Vicis Vulnus

Chapter Six. Christmas Surprises

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The castle was beginning to feel more festive, with Christmas just around the corner. It was the middle of December, and McGonagall had already taken everybody's name who was staying for the holidays. Hermione was going home to see her parents, but Harry had signed up to stay. He was half hoping he would be able to see Sirius again over the break. As soon as he had left the Headmaster's office he had grabbed Hermione from the Great Hall and told her everything that had happened. She had gone to the library and looked up all the old newspaper articles about the event, and it had replaced their spot of interest from the Philosopher's Stone. Since then Harry had received a letter from Sirius, and had replied enthusiastically, but nothing else had happened. The Prophet had released an article about his false imprisonment and had made scathing comments about the Ministry's policies at the same time as an official apology went out to Sirius. It caused a large amount of talk, and multiple students had pointed out Harry with renewed interest since he had been mentioned in the paper.

It was on a cold morning that Harry and Hermione made their way down to the Great Hall for a late breakfast two days before break. Many of the students were shivering and bundled up in thick cloaks and scarves, but Harry had taken to casting heating charms on the two of them before going anywhere so they remained unaffected. They saw Hagrid on the way down bringing in trees for the Christmas feast.

"Hagrid!" Harry called, waving his hand at the half-giant. The groundskeeper looked over the tree branches and smiled at the two of them as they approached together. "What's this? Need help?"

"Nah, they're just trees for the Great Hall," He replied. "Thanks though."

"They're rather big, aren't they?" Hermione asked as they walked beside him into the dining area.

"Tha' they are," Hagrid chuckled, motioning his head to the trees already inside the hall. There were twelve trees lining the halls, decorated with candles and icicles, as holly and mistletoe was hung up along the ceiling and walls. Hagrid placed the tree in the corner and looked down at the two students. "How many days left 'til yer holidays?"

"One more," Hermione said, watching as Professor Flitwick began decorating the next tree. Hagrid nodded and they split ways, the two students sitting down and pulling food toward them.

"Harry," Hermione asked after a moment. "Do you think you'll spend time with Sirius over break?"

Harry chewed his food thoughtfully before answering, "I don't know. I hope so."

She opened her mouth to say something else but stopped, looking at the doorway. Harry turned to look. Ron and Malfoy- with Crabbe and Goyle behind him- were standing outside exchanging taunts. Or, Malfoy was taunting; Ron was getting ready to punch him. Just as Ron lunged forward a shadow appeared beside them, telling the redhead off. Harry smiled grimly. He had been avoiding all unnecessary contact with the Slytherin's Head of House, and it seemed like Ron was getting the short end of the stick in this lifetime. He still hadn't forgiven him for making Hermione cry, however, so his sympathy was limited. It was then that Ron walked into the Great Hall and both Harry and Hermione swerved their heads away, trying not to look like they had been watching.

Something about their faces must have shown, because Ron scowled at them as he went by. Harry stifled a snigger and Hermione elbowed him in the ribs, sending a 'it's not funny' glare at him. Harry grinned apologetically and they went back to eating his food.

The next day they spent their morning in the library completing their homework until Harry dragged her outside. He then proceeded to start a snowball fight with her, making her shriek at the first unsuspecting ball of snow and start fling back ammunition with a fury. It wasn't until two large piles of snow dropped on them, courtesy of the Weasley twins, that they called it a fight and walked into the Great Hall with the redheads, learning that the Weasleys planned on staying for the winter break as well.

"Mum and Dad are visiting our brother in Romania," George said, shrugging. "He works with dragons."

"So we're staying here, I guess they don't want us to ruin their lovely trip to see our dearest second eldest brother." Fred grinned mischievously.

"What about you two?" Fred asked, glancing between them.

"I'm going back home for the break," Hermione supplied. "My parents are Muggles, so it's nice to keep them up to date with what's happening to their only daughter."

"I'm staying here," Harry shrugged. The twins seemed to gasp, and exchanged exaggerated glances.

