December arrived without much fanfare, and Sebastian could barely believe they had been at Hogwarts a full term already.

Hagrid, the gamekeeper, had amassed a large pile of fir trees by his hut on the grounds that was steadily growing every time he came back from a trip to the forest.

On their way down to the greenhouses for Herbology one morning, the students were greeted by a long line of a dozen trees leaning up against the castle walls. A light dusting of snow covering the grounds showed them the tracks from where they had been dragged up to the school.

The buzz of the upcoming Christmas holidays started reverberating through the castle as the trees started appearing one by one in the Great Hall.

You couldn't look around at the tables or in the common room for students pouring over owl order catalogues to get their present orders in on time for Christmas.

Sebastian was just sitting down next to Draco at the Slytherin table for breakfast one morning when the owls flew in again with the post. Eagerly waiting students quickly discarded letters from home in favour of searching through the newly arrived catalogues.

A small, brown owl swooped down in front of Sebastian, dropping a letter. Sebastian barely had time to feel surprise that such a small owl had made it through the snowy weather before it shot up again and flew away. He frowned as he opened up his letter, glancing down at the signature at the bottom of the page.

"What's wrong?" Archie asked from across the table. "You look like someone just killed your owl."

"It's from Loki."

"I thought Loki was ignoring you?"

"Who's Loki?" Draco said.

"My little cousin. And he was ignoring me."

"Well, what does he want?" Archie asked as he stuffed another piece of toast into his mouth.

Sebastian didn't answer as he focused on reading through the letter again.

Archie, obviously bored of waiting for an answer, snatched the letter out of his hands.

"Oi!" It was Draco who shouted a protest and tried to grab the letter back. Archie leaned back as he looked at the letter, taking himself out of Draco's reach. "You need to learn some manners, Lestrange! You can't just go around stealing people's mail."

Archie spared time to glare at Draco before throwing the letter back to Sebastian. "It's in German anyway, Draco. I can't read it. What did he say, Seb?"

"He's asking me to come home for the holidays."

"You are going home, aren't you?" Draco said.

"He means back to Germany," Sebastian said, ignoring Draco's question. "He's been angry at me since I moved back home with Astoria. It's the first time he's written to me since summer."

"Tell him you'll visit," Archie said, "or better yet, tell him to come visit you. Me and Matt'll come over, and we can play a game of Quidditch or something. I want to see how much Matt's flying has improved."

The conversation turned to what plans people had over the break, but Sebastian wasn't paying much attention.

Professor Snape had made a rare appearance in the common room earlier in the week asking anyone who wished to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays to see him in his office so he could put their name down on his list.

Before that, Sebastian hadn't spared much thought to what would happen over the holidays, but since Snape had mentioned it, he had been wondering if he should stay.

He had been wondering all week, and while he knew what he wanted to do, he was no closer to actually making the decision.

He had thought Astoria probably wouldn't miss him much as she'd be at work most of the time. But he'd received an extremely formal letter from her just the other day.

I am writing to ask what it is you wish to do in regards to the upcoming holidays.

It practically screamed at him that there were things she wasn't saying. Story always did hide in formality when things were difficult. And he'd been puzzling all week whether she was not telling him that she would rather he didn't come home or if she was not telling him that she really wanted him to come home.

She'd also mentioned that she'd received letters from both the Reinhardts in Germany and the McKinnons offering to take him. Sebastian had ruled those out pretty quickly. Augustus had asked him in person to come and stay too, but the more he mentioned it, the more it felt like charity to Sebastian. He had no inclination to spend the holidays pretending to play happy families with someone else's parents. Not with the anniversary of his mother's death coming around again.

He sighed. There wasn't much point writing to Astoria again. It was obvious she wanted to leave it to him to decide what he wanted to do.

He shook his head, trying to focus on the conversation around him. He had until the end of the week to tell Professor Snape after all.

...

