Chapter 9
CHAPTER 9
It was a little monotonous around the castle since the attack on Finch-Fletchly, the Aurors had been called in and everyone was having to wait to be escorted from classroom to classroom and the teachers had to allow for the extra time because there were only so many Aurors to go around. But they were managing somehow. Harry’s favorite Auror was a trainee by the name of Nymphadora Tonks.
Every since she was little Dora had wanted to be a Auror, seeing her in her Auror trainee uniform for the first time, Harry was so proud of her. Even though she was a bit of a klutz at times she made an excellent Auror due to her Metamorphmagus abilities. When they were younger she used to turn herself into other people just to see if she could do it, or to add a feature here or there, a dimple or birthmark, a certain eye color or what not. It all depended on her mood.
Dora usually had her hair pink unless she was mad at you then it went all different colors and who knew what color she would end up with. She once had her hair striped when she got so frustrated she couldn’t decide what to do, Harry couldn’t help but laugh at that though, which frustrated her even more. And made teasing her so much more fun, but hey he was like her third cousin, he guessed, since she was Sirius’ second cousin, at least that is what Harry thought they were. But it didn’t really matter, they just considered themselves cousins and left it at that. First time he saw her in her uniform, he had the nerve to ask her if she still liked to dance and told her that they play music and dance each Saturday, at first she looked excited, then she looked disappointed and said, on duty… and moped around most of the rest of the day.
Her partner was someone by the name of Kingsley Shackelbolt. A tall black man that had been on the force for a few years now and worked hand in hand with Amelia Bones. Amelia had sent him down to Hogwarts to be her eyes and ears down at the school and to be in charge of all of the personnel that was being sent there. Since he was Amelia’s right hand man, it was a huge thing to be his partner.
The whole time in between classes and at night when everyone else was in bed the Aurors were searching the castle for possible entrances to the fabled Chamber of Secrets but it had been two weeks and nothing had been found yet. And there hadn’t been another attack thankfully.
It was Saturday November fourteenth and they were getting ready to have their third Quidditch match of the season, but it was the first Gryffindor-Slytherin game. The first game had been Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw that ended up as eighty against two hundred and ten points with a Ravenclaw win. And a Ravenclaw-Slytherin game that ended up at one seventy against one eighty again a Ravenclaw win. Now it was Gryffindor’s turn at Quidditch.
The game was getting ready to start when alarms began to go off in the castle signally that there were some of the paintings that were being effected by what ever was creeping through the hallways. The Headmistress announced that all the students were to stay where they were and had the Prefects get a count on them. Then she rushed with the Head of Houses and the Aurors into the castle.
“It’s coming from the second floor again. Near the medi-ward this time.” Everyone followed her carefully, weary of what they may catch, the Aurors were in the lead but they were too late. Dean Thomas was sitting petrified in an alcove near the medi-ward looking out onto the pitch where the game was going to be starting. Why he had chosen not to join everyone else was anyone’s guess. There were half a dozen new frozen paintings along the corridor up to the left of the medi-ward and Dean was located just a few dozen feet from the medi-ward.
The Aurors helped get Mr. Thomas into the Medi-Ward and as soon as Madam Pomfrey saw who it was she said “What is Mr. Thomas doing out there at all. He was in bed with a stomach flu not thirty minutes ago. Bring him over here.” She indicated a bed over behind a curtained off area to the side, where Justin Finch-Fletchly was laid in a bed.
“He must have snuck out of bed and went over to the alcove over there to watch the game, unlucky for him.” Auror Dawlish stated.
“Unlucky in deed officer Dawlish,” the Headmistress stated. “Feeling poorly to start with and now he is petrified. I would definitely call that unlucky.” She said snidely. Finding his comment in poor taste.
Madam Pomfrey gave Mr. Thomas a quick exam and found the results were exactly as those that she had gotten from Mr. Finch-Fletchly. “It’s the same Minerva, I think we are going to have to close the school. We can’t even keep the kids in our own medi-ward safe any more.” She said shaking her head sadly.
“I’m afraid so. I just don’t know how some of them are going to manage it, their parents count on us to take care of their children for most of the year and have no means to tend to them if they are working or away from the home. Hopefully we can get this taken care of quickly and we won’t have to refund the children’s school fees. I don’t think we have the funds available to do that, quite honestly. It’s what we use to prepare the school and pay everyone to be here with. We may end up having to get help from the Ministry, then they would think they owned us, lock, stock and barrel.” Minerva worried.
Alice put her comforting hand on her shoulder, “Don’t worry. I’m sure Sirius, Harry and Frank could figure something out before they would let that happen.” She said patting the Headmistress gently.
McGonagall just nodded and sighed, this was one fine kettle of fish they were in right now.
The Aurors began to search along the corridors where the paintings had alarmed and after a few moments they came escorting two more bodies into the medi-ward, that of Penelope Clearwater and Hermione Granger. They had apparently met the thing as it had rounded a corner, since Miss Granger had a mirror in her hand aimed around the corner and both girls appeared to be looking into the mirror to see if anything was coming when they were petrified.
“Put them over there with the other two, that makes four, the school will definitely be closing now. We just have to decide on the process for sending the children home. I think the youngest children first, then the next year leave and so on. We might be able to get the train to make a special run since it is the whole school, or we could use the floos here in each head of house office. Those that don’t have floo access, we can floo them to the closest floo to them, and arrange for a pick up or transportation from there I suppose, if the train won’t run that is.”
“Let’s try contacting the parents first, some may be able to actually pick up their kids themselves. We can make portkeys for other larger families like the Weasleys. But we need to start contacting parents and letting them know that the school is closing for an indefinite amount of time. Each of you take your student list and begin with the younger students, then work your way up. Once you get a year done and know how the parent can either pick up the child or wants the child delivered we will work from there.”
About that time Benjamin Fletcher the Headboy came into the medi-ward with Auror Henesy, “Yes, what is it Mr. Fletcher?” The Headmistress asked. And Mr. Fletcher handed her a note stated ‘That all the Hufflepuffs were here and accounted for, but the Slytherins were missing Mr Draco Malfoy, the Ravenclaws were missing Miss Hermione Granger, and Penelope Clearwater and the Gryffindors are missing Mr. Dean Thomas.’ Signed by Antoinette Motibellum, the Head Girl.
“Poppy do you have Mr. Malfoy in your medical ward at this time?” Minerva asked. Looking over to Madam Pomfrey.
“I do not, has he been injured?” She asked.
“Let’s hope not. Auror Dawlish, Auror Henesy, I believe it is, can you organize a search of the castle for Draco Malfoy, he may have also been petrified or he may be the controller of the beast, so do be careful.”
The Aurors organized a search starting with Slytherin common room and dorms but no Malfoy was to be found then they expanded their search to include the rest of the castle and after two hours still nothing. Luckily the Quidditch game was still going on so they didn’t have to worry about any other student being in the castle so they searched everywhere and found no Malfoy. They even had the elves join in on the search and search some of the harder to reach places of the castle but still nothing. Finally they decided to contact Mr. Malfoy and see if he had any way of searching for his son that wasn’t available to them. Perhaps an elf that could just go and retrieve him where ever he is at.
“Malfoy Mansion” Minerva called out into the floo in her office.
It was answered by an elf that appeared rather ragged but was polite none the less. “How may Dobby bees helping Misses Headmistress Ma’am”
“I need to speak with Mr. Malfoy if he is available, if not Mrs. Malfoy is just fine.”
