10

"SURPRISE!" Dozens of voices shouted as Harry walked into the kitchen the morning of his birthday. He blinked around and on seeing who it was, he sheathed his wand before anyone saw it in his hand and ready for a fight.

The kitchen was a sea of red hair, interspersed with the odd head of black or brown. Every single face was grinning at him and he managed to find the energy to grin back (it was early in the morning, after all, and he was a teenage boy- they don't do mornings) as he processed what was happening.

"A... surprise party? For... me?" he asked, somewhat hesitantly, searching through the faces and cataloguing who was there. In the front were Hermione and Ron, along with Sirius and Remus. Behind them was the rest of the Weasley's, including Bill and Charlie who must have had time off work to come. Hagrid was crouching at the back, though he still managed to be a head taller than anyone else. Off to one side was Neville, smiling shyly and a short, young blue-haired woman was standing just behind him with an older woman who must be her mother. Harry wondered at their presence, but wasn't given time to dwell on it as he was instantly surrounded by friends and family.

"Of course for you, who else'd it be for?" Ron was saying whilst clapping him firmly on the back, Hermione had thrown herself forward to claim the first hug, but Harry was quickly passed around the group, all of them wanting to greet him personally and instantly. The two women he didn't know stayed off to one side though, evidently waiting to be introduced. After about quarter of an hour of hugs and greetings and various exclamations of 'What do you look like!' (most of which came from Mrs Weasley), Sirius took pity on his godson.

"All right, you lot, give the boy some space," he called, pushing his way through to Harry. He stood in front of his best friend's son for a minute, before grinning and hugging him tightly, "Happy Birthday, pup," he whispered into Harry's hair and let him go.

"You organised all this, Pads?" Harry asked, feeling slightly teary.

"Well, me and Dobby," Sirius answered and Harry looked around to see that Dobby was working at the stove, cooking enough eggs and bacon to feed a small army. The messy haired teen wound his way through the people cluttering the kitchen to reach the house elf.

"Breakfast will be ready in just a moment, Harry Potter, sir!" the tiny elf squeaked, only to be ignored and swept up into a bone crushing hug by his hero. Tears fell from Dobby's eyes as he was set down, and he looked up at Harry questioningly.

"Thank you Dobby, for everything," Harry said simply, reaching over to flip one of eggs before it burned, "Breakfast's done, guys!" he called over his shoulder and Dobby snapped into action, levitating the food onto plates which were then floated over to the table. All the Weasley men, along with Sirius, instantly scrambled for a seat, with the rest of the guests following more sedately.

The conversation was rowdy and plentiful as they dug into their food. Topics ranged from the upcoming Quidditch world cup ("Ireland have got no chance against Krum, are you mental?") to the latest proposed laws against werewolves. Harry somehow ended up sitting between Ron, who seemed to have grown at least a few inches since Harry had last seen him and the blue-haired woman, who was introduced as Tonks ("not Nymphadora") and turned out, along with her mother, Andromeda, to be a relative of Sirius's and a distant relative of Harry's. Mrs Weasley and Bill sat opposite them, and spent much of the meal arguing, as usual, over the length of Bill's hair and the suitability of his earring.

"You're setting a bad example for your brothers, and Harry as well," she chastised. Bill rolled his eyes and grinned across the table to Harry, Ron and Tonks.

"Mum, have you looked around this table? We've got Sirius looking like an older Sid Vicious, Tonks has got blue hair, for Christ's sake, and Harry himself ain't looking too posh these days. So yeah, with Sirius around I don't think it'll matter to Harry's wellbeing if he has another bad example around, and the rest of your sons are bad enough examples to themselves," Bill laughed, casting a rueful glance at his brothers, who tried their hardest to look suitably innocent. Molly glared at him, but he carried on eating, unfazed, so she dropped the subject, choosing to quiz Harry on his summer instead. He answered politely but vaguely, passing over questions such as 'where did you get that cut on your forehead?' (a memento from Ruby's pub a few nights back), and instead steering her more towards his joy over Sirius's pardon and his escape from the Dursley's, which everyone was relieved about.

It was an hour later when everyone had eaten their fill that Sirius stood up and knocked his fork against his glass.

"Speech!" the cry came from the twins. Sirius was only too happy to oblige.

"As you all know, we are here to celebrate the birth of young Mr Harry Potter here. I'm sure most of you are wondering why the party started before we'd even had breakfast, but there is a simple explanation that I will now divulge. I've only been able to celebrate one other birthday with my godson and that was thirteen years ago. As I understand it, his birthdays since then have been pretty damn shit. So, to make up for it, I have gathered you all here today as Harry's friends and family, and Harry's friends and family to be," here he paused to nod and smile and his cousin and her daughter, "for the party to end all parties!" A cheer rose up from the younger members of the congregation, as the elder ones tried with varying degrees of success to look disapproving. None could stop a smile at the thought of Harry's happiness, not even Mrs Weasley, who knew what kind of mischief her sons could get up to at a party, not least one hosted by the notorious Sirius Black.

Dobby (who had been seated at the table by Harry with a plate of food and instructions to feel free to join in any conversations he wished to) spoke up suddenly, his squeaky voice rising above the din.

"But first, Harry Potter, sir, you has presents to open!"

