On the day of the fake funeral, Harry, Hermione, and their families sat around in Potter manor waiting for news. Hermione was keeping herself busy writing letters to their friends apologising for leading them on with the story of her father's death. So many of them had offered their genuine condolences that she felt bad just leaving it up to the ministry posting a clarification in the Prophet in a few days.
However the news that came first wasn't from the funeral. What came first was curse breakers Williams and Tanaka arriving at the Manor. As grandfather Charlus led the two curse breakers up from the gate, Harry took the opportunity to check out Tanaka from the window. She was walking well on her new leg, and she was unconsciously gesturing with her new arm. That as far as Harry could tell was perfect and way better than he had hoped, especially for someone who had only had the new limbs for about a month now.
Once the two curse breakers where shown up, they, Charlus, Sirius, and Harry disappeared into Charlus's office to talk. As soon as the door was closed, before they could even sit down Williams blurted out. "We found the horcrux in Little Hangleton, not far from the graveyard just like you suspected Harry."
They all abandoned looking for chairs and instead focused on the conversation. Harry got to the important question a split second before any of the others. "What's been done with it?"
Tanaka answered. "It's been destroyed. It was in some old trapped hovel about a mile outside of the village. Looks like it was a small farm at some point. But it was far enough out of the way we just used fiendfyre. No point risking our lives breaking through the traps. We destroyed the building and everything inside it. That includes the horcrux and yes we have confirmed that its connection to the other Horcruxes is gone as well. So it is definitely destroyed."
At this point Williams came back in. "We also have more data on the remaining signals and while we can't be any more accurate until we go there, all the remaining signals are coming from London. For the most part entirely good news."
Charlus picked up on the phrasing immediately and asked. "Then what is the bad news?"
Williams answered. "It's not so much bad news as weird news. Once we had finished with the fiendfyre Dumbledore turned up and got rather upset with us. Didn't seem to like that we had destroyed everything. He kept going on about Legacy lost and how we had destroyed his plans. No clue what he was upset about but he was."
"To me it looks like he is starting to lose the fight with old age. I wouldn't worry about it too much." Tanaka shrugged.
"No." Said Sirius. "Dumbledore is crafty. I wouldn't underestimate him. Even if he is starting to slow down mentally I wouldn't be surprised to learn he has had somethings plotted out years in advance. And lets not forget his magic is as strong as ever. If he decides he is going to be a problem then it's best we are prepared to face him at his best."
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After Tanaka and Williams left with a plan to move their operation to London so that they could triangulate the remaining signals, the Potter family returned to waiting for news with the Grangers.
The funeral was due to finish at two and as the time ticked by two-thirty passed and they didn't hear anything. That was either a good thing or a bad thing. If they had heard something right away, that would have probably meant that nobody took the bait and it was all wasted effort and Hermione's and Harry's friends had been lied to for nothing.
That they were waiting for news meant something had happened. However, if it was that the Aurors had sprung a trap capturing the Malfoy's and maybe some others, or if the death eaters had overpowered the Aurors was impossible to tell.
Even Tonks who was still on babysitting duty was getting nervous. At least that was how Harry was interpreting the Aurors' behaviour as she kept checking her watch.
It wasn't until three-thirty that they got word of what happened. It came by way of a letter to Tonks. Once the Auror had gotten the letter from the delivery owl, triped over her own shadow twice, and finally read the letter Tonks told them what had happened. "Well it's a bit of a mixed bag. They weren't able to capture either of the Malfoy's. However they were able to catch five Death Eaters including Warlock flint. Flint is one of Voldemort's biggest financial backers so that is a massive blow to their side. No Aurors died but three are in St Mungo's. One is requesting Harry provide a new arm."
There was a sigh of relief from everyone. They had been fearing the worst and while it was regrettable that neither Malfoy was caught and that Aurors had been injured, it was overall a positive report.
"Well we are just waiting for my sixteenth birthday for St Mungo's to let me do the limbs. And they have already given the green light to move Aurors to the front of the queue. Their law wizards won't let me start any earlier than that because if there is a mistake somewhere it's gonna be blamed on having a fifteen year old working there. At sixteen is when you start an apprenticeship as long as you finished your owls so the laws are different." Harry told Tonks.
"That's only next week right?" Tonks asked.
"Yeah." Hermione jumped in. "Harry, we so have to do something for your birthday!"
