Chris's fear turned out to be truly unfounded. By the time she finished her classes and started to return home, her nerves had calmed down. She tried to stay vigilant all day, but there was no threat. So in the end, Chris decided it was truly just a dream.
When she arrived at her house, the house smelled of pies, stews, and fried foods. And as soon as she entered the front door, she saw lights hanging all over the house, music playing from somewhere and people. A whole lot of people.
"Happy Birthday, Chris!" Colin, Ginny, and Luna squealed as soon as Chris walked in the door.
Chris giggled and laughed out loud when they piled into a hug.
Next came Hermione, Ron, Fred, and George, hugging her one by one and wishing her happy birthday. Bill and Fleur did the same and then Sirius and Aurelia greeted her with a baby bouncing on Aurelia's hips.
"Happy Birthday, Chris," Aurelia smiled and turned to her son. "Regulus, what was that you were going to say?"
"Wappy! Wappy!" Regulus, Sirius and Aurelia's son giggled, clapping his hands loudly.
"Let's just pretend that's Happy Birthday, Chris," Sirius said, chuckling. "It took me a whole week to make him say that."
"He is barely one, Sirius. Cut him some slack," Chris grinned pinching Regulus's chubby cheeks, the baby had most of Sirius's features, like the dark curls, a sharp nose but his eyes were kind of golden just like Aurelia's. "He is perfect."
"That he is," said Mrs. Weasley, coming next to them. "He is so precious."
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley wished Chris Happy Birthday before Mrs. Weasley started cooing over the little baby.
Harry and Neville joined them and Neville hugged Chris as well. Harry stood beside her, smiling.
"When did you all plan this?" Chris asked Harry when everyone's focus shifted to little Regulus.
"Weeks," Harry smiled. "Mr. Norton had been planning this for weeks."
"Of course, he is," Chris couldn't help but smile wider and started looking for her father amongst the crowd, that was when she noticed Mr. Norton looking at her from a corner with tears in his eyes.
Immediately, Chris ran to him to make sure he was ok.
"Dad, are you alright? Did anything –" Chris abruptly stopped when her father pulled her in a tight hug.
"I'm so proud of you, Eagle," Mr. Norton said, his voice thick with emotion. "You have so many people in your life. Real people. Real friends. They love you all so much."
"Dad . . .?" Chris tried to look at her father, surprised and he quickly wiped his tears away.
"They all were so eager to come when I invited them. They know how special you are," Mr. Norton smiled so wide that Chris couldn't help but feel teary-eyed as well.
Because Chris knew this was what her father had wanted for years. For her to celebrate her birthday surrounded by her people.
"Thanks, Dad, you are the best dad in the world," Chris said, hugging him again.
The Birthday dinner was something Chris had never imagined. Her father and Harry had arranged a long dining table in their backyard and even decorated the whole place. When Chris asked how they did it in such a short time, Mr. Norton just pointed at Harry.
"His magic tricks sure come in handy," Mr. Norton joked, but then his face softened. "He is a kind and patient kid. Very determined too. I like him."
"Yeah, me too," Chris grinned without realising.
As they all were about to sit down for dinner, there was a knock on their door and Chris looked around, wondering who else could be invited. Mr. Norton hurried to open the door, and when he returned to the backyard there were two awkward boys with him.
"Your Dad invited Draco and Theodore?" Hermione asked, shocked.
"Of course, he did. He had seen Draco and Theodore when they hung out with Chris, Ginny, Luna and Colin," Harry explained without giving it much thought but as soon as he finished he saw the faces of Hermione and Ron. Chris knew Harry had completely forgotten that Ron didn't approve of Ginny dating Draco and so he and Hermione didn't know about Chris, Ginny, Luna and Colin hanging out with Draco and Theodore.
"They what?" Ron almost shouted in disbelief.
Hermione looked more shocked and Ron was practically seething. Harry looked over at Ginny and mouthed "Sorry" Ginny just shrugged.
"Happy Birthday, Chris," Theodore said ignoring the rest and handed Chris a big gift box. "Sorry, we are late."
"Happy Birthday and he is lying, we are not sorry for coming late," Draco said rather casually. He also gave her a smaller gift box. "We are sorry because we came early. We probably should have come later on."