“Dobby bees getting Master.” *pop* and the little elf disappeared a few moments later Lucius Malfoy in all his perfectly majestic appearance came into view.
“What may I do for you Headmistress McGonagall. I hope Draco hasn’t caused any problems.” He said with a slight frown.
“Not that we know of but we do have a problem if you could step through I would appreciate it, this isn’t the kind of thing I wish to discuss over the floo.”
“If you … wish… I shall be happy to join you. If you will give me a moment. Do you wish my wife to come along?” Lucius asked a little less than thrilled.
“It might be best, although not necessary Mr. Malfoy.” She stated.
“Very well, if you will give us but a moment we shall both be joining you.” He stated, then he pulled back from the floo.
It took a few minutes but soon the Malfoys were in the Headmistresses office along with the Head of Houses and Professor Black which confused the Malfoys immediately and Lucious let the Headmistress know his apprehension known immediately. “What is the meaning of this Headmistress?”
“We have a situation here at Hogwarts, there have been four students that have been petrified by a means we cannot determine as of yet. The reason you were contacted is that we had three of those students petrified today and Mr. Malfoy is missing. We have searched Hogwarts and the grounds and he is no where to be found, We have even had our elves look for him. We thought perhaps you had a means of finding him that we would not have access to, such as one of your own house elves or perhaps a family trinket of some kind that may locate him.
“That is a possibility. Dobby!” Lucius called out. and that same pathetic house elf popped into the room immediately hunkered down as if he was waiting to be punished for something.
“Stand up you fool! I want you to find Draco and bring him to me immediately.”
“Yes Master!” And the little creature focused on his young Master and focused again and tried one more time. Then he turned his and shook his head and shrugged his shoulders at his Master. “Dobby is no finding young Master.” He said.
“Why you incompetent ingrate,” and Lucius raised back his cane as if he was going to strike the little elf who huddled down low to the ground making himself as small as possible to avoid the strike.
“LUCIUS!” Sirius called out. “Maybe you should focus on why he couldn’t reach your son, and not that he couldn’t do it. There are only a couple of reasons an elf can’t reach their Master, one is their master is dead, so think about that before you strike that elf.”
Sirius’ words froze Lucius in his place, a look of mortal terror on his face. His son couldn’t be dead, not Draco, not his only son.
That had Narcissa in tears at the mere thought of it. Her only child, possibly dead. “This is your fault Lucius Malfoy! You did this! My son may be dead and it’s all your fault!” She cried out loud.
Lucius lowered his cane and turned to his wife and gently tried to pull her to him, but she would have none of that. She reached up and slapped him and began to sob, which was unusual for a Malfoy, much less a Black, to show such emotion in public.
The Headmistress picked up on what Mrs. Malfoy stated and asked, “How would this be your fault Mr. Malfoy?”
Lucius turned slowly to the Headmistress not keen on turning his back on his wife right now. “I don’t know if it is Madam, but it is a possibility. A few days ago I found an item missing. It was the diary of T. M. Riddle. Thomas Marvolo Riddle to be exact. It is fabled to be cursed and had the power to possess anyone that wrote in it. If Draco somehow found the diary and brought it to Hogwarts with him then who knows what calamities it could release.”
“Thomas Marvolo Riddle, why is that name familiar?” Alice asked looking perplexed. She knew that name from somewhere but where she had no clue.
“That would be the birth name of Lord Voldemort.” Narcissa stated before Lucius could say anything. “We found that out about the same time as we found the diary. There are legends behind the diary, which state that the Dark Lord can possess who ever writes in the diary allowing him to return to a new body. If my son has found that diary and written in it he may be possessed by the Dark Lord and raining all this down on Hogwarts somehow.”
“There was a message on the wall with the initial petrification that said ‘The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the Heir beware!’ And it was written in chicken blood. We think there is a possibility that who ever wrote that message released a creature capable of not only petrifying students but killing them. It happened once before and a student died. Another student by the name of Tom Riddle named the supposed culprit as Rubeus Hagrid; and said he killed the girl using an acromantula which do not petrify they only kill. So that made no sense, and there were no spider bites on the girl’s body. So it couldn’t have been a spider to begin with but they accepted the boy at his word. And expelled Hagrid and snapped his wand. Dumbledore kept Hagrid on as the groundskeeper because he thought there was something off about the whole thing, but didn’t go far enough to fight for him to help Hagrid keep his wand or not be expelled.” Sirius stated as he put together all the facts that they knew so far.
“My husband believes the creature can only be a basilisk, that is the only creature that can both petrify and kill with it’s glare depending on if you look it directly in the eye of if you see it in a reflection or something. So far Mrs. Norris saw the reflection of the beast in the water on the floor, so she didn’t get a direct hit. Mr. Finch-Fletchly saw it through the Fat Friar again no direct hit. Mr. Thomas saw it in the reflection in the window, once again not in direct line of site. And finally Miss Granger and Miss Clearwater saw it through a reflection on a mirror again not direct line of site. So it hasn’t killed this time by pure luck. If your son is the one controlling that thing, and it had killed instead of just petrifying those people he would be in a great deal of trouble. As it is, he is just a child who made a bad decision and got in over his head.” Professor Lovegood stated.
“We need to find the Chamber of Secrets, and we have no clue where that is. We have had Aurors searching the castle for the last two weeks and they have found nothing. Not a clue what so ever, we have even enlisted the house elves and still nothing.” McGonagall added.
“My son may be down in this Chamber of Secrets laying dead right now and you have no clue where it is! Dobby where is the last place you sense Draco?” Looking down his nose at the elf just daring him to fail.
The little fellow popped away and then reappeared a moment later, “Dobby be finding where little Master was before he wasn’t theres any more.”
“Well where is it you fool!” Lucius boomed at the little elf.
Dobby stood there shaking and cringing back. “It be in a bathroom down above great eating room it be.”
“That has to be the girl’s bathroom on the second floor, where Myrtle Warren died. Is there a possibility that the entrance is there? But where could it be, we searched that room there is no where a giant snake could get through.” Professor Flitwick stated.
“What about the pipes? Could the basilisk be using the pipes in the walls to get around all this time?” Professor Lovegood questioned, living with a Magizoologist did have it’s advantages at times.
“That is a good possibility, especially if the Chamber is beneath the castle itself. Which would mean it is beneath the wards of Hogwarts and has wards of its own. Which might be the reason that the elf could not find your son, and not that he is dead…yet. If he is behind some very powerful ancient wards that we have no control over.” The Headmistress agreed.
“He may be…alive… Lucius you will do anything in your power to ensure that my son returns to me, and you will do it right this minute do I make myself clear.” Narcissa glared daggers at her husband, leaving no doubt as to her intention if he didn’t listen to her and listen well.
“I have every intention of doing exactly that, Dobby lead the way to this bathroom.” With that they all headed down to the second floor bathroom and began to search for the possible entrance and found nothing, not a clue. Not even Myrtle would make an appearance when the Headmistress called for her, which was odd considering she haunted this bathroom and was suppose to be anchored to the bathroom only. And she usually welcomed guests.
“Where did you sense Draco?” Lucius demanded of the terrified house elf.
“Right there in front of that sinks, and then it is like little Master be vanishing. No little Master, no more.” He said as his ears drooped expecting to be hit or punished in some manner. But the punishment never came.
