In Every Darkness
Chapter Seventy Five: Christmas
24.12.1996
The Christmas Holidays had started. Harry was glad. Malfoy had gone home, so Harry didn't have to think about running into him in the halls and having arguments. Ron and Hermione had gone home too – both of them went to the Burrow.
Harry decided to stay at school. He liked it, this time of the year. It was pleasant – the snow fell outside, the fires were warm inside, and the place was nearly empty.
Lily was staying as well.
"Mum doesn't like having me around," she confided in Harry tiredly. "After dad died, she did her best to keep me well and happy, but it didn't really work … She couldn't love me like she used to. Not after dad died because of me."
Harry felt sad for the other girl, and hugged her gently, safe in the knowledge that he could get close to her if he wanted to, but would never be able to love her. "Oh well, we can spend Christmas together then," he told her softly. "We'll pretty much have the castle to ourselves."
This was true. Nearly all of the students, from Beauxbatons, Hogwarts and Durmstrang would be going home for Christmas. It seemed that everyone wanted to spend as much time as possible with their families, just in case it was the last they'd see them.
"Yeah," Lily smiled back at him. "That could be nice."
"I have to go now," Harry told her. "Tatsu wants me, as usual. But I won't have to do any training tomorrow!"
Lily laughed. "I should hope not," she agreed.
Harry smiled. "See you later," he said, heading out of the Gryffindor common room, leaving Lily gazing into the fire, which, as he left, blazed up stronger than before, though he didn't see, for his back was to it.
Christmas eve passed quickly. Harry and Tatsu fought, messed around with curses, meditated, and talked for awhile, then Harry wandered around the castle for a bit, until Filch saw him and sent him back to the common room.
In the common room, Harry sat with Lily. "Lily, you said your magic was destructive, or more destructive than most wizards magic … But I've never seen any destructive happening around you," he said. "If it's a touchy subject, ignore the question."
"No, it's ok," Lily replied with a smile. "The answer to that question … I've been a Wild Child since I was seven, nearly ten years now. In that time, I've managed to control most of my magic. You've never seen me get incredibly emotional, but if I did … Well, things would start exploding."
"Oh …" Harry said.
"But that doesn't happen very often any more," Lily sounded happy about this. "I'm getting it mainly under control."
Harry smiled. "Good," he told her. "I probably couldn't have done half as well."
"Don't underestimate yourself," Lily replied quietly. "You could do as well, if you really put your mind to it."
Harry gave a half shrug, and both slipped back into their own thoughts, their own internal worlds.
Christmas day dawned clear and cold, snow lined the ground deeply, and Harry thought he could hear the forest trees creaking in protest. He smiled faintly, without opening his eyes.
He was alone in the Gryffindor sixth year boys dormitory, but that was ok. It was kind of interesting to spend a Christmas without his friends, something that hadn't happened since … Well, since he'd had friends to spend Christmas with.
There would be Lily though, and Tatsu. They would make the day fun, but it was nice to be without Ron and Hermione for a change.
When he opened his eyes, he saw a huge pile of presents on the end of bed, so many that they were scattered over the floor because they wouldn't fit. Harry rubbed his eyes sleepily. "Wow," he breathed.
"And the ones from your friends and family are in the Room of Requirement," Tatsu said, grinning, from the doorway.
Harry blinked. "So these are from…?"
"All of your admires throughout Hogwarts and the magical world," Tatsu finished the sentence for him.
"Wow," Harry repeated.
Tatsu laughed. "Well, are you going to start opening them?"
Most of the presents that had been at the foot of bed and scattered around the floor beside it were fairly impersonal. There were quills, parchment, book vouchers, vouchers for prank shops, sweet shops, clothes shops, a few people sent things like hats or cloaks, and quite a few just sent boxes of sweets.
Harry was somewhat overwhelmed. Never had been so blatantly obvious that he was famous. When he'd finished opening the presents, Harry decided that the best thing to do would be to shrink them and then send them with Hedwig back to Grimmauld Place – he could look at them next holidays, when he was there.
Harry cast the shrinking spell, then reached out with his mind to 'tweak' the spell so that it would do exactly what he wanted it to.
All of the presents shrank down, and soon there was a tiny pile, not much bigger than his fist. Another quick spell conjured a boxes for them, and Harry charmed the presents into this, to make sure that he missed none of them.
