Harry had stayed overnight at Dumbledore's rooms so he could be there when Sevvy got to open his presents.
The Weasleys and Grangers were staying at Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione would be opening their presents with their parents.
It was 8 am, and everything was quiet, Harry noticed. He checked the pile under the Christmas tree. Good, Sevvy's presents had arrived. It never occured to him that there might be presents for him there, too.
He slowly snuck into the boy's room. He smirked a bit as he remembered Albus's long lecture on why it was a bad idea to use your magic to continue to feed a spell when an opponant might try to break it.
Of course, his lecture would have been much more impressive if all three of them hadn't had chocolate all over their face, and in Albus's case, his beard.
"Sevvy! Sevvy, wake up, it's Christmas!"
The boy moaned and rolled over, intent on sleeping on.
"Sevvy! Presents!" Harry scolded.
That woke the boy up. "Did Santa leave me a present?" he asked in awe.
"Go wake up your Daddy," Harry urged, "and we'll go see."
Severus ran into Dumbledore's bedroom and jumped straight on top of him.
"Daddy, Daddy, can we go see if I got a present? Please?"
Dumbledore groaned a bit; waking up with a full bladder and a child jumping on top of you is never pleasant, but he didn't complain. He was only too happy that the child was completely over the Potions kit incident.
"Of course we can, dear child, but Daddy needs to visit the bathroom first, alright?"
With that, Dumbledore beat a hasty retreat from the room, and Severus returned to his own bedroom, grinning at Harry.
"Daddy had to pee," he giggled.
Harry tried VERY hard not to laugh. He should point out to the child that peeing is a perfectly normal activity that most people undertake several times a day, but is not normally the topic of civilised conversation. He should not laugh.
He failed miserably.
Giggling along with Severus, he made the child put on slippers. He considered a bathrobe, but he was quite certain Molly Weasley had sent them all a Weasley jumper, so he didn't bother.
Dumbledore re-emerged, glaring briefly at the giggling boys before taking Sevvy's hand and guiding him to the living room.
For all his enthusiasm, Sevvy suddenly seemed reluctant to enter.
"What if Santa didn't think I was good enough?" he whispered, going a bit pale, "I got in trouble for the try-outs…and I wasn't always good."
Dumbledore lifted him in his arms and carried him into the room. He halted by the tree, where a mount of presents were lying. He could see at least four with Sevvy's name attached.
"See, child?" he whispered in the boy's ear, "you have been very good, and we love you very, very much. Santa knows that, and he brought you lots of presents. All the presents he wanted to bring you over the years, but couldn't."
That didn't need explaining. Sevvy considered it perfectly normal that Santa hadn't wanted to run into his parents.
The three settled down, Sevvy on Dumbledore's lap, and the old wizard waved his wand. Presents flew over to each of them.
Harry stared at his. It wasn't a Weasley jumper or the usual stack of chocolate from Ron, or the pile of books from Hermione.
He slowly opened it, and found a tiny Pensieve, full to the brim with memories. He stared at Dumbledore.
"I know you can buy yourself anything you want," the old wizard said softly, "but what you want most you can't buy. I copied all my memories of your parents at school, and after school for you and put them in there. It's well protected, don't worry."
Harry nodded, tears in his eyes. "Thank you, Albus," he said hoarsely.
Suddenly they both blushed deeply and looked at the boy.
"It's ok," Sevvy said calmly, "I know Santa doesn't really bring presents. It's just more fun to pretend."
"How did you know?" Harry asked.
Sevvy sucked in his lower lip. "When I was an adult I didn't like Christmas," he said thoughtfully.
Harry sighed. "Another flashback. I could have known. But you are right, Sevvy. It's a lot more fun to pretend. You know what? We will pretend Santa brought these, but we can still thank the people who gave them to us."
Sevvy nodded happily, and tore the paper off his own present.
"A servicing kit!" he bounced with joy, "look, Daddy!"
Dumbledore admired the gift, and opened his own.
Two socks fell out. Two very…unique…socks. They were both of a warm wool, but one sock reached up to his knee, while the other barely covered his ankle. They were knobbly, and in the most lurid colors.
Sevvy looked at him in anticipation.
