Not guaranteeing I'll be back in a week with a new chapter just yet! But in my gratitude for your patience and understanding (and the obvious fortuitous timing), here is a Christmas chapter for you all!

With some Christmas feels and not much else.

-YDHP-

Harry woke up to Vlad shaking him, looking extremely distraught for Christmas morning.

"I gotta go. It'll look really suspicious if I'm not there for breakfast."

Pouting, Harry leaned up and kissed his boyfriend before pushing himself into a seated position. Vlad's fingers ran down over his back muscles, prompting him to arch and twist in an apparently snake-like manner.

"You keep that up and I won't let you leave."

Vlad whimpered; ever since they started, Harry and Vlad had been hard pushed to stop having sex. Vlad responded to him so intensely, so perfectly. He looked incredible writhing beneath Harry...

"Harry, stop!"

He looked over to see Vlad squirming, sweat on flushed skin - he was suffering Harry's arousal as much as his own. Harry did his best to tamp down on his raging hormones, reminding himself Vlad would be back later.

"You better had go. When will you be back?"

"A little after Christmas lunch, I've disappeared for dinner before when losing track of time studying and Christmas food is always ridiculously decadent.

"Nerd."

His boyfriend shrugged, then visibly worked to try and control his want for Harry.

"The Weasleys, Giles and Hermione's family are coming over tomorrow, so you and Draco can spend Christmas day with Raven and her dads."

Harry nodded to show he understood, absorbing the sight of his boyfriend before he left that day. Vlad yawned slightly, slinking his way under Harry's arm to cuddle him before getting up with a reluctant groan.

"Least the dorm will be empty."

He left with only a hint of reddish light to signal his phoenix-apparition. Apparently Ingrid had taken to Apparating quite quickly herself, so Vlad no longer felt guilty for his not-magical-vampire skill. Ingrid couldn't pass through wards and enchantments like Vlad could, but she'd managed from the Chamber to Malfoy Manor and back again without breaking a sweat only yesterday.

Lily slithered out of her tank, hissing idle digs about the 'excess of humans mating' but wrapping herself around Harry's arm all the same. Harry rubbed her annoying little scaled self, glad that while Draco and he were excited for Christmas, without the Weasleys sleeping over there was no five thirty in the morning wakeup call courtesy of the twins.

It was important Raven get her morning sleep, else she'd spend Christmas day cranky. Not much made the halfling bundle of joy grizzle, but she was teething and liked her rest.

Knowing he'd not get anymore sleep, Harry dropped down into his trunk with Lily still on his arm. Samael shifted as soon as Harry landed, big head poking out of his heated room.

"Merry Christmas Samael."

"I have no concept of human holidays."

"I know, but it's a term of well wishing to say it. So hush and accept my seasons greetings."

"If you say so wizard."

Despite his grumbling, Samael was as affectionate as ever and nuzzled Harry's broad chest with his big snout. Harry wondered if there was a Santa hat big enough for a Basilisk. Not that he thought he'd convince his familiar into it if there was.

"You smell like your vampire."

Harry felt his cheeks heat slightly, remembering how Vlad had been all over him and he'd not yet showered. He had better before going to breakfast, else he would be getting all sorts of knowing looks from Bertrand and possibly confusing Raven, as she identified them all by scent.

"Not really surprising."

"Ah, yes. Your previously high-held concerns of discord when it came to mating the vampire."

Harry glared; it was futile against a Basilisk but made him feel better. Well, not really.

"It may surprise you to know that humans do on occasion struggle with their sexuality. Vlad has built in biological acceptance of his because I'm his mate and that's just what happened. I had to get there on my own. And I did."

Samael rolled his eyes.

"Neither of you are human."

"We're both half human. Or part human I suppose is the right term, I doubt its a perfect 50/50."

Harry left soon after with promises to return later, in need of a shower before he was presentable to others in the Manor. He had healing bite bruises on his shoulder; Vlad bit him when he came more often than not. It was probably a vamp thing. He kinda liked it. He wondered if it would change when Vlad did, when there were fangs involved. Samael said Vlad's bite wouldn't cause him any real damage - he couldn't be turned.

"Morning! You are not wearing last years Weasley jumper."

Draco was, but Harry had had irreconcilable differences with the woollen creation earlier.

"Because it doesn't fit! If I grow any more Mrs Weasley will have to make me a Weasley marquee for a jumper."

Draco was in his usual festive cheer mood, smiling over gingerbread coffee and the Malfoy elves special breakfasts of far too much food. Harry took one of the flavoured drinks, piled his plate and started while they waited for Raven and her fathers to come down. It didn't take long, and while Raven was too young to understand Christmas she was definitely still excited by the mood around her.