That done, he set the box on his bedside table, deciding to send it later, and quickly dressed in black jeans and tight black shirt and headed downstairs.
Lily was waiting for him. "Come on, I think we're supposed to be going to the Room of Requirement," she said happily. Lily had become good friends with Tatsu in the last few weeks, so she was looking forward to spending Christmas with Harry and his guardian.
Harry led the way, bounding happily through the near silent school. They saw no one on their trip down to the Room, but then, there were so few people left in the school that the chances of meeting one of them were very slim.
The pair of them burst into the Room of Requirement, Harry ready for an attack – just in case.
But he needn't have worried. Tatsu was sitting in an armchair before an open fire, dressed in warm pants, a t-shirt, and a warm jumper. Behind him was a Christmas tree, and under it were a few more presents.
"We're going over to the Burrow later this afternoon," Tatsu told Harry, "or at least, that is the plan at present."
"It could change?" Lily asked.
"All things could change," Tatsu replied. "I'm not sure if this is likely to or not, but there is always the possibility."
Harry rolled his eyes at Lily, who smiled in return. "He's like that sometimes," Harry murmured in her ear. "Just ignore it, I do."
"I heard that," Tatsu pointed out.
"That's alright," Harry smiled at his guardian, who shook his head and laughed.
"Let's open presents!" Lily suggested, before Tatsu could actually say anything about Harry's reply.
"Yes, let's!" Harry agreed whole heartedly, despite the fact that he'd just received and opened an enormous amount of gifts – that didn't count. He didn't know any of the people who'd sent him those things. This next batch of presents were from those who knew him, who were his friends, the family of his heart.
"This one is from the Weasley family," Tatsu addressed himself to Harry, tossing a parcel over.
"Cool!" Harry replied happily. "You two open your presents from me!"
Harry opened the present and smiled in delight when he found a wrist-watch, which had, according to the letter (written, Harry supposed, by Arthur Weasley, as he didn't recognise the hand-writing), several different faces.
One of the faces had a number of hands with names written on them – Ron, Hermione, Molly, Arthur, Fred, George, Lily and Tatsu included. Most of these pointed to 'Burrow'. The other options included: Hogwarts, Headquarters (meaning Grimmauld Place – it was still protected by the Fidelius Charm), Mortal Peril, Travelling, Shopping, Work, Out of the Country, Lost, and In Hiding.
The other face was one that told time, and a third had things like: you're late, get ready to go, leave now and no rush. At the moment, the hand on this face showed 'no rush'.
Harry smiled in absolute delight as he put it on. It was a very nice gift, he thought.
Harry looked up as the other two examined their presents from him. He'd given Lily a picture of Unity, taken by Colin Creevey in their first Quidditch game, which he'd framed in silver, and a small silver model of a broomstick, with Firebolt written in minute writing on it's handle. Lily was positively beaming – this would be a lasting reminder of her friends.
"I cast a charm so that it won't tear or get dusty, or get dirty," Harry told her.
Tatsu was gaping at his own present – Harry had spent quite a bit of time working on it.
He'd given his new guardian an owl to carry post, as Tatsu didn't have one. He had put the cage inside a box, and cast a charm that renewed the air as a breeze through the cage, so that the creature wouldn't suffocate, and would merely think that it was night time.
Tatsu looked positively ecstatic, and Harry smiled – a gift appreciated.
"Open mine now!" Lily said, throwing him a very small package.
Harry caught it easily, as Tatsu tossed Lily a present, and Lily handed him back another.
"This time, let's open them one at a time," Tatsu suggested.
"Sounds good!" Lily replied.
"You go first Tatsu," Harry added, showing his own agreement.
Tatsu unwrapped the present from Lily with quick ease, soon uncovering a box of chocolate frogs. "God, I love these things," Tatsu smiled, thanking Lily.
Lily smiled back. "Good," she replied.
"You go next," Harry urged her.
Lily opened her present from Tatsu, smiling when she found a cloak, better suited to the English climate than the heavy one she'd needed at Durmstrang. "Thanks," she smiled at Tatsu, bounding over to give him a hug.
"Now you, Harry," Lily said, sounding nervous now.
Harry opened the small package to find a wooden box, beautifully crafted. "Open it," Lily urged him softly.
Harry carefully lifted the latch and opened the lid. The inside of the box was lined with deep red velvet, and resting on it was a fang, threaded on a silver chain.