At the end of lessons that day, Sebastian made his way up to the library. He wanted to write Loki back straight away. Although telling Loki he wasn't coming was probably only going to make Loki more angry at him.

Hermione was sitting at a table in the main section of the library; Sebastian didn't see her as he walked past. He was thinking about what he was going to say to Loki.

He went to his normal table in the back and got out Loki's letter to re-read as he sat down.

Hermione appeared by the table moments later with a concerned look on her face. "What's wrong?" she said, startling Sebastian out of his thoughts.

"Nothing." He sighed. He put the letter down on the table as he got parchment and ink out of his bag.

He saw Hermione eyeing the letter as he turned back to the table.

"You can read it if you like," he said, smiling as sweetly as he could.

She gave him a suspicious look then leaned forward to pick it up. She glanced at it a moment before letting out a chuckle.

"Who's Loki?" She asked, picking up on the only bit of the letter she could understand.

"My cousin. He wants me to go back home to Germany for the holidays. His words not mine."

"And you don't want to?"

Sebastian shrugged. "I'd rather not. It's not my home. It's just-" He stopped, sighing for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

"You can tell me, you know?" Hermione said. "I won't tell anyone."

"He's been mad at me since I left in June. I was only living with them until Astoria finished school, and when she did, I moved home. Only, Loki-" He stopped as he tried to find the right words to explain. "He's younger than me. His brothers and sister are all older, so they've gone to school already."

"So he's alone at home?"

"Yeah, he hasn't spoken to me since I left. This is the first letter he's sent me."

Hermione nodded in understanding. "What are you going to tell him?"

"I don't know. I think- I'm going to stay at Hogwarts, so he won't even get to visit me. Whatever I say, he'll just get angry and stop talking to me again."

"I'll help you write back to him if you like? And if you are staying here, you can do me a favour and try to look up Nicolas Flamel over the holidays? You might have better luck than me."

Sebastian agreed, and they spent the next half hour over a scrap of parchment as Hermione tried to put together a letter for Sebastian to send to Loki. Once they were done, he wrote it up and took it straight to the owlery to send it. Hoping that Loki would reply rather than just ignore it like the last couple of letters Sebastian had sent him.

...

...

When he woke up the next day, the whole grounds were blanketed in several feet of snow. Flying lessons hadn't been cancelled, and it was with great excitement that they all made tracks in the snow down to Madam Hooch. The two neat rows of broomsticks that normally waited for them were absent. If it weren't for the large pile of brooms next to Madam Hooch, Sebastian would have thought they were buried under the snow.

Madam Hooch spent the lesson barely bothering to stay in control as the twenty or so kids flew around in glee. Some were flying low to the ground leaving patterns or writing their names in the snow by trailing an arm or a leg as they flew slowly around.

Others were having snowball fights. Shrieks of laughter following them around as they dove into snow drifts to make snow balls then quickly re-mounted to chase friends and throw them at. A few of the more comfortable fliers were even trying to scoop up snow balls without stopping.

Sebastian was laughing as Rory took both hands off his broomstick to try to do just that. He failed miserably and ended up face planting in the snow as his broom fell forward. Archie was laughing so hard he had to land next to Rory or risk the same fate. It quickly descended into the both of them rolling on the ground shoving snow down each other's robes.

Sebastian shook his head and took off higher on his broom to look around the grounds.

Their group weren't the only students outside, and he could see that off on the other side of the grounds where some of the older students had made snow forts. They were having an all out snow war with lines drawn and trenches dug.

Closer to where they were he could see Quirrell, his turban a bright mark against the backdrop of white snow and black robes, rushing up towards the castle, bewitched snow balls following him the whole way.

Sebastian's eyes locked on the Black Lake as he flew even higher, and the smile that had been aching his frozen cheeks fell away.

It was frozen over, and a handful of students had ventured out on to it. They were shuffling around and were grabbing onto each other as they fell down. One of them had even found what looked like a silver platter and was using it as a board to try to skim across the ice.

