The train for Gare du Nord-Ouest left at approximately 12 o'clock on a brisk Saturday in mid-December with Harry Potter aboard. Lucette and Maria were quite surprised to hear that Harry had been allowed to stay with Damien's family, but were excited nonetheless. Lucette grinned.

"It will be fun to be able to hang out with each other outside of school. Perhaps we can go to Le Centre du Monde sometime and spend the day together," Lucette suggested. Damien grinned and Maria nodded, looking to Harry.

"Yes, I think we should be able to do something like that. Won't that be fun, Harry?" Maria said with a small smile to Harry. Harry stammered for a second before nodded.

"Oh yeah that would be excellent! I imagine you didn't really get to experience Le Monde the last time you were there. Sure, you can go to a few of the shops, but there are some seriously amazing things that you don't see until you've really spent some time there. I can't wait for fifth year," Damien cheered. Harry chuckled. It reminded him of the letters he'd gotten from Hermione and Ron gushing about Hogsmeade village, which third years and older could visit with the proper form. After what happened this year, Harry doubted he would ever get Uncle Vernon's signature. Maybe he could talk to Fred and George Weasley to see if they could forge his signature. They seemed like they would be good at that.

"Wonderful! I will send an owl as soon as I am back home and settled. Of course, we will see each other at Maria's father's ball as well. I'm so excited!" Lucette said. It was Maria's turn to be embarrassed. She rolled her eyes and huffed, leaning her cheek against her hand.

"Tata has gone crazy these past few weeks with the preparations. He wants his first New Years Eve party as minister to go off without a hitch, especially with so many eyes on him. Mama tries her best to help him, but the stress just won't go away until this party," Maria grumbled. Lucette and Damien chuckled while Harry tentatively patted her arm. Maria looked like she wanted to scowl, but instead gave him a look of thanks.

"I am sure we will need to get Harry situated. I still think you probably brought too many robes. Given how my parents are, they are bound to give you at least a couple of sets," Damien said, eyeing Harry's trunk. After Damien's insistence that he wouldn't need many robes, especially considering most of them were school robes, Harry had only brought most of his muggle clothes and two or three sets of robes. He also had packed away his school supplies in case he wanted to do some reading as well as his broom. According to Damien, his family had a set of quidditch rings and a quaffle.

It was sometime later when Fleur and Gabrielle stopped by the train. Harry looked up in surprise. Since the beginning of exams, Harry hadn't seen much of Fleur. She seemed to keep to herself mostly, studying on her own in private corners in the library. She looked much more carefree now, as if the weight of academia had been lifted off of her shoulders.

"Bonjour everyone. I am glad to see you all before the holiday break. I must say it is nice to finally be visiting home. I have missed Papa and Maman so," Fleur said with a relieved smile. Gabrielle nodded in agreement. While Fleur was contented to stand in the doorway, Gabrielle sat down in the empty space between Damien and Harry. Before Harry or Damien could respond, a few of Fleur's friends called to her and she waved goodbye. Harry turned to Gabrielle.

"So Gabi, how were finals?" Harry asked. Gabrielle sighed and shrugged.

"I feel I did well, but they are much harder than last year. I definitely had to study more this year than last. What about you?" Gabrielle said.

"About the same. Definitely a weird experience since I'm taking a bunch of classes I never had thought I could possibly take. The quidditch final was tough physically," Harry explained, vividly remembering the tests he had gone through for quidditch class. It started with a mile run, then a number of exercises and then finally a broom test where he had to fly through and around obstacles. He'd flown near perfectly according to Coach Dominguez, though she commented his mile time could have been better. All-in-all, Harry had done well in his opinion.

Gabrielle stayed in their compartment for the rest of the journey, talking and laughing with them. They played a few rounds of exploding snap where Harry lost part of his eyebrow when one card exploded rather violently. Thankfully they were still on the train and thus still technically allowed to use magic, so Lucette grew it back for him in no time. Finally, as the sun began to make its descent in the sky, they reached the train station. After Damien and Harry grabbed their things, they got off the train. Gabrielle left to join her sister after wishing all of them a good holiday. Harry blushed a little when she kissed him on each cheek.

