Lord Harry Potter

The grounds of Godric's Hall were gorgeous draped in two inches of snow. Harry was much happier being away from Hogwarts for a time. So what if he and Sirius were living in tents? They were damned fine tents.

Sirius really had bought a version with fountains. And his also contained an ice-skating rink. Somehow Sirius and Harry invented a game involving brooms (they both got new ones before Yule, and Harry got a watch he liked). The game involved chasing down a transfigured ball on that rink while flying.

They also needed more padding before trying that again. Harry had bruises on his bruises. Sirius was rough chasing a ball on the ice. Who knew he could focus like that?

Harry could be himself here, but he found the bleakness hadn't returned. He admitted to himself that his finger was wrong. He had lost hope about it, not that he was telling anyone with the title Healer.

Harry dressed and walked over to Sirius' tent. Yes, they were staying in separate tents. Sirius had taken up pranking again. After the first time Sirius got Harry overnight (purple hair, itching skin, sneezing that smelt of cheese), Harry set up his own tent. Pranking was for daylight hours only, if then.

Padfoot had invited some friends and family to lunch today. So they would move his tent outside the protections.

First, they couldn't adjust them to admit more people. Sirius had been invited by the Potters. Harry was a Potter. That was the reason they could be on the grounds. But Harry didn't know how to add more to the list.

Second, even if he could, Harry wasn't planning to invite anyone on his land until he had a proper home to show them. The emptied foundation of Godric's Hall was like a scar in the Earth. It wasn't something to show off.

"Sirius, you ready to move your tent?" Harry called out.

"Moving the tent can wait, Harry." His godfather had tried to get Harry to respond to pup, Prongslet, and many other silly terms. No, no, and no.

"For what?"

"Well maybe presents? Maybe breakfast?"

"I suppose I have to cook?" Harry asked, not at all unhappy.

"I burned the last pancakes I made. They were thinner than a knut, too."

"Did you measure anything?"

"Let me think...no."

"Flunked potions, right?"

"No, not really. I usually had Remus as a lab partner."

Harry laughed.

Harry walked into the monstrous kitchen in Sirius' tent and set to making something simple. He was planning a feast for Christmas supper – and much of it was already cooked and in stasis. He wanted to meet his relatives and Sirius' friends, not stand in the kitchen. There was a goose and a ham, which seemed like too much already, plus about forty side dishes and desserts. Sirius claimed he would keep it under stasis and continue eating it through the spring. It would take at least that long, Harry thought.

After breakfast, Sirius did the dishes and Harry sat in front of the presents. He already had the new broom even though he'd left the Quidditch team. He wore his new watch. But presents didn't care. Hermione sent along a book, something Harry had never come across before on professions for wizards. There might be some fine tips in here, perhaps it was had helped Hermione to set up the diverse classes she'd set.

Neville had sent a thoughtful present, an object that wizards gave each other upon moving into a new home. Neville really did pay attention. Harry would keep the brick imprinted with the Potter coat of arms for when he had a house and not a set of ruins.

Ron and the twins sent chocolate frogs. Nothing wrong with tradition.

Celestina Warbeck had sent a letter in response to Harry's. Madam Spurl and the Flamels had sent cards.

"You were holding onto these," Harry accused Sirius.

"They arrived yesterday. You were busy studying your family book."

"What did you get?" Harry asked, nodding at the presents for Sirius.

"I think you know what you got me."

"And you'd better be grateful I didn't pay someone to curse it first."

"I am. I got a pair a slippers from my cousin Andromeda. She's coming to supper. I got a very terse letter from my cousin Cissy, Draco's mother..."

"Oh." Harry wondered she would be like. Harry had met Draco and Lucius. What was the third of that family like? Better not to ask...

"Where did you tell everyone we were meeting?" Harry asked.

"A Potter farm in Lancashire, not all that far away from Manchester."

"Could you have picked a more distant one?"

"Actually, no. It is the furthest spit of land you still own."

Harry laughed. "So if anyone talks, people will think we're hiding out in a tent near Manchester."

"Exactly. What a devious mind you possess..."

Harry was getting blamed for Sirius' idea. "Suppose I do. Born with it, then honed by another devious sod."

"Exactly," Sirius said.

Three hours later, in a repositioned tent, Harry greeted his first guests, Andromeda Tonks, her husband Ted, and their daughter who insisted she didn't have any name other than Tonks. Harry decided to call her Tonks Tonks or Double-T. She seemed to prefer this to whatever her real name was.

.....

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