A/N: In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the HPYuletideAndMulledWineFest_2023 collection over on A03. THis story was written for the 2023 Yuletide & Mulled Wine Harry Potter Holiday Fest. My chosen prompt was Home Alone (1990). To write this story, I imbibed on a great deal of Woodbridge's Pinot Grigio.

Harry Potter was not having a very festive season. Harry was often shuffled off or forgotten as the third in a family of five siblings. The family was set to leave the next day to spend the next five days with the rest of the Potters, Harry couldn't think of anything worse.

This day was particularly terrible - Harry didn't have a chance to grab dessert after dinner. His siblings ate all of it. But there was still a secret stash of cookies in the kitchen. If he just snuck one, it wouldn't be that big of a deal right? Plus, the family was leaving anyway. So they'd probably be thrown out in the morning. Unknown to Harry, his younger sisters Rose and Raven had already eaten the last of the holiday-baked sweets.

So when Harry stuck his hand in the jar to just get one, his rotten luck caught up to him.

"HARRY!" His father yelled while walking in. James Potter was extremely worked up ahead of traveling. It was like he had a crazy amount of anxiety that only showed up when the family was taking big trips.

"What?" Harry asked. "I was just grabbing a cookie."

James walked up to him and pulled him away from the jar. Looking in, James saw there was nothing left. "Oh, just grabbing a cookie?" James said sarcastically.

"Yes?" Harry asked.

"There were at least ten cookies in this jar earlier and now there are none. Are you seriously trying to say that you haven't eaten any? I saw you didn't grab dessert earlier. You're going to make yourself sick!"

"Dad, I swear. I didn't even have a chance to eat any cookies yet."

"A likely story," James said. "You can sleep in the attic tonight. Keep the ghoul company for all the moaning and belly-aching you'll be doing for all the cookies you didn't eat." His voice turned mocking at the end.

Harry was so annoyed. Of course his dad didn't believe him. "I wish that I didn't have any family," Harry said petulantly.

"What was that?" James thundered.

"I wish that I didn't have any family!" Harry yelled back.

"Get out of my sight this instance!"

"Fine!" Harry ran up the stairs and didn't even care that he was heading to the attic instead of his own room.

With his accidental magic, Harry flicked his hand at his parents' alarm clock when he passed their room. His mother insisted on using the tech to keep her roots. Not sure that he was able to affect anything, Harry continued on his way.

The next morning, James and Lily overslept. Their alarm clock was half-an-hour late. They were running around the house frantically trying to get everything together. They had to get to the portkey office soon - the Potter holiday extravaganza was too far to apparate.

As James and Lily packed up the family and headed to the portkey office, they didn't notice that they were one short.

Once at the portkey office, they were directed to join the last portkey from Godric's Hollow. This would be the last one of the day.

"Okay, everyone grab a firm hold of the flower pot." Lily directed the family.

"Rose and Raven, this is not the time for funny business," James said warningly.

"Arthur! Stop hitting Daniel. Grab the flower pot!" Lily yelled.

"Wait, where's Harry?" James said, frantically looking around for his third son. Unfortunately, the flower pot began to shake and it was too late to let go. James was forced to keep hold or be lost somewhere across the British Isles.