"That's a good point. You only turn sixteen once, what do you want to do to celebrate, kid?" Charlus asked
Harry thought about it for a moment. "Well we have been pretty cooped up. Nowhere but here, the Grangers or the burrow. So why don't we go out somewhere? Make it somewhere muggle so nobody is likely to recognise us, and we will choose where last second to stop it accidentally getting out? That way the chances of running into death eaters is low."
"How would we get there?" Asked Sirius. "You can only really apparate to places you have been and the likelihood Is that those of us who can apparate wouldn't have been to the place we decide to go."
"I can help with that." Said Tonks. "Aurors are permitted to make portkeys and part of our training involves us visiting pretty much every city, town and large village in the county. It's part of how we can respond to emergencies. Plus if something does happen you will have an Auror with you."
"Sounds like a plan. So Harry, you just need to work out who you want to invite." Grandfather Charlus said with a smile on his face. Everyone seemed to want to focus on Harry's birthday rather than other things that were happening.
"Well everyone here of course." Harry said immediately but also so he could take the time to think of other people. "Let's see, Ron is obviously included. If we are inviting him then Ginny and the twins. And Susan and Hannah." It was only then that Harry realised he had basically named the group he had been giving defence lessons to.
Charlus nodded as Harry listed off names. "Sounds good. Eight teens and five adults. We will have everyone over the night before and then when we are all together we will decide where to go. Emma, Dan, can you both please make a list of options? Sirius, can you speak to Amelia and see about getting permission for Susan and Hannah, also make sure Tonks will be free."
There was a round of nodding and agreement and the group now had their next project.
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The plans for Harry's birthday turned out to be surprisingly complex. The most difficult part was security. Or more specifically making sure that people from outside your 'security bubble' were not secretly you-know-who supporters or worse were some type of trap involving Polyjuice potion or Imperius. That was easy enough with a family like the Weasleys who already had a strong relationship with the Potter, Granger and Bones families. However the Abbotts only really had a connection to the Bones family and that meant a lot of checking before letting their daughter go off with all the other families for about twenty-four hours.
It really didn't help that not only had Hannah recently been Imperiused, but Dan as well had been in an attempt to kill his own daughter. The fact that that had been in the prophet really showed off just how possible it was to turn a simple hole in someone's security into a disaster.
While the adults worked on details like contacts to protect all children like they were their own and vow backed oaths that none of them followed you-know-who, Harry with the help of Hermione and Tonks worked on finding a security guard for Dan and Emma's dental practice. It was currently being run by a crew of temp staff under the watch of their nurse Abigail. The cover story was that Dan and Emma were down with a virus that while not life threatening, was too contagious for them to risk coming into work.
They weren't going to make the final choice, that was going to be down to Dan and Emma with a personal interview. What they were doing was creating a shortlist from the people Tonks had found interested in the job.
"I don't like this one." Said Harry holding a profile Hermione had written from asking Tonks about everyone. "Sure he has plenty of Auror experience and he retired from the D.M.L.E in good standing when he thought he was getting too old and moved to the Department of Magical Games and Sports, but I remember sort of meeting him once. He was one of the Ministry people working the Quidditch World Cup. And the way he was dressed he had no clue how to act in the muggle world."
Hermione looked over the profile quickly and then scrunched it into a ball and tossed it into the trash. The ball of paper missed so Hermione flicked her wand at it and transfigured it into a little man who threw himself into the trash with a muttered spell.
"What about this one Harry. Muggleborn, mid thirties, gave up being an Auror about a month before you-know-who returned because his wife was pregnant and she didn't want him to keep working a job where he may not come home anymore." Hermione said, handing Harry a different profile.
Harry looked it over. "He has a few black marks for insurance but considering he is a muggleborn that likely means he got under the skin of a pure blood snob, which personally I count as a good thing. And as a muggleborn, even if he has spent his entire life since Hogwarts in the magical world he will still at least know what a dentist is and how to use the electric kettle to make a cup of tea."
"Excellent I'm adding him to the 'gets an interview pile.'" And Hermione suited action to her words.
They continued like that for a while and once they were done they had three candidates for interviews. One was the middle aged family man, one was an Auror who had recently been forcibly retired due to age, and the third wasn't an Auror but a regular law enforcement officer who was tired of being passed over for promotion to the Auror force because she had the integrity to actually file a report on a Auror who had refused to intervene in an illegal duel until the "muggleborn learnt his place."
