Boy and the Begining

December 22-25th

Harry had never really celebrated Christmas before.

When he was with the Dursley's he was given a few of his cousin's worse hand-me-downs, or a bit of refuse, like a broken hanger when the Dursleys were feeling generous.

He would often observe the festivities through the grill from his cupboard, so he was at least generally familiar with how Normals in Britain celebrated.

The first thing that Harry observed as he was traveling through the province of Leon, eventually staying in a small village town called Resto Cuneta near the Tomas river, - Harry had the chance to experience his first Christmas holiday outside of his cupboard.

The beginning of Christmas in Spain appeared with the Spanish National Lottery draw held on December 22nd, the day Harry had wandered into town coincidently. The Lottery is also known as 'El Gordo' or 'the fat one', according to one indulgent old granny in a library Harry was perusing in one village, it was called so because it is the largest national lottery in the world with the total prize fund running into billions and had the best odds of winning, which amused Harry, thinking about what his uncle would do if Harry entered the draw himself and won.

According to the old granny, the draw takes place throughout the whole morning and the whole nation tunes in to watch the very elaborate ceremony of the numbers. The tickets can cost up to 200 euros so many people club together to buy a share, much like granny had done with a knitting group of hers, although there are those who put aside a saving fund, sometimes up to 1000 euros to buy a few tickets for the family (1).

According to Granny's friend, who'd been sitting at the checkout desk, her eyes glued to the television screen, the lottery draw is the moment when Christmas comes to Spain; a symbolic tradition, with varying prizes, that has been going for centuries apparently.

While mildly interesting, Harry, of course, wasn't entering into the lottery, having no money to buy tickets anyway, and did fine with lifting what he needed, or selling the odd sketch, or offering to sketch people when he did need cash. He got by without being rich, or even fiscally solvent.

During his week in the town, Harry had watched from a distance as children streamed excitedly from their school, the break for the holidays starting, and watched as they helped the adults put up and lights, decorations and trees, which seemed to suddenly appear overnight. Though he had observed that the big traditional Christmas decoration for a Christmas in this country was the 'belén' or nativity scene (2).

Harry's favorite decoration was the large Christmas tree in the center of town where Harry liked to rest hidden in its branches or sitting on a bench nearby to read or writing in his journal or drawing in his sketchbooks while eating a snack.

One of the oddest decorations though, and certainly as amusing for Harry as the rest of the children in town was 'El Cagón', a male figure in a squat position going poo. From what he understood, His presence symbolizes the fertilization of the land for the coming year, and although an important and historical figure in the belén, he has apparently been banned from public nativity scenes in some towns by local governments so as not to cause offense, Harry spied this figure mainly peeking into windows when nobody could see him.

Harry added a sketch of the belen and 'el Cagón' to his collection, and amused himself with images of Aunt Petunia's face should she behold the festive idol (3).

He was so amused by the mental imagery that he gave into an impulsive temptation and sent a figurine of el Cagon to his aunt, spending some of his hard earned cash, under an assumed name. He made sure to fork out for an expensive one, claiming it as an award for her properly quaffed gardens. He was uncertain if she would actually keep it, if they got it, but he felt it was a proper, final send off to his family, even if they didn't know it.

When Christmas eve rolled around, Harry observed around early evening when friends and family in the town met in the local bars for a drink before returning home. Like most Christmas meals from Harry's experience (having cooked a fair few for the Dursleys himself), the Spanish Christmas dinner involves just as a much preparation, and many courses. In Spain, it is customary for the locals to eat their Christmas dinners on Christmas eve, then attend Midnight Mass or 'La Misa Del Gallo' which meant 'The Mass of the Rooster,' (1) which Harry decided to do, when he watched a group of townspeople heading towards the church, listening in on their conversations from his spot from the roof of a closed clothing store he had been lifting a new pair of pants from.

Much to Harry's disappointment, there was no actual rooster presiding, but it was still a lovely service anyway he supposed.

Afterwards, Harry joined the throng of merry makers as the people walked through the streets carrying torches, Harry even carried one, having been given one by a red cheeked fellow who winked at him and said "Esta noche es Noche-Buena, Y no Es noche de dormer" which with Harry's new gift to understand nearly any spoken language now translated as "Tonight is the good night and it is not meant for sleeping!" which Harry replied with a broken Spanish agreement (the omnilingualism was only one way, he still needed to learn the language to actually speak it back), he chorused and danced with the others as he listened to the playing of guitars, beating on tambourines and drums (1).

