Chapter 4- Of traditions passed along

Hogwarts life was interesting if nothing else. In two months she had gone from the bossy know-it-all freak from school to the, well, just bossy know-it-all. But now she had friends. Two very good friends. Ron had apologized, if a little awkwardly and Harry, well against Harry she just had his penchant for going against the rules. But maybe that wasn’t bad, he did save her life by disobeying orders. Poor Harry, after that whole ordeal with his father he had been treated to similar hugging and scolding by his Uncle right in the middle of the Great Hall. At least her parents weren’t here. Ron too had a big scolding from his mum when she brought Ginny in but at least she did that in private.

But there was one thing bugging her and her new friends. That trapdoor under the three headed dog. Harry told her about a package he’d seen Hagrid take from Gringotts on his birthday. Apparently they’d met there and shared a cart. That same day there was a break in. Ron insisted that whatever it was Professor Snape was after it. Harry didn’t agree and Hermione figured Harry would know him well enough. Though with how Snape seemed to hate Harry she couldn’t blame Ron’s reasoning.

But there were other things that came with this new friendship. Like what she just did right now. Racing back to Ron and holding the jar with the fire that she had just set on Snape, she was so caught up on what she had been doing that she’d knocked down a few teachers including Quirrell, Black ad Lupin.

Reaching Ron she saw that Harry caught the snitch, well he kind of swallowed it, but the important thing is he landed safely and Gryffindor won. She and Ron rushed toward him but Professors Black and Lupin had reached him first and another session of public hugging went on. Poor Harry! Professors Black and Lupin were quite young, she guessed thirty or at least very close, they shouldn’t have forgotten yet what embarrassed an eleven year old boy. Harry was blushing furiously and trying to escape his guardians grip. When he finally managed he grabbed Ron and Hermione and rushed them to Hagrid’s hut where they found chocolate milk and cake that Harry and Ron declined and she thought best to do so too.

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“So Harry, What happened ter yeh broom,” Hagrid asked.

“Don-“ Harry started to answer but was cut off by an outraged Ron.

“Snape jinx it!”

Harry had to try really hard not to start laughing.

“What?” he asked.

“Yes, he did,” Hermione stated, “I read all about jinxes. You have to keep eye contact and he wasn’t blinking and when I put him on fire the broom stopped bucking.”

“You did WHAT?” Oh, Uncle Sev was not going to bee happy. His dad on the other hand would be gleeful for a month.

“Lit up a fire on his robes to distract him,” she said casually.

“Now, why would Professor Snape wanna hurt Harry?” Hagrid asked.

“Because he hates him and Harry knows he was after whatever is hidden under that three headed dog?” Ron cried.

“How do you know about Fluffy?” Hagrid asked preoccupied.

“Fluffy? That’s Fluffy? The puppy you said you got last year?” Harry asked bewildered.

“Yes, sweet puppy,” Hagrid said fondly. The kids where looking at him as if he was the one with three heads. “Now yeh three leave whatever Fluffy is guarding be,” he said sternly, “That’s between Professor Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel.”

“Whose- Ouch” Ron was glaring at Harry and rubbing his thigh.

“That’s okay Hagrid. We won’t go looking for anything. We should go now. Bye, Bye,” he said urging his friends out.

“Oh, yes,” Hermione said and started pushing Ron, “We’ve got loads of homework.”

“But I don’t want to do homework,” Ron protested but was pushed out.

When they were out of ear shot Hermione turned to Harry.

“What do you know?”

“Nicolas Flamel is an old friend of Dumbledore’s. They worked together on the twelve uses of dragon’s blood. He’s also famous for something else but I can’t remember now.”

“That’s okay I’ll find out,” Hermione said.

“No, Hermione. I promised my dad I wouldn’t’ go looking-“

“And you’re not. I am.”

Ron looked at her proudly, “Our Hermione is learning so fast.” He wiped a fake tear.

XXXXXXXXXXX

He was definitely in a bad mood. Not proof enough.  He snorted. What was he waiting for?

A shy knock came from the door and he barked an invitation. The door opened and closed and green eyes were looking apologetically up at him.

