"Happy Birthday, Harry!"
"What?"
Harry opened his sleepy eyes and looked confusedly at Ron who was sitting on the bed opposite him.
"Birthday, your seventeenth birthday." Ron reminded.
"Oh, thank you."
Harry suppressed a yawn and stretched his arms lazily after sitting up in bed.
"I can finally get rid of the damn trace and use magic normally!"
"When do you plan to leave?"
Ron pulled out a package from somewhere and threw it to Harry with a smile.
"If nothing unexpected happens, we will go visit the students expelled by Snape tomorrow, and then set off for Godric's Hollow." Harry took the birthday present thrown by Ron, but had no desire to open it. For him now, receiving birthday presents no longer brought him the same excitement as before. He now had more important things to do.
"Don't you want to see the birthday present I prepared for you?" Ron pointed at the package and said, "Open it and have a look. This is the gift Hermione and I picked out together."
"What's this?"
After Harry opened the package, he looked at the contents in confusion.
"Wand holster."
Ron pointed to his waist, where there was an identical object with a wand stuck in it.
"I ordered it from Fred and George. They also use it. After all, it's not a good idea to put your wand in your pocket." Ron pulled the wand out of the wand case and excitedly introduced it to Harry. "Don't underestimate this thing. It actually has a traceless extension spell inside. It can easily store the wand and it's also easy to pull it out."
"It's a bit like a Muggle police holster." Harry gave it a quick inspection, inserted his wand into the wand holster, and after a simple pull out, he found that this thing was indeed very practical. He didn't need to worry about the embarrassing situation of not being able to pull out the wand when needed.
“Not bad, isn’t it?”
Seeing that Harry was very satisfied with the gift he had chosen, Ron said proudly, "And it's very practical."
"Thank you, Ron."
"You're welcome. What do you think Hermione will give you?" Ron said mysteriously.
"have no idea."
Harry didn't intend to guess, the surprise would only be felt when the gift was opened.
However, Ron, who was sitting on the bed opposite, was already talking to himself, "I guess it's probably dueling gloves, high-end dueling gloves. Fred and George both have a pair. They're said to be made of dragon skin, and can be used to knock away curses with bare hands. They're very high-end defensive items, and they won't lose their magic power even after a long time. They're usually made by Albert himself."
"I don't have that many Galleons to buy expensive things like that." Hermione stood outside the dormitory door, handed her gift to Harry, and gave her blessing: "Happy birthday, Harry."
"Thank you, Hermione."
Harry took the package again, opened it and found it was a glove. He put it on with a smile, took out his wand and tried it, then said to Hermione, "It's a very practical gift."
"You're welcome Harry, those are just dueling gloves I bought from Fred." Hermione glared at Ron, the loudmouth, and was very dissatisfied with his nonsense.
"I thought Albert would give you a discount." Ron shrugged. "The dueling gloves he gave you are great."
Ron only found out about this the last time he accidentally saw Hermione taking care of her gloves. He thought Hermione was also planning to give the dueling gloves to Harry.
"You should get up. Lupin and Tonks came to help early in the morning. They are preparing a birthday cake in the kitchen." Hermione seemed to have thought of something and added, "By the way, there are birthday presents from other people in the hall. You'd better get up quickly."
"I'm already up," Ron muttered.
"Then go down and help."
After Hermione and Ron came downstairs to help prepare for Harry's birthday party, Harry also got up from the bed.
He had just changed into his pajamas when he saw the wooden door being pushed open.
"Happy birthday, Harry."
Ginny stuck her head in and saw that Harry was the only one in the room. She took a deep breath and seemed to muster up the courage before walking into Harry's room.
"Thank you, Ginny."
Harry noticed that Ginny was staring at him intently and quickly looked away to avoid meeting her gaze.
"I heard from Hermione that you'll be leaving soon," Ginny asked tentatively.
"Yes, after the trace disappears, we should go to complete Dumbledore's mission." Harry did not deny it. The entire Order of the Phoenix knew that Dumbledore had assigned him an important task.
"I don't know what would work for you," Ginny said, looking down.
"Don't worry about it."
When Harry looked up and met Ginny's fiery gaze, his expression froze.
