Chapter 1: Birthday Surprise.

"You ungrateful abnormality!" Vernon fumed as his bushy mustache twitched with his anger as he waited for the boy to get to his feet before he prodded Harry roughly in the chest with a beefy finger. "I told you to keep quiet tonight and that if I heard you, you'd be sorry. Well boy."

Harry looked at his uncle with matching anger as he seethed through his tightly clenched teeth, "Ungrateful? What have any of you ever done except starve and abuse me!"

Petunia Dursleys gasped as she stared at her nephew in horror as if his accusation was false. Vernon was furious with the raven haired teen. They had been hosting his boss and his wife for dinner and instructed the "abnormality" to remain in his room for the evening after feeding him a meager dinner that consisted of a slice of burnt toast and an apple. Vernon had warned Harry that if he was unable to remain in the room and stay quiet that he would be severely punished. Harry who still had trouble sleeping had decided to try take a quick kip. Unfortunately for him the nightmares that frequently haunted his sleep decided to make and appearance.

Vernon and Petunia and their guest had just retired to the sitting-room for after dinner drinks when Harry began thrashing about in his sleep and screaming out in pain and calling out names that were indistinguishable. Vernon then quickly ushered his boss out of the home before storming up the stairs and barreling through the door of Harry's small bedroom to find the boy drenched in sweat and thrashing wildly about. Vernon roughly shoved the boy off bed and onto the floor. Violently Harry was startled awake.

Meanwhile while Harry and his uncle stared each other down Harry's friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger were huddled together on a bench in the garden of the Burrow, their hands tightly entwined together enjoying a quiet evening watching the sunset. As they sat there on the bench their conversation turned to the missing link of the trio, their best friend, Harry Potter. They knew that he would be angry with them as he was last summer when Professor Dumbledore made them promise to give Harry as little information as possible as to what was occurring in the wizarding community as it pertained to the Dark Lord, Voldemort. Regrettably the pair had once again promised the Headmaster to keep Harry in the dark.

"I can't wait till Harry gets here I bet he's angry that we haven't owled him with any news," Ron said thoughtfully while placing an emphasis on the word news.

"Ron, seriously what are we going to tell Harry? Don't you think he might find this weird that his two best friends are dating?" Hermione asked worriedly.

"Blimey its Harry he'll be fine. Besides he probably has tons of other things on his mind as it is," Ron grunted as he gave her hand a gentle squeeze of comfort. He then continued with a chuckle "Plus I think he knew about our feelings for each other before even we were ready to admit them. If you hadn't gone to the Yule Ball with that bloody prat we'd probably still be dancing around our feelings."

"Your right, it's Harry he'll be okay with it," Hermione smiled as she gave Ron a hurried peck on the cheek before raising from the bench and heading into the Burrow, while Ron watched her retreat into the home quietly from the bench with an impish grin plastered to his face.

As Ron sat there alone he couldn't help but think back to a couple weeks ago when they went to the Department of Mysteries and were attacked by Death Eaters. He was finally able to tell Hermione his feelings towards her while they talked their nightmares through. Ron chuckled slightly while lowering his head in shame immediately afterwards as remembered that his best mate had lost his godfather that night.

It was fifteen minutes before midnight as a scrawny teen with untidy raven hair stood at the window in his small bedroom staring at the large moon that hung in the evening sky. A cool gentle breeze flowed silently in through the open window as the teen stared sadly at the moon as he pondered on recent events. Heavy on his mind were the memories of his recently deceased godfather. A silent tear cascaded down Harry's cheek as his stoic glare remained upon the moon. 'I'm sorry Sirius, it's my fault you died. If only I had stayed at Hogwarts instead of blindly rushing into the Department of Mysteries you'd still be here.' With a heavy sigh he turned away from the window and took a seat on his bed as he reached for a pile of previously discarded newspaper clippings. Finally the Ministry of Magic admitted the return of Voldemort. With an exasperated grunt Harry crumbled the newspaper clippings into the palm of his hand and flung them across the room. Once again he look towards his window, yet this time there was longing in his eyes as he seemed to search for something. It had been weeks since he had returned to the Dursley's and he had yet to receive an owl from his friends or any news from the Order.

'Great' Harry thought to himself. 'I guess they don't feel I need to know what's going on now that I caused Sirius's death'. Harry took a moment to look at the rickety clock on top of the bedside table, in just mere moments it would be his birthday and for the first time since he found out that he was a wizard he felt truly alone. Harry looked at the door to his room as he thought back to the argument between him and his uncle earlier that evening. "That blood git thinks I should be thankful to them, bullocks.'

Quietly Harry watched the clock until it turned a minute before midnight and then he began the count down until he'd be sixteen….45,44,43..21,19…10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1… Suddenly the quietness of the muggle home erupted into chaos as the familiar sound of someone apparating began to pop around him. Harry quickly pulled his wand from his pocket and rolled backwards off the bed using it as cover from the expected guest.

Several people had appeared in the already small room. Harry quickly recognized several wizards with red hair and lowered his wand as a blur of bushy brown hair skyrocketed across the room and threw her arms around him.

