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Chapter 13
Harry was awoken Christmas morning by two girls climbing into bed with him. "Shh," Fleur whispered before she and Hermione sandwiched him between them. Harry was well aware that the two had spent the night together for their first time last night, how could he not? He was a teenage boy, and his two hot and sexy girlfriends were enacting a fantasy shared by nine out of ten teenage males. And after a few conversations he had had with Tracey, a few women also shared the fantasy. Judging by the soft smiles the two of them were wearing they had both enjoyed themselves.
Harry just wrapped his arms around them and snuggled in without saying a word, as anything he could say would just destroy the peace. He had considered telling the two about what had happened between him and Dudley while they had their own evening together, but decided not to today. They were in a good mood and it was Christmas. All telling them would do would be to upset them and ruin their day, and make the day worse for him as well. 'I will tell them tomorrow,' he thought to himself, and cuddled back into his girlfriends and dozed off, enjoying just being with each other.
They stayed like that for over an hour until they started to hear people moving around the house. Eventually there was a knock on Harry's door and Emma's voice called out from the other side, "Harry, girls, everyone else is up if you're ready to join us."
Hermione called out. "You can open the door, mum. We are just cuddling."
A few moments later the door opened and Emma's head popped in, revealing a big smile. "Merry Christmas. You lot getting up soon so we can all have breakfast together?"
"Joyeux Noël Emma. We'll be down soon, we have been up for a while just cuddling and enjoying being back together," Fleur explained.
"Well try not to be too long, we're eating together as it's Christmas." And with a smile and a wave Hermione's mum retreated.
Now that the silence had been broken Harry felt no need to keep quiet. "Merry Christmas you two. Looks like you had fun last night."
Fleur blushed and buried her head in Harry's chest, embarrassed. Harry hugged her a little tighter and gave her a quick kiss on the top of her head in support. Hermione however didn't bother to hide her grin. "It was amazing, but that's all I'm going to say." And with that, the girls retreated back to their own rooms to get dressed.
Breakfast was amazing. Dudley was surprisingly quiet when he was told food came before presents. Harry had expected a tantrum, but it was only then that he realised Dudley didn't expect to get any presents at all this year. While there wasn't a lot sitting under the tree for his cousin, when Dudley had accepted Harry's invitation, he had made sure that there would be something there for his cousin. Maybe, if Harry had been feeling petty after their altercation the day before, he might have removed them and thrown them in the fire out of spite. But he hadn't thought about it last night, so the presents were still there. And given that it was only a few boxes of sweets Harry couldn't be bothered to be petty.
Dobby and Sassy had gone all out for Christmas breakfast. They ate at the formal dinner table on the ground floor and there was a full selection of drinks from which to pick: tea, coffee, hot chocolate, as well as apple, orange and pumpkin juice. For food, there was a full English with three different preparations of eggs, crumpets with a selection of toast and fried bread, fresh croissants, baguettes, jams, butter, syrup and French toast. Everything was cooked to perfection and they were spoiled for choice. Eventually, all the food was finished off, despite there being enough to feed about fifteen people for only nine of them. Dudley surprised Harry by remaining silent and eating like a normal person rather than the glutton Harry remembered from his time at Privet Drive.
As they ate they talked about inconsequential things. The teens all talked about the stress of preparing for their exams at the end of the year. Harry, Hermione and Tracey were sitting their O.W.L.s, Fleur was sitting her ASPIC or Accumulation de Sorcellerie Particulièrement Intensive et Contraignante (the French equivalent of the N.E.W.T.s), and even Dudley was sitting his *G.C.S.E.s and could relate to the idea that the teachers were piling on the pressure.
The adults in turn talked about their lives. Sirius was now actively looking for a job, but it wasn't going well because he hadn't worked in over fourteen years. He didn't really need the money, he was looking for a job more for the social aspects, so he was in no rush and could afford to be picky. Dan and Emma were pretty tight-lipped about how they were moving house to hide from wizards, given that the reason they were doing so had to do with what happened to Dudley's parents. Instead they talked about their business and how the dental group they belonged to had just expanded to include three more dental practices. Ms. Richards told them all about how she was working with her local *women's institute to help set up a class for women to learn I.T. skills. Computers were becoming more and more common in the workplace, and as such office workers were needing those skills more and more.
The biggest surprise was Fleur telling them she had been trying to arrange employment in the UK starting next summer and that she had a provisional offer of apprenticeship at Gringotts, based on how well she did in her ASPIC exams. "Oh my god Fleur, that's amazing! Gringotts is known to have extremely high standards for its employees. If they have made you that offer then you must have impressed them," Hermione said as she took the time to give her girlfriend a hug. Harry would have joined in but unfortunately he was seated too far away.
