A/N: I felt kind of bad about missing Sirius's birthday this year. I was supposed to write a fic for it, but I had a lot of personal stuff going on then. I figured this fit with the prompt and the collection, so here's my Sirius birthday fic for the year! Enjoy!

Prompt: (word) celebration

Surprise

"What's so important that we had to cancel our plans at the last minute?" Sirius asked for the third time. He was still a bit upset that he wasn't going to be able to celebrate his birthday with James, Lily, Remus, Peter, and Marlene. He'd spent every single birthday since his twelfth with James. Missing one seemed wrong.

"I told you, Alastor didn't say," Marlene huffed. "Come on, if we don't get inside soon, they're going to wonder if something happened to us." She tugged on his hand, but he didn't budge. She sighed and turned to him. "What is it now?"

"Is this war going to ruin absolutely everything?" he said quietly. He glared at the door to headquarters, a part of him wishing he'd never joined the Order of the Phoenix, never had to fight in this stupid war. "We're all so busy fighting the Death Eaters that we don't have time to do anything fun. And now my birthday's ruined too."

Marlene squeezed his hand. "I'm sorry this evening isn't turning out how you wanted. I promise I'll make it up to you very soon."

"Alright," he said. "I guess I don't have much choice." He followed Marlene into headquarters, which had been a house once, abandoned and falling apart until Dumbledore got his hands on it. The Order usually met in the dining room, as that was the largest room in the house.

When they reached the end of the hall, Marlene opened the door and stood aside, motioning him forward. "You first."

"Aren't I supposed to be hold the door open for you?" he asked. "I think we've got this relationship a bit backwards."

"It's your birthday, so I'll let you take a break from being a gentleman," she replied. "Come on, we don't have all night."

He stepped into the room and stopped when he saw a light shining to his left. There, at one end of the long table they always gathered around, stood every member of the Order, a cake alight with candles sitting on the table in front of them. Sirius felt like time had frozen. Was he even still breathing? Was this really happening?

"Happy birthday, love." Marlene's hand on his shoulder brought him back to reality. She smiled up at him. "Sorry I had to make it sound like we weren't doing anything tonight, but it was supposed to be a surprise."

Sirius stood speechless for several moments, looking at the smiling faces of those he counted among his friends now. He remembered his bitter thoughts back at the front door about wishing he had never joined the Order. No, he thought. No matter what, I should never regret this.

"No one's ever thrown me a surprise party," he said when he was finally able to speak.

"Well, we are now, mate," James said, stepping away from the group and joining Sirius and Marlene. "You have that one to thank for all this." He pointed at Marlene. "She wanted to include everyone. She arranged everything and made sure everyone could make it."

"Lily helped," Marlene added modestly. "And Remus."

"I don't care who planned it or who helped," Sirius said quietly, smiling at them all. "Thank you everyone. This is going to be the best birthday celebration I've ever had."

"Well then, let's get this party started, old man," James teased.

"I'm only nineteen, James, and you're only five months behind me."

"Doesn't matter, you're still an old man."

"Could we argue about being old later?" Marlene cut in. "I didn't make that cake so it could sit there and look pretty." She pushed Sirius toward the cake and glared at James.

"Don't forget to make a wish, Sirius," Alice Longbottom said.

Sirius looked around once more. "I don't know what I could possibly wish for that I don't already have."

As they left later that night, full of cake and carrying several gifts that he had received, Sirius knew that all the years of ignored birthdays with his parents and brother would never be repeated. He'd found a much better family to help him replace the bad memories with good ones. No matter what happened, no matter how much this war took from him, he would always have this night to remember.