Harry headed back to the Headmaster’s office and looked at the timetable to see what the students’ last class had been. It was Minerva’s class ‘Wizarding Etiquette’. And Minerva always had lunch together with them after their classes. But nobody was here, even Hermione and Anna, who always joined them for lunch in the Primary school, were missing. That was strange. What happened? What could have happened? He had no idea. Should he go through to his grandmother’s office? But… no, she would not be there; if she had returned to Hogwarts, she would be in the Great Hall having lunch. He thought about just going back to bed but dismissed the thought, when he recalled that it was his job to entertain the students during the afternoon. He went back downstairs and stepped through the door into the castle heading for the Great Hall.

When he opened the door to the Great Hall and entered, all those he had missed a few minutes before, were standing about two meters in front of him shouting,

“Happy Birthday, Harry!” Harry was much too shocked to react in any way. Of course, it was not the first time that he had forgotten his birthday, but what shocked him most was the way in which everyone had worked together to… His father’s voice brought him out of his thoughts. Harry shivered a bit and looked up into his father’s face, and Severus could see the betrayal Harry had felt in his green eyes and pulled him close to himself.

“I am sorry, Harry, we didn’t want to upset you, we only wanted to surprise you and have a proper birthday party for you. Are you feeling alright?” he asked concerned. Harry sighed and answered,

“Yes, Dad. But could none of you imagine how worried I was when I couldn’t find anyone in the school?” Tears started to well in his eyes, and Harry felt he couldn’t longer suppress them. Severus pulled him into a hug, so that nobody could see Harry’s face, put a cold hand on his forehead and turned to the others, who were watching them closely, telling them in a calming voice,

“I think Harry doesn’t feel too well. Maybe you should go and sit down, and we will be there in a few minutes.” He pulled a phial out of his robes and handed it to Harry. “Drink Harry, it’s a calming draught,” he said soothingly and held the phial to his son’s lips. Harry gulped it down and relaxed seemingly. “Don’t let yourself get so upset, son, you only make yourself sick,” Severus advised him. “Harry, your mother and I have something we want to talk about with you and Ginny later in the afternoon. Please make time for it before dinner, while we are undisturbed. Now, shall we go and join the others?” Harry stood back, gave his father a short nod and walked with him over to the Head table, where the others were waiting for them.

“Sorry to have kept you waiting,” Harry apologized and sat down between Ginny and his Mom. Minerva clapped her hands, and food appeared on the tables. Everything looked delicious, but Harry was still much too upset and felt too groggy to eat anything, however fortunately neither his mother nor Ginny reminded him not to push his food around the plate. Finally, everyone had finished the main course and a huge white cake, decorated with many fruits and candles on it approached the table. It sailed down onto the table and settled down just in front of Harry. Albus stood up from his seat, and with a flick of his hand, the candles were lit and everyone sang ‘Happy Birthday’ for him, before they proceeded to look at him expectantly. Harry glanced back and said jokingly but with a stern face,

“Alright, thank you. I think it is much too pretty to be eaten, so let’s save it for the wedding.” He could feel a wave of disappointment running over the table and grinned for the first time on this day. With a little wish magic, all candles were extinguished. A little more wish magic cut the cake in small pieces. When Harry did not move to distribute the cake, Lily started to put pieces on little plates and handed them to Hermione to pass them along the table. Ginny leaned over to Harry and whispered,

“Harry, I know you are tired and not hungry, but you have to eat a whole piece of cake, otherwise I will take you to Poppy and let her keep you in the Hospital Wing.” Harry growled at her angrily, but as he knew, his fiancée would not joke about such things, obliged and ate the whole piece of cake. Fortunately, Dobby had prepared his favourite yoghurt cake with fruits, the only cake Harry could always eat. When everyone had finished their cake, Minerva stood and said,

“Alright, happy birthday, Harry.” Harry smiled gratefully at his grandmother, and she continued, “It is time for our first present for the birthday boy. As Harry has cared for the students not only every afternoon but also every Saturday and Sunday, I think it is really time that he gets a rest, even if it is only for a few hours. Therefore, today, Harry, you are free from all duties. We expect you back here at 3 o’clock for another piece of cake and for your other presents; furthermore, we expect you at 6 o’clock for dinner in your quarters. Apart from that you and Ginny are free to spend the afternoon as you like.” She threw a confirming nod at Harry and received a thankful smile.

