Christmas
It was mid-December now and snow covered everything. Sirius loved it. Everything looked pure and clean under the cover of snow, it was beautiful. One morning the twins, Ron, Hermione, and Draco went with Harry and Sirius on a walk. Naturally, a snowball fight started up pretty quickly. Hermione tried to stay out of it, but the twins were quick to drag her in. Sirius jumped around trying to catch as much of the snow as he could. The kids found it hilarious, which had been the whole point of him doing it in the first place. They went inside cold, but laughing.
Everyone was excited for the holidays. There were Christmas decorations hanging everywhere. The only place that didn't seem at all festive was the Potions classroom. It was freezing in there and everyone huddled as close to their cauldrons as possible. Sirius thought Snape did it out of spite. He was sure the teacher had put up warming charms for them when he was still in school.
"Are you going home for Christmas, Harry?" Draco asked. He and Harry were in the library together. Hermione was looking for a book and Ron was in the Owlery, writing to his parents.
"No. If I had my way, I wouldn't go back there when summer comes around. I'm certainly not going back when I have the option not to." Harry answered firmly.
Draco frowned, "Is it really that bad?"
"Kind of. They ignored me for the last month or so before I came here, but before that..." he trailed off, "Believe me, my aunt and uncle would be very happy if I never went back."
The other boy smiled suddenly, "Maybe you could come stay with me for the summer. Or, at least part of it since I don't think the others would be too pleased if I stole you away the whole time."
Harry looked at him hopefully, "Really? What about your parents?"
"Mother won't mind. I've talked about you in letters and she's just happy I made some new friends. Father might take a bit more convincing, but I could do it over the break. What do you think?"
Harry hugged him. "Draco, you're brilliant. Thank you."
The twins ran in a few minutes later. "We have a clue."
Hermione had rejoined them at the table with a massive book, "A clue about what?"
"What's in the forbidden corridor." Fred answered.
"You know, the one Snape went off to visit on Halloween?" George added.
"What's the clue?" Harry asked. Sirius had perked up as well.
"Nicholas Flamel." they said in unison.
"Great. Who is he?" Draco asked.
"We don't know." George admitted.
"And why should we even try to figure out what's there?" Hermione frowned.
"Because Snape was trying to get it."
"Didn't you see how much he limped after Halloween? Besides we may have accidentally looked through the door a while back."
"A three headed dog is guarding whatever it is, and it's not half as friendly as Shadow is." The twins told them.
"So, now all we have to do is find out about Nicholas Flamel and we can find out what's on the third floor." Harry said.
"Hold on. I know you Gryffindors love rushing into danger and all that, but doesn't this seem a bit much?" Draco scowled, "The teachers probably have loads of enchantments and the like around whatever it is. Why should we risk our necks just to figure it out?"
"Ah come on, Dray." George wrapped an arm around his shoulders, "Where's your sense of adventure?"
Fred slipped into his other side, "It's not like we're going after it. We just want to know what it is."
"Won't even have to open the door."
Draco looked over at Harry, who nodded encouragingly, "Fine! I'll help."
--------------line break---------------
Sirius knew that this wouldn't end well. After they had told Ron about what the twins found, the six kids spent all their free time in the library trying to find something on Nicholas Flamel. They didn't have much luck. Draco and Hermione went home for the holidays a week after their search started. Draco had assured them that he would keep looking in his family's personal library for anything. Harry and the Weasleys promised to keep looking in the school library.
Sirius was grateful when the holidays started. Since the boys had the dormitory to themselves they ended up having too much fun to spend much time in the library. Fred and George enlisted Harry and Ron's help in planning pranks for when everyone got back and Ron taught Harry how to play wizard's chess. He wasn't all that good, but Sirius figured that was to be expected seeing as how he'd just started learning.
On Christmas Eve Harry had his first nightmare in a month. It was a bad one too. Sirius poked his head out of the curtains to be sure Ron was still asleep before switching to his human form. He put a silencing spell on the curtains and pulled Harry close. Sirius wasn't really afraid of being caught. He always did this when Harry's nightmares got bad. He ran his fingers through the boy's hair and sang part of a lullaby he remembered Lily singing to Harry as a baby. Once Harry had calmed down Sirius shifted back into his dog form. Harry woke up a second later and cuddled with him until he fell back to sleep.
When Harry woke the next morning he kissed the top of Sirius's head, "Merry Christmas, Shadow."
Sirius licked his cheek and they both got up. A stack of presents sat at the end of Harry's bed. It wasn't as large as the pile by Ron's bed but Harry was still stunned to see it.
Harry and Ron decided to open their presents before meeting the twins and going to breakfast. Harry got a wooden flute from Hagrid, some homemade fudge and a green sweater from Molly Weasley, some Chocolate Frogs from Hermione, a fifty pence piece from the Dursleys, and a book called "Curses and Countercurses" from Draco. There was one gift that didn't have a name attached. Sirius could hardly believe it when Harry opened it to reveal James's old invisibility cloak.
"You know Fred and George are going to be so jealous you've got one of those. They're really rare." Ron said in a hushed voice.
Sirius saw a note that had fallen out of it. He picked it up and offered it to Harry. He read it out loud, "Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well."
"Blimey." Ron breathed.
