Snips and Scars In Which Parties are Patronused, a harry potter fanfic

Chapter 56, everybody! In which the kids get two Christmas parties!

Sorry for the delay on this, but part of the delay was the fact that this and the next chapter or two was the Yule Ball and Christmas and I was having a hard time getting into the zone because *gestures at high summer* Might still have a delay getting the next ones out, but in the meantime.

Also looking it up and both Rudolph and Aardman Studios were around in the time period the HP books are set in—about this time Aardman were still focused on their Wallace and Gromit shows. Also worth mentioning that since book 4 takes place in 94/95, one of the biggest stop-motion movies, Nightmare Before Christmas, released the previous year.

The boys' dates I looked up on the wiki and both are mentioned in the books, as I understand it. And the delay due to a much larger audience than expected comes from Saphroneth's fic Harry is a Dragon, and That's Okay. Really enjoyed that fic.

Gardengirl6, thanks for the review! Good news, we find out this chapter!

Ronnie11, thanks for the review! I have good news.

They were having a Christmas Eve party, as Harry found out, mostly to avoid scheduling conflicts with the Yule Ball on Christmas. Harry, personally, agreed with Ron's assessment of yes two parties and was happy to wear his new Christmas sweater for the occasion.

Harry was also happy to discover that a lot of his school friends had been invited and got to meet their family as well—also Ron's one squib relative, who had apparently spent a couple of hours with his kids trying to explain to Mr. Weasley the how and why of the TV, which did end up with them getting the TV working. It was kind of funny, seeing all these grown witches and wizards clustered around the TV and being absolutely blown away by Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

"Are you sure Muggles made this?" Mr. Weasley kept asking, pointing at the TV. "Are you absolutely sure that this isn't magic?" Which then led into an explanation on how stop-motion animation worked, spearheaded by a boy a few years younger than Harry who sounded absolutely obsessed with an Aardman Studios.

The food was delicious, which was to be expected when it was both Mrs. Weasley and Kreacher cooking—apparently the two had been busy for most of the day alternating jobs, both of them looking abashed whenever someone complimented them.

In all, the party was loud, crowded and boisterous. But surrounded by the sounds of friends and family, of happiness and contentment with all the terrifying stuff miles away…it felt good. It felt really good, and for once Harry could call the feeling in his chest genuinely happy.

Remus seemed to notice this too.

"Harry," he said, coming over and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Can I ask a favor?"

"Uh?" Harry noised. "Um, sure—what is it?"

"I'd like you to try the Patronus charm again."

Harry blinked at that. "Um—but I'm not allowed to use magic outside of Hogwarts—you know that."

"I do, but the trace doesn't really make much of a distinction. Seeing as you're in an adult wizard's house, surrounded by adult wizards, any magic conducted near you will be attributed to the adult wizards, since they're supposed to be responsible and monitoring you." Look up at Sirius coming over with fresh drinks. "Understand I'm not including Sirius in this assessment."

"Oh no what are you telling him," Sirius asked, handing a drink to Remus.

"He wants me to try the Patronus charm again," Harry supplied.

"Really? You think you could do it?" Sirius asked Harry. "Because you know intent is half the battle if you think you can do it that's you halfway—"

"He did once by convincing himself of that, I told him it wasn't a good strategy long-term," Remus told Sirius. "But I have a good feeling about it now."

"I like these good feelings—hey—hey everyone clear some space here! Harry's going to do the Patronus charm!"

That got most of the party interested and made Harry very nervous about being the center of attention—Remus patted his shoulder.

"Ignore him, he gets like that when he's tipsy," Remus assured him. "Now, just—should probably ask you if you have your wand first."

"It's upstairs—" Harry started—stopped abruptly when Snips flew in for a landing with his tail wrapped around his wand. "Okay that works—thanks." There went his plan of going upstairs and pretending to look for his wand until everyone gave up.

"Right. Now close your eyes—"

"Imagine everyone in their underwear," Sirius counseled.

"Don't do that."

"Do it," Fred and George chimed.

It had the intended effect though, got Harry to snicker and not think about everyone watching him—fix the image in his mind—

"Expecto Patronum!"

Something big and silvery exploded out of his wand, cantered the length of the room to everyone's glee, glowing brighter from their comments and applause as it trotted back to Harry, Remus shaking his shoulders and cheering on how he had done it—

Sirius was making odd wheezing noises, a disbelieving laugh underlying his speech when he reached out to touch the glowing silver stag. "I don't believe it—Moony—Moony it's James!"

