Just like Brothers

Chapter 24

"Draco"

"Mmmmmm"

"Wake up! It's Christmas!"

The blond rolled over and covered his head with a pillow, which turned out to be his cat, Lilious.

"Five more minutes." He grumbled sleepily.

Harry grabbed his own pillow and started hitting the Slytherin, scaring the cat off the bed in the process, "Cmon! Get up! Presents!"

Draco muttered a few colorful words under his breath before slipping out from under his blankets and locking himself in the bathroom.

Used to this, Harry waited as patiently as he could, his legs jittering with anticipation.

When Draco finally came out, Harry bolted downstairs, Draco casually walked behind him.

There were two big stacks of presents and a smaller one lined up in the living room.

Harry saw his name on a gift and ran over to his pile, ripping into the first one with a huge smile on his face.
         
Snape came out of the kitchen in his bathrobe and slippers and handed Draco a cup of chamomile tea.

Draco took it gratefully and went over to his own stack of presents.

It was significantly smaller than what he was used to but he wasn't too bothered.
       
Snape sat on an armchair, watching the boys open their gifts, an amused look on his face as he saw Harry rip the wrapping paper while Draco carefully unfolded the corners of his own.

Every once in a while Severus would open a present of his own but there wasn't to many there.
       
"I got a Broom! The Firebolt! That's the newest model! The one the professionals use." Snape looked up to see the Raven-headed boy shaking the broomstick towards him with glee, his round glasses sitting crooked on the bridge of his nose.

For once Severus Snape saw neither Lily Evans or James Potter.

He just saw Harry, a young man who had a traumatic past and who has the weight of the world on his shoulders but still manages to find delight in simple things such as Christmas gifts.
      
"How useful," Snape nodded at the boy, "you needed a new one after the incident with the Whomping Willow, who is it from?"
       
Harry searched the paper and broom for the sender however it was not signed.
       
"It doesn't say, Sir." Harry said.
       
Snape frowned, "Put it over here, I'll have to scan it for any curses before you can use it."
       
Harry pouted but obliged nevertheless.
      
Severus was down to his last two gifts, one was wrapped impeccably and the other looked as if a young child was playing with tape and paper.

He opened them both, the best one ended up being from Draco.

It was a pocket watch that turned into a cauldron when needed.

He then opened the one that he could only assume was from Harry Potter, he was actually quite shocked the boy got him anything at all, it was a plaque like the ones Muggle teachers had in their class rooms. It read;

Professor S. Snape
Potions Classroom
(Aka The Bat Cave)

Severus rolled his eyes but a smirk crept up on his face.

He saw that there was more to the present and pulled out a bottle that was labeled 'dry shampoo' and a package of neon colored scrunchies.
       
"Happy Christmas, Professor!" Harry gave him a mischievous grin.

He had opened nearly all his gifts, from Mrs. Weasley, he had gotten a Gryffindor lion handmade sweater, A Christmas cake, mince pies and box of nut brittle. Hermione  had gotten him a book called 'Quidditch teams in Britain and Ireland'. From Ron, shocked that he got anything at all, Harry got a bulging bag of dungbombs. Ginny gave him a bag of sweets from Honeydukes, A large tin of treacle fudge could be from none other than Hagrid. His last two presents he assumed were from Draco and Snape. He opened the one from Draco first and saw that he had gotten him his own set of Quidditch balls. The box was the same green as their bedroom wall and the balls were made out of the same wood as Harry's wand. On the top H.J.P was engraved.
        
"Thanks mate!" Harry smiled at the blond.
          
Draco cleared his throat and grabbed the atrociously wrapped presents Harry had gotten him.

He unwrapped a few boxes of his favorite tea, a book of blank paper, pencils that clicked at the top, a fat looking pencil with a lid and a sleek white board. He looked up at Harry in confusion.
        
"That's a sketchbook, drawing pens, expo markers and a dry erase board, there should be an eraser in there too..." he dug through the pile of paper, "aha! Here you go!" He handed Draco a styrofoam rectangle with a carpet-like texture on the bottom.
         
"How do I use the Dry Erase Board?" Draco asked his eyebrows furrowed.
         
"Like this," Harry took the board and a green marker, he wrote 'Happy Christmas' on it and then used the eraser to erase the phrase.
          
Draco looked shocked, "where'd it go?" He snatched the board from Harry and began drawing lines and then erasing them.
          
"It's like a pencil, you can erase your work, but instead of on paper it's on the board." Harry explained.
        
Draco smiled up at him "Thanks Harry, Happy Christmas."
         
The boys each had a single present left, the ones Snape had gotten them.
         
Draco opened his first, squealing in delight when he unwrapped a supply of his favorite green-apple shampoo.

The fancy one that Harry had finished a few days prior. Severus also got Draco a mug that heated and made tea by itself.
       
"Thank you Severus."
Harry was next, he ripped the paper of his present. Snape gave him a box of treacle tart and a photo album.

He opened the book to see a bunch of pictures of a young girl with fiery red hair and emerald green eyes.

They were muggle pictures, but Harry didn't mind.

In one picture the girl was covered in mud, a huge grin plastered on her face, in another she was shoving a hotdog in her mouth in what seemed to be a eating competition.

Towards the end of the album was letters;

Dear Sev,

Harry's gotten so big! He said his first words the other day "Padfoot", James is livid, he was betting on his first word being Dada. You should come see him one day. You two would get along great. He's a little firecracker, always wanting to explore. His favorite thing at the moment is watching me brew, he's going to be quite the Potion Master when he grows up! He's taken a liking to Alice and Frank Longbottom's little one, Neville they're best of friends, I feel bad sometimes for they don't seem to like sweet Ronnie Weasley too much. Molly's really got her hands full with the newborn, I don't know if you've heard, her name is Ginevra. Hope to hear from you soon! I miss my best friend.
                          -Lily

There were dozens of letters, all  on Harry and the Potters.

Harry laughed when he read the part about Ron.

By the time he finished reading the letter his eyes were glassed over.
       
"Thank you." He turned to face Severus. "You were her best friend, do you have any stories?" Harry asked eagerly. "What was she like?"
      
"Lily was the kindest person alive," Snape smiled sadly, "she was also the champion of the hotdog eating contest 8 years in a row."
     
Harry nodded, signaling him to continue.
       
"She was best at Charms and Potions, she hated Divination with a passion. She was going to be a Healer. Her favorite color was yellow and she loved lilies and bunnies." Snape said.
        
Sensing that was all he would learn for now, Harry decided not to push any farther.
       
The trio ate eggs and bacon for breakfast.

Harry spent the whole morning going through the album Severus had given him.

There were so many little details in the letters like the fact that Harry was the only thing that made baby Ginny stop crying.

Harry also learned that Remus Lupin was one of his parents best friends. He would have to speak to the Defense professor when he went back to school.

Harry's blood boiled every single time Sirius Black was mentioned in the letters, Lily refered to him as 'Siri' most of the time.

Something was gnawing at the back of Harry's brain however. The names Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs were repeated several times in the letters, Harry couldn't help but think that he had seen those names somewhere else.
       
"Harry Potter, pay attention." Snape broke Harry out of his train of thought. 
       
"As I was saying, go get dressed, we're going to St. Mungo's today to visit Draco's mother."