Apart from his meet-up with his Gryffindor mates, as always, Harry used the break mainly as an occasion to see his non-Hogwarts friends.

Abdulaziz, he found, was almost giddy with excitement about Hogwarts already, and talked about it non-stop from the moment they left the adults in the parlour and left for Harry's room.

„But you have more than half a year left before you go!" Harry told him incredulously as they sat down in the comfortable chairs.

„I know, but still." Abdulaziz was actually fidgeting in his chair, he was so excited. "Dad started to cover some Hogwarts stuff with me, too. It's awesome."

Harry gave an exasperated huff. "That's just so typically you. I mean, there's a million reasons to get excited about Hogwarts, and you choose the classes?"

Abdulaziz gave him a look that clearly told him he was an idiot. "It's a school. What other reasons are there?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Oh, I don't know, maybe the awesome medieval castle in Scotland or all the friends you can spend your time with when you're there?"

Abdulaziz shrugged. "I spend time with my friends here, too, and Charles and Edmund won't be there, so it'll actually be less friends."

"Less friends from ancient families. But you'll get new ones," Harry insisted.

"Or not." Abdulaziz shrugged again. "It's up to luck whether you actually like the people sorted into your House. You got lucky, I guess, but you could have ended up with a bunch of idiots. At least I know Richard will be with me."

"And Asteria?" Harry asked with a snigger.

"Merlin, no. She threatened me with getting the Hat to put her in Ravenclaw once, but I just don't see it. She's a Slytherdor if I ever saw one. Really, I think she'd do best in your house, but she insists on Slytherin."

It seemed they really had made peace. "At least she'll be with Daphne," Harry pointed out.

"Not sure it's such a great thing. Daphne can be a little overbearing, and it might be hard to be her little sister."

"I think Daphne is pretty great," Harry defended his somewhat-friend.

"Hey, calm down," Abdulaziz put up his hands in mock surrender, "I didn't say she wasn't. Just...forceful, you know? Nothing wrong with that, but it's hard to measure up to."

"Do you think Gamila ever wonders this way about you?" Harry mused as he nibbled on a cookie from a plate that appeared on the table.

"Well, I think it's different when one of the siblings is a boy and the other is a girl. But maybe Wynn will worry about you this way one day."

"Ha! I don't think so." Harry shook his head, amused by the idea. "He's a Travers, and he'll be up to his ears in books and will have no interest in Quidditch or anything else I might like."

Abdulaziz frowned a little. "Hey, don't be so pessimistic," he chided. "I know your cousins are very different from you, but not all Ravenclaws are like that, and your cousin's mother was a Potter, after all. It's bound to show somewhere in the family." He paused, and then the excitement returning to his voice, asked: "Come on, tell me about Hogwarts!"

"I'm not sure I should encourage your unhealthy enthusiasm," Harry teased. "Maybe I could tell you about how dreadful History is?"

"Oh, come on!"

Harry thought for a moment. "Actually," he said, "there's one cool thing I want to tell you about." Surely there was no harm in that? "We figured out what is the monster in the Chamber of Secrets."

Abdulaziz stared at him, mouth actually a little open. "Really? How?"

"We spoke to a ghost at Hogwarts, Myrtle Warren. She died when the Chamber was last opened."

"Wow! When was that?"

Harry was struck. "Um...do you know that I don't actually know? Sometime in the fifties, I guess?"

"That's not that long, is it? Who opened it?"

Harry hesitated for a moment, but he didn't see what was wrong with telling anyone that either. "Riddle," he said. "I mean, Vol-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. We call him Riddle at home too," Abdulaziz waved him off impatiently. "Go figure. I might have guessed it would be him. So what's in the chamber, then?"

"A basilisk."

"Oh, right! That makes sense! He'd control it by parseltongue, right?" Abdulaziz grinned. "It's just such a cool skill!"

Harry was very tempted to demonstrate it, but remembered Alduin's warning and stopped himself at the last moment. Abdulaziz would probably be fine with it, but he could tell someone who would not. Still, it was good to bear in mind that if he ever needed someone to know beside Neville, Abdulaziz was safe.

"So did this Myrtle tell you?" Abdulaziz asked him.

"Not exactly, but she sort of described the monster and we brainstormed about it and Neville came up with the idea, and it just fit so well."

"Do you have any confirmation?"

Harry shifted a little uncomfortably. "Well, we didn't find the Chamber and go check, if that's what you're asking!" He diverted.

The younger boy laughed. "Not even the Gryffindors are proper Gryffindors nowadays, really," he said.

"Wouldn't finding the Chamber of Secrets be more of a Slytherin ting to do?" Harry wondered.

"For a completely different reason though," Abdulaziz pointed out. "You would just march in and kill the terrible monster and save everyone and so on, right?"

