A/N: thanks for the reviews, people! You're great readers!!! :))

Blondie in Disguise: nice to see you again!

zzxm: I know that the last line reminded you of Neville – it was deliberate :))

Maddy: this time I hope that the BBC is wrong and HP5 doesn't come out in May, because if it does, then I'm going to fail all my exams, because I'll be reading it over and over instead of studying! :)) The French one's name is Guillaume (pronounce it as Giyom).

AmandaPanda: sure, moral fibre rules!

spangle*star: no, no one but Aberforth knew about the yeti. Of course there'll be a Yule ball.

blaubaerin: Dennis is muggle born (remember: Colin is a mudblood, that's why the basilisk petrifies him, and Dennis is Colin's brother, their father is a simple milkman, so a muggle. During the summer holiday Dennis watches the TV day in day out :)) Dennis got only a small wound, he's not really bruised. Harry's illness served the purpose to let Tatyana know about his going into the netherworld (that will be important later). I thought it'd be the easiest way to let her know about Harry almost dying for several times when he was really close to dying.

Gwen Fifortry: what are you kneazle and puffskein called? My Horntail dragon's name is Süsü. (there was a Hungarian animated series about a dragon when I was a little child and the dragon – a rather stupid but kind-hearted dragon – was called Süsü.) Süsü means 'a bit silly'.

'Excellent chapter' in Hungarian is 'kiváló fejezet!' (if you don't have á and ó, just write kivalo fejezet, I'll know what you mean :))

Mikey: nay is the same as no, it's also an English word, but maybe a bit old-fashioned. I just like it.

BlueIce: oh, at last someone sees the real Dumbledore in Aberforth! Not the stupid, but the wise one! I'm so happy! :)) The weather in Hungary? Unsettled. One day it's raining, the other day it's sunny, then raining again, then sunny again. Like always in April. I'm not really familiar with Farenheit, we use Celsius degrees in Hungary.

X_Tow_Naga: the school nurse was simply stupid, leave it at that. About Harry being ashamed because he's ashamed – well, of course he's ashamed of his son being a squib, but he's more ashamed of being ashamed and that shows what a great guy he is :)) Ginny can't come to Durmstrang through the floo-network (it will be explained in chapter… 26, I guess. This floo-network is a bit tricky, much trickier than the one at Hogwarts.) The same for Ron. This story is taking place in 1999 (and will end in 2000.) Harry had surely learnt from Sirius how to make that map – they had been living in the same house for months, they surely talked about it. Why always –20 degrees? Well… it might have been –21 or –22 as well (but after sunset it surely sank to –40). Dennis isn't a chemistry or physics professor to know all kinds of materials that don't catch fire – neither am I. I always hated chemistry and physics as well – of course you, being a boy, know these things, but I don't. Why didn't he separate the water? Because he's not Moses. Yeah, I'm not an action writer, never was and never will be. My action scenes suck. Yes, we have Digimon here in Hungary, but I only know that it's something like Pokemon (I didn't watch either or them.) I guess it had to be translated from Japan. Mileta was too scared to think – you know sometimes people turn numb with fear, that's what happened to her. Now you could ask: why did she become a champion, then? Well… she'll turn out to be a much better fighter later on. She just needs time. Conjure a helicopter? That would give a bit of trouble even to McGonagall, wouldn't it? The champions needed to pick the flower with their own hands. Why did yetis live in the Himalayas? Ask Rowling! She wrote in Fantastic beasts and where to find them that yetis lived in Tibet! I took it from her book! The bigfoot that people sighted all over the world must have been some kind of a furry troll (as Rowling writes that the yeti is supposed to be the troll's far 'relative'.) I'm helping with your school project: I have a 4 year old Pentium II with Windows95 (and I'm planning to get a new one soon). Sorry, I didn't really understand your last sentence: '…I would count you as a writer, as I can't really see you doing something else better than that.' Was this a positive remark on my writing abilities or does it mean something else? Sorry, sometimes I don't understand stuff what people write, although I know all words in the sentence. So, what exactly did you mean?

baybee: Harry and Ginny will meet in next chapter, and you'll see Lily and Dan again!

princesswitch: Dumbledore put the yeti there one night. He'll tell more of this in this chapter. How did he get one? Well, went to Tibet and got a random yeti.

