Disclaimer: All characters, etc. owned by J.K. Rowling. She owns it, The Precious…
"Speech"
Thought
~ December, 1991 ~
~Christmas~
After the Quidditch match, there had been a celebration in Gryffindor Tower. Hermione's parents; as well as Sirius, Remus, Harry and the girls had been invited to attend. During the party, Fred and George gave their own version of the Quidditch match which had everyone laughing at their antics. Hugo and Rose enjoyed meeting Hermione's friends and they were given a tour of the Castle. Something that has been rarely done, before. After the party, the Grangers and Sirius and Remus went home.
December had turned into a rather cold and dreary month. The grounds were covered with snow and the lake had frozen over. However; inside the castle was a much different story. It wasn't difficult to tell that Christmas was coming. There were Christmas decorations all over the Great Hall; covering the hallways, and even the common rooms were decorated by the students.
Harry and his fiancées were in Potter Quarters and they happened to be busy adding their own Christmas decorations. Harry was having a fun time as he wasn't allowed to this simple thing when he was living with the Dursleys. The girls decided to make his first Christmas a memorable one and they had something planned for him when they went home. Harry knew they were up to something because every time he looked at them, they began to blush and giggle.
Now what are they up to? Harry thought. Oh, I hope I can get them the right kind of gift. I've never given a gift before. This should be fun! When the girls were finished, they decided to head down towards the Great Hall for lunch. In a couple of more days, they would be going home for the Christmas holidays.
My first Real Christmas. With a family. And…and with presents and everything, Harry thought to himself, with tears forming in his eyes.
"Let's go," Susan said. "I'm hungry."
Quickly wiping his eyes and bowing, Harry opened the door and replied in his best gentlemanly voice, "After you, my ladies."
"Why, zhank you, kind sir," Fleur replied, taking one of Harry's arms.
"My, such a gentleman," Dora said. "Let's meet up with Hermione and the others. Maybe they can help us figure out who's trying to steal the Sorcerer's Stone thingy."
Down at the Great Hall, Harry and his fiancées met up with Hermione and Draco and they began discussing their theories on the Stone, when Harry remembered something that happened on the day of Hermione's Quidditch match.
"You know, I remember seeing Prof. Snape walking with a limp! What if he tried to steal the Stone and Fluffy bit him?" Harry asked, while eating a sandwich. Hermione and Draco had decided to join them instead of sitting over at their regular places at the Gryffindor table.
"Fluffy? Who's Fluffy?" Hannah asked.
"It's the name of Hagrid's Cerberus," Harry explained to Hannah how they found Fluffy on the Third Floor.
"Yeah, it was pretty scary, seeing that thing!" Pansy said.
"But Harry; Prof. Snape's a teacher! He wouldn't do something like that!" Hermione complained.
Dora turned and looked at her. "Hermione, he was the one that was jinxing your broom!"
"Wh-what?!" Hermione said, shock evident on her face.
"Oui, we saw 'im through zhe Susan 'adn't acted, you could 'ave been seriously 'urt," Fleur said, rubbing circles around Hermione's back to try and calm her down.
Draco growled, "That bloody git! We ought to tell my Dad or Auntie Bella or Amelia! I bet they'd love to get him to talk!"
"Oohhh, what if we used the Map to keep an eye on him!" Susan said, surprising everyone as she had been busy eating her lunch. "Wouldn't we be able to see if he goes anywhere near Fluffy and the Stone thing?"
"You really ARE brilliant, Sue!" Harry said with a laugh. "Especially after what you did to Snape!"
"Professor Snape," Hermione admonished. Harry stuck out his tongue at his sister and Hermione rolled her eyes at her brother. "What did she do to him, anyway?" She asked.
Looking at Hermione with a smirk, "I set his robes on fire." Susan then began to tell the story of what happened, which had everyone laughing. Even Hermione was clutching her ribs from laughing so hard. It didn't help when they saw Prof. Snape enter the Hall.
"Five points from Hufflepuff and Gryffindor for disturbing the Great Hall," the Professor said as he walked away.
"Five points to Hufflepuff and Gryffindor for your display of house unity," Prof. McGonagall replied in response. "Now what are you all laughing about?" Prof. McGonagall wound up joining them in their laughter when Susan repeated her story. They all started laughing again when Prof. Snape glared at them from his seat at the Staff Table.