He'd managed to put all thought of Loki out of his head since he had written the letter yesterday. But seeing the lake brought it all back.

He remembered his first few weeks in Germany. After his sister had finally gotten out of St Mongos and returned to school, he had been portkeyed out to northern Germany. It had been January, and even the grass he had walked across had been frozen solid. It crunched under his feet whenever he left the house.

Loki had taken it upon himself at seven years old to try to teach his older cousin how to ice skate on the lake near the house. Being in the house only reminded Sebastian of what had happened, knowing that his mother wouldn't be coming down the hallway or waiting in the other room. They'd spent as much time as they could out on the ice, covered in bruises but laughing the whole time.

He wished he could bring Loki here.

WHAM!

Icy pain lanced across the side of Sebastian's face, snapping him out of his thoughts as a snowball hit him square on his jaw.

His breath hitched as he over balanced. His arms flinging out to try to grab hold of the broomstick as he fell sideways.

He had just enough time to curse himself for flying so high before he lost contact with the broomstick all together.

He heard someone scream from nearby as he started plummeting towards the ground.

A blur of black shot across his vision as something hard and very solid hit him across his chest, knocking the wind out of him before a moment later his back slammed into the ground.

The landing was a lot softer than he'd been expecting considering the height he had fallen from, even taking into account the snow. But it was still a hard landing, and any breath that had been left in his lungs after the first hit had definitely been snatched out.

He stayed motionless for a second as he tried to take a deep breath and get his heart rate back under control. He hadn't heard any bones snap, which was always a good sign.

He took a look around him, trying to figure out what had happened and why he wasn't in a much worse situation.

Archie was sitting two foot deep in the snow a couple of metres behind him. Only his head and shoulders visible above the snow. He looked almost as white as the snow around him as Sebastian watched him shakily try to get to his feet.

Sebastian's attention was quickly diverted by the sound of multiple feet touching down near him. Madam Hooch was hurrying over with a scared looking Draco beside her. The rest of the class weren't far behind.

Sebastian pushed himself into a sitting position just as Archie, who had managed to regain his feet, slumped down, sitting heavily on the ground next to him.

"Sorry," he whispered. Sebastian only had time to shoot him a confused look before Madam Hooch got to them.

"We're fine," he managed to get out quickly, not wanting her to fuss. "I'm not hurt."

"Let me check," she said, bending down and tapping him on the head with her wand as her piercing yellow eyes roved over them.

The rest of the class stood in silence as Madam Hooch nodded to herself and stood up. "Right then. An end to the lesson, I think. Here are the next class." She motioned to an approaching swarm of black robes that were just leaving the castle. "Broomsticks over there in a pile, please."

There was a groan from some of the students as they all went to do as they were told.

She turned back to the two of them; neither had moved from their seated position, although the snow was slowly melting around them and soaking their robes. "Now," she said, trying to regain her composure, "do either of you need help getting back to the castle?"

They both shook their heads. She gave them one last, long look before nodding. She picked up both of their broomsticks that had fallen nearby and walked off to put them on the pile with the rest of the broomsticks, ready for the oncoming class.

A few of the others had hung around, and Sebastian could see Hermione off to the side with Longbottom and Weasley. She was watching him with a very worried look on her face but left quickly as Neville tugged on her sleeve.

"Merlin, I thought you were a goner then," Draco said to Sebastian.

"Thanks for helping me, Draco," Archie said angrily, colour suddenly coming back to his face.

"Well, I didn't know what you were going to do, did I?" Draco snapped back. "Far be it from me to know when you're about to try to kill your friends, Lestrange."

"I didn't try to kill him," Archie said, nearly shouting.

Draco rolled his eyes and walked off. Crabbe and Goyle, who had been loitering nearby, joined him.

Sebastian saw a few of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs that were nearest shoot interested looks over.

"Come on," he said, grabbing Archie's arm and shakily dragging him to his feet. He was becoming very aware of both Edgar and Matt staring over at them. "Let's go."

