A/N: I'm so pleased that people were willing to indulge my rant about 'people who hate Harry/Ginny fics', and I promise it won't happen again. I'd just like to take this moment to reiterate the fact that this will not be a romance story, nor will my sequel. However, letting me know when I've more than reached my limit for 'level of romance' in a given chapter has been much appreciated. Thanks!
I-Can't-Believe-I-Forgot-Gryffindor Disclaimer: Those not worthy of commendation will never recieve reward. I am, unfortunately, just such a person, especially since I forgot the noble house of Gryffindor when writing my previous Disclaimers.
Chapter Twenty-six –
Christmas Eve
Molly's decision to do an early Christmas for Remus's sake had met well with most of the people in Grimmauld Place. The Grangers had promised to spend Christmas Eve and the morning after with Mrs. Granger's brother. Hermione was invited to go with them to see her uncle, and was pleased that she wouldn't be missing out on the festivities at Grimmauld place.
She was a little sorry that she would have to miss out on 'hide and seek' for this month, but promised that she would work on convincing her parents that it was too dangerous for her to spend the night at her uncle's house. Otherwise she would be able to join in again next month.
Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Granger spent the entire morning preparing food for the feast. Mrs. Granger was so absolutley enthralled with the simplicity of the thing when one could use magic to speed it along that she wouldn't let anyone else help.
"Isn't it amazing? She can make gravy come out of the end of her wand!" Mrs.Granger told her husband that morning while they carefully set the long table for eighteen. "I'm eagerly anticipating clean up afterwards. Molly says she can make the dishes wash themselves! Oh, I can't wait until Hermione is of age! She'll be able to do so many interesting things!"
Harry had offered to help them after his lesson with Remus, but Mrs. Weasley insisted that everything had already been done, so now he was just sitting at the end of the table, perusing the front page of the Daily Prophet.
"Mrs. Weasley..." he began tentatively, putting down his paper. He hadn't really been reading it anyway. "Is... er... Is Percy going to be here?"
She nodded with excitement. "Of course! He should be here any minute. He's so eager to see you again."
"Is he?" he asked. "I sort of thought he might be afraid of me."
"Nonsense!" she said, plunking a pound of butter on the table. "He's right happy to be coming over, and he's heard that you'll be here. He wants to thank you, you know."
"Oh." Harry said stupidly. "Is he feeling all right?"
Molly looked a little sad for a second. "He has slow moments every now and then."
Harry was thinking about the Longbottoms. Was Percy like them? Completely lucid one second, then horribly confused the next? He hadn't been that way when Harry had seen him in St. Mungos, but then he'd seemed quite disoriented at the time anyhow.
He was not really looking forward to seeing Percy, and he promised himself that he would avoid him as much as possible.
"Is he back at work?"
She nodded. "He was given medical leave for a few months, but he's back on part time. He's found it difficult to keep evrything quiet, apparently. Everywhere he goes, people are asking him details, so he's made up a nice story to tell them all. He told me just last week that he's almost started to believe himself! Isn't that funny?"
Harry didn't think so, but he nodded.
"Oh! I forgot the bread!" Mrs. Weasley turned back to the oven, and pulled out a nicely browned loaf. "Bit crustier than I'd intended, but it'll be nice to have some fresh white out for the meal." She plopped that on the long table as well, and bustled out of the room.
Fifteen minutes later, people began to arrive. Percy and Mister Weasley were a part of the group, and now that Harry had a chance to see him up close, Percy looked quite healthy and talkative. He embraced Harry heartily, and thanked him, as Mrs. Weasley had forewarned, then moved off to sit atone end of the long table. Harry gave a sigh of relief, but stayed as far down the end of the table away from him for the meal.
Luckily enough, Ron and the rest of the pack decided to sit near to him, including Remus, and the conversations flitted easily between them, keeping them all distracted. Mrs. and Mr. Longbottom sat just on the other side of Neville, but in order for them to hear anything they would need to yell, so they were able to keep their dinner chat nearly completely private.
Halfway through the meal, Harry noticed that Snape was there, sitting opposite Percy at the other end of the table. He wondered briefly why Snape wasn't spending time with his own family, then he realized that Snape likely didn't have any other family. He pointed him out to everyone else in a whisper, and most of them shrugged, except for Ron, who scowled at the sight.
"I hope he doesn't stay the evenings anymore after this." He grumbled. "I hate running into him in the hallway upstairs. He's always telling me off. Mum says that he's 'got to hold up his front, or people will think he's gone soft.'"
