A/N: I apologize for not getting this up faster, but I've been working on a series of one-shots that have turned into very long stories in their own right. I should be posting this in conjunction with a new chapter for Rise of the Dark Queen as well. As always, I do not own any of this except maybe the plot; no, I don't even own the chapter titles.

"Speak" – Normal speech

Speak – Internal thoughts

/: Speak :/ - Magical languages translated

The man and woman came forward and offered up their hands to the strange man before them. After each shook his hand they stepped back to take a look at the young man that had not said a word thus far. Harry was still an awkward child and would mostly stay out of social situations when he could help it, but staring into the faces of Hermione's parents he simply smiled and gave a small wave.

"Hello, Doctor Grangers."

"Please, call us David and Karen, it's the least that we can do for Hermione's first…" Mister Granger gave a soft exhale of breath as his wife had thrust her elbow into his stomach. Both smiled a little as he rubbed at the spot in his side where she had hit. "That is to say, it's wonderful to meet some of Hermione's friends from school."

"Oh, that reminds me mum." Hermione moved to her mother side and patiently tugged on her sleeve waiting for the attention to shift back towards her. "I was wondering if my friend Daphne would be able to spend a few days with us over the holidays. She wants to experience Christmas on the…uh…." Glancing around quickly leaned in close and whispered the final part of the sentence. "…non-magical side, that is."

"It's good to hear that you're making friends, dear." David ducked out of the way of his wife's errant elbow again and smirked at her, but got smacked with the other arm for his good measure.

"That's fine with us, dear, but how will she be arriving, do you know?" Hermione's face fell as she considered what she was going to do about not only getting Daphne to their house, but inviting her as well.

As Harry was standing nearby he moved up and started to whisper in his dad's ear. The adult had to bend down to listen to him for a moment and then shook his head, giving his hand a slight wave in the direction of the train platform that they were still standing on. Giving a nod Harry disappeared around a corner into a small isolated spot where he wouldn't be seen. A flapping of wings could be heard before he came out with a snowy white owl perched on his shoulder.

"What a lovely bird." Karen leaned down and lightly stroked Hedwig's head, rubbing her fingers under her beak. The owl pressed her head tighter into the woman's touch, hooting softly.

"Harry, would you mind…" Hermione bit her lip as she looked from her friend to the owl perched on his shoulder.

Harry smiled and nodded his head. "You can use her to deliver your messages and to keep in contact with Daphne." Turning his head he whispered something into the owl's ear. After a moment she leaned her head down towards him, nipped his nose a little and flew over to land on Hermione's shoulder, nibbling on her ear affectionately.

"She seems very intelligent, Harry. Do all students at your school have their own owl for this purpose?" David moved towards his daughter and stroked the bird under a wing joint, eliciting a gentle cooing from the bird.

"No, sir. Most of the students use the school owls if they need anything." He glanced around at the crowded station and at the people that were starting to stare at the oddly dressed and small group on the platform. Indeed they had gathered quite a few eyes owing to the children's robes as well as the owl that was now bobbing its head up and down against an older man's hand.

"Well, I suppose we must be off now." Harry's dad clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention. "We have a rather full schedule to keep in the upcoming few days, but I promise to bring Harry by on Christmas if that is all right with the pair of you." He indicated the adults as the two moved away to converse slowly and in low tones with one another.

As her parents were talking, Hermione moved over to Harry and gave him a hug, careful not to jostle the owl that was still on her shoulder. "I'll see you sometime, even if they don't like you coming around on a special holiday. If I've got Hedwig though, how are you going to write to Neville and Daphne?"

Harry shrugged and smiled. "I've got my own ways of communication, but not to worry I'm sure Daph will be with you most of the holidays so there won't be much point in trying to write to her. You've got Hedwig if you want to send me something and I'll be around at some point to chat with you and exchange gifts."

Hermione's cheeks turned a bit red as she nodded. Her parents had come back and nodded as David was the chosen speaker for the pair. "I think that we can fit it into our normal schedule of events for the day. Would you be willing to drop by around dinner time, about seven o'clock?"

"What exactly do you have planned for us, Dad?" Harry eyed the adult standing next to him a little and put his hands on his hips. "Nothing like last year, I hope."

