Badger Birthdays
Sunday, 15 November 1998
Theo hadn’t had the heart to wake Harry and Neville to move them to their own beds the night before which was maybe a good thing because at 5 o’clock in the morning, they were woken up by Susan banging on Harry’s door.
Harry shot up scrambling for his wand and immediately fell off the couch, hitting the floor with an audible thud. Neville hit the ground a second later.
“Open up, Potter!” Susan yelled, “and no complaining that I’m going to wake Teddy, I know you have silencing charms on his nursery!”
“Why did I tell her that?” Harry grumbled as he tried to locate his glasses, eventually giving up and just sticking out his hand, silently summoning them into his palm.
“Who knows,” Neville responded, literally crawling toward the door, “what could she possibly want?”
“And what the fuck time is it?” Harry added.
“It’s 5 am,” Susan said, bursting into the room the second Neville turned the knob, “it’s Hannah’s birthday and I need your help.”
“Why on Earth do you need the two of us?” Harry said, looking up at her with his eyes barely open.
“We’re throwing a party, but I only planned for Hannah, and I forgot that Justin’s birthday is tomorrow, so I need to make it look like I remembered and planned this as a joint party all along.”
“Since when are we throwing a party?” Harry asked, starting to actually wake up, “it’s a Sunday, we have training at the crack of dawn tomorrow and everyone else has class.”
“Did I forget to tell you two?” Susan genuinely asked before answering Harry’s second question, “also we have a school holiday tomorrow, three-day weekend, remember?”
“One, you definitely didn’t tell us, and two, why do we have a school holiday on a random Monday in November?”
“Haven’t the foggiest,” Susan responded with a shrug, “it’s not a holiday, ritual, or festival day, maybe the Board just wanted to give everyone a break?”
“Susan,” Harry said, sounding slightly confused, “we sit on the board, shouldn’t we remember adding a holiday to the calendar?”
“Whatever,” Susan said, waving him off, “all I know is that we don’t have school tomorrow, it’s Hannah’s birthday, I’ve been planning this party for weeks, and I entirely forgot about Justin, so I need your help.”
“I guess we’re already awake,” Neville said with a long-suffering sigh.
“That’s the spirit,” Susan responded with a slightly manic grin, “let’s start with adjusting the decorations, down the stairs we go.”
“Is this party in our tower?” Harry asked as Susan shuffled them out of the room.
“Yes,” Susan confirmed, “thought it’d be fun to change locations. That reminds me, you two are the best at wards in general and seem to have the most natural command over the wards here, so I also need you two to change the scheme to allow everyone into the sitting room but block the stairs. I know the armory and library have their own defenses, but I don’t want to fuck around.”
“Alright,” Neville mumbled.
They were all the way to the library landing before Harry noticed that he was shirtless, Neville had lost his trousers at some point, and they were both barefoot.
“Susan,” he said, stopping in his tracks, “do you think Neville and I could possibly put on clothes before you put us to work?”
Susan turned around, “huh,” she said, just now realizing the pair were in a state of undress, “didn’t even notice … alright yeah get clothes but hurry up.”
Not wanting to piss her off, Harry and Neville took the stairs two at a time and ducked into Harry’s quarters where Neville located his trousers and shoes and Harry ducked into his room, careful not to wake Theo, and grabbed a t-shirt. After lacing up his own shoes, he grabbed a scrap of parchment and left Theo a note, letting him know they’d been kidnapped by Susan and to ask Salazar’s portrait to find him or send a Patronus if he needed anything.
That taken care of, they darted back down the stairs and found Susan standing in the middle of what used to be their sitting room.
She’d pushed all the furniture out of the way and had decorated the room from top to bottom. There were streamers, balloons, banners, throw pillows, rugs, and blankets in various shades of pink and yellow which Harry decided must be Hannah’s favorite colors. There was a table on one side of the room that had already been stocked with alcohol, snacks, and cups.
Harry and Neville turned in a slow circle, examining the room and trying to figure out what Susan actually needed them for besides a few color changing charms and maybe a second banner with Justin’s name.
