What felt like half of Gryffindor had come over to Remus' house for the pre-Christmas movie-watching experience on Monday evening. Somehow a party that had started with just Mathilda and Ron had expanded to include basically every one of their friends and family that could floo or drive. Remus, me, Mathilda, five Weasleys, Oliver, Alexis, Luna, Neville, Seamus, and three Grangers made an incredibly packed viewing. If Colin's dad hadn't had to work, we'd probably have had three Creeveys as well, and Percy was just counting the days until Penny could get her apparition license.
In addition to Cannonball Run, Mathilda had insisted on exposing everyone to Legend, so we set up for a double feature in a bachelor's living room. His large but not truly excessive television was not the most ideal option for 16 people crammed into a mid-sized room, but we made it work. Remus had tutored almost everyone in defense over the semester, so wasn't too anxious about all the kids in his house. Jean and Helen Granger were keeping him company in chairs they'd dragged to the back of the room, and their primary entertainment seemed to be watching their formerly-friendless daughter crammed into a pile of adolescents where she was happily eating popcorn and explaining how automobiles worked.
When the movies finished, pushing toward midnight on the longest night of the year, Percy immediately asked Mathilda, "How did that not get flagged as a violation of the Statute of Secrecy? While Dobalar the Dark was not a demonic being, he did wear a similar horned helmet, and the events are basically identical to the Dark Winter incident of 1258. Meg Mucklebones is legitimately one of the most famous hags in history, and Blindaxe 'Blix' the Butcher went on to lead the Goblin Insurrection of 1287."
She grinned, "My uncle asked the same thing when it came out. Turned out the Malfoys are major investors in the production company, and got a 'special dispensation' to get the film made."
"I suppose they did avoid revealing that Jack and Lillian Wenlock were wizards," Percy allowed, clearly uncomfortable about the implication of a bribe allowing the film to get made. "If it got approval, I wonder if I could convince Professor Binns to show it in class…"
"Why don't we have more audio-visual examples in classes at school?" Hermione asked. "In my primary school, we would watch educational videos fairly often. While I felt they were usually too high-level, they seemed to be a valuable way to keep student attention and demonstrate things that were hard to see in the classroom."
"Or at least field trips," I suggested. "It would be pretty hard to get a video player working at Hogwarts, but it's so weird that we have the ability to teleport anywhere in Britain in moments, and we only leave the school three times a year to go shopping in the town next door."
"It's traditionally been too dangerous," Remus explained. "It's dangerous enough within the Hogwarts wards. Even if you took field trips to areas where there's little risk of violating the Statute, it would be very easy for dark wizards or creatures to attack and pick off a student or two. Even in times of peace, family rivalries make it almost a certainty someone would ruin it for everyone."
"Speaking of traveling," Jean Granger interjected, probably not liking to think about dark wizards murdering his daughter on a field trip. He looked at his watch and continued, "we've got a bit of a drive back to the house."
Everyone else realized that they ought to be leaving as well. There was a whole series of wrapped present exchanges, thanks, and goodbyes. The Grangers went out to their car, while the rest of the party began to floo out one at a time from Remus' den.
By midnight, everyone had gone who didn't live there except Oliver and Alexis (who were taking advantage of a last, parent-free chance to make out) and Mathilda (same). Remus had given us a minute, but finally cleared his throat and explained, "As much as I want to be the cool adult, it really is getting–"
He was interrupted by the fireplace suddenly flaring green and high enough to endanger the mantle before abruptly going out, the logs quenched to smoking coals. "Someone try to attack through the floo?" Oliver asked, having had the reflexes to move so he was in between Alexis and the fireplace. I hadn't quite had the same reaction time, but my left hand was raised, ready to shield me and Mathilda.
Remus shook his head, "No. I've seen that kind of attack before. This, I've never seen." He began waving his wand to cast detection charms on the fireplace. After a few seconds he grumbled, running a hand in agitation through his graying brown hair, "The floo connection seems damaged. I don't know if it will be safe to use." He thought for another few seconds and asked, "Are your parents going to worry if you aren't back?"