"George, did you hear that?"

"I heard it as well as you did Feorge."

"Imagine Gred, one's leaving…"

"…one's staying."

"How will they survive?"

"I'm not sure Fred."

The two first years frowned as they followed the conversation back and forth. It wasn't their first time being teased by the twins on the fact that they were pretty much inseparable. The four of them walked into the Great Hall, but suddenly the twins stopped, which forced the two younger students behind them to halt as well. One leaned over and said something quietly to the other, who straightened and nodded. He turned around as the other twin kept walking, an impish look to his eyes.

"Harry, Hermione, would you two spare me a moment?"

"Why?" Harry asked suspiciously. George brought his hand up to his heart, a mock wounded expression on his face.

"Don't you trust me Harry? We're teammates!"

Harry snorted. "Sure I trust you, I still want to know why."

George brought out his wand and a piece of parchment from his pocket. He quickly flicked the wood at the paper and folded it. Harry frowned. It hadn't been the Marauder's Map, it had looked too new. George took two steps backward and held the parchment out in front of him. "Look."

They hesitated, but finally Harry took a step forward to view whatever was on the parchment. "If this is some sort of hex to keep me singing Christmas carols all week, know I'll be following you around."

George's grin grew even wider. He looked at Hermione, keeping the paper folded until they were both looking at it. She glanced between the paper and Harry a few times before she finally stepped forward herself. As soon as they were both there he flipped it open.

Mistletoe Above You

It took them the same amount of time between reading the three words and glancing up to register exactly what the note implied.

"Aah!" Harry exclaimed, immediately throwing back his arms to stumble away from the spot he was standing. He lost his footing and crashed to the floor, earning himself a large number of stares from the students and teachers who hadn't noticed what was going on and howls of laughter from the other three present. Hermione quickly side stepped out of the plants way, clutching her sides as she saw Harry's flush. He glared at them all, feeling his face burn brighter as other people in the hall figured out what happened. "Oh shut up."

"Not the result we were expecting, but satisfying nonetheless," Fred said from his seat at the Gryffindor table. George walked over to join him, still chuckling.

Hermione waited for Harry to get up before they walked over to the table themselves, Harry refusing to look at anybody trying to catch his eye. He already knew the Slytherins would pick on him for that, even if his rivalry didn't quite exist in this lifetime.

The rest of the day passed quietly and before he knew it he was up the next morning sending off Hermione in the common room. They wished each other happy holidays and Hermione ran to catch the train. Harry spent the rest of the first day sitting in the common room reading. He figured he'd finally be able to get some things done over the next week that he hadn't had the chance to do with Hermione present. The first thing would be to get Ravenclaw's diadem from the Room of Requirements. The second would be to find a way to kill that damn basilisk before it could tear his head off the next year. Ideally he would like to avoid fighting it at all, but he still wanted a back up plan for if he couldn't grab the diary from Flourish and Blotts during the summer. He had a rough idea he was hoping would work, and he figured he'd solidify it with more time in the library. The first time around they'd had a single passage about basilisks to go off of, but considering how ancient of a beast it was Harry knew there'd be more sources on it somewhere. After looking up more about basilisk, he wanted to make a proper list of everything guarding the Stone and figure out how to get rid of them. He already knew, of course, but it would be nice to get his thoughts organized on the subject. And of course there was Sirius. If his godfather wanted to spend time with him that would have a high priority as well.

The next morning after going down to breakfast Harry figured he'd get started on his self assignments for the break. He made his way up to the seventh floor, deciding to get the easiest thing out of the way first. He pulled out his map just before reaching the hallway it was located in, making sure there was nobody near him to see what he was doing. Deciding it was safe he walked back and forth three times concentrating on the Room of Hidden Things.

