They walked slowly up through the snow and cold and Harry wished he'd brought a coat when he'd left the castle to go back to Little Whinging. He pulled his hood up over his head and winced at the tenderness in his ribs as he hugged himself for warmth. He still had one more dose of the bone knitting potion to take that evening before he was fully healed.

"Where is your coat?" Severus asked.

"In my quarters."

"See that you do not leave the castle without it again when it is cold outside."

"Yes sir."

They were quiet for a few moments before Severus decided to tell the boy about his project so he didn't go out to the Pitch expecting to find it there.

"There is something you must know."

He sounded grave and Harry looked over at him. "Ok."

"Professor Umbridge made a new rule that no students will be allowed in areas not normally accessible to students or not easily supervisable by staff. Professor Sprout and Dobby packed up your project under the Pitch and moved it to greenhouse five. She placed wards around the underside of the Pitch to keep students out."

Harry shook his head and felt like this day couldn't possibly get any worse than it already was. This entire week had been horrible.

"As I understand it, great care was taken in moving your project. You, Mr. Longbottom, Mr. Weasley, and Miss Granger have all been granted access to greenhouse five during daytime hours. You are not to be out there after dark unless you have permission from myself or Professor Sprout."

"Ron and Hermione are allowed too?"

"Minerva was quite insistent that since they had helped set up the lab under the Pitch that it was their project as well. As they are both Prefects and Mr. Longbottom has previous history of being granted special access to the greenhouses, the case was made that all of you should be allowed access."

"Did Professor Umbridge throw a fit?" Harry asked.

Severus snorted, surprising him and said, "You did not hear it from me. Greenhouse five has generally been preserved for staff and their herbology projects. I myself have several things growing in there."

"Does Professor Umbridge?"

"Not that I know of. Poppy and Pomona do however."

"Does that mean Professor Umbridge can't go in there?" Harry asked.

"She has access to the entirety of the school grounds aside from personal quarters of other staff and student apprentices. She should also not be in any of the houses unless with a head of house."

That explained why she had brought McGonagall with her when she'd gone to Harry's dorm to search it the last time.

They stopped for a brief break twice on their way to the castle so Snape could rest, and Harry gave him worried looks each time.

"I am fine."

"When's that core replenishing potion supposed to kick in?"

"It already has."

At Harry's skeptical look Severus said, "Read the last chapter of your apprentice book on rare potions and their uses. The potion will take time to fully restore my core. My core would restore on its own but it would take up to two weeks. The potion will have it fully restored in days."

Harry gave a nod, trusting that he knew what he was talking about. He would look up that chapter in his book later when he had time. For now he couldn't wait to get back up to the castle to find Seamus. He was sad Hermione wasn't going to be there, but glad he wouldn't be completely alone for Christmas which was in just two days. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve.

Before they got all the way to the front steps of the castle, Severus said, "Umbridge is up to something more than just trying to get you into trouble. We do not know what yet, but believe it revolves around you. There is something else. She has made a new rule and the Minister of Magic himself has signed off on it."

Harry stared at him as they walked, fully alert. Here it came. There was something that would make his day worse.

"All detentions are to be overseen by her. This means she may assign detentions to other teachers, or she may handle them herself. Be careful."

"There's a rumor she's hurting students," Harry said seriously.

"Yes. We do not know how. One boy was injured but refused to say what happened."

"Are you sure we can't go somewhere for the rest of the holiday?" Harry asked, hopeful the man knew of some sort of gathering or would be willing to just return to Camden Alley.

"I am required to be here for the holiday as Professor Flitwick and several other staff have left until January 1st. I was only given leave for one day and have already been gone for two."

Harry let out a slow breath. Maybe he'd ask Seamus to just spend the rest of the break in his quarters except for when he had to sleep. If Harry stayed shut away then Umbridge couldn't find anything to give him detention for.

Finally in the Entrance Hall, they shook the snow off their boots and parted ways. Harry headed up to the common room to find Seamus before even going back to his quarters.