"He still won't look at me." Harry mumbled. "Mind you, I haven't really been trying to catch his attention, but it's almost like he's afraid I'm going to break into his mind again."
"Again?" Remus interrupted. "You've done it before? I thought you looked into his pensieve."
"I did. That was a different time." Harry ended up telling the story of his recent foray into Snape's mind, which, he remembered to mention, wasn't exactly a unique incident, since it had happened at the beginning of the school year too.
Harry could tell that Remus was finding it difficult not to laugh. He'd never really liked Snape, but it wasn't something he would publicize. "I reckon your mind skills are close to outstripping his. He can't have enjoyed that thought."
"What?" Harry asked, feeling both confused and proud. "You mean I'm better at occlumency than he is?"
Remus thought about it for a moment while he chewed Molly's delicious stuffing. "Probably not better, but just different. You've shown yourself to have something of a natural talent. Perhaps it's just not the same as the ability he has."
Harry didn't really understand how Occlumency and Legilimency could be different for different people, but he nodded. "Or he might not have been prepared to have to defend himself against me at the time. I wasn't exactly all that good at the subject in those lessons he was giving me."
All of the pack was looking down the end of the table at the same time, and Snape looked up at them.
They all turned away quickly, but it was obvious that Snape knew they had been talking about him. He sneered and glared at each one of them in turn. Each of them, except Harry of course.
Harry tried to let his mind wander after that, and attempted to listen in on some of the other conversations that flitted around the table.
"I'm going to be taking the year off from Romania, to come and work at the Welsh Wizarding History Museum!" Charlie announced gleefully to his parents.
"They need a curator for the dragon exhibits, and my name came up as being quite knowledgeable on the subject."
"That's wonderful Charlie! Will you be home much then?"
"I can be nearby for awhile and commute to Wales every day."
Harry nearly scoffed. Charlie would probably be apparating to work. It wouldn't exactly be a hard 'commute' for him.
0 0 0 0 0
Christmas morning, or rather the morning of the twenty-third which was Mrs. Weasley's version of Christmas morning, Harry woke at the behest of Ron and Neville to find a large pile of gifts at the foot of his bed.
"C'mon Harry! Presents!" Neville yelled at him, tearing into the pile at the foot of his own bed. "Ron! What were you thinking!?" He giggled, holding up a rubber toad that squeaked when he squeezed it and a purple puppy chew rope.
Harry laughed at the look on Neville's face. He had the expression that said that very deep down he appreciated the gift, but didn't want to admit it.
"I thought Wrinkles might want a few toys." Ron admitted, clutching at his stomach to hold in the laughter.
Harry was curious about his own gift from Ron now, so he tore into a lumpy package wrapped in Tuesday's edition of the daily prophet.
"Ron this is great!" Harry chuckled. Inside the wrapper was a small ceramic figurine of a tall black haired man and a lion. The man was obviously wearing circus attire and held a long whip, which he brandished fiercely, cracking it into the air. As Harry watched, the man slowly approached the lion, whispering silently to the creature, and holding his hand out as if to stop the creature lunging at him. The trainer moved to stand right in front of his pet, and patted the lion's mane in comfort as he slowly lowered his head down to place it daringly inside the lion's open mouth.
The man pulled back with a grand smile, and took a bow, and all three boys applauded the little figurine's circus act.
"Think of the money you could make!" Neville laughed, pointing to the lion trainer, who was obviously expecting a standing ovation, as he was still bowing.
"I don't think the lion is the one that makes all of the money Neville." Harry corrected him ruefully.
They all received Weasley jumpers, and Ron donned his immediately, since it was bright orange and had a roughly attempted Chudley Cannons emblem on the front. It looked horrible, but no one could convince Ron of this. In fact it sometimes seemed that Ron wanted to look as ludicrous as possible just to disgust Hermione. Every time she saw him that day, she winced, and had to turn away. Harry had the distinct impression that Ron knew exactly what he was doing.
0 0 0 0 0
"Goodbye Ron, Ginny." It was the afternoon of the twenty-fourth, and Mrs. Weasley kissed her children goodbye as she stood in the doorway. "See that you behave yourselves for Mr. Lupin." She added fiercely. She gave Remus, who was standing back in the kitchen doorway, a hard look, and it went without saying that he would be dead in the morning if she heard that he had done anything to harm her children.
"We will, mum." Ron assured her, practically pushing her out of the door behind a furiously scowling Mr. Weasley.
