Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and can't get money for this, but I can make him into a Mafia Prince.

Warning: Some chapters (the ones including pranks) might not be appropriate to read at work. Laughter may ensue leading your co-workers to see you as even more insane than they previously thought.

Chapter 23:Holiday at Home

Harry and Blaise stepped off the train at platform 9 ¾, their luggage floating behind them as they scanned the teeming mass of humanity that had turned out to collect whatever child belonged to them.

"Harry," Manuel's strong and sure voice rang out over the cacophony of noise to be followed by Trevor's call of, "Blaise!"

Neither could repress their grins as they squeezed their way through the throng of people toward their fathers so that they could be wrapped up in warm hugs, though Harry couldn't help but notice the fact that his father's greeting was one armed thanks to the other being in a sling.

"Let's get out of here," Manuel said after a moment, knowing that the children desired answers, "we have some catching up to do and this isn't the place."

The ride home was a silent one as well, the two guards that had been waiting outside the station with the cars especially tense and ever more vigilant than usual. It seemed that no chances were being taken as they took many turns on a roundabout way home, stretching a simple trip out into one that was over three hours long to make sure that no one was pursuing them. Trevor had also discretely checked both Harry and Blaise for any form of tracking or detection charms, magical and muggle, before they had left the station. So it was that the group happily pulled up in front of the Darkov mansion and made their way inside the safe haven they called home.

… … … … …

Dumbledore slumped back in his chair just after one of his ex-students left his office, the girl was currently in Auror training and he had asked her to unofficially follow Harry Potter to 'make sure he got home safely.' He had wanted to send Severus but knew that it would be suspicious if the man was spotted by his quarry, he also didn't want to ruin the little trust Severus seemed to have gained with Harry and Blaise. Severus may not have been able to find out much about them yet but given time the spy would prove his usefulness. The girl had almost lost Harry and Blaise in the crowd of Platform 9 ¾ but had managed to tag them again in the main part of the station. She had lost them again once they had gotten into a car but fell back onto the contingency plan they had devised only to find out that the tracking charms had been disabled. She also hadn't been able to give a clear description of the men who had picked up Mr. Potter and Ms. Zabini. Tracking the duo had turned out to be a failure but he had assured the young Auror-to-be that she had done everything that she could have done and sent her home.

Albus sighed and turned to Fawkes, "it seems they aren't going to make this easy for me and the wizarding world cannot afford to lose Harry Potter."

… … … … …

An hour later found that Manuel, Trevor, Harry, and Blaise had gathered into Manuel's study and were lounging in their usual spots. They went through the usual routine any parent subjected a child to once seeing them after school: how has school been, what are your grades like, have you gotten into any trouble? Then came the questions normal parents didn't ask: have you been training, is anyone an immediate threat to you, have you been forced to use your weapons any? Harry and Blaise decided that it would be easier to just tell their fathers what happened instead of trying to answer every question individually so they started by detailing their thoughts and impressions gathered from the train ride and their sorting up until Dumbledore's greet-the-holiday speech before sending the students going home to the train. After that it was time for their interrogation of their father's to begin.

"What happened to your arm dad," Harry asked, turning their conversation to more serious matters.

Manuel sighed and glanced at Trevor.

"As you know we sent you a letter detailing Code Black and hinted that we were heading to New York. There had been a security breach in one of the labs there and Trevor and I felt that we had to go personally to straighten out the resulting mess. The breach came from the inside and it didn't take us long to get to the bottom of things. Unfortunately the organization working against us was larger than we expected and one slight misstep had us captured."

Trevor decided to take over the story then, "we were exposed to the royal treatment of blindfolds, gags, and cuffs before being thrown in the back of a van and taken to Merlin knows where. They didn't even have the decency to give us one of the more deluxe cells and they must not know that torturing powerful guests is really not the mark of a good host. They broke Manuel's arm and my ribs, they were the most serious among a bunch of other milder injuries, but we're fine now. It just took a while for the men to get in there but we wiped the bastards out after they did. Only a few stragglers are left of the organization and we have the Daggers after them."

Harry closed his eyes but could still see the tears in Blaise's eyes as her father held her gently to him. If Trevor was trying to act flippant about this whole ordeal then things had been much worse than they were letting on and for the Daggers to be out after the few that had managed to escape—the Daggers weren't deployed lightly, they were the top assassins working under Manuel and they weren't set out on petty clean-up jobs. But dinner was about to begin soon and the time for talk was over. Harry just took the time to ask one last question of his father as they both parted ways to clean up for the upcoming meal.

