(A/N I know it's been a while since I've updated this fic, but since it's Harry Potter's birthday tomorrow I wanted to write a one-shot to celebrate it. Enjoy!)

37... Not everyday does an man turn 37 years old. Most people dread getting older, age is but a number they say; however it can mean so much more. For Harry Potter getting older meant stepping past his days in the so called 'spotlight' of his youth and finding what his destiny was past you know defeating the dark lord. It turned out that the path that young Harry Potter chose in school actually ended becoming a reality. After the battle of Hogwarts Harry took up on the offer to train as an Auror instead of finishing his last year of school and thus his future was in place.

And just like that, 20 years later he finds himself coming home after a long and stressful day in the office. Since he holds the most dignified position in the ministry as head Auror, late nights at the office, long missions away from his family, and plenty of paperwork to be brought home was a reoccurring thing for Harry. Don't get him wrong, Harry loved his job. He was really good at it and it made him feel like he was making a difference everyday, despite the long hours and the workload; however, the best part of his day was coming to his wife and children.

The moment Harry opened the door he had totally forgotten that today was indeed his birthday as he was too excited to come home to a lovely home cooked meal and to his family after a busy day at the office. As the brass doorknob turned allowing him to enter into his humble home, Harry immediately sensed that something was off. The first thing he noticed that was rather peculiar was that he did not smell the tantalizing aroma that was Ginny's homemade meatloaf that he was promised and looking forward to have for dinner. He used his Auror skills to investigate the scene more thoroughly. He checked the kitchen only to find it empty, then he went upstairs to check his children's bedrooms and ended up at a loss yet again.

After looking around the house and calling out for his family, he headed back downstairs to the kitchen readying his wand to summon his patronous to contact Ginny. He frantically reached into the back pocket of his trousers, but to his dismay and his own clumsiness, the wand fell onto the tile floor. The loud clattering sound alerted Harry out of his rather frantic state of looking for his missing family and caused him to crouch on the floor to pick it up. As he got up he noticed there was a brightly colored note on the fridge being held up by a snitch magnet that was fluttering its wing. Now how had he missed this? He shook his head blaming the long day at work for missing the rather blatant note from his wife.

Pulling the message from the fridge, his eyes skimmed the wrinkled paper thus solving the mystery of the disappearing Potters. The conclusion of the note relayed the information that they had been held up at the Burrow due to James and Fred causing an incident while pranking their cousins causing Lily to break her arm. Now Harry was even more in a panicked state as he had just heard the news that his youngest and his only daughter was injured, so he managed to apparate immediately straight to the Burrow.

A quick moment later he found himself amongst the tall grass that grows a little ways past the welcoming, rickety, familiar estate. Running up to the porch, he reached for the door and burst through not even bothering to knock. Once he entered, his eyesight had to make an adjustment to his surroundings as all the lights were off, which to Harry, was rather disorientating. He took another step further looking around still questioning the atmosphere of the Burrow. All of the sudden the lights flickered on, thanks to Ron's deluminator, and all his family and even some familiar faces from Hogwarts appeared from behind various furniture that occupied the living room.

One moment he was all alone in the darkened room, the next his daughter was running up to him jumping in his arms while the room exploded with the occupants yelling 'Happy Birthday Harry' joyously. He lifted Lily up noticing, despite all of the excitement around him, that she had not looked like she had just broken her arm and planted a kiss on her cheek. Shortly after he was greeted by his wife sporting a large smile and his other sons along with his entire extended family and his godson Teddy. Even Hagrid, McGonagall and a Malfoy (Scorpius that is, tho he kept close to Rose and Albus) had joined in the celebration as well.

Harry was delighted to see his family and friends all together at once as he made his rounds and hugged/thanked them all for wishing him a happy birthday. Once everybody settled in his mother-in-law brought out a huge cake covered in Gryffindor red frosting with yellow lettering spelling out Happy Birthday Harry with firework candles on the top making out the number 37. The party then migrated into the dinning room to enjoy the delicious cake that Molly had prepared. Harry blew out the candles and smiled taking in the heartwarming scene before him. He hadn't even wished for anything when he blew out the candles because he had everything right there and then.

The party continued on as the adults sat in the family room on comfy couches reliving their Hogwarts days while the kids went upstairs to play exploding snap, wizarding chess (which Hugo and Teddy were so thoughtfully lost in a riveting game at the moment) and other miscellaneous games as it was now too dark out to play quidditch outside on the family pitch. Harry had his arm wrapped around Ginny as Ron and Hermione sat next to them cuddled together. The surprise party had been a lovely time and turned out to be a great night, despite not getting any of that promised meatloaf. There was; however, one thing on his mind that he couldn't shake off.

"Ginny dear?" Harry asked turning his head slightly in her direction.

She replied, "Yes honey?"

"What was with that note on the fridge? Was Lily ever hurt?" he mentioned with a concerned look gracing his face.

Ginny paused thinking a bit almost forgetting she had ever written that note since she had been busy preparing for the party the entire day.

"Ohhh no Lily is perfectly fine. I just had to make an excuse to get you to the Burrow when you got home from work making it not look suspicious that it was for your birthday" She stated quietly chuckling to herself.

"I'm sorry if I frightened you Harry, but it was the fastest way to get you here that I knew of" she said giving his hand a tight squeeze.

And it was like as if that moment was perfectly timed because right after Ginny had spoken all the adults had focused their attention on the loud bang coming directly above them. Seconds after Rose and Victoire had come bounding downstairs with a injured Lily Potter in tow.

"Bloody Hell" Ron whispered under his breath shaking his head at the scene before him.

Both Ginny and Harry sprung upright and got up tending to their now injured daughter.

"What ever happened here?" Harry said to the three girls.

Rose was the first to speak up.

"I swear those boys are mental!" she huffed.

"Fred and James were up to their antics again and poor little Lily was the first to walk into it" she exclaimed in a rush trying to catch her breath in between words as she was rather caught up in the matter.

Harry lifted Lily up and carried her to the now empty sofa that was recently occupied by Ron and Hermione, but they got up as well to tend their rather flustered daughter. Lily groaned a bit when she was let down onto the couch and even more so when her mother poked and pried at her to see where it hurt. The pain seem to be coming from her arm and Ginny knew exactly what the diagnosis was...Lily had broken her arm.

"Gin are you sure you divination wasn't your one true calling?" George joked before getting a harsh slap in the gut from his wife for that comment.

The Potters and most of the others decided it was time to get going and a trip to St. Mungos was in place for Lily to heal her arm. All the kids were rounded up by their parents and both James and Fred got an earful upon coming downstairs greeting their parents with innocent smiles for their inappropriate behavior.

All in all it was an eventful day for Harry and you know what? He wouldn't have had it any other way.