I don't own anything
-Crow
"-ry!"
Emerald green eyes cracked open a sliver.
"-arry!"
They blinked in confusion.
It was almost like-
*BANG!*
"Harry! Harryharryharryharryharry!"
"Ooof!"
Harry woke up suddenly with the breath knocked out of him. His dazed brain made out that his bedroom door was wide open and a certain undead girl in pink was standing up against his bed leaning right on his stomach and bouncing, resulting in a forced "oof" each time.
"Sally, I believe Harry would like to live to see at least five minutes of the day."
Harry turned and saw a certain faceless entity in his doorway. He knew his guardian didn't have a face, but that still didn't mean he was absolutely certain the entity was snickering at him. The undead girl nodded, still shaking with excitement as she bounded away from the bedside.
Harry, still dazed, reached out and found his glasses on the dresser. Sally had bounded out of the room already. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and blinked away sleep before realizing that Slenderman was still in his pajamas. Truthfully, Harry hardly ever saw Slendy in pajamas. He'd always get up and change first thing. Only twice did he see Slendy in his night-wear. Once when he was on his way from the bathroom late at night when Slendy was sneaking downstairs for a snack, and another when Slendy burst into his room after a nightmare caused him to scream.
"Well, Harry? Are you just going to stay in bed? Especially today?" Slendy asked, still "smirking".
Harry blearily nodded, though he had no clue what the entity meant. The being chuckled at the child's bleary confusion, but left. Harry sat up and immediately brought his arm up against a bright, white light from his window. He let his eyes adjust before peering out.
Snow.
Lots and lots of snow. Normally, he'd dread snow as it'd mean shoveling the driveways at frigid hours of the morning. Compounded with the minimal warmth protection the Dursley family provided would usually mean Harry would come in shivering uncontrollably for hours on end.
Still, being able to look out the window without fearing the snow was peaceful, though Harry was still confused. What was so special about that day? Why get up so early?
He was broken out of his thoughts by an ecstatic Toby rushing past his door before backpedaling and looking right at him. His smile matching his permanent gash-grin. Wide and toothy. "C-come on, s-s-s-slowpoke! W-why are y-you still up h-h-here?" He asked excitedly, stammering over his words and ticking.
Harry could only blink in confusion. What was today?
Let's see… last Tuesday was the 20 th. He remembered going to see decorations with Sally. Saturday… er, yesterday, they went to the grocery store for a few things and Harry distinctly remembered that it was an awfully busy store that morning.
Wait… today was Sunday.
Sunday the 25th.
Harry sat up and beamed, matching Toby's own grin as he finally realized exactly what had everyone so excited.
It was Christmas!
Harry walked down the steps as opposed to Toby's bounding leaps down three, four, even five steps at a time. He was excited for the day. He picked out gifts for everyone and he wanted to see how they liked them.
He turned and walked into the living room before he was suddenly assaulted by a flurry of brunette hair.
"Merry Christmas, Harry!" Sally squealed excitedly. Harry looked around the room. Last night it looked like it always had. Today it had some green pine decorations and a few red bows. In the corner was an evergreen tree. Unlike the Dursley family who had always used a fake one, he could smell that the tree was a real pine.
Their tree was full and bushy and almost reached the top of the ceiling (and given that this was the Slenderman's house, that was saying something). A few crystal baubles in mostly shades of red decorated it along with some odd, black tinsel that looked like it was from Seedeater. In place of the star on top was a small, metal, crimson symbol with a circle and an X through it. Harry still hadn't thought to ask anyone about it, but it seemed prominent around Slenderman.
Slendy noticed his young ward's amazement with the tree. "Yes, I called Mr. Torrance last week. He's very skilled with an axe and brought over the tree shortly after you went to bed."
Harry nodded, still looking in awe at the decorated living room. Jeff was blearily sitting on the couch, barely keeping awake even with a mug of steaming coffee in his hand. Smile was doing his best to lick his master awake in the meantime, but given that it was 6:30 in the morning for the young killer, it would take some time.
E.J. was sitting by the window enjoying the snow, sipping a mug of cream-colored eggnog. Toby was kneeling in front of the fireplace, arranging logs and newspapers. Harry noticed E.J. nervously twitch his head (the eyeless equivalent to nervous glances) towards the excited pyromaniac.
Toby jumped up from his position, bouncing with excitement. "O-okay! Time to l-l-light the sucker up!"
"No flamethrowers!" E.J. said forcefully.
For a moment, Harry was certain the eyeless doctor was joking, until he heard the proxy go "awww" and toss away a compact, black flamethrower behind the couch. He pouted, but took out a match and lit the newspaper anyway.
Harry noticed that the structure was actually a very intricate log cabin with newspaper inside. Toby lit it through a "window" opening and, soon, there was a glowing, crackling, burning cabin in their fireplace. BEN and Sally were sitting next to each other, alternating between watching the icy snow fall or the blazing fire crackle.