"Hermione's right. The Gringotts goblins are notoriously hard on witches and wizards applying to work with them," Sirius put in. "There is a lot of bad history between the two races."
Fleur nodded. "I think that because I am Veela it may have helped me there. Veela may still have our wand rights, but the British Wizengamot and the 'pureblood elite' are not great with Veela either. I told them I was looking to work with someone who would judge me based on the quality of my work rather than who my parents were and I think that helped." She put up finger quotes around the words "pureblood elite".
"I can see how that would appeal to them. Too many of the people they deal with are self entitled and demanding, actually asking to be judged on your achievements could easily get your application a second look. And you are a Triwizard champion, and from what Harry and Hermione have told me your grades are top notch," Sirius said as he stuffed a few slices of bacon and a fried egg between two pieces of toast, building himself a breakfast sandwich as he missed the blush Fleur had at his praise.
After breakfast it was time for them to open presents. They all tracked upstairs to the family living area, and once they were all seated around the tree it was decided by the traditional drawing of the candy canes that Fleur would be the one to hand out the presents this year. Hermione set up her gramophone and put on a selection of Christmas albums that her dad had brought with him for the holidays. Most of the presents were practical gifts for the teens from the adults, such as clothes like warm jumpers and new pairs of thick woolly socks. Even Dudley was given a gift card from the Grangers and a promise from Dan that he would take Dudley to London to spend it before he went back to school.
But there were more meaningful gifts as well. Near the end, Fleur came across five small presents that were tied together that needed to be handed out at the same time. Harry, seeing what Fleur was handing out, stood up and took over for a second. Despite the fact that one of the boxes had his name on it, they were from him. "Okay Hermione, Fleur, Dan, Emma, these are for you." They each opened their box and found a piece of jewellery. Hermione's and Fleur's matched Harry's in that they were triquetra. Fleur's was in white gold and Hermione's in yellow gold, whereas the one Harry had made himself was silver. Dan and Emma's each had a pair of interlocked Celtic knots in silver. "These have been enchanted by me to be a little special. Dan and Emma, your two are linked, and Fleur's, Hermione's, and mine are linked. While the partner charms are worn, they will grow warm to the touch when someone wearing the other thinks about them," Harry explained.
They all took their matching charms out of their boxes. Harry and Dan each had theirs as a pendant on a simple leather bootlace. Emma and Fleur's were both on fine silvery necklace chains, with Emma's in silver and Fleur's in white gold. Hermione's was set in a yellow gold bracelet chain to match the pendant he gave her that she wore almost every day since he gave it to her. He knew that the locket he had given her two years ago now held a photo of him, a photo of Fleur, one of her parents together, and one of her grandmother. Harry helped his girls put on their new jewellery while Dan and Emma also helped each other. As soon as they all were on, each charm started to give off a comforting warmth. And Hermione pulled Harry and Fleur into one of legendary hugs. All Harry could think was that he was the luckiest guy on earth.
As the day went on, Harry noticed Tracey was not doing too well. He did his best to keep her from thinking about what was missing from her day, but he knew he wasn't exactly successful. One moment he would have her distracted with some new Caerphilly Catapults merchandise, and the next she would be sitting there in melancholy, staring unseeingly at one or other of the Christmas decorations, only for Harry to notice and for the cycle to repeat. Harry felt for his friend, but didn't know what else he could do.
With the large heavy breakfast they had, they would be having their Christmas dinner in the early evening rather than midday, so Dobby had set out some crackers and cheese for those who wanted them to keep them going. Harry was just topping a cracker with some boursin, he had found he really liked the garlicky herby soft cheese after Fleur had introduced him to it, but he was interrupted from his snack by a knock on the front door. Harry went down to the ground floor to find that Sassy had let in Daphne, and the normally unflappable Ice Queen of Slytherin was not as stoic as she normally was. In fact, the woman was downright pissed off.
"Daphne, what's happened?" Harry asked as he walked up to her and took her cloak, leaving it in the little room next to the front door, only then noticing that Daphne also had her school truck with her.
"I'll tell you what happened. My grandfather, the fucking coward, happened. He ordered me to cut off ties with you and Tracey or be thrown out of the House of Greengrass. I told him to stick his house up his ass." She was radiating cold fury as she spoke and Harry could hear people upstairs coming to see what was happening. She looked nervously at her school trunk and Harry understood what she was going to ask. "Harry, can I stay here until it's time to go back to school?"
