A/N So...Um...I'm not dead? *Waves sheepishly* I'm am HUGELY sorry for the delay, I had every intention of getting this written over the Christmas break but my computer died on Boxing Day, plus we had a power cut cause of the floods, I was super ill and had four pieces of Uni work to for the first week back, plus my dissertation presentation BLEUGH. I currently have no spell check on my computer, so apologies in advance for typos etc. Also, this chapter had to be split because I had another 2325 words of a nowhere near finished chapter. I hope it was worth the wait.
It seemed as if no time at all had passed before Christmas was upon them, what with Quidditch and work. They woke one morning in mid-December to find the grounds covered in half a foot of snow, much to Blaise's horror and Sophie's delight. The lake froze solid, and a few of the older Slytherins had snuck out to skate at midnight. That was nothing compared to the Weasley twins though, who had been severely punished for enchanting snowballs to follow Professor Quirrell around at hit him in the back of the turban.
Mal couldn't really bring himself to feel too sorry for the Professor. After all, he was a suspect now. As for the snow, Mal didn't mind it per se, it was the icy cold meltwater that inevitably seeped into your boot that he hated, and was quite happy to spend his time indoors as much as possible. But whilst Hogwarts was a magical place full of wonder, it was still an ancient castle in the north of Scotland. As such, icy draughts managed to sneak in everywhere. It was one of the worst things about having a common room and dormitories in the dungeons; even with blazing fires in every room, it was bitterly cold and getting out of bed in the mornings seemed to have turned into a particularly creative form of torture. Harry had perfected the knack of getting dressed in bed, and Mal was getting there, but even so, he would wake up in the middle of the night unable to feel his cheeks or nose.
"I can't wait to go home for Christmas" Nott said, the day the sign-up sheet for those staying over the holidays had gone up. "Father says it should be our best Christmas in years."
Next to Nott Pansy Parkinson gave Harry and Blaise a snide look.
"Come on Theo, that's hardly fair. Think of poor orphans like Potter who have nowhere to go."
Mal glanced at Harry, but to his surprise, saw that he seemed to be more amused than offended.
Then again, considering what he's said about his relatives.
Nott wasn't the only one who had picked up on Harry's lack of plans. Cormac McLaggen, who had taken an intense dislike to Harry after his defeat on the Quidditch pitch, had taken to making incredibly loud holiday plans whenever Harry was in earshot. Complete with meaningful glances and smirks every few seconds. Then again, it wasn't as if Gryffindor had ever been known for their subtlety, Mal reflected.
"What are you all doing for Christmas?" Hermione asked, as they gathered for their regular study session in the Library. Well officially that's what it was, but really it was more of a chance to meet and talk with minimal supervision. Which was all very well, until somebody, (usually Ron or Sophie) got carried away and Madam Pince kicked them out. It was still warmer than the Slytherin common room though.
If only there was somewhere we could meet without having to worry about upper years or Madam Pince…Mal pondered. Maybe he could ask the Weasley twins.
"I'm staying here." Ron announced. "Mum and Dad are off to see Charlie in Romania. It's just a shame they couldn't take Percy with them." He added gloomily.
Everyone laughed, though Mal couldn't help but feel slightly guilty.
"I'm staying too." Announced Blaise. "Mother is going on a cruise with husband number 5, so she'll probably be in the lookout for number 6 by Easter."
Even Sophie looked concerned at Blaise's blasé prediction, and Harry and Ron shared a disturbed grimace.
"I wish I was staying." Neville admitted. "It'll be me on my own with all my great aunts and uncles who'll coo about how big I've got and how much I look like my mum. And great aunt Mildred will get drunk and pinch my cheek."
Mal bit his cheek to supress a snort of laughter, and it looked like Hermione was doing the same, trying to hide it with an interested nod.
"I feel your pain." Sophie told Neville. "I'm going down to my Grandparents and all my French relatives will be coming over – the pureblood ones. So that should be fun." She with a saccharine smile, not even bothering to mask her sarcasm.
"Do you not like them Sophie?" Hermione asked.
"Ehhh…the Bissets are ok. Estelle's nice and Jean's ok but Jacques's a lot older than me." Sophie sighed heavily. "But the Roche's are a nightmare. Sarah's only three years older than me, but she's always like: 'At Beauxbatons we do this! This is much better in France!' And Robin's the baby so he's a spoilt brat. Ils me rendent completement folle!" she finished dramatically and Harry raised his eyebrows.
"I didn't know you spoke French." he said, and Sophie grinned.
"Tu m'as jamais demandée" she retorted.
Mal threw a crumpled ball of parchment at her as Blaise groaned.
