On the Ninth Day of Christmas
A/N – All of the recognizable characters and situations from the Potterverse are the property of JKR and various corporate entities. As for other recognizable names and idea, we're not quite certain whom John Travolta belongs to these days, Saturday Night Fever and Disco Inferno belong to their respective copyright holders. The song 'The Twelve Days of Christmas' is firmly in the public domain, as is the concept of Christmas itself. No infringement of copyright is intended by this exercise in whimsy, and all of the copyright holders are thanked profusely for their creations.
No kneazles were harmed in the writing of this story, Crookshanks has been Ari's dance partner long enough to keep from getting his paws stepped on.
Chapter One – Cue the Dancing Girls
2 January, 1995 – Gryffindor Common Room, Hogwarts
"Still mad?"
Flopping down on the sofa beside Hermione, Harry watched her out of the corner of his eye as she looked up from her reading. Seeing a look in her eyes that he couldn't readily interpret, he turned around and faced her.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to let Ron ruin your date…"
"Harry, you didn't let Ronald ruin my date, because Ronald didn't ruin my date." Lowering her eyes back to her copy of Hogwarts: A History, Hermione made a harrumphing sound.
"Am I forgiven yet?"
Slowly closing her book and placing it on the arm of the couch beside her, Hermione rolled her eyes and turned to face Harry.
"What do you think you need to be forgiven for?" Watching him closely, Hermione unconsciously moved a bit closer to him. "Anything dire and sinister that I'm not aware of?"
"Well…" Breaking off, Harry suddenly found himself in a conversation that, while of his own making, wasn't exactly one that he felt comfortable having with his best mate. Blushing a bit, he watched as her eyebrow inched up ever so slightly as she waited for him to answer.
"I was a moody git that night. I think the phrase that I heard Katie use was 'a total buzz-kill' about how I was acting that night." Lowering his eyes, Harry waited for the explosion that he felt he deserved.
"And for that you need to apologize to Parvati, because you were a lousy date for her." Watching him carefully, Hermione waited until Harry looked up at her in surprise before continuing. "Seriously. The best part of her evening was dancing with a couple of Beauxbatons wizards while you sat around and tried to see how moody you could be."
Blushing, Harry nodded, not meeting her eyes. "I know, and I'll find her and apologize to both her and her sister."
"And exactly what would you be apologizing to Padma for," Hermione continued in a tone that Harry had come to realize that his answer to that particular question was going to be scrutinized very carefully. Glancing up, Harry could see the same strange look in Hermione's eyes as she watched him carefully.
"Well, according to your logic, I shouldn't apologize to Padma for Ron being a lousy date, so I'm going to apologize for getting her involved in that disaster in the first place." Taking the mildly surprised look on Hermione's face as leave to continue, Harry chuckled. "It would have been better if I'd not worried about him and just asked the first witch I wanted to, rather than waiting around until the last minute and having to scramble to find dates for both of us."
"It's not entirely your fault that Cho started seeing Cedric," Hermione began until she noticed the blush on Harry's cheeks. Smiling kindly, she chuckled. "No need to be embarrassed Harry about wanting to ask her."
Blushing again, Harry dropped his eyes. "Truth be told, she wasn't the first one I wanted to ask, she was just the first one I mentioned." Turning his head, Harry shrugged. "Turned out well, I suppose. I never would have gotten enough nerve to ask the person I wanted to, and that person went with someone else, so everything was fine."
Curious as to who Harry would have wanted to ask, but couldn't come up with the never to approach about it, Hermione shifted closer. Quashing the feeling of resentment in her stomach, she laid her hand on his arm.
"Valentine's Day is coming up. Even if you didn't ask her to the Yule Ball, you could probably ask the witch you want to go to Hogsmeade that weekend, or something."
"No. No. I'm certain they're very happy, so they'll be going most likely." Lowering his eyes, he whispered, "There's always next year, I hope."
"Well, we'll just have to go and have a good time. Maybe we'll run into your mystery witch in the village and make her jealous or something." Hermione was a bit taken aback when Harry looked up at her in surprise.
"I thought Viktor and you…"
"Oh, no. Viktor and I discussed everything before I accepted his invitation to the ball. He has a girlfriend who goes to a witch's academy back in Bulgaria. She's coming to visit with his parents then so he'll be escorting Magdalene to the village."
The smile on Harry's face at that announcement made Hermione a bit suspicious, but she decided to see what, if anything, he would say next. Reaching over, she pulled her copy of Hogwarts: A History back into her lap, stretched out her legs across Harry's lap, toed off her trainers and settled back to read.
Smiling to herself as Harry began gently massaging her feet; she was totally unprepared for his next question.
"So. Where are my dancing girls?"
"Beg pardon?" Lowering her book, she stared at Harry in disbelief, who had stopped massaging her left foot at her reaction. "Why on earth would you have 'dancing girls', and why would you be asking me where they are?"
A bit puzzled by her reaction, Harry immediately looked worried.
"Sorry, it was just a joke. About the song." Seeing Hermione was still staring at him in amazement, he smiled feebly. "You know, 'On the ninth day of Christmas'?"
