Harry Potter, the Forgotten Son

Chapter 7: The Holidays. Pt:2

-X-

(I Own Nothing)

-X-

Upon arriving to the Great Hall after his relaxing soak in the bath, Harry found himself to be the first to arrive while Twilly had already placed his meal at the head of the single table within the hall, facing the large double doors.

As always, Twilly had left the crystal pitcher of orange juice sitting next to his covered plate but this time adding a silver pot of steaming tea nearby. Folded neatly next to the covered plate sat a copy of today's issue of the Daily Prophet, a special Christmas edition detailing the numerous pureblood parties that had went on the night before and so on. He could even see that near the top it announced to the world that Rose Potter had stayed at Hogwarts to have a peaceful holiday with her family and so on.

Sitting down in the chairs that had been provided, as the usual benches had been deemed unsuitable for the feast the night before, Harry turned it slightly to the side and uncovered the plate to reveal his mouthwatering dish. Sitting on top of a piece of smoked salmon was a traditional eggs Benedict toped with ground pepper and fresh chopped parsley. Grilled tomatoes, fresh fruit, sausage, toast, and even some grits from the Southern United States accompanied the fish. The combined aroma filled his nose and easly reminded him why he had his own meals cooked and brought to him.

Harry leaned back and crossed his ankle up onto his knee before opening the paper, holding it up to read with one hand while using his other to eat.

A few minutes passed with only the sound of his fork tapping the plate every now and then filling the air. But soon he heard footsteps echoing into the room. Funny how you could hear things like that in the morning but couldn't at any other time of the day.

"Merry Christmas Harry!" said the telltale voice of his sister as she seemed to sprint full speed into the room, as she hadn't just rolled out of bed. He found it amusing how much of a morning person she seemed to be considering that she hated to get up in the morning.

"Merry Christmas to you too," he replied, sparing a look to the girl over his paper and sticking his fork into the small link of sausage.

"Where were you last night? I didn't see you at the Christmas feast."

Harry's eyes unfocused...

-FLASHBACK START-

Hearing a knock on his bedroom door, Harry closed his book with a light snap and set it down on his night stand before standing up from his armchair. Walking to the door he opened it to see the Carrow twins standing side by side with smiles on their faces while wearing their school cloaks.

"Hi Harry!" Flora started with a giggle before her sister finished, "Can we come in?"

Smirking, he took a step back and allowed them into his room, "Of course you can, what's the occasion?" the teen mused before shutting and locking the door with his back to them.

"We've brought you some presents," one spoke with a sexy undertone as he turned around, only to stop and look at them with a raised eyebrow.

They had dropped the cloaks and were now standing nude in the middle of his room with wide, shiny green ribbon wrapped around their most intimate areas, hiding their nipples and doing little to block their hairless mounds.

They quickly made their way over and started a three-way kiss before one dropped to her knees and began disrobing him.

"Merry Christmas Harry! Enjoy your presents!"

-FLASHBACK OVER-

Looking at the girl who was still waiting for an answer, Harry hummed, "I was busy opening some gifts..."

"All night?" the girl asked with a skeptical tone.

He nodded, "Yes... all night long... in fact, I believe that I got to bed around one this morning."

"Wow," the girl stated, clearly not knowing what her brother was really talking about, "You must've got a lot then,"

"What about you?" he questioned, deciding to move on from the topic of what he did the night before, "Did you open any gifts last night?"

"Just a few... I got a nice jumper from Mrs. Weasley and some books from Hermione, oh and the twins (Weasley twins) gave me helmet with a note that said it was charmed to repel bludgers."

That got a twitch from the teen, making him frown inwardly as he remembered that the whole incident with the two bludgers had gone unsolved by the professors. Had Quirrell not fled from the school the first chance he got for the holiday break, he'd hit 'em with another few pranks just to feel better about it.

But the man, still pint sized, had returned to his home and probably shut himself off from the world. Taking the recommended potions given to him by the school nurse to return to his normal height, much to Flitwicks slight disappointment, he'd started to like not being the shortest man in the school. At least he could unknowingly take solace in the fact that he wasn't the 'smallest' man in the school.

By now, more of the students started arriving and started eating. Snape was the first teacher to arrive, looking less grouchy than normal followed by McGonagall who muttered something along the lines of wanting a strong cup of tea.

But seeing as the Great Hall still hadn't been changed yet and wouldn't be until after new years, they sat down near the two Potters and started fixing their own plates.

Rose started to do the same but unlike the rest of them, noticed that Harry not only had a crystal cup instead of a goblet like everyone else but he had a gleaming silver plate, a silver tea pot, and had half eaten food that Hogwarts never served at all.

"Harry... what is that?" she asked after a minute while pointing at the half fillet of smoked salmon with his half eaten egg still on top.

"Why it's eggs Benedict with smoked salmon of course," he responded as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on, "Would you like to try some?"

"But, they don't serve that here... do they?"

"Sadly no, one has to find their own ways of eating something not layered in fat or drowned in grease," he shrugged while pouring himself some tea and drinking it, "The food served here is so unhealthy that I barely eat here anymore unless it's for a special occasion."

Taking the fork and knife laying on his plate, she cut off a piece and took a bite, only for it to surprise her with how good it was. She'd never really liked eating fish before, referring to it as 'fish food' but this was really good.

"You can have the rest," he told her after she told him how good it was, idly noticing that McGonagall, who was sitting close by had grabbed the silver tea pot with a yawn.

She must've done this by instinct as she had poured it with the primness and grace that her tired face lacked, never noticing that she had grabbed a teapot made of silver and not the normal china teapot that was normally on the staff table for her but was missing this morning for some reason.

