Having a Holiday
"REMATCH?!" Felan asked. He looked at Fi. "This all your fault!"
"'Tis not!" Fi retaliated.
"'Tis too!" Felan said, mimmicking her.
"SHUT UP!" Fi yelled. "You're the one that dragged me out of that cave!" she said.
"Hey, it's not my fault Marlaina's a better fighter with chobos than you," Felan smirked.
"You gave her tips!" Fi yelled.
"You two!" Harry yelled. "Two different corners!" he pointed to two opposite sides of the room and they both marched over obediently. "Okay," Harry said. "Tell me what happened,"
"Felan was referee for me and Marlaina's fight. I saw him leaning over, whispering to her before the fight. It was all in High Falutin', and he knows I'm not at all proficient in it!" Fi complained.
"Felan?" Harry asked.
"I won't deny it. Fi's been acting like a total recluse ever since the big dinner." Felan said.
"I was not!" Fi yelled, turning around.
"You were too! You almost drowned!"
"I had it totally under control!"
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Are you two going to shut up or not?!" Harry yelled. The two quieted almost immediately. "Now, Fi, you have been acting strange and I still have no idea why. Felan, you didn't have permission to tell Marlaina about Fi's weaknesses." Harry turned back to Fi. "And Fi, how in hell did you manage to almost drown?" he asked.
"I was thinking,"
Felan scoffed, "A feat for a piece of boiled meat--"
"So when's this rematch then?" Fi asked.
"We need box seats," Felan said.
"It's scheduled for May," Harry said.
"Gee, that's long.." Fi said. Harry looked at her and narrowed his eyes.
"You don't know the months," he said.
"I'm estimating," Fi said. "So, how long until your break?" she asked.
"One more moon," Harry said.
"Ooh, we're going to be gone by then." Felan whispered. Harry looked up at him.
"What?" he asked.
"We're leaving next week," Felan said.
"You can spend Christmas here, right?" Fi asked. "Can't you?" Harry nodded.
"I guess," he said in a whisper.
"It's either here, or with the Wendigos..." Felan said. Harry groaned and covered his face with the pillow.
"If it helps, we'll be thinking of you while we eat the ice lollies and play in the warm ocean water." Fi said brightly.
"And that was perhaps the worst thing you could say," Harry said.
"Trust me, she can say worse," Felan said.
"Do I want to know?" Harry asked.
"You really don't," Felan said.
"Stop talking about me as if I'm not here!" Fi said. "What's that noise?" she asked, moving towards the door.
"We're in a dorm, Fi. Perhaps it could be people in the halls?" Felan asked. Fi stuck out her tongue and pressed her ear against the wall by the door and listened.
"Hey, Harry. When are those others getting back?" she asked. Harry was about to answer when the door was flung open, hitting Fi's nose and sending her against the wall.
"Oh, that was so cool! Do it again will you?" Felan said with a smile. Harry looked from under the pillow to see a shocked Seamus standing opposite Fi.
"Gaia!" Fi yelled.
"You all right?" Seamus asked.
"Fine, fine," Fi said. "Pain is a fine teacher," she said, holding her nose.
"We'd better get going," Felan said, getting up. "Hey, Harry. Sorry about the whole beach issue."
"We'll send pictures!" Fi said. They grabbed their cloaks and left through the door.
--------------
Winter rolled around and Harry heard the distant sounds of a pack of wolves howling during Quidditch practice. When Professor McGonagall came around with the list for who would stay at Hogwarts over the holidays, Harry signed up first.
Then one morning, Hogwarts woke to find itself covered in several feet of snow. No one could wait for the holidays to start.
"I do feel sorry," drawled Draco Malfoy during one Potions class, "for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas because they're not wanted at home." He looked over at Harry while he spoke. The Slytherins chuckled. Malfoy had--if possible -- gotten even more unpleasant since the Quidditch match. It seemed no one, except for the teams, had been informed that there would be a rematch.
Ron and his brothers were also staying for Christmas, because Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were going to Romania to visit his brother Charlie.
One friday, Harry, Ron and Hermione got a note from Hagrid, asking if they wanted to go for tea that afternoon. Everything seemed perfectly normal that day, well, for a wizarding school. Harry felt himself getting comfortable, it was then that the Laws of Irony (as Dymphna called them) kicked in.
Hagrid was making a pot of strong tea when it happened. Something caught Harry's eye in the window. Something moving.
"Hey, Hagrid. Can I go have a look at those...watermelons?" Harry asked.
"Oh, sure!" Hagrid said. "Beauties aren' 'dey?" he said.
"I'll be right back," Harry said, he walked out of the hut and shut the door. "Hello?" he asked. A young cub came out from behind the giant watermelons. "I thought so," Harry said. "How do you guys keep ending up here?" he muttered.
