Chapter 16: Christmas at the Burrow
*****************The Burrow, Ottery, St. Catchpole ********************
December 25, 2004
8:00 am
"Get up" Ginny said laughing, as she came running into Ron's room and dumped a handful of snow on Harry's head, then bounded over to her brother to repeat the wake up. Moaning, Harry reached under his pillow for his wand to threaten the diminutive witch only to find it gone.
"Bloody Hell" Harry muttered as he felt for his missing wand. He snapped awake with a touch of panic as he thought it was gone, only to be stopped by a quite familiar giggle. "HERMIONE"
"Missing something hero?" Hermione replied with a twinkle in her eyes as she twirled his wand absently in her fingers. Harry reached out and found his glasses and jammed them on his face, to see his friend still fighting down laughter. His stomach once again did the flop it often did when he saw her, though now after his internal revelations of the day she came to the burrow with her parents, and his sleepless nights of the last two days, he knew the reason why, he just didn't know what to do about it.
"Does everyone have those shirts?" Harry muttered as he saw that the chestnut-haired witch was wearing a t-shirt just like the one Dumbledore had had on when he had first dueled with live blades with Harry.
Hermione looked down at the shirt, "Fred and George gave them out as a gift, I think you have one down stairs. Are you going to get up?" She asked as she flipped him his wand.
"Yeah, but I don't know about Ron, ACCIO COVERS" Ron's blankets shot over to Harry, but Ron didn't get up, he just curled in a tighter ball. Harry just shook his head, and pulling a sweatshirt on over the t-shirt he wore to bed, he followed Hermione out the door, and down the stairs, both ignoring the sound of Ginny summoning a bucket of water to pour on Ron.
Harry came down the stairs with Hermione, to see the rest of the Weasleys minus Percy, of course, and the Grangers waiting downstairs. After the events of the twenty-second, Dumbledore, and Arthur Weasley had talked briefly and an invitation to the Grangers to spend Christmas was extended, and happily accepted, though Arthur actually had already asked Molly before Dumbledore asked. Surveying the room, he could see that the only remaining free seats appeared to be on a loveseat, currently solely occupied by Crookshanks. Lupin, Tonks and Moody had taken four other Order members to the Granger's house and had retrieved Hermione's familiar and other necessities, just in case, though every sign still pointed to the attack being random. And since, thanks mostly to Hermione, none of the Death Eaters had escaped, the fact that she and her family had been there at all was still a secret. Harry sat down in the open seat next to Hermione's cat, and after several failed attempts to get the huge cat to move on his own, Hermione shrugged and sat down on the floor by Harry's feet, her back leaning on the loveseat.
"Morning Harry" Roger Granger greeted, relatively warmly. He still hadn't quite got over the shock of three days ago, but the annoyance of his wife and the fact that his daughter didn't talk to him for a day, caused him to back down.
"Merry Christmas, Mr. Granger" Harry replied, trying his best to be friendly, though Roger's shouted words before Hermione had cast her silencing charm, still floated in his head.
Roger cracked a smile, "Its Roger, Harry, anyway are we going to wait for your friend or open presents?"
"Knowing my son, I suggest the presents, seeing as how Ginny has given up" Ginny came down the stairs, miming pouring water, and shrugging, "he'll get up when he gets up." Molly said with a grin. Hermione glanced up at Harry and mouthed, "egg nog?" to Harry and he just nodded. She rolled her eyes, and returned to looking at everyone else.
Presents were quickly passed out, Ginny received a study guide for her OWLs from Hermione, and a new quill set from Harry. Pulling a package from the twins out, she uncovered another t-shirt like the one Hermione was wearing, and a pair of dragon-hide Quiddich chaser gloves.
