After the Dawn

Chapter Eight: Christmas

Harry was sitting in the split position, legs stretched out to either side of him in a straight line, his elbows resting on the floor in front of him as he nursed his sore mouth.

 One of his teeth was wobbly and it ached like hell. The splits position was a little uncomfortable, but he was trying to forget about the pain in his mouth, and to stop wobbling the tooth.

 "What a way to be spending Christmas," Harry spoke aloud, though he was addressing no one.

 "Hey, it's not that bad," Sirius settled in front of his godson, wincing when he saw the position that the boy was in. Harry had a very limber body.

 "Yes it is. You wouldn't remember, you're an old fart now," Harry replied impudently, but he smiled as he said it.

 "Hey! I resent that!" Sirius replied, but his eyes laughed. "If you're going to be like that, I won't help you."

 "You can help?" Harry sat upright, an eager look on his face.

 "Yes, but I don't know if I should, now …" Sirius teased.

 "If you don't, I'll tell the house elves to only give you porridge for meals," Harry threatened, knowing full well that Sirius despised porridge.

 "Ok, ok, I'll help. But that was hitting way below the belt," Sirius said. "Open your mouth. The easiest way of doing this is to simply remove the tooth, since it'll fall out anyway."

 Harry gave Sirius a stern look. "If this hurts, the threat still stands," he said, opening his mouth.

 Sirius just grinned at him. "That's one threat that I don't want being carried out, and will therefore behave myself. He sent a spell into Harry's mouth.

 Harry felt it touching about all of teeth, testing them. Suddenly, something happened, it hurt, but not badly, and it wasn't so much pain as the act of scratching an itch.

 Suddenly two teeth were lying in Harry's hand. "Two?" he asked. "I only felt one of them."

 "Then the other must have been only just coming loose," Sirius replied shrugging slightly. "Come on, lunch time, then we have to do some more magic practice."

 Harry groaned. Magic practice had fast become a chore, as he had to do the same thing over and over, and was never allowed to practice for long, lest he wear himself out completely again, like he had the first time.

 After lunch, he and Sirius walked into the living room. Sirius thought for a moment, then nodded to the fire place. "Make a fire there," he told his godson.

 Harry concentrated, picturing the fire in his mind. He could pin point the exact second that the fire turned from a mind image to reality, and when he opened his eyes, there was a fire crackling merrily in the gate.

 "Put it out," Sirius told him. Harry rolled his eyes and did so.

 "Well done. Are you tired?" Sirius asked, concerned.

 "No Sirius, not yet," Harry replied.

 "Then I want to try something else. I want you to try and turn this," he placed an orange on the table, "into a lemon."

 Harry gave Sirius a look. "How am I supposed to do that?" he asked.

 "It's transfiguration. You'll learn it at Hogwarts, so you may as well practice now. Orange to lemon is an easy one, because they are both in the same family of fruit," Sirius replied.

 "Ok," Harry said, looking at the orange, then closing his eyes and picturing it in his mind, then picturing a lemon next to it. Then, still within his mind, he moved the images so that they were over each other, the lemon obscuring the orange from view.

 He felt the change into the physical dimension, and opened his eyes to see a lemon on the table. "Well done. You rest, and I'll see if this is really a lemon."

 Harry was about to ask what Sirius meant, but his godfather changed for and disappeared out the door. Harry let his eyes drift closed, and was immediately over taken by sleep.

 "Wake up kiddo," Sirius's voice came to him a moment later. "No time for sleeping now!"

 Harry opened his eyes tiredly. He hadn't realised how tired he had become after using his magic. "Did I do it right?" he asked.

Sirius took out a sharp looking knife and sliced through the lemon, touching the fleshy inside of the fruit with a finger tip, then raising it to his lips to lick it thoughtfully.

 He made a face. "It's lemon alright. When I first did that spell – when most people first do that spell – they only change the outside of the fruit, and the inside remains the same," Sirius explained.

 "Oh," Harry replied sleepily, not really taking on what Sirius was saying.

 Sirius hit himself lightly on the forehead. "You're too tired to listen to me, aren't you mate?" he addressed Harry, but then realised that the boy had drifted off again already. "At least you weren't knocked out that time," the man reflected, lifting his godson easily into his arms and carrying Harry back to his own room.

 He left the boy, curled up asleep on the bed. In four days, it would be Christmas, and Sirius wanted to make it a good one. He called the house elves to him quietly, so as not to disturb his godson.

 "Can you decorate this place?" he asked. "A Christmas theme?"

