Chapter 11

He looked in awe at the small garden snake the box contained. Somewhere he had seen the snake before. 'Ah, it looks like my friend that was in the garden at the Dursleys, but that can't be; how should he come here?' "Hello," he hissed at the snake, seeing that the animal hissed something back that he couldn't hear. "I can't understand it," he said, giving Severus a helpless look.

'If you want to keep her, we can bond her to you, and then she'll be able to mind talk to you, Harry,' Severus thought calmingly. 'Do you recognize her?'

"Is that the snake that was in the Dursleys' garden?" Harry asked hesitantly.

'Exactly, and she was the one, who told me about your treatment at the Dursleys and your health condition,' Severus told the child, causing Harry to give him a curious look. 'In fact, you have to thank her that we took you away from the Dursleys immediately.'

"Do you speak Parseltongue then as well, sir?" Harry enquired, giving the small snake a grateful look.

Severus quickly transformed into a beautiful black snake with an extraordinary green pattern that Harry would always recognize again. "That was you! Right, that was just before you came to rescue me. You're absolutely beautiful," he hissed to the teacher.

The black snake turned to the garden snake, and twenty minutes later, the small snake was bonded to Harry. 'I'm glad to be your familiar now, Harry,' the snake thought straight into his mind like Severus always did.

"I'm happy too," Harry hissed back, slowly getting tired. "What's your name by the way?" he enquired curiously.

'I don't have one yet. It's up to you to name me,' the snake told him.

"Then I'm going to call you 'Lucky', since I was very lucky that you told Severus about me, so that they took me away from the Dursleys," Harry quickly decided, throwing an anxious glance at the snake that told him, 'That's a nice name, I like it!'

Harry picked the snake up from the ground and watched giggling as she arranged herself around his neck. "That feels funny; is that comfortable for you?" he hissed.

'Very comfortable; yesss,' was the answer.

"Harry, here is one more present for you, and then you should come back to the table to eat your breakfast," Harry suddenly heard Minerva shout over to him from the table, where everyone had already finished his breakfast in the meantime.

'Harry, can you please put Lucky away while we eat? I don't think it would be good to have a snake at the table, familiar or else,' Severus told the child, and Harry stopped dead in his tracks.

"I don't want to eat right now; I'm not hungry," he told the teachers, causing Severus to grab his wrist and glance at his wrist band.

"I don't think he's feeling well; he still has a slight fever," he quickly told the others and asked Harry, 'Shall I put you back to bed?'

"No, I'm fine," Harry quickly replied and hissed to Lucky, "I'm sorry that I cannot take you to the table with me."

'That's all right, Harry. Just let me go, and I'll have a look at the surroundings. Don't worry; I'm going to find you afterwards; moreover you'll be able to mind talk with me at any time,' Lucky told him and slithered away.

HP HEALER POMFREY HP

Harry felt himself being pulled to the table and ushered to the seat next to Minerva, while Severus sat down at his other side. Noticing that Minerva, Severus, and Poppy were watching him worriedly, Harry tried his best to eat some of the delicious food on his plate. Finally, Minerva handed him her present, saying, "Harry, I know that you're already a big boy. However, seeing you cuddling with your 'Hogwarts: A History' book, I thought you might need something like this."

Harry carefully unwrapped the present, finding a white teddy bear in it that was really soft and fluffy. "If you tap it with your wand and say a colour, it will change its colour," Minerva instructed him, causing Harry to carefully point his wand at the toy, mumbling 'light blue'.

The teddy bear immediately changed its colour to blue. "That's brilliant. Thanks a lot!" Harry thanked the teacher profoundly. 'That'll be much better than to cuddle with a book when I'm sick and sore after getting the ear salve applied,' he thought happily.

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Suddenly, Harry became very quiet, and Minerva and Poppy eyed the boy in concern, wondering if they had to put him back to bed. On the other hand, none of them wanted to ruin what seemed to be his first real Christmas. 'What's wrong, Harry? Are you feeling worse?' Severus finally asked.