"Actually, I've always liked you."
Faced with the sudden confession, Harry suddenly felt a little flustered.
"I'm sorry, but Hermione told me that you're ready. I feel like if I don't say it now, I may never have another chance." Ginny didn't cry, but just took another step towards Harry.
"If it was before..." Harry's throat trembled and he shook his head: "I'm afraid we are not suitable now. There are some things I have to do."
"Actually, I had guessed that it would end up like this. I just hoped to get some comfort from you." Ginny took a step forward, raised her head and kissed Harry's lips.
At this moment, Harry's eyes widened and his mind went blank. He felt like he had drunk a large glass of fire whiskey.
Harry kissed Ginny back clumsily, with one hand on her back and the other stroking her long, faintly scented hair, somewhat infatuated with the feeling.
However, Harry knew very well that love had left him after Dumbledore's death, and he was no longer suitable for love.
So, Harry gently pushed Ginny away and whispered an apology.
"This was a stupid mistake. If I'm still alive after this war..."
"No, you're right, maybe we should wait until this damn war is over before we fall in love." Ginny winked at Harry and said, "Happy birthday."
"I bet it's going to be an impressive birthday present."
Fred appeared out of nowhere and said to Harry with a grin, "I brought you some stuff you might find useful."
"When are you?" Harry asked awkwardly.
"Just when Ginny confessed to you." Fred was not embarrassed at all, and comforted her with a smile, "There's nothing to be embarrassed about falling in love."
"I'm not embarrassed." Harry was still a little embarrassed. After changing his clothes, he hurried downstairs.
"It's great to be young!" muttered Fred.
As soon as Harry entered the kitchen, he saw Hagrid placing a large package on top of the pile of birthday presents.
"Long time no see, Hagrid."
Harry walked quickly forward and gave Hagrid, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, a hug.
"Happy birthday, Harry." Hagrid hugged Harry gently and said with emotion, "Time flies so fast. Six years have passed in the blink of an eye. I remember I was the one who delivered the letter to you."
"And you made Dudley grow a pig's tail." Harry couldn't help laughing.
"I don't quite remember."
"Harry, this is for you."
Sirius appeared in the kitchen at some point, holding a box in his hand and handing it to Harry, smiling and urging him, "Open it and take a look!"
Inside the box was a small gold watch.
"When I came of age, your grandfather also gave me one." Sirius recalled, "Although I know you already have a detection pocket watch, I think there is nothing more suitable than this as your coming-of-age gift."
"Thank you, Sirius." Harry put the gold watch on his hand and began to open the gifts given by others.
In Hagrid's big package was a thick cloak made of animal fur. It was said that Hagrid asked Madam Malkin from Diagon Alley to help sew it.
Lupin and Tonks gave Harry a looking glass and a small magic mirror, Moody gave him his own Auror notebook, and the other members of the Order of the Phoenix gave Harry a magic tent and various items that would be useful in the wild.
Fred and George gave Harry a bunch of Defense Against the Dark Arts items and a large bag of emergency rations.
"Is this... a cookie?"
Ron looked at the large bag of tightly packed biscuits in astonishment.
"It's said to be emergency food from the Muggles. Although it's not very tasty, it can keep you fed for a long time. Albert said you might need it." Fred said with a smile, "It's not a good idea to eat mushrooms every day."
"I think we need to store more food," Ron said, turning to Hermione.
"No need, you can come back to the headquarters to rest at any time. We will always be your solid support." Sirius patted Harry's shoulder.
Everyone shared the big cake made by Lupin, Fleur and Haynes while singing "Happy Birthday to You", and after having a sumptuous dinner together, they talked about their next plans.
"Hagrid, you really don't plan to go over and help?" Hermione looked at Hagrid and suggested, "I think you should listen to Albert's advice."
"I can't leave Grawp behind," Hagrid shook his head.
"Hagrid, you have to understand that if the Death Eaters really want to catch you, you will still have to abandon your brother." Sirius felt that Hagrid was a stubborn person.
Perhaps, he really took the giant brother too seriously, but people have to grow up eventually, and Hagrid can't take care of him forever.