Before Harry knew it Christmas was upon then and he'd had a fairly pleasant time at school, other than Ron Weasley's attempts to barge his way into their group.
"That boy is such a pain in the rear," Hermione groaned, as Weasley once more attempted to insert himself into their group. Being soundly rebuffed every time did not discourage the youngest Weasley boy who just continued to attempt to be Harry's only friend while he pushed Neville and Hermione to the side.
"We are going to have to do something drastic," Harry said. "Hermione's right, he's not getting the point when I tell him that we're not interested in being friends with him. He's rude, obnoxious, lazy, uncouth and has terrible table manners."
"Now that last one is the truth," Neville said. "This is why I, at least, try not to sit anywhere near him when we're eating."
"We all do, Nev," Harry said. "I don't think he's noticed that they're are always spaces between him and everybody else whenever there's food on the table. Even his siblings are totally embarrassed to be around him when he eats."
"You know I heard Percy trying to tell him that he was eating like a pig and that their mother had taught him better manners, but he didn't take it very well at all and just ignored his brother. I'm beginning to wonder if he has something like autism. I'm not entirely sure if somebody magical can get that. I mean he's lazy, stubborn, has atrocious table manners, is rude and many other things besides. I know we shouldn't talk bad about someone we barely know, but he's annoying me to the point that I don't really care anymore," Harry said.
"I have to agree that he's annoying me beyond all reason. Not only has he tried to barge his way into our group without even being polite and asking permission, he's rude even when somebody is trying to help him," Hermione said.
She remembered crying in the toilet on Halloween because Ron had insulted her so badly and how she had nearly been killed by a troll that had somehow been let into the castle. Harry had actually punched Ron in the nose after she had run away in tears she had learned later. He had actually broke it and had left Ron Weasley bleeding on the floor of the corridor before he and Neville had raced after her.
None of them had appeared at the feast, as it had taken Harry and Neville awhile to locate her, since she had a good head start. They had finally found her in the third floor girls bathroom, the one that was never used due to a ghost named Moaning Myrtle. They had both entered the bathroom, even though it was a girls toilet, and comforted Hermione when the troll had come barging in a few minutes later.
Harry could've taken out the troll with one spell or the sword that was given to him by his grandfather that was hidden in a special place that was like an invisible pocket reality only accessible to the person it was attached to. It was a special ability of the sídhe and his grandfather had showed him how to access this pocket reality for the first time.
Due to what his grandfather had been teaching him he could've easily taken out the troll, but he didn't want to give too much away about his abilities because he knew it'd get back to Dumbledore, which was the last thing he wanted. He was sure Dumbledore expected him to take out Voldemort with magic and he probably would, but he was going to use everything in his arsenal and not necessarily magic alone.
If he thought he could get away with it he would probably take out Voldemort who was on the back of Quirrell's head and be done with it, but he knew that was a bad idea because all the Horcruxes had still not been found. Sirius had been lucky though and found one, a locket in his own family home, that Regulus had died retrieving. The goblins had also been found one in Bellatrix Lestrange's vault, supposedly Hufflepuff's Cup. The goblins were fining the Lestranges heavily, even though they were in Azkaban, because having something so foul in a Gringotts vault went against banking code. They had been lucky to get those two but so far no more had been found.
Harry hadn't even gotten detention for punching Ron in the nose, which was incredibly lucky. Everybody who had been present seemed to believe that Ron had deserved it, though Harry was certainly glad that Prof. McGonagall hadn't seen him, because he definitely would have got detention if she had as she was a stickler for the rules.
Harry punching Ron also sent out the message that he would defend himself and his friends, if you annoyed him too much so most students left him alone, which was just fine with Harry and his two friends.
"If he dares try to barge his way into our group again believe me, I'll deal with it," Harry promised in a quiet, intense voice. "I'll do it in such a way that the teachers won't be able to prove that it was me that hexed him until he was unrecognizable as a human being. I think all of us have lost patience with his rudeness. He has the manners of an uncouth, uneducated boar."
"Well, Ron Weasley can wait as tomorrow we board the Hogwarts Express to go home for the holidays. I can't believe how fast these first few months have passed. I can hardly wait to see my parents again," Hermione squealed happily. "I've missed them so much."
"I've missed Sirius to, even though we've only known each other for a very short amount of time," Harry admitted.
"It's no wonder, as you've never had anyone you could be close to you before," Neville suggested quietly.
Harry didn't answer, as that wasn't quite true, but he still hadn't told his two friends about his true heritage.
"This will be the first Christmas I have enjoyed ever since my parents deaths," Harry said instead. "I certainly never enjoyed Christmas with the Dursleys."
And granddad was so busy training me so that I would survive facing Voldemort that we never even thought about Christmas or even birthdays, which the sídhe really don't celebrate anyway. Still, unlike with the Dursleys I was never abused, given plenty of food and given plenty of time to have fun with my cousins.
