Chapter 9
The next morning, Harry woke up to a strange noise, which reminded him of the day he first talked to Severus about his struggle. He opened his eyes, looking over to the window. "Hedwig?", he asked surprised and scrambled to let his owl in. "What are you doing here?" Hedwig stretched out her leg and hooted quietly. A small note was attached to her leg. Harry opened it and had a strange déjà-vu. How else do you plan to write your boyfriend... was all that stood there, written in the neat cursive handwriting of Severus. Harry grinned. "How else indeed...", he chuckled and brought Hedwig over to her cage to let her rest. Downstairs, Harry heard his aunt in the kitchen and he left his room to go help her.
"Oh that smells delicious!", Harry said and sniffed the air. Aunt Petunia straightened up from where she had been crouching before the oven. "Good Morning Harry, my boy", she smiled. "Can you guess what I'm making for lunch?", she asked her nephew. Harry had an amazing sense of smell and it always was astonishing what ingredients he could point out, even if it was just a minimal amount. The dark haired boy closed his eyes and concentrated. "Alright, it's kind of hard to block out the smell of the cinnamon rolls, but I think the main thing I smell is meat pie made out of lamb, the meat mixed with rosmary and thyme, there is butter on the crust of the pie. Okay... on the stove there are potatoes cooking. And... THERE ARE PEAS!", Harry exclaimed and jumoed up and down. Petunia laughed. "Good job, dear", she said. Harry smiled, loving the praise and being excited for lunch. He started setting the table, while Aunt Petunia mashed the potatoes. "What are we going to do today?", Harry wanted to know. "After breakfast we'll go shopping for Christmas presents, in the afternoon we'll bake cookies", his aunt answered and Harry squealed. When his aunt had wrote in a letter, that he and Dudley would be able to bake, Harry had immediately asked the house elves in the kitchen of Hogwarts for recipes. The little creatures had not disappointed him. "And tomorrow Vernon and Dudders planned to go buy a Christmas tree, but I think it might be a good idea for you to have a calm day before the whole Christmas celebrations. Marge and a few of Dudley's friends will come to our house for tea time", Petunia warned, being aware of how her nephew perceived small, crowded rooms, and even though he'd be allowed to leave any time to go to his room, there would still be many noises and smells and overwhelming thing in general. "But we'll manage", she added reassuringly. "Now, please go wake Dud and Vernon."
Harry gently knocked on the door to his cousin's bedroom, quietly entering. When he looked over to the bed, he couldn't help but laugh. Dudley was laying half on the floor, half on his bed, the blanket where his pillow should be and the pillow on the floor. Harry gently shook his cousin and when the boy sleepily opened his eyes, Harry asked: "Who did you fight in your dreams?" He chuckled, as Dudley tried to orientate. He mumbled something unintelligible. "Yeah... I don't know what that was, but breakfast is ready", Harry snickered and left Dudley to himself. The black haired boy entered the big bedroom and woke up his uncle. After the man had opened both eyes and Harry had made sure, his uncle wouldn't go back to sleep any second, the young boy left the room to go downstairs again.
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"Oi, Harry, look at this thing", Dudley exclaimed. Harry turned around to see what Dudley was looking at. His cousin had eyes the size of saucers and was staring at a giant lego set. Harry studied the design and said: "That looks like someone put together Hogwarts and Malfoy Manor. But look at the price. 5000 pounds! No way you'll get this." Dudley nodded in agreement, but Harry noted the sad look in his eyes. "Do you want to look at what I found? You might like it", he tried to distract his cousin. Harry led the brown haired boy over to the electronic aisle and pointed to a video game. "Super Mario 2!", Dudley whispered happily. It was in a normal price range, so he picked it up. "By the way, what were you doing here? I know that electronic stuff and video games are not in you interest", Dudley asked Harry. "Actually I wanted to pick out some books, but got lost and ended up here", Harry laughed. "Well, let's go to the books then", Dudley chuckled.
