Chapter Eighteen: Nugget
"Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy." Lily read out to Harry while he was slowly falling asleep to the sound of her voice safe and snug inside his little toddler bed.
Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies." She read out but that's when suddenly Harry interrupted her and opened his eyes.
"But fawees are real!" Harry protested.
"I know darling, but this story was written for muggle children and children without magic don't know if fairies are real or not." His mother explained before she continued to read to him and he closed his eyes again and started drifting off to sleep once more.
"You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.
No Santa Claus! Thank God! He lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood." Lily smiled warmly and lovingly at her son while she shut the book and then leaned down to plant a kiss on his forehead. "I love you." She whispered. "Merry Christmas sweetheart." She told him before getting up and quietly exiting the room after she shut off the light and softly shut the door behind her.
"Well, I'm not sure how long it will last but Harry's currently asleep." She began as she started walking down the hallway. "So, I better start setting out his and Sarah's presents." She finished when suddenly she noticed that her boyfriend had a rather odd look on his face. "Oh no, what happened now?" She wondered.
"Well I just received an owl from Rubeus while you were putting Harry to bed and he said that he can't take care of all of the unicorn foals so,.." he began.
"Wait a second! Unicorns!? Since when was Hagrid taking care of unicorns!?" Stevie cried in complete and utter disbelief after helping herself to a red and green Christmas cookie.
"I'm sorry Stevie he swore me to secrecy." Her uncle began. "Anyways, he was wondering if we could take one of the colts since our yard is big enough." He explained.
"Are you kidding!? I think that's awesome!" Stevie exclaimed excitedly. "When is he bringing it over?" She wondered.
"Tomorrow for Christmas, but first this has to be a decision for the adults to make alone. Especially since we have muggles living with us now." Severus explained.
"You mean that would mean that I would get to see a real live unicorn?" Petunia wondered.
"Yes,.. turns out that there's four of them altogether. Two goldens and two silvers. Their mother unexplainably died. Originally Rubeus believed there was only one, but he found the other three in the woods the next day and he's going to give us one of the goldens if we want it." Severus replied.
"Well, I don't see why not." Lily began. "The children would love it. Is it a boy or a girl?" She wondered.
"Boy." Severus told her.
"Wow, I'm getting a unicorn for Christmas! This is officially the best Christmas ever!" Stevie cried out excitedly.
"Silence,.." Her uncle began again. "Harry, Dudley, and Sarah are sleeping." He reminded her before Sarah started to cry.
"Not anymore for Sarah." Lily said. "I'll go try and get her back to sleep before she wakes up her brother and cousin. Do you two mind if you go ahead and start setting out the presents?" She questioned them.
"Not at all." Stevie replied and with the extra added help from Petunia, all three of them started setting out the presents together.
….
All three of the children woke up extremely early the next morning. So early in fact that everybody else was exhausted. Baby Sarah sat up on the floor sucking on one of her blocks while Harry and Dudley tore into their Christmas presents. Both boys really loved the first Christmas present that Santa Claus had left for them.
For Harry, he wound up with a mini toy version of the Hogwarts Express that his mother put him in so that he could ride around in it. For Dudley on the other hand, Santa Claus had decided to bring him a Power Wheels police car. As much as both of the boys loved their Christmas presents, they really wanted to try the other one's gift. However, as Dudley started running towards Harry's train, Harry pushed him down and Dudley began to cry.
"Harry James Potter you do not push your cousin down like that!" Lily scolded while narrowing her eyebrows and glaring at him. That's when suddenly Dudley stood back up and pushed Harry over before he could have a chance to try out his new car and this time Harry started to cry.
"Dudley Vernon Dursley that is enough!" Petunia scolded.
"That's it you two, if you don't learn how to share then you're both going to have to sit in timeout." Lily warned them.
"No!" Dudley cried with a stomp of his foot.
"Dudley! That's enough!" Petunia scolded but that's when suddenly Dudley stomped his foot again and then stuck his tongue out and started blowing spit at her. "Alright that's it young man, now you're going to need to go sit in the corner." She told him and picked him up and sat him in the corner when suddenly the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it!" Stevie exclaimed as she already knew that it was probably Hagrid with the unicorn colt. As she raced to the door, it turned out that her suspicions were correct. For there, to greet her at the door was Hagrid and a tiny golden unicorn with a tiny bump on his head. "Oh my gosh! He's so cute!" She began. "What's his name?" She wondered as the colt just simply looked up at her and snorted while shaking his head a little bit.
"Nugget. I was thinking that even though grown unicorns don't like males, if he grows up around Severus, Harry, and Dudley,.. then he might come to like them just like the other unicorns will get used to me." Hagrid pointed out.
"I think that it's brilliant." Stevie began while she knelt down in front of Nugget and then threw her arms around his neck and embraced him tightly. "Hullo there Nugget, my name's Stevie." She told him even though she didn't expect him to understand her.
Harry was still way too interested in his Christmas presents and Dudley was recently placed into timeout, so Lily decided to pick up Sarah and carry her over to meet the little unicorn. "Sally, this is Nugget. He's a magic horsey." She explained to her softly.
"Just wait until she can crawl around after him. Then it's going to be really interesting." Severus began. "And Harry and Dudley both run." He pointed out.
"I know, but he won't be staying in the house with us. He'll be staying out in the backyard by the shed." Lily told him.
"I just can't wait until he's big enough to ride." Stevie said.
"He'll be going back to the forbidden forest by then. A unicorn is a wild animal, it isn't a pet. Besides, by the time he's fully grown you'll be in your twenties and living out on your own anyways." Severus pointed out.
That's when suddenly Sarah smiled and started to babble at the tiny unicorn making Lily smile as well and kissed the top of her head. "Somebody's a happy baby." Lily began. "Would you like to pet him?" She questioned her daughter before gently taking her hand and running it along the colt's soft body. However, Nugget didn't react too kindly to this though and gave her hand a sharp nip.
That's when suddenly Sarah burst into a flood of tears. "Bad boy!" Stevie scolded while Lily brought Sarah up to her chest and embraced her before kissing her head again and starting to rub her back.
"I'm sure that Nugget didn't mean to do that. He's only a baby after all and like your uncle said he's also a wild animal." Lily told her. "Sarah will be alright, and I'm sure that she'll feel much better after I get her dummy for her." She said before she turned around and started carrying her down the hallway and into her nursery.
