… and you better make sure to get your lazy arse home for Christmas. It’s been months since I last saw you. Lots have happened around here. You’ve got a baby brother. He wants to meet you.

// Tobias

Severus re-read the last part of his father’s latest letter twice. A brother? When had that happened? As far as Severus knew, Tobias had been single ever since Eileen had left when Severus was fourteen. When had he met a new woman? And when had they had the time to father a child? His correspondence with Tobias was irregular and mostly consisted of a handful of letters exchanged over the years, but surely he would have heard about something like this?

Alas, the writing remained the same no matter how many times Severus re-read the letter. Unless his father was trying to speak in some kind of code, Severus was apparently an older brother. Or half-brother, rather.

“Something the matter, Severus?”

At last Severus looked up from the letter and met the eyes of Dumbledore. All around them were the noise of students chattering away in excitement for the quickly approaching holidays. In just a few days they would be on the train on their way back home to their overly indulgent families and most of them could barely wait.

“No, headmaster,” Severus replied, quickly folding the letter in half and putting it in his pocket.

“By the way, I was hoping that you could lend me a hand, Severus. See, I have been trying to contact the muggle authorities to find out where Harry might be but …”

“No,” Severus interrupted firmly.

“You didn’t even let me finish, Severus.”

“You placed the boy with his relatives,” Severus reminded the older man. “It is your fault that he is missing. You clean up your own mess.”

“Of course, Severus, of course. It is just that contact with the muggle authorities are proving more difficult than I had anticipated. And you know how strict the law is when it comes to using compulsion spells on muggle authority personnel …” 

“Again, Headmaster; not my problem.”

Pretending not to notice the angry glare the headmaster gave him Severus returned his attention to his breakfast. Eventually he would end up assisting the headmaster, of course. Severus knew that much. He just rejoiced in seeing the old man struggle to use the phone properly, not to mention trying to explain his case to the social worker on the other side of the line.

It was troublesome that the Boy Who Lived had gone missing but Severus was not overly worried. Although the Headmaster had not seen fit to inform Severus of the particulars of how the boy had gone missing he had admitted that the muggle authorities were somehow involved.

Regardless of why the boy had gone missing the headmaster still had his spells on the boy, spells that would have warned them had the boy been in any serious dangers. Since they spells had said nothing they could assume the boy was perfectly safe. They just didn’t know where he was. The boy was probably stuffing himself full on Christmas candy at this very moment.

Shivering at the thought of Potter’s spawn high on a sugar rush Severus forced his thoughts to move on. He had a letter to answer.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

“Harry?”

“You can’t come into my room!”

Harry flew up from his desk and to the door, trying to block his adoptive father’s view of the room. The man wrinkled his eyebrows and looked disapprovingly at the ten year old in front of him.

“Why not?” the man asked, suspiciously. “What are you up to?”

“You just … can’t, okay?”

Wiggling a little the boy managed to press himself through the small space of the only partly opened door, pulling the door closed behind him as he did so. It earned him another suspicious look.

“Harry James, if you are up to something, I swear I will …”

“It’s nothing bad!” the boy hurried to explain. “I promise!”

“Then why can’t I come into your room?”

He blushed and suddenly found himself unable to meet the eyes of his supposed father. It had been only a couple of months since Tobias took him in and Harry still sometimes found it hard talk to the man about some things. This was one such thing.

“It’s a secret,” he told the man.

“What kind of secret?”

“A surprise,” he amended.

“You are being awfully vague about this secret surprise of yours, Harry,“ Tobias stated, a note of warning in his voice. “Do I need to remind you that it is not in your best interest to hide things from me? Especially if those things have the potential to get out of hand, like that adder you brought into the house?”

“Yes sir, I know. It’s not an adder, I promise.”

The man sighed, eying the boy as if trying to judge the truthfulness of his words. Harry tried to look as innocent as he possibly could. The effect may have been slightly ruined by him still blocking the door to his room.

“Is what you are hiding something that is alive?” Tobias asked at last, still weary.

“No sir.”

“Is it stolen?”

“No, of course not!”

“Is it something that should be kept outside?”

This time Harry hesitated, biting his lip nervously before he answered.

“Sort of.”

“Sort of?” the man repeated. “Is it meant to be outside or not?”

“It is, eventually.”

Another sigh escaped Tobias. Sometimes that boy could be quite stubborn!

“Is it leaving muddy tracks on the floor?”

“How could it leave muddy tracks on the floor when there’s snow outside?”

“Is it leaving tracks, muddy, wet or otherwise, on the floor?”

“No sir.

“Will it do any harm to my house to have it inside for however long you plan on keeping it in your room?”

“No sir.”

Tobias appeared to be considering Harry’s answers for a moment before he spoke again.

