A/N: Hello, readers. I've recently re-read my section involving Narcissa/Electra and I'm starting to think it was garbage. Since that was most of the chapter, I'm inclined to think almost all of it was garbage. Hermione's letter is, in my opinion, alright for her character but still not perfect. Here's the next chapter. I hope it's better than the last one (which I might just re-write and upload). Again, I apologize for that.

When Harry woke on his fourteenth birthday, it was to find Sirius Black sitting on the only chair in the room. Harry did not notice the small stack of presents by Hedwig's cage, nor did he notice the regal owl sitting next to the snowy owl. With a smile, Harry threw himself out of bed and into his Godfather's arms. Sirius returned the hug with a long-forgotten grin.

"Hey, kiddo. Happy birthday."

Releasing Sirius from his grasp, Harry stepped back and sat on the edge of the bed. He felt a series of emotions, ranging from happiness and excitement to worry and fear. While he was happy Sirius was here, he was concerned that Sirius would be caught.

"Sirius! What are you doing here?! Not that I'm not grateful, but you could be caught!"

"Relax, pup. Nobody's going to find me. Dumbledore has some people polyjuiced to look like me and has them making appearances across Europe. Mind you, this was my appearance brought to you by the Azkaban Agency. Nobody would think to see me like this." He gestured to himself.

Now that Harry noticed, he wondered how he even recognized Sirius based on his appearance. Sirius had shaved his straggly beard off, as well as cut his long hair to just a few inches. He was also wearing…makeup? Sirius saw the question on his godson's face:

"Yeah, it's makeup. It's gonna take a while for my face not to look like a dementor's backside, so this was the best solution. Dumbledore's been sending me potions to alleviate the effects from my vacation, but he doesn't want to overload my system. As for the hair? Yeah, 12 years of no haircuts made me desperate to just get rid of it all. That's how everyone is polyjuiced: decided to make my hair useful. Haven't been that lately. Speaking of, when's the last time YOU got a haircut, pup?"

Harry grinned, it was getting pretty long.

"Uh, probably second year. It's been a while."

"Well, go get ready. I've got a whole day planned for you: it's about time I make up for all that time I missed!"

Harry looked abashed,

"It's fine, Sirius, really. You don't have to do all this."

"Now, you listen here, Harry Potter: I. Am. Your. Godfather. That means I'm supposed to take care of you. Normally, that would entail me taking you away from this place, but the Ministry would know in an instant and that's no good. You'd probably get placed with Andi, which isn't bad, but better not to risk you getting taken by some death eater."

"Death Eater?"

"Sorry, I forgot. Death Eaters are those who followed Voldemort, wore his mark. I'll give you a book on it later: I noticed you read a lot." Sirius joked, gesturing to the stacks of books around the bedroom.

"Yeah, well, I've got a name to live up to, don't I? Imagine what people would say if the Boy-Who-Lived failed all his classes." Harry joked back.

Sirius laughed, before shooing Harry towards the bathroom. Harry gave him a look of confusion.

"I had a talk with your family last night. They're all out of town for the next few days. Don't know how they gave in so quickly, I didn't even have to threaten them!"

Harry faintly smiled, before going to take a shower. Today was going to be the best birthday ever.

While his godson went to get ready for the day ahead, Sirius sagged in the chair. This was harder than he thought. His stint in Azkaban did a number on him, even as an Animagus. He was lucky, yes, that he managed to retain his sanity for all these years, but damn was it hard to smile like it hadn't happened. He was even seeing a muggle therapist to just talk about things. They called it a comorbidity of Depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. They told him it'll take time to heal, but he didn't have time! Bagnold and Crouch made sure of that when they tossed him into that cell without a trial, without an investigation!

Sirius noticed a few pencils on the desk were floating, and immediately began taking deep breaths to relax. He had some bouts of accidental magic since he escaped from Azkaban, usually when he was angry or anxious. He berated himself: he had to pull himself together. He couldn't afford to have Harry see him like this. He sighed in relief when everything dropped. He heard the water shut off in the bathroom and got up.

"Hey, Harry, I'm gonna go downstairs and whip up a couple of sandwiches for a snack. Get dressed and, if you hurry, you can open a present or two!"

He heard a muffled 'okay!' through the door and made his way downstairs.

"Hey, Harry, I'm gonna go downstairs and whip up a couple of sandwiches for a snack. Get dressed and, if you hurry, you can open a present or two!"

Harry, who currently had a towel over his head, shouted okay and hurried to dry off. Afterwards, he crossed over to his bedroom to get dressed. Slipping on some of his nicer clothes, he went over to the desk to see a stack of envelopes and an open letter. Harry grabbed the open letter and quickly scanned its contents:

Mr. Black,

You have our permission and we will expect you no sooner than 4 in the evening on July 31st.

Thank you,

M.G.

Putting the letter back where he found it, he earned a reproachful hoot from the regal owl who, Harry figured, belonged to Sirius. Harry quickly sorted through the envelopes, all of which were addressed to Harry. He frowned when he didn't see Hermione's handwriting on any of them. He checked again, going through the list of people. Ron, Oliver, Katie, Fred, George, Alicia, Angelina, Neville, Hagrid, Lupin, even Ginny wrote to him! He frowned, thinking Hermione must have been too busy to write. He figured as much when Hedwig returned from giving Hermione that book without so much as a thank you letter. Tossing the stack of letters onto the desk, he sat down on the bed and fell backwards. He felt a wave of depression that his closest friend didn't even wish him a happy birthday.