The door appeared, and Harry drew in a breath before slowly making his way into the room. He could still feel the flames of the fiendfyre as he escaped with Malfoy on his broom at the Battle of Hogwarts. It was before he was able to switch sides, but Harry knew it was a turning point. Dumbledore had been outside fighting Voldemorts forces, leaving Harry to acquire the Horcrux by himself. He still couldn't believe the old man hadn't thought to search his own school. Everyone had told him it was a ridiculous idea. The looks on the Order's faces when he arrived back with the remains of the once priceless artifact made it worth it, though. No one said anything to him for a week, each too embarrassed at laughing at him to do it.

Shaking the memories from his head he made his way toward the back of the room, searching for the tiara he had once so carelessly thrown about. He took him an hour of careful searching before he finally found it. When he did, he picked it up carefully and inspected it. Cringing at what he knew he had to do, he picked up his pouch from around his neck and placed to Horcrux inside of a small bag before closing it all. If he killed the basilisk he could get rid of the thing, but he wanted to find another way which meant putting up with its presence for the moment. There was no way he'd leave it laying around, and once he got to his room he could find a way to transfer it to his Gringotts vault. The goblins didn't care what was stored inside their bank as long as it didn't interfere with their business. Feeling the weight of the soul shard beginning to get to him already he quietly made his way out of the room, checking the map to see if anything had changed. Nothing had- and sighing he walked to the library to get started on his basilisk search.

-:-:-:-

"What are you trying to do, Potter?"

Harry glanced around the dream space, seeing the ring of darkness he had come to expect whenever Voldemort's soul shard wanted a chat. It hadn't started the first time around until later in life, after he had confronted him about everything. After that, a large part of Harry stopped caring about the war, and in his darker thoughts the shard had gained strength, feeding off of his magic enough to create a form for itself so it could talk to him, like the Riddle in the diary had made a form by drawing on Ginny's life force. The only difference was Harry kept the shard inside of his mind, not allowing it to become a physical manifestation. Simply to differentiate between it, the Riddle shards, and Voldemort, he had given it a name. A completely unoriginal name, just to make it angry. Shard. He supposed the only reason it could talk to him now was because of his larger magic core and the added influence of the Diadem's soul bit.

"Killing you. Or, the better part of you," Harry replied coolly. His demeanor wasn't quite as imposing as his twenty-two year old form had been, but he was sure he had least got some type of intimidation across. Having an eleven year old threaten to destroy your soul was at least a little intimidating, right? Maybe? Apparently not, because Shard smirked.

"You should watch what you're saying Potter. You're aware you have a second piece of my soul on you right now, correct?" Shard sneered. "That makes me stronger, didn't you learn that with the locket?"

Harry frowned. "No, school was out. I wasn't interested in learning during break."

Shard hissed at him. Harry simply smiled. He knew he shouldn't be provoking the soul, his mind had been torn apart more than once because of their fights, but he couldn't help himself. During the war Shard had become his summer-Dudley replacement, and he had come to vent out all of his anger on the intruder. They stood in silence for a moment, sizing each other up while waiting for the other to say the next word.

Finally Harry asked, "Did you want something? Or are you just wasting my magic?"

"My time is never a waste Potter," Shard answered in monotone. He walked around the outer ring of darkness, flitting just where Harry's line of sight ended. "Got rid of those filthy glasses I noticed."

"Yeah, had glass stabbed into my eyes. Kind of had to fix it," Harry replied sarcastically. The figure narrowed its eyes but said nothing. Harry tensed, waiting for blows he knew would be coming. It seemed like they had gone a little too long without Shard trying to take over his consciousness and he was ready to give it another go.

"Whatever your attitude, it will save me time later," Shard said simply. "You didn't think I was going to keep them did you?"

"Give up already. You're not getting my body," Harry spat. The way the soul spoke, it was like he already had the body and just hadn't picked it up from the drycleaners yet. Harry knew it was suppose to get to him, but he couldn't help but let it. Not even the shard in his head thought he was a worthy opponent, and it pissed him off. Ever since Voldemort had tried to posses him in his fifth year Shard had been trying to do the same. Harry had to wonder if Voldemort had figured out about the soul shard during that time, it would explain a lot, but now wasn't the time to think about it.