Harry pulled out his present from the twins and found it was almost the same as Ginny's, eventually Fred and George had used their own shop to shop this year, with the exception that he had gotten seeker's gloves and his t-shirt was slightly different; as instead of the two wizards looking up at the dragon, his shirt was animated with a tiny, dark cloaked figure being eaten by the dragon in a continuous loop. Harry laughed at the shirt, and promised to wear it at a DA meeting. He grabbed his present from Ron, and after flicking his gaze up the stairs to see if he had woke up, opened it to find the more or less expected, box of Bott's Every Flavor Beans and some Chocolate Frogs. With a smile, Harry pulled Hermione's present from the pile, and bumped her shoulder with it to show her that he was opening it.
"Wait a second, Harry let me get yours and we'll open them together." Hermione replied brightly as she dug through the pile to get Harry's present, which judging by the wrapper was a book. She ripped open the package to indeed find a book, How You Can Learn To Love Yourself, By Loving Me, by Gilderoy Lockheart. "HARRY" she exclaimed, laughing, as she turned her face upward to him.
Harry grinned, while most of the other people in the room laughed; Roger and Jane chuckled, not quite getting the joke. "Sorry, I owed you for the one you got me on my birthday, look under it." Harry finished with a touch of nerves, that while he or Hermione didn't notice, almost everyone else in the room did. Pulling the book out she found another smaller box with a note attached:
Hermione,
Thank you, I would never have survived the last five or so years without your guidance and loyalty even though I often was not worthy of it.
Harry.
Hermione opened the box to find a simple silver bracelet, inset with a single sapphire, her birthstone. The bracelet was exquisitely worked, and had an engraving of a witch flying over the moon on the front, with Hermione in script below the moon. Flipping the bracelet over it was inscribed simply, "Thanks, Harry". She flipped her gaze up to him, and looked at Harry speechless, for a second, "thanks, Harry, I love it." And you. She stood up and held her arm out, "put it on, please."
"Sure Mione" Oh, thank god, I thought she'd think it was stupid or something. Harry fastened the bracelet, and she slipped back down the couch to her previous seat, looking at the bracelet the whole time. Across from them, Ginny rolled her eyes and glanced over at Fred. Fred held out his hand, rubbing his fingers together, Ginny just shook her head and replied silently, "not yet."
Hermione reached over to the pile of presents, and pulled out a box, about the same size as the one he gave to her. Her eyes flickered oddly as if she were nervous about the present. Harry opened the box and found a pair of books. He looked down at the first one with a touch of shock, Offensive Combat Magic, by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. "Cool, Hermione you can't get this anywhere, even Dumbledore couldn't find his copy, and its restricted anyway, how did you get it?"
"Open it" Hermione said with an odd glint in her eye as she smiled and didn't answer his question. Harry glanced at her and she nodded, so he did as he was told. As he opened it he noticed two scribbled notes on the inner cover page:
Harry,
I hope you enjoy this book, I think you will find it more interesting than the companion book that you have for class.
Albus
Harry laughed quietly at the implication that he didn't like to defend, and at the informality of the dedication, and his gaze flipped down to the second note right below it.
Harry,
Read this and come home safe.
Love,
Mione.
"Thank You, Hermione" Harry said, his heart in his throat a little, but it wasn't all.
"Um, Harry, look under it" Hermione replied, now actually biting her lower lip nervously.
Pulling the DADA book out, he found another, somewhat skinnier, leather-bound volume under it. As he scanned the title his stomach flipped, NEWT THESIS: Sirius Black, Common Dueling Strategies, Their Weaknesses, and Means of Defeating Them. "Hermione, where, uhh, where did you get it...I mean thanks." Harry glanced down at her sitting next to his feet through sudden tears, and desperately wanted to hug her, maybe later.
Hermione seemed to be fighting tears also, "I found it in the library last spring, and I got permission to have it copied, with everything that happened I sort of forgot about it until it came back from the bookbinders this fall. I'm glad you like it." Hermione fixed Harry's quandary, as she got up and hugged him.
