“Hello Hermione! You’re welcome! It looks really good on you.” Harry beamed.

“Thanks! Oh, hello Draco!”

“Hello Hermione, ah, I see you’re wearing the bracelet” Draco replied, indicating a substantial but not overly heavy charm bracelet peeping out of the sleeve of Hermione’s green dress robes.

“Yes, thanks, it’s gorgeous. And you are both wearing your snake pendants.” Hermione grinned.

“Harry! Draco!”

“Blaise, old man, how are you?”

“Not too bad. I hear that Theo gave you both books on Alchemy.” Blaise said with a significant look.

“Oh me too! Mine was about Oriental Alchemy!” piped up Hermione.

“And mine, Greek. Lucky we weren’t all staying over Christmas or Professor Snape would have definitely guessed something.” Blaise rolled his dark eyes.

“Hello, did you all like your books?” Theo asked, strolling over “I was really pleased with the spell books you all got me. And Draco, hey, great minds seem to think alike. With the, y’know, room, if we all apply ourselves to it, we’ll be able to crack the stone in no time!”

“Draco! Draco! Oh, there you all are” huffed Pansy, bustling up in frilly, bubble-gum pink dress robes. She covertly sniffed at Draco, then beamed “You’re wearing the cologne I gave you.”

“Yes, I… really appreciated it. Thank you” said Draco, who had been forced, practically at wand point, to dab some behind his ears. Narcissa and Mrs Parkinson drank tea together: it would be most embarrassing if her son appeared to slight Mrs Parkinson’s daughter’s gift.

Vin and Greg stumped over “Hello, how’re the holidays going?” Vin asked. “Thanks for the gifts, by the way.”

“Yeah, thanks” beamed Greg.

Draco grinned “Well, Harry celebrated Yule a bit early this year…”

"Oh?" asked Milly, who had just arrived "You celebrate it on the sixth, Harry?"

“Um, no Milly" Harry said, before adding in a whisper "Draco, you know we’re supposed to, y’know, wait for the announcement!”

“What announcement?” said Tracy, who had just entered with Daphne.

“Harry’s been adopted!”

“What?! By whom?” Pansy asked. “Not your parents..!”

“If Mother and Father chose to adopt Harry, I would be very pleased” Draco said sharply. “But someone else had a prior claim.”

“Professor Snape’s finally asked?” Blaise queried, grinning.

“Oh, Harry! Has he?” Hermione smiled, eyes bright with happiness.

“Yeah” Harry beamed “We signed the papers the day before Yule Eve.”

“Congrats, Harry!”

“I’m so pleased for you!”

“Congratulations!”

“That’s wonderful Harry!”

“I’m so happy for you both!”

“Thanks” Harry smiled “Don’t let on Draco told, though, we were supposed to wait ‘till… Dad announces it.”

Draco beamed at the Slyths “Look, there’s Neville, by the canapés. He’s looking lost so let’s go over and say ‘hello’.”

“He just wants to get into Professor Snape’s famous horseradish and beef gougères…” Blaise whispered to Harry with a wry grin “Draco ends up sick to the stomach after every party!”

Harry smiled in reminiscence: it had been… deeply satisfying, standing in the warm kitchen, piping the squidgy choux pastry into little balls, with his new Dad holding the heavy piping bag, talking to Harry in his ‘father voice’ and smiling. Whilst the little pastries were cooking, Harry and Severus had eaten horseradish, mustard and black pepper sandwiches (though Harry had fair amount cream added to his horseradish, while Severus didn’t dilute his at all, which was probably why Professor Dumbledore had given him such a gigantic pot.) It had been a lovely morning.

“Harry, come on!” Draco called, horseradish cream already smeared around his lips.

oOoOo

“It’s really nice of your parents to let us stay!” Hermione smiled, resting her arms on the base of her pink-and-purple sleeping bag, which was so overstuffed that it was rather like sleeping on a bouncy castle.

“Yeah” Blaise grinned, lying on his back, his arms behind his head “Good work, Draco.”

Draco smiled “Well, it’s been ages since we last had a slumber party. Such a shame that the other Slyths parents all planned to spend the last week of holiday abroad.”

“And that Neville’s Gran insisted he went home with her” sighed Theo “He’s a good sort.”

“I’m just grateful Old Parkinson didn’t allow Pansy to stay.” smiled Draco “She got me perfume!”

“4711 is, at least, y’know, it’s not that ponsy” Theo replied “I think Parkinson’s not going to be an easy nut to crack. I mean, Dad’s pretty… well, he’s not too open minded but he’s listening to Mr Malfoy.”

“Pansy couldn’t stay because I was here” Hermione asked in a small voice.

“And good riddance” Draco replied, thumping his turquoise sleeping bag into submission “We’d rather have you than her.”

“Besides, we want you here to discuss the stone” Theo added earnestly.

“Oh Theo, the passion of your poetry will quite undo fair Miss Hermione.” Blaise said in a breathy voice.

Hermione giggled “Don’t worry, Theo, I know what you meant” she said to the blushing boy.

Draco took his wand out of his night-robe pocket “Muffliato!”

“Draco! You can’t do magic outside of Hogwarts!” Hermione hissed, turning pale.

“Relax” Blaise said calmly “The Trace, which is what the Ministry use to keep track on underage magic, will also go off if anyone in a child's vicinity uses magic; as Draco's parents can legally cast magic, the Ministry'll just think it's them.”

“B…but my parents are muggles.” Hermione gasped, looking frightened.

