Teddy Bears Galore
Remus had talked with Alice and Frank, and they had all agreed that Neville and Harry should have a joint birthday party. Their birthdays were only one day apart, and they had all the same friends, so they might as well share a party. But if they only having one party, it had to be twice as good.
The Longbottoms and the Lupins had been planning the party for weeks. Harry and Neville were only turning two, so they probably wouldn’t even remember it when they got older, but Frank wanted to make this the birthday party to end all birthday parties.
Hope had prayed for weeks before hand that they would have good weather, and lo and behold, on the 31st of July 1982, the sun was shining and there wasn’t a cloud in the clear blue sky.
‘Daddy!’ Ophelia called from the nursery.
Ophelia was one now and had the nursery all to herself. Harry had moved into his own bedroom with a proper bed last month, and he had a huge bed ten times his size and everything was painted in light red and golds, and Alice had even painted tiny lions frolicking on the walls.
‘Coming princess,’ called Remus.
‘Morning little one,’ said Remus lifting Ophelia out of her cot.
‘Did you sleep well?’
‘Es,’ she nodded.
‘Are you excited for Harry’s party?’
‘Es,’ she nodded again.
‘We’re missing a y there Cariad,’ chuckled Remus, ‘but don’t worry darling, we’ll get there.’
‘Shall we get you dressed then?’
Remus put Ophelia in her little party dress that Hope had bought for Ophelia to wear for Harry’s birthday party. It was bright red and very frilly, Remus could swear that the dress was bigger than the child, but it had teddy bears sewn all over it so Ophelia looked adorable, but of course, she always did.
When they got downstairs, Harry was bouncing in his highchair excitedly.
‘Is it time yet?’ he asked.
‘No,’ said Stefan tiredly not looking up from his Famous Five book. He had started reading the Famous Five books recently and they were fascinating.
‘Harry your parties not until eleven o’clock, that’s for two hours,’ said Remus putting Ophelia in her own high chair.
‘Can you wait that long Harry?’
‘Yes Uncle Moony!’ beamed Harry.
‘Good boy,’ said Remus ruffling Harry’s hair.
‘I’ll be taking that,’ said Hope taking Stefan’s book.
‘Now come on!’ protested Stefan.
Lyall merely smirked and indicated the small chalkboard by the fridge.
House Rules
- No swearing
- Be nice
- No reading books at mealtimes
- Don’t go to bed without saying sorry
Stefan glared at the list, and then at Lyall.
‘Those stupid rules don’t include the newspaper, just books,’ grumbled Stefan, ‘you can still read the Prophet.’
‘Who do you think wrote in the loophole boyo?’ chuckled Lyall beaming as he opened up his newspaper.
‘Grandpa!’ said Harry proudly.
‘That’s right birthday boy,’ said Lyall kissing Harry on the head.
‘Git,’ muttered Stefan.
After breakfast, the family was busy getting the garden ready with the last-minute preparations. They had to put up the yards of bunting that Mrs Weasley and Mrs Diggory had made, and string them through the trees.
They had to hide all the teddies for the game later, it was big garden so there lots of places to hide them. They weren’t going near the beach though. Fred and George and the open sea probably would not mix well.
Hope was also busy with Stefan finishing the party food. Harry and Neville were having a teddy bears picnic birthday party, so all the food had to be tiny. Finger sandwiches, pineapple and cheese sticks, cocktail sausages, miniscule fairy cakes, tiny little individual jellies.
At a quarter to eleven, Neville arrived with his parents and grandparents. Mrs Longbottom, Neville’s grandmother was wearing her signature vulture topped hat.
‘Happy birthday Harry,’ said Neville hugging Harry.
‘Happy Birthday Neville,’ laughed Harry hugging Neville.
‘Are you two boys going to have a nice party today?’ asked Alice kneeling down in the grass next to the two boys.
‘Yes!’ they both beamed.
‘Look,’ said Frank, ‘your friends are arriving.’
Frank was right, the Weasleys were coming down the path all nine of them, and each of the children were carrying two gifts, behind them were the Fawcetts with Felicity who was wearing a pristine white dress that was bound to get ruined, and then the Diggorys with Cedric who was wearing a tiny bowtie, and finally the Lovegoods who were all wearing sunshine yellow dress robes, apart from Luna, who was wearing a bright yellow party dress.
‘You never told us you were Mr Popular Neville,’ said Mr Longbottom, impressed at the number of children that had come to his grandson’s birthday party.
‘We all love Nev!’ beamed Fred running over.
‘Harry’s best at tag though,’ said George.
‘What about me?’ whined Ron.
