Chapter 9:

Winter Woes

As the weather grew colder and the winter season was fast approaching, Harry began to have other things on his mind besides Professor Snape.

Quidditch season was over until after Christmas. Now snow was lingering in the air and the Hogwarts castle had become drafty and the stone floors icy. Harry took to wearing two jumpers and his House scarf all the time, but even those were not enough to keep him warm. The holes in the armpits didn't help either.

The prospect of Christmas holidays did not fill Harry with delight as they were doing for everyone else.

All around him he heard chatter of family trips and decorations, presents and Christmas trees. Even Ron was talking favourably about time with his six siblings.

"It'll be a nightmare at first," he said, "but Mum'll get Fred and George in order with threats about not letting them eat Christmas dinner. Usually works."

Hermione's family plans sounded nice and calm.

"Just the three of us. Nothing exciting."

Nothing exciting and just sitting around a cheery fire with people he liked sounded wonderful to Harry. He was dreading going back to Privet Drive.

"It will just be like any other year," he informed Ron and Hermione during dinner.

"Couldn't you just hide out in your room and avoid them, maybe?" Hermione suggested.

Harry shook his head. "Don't have a room. Just a cupboard."

"You sleep in a CUPBOARD?!" Ron exclaimed.

Hermione shushed him as heads swiveled in their direction. "Not so loud."

"But a cupboard," Ron said.

"I'm sure Harry is joking," Hermione replied. "He must mean his room is the size of a cupboard."

Harry felt his face grow red. "Er- no. I mean, I do have a room now," he said hastily as Ron and Hermione stared, "It's Dudley's second one. But he might be wanting it back."

"What, two? What's he need two rooms for?" Ron demanded. "One ain't enough?"

Harry tried to shrug casually. "If he does want it, I'll be back in the cupboard. I have a mattress in a cupboard under the stairs."

"But, but, where do you keep your presents and stuff?" Ron whispered.

Harry pretended to be massively fascinated by his slice of steak and kidney pie as he mumbled, "I've never gotten presents."

"WHAT?!" Ron exclaimed as Professor Snape walked past. "NO PRESENTS?!"

"RON!" Hermione scolded.

"Not unless you count clothes-hangers or old socks," Harry said under his breath. He wanted to melt into the table.

"But- but," Ron gasped, "A cupboard and now no presents? What sort of villains are these Muggle relatives of yours?"

"We don't know them, Ron," Hermione said. "They could be very nice, but poor. After all they are Harry's family."

"Well, MY family's not exactly wealthy, but Mum and Dad don't make us sleep in cupboards or give us old socks," Ron retorted hotly.

Hermione sniffed.

Harry swallowed, sorry he had brought any of this up.

Hermione put her evening copy of The Daily Prophet aside. "Are they nice, Harry?" she asked with concern.

Harry couldn't look at her. "No, they're not very nice at all."

The trio fell into an embarrassed silence as Harry began to imagine a very bleak and dismal Christmas at the Dursleys.

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Snape's general mood had not improved as the cold weather wore on.

Ever since the first Quidditch match, he had been quietly on the boil. The Christmas holidays were looming and Snape was thinking with drudgery of the prospect of students staying over. At least he didn't have to teach over the holidays. The Christmas season filled Snape with a certain amount of foreboding. Halloween had fortunately only lasted a day. Christmas, however, lasted for almost an entire month. Already the ghosts were humming carols and there was excited talk about the possibility of snow.

Snape was ready for it all to be over and January to arrive.

And it seemed he wasn't the only one.

While his friends compared holiday plans, little Harry Potter looked miserable. Even though he didn't want to, Snape couldn't avoid noticing the threadbare, over-sized clothes Harry wore under his robes and how his pair of glasses were held together with sticky tape and had been ever since he had arrived at Hogwarts.

Snape also noted now rarely he spoke of home. Contrary to what he would have expected of a Potter, the boy didn't brag about anything, be it privileges he enjoyed at home, pocket money or any special treatment. Snape recalled the way the boy had eaten the first night, not exactly as though he had been starved, but malnourished. He saw no physical signs of abuse, at least none that were outwardly visible. But as Snape himself knew so well, not all wounds were visible.

Snape was beginning to suspect Harry's life wasn't the glittering backstory of a gifted beloved hero as he had thought. And Snape didn't know what to do with this startling insight.

He couldn't help overhearing- as indeed half the Great Hall had heard- Ron Weasley's shocked outburst during dinner one cold evening. In spite of Hermione Granger's urgent shushing, Snape heard plain enough.

It sounded as though Harry Potter's relatives treated him no better than a dog. And an unwanted dog at that.

Snape glanced sharply at Harry's face as he went past.

If the boy had been lying, Snape would had expected him to shrug it off and declare that he was bearing up under his hardships the best he could. Instead, Harry had said nothing and looked wretched.

In Snape's experience, an arrogant child always laughed off their supposed troubles and did not look mortified. Harry Potter looked as if the whole school had just seen him in nothing but his underwear.

Hermione Granger tactfully changed the subject away from Harry but not before Snape caught Harry's reply about his aunt, uncle and cousin.

"No… they're not very nice at all."

And it had been said in a truthfully miserable tone.

Snape meditated on this. Was it perhaps possible that Harry was not the spoiled, privileged child he had assumed and was instead just an ordinary boy? The thought shocked Snape.

Nonsense.

Harry was James Potter's son. Had he not already showed a rebellious inclination? Had he not shown a certain spark of arrogance in his answers in class? Of course, Snape reminded himself, he hadn't always asked things in the most kind way.

If Snape was completely honest with himself, he had to admit he was seeing less of James Potter in Harry and more of… himself.

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