Hey everyone! I'm back! Thank you so much for your support! I'm going to try to gradually update everything so have patience with me. So this chapter has a little Potter family bonding and some surprise visitors. Hope you enjoy! Disclaimer: I do not own Frozen or Harry Potter.

Harry leaned against the door, trying desperately to dispel the fire flitting around his fingers. He had been reluctant when the Captain had told him he was invited home for Christmas. He hadn't been home for Christmas since he was a little boy. Captain Hall barely paused to celebrate Christmases, and he mostly spent the holidays training. Elsa and Anna always made him celebrate Christmas Eve and Day with them, but he felt any more time than that spent on the holiday was frivolous. Now he was here for the week in the midst of a family celebration he didn't know how to belong to.

It was a culture-shock for him coming home. Harry was used to order, used to the hard bunks of the barracks, used to early mornings and long days training. Here everything was chaos. Eva never seemed to know where her toys were and some prank was always in progress (much to his mother's chagrin). Everything was loud and messy and different, and he didn't feel he had a place here. He had a brother he used to know and a sister he didn't, and he felt so old compared to them.

What made it worse was that his family was trying so hard. His mother made all the dishes he loved as a boy and attempted to clean his already pristine room. Eva clung to him, imploring him to play with her. She reminded him of Anna, and he did (albeit awkwardly) help her arrange her dollhouse and give her dolls voices. Eva was easy because she didn't know him. She didn't expect anything from him. Stevie was different. His brother kept studying him, trying to figure what was different, how he had changed. They hadn't really talked yet, but Harry knew it was coming. Stevie would want to talk.

"Harry!" Lily called out, tapping on his door. "It's time for dinner. Please come downstairs."

"Okay, I'll be down in a minute," Harry replied, forcing his voice to stay calm and steady. He listened to his mom's footsteps as she walked away, taking a deep breath once he knew she was gone.

It had been years since he had had unpredictable fire outbursts. Being around Elsa helped balance the volatility of his powers, and the Captain had been teaching him how to meditate and call the fire back. Now at least he knew when he was about to lose it and could act accordingly. Usually the fire didn't fight him in reigning it in, but tonight he was stressed and out of place. His elemental powers acted up in response.

Harry took another deep breath and thought of Elsa and Anna back in Arendelle. He wondered what they would be doing for Christmas without him. The king and queen always visited relatives in the south for the holidays, but Elsa and Anna rarely went with them. Instead, the three children spent Christmas together, opening gifts and playing in the snow. Smiling at the few good Christmas memories he had, Harry didn't even notice that the fire had dispelled.

The Potter home was always bursting with life and merriment on Christmas Eve. All of their close friends and their families came for a wonderful dinner, and there was no short of good food or company. Even Severus left the comforts of his potions lab to celebrate the holiday with the Potters (though he was loathed to admit such a fact to anyone). For Lily, the day was even more special because her oldest son was home for the festivities for the first time in years.

She didn't know what the Christmases he had spent without them had been like. She had always sent him gifts for Christmas, but Harry sent most of them back. Her son wrote that he didn't need so many things and that it was easier to travel light. He always sent them little trinkets from the places he had visited. Lily treasured each one of these presents, and she knew Stevie did as well. He never let any of his friends, not even Ron or Hermione, touch the amulet Harry had sent him from Egypt. Bill Weasley had been fascinated by the necklace, but Stevie refused to give it up for a closer look.

Nevertheless, she was determined to make this the best day possible for her son. She wanted him to never forget this Christmas, a Christmas she was so desperate for them to have together. Lily Potter was a force to be reckoned with when she was determined, and so all the holiday traditions commenced. They baked cookies for Santa Claus, a Muggle tradition Lily insisted on raising her kids with, and wrapped presents.

Stevie and Eva made a mess of it trying to cut the dough and frost the cookies. Harry, on the other hand, didn't have a smudge on him. He meticulously frosted his cookies, and they looked so perfect Lily didn't believe they could be made by a fourteen year old boy.

"I see we have an expert frostier on our hands," she commented, smiling at Harry. "Have you done this before?"

"Only under duress," he said, his head steady as he drew zig-zags on the gingerbread Christmas tree. "Elsa's little sister Anna doesn't really take no for an answer."

Latching onto the first personal thing he'd mentioned since coming home, Lily asked, "And what are they doing for Christmas?"

Harry shrugged. "Usually their parents visit relatives, and they stay behind. Anna always makes us build a snowman, and sometimes Elsa and I go sledding." Well, technically Elsa used her ice magic to create obstacles for them to sled on, but his mother didn't need those details. "I usually don't do much for the holidays to be honest. Captain Hall gives me two days off, and that's about it."