Harry blinked. "Wait what?"

"Remember the bit about us being the Marauders and certain people being unregistered animagi?" Remus asked, also taken with the shape. "James turned into a stag."

"Good to see you again, Prongs," Sirius said, gently stroking the Patronus's nose. "Happy Christmas."

Christmas morning had breakfast and presents—Harry got his promised Weasley sweater, this one with a dragon on it (which he resolved to wear next Care of Magical Creatures). Ron got his predicted maroon sweater, and judging by the way he and Harry were meeting eyes and nodding solemnly Harry expected it wouldn't remain maroon for much longer.

And as promised, the dating arrangements were in the stockings.

"Emily Dobbs?" Ron asked, reading from his slip.

"Her nose is in the center of her face, we checked," Fred told him.

"Well that's what's important—what do you mean she's in Slytherin?"

"Ah-ah-ah, you didn't specify house."

"Dangit," Ron muttered. "Who'd you get, Harry?"

Harry checked his. "Laura Madley, Hufflepuff, first year."

"Do not propose trading," Hermione told Ron sternly.

"I can't guarantee that Laura's nose is centered," George agreed.

Ron sighed, reread his paper. "Well…second year, hopefully two years of being around Malfoy hasn't ruined her."

"She'd be getting in about the time he started his Hippogriff obsession, so there's hope," Harry agreed.

"Both of you, honestly," Hermione sighed.

"Hey you still haven't told us who you're going with," Ron shot back.

"And you'll find out alongside everyone else."

Morning to lunch was spent enjoying presents and having breakfast and lunch sort of blur together, between lunch and tea saw them outside playing in the snow, Sirius running around in dog form and chasing snowballs they threw for him.

Hermione was the first one to head back to Hogwarts after warming up with tea and hot chocolate, citing the need to get ready.

"We still got like three hours!" Ron said. "How long does getting ready even take?"

"You should probably get started," Mrs. Weasley said, eyeing them.

Harry was happy to learn that they weren't going back to Hogwarts alone—apparently there was a need for chaperones at the Yule Ball, and Remus and Sirius had volunteered.

"Now remember what we discussed."

"If the punch isn't spiked by nine, spike the punch," Sirius said.

"No," Remus said. "We're chaperoning—we're supposed to be responsible adults, Padfoot."

"How dare you speak such slander."

"Fine—you're in front of other responsible adults, at least pretend to be responsible for five minutes."

"Ah, right," Sirius said, grinning sheepishly at Mrs. Weasley.

"I think we had better go with, Arthur," Mrs. Weasley said to Mr. Weasley.

"Now look what you've done," Remus said to Sirius.

It was decided that the kids would get ready in their dorms to avoid getting too much soot on their dress robes, which saw them arriving to a common room currently in a tizzy as everyone was getting ready. Harry and Ron managed to make it to their room just as Seamus and Dean came out.

"Talk to Neville, we can't get him to calm down," Dean told them.

Neville was busy pacing in front of a shelf of plants and Trevor, holding a flower and wearing handsome earthy green dress robes with yellow vines on the hems. He was worked up over the whole thing and only left when Harry pointed out that he might be keeping Luna waiting.

"We probably ought to get ready and go after him," Ron observed as Neville tripped out. "Make sure he actually makes it down the steps."

"And we need to find our dates," Harry told him, tugging his robes off the hangar he had put them on. "I know I don't know what Laura Madley looks like."

"We can't even count on robe color," Ron sighed, going to his robes.

They were down in record time, Snips sitting on Harry's shoulder and primping a little white bow tie he had procured. Lingered in the common room for a few minutes before admitting that Hermione might not be ready yet and honestly Harry was getting tired of having his feet get stepped on and the rest of him get shoved against the wall he and Ron were loitering by.

The entrance hall wasn't any less crowded, and Ron and Harry ended up stopping on the first empty step above the crowd so they could better scan the hall.

"Well I know who they're not," Harry said, looking at a crowd of students he recognized from shared Charms as Ravenclaws.

"Oi this is taking too long—hey!" Ron hollered across the hall. "Emily and Laura?"

Ernie MacMillan waved at them and pointed—Snips launched off Harry's shoulder, and between the two of them they were able to find the two girls.

"Hi," Harry said as Snips settled back down on his shoulder. "I'm Harry, this is Ron—I think we're your dates?"

