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.
"Thank Merlin that it was just a harmless potion," Rose said, horrified, as soon as she recovered from the shock of the exploding liquid. 'At least I hope so,' she added to herself, as she cleaned Harry and afterwards herself from the liquid with a flick of her wand.
"Thank you Harry for rescuing me," she said, sighing. "I was thinking about something, which one should never do while brewing."
Knowing that Harry still needed a lot of rest if he wanted to enjoy the afternoon together with Neville, she accompanied him downstairs and instructed him to lie down on his bed or the sofa in the living room, before she returned to the lab, recalling that she still had to brew the preventive potion for Neville.
HP
At first, Harry was very apprehensive, when a boy of his age stepped out of the fireplace after his grandmother. However, he realised soon that Neville was as shy and quiet as himself, and the two boys quickly became friends. They played together with the toys, which Harry had received for his birthday, and by the time Neville's grandmother wanted to return home, the two children begged her if Neville could come to visit Harry again on the next day.
Since both guardians were convinced that it would be good for the boys to have a friend to play with, Rose and Augusta agreed that Neville could visit Harry every afternoon during the summer holidays.
The two boys never got tired playing together, and they soon became used to each other in a way that they trusted the other enough to speak about their families.
While Neville admitted that his granny was very strict and difficult to get along with, Harry told his friend about his upbringing with his other aunt as well as about his school together with Dudley and his school now.
"Oh I so wished I could attend the primary school together with you," Neville said, longingly. "It's no fun being taught by my granny. She always scolds me that my magic is too low and barely above that of a Squib."
Harry stared at his friend in surprise. "I don't think that your magic is low. Remember how you changed the car into a sheep when we were missing one the other time," he replied, chuckling as he recalled the scene. "Come, let's ask Aunt Rose. She's a healer, and maybe she can check your magic."
He carefully led his friend to the attic, knowing that he should not disturb Rose while she was brewing if not for something really urgent. "Shhh, we must wait and be really quiet," he told Neville, before he carefully opened the door and made Neville silently wait together with him until Rose was able to cast a Stasis charm at the potion and turned around to view the boys.
"Hi Harry, Neville, is something wrong?" she asked in a gentle voice.
"Sorry to disturb you, Aunt Rose," Harry apologized and told Rose about Neville's apparent problem with magic.
Shaking her head in disbelief, Rose kindly asked Neville, "Neville, would you like me to cast a spell to see if your Granny is right?"
"Yes please," Neville replied, stepping from one foot onto the other in apparent anxiousness.
"Don't worry dear. I'm sure everything will be all right," Rose said in a soft voice, before she pulled her wand and cast the respective spell at the boy. Looking surprised at the result, she cast the same spell at Harry, before she began to chuckle in apparent amusement.
'What's so funny?' Harry wondered, looking from Rose to Neville in surprise.
"Neville," Rose spoke up, smiling. "Your magic is exactly as strong as Harry's, which is very strong for your age." She remained thoughtful for an instant, before she queried, "Do you have a children's wand or a normal wand already?"
"My Granny gave me my father's wand to use," Neville replied, seemingly relieved.
Rose let out a long sigh. "That's the problem then." She made a small parchment come out of the tip of her wand and handed it to Neville. "Please give this to your grandmother and ask her to take you to Diagon Alley to buy a proper wand for you. Alternatively, I could take you to the wand maker tomorrow. However, we need your grandmother's approval."
"I'll ask her," Neville promised, eagerly sliding the small parchment into the pocket of his trousers.
"Neville would also like to attend the primary school together with me," Harry spoke up, giving Rose a questioning look.
"I'll speak with Neville's grandmother tonight," Rose promised, before she returned to her potion.
HP
With the help from Minerva and Poppy, Rose managed to convince Mrs. Longbottom to allow Neville to attend the primary school together with Harry, and the two boys were over the moon with joy.
From the beginning of the new school year onwards, Neville flooed to Harry's home every morning, from where the two boys walked to the school together. In the afternoon, they did their homework together, before Neville returned home and Harry assisted Rose in the potions lab.
HP
During the following years, Harry and Neville became inseparable. After Rose and Harry almost accidentally found out that Neville had a green thumb and loved working in their garden, the boy spent more and more time at the Evans' house helping with the garden work.
It was only during the summer of their eleventh birthday that the two boys impatiently waited for their Hogwarts letters and began to worry in which house they were going to be sorted.
"I don't care about the house, but I don't want to be separated from you," Harry said one day when they were working in the garden, letting out a long sigh, just when two owls descended into the garden, holding out letters to the boys.
The children hurried inside, sat around the kitchen table and engrossed themselves into the lecture of their Hogwarts letters.
"This is so cool, Harry. I can't wait to finally go to Hogwarts," Neville said, eagerly.
"Yes me too," Harry agreed. "Shall we write our replies right away?"
Neville was all for it, and by the time Rose left the potions lab and descended to the kitchen, the boy informed her, cheerily, that they had already sent their replies to Professor McGonagall using Blizzard.
Rose rolled her eyes in apparent annoyance. "Thank Merlin Professor McGonagall already knows Blizzard, otherwise she'd be very surprised to receive a student's reply from a phoenix," she commented, dryly, a small smile playing around her lips.