"I disagree."

The voice echoed from around the ring and Harry swerved to avoid a burst of green light that came from behind him. Since they were inside his mind they didn't have any wands, and they couldn't actually kill each other. The only thing they could do was send enough magical force at one another until one of their consciousnesses was weakened to the point where it would either flee or be overpowered. For intimidation they could shape the burst to resemble spells- the mind would immediately signal that one burst did something it really didn't and the person would waste time dodging a green 'killing curse' while a truly powerful burst was coming disguised as a red spark. Harry had learned to treat all of the spells with equal suspicion in his mind and spent more time dodging than firing.

He spun around, trying to find where Shard had disappeared to. A crackle of air behind him sent him into another dive, and he flung a burst of bright magic back in that direction. He concentrated and sent a large burst throughout the entire area, lightning it up more brightly than it had been before. Shard was standing a small way to the side, watching him as if he hadn't lost any advantage at all. Harry growled, bringing his arm up and shooting a red blur at his opponent. Shard copied the movement with a green surge and the two magics crashed into each other.

Harry felt himself beginning to breath heavy. All of the magic they used was his, and he would become tired when the soul piece wouldn't feel a thing with its small storage of magic. "Damn it Shard, just give up!"

"Why, when you're overexerting yourself?"

Harry clenched his teeth and drove a spiral of violet light at Shard, who disappeared, reappearing behind the emerald-eyed boy. Harry felt himself be hit in the back with a large spike of power and stumbled forward. He quickly leapt to the side and turned to face his opponent again. Why, inside of his own mind, couldn't he disappear and reappear at will while the intruder could? It made no sense, and he felt it was simply because he wasn't able to practice the skill enough to learn how it was done. Harry reached his hand upward and smack a clear gust of magic at Shard like a wall of wind. It wasn't quite as strong, but it was harder to dodge, and Shard stumbled back when it hit him.

The spirit glared up at the boy and disappeared again, sending Harry swerving around to find out where he'd gone.

"I'm still right here," Shard said in sadistic pleasure, and Harry barely had time to register the amateurish trick when a flash of light hit him from behind and he felt his body collapse to the floor. He felt his arm shaking as he tried to get up, and a hard jab in the back made him cry out in pain. The amused voice echoed from above him, "I can't remember the last time you fell for that, Potter. Your time in 'peace' is making you rusty."

Harry cringed, trying to throw the foot off of his back. He felt another hard smack and gasped, pausing in his struggle. "No no Potter. You will behave."

Shard's foot came up and kicked him onto his back, and the soul looked down at the eleven year old figure curiously. "Perhaps it's your age. That could always be affecting you as well." He shook his head, "But it doesn't really matter, now does it? Time for you to undergo a little- improvement, shall we say. Goodbye, Potter."

Shard lifted his hand up and sent a tunnel of magic at Harry's person, causing him to scream in pain. It wasn't the first time their fight had turned out that way, and all he had to do to keep possession of his body was to keep his consciousness until he woke up. It could take a while, and Harry felt himself crying out as his body fought the pain. Part of his body wanted to curl up while another part was trying its hardest to flail, and Harry felt himself convulse from the magic. Suddenly he heard a shout, and with effort tore his eyes open.

Harry jolted up, sweating profusely and shaking. Two arms grabbed him and shook him gently.

"Harry? Harry? Are you alright?" The deep voice asked. Harry looked to his side to see hollow grey eyes watching him in worry. Standing above his bed, McGonagall stared down at him, her face pale.

"Wha-?" Harry asked, trying to regain his bearings.

"You were screaming, Harry," Sirius said. He hadn't let go of his godchild's shoulders and was peering into Harry's eyes.

Harry stared at them. "You heard-? How? What happened to my silencing charm?"

"Silencing charm, Potter?" McGonagall asked, "Is that what it was?"