Hermione was smiling warily as if she thought she'd understood, while Ron, Neville and Harry seemed equally nonplussed.
"What did she say?" Harry asked.
"You never asked." Blaise told him, eyeing a very satisfied looking Sophie with disgust.
"Wait you both speak French?" Harry looked between the two of them.
"Me too." Mal admitted and Hermione raised her eyebrows.
"Is that a pureblood thing?" she asked. "Only some of the upper year Ravenclaws speak French when they don't want the first years to understand."
"I don't speak French." Ron pointed out. "Nor does Neville."
"Actually…Gran tried to get me to learn." Neville said, blushing.
"Why am I always the last to know?" Ron demanded
"Anyway…" Mal cut in ignoring Ron's ceilingwards gesturing. "Yeah, it's pretty much a pure blood thing. Really old fashioned, but there you go.
"Plus husband number three was French." Blaise muttered.
"And Aunt Drom said I should learn because the Malfoy's were actually Norman, and it's therefore in my blood, apparently."
"What, like a thousand years ago?" Ron scoffed and Mal rolled his eyes, taking a breath to tell him exactly where to go.
"Don't worry Harry," Sophie cut across Mal. "We'll teach you and then you can swear at McLaggen in French."
Harry laughed.
"What are you doing for the holidays then, Hermione, since you were the one that asked?" Sophie continued.
"Not much. I expect it'll be just my parents and me. We might be going to visit my Grandparents for New Year's though."
"Ah cool."
"And of course we don't need to ask Mal what he's doing." Blaise chipped it, shooting his friend a wry glance.
Mal grinned, feeling guilty. He'd barely shut up about Christmas since the first of the trees had gone up, which was when a very bedraggled owl had arrived with an equally crumpled letter:
HI MAL!
I GOT CHRISTMAS OFF! (dances round the flat happily) Even better, I got the week before Christmas off. I'm kinda suspicious since Mad Eye is never this nice and I'll probably have to make up by doing something horrific D: but it'll be worth it. Independence is nice and all, but dad's homecooked dinners are 5 million times better than leftover chilli for the fifth time in a week.
Mum and dad are both working most of the week before Crimbo, so I'm gonna be picking you up from the station – I'll nip back home with your trunk, and then I figured we could go Xmas shopping for mum and dad's presents. I haven't had a chance to even think about that sort of stuff yet, and I figure it's not like you can go to Hogsmeade yet. (you poor unfortunate firstie ;P ) Plus, I happen to know for a fact that Fortescue's have got a festive Sundae on the cards and I WANT.
Since mum and dad are gonna be busy, I figure you may want to make PLANS
I finally managed to track down all of the Star Wars trilogy on VCR as well, since I haven't seen them in ages and we FINALLY got the TV in the flat working and Nikki managed to pinch her mum and dads video player, so I'm thinking we spend a day watching those.
Plus there's this film called the Addams Family coming out on the 13th of December and it looks pretty cool so thats also a possibilty.
BUT BEST OF ALL
The Tornadoes are playing the Harpies on the 19th and since David in the DMGS owes me a favour I got us two tickets in the top box, natch. It'll be abso frikking lutely bloody freezing but since its the Harpies (and your crummy Tornadoes) it'll be worth it!
The rest of the time you can do what you want but bear in mind mum said I kinda had to keep an eye on you and blowing stuff up is definitely not on the cards after the Christmas '87 incident!
And then what with all that non parentally supervised time you can tell me about all your rule breaking without mum and dad grounding you for it...
See you soon, your most awesome and favourite cousin x
"Yeah, it should be fun – I haven't see a Quidditch game in ages, and Tonks gets super excited about Christmas, which uncle Ted thinks is hilarious, but it drives Aunt Drom mad. The tree battle should be fun this year as well – since Tonks actually has money."
"Christmas tree battle?" Hermione asked, voice wary. Ron sniggered.
"Mal's uncle and aunt have serious different tastes when it come to Christmas."
Mal nodded, grinning.
"Aunt Drom likes traditional stuff, you know, a little bit of tinsel in silver and gold, some lights, a nativity scene, but Uncle Ted loves tacky novelty decorations, like laughing Father Christmases, and really bright loud tinsel and baubles and stuff, decked to the rafters. So every year they have this silent battle over which style wins, and since Tonks gets paid for Auror training, I want know whether she'll side with aunt Drom or uncle Ted."
"I still don't get it." Harry told them.
"Well, some years she sides with her mum, sometimes with her dad, it depends. And every year we by a couple of new ornaments for the tree. I'm kind of hoping she's gonna buy some huge massive tacky ugly thing, and then Aunt Drom won't be able to say anything if she's bought it herself, and she hates Christmas arguments."