"Nicole Ganymede, of the Worchester Wendigo. My mother was Phoenice Demodan of the Black Furies and my father is Xanthus Ganymede," she said.
"Harry Potter, of the Black Forest Fianna." Harry said.
"I've heard of you," Nicole said. "You're the one that goes to the magic school,"
"Who hasn't?" Harry asked. Nicole looked at her shoes.
"I also heard that you were the smartest of your tribe," she said.
"Yeah," Harry sighed dramatically, "That's true too." Nicole kept her eyes on her shoes. "You know," Harry started. "You shouldn't really be out in these parts of the woods," he said. "People might see you,"
"Oh, I'm sorry." Nicole said. "I-I just didn't want to be unpacking so I decided to take a walk."
"Well, there's a pond near the caves. Why don't you go for a swim?" Harry asked. Nicole shook her head.
"No, I don't like water." she said. "I should be leaving now, my kinsmen will be wondering where I got to," Harry watched as the mousy girl, still deeply engrossed in her leather boots, walked back into the forest. Then he turned and walked back into the hut, where Hagrid looked very furious with himself. A few (teeth chipping) rock cakes later, Harry, Hermione and Ron found themselves crossing the lawn once again back to school.
"We found out some things about that three-headed dog," Hermione said casually, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"What?" Harry asked.
"It has something to do with Nicolas Flamel," Ron said.
"Who's Nicolas Flamel?" Harry asked.
"We don't know," Hermione said.
"I've heard the name before, I'm almost sure." Harry said. When they got back to the common room, Hermione turned right around and started heading back for the portrait hole."Where're you going?" Ron asked.
"I don't know about you two, but I'm going to do some research." Hermione said. "Everything's gotten very interesting all of a sudden," she said. Harry checked his watch. Aw, damn, twenty minutes till sundown, he thought. Maybe he could still scribble out a letter to Dymphna.
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"Damn that stupid, pansy-ass, vicious, chauvenistic bastard!" Dymphna slammed the phone down on the reciever and sighed. Katerina poked her head out of the room.
"Just had a talk with your dad?" she asked.
"He won't buy me another car. And it's not really the time to not give me a car because I'm having a horrible bad hair day along with about the worst late puberty in the world..." Dymphna babbled. Katerina walked out and started rummaging through the ice box for some ice cream. It was almost time for Serial Passions.
"Oh, you're about to get a letter,"
"AAAAAH!"
"Too late," Dymphna swatted the owl out of the window and grabbed the letter.
"NOT THE TIME!" she screamed out of the window, chucking a piece of bread at the bird. The bird caught the bread in it's beak and flew off. Dymphna sighed and counted to ten. "Who's it from?" she asked.
"Harry," Katerina said, changing the channel with the remote. "He wants to know about..." she thought for a moment, "Nicolas Flamel."
"Ole' Nick?" Dymphna chuckled. "He's my dad's client, why wouldn't I know about him?" she asked.
"I think this is one of the things you're supposed to let him find out on his own," Katerina said. Dymphna unfolded the letter and read it.
Dymphna,
Who's Nicolas Flamel?
Regards,
Harry Potter
PS: Say hi to Katerina.
"Harry says hi," Dymphna said. Katerina watched the television.
"I knew that," she said, her eyes not wavering. Dymphna picked up a ball-point pen and wrote down her answer.
Dear Harry,
Why?
Happy Xmas,
(If you must be formal) Dymphna Habergibb
PS: Say hi to your groupies for me. And I know you have them so don't lie.
"Groupies?" Katerina asked.
"Stop that," Dymphna said. "I've grown tired of you're all-seeing, all-knowing-ness."
"I'm not all-knowing," Katerina rolled her eyes.
"As proven by your test scores--"
"And I only see what they want me to see," she said. "Once it goes away, I'll be glad."
"You know that it's never going to go away now, right?" Dymphna asked.
"Shut up, Serial Passions is on,"
-----------------------------
The next day, Harry grabbed the letter from Hedwig's beak at the breakfast table.
"Groupies?" he whispered. "Ecksmas?" he asked. Hermione leaned over and read the letter.
"That's Christmas, Harry."
"Oh, I knew that." Harry said.
"Dymphna Habergibb? I know her," Hermione said.
"What?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, well, I know her father. He donated a building to my parents," she said.
"And your parents are?..." Ron asked.
"Dentists," Hermione said. "I didn't know Mr. Habergibb's a wizard, he's the leader of a huge Muggle enterprise. My father has some of his shares..."
"Shares?" Ron asked.
"He bought part of the company," Hermione said.
"Can I borrow your quill for a minute, Hermione?" Harry asked. Hermione handed him the quill she was using to write her History of Magic essay with. Harry dipped it into the ink bottle and wrote.
