The Birthday Party
Harry was up with the sun.
It was his fourth birthday! Although there wasn't too much to be excited about.
Every birthday was exactly the same. Wake up, Harry opens about four presents alone, Colin opens his hundreds of presents with adoring parents watching, parents play with Colin, Harry goes and stays in his room.
But this year was set to be different. Mother and Father had arranged a party with other wizarding families. With children!
Harry had no friends. In fact, he'd barely spoken to a child his age his whole life. The only child his age he had spoken to was Colin, which was never fun. But now that was going to change! And Harry couldn't be more excited!
Harry ran into the bathroom and had a ten minute shower, brushed his teeth and got dressed. He decided to forgo attempting to brush his hair, whatever the outcome, it would probably look worse.
As Harry went down the grand master staircase he saw mountains upon mountains of brightly coloured parcels tied with golden bows flooding the whole room and spilling into the drawing room. Harry knew better than to expect any of these were for him.
He found his pile of presents in a corner of the hall, wrapped in tissue paper. There were only three of them this year. Remus and Peter had given him some robes, a handsome silver colour. They were nice, but not exactly what Harry wanted. Sirius had given him some chocolate frogs and a smart silver pocket watch with his initials (HJP) decorated on the front. His parents hadn't even put half the effort they had for Colin's presents into Harry's one. On the floor was a folder with a H scribbled on the front. Harry opened it.
Inside was the reject photos from The Potter Family Album. Almost all of them had Harry in them. These pictures had been taken with the family on better terms. Some were even of his parents as children, some were even photos from the wedding that hadn't made it to the album. The proper album only had one picture of Harry in it, the picture of everyone in the whole house, including the house elves.
Harry felt touched. He decided to go and say thank you to his parents for thinking to give them to him.
He collected up all of his presents and went the drawing room to find them. He found them with Sirius, Remus and Peter. They were with Colin, who was gleefully opening his presents.
"Cool! A toy broomstick!" Colin cheered lifting the about 30cm toy broom into the air and began to chase it as it flew around the room. The adults laughed at his antics.
"Mother, thank you for my present, I love it!" Harry said politely to Lily.
Lily didn't even hear him.
"Mother" Harry tried again, tapping her on the arm.
"Careful, don't bruise me", Lily told him without looking at him. "I have to look my best for the party! Can't afford to let my little Colin down!"
Harry decided to say thank you to his father instead. But he was too busy with taking photos of Colin chasing his new toy to notice the little boy with tears in his emerald eyes.
Harry knew where he wasn't wanted and decided to go upstairs. As he gazed at the hundreds of presents for Colin from family, friends and fans all over the world, rushes of jealousy and sadness went through him.
He wondered if he'd be in the sixth best room tomorrow.
*
Harry decided to wear his new silver robes for the party. He began to wonder if that was why Remus and Peter got them for him.
They fit his small frame perfectly and made his green eyes and black hair stand out beautifully.
After getting dressed in the bathroom he went to the master stairway. His mouth fell open.
There must have been thousands of people all talking and laughing, and many children Harry's age were all running around and giggling.
Harry suddenly felt nervous and looked around for his family. He couldn't see them. So he walked downstairs and looked around. He caught sight of Colin bragging to other children about his presents and amazing powers as The Boy Who Lived.
Harry thought this was very funny and a small grin made it to his lips. He thought that was really stupid.
Harry couldn't remember a time when Colin ever did anything magical. Harry had done some magic this morning though, he'd made his warm juice go ice cold. It wasn't the most interesting piece of magic he'd ever done, but it was more than what Colin had done.
Harry took great delight in seeing that the scarlet robes Colin was wearing made him look chubby and didn't suit him at all.
Harry looked around for his parents, but instead saw a blond boy stood alone holding a pack of muggle playing cards.
Harry took a deep breath, readied himself, and finished walking down the stairs and went through the crowd towards the boy.
"Hello," was the only thing Harry could think to say when he reached him.
"Hello," the boy answered, clearly a lot more confident than Harry. "What's your name?"
"Harry, what's your name?"
"Draco, but my friends sometimes call me Drake or Dray."
"Okay. Nice to meet you." Harry shook Drake's free hand. He pointed to the cards. "Why have you got them?"
"Father gave them to me to give to 'the other Potter twin' but I don't know who that is."
Harry was momentarily surprised that someone outside the house, who wasn't Sirius, Remus and Peter, knew he existed. His parents barely spoke to him, he never thought they would talk about him with their friends.
"How does your father know about me?" Harry figured that Drake had similar rules brought to him about what to refer to his parents as.
Drake looked surprised to find him and answered. "Father found out on the birth records thanks to the Minister. So father wanted to buy you a present, but he couldn't get you one better than Colin's because the Potters might be upset. So we got Colin a grand wizard chessboard, and you these cards"
Harry thought Drake spoke too much, but at least he was being honest with him, he accepted the gift with a "thank you" like he gave his mother earlier.
"You're welcome," Drake answered with a smile.
