Chapter Text
The morning of July 31st 1992 was a beautiful sunny day with clear blue skies and an early sunrise. It was peaceful in Potter Manor for all of an hour until the two resident pranksters crept into Harry’s room with confetti canons and glitter at the ready. “Happy birthday Pup!!” Remus and Sirius shouted as they made the ever-stick glitter, a pranking tool that made sure the glitter never washed out, and confetti hit the sleeping teen. When the covers didn’t move Sirius lept onto the bed in dog form and went to slobber on the boy until he reached the clump in the sheets where the pillows had been bundled together. A shout of a spell which landed on Sirius and Remus respectively had their hair slowly start turning a multitude of colours from orange to pink to green. “Pup? Oh, sweet Circe...you’ve messed with a Black's hair...” Remus whispered as Sirius turned back into human form just as his hair began to turn pink. “Nice one Pup...seems you were prepared for our prank.” Harry laughed and threw some confetti at them both “Constant vigilance!” and with that he bolted down the marble staircase and towards the dining room for breakfast. As he entered the dining room all the house elves were lined up and bowed as they all wished him a happy birthday in which he went over and hugged each one, thanking them for making his breakfast and being so damn nice.
Once the chaos of the morning had settled, with Sirius whining for his hair to be returned to normal as the normal counter spells Remus was throwing was only adding colours to his hair making him look like a rainbow. They ate a breakfast of pancakes with all the toppings and French toast all of which were Harry’s favourites. Remus guided Harry into the family room where his presents from he and Sirius sat on the table. Harry sat on the carpet as Sirius practically thrust the largest package into his arms and bounced on his seat “C'mon Pup...open it.” Harry chuckled at the childish behaviour but began unwrapping the large box and gasped at the Nimbus 2001 sat on his lap. “Draco told me about how well you fly; says you should be a seeker and I would very much like to see you fly the best.” Harry felt tears coming to his eyes as he stood up and hugged Sirius “Thanks Pads.” Remus laughed “Wait till you see the rest...” Harry looked at the rest of the pile and slowly begun opening packages to find an entire quidditch set up, keeper equipment included. “Pads...I’m not trying to make my own team...” Sirius laughed “I don’t know what position you might want, and its best to have them just in case.” Harry shook his head fondly and put it all away carefully as he looked at the now small pile and saw the next one was from Remus. Opening the thin envelope looking parcel he peaked inside to see a piece of parchment on top that read:
To our little Mischief,
To accomplish the second coming of Maurader style pranks
Uncle Moony
The catchphrase is
Padfoot and Moony's successor is up to no good
Mischief Managed
Harry smiled as the new Maurader’s map presented itself with the castle and the function to switch to Hogsmeade and home. The map also now had the updated passageways (curtesy of the Slytherin ring and Snape) as well as the function to have speech bubbles above the names to see what people were saying and a zoom in and out feature. At the bottom of the box was a piece of parchment with the recipe and charm work that went into making the map should he need duplicates. Harry launched himself into Remus' arms giggling “Thank you Moony, this is awesome!” Remus laughed “Don’t get caught is my only words...and it will still insult people who get the pass phrase wrong.” Harry simply laughed and nodded “I’ll be careful.” Setting the map and parchment aside there was two gifts left off to the side and Harry frowned at Sirius. “Two owls delivered them early this morning, they aren’t from us and have no names on them. They’ve been checked for anything harmful by the elves.” Harry nodded as he pulled the first one towards him and unwrapped it to find a letter and a box of lemon drops. At this moment Harry's ring glowed a light blue to show compulsion charms and Harry groaned as he opened the note, his rings ripping the charms on the letter to shreds before they took hold:
Happy Birthday Harry,
I wish you a very happy day today but figured you would want to spend some time with your mother’s relatives since you declined my last visit. I will be at Potter Manor at 3pm this afternoon to come pick you up so you can see them. They’ve missed you terribly and wish to spend this joyous day with you.
Warm regards,
Albus Dumbledore
P.S – These lemon drops are my favourite figured I would share some with you.