"Harry!" Seamus said with surprise when he saw him come into the common room. Aside from Seamus the room was empty because nearly all the other Gryffindors had gone home for Christmas. Harry thought a few younger kids had stayed, but wasn't sure where they were if they had. "I thought you'd gone for the holidays."

He flopped down on the couch by the fire and said, "Master Snape brought me back."

"Don't think I'll ever get used to hearing you call him that," Seamus said, eyeing Harry's still healing black eye.

"It's not so bad," Harry told him, but didn't elaborate. "I think I'm gonna spend most of my time in my quarters. Do you wanna play board games or something?"

"Sure," he said. "Don't you have Prefect duties though?"

"That's right," Harry said, having forgotten.

"The Head Girl's still here. I sat next to her this morning at breakfast."

Harry nodded. If there weren't many students staying for the holidays, the staff had them all sit together at one table in the Great Hall. "I guess I'll see her at dinner then," he said.

Seamus went up to the boys dormitory and got several board games the boys shared and then the two of them left and went down the corridor to Harry's quarters. Harry got a fire going in the grate to warm the room up and they pushed the coffee table out of the way so they could sit on the floor in front of the fire and play games.

They went to dinner together at five and Harry told Aoife he was available to patrol.

"Patrols are different over holidays," she said. "Right now it's only you, me and William." She pointed down the table to a sixth year Hufflepuff Prefect. "We all patrol together, but only for one hour before curfew."

"Together?" Harry asked.

"Sure. Patrolling is a great time to talk. I'm sure you found that out patrolling with Hermione."

"Yeah, it's just-" Harry gave another look down the table to where William had just laughed out loud at something a younger Hufflepuff had said.

"He won't bother you," she told him. "Prefects have to stick together."

Harry wasn't sure he believed her though.

"You'll see," she told him. "We'll pick you up at eight. You have your own quarters now right?"

Harry nodded and told her where they were.

After dinner Harry and Seamus played board games for another hour before Seamus decided to return to the common room for the evening. Harry was going to read for an hour until it was time to patrol, but there was a knock on his door and it turned out to be Snape.

Snape came in and closed the door, and Harry wasn't sure if he should feel awkward there with the man in his quarters or not. Snape's eyes swept around the room, from the bookshelves to the small tree that was decorated with Gryffindor ornaments, and then he pulled out a phial of the red bone knitting potion Harry needed to take. Harry had almost forgotten about the final dose.

"Do not make plans for tomorrow evening," Severus said, handing the potion to him.

"Are we brewing sir?"

"In a manner of speaking. Be ready by eight tomorrow evening. Wear a sweater and your coat and bring your mittens, scarf and cap."

Harry wanted to ask more questions but the man indicated he should take his potion, gave one last look around the room, and then bade him good evening.

At eight Aoife and William knocked on his door and they began their patrol in the upper castle. They were quiet at first and Harry felt awkward, but it was only a few minutes before William asked, "Do you like it?" Harry stiffened, sure he would ask if Harry liked being a murderer. Instead he finished with, "Being a potions apprentice?"

Aoife gave Harry an encouraging look and he nodded. "Yeah. I get to do all sorts of interesting things."

"I like potions," William said. "I've been thinking about an apprenticeship after seventh year, but I was also considering healing."

"You can do both," Harry said, still not certain if this conversation was going to end in name calling or not. "You can do an apprenticeship for both. The two fields are closely related."

"I read that," William said. "I want to do things though... not just brew potions."

"I don't do too much brewing yet. We spend a lot of time out collecting ingredients, selling ingredients to apothecaries... you know, stuff like that. It's always something new. I do brew potions sometimes... actually, I have to brew harder potions in class than everyone else. There's a lot of swapping out ingredients and experimentation to get ratios right."

Harry wasn't sure if they'd want to hear about how he'd spent his Halloween, but neither seemed bored with the topic yet so he told them about his night in the haunted house.

"Are you telling the truth?" William asked.

"Yeah. It was a lot of fun once I got over ghosts screaming at me and grabbing my ankles. I hope I get to do it again next year." The bright spots of Harry's year had been the two gatherings he'd been to with other apprentices, and he hoped he'd get to go to one again the next summer.