Super Saya-Jin Gotan: figures? Hm… I don't understand that sorry. Figure can mean lots of things: numbers, amount of money, a woman's body, etc. For 'figures' in plural I only found: 'the activity of adding, multiplying numbers' in my Longman dictionary. What exactly did you mean by that? (I feel so stupid for not understanding this, but I'm Hungarian, after all.)

Tessa: you wrote that I didn't seem to be as evil as Rita. Oh, because you haven't read chapters 19-36 yet. There I'll be definitely evil. *wicked Rita-like grin with three glittering golden-teeth*

Almah: Ginny and the kids: next chapter. Ginny didn't know about Harry's illness and couldn't have just come to Durmstrang, it'll be explained later, why.

PepsiAngel: read my answer to zzxm. Lochar and Gildy… you'll get to know about it later. Don't worry about the words you made up – you explained it, after all :) I and my friends also made up words that only we use: for example my best friend and I use the word 'erde' for WC – the word comes from the German word Erde (means Earth). My friend accidentally translated Erde as 'forest' into Hungarian (the Hungarian word for forest is erdõ, that sounds very much like Erde.) At home I have a picture of a forest on the door of the WC, and since my best friend saw it, we've been calling the WC 'erde'. Silly, huh? (sorry about my blabbering:)

Crazycutee831: I hope you get well soon.

Wood's secret lover: next chapter: going back to England.

aurora riddle: but Harry wasn't properly clad when he did his 'snow angel' :)) Anyway, it might have been –40 degrees, I don't know. For me even –20 is very cold, brrrrr… I'd like to live in constant +30 degrees!

Nefertiri: next chapter, next chapter. Yes, Harry is a judge.

jennyKT: yes, Edelweiss comes from the Sound of Music song (I love that movie and that song as well!) Yeah, you could see SW lines here, I'm a huge SW fan :))

Arif: yes, the Potions professor seems to be too obvious to be a villain… still she can be. But not totally. No, it's not a decoy, but you don't know the whole truth about THE villain(s). Yes, the sorcerer's stone is philosopher's stone – in Great Britain and Australia. In Hungarian it's 'bölcsek köve'. I know it in German as well: 'der Stein der Weisen.' French: 'l' ecole des sorciers', Italian: 'scorpi la magia'. That's all I know :( Yea, Edelweiss is a German word, it's really pronounced as ee-del-vise – haven't you seen Sound of Music? There's a song about it (a very beautiful song).

J-Kid: yes, I live in Hungary. I believe that Hungary is VERY different from Romania. I don't want to insult the Romanians, but Hungary has more culture, more educated people, better economic situation… and we feel extremely insulted if people mix up our capital, Budapest, with Romania's capital, Bukarest. It's true that there's prejudice between the two countries. The Romanians are jealous that we Hungarians are more cultured and fairing better than they do, so they hate us, and in a way fear us as well (though they shouldn't). After World War I 1/3 of Hungary's area went over to the Romanians, and since then they've been afraid that one day we'd want that area back. They simply know that it had been OUR area for a millennium and that they don't really have a right to have it – but we have assured them that we don't want it back. They just don't believe us. That's their problem, in my humble opinion. I'd like to travel to Transylvania in the future, because it's really beautiful (once belonged to Hungary), but I don't think that I will, because people there don't like the Hungarian tourists :(( Too bad. Which part of Romania have you been to? Transylvania, maybe?

Pumpkin3223: D/G means Draco/Ginny. There are lots of such fics on ffnet, but I basically dislike them. (I don't want to hurt the feelings of any D/G writers here, please, don't get made at me! I just think that Gin and Draco aren't made for each other.)