“You okay Uncle Sev?”

“Yes, your friend didn’t manage to torch me too much,” he grunted.

“She was just trying to help. And she thought you were jinxing my broom.”

“For your information I was chanting the counter jinx. But I guess that’s what I get for being a good actor,” he sighed dramatically.

Harry chuckled and sat on the chair next to Severus’.

“Dad said he thinks Quirrell was jinxing my broom. Told me to never be alone with him.”

“And he is right. If I am a good actor that man is even better. He has everyone fooled.”

“Why would he though?”

“I am not sure and I don’t like the possibilities I am coming up with.”

“You think he’s a Death Eater?”

“He’s too young to be one. He was still in school when the Dark Lord fell. But you can never be sure. What I am sure is that someone tried to knock you out that broom and I had a hard time keeping you up even though I know your father and Remus were chanting too. No student could have managed that. And Quirrell is my only suspect.”

Harry bit his lips worried.

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Christmas this year was going to be spent at Grimmauld Place. Not that Harry cared since he couldn’t fly anyway. The Weasleys were going to Romania to visit Charlie and Ginny had been unbearable with all her talk about seeing the dragons up close. Harry would have liked to see a dragon up close but even if he had been invited there was no way his dad would let him go. A few years back the Weasleys wouldn’t have been able to afford taking all the kids but since Mrs. Weasley started working their situation improved a little. Not a lot, Ron still grumbled about having to use Charlie’s old wand and not getting a pet. That had always been a sore point for Ron, his poverty while Harry was the heir to two of the biggest fortunes of the Wizarding World. The Blacks, being the adoptive son of the Head of the house and the Potters, which he would come to once he turned seventeen. Right now his dad was executor. He usually was very generous with Harry’s pocket money but after confabulating with Uncle Moony, his dad had come to the conclusion that he’d been to lenient on Harry and decided to take away his pocket money until further notice. So to buy his Christmas gifts Harry had to hand his father the list of what he wanted to get and to his Uncle Moony what he wanted to get his dad, which meant his dad knew how much he spent on him since Uncle Moony got the money from him. He just didn’t now what he got.

The week before the holidays started he already had everything he wanted. His dad made fun of Harry because of that and said that he was becoming a second Moony. He had spent Sunday with his dad and Uncle and had forgotten about the time so now he found himself running through the passages and shortcuts to try to get to Gryffindor Tower before curfew. As he was passing a room with which he new he could get from one corridor to another he ran past a weird mirror. He wouldn’t have stopped but he saw more than one person in the reflection from the corner of his eyes. He backed and stood in front of the mirror. He let out a gasp of surprise for he knew all the people in the mirror. Right there looking back at him, next to his reflection were his birth parents. His mother with his green eyes, his father with his messy hair. Next to his father was his adoptive father with an arm around James shoulder laughing. Uncle Moony was next to him laughing too and to the side of his mother was Uncle Sev, unguarded like Harry saw him very few times. Smiling like few knew he could. Next to his best friend, but not hiding, not calling them names in front of everyone to keep appearances. This was what they would, they should, have been in a world without Voldemort. Harry didn’t know how long he stood there seeing James ruffle his hair, Lily hugging him. How long he watched Prongs, Moony and Padfoot joke around or Lily and Sev laugh and talk like he could have just imagined. Strong hands grabbed him and turned him around and he was met by soft, concerned brown eyes.

“Harry, are you okay?”

He just stared at his Uncle and then back at the mirror. They were still there except there were two Remuses and one was trying to catch his attention.

“Harry, come back. It’s just an illusion,” he said running a hand through the boys face and turning it to face him.

“We’re all there. We’re happy. My parents too. And you and dad. And Uncle Sev doesn’t have to pretend,” he said lost.

Remus smiled sadly.

“It’s an illusion Harry. The Mirror of Erised shows your hearts greatest desire. You’re seeing us in a world that we would all have wanted. But it’s not real. It’s just a dream, and a wise man once told me that “It does not do to dwell in dreams and forget to live.””

Harry nodded and swallowed a painful lump.

