Before he looked at his own letter, he unwrapped the present and saw a dozen phials in six slightly different colours. Then he opened his own letter. It read:

Dear Harry,

I wish you a very happy Christmas. I hope you have recovered completely and are not attracting too much trouble!

These phials contain several new Potions I have tried to make for you and hope some of them could help you the next time you catch a cold, because the Pepper-up Potion seems not to work for you. BUT: Do not try them out on your own! Please ask Mrs. Potter to keep them for you until you return to Hogwarts. I want you to try them out under Pomfrey’s supervision, because they are new and I don’t know how they will work and what problems can occur by drinking them! I hope this is very clear, because otherwise these Potions can be very dangerous!

Enjoy your time and I’m looking forward to your return to Hogwarts.

Severus

Harry frowned and thought what Severus thought about the rare Potions ingredients he had bought the other day and sent to him. When he noticed his grandmother holding her hand out towards him, he looked questioningly at her and gave her the box with the Potions with a sigh, before he said, “Thank you Granny.”

She smiled fondly at her grandson and replied, “You are surrounded by good friends, do you know that?”

Harry smiled back and nodded. Then he went up to his room to get parchments and a quill and wrote thank you letters to his Great Grandparents, Poppy and Severus. It was nearly time for Christmas dinner when his friends finally showed up and begged him to show them his Christmas presents. Christmas dinner was as great as he only knew it from Hogwarts. The House elves, with a little help from Mrs. Potter, had outdone themselves. Fortunately, Harry, who had missed breakfast and lunch that day, was very hungry and could eat a lot of the delicacies. Afterwards they sat around the Christmas tree until late in the night, reading their new books and talking. Harry noticed he had to be more and more careful not to give himself away by calling Lily ‘mum’ or the Potters ‘Granny’ and ‘Granddad’. Before they finally went to bed at around two o’clock in the morning, Mrs. Potter told them breakfast was cancelled and they all should show up in the kitchen for a brunch at 11 o’clock.

-----

When they were in bed, Remus and Harry talked for about two hours, and suddenly Harry felt a very strong need to tell Remus about himself and about where he came from. He thought feverishly how he could prevent Remus from accidentally tell anybody and finally tried to spell him with wish magic. But how could he tell if it had worked? Then he reflected that Remus of the future never had broken a promise or told anybody a secret, which had been placed on him; therefore and decided to trust him.

“Um… Remus? Um…” Remus looked expectantly at Harry, waiting patiently.

“I would like to tell you something. However, I know it sounds crazy, but I need a wizard’s oath from you that you won’t tell anybody or act differently because of what I tell you.” Remus glanced at him very curiously but agreed and made his oath.

“Thanks Remus. What I tell you….um…. you see, Lily and Severus know about it partly, and James’ parents and McGonagall and Dumbledore know everything. I come from 20 years in the future – now it’s only 18 and half years in fact.”

“You WHAT!” Remus was speechless and Harry laughed, because he had never seen the calm Remus so agitated except for last year when he had discovered the wolves cure.

“I know you from the future, and you were one of the best friends I had in the future. You also were the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher I’ve had.” He told them about how his parents had died and about everything else and they talked until 7 o’clock in the morning, when Harry said, “Let’s try to get some sleep; we still have half a year to talk about everything until I have to go back to the future.”

“Alright, Harry, good night. And… thanks for telling me the truth; I really appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad I told you so that I’m able to talk to you about it. Lily knows like I said, but she doesn’t know who my father is and I don’t want her to know.”

“Everyone must be able to tell that Harry, it’s more than obvious.”

“No, Remus, she thinks I’m somehow related to him, and I want it to stay like this, because I don’t want her to choose to be together with him just because of me; I want her to be together with whom she really loves.”

“But… if they don’t get together, you won’t be born!”

“I know, but Dumbledore has asked someone who can see into the future, some famous seer, and she has clearly seen me and told him that I change everything but that I’ll be fine in the end. So I decided not to interfere anymore.”

“Alright Harry, in this case, you don’t have to worry about it and nobody has to know. Good night Harry.”

-----

Mrs. Potter, who came to check on Harry, woke them up three hours later. Content with the results she told them to get up and come down to the kitchen, before she went to wake up the other teens. When Harry got up and looked out of the window, he noticed that it had snowed a lot since the night before.

“Maybe we can have a snowball fight or a snowman contest,” Remus suggested and everyone agreed immediately.

Harry smiled inwardly when he thought about his snowball fight at Hogwarts just a year before. Sirius and James just couldn’t get up, and so it was already nearly lunchtime until everyone was assembled in the kitchen.

