Christmas and New Year

It was 6:00 on Christmas morning when Harry was woken by a wet nose burrowing into his neck. When he jumped up, he saw his godfather in his animagus form acting as though he was a puppy given to a new boy.

As happy has he was staying with Sirius and to have a real Christmas with family, it was far too early. "Padfoot. It's too early!"

The black dog morphed into a grinning Sirius Black. "It's Christmas!"

Despite himself, Harry grinned. "Fine. I'm getting up." Sirius left and Harry got himself out of bed. He heard Sirius making a ruckus in Remus' room and he couldn't help but laugh evilly.

Soon, those present were downstairs around the tree which was lit up with small fairies.

Harry felt a bit overwhelmed with the size of his pile of gifts. For too many years he had watched Dudley getting a mountain of gifts and he himself had gotten very little.

He hoped his friends liked the gifts he had sent. He had sent mostly toys, books, and sweets – with a few special t-shirts for Luna. He had also sent a quill set to Percy (with a thank you for letting him play Slytherin) and an assortment of spices for Mrs. Weasley. The containers held more than was obvious and the unused portions were kept under a stasis charm. Hopefully, they would last a long time.

Harry was looking forward to playing the Scrabble game he sent to Hermione along with a two-volume miniaturized set of the Oxford English Dictionary. He knew he would be beaten as much as he was certain that Ron would beat him in chess, but sometimes it was about playing the game.

Albus Dumbledore was enjoying himself quite a lot as he ate breakfast at Hogwarts. He was wearing the splendid socks he had gotten from Harry Potter, the slippers he had gotten from Neville Longbottom, the earmuffs he had gotten from Susan Bones, and the wonderful sweater he had gotten from the Weasleys. Strictly speaking, the earmuffs and sweater were a bit much for indoors – but he had been so ecstatic to get gifts that were not books that he went quite overboard.

After the late night on Christmas Eve, he planned on spending the morning lazing about before visiting various people later that day.

With no students staying at Hogwarts, he didn't have any duties he had to take care of. Except for Rubeus, Argus, and Severus, he was quite alone for Christmas if he stayed in the castle.

Over the next days, Albus was seen more by "average" witches and wizards more than he had been seen in decades. Many considered that it was good to see the old wizard acting more like a regular person and less like a hermit.

Albus also, surprising many, accepted the normally pro-forma invitation sent by the Malfoy family to attend their New Years Eve Party.

Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were standing in their front parlour, receiving guests as they appeared. They were quite nervous but hiding it quite well. Suddenly, the floo lit up green and a man appeared in the flame. They stood straighter as the venerable Headmaster of Hogwarts appeared out of the flame with a smile. As the Malfoys approached, the watched as the Headmaster casually removed the ash from his clothes.

"Headmaster Dumbledore. Welcome to Malfoy Manor. Your acceptance of our invitation came as a surprise," Lucius said.

"Thank you. I know that I have, in the past, tended to avoid such functions but I have recently … come to a new understanding. My heartfelt apologies for any slight I may have given for seemingly ignoring the invitations of the past." He looked around. "I will say that your home is as beautiful as all reports indicated, and perhaps more so."

Lucius and Narcissa thanked him and completed the fairly ritual acceptance of a guest with a promise of safety during his stay.

Many guests indicated their surprise at his unexpected attendance, although it was kept very polite: It would be less than cunning to get into an argument and it would be insulting to the hosts.

Albus, shockingly, managed to make himself less than noticeable. As a result, a few guests who got further into their cups were much freer with their comments than they would have been otherwise.

One said, "Our world would be in much better shape if Grindelwald hadn't have been defeated in 45!"

The room was shocked when the discussion was interrupted by a loud chuckle. Everyone looked over and noticed the man that most had forgotten was present: Albus Dumbledore. And it was he who had the amused look on his face. He could see Severus Snape in the background discretely pinch his nose at the stupidity of the wizard who had spoken.

"What's so funny?" the drunk wizard asked.

"I am amused by your statement. I happen to disagree."

The drunk man had then noticed exactly who he was accosting and so he tried to be more polite as he replied, "How can you disagree? Grindlewald was working for Wizardkind. We would have been safer from Muggles if he had won."

"Actually, as the man who had to take Gellert down and out of the fight, I believe I know a little more of the circumstances. And I can state that your assumption is 100 percent incorrect." Albus was quite calm under the scrutiny of those who watched him.

