R.I.P. Alan Rickman. I disliked Snape, buttu certainly not your acting... You brought that character to life for us all and will be missed...
Harry's portal dropped him Hedwig and his cargo off inside the kitchen of Number 12 Grimmauld Place and he flopped into a chair.
"Well," he thought. "At least this place is good for something. Like hiding from the general public..."
Then he took a good, thorough look around the room that he found himself in.
It was spotless.
Too spotless.
Even if Kreacher were still alive (having died in peace once he knew the locket Horcrux had been destroyed, per the command of Sirius' younger brother Regulus- quite the tale in and of itself), he would not have cleaned the place unless he was directly ordered to...
Unless...
"Dobby!" Harry called out as he reached over lazily to release Hedwig from her cage.
"Master Harry Potter called for Dobby?" Dobby popped in with a crack. "What is Master Harry be needing?"
"Did you do all of this cleaning up here?" Harry gestured around.
"Yes, Dobby is doing it, he is! Ever since Dobby is being Great Harry Potter's elf, he us cleaning his property. It was lots of work, but Dobby quite enjoyed himself... Did Dobby do something wrong? Should he punish himself?" Dobby looked down at his feet, his bat-like ears flopping.
"No, no Dobby! You did an excellent job!" Harry reassured him. "Did you do the rest of the house as well?"
"As much as he could, Sir. Theres bes some spells and messes that Dobby cannot be rid of by himself..."
"The portrait in the entrance hall wouldn't happen to be one of those problems, would it?" Harry queried.
Dobby nodded fervently.
"I'll just have to find a way to take it down myself then. Or at the very least, silence her..." Harry thought aloud.
"Don't worry about it, Dobby. You did all you could and I'm glad that you did it. Now, is there any food around here?" he asked.
"Yes there is! Dobby stocked up on a few days supplies when Master Harry told him he would be back! Dobby will be feeding youse now! Anything Harry Potter wishes for specially?"
"Some cheese sandwiches and orange juice would be nice..." Harry said. "A treacle tart too, if you don't mind..."
"Dobby does not mind at all!" Dobby popped away, taking Harry's things with him.
After a while, Harry groaned.
"I don't even feel like moving from this spot, but there are things to be done..." Harry got up and stretched, then headed out of the kitchen and up the stairs where he knew the bedrooms to be.
After taking in the miraculous level of cleanliness of what he had seen of the house (Dobby really could work wonders), he'd finally made it to the room he had shared with Ron.
It seemed like many years ago, but was really just over two years ago, before the start of his Fifth Year.
Harry sighed. So much had happened since then...
Sirius was still alive then, the Ministry was calling him and Dumbledore lunatics for proclaiming Voldemort's return after that disaster of a Triwizard Tournament (he still winced and had shivers run down his spine at that particular memory), the Earth Fairies were still trapped, he'd not yet encountered their type of magic, he'd not met Roxy...
No one could ever say that his life was boring and uninteresting, that's for sure...
Dobby popped in with his requested food and set it down on a bedside table, before popping back out quickly, though not without giving Harry a little bow which he rolled his eyes at.
Harry picked up a sandwich and it was only after a few bites that he realised not only were there fresh slices of tomato and crispy lettuce between the obviously toasted slices, but he could taste three different kinds of cheese in one sandwich.
"A little over the top, but bloody delicious anyway..." Harry shrugged, then finished off the sandwiches at a pace similar to that of a cheetah.
Once he'd finished eating, he got up and stretched, thinking of his plans for his latest return to Earth.
"So many things to do in the next few days. A trip out into the Muggle world to enjoy a bit of what I never could with the Dursleys, then back to the Wizarding World to visit my friends and..." Harry sighed. "...getting back to focusing on my Dark Lord problem..."
"The Horcruxes... Judging by what Dumbledore said, there could be three more of the monstrosities out there, but... I have no idea what one of them could be... The other one the other hand..." Harry thought for a moment.
Voldemort's snake, Nagini...
He'd seen the snake back in the Little Hangleton graveyard behaving rather... oddly for a snake. It had seemed too intelligent, in retrospect. Then there was the fact that he'd seen things from Nagini's point of view when the snake had attacked Mr Weasley in the Department of Mysteries. If he was actually seeing things from Voldemort's point of view at that time, that meant he was either possessing the snake somehow or had some sort of other, more sinister connection to it.
Harry's expression became one of disgust at the very thought.
From the little he had read and what Dumbledore had told him, making an inanimate object a Horcrux was bad enough, but entrusting piece of your soul to a living, breathing creature that had a mind of its own?
Nobody ever said that Tom Riddle Jr. was sane, but for him to actually trust a piece of his soul to another living creature...
Harry shook his head. That part of it didn't bear any thought.
"Though... Dumbledore's spy did say that Nagini may have been killed when the Trix deserted him. He's not seen the snake around him since that time and he normally keeps that horrid creature rather close, apparently..." Harry thought. "I'll have to ask Dumbledore more questions about it. Plus ask him to see those memories that he mentioned in the notes he gave me on my birthday..."
"Since I'm of age now, I am more free to do something about Voldemort. Not that I haven't been. They just don't know it yet..." He thought of his actions with the Tir Nan Og fairies that past summer.
"Enough grim thoughts. It's the Christmas season, and I want to go enjoy it properly for the first time. Muggle style." Harry stood up. "I've never once experienced a good Christmas amongst the Muggles and my Christmases since discovering my powers were always literally magical..."