"Harry, what's wrong?"

Harry looked to the doorway where Sirius was standing, a bag of wrapped sandwiches in his hand. He closed his eyes and returned to looking at the ceiling.

"Hermione didn't write me a happy birthday. It's stupid, I know. She's probably just busy or something."

Harry felt a weight on the bed and saw his godfather sitting by him. Sirius reached a hand out and pulled Harry back to the upright position before wrapping an arm around his shoulders.

"Harry, this is why I wanted you to open your letters and presents tonight rather than first thing in the morning. I don't want you thinking she's too busy for you or that she doesn't care about you. Go on, pick a letter or two and we'll go celebrate your birthday. I bet by the time we get back, you'll have gotten something from Hermione."

Harry shrugged halfheartedly, but went and got the letters from Ron and Lupin. He opened Ron's first.

HARRY!

Happy Birthday, mate! I talked to Dad and he said he's definitely getting the tickets for the World Cup! You'll be staying with us for the Cup and Mum and Dad will take us to 9 and ¾. Fred, George, Ginny and I chipped in together to get you a present, I hope you don't mind that it's used, the new ones are ridiculously overpriced, especially this year. Anyway, mate, have a good birthday and we'll see you in a couple weeks.

Ron

Harry laughed at how obsessed Ron was, but felt overjoyed to know he was going to the Quidditch World Cup! Hell, he was going to the Weasleys'! He looked over to the stack of presents and saw, sure enough, there was present signed by the four youngest Weasleys. He figured he'd open it tonight like Sirius suggested and opened his (rather thick) letter from Remus.

Dear Harry,

I wanted to wish you a happy birthday and to thank you, again, for your kind words on the last day of term. Hopefully, you've had a good time with Sirius today: you deserve it. I'm sorry I couldn't be there, too, but I got a gig as a teacher at Durmstrang for the year. It's just for the year to cover the absence of some of the staff, but it's better than nothing. Anyway, I wanted to return the Map to you. I meant to do it before you left, but I hadn't finished the upgrades I wanted on it. It's taken far too long. I think you'll find it a lot better than before.

Again, Happy Birthday.

Yours,

Remus Lupin.

Harry removed the Marauder's Map from the envelope (explaining the thickness) and opened it.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

The Map activated, but there was a different greeting than before.

Messrs. Moony, Padfoot and Prongs
Purveyors of Aids to Magical Mischief-Makers
are proud to present
THE MARAUDER'S MAP v2.0

The ink faded to show the map of Hogwarts, as usual, but in far better detail than the previous one. Furthermore, there was a message on it addressed to Harry.

Harry, I've upgraded the map to do a few more things. After the Pettigrew incident, the map can now detect animagi and will tell you if they are transformed or not. You can test McGonagall for this. Sadly, it does not tell you their form. So be careful! Not only that, but it will tell you if anyone is using Polyjuice (like you guys did in second year. Yes, I know.). Finally, you can track previous movements of people. Just tap the map, say the name of the person, and you can see everywhere they've been on the map in the last week. You can control how fast the movements, too. I hope you enjoy what I've added (and who I removed).

Sirius, who had been reading this over Harry's shoulder, barked a laugh at the new upgrades.

"Well, pup, that Map may be one of the best presents you've ever gotten, but it doesn't even come close to what I've got planned for today. C'mon, you can stalk everyone later!" he joked.

Harry tapped the map, muttering 'Mischief Managed' before folding it back up and placing it securely below the floorboard under his bed. Brushing the dust off his knees, he followed Sirius to the kitchen.

"Sirius, what about breakfast? No offense, but I'm pretty hungry."

"I got that all figured out, pup. Grab ahold of my arm and, whatever you do, don't let go until I tell you. Got your wand?"

Harry nodded before firmly grabbing his godfather's arm.

"I'm going to do something called Side-along apparition, Harry. It's a form of transportation. When I tell you to, breathe in deeply and hold that breath. Now."

Harry breathed in before he felt a squeezing sensation on his body. He felt as if he were being drawn through a straw before the pressure immediately vanished. He looked at Sirius.

"You can breathe out now. It's not as bad if you hold your breath. A lot of people throw up because of that. Good job."

Harry released the breath he had been holding and looked around. They were in some restaurant and he could smell French toast. The two of them sat down where they ordered a number of different breakfast foods. Harry smiled and noted, for the first time that morning, that Marv had been completely absent.

A/N: Hopefully this wasn't as bad as the last chapter. Again, I apologize for that, but I'm going to leave it. If I took down everything I wasn't satisfied with, there'd never be anything to read. Leave your thoughts, if you feel like it. And you readers have a say in who Harry dates and whatnot, just so you all know. I'm hinting at a Harry/Hermione right now because Hermione is really the only witch that Harry talks to. I've introduced Narcissa/Electra last chapter as another factor in the plot, but how she fits is still up to you all. I'll probably post another chapter sometime next weekend. Next chapter will cover the rest of the birthday, with the chapter after that time skipping to the Weasleys'. Goodbye – NeoR