"Hi!"

She tottered over in a black-and-red elf dress (Harry wasn't sure who picked it and who was being appeased by the colours), holding her arms up to Harry for pick her up, then squeeze him tight before going in search of Draco. It was impossible not to enjoy her company, she was such a vibrant little girl.

"If either of you have given my daughter excessive gifts I will give you detention."

"You haven't been our teacher for over a year."

"Try me."

Harry and Draco shared grins - they hadn't gone overboard, there wasn't much point until Raven was old enough to understand actually being spoiled. Then they could go overboard. It was their job as her big brothers.

"We promise."

Severus eyed them suspiciously, but picked up a mug of coffee and sniffed at it with some trepidation.

"It's pretty good. And its coffee."

Draco assured him, despite his own mug being forgotten as he tickled a giggling Raven into hysterics while Bertrand took his goblet of blood from the elf nearest. Once he was fed, he would tend to his daughter; as the only one who didn't have a physical requirement to eat actual food. Vampires could live on blood alone, and didn't digest food the way humans did. It was either for pleasure or for grandeur mostly.

Although he supposed for vamps like Bertrand at Hogwarts, assimilation was probably a point too. Never eating or being absent at all mealtimes would have made him incredibly suspect.

After a hearty breakfast, they moved to sit around the fireplace, child-proof spell a shimmering blue bubble around it to ensure Raven didn't get too close with little hands and her quick feet. Severus had been absent last Christmas, and at first he was quite stiff, reserved, out of place almost as Raven sat on his knee wrestling with some flying snitch wrapping paper... Harry couldn't help it, moving pictures on wrapping paper would probably never lose its novelty.

But as they exchanged gifts - Harry gave Severus snake-donated Potion ingredients that couldn't exactly be found elsewhere - and ate sweet treats all morning, Severus began to relax. Raven's squealing joy probably helped; it was impossible not to smile when she laughed.

Lunch wasn't as exuberant as it would be tomorrow, or even as it would have been at Hogwarts, but it was family and food and their first Christmas with Raven. Harry hoped that by the time she was old enough to appreciate it fully, she wouldn't have to be so hidden away. Granted, for the time being at least her halfling status was to be a secret, but Harry suspected Vlad would change that some way.

He had to, really. To not be illegal himself. Since Vlad was as much a 'half breed' as Raven.

"When's Vlad coming back to stare longingly at you whenever you move more than six inches from his side?"

"Shut up."

Draco wriggled up close and rolled his head against Harry's arm, face clearly saying 'you can't get rid of me'.

"Hey, I figure it's normal. Since you two have obviously..."

"Merlin, be quiet! What makes you say that?"

His brother continued to grin, knowing he was superbly correct in his assumptions.

"You two are kinda humming with magic. I asked Bertrand and he said thats normal for a completed bond, and that it'll calm down. Hopefully before Vlad has to go back to the big bad guy, in case anyone there recognises what it means."

Harry frowned, not wanting Voldemort involved in their sex life. It was bad enough he marked Vlad's skin with that ugly brand.

"They think he has a vampire girlfriend. It'll have to do as a cover story if someone does notice, and it'll be quite a surprise if they found his female lover to be honest."

Draco nodded, fiddling with the new cufflinks in his shirt - a cauldron and a bat, symbolic of his 'parents' as his sixteenth birthday approached. Soon, Draco would be officially head of the Malfoy name. Unless Lucius came back somehow, which was unlikely between Azkaban for trying to kill Harry and any escape meaning he would be back at the beck and call of a mad man.

"Well, quite, given that she doesn't exist. His thing with Krum was public knowledge, Merlin it made the papers. How did he sell heterosexuality?"

Harry couldn't help but chuckle at such a blunt question.

"I think he said to them that vampires are encouraged to get such 'impulses' out of the way before adulthood. Not that they are against homosexuality on the whole, but obviously there's a sort of assumption there will be a wife and heirs at some point."

"Ah, youthful folly. Makes sense I guess. Except where Vlad is never going to have a wife."

Harry shrugged, dislodging his irritating sibling. It wasn't something he dwelled on often.

"I know, although a realistic part of me is aware that given who he is and what he'll become, Vlad is probably going to have to father a child in some way in the future."

Draco clicked his tongue as he thought about it, tugging a loose strand on his jumper sleeve. Something his father would have whacked his walking stick across the back of the boys hand for had he seen, Draco said, but he had always loathed stray fibres.

