The Boys Who Lived

CHAPTER 24

They had decided to take their yearly Diagon Alley Yule trip that morning, it was the first day of winter holiday, but everyone wanted to get it over with and were excited to do a little exploring too. Harry had a few things he wanted to get and he had to check on several thing in general, so he was glad they were going early this year.

The first place Harry wanted to go was Stowe and Packers luggage shop. He wanted to see if they had any more bottomless bags, he wanted to try and keep a few of them on hand as extras incase they ran into new Riders or something like this last time happened, thankfully they had three. And he was getting another seven compartment trunk set up as well, one with a potions room and a living room on it. Harry figured if he got one each Yule and Summer Holidays then they may have a fairly decent stock of them in a couple of years just in case.

Then he asked the clerk if he had any old trade-ins that were single compartment trunks, ones that were in good condition that he wouldn’t mind getting rid of.

“I sure do, I have about thirty back in storage, some might have bit a of dust on them, they have been in storage for a while.” The clerk stated.

“We are doing a trunk drive for the Eastern Wales Boys Orphanage and Twin Oaks Orphanages, we are trying to get each child there a trunk of their own. So we were wondering if you had any old trade-in that you wouldn’t mind getting rid of at a reasonable price for the orphans.

“I will tell you what, the trunks that I have are taking up a bunch of space back there and I would just love to get ride of them, I sell them to you for ten gold each. For the orphans, I would love to help out.” He said with a grin.

Harry smiled and nodded, “I will take them all, if you could just shrink them all and send them to Hogwarts in care of Harry Black, I would greatly appreciate it. Or if you want to, you can call my elf Jeeves to come pick them up, which ever way is easier for you. I’ll let Jeeves know you might be calling him just in case.

Harry left there thrilled, with the trunks from the room, the ones from Rider Hall, and the ones he just bought they were only twenty-four trunks short having enough trunks for all the kids at both orphanages to have a trunk of their own.

The next stop was Flourish and Blotts, there were several books he needed to get for people on his lists. So they all headed towards the bookstore and went inside. Earlier in the day Harry had discreetly given Christian, Fred and George, and Cedric a decent size bag of galleon even though they protested it. Informing them that the Riders was their family now and until something changed that fact or they were making money on their own, that the Riders would be there for them. So he gave each one of them a bag of gold to buy presents with, Cedric instantly handed his back stating that his mother had taken care of that, and not to worry about him. But the others reluctantly took the bags and thanked him and were now looking for presents for people on their list. Harry ended up with about six people crossed off his list, just from that one shop.

Then while the others were looking around in that store Harry went over and got Christians attention, he was basically finished with his shopping in the store anyway, at lease he had already checked out and now he was just browsing the clearance section. Harry tapped Christian on the arm and motioned him to follow him and the two headed outside and over to the tack shop that was across the way. They went inside and looked around for a minute then Harry saw it, the most beautiful saddle he had ever seen, it was done in black leather and polished so perfectly it practically sparkled. Harry asked Christian what he thought about it and Christian thought is was gorgeous, that the saddle was well made, had plenty of padding for both the rider and the horse. It had a matching headstay and breast collar, the stirrups are the old tapadura style, it was hand tooled in the Fleur de lis pattern and had silver conch decoration on it for highlights. It was decorative and functional and totally breathtaking. Christian had to admit it was one of the most beautiful saddles he had ever seen in his life.

With that Harry went up to the clerk and stated that he wanted eleven of them, seven of them by Yule if possible the remaining four at his earliest convenience. I bet you could have knock that man over with a feather. Apparently that was the second most expensive saddle in his shop, but Christian had to give the clerk credit though he revived quickly.

“Not a problem Sir, I have three of them in the back, would you like to take those four with you now and I can send you the remaining seven by Yule, the last three will probably be sometime in January due to all the Christmas and Yule requests.” The clerk stated.

“That would be perfect. So Christian and Harry each took two shrunk saddles in boxes and put them in their bag and then Harry paid for them with his ring. That was when he noticed that Harry and Christian were both Riders and immediately he gave them a thirty percent discount on their purchase and he asked if he could name the saddle after the Riders, when Harry nodded you would think the man had just gotten an early Christmas gift or something. The smile on the man’s face when they left was almost ridiculously funny, but then again the smile on Harry’s face was pretty comical as well.

They headed back to Flourish and Blotts to find everyone almost ready to check out, and waited patiently by the door for them to finish. Then they all headed over to Honeydukes. Harry intended to send some candy to the their orphanages for Yule. So he had Neville, Pavarti and Luna help him count out the proper number of candies for each and sent over a Honeydukes finest, a box of Every Flavor beans, a box of Ice Mice and and a Sugar Quill for each child at both orphanages. Thankfully, both matrons had sent them their list of numbers last week so he knew how many trunks he needed and now he could give each child a little bit of candy as well. Honeydukes was as busy as ever but when Harry went up to the register with his purchase you would have thought he was the only person in the shop.

“We are purchasing this for Eastern Wales Boys Home, and Twin Oaks Orphanage.” Harry announced when he noticed the clerk giving him, Neville, Luna and Pavarti a weird look. “We are the Riders and we sponsor two orphanages, these are for the orphans at those two orphanages.” Harry stated.