Throwing the letter into the fire, Harry called for an elf to dispose of the lemon drops and to inform all families coming today to use the floo network and not to apparate. Remus and Sirius watched Harry in confusion who sighed “It was from Bumblefuck, I have no doubt the lemon drops were laced and the letter was charmed. He says he will be here at 3pm so I will have him kicked off property but don’t want him Imperio-ing anyone to help him get in.” Sirius growled as Remus soothed his mate. Harry pulled the last package towards him and ripped open the gaudy looking brown paper to see a familiar Weasley jumper with a ‘H’ sewn into it and a box of fudge. There was no note but Harry knew who this was from and tossed the jumper into the fire too. The fudge he put to one side, his ring lighting up pink and if he could get them on dosing him with love potion it was another offence to add to the list. “Right then...we have two hours before people start arriving to the party we have set up. Go freshen up pup and be ready to greet guests.” Sirius clapped as he ushered Harry out of the room and had the elves take the gifts Harry wanted to keep to his room.
~~
The first family to arrive was Neville and his grandmother who were sharing this party with Harry due to the boy's birthdays being so close but also because they couldn’t celebrate yesterday. Augusta Longbottom had been cleared of the potions and compulsions Dumbledore had placed on her with the help of her brother so was unable to celebrate Neville’s birthday properly. Harry had agreed to share the party and that way they could have all their friends over. Harry gave his present to Neville the moment he arrived, rare seeds from the Villa Nera reserves whilst Neville got Harry a rare plant known as the Mogi Mogu from China. After hugs and gifts exchanged Harry led Neville to the ballroom “It is the biggest of the three, we’ve had no use for it until now.” Harry explained as he showed the boy the hall decorated in silver, green, gold and red banners and table decorations. There were two different tables for presents and foods both boys enjoyed on the buffet style platters. “Wow, this is huge" Neville gawped as he spun in a circle, taking in the very luxurious room. “There is going to be a lot of people in here tonight so yeah...we cracked the doors open on the biggest one.” Neville laughed as he went to look outside at the view just as the chime for the floo went off. Harry rushed back to the receiving room to see the Malfoy’s arrive.
The three of them were dressed almost the same with matching colours and Harry rushed in and hugged Draco “Draco! Aunt Cissy! Uncle Lucius...glad you made it.” Draco hugged Harry back as he moved onto to Narcissa and Lucius who laughed and gave him much shorter hugs. “Well it is not every day a young wizard turns twelve, we wouldn’t miss it.” Harry smiled as he guided them to the ballroom where Neville now was with Sirius and Remus. Another round of greetings went up before the gifts were placed on the right tables and small chatter begun. Soon families trickled in with Blaise and Theo arriving together as well as Vince and Greg coming together. Soon the room was full of the families that had been invited and everyone was mingling and telling stories of their friends at aged twelve and many commenting on Sirius’ hair who huffed and explained he’d been pranked. This amused Severus the most who nearly snorted his drink up his nose and was bent over laughing after the retelling. Many were shocked to see the professor so relaxed but Severus just waved it off and said he couldn’t be mean to the birthday boys. Right on 3pm the doorbell chimed and most looked confused at the hallway, they weren’t expecting anyone else.
Harry groaned as he walked towards the door, not allowing one of his elves to open it as he closed his eyes and mentally prepared to face Dumbledore. Opening the door, Harry’s vision was assaulted with the most garish purple robes with multi coloured parakeets on and the old goat stood smiling. “Ah Harry my boy, happy birthday. So, are you ready to go to your Aunt and Uncle’s then?” Harry avoided rolling his eyes “Good afternoon, Headmaster, I am afraid I do not know what you mean. I have guests over and cannot just leave them. Now I am sorry but this is an invite only party so I must ask for you to leave.” And with that he turned to close the door when it was pushed back open, almost taking Harry with it “I’m sorry my boy but did you not get my letter? I knew Sirius would be no good for you...” Harry growled and glared at the headmaster “Excuse me Headmaster but you aren’t invited in, I am sorry but I must return to my guests.” And with a flick of his wrists pushed the old man back outside the wards of his property and closed the door. Smiling as he turned around, he saw Sirius and Remus stood there who simply chuckled and pulled him to their sides as they walked back into the hall. After explaining to their guests, many of whom were angry that he tried to use compulsions on the boy to make him leave the party resumed.
