Chapter 15 – Happy Birthday!

The next few weeks passed quickly for Harry. He had started all his lessons and was already ahead in most of them except Potions and Occlumency. Even with Sirius present at all his lessons it didn't stop Snape from taking every chance that he could to sneer at Harry's feeble potion attempts. Sirius managed to cheer him up though buy telling him that his dad hadn't been very good at Potions either.

Currently he was in the Defence against the Dark Arts classroom, trying to regain his breath.

"That was really good Harry, not many 15 year olds can do that" Sirius said, handing him some chocolate.

Harry had started learning how to do a Patronus Charm 2 day ago and had just managed to produce a corporeal patronus.

"Thanks Sirius" Harry said panting a little. He glanced over at Remus who was forcing the boggart that they had used to practice on back into its trunk.

"I think we'll be able to move onto some more advanced spells next time" Remus said grinning.

Harry smiled until he realised what that meant.

"You mean harder spells don't you?" Harry asked weakly. Sirius and Remus looked at each other and smirked. Harry groaned.

"Cant wait" Harry said sarcastically. Sirius smiled and stretched.

"Well I don't know about you two but I'm shattered" Sirius said yawning at the same time.

"That's because your old" Harry smiled, standing up and dusting himself off.

"I'm not old!" Sirius cried defensively

"Well your not exactly young are you?" Harry smirked. Remus started laughing.

"Remus you're the same age as me, (Remus stopped laughing) Anyway like I said, I'm tired, so I'm off to bed"

"I'm feeling quite tired too" yawned Remus. Harry rolled his eyes.

"Well if you're going to bed then I may as well too"

"That's a good idea; get a good night sleep for tomorrow" Remus said smiling at Sirius, who smiled back

"What's happening tomorrow?"

"Well for one thing it's your birthday"

"Apart from that"

"Nothing" Sirius said innocently

"But Remus said….." Harry began before he was cut off

"That he was tired and so am I so we are gonna go to sleep, ok, see you tomorrow" Sirius said, waving behind him and he and Remus walked out of the classroom.

"Night Harry" they called over their shoulders.

Harry was standing in the middle of the room, utterly confused. Slowly, he began to make his way back to his room.

10 minutes later, Harry had walked into his bedroom and was getting ready for bed. He slipped into his bed and pulled the covers up to his neck. Pretty soon he had fallen asleep (due to all the energy he had used in the lesson), his mind plagued with thoughts about his sixteenth birthday.

A soft tapping noise woke Harry up the next morning. He wearily opened his eyes and looked towards his window. He saw an Owl tapping at the glass. He swung his legs out of bed and made his way over to the window to let the Owl in.

It flew inside and perched itself on the back of his chair. He untied the letter from its leg and gave it some Owl Treats that Remus had given him. The Owl hooted in thanks and flew back out the window.

Harry sat down on the window sill and untied the letter and smiled when he saw who it was from. It read:

Dear Harry,

HAPPY BIRHTDAY! Your finally sixteen, congratulations! You're getting old. If this gets to you late sorry but get over it! We hope you're having a good time wherever you are and that you have a fun day and we also hope that you get some good presents. We sent you some of your favourite stuff along, so you better put it to good use!

Happy Birthday and have fun!

Love

The whole gang

Harry smiled even wider when he saw what they had sent him. A whole assortment of his favourite joke items including some black face soap, and a buzzer that gave people a small shock when they shook your hand, also there was a birthday card that had been signed by all of them.

Harry smirked, he was looking forward to putting these to use. He stretched and looked at his watch. It read 9:47am. His stomach rumbled. He stretched one last time and began to get dressed for breakfast.

As he walked down to the Great Hall, he wondered where everyone was, usually when he walked down he saw a few people in the corridors but today there was no-one in sight.

As he reached the entrance hall, he saw the doors to the Hall slam shut. Wondering what was going on he sped up and pushed the heavy doors open.

As soon as he stepped inside, people had jumped around him shouting "Happy Birthday!" and were giving him birthday beats. A few minutes later Harry was led to a table that was laden with gifts and surrounded by people. These people being Sirius, Remus, Ron, Hermione, the whole Weasley family, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, Hagrid, Moody and some people that Harry had met but didn't know that well.

