~*~

By the time Harry woke up on Christmas morning, Draco was already dressed in his latest Weasley-knit sweater and was rummaging around the kitchen for cookies, a cup of cocoa in hand.

"Morning!" He grinned from ear to ear. "Want some gingerbread? A sugar cookie? Short bread? Macaroons?"

"Toast sounds good," Harry retorted. "And maybe some bacon."

Draco rolled his eyes. "You'll have to wait for mum, then. Or wake one of the house elves up."

"That's fine." Harry sat down at the table. "Have you opened up any more of your presents yet?"

"No. I'm waiting for my parents to wake up. I only opened up this one because I knew what it was. And I was cold. Oh! It came with fudge. And peanut brittle. Do you want some?"

"After breakfast," said Harry, stifling another yawn. "I might go back to bed."

"It's already five in the morning!"

"Exactly."

"You are boring." Draco sighed impatiently as he finished off the mug of cocoa. "Well I'm going out for an early morning ride to greet the sun. You're welcome to join me if you like, but if not, let my parents know where I've gone so I don't have to leave a note."

"I think I'm just fine staying here," Harry smiled. "I like your thestrals, but not enough to go riding in the dead of winter at an insanely early hour of the morning."

"It is not the dead of winter - the solstice was only a few days ago - and it's not that early!" He seemed exasperated. "Where is your sense of adventure?"

"Attempting to go back to sleep," he yawned. "I need the rest, don't you?"

"No! I got plenty of rest while I was Petrified, I certainly don't need more. Especially not on Christmas day when there's so much to do!" He stood up. "Now I'm getting dressed and I'll count on you to let my parents know where I'm at. Alright?"

"Okay, sure. I'll be here." Harry made a cup of hot chocolate for himself then went to the tree to begin examining packages. After Draco left, it was a long while before he heard the sounds of another human presence. When he finally did hear footsteps behind him, he jumped.

"I see you've found the presents," Lucius remarked, looking down at Harry with a package in hand.

"Oh! Good morning Mr. Malfoy." Harry nodded and quickly replaced the package beneath the tree. "Sorry, I was only looking."

"Don't apologize for that. A little curiosity on Christmas is natural." Lucius sat beside him. "I don't suppose you know where my son has run off to? I already checked in his room and he wasn't there."

"Draco said to tell you and Mrs. Malfoy that he went out for a morning ride, but that he would be back soon."

"Ah. I should have know." Lucius laughed. "Where else would he be?" He looked to the side and picked up a piece of paper. "I notice he already opened something."

"Mrs. Weasley's sweater," Harry said nervously. "He already knew what it was going to look like and he said he was cold."

"Well then I suppose he should be glad he got a sweater," Lucius replied in a neutral tone that was hard for Harry to read. "I suppose you'll be getting one too?"

"Probably," he admitted, but Lucius only nodded.

"I don't want to keep you from getting to see what you got, then. I'll see if Narcissa is up yet." He stood. "Did you and Draco eat breakfast before he left?"

"I didn't. I just had a mug of hot chocolate. Draco had a bunch of cookies, though."

"Of course he did," Lucius sighed. "Alright then, we'll see if Narcissa up and we'll see if the elves can't get about making a nice, large breakfast for us. I'm sure Draco will be rather hungry when he gets back anyway."

He was, charing in through the door with a face as red as the ribbons on the front door wreath.

"I smell breakfast!" He declared as he pulled of his gloves. "I hope there's a lot, because I'm starving."

"Perhaps if you ate before getting up to your activities..." His father intoned.

"I ate!" He sat down with a thump, grabbed a plate and started filling it. "Didn't Harry tell you?"

"You shouldn't eat sweets first thing," his mother scolded in a light-hearted fashion. "It's not good for you."

"Your cookies are always good, though," he complimented with a beaming grin that made her roll her eyes. "Can we open presents after this?"

"They're ready and waiting," said Lucius, pouring milk into his coffee.

"And what are we going to do afterward? Sledding maybe?" Draco suggested.

"You may do as you please. I have some business to attend to," he said.

"Lucius!" Narcissa looked up from her tea. "On Christmas? Why didn't I know about this?"

"It came up suddenly. I won't be leaving, but I do have to make plans to leave. I'm sorry," he apologized. "But it really is urgent."

"Since you mentioned urgent business," Draco began with a glance at Harry, "I've got a favor to ask."

"Which is?"

"I mean, if you want think of it as a Christmas present. Maybe Christmas and birthday combined, I don't mind. If it's a lot of work, I understand, but I would really..."

"Come to the point," Lucius interrupted, though more bemused than impatient. "I'm listening."

