Santa Paws
by Teddylonglong
Please refer to the disclaimer and warnings in chapter 1.
In case you have not read yesterday's chapter yet, please go back and read chapter 24 first :)
'Is that Dumbledore?' Harry quickly thought to his familiar, seeing a fire phoenix nestled on the back of a seat in front of the painting of the founders.
'No, that's Fawkes,' Santa Paws replied, pleasantly, as he jumped onto the chair, lightly licking the phoenix' feathers.
Harry observed in surprise how Fawkes leaned down to the canine to have the dog lick his crown feathers, and Santa Paws gently complied.
"Fawkes," Harry finally addressed the phoenix. "What brings you here?"
#Young nestling,# Fawkes trilled back, #I've just left the old, grumpy coot and wish to bond with you, even knowing that you already have a good for nothing dog familiar.#
Harry chuckled, when Santa Paws mock growled at the phoenix, as he knew from experience that Santa Paws and Fawkes were getting along well.
"Santa Paws and I will be happy to have you," he replied in a soft voice, smiling when Santa Paws added a contented woof.
An instant later, he noticed a feeling of happiness, of which he knew from experience that it resulted from the bonding. 'I'm bonded to Santa Paws, Dobby and Fawkes now,' he thought, smiling.
'And Luna,' the annoying voice from the back of his mind spoke up.
'Oh well, apparently so,' he had to admit to himself, 'even if that was not my plan yet.' Suddenly, an idea crossed his mind. 'Perhaps I should also bond to Amaterasu, if only to be able to easily communicate with her over the distance.'
He quickly discussed the matter with Salazar, who was all for it, as well as Santa Paws and Fawkes, who both confirmed that they did not mind him having a third familiar. Knowing that he still had time before dinner, he swiftly headed to Salazar's chamber to speak with the basilisk.
"You're my massster now in any cassse, but I'd like to bond with you all the sssame," Amaterasu assured him, and while Harry still wondered how to bond to a familiar, he already felt the happy feeling of the bonding.
"Thank you ssso much, Amaterasssu," he replied, happily.
"I thank you, my massster," the basilisk added, raising her head to quickly lick his nose with her tongue that was much slimmer than Santa Paws' and did not feel as soft as the canine's.
HP
Later the same day, when Harry and the members of his extended family, who were residing at Hogwarts, met in the founders' quarters for some after dinner tea, Merlin suddenly appeared in the founders' painting.
"Hello all together," he greeted them, smirking.
"Merlin!" everyone replied, simultaneously, equally surprised at the ancient wizard's presence.
"I need to speak with Arthur Weasley," Merlin informed them. "Santa has secured a job for him, which he can secretly do beside his usual work. Would it perhaps be possible to fetch him here?"
Harry let out a deep sigh. "Dobby," he called his elf. "Please go to Arthur Weasley and ask him to come with you to see me."
"Of course, Dobby will do this for the Great Harry Potter," Dobby replied, eagerly, popping away with a loud crack.
While everyone waited in silence after an unfruitful attempt to receive more information from Merlin, it took a few minutes, before Dobby returned with the redhead in tow.
"Good evening," Mr. Weasley greeted them, taking in his surroundings in apparent surprise.
"Good evening, Arthur," the headmistress was the first to respond. "Please take a seat, as Merlin over there in the painting of the founders wishes to speak with you."
"Arthur Weasley," Merlin addressed the ministry worker, "please swear me a wizard's oath that you won't relate anything about our conversation here to anyone not present here at this time except for the Queen."
'What?' Harry thought in bewilderment, however, to his relief, Mr. Weasley did not make a fuss, but simply swore his oath, and Merlin nodded, contentedly.
"The twins might or might not have told you this, but my brother is Santa Claus and the adoptive father of my great grandchild Harry Potter," Merlin began to explain. "Anyway, today, Santa and I have observed the happenings here at Hogwarts and all over Britain on Santa's large screen, and Santa voiced the wish to help you."
"Thank you very much," Mr. Weasley replied, even if Harry could assess that the older wizard had no clue, what Merlin meant. 'I wonder what Santa arranged for him,' he thought, giving Merlin a curious look.
