Chapter 9

Parties And New Found Glory

The next two weeks came and went for the foursome of teenagers. Harry's birthday was two days away and everyone seemed to be hiding something from him. When Harry would walk into a room with a lot of chatter it would suddenly stop and everyone would look at Harry. When he would leave it would stay quiet for a single second then the chatter would start again. Harry ignored every appearance that Dumbledore made to talk to his much to the dismay of the Order members who had wanted to figure out what had happened with Harry and Dumbledore.

The morning of Harry's birthday came bright and early. Harry was sleeping soundly in his bed since the night before he had finished the rest of his homework and was up until two o'clock doing so when bunches of people jumped on his bed waking him with a start. His head ended up colliding with the head board and he fall back onto his pillow.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY! WAKE UP!" Ron yelled in Harry's ear when he put a pillow over his head.

"Shut up Ron. I'm trying to sleep!" Harry mumbled from under his pillow.

"Oh come on now Harry! It's your birthday! GET UP!" Sirius yelled happily as he dragged Harry out of bed.

"Fine, fine. Let me change and I'll be down in a moment," he said as he pushed the guys and girls out of his room.

Once the door was shut Harry tiredly changed out of his clothes and put on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt on before falling back on his bed and going back to sleep.

"Where is he?" Ginny asked as they waited outside Harry's room.

Standing with her was Ron, Hermione, and Sirius. Remus was downstairs with Mrs. Weasley and the others.

"Dunno, maybe he's taking a long time to get ready or something. You know to look nice," Ron said shrugging.

"Let's see then. You kids go downstairs. I'll go and check on young Mr. Potter," Sirius instructed. The teens obeyed and went down the stairs.

Sirius slowly opened to door and saw that Harry was once again asleep in his bed.

He ran and jumped on the boy who let out a loud groan and slapped Sirius across the head.

"COME ON HARRY! IT'S 12:00! YOU NEED TO GET UP! Or else I'll be forced to carry you downstairs," Sirius said looking at his godson.

"Bloody hell Sirius, just let me sleep," Harry grumbled.

"Fine," Sirius said with a devious smile on his face, "I guess I'm carrying you down Potter."

Sirius immediately grabbed Harry by the waist and threw him over the shoulder. Harry was yelling for him to put him down the entire way down the stairs. Sirius was amazed that Harry could look so muscular from his quidditch practices and still weighs almost nothing.

When they arrived in the pitch black kitchen finally Sirius put Harry down and looked at him beaming.

"Now Harry, I hear that you have never had a birthday party and never really have been given a gift," Sirius said grimly.

Harry snorted at the comment.

"They gave me old socks Sirius if they managed to remember. Who told you that I never had a birthday party?" Harry asked concerned that Sirius would go and murder the Dursley's on the spot.

"Ron and Hermione. Anyway, we thought you should get one," Sirius said with a hand on Harry's shoulder. Just as he said that the lights flicked on and everyone in the room yelled "SURPRISE!"

Harry's eyes went wide and he practically fell over in shock. Standing before him in muggle party hats were Remus, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Tonks, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Kingsley, Fred and George, Bill, Charlie, Moody, Neville, Seamus, Dean, Lavender, Parvarti and even Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick.

"Wow," he whispered causing everyone to laugh.

Suddenly, Harry was bombarded with hugs, kisses, and hang shakes. He felt sort of out of place in his appearance. His hair was messier than usual since he had slept so late and his clothes were extremely loose.

The day wore on with everyone giving Harry his gifts:
Sirius gave Harry some more pictures of his parents when they were younger and his father's old broom, Ron had given Harry "The World's Greatest Seekers through the years: In Hogwarts and Professional history", Ginny gave Harry a emerald green box that matched his eyes. She said that he could put one of his gifts in it.

Hermione gave him three Auror training books, Fred and George gave Harry an assortment of their newest products from "Weasley Wizarding Wheezes" which according to them was a booming business now. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley gave Harry a new sweater and a spark plug ("Its muggle Harry! I thought you could start your own collection," Mr. Weasley would say), Bill and Charlie chipped in by giving Harry a pensieve which they thought would be useful for him, Neville, Seamus, and Dean all gave Harry a large quantity of chocolates and other candies from Honeydukes, Lavender and Parvarti gave Harry a small snow globe that showed Hogsmeade and if you use a certain incantation you can actually go into the globe.

Professor McGonagall and Flitwick gave Harry some new books for the coming two years at Hogwarts which will help him greatly and Moody gave him the picture that he was shown last year of the original order. Finally, Remus gave Harry the Snitch that he saw his father playing with in his fifth year. He placed it in to box and thanked everyone hundreds of times.

As the day wore on everyone decided it would be best to stay at the house. The girls and the guys split up and headed into different rooms.

"Fun party, eh Harry?" Seamus asked as he sat with the guys who just started playing exploding snap.

"Yeah. Never actually had one," Harry said dreamily.

