JK HAS FINISHED BOOK SIX! RELEASE DATE SOON TO BE ANNOUNCED! I am celebrating this news by updating both of my stories. Please read, review and enjoy! Also, please go and read the new chapters in Darkness Rising: The Unicorn Hunt! We haven't had much feedback yet, and we'd like to get some more.

Shines A Light

Chapter Twelve: Christmas

When the train pulled up in the late afternoon at Kings Cross station, Harry, Ron and Hermione hurried out onto the station, and almost immediately saw Molly and Arthur waving from near the exit, accompanied by a fairly tall young woman with long black hair and pale blue eyes, who was also waving energetically and smiling widely at the group.

"There they are!" Ron said, as if Harry and Hermione couldn't see them, and hurried ahead to meet up with his parents. Ginny waded out of the throng and went to greet her parents also, while Harry headed straight for Lily and hugged her in greeting.

"Hi!" He said enthusiastically, "How have you been?"

"Alright," Lily sighed, "I've been searching for others like me, trying to convince them not to turn to You-Know-Who."

Lily was a Wild Child - they were similar to werewolves, but at the same time very different. A Wild Child was a shape-shifter, and they had to spend at least half of every day in a form not their own. Unlike werewolves, they did not have to always be the same animal, however.

Wild Children were just as ridiculed as werewolves, because they were regarded as less than human - they spent half of their lives in another form, also if a Wild Child convinced someone to fall in love with them, or someone fell in love with them of their own accord, their curse would be transferred to that person, and the Wild Child would become normal again, if they were in their own territory – if they were on foreign ground, the Wild Child would remain as they were and the other would join them. Also, they possessed a very destructive magic, which made them formidable enemies, it also made them very much feared by the general public.

Harry had, at one stage, been attracted to Lily, but they had made a Love-Me-Not potion because neither Harry nor Lily wanted Harry to become a Wild Child. The Wild Children drank blood, as werewolves and vampires, although that blood does not need to be human. It left them in very low regard, but Harry did not care. He would make friends with whomever was prepared to be friends with him - he did not care whether they were Wild Children or Werewolves, and although he had never met a vampire, he thought he might be able to be friends with them as well.

"Any luck?" Harry enquired.

"Little," she replied, "Most are so dissatisfied with life that they are willing to kill for his sake, and rebel against those who have, as they see it, destroyed their lives. Like werewolves and giants, the Wild Children grow weary of the constant hatred directed at them ... I am younger than most of my kind - I do not feel as strongly as they do."

Harry nodded slightly. "I hate that anyone has to go through something like that, least of all you," he remarked softly, taking her hand and leading her from the station along with the Weasley's and Hermione. "If I ever could, I would join the Ministry and try to become Minister to attempt to secure better rights for those of our community who have been wrongly judged."

Lily smiled and hugged him slightly around the middle, "I know you would," she told him, "But really, we get by alright."

"Get by alright?" Harry repeated. "Lily, some of your kind are thinking of joining Voldemort for no more reason than that you feel that you are being wrongly treated by the light side. Something has to be drastically wrong for that to be happening. I swear I'll do something to help you … as soon as ever I can."

"Hurry up you two!" Ron called out, and they discontinued their conversation, heading over to join the others at the car. They were all bundled inside, and set off for Grimmauld Place. It did not take them long to arrive at all.

Harry was faintly surprised to see that Lily could see the Order of the Phoenix Headquarters, but she noted his confusion and told him that she had been told the address of the place so that she could keep in contact with them about her efforts in talking to others like her.

They walked up the front steps and pushed open the front door and headed inside. "This place has gotten so much better since the first time we were here, hasn't it?" Hermione remarked, looking around thoughtfully.

For awhile, they entertained Lily with tales of the things that they'd found in the house when they'd been cleaning up back at the start of fifth year. Harry didn't say much – the fact that Sirius was gone, really gone, was weighing heavily on him at present.

