Happy Birthday Son

"Harry, wake up." a voice called, breaking into his dreams. Harry was at the Dursley's again for the summer, much to everyone's dismay. As far as Harry knew, it was his birthday. At least, it was going to be before he went to sleep. He didn't know if it was past midnight yet. But who was calling him? The Dursley's pobably didn't even know he had a birthday, it couldn't be them.

"Harry, wake up dear." It was a woman's voice, and it sounded familiar.

"He's a very deep sleeper isn't he?" said a man's voice. It sounded familiar too, but Harry was so out of it he couldn't put his finger on it.

"He gets that from you."

"Come on Harry, wake up son." Suddenly, Harry knew who they were. He hadn't heard their voices for nearly fourteen years. His eyes snapped open, he bolted upright, and stared.

"Well, he's awake now." said the woman. She had long, wavy red hair, and beautiful green eyes. She looked so...alive.

"I can see that Lily." the man smiled. He had the same glasses as Harry, same messy hair as Harry. Heck, if he hadn't know better, Harry would have thought it was him, or his future self anyway.

"M-mom? Dad?" he asked. What was going on?

"Yes Harry." Lily smiled.

"Happy Birthday." James added.

"What's going on? How..." he trailed off.

"Its hard to explain, but we wanted to see you, on your birthday." Lily explained.

"We wanted so much to see you, so we got special permission."

"But, why?"

"We only had one birthday with you. We would have given anything for there to have been more." James replied.

"Then you wouldn't have gotten stuck with that git I call a sister." Lily added bitterly.

"We wanted to have just one more day with you. Fifteenth birthdays are special, for us anyway." James smiled at Lily.

"You father first asked me out on his fifteenth birthday. He said I was the only present he wanted." Lily smiled. Harry couldn't help but smile too. He didn't care how this was possible, only that it was happening.

"So, what do you want to do for your birthday?" James asked. Harry looked surprised. No one had ever asked him this before.

"I..don't know..." Harry replied.

"James, look." Lily called, looking at Harry's open photo album. He had been flipping through it earlier.

"Hagrid gave that to me." Harry told them, leaving the bed for the first time to join them.

"Oh, look." James smiled. "Do you know where that was taken?"

It was a picture of the three of them, though Harry was just a baby. James was smiling at the camera, while Lily was trying pull a lock of her hair out of Harry's hand. Behind them, Harry could see a black haired man, jumping up and down like a kid. It was a younger Sirius Black.

"That was taken on your first birthday. We told Sirius we just wanted a family picture, but he found his way into it anyway." James laughed.

"I wish I could remember it." Harry said wishfully.

"Would you like to see it?" Lily asked.

"Really?"

"We can do anything you want Harry. Just hold on to us and we'll be there in no time." James said.

Harry took hold of their hands, and was suprised he didn't pass through them. In fact, the felt warm, and alive. He didn't know how it was possible. He didn't really care anymore. His room at the Dursley's faded away. A new place was coming into focus. There were lots of people around, all crowded around a table, singing. His parents led him over to see what was going on.

"Happy birthday to you." the people finished singing.

Harry could hardly believe his eyes. At the head of the table sat a small boy, in a high chair. He had messy black hair, emerald green eyes, but no glasses yet. Behind him, were his parents, and the other three Marauders were nearby. Harry recognized other faces as well: Dumbledore was there, munching on what looked like lemon drops. Professor McGonnagall was also there, talking to Professor Sprout and Madame Hooch. Madame Pomfrey was talking to Hagrid. Even Filch was there, talking to Cornelius Fudge about loosening the rules over torture of rule breakers at Hogwarts. He also noticed the Dursley's were nowhere in sight. Lily seemed to know what he was thinking.

"They wouldn't have come. I invited them, I honestly don't know why. She didn't even have the decency to send a gift." Lily muttered.

"She was setting a trend. Best present I've gotten is an old pair of Uncle Vernon's socks." Harry told them.

"Well, it is good to recycle." James laughed, ducking a playful blow from Lily.

"Okay, here's your first cake Harry." said the Lily in the memory, placing a slice in front of the baby Harry. He reached out a tiny hand and grabbed a chunk, which immediately went on his face.

"Yes! Pay up Moony, Wormtail." Sirius shouted. His parents stared at him. "I bet them it wouldn't take him two minutes to get the cake on himself."

"I thought it would take him longer." Remus explained.

"I thought he wouldn't get it on himself at all." Peter added.

"You were taking bets on that?" Lily asked. Everyone burst out laughing as a piece of cake flew across the table. Harry was giggling happily.

"Should we open the presents now?" James asked Lily.

"Presents! Presents!" Sirius shouted, hopping up and down happily.

