Snape couldn't help but to smile in irony when Harry woke at 8am on his birthday. Normally, he was quite a late riser as apparently 'if there is nothing fun to do, why should he wake up?' As the boy ran down the stairs, he took in the sight of the room, each year Severus had spelled it a different colour with animations on the walls for his birthday. His favourite one had to be this years. On the walls was a forest. The trees were quite a dark green but flitting around the room, brightening the scenery up were golden snitches. From the top of the stairs they'd look like fireflies but only once you came closer, you could tell what they were. This, as always, was the only things that could be good about mornings as he knew, from experience, that these would run off around midday, in time for his muggle friends to arrive. After the customary poke to the wall still (after so many years of being unsuccessful) trying to break through and muck about, he resulted in going to have breakfast.

Breakfast was as good as people told him it was! If it was like this year round, maybe he would consider having this useless meal however, as a nice, sugary breakfast was normally only on celebratory days, it was normally skipped by him much to Severus' dismay. It was almost as if people believed he wanted to be skinny and scrawny with the looks they gave him! After putting his musings aside on the breakfast debate, he looked towards the magnificent feast. To his left were fried eggs, his right blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes and right in-front of him was bacon, sausages, fried bread, baked beans and a birthday Yorkshire pudding – he had been begging Snape to allow him to have a Yorkshire pudding with his birthday breakfast ever since he was six yet he still couldn't believe it was there! It probably killed the man a little on the inside to put it on his plate. With a gleeful smile, he looked up to his guardian and shouted his thanks before tucking in and finishing all the food in fifteen minutes flat. After said fifteen minutes, Harry was buzzing on his seat waiting for Severus to finish his Earl Grey tea and slice of toast. With a sigh, Snape managed to stuff the toast into his face, whilst looking dignified, and followed Harry back into the living room to go through all of his presents.

As Harry only had a few 'family' members left, the eleven presents spelled onto the floor in-front of Harry must of looked amazing. Snape sometimes believed Harry to be older than he actually was due to his forced maturity, it was only blissful moments like these that had kept Severus happy, as he got to watch the young boy express himself without acting. As Harry was shaking them, Snape cast a quick spell to see who the presents were from as he only remembered collecting nine from other people. The collected names, that he knew about, came to three from himself, one from Lupin (who had tracked his cub down whilst, passing Harry's primary school when Harry was six), one from Sirius (who Remus had told and whom Snape still wasn't sure how he managed to get them past the guards, let alone buy them), one from their neighbour, the cake from Hagrid last night, one from the Malfoys (although Draco would be bringing another around later) and one from the Lovegood's after the two Lovegood women somehow knew where they were, who they were and when their birthdays were! The two unexpected ones were from Lily and James. One was a conscious decision, the other was forced or rather fake and I wondered who would of faked a present! Harry knowing about the charm, was ready for the interrogation to begin.

"So which ones were expected and which ones were not?"

"All were expected except the two on the right, the small purpley-grey bundle and the big brown box."

"Who are they from?"

"Your parents..."

"Why the pause?"

"One of them is, the other is forged."

"Forged how?"

"It must be a replica or maybe someone else intended it to be here or both."

"Should I open it first incase it is something which annoys both of us?"

"Yes, I think that would be best."

"Which one is the fake?"

"The purpley-grey bundle."

"Is your wand ready, is your casting arm steady, 1, 2, 3 and it is opened."

After his ridiculous countdown, he pulled away the string and out come Harry's invisibility cloak. Both knowing that this was a fake and that he had the real Peverall one in his room were rather annoyed at the matter. This emotion only escalated when a card tumbled out saying, "Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well." The cursive writing gave away who it was immediately to Snape and Harry could only assume the same thing from his father's angry expression. Picking it up, Harry slowly put it on.

"It looks correct and it works but, I know that it definitely isn't the right one just by looking at it."

"Let me run some diagnostic charms on it."

"Okay. Bet there is a tracker or microphone in it! Like the spy movies."

Believing that they might actually have been listened in on was etched onto Harry's young face alongside his anger and after charms run on it, Snape discovered two high powered charms that he wasn't sure if even he was able to break. There were tracking charms and a compulsion charm on the cloak. The compulsion charm would of made Harry take more risks and be more ignorant of the magical world and in lessons after increased exposure. Snape was now fuming but seeing it was Harry's birthday, he chose to confiscate it for 'safety' reasons and then after a few choice swears in his room, he was going to send it to the goblins for 'safe-keeping'.

"So, what charms Sev?"