Slenderman clapped his hands and announced it was time for presents. They gathered around in the sofas and chairs around the tree. "Alright, everyone. Please take a gift and we'll rotate around."
They each picked up a present from around the tree with their names on it. Harry was still sitting at his seat, not expecting anything for him. After all, in the Dursley's they told him he didn't deserve presents. Though, here it seemed like they would, but he didn't want to go up there and awkwardly find out he didn't. Though-
"Harry, here." Sally placed a black and red gift on his lap.
"Harry, why don't you go first?"
Harry was still stunned by the fact that he had a gift. "Th-this is for me?" He whispered quietly. The others' smiles saddened slightly but they nodded encouragingly for him to open it. The budding wizard reverently opened the paper cover. He opened the plain box and pulled out a small video game cartridge.
It had the image of the 'Pikachu' character Toshio showed him. He opened the small card left in the box, which let him know Ben gave it to him. "I've never actually had a game before." He said and turned, smiling, to the virus. "Thank you."
BEN nodded before sheepishly looking away. "I'm glad you liked it. I'll show you how to set it up later, okay?" Harry nodded and set the cartridge to the side.
They continued going around, each opening each others' gifts. Harry noticed Slendy got mostly mugs and ties, but was still pleased with Harry's present for him; a necktie with the British Union Jack pattern on it. BEN blushed several new pixel shades of red after Sally gave a small peck-kiss on the cheek for his thoughtful little watercolor supply kit.
Most of the other gifts were relatively the same. BEN was happy with a game or some bit of broken electronics he could take apart upstairs. Laughing Jack would be ecstatic about any new pranking ideas or kits. Sally got a few dolls and drawing equipment. Jeff got some heavy metal CDs or a T-shirt.
One gift was from BEN and left Jeff grumbling. Apparently it was a card with an expletive (which Slendy forbade him from looking at, much less say) and a $10 gift card to an American food chain. BEN explained that it was in return for a prank earlier in the year involving several buckets of water and an unnecessary wake-up call.
Harry's gifts were pretty well received by everyone. Jeff loved his aerodynamic knives kit. Toby was ecstatic (or at least more-so than usual) over a throwing tomahawk kit. Slendy was visibly concerned until he made the teen promise to practice on stumps… far away from the mansion… and his garden. Brian (aka Hoodie) got some new filming equipment. Harry found he wasn't too talkative, but the proxy gave a "thumbs up" and appreciative nod from behind his perpetual-frowny-face mask. Tim (aka Masky) got a new set of beakers and some cigarettes that Harry asked Slendy to buy because of age restrictions. Smile happily chewed on a red, rubber, bone-shaped dog toy as soon as Harry opened the gift for him.
E.J. got a new set of scalpels and some "cool" shades for his glamour disguise. He wore them for the rest of the morning. L.J. was giddy over a chemical set from a joke shop. He was perusing the "how-to" manual and Slendy groaned about the stink bombs that were sure to ensue.
Sally was squealing with delight when she opened her gift from Harry. He asked Slendy to shadow-walk him back to the UK where he got a real ceramic tea set. Sally had been using the American plastic molds during her many tea parties, so an actual ceramic tea pot and cups was perfect. They even picked up several tea blends straight from the UK shops. She cordially invited him to her next tea party for that and he, with a bow and as much "posh" as he could manage, accepted.
Even though they weren't there, Harry sent some gifts to Toshio and Kida. He remembered Toshio saying that they don't really have much need for actual objects cluttering space, so he sent over some authentic American chocolates and jams. The reply said they were perfect and everyone enjoyed them. He remembered Kida saying she enjoyed the new computerized animation, so he sent her some animation software to use on the console they shared in Room Zero. That afternoon, he got an email excitedly listing all of the projects she was planning and how much she'd already learned.
Harry, likewise, received various gifts from his newfound "family" as well. Eyeless Jack gave him a few medical and science books along with an offer to try to learn to dissect something. Harry tentatively agreed after the eyeless doctor promised it would just be a frog and not one of the cadavers. Doctor Halloway sent over some psychology books and a few books on the brain's anatomy. He expressed an interest in it after a few sessions and she kept that in mind as she picked out his gift. Slendy got him some piano books and a promise for a few lessons later on, if he would like.
Sally's gift was a couple really nice sketchpads and some pencils. L.J. gave a standard-issue prank kit and a jokebook. Toshio sent over some of the backwards comics, er "manga", that he showed him. One had a picture of a blonde kid in bright orange with something in his mouth. The orange text said "Naruto" underneath and there were about five or six of them in a bundle. The other few books had another kid in orange, but with black, spiky hair and was riding what looked like a green dragon. The text said "Drag n Ball". It took him a bit to realize it was "Dragon" with the "o" being an odd, orange orb. Kida sent over some Disney memorabilia and a small figurine of Mickey Mouse wearing a red robe and an odd, blue conical hat. For some reason, Slenderman and E.J. snickered when they saw it.
