Harry is younger than Percy by a year, and older then the twins by a year. Harry was a first year in Hogwarts while Bill was in 7th and Charlie was in 5th.

CHAPTER 2: 4th Year: Christmas

After the Halloween incident, Nick was hailed as a hero and the troll story was on the cover of the Daily Prophet the next day. Nick received many gifts from his fan club in the next month and Harry could honestly say he was glad he wasn't in Gryffindor, not that he ever wanted to be.

Nick has made friends with the girl Hermione. The two brothers hadn't had any contact with each other since the troll. Harry didn't mind as it always had been this way, but it was currently killing Nick.

Harry's words haunted him and it seemed as with whatever happened, they'd always be there, in the back of his mind.

"We may be related by blood, but you will never be my brother. I have no family," the words rang in his ears and the first year couldn't help but think once again what had he done that could've made his brother this way.

His shook the thoughts out of his head and continued packing. Winter break was quickly rolling in and he was going back home. Nick missed his Mum and Dad and he couldn't wait for Christmas.

He packed the last robe and hurried down to eat dinner. The train would leave tomorrow morning so this was his last dinner at Hogwarts. Nick took notice of Harry on the Ravenclaw table and felt ashamed once again that he had not known Harry's house until Hogwarts. He had always assumed it would be Gryffindor. His parents had also assumed that.

Harry was chatting along with Jake Malfoy. The weird thing that he had never known about was that there was no rule as to which table you had to sit at. So naturally, Jake Malfoy was almost always sitting at the Ravenclaw table with Cedric Diggory and Taylor Michaels. It was humiliating to the Gryffindors that a member of their Gryddindor's house chose to sit on the Ravenclaw table instead of Gryffindor and he was positive that Hufflepuff and Slytherin felt the same way.

He could safely say the he hated Malfoys, but he knew that this was his last chance. Gathering up all his Gryffindor courage, Nick approached the Ravenclaw table.

"Harry?" His voice sounded squeaky, even to him. Merlin! This was his brother; why was he so afraid to ask him one stupid question?

He now had Harry's attention and apparently the whole school's attention too. No one, not a single person, ever approached Harry. He was a very well-known person that everyone outside of his friends and the professors feared. All first years were told to stay away from him at all costs. They were also told that if they were on his bad side, nothing would help them survive. Not even the adults of Hogwarts would because they doted on him endlessly. Even Snape would take his side if it was him against Snape's favorite Slytherin. Obviously, the was saying something.

"Are you just going to stand there and stare, brat?" Jake Malfoy asked.

It was Malfoy's question that shook him into reality as had noticed he had just stood there, frozen in a trance like way for at least the last minute.

"I-I. . . I. . . ," he stuttered.

"What about you, Potter?" Taylor asked. "It better be good because you're precious wasting time here."

"Um. . . I was wondering if. . . if. . .."

What did I need to ask him again?

"Nicky-Boy, why don't you run along to your table and play dollies with your wittle friends and stop annoying me," Harry said in a sickly sweet voice. "It's a wonder why you came to Hogwarts. I honestly thought that they only allowed first years that were 11, but it seems that they have made an exception to the rule, allowing a five year old into Hogwarts."

His fear turned to anger. He face burned red. He was not a child. And did certainly did NOT play dollies. Merlin, what was wrong with him? Why couldn't he form a single sentence? And where in Merlin was his Gryffindor courage?

"Guys, stop humiliating the poor boy," Cedric Diggory joined the conversation.

"Humiliating the boy?" Harry faked innocence. "Why would I do such a thing? I'm just telling the little idiot that if he didn't need something from me, he should get the hell out of here and skip happily like the little five year old girl he is back to his table and quit bothering me with his petty little stupid questions that he can't even form out. The troll probably hit himself with that club to end the torture of hearing his stupid questions. No wonder he is the defeater of Voldemort (the school flinched at the name). The killing curse probably backfired because Voldemort (cue flinches) was too astonished by the fact that there is such a stupid creature in the world that the killing curse wasn't even fired right."

"You. . . you. . .!" Nick fumed. He just wanted to ask a stupid question. What did he ever do to deserve such humility? He still couldn't form a complete sentence though.

The school laughed at his misfortune along with Snape. The other professors still weren't here because it was still early to be at dinner.

"Look at it! Malfoy exclaimed. "My, my, have we made you angry? Do you need to sit down, baby Potter? Michaels, move over and give baby Potter some space. Cedric, go get baby Potter his sippy cup."

On the other side of the room, Nick could see some of the Hufflepuffs and most of the Gryffindors looking at him in pity. He saw his friends debating on if they should help him or not. Some friends.