Fred and George burst in. "Merry Christmas!"
Harry grinned at them and showed them what he'd gotten.
"Bloody hell, Harry. Do you know what we could do with one of those?" George sighed.
"The pranks we could pull." Fred agreed. "Oh, well. We have our own ways."
Sirius really liked these kids.
Percy Weasley poked his head in a couple minutes later with a disapproving frown. Sirius wanted to roll his eyes. Even Lily hadn't looked so annoyed on Christmas. Of course, part of that might have been the truce she had with the Marauders for that day. They didn't pull pranks, she didn't yell at them. "What's all the noise about?"
Sirius couldn't keep himself from rolling his eyes this time.
"Not wearing your sweater, Percy?" Fred said innocently.
"Look Freddie, it's even got a 'P' on it."
"P for prefect!" They both grinned and pounced on him.
Percy started yelling in protest as the twins forced him into his Christmas sweater. "Come on, Percy. They're so warm and cozy."
"Yeah. Look even Harry's wearing one!"
They kept his arms pinned and marched him downstairs for breakfast, Harry and Ron laughing as they followed.
----------------line break---------------
Christmas was amazing. There was tons of good food, magic Christmas crackers, a snowball fight, and new games to play. Ron and Harry played wizard chess with the new set Harry got from one of the Christmas crackers and the twins taught him to play Exploding Snap. By the time they went to bed Sirius hoped Harry would be tired enough to keep an nightmares away.
Ron had been asleep for the better part of an hour when Harry got up. He quietly snapped Sirius's leash on, but left the jacket off. He held up James's old cloak with a mischievous smile. "Time to go exploring, Shadow. Stay close so we're both under the cloak, okay?"
The two crept out as quietly as possible and hurried down the corridor. "We'll check for books about Flamel in the Restricted section, then see if we can find one of those secret passages I heard the twins talking about." Harry whispered.
Sirius wanted to show him the shortcut to the library, but decided it would be better to "find" it on the way back. He hoped Lily and James could see their son. Mostly James actually. Lily would be horrified that they were sneaking around at night. He remembered her insisting to James that their kids should have their first year at Hogwarts to adjust to the school and make sure they could handle the work. Then they could start pranking in their second year. As long as it didn't hurt anyone, of course.
Sirius shook his head to clear the memories. They had reached the library and Sirius needed to help look for promising books.
Harry looked nervous as they walked around the Restricted section. Sirius couldn't blame him. It almost sounded like the books were whispering.
Harry grabbed a heavy looking book and flipped it open. A bloodcurdling scream rang out. Harry slammed it shut and shoved it back into place. The screaming didn't stop.
"Let's go." Harry whispered. They rushed out, Harry dropped the lamp they'd been using in the rush to leave. Sirius winced. They really needed to work on his escape skills. Flich stood in the doorway, staring through them with arms outstretched. It was almost laughable how easy it was to slip past him. Sirius was sure he was getting old.
Harry ran blindly, keeping hold of the cloak and Sirius's leash. They ended up by a suit of armor near some unused classrooms. Sirius looked around, trying to remember if there were any secret passages nearby that would lead them back to the Tower.
"You asked me to come directly to you, Professor, if anyone was wandering around at night, and somebody's been in the library-- Restricted Section."
Harry paled. Sirius didn't wait around to hear the response, he could smell that it was Snape and shoved Harry towards the partially open door of one of the classrooms. They slipped through quickly. Sirius listened as Snape and Flich walked past the door.
"Woah." Harry breathed. Sirius spun around. A large, magnificent mirror stood in the center of the room. An inscription was carved around the top. Sirius stepped closer, slipping out from under the cloak.
His reflection was his human form. Remus, Lily, James, and Peter stood around him, smiling and laughing. His reflection looked healthy, like he'd never been to Azkaban, and Peter, Peter wasn't a traitor. He was the same Peter Sirius loved like a brother. Lily had her arms around Harry's shoulders. A Harry who hadn't been neglected, who'd been loved his whole life. Behind them Sirius could see his little brother, Regulus. The brother he'd wanted so badly to save was standing between James's parents. He'd never turned to the Dark. He'd followed in Sirius's footsteps and been "adopted" by James's parents. His family. The only people he wanted to be in his family. Safe, together, happy. Sirius felt like crying.
"Mum? Dad?" Harry whispered. Sirius whined. He was sure that he'd be sobbing if he was human right now. Could Harry see this too?
"Shadow do you see?" Harry grinned down at him. "It's my family! Look there's Mum and Dad. And they're probably aunts and uncles, and look! Grandparents!" Harry pointed to the people Sirius was seeing. But now he knew that Harry wasn't looking at the same family he was. He'd pointed out Lily and James, but then he'd started pointing at places where there were no people or they were the wrong gender. He'd called Reg an aunt after all. Harry continued chattering away contemplating how different people he saw were related to him. His thoughts turned sad after a while and he sat on the ground beside Sirius, stroking his fur and wondering aloud how things would have turned out if Harry had been raised by this family.
He fell silent after a while and the two of them simply sat and stared at their reflections and the families surrounding them. Hours later, they left and Sirius steered Harry towards one of the secret passages so they could return to bed faster. He felt drained and wanted nothing more than sleep and to forget how badly he'd failed his family.