Toby gave him a book. It was a black book with a bold title, "The Anarchist Cookbook". Slenderman raised an eyebrow at how Toby, Jeff, and L.J. were simultaneously snickering. Harry cracked open the cover and silently read a few of the chapter titles. His eyes widened at the chapter titles alone and quickly understood that he probably shouldn't let him see it.
Toby leaned in when Slendy wasn't looking and whispered. "I'll teach you how to make napalm later."
Mr. Widemouth sent a small brown package, as well. Inside was a set of five, small juggling knives and a note to Slendy explaining how they were "better than kitchen knives; much safer." They were summarily confiscated by the faceless entity. To be honest, Harry didn't mind. Mr. Widemouth sometimes gave him the creeps.
They were winding down the last few gifts. Finally, it was Harry's turn for the last present. It was a black gift with red, swirling patterns on it. He pulled off the decorative wrapping and pulled out what was inside.
It was a facemask. A lot like one of the gascots, but without the air filter cylinder. It clasped in the back using straps, so only the face was covered. The "mouth" area had some filter slits in it for breathing and resembled a winter face mask, but what was most interesting was the fact that the eyes had a pair of dark, foggy glass lenses.
He excitedly put it on and was amazed that the lenses in the eyes were actually his exact prescription, meaning he could take his glasses off. He found it was relatively easy to breathe in after he got used to it. He looked around through the lenses and saw BEN nudging Jeff who was pointedly staring in an arbitrary direction.
"So, Jeffy, I guess that little thing was your "magazine" I heard about. Eh?"
The eyelid-less psychopath scoffed, "Shut up, tech-geek." BEN and Toby kept playfully nudging him while calling him a "softie", much to his ire. Even E.J. was grinning in the background.
Slenderman turned to Harry. "So, Harry, how is it?" The boy nodded and spoke behind it. His voice echoing slightly. "It's really cool! I can even see without my glasses!"
Sally got up close to check out the lenses and gasped in surprise. "Woah! Harry, your eyes are glowing!"
The others crowded around to get a glimpse as well. It was true. The lenses' prescription was a match for Harry and, as a result, they amplified the green color of his eyes, but the enclosed space of the mask and complete darkness behind it allowed a faint glow to come through. Slendy theorized later that this was the result of his "magical" abilities bleeding through and going unnoticed until they were observed closely and in darkness.
With the mask on and Harry's peculiar glowing, the lenses went from the dark grayish-black to a vivid, emerald green. Harry experimented with his eyes for a second and everyone watched as he forced more of the "energy" in him to his eyes, causing the lenses to glow like two, green headlights before dimming back down to normal, eliciting applause from the surrounding tenants.
He took off his new mask and they started cleaning up their wrapping paper strewn about, before Slenderman stood up and mentally cleared his throat. "Harry, I have one more gift for you. It's more like a gift from everyone, so I thought it would be best to save for last."
He pulled out a small envelope from his suit pocket and gave it to Harry. The young boy looked it over before ripping the top and unfolding the paper inside. The entire thing was a large bundle of "legal-ese", but he could clearly see what was at the very top of it.
"Transfer of Guardianship"
The faceless entity knelt down with everyone else getting closer. "Harry, it isn't signed yet, but we thought we ought to give you an option. This paper is along the lines of the Contracts we use in the Underrealm. There's nothing dangerous, just a standard guardianship form, but it does override any other legal documents and is rather permanent, but still-"
Slenderman "looked" directly at the young wizard, holding a hand up in offering. "Would you like to stay with us?"
Harry blinked, still stunned. He glanced from the forms to the being in a suit in front of him to the others crowded around. The new memories came flooding. Jeff's perpetual grin. Sally's cheerful excitement. BEN's game nights. Playing fetch with Smile Dog. Helping Eyeless Jack cook dinner. Harvesting from Slenderman's garden.
Over the past month and a half, so much had changed that the Dursleys and Privet Drive seemed a lifetime ago. He looked back at the forms in his hands and then back to the expectant faces of his new family.
He nodded.
The living room occupants cheered as Slendy took out a small fountain pen from his pocket and had Harry sign on the dotted line at the bottom before sending them to the Council in a small burst of fire. That afternoon, Harry helped in the kitchen excitedly using the word "family" as often as he could while mashing potatoes, prepping turkey, or cutting vegetables. That night, they enjoyed a great meal and Harry couldn't feel more at home.
After dinner and celebrations, the tenants went upstairs. BEN led Harry to the family room with his own personal GameCube apparatus. He showed Harry how to set it up and led him through the controls before heading off to his own room. He wanted Harry to enjoy the game without his (admittedly impulsive) back-seat gaming, so he left Harry to explore the new toy.
'Besides,' He thought, grinning as he climbed the stairs, 'I've got a date with the lovely Laura Croft and a couple zombie hordes tonight.'
Harry started up the game and was rewarded with a loading screen with a game already on file. He didn't want to delete the game and, out of curiosity, wondered exactly what the other person had done on it. He selected it and it opened up to a dark room.