“I’ll take you to your dorm and talk to Albus to get this out of here. Ron and Hermione got worried when you didn’t show up after curfew and alerted Sirius and Minerva. We’ve been looking for a couple of hours already.”

Harry nodded and left with him but not before stealing a last glance at the mirror.

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Harry stretched on his bed. Got up. Did not change from his pajamas and went to the kitchen for breakfast. He loved having breakfast on pajamas, but he only could do that here. Down the stairs he greeted his Grandmother’s painting.

“Hello Grandma.”

“Hello Harry, how was school?”

His Grandmother was a very weird woman. She was always polite and well behaved when he was in the house but if dad or Uncle Moony came here without him she would shriek for hours. His Dad had tried every spell he knew and a few muggle methods to get her down but had no success.

“Fine, thank you. We arrived yesterday by portkey but you were sleeping,” to Sirius relief, “Dad had to see the Gryffindors off since he was already taking the holiday off and leaving Aunt Minnie to deal with them alone.”

“And you were sorted in?”

“Gryffindor.”

“No doubt influence of that good for nothing father of yours,” she wrinkled her nose, “Shame of my flesh. I hope you behaved like a noble Black should.”

“Yes I did,” there was no need to talk about the Troll, or what led to the duel.

“Good, now go on. You need nourishment.”

“Good morning mother,” came his dad’s voice from the top of the stairs.

“Humph,” she huffed and the curtains around her paintings closed.

Sirius shook his head and grinned at Harry. He too was in pajamas and putting and arm around Harry’s shoulders and leading him to the kitchen he said.

“Now, what sort of mischief and mayhem should we cause today young Harry?”

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Christmas morning dawned bright and early and Padfoot was padding his way to his friend’s room. If there was one day he didn’t mind waking up early that was Christmas day. He got in the room lunged for the bed. Licked the face of the person sleeping there and jumped off before Remus cries of “Urgh Sirius!” had ended. Then he proceeded to do the same in his son room and was already trotting through the halls to the drawing room when the cry of “DAAAD!” had died.

Impatient he flapped his tail while seated next to the enormous Christmas tree. Two very grumpy figures came in.

“Worse than a child,” Remus grumbled, “Harry was never like that.”

Padfoot didn’t mind. With a pop he transformed back and sat between his grumbling friend and his son that was still rubbing the sleep off his eyes.

“PRESENTS!” he cried and started handing parcels out.

“Sirius, do you see your son shouting and jumping on his bottom?” Remus asked ironically.

“That’s because he doesn’t appreciate the good things in life,” Sirius answered.

“Wha?” asked Harry whose brain was still half asleep, while he mechanically opened a wrapping paper.

Sirius and Remus were staring at the object being unwrapped mesmerized. Somewhere Sirius knew he should be groaning but he couldn’t prevent the flow of memories.

Harry finally woke up by the beauty of the cloak and stammered:

“Is this, is this…”

“Your father’s Invisibility Cloak,” Sirius said hoarsely.

“We had a lot of adventures with that cloak. We’ve told you all about them Harry,” Remus said with a sad smile.

Harry touched the cloak reverently and before he got up to try it he read the note attached and laughed.

When Harry was up and all of him you could see was his head Remus caught the note and chuckled too. Sirius tore himself of the memories of another eleven year old with glasses and messy hair head’s running around without a body and grabbed the note from Remus’ hand.

Dear Harry,

Your father James left this with me before he died. I think it is time I hand it to you, even though Sirius would have wanted you to have it sooner. I was quite tempted to let him running around and invisible toddler but alas, Minerva stopped me.

Use it well.

Happy Christmas

Grandpa

“I guess it’s a good thing we can count with Minerva then,” Sirius tried to sound dignified. By the extreme laughter coming from the other two occupants of the room he thought he must have failed miserably.

“Humph,” Sirius grunted, “I am going to open my presents now,” and he grabbed the one with Harry’s handwriting. He always opened first Harry’s then Moony’s, then any other that the staff and his cousin may have sent. He unwrapped the paper and inhaled deeply. Looking up at him from a huge silver frame that had a stag, a wolf, a dog and a lily carved where various versions of James, Lily, Remus, himself and Harry. He saw from the corner of his eyes that Remus had a similar gift.