Toby Haine: welcome back, my friend! :))

Derkaun Zarion: hi, Shaun! Is your net-connection working all right nowadays?

Mage: the f*cking villain? Just wait, you'll get to know him/her.

The Face of Evil: hello again, Aditya!

apple-pie: hahahaha! You accidentally wrote: 'I hope Dennis will get extra points for shaving Mileta!' Not saving, but shaving! LOL, I laughed sooooo hard!!! That was cute :))

Chapter 15

Snow White

"Aberforth?" Krum raised an eyebrow. "What do you know of this?"

"Well, Viktor, um…" the old man looked at his boots, "so, the yeti… er… he was brought here by me."

"You?" everyone gasped.

"But why on Earth did you bring a yeti?" Krum shouted.

"I… I didn't want to hurt anyone, I actually put him out on the White Mountain, not on the Blue Mountain, so he must have wandered over from one mountain to the other. I never thought he might attack a student… he is a very peaceful creature, indeed."

"Peaceful, eh? It almost killed my sister!" Viktor croaked. "Why did you bring here that beast?"

"Don't call Snow White a beast!" Aberforth retorted.

"Snow White?" Harry and Hermione asked in unison.

"Yeah, that's his name, 'cause he's so white and cute…" Dumbledore replied.

"Cute? That monster?" Mileta shrieked. "It wanted to crumple me!"

"And where's that yeti now?" Krum asked.

"Up at the foot of that slope." Dennis pointed at the Devil's Slope. "I stupefied it. It might have woken up since then, I don't know."

"We've got to catch it so it won't endanger anyone!" Krum stated. "I shall fly up there and bring the beast down."

"I'm coming, too." Harry said, lifting his wand: "Accio Rocket 4000!"

Krum did the same – called for his own broomstick. In a couple of minutes both brooms arrived from the castle.

*Just like in the old times.* Harry thought grinning and mounted his broomstick.

Half an hour later they returned with a snoring yeti that they were hanging like a marionette with charms while they flew on their broomsticks.

When they touched down onto the snow it was already dark, so several magical torches had been lit. All students and teachers were still standing there, at the foot of Blue Mountain, very excited. They all wanted to witness the judges give points to the champions.

As Harry and Viktor made the yeti's body descend into the snow, it gave out a growl and opened its sky-blue eyes. It blinked stupidly, looking around. As he caught a glimpse of Aberforth, who was standing about twenty feet away, he stood up and started running in the old man's direction.

Minerva, who was standing in midway between the yeti and Dumbledore, screamed and flung herself on Aberforth's neck. Impishly grinning, the old wizard gathered her into a protective embrace, while the yeti didn't stop – he ran up to the old man and McGonagall, and pulled them both into a firm hug.

Minerva nearly fell unconscious and Viktor was about the shout Stupefy! at the yeti, when Dumbledore yelled No!

"Why? He's attacked you!" Krum pointed his wand at the yeti.

"Oh, no!" Aberforth laughed in Snow White's grip. "He's just greeted me with an embrace. See?" he entangled himself from the yeti's arms, still holding McGonagall with one hand. "He's as peaceful as a bunny. Couldn't hurt a fly! Good boy, Snow White!" he tapped the yeti's back.

"Good boy?" Hermione blinked. "But… that's a beast!"

"Beast? Him? No." Dumbledore smiled. "He's an over-sized teddy-bear, nothing else. I'm sure he only wanted to play with you, Ms. Krum." he turned to Mileta.

"Play?" the girl gaped. "He… he was chasing me first…"

"Sure. He was playing a game of tag." Dumbledore replied. "But his favourite game is hide-and-seek. He is a real master in it, aren't you, Snow White?"

The yeti humphed again, looking from one person to the other. He really didn't look like some dangerous beast. Dennis realised that it must have been the yeti who was following him, giving him the feeling that he was being watched. No wonder that he didn't see the yeti – it blended with the snow.

"But… you still haven't told us why you have brought this animal." Hermione told Aberforth.

