Chapter 11: Harry's Great Christmas

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Christmas morning came bright and early, and Harry sprang out of bed. This was going to be the day that he got his house back. He immediately got dressed and went downstairs. He made sure that Sirius was in his pocket and went out the door to Waters' office. He didn't even stop for breakfast or to talk to anybody. He wanted to make sure that nobody knew what was going on. This was going to be a secret that he was going to spring on everybody, bar Hermione.

She knew but she was going to keep it a secret. She was here for the holidays, since her family was out of town on a visiting dentist volunteer thing. They thought it best that she remained behind. They were in Africa this winter, and they were going to South America this summer. They had been doing it since her first year, and Hermione was a bit resentful that they were taking off without her. Yet, she was thankful that there was somewhere she could go.

Harry hurried to Knockturn Alley. He didn't want to make his solicitor wait.

Mr. Waters had taken the time off from his family just to be there this morning to have all the papers signed and hand it over. They've been ready to be finalized for a day now. But Harry wanted it to be a Christmas surprise. He wanted to sign them today and have them officially noted on this day. He was being petty, he knew that. But he was a kid, sue him. He grew up on the streets and got so little in life. He was allowed to indulge a bit.

"Hello, Mr. Waters," Harry said as he came into the office.

"Good morning, Mr. Potter," said Mr. Waters from his place behind his desk. He had been sitting there for the better part of 10 minutes. Not very long. He didn't plan on being there for any longer than he had to be. He planned on spending the rest of the morning with his family. It only taken a small part of the day out for this. He planned on charging Mr. Potter an exorbitant amount of money for it.

"Are we ready to finalize the papers?" Harry asked, bouncing into a chair. He knew that Mr. Waters was going to charge him out the nose for it. He didn't care. He just wanted to have his house for a Christmas present.

"I've got them here," said the solicitor as he pulled out the parchments. He placed them on the desk and turned them around and showed them to his client. He pointed to the proper places where Harry needed to sign. Ready to have this done and over with so he could leave and make merry.

"Let's get this over with," said Harry. With that, the two of them bent over the papers and with the blood quill, signed on the dotted line. When Harry finished signing a burst of light showed from the document. It duplicated and one document went into a filing cabinet. Another document went next to the original and another document went to the ministry. Everything was now official… the house was Harry's.

"I will keep the original here at the office. This is your copy," said Mr. Waters, handing Harry one of the copies.

"Thank you for taking your time out on this holiday for doing this for me, Mr. Waters," Harry said, taking the parchment, folding it up and putting it in his inner pocket. He was all but bouncing for joy that he finally got what he wanted.

"Not a problem, Mr. Potter. You're paying me overtime," the solicitor said. He started straightening up his desk and putting everything in order, getting ready to go.

"Still, it was very nice of you."

"Have a very Happy Christmas, Mr. Potter," Mr. Waters said, holding out his hand for a handshake.

"Oh, I plan on it, Mr. Waters. You too," Harry said, shaking the man's hand vigorously. He knew what he did today was childish. He was just glad the man had played along.

With that, the two of them parted and Harry went back to Grimmauld Place with the spring in his step and a song on his voice. He returned just as everybody was sitting down for breakfast. The Weasleys, Hermione, Remus, Tonks were there, along with Moody.

"Good morning, everybody," said Harry. "And a happy Christmas to you all." He came sauntering into the room. As if nothing could dampen his mood. He sat at the table and started serving himself up a meal that would suit a king. Then again, he normally ate as much as he could, no matter who cooked. Mrs. Weasley was a good cook. She normally didn't cook at the house. But her brood, which consisted of Percy, the Twins, and Bill, was here for Christmas. For some reason they were spending the holidays here. Along with Hermione and Tonks. Dumbledore said it had something to do with there being safety in numbers.

"Good morning, Harry," said Hermione. "What's got you in a good mood?" She never trusted it. When he was in a good mood, that meant more work for her. Then again, it also meant bad times for somebody else so maybe it wasn't so bad. Especially if it meant bad news for Dumbledore.

"I just got the best present ever," he said, giving her an exaggerated wink. She should remember what was going on today, he had told her two days ago at the coffee meeting.

"Oh, do tell," she said, coyly, remembering what he had said at the meeting, but not wanting to spill the beans. She couldn't wait. She wanted to see the look on Dumbledore's face when her friend took the house away from him.

