AN: Hello everyone! Welcome back for another chapter. Apologies, I think this was meant to go up last week, but Tears of the Kingdom took over my life and messed with all of my sense of time. Play that game, it's VERY good. No more notes from me though. Enjoy the chapter!
Harry was working with Lupin on his patronus. The pair had gone over the theory of the patronus many times, and were finally onto the attempted casting. Harry focused his mind, clearing it, before conjuring up a happy memory. He grabbed a recent one, Luna sitting in his lap just after their date, the pair of them idly reading a book together. It was a good memory for Harry, very happy, full of positive emotion. Harry also hoped its freshness would be a boon as well.
"Expecto Patronum!" Harry incanted, raising his wand. Small wisps of white mist emerged from his wand for a moment, before fading away. Harry panted and looked disappointedly at the remaining few silvery wisps.
"A good start Harry. Conjuring any mist on your first try is difficult. Try again, we'll see what we can work on." Lupin said encouragingly.
Harry cleared his mind, before focusing again. A different memory this time maybe? He focused his thoughts on his and Daphne's dance at her debut. Not as fresh of a happy memory, but one that was arguably much more powerful. "Expecto Patronum!" Harry called out again, wisps formed from his wand, merging into a small fog bank that rolled around Harry's feet.
"Good. Good. I imagine you changed your memory that time? Seems you went for a happier one. There's a balance to this, on top of the happy memory, you need to also have the drive to protect it. I'm not saying you don't feel like protecting your memories now, but it needs to be something deeper, often inherent to the memory." Lupin said, obviously rolling a thought around in his head.
"What memories do you use Professor Lupin?" Harry asked, looking towards the older man.
Lupin paused and thought for a moment. "It's been a bit since I truly conjured the memory I suppose. As you get used to casting the spell, actually visualizing the memory becomes less and less necessary, you just simply feel what you need, without thinking of the memory itself. I suppose I use the memories of my closest friends. When the four of us roamed Hogwarts, causing mischief and simply being there for each other. I remember how they sacrificed so much for me, because they cared for me. I guess that's the memory I latch on to."
"That sounds nice Professor Lupin, where are your friends now? You don't mention them that much." Harry asked, he knew Professor Lupin had been good friends with his father, but he might not have been in that group.
"Well, that's the unfortunate thing really. They're all gone. You obviously know what happened to your father, and one of the others was Sirius Black. Sirius was the glue that held us together really, we were good friends all, but Sirius was the center we all gravitated toward. The fourth one of us was a name you might not have heard before, Peter Petigrew. Together, people called us the Marauders. We were pranksters and mischief makers, not unlike the Weasley twins of now. We spent a lot of time in Professor Mcgonagall's office." Lupin said, laughing a bit.
"We were convinced we were going to change the world. James was going to take over the family legacy, push for muggleborn equality. Sirius was going to be his number one supporter and try and turn the Black family name around. Peter was… well Peter was never sure what he was going to do. I had hoped to be a charm designer, thinking that maybe someday I'd make something that everyone would benefit from. But, then the war happened. James, Sirius, Lily and I had been on the frontlines trying to deal with the Death Eaters and other supporters. After you were born James and Lily went into hiding, so it was just Sirius and I, Peter was never one for fighting. Then came Halloween, you and your parents were attacked, then Sirius killed Peter and those muggles on that street. Then I was alone. Dumbledore didn't tell anyone where you went, just that you were safe. That had been enough for me, if Dumbledore said it it had to be true. From there I guess I just sulked for a few years, drifting from job to job. Hard to find something long-term, then Dumbledore offered me the position here. Honestly, I just couldn't pass it up."
"I'm sorry to hear that Professor Lupin. You and my dad were that close?" Harry asked.
"Yep, only one closer was Sirius. Those two did everything together, couldn't separate them. But I was there too, every step of the way. I was the fifth person to hold you after you were born, you know. The mediwitch who delivered you, then James, then Lily, then Sirius, and then I did. While you were James and Lily's kid, we had always said you were going to be all of ours. Sirius and I would be your uncles, being the good… and bad influences on your life. Lily always screamed her head off at us whenever we brought up teaching you to fly a broom before you could walk, or having your first birthday present be a magical whoopie cushion. She always knew it was in good fun though." Lupin said, looking wistfully into the middle-distance.
"Hard to believe that this Sirius was the same man who betrayed my parents." Harry said, thinking about everything. Everything Lupin and Mum had told Harry about Sirius seemed to scream that he would never do something like that. He had to wonder what changed him.
