Fighting Darkness

1.9

Harry and Alice weren't seen until two minutes before curfew when they slipped into the common room, their clothes covered in dirt.

Hermione sighed in relief when Alice's red hair appeared through the portrait hole. She and Ron had looked nearly everywhere for the twins after their horrible potions class.

For a reason no one quite knew, all points lost during the class had been restored and their detentions had been cancelled.

It confused many of the older students seeing as no matter how unfair Snape was, his detentions had never been cancelled or points given back.

"Harry! Alice! Oh, we were so worried when we couldn't find you! Oh, and why are you covered in dirt? Did you fall in one of those holes? Damn Fred and George-"

"Hermione!" Harry yelled, cutting off her rant. "We're fine. We just went to go help Hagrid with some planting."

Hermione glared at them, her hands on her hips. "Fine. But both of you, off to bed. It's late."

Harry glanced at Alice, his eyebrows raised. "We better listen Ali. We don't want her to throw books at us!" He joked, grinning.

"Oh no!" Alice wailed. "Or worse yet, make us do homework!"

With a start, Hermione realised that was probably the first thing the girl had ever said to her. She usually so quiet and only ever spoke to Harry, Ron, Max and the teachers.

Hermione huffed and tsked, tapping her foot. "I was being serious you two. Off to bed!"

Harry laughed but conceded anyways, hugging Alice and waving goodbye to Hermione, he jogged up the staircase and into his dorm.
*

Time seemed to fly as the next thing Alice knew, it was Christmas break. While most people left for the break, her, Harry and the Weasley's remained seeing as Molly and Arthur were going to Romania to visit the second eldest Weasley Charlie for the holidays.

The only other student that stayed for the holidays was her best friend Max.

"Why aren't you home for Christmas?" Alice asked, while she casually petted Emily, Max's black cat. She and Max were excited to have the dorm room all to themselves and were currently sitting in a fort of pillows and blankets.

Max shrugged, lazily flipping a page in her large leather book. The only words Alice understood from the cover was edition, H.P Lovecraft and the best weird tales. The rest looked more like gibberish than anything.

"Didn't feel like it. Besides, mama ain't gonna be home anyways. She got some fancy ball thing with work on Christmas eve so she ain't gonna be home till new years knowin' her."

The way Max spoke changed a lot. Sometimes she spoke like a posh brit and other times more like people Alice knew from the streets with an accent she couldn't place.

"Oh." Was all Alice said, she didn't know much about Max's home life and all Max knew about her was that she lived with the Weasley's. 

"Have you ever read H.P Lovecraft?" Max asked randomly, looking up from her book.

Alice shook her head, blushing. "Reading has never been a strong point of mine. I mean, I love reading, but I'm not all that good at it."

Max nodded,looking up at her.  "Do you like horror?" When Alice confirmed that she did, Max asked "Would you like me to read it to you then?"

Alice nodded happily, burrowing herself into her blankets, letting the calm flow of Max's voice lull her to sleep.
*
"Harry! Harry you lazy ass wake up! It's Christmas!"

Harry groaned and rolled over, shoving his face into his warm pillow. "Shudup Ron. I don't even have any presents." Harry nor Alice had ever received gifts on Christmas, this one wasn't going to be any different.

"Quit joking mate. Course you have gifts." Ron said, rolling his eyes even though Harry couldn't see.

Groaning, Harry rolled over onto his back and shimmied down the blankets, turning himself around in the process. A few seconds later Harry's head appeared from under the blankets, this time at the end of the bed.

When he finally managed to slip on his glasses that had been on the floor, he gasped. In front of him he counted 15 presents! All for him!

"Whoa." Harry whispered, staring at the small pile of gifts that was dwarfed in contrasts to Ron's huge pile of gifts.

"Well go on, open them!" Ron called, grinning.

Harry shook his head. "We should call your brothers and the girls to come here too. So we can open them together?"

Ron awkwardly put his Weasley sweater back into it's box, blushing slightly.
*
When everyone had gathered in the boys dorm, they began to open their gifts.

Harry was very pleased with what he'd gotten. A ministry issued Rune book meant for only curse breakers from Bill, a small dragon figurine and a dragon tooth knife from Charlie, A book on potions from Percy, Chocolate frogs and a book on Quidditch from Ron, Assorted prank products from Fred and George, A painting of him and Alice and some sweets from Ginny, a Weasley sweater and some treacle tart from Molly and Arthur.

He even got some sweets from the other boys in the dorm and a book from Alice's friend Max.

The last two he was wary to open.

One of them was signed R L and the other just said use it well. What if there was some deadly chocolate in there that would kill him if he ate it? Besides he didn't know any R L's.

Alice has received a similar package from R L but none from the other mystery gift sender.

"Aren't you going to open them!" Ron asked as he bit off the head of a chocolate frog.

Alice shrugged, brushing red hair from her eyes. "Maybe. But we don't even know who they're from. For all we know it's some Slytherin who figured out who was behind all the pranks and wants revenge."

Max nodded, looking thoughtful. "If I'm not mistaken, there's a boy named Peter Larson in year three, a Ravenclaw Orphan. Parents killed during the war, Death Eaters. He's been ranting about getting revenge on you two all year."

Everyone looked at her weirdly, obviously confused.

"How do you know that?" Fred asked, clearly confused. He didn't even know if a Peter Larson, and he knew nearly every kid in the school. 

Max shrugged. "I spent a lot of time alone, I learned things. Did you know Di Morta in third year thinks Harry is the most promising guy, fourth year and down? Looks wise if course."

Harry blushed crimson and looked away, tugging at his lip while his friends and sister roared with laughter.

'Yah', Harry decided. 'This was the best Christmas ever.'
.
Holy crap this is long for me! 1124 words! Whooo! So I have so little written after this (ahhh) but I'm going to go write right (hehe write right) now! So never fear! Sleep deprived writer Ws is here! Hope you enjoy this chapter!