"Oh, well…" the old man grinned at Minerva, whom he was still holding, "…it was because of Minerva."

"Me?" McGonagall gasped and quickly entangled herself from his embrace.

"Yeah." Aberforth shrugged. "You said the only way you'd jump into my arms was if a yeti chased you. So I've brought you one."

After the laughter died away, Krum told Aberforth that he had to transport the yeti back to Tibet. The old man looked sad, but nodded and promised to take Snow White home that very night.

"I think I know when he brought the yeti here." Harry whispered to Hermione. "The night before we went shopping to St. Petersburg. That night I saw him leave on his sleigh."

"All right, then," Krum spoke up, "may I ask the judges to put their heads together and give points to the champions? Remember, each champion can get fifty points put together, so all judges may give them points from zero to ten."

"I hope you get fifty points, Dennis." Mileta said with her eyes downcast. "You saved my life. I, on the other hand don't deserve to get any."

"How can you say that, Mileta?" Dennis shook his head. "You reached the Devil's Slope, and I'm sure you also fought yourself through a lot of traps. Right?"

"Well, there were a couple of them, that's right." she shrugged.

Guillaume Lochar stepped to them, wearing a huge grin. "You'd better not expect many points… you couldn't get ze edelweiss, after all."

"Eat dung." Dennis said, turning his back on the French boy.

After ten minutes of discussion, Krum turned to the crowd, clearing his throat. "The jury has made its decision about the points. They are the following: Mr. Guillaume Lochar, who managed to fight down all obstacles in his way and even succeeded in getting the Black Edelweiss, but didn't care to help Ms. Krum, is rewarded forty-five points."

"Forty-five?" Lochar blanched. "I should 'ave got fifty! Zis iz because o' you!" he growled at Mileta. "You shouldn't 'ave got into trouble wiz ze yeti!"

"As if I wanted that beast!" Mileta snapped.

"Ms. Krum," Viktor continued, "managed to reach the Devil's Slope, where she got hindered by a yeti. However, she was late, and the two other competitors reached the slope much quicker. We reward her thirty-five points."

Mileta's face beamed with happiness.

"See, you got quite many points." Dennis smiled at her.

"Mr. Creevey," Krum carried on, "had the most difficult and dangerous way to the Edelweiss, still he reached it at the same time as Mr. Lochar. However, when he saw that Ms. Krum was in trouble, he didn't hesitate to help her. Mr. Creevey abandoned the edelweiss to save Ms. Krum's life. He is therefore rewarded forty-five points."

"What?" Dennis blinked. "Forty-five?"

"You deserve it!" Mileta flung herself on Dennis' neck. "Thank you for saving me, my hero."

"You're welcome." Dennis blushed.

* * * * *

"I can't believe we are going home tomorrow!" Harry sighed happily. Two and a half weeks had gone since the first task, and now it was 23rd December.

"Yeah, I can't wait to see my Ronnie!" Hermione nodded, fixing the wrapper on a package with her wand. "Poor Madame Maxime, though…"

"Poor? Why?" Harry raised an eyebrow.

"She has to stay here with the Beauxbatons students. She cannot meet Hagrid."

"Oh, really. Poor Hagrid. He must be devastated without his little wife."

"Is that true that they're planning on having children?" Hermione asked, tying a blue ribbon on the package.

"Yeah, Hagrid said something like that back at my birthday party." Harry reached out to place his finger on the ribbon, so Hermione could make a tighter knot.

"Thanks." she smiled at him, but seeing his face, her smile vanished at once. She reached out to squeeze his hand. "I should have known better than to come up with this child-thing."

"No, it's okay, Herm. I'm… I'm over it. Really."

"Are you sure?" her stare bore deeply into his.

Harry cast down his eyes. "No."

"Harry, is there anything I could do?"

"No. It's me who has to deal with this. Me and Ginny."

"And that's what is bothering you, right?" she said with a knowing sort of expression.

