Parties

*Little Whining*Surrey*December 25*

It had taken them a long time, two weeks for the Turpin's to reach an agreement between them and the Dursley's over the first two weeks of the break, but eventually they agreed to sign Harry's guardianship to the Turpin's, so now Harry lived under their roof and was legally their son.

He still slept on his hammock, even if it was in a room that actually fit the term, with various shelves in which his already read books rested, a wardrobe with clothes that fit him perfectly, not loose but not tight, and a window that opened to the backyard.

The blood wards had been easy to move after Neville's explanation of how they worked, so the Turpin household now had, if one were to develop mage sight, a dark red, pulsing pyramid covering it from across the street and one house right to the property behind it and one house left, with the apex directly at the centre of the Turpin's property. This came with a slight side effect, as now the tellies in the house suffered from severe static from time to time, but nothing that lasted for long and it was mostly during mornings, when both Harry and Lisa had just woken up.

The month had also been a buzz of activity, with everyone going to malls and separating on groups of two to buy the Christmas presents for everyone else, trying to sneak off to get it done by themselves as they also had most Turpin's to shop for.

In one word: hectic.

The first of the extended family arrived yesterday; Becky's mum and dad had arrived from the Midlands in car and checked in on a hotel near the Little Whining and had spent the day with them, curiously watching the interactions Harry had with the other three and trying to fit in that image.

Later arrived George's sister; a woman that had taken the liberty to mooch off of governments in exchange for education and now had a citizenship in Germany with the condition that she became a fully qualified engineer/architect and worked well enough to please the popular demand and had travelled around the mainland on scholarships to expand her skills.

Then came Becky's sister with her husband and children in tow; a pair of brats that had too much energy for anyone but their father or their grandparents to stand , a woman that looked like Becky with the exception that she was shorter and fuller than Becky and a man taller than any Harry had ever seen before.

Last to arrive was George's father along with his other sister and his older brother, the only difference between brothers being the height and the age, the father had almost completely white hair and the sister was brown-haired instead of dark-haired.

The ambient had been amiable but slightly cautious on Harry's part, as the brats Lisa called cousins were fond of clinging to someone and shouting on their ears, more than once they had awoken little Charlie more than once already.

It didn't help that glares didn't work on the little buggers; they were encouraged by them, much to Harry's annoyance.

But well, it could be worse.

*Italy*

Blaize sighed as he watched yet another suitor trying to woo his mother and failing miserably, just like the other ten, and surprisingly one woman, that had tried before him, and it was made worse because his little sister was making weird noises whenever the man stuttered or paused in his speech while his older sister sat watching it all with a smirk on her face.

Really, his mother was not a scarlet woman, she had gone through many husbands, yes, but of those only one had been for business and that was the original one, the one that ended up with his older sister, and since the death of her first husband she had only married after a full three months of near constant dating; if they broke up before that then she forgot about whoever she was dating, otherwise they led a happy marriage for over eight months and then the husband suffered from an illness or from poisoning from the stones that littered the area since they were not accustomed to the property of those stones.

The two marriages that had lasted more than a full year were the marriage that led to Blaize, who had lasted over two years, making it the largest one, and the one that led to his little sister, that one had lasted a year and two months, but it gave people the idea that his mother was a black widow that killed her spouses for their money, but that wasn't it, not at all.

Oh, well, it could always be worse than that.

*Longbottom manor*

Neville always hated whenever someone other than children his age came over to his ancestral home, mainly because adults always ignored him because he was eleven an not magically powerful, but his family was worse since they wanted him to be the perfect her with a giant core that could afford to be casting for hours instead of the shy, unconfident near squib that everyone believed Neville to be, ignoring the fact that his grades were in the top three of his class and getting better.

The worst of them all was uncle Algie, the man that had thrown him out the window, almost drowned him, left him alone with a venomous tentacula, threw him to a wall with heirloom weaponry, pushed him down the stairs.

You get the idea.

And all to get eeven a bitr of accidential magic out of him, but the only things that happened was him skin becoming as tough as nails for the second of impact and becoming normal again as soon as it was over.

Then he got accepted to Hogwarts and the man had stopped hovering over his back for magic, but now his family wanted to see what he had learned, and while he was confident that if push came to shove he could defend himself well enough and for long enough to let someone else with bigger knowledge get there.

But his wand wasn't his, it was his father's and as such not as good a match, he personally thought that if anything his mother's wand would fit him better, after all, his mother was the only one of the two that reacted whenever he visited Mungos.

Still, it could be worse; maybe he would exchange the wands someday, or buy himself a new one with his allowance.

*Granger household*

Hermione hid her scowl under a book as she tried to ignore the comments her family made, mainly her aunt and cousins on her mother's side who had no emotional range at all, even less than the Wesley boy that was on her class, who cared not for what people said and ate with no regards for other people stomach, and insulted every single flaw that she already knew she had, like her bushy hair or her buck teeth, or her shorter than average height.

At least her grandparents and uncles on her father's side were fun to be around and actually cared about knowledge instead of the looks her aunt and her daughter liked.

She honestly preferred being successful to being a trophy housewife, like her cousins would most likely end up as.

Still, could be worse, though it could also go so much better.

*Boot house*

"Yes!" Terry cheered as his father revealed that the trip they would do that year after Boxing day would be to Paris, "Thank you so much dad!"

Mr and Mrs Boot watched amused as their son did a little joy gig while thanking them loudly, already he was thinking of all he could learn about the true Sun King, and about the time when Grindewald had taken over the Palace, and the catacombs under the city, there was just so much to learn.

"Oh, they are going to be so jealous, how long will we stay?" Terry asked.

"Three days only, one for the Versailles, one for the Louvre and one for the catacombs, no more, no less, we have to be back before my business partner comes back from Egypt, but I think that will be fine you two, right?"

Oh, how could it go better?"

*Hogwarts*Scotland*

"FRED AND GEORGE WELSEY, GO TO MY OFFICE THIS INSTANT" McGonagall shouted at the top of her lungs as one of the loos near the Gryffindor tower exploded in a shower of water right as the professor walked through.

To her surprise it was not the Wesley twins that came out of the toilet, but rather a seventh year with an ashen face and the toilet sit hanging from his arm, "it wasn't them as far as I can tell professor," the boy said in a surprisingly calm voice, considering what had happened to him, "they've been in the library all day, Martha told me they were when she passed the library"

"Then it was Pevees" McGonagall muttered.

"No, he was in the dungeons when I was having breakfast, I think it was someone else" the boy said again in that voice.

"They are the only troublemakers we have in school right now, and Potter prefers to cause trouble with Snape"

"I think you should check other loos, professor, I'll be going to my room now" the young man walked away with an almost unnoticeable limp, could it be that he had something other than the seat on his body?

"Report to Madam Pomfrey first, I'd prefer not to leave anything to chance" the boy nodded almost mechanically, then she walked to the Gryffindor tower, she had to get those two trouble makers punished.