Chapter 26 Christmas in August
By Jelsemium
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters, I'm not trying to make a profit and I mean no disrespect towards J. K. Rowling.
Author's Note: This story is actually finished! Hooray! Thank you for your patience!
xxx ooo xxx ooo xxx ooo xxx ooo
After all the shouting was over and the injuries tended to, Madam Pomfrey had decided that she'd had enough of Harry's company.
"You're obviously fit to leave the Hospital Wing," she huffed. "Why don't you spend your last night in the castle in Gryffindor Tower?"
"Excellent suggestion, Poppy," Dumbledore said.
Madam Pomfrey gave him a look that was frosty enough to have shattered a glass dragon.
Dumbledore had the grace to look abashed. "I shall arrange things at once," he said.
So, Harry spent the night in what would be the Sixth Year's room. Remus, Tonks and Sirius decided to camp out in the Common Room.
"Not that we're expecting trouble, but this is Harry Potter," Sirius explained.
Harry threw a pillow at him.
Later that evening, the Remus and Sirius were sitting in their favorite squishy chairs in front of the fire while Tonks prowled around the room, admiring the décor.
"I always imagined the Gryffindor Common Room to be more … martial," Tonks observed. "This seems quite civilized."
"Thank you Madam Ravenclaw," Sirius said lazily. He was idly waving Lily's first wand in circles and causing colored smoke rings to float through the open portrait hole. He would have been happier with the Fat Lady on guard, or even Sir Cadogan, but there wasn't any painting available.
"The Fat Lady would have a fit," Remus said, indicating the bubbles. He was browsing through his favorite book of poetry – Lovers and Seekers – by Persephone Kore.
"Most likely," Sirius said. "Of course, if she knew I was in here, she'd have another fit. She never did like me."
"Actually, she liked you fine until you ripped her up trying to get into the Tower to murder Harry," Remus said mildly.
"Why were you trying to murder Harry?" Tonks asked.
Sirius rolled his eyes at her and did a creditable imitation of Padfoot's growl.
Tonks made a face at him. In fact, she imitated Sirius' own face.
Sirius changed into Padfoot.
Tonks made her face match Padfoot's.
Harry laughed from the staircase to the boys' dorms.
Padfoot switched back to Sirius. "What are you doing out of bed, Harry?" he demanded.
"I'm hungry," Harry said.
"You're always hungry," Sirius said with a frown.
"You must be color blind," Harry replied, running his hand through his obviously not Weasley red hair. "I'm not Ron."
"Would Harry Potter like some food?" Dobby's voice came unexpected from the open doorway.
Dobby yanked on his ears as the humans in the room yelped and jumped. "Dobby is sorry."
"Don't worry about it," Remus said politely. Before any of the others could contradict him, he changed the subject. "What would you like to eat, Harry?"
"Um, breakfast," Harry said. "Pancakes, sausage, juice…"
"Anything for Harry Potter and his friends," Dobby said. He snapped his fingers and vanished.
"Just like the old days," Sirius sighed. "Reduced to being 'just a friend' of a Potter. Reminds me of when all the girls were making eyes at your father. They would graciously allow me to tag along… sometimes."
"Obviously they had good taste," Harry said. "Except for the sometimes."
Tonks and Remus laughed.
Sirius grimaced at them.
Before he could come up with a rejoinder, however, Dobby was back with a breakfast fit for a Founder.
"Wow, thanks, Dobby," Harry said.
"Oh, my something smells good," Dumbledore's voice came from the doorway. Fawkes flew in carrying a bottle of Phoenix Fizzy. Dumbledore was carrying a bowl of assorted sweets.
"I see that I'm not the only one who was having trouble sleeping," Dumbledore said with a bright smile.
There were murmured greetings as they gathered around the food. After his hunger pangs had been somewhat abated, Harry turned to Dumbledore.
"What happened to Dr. Opal?" he asked.
"She's been sent to the new wizarding prison," Dumbledore said. "The Ministry is not so keen to use Azkaban any more, but this one will suffice. I doubt that we will have to worry about her for a while."
"Every little bit helps," Remus said with a shrug. He turned his attention to the pumpkin pasties.
"How did Opal get into Hogwarts?" Tonks asked.
Dumbledore sighed. "It was a case of me outsmarting myself," he admitted. "I moved up the date of Harry's OWLs, hoping to confound any attempts to slip in a ringer. The trouble is, the real Transfiguration examiner had already left on holiday. So she did not get the change of date notice."
