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A Different Life
Chapter 32 - Christmas
Harry awoke the next day to find himself in his old room. He lay there taking in the comfort he felt just being in his old room, knowing his father was only a door away.
Finally Harry got up and stretched, yawning as he did.
He walked towards his door and opened it, and crossed the hallway and stepped through to his father's room, finding it dark as always, but he was still able to make out most things in the room, most likely from the fact that he was used to the dark.
Harry leaned against the doorframe and smiled at his father's sleeping figure. He hadn't really had a lot of time to see his father since school had started. And even now it was holidays, he only saw him really at meals or when they had their Potion lessons, which his father insisted they continue on with during the holiday break. But secretly Harry didn't mind, it gave him a reason to see his father.
Harry's musings continued until his father's voice broke his train of thought.
"Are you just going to stand there all day or are you going to come in?" sleep slurred his fathers voice, revealing he had only just awoken.
Harry looked a bit nervous, which was stupid as it was his own father, what did he have to be nervous about?
He stepped fully into the room and sat on the edge of his father's bed, they sat in silence for a good twenty minutes before Harry finally spoke.
"How are you feeling this morning?" Severus asked.
"Umm...okay" Harry tried to smile reassuringly back at his father but he got the feeling that he failed miserably.
"I better go see Ron, he'll be worried about me, probably wondering where I am. I didn't tell him I was coming here last night."
"I have already talked to Ron, and you and I will be spending all of today together." Severus turned his head to face Harry, he hadn't moved other then that since he had woken up.
Harry looked at him in surprise.
"Why?" He asked.
"Do you not want to spend the day with me?" Severus finally sat up and looked at Harry fully.
Harry could hear a bit of hurt coming through his voice, as much as his father had tried to hide it, and perhaps if it had been anyone but Harry, they would have missed it, but Harry hadn't. But he was not surprised by the fact that his face showed nothing to even suggest that thought.
"Of course I do, I just wasn't expecting it."
"Yes, well I do have a reason; I wanted to talk more to you about that dream." Severus stopped as he saw Harry wince and look away from him.
"I'd rather just forget about it all-"
"It won't just go away because you want it to Harry."
Harry sighed, feeling sad that what his father was saying was most likely true.
"You know its Christmas in a couple of days..." Harry knew that this attempt at changing the subject was completely obvious and his father would be able to pick up on it a mile away.
"Harry, we need to talk about this"
"I know, and I will, just not now okay?" Harry turned his pleading eyes upon his father.
Now it was Severus' turn to sigh.
"Yes, I was aware of Christmas just being a couple of days away. Albus would never let me forget a thing like that." Severus rolled his eyes thinking of the old man.
Harry smiled and then laid down next to Severus on the bed, looking up at the stone ceiling.
"I think its time we got up, you must be starving. Ron said you didn't eat anything yesterday."
Harry visibly paled thinking about food, and though he was feeling hungry, he just didn't think he would be able to keep it in his stomach.
"It's okay Harry; we'll start off with soup. We can keep it light for now." Severus said understandingly, knowing all to well how Harry was feeling.
Harry nodded and reluctantly got off the bed and went back into his own room to change.
He and his father proceeded to spend the whole day together, not leaving the dungeon area. And Harry had to admit he enjoyed himself. It was just like before he had begun Hogwarts.
Harry reluctantly left with his father making him promise to come straight to him if anything happened. He also gave him a dream-less sleep potion, saying that he was to come back to get more each night until another solution could be found.
***
Harry tiptoed into his dorm room, not wanting to wake Ron up, as he was the only other 1st year boy to stay behind for the Christmas.
"Are you alright Harry? What happened?" Ron asked, sitting up from his bed and turning to face Harry. He had obviously been waiting up for him.
"I'm fine Ron. Just wasn't feeling too good, that's all."
Harry felt a bit guilty about lying, he knew he could trust Ron with anything, even his life, he was after all his best friend. But there were some things he wanted to keep to himself. Besides, he didn't want Ron to worry.
"Are you sure?" Ron asked, as if he wasn't sure whether Harry was telling the truth or not.
"Yeah Ron, just go back to sleep. We can talk more in the morning." Harry then turned around and grabbed his pajamas, hearing Ron close his hangings as he went back to sleep.
***
The next morning Harry and Ron sat in the common room discussing what had been happening.
"You asked your dad to ask my dad to dig up Scabbers?" Ron gaped at Harry.
Harry nodded, watching Ron carefully to see if he was angry.
"And did he?" Ron gave nothing away in his voice or his face.
"I'm not sure, I forgot to ask him." Harry smiled sheepishly.
"Are you sure about this Harry?" Ron asked uncertainly
"No, that's why I wanted dad to ask your dad to see if it is the right rat..."
Ron nodded, and then smiled at Harry, almost reassuringly.
Harry was grateful for him not being angry, that was the last thing he needed.
"What about the letters? Has your Dad said anything yet?" Harry asked.