"Why the Daggers?" Manuel leveled his dark gaze at Harry and told his son the truth, "the stuff they got from the lab can be replaced and updated, the wounds Trevor and I suffered will heal, but those bastards threatened you and Blaise. Not even Hell will dare have mercy on them."

Harry bowed his head; there would be no more discussion on this topic even though it upset him that he was his father's greatest weakness. He had learned long ago that no one ever threatened his safety and got away with it, not with Manuel Darkov as his father.

… … … … …

By Christmas Eve a powdery layer of snow had arrived to cover the grounds of the Darkov Estate and everyone took advantage of it. The guards acted like kids and attacked each other in flurries of snowballs. They raced horses through the downy powder when it was safe to do so without worrying about injuring the horses, the white flakes flying with each heavy hoof-fall. And when they were done fooling around outside there were warm fires inside and plenty of hot cocoa, tea, and coffee to go around. It was a cheerfully tired group that went to bed that evening and Harry felt sorry for those that had to stay awake that night for guard duty.

Early the next morning found Manuel groaning in exasperation and exhaustion as soft footfalls made their way across the floor of his room. One would think that after eleven years of being a father he would finally be used to being woken up early on Christmas morning when he would rather sleep in. Experimentally he cracked open an eye to be greeted with the smiling face of his son.

"Half an hour more," he pleaded quietly to the youth while holding open his covers in invitation to be rewarded when Harry settled into bed next to him.

He was glad that Harry had acquiesced so easily, he didn't want to know what tricks his son now had up his sleeves after almost four months at a school of magic.

They were both woken again a bit later by a sharp 'tap tap tap' sound. Manuel looked around for the source of the disturbance even as his grip tightened on the gun under his pillow and his free arm pulled a wriggling Harry closer to him in a protective gesture. But Harry easily recognized what the noise was and confirmed it by spotting an impatient looking owl at the window.

"It's okay dad," Harry pointed out the disgruntled owl perched on the window sill, "it's just owl post."

Manuel relaxed and allowed Harry up to let the bird in but the haughty creature merely shoved the package at Harry and immediately flew away once relieved of its burden.

Surprisingly the package was from the twins and Harry was glad that he had thought to send them some muggle prank items. Grinning he opened the parcel to find that he had also been sent some prank items with a note on top and remembered when he and Blaise had revealed themselves as Hogwarts newest pranksters to Fred and George a few weeks ago. They had been a bit peeved to know that they had been blamed for at least two of the duo's pranks but also agreed that they were obvious suspects for the teachers. Together the four had become good friends and sometimes combined pranks, Lee Jordan occasionally helping out though Harry and Blaise didn't know him too well. Needless to say most of their housemates weren't too fond of this friendship that broke the bounds of house rivalries, especially since Harry and Blaise still weren't trying to make many friends within Slytherin.

Our Dear Harry and Blaise if you're there,

We would like to wish you a very merry Christmas and a prankful holiday. We know you will put this gift to good use. Mum also insisted, more like demanded, upon sending you Weasley sweaters and Fudge (the candy, not the git Minister). Ickle Ronnikins was disgusted since you are Slytherins, so wear them proudly. And excuse the attitude of the bloody owl, we stole him from Percy, and they insist upon acting alike.

Gred and Forge

Digging a bit deeper beyond the initial layer of pranks Harry found the fudge and sweaters. One was a dark smoky grey, which he took to be his, with a silver and green serpent poised to strike and the other was a forest green color with silver colored vines twining into a S. It seemed that Mrs. Weasley was very talented with a pair of knitting needles. He would definitely have to send her a thank you card.

"I'm going to take this to Blaise," Harry grinned at his father, the joy of Christmas in his eyes, "and then it's downstairs for presents."

Manuel found it funny that during the holidays even the most disciplined of his men could lose their hardened demeanor as they tore into presents. It was as if the child in them had finally found the outlet it needed after spending most of the year being faced with the serious nature of their line of work. It was also a bit surprising to see some of the gifts they exchanged with each other. Quite often they gave each other weapons or electronic devices, but the best presents seemed to be the gag gifts or childish presents they exchanged. The strangest game he had ever seen played was when a few of the men had combined their presents to turn a simple game of Mouse Trap into a war zone after they somehow combined it with the game of Clue and some miniature army men. For some reason he was thinking that in the end it was a red mouse that killed Colonel Mustard in the trap with a piece of cheese while smoking the lead pipe, only to be assassinated by the army men who revolted and claimed Miss Scarlet as the spoils of war because the ghost of Mr. Boddy told them to.