Instead Lucius went over to the sink in question and began going over it and found it didn’t work, while all the other sinks near it did. Looking closer he found a small snake emblem etched into the side of the sink and pointed it out to everyone, “Apparently we have found the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets, now how to get in,”
First they tried every unlocking and opening spell they could think of but nothing even got close to working, then they checked for wards and found it had some pretty hefty wards on it, so they began to try and remove the wards to no effect. “It must be password protected, but what in the name of Hades is the password?” Lucius demanded.
“There might be a way some people who could break that ward, if it is possible to break that is.” Sirius said looking over to Alice. Who looked back at him raising an eyebrow,
“Do you think they could?” Alice asked in a hushed tone.
“If anyone could, they could.” Sirius replied.
“Let’s debate these individuals qualifications after they are already present and attempting to do something to get my son out of this situation that I believe he has found himself in.” Lucius insisted.
“You heard the man, be back in a few minutes.” With that Sirius took off at a jog.
It took probably ten minutes before the door to the bathroom opened and he led in his experts. Harry and Neville… followed by Luna and Pavarti. He just looked up to Alice and insisted they demanded to come along.
“So you found it, we knew it was in here weeks ago.” Harry stated,
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Sirius asked looking surprised.
“Because we’re kids, who would believe us.” He responded.
“I would…. From now on I will. Okay here’s the situation, we think the creature…”
“Is a basilisk, we know.” Responded Luna.
“How…never mind. Anyway, we think that it is either being controlled by Draco Malfoy or has him captive down there in the Chamber of Secrets. And we need to get down there. Can you open that thing up and help us get down there?” Sirius asked.
“We can only try.” Neville said and the two of them moved over to where they were close to the sink.
“Wait a minute! You think these two, what first year...how are a pair of first years going to get into this Chamber entrance when we have tried for nearly an hour and had no success.” Lucius practically growled at the ludicrous idea of a child being able to do something an adult could not.
“Lucius what harm will it do to allow them to try, it will only take a moment.” Narcissa stated. At this point she was willing to try anything to get to her son.
So with that Harry and Neville joined hands and then raised their wands and said together “OPEN!” And the sink began to tremble and shake at their command and finally they pushed more magic into what they were doing and the sink finally gave in and opened up and lowered into the ground leaving open tube that appeared to go a great distance down.
“Well that definitely looks like an entrance to something. To bad it isn’t stairs instead of the tunnel of death there.” Sirius stated snidely.
Harry and Neville looked at each other and shrugged then pointed wands at the tunnel and said, “STAIRS!” And suddenly the tunnel was turned into an incredibly long flight of stairs.
“Humph, it worked. Ah yeah. Well. Now what?’ Sirius looked over to the others for their input on this one.
Lucius didn’t wait, nor did Narcissa, they both just stepped up to the stairs and started down them, not waiting to see if anyone else was following or not.
So Sirius just shrugged and followed behind them, casting a lumos as he headed down the stairs, since the tunnel/stairwell was quite unlit. As Sirius began to descend into the depths of the stairwell the rest of them joined him, each person adding in their Lumos charm making the tunnel not quite so dark and mysterious.
“You all stay up here, understand?” Alice looked at the four of them and expected an affirmative answer without question, when Luna took on that dreamy eyed look she does sometimes and looked at her.
“That would not be wise, our presence is needed down there, without us several of you will never return.” Luna stated.
Alice knew Persephone’s daughter was a seer and had always trusted what she said, especially since Persephone’s accident when Luna was only nine years old that almost killed Persephone and Luna. If she hadn’t called Harry and Neville for help before hand the would have both died that day. Plus Persephone’s babies, Sebastian and little Astraea would never had been born. So Alice did the one thing she believed she could do and followed her instincts.
“Alright then, come on. But you stay behind everyone else, and you obey anything that is told to you by one of us do you understand?” Alice demanded, daring even one of them to disagree. When each child had nodded she turned and headed to the stairway as well the kids following close behind her.
Down, down down and down some more they went until it was impossible they were still beneath the castle, they must be beneath the black lake or something, from the moister in the air it was a real possibility. Harry was thinking. As they continued down the long flight of stairs, finally reaching the bottom, where the others were waiting.
“What are they doing here?” Asked Sirius.
“Luna stated that ‘it would not be wise for them not to come, their presence is needed, and without them several of us would never return,’” Alice whispered.
“Ah okay then, stay close and no risking yourself needlessly, understood?” Sirius hesitated at first, but he knew that Luna was a very powerful seer, and trusted everything that she ’saw’, so he trusted it now too.
Each of them nodded and had no problem doing so. Dying wasn’t on their top ten list right now anyway, they had some very cranky Darcorns that would be pissed off if they suddenly kicked the bucket on them to say the least.
They all continued down a dark cavern like tunnel, until Narcissa gasped and grabbed Lucius’ arm and squeezed it really tight. Then they all saw what it was that made her gasp, a huge snake skin, it must have been fifty feet long if it was a foot. Professor Flitwick and Sirius went over to the shed skin and looked at it, judging from the amount of dust that was on it, it wasn’t a recent shed so the beast must have grown quite a bit since it shed that skin they both thought but were unwilling to state.
“Alright folks, we now have a good idea of just how large this thing is, so it is probably even bigger now since that was a shed skin, keep that it mind. I would say it’s been living mainly on rats and the ambient magic from the castle for years now. It would probably do anything for some bigger prey, unfortunately. And if Draco is possessed by the Dark Lord then we are all prey to him, just something to feed to his pet. Well maybe not Mr and Mrs. Malfoy but that depends on several factors and there is no guarantees even if the Draco side of him still recognizes you as his family.” Sirius stated.
“Could someone send a patronus message to Amelia Bones and let her know where we are, and what we are doing.” Harry asked. “I think she is going to be upset that we didn’t bring any Aurors with us in the first place and that is putting it mildly.”
The Headmistress nodded and did exactly that, making it short and to the point but detailed enough that they would have no problem finding them. “Okay we should be good, they should be able to find us soon enough, I hope.” She stated.
“We aren’t waiting, or at least my wife and I aren’t. Every minute that monster has control of my son ticks by, is another minute that my son dies inside of him. Follow us if you wish, or stay behind, your choice, but we are going on. Come Narcissa.” With that Lucius proceeded to continue down the hallway and the others looked at each other for a moment, and in an unspoken agreement decided to follow him.
It was maybe four hundred feet more down the tunnel when they came to the second door, it was a huge, thick steel door with a snake design on it but other than that no obvious handle or way to open it. Lucious stared at the door then at Harry and Neville again and stepped aside for them to step forward, which they did.
They both looked at the door for a moment then joined hands again and raised their wands, which they had yet to put away, and once again they said “OPEN!” This time pouring a lot more magic into it. The snakes withered and squirmed and finally curled around to form a handle that you could grasp that would allow you to pull the door open. It was heavy but doable.
This time they bared the door open with a large boulder so that Amelia and her people could come through it, and follow them when they got there. In front of them was a long hallway, on either side of the hallway were huge statues of snakes, cobras specifically, looking poised to strike. At the end of the hallway was a massive statue of Salazar Slytherin when he was in his prime. And right before the statue…
“Draco!” Narcissa screamed and ran to the body on the floor.
It was indeed Draco Malfoy, but as they got closer Harry couldn’t tell if he was dead or not. Narcissa was holding him close to her breast rocking him back and forth sobbing, so he guessed the prognosis wasn’t really that good right now.