“Now, for the students we have decided to organize a game afternoon here in the Great Hall. All our teachers are going to do magical games with those who are interested. We will do the games one after another, so that everyone can participate in any game. For example, at first, we will play – and all of us are willing to play, so that every one of you has the chance to play if you want to – wizard chess. Afterwards we will go out and play Quidditch, and when we still have time until teatime, we will read you a few wizard stories, which every child who has grown up in the wizarding world knows.”

Harry and Ginny went for a walk around the lake and sat down on Harry’s favourite spot under the tree half the way around the lake. They talked for a while until Harry dozed off, cuddled into her arms. He was woken up by shouting voices and laughter that could be heard from the Quidditch pitch, and both of them had a great time watching the teachers and the new muggleborn students playing Quidditch together. It was just too funny, and Harry was not only refreshed after his nap but also in a much better mood than before, when they had to return to the castle for tea and another piece of cake.

Afterwards Harry had to open a huge amount of presents. Most of them were books or sweets; one package however contained a tiny travel bag Harry eyed suspiciously. Severus and Lily laughed at his expression, and Lily said,

“Harry, don’t open this now. This bag contains everything the two of you will need for your honeymoon. You only have to enlarge it when you arrive at your destiny.” Harry threw Ginny an amused glance and looked back to his parents.

“Thank you, Mom and Dad; that’s a really good idea, and we appreciate it very much.” There was one more present from his parents; however when he started to open it, Lily whispered to him,

“Harry, don’t open this now. It contains your wedding robes. Ginny and I have chosen them together. Open them later.” After two hours of unwrapping presents, Ginny and Harry retreated to Harry’s room to await the talk with his parents. They arrived shortly after and called them out in the living room, where Julia was playing with Marina and Violet. Severus spoke first.

“Alright, Ginny and Harry, we would like to tell you something. Please let us speak first and wait, before you ask questions, alright?” When Harry and Ginny nodded, he threw Lily an enquiring look, but when she nodded, continued, “We, that means not only your mom and me, but all the teachers, have noticed that you are very much overworked, Harry. Not only during the school year are you doing too much work, but also during the holidays. And this goes so far that it is influencing your already poor health. As Ginny is checking you every evening on Poppy’s orders, we know that nearly every third day you have at least a slight fever, and Poppy warned us that if you continue like this, you will probably not be able to endure the school year until the Christmas holidays but will collapse before. Therefore, we have thought about something.” He glanced at Lily and mouthed, “Do you want to continue?”

She nodded and went on, “We know, that you have entrusted the Weasley twins with the organization of your wedding. However, we have talked to them and asked them to leave the organization of your honeymoon to us. As Poppy insists that you should leave the castle for at least two weeks, together with Minerva and Albus we have planned a two weeks trip for you. We won’t tell you more about it, we just wanted you to know that you will be away from the evening of your wedding day until August 30 in case you have any urgent preparations for the new school year you wish to finish before. You are not allowed to take any work with you; in fact you must not take anything with you apart from the bag we gave you and your wands of course. If there is need to take anything else, you have to ask us if you may take it with you.” Harry glanced at Ginny and saw that she seemed to be delighted. He felt a little unsure; he had never been away from home for two weeks. Where would they be going?

He was pulled out of his thoughts, when Ginny said, “Thank you very much. I am looking forward to travelling with Harry very much, and I promise I will keep an eye on him.”

Harry pulled her into a hug and said quietly, “We will both look after each other, right?” Ginny threw him a huge smile and nodded eagerly. Severus knew his son well enough to know that he was not content with the lack of information.

Therefore, he said comforting, “Harry, you know that we only want your best. We are sure that you will like the place we are going to send you; otherwise, we wouldn’t send you there. Please have so much confidence in us.” In Harry’s head, a thought popped up for a moment: ‘Grandfather was the one who sent me to the Dursleys in my old time line’. However, he managed to push the thought away and gave his father a grateful nod.

While everyone was having dinner in the Snape quarters, Harry’s mobile phone rang. Very confused who this might be, as all students who had his number were sitting just across the table, he answered the phone and nearly dropped it. It was Fred and George.

“Hi, Harrykins, happy birthday! We hope you are still awake, as we are going to start fireworks over the lake at 10 o’clock this evening. Please tell everyone to come outside then. Alright, bye-bye.” And they were gone, before Harry even could say a word. He held the phone away from his head and looked at it with a very strange expression.

“Harry?” Several people asked at the same time, and Harry was back to reality.

“Oh, sorry,” he excused himself, still glaring at his mobile phone. “That was Fred and George. Everyone is to come down to the lake shortly before 10 o’clock because they will launch fireworks over the lake at 10.”

