Harry Potter and the Curse of the Gypsy
Author's Note: Thank you for the reviews! I hope you like the story, it hit a snag and slowed down for awhile but now it's right back on track! I hope you like it, and be sure to review, read my other works, and please e- mail me at megx87@yahoo.com with any questions, comments, requests to read your masterpiece, or whatever. I'd love to hear from you!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I own only Cory Johnson and the plot. Bah.
Chapter Twenty-One
"Oh, Harry! Please promise me you'll stay safe while we're gone!" Hermione threw her arms around her, making him stumble back. He turned bright red and patted her awkwardly on the back as she pulled away.
"Okay...I'll write so you know for sure I'm not dead or something." Ron hooted with laughter and Hermione got a stern look on her face.
"That's not something to joke about, Harry." She said crossly. "I'm worried that's all."
"Well...thanks." he said. "And I will write...you too, Ron." Ron grinned at Harry from the window of the train.
"Yeah, of course. And mum will send her usual sweater. I'll make sure it isn't pink or something."
"Oh, that's all right." A voice said from behind. Cory walked up, her bag slung over her shoulder. "Harry loves pink." Harry grinned at Cory.
"Yeah, of course. It makes me feel pretty."
"You don't have to feel pretty, you already are." Ron and Hermione made twin sounds of exaggerated disgust as Cory leaned over to kiss Harry softly on the cheek.
"Get a room, already." Hooted Neville. Harry shook his head and pointed a finger at Neville.
"We have to keep an eye on you, laddie." He said stiffly. "You seem to think you're allowed to joke, now. Such a pity, really." He shook his head, unable to hide his grin.
Everybody looked up as the train whistle blew. Hermione got on the train, reappearing at Ron's side. "Cory, come on, you can't miss the train!" she called, smiling.
Cory turned to Harry. "I'll miss you." She said. "It's going to be so boring where I'm going. Promise you'll have some adventure waiting when I get back." She smirked.
"Don't worry...this is Harry Potter you're talking to." He grinned back. She looked at him for a moment and, without warning, leaned forward to plant a very big and very noisy kiss right on his lips, with everybody watching. Harry lurched forward when he felt somebody slap him on the back.
"Good show, mate." Said George, nodding.
"You kids be careful, now. We don't need any little Harry's running around here..."
"FRED!" Cory looked at Fred, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Sorry." He grinned, not looking sorry at all, as he boarded the train with his brother. Cory turned to Harry and smiled. "I'll miss you!" she called as she gave him a final kiss and scampered up the walk onto the train. She leaned out the window and waved as the train lurched away, Harry waving back. She had no sooner gone out of sight than he heard a familiar and welcome voice.
"You did well Harry." Harry turned. Remus was standing there, grinning. Harry felt himself go red.
"I...well..."
"Don't worry about it." Remus said. "Come on...the shack is ready." They walked back through town to the shrieking shack.
"Erm...how do you propose we get in?" Harry asked as he looked at the shack...the Weasleys, he knew, had tried numerous times to enter this place and had failed successively.
"Simple...just use the door." Harry looked up at Remus questioningly.
"What door?"
"This one." Remus reached out with his wand and pointed it at the house. Suddenly, a mat of vines sprung apart, revealing what seemed to be a plain wall. However, after a moment the boards started to shiver and suddenly jumped apart, revealing a common-sized doorway. Remus motioned Harry in.
He looked around as he entered...it certainly had been cleaned up since the last time he had been inside. The ripped and torn furniture had been replaced, and the claw marks on the walls had been repaired and painted over in a pleasant shade of blue. "It...looks nice." Harry said, running a hand over a handsome mahogany shelf.
"Doesn't it though?" Harry grinned as his godfather stood up out of a plush leather chair nestled in the corner. A warm fire was burning in a fireplace Harry had reason to believe had only recently been installed, and a tree was twinkling merrily in the corner, with several shiny presents already underneath. The stairs that led to the second floor were lit by torch. He glimpsed his trunk through the open doorway.
"Welcome home, Harry." Remus grinned.
************************************************************************
"I don't feel like cooking tonight." Remus said, glancing over his newspaper. "Sirius?"
Sirius glanced up from the game of exploding snap he was currently involved in with Harry. He shook his head. "No. Absolutely not. I'd burn down the house."