Lucius knelt by his wife trying to see if his son was alive or dead, he just couldn’t be dead, not his only son.
“He’s still alive, but only just.” Said a voice over to the side. “And isn’t this a touching reunion though. Daddy who could never find the time to do anything but judge his own son, for his own faults. Mummy who spent more time picking out what to wear to a dinner party than she did with her son that day. Oh yes I know all about your lovely little family, your sweet little Draco has told me all about you, all your short comings and dirty little secrets, it has been quite the eye opening experience I must say. I never realized how much you resented our merry band of ‘glorified misfits’ I believed he said you called them. And what does that make me, the most glorified or the most misfit…hmmm Lucius dear… ?”
“What have you done to my son?” Lucius shouted.
“I have bestowed upon your son the most privileged opportunity of allowing him, in helping me to be reborn, oh he was a little hesitant at first considering he had to die to do it, but he warmed up to it after a while. Ha ha ha ha.” A young Tom Riddle stated.
“Look you worthless brat, you will never be worth one tenth the man my son will be, so you give him back his life immediately or I shall see you cut down before you can become anything more than a pimple faced freak that you are.” Lucius shouted at Tom standing up and raising his wand to aim it at the sixteen year old rendition of Tom Riddle. “I don’t know how you got into that diary, or how you managed to control my son, but you will never have him. He will always be my son.”
“I am afraid you are wrong there, the minute he wrote in my diary he quit being your son and started being my heir, now he is my future in a slightly different manner. Isn’t it ironic don’t you think, that things work out this way though, when you took my mark you promised me your first born son to my cause, and here you are, upholding that promise. Oh and if you think you can beat me, perhaps you think you can beat my pet…” With that the boy turned and called out to the statue of Salazar Slytherin, something in Parsletongue, but since none of them understood the language they couldn’t understand what was being said. But the mouth to Salazar opened and a huge snake began to slither out of it.
“Close your eyes! Don’t look at it!” Sirius shouted to everyone. They didn’t have to be told twice, everyone adverted his or her eyes and turned to find a good hiding place, something to hide behind or under, anything.
“Harry and Neville looked at each other and Harry said “Yellow?”
“Yeah, but huge, it will have to be a huge yellow. I’ll do the left.” Neville said already forming a globe of yellow magic in the palm of his left hand.
“It’ll do all right and yeah, huge. Ah Quaffle size?” He asked Neville as he poured the magic into his own globe of magic. “I think we should do a follow up black one, when it gets close enough, same basic size.”
“Should be about right. Go for the mouth with the black one, if we can get it to open it’s mouth and throw the damn thing down its gullet then we’ve won.” So they both worked on pumping magic into their little respective balls and then in a matter of moments they were ready. The snuck along the edge of the room until the got to where they were nearly right along side of the massive beast, then with merely a nod at each other they made their move.
First they lobbed the yellows at the huge beast, it hit right between its eyes and the creature began to wither and spasm in pain given out wails of pain and agony as it flailed about. Apparently those yellows were strong enough to bursts its eyes open, completely blinding the massive snake. So thankfully it’s deadly stare was taken care of but you still had to work about its bite and fangs.
“The boys blinded it, everyone hit it with everything you’ve got.” Sirius shouted. And that is exactly what they did everyone hit the basilisk with the strongest spells and curses they could think of, but its thick, protective hide was too much armor for them to do much damage, even with bombarda and confrigo, even a few bombarda maximas were thrown in there as well but the actually damage was minimal.
Harry and Neville waited and the beast fought against the bombardment of spells and curses then finally they had their opportunity, it looked like it was going to try and attack Lucius and Narcissa, who was still holding Draco. The boys rushed forward to where they were directly between the Malfoys and he basilisk and threw their quaffle sized black balls of magic right into the open mouth of the beast. It only took a second or two and the whole throat blew apart and the head hit the floor of the chamber while the rest of the beast withered about and spasmed for several more moments.
“You have beaten my basilisk but you still haven’t beaten me.” Tom said.
“Oh really Tom?” Said a dreamy voice over by the basilisk head, everyone turned and looked at Luna who appeared to have found the diary that had been the cause in all this trouble. “I think you have caused enough trouble for one day now don’t you?” And with that she speared the diary with the sharp point of a basilisk fang. A eerie scream could be heard emanating from within the diary and Tom Riddle himself. The diary bled a inky black blood that dripped all over the floor until the last of the wailing stopped. The sixteen year old rendition of Tom Riddle began to vanish and all of the sudden Draco began to twitch and move in his mother’s arms.
“Draco, my baby!” She shrieked. Hugging him close to her.
“Mother?” Draco asked, totally confused now. What was his mother doing down here, better yet what was he doing here, where was here? What was going on?
“Draco, everything will be fine, we will get you out of here and everything will be fine.” Lucius stated, kneeling next to his son and wife.
Sirius walked over to Harry and Neville glaring at them, “What do you two mean risking your life like that? Do you realize you could have been killed?”
“We didn’t risk our lives, we waited until it was distracted with both shots. The first shot it was listening to Tom and the second shot it was paying attention to you all and not to us. It was all in a matter of timing.”
“You do realize that to the victor go the spoils don’t you?” Luna asked.
“What do you mean?” Neville asked.
“You killed the beast, that means the carcass is yours. You are now the proud owner of a sixty foot long basilisk corpse. The longest in history was thirty foot I believe and that was found back in the nineteen-forties, so this one beat it by over thirty feet, although you lost some footage by blowing it’s neck away it still is massive. And basilisk parts go for a lot of money.” Luna smiled.
Professor Flitwick smiled and said “That’s right, basilisk steaks are a rare and expensive delicacy for goblins, they are considered even more valuable than dragon steaks to the Goblin nation. I could let my people know that you have a rare find here, for a few tidbits of my own that is.”
“I think that could be arranged,” Harry grinned, and their little charms Professor whooped and danced around at that and then rushed back out the way they had came into the chamber, probably to go make a floo call or two.
As the little professor raced out of the room, Amelia and her Aurors came racing in. All of them came to a screeching halt when they saw the remains of the basilisk laying there in the middle of the great chamber. One or two of the Aurors threw up due to the gore and guts that was kinda laying everywhere right now.
Amelia headed over to Minerva to get the story directly from her, which she did. Minerva told her everything and then Amelia went over to where the diary was still speared on the fang of the basilisk and removed it, then took it over to where Lucius and Narcissa were kneeling with there son who was finally coming around fairly well.
“I understand that this entire mess is based on your possession of this item, is that correct Mr. Malfoy?” Amelia showed him the diary and waited for an answer.
“Get that accursed thing away from me. It nearly cost me my son.” Lucius wrapped an arm around his son’s shoulder as he tried sitting up on his own.
“So it is true, you realize the possession of cursed items is quite illegal don’t you…and for a very good reason.” Amelia began,
“Of course I realize that, I helped legislate several of those laws myself you know.” Lucius frowned,
“Then it should be no surprise to you that I am going to have to arrest you Mr. Malfoy. “
“We are also victims here, I got that thing because of a legend behind it. Unfortunately, it was an unwise decision on my part. But I should not be arrested for a single faulty choice.” Mr. Malfoy tried.
Amelia put her hands on her hips and said. “Tell that to the four petrified children that are waiting to be un-petrified right now, and a certain school maintenance man who would very much like his treasured companion back with him. I am sure they will find no problem with an I’m sorry and a kiss to take the boo boo away.”
