Author's note. Merry Christmas, I hope everyone enjoys this little gift from me to my wonderful readers and reviewers out there. Exciting news, we've almost hit 2000 reviews, I cannot wait for that mark. Thank you once again for everyone who has reviewed this story.
I know there's been another long delay, I'm sorry about that. I do put a lot of effort into these chapters and once it's done and posted, I tend to need a little break but I know it's annoying to wait for the next chapter for a story you're really enjoying so I'll try to do better. But please don't announce in reviews that I lied and abandoned the story, it doesn't make me feel good about it.
I've been made aware that there's a story that is extremely similar to mine. The author has actually stopped it and done their own version. I wouldn't have really minded but even though there were things clearly taken from my story, there was no credit given to me. Such as Ron learning to cook and things like that. So if anyone does their own story that is clearly inspired by this one, please give me some credit. I've written stories that were inspired by others but I always try to say. Thank you.
Once again, Merry Christmas and have a Happy Hogmanay!
Enjoy and please review.
Somehow, Sirius had convinced Remus to remain in Diagon Alley and have lunch with the rest of the Weasleys once they turned up. There was at least an hour until that so Sirius suggested that they go round some of the shops together. Since neither Harry nor indeed Ron when he appeared, seemed to be afraid of him, Remus agreed.
"So you were a friend of my dad's?" Harry was asking as they strolled along the still busy street.
"Yes, I was," Remus acknowledged with a small smile. "I also counted your mother as a good friend, she was always very kind."
"I've heard," Harry said with a small smile.
"We weren't quite so close in our early years at Hogwarts," Remus mused as they headed in the direction of the Quidditch shop. "We had our own groups of friends and I believe we came off as rather immature."
"Yeah, she preferred more serious types when it came to boys," Sirius said fondly, thinking of all the times they'd been told off by the red head.
"Like Snape?" Ron asked and Remus blinked in astonishment.
"Y….yes, indeed," he stammered. "They were very close in Lily's early years but there was a….disagreement at the end of their fifth year which regrettably destroyed their friendship."
Harry wondered if any of the Marauders had actually thought it was regrettable at the time. Possibly Remus had felt guilty but somehow he doubted the others had. Funnily enough, he wondered who had been the most delighted. His dad had wanted to go out with his mum but Sirius and Snape had always had that grudge against each other ever since the Willow incident. And then there was Wormtail who had in the memory Harry had seen almost wet himself with delight over Snape's torment.
He must have relished the breakdown of Snape and Harry's mum's relationship.
"What was the disagreement?" he asked, curious as to what answer he'd be given.
"It's complicated," Remus said simply. "I'm not sure if your Professor would appreciate us talking about it."
"Probably not," Sirius agreed before saying briskly. "So Ron, what's your favourite Quidditch team?"
"The Chudley Cannons," Ron declared proudly.
Sirius grinned, he knew all about Chudley Cannon fans. It was best not to ask when the last time they'd won a game was.
"Ah, the Chudley Canons," he mused. "They're an old team….any new ones cropped up recently?"
"Not in Britain," Ron said knowledgably. "I think there was a new one in America a few years ago, can't remember the name though."
"I'll need to buy the latest magazine, catch up on it all," Sirius said jovially.
Ron started to reply but Harry didn't hear it. He'd just noticed a small group of people whispering as they watched them.
"I can't believe that Harry Potter is with a criminal!"
"Oh but wasn't he proved innocent?"
"Well yes but still….."
Harry frowned, he'd almost forgotten the gossipy nature of the wizarding world. People like Rita Skeeter thrived by simply writing speculation and conjecture, and the public just lapped it all up. He supposed Muggle newspapers did something very similar but they did at least appear more accountable for it. Or at least, if the press was too outrageous, most politicians and celebrities seemed able to sue them for libel.
He wished it wasn't so easy for Rita to write blatant lies as fact and moreover, for them to be utterly believed. Remembering that first stupid article she'd written about him, he still felt a flash of anger about it. This time, she was not going to be allowed to do that.
