Chapter Text
“You did talk to Neville’s Grandmother, right? He is coming?” Harry asked impatiently as he came into the living room.
Remus smiled at Harry, who walked up beside him to stand in front of the fireplace, practically vibrating with excitement.
“Of course, Neville’s coming. He should be arriving any minute now. What did you do with Ron?”
“He’s in the backyard waiting for Dad to Apparate in with Hermione.”
“You left Ron in the backyard with all the food? There won’t be any left for the party,” Remus joked.
“Oh, he’s not alone. Paddy’s out there with him.”
“Then there really won’t be any food left. I think Paddy’s still making up for all the meals he missed last year.”
Harry opened his mouth to respond to that, but stopped short when he noticed that the flames in the fireplace had turned green and an elderly witch had emerged from them.
“Mrs. Longbottom, thank you for bringing Neville.” Remus greeted the formidable looking woman.
“Thank you for inviting him to Harry’s birthday party, Professor Lupin. I am so glad that Neville and Harry have become friends.”
As his grandmother stepped forward to shake the hand that Remus offered her, Neville stumbled from the fireplace and was immediately whisked away to the back yard by Harry.
“Neville has been a good friend to Harry, and it has been a pleasure to get to know him,” Remus remarked as they watched the boys disappear out the back door.
“He’s a good boy,” said Mrs. Longbottom, “but I’m afraid that he hasn’t got his father’s talent.”
“I found him to be a promising pupil. With the right encouragement he did well in Defense Against the Dark Arts this year, although Herbology is really where his strengths lie,” Remus said. “I did notice that he seemed to be having some trouble with his wand. I believe his spell work would improve with a wand that is better suited to him.”
Mrs. Longbottom stiffened, and said in an offended voice, “Neville has inherited his father’s wand.”
“So he told me, and I know that he is proud to have it. Still, Neville is not his father and his father’s wand may not be the best fit for him. After all the wand chooses the wizard, and even close relatives may have very different wands.” Remus smiled, “Neville does remind me of Frank at times but I also see a lot of Alice in him and he has a quiet courage that is all his own. You should be proud of your grandson, Mrs. Longbottom.”
The old witch’s face softened a little and she nodded to Remus, “I will consider the matter of Neville’s wand, Professor. Thank you again for inviting him to Harry’s party.”
After Neville’s grandmother had left in another flare of green flame, Remus headed to the backyard where Harry and his three guests were playing with a large black dog as Severus watched. Hermione having apparated in with Severus about the same time that Neville and his grandmother had come through the Floo.
“Emily should be here in about 10 minutes, so you’d better transform back, Sirius. Otherwise you’ll be stuck like that for the whole party,” Remus said as he entered the backyard.
The dog came to a stop beside the picnic table that held the gifts, and turned into a tall, dark haired man, who turned to Harry and called him over to the table.
“Harry! You’d better open my gift now before your Muggle friend gets here.”
Carefully picking up a plain white box from the table, Sirius handed it to Harry, who had sat down on the grass beside the table. The young wizard eagerly opened the box to find a small, slender snake coiled up inside of it.
“He’s beautiful!” exclaimed Harry, admiring the red and yellow striped pattern of the snakes scales.
Gently reaching into the box Harry hissed to the snake, “Hello, lovely one, I hope you will be happy here with me.”
The snake lifted it’s head and flicked it’s tongue out, tasting the air for Harry’s scent. “You speak? The other ones did not speak to me,” it hissed.
“There are not many of my kind who can speak to yours,” Harry explained, realizing that the snake was still quite young, “I am the only one here who can, but there is no one here who would hurt you. Would you like to come out of there to meet them?”
“Yes,” hissed the snake as it slithered onto Harry’s hand, wrapping itself around his thumb as he lifted it out of the box.
“A snake, Black?” said Severus. “Don’t you think you should have checked with me and Remus before you got Harry a pet.”
Harry looked up from his snake and stared pleadingly at his Dad, “Please, let me keep him. I’ll take good care of him and he won’t be any trouble. He isn’t even very big, and it’s not like he’s venomous or anything.”
Sirius spoke up, “Corn snakes, like that one, are popular pets because they are so easy to care for, and I got everything that Harry will need for it. Besides, you should approve, Snape. Snakes are very Slytherin after all.”
“I notice that you managed to find one that had a Gryffindor colour scheme, though,” Severus pointed out dryly. He sighed, “You can keep the snake, Harry. Remus, you’d better give Minerva a heads up about Harry’s new pet. She’ll need to approve him keeping it in his dorm during the school year.”
Harry’s face lit up, “Thank you, Dad. Thanks Sirius, this is the best present ever.”
As Harry went back to talking to his snake, apparently introducing it to his friends, who had crowded around to see it, Severus pulled out his wand and walked over to where Sirius stood.
“Since Emily will be here any minute, I’d better apply your glamour again,” As he spoke Severus waved his wand and reapplied the charms that disguised Sirius as Remus’ ‘cousin’, Paddy Lupin. “Now if you excuse me, I’m going to go inside to wait for Emily to arrive.”
Sirius looked over at the teenagers admiring the young snake while they waited for the last party guest to arrive. “I haven’t been able to celebrate Harry’s birthday with him since he turned one,” he said wistfully. “I’m glad you and Snape were there for him when I couldn’t be, but I’ve missed so much of his life.”
