Chapter 25: Hogwarts Holiday Special
Harry and Ron were both rushed off to the Headmaster's office, which Buffy waited outside of until Mordred, Dawn and Faith arrived. Dawn tried to get inside, but the door was locked.
"We have to stop Sirius from sending his House Elf Kreacher out," she said hurriedly, "or else he'll tell the Death Eaters what's going on."
Buffy and Faith were all ready to kick down the door, but Mordred stopped them.
"PaniChaos!" he cried, causing the mutated bird to appear in a whoosh of flame. "Go to Sirius, tell him to keep Kreacher with him at all times. He can silence Kreacher any way he wants to, but Kreacher must be in plain sight at all times. Tell him Dumbledore says so. Go now!"
The bird squawked an affirmation and disappeared in a puff of fire. Mordred turned back to the others.
"It's the best we can do right now." Mordred said. "Now come on, we won't be able to follow the others but we can go Patrol for the rest of the night. I doubt any of you'll be able to sleep, I never can on the best of days."
With that, the four of them got their brooms and went out over the grounds above Hogwarts, flying in the air. Dawn saw Mordred's Snow Golem Army, and whistled.
"You planning on taking over the world or something?" She asked. Mordred shook his head.
"Just the North and South Poles will do for now." He said while watching with pride as his troops made more Snow Golems to reinforce his army. "Maybe Canada and Siberia as well, they'd be fun to take over as well."
They flew around the entire night, and only went back to the Castle when they saw the sun coming up. They were all still buzzing with nervous energy, so before and after classes on the Thursday they had all gotten together in the Room of Requirement and began practicing spells, as well as making presents.
"Ok people, what do we make and who do we make it for?" Asked Faith, as they decided on what to do for the others as well as themselves.
"I've already got a present for Professor Snape from us," said Mordred, "and maybe a little something for Neville, if anyone wants to put their name to it with mine." He said looking slyly at Dawn, who blushed slightly.
"At least I didn't spend an entire day trying to hide making a Raven-headed Hat for someone," pointed out Dawn, "which by the way, should be an Eagle-headed Hat since Ravenclaw's bird is an eagle."
"Then why call it Ravenclaw?" asked Buffy, "why not Eagle-claw?"
"Because that was the founder's name." Supplied Dawn while Mordred rummaged through his bag.
"I made Hats for everyone! Early presents for all four of us." he proclaimed, pulling out a hat that looked exactly like the one Luna was sporting for the Slytherin-Gryffindor match. "This is for you Buffy. Along with this." He pulled out a hood in the shape of a lion's head, with a mouth where the wearer's face would be.
"And these are for us three." Mordred said pulling out hats with Cobra heads on top of them, as well as hoods in the shape of cobra mouths. "I also made two hats for Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, as well as hoods for them."
The girls laughed as they put them on, Dawn and Faith making their hats hiss while Buffy made hers roar. Mordred put on the snake hood before they continued.
"How's it look?" asked Mordred, "pretty cunning, don't you think?" The others laughed at him.
"It makes you look like Serpentor from the G.I. Joe series," said Faith while she gasped for breath, "any minute now and you'll be yelling 'Cobra' at the top of your lungs."
"Hey, Buffy," asked Dawn suddenly, her eyes glowing in gleeful delight as an idea hit her, "you have any of those socks with Elves freeing themselves on them like us three made?"
"Yeah, but we already made a suit for Dobby and a dress for Winky," said Buffy, "who're we gonna give the socks too?"
"Dumbledore, of course!" Piped Dawn excitedly. "We just change the sizes for him, since he did say in book one he wanted socks, so we'll give them to him."
"We should leave a wreath tie and crown for the Sorting Hat," suggested Faith, "it must be lonely most of the time."
"I've already got a present for Spike from us," said Buffy, "and something for Ron, but I'll need some help in animating parts of it."
They got to work on making more presents, spending the entire afternoon and night in the room. When they were done, the three girls were exhausted while Mordred was still bouncing around like a mad thing.
"We still have to package these things and drop them off," said Dawn, "it's too bad we have to wait for the others to come back before we can give them their presents."
"I wouldn't be so sure of that." Mordred said mischievously, but refused to say anything else when the others questioned him as they left the room to go to sleep, as their exhaustion was catching up to them.