Trying to get her mind to engage, Hermione rolled her eyes. "Harry, it's 'Nine Ladies Dancing', not nine dancing girls. Very big difference."
"Oh." Looking crestfallen, Harry looked down. "Sorry, I had overheard Seamus and Ron talking earlier and I just was…" Breaking off, Harry sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Never mind, just a stupid thought."
Putting her book down, Hermione scooted and swung her legs down from Harry's lap. Wrapping her arm around his shoulder, she reached up with her free hand and turned his face towards hers.
"Harry, I'm sorry. You just totally caught me off guard, that's all. While I'm certain Seamus and Ronald are going on about dancing girls, it's really ladies dancing, and there's a big difference."
Seeing the puzzled look in his eyes, and taking a deep breath to keep from reacting like a besotted fangirl to the depths of those emerald eyes, she smiled to reassure him.
"While I doubt that those two will ever grow up enough to appreciate the difference, there is a world of difference between the two. And someday, I'm certain you'll have your 'nine ladies dancing'." Seeing the blush on his cheeks, she smiled softly.
"And if you play your cards right, I might even be one of them. I'll never be a dancing girl, but I can see myself being one of your ladies dancing someday."
"I think I'd like that," Harry replied, before he reached across her and hugged her. Whispering in her ear, he quietly finished with, "I think I'll just wait for you to set it up."
Puzzled by both the hug, hugs initiated by Harry were very rare due to Harry's reticence about physical contact, and his comment. Her conscious mind came to a jarring stop when her subconscious snarkily served up the entire line.
"And on the ninth Day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…"
Shaking herself, she returned the hug.
"Someday, Harry. I promise."
2 January, 2015 – Potter Hall, Wales
"Hermione, what on earth is the surprise?"
Blindfolded, Harry was being led down a hallway towards the soft sounds of music. Smiling broadly as he listened to his wife of almost fifteen years giggle like a schoolgirl, something she never did when she was a schoolgirl, Harry carefully walked towards the formal sitting room, Hermione firmly grasping his hand.
The entire family had been acting a bit strange all day, even stranger than holidays at the Potters warranted in his opinion. His daughters had all started giggling every time he came into a room. Even Jane, his usually very reserved daughter who was almost and exact duplicate of her mother was giggling like she'd spent her entire trust vault at her Uncle George's shop.
As they paused, Harry heard the sounds of the music grow louder as he heard the door to the sitting room open in front of them. Waiting patiently, he allowed Hermione to draw him into the room and quietly close the door behind them. As she moved him towards the left, he waited as she removed the blindfold and blinked as his eyes adjusted to the light.
Looking around , he could see most of his 'family' were gathered in the sitting room. The furniture had been removed, and they were either gathered in small groups quietly talking or dancing as music played from the entertainment system that Hermione's father had helped him install the summer after their wedding .
Looking quizzically at his wife, Harry was surprised at the tears in her eyes. She leaned over and rose up on tiptoe to kiss him on the cheek. Smiling broadly, she whispered in his ear. "Harry, it took me twenty years, but here are your 'nine ladies dancing'."
Stunned, he remembered that day during the Christmas hols the year of that ridiculous tournament that Albus had resurrected for some reason known only to him. The day he had almost told Hermione that she was the witch he had wanted to ask, but never could find the nerve to ask, or a reason to believe that she would have said 'yes'. He also remembered her promise, and smiled as he looked around the room.
Off to left, Luna Lovegood-Potter waltzed with Neville, while a very pregnant Hannah Longbottom watched approvingly. His second wife, Harry fondly remembered the weeks of arguments that Hermione had subjected him to as to why they should add the quirky witch to their family, other than the obvious that they both loved her very dearly and her feelings for Harry were easy to see.
Luna had retreated into herself after her father's death during a Neo-Death Eater attack on the Quibbler offices the spring after Harry and Hermione had married, and both of them had taken it as a personal mission to draw the blonde Ravenclaw back into the world. During the process of quiet conversations and talking about the things that had happened during the war, they had ended up falling in love with her during that six months she had lived with them at Grimmauld Place in London after they had rescued her from St. Mungo's.
In an alcove beside the floo, the twins Lily and Helen danced with the pair of boys that they had invited from school to spend the hols with their family. Their oldest, except for Teddy, the two fifth-year students had shocked most of Hogwarts when they were sorted into Hufflepuff and Slytherin their first night at Hogwarts.
While having their mother's hair and love for reading combined with their father's skills on a broom and sense of humor made for interesting combinations, they were both making a decent run at their grandfather James' record for detentions and their mother's record for NEWTs. Of course, being in separate houses made for interesting choices during Quidditch season as they were both seekers on their House teams, but it allowed for both witches to function as fifth year prefects, much to the delight of their Headmistress and honorary grandmother.