He moved about the space cautiously. It was unusually dilapidated for the brightly-colored cover on the box it came in. The furniture was broken and covered with what looked like rust or mold. The walls had some scribbled drawings on them with short, scratchy phrases on them. The character kept moving around and the only splash of color that stood out in the room was a bright yellow doll on the desk in the corner. Approaching it, he saw it looked a lot like an eerie version of that "Pikachu" thing Toshio talked about.
"Pikaaa…"
Following the noise on the speakers, Harry turned around and saw a bed object with a messy, dark red comforter draping towards the floor. He watched as a yellow cat popped out from underneath. After the "cat" stood on its hind legs, Harry realized it was an actual "Pikachu", instead of a doll.
The Pikachu looked at his character with black eyes holding a glint of red. Unlike Toshio's depiction of the bright, cheerful, chubby mouse-like Pokemon, this Pikachu's fur was still yellow, but it was less of a "cheerful" yellow and more… an almost sickly goldenrod color and patches of it had bright red smears on it. Additionally, unlike the well-fed depiction, it was much skinnier, not quite emaciated, but definitely close. Harry was also stunned to see some patches of fur covered with scabs, scars, and several fresh cuts.
It grinned at the camera or character model and showed it had pointy teeth more like Laughing Jack's.
"Pika pi."
A blip sounded and Harry saw the screen taken over by a small text box "My name is BRVR."
"Pi pika pichu." Another box. "I was your brother."
"Pi pika?" "BRVR wants to know if you love him."
Harry was surprised that another text box popped up with a "Yes" next to the "Y" button and a "No" next to the "X" button. Harry didn't know what to make of it. He barely knew this character, so he couldn't fairly say he loved or hated it yet. He pressed the green "A" button instead.
BRVR's long ears pricked up and Harry got the impression that the character was staring through the screen for the first time.
"Pika pi" "You are not brother."
Harry didn't know what to say, so he just shook his head and mumbled 'no'. BRVR seemed genuinely surprised before it slumped down sadly and shuffled its way under the bed. Harry called out. "Wait!"
To his surprise, the figure actually stopped midway under the bed and turned to him. Harry spoke awkwardly at the screen itself. "M-my name's Harry."
The video game character got further out from under the bed and faced the camera. "Pika-chu" "Hello, Harry."
The young wizard was taken aback by this comment. A video game that heard him. He wondered if a lot of video games did that, but Dudley got his hands on the newest, coolest ones and none of them (from what he'd heard or seen briefly) had anything like that. His mind thought back to BEN. The tenant was technically a computer virus and he definitely talked back. He guessed after that, this was definitely possible.
More confidently, he addressed the screen- no, he adjusted it so his focus was directly at BRVR. "What are you?"
"Pika." "I am BRVR."
Harry frowned before his eyes flitted around, reevaluating the question. "I mean, are you a computer ghost like BEN? Or an internet person like Funnymouth?"
"Pika." "I am BRVR."
He sighed before thinking again. "Well, you said you had a brother. Who is he?"
"Pika pi pika piiikaaa" "He is like you. Human. He was my best friend." The screen glitched for a second when typing out the last two words, but regained composure immediately after.
"What happened to him."
"Pi." "He left me." "Pi" "For a girl."
"I'm sorry. You must've been lonely." The video game character nodded in confirmation before it began shrinking in on itself again. "Hey, BRVR?" The Pikachu ignored him and shuffled back under the bed. Harry waited a few moments before sadly putting the controller on the coffee table and lying on the couch, glancing back at the table.
He supposed it must have been sad for the little guy. He was obviously alive, so he must have feelings like loneliness. He couldn't understand why a boy would go after a girl, let alone abandon his best friend for one. Then again, he was seven. Though he still had no clue why those older boys and girls would keep kissing for really, really long periods of time. It was just gross. Why wou-
"Pika."
He was broken out of his contemplations by the familiar voice through the speakers. He turned back to the screen and saw BRVR's head peaking out of the dark crevice under the bed. Above him was his usual text box.
"You are still here."
It wasn't a question, but a surprised statement. Harry nodded. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be here?"
(Lots of "pika"s that don't need to be written) "Brother left me. He would turn off my game. It would be lonely again. But you left me on. You didn't leave. Why?"
Harry tilted his head in confusion. "Why would I leave? You're really cool and you seemed like you needed someone to be with."
The small pokemon's face traveled through a confusing array of emotions; happy, embarrassed, sad, gleeful, angry, confused. Its programming was not meant for whatever this emotion was. The character tossed away the programming like an old manual and winged it based upon this confusing feeling.
He smiled.
Harry grinned back at BRVR, noticing his teeth were still kind of pointy but less Laughing Jack-like and more like a cat's in that it was much more natural and/or benign.
"Harry wants BRVR?"
He nodded and was ecstatic as he watched the little video game character dance around the room before bouncing up and down on the messy, dusty bed. After a few moments of glee, the bloodstained entity (still a demonic program, remember) jumped in front of Harry's camera. "What do you want to do now?"
