Post Mortem

Chapter 8

HENDRIX'S POV

I was reading in the sitting room with Harry, both of us just enjoying each other’s company until he had to leave. Of course we still had a little over a month, Harry’s birthday is tomorrow. I had already planned everything of course. A small affair with his friends, and only his friends, I had decided to hold it in the garden considering that it's Harry’s favorite place. I also told the house elves to serve Harry all his favorite meals throughout the day, and to serve his favorite treats at the party. I had gotten him a few presents of course, Sirius wanted to go over the top but I was able to convince him otherwise.

“Hendrix… I need to tell you something,” Harry said as he peaked over the top of his book, “Of course what is it Harry?” I asked as I marked my place and closed my book, setting it down, “Umm… I just want to thank you. I… I’m just so happy that you adopted me… you’ve given me an amazing family. Thank you,” he said with a small smile. I looked at him in shock for a moment, before smiling softly back at him, “Oh Harry, there’s no need to thank me, you deserve to be with people that actually love you,” I got up and walked over to him, ruffling his hair.

~

The next morning I woke up early, wanting to start helping with setting up the party. When I got down stairs the elves were happily bustling about, “Master Hendrix! What can Nifty do for yous?” Nifty asked as she instantly popped up in front of me, “Oh nothing Nifty, I’ll be in the garden getting started on the decorations,” Nifty instantly shook her head, “No! Master Hendrix needs to distract young Master Harry,” she nodded. Finally, I sighed, “If that’s what you need me to do,” I sighed, I then turned and began to head to Harry’s room.

I gently knocked, the door instantly flew open and I was greeted with a warm hug, “Happy birthday,” I said as I patted his head. He smiled up at me happily, “Thank you Hendrix,” he beamed. He then proceeded to show me his amazing breakfast, “Want some?” he asked as he brought the tray over, “Oh Harry, you know that I don’t eat breakfast,” I chuckled, he sighed but nodded, “Did you already have your morning tea?” he asked with a large smile, “Not yet, how about I drink it with you then?” Harry immediately nodded his head in excitement.

~

The day so far went by relatively smoothly, Harry was exceedingly happy, and as of right now he was happily sat on the couch reading one of the new books I had given him. Padfoot was there too, just laying at Harry’s feet, taking a nap. Nifty popped in quietly, glancing at Harry with a smile, “It’s time master,” she whispered before popping away again. “Harry, may I see you in the garden?” I asked, he looked up at me with raised brows, “Is everything ok?” he asked as he marked his place and went to set his book down. “Yes everything is ok,” I said as I shoved Padfoot off of him.

He watched me warily as we made our way back down stairs, “You know I was being a good boy, you didn’t have to shove me off the couch,” Sirius grumped as he followed us. “Well excuse me for including you, next time I’ll just leave you,” I said with a shrug. Sirius made a sound of protest, that’s the last thing I heard before I was being tackled to the floor. We both rolled around struggling to get a hold of one another, finally I was able to pin him. I glared at him as I got back up and left Sirius laughing on the ground.

I opened the doors to the garden, Harry and Sirius right behind me. As soon as Harry was spotted his three friends slowly emerged from their hiding spots, each one saying an enthusiastic yet gentle surprise. Harry smiled and looked around happily. The elves had done a phenomenal job in decorating, fairy lights were weaved through the trees and gentle glowing dandelions littered the ground, in the center of it all was a table filled with all of Harry’s favorite treats and a cake, several presents were set on another table close by. It truly was beautiful honestly.

Harry looked extremely happy as he spoke with his friends, each one having a plate full of cake and different treats, “Haz are you ready for present,” “I know that we are,” “Can’t wait to prove Malfoy that our gift is the best,” the twins said. Draco glowered at them, “I already know that my present’s the best,” he sniffed. Sirius laughed loudly at this, “Your present? Come now Draco! Don’t make your uncle laugh! Clearly I have the better gift!” Sirius chortled, though his laugh was quickly cut off when I dug my elbow into his gut causing him to wheeze. “Yeah let’s do presents,” Harry excitedly exclaimed as he practically skipped to the gift table.

Harry first opened a present from Draco, who got him a new potions book, one that I had never seen before honestly, “It’s a book that I specifically asked my godfather to write, we have the only two copies in the world,” he stated proudly, puffing up his chest. The twins both scoffed. With that being said the twins shoved their present in Harry’s face. Harry grabbed the one from Fred first, he unwrapped it to find a big bag of owl treats, the other gift had a set of resizeable enchanted cages. “Each of those are home made,” “We made the cages after the one that you brought the other day,” “Quite a fascinating thing honestly,” “Real hard to replicate too,” “We tried them on some of the gnomes in the garden,” “We can say for certain that they work,” the twins rambled. Harry beamed at them “Thank you.”

Sirius huffed at the twins’ shared faces of pride, he smiled cheekily at Harry as he handed over his gift, Harry ripped it open then looked at the big box in confusion, he opened it. He was greeted with another thoroughly wrapped box, this happened another two times. Harry glared at him as he found an envelope and opened it. He read it out loud, “You are hereby allowed into the sacred Black Library.” Harry practically whispered the end, he looked up at Sirius with wide eyes, “Oh and one more thing,” he handed over a small box, Harry opened it cautiously, he looked up at Sirius with wide eyes, “This is the Potter Heir ring! How did you get this?” he breathed. “Well with Hendrix’s help and my right as your godfather we were able to go to the Potter vault and snag it,” he shrugged. Harry beamed at him and tackled him into a hug, “Thank you Siri,” he smiled.

Sirius gave the twins and Draco a smug smirk as they glared at him. I rolled my eyes as I picked up the present I got him, “Here you go Harry,” I said as I handed it to him, he excitedly tore it open, when it revealed a box he glared up at me, “Trust me it’s the only box,” I sighed. He opened the box and stopped, he looked up at me in shock, “I thought you said I couldn’t have one,” he breathed, I shrugged and chuckled, “I mostly said that for Sirius’ sake,” I shrugged, Sirius then peered into the box and instantly took several steps back, “No, absolutely not,” he said as he violently shook his head. I smiled at smirked at him. Draco and the twins took a step forward and peered into the box, “Wicked,” the twins breathed. Harry gently picked up a miniature Swedish Short-Snout. “Now before Sirius faints I think you should know that it’s going to stay that size,” I sighed, Harry just nodded his head eagerly, “That’s ok, I cant keep him with me this way,” he breathed. “She Harry, its a she,” I chuckled. He just nodded, “I’m going to name her Ena,” he nodded.

“Wait so that thing won’t get any bigger?” Sirius asked as he watched it from a far, I laughed, “Yes I saw a spell once where they created smaller versions of ferocious dragons. I was able to replicate it except this one won’t fade away, this one is going to stay for as long as normal dragons do,” I shrugged, Harry placed the dragon back into the box then promptly hugged me. “Well boys, I know that giving Harry a gift is no competition… but if it was… I very clearly won,” I smirked triumphantly. Each one of them glared. “Getting someone a mini dragon doesn’t count,” Sirius grumbled.