To all Harry/Hermione fans, here's a festive tale for you.
Disclaimer: Nope, don't own Harry Potter, but who knows what Father Christmas will bring me this year :)
*I'd like to do a little shout out here. Panther Eyes, in your review of chapter five, you asked that I give Harry a little break. I intend to do so in this chapter, though not in the way you might think*
Harry Potter and the Twelve Days of Christmas
Chapter 9: Dancing and Leaping
22nd December 2001.
Harry had his hands shoved in his pockets to keep them warm as he, Neville, Luna, Susan and Hannah made their way along the street of a muggle shopping district.
Luna had a notebook in her hand, and was happily scribbling down names as the others voiced them.
"Fleur." suggested Susan.
"We've got Fleur down already." said Hannah.
"Oh, right."
"Luna, read out the list." requested Neville.
Luna cleared her throat and read out "Fleur, Dora, Andi, Hestia, Angelina and Alicia. We need three more."
"McGonagall?" suggested Hannah, causing the others to burst out laughing. None of them had any doubt that McGonagall would be happy to give Harry a hand in his mission, but it seemed unlikely that she would be willing to dance around for Hermione's amusement.
Just then, Harry came to a sudden stop, causing Luna, who had been laughing too hard to pay attention, to walk straight into the back of him. She bounced off of him and would have fallen to the pavement had Susan not been behind her to catch her.
"What is it, Harry?" asked Hannah.
Harry nodded towards a display in a shop window "I think I've found another dancing lady."
The others all turned to look where he was and saw a music box. It was open, revealing the figure of a ballerina that slowly rotated in time with the music. Beneath the lid was a circular mirror, reflecting the image of the ballerina.
Without another word, Harry entered the shop.
He came back out five minutes later looking a little glum.
"Well, I got it." he stated "Unfortunately, they didn't have any more. I think the phrase "You should've been in here last week; we had loads of them then" is about the most useless thing a sales assistant can possible say."
Bag in hand; Harry began leading the others down the street. He'd not gone more than two steps when;
"Harry, look out!" shouted Neville.
Harry trod on the patch of black ice. His foot slipped out from beneath him and he crashed to the ground, the bag containing the music box hitting the pavement hard.
Neville grabbed Harry by the arm and pulled him up as Luna grabbed the bag. She took out the box, and saw that it was badly chipped on one corner. She flipped open the lid and saw that the mirror was smashed, although the figure of the ballerina was fine.
She tilted the box slightly, and a wide smile appeared on her face.
"Oh, Harry."
"… and why you thought it would be a good idea to put Harry up to this, I'll never know!" Hermione ranted. Having spent the better part of the last twenty-four hours mulling it over in her mind, she had decided to just let rip into her father for putting silly ideas into Harry's head.
"But Hermione…" Dan began in the hopes of defending himself, but there was a knock on the door.
Emma got up from her position on the sofa and answered. She came back a few moments later.
"Hermione, Harry's here. And he's come with a few of your friends."
Hermione sent one last glare at her father before turning to smile welcomingly at Harry.
"Hey Harry." she greeted before moving in for a kiss. Harry happily responded.
"Hey yourself." he replied with a grin after their kiss ended "I've got you a present."
With a smile and a roll of her eyes, Hermione took the bag and pulled out the music box.
She opened it, took one look at what was inside, closed it again, set it down on the coffee table, gave Harry a huge kiss and then announced to her parents that she and her friends were off out.
No one argued.
"She barely looked at it." muttered Dan.
"Probably because she finds the task you set Harry to be an insult to her." answered Emma, taking the music box off of the table. She opened it and smiled.
Dan leaned over and observed "The mirror's broken."
Emma handed it to him "That's the trick to it. You have to view it from the right angle."
Dan held the box up and slowly rotated its angle slightly until he arrived at the right one.
The mirror might have broken, but when viewed from the right angle, the shards each reflected the ballerina from a slightly different angle. Eight shards of glass meant eight reflections, making a total of nine ballerinas visible.
Dan sighed closed the box and set it back on the coffee table and looked at Emma, who was smirking.
"Look, I'm sorry alright?"
Emma shook her head "It's not me you need to apologise to."
Dan gave another sigh "You're right. When Harry and Hermione get back, I'll apologise to them."
But Harry and Hermione did not come back that night. At Hermione's insistence, they returned to Harry's home, where they fell asleep in front of the fire, Hermione curled up to Harry's side, and a warm blanket covering the both of them.
23rd December 2001.
The next day, Harry insisted on taking Hermione to the Ministry of Magic, for reasons that she could not fathom.
She was made to wait outside the Minister's office while Harry went in for a word with Kingsley. Both men exited not three minutes later, smiling brightly.
As Harry returned to Hermione's side, Kingsley went over to his assistant and handed her a piece of parchment "Mandy, I'd like you to send for these people immediately."
Mandy Brocklehurst nodded and headed off.
"Come on, Harry. Let's go." said Hermione, standing.
"Hold on." said Harry, grabbing her hand "We're not done here yet."
"What?" asked Hermione, bewildered.
"Hermione, you know those Wizengamot members who turned down your proposals for Elf rights?" Harry asked.
Hermione scowled "Yes, I do." she practically growled. Those men had completely crushed fifteen months of work without even hearing her out and threw her out of the room, calling her a jumped-up Muggleborn upstart.
Harry smiled "How does a bit of revenge sound?"
Hermione's scowl turned into a wide smile and she retook her seat at Harry's side, eagerly anticipating whatever it was that Harry seemed to have cooked up with the Minister.
One by one, the men Harry had reminded Hermione of came through the door and hurried into the Minister's office.
Hermione was so excited about what Harry had planned; she completely missed the fact that there were ten of them.
Twenty minutes after the last man had arrived, still nothing had happened, and Hermione was starting to feel a little disappointed.
Just as she was about to ask Harry about what was going on, however, he stood up and began to wave his wand in an intricate pattern, aiming it at the floor.
Hermione was far from certain, but she got the feeling that Harry had just changed what the floor was made of.
The door to the Minister's office opened again and the ten men began to make their way across the room.
With a large grin on his face, Harry turned to Hermione and said "And now for today's gift, allow me to present ten lords a leaping."
He fired of a bludgeoning spell at one point on the floor and a massive ripple appeared, like the ones you get when you drop a stone in a pond. The ripple quickly expanded, raced across the room and launched the ten men into the air.
The effect was instant. The floor was now just like the structure of a bouncy castle, and after being flung up, there was very little that the ten men could do to stop themselves from bouncing all over the place.
Technically, the ten lords were bouncing, not leaping, but Hermione clearly didn't care. At least if you went by her laughter, anyway. Harry loved seeing her laugh.
Mandy was still seated behind her desk, clearly trying to hold in her laughter. Kingsley was not showing the same resistance and chuckled heartily.
Harry, however, was smiling for a completely different reason. He had successfully given Hermione her tenth present, and in the process gotten revenge on those who had so viciously stomped on her dreams.
Talk about killing two birds with one stone!
Perhaps that's not the best analogy to use...
A/N: So what do you think? I know its two in one, and I know that the chapter is short, but it works. I think that chapter 10 might be the last chapter of this.
