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.

Later the same day, Sirius gained the guardianship over Harry and made a magical connecting door between the living rooms of Furry house and Canine house, automatically pulling Canine house into the area secured by the Fidelius charm.

Harry was very happy. During the last eight months, he had gained four members of family, Whisper, Lila, Remus and Sirius. Every second day, Hermione came to visit him, and every other day, Remus and Sirius took him to interesting sights in the magical and the muggle world.

For his twelfth birthday, Remus and Sirius invited Hermione and him to a muggle amusement park, and they had much fun to say the least. Only when they returned home after watching a film in a muggle cinema, Hermione turned to Remus.

"Remus, did you not enjoy yourself? You were very quiet all day."

"That's true," Harry agreed, giving the older wizard a questioning look.

Sirius chuckled. "See, Moony, I told you they'd notice that something was off."

Remus let out a deep sigh. "You know that I told the two of you that I'm a werewolf."

Harry and Hermione nodded. "The full moon was yesterday, wasn't it?" Hermione's eyes narrowed. "My mum always says that she can't sleep well during the full moon."

"Yes, it was last night, and Sirius was going to tell you this morning that I wasn't able to accompany you today." He sighed again. "However, I didn't transform last night." Ignoring the gasp from the children, he added, "The other night, I had a dream. A witch or a wizard… I don't know… I couldn't see the person's face… Anyway, the person was standing next to my bed pointing a wand at me. When I reached out for my own wand, she said, "Don't fret. It's done. You're welcome." I think that it was a woman's voice, but I'm not sure. With that, she vanished from the spot. Ever since then, I noticed that I felt much better than usually around the full moon. I still took the Wolfsbane potion to be certain of course, because I thought that it had only been a dream, but I did not transform."

"What?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"This sounds like a fairy tale," Hermione added.

Remus sighed. "It is, and as good as it sounds, it is too good to be true. I'll have to wait till the next full moon to see the extent of this, but it's somehow unsettling. Who would cure a werewolf, if there was a cure that is, only to vanish into thin air instead of taking credit for it?"

"It can only be an Unspeakable. He must have followed you and overheard Buckbean telling you the address," Sirius said, reasonably. "Otherwise, no one else would have been able to get into the house."

"Or might it be possible that your house is not completely under the Fidelius charm, so that he or she could enter Remus' house through yours?" Hermione looked from Remus to Sirius.

Remus nodded. "That might be a possibility. We should ask Buckbean to come over, so that we can renew the Fidelius charm in any case."

HP

By the time Harry had to leave for his second Hogwarts year, the next full moon had just passed, and Remus once again had remained in his human form.

First thing in the morning of September 1, Hermione flooed over to travel to King's Cross together with them, so that her parents did not have to close their dentist practice just to take her to the station.

"Good morning," she greeted them in apparent excitement. "Remus, did you transform last night?"

"No."

"Ah, congratulations." She stepped over to the happily grinning werewolf and pulled him into a light hug. "I am so very happy for you. How are we going to get to King's Cross by the way?"

"We'll apparate you straight onto the platform," Sirius informed her, already dressed in his Auror robes, as he was going to resume his old post as an Auror from that day onwards.

HP

Harry and Hermione arrived on Platform 9 ¾ an hour before the departure of the train. Sirius took their luggage stating that he would see to it and instructed them to have much fun at Hogwarts and write regularly.

After saying their good-byes to the two Marauders, Hermione and Harry climbed onto the train, closely followed by Whisper. They walked through the empty train up to the front, before they took one of the empty compartments and occupied the seats next to the window.

'I hope someone else will sit with us, before Ron will join us,' Harry thought, and when he voiced his thought to Hermione, the girl fully agreed.

"While we don't know how much Ron knew about the agreement, it somehow feels wrong." She let out a deep sigh.

By the time the train set to move, their compartment was full with several of their year mates. When Neville Longbottom arrived, he was accompanied by a girl, whom he introduced as Daphne Greengrass, a distant cousin. Neville sat next to Harry, and Daphne occupied the seat next to Hermione, and it only took a few minutes, before Daphne's closest friends found them. The two empty seats at the door were quickly taken by Blaise Zabini and Tracy Davis.

'Thank Merlin, Ron is not here. He'd make a huge ruckus about sitting together with three Slytherins,' Harry thought. The six second-years talked amiably, and by the time the train reached Hogsmeade, he had the impression as if he had made four new friends.

HP

Their second year began similar to their first year with a few exceptions. The golden trio had diverted and become a sextet with Harry, Hermione and Neville from Gryffindor and Daphne, Tracey and Blaise from Slytherin. They spent all their time out of class studying in the library together, and at mealtimes, they took turns alternating between the Gryffindor and the Slytherin house tables, ignoring any snide remarks from other students.

To Harry's amusement, a light growl from Whisper often sufficed to shut up their classmates, and apparently, Whisper thoroughly approved of their new friendships.

HP

It was six weeks after the beginning of the school year that trouble began. Apparently, the so-called Chamber of Secrets had been opened, and Mrs. Norris, Mr. Filch's cat, had become petrified.

Whisper was a good friend of Mrs. Norris, and she snuck into the hospital wing in a faint attempt to be able to wake up her feline friend, however, to no avail.

One day, the Weasley twins took Harry and Hermione aside.

"We have noticed…"

"…that you've been avoiding our unsufferable brother during this school year…"

"… for understandable reasons…"

"… but we're worried about our little sis…"

"… and would like your opinion."

"Why might that be? What's wrong with her?" Harry stared at the twins in surprise. While Ronald's behaviour towards him, Hermione and Neville had been atrocious ever since the beginning of the school year, after Harry made it clear that he knew that Ronald had only faked their friendship, the twins had not behaved differently from before. He really liked the funny boys.

The twins let out a collective sigh.

"She does nothing but sit in a corner…"

"… writing in her diary…"

"… and when we asked her…"

"… she became very grumpy…"

"… so, we thought that perhaps you…"

"… as none family members…"

"… might be able to get through to her."

Harry and Hermione exchanged a look. "All right, we'll check on her, when we return to the common room around curfew tonight," Harry promised.

Hermione nodded. "I've noticed her write in her book, too. She seems to not be doing any studying at all."

The twins bowed deeply. "We'll be forever in your debt."

tbc tomorrow...

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