"I'll cook." Harry said absently. They both turned and he shrugged. "I used to do it all the time with the Dursleys."
Harry had been at the Shrieking Shack for three days now, and he wasn't hesitant to admit that so far, it had been the best three days of his life. "So...what can you fix?"
"You bought some bread at the market, didn't you?" Harry asked. "And some meat? I can fry up a few cheeseburgers, I used to have to make them by the dozens for that fat pig cousin of mine."
"You'll still have to make them by the dozens." Remus called. "Sirius eats like a pig."
"Hey, pigs have good eating habits." Sirius snorted. "And I can't help it if I have a healthy appetite." Harry grinned...a voracious appetite was more like it. He had quickly learned that it wasn't only the absence of food in Azkaban that had made Sirius such an avid eater when Harry had brought him food before...Sirius was simply fond of food, to say the least.
"Okay...I'll get started after I finish this game." They played the last round...Sirius won, as the pack blew up in Harry's face. Stretching, he got to his feet and padded into the kitchen, getting the ingredients out of the coldbox. This was something like a muggle refrigerator, except it was the size of a toaster. One had only to open the door...whatever they wanted would be right there, so long as they had remembered to buy it.
After a while, the scent of frying burgers filled the shack. Harry busied himself with the buns and vegetables, and slathered on a goodly amount of ketchup and mustard...Dudley had always hogged these, and Harry had had more than his share of dry, untasty hamburgers.
When they were ready he laid them out on the table. He had fried up a large batch of french fries, though he had never made them before. To his surprise, they turned out quite good. Grinning, he called out. "Dinner!"
In a moment Sirius and Remus had wandered into the kitchen. Sirius looked down at the table and then at Harry. Suddenly he threw his arms around his godson and pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. "Bless you, Harry!" He said, clapping Harry on the back. "Remus isn't exactly the best cook in the world, if you catch my drift." He mumbled under his breath.
"I heard that." Remus snorted. "I can't help it...I'm an intellectual, not a short-order chef."
"A what?"
"Muggle thing." Harry said. Sirius shook his head.
"Whatever you say, kid." They all sat down to eat. Harry took a large bite of his burger. He didn't know whether it was having nothing but the formal things the house-elves always made, or putting up with Remus' cooking for the past few days, but they were the best burgers he had ever tasted.
"That settles it." Said Sirius, leaning back. "You're the chef from now on."
************************************************************************
Harry squinted open one eye, and then the other. It took him a long moment before he saw where he was...lying sprawled out on the sofa, Sirius on the floor near him, snoring, and Remus cozied up in an overstuffed chair with a book on Fire monsters. He yawned as he sat up. The night had been quite the entertaining one...Sirius had explained his Christmas Eve tradition, which consisted mainly of hot apple cider and pranking the first person to fall asleep.
Because of this, Remus sported a full head of green hair and his robes had been changed quite the unflattering pink.
With another yawn, wider than the first, he glanced over at the Christmas tree. Besides the ones that had been there since he first arrived and which Sirius and Remus had consistently had to stop Harry from opening to satisfy his curiosity, even more presents were piled up beneath its branches. It was the biggest turnout of gifts Harry had ever seen for him...on either side were two smaller piles, one labeled for Remus and the other for Sirius.
"Hey...wake up." Harry muttered, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Not now...the pigs are coming..." Sirius muttered. Harry stared at him for a moment, trying to decide if he was going to laugh or not.
"Wake up. It's Christmas morning." Harry said again. Resignedly, Sirius opened his eyes and looked up at Harry, who was leaning over him from his seat on the couch.
"It's too early to be so cheerful." He said, closing his eyes. "Wake me, I don't know, around three."
"Okay. But I'm opening my presents now." Harry said as he stood and walked over to the tree. Sirius shook his head and sat up.
"Oh, the wonders of youth. Don't you hate that, Moony?"
"Shut up Padfoot." Both Harry and Sirius glanced over at Remus, who was half-awake and leaning back.
"He's very hard to wake up." Sirius said.
"I know." Harry said. "He slept throughout the entire train ride from Nine and Three-Quarters in third year. Didn't wake up till the dementor..." Harry stopped, unwilling to discuss those particular monsters with Sirius.
