Harry woke up on his birthday determined to continue his training schedule. It never even occurred to him that he might have a birthday party. He went downstairs to exercise and met Hermione already there.

"Happy Birthday, Harry," she said just before kissing him.

He smiled and said, "Thanks!" He frowned for a moment upon realizing that no one had ever spoken those words to him before. He'd seen them in a letter, but never heard them.

"What?" asked Hermione, who'd noticed the expression on his face.

He plastered a fake smile on his face. "Nothing. Thanks." He then quickly kissed her.

Not being fooled for one second, Hermione asked, "What is it? Is something wrong?"

He sighed and realized that he couldn't keep a secret from his girlfriend if he wanted to. "I, er, just realized that you're the first person ever to wish me a happy birthday. The Dursleys never even acknowledged them. I know it's stupid, but..."

He was cut off by Hermione throwing her arms around him and sobbing. "It's not stupid to be angry about that. What is stupid is Dumbledore leaving you with those...people!"

Harry angrily said, "He thought it was safe."

Hermione frowned. "So is Azkaban."

"It's probably more pleasant, too."

Hermione took a deep breath and smiled. "You're not with them now, and you never have to see them again! That's a reason to celebrate!"

"You're right! I'm not letting them ruin this birthday! They've already ruined enough of them!"

Hermione looked at her boyfriend. "Are you sure you want to train today?"

He nodded. "Absolutely. Let's exercise."

They did their morning exercises while Mrs. Granger snuck downstairs and started making breakfast. When Harry walked into the kitchen to prepare to cook, he was surprised to see her there. "Happy birthday, Harry!" she said and pulled him into a quick hug which he awkwardly returned. "Now, why don't you shower quickly so we can have your birthday breakfast?"

❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾

When he finished showering, he found that Mr. Granger was also downstairs and wished him a happy birthday. While Hermione took her shower, Harry chatted with her parents about his plans for moving out the next day. They assured him that it had been a pleasure having him when he thanked them for their hospitality. When Hermione came downstairs, breakfast was served. Harry was given a stack of pancakes with a candle shaped like a '1' and another like a '4' that he blew out, making a wish for every birthday to start out as pleasantly as this one.

❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾

At Grimmauld place, both Sirius and Ginny wished him a happy birthday when he and Hermione portkeyed there. In the animagus training they had that day Harry was finally able to turn his left hand into a paw. In the weeks since they found out their forms, they'd spent a lot of time concentrating on making the change with little results. Ginny had been able to grow one feather without changing form at all, and Hermione had been able to make her ears pointy, causing Harry to say she looked like Spock from Star Trek. After Hermione had slapped Harry's arm she reluctantly explained to a confused Ginny and Sirius who Spock was. Harry was the first to actually fully change any body part to look like it should. Sirius said that the paw was even the right size for a lion.

When the two hours devoted to that were done, they all headed to the dueling room. Sirius had started helping them as soon as he was cleared. In dueling, he'd watch their duels and offer advice for the first half-hour, and then he'd join in. So far the only way they'd beaten him was by ganging up on him. Harry and Sirius both wanted Harry to be able to take on all of them and Lupin, who still joined them on Saturday. When he was there, they'd have teams where the three kids were against the two adults. At this point the adults were kicking the kids' behinds. The plan was that when the three kids started regularly beating the two adults, Ginny would switch sides, followed eventually by Hermione. Once they reached that stage, they planned on finding others to help. The goal was for Harry to be able to fight off as many people at once as possible since he was the chosen one (although they didn't tell Ginny the reason - just that he wanted to be the best). They didn't expect to reach that phase for at least a year.

Another exercise that had been added on Mondays when they studied defensive magic was to spend fifteen minutes each in the dueling room without a wand being shot at by Sirius, only able to physically dodge spells. Harry and Hermione, who'd been exercising and taking karate, were better at this than Ginny, but she wasn't that bad.

In their magical travel lessons, they'd all learned to charm brooms and magic carpets. They'd learned to make portkeys and to put any fire (including a campfire) onto a private floo network (specifically to go to Grimmauld Place). The only thing left from that book to learn was apparition, which they'd start learning the next day.