Harry thought for a moment before shrugging. "What do you do here?"
BRVR spent the next hour or so showing the young boy around the single room and the outside garden and forest area. Harry was unnerved to see decaying bits of other creatures laying around, but the screen would static and BRVR would reappear with the yard devoid of the frightening images though the grass and foliage was still gray-ish and the sky was red. He picked out the color of the room's wallpaper with the small pokemon giving input through his textboxes.
The excited video game character showed him to a pond where they spent a few hours fishing. Mostly they came up with boots (with a few human-esque feet inside them) and a few mutated water pokemon. BRVR seemed to be enjoying his time spent with Harry and would occasionally hop around and pull out some easter egg objects or show hidden glitches in the game.
Harry was smiling so often, he barely noticed when he yawned and the screen began to go blurry.
BRVR was sitting next to the camera-model that indicated the screen of the human. It looked like a child-sized robot with a large, flat screen for a head and two mechanical arms. He was used to this, it was the way users interacted with the program itself usually. It even had an Ash Ketchum hat incorporated in as a joke by the programmers.
They were fishing in the bloody lake out in the forest area. The scarred pokemon exclaimed when the bobber went under and the prompt for the player to pull up showed, but was surprised when nothing happened and the spawned entity got away, letting the fishing game reset itself with the bobber back in the red water.
BRVR looked into the screen and saw an image of new-brother Harry lying on the large-sitting-place-for-humans...er, "couch", dead asleep. He glanced at the in-game clock and conceded that perhaps 11:00 PM was a bit late for a human. Especially a mini-one.
He willed the program to warp around them and the fishing gear disappeared. He got into the "player-bot" control program and made the camera model make awkward and robotic steps back to the house. They returned to the main room and the character model sat in a desk chair facing the bed.
BRVR looked around the room again. New-brother Harry did a good job of it. Instead of his rage-induced bloody wallpaper, broken furniture, and eerie dolls, the wallpaper was cream-colored with red accents. The furniture was mostly restored, but his new-brother said a lot of the furniture his old-brother called creepy or freaky was really cool. Finally, they agreed to remove the Pikachu Z dolls (save one, on new-brother Harry's insistence). The shelves were bare, but they had put a few collectibles they'd found in the past few hours.
The program entity sighed contentedly before disappearing back underneath the bed, engaging in sleep mode as well.
Slenderman walked through the Mansion one last time to check up on his wards.
He cautiously moved down the hallway his wards occupied. Sally had been playing with her new dolls and he had to tuck her in with a few of them before she'd agree to go to sleep.
Walking past BEN's room, he sighed as the *zap* and *blast* of lasers and explosions could be heard bleeding through his door. He opened it up and, sure enough, BEN was already on a game, shooting what looked like skeletal aliens into green goo. A short scolding, a "five more minutes", a quick denial, and a few grumblings later, and BEN was in bed, too.
He passed Jeff's room, practically feeling the bass notes thumping through the heavily-insulated walls and floors (he like his silence when he slept). Opening the door, he found the scared psychopath in a white T-shirt and his red boxers "rocking out" (as "hip" kids called it these days) to some very heavy-metal rock music blasting from a speaker set partially buried under "Mt. Week-Old-Socks-manjaro" with Smile bounding around excitedly at his feet.
"Listening to their crie-ie-ie-ies, oh yeah! Watching the bodies fa-a-a-all, aaaaallll theeeeeee waaaaay, Dow-ow-ow-ow-own," Jeff shout-whispered in sync with the lyricist. "And we'll ne-ver be brought 'rou-ou-ound!"
With that he swiveled on his heel and turned to the door. Smile mimicked the action and both caught sight of the tall figure in their doorway.
They froze quicker than a goldfish in liquid nitrogen upon noticing their audience. The music awkwardly kept going until Jeff discretely threw a soda can at it… then a knife, and effectively silenced the machine, still staring at Slendy with a deer-in-the-headlights expression on his face.
To his credit, Slendy didn't "laugh", but quietly closed the door and leaned against the wall, "smirking", as he heard the sounds of teen angst and wailing over the absolute, sheer shame and embarrassment drift through the door. He figured, once thoroughly brought down a few pegs, the psychopath would put himself to sleep soon enough and wandered away.
He finally walked to Toby's room. He paused and took a "breath" before opening the door.
Toby was in his light blue pajamas and bare feet sitting by the windowsill. His room was completely dark, save for pale moonlight spilling in through the open window, the curtains drifting and floating around from the winter breeze. Toby didn't mind the cold, he never could feel it. He just stared vacantly at the silvery disk in the sky beaming down at him.
As Slendy approached, he was glad to note that Toby's arm bandages were still in one piece and hadn't been shredded off like his last episode. He did notice that the human's fingers and toes were starting to turn a dull purple and a waxy red from the cold Toby couldn't perceive.
