A Warm Christmas

A bit more of a 'wholesome' chapter with some progression at the end :). This one ended up being 1700 words too which is well over my normal word count so I hope you all enjoy!

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Oz woke up on Christmas like any other morning. He got out of bed, did his morning stretches and exercise in his room before having a shower and then getting dressed ready for the day. Just last night Oz had nearly finalised his own marauders map, the only thing he needs to do now is connect Salazar's magical signature in the hopes that it can track the snake down...

The Slytherin common room for the past few days had been practically empty due to it being Christmas time. The majority of people heading back to their families for the winter period. Daphne had only just left yesterday though on Christmas eve, leaving the common room to just Harry and Oz.

Walking in to the common room Oz yawned, looking around the room he saw a tree in the far corner. On the couch nearby the tree sat Harry who was engrossed into a book.

Oz wore a soft smile as he sat down on a chair nearby the boy.

"Is that a book you got for Christmas?"

Harrys eyes quickly darted up in shock before softening.

"Oh, its you Oz. Yeah Daphne got me this book actually, It lists different methods of potion making! The potions included however are mainly prank potions like that potion we gave to Ron a few weeks back".

Oz chuckled at Harrys comment.

'That Daphne is turning this 'boy who lived' into a true delinquent... At least the years to come will be interesting'.

Looking over to the tree Oz noticed that there were still presents there.

"It seems you aren't completely finished unwrapping presents... come on Harry lets see what else you got!".

Harry then put the book down he got from Daphne and walked over to the tree. The present he was reaching for was a present that Oz recognised. Before Oz could say anything Harry started to speak:

"Your father left this in my possession before he died, it is time it was returned to you. Use it well?".

After seeing this note Harry immediately opened the present up. What was presented to him was a familiar looking cloak.

"What do you think this is Oz? It was apparently my fathers!".

Oz took a long deep look at it, feigning ignorance before responding:

"I'm certain thats an invisibility cloak Harry! What an incredible item that is. I'm sure you can do a lot with that cloak in hand now...".

Harry smiled after hearing Oz's explanation. Glee filled his eyes as he messed around with the invisibility cloak.

"This things awesome! Do you want to give it a try Oz? I can always lend it to you in the future if you need it!".

Oz chuckled at Harry's offer.

"I appreciate the offer Harry, but..."

As Oz finished his sentence he instantly conjured a wandless cloaking spell. Turning invisible in front of Harrys eyes. He then quickly looped around to Harry's back and cancelled the spell, tapping him on the shoulder.

Oz gave a cheeky grin as Harry turned around with bewilderment on his face.

"I'm able to do this stuff without a cloak~".

After playing around with the invisibility cloak more, Harry went ahead to open the rest of his presents. Oz almost failed to hold in a laugh at the present the Dursleys had gave him.

"I can't believe they gave me a 50p piece! I bet that Dudley got like 30 different presents as well...".

Harry only had two presents left after this... present. He opened up a present from Hermione which was a chocolate frog card and a box of bertie botts every flavoured beans and finally a present from Hagrid which was a wooden flute. Seeing a present from Hagrid, Oz felt the need to ask Harry something.

"Do you still talk to Hagrid after him taking you around Diagon Alley".

Midway through messing around with the flute, Harry stopped to look at Oz who had poised him a question.

"At the beginning of the year I went down to his a lot actually. He helped me get out of that shithole house after all so I feel indebted to him. In addition the guy tells great stories!".

After answering Oz, Harry went back to messing around with his presents. Oz pondered to himself about what Harry had said.

'I guess it makes sense that they stayed connected... After all while Hagrid can be a bit muscle brained and straight-laced, especially when Dumbledore's in the picture, he is a good guy in the end, a guy that cares for Harry quite a lot as well...'.

While Oz was deep in thought Harry walked over towards him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Earth to Oz? You need to open your presents now!".

Oz fell into a slight shock at Harrys words.

"Presents? Since when did I get presents?"

