A/N: Special thanks to all who reviewed, an especially to quentin grey and/or Regine Regise fort he information about French Christmas customs.

About "giving Harry more balls" – He is just fifteen and a half isn't he? AND he comes from a muggle background. There's still lots he has to learn about the most trivial aspects of the wizarding world (trivial for wizards, that is). I've always thought that the DA affair where he's just Super!Harry was somewhat off the point.

Well, my friends, enjoy this chapter – kind of transitory, and without ANY action…

Chapter 38 Christmas Preparations

Of course, Harry thought, a private household could never be expected to be a match for the magnificent Hogwarts decorations, but he could not help feeling impressed nevertheless. Also, he had to admit that Vivienne Delisle hade a far more elegant way of putting said decorations up. Where Hagrid used to drag in the enormous Christmas trees into the Great Hall with pure physical strength, which he had to put upright with a good deal of huffing and puffing, a flick of her wand was enough to cause a room-high tree to materialise in the middle of the salon.

"Voila," she said in a casual tone, putting her wand away.

Harry, who, after that first display, had expected that the decorating of the tree itself would also be done by magic and would therefore hardly take up any time at all, was surprised to see that.

"All the decorations have to be put up by the family," Vivienne told him when she saw his surprise. "It is very bad luck if you are too lazy to do it yourself. And – yes, Harry you are a member of the family, so – no shirking!"

Harry felt a warm feeling stealing over him at her words and he gladly opened one of the cardboard boxes that someone – most likely the house elves – had deposited on the large table.

Soon they were busy with the tree. Vivienne kept a careful eye on them to make sure none of them used any magic, even if Gabrielle kept complaining about it.

"Oh, this is stupid," she would say, stretching high to put a glass ornament or a twinkling star on a branch. "I do know just the right spell…"

But her grandmother would have none of it.

"You know the rules," she said sternly, even if Harry thought he could detect secret amusement in her voice. "No magic to put anything on the tree."

Here, Harry had an idea.

"No magic to put anything on the tree?" he repeated thoughtfully. "Wait a mo- Accio Firebolt!"

With a swoosh the broom soared into his hands.

"It doesn't say no magic to move around, does it?" He enquired of Vivienne with a cheeky grin.

"You are a tricky devil," she replied with a smile. "But I guess you are right. Funny it never occurred to me before… But it's never too late to learn…"

And promptly she changed into a colourful tropical bird, picked up a glittering silvery star with a small twirling fairy in it in her beak and flew up to the tip of the tree where she deposited the ornament.

"Thanks for the hint, Harry," she said after transforming again. "I've always thought ladders and things were stupid muggle stuff."

Harry had been watching this performance with some surprise, and somehow felt deprived of credit for his idea. But Gabrielle's shining eyes more than made up for it.

"Hop on," he told her, grabbing his broom, and with a squeal of delight the little girl snatched up another ornament and did as she was told. Harry kicked off and together they circled the tree until Gabrielle had found a place that she considered suitable for it.

"Oh Harry!" she shouted when, after a crazy loop, they had landed again. "This is the best Christmas I've ever had!"

Meanwhile, Fleur told her mother about all the things that she had up to now kept to herself, in particular about the amulet that Gabrielle had found in the Forbidden Forest.

"Morgaine's necklace?" Isabeau said doubtfully.

"That's what Luna called it."

"Luna?"

"A fourth year Ravenclaw. She is strange – or, rather, extraordinary, - in many ways. It seems she can see things nobody else can see. Many other students just think she is a bit crazy, but I'm sure there is a lot more to her than that. The strange thing was that she seemed to recognise it at once – there is no way she could have known about it before she first saw me with it. However, it's gone, Wormtail must have stolen it in his rat form… There's no knowing where it may be now. Voldemort has it, most likely… Not that it makes much of a difference…"

"This Luna – tell me more about her."

"Well, there's not too much to tell, after all. There was that thing about the necklace, and once, I saw her behave in a very weird way…"

Fleur proceeded to tell her mother about the incident with the sandwich in front of the horseless carriage.

"What happened to that sandwich? It looked as if something had eaten it… Can it be that she can see things that are invisible?"

"Why not? I can think of several ways how that may be possible. Tell me, how does she look?"

"Slim, not very tall – but then she's still only fourteen – extremely pale skin, long sandy hair, not unlike mine, actually, only darker… but the most striking thing about her are her eyes: I have never seen such a shade of silvery blue before, sometimes almost pure silver, sometimes a very pale watery blue, and slightly protuberant, so she often has that surprised look about her…"

"Elvish."

"What?"

"She most likely has elvish blood… This would explain most of the things you say about her. No wonder she can see things nobody else can. Do you know anything about her family?"

"I have heard her mother died when she was very young, but she doesn't speak about her. She often talks about her father, though. He is the editor of a magazine that is apparently not considered to be of very high quality – Hermione keeps saying it's full of made-up impossible stories… about strange creatures that nobody has ever seen, for example… But I'm not sure – she doesn't sound as if she – oh, never mind, I like her, anyway."