No, this humiliation wouldn't continue. He could not and would not give Harry the satisfaction of seeing him completely humiliated, if that hadn't happened already. He turned and stormed out the hall, the raucous laughter of the students ringing in his ears. He would ask Harry his question later, when he finally remembered what it was.

*******A*Lost*Star*******

He sat across from Hermione and Ron, refusing to say a single word to them. Why hadn't they come to his defense yesterday was his reason.

"Come on, mate. We already told you, we're sorry," Ron said.

"It was rather foolish of you yesterday, though. Percy and the other prefects told us not to talk them unless it was absolutely necessary. I think we can all agree that what you did yesterday was stupid. What could've been so important that you would go to him for help?" Hermione said matter-of-factly.

"That's not the point!" He snapped. "You should've helped me at least."

"Helped you," Hermione stared at him as if he was the stupidest person in Magical Britten. "He would've killed us. At least you are his brother so he won't kill you as painfully. If those rumors are true, we would've died before we could've helped you. Percy did say he didn't like it when you tried to help his play things. And back there, you did look like one of his play things."

Nick rolled his eyes. Harry was his older brother; Harry didn't view him as a toy made for his amusement like he did with everyone else. No, Harry cared about him no matter how much he denied it. They were family, and family cared about each other no matter what happened. Dad had long ago said that family belonged with each other, and no force could break it. Nothing was as strong as the love a family shared. Not even Merlin.

*******A*Lost*Star*******

"PRESENTS," the males currently resisting in the Potter Manor yelled as one at 6.01 in the morning. The 3 members of the Potter family, Sirius, and Weasleys excluding Bill and Charlie were all gathered around the Christmas tree.

Remus had his furry little problem the night before and had decided to sleep in on Christmas day. Bill and Charlie were both sleeping in because they were both tired from their journeys to come back home. Harry was spending Christmas at Hogwarts with his friends.

Harry got out of bed, groaning. It was Christmas morning which meant everyone he was going to have to deal with everyone being extra cheerful. He shuddered at the thought of it being Christmas every single day for the rest of his life. He would go insane in a matter of days, that he was positive of. Seeing everyone merrily talking and practically prancing for a whole 24 hours was already enough punishment.

Before he had come Hogwarts, the last present he had ever gotten was his fourth birthday. He had never received another present from his parents after that. He would watch his supposed family gather up around the Christmas tree and unwrap presents while he had non to unwrap. They would do all kinds of other Christmassy stuff and traditions that he was never involved in. They would push his aside. They had forgotten they had another son after the night of Voldemort's attack and that Harry found out soon enough.

He soon came to hate Christmas at age 7 and that was the last Christmas he felt any feelings towards his family. He hated seeing all their cheerful faces. He hated the twinkle they got in their eyes after receiving a present they had dearly wanted. He hated their cheerful laughs they had as they sat around the fire and told stories. He hated the gigantic grins on their faces as they stuffed their faces with warm Christmas cookies. He hated Christmas and all the cheerfulness it brought to a family. He never did have a family.

Flashback

"PRESENTS!"

Harry woke up to his brother's traditional wake up call. Loud footsteps ran down the stairs and to the Christmas tree. Harry groaned and stuffed his face with a pillow. He hated waking up early, especially at six in the morning.

A few minutes later, he finally accepted the fact that he wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep and made his way down stairs to join his family. They were all already down and Nick had started unwrapping his presents while his parents watched. They hadn't waited for him to come down and join them.

He unwrapped another present from his pile of at least a hundred presents. A small, golden ball flew out and started flying in circles around the tree. Harry's eyes clouded with jealousy and envy as he watched the golden ball fly around. He had wanted a golden snitch since he was 5, and of course, had never received one.

"It'll do whatever you want it to do," his father said. "It's a junior's snitch."

"Wicked," Nick responded, his eyes still glued on the snitch.

Harry looked for his presents pile to find that he had no presents, again. Sadness filled his tiny heart. He had hoped that his parents had bought 2 snitches, one for him and one for Nick, but they hadn't even bothered getting him present. No one had bothered to buy him a present.

"Mum?" Harry asked.

His mother's gaze snapped from watching her youngest son unwrap presents to her eldest son. "Yes, Harry?"

"How come I didn't get a snitch like Nick?" The seven year old boy asked.

"Harry, sweetie, it's not nice to want what others have." She scolded him.

"But Mum, I've always wanted a snitch. I want to be seeker in Hogwarts like dad was," he piped in.

His mother laughed. Her laugh wasn't the same sweet and kind laugh that made you want to join in the laughter like it always was, but was cold and completely lacking in humor. "Harry, you can't even ride a broom correctly; who would be stupid enough to let you be seeker? Nick has all the Quidditch talent in the family, not you."

"Yes, I can ride a broom Mum. Why would you say that?" Harry asked, hurt.

