Six Gryffindors were walking towards the game keepers hut with the friendly half giant- Hermione, Harry and Ron were pestering him about the game while Pansy and Neville had fallen back, walking with Y/N who was being uncharacteristically slow.

"Nonsense! Why would Snape put a curse on a player's broom, let alone a player from his own team?" Hagrid chuckled in disbelief at the children's hypothesis.

"Who knows? Why was he trying to get passed that three headed dog on Halloween?" Harry asked back.

"Who told you about Fluffy?" Hagrid asked suspiciously.

"Fluffy?" Ron asked incredulously.

"That thing has a name?" Hermione added in disbelief.

"Well of course he's got a name, he's mine" Hagrid replied, causing Y/N to chuckle "only Hagrid could name a Cerberus 'Fluffy'" before grabbing his side as he chuckled, Pansy grabbing his arm in concern.

"I bought him off an Irish fella I met down the pub last year. Then I lent him to Dumbledore to guard the-"

"Yes?" Harry asked innocently.

"I shouldn't have said that. No more questions. Don't ask any more questions. That's top secret that is" Hagrid replied, reprimanding himself as much as the children.

"But Hagrid, whatever Fluffy's guarding, Snape's trying to steal it!" Harry said as he pleaded his case.

"Codswallop! Professor Snape is a Hogwarts teacher" Hagrid said turning and coming to a stop, glaring at the kids to try and impart the seriousness of the allegations they were making.

"Hogwarts teacher or not I know a spell when I see one. I've read all about them. You've got to keep eye contact, and Snape wasn't blinking" Hermione argued, Harry backing her up with "exactly."

"Y/N you're not buying all this are you?" Hagrid asked as the second trio arrived, Y/N still holding his side.

"I was too busy holding on for dear life to see, but I trust Hermione if she says that's what she saw" Y/N answered, causing the bushy haired girl to blush.

"Besides, he is an utter prick" Y/N added before seething at the pain in his side from the chuckle his own comment elicited.

Hagrid sighed deeply and looked at the six Gryffindors with great sincerity:

"Now you lot listen to me. All of you. You're meddling in things that ought not to be meddled in. It's dangerous. What that dog is guarding is strictly between Professor Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel."

"Nicholas Flamel?" Hermione asked with a smile as a look of horror erupted on Hagrid's face.

"I shouldn't have said that. I should not have said that" Hagrid admonished himself as he turned and walked away.

"Who's Nicholas Flamel?" Harry asked. The others shook their heads apart from Hermione who added "I don't know" and Y/N who asked:

"Before we figure it out can we swing past the infirmary? I'm pretty sure I've got some broken ribs."

—~—

Following yet another stay in hospital for Y/N, this time only overnight, time flew by. Y/N's actions in defeating Slytherin meant that he was now a favourite among the students of Gryffindor house, multiple year levels now pretending that two months of isolation and suspicion hadn't happened. Y/N didn't forget however. Y/N never forgot.

During the first week in December, names were taken by Professor McGonagall of students who were going to be remaining at Hogwarts for the Christmas break. As she got to Y/N and the others Draco arrived at the Gryffindor table and stood there very meekly, catching the Professor's attention.

"Can I help you, Mr Malfoy?" the witch asked suspiciously. Malfoy looked up into Y/N's eyes, who looked back in shock when Draco answered:

"I-I just need to talk to my c-cousin."

"Why the hell do you want to talk to me?" Y/N replied gruffly, narrowing his eyes at the ferrety blonde.

"Father and Mother send an owl, saying I was to tell y-you that you're invited to stay at Malfoy Manor over the Christmas b-break."

The look on the faces of the five Gryffindors around Y/N were unanimously shocked. Y/N kept his reserved facade in place though. He knew this must be a Lucius scheme- they had visited Y/N numerous times after the Daily Prophet leaked that he was living at the Leaky Cauldron under the guise of 'wanting to know family.'

Narcissa was a cold and distant woman, much like her sister that Y/N despised so much, while Lucius Malfoy was like Draco, arrogant beyond measure. He had gone on and on about how Y/N would be coming to live with the Malfoys, they being his rightful guardians etc, etc, etc. The sincerity in the gesture was somewhat lessened when Y/N quickly figured out Lucius was more interested in how much gold had been left behind in Wagnard's vault than getting to know his 'nephew'.