Maria went over to a man dressed as a chauffeur holding a sign saying Maria Castell. Damien explained that Maria's father had been so busy lately that he typically only left his office late in the night only to return a few hours later for the next work day. Harry shivered, vowing to never try to run for Minister for Magic.

Harry saw Damien's parents from a long ways away. They weren't dressed in anything over flamboyant, but they were dressed impeccably. Damiens father was a tall, well-built man in slim black robes with subtle intricate patterns at the hem of the sleeves and at the bottom of the robe. His skin was a shade or two darker than Damien, but his eyes twinkled with the same mischievous light as his son. Mrs. Moreno was dressed with a little more color. Her robes were mostly black, but had crimson patterns going down the front. There were red frills at her wrists where the sleeves ended and she wore a matching witches hat. Her eyes were a dark green and her hair was jet black like her son's.

"Ah, mijo!¡Mi querido niño! And you must be Harry Potter! It is a pleasure to meet you," Mrs. Moreno exclaimed hugging her son tightly, much to his chagrin. Harry grinned and nodded.

"The pleasure is mine, Mrs. Moreno. Thank you for letting me stay with you over the winter holidays," Harry said as politely as he could. He felt a little intimidated by Damien's parents. There was nothing overtly threatening, but the way they held themselves was quite impressive.

"Of course. When we heard our Damien had befriended Harry Potter, we were quite excited! While we have not lived in England ourselves, we have some family there and they have told us stories of Lord Voldemort's defeat," Mrs. Moreno explained exuberantly. Harry looked at her in surprise. It appeared the English's habit to flinch at the mention of Voldemort's name didn't carry over to them.

They led Harry and Damien to a car waiting outside of the train station. It appeared quite nice, like the fancy muggle cars his uncle seemed to always be talking about. When Harry and Damien got in, Harry gasped. The inside was much more spacious than the outside, and the seats a normal car usually had were replaced with very comfortable leather seats.

"Like the car, Harry? We got this last year when Minister Castell commissioned us. We made a pretty penny from that job," chuckled Mr. Moreno, setting the car into drive and pulling out onto the road. His wife rolled her eyes, stating something about men and their toys. Harry smiled and looked out the window, enjoying the scenery. He had never had the pleasure of going anywhere outside of England except for Hogwarts until this year.

The car moved in an unnatural way. It seemed Mr. Moreno did not think much of muggle traffic laws, as the odometer never dropped below 85. While Harry was at first worried that they would crash, it seemed the car was magically capable of bobbing and weaving through traffic with ease. If Mr. Moreno was about to hit something, it would jump out of the way or the car would squeeze and stretch to fit around it. What made it even more odd is Harry hardly felt a thing. It felt like the window was actually a television screen showing what was happening instead of a window into the real world. Damien snickered at Harry's expression.

"Usually we would have just used to the floo to get home, but Papa thought you might like to see the sights," Damien said as Harry gaped at the beautiful sights. "needless to say, I believe he was correct."

Soon they were out of Paris and speeding across the countryside. While Harry had never been out of the country before that year, he was fairly certain that Paris and Madrid, which is where Damien's family lived, were not only two hours apart from each other. It seemed the car was capable of bending space and time because it was only two o'clock and they had arrived at Damien's home.

Home was the wrong word for where Damien lived. His house was much larger than any home Harry had ever seen, with sprawling lawns and intricate hedges trimmed perfectly into shapes of animals. The driveway stretched from the street to the very front of the house. There Mr. Moreno parked the car and all of them got out. Damien and Harry retrieved their trunks.

"This is the main foyer. Over there is the kitchens where our house elf Mía does the cooking. Straight ahead is the living room. Let's show you your rooms so you can drop off your things before we give you the full tour," Mr. Moreno said, pointing at the various rooms. They all marched up the large marble staircase that reached second and third floor.