"Ah, of course. Moony used to require the combined efforts of all of us to wake up." Sirius said. Harry had noticed that, since the three had fallen into routine, Remus and Sirius had resorted to the nicknames they had used when writing the infamous Marauder's Map. This only served to make him more welcome, though he felt bad that he couldn't be an Animagus also...he couldn't imagine what kind of animal he would be.
"Come on, Remus." Harry said. "Are you waking up or not?"
Remus shook his head and stretched. "Yes, yes, of course. Just give me a minute...open Sirius' present first, give me time to recover."
Shrugging, Harry picked up a large present addressed to him from Sirius. He pulled open the silver wrapping to reveal a large leather-bound book with the words, "Quidditch Techniques, by Harry Potter." Glancing over at Sirius, he opened the book to find numerous blank pages.
"It's for any new plays you come up with." Sirius said. "Thought I'd give you something Quidditch since your seasons been canceled. When you do it according to the directions, the people move. Hermione can help you figure it out."
"Thanks!" Harry said, though he felt a stab of regret that he couldn't use the book this year.
"Now, for Remus' present!" Harry said eagerly. He pulled another package towards him. Remus, now mostly awake, grinned from his seat. Harry grinned back---Remus still hadn't noticed the green hair. He ripped open the paper to reveal a pair of handsome dragon-hide gloves that would fit perfectly under his gauntlets...a welcome gift, as Hagrid had casually mentioned that in the following weeks the Chimera would be getting more active, since the colder weather meant it would need to 'warm itself up'.
He put them aside on top of Sirius' gift and picked up Ron's mother's gift. The lumpy package was obviously another Weasley sweater---Mrs. Weasley was very regular in sending him one every year, even counting the first year when he hadn't known her at all. He tore open the parcel to find a black sweater with a Gryffindor lion on the chest. Of course, to Harry, this now had greater significance...but only he and Dumbledore knew that.
Hermione has sent him a book on advanced shield charms since, to both his and her pleasant surprise, he appeared to be one of the best students in class, besides Hermione herself, in dealing with these types of defenses. It was Hermione's opinion that Harry's success with the Patronus had made him more adept at such things.
Ron sent Harry a new treat from the company his dad was working for...to Harry's surprise, it was something that looked like a muggle ball-point pen, but when broken open held an unlimited supply of perfectly inked, disposable quills. There was only one minor glitch---many of the pens were in quite the odd colors, such as pink, and a couple only wrote in the color of the paper being written on, which was actually a very large inconvenience.
Cory was a surprise, after all. Used to her nature, Harry only expected some joke, but he was quite confounded to find that she had sent him a large, black amulet. Looking at it for a long moment, he finally placed it next to the one that he had received for his birthday. After that turnout, he only had one gift left...from Neville.
This was a shock, because in the past, he had never been that close to Neville, but after the year's circumstances, he guessed they had grown closer. In fact, Harry had sent Neville a gift, but he hadn't expected one in return.
He opened the small envelope and a single photograph fell into his lap. He glanced at it and felt his stomach turn a brief somersault. It was his own mother and father, standing next to a robust man with long hair pulled at the nape of his neck, and an attractive woman with curly brown hair. In his father's arms, he saw himself, kicking and screaming. Nearby, a boy was sitting in the grass. He was reaching out towards a shining golden orb that darted back and forth...a child sized Golden Snitch.
"Great picture." Sirius said, glancing at it. "I took that about six months after you were born. That's Frank Longbottom and his wife and son...Neville's first birthday."
"That's...that's Neville's mum and dad?" Harry said. Sirius nodded.
"Yeah." Harry looked at it a moment before slipping it between the covers of Sirius' gift. He would put it into his photo album when he was done down here.
"And now..." Harry said finally, "You all get your presents."
Remus looked down at the pile and shook his head. "I haven't gotten a gift in years. Let's see...what's that?" he pointed to another lumpy Weasley package.
"She can't have sent you a sweater, could she have?" Harry said in astonishment. Remus grinned as the package fell open.
"Apparently she can." He held up a large, woolen sweater of dark blue, with the word 'Moony' written on it. A full moon could be seen in the background.
"Me too." Sirius snorted. His was chocolate brown, and said 'Padfoot', with a pawprint behind the words.
Remus and Sirius continued opening their gifts...both had given one another books, (The Curse of the Gypsy for Remus and True Legends: From the Sorcerer's Stone to the Goblet of Fire for Sirius). Harry gave Sirius a large box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and Remus received Chocolate Frogs, a gift that made each of them grin, remembering the large amount of frogs Harry had consumed learning his Patronus.