Then of course there had been the one year when a spy had managed to get onto the grounds, relying on a freak snowstorm to cover his tracks. The storm had shut down power to the house and left them running on the barest of security in order to stretch out the use of the generators as they didn't know how long they would be without their main power supply. The unlucky men on duty who had spotted the spy had decided to forego using their freezing guns and had attacked the man with snowballs and ice-sickles instead. At first it had been fun and play until one of their own took a bullet from the intruder's gun; the sounds of return fire had filled the air then and hot, red blood had splashed everywhere to steam gently in the falling snow. Manuel shook his head at remembering that one; they had definitely had some strange holidays around here, especially when you took in the diversity of the men's beliefs. In the end many in the household had adopted a variety of beliefs and mixed them all together to form a new way of spending the holidays.

A gagging sound pulled him from his musings.

"What the fuck was that?"

One of the men had spat out what looked like a half-regurgitated jelly bean and was now looking suspiciously at a box of Jelly Bellys, "it tasted like pickled slugs."

"Watch your language," one of the guards shouted playfully from across the room, "there are little ears in here!"

Harry and Blaise looked offended for a moment before someone else added, "yeah Trevor, cover your ears so you don't pick up any bad words."

Trevor flicked them off as a few others looked at the first man oddly and one dared ask, "how the hell do you know what pickled slugs taste like?"

Manuel looked over at Harry and Blaise who were laughing quietly and watching as pillows and wrapping paper flew across the room between a few of the men as they teased the one about eating pickled slugs. It seemed that even Trevor couldn't help but smile; only those two would have mixed in Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans with innocent Jelly Bellys. Manuel shuddered remembering his first run in with the wizarding candy; he should have paid heed to the warning on the box and realized that when it said every flavor bean they meant every flavor.

"You do know that since the cleaning staff has the day off you guys are going to have to clean up your own mess don't you," Manuel dared to tell everyone only to find himself being pelted with wadded up wrapping paper as everyone turned on him.

"Mutiny!" he cried with a laugh as he tried to fend off the projectiles and fling some back in return, "how dare you! I am your leader!"

… … … … …

They were back on the Hogwarts Express and heading towards Hogwarts. Sadly the holidays were over and Harry and Blaise had to leave their father's behind once again. Blaise was reading one of the fantasy novels she had been given and Harry was idly examining the new guns that he had gotten from his father for Christmas; they were a new pair of black and silver 9mm Russian Makarovs and while they had been through the lab for minor adjustments they hadn't had to be specially designed for his size as his other weapons had. He was also much more comfortable with these guns than his others and had left his old firearms at home; they had been designed for him when he was seven and had begun to feel a bit small in his hands. The latch jiggled on the compartment door and Harry slid the guns away and pulled his wand out to cast the counter charm to the locking spell he had placed on the door, allowing Draco and Theo to walk in. For Christmas Trevor had taken the Ministry tracking spells off of his and Blaise's wands though Harry didn't understand why he hadn't done it that summer instead of making them wait. Harry could only guess that he had wanted them to learn some control at Hogwarts before setting them free with untraceable wands in a muggle household.

Harry and Blaise allowed Draco and Theo to draw them into conversation, things were much more relaxed in this informal setting without Crabbe and Goyle leering over Malfoy's shoulders, and it was time they started paying more attention to their dorm mates. The train ride passed with a surprising pleasantness as they talked about their holidays and played exploding snap while freely passing around their candy. The feast also passed with everyone in a good mood even though class were about to resume, and many were too full of holiday candy to eat much of the wonderful food spread out before them. Harry realized that even though he had been ecstatic to go home and spend time with his dad, he had also missed Hogwarts and the magic the practically crackled in the air surrounding him. He also knew that if it ever came down to a choice between Hogwarts and the Darkov mansion that he would forsake the castle for his home with his father. Contentedly he and Blaise followed the rest of the Slytherins to the dungeons that night, flashing covert smiles at the questioning look Severus gave them when they passed by. It was their way of letting him know that everything was fine now, and they were pleased if not a bit surprised to see a small smile sent back their way.