"Thanks, Mione" Harry whispered into her hair, she nodded, and slid back down to her previous seat, at the foot of the couch. Harry sat in a fog of happiness for a bit as he watched Hermione's parents open up presents that he and the Weasleys had hurriedly gotten for them. He was particularly happy to see that they liked the Hogwarts sweatshirts he had gotten for them from Fred and George's new catalog. They had recently started adding things like at especially for the muggle-born wizards and witches at Hogwarts. His stomach growling slightly and lunch still several hours away, "Hermione, toss me one of those frogs." Harry asked, pointing at a pile of the wizard candies on the floor near her. She just shook her head and flipped it back over her head, and the Gryffindor star seeker snatched it out of the air without thinking.
Harry opened the package without looking at it, and from long experience caught the frog as it hopped and bit its head off. He glanced down to see what card he had gotten, expecting another Dumbledore, or maybe a Merlin, but what he saw...he couldn't decide whether to laugh or not. "Umm...Hermione" Harry said slowly.
"What Harry?" Hermione replied turning from where she had been playing with Crookshanks. Harry wordlessly handed her the frog card. "WHAT!" She snapped, causing everyone to turn to her. The Wizarding trading card, instead of some ancient wizard or witch, had someone very, very familiar. The card read: Hermione Jane Granger, 1988-, Hogwarts: Gryffindor 1999-, considered to be one of the smartest witches in the last 100 years, Hermione is currently #1 in her class at Hogwarts. She was most recently associated with forces opposing the return of He Who Shall Not Be Named. The picture on the card caught her in the act of spinning around, her wand in her hand, her hair flaring out with the turn.
Harry grinned down at her, "I like the picture."
"Shut up," she grumbled but she had a little grin when she said it. It is kind of cool, once you get over the shock of it. She thought ruefully.
"What is that dear?" Jane asked curious at what all the commotion was about, Hermione just handed her the
card. Jane looked down and laughed, and showed it to Roger who cracked a smile. "You have your own trading card,
dear, you're famous." Jane teased.
Just at that minute Ron came down with a smile on his face, "what's up?"
"We just found out Hermione has a frog card mate." Harry replied with more than a trace of humor.
"I know," Ron, replied to Hermione's shocked expression, "Let me see." Ron took the card and looked at it, grinning mischievously. "Yours, Harry? This is the special edition, you lucked out; the normal ones Ginny and I got the other day, don't have the action shot. Wanna trade?" Ron finished hopefully, "I have two of me?"
"Umm, no, I think I'll keep Hermione" Harry replied, to which he got a smile from Hermione.
"Do you all have them then?" Roger asked, curious at this peek into the Wizarding world that his daughter, for better or worse, was destined to.
"No, Mr. Granger," Ron replied, "This is mine and Hermione's first one, Dumbledore has like ten different ones, and Harry there has how many, mate?"
Harry looked embarrassed, "is there a new one in this set?"
"Yep" Ginny replied from across the room, "and you're soo cute" she grinned and batted her eyelashes.
"Three of them now," Harry sighed, "the infant one, the one after the triwizard and the new one, which I haven't seen." Ron grinned and sprinted back upstairs to his room. He came back down with several cards in hand and with a chuckle he handed them to Harry. Indeed there was a new one of Harry, this one had his picture on a Broomstick hovering over the Quiddich pitch at Hogwarts, Ron's was similar as it too showed Ron as the Gryffindor Quiddich team keeper, though his stats showed, Ron's vitals instead of his.
Ron took his copy of Hermione's card and handed it to Jane, "Here Mrs. Granger, take this one I have another." Jane took the card with a smile and thanked him, laughing as she pocketed the card.