Harry was about to comment on this when he remembered what Susan had said about liking Justin the week prior and chose to keep his mouth shut, reaching out to grab Neville’s arm and send him a brush against his thoughts to do the same. Neville looked at Harry and nodded in acknowledgement before turning to Susan and saying, “alright, what can we do to help?”
“I should note,” Harry cut in before Susan could start, “we aren’t the most artistic people, we’re great at charms and know how to decorate a room for a party, but if you want another banner you might want to do that one yourself or ask Luna or Dean for help.”
“Oh, I’d forgotten about Dean,” Susan said, “do you think he’ll be at breakfast?”
“Yeah,” Harry replied, “he’s an early riser, even on weekends, so we can ask him for help when we take a break for breakfast. What do you want to get done before then?”
They spent the next three hours throwing color-changing, light, and various decoration charms they’d picked up over years of Gryffindor parties around the room.
“Alright,” Harry said as the clock hit 8, “let’s go to breakfast, talk to Dean, and then when we come back up the two of us will take care of the wards and then you can let us know what else you need. Does that work?”
“Yeah,” Susan said, breathing out a sigh of relief, “thank you both, I’m sorry for the insane wake up call, I just started freaking out and knew you’d help if I asked.”
“No worries,” Neville responded with an easy smile, “we’re glad to help.”
“And the offer to hit Justin over the head with something dense stands,” Harry said throwing an arm around Susan’s shoulders and heading toward the door, “just say the word.”
Susan let out a loud laugh as she stepped through the portrait hole, “thanks, Harry.”
“Anything for you, Sus,” he said, tone slightly too serious to be continuing the joke, “you know that.”
Susan just linked an arm with Neville’s and leaned into Harry’s side. Harry took that as response enough.
* * *
After breakfast, Dean followed the trio back up to their tower to help out with anything requiring actual artistic skill. Leaving him with Susan, Harry and Neville headed up to the ward book in the library to figure out how to best do what Susan had asked.
“Hold on a second,” Harry said as they sat down, “I forgot one major thing, Mimi!”
A moment later, the Potter nursery elf appeared at Harry’s side, “what can Mimi be doing for Lord Potter?”
“Hi, Mimi,” Harry greeted with a kind smile, “would you be alright watching Teddy tonight? We’re having a birthday party for a couple of our friends down in the sitting room, so I’ll be in the Tower the whole time if you need me.”
“Mimi would be happy to, Lord Potter,” the elf responded with a wide grin, “Little Master Teddy is a delight.”
“Alright, perfect, thank you so much,” Harry responded. Mimi bowed her head slightly and popped back out of the room.
“Smart,” Neville said, nodding toward where the elf had just stood, “does this mean you’ll be the sober roommate tonight?”
“I think it’s my turn anyways,” Harry said with a shrug, turning toward the ward book, “now how the hell do we stop our classmates from burning down our tower?”
“It survived Godric, I think it can survive Seamus,” Neville responded with a laugh.
“Don’t jinx it, Nev,” Harry said with a shudder, “I’m adding fire wards now just in case.”
“That’s not the worst idea,” Neville acquiesced.
It took them nearly an hour to sort out the ward scheme but when they were done no permanent part of the tower or its décor was flammable, no one could get into the library or the armory without a mid-sized army and a dozen battering rams, and they’d warded the stairwell against anyone who wasn’t written in to the personal ward schemes of the four quarters.
“One more thing,” Harry said, closing his eyes and letting his magic reach out to the castle.
Hello, Lord Slytherin, Hogwarts greeted, her voice echoing in Harry’s head.
“Hello, Hogwarts,” Harry greeted out loud, “would you be able to add a door between our sitting room and the 8th Year Common Room?”
Do you want it to be permanent?
“Do we want it to be permanent?” Harry asked Neville.
“Why not?” Neville responded, “we can keep the stairwell wards up and password protect the door, can the castle give us the option to lock it?”
I can do that, Hogwarts responded, her voice now echoing in Neville’s head as well, I can also add to your wards and make it so the stairwell isn’t even visible to those who aren’t in your personal ward schemes.