Lucius frowned. “Let’s not get facetious Madam Bones. I would think you better than that.”
“Perhaps, perhaps not, but it matters little. Since I am still going to have to arrest you. The possession of a possessed item is a felony to start with, then you have the fact that you are responsible for any consequence pertaining to that item being released, which is exactly what happened. Which is one reason that those items are illegal to obtain and, or possess. The only individuals that can legally possess a possessed item is the Department of Mysteries and that is for proper disposal only. And I am sure they will be more than happy to have a look at this little gem and see what they can tell me all about it, before properly disposing of it of course.” Amelia stated as she held up the diary. She then motioned to a couple of Aurors that were near and had them search and cuff Mr. Malfoy. Then as one the whole group headed back up the stairs.
Harry, Neville, Luna, and Pavarti managed to make it back up the stairs unharmed. Which they were not sure was going to happen, well all but Luna was not sure that was going to happen. Luna you never knew about. She always seemed to know more that she should ever really know.
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Mr. Malfoy’s trial was short but definitely not sweet, they did a complete search of Malfoy Manor and found several other restricted items, which brought the charges up quite a bit. So instead of looking at a six month sentence in Azkaban and restitution he was now looking at a six to ten year sentence and that was just from the items in his possession, it had nothing to do with his past or anything along that line at all. He also had to pay some heavy fines and the all expenses for the investigation which meant the man hours for the entire time they had people out at Hogwarts looking for the creature and trying to protect the children.
Pavarti got to checking with several international greenhouses and found some that had ripe mandrakes and made the suggestion that they see about getting them as part of the restitution toward the petrified individuals. Amelia thought that was a brilliant idea and brought it up with the Prosecutor and it was put into the final judgement as well.
This whole mess wouldn’t break the Malfoys by any means, but it would definitely make them less popular on the summer circuit for a while to say the least.
Draco Malfoy became almost a pariah in Slytherin House for his foolish actions, especially with the older students. The younger students were also ignoring him for the most part. So mainly it was only the middle years that would even talk to him, which made Draco’s life rather difficult to say the least.
The students that were petrified were given Restorative Draught that was brewed from the mandrakes they bought from Egypt and had owled in. It was very expensive but since Malfoy was having to pay for it, no one really cared about the cost.
Justin Finch-Fletchly was especially irate that his parents had never been notified that he had been in the infirmary this whole time but the school explained that they would not have been able to either visit him or move him to a facility that they could visit him, so all they could do was worry about him. So it was thought it better to just let it be. Professor Sprout set up tutors for all his subjects so that he could catch up quickly and all the homework that was missed was listed basically ignored. If he wanted to do it and to work on his grade he could or he could just do the reading and the practical work which the professors felt was more important. Of course he would have to take any quizzes or tests he missed but he would be given plenty of time to work on those. It also took him about a week for him to feel comfortable getting around again, being frozen in one position for over a month makes you a little stiff, as it were.
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Thankfully everyone was well, reasonably back to normal, by the time Christmas Holidays came about. It was their first Holidays away from home so it made it a little hard on them but it worked out all right anyway. Since Sirius, Remus, Frank, Alice, Persephone, and Xenophilius had to stay at Hogwarts for the children they decided to just have their Christmas, or Yule rather at Hogwarts.
Pavarti and Padma had decided to stay at Hogwarts except for Christmas Day itself which they were going to floo them home and back again on Boxing Day, they were getting to spend most of their Christmas vacation together. Their parents really didn’t like it, since this was their first year away from home and they wanted the whole family back together again for Christmas, but they kind of understood their obligation of their Darcorns to think about and unfortunately, that came first right this minute, since they hadn’t made arrangements prior to the holidays for anyone to work with the Darcorns and no one else could ride them, only they and Xenophilius could handle them. And he had his own obligations to think about.
They all gathered up and headed to Diagon Alley leaving Jeeves and Misty with Sebastian, Astraea, and Lillian. It was a beautiful but cold day out so everyone was out doing their Christmas shopping too it seemed. Because Diagon Alley was especially busy that day, but they didn’t really care they were having too much fun, just getting out and away from the castle for the day was enough to keep them happy it seemed.
The first place they hit was Gringotts, everyone needed to pickup a little spending money. The whole basilisk thing had made them all quite wealthy, even though they were already so in the extreme, now the children could say so on their own. Harry, Neville and Luna (because of her destruction of the diary) and they even included Pavarti (because she was there risking her neck too) receive close to a half a million galleons for their share of the funds from the sale of the basilisk. They had divided it up very diplomatically Harry thought. The kids were the ones that got to decide how to divide it up and they decided to give the school half of the funds first, then the remains half ten percent went to each of the victims that were petrified. Even Filch got some, since Mrs. Norris was petrified. He looked at his letter of receipt of funds and immediately quit Hogwarts and hasn’t been seen since. The remaining portion of the funds was divided up equally between the four kids and they ended up with a little over five hundred and eighty thousand galleons each.
The next place they wanted to go was the luggage shop, they had heard a rumor and wanted to see if it was true. So inside they went. Sure enough they had gotten more bottomless bags in. So Harry got one for Hermione. Pavarti bought one for herself, since the other three had one already and one for Padma for one of her Christmas presents. While All the teachers ended up getting one for themselves as well. This wiped out the man of all of his bags. Harry couldn’t tell if the man was thrilled or devastated when they left. While Pavarti was busy buying her bag Harry managed to get another clerk’s attention and had him set her up with a seven compartment trunk just like theirs.
Flourish and Blotts, they attacked that place in a flock of madness, everyone buying something, and usually multiple somethings. Harry marked several people off his Christmas list with just that one store alone. He was ever so glad he had brought his own bottomless bag that day. He ended up with over twenty books, and only a small portion were for other people. He also got on their mailing list and got a catalogue.
Next was Madam Malkin’s and everyone got sized up for winter clothing and a new winter robe. Harry had grown two inches while at school this year already so he needed all new pants…again. This was getting a little monotonous, but he wasn’t going to complain, he was trying to hit that six foot mark like his Dad anyway.
Then they went across to the shoe and boot store, and Neville and Harry bought their first pair of dragon hide boots. Pavarti and Luna were a harder sell but eventually they did too. But more of a riding boot than anything else. At first they said they didn’t need boots, then Harry reminded them of Ventus and Tonitru and told them that they needed riding boots for them if nothing else. So they each got a pair and Pavarti bought a pair for Padma and they all pitched in together and bought a pair for Hermione.
Then they went over to the Apothecary and restocked everything they needed, especially Alice and Luna. But so did the rest of them and Harry checked out some of the new potion books that the store had in stock and bought a copy of anything he didn’t already have.
Next was the Scrivenshaft's Quill shop and they picked up a few select pieces there and some new and interesting inks that he had come in, especially the scented inks. Which were all the rage in London right now, Harry especially like the cardamom scented and the amber scented ones for himself, but the cinnamon scented was nice as well so he bought those and a few more too. The girls mainly stayed with the more feminine scents but vanilla seemed to be the favorite among the girls it seemed.
Then they headed over to the tack and saddle shop and bought all new bridles and reins for their Darcorns; they also got them saddle blankets; they thought about saddles, but they didn’t think they were ready for that yet so they thought they would wait for a while on that one. They would work with the padded saddle blanket and cushioning charms for now.