"As you might or might not know, the British Queen is a witch," Merlin continued, "and Santa and I have observed that she is getting more and more annoyed at Minister Fudge. The minister is supposed to relay information about the magical world to the Queen; however, Fudge simply doesn't comply. This afternoon, Santa went to speak with the Queen. Fortunately," he continued, "him being Santa Claus and a wizard of course grants him an immediate audience with the Queen whenever needed, provided that she is not engaged in important things. Anyway, Santa suggested for her to employ you as unofficial informant about the British magical world, pointing out that you work at the Ministry of Magic and should be privy of information, and the Queen immediately agreed. While barely anyone knows about her being a witch, she's extremely interested in the magical world," he added.
"If you agree to work for her as her confidant for the magical world, of which no one at the ministry will be informed," Merlin continued, "she wants you to meet her at Buckingham Palace at six o'clock tomorrow evening. My brother will provide you with a Portkey to get straight into her visitors' room."
Mr. Weasley stared at the portrait in clear shock. Everyone's eyes were fixed on Merlin and Arthur Weasley, so that no one but Harry noticed Santa Paws vanishing by his own Portkey. Only when the canine stormed back into the room a few minutes later, everyone looked at him in apparent surprise.
Standing in front of Mr. Weasley, Santa Paws showed him what looked like a dog's bone, which he held firmly in his mouth. Letting the bone fall onto the floor, he turned to Harry, =Tell him that it's the Portkey. It will just go off, when he needs to go.=
"Mr. Weasley," Harry addressed the redhead. "This is the Portkey, which Santa made for you. It will automatically activate at six o'clock tomorrow evening."
The redhead profusely thanked them and carefully picked up the bone from the floor, before he readily agreed to remain for a cup of tea and discuss the matter with those present.
HP
At five minutes before six the following evening, McGonagall, Sprout, Harry and Santa Paws travelled to the North Pole to observe Mr. Weasley's visit at Buckingham Palace on the screen together with Santa, Claire and Merlin.
They observed Arthur's conversation with the Queen, in which the two magical people agreed that Arthur should meet the Queen regularly on Saturday mornings to report the events that had occurred in the magical world during the week. If anything of importance happened, he should inform her, as soon as she could take a minute to speak with him.
In return, the Queen promised him living quarters in the Buckingham Palace, fully agreeing when he asked if he could bring his twin sons and his daughter to live with him, and a monthly salary that was at least three times as high as the one which he received from the ministry.
"Oh Merlin, the twins will thoroughly shake up the palace," McGonagall blurted out, seemingly happy for the Weasleys.
Still smiling, the extended family returned to Hogwarts to inform Severus and Regina, who had overseen the headmistress' office during the hour of their absence.
'Thank Merlin everything turned out so well for Mr. Weasley, the twins and Ginny,' Harry thought. 'He really deserved it after standing up to his annoying wife.'
HP
During the welcoming feast just a few days later, the headmistress informed the students about the upcoming Triwizard Tournament.
"We will have to slightly change our Quidditch Cup schedule to adjust to the tournament. Therefore, the first few matches will already take place in September and October," she informed them, receiving understanding from most of the students. "Our guests from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang will arrive at the end of October, and during the Halloween feast, the Goblet of Fire will announce its decision of who is going to represent the three schools in the tournament," she continued.
"Finally, in the evening of Christmas Day, we're going to have a Yule Ball here in the Great Hall, and each of you is asked to participate with a partner. If you wish to stay the days before and after the ball at home, we will either provide you with Portkeys, or you can travel through the Floo or take the Hogwarts Express. We shall speak about the matter later in the year."
With that, she lightly tapped the table in front of her, and the meal appeared on the tables.
"At least they didn't cancel the Quidditch tournament," Daphne whispered to Harry, as the two of them were still the only members on the team from their year.
"McGonagall wouldn't," Harry replied, grinning. "We'll just have to hold try-outs at the end of the week, so that we can begin training next week. I just hope that we'll continue training in the mornings; otherwise, I won't be able to participate at all, considering that I still need to work with Professor Snape in the evenings," he added as an afterthought.