“At least you’re here now,” Remus said as he slung his arm over his friend’s shoulder. The werewolf tilted his head as he heard the faint sound of voices coming from the front of the house. “Emily just arrived. Remember that Harry goes by Evan while she’s here.”
Harry hissed at the snake, “I won’t be able to speak to you while the one who is next to arrive is here. She is not allowed to know that it is possible for me to do so.”
Harry looked up from the snake as Emily entered the backyard, followed by Severus, “Emily, come see what Moony’s cousin got me. Isn’t he beautiful?”
“It looks like your present is a hit, Paddy,” Severus said as he joined the other two wizards on the lawn. “I think Evan likes it even more than the gift you gave him last Christmas, and I didn’t think that was possible.”
“Jealous, Snape?” asked Sirius.
Severus scowled at him, “Hardly, it’s easy to give the perfect gift when you have so much money to throw around,” Snape hesitated and then continued on thoughtfully, “but the snake shows that you are paying attention to what Evan is really like, not just some image of him you have in his head. I did not expect that of you.”
“Dad, can I open the rest of my presents now,” Harry asked, interrupting their conversation.
Severus said yes and watched as Harry opened his gifts, carefully placing his snake out of the way on the table to do so, noticing with relief that none of them were obviously magical. That would have been hard to explain to Emily. Hermione had given him another board game, Pictionary this time, and when Harry had finished opening his presents the teens decided to play it. The adults were then convinced to play as well, to even out the teams. After a short discussion, Harry, Emily, Neville and Sirius made up one team, while Ron, Hermione, Remus and Severus were on the other. It turned out that Neville had the most skill as a quick sketch artist, a result of his habit of drawing interesting plants so that he could identify them later.
As they played, it turned out that Ron, Neville and Sirius needed help with the meaning of some of the words, because of their lack of experience with the Muggle world. Moony took it upon himself to help Neville and Sirius out when they came across a word they did not know on their turns as the picturist, while Harry helped Ron out. Emily didn’t say anything about it at the time, but Harry could see that she had noticed his friends lack of familiarity with some really simple words, he just hoped he could come up with a reasonable explanation that maintained the statute of secrecy when she asked him about it.
After an afternoon of Board games, card games, and cake, Harry said goodbye to Emily, while her parents chatted for a few minutes with Severus before taking Emily home.
“Thank you for inviting me to your party, Evan, I really enjoyed hanging out with your friends from school. You know, I hadn’t realized until today how different it must be to be able to use magic for things. I mean Neville didn’t even know what a fridge was! I guess his family uses some sort of spell to keep their food from spoiling?”
Harry stared at Emily in shock, then he quickly put on what he hoped was an appropriately puzzled expression, “I don’t know what you’re talking about? Magic?”
“Oh, I know, you can’t tell me anything. Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone else know that I’ve figured it out, but I remember all the weird things that used to happen around you. I also remember the stories you used to tell me when we were little. Our teacher thought that you had a wonderful imagination but you didn’t make them up did you? Your dads were really able to do all those things, like make your toys move on their own and messes just vanish,” Emily’s parents interrupted their conversation to let her know that they were ready to leave. “Goodbye, Evan. Happy Birthday!”
Harry watched her go, still a little stunned. Then he smiled to himself, he should have realized that Emily would put it all together, given how much she liked books about magic, she had spent an entire letter to him detailing the plot of the latest book in the Young Wizard series when it had come out last year. At least she had also realized that the magical world was supposed to be a secret, so she wouldn’t be telling anyone else about it.
Harry looked down when he felt his snake move from where it had been coiled around his left wrist.
“Can you speak now?” it hissed.
“Yes,” he hissed back. “The one who isn’t to know has left, although it seems that she knows more than I thought.”
The snake lifted it’s head and flicked it’s tongue towards Severus who was watching Harry talk to the snake. “Is the smelly one still upset that I am here?” it hissed, not caring about whatever knowledge Emily might possess.
Harry laughed at the snake’s description of his dad and relayed the question, “He wants to know if you are still upset about Sirius giving him to me.”
“I wasn’t upset that Sirius gave you the snake,” Severus explained. “I was upset that he hadn’t talked to me or Moony about it first. What was so amusing about that?”
“He called you the smelly one,” Harry grinned.
Severus raised an eyebrow, “I suppose he can smell the fumes from the potions I have been working on. I don’t particularly care what your snake calls me, since no one else can understand him, but I would appreciate it, if you didn’t spread that particular nickname around. Now, let’s go and say goodbye to the rest of your guests.”
Just before Ron left, Sirius handed him a cage with a tiny gray owl in it.
“I got you a belated birthday present. Since it’s my fault that you no longer have a pet.”
Stunned, Ron accepted the owl and stammered out his thanks before taking the Floo home.
Later that day, Sirius helped Harry set up the snake’s vivarium and tested the charms on it that kept it at the ideal temperature for the snake, and ensured a fresh supply of water.
“So, did you come up with a name for your snake?” Sirius asked as he watched Harry settle the snake into its new home.
“I think I’ll call it Godric. The name goes with his colour scheme nicely,” Harry answered before hissing at his snake, making sure it was happy in the vivarium.
“Snape will hate that name,” said Sirius with a grin. “It’s perfect. So did you have a good birthday, pup.”
“Yes I did,” replied Harry, “like always.”