Now that Harry's family was gone, he decided to get in the holiday spirit by getting a Christmas tree and decorating it.

Going into the basement, Harry grabbed a saw and a ladder. Dragging his finds out to the backyard, he went to cut down one of the Scot's pines out there. Climbing his ladder, Harry cut off the top of the tree that he could handle. He didn't want the whole tree. There's no way he'd be able to get it inside. There were still three days until Christmas.

Once the tree was cut, Harry brought it inside and set up the decorations he pulled out of storage. He loved decorating the tree. The lack of one was probably one of the reasons this year felt so weird.

But no matter, he was fixing it now. As he held up the shiny red ornament with his back to the window, Harry saw a very unpleasant sight. Severus Snape was looking at him. Harry didn't panic. He was smarter than that. Pretending he didn't see the man, Harry continued decorating the tree. But in the back of his head, he started to plan.

There were rumors that Severus Snape was part of the so-called "Death Eaters" — a band of thieves. When his mom allowed the telly to be on for the nightly news, they talked about some of the crimes. However, the boss man, Lord Voldemort, was too smart to be caught. They had allegedly been behind a series of break-ins in the area.

The signature calling card was leaving a literal card behind with the image of a snake bursting through a skull's mouth. His mum was convinced it was a bunch of wizards committing muggle baiting. His dad didn't have an opinion.

Okay, but what could Harry do against a full-grown wizard committed to breaking in and stealing their things?

Looking around, Harry decided to start on the outside of the house. He disabled the ward stone that held the anti-ice charm outside the front and back doors.

With the backdoor coming out of the laundry room, Harry knew that he could set up some good tricks there. Grabbing 'Celestina's nonporous' plastic wrap from the kitchen, he covered the inside of the doorway. Anyone trying to get through that way would bounce off. Just like his hand when he tried to go for leftovers. He used caulking glue to stick either end to the door.

Okay, he should have some backups for the back door, right? Harry set up a tripwire. If someone hit it, they would trigger the bucket of paint on top of the washer and flick on the fan dropping feathers all over any intruders.

Nodding his head in satisfaction, Harry returned to the front door. Snape would not be getting into the house. Not on his watch. While most of the kitchen gadgets were wizarding, there was one that was still muggle.

The toaster.

Harry didn't fully understand the mechanics behind it, but he grabbed some copper wire that his mom used to hang plants. He wrapped the wire around the inside of the front door handle and ran it from there to the inside of the toaster. Finally, he plugged in the toaster and set it up. It got hot quickly. Harry held his hand a few inches away from the handle and he could feel it.

Satisfied that he would be safe for the night, Harry turned to go to bed.

James finally stopped yelling at the people at the portkey office. However, he had found a traveling companion. The man had recently proposed to his girlfriend and been rejected. James tried not to cringe at the idea of proposing just before a major holiday. Instead, he worked with the man, Elphias Doge, who also wanted to get to Godric's Hollow quickly.

There were few options left for Elphias and James, the only ones trying to get back to Godric's Hollow by any means necessary.

Unfortunately, the best solution was to rent a magic carpet and fly back. The price to rent a broom was outrageous. If it had been his only option, James would have done it. But the magic carpet was more reasonable price-wise and he could ride with Elphias - halving the price to something that wouldn't bankrupt his family. Thank Merlin.

Now he just had to survive a ten-hour flight with a man who was crying more often than not.

Before he left, James organized transportation for the rest of his family. Lily and all the kids would take a portkey in two days to get back home to Harry. Communicating via the floo network, James gave Lily all the details and learned that she and the other children got to his parent's place safely. They'd spend one night there before returning to the portkey office the day before Christmas to travel back to Godric's Hollow.

This year was a nightmare and a half.