Harry had never received so many presents in his life. Ron and Ginny had bought him an enormous box of sweets between them, including all of his favourites. Fred and George had also given him sweets, but a note inside their box had informed him that they weren't for him to eat, if he knew what they were saying. Harry resolved to take their advice and planned to test the sweets out on Sirius as soon as he could. Percy had bought him a book on careers in Quidditch, which was thoughtful if a bit dull, while Bill and Charlie had clubbed together to buy him a pair of black dragon skin boots. Molly and Arthur had given him a giant box of fudge ("because you need fattening up, I've always said so") and a hand knitted hat and scarf in green ("I know it's not your house colours, but green goes so wonderfully with your eyes, dear"). Hagrid handed him a homemade chocolate cake, much like the one Harry had received when they had first met. Hagrid had also brought along a gift from Professor Dumbledore, which turned out to be socks in all different colours of the rainbow. Harry had grinned at this, remembering what the headmaster had seen in the Mirror of Erised in his first year. Tonks had bought him a Weird Sisters shirt, and had seemed offended when he didn't even know who the band was ("But they're the greatest band in the wizarding world! You just stopped being cool in my eyes!"). Her mother, Andromeda had been more traditional in her gift, giving Harry a long, expensive looking, grey cloak with a silver clasp in the shape of a panther. Hermione had gifted him with a set of defence against the dark arts books, and Neville had given him a framed copy of a photo of their parents together. Tears had threatened to fall as Harry thought of the fates of the two happy couples looking back up at him, but he held them back, choosing instead to grab Neville into a hug, hoping it conveyed all of his gratitude for the gift. Dobby had given his present next, which turned out to be a pair of socks, one red with a repeated pattern of Harry's face knitted over it and the other blue with little golden snitches covering it. The last present had been from Sirius and Remus combined, and had been tickets to see the upcoming Quidditch World Cup.

The day was spent in the living room, talking and laughing and playing games and surreptitiously feeding Sirius the sweets from Fred and George. Luckily Molly had been out of the room when the ton- tongue toffee took effect, else the Weasley twins would surely have been heading home with his parents when they left in the late afternoon. Hagrid and Andromeda were the only others who left at the same time, though Harry and Sirius were hard- pressed to convince Molly to allow her only daughter to stay. It had taken Tonks promising to look after to finally swing the over protective mother's opinion.

And so it was that Percy found himself to be the most mature person left in the house. He had had high hopes for Remus but, it turned out, spending time with Sirius caused the ex-professor to revert back to his teenage years, and so no help was coming to Percy from him.

"Kitchen!" Sirius announced suddenly, dragging the people nearest to him to their feet and leading the group down stairs. There were various groans as the rest of the crowd hauled themselves up from where they had been lounging on sofas or the floor and trouped downstairs. Harry was at the back of the crowd, and by the time he managed to make his way into the kitchen his godfather had already begun setting everything up. Thirteen shot glasses now sat on the table along with two bottles of firewhiskey. Harry grinned as he took a seat with everyone else, knowing that this would be some of his friend's first time drinking the stuff.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Hermione asked, sporting a small frown at the thought of breaking the rules.

"Of course it is, 'Mione, trust me, you'll love the stuff," Harry said, his eyes twinkling like mad.

"Where's that Gryffindor spirit, eh?" Bill asked, shooting a charming grin down the table at his youngest brother's best friend. Hermione glared back, taking it as a challenge and resolving to out drink at least one of the boys.

"What's it to be then, boys and girls?" Sirius asked from the head of the table.

"Truth or dare!" called one of the Weasley twins.

"Nah, Dobby'll get pissed if we trash the house doing dares," Harry said, winking at the house elf in question who sat between Tonks and Charlie with a shot glass in front of him.

"Never have I ever?" Bill asked.

"Sounds good to me," Remus answered, and everyone else nodded and agreed bar Percy who was eyeing his glass with distaste.

"Okay, then, it's your birthday pup, so you can start!" Sirius announced cheerfully, passing the fire whiskey around the table.

"Never have I ever..."

"Never have I ever," Hermione slurred, swaying slightly in her seat, "kissed a teacher!" she announced happily. It was the early hours of the morning and everyone was well and truly drunk. Dobby had fallen asleep in his chair an hour ago and Ron had passed out on the table. The rest were still going more or less strong though, and even Percy was having a good time. Following Hermione's statement, Sirius happily downed his shot, as did Bill to everyone's shock.

"Woah, mate, which teachers have you been kissing?" Fred asked, only it came out more like: "whish teakers've yoo bin kishing?" It was a testament to just how drunk they all were that everyone understood him.

"A gentleman never tells!" Bill announced pompously, "Who'd you kiss, Siri?"

"Ahhh, Sinistra, of course," Sirius said proudly, ignoring the outbreak of laughing that followed.

"Come on, Bill, it can't be worse than Sinistra," Harry called, grinning at the mock hurt look that Sirius put on.

"Trust me, it is," Bill groaned, knowing that they wouldn't let it drop until they knew. Sure enough...

"Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!" the twins and Ginny started chanting, banging their fists on the table in what was obviously supposed to be a rhythm.

"Fiiiine," Bill whined, "it was Snape." Silence followed, broken only by Remus and Tonks's giggling. Everyone else, it seemed was too drunk to really comprehend what it was that Bill had just admitted to. Luckily, Neville decided that it was best for his mental health if he didn't hear that story and broke the silence.

"Never have I ever... kissed a boy!" he announced, a pleased look on his face that he had successfully managed to divert the group's attention. Some things just didn't bare thinking of. Bill downed another shot, as did Tonks, Hermione, Ginny, Remus, Fred and Harry.

"Oh, shit!" Sirius exclaimed, "I'd forgotten about that, Remus! I guess you and Bill have something in common, then."