Chapter Twenty-Three; Harry's First Sermon

Thanks for the great reviews you guys! Here's the next chapter! By the way, even though this chapter is very religious and powerful as I said before, I am NOT in any means trying to shove it down your throat, all I ask you to do is just simply think about it. That's it, nothing more. I'm not trying to convert you I swear, I just want you to think when Harry tells you to. And then hopefully I blessed you. Anyway, this takes place at Christmas and so that's why I decided to put it in here. In the next chapter they'll go after the next horcrux so it'll be back to the exciting adventurous stuff. But please don't leave me any hate comments because you don't all have to become Christians and you don't even have to take the time to read this or comment on it. It's just a story and nothing more other than the point I already made. That being said, enjoy!

That night Harry found that he had a lot of trouble sleeping. He tossed and turned inside his bed. He was having another nightmare. There was a great battle going on at Hogwarts and his mother was there. He saw a flash of green light and saw her being murdered before his eyes. He saw Cowboy standing there beside him snarling and barking angrily before he started to whimper.

Harry quickly opened his eyes. He wasn't dreaming anymore. For there his dog was standing at the foot of his bed having his front paws up on the glass while he looked out the window. Harry quickly cradled him inside his arms and then gently placed his hand over the top of his mouth while he rubbed his belly. "Shh! You'll wake up Ron and Tobey, and the other boys." He whispered as he peered outside the window and that's when his face turned pale and a sickish feeling grew inside his stomach.

There was a spectacular display of light shooting up in the air coming from where Dumbledore was buried. A few moments later he saw the shadow of a man wearing a hooded black cloak headed towards the castle. "Oh no!" he cried in a horrified whisper before he quickly leapt out of bed and ran over to Ron's. He set Cowboy on the ground beside him before bending over the bed and shaking Ron awake. "Ron, Ron, wake up." He whispered but Ron just continued to snore.

"Ron c'mon this is serious!" he exclaimed in hushed tones. "Please, you have to wake up!" he cried before Cowboy let out a great yip and Ron instantly woke up.

"What!?" he yelled.

"Shh! You'll wake up Tobey!" Harry whispered.

"Well what does that matter, your stupid dog already woke me up!" Ron cried.

"That's because I think he saw Voldemort." Harry told him.

"What? What is Voldemort doing here at the castle?" Ron asked him softly.

"I dunno, hunting for unicorns?" Harry suggested sarcastically. "Hullo! He wants to kill me remember!?" he exclaimed.

"But doesn't he need a different wand to do it?" Ron questioned.

"Yeah well he's got one. He just broke into Dumbledore's tomb, he has the Elder wand." He said.

"Well what are we going to do?" Ron asked him.

"We have to go wake up Hermione and then go get my dad. Between the two of them I'm sure that they'll have a plan." He said before he bent down and picked up Cowboy and hoisted him inside his arms. "C'mon boy let's go." He said before he turned to leave the room as Ron slowly got up behind him.

….

"Are you sure that you saw him then?" Harry's father inquired once he and his friends had made it to his office.

"Yeah, but that's only because Cowboy woke me up. He was the one who saw him first." Harry told him.

"Well, I don't think that we have anything to worry about. The castle is protected. Only those who are authorized to be here are allowed to be inside of it. But I'll tell McGonagall to lock the doors just to be safe." He explained.

"But what if Voldemort tries to kill Harry when he's not in the castle?" Ron asked him.

"I'm afraid that for his own safety Harry must either be in the castle or have one of the staff members watching him at all times." He replied.

"Oh great, that means that I'm going to have to be babysat my every waking moment." Harry muttered under his breath.

"I assure you that this is only temporary until Voldemort is found and caught." Snape told him which was the first time that Harry had heard him use his name. "Right now I want the three of you to go back to bed." He said as all three of them nodded before they turned around and started to walk away.

The next morning at breakfast word had gotten out inside the castle of Voldemort's sighting and that for everyone's safety they would have to be escorted everywhere. "It just isn't fair!" Malfoy cried. "Any time when Potter's involved we all have to end up suffering for it!" he spat glaring over in Harry's direction before Ginny having overheard him got up and walked over to his table.

"First of all for the millionth billionth time his name is Snape not Potter!" she snapped. "And second of all if Harry had never seen Voldemort last night there is a very good chance that you would run into him and he would kill you for failing to kill Dumbledore when you had the chance!" she yelled angrily narrowing her eyebrows and glaring at him before Malfoy leapt to his feet.

"You know what Weasley? I am getting very sick and tired of you! Not only should you let Potter start standing up for himself, but you're so poor that you can't even afford manners! Or a decent makeover at that." He said with a sneer making her go entirely speechless for once in her life.

"Well that's very rich coming from someone who can't even afford a heart transplant!" Ron shouted when suddenly Ginny turned around and saw him standing there. Malfoy scowled and sat back down. "C'mon Ginny, you don't have to take this shit." He told her.

"Thanks Ron." She told him.

"No problem, that's what big brothers are for." He told her before she followed him back to their own table.

…..

The next few months seemed to fly by before Harry's eyes. He had won his first couple of Qudditch games, (although he lost the third one to Ravenclaw) got O's and E's on most of his homework, enjoyed his Halloween feast with his family, and then before he knew it the Christmas holidays had arrived. Although Teddy and Heather seemed to be enjoying kindergarten so far, for once in her life Eve wasn't all that thrilled about Christmas coming. For she had tons of charms school homework to do, and she knew that no matter what she said that she wasn't going to get a pony or unicorn for Christmas.