 "We is doing this easily, Master Black," they told him, as always happy to be of service. "We is only asking that you is keeping out of our way, if this is not to bold. We is needing time and no distractions to do what Master Black wants."
 "Of course," he replied. "Do what you can."

 "Nelly is still making dinner," one of the elves squeaked. "So Master Black is not needing to do this. We is not think that Master Black should be cooking, Sir."

 "That's ok, I'm a hopeless cook. When you get the chance, take a look on Harry please. I'm going out to find some more presents."

 "We is taking good care of the Master!" The elves replied, as they cracked off to take care of their tasks.

 Sirius disguised himself with a few well placed spells and slipped from the house on silent feet, changing form to a dog and hurrying past the Aparation border.

 While inside the Potter Mansion, the weather had been sunny and bright, as it most often was. The weather changed on patterns that Sirius could not discern, though he knew that Harry's mood had something to do with it.

 Outside the gate to the mansion, everything was different. The mansion was set on an island in the middle of the ocean, out of sight of the land… Not that anyone could have found it anyway.

 The place had a load of powerful Muggle repelling charms placed on it, more so than any other place, bar perhaps the magical schools. He knew that if even wizards who were not invited, or told the location of the house, would see it only as a godforsaken looking island out in the middle of no where.

 Today, the wind was whipping the see into a frenzy, white topped waves lifted, trying to reach the sky, then crashing down to the rocks in high bad temper as their goal remained unachieved.

 Fine spray, driven by the wind, touched the fur of Sirius's dog form, though he stood some seventy feet above the oceans surface, looking down at the sea from a thin, treacherous pathway hewn into the rocks.

 He was glad that the closed gate prevented Harry from being able to come out here – it would be suicide for a young, inquisitive boy to venture along these cliffs alone.

 Sirius felt quite odd, standing, back paws resting the sunlight, with a gentle breeze stirring his fur, to either side of him rising huge, white stone walls, and over him, a tall, arched gateway with beautifully crafted wrought iron gates, and his face and front paws in this gale force wind, lashed by the spray of the sea.

 Stepping fully outside of the gate, Sirius disappeared with a crack, reappearing a moment later in the back yard of the Leaky Cauldron, and slipping into Diagon Alley, feeling very self conscious amid all these smiling, happy people, drunk with the cheerful atmosphere that was Christmas…

…And all of whom would attack him and hand him over to the Ministry in a second if they realised who he really was.

 He wandered into the Apothecary, looking for a few potions ingredients that he was running low on – he thought he may as well get them himself, since he was here – and received quite a shock when he noticed that Severus Snape was in the shop as well.

 Sirius's eyes narrowed in intense dislike. Even though he knew that the other man was a spy of Dumbledore's within the Death Eater ranks, he could never like him.

 He forced himself to walk down a different isle, and hoped that by the time he'd found the ingredients that he wanted, Snape – Snivellus – would be gone from the shop.

 He wandered at random, waiting until he heard Snivellus leaving the store, but he picked up on the last few lines that the Snivellus said the shop assistant. "I know they are odd ingredients to request, but the Potions Master of Hogwarts on occasion must make odd potions."

 So, Snivellus was working in Hogwarts. Sirius immediately started having second thoughts about sending Harry there when the time came for the boy to go to school.

 Purchasing his potions ingredients, Sirius walked out, and headed for Flourish and Blotts. He had a lot of resources in the Potter libraries (there were two) but he wanted to make sure that no new books about Wandless magic had been written in the last few years, because the libraries wouldn't have them.

 "What books do you have on Wandless magic?" Sirius asked the shop assistant when the man asked if he could help.

 "You'll need the manager for that Sir – it's not a topic that much is known about," the young man said important. "Wait a moment, I'll be getting him now."

 A few seconds later a tall, balding man with lively blue eyes appeared, along with the younger assistant. "Duncan Blotts," the man introduced himself. "What is it I can help you with?"

 "I'm looking for books on Wandless magic," Sirius replied. "I've found a small collection in my attic, and they got me interested."

 "Well, it's not a very well known subject, and since its so difficult to get information on, the books I can offer you are few. But, if you'll come this way, we keep them out the back," the man led the way, and Sirius followed warily.

 "Here you are Sir," the man said, gesturing a dismally small pile of books. There only about ten books there, and Sirius immediately noted that there were some books in the Potter library that weren't included here.

 There was, however, one addition to the pile which he hadn't seen before. "I haven't seen that one," he remarked, picking it up. "What's it cost?"