"We know," Hermione said, as she leaned over and kissed his cheek, causing him to blush a little.
"Things will be different from now on since you no longer have to go back there," Neville said.
"That's true," Harry said. "I know that Sirius and Remus have been planning certain festivities for the holidays and hopefully, you two can join us for at least some of it."
"I'll have to ask my gran," Neville said. "Still, I'm sure she won't mind, since she was there the day you're godfather was declared innocent and we are family of a sort."
"Yeah, we are," Harry smiled. "If not for Dumbledore's meddling we would've grown up together, as your parents were first on the list in order to raise me, with Sirius being next and then Amelia Bones. I would've loved to have had a brother or even a sister growing up."
"Gran would've been happy to take you in and not just because Longbottom and Potter have been allied for centuries," Neville said quietly.
"I know," Harry said clapping Neville on the shoulder in a friendly manner.
"So do you think Dumbledore's out of the picture permanently?" Hermione asked.
"If you mean do I think he will leave me alone until I graduate I would say definitely not," Harry said. "He might not have tried anything yet, but we've only been here for like four months. He still has years to try his best to control me. I believe that he's obsessed with being the one that will supposedly lead me to my destiny that there is no way he'll leave me alone for the next seven years. However, Dumbledore is forgetting one very important factor."
"What factor is that?" Neville asked.
Hermione though, looked like she had already worked out what Harry was talking about for herself.
"It's very simple, Nev," Harry said. "Trust. Dumbledore lost my trust when I learned about his manipulations and how he left my godfather in Azkaban, likely because he would've had automatic guardianship of me, which went against the headmaster's plans for his weapon."
The last word was said dripping with scorn and derision.
"Yes, Neville's parents would've been the first choice to raise me, likely because they were already married and had a baby son the same age as I was. However, if anything had happened to them then Sirius was next on the list. Even if the Longbottoms had raised me from the time I was an infant that doesn't mean that Sirius wouldn't have played a major role in my life, since Neville's parents and my Godfather along with mom and dad were very good friends when they went to Hogwarts."
"Yes, I see what you mean," Neville agreed once Harry had explained. "Being a mentor for someone requires trust from both sides. Because of Dumbledore's actions of not insisting on Harry's godfather getting a trial, but also the fact that he was basically kidnapped and placed with his relatives, where he was then abused, means that on Harry's end there is absolutely no trust, not even a smidgen."
"I nearly died on several occasions at least if it wasn't for my accidental magic healing me Dumbledore would've come to Number Four Private Drive to find me dead when I didn't show up at Hogwarts or more then likely when the wards fell."
Hermione gasped at that. Hermione had known that the abuse he suffered was bad, but if he'd had to heal himself using accidental magic then it had been more than bad it must have been horrific. "Trust me, they never took me to the hospital or a clinic, even when they broke my arm when I was about three. I received much worse injuries then those though, as I was beaten on multiple occasions, by both male Dursleys, while Petunia also got into the act by hitting me in the side of the head with a cast iron frying pan. She's lucky that she didn't cave the side of my skull in."
"I didn't realize it was that bad," Hermione said looking upset at what Harry's supposed relative had done to her friend. "I knew you said you were abused, but you never explained how bad it really was."
"It's not something I like to talk about," Harry explained simply. "I was taught how to cook when I was four and if I was burned by the hot pan how do you think that was dealt with by the Dursleys?"
"It was just ignored I'd bet," Neville said grimacing. "If they can ignore when you have a broken arm or cracked ribs then they would ignore it when you're burned."
"They taunted me about it and told me it was what I deserved for the act of being placed with their family. They blamed me for everything negative that happened, even if I hadn't even been in the room at the time."
"Surely no one would be that cruel?" Hermione said biting her lower lip, but even as she said she knew that yes, they could be that cruel, even if she didn't want to believe it.
Hermione then remembered the bullies that had taunted her for any number of reasons, but they weren't evil, not really, just immature. What Harry had told her about his relatives though, wasn't just people being cruel it was them being plain evil.
"What did I tell you about realizing that not everybody was good or kind?" Harry reminded her. "It's not necessarily a bad thing to believe the best in people, but being a little cynical and suspicious is a good thing. I suppose it's something you have to learn for yourself, because you were sheltered by your parents from the evil in the world and while I might've been sheltered if my parents had lived, thanks to them being murdered I definitely was not. I have no trouble believing in the cruelty of people considering I have first-hand experience with it."
"I know people can be cruel, as I was bullied at my primary school before I got my letter to Hogwarts, but your relatives weren't just cruel they are just plain evil and I can't believe that your own flesh and blood would do something like that," said Hermione.