"I mean, there are ways around his lack of want for anyone but you... I think the harder part would be finding a vampiress who is willing to serve as his incubator that Vlad can trust not to use it against him for blackmail and so on. Anyway, you are both not yet sixteen. Fatherhood woes are many moons away yet."

Many moons was a small way to describe Harry and Vlad's immortality.

"True."

An hour and a half after lunch, a flickering flame and a sharp crack! sound signalled the arrival of vampire and vampire. Vlad's eyes immediately found his, smiling like it had been days rather than hours since they last saw each other.

Raven charged over to them, fresh from her nap and full of energy to clamber all over a chuckling Vlad. She even reached out to Ingrid, who was visibly at a loss with what to do with a child. Or perhaps it was trying not to appear upset by the product of her mates relationship with somebody else. Either way, Vlad retrieved the girl as soon it wouldn't be too obvious why, then reached into his pocket and handed Raven a wrapped gift that made her cheer - before she even opened it.

"What did you get her?"

"It's a necklace. The chain is charmed to grow with her, and the runes carved into it are for protection. Plus it contains silver, so it ought to help spot any werewolves... if for some reason that becomes a problem" Vlad side-glanced to Draco "I'll remake it."

Raven touched it with a smile as Bertrand placed it around her neck, clapping little hands together happily as her fathers looked to Vlad.

"Thank you."

Harry looked at his own necklace, one of many Vlad had made with portkeys, then grinned at his boyfriend.

"Do you have a future in magical jewellery?"

"I'm immortal. I'll need a hobby. Plus, I was helping the twins with something for their joke products that inspired me."

Severus immediately eyed Vlad suspiciously, as though Vlad would ever put Raven in harms way with a joke product for an infant.

"Which was?"

"Shield hats. And cloaks. They are meant to be joke products, trick your friend into sending a hex and it bounces back. They tried with just spells but they only lasted one use, I suggested using runes to hold the spell and gave it a try with the necklace. Fred and George were most agreeable in hexing me to test them out. Of course, those runes are much stronger than what the twins make."

Ingrid promptly sequestered away until dinner in the Potions lab, where she had much more freedom than the Hogwarts one to brew what she liked and not worry about ingredients lying about or mislabelled - it was a close call who was more strict about organisation in there, Ingrid or Severus.

The rest of them lazed around the fire, mostly watching an entertaining Raven roll around with Christmas gifts or chase Phantom, who would frequently stop and gently paw at the girls face. Luckily, Raven was mindful or perhaps just gentle-handed enough not to get rough with the magical creature.

Harry wasn't yet bored of holding hands with Vlad, and the vampire was perfectly happy to do everything left-handed to keep it that way. Not that he had much to do other than lift hot chocolate or sweets to his mouth, but Harry appreciated the gesture all the same.

"Excited to see your mom again?"

Vlad beamed, nodding excitedly.

"Definitely. I can't wait until everything is safe again, and obviously Hogwarts is done so I can see her more. We barely found each other only to be stuck being apart so much."

Harry had to remember that wasn't a slight to him; Vlad knew better than anybody that defeating Voldemort wasn't as simple as just walking up and killing him. Or Vlad probably would have already done it to protect Harry.

Not that Harry expected Vlad to fight his battles for him, but the vampire just sort of did it anyway whenever he could. That was such a fact Dumbledore had gone to Vlad to do what Voldemort wanted Harry to do. The expectation that Vlad would stain his own soul to spare Harry's was a little frightening.

"It won't be forever."

Vlad chuckled.

"It can't be. Raven has to go to Hogwarts. Not that Riddle will still be around in ten years, but with any luck she'll never really know the way the world was when she was only small."

Raven meant a great deal to all of them, but she was a symbol to Vlad in a unique way. Proof of human and vampires being capable of coexistence, rather than himself being a freak quirk. She was innocent and happy, pulled from the depths of darkness before she could understand where she was. She was the embodiment of everything Vlad sought to protect, now and in the future.

"I have every faith in us against him."

He squeezed Vlad's hand, watched his boyfriend relax instinctively. That would never get old.

"Glad to hear it."

They shared Christmas dinner before separating for the evening - Vlad had to pop back over to Hogwarts and show his face, walking to and from the library to say he had gotten lost in homework and check his absence had not really been suspect.

Then he was back, found Harry sat on his bed staring at a small black object.

"You want to see them for Christmas?"

Harry nodded, staring at the scratched surface of the Stone resting in the palm of his shaking hand. Vlad sat his other side, took Harry's free hand in his.

"Then do it. I'm certain they would love to see you."

-YDHP-

With any luck, I'll be back on track soon.