Chapter 27 – Winter Holidays

Lily motioned for the others to leave and sat down next to Harry on his bed. James promised he would go back to Dumbledore and talk to him and left the room with Sirius and Remus in tow. Harry didn’t speak to anyone, not even to Lily; he had buried his head in the cushions and was crying silently. He didn’t even react when Poppy called him three times to drink two Potions. Finally, she gave up and retreated into her office. She was so sorry for Harry; she hated seeing him like this, but what could she do? He was so irresponsible concerning his health in spite of his fragile immune system that he was not able to look after himself; so how could she let him go for the holidays especially with the fever he was having. She sighed and considered talking to Minerva.

A short while later Dumbledore and Minerva came into her office together with James’ parents. She explained the reasons for her decision to keep Harry here and Minerva nodded her consent. However, James’ mother said softly, “You know that I am his Grandmother. Now do you believe I wouldn’t do everything I could for him? If you told us what Potions he needs and what he or we should or shouldn’t do, don’t you think maybe we should be able to have him at least for a week over Christmas?”

“The problem is that he wouldn’t tell you if he felt bad, on the contrary, he would try to hide it, and he is so good at it that he is able to fool anyone apart from me. His immune system is gravely damaged, therefore he gets ill about every second week and it takes twice the time to heal as it would normally. You would need to check on him twice a day; I could teach you two or three spells, which you’d have to do every evening and morning. And when there were any problems, you’d have to fire-call me immediately.”

Finally, they decided to try it, and Mrs. Potter would come the next morning to be taught a few spells, before she would leave together with the students for the train.

“Maybe” Mr. Potter threw in, “it would be better to take him home by portkey directly from here. Wouldn’t the train ride be too strenuous?”

“No, he may not use a portkey. He can go by train or the Knight bus, but no magical transportation such as portkey, apparition or flashing for the next two weeks, because his concussion isn’t fully healed. That was his problem today – he transformed into a phoenix and flashed through the school and made his condition much worse again.”

By the time the Potters left, Harry had cried himself to sleep. Lily had stayed with him for the whole evening, holding his hand all the time; now she was asleep next to him, but none of the teachers wanted to wake her up and chase her away; on the contrary, McGonagall smiled fondly at her, conjured an extra blanket and tucked her in. Harry’s other Grandmother came back early in the morning for her lesson with Pomfrey. They used the still sleeping Lily and Harry for their practise, and by the time they had to wake the two students, she had managed to perform a general check-up spell as well as a spell to check his temperature flawlessly. Poppy handed her several Potions, which Harry might need as well as specific instructions for any possible occurrence.

Just before they had to leave for the train, Severus came over to look after Harry and smiled when Harry beamed that he was allowed to go. “Harry, promise me not to do anything crazy, not to spend a night outside, and tell Mrs. Potter when you have problems, alright?”

“Alright Professor Snape,” Harry said teasingly but smiled gratefully at his best friend.

-----

The train ride was uneventful; the six friends and Mrs. Potter shared a compartment, although it was very crowded with seven people, they had a lot of fun. Harry was asleep most of the time, his head on Mrs. Potter’s lap, his feet on Lily’s. When they arrived at Kings Cross, they called the Knight bus, which took them to Potter Manor in one big jump. Harry was very excited when they arrived at Potter Manor. He had never heard about the House, although it was beautiful; did it still exist in his time? Would he inherit it when he became 17? It was a beautiful, huge manor surrounded by a grand park. As soon as they entered the House, they were greeted by two House elves, who Mrs. Potter introduced as Tipsy and Tapsy. They took immediately care of their luggage.

“Remus and Harry, would you like to share a room or to have your own room?”

Mrs. Potter asked suddenly, while the students were looking around. “I’m asking because James and Sirius have their rooms where they always stay, and we have two more rooms on the same floor, one of course for Lily. So you can either stay together on the same floor or have your own rooms on a different floor.”

Harry glanced at Remus. “Shall we share a room?”

Remus smiled at him. “I would like that; I mean we have shared a dormitory at Hogwarts for a year anyway.”

“All right,” Mrs. Potter said, “Then James and Sirius, could you show your guests their rooms please? And Harry, you might want to rest for a while; I’ll send someone to wake you up for dinner in about an hour.”

When they reached their rooms, Lily laughed at Harry and said, “Maybe she is not so different from McGonagall…”

-----

James showed them all their rooms and Harry was stunned. Remus and he were staying in a large room with two huge four-poster beds with dark blue curtains and a big window with a spectacular view of the landscape – he could even see a lake. The room was beautiful and he liked it immediately. Finally, they all ended up in Remus and Harry’s room, lying or sitting on the two big beds. Harry was very grateful to be together with his friends. Moreover, although he already missed Severus, he hoped that maybe he would be able to get his parents at least a little closer together during these holidays. After a while, Mr. Potter came to escort them down to the kitchens for dinner.