"Laura, Emily," the girl with muted pink robes said, pointing at herself and then the girl next to her in pine green robes—both had something like white glitter around their shoulders which gave them a sort of frosted look. "Are you really famous? Everyone got really excited when I got your name and you don't look famous."

"I'm not, he is," Harry said, indicating Ron.

"I'm very famous," Ron said, nodding.

"Lucky," Laura said to Emily.

"Does your brother really work with dragons?" Emily asked. "Because I heard them mentioning a guy named Weasley when they were talking about the dragons in the first task and your last name is Weasley—"

"That'd be Charlie Weasley, he's one of my older brothers," Ron said.

"So I'm not exactly sure what we're supposed to be doing," Harry admitted to Laura as Emily started peppering Ron with questions about dragons. "This is a first for me."

"Me too," Laura said. "But Ernie said the doors aren't open yet so we're supposed to wait out here."

"Makes sense. Want to help me find my friend Neville? He seemed a little nervous when he headed down here."

Laura nodded and they ended up holding hands to avoid getting separated in the press of people—Snips flew up again, circling the hall before tightening up.

"He's very useful," Laura said when they got close and Snips settled on Neville's head. "What is he?"

"Oh hello Snips, so nice of you to join us," Luna said. "And Harry, hello. I'm glad to see you found dates, you were looking very worried."

"It was starting to get a little dicey," Harry admitted. "Luna, this is Laura, Laura this is Luna Lovegood and Neville Longbottom—Neville—Neville breathe."

"You have a snake on you," Laura observed.

"Yes, this is Mauve," Luna said. "She's seeing me in and then she and Trevor will be off enjoying themselves."

"Wait what?" Neville asked.

"Hi Harry! Hi Luna!"

"Hi Colin. And Dennis," Harry said, taking note of the Creevey brothers running over. "Where are your dates?"

"We're with the press," Dennis said very seriously, Colin nodding and holding up his camera.

"They're handling pictures, Fitzherbert is handling the documentation," Luna said, the quill in question hovering nearby and occasionally jotting things down.

"Ah," Harry noised. Looked when Laura tugged on his sleeve.

"Is this normal?" she asked. "I know magic school means a bunch of different stuff and you did fight a dragon—"

"You get used to it," Harry assured her.

Ron and Emily eventually found their way over, her and Laura pointing out people they knew—Harry still didn't see Hermione, and he was starting to get a little concerned.

"Maybe she made up having a date?" Ron surmised.

"Why would she lie about that?" Harry asked him.

"Probably to teach us a lesson about asking her earlier."

"I know who she's dating, but the Familiar charter doesn't allow me to say," Mauve said. At Harry's blank look: "Crookshanks told me."

"Well?" Ron asked, noting where Harry's attention was.

"Crookshanks told Mauve but swore her to secrecy," Harry summarized.

"So you can really talk to snakes?" Emily asked. "Ross said you could—does it only work on snakes or does it work on other reptiles? Because you know there's such a thing as legless lizards—"

"We…haven't actually tested that, to be honest," Harry admitted, pondering this. "I know Animagi can understand animals, that's sort of a side effect of it."

"And then could we learn it, since it's technically a foreign language?"

"These are good questions," Ron said. "And making me wonder what's taking so long with the letting us in bit I'd rather be having these discussions sitting down."

As if in response to that, the hall doors opened.

"Terribly sorry for the delay, we had to do some last-minute adjustments as our previous estimations of required hall capacity proved too small," Dumbledore announced. "With that said—champions, will you and your dates step forward and lead our fine schools into the hall?"

Emily was small enough that Ron was able to give her a boost when she tried and failed to see the champions—Harry spotted Colin and Dennis in two precarious perches working to get the best shots, Dennis actually hopping down to get close-ups of the champions and then the rest of the crowd as they filed in and along the sides to watch the three pairs start the dance—

Ron suddenly swore. "Wait a minute—with Krum—Hermione!"

"Yup," Mauve said, nodding. "I'm pretty sure Crookshanks would have burst if he couldn't tell someone."

"No wonder she didn't want to tell us!"

Hermione going to the ball with Krum, however, suddenly became second potatoes as Fred and George came in. As did Donald, Edmund, and Hubert.

"I think we finally got that payoff you were predicting," Harry told Ron.

"Just—how?" Ron asked, staring. "How—Polyjuice potion. Which then bears asking the question of who the other three are."

"Don't you have five brothers?"

"Ah."