"Hey Harry!" Susan smiled as Harry answered his mirror. "Aww, you three look cute."
"Um, thanks." Harry said from his spot between Hermione and Tonks on the cushions. "But I'm not cute."
"Yes you are." Tonks pointed out.
"No, you're cute, and Hermione is cute." Harry shook his head firmly. "I'm manly or macho or tough. Not cute."
"Boys." Hermione muttered and jokingly rolled her eyes.
"Anyway, the departure time is in ten minutes, so you guys should finish up and get over here." Susan said.
"Oh, thanks." Harry smiled and cut the connection before turning to the portrait they were facing. "Sorry Circe, we have to go now."
"I'll just sum up the rest then, Theseus kills the Minotaur, follows the string out of the Labyrinth and gets the girl and they live happily ever after." Circe grinned. "Happy Christmas, I'll see you next year?"
"Wouldn't miss it!" Tonks exclaimed happily as she bounced to her feet.
"Bye Circe!" Hermione waved with one hand while she pulled Harry towards the door with the other. "Thanks for the story!"
"Bye Children." Circe smiled and waved as the three hurried away.
Harry's smile grew momentarily as they rounded the corner to the entrance hall and saw the rest of the court. His smile dropped a split second later when he noticed Lockhart standing with them. Fred and George shrugged apologetically when they saw him and the three made their way over at a considerably slower pace.
"Hello friends." Harry greeted cheerfully then apathetically added "Professor."
"Good morning Harry!" Lockhart gushed. "I was hoping to catch you before you left."
"Can't have been hard, I didn't set the schedule." Harry drawled.
Lockhart laughed heartily. "Right you are, my boy, right you are."
"So, can I help you?" Harry pressed after a moment of silence. Why does he always do that?
"Right, you see I have always liked to deliver my presents in person." Lockhart grinned and pulled a small package out from behind his back. "I've been writing in this almost every day this semester. It helped me out a lot and with my wisdom added to it it should help you more."
"Er, thanks." Harry said and took the present. It's a book...wait...this can't be the diary can it? No, that would be stupid. Then again this is Lockhart. Screw it, I'll deal with this later. Harry smiled up at Lockhart. "Did you get something for all of your students?"
"What?" Lockhart asked surprised. "No, why?"
"It's just that some people might look at this as favoritism." Harry shrugged and tucked the gift into his robes.
"Oh, yes, they might." Lockhart nodded sadly. "But you shouldn't worry, I didn't give that to you as a professor to a student but rather as one celebrity to another."
"I see." Harry nodded. "I'm afraid I don't have a gift for you."
"Don't worry about that." Lockhart waved him off nonchalantly. "I don't expect anything in return."
"Oh, well thank you." Harry said as the train whistle blew. "We need to leave now. Happy Christmas."
"Happy Christmas Mr. Potter." Lockhart walked away chuckling, although he didn't know what was funny, while the students climbed onto the train.
Susan was the first to spot an open car and as the group piled in Harry quietly cast an expansion charm to fit them all in. After a couple minutes of bumping into each other and maneuvering their trunks the nine settled down.
Tonks took the seat on Harry's right and as she sat she placed his arm around her shoulders and wiggled until she was firmly pressed into his side. With a sigh of contentment she rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes. "I was really comfortable before we ran out of time."
Hermione laughed as she sat on Harry's left and draped her legs across both of their laps and picked up the book she had retrieved from her trunk moments ago. Harry looked from Tonks to Hermione then to Blaise before grumbling "I feel like furniture."
"The best furniture." Tonks nodded.
"Better you than me." Blaise said making a face.
"Is that so?" Hannah asked from next to him and flopped sideways across him, her head landing on George's knee.
"Get off!" Blaise squawked and pushed Hannah until she was almost falling off the seat.
"Blaise quit it!" Hannah said as she caught herself.
Susan laughed, reaching over, and pulled Hannah back into a sitting position. Blaise brushed himself off indignantly and moved over to where Daphne was. "I'd really rather you don't do that again Hannah."