“Normally we use the dining room when we are having guests,” his wife said when they arrived in the kitchen, “but as you will be staying for your holidays I think you shouldn’t feel like guests but consider this place as your home, so we’ll just eat in the kitchen.”

Harry couldn’t help it, but dinner reminded him immensely of the Weasleys. His grandmother’s cooking was very similar to Mrs. Weasley’s and he tried hard to eat a little of everything in order not to attract any attention. After Mr. Potter had told them a lot about Potter Manor and about the Potter family who were direct descendants of Gryffindor, which Harry had learned in his second year, he asked the children what they were planning for the holidays. As if they had only waited for a start signal, James and Sirius began to try to outdo each other with many good ideas how to use the holidays. Lily, Remus and Harry had to try hard not to laugh too much. When James suggested going for a walk in the park after dinner, his mother scolded him a little.

“James, Harry is still ill and I would like you to be considerate to him in your planning. I will check on him every morning before breakfast and in the evening directly after dinner, and after that, I can tell you what he may do, so that you can make plans accordingly. But tonight he won’t be able to go outside, so I’d suggest you spend the evening either in Remus and Harry’s room talking or playing games or even reading or you go to the TV room and watch a film.”

James looked over to Harry who had blushed and was looking down on the table. “Of course mum, we’ll do that.”

“Harry, I want you to come with me to your room for your check-up now,” his Grandmother finished the conversation. Harry got up immediately, followed her up the stairs to his room, and lay down on his bed. Oh, that felt good. So far, he had not noticed how tired he was, but… he was wide-awake again when he felt a cool hand on his forehead. His Grandmother frowned.

“Sorry Granny, this bed just feels so good…”

“I believe that, but let me just try to do the check please; maybe I need your help. Then you may sleep.” She put a parchment next to Harry on the bed and did the first spell. Immediately many lines filled with words appeared on the parchment. She looked at the parchment and asked Harry, “Do you still have a headache?”

Harry nodded and said, “But it’s not bad, I’m fine.”

His Grandmother waved her wand again, this time to take his temperature and scolded him, “No, you are not fine, don’t give me that; you still have quite a headache and a fever; I will give you two Potions and then I want you to sleep, so that you hopefully will be able to have fun with your friends tomorrow.”

“Alright Granny, thanks,” Harry mumbled tiredly and was asleep within seconds.

-----

The five friends spent the next morning exploring the big Potter Manor. There were about 30 rooms, each of them as big as the room Harry and Remus shared, nearly as big as their dormitory in Gryffindor tower. Everyone was impressed by the huge library; it was much bigger than the one Harry knew from Grimmauld Place of the future. After lunch Harry was told to rest, so they decided to spend the afternoon in Remus’ and Harry’s room doing their homework and looking through the charms books Remus and Lily had brought. They were keen to finish the charms for the map in order to get the map complete as soon as they returned to Hogwarts.

“James?” Sirius suddenly asked, “Do you have the map with you? I would like to know if we can see who is at Hogwarts even when we are here with the map.”

James looked at him thoughtfully. “That’s a dammed good question!” He pulled the map out of his pocket and showed it to his friends.

“Wow, Dumbledore is walking around in his office,” Lily giggled.

Harry was stunned. He would not have believed that the map worked from such as distance. He joined the conversation, “James, I think we should use a charm so that the map is only accessible using a password. You have to say a password like for example ‘I solemnly swear that I am up to no good’ to have the map show something, and if you don’t know the password you will just see an empty parchment.”

“Yes, Harry is right; we cannot run around Hogwarts with the map in our pockets like this. I mean, everyone could use it. So that’s the next charm we have to look for,” Remus said.

For the next thirty minutes, there was silence, and Harry was nearly asleep while everybody else was feverishly searching through the books when Lily suddenly shouted excitedly, “Here, look! This is what we are looking for, isn’t it? It’s called the Himitsu charm.” She showed the book to Remus and James, who curiously read the text she pointed to.

Remus was the first to speak, “Yes, I think she’s right. Let’s try it anyway. Lily, you are the best at Charms, so maybe you should try the spell.”

“But please use a copy of the map first, not that I don’t trust you Lily, but...” James contradicted.

Lily immediately interrupted him. “Of course James, we have to try all charms and spells on the copies first. Only when we are sure they really work we should put them on the original map.” She tried the charm and it worked.

“All right, so we need another charm to shut the map down afterwards. We need another charm and we need a text for it,” Sirius said.

“For the text we should ask Harry, he invented this one already, so he’ll be able to think of another one”, James added, “and concerning the charm let’s rely on Lily. I mean it should not be so different from this one, or what do you think Lily?”

Lily only nodded already wrapped up in the book again. Sirius walked over to Harry’s bed and shook him, “Wake up you lazybones!”

Harry blinked and tried to remember where he was. “Hmm?”

“Harry, we need another password to end the map,” a voice penetrated his ear.

Harry sighed and mumbled sleepily, “Try ‘mischief managed’.”

