Hesitantly Harry went downstairs with the rest of the kids in the foster home, and a part of him was bracing himself for the annual disappointment on Christmas morning. Christmas had never been a fun time for Harry growing up, the Dursleys had lavished themselves on a fortune of food which would have been enough to feed a small African country for a year, and he was never able to take part in it.
No, he would always be forced to cook, prepare the tree, and set the presents, but he would never have sat down to a full Christmas dinner with all the trimmings despite slaving over the meal for hours, and woe betide him should he fuck it all up. Once dinner was ready, the Dursleys would stuff him inside the cupboard and leave him there with his Christmas dinner being nothing more than a glass of water a crust of bread, and an apple, and that was it.
His mouth would be left watering and his stomach aching….
Rage started to spike in his gut as he thought of the Dursleys, laughing at the crappy jokes in the crackers, and eating mountains of food while he was left with the scraps he could get away with-
"You no longer have to worry about that, Harry," Venom said soothingly in his head.
Harry nodded tightly to himself, "I know, Venom. I know."
Tired of the streets, Harry and his alien friend had both entered foster care. While with Venom, he could survive, Harry wanted to have an education and live his life and have more opportunities. When they'd come to the foster home, Harry had been prepared for anything, but fortunately whatever bad luck he'd had growing up with the Dursleys, seemed to have vanished.
"Hi, Harry," Vanessa, one of the foster home staff, smiled at him.
"Hi, Vanessa," Harry smiled back, already smelling the deep, rich aromas of Christmas cooking as he and the other kids went into the room where all the Christmas presents were. Harry found a couple of gifts for himself. Some of the other kids were already here, eagerly shredding the paper off their presents like mini-threshing machines.
Harry opened his own presents more sedately, while he was sitting in a corner, as if he expected one of the kids to pull a Dudley, and take his gifts away. He had left the other kids with a few gifts of his own after he was given some cash and encouraged to buy gifts.
To his surprise and delight, he found a small Hornby train set, a few Doctor Who books, and a copy of HG Wells' The War of the Worlds and the Invisible Man.
"Cool," Harry smiled.
"Indeed, it looks like these humans have taken notice of your interests," Venom noted.
Harry smiled to himself as he agreed with his extraterrestrial friend before he moved on to a few more of his other presents. Like the other kids, Harry was reliant on the other orphanage kids giving him presents. From some of them, he received new pencils, paints, paper, and even a teddy bear.
Later that day, Harry laughed and enjoyed a day of fun eating with the other kids before they watched some movies. All in all, it was a great Christmas for all of them.