‘Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday, dear Harry, happy birthday to you!’
Harry’s green eyes glistened with the reflection of the eleven candles on the cake, as his parents looked at him proudly.
‘Make a wish, Harry, it is not every day that a young man turns eleven.’
As Harry blew out the candles, he closed his eyes and made a wish. He wished that he could talk to snakes. He knew it was a silly wish, but wishes weren’t real anyway. It was just one of these silly things adults said to children to keep them amused.
But he would try it out anyway when they would get to the Zoo later.
His parents were bringing him to London Zoo, as a birthday treat and then they were going to have dinner with his godfather, his Dad’s best friend.
James and Lily Potter and Sirius Black had been in school together. Of course, his mother had not been called Potter but Evans in those days.
Harry liked his godfather a lot. He always joked with him and treated him as a friend, rather than a little kid. Harry liked that.
He was hoping that maybe now that he was eleven, Sirius would let him ride on his motorbike, but so far his mother had been dead set against that.
‘You will not take my only son out on that death machine,’ was Lily’s steadfast reply, each time Sirius suggested to take him for a spin.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
‘Dad?’ Harry asked his father in the car on the way to the zoo. ‘Did you and Sirius ever do anything silly in school?’
His Dad started to laugh, but his mother gave his father a look that said, ‘Don’t encourage him.’
‘Nah, not really, why do you ask?’
‘Well, the final years always do some sort of school prank, but the kids in my class have so far only come up with some very boring ideas. Maybe I will ask uncle Sirius at dinner to see if he has any ideas.’
‘Yes, that would be a great idea,’ his dad replied at the same time as his mum said ‘No, that would be a terrible idea.’
They both looked at each other and started laughing. Neither of them saw the big truck coming their way, as it drove through a red light straight into the Potter’s car.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Beep ~ Beep ~ Beep
The machines steady soft beeps were the only sound in the dimly lit room.
A very anxious black haired man was pacing the small space beside the hospital bed, where his godson lay hooked up to all kind of machines with tubes and wires sticking out of him.
There was a big gash on the boy's forehead that had required eleven stitches, one for each of the years of his young life.
Apart from a broken arm and a lot of bruising, there did not seem to be anything physically wrong with him, but the young lad appeared to be in a coma.
‘When will he wake up’, Sirius had asked the doctors at least a dozen times, since they had brought him in.
‘I’m afraid only time will tell,’ the doctor had replied. ‘There seems to be plenty of brain activity and his organs appear fine and all his vitals are good, but maybe this is the way his body is dealing with the trauma of the accident.’
Trauma. Accident. The words were still hanging in the air after the doctor had left the room.
If only Sirius could wind back the clock.
He sank into the seat beside his godson’s hospital bed and put his head in his hands.
James gone. Lily gone.
‘Please, let Harry be ok’, he prayed desperately to anyone and anything he could think off.
He wished Remus was here, but he had not seen his ex since they split up nearly seven years ago.
The last he heard, Remus Lupin was an associate professor at Brown University in Rhode Island.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
‘Where would you like to go first, Harry?,’ his dad asked when they arrived at the Zoo.
Harry didn’t need to think twice, ‘The reptile house, of course.’
His parents smiled indulgently.
Once inside, Harry walked over to the enclosure of the Burmese Python.
‘Good afternoon, Mr Python. My name is Harry and today is my birthday.’
‘Well, happy birthday, young Harry’, the snake hissed back in, what appeared to Harry, perfect English, as it lifted up its snake head and swayed from side to side, flicking its forked tongue in and out of its mouth. ‘My name is Sinbad. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.’
‘Thank you,’ Harry hissed back, ‘the pleasure is all mine.’
‘Golly, my wish must have worked,’ Harry thought perplexed.
‘Well, would you credit that. Our Harry is a parselmouth,’ his father exclaimed proudly. ‘I always knew that it would be only a matter of time before some of those Peverell genes would show up in the family.’
‘A what?, Harry said.
‘A parselmouth, someone who can speak parseltongue, that is someone who can speak with snakes.’
‘I made a wish for it earlier, when I blew out my candles.’