"Harry?"
The voice broke him out of his revelry and looked up at his godfather.
"What?" he exclaimed.
"You alright?" Sirius asked with concern, glancing in the direction of some of the passers-by.
"Yeah…..sorry," Harry apologised. "It's nothing."
"You sure?" his godfather, frowning a little.
"Yeah, it's fine," Harry told him firmly, he didn't want to ruin Sirius's day out.
"Okay," Sirius said with a nod, he didn't look completely convinced but had no wish to make an issue of it.
"Tell me Harry," Remus suddenly said. "What is Severus like as a teacher?"
"Uh…," Harry said a little uncertainly, how to describe his Potions teacher. "He favours the Slytherins."
"Big surprise," muttered Sirius.
"Anything else?" Remus asked with a smile.
"It really pays to study Potions," Harry finally managed to say after running through a hundred different things about his Professor. There was a lot he could say but the vast majority of that happened in his previous life. This time around, things were or at least appeared to be different. "It's not that he doesn't teach us but he doesn't tolerate mistakes very well."
"Yeah, he really gets on to you," Ron added. "There's a boy called Neville in our year, he's terrified of Snape and keeps making mistakes so Snape keeps looming over him. And then he calls him names or insults him."
"That sounds just like him," Sirius stated grimly. "Always ready with a not so subtle insult."
"Oh I don't know," Remus said mildly. "I seem to remember a few occasions when you and James would suddenly realise you'd been insulted by him…..sometime after the event."
"And I remember you never bothered to tell us," Sirius retorted, a grin gracing his lips.
"Why make the situation worse?" his friend said simply. "Besides, the expression on your faces when realisation dawned was always amusing."
Sirius just grinned and the friendly banter continued. They spent a decent amount of time in the Quidditch shop where Ron bought some beater gloves for the twins and with Harry, bought some classic Holy Harpies figurines for Ginny. Harry bought some gloves for Ron when he wasn't looking and he knew Sirius had bought a few things but naturally, they were surprises. Remus didn't buy anything but he seemed quite happy just being with his old friend again.
Harry did wonder what they'd been talking about but whatever it was, it had cleared the air between them. Hopefully, Sirius could arrange some of that Wolfsbane potion for his friend, it would dramatically improve his quality of life. And if Mrs Weasley took a liking to him….then he would soon find himself stuffed on a regular basis.
…..
"Went pretty well yesterday," Ron remarked, sprawled on his bed with a comic while Harry was wrapping a present for Hermione. "Mum likes Lupin, she probably thinks Sirius needs to get out with friends sometimes. His own age and all that."
"She's probably right," Harry mused. "It'll be good for him to get out, maybe he'll get a job or something."
"Wonder what he could do?" Ron said thoughtfully. "Did he get good grades in Hogwarts?"
"Yeah, he found it pretty easy," Harry confirmed. "I'm not really sure what he did after school, apart from fighting in the Order."
His friend just made a noise of agreement. Harry carried on with his wrapping for a few minutes, he'd gotten Hermione some expensive writing materials which included fine goose quills, different colours of good quality ink, some decent parchment, a leather bound notebook and a quill knife. Even the best quills could become blunt so it always paid to have a quill knife in stock. Sometimes he really did miss muggle pens and pencils, it was incredibly easy to smudge up your parchment with quills, it took skill and concentration to avoid loads of ink splotches. But that's how things were done in the wizarding world, traditions ran strong.
Ron's gift for Hermione was a little more personal but he hadn't wrapped it yet.
"Come on," he muttered, attempting to use a spell to neatly tie the ribbon but instead the blue material just flopped limply. "How hard can this be?"
"I dunno, you're making it look hard," Ron told him seriously.
Harry rolled his eyes before jabbing his wand at the ribbon attempted to throttle his present.