~The Mirror~
That night, Harry took Susan's suggestion and tried to follow Prof. Snape. There has to be a better way to do this, Harry thought. Even with the map. As he turned a corner, Harry caught sight of Prof. Snape and Quirrell having an argument. Suddenly, Harry heard something that he wished he hadn't…a cat's meow. Bloody Hell! Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris! Harry took off down the corridor and found himself in an unused room.
Harry decided to investigate the room and it looked like it hadn't been used in years. What's this? Harry spotted a large, dust-covered mirror. On top of the mirror was a strange inscription that he couldn't quite figure out. Wondering what the strange words were, Harry decided to look into mirror and was surprised by what he saw.
Mum? Dad? Is that really you? In addition to his parents, he saw his fiancées with lots of…children. My family. Tears leaked from Harry's eyes as he reached up to touch the glass and was surprised when he saw his mum reach towards him. I have to show the girls! They have to see this! Harry bolted from the room and made his towards their quarters.
Reaching their quarters without incident, Harry burst into the room excitedly which startled the occupants. "You have to see this!" Harry exclaimed. Harry led the girls quietly to where he found the strange mirror. "I found this mirror," Harry said as he pointed to the mirror.
"What is it?" Dora asked, examining the mirror.
"Go look at the glass," Harry suggested.
Dora took a look at the mirror's glass and gasped. She saw a much older version of herself in Auror robes standing next to an older Harry and what she guessed were their kids. Blimey, four kids?! And one of them has pink hair!
Dora motioned for Fleur and Susan to take a turn. They both had the same surprised looks on their faces that she had when looked into the mirror. "What did you see, Susan, Fleur?"
Susan replied, "I saw my, my parents! And a little girl and boy. The boy had your eyes, Harry. I also saw myself as head of the DMLE!"
"I saw two girls and a boy," Fleur said, still looking at the mirror. "What about you, Mon Cherie?"
Harry looked again at the mirror. "I can see my Mum and Dad and the six of you. Boy, that's a lot of kids."
Dora wrapped Harry in a hug and asked, "Does that thing show the future?"
"I don't know, Dora. We should show Hermione. One of these days. Let's get out of here before Mrs. Norris or Mr. Filch finds us." Harry took one last look at the mirror before they left for their quarters.
~Christmas at Home~
After a couple of days, it was finally time to head home for the Christmas Holiday. Harry was especially excited because he would get to spend it with his family and friends. Something he hadn't done before. Most of the time he would spend it locked up in his cupboard, sadly watching Dudley opening up his gifts and wishing that someone would remember him. Shaking his head clear of the painful memories, Harry was amazed at the sight of Potter Manor. The Manor was covered in decorations from top to bottom.
Just as soon as Harry stepped through the floo, he was tackled by a little blonde Harry-seeking missile. Looking down Harry smiled and picked up little Gabbi and swung her around the room, causing the girl to start laughing and squealing.
"'Arry put me down!" Gabbi squealed.
"I take it you missed me?" Harry said as he passed her over to Fleur.
"Oui, I did," Gabbi replied as she hugged her sister, who put her down. Gabbi then proceeded to tackle everyone who stepped through the floo. She got into a game of tag with Fred and George, who grinned and chased Gabbi out of the living room.
"Welcome home, Harry-Bear," Bella said warmly, welcoming the kids with a hug. "So anything interesting happen when you got back?"
"Not much," Harry replied. "We figured out who might be after the Stone."
"Stone? What Stone?" Sirius asked when he greeted the kids.
Harry and the girls told the adults that they figured out Hagrid's Cerberus was guarding something called The Sorcerer's Stone. Harry also said he thought that Prof. Snape might be the one trying steal the Stone. They were still surprised because they thought that Snape might have been warming up to them.
Amelia looked at Harry and asked, "So you think that Prof. Snape is after the Stone to give it back to V-Vold- Voldemort?"
"Yeah," Harry said. "We just don't have any proof."
Sirius sighed. "Just use those mirrors like we told you. Now; come on, let's worry about that some other time."
Over the course of the next few days, the family spent most of their time at home either playing, reading (in Hermione's case) or just plain relaxing. They also managed to make a few trips into Muggle London to buy some extra Christmas gifts. Harry even visited his family vaults to see if he could find gifts for his fiancées and he made sure that they wouldn't find them until Christmas…hopefully.