"No, I haven't gotten around to asking anything like that so far."
"That's okay." Harry quickly said, seeing that Ron looked a bit disappointed in himself. "Come on; let's see if Draco has found anything out."
***
"Hey Draco!" Harry yelled as he and Ron ran after Draco to try and catch up to him. He was just about to turn down another corridor.
He stopped after hearing his name being yelled out and he turned around and waited for Harry and Ron to catch up.
"Where are you going?" Harry asked as they began walking again.
"I was just wondering around. I'm the only one left out of the 1st years in Slytherin." Draco explained.
"Why aren't you home for Christmas?" Ron asked
Draco shrugged
"Father said he had something important on and didn't have time for me this year."
Harry looked over at Draco in shock.
Draco laughed at his face. "Don't worry about it Harry, I'm rather looking forward to Christmas at Hogwarts."
"Well you can spend Christmas with Ron and I."
"Yeah, we are the only ones in our dorm, I'm sure McGonagall won't mind too much if you stayed over on Christmas eve, then you can wake up and open presents with us Christmas morning."
"Yeah, I'll ask my Dad to talk to her."
"I don't know gu-"
"Good, now that's settled, have you heard anything from your dad?" Harry asked, not prepared to take no for an answer and changing the subject seemed like a good idea to assure that.
"Not really." Draco looked away from Harry as he studied the ground intently.
"What's he doing that is so busy that he can't even spend Christmas with his family?" Ron asked skeptically.
Draco shrugged.
"Has he said anything suspicious lately?" Harry asked this time.
"Well..." Draco stopped walking and turned to face them. He looked around carefully before he spoke, making sure there was nobody in sight. "...I just got a letter today from father. Told me that my present would be a few days late, but that I would love it."
Harry looked thoughtful. "Well maybe he's ordering your gift and its coming in late or something. It doesn't necessarily mean anything..."
"I don't know... the way he wrote it sounded like he... I don't know... I just don't get a good feeling from it." Draco shrugged, not being able to explain it.
"Does he know that you and I are friends? I can't imagine that he would like that too much!" Harry laughed thinking about his reaction.
"No kidding. I haven't had the guts to say anything to him. He's definitely not very fond of you or Professor Snape at all."
Draco, Ron and Harry started walking again.
"Well it goes both ways-" Harry stopped himself as he realized what he had just said. "Sorry Draco, I keep forgetting he's your dad. You don't seem anything like him." Harry smiled guiltily at Draco.
"I'll take that as a compliment I think..." Draco replied wearily.
"Do you like him?" Ron asked, truly interested.
Draco hadn't really talked about his father or family that much ever. He always seemed reluctant to talk about it and Harry wasn't too keen to discuss Lucius Malfoy.
Draco shrugged. "He's my father."
"Do you... do you love him?" Harry asked
Draco looked away from Harry, thinking about the question carefully.
"I... I guess I do..."
Harry frowned, if someone had asked him that same question about his father he would have answered 'yes' in a heartbeat.
***
Christmas morning came early for Harry. He woke up at an unearthly time in the morning and grabbed his present that he planned to give to his father. He wanted to give it to him early so he could get back and open the rest of his gifts with Draco and Ron when they woke up.
Harry smiled at Draco, he was sleeping in Dean Thomas' bed, after refusing to go anywhere near Neville's bed.
Harry grabbed a cloak and placed it over his pajamas, not bothering to get changed yet.
He headed down towards the Dungeons and entered his father's room. No surprise to find that he was still asleep. Harry hadn't told him what time he was coming around, just that it would be in the morning.
Harry thought of waking him up by using a spell, he could after all use his wand now. But even Harry was tired, and waking his father up this early was going to be rough, so he probably shouldn't give him more reason to be angry.
"Dad?" Harry lightly shook his father. After a couple of minutes he could tell his father was starting to stir.
"Dad, come on. Wake up"
"Wha-" Severus half mumbled as he sat up on his bed, seeing Harry he woke up more, a worried look settling over his face, replacing the once peaceful sleep features. "What's wrong Harry? Was it a dream?"
"It's alright dad, I'm fine. I just wanted to give you your present." Harry then pulled the present from its hiding place, which had been behind his back, and handed it to his father.
"You woke me up to give me a present at-" Severus turned his head to the side to look at his clock "at 5am?"
Harry smiled innocently at him.
"Couldn't I just-" Severus laid back down up and placed his head on his pillow, but as soon as he did Harry grabbed his arm and started pulling on it. Severus was reminded of Harry's sixth birthday, except now Harry was older and had more strength.
Severus felt himself slowly siding off the edge and just caught himself before he fell.
"Harry" His father growled but Harry grabbed the present and ran out the door, yelling over his shoulder that they would open it out by the fire.
***
Harry sat in front of the now burning fire, wondering if his father had gone back to sleep, as he had been in his room for ten minutes now.
Just as he was about to get up and check, his father opened his door and got out, heavy bags were seeable under his eyes.
