A/Ns at the end of chapter 30, because it worked out so nicely last time.
Disclaimer: See Chapter One.
Part Twenty-Nine: That's Not Your Present!
Snow was falling outside Harry's window when he woke up on Christmas morning. The ground was blanketed in white that fell steady from the pale blue sky. Frost clung to his window, ebbing away from the center of the pane and collecting around the edges. Crawling out of bed, he padded across the cold floor to find a pair of socks stashed somewhere among his piles of robes and muggle clothing that he didn't bother with putting away. Sliding the cotton over his feet, he could instantly feel his body growing warmer, and he gave a slight shiver before standing again.
Harry smiled to himself as he looked across the room to his desk, which upon it sat three gift-wrapped presents. Collecting them in his arms, Harry eased open the door to his bedroom with his hip and nudged it shut with his foot. Making his way toward the stairs, Harry went down to the living room and put his three presents under the tree. There was already a nice sized collection of gifts sitting there, and upon closer inspection, Harry saw that he was the last one to bring gifts down. Draco, Sirius, and Lupin must have all put their gifts under the tree before they went to bed.
Bringing himself to turn from the presents that were so desperately calling his name, Harry headed back for the staircase, waking up his boyfriend and parental figures being the primary thing on his mind. He decided to head for Draco's room first; he figured that Draco would be the one most likely to climb out of bed at Harry's will. If he got the easy one out first, he wouldn't have to force Sirius or Lupin out of bed alone. Neither one, especially Sirius, particularly struck Harry as a morning person.
He nudged open the door and poked his head in to see Draco sprawled across the bed, comforter up to his chin, and snoring lightly. This scenario made Harry smile as he watched Draco shift, a piece of silvery blond hair falling over his closed eyelids and brushing ever so slightly against his cheek. Sneaking in, Harry walked over to the bed and kneeled beside it, staring down to watch Draco sleep. He looked sweet, angelic, and like he was possibly the happiest person in the world. If only that were closer to the truth, Harry thought. Brushing his index finger over the smooth planes of Draco's cheek, he traced his cheekbone to the jawline before ending at the chin.
"Morning," Harry whispered to the still sleeping Draco. Leaning forward, he brushed his lips over Draco's in a fleeting, chaste kiss. Draco's lips slightly parted but his light snores had ceased. Harry rubbed his thumb over the back of Draco's hand as he linked their fingers together and brought them up to kiss each fingertip. "Draco."
His eyelashes fluttered and Draco's eyes slowly opened in one long, beautiful motion to reveal the intense gray that had been hiding. "Hi, Harry."
"Happy Christmas."
"It is Christmas, isn't it?" Harry nodded. "I wish I could wake up like that every morning. It's so much more pleasant than waking alone."
"Or waking to Madam Pomfrey," said Harry, grinning. Draco couldn't even form a reasonable grimace this morning. "From the looks of it, I'd say this just might be a good day. What do you think?"
"I think God owes me a good day. Besides, it's Christmas. Everyone needs to have a good day on Christmas."
"Fair enough. Do you want to go open presents?"
"Can't we just stay here all day?"
"We could, but I'm willing to bet that Sirius would eventually come looking for us, and I was told not to let him catch me with my tongue in your mouth."
"What makes you think your tongue would be in my mouth?"
"If we spent the day in your room, there would be much more of my body parts in you than my tongue."
"Is that a promise?" asked Draco, sitting up in bed. Harry only laughed and cuffed him across the head. "Fine, you. I'm going to get up, but know that you owe me."
"Owe you what? Things other than my tongue protruding into your anatomy?"
"Exactly." Shaking the sheets from his body, Draco climbed out of bed and wandered over to his clothing. He pulled on a pair of sweatpants and his slippers before checking his hair out in the mirror and leaving the room with Harry. "This is so strange. Not at all like the Christmas I'm used to."
"What did you usually do?"
"The house elves would wake me up at the crack of dawn and we'd have a big breakfast in the dining room. Then we'd open presents. Around noon, my grandparents would come in from France and our other relatives would start to arrive, all from my mother's side, mind you. Dinner was a big deal because the entire family would be there. My Aunt Livia always came in from Greece as well. She's my father's sister and she absolutely adores me. If you think my parents spoiled me rotten, you should see what happens when my Aunt Livia comes around. She's the one who got me my Firebolt in the fifth year."
"The Dursleys told me to watch breakfast while Dudley opened his presents. Sometimes I got presents. One year, I got a coat hanger."
"You must have been terribly excited."
"I was. I got out of my cupboard, didn't I?"
"Forget the restriction on underage wizards. If I had to go back there after spending a year at Hogwarts and they still treated me like that, I'd have hexed them."
"Don't think it didn't cross my mind."
"I'm sure it did."
Harry knocked lightly and gently pushed open the door to Sirius's room. Poking his head in, Harry saw that the blankets were strewn around the room but the bed was already empty. "He's not in there," said Harry, closing the door. "Let's check Lupin's room and if they're both not in their rooms, we should check the kitchen."