“Mum, may we go out in the snow? We want to show Harry the park and maybe have a snowball fight.”

Mrs. Potter nodded.“Yes you may go, but please be back early enough to be dry and clean for dinner tonight. And remember that it’s really cold outside and put on warm clothes.”

“Alright mum, we’ll be careful,” James promised and they ran up to their rooms to fetch their warm coats.

Outside, the Marauders guided Harry to a part of the park that he didn’t even know existed, because it was his first time outside and this part of the park couldn’t be seen from the House. Near the large lake he had seen through the window was a very tiny pond with many colourful fish in it. Harry loved this place immediately, and they spent a long time watching the fish, before Sirius suggested having a snowball fight. They hadn’t even exited the forest part of the park when Sirius began to throw snowballs at each of them.

Harry ran over to Lily and Remus and whispered to each of them, “Let’s get together against Sirius”, and they fought quite a battle against Sirius and James who had come to help his friend. By the time Remus proposed having a snowman building contest, Harry was freezing and his teeth were chattering, so he declined and told them he was going inside before catching a cold. Lily, who had been watching her son worriedly, decided to accompany him and instructed the others to build their snowmen directly in front of the kitchen window, so that she, Harry and Mrs. Potter could be the jury, when the snowman contest was finished.

“Alright”, James said, “go inside and ask mum for a hot cocoa for both of you to warm up!” Lily rushed Harry back into the kitchen, where she told him to sit down at the table, and when he obliged she went to look for James’ mother. Finally, she found her in the parlour reading a book.

”Hello Lily, are you back already?” she asked friendly. She appreciated the girl very much and was glad that her son had such nice and cordial friends and not only pranksters like Sirius, although she had taken in Sirius and loved him like her own son.

“Yes, I came in with Harry, he was cold and his teeth were chattering, so James told us to go in and ask you for a hot cocoa,” Lily told her and followed her to the kitchen.

Harry was sitting at the table, his arms wrapped around himself as if he was cold in spite of still wearing his warm coat. Mrs. Potter immediately proceeded to making hot chocolate for them, before she asked Harry, “Are you alright Harry?”

Harry shook his head slightly and sneezed. “Oh no, Harry. Have you caught a cold?” Lily asked horrified.

Harry sneezed again and glanced sadly at his mother. “Don’t worry. Drink this chocolate, and afterwards you take a hot bath to warm up, you should do the same Lily. Afterwards you come back here and we will see what we can do.”

They did as they were told, and by the time Lily and Harry were back in the kitchen, Harry had warmed up but was now sneezing and coughing constantly. His grandmother handed him one of the Potions Severus sent him and said, “I know that Severus said you should take it with Pomfrey’s supervision, but I fire-called her and she agreed to let you try it out now. If you get any problems, we will have to call her immediately though. We’ll have dinner in half an hour, and afterwards you go straight to bed and maybe you’ll be fine in the morning.”

“May I go to bed now? I don’t feel well, and I don’t want any dinner.”

“Harry!” Lily scolded him.

Mrs. Potter eyed him worriedly and said, “Alright, go to bed, I’ll be by later to check on you.”

Harry went to bed and Lily and Mrs. Potter took turns sitting with him for the whole evening. Even if he really felt unwell, he noticed that he in fact enjoyed to be cuddled and cared for by his mother and grandmother – something he had never experienced before. Fortunately, Severus’ Potion was very efficient, and in the morning, Harry was completely fine.

-----

The rest of the holidays was so enjoyable and funny that the time passed in a blink and soon the day came, when they had to return to Hogwarts. Harry was a bit sad. On one hand, he was looking forward to seeing Severus and his great grandparents again, but on the other hand, he had liked it at the Potters very much, and he had really enjoyed living in a home together with a family of his own. Mrs. Potter pulled him into a big hug and promised that he could come again to spend the Easter or summer holidays at Potter manor.

This time they took a portkey to Kings Cross in order to get the Hogwarts Express, and they arrived early enough to be able to get a compartment together. When they arrived at the castle, Severus was waiting for him in front of the entrance door.

“Hello Harry, good to have you back! Now we can go to dinner I suppose. You are in for a nice surprise.”

When Harry and Severus reached the Great Hall, Harry was very curious what the surprise Severus had spoken of would be. As soon as he entered the Great Hall, he knew what it was. There were not four big House tables anymore, there were five! He cheerfully glanced at Severus and whispered, “So we’re able to sit and eat together – wow! That’s great!”