"I'm-" Harry began but stopped abruptly.
Severus held his hand up to stop Harry from commenting, he walked into the kitchen and made himself a very strong coffee, drowning it all in one go. He then poured himself another cup and walked over to the other side of the room Harry was in, he opened a draw and pulled out a present, obviously meant for Harry and walked back over to him, sitting down next to him on the couch.
"I want you to open mine first, since I did wake you up early." Harry smiled and handed his father his gift.
Severus took it wearily, Harry's gifts normally were things he had made, but now Harry could do magic, he didn't know what to expect.
Ignoring the fact that Harry had used bright red and gold paper, Severus unwrapped the present.
"You brought me spoons?" Severus asked confusedly, picking up one and turning it around in his hand to see if there was something different about it.
Harry nodded eagerly, obviously enjoying Severus reaction.
"You felt I was running low on spoons?" Severus was getting a bit annoyed as he saw the amused look on Harry's face. He obviously was enjoying himself.
"Mind telling me what it does?" Severus assumed Harry must have done something to it. But he couldn't tell what it was.
"Well you normally eat-" Harry stopped as he saw Severus' sharp look on him. "-okay, since its Christmas... but really, you take the fun out of things." Harry passed over a parchment which had been in his pocket that had his handwriting all over it.
"I don't understand?" Severus looked down at the parchment to see it had spells written over it, next to each spell was a word, like 'counter clockwise' and things like that.
"Its charmed, so it will stir your potions for you, and before you even say that you actually like standing around for sometimes hours at a time just stirring a potion, I've seen you get so tired sometimes that you have even ruined a few potions because you were up so late making them. So for those specific times, you can use this."
"And why may I ask, were you still up at those times when you should have been in bed, asleep?" Severus looked pointedly again at Harry, expecting to see guilt on his face but instead seeing him rolling his eyes.
"I was usually just getting up at those times."
"You need to learn how to sleep in Harry, you're a kid, shouldn't I be the one that rushes around trying to wake you up in the mornings and not the other way around?"
Harry shifted in his seat uncomfortably, remembering having to always wake up early in the morning to start his chores, the Dursleys didn't say he had to get up so early, but if he was to finish all his work, he had to start early. And even that sometimes wasn't enough time to finish them.
"Well it's not my fault you sleep in so much. Maybe you should try going to sleep before the sun is rising and then you won't have a need to sleep in so long."
Severus rolled his eyes but decided to change the subject, noticing Harry's drop in enthusiasm triggered by what he had said earlier. He already knew why Harry's mood went tumbling down, no doubt it had to do with the Dursleys, and so in an intention to take Harry's mind of anything Dursley, Severus grabbed his present for Harry, slowly bringing it out to him, watching the curious face grow more and more impatient.
"What is it?" Harry asked, turning the box around in his hand once his father finally gave it to him an eternity later.
"Why don't you open it and find out"
Harry tore away the plain blue wrapping paper and found a plain box, opening that he found his gift.
Smiling, Harry pulled the wrist watch out of its case and admired it. It was a Quidditch watch, with the Snitch at the end of the second hand which happened to be a broom, and the Bludgers were at the end of the hour and minute hand. Each of the numbers was a Quaffle with a number written on it.
Harry smiled at Severus and thanked him by hugging him tightly.
"You're welcome Harry. And thank you for your gift, I'm sure it will come in handy sometime."
Harry laughed and then put the watch onto his left arm. Admiring it again as he did.
"Merry Christmas Harry"
"Merry Christmas Dad" Harry said happily.
After spending another hour with each other Harry left with the promise of seeing his father at breakfast.
****
Harry walked back into his dorm at 6:30am to find that Ron was just waking up.
"What are you doing up Harry?"
"I went to see my dad."
Ron nodded understandingly. "Is Draco up yet?"
"Nope"
Ron smiled evilly at Harry. He got up and grabbed his pillow. He then walked over to Draco's bed and proceeded to chuck his pillow at Draco.
Draco growled at them but only slinked further down under his covers.
Harry laughed and Ron looked a bit put out, that is until an idea struck him.
"Oh Harry" Ron said loudly. "This one is Neville's pillow right?"
Draco shot up in his bed and glared at both Ron and Harry who were laughing hard at him.
"I'm going to kill-" Draco started but was cut off by Ron who had lost interest in Draco and was staring instead at the heap of presents next to his bed.
"Let's open them now!" Without waiting for a reply, Ron grabbed the biggest one he could see and started to unwrap it. Only moments later Harry and Draco followed suite.
Harry received loads of chocolate from both Draco and Ron. He also got his annual sweater and cake from the Weasleys, as did Draco, much to his surprise.
Moments later Owl flew in through the open window and dropped a parcel in front of Harry. Harry stroked her for a few minutes and gave her some owl treats before she flew off again.
He opened the parcel to find it was from Hermione. He had sent her gift off with Owl the night before and it looked like she had sent hers back with Owl.