Harry would have hugged her, but he always had the impression that Daphne wouldn't want him to do that. "Daph you don't even need to ask. You're welcome to stay here as long as you need. Do you need any more help?" Harry asked, offering the protection of his house without saying it.
Daphne visibly relaxed a little on hearing Harry say that. "Thanks Harry, but I just need a place to stay. Dad said that he will speak with grandfather and try to calm him down. I already have my own vault at Gringotts, and Dad pulled me aside when he followed me back through the Floo to our home. He is still going to support me, I just couldn't stay there until it was cleared up." She explained just as Tracey came thundering down the stairs. Harry got Tracey to wait before bombarding Daphne with questions so that she wouldn't have to keep repeating herself. Tracey took Daphne up to the family room, and in the meantime Harry checked with Sassy to make sure it wouldn't be a problem to set another place for dinner before heading upstairs himself.
Daphne started her story when he arrived. "Well, the whole family always goes to my grandparents for Christmas. Grandfather had apparently heard about mine and Tracey's relationship and that now Tracey had joined the House of Potter. Add to that he actually believes Harry's version of events that You-Know-Who is back. So of course, as a neutral house, the Greengrasses had to cut off all ties with the House of Potter. Then he tried to set me up on a date with Draco, 'trying to arrange a suitable match for me.' When I told him that siding with the Malfoys was throwing the Greengrasses in with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named because Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater, he told me that he had known Lucius since he was a boy and he wasn't a Death Eater, and just because he was the victim of the Imperius Curse wasn't a reason to condemn him for the rest of his life.
"I used to respect my grandfather, but it turns out he's just an idiot. How can he not see that Malfoy, the muggle hating blood snob, doesn't need an Imperius Curse to join He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. You don't train a Niffler to steal shiny stuff, you don't need to persuade a goblin to take your gold, and you don't need an Imperius Curse to get a Malfoy to attack a muggleborn!" By the end of all that Daphne was ranting, and Hermione and Tracey were doing their best to comfort her. Daphne reiterated what she told Harry downstairs, that her father was supporting her but she just needed space. Harry spoke up saying he had offered her a room until they went back to school; not that Harry would have hesitated to offer Daphne a room for as long as she needed it, and if her grandfather remains unreasonable then the offer would stand in perpetuity. The adults were satisfied that this was a temporary situation, and Emma even commented that it would be good if Daphne and Tracey could provide each other with some distraction. Harry hoped she was right, it was Christmas after all.
-ϟϟϟ-
Thankfully there had been no more drama on Christmas Day. They had mostly tried to forget everything that had been happening and enjoyed the day. They stuffed themselves with the dinner that the elves had made and in general tried to have a good time. Harry, Hermione, and Fleur decided that they missed each other enough and didn't want to sleep apart, so they all slept in Harry's room that night. They didn't do anything more than put Fleur in between them and share a few kisses due to Harry's age and Fleur's overabundance of caution, but it was probably the best night of sleep any of them had had for weeks.
Harry had half expected to be dragged out of bed early to go to London for the Boxing Day sales, but apparently Emma had decided not to risk it. After the Dursleys were taken, it had caused Dan and Emma to see just how much danger they were in, so walking around London on a day that they could be expected to be there was something that they wouldn't do. Instead, they broke out the board games. Chess was relatively popular, as it was a game that existed in both the mundane and magical world with the same rules. Yes the wizarding pieces were animated, but the game itself followed the same rules. Dudley even got involved teaching Harry and the magical teens how to play poker.
A little after midday they had a visitor: Daphne's father. Harry had met the man once before, part of a tense situation then as well as it was because of the riot at the World Cup. It turned out he didn't actually know that Daphne was at Harry's house. He had assumed that she had gone to Hogwarts, but when he checked and found she wasn't there, he had come to ask Harry and Tracey if they knew where she was. He was relieved when he found out that his daughter was there and not missing somewhere, but unfortunately that was the end of the good news. Apparently his own father had decided to be unreasonable, and instead of backing down he had responded to Daphne walking out by officially starting the process to kick Daphne out of the House of Greengrass.
It was petty and stupid on his part, because Castor Greengrass was the only possible Heir to be the next Warlock of the house of Greengrass, and there was nothing to stop him from inviting Daphne back when he was Warlock. Especially as he had made it clear he didn't agree with kicking out his daughter. It did, however, put Daphne and Mr. Greengrass in a difficult position. Technically he wasn't supposed to render Daphne any aid after she was cast from the house. But as it was Christmas, the process of casting her out had been delayed, so Mr. Greengrass had used that as a window of opportunity and had transferred a pile of gold into her vault at Gringotts. Unfortunately, that and giving her all her belongings was all he could do, and it was obvious that the man was upset by the fact. He vowed to pressure his father to stop Daphne's banishment before he finished it, and to do everything he could to return her to the family as soon as possible if he actually went through with it.
