"Are you sure?"
He nodded, perhaps a bit too quickly and was quick to explain, "It's not that I don't want to I just… can't yet. I spent every holiday break at Hogwarts, it is… was my ho more than the house I grew up in ever was. I just need so ti still to get things figured out."
Harriet and Amaryllis both frowned, and he didn't bla them in the least bit. How does one explain the fact that they didn't want to spend a week with who their family should be because they never had one growing up?
"What…" the dark-haired girl hesitated, "do you want us to tell mom and dad?"
That was another issue. How was he supposed to say it in a way that didn't sound like he was angry or avoiding them? Technically, he was avoiding them but not for the reasons they might think. "Just tell them that there are so things I need to make sure about, so problems and issues that I need to see through, or I won't be able to relax anyway. I don't want to ruin anyone's holidays."
The redhead quickly shook her head, "You aren't Harry. I know you think you're intruding but you aren't. We want you there, want you to be part of our family. When we t you it was like…"
She shook her head in frustration and looked to her, more studious, sister for help.
"Like you were always our brother."
It was sweet of them to say, and Harry smiled. He didn't want to say that he knew what she ant, that he had always been aware of it. He had wanted a family more than anything else in the world, the Mirror of Erised proved it, but he still wasn't sure why they wanted him so badly.
The Potters had been happy, why did they even bother with him?
"Guilt" a voice whispered in his mind, one that sounded like a horrible mixture of all those who had ever tornted him in his previous life. "They would feel guilty abandoning you. They don't care about you. They don't love you. Who would ever love a freak like you?"
Harry pushed it back into the depths of his mind, as he always had before, and replied to the comnt with a smile. It clearly didn't soothe their worries, but it would have to do for the ti being.
****
So of the staff did leave for the holidays, so stayed to watch over the students that chose to remain behind as well. In Slytherin it was near empty, with only Harry and a few others who remained behind. Those who did were consud in studies leaving the boy-who-lived to his own devices.
Or he would be if his Head of House had left as well. Instead, Riddle seems to haunt him, and rarely was there a ti in which he did not feel a presence watching him, studying him. The one benefit of the situation seed to be that he knew when she was not there as well, which makes it far easier for him to get tabs on her location.
If soone was going to try and steal the stone, it would make sense for them to do so when the staff was at a minimum.
Christmas passed without incident, and it was much the sa as Harry rembered from his own years. A few packages delivered to him with miscellaneous gifts. Candy, new clothes, a book or two.
It hurt more than Harry wanted to admit, that Jas and Lily Potter knew almost nothing about him, about his interests, about his life. He didn't bla them, of course, how could they after all? The conversations have been brief and few, they didn't know him growing up, couldn't know him growing up.
They were doing the best they could, and he appreciated it.
But it still hurt.
Apart from the gifts labeled from his family there was one that stood apart. A small, wrapped package without a sender's na on it. He was curious, naturally, and slowly unwrapped the box. In his own first year, he had received a gift from Dumbledore, and although he had his doubts it could very well be from the headmistress this ti.
Instead, it was a container like what he rembered his aunt occasionally receiving, one that contained sothing sparkling and valuable. He didn't open it, instead putting it in a drawer and going about his day until he ran into the older woman in question.
When asked, she shook her head, seemingly apologetic that she hadn't bought him sothing. Harry was quick to dismiss her concern, already knowing who the gift was from.
He didn't so much as look at the box for the rest of the week.
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