Neither one of them had looked at all happy when they heard of Ron and Ginny's intentions to stay behind with Remus on the night of the full moon. It had been taken for granted by the rest of the Order that Remus was now to be given the run of the house every full moon, unless he was somehow able to procure the Wolfsbane potion, which apparently hadn't happened since September. He'd secretly slipped off to Hogwarts last month with no one being the wiser, but he was as always, strapped for cash again, so the wolfsbane was unavailable.
Mrs. Weasley had thrown something of a fit when she learned of her children's intentions to share the house with a full-grown werewolf for the night.
Hermione had been over at her uncle's house for the day, celebrating Christmas, and to her relief her parents had given her permission to come back for the night. She'd used the excuse that her younger cousins were asking her questions they probably shouldn't, and they'd let her come. Hermione was more than anxious to return and join the pack, but she'd had to promise that she would return the next morning for more presents.
Ron and Harry had quite a few doubts about just how much Hermione had told her parents about the evenings planned activites. If she had revealed her true intentions, Mr. and Mrs. Granger might have thrown just as much of a fit as Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were as they were being ushered out the door.
The door was finally shut, and the hallway was silent.
"So, what shall we do for now?" Luna asked cheerily, as if she were awaiting a fine day at the fair.
"Well, we haven't eaten dinner yet..." said Harry, although he knew that it was still reasonably early for the mealtime.
"What about a Chess tourney?" Ron asked, and Ginny rolled her eyes.
"I don't care what we do, as long as it keeps me occupied." Remus said, looking grim. "The less I think about this evening the better."
"All right." Harry said. "Let's go into the kitchen and have some games then."
"Right, I'll get the chessboard, and my exploding snap packs." Ron rushed upstairs, and everyone else filed into the kitchen.
They found themselves doing much more talking than playing. Hermione, Ginny and Luna sat comfortably on one side of the table messing about with Crookshanks, who was chasing a shoelace on the floor. Ron, Harry, Remus and Neville sat on the other side, methodically building an exploding snap card castle.
Remus was acting quite young and childish to their surprise, and even cheered raucously when the card castle blew up for the eighth time. Harry was surprised by how healthy he looked, and how much energy he seemed to exhude. So far, any time that Harry had seen him the night before a full moon, he'd always looked a mess. Harry hoped that he and his friends might take some of the credit for their new packmate's good health.
Before they knew it, it was nearing ten-o'clock when the moon was supposed to rise, and they hadn't even eaten a bite of dinner. None of them had even thought about the possibility of food.
"Good luck." Said Harry to Remus just before he changed into Greymane.
Remus only had a minute or so to ponder the imminent transformation, before he began gasping, and his body stretched down into that of the werewolf.
The animal games that evening were far more elaborate than the simple 'Hide-and-seek' of their first outing. Of course, for Stickyfoot's sake they played a few rounds, as it was now her favourite game.
They'd had plenty of time beforehand to plan out their quests, and much to Greymane and Sabertooth's immense pleasure, Luna had included a rather ripping game of 'find the catnip'. The gecko, the owl, or the dogs would hide a small pouch of sweet smelling bliss somewhere in the house, then the cats would have to fight each other to see who could reach it first.
It all went to shambles, however when they realized that Crookshanks had discovered their tenth hiding spot, and had torn into the pouch with enthusiasm, and spread the contents liberally about the second floor.
It's mine. I can do with it what I want. He had told Sabertooth and Greymane, hissing, when they growled at him angrily. They both leapt back in surprise when they heard him speak their dialect. He continued when he saw that they had apparently understood him. It was my Christmas present. Hermione borrowed it from me, then lent it to Luna last night, and I wanted it back. I do so enjoy my catnip. He purred, rolling over onto his back, and neither of the Jungle cats had the heart to get too angry with him after that.
Besides which, they could still smell the herb all over the second floor, and it was quite heavenly.
When Eyespy caught sight of the apparent converation between the three cats, she went nearly berserk, and flapped excitedly out the window. She returned no less than twenty minutes later with both Hedwig and Pigwidgeon close on her tail.
Apparently the owls could all talk to each other too, if the excited hooting and flapping was anything to go by, and Greymane wondered what Hermione was learning about his faithful pet. He made a mental note to ask her about their conversations afterward.
In the meantime, they had Moony to consider.
Eyespy had prepared an elaborate game of fetch, which included her and the other owls dropping water bombs and various heavy objects including Wrinkles' new squeaky toad from the fourth floor landing, and watching with unsurpressed glee as the three canines ran yelping after them.
