Chapter 9
Christmas every year is always the same for Harry Potter and Solis Black. The two wake up early to make breakfast before the Dursleys wake and clean the house in case guests come over. After a quick small breakfast of their own, the two are either locked out of the house or locked in Solis’s room if Petunia invites her coworker, Sarah, and her family over. Sarah’s husband is a rich, big-time lawyer and their daughter has a crush on Solis, which means Petunia needs Solis nearby to keep said daughter happy if they want to maintain a sure way to get new and expensive gifts every year.
This year, Solis and Harry are able to escape from that prison. And Solis plans to use this chance to relax and read and study spell making and casting; or… that was the plan until fellow first year, Theodore Nott, barged into Solis’s dorm on Christmas Eve morning singing ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ by Wham! at the top of his lungs.
“Ugh… shut the hell up.” Solis groans as he rolls over and hides his head under a pillow.
Theodore pauses his singing to pull the blankets off of the sleeping boy and say, “C’mon Black. It’s Christmas Eve! Presents, food, no rules. Let's go!”
Solis lifts his head and glares at the other, his eyesight blurry from sleep. “Don’t call me that. So, what if it's Christmas, I need my beauty rest.” Plopping his head back down Solis grabs his blanket back from Nott, ignoring his confused expression.
“Solis… don’t you celebrate Christmas at home? You know, with presents and a feast and stuff?”
“What home?”
Silence fills the space at the response.
Theo listens to rumors when he is bored. He knows what people say about his parents and how they are Death eaters, how they’re terrible people. He hears the same thing about Solis’s father and there are rumors about how his mother was sacrificed to the Dark Lord. But Solis grew up with the Chosen One, Harry Potter, and according to rumor they were surrounded by muggle luxury. He took to magic better than those who grew up around it. And he is easily the nicest and scariest first year at Hogwarts.
So why does a mumbled response from a half-asleep boy with dreadful bed head cause Theo to doubt rumors and feel sympathetic?
Shaking his thoughts from his head Theo grabs Solis’s arm and drags him from bed. The onyx haired boy groans loudly while the brunette grunts from the other’s weight, though the tired one starts to grunt as he is pulled onto the hard floor.
“Ouch!” Solis rubs the side of his head where it hit the floor as he slowly stands up. “What is with you and this holiday?! Are you drunk or something this early?”
Theo sneers, annoyed at Solis’s questions. “No, you git. Besides it’s noon and there are two Gryffindorks here to see you.”
“...Right. I forgot about that.” Solis ignores Theo’s eyes and gets his wand from the nightstand, pointing it at his bedhead Solis says, “Capillus figere.” Jet black hair suddenly changes from a messy rats’ nest to neatly brushed with zero knots or hairs out of place.
Theodore follows Solis, who is still in his pajamas with his wand placed in the band of his sweatpants, down to the common room where Harry and Ron are waiting for him. The two stand out worse than a clown at a funeral with their matching red sweaters. Ron and Harry stand by the house entrance gazing around the common room at all of the Christmas trees and the windows charmed to show the snow-covered yard.
Solis manages to get their attention and have them follow him to a bare tree by the windows. In the Slytherin house, those staying for the holidays get their own Christmas tree to decorate and store their presents under; so, while there are five or six trees in the common room that are dripping in lights and ornaments, Solis left his bare. Mainly because he forgot about it until the presents started to show up.
Plopping down a couch Solis gestured to his tree. “Have at them. Warning they might bite.”
Theo sat down next to Solis as Harry and Ron began dividing the presents between each other. “Why are the dorks opening your gifts?”
“Hmm,” Solis notes how Harry flinches, watching them out of the corner of his eye. ‘So, it’s a secret.’ “We made a deal. You don’t need to know, Nott.”
As if on cue to change the subject an explosion and scream caught their attention. Turning toward the noise, Theodore suddenly bursts out in laughter as Solis and Harry try to muffle theirs behind their hands. Their laughter gets louder when Ron coughs out a cloud of white smoke. The red head scowls as he wipes flour off of his face and adds a jeweled bracelet to a small pile next to him.
“Ugh, why am I getting the bad ones?” Weasley complains as he moves the rigged box next to another, he had opened that shot up fireworks to form a threatening message.
“Just think about how much you can make by selling that bracelet.” Solis tries to comfort him, albeit half-heartedly.
Grumbling an agreement Ron reaches for the next gift box, an envelope falling off of it and onto the floor. Seeing it Harry picks it up, checking it for a sender only to find ‘To: Solis Black’ written on its front and the envelopes paper to look old and worn. Moving to pass it over to Solis he freezes. The black-haired boy is casually holding his fellow Slytherin, a chuckling Theodore, at wand point.
Recovering from his stupor Harry holds out the letter. “Uh, Solis.”
“Hm?” Solis hums, lowering his wand away from Theo. “What is it?”
Ignoring Theo’s sigh of relief; Harry passes the letter to Solis. “It doesn’t say who it’s from.”
Using his wand to pull his hair out of his face Solis glares at Theo from the corner of his eye as he takes the letter. Investigating the outside of the envelope for any signs that it could be jinxed or charmed, not finding anything Solis opens it cautiously and slowly pulls out the letter inside. Unfolding the parchment, steel-gray eyes ignore the two staring at him in favor of reading its contents.
Dear Solis L.P. Black,
I am sorry my son. I don’t have much time to write, but by the time you get this you should already be in your first year at Hogwarts; and if you are then you know what I have been framed of. Because of the charges I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to see you again, so I am leaving you with this.
Know that I love you now and always, no matter what.
I have sent you to Dumbledore to be raised alongside Harry Potter, my godson, to keep you hidden and protected. Not because you are in danger but because you are special! You see, Solis, you didn’t come to be in the normal way, and I hate to admit it but you were ‘conceived’ through a drunken night with one of my best friends. We had gotten our hands into the schools' infirmary books during our seventh year and found a list of ingredients and instructions to what we thought to be a healing potion and tried to create it. Severus Snape caught us and -surprisingly- instead of telling on us, he sobered us up and helped us; apparently the little weasel knew what we were doing and didn’t bother to tell us. It took us a while to figure out what we really did but because nothing happened, we figured it didn’t work or we messed something up. It wasn’t until years later and the meticulous care of the house elves that the dragon egg finally hatched, and you were born.
I kept the truth about your birth a secret from everybody due to the information our house elf, Kreacher, provided me. Not even Headmaster Dumbledore knows the truth. Though now that you are old enough to make your own decisions, I believe that you are capable of handling yourself if you want others to know.
Also, since you are old enough to know, you are the sole heir to the Black family’s inheritance. Wealth, house elves, and home. 12 Grimmauld Place, Islington, London.
I love you, Solis Black.
Your Father,
Sirius Black
Theo leans over to try to read the letter over Solis’s shoulder. “So, who is it from?”
Blinking, Solis takes a deep breath and tilts the letter away from him; folding it and putting it back into its envelope, he answers. “My father.”