“Alright then. I’ll allow it, for now. But it’s on your head! If I find out this is something bad then your punishment will be twice as bad!”

Wincing a little Harry nodded his understanding.                                                          

“Yes sir, I understand. It’s nothing bad, I promise.”

“How long do you plan on keeping it there anyway? I might need to enter your room eventually, you know.”

“Not that long. I just need to get it wrapped before you can come in.”

“Wrapped? This thing you are trying to hide is a Christmas present?”

Realizing that he had been caught the boy blushed again, nervously looking down at the floor. Now he felt stupid.

“Yes sir.”

“I thought we agreed you didn’t have to get me anything?”

“It’s not for you, sir.”

“Then who is it for?”

“It’s for him.”

There was no need to clarify who “him” was. Ever since Tobias had told Harry about his son Harry had been eagerly looking forward to meet him. He’d even gotten the man a present for Christmas, even though they had never met. There was no saying that he’d like Harry’s gift either. Harry just wanted the man to like him.

“Speaking of that,” Tobias said, “I came to tell you that I got a reply.”

“Really? Is he coming home for Christmas?”

“Just for a couple of days, but yes, he is. Severus will be home the twenty third and staying for about a week.”

“Yes!” Harry exclaimed, making a victorious gesture with his hands. His adoptive brother was coming home for Christmas!

“He’s quite looking forward to meet you, actually,” Tobias added.  

“Really? What did he say?”

“Not much, just that although he has a lot to do he will definitely take a few days off to meet his new brother.”

At hearing this, Harry felt like he could not contain his excitement and a huge grin spread across his face. Tobias smiled and ruffled his adopted son’s hair lovingly.

“Finish wrapping up that mysterious gift of yours and then come set the table. Dinner is ready soon.”

“Yes sir. Thank you.”

Still smiling Harry waited until Tobias had left before he went back into his room, not wanting the man to catch even a glimpse of what he had inside.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

School finished a few days before Christmas, so Harry got to spend those days helping Tobias decorate the house in time for Christmas. On one of those days they ventured out into the cold December weather to get a Christmas tree. Tobias explained to Harry that he liked to choose his own tree from the forest and cut it himself.

They borrowed a car from one of the neighbors and drove out to the forest. Once they got there they had to leave the car behind and wade through the snow, looking for the perfect Christmas tree.

“We only have permission to take one tree so we better make sure it is the best tree there is,” Tobias explained to Harry was they walked.

“What about that one?” Harry said eagerly, pointing.

Tobias walked up to the tree in question and ran his hands up and down the branches, sending the snow cascading down to the ground.

“Not very even, I think,” Tobias stated. “We’ll keep looking.”

“Ok. What about that one, over there?”

“That one is too big for our house,” Tobias stated, barely glancing at the tree in question.

“That one then?”

And so their search continued. The walked for what almost felt like hours for Harry and he was just about to give up when Tobias finally came to a halt before a medium sized tree.

“What do you think about this one, Harry?” he asked, once again running his hands up and down the tree to rid it of the snow.

It was big, but not too big to fit into their house. It was thick too, with plenty of branches perfect for hanging decorations on.

“I think it’s perfect,” Harry said.

“Perfect! We agree then. Now, time to cut it down.”

Harry stepped aside as Tobias wielded the axe he had brought, quickly cutting through the trunk of the tree.

Once they got the tree home Tobias retrieved several boxes of old Christmas decorations from the storage. They were dusty and Harry figured they probably hadn’t been used in quite a while.

“Now, let’s see what we’ve got here …” Tobias muttered, rummaging around in one of the boxes.

Harry stepped up to another one of the boxes and started looking through its content. There were glitter, long garlands of glitter in gold and silver and red. Underneath the glitter there were baubles in practically every color Harry knew.

“Ah, here it is!” Tobias exclaimed, holding up a Christmas tree stand. “Now, to get this thing onto the tree … Give me a hand Harry, will you?”

With Tobias holding the Christmas tree and Harry crawling underneath it, trying to attach the tree stand and get it to hold the tree straight, they eventually managed to get the Christmas tree standing properly.

“Time for the lights,” Tobias decided. “Help me find them, will you?”

Together they dug through the boxes then, once the lights were found, started to untangle them. Harry quickly grew bored of the task of untangling the Christmas lights and instead returned to the boxes, admiring the baubles, the glitter and all of the old Christmas figurines he found there. He politely pretended he didn’t hear Tobias muttered cursing.

They decorated the tree, complete with a star at the top, before moving on to the rest of the house. Evergreen were placed on the fireplace and around the doorways, a mistletoe hung up, the old Christmas figurines placed out randomly throughout the house, until Harry thought they had transformed the house entirely.

“It looks magical!” he commented, once all of the boxes were empty.

“Maybe so,” Tobias commented with a laugh. “We’ll see what Severus says.”