Chapter 23:

The Christmas holidays were not going as splendidly as they usually did in past years. There was an impending cloud of doom just circulating over Harry as he knew he had stumbled upon something dark.

In the past, he would've rushed to the Headmaster or even his parents, but he knew what he had learned was beyond sensitive information. He also knew that the Dark Lord was not stupid, he had meant the green-eyed boy to hear what was said. There was no logical explanation for why he would let such privy information be spoken in such a usually populated area. Past curfew or not.

His occulomency shields however had been improving tremendously however, so he was able to keep the hidden information to himself, and not wear his emotions on his sleeves as he had been over the past few months.

Unfortunately Susan, and Hannah caught onto something while they were on the train ride, but didn't interrogate him on the matter. They did however beg him to come by Abbot Manor on Christmas Eve to spend some time with them, which Harry agreed to.

However today he was going to be spending the days with his siblings and catching up with them on the quidditch pitch. They weren't playing a game or anything of the sort, they were just tossing the ball around and catching up on trivial things.

Harry of course was interested in their training, but Jack had assured him that they were being sponges on everything Moony was teaching them. Rosalie even managed to impress Harry by producing a shield charm with a practice wand. It was flimsy at best, but he could tell it was as strong as Hannah's was when she was first casting hers.

However of course the girls were now casting pretty strong shields, and Darrel's shield had improved tremendously over the past two months. They were now training with him every other day, and Neville was only training on the days they weren't, which gave Harry company every day.

It wasn't that Neville didn't want to train with the girls, he just wanted to focus on his housemates and help them out a little more. He wanted Gryffindor to stand a chance in the future, so he had been doing dueling with some of his housemates/quidditch teammates.

Neville had actually beaten Slytherin as a Seeker because Gryffindor was in desperate need after Charlie graduated last year. Minerva wanted to bring in young blood, and hope that one day he would be as good as the older Weasley, but with Cedric and Harry coming up the young man personally doubted ever winning a quidditch cup, but he wouldn't settle for anything less than second.

Darrel and Cedric actually made one hell of a team. They coordinated dueling and quidditch practice really well, and both teams looked really good. The match between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor would be the second week of March, while the last game against Slytherin would take place sometime in May.

Harry graciously believed he was handling stardom pretty well. He didn't gloat or taunt any rival house, or even his own house. He kept an even head on his shoulders while he was praised for his prowess in both dueling and quidditch.

His parents were especially proud that he had finished number one in his class for the first time, with Neville being slightly frustrated that the Ravenclaw Hermione Granger ended up topping him because of Snape's potions class.

Apparently, Neville was sabotaged a lot by Theodore Nott and his goons, which caused him to get poor grades in the class. Normally Harry wouldn't believe such biased teaching went on at Hogwarts, but he also knew that Neville wasn't great at potions, however, he was probably at the skills of a late second-year or a crappy third-year brewer.

This means he should not have gotten anything less than an outstanding in the class. Or Exceeds Expectations at worse, instead of the Acceptable he received. History of Magic was also costing Neville, but even Harry only got exceeded expectations in there, while everything else was an Outstanding.

While Rosalie and Harry were catching up it was brought up that Jack had been spending quite a bit of time over at the Weasley's with Ginny and Luna. This was great news to Harry because it gave him optimal teasing material, and hopefully an out on the forever-crushing Ginny Weasley.

Apparently, the girl had a bit of an obsession with the boy who lived, and Harry only slightly hoped that she would take to his handsome younger brother instead. He liked Luna Lovegood though. The girl was eccentric, and after she lost her mother, she actually spent quite a bit of time at Potter Manor spending time with all the Potter children, as she was a bit of a drifter among the group. She got along with all the Potter which made her welcome in their home at any time.

Rosalie had at least one similar problem that Jack experienced, and it was that one of her best friends had a huge crush on her brother. Romilda Vane was a cute darker girl, but she was two years younger than Harry, and he hoped that as she got older she would see him as an older brother as she has spent so much time around the Potters.

Astoria Greengrass was another one of Rosalie's friends, but thankfully she held no romantic feelings towards the Hufflepuff but was apparently in a potential betrothal contract with Draco Malfoy. Astoria was more of a pureblood princess thankfully, so the girl was fairly intelligent and down to Earth when it came to Harry. He had no problems with the girl, or her older sister Daphne.

The siblings had all spent the day before Christmas eve happily together though and even did a friendly duel so Harry could gauge where they were. He was impressed, as he fought with a practice wand to make things fair, and he was now more excited to see Rosalie and Jack enter Hogwarts and let the Potter legacy grow around them.

On Christmas Eve the family was going to gather for dinner, and he did mean the whole family, so Harry would be going to spend the day with Hannah, and Susan at Abbot Manor. Lord Abbot had told him that he would open the floo to him that day, and Harry appreciated the vote of confidence while he waved goodbye to his family.