"So, how did Opal know that?" Sirius asked.
Dumbledore shook his head. "I'm not sure. She may have been watching for such an opportunity. It may have been blind luck. All I know for sure is that she managed to get a bit of hair from the examiner."
"Polyjuice potion strikes again," Tonks murmured.
"Exactly," Dumbledore said. "I do owe you a rather large apology for that, Harry."
"Does that mean I don't have to go to the Dursleys' this year?" Harry asked. He didn't really think he would get out of it, but it never hurts to ask.
Dumbledore sighed.
"That sounded like a 'no' to me," Sirius said with a frown.
Dumbledore leaned back and stroked his beard. "I am afraid that you will have to go stay with your aunt and her family for a while," he said apologetically.
"I see," Harry said neutrally. A week ago, he had been ready to go back to Privet Drive. Now he was not so happy at the thought.
"But I doubt that the Weasleys will allow you to remain in durance vile for very long," Dumbledore said placatingly.
"They're the best," Sirius said absently. "I wish I could repay them somehow."
"I should give Mrs. Weasley one of my Mum's cards," Harry said. He tried to remember if he had sent a card with Ginny and Ron.
"Cards?" Remus asked.
"What cards?" Sirius added.
Harry blinked. "Oh, I almost forgot," he said.
"Almost?" Sirius smirked.
Harry looked at him sternly.
"You look so much like your mother when you do that," Remus said in admiration.
Harry sighed. "All right," he said. "I forgot to mention that I found a stack of Christmas cards in my mother's trunk."
"Is this the trunk of Harry Potter's sainted mother?" Dobby asked, appearing with Lily's trunk.
"Yes, it is," Harry said with a grin. He opened the trunk and pulled out the cards. "I gave Madam Pomfrey her card. Well, Ginny gave her the card."
"That was very thoughtful," Dumbledore said.
Harry nodded. "Ginny's very nice," he said.
He found the cards for the Marauders and Dumbledore and handed them out.
The three wizards murmured their thanks. The three of them studied their cards and put them aside. Harry guessed that they wanted some privacy to read what would be his mother's last words to them.
Harry handed a stack of cards to Dumbledore. "We're fairly certain that we have these addressed to the correct people," he said. "But we weren't sure how to deliver them. Especially the one to Frank and Alice L."
"Alice and Frank Longbottom," Dumbledore confirmed. "I'll be sure that Neville gets this."
"Thank you," Harry said. He pulled out two more bundles of cards. "We divided them into categories," he said.
"I sense Hermione's influence here," Remus said.
"Actually, it was Ron's idea," Harry replied with a small smirk.
Remus smirked a little, too. "As I said, I sense Hermione's influence."
This elicited a chuckle from the others.
Harry sobered up quickly, though. "Some of the people…" he trailed off, not knowing how to phrase the next part.
"Are no longer with us?" Remus asked.
Harry nodded. "And some are people that we don't," he hesitated again. "Well, that we don't like."
"Is there a card for Peter in there?" Sirius asked.
"Yes," Harry said. "It's in this stack," he said. He handed the stack to Remus. "We couldn't work out who some of the cards were addressed to," he continued. He held up that stack with the card to Russ S. on top.
He almost got friction burns because Sirius snatched the cards out of his hands so fast.
His Godfather made as if to toss the card to Russ S. into the fire.
"Sirius!" Remus warned.
Sirius hesitated. Then he pulled out the card before he tossed the envelope into the fire.
Lily frowned at him from the picture. Baby Harry was more interested in trying to grab his mother's earrings than in the fate of the envelope that had been their home for so long.
"Your Mum never understood how much Snape hated her for marrying your Dad," Sirius said. He handed the card to Tonks.
Tonks studied the card curiously. "Your mother was very pretty," she observed.
"Thank you," Harry said.
"May I keep this?" she asked.
"Erm, ah, sure," Harry said, hoping he wasn't blushing.
The older wizards didn't say anything, but Sirius smirked a little.
Firelight sparkled off Dumbledore's spectacles as the Headmaster watched the envelope turn to ash. "I expect that Professor Snape would not have wanted a picture of you, no matter what your age," he said in a tired voice.
"Probably not," Remus said. He studied the envelope with "Peter P." written on it for several moments as if debating whether he should throw that envelope into the fire.
For a while, the only sounds were Remus and Sirius shuffled through the cards, identifying the ones that Madam Pomfrey had not been able to.
"Odd," Remus said after a while.