Harry thought that on paper the winner was clear. But on paper was one thing, how their personality meshed with Dan and Emma's was entirely subjective. Still the two teens were sure that all three of the candidates would be able to do the job well enough
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The night before Harry's birthday came and Harry was down by the gates waiting for Susan, Hannah and Tonks to arrive. As Tonks was going with them Bones insisted on using the Auror as the two girls' escort. The Weasleys had arrived a few hours ago but the two girls were arriving later because Hannah had been invited to Neville's for the day for his birthday. His gran was taking security even more seriously than grandfather Charlus and wasn't letting Neville go anywhere and had only let Neville invite the Abbotts for a dinner on his birthday because she was Hannah Abbotts fathers godmother and trusted the family.
Actually that was a little unfair; she trusted the Potter family to an extent as well. At least she trusted them to be on the correct side, unfortunately, she also was completely convinced that the Potters attracted trouble like lights attract moths.
Harry had sent Neville a letter, a card, and a gift of a collection of mundane orchid seeds and a book on how to grow them. They were difficult for beginners to grow but Harry was sure Neville would enjoy the challenge and who knew what Neville could come up with in a few years with magic.
There was a whoosh of wind and three women were suddenly standing on the side of the road on the other side of the gate. "Who was it who hit me with a stinging hex in our first defence club meeting while I did my demonstration?" Harry demanded from them.
Hannah answered almost immediately. "Hermione got you."
Harry nodded then specifically asked the other teen. "Susan, what spell was I demonstrating at the time?"
"None, you were demonstrating how effective dodging is in a magical fight. My turn, Harry, what colour were my tights the last time you saw me?"
Harry had to admit that was a surprisingly good question. Her tights' colour was what tipped Ron off about the impostor. That meant that it was a detail Harry remembered vividly. It also wouldn't be in any reports beyond Ron noticing a different clothing. So only the people who were there would remember. "Not sure what you name the colour exactly but it was a darker yellow. Hey Tonks, what did I make for breakfast last time you were here?"
"Last time I was here you made lunch not breakfast and it was BLTs. Now that we have all answered the security questions, can you let us in?"
Harry did just that and soon the four of them were walking up to the manor. As they walked Hannah turned to Harry "Neville sends his thanks for the seeds. He is really looking forward to seeing if magical growing methods would work with such temperamental plants. He also wishes you the best for tomorrow and I have a gift for you from the Longbottoms in my bag."
"Thanks for delivering the message. How is Neville? Did he enjoy his birthday?"
"Yeah, he seemed to be having fun." Hannah said and they continued to chat as they made their way up into the Manor. Once inside Susan practically threw herself at Ron causing the twins to whoop and tease him. After Ginny calmed down her brothers Harry asked her to show the two girls where they were sleeping.
All the teen girls, except Hermione who had her own room, even if she was going to share Harry's, would be sharing a guest room. Tonks as an adult was getting her own. And the Weasleys brothers would be sharing another guest room.
Once everyone had settled in, dropped off their luggage, had a drink and a chat the topic of conversation turned to what they were actually going to do the next day. Emma took the lead on that "Okay Dan and I have come up with a lot of things you might all enjoy and then when we have decided what we want to do we have multiple options for each one. For example if you pick a day at the beach, we then have multiple beaches to choose from. You all following so far?"
There was a round of nodding from all the teens and Emma went on to list the options. "Well first, like I said, is a day at the beach. Next is a day at a theme park or a water park. Then there are activities like go-karts, bowling and laser tag, that are often all together in the same place. We could go see a film, actually those buildings that have all the activities are often right next to big cinemas as well. There is paintball, ice skating, barbecue in a park, kayaking, jet skies, and indoor rock climbing."
Harry and Hermione had to explain what some of the things were. The magically raised had no trouble with a day at the beach, ice skating and kayaking. But they needed things like go carts and jet skiing explained a little.
The teenagers talked it over and together eliminated what they didn't think everyone would enjoy. So jet skiing, go-karts, indoor rock climbing and paintball were off the table. Then they all insisted Harry choose from what was left. It was after all his birthday.
Harry thought about it for a bit and decided. "You said a lot of the places that do bowling and laser tag are right next to cinemas right? Why don't we go to one of those places. Start with a film, after that laser tag, then wind down with some bowling?" Harry didn't say it but he thought that this way there would be something for everyone. Hermione for example would probably prefer watching the film to laser tag but Ron would be the opposite. This way everyone should have at least one activity they really enjoyed.