"The kitchen?"
"It's an easy rule of thumb. If you can't find Sirius, check where there's food."
"Sounds good enough. Anyway, if that's what went on with those muggles, it's no wonder you stayed at Hogwarts over the holidays. That must have been much nicer than going back to that."
"It was, but you've been there twice. Second and fourth year, if I remember correctly."
"Fourth year was because of the Yule Ball. Everyone stayed that year. As for the second year, father insisted that I stay at school. Something about being busy with work and he couldn't be bothered with me. A few years later, I found out that it was because he was busy monitoring his Chamber of Secrets ordeal."
"Oh, yeah. That."
"Yeah." Knocking as gently as he did on Sirius's door, Harry opened Lupin's only to find his bed empty and room deserted as well. "Is he there?"
"Lupin and Sirius have gone missing in action. Let's hunt them down. To the kitchen!"
"Yes, sir."
Harry shot Draco a grin as they made their way to the staircase. Once on the first floor, they approached the kitchen but just before going through, Harry held up a hand to stop Draco. The voices of Sirius and Lupin could clearly be heard coming through the door, some sort of conversation that Harry had no desire to walk in on. Draco leaned on the opposite wall from where Harry was, staring at him, and feeling rude for listening into a conversation that the two participants thought was private.
"We should probably go wake Harry up soon," came Lupin's voice. "I swear, that kid can sleep longer than James could."
"Yeah," said Sirius, sounding sad. "It's nice spending Christmas like this. I like having Harry here, even if he does get into almost as trouble as James did."
Lupin gave a big, rich laugh at this. "We're getting what we deserve. That's what McGonagall is always telling me. I complain about having to keep tabs on Harry at school and she tells me that it's what we get for getting into so much trouble, ourselves. It's almost enough to make me feel bad about what we did to our professors."
"Almost, though. I noted that."
"Of course. Nothing is enough to make me feel bad." There was a long silence. "Christmas has got to be one of the hardest times of the year. You miss everyone the most at Christmas. It's good to have you back, Sirius."
"It's good to have my name cleared. Running from the ministry was not my favorite way of spending my life, though it was a big step up from Azkaban."
"I'll bet," said Lupin, softly and almost indistinguishable. "This is nice, spending Christmas together. I mean, we haven't since . . . you went to Azkaban."
Harry and Draco's eyes met from across the hall.
"I can't believe I fucked this up so much," said Sirius, finally. "After everything we did, I'm the one who fucked up our futures."
"You didn't fuck anything up, Sirius."
"It's my fault Lily and James are dead, or didn't you get that memo?"
"Very funny, Sirius. It's not your fault and you know it. Don't go wigging out on me. Someone's got to take care of Harry, and there's no way I could do it on my own."
"I owe him that, don't I?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Harry. I owe him that. It's my fault he doesn't have his parents anymore. The least I can do is give him a home and make sure he's okay."
"Sirius -"
"Please, Remus, you know it's true. James should be the one bringing Harry up. James should be here but he's not and that's my fault."
From across the hall, Draco lightly kicked Harry in the ankle. "We shouldn't be listening to this," he whispered, but Harry just waved him off.
"No one is blaming you for that. You thought you were helping by switching Secret Keepers. You didn't know that it was Peter who was betraying us. None of us knew."
"I would have known if I was smarter. I don't know how I could have even thought it was you."
"You apologized for that and I've forgiven you. Honestly, Sirius, I don't know how I could have believed you actually betrayed them. Mistakes were made by the both of us but you shouldn't blame yourself for the consequences of Peter's actions. I don't blame you -"
"James knew -"
"Knew what? That Peter was his Secret Keeper. Sirius, James knew you would never betray him. If he ever had even the smallest of a doubt, he wouldn't have put all his faith in you."
"And I let him down."
"Peter let us down. Peter let us all down. I know it gets hard at Christmas. It gets hard for me, too, to think we're the only ones left, but you can't let it affect your judgment. James and Lily are gone. We both know that, but we both know it wasn't your fault. You're doing all that you can to take care of Harry. You fought for the light side when the war was at its peak. You didn't do anything wrong."
"Taking care of Harry was the one thing James wanted me to do if something happened to him and I couldn't even do that right. He went to live with those muggles -"
"Only because the ministry is full of morons who sent you to Azkaban. I admit, I did believe that you actually did it, but I didn't know you switched Secret Keepers."
"I should have told you."
"You didn't trust me. You thought you were doing the right thing. Even if I had known, you still would have gone to Azkaban, because the word of a werewolf doesn't mean much to the ministry," he said, malice exuding in heavy sheets from his words.
"They are a bunch of morons not to trust your word."
"You see?"
"James should still be here."
"I don't disagree, but there's a lot of people that should still be here."
"Can you believe it's just us? Out of all the Gryffindors in our year, we're the only ones left."
"Don't forget Elizabeth," pointed out Lupin. "But it's a good choice, isn't it? Black and the werewolf. And just think, Trelawney said it would be us who went first."