Even Dumbledore seemed to have gotten in on the merrymaking...he gave Remus and Sirius books on Animagus theory, which was quickly set aside by Sirius and looked at with interest by Remus.
Finally, only one gift was left. "Who sent me this?" Sirius said in wonder as he picked up a long, thin package.
"Doesn't say." Harry said as he looked at it. "Open it, maybe there's a note inside."
With wonder Sirius unwrapped the gift, revealing a wooden box. He unlatched it and flipped it open, quickly paling when he saw what was inside. "Oh, God..." he moaned. He reached in and picked up a long, ebony wand that was slightly worn on the handle.
"So, somebody sent you a new wand?" Harry said, grinning. Sirius shook his head.
"No...somebody sent me my old wand. It was taken from me...when they took me to Azkaban."
Harry and Remus both started and looked at the wand in wonder. "There's a piece of paper, there by your feet." Remus said suddenly. Sirius glanced down and picked it up.
"I think I like your girlfriend." He said in awe as he handed the note to Harry.
Sirius,
I don't know you well but any friend of Harry's is a friend of mine, and besides Fudge isn't the nicest guy and doing this was very entertaining for me. I hope I got the right wand, there were plenty locked up that had been seized, for some reason none of them were ever broken. Don't know why, really, but anyway this one had the initials SB and term listed as Life and as there were none other like that, I figured this must be it and if it isn't you can use it until you get another one.
After all, I can't let Harry run around with you when you're unarmed, can I?
Cory Johnson
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Hiya!
Whoo-hoo, I sure know how to write some surprising twists, don't I? I don't know why, I love writing holiday scenes, they make you feel all warm and fuzzy, although I hate coming up with gifts that people give one another, because often you come up with some corny things. Sirius almost gave Harry a calender of hot Mongolian witches...oh, come now, I'm joking. Maybe. Well, anyway, tell me what you think.
And read my other stories, okay? They are really good and I have worked hard on them and it is my birthday! Shoot...my birthday was over seven minutes ago...oh well...you know what to do.
R & R!!!
Author's Note: Thank you for the reviews! I hope you like the story, it hit a snag and slowed down for awhile but now it's right back on track! I hope you like it, and be sure to review, read my other works, and please e- mail me at megx87@yahoo.com with any questions, comments, requests to read your masterpiece, or whatever. I'd love to hear from you!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. I own only Cory Johnson and the plot. Bah.
Chapter Twenty-One
"Oh, Harry! Please promise me you'll stay safe while we're gone!" Hermione threw her arms around her, making him stumble back. He turned bright red and patted her awkwardly on the back as she pulled away.
"Okay...I'll write so you know for sure I'm not dead or something." Ron hooted with laughter and Hermione got a stern look on her face.
"That's not something to joke about, Harry." She said crossly. "I'm worried that's all."
"Well...thanks." he said. "And I will write...you too, Ron." Ron grinned at Harry from the window of the train.
"Yeah, of course. And mum will send her usual sweater. I'll make sure it isn't pink or something."
"Oh, that's all right." A voice said from behind. Cory walked up, her bag slung over her shoulder. "Harry loves pink." Harry grinned at Cory.
"Yeah, of course. It makes me feel pretty."
"You don't have to feel pretty, you already are." Ron and Hermione made twin sounds of exaggerated disgust as Cory leaned over to kiss Harry softly on the cheek.
"Get a room, already." Hooted Neville. Harry shook his head and pointed a finger at Neville.
"We have to keep an eye on you, laddie." He said stiffly. "You seem to think you're allowed to joke, now. Such a pity, really." He shook his head, unable to hide his grin.
Everybody looked up as the train whistle blew. Hermione got on the train, reappearing at Ron's side. "Cory, come on, you can't miss the train!" she called, smiling.
Cory turned to Harry. "I'll miss you." She said. "It's going to be so boring where I'm going. Promise you'll have some adventure waiting when I get back." She smirked.
"Don't worry...this is Harry Potter you're talking to." He grinned back. She looked at him for a moment and, without warning, leaned forward to plant a very big and very noisy kiss right on his lips, with everybody watching. Harry lurched forward when he felt somebody slap him on the back.