His dad laughed, 'I think you probably inherited this ability from one of your ancestors, but I am glad your wish came true. Wait until your godfather hears about this', he laughed.
‘Now all we need is Sirius showing up with a flying motorbike, and my nightmare will be complete,’ his mother muttered under her breath.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
It came as no surprise to anyone, when his Hogwarts letter came a few days later by owl post. Lily and James were, if possible, even more excited than Harry and James stuck his head in the fireplace to shout ‘Harry”s letter came!’ to Sirius, who showed up moments later to congratulate his godson and to promise that he would join them when they would go to Diagon Alley to buy him his first broom.
Technically it wasn’t the first broom he had bought Harry, as he had been buying Harry mini brooms every couple of years, so that James and himself could practice flying with the young lad in the Potter’s back garden. But this would be his first full size broom.
Lily’s warning that first years weren’t allowed to play Quidditch fell on deaf ears, as most of her warnings generally did.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
It was very busy on Platform 9 3/4 when the Potters, accompanied by Sirius, arrived to see Harry off for his journey to school.
It was like one big reunion for the Potters. Harry was introduced to Molly and Arthur Weasley and their youngest son, Ron, a boy with flaming red hair and more freckles than Harry could count.
They exchanged a self-conscious ‘Hi’.
Moments later he was introduced to Frank and Alice Longbottom and their son Neville.
‘Your mum and I were in the same hospital wing of St Mungo’s’’, Alice said to Harry. ‘You and Neville are born only a few days apart, isn’t that funny?’
Harry didn’t really see what was funny about that. A coincidence maybe, but funny? And from the look on his face, Neville also could not see the humour of this statement, which made Harry warm immediately towards this shy looking boy, so he smiled at him, and was glad to see the smile returned.
‘Did you guys, see Remus?’ Frank Longbottom asked? ‘Apparently he got a teaching post at Hogwarts.’
‘What? Where?’ Sirius asked, unable to hide his excitement at seeing his old friend.
As soon as he spotted him, he bounded along the platform like a young dog.
‘Remus’, he shouted as he caught up with the slender man in a tweed jacket, before throwing himself into the man’s arms.
‘Merlin, it is good to see you, where have you been? It has been too long.’
Before Remus could answer, the whistle of the Hogwarts Express sounded.
‘I have to go, Padfoot,’ Remus said softly, adding ‘Maybe we can meet in Hogsmeade soon?’ He squeezed his friend’s hand and hurriedly boarded the train.
By the time Sirius had rejoined the Potters, Weasleys and Longbottoms, all the kids had also boarded the train and they waved them off together, as the Hogwarts Express gathered speed.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
‘I see I am not the only one who brought a broom,’ a silver haired youth said in a slightly haughty voice, as Harry placed his broom in the broom shed, as instructed by his Head of House.
‘Is that a Firebolt? Cool! I wanted one as well, but my Faaaaather felt it better to wait for the new model to come out later this year, so hopefully I will get a Nimbus 2000 by Christmas.
My name is Draco, by the way, Draco Malfoy.’
‘As in the Hogwarts Motto?’ Harry asked, ‘Let sleeping dragons lie?’
Draco laughed, ‘Yes, trust my Faaaather to come up with a name like that.’
‘Well, I think it is a cool name. Much better than just Harry.’
‘Well, Just Harry, it was a pleasure to meet you and any time you want to give these brooms a spin, let me know,’ he winked.
‘Will do, Dragon Boy’, Harry smiled, delighted to have made a friend already, and not a bad looking one at that, he thought.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The boys Dormitory was a hive of activity.
Ron’s brothers had invented some new sweets and the lads had volunteered to try them.
‘Consider it market research,’ the twins had said to them, as they put the proposal to the group in the common room.
‘I would strongly advice against putting any unknown substances in your mouth,’ Hermione Granger had piped up from the far corner of the room, where she had been sitting, reading a book, as usual.
‘And aren't you supposed to pay your test subjects for market research?’ she added, more knowledgeable on such things, or in fact most things, if truth be told.
‘Getting paid?’ Ron liked the idea of that.