Dymphna,
It's for my History of Magic essay.
No, he crossed that out. In past letters, Dymphna refused to believe that he actually did his homework.
Dymphna,
I'm wanted by the Wizard Mafia, I need help from Nicolas Flamel.
Harry.
Ah, yes, that sounded much better. She would believe that. Ron leaned over and read it.
"Wizard mafia?" He asked. "There's no such thing,"
Well there goes that plan. Harry crossed that out and wrote again.
Dymphna,
Are you effing kidding me? Just tell me!
Happy Holidays,
Harry.
Now that was something she would respect.
"So you're mailing her for information?" Hermione asked.
"If anyone had the resources to know, she would." Harry said, tying the letter around Hedwig's leg.
"She was always kind of a prissy girl to my understanding," Hermione said.
"Maybe she is, maybe she isn't," Harry said.
"Anyways, I've got to get going." Hermione said, pushing her breakfast plate away. "The train arrives in little less than an hour and I want to do some extra researching," she said. "And I'm sure you two will have plenty of time to research while I'm gone, won't you?" she asked.
"Yes," both boys said grudgingly.
Harry dug through his trunk, trying to find the last remaining vial of Wolfsbane potion. It was only three hours until sundown and it was nowhere to be found, not that he knew where the stock was kept anyways.
"Ron!" Harry yelled, his head buried underneath piles of robes. He emerged and looked at his wristwatch, two hours and fifty-nine minutes...
"What?" Ron asked, currently trying to look for Scabbers.
"Have you seen that vial that was sitting on my trunk?" Harry asked. Ron came out from under the bed.
"You mean that one full of the smoking, funny-colored pumpkin juice?" Ron asked. Harry felt the blood drain from his face.
"That was not pumpkin juice, Ron." he said. "F--"
"Uck!" Fi cursed. "Uck, uck, uck, uck, UCK!" she pulled her leg out of the mud and carried the mixture to Felan and swatted a fly away from his eye. "All righ' there, Rabbity?" Felan opened his eyes.
"I will never eat another whelk again," he said.
"I told you it smelled funny," Fi said. "You never believe me!"
"Well, I'm not exactly sure how a whelk is supposed to smell. Although it was a funny color," Fi stayed quiet as she dipped a ladle into the mixture. "What is it?" Felan asked warily.
"Goats milk and honey. Torra got it special for you,"
"Goats have milk?" Felan asked. "And here I was thinking it was all about the intestines...""Just drink it,"
"You first," Felan said. Fi gulped and drank down the mixture. "That was too fast," Felan said.
"Okay, so it's got a bit of brandy in it." Fi said.
"Oh, definitely then," Felan sat up and rubbed his hands together.
"God, just because your someone's 'best' friend, people expect you to tend for them when they've eaten a rotten whelk." Fi complained as Felan downed the bowl.
"It's your obligation," he said hoarsely.
"Why can't it be someone elses obligation? Like Dee's or Marlaina's?" she asked.
"Marlaina wouldn't be bad," Felan said. Fi hit him on the ear. "Ow! What?"
"YOU FANCY HER!" she yelled.
"I do not!" Felan said."Yes you do, you're positively sickening!" Fi said. She hit him on the ear again.
"No respect for the ill!" Felan said.
"Your faking!" Fi said. "And you do so fancy her," she said.
"Fi!" Fi got up and ran outside. Felan got up, ready to go after her when everything started getting fuzzy and swirly, then everything went black. Fi emerged into the daylight when she saw Torra.
"Did the sleeping powder--"
"Worked like a charm," Fi said through gritted teeth.
"Ugh," Harry woke up to see daylight shining onto him. He felt horrible. He had fleeting memories of ramming himself into the wall quite a few times before blacking out last night; and he had the strange suspicion that today was something special. He pulled his pajamas back on and crawled out of the tunnel to the brisk morning daylight. The worst thing a horrible feeling person could see was happy, cheery daylight such as this. When he got back to the dormitory, Ron demanded an explanation.
"Went to go see Hedwig," Harry said. Ron seemed to accept the answer.
"Hey, Harry. Come down, you've got presents." he said, his mouth full of chocolate. Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Presents?" he asked. "As in?..."
"Yeah, today's Christmas, Harry! Did you forget?" Yes, he had.
"So, I've got Christmas presents?" Harry asked in astonishment. Ron nodded eagerly and Harry ran to the giant Christmas tree in the common room and sat down.
"This one here looks like it's from Mum, she probably knitted you a Weasley jumper. I always get maroon." Harry knew it was wrong, and against one of the holy club codes, but he tuned Ron out as he started digging through the piles of candy rappers (Club Code #45: Never ignore a friend when he or she is talking to you.) He came up with a lumpy package. He tore it open and found a knitted green jumper.