"Do you hear them?"
Slenderman was surprised by the soft whisper, but the teen went on.
"They keep talking to me. Sis is saying it was my fault. All my fault. I distracted her. I caused her to miss the stoplight. Dad keeps yelling at me. Calls me a 'worthless shit'. My fault. All my fault." He mumbled quietly.
The entity watched as the mumbling slurred before slowly holding his arm to pull him up. A tentacle snaked out and closed the window, heat returning to the room almost immediately. Then, like leading a sleepwalker, he got Toby back in his bed. The teen pulled the covers himself and closed his eyes as the unintelligible murmuring quieted.
Again, Slendy gave a breathless sigh. The holidays were hard on Toby. Particularly later at night.
He carefully examined Toby's fingers peeking out of the comforter. From what he knew about human frostbite, it was very mild and the boy's Proxy metabolism was already healing any damage that might have occurred, restoring the normal fleshy color. He concluded that Toby would be fine, though he may find his fingers a bit stiff in the morning. If he could feel anything, he'd say it felt "sore" as well.
He closed the door, careful to keep it quiet, before heading off towards Harry. The other tenants were old enough to deal with themselves and their own "bedtimes", like the Rake or Eyeless Jack, but he felt it prudent to check up on his last ward. He hadn't seen Harry since they'd finished up dinner and Slender began conversing with some other guests over drinks.
After all, the contract was streamlined through the system immediately upon signing and was filed universally. So, in all legal ways, it was set.
Harry Potter was an official ward of the Slenderman.
He reached Harry's room and nudged open the door before glancing around. The bed was still made and he didn't see the boy anywhere else in the dark. He sent out a brief pulse for life signs in the room and came back negative. He vaguely remembered BEN talking about a video game with Harry as the guests began enjoying the post-dinner eggnog and scotch. He made his way downstairs.
The floor was dark save for the light flicker from the old flame-lamp sconces on the wall set low and a steady, blue beam of light coming from the doorway. He sighed before walking in and looking around. The television was on some type of video game and was only showing a messy bed. He never quite understood these modern games, but he definitely couldn't see the appeal of watching a bed all day. He turned to the couch and found his newest ward lying on it with the controller still limply in his hands. He carefully plucked it out before returning it to the coffee table and picking up Harry in his arms.
As he walked out, one of his tentacles went back and pushed the power button to the television, but he forgot the console and left the GameCube itself running.
Harry groggily became aware of movement. He was being carried a good ways off the ground and his bleary mind could mentally process that he was in Slendy's arms. He continued to focus on the movement until he felt himself lower in altitude onto his now-familiar mattress followed by the weight of his comforter blanket.
He cracked his eyes open a bit and saw the shadowy figure of his new father-figure disappear out the door.
He thought back to the pokemon he met. BRVR was just lonely and scared and it looked like he was hurt, too. Harry noticed as the pokemon jumped around as they played, it tended to favor the left leg more and try to avoid its right leg. Even then, he caught it limping slightly a few times. He felt like the video game entity just needed help. He seemed like he genuinely just wanted a friend.
A friend.
He felt the world begin to close in on him as his brain was pulled into the warm comfort of his pillow.
He wished he could be that friend.
He really wished he could help BRVR.
He really… wished… BRVR…
…
'Twas the night of dear Christmas,
With no one awake,
Not a creature was stirring
Not even the Rake.
.
The presents were had,
The turkey devoured.
Not even the gift cards
Made the day sour.
.
The wards were all nestled
Snug tight in their beds
While visions of napalm
Blazed in Toby's head.
.
And in a room,
Loved dearly by many,
Lay the little wizard
whose name was Harry.
.
And as we all know,
from TV specials galore
Christmas is the time
Of miracles and more.
.
For on that night,
Came a small burst of light
That flowed out from Harry
And turned to the right.
.
It flew down the stairs
And straight to the tube.
What the orb wanted,
No one else knew.
.
The device, it flickered
And fritzed with snow.
Then it went black
With silence in tow.
.
But the light was diminished.
The magic was through?
.
And then from the couch,
Came a sleepy-
.
"Pika-chu…"
In the most magical place up North, an ancient-looking man with a snow-white beard was sipping a drink in front of a fireplace from an ornate chair. Around him, devices and gadgets and toys were littered around. On his desk were bits of a new device he was designing. Below were the work space where his elves worked tirelessly, anxiously prepping delightful surprises for the multitude of children.
This old man was currently taking a break from the usual, hectic schedule and life he lived and was currently deep in thought.
…
Sorry, no, it's not Santa Claus (nor Father Christmas).
It was a very frosty Christmas in that region of Scotland. Albus Dumbledore sat in his stiff high-backed chair in his office, staring into the dark fireplace, filled with long-cold ash that was once his fire. He let it burn out to keep out any Floo calls anytime soon and personally put a ward against any visitors. The only light in the room came from a single, dim candle flickering on his desktop.