* * *

Harry was disappointed the next day when Seamus came and found him, looking anxious, and told him they wouldn't be spending Christmas morning together.

"What's going on?" Harry asked him. He'd never seen Seamus look this anxious about anything before, not even the big Herbology test he'd stressed out about the previous year.

"My parents got permission to stay in the castle for Christmas. They're coming later tonight and I'm going to spend Christmas in guest quarters with them."

"Are you ok with that?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. I miss them I mean, but I don't know if they're coming because they're going to take me out of school or not. Professor McGonagall said they weren't, that they just wanted to visit since I wasn't willing to go home to them."

"Maybe it is just a visit," Harry tried to reassure him.

"Yeah, maybe," Seamus said.

"Well, look," Harry told him, pulling out a little package from under his own little Christmas tree in his quarters. "I was going to give this to you tomorrow, but since I won't see you, you can open it now."

Seamus looked surprised and took the little package wrapped in plain white paper uncertainly. "You got something for me? Even after-" he trailed away.

Harry shrugged. "Go on," he said, and Seamus pulled the paper away to reveal a little cardboard box. He opened it and inside there was a sack with what Harry considered to be the better skivs from the twins. He didn't have any money for gifts, but he'd worked out a deal with the twins to get some of their candy from them if he helped them brew the potions they needed to make the candies. Harry had even given them the idea to make candy that turned people's eyes the colors of their house and had looked up the potions they needed to do that.

"Skivs?" Seamus asked.

"Don't worry, they're not the ones that will make you sick. See the bright circular ones, they'll change your hair whatever color the candy is for half an hour. If you eat two different ones at once they'll give you streaks of both colors. And the flat ones with white stripes give you more energy for twenty minutes, so they're good if you're tired and just need to power through an assignment for a few more minutes. I know it's not much, but-"

"It's great," Seamus said. He looked touched that Harry had thought of him at all. "I wish I hadn't been such a jerk to you this year."

"Well," Harry said, "you're not being a jerk now."

They stood there in awkward silence for several moments before Harry remembered that he needed to get ready to meet Snape.

"Where are you going?" Seamus asked when Harry pulled his boots on and started layering up.

"I don't know. Master Snape just said to layer up and meet him at eight. Maybe we're going out to the greenhouse to do something with my project." Harry had been out to check on his project and had been pleased to find he'd been given his own workbench, right next to a workbench that had a plaque that had Neville's name on it. The greenhouse was warm and well lit, and Harry wanted to know what Snape was growing in there. Perhaps Snape was going to show him tonight.

At a few minutes til' eight Harry went down to the Entrance Hall and found Snape waiting for him. The man held out a heavy dark gray traveling cloak and Harry took it uncertainly.

"Put this on. It is yours."

Harry put it on over his coat and hoodie and then they went out through the heavy oak front doors and into the night. Snow was falling gently as they started down the drive towards the school boundary.

"That cloak is waterproof and flame resistant. It will not save you if you are in a fire, but it has been soaked in a flame retardant potion. It should keep the wind and rain off of you if you are out in the elements, and hold your body heat in."

Harry thought the cloak was nice. He'd never had a heavy winter cloak like this before. Some of the students had them, but generally they were something he saw adults wearing. It was soft on the inside so it didn't scratch at his neck where the clasp held it to his body, and it draped down around him to his knees.

"Where are we going sir?" Harry asked as they neared the school boundary ten minutes later.

"We have somewhere to be. A gathering."

"Are we collecting ingredients tonight?"

"No."

Harry wondered why he was being so tight-lipped about where they were going and hoped dearly the man wasn't taking him to wherever the Dursleys were. At the boundary he took hold of Harry's arm and apparated them away. A moment later they reappeared in a dark clearing in the forest somewhere, and in the distance they could hear shouts of laughter and Harry could just make out the warm glow of a fire up ahead in the darkness. It wasn't snowing here, but the ground was covered in deep snow.

"On Christmas Eve, potions masters and apprentices across the world gather to share a meal and stories of their year."

Harry's heart leapt with excitement for a moment. He hoped Soren was going to be here.