Draco whispered the last part glancing at the Weasleys, who were all glaring at him except for Ginny, who smiled brightly and patted the seat next to her for Draco. Chris felt the dinner instantly got tense and she guessed the reason.
"All of them know?" Chris whispered to Draco.
"Yep," Draco confirmed and smoothly sat down beside Ginny.
Theodore looked a bit nervous before slowly settling into the chair between Chris and Colin.
"Now that everyone's here, let's eat," Mr. Norton grinned, oblivious to the tension in the room, or he decided to ignore it completely.
Taking the hint and trying to help the situation, Sirius started the conversation, he bounced Teddy on his lap and helped him to eat while Aurelia joined the conversation and complimented Mr. Norton's cooking skills after putting little Regulus in his crib and waving her wand, so the crib slowly rocked its own. Fleur also started talking to lighten the mood.
"How did they find out?" Chris whispered to Theodore, but instead of him, Ginny answered.
"Percy saw us and ratted us to everyone," Ginny grumbled. "Not that we were trying to hide our relationship but that rat had to announce everything."
Chris looked over at Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Mrs. Weasley's face was turning red by the moment as she kept glaring at Draco, and Mr. Weasley was everywhere but towards Ginny and Draco. Bill looked a bit surprised too but Fred, George and Ron all looked pissed as they kept glancing at Draco but Hermione and Harry whispered something to them and they tried to look less angry.
The food helped a lot, too, and everything was as delicious as Chris thought it would be. Chris decided to ignore the tension in the room and just enjoy her birthday dinner. She talked to all of her friends, including Draco and Theodore.
Draco was actually thinking about becoming an Auror as he had the qualification, he was aware of the prejudice he would face if he became an Auror but he still wanted to try. Theodore, on the other hand, had no idea what he wanted to do. For now, he travelled here and there and hung out with Chris and learned about the Muggle world from her. Colin was also studying to be an Auror, while Luna decided to help her father with their magazine "Quibbler" and make the healing potions she and Chris invented. Ginny didn't feel like going back to studies, so she was now practising Quidditch a lot. She always wanted to be a professional player, so it wasn't a surprise. Ron was training to be an Auror too, since Kingsley said the ones fighting in the battle had directly passed the Auror exams, Ron immediately joined. He asked Harry to join as well, but he was still contemplating. Hermione had just returned from Australia with her parents, and their memories were back, but it was taking them a while to get used to the wizarding world again. However, they were now stable enough for Hermione to finish her education at Hogwarts. Neville was also accompanying Hermione to finish his school year, and he kept hinting that he already had a plan for his future.
After the dinner, Harry brought out a bigger cake than last night and Chris blew the candles. Harry then cut the pieces and served everyone a slice and gave two slices to Chris.
"I'm going to get fat if I eat so much cake," Chris joked, leaning toward Harry.
"It's your favourite. It's your birthday, just eat," Harry smiled but then turned a little shy. "I made this cake with your father's help."
Chris was surprised but grinned happily and dug into the cake.
"It's delicious!" Chris exclaimed and Harry laughed.
As the dinner started to wind down, Chris got the rest of her presents. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley gifted her a hand-knit scarf since Chris loved Mrs. Weasley's knitted things. Bill and Fleur gave her a special perfume, which Fleur had brought from France. Fred and George gave their newest invention, a new jacket that changed colours according to a person's mood (they were inspired by Teddy's changing hair colours). Colin had made a sort of scrapbook with their school days photos, which almost brought tears to Chris's eyes. Luna had made her a talisman, one similar to their communicative talisman, so even though she couldn't communicate through it, they could still match. Neville gave her a potted plant (which he explained had healing properties for both wizards and muggles), and Draco had bought a simple, normal watch.
"Is it some sort of family heirloom?" Mrs. Weasley pointedly asked when Chris opened Draco's gift.
Ginny almost lost her temper at that, as everyone there knew what Mrs. Wealsey meant. A family heirloom from Malfoy indicated a very likely cursed and defiled object. And it wasn't ok to ask Draco that, but before Ginny or Chris could say something else, Draco smiled politely and said,
"No, it's not actually. I bought it from a very ordinary and rather dull Muggle shop. I could give you the name if you want to visit."