"Good show, mate." Said George, nodding.
"You kids be careful, now. We don't need any little Harry's running around here..."
"FRED!" Cory looked at Fred, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Sorry." He grinned, not looking sorry at all, as he boarded the train with his brother. Cory turned to Harry and smiled. "I'll miss you!" she called as she gave him a final kiss and scampered up the walk onto the train. She leaned out the window and waved as the train lurched away, Harry waving back. She had no sooner gone out of sight than he heard a familiar and welcome voice.
"You did well Harry." Harry turned. Remus was standing there, grinning. Harry felt himself go red.
"I...well..."
"Don't worry about it." Remus said. "Come on...the shack is ready." They walked back through town to the shrieking shack.
"Erm...how do you propose we get in?" Harry asked as he looked at the shack...the Weasleys, he knew, had tried numerous times to enter this place and had failed successively.
"Simple...just use the door." Harry looked up at Remus questioningly.
"What door?"
"This one." Remus reached out with his wand and pointed it at the house. Suddenly, a mat of vines sprung apart, revealing what seemed to be a plain wall. However, after a moment the boards started to shiver and suddenly jumped apart, revealing a common-sized doorway. Remus motioned Harry in.
He looked around as he entered...it certainly had been cleaned up since the last time he had been inside. The ripped and torn furniture had been replaced, and the claw marks on the walls had been repaired and painted over in a pleasant shade of blue. "It...looks nice." Harry said, running a hand over a handsome mahogany shelf.
"Doesn't it though?" Harry grinned as his godfather stood up out of a plush leather chair nestled in the corner. A warm fire was burning in a fireplace Harry had reason to believe had only recently been installed, and a tree was twinkling merrily in the corner, with several shiny presents already underneath. The stairs that led to the second floor were lit by torch. He glimpsed his trunk through the open doorway.
"Welcome home, Harry." Remus grinned.
************************************************************************
"I don't feel like cooking tonight." Remus said, glancing over his newspaper. "Sirius?"
Sirius glanced up from the game of exploding snap he was currently involved in with Harry. He shook his head. "No. Absolutely not. I'd burn down the house."
"I'll cook." Harry said absently. They both turned and he shrugged. "I used to do it all the time with the Dursleys."
Harry had been at the Shrieking Shack for three days now, and he wasn't hesitant to admit that so far, it had been the best three days of his life. "So...what can you fix?"
"You bought some bread at the market, didn't you?" Harry asked. "And some meat? I can fry up a few cheeseburgers, I used to have to make them by the dozens for that fat pig cousin of mine."
"You'll still have to make them by the dozens." Remus called. "Sirius eats like a pig."
"Hey, pigs have good eating habits." Sirius snorted. "And I can't help it if I have a healthy appetite." Harry grinned...a voracious appetite was more like it. He had quickly learned that it wasn't only the absence of food in Azkaban that had made Sirius such an avid eater when Harry had brought him food before...Sirius was simply fond of food, to say the least.
"Okay...I'll get started after I finish this game." They played the last round...Sirius won, as the pack blew up in Harry's face. Stretching, he got to his feet and padded into the kitchen, getting the ingredients out of the coldbox. This was something like a muggle refrigerator, except it was the size of a toaster. One had only to open the door...whatever they wanted would be right there, so long as they had remembered to buy it.
After a while, the scent of frying burgers filled the shack. Harry busied himself with the buns and vegetables, and slathered on a goodly amount of ketchup and mustard...Dudley had always hogged these, and Harry had had more than his share of dry, untasty hamburgers.
When they were ready he laid them out on the table. He had fried up a large batch of french fries, though he had never made them before. To his surprise, they turned out quite good. Grinning, he called out. "Dinner!"
In a moment Sirius and Remus had wandered into the kitchen. Sirius looked down at the table and then at Harry. Suddenly he threw his arms around his godson and pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. "Bless you, Harry!" He said, clapping Harry on the back. "Remus isn't exactly the best cook in the world, if you catch my drift." He mumbled under his breath.
"I heard that." Remus snorted. "I can't help it...I'm an intellectual, not a short-order chef."
"A what?"
"Muggle thing." Harry said. Sirius shook his head.
"Whatever you say, kid." They all sat down to eat. Harry took a large bite of his burger. He didn't know whether it was having nothing but the formal things the house-elves always made, or putting up with Remus' cooking for the past few days, but they were the best burgers he had ever tasted.
