Two weeks after receiving his last letter from Nora, the package she had mentioned had arrived. There was no letter, which was something she did say was possible, there was a note, however, that warned not to open until Christmas. Dudley placed the gift in his things to take back with him to Privet Drive. There was a lot of temptation to open it early, but he decided against it.

This year Harry had written Petunia and wasn't coming home for the holiday. He explained the situation with Elias and she immediately understood, knowing all about reuniting with family. So it was that Dudley, Draco, Ron, Neville, Blaise, and Theo all boarded the Hogwarts Express to head to London and home for the holiday season.

/*********/

When Christmas morning had arrived, Harry was woken up by an excited Elias, who literally climbed onto Harry's bed and began jumping on it, bouncing Harry onto the floor. This woke the young wizard up and caused him to levitate Elias into the air as punishment, rotating him slowly, and out of the door, before locking him out so he could get dressed. When Harry had finally gotten ready and left the bedroom, Elias grabbed his arm and took him to the common room. As there were barely any Slytherins left at school this year their presents were in the main part of the common room. Harry levitated his pile towards Elias' pile and they began opening them.

They spent over an hour opening everything, Elias nearly frothing at the mouth in excitement.

A few hours later and it was time for Christmas Dinner in the Great Hall. There were so few students here that it almost resembled a normal family's Christmas Dinner.

Christmas was very quiet this year, at Hogwarts and at the homes of the students. Not even Peeves had caused any mischief today.

/*********/

Dudley's Christmas had been very weird, it had started like any other Christmas, but when he opened the gift from Nora and saw it was a stone, he went to grab it for a better look, only to have Privet Drive melt around him. When things returned to normal around him, Dudley immediately saw things were different. Before he could panic he saw Nora's face beaming at him and realised her gift was a Portkey.

"Merry Christmas, Dudley," she called out immediately, while running to hug him. "I told you I would talk to you soon. We only have twenty minutes before your Portkey is set to return you home, so let's just talk. First thing first, why didn't you visit me over the summer?" she asked then laughed as they began to talk and enjoy their brief time together.

/*********/

It wasn't all quiet everywhere, however, as Tom Riddle was performing rituals of great and intense power, with the sole aim of turning the chunk of Harry's brain containing the spirit of Lord Voldemort into a temporary body. With the ultimate goal to have Harry take part in a complete resurrection ritual to turn that temporary body into the final return of the greatest Dark Lord to ever exist.

Things were progressing well, but not nearly fast enough for Tom's liking. It was time to sort out some assistants.

/*********/

The last week of 1993 brought with it nothing but bad news. It started when Dudley brought in a newspaper article from a muggle newspaper by June Mansonia, detailing a sighting of Sirius Black in Scotland.

This spurred the Minister to increase the number of Dementors floating around the school grounds.

The decreased number of guards at Azkaban resulted in a mass breakout of Death Eaters, the followers of Lord Voldemort. This had resulted in Aurors being stationed at the school on top of the Dementor guards.

All of this still didn't dampen the spirits of the school, though some questioned why Aurors weren't brought in last year.

They say bad news comes in threes and this rang true at least this time. The Gryffindor common room had been broken into by Sirius Black and he had managed to escape. Still the mood at Hogwarts was as positive as it could be given the circumstances.

/*********/

1994 had begun and it saw an uptick in the number of pranks going on from day to day. The only person who was immune to the pranks was Lupin, he seemed to have a supernatural ability to detect, deflect, and deactivate the pranks. Harry had been popping in for stories about his parents when during the latest session Professor Lupin let something slip.

"...and then in fifth year we all became Animagi together." The Professor paused here, looking as if he shouldn't have said anything. Harry took the bait.

"I'd like to become an Animagus, I've been researching it with my friends, but it has such extreme requirements. Could you transform for me so I can see it in progress?"

"Unfortunately not Harry, my form is rather useless as it's an incredibly small aquatic creature. Even if I were to be submerged in a fish tank you would struggle to locate me. That doesn't mean I can't help you through the process, and your friends if they want, it's the least I can do."

"If you're sure you don't mind the time commitment…"

"Think nothing of it, Harry."

"Then sure, I'll let you help me with it."

/*********/

"Hello Helena, I have someone I want you to meet. This is Elias Hawthorn, my little brother from the Orphanage." Harry introduced the pair a couple weeks into January, after Elias mentioned that he's always wanted to talk to a ghost, but had been scared away.

"Hello there, Elias, I'm Helena Ravenclaw, Harry has told me much about your times at Wool's. Maybe you could tell me some stories of what happened after you were adopted," Helena inquired in her usual motherly tone. This request caused Elias' face to split into a grin before he responded.

"Sure… I can do that." The trio sat in the hallway, exchanging stories and just generally enjoying the company for a few hours.

/*********/

January had come to an end and Dudley had been wanting to say something to Harry for weeks now, but had always chickened out. He finally gathered the courage and got the opportunity to talk to him after Potions on Friday.

"So Harry, do you remember Nora?" At Harry's nod he continued. "I went to visit her over Christmas and you'll never guess what happened. We kissed," Dudley exclaimed, overflowing with excitement, and Harry began to smirk.

"Dudley loves Nora," he chanted in a sing-song voice before giggling childishly.

"Yeah well, at least I've openly acknowledged my feelings for her."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Harry challenged

"You like Hermione," was all Dudley said, resulting in Harry spluttering and blushing. "If it wasn't obvious before it is now," he teased, before laughing joyously.

/-_-_-_-_-_/