"Urgh," he said in frustration, ignoring Ron laughing as he waved his wand again to stop it being wrecked. A more careful wave saw the present wrapped with a ribbon and not looking half bad. He could have wrapped it normally but he'd felt like having a go with magic.
With satisfaction, he put it aside before turning to Ron.
"I think we should tell Kreacher."
Ron turned to look at him but did not look overly shocked just mildly surprised. But this was probably more to do with the fact Harry had pretty much said this out of the blue.
"What, that we came back in time?" his friend questioned and Harry nodded.
"Yeah," he said. "To destroy that Horcrux, we need him on our side. And we saw what he can do with the right motivation, look how he transformed Grimmauld Place."
Ron nodded his agreement. They'd sort of discussed this before but not for several weeks as there had been a lot of other things occupying their attention. Telling anyone was a risk but he had to admit, Harry had a good point. Their time hiding out at Sirius's house had definitely been the best part out of the whole Hunt.
"So…..how are we gonna do that?" he questioned. "I mean, I don't suppose Sirius is in a rush to go back to the place."
"That's true," Harry said slowly. "But there's also a lot of his stuff there, including photos and letters from my parents. He's not gonna want those things lost or chucked out."
"Especially if you want them," Ron reminded him with a grin.
"Yeah," he said with a smile. "That locket is in the house, we need to get hold of it before it's thrown away. Kreacher might have saved it last time but we can't rely on that."
Ron slowly nodded. Even though that locket was probably one of the more precious items in the house to the house elf, there was always the danger that it was thrown away or stolen. That couldn't be allowed to happen, they could not risk someone getting hold of that locket and becoming possessed by Voldemort. A Horcrux brought to life in a physical body was one nightmare they did not want to have to face.
"You know Sirius won't want to leave you alone with Kreacher, right?" Ron suddenly stated. "He hates him."
"I dunno, I don't think he'd really see Kreacher as a threat," Harry replied pensively. "He didn't the first time."
"Yeah but you're only eleven," Ron pointed out with a shrug. "He might not be so keen on you alone in any room. You didn't see the place when we first went in, it was a mess. It was literally uninhabitable. Trust me, you weren't missing anything."
"Mmm," Harry murmured. He could see Ron's point, it would have been a lot of hard work putting the place back together but it still would have been alright because he'd have been with his friends. And not spending a whole month worrying over what Voldemort was doing but there was no point in arguing about it. If Ron had been able to, he'd have brought Harry over a lot sooner but it wasn't his decision.
Harry wondered when Dumbledore would have brought him over if not for the Dementor attack.
"I'll ask after Christmas," he stated after a few moments. "No point in ruining things for him."
"Good plan," Ron agreed, turning back to his comic. "We'll do that then."
Harry grinned before flopping back on his bed. Now all he had to worry about were the twins blowing something up.
…..
"Hey, wake up!"
Harry opened his eyes to find a blur of red and freckles hovering above him. Putting his glasses on revealed that the blur was indeed his best friend Ron. He smirked and shoved him away, pushing the hair out of his eyes. They soon fell on a stuffed stocking near the side of his bed, making him smile. He could just make out an orange peeking out of the hand knitted stocking.
"Looks like you've already got a present," Ron declared thickly, already chewing on his orange, its skin peeled back until the white was showing.
Harry grinned as he saw what Ron meant, a carefully wrapped present lying innocently at the end of his bed and as he nudged at it with his foot, found there was nothing solid inside. He stretched forward and grabbed it, pulling the extremely squishy parcel over and tearing it open.
"Excellent," he said with satisfaction as some slivery material spilled out. "I've felt naked without this."
Ron laughed at this, digging a hand deep into his stocking and yanking out a bright orange coloured Quidditch figurine.
"Awesome," he exclaimed. "I've always wanted this one."
Harry just stroked the Hallow that had been handed down through the various generations of his family. It was his most precious possession next to his wand and he was very thankful Dumbledore had sent it to him.
