[Just a heads up, I edited chapter 2. There was a lot of controversy over the abuse Harry went through in that chapter, so I toned it down a lot. In canon, Harry was severely abused by the Dursleys, so when I was originally writing this chapter, I tried to emulate that. Coupled with a new Harry that fought back, it made for a very ugly chapter. It was hard to write, hard to read, and not at all pleasant. It was never meant to be. Still, with the amount of comments I got about it, I now think it was too much. So I dialed it back.
You don't need to go back and reread it, I mostly just took out the heaviest scenes. Just giving you a heads up because editing a paragraph deletes the comments, so all of those comments got wiped.
I also took the opportunity to edit the stats gained in the level ups down to 5 to match the later chapters so it's more consistent.]
(Word Count: 1,561)
Harry went inside. It seemed that Sirius had succeeded in decorating the entire house for Christmas, because the entire entryway was brightly decorated. The railing of the stairs leading up were wrapped in garlands and tinsel, with bright red and gold ornaments hanging from them. The hallway leading down into the house was decorated with a wreath between all the portraits, with red and gold ribbons and bells to connect everything.
In the center of the hall, the painting of Walburga was brought back out and it was decorated the most, with a garland wrapped around her entire frame that was practically exploding in vibrant christmas colors and lights. It was very gaudy.
Walburga was sitting inside the painting with a furious expression on her face, arms crossed and sulking in her chair. She noticed Harry looking at her and began angrily yelling, but there was no sound coming from her. She had been silenced to not ruin the atmosphere.
This was a new tradition of Sirius to spite his mother. Every year, he would take her portrait out of storage and decorate it horribly to anger her. But it was also to show her how happy he was now, and how cheerful the house had become without her.
To his right was the sitting room, with its large fireplace. This was typically where they sat with guests, and it had the only fireplace that was connected to the floo network. Just as everywhere else, it was also decorated. The mantle above the fireplace was decorated in nutcrackers and little Santas. It was also empty.
At the end of the hallway were doors. The ones on the left were the closets and the guest bathroom. The doors right at the end of the hallway and the doors to the right were to the drawing room, dining room, and smoking room. This was an older house, so of course there was a smoking room. That was where Sirius disappeared, and Harry could hear voices, so that was likely where everyone was.
So Harry followed after. He opened the door to the dining room, and he was greeted with his family popping some Christmas-colored poppers.
"WELCOME BACK!" Everyone cheered.
Sirius, Andromeda, Ted, and Dora were all here, smiling at him. Arcturus was even here, sitting at the far end of the dining table and drinking a glass of scotch. Tripsy, Kreacher, and Cassi, the three house-elves, were there as well.
Harry grinned. "I was only gone for a couple of months, guys, but… thank you. It's good to be back!"
As wonderful as Hogwarts was, his home was here.
Sirius caught his eyes, and gave him a wink.
"Good! Now that we're done with that," Dora said, and threw her spent popper to the side, her eyes fixed threateningly on Harry. "You got a lot of explaining to do for that bloody letter of yours! I had to run 20 laps for that!"
"Really? I heard it was only 10 though?" Harry said cheekily.
She drew her wand and immediately casted a stinging hex at him. Harry yelped and dove back out the room to dodge and started running. Tonks vaulted over the table to give chase.
"Come here, Potter!" She yelled.
"Just don't kill him Tonks!" Sirius shouted after them.
Harry caught the stair's railing and used that to pivot quickly around up the stairs. Another stinging hex flew right past him as he did. "Surely we can talk this out?" He yelled behind him, not pausing in the slightest.
"Take a few hexes, then we'll talk!" Dora yelled, a bit too close.
Realizing he would be caught on the stairs if he didn't do something, he shifted into a crow and flew up two floors, perching on the banister. Below him he could see Dora jumping up the stairs two at a time. She growled angrily when she saw him above as a crow.
"'A few hexes,' you say? That doesn't sound very fair!" Harry squawked as she cast another spell at him, and fell backwards onto the third floor. He turned back and leaned over the banister. "Well catch me if you can!"
Dora chased him up and down the house until eventually, she caught him in the library.
"Gotcha!" Dora practically tackled him to the ground, and they landed heavily on the floor with Harry underneath.
"Oof!"
