Chapter Three
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or A Christmas Carol.
Tom chose not to go back to sleep after his first encounter. After all, even if he were to fall back asleep immediately (hardly likely after such an encounter!) then he would only have an hour of sleep before he would need to wake back up and, in his experience, getting that little sleep only served to make him groggier upon waking up. He didn't actually know why this was the case but it happened time and time again and he didn't want to be too tired to deal with his other ghostly visitors.
The anticipation made it a little difficult for Tom to focus on his book but he had plenty of experience forcing himself to read when he had other matters begging to occupy his attention.
Right as the clock struck two, another ghost materialized in the room right before Tom's eyes. He had never heard of ghosts that could materialize like that as it had been his experience that, while they could pass through objects harmlessly, they still came from somewhere else and did not just poof into being. Perhaps these other ghosts were only temporary ghosts as well.
This man was wearing the same style of clothing that Slytherin had so perhaps they had been contemporaries. He strongly resembled the portrait of Gryffindor still hanging in the school (though it was not an exact match) and so Tom felt emboldened enough to say, "Godric Gryffindor, I presume?"
Gryffindor nodded, pleased with the quick identification. "Indeed. And you're one of Salazar's, I believe?"
"Do you mean of his house or descended from him?" Tom inquired.
"Well, both in this case," Gryffindor replied after thinking it over for a moment.
"I actually already got an explanation about why Muggleborns are not as bad nowadays as they were in the past and why too much of an obsession with blood purity leads to problems from Slytherin himself," Tom informed him. "I do hope that you weren't planning on delivering one as well. Or if you were perhaps you could skip it now since it's really not necessary anymore."
Gryffindor looked a little disappointed at that before brightening back up. "Still, it's good to see Salazar coming around. I always knew that he would, eventually."
"I still can't believe you were so much in favor of letting all those potential spies into Hogwarts when the whole reason you formed the school in the first place was to get away from all of those Muggles who were out to kill you," Tom couldn't help but say.
Gryffindor looked like this was a line of argument he had heard many times before. "I was never in favor of letting spies into Hogwarts. Who would be in favor of letting spies into Hogwarts? I just didn't believe that the risk was so great that it justified keeping everyone of non-proven wizarding lineage out of our school. Additionally, no alternative to the hatred of the muggles would only make the Muggleborn problem worse."
Tom merely shook his head, saying nothing.
"And things worked out just fine in the end anyway," Gryffindor pointed out.
"You can't use how things happened to end as proof that your course of action was correct!" Tom protested.
"Why not?" Gryffindor inquired. "Things did work out so my course of action could not be completely terrible regardless of what seemed likely at the time."
Tom sighed. "What did you come here for? To show me what people are doing in the near future?"
"In the present," Gryffindor amended.
Tom cast a skeptical look at him.
"Oh, alright, in the near future," Gryffindor conceded. "But let me tell you that the Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Present, and Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come sound a lot better than the Ghost of Christmas Past, Ghost of Christmas Near Future, and Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come."
"I'm pretty sure that the one scene that Slytherin showed me didn't even happen at Christmas," Tom declared.
Gryffindor looked rather put-out. "Well he was supposed to!"
Tom shuddered. "Trust me, the one scene was enough. I do not need to see what passed as Christmas dinners in that hovel!"
Gryffindor still looked undecided. "Well…if you're sure…"
"I'm sure," Toms aid firmly.
"Then let's get on with the near-future then," Gryffindor said, holding out his hand.
Feeling like he was going to really regret this but not having much of a choice, Tom took the proffered hand and he found himself back in the orphanage.
"I thought we weren't doing Christmas past," Tom said, annoyed.
The orphanage had always been a rather trying place but it especially was at Christmastime. They did not have any money for frivolities and yet the staff always tried to decorate the place anyway and expected everyone to be merry and joyous despite the fact that none of them had any parents or families that wanted them. They had very little in the orphanage and were forgotten by society and large and couldn't even afford the proper kinds of Christmases that he had heard about from those with families and he was supposed to welcome this? And the very idea that a time of year should force a particular feeling on someone was patently absurd.
Because his birthday was only a scant six days after Christmas (what kind of a Christmas had his mother had that last time, starving and dying and desperate and stupid enough to be taken advantage of so abominably in regards to that locket. Whatever price she had been given wouldn't have been nearly enough) he was somehow expected to appreciate it more and, well, he didn't.