Alexis bit her lip in apparent concern, but Oliver said, "Lexi, you can do a patronus now, yeah? Harry, can you show us how t'do the messenger patronus?"
"You'll have to contact my uncle for me," Mathilda told me. "I haven't quite gotten a corporeal patronus yet. Also, the Trace." Oliver and Alexis had also turned 17 in the fall semester, so Mathilda was the only one in the house currently underage.
Remus actually proved to be more of a help, since he could show the proper wand gestures. Soon three silver animals were racing across Britain to tell parental figures that the kids were alright.
"And now to figure out sleeping arrangements," Remus said, then smirked at the light of hope on Oliver's features, "Separate beds, I think."
Through hasty cleaning of our two bachelor rooms and using the couches in the living room and the den, we managed to sleep five people separately, if not completely comfortably. In the den, Oliver and I were woken to the morning post owl, carrying a Daily Prophet with a red notice sticking out from the rolled up newspaper.
The hastily-typeset missive, which felt like it had been mass-duplicated and wouldn't last long before the conjuration evaporated, explained:
At approximately 12 AM on the morning of December 22, 1992, a currently-unknown problem occurred with the floo network. This also seems to have made apparition unreliable, especially over long distances.
The Ministry is working around the clock to solve these problems. Tune into the Wizarding Wireless for more updates. Please use brooms or the Knight Bus to travel in the meantime. Remember to disillusion if using magical transport through muggle areas.
"Well, that's a bother," Oliver sighed, absently running a hand over his crew-cut hair. "Wonder what coulda happened t'cause that?"
I started to shrug, then absent worries I'd had overnight caused me to squint and explain, "Midnight on the solstice can't be a coincidence. Give me a minute. I need to go look something up in my room."
It was weird knocking at my own door, and Mathilda called out, "I'm up." After confirming through the door that she was decent, I entered. She was extremely tousled, wearing one of my t-shirts to sleep in. Nobody that wandered in off the street would believe I'd spent the night on the couch. "This is a good bed," she smiled.
I smiled back, but it was forced. "Can you put up the silencing charms and lock the door?" I asked, quietly, already opening my trunk to retrieve Bob. She just gave me a raised eyebrow and I said, "Or at least lock the door? Stupid Trace." Once the door was locked, and having to keep my voice down, I asked. "Hey, Bob?" The skull's eye flames flickered on, still relatively bright in the early morning. "The floo went out everywhere at midnight on the solstice, and apparition is apparently messed up too…" I explained to Mathilda as much as the skull.
Mathilda's face was slightly shocked, and Bob made a whistling noise, his flames shading blue as he extended his senses. "You used to have a nice Veil there." I groaned, my darkest worries confirmed. "Well, it's not gone, exactly. But it got ripped pretty badly. I'd guess something big came through and the damage rippled out."
"Are more creatures going to start pouring out?" Mathilda asked.
"Maybe?" Bob thought, then his flames flared and the light from them panned around the room. "Probably not. It's more like cracks through the structure. They're not wide enough that anything can just come through, but they're interrupting magical translocation paths."
"Can it be fixed?" I asked.
"With enough wizards and enough magic, probably," Bob said, in the tone of voice that sounded like he wasn't very sure. "Though I'm not even totally sure how you'd go about it."
Rapidly waking up and thinking, Mathilda said, "They'll have the Department of Mysteries on it. When it was just magical beasts getting through, nobody really cared. Now that everyone will be inconvenienced, they'll actually get the funding." She grinned, "I guess people are done doubting you about where the beasts were coming from, Harry."
"Great. Vindication," I deadpanned. "I'm worried about what big thing got through that they were working up to releasing at such a ritually significant time."
It would turn out that I'd find out soon, and all my guesses were wrong.
