Chapter 2: Day 3 - 09:14

The snow spitting from the brooding darkness of the sky was a choice reflection of the melancholy that filled Sirius for the third day running. Barely mid-morning and the day was shaping up to be worse than any he had endured since Harry had arrived for the Christmas Holidays.

Closeted in his room on the top floor, Sirius glared through the ice-fogged glass at the road running alongside his house. His front garden left a little to be desired; if one truly forced the imagination it could possibly be described as resembling a tropical rainforest. Flourishing shrubs and overgrown mounds of hedges, an array of flowers and broad-leafed plants that by all rights shouldn't be growing in the heart of London. Certainly not in the depths of winter, pervading even through a blanket of snow. They were overgrown and almost obscured the road entirely.

Almost, but not quite. Not enough to hide the three departing figures from view.

Harry and Draco walked side by side, almost in perfect step with one another. Their heads, a contrast of black and white, were bowed as though they were talking, turned slightly towards once another. They were nearly of a height, the two of them, and there was not all that much between them in terms of physique. The pair of them wore the long, lean lankiness of adolescence like a fitted outfit. With Harry in his pale jeans and thick jacket and Draco in his dark robes, they were like mirror negatives of one another. Almost clones.

Except that clones didn't have that distinctive 'aura' about them. An aura that Sirius could make out even from the distance of four stories and half a street.

"They're in love," Remus had said earlier that morning.

Love? Love? The pair of them were barely sixteen, had been dating for not even half a year, and Remus thought they were in love?

"Don't discredit their feelings just because you've never experienced the same," Remus had rationalised at Sirius' incredulity. Which had, naturally, resulted in Sirius' spluttering and exclamations of denial. It was worse because it was true.

Remus was the Order member on duty to lead the boys from Grimmauld Place. Harry needed an escort, given how dangerous the times were. Even if that escort was only required to take them to the nearest Apparation point and jump them to the coveted and unplottable Malfoy Country Manor.

It should have been Sirius who was taking them. It should have been. But Remus had insisted after their brief conversation that morning that he be the one to do so. Sirius couldn't quite come to terms with his reasoning why. Or perhaps he simply didn't want to. Remus had said something about how Sirius would be "less likely to act appropriately given the circumstances". Whatever that meant.

Act appropriately? What, exactly, was the appropriate way to act? Sirius let the Malfoy spawn into his house. Let him share his Christmas, eat his food – or, well, Molly's food – and sleep under his roof. In his godson's room. Even if it had been unwittingly so until the next morning. And if Sirius felt the urge to growl once or twice, or found it particularly difficult to utter a civil word to brat, who could blame him? Not only was it Sirius' responsibility, his duty, to protect Harry as his godson, as the child of his late best friend, but he was entitled to a little bit of resentment, surely.

Because Harry was supposed to be spending time with him. Sirius had planned it all, down to their topics of conversation, their frequent bouts of one-on-one quidditch in the closeted grounds he'd scouted out without Dumbledore's – and Remus' – knowledge three weeks before. Had pondered the fun they'd have simply spending time together. Getting to know one another as they hadn't had the opportunity to truly do face to face before now. It had taken a near death experience earlier that year for Sirius to realise just how important that chance was. He wanted to embrace it at every possible opportunity. He'd planned to.

Draco Malfoy had changed all of those plans. He'd taken Harry away, if not physically until today then socially. He'd ruined everything with his damned smirk. And though Sirius recognised, in a very, very small part of his mind, that he was being petulant, he couldn't help himself. It simply wasn't fair!

And now they were going to Malfoy's country manor for nearly a whole week. Sirius' Christmas, bereft of all its plans for companionship with Harry, for developing that godfather-godson bond he had so desperately wanted, was simply depressing. Glaring out the window, Sirius grumbled imprecations beneath his breath.

"Fucking Malfoy, with his fucking smirk and his stupid hair and his stupid strutting around like he owns the whole fucking place." He affixed his gaze upon the blonde head nearly disappeared down the street, glaring only harder when he saw Harry throw back his head and laugh in heartfelt amusement. Possibly, infuriatingly, at something his companion had said. He could almost see the self-satisfied twist of Malfoy's lips that he'd managed to induce as much from his 'boyfriend'.

Boyfriend. Lover. The ridiculous concept of 'soul mate'. Each and every one of them was… appalling.

Why, why, did it have to be a Malfoy?

And even worse, why the Malfoy who had saved his life? It was one thing to bow down and accept the presence of someone he hated in his house; he could stand it if he had to play nice while knowing that his hatred was warranted. Entirely justified. Acceptable, with no justification.

But he was supposed to be nice. He was supposed to be grateful. He couldn't even openly offend the boy, point out his flaws to Harry with any real conviction. Especially given that it was the very act of saving Sirius' life that had drawn Draco and Harry closer in the first place.

Sighing, Sirius dropped his forehead onto the icy glass. The coolness did little to ease the heat of anger throbbing in his brow. Rather, it seemed instead to poke fun at the very nature of his discontent. He continued to watch until the distant figure of Remus took a hold of Harry and Draco by one arm each and they Apparated from the scene.

Definitely the worst Christmas holidays ever.