Rose Potter had barely begun to eat her breakfast when the mail owls started their deliveries. There were more owls in the air than she had expected, and today was not the first day for it. A third year girl had explained the phenomenon - it was the first week of December. Between parents making holiday plans with their children and gifts being ordered via mail owl, there was bound to be an increase in mail.
It had not bothered Rose overmuch. Her Hogwarts letters had been the only owl mail she had ever received. Everyone she would write to was sitting here in the great hall, except for three gryffindors and a ravenclaw - and owls didn't exactly transport mail across parallel universes.
Hedwig's annoyance at being disused was remedied only when Rose offered her to Hermione and Daphne, for their mail. Daphne had her own owl, of course, but send quite a few letters home - mostly to her sister. Hermione only wrote her parents, but reported that they appreciated that she still kept them involved in her life.
Rose had smiled at that, before asking if she had told them about the troll that broke into the school, or about their creepy possessed Defense professor. Hermione simply huffed at that, drawing chuckles from Daphne and Tracey Davis, as well as some of her own housemates.
Ignoring the letters and packages, Rose turned back to her charms text, only to find an older brown owl sitting on the table, staring at her. It offered the letter on its leg, waiting. Rose looked at Tracey, then over at Daphne. Tracey's eyes were wide with surprise, but she said nothing - perhaps she recognizes the owl? Rose thought. Daphne's expression was, as always, unreadable. She merely nodded toward the letter.
Rose took the envelope, looking at the beautifully precise script on its face. Rose Lillian Potter, it read. Slytherin House. She did not notice the owl hop down the table to her left, nor did she see her steal a piece of bacon from Daphne's plate before flying away.
Turning the letter over, she saw the wax seal. It was a simple design, a grass-covered hill overlooking what appeared to be ocean waves. A stylized G was set into the hill, off-center. With another glance at Daphne, Rose broke the seal and took out the letter.
4 December 1991
Rose Potter
Slytherin House
Hogwarts
Heiress Potter,
Congratulations on the imminent completion of your first term at Hogwarts. I hope that you have found the castle to be as much a home to you as I did during my years in Ravenclaw, so long ago. As much as I enjoyed being at Hogwarts, however, sometimes I looked forward to leaving the castle even more. The Yule holidays were such a time.
My daughter has written at length about your shared adventures, and her accounts speak well of you. I get the impression from her letters that you have no firm plans for the upcoming holiday. If that is the case, I would like to extend an invitation to spend the holidays with our family at Greengrass Manor. We are accessible via floo, should you need to return to your home at any point during the break, but from Daphne's telling I suspect that will be unnecessary.
Your mother was a close friend of mine during our Hogwarts years. She stood with me at my wedding, and helped watch Daphne while I recovered from the birth. She is missed.
I would very much like to get to know her daughter.
You need only advise Daphne as to your plans; if she brings you with her on the train, then we will happily welcome you.
Yours,
Selena Greengrass, the Lady Greengrass
Rose looked over at Daphne, who was (for once) not disguising the fact that she was watching her read the letter. A smirk played across Rose's features, as she raised an eyebrow. "Adventures?"
Daphne smiled. "I have no idea what you mean, Miss Potter."
Shaking her head, Rose folded the letter neatly and reached for her bag. "Well, she could be referring to the time you and I defeated the Defense professor." She gave Daphne a thoughtful look. "Or it might be the time we hexed Draco so badly he missed an afternoon of classes."
"I heard about that," said Tracey. "Which curse did you use?"
Daphne snorted. Rose turned, grinning. "We didn't. But I did wave my wand at him and mutter an incantation. Then Daphne clapped suddenly and said 'Oh, you got it to work! And colorless, too!' her outburst sold it. Madam Pomfrey took 10 points from him because she thought he was wasting her time just to get out of class, while he was convinced that he had been hit with some sort of wasting curse."
"So what was the incantation?"
Rose looked back at Daphne, who answered. "Bitto Ochiru, I believe." Off Tracey's puzzled look, she smiled again. "It's in Japanese. Roughly translated, it means, hmmm, I believe the translation is 'bits fall off'. We didn't tell Draco that, of course."
Tracey couldn't help laughing, as did several other Slytherins. Draco's terror that afternoon had not gone unnoticed.
