As always, read, enjoy and review :)

oooOOOooo

At first, Draco had been scared that the whole incident would threaten his relationship with Daphne and Astoria. But he needn't have worried. If anything, all of them – Draco, Astoria, Daphne and Neville – were closer than ever. What a shared secret could do for relationships, Draco mused. He had been surprised that the girls, Daphne especially, had welcomed Neville into their group. Apparently, he hadn't given his fellow Slytherin enough credit.

They spent a lot of time plotting and planning together and would take turns visiting Sirius and bringing him food. Daphne had even organized him some nice and warm winter clothes.

Their plans were coming along nicely, and it looked like they would be able to catch the rat in January. With Neville's insider knowledge on Gryffindor, Astoria's brain, Draco's and Daphne's cunning and Sirius magical knowledge and prank experience they had come up with the perfect plan and now all it took was some preparation.

That there were now four of them and that they had a solid plan, made life a lot easier for Draco. This way it didn't matter so much that Snape was watching him all the time. Unsurprisingly, Snape had noticed Draco's absence from the Ravenclaw vs. Hufflepuff match. But when he saw Draco with Daphne and Astoria after the match he hadn't said anything. Maybe he thought that Draco had been standing with the Ravenclaws and that was why he hadn't seen him. Or maybe he thought that whatever they did, if the two girls were with him, it probably wasn't anything to worry about. Oh, how wrong he was.

All in all, he was quite glad that the girls had come looking for him that day. All things considered, Draco was quite happy with how things were progressing. But he also worried about the holidays. It was a time meant to celebrate family, friendship and love and would only remind him of what he had lost. At night he often dreamed of Astoria and Scorpius and the grief and doubt would keep him up. Then he would look at his time turner, which he had buried deep inside his trunk and had put quite a few charms on, and considered going back to his own time. But, he reminded himself, he was doing a lot of good and if something went wrong he could still use it to reset the whole time stream.

The last weekend in school ended with a trip to Hogsmeade, which Draco used to buy presents for everyone. His parents, of course, and something for everyone in his year in Slytherin. This was pretty much what he had done the first time around as well. But this time he also bought something for Longbottom and of course, Astoria. He also bought a few things for the Weasley twins. Not for Christmas though. And they probably wouldn't like it too much, either. The thought made Draco chuckle. The start of the semester would be the perfect time for his revenge. They probably wouldn't be as cautious as they had been so far as they wouldn't be expecting retaliation anymore.

He bought something for Snape, too, hoping the teacher would take it as the peace offering it was and not as a poor attempt at bribery. He left it with the house elves, knowing they would deliver it on Christmas.

And he bought something for Sirius. Mostly food, though. Food and clothes were the only things the man needed right now.

The good byes were tough. But Draco was looking forward to spending some time with his parents. A younger and happier version of them. Although they had not been prosecuted – Draco had to admit, although begrudgingly, that this was solely thanks to Harry Potter – they had never gotten over everything that happened. But maybe this time that could be different, too.

"It's gonna be quite boring here, without you guys," sighed Sirius when they all said their good byes.

"We'll be back in two weeks," Neville assured him. "You'll be fine. Here, I have something for you." He reached into his bag and pulled out a colorfully wrapped parcel.

The others followed suit and everyone gave Sirius his Christmas gifts, which almost brought him to tears. Especially because he could not get them anything in return.

"It's fine. You can thank us once we cleared your name," Daphne assured him.

"Merry Christmas," Astoria said and gave him a hug.

Daphne shook his hand, but Draco and Neville were almost crushed in the bear hug Sirius gave them, which was surprisingly strong for such a small, narrow man.

"Thank you for everything, guys," he whispered. "I don't know what I'd do without you. You gave me hope, something I haven't had for a very long time now. Thank you and merry Christmas."

After that, everything happened quite fast. They boarded the Hogwarts Express back to London. Draco sat with Pansy, Daphne, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle. He enjoyed the light-hearted conversations he could have with them. Everything else in his life always seemed so serious and important, so it was a nice change to just talk about unimportant stuff like holiday plans and Quidditch.

He hugged his parents at the train station and soon he was back home, a place which reminded him of a lot of positive and negative things. He wasn't sure if he would ever be able to forget about the time Voldemort had taken over his home and used it to torture and kill people. What an idiot Draco had been to willingly join that sociopath.

He opened the door to his bedroom, when he saw it. He dropped his trunk instantly.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he almost yelled, but could keep it down enough to not alarm his parents.

On his bed sat a huge, black dog.

TBC

Oh Sirius. What are you up to, now? Seems like Draco can't get a break. What do you guys think will happen next? And did you like this chapter? Let me know in a review :)