"S'pose so. She… I… I'm not sure she'll ever be able to have sex with me without worrying. She'll always be afraid that it might happen again… that she'd give birth to another squib. No matter what we do, whatever protection we use, there's always the possibility that she might get pregnant, and I fear that she wouldn't want to have another child."

"And you?" Hermione asked. "Do you want more children?"

"Of course I do!" he replied. "It's so wonderful being a father… seeing your kids be born, grow, learn to walk and talk… I wouldn't mind having non-magic children, but Ginny… she would. A couple of weeks ago I had a discussion with Aberforth, and he pointed out that I was angry. Not only with myself, but with the whole world. I was accusing everything and everyone for Daniel's lack of magic skills... And he was right. I've thought it over a hundred times, and I've managed to come to terms with it… I don't care if my son's a Muggle, I really don't. But Ginny does and she'll always do."

"You're a bit afraid going home now, aren't you?" Hermione dropped her package on top of the other dozen packages – all Christmas presents for her relatives and friends.

"Yes." Harry replied, but not to her, rather to his shoes. "I'm afraid. Sirius wrote that Ginny seemed quite all right… in my absence. I don't know how she'll behave when I arrive. I don't know whether she'll be as happy to see me as I will be to see her… I've missed her so much, Hermione… and I've missed sex with her." he turned away, feeling that he was turning red. "You surely think that I'm a sex-maniac or something…"

To his surprise, Hermione laughed. "No, Harry." she put an arm around him. "I'd never think you're a sex-maniac. Truth be told I've also missed sex with Ron… my first thing to do at home will be to rip his clothes off." she added with a wink.

"Ron's a lucky chap." Harry grinned. "I wish I could do the same with Ginny. Rip her clothes off." he diverted his stare. "But I know I can't. She has to make the first step."

"What if she won't?" Hermione frowned.

"I don't know…" he sighed. "…but there's a strong chance for me to go mad with a bit more time of sex-deprivation."

"Aren't you doing it on your own?" she made a curious face.

"But Hermione!" he snapped. "It's… sick… doing it alone."

"But tried it, haven't you?"

"Every boy above thirteen tried it, Hermione." he folded his arms. "But it's better with Ginny."

Harry was surprised to hear her chuckle again. "This isn't laughing matter." he tried to scowl at her, but his attempt at looking serious was thwarted by her mad giggling. He also started to laugh.

* * * * *

"The castle will be empty without you, Herm-own-ninny." Viktor sighed after dinner, when all the other teachers had already left the staff-table.

"Empty? But there are all those hundreds of children, and Madame Maxime, Aberforth and professor McGonagall…" she suddenly slapped her forehead. "Oh, my, Viktor! Minerva will go mad when she gets to know that Aberforth is going to spend the next weeks here! Poor Minerva…"

"They are mad at each other for some reason." Krum nodded. "I just don't know why."

"Viktor, how can you be so blind not to realise that they fancy each other?" she smirked.

"But I though they hated each other." Viktor shrugged. *And why are you so blind, Herm-own-ninny, not to realise that I fancy… that I love you?* he added in thought.

"And what about the Yule-ball, Viktor?" she asked. "Which day is it, exactly? I'm not familiar with the customs of the Orthodox Church. So, when do you celebrate Christmas?"

"On the 7th January." Krum replied. "You come back from Great Britain on the fourth of January, right? Then you'll have only three days to prepare for the ball." he leaned closer to her: "Buy something cute in Diagon Alley. Something resembling your dress from the former Yule-ball. You looked enchanting in those periwinkle-blue robes, Herm-own-ninny."

"Thanks, Viktor." she flushed a bit. "I have a new dress looking very similar to that one… the same colour and everything. I'm going to wear it at Christmas for the very first time."

"Then… this will go well with it." Viktor placed a small box into Hermione's palm.

"What's this?" she asked.

"My Christmas present to you, Herm-own-ninny."

* * * * *

Harry was just about to slip out of his slippers and into the bed, when there was a knock on the door.

He opened it to see Mileta Krum standing there with downcast eyes.

