Severus had agreed to lock it up for him for the time being, along with the Hufflepuff cup. “Again, I’m waiting,” Harry said. “I’ll talk to Hermione tonight to see what progress she’s made on the research,” he said. “We’ll be ready to deal with them soon, though.”
“What can we do?” Remus asked.
Harry took a couple more bites of his food as he thought about it. “I don’t think there’s anything at the moment,” he said with a shrug. “If I ever get more than two minutes free at a time, I could use some more help with training, though.”
“What about the hospital wing at Hogwarts? Should we be brewing more potions?” Narcissa asked, speaking up quietly.
Harry exchanged a glance with Severus. “It would probably be wise,” Severus answered. “Things are likely going to get worse.”
“I wish I could figure this out faster so I could just end it all,” Harry muttered, stabbing at his food.
“How much faster could you work?” Draco exclaimed in exasperation. “At the rate you’ve been going, you’re going to kill yourself off before the Dark Lord has a chance to.”
“No!” Narcissa said sharply. “You are not going to get into this argument again today. It is Harry’s birthday and we will do our best to help him celebrate it,” she said firmly. “It’s been established that there is little urgency today, so let’s drop all of the war talk. Now finish your meals,” she ordered.
“Fine. I didn’t want to argue with the prat anyway,” Harry muttered, dropping his gaze back to his plate.
“Harry,” Remus said his name warningly.
Harry sighed heavily, not saying another word. He slipped back into his thoughts, tuning out the others. Everyone wanted him to slow down a little, but he didn’t really have time for that. He’d told the truth that he was mainly just waiting at the moment, but he wasn’t overly fond of waiting – especially when lives were at stake.
He could feel the pressure bearing down on him. Voldemort was still conducting small raids regularly and people were dying. Harry had only been lucky to receive warning on two of the larger attacks. People were dying and more lives would be lost until Harry could kill Voldemort.
“Harry, if you’d like to come back to the rest of us, there is a cake for you,” Draco said, reaching behind Victoria to whack him on the back of the head.
“Does he do this often?” Lucius asked.
“Yes,” Draco answered with fond exasperation. “He disappears into his head quite regularly.”
Harry sneered at him, but was sidetracked by the beautifully decorated cake Winky was levitating to the place in front of him. He looked at it in surprise for a few moments before glancing around at the others. He hadn’t been expecting anything.
“You’re easy to surprise, aren’t you, Harry?” Draco said quietly.
“My birthdays usually pass without much recognition,” Harry admitted. “Well, except for when I turned eleven and Hagrid took me to Diagon Alley after informing me I was a wizard,” he added without thinking.
That caused a reaction at the table from everyone but Remus and Victoria. Harry grew wide-eyed at the outraged reactions from the Malfoys and even Severus. Severus was grumbling about manipulative old men. Lucius was muttering about worthless Muggles. Narcissa was saying she was going to go back and give that woman something to think about. Draco was ranting about all of it.
Draco and Narcissa had known things hadn’t been great for Harry at the Dursleys, but they obviously hadn’t realized he didn’t know he was a wizard until just before starting school. Harry reflected that he should’ve known the Malfoys, particularly with their emphasis on pureblood status, would be more shocked than most about a wizard not even knowing about magic.
“Just cut your cake,” Remus suggested quietly. “I think Victoria would like some, and I know I would. It’s chocolate,” he said with a smile.
Harry cast a glance at Severus and the Malfoys and decided to ignore their mutterings about deranged Headmasters and idiotic Muggles. He grinned at Remus and began serving up slices of the cake. He even offered Victoria her own small slice to dig into. He moaned with pleasure as he took a bite.
“Winky? Did you make this?” he asked, turning and spotting her hovering off to the side.
“Yes, Master Harry,” she said proudly.
“It’s delicious,” Harry said appreciatively with a huge smile. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Master Harry,” Winky said happily. “Anything for you.”
Harry went back to his cake, letting another bite melt on his tongue as he savoured it. It took him a moment to realize the others were now staring at him. “Can’t I just enjoy my cake?” he asked petulantly.
Draco and Narcissa looked torn, but Severus had no qualms about asking Harry to explain anyway. “You can explain while you eat,” he commanded.
“I thought you knew already,” Harry muttered.
“It would appear that I was not informed of many things,” Severus said coldly.
“Severus, perhaps this is not the best time,” Narcissa interjected quietly.
“Oh, it’s probably a perfect time,” Harry said sarcastically. “As I was actually enjoying something. We can’t have that happening for long, can we?” He shot a glare at Draco. “At least now I know who you learned that habit from.”
“Harry, I—“ Draco cut himself off, looking regretful.
“You brought it up,” Severus said. “Now explain.”
Harry shoved his plate of cake away in resignation. “Since you think it’s so important for me to relive past humiliations today, what do you actually want to know?” he asked bitterly.
“Why did you not know you were a wizard?” Severus asked, his eyes flashing dangerously.
“Because no one ever told me,” Harry answered flatly. “Saying the word ‘magic’ in the Dursley’s house could bring about far worse punishment than saying the word ‘fuck’ in polite company. They certainly weren’t going to admit I could do magic. My uncle did his best to keep my Hogwarts letter from me. Hundreds of them came until he finally took us and ran.”
“Hagrid came and presented me with my letter personally on my eleventh birthday. Brought me my first ever birthday cake as well,” he said, staring wistfully at his neglected slice of cake. “He took me to Diagon Alley to get my school supplies and explained what he could about the Wizarding world before sending me back to the Dursleys to wait until the first of September.”
“That’s about it,” he said, shrugging carelessly. “Birthdays generally suck for me. The majority of them I’ve spent doing chores. Since I started at Hogwarts, I get a few owls at midnight from my friends. I reckon it doesn’t matter that I wasn’t here last night because the Weasleys and Hermione are probably waiting until I go tonight. I would’ve expected an owl from Hagrid at least, but . . . ,” he trailed off, shrugging again. “Last year was nice, though. I was actually at the Weasleys and we played Quidditch most of the day.”
“This birthday started out nicely, at least,” he muttered, pulling his cake back and stabbing at it viciously before taking another bite.
Remus squeezed his shoulder reassuringly. “They are simply attempting to understand,” he said quietly. “This is a huge shock to them and they are not intending to offend you.”
Harry wasn’t quite sure he believed that. Severus was always after him about one thing or another. “Yeah, well, I’m just a little stressed out and don’t particularly care,” he retorted. “I didn’t even want to come downstairs today. I sure as hell didn’t want to come down and talk about my crappy childhood.”
“You didn’t want to come downstairs?” Remus asked in surprise.
“No, why should I?” Harry said irritably. He waved his hand expansively. “I’m suddenly living with four of my former enemies. For some strange reason, having Lucius here now has me a little on edge,” he added sarcastically.
“You are consistently high strung lately,” Severus said dryly. “It is difficult to tell that Lucius has made that big of an impact.”
“Does my presence disturb you that greatly?” Lucius asked, arching a brow questioningly.
“I think I’ve just reached my limit of bizarreness,” Harry mumbled. Draco sniggered and Harry sent him a rueful smile.
* * * * *
Chapter Thirty-Six
“Come on, Harry,” Draco drawled, getting up from the table