The clerk regained some of her color and then smiled sweetly, “For orphanages you say, well I tell you what, since they are for orphanages I will give you our teachers special, twenty percent discount on all the items for the orphanages.”

“That would be the items in these carts here then Ma’am.” Harry stated. But truthfully it wasn’t hard to tell which ones were for the orphans, there was exactly the same number of each item picked out and all.

After he had Jeeves come and get the package for the orphanages and take it back to Sirius’s room, and told him about the trunks. Then Harry took a look around, he bought Matthew and James a solid chocolate Yule log, and got Lillian, Sebastian, and Astraea, smaller versions of the same things.

He had already bought the little ones a huge pile of books from over at Flourish and Blotts. So just a few more things and he would have them all finished.

He also stocked up on Chocolate frogs and Every Flavor Beans while he was there, that beating he took from Susan two days ago kinda bit into his supplies. Man, she was on a roll that night. She clean nearly everyone out. Harry noticed Neville, Luna and Pavarti were also stocking up and chuckled. He couldn’t wait for the next poker night.

Next they went to the toy store, and Harry got Monopoly and Cludo for Fred and George, and Snakes and Ladders and Candy Land for Matthew and James and he then got Hungry, Hungry, Hippos, Don’t Break the Ice and a Bowling Game for Lillian, Sebastian and Astraea. As a joke he even bought the game of operation for Susan. He couldn’t help but laugh about that. He also bought Lillian several pretty princess dresses and a couple of Tierras too. He got Astraea some fairy outfits and Sebastian some knights in shining amour ones, Sebastian love to pretend he was a knight from King Arthur’s time and fighting dragons and all. Now all he had to do was get the kids the bean bags he wanted to get them and he was set, Harry had decided their big gift this year was going to be bean bag chairs, for both Matthew and James and the three younger ones. They were always sitting around in a huddle playing some sort of game or pretend of some sort. So he was going to get them bean bags so that they could huddle up and be comfortable while they do it. He would get those at Harrods though.

The next place was the junk store where they got so many good finds a couple of years ago. First thing Harry spotted was some more of the herb periodicals that Neville collected, he wasn’t sure if his brother had these or not but if he did he could always donate them to the Herbology Class. So he took that case of periodicals up to the counter and had the clerk shrink them and hide them for him. Then he continued looking, he found some old records that he was sure that Remus and Sirius didn’t have, they were from all their favorite artist from back in the seventies and eighties. Remus and Sirius had bought a turn table that had been magically hardened from America, it was guarded against magic breaking it or interfering in its working. And it ran on either electricity or solar power, but Sirius had found out that it could work on Lumos Solem just as well too.

Harry found an old leather jacket, like the cowboys used to wear, fringe and all. He though immediately of Christian, he loved to wear his cowboy hat and jeans and old boots, Harry bet he would love to complete the picture with an old legit cowboy leather jacket, Harry was glad that Cedric and Christian had separated to go do their Christmas shopping when they all got to Diagon Alley, this way it gave Harry a chance to get him this jacket without him seeing it. He took the jacket up to the counter and had the clerk put it with the armload of records and the cased of periodicals he had found so far.

Then he went looking again. This time he found an antique vanity with its mirror and little seat in front of it and all. He thought of Luna and Pavarti. Harry wondered if it would be okay to get them a gift they would share, finally deciding it was too beautiful to pass up, so he took the price tag off the vanity and took that up to the clerk as well.

He found another case of Potionair Monthly for Persephone, and these seemed ancient, he wondered if they were some of the first ones ever printed, he hoped so. She would be so excited if they were.

Then he saw it, he couldn’t believe it, “Neville you have got to come over here.” Harry shouted.

“What did you find?” Neville asked curiously, he had been running back and forth with his finds to the counter just as Harry had.

“Look at this, it’s a real Police Officer Uniform from America, it says on the tag that it is only three years old, and it should be able to fit Frank from what it stated on the tag. It comes with a fully stocked utility belt, it has a baton, a can of mace, handcuffs (with keys), a flash light, and a weapons holster, although it has no weapon in it.” Harry was so excited about this, this is one of the most complete Auror uniforms they had ever found for Frank and his collection. It may be American, but he bet Frank will love it.

“Want to go in half with me?” Neville asked

“You bet, let’s take the tag up front.” And they did and told the man to hold it for them as well, then they went looking some more, both thrilled with that find.

Harry found some sheet music he liked so he grabbed that and then he was looking in the cases of magazines and found two cases he was sure his brother hadn’t seen yet, One was a new magazine called MyHerbs the other was a magazine called Plants that Heal. He grabbed both cases and rushed them up to the front before his brother saw them.

It was almost getting to be the time they had agreed to meet up with everyone at the Leaky Cauldron so Harry quickly checked out and had the gentleman shrink down all his purchases and then he put them in his bag, the vanity the clerk shrunk down and put in a little box and gift wrapped it for him. Harry put everything in his bag and was ready to go by the time Neville walked up to the counter. Harry excused himself and walked outside while Neville checked out, just to be polite. And he spotted them, the others were over by the Diagon Alley entrance waiting on them to get there, it looked like everyone else was there already and they were just waiting on them.