~~
Later into the evening four houses elves came out with two cakes, one in Gryffindor colours and one in Slytherin colours for the boys as the gathered group all sung happy birthday for them. Harry felt his face flush at having so much attention on him so when he blew out the candles, he ducked his head and immediately ordered for it to be cut up for others to enjoy. Draco then thrust his gift into Harry’s hand and bounced on the balls of his feet “Open mine first please Cousin...please.” Harry laughed as he took the large package from the boy and began undoing the silver wrapping paper. As soon as the paper fell away the huge green dragon plush shook its wings out and did a small loop around them before landing on the floor and curling up to sleep. Harry was in shock as Draco explained “Its an animated plush dragon, I figured since you didn’t grow up in our world you wouldn’t have received any of them...this one is the Welsh Green and is my fav-" but before he could finish Harry launched into him with a hug and smiled “Thank you Draco, its wonderful" Draco smiled as he hugged Harry back “You are welcome Harry.” Many cooed at the scene as gifts began to be passed to the boys to open. Blaise’s present was next and the Italian boy presented Harry with a small box and as it was opened, he took a hold of Harry’s wrists and slipped the cufflinks out as he said “They are Blood Rubies, only created by the vampires of my clan. I want you to keep them safe and wear them always for protection against blood magic.” Harry gasped at just how beautiful they were and nodded as he smiled at Blaise “They are truly beautiful, thank you Blaise.” Theo stood beside him as he bowed his head and held up his box. Theo as it turns out had gifted Harry a blade to carry with him, promising to teach him how to use it. The blade was a beautiful silver piece with a wooden carved handle showing a Norse serpent twining around the hilt. What caught Harry’s eye was the words ‘minn fjörsegi' carved into the blade and when asked Theo smirked and whispered “You will have to figure it out.” Harry flushed at how close he was and simply nodded.
Daphne gifted him a book on the Pagan rituals of their world, Tracy got him a stuffed snitch and Millie got him a personal copy of the Tales of Beedle the Bard saying he should read them. Greg handed him a duelling shirt with fire protection runes stitched into the lining (apparently done by the quiet boy himself as he wanted Harry safe.) Vince gave him a book on the Cornish language and told him that he would help him learn if he needed to. Pansy gave him a new outdoor cloak, saying it was all the range of the season whilst Susan gave him a history book on the Wizamagot. Hannah had also gifted him a book about magical creatures and explained she thought him a closet Ravenclaw so saw no issues with getting him a book. Lucius gifted Harry a walking cane that would grow as he would, explaining that a gentleman of society needed to be elegant whilst Narcissa gifted him a book on etiquette explaining all young heirs read it before lordship training. Fred and George, who had snuck away from the Burrow to be there gifted him a crate of Honeydukes chocolate and prototype prank materials once they heard what he had done to Sirius' hair. Snape had gifted him a robe similar to his own explaining it was a potioneer's cloak and it had a whole host of protections on that would keep him safe in the lab as well as an advanced kit from one of the apocotharies. Feeling close to tears he thanked everyone personally and embraced his friends at how thoughtful they had been.
The night wound down and many left to go home when they saw Harry yawning. The house elves had taken his presents to the right areas and soon Harry was giving Remus and Sirius a final hug as he walked to his room tiredly. Once in his room he got into his pyjamas and slipped under the covers. Hedwig hooted as she dropped a dead mouse on the bed beside him along with Athena and Damayanti who explained they were gifts from them for their hatchling/nestling’s day of birth. Harry smiled sleepily and asked the house elves to put them somewhere safe (read: dispose of as to not offend his animals) and snuggled with them all to sleep. The world faded to quiet as the boy slept peacefully, for once not hurting or suffering on his birthday.