"Oy!" George objected. "Stop complaining, I'm not and I think I'll have trouble putting weight on my leg for a couple days!"
"And I'll have to deal with that." Fred crossed his arms and jokingly glared at Hannah.
"You're all such children." Daphne observed and went back to gazing out the window.
"But, we are children." George grinned. "So it's all good."
Daphne turned her cold gaze on George, smirking when he flinched. "Fair enough." She said happily.
"Wait, you're not reacting negatively?" George asked concerned. "Or is this an I'd better watch my back scenario?"
"No, not mad." Daphne shrugged. "I honestly just ignore you when you're misbehaving."
"I never misbehave!" George defended and even managed to keep a straight face for a couple seconds while everyone stared at him. Finally he burst out laughing. "Oh, who am I kidding?"
As the laughter died down a soft knock came on the door to their compartment and behind it stood Justin Finch-Fletchley looking nervous. Harry motioned him to enter and dropped his hand back to Hermione's knee.
"Hey, so, um, I sent my parents an owl about the snake at the dueling club." Justin started hesitantly. "I asked if I could invite the nine of you to our annual boxing day party, but my mum said nine was too many, everyone else there will be muggles after all. She told me to just invite you, then when I told her that there wasn't much chance of you showing up anywhere without Hermione and Tonks" At this point he looked the two girls in the eye. "So she told me to invite the two of you as well and appropriate parental units."
"I don't know that I should be around muggles." Tonks said softly. "I have a tendency to unconsciously shift hair color."
"You'll be fine Nym," Hermione smiled. "That only happens when you're really thinking hard about something."
"Do either of you know anything about what the old people have planned for us yet?" Harry asked the girls, who both shook their head. "Sorry Justin, I can't answer your invite now, I can send an owl later tonight though if that is acceptable."
"Anytime before Tuesday is fine." Justin nodded with a relieved smile. "My great-aunt is staying with us for a few weeks and she doesn't know anything."
"Watch for Hedwig then." Harry said with a nod.
"Alright, I'm going to catch up with the others. Bye." Justin said and turned to the Hufflepuff girls. "Hannah, Susan, everyone, Happy Christmas."
"You too Justin." Susan smiled and waved as he left.
"That had to be hard." Blaise said with a note of respect and Harry and Daphne nodded.
"Harry isn't that intimidating." George scoffed. "Is he?"
"Yes." Daphne stated. "But that isn't why that was hard. If you didn't notice, he just came in here and was practically required to commit a social faux pas."
"It is easy to invite one person in a group, but a lot harder when you're inviting a subset of the same group." Blaise added. "You could tell that he was waiting for one of us to, in effect, demand to be invited too."
"But, he said his mum wouldn't allow that many." Hannah frowned.
"Yea, he took the easy way out." Harry smiled.
"By blaming his mother?" Hermione asked skeptically.
"Yup, works almost every time and is almost completely unchallengeable." Harry nodded.
"Oh." Hermione looked off thoughtfully for a moment before coming back to earth and nodding. "Yea, I get it now."
"It really doesn't work if it doesn't work though." Blaise shrugged. "But you wouldn't believe how many things I have gotten out of this way. She's gotten me out of Pansy's last four birthday parties, probably my favorite use."
Daphne laughed. "I was wondering why you were never there."
"You're more than welcome to be visiting my family during any future parties, if you want to that is." Blaise suggested.
"That's sweet of you." Daphne smiled at him.
"No problem." Blaise smiled back then forcefully broke eye contact. "So Harry, what does a one celebrity get another?"
"Huh?" Harry asked.
"Lockhart's gift." Tonks said and stuck her hand into Harry's robe and pulled out the present.
"Right. Um, Nym. I'm going to need my arm back for this." Harry said and started to lift his arm off of Tonks' shoulder.
"No!" Tonks whined and grabbed his hand. "You're comfortable and you can do it one handed."
"I can unwrap your package if you want." Hermione suggested.
"Fine." Harry rolled his eyes and handed the gift to Hermione. "Thank you."
