Chapter Thirty-Five
Yule Time
Waves crashed against the cliffs as the cold sea air came ashore. But inside the Craw Mansion, everything was warm and bright as people arrived for the children's Christmas party on Yule.
"Are you sure we can trust him to keep it clean this year?" Ginger asked Fleur after taking the girls' coats off.
"Oh, yes, we found the perfect solution to that," Fleur explained brightly. "Jennifer is giving the speech this year."
"Oh, good," Ginger said, then let Brigid and Branwen run to the ball room to join the others. A few minutes later, Ambrose arrived with TJ. They stepped into the living room where some of the youngest members of the family were being looked after.
"Hey, everyone! I brought some extra help with me," Ambrose told them.
"As long as she doesn't mind nappy duty, she's welcome," Laura teased.
"Actually, considering that my father decided to go to the Ministry Ball rather than have a family gathering, I find this quite appealing," TJ admitted. "And it's the only event I was able to choose for myself this year, since we always have an affair on Christmas Eve."
"I'm so glad you came, TJ! You'll finally be able to meet Edgar, Emily, and Barrett, and our niece, Wendy!" Beth said enthusiastically.
"I'll be glad to meet them all, as long as I'm not intruding on a family only gathering," TJ replied.
"Not at all, TJ. There will be others coming tonight, although most of them are under the age of six," Fleur said with amusement. "You did say Ginny was coming tonight, didn't you, Jennifer?"
Jennifer was sitting on the sofa holding Barrett, Maurice's youngest, while Severus was holding Leu's daughter, Caitlyn. The eighteen month babies were having a conversation that only the two of them seemed to understand.
"Yes, Ginny and Jamie are both coming, they're bringing Maggie and Miss Truly since Harry and Owain had to work tonight," Jennifer replied. "Most of the older children are in the ball room right now, if you're looking for an older audience."
"As a matter of fact, we brought some of the activities we've been offering at the museum lately concerning different winter holidays and their origins," TJ offered.
"That sounds like fun! Perhaps I should go see if Seren wants to do one," Jennifer said, handing Barrett back to Beth and joining them on their walk to the ball room.
"Are you sure you want to try that?" Severus asked Caitlyn when she reached for his Springerle. The baby tasted it and made a very strange face, eating it anyway. "Hm. Typically it only takes one nibble to put them off."
"I'll go get the biscuit tray," Maurice offered, getting up and going to the table. Then he noticed someone coming in through the kitchen. "Oh, hello, Alexandria. You're early."
"Yes, I know," Alex said, walking into the living room.
"Decided to skip the Ministry Ball after all?" Severus inquired.
"It wasn't a Ministry Ball... it was a Solidarity convention," Alexandria grumbled. "You see, the Maxens held a Yule event for the Traditionalists at their club. And since all of our family came to this party and most of the Weasleys had gone to Percy's gathering, Draco and I took one look inside the room and decided it wasn't worth staying for, especially since Solidarity keeps putting more and more pressure on Draco's office to declassify those prison plans."
"They don't have the votes for that," Severus reminded her. "In fact, this is the one and only time I recall that both the Reform party and the Traditionalist party have taken the same side on a Council vote before. The Traditionalists know as well as we do that we shouldn't be revealing security plans to the general public. It goes against their very nature to agree to such a thing, and of course, the Reformists are also motivated not to let Solidarity get their way in general, albeit for different reasons."
"Yes, I know they don't have the votes, Father, but that doesn't mean they're not bringing it up on every occasion. I certainly didn't want to spend my Yule having to listen to it," Alexandria said. "One of my agents told me there's a rumor going around, speculating that the reason we're not willing to reveal the prison plans is to cover up the fact the Dashing Doppler stole the plans and gave them to Bagman already."
"Father was talking about that when he came home at lunch," Maurice said. "He thinks the rumor might be an attempt by Bagman to force Father to produce the plans to prove it's not true. Then Bagman can find out where Father's hiding them."
"I'd better talk to him about it. Where is he?" Alexandria asked.
"In the ball room with the rest of the kids," Maurice replied.
"Do you mind reminding them how close it is to sundown, Alexandria?" Fleur requested.
"It isn't as if Quintin won't tell them if he's in there," Alexandria pointed out, continuing on to the ball room.
It was indeed packed with all of the family children and quite a number of their personal friends that had been invited to attend. Rus looked up with interest from where he was running the musical chairs game, while Jay was less than pleased to see his mother from where he was standing next to the Pin the Tail on the Dragon game. Alexandria gave them a distracted wave to let them know she was here, but walked over to where Thomas was sitting next to Autumn having a cup of Fizzy Wizard Squash.
