The Boy: Brandon Dursely

Chapter 25: Yule

Harry opened his eyes, with their green hue filled with the haze of waking up. He rubbed them as the coldness blew on his face.

Sebastian the Direwolf, now at least a quarter of a meter tall, jumped on the bed, making it shake. Harry smiled. Sebastian licked Harry's face, making him giggle a bit. The direwolf then plopped himself on Harry's side and Harry hugged his familiar, burrowing himself on the thick fur.

Just as he was about to doze off again, a pop startled Harry.

"Good morning, 'Prentice Sir!" Harry almost jumped at Jar's cheerful greeting. But knowing that he was safe here, with his Professor, he knew that he won't be harmed, Harry relaxed almost instantly.

"The Professor asked Jar to wake you."

He did? Why?

"Oh," Harry was completely confused. Sure, Snape woke him up on selected days, but...

"It's Christmas morning, 'Prentice Sir!" Jar exclaimed, as if reading Harry's thoughts.

Christmas? It's already Christmas?!

A giggle escaped Jar's lips as the look of surprise crossed Harry's face, "Presents, 'Prentice Sir! Presents await you by the floor. So the Professor asked you to come and eat breakfast."

"Alright," Harry replied, "I'll be there in a moment. Please tell the Professor I'll be down as soon as I can."

Jar gave a smile, "Uh huh, uh huh. Yep, yep! I'll do it."

"Thank you, Mister Jar."

The small elf disappeared in a pop. Harry hurriedly took a warm bath and dressed, not forgetting to put on his favorite sweater and comb his hair.

Before he went down, Harry crouched in front of his yawning familiar. It was Winter, and Sebastian liked sleeping in the middays. They had bought him a leash the last day they went to Diagon Alley. The Professor said that soon, the Direwolf would become ready to be mounted. Harry stared at him in awe. He did not even know that Sebastian can be ridden!

When Harry had gone down, he was greeted by the Professor with a gruff 'Happy Christmas', to which he returned with a shy smile.

The breakfast Jar had served was an absolute heaven! On Harry's plate was a stack of pancakes, drizzled with blueberry syrup, his favorite. There was also a glass of milk next to it. Harry dug in at once and savored the sweetness on his tongue. It was delicious!

"Mmm..."

Severus smiled as he saw the closed eyes and the smile of his ward. Although it wasn't a very known fact about him, Severus enjoyed cooking. In fact, he relished in it. He decided to cook their breakfast this morning, considering it was Christmas and all.

He looked back at Jar and nodded at the small elf. Jar nodded and brought back the jar of cookies he had made earlier. He had especially prepared it with the boy's favorite chocolate chips, the only one the boy asked for their whole trip to Diagon Alley. It was Honeyduke's finest, and he made cookies out of them.

The boy's whole face lit up as soon as smelt and saw the jar of cookies. Normally, Harry knew that it wasn't of Snape's persona to let a child be hyped of sugar so early in the morning. Harry smiled timidly at his Professor. Although Snape won't admit it or tell him anything, he knew that it was not Jar that cooked the food. Snape's magical residue was upon the jar of chocolate chips, as well as in the blueberry drizzle. Harry knew that Snape grew blueberry bushes in their backyard. He saw him pruning it once.

Of course, he won't tell anyone.
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After breakfast, it was then that Snape noticed that the Potter boy did not 'dig in' for presents at once. Instead, he waited patiently for Snape's invitation for him to do so. Snape merely observed.