Fortunately, as Y/N was a ward of Hogwarts with Dumbledore as his primary guardian, Albus had refused to entertain the notion at all.

Y/N looked at Draco and chuckled:

"That an order from daddy, is it?" before writing his name on the list of students who would be staying at the castle, a look of horror growing on Draco's face.

Two nights later at dinner a Phoenix flew up to Y/N in the hall and dropped a letter to him. Following the attack on Y/N all his mail was being vetted by a team of house elves, so whatever this was, it was Hogwarts approved.

Y/N read the letter and his heart sank.

Dear Mr. L/N,

As per a conversation with the Headmaster of Hogwarts you will not be staying at the school over the Christmas break.

Please pack your belongings and get in a carriage along with the other students, but do not board the Hogwarts Express. Please wait for it to depart on the station and DO NOT LEAVE the station. You will be collected once the train has departed.

Y/N sighed as he threw the letter down. Hermione read it concerned before handing it to Pansy who was on the other side of Y/N, as always. 

"You don't think-"

"Who else would it be?" Y/N completed Hermione's sentence, resigned to his fate.

"Why would the Headmaster allow it?" Pansy added angrily. Y/N replied:

"Lucius probably went to the Minister. It would have been over his head" and sighed. He was quiet for the rest of the day.

—~—

Y/N had got quieter and quieter the closer it came to Christmas. To know where he was going, who he would be with- it felt like being trapped again. Being trapped made him think of her. Her made him think of there. Thinking of there made Y/N think of him. He sunk deeper and deeper into himself as the traumas of his formative years constantly replayed themselves in his mind's eye.

His friends grew more and more concerned for Y/N the closer they got to the Christmas break, but Y/N wouldn't talk about it, not even to the girls.

—~—

Y/N, Neville, Pansy and Hermione walked down towards the Great Hall with their travel bags ready to get the Hogwarts Express home for the holidays. Pansy and Hermione entered the hall to say goodbye to Harry and Ron, and to give them a job for the break, while the boys went outside to wait for the girls.

"Are you ok Y/N?" Neville asked worriedly. Y/N smiled and nodded, attempting to reassure his best friend, who unfortunately didn't buy it.

—~—

Y/N was sat at the Hogsmeade station as he watched the Hogwarts Express depart. It had been a quiet coach trip to the village with his three closest friends. They could all see how despondent Y/N was but could do little to help him. They had hugged goodbye and whispered such comforts as "I'm thinking of you" "be brave" "write if you can."

None of the words helped. As Y/N sat with his head down and sighed, the train disappeared from sight down the track. Not a moment later he was aware of a presence sitting next to him on the bench he was on.

"Well you look very upset, Mr. L/N" a friendly and familiar voice said, Y/N looking up to see his head of house sat next to him.

"Merry Christmas, Professor" Y/N offered, but without the sense of meaning it, more as just something to be said.

"Merry Christmas to you too, but you didn't address my observation. You look quite upset."

Y/N sighed. He hadn't wanted to worry his friends. But Professor McGonagall would understand as a grown up, right?

"I'm being forced to go somewhere I don't want to, Professor, and it's made me think back to when I- I just really would rather not go there."

"Oh I see" the Professor answered, a strange tone in her voice. "Where is it you're going?"

Y/N sighed again.

"I got a letter after I rejected Draco's parents offer, saying I had to wait at the station and I would be picked up. I'm going to have to spend my damn Christmas with the Malfoys."

"Your family you mean?"

"I don't have any family, Professor. It's just me."

Y/N felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up into the smiling eyes of his Professor, confused.

"That letter wasn't from the Malfoys, Y/N. It was from me. I was wondering if you would like to spend Christmas here in Hogsmeade, with me. If not we can return to Hogwarts, but I just wanted to share a family Christmas, with you, if I could? I've been alone since my husband died, and since you've never had a family, I just thought-"

Minerva stopped her stammering as she saw, for the first time, a large smile on the face of Y/N Deimos as he replied:

"I'd like that Professor McGonagall. I'd like that a lot."