"Your family is weird." Harry told him, shaking his head.
"That's family at Christmas."
Harry gave Mal a half smile.
"I wouldn't really know. I never really had Christmas with the Dursleys. This year looks like it'll actually be the best I've had, well, ever." There was a stunned silence. "What?"
"You've never done Christmas?" Hermione's voice rose in incredulity.
"Not really...The Dursleys used to go off and leave me on my own sometimes though, that was good – they never noticed if I made a sandwich from the leftovers."
Harry felt his skin itch in embarrassment as he realised his friends were still looking at him in stunned disbelief.
"You've never had presents?" Blaise added.
"I got a coathanger last year?"
"A coathanger?!" Sophie and Mal spoke as one.
"You've never stuffed yourself stupid on Christmas dinner and chocolates?" Ron's face was horror stricken.
"No..."
"Or gone for a Boxing day walk?" Mal added
"No..."
"Or nearly set fire to your house trying to roast chestnuts when everyone was asleep in front of the telly?"
The laughter broke the awkardness as Sophie made her contribution.
"I can happily say that I hgave never done that," drawled Blaise, lazily.
"Well you haven't lived." she sniffed, tossing her hair. "Harry?"
"Well no, I mean it's not like the Dursleys have a fire but – look, can you all stop looking at me like that?" he was beginning to feel irritated with thegazes of pity and bewilderment aimed his way. Yes, the Dursleys had been neglectful, cruel and outright horrid, but it wasn't like they'd ever hit him. Besides, he wasn't their son, and to be honest, he'd rather be treated like dirt on their shoe than be spoilt stupid like Dudley was.
"Sorry Harry." Neville said quietly, and as their eyes met, Harry thought he saw a glimpse of understanding there. The others murmured in agreement, not meeting Harry's gaze. Abruptly, Mal stood up, nearly knocking over his chair.
"Back in a bit."
"What was all that about?" Hermione demanded.
Mal raced up the stairs to the Owlery, unrolling the scrap of parchment he'd snagged from the table when he'd left the library, as he reached the Owlery doors, he grabbed a quill from his inner robe pocket and the tiny bottle of ink he kept there for emergencies. Muttering under his breath, he wrote:
Dear Aunt Andromeda and Uncle Ted,
Would it be ok to go back to Hogwarts after Boxing Day/before New Years? Only I just found out that Harry has never had Christmas before and said that Christmas at Hogwarts will be the best one he ever had. And as that's complete here a word was hastily scribbled out RUBBISH I was kind of wondering if I could get him a better present than just a load of Chocolate Frog to make up for 10 years of NO something Quidditch related.
Love, Draco
P.S. On a hypothetical and unrelated note, what would happen if someone sent a lot of Dungbombs to a Muggle house?
By the time Mal returned to the library all of the others, bar Neville and Harry had gone. They were both engrossed in seperate tasks, but looked up when Mal came in.
"Where'd everyone go?" he asked.
"Ron went back to the common room just after you left, Hermione was meeting Anthony and Sophie and Blaise left about five minutes ago, looking like they were plotting something."
"Thanks Nev." Mal smiled awkwardly.
"Do you think you can look over my Potions essay? Hermione said she'd have a look, but I think she got sidetracked looking for Flamel again."
"Sure." Mal dropped into the seat next to Neville's, scanning his parchment for mistakes.
"Why my Wiggenweld Potion failed..." Mal read to himself. "Ok, salamander blood...potion turned turquoise – ah here. You missed a step."
"I did?"
"Yeah, it goes five lionfish spines, heat until the potion turns yellow, add five more lionfish spines then add the flobberworm mucus."
"Ohhh, that makes more sense. Thanks Mal!" Neville gave a relieved sigh.
"No problem – and what does Moly do again?"
"Prevents enchantments when eaten."
"Great."
"It's not that weird is it?" Harry asked suddenly, Mal and Neville turned to look at him, but Harry was determinedly avoiding their gaze.
"Huh?" Mal and Neville wore identical looks of confusion.
"The way the Dursleys treat me? It's not like they had to take me in, they could have just left me at I dunno, an orphanage or something."
Mal thought that it was lucky that Harry had waited until the others had left to ask this question. He and Neville were perhaps the only two of their friends who could really be qualified to give an answer. Sophie and Blaise would be glib, and while Hermione and Ron might mean well, they could never comprehend what Harry had gone through. But Mal and Neville, with their family history just might.
He felt a sudden surge of hate towards Harry's relatives. Their situations were so similar, and yet Andromeda, who'd had every reason to hate him and what he represented, had raised him as her own, and he'd never ever felt less loved than Tonks. But Harry, a saviour of the wizarding world had been mistreated by his own, stupid, ignorant Muggle relatives. The Tonks' aren't like that, a small voice reminded him before he got carried away. They might not understand magic all that well, but at least they try. And Uncle Ted loves them...