"Oh, I think I'll wait a little while until everybody opens their gifts," he said, then he set about eating the breakfast that he had served himself up, ignoring everybody looking upon him as if he were crazy. He was quite used to it. By now, everybody at this table hated him except for Hermione and Tonks.

The twins were warily looking at Harry. They were skeptical as to whether he was pulling a prank or doing something sinister. They were still very unsure about this young man. He was not the nice man that they were hoping the hero would be. The entire Weasley clan were still upset that he was the catalyst for Ron disappearing. Molly more so than anybody else.

"So, Alastor, how did your meeting go with the You Know Who Junior?" Mr. Weasley asked, trying to divert the conversation away from the young teenager who looked too smug for his own good.

"None of your damn business," the grumpy old man said as he hovered over his bowl of oatmeal. He wasn't one to share his food with anybody else, and he wanted to make sure that everybody stayed away from what was his. He had made it himself, not trusting Molly to cook for him. He knew that nobody at this table would poison him, but still… One couldn't be too careful.

"Come now, Alastor, you can tell us," Mrs. Weasley said in a consoling tone of voice. She was always trying to bring Alastor out into the open. It never worked, but Mrs. Weasley was always going to bang her head against the wall.

"We just went over some things that were on the list and that's all you need to know," said Moody, bending that far. That was all he was willing to talk about without Dumbledore being there.

"I don't know what you're being so paranoid about. We didn't really say anything important," said Harry. "Besides, aren't you gonna need their help in the hunt?" he questioned, thinking that the old bloke would probably need more than just himself to find the Horcruxes.

"Not really," said Moody, giving the boy the evil eye.

Harry just shrugged his shoulders and went back to his breakfast. If the guy thought, he could do it on his own. Who was he to give him any doubt?

"What about me?" said Tonks from where she was sitting next to Hermione. "Are you going to need my help?" She was very eager to be more assistance in this war. She was bored to tears.

"Yes, but I'm not going to talk about it over breakfast," said Moody, finishing off the last of his oatmeal. "You too, Bill. I might need the help of a curse breaker, but I don't need the help of your parents. The less people that know about these Horcruxes, the better. So you and Tonks meet with me after breakfast in the lounge."

"Which lounge? There's like five of them in this bloody place," Tonks asked, looking around the room as it's looking at the whole of the house. She hated this creepy old place.

"The one at the front of the house," the one-legged man said, his magical eye zooming in on that room as if he could see it through all the walls, which he probably could.

"The one with the red couch?" Bill questioned, wanting to make sure he got the right one.

"Yeah, that one."

"Fine. We'll meet there after breakfast," Tonks said, sharing a look with Bill. Both of them nodded at each other.

"Mind if I join you?" asked Harry, just wanted to see what they were going to do or how far the Horcrux hunt was on. He didn't know how much help he could be. But he had a lot more magic than they did. Not that he was willing to show it at this point in time, but who knows, he might be of some help.

"No, I don't mind," said Moody. After that, they resumed eating their breakfast. Moody was done, so he put his bowl in the sink and sat back at the table, getting ready to see the light show he knew Harry was about to put on.

"Mum, when are we going to open our presents?" asked Fred, looking out of the corner of his eye at Harry. He didn't want the other boy around while they were opening the presents.

"I thought we'd do it as a family after breakfast," the mother of the family said, wiping her hands on her apron, getting ready to clear the table as it seemed everybody was just about done with their meal.

"Moody, do you think you can hold off until we open presents?" asked Bill. Even though he was a bit old for the whole family gathering, he wanted to be there for his family now that Ron and Ginny were gone. His mum liked to have as much family around as possible.

"Aren't you too bloody old to be worried about presents?" asked Moody, glaring at him with his one good eye.

"I'm not too old to spend time with my family," said Bill In a jovial tone. "It's bad enough that Charlie isn't here," He added, as if it were a great shame.

"I can bloody well wait," said the grumpy old man.

"Thank you," said Bill, this time it was heartfelt.

The topic turned into inconsequential things until breakfast was finished. The Weasley family went upstairs and had their Christmas. Leaving Tonks, Alastor and Hermione alone with Harry.

Remus had taken off to parts unknown. He still didn't like to be around Harry. He had made that abundantly clear by being silent during breakfast. Any time Harry was around, he remained quiet and unobtrusive. Unless Dumbledore was present.