"Any potions master or apprentice could turn up at any gathering and would be welcome," Severus said. "If we were to find this gathering boring, we could move on to another one."

"Boring?" Harry asked.

"Occasionally the conversation grows stale."

Harry didn't care about conversation, he was just happy to be out of the castle and doing something with others. Tomorrow he would be lonely since Seamus would be with his family, so he was excited to get to do something for Christmas at all.

"Ho!" Severus called out as they approached the fire.

A chorus of voices responded, "Ho!"

Reflections of orange flames danced up the trees, covered in snow, and up into the clear sky. There was a little Christmas tree, smaller than Harry's, decorated in silver tinsel and fairy lights floating eight or nine feet above the bonfire, and twelve or more people were sitting on logs or their cloaks visiting.

Despite that the ground was covered in snow, the fire had melted the snow off in their little clearing, and the area was warm from the crackling flames, the heat licking at Harry's chilled skin.

"Severus?" someone called out, "Is that you? We haven't seen you at a bonfire in ages!"

"This is my apprentice Harry," Severus said instead of answering the question. He indicated Harry and all eyes turned to him.

"Yes, we'd heard you had an apprentice! Come sit down by the fire! There's roast ham and chicken and we have coffee and hot chocolate!"

Severus leaned in to Harry and said, "Do not wander out of sight of the bonfire."

"Yes sir." Severus went to an empty seat on a log next to two potions masters that seemed eager to talk to him, and Harry was left on his own to find a place to sit.

"Here," said a boy that couldn't have been too much older than him. He had dark red hair that was almost brown and Harry didn't recognize him so he must have already graduated Hogwarts.

Harry went to him and took a seat. This must be the group of apprentices given that they were the younger of the people gathered there.

"We'll have the second bonfire going shortly," a girl with raven black hair like Harry's said. It was just long enough to fall into her face, and Harry noted that she was piling wood up for a second fire set further back into the trees away from the main gathering. "Grab some wood and dry it out with your wand," she told him.

"I'm not 17," he said.

"Doesn't matter here," the boy that had first called him over told him. "Ministry's too stupid to know which of us is using magic in a gathering this size."

Harry used his wand to melt some snow and picked up several fallen branches and did his best to dry them out. He piled them next to the second fire pit, and within a few minutes the girl had the fire going and crackling merrily. The apprentices used their wands to melt the snow so they could sit on the ground on their cloaks or on a fallen log one of them had found under the snow. They were close enough to the main bonfire that they could hear questions being shouted to them and respond, but far enough away that it felt like a private gathering all on its own.

"You're Harry Potter?" the girl with raven hair asked.

Harry nodded.

"I'm Mairi. I'm in my third year. I'm seventeen."

Harry raised his brows at her. He'd never seen her at Hogwarts before and didn't think there were that many apprentices like him that had been apprenticed under the age of 17. When she saw the look on Harry's face she laughed and said, "I go to a little school far in the north that's part of a coven. There's about twenty kids that go."

"I didn't realize there were other schools here," Harry said.

"People are ignorant," the redheaded boy said from beside him.

Harry turned to look at him. "I grew up in the Muggle world. There's a lot I'm still learning. Do you go to the coven school too?"

"It's West Ire, and no. I graduated Hogwarts two years back."

"Don't mind him," Mairi said. "That's Isaac Wood. He's apprenticed to master Ida."

Harry frowned. He'd heard these names before. "Do you know Soren?" he asked Isaac.

"Yeah."

"I think we both helped him at the same haunted house on Halloween."

"I know." That was all Isaac seemed to have to say about the matter however. He poked the fire with a stick and let his hair fall forward into his face.

The other five apprentices at the smaller bonfire exchanged names. It seemed most of them knew each other already, but not all of them. Harry, Mairi, and Isaac were the youngest of them there.

One of the older apprentices went to the big bonfire and brought back mugs of steaming hot chocolate and passed them around, and then went back again and brought over a huge bowl filled with hot grilled meat that had been roasting on a spit over the big bonfire. The bowl was passed around and Harry snagged a huge piece of blackened ham that was juicy and tasted amazing. He listened as the other apprentices talked of their adventures that year, and when the others turned to him, he told them about his first year as an apprentice.

