The Temple of Le Fay

Harry Potter yanked the TrueSight glass from his eye, unable to truly believe what he'd just seen. He tried to force himself to think of something else, but nothing would come to his mind.

"Harry? Harry what's up?" Ron asked, dropping his book and running to his friend. "Is it your scar?"

"Ohhh. . ." Harry groaned, rubbing his eyes. "In the orchard," he said, handing the TrueSight Glass to Ron. Ron raised the glass to his own eye, focussed on the orchard, and winced. Lowering the glass, he shrugged.

"Well, they are going out," he said. "What were you doing out here, anyway?"

"I was looking for Ginny."

"She's helping mum with the cooking for tonight."

"Oh. Er. . ." Harry looked toward the orchard. Ron followed his gaze, and shuddered.

"Let's just not mention it, okay?"

"Mention what?" came a voice from behind them. Harry and Ron spun around, Ron hiding the TrueSight Glass behind his back as he turned. Hermione stood before them, a quizzical expression on her face as she looked from one to the other.

"Nothing," Ron said. "Nothing important. Nothing at all."

Harry shook his head. Hermione would see right through Ron's protestations. Right about now, he thought, they needed a distraction.

This was provided with timely accuracy by twin cracks as Fred and George Apparated beside the three friends. The twins grinned, their arms full of bottles, packages and packets. Ron jumped forward to help his brothers with their burden, cleverly hiding the TrueSight Glass under the packages he took from them.

"Right, we've got everything ready," Fred said. "Now, where are the rest of the guests. Anyone here yet?"

"Er, yeah. Lee and Katie arrived a half-hour or so ago," Harry said.

"Yeah," Ron added, suddenly grinning. "They went for a walk up to the orchard. Lee said he wanted to stretch his legs after coming all that way by car."

George shook his head. "Katie has to learn how to Apparate," he said. Grinning at Fred, he added, "Want to go see them?"

"Yeah, good idea," his twin replied. "Here you go Harry," he added, foisting his load into Harry's arms. "Hermione, can you take George's lot?"

Once unburdened, the twins gave a short wave and vanished with another crack.

"What d'you reckon. . . A minute?" Ron asked, as the three of them walked back towards the house.

"Less," Harry said. "With the two of them looking, it shouldn't take more than thirty seconds. It just depends what Fred and George decide to do."

"Are you going to tell me what you two are talking about?" Hermione said.

"No," Ron said, grinning at her. "Give it five minutes, and if you can't work it out, we'll let you know then."

"Fine," Hermione said. "Be stupid, have your joke, see if I c-"

Hermione was interrupted by an enormous explosion in the middle of the orchard, which sent birds soaring into the air for hundreds of feet around. Ron and Harry exchanged looks, each trying to stop from bursting out laughing, while Hermione looked from one to the other, understanding slowly dawning on her face.

"Lee and Katie, they didn't go for a walk, did they?" she asked.

"Well, they may have done," Ron said, grinning at her. "But from what we saw, they got a bit carried away."

Ron's sentence was punctuated by the twin cracks that announced Fred and George's reappearance. The twins hit the ground running, and dashed past Harry, Ron and Hermione laughing uproariously. As they dashed into the Burrow, Harry turned and watched the orchard expectantly. Sure enough, Lee Jordan soon erupted from beneath the trees, running full pelt toward the house. He leapt over the hedge that separated the Weasley garden from the field beyond, and was still accelerating as he approached Harry and the others. He skidded to a halt by the three of them, his bare chest heaving.

"Where. . ?" he managed to gasp, between huge, deep, breaths.

Ron pointed mutely towards the house. Lee was about to dash inside when an upstairs window flew open and Fred and George poked their heads out.

"Hi Lee!" Fred called.

"Don't give me 'Hi Lee' you git!" Lee bellowed. Harry winced, wondering if Lee had really needed the magical microphone that he'd used throughout his time as Quidditch commentator at Hogwarts. "Get down here, so I can tear your ruddy heads off!"

"Lee, please, calm down!" George yelled. "Keep your shirt on mate!"

"Hang on George, he can't. Why aren't you wearing a shirt, Lee?" Fred shouted down.