When Neville finally came out he was all smiles, thrilled with his finds inside there. Neville was especially proud of the attitude t-shirts he found for Harry. The black one stated “You know you are going to have a bad day when your imaginary friend files a restraining order against you.” The gray one stated “No need to shout, I was ignoring you perfectly fine the first time.” The blue one stated “Have you ever wanted to tell someone to ’Shut the Hell up!’ And you realized they weren’t even talking.” The red one stated. “The world isn’t filled with Assholes, they are just strategically placed so that you run into one every F*$@%#G day!” The grey one said “I’m on my second guardian angle now, my first on left me and is in therapy.” Neville could hardly wait for Harry’s reaction to the shirts. He loved getting his brother gag gifts for presents. What made it great is that Harry usually had just as much fun out of it as Neville did.

The two headed over to the archway and their friends. “Find anything good?” Pavarti asked seeing the grin on Neville’s face.

“Not telling, and you can’t make me.” Neville just smiled away, making everyone suspicious and a little leery of what he had found.

Everyone went into the Leaky cauldron, they decided to grab something to drink and talk about where to next, of course they all wanted to hit Harrods, and Sainsbury Grocery story again, and that New Age shop they had found and then finally to head over to the Antonio’s Pizza for some pizza and salads for dinner. So with that schedule in mind they went outside and grabbed three cabs and headed to Harrods Department store.

Once inside they set a time to meet back at the entrance and then they all split up and headed in different directions. Harry wanted to get the bean bag chair for the little ones first so he headed off into that direction. He ended up picking out a pair of brown suede ones the matched the living room furniture of Sirius’ rooms for Matthew and James. He got Sebastian a blue suede one, since blue is his favorite color right now. Harry got Astraea a purple, sparkly, plush one. And he got Lillian a so soft pink, furry bean bag chair, with fur that was two inches in length. A princess needs all the comfort she can get after all, doesn’t she?” He had those items set to be picked up at the loading dock later on this after noon.

Then Harry went over to the makeup counter and Harry asked the woman behind the counter for help, she said she would be glad to help and he explained he had several female friends he went to school with that he would like to get a gift for but he had no clue what to give. With a smile she pointed him in the right direction, she pointed him to a basic beauty kit, and to a eye shadow kit that had twenty shades of shadow in it as well. She said that between the two it should cover most young ladies need and wants. With a huge grin, Harry bought one for Luna, Pavarti, Padma, Hermione, and Susan, hoping he was making a good choice here. He went over to another counter and found something call Spa Treatment which was suppose to be like taking yourself to the spa and getting treated to a wonderful day of pampering. So he got those kits for Persephone, Alice and he even got one for Amelia. He figured if anyone needed a day at the spa it was her.

He then went over and got some of Franks cologne and a bath set in of Alice’s favorite scent for her. Harry just happen to know that Neville planned to get their mum a new bottle of cologne, she was running low on her favorite scent, which was oddly enough, Obsession for Men. She loved the spice scent of it with the back notes of vanilla. Oh she loved all the pretty flowery perfumes as well, they just never smelled that good on her, it was either Vanilla or Obsession. Those were the only two she would wear. Frank wore Calvin Cline cologne while Sirius wore Stetson. Remus didn’t wear cologne, there wasn’t much that would blend well with a wolf’s body chemistry so most of the time he wore Dragon’s Blood essential oil and didn’t even bother to wear cologne. Harry actually liked the Obsession for Men that Alice used but it smelled different on him than it did on Alice, the spice was more forward, where on her the vanilla was more forward, go figure.

Okay Harry needed to head to the area where they had the arts and craft kits, he needed to get Christian the deluxe drawing kit there, and look at the painting kits for Luna while he was at it. He managed to find the area in question, with the help of a couple of clerks mind you. Harry found just what he was looking for, he got Christian the HIFORNY one-hundred-twenty-six piece drawing and sketching piece art kit, then he went and got him the KALOUR five hundred-twenty piece professional colored pencil set for adult artists with the soft pigment cores. Supposedly that allowed for ease of shading and better blending. In fact he got himself a set while he was at it. He wasn’t an artist like Christian by any means but he did have to do the sketches for Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures. Actually he grabbed Neville a set too before he walked off, if they were going to be making those templets again next year Neville would need a new set of pencils, some of his were getting a little short.

While he was there he got Luna a MEEDEN one-hundred-fifty-one piece art set complete with adjustable easel and table easel. Then he bought her an additional water color kit that had one-hundred-twelve colors and came with its own carrying case. Okay he was spoiling Luna a little this year, but so what, it still cost less than the jewelry he normally bought her.

Harry went over his list of stuff he wanted to buy and could only think of a few things here and there. Mostly little things. He wanted to get Moody something but he wasn’t sure what, maybe a Swiss Army knife. Just to prove that not all Non-Magicals are brainless. But other than that he thinks he had it covered for now. He got Tonks this set of six wooden puzzle cubes that you had to figure the puzzle out to get the cube to come apart or put it back together again. He knew they was going to drive her nuts like the Rubik’s cube did that Ted bought her last year.

