Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own Harry Potter.

A/N: Hey y'all! It starts out slow, but it will get better, trust me! R/R!

Waking up early one morning Harry stretched and put on his glasses. Today was not just any other day, today was his birthday, and it was no longer a day that he dreaded thanks to the efforts of his two best friends. Shortly after he got up and dressed he heard something taping on his window. Running over to it he pulled back the curtains and opened it up and as soon as he did Pig zoomed in with an envelope tied to his leg. Harry reached out for Pig, but he was flying so fast it wasn't until ten minutes later that he managed to successfully get the envelope off his leg before he took flight once more. He opened it and pulled out a letter from Ron, which read:

Harry,

Happy Birthday! I hope the Dursley's haven't been giving you any trouble because of what happened last year. Mum and Dad say that you'll be able to come over soon. I'll write you as soon as I get details. I did get you a present but it's to big for Pig to carry, Percy won't let me borrow Hermes `He's on official Ministry business!' and I don't think Errol could handle the trip. Anyway Hermione came by the other day and said she could drop it off, because she needed to drop her own gift off as well since she doesn't have an owl. Hope the Dursley's don't attack her...

Ron

Harry laughed and as was reading his letter from Ron Hedwig had flown through the window and was sitting next to Harry on his nightstand. "Oh, hello Hedwig" said Harry after finishing the letter. He then untied the package Hedwig was carrying and stroked her head before she flew to her perch and looked disapprovingly at Pig.

The package was from Sirius, Harry's Godfather. Harry quickly opened the package to find many figurines that had been carved out of some sort of white wood along with a letter.

Dear Harry,

I hope you have a happy Birthday! Sorry I can't be there. I also hope you like your present, with most of the Ministry on alert I haven't been able to get anywhere near a descent store. Keep your eyes open and let me know if anything strange happens at all, especially if you scar starts to hurt again. I'll be around if you ever need me, all you have to do is write.

Sirius

Harry smiled as he put his letters away and set up his figurines featuring several different magical creatures (one of which was a Hippogriff that looked surprisingly like Buckbeak) on his night stand. After that Harry ran down stairs for breakfast where he was greeted as unpleasantly as usual by his Aunt and Uncle. As Harry buttered his toast his Uncle Vernon did something quite unusual, he looked over the top of his paper and with a short grunt said "Happy Birthday, boy," and then looked back down at his paper. Harry was quite surprised as Uncle Vernon has never mentioned his birthday in the past before and "Er, uh, thanks," was the only reply he could think of.

By noon the entire Dursley family and Harry were already sitting silently around the kitchen table eating lunch. Today was a Saturday so Uncle Vernon was also at the table. Half way through their lunch the doorbell rang and Aunt Petunia shuffled to the door to answer it. Harry was doing his best to see who was at the door, but Dudley was trying to do the same and totally blocked the door from Harry's view. Uncle Vernon was also looking towards the door, but tried his best not to look interested in who it was. With Dudley in his way Harry could only make out what was being said. "Um, hello, what is it you want?" he heard Aunt Petunia say.

"Hello, Mrs. Dursley, correct? My name is Hermione Granger, I'm a friend of Harry's and as it's his birthday, I brought him a present," said Hermione in a formal sort of way. Of course, Harry thought, Ron said she was coming by in his letter, he had totally forgot. Harry got up from his seat, and walked toward the front door, Dudley following him closely. Aunt Petunia looked very suspiciously at Hermione despite her muggle attire, but Hermione smiled up at Aunt Petunia anyway. As soon as Harry reached the door he smiled and greeted her kindly with Dudley staring over his shoulder the whole time. Hermione said "Hello, Dudley right?" to Dudley with a slight wave, but Dudley only blushed. Eventually Aunt Petunia asked Hermione to come in and she steered her into the family room, Harry followed, and so did Dudley. "Your house is very lovely Mrs. Dursley," said Hermione in a kind voice. "Oh, thank you," replied Mrs. Dursley quite surprised by the compliment as she left the room,
but made sure the door was open so that she could spy into it.