Time just flew away, and before Harry could realize it, the next week had passed and the students of his summer course had to leave for the remaining three weeks of the holidays. In the evening, Harry was sitting in his office, feverishly working on the preparations for the new school year as he had done for the last week since his parents had told him and Ginny about the planned holiday. Suddenly his glance fell on the calendar Violet had painted for him for Christmas, and he noticed that August 9 had just passed. And on the 11th was Ginny’s birthday! How could he have not thought about that? His thoughts had been so wrapped about his wedding present and marriage ring for her, that he had forgotten her birthday completely.

With a sigh, he pushed his work away and sat back to think intensely about a present for his soon-to-be wife. Finally, an idea flashed up in his head and he quickly left his office to search for his mother. Fortunately, Ginny was still working in the hospital wing. As Poppy had given her so much free time to be around Harry during the summer, and as she soon would leave for two weeks of Holidays, she was now working as hard as possible to help Poppy get ready for the new school year. His parents and grandparents, together with a few other teachers, were still sitting in the living room having tea.

“Mom,” Harry tried to get Lily’s attention, and she turned to him, smiling,

“Yes, my son. Come, sit down and have some tea.” Harry frowned. He had no time for that, but…

“Alright,” he sat down on his favourite spot, “however I came to ask you something. I have just remembered that it will be Ginny’s birthday on Sunday, so I have to go into town to buy a present for her. May I go alone, tomorrow morning?” Lily sighed and threw an unsure glance to Severus, who frowned and replied sternly,

“Harry, I would prefer if you took someone with you, just one person, it doesn’t matter whom – except for the kids of course.” Harry laughed and said,

“Oh, don’t worry, I don’t want to take Marina in order to have her sitting at lunch tomorrow telling Ginny ‘Oh, I know what Harry bought for you, it’s pink and has two ears, and…’ definitely not.” He turned to Lily and Julia, “Mom or Julia, does one of you have time to accompany me? It will take about one to two hours.” Both of them nodded and agreed, that they would both accompany Harry. Harry let out a deep sigh and said, “Thank you, both of you. Um…,” he turned to Poppy, “Aunt Poppy, sorry, but could you perhaps take Ginny up to the Hospital Wing after breakfast and keep her busy for about two hours?” Everyone laughed now, and Poppy replied amused,

“Don’t worry; she won’t miss you tomorrow morning.”

Ginny’s birthday was a huge party from breakfast onward until late into the night. The youngest Weasley becoming 17 was nothing the large family could ignore. Minerva had invited her parents and brothers to breakfast, and early in the morning, it was already clear that they would be staying until the fireworks her favourite brothers would be launching in the evening. In the afternoon, her cousins and their parents joined the party. Could the house elves be happier during the holidays with so many parties?

It was late in the afternoon, until she had managed to open the huge pile of presents, and when she sighed happily and turned away from the table, Harry came over saying,

“Not yet, my dear,” handing her two more presents. She opened the smaller one first and gasped. It was pink, just pink! And it was…

“A mobile phone?” she asked excitedly, and Harry nodded, took his yellow ‘toy’ in his hand, pushed one button, and Ginny’s phone rang. He showed her which button to push in order to take the phone call, and when she complied, she could hear Harry say,

“Happy birthday, my sunshine!” Wow, Ginny couldn’t believe it. She had always looked in awe at Harry’s phone, and now she had her own one. It was just too cool. Deep lost in thoughts she noticed that Harry was still talking to her. “As I have charmed my mobile phone only to ring when I am not in classes or in the Great Hall, I have charmed yours not to ring when you are together with patients or in the Great Hall. If you want to phone me, you can either insert my number or just press this button here.”

Before she could reply, he pushed the other present into her hands. It was much bigger, and when she opened it, she found a pile of clothes. On the top were robes in a very light pink, no, not really pink, but just matching her red hair (Harry had been glad that Lily had exactly the same hair colour as Ginny, when they went to Madame Malkins to buy her presents), and it had a pattern of flying phoenixes in the same colour woven into the fabric. Ginny could only stare at the robes – they were beautiful. She looked through the rest of the pile, which contained shirts in white and others in the same colour as the robes each with the same pattern woven into the fabric.