Oh yeah, he should be getting in that catalogue of joke stuff for Fred and George soon too, at least he hoped he did, he found a place called Acme that had just about any prank stuff you could imagine in it. Everything from fake poo, to all kinds of fake bugs, to whoopee cushions, to rubber chickens, to all kinds of fireworks, and everything in between it…they had a box called the exploding prank and gag box that he was thinking of getting the twins. It was supposedly filled with so many pranks, fireworks and gags that the box was practically exploding, not really exploding that is. So he was seriously thinking of that for them, along with the saddle for Christmas. The saddle they they wouldn’t really be able to use until Mayhem and Mischief got another two years older, or if they did as Christian suggested they would put them on Mayhem and Mischief just to get them use to it but no more weight than that. And only for short periods of time for a while. By summer they should be able to handle wearing the saddle all day while they were on their trip, but it would just be the saddle and bridle and they would be following along with Fred and George riding other mounts leading them. If they agreed to it that is.

If not, then the foals and their Riders would stay at the school while the others made their way across to the Camp grounds and then Jeeves would pop the Foals and Riders over once everyone got to the camp grounds and they would spend two weeks camping non-the-less. But Harry didn’t want to worry with that right now, right now was Yule time, he wanted to take one vacation at a time. Sooo….

It looked like it was time to meet the others back up at the main doors so he took all his bags and made his way up to the main door, thankfully he had one of their big carts to put things in, or else he would have had to have help with everything. When he got up there he noticed everyone was practically in the same boat, they all had the big carts to haul stuff out to their vehicle like he did, so they formed a little train and headed for the closest alley they could find, and started shrinking everything down as quickly as they could.

Then Harry told Cedric and Christian he had presents for the little one’s at the loading dock that needed picking up. So they pretended to be his brothers and went and got them, with the receipt of course and hauled them over to their truck to take them home. After a little convincing they managed to get the dock workers to release the bean bags and allow Cedric and Christian to take them around the parking lot to where they had parked. They got about twenty yards on the other side of the dock and shrunk the bean bag chairs and put feather light charms on them then put them all in one bag and headed over to meet everyone else.

Finally they had everything shrunk down or had Jeeves come get the bags upon bags of things and take them home. And then they got three taxi’s and headed over to Sainsbury’s Grocery to get a few things. Everyone got a shopping cart and started grocery shopping, trying to restock their kitchens in their trunks.

Harry had to get a bunch of juices and some tea, he was almost out of tea and that just must not be allowed to happen. He grabbed several boxes of tea this time just to make sure he had a stock pile for a while. And then he went down the juices and drink mixes isle and picked out several juices and a bunch of those drink mixes in the little packets that you just put into water, oh he grabbed all kinds of flavors of those. He restocked his sandwich meats and cheeses, as well as condiments and breads. He grabbed himself a bunch of fresh fruit while he was at it and some ready made salads in a bag, Then Harry headed over to the granola and snack mix isle and picked up several bags of that, and some crisps while he was at it. Last stop was the Deli, he grabbed several pounds of fresh sliced deli meats and cheeses. Then he went over to the whole meats sections and began on them, he got baked chickens, and twenty one day matured slow roast beef, a half a brisket, and he even grabbed the bistro style duck in port and orange sauce, some duck breasts in red wine and cherry sauce, some duck legs in plum sauce and some duck breasts with balsamic plum sauce too. For some reason he was having a craving for duck and it looked really good right now.

With that he headed up to the register to check out. It looked like everyone else was waiting for him to get there. Okay he admits it, he got a little over whelmed in the duck section. Harry blushed a little as he headed up to the head of the line and put his things on the conveyer belt to check out. Whoah, duck is expensive, he hadn’t even looked at the prices on the packages, and to tell you the truth he could care less. He wanted the duck any way. They hadn’t had duck at Hogwarts as far as he could remember, Harry wondered if they were just hard to raise or hard to cook, or both. Oh well he had his ducks now and he was going to enjoy them.

They all made it through the line and outside like always and headed over to the alleyway. Once there Cedric put up a barrier and they all took out their trunks and began putting their groceries away. As well as unloading some of their other packages while they were at it. They didn’t want to take too long so they all tried to hurry. When they got finished they all headed back up top and closed their trunks and put them back in their bags. Then Cedric lowered the barrier after he made sure that no one was looking. They all grabbed cabs to head over to the New Age store.

Harry wanted to see if they had any new star charts available for Sirius and any new steel jewelry available for Remus. He had also saw some books on astrology the last time he was there that he though about getting for Professor Sinistra. He wondered if they would have any books just out on Angel Numbers from the Non-Magical side that might interest Professor Vector. Or maybe a book on Runes that Professor Babbling doesn’t have, that would be cool. So he entered the shop with half a dozen items on his list to cross off and, yep, he found them all, he was thrilled. Especially with the wolf bracers that he found for Remus. They were black leather bracers tooled in the tree of life motif, and it had a steel wolf that was howling on one side with the stays to tighten it in place on the other side. They were gorgeous. The leather was nice and thick and yet soft to the touch, and the wolf looked wild, but not vicious like some of the other pieces, it looked free. Harry couldn’t help but wonder if a Werewolf wasn’t making some of the jewelry they were selling here at this place, he wouldn’t put it past them at all.

Next was Antonio’s Pizza, Luna and Susan ordered a veggie-lovers pizza and split it, Harry ordered a hamburger and mushroom, and Neville ordered pepperoni and extra cheese, Cedric and Christian ordered a meat lovers and split it and Padma, Pavarti and Hermione just ordered salads, they figured they could sneak pieces of pizza off of other people’s pizza when it got there. By the time they all left they were all stuffed and then some as always.

