Chapter Twenty-Three: Time for a Break

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

It occurred to Harry in mid-December that it was nearly Christmas. He had no idea why it had taken him so long to realize this as there had been decorations up ever since December 1st but somehow it didn't really hit home then. December 1st was, after all, still three and a half weeks away from Christmas so one couldn't afford to get too excited as that would be impossible to sustain until the day actually arrived and there would be nothing so disappointing as being super excited for Christmas in the weeks that led up to it and having no enthusiasm for Christmas itself. If it took Harry any less than four hours to fall asleep on Christmas Eve then he would be appalled at himself and his lack of interest in the best day of the year.

There were religious reasons for Christmas, sure, and technically that was why they had a holiday but he was perfectly happy to celebrate any holiday celebrating anything and celebrated by anyone as long as he got the chance to get and give out presents. Though giving presents was much more fun when he got to watch people open them than when he just had to be content knowing that they had opened them and hoping that they would bring up the gift so he didn't have to find a way of sneaking it into conversation without making it seem like he wanted to be praised for his gift-giving prowess. Since he really did want to be praised for his gift-giving prowess, this was made especially complicated but he wasn't raised by Gilderoy Lockhart for nothing.

"So is anyone actually staying for Christmas?" Draco asked curiously one day when they had all managed to grab chairs by the fire. They pointedly ignored the rest of the house that was glaring at them. Everyone always glared at the people who got chairs by the fire because even when the weather was nice, the Slytherin Common Room's location meant that it still rather cold there. And if you left your seat for a second without having a trustworthy friend who wouldn't' steal your seat saving your spot (and those were hard to come by. Draco could usually get Crabbe and Goyle to help him out but everyone else was on their own) then your seat was just gone.

Pansy looked at him liked he'd lost his mind. "Why would anyone want to stay at school over Christmas? I mean, that's pretty much admitting that you're not wanted at home."

"Or maybe just that you don't want to go home and get to know your new stepdad because your mother hinted that you two would take a trip – just the two of you – over the summer and you know what that means," Blaise suggested.

"You know you're the only one who ever has that problem, right?" Daphne asked him.

"I wasn't aware that our alternate reasons for not wanting to come home had to be reasons that everyone shared," Blaise said stiffly. "Especially seeing as how most of us are coming home for the holidays."

"So are you staying at Hogwarts?" Harry asked him.

Blaise shook his head. "I was thinking about it but the whole idea of staying at school over the holidays…it's just too depressing. I can just ignore Andrew."

"Your new stepfather's name is actually Peter," Tracy corrected.

"Huh. Which one was Andrew then?" Blaise asked.

"He was two stepfather's ago. Your last one was Michael," Tracy informed him.

"Out of curiosity, does anyone see anything weird about Tracy knowing Blaise's family situation better than Blaise does?" Harry wondered.

"It's easier to remain unattached if I don't differentiate between them," Blaise explained. "It's always been my mother, my stepfather, and I. My various stepfathers all just sort of combine in my head into the one."

"That doesn't sound very healthy," Daphne said dubiously.

"And how, exactly, does one deal with my mother's parade of extremely unfortunate husbands?" Blaise inquired.

Daphne paused. "You know, maybe I spoke too soon."

"That's what I thought," Blaise said, satisfied.

"I'm heading home," Daphne told them.

"Are you going to go out and do weird muggle things?" Draco asked, fascinated.

Daphne rolled her eyes. "I doubt I'll be seeing my cousin, no. What kind of weird muggle things do you expect people get up to, anyway?"

"I…" Draco trailed off, thinking. "Witch burning?"

"You fail at muggles so very badly," Harry said bluntly.

"Hey, I can't even take Muggle Studies until third year!" Draco said defensively.

"Will you be taking it?" Theodore asked.

"Wasn't planning on it, no," Draco replied.

"I'm going home, too. Although by 'home' I really mean Paris," Tracy told them.

"I'm going home, too," Theodore informed them.

"Will you be spending your time off aiding Miss Lovegood in seeking out the elusive Crumple-Horned Snorkack?" Draco asked innocently.

Theodore made a face at him. "Somehow, I think she'll manage fine on her own."

"Do I even want to know?" Harry asked uncertainly.

"I have this cousin, Luna Lovegood," Draco explained. "Her father runs the Quibbler."

"Ah," Harry said, understanding immediately.

"So you'll be staying at school at least, right Harry?" Tracy asked him. "I mean, your father lives here as well so you don't really need to go home."

"None of us really need to go home," Harry replied. "And yet we all are. Nine months is a long time to be cooped up in one place, even a giant castle. And we promised Sirius and Remus that we'd stop in and see them. I'm also hoping to finally meet Neville's mother."

