Christmas
Harry felt oddly elated.
It was Christmas time, and he and Voldemort were in Diagon Alley, disguised through Polyjuice Potion with hair from two unsuspecting Muggles, trying to go through with their plan.
It was a most difficult assignment, complicated and hard to pull off, involving a great deal of spionage, caution and attention.
It was really, really hard to find suitable Christmas presents for everyone while Bella was babysitting Morgan.
In the beginning, the two of them had split up, trying to find suitable presents for each other. He still found that bit a bit... surreal.
He'd gotten him a book in Knockturn Alley named "The Darkest of the Darke" by someone called M.l.F. He had a pretty good idea who had written it, and he would ask Tom to bequeath it to Morgan one day, after all, it was a family heirloom for her.
Of course, a simple copying charm would work as well.
Then, he and Tom had met up in the Leaky, both of them very hard trying to get hints of what their Christmas present would be, while munching candy.
"So, where did you go to?", Harry asked, trying at least for the appearence of subtlety.
Tom just grinned.
"A part of London close or identical to Diagon Alley." Great, very informative. It sounded like the typical kind of answer Morgan would have given. Harry smiled. She had gotten some traits from her grandfather, after all.
Silence, apart from candy munching and crunching.
Tom broke it.
"What's my present?"
Harry blinked. Why was Tom so unsubtle? It didn't suit him.
"No telling."
"Aw, come on."
He tried his best to do a puppy dog look.
It came out looking exactly like Morgan's, enough to creep Harry out thoroughly.
"Imitating your granddaughter doesn't help. Neither does pouting."
"I don't pout! I am the Dark Lord Voldemort!" Tom hissed that last part in Parseltongue.
"You do."
"I don't!"
"You do."
"I don't!"
"You do-o-o."
This continued until they reached a Potions Ingredients store in Knockturn Alley, to find something for one Severus Snape.
They settled on Basilisk Venom. Snape would get a heart attack - a Christmas present by both the Dark Lord and one Harry Potter. They'd get a good laugh over that one.
For Lucius Malfoy, they decided on something that was both very mean and really, really funny, at least for them. A mirror engraved with the words
"For Uncle Lucy, from Tom, Harry and Morgan". Morgan had begged for a gift for Uncle Lucy where he'd see from whom he had gotten it, and wanted herself to be included.
The next hurden was Bellatrix' Christmas present.
They decided on some old, charmed Muggle torture devices they found in a dingy shop in a side-street next to Knockturn Alley. Like with the other presents, they solved the problem of transportation by banishing the stuff straight home, a feat that impressed the store's owner immensely.
When they came to Knockturn Alley again, Harry had a brilliant idea.
"Tom... what if we give some presents to other people?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, how about my old teachers, besides Snape, I mean? Flitwick's easy, Trelawney is, as well, just like Sprout, Hagrid, easy, but I have no idea for Dumbledore and McGonagall."
"No presents for Flitwick, Sprout, or Hagrid. I remember Hagrid and Sprout from my own school career, and I've never liked Flitwick."
"Okay, so presents for Trelawney, Dumbles and McGonagall. Wait a moment, you went into school with McGonagall as well. Is there something you have to tell me?"
"No!" Tom blushed, actually blushed.
"You've got a crush on McGonagall, of all people?"
"Well, had. When I was younger."
"You still have."
"No."
"Yes."
"I don't."
"You do, and there's no denying. C'mon, loverboy, let's get some presents."
"I'm not a loverboy!"
Harry laughed.
Minutes later, they were going over different necklaces and bracelets, until finally, Tom found one with a beautiful snake design.
"D'you think she'll like it?"
"Sure. It is beautiful."
"D'you think I should charm it or anything?"
"No, better not. I mean, she might go and think it's dangerous if it's charmed in any way."
"True."
They paid, went out of the jewellery shop.
"Tom..."
"Yes?"
"You do know your crush is about as likely to be ever anything more as it is for someone to develop a stable and reliable way of long distance time travel?"
Tom looked at him, with a certain bitterness in his eyes.
"Yes."
"Do you ever regret your choices?"
"Sometimes."
They went on. Harry entered another shop for a short time, getting his professor a one-year subscription gift certificate for Transfiguration Today.
"So, what will we get Dumbledork?", Harry asked, attempting to light the mood.
"No idea." Tom remained indifferent.
Harry thought what Morgan would get him.
"I think I have the perfect gift."
When they exited yet another bookstore, both of them were laughing heartily.
They'd bought a book, titled "Fashion No-Goes" for Albus Dumbledore. One of the No-Goes were purple robes on "wizards clearly beyond a hundred".
They'd shared a laugh over that one.
For Trelawney, they bought a crystal ball without any magical properties whatsoever.
Then, Morgan's presents came. Books, toys, a chess set, a kiddie broom, more books, some new dolls, and of course, loads of candy.
Part of what was intended to be Morgan's present ended up in the Dark Lord's stomach, though. Apparently, he liked candy a lot, but never could eat in his follower's presence. It would not have been dignified enough.
Meanwhile...
Bellatrix liked babysitting Morgan. It was easy, fun, and right now, they had the Throne Room to themselves. Pot... Harry had insisted that guests would only be allowed when he allowed them and had warded his rooms quite thoroughly.