"The normal stalker ones. I am just going to confiscate this and give it to the goblins for safe-keeping. Ok?"

"That bad, WOW… okay."

"Don't follow me upstairs, this will only take a couple of minutes"

"Okay, I'll be counting!"

With that childish response, Severus smiled softly, then wondered upstairs to let loose a string of colourful words, then to talk to some goblins. Harry knew that that response would get rid of him quicker and that it would give him a chance to go upstairs and hear, "Old fool, who does he think he is! Trying to make him a pure Gryffindor or get him killed in his first year! When I get my hands on you, you Dumbledildo, I swear to God I will take your sweet tooth and shove it right up your…. Why, hello Mr Ragnok. I would like to hand over a potentially dangerous artefact given to Mr Potter, for the charms to be removed. I suspect that they were put on by Dumbledi-dore." At this Harry was pissing himself with laughter! That slip up made him howl, Snape's eyebrow twitched at his laughter but, as it was his birthday, he knew he would be let off… for now.

After that phone call had ended, Harry opened up all of his gifts. First he opened Lupin's. Lupin, or Mooney, as Harry preferred to call him, had given Harry a soft toy wolf and some potion ingredients he had found whilst travelling England. Sirius/Padfoot/Paddy had given Harry the marauder's joke book with Lupin had obviously looked through and had taken out the jokes that were more on the side of bullying. The Lovegood's had gotten Harry a new and 'improved' copy of Marvellous beasts and where to find them. Their neighbour had gotten Harry another fantasy book and some muggle sweets (Harry had really left an impression on her to get that sort of gift!). The Malfoy's had gotten Harry a 'manly' friendship bracelet with protection charms on it and some sort of communication quill which became larger when removed from the clasp of the bracelet. Also the Malfoy's, being Malfoy's, had obviously threaded some precious metals into it although they had kept a grip on their excessive habits, as Harry was supposed to be raised by lower-class muggles and squibs! He, of course, had the cake from Hagrid, which Snape had checked for potions and charms last night and luckily found zero of them. Then it came to Snape's gifts. Harry was now shaking with excitement, Severus never disappointed with presents! The first present was a collection of eleven potions, one being the potion to find out what his animagus form will be. The second present was a collection of books about both sides of magic with several new spells in that he could try out at school and not get in trouble for! And the third, the third was his favourite! It was a new set of Quidditch balls and the newest broom out there! A nimbus two-thousand. He was speechless! This must of cost a fortune! With that he was off of his feet and Snape was on the ground in a bear hug, for a good five minutes!

"THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!"

"I'm glad you like it Harry!"

"Like it? You've got to be kidding me! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT!"

"Okay Harry! Calm down a bit and you can use them!"

"CALM DOWN! HOW CAN I CALM DOWN? YOU JUST GAVE ME A NIMBUS TWO-THOUSAND AND LOTS OF OTHER COOL STUFF AND YOUR TELLING ME TO CALM DOWN! ARE YOU DELIRIOUS DAD?"

"Okay Harry..."

"NO IT IS NOT OKAY! YOU SIT THERE AND BE EXCITED!"

At this point, Severus was rolling around on the floor laughing with Harry berating him for not being more excited aboutthe present he had got him. After a good thirty minutes of this happening, they remembered that there was one more present left to go. The box from James and Lily.

Harry pulled it towards him and looked at it. The laugher had died down and there was now a haunting silence. After a couple of minutes, Harry lifted a trembling hand and opened the box. He pulled out several hand written books which turned out to be journals hand written by both Lily and James. Lily's were about her life from eleven up to her death and the spells she created/found. Whilst James' were virtually the same however, instead of spell books he had uncensored joke books and a detailed book about the Marauders. After a brief smile at the chance to finally get to know more about his parents, he rooted around and pulled out some odd toys from their childhoods obviously muggle from Lily and wizarding from James. He then rooted around through the confetti and pulled out a small wrapped bundle. On the bundle read, 'For our sweet Harry on his second birthday. Can't wait for your next one! Mummy and Daddy'. Again, Harry's hands shook as he unwrapped it. Inside was a tiny soft toy lion which was red and gold and an old copy of 'the tale of the three brothers'. Inside the front cover was written, 'Passed down heir to heir from the first of the Peveralls to the last. Happy reading!' and a collection of names of who it belonged to. The last being James Charlus Potter. Each gift mended and tore Harry's heart a bit more… It wasn't until he picked up a delayed Howler inside a photo album until he completely broke down. With teary eyes, he turned over the first page and as if time had been re-written a young, vibrant red-headed, green-eyed woman stood there a head shorter than the willowy raven-haired boy next to her wearing glasses. They were hugging and looked to be around nineteen. As the photo album progressed, it was obvious how much these two people loved each other and the small messy haired bundle in their arms. The devotion and love continued as there were more pictures showing Harry's first steps and something, which they wouldn't have noticed at the time… In the background, Harry had had a burst of accidental magic and had turned Sirius' hair pink when falling over from loosing balance. With a small chuckle Harry closed the album and placed it carefully in the box. The last visible thing was the delayed howler. He toyed with the idea of opening it several times before putting on some courage and tearing the top open carefully to hear what was inside. Knowing that this was going to be especially important to Harry, Snape paid so much attention so that he could extract the memory and make a copy of it for Harry later on. Then they heard two voices nobody had heard for nearly a decade…