‘Nah, that is just in the Muggle world,’ the twins quipped, apart from that you are family, no one pays family for a small favour.’
An hour into the testing process, Dean, Seamus, Harry and Ron were regretting this so called small favour.
Neville Longbottom, who wisely had waited to see how the other four boys reacted to any of the sweets, before putting any into his own mouth, had abandoned the market research virtually immediately, when Harry’s face, literally turned purple with pink polka dots, after tasting what looked like a lemon sherbert.
‘It tasted great’, Harry said, as the group of friends fell around the place laughing.
An hour in, they were no longer laughing. Their stomachs were aching from eating too many sweets and from laughing so hard.
Seamus Finnegan was sporting rainbow coloured streaks in his hair, had massive boils on his face and his finger nails appeared to be growing at an alarming rate. ‘I look like a fecking banshee with those nails’, he exclaimed in his distinctive Irish lilt.
Dean Thomas’ ears seemed to have tripled in size and his hands had turned dark green. He was also sporting a bright pink moustache.
Ron initially thought nothing had happened to him, when he ate one of the sweets that looked like Liquorice All Sorts, but now every time he tried to open his mouth to speak, a butterfly flew out of his mouth.
‘Luna Lovegood would love that’, Neville remarked at seeing the many colourful butterflies flying around Ron’s head.
Ron was less impressed and was swatting the creatures away with his hand.
In addition his red hair was now blue and his freckles had turned into little spikes, which made him resemble a porcupine.
Harry, his face still purple with polka dots, now could only speak in rhyme and horns had started to grow on his dark head.
‘Maybe, you should go to the hospital wing,’ Neville said, as ever the voice of reason.
Hermione agreed, when they re-entered the common room, with an ‘I told you so’ look on her face.
‘Cool’, the twins said, when they saw their test subjects.
‘I hope you kept good records of everything you experienced,’ Fred said, ignoring the outraged look on both Ron’s and Hermione’s faces.
‘Yes,’ Neville said, who had volunteered to do just that, to get out of the actual tasting tests. He threw a notebook at Fred.
‘I doubt, any of these will be best sellers in Honey Dukes.’
‘Oh, they are not for Honey Dukes, they are for the joke shop, we are planning ‘Weasleys Wizard Wheezes’, George said, gesturing with his hands as if indicating a shop sign displaying the name.
‘The effects should wear off in the next half hour or so.’
‘If you could just hold off for a little while longer?’ he said pleadingly.
They would be in so much trouble if the four Gryffindors would go to the hospital wing in their current state.
‘Maybe, we can wait just another little while,’ Ron offered, not wanting to get his brothers into trouble, ‘Harry’s polka dots are beginning to disappear and his face is starting to turn back to normal.’
‘You owe us big time, though,’ he said turning to his older twin brothers, who had already starting adding the time of Harry’s recovery to the detailed notes taken by Neville.
Before long all physical transformations had disappeared, but their stomachaches remained sore and it was agreed that they would visit the hospital wing, owning up to eating too many sweets after dinner.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Beep ~ Beep ~ Beep
The machines steady soft beeps were still the only sound in the dimly lit room until a soft groan escaped from the young boy’s lips.
When he opened his eyes, a big black dog stared back at him and then started licking his face enthusiastically.
Next thing his godfather’s face moved into view. Harry had never seen his godfather look so concerned and serious.
‘Uncle Sirius, what are you doing here and where am I and where are mum and dad?’ Harry croaked with a voice that had not been used for quite some time.
Sirius grabbed both of Harry’s hands in his and with tears in his eyes explained that Harry was in the hospital.
There had been a car crash and his parents had not survived the accident.
Deep down Harry had known that already from the moment he saw his godfather at his bedside instead of his parents and his stricken face had been a bit of a giveaway as well.
Tears were silently running down Harry’s cheeks, as his godfather held his hands.
‘You gave us quite a scare, Harry’, his godfather said. ‘We could see on the monitors that your brain was working overtime, but we couldn’t wake you for months.
Some of your classmates have been in to see you and left little gifts for you and cards.