After dropping their trunks into their rooms, which were more spacious than any Harry had ever been in before, they were treated to a tour of Moreno Manor. There were numerous guest bedrooms, as well as a separate office for both Mr. and Mrs. Moreno that were conjoined by a small hall. While Harry was impressed with the house, he was truly awed by the backyard. It seemed to be split into two parts. The first part was a large garden with blooming flowers of various sizes and colors, which Harry though was particularly impressive given that it was the middle of winter. The other part of the backyard was what looked like half of a quidditch field. Three enormous rings at the end of long poles stood at one end. There was also a small shed with a few nice-looking brooms, though Harry was quite comfortable with his Nimbus.

"Perhaps after you get settled, you and Damien could ride around. We have an enchantment on the grounds to keep muggles from noticing," Mr. Moreno explained. Harry grinned.

"That'd be great. I learned a couple of moves I want to try at school. The quidditch class is brilliant," Harry said happily. Mr. Moreno chuckled.

"I remember when I was a student at Beauxbatons. Quidditch was my favorite class, though yours was charms, right my love?" Mr. Moreno said. Mrs. Moreno nodded with a fond smile, pulling out her wand.

"Certainly. My family has some affinity with charms. Without them, we would never have been nearly as successful at tailoring," Mrs. Moreno said, and with a wave of her wand, a flowing white dress with silver lining appeared. Harry gaped. It was quite intricate charm work and it seemed as if the two fabrics melted together. While certainly not someone who paid a lot of attention to clothing, Harry was impressed. The dress was gorgeous. Mrs. Moreno smiled proudly.

"It is wonderful, Mrs. Moreno," Harry commented.

The following days leading up to Christmas was one of the best he had ever experienced. Given that in his memory he had only had two other pleasant Christmases, there was not much competition, but this had been the first in which he got to experience what a normal holiday with family felt like. Except for the enormous mansion that he was staying at, the holiday almost felt normal. Mr. and Mrs. Moreno were very kind to him, treating him like family almost right away. He also found that they were quite busy people. They seemed to be on their feet most of the day, popping in and out of the floo, writing letters to clients, or trying out new styles on dummies in their office.

Harry found the process quite fascinating to watch, though Damien was quickly bored with it, begging Harry to come and play quidditch. Harry usually would, though it was difficult for them to really play any games since there was only the two of them. Damien did teach Harry a game called SNITCH. According to Damien, he saw some muggles playing a game called HORSE and created his own game with quidditch. One person would take a shot and call out the tricks that they wanted to do, such as a triple spin, and then launch the quaffle at one of the rings. If they made it, the next person would have to copy it. If they missed, the next person could try to make a special shot of their own. In the end, Damien won almost every game, though Harry tacked it up to him being a seeker while Damien was an actual chaser. Occasionally when he had time, Damien's father would play as well. Harry found that he was quite the talented chaser, making shots that Harry couldn't even imagine.

Christmas arrived with light snowfall and a brisk wind, making Harry all the happier to stay inside near the Moreno's crackling fireplace. Harry had not expected many presents, which made it all the better when he saw presents arrive from Hermione, Ron, Hagrid, and even Mrs. Weasley. Mr. and Mrs. Moreno had also gotten him something. When he opened the present from Hermione, he saw a letter attached.

Dear Harry,

Happy Christmas! I hope this letter finds you well. Ron and I are doing fine, though we have been having more squabbles lately. It seems my cat, Crookshanks, has taken a peculiar interest in Scabbers. While I think it is perfectly natural for cats to chase rats, his fascination with Ron's rat is a little stranger than I would imagine. Ron says that Crookshanks can understand it when we speak, and that's how he finds out where Scabbers is hiding, and the longer I observe, the more I think I believe Ron's theory.