"I know. Well, me anyway. She never killed you. Then again, she is the one who said Dru would live a long, healthy life."
"Talk about people who should still be here."
"I know. When Dru died . . . I think that was the only time Snape, Lily, and I ever sat in a room together and we all got along."
"I remember that. Are you going to be okay? Harry's going to be up soon and I don't think he should see you falling apart."
There was a long pause over which Draco glared at Harry and kicked him in the ankle again. "We really shouldn't be listening," he accused.
"Draco, shut up," whispered Harry.
"They don't want you to hear this."
"I hear a lot of things I'm not supposed to."
"I'll be fine," came Sirius's voice, finally.
Harry nodded to Draco, grabbed him by the wrist, and opened the door to the kitchen. "Good morning," he chirped, causing Sirius to drop his cup and splatter tea all over the floor and cupboard doors. "Jumpy this morning?"
"Not at all." Pointing his wand at the shards, he said, "Reparo," and the cup rebuilt itself. "Happy Christmas."
"Harry Christmas. You weren't upstairs so I thought it wise to check the kitchen."
"Harry said that where there's food, there's Sirius," said Draco, kicking Harry under the table. Lupin gave a small laugh.
"That's not a bad rule to follow. Some things never change."
Sirius frowned. "I'm not that bad."
"Not that bad? You're worse than you were in school!"
"I missed food. Azkaban and being on the run from dementors and the ministry doesn't constitute as an ideal situation to get food in. I was feeding on rats for years. It was not a pleasant eating position."
"I'm sorry, Sirius," said Lupin. "Now that the boys are up, we should go open presents."
"I'm up for presents," said Harry.
"You should eat first," said Sirius.
Harry grabbed a piece of toast and shoved it in his mouth. Watching Harry chew, Draco scrunched up his nose and dropped his own piece of toast back to the table.
"There. I ate. Can we open presents now?"
"What about Draco?"
"I lost my appetite watching Harry chew."
"See?" said Harry. "Time for presents."
With that, he was up and out of the door, dragging Draco and Lupin along after him. Sirius came into the living room in time to see Harry throwing himself before his pile of presents and leafing through them, shaking each one. They had decided to take turns in opening presents, the over-excited Harry allowed to go first. A few jumpers, gobstones, books, and one large pile of sweets from Ron Weasley in the honor of tradition later, Harry picked up a rather small box.
"That's from me," said Draco, blushing.
Tearing off the paper without using his teeth, as Sirius had yelled at him when doing that earlier, Harry extracted the box from its wrapping. He took off the lid and, lying inside, was a plain, silver band. Upon closer inspection, Harry could see their initials engraved on the inside.
"This is a very nice gift," said Harry, biting his bottom lip and staring, not at Draco, but at a rather long package sitting in Draco's pile. "Thank you."
"Do you not like it?"
"No! I love it! It's just . . . er - this is a very nice gift." Sirius and Lupin both began to laugh. "It isn't funny."
"Well, Draco," said Sirius, "it's your turn."
"No!" yelled Harry as Draco went for the long box. "That's not your present!" Snatching it away from him, Harry tossed it at Lupin. "That's your present. I left yours - er - upstairs. I'm just going to go get it."
Sliding the ring on his finger, Harry stared at it momentarily before disappearing up the staircase.
"What was that all about?" asked Draco, turning to Lupin and Sirius.
The two older men exchanged knowing smirks. "We thought it was funny," said Lupin, handing the package back to Draco, who cast a glance to the stairs. "Go ahead. Open it."
Draco hesitated, but then began to work through Harry's wrap job to pull out a broom. It was a Nimbus Two Thousand complete with some sort of attachment and upon closer inspection, Draco began to laugh upon seeing it was a wooden arm.
"Harry enchanted it so it could catch the Snitch for you," said Sirius. "He thought it was funny."
"I would be offended, or at least pretend to be offended, but I can't. It is funny," said Draco, now laughing so hard he was starting to cry.
"Gods," said Harry, dropping the badly wrapped package from his hands. "What did you do to him? Why'd you give him that? I told you, Draco, that's not your present. This is your present." He held out the lumpy package only to have Sirius take it away from him.
"This is mine," said Sirius, holding up a forest green cloak.
"No it isn't. It's Draco's present."
Draco cast one look at the cloak and began to laugh even harder.
"I'm sorry, Draco. I thought it would be funny. You've been so depressed, and I wanted to cheer you up, but then you got me this really nice ring, and -"
"Shut up, Harry," said Draco, wiping the tears away from his eyes. "I do like it and it is funny. Thank you. I appreciate the effort. Did you really enchant it?"
"Yeah. Sirius helped me."
"Maybe we should try it out later. I like that you got me a Nimbus Two Thousand."
"Well, you did want one badly in our first year and I have a particular distaste against the Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones."
Draco gave Harry a sheepish grin. They finished opening presents and, after getting dressed, Draco and Harry went out to look for a good place for Draco to test drive his new broom.