Harry pulled out the portrait of Sirius and they all had a good time laughing, except for Moody, who just sat there grumping. They exchanged small presents of books and trinkets.

The Weasleys were done with their family time, which was melancholy, since Ron wasn't there. The whole family was depressed, and Molly wouldn't stop crying.

Moody, Bill, Tonks and Harry had a quick meeting about the Horcruxes, and then they waited for the rest of the Order to show up.

How Dumbledore had gotten an Order meeting on Christmas Day, Harry didn't know, but somehow, he had gotten it arranged. He must have promised them something, but it was scheduled sometime around lunch, which was after the presents and before Christmas dinner. It was only going to be an hour long, so it really didn't take out of anybody's day.

Around 11:45 that morning people started showing up. They all gathered in the kitchen. Harry's people were cranky about being there on Christmas. But he promised to make it up to them somehow. He wasn't sure how he was going to do it, but…

Once everybody was gathered, Dumbledore showed up… late as always.

"Thank you everybody for joining us on this auspicious day. I would like to thank everybody for taking time out of their holiday for this meeting. I just wanted to go over a few things. Alastor, what about your meeting with Tom Junior?" Dumbledore said, going to the head of the table and sitting on the chair as if he were the king of the room.

"We discussed a few things. I found a few more places to look. I also found another Horcrux, so that makes three," the one-eyed man stated, folding his arms, and glaring at his old friend.

"Oh, and where did you find one?" Dumbledore asked as if this was a great surprise.

"In Little Hangleton," Moody said, still glaring at the old man as if he was upset that he was sharing this information with a large group.

"That's good news," said the headmaster.

"Yes, that means I only need to find two more," the ex-Auror stated, then stopped talking.

"How sure are we on that number?" asked Harry. He wanted to make very sure that that was the correct number because he didn't want to have them all gone just for the Dark Lord to pop back up again once they got rid of him.

"I'm very sure," said Moody, both eyes on the lad. "I've run the numbers through my Arithmancy and I'm 99% positive." His magical eyes started spinning again.

"Good, good," said Harry and Dumbledore together. Harry just glared at the old man.

"Anything else we needed to go over?" asked Dumbledore as if he weren't the one who called the meeting in the first place.

"Yes, Tom wants us to spar, the three of our people together," said Harry. "I'm going to buy a warehouse in one of the old, abandoned places in the muggle world. We can expand it, ward it, and our three groups get together and spar. Not fight, spar." He made sure to emphasize the last sentence.

Everybody looked at Crabbe, who nodded that his boss was on board with this.

"That sounds like an excellent idea," said Dumbledore, his eyes were twinkling madly. He was under the mistaken impression that he was going to be in charge.

"I have my solicitor looking into it and I should have a warehouse by the end of the week," said Harry as casually as if he were discussing the weather.

"Whyever, do you have a solicitor?" inquired the old man, shock showing clearly on his face. Along with a great deal of worry. It wouldn't do for Harry to have legal representation. He wouldn't be able to contain him nearly as easily if he did.

"Oh, didn't I tell you? I got myself a Christmas present," said Harry with a smile so bright that it lit up the room. Everybody could tell that he was up to something. Hermione, who was sitting at his side, also had her smile up just as bright. Which put everybody on edge because Hermione didn't smile.

"A Christmas present?" asked Dumbledore, warily. Nothing good could come of this.

"Yeah, I bought myself a house," Harry said cheerfully.

"Whyever did you buy yourself a house?" the headmaster asked, clearly confused.

"Well, technically I didn't buy a house. I re-inherited my house," Harry reiterated this time, his visage getting darker.

At this Dumbledore narrowed his eyes and looked at the boy and said, "Re-inherited?" As if it were a dirty word.

"Yes, this is now my house," said Harry, brightening up again.

"I beg your pardon," said Dumbledore. "This is Remus's house."

"Nope. This is mine, lock, stock and barrel. I have the deed right here," said Harry, pulling out the deed and showing it to everybody at the table. "You all can stay here, and you can still use it for your little meetings. But this is my house." He smiled at every single one of them in a condescending manner. He was the king of the world at the moment, and nothing they said could take that away from him.

Everybody looked at him, shocked. Remus looked at him with a bit of anger in his eyes. He was now homeless.

"That's right, Remus, you're now homeless," Harry said, voicing the werewolf's thoughts. "Oh, you can stay here until you find a place to live. But this is no longer your house. It never was. You stole it from me."

