Presents
Chapter 19: Presents
Today is the 23rd of December, tomorrow it’s Blaise’s birthday. Harry has never had nice birthdays if anything it’s just been a day he dreaded, he has a feeling his friends' birthdays have been similar to his.
Harry is determined to make tomorrow special for Blaise.
“You’re wearing a thinking face, what has you so deep in thought?” Blaise asks with narrowed eyes.
Harry shakes himself out of his thoughts and looks at his friend. “Birthdays. Specifically, yours.”
Blaise looks briefly surprised, “My birthday? Why are you thinking about that?”
“Because you're my friend, and it’s your birthday tomorrow, and it has to be special.” He tells Blaise.
He shakes his head. “Birthdays aren’t special Harry. It’s just another day; I don’t need you to go out of your way.”
Harry sighs, and decides that the best course of action is to chuck pieces of his childhood at Blaise. “My Birthdays were terrible. The Dursleys never acknowledged it, but petunia was always more spiteful. My birthdays were usually spent alone locked away in my… room.” Harry hasn’t told Blaise about the cupboard and he doesn’t really want him to know… ever. “I’ve never had a reason to enjoy my birthday. But… I know what they should be like, I’ve watched my cousin have loads of cool birthdays with lots of nice food, presents, cool days out, parties, and loads of other stuff that I’ve always been jealous of.” Blaise is looking at him with a mixture of sadness and anger (Harry knows it’s anger at the Dursleys not at him). “I’m guessing your birthdays have been the same, except you never had an ugly cousin to show you what it should be like.” Harry says and then glares at Blaise, “You will have a good birthday.” He says firmly.
“If you insist.” The other boy says in a quiet voice.
~~~
Harry wakes up too Selena poking his face with her scaled snout. “Wah are you doin?” He mumbles sleepily.
She stops poking him and stares at him with unblinking eyes. "Your fox keepers' birthday, Star. You told me to wake you.”
“Oh!” Harry exclaims, a grin breaking out across his face. “Yeah! Thanks. Also, you can just call him Blaise, and he’s not ‘mine’ Selena.” Harry tells her with a fond roll of his eyes.
“He is your friend and he has a fox. He is a fox keeper and I will not call him by his name it is not a speaker's name.” She hisses sternly.
“Jesus Christ Selena.” Harry yawns and rubs the sleep out of his eyes. “What is with you and ‘speaker names’ not everyone is a speaker so why do they all need specific names?”
“I am Selena, you are Star, the feathered fool is Solace. Salazar had a speaker's name, so everyone should have a speaker's name. It is right. More beautiful, more special, more powerful. I will not use mundane names.” She says in annoyance, glaring at him angrily.
“Ok, okay! I won’t say anything about speaker names, call him fox keeper if you want.” Harry says as he rolls out of bed and raises his hands defensively.
“Hurry up Star, I want breakfast.” She demands as Harry waves his hand to summon his clothes and heads over to the bathroom to get ready. He takes a shower and styles his hair, then pulls on some black trousers, a T-shirt, his favourite green hoodie that has silk lining the hood so it doesn’t make his hair frizzy (Luna helped him sew it in), and converses.
Now that he’s completely ready for the day he steps out of the bathroom to wake the still sleeping Blaise.
He opens the hangings of his friends' bed; Blaise is sleeping on his back with Freya laid across his chest, he looks so peaceful Harry almost doesn’t want to wake him. Gently he wakes the other boy, not wanting to startle him. “Wake up.”
Blaise stirs slightly, and reaches a hand to Freya’s face. “Sto dormendo. Lasciami in pace.” Blaise mumbles something in Italian that Harry can’t understand.
“No idea what you said but rise and shine sleepy head! It’s your birthday!” Harry declares, excitedly bouncing up and down on his heels.
Blaise opens his eyes and glares at him sleepily. “Pensavo che volessi che avessi un buon compleanno. Essere tirato fuori dal letto non è un buon inizio per la mia giornata.”
“You even have a pretty voice when your half asleep and probably insulting me.” Harry says with smile poking his friend in between his two glaring amber eyes. “Up! You have presents!”
Freya climbs off Blaise and pads over to the rug. “I hate you.” He informs him.
“No, you don’t. Now get up before I levitate you.” Harry says wiggling his hand threateningly.
Blaise continues to glare at him, but does not make any moves to get out of bed. “Intimidation won’t work on me.” He says rolling his eyes.
Harry sighs dramatically and then waves his hand in a flourish. Blaise rises up a few centimetres off the bed. “Salazars snakes! Harry! Put me down!”