"Hi Harry it's your mum Lily and the best dad in the world James. Real mature James! Ah Lils you know you love me! I do but this is supposed to be serious and extremely loving but you are acting like a prat! I am wounded… Anyways, if you are listening to this Harry, it means that we are not there to share your special day with you and we are truly sorry. But never forget that we love you so much and would be there if we could. If you think we wouldn't be, you would have to be bonkers kiddo! We love you so much and if we aren't there today I am going to haunt the person who stopped us as I am the mighty Prongs, leader of the Marauders! What he says is true except for being the leader of the Marauders. You take that back Lily! Only if you behave so we can tell him everything! Fine, let's do the boring stuff then I can do the cool stuff while you continue glaring at me! And before you say ANYTHING I know this is the only one we brought and I am damn well going to act like I normally do in it! This is for education reasons Lily. His education! Okay Drama Queen! Right only a couple of minutes left, damn you James!

If we are dead the person to blame is Peter Pettigrew as he was our secret keeper. It would never be Sirius in a million years but, we have seen some of Dumbledore's plans in Lily's predictions and we need to tell the truth! Yes, Sirius is completely innocent as Dumbledore also convinced us to change to Pettigrew.

Anyway now on the fun-ish stuff. You have the genetic talent for occulmancy, animagus and metamorphisis. You may also have my seer abilities but I hope that they are dormant as they are a pain in a butt! Trust me Harry they are but ,they could also protect you but, either way DO NOT under any circumstances take divination at Hogwarts! It is a hoax just like that Trelawny bimbo! While I do NOT approve of his language, he is telling the truth! There are also many secrets about Hogwart's, you will find these in one of the books, use them to the best of your ability. Lily you make me so happy with your disregard for the rules.

Anyway, my bit now! In the cover of the photo album are the family rings. We belong to the Potters, Peverall and we are closely related to the Black family. We may also be the last relations of Godric Gryffindor but, I am not sure. He is actually true, the Gryffindor family line has been hidden from the public unlike the others as it is the one with the most power in society. Anyways, if you put on the two signet rings for Potter and Peverall then tap your wand three times on the tip, you can accio the sword of Gryffindor and it will appear in your hand instantly. Also I have compiled a collection of jokes for you which you can play at Hogwarts. I've been through them and have taken the horrible ones out as I went too far in some of them due to my jealousy of one of your mother's friends. Who you have never apologised to. I want to Lily but I don't know if I can face the man with the stuff we did to him. If you see this man, Severus Snape, and I am not alive please can you show him a memory of this even though it may be too late for an apology. Anyway back to the cheerful stuff. At Hogwarts, we Marauders created a map. It shows who is in the castle and where they are, if we have been there! It is your right by heritage as you are likely to be the eldest or only child of the Marauders! It is your time to shine Prongslet! Also use the cloak you won't get caught… as much.

Times nearly up honey… Harry James Potter. Never forget that you are loved. If this war has turned out for the worse, I will continue apologising to you from above until I see you again. Also I will be convincing the Gods, if there are any, to help you in all ways of life. Please enjoy your life and don't be sad for us. Just live your life to the fullest with no regrets and remember we will see you again, even if I have to piss off every God and Devil in the world so they send me back to Earth! Couldn't have said it any better myself! Just know that we are both very stubborn so when we say we love you and will see you again, we won't take no for an answer. Goodbye and see you soon! Bye Harr..."

Silence dominated the room until all that could be heard was a small "Thank You. I can't wait to see you again". At that both adult and child were speechless thinking, they knew this was going to happen yet still they hoped it wouldn't. They are brave, stupid Gryffindors. They both mused this fondly with love radiating off of them. They sat in silence until 11am when the wizarding folk were going to turn up, trying to look and act like muggles.