"And I don't really have any appropriate Muggle winter gear..." he sighed once he looked through what was available to him. "Am I really going to have to try to Transfigure some clothes?"
He found a jumper (the last one Mrs Weasley had given him), a thick pair of gloves and some boots.
"These will have to do. Just a couple of heating charms and resizing charms..." He looked suddenly worried. "I hope I don't end up destroying my clothes instead..."
As it turned out, he didn't end up destroying his clothes, but they ended up acceptable for braving cold, London weather.
Christmas decorations were in every store he walked past and carols played from some of the stores.
A smile spread across his face.
He browsed the stores as much as he pleased (finding a few appropriate Christmas gifts along the way), ate the Muggle food he'd never been allowed to have as a child and generally enjoyed the atmosphere.
It was when he was exiting Harrods's that he bumped into one his former Hogwarts classmates and fellow Gryffindor.
"Hello Harry. Fancy seeing you on this side of London..." Dean Thomas grinned.
"Likewise." Harry grinned back at him. "How are you?"
"Fine, all things considered. Things are fine at school, though considerably more boring since you left..." Dean chuckled.
"I can imagine." Harry rolled his eyes. "No more possessed professors, giant snakes, soul suckers, dragons or thoroughly evil professors..."
"I think Professor Snape would disagree with you on that last one..." Dean pointed out.
"Point taken." Harry chuckled.
"When are you coming back to visit? Without having to rescue us, that is?" Dean asked. "Our club misses you..."
"Perhaps in the Easter term, if our Headmaster will allow it. My school has a study break just before our exam period starts while you lot are still in school..." Harry shrugged.
"I sure hope he does..." Dean nodded. "Anyway, can you talk about more... sensitive matters?"
Harry looked around.
Spotting a small Indian restaurant, he inclined his head towards it.
Dean followed him in and they grabbed a booth near the back.
After the waitress came over and gave them menus, Harry slid his wand out from beneath his sleeve and cast a few charms under the table.
"There. We're all set. Now, what is it?" Harry was all ears.
"My little sister Sabrina... She's twelve... And she's only just started displaying signs of magic. Apparently, it started just after I left for school this past term, so I've not gotten the chance to see it in action until I finally got off. It's nothing like ours would have been though. For one thing, it's emerging far too late for that. Plus if she was one of us, wouldn't she have gotten a Hogwarts letter too?" Dean asked.
"Yeah... it doesn't sound right... Do you think she has fairy magic?" Harry asked.
"Possibly. I don't know... I remember that article in the Daily Prophet way back when about those fairies wanting to start up a school here on Earth someday, but they do have some students with them already..." Dean trailed off.
"They were found completely by accident, actually. Not through active searching or someone who thought they were a fairy approaching them. No formal training, really. Just teaching them basics, helping them learn control, how to transform... After that, they could move onto Magix if they wanted to." Harry explained.
"Well, my sister needs to learn control. She's seen me with magic and she and everyone else in our family is fine with my powers, but hers...she needs help. Please, Harry? Can you put us in touch with someone who could help her?" Dean practically begged.
Harry blinked. "I don't think they'd mind... Give me your contact information and as soon as I get back to home base in a bit, I'll try to get someone in contact with you. They'll see if your sister is really a fairy and if she is, they'll do all they can to help her. Tir Nan Og fairies tend to very protective of their own and the fact that she's still young..."
Dean fished a pen and notepad out of an inside pocket of his jacket, grinning madly. "Thank you so much, Harry. Don't know what I would have done if I'd not bumped into you out here. I'd probably have to wait until term to ask Ron or Hermione if they could put me in touch with you and then I'd have to explain why and all that..." He slid the pen and notepad across the table to Harry, once he'd written what Harry had asked for.
Scribbling his own information on the sheet below that and tearing off the one with Dean's information to slide into his pocket, her grinned at the other teenager.
"It's nice to spend time with friends outside your usual social circle sometimes." Harry admitted.
"You consider me a friend?" Dean raised an eyebrow.
"Sure. I wouldn't have agreed to talk to you if I hadn't. You were always pretty relaxed about everything, even when crazy stuff was happening around me and with Fifth Year and all that brought with it..." Harry shrugged.
Once Harry noticed the waitress returning, he cancelled the spells around their booth and they ordered their food eating it while Harry told him a bit about Magix and Dean filled him in on details about the latest at Hogwarts that Ron and Hermione hadn't.
"Well, this was nice..." Dean stood up once they'd finished eating and paid for their respective meals. "You know... Wouldn't it be fun if we could arrange a meet-up in Muggle London for all of our group who were interested? I forgot how much fun it was in the non-magical world..."
"I never got to have much fun in the non-magical world before Hogwarts..." Harry thought, a dark look crossing his features briefly at the thought of life with the Dursleys. "You know that might actually be a fun idea. It'll have to be before I head over to Tir Nan Og after New Year's Day, though..."
"Not a problem, Harry. Anyway, thanks for the help with my sister and have a Happy Christmas!" Dean waved as he walked away and got onto a bus that had stopped at a bus stop mere feet away from them.
Harry smiled to himself as he found an alleyway to Disapparate back to Grimmauld Place.
Voldemort or no, he was going to enjoy his Christmas holiday.