"You'd have thought he was the one getting them." James laughed.

They were your normal baby gifts, for wizards anyway. Madame Hooch had given him a broomstick that just hovered, it didn't fly. McGonnagall gave him a book that read aloud to him. Dumbledore gave him a cradle that rocked automatically and played a lullaby. The came the Marauder's gifts. Remus gave him a miniature wolf figurine that howled and played with him. They placed it on the table and Harry tried to grab at it, but it dodged him playfully, running around near him. Then came Sirius' gift. He had two actually.

"This one first." he said, handing a large box to James. Inside was a a small motorcyle, almost an exact copy of the one he rode. "I know he won't be able to use it for a while, but I thought, what the heck?"

"You want my son to break his neck?" James smirked.

"I haven't broken mine yet."

"No, but you've broken your brain."

"Anyway, here's his other gift." Sirius said, handing another small box to Lily.

"This looks like clothes." Lily said, opening it. "SIRIUS!"

Insides was a very skimpy negligee. It was a bright green, and very revealing.

"It really more of a resent for you, or maybe James. But I thought: what better present for Harry than to have a little brother or sister." Sirius went on, ducking as James took a playful swipe at him. Everyone was laughing.

"I wonder how he knew my size." Lily said, looking at the tag.

"I won't answer that on the grounds that it may cost me my life." Sirius replied.

"James!"

"Or maybe his life." Sirius added quickly.

"Here's my gift." Peter said, scooting forward. Inside was...

"A baby monitor. Exactly what we need. Thank you so much Peter." Lily said.

"What's a baby monitor?" Remus asked.

"Muggle invention." Peter explained. "You can hear what's going on in his room without being in there. And this kind lets you talk back to him."

"Cool!" Sirius cried, a michevious glow coming from his eyes. He grabbed one monitor, tossed the other to Remus, and spoke into his monitor, "Breaker breaker one nine, this is Padfoot7 calling Moony1. Do you copy?"

"This is Moony1, I read you loud and clear." Remus replied. "Can I have a better nickname?"

"No." Sirius replied, as they ran off to play with them some more.

"Okay, now here's my present." James said, handing a gift to Lily.

Inside was what looked like a Golden Snitch, only it didn't fly off. It looked like a box. Lily opened it, and inside found a miniature picture frame that popped up from the bottom.

"We need a picture to put in this." Lily smiled.

"Albus, would you take the picture."

"Yay! Pictures." Sirius said from behind him.

"Family only Sirius." James said. LIly was trying to get her hair out of Harry's grasp when Dumbledore took the first picture, with Sirius hopping up and down in the background.

"Sirius!" Lily cried.

"Don't worry Lils." Remus said. He and Peter each grabbed one of Sirius' arms and pulled him away, Sirius still shouting "but I wanna be in it."

Dumbledore tried again. It was perfect. All three of them were smiling. Harry looked at the camera as if on cue. The picture came out instantly, and James shrank it down and put it into the camera.

"Here you go Harry." James said, handing the snitch to the baby. He grabbed it immediately and held it tightly. "Ha! He'll be seeker someday, mark my words."

James walked over and took the snitch from the baby's hand. He held one in his hand, somehow, but the baby also had one. He handed it to Harry, who was surprised that it was solid.

"I was right, you did become a seeker." James smiled.

"James, its time to go." Lily said sadly.

And they were back in his room at 4 Privet Drive. Harry still held on to the snitch, but tears were in his eyes. He didn't want them to go. They didn't look like they wanted to either.

"Why do you have to leave?" Harry asked. It was the best birthday he could possibly have imagined. He didn't want it to end.

"We have to go Harry." James said. "We can't stay, even though we want to."

Harry threw his arms around them, hugging them tightly, wishing more than anything that time would stop. He didn't want them to go. He wanted more time.

"Its okay darling." Lily said. "We'll always be watching over you. We're with you always."

"We love you Harry." James whispered to him. He was crying. So was Lily. And so was Harry, he realized.

"You should get back to sleep." Lily said, her voice cracking. She covered Harry up as he crawled back into bed, still clutching the snitch. She kissed him gently on the forehead. "Happy birthday Harry."

"Happy birthday son." James said with a sad smile. "Goodbye."

"I love you mom and dad." Harry said as they faded from sight.

"We know." their voices called.

He opened his eyes. It was morning, and there were several owls hooting on his window sill. He was still in his bed. It had only been a dream, he thought sadly. He hadn't really seen his parents, or his first birthday. It was only a dream.

Suddenly, he noticed something in his hand. The golden snitch his father had given him. He opened it and found a miniature picture of him with parents. They waved at him. James winked.

"Or was it?" Harry whispered.