“What was that? Mischief managed?” Remus said and giggled.

“Oh here, now let me try,” Lily said excitedly and gripped the copy she was working on, charmed it and handed it to Sirius. “Here you troublemaker, can you try it out and let innocent, sick boys sleep please?” By dinnertime, they had found some more useful charms, which Lily applied on the map.

“That’s it, now we only have to explore the castle a little more and the map is finished,” James said contently.

However, Harry, who had so far not participated in the activities cleared his throat, so that everyone looked over to him expectantly, and said, “We need a charm, which provides that the map always shows the real names of people, even when they are under Polyjuice Potion or some other charm or spell.”

For a minute, there was no reaction at all. His friends were too impressed to say anything, but then James said, “All right, Lily and Remus, our Charms heads, go on and study please.” However, at this mument Tipsy appeared and announced dinnertime; so they postponed the research to another time.

-----

After dinner, Mrs. Potter accompanied Harry to his room and checked on him. When she was finished and reached over to the shelf to get a Potion for him, Harry glanced at her and said in a small voice, “I’m sorry for being such a burden.”

His grandmother was totally shocked to hear her grandchild say what he did and finally sat down next to him on his bed. “Harry, how do you get the idea you were a burden? You are not, nor will you ever be a burden to us.” She frowned. “Harry, may I ask you something?”

Harry looked at his Grandmother astonished and said, “Yes, of course.”

“Harry, I don’t know if you know this, but Dumbledore has put a spell on Harold and me, so that we are not able to talk about your connection to us or about anything you tell us about the future. Therefore, you may tell us anything you want. I would like to ask you… who raised you? It was not your parents, was it?”

Harry sadly shook his head. “My parents both died when I was a year old. That was why I chose to kill Voldemort in the past – to save my parents’ lives. My mum’s sister raised me. She is a squib, but she does not know it; she thinks she is a Muggle, and her husband is one, and they are just horrible. However, as Voldemort is dead, my parents will not die by his hand, so I hope that they will survive and raise me by themselves this time. And my mum has already promised to take precautions that I wouldn’t have to live with her sister if she and my father died by any other means.”

His grandmother, who had been listening intensively to comprehend everything Harry was ranting about, tried to ask more detailed, “Harry, how exactly did they raise you? Didn’t they love you at all?”

Harry snorted. “No, they hate me. As soon as I was old enough to look over the kitchen table at about the age of three, they made me do chores, in the kitchen, in the garden, in the House; I was their House elf until I started Hogwarts. Until then I had never known about my parents, about wizards, about anything concerning magic. I got my first birthday present and also my first Christmas present when I was 11.”

“Did they ever beat you?”

“Only a little bit, when I did accidental magic or so. It was nothing.”

“I see. Um… Poppy told me that your immune system is very weak. Does this have anything to do with the way your relatives raised you?”

Harry sighed. “Probably. They have never taken me to a Healer, when I was ill; everything had to heal by itself. And last year during summer I had a bad cold, but I couldn’t do anything about it. I had even thought about flying to Hogwarts to see Pomfrey, but they had taken my broom away, so I couldn’t, and finally I got pneumonia and had to stay in the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts for more than six weeks. Poppy told me this was what damaged my immune system. And I think it’s true; before that I’ve never been ill at Hogwarts, but since then every second week.”

“Harry, you don’t have to answer any questions you don’t want to answer, all right?” Harry nodded. “Is my assumption correct, that your mother is Lily?”

Harry smiled. “Yes, Granny. You can’t imagine how happy I am to be with my parents whom I haven’t known at all for all those years.”

“I can believe that. Is there a reason why they are not to know that you are their son? And for your friends not to know that you come from the future?”

Harry sighed again. “Lily knows that she’s my mother and of course that I come from the future, but I didn’t tell her, she guessed it, when my Great Grandparents told her about their relationship to her. Concerning the others… James guessed that I am somehow related to him, nothing more. And I would like to leave it at that.”

He frowned and glanced at his grandmother. “I don’t want to influence Lily and James about their relationship. I do not want them to think they have to be together in order for me to be born or something like that, and I don’t want to attract any attention. Believe it or not, I hate attention, nevertheless I’m always getting too much of it, and if the Marauders knew I came from the future, they would cease treating me normally I think. I don’t know, it just seems the right thing to do, to hide it from them. Do you think I should tell them?”

“I don’t know Harry. We can talk about it another time, maybe by then we will have other ideas. I won’t tell anyone, I give you my word. Now, I need you to drink these two Potions again, and then maybe you should try to sleep.”

“All right, Granny, thanks for talking to me…um… and… um… for everything else as well.”

“Good night my boy.” She gave him a kiss on his forehead and left the room.

-----

When his grandmother came in the morning to check on Harry, he was talking to Remus very excitedly. “Remus, how could I forget about that? It’s horrible! What am I going to do?”

She quickly went to Harry’s bedside and put a hand on his forehead. “Harry, calm down, son. What is wrong with you?”