All around him were his tracking devices and gadgets. All of them were silent and eerily still, like wire statues collecting dust. The bits on his desk were from one he, in his absolute frustration, smashed apart and began examining to see if it could be repurposed as a new tracker.
Now, he was in his chair, sipping a Firewhiskey from a shot glass. He never drank often, but he could see why his brother would enjoy this particular drink and serve it in his pub.
He got up and walked over to the window, staring out at the cold, white layer of snow outside. It was undisturbed as the children had all gone home before the snowfall. The pale, blue light of the moon cast a mournful spotlight over the dark landscape. The shadows blurred to blues and grays against the sparkling icy crystals in the snow. The lake had frozen over completely, capturing the ripples and waves in mid-stroke, reflecting the pale disk of a moon like a distorted mirror.
The entire castle was enshrouded in darkness save for the light of his one, small candle and the moonlight.
The cold, drafty castle was completely devoid of life. It was one of the rarest occasions, but by no means unwelcomed by the aged headmaster, where every child went home for the winter and none stayed behind. Every staff member down to Severus and Filch were gone.
Filch was out because his cat, Mrs. Norris, was in a muggle veterinarian's surgical clinic after students played a particularly dangerous prank on the beast and St. Mungos would do nothing for the lonely old squib. Snape had a potions conference in Prague that he had been silently enthusing about for weeks. Despite his best efforts, the headmaster's passive Legilimens allowed him to peek into the potionmaster's head and see the young man was as ecstatic as Minerva whenever her prospects of winning the House Cup were better than usual.
The ghosts were all off in distant lands, convening with other ghosts or haunting crotchety, old men with visions of their Christmas Past, Present, and Future. The few that stayed kept themselves isolated to their towers, dungeons, secret rooms, or (with Myrtle) toilets. Upon realization of this, he personally banished Peeves the Poltergeist to a muggle house in Albania, fully intent upon enjoying the rare opportunity of the entire castle to himself.
Even Fawkes had decided to phoenix flame to the Bahamas for a few days.
The elves were currently sent away to farms for buying supplies for feasts and then to a small facility miles away for preparations of those materials for consuming; such as milk pasteurization, jam and jelly making, marinating, and so forth.
As he understood it, every elf in the kitchens and on cleaning duty was currently away at those locations, taking time to get a head start on food preparations before the year began.
He nodded at the solitude and returned to his chair briefly. He had taken up the anxious habit of pacing or going from sitting to standing and back to sitting with no real meaning to it, but it helped him think.
And right now, being in the silence of Hogwarts gave him time to reflect and focus on the biggest migraine plaguing him for the past few weeks.
Harry bloody Potter.
He dropped the boy off with the Durlseys with the sole intent of ensuring the child had a miserable existence before coming to the Wizarding World. He knew full-well that the Dursleys loathed magic, but he needed the boy's self-esteem reduced to near-zero. He needed to be compliant and malleable to whatever Dumbledore said. Most of all, he needed to revere every word the old wizard spoke.
He planned it so carefully. The boy would need to be beaten and abused at his muggle home, then he would have his letter delivered and introduce Harry to wizardry and become the grandfatherly mentor in the child's eyes. After that, it was simple to just manipulate a few things here and there, ensure some things went off there and just like that, he'd have his perfect weapon against Voldemort.
A perfect, self-sacrificing weapon that he would use as the champion of the light… until he had to be killed, that is.
He knew from the moment he saw that scar that the link between Harry and Voldemort existed and, in all likelihood, was a key aspect to Voldemort's continued existence in this plane (if Severus' Dark Mark was any indicator) and his eventual return. He needed that link. He needed Voldemort to come back to power… in time.
With the prospect of having the Boy-Who-Lived backing his every move, he would unite the Wizarding world against the common enemy, Voldemort, and, once again, be seen as the hero of the century.
And in the process of Voldemort returning, he could… stave off the flood of new ideas that threatened their way of life.
Dark Lords had the added bonus of removing too forward-thinking Muggleborns or pureblood families. As time rolled on, he saw the fresh blood as a wonderful addition to their society (which would crumble from inbreeding otherwise), but he disapproved of the plethora of "modern" ideas they brought with them. These "cell phones", "laptops", and "light bulbs" all threatened the sanctity of his immaculate society.
The new reign of terror would ensure these ideas would never come to pass. Too many uppity muggleborns perished before their ideas would come to pass or their ideas would be thoroughly ignored and unfunded and eventually fall through the cracks. After all, they couldn't possibly be so innovative with constant threat over them. It just encouraged them to think more like wizards in terms of spells and wards and ensure their assimilation to the immaculate, Wizarding World.
Plus, within the last century those Dark Lords ensured that practically no one from the muggle world came forward with ideas to taint the wizarding culture. First Grindelwald, then Voldemort. Almost in exact succession. The most recent innovation inspired by muggle culture was that blasted Wizarding Wireless that came about after Grindelwald and between the "lull" period when Voldemort was rising, but when Tom did come into power, nothing new came to be.