Hermione took the book with a gleeful smile. "Christmas was the only time I have ever been encouraged to make a senseless mess." No one could quite tell what she did, but within seconds Hermione had reduced the wrapping paper to a fine confetti and distributed it evenly around the cabin. "Gotta love butterfly knives." She laughed as jaws dropped all around. "Not really, just a lot of practice."
"Okay." Fred said as the rest chuckled awkwardly. "So freaky unwrapping abilities aside, what's the gift."
"I dunno. There is a leather case around it." Hermione said as she looked down.
Wouldn't it be funny if that was the diplomat bag and diary. Harry though, smiling. But I couldn't open it if it was still linked to Lockhart.
"He left it open. That's strange." Hermione observed. "It's a book, but there's no title on the spine. You should take it out yourself, you don't need two hands for that."
It can't be the diary. Like zero percent chance of happening. Right? Harry slowly withdrew the book and turned it over to see the title.
Prestidigitation: Small Spells with Big Effects and How to Make Them Work for You!
Oh, why couldn't it have been the diary? "There are marked pages." Harry noticed and opened the book to the first page. "So that's how Dumbledore makes his eyes twinkle."
"And Snape's billowing robes." Tonks said when Harry flipped to the next.
"He wrote notes in the margins too." Harry said and rapidly flipped through all of the pages. "In every margin. This must have taken a lot of time."
"Well, it's not like he was working on lesson plans." Blaise muttered cynically.
"This might actually be useful." Harry admitted. "Didn't think I'd say that about anything to do with Lockhart."
The group spent the rest of the train ride going through the book and selecting spells to try. By the time they arrived at the platform Daphne had discovered a charm to make it seem like there was always a breeze blowing through your hair, and it was quickly adopted by the rest of the girls. The Twins were surrounded by the sounds of two flocks of songbirds. Hermione had found the lowest version of the mage sight spell and had spent the last hour looking at everything with slightly glowing eyes and a new found fascination despite Harry telling her that what she was seeing was like watching a film versus seeing something in real life. Tonks' eyes were disproportionately large and Harry chose the triple threat of Dumbledore's twinkling eyes, Snape's billowing robes and Lockhart's glinting smile. Their group was the first to be found by their families.
HPCOC
"Alright Kreacher. We're about to go get the kids, tell me what your orders are again." Sirius ordered while he stood in the attic with the horrid little elf and the ever angry portrait of his mother.
"I will not allow the children to know of my existence. I will not allow the children to learn of The Mistress' existence. I will maintain the silencing wards around the attic and I will keep out of sight." Kreacher recited mechanically.
"And if any of them discover your existence anyway?" Sirius scowled.
"I will conduct myself in a manner befitting the house elf of a noble household and will inform them in a non-aggressive manner that they are not supposed to be here." Kreacher answered.
"Very good." Sirius said and walked down the stairs out of the attic to where Gwenog was waiting. He hugged her softly and kissed her on the cheek. "That was possibly the best idea you've had since we met. I never would have thought of that on my own."
"I'm sure it would have occurred to you eventually." Gwenog smiled and hugged him tightly. "Alright, down boy, we've got to fetch the pups."
"You're right! Padfoot away!" He shouted with a huge grin and turned into Padfoot before bolting out of the room and down to the fireplace.
HPCOC
"There they are!" Remus exclaimed and pointed to the group that was disembarking.
"How can you be sure?" Sirius asked seriously as he noticed the charms.
"Shut up." Remus rolled his eyes as the two of them, their girlfriends and Ted Tonks made their way over to the group.
"Hey guys!" Harry shouted as the groups converged, smiling brightly, which triggered Lockhart's charm and flashed brightly.
"Ah! My eyes!" Sirius joked and put his hands over his face. "I may never, ever, ever see again!"
"Will you kick him?" Harry twinkled at Remus.
"The Dumbledore Twinkle too?" Remus gasped. "What are you trying to do to us?"
"Ow!" Sirius exclaimed. "Why did you kick me?"
"No one can refuse the twinkle." Remus replied sternly.