They'd continued increasing their magical potential, and Lupin (who got interested when they told him about their early results) had even found a way to charm an object to measure how much magical force it had been hit with, so they were tracking their progress. There was improvement every week when they tested it. Not very much, but always some improvement. At the rate they were going, Sirius and Remus felt that the kids would be as magically powerful as most Death Eaters within a year.

Occlumency was going well. Remus had to put forth more effort to read their minds every week. He felt that by the time school started, he wouldn't be able to read them at all and would ask Dumbledore to take over.

When the dueling was over Harry and Hermione portkeyed back to her house to eat a quick lunch and ride their bikes to karate class. They briefly chatted with Neville, who seemed to be hiding something.

While they were bicycling back, Harry commented, "Neville seemed nervous. Do you think he's not telling us something?"

Hermione's ears went pink, but Harry, who was paying attention to where he was going, didn't notice. She said, "I'm sure it's just your imagination, Harry. What could Neville possibly be hiding?"

"I don't know," admitted Harry, "He was probably just nervous about class."

When they got back home, Hermione said, "Mum and Dad want to take us out to eat for your birthday if that's alright with you."

Harry grinned. "That sounds nice."

"I told them we want to disguise ourselves, so we'd like to all portkey to Sirius' house at five so we can change our appearance and then go out to a nice dinner for your birthday?"

Harry smiled at this idea. "Alright. I guess I should study more runes and start packing up my stuff before then if I'm gonna move tomorrow. Maybe I can bring some of it with me."

❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾

At about 4:30, Harry and Hermione were packing up most of his things into his new trunk with the door open. As he was adding more and more stuff to it, Harry realized that finding things inside it could become a problem. He knew he could do a summoning charm at Grimmauld Place and at Hogwarts if he couldn't find something, but he didn't want to have to. It was set so that the top of the pile was always the last thing you put in there. He mentioned this problem to Hermione, who said, "That's why a lot of trunks like these have separate compartments. What you got at Flourish and Blotts is the basic trunk, which is the only one they sell. There's another shop in Diagon Alley that specializes in trunks, and has all kinds of options they can add. If you really want to do that, why don't we take the trunk over there Saturday after you've had a chance to empty it?"

Harry grinned at his girlfriend. "Sounds like a great idea. Why didn't you suggest it when I bought the trunk?"

Hermione blushed. "Honestly, I was too excited about all the books you bought that I didn't think of it."

About that time, Adam Granger walked up to the open doorway and said, "Hi guys."

"Hi daddy," said Hermione with a grin.

"Hey Adam," said Harry.

"Marissa wanted me to remind you that we'll be leaving in less than a half hour."

"Thanks Adam," said Harry, "But you really didn't have to..."

"We wanted to, Harry."

❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾

At exactly five o'clock, the four of them (Harry holding his trunk) arrived in the living room of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place to several shouts of, "SURPRISE!" and "Happy Birthday, Harry!"

The Grangers were all grinning at Harry, who was in total shock as he looked around to see Sirius, Remus, Dumbledore, Hagrid, Neville, Ginny, Arthur, Molly, Fred, George, and Ron all watching him and laughing. The words, 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY' in randomly changing colors were floating above their heads and he noticed a table full of presents was in the room as well. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He'd never had a birthday party before. He decided that the best thing to do was laugh. He certainly didn't want to look like a sissy in front of everybody, nor did he want to ruin the party with tears.

"Happy birthday, Harry!" said Sirius. "I've finished fixing everything that was wrong with my motorcycle and renewed the charms on it. After the party I'm going to take you for a ride!"

Harry looked ecstatic and joked, "Thanks for coming everybody. The party's over," earning a laugh from those who were nearby.

Molly Weasley, however, did appear nervous. "Are...are you sure that it's safe, Sirius?"

"Of course it's safe. It's charmed so that it'll never crash and no one can fall off of it. I couldn't hurt myself or Harry on it if I wanted to." Sirius then smiled. "It's also charmed to be invisible, actually completely undetectable, to all muggle police while it's running, so we don't have to worry about speed limits."