"Harry! How have you been I am sorry we couldn't owl you Professor Dumbledore said that you would need time to deal with things and that we should give you some time." Hermione said sadly on his shoulder as the others began quickly casting spells that would magic his valuables to pack themselves inside his school trunk."

"Happy birthday, mate." Ron said quietly as Hermione released Harry from her grip and gathered Ron's empty hand into hers.

"Thanks Ron, Hermione it's great seeing everyone does this mean I get to leave here finally?" Harry asked with a hopeful smile.

"Of course we're here to take you away for the remainder of the summer," Remus Lupin stated as he walked forward from the group. Harry looked into his former Professor's eyes and could easily see that they held deep grief. Sadly Harry frowned as he knew that Lupin was still obviously grieving the loss of his close friend. Remus noticed the boy's eyes fill with tears and recognized the grief he seen in his own eyes every morning. Softly he placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and whispered so that only Harry could hear him, "Don't worry Harry we'll be there to help each other."

"Alright you lot we can say your hellos and save the hugs for when we're safe back at the headquarters, as it is right now we really must be going." Mad Eye Moody interrupted with a growl as he began to herd everyone tightly together while pulling an old and worn small toy teddy bear from the pocket of his robes.

"Portus." Moody muttered and with a quick flick of his wand the toy began to glow blue for a minute before returning to original state. "The portkey leave in 30 seconds, grab ahold everyone."

Everyone quickly reached out to touch the tattered toy and quickly thereafter vanished from the spot with a familiar jerk of their naval. The other occupants remained blissfully unaware that Harry had left, and most likely the pretentious family would be elated when they finally awaken and found him gone and proceed to go about their lives. Soon they would learn that their lives as they know it and the lives of many, magical and muggle alike, would depend heavily upon the boy; but not this summer as they would enjoy their days without him.

Harry and the others reappeared in the courtyard in front of Grimmauld Place. The others quickly began heading towards the front door and hadn't noticed that Harry hesitated as he looked upon the house with a tearful gaze. Harry let out a loud sigh as he wiped the unshed tears from his eyes and headed to the front door where Ron and Hermione were waiting for him. As they entered the home Harry was quickly greeted with a firm motherly embrace from Mrs. Weasley.

"Harry dear you've grown quite a bit since I last saw you," Mrs. Weasley smiled, and then looking at his thin frame frowned before she continued, "Though it looks as if you haven't eaten since I last saw you too."

"Hi Mrs. Weasley, it's good to see you too." Harry said quietly.

Mrs. Weasley smiled as she gave him a soft comforting pat on his cheek, "Let's get you something to eat."

Harry blushed slightly as Mrs. Weasley muttered quietly to herself as she guided him to the kitchen and busied herself with preparing food. Upon entering the kitchen Harry found Professor Dumbledore, Remus and Mad-Eye already seated at the table with Mr. Weasley quietly talking amongst themselves and quickly ended the conversation when they entered.

"Ah, here he is, how are you Harry?" Dumbledore asked with the familiar twinkle flashing behind his crescent shaped glasses.

"I'm okay Professor," Harry replied as he took a seat next to Remus, noting that everyone present at the table glanced quickly between the pair. "Everything okay?"

"Yes my boy everything is okay, we were just discussing some items," Dumbledore stated a frown quickly flashed upon his face, and disappeared as quickly as it appeared. "Tomorrow… well today in fact is the reading of Sirius's will."

Harry quickly lowered his gaze to a spot on the table in front of him as tears began to build in his eyes. Dumbledore let out a small sigh as he noticed the pain etched across the boy's face, "Well I have additional news that I feel is important to disclose to you."

Harry looked up questionably at the Headmaster, but remained silent as he waited for him to continue, "Well Harry before I disclose the information I want you to know that I had been asked not to tell you this by your parents, though I have been battling telling you this since your first year at Hogwarts. Harry I am your grandfather, well actually your great grandfather." Dumbledore stated as Harry, Ron and Hermione's jaws dropped. "I was prevented from telling you this while Sirius was alive as he had been named your guardian, as it is now… I am your guardian. That being said I assume it will be mentioned in Sirius's will. Another upside is you won't have to return to the Dursley's home next summer if you don't want to. You of course could stay with your grand-dad."

The last part elicited a chuckle from Harry as everyone looked at him shocked at how well he seemed to be taking the news, "Grand-dad huh?"

The twinkle in Dumbledore's shined brightly as he looked upon Harry with an amused smile, "Well yes, it will still be Professor or Headmaster while we are with company at Hogwarts of course."

"Of course sir," Harry agreed with an amused smile of his own. Internally Harry was fighting emotions. He was hurt that this had been kept from him for sixteen years and that he had to suffer the wrath of the Dursley's for all those years, yet he was ecstatic to find out that he had another member of family and wouldn't have to return to the Dursley's. Eventually the happiness of knowing he had actual family that didn't hate him won out as Mrs. Weasley placed a platter of sandwiches and a pot of stew on the table. Deciding to make Dumbledore squirm a little Harry joked, "Well 'Grand-dad' you have some birthdays to make up for, yes?"

Those in the room chuckled and busied their sights else-where except for Ron and Hermione who were still gaping open mouthed at the pair. Dumbledore chuckled as well, "That I do my boy that I do. Some Christmases too, I expect."