Remus just glared at him. First the kid had taken his friend from him and now he has taken his house.

"Harry, how could you do that to him?" asked Dumbledore.

"How could you steal from an orphan?" asked Harry with all the indignation that a child could muster. "You knew this house was mine, but you took it from me. As was stated clearly in Sirius's will, any material objects were left for me. But you didn't even think twice. You said we need this; we're going to take it. I have no qualms whatsoever kicking all of you out. But, I'm going to be compassionate and let you stay." His megawatt smile was back in place.

"I do not see it that way," said Dumbledore as he tried to stare the boy down.

"Then there's something askew with your values," said Harry, not the least bit intimidated. Dumbledore didn't scare Harry at all.

"How dare you speak to the headmaster that way," said Molly Weasley. Of course she had to speak up. Dingle wasn't there.

"He stole from me," said Harry, throwing his hands in the air, not understanding why people weren't getting this. They stole from a young boy, an orphan at that. He was a baby at the time. It was like taking candy from a little kid. Only they stole a house from him.

"You didn't need this house," said Molly, so her eyes were darting from side to side as if she knew the headmaster was wrong but didn't want to back down from her point that the headmaster was never wrong.

"That doesn't make it right," said Harry, pointing out once again that he was right.

"He's right, Mum," said Fred from his place by the door.

"How dare you take his side," said Molly, getting on her soapbox once again. She couldn't believe her sons were taking Harry side against her.

"Stealing is stealing," said George, siding with his brother.

"How could you take his side?" said Molly with a great deal of anger in her voice. "He's the reason your brother is gone." Tears were streaming down her face.

"That doesn't make it right to take his house from him," said Fred. It hurt him to see his mum like this, but stealing was stealing and that wasn't right. Besides, it was Ron's fault he was gone, not Harry's.

"You two, get out of here. I'm not even sure why you're in this room to begin with. You're not part of the Order," their mother ordered.

"Dad said we could stay," George said, looking to his father for confirmation. The man just shrugged.

"Well, I'm telling you, you can leave because obviously you're not mature enough to handle this type of conversation," Mrs. Weasley demanded, pointing to the door as if to say, 'leave right this very minute'.

"Because we disagree with you?" Fred asked as if he couldn't believe his mother was losing her shite like this.

"Because we think stealing is wrong?" George asked because he couldn't believe what he was seeing either.

"Yes. Now leave," Molly said, still pointing her finger at the door. Because she was not going to put up with this from her children.

With that, the twins left though they were not going to forget what their mother said and did. This just cemented them more on Harry's side. They couldn't believe the audacity of the adults to steal from an orphan and then have the gall to be upset when he took back what was his.

"They're not wrong, Molly," said Mr. Weasley, who had been quiet, as he normally was, whenever Molly disciplined the children. He never undermined her in front of the children. He just waited until they left.

"Not you too," said Molly, whirling on her husband as if to reprimand him too.

"It was wrong to take Harry's house from him," Arthur stated firmly.

"They're right," said Tonks. "And I have to say, I think a lot less of this group knowing this."

"Let us not get into this squabble right now," said Dumbledore, making placating gestures. "We did what we thought was right at the time. Harry has his house back now, and we're not going to fight it. I just think it's wrong that he kicked Remus out of the house."

"I haven't done that. I told him he could stay until he finds a place to live. I thought I was being quite compassionate," said Harry, still smiling at the room with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"See?" said Tonks, waving her hands in Harry's general direction. "He's being more kind-hearted than you all are."

"Can we get back to the sparring?" grumped Moody.

"Yes," said Dumbledore as he looked at the young man thoughtfully. "You said you were going to obtain a warehouse?" He didn't like the idea that Harry was going to do something without his knowledge. Like he did with the house.

"Yes, I should have one by the end of the week," Harry said. He was grinning like a fool. He really hadn't stopped all morning. Everything was just coming up Harry. He had a doozy of a warehouse picked out. It was at the edge of London and had been abandoned for ages. He was getting it dirt cheap. It didn't matter if they tore it up any more than it already was. They could fix it up with magic and tear it up many, many times. And then when they were done with it, they could tear it down and use the property for something else. It was a win-win situation.

"How can a minor like you purchase a warehouse?" Remus wanted to know.

"I'm doing it through my solicitor," the teenager said.