They then headed outside to walk the short distance down to the Leaky Cauldron and head home. It was a good thing too, because everyone felt they had eaten too much really, and that the walk would do them good. When they got to the Leaky Cauldron Harry remembered he had wanted to get Christian a new wand holster so he told the others he had one more gift to get and made a mad dash through the Alley and grabbed it and rushed back. In fact he grabbed three extras of them, why three extras he wasn’t sure, maybe it was a thing like the bottomless bags, it just felt right, it was weird…whatever.

They made it back to Hogwarts just in time for dinner but no one was hungry so they decided to put up their purchases instead. They all spent the better part of the next few hours going through things and putting stuff away, organizing presents and putting away stuff they had purchased for themselves. Thankfully, with most of the big stuff, like the saddles and the bean bags, Harry was able to find a place for everything, without it looking messy or over crowded. He had Jeeves put the new trunks with the others and get started on polishing them up and getting them ready for their new owners. So that took care of one big problem and Jeeves was thrilled to have some new project to work on. It was almost one o’clock in the morning by the time Harry finished sorting through everything, but it was finally done. Harry didn’t even make it to his bed, he fell asleep in his study on one of the big couches there. Tomorrow he was going to try and tackle the gift wrapping and labeling all his purchases, but for now he was pooped.

————————————————————

The next several days was a flurry of creating boxes, wrapping presents, labeling things, and sorting out if he needed to purchase anything else.

Harry ended up getting that exploding gag and prank box that he had seen in the catalog for Fred and George, and hoped it would be here in time.

He also ordered Amelia, Shackelbolt, Moody and Tonks a top of the line Swiss Army knife with seventy-three tools and lockable blade. If it could be put into a knife this knife could do it. As far as the Non-Magicals were concerned that is.

He arranged for the Patils to be able to come stay the Winter Break with them at Hogwarts, and Harry arranged for their Yule present to be a night on the town in Paris, including a dinner a one of the finest restaurants in Paris and after dinner they would go to the theater to watch the Phantom of the Opera, both Patils spoke French fluently so there shouldn’t be any language barrier at all, and they should be able to enjoy the dinner and the theater hopefully. It was going to come from all of Tier one and Padma as well.

For the Grangers he had arranged for them to get a trip to New York, New York, America. They are going to get to go to see a Broadway musical called Cats and to stay for a week in a Luxury hotel while in New York. And it is left with an open date so they could arrange it at anytime during the year they wanted to. This was going to come from everyone, everyone loved the Grangers and they had been wonderful with Hermione after her suicide attempt, everyone remembers that and wanted to thank them for that.

Harry finished up his wrapping and putting bows on things and had just finished putting the last label on a package when someone knocked on his trunk. He headed over to his ladder and looked up, it was Sirius checking to make sure things were okay, he hadn’t seen him all day and he wanted to make sure that he was alright. Harry came up all smiles and sighed, “Finally finished,” He said as he climbed out of his trunk and shut the lid. He went over to the bed and sat down.

“Finally finished what?” Sirius asked curiously, looking at Harry with a weary eye.

“All that stupid wrapping and putting bows and ribbon and stuff on packages. Geez, if I had realized how much I was going to have to do, I wouldn’t have gotten so much stuff to give out. I even have the boy’s their new b.i.c.y.c.l.e.s. taken care of. Which thankfully I just shrunk down and put in their own little boxes and wrapped the boxes. Oh by the way the ones I got them have training wheels, I figured they would need them for a while, like Neville and I did.”

“Why did you spell it out?” Sirius asked.

“Little people have a tendency to listen in when we aren’t paying attention and it spoils the surprise later. So I am just being safe rather than sorry later. They’re smart but I don’t think their spelling has gotten to that level yet. This is our first Yule together and I want it to be special for them, I got them some games and plushies and I found them some costumes of course, but the main thing is those two items. So I want those two items to remain a secret until they open them.” Harry stated.

“Good idea. Same here, I got them a lot of clothes mainly, and some games, building blocks, general toys, and plushies, but their main item is that one from you. Since I have already bought them their first broom.” Sirius nodded.

All of the sudden Harry herd a sound right outside the door to his room.”Alright you two, come out of hiding.”

And Matthew and James rolled across the floor near his door, apparently they had been inching their way across the doorway and one of them had slipped and knocked into the other which knocked that one into the wall.

“What are you two doing?” Harry asked when he saw the two of them laying there on the floor at the doorway of his room.

“Nothing.” Mathew said.

“Yeah, we weren’t listen in or anything,” James said. “Oops”

“Yeah, Oops is right. Why are you listening in on a private conversation that dad and I are having?” Harry asked.

“How else are we suppose to figure out what you got us for Yule,” James said without thinking.

“Don’t you mean what Father Christmas got you?” Harry asked as he got up from the bed and walked over to the twins and knelt down to their level.

“There is no Father Christmas, we know that.” Matthew stated.

“Yeah. None at all.” James said back.

“What makes you say that.” Harry asked.