"You're a wiley one," an older apprentice named Bram said. "You're gonna be off doing crazy things like Soren, I can tell."

"I dunno," Harry said. "I just like foraging in the woods."

"Yeah but you fought a dragon last year in the Tri-Wizard tournament," another apprentice said.

Harry shrugged.

"Seems someone who fights dragons would know he's living on an edge the rest of us wouldn't cross," Isaac said. Harry didn't know what he meant by it. His voice had sounded bitter, or full of derision maybe. Harry couldn't tell and wasn't sure if this was just the way Isaac was or if he was irritated with Harry or by his presence. As the night wore on however, Harry noted that Isaac spoke to everyone this way. He seemed shy, keen to keep his eyes hidden behind his hair and shoulders often hunched in on himself. He seemed to be having a good time, but spoke as if he wasn't.

"What's your school like?" Harry had ended up asking Mairi after he'd been there with them for a couple of hours. "You said it's called West Ire?"

"It's four little stone buildings on the edge of the coven up on a hill overlooking the ocean. My brother Ewan goes too. One building's the kitchen and dining hall. Another has two classrooms. A third has one big room for dueling and defense lessons and also has a little infirmary room. The fourth building is where the three teachers have their offices."

"Students don't live at the school?" Harry asked.

"We all live in the village. Only coven kids go there. It's only a ten minute walk from the school to my house."

"What do you learn there aside from defense?" Harry asked.

"Same as you do I'd imagine. Potions, defense, herbology, history, runes, arithmancy, astronomy, and there's a class about magical creatures. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the stables. There's a big covered stable where the animals are kept and that's where we have magical creatures class. Only thing that's probably really different from Hogwarts is we go to school year round."

"Really? No breaks at all?" Harry asked.

"We get a week for Christmas, a week in the spring, a week in summer and a week in fall. We only go to school til' two in the afternoon though and only four days a week. It's nice because it gives me lots of time to do my apprenticeship."

"I didn't think there were too many young apprentices like me," Harry told her.

"Well I'm apprenticed to my uncle. Have been since I was fifteen. He lives next door and we travel when we have our week long breaks from school and on our three day weekends. Otherwise we gather and brew with a lot of ingredients we get from the stables. My uncle teaches potions and magical creatures there so we have access to dragon scales and cornish pixie droppings and all sorts of things."

"You work with dragons?" Harry asked. "Is it dangerous?"

"Every student at the school has to raise a dragon. The ones we work with are of a dwarf variety. There's Cornish Redflames," here she pulled her arms apart to indicate they were about as big as a person, "and Green Spikes, they're very small, about the size of a big dog, and we have Pink Puffs too, but only a few of those."

"So it's not like what Soren does collecting ingredients from dragon dens then?" Harry asked.

"Not at all. All of the dragons at West Ire live in the stables. They shed scales on a regular basis so it's easy for us to collect what we need. Last week one of the baby Pink Puffs lost a tooth fighting with a Green Spike and we found it in the hay."

"That sounds like fun," Harry said.

Someone brought over a bowl full of squares of cake and Harry snagged a piece when it was passed around the apprentice fire. He was full, warm, and happy. It was everything he hadn't expected to be on Christmas Eve after being told he had to return to the Dursleys.

Mairi got caught up in a conversation with one of the older apprentices and was then pulled away to the main bonfire where her uncle wanted her to tell a story to a tall severe looking woman with light gray hair pulled into a bun. She reminded Harry a bit of Professor McGonagall.

"That's master Ida," Isaac said, not even looking up at Harry. Harry found it odd to talk to someone who always looked like they were ignoring you.

"Is she your master?" Harry asked.

"Yes. She's my mother's friend." He was quiet for a moment and then added, "Stricter than a muggle nun."

Harry stared at him open-mouthed for a minute before he realized Isaac was smiling. Suddenly the words Harry thought might be cruel earlier had morphed into something entirely different. Isaac wasn't mean, just sarcastic, and the things he thought were funny weren't always clearly understood by others, Harry included. Soren got along with Isaac, Harry knew because Soren had called Isaac his friend. Soren was easy going though and seemed to get along with just about everybody.