Harry nodded, "I always put a charm up before I go to bed…it's never not worked before."

The two adults exchanged glances. McGonagall looked at him, still rather pale. "Well, your charm worked Mister Potter. We didn't hear you until we opened your curtains."

Harry looked between them again. "Oh."

"Harry?" Sirius asked quietly, "What was that? Why were you screaming?"

He looked at his godfather and bit his lip. This wasn't the impression he wanted Sirius to have of him- some idiot child who couldn't keep his night terrors under control. "Just a nightmare," he said. Seeing Sirius was still waiting, he shrugged and said, "It's nothing. I've never slept well."

"How often does this happen?" the man questioned.

Again Harry shrugged. "Nightmares? Err, most nights. That one was a little worse than usual though." He quickly tried to change the subject. "Uhm, if I may ask, why are you two in my dormitory? Professor?" He added, looking at McGonagall to imply her as well.

"When you didn't come down for breakfast on time Mister Black wanted to come up and get you. For that he needed myself, as Head of House," The professor replied. "Most children don’t sleep in on Christmas morning."

Harry blinked. Then he swerved his head to look at the end of his bed, and sure enough, there were presents. Not as many as in his first life, but a small pile all the same. A large grin spread over his face as he saw the pile. He looked back at the two adults. "Err…"

McGonagall nodded her head. "We'll give you a moment of privacy for you to change. I will return to my office if either of you need anything. And Mister Potter, I expect to see you after dinner tonight in my office to discuss this."

Harry flushed and nodded. Sirius stood up. "I'll be waiting outside, call me once you're done changing?"

Harry nodded again, and the two adults left the room. Harry quickly rifled through his trunk for some closes he wouldn't be ashamed to wear in front of his godfather, and after pulling them on called the man back inside.

Sirius reentered, looking at his godson as he sat back down on a bed in the dormitory. Harry watched him for a moment, before turning to his presents, since that seemed to be what Sirius was waiting for. He had gotten a book titled Quidditch Through the Ages from Hermione and a hand carved flute from Hagrid. There was only one more present in the pile, and Harry recognized it as the invisibility cloak from Dumbledore. He felt his stomach drop a little when he saw there wasn't anything from Sirius, but hid it well, reaching for his last present. He hoped Sirius wouldn't find it odd that Harry had sent him something. The moment he opened it Sirius let out a gasp. The silvery material flowed out of the package, and Harry dug around the folds for the note. He found it, dragging it out to read.

Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well. A Very Merry Christmas to you,

Albus Dumbledore

Harry briefly wondered why he had signed the note this time, and figured it would have been because he knew Sirius would recognize it and know where it came from, so there was no need to hide the fact. He examined the cloak, acting like it was his first time seeing it, when really he still had his cloak from his last lifetime stored in the pouch around his neck.

"That's…" Sirius said quietly, then asked, "Who sent that to you?"

Harry glanced up and looked back down at the note. "Professor Dumbledore. It says it belonged to my dad and he's returning it."

"So Dumbledore had it this entire time." Sirius breathed, staring at the fabric. Then a small grin appeared on his face. "We used to get into so much trouble, wandering around school after hours with that cloak. Mind you, it saved us from more detentions than what we could've handled." He remained looking at the cloak for a minute before pulling himself out of his memories and placing his eyes on Harry. "Are you ready to go? Dumbledore gave me permission to take you off of Hogwarts grounds today." There was a small tint of bitterness in his voice about actually needing permission to take his own godchild out, but he hid it well to avoid starting the day out badly.

Harry felt his expression light up, and he quickly stored his presents in his trunk. Sirius watched happily as his godchild turned at him, practically beaming, as he lead the way down to the common room and out into the hall.