Wrinkles had a tendency to run easily down the top three steps, then just let the momentum carry him down all three flights of stairs. Even after getting a faceful of water on the first landing, he continued to roll down the last flight -barking at nothing- and slammed excitedly face-first into the opposite wall of the entrance hall. He didn't look hurt, and shook it off happily with his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth.
Moony got very competitive in the end, and went quickly past the other two, batting them aside with his paws, once accidentally sending Sidetrack flying over the side banister of the stairway.
Sidetrack landed on his rear end on the hardwood floor of the entrace hall, and let out a pained yelp, tucking his red and white tail between his legs, and whining in pain.
Moony had apologized profusely to Sidetrack's annoyance, by licking the fox' ears, showering slobber all over his head. He was obviously concered at what Mrs. Weasley would say if she found out what he had done. Sidetrack shuffled forwards and shook himself off, looking reasonably unharmed and quite disgusted with Moony's extra attention. He butted the wolf in the leg with his head to tell him to stop worrying.
The games might have continued after this, except that Moony's ears suddenly flattened to the side of his head, and he let out a fierce growl.
No one could figure out what had set him off. Werewolves only reacted this way to a human presence didn't they?
Sidetrack and Wrinkles laid their ears back too, and began barking and yipping at the front door, and everyone else knew immediately that this was no joke. Someone had decided to come home to Grimmauld place. Someone stupid, and incredibly forgetful.
At three o'clock in the morning?
The handle began to turn, and Greymane leapt towards the snarling werewolf. He felt a slash of angry claws across his chest, and roared in pain. He felt more than saw Sabertooth enter the fray from the side, and together, they were able to push Moony back beyond the kitchen door.
"Oy! What's all this then?"Around all the snarling and yipping and biting and hooting, Greymane heard a distinctive human voice back in the entranceway. "Oooch! Gerroff cat! Ruddy birds! What is this place, A bloody zoo?!"
The sounds of the fight in the kitchen were either ignored, or they were inaudible to the newcomer, and Greymane desperately pressed Moony to the floor, holding him tight, and feeling the back claws scrabbling a his legs. Sabertooth moved quickly to help, and her front paws joined Greymane's on the squirming wolf's heaving chest.
Moony growled and snapped his teeth in total abandonment of his senses, and tossed both Greymane and Sabertooth aside like discarded rags. Sabertooth hit the wall hard and lay still on the floor. Greymane skidded to a halt, just at the top of the basement steps. Moony made for the doorway to the hall, exploding into the entranceway and Greymane raced after him, pouncing on the werewolf's back, rolling them both up against the base of the first flight of stairs.
For a moment, Moony was stunned below him, so Greymane turned to the door, and roared angrily at the shocked form of Mundungus Fletcher.
He had arrived swaying drunkenly, and had been yelling loudly at the clinging form of Crookshanks who had attached himself to a trouser leg with his sharp claws. Mundungus' arms were waving madly, trying to bat away the three owls circling and pecking at his head. Wrinkles had the other trouser leg in his teeth, and was growling and snorting as he pulled the distracted man back towards the door. Sidetrack was yipping angrily, and biting at the booted feet, making the man dance jerkily.
When Moony and Greymane rolled into the hall fighting each other tooth and nail, Mundungus physically leapt in the air at the sight. He stared for a moment with mounting panic in his eyes, watching with total bewilderment until Sabertooth also came limping towards him out of the shadows, growling threateningly.
Suddenly the other animals attacking his ankles and flapping in his face became insignificant. The animals ceased their attack once they noticed Mundungus beginning to understand, and knowing that their work was complete.
Fletcher grabbed drunkenly at the doorhandle behind him, just as the recovering Moony brushed Greymane violently aside, and was getting to his feet. He stood up on his hind legs, looking stunningly like the Egyptian god Anubis, and let out a horrible scream, throwing himself at the man who stood in the entrance hall. Mundungus shrieked, scurrying backwards and he slammed the door shut on his way out, just barely escaping the frenzied wolf's claws and teeth, and scuttled out into the night, yelling obscenities at the thumping door as he went.
Moony slammed his body against the panelled black door, and howled loudly. He threw himself bodily at the door once more, scrabbling desperately at it with his extended claws, before he collapsed, quivering, at its base.
Sabertooth and Greymane winced as they limped forward to placate the terrified werewolf. Sidtrack yipped loudly at the door, and even Stickyfoot from her spot on the ceiling could understand the angry fox.
AND STAY OUT!!!