"Whereas the Slytherins would set it on the school?"

"On their enemies," Abdulaziz corrected.

"What would the Ravenclaws do?" Harry wondered.

"Why, study it, of course," Abdulaziz said in his best 'elementary, dear Watson' voice.

"And Hufflepuffs would bring it snacks?" Harry had a sudden, vivid mental picture of Hannah and Susan bringing a terrible, huge snake cookies, and laughed, describing it.

"I think Susan might actually pull it off," Abdulaziz mused. Adopting Susan's disapproving expression, he said: "Now be a nice monster and eat this, you need proper nutrition and going around the school eating people is just no way to act for a grown-up serpent."

"We should teach Susan parseltongue," Harry decided. "I think this just might work."

-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-

When Harry came over to Malfoy Manor a few days before the New Year, he found not only Draco there, but Theo and Daphne as well. "Wow, hello," he said, "I didn't expect you."

"I had to use the opportunity," Daphne said. "My Mum wouldn't allow me here just to see Draco – I don't know what exactly she thinks we would do, but it's clearly terrible and would ruin my life forever – so when I heard you were coming, I just had to get here."

"Well, it's nice to see you," Harry remembere dhis manners as they headed to Draco's room. "Thanks for the chocolate frogs. How has your holidays been?"

"Decent," Daphne replied, then grimaced. "I mean, Pansy visited the day before yesterday, so I really could have done without that, and I'm sorry that Tracey is away somewhere with her parents so I can't see her...but it's nice to spend some time with Astoria, I guess."

"Is she as hyped about Hogwarts as Abdulaziz?"

"Well, I haven't seen him, so I don't know, but she's looking forward to it, yes."

"Who wouldn't be?" Theo asked rhetorically.

"Well actually Abdulaziz mostly cares about the classes, which aren't that great a factor to me."

"By that he means he doesn't give a damn," Draco commented with a smirk.

"Oh, shut up. But I would look forward to Hogwarts even without them, whereas to Abdulaziz it just seems like it would be pointless."

"I like the Quidditch," Draco said. "Especially now that I'm on the team."

"And I like getting out of the house," Theo muttered. When the others looked at him, he said: "Well, it's really depressing there sometimes, with just Father and our elves. I'm hardly ever allowed to go anywhere. Hogwarts is so much more cheerful."

"Why doesn't you father let you go anywhere?" Harry asked.

Theo looked embarrassed. "He thinks most people aren't good enough, I guess," he said quietly as they settled down in Draco's room. "Even from other Ancient houses. Malfoy Manor is basically the only place he lets me go with any regularity."

"Really?" Harry frowned. "But, I mean, you were at the Travers Manor? Definitely for my birthday, and I think even before that..."

"Yes," Theo admitted. "The first time was that party your cousin threw for all Ancient family children going to Hogwarts. Father felt not attending would look like I was giving up my Noble family right, so of course that was unacceptable." He sighed. "Your birthday...I might have...lied a little?"

"Did he find out?"

"Yeah," Theo admitted. "Nothing much happened, but he watches me way more carefully now, so..."

"But he does visit other people than just Draco's parents, doesn't he?" Harry probed.

"Not that often, but yeah, he doesn't just go to the Malfoys," Theo confirmed.

"So why is it different in your case?"

Theo sighed again. "He says that as his heir, I have to be careful about the company I keep, but I don't know. I mean, you're both heirs as well, and your families don't make such a fuss."

Harry privately thought that Alduin made quite a lot of fuss about where it was appropriate for him to go, but he just shrugged and said: "Well I'm not Alduin's heir, so maybe that changes things? And Draco is just ridiculously spoiled."

"Hey!" The boy protested.

"Oh please, Mr. If-Every-Other-House's-Team-Gets-New-Nimbus-2000s-Mine-Has-To-Have-2001s. Do you think you couldn't have won on 2000s?"

"No," Draco replied with a smirk, "I just have to have the best of everything."

"Yep," Daphne said, "not spoiled at all."

They all laughed and chattered cheerfully, but Theo looked a little awkward. At first Harry thought it was because of that conversation about his father, but a bit later, when Draco and Daphne were teasing each other about something or another, Theo turned to him and said quietly: "Can I talk to you for a moment?"

Surprised, Harry got up and stepped a little to the side with him. "What is it?" He asked.

"Well, I just wanted to give you this." And Harry received a package of sugar quills. "Merry Christmas," Theo added.

"Merry Christmas," Harry replied, a little confused.

"It's my Father," Theo said, embarrassed. "He checked who I was sending gifts to, to make sure there wasn't anyone appropriate. He doesn't...he doesn't really approve of you, I guess, so I couldn't send the gift and had to bring it here."