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There were a few options that they could have gone to that fit Harry's plan and the only one of them who knew which one they were was Tonks who made the portkey. She actually apparated there first set up a short term notice me not ward and then came back to portkey everyone into the ward.
Not only did the location have a cinema and a place to play laser tag and bowling but there were also a few chain restaurants. Their first stop was the cinema. There was a decent selection of films being shown, but the selection that was available to them was not great. It wasn't a matter of age range.
Films like Independence Day and Mission Impossible were perfectly acceptable for a group of sixteen year olds. The problem was just how much you needed to understand technology to enjoy them. This meant that they were pushed to a younger film but one those who had grown up sheltered in the magical world would understand.
It would be much easier for the people like the Weasleys to understand muggles getting what magic can do wrong than it would be to explain the concept of an alien spaceship.
Even though the film was aimed at a younger audience the teens all enjoyed it. Ron was even debating with Hermione on if he could use magic to make a peach that big as they left.
Instead of going directly to the laser tag place they stopped to get some lunch. The lunch was a first for a lot of the teens. The Weasleys hadn't ever eaten out much. With such a big family eating out was a big expense and usually to be avoided, and when it wasn't avoided they had wizarding gold not British pounds so they had gone to magical places not mundane chains. Harry on the other hand hadn't been because the Dursleys refused to take him anywhere if they could avoid it. Susan and Hannah surprisingly had been to one in the past and nobody was surprised Hermione had been before. So for five of the eight teenagers this was their first visit to a McDonald's.
Even if it was their first McDonald's all of them had eaten burgers and chips before, maybe the variety of burgers was a little different but it was nothing extreme. The only confusion was the drinks and Harry had to explain to the Weasleys that Fanta was orange flavour, Sprite was lemon and lime, and coke was coke and nobody really knew what the flavour was.
The Weasleys, except for Ron who remembered trying coke before at Hermione's, instead decided to stick to milkshakes. Fruit flavoured milk sounded more appealing to them than bubbly flavoured water.
Soon everyone ate and the teens were definitely in high spirits as they left the fast food restaurant and walked to the laser tag arena. Because it was the summer holidays they weren't the only teens looking to have fun. Thanks to the large groups there was a bit of a wait for both the laser tag and the bowling. Luckily the clerk was plenty helpful in booking them in. They were booked in for three twenty minute rounds in the laser tag arena and for two lanes of bowling after that for two hours.
The only problem was there was a ninety minute wait for their first round in the laser tag arena. Luckily for them the establishment had planned ahead for long waits and had provided a large arcade to provide entertainment and drain families of as much money as possible while they waited. Fortunately for Harry and his friends money wasn't something they needed to worry about. Charlus just handed Harry a stack of twenties that added up to a hundred pounds and told him and his friends to go nuts.
After finding a machine that would convert Harry's cash into gaming tokens they all went to have fun. Hermione dragged the girls off to a DDR machine while Harry took Ron and the twins to one of the games where you shot the screen with plastic guns.
"This game actually works something like the laser tag. In this game you aim for the monsters on the screen instead of at each other, but the 'guns' work on the same point and pull the trigger system. Here, let me demonstrate it once on single player and then we can try two players." Harry explained while showing them the guns.
Harry pushed a token into the game and soon Harry was demonstrating his skill in the way only someone who has never played a video game like this before in his life could. That is to say he failed miserably. Still Harry successfully showed the Weasleys brothers how the guns worked and they spent the next thirty minutes playing multiple rounds each. None of them were amazing at the game but one advantage they all seemed to have after a few rounds was accuracy. It seemed that once they got used to the unfamiliar guns their training with wands carried over.
The girls eventually came back and Hermione jokingly started to tease Harry about needing to cheat to win at laser tag. Of course it was all in fun and soon the girls played a few rounds each on the game.
After that Harry thought an air hockey tournament would be fun and the concept was simple enough that they all picked it up quickly. Hermione quickly came up with the rounds. And the first matches were all boys vs girls.
Harry vs Hannah
Ron vs Ginny
Fred vs Susan
George vs Hermione
Harry realised immediately that Hermione had set it up so that the only way couples would face off against each other was in the final.
Harry won against Hannah, then Ginny won against Ron, Susan beat Fred and Hermione beat George. Harry was sure the twins had lost because they seemed to be having more fun making the frictionless puck bounce wildly around the board.
Harry and Ginny had a hard match but Harry just walked out with a win. However it was Hermione and Susan who had the longest match. Both tried to play careful games of precision shots which kept that match going longer. Hermione managed to take the win in the end by doing something Susan never even considered and ricocheting the puck off the back of Susans paddle and straight into the goal for the match point.