"It happens all the time," Harry told Hermione gently. "Siblings don't necessarily have to love each other you know and neither do parents have to love their child or any other relative for that matter. If you're sentient beings then you have your faults and some of those faults are quite extreme. If you know a lot about history you'll see that jealousy, hate and greed are the primary motives for a lot of evil things happening. That's not to say that other negative emotions can't be responsible for bad things happening, but those are the three main ones. Really greed's the oldest motive in the world for someone killing off a competitor for example. If you just watch the news you'll see multiple examples of greed, hate and jealousy."
"I know you're right," Hermione sighed. "I do watch the news with my parents so I can keep up on current events and the things I see on the news so many times makes me sad. How people can be so cruel to other people, especially children is beyond me."
"I'm afraid that as sentient beings we're not meant to be perfect to get along all the time," Harry said simply, "and yes, it's very sad. If anybody knows that it's me. Really, if the Dursleys were the only example of adults I had ever known, then I would think that all of them were just as cruel, greedy, jealous and thoughtless of anybody's feelings but their own."
"I don't think we need to worry about the cruelty of people right now as we're only 11, well Hermione's 12 but you get the point," Neville said.
"I think we do need to worry about it, just look at the behavior of Professor Snape, a supposed professional," Harry pointed out cynically. "He hated my father and even though he's been dead for over a decade he treats me like dirt on the bottom of his shoe. My only crime is I look like him, except for my green eyes and the shape of my nose and jaw. Just look at how he treated you, Neville, from the moment you stepped into class and all because he didn't like your parents just like he didn't like my father."
"I hadn't thought of that, but you're right. I should probably tell my gran about his behavior, as he'll correct it or he'll be fired, despite what Dumbledore wants. My gran is on the School Board," Neville said.
"I would inform her personally," Hermione said. "He seems to save his worst behavior for Gryffindors. As much as I hate to admit it, it's clear that the headmaster isn't going to do anything about him."
"How do you know?" Neville asked.
"Because Snape has been teaching here for years already and I'm sure that his behavior has been the same to everyone except Slytherin in all that time. I'm sure multiple students have complained about him over the years and yet apparently the headmaster has done nothing," Harry said, not explaining that he had prior knowledge of Snape, due to the pool in the otherworld.
"If he taught at a school in the Muggle world he would either correct his behavior or he'd be fired, but Dumbledore seems to be keeping them around for some other purpose, although why I don't know," Hermione explained. "In schools in the Muggle world you only get three warnings before you're gone. I've noticed over the last few months that things seem to work differently in the wizarding world. They are definitely behind the Muggle one by at least 150 years."
Harry knew this, but he said nothing for there was no way he should have the knowledge that he possessed.
"The Muggle world is really so far ahead?" Neville asked in amazement.
"It is Neville," Harry said. "We shot huge flaming rockets into space and put men on the moon in the late 1960s and now we have robots that carry out experiments on Mars. The Muggles have technologically advanced a lot since the 1960s and we've gone from cars with internal combustion engines, to computers that keep improving every year. Believing in magic means you have to suspend disbelief and just follow along, because technically, magic shouldn't exist. However, there are also many forces in the universe that all scientists haven't figured out or even know exist yet, so it's quite possible that they'll discover the magic one day or at least what makes magic work like it does."
"Also, on a social level we have advanced just as far as we have the technologic aspect of our society," Hermione explained.
"If your grandmother will let you I'll show you some of Muggle society doing the holidays," Harry offered. "Hermione already knows that she is invited to and her parents are welcome as well as your gran. I've never had friends to spend the holiday with before, so if you want to come you're more than welcome."
"You already know I would love to, but I need to talk to gran first," Neville said smiling.
"And I need to talk to my parents before I can give you a positive answer," Hermione said.
"I'll be awaiting your responses by owl," Harry said serenely.
The three of them continued to work on homework until just before curfew and thanks to they're determination they already had most of their holiday homework out of the way, so they didn't have to worry about it over the Christmas period.
~~~Dave and Harry~~~
Harry exited the train, dragging his trunk to find his godfather waiting on him. He and his two friends had boarded the Hogwarts Express at Hogsmeade Station and spent the hours just talking and laughing. All three of them were looking forward to the holidays. Weasley of course, had tried to barge his way into their compartment, but luckily his twin brothers had dragged him away.
Harry, Neville and Hermione had been grateful and no one else had bothered them for the rest of the train ride. Fred and George had even apologized for their younger brother saying that their parents had tried to teach him manners and they just hadn't taken.
"Ron has the manners of a pig," Harry had told the twins bluntly, once the boy in question was gone. "He keeps trying to barge his way into our group of friends not even bothering to introduce himself or asking if he can sit with us. He doesn't want to be part of our group so we can be friends he did so because I'm the Boy Who Lived. I'm sick of it. All of us have tried everything to get him to leave us alone we have not succeeded and I don't know if he's being deliberately obtuse or if that's just your brother."
