━━━━━━ CHAPTER TWENTY.
━━━━━━
july 30th, 1993
"you've lost your touch, lani."
"shut up."
the potter and black children were all sat at the dining table in potter manor. leilani had a pack of bertie bott's every flavour beans in front of her, insistent on getting one in evelyn's mouth. clearly, she was failing.
"you're three for three, lans!" sebastian drew an imaginary check in the air, laughing. "i think we've found ourselves the slytherin quidditch team's new chaser."
"don't give them the burden of it," evelyn shook her head, grinning.
"they're already shit," harry scoffed. "honestly, putting lani on their team would be an improvement."
but lani payed no attention to their snarky remarks. instead, she reached for another bean.
"quit talking and open your mouth wider."
evelyn rolled her eyes as she did so. lani closed one eye to get a better aim, and cautiously threw it into her mouth.
"ha!" she pointed at sebastian. "take that!"
"i'm impressed," his eyebrows rose. "now do it again."
"absolutely not," lani pushed the candies away as james and sirius walked into the kitchen.
"you're still doing this?" sirius shook his head amusingly. "what flavour, evie?"
"toothpaste," evelyn sighed.
"you need it," harry shot back.
evelyn opened her mouth quickly, but stopped herself. "i have to be nice to you, it's your birthday tomorrow."
"how kind of you," harry let his mother plant a kiss on the top of his head, who had just walked in with remus.
"what do you want to do for your birthday?" lily asked him.
harry shrugged.
"thirteen's a big one, harry," remus smiled. "are you sure you don't want to do anything special?"
"i'm not sure," he mumbled. "do i have to do something special?"
both 'yes' and 'no' emerged from the table.
"james," lily sighed.
"lily!" james retorted. "our first child is becoming a teenager, and what do you want to do—pick flowers and sip butterbeer?"
"trust me harry, it's not a big deal," sebastian rolled his eyes. "it's practically the same."
"it is not," sirius said stubbornly.
"what do you want to do, harry?" remus asked him.
harry, who had been looking quite anxious at this sudden uproar of his birthday, pushed his glasses up.
"see my friends," he finally said. "and, er—i dunno... nothing big?"
"sure, love," lily nodded. "i'm sure we can get ron and cindy and hermione all over here."
"the weasleys are in egypt," sebastian interuptted.
"they are?" james asked.
"they're visiting their older brother, bill," he got up to get the most recent copy of the daily prophet, and threw it onto the table for the others to see.
MINISTRY OF MAGIC EMPLOYEE SCOOPS GRAND PRIZE
arthur weasley, head of the misuse of muggle artifacts office at the ministry of magic, has won the annual daily prophet grand prize galleon draw.
a delighted mr. weasley told the daily prophet, "we will be spending thegold on a summer holiday in egypt, where our eldest son, bill, works asa curse breaker for gringotts wizarding bank."
the weasley family will be spending a month in egypt, returning for the start of the new school year at hogwarts, which five of the weasley children currently attend.
evelyn couldn't help but smile at the moving photograph underneath the next. all nine of the weasleys were waving furiously at the camera, standing in front of a large pyramid. two adults, six sons, and one daughter, all with flaming-red hair that you could tell was there despite the black-and-white film. ginny, her hair slightly longer than evelyn had last remembered, had a huge grin on her face as she stood alongside her older brother. ron was right in the middle of this picture, smiling with his pet rat on his shoulder and his arm around ginny.
"oh, they're adorable!" lily exclaimed, smiling at the large family in the small photograph. "so i suppose not ron, but cindy and hermione—"
"hermione's on vacation with her family," harry said dully. "in france."
"oh," lily frowned. "so... just cindy?"
"just cindy," harry agreed.
"if it makes you feel better," evelyn rested her head in her palm. "most of our friends are here."
"i'm thrilled."
"i meant, they could come for your birthday."
"i'd rather not have you lot running around," harry said scornfully. "but thanks, i suppose."
harry got up from the table and left the kitchen. a moment later, they heard footsteps going up the stairs. lani sighed.
"ev?"
"lans?"
"do we have a birthday party to plan?" she asked.
evelyn nodded. "it looks like we do."
"it's already late," remus frowned. "how are you possibly going to do everything tonight?"
"nothing is impossible, uncle moons," lani stood up, evelyn getting up in unison.
"right," sebastian said skeptically. "well anyway, i better be getting to bed—"
"not so fast," evelyn rushed to stand in front of him. "we need you with us."
"why am i always dragged into everything?" he groaned as lani pulled him to the hallway by his arm.
***
"it's kind of you to do this," rory whispered.
"i know," evelyn grinned. "he should thank me more, shouldn't he?"
"definitely," rory giggled.
unsurprisingly, carina couldn't show up, but they were rather hurt to come to the realization that benjamin couldn't either; that left rory. on the plus side, cindy and cedric were right there with them.