He could easily see that it was a book, and once he ripped off the outer paper he saw the heading. 'Advanced Defensive Spells'. He had been keeping her informed with what was happening and it looked like she thought he could use the book, which given Harry's history was probably true. Harry had also given her a book, thinking that she wouldn't appreciate food as much as Ron and Draco would. He had given her a potions book since she seemed so interested in the subject, much to his father's disgust.
Harry smiled to himself at the thought. He often heard his father complain about how Hermione was always adding extra things into her homework and trailing off subject. He would probably strangle Harry if he knew that he was encouraging her.
Harry picked up his next and last gift. He read the note and saw that it was from Dumbledore, and it said that it used to be his fathers.
Opening the present up, Harry saw that it was in fact an Invisibility cloak. Harry's mouth dropped open and once Ron and Draco saw what it was, so did theirs.
Soon their faces of shock were replaced by evil smiles. They could have a lot of fun with this.
***
After lunch Harry went to go see Remus. They hadn't spoken very much since the night Harry had told him about his dream, but Harry missed him.
Harry knocked on his quarter's door, wondering if he might be interrupting something. He hadn't seen Remus at lunch and there was a possibility that he may have left to go visit someone, or someone was visiting him.
But before Harry could turn around and leave, the door swung open and Remus stepped out.
"Hello Harry" Remus smiled warmly at him.
"Hi Remus, am I interrupting something? I can come back later if you would like." Harry turned to go but Remus placed his hand on Harry's arm to stop him.
"I was actually just about to go find you, so please, come in" Remus stepped out of the doorway and out of the way so Harry could get in.
Harry walked in and he turned around as he heard the door close behind him. He smiled at Remus a bit hesitantly.
"I just wanted to give you this" Harry pulled out a parcel from his robes that he had on, which was currently keeping him very warm.
Remus smiled brightly at Harry and took the present from Harry.
"And this Harry is for you." Remus went over to his desk and retrieved Harry's present which looked like it could be a book. He handed it to Harry who smiled at him as he took it.
They both stood there and un-wrapped their gifts. And at exactly the same time they gasped at what they saw.
"Thank you so much Remus" Harry flipped through the Quidditch books that Remus had given him, intent on reading every single page as soon as he could. He looked up when he saw that Remus hadn't said a word since he had opened up his gift.
"Harry... is this... how did you-" Remus stopped trying to get a sentence out and instead collapsed into the closest chair.
"Dad found it among some old boxes he had, he said that mum gave it to him after... after Sirius Black tried to... well you know... hurt my Dad-"
Remus looked away, feeling ashamed. To think he had almost inflicted someone was a horrible feeling, and one he was sure he would never forget.
"-so mum said that the pranks had gone far enough, she took the book and gave it to him, knowing that he of course would not give it back." Harry finished.
"I remember this. James, Peter... Black and I spent so much time writing and recording pranks. James had a fit when he found out Lily had taken it and was not intending on giving it back. I never knew she had given it to Severus though, very smart woman your mother. I doubt any of us would have thought of that. I believe James and... Black looked for weeks to try and find it, trying to persuade her to give it back."
Harry smiled, pleased that Remus looked so happy to be holding it and to have it in his hands.
"Harry I can't accept. This really should belong to you-" Remus started to push the book back into Harry's hands but he took a step back, not accepting it.
"You are always giving me things that belonged to my parents, I think it's about time I gave you something of there's back."
Remus smiled and stood up, walking over to Harry and ruffling his hair.
"Besides, Ron and I have already memorized the good pranks."
Remus laughed. "Well thank you Harry. This means a lot to me." Remus looked back down at the book and looked through a few pages, moving his fingers over the handwriting.
Finally he looked back up at Harry, his face suddenly turning serious.
"Please, sit down Harry, I need to talk to you for a minute." Remus pulled a chair out for Harry and then he sat in one that was facing opposite Harry.
Harry complied and looked a bit nervous at the seriousness in Remus' voice.
"Harry, you know I love you right..."
"Of course Remus, I love you too" Harry answered, not sure where this was going.
"And I do trust you, I really do. I believe that you really had those dreams, and I believe that what you saw was what you told us... but Peter is dead Harry, I'm sorry. But it has taken me so long, so many years to forget about him and move on. I can't... I can't just dig all that up again without seeing him first hand... without physical proof that I can hold..." Remus seemed to be struggling with what he was saying. "I want to believe you Harry I really do. I just..."
"It's okay Remus, I understand. And I'm not mad at you. I should have known that I would need more proof before I went and brought up all those memories..."
"Harry, I'm glad that you felt you could trust me so, and believe me when I say that you still can."
Harry nodded, suddenly he felt bad for being mad at Remus. He had put him through that and he hadn't once thought of it from his point of view.
"I'm sorry Remus, I didn't have any right to be mad at you."
"Don't be silly Harry, you had every right."
Harry smiled. "Thanks Remus."
"So are we okay Harry?" Remus asked hopefully.
"Yeah, we're okay."
