It Meant Family

31st of July 1993

"let ruin end here let him find the honey where there was once a slaughter let him enter the lion's cage & find lilacs let this be the healing & if not let it be" - little prayer, Danez Smith

Grimmauld Place 12, London, England

Grimmauld Place awoke in silence, marking the most depressing birthday Harry could remember due to a culmination of incredibly unfortunate events. His aunt and uncle had decided to take a trip to Italy in June and obviously refused to bring him along, therefore, he was to spend the month of August with his most hated relatives. However, as if he had not gotten unlucky enough, the night of his birthday was a full moon, so Sirius could not take him to the Dursleys the following morning and would have to do so that afternoon.

"Cheer up lad" Sirius smiled "what other day of the year do you get to eat treacle tarts for breakfast and cake for lunch?"

"Cake for dessert, Sirius" Remus corrected, "after lunch."

"Yeah, that's what said." He winked at Harry, who offered a bitter smile in return.

"I know this is not ideal cub-"

"Not ideal?" The boy scoffed "A dungbomb exploding in your bag is not ideal, this is-" The conversation was interrupted by the teapot exploding in the kitchen "I'm sorry."

After the magical accident, they decided to sit in silence only to be interrupted not more than five minutes later by Kretcher, walking into the kitchen with his arms stretched out like a scarecrow having not one, but three owls standing on him. The big grey Lupin-Black family owl stood proudly on his head as it did every morning, but it was accompanied by Hedwig, who belonged to Harry, and Errol, the Weasley family owl, one in each of his scrawny limbs.

"Mail" he growled.

From one of the elf's hands Sirius took a pile of letters and began distributing them, starting with the wizarding newspaper, which he immediately handed over to Remus. Floating near the other hand, Harry took three parcels that had his name on them, he tore through the first one quickly. Inside, he found a present wrapped in golden paper and a birthday card. In the envelope, there was a letter and a section from that weeks' Daily Prophet, he read it aloud.

"MINISTRY OF MAGIC EMPLOYEE SCOOPS GRAND PRIZE

Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, has won the annual Daily Prophet Grand Prize Galleon Draw.

A delighted Mr. Weasley told the Daily Prophet, 'We will be spending the gold on a summer holiday in Egypt, where our eldest son, Bill, works as a curse breaker for Gringotts Wizarding Bank.'

The Weasley family will be spending a month in Egypt, returning for the start of the new school year at Hogwarts, which five of the Weasley children currently attend."

The boy smiled at the picture and placed it stretchered out on the table for his family to see. It depicted all the nine Wealseys, - Molly, Arthur, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny - standing in front of an enormous pyramid. Sirius gave him a victorious smile.

"What a wonderful bit of news lad," he cheered "I hear Egypt is great, I'm sure they'll have a great time" Remus opened his own edition of the Daily Prophet, but Harry paid him no mind, having his attention fully devoted to the birthday card Ron had written to him.

"Dear Harry,

Happy birthday!

It's amazing here in Egypt. Bill's taken us around all the tombs and you wouldn't believe the curses those old Egyptian wizards put on them. Mum wouldn't let Ginny come in the last one. There were all these mutant skeletons in there, of Muggles who'd broken in and grown extra heads and stuff.