An Interference of Portraits

A Gossip of Portraits

On Friday 31st July and the day of my twenty-first birthday, I was inundated with Owls with birthday wishes from strangers as well as my friends. In the morning, I sat on the stairs with Willow and Ziggy and went through all the letters with The Portraits as I drank my morning coffee and ate a plate of pancakes with chocolate sauce and with fresh juicy strawberries that Dusty had grown. Mr Kreacher had brought it up for me and all of The Portraits watched me eat.

It was one of the best starts to a birthday morning I'd ever had, despite, theoretically, being on my own.

I knew I needed to crack on, the furniture was arriving for the Drawing Room. Champagne was being delivered. There were canapés to prepare. I knew various people had threatened to pop in, though I'd requested they'd wait until the evening. Andromeda, Teddy, and Minerva were arriving after lunch, as were Ron and Hermione, Bill, Fleur and Victoire. Luna had promised to arrive early before all my other guests who were due at six.

'Before you leave us,' said Walburga. 'We would like to see the house now that it's finished.'

'Oh yes,' The Portraits chorused in excitement.

'And how, exactly, are you all going to do that?' I asked.

'Well, seeing as I have the largest frame, if everyone squeezes in, you could carry us around and show us each room,' said Walburga.

I looked at her sternly. 'You're stuck to the wall with a Permanent Sticking Charm.'

'Not exactly,' she said sheepishly.

Before I had a chance to react, there was a knock on the front door.

'It'll have to wait. Excuse me,' I said with narrowed eyes.

Scooping up two wiggling kittens so they didn't escape, I opened the door to find there were three people on the doorstep. One was holding an enormous bunch of cream and pale-green flowers with pretty foliage surrounding it.

'Mr Potter,' the flower guy said.

'Yeah?'

'These are for you.'

'Okay,' I said, and still managing to hold onto Ziggy and Willow, I took them, surprised. I'd never received flowers in my life.

'Thanks, mate.' And he disappeared off.

'Mr Potter,' said one of the other men.

'Yeah?'

'Your furniture delivery,' he indicated to the van on the roadside.

'Ah, okay. I'll show you where. It's upstairs, on the first floor.'

Still carrying my flowers and kittens, I showed them the way and they brought up the three sofas and a large cream rug, resized them properly and positioned them for me. I signed for the delivery and breathed a sigh of relief. That was the major job done and the Drawing Room looked perfect. Luna had been right. It was just a shame about the piano—it would have finished the corner of the room off perfectly. I decided, however, it would be the perfect place for Sirius's record player and vinyls and was determined I would set it all up shortly.

I finally released the kittens and placed my flowers down on the coffee table and found a small card attached. It simply read: Sorry. And Happy Birthday. See you later. DM. I hadn't failed to notice the green carnations amongst the bouquet. I'd barely read the card before Nettie appeared and whisked the flowers away to find a vase for them.

'I want them back in here,' I yelled after the House-Elf.

I couldn't help retreating to my Study at that point. I was too confused by it all. Did Draco mean anything by his apology? What had it all been about anyway? Why did life have to be so complex? Still, I felt a little lighter—at least he'd reached out to me.