"You know exactly why I'm not wearing a shirt!" Lee yelled. "You torched it, you ginger -"

Hermione winced as Lee launched into a foul-mouthed tirade. Ron grinned, and Harry suspected that he was memorising some of the more choice terms for use when next he met Draco Malfoy. For his own part, Harry was impressed at the words Lee was using. Perhaps because he tended to be wrapped up in the action when Lee was commentating, he didn't always pay precise attention to what was being said. He was fairly sure, however, that there were words being used that Lee would never have got away with had he been commentating on Slytherin vs. Hufflepuff, for example.

Such was Lee's range of swear words, in fact, that several minutes passed before he wound down. This was probably more to do with the sudden appearance of Mrs Weasley at the kitchen door than any lack of new words on his part.

"Hello, Lee dear," she said brightly. "It's been a while since we last saw you here. You've been keeping well, I hope?"

"Er. . . Yes, Mrs Weasley," Lee said, his eyes fixed on the ground. He looked incredibly embarrassed.

"Glad to hear it," she went on. "Fred and George tell me you got all your N.E.W.Ts?"

"Yes, Mrs Weasley," Lee replied, his eyes still on the floor. "Got an O, three Es and an A."

"How wonderful," Mrs Weasley said. "Of course, those two. . ." she looked up at where Fred and George were hanging out of the window. "Well, I won't say what they got. Thank heavens they don't have to look for real work, I suppose."

"Yes, Mrs Weasley," Lee said, as though he felt he needed to say something.

"And what are you going to do, Lee?" Mrs Weasley asked politely.

"I. . . I want to become involved with Quidditch coaching," Lee said, looking up for the first time. "I'm hoping that Madam Hooch can help me get started."

"Well, that's nice," Mrs Weasley said with a smile. "I'd better get started on dinner, as it's a special day." She smiled at Harry. Turning to leave, she looked over her shoulder.

"Oh, Lee?" she said.

"Yes, Mrs Weasley?"

"Didn't you come down with Katie today?"

She went back inside and Lee stood as though frozen. There was a fresh burst of laughter from Fred and George as they slammed the upstairs window. Lee looked at Harry, Ron and Hermione as though searching for something.

"Er. . . Harry?" he said. "Be a mate. Lend us your shirt for a few minutes."

It dawned on Harry what had happened to Lee's shirt, and why it was that Katie hadn't followed him out of the woods. Trying to hold back a grin that was threatening to split his face in two, he handed his pile of packages to Hermione, and undid his shirt, handing it to Lee. He took his things back from Hermione as Lee dashed off back towards the orchard, a stream of new curses trailing in his wake. Ron collapsed to the floor, shaking with laughter as soon as Lee was out of earshot. Hermione looked down at him with look of mingled amusement and annoyance.

"It's not that funny, Ron," she said. "Poor Katie could have been seen. I'd die if someone did that to me."

"Oh, come on Hermione," Ron said, climbing to his feet and dropping a bottle of Butterbeer as he did so. "That was classic. Serves them right for stopping for a snog, too."

Hermione turned to Harry for support, but he shook his head.

"Hermione, if you'd seen what I did. . ." he looked down at his bare chest. "Well, you pretty much are seeing what I did," he said, grinning. "Still, it was a bit rough of Fred and George," he added, catching Hermione's eye.

"Harry?"

Harry turned back towards the house, and the grin on his face faded a little. Standing in the doorway, her arms covered in flour and a dab of icing sugar on her nose, was Ginny Weasley, the youngest of the Weasley children and, for the last five-and-a-half months, Harry's girlfriend. Of all the ways he'd imagined having his shirt off in front of her, Harry thought irrelevantly, this hadn't made the list.

"Harry Potter," she said, coming out into the garden. "Is there any reason why my brother and my best friend are standing there, with you half naked? Is there something you're not telling me?"

The tone of her voice told Harry she wasn't in the least bit worried, but he still felt uncomfortable. Normally, he would have run his hand through his hair to buy a little time. He settled for jiggling the things in his arms as he stuttered.

"Fred and George," Ron said, his cheeks still pink from laughing so hard. "They blew up Lee and Katie's shirts. Harry leant Lee his so that Katie could come back down from the orchard."

"Oh," Ginny said. "Well, why didn't you just tell me that, Harry?"

"Er. . ." he managed to say. Ginny sighed, not unhappily.

"My boyfriend, ladies and gentlemen," she said, her eyes sparkling. "The great elocutionist." She stood up on tiptoes, and pecked Harry on the cheek.