"That settles it." Said Sirius, leaning back. "You're the chef from now on."
************************************************************************
Harry squinted open one eye, and then the other. It took him a long moment before he saw where he was...lying sprawled out on the sofa, Sirius on the floor near him, snoring, and Remus cozied up in an overstuffed chair with a book on Fire monsters. He yawned as he sat up. The night had been quite the entertaining one...Sirius had explained his Christmas Eve tradition, which consisted mainly of hot apple cider and pranking the first person to fall asleep.
Because of this, Remus sported a full head of green hair and his robes had been changed quite the unflattering pink.
With another yawn, wider than the first, he glanced over at the Christmas tree. Besides the ones that had been there since he first arrived and which Sirius and Remus had consistently had to stop Harry from opening to satisfy his curiosity, even more presents were piled up beneath its branches. It was the biggest turnout of gifts Harry had ever seen for him...on either side were two smaller piles, one labeled for Remus and the other for Sirius.
"Hey...wake up." Harry muttered, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"Not now...the pigs are coming..." Sirius muttered. Harry stared at him for a moment, trying to decide if he was going to laugh or not.
"Wake up. It's Christmas morning." Harry said again. Resignedly, Sirius opened his eyes and looked up at Harry, who was leaning over him from his seat on the couch.
"It's too early to be so cheerful." He said, closing his eyes. "Wake me, I don't know, around three."
"Okay. But I'm opening my presents now." Harry said as he stood and walked over to the tree. Sirius shook his head and sat up.
"Oh, the wonders of youth. Don't you hate that, Moony?"
"Shut up Padfoot." Both Harry and Sirius glanced over at Remus, who was half-awake and leaning back.
"He's very hard to wake up." Sirius said.
"I know." Harry said. "He slept throughout the entire train ride from Nine and Three-Quarters in third year. Didn't wake up till the dementor..." Harry stopped, unwilling to discuss those particular monsters with Sirius.
"Ah, of course. Moony used to require the combined efforts of all of us to wake up." Sirius said. Harry had noticed that, since the three had fallen into routine, Remus and Sirius had resorted to the nicknames they had used when writing the infamous Marauder's Map. This only served to make him more welcome, though he felt bad that he couldn't be an Animagus also...he couldn't imagine what kind of animal he would be.
"Come on, Remus." Harry said. "Are you waking up or not?"
Remus shook his head and stretched. "Yes, yes, of course. Just give me a minute...open Sirius' present first, give me time to recover."
Shrugging, Harry picked up a large present addressed to him from Sirius. He pulled open the silver wrapping to reveal a large leather-bound book with the words, "Quidditch Techniques, by Harry Potter." Glancing over at Sirius, he opened the book to find numerous blank pages.
"It's for any new plays you come up with." Sirius said. "Thought I'd give you something Quidditch since your seasons been canceled. When you do it according to the directions, the people move. Hermione can help you figure it out."
"Thanks!" Harry said, though he felt a stab of regret that he couldn't use the book this year.
"Now, for Remus' present!" Harry said eagerly. He pulled another package towards him. Remus, now mostly awake, grinned from his seat. Harry grinned back---Remus still hadn't noticed the green hair. He ripped open the paper to reveal a pair of handsome dragon-hide gloves that would fit perfectly under his gauntlets...a welcome gift, as Hagrid had casually mentioned that in the following weeks the Chimera would be getting more active, since the colder weather meant it would need to 'warm itself up'.
He put them aside on top of Sirius' gift and picked up Ron's mother's gift. The lumpy package was obviously another Weasley sweater---Mrs. Weasley was very regular in sending him one every year, even counting the first year when he hadn't known her at all. He tore open the parcel to find a black sweater with a Gryffindor lion on the chest. Of course, to Harry, this now had greater significance...but only he and Dumbledore knew that.
Hermione has sent him a book on advanced shield charms since, to both his and her pleasant surprise, he appeared to be one of the best students in class, besides Hermione herself, in dealing with these types of defenses. It was Hermione's opinion that Harry's success with the Patronus had made him more adept at such things.
Ron sent Harry a new treat from the company his dad was working for...to Harry's surprise, it was something that looked like a muggle ball-point pen, but when broken open held an unlimited supply of perfectly inked, disposable quills. There was only one minor glitch---many of the pens were in quite the odd colors, such as pink, and a couple only wrote in the color of the paper being written on, which was actually a very large inconvenience.