They walked over to the Merlin table, where Lily and Remus were already sitting and had reserved two seats next to them, and sat down just in time for Dumbledore to begin his speech. “Dear students, dear colleagues, welcome back to Hogwarts. I particularly want to greet the students who will start the New Year in our new House, the Merlin House. Your 7th year prefects Remus Lupin and Harry Pane will take you to your common room directly after dinner. Please follow them and make yourself comfortable in your new home. And now tuck in everybody.”

Amelia Bones, who was sitting opposite Harry, asked him, “Do you know where it is? Have you already been there?”

Harry nodded and Severus added, “He is the one who discovered the long lost House back in September!”

“Really?” Amelia asked excitedly. “Oh, you must tell me everything about it.” They enjoyed dinner very much; it was easy to discuss everything with only fifteen people at the table. But all too soon dinner was finished and they had to walk over to Merlin House. When they arrived in front of Tori’s portrait, Harry introduced them to Tori, told them his name and asked what they wanted to choose as a password. Amelia suggested ‘Novelitas’, and Harry told Tori this was the new password.

Tori said, #Yes of course, and you are very welcome here. Thanks for bringing my House back to life again!#

Harry accompanied the students into the common room, showed them the dormitories and explained, that Lily and Severus as Head girl and Head boy were living in an apartment just opposite the Hospital Wing, and that he himself was staying in a room within the Hospital Wing. Therefore, Amelia and Remus would be the only prefects currently staying with them, but that everyone who had questions could come and ask Madam Pomfrey where to find him anytime. It was already near curfew when Lily, Severus and Harry walked back to their own rooms.

The next few weeks were uneventful. Life in Merlin House was not much different as it had been in Gryffindor, at least not for Harry, as he wasn’t staying there anyway. He was very busy with classes, Potions tutoring, Quidditch practise with the Gryffindor team and with the Hogwarts team, as well as his lessons with Dumbledore. He also had to help Severus, who was researching for a Potion to help Harry’s immune system, and they already had tested the second of the Potions he had given Harry for Christmas after the night of the full moon, which they had – of course – spent in the forest, and it had worked quite well too.

-----

This Saturday was the first Hogsmeade weekend of the year. Harry was looking forward to it very much. When had he been able to go to Hogsmeade with his friends and just for fun? He was well aware that the next day was Valentines Day and tried hard not to think of Ginny. Maybe he should buy something for his mum.

On their way into town James came over to Harry and whispered in his ear, “Harry, you have to help me. I want to buy a Valentines present for Lily but I have no idea at all.”

Harry frowned and said, “I am sorry, James, but I don’t know her as well as you do, and I don’t know what you should give her. Maybe you should have a look around Hogsmeade and just search for something.”

When they arrived at Hogsmeade, James asked them, “Can we please separate for about an hour? I have to buy something on my own.”

Lily frowned and said, “Yes, but as you know nobody is allowed to go on his own – therefore always two people together please.”

The others agreed immediately, and James pulled Sirius away quickly, while Severus apologized to Lily, “I am sorry, Lily, would you mind going with Remus today? I have to do something together with Harry.”

Remus laughed at Lily and said, “All right, Lily, let’s have a date today and make them all jealous.”

Harry and Severus laughed and after they had agreed to meet an hour later at the Three Broomsticks they separated. Severus pulled Harry along the street and into a small shop a few steps off the main street. Harry had never known there was a shop here. It was a jeweller’s, and Severus seemed to be quite sure what he wanted. Harry watched amused while Severus looked at a shelf, argued with the shop keeper and finally called Harry, “Harry, come and tell me what you think. I want to buy something for Lily; do you see the necklace and these earrings over there?”

Harry was stunned – the pieces Severus pointed to were just beautiful. The earrings and the necklace were made of the same material and in the same colour, gold with light blue and green animals, obviously matching pieces, although the necklace consisted of a pattern with three snakes, which were moving their heads around, while the earrings had the forms of two beautiful owls. “Severus,” he breathed, “They are beautiful.”

Severus glanced at him questioningly. “Which is better? Should I give her the necklace or the earrings?”

Harry thought for a mument and suggested, “How about you give her the necklace and I buy the earrings for her?”

Severus scowled. “YOU?” he asked doubtfully.

Harry laughed and asked, “Is there any rule that you cannot buy a Valentines present for your mother?”

With this, Severus relaxed and said, “All right, yes; she is your mother; I forgot for a mument. That’s a good idea then, if you don’t mind.” Ten minutes later the two boys were wandering around the bookshop, each with a small box in their respective pockets.

