A/N: Lot's of happy stuff in here. I hope you like it!
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"Harry! Harry! Wake up, mate!"
He jerked awake to a shocking blare of orange. A blurred poster of Zach Morrison, seeker of the Chudley Cannons, was waving at him enthusiastically from above.
"Happy birthday, Harry!" Ron said cheerily, now standing over him with a grin and blocking Morrison from view. Harry's stomach gave a slight jolt as he pushed his glasses on; he had entirely forgotten.
"Oh…yeah…" he said stupidly. Ron moved over to the single tiny window and pulled back the curtains by a fraction of an inch to reveal a hazy sun, drifting half heartedly between patches of fluffy clouds. Yawning widely, Harry automatically peered to the end of his bed. To his surprise, and slight disappointment, there was no pile of presents awaiting him as usual. He wondered whether now that a year had passed since he'd come of age, it was normal to simply stop exchanging gifts. He cast a furtive glance at Ron, who was now pulling on a pair of jeans, but he did not give any indications of noticing the absence of Harry's presents. Feeling ridiculously selfish, and deciding that he was being somewhat pathetic, Harry changed tack;
"Nice day for Quidditch."
"Yeah…pity you lost your firebolt…" Ron replied vaguely as Harry started to dress. He felt a little resentful to this comment; he hardly needed reminding of it. The broom had been his pride and joy, not to mention how Sirius had been to one to give it to him. When he looked up at him, he could've sworn he saw Ron smiling to himself, though he hastened to straighten his face as soon as he caught Harry's eye.
"Come on," said Ron. "I reckon Hagrid will be downstairs and all. And Ginny will want to be wishing you a Happy Birthday…" Harry grinned and nodded, feeling temporarily lifted as he remembered vividly what Ginny had given him for his birthday the previous year.
When Harry entered the kitchen, he had been expecting some kind of a fuss to be made…perhaps his family and friends gathered together to greet him. But all he found was a casual Mrs Weasley pointing a wand at her sizzling bacon, and Mr Weasley wearing his typical enthusiastic expression as he perused a book on aeroplanes. Neither seemed particularly stirred as they wished him a 'Happy Birthday' in dull tones. Harry felt unwelcome neglect and renewed disappointments settle in the pit of his stomach; but Ron took his seat at the table and began helping himself to cereal as though nothing was wrong, despite how moments ago he'd said he thought Hagrid would be there. Scanning the kitchen in vain, Harry found that neither Hagrid nor Ginny nor Hermione were anywhere to be seen. Trying to shrug off his childish discontent, Harry took up a chair opposite and poured himself some coffee.
"Bacon, Harry dear?" Mrs Weasley asked from over by the stove.
"Wha—oh, yeah, thanks Mrs Weasley," he replied. She gave a small smile and summoned a breakfast plate up for him from the china cabinet. Desirous to distract himself, Harry struck up a conversation with Mr Weasley.
"Still in pursuit of your dearest ambition, then?" he grinned.
Mr Weasley looked up with smiling eyes; "I still don't quite understand how they stay up," he admitted sadly, "but I'm reading up on who first invented them! What a man, what a man…invented machinery that flies…"
Harry distinctly heard an exasperated sigh from Mrs Weasley as Mr Weasley continued to look enthralled, and felt a sudden surge of affection for them both. And then he heard gentle footsteps on the stairs, and turned in his seat to see Ginny enter the kitchen.
"Morning everyone," she said sleepily. "Happy Birthday, Harry," she added, giving him a kiss on the cheek. He watched as she settled herself opposite and poured a cup of tea, yawning widely, still wearing her blue cotton pyjama pants and a white tank top. He wondered how it was possible that her every movement was so elegant…how she looked so beautiful even at nine o' clock in the morning, with her hair sticking out at odd angles and her bleary eyes lined with tiredness. She sensed his gaze and looked up at him nonchalantly, and through his musings he couldn't help but feel another slight stab of annoyance. Even his girlfriend didn't seem to care he had just turned eighteen. Mrs Weasley delivered his enormous plate of breakfast, complete with not only bacon, but eggs, sausages, tomatoes, mushrooms and fried bread. He thanked her politely, and then they all ate in near silence. When Harry finished, Ginny said cheerily;
"D'you fancy going for a walk? Nice day," she gestured outside.
He nodded, and replied shortly; "Sure."
