The rest of Harry's Christmas holiday went too quickly for his liking, although he was glad that he would be back at Grimmauld Place for the weekend after he returned to Hogwarts. Hermione wrote back via owl-she was having a quiet but pleasant holiday with her parents, and unfortunately, they did not have a fireplace, so they could not be connected to the Floo network. She said that she would be taking the train back, and expected that Harry and Ron would use the Floo network to travel?

"What does she mean by that?" Harry asked, sharing the letter to Sirius.

He knew that Dumbledore had authorized Grimmauld Place as a method of travel as well as communication before the year began, under Sirius' request (demand, really), but he didn't think that this worked elsewhere. Otherwise, he might have been able to take a trip to see Sirius via Umbridge's fireplace instead of having the talk with him last spring.

"I expect that all wizarding families who have underage children at Hogwarts are now able to use that connection?" Sirius asked, shrugging his shoulders. "He likely had McGonagall send out owls to that extent. As we're already connected, it would have been a waste of parchment and owl to let us know, eh?"

Harry frowned. "But isn't the train still all right to use?"

"I'm sure it's fine," Remus reassured Harry. "But it is faster to have the students travel by floo, and with so many attacks lately, some parents probably didn't wanted the extra hassle of travel."

Harry thought that seemed a bit odd, as Hermione was muggle born and the most likely to be attacked. Then again, if her family didn't even have a fireplace...

"Fancy a Potions lesson, pup?" Sirius asked. "Or, perhaps, a trip into the Pensieve?"

As it was still early in the afternoon, there was more than enough time for both. Harry and Sirius (with Remus looking on) completed one of the potions meant for seventh year students, as they had finished the sixth year ones, before sitting down for dinner.

Over the past five days since Christmas, they had alternated between Harry seeing one of their memories and him showing them one of his. The Pensieve Sirius had purchased was a bit of an enhancement over Dumbledore's, which had been made (Sirius guessed) at least two decades ago. The newest version allowed the user the option of seeing a memory play out in front of them without going into the Pensieve to see it, or the more standard version. Harry preferred the newer one, as it felt rather like watching a movie, and was far less disorienting, so they generally used that method.

Harry had shown Sirius and Remus his memory of meeting Hagrid for the first time and his trip to Diagon Alley, his first Quidditch game, encountering the Mirror of Erised, flying to Hogwarts via Mr. Weasley's enchanted car, meeting Sirius for the first time (not his preferred choice of positive memories, but Sirius had really wanted to see it...and it certainly had been a new experience to watch everything play out with the knowledge that his godfather had been trying to protect him), and the Quidditch World Cup. Like Sirius, he tried to pick out happy memories, but also ones that showed his perchance to get into trouble.

This eliminated almost anything having to do with the Dursleys, although Sirius kept asking Harry to show him the one wherein he'd inflated his aunt. Harry hadn't refused outright, but always chose another one. He wasn't sure Sirius would be able to handle what his uncle's sister had said about his mum and dad. Sirius might take hexing her to a level that would make what they did to Snape after their DADA OWL seem like child's play.

While Harry certainly wouldn't have minded to hear that she had died from being trampled by one of her dogs, he didn't want Sirius to get into trouble with the Ministry.

All of them were in rather a somber mood by the time Harry had to leave for school. He'd packed everything up the previous night, and Sirius had made sure he knew how to cast the glamor charm nonverbally.

"Don't forget, you'll have to cast it each morning, so you'll want to have your wand on you and do it while you're still in bed," he cautioned for the third time that day. "Should I remind you each morning? For the first week, at least?"

Harry shook his head. "No, I'm sure I'll remember."

He was, too, the way that Sirius had been going on about it.

Not he he minded-he knew that Sirius meant well, and it would be nothing short of disastrous if he showed up in the Great Hall, or even in the boys' bathroom, without any scar on his forehead. The scar was what people first saw when they looked at him, and it wasn't like showing up with suddenly straight hair or no glasses. It would be dangerous, really, if he forgot even once.

"I'll remind you the night before, then," Sirius teased, pulling him into a hug.

Harry groaned good-naturedly, and rather thought that his godfather might do so the first few nights.

Turning to Remus, Harry asked, "Will I see you on Friday?"

"Yes, but I'll be at the house." He smiled. "I'll fix the two of you some hot chocolate."

"Don't forget biscuits!" Sirius cautioned.

Remus rolled his eyes. "You do know that you'll be there to remind me in case I dare to forget?"

"Do we need new biscuits?" Harry wondered, glancing at the piles of uneaten ones that the three of them had made over the last couple of weeks. "We have plenty."

"They're half stale," Sirius insisted. "I won't have my godson breaking his teeth."

"No, he'll just give them to the Order," Remus laughed.

"Yes, well, you know they'll eat anything. Moody, too, even if he inspects it beforehand. 'Sides, a broken tooth can be fixed easily enough, as we're both aware of," Sirius retorted.

"Have you ever eaten Hagrid's cooking?" Harry asked, performing a feather-light charm on his trunk.

"We both have, once," Remus answered, looking a bit pained. "Quite sure I broke both of the molars on the bottom of my jaw. Madam Pomfrey asked what in the world I'd been eating, and when I told her, she looked exasperated."

"His tea is fine, but there's something about his cooking. Either he really can't cook, or his taste as a half-giant is far different than...er, regular folk," Sirius mused. "I rather suspect it's a combination."

Remus placed a few bars of Harry's favorite flavor of Honeydukes chocolate into his trunk when he thought Harry wasn't looking, and then gave him a hug. Sirius' hug was quite a bit longer, and once he let go, he held Harry's shoulders and gave him a once over, as though he expected him to become ill at any moment.

"Are you sure you'll all right, pup?" he asked.

Harry nodded. "I'm fine, really."

It was true. All of the symptoms from the surgery were gone, and with the horcrux having been destroyed by the venom from the basilisk, there was only one left.

That, and Voldemort, of course. Harry rather wondered if they would be able to kill both around the same time. It didn't seem too improbable, as the man didn't travel anywhere without his snake.

Sirius drew Harry in for a final hug. "Contact me this evening, all right? Just to let me know you're safe and sound."

"I will," Harry promised, not minding at all that Sirius was likely acting more overprotective with him than Molly Weasley was with Ron.

Then, he took out a pinch of floo powder, and jumped into the flames, calling out loudly and clearly, "Hogwarts, Gryffindor Common Room."

Ron and Hermione were waiting for him when he arrived.

He cleaned off his robes, then grinned at them. "Have a good holiday?" he asked. At their nods, he said, "Let's head to the Room of Requirement. Have I got news for you..."

A/N: Next up...Ron and Hermione hear about Harry's adventures during the holidays!