Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K. Rowling and anything else you recognize I don't own.

Author's notes: It's here! It's finally here! Yay! And it's dedicated to She's a Star and Storm for their birthday's.

Sorry it's rushed at the end, but I was trying to get it done it time. :-S Maybe I can go back and fix it someday. :-D It probably doesn't make any sense either.

Also, this isn't proofread so sorry for any errors.

And so without further ado, chapter six!

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Chapter Six

Santa Comes to Town

            Dumbledore led Harry into the nearest classroom. He closed the door behind them and went over to one of the desks that were piled on top of another. Dumbledore grabbed one and set it down, motioning for Harry to sit. Harry did no such thing. Instead he crossed his arms and stared at the other man sternly. He was determined not to back down and forgive for at least another twenty years. Dumbledore would probably still be alive, thought Harry sourly. Hermione thought that was unreasonable but Harry didn't. It was quite reasonable for what Dumbledore did. To betray him like that, especially with that poor excuse for a raving loch ness monster.

            Sensing that Harry wasn't going to budge, Dumbledore seated himself in the desk instead. He took a minute to straighten the top that somehow broke off when he set it down.

            "I don't know to say this Harry, so I'm just going to come out and say it." He took a few breaths and stared ahead.

            "Mirror, mirror on the wall, damn I sure look fine. I can't blame those horny boys, I would make me mine. When I pass you in a club, 'Oh la la!' you gasp. Back up boy, I ain't your toy or your piece of ass," Dumbledore sang.

            Harry didn't know what to say. This was, to say the least, the most beautiful apology he'd ever heard before. But no! He would not back down.

            "Ok…but I still don't forgive you," Harry stated firmly.

            "Oh please! I worked on that for so long!"

            "I don't care, it didn't work," Harry said, sticking his nose in the air. Dumbledore looked heartbroken. But he was far from it.

            "Dammit! I worked on that for hours and hours! Do you know how much stress I went through to come up with that apology?! Do you?! And look at it! It's ruined! My beautiful fur coat my father gave me!" he yelled, pulling a fur coat from his pocket and petting it.  Guilt swept over Harry.

            "I'm…I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

            "Sure you didn't!"

            "You're right, I didn't! And I never will! You broke my heart Albus! Broke it with that miniature hammer of yours! I'm not going to stand for it anymore! I can do better!" Harry stared daggers at Dumbledore, who was sitting picking at his nails.

            "Did you know that you can die if you eat a slug?" Dumbledore asked.

            "See! Look at you! You don't listen to me! Never!" Harry screamed in frustration. Dumbledore looked up from his nails and became macho serious man.

            "I'm sorry Harry. You're right. It's just…I'm trying to deal with everything at once right now. It's tough. I wanted to talk to you about the other day. It's not what you think." Harry scoffed.

            "Oh I know exactly what was going on. No need to tell me!"

            "No! It's not like that. Please, listen. How about we go to my office and have some tea and I can explain it all," Dumbledore offered hopefully.

            "How about not. I don't want to ever see you again Albus Wulfric-Brian-what-the-hell-too-long-of-a-name Dumbledore!" With that, Harry turned and stormed out of the classroom leaving Dumbledore standing there stunned. Or maybe he was sitting. Who knows, Harry left in such a rush the camera couldn't get a shot.

            Harry walked into the Great Hall and looked around. He tried to calm his racing heart before he sat with his friends. He didn't want them to see how mad and sad and glad and bad and rad he was feeling…ad.

            He noticed Hermione slouched down whispering something to Ron. There was an empty seat between them that he headed towards. Just then he noticed Seamus Finnigan walking to the same seat. Well nobody takes Harry's seat. Nobody. Harry picked up his pace and sent telepathic messages to Seamus hoping that he got them or it would be a bloody lunch today.

            Seamus noticed Harry's quickened pace and decided to make this challenge. He walked just a bit faster also. Harry sped up some more, shooting glances over at Seamus making sure he wasn't getting ahead. Seamus did the same. Faster and faster they went until they both broke out in a flat out run.

            Both boys reached the chair at the same time and stood staring at each other, daring the other to try and sit down first. Seamus sat down.

            "Wait! I wasn't ready!" Harry exclaimed. Seamus just shrugged his shoulders.

            "I said I wasn't ready; now get out of my seat!" Harry yelled. The other boy still did not budge. 

            "Fine, you left me no choice." Harry bent down and grabbed the bottom of the chair and pulled. Seamus fell to the floor with a loud thud. He stood up rubbing his bum.

