Hope - George Potter

2 - Chocolate with Uncle Remus

That day, they were happy to see that Remus was at his aunt's house. They stayed at Mrs Figg's home and played Monopoly and some card games.

In between, Remus got cookies and made them hot chocolate, the only thing he could cook really, but it was extremely delicious. Whenever Remus tried to cook or bake anything else, it always ended in a catastrophe. Sadly, George and Harry had been the victim of Remus' cooking at least five times in their life. Memories that they would never forget.

It was still a wonderful feeling to have somebody go out of their way to do something nice for them, even if it didn't exactly always end well. The two boys could only experience this feeling every once a month or even more rarely. 

When the weather cleared up a bit, they went outside to play Remus' version of handball he had played at his old school. It was basically handball with less rules and you had to throw the ball through one of three hoops instead of a goal. The ball looked a bit different, too. George had never seen a game like this anywhere else than in Mrs Figg's backyard. Remus must have been at a very special or weird school.

George really enjoyed the game and loved the feeling of the ball's leather under his hands as he passed the ball or tried to throw it through one of the hoops. He was quite good at it, too. George especially liked the game because it always became so amusing when Harry was starting to get frustrated.

Harry was okay at catching the ball, but when he had to throw it, it usually landed far off the target or only a few feet away from him.
Today, they finished their match quite early because Harry was becoming moodier by the minute and it was starting to rain again.

When they were back inside, Remus made them another hot chocolate to warm them up after playing in the rain. They settled down in the armchairs in front of the fireplace and talked for a bit, but soon the annoying noise of the doorbell announced Aunt Petunia's return.

Remus took Harry aside for a moment and gave him a little package, which he quickly hid in his bag. The two looked at each other conspirationally, while George pretended not to notice. It was the same every year when they were at Mrs Figg's on Dudley's birthday. The little package was Remus' present for George, as his birthday was two days after Dudley's.

It was always especially frustrating for George to see Dudley receive tons of presents, while the Dursleys would occasionally gift him some rubbish they found lying around, if they didn't forget his birthday altogether.

But Harry and Remus always made up for it.

When George woke up on the morning of his birthday, it was still very early. He knew he shouldn't be too excited, he was only going to be disappointed as the Dursleys would certainly not plan anything special, but he just couldn't help it.

He was turning eleven today and he couldn't help but be hopeful for the next year. Turning eleven meant that he was going to leave his school and start new. Of course, some of his classmates might go to the same school as him next year, but there would be other people, who might accept him. The only problem was leaving Harry behind ... with Dudley.

He looked over to see his little brother stirring. His eyes fluttered open and he looked confusedly at his already fully dressed older brother.

"How long have you been up?"

"I was excited," George defended himself. Harry looked confused for a moment until it finally dawned to him that it was George's birthday.

Trying to cover up his first confusion, he said, "Of course you would be!" and proceeded to jump on the bed and start a tickling attack on his big brother while singing 'Happy Birthday' (completely off-key, as Harry wasn't exactly known for his musical talent).