Needless to say, Harry had the time of his life, and slept quite deeply the next day in an unused church steeple.

When December 28th rolled around, Harry was treated to witnessing Día de los santos inocentes or 'Day of the Innocent Saints' and from what he could tell, was very like Aprils Fools Day back in Britain. While he wasn't overly fond of April fool's day, given his cousin liked to favor Harry for his harmful fun, Harry couldn't help being entertained as he observed people try to trick each other into believing silly stories and jokes, and was even further amazed when the Newspapers and TV stations also ran silly stories. Harry noticed that if someone was tricked, they were called "Inocente! inocente!" (1).

It was all the more surreal to Harry as, according to a peppy nun buying tea across from the church where Harry had been window shopping/planning another heist for his own boxes of tea, December 28th was remembered as the day a bunch of babies were killed on the orders of King Herod when he was trying to kill the baby Jesus, which Harry thought was rather grim origin, given the good fun being had (1 and 4).

Ooo ooo ooo

Harry eventually left the friendly little town and was soon in another village passed the Tomas River called Abdundancia, where Harry spent New Year's eve watching and joining the locals in celebrating.

New Year's Eve in Spain is called 'Nochevieja' or 'The Old Night' and Harry learned had a special tradition of eating 12 grapes with the 12 strokes of the clock at Midnight, each grape representing a month of the coming year, so if you eat the twelve grapes, you are said to be lucky in the new year (1), which Harry thought was loads better then getting soused and kissing someone, blech!

Ooo ooo ooo

On January 6th Harry watched an Epiphany Parade, which even had floats of each of the three kings, or Wiseman (1), enjoying it immensely having never seen holiday floats before.

After the day of the parade, Harry decided that he would fly further south. He cut a sharp right around the Sitema Central mountain range, not too keen on the snow topped peaks he spied from a distance.

Ooo ooo ooo

January 9th Just outside Toledo, perched in a tree…

Harry had decided to venture into Toledo primarily because of the local flag, which depicted a double headed bird beast of some sort in its coat of arms, and Harry was curious if there were any still around, hidden from view in some secret place from the Normals. (5)

The chapter that accompanied the illustration in his latest guide book said:

"…Toledo is a municipality located in central Spain, 70 km south of Madrid. It is the capital of the province of Toledo and the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986 for its extensive cultural and monumental heritage and historical co-existence of Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures…" (5).

A World Heritege site sounded impressive as well (though not as impressive as the potential for having two headed bird creatures) but still worth a glance either way.

Unfortunately for Harry, he didn't find his two headed bird creature like he had hoped, nor were there any presence of Hidden Places, though the view he had of the skyline of the city as he hovered over the rolling ancient urban spot was beautifully grand with The Alcázar on the left and Cathedral on the right of Harry's hovering form dominating the skyline. Harry made a point to linger long enough to sketch the view before moving on. (5)

Ooo ooo ooo

January 11th

For a change of pace, instead of following rivers, or simply wherever the wind takes him, Harry decided to chart his route on the open road, or above the open road as the case may be, so Harry found himself soaring high above the A-42 after turning off the Passeo Rosa out of Toledo heading steadily further south-ish which soon changed into the CM-42 (6) before he left that busy road onto a nameless turn off, then onto a barely visible dirt road and stopped for the rest of the night in what appeared to be an abandoned manor house surrounded by a small forest.

Harry snacked and took a nap, then used the lazy afternoon sunshine and promising temperatures to do his laundry in a small nearby pond and give himself a bath at the same time.

It was as he was tackling his underwear that he happened to finally notice the eyes.

Two large golf ball sized eyes that were attached to a small body with large floppy bat-like ears long curvy nose, and bald head. The creature stood about three feet high and seemed to be wearing a towel loin cloth of some kind.

What was more, while he was unsure as to what it was; it looked really, really old with greyish green skin and more wrinkles then a raisin.

Then the creature seemed to creakily explode with happiness.

"Oh joy! Oh joy!" the creature rasped happily, "Old Tigger will now be able to fulfill his poor old master's wish he will!"

Harry stared at the awkward shuffle that the creature was doing, which seemed to be a rather arthritic looking celebratory jig.

Harry, remembering his last encounter with Abnormals, was unsure if he should be weary or not.

Harry was also conflicted on the issue of leaving the river as he had decided to wash his underwear along with himself, and there was only waist deep water between him and the old tiny abnormal.

As one can obviously conclude, nothing made you feel more vulnerable than being naked while possibly in danger.