"It is. Moving on from that, give me one more attempt on the spell, don't worry about pacing yourself, just put as much power into it as you can." Lupin said, wiping his eyes.
"Right." Harry said, before readying himself. Harry thought back, and grabbed the memory of his 12th birthday party. He thought about everyone showing up to celebrate it with him, and how happy that had made him feel. "Expecto Patronum!" Harry incanted again, and from his wand came a gout of silvery mist that quickly began enveloping the room. The process was draining for Harry, who could feel himself growing weaker, but he kept funneling his magic through the wand. More and more of the fog emanated from his wand, now solidly covering the floor of the room they were in, and swirling in various locations. Harry let go and stopped focusing his magic and looked around. The room now looked like the set to some black and white horror movie.
"Well, this is certainly enough mist that you should have been able to form a corporeal patronus. We'll need to work on your visualization it seems. Don't be discouraged though, for your first day of real practice, this is extraordinary. Feel free to try it more on your own time, but we won't have another lesson until we return from the Christmas hols. This will be your first one with the Tonks' if I remember correctly?" Lupin asked.
"Yes, I'm really excited actually. We were supposed to have it last year, but the school was on lockdown so no one got to leave." Harry said. He really felt bad for that, even though he didn't have any control over it. He knew how excited the entire family was to be together for Christmas, and it had been taken from them. Not this year though.
The following few weeks before the Christmas holidays were filled with more of the same for the Sphinx Club, with perhaps a somewhat greater emphasis than normal on studying for their midterm exams. There wasn't much concern about that though for the Sphinx club members, they had incredibly firm grasps on the course material, and had recently even begun taking OWL practice tests to see how they fared in that regard. Everyone had managed to obtain O's in their preferred subjects on the OWL practices, but only Hermione had managed EE's on more than two others. Considering the gap they were working with though, the Sphinx Club was not worried.
Arriving back at the Tonks' for the first time during winter break was an odd sensation for Harry. Despite how much he loved the Tonks', Hogwarts felt like home to him, so leaving it to spend Christmas somewhere else was a strange feeling. Harry was sure that the feeling would dissipate quickly though. Hermione had separated out with her parents at King's Cross, the group deciding against carpooling together this time, so the magical family took the floo to their house, and arrived quickly. Harry, of course, fell firmly upon his face as he exited the fireplace, getting a small chuckle of laughter out of Nymphadora, who awaited on the other side.
"Struggling with that still Harry?" Nymphadora asked, reaching down to help him up, as Ted and Andromeda made their way through.
"Yeah, I thought I had it figured out, but it looks like I don't." Harry said, dusting himself off from his brief experience with the floor. "Good to see you again Nym." He said, moving over to hug her.
"Good to see you too little bro. Glad you got to be home for Christmas this time." Nymphadora said, squeezing him a bit. "We've got so many Christmases to make up for, so buckle up, we're going to do it all!"
"Don't overwhelm him, Nymphadora." Andromeda said, making her way to the kitchen. "Did those cookies I started finish while we were gone?"
"Yeah, they're cooling on the counter, I prepped the icing bags if we want to go ahead and do that." Nymphadora said.
"Icing bags? For what?" Harry asked, confused.
"Oh, every year we make Gingerbread men, and a gingerbread house. We'll make a few batches over the course of the holidays because Dad and I can't get enough of them. We figured this would be a fun thing for us to do on your first day back!" Nymphadora said, leading Harry into the kitchen.
The warm smell of gingerbread flooded Harry's nostrils as he entered the kitchen, where a couple trays of man-shaped cookies were currently sitting on baking sheets. Piping bags filled with various colors of icing were neatly arranged on the kitchen table, with small bowls of candies ready to serve as ornamentation for the soon to be created gingerbread folk.
"Well, let's go ahead and wash up and get started!" Ted said, making his way over to the sink as he rolled up his sleeves.
Harry watched as the Tonks family started their work, Andromeda was carefully piping out some black hair for her gingerbread man, and Harry was astounded by the small details she was able to pull out of the substance. Ted on the other hand, had gone more traditional, and was outlining his gingerbread man in white, before adding candies to him to create the eyes and mouth. Nymphadora had gone more wild with hers, and seemed to be creating an alien of some kind, complete with green skin and giant bulbous black eyes.
Harry was unsure what he should do though, he hadn't done anything like this before, and didn't want to mess it up. It wouldn't do to ruin the first time he did this with them, especially since it seemed to mean so much to them. Noticing his hesitation, Nym came over to him.
