Written for Carol Morgan, my dear Secret Santa. Love you beans! Merry Happy Christmas!
I hope this day is spent surrounded by your loved ones, eating good food and giving Severus lots of pet hugs.
Betaed by Tee, thank you so much!
Harry liked cats better than dogs because of Aunt Marge and her bulldogs, especially Ripper. He wasn't overly fond of them though, Dudley liked to infuriate cats that afterwards would go after him.
After the war, he'd been offered the chance to go back to Hogwarts or just go onto the Auror Program, but he'd wanted to have at least one carefree year. A year without worrying or looking over his shoulder.
Some had wanted to block Slytherin students from ever coming to the school again, especially after the episode in the Great Hall when Pansy Parkinson had tried to give him to the Dark Lord. But he, Hermione and even Ron had opposed it. And everyone else from the Order of the Phoenix. You don't combat their hatred with just more hatred. They're children and they need their education. Even Pansy Parkinson.
Harry had thought that some of them like Draco or Pansy, or Theo wouldn't want to come, but they did and it'd made him understand that they seeked peace as much as he did. A nice, quiet school year. And so far it has been so. Nothing much has happened at Hogwarts in the three months since school has started.
Soon it was to be Christmas. He'd planned to go to the Burrow, but the Weasley's didn't want to celebrate the winter holidays this year in the house without Fred. So they'd gone all to Romania with Charlie. They had all rallied together as a family and even if he was also part of their family, Harry had felt that letting them spend this one Christmas together without Fred and without him, would be best. He'd feel too much of a replacement for a person who can never be replaced.
At the same time Hermione was dedicating the time to be with her parents. Thanks to his and Ron's encouragement she'd finally gone to Australia and reversed the memory charms she'd put on them. So he'd stayed at Hogwarts. The first home he'd ever known. Many of the Slytherins did too. Not Draco though. He went home.
It'd taken some time, but Harry had finally understood that his parents with all their faults really loved him. But others like the Carrow twins or Theo and Pansy had stayed.
Harry sighed. He'd tried to somehow unite the houses, but all the Slytherins just kept quiet and avoided everyone. And everyone else was fine with that. But he wasn't. If they wanted to avoid future Dark Lord situations, they had to be united.
If there had come any good thing about being the Saviour of the Wizarding World, it was that the Headmistress, Professor McGonagall, understood his need to go on long nightly walks around the school. It helped with the dreams. Usually he'd go back to the Astronomy Tower and watch the stars. Once he'd understood that Severus Snape hadn't actually murdered Albus Dumbledore there, the place had stopped being haunting and had become a sanctuary.
Normally, he was alone, but tonight a stray cat had ventured in. A black and white, tiny cat. And it was very cute. He didn't know who it belonged to, though. He hadn't seen it around school at all. Harry didn't even know that someone else had cats except Hermione.
"Sebastian! Sebastian, please come back! They won't bother you again, I promise."
Harry sat still and listened. He knew that voice. It was Pansy Parkinson. The cat was hers? He decided to speak up. Perhaps this was his chance to make amends with the girl. She'd been all down and sad all term long and never made eye contact with him.
"Pansy," he called out, taking the tiny cat in his arms and standing up from his place. "Pansy, over here!"
Soon enough, a silhouette came from the darkness, up the stairs and into the tower. She was dressed in everyday clothes, but instead of robes she had a night gown over them. He noticed that her socks were mismatched, but he mainly focused on her face. She looked like she had been crying for a while.
"P-Potter? You have Sebastian?" Her face changed to one of hope and she cracked a smile when she saw the cat currently cuddling into his arms.
"Yes, I do. He's here."
She rushed towards him, and took the tiny purring animal into her own arms. "Is he alright? I couldn't find him. He ran away."
"He's okay," he replied. "But are you okay Pansy?" Harry put an arm on her shoulder, but drew back when she flinched and looked away.
"Pansy?"
"What do you care about me? Why do you care?"
"Are you asking what my business is with how you feel or are you asking why do I want to know considering who you are?"
She looked sideways and shrugged, petting Sebastian mindlessly. "Both."
"Come and sit with me," he motioned for her to follow him to his spot. He always brought a thick blanket to sit on, along with another one to wrap himself in, as well as his jacket. The winters were cold at Hogwarts.
He could see that she both wanted and didn't want to join him, but in the end, Sebastian tilting his head towards him convinced her towards the former.
"Okay." She went and sat down on the blanket, but refused to wrap herself in the other.
"At least take the jacket," Harry said, putting it around her shoulders.
"I don't need any chivalry from you Potter!"
He shook his head. "It's not. It's minus degrees outside and you're not properly dressed. You have your day clothes, but that blouse is thin and the nightgown even more so. It's common sense, Pansy. I suggest you wrap yourself in the blanket too."