She glanced down at her attire, and added; "I'll just get dressed…"
He grinned, "Yeah…you do that."
--
He and Ginny set out a quarter of an hour later, and ambled happily through the apple orchard and onto the grassy meadows beyond. The summer air seemed cleansing somehow, and they let the sun wash over them pleasantly; its filtered rays dancing over the ground before them. Harry felt differently once he was outside. How could he have been bothered about a couple of presents when he was walking through the beautiful countryside, without a care in the world, hand in hand with Ginny Weasley? The only thing which could add to the perfection would be if he still had his firebolt and they could play quidditch…
"Good day for quidditch," Ginny observed, and Harry started. Caught off guard by how she had literally seemed to read his mind, he replied thickly;
"Er, yeah…"
"Pity you lost your firebolt, eh?"
Harry said nothing. Twice in one day he'd heard that; and as he looked sideways at her he saw her smile the same mischievous grin he'd seen on her brother. Feeling considerably irritated once again, he withdrew his hand from hers and shoved it deep in his jeans' pocket. Ginny seemed unperturbed by this, and carried on dreamily;
"I suppose you really miss it, don't you?"
A muscle twitched in Harry's jaw as he tried to ignore the renewed pangs for Sirius. Somehow the two seemed connected, as if his broom had been the last relic of his beloved Godfather. He stayed silent once again, and this time Ginny took it upon herself to glance up at him. She stopped dead in her tracks, and pierced him with a worried expression.
"Harry…you look—are you okay? I didn't mean to—I didn't know you missed your broom that much…" she reached out and touched his arm, looking rather perplexed. As a reluctant shiver ran down his spine, he replied gruffly;
"It's nothing."
He shrugged her off, and continued walking alone. Ginny stayed rooted to the spot for a second longer, her brain working furiously. And then with sudden horror, comprehension dawned and she hurried to catch him up;
"Harry! Oh--oh, Harry I'm so sorry. I didn't realise…Sirius…"
She looked so beside herself, her face pale and her brown eyes wide, that Harry had to smile sadly and say, "Its okay…" He slipped an arm around her shoulders and they continued walking wordlessly through the long, sweeping grass, until eventually she dared to say quietly;
"You must miss him…"
He swallowed audibly and replied;
"Everyday…"
She snuggled into him reassuringly, and wrapped her arms sideways around his waist. He went on, surprising both of them with his readiness to talk, something he had never been willing to do with Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore or Lupin;
"And it was my fault," he said heavily. "If I hadn't fallen for Voldemort's tricks…if I hadn't been so stupid, so impulsive--"
"Harry," she interrupted, in a tone remarkably like Hermione's. "You went to the ministry that night because you had to save Sirius. You couldn't have done it differently; and Voldemort knew you couldn't. That's what he did; found out what people were emotionally invested in, and exploited it," her tone became suddenly bitter. She paused and then went on more softly; "And so, Sirius came to the ministry to save you. Thinking about it…Sirius died to save you…How can that be your fault? It was personal choice…and he wouldn't have changed it for the world…"
A silence met her words; and Harry became aware that they had stopped walking. After several moments of unblinking eye contact, he heaved a sigh;
"You're right," he said simply. "But still…I miss him like hell. I never got to live with him like he asked…I never got to ask him enough about my parents…what else my dad and he got up to at school besides becoming illegal Animagi…" Somehow a grin managed to spread itself over his face as he spoke, despite its unhappy foundations.
"Illegal Animagi?" Ginny repeated, her eyebrows shooting up. Harry chuckled as he took her hand and led her on again.
"Oh there's a lot to tell you about Moony, Padfoot and Prongs…" he smiled at her bemused expression. "So, they became Animagi in their fifth year…"
For half an hour Harry poured his heart out to her. He talked about everything Sirius had ever told him about his parents, about the Marauders' nicknames and how they came to have them, about when he'd found his mother's letter at Grimmauld place, and about how Sirius had gone to live with his Dad when he was sixteen. It was as if with every word he spoke, a tight not, which had been residing permanently in his chest, loosened slightly. Unconsciously they did a loop and began making their slow way back to the house.