"Don't worry, Harry. We need you as our Seeker," Cedric Diggory, the Quidditch captain and a seventh year, who had witnessed their conversation, informed him. "Training will be at six on Monday, Wednesday and Friday," he added. "We just need two new Chasers after Eileen and Bob graduated."
Looking up into Luna's beautiful face, Harry thought to her through the friendship ring, 'Luna, will you please do me the favour of accompanying me to the Yule Ball?'
'Of course,' came the girl's immediately response, and she cast him a dreamy look of happiness.
HP
By the time their guests from Beauxbatons and Durmstrang arrived, Hufflepuff had already won the Quidditch matches against Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, and the team was in a fantastic mood.
"Cedric, shouldn't we set up a Quidditch tournament between the three schools as well?" Harry suggested, while everyone was waiting on the grounds for their guests to arrive. "We'd need to make a school team out of the four houses, but that shouldn't be a problem."
"Harry," Cedric replied with apparent enthusiasm. "I'm all for it, but only under one condition."
"And what might that be?" Daphne enquired, who was standing nearby and had witnessed their conversation.
"That Harry becomes the captain of the school team," Cedric replied. "You know, I'm going to put my name into the Goblet of Fire trying to become Hogwarts' champion," he continued in a whisper. "Of course, I don't know if I'll be selected, but if so, it'll even be hard to continue being the Hufflepuff captain."
"All right then, if you're going to be selected, I will take over the school team, and Daphne will assist you with the Hufflepuff team," Harry suggested. "How's that?"
Cedric's expression softened some. "Thanks Harry and Daphne, that's a brilliant idea. Thank you so much. Nevertheless, I want you to take over the school team in any case, as I'll also be busy studying, considering that I'll have to take my NEWTs at the end of the school year. I will only play on the reserve team, as for the school team, you need younger students to have some continuity during the next few years anyway."
"All right, so we need one member less than two students of each house team," Harry concluded and quickly conjured three parchments, before he called Dobby and instructed him to give the parchments to the three Quidditch captains from the other houses.
"What does it say?" Daphne asked, curiously.
"To meet me after breakfast tomorrow morning and think about whom they want to play on the first and second school team," Harry informed her, grinning.
"Harry, maybe you should be the only one playing from our house, considering that you're the captain as well. That way, the other houses can have two students on the team each," Daphne suggested, and Harry and Cedric immediately agreed.
"Daphne and I will both be on the reserve team then," Cedric decided, causing Harry to nod his consent.
Their conversation was concluded just on the right time to see the students from Durmstrang arrive. They seemed somehow distraught though, and Harry wondered why.
When the headmistress greeted their guests, Harry recognised Viktor Krum, whom he had seen play Seeker during the Quidditch world cup. 'Oh well, we won't have a chance if he's the Seeker,' he thought, letting out a deep sigh – only to become distracted, when Viktor spoke up.
"Professors, our headmaster did not arrive, although he vas travelling together viz us," he informed the headmistress and her deputy.
"I can imagine why," Severus stated, wearing a blank mask. "Your headmaster is Professor Karkaroff, isn't he?" he enquired.
"Yes sir," Viktor confirmed.
"He won't be allowed into the wards, as the wards are charmed to keep Death Eaters out," Severus then explained, giving Minerva a sharp look. "Was Karkaroff the one, with whom you communicated?"
Minerva shook her head. "No, it was Professor Kolim," she replied, giving Viktor a questioning look.
"Oh, but recently, Professor Karkaroff became the headmaster, and he accompanied us," Viktor replied, letting out a deep sigh. "Oh well, we shall get around without our headmaster then. He wouldn't be able to help our champion anyway."
"I shall contact Professor Kolim and ask him if he can replace Professor Karkaroff here then," McGonagall promised, just when the guests from Beauxbatons arrived.
'Keep away from the Veelas,' Luna suddenly thought to him, and Harry cast her a surprised look.
'What's with the Veelas?' he thought back. 'Their behaviour is strange, don't you think so?' he added, observing with bewilderment how Ronald Weasley, who was standing between the two thickest boys of his year, stared at the girls from Beauxbatons in obvious desire.