"You cheeky bugger!" Dora began tickling viciously.
"Ah!" Harry laughed, "I'm sorry! Hahaha! Won't happen again!"
Dora let up only after Harry was completely gasping for breath. She sat back, pleased. "Right you are, Harry! Right you are!"
Harry pushed her off of him and sat up. "Here, I got you a peace offering," he said, and opened up his tiny trunk. "Accio Dora's gift!"
A small bundle came flying out of his trunk and into his hands. He handed it over. "Don't worry, this isn't your Christmas present."
It was just a bunch of chocolate he had gotten from Honeydukes in Hogsmeade.
Dora huffed in amusement and popped a piece into her mouth. "If you had this ready, why didn't you just give it to me at the start?"
Harry shrugged with a grin. "I thought it was fun."
She gave him a light shove.
"So? How's auror boot camp?" Harry asked.
"It's alright, I suppose. As much as I like to complain, it's not that hard. It's just that everyone else is an idiot."
"What's the dumbest thing someone's done so far?" Harry asked.
She snorted. "One of the guys tried to make a move on Madam Bones. She's like our boss's boss's boss. The idiot had to clean out all of the toilets in the ministry building."
Harry scowled. "No one tried to bother you, did they?"
"Awww!" She cooed, "look at you, being protective! Don't worry about me, I'll just deck them if they're being too pushy."
Harry's scowl deepened. 'So there was someone.'
"Enough about me, how are things going with Hermione? You two are all alone over at Hogwarts. Have you kissed her yet?" Dora teased.
He just waved the question off. "Of course not. We're just friends."
Tripsy popped into the room next to them.
"Young master Harry, sir! Tonsky!" Tripsy said, "Dinner is ready! Please, come down quickly!"
"Thank you, Tripsy, we'll be right down," Harry said. With that, Tripsy blinked away. Harry stood up, brushed off his clothes, and reached down to help Dora up as well. "Well, it looks like they're waiting for us."
Back downstairs, they joined everyone at the table. The table was still empty, but when they sat down, the table suddenly became fully set. It was the same trick done in Hogwarts. The kitchen was right below them, and Tripsy, Kreacher, and Calli—since she was visiting alongside Arcturus—would plate the matching table down there, then switch the two tables when it was time to eat.
Harry looked around at everyone, and noticed someone was missing. "Hey wait a minute, where's Remus?"
"The full moon was last night. It was the lunar eclipse as well, so it was pretty bad. He'll be needing a lot of rest in the next few days to recover," Sirius explained. Contrary to what most people think, the effects of lycanthropy aren't suppressed or gentler during a lunar eclipse. In fact, they're far worse. It was because when the moon falls into the earth's shadow, it removes some of the influence from the sun that lingers on the moon. What remains is a more powerful lunar energy, which drives lycanthropes crazy.
Harry winced, "Ah, man. That's rough."
The Tonks, who were still present, were sympathetic as well. They had learned of Remus's lycanthropy for years now, and were used to it. This wasn't something that you could easily hide, so they had decided to be forthright with them. Though Narcissa still doesn't know. She wasn't around often enough, or open hearted enough, to warrant being told.
As they were eating, Arcturus was putting forward some plans for the Christmas break. "The Malfoys have invited us to come visit them sometime this week. They wanted to coordinate with us so that we all arrive at the Ministry ball together, to show unity."
Sirius scoffed. "No way. He just wants to use the Black family's name to cajole others into agreeing with him. Just showing up with him at the ball will be enough to imply that we agree with him. I won't be a part of that."
Arcturus turned to Harry. "Harry? What do you think of this?"
Harry wiped his mouth off with a napkin, thinking things through carefully. "I don't see Lucious and I agreeing on anything, but Draco's still young. He's a prat right now, but it may be worth it to try and turn him away from being a death eater. Especially since Narcissa is smart enough to know that we'll be holding the most sway in the Wizengamot in the coming years."
Arcturus nodded. "That's my thoughts as well. We'll tell them we won't be arriving together at the ball. However, Narcissa also wants Draco to spend time with you to become friends."
Harry grimaced, but then he had an idea. "Yeah, alright. I still need to do some last minute Christmas shopping. I can take him along."
'I bet he's never been to the muggle side of London before.'