Harry and Remus started laughing while Hermione and Molly looked very concerned.

Sirius continued, "We can of course make it invisible to everyone, but that could be a problem dealing with traffic. I'm also gonna start teaching you how to drive it."

Molly said, "I'm sure that will be quite...fun. For now, I think it's time we had dinner." She then directed them into the kitchen where she had a feast of Harry's favorite foods prepared.

Harry enjoyed having dinner with all of them, chatting about several things. What stuck out to him the most was when they were discussing the way Gryffindor had won the Quidditch cup last year when Hagrid said, "It's too bad this year we won'..." and then saw that several of the adults were glaring at him, even Dumbledore. "I shouldn' a said that. I should not 'ave said that. Isn't it abou' time fer the cake?"

"What's going on this year?" asked Fred.

"That we don't know about?" said George.

Hagrid's complexion was completely red, and his face was in his hands. Dumbledore answered, "Alas, it is a secret that shall not be revealed until the opening feast. I do agree with Hagrid however, that it is time for the cake."

A huge 'Harry Potter' cake with a moving image of him on a Firebolt catching a Snitch with fourteen lit candles on it was carried to the table by Molly as everyone sang 'Happy Birthday to You.' When Harry saw the image on the cake he laughed. Molly said, "I couldn't resist it when I saw it at the bakery. I had to get that frosting spell to put on your cake."

"Wait a minute," said Harry, "They sell cakes with me on them now?"

"Yes dear," said Molly, "They've been selling cakes with your picture on them for years. This is the latest one since you won the house cup. They also sell the spells to put the picture on them, which is what this is. I baked the cake myself."

Harry was annoyed at his image being sold without his consent, but didn't want to ruin his first birthday party. He smiled, "Thanks Mrs. Weasley. I really do like the picture. And thanks for all the trouble you went through baking the cake. I'm sure it's wonderful."

"It's no trouble, Harry-dear. But isn't it time you blew out the candles?"

Harry took a deep breath and made his wish. He then blew at the candles as hard as he could, and they all kept burning. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw George put his hand over his mouth, as though to hold back laughter. "Fred, George," said Harry, "You wouldn't happen to know why the candles didn't burn out, would you?"

Molly eyed her twin sons suspiciously as Fred said, "I'm deeply offended that you of all people..."

"Would accuse us of such a crime without any proof," finished George.

Molly pointed her wand at the candles and said, "Finite Incantatum," and the candles went out. "Sorry about that dear. It's probably another one of their so-called products for their joke shop idea..." her tone got more irritated, "that I told them to get rid of."

Fred turned to Padfoot. "Sirius, wouldn't you agree that people should not be punished..."

"...unless they have a fair trial first," said George.

Sirius laughed. "Normally I'd say yes, but I'm not about to get between you and your mother."

❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾

The party continued on. After the cake, it was time to open presents. From Sirius, Harry got a helmet, along with an instruction manual for Sirius' motorcycle. He also got a black leather jacket and matching gloves from his godfather.

Remus gave him a photo album full of magical pictures of the Marauders and Lily from their time at Hogwarts. Several of the pictures of the Marauders were cut at one edge. Remus explained, "In the pictures that had...the rat, I had the other people corner him on the photo's edge and cut that small portion out. It made the pictures much better; don't you agree? Sirius and I had great fun burning all those edges."

"Indeed we did," said Sirius with a smile.

Dumbledore gave Harry a Pensieve. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley gave him a new jumper. Fred and George gave him a box of joke supplies they invented, including something called ton-tongue toffee and some fake wands, earning a glare from their mother. Ron gave Harry a new broom servicing kit.

Ginny gave him a Quidditch t-shirt that showed a Snitch flying around all over the shirt (front, back, sleeves). Every so often, a hand that appeared to come out of the wearer's chest would grab the Snitch and hold it for about thirty seconds, and then release it. While the hand was holding the Snitch, the words 'Heart of a Seeker' appeared below it.

