Harry also got on the holiday train together with Ron, Hermione, and Annie.
With them was also Sebastian's ghost.
Only, that good buddy kept looking at Harry with a man-eating gaze, which made Annie keep glancing sideways and covering her mouth to laugh.
"He's about to eat someone," Harry turned his head and said to Annie, even pointing at Sebastian.
"Relax, Harry." Annie cast her brother a glance. "He won't."
Harry looked at Sebastian, then at Annie, and in the end stayed silent.
"We're planning to go to Grimmauld Place No. 12 after Christmas," Hermione said to Harry. She could sense the awkward atmosphere and wanted to ease it a bit; as it turned out, she succeeded—"My mum and dad know Ron's coming to spend the holidays at our place. They're really happy and told me I absolutely have to bring Ron home properly."
"I'm a bit nervous." Ron kept taking deep breaths.
He really should be nervous; the first time meeting the future in-laws, he absolutely should be.
"What are you nervous about?" Harry asked, puzzled.
"I'm afraid Mr. Granger won't like me," Ron muttered.
He lifted his head and glanced at Hermione; seeing Hermione still speaking softly with Annie, he finally relaxed a little.
"You should be thinking about whether you can hold your drink," Harry said kindly to Ron. "If you can manage a couple of drinks, it'll be very easy to open the path of friendship with Mr. Granger."
"Drinking?" Ron asked doubtfully. "Why do you say that? Oh, I think you must be pulling my leg, after all you don't have any experience with that either…"
"Who says so?" Harry grinned. "Who says I don't have any experience? You know what? Back then, Cassandra's father, Mr. Septimus Malfoy, was extremely fond of me…"
Mm, he really was fond of him, absurdly so; on that point Harry wasn't lying—though later on, Mr. Malfoy had practically wanted to treat Harry to the entire range of the Gaunt family's Inoffensive Minor Curses.
"Really?" Ron leaned back slightly in tactical awe, becoming just a bit more respectful.
"What else?" Harry laughed. "And—Gellert, that's Vivi's younger brother, he's crazy about me too, isn't he?"
Ron had no idea what exactly the relationship between Gellert and Harry was; all he'd ever seen was Harry and Gellert acting like the picture of brotherly harmony in front of Vivi.
"True," he nodded. "On this point, you're the expert. I need to learn from you—"
"Right?" Harry patted Ron on the shoulder. "All right, you need a proper rest. Once you've slept on it, you might feel it's not such a big deal."
"Okay." Ron took a deep breath. "I've decided to trust you, mate—"
Toot-toot—
The train arrived at King's Cross Station.
"Let's get off," Hermione stood up and said. "We'll head out of the platform first."
They got off the train and walked out of the platform. Hermione's parents were waiting for her beside a Bentley; next to them stood the debonair Sirius.
Every now and then, a pretty Muggle Girl would walk up to Sirius to strike up a polite conversation. Sirius never turned them down; he chatted happily with each one, and it looked like he collected plenty of contact details.
Seeing their daughter, the Grangers lifted their hands high and waved at Hermione.
"Dad! Mum!"
Hermione bounced over and threw herself into her parents' arms.
"Hi, Sirius… Look, Ron came with me too," she turned back to Ron. "Ron, come here—"
Harry, Ron, and Annie walked over together.
After they'd introduced everyone to each other, Harry and Annie got into Sirius's car together.
"I think," Sirius said, chewing gum, "Harry, compared to your father, you're actually more like me—"
"Really?" Harry didn't understand what Sirius meant.
Sirius smiled meaningfully and said nothing more. He started up the car's invisibility engine, then shot into the sky.
Harry sat there, completely at a loss. I'm more like Sirius than my dad?
Then he remembered how, back at the station, those Muggle Girls had been asking Sirius for his contact information.
His face flushed bright red in an instant.
No, that's definitely not the same thing!
When they got home, Harry found that Grimmauld Place No. 12 was still the same as ever, with no Christmas decorations at all.
"I didn't have Kreacher do it," Sirius saw Harry's confusion and explained. "I was planning to have you lot do it together. Young people should be lively when they're together; decorating the house makes for a great activity, don't you think?"
"I suppose so," Harry wiped the nonexistent cold sweat from his forehead. "But…"
"This house looks very familiar."
Sebastian's voice suddenly rang out, giving Sirius a fright.
"And you are?" Sirius frowned.
"Oh, this is Sebastian Saru," Harry introduced. "He's Annie's biological brother and a good friend of mine, the classmate who looked after me most a hundred years ago…"
"I wouldn't go that far," Sebastian said with a cool laugh. "I wasn't the one who looked after you the most. I don't want to be unable to rest in peace even after death—I need to remind you, in the Hogwarts of a hundred years ago, the one who took the best care of you was always Miss Malfoy!"
"I was just being polite with him," Harry said to Sirius.
Sirius laughed.
He could see very well why this Sebastian's words came with barbs.
After all, this little Slytherin girl now following Harry around was his own little sister…
Thinking of that, Sirius's expression grew a bit complicated.
Honestly, how is it that his excellent godson keeps clashing with Slytherin women?
Can't you take a look at the women of Gryffindor? See if there's a girl you like in Gryffindor? Is it really right to keep plucking from Slytherin alone?
"Still, that aside," Sirius suddenly said, "I can tell Miss Malfoy has some very unusual feelings for you—but I can also more or less guess why Vivi managed to swoop in on her…"
"Isn't it all because that Malfoy girl is just too proud?" Sebastian said gleefully. "From second year on, I could see that Malfoy seemed to have a crush on this bloke Harry, but she was far too proud to admit that what she felt for him was 'liking.' Normally that might've been fine, only… in fifth year, Grindelwald transferred in."
"Oh?" Sirius's face lit up with gossip. "Go on, details!"
"Oh, there's not that much to tell," Sebastian shrugged. "We were never exactly close with Miss Malfoy, because the Malfoy Clan is just too… hmm, hard to approach. The only reason Miss Malfoy ever joined the Dueling House and the Phoenix Society was because of Harry, nothing more."
"What about Vivi?" Sirius asked again.
"Oh, Grindelwald," Sebastian laughed. "That one… don't be fooled by how approachable she seems on the surface. In reality she's much more arrogant than Malfoy. The only reason she came near us was purely utilitarian—she wanted to get closer to Harry through us, that's all."
"You'd never guess," Sirius reached out and patted his godson on the shoulder. "You've actually got that much charm… Of course, I've always been a bit puzzled as to why Vivi and Cassandra like you so much."
"It must be some special fate," Harry shrugged. "Maybe I do have a few extraordinary qualities, don't you think?"
(Pabi's extra will be filled in in a couple of days)