Everyone else is doing well. Gryffindor ended the season with a fantastic match against Slytherin! Ginny has been doing really well in filling your shoes. I can still picture the look on Malfoy's face when Ginny plucked the snitch from right behind his left ear! It was a good thing, too. Moments after the game ended, the dementors swarmed the field. Dumbledore put a stop to it of course, but it was still really scary! I don't think I've ever seen him that angry before. Even I was scared and he was protecting us! It seems the dementors are getting rather irate that Dumbledore isn't letting them on the grounds, but I say more power to him! Those things are the most horrid, ghastly creatures I have ever seen.

Hagrid has been doing really well as professor! Malfoy tried to cause trouble in our first lesson, but Hagrid was able to stop the fool from getting attacked by a Hippogriff. He actually gave Malfoy detention!

We all miss you so much, Harry. Please write back soon.

Love from,

Hermione

Harry smiled warmly as he read the letter, though he felt a pang of jealousy at reading about Ginny's sound defeat of Malfoy. While he was happy that the team found someone to play seeker for the year, he sorely missed playing quidditch with the Gryffindor team. There was nothing quite like Oliver Wood's mad practice plans and the Weasley Twins' jokes as they played. Not to mention Alicia, Angelina, and Katie, who reminded Harry of older sisters he never had.

Ron had sent a much shorter letter, explaining much of the same, though the language was a little different. It took much of Harry's willpower not to burst out laughing at the names Ron had called Malfoy in the letter, especially for losing to his little sister. Harry could also tell Ron was quite proud of Ginny.

It seems like when she flies, she really comes out of her shell. The resemblance between you and her in the air is scary, but in a good way. Malfoy thought he was going to walk all over Gryffindor this year when he heard that we weren't going to have you as a seeker. Well he can take his fancy Nimbus 2001 and shove it up his—

Hermione, of course, had given him a book titled, Quidditch Through the Ages. Harry found it a fairly interesting read. Ron had sent him a box of chocolate frogs, which he and Damien enjoyed while they opened the rest of their present. Hagrid sent him a box of treacle fudge which Harry made sure to set by the fire to soften and Mrs. Weasley sent him a bright red and gold scarf with a Gryffindor lion on it.

"What intricate hand-sewn material," Mrs. Moreno fawned. Harry looked from the scarf to her in mild confusion, but she reached a hand out to feel the material and gasped, "so soft and comforting! Why, I don't think even my charm work can get to this level of comfort!"

"Yeah, Mrs. Weasley is brilliant at knitting. Two years ago she got me a sweater that I wish I could still wear. I'm a little big for it now," Harry explained fondly. He still had the sweater of course. It was the first gift from any adult ever that wasn't death threats or old socks. Mrs. Moreno relinquished the scarf and looked to her husband.

"We should talk to this woman sometime. She is an artist," she declared, and Harry chuckled. He could not imagine someone as imposing and dramatic as Mrs. Moreno trying to speak with Mrs. Weasley about her knitting. The poor woman would be overwhelmed. Harry hoped that Mrs. Moreno would go easy on Mrs. Weasley.

The Moreno's had gotten him a new set of robes for day-wear. They had clearly taken notice of Harry wearing his school robes and old dingy muggle clothes and had decided to act. The robes were mostly black, though it had green at the hem and the trim. The robes were also quite soft.

"They are charmed to keep your warm or cool you off depending on the weather. We've found that either can be an issue with our customers so the charm comes with every piece of clothing," Mrs. Moreno explained happily.

"These are wonderful! Thank you!" Harry exclaimed. It would be nice to have robes to wear to magic locations like Diagon Alley or Centre du Monde without either looking like a student or like he was wearing muggle clothing two sizes too large for him. He would need to go shopping when he and Damien met up with Maria and Lucette at Centre du Monde to get everyone Christmas presents. They had received a letter asking them to come on December 27th.

"I'll bet Maria will like your new robes," Damien whispered to Harry, who blushed. Harry secretly thought so too.