“Did you like it?” Harry asked worried, “It’s for your offices. I noticed you didn’t have a lot of pictures of family around and I decided to kind of make a collage with your years at Hogwarts and afterwards. I had to ask Grandpa to come get all the photo albums and he showed me how to make the copies. I tried really hard to only get pictures that had only you four and not, well you know. Is it okay?”

In a second Harry had been engulfed by Remus and Sirius in a three way hug.

“It’s perfect,” Remus whispered and Sirius nodded in Harry’s head.

“But how did you get it. You had us buy the presents and this frame wasn’t in the list. As a matter of fact I remember Moony’s present being a book.”

“Yeah, and Sirius’ a Chudley Cannons shirt,” Remus said and then, “Oh, that was Ron’s. I thought it weird that you bought a Chudley Cannons shirt for Sirius but I just thought you were angry because of your grounding.”

“I had ordered and paid for the frames in the summer when you let me wander a little in Diagon Alley to talk to Hagrid. This took a while to get ready. I had to choose from a lot of pictures from your Hogwarts years. But I had to ask you to buy something so I just added Ron’s and Hermione’s birthday presents for next year in the list,” he beamed at his own cleverness.

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He woke up late and dreaded having to meet Albus and the other cheery staff at the Christmas feast. The one person he wanted here had gone to London and even if he was here they would have had to keep their public façade of hate. Though he knew Harry would find a way to sneak to his chambers for a private hug and exchange of gifts. And speaking of gifts he spotted his at the bedside table. He stretched and went cautiously to them. There were four gifts. One from Albus and Minerva of course. One from Harry and one he mostly dreaded. Why the mutt and the wolf insisted on giving him a gift he would never know. He was always afraid it would be rigged and explode on him. So far it never had but Severus was sure they were just luring him to a false sense of security. He poked at them with his wand trying to find Harry’s and levitate the Marauder’s far away from him. He carefully unwrapped Harry’s gift and gasped. In a beautiful silver frame with cauldrons and herbs engraved he found pictures of him and Lily in school. Pictures he thought lost forever. There she was, smiling at and with him, discussing a potion. He also found the few pictures of him and Harry. He was always afraid of taking pictures with Harry, what if someone found them? There was a note and he smiled while he read it.

Dear Uncle Sev,

I found these pictures in my mom’s old stuff. Grandpa helped me make copies and put a concealing charm. Anyone that doesn’t know the truth about our relationship from us will see a copy of your Potion Mastery’s diploma. Even if someone figures out about us but is not told by us they will not be able to see this pictures. You can keep them in your Quarters instead of your office if you want. I just thought you’d like something to remember mum by.

Happy Christmas.

Harry

He carefully placed the frame on his bedside table and stared at it forever losing himself in the memories of the beautiful witch from his neighborhood. His first true friend. For a long time his only true friend, until Harry came and showed him that he didn’t have to be alone and angry all the time.

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Harry and Sirius were mounting Sirius’ flying motorcycle. They were going to visit Aunt Andy and Uncle Ted to say Happy Christmas even though Christmas lunch must have ended hours ago. The Tonks usually spent Christmas with Ted’s family and Sirius and Harry stopped by in the evening.

“Ok pup lets do the check. Security charmed helmet check?” Sirius asked.

Laughing Harry answered.

“Check.”

“Security sticking charm for underage wizards check.”

Harry tried to move from the seat and unable said, “Check.”

“Warm jacket and warming spells so Andy doesn’t have my hide for taking the poor boy in this gelid weather in such a dangerous piece of machinery from hell check?”

“Check.”

“Ok, than we just have to take off,” he said turning the engine on and opening the garage door, “Hey pup, how long do you reckon Snape is going to throw detection spells and glare at his present this year?”

“Don’t know, last year it was a whole month.”

“Maybe we can break a record. Never thought the best prank on Snape would be actually not pranking him,” Sirius laughed as they soared through the skies.