Draco made a face. "I don't see why. She's a total Hufflepuff."

"I thought she was in Gryffindor," Daphne said, frowning.

"She was. That doesn't stop her from being a total Hufflepuff," Draco said dismissively.

"I'm pretty sure that it does, actually," Daphne argued.

"I'm using 'Hufflepuff' as an adjective, not a description of what house she was in," Draco said wearily.

"But if she was in Gryffindor then wouldn't she, by default, be-" Daphne started to say.

Draco groaned. "My God, Daphne, let it go!"

"Remus and Sirius…" Theodore said slowly. "Aren't they those two people who want to kidnap you and get custody away from your father?"

"Actually…yes," Harry said, immensely surprised that Theodore was right. A little disturbed, too, as he wondered if Theodore was ever right about anything else. He really shouldn't drive himself crazy with that, though. "That's more Sirius than Remus, though."

"And you…think spending time with them is a good idea?" Daphne couldn't believe it.

Harry shrugged. "Well, I figure that unless I go then Sirius might actually strike."

It wasn't that Harry was vowing to never ride the Hogwarts Express with Hermione on his way away from school ever again, more like he was vowing to think long and hard about whether he could stand to hear obsessing about how exams went before he agreed to ride with her. He wondered if she was like that all the time. He only had the one class with Hermione and wasn't in her house so she was either always that obsessive or else he had caught her at a really bad time.

He technically hadn't even needed to take the Hogwarts Express but he had had fun on the way to school and didn't want to miss out by taking the Floo with his father (as much as he loved the man, he would not willingly Side-along Apparate with him. Not unless his life depended on it and even then he'd have to consider just how much his life depended on it).

Fortunately, Neville wasn't interested in going over all of their answers for the third time despite the fact that Harry didn't remember most of the questions and wasn't sure about all of his answers.

"I just don't see why this is so difficult," Hermione was saying. "I'm not asking you to recreate what you wrote word for word. I just think that if you knew the answer then then you'll know it now and I can't really see you looking up the answers you got wrong given how…disinterested you seem to be."

"Oh, you noticed then?" Harry asked, surprised.

Hermione nodded. "Of course I have. But you're not so disinterested that you'll leave the compartment and I can work with that."

Harry moved to stand up.

"Sit back down," she ordered.

Harry did.

"So like I was saying," Hermione continued, "if I just ask you the same question and you have the same knowledge then why can't you give approximately the same answer?"

"Because we promptly Obliviated ourselves after the exam was over," Neville said matter-of-factly. "In preparation for your questions, of course."

"Neville!" Hermione scolded. "You really shouldn't joke about Obliviation! It's very difficult to do correctly and a lot of the long-term spell damage victims fell victim to Obliviation. And then there's all the hidden crimes that are probably covered up by a successful Obliviation."

Harry determinedly did not think of his father. "Oh, that must be terrible."

"It is!" Hermione said passionately.

"I smell a new cause brewing…" Neville said ominously.

"New cause?" Harry asked curiously.

Neville rolled his eyes. "You wouldn't know because you're not in Gryffindor but Hermione likes to take up causes. And usually found them, too, because no one else cares."

Hermione crossed her arms and frowned at him. "It's not my fault that no one else seems to care that so much is wrong with Magical Britain."

"I wish you wouldn't be so judgmental, Hermione," Neville told her.

"And I wish that I wouldn't have to be," Hermione shot back. "But anyway, Harry, what did you put for number seventeen on History of Magic?"

"There was a seventeen on our History of Magic exam?" Harry asked, blinking. "…There was a History of Magic exam?"

"See, told you," Neville said knowingly. "Self-Obliviation."

"You two are not nearly as funny as you think you are," Hermione complained but she was fighting a smile.

"I would hope not," Neville said, shuddering. "Because that is almost an unhealthy amount of funny."

"What was the question?" Harry asked.

"What common themes run through the goblin rebellions?" Hermione repeated.

"Wizards being stupid and trusting an oppressed people with their money and then making no noticeable changes even though it keeps causing all these rebellions," Harry said immediately. "Somehow I stretched that out for three paragraphs."

"I don't know, though," Neville said slowly. "I mean, let's all agree that oppression is wrong and everything but goblins are really powerful and have magic that we don't fully – or remotely – understand even without wands. Once we gave them that, after all the crap we've put them through would it surprise you at all if they turned the tables on us and started being the oppressors?"

"They wouldn't do that!" Hermione huffed. "Honestly, you've spent too much time in this culture."