"Oy, you little bugger, those were some great tomatoes. Honestly, you go away for school and now you think that you can run the show."

"Yeah, right up until they formed teeth." Harry shook his head and then smiled. "We'll be there, not to worry." Moving forward he gave a hug to his small friend, causing her cheeks to turn red once again. "Have a great time with Daph over the holidays and maybe we can go see Nev on Boxing Day."

The small group had reached the exit by this point and congregated just outside the doors for everyone to say goodbye. The adults exchanged handshakes and promises to talk more when they were able to get together on Christmas Day. The Grangers were a little concerned about how their new friends were getting to where they needed, but Harry assured them that their transport was just around the corner. Harry gave another hug to Hermione and a pat to Hedwig before he joined his father in walking away from the small group.

As they turned the corner of the building Hermione remembered something she wanted to ask Harry about on the train. Rushing forward she heard a grinding noise and the whine of an engine, and reaching the corner of the building there was a rush of wind. Rounding the corner she stared at the empty street. It was a straight road about three blocks in length with no side-streets until the end of the train station where it curved off to the left back into the city.

The street had been completely empty. There was no sign of a car, no cars parked along the curb and nothing had turned down the small street since she had been standing there. Staring at the empty place where her friend had vanished she shrugged her shoulders and ran back to join her parents. The Grangers walked the short distance to the car park talking about the hidden world their daughter had just returned from.

XoXo

Harry Potter was a rather unusual child given his proclivity for magic, his knack of getting into tight spots, and his unusual method of celebrating the various holidays that not only the United Kingdom celebrated, but also some of the other cultures he had visited in his youth. A near constant on any of his travels was the celebration of Christmas and the rituals that came along with it. Nearly every Christmas, Harry and his dad, adopted father that is, would celebrate the holidays by doing a number of different things. Included in this would be a visit to his parent's grave site in Godric's Hollow, a walk through the sleepy village to the destroyed family home where he had spent the first year of his life, and one other thing.

This last bit of ritual that Harry and his father partake in every year had different incarnations since he could first join his dad on his missions. There was one constant in each of these variations on the same tune however, and it was on this particular Christmas day that he regretted it even more. For you see, every Christmas Day, wherever Harry Potter resided for only a few hours, he would be running for his life.

Harry rounded the corner of the dome shaped building and took off down the crooked street that lay before him. He dodged around the trash bins and pushed through the laundry that hung from the lines above his head and were draped down along the side of the street. He could hear the groaning and moaning of those things behind him, the creatures that had come after him once before. Turning a corner he skidded to a halt as a small crowd of them had gathered in front of him, blocking the next street over.

"You promised this time would be different." He yelled to no one in particular as he back pedaled and ran back down the street going the other direction. He passed the street he had been on and rounded another curve opening up onto the main square of the small village that they were staying at.

A blue wooden box stood at the center of the village, sand swirling around it from the wind that had been picked up late the last evening. A lone figure in a brown coat and red trainers stood before the box with a long silver cylinder two feet long and attached to a brown box about the size of a shoe box on the end of it. He swept it back and forth at the oncoming crowds and after a moment they seemed to be repulsed, pulling back away from the end of the cylinder.

"I told you to stay close to me, but do you listen. Honestly, sometimes I think you take after Martha and Jack in those respects." He called over his shoulder to Harry whom had just entered the square and was leaning on the blue box for support. "Five minutes, that's all I said, just five minutes and you were gone."

"Do you mind lecturing me on my conduct after we get out of here?" Harry leaned forward putting his hands on his knees as he breathed deeply through his mouth.

"The frequency oscillation isn't working like it did the last time, there's something blocking it." The end of the cylinder started to glow red for a moment before he hit the box at the bottom. "Behave, you or I'll be putting you away for good and making you into scrap metal. Harry, did you grab the…" He stopped as he turned around and saw Harry holding up a small silver cylinder with a small green dome on the top of it.

Harry moved forward and fingered the switch on the side of the cylinder, making the end of it slide forward and start to glow a small green color. He ran the green end down along the longer cylinder of the thing in his father's hands and then towards the box. As he did this it beeped a few times and he changed the setting, moving the dial near the bottom of the hand hold that he was gripping.