Harry, who had watched silently, stated a bit unsurely, “I thought they would look well under your Hospital apron,” and Ginny pulled him into a bear’s hug, kissed him on the cheek and said,

“Thank you, sweetie, for all the nice presents. They are pretty, and they will just look great under my apron. That’s exactly what I wanted, because so far I didn’t have anything that really fit.” Harry let out a relieved sigh, before he was pulled into another bear hug by Mrs. Weasley. He could hardly breathe, but Mrs. Weasley released him immediately, when his mobile phone rang. It was Ginny, giggling, “Do you think it is right to let you be pulled into hugs by other women? I am going to be your wife in four days.”

Harry just laughed and switched his phone off, before he went over to his fiancée and whispered into her ear, “Thanks for saving me.”

A moment later, Ron approached Harry, and Ginny proceeded to standing in front of her fiancée, while Ron started a conversation,

“Harry…err…,” he trailed off unsurely, “um… mate, Ijustwanttoapologizeforbeingagitandso’msorry.” Harry threw him a questioning look and asked softly,

“I am sorry, but could you please repeat that once, I didn’t get it,” and Ron replied,

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry for…”

“for being a real git?” his sister interrupted him sternly, and he unsurely replied,

“Yes.” Harry let the air out that he had not noticed that he was holding it, and said,

“Alright, Ron, thank you.” He was more than glad not to be in a war with his in-four-days-to-be-his wife’s favourite brother and went over to give him a hug. Ginny followed, hugged her brother and said,

“Thanks god you came to reason. That’s the best birthday present you could give me.”

During the next three days, Harry only appeared at meals. The rest of the time, he spent working on his lesson plan, already preparing tests and parchments for homework, as he knew he would not be able to keep up with all the work during the school year. His grandmother and Madam Pomfrey had made that clear to him. With the new Primary school, his workload had even grown compared to the start of the previous year. However, when he returned to his office after dinner on the 14th, the door wouldn’t open for him. When he threw a very annoyed glance to the people who were still sitting at the table in the living room, Minerva told him,

“Come here and have tea with us, Harry. You won’t manage to get into your office anyway, Albus and I have charmed it together to stay closed until tomorrow evening. You will have tea with us, and then you will go to bed in order to have slept properly on your wedding day.” Harry nodded agreeably. Of course, he knew she was right; he was so tired that he could hardly keep his eyes open, and he knew that Ginny was already very angry with him.

“At least you have to be lucid enough to decide if you want to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’,” Severus sneered, and Harry threw him an annoyed glance, before he replied,

“Alright, thanks for your advice, I am going to bed. Good night,” and went over to his room, fell onto his bed and was already asleep. He didn’t even wake up when Ginny joined him a few minutes later, but just pulled his arm around her and slept on.

The big day dawned bright and sunny. Lily entered their room quite early and led Ginny into her own room, where Minerva and Poppy were already waiting in order to help Ginny get dressed appropriately. In the meantime, Julia went over to Harry’s room to keep him entertained and to help if necessary.

“Don’t forget the rings,” she advised him, and Harry threw her an exasperated glance – of course he had forgotten them; this was not his day – he was much too excited. Julia eyed him worriedly and told him to sit down and wait, while she looked for her father. Maybe he could make him drink a calming draught. Severus entered Harry’s room and talked to him for a few minutes, before he said,

“No, I can’t give him a calming draught, he is too sleep deprived; he would sleep through his wedding if I did. But Harry,” he turned to his son, “Everything is alright. Wait until you see your pretty wife,” and Harry nodded. And Severus was right: All the excitement vanished the instant Harry saw his Ginny, when she entered the living room. She was beautiful, and Harry could hardly take his eyes from her.

When they arrived at the Great Hall, only one-half of the main entrance doors opened, while all other doors remained closed. ‘Oh no,’ Harry thought. Had it been right to leave the organization for their big day to the Weasley twins? Anyway, it was too late. He was pushed through the door and found himself on a footbridge that led to a small island in the middle of the Great Hall. The island was surrounded by a lake… no, it obviously had to be the sea as there were waves as well. The whole Hall was the sea – now he got it. And around the centre island were smaller islands, which were not connected by bridges, but Harry noticed small boats commuting between the islands. On the centre island, which they had reached now, were enough chairs for everyone to sit on, while on the other islands Harry could recognize small houses with tables in them, and the houses were surrounded by smaller tables and chairs or in some cases only chairs. Small birds were flying along the sky.