"You're here early. I thought you weren't going to pick up the boys until after we were wrapping up," Thomas commented when she walked over.
"I'm staying," Alex replied. "I want to talk to you about those rumors going around the Ministry today."
"They've been pestering you too, are they?" Thomas said. "You didn't tell anyone where they are, did you?"
"No, of course not," Alex said.
"May I go make snowflakes?" Autumn asked.
"Sure, just go make sure your brother isn't terrorizing anybody on the way," Thomas told her, and Autumn finished her drink and ran off. "You probably have less than ten minutes before one of the twins screams or makes one of the other kids scream, so if you have anything work related to talk about, I suggest you talk fast," Thomas suggested.
"Fleur asked me to remind you there's not long before before sunset too," Alex added.
"All the more reason," Thomas said. "I asked the Warden double security on Azkaban just to be safe, and we've triple-checked to make sure there weren't any plants amount the workers, Alex, but there can be no denying that Bagman's more active lately. In fact, I ought to tell you that Bagman actually asked the rest of the family to meet him in a non-disclosed location for Christmas."
"Doesn't he understand that Garvan is technically duty-bound to arrest him on sight?" Alexandria pointed out.
"My guess is that he plants to meet them somewhere without an extradition agreement," Thomas replied quietly. "Still, I think it'd be in our best interests to look the other way. Maybe we'll find out something..."
"It could also backfire, and you know it," Alexandria snapped.
"Possibly, but I doubt it. After everything that's happened, I don't see Peter or Garvan letting their guard down, relation or no relation... assuming they even decide to go at all," Thomas added for good measure.
"If it were my father, I certainly wouldn't want to have anything to do with him," Alex said firmly.
"I can understand that point of view," Thomas replied, mulling it over. Alexandria glanced at him with a frown.
"You disagree with me?" she asked.
"I meant that I wouldn't blame you for doing so, considering that I condemned my father for much less of an offense," Thomas admitted. "That said, I'm glad that Jen-girl decided to keep in contact with me despite everything I did back when I went on my rampage. It's given me a different perspective... I've realized just how complicated family ties can me."
Just then, there was a scream.
"That's Autumn... I'd better intervene before she accidentally turns one of the other kids into a Christmas ornament," Thomas said, hurriedly getting up and going over to see what happened.
Alexandria sighed, looking over at Jay. He was too busy tying a scarf around Aubrey Lynn's eyes to pay any attention. Perhaps her grandfather had a point. Family ties can be very complicated, Alex mused, thinking of how difficult her relationship with her children was. Knowing that she wasn't likely going to be welcome at Jay's game station, she decided to head back out to the living room.
Ginny and Jamie were there, and Miss Truly helping herself to the biscuits while Maggie was looking intently down the corridor towards the game room.
"I just want to take a look!" Maggie complained.
"It's almost sunset, Maggie. They're going to be pausing the games soon anyway," Ginny told her.
"They were still playing a moment ago," Alex said. That was enough to send Maggie running to the ball room, hoping to get in on a last minute game.
"I have trouble believing that she'll be able to get into any games in the six minutes and thirty-seven seconds we have left," Quintin said with exasperation.
"Why don't you run along and give them a warning at the five minute mark?" Severus suggested, handing Caitlyn back to Diana.
"I'm on it," Quintin said, running into the other room.
Jennifer glanced up when Quintin came in, suggesting to Seren and the other children at the museum table to put their names on their projects so that they could come back after snack time. Some of the other ready parents had done the same thing, knowing what sort of madness there would be without a proper warning.
But Jay hadn't really seen any reason to say anything, so after the minute expired and Quintin came around and warned all of the game stations that it was time to head to the living room, Jay simply said, "okay, this is the last one!" as he sent Ryan Willowby to the board with a dragon's tail.
"I'm next in the queue!" Jillian informed him.
"I'm in the queue too!" Maggie agreed. "Us next!"
"Sorry, Maggie, you'll have to wait until we get back from the Yule Log lighting," Jay said.
"No! We're going next," Maggie said stubbornly.
"Jay, it's time to stop. Everyone else has already started for the living room," Quintin said.
"I'll go after it's my turn," Maggie informed him.
"Maggie, there's only three minutes and forty-two seconds left..."
"DON'T TELL ME THE TIME!" Maggie shouted at Quintin, then kicked him in the shin so hard with her patent leather shoes that he nearly fell over in pain. "It's my time! No one else's!" she declared. She grabbed the scarf straight out of Jay's hand and a dragon's tail pin, holding the scarf up to her face and taking her turn, landing on a wing. Frowning at the result, she tossed the scarf down on the table.