Lucius was actually curious. "I assume you objected to his casual use of the Dark arts."

Albus replied, "Actually, I truly understand why he did as he did. I just believe that he was entirely wrong in his assumptions as well as his goals."

"He was fighting Muggle influence!" another wizard said. "Even if you think that Muggles are superior, many old families don't agree."

Albus looked at the man in surprise. "You think that I believe that the non-Magicals are superior?"

"It's obvious from you disdain for the old ways!"

The room was shocked when Albus chuckled again. "I think that, perhaps, you need a bit more information. Were any of you aware that in my youth I personally knew Gellert Grindelwald?"

The room was taken aback. Lucius replied, "No. We were not aware."

"Oh, yes. As a matter of fact, we were friends - the closest of friends. We had many long discussions regarding the idea of a benevolent supremacy of wizards over the non-Magicals. We considered them so violent that it could not help be an improvement if wizards ruled them. However, later circumstances would prove that his thinking quite flawed."

"And what circumstances were those, if I may be so bold?" Narcissa Malfoy asked.

Albus Dumbledore took on a very serious look. "The death of my sister."

The room was shocked. Narcissa asked very gently, "How did she die?"

Albus sat back and took on a sorrowful look. "When I was just graduated, Gellert worked to convince me to go off with him to learn more and to make plans for how we would implement our ideas. However, my younger brother rightly admonished me. Our parents had died and my sister, who had been attacked by non-Magicals when she was a child, suffered greatly from the trauma that resulted. It was one reason I so agreed with the idea of Wizards controlling the non-Magicals. As the head of our family, I was responsible for ensuring she was properly taken care of and could not go with him on his quest. Gellert objected and a duel ensued. In that duel, my sister was killed and Gellert ran off. I finally saw that Gellert's seeming benevolence was a sham – he was only interested in power and did not care who was harmed in his efforts to achieve it."

Albus looked around. "How many Pureblood families were lost in the conflict against Gellert Grindelwald?"

Those present considered that. "Many," one finally said. "Thousands."

"And you disdain the idea of new magical blood coming into our world because their parents are Muggles? Perhaps it is Magic's way of ensuring we survive. Or perhaps it is the return of lost magic to the squibs we kick out of our world."

Lucius asked with a slightly startled look, "Do you truly believe that?"

Albus chuckled. "Over the Yule break, I found a purported Muggleborn who, through Gringotts, found she was the inheritor of a legacy from a family thought dead. I wonder how many Muggleborn are truly the children of squibs. Perhaps it is more than we know." He paused. "My mother was a Muggleborn. It might be interesting to see what can be found of her ancestors."

One of the Purebloods said, "We would be interested to see the results of such an inquiry." Considering the acknowledged power of Dumbledore, his mother being squib-born rather than Muggleborn was, perhaps, more palatable.

Albus nodded. "But we were discussing the conflict with Gridelwald and its results. Gellert claimed he was working for the good of Wizardkind but he destroyed much Magical blood. That should be a sign of exactly what his intent was. His actions were catastrophic."

"We have had many such conflicts in our history. You can't claim that it was worse than another," the originator of the discussion said.

Albus nodded. "That conflict, along with the conflict with Voldemort, has almost destroyed our future. Do you know why we need to understand Muggles better? During the war we had with Grindelwald, his Muggle ally Hitler also had a war. We lost perhaps 5000 wizards. The Muggles lost 75 Million in total. And still there were over two and half billion who survived … 25 hundred million. The number of Muggles is now closer to six billion. The conflict forced them to learn new techniques and new technologies. They can now communicate to anyone in the world in seconds with the push of a few buttons. The Muggles can kill a hundred thousand at the touch of a single button. The Muggles can record the empty streets and we would never see them, thus allowing them a hint of what is happening under their noses. They are starting to record even what happens in their homes. And if there are three million Magicals in the world, the Muggles outnumber us 2000 to 1. For every wizard, 2000 Muggles. Can we really stop them if they gather a concerted effort against us? We can't kill them all. We can't control them all. And trying to do so would mean they would band against us. Understanding them means we can keep ourselves from being overrun by them. Ladies and Gentlewizards: We learn how to live amongst them unnoticed or our world will be destroyed utterly. Such is my reason for promoting Muggle terminology and concepts. So that we can better hide ourselves."