He started following Draco's tracks back to the castle, rubbing at his chest where Archie had cannoned into him. "I think I'm going to have a bruise."

"I'm sorry," Archie repeated quietly.

Sebastian looked sideways at him. "I'm assuming you threw the snowball then? Unless you're apologising for catching me?"

"I thought it would be funny."

Sebastian let a breath of laughter out. Archie looked up at him, confusion colouring his face, causing Sebastian to laugh some more.

"I'm getting deja vu," he said through the laughter. "I'm sure you've thrown things at me, and I've fallen off my broomstick before."

Archie was smiling wryly now too. "At least I caught you this time." He shoved Sebastian in the side.

Another moment passed before Sebastian started laughing again.

"What?" Archie said, smiling.

"I'm just remembering Story's face when it happened last time."

"You can laugh. I thought she was going to kill me! You were covered in blood from where the bludger hit you, and your arm was all -" He mimed how Sebastian had looked with his shoulder dislocated.

Both of them were howling with laughter by the time they got up to the entrance hall.

...

...

Draco was still shooting Archie glares that night at dinner though Archie seemed to be oblivious to them as he spent most of the meal leaning over Rory's shoulder looking through a Quidditch supplies catalogue.

He was still doing so when Sebastian finished, so Sebastian left the hall alone, trying to catch up with Draco.

When he did catch up with Draco, they were just behind Weasley and Longbottom, who were heading toward the Grand Staircase.

"I do feel so sorry," Draco said loudly, his voice easily carrying to the other two boys, who stopped and turned back to them, "for all those people who have to stay all alone at Hogwarts for Christmas because there's no one capable of looking after them at home."

Draco had obviously aimed the jibe at Neville, who had gone red, not realising how close to home the words were for Sebastian.

"He won't be alone," Ron said. "I'll be here too."

"Oh, of course, my mistake. Obviously your family can't afford to have you all back at once. How silly of me."

Sebastian saw Draco's eyes go wide as Ron's hand shot into the pocket of his robes, fumbling for his wand.

Too late, Draco scrambled for his wand too.

After months of practice, Sebastian was quicker on the draw than either boy.

"Expelliarmus!" Sebastian ended the sharp movement with a sweeping gesture as Neville had also managed to get to his wand out. Both wands clattered to the ground nearby, and the Gryffindors went to the ground after them. He knew aiming at multiple targets made the spell weaker, but he didn't need that much time.

He grabbed Draco by the arm and pulled him towards the entrance to the dungeons. Christmas holidays were so near, and he didn't want a detention for whatever jinx Draco had been about to throw at the wandless boys.

When they made it to the passageway without any sign of being followed, Sebastian let go and shoved Draco away from him. "It might be a good idea to not get into fights without your bodyguards near."

"I don't need them," Draco sneered. "I could have taken those pathetic excuses for wizards myself."

Sebastian shook his head and walked away. Draco jogged to catch up giving him a funny look.

"What's wrong with you, anyway? You weren't scared, were you?"

"I'm not going home for the holidays, Draco," he said, coming to a stop. "I'm staying at Hogwarts too."

Draco stopped beside him in silence.

"What," Sebastian said, "no snide remark?"

Draco screwed his face up, pressing his lips together. He didn't say anything straight away as he looked down the empty hallway, thinking.

"I didn't know you were staying," he said after a while.

Sebastian huffed out a laugh and started walking again. That was almost an apology coming from Draco.

"Have you told Professor Snape yet?"

"No."

They walked down the spiral stairs that lead to the common room in silence. Draco stopped at the bottom of them.

"What?" Sebastian asked when Draco didn't follow.

"Snape's office is right there," Draco said, pointing over his shoulder. "If you wanted to do it now."

Sebastian looked at the closed door to Snape's office. Shrouded in shadows and as uninviting as ever.

"He always leaves dinner early, so he should be there," Draco added.

