Three Hallows' Eve || Harmione & Jily

Chapter 14.1

Chapter Fourteen - The Peverell Artefacts II

Wednesday 31st July, 1991

The morning sun had barely even started to make its daily appearance as Harry woke up at five o'clock, so he really had no business being awake already. For a while, he tried desperately to go back to sleep, even if just for another hour or two, but for all of his tossing and turning, his body would not rest. It had been past midnight before he'd managed to get to sleep last night, yet he'd woken up as the first sliver of dawn broke.

By half past six, he'd given up going back to sleep as a bad job and so had opted instead to entertain himself with a bit of reading. As quietly as he could, he crept across his room to his bookshelf and picked out a new favourite book of his: The Forgotten History of Hogwarts' Founders Four by Ottilie Foxley. His excitement to go off to the school was reaching fever pitch and that was going to make his day quite difficult.

Today was his birthday - his eleventh birthday - which meant that a very exciting and important letter would probably already be on its way to his house: his invitation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Not only that, but today also marked the day he'd be able to buy his wand. He was sure that Mum and Dad had plans to take him to Diagon Alley today, too, so they could buy all of the items he'd be needing for when September rolled around.

All of this, of course, meant that Harry Potter was almost vibrating with anticipation, which is where the day's problem lay. For as long as he could remember, there had been a tradition in the house - a challenge of sorts - which was that on a person's birthday, everybody had to pretend that there was absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about the day at all. The first person to falter in the act, or acknowledge the birthday, had to have a streak of their hair charmed purple for the remainder of the day. It was a completely pointless and silly tradition which meant that it was absolutely perfect for the Potters.

The last two birthdays had been his parents', and Dad had failed almost immediately for both. On Mum's birthday in January, Dad had already been sporting the purple streak by the time he'd come down for breakfast, though neither Mum nor Dad would tell the children how he'd managed it. On Dad's own birthday in March, Harry and Thea had conspired to take the mickey out of him from the get go which resulted in him saying that they weren't allowed to bully him on his birthday.

Harry wasn't very hopeful that Dad would be so forgetful today. The eleventh birthday was one of the most important birthdays in a young wizard or witch's life, so no doubt his family would make it extremely difficult for him to ignore. Not since Thea turned six, more than a year and a half ago, had he worn the purple streak and he was determined not to break that record on his own birthday.

No matter how interesting the Founders book was, the wait for a more reasonable time to get up felt like an entire year. Finally though, at half past eight, he decided it was late enough in the morning to get out of bed, if for no other reason than to satisfy his complaining bladder. Still, he was certainly the first person to get up, so he took his time performing his ablutions before returning to his room to select the most casual clothing he owned from his wardrobe.

As quietly as he could, so as not to disturb anybody, he made his way downstairs and into the kitchen to get himself a glass of water before heading into the living room, figuring that watching the morning cartoons would be a pretty good way to mindlessly spend the time before everybody else in the house got up. Opening the living room door, he found the curtains drawn leaving the room almost completely dark. Walking slowly to make sure that he didn't walk into or trip over anything, he made his way over to the window and pulled open the curtains to let the morning light in.

'Couldn't sleep?' Dad's voice asked from behind him, and Harry nearly lept out of his skin, splashing water all over himself.

'Jesus!' he exclaimed, clutching at his racing heart as he whirled around to find Dad smirking at him from one of the sofas. 'Merlin, Dad, you scared the life out of me.'

Dad grinned. 'Sorry,' he said, though he couldn't have sounded much more insincere if he'd tried. 'What are you doing up already?'

'I woke up needing the toilet,' Harry replied smoothly, all the while cursing that the challenge had started already. He'd hoped to have a bit more time alone before having to deal with his family today. 'I figured that I might as well just come downstairs rather than lying in bed awake for an hour or so.'

'Oh? Trouble getting to sleep?'

Harry turned to fully open the curtains, rolling his eyes once he was facing away. 'Not really, I just wasn't feeling very tired. What are you doing up already?' he asked as he turned back to face Dad, figuring that he'd probably been down here for hours, just waiting. 'Did Mum kick you out of bed again?'

Dad raised an eyebrow at him and Harry smiled innocently. That's right, Harry thought, two can play this game. 'No,' Dad replied with feigned disinterest, 'Mum was snoring so I figured I'd sleep better down here.'

'Mmhm. Chronic snorer, Mum is,' Harry smirked. She wasn't.

'Exactly.'

Harry dropped himself down on the sofa that Dad wasn't on. 'I was just going to watch some TV, do you mind?' Dad shook his head, and gestured for him to go ahead. 'I'll have a word with Mum if you want, it's not fair that her snoring is keeping you up.'

Dad's eyes went wide. 'Well, I don't think - really, there's no need for that,' he stammered. 'I can talk to her about it myself.'

'Talk to who about what?' came Mum's sleepy voice from the doorway.