DISCLAIMER: THE BOOK BELONGS TO J. I HAVE ONLY BORROWED BOTH CHARACTERS AND PLOTLINE.
CHAPTER 33
Sitting at home, being fussed over by his parents, Harry tried to wriggle out his dad's tight grasp on him, while trying to reach for the chocolate éclairs in front of him. It had been two days since he had come home after the pandemonium that had struck Hogwarts after the attacks.
On the last day before leaving Harry had grabbed Draco and pulled him aside and in a hushed voice asked him if he had the original 'Wizarding Genealogy' book at home. It was a book that only pureblood family's had. It gave a well updated record of all the pureblood family trees.
Unfortunately, Sirius had taken his own and the Potter's copies and burnt them one day in a fit of drunken rage.
"Why do want it?" Draco asked him.
"I wanted to know who the last person in the line of Slytherin's house is" he said.
Draco frowned and looked at him, "Maybe you're taking the meaning of 'Heir to Slytherin' too literally. Harry, this is probably just the work of some random crazy wizard, I 've already asked my dad about it and he told me that the Slytherin line stopped nearly fifty or sixty years ago."
Harry stood stock still and then gripped Draco's arm fiercely, "Fifty years ago Dray was when the first attack on Hogwarts happened. Please search for it" Harry begged.
Draco nodded "It's not a problem. Dad will probably be really happy that I'm taking an active interest in researching bloodlines" he said wiggling his eyebrows comically, Harry laughed and let go of his arm thinking that if they had to start somewhere, why not from the beginning.
Sitting at the table beside Darren at home Harry stuffed himself with generous proportions of kidney pie which was his favorite, beef wellingtons and treacle tarts. His mother had hardly left the two boys alone as soon as they had come home.
She and James had cornered them and lectured them about how it was good that they looked out for each other but how getting hurt in the process was a big no no. Harry had looked at Darren and found no support from him, he was busily agreeing with his mum as he was still shaken by Harry's fall.
Lily had become a healer after Hogwarts and a very masterful one at that, but it had kept her busy with night calls and during the war there had been so many causalities she had had no time for family. What with the trauma of nearly losing her sons and her lack of a life, she gave up work at St. Mungos' and instead became a highly paid consultant and took one or two lectures in a month, sometimes more when the boys were In school.
She had heard about Harry's fall during a seminar where she was the guest lecturer. She received a floo call from Professor Flitwick who had given her the gist of the situation. She had lost all her pallor and had fled the meeting after making her excuses.
Running to the lobby she had called Darren to find out how Harry was, when she heard that it was serious she informed James and they contacted Dumbledore. But before they could make it possible to enter Hogwarts, Harry had called to say he was fine. It had been a terrible two days for both parents who had felt helpless and anxious calling Darren every hour for any progress.
"Right" James said standing up at the head of the table and said looking at Harry, who was grinning impishly at him. "Should I do the honors Harry or do you want to?"
Darren and Lily looked puzzled at the two of them while they were exchanging winks, "You do it dad, you're so much better at it than I am" Harry said chuckling, knowing how excited his dad was.
"So everybody knows who Cho Chang is?"
The other nodded dumbly.
"Well she had told Harry about one Christmas she had spent in Edinburg as a muggle and that it had a great deal of fun, so Harry and I decided that our Christmas present to you guys would be spending Christmas over there in muggle style!" He said grinning like Cheshire cat.
"Of course everything has been booked and paid for already. Cho's father has kindly arranged everything for the trip through the thing muggles call the internet."
He flourished a set of papers and four tiny books in their faces, "These are your tickets and passports for the plane we'll be going in, the passports, I got made at the ministry, otherwise it would have been a long wait. We will be leaving tomorrow in the morning, forget taking clothes and other stuff, we'll get everything we need there."
Darren jumped up squealing running to his dad to hug him, then ran to Harry and jumped on him messing up his hair. Lily beamed with happiness, a holiday with just family, was exactly what they needed.
The morning had been a bit of a rush but they had finally made it to the Heathrow airport and boarded the flight after a few mishaps. Lily was the only one who knew what to do, so they had all relied heavily on her.
Flying by plane was a new experience for James and the boys and they had embarrassed themselves quite a bit during the flight while sitting in the plush first class seats. Fortunately the airhostess had taken quite a shine to Darren and had tolerated their antics, even giving them two bags of complementary chocolates at the end.
They arrived at the Edinburg international airport, spotting their designated driver holding a card with the family name. He drove them to the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburg in an elongated car called a limousine. Darren had quickly found the car roof window and sliding it open stuck his head out he was joined by Harry to take in the sights of the capital of Scotland.
The hotel was magnificent. After being shown to their rooms, the boys begged their dad to get them swimming trunks at the hotel stores. Buying three pairs, the three of them spent a glorious time swimming in the warmed up pool. Lily had found the spa and had made a beeline for it. After a sumptuous dinner they decided to go out walking.
Lily popped in to a couple of stores nearby and bought them all three or four changes of clothing. The streets had been lit up with stunning Christmas lights. They walked over to the German market which had the beautiful Edinburg castle as its background and the adults drank Gluhwein from steaming mugs while the boys had cocoa.
Harry brought out his camera and took many pictures of the stalls and his family. Darren had gone crazy and wouldn't stay in one place running around like a child possessed he had discovered the gigantic bubblepods and had insisted the entire family get into them. They had a wonderful time laughing as they crashed into each other, while running around in the huge bubbles.
The next day they had gone shopping and taken a ride on the giant wheel, taking in the beautiful panoramic view of the city and cheered while watching hundreds of people dressed as Santa running in a marathon.
Sitting in their rooms and sipping on warm eggnog, Darren had been looking at Harry out of the corner of his eye and suddenly said "So what's Cho up to, these days?"
Harry looked at him in surprise and said "The usual."
Starting to look a bit uncomfortable Darren mumbled something unintelligible to Harry.
"What did you say? I couldn't understand" Harry asked bemusedly, Darren was acting really strange.
"I said I think she's kind of cute" Darren said blushing.
"Oh!"
"Harry! You're supposed to say cool, I'll help you talk to her or something like that not 'Oh'"
"Ugh! Darren I can't tell her it's weird. You know whom you should talk to? You should talk to Hermione, she's practically Cho's best friend."
"Crap! You're right. But if I tell her then Ron is going to find out and then all of the Weasleys" he groaned "I'm going to become Fred and George's favorite pastime; I'll never live it down."
"Everything comes at a price Darren, remember that" Harry said fending of an onslaught of pillows.
Christmas morning had been spent in their parents huge bed, they had lounged about lazily opening gifts, laughing, talking and trying to push James off the bed while he played tickle attack. Their mother had even let them have breakfast in bed with them and they ate a huge gorgeous Christmas spread while watching rented videos.
In the evening they went for dinner to the Witchery and chatted surreptiously with the resident ghosts. They were to leave that night by floo. Having checked out of their hotel, they carried their bags to the nearest floo point and got in one by one to go home. Falling down in their living room exhausted but happy, they wished each other a merry Christmas and went to bed.