"He Snape Walks too!" Tonks cheered and Harry proceeded to parade about, robes billowing, eyes twinkling and smile flashing. Snape would have been horrified if he witnessed it.
"By the way girls, I love what you've done with your hair." Gwenog said laughing.
"And Hermione, your eyes are absolutely radiant." Hestia complimented.
"Thanks." Hermione blushed prettily and batted her eyelashes. "It took me almost two hours to stop being distracted by all that magic that this spell lets me see. Harry is going to teach me how to do it without the spell."
"I am?" Harry's head turned sharply.
"Yes, yes you are." Hermione nodded.
"I guess there is no reason not to." Harry nodded. "Alright, we'll all do that next semester, it can be very useful in a fight too once you get used to it." And I'll have to hide my signature in more places.
"Hermione, your parents are with Andi back at Grimmauld Place, Floo travel doesn't agree with them or they would be here too." Ted said informatively.
"That makes sense, it will be easier to leave from there than from here, what with all the holiday traffic and stuff." Hermione nodded.
"There you two are!" Molly Weasley exclaimed as she and the rest of the Weasley family walked over tho collect the twins. "Oh, hello Harry dear, how are you? Nice charm work."
"Thank you Ma'am." Harry's smile flashed making Molly flinch. "Lockhart gave me an amusing book."
"I can see." Molly turned and smiled at all of the other children in turn, although it was rather bitter when she got to Hermione and Tonks. "Hello children."
"So you must have big plans for the holidays." Sirius suggested.
"Oh, yes, we've had a holiday tradition since Bill started Hogwart's." Molly nodded happily.
"Well you shouldn't let us stand in the way of tradition." Sirius smiled politely.
"Um, right. Come along Twins, we need to get home." Molly blushed slightly and lead her clan away.
"See you guys." Fred waved.
"We'll be on the mirrors." George assured.
"Happy Christmas Harry!" Ginny called.
"Thanks!" Harry called back.
"We have a place of prompt arrival as dictated by our parents." Daphne intoned in a deep staunch voice and rolled her eyes before taking her normal tone. "So we have to go too."
"Bye." Blaise said and the two walked towards the little cafe on the platform. Hannah and Susan soon split off with Hannah's parents and the Grimmauld Place group made their way to the Public Floo Terminal.
HPCOC
"Hermione!" Emma Granger called as her daughter stepped out of the fireplace and rushed over to hug her.
"Hi Mum!" Hermione hugged back. "Hi Daddy!"
"Hi Sweety." Dan said as the last member of the party exited the Floo. "We have great news!"
"Really?" Hermione asked excitedly.
"We're taking a vacation for the whole holiday!" Emma exclaimed.
"The whole vacation?" Hermione asked concerned. "As in we won't be here for the solstice? Harry, Nym and I were going to make a potion that day."
"Oh, don't worry, you're not going anywhere." Dan shrugged.
"What?" Hermione cried.
"Before you get worked up you should ask where we're going." Emma advised.
"Where are you going?" Hermione asked with a frown.
"We're taking our vacation..." Emma paused dramatically. "Right here! Three weeks at Grimmauld Place enjoying all the pleasures magic has to offer in the one place as close to the center of our daughter's world as we can comfortably get."
"Really?" Hermione smiled and hugged her mother again when she nodded.
"So this potion you're going to make, any eyes of newt?" Dan joked.
"One each." Remus supplied when Hermione turned to him.
"Really?" Dan nodded. "What about toad's breath?"
"No, that fell out of use centuries ago." Sirius shook his head. "Too hard to store you see."
HPCOC
I should have enough now. Harry thought as he held up the jar full of engraved sand. Now I just need to wait until the snow melts to put it down.
Harry set the sand down and moved down the work table to the several dozen jars that he had set up each with a flake of the Philosopher's Stone and a different magical liquid. In theory the stone was a crystal and all crystals are grown. Therefore if he found the right liquid he would be able to grow new stones, possibly even shape them without carving. It was still far too soon for any conclusive results.