There was suddenly a loud bang from downstairs, startling both boys which was quickly followed by several shrieks.
"Fred and George are awake," Ron said wryly turning back to his stocking.
"Ah," Harry said in understanding, now twisting to grab his stocking and start going through its contents. Apart from an orange, there was an English Quiddtich figurine (a safe bet since Harry didn't have a Quidditch team yet), a couple of indoor fireworks, a large packet of Bertie Botts every flavour beans, a box of exploding snap, a pair of vividly coloured socks that flashed and a comb.
Harry smirked at the last item, he had a feeling this was a joke at his expense. He was pretty sure the only way his hair would ever lie flat and neat was if he used that stuff Hermione had put in her hair to unfizzle it.
"Come on," Ron called, all of his stocking presents strewn all over his bed. "The presents are downstairs at the tree."
"Coming," Harry said, stuffing his cloak under his covers and charging downstairs with his best.
"Harry!" his godfather exclaimed, wearing only pyjama bottoms and revealing a torso that was much more filled out than it had been before.
"Sirius," Harry cried back, allowing himself to be swept up by his godfather and swung around.
"Ready to open a few presents?" the older man said teasingly.
"You bet," Harry grinned back, seeing a massive pile around the merrily decorated Christmas tree.
"One at a time, one at a time," Mrs Weasley was calling, trying to prevent a scrum under the tree. "Your father will hand everyone a gift and we will open them in an orderly fashion."
"Aww, where's the fun in that?" Fred complained, already half way through ripping apart a parcel.
"Now boys," Mr Weasley said firmly. "I know we're excited but remember we have guest, Harry and Sirius won't be able to reach their gifts."
"I agree," Percy stated.
"You would," George said with a roll of his eyes.
"Why don't we look at it this way," Sirius suggested, leading Harry over to the tree. "This way, we'll know who got what from who."
"Guess that's a good point," admitted Fred, grabbing a couple of other presents and taking them over to the sofa with his twin.
"That's better," Mrs Weasley said, tightening her dressing gown. "Here you are Harry dear, a little something from Arthur and I."
"Thanks Mrs Weasley," Harry said, taking a familiar looking package and opening it to reveal a Weasley jumper, complete with a capital H.
"It's great," he said warmly, nostalgia flooding back. "Thanks."
"Oh it was nothing, Harry dear," she said beaming as the others opened their gift. "Here's one for you Sirius."
"Thanks," Sirius said, a knowing smile on his face as he opened a black jumper with a sliver S on it. He pulled it on and admired it, the jumper fit perfectly and felt warm. It was homemade and simple…and a hundred times more precious than anything his actual parents had ever given him.
"Now you're a real member of the family," Arthur murmured as he lent over.
Sirius looked at him and smiled.
What followed was a whirlwind of unwrapping and exclamations of thanks. Ginny almost cried when she opened her Holy Harpies figures while the twins whooped over their hamper of joke items. Ron's mum kissed his dad after she was given a beautiful new set of dress robes, they were a lovely shade of light blue. Harry received a top of the range broomstick care kit from Sirius as well as a large bag of sweets and a book on jinxes and hexes. His godfather had learned Harry's favourite subject was Defence even though they only had a substitute for a teacher at the moment.
In return, Harry had gotten him a t-shirt which said 'It take a real man to fly a motorbike' and some hair care products. This made Sirius roar with laughter and grab his godson in a bear hug, promising him to use both faithfully. Loads more presents followed until Mrs Weasley chivvied them back upstairs to get dressed so they could have breakfast and then go outside.
Once breakfast was over with, they all went outside to start sledging and having snowball fights while the Weasley Matriarch took care of Christmas dinner. The snow fell thickly, giving the surrounding area an extremely festive look to it. As the two adults, Mr Weasley and Sirius became heads of two teams for the snowball fight with Sirius taking Ginny, Harry and Ron while Mr Weasley had the twins and Percy. Fred and George were extremely enthusiastic while Percy spent a lot of time ducking. Sirius slyly kept blasting any snowballs that threatened to hit Ginny, causing the other side to yell 'Cheat!'