"i don't know harry very well," cedric had said to them. "but i'm happy to help!"
cedric diggory was tall and quite good-looking. he was the captain and seeker of the hufflepuff quidditch team and always had a warm smile on his face while his hair effortlessly fell perfectly into place. evelyn and rory couldn't help but exchange knowing grins once he had walked in.
okay, perhaps that was an understatement—cedric diggory was very good-looking.
after collecting this very random group of people, evelyn, lani, and sebastian had instructed them all to hide alongside the staircase wall. that way, when harry came back from birthday cake shopping with the adults, it was certain that he would be thrown off guard.
they're here, sebastian mouthed to them as footsteps trotted up the steps to the door.
where's lani? cindy mouthed back. sebastian refrained from laughing after watching evelyn give her a careless shrug.
"i still think the little snitches are quite outdated," they could hear sirius' muffled voice through the walls of the home.
the door creaked open and harry's voice echoed down the hallway. "the golden snitch is never outdated," he was saying. "that's pretty thick, sirius."
"that's my boy," james said proudly, through fake tears. they heard the door shut and sebastian nodded to the group. they began to slowly edge towards where harry stood until they saw him freeze.
"what's going on?"
everyone felt a rush of disappointment at the point that he had notice them, so rory began to step out of where she stood, but cindy held her back.
"what is it, harry?" lily asked him.
harry began to move, not towards them, but to the centre of the corridor. he was looking up at the chandelier, which appeared to be swaying from side to side.
"perhaps it's the wind," remus shrugged it off, but harry's eyes narrowed.
"no, it can't be. the windows are closed..."
"don't worry about it, harry," james began to move to the kitchen counter. at that moment, the chandelier began to shake rapidly. everyone in the kitchen jumped.
"dad!" harry screeched. "that is definitely not the wind!"
"stay back, harry," remus said dangerously, putting the cake on the ground and pulling out his wand.
"careful remus," lily whispered.
"STUPEFY!"
"SURPRISE!"
two loud yells were heard as five figures emerged from the corner, jumping down the stairs. moving from their hiding spot revealed james, lily, and sirius all stood around the kitchen table, and remus and harry in the sitting room. harry's hand was spread over his mouth in shock of what had just happened. evelyn, on the other hand, gasped after a moment and rushed towards where remus was standing.
"shit, shit," she said repeatedly, kneeling onto the floor.
"what happened to the cake?" sirius said, bewildered. harry's birthday cake appeared to be mashed so hard that it now seemed like a frosted pancake.
evelyn grabbed a ball of air over the cake and pulled it, only to reveal leilani laying flat on her back, looking extremely discomfit. strands of her hair were covering her eyes which were barely open, and her hands were wrapped around her head. she groaned.
"lani!" remus bolted towards her, harry not far behind. "oh merlin, i'm so sorry!" he looked up at evelyn. "you never said anything about letting her hang onto the chandelier."
"it was last minute," evelyn shook her head as she began to fold the invisibility cloak. "it seemed like a good idea at the time..."
"lani?" harry frowned at her. "are you alright?"
lani's eyelashes fluttered, she then grinned. "what's up, birthday boy?"
the others ran over to him, all with bright smiles, as evelyn and remus pulled lani up from her back.
"happy birthday!" cindy was the first one to say, wrapping her arms around him. "it's so good to see you again, harry."
"you too, cyn," harry said as the corners of his mouth turned up. eventually, she pulled away so he could greet the others excitedly.
evelyn observed as harry thanked everyone, one by one, for coming. the entire time, he had not once stopped smiling. even when cedric, his rival on the quidditch pitch, stepped forward and gave him a shake of a hand, harry looked beyond thankful. after hugging sebastian, he turned to evelyn.
"you guys did all this?" he said amusingly.
"something like that," evelyn shrugged. "we knew you wouldn't have done anything on your own, so we kinda just took matters into our own hands."
"i would've still seen cindy," harry pointed out.
"as much as i know you would love to hang around with cindy all day," she smirked. "that's not a party."
"i suppose not," harry looked over at the crowd of people, who were now all distributed amongst the house. lani was sat on the couch, letting the air from her balloon go straight into rory's face, who was pushing her away everytime she did so. cindy was handing her balloons to cedric to tie, and cedric was giving them to sirius and lily to hang. remus and sebastian were flipping through james' mother's cookbook in search of a cake recipe while james began taking out pots.
"it's not too bad though, is it?" evelyn asked uncertainly.
harry shook his head, looking back at her, "it's perfect."
━━━━━━
b's notes
everyone say happy birthday to harry!!!
cute little fluff chapter because the potters most definitely never had a boring summer
also sorry for the delayed chapter, once again i'm losing motivation and school has been annoying recently, but happy new years to all of you and i hope 2024 treats you all well!!