The next evening, Rose joined the rest of the five to discuss their holiday plans. Chaser Potter and Spellforged, both of whom had grown up in loving homes, were shocked to learn that this would be the first real Christmas for the other three. Spellforged's resolve to get them away from the Dursleys got that much stronger, when he learned that.
Rose's invitation to the Greengrasses was a surprise to the group, even though it really wasn't to her. The Slytherin in her was pleased at the opportunity to gain valuable intelligence about their parents from Lady Greengrass. In her heart, though, she was more looking forward to spending time with her only close friend in Slytherin. All of her was thrilled at the prospect of not being at the Dursleys.
Marigold shared that sentiment. Neville had hand delivered a letter for her, to her surprise. It had been an invitation to spend the holidays at the Longbottoms. His grandmother, the formidable Augusta Longbottom, had taken it on herself to continue the education that her grandson had started. Apparently, from Neville's telling, his gran had been upset when he mentioned that Marigold knew little of the wizarding world - and then pleased that Neville had begun to correct her lack. The holidays, she thought, were a time for family - and a perfect opportunity to catch her up on all that she should know as the Heiress to House Potter.
Seeker Harry, while friends with Neville, had not grown close enough to the boy to earn an invite to his home. His closest friend, Ron Weasley, would be staying in the castle with three of his brothers, and so Harry decided to stay as well. His options being the castle or the Dursleys, well, that wasn't much of a choice.
Chaser Harry would spend the holidays at home, likely with Padfoot and the Bones. He planned to get his father to teach him about both his history (to gather information about possible godparents, for the others) and about the wizengamot (to look into possible aid from other houses in the alliance). All agreed that it was way too early to begin mucking about with politics, and for Harry it wasn't on the table anyway - he would not become Lord Potter for a good long while, fates be kind. But for the others, it would be 6 or 7 years and then they'd be head of house.
If the others were jealous that he could learn at his father's side and they could not, they said nothing.
Spellforged, for his part, was ambivalent about the holiday, since Goblins had no winter festival or celebration. He would spend Christmas morning with his adoptive mother and her family before heading home, where it would be just another Wednesday.
His plans for the holiday were mainly focused on laying the groundwork for Operation Padfoot - which, at this point, consisted of figuring out a plausible reason for getting the Black family account manager to dig into the trial of Sirius Black. If the man was indeed innocent, then the conviction might be flawed somehow, and they could exploit that flaw and several goblin treaties to get him out and under veritaserum.
And if not? Well, that was useful information as well. Spellforged, while hopeful, would take no chances.
The five agreed to keep up their Friday evening conferences. But even so, they all agreed that they needed a break, and that the holiday was there for a reason. Marigold wished they could send gifts to each other - which led to Chaser Harry wondering if they might, someday, learn how to rupture space and time in order to do just that.
A prank worthy of the Marauders, he suggested.
Within 10 minutes of the train's departure, Severus Snape entered his quarters. There were only a few of his snakes remaining in the castle, all of them older students who needed no babying. He would be free to work on his potions in peace.
Something caught the Potions Master's eye, and he turned back toward his desk. There, on top of a stack of parchments yet to be graded, was a bottle of amber liquid.
After waving his wand to check for enchantments, and finding nothing but a trace of house elf magic, Snape lifted the bottle. He immediately scowled at the label.
Single Malt Scotch
Potter Distillery
Gloucester, United Kingdom
Matured in Double Casks
Aged 12 Years
"Potter indeed…" he muttered. His eyes went to the card sitting on his desk. It was, to all appearances, a muggle Christmas card. The seal was a stylized P. Opening the envelope, Snape found that he was right - it was a muggle card, depicting a snow-covered forest.
Best wishes for the coming year. With thanks for a successful term.
-PR
The Potter girl, for all her Slytherin tendencies, was not this subtle. Nor would she know how to obtain muggle scotch at the age of 11, even if it did come from one of her family's businesses. And she would not thank her head of house in this way, for that matter.
But if not her, then who? He wondered.
Professor Snape would have been even more confused if he knew that Professor McGonnagal, in three other worlds, had received an identical bottle with an identical card. As did a Professor Flitwick, who had taken a young goblin-raised wizard under his wing.
It was, in the end, a very strange beginning to the holidays.
