entranceway | For Harry, tied to his doorknob

[James has finally, finally put something together for Harry's birthday. Okay so it's been like more than a week but there were hell hounds and people died and it just wasn't a very good birthday week and that is entirely not James' fault. But he does feel bad he's late.

When he's relatively sure Harry is in his room, he ties a bundle of fifteen envelopes together securely, and ties them to the doorknob so they hang there nicely. Then, he gives a quick knock on the door and apparates away with a crack.

Once Harry opens them, he'll find fifteen cards, each with a note inside written as if James had been around for all these birthdays - except for the last one.]

Happy Birthday, Harry!

Sorry you've had to spend the first year of your life in hiding. We'll make it up to you later, I promise! For now though, we're just so glad to have you in our lives, safe and sound.

J Da ~~Jam~~
- Dad

Harry,

Your Mum keeps getting mad at me because I've been laughing when you topple over, but I promise it's only 'cause you've got my father's knobbly knees. At least you've got my fantastic hair and your mother's eyes going for you!

- Dad

You've gotten to the age where staring as often as I do for as long as I do is starting to is starting to make you uncomfortable. But it's hard when you look so much like us already! It's uncanny! But I will try to do so less often. Try, being the key word.

- Dad

(Also the mansion would not give me any boys' sixth birthday cards for whatever reason so obviously we're just raising you to be very secure in your masculinity. - J)

YOU'VE GOTTEN YOUR HOGWARTS LETTER BY NOW CONGRATULATIONS WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU. We will also miss you horribly while you're at school so you'd better write to us a lot, alright? Also don't get too worried - I know you do that sometimes. You'll do fine no matter what, and we'll always be rooting you on.

- Dad

So, that should hopefully cover about fourteen years of birthday cards I've missed! Don't let Wonderland tell you otherwise - you're fifteen just like I'm nineteen, even if this place can't be arsed to let us age correctly. It's definitely something to stay stubborn about. Also sorry this is so late - with the hell hounds and Sirius and Remus leaving, I got sort of distracted.

Anyway I've been thinking on things to teach you, and I think I've finally got something, just in time to be a belated birthday present. Since ages and time and such doesn't matter here and there's no Ministry to catch us...would you want to learn how to apparate?

Let me know if you're interested!

- James

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[Harry's had a late morning, so when he finally opens the door, it's closer to afternoon than morning. But he spots the bundle tied to his doorknob, and at first he thinks it's probably a practical joke, maybe from Snape, although exploding letters seems more like Malfoy's thing than his. But since Malfoy's not here, suspicion has to go somewhere.

But when nothing happens, and he spots that familiar handwriting, any thoughts of possible pranks being played on him fly right out of his mind. He reads all of the cards, taking in each one, grinning his approval at the ones James picked, and grinning more and more at each message that he reads.

This is definitely the best birthday present he's ever gotten, and he has to tell that to James in person. So he crosses over to James's room where he pauses to re-read the cards again. By the time he's finished taking in every single card, he's been standing outside James' room for good long while. So he knocks on the door and calls out James' name:]

James, it's Harry. Are you there?

[It was really, really, really tempting to just apparate a few feet up the hall and watch Harry open them, hiding under his invisibility cloak. But, ultimately he decided that would be a bit much, and did apparate back to his own room to wait for a reaction.

He's been fully expecting Harry to turn up though. Harry's not someone who could quietly read them and never mention it, or at least James doesn't think he is. So he's not surprised at all when Harry turns up at his door.]

I'm here!

[He gets up and answers the door, and grins warmly when he sees Harry there.]

Hey, Harry. Good to see you!

Edited 2013-08-10 18:41 (UTC)

[He grins widely at James when he sees him.]

Hey, it's really great to see you too.

[He lifts the bundle of cards that he brought with him. Seeing James was more important than worrying about putting them in his room for safekeeping.]

Thanks for the cards, by the way. They're really great.

["Great" doesn't even begin to cover it, okay? Okay.]

[James can't hide his smile when he spots the cards. It makes his whole face seem lighter.]

Oh, you found those! I thought you might eventually.

[Says the guy who knocked on Harry's door when he left the cards and had to resist the urge to stay in the hall and watch.]

I'm glad you liked them. I wasn't really sure what to get you, especially in a place where you can get pretty much anything whenever you want, but I didn't want to just not do anything either. I mean, we spent your birthday fretting about those hell hounds or whatever they were called, and that's not right.

[If anyone deserves a real birthday, it's Harry. He's had a terrible childhood with very few birthdays where anyone actually wanted him around or celebrated him. And the fact that everyone was so preoccupied that they nearly forgot about it entirely made James feel incredibly guilty.

So, he had to do something about it, to right things. So he wrote up some cards.]

Yeah, I did! Thanks, they're really great!

[It's way more than anything the Dursleys' have ever given him, and when you consider that the only one of his birthdays that they actually recognized was his tenth birthday, it means the world to Harry.

It's not hard for James's cards to trump the coat hanger and old socks he got way back then, of course, but Harry's excitement about this could be described as going way off any chart ever written.]

It wouldn't have been right to celebrate, not while people were getting killed and...

[Yeah, that just makes him frown.]

[Just hearing Harry so happy about the cards makes James' smile grow twice as big. He's glad it was a hit - it's not like he's ever had to do birthday shop for a son before.

He scales it back slightly though because Harry does have a point. Things got rather dangerous and a celebration would have been out of place.]

No, that's true. But really, I'm still willing to blame Wonderland. Clearly it should have known better than to schedule one of those even things around your birthday in the first place. Whatever force controls that obviously should have looked at its mystical calendar and said "Oh! Nope, we can't this week. Harry Potter's birthday. Maybe we can unleash unspeakable horrors next weekend."

[He's being entirely facetious. ...Well. Mostly facetious. The hell hound event was ~~ruff~~ rough and really, Harry's got enough troubles at home. Couldn't they have at least had something half-decent for his birthday?]

Yeah, that's kind of the thing to do, isn't it? Blame Wonderland?

[If it wasn't for Wonderland, they wouldn't be here, and they wouldn't have to put up with things like Hellhounds or truth events or any of the other ridiculous things that they've had thrown their way.]

But I dunno, I'm not that important. At least, not important enough for an entire schedule to be changed.

[But he knows James is being mostly facetious, even though he thinks it's really not a big deal that his birthday was forgotten about. He's just one person, and people have birthdays all the time.]

For Harry, tied to his doorknob

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