**********************Ron and Harry's Room, the Burrow*******************
December 26, 2004
7:30 am
After Ron's gift of the Chocolate Frog Card to Hermione's mum, the last lingering ice between the elder Grangers and the rest of the group had broken. The resulting Christmas party had gone late into the night, and had only ended when the twins had thrown a handful of WhizBangs into the living room, at which point Molly had sent them all to bed, except for Fred and George, whom she had drug off to the kitchen, a twin by each ear. Roger Granger, had almost fallen down laughing, and had related something similar he had done in dental school.
In Ron's room, Harry was still asleep, his shock of raven hair poking out from under the blankets. Slowly, the door to the room edged open, and a large, furry head poked its nose in. As the door opened a little more, a huge tiger padded into the room, however even more unusual than there being a tiger in the middle of England, even in the Burrow, was that in place of the normal orange and black markings, this particular tiger was fire-red and black. The tiger snuck over next to Harry's head, and bumped him with his nose. Harry groaned and rolled over, never opening his eyes. The tiger's continuance looked as if it were grinning, even though a tiger, even one as impossible as this one, shouldn't be able to.
Through the open door, another furry visitor arrived, however this one was much smaller. A kneazle, and a rather small one at that, ran into the room and hopped up on Harry's bed. This kneazle was almost a miniature version of the tiger; it had the same coloring and markings, just in a diminutive package. The kneazle strutted the length of the bed, and rubbed against Harry's face, purring. Harry shook his head, annoyed. "Damn it Crookshanks, go bother Mione." On the floor over by the door, Crookshanks looked up at the bed, quizzically. The kneazle purred again and stared licking Harry's face. "Damn it" Harry muttered again and swept his arm around. The kneazle jumped backwards and landed on Harry's legs. Harry fumbled for his glasses, and putting them on, sat up. "That's weird, I didn't know Molly had another cat." He muttered as he looked down the length of the bed, at the small cat preening there.
Suddenly the tiger, which had sat silent this whole time, let out a low growl. Harry's eyes snapped over to the side and just as fast, he reached for a wand carefully tucked under his pillow. "MEOW" the kneazle roared, and Harry's gaze flicked back to it as it SHIFTED into a tiny, redheaded witch, in jeans and a jumper, sitting cross-legged on the end of the bed. Harry glanced back over to the side to watch the tiger transform into one of his two best friends. "Hi Harry." Ron said with a grin.
"Wha..What, RON!" Harry snapped, incredulous.
"SHHH" Ginny whispered, waving her arms at Harry, she turned slightly and pulled a wand from her back pocket, "Silencio". The silencing charm established, she turned back to Harry and said in a low voice, "Mum and Dad don't know. Dad left to go to the Ministry, but Mum's up. We'll explain, but first wouldn't it be fun to surprise Hermione?" Ginny asked with a grin and a raised eyebrow.
Harry glanced over to Ron who was still sitting on the floor, with a happy little smile on his face, then back to Ginny, "Yeah, it would, wouldn't it? But then you two are going to explain."
*********Hermione and Ginny's Room, the Burrow******************
In a repeat of minutes ago, Ron padded silently into the room, Harry along with Ginny still in human form, followed him and closed the door. As it closed, Harry quietly cast another silencing charm. Ron stopped as he reached Hermione's bedside, and his huge furry head turned back to Harry and Ginny as if to ask a question. Hermione, for her part, slept much like Harry, the covers were pulled up over her head, and only her bushy brown locks stuck out from under the blankets.
Harry fingered his wand, a little nervously; Ginny saw the action and asked lowly, "What's wrong Harry"
"This could be bad," Harry, muttered, "I might need a shield in a bit. Ron said it himself our first year, Hermione can be scary, brilliant, but scary." Harry waved at Ron to go ahead.
Crookshanks walked over and sniffed the huge cat, and after recognizing a friend he rubbed against Ron's huge form, and padded off, content. Ron inched up next to Hermione; gently he grabbed the covers with his teeth, and pulled them off. Hermione rolled over, shivering a bit in the t-shirt and sleep pants she had wore to bed, but she didn't wake. PUUURRRRR, Ron emitted, and rubbed his wet nose against her arm. She gave almost the same result as Harry, "damn cat, go bother Harry, or someone."