‘No, that’s not a bird, that’s mine!’ Harry thought and accio-ed the snitch that was cruising together with the birds, but immediately one of the twins was standing in front of him shouting ‘Protego’, and the snitch drifted away again. Harry suddenly saw both twins towering in front of him, and mumbled,

“Sorry, I just wanted to catch it in order to give it to Ginny,” and the twins laughed and said in a singsong melody,

“We know that…”

“… and you can do that…”

“…but not now…”

“…and not by ‘accio’…”

“…but on a broomstick…”

“…and only when we tell you…”

“…’cause it is too early,” they finished their tirade together.

“Alright, alright, I’m sorry,” Harry mumbled, blushing because of the attention he had attracted. Now his mother came over and took his arm to guide him to the front chair as soon as everyone else was seated. He saw that Mr. Weasley was standing on the other side with his beautiful Ginny, and he suddenly felt very happy. Finally, he came to sit next to Ginny, his mom on his other side, and Albus appeared in front of them and began the ceremony, which was – from time to time – commentated by Fawkes. However, Harry could only hear him, he could not see him, and before he could nurse too murderous thoughts against the bird, he reminded himself that Ginny, Albus and his mom were the only other ones who could understand Fawkes.

When Albus asked Harry, if he was sure that he wanted to take Ginny as his wife, Fawkes trilled,

#You ought to think about it; I mean she is only a parrot and not a phoenix like you and me, and you know how old wizards get, look at my old one,# Harry was so upset that he jumped up and said,

“Sorry, Granddad,” and everyone gasped, before he continued, “I just have to say that: ‘SHUT UP FAWKES!’ Sorry for the interruption, Granddad, of course I WILL.” He sat back, everyone let out a relieved laugh and Albus continued asking Ginny, who replied immediately,

“Yes, I will.” From the moment, he had to pull Ginny’s ring over her finger, which was a very simple golden ring just with their bird forms on it and their names engraved on the inside, he could not help crying, and Ginny joined him for the rest of the ceremony.

When the ceremony was over, Severus joined them and sneered,

“I thought it was only the girls who cried at their weddings… Anyway, congratulations, Harry and Ginny!” He led both of them to a boat, which took them to one of the other islands, where a breakfast buffet was waiting on a table inside the house. Everyone else followed quickly now, and they hurried to grab plates and put some of the delicacies on them before they headed out to sit at one of the tables on the beach.

They spent the whole day taking turns between eating and opening presents. The twins had asked the house elves who were too glad to comply to prepare a beautiful cake for them. It had the form of a – huge – snitch, on top of which a miniature version of Hogwarts was situated, and on one side of the up and down moving wings a parrot was sitting, on the other a phoenix. It was Harry’s favourite yoghurt cake with fresh berries in it – it was so light and delicious that even Harry managed to eat a second piece of it.

Now it was already after dinner, and as Harry had consumed most part of Merlin House for dessert, he was so full and tired that he just stretched out on the beach next to his wife. But suddenly the twins ushered them into a boat and Fred explained,

“You have to go and change, as you are going to play Quidditch now.” Harry gave him an incredulous look and answered,

“You don’t believe that now, do you? I am definitely not going to play Quidditch with my belly full with cake. I have just eaten Merlin House; how could I play Quidditch like that?” Everyone laughed, and Minerva told him,

“It’s alright Harry, you just have to change and then sit on a broom and catch the snitch. However, you have to take your wife with you on your broom.” Harry sighed and obliged tiredly. Couldn’t they tell him that before he had his dessert? Minerva led them to a small room next to the Great Hall, where changing clothes were already laid out for them. They changed into shorts and T-shirts, unbelievingly glancing at each other, and exited the room laughing in order to do what they were told. Harry made Ginny sit in front of him on the broom and embraced her fiercely with the other hand on his broom, before he realized,

“No, Ginny, that won’t work. If I have to catch the snitch, I have to release either you or the broom. You have to sit behind me and cling to me, alright?” Ginny nodded and mounted the broom just behind Harry, and they took off. It was not easier to catch the snitch here than on the Quidditch pitch as it was hiding behind the little birds and even in front of the clouds that were visible around the ceiling and had exactly the same colour. After about an hour, Harry told Ginny,

“Let’s go down for a short break, alright? I am getting tired, and I want to drink something. They landed on the island where the drinks were waiting on a table and were handed ice-cold pumpkin juice. “Oh, that’s good,” Harry sighed and positioned himself on the broom again, followed immediately by Ginny, who asked him worriedly,

“Are you alright? I don’t think we HAVE to do this,” but Harry only nodded and continued to look for the snitch. This time it only took him twenty minutes, and he put his right hand around the struggling ball – and they were gone with a whoosh.