"Is it?" Harry repeated, and Mal blinked stupidly as he realised the other Slytherin was looking for an answer.
"It's not normal." Neville said, quietly. "Just because they're not your mum and dad doesn't mean they should treat you like that."
Mal nodded, glad Neville had managed to put it into words.
"My uncle and aunt have never treated me any different than Tonks. I mean, they never tried to force me into a pink frilly dress, but other than that, i've always just been a part of the family I guess?" Mal shrugged. "The Dursleys are arseholes who need to take a long walk off a short cliff, preferably one with lots of sharp rocks near Azkaban. Besides, Aunt Drom always says its the family you choose, not the one you're stuck with a birth that's most important."
"The Dursleys are bastards. " Neville agreed, taking himself as well as the other two boys by surprise. Harry lauhged.
"Thanks. I've always known they were gits, really, but they were all I'd ever known til a couple of months ago" he frowned. "I really don't want to back at the end of the year."
"Well we'll deal with that when it happens." Mal smirked. "Anyway it's nearly Christmas! There's a parcel of Christmas goodies back in the dorms that've been waiting to be eaten since this morning."
"I should be getting back to the common room before curfew." Neville said, packing his finished homework into his bag.
"See you later Nev."
"Bye Mal, Harry."
Harry and Mal walked back to the common room in silence, both deep in a similar train of thought. Mal shivered as a particularly icy blast whistled through the castle, pulling his robe tighter. As they walked through the common room entrance, they immediately spotted Sophie and Blaise near the fireplace, heads together. They stopped as soon as they saw Harry, which immediately made Mal suspicious.
"What are you two up to?" he asked, not sure whether he wanted to know the answer.
"Plotting." Sophie told them, airily. "Murder may have been discussed."
"Hypothetically." Blaise added. "Hypothetical murder for a good cause."
"Riiiiight." Harry's eyes were wide.
"Are you sure you're supposed to be in Slytherin Harry?" Sophie asked in a guileless voice. "Only you have quite a weak stomach for killing and such."
"You do realise in any other house that would be a good thing right, Sophie?" Mal told her as he dropped to the floor at her side, shoving her head as he did. She gave him a wolfish smile.
"Everyone has their hobbies."
Blaise and Mal rolled their eyes.
"Harry..." Mal asked.
"What."
"You know I mentioned there was a bag of Christmas food on my bed?"
"Yes..."
"Well since I just sat down and you're still up can you go get it? Thanks!" Harry narrowed his eyes at Mal, who was grinning innocently. Rolling his eyes, he stalked off to the dormitories. As soon as he had left the common room, he dropped the grin and turned to Sophie and Blaise.
"All right, what are you really planning? As long as it's not actually illegal I'm in."
"Oh I hoped you would say that." Sophie's smile turned maniacal.
"She's joking. I wasn't lying when I said all murder discussion had been hypothetical."
"Fun sucker. " Sophie pouted. "We came to ask Adrian if he could buy us a few things in Hogmeade next weekend."
"For Harry?" Mal asked
"No, for his pet monkey." Blaise said, voice scornful. "What do you think Malfoy?"
"Right, stupid question. My apologies."
"And we may have also discussed legal means of retribution on the Dursleys." Sophie smirked.
"Zonkos may have come up in conversation." Blaise and Mal shared a wicked grin.
"Dungbombs?"
"To start."
"You know..." Sophie said, tapping her chin, "The Weasley twins quite like Harry, and I'm sure they wouldn't be too impressed with the way the Muggles treat him either..."
"That's a very good point," Mal was sure that if the Weasley twins were involved, then their vengeance would be of brilliant proportions.
"What's a good point?" the three of them turned to see Harry looking between the three of them suspiciously.
"Nothing!" Blaise, Mal and Sophie chimed in unison, and Harry's unimpressed look grew.
"Sure. Whatever. I brought snacks."
"Yay, snacks!" Sophie chirped and Blaise raised a eyebrow.
"You're disturbed, you know that?"
"Snacks are good!" She protested.
Mal tuned out their habitual bickering, the faint stirrings of an idea coming into being in his head. Slytherins didn't take kindly to someone mistreating one of their own, and the Dursleys were going to find out exactly how much they didn't like it.
A/N But it probably wasn't. I feel this chapter was 99% character development, 1% plot...mainly because all the plot is now in the next chapter. If you want to agree or disagree with me, by all means send me a review, for I am a poor attention starved writer who feeds on attention :') PLU Tolrais