'P – P – Padfoot? Wh – What's that?' Harry whimpered fearfully

Sirius wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer.

'Shhhh, it's okay.' Sirius whispered. 'If I'm not mistaken that's Hagrid with your Hogwarts letter.'

'Black.' Growled a menacing voice, as a giant man stepping out into the light, the streetlamp above him illuminating him creepily as the darkness around watched on, silently but not at the same time.

'Hagrid.' Sirius smiled pleasantly. 'You always were one for dramatic entries, weren't you? Unfortunately, Harry's birthday is tomorrow and he should get some sleep. Did he get into Hogwarts?'

'Yeh, Black, Harry be goin' to Hogwarts and there ain't nothin' yeh can do can do to stop it!' Hagrid thundered

'Thank you, Hagrid, we'll send a letter over to McGonagall in a few hours. Goodnight.' Sirius smiled, before turning and apperating with Harry.

They appeared in the kitchen in their house.

'Here, write a note to McGonagall – And Dumbledore, so they don't think we've hidden you again and are sending you to Hogwarts. Ask about bringing Mare, I reckon you'll be allowed – Dumbledore's always had a soft spot for phoenixes.' Padfoot passed him a quill, parchment and ink.

Dear Professor McGonagall and Headmaster Dumbledore

Thank you very much for accepting me into Hogwarts. I am extremely excited to begin attending of September first with the rest of my classmates. Unfortunately, I don't have the booklist and list of supplies for my first term, which, as you are aware, is imperative to attend Hogwarts, so I would be immensely grateful if you were to send me back the list of supplies and uniform, as it would be a huge help to me.

Also, I was wondering if it would be possible for me to bring my pet phoenix, Mareena, my familiar since I was two. (Harry had found it while sitting outside working on meditating to find his animagus form for the first time)

Again, I am very grateful for you both allowing me to attend Hogwarts and I am very excited to learn everything I can.

Thank you again,

Harry Potter

'Here, how does this look?' Harry asked, passing the letter to Sirius, who read it over interestedly.

'Mmhm, this looks good. Moony's going to be impressed with how good your handwriting's getting.' Sirius said, passing the letter back to Harry, who put it in an envelope and wrote Dear Professor McGonagall and Headmaster Dumbledore on it.

'Inky!' Sirius called

Inky appeared and bowed to them.

'What can Inky do for master?' She asked

'Give this letter to Professor McGonagall, don't come back until they give you a reply. Don't tell them anything other than that I want a reply and that the letter is for her and Dumbledore.' Harry said, passing the letter to Inky.

'Yes master.' Inky bowed, disappearing once again.

'Right,' Sirius said briskly. 'Bedtime, I think, Lightning.'

'Sounds good to me.' Harry yawned tiredly. 'See you in the morning.'

'See you in the morning.' Sirius agreed. 'Goodnight, Lightning.'

'Night Padfoot.' Harry called from up two flights of stairs. (They had charmed the house to be much bigger on the inside than out, and put pretty much every protection charm in existence on it, it would be harder to get into than it was to break into one of the most protected Gringott's vaults.)

'Wait. What floor is it on again?' Harry asked

'The fifth floor.' Sirius replied. 'We've been living here for a month, Lightning.'

'Goodnight' Harry said loudly, stomping up the rest up the stairs.

O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O

'Lightning… Wake up…' Remus' gentle voice woke him the next morning.

'Yeah Lightning, it's your birthday!' Sirius yelled excitedly. 'You've got the open your presents and eat your cake and play with your presents and- '

'Sirius, he just woken up, be quiet.' Remus scolded

'Fine.' Sirius said

'C'mon, wake up, Lightning.' Remus coaxed

'Mmhm gettin' up.' Harry grumbled, sitting up and kicking off his covers.

'Professor Dumbledore sent a reply to your letter last night. He wanted to see if you were available to but your school supplies with Hagrid any time soon. Do you want to?' Remus asked

'Yeah, it's better than going alone, I suppose. People will get suspicious if I don't go and but my school supplies, and you can hardly come with me without the disguises.' Harry shrugged

Remus and Sirius looked at him sympathetically.

'Sorry, Lightning.' Sirius apologised

'We wish we could, but…' Remus trailed off

'It's fine.' Harry said. 'So, about my birthday presents…'

Laughing, they all went downstairs to open Harry's presents.

As they entered the living room Harry saw it was almost flooded with presents in wrapping paper with a scarlet background and little Golden Snitches on it.

'Wow, how many are there?' Harry asked

'How am I supposed to know?' Sirius shrugged. 'A lot.'