“Well last year I thought there was a Father Christmas and Tracey Lynn laughed at me and said there wasn’t a Father Christmas and that no matter wether we are good or bad we will all get the same thing, a single candy cane, and she was right, everyone got a single candy cane. Even Billy Thorn the bully that always beat up on every one and he was so mean to me sometimes I would end up going to the Matron about it, but she just separated him from the other kids for a while. Then he would be back and doing it again. So there can’t be a Father Christmas if what the stories say is true, because if they were true then Billy Thorn would never get any Yule presents if he really existed.” James said sadly.

“Yeah,” Matthew whispered sadly as well.

“Does this Billy Thorn still live at your orphanage?” Harry asked.

Both boys nodded slowly.

“Does he still behave the same way? Is he still a bully to the younger, or smaller kids?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, he took the bear that you gave me away the day you gave it too me, but the Matron made him give it back the next day, and then dad and you came and rescued us that day. So he didn’t have a chance to take it away again yet.” Matthew stated with a frown on his face.

“Well I can tell you one thing. That the real Father Christmas does see bullies and doesn’t give them presents and stuff.” Harry promised.

“Really, there really is a Father Christmas?” James asked with his head tilted ever so slightly.

“There is, now don’t get me wrong, most of your presents will come from your loved ones, like friends or family, but one present each year will come from Father Christmas. Maybe no one wrote and told him that Billy Thorn was being bad, and therefor he didn’t know how Billy was behaving. He has a lot of little kids to watch and sometimes things slip his view. Why don’t you two right him a letter right now and let him know. I will mail it for you an he should get it in plenty of time to make sure that this year Billy Thorn doesn’t get anything for Yule from him.

“You think so, you think that is the reason he got something and so did we, just ‘cause no body told on him?” James looked surprised.

Harry nodded. “I wouldn’t doubt it a bit, he’s a busy man, and he tends to think the best of people anyway. So he would always give people a second chance if he had an option. So unless someone complained or told on him I doubt he would do anything about it. But if someone told on him, I bet that Billy would get nothing but a box of coal for Yule.”

Matthew looked at James then they both raced off to go write that letter.

Sirius who had been listening in to their conversation, spoke up now. “What are you going to do when Billy Thorn gets a new trunk with goodies in it on Yule?”

“Father Christmas is going to make sure that Billy Thorn gets a box full of coal, take my little brother’s Teddie will he. Oh no, I won’t have that and do nothing about it. I can’t stand bullies and I can’t stand thieves. We had to have made him a plushie, because we made one for everyone, there was no need to steal Matthew’s Teddie and I intend to teach him that there are consequences for his actions.” Harry stated.

With that Harry made plans to make a small trip over to the orphanage to speak to Ava Merryweather about one Billy Thorn and discuss his behavior and possibly seeing about getting him a counselor. Normally a child that is a bully has a reason for being one, they are mad at the world and are taking it out on those around them. Or they are afraid and they act out so they feel they have some control over the situation around them. So the boy needs a counselor to learn how to channel his anger or fear in a productive positive way or just how to control his anger or deal with his fear. He needs to know where the anger or fear is coming from and work his way through it and somehow therapy might help that. Harry nodded at the thought and gave himself a mental note to do so.

————————————————————————

Yule Eve all the Riders had all the trunks down in the Dining Hall and were making sure each one was polished and in good condition ready for a little person to claim, then they were putting one of each of the candy’s that they had bought into the trunks. It may not seem like a big chore but sixty-eight trunks for Eastern Wales and eighty seven trunks for Twin Oaks was a lot of trunks. Their trunk drive had proven in spades, they even had extras.

They had forty-one extra trunks and they were going to take those to Christian’s old orphanage. His Orphanage was Sunnyvale Regional Orphanage its base is Greater London County which is comprised of thirty-two burrows and the City of London. The Matron of the Sunnyvale Regional Orphanage, Olivia Williams told them that they had forty-three kids that were eleven years to seventeen. So Harry bought two extra trunks and they set it up so that every child age eleven to seventeen could have their very own trunk. He also had Andromada go out and test each of those kids and found eight that were magically powerful enough to get into Hogwarts, thankfully they had enough money to sponsor those eight kids next year. Now the kids were getting a pretty good magical education, but it was no Hogwarts. So Harry was making arrangements for those eight kids to get to go to Hogwarts next year. Thankfully, they would all either eleven or be turning eleven next year. So they would be the perfect age to start, it was six girls and two boys, but hopefully it would be the start of a new trend. More magically powerful children off the streets, and out of the orphanages around Britain.

Between the three orphanages they had nineteen children they were sponsoring, seven from Twin Oaks Orphanage, four from Eastern Wales Boys Home, and the eight from Sunnyvale Regional Orphanage that would be a total of nineteen kids they were paying for their education and all their supplies. The ones from Sunnyvale were currently either ten or eleven and would be ready to start Hogwarts next year, the others started school this year. The kids that were older than that were already getting a magical education where they were at, so he wasn’t going to disrupt their lives any further that they already were. Now Christian had stated that they went up to sixth year so they would see about sponsoring the seventh years next year but for now they were about as stretched as Harry was comfortable doing.