And with Harry as his pupil and weapon, he could be seen as the hero once more and take the reins to steer the world back into the state it was always in, especially after Harry died tragically while weakening Tom and then he, the Great Albus Dumbledore, would finish him off for good.
But of course, the Potter boy vanished!
He could guess an approximate day as it woke half the castle in the middle of the night when it occurred and set off the alarms. That much was obvious.
No, the pertinent question was how. How had that blasted boy gotten so far out of his reach? How had he managed to vanish off of the face of the earth? Who were those four figures and what was that strange magic? Where was he hiding and, more importantly, what could be done to wrench the boy back to him?
Tinkering with his tracking devices was ultimately useless. They were tied to Harry Potter through his blood. Any apparation trails or Portkey residue could be followed. If the boy got within five miles of the border, a train, or one of those muggle "air planes", he would be alerted and a global tracking charm would automatically kick in. He guessed that the aforementioned strange magic was the culprit once more in this mysterious disappearing act.
Though, now, each and every one of them was utterly useless from the moment after they stopped working. Even if Harry Potter waltzed right into Hogwarts without him knowing, the sensors wouldn't pick it up anymore.
If he had the boy again, he could collect a blood sample and key them up once more, but now they were just useless desk toys.
Of course, he considered owl messaging, though he didn't have a definite location. His owls were addressed simply to "Harry Potter", but the owls would take the messages, fly in a circle around the castle to get their bearings before returning with a defeated hoot that indicated either the boy was impossibly out of reach for an owl to fly to or, quite possibly, he was hidden behind powerful wards of unknown origin. Most likely from the strange magic that caused the portal.
Though, he was happy to find that a few interesting spells he'd picked up (somewhat less-than-legal, but nobody needed to know that) had caused the owls to get further out and more towards a direct location than before. Though, a majority of the owls he sent never returned. Scrying spells indicated they had perished horrifically. Even sending more ludicrous and unorthodox creatures with mail had little to no effect.
He needed to wrench control back from blind chance. He'd already obliviated a few muggle guards and police around Surrey and managed to get the Dursley family together.
A few potions from Severus and he'd regrown their curiously missing organs and a bit of light obliviation and memory-modification ensured they would not remember the ordeal that resulted in the boy vanishing. He'd taken out some money from the Potter Vaults to fully rebuild #4 as close as he could. He transfigured anything that was missing from some chunks of charred wood from the original structure, right down to the outrageous amount of frivolous toys their child had.
Everything was set to send Harry back to the Dursleys and the plan could resume (with some memory charms on Harry as well), but the only question was where was he?!
He got up, creaking from his chair and strode over to the window once more. He peered out into the darkness as though it would locate the boy, but the only living things for miles around were the merpeople, squid and grindylows all frozen beneath the ice.
His only solace was that the lone device on a pedestal in the center of the room released small puffs of smoke and told him the boy was, indeed, alive.
His brilliant mind decided the only foolproof solution would be to wait. The Official Hogwarts Letters had ancient magic associated with them. They could pass through any ward, mail redirect, or even solid walls if necessary.
Oh, he still planned to send a few letters, try a few charms, anything to lessen the wait, but the Hogwarts Letter was an inevitability that would work no matter what happened.
Harry would come here, to Hogwarts. From there, Dumbledore would gain control over him from whoever took him and keep the boy under his thumb. He would be sent back to his abusive relatives to crush any free spirit he acquired in the time gone, then he would be led through his Hogwarts career as the sacrificial lamb before meeting his ultimate fate at the hands of Voldemort.
Yes, it would be tedious and painstaking, especially once the boy reaches 11. A young child is much easier to manipulate. However, he was confident his work would bear fruit. He just needed to be patient.
His perfect weapon would come to him eventually.
His low chuckle traveled into the dark evening, echoing into the icy wasteland as the lone candle stood in the darkness, a lone window illuminated in the cold, dark, empty castle.
Disclaimers: I don't own Harry Potter and pretty much all Creepypastas mentioned before now.
The song Jeff sings doesn't exist... that I know of, at least. I literally just typed up a few angsty things to say and extended it to a scream metal format.
Thank you unknownwolf1996 for your suggestion to incorporate BRVR. I really enjoy the concept and I hope you do too!
Note: "The Anarchist Cookbook" is a heavily controversial and (in some states/regions) illegal text. I am not responsible in any way for anyone purchasing, using, or screwing up with the contents of the book. I also do not condone harm caused to others accidentally or (especially) intentionally by using this text. I heard about this from a funny RoosterTeeth animated and thought it'd be the kind of thing Toby would give. Remember, Creativity, not Reality.
-BRVR: "Pokemon Dead Channel" by WarriorKloneomon
-Mr. Torrance: "The Shining" by Stephen King; book and movie
-Ash Ketchum Hat: "Pokemon"; anime
-"Trainer-Bot" was inspired by Wreck-It Ralph's first-person-shooter-bot from Hero's Duty