"That's why that bloody cat keeps annoying me." Harry murmured over by the door, while Ginny giggled under a tiny hand.
Ron's tail flicked back and forth and he emitted a soft growl. He nudged Hermione's arm again and this time she rolled over and opened her eyes. Her eyes grew huge, "EEEK," she saw Harry over at the door, "HARRY THERE'S A BLOODY TIGER IN HERE." Her hand snaked under her pillow only to stop suddenly, "wait..." Hermione sat up quickly, and pointed her wand at Ron's tiger form and muttered an odd incantation. Ron SHIFTED back to human form, with a sudden, perplexed look on his face.
"No fair Hermione," Ron moaned as he resumed human form.
Hermione glared at Ron, then at Harry and Ginny, "HARRY!" exasperation in her voice.
"Not me Mione," Harry replied his hands moved back and forth as if to ward off any counter. "These gits woke me up the same way, and we are getting an explanation." Harry pried himself up from the wall he had been leaning against, paced over to Hermione's bed and dropped down on it next to her. Wordlessly, Harry picked her blanket back up from the floor where Ron had dropped it and handed it to her. He had noticed that she looked cold; the Burrow was a bit chilly in the winter. Hermione gave him a silent look of thanks as she pulled the blanket over her shoulders. Harry turned back to the Weasleys, "ok give."
Ginny smiled, and jumped forward, changing into a tiny kneazle, about half the size of Crookshanks, in mid-air. She landed softly on all four paws, strutted over to Hermione and rubbed against her legs. Ginny paced back over to Ron, and transformed back, "Simple guys, Ron and I are animagi now."
"What, How..." Hermione started, a bit confused, only to be cut off by Ron.
"Well mate, actually, in a sense, this is Snape's fault." Ron said mysteriously.
"Snape's?" they both replied together.
"Yeah, well" Ron began guiltily, to two pairs of wondering eyes, one green and one brown. "Snape sort of, implied, that I would fail unless I came up with something spectacular, and I said that fine, I'd make the animagus potion. The potion got me an E for the semester." Ron actually was proud of that accomplishment and it showed in his voice. Harry and Hermione, for that matter were also impressed, but they didn't want to admit it, yet. "However, Snape thinks that I just made enough potion to test...however I have enough for eight doses, four of which are gone, for me, Ginny, Fred and George."
"The potion isn't the only part, of course, Ron," Hermione quizzed him, "what about the spells? And what about the Ministry?"
"Fred nicked the book from the restricted section before Christmas...we sorta thought that it would be better if the Ministry didn't know." Ron looked a touch defiant at the last response.
To his surprise however, Hermione just nodded, looking thoughtful, "That was probably a good decision Ron, we don't know who Voldemort still has in place at the Ministry. I guess you can...teach us." Hermione paused at that last, and Harry's heart skipped a beat, but they trusted Ron, really they did.
Ron grinned, "ohhh, yeah," he paused as if remembering something, "I assume that you want to start right away?" To a pair of slightly stunned nods, "ok then you will need to practice visualizing the change, and cast the initial incantations on your self, by the way, the initial spell is more or less the human transfiguration that we've started on in McGonagall's." Hermione gave her silent assent at that remark, it was what she had expected, "after about a week, you can take the potion, and perform the final incantations. That allows you to change at will without casting a spell, though it is difficult at first. It becomes second nature after just a bit." As if to prove his point Ron quickly transformed to his tiger form and back. "Ok the initial incantation is Animata...."
A/N: There you, another Christmas. The whole chocolate frog Card thing, is in there based on throw away line that Harry
uses in the sequel. And anyway I thought it was kind of funny. Next Chapter...Ok, you pretty well should know what next
chapter is based on the end of this one. But I did manage to sneak in some stuff besides.