"Best get this lot inside," Ron said hurriedly. "Come on, Harry, you need to get changed anyway. The others will be here soon."

"Yeah, right," Harry said, grinning foolishly as he followed Ron into the house. "Best get on, then."

Hermione and Ginny, who stayed outside, looked at each other, and shook their heads in identical expressions of exasperated acceptance.

*

"Mrs Weasley, Ginny, that was a fantastic meal," Seamus Finnigan declared, setting his knife and fork down and leaning back in his chair with a satisfied look on his face.

"Why thank you Seamus," Mrs Weasley said, smiling. Everyone around the table quickly added their agreement to this. "Now, Harry, what next? Presents, or cake?"

"Presents!" George said, barely allowing Mrs Weasley to finish what she was saying.

"Yeah, mum, it's only Ginny's baking that made the cake anyw-" Fred began, before Bill silenced him with a swift wave of his wand. Fred continued moving his lips for a few seconds, before realising he'd been cut off. Glaring at Bill, he mouthed something at his older brother. It looked rude to Harry, who grinned into his glass of pumpkin juice.

"Presents, I think," he said, adding diplomatically ""It'll give the dinner a chance to settle. I'm looking forward to my birthday cake."

Harry was relishing the chance to spend his birthday among friends, as he usually had to endure summer holidays at Number Four, Privet Drive. Formerly he had to live with the Dursleys, his only surviving relatives. This summer, however, the Dursleys had arranged to spend the entire summer at a health farm, and rather than pay for Harry to attend as well, they had somehow managed to convince Albus Dumbledore, Harry's headmaster, that he should spend the summer with someone else. Harry had been delighted; the chance to enjoy the summer with some of his best friends was beyond anything he could have hoped for. And now, on his birthday, it seemed that half of Gryffindor house had made their way to the Burrow to share it with him.

Looking around happily, his gaze took in Ron and Hermione, Ginny, Colin Creevey, Seamus Finnigan and Lavender Brown. As well as those, there was also Dean Thomas, Neville Longbottom and Daniella Spinnet, Katie and Lee, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, the whole of the rest of the Weasley family and, seemingly squashing everyone else into one corner of the Weasley's garden, Rubeus Hagrid. Harry's grin widened as he thought of the great fuss caused by Hagrid suddenly Apparating in the middle of preparations for the party.

"Jus' passed me test," he'd declared. "Dumbledore fixed it for me to sit it, seeing as I shouldn'ta been expelled all them years ago. Great man, Dumbledore," he'd added, unnecessarily. Everyone at the party was fully convinced of Dumbledore's greatness.

The first present Harry opened came from Fred and George. It seemed harmless enough, especially compared to the exploding gift they'd given him the year before. Nonetheless, as it sat docilely on his lap, he took a great deal of care opening it. Peeling away the last of the wrappings, he looked down at the gift with a hint of confusion.

"It's a book," he said.

"Ah, Hogwarts," Fred said, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye. "What a place. Harry's only been there five years and he already knows what a book looks like."

George shook his head. "It's not just any book, Harry," he said. "Look inside."

Harry opened the book, still taking the utmost care. He had learned before that Fred and George often came up with some very tricky surprises.

"Oh," he breathed. "Oh wow."

"What is it, dear?" Mrs Weasley asked.

Harry held up the book so that everyone could read the inscription.

Harry laughed out loud, and looked up from the book with a huge grin on his face.

"It's amazing," he said to a gratified looking Fred and George. "Where did you find it?"

"Well, young Harry," Fred began, assuming the pose of a grandfather passing down his favourite stories. "Last year, George and I were doing a runner from Filch and Mrs Norris."

"We ended up in the library, of all places," George chipped in. "Well, Madam Pince didn't look too keen on us hanging around, so we legged it down one of the aisles and found ourselves in the Muggle Relations section. We sort of grabbed books, and I remembered that one of mum's cousins is an accountant so I thought I'd see if he managed to get into Hogwarts after all."

Mrs Weasley laughed on hearing this. "Yes, poor old David. He's a good sport about being a Squib. You should see him and Arthur whenever David buys a new electric thing."

Fred grinned, and carried on the story.