"Not working, not working." Harry's father hit the box and it hummed a little. "Did you try to reverse the polarity of the…"

"Yes, already done."

"What about the transcriptional rejuvenation circuits?"

Harry turned the dial a few more times and ran the green light over the box once more. By this time the crowd of creatures had moved forward and was lumbering into the square. Small groups of them were coming out of the buildings, down the sides of the streets and clogging the entrance ways into the small square. They pressed forward even as Harry let out a triumphant whoop and pulled back. Mister Smith set the box down on the ground and kicked it once.

The box shook slightly and then turned, forcing the barrel of the cylinder to point directly upwards from the ground. It shuddered for a moment and then shot a blue light from the end of the cylinder and into the sky forming a small blue dome that slowly spread across the arc of the sky. As the dome spread across the town square the creatures advancing on them slowed and then stopped completely, staring at the blue light that was moving up into the sky.

"Oh, brilliant, fantastic really. They modified the transmission range and the frequency." Slipping brown rimmed frames onto his face, Harry's dad looked down at the device. "That's why we couldn't get it to work initially; they were moving out of range, clever." Pulling the glasses off his face he slowly moved around the small contraption as Harry slipped the small metal cylinder back into his robes, panting slightly.

"Dad, we should be going now. It looks to be well in hand now."

As the creatures were staring up at the blue light it shone above them for a moment and then spread across the sky forming a dome that encompassed the entirety of the small village. The greenish features of each individual started too soft and turn redder with each passing second. Harry and the elder Smith slipped into the blue box that faded away with a small light upon it blinking on and off periodically. The box vanished in a rush of wind that kicked up sand around the area, but no one was paying any attention to the strange occurrence now.

Spinning and twirling endlessly through the night sky the wooden contraption slowed and then materialized gently onto the corner of a London street down a nearby alley way. Littering the alley were pieces of scrap and the dust bins overloaded with rubbish, spilling dirty diapers and last week's roast out onto the ground around them. The walls were covered in layers of tattered old posters advertisements for brand name soft drinks and popular music bands layered on top of political slogans shouting out "Vote Thatcher." Into this gloom the blue box stood against one of the walls with the doors facing outwards away from a large dumpster filled with bags of refuse.

Once the doors were open the pair of man and boy slipped out using their fingers to pinch their noses against the small. Locking the doors tight behind them they walked to the end of the small alley that emptied out onto a busy street where people moved here and there in all directions. People in suits passed by them and didn't give them a second glance even in Harry's identically copy of his father's brown ankle length duster and blue pinstripe suit.

"Blimey, are you sure we've got the right place?" Smith waved his hand in front of his face to get rid of the smell of the trash. Reaching into his pocket he pulled out a long thin aerosol can and began to spray it in all directions.

"Before we left the train, this is the address that Hermione gave to the rest of us. It does look a little…" He shrugged as a woman rushed past them carrying several wrapped present. Most people had already been inside and were enjoying the holidays with family and spending as most time as they could with one another.

The street was relatively empty by the time they started to cross the street, the people rushing inside away from the slight chill that was in the air now. Crossing the street they looked up and down at the row of townhouses that were lining the street along the curb. They were relatively nice looking homes in their own right, smashed up against one another in an odd mismatched way with one porch bleeding into the next. Finding the stoop for number ten the pair moved up the steps and rang the bell. The windows were filled with paper cutouts of snowflakes and the railing decorated with garland, much as the same as the rest of the houses.

"You're a little early, you know." The door had been opened by the smiling face of Hermione, her hair sleeked back slightly and wearing makeup. She wore a festive green and red jumper that displayed a Christmas tree over top a pair of warm, and slightly faded, jeans. As she stepped inside the pair moved forward, Mister Smith pulling a grey fob watch from his pocket.

He tapped the watch with a finger and then shook it as he held it up next to his ear. "Really? Blasted thing must have gone on the fritz again, I always mean to fix it one of these days, you know. Hello." While he had been inspecting the watch the elder Grangers had appeared in the small foyer that was just at the front of the house.