The day of Christmas had finally come. The night before, the family spent it visiting Godric's Hallow and the graves of James and Lily. Afterwards, the Grangers took them around Muggle London to show them how they normally spent their Christmas. There were Christmas carols, a watching of The Nutcracker and Hugo read The Night Before Christmas, which Gabbi enjoyed.
Christmas morning, Harry was woken up by a little blonde ball of energy that tried to drag him out of bed. Harry wrapped his arms around the little girl and proceeded to tickle her mercilessly. After the girl fled the room, Harry got up took care of his morning routine and headed downstairs.
"Happy Christmas, Harry!" Hermione said as she hugged her brother. Christmas had always been her favorite time of the year. She was especially happy because she had an extended family and friends to celebrate with. Hermione also knew that this would be Harry's first true Christmas away from those horrid Dursleys.
"Happy Christmas, 'Mione!" Harry replied with a smile. "Let's open some presents!"
"Well, well," Lucius said. "Our Lord Potter has finally seen fit to join us mere mortals on this fine day!" He started laughing when the Potter Twins both stuck their tongues at him. The Twins ran into the living room and found everyone waiting.
"Happy…"
"Christmas…"
"Your presents have already been…"
"Sorted, so let's get cracking! " Fred and George said.
"Why don't we let Harry start us off," Rose said as she motioned for Harry to pick up a present from his pile.
"Me?" Harry asked, wide-eyed. Harry picked one up and began tearing it open. It turned out to be an Auror-grade wand holster from Bella. Harry got up and gave Bella a hug and kissed her on the cheek. "Thank you, Bella. That-that was my first Christmas gift." In addition to the wand holster, Harry had received from Amelia his dad's Auror badge. He had also gotten various joke items from Sirius, Remus, Draco and Fred and George, some dress robes from Jean-Luc, Apolline, Cissa and Lucius, various sweets from Honeydukes, books from the girls and Hermione and a teddy bear from Gabbi. He had also gotten a couple of books on the history of the Potter and Black families from Andi and Ted.
Hermione had gotten; of course, books from parents, seeker armor and gloves from Sirius and Remus, more sweets from Honeydukes, several rare books from the Potter vaults from Harry. She also got a wand holster from Bella and Lily's Auror badge from Amelia. Hermione had also gotten a few joke items from Draco and the Malfoy Twins.
"Hermione, what's that one?" Harry pointed to a large package that remained untouched. Harry watched as his sister opened it. Hermione picked up a note and handed it to her brother. Harry read the note. "'Mione! It says that this belonged to our dad!"
"Really?!" Excitedly, Hermione reached into the box and pulled out a cloak. "Some kind of cloak, I think."
Sirius took a look at the cloak and immediately recognized it. "That's your dad's invisibility cloak! We used it a lot when we were at Hogwarts! That and the Map helped us pull off most of our pranks! Put it on, 'Mione!"
"An invisibility cloak," Hermione said, examining the cloak. She did as Sirius suggested and was surprised when her body disappeared, leaving only her head exposed. "Oh, my…this is ssoo cool! You've got to try this, Harry!" Hermione handed the cloak to her excited brother.
Harry took the cloak and tried it on himself. "'Mione, do you know what we can do with this?!" Harry looked at his sister and they both grinned. "We can go practically anywhere in Hogwarts with this!" Harry handed the cloak back to his sister and then remembered something.
"Oh, wait…I'm not done with presents yet!" Harry nervously handed out several small boxes to his fiancées. "Go on and open them," Harry said with a small smile. Harry watched as they opened the boxes and heard the gasps and squeals of excitement. They had each received a diamond ring with their birthstone set in the ring. Harry also explained that they had been charmed to act as an emergency portkey. Harry soon found himself crushed in a group hug from his fiancées.
"Harry, look up!" Sirius said with a laugh.
Looking up, Harry was surprised to see a mistletoe above his head. Harry soon found himself kissed on the lips by each of his fiancées. However; he received only a couple of kisses on the cheek from Gabbi, who punctuated them with a loud, "Mmuah!" Everyone began laughing as Harry blushed and had a dazed look and the goofy grin on his face.
"I think you broke him, ladies!" Sirius said. Bloody Hell! I really do need a girlfriend. He thought to himself as he laughed at his godson's dazed look.
Harry didn't care at that point if they were laughing at him. He didn't care if he had the goofiest grin on his face. He had just been kissed by five of the most beautiful girls and one he knew would grow up into a knockout like her sister. In Harry's mind, there was only one thing.
BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!