 "Fifty galleons. It's a bit of a collectors item," Blotts said. "One of the main reasons we still have this copy in, it's so expensive, and no one really wants it."

 "I'll take it anyway. I told you, I'm hooked on this," Sirius replied. Blotts looked more than a little ecstatic about this.

 "Will you really? It was a bit of a mistake buying them, I think. We only got three copies, and they've been in the store for seven years now!"

 "Aren't you supposed to be convincing me that I want to buy this?" Sirius teased, and the man stopped talking with a slight grin.

 "So I am. But I do prefer to stick to the truth," Blotts replied. Sirius handed over the fifty galleons and headed from the store, doing a little more shopping around, before Aparating to Hogsmeade.

 Laden with things, Sirius Aparated back to the Potter house, giving everything to Kiby, who came to greet him and hide everything from Harry's prying eyes.

 "Master Black! Wait until you is seeing the house!" the elf squeaked happily. "We is getting our job done, Sir! We is dong well, Kiby is thinking."

 "I'm sure you're doing great," Sirius replied warmly. He had become good friends with the house elves in the Potter Mansion, since he had had few others to talk to through the years of Harry's infancy.

 "Master Black is being very kind to be saying so, Sir," the elf said, dancing around happily. She had taken everything up to the castle in one quick pop, and had then returned to accompany Sirius up to the castle.

 When they reached the front doors, Harry was just charging outside, heading for the broom shed, black hair flying in the wind, green eyes, behind his glasses, sparkling with renewed vigour.
 "You awake again?" Sirius teased, swinging the six year old up into his arms. "You're getting a bit big to be doing this to."

 "I'm awake," Harry giggled. "Put me down then! I wanna go and fly!"

 Sirius laughed heartily. "Well, I might fancy a bit of flying myself. Want some company?"

 "Sure," Harry shrugged in reply. "Always fun with someone else!"

 Sirius laughed and they headed off across the grounds to where their broomsticks were waiting for them. Lub appeared suddenly, offering a small parcel to Harry, who took it eagerly. "Thank you Lub," he said dutifully.

 "Master is being welcome," the elf replied, before disappearing.

 "He's in a hurry," Sirius remarked.

 "They're still decorating," Harry explained calmly. "It looks pretty inside. You'll like it. But we have to stay out of their way while they're decorating."

 "Of course," Sirius agreed, waiting while Harry opened the little parcel and took out the Snitch. It had been James's once, and the lettering JP *love heart* LE was still engraved on the bottom of it.

 "Let it go and we'll see who can get it first after letting it go for two minutes," Sirius offered.

 Harry nodded and released the ball. "Daddy really loved mummy, didn't he? He wrote it on a Snitch, after all."

 "Yes, James loved Lily with all his heart, and she loved him as much," Sirius replied, watching as Harry kept track of the time with his watch.

 "Did you love someone?" the boy asked interestedly. "As much as mummy and daddy loved each other?"

 "There was never anyone really special in my life," Sirius replied slowly. "I couldn't keep up a relationship and I never found a person I could really love. I liked a girls company, and could love her for a few days, a week … But never like Lily and James loved each other. James was the same as me at first, but then he found Lily."

 "Two minutes," Harry said, swinging onto his broom. Sirius copied, glad of the interruption, he didn't think it was quite what he should be telling a six year old about.

 Half an hour later, they both trooped up to the Mansion, Sirius worn out, and Harry slightly less awake than before, happily parading with the Snitch in his hand.

 Sirius was very proud of his godson, he had not needed to go slowly, or purposely avoid the snitch for some time now. Harry was certainly a better Seeker than Sirius was.

 Walking into the Mansion, Sirius nearly fell of backwards, he came to a stop that fast. "Wow," he breathed.

 The entire entrance way was frozen, a thin layer of unbreakable ice lined the walls, floor, even the ceiling, cold steam rose of it, but the room temperature remained at a comfortable degree.

 Coming down from the roof were stalactites of ice, gigantic and almost fearsome – Sirius was very glad that it was impossible for one of those things to fall.

 All the statues had been coated in ice, though the ones that could move still did so. A few more statues, made solely of ice, were scattered around the place.

 Wandering through the rooms were glowing fairy lights, which were real fairies, and little bits of holly and mistletoe. Tinsel, mainly silver, was hung artfully in various places.

 Walking through more rooms, they found that everything seemed pretty much the same as the entrance. In one room where there was a fire going, Harry and Sirius smiled to see that the fire – though a pale, icy blue looking colour – gave off warmth.