"Welcome to our home, Mister Smith, Harry." Karen smiled warmly, tucking her hair behind her ear as she talked to them. Both parents were wearing matching sweaters of red and green with a snowman and a decorated tree.

"I feel a little over dressed." Harry looked down at the small suit that he wore, slipping off the brown ankle length duster and draping it over his arm. He smiled up at the adults and then looked towards his friend. "Is Daphne still here or did she head home to spend the day with her family?"

"She didn't want to leave, but her mum said that it was some kind of tradition for their family. Come on, I'll show you around." Hermione smiled as she grabbed Harry's hand and led him through the house.

The home was much bigger on the inside than was evident from the small front that faced the street. It had a complete kitchen furnished with stainless steel appliances and a large family room complete with warm brown leather furniture and a television in the corner. Harry could still see several video tapes strewn around the floor in front of it as well as a bowl of popcorn and two blankets near the couch. Before he could comment on it however, Hermione had shown him to the upstairs and into the bedrooms. There were a total of three of them, her room, her parents and a guest room that had its own access to the bathroom.

The master bedroom had its own bath, while Hermione and the guest room shared one. They didn't spend long in her room, only long enough for Harry to see the shelves and shelves of books that were stacked up towards the ceiling as well as the pink hangings on a white twin sized bed. A small window seat on the corner looked out onto the street below and was covered in a white cushion with several stuffed animals piled onto it.

While the children were busy running around the house, the adults went straight for the kitchen. Karen already had a kettle boiling on the range and pulled it off as it started to whistle. David grabbed another mug from a cabinet nearby and set it down on the island where he put another bag of tea into it as Karen started to pour the steaming water over top each of the mugs, careful not to spill a drop.

"I am sorry that we got here a little earlier than we said we would. Harry and I don't normally arrive early all things considered." Mister Smith smiled to the other two as he took a sip of the hot tea, setting his jacket down on the bar stool next to him while the Grangers sat down across the island from him.

"It's quite all right, Daphne had left only a little while ago and we were thinking of tidying up before you arrived." David waved it off a little as Karen smiled and nodded, sipping at the hot tea. "I had only hoped that we weren't keeping you from some of your own family traditions for the holidays."

Smith nodded as he sipped at the tea a little and then blew on it before he set it down. "Harry and I had already taken care of the important things that he wanted to do for the holidays before we had come here. We have a few traditions ourselves, one of which I know Harry dislikes quite a bit now that he's getting older."

The Grangers smiled and laughed a little. "Yes, well, our children grow up so fast they think that they know everything." Karen shook her head a little. "It amazes me sometimes how fast Hermione has grown up, now she's going to school and before too long we'll have to worry about boys."

"Not too soon, I dear hope." David smiled and sipped at the tea. "One of our family's traditions that we're going to hold onto for as long as she does tolerate us will be these." He indicated the sweaters that he and his wife were wearing.

"Every year, the same outfits." Karen shook her head a little. "Sometimes I wonder about the sanity of your mother giving a twelve year old girl a hand knitted jumper every year." The adults smiled at that and finished off the first cup of tea. Karen moved to pour another, but Smith beat her to it.

"Do you have any unusual traditions that you do every Christmas with Harry?" David pushed his mug down the side of the island so that it was closer to the stove. Smith hesitated for a moment and then finished pouring the tea out, letting the bag seep for a moment as he put the kettle back on the range.

"We try to visit Harry's parents twice a year, normally on Halloween and Christmas." Sitting back down he rolled the mug between his hands as the Grangers looked from him to each other.

"He's adopted, and he knows about it?" Karen leaned forward a little as Smith nodded. "How did he take it when he found out?"

"All things considered he took it rather well. I think he always suspected that I wasn't his real father, but he rather adores me so it doesn't matter. I am his legal guardian and his father now through the magical system, but it's still hard to find out that he doesn't have real parents anymore." Smith sipped at the tea for a moment and then pushed the bag back down with his finger into the water a little more.

"Do you think we should say something to him and Hermione when he comes back down?" David leaned in forward dropping his voice to a whisper. It wouldn't have made any difference considering the children were still upstairs, but it felt more like a conspiracy between the three.