A Different Life
Chapter 32 - Christmas
Harry awoke the next day to find himself in his old room. He lay there taking in the comfort he felt just being in his old room, knowing his father was only a door away.
Finally Harry got up and stretched, yawning as he did.
He walked towards his door and opened it, and crossed the hallway and stepped through to his father's room, finding it dark as always, but he was still able to make out most things in the room, most likely from the fact that he was used to the dark.
Harry leaned against the doorframe and smiled at his father's sleeping figure. He hadn't really had a lot of time to see his father since school had started. And even now it was holidays, he only saw him really at meals or when they had their Potion lessons, which his father insisted they continue on with during the holiday break. But secretly Harry didn't mind, it gave him a reason to see his father.
Harry's musings continued until his father's voice broke his train of thought.
"Are you just going to stand there all day or are you going to come in?" sleep slurred his fathers voice, revealing he had only just awoken.
Harry looked a bit nervous, which was stupid as it was his own father, what did he have to be nervous about?
He stepped fully into the room and sat on the edge of his father's bed, they sat in silence for a good twenty minutes before Harry finally spoke.
"How are you feeling this morning?" Severus asked.
"Umm...okay" Harry tried to smile reassuringly back at his father but he got the feeling that he failed miserably.
"I better go see Ron, he'll be worried about me, probably wondering where I am. I didn't tell him I was coming here last night."
"I have already talked to Ron, and you and I will be spending all of today together." Severus turned his head to face Harry, he hadn't moved other then that since he had woken up.
Harry looked at him in surprise.
"Why?" He asked.
"Do you not want to spend the day with me?" Severus finally sat up and looked at Harry fully.
Harry could hear a bit of hurt coming through his voice, as much as his father had tried to hide it, and perhaps if it had been anyone but Harry, they would have missed it, but Harry hadn't. But he was not surprised by the fact that his face showed nothing to even suggest that thought.
"Of course I do, I just wasn't expecting it."
"Yes, well I do have a reason; I wanted to talk more to you about that dream." Severus stopped as he saw Harry wince and look away from him.
"I'd rather just forget about it all-"
"It won't just go away because you want it to Harry."
Harry sighed, feeling sad that what his father was saying was most likely true.
"You know its Christmas in a couple of days..." Harry knew that this attempt at changing the subject was completely obvious and his father would be able to pick up on it a mile away.
"Harry, we need to talk about this"
"I know, and I will, just not now okay?" Harry turned his pleading eyes upon his father.
Now it was Severus' turn to sigh.
"Yes, I was aware of Christmas just being a couple of days away. Albus would never let me forget a thing like that." Severus rolled his eyes thinking of the old man.
Harry smiled and then laid down next to Severus on the bed, looking up at the stone ceiling.
"I think its time we got up, you must be starving. Ron said you didn't eat anything yesterday."
Harry visibly paled thinking about food, and though he was feeling hungry, he just didn't think he would be able to keep it in his stomach.
"It's okay Harry; we'll start off with soup. We can keep it light for now." Severus said understandingly, knowing all to well how Harry was feeling.
Harry nodded and reluctantly got off the bed and went back into his own room to change.
He and his father proceeded to spend the whole day together, not leaving the dungeon area. And Harry had to admit he enjoyed himself. It was just like before he had begun Hogwarts.
Harry reluctantly left with his father making him promise to come straight to him if anything happened. He also gave him a dream-less sleep potion, saying that he was to come back to get more each night until another solution could be found.
***
Harry tiptoed into his dorm room, not wanting to wake Ron up, as he was the only other 1st year boy to stay behind for the Christmas.
"Are you alright Harry? What happened?" Ron asked, sitting up from his bed and turning to face Harry. He had obviously been waiting up for him.
"I'm fine Ron. Just wasn't feeling too good, that's all."
Harry felt a bit guilty about lying, he knew he could trust Ron with anything, even his life, he was after all his best friend. But there were some things he wanted to keep to himself. Besides, he didn't want Ron to worry.
"Are you sure?" Ron asked, as if he wasn't sure whether Harry was telling the truth or not.
"Yeah Ron, just go back to sleep. We can talk more in the morning." Harry then turned around and grabbed his pajamas, hearing Ron close his hangings as he went back to sleep.
***
The next morning Harry and Ron sat in the common room discussing what had been happening.
"You asked your dad to ask my dad to dig up Scabbers?" Ron gaped at Harry.
Harry nodded, watching Ron carefully to see if he was angry.
"And did he?" Ron gave nothing away in his voice or his face.
"I'm not sure, I forgot to ask him." Harry smiled sheepishly.
"Are you sure about this Harry?" Ron asked uncertainly
"No, that's why I wanted dad to ask your dad to see if it is the right rat..."
Ron nodded, and then smiled at Harry, almost reassuringly.
Harry was grateful for him not being angry, that was the last thing he needed.
"What about the letters? Has your Dad said anything yet?" Harry asked.