"She must get along well with master Snape then," Harry said with a little smile. Isaac laughed and Harry pulled his new winter cloak up around his neck a little to ward off the chilly breeze that had picked up.

"What house were you in?" Harry asked him.

"Slytherin."

"The Head Girl's a Slytherin," Harry commented.

"Who is it?"

"Her name's Aoife."

"Don't know her," Isaac said.

"Are you related to Oliver Wood?" Harry asked him. Wood was a fairly common last name in the magical community and not all of them were related, but Harry was interested to know.

"My younger cousin. He graduated a year after me."

Isaac didn't seem interested in talking further and the other apprentices were all engaged in conversations that didn't interest Harry, so he let his eyes wander to the main bonfire. It appeared that a few new people had arrived, but Harry didn't see Soren or anyone else he knew.

At nearly midnight Snape collected him from the apprentice fire and led him off into the woods back the way they'd come.

"It is late. The gathering will go on well into the night, but we must go," he told Harry.

"Yes sir."

Harry assumed they were going back to Hogwarts, but was surprised to find that Snape had apparated him to someplace else entirely. At first he thought they might have been going to another gathering, but found that they were outside a Muggle petrol station that was closed for the night along a Muggle road somewhere. Harry was just about to ask what they were doing there when he heard a familiar voice behind them.

"Harry! Severus! I've only just arrived. I was hoping I hadn't missed you."

Harry turned and found Mr. Weasley, bundled up against the cold and smiling broadly.

"Arthur," Snape greeted him.

Mr. Weasley clapped his hands and rubbed them together to warm them up. "Are you ready to go Harry? Molly's waiting for you at home with a big mug of hot tea."

Harry turned to Snape with question in his eyes and Severus said, "You will be going to the Burrow for Christmas. I assume this is acceptable?"

Harry couldn't help but stare at him. He'd arranged for Harry to spend Christmas with Ron's family? There was nothing the man could have done to make Harry want to hug him, except perhaps this. Harry didn't hug him because he was certain he'd be shouted at, and that would just be embarrassing. "Yes sir," he said instead, trying hard not to smile. If the man knew how happy he was he might shout at him anyway. Snape's lips upturned just a bit however and Harry smiled despite his efforts not to and turned to Mr. Weasley.

"Merry Christmas Severus!" Arthur said, and Snape nodded his head and disappeared with a loud pop. A moment later Mr. Weasley took a gentle hold of Harry's arm and said, "We'd best get going then!"

They re-appeared just outside the front gate at the Burrow, which was covered in snow. There was a warm light spilling out of the kitchen window despite the late hour and bathing the snow covered garden in a warm glow.

"Mr. Weasley," Harry said, "why did we meet at a petrol station?"

"As I understand it Severus is still recovering from a bout of long distance apparations that drained his core. He had already apparated you at least twice tonight, or was it more?"

"Twice," Harry said.

"He owled us and asked if you could spend Christmas with Ron, and I agreed to meet with him at a petrol station near to wherever you were having your holiday gathering."

"Thank you," Harry told him gratefully. He was still shocked that Snape had set this up for him. It was so unexpectedly... nice.

Before they got to the back door leading into the kitchen, Mrs. Weasley pulled the door open and wrapped her arms around Harry, pulling him inside into the warmth of the house.

"Harry, I'm so glad you're home. Ron's been talking about you coming all day. Tried to convince Arthur to fetch you early."

Harry let her hug him for as long as she wanted. He wasn't going to complain when this sort of thing happened so infrequently. When she finally let him go she ushered him to the table where she had tea and cookies waiting for him and Arthur both. "How was your gathering dear?" she asked him.

Harry described the meeting in the woods and some of the apprentices he had met.

"I know of Ida Eadmond," Arthur said, taking a sip of his tea. "I've never met her apprentice but I hear he's a surly sort. She's very well known for intricate potions that require attention to detail. There's one that took her over a year to brew for the Department Of Mysteries at the Ministry. She travels to Europe quite a lot. I assume her apprentice will know all sorts of interesting brewing methods from all of their travels."