"Could you oppose Dolores Umbridge and her anti-werewolf legislation?"

For a moment, his parents fell silent and glanced at each other. Then Narcissa laughed nervously.

"Draco, why are you worried about something like that? Don't you think politics is a little bit deep for someone your age? Besides," she said, nibbling at her food, "why are you worried about werewolves? You don't have any reason to be do you?" The anxiety in her voice grew. "You haven't run into anything tromping about the woods again, have you? Oh God, tell me you're not infected..."

"I'm fine mom!" He looked from her to his father. "But I don't think what she's doing is right. It's not fair. And somebody should say something."

"Not fair?" Lucius asked tersely. "I wonder that a boy not even in his teens has a very good grasp of fairness. And you think I should be the one to oppose her?" He scoffed. "Do tell me, why the sudden interest in werewolf plights?"

"I mean, I'm not a werewolf, but it's something that could happen to anybody, couldn't it? And it wouldn't be their fault. And it doesn't mean they're automatically a bad wizard. Plus isn't there that new wolfsbane potion? It could be controlled, nobody would be in danger! It's not right what she's doing," he pressed. "Please?"

There was another silence, this one ended by Narcissa clearing her throat.

"Let's not let this ruin Christmas. Draco, leave the politics to your father for now. I'm sure he'll do what's best."

Draco sighed in frustration and went back to his plate, hoping the holiday would cheer him up but feeling like he'd failed.

"At least you tried," Harry whispered to him when they cleared off the table.

"Not hard enough."

Harry didn't think anything Draco could have said would have convinced Lucius, but he kept quiet and returned to the tree.

~*~

"Do you like it?" Ginny helped Theo pull on his sweater as they sat near the tree. "I thought the yarn for yours was especially pretty."

"All of your mother's sweaters are pretty. But I do appreciate it," he said in a quiet voice.

"You're thinking about something, aren't you?" Ginny said plaintively. "You have a far away look right now. What's wrong?"

"I'm only pondering."

"About that locket?" She asked, tugging on the cuffs of her own sweater. "We all did a good job destroying it. No need to worry."

"But it confirms the hypothesis that there are more out there."

"And you want to go out looking for them?"

"Perhaps not right now, but eventually..."

"Well alright then." She stood up. "If we're going to try and find these things, we should go about doing it properly, shouldn't we?"

"What do you mean?"

"It's like a Sherlock Holmes story! We need to collect clues and evidence to figure out what he would have done with the other Horcruxes. And if we're going to be gathering clues, we should keep track of them, right?" She dug through her pile of presents. "Here, Percy got me this." She help up a leather volume. "Blank inside with really nice paper. A very Percy gift. We can write what we know inside and keep track of things that way. And maybe if we look over the evidence enough, we'll find something."

"I know what we could write first. An address."

"An address? From what?"

"It was inside the diary, the address of a stationary shop on Vauxhall road. It might lead us to places he visited in his muggle life. And if we retrace his path, we should hopefully find hints about what was important enough to him to make into a Horcrux and the path he took along the way."

"Alright then." Ginny went into another room and came back with a quill. "Write it down. What else is important? I mean, if you don't want to remember, it if hurts..."

"No, no," he protested as he scribbled. "But isn't there any other way you would rather spend Christmas?"

"Fred and George are gone doing something with Lee and Milli, Percy is Percy, mum is cooking, dad's messing with that car... besides, I think a mystery is exciting!" She grinned. "I think it's fun, like a game except in real life."

"It's much more serious than a game," he cautioned. "But very well."

"So what else did you pick up?"

"As I said, ceremony is important to him. Unless necessity forced him to pick a Horcrux and a murder at random in the interests of self-preservation, he would have been very deliberate about the murders and the objects chosen. They would have to be important, symbolic, not just any killing."

Ginny nodded. "Alright. So what was so special about Myrtle?"

"She was the first kill with the Basilisk. Possibly the first murder he ever committed, although I wouldn't be willing to say for certain. Same with the diary. Probably a matter of firsts - the first Dark Object he learned how to make and a symbol of himself."

"And the locket?"

"That I'm even less sure about. The locket's importance is almost self-evident if the exterior is genuine. Those were real emeralds unless I'm mistaken and the 'S' suggests Slytherin himself."

"You think that actually belonged to Salazar Slytherin?"

"It's a distinct possibility."

"But wouldn't people keep track of something like that? Like they do with famous paintings? Stuff that belonged to people that famous can't just disappear!"