"Er, hello, Harry." she mumbled.

"Hello, Mileta. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" Harry crossed his arms. "It's eleven o' clock, if you haven't noticed."

"I… I just… may I come in?" she asked with a pleading stare.

"That's not exactly a good idea." Harry shook his head. "What's this?" he perked up his ears, hearing someone approaching, singing.

"Aberforth!" she breathed.

"Come on, then!" he gripped her arm and pulled her into his room, just in time before Dumbledore turned into their corridor. They heard the door of the old man's room slam shut.

"He almost caught a glimpse of you!" Harry said irritably. "What do you think he'd have thought, seeing you standing in front of my door at such a late hour? What would he have thought of me? He'd have thought that I had a relationship with you!"

"Would it be that terrible?" she asked.

"Yes!" he retorted. "I'm an honourable man, you know. I have a wife and children…"

"…and you're not the type seducing your friend's little sister, right? That's what you wanted to say?" she asked with a grimace.

Harry turned ruby-red. "Listen, Mileta, please, stop following me around. You're a very nice girl, but I'll never be in love with you, so you are just wasting your time. I'm sure there are other guys who'd like you… for example Dennis."

"Dennis?" she grunted. "What makes you think I could ever like Dennis?"

"Well… I saw you embracing him after the first task, and I kind of thought…"

"You shouldn't have. I was simply grateful to him. It was not love. This is." with that she gripped Harry's face and kissed him fervently. For a couple of seconds Harry tried to push her back, but she held him in a vice-like grip, her lips seductively moving on his, her tongue finding its way into his mouth… after the first seconds of futile resistance, Harry seemed to have forgotten about his decision to reject her… he let her hands roam over his back, her lips descend onto his neck… He brought her lips up to his again, and kissed her with all the past ten months' suppressed desire, his hands slipping under her robes until she moaned his name with a hoarse, so un-ginny-like voice. That was when Harry opened his eyes and pushed away her hands.

"Harry… why have you stopped?" she asked, making a step in his direction. He retreated, running his fingers through his hair in nervousness. His eyes wandered down to his pyjama trousers. "Oh, shit!" he spat and pulled his dressing gown together to conceal the obvious bulge.

"Harry…?" she whispered.

"I… I'm sorry, Mileta." he looked away, adjusting his glasses. "I have no idea what got into me… I… for a moment I thought… I thought you were Ginny…"

"Ginny?" Mileta uttered the word with disgust. "Your wife?"

"Yes. My wife." he nodded, turning his back on her, so that she didn't see him pointing his wand at his loin, whispering deminuo!

"Your wife…" the girl took another step in his direction, "your wife, who has been refusing to sleep with your for ages…"

"What makes you think that?" he turned back, frowning.

"I happened to overhear a discussion between Hermione and Aberforth. She told him that you were… deprived. I thought you needed someone… someone who would give you what your wife doesn't." she reached out to touch his face, but he recoiled.

"I don't need anyone." he said sternly.

"Just one minute ago you seemed to need someone." she said with a mellifluous voice. "To need me…" she stepped to him, placing her hands on his chest, gently caressing him. "You need me, Harry… and I'm ready to give you anything."

"Just what I need! A seventeen – no, just sixteen year old chick who happens to have an over-protective brother! Can you imagine what Viktor would say if he got wind that I shagged you?"

She shrugged. "He wouldn't need to know."

"What if you got pregnant?" Harry reasoned.

"I know spells and potions…"

"…that in some cases refuse to work." he pointed out. "And what about losing your virginity, huh? People would get to know… for example a future boyfriend or husband of yours. Is that what you want?"

Mileta waved nonchalantly. "Losing my virginity? Hah! Haven't you heard of the spell reparo?"

"Reparo?" Harry blinked. "Heavens, Mileta, I can't believe I'm here having such a conversation with you! Get out of my room and let me sleep!"

"All right!" she spat. "But don't expect me to console you when you come back from England after a disappointing, sex-free Christmas with your sweet little wife!"