She said nothing, but put the jacket on and zipped it up. Harry had to hide a tiny smile. She was cold.
"You always come here prepared Potter?"
"Yeah. It's cold. And I don't want to sit on an equally cold stone floor. Sometimes I even bring food here if I know I am going to stay longer. A little picnic basket with a kettle and whatever food I can find in the kitchen."
"Wow, they really waived the rules for you." If her remark was supposed to bite, her tone and voice weren't into it.
"I guess so," was all he said. "Pansy? What happened? Have you been crying this much because your cat ran away?"
She dryly laughed and put her hands on her face, settling the now sleeping cat between them. "Straight to the point, eh? Do you really want to know?"
"Yes Pansy, I do. Otherwise I wouldn't have asked."
Raising her head, she turned to face him. "Why are you nice to me Potter? Why are you suddenly calling me Pansy? Why do you care?"
He shrugged. "I don't want to let him control my life any longer. I had this notion all my school life that Slytherins were evil. But it's not true. There's good and bad in all houses, Pansy. Quirrel used to be Ravenclaw. They're supposed to be smart, and yet he let the Dark Lord reside in his head. In my second year Hufflepuffs were the first to hail me as the Heir of Slytherin and to fear me. They only believed it wasn't me because Hermione got petrified. In my third year, I found out that Peter Pettigrew had betrayed my parents and he'd been a Gryffindor.
"Do you see where I am going with this? I had proof right in front of my eyes, yet I chose to act on feelings alone. I was wrong. I can't change the way I have behaved and the way I didn't try to get to know any of you, including yourself. But I can change the way I behave now. I don't want this separation between Houses anymore. And I know, yes, that you tried to give me to the Dark Lord and I know you have not been the nicest to me or any of my friends, but I have seen your face back in May and it wasn't one of triumph, it was more of a scared one. I know you didn't fight in the battle on their side. I know you saved Lavender from Greyback.
"And most importantly, I observed you this term. You, Theodore Nott and Blaise Zabini had been marginalised by the rest of the House. You've been trying too. So tell me what has happened. Perhaps I could help. Or at least, I promise I will listen without judgement."
It took a moment to realise that she was quietly sobbing. Careful not to disturb the cat, Harry put his arms around her, and let her cry on his shoulder. "I actually hated you two years ago," she mumbled. "I really did. I would have done everything to serve you to the Dark Lord."
"What changed?" Because he knew she didn't hate him by the time the battle had come around.
"Everything did. That summer he moved in with us. For a while. Malfoys were in disgrace and he decided to live for a while at every member of the Inner Circle. It was awful. All the screams and the crude jokes the Death Eaters did. I didn't want to believe that my father was behaving the same when he was with them. And then at school, they made us use Crucio on the first years. And yes, they may have come from a family of blood traitors, but, they were first years! Kids. He wasn't what I thought he'd be. Nothing was."
He hugged her, and then let go and stared at her in the face. " What happened tonight Pansy?"
"I was just coming back from the library. I've let Sebastian go outside for precisely an hour every night while I would study. He knows to come back. Tonight, he was ambushed so to say. Some girls thought that he was too cute and nice to belong to a Slytherin and they took him. I heard them near the common room as I was coming out to take him in. He was so scared, he ran away. They all said it was because he saw me. I haven't been able to find him, I can't believe he reached the Astronomy Tower."
Harry's face was clouded with anger. "Who were the students, Pansy?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. I didn't recognise them and they didn't have their robes on. It doesn't matter though, Potter. You found Sebastian."
He had to bite down a smile. "More so that he found me."
After a moment of silence, he spoke again. "Please call me Harry. You sound like Malfoy when you call me Potter."
She laughed, and Harry realised that she was really pretty when she was smiling. He had to shake his head at that. His success with girls was anything but stellar. He'd tried to date a person who was still mourning, he'd broken up with Ginny only for her to find true love and get married while he was on the run and now Pansy. A girl he'd barely spoken with. Yet, in a way, he felt like he understood her.
"Merline forbid I resemble Draco in any way. Harry it is."
He smiled at her and nodded his head. "Good. You're much prettier than Malfoy in any case."
He couldn't really tell, but he could have sworn that she blushed.
"Thank you, I guess."
"What now?" she asked after a while. The night wind was still strong.
"Now, you either go to bed and I escort you and in the morning you're coming with me to find those girls, or you're staying a bit more with me and then going to bed. You choose, but finding those girls is not negotiable."
She looked at him stunned for a moment, but he held her gaze. Harry was very set on that.
"I suppose I could stay up here for a bit longer. I am not that sleepy. Care to share that blanket?"
Harry smiled and extended it to her, his hand upsimently petting the cat. Yes, he liked cats more than dogs and it seemed that Sebastian was one special cat.