HP
The following day was Neville's birthday, and his grandmother and Rose had agreed that Neville should stay overnight at the Evans' house, so that the children could thoroughly enjoy their continuous birthdays. Neville's grandmother as well as Harry's two godmothers from Hogwarts came for a birthday dinner on Neville's birthday and stayed until midnight to congratulate Harry, before they returned home.
"That was a cool two-day birthday," Neville said to Harry on the following day, and his friend nodded eagerly.
"The Knight Bus it absolutely cool," Harry replied, eyeing the present that he had received from Neville's granny in amazement. "I love it."
"Let's play and have some animals travel with it to Hogwarts," Neville suggested, "or shall we put up the Hogwarts Express?"
"Yes," Harry agreed, eagerly. For the rest of the day, before Rose called them to the lab to make them assist, which the boys loved to do, they busied themselves letting animals travel from King's Cross to Hogsmeade and back.
HP
Unfortunately, the following four weeks passed as slowly as they could. The boys just could not wait any longer to finally travel to Hogwarts. Rose tried to occupy them in the lab as well as in the herb garden. While Neville by now could brew all first and second year's potions flawlessly, Harry, who had begun to study potions much earlier, managed to brew all potions that were taught during the seven Hogwarts years, and Rose was certain that if he tried, he'd pass his Potions OWLs and NEWTs without problems.
"When you come home next summer and are still interested in potions, you can begin studying for the Potions Mastery," she merely told him, smiling.
"Yes," Harry replied, happily.
Rose also took the boys to interesting places in the magical and the Muggle world. However, Harry and Neville had the impression as if the four weeks seemed infinite.
HP
It was late in the evening of the thirty-first of August that Harry woke up feeling utterly miserable. His head and his ears hurt, and he felt hot and cold at the same time. The thought 'Oh no, I want to go to Hogwarts in the morning' crossed his mind, however, he felt too miserable to care about it. He dragged himself through the open doors into Rose's bedroom and stood next to her bed. "Mummy, I don't feel good," he whispered, shivering violently.
Rose immediately invited the child into her bed and gently tucked him in, before she reached for her wand and cast a diagnostic spell. Not wanting to stress Harry by getting up from her bed, she called a house-elf and asked for the necessary potions, which she spelled straight into the boy's system.
"Is that better, Harry?" she whispered in a soft voice, gently caressing the boy's flushed cheeks.
"Yes, thank you," Harry whispered back, leaning into his aunt's embrace, as he slowly drifted off to sleep.
HP
In the morning, Rose informed Harry that he would not be able to travel to Hogwarts, at least not with the Hogwarts Express, causing Harry to throw his first temper tantrum ever.
Rose cast him a stern look. "I hope that you're behaviour is only caused by your fever," she said, sounding very annoyed. "I didn't say that you can't go to Hogwarts. I can take you there, or Blizzard can, as soon as your condition improves at least a little bit," she added in a strict voice.
"Can Neville go with me then?" Harry asked, tear-stricken.
Rose let out a long sigh. "Harry, I think it would be much nicer for Neville to take the Hogwarts Express, and you'll see him at Hogwarts then," she replied in a much softer voice and headed to the fireplace to inform Neville.
To Harry's relief, Neville insisted to go to Hogwarts together with Harry. The two friends had become very close and inseparable, especially after spending the whole holidays together, mostly at the Evans house, where one of the empty bedrooms had already become Neville's room.
HP
The two friends spent most of the day in Harry's room, while Rose busied herself brewing a huge batch of the preventive potion, which she used to give to Neville when Harry was ill. Finally, she asked a house-elf to take the preventive potion as well as the potion and ear salve that Harry needed to Madam Pomfrey. She then successively floo-called Pomfrey and McGonagall and informed them that Harry was ill and that she'd send Harry and Neville to Hogwarts with Blizzard on time for the Sorting.
Late in the afternoon, Rose shrank Harry's and Neville's luggage and informed the boys that Madam Pomfrey wanted them to take the Floo to her office instead of flashing with Blizzard. "She'll take you to the Great Hall for the Sorting," she said, pulling each of the boys into a bear's hug, before she ushered them to the fireplace.
HP
As soon as Pomfrey's elf Misty informed them that the students were just arriving with the boats, Pomfrey led Harry and Neville to the staircase, where they could easily mix up with the other first-years.
"Good luck for the Sorting, and Harry, please, come to see me after the feast," she said in a soft voice, giving the boys an encouraging smile.
HP
Twenty minutes later, Harry and Neville were standing in front of the high table waiting for Professor McGonagall to call their names for the Sorting. To his surprise, Harry noticed that Blizzard was sitting on one of the torches behind the head table together with another phoenix. 'That must be a fire phoenix,' Harry mused, before he let his eyes wander around the high table.
'That must be Dumbledore,' Harry thought, trying to not let the disgust show in his face as he remembered that the old wizard was the one who had sent him to live with the Dursleys.
"Longbottom, Neville," McGonagall suddenly read from her list, diverting Harry's attention, so that he missed the encouraging look, which he received from the headmaster.
'It doesn't matter where, but please together with Neville,' Harry pleaded with the Sorting Hat just a few minutes later.
tbc...
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