“Perfect,” Neville said with a grin, “thank you, Hogwarts.”
Anything for my Heirs, the castle responded in a soft tone.
“Alright,” Harry said, turning his attention away from the ward book and toward Neville, “what did you get Hannah for her birthday?”
“A snowdrop plant,” Neville responded.
“You got her the flowers that Persephone carries out of the Underworld every spring?” Harry responded, trying not to laugh.
“They symbolize hope and new beginnings!” Neville protested, “also they’re really pretty.”
“Let’s go,” Harry said, dragging Neville by the arm up the stairs, “you can give her the plant, I promise, but you’re also getting her something else. Shower, change, and then meet me in my living room.”
“Where are we going?”
“Surprise.”
Neville huffed but realized he wasn’t getting out of this, so he did as Harry said.
A half hour later, Neville stepped through the door to see Harry, Theo, Teddy, and Ginny all dressed and ready to go.
“Ginny’s coming?”
“Ginny’s coming,” Harry echoed, “let’s go, you apparate her and I’ll take Theo and Teddy, we’re going to, wait, where are we going, Gin?”
“Sconser Ferry Terminal on the Isle of Skye,” she responded, “there’s a massive apparition point because it’s the main gateway to the Isle, coordinates 57.31 degrees North, 6.11 degrees East.”
“And where exactly are we going from there?” Neville asked, looking utterly confused.
“Scottish version of Diagon,” Ginny responded, “though it has more local artisans than Diagon does, you’ll love it.”
“Alright,” Neville said, reaching out to take Ginny’s hand, “see you there.”
Once they’d reached the ferry port, Ginny led them to the back of the waiting house where there was a telephone booth where she punched 2-7-6-3-8 into the keypad. Harry looked at her in question and she explained, “spells ‘croft,’ Sconser is traditionally a crofting township, not super creative but somewhat better than the Ministry’s visitor password being ‘MAGIC.’”
They’d all made sounds of agreement as the walls of the phone booth went dark, though it didn’t move like an elevator as the Ministry booth did. It simply went dark and when the light came back, they were looking out into a street much like Diagon Alley.
“Welcome to Slighe Neach-ciùird, or Craftsman’s Alley,” Ginny said holding her arm out in presentation, “I’m stealing Neville now.”
Harry watched in amusement as Ginny dragged Neville down the alley then turned to Theo, “anything you need, or do you just want to walk around?”
“Let’s walk,” Theo said after a moment, “I didn’t even know this place existed.”
“Me neither,” Harry said looking around, “I don’t even know how Ginny knows it exists, as far as I know the Weasleys do all their shopping in Diagon.”
“I’ve learned pretty quickly its best not to question her or the twins on anything.”
“Smart,” Harry said with a laugh, shifting Teddy fully onto his right side so he could hold Theo’s hand as they walked.
The alley was incredible. It was maybe an eighth the size of Diagon, but every shop was owned and run by a local family, all of whom were happy to see new faces even if they weren’t buying anything.
Harry finally found Ginny and Neville around 3 and only got Ginny to agree to leave by reminding her that this is the kind of place Hermione would love.
When they got back to Hogwarts, Ginny headed back to Gryffindor Tower and Harry went to put Teddy down for a nap.
“What’d you get her?” Theo asked Neville as they settled on the living room couches.
“Did Harry tell you about the plant?”
“He did,” Theo confirmed with a nod, “I think it’s great, but I guess I can see why Harry and Ginny thought you should get her something else.”
Pleased that Theo thought his original gift was enough, Neville relaxed and showed him what else he’d purchased; a simple silver charm bracelet which he’d already added a small charm of a lioness and a flower that looked a lot like a snowdrop to and a nice cream-colored sweater that Ginny had picked out.
“Well done, Nev,” Harry said, stepping into the room as Neville finished laying out his purchases.
“You think?”
“I do. She’ll love all of it. Do you want help wrapping them?”
“No, I’ve got it,” Neville said, placing the gifts back in the bag and standing up, “do you two want to go down for dinner or eat up here?”