“Nope! I warned you.” He grins at Blaise gleefully. Then waves his hand again and floats the amber eyed boy off the bed and gently plonks him down on the rug.
“Why am I friends with you?!” Blaise exclaims.
Harry doesn’t know why, he’s sure that his friends should all want nothing to do with him at this point, but somehow, they haven’t left yet. They still seem to like him and want him, he hopes that they never hate him but he won’t hold it against them if they do. “I don’t know. You tell me.” He shrugs in a self-deprecating way.
Blaise groans and puts his head in his hands. “Now you look sad, like a kicked crupp puppy.”
“I’m not sad.” Harry denies.
“Yes, you are, you’re very sad. It makes me want to say nice things.” He looks up at Harry pleadingly. “Don’t make me say nice things.”
Harry laughs, “I’m fine! I’m laughing, see.” Harry gestures to himself to further his point.
“Okay.” He concedes with a smile and a slight shake of his head. “Now what were you saying about presents?”
“Oh! Presents! Yes! One sec.” Harry waves his hand and summons the gifts from his trunk, they fly across the room and land in front of Blaise who is still in pyjamas and sitting cross-legged on the rug next to Freya. Harry moves to sit down next to him.
Blaise is staring at the presents with wide eyes.
“Some of them are from the others.” Harry tells him as he watches Blaise carefully.
“That is… a lot of gifts.” He says quietly.
Harry thinks he would probably react the same as Blaise if someone presented him with gifts on his birthday, actually - Harry would probably cry. “Mother, doesn’t give me gifts.”
“One day I will cut your mothers head off put it in a box, gift wrap it, and then give it to you.” Harry tells him conversationally (He is however entirely serious).
Blaise’s head snaps around to look at him and then he bursts into giggles. “Merlin, Harry! You cannot say stuff like that. People will think you’re insane.”
“Maybe people will.” He shrugs. “But you won’t.”
He wipes tears of mirth from his eyes, “I’ll help you cut her head off.” He looks at Harry with a grin.
“Fine with me.” Harry grins. “Now open the presents.” He demands.
Blaise stares determinedly at the seven wrapped gifts that sit in front of him. “Which one is from you?”
“The biggest one. Save it for last.” He says smugly.
Blaise nods and starts to open the gifts; he gets a book on wandless magic from Hermione, a box of chocolate frogs from Fred, a bag of fudge and a life like miniature statue of Freya from George, and a green blanket with little black and silver foxes sewn into the fabric and Freya’s name in purple lettering on the corner, from Luna.
Blaise opens each one cautiously as if it will disappear from his hands if he moves to fast.
Finally, he reaches for Harry’s gift, he opens it slowly glancing at Harry every now and then. Blaise lets out a gasp when he realises what it is, “Harry, you... got me a violin?” He whispers in a barely there voice, lifting the instrument and running his fingers over it reverently.
Blaise had told him that he’s always wanted to learn how to play one but his mother wouldn’t let him, Maria apparently believes that it’s a waste of time and effort, and didn’t want ‘screeching music’ in her house. Harry decided that if his friend wants to play a violin he shall. So, he wrote to barman Tom using the school owls and asked if he knew anyone that would be able to help him pick out the right violin for Blaise.
Tom wrote back and recommended a man called Ambrose Lark, who runs a music shop in Diagon alley. He wrote back and forth with Mr Lark, until they decided what would work best, then payed for the violin via owl post, and got it sent to the castle.
“You said you always wanted to learn. I made sure it’s the right size and everything, do you like it?” He rambles nervously, worried that Blaise will hate it.
“Do I... like it? Harry this is…it’s…perfect. Thankyou.” Blaise stutters in disbelief, staring at Harry wide eyed.
Harry exhales in relief, and beams at him. “There is another part to the present but you’ll have to wait for Christmas morning.”
Blaise shakes his head looking back and forth from Harry to the violin, seemingly speechless. Harry has never seen him like this before, it is strange for him to be speechless.
“I made you speechless.” He states blankly.
Blaise blinks harshly a few times. “Yes, you did, I…thankyou Harry.”
Harry rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. “It was no problem really, you deserve good things.”
The other boy shakes his head. “How did I get here? I should be alone. Why… do I have this.” He gestures to Harry and around the room.
“I ask myself the same thing pretty much every day.” He shrugs. “I don’t know why we have this, I don’t know how we got this lucky. But I’m enjoying it before reality takes me back.”
The other boy chuckles. “Great plan. Now can I move from the rug or will you levitate me again?”
