It felt like a week, but it had actually been a whole month and then some on the mortal plane since he had last resurfaced.

So he did some last minute social calls, visited the Emperor once more and, as unwritten demon protocol dictated, participated in a rowdy hunt across the fields of Hell, with trained hellhounds trailing at his heels and baying frighteningly as he raced across the planes.

When all personal business was concluded, Sebastian felt ready to depart. He donned his human disguise and melted into the shadows, welcoming the familiar velvety coldness with something akin to gladness. As ever, his magic guided him to where he was most needed.

He stepped out of the shadows not a moment later, in front of 4 Privet Drive.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Petunia did not seem too thrilled to see him.

In fact, she had opened the door with a morose sort of resignation, like what she hoped for was too good and she knew it. Sebastian recognised the look, as he himself was the cause of quit few of those in his lifetime and, just to aggravate her further, he gave her his most innocent look. She didn't seem too believing, but took care to invite him in like she would do to any guest.

Of course, the fact that he almost burned her son alive might have helped.

"I hope I'm not intruding?" Sebastian said cordially. They both knew that he couldn't care less about what she had to say, but Petunia felt obliged to answer, lest the tension became too much. In her mind, the Man in tuxedo (as she was referring to him in her mind since she didn't know his name), was dangerous and volatile, but they had little choice in associating with him as it was.

"We weren't expecting you." She settled on a politically neutral answer, her beady blue eyes shrewd and damning. Disregarding her answer, Sebastian gave her an inquiring look and she immediately understood what he wanted. Or maybe she was anxious to get rid of him as soon as possible.

"He's upstairs." Petunia said curtly, before she quickly retreated to the living room where her son was and installed herself on the couch like a ruffled vulture, keeping an eye on the gurgling toddler and another on one mildly amused demon.

Smirking to him, said demon politely inclined his head and walked towards the stairs.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

It turned out that on some deeply instinctual level, Harry could sense him, too.

Even before reaching the tiny room, the demon felt the abrupt spike in the boy's heartbeat and when he opened the door, he was immediately assaulted by one very excited toddler, who was barely standing on his own and had to grip Sebastian's trousers for support. The boy was practically hanging off him like a monkey and the demon idly wondered if the child was heavy or strong enough to yank his stretching black trousers down.

"Up! Up! Uuuuuuuuuuup!" The infernal child demanded, but just for the sake of teaching the child that he wouldn't have his way with him; Sebastian refused and took his time to observe Harry's room instead.

It had changed drastically after his last visit, but that was not to say that much effort was put into the renovations. The walls were lime green now, the window was curtained and a nice white fluffy rag was on the floor. But that was just about it. The room was barren except the cot he had conjured for Harry and a worn wardrobe, which, the demon was prepared to bet, contained only the clothes he had brought for Harry. To an outsider it looked like the Dursley were doing everything they could to make their nephew comfortable, but to Sebastian it looked like they were dancing on the fine line between doing a half-hearted job and doing the bare minimum.

The skull he had gifted Harry was currently zipping around the room in a languid manner, letting the demon know that there was nothing he should be overly worried of .

Harry had gone quiet. Sebastian glanced down and found that the boy had followed his line of sight and was now solemnly regarding his room, as if he knew something was not right, but couldn't pin down exactly what. Feeling eyes on him, the toddler swung his head and peered up almost shyly, and then with a warbled grunt that babies make, he reached up to take a gloved hand and tugged Sebastian into the room.

Sebastian didn't think he had crossed three steps so agonizingly slowly before. But he let Harry lead him in and made a small instinctual noise of encouragement in the back of his throat when the child wobbled uncertainly and clutched at his hand too tightly.

Harry immediately straightened and forged forward with new vigour, but the tight grip on the demon's hand didn't waver.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

In the end, Sebastian did end up with Harry in his arms, if only because he thought that the child's grim determination and will was pleasing and in need of a reward.

Harry seemed quite content to sleepily bury his head in the demon's shoulder, unruly dark curls mixing with straight ebony strands.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

A.N/ Fluffy bonding time, omigod! So, as you might have understood this chapter is a filler to buy time for me to work my way over my current author's block and I just wanted to give you guys something nice to chew on meanwhile. BUT I am glad that I wrote this chapter because this story is going to involve about how having someone (cough, competent, cough) to relly on will change Harry and the course of the events. So, a lot of things will be build up on how Harry trusts Seb enough to let him help (harry is a bit stubborn in the canon for my tastes) and I want to build up on that trust.

Really, if I can't show the deep bond between Seb and Harry forming and maturing and enduring, then I've already lost half the battle (and, no, I'm not talking about a romantical relationship).

Now, onto q&a.

GinaStar: Omigosh, yasss. His name was Bob. I love him too (the comic version though; they made him too perverted in the screen adaptations). Not what I was thinking about when I wrote it, but you gave me a wonderful idea. Thank you~

KioshiUshima: Yeah, I was always curious about Sebs true form and all that. You have no idea how many fan forums I've read about that. It's actually the only reason I keep checking the new seasons (in my opinion season 1 was perfection, and the end was really fitting. Then the demon Ciel thing happened…). Glad you like my explanation, because I literally made an identity for Seb in some ten minutes on the way home from school (was bored and thinking about the unfinished fanfic in a dark corner of my desktop, then Bam!).

Animeromance1972: I really like your idea actually. But the thing is that I've already plans for Gellert and he needs to be alive to tell Seb about the Elder Wand on the demon's eventual self-imposed mission. Don't worry thou, I've got a good substitute in mind.

Dream Bound Nighmare: Yes we are! Also, if you noticed the Hades part and everything is from Greek mythology, and the Lucifer being a fallen angel is a Christian belief. For the purpose of clarity I'm not going to mix and match the two religions together, so if you can just forget about the angel part; in my story, Lucifer is a demon, the High king of the underworld and the son of Hades. And Seb is one of the seven children of Lucifer.

Neah20: Don't worry about it! No one knows a language perfectly right from the start. I'm sure that given time, you will be a good English speaker. Good Luck.

Mochilera: Oh, god. For a moment you freaked me out with the Spanish and I was already opening Google translate when I saw the translation underneath (the only word I know is hola, but it's a good language, I want to learn it…). Anyways… Actually, yes, that was I was thinking ,too. Something along the lines of a panther, since those are my favourite animals and the black fur/ green eyes kinda fits Harry in a physical way. I hoping to get his personality to match too. And, yes, Seb is going to be very pleased XD

Guest: Thanks for reading. At first, it's going to be like a baby monitor: it was created for that purpose. BUT it is going to become an interactive companion later on and I already have that bit figured out, so all's good. Of course, if you have a suggestion I would be happy to listen (ie read) ^_^

P.S I just noticed that I spent half-an-hour answering questions about the skull, but had actually forgotten to include him in the chapter, as he is not too important yet. On the other hand, he is going to become important later on, so I had to go back and add the short paragraph about him zooming around so people don't forget him. XD

Till next time \^o^/