Stevie raised an eyebrow. "So he's a slave driver then?" He couldn't imagine not having a Christmas holiday. He loved sleeping in, spending time with his family, snowball fights with his uncles and hot chocolate afterwards, opening presents on Christmas day. It seemed tremendously unfair to him that his older brother never got to enjoy these things.

Harry shrugged, seemingly unbothered by it all. "The captain doesn't believe in anything frivolous."

Lily studied her son, her solemn teenager, this boy who was looking more and more like a man every day. Everything about him was efficient: his movements, his words, his glances. It seemed that Harry too didn't believe in anything frivolous. He had brought one small knapsack with him. She wondered yet again if she and James had done the right thing sending Harry away. Her son wasn't a carefree teenager, wasn't like James at 14. He had grown up too fast, and it was her fault.

Still, there seemed to be hope. Harry patiently helped Eva frost her cookies while telling Stevie a story about Arendelle. The only time her son smiled was when he was talking about Elsa. It made him light up like their Christmas tree, and she wanted to see more of that. Decision already made, she left the kids to decorate the cookies and jotted down a quick note to give to the family owl. Harry was going to remember this Christmas as a happy one even if she had to call in some reinforcements.

The Potter's Christmas Eve party was in full swing. People wandered in and out of each room, cups of punch in hand. Lily was quite proud of the spread she had managed to make this year. The house elves only put up a small fight at her doing the cooking, knowing their mistress was desperate for the eldest young master to enjoy the party. All of their friends were present: Sirius and Remus, Severus with an accompanying scowl, the Weasleys, the Lovegoods, the Bones… The list went on and on. Stevie was delighted to see both his best friends and had quickly stolen away to another room to talk to them. Eva had her own friends present as well, and they were all happily playing with their dolls.

Harry, however, looked distinctly uncomfortable and out of place. Lily had forced him into some clothes with a bit of color to them ("Honestly, love, you can't wear black all the time), and he was leaning against the wall, watching the party. Very few of their friends had ever met Harry, and everyone was curious about him. No one knew where he went to school or why he was sent away in the first place. A few approached him, but Harry didn't seem to be very social. Definitely not a Potter trait, Lily thought wryly to herself.

"Not very friendly, is he?" James said to her, wrapping an arm around her waist. Lily glared at him.

"He doesn't know anybody, James. He's been away for so long. I wonder whose fault that is." Lily's voice was conversational, but there was ice in her words. James didn't respond.

There was a knock on the front door, and Lily untangled herself from her husband to answer it. Captain Hall stood there once again, his expression disgruntled. Lily figured that was just his default expression because he had been willing to bring the two young princesses to her house for the holidays. Standing next to him were two young girls. The younger one, Anna, was probably around Stevie's age, freckles sprinkling her nose and reddish brown hair in braids. She was bouncing up and down, grinning ear to ear. Her older sister Elsa was more composed, her white blonde hair pinned into a crown braid. Both girls held wrapped gifts.

Lily smiled widely. "Please, come in!" She took their coats from them and thanked the captain for bringing them. He grunted in response and told the girls to write him when they wanted to return home. "Make yourselves at home. Harry is in the living room."

Anna started to dash into the living room, but Elsa stopped her, making her stand in place. "Thank you for having us, Lady Potter," she said very formally, nudging her little sister.

"Yes, thank you, Lady Potter," Anna echoed diligently.

"It's no problem. Any friend of my son is welcome here. And please, call me Lily."

Anna looked to Elsa. Her older sister sighed. "Go on," she said with amusement, taking the other present from her little sister as Anna ran into the other room. Lily laughed at the younger girl's excitement. "Anna was very upset to find out Harry wouldn't be spending Christmas with us. Your invitation made her holiday."

"Well, I suspect your presence will make my son's Christmas so consider us even," Lily replied. For the first time, Elsa smiled.

The two women walked into the living room, Anna having already tackled Harry into a bear hug and now talking a mile a minute. "Elsa said that you weren't going to spend Christmas with us, and the Captain told us you were spending it with your family, and I was so mad because you always spend Christmas with us, and Elsa's snowmen aren't as good as yours, and I wanted to see you open your gift-"

Harry was grinning as he listened to Anna ramble on and on. He looked up and saw Elsa standing there, laughing. "She's your sister," he commented.

"She likes you better," Elsa quipped back. "Anna, why don't you take a breath before you explode. We're all together, aren't why." She gave Harry a lingering hug. Lily couldn't help but notice she grabbed his hand and wound her own fingers through him. Harry didn't protest once.

Stevie watched this interaction jealously. This other girl treated his brother like hers, and he responded in kind. He hadn't seen Harry laugh since he arrived, and yet these people could manage it. He felt like he had been cheated out of something.

"Dinner is served!" A house-elf announced. Everyone made their way into the dining room. It was sure to be an interesting meal…