As destroyed as Mr Greengrass was, Daphne was surprisingly calm. "Dad, I'm not worried. I know you, mom, and Tori love me and I love all you as well. But we both know grandfather is a stubborn asshole. I will be fine, and I'm sure he will do what he wants and nothing you say will change his mind. But I'm fine with it. Neutral is for people whose family haven't been attacked. I love you, but Tracey is my family as well, and that needs to be answered. As far as I'm concerned, all grandfather has done is free me to act without it hurting you."
"But you are not even sixteen yet. You should be worried about school, exams, and career options. Not fighting a war." The man was openly crying a little while he hugged his daughter. It was difficult to disagree with the man, but they also couldn't deny that this was turning into a war. A war where one side was more than happy to target children, and to kill, rape, and torture to try and scare people into letting them commit an act of genocide. Harry honestly wished he could just leave, but unfortunately unless the mundane world suddenly unveiled that they had built a ship to go colonise Mars or something and were looking for volunteers, there was nowhere he or his family could run where they wouldn't be followed.
Eventually everything calmed down and Mr Greengrass sat with them for a while as they talked out the practicalities. Daphne would be welcome at Harry's home as long as she needed a place to stay. Harry offered to give her the same protection from the House of Potter that he had offered Tracey, and she accepted. It was only now that Harry started to realise that Daphne intended to fight against the Death Eaters. Not because of what they stood for, even if she disagreed with their blood politics she had been raised to be neutral. No, what had pissed off Daphne was that they had targeted Tracey. As far as Daphne was concerned, Tracey was as much her family as Hermione and Fleur were for Harry. Daphne wanted vengeance on those that had crossed her, and she fully intended to get it.
That got Harry thinking. He, Hermione, and Fleur had all the training they had done for the Triwizard Tournament, but Daphne and Tracey hadn't done anything like that. Maybe he would suggest that they all do some training together every week at Hogwarts. It was probably a good idea for him and Hermione to do that as well, they couldn't depend on skills that had gotten rusty, after all.
-ϟϟϟ-
Harry found Hermione and Fleur sitting together in his room later that evening, both of them wrapped in towels as Fleur helped Hermione with her hair. The two of them had taken over Harry's room to use the master bathroom, as it was rather opulent and he could see why the girls loved it. He was just about to duck out and let them finish up; any excuse to put off what he needed to tell them would be welcome. He knew they were going to be upset at him for not telling them sooner. Unfortunately for him, they called him in.
"It's fine Harry, I am just showing Hermione a trick to help her control her hair a little better and give her some purposeful curls rather than the uncontrolled frizz," Fleur said.
"I still think it's impossible without magic," Hermione joked as she used the mirror she was looking at to smile at them both without turning around.
"Non. Your hair obviously comes from your papa's side of the family, Emma just doesn't know how to deal with it. You will see, once I am done you will have a beautiful head of curls." Fleur replied, playing up her French accent a little.
Harry sat on the bed and watched Fleur work for a few minutes as she did things Harry both couldn't and didn't want to understand and talked Hermione through what she was doing.
"So what's wrong Harry?" Fleur asked. "You look…apprehensive?" She questioned if apprehensive was the right word, and Hermione nodded that it was.
"Uh yeah. I, uh, didn't tell you something that happened on Christmas Eve, and I probably should have told you sooner but it was Christmas and then the stuff with Daphne," Harry tried to explain.
"Just tell us Harry, I'm sure it can't be that bad." Fleur encouraged him.
Harry explained how he had been practicing his animagus form when Dudley came up the stairs and attacked him, breaking his nose, as well as Harry's trip to see the village healer and his decision to let Dudley stay here because it was more important to him that Dan was there for Christmas than it was for Dudley not to be there. He was right, in that Fleur and Hermione were angry. Both at him for not telling them immediately, and at Dudley for what he did to Harry. It didn't help that they both quickly put the timeline together and realised that the reason it happened without them knowing was because they were together off taking a huge step in their relationship. They felt like they had abandoned Harry when he needed them so that they could enjoy themselves.
Harry assured them that he didn't feel abandoned at all. He knew how much their night together had meant to the two of them and assured them that if it had been any kind of emergency he knew they would have come and helped him if asked. However, he wasn't going to interrupt something so special to them for a broken nose. Of course, since Harry had also decided that he was going to cut off ties with his cousin over the incident, then both Hermione and Fleur argued that it was way bigger than a broken nose. They were right, of course, but Harry was still adamant that their time together, as limited as it was, was more important. In the end, they couldn't agree. Hermione and Fleur thought that they should have been there, while Harry placed more importance on them. Fleur did add that, despite thinking Harry was wrong, she liked that Harry put so much importance on hers and Hermione's happiness.
