Father Christmas' Gift
by Healer Pomfrey
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
A.N.: To the readers who don't know me yet: If you wish for a story, in which Sirius Black or Ron Weasley play a role, plesae stop reading this one. You'd only be disappointed.
In the morning, Rose changed her hair colour black and her eyes blue, smirking at the boy, who was observing her in amusement, before she took Harry through the Floo to Diagon Alley to buy proper clothes as well as a children's wand for the child.
"What do you like better, Harry? Apparition or the Floo?" she asked the child, when they walked through the shopping street, looking into the show windows on both sides of the road.
Harry frowned, unsure how to reply, as he did not overly like either travel method. "I don't know," he finally replied in a small voice.
Rose gave him a sharp look. "Are you feeling all right, Harry?" she asked in apparent concern. Seeing Harry nod, she added, "If you ever don't feel well after apparating or taking the floo or just in general of course, please tell me immediately."
"All right," Harry replied, giving his aunt a comforting smile in spite of knowing that he'd never complain if he could avoid it.
HP
Rose ushered Harry through the shops to buy the necessary items first, leaving pleasant shops where they would look just for fun for later. The last on their to-do list was a children's wand for Harry.
When they entered the wand maker's shop, Mr. Ollivander addressed them in apparent surprise. "I wouldn't have thought to see you again," he greeted Rose in a gentle voice. "I'm more than pleased to meet you and see you looking after little Harry. I suppose that he's still too small to attend Hogwarts." He looked from Rose to the child in silent question.
"Mr. Ollivander, please don't tell anyone about me," Rose said, pleadingly, before she replied, "Harry is only six, but we'd like to have a children's wand for him."
During the next ten minutes, the wand maker made Harry try five different wands, before he gave the boy a pensive look. "Maybe," he muttered, more to himself than to his customers, and went to fetch a wand from the back of the room.
The instant Harry took the wand into his hands, he felt much happier and strangely reassured.
"Try to wave it," Ollivander encouraged him, staring at him with apparent interest.
As soon as Harry made a small movement, the wand let out bright sparkles. 'This is so cool,' Harry thought and whispered "Lumos" like he had observed his aunt do on Christmas day.
The tip of his wand lit immediately, causing Harry to smile broadly.
"Your nephew's magic is too strong for a children's wand. He's already able to carry a proper wand," Ollivander informed Rose and told her about the wand's ingredients.
HP
Harry was relieved when they left the shop. Although the wand maker had been very friendly to him, he found that he was somehow strange.
"Where shall we go now?" Rose asked, pleasantly. "I still owe you a Christmas present. Would you like a toy or maybe a pet?"
Harry eyed his aunt in confusion. "I've never received a Christmas present," he admitted in a small voice, only to add, "Only this year, Father Christmas brought me to you as my Christmas present. I don't need anything else."
Rose smiled at the child. "All right then, but I'd like to buy you a present nonetheless. Shall we have a look at the Magical Menagerie?"
"Okay," Harry replied, smiling, as he hesitantly slid his hand into that of his aunt, still only barely able to believe that she didn't mind touching him like Aunt Petunia did.
HP
Rose and Harry took their time observing the different animals in the Magical Menagerie, before Harry suddenly stopped dead in his tracks.
#Now they even bring small children here, not only students. This is getting annoying,# the bird that was sitting on a torch on the other side of the floor trilled.
Harry stared at the bird in annoyance. "You're not nice," he told the bird, before he asked, indignantly, "Why are children annoying?"
#Oh well most of them are, you seem to be a special nestling though,# the bird replied.
"Why?" Harry queried and stepped in front of the torch, where the bird was sitting.
"Are you able to understand the bird?" the shopkeeper came over asking in apparent surprise.
"Yes sir," Harry replied in a small voice, unsurely turning his eyes to view Aunt Rose.
"Then you must become a phoenix Animagus when you're bigger," the shopkeeper informed him, before he turned to Rose. "Your son seems to be very powerful. I'll leave him the phoenix for 20 Galleons, because he'll be able to communicate with him. Usually, I sell these for 50, but considering that the bird chose your son..."
Harry could only stare at the bird. He was beautiful. His head feathers were completely white, however, his back feathers held all different colours that were arranged to a rainbow.
#I wish to become your familiar,# the phoenix trilled to Harry.
"May I have him? We can take the money from my vault," Harry spoke up in a small voice. "He just told me that he'd like to become my familiar."
"We'll take him," Rose decided but refused to allow the shopkeeper to take the money from Harry's vault.
"His name is Blizzard, and he's a weather phoenix," the shopkeeper informed Harry, while Blizzard made himself comfortable on the boy's shoulder, letting out a few contented trills.
Rose also bought a perch as well as some food for the bird, knowing that she could send the elves to Diagon Alley if they still needed something else.
"Harry, you're an incredibly lucky young man," she told Harry, when they slowly walked through Diagon Alley, looking at this and that. "It's extremely rare that a phoenix wants to bond with a human. The headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, owns a phoenix, but I don't know any other phoenix around. Congratulations, child."
"Thank you," Harry replied, happily, as he gently petted Blizzard's head feathers how the bird had instructed him to do a few minutes ago.
HP
Harry got quickly used to his new and very happy life. On the first day after the winter holidays, Rose took him to the primary school and instructed him to visit the school for a day or a few days and then decide if he wanted to attend the school or if he preferred her to teach him in private.
At first, Harry was very hesitant, remembering all too well how everyone had called him a freak at his old school. However, not only the teacher but also the children in his new class seemed very nice, and the teacher told him that she'd like him to get to know the other children and vice versa and allowed the children to play and talk for the complete first hour.