'Yes, it is, but that's typical Veela behaviour, and often, men fall for them like Ronald,' Luna informed him, causing Harry to shake his head in annoyance.
'Well, they have no chance with me,' he promised, as he stepped over to his girlfriend and gently kissed her on the lips.
'That's good,' Luna moaned, contentedly, as they separated.
HP
Draco and Daphne's younger sister Astoria became Chasers on the school team, while the Weasley twins were chosen as the Beaters. Since Ravenclaw only had to offer a good Keeper, Cedric and Harry decided to make Daphne the third Chaser. Needless to say that Harry was going to play Seeker. When the Slytherin captain complained that none of the captains were playing, Cedric informed him in a firm voice that Harry was the best Seeker Hogwarts had and that they were going to use the best.
"Harry is not the Hufflepuff captain anyway, only the captain of the school team," he added as an afterthought.
"I'm looking forward to play against Viktor Krum," Harry admitted, "even if I won't have a chance winning against him. Fortunately, I know some of his tactics though, as I watched him play in the world cup."
"If anyone can beat him…"
"… it'll be you, Harry…"
"… so don't worry…"
"… and the main point is…"
"… that everyone's going to have fun," the Weasley twins contributed to the discussion in a funny sing song, causing everyone to nod in agreement.
HP
During the twenty-four hours, during which the Goblet of Fire was stationed in the entrance hall, so that everyone, who wished to become a champion, could put in a parchment with his or her name along with the name of their school, the teachers took turns watching the device. They were accompanied by Santa Paws and Santa Star as well as Dobby and Cicero. While the dogs took turns of two hours each, the elves remained for turns of six hours each.
From the North Pole, Merlin was also watching the entrance hall to make sure that no one could tamper with the Goblet of Fire.
"What use it is though?" Santa enquired. "Harry and Santa Paws told us that Dumbledore has already done something to the Goblet of Fire, while it was still at the Ministry of Magic."
"Not much," Merlin confirmed. "It's more to give the students confidence than everything else I suppose."
HP
The Halloween feast was at its peak, when Professor McGonagall pointed her wand at the Goblet of Fire to make it commence with the selection of the champions.
It was no surprise to Harry, when Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour were chosen, and the Hufflepuff table cheered loudly, when Cedric's name came out of the Goblet. Cedric happily joined Professor McGonagall at the front of the Great Hall;
however, everyone stared at the Goblet of Fire in bewilderment, when it spit out a fourth parchment.
"Santa Paws," McGonagall called out in apparent confusion.
=Harry, come with me and translate,= Santa Paws demanded, before he hurried to the front of the Great Hall, where the headmistress was waiting to take him to the antechamber together with the other champions.
=While the Goblet of Fire chose me to participate in the tournament,= Santa Paws explained, =I will not be able to participate, because I am not human. I ask Professor Poppy Pomfrey now to confirm this, so that I may step back and choose a wizard or witch to take my place instead.=
As soon as Harry translated Santa Paws' words, Madam Pomfrey rose from her chair, stepped around the high table and pointed her wand at the canine.
"I herewith confirm that Santa Paws is neither a wizard nor a witch nor an Animagus but a canine and thus unable to participate in the Triwizard Tournament," Pomfrey announced for everyone to hear.
=Thank you, Madam Pomfrey,= Santa Paws barked, and – while Harry translated his words – rushed over to the healer and gratefully licked her hand.
=As my replacement as the champion, I choose Albus Dumbledore,= Santa Paws continued. While Harry relayed his choice to the others, Santa Paws ran to where Fawkes was sitting on one of the torches at the side of the hall for a quick, silent conversation with the phoenix.
Fawkes then flashed away only to reappear with Albus Dumbledore just a moment later, causing everyone to laugh at the sight of the old wizard, who was wearing his pink robes open over orange pyjamas with a pattern of yellow ducks that let out the occasional quack.
tbc...
Thank you so very much for the many kind reviews for the previous chapter. My muse really needs the encouragement, especially if I want the story to be finished by Christmas. Please let me know what you think of this chapter and what you expect from this story. Any ideas or opinions are welcome.
Next chapter: "The Triwizard Tournament".