-----

Harry and Severus had decided to give Lily their presents at breakfast. She was very surprised to receive a present not only from Severus but also from her son, and she was stunned when she saw the beautiful presents, which even were perfectly matched. She hugged both of them and said, “Thank you very much. You really should not have spent so much money buying things for me. These are beautiful!” Severus fastened the necklace around her neck, Lily put her earrings on, and everyone at Merlin table admired them.

Just before breakfast was finished, James came over to Lily, handed her a present and said, “Happy Valentines day to the most beautiful girl at Hogwarts!” Everyone in the Great Hall turned their heads to see what was happening at Merlin table.

Lily flushed deeply, thanked James and opened the present, which contained a pretty scarf, which by chance matched the colours of her jewellery as if it had been bought together as well. The background was gold, and in the foreground, light blue animals were moving around green trees and plants. Lily was amazed and put the scarf around her neck.

-----

In the afternoon when Harry was helping Severus with his Potions research, they heard a cry in front of the door of the Potions classroom. They rushed out to see Professor Slughorn lying on the floor gripping his arm and a big snake sliding around him. Harry immediately started to speak to the snake, “Who are you, and what are you doing here? Have you bitten our professor?”

“I am Nagini, and I am very pleasssed, that you ssspeak my language. I need a new owner, because my own one isss dead.”

“Nagini? The snake of Voldemort?”

“Yesss. I wasss told to bite everyone here in thisss cassstle, but I couldn’t get in ssso far.”

“Who told you thisss?”

“My old owner.”

“But he isss dead now, so would you be willing to listen to me?”

“Yesss, I would appreciate that. I’m hungry and I need a warm place.”

“Do you promise not to bite anyone?”

“Yes.”

“May I heal our professor first?”

“Alright.”

Harry told Severus to let Nagini into the Potions classroom, lit the fire and give her some rats to eat, before he knelt down next to the Potions teacher and gripped his arm with both hands to let his magic flow through to the teacher’s arm. It would already be too late to just try to heal the wound with his phoenix tears he thought. In the meantime, Severus had locked Nagini into the Potions classroom and cared for her as Harry had told him. When he left the classroom, he saw what Harry was doing and that he was slowly losing consciousness while the professor seemed to be all right. He quickly pulled Harry’s hands away from the professor and steadied Harry for a mument, when Professor Slughorn slowly got up, his face white from shock.

Severus asked him, “Professor, are you all right? I would like to take both of you to the Hospital Wing in any case. Do you think you can walk?”

“Yes, Severus, I’m all right. I can’t remember… what happened? The snake bit me, didn’t it?”

“Yes, Professor. However, Harry tried to heal you. Can you walk?”

“Yes Severus. Let’s go.”

Severus put an arm around Harry, and they walked to the Hospital Wing, where Severus told Madam Pomfrey the whole story. She ushered Slughorn to a bed and checked on the teacher several times, until she put her wand away and said unbelievingly, “Harry really seems to be a Natural Healer. He has completely healed you, Professor. You are free to go.”

“Professor, could you go to Professor Dumbledore and tell him that Nagini is still in the Potions classroom please? I would like to stay here with Harry,” Severus asked the teacher.

“Yes, of course. Thank you Severus,” Slughorn replied to go to see the Headmaster.

Pomfrey went over to Harry’s room, who had fallen asleep in his bed, where Severus had put him, waved her wand over Harry and sighed relieved. “He has depleted his magic a little, but it is not so bad this time. I think he is just tired and will sleep for a while. He just can’t do anything normally, can he?”

Severus grinned a little and said, “But at least he had a reason to do what he did, and I’m very glad about it, because the snake is big and very alive – I do not know how to harvest her venom in order to make an antidote!” Severus made himself comfortable in Harry’s room and decided to stay with him as long as he was allowed to do so.

About half an hour later Dumbledore arrived and asked, “How is our life saver? Still asleep? Professor Slughorn has told me everything, and I have contacted the ministry about the snake. They have already sent a few Aurors who came and took her with them; so this problem is already gotten rid of, thanks to Harry’s and your fast handling of the situation. If both of you hadn’t acted as quickly as you did, several people here in the castle could have been killed by the snake. Thank you very much my boy. One hundred points to Slythe… oh, no! Two hundred points to Merlin House for averting great danger from Hogwarts and saving a teacher’s life.”

Severus blushed and said, “Thank you, Headmaster.”

“You’re welcome my boy. Now, shall we go down to dinner?”

Severus sighed. “I don’t think Harry will wake up anytime today, but we can ask Madam Pomfrey,” Dumbledore added, noticing Severus’ problem.