"Mmm," the woman exclaimed as she tasted the tea, "The house elves must've used a different brand."

Harry didn't bother telling her that it wasn't the Hogwarts elves that made the tea, nor did he think of mentioning that the school would be hard pressed to buy that kind of blend and this would probably be one of the only times she'd ever taste it.

The blend was made with Crimson Dragon Tea leaves and had been a gift from the Goblins.

But before he could really think about it, Rose had finished eating and Twilly had summoned the dishes to be cleaned and his sister tugged on his sleeve.

"Come on Harry, mom and dad are waiting to open presents in the common room."

-X-

The Gryffindor Common Room... the very heart of what some Slytherin call enemy territory. Considering that the rest of the family had been Gryffindor he shouldn't have been surprised that they'd use the only common room they really knew.

It gave off a more... homelike feel, with it's hardwood floor, soft red arm chairs and couches on ancient rugs, a large crackling fireplace on one side of the room while paintings of various people hung on the wall here and there.

His parents glanced at him without trying to seem like they were staring as they sat near the fireplace not too far from the large Christmas tree.

"Merry Christmas Harry," his father greeted as they all took seats near the tree with him returning the greeting politely.

As Lily started passing out the gifts, surprisingly finding a few to her and James from Harry, which was shocking to say the least as he had only sent Rose gifts in the past.

With smiles all around, despite the previous awkwardness, one couldn't help but feel the slight sensation of being a close family once again as they unknowingly fell into a stereotypical christmas scene. Dad sitting in a armchair near the fire watching as Mom passed presents to her excited children... kinda...

"Hey Pad foot sent me something!" James mused with a grin as he slowly opened a gift. The box was pure gryffindor in color, red box covered in lions with plain gold ribbon tying it closed.

But as James pulled the knot free, throwing the golden ribbon aside then lifted the lid, his eyes widened at the sight of a pie, "Oh no!"

Before another word could be uttered, the pie exploded upwards and covered his entire face with cream filling, much to the amusement of everyone else.

Continuing to open his presents as James started cleaning himself up, vowing revenge and planning a retaliation prank as he did, Harry found a small framed picture of his sister looking back at him. The magical picture version of Rose rubbed at her eyes as the wrapping paper was removed, allowing light to reach her for the first time in days before waving happily at him.

Thanking Rose, he continued to open gifts, finding things like clothing, sweets, money, and even a few old books that he didn't remember telling anyone that he'd wanted.

Not long after the presents were all open and thanks were given the sound of indignant squawks reached their ears and three out of the four turned to see what it was, while Harry instantly knew what was making the noise.

"Is that a Snowy Owl?" Lily questioned at the sight of a pissed looking yet very beautiful white owl glaring through the window and pecking, it's sharp and intelligent amber eyes searching past the window and landing on Harry who was already up and walking over.

"It is," Harry replied to her question while stepping over a pile of gift wrappings, "and I seem to have made her mad."

As if to prove his point, the snowy white owl hopped in with a letter clutched in her talons as he opened the window, not only squawking and hooting at him but barking as she flapped her wing and nearly smacked him had he not leaned back and out of the way.

"Ok, Ok..." He told her soothingly while rubbing her head, "Forgive me for whatever it was that I did wrong."

She responded with a swift bite on said finger but hooted in acceptance anyway before standing on one leg and holding out the other.

He hummed as he read it before putting it away.

"Harry?" Rose asked after a moment, "Is that your owl? She's so beautiful."

Hooting, the owl hopped to the ledge of the window and flew over to her, preening under the attention.

"Yes, I've had her for quite some time now, her name's Hedwig. But I must apologize, as nice as it is to spend time together I have some pressing matters to attend to. I thank you all for my gifts and wish you all a happy holiday."

"Your... your leaving?" Lily asked softly, not wanting to to leave so soon as this had been the most time they'd ever spent together.

"I don't mean to be rude but something has come up and requires my attention... Oh and Rose, since you seem so fond of Hedwig would you take care of her for awhile?"

Rose didn't bother answering, only nodding as she rubbed the silky soft feathers of the preening snowy owl.

-X-

Returning to his dorms, Harry found Snape, who thanked him for the gift he'd been given, and told the man that he would be leaving Hogwarts for awhile. As this had not been the first time the teen had left to handle some sort of matter the head of house told him to stay out of trouble and sent him on his way. Going to his room, Harry found his bed empty but ignored it to get the shrunken trunk from his desk and resized it before summoning Twilly.

"Yes Master?" she asked as she popped in.

"I need you to bring me my overcoat, I'm going out." he told her while grabbing one of the thin cardboard boxes on top and setting it on his desk, followed by the smaller ring box, and the wooden case.

"Would that be out as in... say to Diagon or out as in a different country."

"The second one."

Twilly left and returned with a black overcoat that went down to his ankles. Having already worn his button up shirt and black slacks, Harry put on a solid green tie and a plain black silk vest before pulling the overcoat on.

Harry opened the slim box and pulled out a dark colored wand made of Blackthorn and tucked it into a holster inside his sleeve, "I'm headed to France, apparently a matter has arisen that only I can fix," he mused while opening the wooden case and pulling out his gun, a shiny, nickel plated PPK pistol loaded with small .22 caliber bullets. Inside the box was a hard plastic holster that he clipped to the back of his pants and charmed to be unnoticeable.

"Hopefully I won't be long but if not you'll know where to find me,"

Picking up the ring box, the teen opened it and pulled out a simple looking silver ring with black markings. He placed it over his finger and twisted it around muttering the activation phrase and vanishing from sight, somehow surpassing the wards around Hogwarts that prevented such things.

To be continued...

-X-

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