Harry Potter and his uncle arrived at Eaton Hall on the evening of July 30th, so as not to waste time on a long journey on his birthday. He and Scott were given a decent guest house.
Harry was worried all evening and couldn't sleep for a long time. Because of this, on July 31st, the boy woke up just after ten o'clock and missed breakfast. But he didn't have time to worry about it-food was waiting in the living room.
And so it was lunchtime, and Harry, dressed to the nines, headed with anticipation to the main house of his best friend's estate.
Richard was found near the entrance.
"Harry," he greeted the guest with a smile. "Happy birthday!"
- Thanks, Richie. Happy birthday to you too. Here you go.
Harry handed Richard a gift wrapped in fancy paper. Richie set the gift aside among a stack of festive boxes and picked one up.
- Thank you, Harry. And this is for you.
- Thank you!
Harry Potter was eager to unwrap the gift, but he knew it was impolite. He opened it immediately, a gift from Uncle Scott, and was delighted to find a Swiss Army knife. He wondered what Richie might have given him.
- Let's go to the ballroom, the guys want to congratulate you too.
Richard and Harry walked into the spacious hall.
Harry Potter didn't immediately understand why Richard had led him to an elderly lady in an elegant blue dress and a hat with blue flowers. The old woman seemed vaguely familiar to the boy.
"Ladies, may I introduce my good friend and fellow birthday boy, Harry Potter," Richard began. "Harry, please meet Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II."
Harry thought he'd misheard. He looked closely at Richard, expecting a laugh, but saw not a glimmer of a smile on his friend's face. Remembering who he'd recently ridden on roller coasters with, Harry realized his friend wasn't joking.
"Pleased to meet you, young man," the queen said in a polite and pleasant voice.
Harry turned chalky white and didn't know how to act. His palms were sweating treacherously. He tried to remember what he was supposed to do when meeting the Queen, but realized he'd never known this information. Uncle Dursley and Aunt Petunia had never explained anything like this. They couldn't even imagine that their crazy nephew would ever meet the Queen in person, and the Dursleys would never have believed that she would come to his birthday and congratulate him! And Uncle Scott didn't care about etiquette, so he didn't bother his nephew with such things. The boy vaguely thought about kissing a lady's hand, but he was afraid to do so.
While Harry Potter froze, the world did not stand still. A courtier brought the Queen a gift, which she handed to Potter.
- Harry, happy birthday.
- A?!
Potter rebooted and sheepishly accepted the gift from the hands of the Queen of Great Britain herself.
"Thank you, Your Majesty," Harry muttered.
His cheeks flushed. The boy wanted to sink into the ground for his lack of etiquette. A thing that seemed completely useless to an ordinary boy suddenly seemed not so useless.
"What a shy young man," the queen said with a smile on her lips.
"Grandma Lizzie, don't embarrass Harry," Richard finished Potter off with his own words. "He's not used to high society yet."
"Potter..." the queen drawled thoughtfully. "A very familiar name. Richie, can you remind me who your friend's parents are?"
"Grandma Lizzy, Harry's parents were wizards. They died at the hands of a wizarding terrorist in '81."
"Ah, Harry Potter! Yes, I remember! It was in your house that the Death Eaters' chief terrorist wizard died. That... Tom Riddle."
"Harry will go to Hogwarts with me," Richard noted.
"Hogwarts?" the queen asked cheerfully, pretending to hear about it for the first time.
- Hogwarts!
- Hogwarts?!