“No more levitating, you can go and get ready. We’re going down to the kitchens for breakfast.” Harry declares standing to his feet.
“The kitchens? Why? What are you plotting?” He asks suspiciously.
“Nothing bad I promise. Now go get ready.” Harry assures him with a grin.
“I'm going, Potter. Give me a minute, Merlin and Morgana, your so impatient.” He rolls his eyes, but he has small smile on his face.
~~~
The rest of the day is spent like this…
They go to the kitchens for breakfast where Harry asked the house elves for birthday cake alongside their breakfast. They do the same for lunch and dinner that day. Harry decided that three cakes in one day might make up for missing them in previous years. Harry sings Happy birthday to Blaise, multiple times. They go for a walk with Freya. Play snap. Eat sweets. And they also come up with creative ways to kill Maria Zabini.
Overall, it’s a very good day, He hopes Blaise enjoyed his Birthday. Harry did his best to make it nice.
“Night Blaise, and Happy twelfth birthday.” Harry says sleepily as he climbs into bed.
“Good night, Harry. Thankyou… for everything you did today, this is the best birthday I’ve ever had.” The other boy says quietly.
“No problem, you’re my friend. It was my duty to make your birthday good.” Harry mumbles as sleep takes him.
“You’re a special person Harry.” Blaise whispers so softly Harry thinks it was probably just a dream.
~~~
Harry wakes up on Christmas morning to find presents piled on the end of his bed. His friends said they got him gifts, but… he didn’t really believe them. He pinches himself to makes sure he’s not dreaming, rubs his eyes and shakes his head.
The presents are still there. It’s not a dream. For the first time ever, other people got him Christmas gifts.
It’s strange… growing up he’s watched every year as Dudley opens a million presents, and not once did Harry receive anything. But now? His friends got him gifts, his own pile of presents. Just for him… what is he supposed to do with that?
“Star? What is the matter?” She slithers up onto the bed holding a beautiful dark purple flower in her mouth.
Harry rubs his eyes as he realises his stupid useless eyeballs are crying again. “They got me presents.”
“Yes, because that is what you are supposed to do, yes? Christmas is not a Wixen holiday, we celebrated Yuletide in Salazars time, but that has changed, though I cannot fathom why. Your friends got you gifts because they like you. Why is that bad?” She asks in confusion.
“It’s not… bad. I just… no one got me presents before.” He sighs, “I’m being stupid. I don’t know why I have to cry about everything. I’m being a useless weak idiot.”
“No. You are not weak. I have told you this many times. You are a powerful speaker, you are capable of wandless magic, you are a seeker of knowledge, you survive years with your family, you are kind though I do not know how after everything you have been through, you are friends with the seer, the fox keeper, the Ravenclaw, and the twin children. They are all powerful wixen in the making, and they would not be friends with someone less than them. You are many things Star, but weak is not one of them.”
Harry doesn’t know what to say to that, he wipes the tears from his face. “Okay… Thanks Selena.” He takes a deep breath. “Why are you holding a flower?”
“It is a gift for my speaker.” She slithers up onto his lap and drops the flower on his legs.
“You… you got me a gift?” Harry says in a small voice.
“Yes. You are my speaker. So, I got you a gift. If you brew it into a potion, you can make a deadly poison.” She informs him matter of factly. “You are good at potions.”
Harry smiles softly at her. “Thanks, Selena. But where did you get it?”
“From deep in the forest, it has many rare potions ingredients and magical things. I will take you some time.” She hisses.
“ Are you talking about the forbidden forest?” Harry asks slowly not completely sure he wants the answer.
“It is safe for animals, and humans who are respectful.”
Harry chuckles, “And a powerful serpent like you can’t be in danger?”
“Yes, Star. That is correct. I am a powerful serpent.” She climbs up to rest around his shoulders.
Harry shakes his head fondly, “Time to wake Blaise up.” He waves his hand to open his bed hangings, then does the same to Blaise’s bed.
“Solace.” The little raven hops of the top of the bed post and flutters down onto his shoulder. “Hi little guy, can you do me a favour?” Solace chirps and hops down onto the mattress tilting his head curiously at Harry. “Go wake him up.” Harry points at Blaise.
Solace chirps again and then soars across the room and lands on Blaise’s face. Harry laughs as Blaise splutters awake muttering angrily in Italian. “Morning Blaise! We got presents look.” He points at the end of the other boy's bed.
He stares at the gifts like there an illusion, “ oh” Then he laughs. “I have more gifts!”
“I can’t wait any longer, I’m opening them.” Harry declares, then waves his hand and summons a gift from the pile.