"This isn't the past," Gryffindor assured him. Ah. Now he understood. Gryffindor was trying to cheat things while still staying technically within the bounds of what he was supposed to show by showing a scene that might have been from Tom's past except without Tom. Not that Tom usually played a great role in the Christmases back when he was around.
"Then we have even less reason to be here," Tom retorted.
"Don't you want to see how your little friends are managing in your absence?" Gryffindor said, not really listening.
"I wouldn't care if they were all bombed into oblivion in my absence," Tom said truthfully, feeling liberated at finally getting to voice that rather persistent thought aloud. Most people could not know of his disregard for the lives of those he deemed not worth his time – which was most of the population – and those who he could share those sentiments with he did not want to remind of his rather unfortunate beginnings. "In fact, I might prefer it because then perhaps I could stay somewhere with magic over the summer."
"Oh, you sound just like Salazar. You don't mean that," Gryffindor said with such a fond certainty that if he weren't a ghost Tom would be very tempted to hex him.
Mrs. Cole was gathered around the table with the workers and the orphans. They were all in their finest clothes which were just the clothes they wore for church and just the cleanest and least-worn of their few meager articles of clothing. There was no great feast on the table, just their ordinary winter food except maybe a little bit more of it on Christmas.
"Alright now I want everyone to go around the table and tell me what you're thankful for this year," Mrs. Cole instructed.
Tom rolled his eyes, disgusted. They had nothing to be thankful for and he had simply refused to answer in years past when it was his turn to speak as he did not want to be too openly antagonistic. Now he had a great deal to be thankful for but could never tell her even if he were to ever be there for Christmas again. He wouldn't want to tell her even if he could, however, because she was so far beneath him that she didn't deserve to know and could never truly appreciate it. She would probably think it added to his freakishness.
"I'm thankful that we got to hear that lovely story in Church," Martha said, smiling beatifically.
At least the Christmas service was slightly less dull than the other services he had attended though he didn't know what kind of holiday involved having to sit through church even if it was, he supposed, a religious holiday in origin. Somehow he couldn't imagine that the wizarding world was populated by good Anglicans and yet they seemed to enjoy the holiday even more than the poor orphans did. They certainly had the means to commemorate it better.
"I'm thankful for this fine feast," Peter said, beaming, having clearly never seen an actual feast in his life.
"I'm thankful for all my friends here in the orphanage and for Mrs. Cole and for having such a nice place to live even though I don't gots no parents," Eric rambled and Mrs. Cole smiled, touched.
Gryffindor was beaming beside him. "Doesn't it do your heart good to see such genuine Christmas cheer even in those that do not have very much in their lives?"
"No," Tom said curtly.
Gryffindor did a double-take at that, clearly not expecting to be disagreed with on the point. "What do you mean?"
"It just strikes me as rather pathetic that people with so little are so delusional and think that they actually have something worth celebrating," Tom replied with an easy shrug.
"You can't think of it that way, Tom," Gryffindor insisted. "You have to focus on the good and not the bad and remember that things could always be worse."
"The fact that things could get worse and they could all be dead or on the streets somewhere doesn't mean that the way things are now is really worth celebrating. In fact, that it can get worse at all is something to decry," Tom reasoned. "I suppose it would be pretty miserable for people like that to be upset all of the time but at least it would be more honest. Though I suppose I cannot expect everyone to be able to face the truth."
"I think you might be missing the point of Christmas slightly…" Gryffindor said wearily.
Tom spread his arms. "Well if you think that can explain it to me then by all means do so."
"It's about family and friends and fun and togetherness!" Gryffindor exclaimed.
"And something about the birth of our lord and savior," Tom said dryly.
"Don't be such a muggle, Tom," Gryffindor told him.
"I don't have any family, my 'friends' aren't even here, apparently my fun is going to lead me to evil one day, and as the only Slytherin in the castle it's hard to find a sense of 'togetherness'," Tom declared. "Unless you mean with the whole of Hogwarts but the other houses are…Well, I wouldn't have any fun if I'm with them."
"Why don't we see that for ourselves?" Gryffindor asked suddenly. "But first, how about I show you how some of your friends celebrate Christmas?"
Tom cast him a baleful look. "You had best not show me how those with a family celebrate Christmas given the complete and total impossibility of me ever achieving that no matter how ardently I 'redeem' myself."
Gryffindor looked awkward. "Oh, well…quite. How about Hogwarts then? You never attend the annual Christmas feast."
"I did once," Tom argued. "But it was insipid and a waste of my time and so I did not attend again."
"But it's fun!" Gryffindor protested.