“The Manor’s ‘proofed’ Hermione” Draco sighed “‘Proofed’ places, like the Ministry, St Mungos, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, etc, cancel out the Trace entirely. Great-grandfather, who was high up in the Ministry, did it sometime in the 1860s, when they started adding the Trace upon Hogwart’s Sorting.”

“What was that spell you used? Muffiliato? I haven’t heard of it before?” Theo queried.

“Muffliato. Oh, something of my Godfather’s, Harry’s new Dad’s, invention; prevents people from listening into conversations.” Draco said, smiling at Harry. Harry beamed back: his soul felt like it was infused with sunlight, warm and fragrant as a summer’s day. The pride in Professor… in his Dad’s voice when he called Harry his son, that special smile that was Harry’s alone, it was amazing. Harry wouldn’t have dared to hope, even in his wildest dreams, that he’d ever have a home again; a place where he felt wanted, like he really belonged. And now, well, he’d heard overheard comments about how his father seemed ‘a changed man’, that the once dour, restrained Professor had relaxed, grown confident and joyful and how it showed in his tone, expression and air. That Harry had not just gained happiness but actually given it, felt miraculous, wonderful. Just five months ago…

“Earth to Harry” giggled Hermione, waving a hand in front of his face.

Harry blushed “Sorry”

“Anyway, as I was saying” said Blaise, with a mock-stern look at Harry, was that, as the Secret Room appears to take us anywhere in Hogwarts, perhaps we could simply ask to be let out where the stone is hidden?”

Harry’s eyebrows shot into his hairline “That is a seriously good idea.”

“Mmm.” Blaise nodded “The only problem is that, if we get it wrong, we could end up in the same room as Fluffy.”

“So, Cerberus calming should be our first priority.” Theo said firmly. He didn’t want another close encounter of the three-headed kind.

“Well, Harry does have an invisibility cloak now. It was his dad’s.” Draco announced.

“Probably not very effective then, they tend to wear out quite quickly” said Theo “besides, a Cerberus could smell us out a mile off.”

Harry nodded “Professor Snape told me that Invisibility Cloaks are forbidden in Hogwarts, anyway. He’s going to be keeping it safe during term time.” Harry said, shrugging. At Draco’s outraged look he added “Come on, Draco, you can’t miss what you have never had.”

“Still, it’s jolly unsporting.” Draco sighed.

“I’ve read, I took out some classical literature from the town library, and I’ve read that Cerberuses can be calmed by music” Hermione added.

“Muggle writers?” Theo scoffed “what would they know about magical creatures?”

“Theo, you do realise that the classics were written at a time when muggle and magic lived in close proximity” drawled Blaise “It’s entirely possible that music is the trick, but magical society has forgotten about it because they don’t read ‘muggle’ texts.”

Draco nodded “We should do a bit more research, though. Hermione’s books could very well be right but I don’t really want to stake my life on it.”

Hermione nodded “Of course but it’s a start.”

“Good work” Harry grinned “I guess we’ll just have to wait until we get back to Hogwarts. Draco and I have looked through Mr Malfoy’s library but…”

“Cerberuses are a very rare breed” Draco finished. “So it’ll have to wait until we return to Hogwarts. Now, who is for a game of Mages and Maidens?”

Whilst Theo and Blaise sat down to chess, Harry, Hermione and Draco arranged the octagonal board. In deference to his eye colour, Harry got the green wizard.

They were half-way though their second game when, suddenly, the door banged open.

“Flossie’s about to whelp!” Mr Malfoy announced: his richly embroidered dress-robes had been replaced with a soft denim robe, with the sleeves rolled up, and his hair was tied back. Harry blinked; he had never seem Mr Malfoy looking so… un-stately.

“Finite! Are you sure, Dad?” Draco gasped “You said her temperature indicated that it’d be lunchtime tomorrow, at least!”

“Yes, she’s been in the first stage for about three hours.” Mr Malfoy said, beaconing frantically “Come on!”

The children raced across the hallway, down two flights of stairs and into the kitchen. Flossie was panting and lapping from a bowl of vanilla ice cream, which was being held at head-height by Professor Snape, who was stroking Flossie’s cheek.

“She started during the last half-hour of the Ball.” Mr Malfoy explained, kneeling next to Flossie and gently rubbing her back.

“Why didn’t you say anything before?” Draco demanded.

“You know it always takes around four hours before Flossie actually produces the pups, Draco” Mr Malfoy replied “I thought it best to allow you and your friends to enjoy your sleepover rather than sit down here, watching the poor dog pant.”

Draco led Harry, Blaise, Theo and Hermione to the bench that ran alongside the table. The children watched the dog with sympathetic and, in Hermione and Harry’s case, somewhat frightened eyes: Flossie was pacing, whining and digging about on her bed. Eventually, she settled down and started straining.

“Look!” whispered Theo suddenly, after twenty minutes had passed. He pointed to a bubble that had formed near Flossie’s rear. “The water sack. The first one’s nearly here!”

Flossie’s panting and shivering increased until there was a trickling sound as her water broke. Mr Malfoy stroked Flossie’s flanks and knelt behind her. The dog grunted and pushed and, finally, the bubble came out, followed by a cord and a slimy, meaty-looking thing. Mr Malfoy cradled the pup with one hand and pulled off the membrane covering it with the other, before rubbing the puppy vigorously with a soft towel and casting a charm on the umbilical cord to cut and tie it. Mr Malfoy then passed the pup to Professor Snape, announcing as he did so, “A male: a black one I believe.”

Hermione clutched at Draco’s hand, beaming. Draco grinned at the girl: birth was one of the greatest miracles of nature, a magic far surpassing any taught at Hogwarts and he was glad to be able to share it with his friends.