"Now I'll go!" Maggie informed them, joining Jillian on her way out the door.
"Are you alright?" Jay asked Quintin.
"No!" Quintin admitted, still holding up his leg and wincing in pain. "What a lousy little brat! I can't believe Harry and Ginny raised a kid that ill-mannered!"
"Come on, we're going to be late," Jay reminded him.
Quintin tried to shake off the pain as the two of them went out to where everyone was gathered in front of the fireplace. Standing in front of it, Jennifer gazed at them questioningly.
"What happened to you?" Jennifer asked Quintin.
"I'll explain after," Quintin said.
Jennifer shrugged and got out her wand and faced everyone, smiling at all of the individual families that had settled down in front of her. She glanced over at Alex, standing next to Rus with a bored expression on her face. Jennifer smiled at Alex as well, before looking forward again.
"For the upcoming year, I wish for my family to have continued happiness," Jennifer began. "And for those members of my family who are still on the path to finding their happiness, I advise you to get to know yourselves better and to search within for the answers, for the only true path to happiness lies within, and no one else can find it for you. Heed this advice, and I am certain that by next Yule, I will be wishing you continued happiness as well," Jennifer said. She glanced at Jay, Alex, and even Ambrose, nodding to herself before lighting the fire and getting a round of claps. That's when Jennifer noticed that her father was golf clapping.
"Didn't like my speech this year, Father? It wasn't that long," Jennifer said, putting away her wand.
"No, but it was a bit on the sappy side, don't you think?" Thomas commented, ignoring the fact that his wife was frowning at him disapprovingly.
"I shudder to think how you would have expressed the same sentiment," Jennifer said dryly.
"It's simple, Jen-girl," Thomas told her. "All you had to say was, 'I hope you'll have continued happiness this year, and if you don't, it's your own damn fault, because no one else is responsible for your happiness except you.' There, you see? '"
"Yes, Dad," Jennifer said with an exasperated sigh. She worked her way over to Quintin as everyone else began filling their plates at the table. "What happened to you? You looked as if you were limping when you came in just now."
"She did it," Quintin said, pointing directly at Maggie, who was quite contently queueing up for food as if nothing had happened. But Ginny had noticed the gesture, looking over at Quintin.
"What happened?" Ginny asked.
"She got angry at me for telling her it was time to stop the game and kicked me hard in the shin," Quintin complained.
"I am on my time! Not his time!" Maggie declared unabashedly.
Jennifer burst our laughing, having so much trouble containing it that she had to have Severus take over.
"I am really sorry about this... Maggie, get back in the queue, we'll talk about it when we get home," Ginny told her firmly before turning back to Severus and Quintin. "As I'm sure you know, the Auror department always gets very busy this time of year, and Harry sometimes has a lot of trouble making any sort of scheduled events. Maggie's been really frustrated with it. She thought that being home from school for the Christmas holidays meant that she'd have more time with her Dad, and it's really not been the case. So Harry's been telling her not to worry about the clock so much; that there are work times and there are times just for her, and that's when she could do what she wants with her family. I told her that tonight when we came here that we were going to be on her time, and I guess she took it a bit too literally."
"Yes, I understand now," Severus replied, glancing at Quintin.
"Yes, I guess I understand too," Quintin admitted begrudgingly. "But she shouldn't go around kicking people just because they tell her what time it is!"
"I'll talk to her, I promise," Ginny assured him. "Sorry again," she added, stepping over to Maggie to help her with her selection.
"See me afterwards. I'll give you something to make sure that doesn't bruise," Severus suggested. "Then again, perhaps it'd be best if you got used to it," he mused. He walked back over to the sofa, unsurprised when Jennifer started to giggle at his last remark.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Quintin asked blankly. But when his parents ignored him, he grabbed a sandwich off the plate and went back to the ball room.
Alexandria had been one of the first to get her plate, quite eager to get out of there, while Jennifer and Severus waited on the sofa while Seren played gingerbread men with Autumn and Elinor at the small table in front of them.
"I'm going to be taking Rus and Jay with me right after they eat," Alexandria told her parents, eating standing up.
"What, already? Surely you can stay another hour so they can help with the games," Jennifer said in surprise.
"Mum, you know as well as I do that there will be many more family events from now until New Years. I have limited time to spend with them during the holidays, and I want every minute I can get, especially since Rus is going to Whitebridge soon," Alex complained.
"Yes, of course you do," Jennifer said in understanding. "Their cloaks are packed and ready to go, so feel free to take them whenever you're ready."
"Thanks, Mum," Alexandria said, and went over to speak to them. Rus immediately agreed with a smile, while Jay sighed and nodded in resignation as he found a place to finish his sit with his plate.