"Oh, but it does all the time, even with your example of a famous painting. It gets stolen or sold in underhanded deals, passed down for a while before getting traded off again, and so on and so forth. And if somebody who had it didn't know what it was, it would remain even more overlooked. Something like that could travel quite far and go inconspicuously. The question is how did Riddle track it down. You are right though - a piece that famous and there might be some history on it. Certainly worthwhile to look."

"And the murder needed to make it?" She whispered.

"I don't know. Kreacher spoke of some sort of cave. That wouldn't have been random either. We might have to have him take us there."

"But there are Inferi!" Ginny gasped. "They'd still be there, wouldn't they?"

"Yes. But if we don't go in the water we should be fine. Besides," he smirked, "weren't you eager for adventure?"

Ginny punched his arm and scowled. "I'm not afraid! I'm only being sensible."

"You're right; I ought not tease you about that," he whispered. "I wouldn't really want to face them. Not after everything. And if Riddle made them I can only imagine what they look like, who they were..." He shook his head. "So those are the ones we know about. Any other ideas?"

"Maybe we could work from the other end of things," Ginny suggested. "You know, instead of stumbling on the Horcrux by looking at places where he might have been, we could think of objects or killings that would have been important to him and work from there."

"An excellent idea. You are a Ravenclaw," he murmured and she beamed at the praise. "Alright, let's think. The locket was Slytherins which would have been important to him as a symbol of his house. But it's possible he would have wanted objects from the other founders as well. A metaphorical conquering of Hogwarts if you will."

"You really think so?"

"Second to Harry, he was obsessed with the school. He wanted to know how he'd been defeated - and he wanted the school under a pall of fear again, fear created by him. He wants it under his thrall very badly because... for him, it's about control. Control me, control others, control politics, control our world. Education is a sure, if not swift, way to do that, to indoctrinate people into accepting that control."

"He couldn't take Hogwarts," she whispered.

"He could try and do a lot of damage in the process. First things first, though. The other founders - we should research them."

"Well, he didn't get that sword that belong to Gryffindor. We have that. And I'm pretty sure it was never touched by him."

"True. But we don't know what the other founders might have had."

"There's got to be a book or catalog or something."

"We'll hit the history section of the library as soon as we get back."

"And what about the murders? Who was important to him apart from Myrtle?"

"We can look at those records as well. Leaders, personal enemies, people who significantly opposed him, etcetera. It might be harder to tell if his vendetta was personal but it's a place to start."

"People who opposed him? Theo, you don't think that maybe Harry's parents were supposed..."

"Kids!" Mrs. Weasley poked her head into the room and Theo slammed the book shut. "Dinner's ready, come and eat!"

"Are Fred and George back yet?" Ginny stood up.

"Fred and George will be occupied removing without magic all of the ribbon-decked toilet seats they used to replace the Christmas wreaths in town and writing apologies."

Theo and Ginny stifled a laugh as they followed her into the warm kitchen where Percy and Mr. Weasley were already waiting.

"Maybe we should have gone with them instead," Ginny whispered. "I would have loved to have seen that."

"Yes, but then we would have been stuck with the clean-up as well."

~*~

"What do you think? I had it made custom." Pansy smiled.

Ron nodded; he'd assumed she had as he didn't think they made ornaments that looked like him, dressed in Quidditch robes and grabbing a Snitch. "It's really... wow."

"Let's put it on the tree!" She clapped. "That way it will look like you're flying in front of the Forbidden Forest!"

Standing up, he dutifully hung the ornament and watched it swing slightly, adding to the illusion of flight.

"It's really detailed," he said studying it. "I mean, really detailed."

"Right down to the freckles," she said, poking it so that it swayed again. "And when we win the championship this year, maybe I'll have another one made of you hoisting up the cup or something."

Ron blushed and looked away, unsure of how to reply. "Well, I'll try, you know, doing my best," he stammered. "S, uh, do you wanna open any other presents? Or eat! We could eat. Is dinner ready? Or do you have any more of that Turkish delight?"

"We stocked up just for you," she told him with a wink, standing up and moving into another room. "It's on a plate in here!" She called.

"Okay." He stood and started to follow her. But just as he was about to enter the dining room, Pansy slammed into his chest and grabbed the material of his robes."What?" He looked panicked. "Did I forget something or do something wrong?"

"Look up," she told him.

He did and saw a clump of green with white berries. There was a pressure on his cheek, soft and warm, and by the time he realized he'd been kissed it was over. Red as a beet, he looked back down into the room and saw Pansy standing in front of him, a smirk on her face and a plate in her hand.

"Here's your Turkish delight," she said, passing him the plate before sauntering off and leaving him speechless.

~*~

A/N: Happy Holidays everybody. :) And I hope you have a wonderful New Year.