AN: I do not own Harry Potter.

The Birthday Party (ies)

Harry had been unable to get any of the groups together within the first two weeks of vacation. At first, it was because that the families of those involved wanted to spend some time with their children before having them leave again. While Harry was starting to understand that, as Sirius had been very cuddly the first two weeks of summer vacation, it was a new feeling, almost as new as having to be in the care of Sirius was. After two weeks in which Harry was either doing homework, some chores, or spending it in the same room as his godfather while out of his room, Harry still wanted to get together with his friends and allies. By then, when Harry sent out his invitations, the dae that the first party would land on was his birthday.

Sirius was ecstatic at being able to put together a birthday party for his godson. When Harry got the acceptance of the second group for a party, those of the children of his allies, as he was referring to them, he was even more excited at planning two parties.

Harry vetoed a lot of stuff, trying to keep his godfather under control. Unfortunately, Harry wasn't allowed to veto the dancing, because that was expected as per tradition. However, having group games was also tradition, so there was hide-and-seek, exploding snap (gob stones just was too messy when having to dress up), and charades.

It also meant that Harry had to both find the music room and learn how to dance more smoothly in that time period. It also high lighted to Sirius how much about the life style of the purebloods that Harry had no idea of. Yes, he did not need to learn sword fighting or archery to get along with those around him, but he had to learn more etiquette and financial management in order to know what he was doing.

Having a party ended up being the distraction Harry felt he needed. He was mentally exhausted to the point he was having trouble learning new facts even if he understood them, and Sirius went at teaching the same way as he did everything: full steam. He was glad though to realize that the way of speaking that had been required the other day when he changed the marks was not standard. He did have to be more formal, but etiquette had relaxed over the centuries since that had been written. While he did have to learn the duties of a lord with servants, and what the whole relationship entailed, he was relieved to find that much could be taken care of simultaneously or done in a casual manner.

That evening had been rough. Lord Malfoy had finally found the instructions after finding multiple mentions of the passage with nothing to tell how to do it, several referring to each other, only to find that they were in a language that even he had trouble with, and then had to translate to see what it said. It was so old, he said, that he had not wanted to change much of the formality of the language in case it was a part of the whole ritual to change things and have the magic not work.

Grim Auld Place, as Hermione had researched, had started out as a tower castle. As the family grew, they did not appear to add much to the outside of the house, but instead added a floor magically and revamped the rooms. Throughout the eras, the family home had changed its appearance, with the biggest external change when they changed a lot during the gothic architecture phase. The more menacing look was greatly appreciated by the Black family, who by then had a reputation to be knowledgable about magics as black as their name. It also visually hid how old the central tower was, as the outside of the tower was upgraded as well. Sirius had changed a couple of the colours of the details on the outside of the house, and it looked more solemn than menacing now. If it didn't look like it was built to overwhelm, it almost looked cheery, and a renewal of the whitewash and a dash of red highlighting some of the details just added what the outside was needing.

All this meant that there were a large amount of nooks, random partially blocked passages, and other places excellent for hiding. In the last generation, they had been mostly used by the two boys that were last born there; pranking prep points or hiding from upset parents or each other were what they were mostly used for. Occasionally, one or more house elves would use them as family nests, but they had been cleared of all the stuff that would accumulate by a very bored Sirius Black. They still made for a very challenging game of hide-and-seek.

This was his more light sided group of friends, not that members of the darker sided group were not present. It just meant that they couldn't treat him as their lord. He actually preferred that, to be honest.

Ah, what was he thinking about when he was trying to find Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot, the last two for him to find. He needed to get his head in the game. Had they become invisible? He took a deep breath and went very still, trying to see if he could hear them, before going onto the next place. His technique was rewarded when he heard a scuff of a shoe, opened one of the hidden nooks and found both girls.

"Found you!" he grinned.

"We chose a good spot," said Susan, "and we know how to be quiet."

"I also know how to be quiet," answered Harry. "That's how I found you."

"Good. Are we the last ones?" said Hannah as they walked back to the counting point. Once that was confirmed she continued, "You'll need it again this time, or let someone else be found last so you're not seeking again after this turn."

"We'll see," said Harry grinning back at them, taking the challenge.

"Aw, Hannah. Did you have to challenge him? He's a Gryffindor so he'll try his hardest not to be found now."

"At least we're two people, not one."

"No, that just makes him able to hide in smaller locations and us louder."

The party ended positively, with Harry hoping that the second one would be as good as the first one. Harry also decided that they were neat things to have, they could be absolutely made a misery if the right person was coordinating. Since several of these did not have good or any at all school relations, the second group would have a lot of ice breaker type activities.

Sirius called it the second birthday party.

Harry didn't really know what to call it, other than a group of teenagers having a party.

It ended up with Sirius absolutely pushing a second birthday party on him.