"It's from a werewolf," Lily told him softly. "I thought it might serve as a nice reminder of the memories you have of your friend, Remus Lupin."
Harry smiled gently, and lifted the chain and clipped it around his next. "It's wonderful, thank you," he told her.
Lily smiled in relief. "I hoped you'd like it."
She went over to the three and lifted three presents, passing two of them to Tatsu and Harry. "You first this time, Lily," Harry told her.
She nodded and opened a present from Molly Weasley. Harry smiled when he saw that she'd been given a Weasley Jumper, much like one that he'd been given in the past – red, with a gold Gryffindor lion on the front.
Lily put it on immediately, very happy. She'd also been given a box of Mrs. Weasley's treacle tarts.
"Now you Harry," she said eventually.
Harry smiled and opened his own present from Mrs. Weasley, which was a nice jumper of black with a silver griffin on the front, as well as a Christmas cake. Harry laughed softly and quickly pulled on the jumper.
"Your turn Tatsu!" Lily called merrily, and Tatsu opened his present from Hermione, which was a handmade book of Japanese folk stories. Tatsu looked incredibly happy with this gift.
"I've been meaning to get one of these books for ever," he remarked. "But I never do quite get around to it."
They continued opening presents for some time. Harry received a book on Defence Against the Dark Arts from Hermione – one that wasn't in the Library at Sirius's place – and a beautiful box for Grypis to sleep in.
It was crafted of wood, and was set on a tall pole. It was enchanted so that one could change the top from a perch to a sleeping box with a word, and in this way would appeal to Grypis in all of his forms. Harry was very happy with it.
Lily was delighted with a Beaters bat from Ron and a book on Charms (a subject that she'd not had much practice in) from Hermione. She was reading through the introduction on the book at present.
Tatsu opened his last present, which was a perch for his owl from Ron, and then turned to Harry. "Well, there's one last present for you, Harry – mine!"
He reached over to the Christmas tree and tossed Harry a long, slim parcel, wrapped in gold.
Carefully, Harry opened it, and gasped when he saw what it was – a Japanese bamboo sword. "It's time to start instructing you in the ways of Kendo," Tatsu said. "As you would have guessed from my last name, I am rather proficient in this area. I think that you will benefit from it."
Harry smiled, and as he did, a vision flashed before his eyes:
He circled warily, his eyes watching a spinning silver blade. It looked familiar, and it felt so … right in his hands. He spun it, fast and faster, over his head, behind his back, jumping into the air to whirl it round his feet.
Suddenly his rhythm changed, though he made no conscious decision to start something new. Now he was moving as if blocking something, then parrying.
Somehow, his body knew the patterns he had to make, his mind felt devoid of any thoughts, let alone those that might control his movements.
His body moved in perfect sync with the sword in his hands, twisting, leaping, a dance of death that he had no control of.
***
That'll do for this chapter – before you ask, no, the sword that Tatsu gave him is NOT the sword from the dream/vision. The dream/vision sword is made of metal, Tatsu's Christmas present is made of bamboo.
Thanks:
Adge9631, Hermionegreen, Death-TheOnlyTrueFreedom, Wynjara, athenakitty, Evil Anti-Patriotic Elf Named Cin, Maxx77, Numba1, Death-TheOnlyTrueFreedom, Nasser Himura, Padawan JanAQ, Musicstarlover, uNoeWho, MikiBaby, Raphaelle, Misty43, Kaye, Kraeg001, jbfritz, torifire126, gaul1, Eoywen lady of Horses 1361, Lady Reaper of the Shadows, dnd4ever, texasjeanette, bigstu, TuxedoMac, In The Same Boat, MiakaChan5, PhoenixTearsp322, AltonShadeFoot, Haunting Darkness, Thelvyn, Chicken Stars, PhoenixPadfoot89, Haunting Darkness, Romm, Lord of Darkness13, Dumbledave, Jaded Angel8, dweem-angel, Haunting Darkness, Haunting Darkness, Clare, Lone Statistic, OhioGrl-HPFan.
Evil Anti-Patriotic Elf Named Cin and All Titles Which Do Apply,
We are sorry to hear the thee be short of time, and are happy that, despite this, thou hast found the time to read, and review, Our chapter. We are thankful.
Sincerely,
WolfMoon,
Lady Death,
Queen of Tenebralia,
Goddess of Darkness and Evilness.