‘You’re the best little brother,’ said Fred and George.
This cheered Ron up instantly and he stopped looking like he might cry.
It was the perfect day for a birthday party, as the sun was shining brightly. The parents sat down in the chairs in the garden and talked, whilst Remus, Alice and Frank led the children in all the fun.
‘Ok everyone!’ called Frank, ‘who wants to play a game?’
‘Me me me!’ yelled Fred, George and Cedric shoving their hands high in the air.
‘Does anyone know what kind of party we’re having today?’ asked Alice.
‘It’s a birthday party Mrs Longbottom,’ said Felicity.
‘Yes Felicity it is,’ laughed Alice, who was still getting used to being called Mrs Longbottom.
‘But what kind of birthday party?’
‘Teddy bears,’ said Ron proudly.
‘That’s right Ron,’ said Frank.
‘So, our first party game,’ explained Remus, ‘is a treasure hunt.’
‘It’s not just a regular treasure hunt though, there are teddies hidden in the garden, and whoever finds the most, gets a prize.’
‘Is it a teddy?’ asked Cedric.
‘We’ll have to wait and find out won’t we Cedric?’ said Bill.
‘You’ve got half an hour,’ said Frank, ‘now off you go.’
The children ran off in their little groups to go and look for teddy bears.
Stefan went off with Percy, they weren’t actually looking for teddy bears, but discussing Lord Of the Rings and which character each of them would be. Stefan and Percy got on very well, as they both had a love of books, and Percy was going to borrow Stefan’s Famous Five books when he had finished reading them.
Ophelia and Luna were also not looking for teddy bears, but babbling away to each other in the grass, as Pandora and Xenophilius sat down in the grass next to them and made daisy chains.
Ginny though, even though she was not yet one was rushing around the garden. Ginny had never walked, but ran straight away at six months. Charlie was holding her hand, and helping her look for teddy bears.
Ron, Harry and Neville were working together, they were inseparable and did everything together. They didn’t find many teddy bears, but they had a lot of fun trying and running around the garden.
Cedric and Felicity were also working together, they found quite a few teddy bears, but Felicity’s bright white frilly dress got covered in countless grass stains. Mrs Fawcett was slightly annoyed that Felicity’s pretty dress had got ruined, but her daughter was only four, so she couldn’t be too angry.
The best team by far though were Fred, George and Bill. Fred and George had a knack for finding all the teddy bears in the most obscure places, that Lyall had thought nobody would ever find. On the roof for example, or on top of the highest tree.
If the teddy’s were hidden somewhere difficult to reach, Bill would give them a boost, and lift them into the tree, or onto the roof and then Fred and George would fetch the teddy bear. Mrs Weasley was terrified that they might fall, but Mr Weasley had his wand ready with a cushioning charm in case any accidents did happen.
Once all the teddy bears had been found, Fred, George and Bill got their prize. The teddy bear that Lyall brought out of the house was so big, that it was bigger than Fred and George put together!
Then it was time for presents. A lot of the presents were teddy bears, Ron had given Harry a Chudley Cannons teddy bear which wore a bright orange jumper with two Cs on it. The Diggory’s gave both Harry and Neville cuddly dragon toys, that could actually fly through the air. Fred, George and Ginny had lots of fun chasing the dragon toys whilst Harry and Neville unwrapped the last of their presents.
The last present for Harry was something that Remus had been meaning to give Harry for a while. Harry had loved his last one, but it had unfortunately been lost in the explosion at the Potter cottage.
‘Happy Birthday Harry,’ said Remus passing Harry the last present.
‘Thank you Uncle Moony,’ said Harry quickly before ripping into the present.
It was a toy broomstick, almost identical to the one that Sirius had given Harry for his first birthday a year ago.
‘Woah!’ exclaimed Ron.
‘Try it out Harry!’ exclaimed Cedric.
Frank placed the broomstick in front of Harry, which levitated six inches off the ground.
‘You ready kiddo?’ asked Frank as he lifted Harry onto the broom.
‘Yes,’ beamed Harry gripping on to the broom with his little hands.
Harry laughed with delight as his little broomstick flew around the garden at about ten miles an hour, his feet skimming the grass below him as he flew.
After presents, they played musical teddies, instead of musical chairs, swapping teddy bears in for chairs in the party game. Then they played pass the parcel, and musical statues, and countless other games including a very long game of hide and seek which even the adults joined in with.
Finally, the party had to come to an end, and Remus put a very happy but very sleepy Harry to bed. Remus went to bed later that night himself knowing that even if they now had enough teddy bears to start their own zoo, Harry and Neville had had a wonderful birthday party.