"Right," Sebastian said. "I'll see you back in the common room then."

Draco nodded and turned to leave. Sebastian watched his retreating back until he turned the corner and disappeared. Turning back to the door, he took a deep breath and knocked.

He had to wait a moment before the door swung open.

When he entered, he saw Snape was standing by a bookcase at the side of the room. He had a closed book in one hand and his wand in the other.

"Have you come to deplete my stores again?" Snape said when he saw who it was. "Managed to get injured on the short journey back from dinner perhaps?"

"No," Sebastian said, "and that was once."

"What is it you want, Fitzroy?"

"I was just-" Sebastian was suddenly glad that Snape seemed to love gloomy, dark rooms as he felt his cheeks warming up. Telling a teacher you'd rather stay in a cold, empty castle rather than go home seemed a lot more embarrassing than it had a moment before. He scratched the back of his neck, avoiding Snape's eyes as he started again. "I wanted to sign up to stay over the holidays."

Sebastian chanced a glance up at Snape in the following silence. A look of understanding passed through Snape's black eyes before he carefully replaced the book he was holding and moved towards his desk.

He tapped his wand against the surface once. A quill, ink pot and a piece of parchment with a list of names appeared on the desk.

"You will be expected to be on your best behaviour," Snape said as Sebastian picked up the quill. "Just because there will be no lessons does not mean school rules cease to apply."

Sebastian nodded his understanding as he glanced at the other names on the list. No one from first year had put their names down, not that he had expected to see their names. Everyone had been talking excitedly about their plans all week. But the list was shorter than Sebastian had expected. He knew most students who stayed behind over the holidays were normally either OWL or NEWT level students, but he had been hoping to see some younger students staying too.

He put the quill down, trying not to let the miserable feeling that had come over him show. Snape was watching him carefully. "Will that be all?"

"Yes, sir." He turned to leave.

He was almost at the office door when Snape spoke again. "Sebastian."

The use of his first name jolted him out of his thoughts as he looked back towards the professor.

"I think you will find Christmas at Hogwarts to be quite-" He paused, finding the right word, "pleasant."

Sebastian nodded, smiling slightly. "Thanks, sir."

...

By the time Sebastian had gotten back to the common room, he could see Rory had returned.

He made his way over to where he was sitting with Draco and the other first years.

"Get it done?" Draco asked.

He nodded as Rory looked up. "Get what done?"

"Nothing. Where's Archie?"

"He went back to your room. I think he was looking for you, but he had homework to do for tomorrow."

"I'm going to go find him then," he said. "I'll see you later, Draco."

He found Archie in the dorm room lying on his front, chewing on the end of a quill.

"You know that's my bed, don't you?"

"Hmm? Oh, hey, Seb, you've done this homework already, right?"

Sebastian smirked at the way Archie ignored his question as he went over to Archie's bed to sit down and take his boots off.

"That depends on what homework you're doing."

"Magic theory," Archie said, before mimicking their professor's voice. "List three separate examples of the temporary nature of magic, explaining each point thoroughly. I only have one, but I don't know how I'm suppose to explain it."

Sebastian got up to look at what Archie had written. "You're being too general. You can't just say a spell will wear off. Name a spell."

Archie screwed up his face in thought, causing Sebastian to laugh. "Come on, Archie. We've practiced loads of spells that would count."

"I know. All I can think of are ones that don't fit like the disarming charm." He sighed. "Oh, shield charm."

"Right, and how long does that last?"

"If you're lucky? Long enough."

Sebastian laughed. "You could name another spell as well. Me and Edgar gave an example of transfiguration too."

Archie nodded, scribbling down another answer. "So, where did you get to? I was looking for you. Draco said he got you into another fight."

"That's exactly what Draco said, was it?" Sebastian asked bemused.

Archie shrugged. "He was laughing about you making Weasley and Longbottom scramble around on the ground for their wands. Only, you don't tend to get in fights unless someone else starts them."