"Well, you should have seen how surprised we were when Dumbledore owled us and said that you were going to have a party. We thought you were dead, mate. Quite a shock actually when we came here and Lupin and Black were greeting us at the doorway," Neville said with a new found confidence. Harry looked at him for a moment and noticed he looked… more… more happy and confident in himself. He had lost his baby-chub and his buck teeth were straighter. He had grown taller and stood tall. His sentences were no longer filled with nervous "umm's" or chattery teeth.

Harry smiled at Neville.

"Dean, are you still going out with Ginny?" Ron asked stiffly changing the mood in the room.

"No. She dumped me a while ago; it was actually not to long after Harry disappeared. Happy you're back Harry. It was boring in the dorm with out you mate," Dean said turning to Harry and smiling.

Harry nodded but before the game really started, Hermione and Ginny ran into the room screaming with laughter. They quickly shut the door and someone started to bang on the door furiously. When they saw Harry they began to laugh again.

"What?" Ron asked annoyed at the girl's entrance during their game.

"Harry…fans…Lavender…obsessed…Parvarti," Ginny said falling to the floor in laughter again.

"What?" Ron repeated himself.

When the girls finally calmed down and the banging on the door ceased, Hermione spoke up.

"Well, we were in our room with Lavender and Parvarti and they were whispering about something so we went up to ask them what they were talking about and---"

"They had this newsletter," Ginny continued stifling back her laughter, "and we asked if we could see it. So they said not to tell the boys, you guys and so we said okay. Well they showed us this newsletter and at the top it said "Hogwarts Harry Potter Fan Club Newsletter," and if you looked over it, it has all this random information about Harry but most of its pure rubbish and look."

Harry grabbed the paper and read it over before looking horrified at his friends who were laughing harder than ever. The newsletter sold some of his old essays and such and had made up stories from girls at Hogwarts about how Harry told them he loved her.

"BUGGER!" Harry yelled throwing the paper away.

All of a sudden the door slammed open and Lavender and Parvarti barged in looking more scared than ever.

"You… You didn't see the paper did you?" Lavender asked.

Ron nodded yes, still laughing hysterically on the ground with Dean, Seamus, Hermione, and Ginny. Harry sat there looking horrified at the girls. They spotted the paper and ran from the room with it.

It took almost five more minutes for the laughter to die down between Harry's friends. He looked angrily at them as they all sat up with tears going down their face.

"What's all the laughing from?" Sirius asked as he and Remus walked into Harry and Ron's room.

Harry let out a huff and decided to let Ron tell him why.

"Harry has a fan club! And in the newsletter they have, they sell some of his stuff for a lot of money and it has stories about him and everything! It's hilarious, Sirius!" Ron said beginning to laugh again but stopped when Harry gave him a look.

Sirius immediately burst into laughter and Remus ran from the room trying to contain himself although he could be heard from down the hall, laughing his heart out.

After a few minutes, the men settled down and Sirius looked at Harry admirably.

"You do know that me and your father had a fan club when we were in Hogwarts," Sirius said still looking at Harry.

Harry smiled at the mention of his father.

"Girls would follow us around school. It got quite annoying really," Remus said as he walked next to his friend. Harry took note that he looked a lot better and happier. His hair was still a bit grey but had its original brown-blonde color in it. He was fairly tanner and was wearing new robes (bought by Sirius).

Everyone laughed as the two men got into detail about their Hogwarts years. As the long night came to a close, Seamus, Neville, Dean, Lavender, Luna, and Parvarti left and the teens decided it was finally time to sleep. Before Harry went upstairs he heard a faint pop and turned around.

"Hello Harry," Albus Dumbledore said to him his blue eyes twinkling very faintly.

Harry nodded at the man before turning his back.

"Harry, please wait. I need to talk to you about some things that are very important," Dumbledore pleaded with the now sixteen year old wizard.

Harry slowly turned and gave the headmaster a cold look before nodding once again. He obediently followed his headmaster and sat with him at a table. To his surprise Sirius and Remus came as well and sat opposite Harry. Dumbledore stood up and looked at his former pupils then to his current one.

"Now, while you were gone many things happened. They were very important and crucial to you Sirius. Now, first of all, while you were umm… gone… Peter Pettigrew was thankfully caught. You were proven innocent Sirius," Dumbledore said as Sirius shot up from his chair and jumped up and down in happiness. Sirius grabbed Harry and Remus and pulled them into a bone-crunching hug. Sirius' face was flanked with a genuine smile and as he sat back down it did not go away.

"Second of all, Harry, the Dursley's were told that you were dead and your Aunt Petunia was affected the most. It is to my knowledge that she has stayed in her room from the time we told her to present. We would like you to visit her tomorrow but you will have to be disguised until you are inside the house because the Wizarding and muggle world think you are dead. Is that something we can agree on Harry?" Dumbledore said looking at the boy in front of him.

Harry nodded solemnly and let Dumbledore continue.

"Now, everyone thinks you are dead and we will have to find a way to tell the minister. I was thinking of bringing you three to the ministry with me. I am due to attend a meeting with the minister and I think that it would be a perfect time to release the truth. Is that to all of your satisfactory?"

The three nodded and stood up to leave.

"Interesting day," Harry thought when he climbed the stairs and went to sleep.