Hey guys, sorry for the late post. I've had a pretty serious health scare this last week. I won't give details, but it's forced me to be far more health-conscious. It's definitely a learning experience, but I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things.
(Word Count: 2,479)
Christmas morning, Harry woke up early in the morning, before anyone else in the house. With a quick motion of his wand, he silenced his feet so he didn't make a sound. He snuck through the house, down the hallway into where Dora was staying the night.
She had come over last night after the ministry ball to stay over. Aunt Andy and Ted were going to come over later in the day.
'Hmmm… would she charm her door?' It was family here, but at the same time, Sirius and Harry were known to prank a bit too often. It was better not to risk getting caught before he could even get the prank off. Knowing Dora, she wasn't too big a fan of runes, so a finite could dispel a simple alarm charm on the door. If it was an actual ward, then that was another story, because wards were designed to resist dispelling. 'Finite Incantatum!' Harry casted a dispelling charm on the door.
He crept inside, with no alarms or spells going off. Dora was there, sleeping sprawled out, her blankets nearly falling off the edge of the bed. She snored softly. Her hair flickered from one color to another in response to her dreams.
'Cute.'
Harry was just about to pull out a Krampus mask when his prankster heart wavered. No, he couldn't go through with it. 'Curse my simp heart!'
He retreated back out of the room, and made his way downstairs, on the third floor, into the music room, where there was a whole band of instruments and a record player with a trumpet horn that was so large it nearly reached the ceiling. 'I won't be cruel, but I need to do something!'
He placed a record of Carol of the Bells onto the record player. 'Sonorus!'
The bells began tolling, ringing throughout the entire house, absolutely destroying the early morning of Christmas. The sonorus was definitely too much. 'Okay, maybe this was a little cruel anyway. Too late now!' He closed his eyes and let the bells roll through him, arms raised and miming as if he was the conductor orchestrating the music.
"Merlin's beard, what is that racket!?" Several angry adults stumbled out of their rooms on this floor and the floor above.
Kreacher and Tipsy both popped in. "What's going on!?" Tripsy yelled in a panic, but when she saw him, she realized what was happening. "Master Harry!" She scolded, "You'll be waking the whole neighborhood with that!"
Well, that wasn't exactly true, the wards on Grimmauld Place prevented any sound from escaping to the neighbors.
"Merry Christmas! Don't worry, Tripsy, It'll only be a few moments longer," Harry said, continuing his conducting.
Sirius and Dora burst in, wands already drawn. Harry grinned, arms raised to greet them. "Merry Christmas!"
"Harry James Potter!" Dora yelled angrily, "Do you even know what time it is? I've only gotten three hours of sleep! Aculeo!" She casted the Stinging Hex at him, with Sirius joining in.
Harry dodged, laughing maniacally. "It's not my fault you stayed up so late last night! It's already 6! If anything, I'm starting this day off late!"
Unfortunately, Harry couldn't withstand the onslaught of stinging hexes, and was hit. A lot.
'Ouch! Still worth it!"
Harry laid on the floor in misery as they dispelled the instruments to make them stop.
Dora stomped off a lot more cheerful then when she barged in. "I'm going to the kitchen to get myself some extra strong coffee. I'll be needing it if I'm going to be dealing with the two of you all day today!"
"Ah, no!" Tipsy and Kreacher scrambled out after her. "Let us get it for you, missy!"
Sirius stood over Harry, who was still on the floor recovering. "Come on, then! No use lying there when we're all up now. Let's get some caffeine and open presents!" Sirius said, and he walked out humming the tune of Carol of the Bells.
They met Remus in the hallway, who was standing bracing himself against the doorway to his room looking scratched up and like he hadn't slept at all. "What was that?"
'Oof. I completely forgot that the full moon was recent. Now I feel bad.'
"I'm sorry, Remus. I completely forgot you're still recovering," Harry winced.
He just grunted. "I'll just go back to sleep, then, if it's all resolved. Merry Christmas." With that, Remus shuffled back into his room,
"Yikes. I feel terrible now."
