No one had seen Harry Potter in years.

The Boy Wonder, Conqueror, had taken a job a curse-breaker after returning to Hogwarts to finish his seventh year. Most of his classmates did not kept in contact beyond an occasional passed on greeting through Ginny or Ron, but they all kept up with the news when it was leaked to the Daily Prophet that the man was missing. He had been working in a dig in Egypt, and one day he had simply not returned to camp.

The disappearance of the Boy Who Conquered became one of the great mysteries of the Wizarding world. For years, hundreds of witches and wizards scoured the deserts of Egypt, hoping to be the one to find a trace of the missing wizard.

Only Seamus Finnegan knew what happened to the man. After Hogwarts, he had persued a career as a Healer, and when he graduated from St. Mungo's, he was hired by Gringotts to accompany their cursebreaking teams to look after the men and women. That particular dig had been deemed safe enough that Seamus was able to bring his seven year old son Colin along with him. He rarely got to see the boy, he and Lavender Brown had divorced shortly after his birth, citing insurmountable differences as the cause. Seamus never told anyone he had found Lavender in bed with his best friend, Dean Thomas.

He was closing shop up for the day when Colin came into the tent, dragging a beddraggled little boy with him.

"Daddy, he's hurt! Fix him, Daddy!" Colin demanded, releasing his new friend's hand and pointing to the long, bloody scraps that littered the boy's bare back and legs. Merlin, the boy only wore a tattered loin clothe of an indeterminable color.

"Come here, son," Seamus said softly, offering his hand to the boy. The child took it without hesitation, looking up at him with big, deep green eyes. As soon as he saw those eyes, he knew who the child was.

Carefully, Seamus dressed the boys wounds, and scrounged up some of Colin's old clothes for him to wear until they could go to a proper market. That night, two little boys slept in Colin's cot, curled up together as if they had been together since birth. Seamus watched them sleep for a moment before turning away and going to his own room. He smiled to himself as he got ready for bed.

Fate was a funny and fickle thing. But she was fair to her children. She must have decided to give Harry Potter a chance at a normal life.

Who was Seamus Finnegan to deny him that chance?

Just a little fic I wrote cause the idea was nagging at me. Enjoy. Just a few more days til Christmas! Maybe I'll post a holiday fic. :)