The Granger adults gave Harry a special Wizard's chess set that had the players on broomsticks. Hermione gave him a book on chess strategies, which caused Ron to frown, along with some expensive cologne. Hagrid gave Harry a book called 'Magical Creatures and Where You Can Find Them' which thankfully didn't bite. Neville gave Harry a plant that he was assured didn't need much maintenance along with a book about the plant and a watering schedule.

Soon the older crowd left, leaving the Weasley kids, Neville, Hermione, Harry, and Sirius (who lived there). They decided to play a game of indoor quidditch where one team had Fred as beater, Ginny and Neville as chasers, and Ron as keeper. The other team had George as beater, Harry and Hermione as chasers, and Sirius as keeper. It turned out that without the obstacle of riding a broom, Hermione was very good as a chaser, although she tended to dribble the Quaffle around the court when she had it like she was playing basketball. Her explanation was that, "My dad for some reason taught me the game of basketball when I was a little girl, and I always enjoyed it." She, along with Harry, got some shots past Ron while the other team got some shots past Sirius. In the end, Harry's team won, but not by much. Neville claimed it was because of him until Ginny told him to stop putting himself down.

Finally, everyone but Sirius, Harry and Hermione, who told him she didn't want to be asleep when he portkeyed into her room, left. Hermione started reading a book when Sirius said, "Alright cub. Put on your helmet. We're going for a ride!"

❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾

Within a few minutes, Harry was riding behind his godfather on the same bike he'd dreamed about more than once. They were going over two-hundred miles per hour, and Harry was enjoying it immensely. The charms on the bike allowed him to feel secure (so he didn't feel like he was about to fall off). He was enjoying the fast turns and other stunts his godfather did. Padfoot even purposely drove past a police car that had two overweight cops that wouldn't be able to outrun a crawling baby if their lives depended on it. They naturally didn't see the bike as they continued munching on their donuts.

Harry didn't realize at all where they were until he recognized Privet Drive. The bike slowed down as they got close to the Dursley residence, and Sirius pressed a button that made them invisible. Sirius then parked and pulled a bag out of his jacket pocket. He then pulled several dungbombs out of the bag and handed them to Harry. He then grabbed more out of the bag that had obviously been charmed for size and started throwing them all over the Dursley's lawn and house. Finally catching on, Harry laughed as he joined in the fun. Sirius kept on pulling more and more out of the bag until Harry hit Dudley's window and Uncle Vernon walked outside to find the culprit, only to find that he couldn't see anybody around and his precious house smelled like a huge pile of manure. Sirius then had the bike start flying and got right above Vernon's head and dropped one more dungbomb.

Sirius took off at that moment, keeping the bike invisible as they flew home. Both of them were still laughing their heads off when they got back to Sirius' house. Hermione asked them what was so funny and Harry answered while still laughing, "Ha-ha...Dursleys' house...dungbombs...ha-ha."

Hermione didn't have much trouble figuring that out. She did her best to look upset instead of amused. "You went to the Dursleys' house and dropped dungbombs?"

"All over the house and yard," said Sirius proudly grinning.

"One on Uncle Vernon!" said Harry while doubled over in laughter.

Hermione couldn't stop herself anymore. She joined in the laughter. "If anyone deserves that, it's them."

❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾ ❾¾❾¾❾¾

Harry spent that night at the Granger residence, and came over at the normal time. This time, however, he brought what little he hadn't already brought. The plans were now for Hermione to come to Grimmauld Place at seven to exercise with Harry, and then to come back to have breakfast with her parents before returning for training. Both Harry and Hermione would return on weekday afternoons for lunch and to ride their bikes to the karate school. Harry's bike would stay at the Grangers' house until they were done with the karate class. After the class, Harry and Hermione would spend the afternoon at the Granger house, and Harry would sometimes have dinner with the Grangers and then go home. Other times he'd go home and eat dinner with Sirius.

This was the day they would start the last part of magical transportation, apparition. Ginny showed up on time, and Sirius, who had unsplinched a few people when he worked for the ministry, was observing them. Harry and Ginny both let out sighs of disappointment when Hermione announced, "This is going to take about twelve weeks to learn." They then took turns reading out loud from the chapter, talking about the concepts of Destination, Determination, and Deliberation.