Sweeping through the chimney of his own home he appeared in a cozy room that was darker due to the curtains being hung around the room. He carried four gifts shrunken in his pockets, and while he fingered them in his pocket he observed the room recognizing a library when he saw one. He didn't have much time to observe as he heard the door open to see Darrel coming in, "Blimey Harry. When did you get here? We weren't expecting you for another fifteen minutes."

Harry shrugged dusting himself off, "If you're early, you're on time, if you're on time, you're late. No worries though I just came through. I thought I would end up in the living room or something though."

Darrel interestingly asked, "What did you say the floo password was?"

Harry thought for a moment before shaking his head, "I may have said Abbot Manors. Sorry, I hope I didn't come into a private room?"

Darrel patted his young friend on the back leading him out into the hallway, "Not at all, just the library. The Abbots have lived here a long time, so we have our grimoire in their though. Would have looked suspicious if you had been sorted into a house other than Hufflepuff."

Harry laughed at the boy's insinuation when he then heard scampering footsteps, and the two matching blows to his body. He didn't have much time to even brace himself as he wrapped both arms around the blonde and redhead who were squeezing the life out of him Hannah was the first to ask, "Harry when did you get here? We were waiting by the fireplace downstairs!"

Darrel chuckled, "It seems Harry needs more work with floo travel, the enunciation was a little off so he ended up in the library."

As the three separated from their group hug Harry grinned, "Well while I have the three of you here I might as well give you my gifts. Just open them tomorrow, but I didn't want to forget."

Harry pulled out one gift and reversed his shrinking charm wandlessly, handing it to Darrel, then Susan, then Hannah. To Darrel, he gave a set of workout clothes that were made of a nice troll hide, which Madame Malkin manipulated into something nicer. The point was they were spell resistant, and that they would help him during their dueling training.

They also had the black badger logo in it that showed which house they came from. Harry had a matching set, which he thought looked pretty awesome. For the girls, he had given them chocolates, and wand holsters to help their draw time. Darrel already had been given a nice wand holster from his dad, so he saw no need to try and outdo an already acceptable gift.

A voice came from behind the group as they all were getting ready to go put presents under the tree, "A most impressive display of magic Heir Potter, I would be surprised if adults could do what you did so casually."

Harry turned to see Lord and Lady Abbot standing with bemused smiles on their faces while the young man bowed, "Lord and Lady Abbot, while I am in your home I hope you will just call me Harry. I also say that honestly, wandless magic is a nice party trick that not everyone may be able to do, but it is more difficult to apply it to dueling or combat. My own father can't do much of it, but what he can do is mostly useful in dueling magic."

Lord Abbot smiled at the humble young man, "For the time being since you have permitted us to use your informal name we ask that you do the same for us, my wife is Melissa, and I am simply Brandon while you are in this home."

Harry gave a bow of thanks. While the kids went to have lunch and lounge around, Darrel and the parents went out for some last-minute Christmas shopping which left the three kids alone. Most would think this irresponsible, but with the wards around the home, it was above unlikely something would happen in their absence.

Susan was ranting about her aunt having to work Christmas day, but it was clear while she was upset, that she understood her Aunt's job was an important one, and that she was only a little bitter, not truly upset.

Hannah however was thrilled to have her friends over on Christmas eve, "Normally the day passes so slowly, and mum and dad always leave for last-minute Christmas shopping or whatever they go do. Darrel normally doesn't go with them, but he usually hangs out with Cedric or Heidi, but since they both left for vacation it just wasn't meant to be this year."

Harry sighed, "Normally mum is the only one home this time of year. With dad being an auror, and him being pretty dedicated to fighting the dark arts, he isn't home very often. The war may have left the streets, but I don't think the war really ever left him."

Susan took a sad face responding, "Same with Auntie. I think she is even busier now that she is trying to boost the auror program and prepare for the worse. It's possible your dad and my aunt could just be trying to prepare people. The more we prepare now the more lives that could be saved in the future I suppose."

Hannah tried to cheer both her friends up, "We just have to remember we can't stop living to fight this war. We have to remember what we are fighting for. Christmas with our families, I can't think of much else that could be more important."

Harry grabbed the glass on the table holding it up, "To remember what were fighting for. For this Christmas and the many more after that."

The girls smiled at the boy and tapped their glasses of butterbeer to his and took long swigs. The conversation went much lighter for several hours. Harry told them he was going to Neville's for New Year, and that maybe they should convince their families to come to. Augusta always invites the light families, so he was sure that they would be invited.

Before Harry could leave the Manor he knew he had one matter that still needed to be taken care of. When Darrel arrived back home, Harry asked if the girls would excuse him for a moment, as he had some questions about the dueling team that he was concerned about. The girls had no reason not to trust the boy and both went to the kitchen to help Becky Abbot make some type of dessert while the house-elf made dinner.