"What are they used for?"
"No idea."
Harry opened the packet and saw all the cards. They were very thick as he held them all in his little hand.
"Wanna see a trick I've been practicing?" Harry grinned.
Drake returned the grin. "Go on!"
Harry threw the cards in the air, but instead of going to the floor everywhere, the cards began to flow around in a circle above Harry's head. Harry stepped up some of the steps of the master staircase so he had more room. He threw a hand forward and the cards flew forward above the people's heads. Almost oblivious, he put a hand up and made the cards circle around in a close ring above the everyone's heads. He was so focused on the cards and his magic that he didn't even notice everyone staring and cheering for him. He then set the cards into gorgeous silver flames. But the cards didn't burn. On the contrary, the flames danced among them. Harry then held up his hand, the cards came shooting for him, flames and all. The cards formed the stack they had been before in his hand. The flames were still ignited in his unfazed hand. Harry blew on them. The flames turned into a handsome gleaming horse which galloped above everyone again. The beautiful silver horse then exploded into a bright snowy substance that bust to the ground and disappeared.
The whole room exploded into applause.
Harry took a bow, a huge smile on his face. He looked over at Drake, he was beaming and clapping like his life depended on it.
"Who is that?"
"The other Potter twin, I think."
"What other Potter boy? James and Lily never spoke about a twin!"
Harry saw his father enter the room, his mother in tow. They hadn't seen Harry's trick.
Harry walked back down the stairs and accepted handshakes and compliments from the guests. He saw from the corner of his eye Colin, who had seen the magic, looking very angry that Harry was getting so much attention.
Harry turned to look at his parents, they didn't look as angry as Colin.
They looked worse.
James was forcing smiles at people who were yelling that they had an amazing son and pulled Harry into the dining room, which was deserted, to have a word.
"Go upstairs and stay there, no coming down! This is Colin's birthday party! And you just ruined it for him! You selfish brat!"
Harry was shocked and looked away from his father. He noticed the whole room was decorated with balloons and a sign which read: Happy Birthday Colin! A chocolate cake was also sat on the table with the same message in red icing. Harry's name was nowhere to be seen at all.
"It's my birthday too..." Harry said softly. He sounded so feeble.
James shrugged. "Colin's important, he needs and deserves this party and attention a lot more than you do. He is a special boy who deserves all the love he can get. You're just another boy. Understand that. Now go to bed!"
Harry understood one thing: nobody loved him, they only loved Colin.
The poor four year old, with tears in his eyes, left the room and headed for the master staircase.
"Goodbye, Dray." He said to his first and only friend as he walked past.
"Goodbye, Harry. I promise to see you soon!" He called with a smile.
Harry smiled back despite his tears. He walked up the stairs feeling very small in the very big house.
He also felt angry. He was special to wasn't he? Surely he should be allowed a birthday party too!
He decided, instead of going to his room, to go into his parents room.
It was a posh room with a large bed, golden walls, a mirror in the corner, a door leading to their bathroom, and a large walk in closet. Harry opened the closet and began to throw all of the contents onto the floor. He then crawled under the bed and found a trunk. Inside was baby clothes and toys that had once been Colin's. Harry threw everything out of the trunk, his anger clear, before noticing a piece of material at the bottom of the trunk. It was a stunning silver.
Harry lifted up the material. It felt so strange. Like water had been sewn into the fabric. It was lighter than air. Harry came to the conclusion that it must be some sort of cloak which his father didn't use. He put it around his body, looked down and nearly fainted. His whole body was gone. He ran over to the mirror in the corner, it was real! His whole body had disappeared, all that was left was his head! Harry pulled the cloak over his head, now he'd completely disappeared. It was an invisibility cloak!
He wondered why his parents hadn't put the cloak on him permanently, it would make them much happier.
He brushed aside the thought and decided to keep the cloak to punish his parents, so he kept it on, holding his new cards tightly in his hand, and went to his room.
But as he did he heard singing from downstairs. He decided to go down and see using his new cloak so he wouldn't be seen.
He walked to the stairs and saw his parents standing on either sides of Colin on the stairs, as if it were a stage, the cake from the dining room was in front of them, being held in the air by magic while everyone sang 'Happy Birthday'.
After the song ended, everyone clapped and cheered, much like they had for Harry.
Harry saw Lily turn to face Colin, Harry stepped closer in the cloak so he could hear what she said.
"I love you Colin, more than anyone and anything. You are the best thing in my life!" She kissed his head. "You are the best and greatest son I've ever had!"
Harry ran back upstairs into his room. He grabbed his red backpack that had been sitting on his desk, it was full of his very special things that would make him feel better. But he shoved the cards Drake had given him inside and hugged the bag to his chest as he fell to the ground. He sobbed with the cloak still on him. He had never felt so lonely in his whole four years of life...
"I want love..." Harry cried quietly, "I want love" He closed his eyes tightly. "I want Love... Pease can someone please love me!"
Harry suddenly had a cold sensation, as though he was sitting on cold stone.