They spoke a little, Harry questioning where they were going while Sirius supplied the answers, but Sirius's thoughts were still up in the dormitory. Three presents, two of them from adults that knew his parents, and one of them wasn't even a real present but returning something that was rightfully his. He had spoken to McGonagall, Hagrid, and Dumbledore, asking about what type of child Harry was and what his interests were, and the replies had been mixed. Harry was competing for top place in his class with his best friend- a Muggle-born student Sirius couldn't remember the name to- and was the youngest player to have been accepted on a Quidditch team at the school in over a century. That had pleased Sirius, a lot. He inherited his mother's good nature and his father's athletic ability, and apparently he had both their brains.

But the teachers had also said he was extremely withdrawn, had few friends, and seemed to have some sort of self esteem issue. They had come to the conclusion that he always let his best friend- his only friend apparently- get spells or answers correct first, but they never made it seem like his friend wanted him to do that. It was more like he did it on his own. Not to mention the incident with the troll on Halloween he'd heard about. Harry had single handedly taken down a full grown mountain troll to protect his friend, and had ended up with a busted ribcage, several skull fractures, a broken wrist, severe blood loss, and glass from his glasses lodged into his eyes that would have blinded him if it weren't for the immediate medical attention he got. And the first thing he had asked about when he woke up was the upcoming Quidditch game and if his friend was alright. This friend had better be damned proud of the amount of attention she was getting- that was all Sirius could comment on for her.

Now there was this situation with his nightmares that no one seemed to have known about- although keeping it secret by mastering a fifth year charm was impressive, Sirius would give him that. If it hadn't sounded like the boy was being tortured Sirius might've even brushed it off as only a minor importance. But the boy had been screaming well enough to compete with Azkaban inmates, and that was saying something. He hadn't even remembered it was Christmas. What type of child forgot it was Christmas? He had seemed so happy at his tiny pile of three presents- Sirius even noticed him brush away a sad look that had flitted across his face once while opening them. Had he thought Sirius forgot about him? Did he actually think he would be that cruel? Where was the damned Dursley's present to him? They were his guardians!

"Sirius?"

Sirius's head snapped up, and he saw Harry looking at him with worry. They had gotten to the front gate without the older man even noticing, he was so wrapped up in his thoughts. He quickly shook his head. Today was a day he was spending with his godchild- he had spent the last ten years doing nothing but thinking, he wouldn't let it ruin this day. Sirius smiled at him, "Have you ever been on the Knight Bus before?"

Harry looked at him curiously, and asked to avoid answering, "The Knight Bus?"

Sirius grinned, and held out his wand to summon the transportation. With a loud bang a violet bus with its name in golden writing along the front came pulling up in front of them. The doors opened, and Harry recognized Stan hop down to look at them. "Welcome to the Knight Bus, I'm Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor for the day. Where will we be taking you?"

"To Diambotle Square," Sirius said, walking stepping onto the bus with Harry following. Stan jumped back onto the bus, took their payment, and they took off, Harry and Sirius having just sat down before the rocketing movement began. Harry felt himself press into the chair, but brushed it off and forced himself to turn and view Sirius.

"Diambotle Square?" He had heard mention of the place a few times during the war, in passing comments like 'Voldemort's going for the Square' or 'how do you think Diambotle faired?', but he had never actually been to the place itself. He assumed it was another shopping center like Diagon Alley, but not as popular.

Sirius glanced over at him. "Have you ever been there?" When Harry shook his head he continued. "It's like Diagon Alley, but the shops are a lot less everyday objects and more luxury type of things. Plus, it's more likely the businesses will be open on Christmas, unlike Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade. You'll see."

Harry frowned but nodded, and they continued on their trip, stopping twice for other passengers to get off. Finally there was a large jolt and Stan was signaling that it was their stop, and they climbed out of the front of the vehicle. Harry felt his jaw drop as he looked around the brightly lit center. It was much more than just a Square he noticed, with a side streets curving away from the heart of the area. The entire place was lit brightly with candles and shining lights flying around above the crowd's heads that Harry had a nagging suspicion were faeries. The snow was cleared from the walkways, but lingered around the edges of the streets and stores as if left there on purpose for effect. In the middle of the square was a large glittering fountain with three delicately carved mermaids sitting on it- to Harry's surprise they were acting like portraits, moving around and pointing out people as they passed.