"It's the culture I was born into," Neville said dryly. "And you're ignoring how incredibly spiteful and vengeful goblins can be."

"Now you're just stereotyping," Hermione accused.

"I don't know," Harry spoke up. "One time a few years back I tripped and fell on a goblin and over the summer I found out that he had transferred to Gringott's and you should have seen the look he gave me. And I swear our cart went about three times as fast as the carts normally go. Fun fact: when you're hurtling around on tracks and throw up then you keep moving and it lands right in your face."

Hermione made a face. "Lovely."

"You think just hearing about it is bad?" Harry asked rhetorically. "Try living through it."

"I can't believe we're actually talking about history on our break," Neville complained. "Quick, change the subject before I'm forced to Obliviate myself again and Hermione gives me a lecture and then I have to Obliviate myself yet again because her lecture reminded me of what I wanted to forget in the first place."

"Whatever works for you," Hermione said, actually grinning a bit. "I do so love being an effective deterrent."

"She's more of a Prefect than some of our Prefects," Neville confided. "Though to be fair, they are Gryffindor Prefects."

"You're unusually down about your house," Harry remarked.

Neville shrugged. "Am I? I like to think that I'm simply more self-aware than they are. Or at the very least more openly self-aware."

Harry laughed. " 'Whatever works for you,'" he quoted.

"So, Harry, how has Potions been?" Hermione inquired. "Does Snape still hate you?"

"Are you asking if I think he still hates me or if the rest of the school has cottoned on to that fact yet?" Harry asked.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Yes, Harry, because I'm dying to know what everyone at the school that we both attend thinks."

"In that case then his blatant favoritism towards me is appalling and they are thinking of complaining," Harry told her.

Hermione was about to respond when the train started slowing down. "Are we really back already? That was fast."

A thought occurred to Harry. "Do you guys ever wonder how kids got to Hogwarts back before trains were invented?"

Neville discretely kicked him.

"Ow! What was that for?" Harry demanded, rubbing his shins.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Neville claimed. "But have you ever thought that maybe you shouldn't ask questions like that in front of Hermione? She'll spend her whole break doing research and make us listen to her presentation on the way back to school."

"At least you'd learn something," Hermione sniffed.

"…Harry, she didn't deny it," Neville said, casting worried glances at her.

Hermione merely smiled mysteriously.

"Sorry," Harry apologized . "When I ask that question in Slytherin someone's bound to either know the answer or convincingly make it up as a point of Pureblood pride."

"I feel obligated to point out that if Ron weren't staying at school, he'd point out how evil that makes Slytherin," Neville told him.

Harry laughed. "Oh, believe me, I know."

"Know that Ron would say that or if it's true?" Hermione asked.

Neville and Harry stared at her.

"What?" she asked a bit defensively. "I can be funny, too!"

"And this," Neville said, weaving his way through the crowd and stopping in front of a woman that Harry recognized from her picture, "is my mother."

Alice Longbottom blinked. "And here I'd thought you'd outgrown the stage where you'd show me off to your friends."

"Never," Neville vowed.

"I'd ask who this was if he didn't look almost disturbingly like James Potter," Alice said fondly, holding out her hand. "Hello, Harry. I'm Alice Longbottom, Neville's mother."

"It's so nice to meet you," Harry said, shaking her hand. "I believe that you were a friend of my mother's."

Alice's eyes grew a little distant but her smile was still genuine. "I was, yes. Am I correct in thinking you'd like to talk about her one day?"

Harry nodded. "Definitely. My only other option seems to be Snape but, well…"

Alice laughed. "I quite understand. I was at Hogwarts with your parents, after all." She glanced over at Sirius and Remus who were quickly approaching. "I'm sure you'd like to spend time with the other people in your life who haven't seen you since September but I'll make sure to owl you and we can set up a date to talk."

Harry thanked her and then turned to his father's friends. 'Hadn't seen him since September', huh? Maybe if they were normal not-guardians. Or maybe if he didn't get into fights with trolls. But at most all he did was slow it down. Was it really his fault that Rita Skeeter had been called in? Well…kind of. But still!

"Does my father know you're here to get me?" Harry asked suspiciously, wondering if they'd really just try to spirit him away without letting his father know where he was going to be.

"Of course he does," Sirius said, looking a little affronted.

"Remus?" Harry asked, turning to the more responsible of the pair.

"Hey!" Sirius objected.

"It's true, Harry," Remus confirmed. "Sirius invited him to stay at his family estate in London and your father agreed. As an old Pureblood estate it has all sorts of protection on it so it's safer for you anyway."

The four of them under one roof for the duration of the break. Well, that would be something, wouldn't it?

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