Even though this year he had given out presents to some people, mainly Craig and Cho. He hadn't expected to receive anything. After all last year for Oz he was completely alone due to the complications of his placement in Slytherin. Before that even he was in the orphanage but never really took any notice of Christmas as he was focused on being prepared for Hogwarts.

Oz looked over to the tree and low and behold he did have some presents. He saw presents from Craig and Cho, as well as a suspicious present that didn't have a sender on it. Harry, Daphne and Hermione had also all got him a present as well which surprised him.

Seeing this, Oz fished into his pouch and pulled out a pair of glasses for Harry. These glasses were almost identical to the ones that the boy was already wearing.

"Here's my present to you Harry... These are those Health Specs I used at the beginning of the year! I'm sure they'll come in handy down the line for you".

Harrys face lit up at Oz's present, thanking him and immediately wearing the glasses to test them out. While Harry was testing them out, Oz chuckled.

"A few more years Harry and Ill let you have a certain special 'limited edition' pair... when you're old and responsible enough".

Harry's head jutted around at Oz's ambiguous comment.

"A special pair?! What are they like!".

Oz shook his head playfully at Harrys question.

"Ah.... I can't tell you now can I! Just look forward to it!".

Finish this little talk Oz got out of his seat and went over to his own presents, opening them.

Harry and Daphne had got Oz a joint present which were some dung bombs. Hermione got Oz the same she got Harry, A chocolate frog card and some bertie botts beans. Craig had got Oz a cool snake necklace with a note attached reading 'Thought this would work perfectly for our little descendant!'. The last present Oz could recognise the recipient of was one from Cho, who had got him a bunch of different candies.

Seeing all these presents, Oz felt himself get a little choked up. For the now seven years he had been in this world this was the first time he had actually been gifted things. After thanking Harry for his present, he turned to the last two presents directed to him.

One was a bag of sweets, the note read 'For my new pupil, I hope these sweets are to your taste as they are to mine...'.

'Thats definitely from Dumbledore... definitely not touching them'.

Oz then tossed the whole bag of sweets into his pouch in one fell swoop.

The last present was a box. Specifically a box of all kinds of chocolate. There was no note however and was just addressed to Oz personally. Harry peered his head over looking at all the chocolates.

"It's probably from one of your admirers Oz... I wouldn't touch them if I were you. Who knows what they could have put in it!".

Oz nodded his head at Harry's comment storing away the box of chocolates as well with Dumbledore's sweets.

After both Harry and Oz had sorted through their presents, Oz pitched to Harry that they should have their own fun on this Christmas which the boy was instantly excited to participate in. Following this the duo played many different board games along with also going outside and having a snowball fight (Harry's personal request). Harry got a bit annoyed though with Oz at one point as he would stop the balls from hitting him using a wandless 'Arresto Momentum'. All in all however the two enjoyed their Christmas just having fun and chilling out together.

Such a Christmas was incredibly warming to Oz, especially after the lonesome years he had in this life prior and his last life before all this as well.

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Night finally rolled around on Christmas and the duo of Harry and Oz split off to their respective rooms to sleep. Oz however had other plans instead of sleeping.

'Its time to see if I can connect this map to Salazar in some way...'.

Going down into the fireplace study, Oz held his own personal marauders map in his hand. The map had now been fully fleshed out and was already somewhat connected to the wards of Hogwarts. He could already tell with it where people were and in what rooms, he also took the liberty of adding this fireplace room to his map as well as the chamber of secrets to it. Down the line if he found any more places he could easily add it also.

Finally arriving in the room, Oz walked up to the portrait of Salazar that was still empty. As Oz got right up close to it he felt Salazar's dark magic emanating from it.

'Well lets give this a shot then'.

Oz held the map out in front of the portrait and channelled his magic into the map in order for it to accept the dark magic from the portrait as a tracking target. After several minutes of trying different methods, the map finally changed.

In one of the rooms on the map was now a black snake, Oz's design choice of course that signified Salazar. The snake exuded the same magical signature as Salazar as well. Looking at this snake Oz grinned as he muttered.

'Gotcha...'.