Then they headed over to a nice jewelry store, Neville and Harry were looking for something specific for Luna and Pavarti and they finally found it in there, although they were being very secretive about it. Harry got Luna something quite nice while Neville pick out Pavarti a bangle he was sure she would love. The both went in together and picked out something for Alice and were all smiles and giggles about it.
They headed over to the butcher shop and ordered several nice steaks for their Darcorns and had them delivered to the Hogwarts’ kitchens to keep them refrigerated.
Then they went over to this nice blade shop, Harry and Neville each picked out a weighted practice sword so they could each start working with sword work, oddly enough after trying several blanks they both favored the short sword. While the boys were looking for a sword, the girls were browsing through the daggers and each one picked out one for themselves and one for one of the boys, Pavarti got one herself one for Neville and one for Padma as well, and Luna got one for herself, one for Harry and one for Hermione.
Then they went into an antique store where they found several Christmas presents hidden in the shelves and hidey holes of the old shop. Apparently the owner of the shop was a closet muggle fan and had several muggle things that were antiques, so Harry bought Remus and Sirius some old concert t-shirts of bands that he knew they both still loved. Neville found an old Bobbi’s uniform for his father complete with badge and knight stick (his father collected the old auror and constable paraphernalia), and they found some old copies of Potionair Monthly that they thought that Persephone would love, over twenty years old too, so back to before she even started Hogwarts, they couldn’t believe that find. They bought the whole crate of them, even thought they were quite pricey they couldn’t pass it up. Harry found a crate of Herbology Monthly and bought them, even if they were twenty years old he knew his brother at heart would adore them. Neville found a crate of Sheet Music of all kinds, and bought it for Harry. Harry was one of the few of them that could read sheet music and he loved trying new music on his piano, so Neville new he would love it. Harry even found a crate of old Play Wizard magazines he could get Sirius as a gag gift, so he got that too. Shrinking the crates and putting them in a nice little package made it easy to hide what it was and carry in their bottomless bags too.
After that, they all went and ate dinner at a new restaurant that had just opened up in time for the Christmas season call Cherry’s Place. It was fabulous, a nice little steakhouse with all the amenities, something that was totally different and new to the wizarding world. It even had this unbelievable salad bar that they all seemed to love too. Although the dessert bar didn’t get ignored either, but by the time they got to that they were all a little full so they walked to it a little slower than normal. All you did was pick your dinner out and it came with the salad bar, drinks and dessert. It was such a hit on Diagon Alley the place was packed and they had to wait a bit to get in, especially with such a huge group but they didn’t mind and it was definitely worth it in the end.
Next they decided to go into the non-magical world so they did the only logical thing they could do, they took several taxis over to Harrods’ Department store and spent several hours picking out things, and filling in the rest of their Christmas lists. Although they had to be careful and go outside and into an alley to shrink their packages and put them into their bags, so the store thought they were taking things to their car or something. Harry got Headmistress McGonagall a crystal cat statue that was so eloquent and beautiful he knew she couldn’t possibly be mad at him for it. They all had planned to give Professor Flitwick twenty pounds of Basilisk steaks for Christmas, because they knew he would truly appreciate it. And for professor Sinistra they bought her a muggle telescope, a really, really nice one that is…all the kids pitched in and got it for her. They used this card they had gotten from Gringotts bank that would work in both magical and non-magical stores. Sirius teased Harry about using it so much that day he would melt the blasted thing, but Harry just smiled and thought of the box of Play Wizard magazines he had bought his dad earlier and said nothing.
They each got several pairs of jeans to use while riding their Darcorns, it was better than riding them in their school uniforms which is what they have been using until now. They also bought some riding gear and new winter coats as well. Riding in a winter robes was okay for emergencies but they had the money so might as well do this right, they each bought new trench coats and winter coats for riding their Darcorns.
Harry also got himself a new pair of trainers and several new jumpers while he was at it too.
Alice and Persephone bought several cases of disposable diapers and other useful baby things that were not available in the magical world while they were there. Sirius and Harry went in together and bought Lillian and Sebastian and Astraea something called travel cots, complete with all the amenities like a little changing table you could put on it and a little mobile with unicorns and rainbows. And of course they all got the babies a wide variety of stuffies and a few clothes too. Harry kinda went overboard when he found that the non-magical world had a variety of what they thought dragons looked liked, he couldn’t help it he had to buy Sebastian one of each kind they had, after all that was what a godfather was for, to spoil and pamper their godson, or at least that is what he said when Luna said he was getting a little excessive. She really couldn’t say much though she bought Astraea a collection of Unicorns she had found that were just adorable. She even found unicorn sheets and blankets.
After they got wrapping paper and ribbons and bows and all for all their packages they left the store with far more than you could ever get into a normal vehicle, even two or three of them, but thanks to magic, shrinking charms and bottomless bags it was no problem, one alleyway coming up. Ha ha ha.
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They all agreed to spend Christmas Day in Persephone and Xenophilius’ place since it was the largest, so everyone wrapped up their packages and had them setting aside for Christmas Day. The kids tended to gather together in the Library to study so that they could all be present.
Hermione had had to send her parents a photograph of herself riding Procella in order for them to understand that she now had a real live black unicorn that she had to take care of and that only she was allowed to tend to, they had suggested just hiring one of the older students that were staying for the Christmas Holidays to take care of it but when she explained the problems with being a Darcorn rider was that you became their sole means of support, they even had the nerve to tell her to give it up, she practically told them that she would rather give up the non-magical world than give up her Darcorn; and if it wasn’t for them that is exactly what she would do too. So to say Hermione’s Christmas hadn’t been a very Merry one so far was an understatement. Mainly she moped around the castle a lot and and cried when she wasn’t moping. She hated being rough with her parents but they didn’t understand what an honor it had been for her to be chosen to be a Darcorn rider. Her, a lowly non-magical born, someone most people ignored or overlooked, now showed respect to, asked her opinion on things, and treated her like she was an equal.
Everyone else with all their titles and heirships had been chosen, and then their was her, it was a dream come true; it was like getting first seat in the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and that is a dream she has had since she was little. That is why she decided to take up the clarinet as well as the saxophone, although she was much better on the sax and preferred it, the Philharmonic didn’t have a seat for the sax so she took up the clarinet when she was eight so she could one day join it and become world famous. But her heart was with the saxophone and she just loved the old jazz tunes, especially American Jazz.
But being with Procella gave her a feeling of being free and unique she couldn’t explain to her parents. And she imagined they would never truly understand. Which made her feel horrible. It was one of her Christmas presents when Sirius and Remus escorted her parents into Hogwarts Christmas morning. Everyone thought their eardrums might burst with the squeals she gave. They had arranged for special bracelets that allowed for them to see Hogwarts and for the magic not to effect them so Hogwarts had two non-magical guests for Christmas and Boxing Day.
To say that they understood her predicament after meeting Procella was a huge understatement, they were both taken back by the intelligent beauty. She even let them touch her. And nuzzled Jean, Hermione’s mother’s neck some, Hermione said she was just kissing up, but she didn’t stop her friend for doing so. When they asked about anyone else riding her, Procella pawed the Earth and whinnied, throwing her head this way and that. Hermione calmed her down with a fat rat and a cube of steak and said that Procella had already chosen her rider and no one else was allowed to ride her but Hermione. Oh people could touch her if she allowed it, and maybe even brush her or tend to her if she liked them well enough but never, ever ride her… that was taboo. After seeing the majestic animals reaction to just the words spoken they kinda got the idea.