“Let’s eat up here. That way if Susan needs to find us she’ll have an easier time tracking us down.”
“Alright,” Neville agreed, heading toward the door, “see you later.”
“Later,” Theo said as Harry waved.
“Did you know we have a school holiday tomorrow?” Harry asked once the door closed.
“Yes,” Theo responded, “all of our Monday professors reminded us last week and it’s on the notice boards.”
“The odds of me being able to actually use it as a break are so low,” Harry said with a sigh.
“Right you are,” Salazar said, grinning form his portrait.
“You,” Harry muttered.
Theo looked over at Harry, trying to figure out why he sounded so annoyed, and realized he was glaring at the portrait. He just settled back against the couch to listen to one side of whatever insane conversation was about to happen.
“We need to talk about Yule,” Salazar started, then cut Harry off before he could argue that they’d be able to talk about Yule on a normal night instead of cancelling school for it, “but that’s only one part of it, we needed students out of a few of the classrooms that we’re going to have you four look at to see if you can isolate the Defense curse.”
“Wait, what?” Harry said, now looking more interested than annoyed, “why couldn’t we do that on a weekend?”
“You could but you rarely get any breaks, so we don’t want to encroach on your weekends more than we absolutely have to and there wasn’t a school holiday this term because Samhain was a Saturday, so we thought we’d remedy that.”
“Alright I guess that makes sense, now what classrooms and what are we looking for?”
“Have you scoured every inch of the Chamber?”
“No but the Goblins did.”
“You’ll need to as well; we have no clue what the curse is tied to and it’s possible that it’s so well placed and so intricate that a person who isn’t intimately familiar with Tom Riddle’s magic wouldn’t be able to find it.”
“So, I’m curse detector,” Harry said, huffing out a laugh, “well, I can do the Chamber any day and I also don’t think that’s where it is. I know from Dumbledore’s memories that when he came to interview for the Defense job, he wasn’t at the castle for that much time, and he was also angry, so he would’ve done it in haste.”
“Meaning you don’t think he would’ve gone all the way down to the Chamber,” Salazar said, following Harry’s train of thought, “alright, where do you think he would’ve gone?”
“Well anywhere between the Main Entrance and the Headmaster’s Office is fair game which is a rather wide swath of rooms but also hidden spaces behind portraits and tapestries, random nooks in the walls, all the sorts of places a lonely first year would’ve found while wandering the school.”
“My hope is that you’re now so familiar with the castle’s magic that you’ll notice what’s out of place when you walk past it,” Salazar said, “anything else you can think of?”
“I know he went into the Room of Requirement because that’s when he stashed Rowena’s Diadem, we can talk to Helena and the other ghosts and see if any of them remember him going anywhere else that day. If the curse was on something in the Room it should be gone by now because that whole place went up in Fiendfyre, there’s no shot anything survived it.”
“Okay,” Salazar said, nodding his head and pausing to think for a moment, “let’s review what we know for certain and then we can talk more about it tomorrow. We know that the curse was placed when he came to interview, we know he wasn’t in the castle all that long but that he had time to stash the Diadem in the Room, we don’t think it’s anywhere in the Chamber, and we know for a fact it’s not woven into the wards meaning it must be tied to a physical object somewhere in the castle.”
“Right,” Harry said, “tomorrow’s going to be a long day. It could be tied to a pebble tossed in the corner of a storage closet for all we know. Then, once we find where it’s at, we don’t even know if it can be physically destroyed. You know what, what do you think the odds are that it can be physically destroyed?”
“Low,” Salazar said after a moment, “I’m nearly certain that even in a hurry, Tom would’ve placed several layers of enchantments and defenses on whatever item is holding that curse. The curse itself is so non-specific that I’d have to bet it’s defenses are just as broad.”
“Great,” Harry said, breathing out a sigh and running his hand over his face, “alright, let’s talk more tomorrow.”
“Have fun at the party, Hades, I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
“Thanks, Sal,” Harry said, turning his attention back to Theo, “can we take a nap?”
“Sure,” Theo said with a light laugh, pulling Harry up and dragging him into the bedroom, “when do you want to wake up?”