Harry sat down on the couch and Hermione sat next to him as Dudley sat in an armchair that he pulled over next to Hermione. "um... uh..." said Hermione as she glanced nervously at Dudley then looking at Harry with some nervousness still in her eyes, "I can't be long, my mum and dad are waiting outside in the car." She handed Harry two packages, one from her, and the other from Ron. "You might better open them later." She added as she once again glanced nervously at Dudley, "I'm not quite sure what Ron got you." Harry nodded his head in agreement and set the packages aside. After a minute or so of talking they all got up and Harry walked her to the door. "I'll send you an ow- um, letter soon. See you Hermione!" said Harry. "Alright Harry" said Hermione as she looked over Harry's shoulder, "It was nice meeting you Mrs. Dursley," and she ran out to her car and all the Granger's waved as they drove away.

Harry shut the door and ran to his room to put his gifts up and then ran back down the steps to finish his lunch, but before he could reach the kitchen Dudley grabbed him by the collar and drug him into the family room. "ACK! What'd I do to you Dudley!?" Harry shouted angrily. Dudley glared at him, "She's one of you isn't she?" Dudley said more with a questioning tone than with hate.

"Yeah, so what if she is a witch? What's it to you?"

Dudley grinned, "She one of your school friends?"

"Yes, what are you getting at Dudley?" Harry said with his voice full of anger.

"Well, I'm thinking that's she's very pretty, and if you maybe wanted to invite her over again, I might be able to convince mum and dad to let you."

Harry burst out laughing, Dudley had a crush on Hermione, this was going to be great! Harry had finally found away to invite his friends over without his aunt and uncle yelling at them, but out of curiosity Harry asked, "So, what if I don't invite her over again, what're you going to do?"

Dudley grinned even wider, "I tell mum and dad about the presents in your room."

"Okay then, but if I invite Hermione over, I get to invite my other friend Ron over as well." Harry said with the feeling that the balance of power has shifted towards him.

"Fine, but I get to hang around with you and your friends."

"No way Dudley!"

"Alright, no deal," said Dudley as the balance shifted in Dudley's favor.

"Okay, you can hang around with us and talk to us, but not until after dinner."

"During and after dinner and you've got a deal!" Dudley said quite finally.

Harry grinned, "Good, it's a deal then.'

Harry finished his lunch and then ran back up to his room and opened his presents, first he opened Ron's. It was a wooden board game with miniature Quidditch pieces. "Cool" Harry said as he took out the miniature snitch and watched it's wings beat against the air. Harry closed up the game and opened Hermione's present. It was a book of course, but it was a book on Quidditch. Harry smiled at his new things and then put them under his bed for the time being. He then took out a quill and some parchment and began to write Ron a letter.

Ron,

Thanks for the present, it's really cool! Hermione came by today and dropped it off. Guess what! Dudley has a crush on Hermione! Haha! So, Dudley and I struck a deal. He wanted me to have her come over again so much that he said I could invite you over too and he would clear it with my aunt and uncle! I know that spending a day with the Dursley's isn't exactly anybody's idea of fun, but with Dudley insuring that Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia are nice and with Dudley chasing after Hermione the whole time, it should be anything but boring. How about coming over next Saturday at 11:30 A.M.? I'll have Hermione come at noon so you can see how Dudley acts when she's around, he's bound to do something dumb. Oh, and it might be better if you didn't use floo powder this time.

Harry

Harry tied the letter to Pig's ankle, which was easier than trying to get Ron's off since he had been buzzing around all day and had begun to tire. Pig then shot out the window and headed for the Burrow. Then Harry grabbed another parchment and wrote to Hermione.

Hermione,

I think I forgot to tell you thanks when you were here, so, thanks for the present! You'll never guess what happened after you left! I actually talked the Dursley's into letting you and Ron come over!

Yeah, that's probably for the best, Harry thought, I shouldn't tell Hermione that the only reason she and Ron can come over is because Dudley has a crush on her, besides, that would take all of the fun out of it, plus she'd probably refuse to come over then.

So, I told Ron to be here next Saturday at noon. Hope to see you here then!

Harry

And when I say `hope to see you here' I mean, really hope, because if she doesn't show up, Dudley will kill Ron and me both, Harry thought.