"No, I haven't gotten around to asking anything like that so far."
"That's okay." Harry quickly said, seeing that Ron looked a bit disappointed in himself. "Come on; let's see if Draco has found anything out."
***
"Hey Draco!" Harry yelled as he and Ron ran after Draco to try and catch up to him. He was just about to turn down another corridor.
He stopped after hearing his name being yelled out and he turned around and waited for Harry and Ron to catch up.
"Where are you going?" Harry asked as they began walking again.
"I was just wondering around. I'm the only one left out of the 1st years in Slytherin." Draco explained.
"Why aren't you home for Christmas?" Ron asked
Draco shrugged
"Father said he had something important on and didn't have time for me this year."
Harry looked over at Draco in shock.
Draco laughed at his face. "Don't worry about it Harry, I'm rather looking forward to Christmas at Hogwarts."
"Well you can spend Christmas with Ron and I."
"Yeah, we are the only ones in our dorm, I'm sure McGonagall won't mind too much if you stayed over on Christmas eve, then you can wake up and open presents with us Christmas morning."
"Yeah, I'll ask my Dad to talk to her."
"I don't know gu-"
"Good, now that's settled, have you heard anything from your dad?" Harry asked, not prepared to take no for an answer and changing the subject seemed like a good idea to assure that.
"Not really." Draco looked away from Harry as he studied the ground intently.
"What's he doing that is so busy that he can't even spend Christmas with his family?" Ron asked skeptically.
Draco shrugged.
"Has he said anything suspicious lately?" Harry asked this time.
"Well..." Draco stopped walking and turned to face them. He looked around carefully before he spoke, making sure there was nobody in sight. "...I just got a letter today from father. Told me that my present would be a few days late, but that I would love it."
Harry looked thoughtful. "Well maybe he's ordering your gift and its coming in late or something. It doesn't necessarily mean anything..."
"I don't know... the way he wrote it sounded like he... I don't know... I just don't get a good feeling from it." Draco shrugged, not being able to explain it.
"Does he know that you and I are friends? I can't imagine that he would like that too much!" Harry laughed thinking about his reaction.
"No kidding. I haven't had the guts to say anything to him. He's definitely not very fond of you or Professor Snape at all."
Draco, Ron and Harry started walking again.
"Well it goes both ways-" Harry stopped himself as he realized what he had just said. "Sorry Draco, I keep forgetting he's your dad. You don't seem anything like him." Harry smiled guiltily at Draco.
"I'll take that as a compliment I think..." Draco replied wearily.
"Do you like him?" Ron asked, truly interested.
Draco hadn't really talked about his father or family that much ever. He always seemed reluctant to talk about it and Harry wasn't too keen to discuss Lucius Malfoy.
Draco shrugged. "He's my father."
"Do you... do you love him?" Harry asked
Draco looked away from Harry, thinking about the question carefully.
"I... I guess I do..."
Harry frowned, if someone had asked him that same question about his father he would have answered 'yes' in a heartbeat.
***
Christmas morning came early for Harry. He woke up at an unearthly time in the morning and grabbed his present that he planned to give to his father. He wanted to give it to him early so he could get back and open the rest of his gifts with Draco and Ron when they woke up.
Harry smiled at Draco, he was sleeping in Dean Thomas' bed, after refusing to go anywhere near Neville's bed.
Harry grabbed a cloak and placed it over his pajamas, not bothering to get changed yet.
He headed down towards the Dungeons and entered his father's room. No surprise to find that he was still asleep. Harry hadn't told him what time he was coming around, just that it would be in the morning.
Harry thought of waking him up by using a spell, he could after all use his wand now. But even Harry was tired, and waking his father up this early was going to be rough, so he probably shouldn't give him more reason to be angry.
"Dad?" Harry lightly shook his father. After a couple of minutes he could tell his father was starting to stir.
"Dad, come on. Wake up"
"Wha-" Severus half mumbled as he sat up on his bed, seeing Harry he woke up more, a worried look settling over his face, replacing the once peaceful sleep features. "What's wrong Harry? Was it a dream?"
"It's alright dad, I'm fine. I just wanted to give you your present." Harry then pulled the present from its hiding place, which had been behind his back, and handed it to his father.
"You woke me up to give me a present at-" Severus turned his head to the side to look at his clock "at 5am?"
Harry smiled innocently at him.
"Couldn't I just-" Severus laid back down up and placed his head on his pillow, but as soon as he did Harry grabbed his arm and started pulling on it. Severus was reminded of Harry's sixth birthday, except now Harry was older and had more strength.
Severus felt himself slowly siding off the edge and just caught himself before he fell.
"Harry" His father growled but Harry grabbed the present and ran out the door, yelling over his shoulder that they would open it out by the fire.
***
Harry sat in front of the now burning fire, wondering if his father had gone back to sleep, as he had been in his room for ten minutes now.
Just as he was about to get up and check, his father opened his door and got out, heavy bags were seeable under his eyes.