Let me see if I can remember correctly’, he said and started to list the names of Harry’s friends, ticking them off on his fingers.
‘First of all, Ron left his chess set here and left a note saying that he can’t wait to beat you, as soon as you are up to it.
Hermione left you this massive Tolkien book, in case you felt up to reading when you woke up. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that you would unlikely wake up with a love for something you heretofore hated.
Luna came by every week with fresh flowers from her garden.
Seamus and Dean sent you those cards with the dancing leprechauns, a new one every couple of days, each funnier than the next,
and Neville wanted to leave his toad, Trevor, here to keep you company, but the nurses would not allow it.
Too unhygienic, they said. You have some great friends, Harry.’
Slightly weird, but great, Sirius thought, as he watched his godson coming to terms with the fact that he was in a hospital bed, surrounded by tokens of friendship from his classmates.
‘Wait a minute’, Harry said, struggling to sit up a bit straighter in the bed, ‘the nurses would not let a toad stay, but they allowed this big mutt in here?’
‘That big mutt, as you call him, is my birthday present to my godson and I can be very persuasive, I have you know.
I told them it was an emotional support dog. It also helped that nurse Poppy has a soft spot for me,’ his godfather winked.
‘My birthday present? You mean I can keep him?’
‘That generally is the idea of birthday presents. What would you like to call him?’
‘Draco,’ Harry said without having to think about it, ‘it means dragon in Latin.’
‘Draco, you say? Unusual name, but I like it. I see you got the smarts from your mother…,’ Sirius said in a quiet voice full of regret at the loss of his best friends.
He hesitated before continuing, ‘your Dad wouldn’t have known Latin from Greek, but he had a fondness for playing with fire, so the idea of his son having a fire breathing dragon for a pet, would’ve given him a real kick.’
Harry smiled weakly. He had no idea where the name or that knowledge of Latin had come from, but he sighed with pleasure as dog Draco licked some of the salty tears of his face and snuggled up to him.
With a paw draped over his uninjured arm, Harry drifted back to sleep.
Sirius watched the steady rise and fall of his godson’s chest and only looked up when the dog pointed his ears and raised his snout from Harry’s bed.
Someone had silently come into the room.
‘Can I come in?’ a familiar voice said softly.
At the sight of Remus, all pent up angst and grief and worry became too much for Sirius and he started to cry uncontrollably.
It took Remus less than a second to drop his bags and close the gap between him and the man he loved. He kneeled down beside him and cradled Sirius in his arms.
Stroking his back, he kept whispering, ‘There, there, everything will be alright, my darling Dog Star, everything will be alright.’ Over and over again, until the sobbing slowly stopped as Sirius started to calm down.
‘You came,’ he muttered grateful and relieved and inordinately happy, despite the circumstances.
Then his eyes focused on the bags discarded where Remus had dropped them in his haste to get to Sirius.
‘Unusual number of suitcases to bring to a hospital visit,’ he remarked, as he raised an eyebrow.
Remus shrugged.
‘I came straight from the airport. I would have been here sooner, but it takes a surprisingly long time to sell a house, chuck in a job at one of the most prestigious Universities in the States and settle any other affairs before moving back to London.’
‘You are back? For good? Just like that?’
Sirius looked at the man in front of him in sheer disbelief.
‘Of course. You just lost your two best friends and nearly lost your godson. I figured you could do with some moral support and if Harry is anything like James, you could use all the help you can get.’
‘I love you,’ Sirius said.
‘I know, I love you too, you stubborn, infuriating, gorgeous piece of shit.’
Sirius looked up in surprise.
‘You didn’t think I wouldn’t have any residual anger, after the way you cheated on me now did you?
Sirius had the grace to blush, but then turned his dark puppy dog eyes on Remus.
‘Can you forgive me, please?’, he whispered.
Remus folded him in his arms once more. ‘Of course, I can forgive you. Let’s just concentrate on that poor chappie in the bed there and we’ll take it from there, slowly,’ he added.
Remus slid beside Sirius on the one available chair in the small hospital room and they both watched Harry, as he slept peacefully for the first time since he arrived there.