-ϟϟϟ-
About halfway between Christmas and New Years, Harry found Hermione in the Potter library doing her best to teach Dobby how to read and write. Harry knew that Hermione had been teaching the elf when he himself was busy learning French from Fleur, and the little elf was surprisingly enthusiastic. He had even asked for books when Harry asked him what he wanted for Christmas. They were cookbooks so that the elf could learn new recipes, however both Harry and Hermione considered it a positive step forward, and Harry could relate to enjoying cooking.
Harry watched as Hermione lectured dobby on some of the finer points of the written side of the language. "Now you might hear a lot of rules in English, such as the letter I comes before an E except after C, but English is not consistent with this rule and there are exceptions; words like heir, their and eight. So in your reading, if you come across that rule mentioned, you're better off just ignoring it. English doesn't have many rules, it has guidelines because it's a merger of multiple languages coming together, and each of those languages had their own ways of doing things," Hermione explained to the elf.
Harry hadn't really thought about it that way before. He had of course been told the I before E rule in junior school, but hadn't really realised there were so many exceptions. At Hogwarts, they weren't really given extra English lessons either. The professors just made corrections to essays before handing them back, and if you keep making the same mistakes you were given detention or lost House points. Most students quickly learned to do better on their own, though that was just spelling and grammar and Harry was sure that mundane English classes covered more than that.
After Hermione finished up with Dobby, Harry went and sat down next to her, causing Hermione to smile and cuddle into him a little. They hadn't been as affectionate to each other over the Christmas break as they normally were in Hogwarts. Not that they weren't fighting or anything, it was just that with Fleur being there after being apart from them for so long they had both turned their affection to the girl they had been missing. But that didn't stop Harry from missing his cuddle monster a little.
"How's Dobby coming along?" Harry asked, genuinely curious.
"He's doing well. He's never going to be a bookworm like I am, but I think I will be inviting Sassy to the lessons in a few more months because Dobby will have caught up with her. I don't know if it's Dobby or elves in general, but he has learned surprisingly fast." Hermione explained. "But I doubt you are here to talk to me about Dobby, so why did you come looking for me?" A slight teasing note was in her tone.
Harry caught the suggested reason that Hermione was hinting at and couldn't help but smile. "Unfortunately, I'm here to talk about our animagus forms. I made a breakthrough before everything happened with Dudley that I forgot to tell you about."
"Oh?" Hermione asked curiously. Harry explained about how he had messed up returning to his human form and had had to do it in two steps on Christmas Eve, then how he had tried to get closer to his bird form in the same way and that it had worked. Hermione was happy for Harry that he had gotten so much closer and took Harry's advice and tried to take part of her cat form. She stopped at exactly the same point Harry had seen her at when they were in Professor McGonagall's office a few days before the end of term. Hermione's approach to the transformation was different to Harry's, he went with a top down approach whereas Hermione seemed to go with her limbs first. Her arms and legs reconfigured into large hairy cat paws and her face grew fur and became more feline.
Then she tried again pushing herself further, and both teens were happy that they were the only ones in the room (well, with the exception of Fleur). Part of the transformation meant that your clothes and everything else you were carrying became a part of you for the duration. Hermione's second push at her transformation had focused on her chest, and the fur that covered her limbs spread over her chest, absorbing her clothing as it did. However, Hermione was wearing a dress, so the transformation left her standing there covered in tabby fur but wearing nothing except her *knickers. Hermione actually looked a lot like she had right after taking the Polyjuice in their second year, only at least according to Harry she was much sexier now as she was no longer only thirteen.
Hermione wasn't particularly embarrassed about her wardrobe malfunction, she was comfortable with Harry seeing her. She was, however, slightly annoyed with herself for not realising that this was a possibility while wearing a dress, so she transfigured herself straight back into her normal form. Once Hermione was in her normal form and her dress was adjusted back so that it was sitting right again, she let herself get excited about the huge improvement she was able to make. They were both sure that it wouldn't be long now until they mastered their animagus forms.
A/N
*G.C. - British standard government run exams that students take in their fifth year of comprehensive school.
*a national organisation of women's right activists. Would often be seen as dated by today's standards
*while celtic knots are used to mean many things outside of Britain they are a vestige of the earlier cultural inside of Britain and are fairly common on lots of designs especially where you are symbolising two people together
*knickers- British English for panties/girls underwear.