"Nah, it's not like she doesn't already know about him by now, and if she doesn't suspect something then I'm sure that Harry wouldn't be friends with her right now." At the confused glances of the adults, Smith slid an old looking book from his jacket where there didn't seem to be space for it before. He laid it out in front of them and then looked into their eyes. "How much of the magical world's history do you two know?"

"Very little I'm afraid." David spoke as his wife turned the book around to face them, thumbing the pages for a moment. "I tried to read a few of her books before this year started, but it all seemed like gibberish to me. When I did get to the history books, or what they call history I was so bored that I couldn't stay awake."

"Barring Ministry foundation and the rules and regulations for creatures of magical abilities, the actual history of the magical world is rather interesting. It's not really taught as such in Hogwarts unfortunately anymore."

"Why's that?" Karen had opened the book to a random page and was skimming through the text. "Goblin wars? Aren't those the small creatures that manage the money system?"

"Its how they got the job actually. They used to be pretty upset with how they were treated by humans; some still are to be quite honest about it." Smith took a sip from the still steaming tea before he continued. "The thing that you have to understand is that many of the magical people are very xenophobic and would rather believe that they are above other creatures such as the goblins, then have to acknowledge that they might not know as much about magic as they think they do."

A look passed between the two Granger adults before they leaned in even further to talk with Smith. "Is our daughter in some kind of danger then?"

Taking another long sip of the tea Smith shook his head. "Nah, well, not really, well….she's as safe as she can be anywhere else in the magical community." He shook his hand in the air a little and then settled back on the stool tapping his finger on his chin. "The thing you have to understand is that even if you wanted to, you can't take her away from her birthright. It's something that she's going to be using the rest of her life and she needs to be trained to use it. After she finishes school if she decides to leave on her own then she can."

"Why can't we remove her from all of this if it's going to be like this?" David waved his hand towards the black book that lay open to a moving picture of a hoard of goblins taking over a human village.

"You can't, not really until after she graduates." He held up his hand to forestall any arguments. "Right now her body is in a state of flux, her magic competing with her natural body for more of a dominant role in her life. Part of the school's mission is to help her control this so that her body is more in a balance between the two competing forces. It takes the full seven years for her body to become adjusted to these changes."

"Any school would do this though, what if we moved to, oh say France and enrolled her there?" David asked, waving his hands around emphatically. Smith nodded a little and then shook his head.

"Hogwarts, even given it's proclivity towards the boring parts of History, is still one of the premiere magical schools in all of Europe. Plus there are her friends to consider. She's rather attached to them and would not want to leave. You have to also ask yourself whether or not you want to uproot your lives and your practice for something like that."

Karen was staring down at the book as she idly flipped through the pages when she spoke. "What about Harry? Are you going to do something to pull him out?"

Smith sighed and then shook his head. Even upside down he flipped the pages of the book towards the very back where the latest entries were located. When he stopped it had a full color moving picture and a large caption in elegant handwriting over the top. "I can't take him away from what is rightfully his, nor should I even try."

He tapped the photo and the headline as the Grangers turned to stare down at it. Staring up at them was a faded moving photo of a small family of three. The two adults, a man with unruly black hair and a woman with long flowing red hair were holding a small baby in their arms. The two were laughing and the woman would periodically turn and tickle the stomach of the laughing child. Across the top of the page was written in an elegant hand "Harry Potter: The Boy Who Lived." The two stared at it for a moment before looking up to Smith sitting across from him.

"Harry's parents I'm guessing." David asked, tapping a finger on the picture. Smith nodded and he dipped his head back to inspect it.

The picture and headline were atop a detailed listing of what had happened, or at least the theory of what had happened, on the night of Halloween 1981. The article talked about the Potter's life in Godric's Hollow before the attack as well as the fame of the small baby Harry when he had survived the curse of seemingly his own power. Most of it was wild speculation as to the cause of his survival as well as to where he had been kept away until his sudden appearance at Hogwarts earlier in the year.

"So he's some kind of celebrity to the magical people?" Karen flipped a few pages back reading about the war with Voldemort in a little more detail.