"Come on Harry! Join in, if you're worried about it not looking good, don't bother. Half the fun is eating the ones that don't turn out quite right." Nym said, before chomping the head off of her alien. "Ooh! Maybe now I can make a headless monster or something." Nym got to work on turning her decapitated gingerbread man into something else, and Harry relaxed a bit.
Grabbing the pink piping bag, he started adding some spiky hair to a gingerbread man, before getting some black licorice to make into some robes. A couple tiny gumdrop eyes and a blue licorice wand later, and Harry thought he made a decent looking Nymphadora.
"Oh! It's me! Aw thanks lil' bro." Nymphadora said, picking up the cookie, before matching her hair to the cookie's. "You even got my auror wand!"
"I tried, sorry it's not great." Harry said, rubbing his foot into the floor.
"Don't do that, it's great! Oh, we should make everyone, we can put them with the house when we build it." Nymphadora said.
"Already on it, just finished Harry here." Andromeda said, showing her cookie as it was finished. She had gotten him pretty good, even having the scar and glasses, plus a small blue and bronze scarf.
"Alright, I'll make Dad. Harry, how about you try Mum?" Nymphadora said, grabbing another cookie and beginning to fill out her father's brown hair.
"I suppose I'll make Charlie, just to have him included. Will he be coming by this year, Nym?" Andromeda asked, grabbing a bag filled with orange frosting.
"I think so. I know he's got some time off, but with his mother it's entirely possible she won't let him leave the house, or come see his 'hussy'." Nymphadora said with a bit of a laugh.
"She doesn't really call you that does she?" Andromeda asked, as Ted also laughed a bit.
"Once when she was really mad at me. She's a nice lady most of the time, but she doesn't think anyone is good enough for her boys. I know both of the twins are scared to tell her about their girlfriends because one of them is black." Nymphadora said.
"Oh, which one of the twins is dating Angelina? She's nice." Harry said. He hadn't had too much contact with the older Gryffindor Quidditch player, but he saw her around the castle occasionally.
"I think it's George, but I still can't tell those two apart. Charlie somehow can and it drives me up the wall." Nymphadora said, continuing her work on the miniature version of Ted. "Speaking of dating, how's it going with your gaggle of gal pals Harry? Add any more in?"
Harry flushed red at the statement. He knew she was only teasing him, but it didn't help the matter. "They're all doing well. I managed to give each of them a date in Hogsmeade. Well, except for Luna since she couldn't go."
"That's good, you need to remember to take good care of them. It's going to be hard enough for them since they share a boy, no need to make it worse by not spreading the attention around." Andromeda said. "I know Sirius used to joke about wanting that much attention when he was your age, but I don't believe he could have handled it."
Harry's heart dropped for a second at the mention of Sirius. He felt bad for that though, despite what happened, he was still Andromeda's family. It must be hard for her as well.
In short order, the Gingerbread Tonks family was finished, and with a bit of magic from the family's charms mistress matriarch, the gingerbread family was ambling about on the baking tray.
Over the rest of the winter holidays, the Tonks did their best to allow Harry to experience all the joys of winter they could manage. Due to some weather manipulation magic from Andromeda, the Tonks' managed to have a decent amount of snow over the holidays, which they took advantage of to go sledding, have snowball fights, build snowmen, and many other wintry activities. Harry was entirely overjoyed at the effort his family was going through for him. He already felt like a true member of the Tonks family before this, but now there was no question in his mind. They had even managed to get a portrait made of them as a family, which now hung over their mantle. They were wearing bright red Christmas sweaters, and given it was magical, could be seen laughing and smiling at the camera. Harry had a family, a nice, happy family that loved him dearly, and that Harry loved back with equal ferocity.
Christmas day itself came around, and the family happily gathered in the living room to open presents. Harry received some new games for their home computer, something he was very happy to get the chance to use since he was home. Nymphadora had also gotten him a newer set of dueling armor, since he was beginning to grow out of his old one. This one was much sleeker than the previous one, being a more skin tight upper body glove with what he was told were dragon-scale pauldrons, as well as a leather breastplate with an embossed blue lightning bolt on it. While wearing it, Harry felt very cool and powerful, like he could take on almost anything. Nymphadora also said this one had been enchanted to grow properly with him, so unless it got too damaged it should last him for a few years.
Harry had also managed to order some gifts for his family too, which they had greatly appreciated. Ted in particular was happy with his new self-sterilizing healer's robes, which he had never even thought to buy, given he could sterilize them normally with just a wave of his wand.
All in all, Harry was happy that he had managed to truly love his first Christmas with his family, and he hoped that he would be able to make many, many more happy memories with them.
While Harry would always be a Potter, that didn't mean he couldn't be a Tonks too.