Harry and Sirius went downstairs to find that Tripsy and Kreacher had moved all of the hidden Christmas gifts to the living room, sorted into small piles for who they're for. Dora was there, cupping a hot mug in her hands. "Merry Christmas, wankers," she groaned.
"Merry Christmas!" Harry and Sirius cheered.
Harry grabbed a hot mug of coffee for himself, and sat down to open his own presents. For Christmas, he had gotten too many small gifts (mostly chocolates or candy) from nearly everyone at Hogwarts. Most of them were set aside by Tripsy, but the best gifts were: the book, Wards Against Scrying, from Hermione; some nice dragonhide gloves from Neville, a polished black wand-box—to set his wand in while he slept—from Daphne, a black leather corded bracelet from Sirius, a polished silver dagger from Arcturus, and a knitted sweater from Mrs. Weasley with a large "H" on the front.
His own gifts that he bought were: An AD&D box set for Sirius. Though this was also a gift to himself, so he could start playing some campaigns with his friends. He used to be the DM for 3.5 edition and 5th edition, and he missed it.
He got Dora some metal albums from AC/DC. Guns N' Roses, Metallica, and Van Halen. One album from each. She was too much of a fan of The Weird Sisters, so it was time to introduce her to some better music. These were vinyl records, so she could play it on her record player.
For Arcturus, he got him a Rolex. It was muggle, but it should be classy enough for him to not care.
For Ron, he got him an Enchant-Your-Own-Lamp starter's kit, that would walk him through step by step to get a stone to light up, and the ability to turn it off and on again at will. The reasoning behind it was that quidditch and chess were really the only passions Ron had so far, so with this, Harry hoped to guide Ron into something productive with that. Maybe, if he got into enchanting, he could eventually start trying to enchant his own brooms for quidditch. It may be a long shot though.
For Ginny, a signed Gwenog Jones quidditch jersey from the Holyhead Harpies. She was her favorite quidditch star.
Luna, he had bought her the cryptids book for her at the store, but he needed something for her to open. So at the last minute, he had gotten her a season pass to the London Zoo.
Malfoy got the X-Men comics. He had Dobby, who was very gleeful to be talking to him, deliver them directly to Malfoy's bedside so his parents wouldn't see them.
Neville got a book on Wandless spellcasting.
Hermione got a twin set of diaries that were paired together. Write one thing in either diary, and it would appear in both. Now she can talk more often with her parents.
Both Dean and Saemus got a football.
Susan got a book called 101 Spells the Aurors Don't Want You to Know!, which, having looked through it himself, was just a bunch of tips for dueling and self defense. It wasn't the best book on the subject, but Harry thought it would be funny to give it to her.
Hannah got an enchanted pot that would yell out when the plant inside it needed something. Though it only worked for tomatoes for some reason.
Daphne got an enchanted comb that would automatically untangle hair as she combed it. Though he didn't know if she even needed it, her hair was always perfectly straight.
Everyone else got chocolate.
When Arcturus finally came through the floo, they threw a Yule log into the fire. Yule was a celebration of the Winter solstice. Though they were celebrating it today, the Winter solstice occurred usually on the 21st or 22nd. Still, traditionally, the celebration extended several days surrounding the solstice, so celebrating it now, on the 25th, wasn't too much of a stretch.
The winter solstice was when the days were the shortest, and the nights the longest. From this time forward, until the Summer Solstice, the days would get longer. Because of this, Yule was a celebration of renewal. According to Arcturus, it was the best time to do rituals for cleansing diseases or curses, or removing the tainted influences of dark magic.
It wasn't very intuitive at first. Since it was the longest night of the year, Harry had initially thought it would be best for darker rituals, but that wasn't the case. What mattered most was that it was a symbolic turning away from darkness. So this was actually the worst time to do those sorts of rituals. The best time would be the night before the solstice.
~~ ITW, H ~~
That night, Arcturus took them around the grounds of the Black estate to perform a small ceremony called wassailing. This was a way to honor the trees and the spirits of the land, and it served to "wake" the trees, so they would be more invigorated as spring approached. This involved splashing some wassail, or spiced cider, over the base of the trees.
Magically speaking, trees that have gone through this small ritual were usually better donors of wood for wands or other reagents for potions or rituals.
