Harry took a seat on the love seat as he watched Snape set the tree up, with water and such. He was super excited about this Christmas and he couldn’t wait to decorate it.

“Where are the decorations? Can I go get them?” Harry asked excitedly, nearly bouncing in his seat.

“I can Accio them Harry,” Severus said calmly. The child’s excitement level was unusually high but once again he found that no matter how annoying it was to him he was reluctant to end it.

“Alright,” Harry said his eyes widening as various boxes came sailing into the room and settled on the floor. His mind was boggled at the amount of boxes Snape had, he really did have a ton of decorations.

Severus found his lips twitching and quickly stilled them as he watched Harry go from one box to the other. It seemed that the child couldn’t decide which box that he wanted to open first. He shook his head in amusement, as he thought about something. If this was how the boy reacted to decorations, then how would he react when he opened his presents? Severus couldn’t understand how he had mistaken Harry’s behavior for arrogance. The child cared more about others then he did himself, he had no sense of self preservation.

He absently accioed the camera that was collecting dust in the attic; figuring it would get some good use this year. He hadn’t had a lot of happy times for it to come out, but a part of him wanted to remember this. In here in his manor at this time, nothing else existed. He wanted to capture the exuberance on Harry’s face, to know that he was responsible for that warmed his heart. Apparently Severus had been standing idle for too long because he became aware of Harry staring at him in impatience.

“Are you just going to stand there? I thought you were going to help me?” Harry asked, with a borderline pout if his bottom lip was anything to go by.

“I am, I was waiting for someone to decide which box to look in first,” Severus said dryly.

“I did, can we start?” Harry asked happily.

“After you,” Severus drawled.

Harry nodded before picking up some tinsel and frowning. He grabbed an ornament next before putting it down. He breathed out a breath, he was completely unsure of what he was doing.

“I don’t know what to do,” he finally admitted shamefully.

“It’s easy child, follow me first and you will soon pick it up.” Severus instructed as he showed him how to put an ornament on the tree.

“Can we…decorate the manor too?” Harry asked softly as he put his ornament just like Snape had.

“Were you talking about inside or outside?” Severus asked.

“Both if that would be ok,” Harry murmured.

“If we must,” Severus said easily before nodding.

“We must,” Harry said nodding excitedly.

~*~*~Hogwarts~*~*~*

Albus was at his wits end; he couldn’t understand how a child like Harry had come out the way he did after living in a home like that one. He had only spent 15 minutes with the muggles and he already wanted to curse them. The things they had done to Harry were still fresh in his mind, and he was angry. He had been serious they were going to pay for what they did to that child. Vernon Dursely was soon going to be on a one-way ticket to muggle prison. He had already alerted Shackelbot to get the muggle authorities ready.

Ditsy, the house elf he had called to escort them to their quarters had come back very distressed, and after prying the truth from her he knew why. They absolutely hated magic and she had to refrain herself from hurting them when they actively tried to hurt her. Albus was furious; she hadn’t done a thing wrong, and yet as house elves did she was trying to punish herself because of something they had almost forced her to do. He sighed in annoyance, as he heard a knock on his door. Looking at the top of the door to see who it was, he was suddenly very happy to be in the mood he was in.

“Enter,” he said calmly.

Because standing in the doorway of his office, was Delores Umbridge.

~*~*~*Grimmauld Place~*~*~*

Remus stared at Sirius for a moment, as he reclined on the couch. They had been talking about the situation with Harry for the longest time and he was tired of it. He still hadn’t gotten to the bottom of it, why had Sirius wanted to hurt Harry? What purpose would he possibly gain?

“Would you be against a trip to St. Mungo’s?” Remus asked randomly.

“Why yes Moony, unless you seriously want me to get the kiss then by all means let’s go.” Sirius answered sarcastically.

“Obviously you would be in disguise,” Remus said with a frown.

“There’s nothing wrong with me,” Sirius said annoyance in his tone.

“There is definitely something wrong with you, and unless you never want to see Harry again you will go see a healer.” Remus said firmly.

“You can’t stop me from seeing my godson,” Sirius said getting angry.

“Actually I can, but I wasn’t talking about myself. You have to go through Albus, Arthur, Minerva, Alaster, Ron, and then Severus himself to get to Harry.” Remus said calmly.

Sirius’s eyes darkened, that was impossible and he knew it. He groaned tiredly and looked at Remus before narrowing his eyes.

“Fine, when are we going?” He asked with a loud sigh.

~*~*~Hogwarts~*~*~*~

Minerva was fuming; she had just walked out of her office and had been in the process of heading to Albus’s office when she came across them. What in Merlin’s name were the Durselys doing in Hogwarts? She couldn’t understand it, and she didn’t want to. What was Albus thinking when he brought them here? She sighed and shook her head as she watched a house elf lead them down an empty corridor. She only hoped they weren’t going to be there long.