"We need to make one stop before we go any farther," Sirius spoke quietly at his side. Harry turned his head questioningly and Sirius motion to a shop on their left. They walked over, and Harry noticed it was a robe shop after being steered inside. Sirius continued, motioning toward both their clothes. "We can't exactly walk around like this."

Harry flushed and nodded. He realized Sirius had probably avoided dressing nicely so Harry wouldn't feel left out when they had to get him something better, and followed silently behind as they looked through the shop. A witch came over to them after a moment, and asked in a silky voice, "Do you need any help with anything?"

Afterward the witch helped find nice fitting robes for Harry, while Sirius flirted a little before buying his own outfit. They paid, a large price that Harry felt should constitute his entire Christmas gift, and left the shop, Sirius sending a few more flirtatious looks at the witch before dragging Harry out- as though he had been the one holding them up. Wearing their new clothes they made their way deeper into the Square, and Harry felt himself craning around to see everything they passed. Sirius was right- he didn't see anything he would actually need in any of the windows, they were all just things that would be 'nice to have'. Plus, everything had the feel of being extremely high class and expensive, so he immediately understood why none of the people he knew in his last lifetime had talked about it much. He simply hadn't made friends with anybody who would be able to come here, and Sirius had never been free to bring him.

They talked as they explored the Square, Harry asking questions about various objects while Sirius pointed out everything that was useless, making the younger boy laugh at a number of his comparisons. It seemed even after bringing Harry here he still had a cynical attitude against the 'pure-blood' shops that they passed. By the time lunch came they hadn't bought anything besides the robes, and Sirius motioned to a restaurant they would stop at to eat.

They had sat down at a table and begun looking at menus when Harry noticed a familiar head of blonde hair across the room. "The Malfoys come here?"

Sirius turned his head to see where Harry was looking, and looked back at Harry with a grim smirk. "One of the most prominent pure-blood families in Britain and you thought they didn't?"

"Well, I hadn't thought of it," Harry admitted, feeling a flush spread across his cheeks. "I remember seeing Malfoy in Diagon Alley buying robes for Hogwarts over the summer, I guess I was just wondering why they didn't come here if this place existed. Seems more their style."

"It is," Sirius chuckled. "But you don't really buy school robes from a shop around here, not when they're going to be used as work clothes. It's a giant waste of money. Not even the Malfoys are that impractical."

"Right," Harry said. He proceeded to ask about some items on the menus that he had never seen before, and learned that a number of them were specialized wizard foods. After they ordered they went back to talking- this time Sirius trying to pull more information of Harry's home life from him.

"Why didn't the Dursleys send you a Christmas present?" Sirius asked, trying to sound casual. "Do they not celebrate?"

Harry felt himself cringe and looked up. "No, they celebrate…it's just a part of the 'live and let live' thing I told you about. We don't bother getting each other anything- I didn't send them anything either."

Sirius accepted this with a curt nod. He didn't like what he heard about them, but it made the idea that Harry might want to come and live with him later a lot more probable. "So, Harry. You haven't pointed out anything you want for your Christmas present yet."

The younger boy felt his face heat up and stammered, "I…thought this was it."

"This?"

"The, day out. And new robes." Harry motioned toward what he was wearing. Sirius waved it off with an impatient hand.

"That was necessary to let us walk around without being looked at," Sirius said in an offhand voice. "Besides, I have ten years of Christmas presents to make up to you today. I think the outing and robes consisted of two. You still have eight more."

"You don't have to-"

"I want to," Sirius cut across. Seeing Harry's flush he thought for a moment, trying to find out how to have his way without making Harry uncomfortable. "Why don't you give me a list of things you want, then we can go around and pick up some of them. That way you won't really know what you're getting until we buy them."