“Knowing him as well as I do, he won’t wake up until at least tomorrow morning. I will stay here of course, but you can put your mind at rest and go to dinner Severus; he will sleep, and when he wakes up he’ll be tired but fine.”

-----

As Madam Pomfrey had diagnosed, Harry remained fast asleep until the morning. On Sunday morning, when Lily was sitting at the edge of his bed and Severus on a chair next to him, he stirred, blinked several times and finally managed to open his eyes slightly. He was so tired. ‘What happened?’ he thought and was suddenly torn from his thoughts by the voice of his mother, “Hello Harry, are you all right? Good to see you awake again!”

“Hi mum,” he mumbled tiredly, “what happened?”

“Harry do you remember Nagini? You talked to her, and afterwards you saved Slughorn’s life,” Severus told him, and slowly a memory from far away made his way into Harry’s conscience.

“Is he all right?”

Lily laughed. Harry was so tired that he had slurred the words so that they were hardly understandable.

“Yes Harry, Slughorn is alright. You have saved his life. And the snake has been taken away by the ministry,” Severus said smiling at Harry, who was already slowly drifting away again.

When he woke up later, Poppy checked on him and decided he would probably be well enough to attend classes the next day, but he wouldn’t be allowed to do magic for at least one week, maybe two. “This also means no flying, no Quidditch, and no transforming into birds or whatever, is that very clear Harry?”

Harry groaned but nodded reluctantly. In the evening, when Harry was much more alert, Poppy and the headmaster came together to talk to him, which he realized when Pomfrey sat on the edge of his bed and Dumbledore took the chair Severus always used. ‘Oh no!’ he groaned inwardly. ‘What have I done now?’ Although he didn’t feel guilty in the slightest he shifted uncomfortably in his bed.

“My dear boy”, Dumbledore started. “First of all I have to thank you for saving a teacher’s life and for saving Hogwarts from a great danger. Thank you very much my boy.” Harry shrugged. “Harry”, Dumbledore continued, “How did you even get the idea to try if it would work as it did?”

Harry thought for a mument and replied, “I was quite sure that it would work. It was already too late to heal his wound just by phoenix tears, so I had to heal him with my magic. I don’t know; I just knew that it had to work.” He noticed the curious look on both faces, but he could not really understand them.

Now Poppy took over. “Did you already have experience with this kind of healing? I know that you healed Sirius before the same way, but I mean before that.”

Harry sighed. “Um… yes, I mean, as I have told you before, my relatives never took me to a healer or a doctor. So when I had any broken bones, my leg or ribs for example, I had to heal them just with my hands trying to send all my magic just to the point of the body that was hurt. Unfortunately it does not help me with colds and other illnesses.”

Poppy looked at him in awe. “This kind of healing that you did is normally impossible! Only Natural Healers have this healing power, and they are very rare; there has not been a Natural Healer for more than 200 years.”

Harry groaned. “So what? I’m a Natural Healer. Is that what you are implying? I don’t want to. I just want to be a normal student, nothing out of the normal, please!” He glanced at them pleadingly.

Dumbledore and Pomfrey looked at him with an understanding but displeased expression. “Harry”, Dumbledore continued, “I can understand you very well my boy, and I’m sure Poppy can as well, but we think that it seems that you indeed are a Natural Healer. And as it is dangerous for you to deplete your magic as completely as you already did two or three times during this school year alone, we think that you have to be taught how to control your magic when you try to heal someone. Of course, as none of us is a Natural Healer, we cannot teach you perfectly, but we think that we will be able to help you a little. That is also the reason why Poppy has already started to teach you a little about healing. So we suggest, that Poppy should teach you two or even three evenings per week if possible, if necessary after Quidditch practise in order for you to learn to use your healing abilities in a much safer fashion for the sake of your own health.”

Harry sighed. What else was abnormal? Most of his abilities, be it Parseltongue, wandless magic, wish magic etc. were not normal, now he had Natural Healing to add to it? He was so tired of everything… he just lay down and closed his eyes.

Poppy put a hand on his shoulder. “Harry? It’s all right, you know. It is a great ability, and you don’t have to talk about it to anyone if you don’t want to. Just think about it, and remember Albus and I only want to help you. Allright?”

Harry blinked slowly and mumbled, “All right. Thank you Madam Pomfrey, Granddad.”

Suddenly McGonagall came running into the room. “Albus, you have to come to your office immediately. Floo there from Poppy’s office. They seem to have a problem with the snake at the ministry and require your immediate assistance.”