Title:An Unexpected Christmas

Team:Pride of Portree

Position:Chaser 2

It was Christmas Day and it was snowing outside so Harry found himself sitting in-front of the fireplace in the gryffindor common room. It was his third year at hogwarts and the everyone had home to spend Christmas with their families including Ron and Hermione. As far as he knew he was one of the few that decided to stay during the holiday. So here he was sitting in the common room not knowing what to do.

While in the middle of his thoughts he heard the portrait swing open. Turning around so fast to point where he gave himself whiplash to see who it was. He thought he was the only gryffindor to stay this the foot steps getting closer he saw none other then Katie Bell, one of the chasers on the gryffindor quidditch team. They've been on the same team together since he started back in his first year with the twins, Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet and their captain Oliver Wood.

When she stepped into the room they both made eye contact with each other.

"Harry?" Katie asked "what are you doing here?"

Harry chuckled smiling at her "I could ask you the same thing Katie"

"Well my parents had to work for the holiday so we agreed I should just stay here" responded Katie with a small smile "how about you"

"I stay for Christmas every year, except Ron went back to the Burrow so this year i'm by myself" Harry responded not really giving the full reason.

Katie just nodded and walked to go sit by him on the couch. She has been friends with Harry for three years and knew there was more to what he was saying. She from the twins what happened before school last year and she wasn't blind, she was able to piece enough together to know that his life with the muggles wasn't the best.

"So have you gotten a new broom yet?" she asked. After their last game where he was attckaed by the demetors his broom was destroyed. Everyone was sad about the broom but were happy that he was fine after the accident.

Harry shook his head "No i've been looking through the catalogue Oliver gave me. I'll by one by the end of the holiday" he said with a sigh. He was still said about his Nimbus 2000 being destroyed.

Noticing his behavior getting sad Katie got an idea "Hey wanna go to the kitchen and get some food and hot chocolate?" she asked looking at him.

Harry nodded and smiled "yeah that sounds good"

"Alright come on" she smiled back. She grabbed his hand and lead him to the kitchen. Harry has always been comfortable with Katie and the other girls on the quidditch team even more so then with Hermione. Which isn't surprising he might not spend as much time with them as he does Hermione and Ron but he's with them often. Between practices, games or whenever they hang out or eat together,they usually give him hugs or kisses after games and practices or playing with his hair whenever they wanted, so he just got use to it.

They finally made it to the portrait that lead to the kitchen after a few minutes of walking. When they entered they saw a bunch of house elfs working, probably for the Christmas feast. Out of nowhere they heard a pop and there showed Dobby. They both looked down as they saw the energetic elf jumping up and down.

"Harry Potter Sir Dobby is so happy to see you!" Dobby said as he ran to Harry grabbing onto his leg.

Harry laughed a little awkwardly and pat his head "Hey Dobby it's good to see you to, this is my friend Katie"

Dobby finally let go and looked to the girl who looked like she wanted to start laughing at the situation "Hello Miss Katie! It's great to meet friend of great Harry Potter"

Katie gave him a smile as he looked up at her "Hello Dobby it's nice to meet you, do you think we could get some treacle and hot chocolate?" Dobby just started nodding and popped away. Katie took Harry's hand again lead him to a table in the corner of the room.

"You have a very interesting friend there Harry" Katie started while laughing.

"Yeah Dobby is interesting to say the least, I met him last year and ended up freeing him from the Malfoys" he stated while laughing at the thought of the energetic house elf.

Katie just shook her head "only you Harry" which she got a smile in return for.

Dobby popped back into the room with a plate of treacle and two hot chocolates with whipped cream then popped out before they could say anything. They each grabbed a cup and and a treacle.

"So how have your classes been going so far?" katie asked while sipping on her hot chocolate.

"They're going good right now. Well except Divination, it's kind of hard to do when your death keeps being predicted" Harry said while a small smile "how about you" he asked taking a bite of his snack.

"Yeah i'm sure that would make the class hard, mine are going good and they are already talking to us about our O.W.L.S for next year which I am definitely not ready for" she said with a shake of her head. And that's how it went, they spent their time talking and laughing, retelling stories of past practices and laughing about things their friends have done. Soon a couple hours went by and they headed to the great hall now hungry for dinner and ready for the Christmas feast that they're about to have. They walked in to see one big table with food on it. All the houses combined for this one night. There were already students sat down eating so they made their way to end of the table near the professors.

Later that night they once again found themselves sitting on the couch in front of the fire shoulder to shoulder just enjoying each others company. Harry was thinking how even though Ron wasn't here this year for Christmas it was probably the best one he has had so far. And katie was thinking along the lines of the same thing.

Bringing him out of this thoughts Harry felt an arm wrapping itself around his shoulders. He looked over to Katie who was smiling at him and running a hand through his hair.

"You know Harry when my parents told me I was going to have to stay here for the holiday I didnt think I was going to enjoy today, but this has been one of the best Christmases that I have had"

"You know Katie I was thinking the exact thing" Harry responded while smiling. Harry leaned his head on her shoulder continuing to watch the fire. With her hand running through his hair all his thoughts about needing a new broom,dementors, or Sirius Black left his mind. Before falling asleep on his friend he had one last thought that 'hogwarts isn't just my home it's where my family is'.

Katie looked down at her little friend and smiled. Moving his hair out of his face and taking his glasses of she gave him a small kiss on his head "Merry Christmas Harry" she whispered pulling him closer to her keeping her arm wrapped around him. Falling asleep she had one last thought 'he might not have a family back in Surrey but I'll do everything I can to give him one here' before she also drifted of to sleep.

When McGonagall came to check on her students to make sure they were in bed she was not expecting to find two of her cubs to be curled up together on the couch but it brought a small smile to her levitated a blanket over to them and took a picture to add to her collection of all of her little lions throughout the years. Leaving she couldn't help her smile getting bigger as the scene reminded her of a friendship she had seen years ago between a fiery redhead and a small werewolf.