Harry walked along the book shelves over to the section for books on psychology. Dudley watched him. He always knew that his cousin was different. Not the thing with the wizard. No. Harry was special in a way he couldn't quite explain. And he knew that Harry was struggling with being different. Dudley felt the great urge to protect the smaller boy. He approached Harry, right as the boy picked out a book about Autism. Harry already had two other books in his hand, one about mental illness and one about cooking. "Okay", Dudley started, "I kinda get the cooking, but what about the other two books?" Harry blushed. He seemed to think. "Let's talk about it at home, alright?", he hesitantly said. Dudley accepted this response, though worry mixed in with his curiosity.
"We have a few minutes to get to the register to meet up with mum and dad. Are you ready?", he asked to ease up the tension that had been created. Harry nodded and after Dudley had found a book about cars last minute, they headed to the front of the store. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon already awaited them, with stuff for themselves. It has always been this kind of tradition that everyone picked out their own presents so it would be exactly what they wanted and at Christmas Eve, everything would be under the tree wrapped in wrapping paper and they took turns handing over the present. "Hello boys, did you get what you wanted?", Petunia greeted them and the cousins nodded. Uncle Vernon paid and the family drove home. After eating the delicious lunch, Harry helped loading the dishwasher. "Aunt Petunia, the house elves of Hogwarts gave me some recipes. Is it alright if Dudley and I do more than one recipe?", Harry asked. "Of course! We'll have more for when the guests come over. Vernon and I will go grocery shopping while you bake. Do you need something special?", his aunt asked. The boy thought about it. "I need peanuts, almonds and powdered sugar. Oh and if you could bring some more flour I'd appreciate it", he smiled sweetly. "Alright, I can do that. When do you want to start?", Petunia wanted to know. "In the next few minutes, actually. I think we'll do three recipes and that'll take some time", Harry said and moved to the hallway to call upstairs for his cousin.
"Alright then, boys, have fun, we'll be back in about an hour or so. Try not to burn the house down", Vernon joked and opened the door for Petunia. Harry and Dudley waved from the kitchen, both covered in flour. Christmas music was playing in the background. "Can you weigh the sugar please and add baking powder to the flour? I'll get an egg and butter", Harry ordered. Dudley did as he was told and after Harry had added butter and the egg, he formed the dough. They split it in half and each one of them rolled out their half on the kitchen table. "Is it alright if we only use the cookie cutters in the forms of the christmas tree, the snowman, the reindeer and the star?", Harry asked. "Yeah, sure. By the way, do you want to talk about the books now?", Dudley gently asked, but Harry shook his head. "Tonight. Promised. I need to think of words to use." Harry's statement had an unspoken warning of not bringing up the subject again. So Dudley changed the topic. "What are you getting your boyfriend for Christmas? Do those hardcore wizards celebrate Christmas?", he jokingly said. Harry laughed. "Yes, these 'hardcore wizards' or purebloods, as we call them, celebrate Christmas. As for the question about the gift...", Harry stopped and blushed, "... I want to give him my virginity..." Dudley stopped cutting out cookies and gaped at his cousin. "Wow... I mean... wow. That's... very brave... I really don't know what to say. But... I mean, if you feel ready, go for it", he stumbled over his words. Harry smiled. "Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon don't know about it, I'm not sure if I want them to. It'll be way to awkward", he chuckled.
The first two cookie trays were ready for the oven. "Can you put them in? I need to go upstairs and check on Hedwig. I want to let her hunt before the night so she can rest a bit more. I want to sent her to Draco with a letter tomorrow", Harry explained and washed his hands. He climbed up the stairs and entered his room. His snow owl hooted and ruffled her feathers. "Hedwig, hello my beautiful girl, how about you going out for a little hunt? You'll need to fly all the way to Wiltshire to Dray tomorrow", Harry explains. He opened the window and let Hedwig out. In the distance he could make out the moving car of his relatives and Dudley yelling from downstairs, that the biscuits were ready. Harry smiled and went to save his cousin from the scary oven.