Harry had gotten a letter yesterday that he almost fainted over, apparently people realized that they were sponsoring the two orphanages and had decided to send them money to help out for Yule, Ragnok was still getting him the final figures but Harry couldn’t believe the numbers he had gotten so far, and they were sending presents too, all kinds of gifts. They had a huge pile of presents that the Goblins had Jeeves come get, and Harry, Neville, Luna and Pavarti were now putting in the trunks. One gift per trunk and it looks like they may have one for every trunk, it was unbelievable, dolls, trains, plushies, games, puzzles, books, calligraphy sets, chess sets, balls, quidditch sets, brooms. You name it they were donated, it was amazing at how generous people had been. They put the things that were for older kids in the things for the Sunnyvale Regional Orphanage, the things mainly for boys in the Eastern Wales Boys Home and the dolls and plushies for the Twin Oaks Orphanage. It took forever to sort through things but they finally got everything sorted out and put in the right trunks and given away and they still had a pile left. So they decided to give the rest of the stuff the the other kids at Sunnyvale Regional Orphanage that they didn’t have trunks for. They would leave it up to Olivia Williams, the matron there to deal with that.

Everyone was working on the trunks as fast as they could, wanting to get them over to the orphanages before the kids woke up the next morning.

Harry had Jeeves take the first batch finished, the ones to Sunnyvale Regional Orphanage, to the Orphanage while they continued to work on the other two orphanages trunks. It was another hour and they managed to get the other two finished. Finally about three in the morning they had them all done and Harry had Jeeves deliver trunks to the last two orphanages. Then he had Jeeves pop him over to Twin Oaks Orphanage, Harry had a special delivery to make.

While he was making his delivery, Neville had Misty take him and the stuff they had left over to Sunnyvale Regional Orphanage. Neville figured if he didn’t have enough toys to go around he could always make plushies until there was.

Once there Harry headed over to the sleeping rooms and began looking around, he could hear a couple of kids crying so he went over to the first one he came to to see why the little boy was crying, and he figured it out immediately, the boy had no plushie. He went up to the little boy, who appeared to be about four, he had golden ringlets all over his head and big sad blue eyes that were just over flowing with tears. Harry asked him what was wrong.

“Billy took Mopsy away and won’t give him back.” Samual sniffed as he rubbed his eyes.

“And who is Mopsy?” Harry asked gently, brushing the ringlets out of the little boys eyes.

“My friend, he’s a bear but he is nice and he loves to be held, he can make boo boo’s better and everything. But Billy took him and he won’t give him back.” Whimpered Samual.

“Okay, where can I find Billy, I am going to assume you are talking about Billy Thorn, right?” Harry asked.

“Yeah, how’d you know?” Confused the little boy knew the Riders were smart but he didn’t realize they were that smart.

“Father Christmas knew the Riders were sponsoring East Wales Boys Home, and he left specific instructions about a Billy Thorn, so I guessed that is who you were talking about.” Harry stated.

“Father Christmas, he left a message about Billy Thorn, did he say anything about me?” The now curious little boy asked. His little eyes just lit up.

“He only left us with his naughty list and I recognized Billy’s name from it. Do you know where I can find him?” Harry stated.

“Oh, he is right over there.” He said pointing to a bed that was up about five beds across the room.

“What color is Mopsy by the way?” Harry asked.

“He is brown with a red patch on his bottom. He fell down and has a boo boo there.” He said.

“Let me see what I can do,” Harry stated and then he went over to the indicated boy, and sure enough the boy had three plushies in his arms, a brown Teddie with a red patch on its bottom, what looked like a golden retriever puppy maybe with a pretty red collar, and a panda bear plushie. So Harry reached down and lifted the boy’s arm and took all three plushies from the sleeping boy’s arm, doing so without him waking up was a trick, but he managed it. The boy looked to be about eight years old and had brown hair that reached about to his shoulders a firm jaw and a frown that seemed to be glued to his face. His eyebrows were a couple of shades darker than his hair making his eyes stand out on his face, but other than that there was nothing remarkable about the boy. He didn’t appear to be overly muscular or broad in the shoulder or chest, he was just average. Harry noticed that the boy seemed to be the oldest or one of the oldest boys in the room. Perhaps putting him in with the older boys would resolve the issue with him being a bully. If he was in with the older boys than he would just be a little boy in a big pond again. He would talk to Madam Merryweather about it later. For now he took the plushies back over to the little boy with the blond ringlets and held out the brown Teddie.

“Look who was missing you.” Harry stated. Holding out the bear.

“Mopsy!” He gasped and dove for the bear, wrapping his arms around the bear as firmly as he could, like he would never let it go again.

“Now you try and get some sleep, I think Mopsy is tired after his ordeal and you probably need the sleep too.” Harry smiled at the little boy. No sooner had he said the words than has the little boy closed his eyes and you could hear him softly breathing rhythmically as he slept. Harry then headed over to where he could hear another little boy crying, he bet he would find the owner of the spare plushie he had in hands in that direction.

The little one crying this time was a little dark skinned, dark haired little boy of about five or six. He was definitely tall but skinny for his age what ever his age was. He got over there and asked the boy his name,

“Jasper,” he had said through his tears.

“Well Jasper, one of these two wouldn’t happen to be yours now would it?” Harry held up both plushie he had left from the three he had confiscated from Billy. Jasper reached out and grabbed the golden retriever puppy plushie and held it close to his chest.

“Watson, your back! I’ve been so scared, no one to take care of you. Are you alright, did you eat dinner. Do you need to go for a walk?” Jasper whispered excitedly as if he expected an answer.

