddown." Harry followed Stan down the aisle, trying to tune out Stan's constant talking.

"Ri' here," Stan pointed to a bed enthusiastically. Harry sat down, nodding his thanks. Stan continued on down the aisle.

"Leaky Cauldron!" Stan called out a while later. Harry got up, groggy from sleep. Stan picked up Harry's trunk again and carried it off the bus as Harry followed.

"G'bye, Harry!" Stan waved from the bus.

"Bye Stan," Harry said over his shoulder. The bus popped out of sight and Harry walked into the pub and over to the counter where Tom was idly wiping the counter with a crusty rag.

"One room please- until September first," he requested. Tom nodded.

"Sure boy..." He fumbled under the counter. "Room thirteen," he said, handing Harry his key. "Have a nice stay.

"Thanks, Tom," Harry said, heading up to his room.

Dumping his large load at the foot of the bed, Harry sighed contentedly.

"Another home away from home," he said, grinning blearily at the mirror. "Agh--to heck with waking up. G'night." Harry kicked off his shoes, fell onto the bed, and was out like a light.