"At any rate, if she really has some elvish talents, she will turn out to be a useful help-," Isabeau suddenly stopped herself. "Here I go again," she said ruefully. "Talking about people being useful, when it's about friendship. I still have a lot to learn, I am afraid…"

"But you are willing to learn," Fleur told her, tears coming to her eyes again. "That's what really matters. Before, you'd never even have got the idea to mention something like that. You did categorize people according to usefulness, after all…"

"Well, there's hardly anything I can say – except to ask your forgiveness again…," she shuddered, and Fleur put an arm round her. It felt strange to be comforting her mother – something she would never have dreamed of being possible only a day ago.

"There's something else I never told you," she said after a pause. "Luna was not the only one to come up with Morgaine. There were two more occasions, and they were even weirder in some way-," and she told Isabeau about the prank her friends had tried to pull on her, as well as her experience on Mayday eve.

"Hermione will say it's all been a dream," she finished doubtfully. "Do you think there could be anything in it?"

"Stranger things have happened. I expect you have figured out the meaning of that prophecy?"

"Yes," Fleur said proudly. "It must be about Harry and me – fire and water – oh, mama, do you think it could be our destiny to – defeat Voldemort all by ourselves?"

"It seems a likely explanation, to say the least; on the other hand, prophecies have a tendency to come true exactly because people believe them. They are not written in stone, so there may be a pretty good chance to just ignore it and-,"

"And run? Hide? No, Harry most certainly would never do that, and I – I'll stay by him, whatever it costs! Fleur Delacours does not run!"

"I am so proud of you," her mother said looking at her with shining eyes. "And I promise I'll do whatever I can to help you! Oh, I feel so much stronger now – let's join the others. Perhaps we can still do our share of the decorations."

"I've never enjoyed any Christmas like this!" Harry panted when he had finally unloaded a flushed and radiant Gabrielle from his Firebolt after the last decorations had been put on the tree. "In fact," he added as an afterthought, "I don't think I ever really enjoyed it at all before this," only to feel guilty thinking of what Ron or Hermione might have to say to that. "It used to be kind of lonely…"

Fleur, who had just entered with her mother, had heard that and she rushed over to him to hug him.

"Never again, Harry," she whispered in his ear, holding him tight, "never again, I promise!"

Vivienne, smiled at them indulgently.

"I hate to disturb you," she said. "But you still need to put up the mistletoe decorations." Then she turned to her daughter. "We ought to see to the dinner preparations, I want everything to be perfect – after all, it's not everyday that you have Albus Dumbledore for dinner."

"What's the matter?" Harry, who sensed a feeling of merriment in Fleur's mind and saw a mischievous grin spread in her face, enquired

"Nothing," she said innocently, batting her eyelashes at him. "Why?"

"Who do you think you're fooling?" Harry retorted, laughing. "You're up to something, doesn't need any Legilimency, I know that expression… Well, if you won't tell me, I'll just have to wait and see, I guess. Can't be anything worse than Fred and George's tricks, after all."

"It's nothing to do with you, anyway," Fleur told him. "No need to worry about that. But no, I certainly won't tell you, you'd most likely give everything away without knowing. So, I'm sorry about that…"

She turned to Gabrielle, put a hand on her shoulder and steered her into the farthest corner of the room, where Harry could see them talking – and giggling – excitedly.

"Well, at least it's nothing to do with me," he told himself, although watching them with some uneasiness.

When Fleur refused to let Harry help with the mistletoe, his suspicions grew, especially as Gabrielle almost choked on her giggles when Fleur gave her instructions.

"You are doing something about the mistletoe, right?" he said with raised eyebrows, which caused another giggling fit of the little girl's. "Not that you need to," he told Fleur. "It's not as if I hated kissing you, actually…"

"I know, Harry," Fleur replied softly, but with a sparkle in her eyes. "But I told you it was nothing to do with you, didn't I?"

"But- but then-," he turned pale as the idea suddenly hit him. "No, you are not! How can you imagine it would ever work? Oh, Fleur, you'll be in so much trouble!"

"Ah, Harry, it's Christmas time! What better time for an innocent prank? And how do you know mistletoe works the same way in France as it does in Britain? It might be some completely different spell…"

"So you have enchanted them!" Harry cried triumphantly. "That's a confession!"

"Yes," Fleur smirked, "But you don't know with what spell! And I'm so not telling you! Come on Gabie, we have to do some more!"

"And just you wait, Harry, until I catch you under one of them!" the little girl shouted gleefully and grinned at him cheekily.

Harry hid his face in his hands. "Whatever have I done to deserve this?" he groaned in mock desperation.

It was already getting dark, and the youngsters were downstairs in the kitchen with the house elves having a small snack – or what, in the eyes of the eager house elves, was considered a small snack, and for anybody else would have been a complete five course dinner.

Suddenly, with the usual pop, Iphigenie and Margaux Apparated in the kitchen. Delighted, Fleur jumped to her feet and rushed over to hug her friends.

"How absolutely wonderful!" she exclaimed. "I never expected-,"

"How little you know your friends," Margaux scolded, but with a twinkle in her eyes. "Of course we were coming to see you! And give you your present!"