On Friday, the only eventful thing that happened was that Buffy saw Hermione off, as Hermione was going to go see Harry and Ron at the Black residence (although Hermione never actually told Buffy where she was going, Buffy already knew through Dawn.) Mordred dropped off some of the presents he made and wrapped at various places, one in Snape's office, one in the Ravenclaw Common Room for Luna, and one in the Headmaster's office for the Sorting Hat as well as some food for Fawkes (the Sorting Hat and the Professors in the Portraits were all surprised that Mordred was able to break into the office since no one should be able to do that.) Buffy herself went over to the Chamber of Secrets to drop off her present for Spike (a sun-proof cloak so he could move easier during the day) before going to Hagrid's hut to give Hagrid his present (a Komodo Dragon, which he liked although he'd of preferred a real Dragon). The Triumvirate and Buffy also dropped off various presents for other teachers, including a Firebolt for McGonagall, some Charmed Fairy statues that sang for Flitwick, some healing herbs called Athelas for Sprout, some cat food and a shielded hat for Filch and his cat, and some Phoenix tears for Madam Pomfrey for use on patients at her discretion. They also dropped off a package of Cursed rings for Umbridge claiming to be from the Ministry while the Triumvirate gave her some flowers from themselves. During Patrolling Mordred pointed one of his wands into the sky and shot a bolt of Magic into the air, which Conjured a large white Snow Smiley Face in the air above Hogwarts, but when asked he didn't tell what it was for. Umbridge went to the Ministry to celebrate her 'success' as the Inquisitor of Hogwarts while enjoying the Holidays.
The next day, when the students and the Professors gathered in the Great Hall, Mordred was nowhere to be found. Buffy, Dawn and Faith looked around, but they (along with the teachers) were distracted by the loud sounds coming from outside the Castle walls. They all went outside, and found to their shock and surprise an army of over one million Snow Golems, blowing on horns, banging on drums, and generally making a lot of noise. They surrounded the Castle in a giant ring that stretched for miles. The three girls then saw Mordred at the top of the Astronomy Tower, where he pulled the Snow Smiley Face he had made the night beforehand down to himself using one of his wands. He placed his other wand on his neck and did a Sonorus Spell, and then began to shout at the hoard of Snow Golems before him.
"SILENCE! Hear me now!" The crowd of Snow Golems went silent. "A new power is rising! Its victory is at hand" he cried out to the Snow Golems, getting something in the way of a cheer from his Snow Golems as they all roared and blew on their horns. "This night, the land will be stained with the lard of the great Evil one himself, Santa Claus!" More roaring from crowd, plus complete confusion from the three girls. "Tonight, let us send a message to the Fat Man Himself! Tonight, let us shake this world to its very core! Tonight, let us be heard from white ground to blue sky! Tonight, let us make them remember, we are Mages, AND WE ARE IN CHARGE NOW!!!!" The Crowd of Snow Golems went wild again while Mordred spoke. "March to the North Pole! Splatter it with the blood and lard of its Evil Leader! Leave no Elf unfreed!" The crowd roared even louder. Mordred gathered himself up as they quieted down before screaming. "TO WAR" The army turned around and began marching North, and would have gone all the way if Dumbledore hadn't of cast an Impedimenta Spell on them all from behind Mordred. Dumbledore then grabbed Mordred by the scruff of his neck, and dragged him back into the Castle. The three girls looked on in complete shock, as they heard Dumbledore very loudly yelling at Mordred all the way to his office. They then looked at one another, and burst out laughing.
"Well, that was psychotic beyond belief," laughed Faith, while the other two girls nodded their heads in agreement when they all caught their breaths. "He just has to rip off every movie he's ever heard of and turn everything he does into something dramatic."
"He's an idiot." Stated Dawn, who looked worried. "What if he mentions any of us in this hair-brained scheme of his?"
"Oh, he's the deadest man in Deadonia if he mentions us in this." Said Buffy, cracking her knuckles but still smiling. Mordred came out with Dumbledore, who then talked with the four Heads of House while Mordred got to the three girls.
"Gotta say Mordy," Faith said to Mordred when he got to them, "your talent for alienatin' folks is near miraculous."
"Yes," admitted Mordred, "and I'm very proud of it too."
"What the Hell were you thinking?" asked Dawn.
"I was thinking of taking over the North Pole and freeing all the Elves there," replied Mordred dryly, "didn't you hear my speech?"
An appalled look came over Dawn's face as Faith burst out laughing. Buffy saw Dumbledore approaching them, so she grabbed up the package of socks the four of them had made for Dumbledore.
"Merry Christmas," Buffy said, hoping a present would keep them from getting into trouble, "or whatever Witches and Wizards say here." Dumbledore smiled at her when she gave him their present, his eyes twinkling.
"And a Happy Christmas to you too, dear," he said, taking the gift from her and reading the card. "From all of you? How thoughtful, one would almost be surprised that two Houses such as Gryffindor and Slytherin could work together as well as this, even if they're family members. So often, students, as well as teachers," he said looking pointedly at Snape and McGonagall, "forget that although Houses are supposed to be like family, that shouldn't mean that Houses can't interact to the point of breakig up families."
Dumbledore turned to the other Professors, who all were carrying the presents they had found, and motioned towards McGonagall.
"Minerva," asked Dumbledore while she was holding onto her new Firebolt, "would you be so kind as to bring these four troublemakers to visit our friends in hiding." Dawn grinned excitedly as she understood where they'd be going.
"I'm sure they appreciate the help these lot could provide," Dumbledore said grinning, "in cleaning up the House of Black for Christmas."