The rest of the time before Christmas passed without any more startling discoveries or suddenly appearing notes, in fact it was downright boring. The school nurse had found a potion to calm James down a little, and George was acting a little more open-minded. Chiara and Alise had started talking, and all the other first years worried about them, because they were the two most unusual girls in first year, maybe in the whole school. Tancredo seemed worried as well, which was never a good sign. But nothing had happened yet.
The most unusual occurrence during that time was the frequent disappearances of the three orphans of the school. It wasn't really all that unusual for there to be magical orphans, after all it was 1938, the muggle Great War hadn't been all that long ago. And while much of the war was on mainland Europe, Britain was affected, and even the magical war had casualties. Then there was the fact that there was a war brewing on the horizon in the muggle world. But they were mostly in the older years, and they were usually sent to live with a distant relative, it was very unusual that there would be magical orphans in an orphanage, and even more unusual that there would be three from the same orphanage. Thus it was that most of the school knew their faces, even if they didn't know their names or anything about them. And so it was that it was noticed that they disappeared so often.
But Harry disappeared from even Tom and Severus' watchful eyes most of the time. No one really knew what he was doing, just as most of the school had no idea what the other two boys were working on (Tom's potion, which was almost complete). The taller two boys were curious about what Harry might be up to, but they figured he wouldn't be stupid enough to actually hurt himself again. He had lost the use of his right hand for the last couple of months because the nurse still couldn't find a way to fix it.
The other boys were actually right; Harry wasn't doing anything to injure himself, although he had hit a snag in the fact that he couldn't use his right hand, and his left hand was still very weak. It just wasn't very easy to suddenly switch hands. Then there was the fact that his wand wasn't meant to be wielded with his left hand, it was intended for a right-handed wizard. Which it wasn't that big of a deal, but Harry's magic was feeling slightly foreign, as if it wasn't his anymore. It worked, and just as well as it used to, but it was highly unsettling for the raven-haired boy.
On Christmas morning Harry woke before Michael, meaning he was the first awake in Gryffindor Tower. At the foot of his bed were two small packages. Michael's bed had a pile of presents overflowing off his bed, and onto the floor around his bed. But Harry didn't really mind much, he had never really had presents before. One very small present was the best he could hope for on Christmas, and it was more likely than not a pair of Dudley's old clothes.
One present on Harry's bed was green, and the other was a sort of patchy blue, as if it hadn't been colored properly. The green present was from Severus, and it was three vials of color-changing potion. They changed the color of some part of the drinker's anatomy to whatever they wanted it to be. Harry smiled at it, but didn't think he would ever use it; why would he need to change the colors on his body?
The patchy blue present turned out to be wrapped in bits of badly colored parchment. It looked as if Tom had tried his hand at color-changing charms and didn't so very well. The present inside was a bottle of color-changing ink, which would change according to the mood the writer was in as they were using the ink. That was a present Harry thought he would use.
And as Harry carefully put his presents into his trunk and got dressed he couldn't help but wonder what Severus and Tom would think of his present.
Severus was woken rather rudely by Tancredo, who was very enthusiastic with the fact that it was Christmas morning. Tancredo looked to be halfway through his presents, judging by the wrapping paper strewn across the floor.
Severus had a badly colored green package at the end of his bed, and a small envelope which had almost unreadable scrawl on the front.
Severus opened the package first and found a set of crystal vials filled with various potions ingredients. The note inside said that he had specially stolen them from Professor Slughorn's personal stores. And while Severus felt a bit guilty about the fact they had been stolen, he really wanted them. There was gillyweed, and lacewing flies, and moon lilies. Those were all things he didn't have, and gillyweed and moon lilies were dead rare. He wasn't going to give those back.
The envelope was rather obviously from Harry, the handwriting gave it away. After all Harry was still trying to function with his left hand. But the note inside surprised him a bit. But he smiled and tucked it into his pocket. Only Harry would think of something like that.
Tom woke to an empty room, which made him feel rather uneasy. After all he hadn't slept in a room by himself since early July. After a few moments of looking around the room uncomfortably he got up and got dressed. It was only then that he noticed the package and envelope at the end of his bed.
The package was a very deep red, and Tom couldn't help but feel jealous. Severus had obviously managed to master the color-changing charm. But inside was an exploding potion. There was only one vial, because, according to the note Severus sent with the present, one drop onto an absorbent surface will make the surface explode. The more absorbent, the bigger the explosion.