Parents were supposed support their children with their dreams and goals, not shoot them down and tell them they were never going to make it. Parents were also supposed to care about all their children and not show favoritism. But it was just that: supposed.

His father joined his mother in tormenting him. "Harry, don't talk back to your mother. And no, you can't ride a broom correctly. Honestly, who taught you to lie so much?"

Harry started at his father in astonishment, his mouth half opened .His eye's stung as he looked up at his father, the tears already beginning to form.

"You taught me how to ride a broom. You said I was a natural," Harry said softly, his heart had already broken by the cruelty that was his life.

He quickly ran up the stairs and crashed onto his bed. The tears ran down his face freely by now.

He waited all day for someone to come apologize, to say they were just kidding. If they were to apologize that day, he would've forgave them. If they were to apologize a minute later, he would have been stony cold to them and rejected their apology.

They never apologized.

And he never looked at Christmas the same way. He never looked at his family the same way. He never looked at anything the same way.

Flashback End

He shook all thoughts out of his head as he went to get dressed. Today was going to be a day in hell; that, he was sure of.

He went to the Ravenclaw table and ate breakfast silently. Even though most of the students had decided to go home for the holidays, there was still the raucous chatter that seemed to live in the Great Hall of the students. He sat alone at the Gryffindor table because Jake had decided to go home for the holidays and so had Cedric and Taylor.

Besides Jake, Cedric, and Taylor, Harry had no friends in Hogwarts. He never saw reason to make many friends. Besides, Jake, Cedric, and Taylor gave him a huge headache already; he didn't need any more annoyance in his life.

After breakfast, he decided to socialize with the annoying people that were in his house. That didn't work very well. In Ravenclaw, your popularity was based on how smart you were. He was the smartest of the Ravenclaws and had been ranked had the highest scores in his year for the past 4 years.

Though that should make him one of the most liked and respected people in Ravenclaw, it didn't. The Ravenclaws hated him. Of course, so did the rest of the school, but that wasn't important. They hated him for many reasons. He was smarter than them. He was hotter than them (for the guys). He out bested them in everything and many more reasons. The most popular reason they had to hate him was that he associated with other houses, not only Ravenclaw.

Unlike the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff houses, Ravenclaw didn't have anything against Slytherin since at least half of them came from dark families. Despite that, Ravenclaws were outsiders. To the whole school, they were just really smart bookworms who belonged nowhere and everywhere. Unlike Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin, it wasn't obvious which side they were on. Everyone knew most of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff were on the light side, while most of Slytherin were on the dark side. The Ravenclaws though, no one knew where their true loyalties were because Ravenclaws preferred to think for themselves. This made them enemies to both the dark and light sides.

Because of this reason, Ravenclaws preferred to stick with their own. So when Harry went on and made friends with people from all the other houses, they saw him as a traitor. And since he was the top student in Hogwarts, they were more displeased with him because he was a valuable ally for all of them to have. Ravenclaws were not dumb, for the most part, and they had already realized that to survive in the outside world, you needed to have powerful allies that would support you in the future.

The whole school fear-respected him. He was powerful, no denying that. And he had all the teachers wrapped around his pinkie. But that wasn't all. No. It was the fact that he wouldn't hesitate to beat any of them to the ground. The fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh years had all seen him in action before and did their best to warn all younger years of him. No one was to approach him, no matter what. There were also rumors, whispers traveling from ear to ear about him. They amused him and it always gave him a laugh at what other's dreamed up about him.

A second year skipped happily past him to his friends at the end of the table and they chatted wildly about what they had received as presents. He shook his head, silently wondering if it that kid had any common sense.

"Obviously not," he thought, "or else he wouldn't have done that."

The day continued to be more and more horrific as the time passed. Merlin, he hated this day. Nothing could compare to his hatred of Christmas, not even his birthday. To avoid having to deal with any extremely annoying merry students who chose to suddenly gain the courage to talk to him, he went to the Quidditch pitch to waste time flying. After grabbing his Nimbus, he flew around the Quidditch field doing all kinds of tricks and stuff.

Even though it was during the winter, he wasn't even remotely cold as he flew. Snow was around1 inch thick, which he was fine with. The snow usually got higher around the winter, rising up to a foot or a foot and a half. He wasn't complaining though. This year was just a warm year and he was fine with it.

It was already starting to become dark when he was called down by Madam Hooch. The sky was a deep blue but there was enough light to fly with.

He flew down to Madam Hooch to see what she wanted from him. There was a man with Hooch. He was around the age of 40 to 45. He looked healthy though. He had light brown hair that had a gray hairs running through it. His eyes were a warm crystal blue color. He had a tiny nose and full lips. Harry assumed that he was quite the looker when he was younger.

