Given that Harry was used to his birthday barely being acknowledged when at the Dursley's, it was an extreme and pleasant surprise to find a small pile of gifts waiting for him when he came downstairs on the morning of his turning 16.
He received various boxes of chocolate frogs and sweets. Hermione bought him 'A Guide to Seekers from Around the World'. It had a picture of Viktor Krum on the front cover, Ron had rolled his eyes and muttered "We know why she got that then don't we."
Ron himself had got him a Harry Potter action figure, fully animated along with its own wand, able to cast 3 different spells, and it could say over 50 different words and phrases when you pressed the Hogwarts logo on the figures school uniform.
Fred and George had sent over a bag marked 'Weasley's Wicked Wizardry for Friends You Are No Longer Fond Of'. It was accompanied by a note wishing Harry a happy birthday, and saying they would be home for an hour or two in a few days, to pick up a couple of the boxes currently being stored in their old bedroom.
All in all, Harry had a birthday which was as relaxed and happy as it could hope to be under the circumstances. It was marred only by Lupin bringing grisly tidings of Dementor and Death Eater attacks during Harry's birthday tea. After this, the mood was forced by Mrs Weasley into something resembling happiness, but it wasn't what it had been before. From across the table, Ginny watched Harry, and noticed that not even his action figure exclaiming 'I like Quidditch!' in a voice which in no way sounded like Harry's own, could persuade him to cheer up.
Harry retired to bed early that night, with his Guide to Seekers Everywhere, however even when he turned out the light and attempted to shut his eyes, they were forced open, and he stared blankly into the darkness, his head spinning with the news Remus had brought, and the reports they had already heard. It was a little before midnight when he gave up on sleep, and, putting on his glasses and a pair of shoes, he padded as quietly as he could into the Weasley's garden.
In the dark, he was unable to see the broomstick he grabbed from the broom shed, but on entering the air he guessed it to be one of the oldest there was.
Ginny too, couldn't sleep. She lay silently, her mind full of Harry, and wishing there was something she could do to help him, as she struggled to shut her eyes she became away that there was something in the garden. A cold fear swept over her as the stories Lupin had told them of the Death Eaters suddenly came back to her. She leaned up in bed, slightly, ever so slightly so she was able to see out of the window. She grinned.
Lit only by the small light of his wand, Harry circled the garden on a broomstick which appeared as though it had probably been Bill's when he was 10. She crept to the window, doing her best not to wake the sleeping Hermione, and opened it slowly to make as little noise as possible.
As Harry flew, the garden was quiet. Quieter than he'd known it to be at night before, no crickets, no birds. Perhaps the animals sensed the atmosphere of the world. As he flew close to the house once more, he was surprised to see Ginny watching him. She covered her face with her hands, the sudden bright light of his wand blinding her.
"Put that out!" she whispered, furiously. He did so, and they held their midnight conversation in darkness.
"What are you doing up?" he asked,
"I was going to ask you that." she replied, smiling to herself.
"You never got me a birthday present." he said.
She turned to look at the clock in the room behind her, managing to make out the hands as her eyes grew more accustomed to the darkness. "It's past midnight now. It's not your birthday anymore."
"Do I not deserve something for turning sixteen?"
She gave a smile he couldn't see, unable to find the words to tell him that he deserved the whole world. Instead she kissed him softly. Something at the back of Harry's mind told him that it was wrong, this was his best friends little sister, that Ron would hate him. Another voice told him that he'd stopped caring about all of that the moment she kissed him. For a few seconds at least, the worries which had weighed on his shoulders since Sirius' death lifted. Behind Harry lay the whole world, he forgot all about it.