Beyond that mess was the station he was currently working at. He set down the tea that he had forgotten over with the sand and took up his carving knife again. He was carving the left fibula from the dementor's skeleton. He was hoping that he had thought of the right runes to use to mask any signature from any wand while it had this piece of bone on it. It wasn't a perfect solution but he wouldn't have to worry so much about being identified. Six hours per day was plenty of time for him to finish carving and also to do some testing. It would be finished before they went back to school. Sure is boring work. Only eighteen months left until the third task though. I'm going to have to figure out the split core thing before then. Maybe I'll get lucky and Smethwyck will pull a miracle out of his bum. Oh well, back to the chore at hand.
HPCOC
Hermione and Tonks called their mothers into Tonks' room, which Hermione was sleeping in as well. The girls had their mothers sit down before taking each other's hand. With one squeeze both girls started talking together. "Mum, we think that we both owe Harry a life debt and would like you to take us to the ministry to find out."
Andromeda and Emma looked at each other than turned back to the girls and chorused. "You rehearsed that."
"Yes we did." The girls answered together with a nod. "Did you?"
"Okay that is creepy." The adults replied then turned sharply to each other. "Stop that!"
The four of them laughed for a couple minutes before Emma pulled herself together. "Okay girls, why do you think what you think?"
"Well, you saw what happened to Harry after he healed me." Tonks spoke to the floor. "It matches everything we could find out about the debts, I really just want to know for sure."
"Same with me, but about the troll last year." Hermione looked bravely at her mom's face and only saw worried acceptance.
"Alright, we'll take you." Andromeda agreed. "You probably don't though, you know that right."
"Yea we know." Hermione replied.
"So can we go now?" Tonks asked impatiently.
"I'm okay with it, so long as we go shopping too." Andromeda smiled.
"Hang on, I want to leave Harry a note." Hermione said and ran upstairs, Tonks close behind.
HPCOC
Dear Harry,
Nym and I have gone shopping with our mums. We'll be back early afternoon by Mrs. Tonks' figuring.
See you later
Hermione and Nym
"What's that?" Gwenog asked as Harry sat down at the table.
"Just a note from the girls letting me know why they aren't here." Harry replied and poured himself a cup of coffee.
"Oh yea, if you were up earlier you wouldn't have missed them." Gwenog smirked. "Late night?"
"No, hard time falling asleep." Harry shrugged.
"What's bothering you?" Gwenog asked.
"I have no idea what I should get for Hermione or Nym this year." Harry moaned, glad that both of them were out of earshot.
"Really? If you want some help I think I know something they would love." Gwenog grinned.
"Really?" Harry asked relieved. "Thanks a lot."
"No problem, bring your coffee, we need to go up to your room." Gwenog stood up and made for the stairs.
"Wait, let me grab some toast or something too." Harry hurriedly grabbed a couple pieces of cold toast in his left hand, his coffee in his right, and followed Gwenog upstairs. "So what, something in here will tell you what I should get or something?"
"Something like that. Why don't you go and get the pair of pajamas that you like the most." Gwenog ordered and ignored his questioning look.
"Here they are." Harry said a minute later walking back with his favorite pair of pants and sweatshirt. "What are you going to do with them?"
"Nothing. These are the gifts. Give the shirt to Hermione and the pants to Tonks." Gwenog laughed at his surprise.
"What? But, these haven't been washed since I wore them." Harry stammered.
"Perfect!" Gwenog clapped.
"You want me to give them old dirty clothes." Harry cocked an eyebrow skeptically.
"Yup, they'll love them." Gwenog placed a hand over her heart. "I swear it."
"You're insane, but unless I think of something better I'll trust you." Harry sighed.
HPCOC
"What brings you four down to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement?" Asked the Auror at the front desk.
"The lady in the atrium said that this is where we could find the book detailing life debts." Andromeda said bluntly.
"Oh, yes. That is here. Whose checking?" The Auror asked and pulled a form out from a drawer.
"That would be both of us." Tonks said pointing at herself and Hermione.
"Alright, just press your wands into this slot to verify your signatures and fill out these forms, and we can get you taken care of." The Auror smiled and handed over the papers after Hermione and Tonks each presented their wands to the device.
