Hogwarts: Don't call me the Staff Maker

Chapter 761 The Gift

The air, carrying the coolness unique to the morning, blew into the Burrow through the window. Harry woke up from his cot in the Burrow and groggily looked out at the garden.

The lively scene at yesterday's wedding still seemed like yesterday. It was unbelievable that Lupin had actually married Tonks. This suddenly reminded him of his godfather, Sirius Black, and he wondered who his godfather would marry next.

There was a thumping sound outside the door, as if someone was running upstairs quickly, and getting closer and closer.

Harry grabbed his wand from beside his cot and pointed at the messy desk next to him.

"Glasses flew over!"

Although the glasses were only about a foot away, Harry felt immense satisfaction watching them fly over with a whoosh—even when the glasses poked his eye as they flew by, it didn't dampen his good mood.

Today is Harry's seventeenth birthday, which means he can use magic freely without worrying about suddenly receiving a punishment letter from the Ministry of Magic.

"Bang!"

The door was pushed open from the outside.

"Good morning, Harry," Ron poked his head in. "Happy birthday!"

"Thank you, Ron," Harry said with a smile, looking at the envy on Ron's face. He had never felt so good.

"And the others? Siron and Hermione."

"They're all in the restaurant," Ron said. "You'd better hurry down too, breakfast will be ready soon, and I noticed they've prepared a gift for you."

Harry's eyes lit up when he heard about the gift.

To be honest, Harry isn't short of money. The gold his parents left him could pile up into a small mountain, and even though he's been using it since his first year, he's only used up a tiny fraction of it. Even if he does nothing else, that wealth would be enough for him to squander for decades.

What Harry was most looking forward to was the sentiment behind the gift—after all, in the eleven years before entering Hogwarts, he had almost never received a proper gift.

Whether it was his birthday or Christmas, he could only receive a napkin, a toothpick, or an old Dudley sock from his Uncle Vernon at most.

"Not bad." Harry jumped out of bed. "So what are we waiting for?"

A humble kitchen.

Mrs. Weasley prepared a sumptuous breakfast in just fifteen minutes (if Ginny and Hermione hadn't been there to help).

(Busy, maybe even earlier).

Xilun helped her move the stew pot from the kitchen to the dining table.

Only then did Ron and Harry stumble down the stairs. By then, ten minutes had passed since Ron went upstairs to call Harry.

"I thought you guys had gone back to sleep again," Hermione said irritably.

Ron scratched his head, not understanding why Hermione was so angry. They had only lingered upstairs for a while; it wasn't a big deal.

"I'm sorry, I was just too excited," Harry said, a little embarrassed.

He had just tried to use magic to tie his sneakers, but somehow the laces got tangled all over the shoe, and he couldn't untangle them by hand for several minutes.

At that moment, Siren also noticed Harry's shoes, which were wrapped up like a mummy.

Also, Ron's shirt color had changed. He remembered it being orange before, but now it was blue, which must also be Harry's doing.

"Speaking of which, Hermione, do you know any magic to untie knots? I'm afraid I can't untie this one with my hands."

"How could I possibly know such magic?" Hermione said irritably—she had never seen a knot-untying spell in any book.

"That's easy," Siron said.

"There really is such magic!" Harry asked incredulously, and even Hermione looked over immediately.

"Hmm...more or less."

Siren picked up his wand and waved it at Harry's shoes.

"Torn apart!"

The shoelaces, which were originally tightly tied together, snapped immediately with a crack—but the good news was that his shoes were fine. Then, Xiren waved his wand again.

"Restored to its original state!"

The broken shoelaces were reattached in a second.

"Look, it's untied."

"Tsk." Hermione rolled her eyes without saying a word.

"Okay, it's definitely untied." Harry said as he squatted down and put the shoelaces back on his shoes.

This time, he dared not use magic again.

"You don't need to be so excited," Ginny said. "In a wizarding family, it's okay for us to use magic; the Ministry of Magic can't find out who used it."

"I know," Harry stood up, "but it doesn't feel the same."

Ginny blinked. She really couldn't understand what "feeling different" meant. Weren't they both using magic?

At that moment, however, Mrs. Weasley placed a large plate of sandwiches on the table, attracting everyone's attention.

"Good morning, Harry. Arthur asked me to wish you a happy birthday," Mrs. Weasley said with a smile. "He has to go to work early, but he might be back for dinner."

"Oh, by the way, this is a gift for you." She handed Harry a square package.

Harry quickly opened it, and inside was a watch, somewhat similar to the one Ron was wearing. The gold dial had no hands, only a few stars moving around.

"It's a tradition to give a wizard a watch when they come of age," Mrs. Weasley suddenly became a little hesitant. "Actually, this watch isn't new. It used to belong to my brother. He was very careless with things, so it might not look that nice, but—"

Before Mrs. Weasley could finish speaking, Harry had already stood up and hugged her tightly.

It was clear that Harry had put a lot of unspoken words into that hug, and Mrs. Weasley felt it too.

She awkwardly patted Harry's cheek, then waved her wand somewhat haphazardly, seemingly trying to distribute the sandwiches to everyone, but instead sending several pieces of fried egg flying onto Ginny's head.

"Happy birthday, Harry." Hillen also brought out his prepared gift: a Chadley Cannons model that could fly on broomsticks and pass the ball to each other.

There weren't any models like this on the market; it was commissioned by Sirius from Fred and George. Harry's eyes lit up when he saw it, and he stared intently at the tiny figures, only three inches tall, tossing and catching guillotines the size of soybeans between them in mid-air.

"Thank you, Celen, I really like it."

"I'm glad you like it," said Sirius, adding, seeing Harry's excitement, "but a hug is out of the question, I don't need one. However, if you insist, I'd like to give it to Mrs. Weasley; she seems to like it quite a bit."

A burst of laughter immediately erupted from the surrounding area.

Mrs. Weasley blushed slightly, perhaps out of embarrassment. She deliberately kept a straight face and placed several pieces of ham and egg sandwiches onto the plate in front of Celent with a large motion.