"That's just Ron I am afraid," George had told the three shaking his head in obvious disappointment.
"He's never been the brightest and he just doesn't notice when he's being annoying," Fred added.
"Or rude," George said.
"Your brother has emotional range of a teaspoon," Hermione had told the twins vehemently, "and I for one am sick of him trying to barge his way into our group and push Neville and me aside so that he can be the only friend of the Boy Who Lived. Either he leaves us alone or he's going to regret the day he was ever born. Do we understand each other gentlemen?"
"Yes, Hermione," Fred and George said together, knowing that it took a lot too annoy the brightest witch of the age and yes, Hermione already had that reputation, even though she had only been attending Hogwarts for four months.
"We'll talk to mom and dad once we get home," George added.
"I know your brother is mainly just immature, but he had better leave us alone or I'm with Hermione on this for some retribution," Harry said. "He follows us everywhere and the only place we can get away from him is the library since he never goes there if he can help it."
"Ron just wants to drag us down to his level, he's lazy, rude, has no table manners or manners period and would probably like to try to get Harry to spend all his time playing chess and talking Quidditch instead of learning and studying," Hermione said.
"I enjoy Quidditch as much is anyone, but I also want to do well in my studies to make my mom proud of me," Harry said.
And my grandfather, Harry added in his thoughts.
"He interrupts our studying trying to get Harry at least to come down to his level and waste his time doing things other than homework, so that we can graduate with good grades, so we can get good jobs. It's not that we don't know how to have fun, it's just that your brother's idea of fun is not any of ours."
"We'll talk to him," Fred sighed knowing that Harry and Hermione were spot on about their brother.
"Warn him that if he keeps trying to barge his way into our group without even asking if he can, then someone's going to find him somewhere tied up, probably hanging upside down from the ceiling," Harry warned. "Normally, I'm not one for pranks like my father was, but I'm really sick of telling him that I'm not interested in being friends with him unless he changes his attitude. According to Sirius, Ron already would've found himself hexed into oblivion by now if it had been him or my father, but apparently I have more patience, which is now at an end."
"We understand," George said and Fred nodded looking serious for once. "We'll see you back at school after the holidays."
The twins left and Neville who hadn't said a word during the entire conversation simply shook his head smiling. "You think that the twins or the Senior Weasleys will get Ron to leave us alone?"
"I certainly hope so, because I wasn't joking when I said my patience was at an end," Harry said. "I know that Ron doesn't mean anything malicious by it and if he was interested in getting to know Harry then I wouldn't mind that, but I don't want to go through the next seven years with him trying have my exclusive attention."
The other two dropped the subject of Ron Weasley and simply enjoyed the rest of the train ride
"Hey Sirius! I'm so happy to see you," Harry exclaimed smiling, as he dragged his trunk over to his godfather.
"Hey Pup," Sirius said, as he helped Harry with his trunk, which wasn't as heavy as it could be due to the Feather-Light Charm on it. "Ready to go or do you need a minute to say bye to your friends?"
"I'm ready to go now, we all said goodbye on the train," Harry said smiling. "I asked them over for at least part of the holiday."
"Which is just fine, I hope they can join us," Sirius said.
"You're looking better than the last time I saw you," Harry said examining his godfather more closely. Sirius looked to have regained all the weight he had lost in Azkaban and his flesh had a healthy glow to it. His teeth which had been yellow and stained were now a healthy, straight white and though his eyes were still a little haunted, they weren't as bad as they had been when Sirius was first released from prison. "Apparently, spending time with Remus is doing you a lot of good."
Harry had never actually met Remus Lupin just talked to him through the two-way mirror and was looking forward to the opportunity to get to know one of his parents best friends.
"Yes I'm doing a lot better," Sirius admitted, as he took Harry's arm and Apparated the two of them along with Harry's trunk off the platform. "Just spending time with Remus has helped a lot. Remus and I are the last remaining true Marauders. As for Peter, he will eventually get what's coming to him and though I would love to be the one that brings him to justice it doesn't necessarily have to be me," Sirius finished, as soon as he and Harry were standing in the entry hall of the house that had been in the Black family for a long time. Unlike the house at Grimmauld Place in London this one was out in the country and had been in the Black family for decades. Dumbledore was not as likely to know about this place like he was the place in London. Mainly though, Sirius never wanted to live in to the place in London again, as his childhood had been just as bad as Harry's had been up until he was six.
"Go put your trunk upstairs in your room, then come and meet Remus. I know I've told you about him and you've talked to him over to mirror, but you've never actually met him as you were already at Hogwarts by the time he showed up."
Harry nodded and dragged his trunk up the stairs to his room.