"We'll be off again right away," Iphigenie began, seemingly somewhat intimidated by the vast kitchen full of bustling house elves. "You will want to have a family celebration-,"

"Nonsense!" Fleur said decisively. "Of course you'll stay – for dinner at the very least. Do you know who's coming? You'll never guess! Albus Dumbledore!"

Margaux was clearly impressed, but Iphigenie now seemed positively frightened. "But – how can we intrude… the greatest wizard… your mother… not invited…,"

"I hereby formally invite you to our Christmas dinner," Fleur said, interrupting her. "If you wish, I can make it a written invitation with rsvp on it, too. Just stop being silly now. We all love having you here. I'll have the house elves make a room ready for you so you can relax and have some refreshments. I'll fetch you when dinner is about to start."

"But – what shall we wear?" Iphigenie asked. "We didn't count on-,"

"Here you are being silly again," Fleur said. "Just look at you! Are you fashion experts or not? Now just let me talk to that elf…,"

With a click of her fingers she summoned an elf and gave her instructions.

"Your room will be ready for you in half an hour," she told her friends. "So why don't you just sit down here, grab some butterbeer and listen to our latest adventures – there's quite a lot to tell…"

Fleur, Gabrielle and Harry got so lost in the report of their recent exploits that nobody noticed how time passed, and it was considerably more than half an hour later, when a magical gong sounded a reverberating boom through the cavernous kitchen, sending the house elves into a veritable frenzy of activity, which caused Harry to wonder how they managed not to constantly fall over each other with their stacks of plates and dishes.

They had all jumped at the sound of the gong.

"Oh dear, we have completely forgotten the time," Fleur said. "Time to go up for dinner."

"But I haven't even done my hair!" Iphigenie wailed, and was only slowly calmed down by her girl friend.

"Too late for that now," Margaux told her. "And anyway, you look pretty enough for me, cherie."

"It does not matter, believe me," Fleur said reassuringly. "It's not as if this was a format ball or something, with a hundred guests – that would be a different thing, naturally, but as I've been telling you, it's a family affair."

"But – Dumbledore…" Iphigenie said weakly.

"I'm sure he won't eat you," Fleur replied. "He's an old friend of my grandmothers'. You'll see…"

She glanced over to Gabrielle, who fell into a fit of giggles.

"Oh, he's ok, Dumbledore," Harry contributed his share to Iphigenie's reassurance. "A bit secretive about things, perhaps, but ok, nothing to be afraid of."

Only half persuaded, Iphigenie allowed herself to be led upstairs and to the dining room.

Compared to the dinner at the ball, the Christmas dinner table was indeed a – relatively – humble affair. True, there was the same – or an identical – white tablecloth, the porcelain and silver cutlery, the crystal glasses and the floating candles above the table, but the table itself was a lot smaller, and laid out for eight people only. Obviously the house elves had already taken Iphigenie and Margaux' arrival into account. The tree was glittering in all its splendour, with fairy lights flitting all over it.

"How do you get these fairies to do that?" Harry asked.

"They have been living in the manor grounds for ages," Fleur explained. "Long before the land was owned by anybody. In fact, they find the whole idea of land belonging to anyone impossible to understand. To them, the land is just there, has always been, and always will, while so-called owners come and go… Fairies are immortal, you know," she added.

"So if land can belong to anyone at all," Harry said thoughtfully, "it will be them it belongs to."

He felt he had still a lot to learn about magical creatures.

"Clever of you to understand it so quickly," Fleur told him. "Many wizarding families find it much more difficult… But I guess it is an uncomfortable idea – to think those fairies will still be there, as young and fresh as ever, when all of us are long gone…" She shivered slightly.

"But you wanted to know why they are doing that for us," she went on after a short pause. "I'm not quite sure myself, but as far as I know it's some kind of favour. There is no way you can force fairies to do things. Whatever they do, they do it because they want to do it. My grandmother says they do it for the land rather than for the family. There may be some ancient kind of magic connected with it, some fertility charm for the land, most likely, but even she doesn't understand it completely. Which is no small thing, what with her being a spirit of nature herself, and all… Like the decorating of the tree by the family members, the fairy dance in it is supposed to bring good luck."

"But – aren't they supposed to live in flowers?" Harry asked, remembering of some books that, long ago, he had found in the rubbish bin at the Dursleys' because Dudley had thrown them away in disgust as they were not about alien monsters or robots.

"Wherever did you get that idea from? They are spirits of nature, much like Veela, so much is true, but they are just there… I'm not sure how to explain it – yes, it's true that they are connected with nature, but on a much larger scale… not just flowers, at any rate… woods, rivers, the like…"

"Can they do anything? – Besides dancing and glittering like that?"

"I'm afraid not. And it's only magical people who can see even that. Muggles would not see anything at all."

"That's why fairy tales have such a bad name among muggles," Harry mused. "Seeing is believing, after all… But they certainly look nice…"

At this moment, one of the doors opened and Vivienne and Isabeau entered.

A/N: Any guesses at Fleur and Gabie's schemes?