"Draco said some stuff about them staying over the holidays. They overreacted."

Archie's eyes narrowed. "You're staying over the holidays, too."

Now it was Sebastian's turn to shrug.

"You think Draco's going to be any nicer about it when he finds out you're staying?" Archie asked.

"Actually, he didn't say anything when I told him."

Archie opened his mouth to say something then closed it again as what Sebastian had just said registered.

"You told him?"

Sebastian nodded. Archie closed the ink pot he had been using and sat up.

"And he didn't say anything?"

"Nope. I guess he isn't as bad as you think he is."

"To you maybe. He'd have been just as mean if I was the one staying."

"I know," Sebastian said. "Now, get off my bed."

...

...

The last week of lessons passed too quickly. Sebastian hadn't had any reply from Loki, but he had gotten a letter from Astoria wishing him a good holiday.

The Hogwarts Express would be leaving at 11 am tomorrow. Most of the castle were in their dorm rooms frantically packing.

Archie had been shooting Sebastian worried looks all afternoon as he tried to stuff all the things he wanted to bring home into his bag. Sebastian had finally had enough of them and had announced he was going for a walk.

The corridors were empty. He'd been wandering around for ages when he decided to make his way back down to the dungeons. Archie was surely packed by now.

Sebastian was just walking onto the last of the moving staircases going down to the first floor landing when he spotted the Weasley twins crouched at the side of the grand staircase.

Both of the twins seemed to be absorbed in whatever they were doing, and Sebastian was almost certain that whatever they were doing was something they weren't supposed to be doing at all.

He became aware of the sound of footsteps approaching. He reached the first floor landing to see McGonagall striding their way. Neither twin looked up from what they were doing, seemingly unaware that at any moment professor McGonagall was going to turn the corner onto the Grand Staircase and spot them.

"Professor McGonagall!" Sebastian said loudly, moving quickly towards McGonagall before she reached the archway that would bring her to the steps. Out of the side of his vision he saw Fred and George look up, eyes wide before they were out of his sight.

"Mister Fitzroy," McGonagall said, coming to a stop.

"I was wondering if you could answer a question. About transfiguration."

"Very well, what is it?"

"Uh-" Sebastian thought quickly, hoping something would come to mind. "Oh, you mentioned in class about a spell to detect things that had been transfigured?"

She nodded, shifting the books she had in her arms.

"I was wondering if there were any transfigurations that couldn't be detected? Like, metamorphmagus or animagus transformations?"

She watched him for a moment before answering, "It's an interesting point. A metamorphmagus' magic doesn't interact in the same way as a transfiguration spell, so in answer, no there are no spells that could detect the transformation. As for animagus transformations, they can be detected but not by using the Sensus Mutatio spell. They don't follow the same principles of transfiguration and therefore need a more specific incantation. If that is all?" she said.

"Er, yes. Thanks, Professor." He couldn't think of anything else to say to keep her distracted without being suspicious, and if the twins hadn't managed to finish what they were doing or at least get out of sight by then, it was their own fault if they got caught.

McGonagall turned onto the staircase and headed down, her steps fading away. Sebastian was just thinking the twins must have managed to get out of sight when they appeared at the archway.

"Well, that was a close one."

"Cheers, Sebastian. Would have been awful if she'd ruined all our hard work."

"What were you doing, anyway?" he asked.

"Well," one of them said, "seeing as you helped us escape unnoticed, we'll just say that you should probably head outside to the carriages early tomorrow."

"There might just be an awful smell hanging around."

"Just in time for the morning rush."

Sebastian smiled. "Alright. I'm staying for the holidays though. You guys are too, right?" he said, remembering what Ron had said last week.

"Yeah, we're staying."

The twins shared a long look. And Sebastian had just enough time to worry about what Ron had been telling the twins about him when they smiled.

"We'll see you around, then," one of them said as the other patted him on the head as they passed.