They were in complete support of the Longbottoms’s setting up a stall in their stables for Procella for the summer and allowing Hermione to come visit her as frequently as possible, in truth Hermione thought her mother had fallen in love with Procella as much as she was when she first touched her. But then again she was a magnificent sight to behold and she practically took your breath away when you first met her. She was the things dreams were made of. At least to Hermione she was.
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Christmas morning rolled around and Harry woke up ready to open presents as usual, he rushed into Sirius’ room and woke up his Dad who was less than please to be awoken at six o’clock in the morning but grumbled and griped his way to the breakfast table in their suite and sat down to a nice cup of tea and some hot pancakes and bacon. Hedwig already eating her prize for just being beautiful, perched on the back of Harry’s chair, and Harry trying to not eat his breakfast too quickly so as to choke on it.
He knew that everyone would probably not be up yet but he was just too excited to wait to sleep much longer so he headed down to the music room to pick up his piano and some sheet music and to practice for a while and hopefully waste some time.
It was eight o’clock when Harry showed back up in the room, and Sirius and Remus were sitting at the table reading the paper enjoying a cup of tea waiting for Harry to return. When he had gone down to the music room they figured they had a few moments to prepare his surprise so they got with the others and got the kids surprise ready and waited for everyone else, looking totally innocent by the time Harry got back.
The four of them gathered up their presents and headed out. Their first stop was the Ravenclaw tower where they picked up Hermione and her parents from the guest suite. Then they headed over to the Gryffindor tower where they gathered up the Longbottoms, and the Patil twins. Next stop was the Lovegood’s suite and they all took all their presents down to the Lovegoods and knocked on the door, where they were greeted by a rather fetching Persephone in her holiday finest.
Luna was dressed in a beautiful light blue outfit with snowflakes all over it and fur trim, definitely set off her beautiful eyes and hair. Harry was kind of taken back with how beautiful she looked and couldn’t help but tell her so. Then blushed a deep red hue afterwards, but she just giggled and gave him a peck on the cheek for his compliment and blamed it on the sprig of mistletoe that suddenly appeared above their head.
Not to be outdone Neville told Pavarti that she looked quite beautiful in her bright red sari that she was wearing and even went so far as to tell Padma that she had never looked so pretty in her bright green sari. They both blushed and gave him a peck on the cheek, opposite ones of course.
Hermione was feeling a little left out until both boys handed her one of her presents, the bottomless book bag, they said it was from all of them and when she opened it up she squealed and bounced around like a bunny rabbit on a sugar high. She had always been a bit envious of their bag and now she had one of her own, she could take all her books with her where ever she went, well not all of them, just her most important ones at least. Her parents didn’t understand the significants of the bag so she showed them by putting all the presents they had all bought into the bag and it still looked flat and then handed it over to her father who was amazed that it weighed next to nothing. “I love magic.” Was all that he said, with a mile long grin on his face. Hermione then started taking the packages back out of the bag and started handing them out to everyone.
Presents were handed out all around, and people started ripping into them as soon as they got their pile organized. No one waited for anyone to go first or anything, they were all to excited and so they just all began. Harry got a lot of clothes, especially from Sirius, Alice and Persephone. But that was okay, he always needed new clothes. Remus gave him an encyclopedia of Defense Against the Dark Arts, twenty-four volume set. It was amazing, Harry spent quite a while going through the different volumes of it, it even came with it’s own little book case to put them in. Harry had just opened up what he thought was going to be a quill that turned out to be a shrunken broom, a Nimbus two thousand to be exact, when there was a pair of squeals across the room and he was tackled to the floor.
Apparently Luna liked the Christmas present he had gotten her, since she had it clenched in her hand when she tackled him to the floor. It was a sapphire and diamond starburst necklace that he had found at the jewelry store. It had a sapphire in the center with little diamonds exploding out from it in a starburst pattern, on a bright silver chain.
Neville was having his own set of difficulties having to hold a sobbing and giggling Pavarti who had also opened up her necklace that was the exact same pattern but a ruby starburst pattern on a gold chain. What was so funny is that neither boy had noticed what the other had chosen for the other girl but they had both picked out the same necklace just with different stones, and metals.
It took a few minutes to calm the girls down enough to allow them to put their necklaces on them, oddly enough both necklaces went brilliantly with the outfits the girls had on that day. After calming the girls down, the girls gave their corresponding boys a big hug and a sweet peck on the cheek then sniffing when back to their family and it appeared it was time for one of the twin’s combined Christmas presents because there was a knock at the door.
Persephone went over to the door and opened it and sure enough it was Raunak and Ananya Patil, the twins Mata and Papa. The twins jumped up and rushed over to their parents and wrapped their arms around their parents and thanked the Headmistress for bringing them down there, apparently the Patils had flooed to the Headmistress’ office and she had brought them down to the Lovegood’s suite in order to surprise the twins for Christmas, their arms loaded with presents. Both girls were bouncing around and squealing at the sight of their parents. It had been planned that they were going to go home after they finished opening presents here and spend a couple of days at home. Apparently Raunak and Ananya wanted to see their Darcorns for themselves and wanted to watch their girls ride them, so like the Grangers, they decided to come to Hogwarts instead.
Ananya noticed immediately Pavarti’s new necklace and asked about it, Pavarti blushed and pointed over to Neville who grinned and waived at the Patils. Raunak motioned Neville over and asked what his intentions were towards his Pavarti were this got a gasp from both his wife and Pavarti. “Raunak!”, “Papa!”
“Only good, honest friendship, Sir.” Neville explained. Then he saw the crestfallen look on Pavarti’s face he added “For now.” With a blush.
Pavarti blushed and smiled at that.
Apparently that was good enough for Raunak and he shook Neville’s hand and congratulated him on becoming a Darcorn rider himself, which made Neville’s chest push out a little. They talked about the Darcorns for a couple of minutes until Alice reminded them about the presents and Neville excused himself and went back to opening his.
About that time Sirius and Remus got to the T-Shirts Harry had gotten them and to say they were thrilled was an understatement, Metallica, Queen, Abba, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Van Helen, ZZ Top, Blondie, The Cars, Journey, Aerosmith, and Guns and Roses, all the favorites were there even Prince, Culture Club, Billie Idol, Madonna, Micheal Jackson The Eurythmics, David Bowie. Elton John, Lionel Ritchie, AC/DC, and Pat Benatar. Remus and Sirius were about to faint with t-shirts of all their favorite artists right there in front of them, it was every thing they could do to keep the two men from breaking out in song, they unfolded each one and they would start talking about their favorite song by that artist or band and then they would hum a few bars, trying not to start singing right there in front of everyone. They grabbed Harry and gave him a huge hug, he said they didn’t cost anywhere near as much as the Nimbus but secretly he was thrilled they had loved their present so.
Then Sirius opened his other present from Harry, he opened the lid on the crate and slammed it down quickly so no one else saw what was inside, this had Remus’ curiosity peeked so he looked inside the crate and glared at Harry and ask how Harry managed to buy that specific thing. He simply stated that it was from the same person he got the t-shirts from and left it at that. A while later Frank couldn’t help himself and he snuck a peek at what was in the mystery crate and ended up laughing so hard he almost fell to the ground, at that point Sirius shrunk the crate back down and put it into his bottomless bag for safe keeping.