The note was from Harry, and Tom stared at uncomprehendingly for close to half an hour before he tucked the note into his pocket, he couldn't quite understand why Harry would do that. Why anyone would do that. There wasn't anything in it for Harry, and to do something so big and drastic there had to be something in it for Harry. But he would sit next to Harry at breakfast and see if he would explain it.
At breakfast the five tables that normally took up the Great Hall were replaced but four smaller round tables of varying sizes, and when Harry an Michael made their way down to the Great Hall together they found Tom, Severus, Chiara, and Tancredo all sitting at one of the tables. They made a beeline for that table, but another was filled with the school staff, and the other two held all the other students in the school.
The first years table had two seats open (as if it had been planned for the first years to sit together that morning), one was between Tancredo and Severus, and the other was between Tom and Severus. Harry took the one between Tom and Severus, while Michael took the one between Severus and Tancredo.
As soon as Harry sat down he knew Severus and Tom were going to say something about the notes he sent them last night through the house-elves. So to stall the inevitable he began filling his plate with breakfast. He took cinnamon rolls and bacon, a strange combination, but at the same time seeming Christmassy in Harry's mind.
It was as Harry started on his first cinnamon roll that Tom finally started.
"Why?" Tom asked, and Harry didn't need to ask why what because he already knew what.
"Because you two are already like my brothers, I might as well make it formal," Harry said trying to sound casual, but sounding nervous instead.
"Only you would think to do this for a Christmas present. I suppose you'll need a few drops of blood to finish it off?" Severus asked his friend, no his brother now.
"Yes, the blood adoption stuff is pretty complex, but I need some of Tom's blood to mix with mine, then some of yours to mix with both of ours. No offense to you Severus, but it's an age thing. Tom is older than you," Harry explained looking apologetically at Severus.
"He is? How do you know that?" Severus asked looking taken aback.
"Well, Tom's almost twelve, He'll be twelve on the 31st, and you won't be twelve until the 6th of January. I'm the youngest actually. I won't be twelve till the 31st of July," Harry told Severus calmly as he picked up a bit of bacon off his plate.
"Why do you know our birthdays, I don't remember telling you about mine," Tom asked looking decidedly uncomfortable.
"Oh, well I took a midnight walk a couple weeks ago and it's possible that it led me to the student files, and it's possible that I might have peeked into them to find out certain birthdays for a certain blood adoption ritual," Harry said with a wide grin. It was then that one of the seventh year girl at one of the other tables suddenly screamed.
The first years all turned to look at the girl to see she was a pretty Ravenclaw girl with smooth black hair falling in rivers over her back. But the reason she screamed was far more interesting to everyone in the Hall, even her rather plain looking boyfriend, who ten minutes earlier had been watching her eat adoringly as if she was the most amazing thing to ever walk the face of the earth.
But the reason for the screaming was a small red snake with golden edges to its scales. The snake also (to anyone who could understand snakes) seemed very confused as to how it got into the Great Hall, not to mention into some girl's scrambled eggs.
The snake was of course Ruaraidh. So Harry got up and practically ran across the hall to the other table. Harry grabbed his familiar with a sort of abruptness he wouldn't have used had the situation been any other.
"How did I get into the Eating Place?" Ruaraidh asked wrapping himself around Harry's arm. So of course Harry answered, which was probably the stupidest thing he had done to date.
"I have no idea, why don't you tell me. You're the one who landed in someone's eggs," Harry hissed irritably. There was a mass intake of breath, as no one had had expected Harry to be a Parseltongue, even if he did have a pet snake.
"You…you're a parselmouth?" one of the older students asked nervously. When Harry looked up he saw it was the pretty girl whose eggs Ruaraidh had landed in.
"I guess, I mean I can understand snakes if that's what you mean," Harry said completely confused over everyone's reactions. Even the other first years looked a little nervous. Michael especially looked nervous over the fact his dorm mate could talk to snakes.
Hey, this chapter is a little shorter than most of the others, but this was kind of where I wanted to stop it.
Congrats to childofflameandwave, who got so incredibly close to what I was going to do for Harry's present to the other two boys. And thanks to everyone who guessed, or who just reviewed the chapter.
So a couple of people have been wondering what I was going to do about Harry and Tom being parselmouths and what I was going to do with Ruaraidh's mysterious powers. So this chapter and the next one, and possibly the one after that will be exploring those bits of their lives. Most especially what their other friends will think. Such as Harry's dorm mates, Minerva, and Alise. All those characters will play decently large parts in the story. Minerva already sort of knew about it if you'll remember, but you'll most likely also remember that she hasn't played much part since, because of her nervousness over it.
Well that's all I really have to say for this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it.