"Nonsense, she's just that good," Sirius roared back, laughing his head off. "Come now, some of us are getting bored."
This caused the twins to declare all-out war and charge the enemy team. Which resulted in everyone rolling around in the snow with no idea who is who.
"Boys, boys," gasped Mr Weasley, leaning heavily against the tree. "I think a time out is in order, I'm a little breathless."
"But we were just getting started," Fred called, throwing a huge pile of snow at Percy who slipped and fell into a snowdrift.
"Can we go ice skating?" Ginny asked eagerly. "I wanna go ice skating."
"I'm going inside," Percy spluttered, spitting out snow and looking rather odd with his glassed completely white.
"I think I will as well," Mr Weasley agreed, he was bright red with cold and exertion. "Don't stay out too long boys. Ginny, are you warm enough?"
"I'm fine dad," she assured him, she didn't want to miss a single minute of fun.
"I'll look after her," promised Sirius.
"Thank you," the older man said gratefully. "Have fun everyone."
It was almost an hour later before Sirius called a halt, they had skated so much that Harry felt like his feet might fall off. Ginny was staggering with tiredness but nonetheless, beaming widely.
"Let's go in," Sirius commanded, supporting the youngest Weasley so she didn't fall over.
"That was great," panted Ron, his hair dripping everywhere.
"Yeah," Harry said with a nod, also panting for breath. This had to be one of the best Christmases ever.
Mrs Weasley was waiting for them with her wand.
"Boots at the door," she ordered. "And coats off."
As they did as they were told, she cast drying spells over them.
"I want everyone to go upstairs to get changed and then you can get some hot chocolate. Oh Sirius, there's a little surprise in the living room."
"Surprise?" he said curiously.
"Yes dear, just go on through," she said with a smile, checking over Ginny who was squirming.
"Mm," Sirius said thoughtfully, he really didn't know what it could be. Harry followed him, also curious as to what it could be.
He heard his godfather gasp and turned the corner to find Remus sitting with a steaming cup of hot chocolate. The other man smile and said. "Merry Christmas Sirius."
"You're here!" Sirius half yelped rushing over and clasping his friend in a hug, the hot chocolate thankfully moved to a side table just in time.
"Yes, Molly and Arthur invited me for Christmas dinner," he explained hoarsely, returning the hug with vigour. "Hello Harry."
"Hi Remus," Harry said, a huge grin spreading across his face.
"What's happening?" came Ron's voice as he poked his head around the corner. "Blimey!"
"Oh hullo Ron," Remus added as he was finally released. "Did your mother mention I was coming to dinner?"
…..
"Another mince pie?" Mrs Weasley offered sometime later.
"Oh, I couldn't eat another thing," Remus protested, holding up a hand in surrender. "But it was very delicious thank you."
"It was no problem," she said, before offering the plate to her husband who also had to say no.
Mrs Weasley's Christmas dinner could easily rival that of Hogwarts with its huge turkey stuffed to the brim, the roast potatoes, sprouts, carrots, parsnips and other assorted vegetables, Yorkshire puddings, cranberry sauce, pigs in blankets, gravy, the list went on.
Once that was over, a massive Christmas pudding was brought out along with mince pies, trifle and chocolate yule logs with different Christmas sweets piled high on a plate. As they'd eaten, they'd pulled crackers apart with large bangs and placed the hats proudly on their heads. The cat slunk through the table legs, eagerly snapping up any treats offered to it.
"It was wonderful, Molly dear," her husband assured her. "One of your best yet."
"Mmm," she agreed. "If Bill and Charlie could have been here, it would have been perfect."
"They'll get over soon, I'm sure," he said soothingly. "If not, we could plan for a holiday to see one of them, I'm sure we would all enjoy Egypt."