It was time for Neville to open his crate and Sirius almost wouldn’t let him open it, but when he did open it he found back volumes of Herbology Monthly and was over the moon. He thanked Harry profusely, he loved their articles and no matter how old or new they were he collected them. He had gotten a subscription to the magazine for his eight birthday and had loved it since. He had slowly been ordering back issues since so he had them back to the year he was born but no further yet, now he had then from twenty years ago, and that means all he had to do now was fill in the gap.
Persephone loved her issues of Potionair Monthly and was busy thumbing through them until she had to be reminded that she had other presents.
Frank went nuts over his new Bobbi outfit and wanted to go put it on and see if it would fit but Alice made him wait until later to do so. Alice took one look at her new calligraphy set they had gotten her from the non-magical world and almost started to cry, it had ten metal tips you could switch out to, so you could do different pen strokes, and they bought her a huge collection of inks from Scrivenshaft’s Quills Shop as well, including disappearing ink and a whole collection of scented inks, over thirty inks in all. She gave both boys a huge hug, then they gave her their real present, and she started crying. Frank came over to see what was in the little box she was holding and what had made her cry so. Inside was a pendant in on it was engraved in perfect calligraphy “Mum, we love you to the moon. Neville and Harry.” Frank wrapped his arms around his wife and smiled at his boys, yes he even considered Harry one of his, after all he had help raise that young man since he could barely walk.
About that time Sirius broke the sentimental moment with a loud whoop, and a cheer and had everyone looking over to see what the excitement was about and apparently Frank and Alice had gotten Sirius a new leather biker jacket for his motorcycle and Remus had gotten him a new helmet. Not many people knew he was rebuilding his old Triumph 650 Bonneville. He was having to have parts flown in the muggle way and sent to friends then owled to him. It was a long drawn out process, but he loved that old bike and he wanted to fix her up again and be able to ride it again. It had been years since he had ridden it, so it had pretty much sat in the Longbottom’s stables under tarps for ten years just wasting away the whole time, and it needed a lot of TLC right now.
Harry went back to his pile of presents and found the knife that Luna had bought him, he loved it, and told her so. Neville loved his as well, Pavarti had chosen one that definitely fit him, it had a vine carving on the handle and it fit his hand just right. While Harry’s was made out of dragon bone, Hungarian Horntail to be exact, and had an emerald on top. Padma was thrilled with the blade that her sister got her, it was made out of mother of pearl and was quite effeminate. The one that Luna had picked out for Hermione was black onyx and gorgeous, she had taken it to an engraver who had put an unicorn on the handle so now Hermione had a Darcorn knife. She rushed over to Luna and wrapped arms around her and hugged her with all her might. “Breathe.” Luna finally gasped and Hermione finally let go and allowed Luna to breathe again giggling.
Remus nudged Sirius who looked over to him then Remus nodded over to Harry, Neville, Luna, and Pavarti, each one had gotten to a big flat box that was near the bottom of their pile of boxes, since they all looked alike they decided to open them up at the same time. The next thing that could be heard in the room was a collective gasp. Harry reached into the box and pulled out a set of war robes, basilisk hide war robes to be exact.
“They are self sizing so when you put them on they will size to you. They will adjust to fit you for about three years at the rate you are growing. But don’t worry, we have enough basilisk hide to make a second set for each of you in my vault. There were over thirty shed skins through out the caverns down there and we kept enough skin to make you three full set. And each of us a set of war robes as well.” Sirius said.
It was then that Pavarti opened her little shoe box sized trunk and freaked out, she almost dropped it and tried to give it back to Harry when she realized what it was, she had seen Luna’s and knew immediately what it was. But Harry stated that if she was going to be one of the four of them she needed one of them for herself. At first her parents didn’t see what the fuss was about, a small keepsake box wasn’t that big of a deal, until Pavarti put the box on the ground and enlarged it revealing the seven compartment trunk that it really was. That was when
Raunak asked Harry what his intentions towards Pavarti were and Harry did the same as Neville had, “Just honest, pure friendship for now…who knows what the future holds though.” Pavarti blushed and Ananya smacked her husband for his rude behavior for the second time that night. “They are eleven years old Raunak what do you expect them to say, I intend to marry your daughter, please…give these children some respect.”
Harry explained to Pavarti that one of their secrets to their success was their trunks, having access to their library at any time they needed it, their own potions lab, a private study when things got too noisy, being able to take their complete wardrobe with them at all times and a private place to sleep if they ever needed to just get away from it all was a godsend at times. And it was a place they could decorate however they liked and it was like taking a piece of home with them when they traveled. It made coming to Hogwarts so much easier. After much persuasion on Harry, Neville and Luna’s parts she finally agreed to accept it, but said she was going to have to get her sister one of them now too. And her parents stated that they would do it, which brought a huge grin to Padma’s face who before that was looking a little down, at her sister getting such a wonderful gift from Harry.
Both Padma and Hermione loved the things that Pavarti and Luna had gotten them from Harrods’ Department Store.
Harry loved the sheet music, in fact he unshrunk his piano and began to play some of it right then, the kids all went and grabbed their instruments, those that had not brought them with them shrunk or in their bags that is. And while the adult cleaned up the wrapping paper, bows and ribbons all over the room and put the presents in neat little piles or in bags that were now available to them, all the kids played music. The adults were quite shocked at how good the kids sounded together. They even played some of their favorites just because they loved to play them including some jazz and a couple old rock and roll tunes and one or two classical songs and of course they played some traditional Christmas music too. People were singing along with the music if the song had words and they knew them and of course when they did Queen’s We Are The Champions all the Parents couldn’t help but laugh at that but they all sang to it, those that knew it at least. Sirius actually had a rather nice Soprano voice and Remus’ voice wasn’t anything to laugh at either. The award for best voice went to Alice though, and being Lily’s best friend she was very familiar with non-magical music and the old rock was what Lily loved best. So she knew all the words and sang along.
By the time it was dinner time they all grabbed their presents for the other teachers and headed off to the Great Hall for the Christmas Dinner. There weren’t that many students that stayed behind, mainly the Weasleys and a few others here and there. It was a little surprising that the Weasleys didn’t go home but Molly had told them she had her hands full with trying to get Ron to do his end of term tests right now and had to focus on that and couldn’t really be bothered with a big Christmas this year.
Professor Flitwick was thrilled with his steaks and promptly took them into the kitchens and had them set aside for special occasions for himself. The Headmistress loved her crystal cat, even if it was a side joke, it was so beautiful she just loved how life like it was, even it’s eyes looked like they were following you around. Although the winner on the teacher loving their presents contest definitely went to Professor Sinistra, she got the new Telescope. The kids said it came from all of them and she hugged each of them in turn and began reading the instruction manual while they waited for diner to be served. Harry, Neville and Hermione had bought Madame Pomfrey the latest edition of Grey’s Anatomy with the gilded edges and leather cover, it was quite expensive but they told her she had more than earned it this year. She loved it and was totally fascinated by the book. She said she never knew the non-magicals knew so much about medicine.
Dinner was a glorious affair, complete with turkey, goose, ham or roast beef depending on your preference, and all the fixings. The kids brought out their instruments again and played Christmas tunes and some slow jazz and classical music for everyone. Immediately Flitwick wanted them all in his music classes, to work with his choir and they said they would think about it. They loved the little Professor so chances are they would do it, just for him though. Everyone loved their show and it was the perfect ending to a perfect day.