"No, I'm all right," Harry replied thoughtfully. "I just didn't know about Christmas. I thought that only Father Christmas brought presents for children, but I didn't know that people also give presents to each other. My friends gave me presents..." He pointed to the chocolate frogs he had received from Ken and the book from Julia, "... and I didn't give them anything. Nor did I give anything to anyone here. I just really feel bad about that."

'Ah, that I can understand well, although I'm sure that your friends won't mind and that they will understand if you speak with them or write them a letter. And you don't have to give any of us anything. However, if you want, we could brew something for your friends, for example chocolate drops with sparkling cream filling inside. How's that?'

Harry's face lightened immensely. "Can we really do that?"

'Yes, we can do that. It's not very difficult, and it will only take about half an hour to brew. However,' he glanced at Harry's wrist band, 'seeing that you have a fever right now I want you to take a nap first.' He quickly explained to his colleagues what they had planned, and Minerva gave Harry an encouraging smile, before Severus accompanied Harry to his room, helping him to carry all of his presents, and gave him another spoon full of the fever reducer. Harry was asleep within seconds, cuddling his blue teddy bear close.

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Two hours later, Harry woke up when he felt Lucky slither over his stomach. "Oh Lucky, that feels tickly; don't wake me up like that," he hissed, chuckling.

'Are you up to brewing chocolate drops for your friends?" Severus asked, and Harry hurriedly followed the teacher into his private lab. Knowing that the child was very adept at brewing, he laid out the recipe for him and busied himself at a different cauldron.

Harry gave the teacher an astonished look but began to prepare the ingredients and started with the potion. Only once, Severus, who was watching the child closely, had to remind him to stir counter-clockwise, and thirty minutes later, a flawlessly brewed potion was simmering in Harry's cauldron. 'Now you just have to fill the potion in these moulds,' Severus explained patiently, watching Harry happily complete the presents for his friends.

When everything was finished, Severus and Harry sat in the living room for tea, so that Harry could write letters to his friends, which he wanted to send along with the chocolates. 'You may use my falcon, Aristotle, if you wish. He is faster than the normal school owls,' the teacher offered, and Harry gratefully accepted, glad to know that his friends would at least receive his presents on Christmas day, even if it would be around dinner time.

HP HEALER POMFREY HP

During the rest of the holidays, Harry's condition improved, and he was completely fine when school started again at the beginning of January. Since Harry had been grounded over the holidays, he had spent the whole week either in his own room studying or in the potions lab brewing potions together with Severus. At the beginning of January, finally the students were going to return, and Harry just couldn't wait to meet his friends.

"Harry, are you up to accompanying me to the station in Hogsmeade?" Severus suggested, recalling that Poppy had scolded Minerva the day before after noticing how pale Harry was due to the lack of fresh air.

"I'd like that very much, but am I allowed to go? Am I not grounded anymore?"

"Since the students are coming back today, I believe that the holidays are over," Severus replied slowly, watching the boy carefully in order to assess if he could understand.

"Harry, I missed you so much!" Julia shouted, pulling him in a bear hug, when Harry was waiting next to Severus on the platform.

"Harry! Is that a snake? Wow, cool!" Ken exclaimed, seeing Lucky's head coming out from under Harry's sleeve.

"Yes, I received it for Christmas. May I introduce Lucky, my familiar," Harry replied, proudly showing Lucky to his friends.

"Why exactly is her name Lucky?" Ken enquired, frowning.

"Ah, that's a long story, which I will tell you in the near future," Harry promised and let out a happy sigh. "I'm so glad that you're back; I missed you so badly, especially as I was grounded the whole time. Thanks for your letters by the way."

"Thank you too, Harry; in fact, I missed you two as well," Julia replied, while Ken nodded eagerly.

"Where are we going to spend the evening?" Harry asked when they reached the Great Hall.

"Can we go to your room, Harry? I've something important to discuss with the two of you," Ken spoke up, giving them a pleading look.

"Sorry, I didn't get that now, but I'm in, where ever you want to go. Just take me with you after dinner," Harry replied, glancing uncertainly at Julia.

"Of course, Ken," the girl replied and pulled Harry over to the Gryffindor table.

Sorry for the delay, and thanks for all your kind reviews!

I am not a native speaker of English. So please excuse my mistakes!

All recognizable characters belong to J.K.Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.