Blaise huffs and rolls his eyes. “Show off.”
Harry chucks a pillow at him and then begins unwrapping his gifts; he got fudge, chocolate, and a little green snake pin that’s charmed to move from the twins. From Hermione he got, a blue scarf, a book about rare potion ingredients, and a huge tub of quality street’s chocolate. From Luna he got a bracelet made of silver purple and green string, a box with different beads and charms that he can attach to his shoe laces, and the latest issue of the quibbler. From Blaise he got a soft dark blue hoodie with a silk lined hood, and a leather wand holster that has intricate designs of snakes and ravens embedded in the leather. And a large bottle of butter beer from barman Tom.
By the end of opening all his gifts Harry has thrown his green hoodie off and put the new one on, he’s wearing the bracelet Luna made him, the wand holster is strapped around his wrist, and he put the snake pin on his satchel.
“Thanks Blaise! These are perfect! Where did you get the hoodie?” He asks happily, feeling slightly giddy with all the presents he got.
“It’s nowhere near as good as the violin, but I’m glad you like it. I wrote to Madame Malkin and got it custom made.”
“Huh. I didn’t know she made muggle clothes. Thankyou! The wand holster is really really cool as well.”
“Ninety nine percent of your language consists of the word cool, try expanding your vocabulary.” Blaise rolls his eyes, but Harry can see the pleased smile that he’s trying to hide.
“What did you get?” He asks curiously.
“Sweets and a fox pin from Fred and George. A box of muggle chocolate and a book from Hermione. A bracelet, a hand engraved charm for Freya’s collar and a cross-word puzzle, from Luna. I haven’t opened yours yet.” He lists off pointing at each thing in turn. “Oh, and Freya gave me a live spider a second ago, I don’t know if that counts as a gift.” He deadpans.
Harry laughs, “Selena got me a flower from the depths of the forbidden forest. She says it can make deadly poison.”
“You will make your own venom Star, your enemies shall perish.” She adds with a hiss from around his neck.
“Maybe we can give it to Quirrell.” He hisses to her fondly.
“Your snake went on a mission into the forbidden forest to get you a… deadly flower?” Blaise asks slowly, then predictably starts to giggle. “Of course she did. I’m not even surprised.”
Harry grins at him, “Open my present.”
Blaise reaches for the last two gifts, he opens the first one is a black violin case lined with green felt, the second one is music sheets and a book on the history of violins.
“I have no idea how I’m going to learn how to play this but… Thank you.” Blaise says running his fingers over the music sheets reverently.
Harry waves his hand and summons an envelope. Then chucks it at Blaise. “I already thought of that.”
The other boy opens the envelope carefully, reads the letter, and then his mouth drops open in astonishment. “Harry, you got me lessons?” He says faintly.
“Yep! I asked around the common room to see if anyone would be willing to teach violin lessons, and a girl called Mia Stillwater said she’d be Happy too if I paid her. So, until Mia leaves Hogwarts you have lessons twice a week in one of the old classrooms on the second floor.” He says waving his hand to float all the wrapping paper into the bin, trying to get rid of the exited energy that makes him want to sprint a mile.
“For someone who had never been given a gift in his life… you are brilliant at giving them.” Blaise says looking at Harry.
“Not really… I just, wanted you guys to feel appreciated.” Harry mumbles sheepishly.
“Wait, Harry, what did you get the others?”
“I’m not telling.” Harry let’s a grin creep onto his face. “Ask them when they get back.”
Blaise shakes his head in exasperation. “You’re an idiota Harry.”
“Not more than you! Now should we go down for breakfast?”
“Sure.”
~~~
“HARRY POTTER!!” Hermione shouts as she marches of the train and over to him and Blaise who were waiting on the platform for the friends to arrive back from their holiday. Harry is slightly worried Hermione is going to beat him up, but instead she throws her arms around him hugs him tightly and steps away and punches his arm. “Hi Hermione? What did I do?”
“What gift did he get you?” Blaise asks words laden with curiosity. Blaise has been trying to get the answer out of Harry since Christmas morning.
Hermione ignores Blaise and stays focused on Harry, “What did you do?! You’re not supposed to spend that much money on people! You’ve known us for three months!” She says waving her arms wildly at him.
“It wasn’t that much, and you’re my friends I had to get you good presents.” He shrugs.
Hermione looks exasperated and then rounds on Blaise. “What did he get you?”
“A violin, lessons for three years and music sheets. What did he get you?” Blaise asks insistently.
“He got me books!” Hermione exclaims pointing at Harry accusingly.