Albus had learned much in his old world and this world was quite similar. He did not like talking about the loss of his sister but this was the only way he could see to inform the old families that he was not the naïve fool that his alternate had painted a picture of by his actions.

Finally, Albus added on last comment. "And the true shame of the more recent conflict was that its instigator was such a hypocrite."

One of the Purebloods said with some heat, "You call the Dark Lord a hypocrite?"

Albus took on a look like steel. "I do. He claimed he was trying to cleanse our world of Muggle influence. That he was trying to uplift those Pure of blood. In truth, he only cared for his own power. And he wasn't even a Pureblood himself, as I told the Wizengamot this summer."

"He was a Scion of Slytherin!" was the retort.

"Yes. He was. His mother was Merope Gaunt, a family who had married into the Slytherin line. It destroyed itself with its tendency to interbreed and the hatred of everyone and everything. They lived in squalor and they claimed to be superior to all others. His father was Tom Riddle, a wealthy Muggle who lived near the Gaunts whom Merope took a fancy to. Her use of a love potion ensnared her hope for a better life but she deluded herself when she decided he truly loved her and stopped giving him the potion. He immediately left her, though she was with child.

"She died seeking refuge in a Muggle church and her son was raised an orphan. He hated those around him and, when he came to Hogwarts he saw who had the political power. He was resolved to hold power over all who knew him and he was so afraid of death that he wanted to live forever. And so he claimed to be a Pureblood so they would listen while he engineered the killing of those he considered beneath him. I would point out that his victims included not only Muggles and Muggleborns but Purebloods as well. And those that followed him were never given equal power. He expected them to serve him and him alone. Tom Marvolo Riddle, also known as Lord Voldemort, was a hypocrite."

It was a much more sober group of Purebloods who left the Malfoy party later that night.

The last to leave was Albus Dumbledore.

Lucius Malfoy had already sent his wife to bed as it was very late. And so he was the only one who witnessed Dumbledore's departure.

As Dumbledore approached Lucius at the floo he stopped. "There is one more matter that I should mention."

"Oh?" Lucius asked. He had already been thrown a few surprises by the elderly wizard.

"Yes. The discussions tonight, I hope, left you somewhat more enlightened as to the man whom held the chains of his followers during the 1960s and 1970s. Perhaps you learned a few things that you did not previously know."

Lucius nodded cautiously. "There were a few surprises."

"Yes. Quite. Perhaps this will give you reason to consider things. But even if it does not, there is still one more matter that needs to be brought up."

Lucius waited patiently and then finally said, "And that is?"

"The object entrusted to your father and therefore now controlled by you. A school diary if memory serves me correctly. With the name Tom Marvolo Riddle on the spine."

Lucius was caught flat-footed. He had assumed that no one knew of the Diary other than his former master and himself. That the Dark Lord's greatest enemy was aware was cause for some consternation. "And what if such was the case?"

Dumbledore gave a mysterious smile. "That item exudes a certain … dark taint. I believe it would be in your best interest to hand it over to someone who can ensure it was … removed from influence."

"I see. If I come across such an item from my father's personal effects, perhaps I will do as you suggest," Lucius said somewhat calmly.

Albus had helped to find and destroy it in his own world. And so he knew much more than Lucius could imagine. "I believe you only have to look below the trap door in the Master Study. Would you like to know the password?" he asked congenially.

At that Lucius could barely keep himself from immediately pulling his wand and cursing the Wizard who so casually bore secrets that he himself had though beyond anyone's knowledge.

"I will look through the records to find it myself," he ground out to the Headmaster of Hogwarts.

"Do that. I should mention that if I should find such an item sent to me in the next … oh, let's say, 48 hours, I would take steps to ensure it was taken care of. Quietly. If I have to take care of it after the students return on Sunday, then I would have to explain why the newly reinforced wards were triggered by such an item. If I did not receive it or proof that it was destroyed, I would perhaps have to ensure that those who watch and plot to 'get the goods on the Malfoys' were apprised of where such items could be found. Something to consider. Have a good New Year, Master Malfoy."

The Headmaster quickly exited through the floo.

Lucius immediately retreated to his collection of fine liquors for something to help calm him down.

It was 36 hours later that Albus Dumbledore received a package carried by the Malfoy postal owl. He immediately went to speak to the Head Unspeakable.