"What about going to see dragons?" George said eagerly.
"Oh, I don't know about that," his mother said. "They're far too dangerous."
Harry and Ron shared a grin.
"Could I be excused for a moment?" Remus asked politely, getting to his feet with a slight groan. He really did look stuffed.
"It's just the second door on the right, just down the hall," Mrs Weasley instructed.
"Thank you," he said, leaving the kitchen.
"Harry," Sirius suddenly said, turning to his godfather. "I've got something else for you."
"Oh?" Harry said curiously as his godfather summoned a small package.
"I almost forgot to give it to you," Sirius explained, handing it to him with a smile.
"A camera," Harry exclaimed once he'd opened it.
"I want you to take lots of pictures when you go back to Hogwarts," Sirius instructed. "I want to see how your first year at Hogwarts goes."
"Okay," Harry said with a grin. "I'll try to take some good ones."
"Good, bad, it doesn't matter," his godfather said. "Just use your imagination and see what comes out."
He laughed before deciding this could be a good opening.
"Sirius," he asked. "What happened to the photos you used to have?"
"Not sure," the older man mused, swiping a bit of chocolate sauce from his bowl and raising it to his lips. "Don't suppose my mother got it…"
"Your mother?" Harry queried, already knowing the answer.
"She's dead," Sirius said casually. "I think she died about five years ago and my father just before that. We didn't get on and who knows if she destroyed everything of mine in that wretched old house of theirs. Or that creepy House elf got rid of it…"
"Oh, do you have a house elf?" Mrs Weasley questioned.
"I guess I do…if he hasn't keeled over," Sirius said wistfully. "I'm the only heir of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black."
His voice dripped with sarcasm as he said that.
"Does that make us the Noble and Most Ancient House of Weasley?" George asked, mock serious.
"I'm not sure about noble?" his dad chuckled. "But ancient sounds about right."
"You don't want to be their version of noble, believe me," Sirius said grimly. "The house was basically a shrine to Slytherin, all horrible green and dark arts all over the place."
"Sounds terrible," Ginny said seriously.
"It was," he said with a nod.
"Still," Mrs Weasley said slowly. "If it's your house and it comes with a house elf, you should probably look it over."
"Not throwing me out, are you Molly?" Sirius teased.
"Of course not," she exclaimed, patting his arm reassuringly. "You know you can stay for as long as you like. But I think it would be good for you to have a little project, otherwise you'll go mad with boredom here. Perhaps your friend Remus could help, that young man could do with a safe, relaxing job."
"Well…..it would be nice to do something with Remus again," Sirius acknowledged slowly. "Maybe I could do up one of the rooms for him…."
"Wonderful," Mrs Weasley said happily. "I could pack lunches for you, the poor dear needs feeding up."
"Now that's something I can't disagree with," Sirius laughed heartily as Remus re-entered the room.
"Did I miss something?" he asked pleasantly.
"Sirius was just telling us about his house," Mr Weasley explained. "We were talking about the possibility of fixing it up."
"Really?" Remus said. "I'd be happy to help with that."
"We could help too," Harry said eagerly. "We could go before the holidays end."
"I think I'd rather you saw it in the summer," Sirius said. "I doubt it's in any fit state and I don't want you spending your Christmas holidays cleaning."
He gave Harry a smile and said. "But if I find anything of your parents, I'll save it and we can go through it together when you finish your first year. How does that sound?"
"T….that sounds good," Harry said quickly, plastering a smile on his face.
Sirius ruffled his hair before turning back to Remus who'd sat down again.
"What now?" Ron hissed.
"Change of plan," Harry whispered back with a sign. "I think I've got an idea…."
Author's note. The next couple of weeks will be busy for me and then I am going away on. holiday for a couple more weeks and won't have a laptop with me. However, I am going to take a notebook and pen and write the next chapter, the goal being to post it before the end of January. I am going to make a real effort to get that done so it's not too long for everyone. Until next time.