"I'm-" Harry began but stopped abruptly.
Severus held his hand up to stop Harry from commenting, he walked into the kitchen and made himself a very strong coffee, drowning it all in one go. He then poured himself another cup and walked over to the other side of the room Harry was in, he opened a draw and pulled out a present, obviously meant for Harry and walked back over to him, sitting down next to him on the couch.
"I want you to open mine first, since I did wake you up early." Harry smiled and handed his father his gift.
Severus took it wearily, Harry's gifts normally were things he had made, but now Harry could do magic, he didn't know what to expect.
Ignoring the fact that Harry had used bright red and gold paper, Severus unwrapped the present.
"You brought me spoons?" Severus asked confusedly, picking up one and turning it around in his hand to see if there was something different about it.
Harry nodded eagerly, obviously enjoying Severus reaction.
"You felt I was running low on spoons?" Severus was getting a bit annoyed as he saw the amused look on Harry's face. He obviously was enjoying himself.
"Mind telling me what it does?" Severus assumed Harry must have done something to it. But he couldn't tell what it was.
"Well you normally eat-" Harry stopped as he saw Severus' sharp look on him. "-okay, since its Christmas... but really, you take the fun out of things." Harry passed over a parchment which had been in his pocket that had his handwriting all over it.
"I don't understand?" Severus looked down at the parchment to see it had spells written over it, next to each spell was a word, like 'counter clockwise' and things like that.
"Its charmed, so it will stir your potions for you, and before you even say that you actually like standing around for sometimes hours at a time just stirring a potion, I've seen you get so tired sometimes that you have even ruined a few potions because you were up so late making them. So for those specific times, you can use this."
"And why may I ask, were you still up at those times when you should have been in bed, asleep?" Severus looked pointedly again at Harry, expecting to see guilt on his face but instead seeing him rolling his eyes.
"I was usually just getting up at those times."
"You need to learn how to sleep in Harry, you're a kid, shouldn't I be the one that rushes around trying to wake you up in the mornings and not the other way around?"
Harry shifted in his seat uncomfortably, remembering having to always wake up early in the morning to start his chores, the Dursleys didn't say he had to get up so early, but if he was to finish all his work, he had to start early. And even that sometimes wasn't enough time to finish them.
"Well it's not my fault you sleep in so much. Maybe you should try going to sleep before the sun is rising and then you won't have a need to sleep in so long."
Severus rolled his eyes but decided to change the subject, noticing Harry's drop in enthusiasm triggered by what he had said earlier. He already knew why Harry's mood went tumbling down, no doubt it had to do with the Dursleys, and so in an intention to take Harry's mind of anything Dursley, Severus grabbed his present for Harry, slowly bringing it out to him, watching the curious face grow more and more impatient.
"What is it?" Harry asked, turning the box around in his hand once his father finally gave it to him an eternity later.
"Why don't you open it and find out"
Harry tore away the plain blue wrapping paper and found a plain box, opening that he found his gift.
Smiling, Harry pulled the wrist watch out of its case and admired it. It was a Quidditch watch, with the Snitch at the end of the second hand which happened to be a broom, and the Bludgers were at the end of the hour and minute hand. Each of the numbers was a Quaffle with a number written on it.
Harry smiled at Severus and thanked him by hugging him tightly.
"You're welcome Harry. And thank you for your gift, I'm sure it will come in handy sometime."
Harry laughed and then put the watch onto his left arm. Admiring it again as he did.
"Merry Christmas Harry"
"Merry Christmas Dad" Harry said happily.
After spending another hour with each other Harry left with the promise of seeing his father at breakfast.
****
Harry walked back into his dorm at 6:30am to find that Ron was just waking up.
"What are you doing up Harry?"
"I went to see my dad."
Ron nodded understandingly. "Is Draco up yet?"
"Nope"
Ron smiled evilly at Harry. He got up and grabbed his pillow. He then walked over to Draco's bed and proceeded to chuck his pillow at Draco.
Draco growled at them but only slinked further down under his covers.
Harry laughed and Ron looked a bit put out, that is until an idea struck him.
"Oh Harry" Ron said loudly. "This one is Neville's pillow right?"
Draco shot up in his bed and glared at both Ron and Harry who were laughing hard at him.
"I'm going to kill-" Draco started but was cut off by Ron who had lost interest in Draco and was staring instead at the heap of presents next to his bed.
"Let's open them now!" Without waiting for a reply, Ron grabbed the biggest one he could see and started to unwrap it. Only moments later Harry and Draco followed suite.
Harry received loads of chocolate from both Draco and Ron. He also got his annual sweater and cake from the Weasleys, as did Draco, much to his surprise.
Moments later Owl flew in through the open window and dropped a parcel in front of Harry. Harry stroked her for a few minutes and gave her some owl treats before she flew off again.
He opened the parcel to find it was from Hermione. He had sent her gift off with Owl the night before and it looked like she had sent hers back with Owl.