Lily shuddered when they told her about some of things they'd found – particularly the many-legged tweezers that had turned all spider like and tried to pierce Harry's skin on his first day of cleaning. Harry abandoned his friends as quickly as possible, on the pretence of going to get some food from the kitchen.

"Dobby, Winky, hello again," Harry smiled at the two house elves, who he ran into almost the moment he entered the kitchen. This place had certainly changed a lot since he had first seen it, Harry thought. The place was much cleaner than it had been, and though the walls were still rough-cleaven, they were now covered with bright tapestries which made the place less foreboding.

"Master is being here again!" Dobby squeaked excitedly. He bowed deeply while Winky curtseyed politely. "We is making dinner … but if the Master requires our help, we is always being happy to do as he wishes!"

Harry smiled, "If I could just grab a few snacks, my friends and I are little peckish – we don't want too much though," he added quickly, before Dobby and Winky could rush off and load him with more food than he was able to carry. "It's nearly dinner time; we just need a little something to tide us over."

"Miss Lily will be wanting quite a bit of food, Master Harry, that one eats a lot," Dobby said wisely. "And Master Harry should not be missing any meals either."

When Dobby and Harry had first met, Harry had been very thin, because his relatives had never gone to the trouble of feeding him too much. Now Harry had changed a lot, but the house elf didn't seem to have noticed. "No, we'll be fine with a small tray of food," Harry said.

Dobby left the stove to Winky and hurried over to the pantry, returning moments later with a tray of food that was much larger than Harry had wanted. He resolved that next time he asked for a snack, he'd specify exactly what they wanted.

When Harry tried to take the tray from Dobby, the house elf skipped nimbly out of the way and gave him an admonishing look, "Master will be letting Dobby do the carrying," he said sternly, "The master's back is not well, and Dobby is being here to look after master."

"Dobby, I've asked you to call me Harry before now," Harry pointed out tiredly, opening the door before Dobby had to contort himself in all sorts of weird shapes to try and open the door without dropping the tray.

"Master Harry is too kind," Dobby replied calmly, neatly sidestepping Harry's request. Harry sighed – House Elves never seemed to listen to him on topics like that, one day he might actually stop trying to discuss it.

They walked into the living room together, and the group gathered around Dobby with cheerful thanks for the food, which Dobby accepted with many bows and mutters of 'it is being nothing, kind masters and mistresses."

The moment the food was set on the table and Dobby had disappeared back to the kitchen, Lily fell on the food. "Haven't you eaten today?" Harry asked in amusement, remembering Dobby's words on how Lily could eat a fair bit of food.

"Yes," Lily replied around a mouthful of food, "But I'm still hungry. I'm usually hungry, something I've learned to live with."

Harry thought that maybe it was something to do with being a Wild Child, but didn't say anything aloud, since Ron and Hermione didn't know of Lily's particular curse. Harry didn't think that they'd care, given their response to Remus Lupin, but still, it was for Lily to talk about if she desired.

"So, how has your year been?" Harry enquired, "You haven't told us all that much in your letters, and it's hard to get a decent picture of what's going on from words anyway."

The small group had a fairly joyous reunion, chatting about all that had gone for them in the past months, all of them happy to be in one another's company again. Mrs. Weasley soon came to call them to the kitchen, where Lily attacked the food on the table voraciously, despite the fact that they'd been snacking for over an hour.

After dinner, the group went upstairs and settled in Harry's room for a couple of hours more to talk for a little while longer, before everyone drifted off to their own rooms, and Harry went to bed, knowing that his dreams would be empty and meaningless without the prospect of Sirius coming and talking to him.

The first week of the holidays passed in the same general manner, and Harry found himself not particularly looking forward to Christmas, because on Christmas afternoon, he would be returning to number six, Privet Drive, and Lily would be going home again.

Despite his wish that the week would last forever, Harry woke up on Christmas morning feeling rather happy. He would be spending the entire day celebrating with his friends, opening presents, eating to his hearts content and all the things that most people did on Christmas day.

