The Sunless Burrow

Harry no longer takes birthday parties as seriously as he used to.

Since he entered the Wizarding World, and especially after his godfather was exonerated, he had a truly perfect birthday party at the Black House.

So what he was really interested in was who Draco was talking about, the person he absolutely couldn't have imagined would come.

Secondly, he was touched by Bill's decision to stay up all night to prepare a birthday party for him.

However, while thinking, he suddenly realized something: Neville's birthday was yesterday, and both he and Ron had forgotten.

Furthermore, he never knew when Ryan's birthday was.

"Neville. July 30th."

"Ginny is August 11th, which is the Wednesday after next."

"Next is Percy, August 22nd, the Sunday after Ginny's birthday." So Harry took out his notebook and began to write down the birthdays of the friends who had given him birthday presents.

This was something he had never needed to consider before.

In the past, no one gave him birthday presents, and he didn't need to remember them.

As he scribbled his quill on the paper, he became increasingly aware that he knew nothing about the birthdays of some people he should have known.

Like Hagrid, one of his best friends, he didn't even know his own birthday.

And then Dumbledore. Although he never gave Harry a birthday present, Harry still wanted to know.

As he was thinking this, he put on a shirt made from the skin of Graphorn.

Surprisingly, the shirt, shorts, and gloves felt almost weightless on.

Wearing the cool wizard robe Draco gave him, Harry honestly felt like he was naked in a swimming pool.

Combined with the feather-light sneakers Ron gave him, Harry seriously doubted whether all of these were even a set.

Ron and his friends simply disassembled the parts, bought them, and gave them to him.

A minute later, Harry took a deep breath and pushed open the door.

It felt like entering another world.

His room was filled with sunlight and the low hum of Hedwig.

But once the door was opened, the cold-colored lights illuminated everything, and not a single ray of light penetrated the entire house.

The heat and light in his room seemed to have been swallowed up, as if they had never existed in the first place.

The once cozy, sun-baked the Burrow has now taken on a different look.

It reminded me of when Harry attended the Deathday Party for Nearly Headless Nick Fury last year.

Black carpet, black wallpaper, stair railings painted black. Everything was black.

He had expected to hear the noise coming from downstairs, but he couldn't hear a thing. It was as if everyone in the Burrow had left, leaving him alone in the empty, deathly silent house.

He finally understood what Ron meant by "he'll definitely be shocked."

He hadn't even gone down yet, and this happened.

In this unfamiliar house, Harry followed his memory of what should have been a staircase, but it was now pitch black, and put his feet down.

"Phew! This really is a staircase."

"Ginny?"

"Ron?"

"Draco?"

Where are you all?

"Mrs. Weasley?"

"Mr. Weasley?"

Sirius?

"Okay, Bill?" But even after they got downstairs, no one answered.

Just as Harry couldn't resist opening the door to see if everyone was outside, bang! The sound of fireworks exploding rang out.

Several eerie, ghostly flames appeared and floated in the living room, followed by Ron and his group.

They all seemed to have concealed their forms, breathing sounds, and body temperature with their own or others' help.

This prevented the modified Harry from noticing everyone's presence.

"Very good, Harry, you didn't expect that, did you?"

"This was Fred's and my idea," Fred and George chimed in.

"Then it was Charlie and I who carried it out." Bill and Charlie waved.

"I didn't want these children to misbehave," Mrs. Weasley said, suppressing her mischievous delight and feigning reluctance.

Harry finally understood where Fred and his friends' mischievous nature came from.

"However, Ron's proposal is too outrageous, asking us to cast a thermostat on ourselves."

"We're dealing with Harry, not a wolf or a vampire," Mr. Weasley said.

His hair, which looked as if it had been blown by a strong wind, was now neatly combed and pressed down.

He looked a little nervous, as if he had never done anything like this before.

Percy, standing nearby, was dressed similarly, looking like a full-haired version of Mr. Weasley.

"But it was all worth it." It was Draco.

He gave Mr. Weasley a look of reverence before turning his gaze to Harry.

"There's another person attending your birthday party today," Sirius also revealed himself.

He looked at the air with loving eyes, and with a yawn, a tall, thin young man with skin paler than Draco's and black hair emerged from the spot.

"Regulus!"

"I knew it! The unexpected guest Draco was talking about was you?" Harry suddenly realized.

Yes.

Although Regulus could bask in the sun, as Inferi, he vehemently hated it.

I like dark environments.

All these preparations today are because of him.

"Harry, you won't be upset that I ruined your birthday, will you?" Sirius asked a little nervously.

This was the first time his brother had ever wanted to go out, but if it ruined Harry's birthday, he would find a way to Regulus going back after he had played for a while.

Finally, change these arrangements back to their original state.

"No way."

"The first time Regulus went out was on my birthday."

"This is wonderful!" Harry exclaimed.

He noticed Sirius's concerns and continued, "This is already quite good. At least it's not like the last Deathday Party, which was not only dark but also very cold."

Nearly Headless Nick far away at Hogwarts, sneezed.

I wondered if, after regaining my complexion, I was also beginning to regain the ability to catch a cold that I had when I was alive.

"Hello, hello, ha, Harry, happy birthday!" Regulus stammered as he extended his right hand.

"Thank you, Regulus." Harry shook Regulus's cool right hand.

After greeting everyone, he received gifts from them personally, but because there were too many people, he didn't open them one by one as he had upstairs.

He simply thanked them one by one and then placed them on the sofa behind him.

This time, for the first time, he felt the Dudley he did back then.

There were so many gifts that I couldn't even put them all down. Although I had received many gifts before, they weren't actually from him, so they didn't feel very real.

He's more like a celebrity counting his fans as a gift.

Unlike now.

Harry thought that all that would happen next was a meal and some cake.

But to his surprise, his cake was also unusual.

The cake he thought was in the kitchen was actually hanging above his head the whole time.

It's that will-o'-the-wisp that floats in mid-air, emitting a cold light.

"Whose idea was this?" Harry looked at the cake, which was still burning after being cut, speechless.