            "What the hell was that for?! You could have asked nicely! I would have given it to you! Why do you have to be so mean all the time? What happened? You used to be nice!" By this time Seamus was in tears. He ran from the room holding his face in his hands.

            During Seamus' crying fest the rest of the Great Hall had turned and stared at them. Now they were giving Harry death glares. Harry shifted from his right foot to his left uncomfortably.

            "Er…riiiiight." With that he sat down. 

            "That was really mean Harry," Hermione scolded.

            "Yeah mate, he is your friend, isn't he?" Ron asked.

            "Hmm. That was pretty mean huh? Yeah I think it was. Maybe I should go apologize…I'll do it later," Harry said, starting to pile food on his plate.

            "Yes, you should," Hermione said, still scowling. Harry continued to pile food onto his plate, making sure to get one of everything. Once that was accomplished, Harry dug in. After five bites of the same pickle, Harry stopped.

            "He had it comin'! If you'd been there you would have done the same!" Harry shouted at the top of his lungs. Then he burped.

            "Sorry, just felt I needed to justify myself," he murmured. Everyone stared. Hermione cleared her throat and threatened them all with point deductions. Not that she would really do that and all. …or maybe she would. Bwhahaha! Erm, right.

            Slowly everyone went back to their lunch. Hermione looked at Harry to find him concentrating hard building the castle out of pickles, cheese, and dust flavored salt.

            "Harry, what are you doing?" she asked.

            "Shh! I'm…almost…voila! Done! Ain't it beautiful?" Harry asked wiping a tear from his eye. "Well, ain't it?!" He looked to his sides and noticed Ron staring straight ahead with a funny look on his face.

            "What's wrong with you?" Harry asked him. Ron didn't answer so Harry looked to Hermione. Harry opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong when Ron spoke.

            "You know Harry, Hermione was just telling me about you and Professor Dumbledore. Sounds like a…" he shot a look at Hermione who narrowed her eyes, "great relationship there. I mean, when does somebody find…true love in a…150 year old." Ron tried to smile but failed miserably. Harry didn't notice. He was looking at Hermione.

            "You told him? You told him?!"

            "Oh please Harry. He's our friend, it's not like I went and told Draco or something."    

            "You WHAT?! You told Draco?! Oh my God, do you know what that means?! He's going to try and steal him away!"

            "Harry! Calm down! I said I didn't tell him! My gosh!"

            "Oh…"

            "Look, Ron is our friend. He won't tell anyone. Will you Ron?" Hermione shot a glance at Ron. He looked over and managed a smile this time.

            "'Course not. Why would I? Harry's my friend," Ron said, this time with a successful smile. But sadly, it did not last. Ron exploded.

            "Harry! What are you thinking?! One-hundred and fifty years old! 1-5-0! 150! Do you know how wrong that is?! What do you guys do in your free time? Oh God, forget I asked. Oh bad mental pictures. I need soap. Wash my mind out. 150! Ahhh!" Ron stopped and took a breath. "Er…sorry. I just—" Ron was cut off by a terrible shout.

            "Well! Look who thinks he can judge, Mr. Snooty-pants! And where have you been all this time?! Huh? You and Hermione are always gone! What am I supposed to do? Just sit and wait for you guys to get back?! Not I mister! I'm going to go out and Dumbledore cares about me!" Harry stopped. A pained look crossed his face. "At least…I thought he did." Silence fell upon the three, squishing them to the ground. Pushing up, they managed to get it off of them.

            "Harry…we're sorry. We don't mean to ditch you like that," Hermione whispered. Harry shrugged his shoulders.

            "What have you guys been doing anyway?" he asked. Hermione looked at Ron. Ron looked at Hermione. The two looked at each other. They were looking at each other. Ron's eyes were on Hermione's face. Hermione's gaze rested on Ron. Ron shot a glance at Hermione. Hermione stared at Ron.

            "Hmm…well, you see, Ron here…"

            "Don't start like that Hermione!"

            "Fine then! You tell the story!"

            "Ok I will! Ahem. It all started a few weeks ago. We were in Charms when an idea struck me. I was having a hard time remembering what I had for breakfast and that's when the idea hit me. What if I made hats that helped you think? It was brilliant! But I couldn't get the magic right by myself so I asked Hermione here to help me. But I made her keep it a secret because I didn't want anyone laughing at me."

            "Why would they laugh at you?" Harry asked.

            "I don't know…they might," Ron responded.

            "Oh. Well have you got any made?"