Swaying softly to the music in front of the windows that looked out towards Mount Snowden, Teddy Lupin was holding his fiancé Victoire Weasley. Just a few months short of his seventeenth birthday, their godson had proposed to the daughter of Fleur and Bill during the holidays just past. Growing up with the blonde, Teddy had spent as much time at Shell Cottage as Vic had at Grimmauld Place, and the Potters had looked on the Weasley witch as an unofficial daughter, at least until they caught the pair of them snogging the morning Teddy was to leave for Hogwarts the first time. While both families had thought that they would end up together, eventually, only Fleur and Luna were unsurprised at the scene that morning when they had discovered the pair locked in a full-fledged snog.
However, 'eventually together' to the father of a witch usually meant around thirty, and certainly not the December before her sixteenth birthday, but Bill Weasley managed to keep his shock from breaking through when Teddy asked for permission to propose to his daughter. Having found the courage to propose to the fifteen year old daughter of not only his Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, who was also his Head of House proved that Teddy belonged in Gryffindor.
While Bill was able to admit, privately, that he couldn't think of a wizard better suited for his mercurial daughter, and he knew better than to risk the wrath of the pair of Veela witches he shared Shell Cottage with, he made Teddy wait almost a day before he gave him a grudging yes. Blissful was totally inadequate to describe the mood of both Teddy and Victoire since then, the two of them danced together oblivious of their surroundings.
Over by the entertainment center, Harry could see his mother-in-law Helen Granger dancing slowly with her husband Alex while they both watched in amusement as eleven year old Jane Potter was patiently teaching the waltz to her best friend and fellow Gryffindor Al Longbottom. Resisting the trend to call the younger of the Longbottom twins 'AA' for having been named 'Alistair Augustus' in honor of his grandmother Alice and his great-grandmother Augusta, she was the only person beside his sister Frankie to call him by his given name. While not admitting to the fact that she did indeed have a boyfriend, the usually serious Jane hadn't stopped smiling the last three weeks of term according to her older brother James after Luna had told her she could bring Al home for the holidays.
Catching sight of the Headmistress, Harry chuckled as he watched the usually reserved witch laughing as her dance partner was telling some story to the witch that Harry had come to see as a grandmother and mentor. The sight of Minerva waltzing elegantly around the room with Colonel Hector Greengrass was one that warmed his heart, for he had come to know the depth of feelings between the two.
While their relationship was very formal and correct in public, Hermione still couldn't stop laughing every time she saw the blonde witch at how scandalized Astoria Malfoy had been when she appeared in the floo connection downstairs last summer. Astoria had flooed to her family home in Northumbria early on a Saturday morning to retrieve some things she had stored in her mother's upstairs sitting room after her funeral a couple of years previous. Coming out of the solar, she was stunned to see her former Transfiguration professor and Headmistress coming out of the Master Suite, dressed in a silk robe on her father's arm.
Apparently the surprise meeting was very awkward and Astoria had fled 'as if the hounds of hell were chasing her' to hear her sister Daphne tell the story. Astoria came straight to Potter Hall to talk to her fellow Ravenclaw Luna deciding that her Slytherin sister who was married to Lee Jordan and her husband Draco were both less than satisfying choices. Upon seeing Luna sitting on the davenport between Harry and Hermione, she immediately began telling her story, much to Harry's embarrassment and Hermione's amusement. Harry's embarrassment had continued through the afternoon when he had a Board of Governors meeting with Minerva later that day.
Finally, Harry's gaze focused on his youngest daughter, Aranrhod Lili Lovegood-Potter. Moving to the music with Crookshanks in her arms, Harry smiled as he watched their mystery child. While undeniably his and Luna's, she seemed to everyone to be a blend of Luna and Hermione's personalities. At nine, she was just as likely to be prattling on about nargles and snorkacks as she was to be discussing Gawp's Law and pointing out inconsistencies in the latest edition of Hogwart's: A History. Moving to an obviously different song than the spritely waltz that the rest of the room was dancing to, Ari smiled contentedly as she and Crooks gave their best John Travolta disco performance to a 'Disco Inferno' that only they, or at least Ari, could hear.
Feeling Hermione's arms wrap around his waist, Harry just smiled as he watched the scene in front of him. Family and friends, things that he'd never thought he would have or deserve on those rare moments when he dared to think that he might survive his confrontations with Tom Riddle, were now his, Mostly thanks to the witch who was leaning her head on his shoulder.
"Come on, handsome. Dance with me," Hermione's husky voice broke him from his reverie. Stepping out into the room, Harry felt Hermione's hand slide down his arm and firmly grasp his hand. As he turned to face her, and his hand found her waist with practiced ease, he looked down at her with love in his heart.
As they began smoothly moving together, he quirked a smile at her. "Forgiven me yet?"
"For?" The impish look on her face told him that she knew exactly what he was asking.
"Not asking you to the Yule Ball?" Smiling at the giggle that escaped her lips, he held her closer, as close as her current 'condition' would permit.
"Honestly, Harry. I could have asked you just as easily. Probably more so since I was willing to admit that I fancied you." Smiling at the look on his face, they waltzed together for a couple of moments before she continued. "At least to Mum, anyway."
Moving around the room, Harry smiled because all was right with his world. And he finally had his 'nine ladies dancing'. A family.