When Harry had finished his tea it was almost one in the morning, and Mrs. Weasley sent him up to Ron's room to go to bed. A spot was made up for him on the floor on top of two blankets with a big squishy pillow and a heavy quilt to cover himself with. Ron was snoring gently in his bed, comic book open across his chest and Harry didn't want to wake him, so he took off his traveling cloak and climbed under the quilt on the floor. It wasn't long before he had drifted into a content doze himself.

* * *

"Harry," Ron said, shaking him awake.

Eyes blurry from getting only a few hours of sleep, Harry rubbed at his face and sat up. The sun had just begun to rise and fill Ron's room with weak light. "Hm?" he asked.

"When did you get in? I tried to wait up for you."

"I think it was around 12:30 when your dad brought me back."

"Why did you have to come so late? Mum said you had some sort of Christmas party."

Harry wanted to tell his friend about it, but needed a chance to wake up a little more first. "Your mum will have made coffee right?"

"Sure," Ron said. Without another word Ron left his room and padded out into the hallway in his socks. A few minutes later he returned with a mug of coffee mixed with hot chocolate.

Harry mumbled gratefully to him and wrapped his hands around the mug, taking a sip and letting it warm him up, though the room was already quite warm and so was the quilt around him.

"I didn't get to grab your presents," Harry said. "They're still in my quarters under the tree."

"Dad went and got your stuff last night before he got you," Ron said.

"He did?"

Ron pointed and there against a wall was Harry's backpack. Harry reached over and opened it, and found a change of clothes and several wrapped gifts.

After changing quickly Harry and Ron went downstairs and found the rest of Ron's family at the table, waiting for them so they could eat breakfast.

"Merry Christmas Harry!" Ginny said.

"Oy, what about me?" Ron asked.

Ginny shot him a look and Fred and George laughed. "No Christmas for you Ron," George said, "you're doing all the dishes today."

"Yeah yeah," Ron muttered, taking a seat next to Harry.

"Ron told mum his gift to her would be doing the dishes all day long," Ginny supplied and Harry grinned at his friend. Maybe he'd help him.

Harry had really enjoyed the gathering in the woods the night before, but nothing compared to sitting around the table with friends, the warmth of their smiles, and the sincerity of their well wishes for him.

After breakfast Harry pitched in with the dishes so they could make short work of it and get to the living room where the rest of the family was waiting by the fire. Harry retrieved the gifts for his friends from Ron's room and then they sat down to open presents. Ron and Ginny each had a gift for Harry, and so did Mrs. Weasley. Apparently when the house elves had packed Harry's bag, they'd also packed the gifts from Hermione and Neville as well, so Harry had several things to open.

"What did Professor Snape get you for Christmas dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked as Harry opened her gift, a soft dark blue sweater that was hand knitted. It had a small silver H on the left side of the chest, and a golden Snitch on the center.

"Hm?" Harry asked. Snape hadn't gotten him anything. Well, he had Harry supposed, because he'd set it up for Harry to come here. That wasn't exactly true though, because he had given Harry something else. "A warm winter cloak," Harry said.

"The one you were wearing last night?" Molly asked. Harry nodded.

"That was a very expensive looking cloak," Arthur said. "Is it waterproof?"

"Yeah, and flame resistant too. It's very soft and warm."

Even Ron seemed to be impressed with it, and Harry wondered just how much cloaks cost.

Ron had given Harry a novel about an apprentice who ended up getting accidentally signed to an international Quidditch team, and Ginny had knitted Harry a new hat that was a soft grayish blue. Hermione's gift was a handsome hinged wooden box that opened up to reveal an empty potions kit. It had four glass phials with stoppers, two little boxes with lids for ingredients, a place for two small knives, and a spot for a small book. Everything had its place and was held down by straps or fit into spaces in the blue velvet lined box. Neville's gift was a book about mushroom hybridization.

Just like with Seamus, Harry didn't have money to buy his other friends gifts. Instead he had spent a Saturday brewing potions in the dungeons for his friends. Snape hadn't questioned him when he set up in a corner of the Saturday lab and started working on potions that weren't on the OWL list, and had left him alone to brew all day despite that the lab was only open to other students for two hours.