"Still, you are a minor," was the snarled comeback.

"We're doing it through a blind company," said Harry as if it was the most obvious thing. To him it was. That's the way it was done in the muggle world. Anybody who'd ever watched a crime movie knew that.

"I don't understand," said Dumbledore.

"And I'm not going to explain it to you," said Harry. It was bad enough that he had had to explain it to his solicitor. Mr. Waters thought it had been an excellent idea and said he was going to use it with many of his other clients. "Let's just say that what we're doing is legal in the wizarding world."

"And you accuse us of stealing?" said Remus, misreading between the lines.

"It's not stealing. I'm paying full price for it," the teen stated, shrugging his shoulders in a nonchalant way. He didn't care what the werewolf thought of him. He knew he wasn't stealing. He just wasn't doing something exactly legal.

"Again, let us not argue," said Dumbledore.

"I have something to say," said a small voice from Harry's pocket. Harry pulled out Sirius's portrait. When he pulled it completely up, Sirius said, "Harry is completely right. This is his house. It always was his house. It always should have been his house. And y'all are prats." He too was smiling brilliantly. And then he looked straight at Remus.

"Thank you, Sirius," said Harry, beaming at his godfather.

"Sirius, how could you say that? I'm your best friend," said Remus, devastated over the fact that his closest mate would say something like that to him.

"No, that was James. Besides, my best mate would never have left me to rot in jail nor had me Kissed without even hearing my side of this story," said Sirius yet again. He was never going to get over that fact. Even if he was just a portrait.

"How long are you gonna hold that against me?" asked Remus in a fit of frustration. As if somebody could get over something like that.

"Well, I would say to the day I die, but I'm already dead," said the picture, glaring at the werewolf. "No thanks to you," he added with a great deal of bite to his words.

The werewolf just hung his head.

"Anyway. Do we have anything else?" asked Harry, cutting off the argument before it could go any further. "There had to be a reason you called this meeting on Christmas Day." He knew there was no reason Dumbledore called them all here, except for showing that he had the power to do it. That was okay, he used it to his advantage anyway.

"I just wanted to know how the meeting went between you and Young Tom," Dumbledore said. He smiled benevolently at everybody.

"Oh, so you were just throwing your weight around. I see," said Harry with a grin that said, 'ha-ha I caught you at something'.

That got a lot of people grumbling. Not many of them liked that they had taken time out of their Christmas Day to come to this house just to have this small and petty meeting.

"I did want to give everybody a present," said Dumbledore, pulling some items out of his robe.

"Oh, and what was that?" asked Harry, leaning back in his chair and putting his hands upon his stomach, waiting to see what the old man had to give out that could be so important.

Dumbledore handed out gift certificates to Honeydukes.

"Seriously, you're handing out gift certificates to a candy store?" Harry said with a chuckle in his voice. He knew it would be something childish.

"I don't eat candy, sir," said Hermione, throwing the piece of parchment on the table like it was trash.

"Neither do I," said Moody, doing the same to his. "You know that," he added.

"Oh yes, I had forgotten," said Albus.

"We've been bloody friends for over 60 years," said the one-legged man.

"Forgive an old man for his forgetfulness," Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye.

Moody just grumped.

It was then that the meeting broke up with a lot of disappointed and muttering people, and everybody went home to enjoy their Christmas with their family.

Remus slumped off to his room to spend the rest of his Christmas alone. And to figure out what he was going to do with his life because he was now homeless.

Moody took off looking for more Horcruxes. He wasn't going to let a stupid thing like a holiday stop him from hunting. He took Bill with him. He was going to go look at the cave by the orphanage. That and he wanted to see if Bill had any insight about Gringotts and the vaults of the Death Eaters in Azkaban. He had a feeling that there was one in one of the vaults of the followers of Voldemort there. It was one of the safest places in all of wizarding Britain.

Crabbe went to Tom Junior and reported in. There wasn't much to say so the meeting was short.

Harry, Hermione, and Tonks had a good Christmas at Grimmauld Place with Sirius's portrait. Harry was just ecstatic that it was now his. He called Kreacher to him and told him to start cleaning the place up. The grumpy old house elf grumbled and complained but started cleaning. Harry's first order to the house elf was that he needed to clean himself. Because he stank.

Still, Harry got a great Christmas present, and a wonderful Christmas was had by the three of them.