Diclaimer: Anything that you recognise does not belong to me; it belongs to the very talented J.K. Rowling. Lucky her! I am doing this purely to see if I can, I am not making any money off of this what so ever. Unlucky me!

Also, I have read a lot of stories on this site, so if anything is familiar, it is not on purpose… Could you simply take it as an homage?

On a further note, wow. When I posted this I did not expect any reviews but I got some! Woohoo!

Maroon Seraph, thankyou so much for the spelling help! I knew it was wrong but I have lent all my books to my friend and I couldn't check!

Harry Potter woke up early on the 31st of July, there were three owls clamouring to get into his bedroom window which he had shut the night before.

"Okay, okay, I'm up" Harry grumbled to the owls, his birthday fell on a Sunday this year and he had been looking forward to a sleep in, his two weeks working at the Sweet Shop for Mark had been some of the busiest of his life. Harry couldn't remember when he had done so much physical work, and that included when Aunt Petunia was in a bad mood and inflicted the outdoor chores on him! Harry was having the time of his life though, he was such a good worker that Mark had increased his hours to eight to five Monday to Tuesday and nine to three on a Saturday, and was teaching him how to work the til so he could help with the customers as well. Harry had been paid the day before and was planning on taking the tube to Wembley Markets and checking out the bargain clothes, he'd heard Mrs Smith next door talking about some pants she got for just a pound!

Harry wearily got up and opened the window, the three owls flew in at once, one dropping the letter and leaving back out through the window immediately, another ping ponging around the room in excitement and the third flying sedately to the bed and waiting for Harry's attention. Harry, who was used to the little owl named Pig ping ponging around his room, moved to the owl on his bed and untied the letter from its leg, the owl gave a dignified hoot and flew back out the window. Finally Harry turned to Pig, thankful that Hedwig was off on a journey somewhere because the little owl was making an enormous spectacle of himself, and grabbed him out of the air. The little owl hooted happily and nibbled at Harry's fingers affectionately.

"So Pig, what have you got here?" Harry murmured to the little owl, untying the small package from the owl's leg.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed as he pulled the string on the package and it grew to be half the size of Harry's bed, ripping off the outside wrapping he found five different packages inside the original parcel. Looking through them quickly he found they were birthday gifts from Ron, Hermione, Fred and George, Hagrid and Remus. Leaving the best til last, Harry turned his attention to the letters that the other two owls had delivered, one was from Hogwarts with is school list and reminder that this year was NEWTs and that he had better be prepared to study as Hogwarts was not in the habit of rewarding slackers (only not in those exact words). The second was from the Ministry of Magic reading as follows;

Dear Mr Potter,

This letter is to inform you that you are now of age and are able to apply for your apparation license, your test will be on the twentieth of August at seven o'clock in the morning and not before. If this time is not suitable for you, please contact the Office of Transport at Ministry Floo 357 to organise a later date. Enclosed is the apparation handbook and we urge you to study it closely, for the consequences of not being prepared are dire. An Office of Transport official will be at your place of residence on the twentieth of August to administer the test.

Have a nice day

Hamilton Spencer

(Undersecretary to the Minister of Transport)

Harry, who had forgotten all about being able to apparate when he was seventeen felt quite excited to hear that he would be able to legally do it in less than a month. For every now and again, usually when he was stressed or upset, he did unintentional apparitions, usually just from room to room and he was always worried that he might get into trouble. Putting aside the handbook for later perusal Harry turned to his gifts.

Presents were extra special for Harry, since for so much of his life he had had nothing he was very excited when he got something that was just his, something that was made, bought or created just for him. So when Harry was given something special, something just for him, he tended to treasure and look after it forever, he still had one of the chocolate frogs from the box that Ron had given him that Christmas in first year, and the pieces of his Nimbus 2000 that had been destroyed by the whomping willow in his third year, an even the homework planner Hermione had given him for Christmas in his fifth year, once something was Harry's he didn't let go of it easily.

Harry had received some fantastic gifts for his birthday this year, Hermione had given him two books, one about the art of apparating and one about magical creatures since Harry had decided to continue on with Care of Magical Creatures for his NEWTs, Ron had sent him a golden snitch signed by Harry's favourite quidditch player, who was not on the Chudley Cannons, much to Ron's disgust. The Weasley twins had sent him a huge box of their newest jokes, with a written suggestion of perhaps he could try them out on a certain relative, ever since Harry's forth year the twins had had a fascination with Dudley, and made sure that he remembered them as well. Hagrid had sent some more pictures for Harry's album, these ones of Sirius. Harry flipped through the small stack smiling at the photos of his godfather and father dangling a screaming Lily over the Great Lake and one of Snuffles curled up in front of the fire. Finally Harry turned to Remus' present; it was a signet ring with an interesting looking black stone. With it was a note from Remus

Dear Harry

Happy Birthday! This ring is actually from Sirius. It is a tradition for Godparents to give their Godchild a piece of jewellery when they turn seventeen and are of age. Sirius actually went out and bought this ring for you the day Lily and James named him Godfather which is how I was able to give it to you. I remember Sirius saying that the stone on the ring did something special, but I was told so long ago that I cannot actually remember what! Hopefully it is something nice and Sirius hasn't charmed it to shoot water at Snape or anything! I have another gift for you from me, but it is rather fragile in temperament and does not travel well I will give it to you at school, Professor Dumbledore has decided to give me another shot at being the Defence Against Dark Arts teacher. So if I do not see you before, I will see you on the first of September.

Love Remus

"Wow, Sirius!" Harry breathed as he slid the silver signet ring onto his little finger; it was the most amazing ring he had ever seen, beautifully crafted and the stone! The stone, though being pitch black, seemed to give off a shine as if lit from within.

Harry quickly hid the rest of his presents so no snooping Dursley's were able to find them and left to walk to the tube station so he could go marketing. He whistled as he walked in the bright sunshine, what with his fantastic job, loving friends and being able to do magic legally, life was looking pretty good. Maybe this year at school wouldn't be as eventful as the last few years…

I know it is still going slow, but the way I figure it JK Rowling does this to us, so I can do it too!