He could easily see that it was a book, and once he ripped off the outer paper he saw the heading. 'Advanced Defensive Spells'. He had been keeping her informed with what was happening and it looked like she thought he could use the book, which given Harry's history was probably true. Harry had also given her a book, thinking that she wouldn't appreciate food as much as Ron and Draco would. He had given her a potions book since she seemed so interested in the subject, much to his father's disgust.
Harry smiled to himself at the thought. He often heard his father complain about how Hermione was always adding extra things into her homework and trailing off subject. He would probably strangle Harry if he knew that he was encouraging her.
Harry picked up his next and last gift. He read the note and saw that it was from Dumbledore, and it said that it used to be his fathers.
Opening the present up, Harry saw that it was in fact an Invisibility cloak. Harry's mouth dropped open and once Ron and Draco saw what it was, so did theirs.
Soon their faces of shock were replaced by evil smiles. They could have a lot of fun with this.
***
After lunch Harry went to go see Remus. They hadn't spoken very much since the night Harry had told him about his dream, but Harry missed him.
Harry knocked on his quarter's door, wondering if he might be interrupting something. He hadn't seen Remus at lunch and there was a possibility that he may have left to go visit someone, or someone was visiting him.
But before Harry could turn around and leave, the door swung open and Remus stepped out.
"Hello Harry" Remus smiled warmly at him.
"Hi Remus, am I interrupting something? I can come back later if you would like." Harry turned to go but Remus placed his hand on Harry's arm to stop him.
"I was actually just about to go find you, so please, come in" Remus stepped out of the doorway and out of the way so Harry could get in.
Harry walked in and he turned around as he heard the door close behind him. He smiled at Remus a bit hesitantly.
"I just wanted to give you this" Harry pulled out a parcel from his robes that he had on, which was currently keeping him very warm.
Remus smiled brightly at Harry and took the present from Harry.
"And this Harry is for you." Remus went over to his desk and retrieved Harry's present which looked like it could be a book. He handed it to Harry who smiled at him as he took it.
They both stood there and un-wrapped their gifts. And at exactly the same time they gasped at what they saw.
"Thank you so much Remus" Harry flipped through the Quidditch books that Remus had given him, intent on reading every single page as soon as he could. He looked up when he saw that Remus hadn't said a word since he had opened up his gift.
"Harry... is this... how did you-" Remus stopped trying to get a sentence out and instead collapsed into the closest chair.
"Dad found it among some old boxes he had, he said that mum gave it to him after... after Sirius Black tried to... well you know... hurt my Dad-"
Remus looked away, feeling ashamed. To think he had almost inflicted someone was a horrible feeling, and one he was sure he would never forget.
"-so mum said that the pranks had gone far enough, she took the book and gave it to him, knowing that he of course would not give it back." Harry finished.
"I remember this. James, Peter... Black and I spent so much time writing and recording pranks. James had a fit when he found out Lily had taken it and was not intending on giving it back. I never knew she had given it to Severus though, very smart woman your mother. I doubt any of us would have thought of that. I believe James and... Black looked for weeks to try and find it, trying to persuade her to give it back."
Harry smiled, pleased that Remus looked so happy to be holding it and to have it in his hands.
"Harry I can't accept. This really should belong to you-" Remus started to push the book back into Harry's hands but he took a step back, not accepting it.
"You are always giving me things that belonged to my parents, I think it's about time I gave you something of there's back."
Remus smiled and stood up, walking over to Harry and ruffling his hair.
"Besides, Ron and I have already memorized the good pranks."
Remus laughed. "Well thank you Harry. This means a lot to me." Remus looked back down at the book and looked through a few pages, moving his fingers over the handwriting.
Finally he looked back up at Harry, his face suddenly turning serious.
"Please, sit down Harry, I need to talk to you for a minute." Remus pulled a chair out for Harry and then he sat in one that was facing opposite Harry.
Harry complied and looked a bit nervous at the seriousness in Remus' voice.
"Harry, you know I love you right..."
"Of course Remus, I love you too" Harry answered, not sure where this was going.
"And I do trust you, I really do. I believe that you really had those dreams, and I believe that what you saw was what you told us... but Peter is dead Harry, I'm sorry. But it has taken me so long, so many years to forget about him and move on. I can't... I can't just dig all that up again without seeing him first hand... without physical proof that I can hold..." Remus seemed to be struggling with what he was saying. "I want to believe you Harry I really do. I just..."
"It's okay Remus, I understand. And I'm not mad at you. I should have known that I would need more proof before I went and brought up all those memories..."
"Harry, I'm glad that you felt you could trust me so, and believe me when I say that you still can."
Harry nodded, suddenly he felt bad for being mad at Remus. He had put him through that and he hadn't once thought of it from his point of view.
"I'm sorry Remus, I didn't have any right to be mad at you."
"Don't be silly Harry, you had every right."
Harry smiled. "Thanks Remus."
"So are we okay Harry?" Remus asked hopefully.
"Yeah, we're okay."