While Minerva was pondering on what she could get away with on the Durselys, Albus was in his office reminding Umbridge just who he was. He could see her sitting stiffly in her chair; he could literally feel the fear wafting off of her body. And the thing that had him almost busting a gut was that he hadn’t done a thing yet. He had only let his power loose, and since he was angry at the moment, her being one of the main reasons why; she was affected.

“Albus, what is going on here?” She demanded in her squeaky toady voice.

“Ahh Delores, you caught me at a bad time. I just got done flooing Cornelius and I was telling him about something that I recently found out about our High Inquisitor.” He said conversationally.

He watched as her eyes nearly bulged out her head, and had to rein in a snicker, she really did resemble a toad. He could see the animal in her.

“What…what did you tell him?” She asked quietly, feeling like her job was being threatened. She had done quite a few illegal things, and she knew firsthand that Cornelius Fudge was a worm. It was well known that you did not want Albus Dumbledore to be angry with you, and she knew he wouldn’t let this go.

“We talked a bit about truth serums on students, and why they were banned. And most importantly I asked him what were his views on a well know dark artifact.” Albus said in a calm tone.

“What artifact would that be?” She asked faintly, willing her body to get up but she couldn’t make it move.

“The blood quill in the bottom right hand drawer of your desk in your office,” Albus said his blue eyes hardening once more.

“I can explain,” she said hastily as she felt the temperature drop around his office. If that wasn’t a sign that something was wrong, then the fact that the portraits were way to quiet was another. And that was a big one, considering they were the biggest gossips in the entire castle.

“Oh Delores, I don’t think you can,” Albus said as he stood up; his palms on his desk to keep his magic where he wanted it.

~*~*~*The Manor~*~*~*~

Harry grinned proudly at the tree, he had filled it with so many ornaments and popcorn and whatever else that Snape had handed him. It was perfect to his eyes; he saw nothing wrong with it.

“It’s perfect,” he said with a bright smile before there was a sudden flash and he was rubbing his eyes. He was sure it was a camera, something had been doing that for the past hour or so and he couldn’t figure out why. He turned towards Snape, because that seemed to be the only explanation but his teacher didn’t seem to know either.

Severus grabbed the disillusioned camera once more before setting it on the mantle staring at Harry with a blank face.

“What was that?” Harry asked in confusion.

“What was what?” Severus countered.

“That light, or flash or whatever,” Harry explained.

“I didn’t see a thing Harry, are you feeling ok?” Severus asked gently.

“Oh, I’m alright,” Harry replied before shaking his head. He must be seeing things, or maybe he was just really tired and he didn’t know it.

“How about I clean up down here and you can go up and wrap your friend’s Christmas gifts.” Severus said gesturing to the messy room.

“I was wondering about something;” Harry started off shyly.

“Wondering about what?” Severus pressed.

“Could I go back to Hogwarts?” Harry asked quickly.

“You don’t want to stay here anymore? But I thought we had worked through that issue,” Severus said with a slight frown.

“I do! I want to stay here, more then you know,” Harry said quickly though the last part was said almost inaudibly.

“Then why do you want to go back to the Castle?” Severus asked in confusion.

“I forgot a present there, and I really wanna get it,” Harry explained carefully.

“Alright, tomorrow you and Mr. Weasely can return to Hogwarts.” Severus said.

“Why tomorrow, why not now?” Harry asked curiously.

“Because tomorrow I need to make a potion, and I don’t want it to seem like I’m ignoring you.” Severus said. He didn’t bother to tell the boy that it was a potion for the Dark Lord and he had no intention of making it until Harry was out of the house. Tomorrow was the perfect opportunity and he wasn’t going to waste it. He figured that after seeing what Umbridge had done to Harry and the rest of the students, Albus wouldn’t mind him coming to visit.

“Ok, tomorrow is fine then,” Harry said with a smile.

“Go wrap up the presents you have now,” Severus repeated before calling Harry back.

“Yeah?” Harry asked.

“What did you want for Christmas anyway?” Severus asked casually.

“What I want can’t be bought,” Harry said with a sigh before turning to go back up the stairs.

“And what is that?” Severus asked gently.

Harry fidgeted on the spot, not wanting to admit what it was to the man. He highly doubted the man would appreciate him getting sentimental. So what if he bought him a tree and let him decorate it, and who cared that he seemed to like Harry being here. None of that mattered to him, when he knew it wasn’t going to last.

“Harry, what do you want?” Severus repeated.

“A home,” Harry breathed out quickly before running up the stairs and to his room.

Severus sighed; he would have to talk to Albus about that one. He knew Harry wasn’t sure on where he was going to stay; it wasn’t the first time that he wished that he wasn’t a spy. He sat down on his chair with a sigh, and dropped his head into his hands. He wanted more than anything to tell the boy that he could live here, but he knew it wasn’t his power to do so.