"Mr. Potter, I want you to meet an old friend of mine, Markus Riley," Madam Hooch introduced him. "Markus, I want you to meet the Mr. Harry Potter."

The man, Markus Riley, outstretched his hand to shake. Harry took it hesitantly, wondering what in Merlin Hooch was thinking.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Mr. Potter. Rolanda has said many things about you," Markus Riley said.

"It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Riley," Harry said, giving a questioning glance to Hooch. She just gave him an encouraging simile.

"After seeing your little performance in the Quidditch pitch and Rolanda's many recommendations, I am here to ask you to join the Puddlemere United Qudditch team as a reserve seeker. Of course, you still have to have the acceptance of me and the coach but since you already got my acceptance and Hooch's recommendation, you are already in," Riley said.

He was on a professional Quidditch team, well reserve team, just like that. Harry Potter was not a fool. He knew that a chance like this wouldn't come again. Besides, he needed to get out of the house as much as he could this summer, and Quidditch would take up a lot of time. He also needed some kind of way to start earning his own money and he could make a fortune out of this. And he could quit a few years after Hogwarts or right after Hogwarts to do whatever he wanted to do then. And it would give him a lot of credits not to mention it would be an excellent workout.

But would it take to much time? It might be a lot of pressure and not to mention publicity. He was okay in the spotlight but that didn't mean he liked it. It also meant that people at Hogwarts would constantly ask for his autograph. That, alone, unnerved him.

In the end, he decided that it would be worth it. "I would be honored to be a part of Puddlemere United, Mr. Riley."

"Splendid. I will be sending you additional information soon, Mr. Potter. Now I believe Rolanda and I have some things to discuss, if you'll excuse us," Riley said.

As Harry Potter retreated to the Ravenclaw common room, a thought struck him. He had been so displeased with the fact that it was Christmas, he had forgotten to open his friend's presents. He unwrapped the gifts sent to him like a normal man, unlike most people. Cedric had sent him an album with pictures of every prank they had every done and a box of chocolate frogs while Taylor had sent him 3 muggle horror movies and a note saying they reminded him of Harry. Jake had sent him a state-of-the-art broom polishing set and a bunch of sweets.

He went to bed with one thought in his head, "This Christmas wasn't that bad."

XxX

POTTER MANOR:

The rest of the day was glorious at the Potter Manor. The two families with Sirius and Remus did all kinds of Christmas activities including snowball fights, building a huge snowman together, eating cookies and brownies, play many board games including around 30 sessions of chess all won by Ron, and basically sit around the fire as a big family and share stories, mostly about their times at Hogwarts.

Even though they were not related by blood, they acted like a family. They spent almost every Christmas together since both Lilly and Molly had been close friends at Hogwarts and had both despised of the Marauders when they were in their younger years. The two were currently telling all of them about a story in their third year where the Marauders had blown up the girls bathroom while a girl had been in it.

The group exploded into laughter at the end of it, like they always did. As they calmed down, one of the 6 red haired Weasley boys asked a question. "Mr. Potter, if I may ask, where is Harry today?"

"Why would you want to worry about the devil?" Ron asked Charlie.

"I have questions to ask him Ronald." Charlie gritted his teeth. "And why in Merlin would you care as to what I do?"

"Because I want to know why my brother decided to associate himself with future Death Eaters," Ron retorted causing Lilly and James to gasp.

"Ronald!" Ms. Weasley said , disapprovingly but never defended Harry.

"My son is not and ever going to be a Death Eater!" James protested against Ron's claim.

Percy, usually quite when associating with his family, the Potters, Sirius, and Remus, snorted. "Yeah. He's going to become the next Dark Lord."

"Percy!" Lilly scolded. "Harry is a very intelligent individual. He is also a very powerful boy. He would never associate himself with those kind of people."

"Oh, we know Ms. Potter," Bill muttered. "He most certainty is a very powerful and smart person. That doesn't mean he's light though."

"True," one of the twins, Fred, nodded. "You should've seen what happened-."

"The day before we came back." The other twin completed.

"Not even we can create-," Fred said.

"That much humiliation to a person. It's like a-," Gorge said.

"Second nature to him," Fred finished.

Remus, not wanting to create a riot on Christmas, interrupted. "He's not here, Charlie. He decided to stay in Hogwarts."

"Oh, that's fine. I'll just send him a letter."

As his father started to share another one of his Hogwarts stories, Nick couldn't help but remember that he had to ask Harry something. He still didn't remember what, though. He shook his head clear of all thoughts and decided to listen to his father's story, planning to dwell on the matter later.

"I'll remember, soon. I wonder who he's terrorizing right now," was Nick's last thought for the night.

END OF CHAPTER 2: 4TH YEAR: CHRISTMAS