"Yes, quite so. I've been able to keep him a little more grounded so it doesn't go to his head, but he is quite famous." Smith finished off the now cooling tea, sliding the mug away from him so that he could use his hands to illustrate a point. "He's famous for loosing his parents, for being an icon when there's no evidence to suggest that he had anything to do with what went on."

"I'm guessing that explains why you said that you visit Harry's parents twice a year." David pulled the book towards him as Karen leaned forward onto her elbows. "Why Christmas though, I thought Halloween would be more significant?"

"Oh it is the problem is the fact that it's significant to everyone else." Smith shook his head a little. "You have to understand that the war was raging everywhere, no one knew whom to trust and brother, sisters, and even cousins could all be suspect as working for the dark. This act on Halloween is seen as the end of a long and bloody war, something that didn't seem possible at the time."

They could hear thundering footsteps above them and Mister Smith snatched the book back, sliding it into the front pocket of his jacket. "Is Hermione in danger, Doctor Smith?" David leaned over the counter as Karen moved about the kitchen putting the last fixings on the meal that she had prepared.

"We're all in danger at one point or another, Doctor Granger." Smith stared into his eyes as he held the gaze level. "The question is will she run and hide, or can she be one of the few that stand up to the darkness when it comes back?"

XoXo

Dinner with the Granger family had been a nice small intimate affair with the children and the adults in active conversation. The adult Grangers wisely did not bring up where Harry had been earlier that day and simply asked him about previous experiences with Christmas and how this one stacked up. Most of the people present put his stories down to pure fantasy with the various monsters and aliens that he had described; the harrowing feats that his dad had performed. All the while Smith shook his head and laughed along with them, clapping his son on his back.

It was nearly ten when finally Hermione gave a loud yawn and protested strongly that she wasn't really tired, just needed to lie down for a bit. Her parents suggested that she lie down for a few hours and sent her off to get ready for bed while the Smith family gathered their coats to get ready to leave. Standing at the doorway of their small townhouse the Smiths and Grangers said goodbye to one another. The adults shook hands while Hermione and Harry shared a small hug; Hermione's cheeks turning red with the prospect, but going into it whole heartily.

"Are you going to see Daphne or Neville tomorrow?" Hermione asked as she played with the hem of the nightshirt she was wearing. The shirt came down to her knees, but she was still modest and wore some leggings underneath.

"I don't think so, I'm not sure where they live and they seemed to be tied up with their own families for the time being. How about you?" Harry stuck his hands into the pockets of his coat as he waited for his dad to finish talking to Misses Granger about something he had seen in the living room.

"We usually just stay in on Boxing Day, but since this is the first holiday where I wont be able to come back readily we might go out and do something more." Hermione sighed a little. "I love school, but I love my parents to, it's so hard to get to see them only on the special holidays."

"I know, I get a little home sick every time we have to go back on the train." Harry smiled and leaned in to the door frame a little. "But I always know that I'll see them again sometime soon, plus you can use Hedwig anytime you want to send letters to them if you want."

Hermione smiled and nodded just as the adults were coming back into the foyer at the front of the house. They had a few more words of thanks and invitations back to their home before Harry and his adopted father slipped out of the house and across the street towards the alley way that they had come in. Watching them from the window Hermione waved to Harry just as he passed out of sight. She turned away from the window just before the light flashed from the alley and there was a whistling wind that kicked up the rubbish on the street.

Skipping into the living room she saw her mother standing near one of the bookcases with a photo in her hand. The edges of the frame were worn brown leather cured and studded slightly at each corner. Coming up behind her she gave her mother a big hug around the knees and got her attention.

"Off to bed with you now, way too much excitement for one day I would imagine." Karen leaned down and scooped up her daughter in her arms just as the little girl gave a loud yawn and rested her head on her mother's shoulder.

Looking over her mother's shoulder just as she was being taken from the room, Hermione could just make out the photo that had held her mother captivated. The photo was old and browned slightly, nonmoving as non-magical photographs were and depicted a trio of people with their arms around one another. The two women had their arms around each other while the man in the photo was smiling and standing off to the side. The two women wore berets on their heads, tilted slightly to the side while the man wore an old style frock coat with large up styled hair.