Half an hour later they handed over the paperwork and followed an Auror out of the waiting area and into a room with a large ledger waiting. The Auror walked behind the ledger and consulted the paperwork. "Let's see, Tonks, Nympha-"
"Don't say it!" Tonks exclaimed.
"-dora. Sorry." The Auror finished before he could stop himself and started flipping through the pages. "Let's see, ah here we are, ahem, October 31st 1992 owed to one Harry Potter, cause not listed."
"I knew it!" Tonks shouted gleefully.
"That isn't necessarily a good thing." The Auror cautioned.
"What about me?" Hermione asked anxiously.
"Right, Granger, Hermione." The Auror flipped a few more pages. "Also one, this time to one Nympha . . . Ms. Tonks on October 31st 1991, cause not listed."
"That doesn't make sense." Tonks frowned. "Harry did all the saving."
"Yea, that's really weird." Hermione frowned and turned to the Auror. "Do you have any ideas?"
"I only know what is in the book. But maybe Mr. Potter wasn't risking anything." The Auror suggested.
"But he got clubbed by a troll." Hermione objected.
"I can't say. I wasn't there. Sorry." The Auror smiled sadly.
"You know what would help us think about it?" Andromeda asked happily. "Shopping. Let's go get our mind off it for a while."
HPCOC
"Get up you filthy maggot!" Sirius bellowed into Harry's ear an hour before dawn on the 21st.
"AHH!" Harry screamed as he was suddenly ejected from his dreams. "What the hell Padfoot?"
"Dan showed me army movies." Sirius gasped between laughs and wiped a tear away. "Good times."
"Why did you wake me up so early?" Harry asked groggily.
"It's time to start the potion and you need to be there." Sirius yanked the covers back drawing a yelp from Harry. "Stop whining, you're the last one. I even brought you coffee."
Ten minutes later Sirius, Remus and the three kids were all up on the roof waiting for the sun to peek over the horizon. The first step was mixing their hair into a solution just as the light from the rising sun, or the rising moon, hits it on either solstice. Remus was squinting into the sun. "Just a few more seconds...now!"
On his cue the three dumped their hair into the vials they held. The colors changed as the light hit them, Hermione's turned a deep chestnut brown while Harry's turned copper and Tonks' turned a flawless white. Once the color stabilized they poured them into cauldrons set on low and settled in to spend the whole day simmering their solution.
"So there must be a lot of stories from when you guys went through this." Harry suggested as he sat back in his chair.
"Oh, no not really." Remus said looking away.
"None come to mind." Sirius added. "But that doesn't matter, have you three decided what animals you want to be?"
"I have, I don't want to say what it is yet, but I'm going to need to take a trip to Australia." Harry smiled.
"Sounds fun!" Sirius grinned. "International portkeys aren't much fun but if we put it off until you get back for the summer and you know where to go it shouldn't be too hard."
"Really?" Harry sat back stunned. "I was expecting to need to sneak off with Nick and get it myself."
"Is it dangerous?" Sirius asked seriously.
"Not very, they're nice animals and I can talk to them so I doubt anyone with me would come to any harm." Harry answered.
"So, snake of some sort." Sirius nodded. "Hermione?"
"I took Harry's advice to heart and decided on a very useful, I think, form. That of a housefly." Hermione smiled.
"House fly?" Sirius frowned. "How is that supposed to be useful?"
"Have you ever tried to hit a fly with a curse?" Hermione asked casually. "Not to mention the escape routes that it would open up. There are no better fliers in the whole world."
"Fair enough." Remus nodded. "What about you Tonks?"
"I want to keep mine secret too." Tonks said, looking at Harry and blushing. "But I won't have to make travel arrangements to get the piece of the animal."
Four steps and the whole day later the sun had set and the kids were preparing to store their potion for summer. The entire day Harry had asked questions about the Marauders' experiences but the older two kept suspiciously dodging the subject. Finally Sirius stood up with a smile that was way too large for the occasion. "Remember you three, put them somewhere very safe. If they get shaken between now and then they'll be ruined."