"You know, back when Jesus was born the only thing that everyone cared about that He was there with them." Harry said while he continued driving down the highway.

"Harry's right Evie, I think you should learn to start counting your blessings." Her mother told her.

"That's right, you have a wonderful family that loves you. Even though you can act like such a spoiled brat sometimes." Harry told her but Tobey just simply scoffed and folded his arms while glancing back in his sister's direction.

"Sometimes?" he questioned with uncertainty and disbelief. "More like all of the time." He said as Ron had turned to look back at Hermione since both of their families allowed them to spend the holiday with Harry's.

"He has a point you know." He told her but Eve just simply rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out at him while placing her hands on her hips. After everyone had gotten back to the house and started settling in they started getting ready for their annual Christmas Eve church service where Harry was going to do his first sermon. He had never remembered a time where he had had so many butterflies in his stomach. He waited inside the pew with the rest of his family and friends while the church bells continued to ring.

That's when suddenly the pastor went up to the front of the room and faced the crowd. "Good evening." He began.

"Good evening." They all echoed back.

"And before we get started I just want to take this time to wish a very merry Christmas to everyone here. I also see that we have some bright new faces as well." He said as he turned over and smiled at Ron and Hermione. Harry turned and smiled at them as well since this was Hermione's first time going to church, and Ron hadn't been inside a church since he had been Elvis' age. "Now this young fellow that I'm about to come up here has been a member of our church for a very long time. And not only is he interested in a future career with dragons, but becoming a Sunday school teacher right here.

Now he has a very special message that he wishes to share with us tonight about the true meaning of Christmas. So it is my honor and special privilege welcoming Harry Snape to the stand. Give him a round of applause if you'd please." He said holding out his hand for him as everyone started to clap as Harry stood up and took the pastor's place as he sat down and both of Harry's parents smiled up at him.

"Uh, hullo." Harry began. "First of all I'd just like to say merry Christmas to all of you, and as Pastor Davis just said I have been a member of this church for a long time now and I'm working on graduating Hogwarts before I get a career in caring for dragons. Now a lot of people that I meet would tell me that I'm crazy for wanting to work with them since they have a reputation for being nasty and vicious creatures, but I think it's because they automatically judge them by looking at them and not getting to know their hearts.

Now I know that God works in completely the opposite manner. You see if people would start behaving the way that Jesus did when He was on this earth and seeing things through His eyes then I think that this world would be a whole different and better place than it is now. You see right now I'm scared to death because I've never done this before, and I just didn't know how I was going to get my message a crossed. However that's what makes Christmas great, because I don't have to say a thing." He said.

"Luckily for us it's all written down. About two thousand years ago a baby boy was born. And even though on the outside He looked just like everyone else, on the inside He was special. For He knew that He had a job to do when He got older. And He could do things that nobody, not even us who were born with special powers could do. You see God trusted us enough to use our powers wisely and that's why He gave them to us. But unfortunately the devil had other things in mind. He tried to get us to use them for evil, and we were.

We didn't stand a chance with the way we were behaving towards another just wanting to fight each other, kill one another, and destroy each other regardless whether God wanted us to or not. We turned away from Him and we were basically condemned to Hell. But that's when God made us a promise. And that promise was Jesus Christ." He said as a bunch of Amens broke throughout the crowd.

"He still loved us enough to give up His only begotten Son so that we could live forever. And I'm sure that it could have not have been easy for Him to accept the cross and dying the most painful death possible. But He knew that it was the right thing to do because He found something more important. Now being that it's Christmas Day tomorrow, I'm sure that many of you are excited to be spending time with your families, opening presents and enjoying Christmas dinner together.

And that's what Christmas should be about. Spending time together as a family. You see Jesus didn't care one bit what He was going to get for Christmas." Harry began with a shake of his head. "Everyone basically hated Him anyway since they sentenced Him to death. All He cared about is what He would be giving to us because He loved us. And although this is the season when we celebrate His birth, I believe that when He rose three days later, that's when we received our gift. Now the only question is do we want to receive it?" he questioned them.

"I just want you to stop and think about that. Even just for a few moments. The choice is entirely up to you. All I know is that I haven't had any easy life and I know most of you here already know that. In fact right now is one of the darkest and scariest times of my life. But I just thank God that I know that I can turn to Him and He will always be there to light everything up again." He said as Amens broke throughout the crowd again. "Because I know that even though there is a dark and evil basically Satanic wizard out there who wants to kill me and destroy me, the one thing that he doesn't have the power over is my faith." He said.

"Amen!" A bunch of people shouted as they started applauding him before he started walking back to his seat.

"Praise the Lord!" the pastor began as he stood up again applauding along with everyone else as he took his spot again. "Harry Snape everyone!" he exclaimed. "Now on that note I would like us all to stand and turn to page three hundred and sixty three and let us sing Oh Holy Night." He said as everyone else stood up while the pianist started playing the tune on the piano.

Oh holy night,

The stars are brightly shinning.

This is the night of our dear Savior's birth.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining.

Till He appeared and the soul felt it's worth.

A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees!

Oh hear the angel voices!

Oh night divine!

Oh night, when Christ was born.

Oh night divine!

Oh night, oh night divine!