Harry glanced at his watch and thought it over, “5, then I can eat dinner and go see if Susan wants help without her having to find me.”
“Alright, love,” Theo responded, setting an alarm on his wand before pulling off his clothes, crawling under the duvet, and opening his arms.
Harry grinned and pulled off his own clothes before settling under the covers with his head on Theo’s chest and Theo’s arms wrapped securely around him, “I love you, Theo.”
“I love you too, Harry,” Theo responded, pressing a kiss to the top of Harry’s head.
* * *
Harry and Neville got halfway through their dinners before Susan started knocking on Harry’s door, “help please!” she called.
“So much for my plan of finding her before she found us,” Harry said, setting down his fork and going to open the door, “hi, Susan, do you want dinner?”
“Already ate,” she responded, pulling up a chair between Harry and Neville, “finish eating and then come help.”
They both hurried through their meals and were dragged through the door the moment the last bite entered their mouths, “see you later, Theo!” Susan called as she shoved Harry and Neville into the hallway.
“Bye!” Theo called, waving and trying not to laugh out loud.
“What needs to happen?” Harry asked as they headed down the stairs, keeping up their pace so Susan wouldn’t literally shove them down.
“We need to finish setting up the alcohol, make sure the door works, hang up the banners Dean made, and figure out music.”
Harry headed toward the portrait hole, “I’ll get the boombox from Hermione and then try to come through the door from their Common Room.”
“Alright,” Susan responded, “let’s do the banners first.”
A couple minutes later, Harry stepped through the door that had just appeared that morning holding the boombox and a small box of cassettes, “all good, it’s open tonight but starting tomorrow at noon the password will be Draco Dormiens.”
“Super creative with the password there, Potter,” Susan said with a laugh.
“Leave me alone, Bones,” Harry said reaching out to ruffle her hair as he walked past to find a place to set up the boombox.
Once the room was finished, the trio sat back on one of the couches and Harry sent a Patronus to find Luna. Once all four were there, he recapped the conversation he’d had with Salazar.
“At least we know we weren’t going insane nor remembering scheduling a holiday,” Susan said, leaning back against the cushions.
“This isn’t going to be fun, is it?” Neville asked.
“Not even a little,” Harry responded.
“Fun tonight, work tomorrow,” Luna said, trying for a bright tone though it was obvious that she was also already exhausted at the mere thought of the task in front of them.
“Fun tonight,” Harry echoed.
And it was fun. The entire 8th year and most of the 7th years along with some 6th years that were friends with Hannah or Justin crowded into the Tower.
Harry was standing in the corner switching over cassettes as he watched Neville give his gift to Hannah and watched Hannah squeal before pulling Neville into a long hug. He caught Neville’s eye and sent him a grin and a thumbs up. Across the room, he saw Susan obviously flirting with Justin who was staring at her like a lovesick puppy but hadn’t made a move yet. Harry decided that would sort itself out by the end of the night and there was no need to hit Justin with anything quite yet.
“Hi, love,” Theo said, stepping up behind Harry, wrapping his arms around his waist, and pressing a kiss to the back of Harry’s neck, “having fun?”
“I am,” Harry responded with a grin, leaning back into Theo’s touch, “I’m also preemptively exhausted for tomorrow and actually exhausted from being woken up at 5 am by Susan screaming like a banshee.”
“You can go up and go to sleep, you don’t have to stay down here.”
“I’d forgotten about free will,” Harry said with a light laugh, “you coming up now or later?”
“I’ll come up in a bit, I want to spend some time with Blaise, I haven’t…” Theo trailed off, spotting the man in question making out with Ginny in the corner, “never mind, I’ll come up now.”
“What?” Harry said, following Theo’s gaze, “ah, yeah … did I forget to mention that?”
“You did,” Theo said, pinching Harry’s side lightly, “I think I’ll find it in my heart to forgive you, though.”
“Thank God,” Harry said, reaching down to grab Theo’s hand to pull him up the stairs, “how benevolent.”
“Oh, shut it, Potter.”
“Make me.”