Knowing that everyone would find out that he happened to do strange things from time to time anyway, Harry hesitantly told the others that he was a wizard and would occasionally do strange things, most times even unintentionally. He also told them that in his last school, the children had called him a freak because of this.
"Harry, you are not a freak," the teacher said in a gentle but firm voice. "On the contrary. It's amazing that you can do things that most other people can't do. If you don't harm anyone, I don't mind at all."
To Harry's relief, the whole class agreed with the teacher, and some children even begged him to do something strange to show them what he could do.
'What can I do?' Harry thought, feverishly. He did not even have his wand. 'I must do something,' he decided and stared at the blackboard in determination, making his arm tingly like he remembered having done before and wished the blackboard to be decorated for Christmas.
Only when the class let out a collective gasp as well as comments of amazement did he realise that he had done it and relaxed. Unfortunately, he noticed that his head began to hurt as soon as he stopped concentrated on the magic. However, he was so happy about his classmates' positive reaction that he did not mind the headache and smiled happily.
HP
From that day onwards, Harry loved to go to the primary school. He got along well with his classmates, and since he had good grades, the teachers never had to complain about him.
When he returned from school, he usually helped Rose in the potions lab. At first, Rose taught him about the different kinds of ingredients, about the difference between magical and non magical ingredients and about the various ways of preparing ingredients. She realised soon that Harry seemed to be very adept at Potions and that he was a good assistant.
After making him prepare ingredients for a few months, she decided to allow him to brew easy potions. Although Harry never complained, she knew that he surely would love to brew instead of only preparing ingredients. At the beginning of the summer holidays, shortly before Harry was going to become seven, she bought the first-year Potions book that was used at Hogwarts and began to teach him to brew easy concoctions.
Harry was incredibly happy. If he had thoroughly enjoyed himself assisting Rose on a daily basis, he was over the moon with joy when he was allowed to brew. His aunt also taught him easy spells and charms that did not afford too much magic but on the other hand were convenient to know.
At the same time, knowing that she could not keep a barely seven-year-old in the lab all day, she bought several herbs and other plants that could be used as potions ingredients and with Harry's and one of the house-elves' help turned their wild garden into a paradise for potions ingredients.
During the weekends, they made it a habit to travel somewhere like, for example, the zoo in London or the sea side, where Harry had never been before, since the Dursleys had always left him with Mrs. Figg when they had taken Dudley to any interesting places.
Harry greatly enjoyed himself and just loved his new life, his home, his family in form of Rose, Blizzard and the three kind elves as well as his school friends and teachers.
Rose observed with amusement how the uncertain, shy child developed to a confident, happy boy. Unfortunately, his poor health condition had not improved yet, and once a week, Harry came down with ear infections or other illnesses, to which he was very susceptible. However, since Rose knew that the boy was not ready to speak about his ailments yet but tried to hide it like he had been forced to do at her sister's house, she watched him like a hawk, and as a healer, she could easily confirm or dismiss her suspicions.
HP
One day in the middle of the holidays, Rose spoke with Harry about his birthday. "Harry, what would you like to do for your birthday?" she enquired, suggesting, "Do you want to invite some of your classmates, or would you prefer to go somewhere for the day?"
Harry stared at his aunt in shock. "I have a birthday?" he thought, aloud, in surprise, however, declined Rose's offer to have a party, not wanting to be a bother.
Unbeknownst to the boy, Rose took matters into her own hands. As soon as Harry was asleep in the evening, she contacted Minerva McGonagall, who came over to the Evans house together with Harry's other godmother.
"I was wondering if it might be good for Harry to get to know some other magical children of his age," Rose spoke up, giving the two old witches a questioning look. "Since I've completely retreated from the magical world, I don't know anyone though," she added in a small voice.
"I have an idea," Minerva said, thoughtfully. "Do you know Augusta Longbottom? Her grandson Neville is just a day older than Harry and a very nice and quiet boy. "I could speak with Augusta about Harry and invite Neville either here or to McGonagall Manor for Harry's birthday," she suggested, smiling at the young witch. "I know Augusta well, and she won't give us out to Professor Dumbledore."
Rose immediately agreed to the plan, and Mrs. Longbottom liked the idea as well, so that the adults decided that in the afternoon of Harry's birthday, his godmothers as well as Augusta Longbottom together with Neville were going to come to the Evans' house for a birthday party.
HP
'Thank Merlin that they're all going to come through the fireplace,' Rose thought in the morning of the big day, when she was just brewing a preventive potion for Neville so that he would not catch the ear infection from Harry that was bothering the boy since the previous evening. 'When Harry gets any non magical friends to visit, we need to take off the charm that the elves placed on the front of the house. But as long as we can keep it, we should.'
This precaution was especially necessary, as the man who had driven her over the edge years ago had his home just on the other side of the playground that was adjacent to her house. Of course, she knew that he was now the Potions Master at Hogwarts and was not residing at Spinner's End anymore, however, his house was still there and no one knew when he would be going to pass in front of her own house.
As small children, they had met on the playground on a daily basis. Severus had been the one to tell her and Lily that they were magical, and Rose had been devastated when Sev had gone to Hogwarts together with Lily, while she had had to wait for another year. However, even if they were at different years at Hogwarts, she had managed to get into the same house as him, and they had remained best friends and even lived together once she finished Hogwarts.
Just at the time when she was wondering if he was going to marry her sometime soon, he had told her that it was not safe enough for her to be with him and that he was going to leave her for the time being.
Rose had been devastated. Not even Lily, to whom she was very close, had been able to convince her to not leave the magical world pretending to have died in a potions accident.
"Aunt Rose," Harry brought her back to reality, sounding urgent. "How often do you have to stir that?"
Rose looked up in shock, just on time to see the potion explode all over herself and Harry, who was trying to push her away from the cauldron.
tbc...
Thank you very much for your kind comments!