Harry nodded, and Sirius handed him a piece of parchment and quill which he conjured up with his wand. Harry bit his lip, trying to think of what in earth he would want as a present. He had never actually been asked before, people simply bought things for him and he enjoyed whatever it was. In truth, he had never actually wanted anything besides the knowledge that someone wanted to get him something. Thinking over all the gifts he had gotten in his last lifetime he quickly jotted down a few things that didn't involve food. Namely 'Quidditch supplies' and 'books'. He stared at his extremely short list and glanced up at Sirius guiltily, for some reason he didn't think it was quite what he had wanted. Sirius raised an eyebrow and reached over for the list. At his first his expression became one of minor surprise, but then he frowned.

Sirius looked at the writing with a nagging feeling at the corner of his thoughts. He frowned. First of all it was an extremely short list- obviously Harry wasn't one to actually want things. While that bothered him it wasn't what seemed so out of place. Suddenly he recognized the feeling as having seen the handwriting before, but he couldn't imagine from where. He hadn't viewed any of Harry's school papers, and he couldn't write when he was one year old so there hadn't been any opportunity for him to see it before. Instead he looked back up and asked, "Are you sure this is all?"

Harry thought for a long moment, biting down on his lip. A thought suddenly came to him and he reached back for the list, which Sirius let slip through his fingers with a rough grin. Harry scribbled down two more items and handed it back. The older man looked and saw the addition of 'healing equipment' and 'defense against the Dark Arts items'. Sirius froze after reading two of the words on the new list. Disbelieving, he sat back and pulled something out of the pocket of his robes which he had taken to carrying around with him. He unfolded a piece of paper with a bewildered Harry watching and proceeded to reread the letter that had given him his freedom a few weeks before.

To whomever it may concern.

I have recently noticed the suspicious activity of an unregistered animagus around an area full of young witches and wizards that I wish to bring to the attention of the Ministry's Magical Law Enforcement office. Knowing how difficult it can be to track down wizards with this ability I have captured him and sent him to you in the anti-animagus transformation container, and I hope that you will take this complaint seriously and question him under the use of veritaserum as I believe he was involved in practices of the Dark Arts around our innocent leaders of the future.

Sincerely,

A Concerned Denizen

He glanced back at the list Harry had just handed him.

Quidditch Supplies, Books (any), Healing Equipment, Defense Against the Dark Arts items,

Those two words. They were the exact same. It was identical handwriting, and he looked up at Harry who was still watching him in concern. It was too much to think that this was coincidence, but he felt himself pause as he tried wrapping his mind around its implications. Had Harry, his godchild, been the one to set him free? Even if he didn't know what had been going on at the time he wrote the anonymous letter, he must've realized what he'd done later. If that was true- why hadn't he said anything? What was he hiding?

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Author's Note

This chapter and next chapter have probably the biggest 'plot twist' that there are in the entire fic, with a few more lesser ones later. The way I see it, the other pieces of Voldemort's soul were all able to form some type of defense or personality but a soul that had been inside of someone for sixteen years didn't gain any power at all? Ginny had the diary for a few months before it started taking over her, but Harry had a soul inside of him for years and nothing ever happened. That seemed a bit off to me. I try to keep things believable, that's really my number one concern while writing, so this didn't seem too bad. I probably should have introduced it a bit more though.

Two things from reviews I wanted to address. (1.) In the last chapter, it wasn't that Hermione got over what was going on, she's just good at not letting things show through when they're bothering her. There's some more on her part about that a bit later, she hadn't just forgotten about the troll attack, don't worry. (2.) The response Harry gave to Sirius's 'relative' question had a few reasons behind it, but to avoid filling this space with rambling I'll put it simply: Gryffindor pride, newfound independence where he didn't have to put up with the Dursleys, and trying to keep people from looking into his past too much- it might seem a bit suspicious that all of a sudden on his tenth birthday he stopped being a quiet, scruffy kid and turned into someone who got the top grades in his class. So he just kept the answers simple to keep Sirius and/or the portraits in the office from saying anything to anyone who'd look into it.