Harry was too surprised by this news to be offended. He remembered Alduin telling him how most people would try to get on his good side. "What's your father's problem with me?" He asked.

"I'd much rather not talk about it if you don't mind," Theo muttered.

"All right," Harry agreed easily, not wanting to embarrass him. He determined to ask Draco about that mirror as soon as possible. Hopefully, it was a small enough thing that Theo would be able to hide it from his father.

-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-hp-

When Alduin spotted Aurelius Prince at the New Year's Eve party, he decided that it was time for one long-overdue conversation.

Aurelius had watched him carefully through garden parties and dinners for the last few months, ever since he was first asked to Travers Manor with Eliza. The air needed clearing.

"Hello," he said, "how is Augustus?"

"Why don't you ask Eliza?" Aurelius returned.

Well, that didn't take long. "I could," Alduin agreed, "but I'm asking you."

"I can't imagine why you'd have the slightest wish to talk to me."

"Perhaps because you have been staring daggers at me for months now? Look, I understand this isn't easy for you either, but of the three of us, I really think you got the best end of the deal. You knew what you signed up for."

"Yes, well, I couldn't know you'd wake up, could I?"

Alduin exhaled. "You're just a real charmer, aren't you?"

Aurelius frowned. "That came out much worse than I'd intended. I just...this whole situations makes me uncomfortable, okay?"

Alduin had to fight an eyeroll. "Tough for you. You're thirty, or close enough. You should know how to deal with difficult situations by now. Get over yourself."

"I could say the same to you, don't you think?" Aurelius asked archly.

Alduin raised his eyebrows. "I had rather more to get over, I venture to say...and I did. I have no intention to...try and seduce your wife, or whatever it is that you're afraid of. You should trust Eliza more."

Aurelius snorted. "That's not what I'm afraid of. But it's...upsetting for her, and that irritates me. You of all people must know that she's not the most emotionally stable of people."

"Yes, but I also know that she's strong, and she can deal with it. With your help, ideally, if you aren't too busy being mad at me."

Aurelius gave him an unfriendly look. "Her sister-in-law has been helping her a lot," he said.

"Yes, I know." Ginevra would soon have nothing left of herself, given how much she insisted on giving other people. If he hadn't known her, he might have doubted there was such a thing as a Ravenpuff, but as it was… "But don't you think she'd appreciate help from her husband as well?"

"That's precisely what I don't know," Aurelius said pointedly.

Alduin sighed. "I can't help you with that," he said. "It's your marriage. How about you ask her? And in the meantime, get yourself under control. If you continue in this vein, the press will start to notice, and I'm sure none of us want that."

Aurelius grimaced and nodded curtly. There had been a lot of that over two years ago, when Alduin firs woke from the coma, speculation about the lost love and whether the Prince marriage would be broken over this miraculous return from the dead, and so on. It hadn't been pretty.

Alduin returned his nod, and went in search of Alexandra. It's just typical, he thought. As if I didn't have enough of a baggage of my own, what with nine missing years and a dead family and Eliza and Harry and all of that. I have the good fortune of dealing with other people's issues as well.

It was all the more irritating because, for all his hard words to Aurelius, he actually did feel guilty. The man did nothing wrong, essentially, and he didn't deserve to have to wonder if his wife – whom he seemed to love in the full, romantic sense of the word – regretted her marriage to him. As harsh as his response had been, it was straight to the point: Alduin waking up changed everything for him.

Stop it, a voice in his head that sounded very like Abdullah said. You're not going to feel guilty for not staying dead.

Watch me, he told the voice grimly as he finally found his wife.

He didn't think about Aurelius for the rest of the night, but it was actually musing about his somewhat unpleasant manner and how he still felt pity for the man a day later that led Alduin to finally puzzling out a solution to the problem of Harry's training. It required him to ask for a significant favour, but then, Harry's survival skills were in everyone's interest.

And so he met Severus Snape in Hogsmeade once again.

"I know it's a lot to ask," he said, "but there is literally no one else at Hogwarts I could trust with it. I don't mean it as flattery, but as a simple fact."

Severus sneered at him. "What about one of those Defence teachers you roped into teaching here, Merlin knows how?"

Alduin only gave him a look. In Harry, the question had been genuine. Snape was just trying to provoke him.

There was a long silence as the man considered. "I am willing to give it a try," he said at length with a deep scowl that made it clear how unhappy he was with this decision. "If Potter proves to be lazy or a slack off, as I suspect he will, then you'll have to find someone else."

Alduin frowned. "Very well, but I ask that you actually give him a chance, not decide he is not going to be up to your standards from the start. He has some natural talent there, and he has it in him to far surpass me in Defence, I know it. But he needs practice. He needs to be ready."

Snape could only agree.

Alduin knew Harry wasn't going to be thrilled with this solution, but he hoped he would understand the necessity.