The After Party

The party ended very quickly. Will had evaded the Malfoys' attempt to speak with him for a little longer by cooking up some excuse to go to the bathroom. Soon after, he returned to his seat, and so did many others. Seeing this, Arthur ended the party by announcing it to everyone.

"I thank all of you esteemed guests for coming. I hope that you have a nice day. Please do not crowd the chimney. We have multiple so that more people can come and go at the same time."

Saying this, Arthur slowly retreated away from the huge crowd. All of them slowly went towards the chimneys to transport through floo powder, but none of the noble families even moved. One by one, they left the meeting through apparition. All of them except the Longbottoms. They waited for the crowd to thin out before they went to the chimney and went about their way. Soon after, the entire hall was empty, but very messy. All the tables and chairs were strewn out in a haphazard manner that confused Will.

"Everyone were very civilized and put their chairs back. How is it that still, the hall is so untidy?", he thought to himself. But he did not mind all that. Because, now was one of the more important parts of his birthday, and that was the presents. He did not mention a thing to his parents, as he was afraid that he would get scolded, but he had noticed that all of the guests had brought something and had given it to Raphael. He put it somewhere.

Will confronted Raphael immediately after the party was over.

"Where are my presents, father? It is not fair to just hide them away! They are mine.", he cried out.

"Calm down. I have no use for them. They are in your room. If you make a mess out of it, I will make sure that you will be cleaning your own room for the next few months.", Raphael warned Will.

"It's okay. I will be going to Hogwarts by that time.", Will stuck his tongue out and ran towards his room. Over the years, Arthur had graduated Will to the second floor, a clear increase in hierarchy for everyone to see. Will went to his room and opened the door. As he expected, the room was filled with presents. They were of all shapes and sizes. He took a deep breath, and started opening them up.

"A remembral? That is useless to me. Oh, look at this! A set of sweets from Honey dukes! Thank god. I can't believe how long it has been since I ate these. Goddamned grandfather, banning all chocolate. What was he thinking?", Will was rambling on and on to himself.

Then, his eyes shone. He leapt towards a long box, and tore it apart. He shouted with joy. "I got the new Nimbus 2000!"

Of course, he checked the tag to see who gave it to him. Then, his excited face just died down. He muttered, "The Malfoys. Should have known. Well, at least they were proper enough to know what to give me."

After a while, there were only a few left. He got to one medium sized box. Will looked at it curiously. He felt that it was special indeed, so he checked who it came from. There were the initials, A.D. Then, Will remembered the letter in his pocket. He took it out, and started reading it.

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Dear William,

I hope that you are reading this letter as you are looking through your presents. I must warn you that mine is a very special one that is very dear to me. I hope that you shall like it very much too, as it is going to be like family to you. Do open the box with the initials A.D and let a drop of your blood fall on the egg inside. Then, you shall see a wonder you have never before.

Truly Yours,

Albus Dumbledore

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Will looked at the box in his hands with curiosity. He opened the box to find a white ovular egg inside. "An owl?", he thought to himself. But, he knew that he could trust Dumbledore. The books that he read told him that Dumbledore was probably the most good a man could be.

He pinched his finger, and the finger turned red. He pinched it harder, and squeezed a small droplet of blood from his fingers. It dropped on the egg, and then nothing. Will sighed with disappointment and turned to another box, when all of a sudden, he heard cracking sounds. He turned around and looked at the egg. The egg had many cracks on it.

Then, all of a sudden, he saw the top of it just pop off, and then saw two eyes staring at him.