A lot of the Order was present when everyone tramped downstairs, and most had grim faces. Harry remembered, rather suddenly, that it was now a year to the day since Fudge and Dumbledore had been removed from most people's lives – the former now rested in death's embrace and the latter … well, Harry wasn't too sure exactly where Dumbledore was, but he was alive and (presumably) well , although most of the Wizarding world thought that he, too, was dead.

"Morning," Harry said sleepily, walking into the kitchen. He was the first of his friends to be awake, and was regretting it somewhat until Winky brought him over a coffee to wake him up, and Dobby appeared moments later with a plate of toast.

Mrs. Weasley was sipping her own coffee, and looking rather happy to still be sitting down. She had, apparently, gotten rather used to having the House Elves around and was happy to let them do the work she had once done herself.

Mr. Weasley was also awake, but looking bleary while he talked quietly with another member of the Order. "Morning," most of the other occupants replied, all at varying stages of wakefulness.

"Merry Christmas dear," Mrs. Weasley said with false cheer. She didn't sound particularly as though she meant it. Unlike Harry, she thought that Dumbledore was dead, as did most of the Order. Harry was fairly sure the only one's in the Order who did know Dumbledore still lived were himself, Tatsu, Neko, Mad-Eye Moody and Minerva McGonagall.

Soon enough the younger generation started making its way downstairs, starting with Fred and George, who were still doing very well with their joke shop, and were wearing clothes to match their success. Ginny followed not long after, along with Lily. Hermione and Ron came down slightly later, Ron looking as though he'd much rather be abed, despite the temptation of presents.

"Mr. Potter," Minerva McGonagall walked stiffly into the room, her back straight and her manner business-like despite the festive occasion, "When over one hundred owls appeared for you this morning at Hogwarts from various fans across the country, I thought perhaps I should bring them to you."

She gave a slight wave of her wand, which brought the box Harry hadn't noticed she'd been holding back to it's proper size, which was almost hip height. The box was completely stuffed with letters, and Harry blinked with shock – he really was becoming more and more popular as time went on. He supposed that without Dumbledore, he really was the Wizarding world's main hope for winning the war against Voldemort (most of them didn't realise that he was their only hope, and always had been).

"Thanks," Harry said, still feeling a little bewildered. Despite the fact that something like this had happened the year before, he felt overwhelmed by the support that he was receiving from the rest of the Wizarding population.

"We'll help you open them all later," Lily assured him, eyeing the box with an expression on her face that mirrored Harry's feelings.

"Thanks," Harry said again, "I think I'll need all the help I can get."

"Merry Christmas," McGonagall said with a slight smile, before she turned to leave, presumably going back to Hogwarts. She declined Winky's offer of a coffee, and swept from the kitchen out into the living room, where there was the sudden sound of flames roaring, then silence. She had gone again.

"Presents now?" Ron asked hopefully.

"Don't you want to eat something?" Hermione asked him in surprise.

"If we open the presents, I can go back to bed for a couple of hours," Ron pointed out sleepily.

"Ickle Ronnickins!" Exclaimed the twins, who delighted in calling Ron by his former nick-name, probably because the youngest Weasley male was head and shoulders above the twins, who had more stocky frames, "How can you be thinking of sleep on Christmas morning! Shame on you!"

"Once everyone's eaten, we'll go and open the presents together," Mrs. Weasley decided before her children could cause any more of a fuss and ruin everyone else's breakfasts.

All of the younger generation ate quickly, then sat around impatiently waiting for the adults to finish. Tonks, who had come here instead of staying at Hogwarts for the holiday, finished almost as quickly as the teenagers did, and joined them in muttering rebelliously about some people eating too slowly.

Finally, however, the adults finished their breakfasts and everyone moved into the living room, where a Christmas tree had been erected the night before in preparation for the event. A small mound of presents was piled around the tree and everyone settled down as Hagrid volunteered to hand out the presents.

Harry looked around the room and smiled contentedly – this was what Christmas was supposed to be like.

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