"What's it for?" Ron asked when he opened the orange potion Harry had given him.

"It's for your bag, or your cloak or whatever you want to put it on. If you soak fabric of any sort in it it becomes waterproof and potion proof. Nothing will stain it, not even if you spill something on it in potions class."

"Awesome," Ron said. He was always complaining about potions and herbology class because his clothes got dirty or stained, and he didn't often get new clothes. Harry sympathized with him, knowing exactly how he felt.

When Ginny opened hers Harry said, "It's ink. I made it with one of the mushrooms I've been growing and mixed it up with a few other things. Try it."

Mrs. Weasley got a quill from the side table beside Mr. Weasley's arm chair and handed it to her along with a scrap of parchment. Ginny dipped the quill in the bottle of shimmering ink and wrote her name. The ink glistened on the paper, and changed colors from black, to dark purple, to dark blue and even green depending on which way the paper was tilted and caught the light.

"I love it Harry, thank you," she said. Harry had also given Hermione a bottle, but hers was tinted to show red, pink, and reddish purple depending on the way the light hit the words written with it.

"Don't see gifts with our names on them," Fred said, teasing Harry. Harry pulled two satchels out of his hoodie pocket though and handed them forward. Fred's eyes lit up when he saw what was inside.

"What is it?" Ginny asked.

Fred cinched the satchel up and pulled it towards himself. "I think it's best if only Fred and I know," he said.

"Some sort of potions ingredient I bet," Ron said. Fred and George didn't necessarily like potions, but they both had good grades in the class and had based their first products for their joke shop off of a variety of potions they had brewed to make candies. Ron turned to Harry and said, "You're gonna tell me later, right?"

Harry only grinned at him and raised his hands.

They spent the day playing games and talking by the fire. It was just before dinner when Mr. Weasley said, "It's about time to go Harry. You'll be flooing to Madam Rosmerta's in Hogsmeade to meet Severus."

"Ok," Harry told him. He turned to Mrs. Weasley and said, "Thank you for having me."

"Of course Harry. We're so glad you could come this year. We've been asking Albus for years to have you." Harry grinned at her.

After he'd collected his bag and his gifts inside of it, Harry turned to Mrs. Weasley and said, "Mrs. Weasley. Seamus had to stay behind at school this year. I'm not sure he's had a good day. Would it be ok to take a couple of your cookies back to him? She'd made several plates of cookies which they'd been eating all day. There were chocolate chip, soft peppermint cookies with peppermint pieces, gingerbread, and orange spice crackle cookies.

"Of course, let me just put some in a bag for him. How thoughtful!"

She put a few of each in along with a few pieces of hard peppermint and butterscotch candy she'd made from scratch, and Harry tucked it away into his bag.

He didn't want to leave and wished he could stay for the rest of the holiday until January 5th and then ride back on the Hogwarts Express with his friends.

After several minutes of goodbyes, Arthur threw a handful of Floo powder into the grate and said, "Madam Rosmerta's Bar, Hogsmeade," and motioned for Harry to step into the green flames. He stepped in and was gone in a flash. Despite not being able to get himself to Ron's house, he'd ended up there anyway. So much had happened in just two weeks he couldn't wrap his head around it all, and there was still more than a week left before school started again.

Severus was at a table by the fireplace drinking something hot when Harry appeared in a flash of green flame. Harry noted that Umbridge was also present but at a table further back talking to a man he didn't know. Maybe he was from the Ministry.

"Did you have a good time?" Severus asked.

"Yes sir, thank you."

"Did you make a nuisance of yourself?"

"No sir."

Severus gave a nod, satisfied that Harry had behaved himself just on his word (a first), and led Harry out of the bar and into the streets of Hogsmeade. It had only been a few days ago that they'd come through here on their way back from Snape's flat in Camden Alley, but it felt like it had been months.

As they walked down the cobbled lane, Harry was too happy to be aware that Umbridge's eyes followed him through the window, narrowed and plotting.