Gryffindors never listened to anything you tried to tell them and it would appear that they were well-representing their house by doing so.
"It's not fun for me and if the point of going is to have fun and I will not have fun then why should I go?" Tom asked reasonably.
"To be sociable!" Gryffindor rejoined.
Tom took a deep, calming breath. "And what is the point of that when the only people I ever care to talk to aren't even going to be there?"
"You can make new friends," Gryffindor suggested.
"I don't want new friends," Tom growled. Strictly speaking, he didn't particularly want the ones he did have but they would be useful.
"See, this right here is why it doesn't surprise me that you're going to grow up to be evil," Gryffindor said knowingly.
"What does not wanting to make new friends or not liking Christmas have to do with turning evil one day?" Tom demanded. "Lots of people are like that."
"I wouldn't be so sure but I'm willing to bet that many of those that are are evil," Gryffindor said knowingly. "You don't hear good people going around hating friends and Christmas."
"I don't think that's precisely what I said-" Tom tried to say but he was interrupted as the scene changed.
Hogwarts at Christmas. Was there anything sadder than that? Perhaps not for the professors (though not all of them were there. Slughorn never was) but for the students it meant there was literally nowhere else to go so why advertise, even to people in the same boat? Oh, he supposed some might choose to stay but that was just bizarre and did not indicate a healthy home life. That or these were incredibly self-absorbed children who preferred to have fun at the castle with any friends left over for two weeks than to see their parents for the first time since September and the last time until June. Although that did sound rather like those he went to school with.
The Great Hall was decorated as grandly if predictably as it ever was so he couldn't tell if it was the past or near-future but he did recognize the students still sitting there so it probably was that year. He wasn't present, of course, but why would he be? There were maybe sixteen students present and five of the professors.
Dozens of wizards crackers had already been pulled and Tom witnessed several more being pulled by overexcited first years who had clearly never seen this before. Tom had gone to the Christmas feast as a first year himself, more out of curiosity than any real desire to participate and, though the experience had been a unique one, he had never seen the need to go again.
The feast here was truly worthy of the name, unlike the pale imitation that Mrs. Cole had managed to scrape together at the orphanage. It did look rather delicious and Tom realized with a start that he was a bit hungry. There was no need to actually go to the Great Hall, however, when he had the overly attentive House Elves determined that every student have access to however much food as they wanted.
"See?" Gryffindor asked triumphantly, apparently under the impression that Tom's quiet contemplation was a wistful longing to join the festivities.
"I do indeed," Tom remarked neutrally.
"And the best part is, Tom, that it is not too late! Tomorrow you can march down those steps and partake in this joy and merriment!" Gryffindor explained.
"That is certainly within the realm possibility, yes," Tom conceded reluctantly. He was not actually going to do it but he could have. There was really nothing stopping him except his own desire not to go and his lack of understanding of what could possibly be gained by his attendance.
Gryffindor stopped and really looked at him. "You're not going to do it."
"I had not planned on it, no," Tom agreed.
"But…why not?" Gryffindor just didn't understand and Tom was reminded that his house was the one with all the festivities all the time. It sounded exhausting, frankly.
"Because I don't want to," Tom replied simply. "There is no earthly reason for me to attend and I assure you that I am not actually missing out on anything I do not care to."
"But what about not wanting to turn evil?" Gryffindor demanded.
Tom fixed him with a look. "To begin with, I do not believe that I am actually in any danger of 'turning evil' and your mad insistence that I must celebrate Christmas with my fellow students or turn evil is not doing much to convince me that you are correct or, indeed, know how to correctly define 'evil.'"
"Don't you see that it's all connected, though?" Gryffindor asked plaintively. "Rejecting people and isolating yourself will only make it that much easier to become a genocidal madman later and terrorize the wizarding world!"
"That may be so," Tom said, not actually believing for a moment that that was the path that lay before him but reasoning that it would probably be easier to be a genocidal madman if one did not care about people. "But there is a long, long way between not wishing to celebrate Christmas and attempting to massacre entire groups of people."
Gryffindor shook his head like he was disappointed in him. "I've done all I can. It's out of my hands now. Let's hope that the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come will be more effective."
He looked pointedly at Tom, seeming to wait for him to say something.
"Was there anything else?" Tom asked politely.
"Weren't you going to ask about the curiously claw-like feet under my robes?" Gryffindor asked pointedly.
Tom glanced down. "I was not planning on it."
Sighing and shaking his head once more, Gryffindor was gone.
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