'Leave the big rectangular box until last, Lightning.' Remus said

'Okay!' Harry said, running over and starting to open his presents.

Harry grinned as he ripped open his presents. He had got a golden watch that had several useful enchantments on it and showed you your exact location as well as adjusting the time to the time of where you where, giving you a map of where you were along with name tags of everyone there, tracking capabilities for anyone you asked it to show you and several other useful features, a new Wizarding Wireless Network radio, a new camera that would automagically print out every picture you took with it and would already move without you having to brew a potion to make it move, full protective gear for Quidditch, a pocket knife that could break any lock, books on Quidditch and Jinxes, Hexes and Curses, A new Golden Snitch with Harry's initials on it, a new wizard's chess set, a deck of exploding snap cards, a Pensieve, what looked like half of a sweet shop…

After about a few hours of opening his presents, Harry finally opened all but one.

Harry ran up the large rectangular box and opened it enthusiastically.

It was a Nimbus 2000!

'Can I go and play with it now? Please Padfoot! Please Moony!' Harry asked

'Alright, it's not like anyone can see you with the wards.' Sirius laughed. 'Don't forget your new Snitch.'

'Are you sure you want to go out in your pyjamas?' Remus asked

'Yes!' Harry insisted, grabbing his broomstick, Snitch and putting his new Quidditch gear on over his pyjamas and then running outside.

They had a small Quidditch pitch outside, nothing like the Hogwarts one Harry had seen when he saw Sirius and Remus' memories in the Pensieve. Harry flew around on his new broom for bit, it went a lot faster than his old one. He caught the Snitch, let it go again, gave it a few minutes head start and then repeated the process.

After a few hours of flying about with Sirius and Remus cheering him on, Harry landed, hungry.

They went back inside and Inky made them lunch. They had bacon sandwiches and tomato soup with Butterbeer. After lunch Harry went back upstairs to get dressed and change his appearance into that of Hadrian Fleamont. Sirius and Remus were taking him to the zoo for his birthday.

When Harry was dressed, and looked like Hadrian, he ran downstairs to meet Sirius and Remus.

They took Sirius' motorbike, with Remus sitting in the side car, Sirius driving and Harry sitting behind Sirius.

Sirius – childishly – stuck his tongue out at Harry's Uncle Vernon (who didn't even know he lived right across the road and had no idea that Hadrian Fleamont was secretly Harry Potter, his eleven-year-old nephew) who was out in his garden cutting the grass. Uncle Vernon had complained – rather loudly – about people who drove motorbikes, insulting them.

Sirius – just to annoy him, Harry thought – started the engine rather loudly and then fly in up into the sky.

'We can avoid traffic this way.' Sirius said cheerfully. 'And there's no speed limit.'

'That never stopped you, Sirius,' Remus said. 'If I'm not mistaken you and James used to spend quite a bit of time getting chased by muggle police officers for speeding.'

'Oh, shut up, Moony.' Sirius said, making to bike go faster so it was probably going over a hundred miles an hour.

'I am worried for Harry's safety with you going this fast!' Remus yelled over the loud wind.

'I'm fine, Moony!' Harry yelled back

'I think we're here!' Sirius interrupted

'It's only been fifteen minutes! How fast were you going?' Remus demanded

'I think it'd be better for your health and not attempting to wrap Harry up in cotton wool if I didn't tell you that, Moony.' Sirius said, landing the motorbike in the zoo carpark.

'I don't like the sound of that.' Remus said, climbing out of the sidecar.

It was a very sunny day and the zoo was crowded with families. Sirius bought Harry a large chocolate ice cream at the entrance and Harry ate it happily as they went and looked at the animals. Harry spent about half an hour chatting to the boa constrictor in the reptile house, who was very friendly to talk to, even wishing him a happy birthday. Harry enjoyed watching the lion too, insisting that he was going to be a Gryffindor.

After a few hours of looking at all different animals, they had dinner at the zoo restaurant and then they went back to the reptile house where Harry chatted to the boa constrictor, and eventually freed it out of boredom and pity for it.

He made the glass disappear and the snake slithered out.

People throughout the reptile house screamed and ran out of the way, and as the snake slithered away, Harry heard a hissing voice.

'Thankssssss amigo…' The voice said – or hissed.

Sirius found the whole thing hilarious, and even Remus found it somewhat amusing, if exasperating.

After they whole commotion with the boa constrictor was over, they went back home.

'Master Harry Potter?' Inky said as soon as they got in the front door. 'Headmaster Dumbledore sent Harry a birthday present.'

Inky handed him a badly wrapped present.