Mrs. Weasley fell silent after that but she kept fuming, which made Ginny chuckle.
Theodore's gift box revealed a pair of beautiful black boots.
"You mentioned you were into boots, recently, so I thought . . ." Theodore trailed off sheepishly but then he saw Mrs. Weasley and clarified, "It's not cursed, you can check."
The gift was extremely thoughtful, she had only mentioned in passing that she was buying all sorts of boots now because of how cool they looked and yet, Thedore remembered. Not to mention, Draco actually went to a Muggle shop to buy her a watch, which was beyond what Chris or anyone could expect from him. But Chris's heart broke a little at the fact that Draco and Theodore still had to carry that stigma around; they still had to explain. She pulled Theodore into a side hug.
"Thanks, Theo. Thanks, Draco. These are beautiful. Thank you so much," Chris said happily.
Ginny had made her a bracelet with beads that looked like Quaffles (she wanted Chris to know that Chris and her would always be the best chaser duo), Ron gave Chris a table lamp (he explained that he wanted to bring something from Fred and George's shop but didn't know if it could create any hazards for her or her Dad, so he settled for this. This actually made Chris laugh), Hermione gave her large binder and day-to-day planner (because Chris was now attending college and Hermione deemed this was a necessary item), and her father gave her a new computer.
"My gift can't come here, you have to go to my gift," Sirius announced at last and Chris got up and followed Sirius to the side of their house.
"Oh my God!"Chris almost squealed in excitement when Sirius waved his wand and pulled away the cloth hiding her gift.
"Is that –?" Fred almost yelled.
"A motorcycle?" Ginny yelled in disbelief.
"You didn't even offer me one for My birthday," Harry pouted.
"Because you didn't show any interest in motorcycles," Sirius explained, chuckling.
"And Chris did?" Ron asked, his mouth practically hanging open.
"Yes!" Sirius smiled and Chris jumped up to hug him.
"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Chris kept squealing.
"But that thing is dangerous!" Mrs. Weasley looked shocked. "How can you gift that to a child, Sirius? I thought you were more responsible than this, now that you are a father. Did you even ask Chris's father if he wanted her in this?"
The gathering automatically got quiet and everyone was shocked at Mrs. Weasley's insult. But to Chris's surprise, Sirius didn't look like he was about to start a fight; he just looked a bit annoyed but kept his composure.
"They did actually," Mr. Norton spoke up. "Aurelia told me about this the day Sirius decided to buy this for Chris's birthday and while I also believe that motorcycles can be dangerous, I know my daughter can be responsible. I trust her, Molly."
Mrs. Weasley opened her mouth to reply, but no words came out, so she opened and closed it again.
"When did you do that?" Sirius whispered to Aurelia, looking impressed and amused.
"As Mr. Norton said, the day you told me you were gifting Chris a motorbike," Aurelia replied with a knowing smile. "I knew you would forget to ask him."
"Sorry," Sirius smiled guiltily. "Love you."
"Love you too," Aurelia replied, laughing.
After that, Mr. Weasley took Mrs. Weasley aside and apologised to Sirius, Aurelia and Chris's father. Then they started to live one by one, and that was when Harry pulled Chris aside and pulled out a small box.
Chris opened it with a smile and found a small heart-shaped necklace. When she looked closer, she realised –
"Harry, is that diamond?" Chris asked.
"It was my mom's," Harry gave a bittersweet smile. "Too cheesy?"
"Of course not," Chris grinned and kissed him. "It's perfect. I love it."
Later that night, as Chris was saying good night to her friends and Sirius and Aurelia, an eagle-sized wild bird swooped down and circled over Chris's head.
"Whoa!" Colin looked at the bird wide-eyed. "What kind of bird is that?"
"What a fascinating bird," Luna said.
"Do you know why –" Ginny began, but the bird answered her question even before she finished.
As soon as Chris extended her arm and the bird perched on it and dropped a fancy-looking red velvety envelope on Chris's hands with a large and beautifully wrapped package, and without waiting for anything else, it took off.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"I don't know," Chris said as she opened the red envelope.
[To be continued]