"Anyway, it was just like when we found the Marauders Map, oh these many years ago. As soon as George opened it, that inscription came up on the front page. If you say that bit at the end, it turns back into a normal book."

"We figured you'd like it, Harry. It sort of makes sense for you to end up with the map and the book as well. Pass them on wisely."

The rest of the presents, while wonderful, didn't really stand much chance against the book. Although Fred and George didn't know it, they had given Harry another link to his father, and that was about the best present he could have hoped for.

Only at the end of the present giving did Harry receive a gift that drove the book from his mind. Setting aside the Gillyweed plant he'd been given by Neville and Daniella, he picked up the last box, smiling as he realised there was only one person who hadn't given him anything so far. He caught Ginny's eye as he untied the knot on her present. Looking down, he felt his smile widen as he pulled the paper away.

"Wow," he said, lifting his present from the packaging. "Ginny. . ." he breathed. "This is just. . ."

"Colin helped me," she said hurriedly. She looked to be on the verge of tears.

It was a framed still photo of Harry playing Quidditch the previous year, against Hufflepuff. The photo had been taken an instant before Harry closed his hand around the Snitch, and he had apparently been right in front of Colin when the photo was taken. The clarity on the photo was perfect, Harry could see the intense look of concentration on his face, the beads of sweat lining his eyebrows, the sunlight gleaming off the Snitch, everything. He set it carefully down on the table, and stood up. Walking around the table, he swept Ginny up into a tight hug and held her against him for as long as he dared. Only Mr Weasley clearing his throat meaningfully made Harry set her down, and when he did, he saw that she had tears streaming down her face.

"You really like it?" she said.

"Really," he replied.

They stood there, grinning foolishly at one another, as the others got up and began tidying away. Only when Mrs Weasley brought out the birthday cake was the spell broken.

Harry took a slice of cake from Ron, who has assumed cake-cutting duties. He raised it to his mouth, inhaling the deep aroma of chocolate and almonds, before biting deep into it.

Conversation paused while people chewed and swallowed thoughtfully. Ron offered second helpings to everyone as they finished their slices, but only he and Hagrid had them.

*

Soon enough, darkness had fallen and the party broke up. Those who were going back to their homes that evening made their goodbyes, while those who were squeezing into the Burrow for the night began the cycle of bathroom use that would take up much of the next hour.

At length, Harry and Ron were the last ones left awake. They sat by the fire in the kitchen, sharing a last bottle of Butterbeer before heading up to bed.

"Good day, Harry?" Ron asked.

"The best," Harry replied truthfully. "I can't imagine it being much better. It's just a shame Sirius and Remus couldn't make it."

"They said they'd drop by sometime soon in their last letter, didn't they?"

"Yeah. I'm not too bothered. If they had come down today, I wouldn't have had much chance to see them. Besides, not everyone knows that Sirius is innocent."

"Yeah, true. Still," Ron said, picking the Marauder's Manual up from the kitchen table. "It's not like you didn't get something from them after all. Your dad, too."

"Yeah," Harry said, eyes gleaming behind his glasses. "Want a look?"

"Thought you'd never ask," Ron said. He opened the book about halfway through, and the two friends watched as the printing faded away and was replaced by new writing.

Harry and Ron read on in silence. Eventually, they looked at one another.

"They must have got in so much trouble for this," Harry said, eventually.

"D'you think anyone would have been stupid enough to take them seriously?" Ron asked.

"Who knows?" Harry said. "I mean, it's a good few years since they left school. Maybe people weren't as ready for that sort of thing. They were, well, originals."

"It must be pretty weird," Ron said, looking pack down at the passage. "Knowing your dad was talking about, well, that."

Harry went pale. Just the thought of his dad giving him love advice was enough to make him feel a bit ill. He shut the book with a snap.

"Let's get some sleep," he said, setting the book down.

"Yeah," Ron agreed, heading for the camp beds in the front room. "Hey, d'you reckon Fred and George ever used any of the advice in that book?"

"Probably not. They only had it a few months. Still, might explain why Alicia broke up with George."

"Yeah. Reckon there's anything good in there?"

"Maybe. Remus wouldn't have done something completely useless."

"Guess not," Ron said, climbing into his bed. "Well, happy birthday, Harry."

"Cheers Ron," Harry replied. As the two friends settled down, the candles in the kitchen and the front room dimmed gradually until they eventually put themselves out.