This Holy Tide

A/N: Holiday 2014 Ficlet the First. Posted way late, sorry about that.

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Godric's Hollow, Christmas Eve, 2013

Father Taliesin Jones loved the Christmas season. Not only was the entire village covered in Christmas lights and various cheerful decorations, people were nicer than any other time of year. And the holiday services brought in the irregular visitors to his parish. Like the Potter family.

Oh, they weren't all Potters by blood, even if they followed the Potter boy around like ducklings no matter their surnames. He shouldn't say the Potter boy – the man was in his thirties, had a wife and children. But he still remembered the quiet baby Lily and James had brought for baptism, with Sirius Black tagging along to be godfather and Remus Lupin beaming at it all. As a Squib married to a witch, he was very aware of the magical inhabitants of his village. And aware of Harry Potter's story. He was also aware of the famous names that graced his humble centuries-old church every Christmas Eve. Hermione Delacour-Granger, despite her surname, was every inch a Potter in the way she stood by Harry through everything, and the pair of them, brother and sister by law and magic if not by birth, had been coming quietly to Christmas Eve service together for over a decade. It had been a year or two after they first attended (while wearing their own faces) that they brought their girlfriends-now-wives, as well as little Teddy Lupin, a wide-eyed child at the time and now a fifth year Gryffindor home for the break.

Time had added to the Potter contingent from those first few years. The Potter and Delacour-Granger children ranged from eight down to four. He watched from the doorway as the last of the stragglers came to wish him a Happy Christmas. Dressed in matching wool overcoats with knitted caps and mittens, the entire family was beaming, except for four year old Marion who was awkwardly dozing in her mother's arms, her long legs reaching past Hermione's knees. Harry smiled at him, the quietly happy look of a man finally at peace with himself and content with his life. Glancing around, he dug into what was obviously a magically-expanded pocket to pull out a large wrapped package. In reach of Father Taliesin, he offered it up with a cheery smirk.

"Not trying to bribe your pastor, are you Mister Potter?" Taliesin joked, "I'm quite sure the good Lord already will welcome you into His kingdom, many many years from now."

"Of course not, Father," came the quiet, sure reply as Harry smiled. "But we thought you would appreciate a little something for the holiday."

Taliesin grinned and looked down at Cedric and John, both bouncing slightly in front of him, "Should I open this now, or wait for the morning, boys?"

"Now! Now!" they chanted.

Ripping the paper, he found a matching knitted set of cap and mittens on top of a thick warm jumper in a tasteful holiday pattern.

"Aunt 'mione made it!" Cedric exclaimed, beaming.

"I noticed your favorite Christmas jumper looking a bit ragged last season, Father," Hermione said, using the hand not under Marion's bottom to scruff her nephew's unruly blond hair.

"It was a bit tattered, isn't it? Thank you ever so much," he replied, smiling widely at the blushing mother of two. Turning back to the children, he asked, "So, are you going home to settle in for the night? What are you leaving out for Santa Claus this year?"

"Tante made mannala for him!" John burst out.

"And Uncle Harry bought his favorite firewhisky," added Rosalind.

Taliesen smiled widely, familiar with the mix of customs the household honored – muggle and magical British, as well as French and Veela. He winked at Fleur, who grinned back and fished a plastic baggie with some of the mannala out of her pocket. "For you," she said.

"I will never turn down your baking, madame," he teased, carefully tucking the pastries into the sweater before glancing around to slip it under his chasuble and into his alb's space-expanded pocket. "Just don't tell my wife, she's after me about my sugar intake."

Fleur laughed, nodding, even as she noticed Marion so asleep she was drooling on Hermione's shoulder. "Of course not, Father. But we must be going. It is past certain children's bedtimes, and they have to be asleep before Father Christmas will come. Joyeux Noël to you and your wife. Are you going to be able to make it for New Year's?" They held a party every New Year's Day for the employees of the Potter businesses and of The Quibbler, as well as various family and friends. It was basically an all-village party for the magical residents of Godric's Hollow.

"Of course, of course. We'll be there! A happy Christmas to you all," he replied, shaking everyone's hands fondly as they headed to the nearest apparition point. As the happy family made its way down the road, he smiled and whispered after them, "Bless you, Potters, bless."

fin…