At the moment, they were playing tag, and Bella had to marvel at the fitness the little girl displayed. While she was out of breath, Morgan was running around like a whirlwind, still.
"Mo-", she puffed, "-rgan, would you like to -" puff "do something else?"
"What should we do?"
Bella thought, long and hard.
Then, a slow smile spread across her face.
"How about I teach you some magic?"
When Harry and Voldemort - now in their own bodies again - came home, they faced pandemonium.
The Throne Room was full of scorch marks, there were some smaller fires still around, and Tom's throne was burning, while Morgan and Bella were standing in the Throne Room's middle, Morgan holding Bella's wand.
"BELLATRIX LESTRANGE, WHAT DID YOU DO? You were supposed to take care nothing happened!"
"MORGAN ELISABETH POTTER, WHAT ARE YOU DOING BURNING YOUR GRANDFATHER'S THRONE?!"
"Uh... see, I wanted to teach her magic, and we, uhm, got a little carried away..."
"What did you teach her?"
"Well, 'Incendio' at first, and when that worked, I sort of thaught her about the fire rope charm, and then we might have tried darkfyre..."
Darkfyre? That was definitely not meant for children. It was basically fiendfyre that cut be put out by enchanted water. Heavily enchanted water.
"You tried to teach my barely eighteen-months-old daughter how to produce DARKFYRE? You could have gotten her killed!"
"Wait a second, Morgan actually produced darkfyre? I can't believe you did! Oh, you're gonna be such a great Dark Lady, Morgan, yes you are, yes you a-are! Such a great Dark Lady, such a grea-"
"Tom Marvolo Riddle. Do not tell me you approve of this."
Voldemort looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
"No. The thought never crossed my mind. Honestly."
"Good. Especially because your Throne Room was destroyed."
Tom looked around, as if just now noticing the destruction.
He grimaced.
"That was a nice Throne Room. Morgan..."
"I am sorry, Grandpa."
She looked up at him, with a look so full of innocence that Voldemort just sighed resignedly and started cleaning up.
"Bella, what are you waiting for? You're to blame for this mess, you help!"
Bellatrix took her wand from a Morgan that was rather unwilling to part with this new, fabulous toy, and started cleaning up.
Finally, Christmas morning came.
Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Ginny, Remus, Fred, George, Hagrid and Dobby were rather surprised to get a Christmas present from Harry.
That was nothing, however, to the shock Sybil Trelawney felt when "The subjects of Your Prophecy" sent her a crystall ball for Christmass. Rather proud of herself, she decided to show it around, to everyone, including an Albus Dumbledore who hadn't exactly been amused by "Fashion No-Goes - from H. and V."
It had given him a thorough shock, realizing that Harry and Voldemort had bought people Christmas presents, together.
Like a family or something. Which was entirely ridiculous, of course. Why on Earth sould they consider each other part of the same family?
When Minerva McGonagall found a parcel that contained both a one-year subscription gift certificate for Transfiguration Today from "H.J.P." and a snake bracelet by "Tom", she nearly got a heart attack.
Both Albus Dumbledore met up a short time later with Filius Flitwick, who would keep their gifts for the next few days, checking them for curses and charms.
Nothing.
Still, McGonagall thought, why had her old schoolmate sent her a curse-free bracelet?
She wore it, of course. It was a beautiful piece of jewellery, after all.
Snape fainted twice that day. The first, when he read who had sent him a present - the Dark Lord and Potter, of all people! - and the second time when he realized what they'd gotten him.
He had a headache for the rest of the day. He'd fallen right into his bed-post when he'd fainted the first time.
Bellatrix was overjoyed with her gift, while Lucy... uh... Lucius was not. He grinded his teeth and said "Thank you", though it took him a lot of visible effort.
It earned him a knee-crushing Morgan-hug.
Morgan, of course, loved Christmas best. She'd made a picture for her Dad that consisted mainly of odd lines. Harry couldn't for the life of him figure out what it was supposed to depict, but he guessed that didn't matter. His daughter was brilliant in almost everything else, including in things he desperately wished she wasn't brilliant at, so her non-existent artistic skills didn't matter.
For Lord Voldemort, she'd made a string necklace with a heart cut out of cardboard. It said "World's Best Grampa" in a rather strange and obviously not very practised handwriting.
Tom put it around his neck, but stuffed it under his robes. He couldn't wear such a thing openly, after all. He was rather happy to see Harry's gift, and promised he would make a copy for Morgan.
Harry was rather surprised by Voldemort's gift: a snitch designed to stay in the room and not move too much above ground-level.
It was a rather good gift, he thought.
Morgan, of course, was up high the whole day, looking at and testing every single present she'd gotten, eating most of her candy with her Grandpa, until both of them got stomach cramps, playing chess against her Uncle Lucy, who lost - Voldemort glared at him - then against Aunt Bella, who mainly won, though in the end, Morgan nearly won one game, flying on her toy broom and nearly crashing into Harry, who was saved by his Dursley-required reflexes, and trying to fly with Nagini on her toy broom, where Harry discovered that, yes, snakes were able to be afraid of heights.
All in all, it was one of the best Christmases Harry had ever had.