Presents were being pushed to him from every direction. Harry was trying to take all of them but couldn't, fortunately for him Sirius saw and told everyone to calm down and let Harry open them one at a time.

From Ron and Hermione he got a sneakascope and a newly written book on charms, even though it was the first time he had met the rest of the Weasley's they gave him a huge box of homemade treats (apparently Sirius had told Mrs Weasley that Harry needed to fatten up) and an even bigger box of jokes from Fred and George. Among his other presents were various books on Defence, Charms, Transfiguration, and Potions, most people had thought that Harry could use them to help with his training and Harry had to agree with them. Dumbledore presented him with his Father's Invisibility Cloak but best of all was Sirius's and Remus's present. As he ripped of the paper he heard many of the people in the room gasp.

"Do you like it Harry?" Remus asked

"Of course, what make is it?"

"The Firebolt 600, only came out a few days ago" Sirius said happily

"Thanks guys" Harry said, running his hand up and down the broom.

Harry spent the rest of the day out on the Quidditch Pitch with the Weasley boys learning how to play the game. Once Harry had got the basics of it they managed to convince Sirius and Remus to join them so that they could play a few games. It was Harry, Ron, Sirius and Remus against Bill, Charlie, Fred and George. Harry was seeker, Ron the keeper, Sirius was the chaser and Remus turned out to be a pretty good beater.

They would have stayed out longer but were made to come in when Mrs Weasley said that Harry's cake was ready.

They all trooped into the hall and Harry was amazed by the scene in front of him. The four house tables had been taken away and were replaced with a medium sized one in the middle of the room. But best of all, right in the middle of the table sat the best cake that Harry had ever seen. He could tell that it was chocolate which was a good thing as it was one of his favourite things in the world, and on the top were the words 'Happy 16th Birthday Harry!" written in chocolate icing. Various plates of food had been placed strategically around it.

Molly ushered them to sit down and start eating which everyone did without hesitation.

Harry and Ron spent most of the time talking about Quidditch and Ron's favourite team, The Chudley Cannons. Ron was halfway through telling him about their last game which they had drawn, 10-10. When Sirius stood up.

"Ok well seeing as this is Harry's first birthday with us we decided to make it a bit special. So with a little help from Fred and George (Sirius smiled at them while Mrs Weasley frowned) we managed to make a little firework display, so if we can go down to the grounds then we can get started"

People nodded and began to rise from their seats and make their way down to the grounds. When they were all assembled there Fred and George ran to the front and started to light all the fireworks that had been placed in a long line in front of them. When they were all light they hurried back to their places and they all waited.

5 seconds later all the fireworks had taken off into the sky. They flew around, lighting up the dark sky with coloured streaks of Blue's, Red's, Green's, Pink's, and Purples and there were even a few white ones mixed in with them. They continued to fly around for awhile until they all joined together to spell out the words:

"Happy Birthday Harry!"

Harry smiled and laughed at the sight, a few others around him laughed while the majority of the people smiled.

Harry had been staring so intently at the sky that he was caught of guard when a hand was placed on his shoulder and he was spun around.

He was about to ask why when he saw Bill standing a little away from them holding what looked like a camera.

"Okay that should be right" he said, tapping the camera with his wand and then hurrying back to his place beside Charlie.

Harry looked straight at the camera and smiled a genuine smile. The camera flashed much brighter than a muggle one and Harry was momentarily blinded.

He was rubbing his eyes when he found the photo being pushed into his hands.

He stared at it and laughed again. All the people in the photo were waving enthusiastically at him. The words that the fireworks had made still shining brightly in the sky. Photo Harry laughed and Photo Sirius ruffled his hair.

He felt himself go warm. He had always known that he had been out of place in the muggle world, maybe not with his friends but definitely with the Dursleys. But for the first time in a long while he felt genuinely happy, like he finally belonged somewhere. And he knew where that was, here, Hogwarts, in the wizarding world, with the people who loved him and who he knew he would be able to count on in the years to come.

Well there it is I finally finished it. I know it took a long time but I kept on getting distracted with my family and other things. xxx p.s don't forget to review.