 "Is the decorations being pleasing to the masters?" Seven anxious house elves appeared in pops around them.

 "It's brilliant, you did a wonderful job!" Sirius exclaimed in delight, with Harry echoing his praises.

 "We is only doing our jobs," they muttered, embarrassed by the praise, then disappeared, presumably to finish on some of the rooms that weren't quite done yet.

 "It's Christmas!" Harry grinned up at his godfather. "Now it looks like Christmas!"

 "It looks like Christmas outside of the Mansion too, now we just need it to snow here," Sirius agreed.

 Next morning, they woke to a ground covered in a gentle, powdering snow, and soft snow flakes drifting down from low hanging storm clouds.

 "Now it's really Christmas!" Harry said excitedly, and Sirius laughed.

 On Christmas morning, Sirius was awake early, but, knowing what Christmas was like for younger children, he lay, pretending to sleep.

 Sure enough, only a few minutes later, Harry came bounding into the room and up onto Sirius's bed, shaking his godfather happily. "Sirius, Sirius! Wake up! Santa came!" he shrieked happily.

 Happy cries soon turned to laughter as Sirius 'woke up' and started tickling his godson. "Stop that!" Harry gasped between giggles. "We have to go and open presents now!"

 Sirius laughed and let the boy go. "You go ahead, I'll be along in a few minutes," he replied.

 Harry, needing no second bidding, shot off across the ice covered floors, keeping easily upright, since the ice had grip on it, just too make sure that Harry didn't hurt himself.

 "Presents!" Sirius heard his hyperactive godson yelling at the top of his voice for some time. Sirius quickly got to his feet and dressed, hurrying after Harry.

 He'd asked the house elves to put his name on some of the presents, things that he'd bought for himself because he needed them, just to make the Christmas seem more fun and realistic. He just wished that there was someone else, as well as Harry, to celebrate Christmas with.

 Oh well, at least he had Harry. That was the main thing.

 In the big entertaining room, Sirius found Harry easily. There was a huge tree, which appeared to be growing out of the centre of the floor, decorated to the max, its bows beginning to droop slightly, despite the house elves spells to keep it upright and perfect.

 Beneath the tree presents were piled at jaunty angles, wrapped in pretty, colourful paper. Harry was sitting on the floor, gazing happily up at the tree.

 Sirius walked up behind him. "Instead of gazing at the tree, why don't you go and find a present for both of us to open?" He told his godson with a smile.

 Harry whooped aloud and charged forwards, quickly finding a present for himself and Sirius, though he struggled slightly under the weight of the two biggest presents he'd been able to see.

 Sirius was about to step forwards and help the boy, but, suddenly, one of the presents drifted upwards slightly so that it hovered at Harry's shoulder.
 "I'm getting better at this," Harry said proudly. "I'm good at making things float." With a wave of his hand, he sent the present over to land next to Sirius.

 "Don't do that too often," Sirius warned. "You don't want to be sleeping through Christmas day, do you?"

 "Of course not! But lifting things isn't as tiring as anything else," Harry replied calmly, tearing into the paper that wrapped his present. When he managed to get the paper off, he gave a yell of delight and grinned at Sirius.

 "Look! Santa knew I wanted a model Quidditch set!" he cried, pointing excitedly.

 "Of course he did Harry! Santa knows everything," Sirius replied with a smile, opening his own present in much the same manner as Harry had. "See, I told you! Who else would know that I wanted a new cauldron?"

 Excitedly, the pair of them went through the pile of presents, Harry smiling so widely that Sirius was afraid his face was going to slip in two.

 Around Harry, the pile of opened presents grew higher, with a Quaffle, the model Quidditch set, Quidditch gloves, story books and books of magic stacked haphazardly together in one big mess.

 Finally, the presents were done, it had taken some two or three hours. "Come on kid, time to eat something, then you can play with your new things," Sirius told Harry, before the boy could go rushing outside.

 The pair of them spent the Christmas in a state of high good cheer, Sirius transfiguring a set of ice skates for each of them from normal shoes, and racing his godson along the halls.

 The house elves made wonderful food for the day, more extravagant than usual, though the fare was never less than perfect. Harry and Sirius both had the times of their lives.

***

Hey there, sorry about lack of updates – I'm reinstalling my operating system, and don't have as much access to computers/internet as I usually do. Thanks to all who reviewed – individual thanks are on the next page! I have now got 365 reviews now, and I'll try and update sometime after I get to 410, another 45 reviews from now. See you all then!