The Creature continued to babble at Harry, seemingly unperturbed by Harry's awkward position.

"They's laughed at poor Tiggers master, Tigger's master was brilliant! Was specials! Was ahead of his time he was! They was nasty Wizzygammy's, yes they wases! Poor master! Called him mad they dids! But master knew that one day, there would be someones who would hear of Tigger's good brave master's work and he's tell Tigger to gives brave good smart someones the orb he did!" (7)

Harry took along moment to mentally translate what the creature was saying, finding that he had no idea what exactly the creature was getting at, except it thought he was some sort of thing called a Wizzy, whatever that was.

Harry was so busy trying to figure out what the creature was saying, that he only barely noticed the bright pink glass orb heading directly for his head to late.

It smashed against his noggin with a rather impressive blow that sent poor Harry into the drink, rather dazed and eyes full of bright pink sparkles.

Tigger, seeing that his aim had been spot on, but unfortunately a little harsh in the reception, quickly summoned the boy out of the pond before the bubbles disappeared, and onto the shore.

Tigger was very pleased. He knew his master would have been delighted that such a young knowledge seeker had sought out his master's old home and coming so far! Tigger could tell it was an English wizard boy, which would have also pleased his master, as his Master had been of half English decent on his father's side.

Tigger considered the large bump on the boy's head, perhaps he should have not thrown it at him? He had not considered head trauma, he had merely been eager to impart his master's legacy.

Oh well. What was done was done, as his master used to say.

Tigger snapped his fingers, drying then clothing the boy, and even magically cleaned, folded and shrank the boy's belongings and repacked them in his pack with a few more finger snaps before the old elf popped back into the decrepid old house where he sank to the foot of an old rotten bed frame, and took his final rest, satisfied in the notion that he had achieved his very last task for his beloved master, as was proper for loyal house elves such as he.

Ooo ooo ooo

When Harry awoke, he found himself dry, dressed and his things neatly packed away. He made no time in grabbing his pack and leaping into the air, hang that it was early afternoon, and flew away as quickly as he could, pink sparkles trailing him in his flight for a solid hour.

Ooo ooo ooo

After having experienced another harrowing, and confusing encounter, this time not even in a Hidden Place, but some spooky rundown villa in the middle of nowhere, Harry decide to avoid old abandoned places from then on unless he knew for certain they were safe, like tourist traps and national monuments. It seemed scary stories were right on the money otherwise, or at least so far in Harry's experience.

It had taken a solid day before Harry no longer saw things with an odd glowing pink sheen, no matter how he cleaned his glasses (8).

It was in Huelva though that Harry discovered what exactly had been given to him by the creature with the good arm.

He'd been walking along, minding his own business as usual, taking in a tight grimy expanse of old shop windows, when he took a few to many wrong turns and found himself soon lost in maze-like alleys, trying to return to the main thorough fairs.

It was in this alley he was grabbed by a man.

Harry was not entirely ignorant of the dangers that young children could face being on their own, but with Harry's abilities, and his habit of sleeping in trees, building roofs and otherwise traveling by air, he had never been accosted by the sort of despicable individuals that would prey upon a lone child.

"Ah! Such a pretty little boy," the man crooned, pulling at Harry's arm towards his chest. The smell of alcohol was nearly over powering, and there was definite slur to the man's voice, "don't worry little boy, I will treat you good if you treat me, yes?"

Harry, while being understandably frightened was also rather angry and shouted with all his might.

"NO!"

It was as if the word were a trigger.

There was a flash of pink light, and then suddenly, there was no longer a man standing before him, but a rather befuddled looking penguin.

Harry goggled at the sight, already hovering a few feet in a stalled getaway.

The penguin seemed to realize that something was up, as it began to squawk, in what was likely a "what the hell have you done to me?" if one could understand penguin.

Then another man appeared in front of poor Harry and the penguin.

He was slightly portly, with short thick white hair, round rum colored eyes, and dressed in what looked like a colourful pink robe with burgundy pantaloons and a pointed burgundy and pink stripped top hat ringed in radishes.

Harry stared at the figure, flummoxed; also noticing belatedly that the figure was slightly transparent.

"Greetings! If you're hearing this, then you have successfully activated the greatest work I have ever given to the world, my magnum opus! An artificially created ability that can be inherited outside of bloodlines!"

Harry blinked the Penguin squawked again.

"As you have no doubt witnessed, this handsome gift you have been given was a most serious and challenging project that took several decades of my life to accomplish. The ability to turn one's enemies into penguins!"