The last match of the tournament was Harry vs Hermione. One look from Hermione was enough to tell Harry that if he threw the match there would be trouble. Harry would like to have claimed he gave it his all and he and Hermione had an epic air hockey duel that impressed everyone. Unfortunately Harry's first two rounds were with people who had just as much experience at the game as him. That is to say none before they came here today. Hermione didn't have much experience but she had vastly more than Harry and took him to school.
They stuck around playing air hockey for the rest of the time until their turn came up in the laser tag arena. The laser tag was done in teams of ten so Harry and his friends were joined by a brother and sister who were enjoying a day out over the holidays. The magically raised expressed surprise at the glowing plastic and paint that was the neon body armour and paint under UV light.
As they were suiting up a bored looking twenty something explained the rules and how the game worked. "There will be no violent physical contact. If you punch, slap, kick, bite, body slam or any other thing that I have forgotten to mention you will be immediately disqualified and banned from playing here ever again. You will be keeping your safety glasses on at all times. You are also not allowed to cover the sensors on your armour. Each team will be escorted to your base. If you are shot you can return to base to reactivate. In each base there is a glowing 'power core'. If you shoot the core in the enemy's base you will earn your team one hundred points. Shooting an enemy team member who is alive will get you ten points. The team with the most points after fifteen minutes wins."
After that he showed each team to their bases and showed them what the power core looked like and showed them how to power back up if they had been shot. Then after a short countdown it was time for war.
Harry and the other magicals had been doing self defence and combat drills together for months and even in their first game where everyone was still getting used to the unfamiliar weapons and having to shoot specific locations where there are sensors they still moved as a team watching for enemy fire and their skills at aiming seemed to carry over. Unfortunately for the other team, a group of boy scouts on a field trip, this was too much to handle.
Inside the first five minutes both the twins and Ginny had exploded the enemy power core, Harry and Hermione were competing to see who could snipe the enemy first as soon as they left their base after getting a new life and Ron and Susan were covering a different exit. That set the tone for the rest of the game. Team 'green eyed monster' won hands down 1460 to 330 points.
They had to wait twenty minutes before they could play again. The games were fifteen minutes with five minutes to get one team out and the next in. The next team would be allowed into the waiting area to get ready to go in five minutes before the change over. However when you took into account getting their scores as well as the time it takes to get in and out of the armor it barely left enough time to pop to the bathroom if anyone needed to.
As they waited for the next round Hermione spoke up. "Why don't we split up for the next round. We work a little too well as a team. How about we split it Weasleys versus non Weasleys?"
That was quickly accepted by everyone and as the other players in their second round weren't the boy scouts again but random people the schedule had thrown together everyone was happy with the arrangement. Round two was a lot closer and a lot more fun when they actually had to work for it. Ron actually came up with a brilliant strategy. When he got shot instead of going right back to his base he stood out in the open letting his sister use him as a human shield. That let Ginny hide behind him and rack up quite a few kills before Harry's team worked out what they were doing. The "orange devil's" won the second round but it was close 850 to 820.
For the third round they switched it up again and had Harry and Hermione captain one team and Ron and Susan the other and had them pick teammates, Harry had first pick and took Fred. Ron then took George. Hermione picked Ginny leaving Ron with Hannah.
Round three was much like the second only with the twins on different teams this time they both had a blast trying to outdo the other. Those two were so busy dueling and causing a distraction for everyone, nobody saw Harry and Hermione sneak into the enemy base and each blow up the power core netting their team an extra two hundred points and winning them the match.
It was a very exhausted group of teens who eventually got to the booked bowling lanes. They relaxed and wound down after the fast paced excitement of the laser tag. The adults joined them in bowling and listened as the teens eagerly talked about the laser tag
"I never knew muggle games could be so much fun"
"We so need to recreate a magical version of that, it would be a big seller at the shop."
"Did you see that move I came up with?"
They chatted and they bowled. They cheered strikes and laughed at gutter balls. And by the time they were finished there was only one thing they all wanted. Food. The hungry group of teens and adults made their way to one of the chains, this time an Italian place and were lucky that they had enough space to seat them and they even brought some tables together so they could all dine together as a group. They stuffed themselves with Italian food until Dan stood and told them all it was time they got moving. They portkeyed back to the Manor and pretty soon after getting there they all fell into their beds.