"I made them myself, Daddy," he said shyly, "Hermione taught me to knit, and I worked on them for a long time. I cheated only a bit, with magic. Do you like them?"
Dumbledore swallowed, and pointedly avoided looking at Harry.
"I think these are the very best socks anyone ever gave me, Sevvy," he said with conviction, "thank you so much!"
And to the child's utter delight, he pulled them on immediately.
It went on for a long while after that. Besides the servicing kit, the Quidditch gloves, and books from Hermione, Sevvy also got lots of painting equipment from Dumbledore, a nice set of childsized dress robes from Minerva, of course a Weasley Jumper, green with a silver S, an enchanted Muggle trainset from Arthur, a box of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, and finally Harry's Teddy Bear.
He hugged the Bear right away and sighed in contentment.
"Mother wouldn't let me have a bear," he said, and then, happily, "I'm going to call him Harold."
This time Harry avoided looking at Dumbledore.
The three of them had a lot of fun that day, all laying on the floor to try out Sevvy's new trainset.
-That evening-
"Put on your dress robes, Sevvy. You can come to the Christmas Dinner party with us."
Sevvy looked up from his book and smiled widely. "Really? Can I wear my new ones?"
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes. But I'm going to spell them so they stay clean," he said, waving his wand over the robes.
They were a deep red, not bright, but they brought out Sevvy's dark eyes and hair perfectly.
"Can I go pick up Harry?" Sevvy asked, "I want to thank Ron's Mom and Dad and Ron and Hermione and Fred and George for the presents, too."
Dumbledore smiled. "Yes, you can. Go straight to their rooms, and come back with one of them. No wandering around the castle alone."
Sevvy nodded and rushed off.
He hadn't gone very far, when he suddenly felt a very strong man grab him. A hand was pressed over his mouth, and he saw the glittering eyes of the werewolf.
Dumbledore met the rest of the party in the Entrance Hall. Harry and Ron were discussing how they would use their boxes of pranks in the coming term, well out of Molly's earshot, of course.
Dumbledore frowned when he couldn't find his son among them.
"Harry, where is Sevvy?" he asked.
Harry looked up surprised. "Isn't he with you?"
"No," Dumbledore said, a nasty foreboding feeling taking hold of him, "he went to find you, and thank the Weasley's for his presents. He left over half an hour ago."
Harry paled.
"Harry? What's wrong?" Hermione asked.
"Sevvy's missing," Harry whispered.
At that moment, Crabbe and Goyle, the only remaining Slytherins in the castle, made their way in.
The two hadn't given anyone trouble since Draco was gone. They really were incapable of independent thought without him. The teens just ignored them.
Crabbe looked around, smirking.
Lupin entered, holding a bundle, wrapped in a black cloak, but Harry and Dumbledore recognized immediately the deep red of Sevvy's dress robes.
With a snarl, Harry wanted to leap forward, only to be held back by three wands.
"Back!" Crabbe sneered, "don't move, or the child dies."
Lupin had also drawn his wand, the bundle awkwardly cradled in his arms so he could hold it properly.
Goyle pointed his wand as well, not really understanding what was going on, but if Vince said so, he'd do as he was told.
"Excellent, Lupin," Crabbe smirked, "The Dark Lord will reward you handsomely."
Lupin approached him.
"The boy IS alive, isn't he? Our master would be displeased if he died already."
"The boy is fine," Lupin said.
"YOU!" Harry yelled, "if I get my hands on you…I will…"
Dumbledore held him back.
"Don't do this, Remus," he said, "please. Give Sevvy back to us."
Lupin ignored them both.
"You lose, Potter," Crabbe gloated, "Give me the boy, Lupin."
"Here," Remus tossed the bundle at Crabbe, who stumbled in surprise and dropped his wand.
"NOW, SEVVY!" Remus yelled.
"Stupify!" everyone heard the child's voice from the other side of the room. The red light of the Stunner hit Crabbe in the back, and he collapsed.
Arthur quickly took care of Goyle.
"Bind them, tight, and check Crabbe, he should have a Portkey on him," Lupin panted.
Severus ran up to him, dressed only in pants and shirt.
"Did I do ok?" he asked, looking up at the Werewolf.
"You did perfect," Remus replied.
