A Doggy for Christmas - Advent's Calendar Story 2022
by Teddylonglong

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

Harry looked up from the letter in bewilderment. "Excuse me," he turned to Mrs. Weasley, "do you know a…," he glanced at the parchment, "… Remus Lupin?" He showed the letter to his best friend's mother.

The woman nodded. "Yes, I know him. He was best friends with your parents. I haven't seen him after you know what though. Why don't you write to him and invite him to visit you here? He'll surely come to see you if he can."

Harry nodded, gratefully, and immediately set to work.

HP

At the same time, Albus Dumbledore enjoyed some tea and biscuits in his office together with the four heads of the houses, who had all remained at Hogwarts over the summer as usual. In a few days' time, Filius would go and visit his sister for a month; however, everyone else enjoyed being able to work on the tasks, which had been badly neglected during the school year.

All of a sudden, one of the glass devices on his shelf let out an alarm. It was not extremely loud; however, it was audible and could not simply be ignored.

"Albus, what's that sound?" Minerva was the first to enquire.

Albus let out a deep sigh, trying in vain to hid his concern. "The blood wards around Harry's home are coming down."

"What? You told me Harry was safe with these horrible muggles!"

Albus let out a deep sigh at Minerva's outburst, noticing that Severus rolled his eyes at the mentioning of the young Gryffindor.

"I shall go and pay the Dursleys' residence a visit. I'll see you all in a few minutes," he decided, not wanting to ask any of his colleagues, who would merely groan and find excuses, except for Minerva, who was more than likely to bring her sweet lion home to Hogwarts, which was not supposed to happen.

HP

Albus stepped through the fireplace to Arabella Figg's home. To his relief, the Squib seemed to be absent, so that he could walk the few steps to the Dursleys' house without further delay. He pressed the door bell, noticing that the area seemed to be quiet and showed no hints of any interference by Death Eaters.

Petunia Dursley opened the door, a huge frown shadowing her face at his sight. "You!" she all but shrieked at a glance at his purple robes. "What do you want?"

"Hello to you, too, Mrs. Dursley. I merely wanted to check up on young Harry. Is he at home?"

"No, he has gone to see a friend."

Before Albus could do as much as ask where he had gone, Petunia shut the door into his face.

'Oh well, everything seems to be all right,' he thought, searching his robe pocket for a lemon drop, as he returned to Arabella Figg's place and stepped into the fireplace.

HP

Harry let his quill sink and re-read his letter.

'Dear Mr. Lupin,
please excuse me for suddenly writing to you. Buckbean, my account manager at Gringotts, sent me a letter and asked me to come to see him together with either you or Professor McGonagall. Only then, I heard that you were a good friend of my parents, and I would love to get to know you. I am staying with the Weasleys over the summer, although Professor Dumbledore must not know about it. Mrs. Weasley told me to invite you to visit me here at the Burrow.
I hope that you can come and I'm looking forward to meeting you.
Yours sincerely
Harry Potter'

'That should be all right,' he thought, folded the parchment and handed it to Fred, who kindly fastened it to Errol's feet. "Take this to Remus Lupin," he instructed the old barn owl and opened the window for the bird to leave for its task.

During the afternoon, Harry was extremely excited at the thought of a friend of his parents possibly visiting him. However, it was only after dinner that evening that the fireplace flared and an auburn man stepped out. He was wearing worn-out robes, but he looked friendly and even smiled broadly upon seeing him.

"Hello Harry, I am so glad to finally meet you."

"Hello Mr. Lupin," Harry replied and returned the smile, as he accepted the offered hand.

"Please call me Remus, Harry," the older wizard replied, before he proceeded to greet the Weasleys.

Whisper licked the older wizard's hand in apparent liking, and Harry smiled, as he introduced his familiar to the man.

"I am sorry, Harry. I wanted to contact you much sooner, however, whenever I tried to send you an owl, it returned with my letter still attached." Remus sounded sincere, causing Harry to smile.

'I'd have been thrilled if I had received any letter from him,' Harry thought, sighing.

"I suppose that it was either Professor Dumbledore's doing or that the wards he put around the Dursleys' home prevented any owls from finding Harry." Arthur let out a deep sigh.

"Arthur! Why would Albus do such a thing?" Molly lightly scolded her husband.

"To keep anyone from contacting Harry." Percy spoke up, grimly. "He even told him to return to his relatives, who obviously hate him, during the summer."

"Remus," Harry cast the older wizard a pleading look. "Please don't give me away to the headmaster."

Remus smiled. "Of course not, Harry, I won't. Arthur and Molly, thank you so very much for allowing Harry to remain with you even against Albus' wishes. I am very grateful to be able to get in contact with him once again."

"Usually, we think very highly of Albus, especially Molly, however, in this case, we have decided to disagree with him, after Percy sent me a letter describing Harry's situation."

'I really like Mr. Weasley,' Harry thought, smiling, when Whisper seemed to share his feelings and gently nudged the older wizard in apparent affection.

"Harry, you said something about heading to Gringotts together?"

Harry nodded and showed Remus the parchment, which he had received earlier.

Remus skimmed the letter and nodded in apparent understanding. "Molly and Arthur, when would it be convenient for you that I take Harry to Gringotts?"

After a short discussion, they agreed that Remus should pick up Harry and Whisper first thing the following morning to spend the day together.

Remus left shortly afterwards, and Harry and Ron headed to bed.

'Tomorrow, we're going to spend the day with Remus,' Harry thought, feeling very happy. 'Perhaps, he can tell me about my parents.'

'I'm looking forward to tomorrow,' he thought to his familiar. 'Remus seems really nice.'

'Yes, I like him, too,' Whisper replied and let out a huge yawn, before she turned around, closely cuddled against his stomach. 'Good night, Harry.'

'My parents must have been nice as well if they had such a great friend,' Harry thought, before he followed his familiar into dreamland.

tbc tomorrow...

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