"What?" Sirius said. He raised his head and shook his long hair out of his eyes.
"There isn't a card for Hagrid," Remus said. "Did you already give it to him?"
Harry blinked. "Wait, there's one for him but it didn't fit into any of the stacks," he said. He dug into the trunk again and pulled out the oversized card marked "R. Hagrid."
"There are several cards in here that aren't addressed to anybody," Harry said. "Oh, and there's an empty envelope addressed to the Headmaster."
"Oh, can I have that?" Tonks asked. She held up her card to indicate why she wanted an empty envelope.
"Sure," Harry said. He passed the card over to her.
Tonks started to slip her card into the envelope, and then she frowned. "I thought you said this was empty?"
"Erm, well, I didn't look," Harry admitted.
Tonks passed the envelope to Dumbledore. "There's something in there," she said.
Curious, Dumbledore pulled out a small slip of paper. Fawkes hopped on to his shoulder to try to read it. Dumbledore gave him a stern look, but the phoenix was unfazed.
Dumbledore turned his attention back to the note and his eyes grew wide.
The others, not used to seeing such an obvious reaction from Dumbledore, sat up straight.
"What?" Harry demanded.
Dumbledore cleared his throat. "Dear Sir, James would be furious if he knew I was writing this, but I would feel easier in my mind if you, at least, knew of our change in plans."
Sirius paled.
"The boys were convinced by your last letter that using Sirius as our secret keeper would be too obvious, so we have decided to use Peter instead."
"Oh. My. God," Harry said. "That's been sitting at the foot of my bed for over a year now! I could have lost it. I almost threw it away…" He felt nauseated.
"Stop, Harry," Remus interrupted. "You couldn't have known this was in your mother's trunk."
"I could have looked…" Harry trailed off.
"I don't think it would have been wise," Dumbledore said. "You had enough on your mind without this as well."
"So, Sirius has been vindicated, right?" Harry said. "He doesn't have to hide any more? I don't have to go back to the Dursleys, right?"
"It's not that easy, my boy," Dumbledore said.
Harry thumped his forehead with his fist, reminding himself of Dobby. "It never is," he muttered gloomily.
"Somebody has to get this not into the correct hands at the Ministry," Dumbledore explained.
"And it can't be you because…?" Harry asked.
"I might be accused of forging his letter," Dumbledore said. "Fudge isn't exactly fond of me right now." The Headmaster studied the note thoughtfully.
"I suppose it's out of the question for me to tell the Minister that I found the trunk in my Aunt's attic," Harry said.
"Well, yes," Dumbledore said. "You aren't exactly favored by the current administration. We need somebody that we can trust, and whom the Ministry will also trust. Someone who would have a good reason to have this note and not realize it."
"My father, perhaps?" Sirius suggested. "He and Lily got along, in spite of the fact that Mother didn't like her." He thought that over. "Or maybe because she didn't like her."
Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, I think your father would be the perfect person to find this misplaced letter."
"Won't people question him?" Tonks asked.
"Oh, no doubt," Dumbledore said. "But there isn't anyone we can pick who would be both logical and above suspicion. However, Rigel Black and I have never been on the best of terms, and my handing Sirius over to the Ministry did not endear me to him." he shot Sirius an apologetic glance.
"Yes, you do owe me for that," Sirius said with a faint grin.
"I expect to be paying that debt for a while," Dumbledore said. In spite of his elaborate sigh of resignation, the Headmaster didn't actually sound sorry.
"Maybe you should offer him a job," Remus said with a faint grin. "I understand that you are looking for a new history professor."
Sirius rolled his eyes. "Please, history has to be the most boring subject in, well, history."
"But just think, none of your students would fall asleep in class," Tonks said with a smirk.
"They'd be too afraid of being eaten," Harry added with a straight face.
Sirius gave him a dirty look. "I don't have to take you in, you know," he said. "You could live with the Dursleys next summer."
Harry's shudder wasn't entirely feigned.
"You'll be all right with them for this summer, won't you?" Sirius asked worriedly.
Harry nodded. "Oh, yes," he said. "Especially as it won't be for very long." He looked at Dumbledore.
"I expect that the Weasleys will want to have Harry stay with them for part of the summer," Dumbledore agreed.
"You won't be too uncomfortable or bored?" Sirius asked anxiously.
Harry shook his head. "Aunt Petunia and I renovated the attic into a bedroom," he said. "It's actually quite nice." He looked at his mother's trunk. "And you never know what treasures you might find hidden in an attic."