Harry stormed up to him. "You…"
He raised his fist. Remus didn't even try to protect himself from the blow. He stood quiet and waited.
"Harry, no!" Severus yelped, catching Harry's arm and hanging from it, "he didn't hurt me, Harry, he HELPED me! You have to listen to him!"
"I think," Dumbledore said, with a stern gaze on Remus, "that we would all appreciate an explanation."
Remus nodded, and began. "It all started when Draco Malfoy approached me with a plan to disguise himself as Crabbe, and kidnap Sevvy during the holidays. He assumed I would want revenge for being, as he said, 'treated like a slave'. He didn't know that I had already accepted that what he saw as slavery was rather well deserved punishment…" he lowered his eyes for a moment.
"I didn't think you'd believe me, and even if you had, you would have protected Sevvy, but you wouldn't have caught Draco. I wanted him captured. So earlier this evening…"
Severus struggled against the hand holding him, biting, kicking, hitting.
"Shhhh, be quiet," a voice said in his ear, "I'm not here to hurt you, I want to help you."
Remus Lupin dragged the boy into an unused room, locked it and silenced it.
"Please, listen to me," he said, with a note of urgency in his tone that made Sevvy stop struggling.
"Draco Malfoy; you've met him before, wants me to kidnap you and hand you over to him. He wants to bring you to Voldemort. He is in disguise, so no one will recognize him. I want to catch him for you, Sevvy, but I need your help."
Sevvy looked at him. "You gave me to the nasty man who hurt me, and pulled me over the cliff!" he said.
Lupin nodded sadly. "I'm so very sorry, Sevvy. I didn't know he was going to do that, but it was very, very wrong of me. I was jealous of you, and I did very stupid things. I'm so sorry."
"Jealous?" Sevvy asked, intrigued.
"I wanted Harry to myself," Lupin wondered if it was wise to tell that to a six year old, "and I convinced myself that it was your fault Harry was angry with me. It wasn't your fault," he quickly reassured the child, "it was my own fault because I had been mean to Harry. But I didn't want to see that. They punished me, and I understood it was all my own fault."
"Did you get grounded?" Sevvy asked.
"Yes, sort of," Lupin said with a wry grin, "I'm still grounded, actually. Listen. Draco is going to think I will bring you to him in the Entrance Hall. I need your dress robes, so I can pretend I'm carrying you. Then we're going to do the following…"
"And then I hid in the Hall, and Remus waited on the other side, and I got to Stun him!" Sevvy explained proudly.
"He saved me, Harry, Daddy," he looked at the two imploringly, "I'm not mad at him anymore. Please don't be mad at him anymore either?"
Harry and Dumbledore shared a look.
"Sevvy," Remus said, his eyes still on the floor, "I'm very happy you're not angry anymore, but it's ok if Harry and Daddy still are. I've been very mean."
"But you're sorry," Sevvy said, confused.
"Yes, but being sorry doesn't mean you don't have to be punished," Remus said, squatting in front of the child, "I'm going to finish my punishment. But I hope," he took the small hand in his own, "I hope you will let me be your friend someday."
He got up, and nodded to the Weasleys. "I'm going straight back to my chores, I promise."
He walked away.
"Oh for Merlin's sake," Harry groaned. "Remus!"
The werewolf slowly turned around.
"Would you like to come to the Christmas Party with us?" Harry asked a bit stiffly.
Remus's eyes brightened, a faint flicker of hope in them.
"If…if that's ok…"
Arthur and Dumbledore nodded.
"We're going to have a chat later," they warned him, "but for now it seems you saved Sevvy's life. We'd best get those two cleaned up as well."
Bill stayed with the bound and Stunned young men until the Aurors came. Fifteen minutes into his watch, Crabbe slowly turned into Draco Malfoy. Luckily, Bill was smart enough to redo the binds, as Crabbe was almost twice the size of Malfoy.
Sevvy had retrieved his dress robes, and pulled them over his head.
"Ready now," he said, and taking Harry's and Dumbledore's hands, he dragged them to the feast.
A/N My apologies to all who wanted an evil Lupin. Sorry. It just wasn't planned that way. To all of you who complained about him being OOC: if you want IC, read the books. You're reading a KIDFIC for Merlin's sake! How much more OOC can it GET?