"…sorry," Harry said as they approached the shade of the apple trees. "I don't know where all this is coming from…"
"No, no!" Ginny assured him hastily. "It's good to talk about it…"
He stopped suddenly and turned to her, pulling her in for a kiss. Though taken somewhat by surprise, she quickly caught on and responded by nibbling gently on his lower lip, and before either knew what they were doing, they had fallen to the grassy floor in a heap – laughing slightly – Ginny trailing kisses down his neck, running a hand down his chest to his stomach…And then as swiftly as it had started, it all stopped;
"Harry," Ginny mumbled. She pulled away slightly reluctantly, eyeing their location sceptically. "We'd better get back…"
Disappointment coursed through his body for what felt like the umpteenth time that day, but as he got to his feet and studied her expression, he glimpsed that knowing smile he'd seen earlier once again, the kind of smile someone wore when they had a secret…
"What's up?" he asked her.
She casually avoided his question, instead saying brightly; "Come on, Hermione will be wanting to wish you a happy birthday!"
She set off again with a sudden determination in her stride, Harry almost jogging to catch up.
"Gin, what the--"
But she didn't answer him; she merely turned and flashed him a winning smile, taking his hand in hers. Harry frowned to himself as they continued up the grassy slope to the house, and when he came close enough, he saw a startled looking Mrs Weasley hurry from the kitchen window, talking frantically to someone behind her. Wondering fleetingly why everyone was acting so strangely, Harry cast a questioning glance at Ginny as they eventually drew up to the front door. However she apparently remained ignorant of his predicament, and walked straight inside, wiping the soles of her shoes on the doormat as went. Harry followed and closed the door behind him with a click, and was just thinking of how nice it would be to settle down on the sofa with Ginny, maybe with a steaming cup of tea…when suddenly the room erupted around him. He gave a startled yelp, and looked up to see familiar faces jumping out from under the table, out of cupboards; out from under the kitchen surfaces…he let his jaw drop as he saw not only the entire Weasley family, Hermione, Hagrid (who had been hiding in the next room), Fleur, her little sister and Kingsley, but also Neville, Luna, Dean, Seamus, Lavender Brown, the Patil twins, Ernie Macmillan, Lee Jordan, other assorted members of the DA and even Harry's old Quidditch team…
"Surprise!" they all chimed happily.
He gaped noiselessly like a goldfish out of water, his heart still drumming in his ears from the shock, and then turned to look at Ginny. She was grinning madly, and when they made eye contact she nodded meaningfully towards the table. And then he saw it, lying innocently beside an enormous Honeyduke's chocolate cake, its oak handle highly polished, not a twig out of place, its name engraved in gold at the tip…a firebolt. He moved over to it in awe, revelling in its beauty…He handled it lovingly as though it were made of china, spluttering;
"But—how…this is--but--who?"
"Everyone chipped in!" Mrs Weasley beamed. "We know it'll never be the same as your first one Harry dear, but we wanted to give you something special, so--"
But the end of her sentence was cut short as Harry moved over and hugged her. He proceeded to shake hands with or hug everyone in the room, catching Hermione twice, ("Happy birthday, Harry!" she said, kissing him on the cheek), and coming to Ginny last. He whisked her into his arms, kissed her lightly, and said;
"You planned all this? The walk...mentioning the firebolt…and you--"
Ginny smiled, "and I told everyone not to make a fuss, yeah," she finished off. "Well, it made it a surprise, didn't it?"
"It's amazing. You're amazing," he murmured so only she would hear.
Ginny beamed and then raised her eyebrows; "Fancy a game?"
"You're on," he smirked.
--
The afternoon went by remarkably fast; spent happily between quidditch games commentated for by Lee, photos, laughs and conversations over a banquet of Mrs Weasley's finest, until around eight o' clock when those guests who were not spending the night began to unwillingly depart. Harry thanked them again and again for coming, feeling overwhelmed by how many people had shown up, elated by their company, and then proceeded to thank Mr and Mrs Weasley for housing and cooking for all of them.
"It's nothing, really Harry, we're just so glad you had a good time," Mrs Weasley assured him, kissing him on the cheek for the billionth time.
"Absolutely!" Mr Weasley said happily. "If anyone deserves it, it's you…"
And Harry's perfect day ended with him stood outside Ginny's bedroom door, their fingers laced and their bodies pressed sensually together…
"Best…birthday…ever," Harry whispered, embellishing each word with a gentle kiss. She giggled, and groped behind for the doorknob. The door flew open, and they backed into it blindly, still entwined and kissing passionately…and then Harry kicked it closed behind him with a definitive thud.
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A/N: Hmm and we all know what happens next! Review :)