The man chortled, looking quite pleased.

"Ah yes, penguins! Such admirable creatures! And by turning your enemies into them, it only betters the world! I have always enjoyed them since I witnessed them during my forays into Antarctica foraging potion ingredients from blue ice and scales from the Ice Drake reserves…but oh!" the man slapped his forehead, "where are my manners? I am called, or was once known as Rigor Rhubarb, the Questionable, retired Supreme Mugwamp and that entire sort! I won't go into detail as obviously you have already studied my story extensively and learned of my creation thus seeking me out and receiving the fruits of your regard in this power and vision explaining it all before you! Ho, ho , hooo! I would bet my hat you are excited!"

Harry blinked a bit slowly as he realized that the weird little creature that had thrown that sparkly pink thing at him must have thought he had sought this Rigor Rhubarb out. He nodded slowly, it did make sense.

"…They all called me mad! Called it the most embarrassing curse ever created" the man continued on as Harry tuned back into what was slowly devolving into a rant, "50 years of research! Galleons and galleons of my family moneys! My wife left me, then my second wife, then my third husband. My children barely visited me, and when I presented the fruits of my labour, they, along with the rest of the ignorant rabble failed to see my genius and I was jeered out of the Wizengamont and eventually was phased out of my position as Supreme Mugwamp, replaced by that young Dark Lord killer, Stumblesnore or Dumblefloor, whatever his name," he flicked his fingers dismissively, "I knew though that there had to be someone out there who would look upon my work and not think it an embarrassment of magic, that someone would seek me out for the vaunted power!"

The man huffed, and then puffed out his chest, "and if you're watching this, then I was right! Take that!"

"Now, onto the meat of the issue of course, mustn't waist time explaining and all that. As I said earlier and you discovered, you now have the ability to turn your enemies into penguins! Granted, there are some draw backs, like it doesn't seem to last overly long on Dark Lords or other nearly equal magically powerful dark wizards. Not sure why. It certainly earned me a spot on that Grindlewald's kill list, after all, I successfully turned him and a gathering of his most powerful officers into penguins for about an hour during a dinner party I managed to sneak into during the war, trying to prove the worth of my findings.

"It's the same for Light Lords as well, so…well, there is that, but it at least gives you a head start until the birds figure out that they can still do magic! I tell you there is nothing more invigorating for the constitution then running from enraged German penguins casting avada kadavra! Ho, ho! Those were the times indeed!

"As for the reversal, I never really got around to it, though I figure that you, my admiring student will enjoy the challenge of it."

Harry, being a 9year old boy, highly doubted it, but was otherwise rather fascinated with the hints of the culture that Riot was revealing, even if he didn't understand a lot of it. He watched as the character began to fade, only to see it solidify for a moment, smacking his forehead exclaiming.

"Oh, almost forgot! A few things to remember: my magnum opus activates with the first word uttered against an enemy in time of great fear, anger and stress. Don't forget to avoid saying whatever you said in an argument or some such, as my second wife Geraldine discovered, though luckily for her it was during my creation's infancy and she only ended up with webbed feet and a strong craving for smelt.

"The second thing to remember is that my brilliance will forever be preserved within your blood. Should you have any children or they have any children and so on and so forth, the ability to turn people in to penguins will be passed down. I estimate it will take about 30 generations before it begins to wain from the direct line without the line marrying back into itself, rather proud of that.

"Side effect to using the gift may include a craving for fish, and some issues if you happen to step foot in Antartica. 

"Well that's it, my fine fellow, lady, or otherwise, I leave you now. As being of sound mind and body, this my last will and testament that was imbued into the first activation of the gift, to which I leave all my possessions to you my hier, all monies, properties, secret or otherwise, any surviving house elves, parents, heirlooms and the title of Lord Rhubarb. May you use this honorable burden well!"

With that, the man faded away, waving happily, and this time stayed gone.

There was a potent silence in the alley way, then Harry's face broke out into a grin and rubbed his hands together happily, "excellent!" and promptly decided to call his newest ability the Happy Feet curse, after a movie from America that he had seen in a movie theater in Madrid not too long ago (9).

Considering what the man, now penguin, had been inclined to do to Harry, the boy felt no guilt about being the one to turn him into a penguin permanantly. Harry was at least magnanimous enough to leave him outside a pet store before opening hours in a cardboard box before deciding to leave the city, figuring he'd had enough of an experience for one place.