“Books.” Blaise deadpans. “Well, I have to say that's quite disappointing.”
“Disappointing?!” Hermione says looking at Harry in a way that suggests she wants to either kill him or hug him again. “He got me access to the most protected and ancient wixen library in Britain!”
“Salzar Slytherin, Harry!” Blaise says with a laugh.
“Do you... like it?” Harry asks worriedly.
“Of course I do!” Hermione tells him in astonishment.
“Harry what the hell?!!” Fred exclaims. “We got you chocolates and a pin, you got me full potions set and my own recipe book, that I’m assuming you charmed yourself.”
George walks up to Harry and hugs him, “You idiot. You got me a familiar.” Harry realises with vague alarm that George has tears in his eyes.
“George are you ok?” Harry says patting George’s back uncertainly.
“Of course I’m not! You got me a cat, and she’s… she’s so cute.” George proceeds to step away from Harry and reach down into a wicker carrier basket. He lifts out a small fluffy kitten with ginger and white fur, it’s extremely adorable. He’s been writing to the owner of the shop where he got Solace, for the past two months waiting until the perfect familiar came along. And when he got a letter about the kitten, he thought it would be perfect, he had the cat delivered to Mr Lovegood on Christmas Eve and Luna agreed to take it over to George in the morning.
George proceeds to start sobbing, whilst holding the kitten close to his chest. “Errm… did you name her?” He asks nervously.
“Her name is Lila.” George mumbles into the kitten's fur. “She’s perfect and I love her. You’re an idiot. Thankyou Harry.” George tells him still crying.
“You're welcome?” He says feeling very confused.
Blaise is laughing hysterically, Hermione is staring at him like he’s grown ten heads. Luna appears out of nowhere and takes a picture of them all with a Polaroid camera.
“Hello Harry! I love my gift! Thankyou.” She smiles at him and takes his hand; he feels an absurd amount of relief that his best friend is back. “They love their gifts too, their just being dramatic.”
Harry looks at the others, “You do like your gifts, right? I’m… getting mixed signals.” Blaise collapses to the floor gasping for breath through his laughter.
“Christ's sake Harry. Yes, we like our gifts! You literally chose the perfect gift for each of us, how could we not like it?” Hermione says and then she hugs him again. “You idiot.”
“I can make potions whenever I want now, and that book is perfect for recording down any recipes we come up with. Harry, you got me all the base ingredients and you got me extra ones as well that probably cost a fortune, all the necessary tools a new cauldron and clearly spent time working out charms for that book. Mate, I… I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do.” Fred says shaking his head.
George has managed to stop bawling. “Harry, you got me a familiar, you got me the fluffiest cutest sweetest ginger kitten I have ever seen.” He sniffles and wipes his eyes “Look at her!” He raises Lila into the air, the kitten blinks and makes a tiny mewing noise, it has brown eyes almost the exact same shade as George’s. “I love her so much.” Then he starts crying again.
“How did you even afford all this?” Hermione asks curiously.
“Harry. Are you running a criminal empire?” Blaise says through his laughter.
“What?! No.” Harry looks at the ground sheepishly. “Apparently the potter family have collected a lot of wealth over the centuries, and well… I only found out recently when I visited Gringotts over the summer. I’m the last Potter now, so... it’s all mine.” He looks up at them and they’re all watching him in a mixture of disbelief, awe, and maybe a little bit of sadness.
“I wanted to get good gifts to show you that I appreciate you all… I didn’t have friends to give presents too before Hogwarts… I just got what I thought you’d all like.” He looks at Luna who’s standing next to him, holding his hand. She smiles warmly at him, “Did you charm the camera yourself?”
“Flint and Gemma helped me a bit.” He shrugs.
“Next year we’re going to come up with a present so perfect for you, that you will no longer be the best at gift giving.” Fred declares.
“Yeah, we can’t let you keep that title.” George adds, his face all shiny with tears.
“How in Rowena Ravenclaws name are we going to beat him? He got me access to the ancient library.” Hermione says shaking her head in disbelief.
“We’ll figure it out.” Luna says airily.
“I already have some ideas.” Blaise says with a grin.
Harry feels the tension and worry that was building in his shoulders drain away. They liked their gifts he did an ok job. His friends don’t hate him. It’s ok, he’s fine. They’re all fine.
“Let’s go get lunch! Shall we eat in the kitchen?” George says while petting Lila softly.
“Sure, but after I want to set my potions kit up.” Fred says.
“I could eat.” Blaise drawls.
“Come on then!” Luna pulls his hand and they all start to walk up to the castle.