~~ ITW,H ~~
A couple of days later, towards the end of the winter break, Harry was hosting his friends at his house. Hermione had just gotten back from her skiing trip, and the Weasleys were back from visiting Charlie in Romania, so now was the perfect time to get some friends over to play some DnD he had gotten.
Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Neville, and Hannah were able to come. Everyone else was busy with other things.
"No, you can't all be wizards! There has to be some variety in the party or you won't have anyone to be your front liner!" Harry said, exasperated.
"But we're all wizards in real life, so how can it be a bad thing to be all wizards in this game?" Hannah asked innocently.
"I… well, I guess if you all really want to play wizards, then I guess I'll just make it work," Harry sighed.
After another hour of setting up everyone's characters, he could begin. Harry scrambled to pull out a new plot idea together, since his previous one shot idea wouldn't work now.
"Okay. You are all young aspiring wizards, coming from across the land to visit the famous wizarding academy: The Sanctum Santorum, home of the most powerful wizards in the world. The headmaster, known only as The Ancient One, is giving her commencement speech for the new students…."
"... a few months pass as you all study in your various fields of magic that you've chosen. This is when you actually become level 1 and learn the spells that you've chosen in your character creation. You're heading to the Fall Festival bonfire, when you hear a scream! You all turn around and see some of the older students acting crazy! I need everyone to roll initiative…"
"... Harry, can I pet the owlbear? Or tame him? I want him as a pet," Luna said.
"You can certainly try," Harry said with a smile. "Go ahead and roll an animal handling check."
"Oh! I'm good at that," Luna smiled, and rolled. "Yay! I got a 20! That's the best, right?…"
"...you successfully found the magic flower the potion's teacher needed. You're all on your way back when you find that the entire school is in flames!"
"What! What happened?" Luna gasped in shock.
"You question one of the fleeing students, and they cry out: 'It's the Conjuration professor! He's gone crazy and killed the Ancient One! He's going to summon the Lord of Hell! We have to run!"
The entire room gasped. "Harry! How could you?" Hermione, who's character had gotten some personal interaction with the headmaster, smacked him on the arm.
"How can we fight one of the Lords of Hell?" Neville asked, dismayed.
"We have to stop the ritual somehow!" Ginny said. "We can't win if it succeeds!"
"But we're up against a powerful teacher, didn't Harry say they were level 15? How will that work?" Hermione asked, then her eyes lit up. "Wait, didn't the headmaster say there was something sealed underneath the school?..."
"...as you all cast dispel magic at once, the sphere of blue magic containing whatever beast within is now failing. The fist size sphere starts to grow larger and larger, until a behemoth sized tarrasque bursts out. Too large to fit within the room, it breaks through the ceiling. It roars victoriously, and climbs out to the surface. The five of you are left alone to wonder, in trying to stop the Lord of Hell from coming through, did you perhaps unleash something just as world-ending…"
"... With the Lord of Hell and the Tarrasque fighting in the distance, the abjuration teacher, in a feat of pure magical might, is holding back the collateral damage from the fight. She notices your approach and her face lights up in hope! Oh my! Students! Listen! I don't have much time, but I need you to do something! There's only one thing that can save us now! You must get into the treasury! There's the Amulet of Kings! Only that artifact has the power to cast these monsters away! I can't go after it myself. I have to maintain this barrier, lest we all die! Go, hurry!..."
"... The vice-principal looks down at the five of you, looking each of you in the eye one by one. You think you're about to be expelled or something, but then he breaks out into a wide grin. Well done, he says, well done! I'm sure the Ancient One would have been pleased. You've saved the world!" Harry cheered. "And that's the end of our session! Good job, guys!"
"Phew! I can't believe that took us the entire day!" Neville said, standing up and stretching.
"That was wicked fun!" Ginny said, all smiles.
"I can't believe I've never heard of this game before! We should play it again sometime!" Hermione gushed.
"Harry, are owlbears real, do you think? I want one in real life," Luna asked.
The rest of the Christmas break passed by in a flash, and Harry was soon packing his things to head back to Hogwarts. There was a lot to look out for during the remainder of the school year, but Harry was looking forward to it.