"Expect you to console me?" he laughed. "Ridiculous."

"You are ridiculous." she snapped, turning her back on him, heading for the door. At the door she turned back. "Anyway, I just wanted to come and apologise for that little deception and I wanted to wish you a merry Christmas. But I'm not apologising anymore – after what you have done to me!" before she slammed the door shut, she added: "Have a terrible Christmas!"

Harry could have sworn that the whole castle heard their quarrel and already dreaded the morning when he had to face Hermione - or rather - Viktor Krum. Who knows what Mileta could be telling her brother now? What if she managed to feed Viktor a lie that he, Harry, had actually wanted to rape her? She was up to anything, after all... *She would make a perfect Slytherin.* Harry thought and pulled the bed-covers over his head.

Harry couldn't fall asleep all night, still it wasn't him who looked the worst the next morning: it was Aberforth.

"Are you all right?" Harry asked the old man as they walked down the corridor to the great hall.

"Right?" Aberforth sniffed with red nose and blood-shot eyes. "I'm feeling terrible, my boy."

"But… last night… you were singing. I thought you were okay." Harry said.

"Singing? Er, must have drunk too much." Dumbledore shrugged.

"But why did you drink that much?"

"Had to. I needed to forget." the old man was on the verge of tears.

"Forget? What?"

"Snow White! I took him back to Tibet yesterday evening!" Aberforth said, tears welling up in his eyes. Harry was strongly reminded of Hagrid mourning over the loss of Norbert.

"Hey, it's all right. He's better off in his homeland, isn't he?" the young man patted Dumbledore's back.

"But… he'll be so lonely without me!" Aberforth sniffed. "We used to play a lot, and now he has no one to play with!"

Harry rolled his eyes. He was sure that it was Aberforth who needed the yeti and not the other way around. "Hey, cheer up, it's almost Christmas!"

"Christmas? Oh, yeah." the old man nodded. "Shame that Durmstrang doesn't celebrate it before seventh January. At least I hope Minerva will like my present…"

"You really like her, don't you?" Harry grinned.

"Yeah." Aberforth nodded.

"Then stop crying, if you don't want her see you like that." Harry pointed at a figure approaching them.

"Oh, Minerva!" Dumbledore whispered, straightening his back.

"Are you all right, Mr. Dumbledore?" McGonagall asked, seeing the tears in the old man's eyes.

"Sure, dear Ms McGonagall. Just an insect… it flew into my eyes."

"Into both of them?" she raised an eyebrow, turning to Harry. "I need to give you Mr. Krum's regards – he had to leave for a day for Moscow. Ministry of Magic business. He wishes you a very merry Christmas, Mr. Potter."

Harry felt that a great weight was off his mind. Mileta surely hadn't told anything to her brother. "Well, that's nice of him. Pity that I couldn't say good-bye to him. I'd like to wish you also a very merry Christmas, professor McGonagall, and you two, Aberforth."

"Happy Christmas, Mr. Potter." Minerva gave him a smile. "Give my regards to Ginny."

"I will."

"Harry!" Hermione ran up to him. "Are you ready with your packing?"

"Of course. When are we going?"

"In an hour." Hermione replied, beaming. "Viktor got us a portkey to Diagon Alley. Get your stuff ready and be in the entrance hall in forty minutes! We are going home!"

Harry followed her with his eyes as she raced down the corridor to get her things. "Yeah." he swallowed the lump in his throat. "We are going home."

A/N2: Latin explanation: deminuo = reduce (a swelling)

Before my thorough friend, X_Tow_Naga could ask: the portkey Viktor got for them is a special one – wizards and witches who don't live and teach at Durmstrang cannot turn objects into portkeys to transport them to Durmstrang. Why? Because I decided so. The World Cup was a public place, so you could easily get portkeyed there, but Durmstrang isn't.

Why can they use the floo network, then? – you might ask. Its use is also restricted – you'll get to know it later.

And now: review, please!