Cory was a surprise, after all. Used to her nature, Harry only expected some joke, but he was quite confounded to find that she had sent him a large, black amulet. Looking at it for a long moment, he finally placed it next to the one that he had received for his birthday. After that turnout, he only had one gift left...from Neville.
This was a shock, because in the past, he had never been that close to Neville, but after the year's circumstances, he guessed they had grown closer. In fact, Harry had sent Neville a gift, but he hadn't expected one in return.
He opened the small envelope and a single photograph fell into his lap. He glanced at it and felt his stomach turn a brief somersault. It was his own mother and father, standing next to a robust man with long hair pulled at the nape of his neck, and an attractive woman with curly brown hair. In his father's arms, he saw himself, kicking and screaming. Nearby, a boy was sitting in the grass. He was reaching out towards a shining golden orb that darted back and forth...a child sized Golden Snitch.
"Great picture." Sirius said, glancing at it. "I took that about six months after you were born. That's Frank Longbottom and his wife and son...Neville's first birthday."
"That's...that's Neville's mum and dad?" Harry said. Sirius nodded.
"Yeah." Harry looked at it a moment before slipping it between the covers of Sirius' gift. He would put it into his photo album when he was done down here.
"And now..." Harry said finally, "You all get your presents."
Remus looked down at the pile and shook his head. "I haven't gotten a gift in years. Let's see...what's that?" he pointed to another lumpy Weasley package.
"She can't have sent you a sweater, could she have?" Harry said in astonishment. Remus grinned as the package fell open.
"Apparently she can." He held up a large, woolen sweater of dark blue, with the word 'Moony' written on it. A full moon could be seen in the background.
"Me too." Sirius snorted. His was chocolate brown, and said 'Padfoot', with a pawprint behind the words.
Remus and Sirius continued opening their gifts...both had given one another books, (The Curse of the Gypsy for Remus and True Legends: From the Sorcerer's Stone to the Goblet of Fire for Sirius). Harry gave Sirius a large box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, and Remus received Chocolate Frogs, a gift that made each of them grin, remembering the large amount of frogs Harry had consumed learning his Patronus.
Even Dumbledore seemed to have gotten in on the merrymaking...he gave Remus and Sirius books on Animagus theory, which was quickly set aside by Sirius and looked at with interest by Remus.
Finally, only one gift was left. "Who sent me this?" Sirius said in wonder as he picked up a long, thin package.
"Doesn't say." Harry said as he looked at it. "Open it, maybe there's a note inside."
With wonder Sirius unwrapped the gift, revealing a wooden box. He unlatched it and flipped it open, quickly paling when he saw what was inside. "Oh, God..." he moaned. He reached in and picked up a long, ebony wand that was slightly worn on the handle.
"So, somebody sent you a new wand?" Harry said, grinning. Sirius shook his head.
"No...somebody sent me my old wand. It was taken from me...when they took me to Azkaban."
Harry and Remus both started and looked at the wand in wonder. "There's a piece of paper, there by your feet." Remus said suddenly. Sirius glanced down and picked it up.
"I think I like your girlfriend." He said in awe as he handed the note to Harry.
Sirius,
I don't know you well but any friend of Harry's is a friend of mine, and besides Fudge isn't the nicest guy and doing this was very entertaining for me. I hope I got the right wand, there were plenty locked up that had been seized, for some reason none of them were ever broken. Don't know why, really, but anyway this one had the initials SB and term listed as Life and as there were none other like that, I figured this must be it and if it isn't you can use it until you get another one.
After all, I can't let Harry run around with you when you're unarmed, can I?
Cory Johnson
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Hiya!
Whoo-hoo, I sure know how to write some surprising twists, don't I? I don't know why, I love writing holiday scenes, they make you feel all warm and fuzzy, although I hate coming up with gifts that people give one another, because often you come up with some corny things. Sirius almost gave Harry a calender of hot Mongolian witches...oh, come now, I'm joking. Maybe. Well, anyway, tell me what you think.
And read my other stories, okay? They are really good and I have worked hard on them and it is my birthday! Shoot...my birthday was over seven minutes ago...oh well...you know what to do.
R & R!!!