            "Yeah, I have a few models. I have the Happy Chicken hat. That one doesn't seem to work as well as the ski jump one though. And it's cool. The ski jump one, you can have little people jumping off. It's quite big actually so normal size people could almost jump off. There's also the cheese spray one. That one's good for remembering whose birthday is coming up. Just the other day I put it on and I remembered that Charlie's birthday was in a few days. And there's the sunflower seed hat. Now that's an interesting one…" Ron continued to ramble on for a few minutes before Harry jumped in.

            "So…you guys have been sneaking off to make these…hats and didn't tell me? Why?"

            "I don't know…I guess I thought you would think I was stupid or something," Ron said with a slight blush.

            "I would never think that. We're friends, and frankly, I think that's a cool idea."

            "Really?"

            "Yeah."

            "Oh. Well then…I don't really think you and Dumbledore is disgusting. I was just kidding you know," Ron said with a nervous laugh. Harry smiled at him.

            "It's ok. I know it's a little strange but…I'm happy."

            "And that's all that counts," Hermione put in. Ron nodded.

            "Friends?" Ron asked holding out his hand. Harry took it and nodded his head yes.

            "Of course."

            Christmas was about on them. Hermione had plans to go skiing with her parent's and Ron was going to go home to the Burrow. Harry on the other hand, didn't have any plans and was starting to feel left out. He would love to go with Ron or even Hermione but neither had asked him to join them.

            Harry was starting to feel a little low when one day the three of them were talking about break and Ron mentioned that Harry was coming with him to the Burrow. This raised Harry's spirits until the night he had the nightmare.

            So now Mr. Weasley was in the hospital and Harry and Ron were at the headquarters. Christmas was in a few days and Harry noticed how much happier Sirius seemed to be.

            The day before Christmas Sirius approached Harry.

            "You know, tonight is Christmas Eve. Isn't that exciting?! I can't wait for Santa to come!" he exclaimed with a wink at Harry. Harry was quite confused as he knew Santa was not real and he thought Sirius knew that too. But whatever floats your boat.

            That night after everyone had gone to bed, Harry snuck downstairs to get something to eat. His stomach was growling like mad. He snuck into the kitchen only to jump back through the door.

            He stepped back in. There, sitting at the table, was Santa. Harry crept forward, trying not to make a sound but to no avail. He knocked over a pot, a spoon, a coat hanger, and a soup bowl. Santa seemed to know that this was going to happen for he did not move. He just looked up at Harry and smiled. Harry knew that grin…and those glasses…and that beard.

            "Professor Dumbledore?! What are you doing?" Harry exclaimed.

            "Just having some tea. Won't you join me?" Dumbledore asked. Harry sat down.

            "What are you doing dressed as Santa?"

            "Oh this? I found it in my attic last night, thought I'd try it on." Then something occurred to Harry.

            "Sirius knew you were coming didn't he? That's why he told me Santa was coming tonight…"

            "Yes, he did. I want to talk to you Harry. And I don't want you running off. Please, just listen to me, will you?" Dumbledore pleaded. Harry didn't know if it was the pleading tone in his voice or if he was just stuck looking at Santa Dumbledore but he stayed where he was.

            "Ok. Let's talk."

            "Alright. Cookie? Milk? It's quite tasty."

            "Yes, please." Harry grabbed the milk and cookies that Dumbledore had outstretched to him.

            "So…how are things?" Harry asked.

            "Things have been sad. I've missed you Harry. I've missed your laugh, your eyes, your nose, and your glasses. I've even missed your little toe. It's so cute, by the way. Anyway, I want you to know that nothing is going on between me and Professor Snape." Harry scoffed. Dumbledore looked into the fire, hurt written all over his face.

            "No really, there isn't. Professor Snape had a peanut stuck in his mouth and I was just helping him to get it out. Truly." Harry glance into the fire also.

            "Then why did he say that when he ran out of the room?"

            "He was just trying to push your buttons. You know how he is."

            "Yeah…so, you were just saving his life?"

            "Yes. It was nothing more. I swear it Harry, I swear it." Dumbledore looked at Harry, catching his eye. He didn't look away and that's when Harry knew he was telling the truth.

            "Ok, Professor—"

            "Please, Albus, I've told you this," Dumbledore cut in with a smile.

            "Ok, Albus, I believe you," Harry said smiling back. Dumbledore stood up and walked around the table and sat next to Harry. Harry leaned onto Dumbledore's shoulder.

            "I love you Harry," Dumbledore whispered.

            "I love you too, Albus."

            They sat for the next few hours in each other's arms, sipping their milk and eating their cookies. It had turned out to be a nice Christmas Eve after all.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

Author's notes: Well, there you go. I think I might back and change the ending since I rushed through it.

But for now, that's what you get. :-D Hope you liked it. Happy birthday Nita and Storm!!