"Excellent!" Harry said, tugging the jumper on over his pajama shirt.
"Here's something else," Ron said, tossing Harry a box. Harry looked all over for a card of any sort before opening the box out of pure curiosity. Out spilled an almost ethereal, silvery cloak.
"The hell?" Harry found a piece of paper tucked in the folds and read it. "You father left this in my possesion just before he died, it's time it was returned to you. Use it well."
"Well go on then, try it on." Ron said. Harry shrugged and pulled the cloak on over himself. He saw Ron's eyes open very wide.
"Whoa!"
"What's wrong?" Harry looked down. There were no curse words that could describe this. The rest of his body had completely disappeared. He took off his glasses to make sure-- yes, it was gone. What the hell happened?
"I know what that it," Ron said. "That's an invisibility cloak!"
"I'm invisible!" Harry said. Oh, this was excellent. Excellent, excellent, excellent.
Harry always prided himself on making the best plans. And he had to say, this plan was...excellent. He'd been saying that word a lot today. The Christmas dinner, excellent, Christmas pudding, excellent, his new chess set, excellent. It was all very good. And now, the gift-recieving euphoria had worn off and he was roaming the halls with an invisibility cloak on over his Star Wars pajamas (by popular demand).
He slipped into the library and went directly to the back of the room. The Restricted Section. Possibly the first place they should have checked. He passed rows and rows of books, looking for Nicolas Flamel's name, anywhere.
"Flamel, Flamel, Flamel, Flamel..." Harry murmured, looking through the stacks. Hm...this book looks interesting... No, no, blood covered books are never interesting (Club code #5) or remotely safe. He set the lamp he had been carrying down, took the invisibility cloak off, and looked at the bottom rows of books. He pulled out a large, silvery volume and opened it up.
A piercing, bloodcurdling shriek split the silence.
"The hell?" The book was screaming! Oh, he knew this was a bad idea! How did Ron talk him into this? Harry closed the book and stuffed the book back onto the shelf. He heard footsteps coming down the corridor outside, Filch. Great, this was just getting better and better wasn't it? He grabbed the cloak and threw it over himself. Leave the lamp, you do NOT need the lamp! he chided himself inwardly. But it was pitch dark without it. Oh well. Suddenly he heard a meow behind him and accidently knocked over the lamp. Guess that was out.
Harry ran out of the library and narrowly missed running into Filch. Hey, look, it was Snape...and Quirrell... Snape was holding Quirrell up in a very "give me your lunch money" manner and talking to him in a low voice. Harry backed into an unused classroom and shut the door quietly and locked it. He took the cloak off and panted, this just reminded him on how little exercise he was getting. He was probably fat too.
It was a few seconds before Harry really started to look around the room and finally noticed the big mirror leaning against the wall. He raised an eyebrow and started towards the mirror. He looked up at the top and saw an inscription.
Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi
"What is that? French?" Harry asked himself. He looked in the mirror and was surprised to see at least ten others looking back at him. He looked behind him. No one was there. Then he looked in the mirror again. People. A woman was standing behind him with bright green eyes. Harry's eyes. Harry's mother? And a tall man next to her with untidy hair, just like Harry's, and glasses. Harry blinked and rubbed his eyes to make sure he was really seeing this. He stood there for a while, just looking at the people in the mirror, his family. This was crazy.
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A/N: Okay, yes, the end of this chapter here. Hope you all liked it. PS: This is the first ever time that Fi and Felan have really 'separated' in the story. Fi poisons Felan and leaves him behind (to some degree). It took a while to get this chapter out, for a while there I was without bunny (as in the plot). Ah, yes, and we bring a new muse to our ranks.
(Nori: Who is it?)
Her name is Clio and she's an actual muse.
(Clio: The hell...?)
I kidnapped her from Greece.
(Slaith: That's a hell of a long way for a story.)
Yeah, well I wanted some gyros. So anyways, enough with me having a chat with the muses in my head. IN THE NEXT CHAPTER!
Having a fight: The author speeds through the rest of Christmas break, Fi pays a little visit to Hogwarts (but not exactly to see Harry), Felan pays a little visit to Hogwarts (to see Harry) and Mafalda Caolaidhe (guess where I got the name from,).
COOKIES AND MILK TO ALL REVIEWERS!!! Make me a happy writer, review.
PS: Oh yes, about the Series of Unfortunate events movie. I think they're only releasing it in America right now (maybe maybe not). But I think it's going to be good. And the tribute was when Felan accidently shoved Violet who was carrying ribs out of the way. Yes, stupid tribute, I know. And if you look closely in this chapter, theres a bit more (Slaith: Stupid, painful) foreshadowing to be seen. But it's really out of the way in there.