“I need to go for a walk, I will take you with me and you can go to then.” Jasper got up out of bed and rushed off through a door at the end off the room and disappeared.

Harry shook his head as he watched the little boy leave with the golden retriever puppy tucked under his chin. Ok, he needed to start handing out these trunks now, now that he knew who Billy Thorn was it would be easy. He put the ’special’ box for Billy at the foot of Billy’s bed then informed Jeeves to make sure that each little bed had a box sitting at the foot of it for him. In a matter of minutes each and every bed had a shoebox sized box sitting at the end of it, just waiting for its owner to open it in the morning.

Now they were ready to head over to Twin Oaks Orphanage. With that Harry and Jeeves popped over to Twin Oaks and Harry took a quick look around, making sure everything was alright. About halfway down one wing he head sniffling and crying so he stopped until he could figure out where it was coming from and found it coming from a little girl about six years old with strawberry blond hair to her waist holding tight to a stuffed horsey.

Harry went over and asked her her name and she sniffled and said it was Rosa. Rosa Pathways.

“What’s the problem, Rosa, why aren’t you sleeping like everyone else?”

“My tooth hurts, the old one fell out and the new one is coming in but it hurts really bad.” She whimpered, sniffling as she spoke.

“It is, may I see?” Harry asked and she opened up her mouth and sure enough the had already lost her two front teeth and a new tooth was trying to break through but it looked like it was coming in crooked, oh oh this little one needs a visit to the dentist. But for now a tooth ache potion just might do it. So Harry told her he might have something that should help. He got out his trunk and put it in the middle of the isle and went and got the potion, then read the instructions for ages and gave her the proper dose for her age. Within a matter of moments little Rosa was fast asleep and smiling into her horsey, after she bid the Rider good night that is. Harry took the rest of the potion and put it in his pocket, then closed up his trunk and shrunk it and placed it back into his bag. Then he continued looking around and made his way back to Jeeves, “Ok their ready, remember blue bows for boys, pinks bows for girls and white bows for anyone over eleven.”

“Yes Master Harry, Jeeves remembers.” And then in a matter of a few minutes he had handed out all of the little boxes to the kids at this orphanage. Harry was glad that Neville was taking care of the Sunnyvale Regional Orphanage, Harry still had to get home and get some sleep himself and tomorrow was Yule after all.

By the time Harry got home it was almost five AM and he was exhausted, he was asleep before his head hit the pillow and he stayed that way for as long as possible. But at nine o’clock there was a knocking at his trunk that woke him up and Harry grumbled as he went to see who had woke him up. It was Matthew and James, apparently their patience had been stretched to it’s limit, it was Yule after all. And their first Yule with a real family too. To say they were excited would be an incredible understatement. Harry got dressed and got out of his trunk then shrunk it down and placed it into his bag then followed the bouncing boys into the living room. They had decided two things last night, they would have the riders gather in Sirius’ suite and have their Yule there first, and give Matthew and James their presents then so they would be able to open something at the same time as the Riders were opening their presents. Then they would have the normal family Yule later after lunch with the family down in the Longbottoms suite, anyone who wanted to join in could. And they would save back some of the twins presents so they could open some of their stuff while Sebastian, Astraea and Lillian opened their presents. So it would be like the little runts got two Yule celebrations.

Matthew and James were practically bouncing off the walls by the time Harry reached the living room, it was evident that he was the last one to wake up. It seemed like everyone but Neville, who was still yawning, was wide awake and thrilled, waiting impatiently too.

“Alright folks, now that grumpy is here, we can start opening presents. Yes, Matthew and James, that means you can start now.” Sirius chuckled. At the two’s antics, they kept picking up boxes and shaking them, trying to figure out what was inside them. With a squeal Matthew began to rip into the wrapping paper that was on the package he was currently holding, go figure it was the box that held the miniaturized bicycle in it. He SHRIEKED and grabbed it out of the box and looked over to Sirius, who smiled and came over to him and tapped it with his wand and unshrunk the bicycle and Matthew shrieked again. Matthew tried to get on his new bicycle immediately but Sirius made him hold off, at least until he finished opening up his other presents. James opened up a present and found it to be clothes, a slight frown on his face he looked at Sirius. Sirius came over and found a present matching the one Matthew had just opened and handed it to James, who ripped it opened and he squealed even louder than Matthew, if that was possible, when he saw his new bicycle. Sirius enlarged it but again made him wait to get on until more presents were unwrapped.

While the little ones were going through their presents the Riders had noticed there was at least one package that everyone had alike so they all decided to open that one first, Neville was the first to get his completely open and he gasped, “Wow!”

“Oh my word, it is so beautiful.” Luna stated as she looked at the little saddle.

“Harry pulled the little saddle out of the box and set it on the coffee table and tapped it with his wand, in the blink of an eye the little saddle was unshrunk and returned to its original size. The one specific thing that he liked about these saddles is that once you put them on your mount all you had to do was tap it with your wand and it would shrink or enlarge to fit as appropriate. It was a special feature built into the more expensive saddles now days.

“Now it doesn’t matter which Darcorn you put it on, all you have to do is tap it with your wand and it will shrink or enlarge to fit them like it was made to fit them. Quite a bit of spell work went into make these saddles I have to say. The underside is real lambskin so it is extra soft for your mount and adds extra cushion for you. The leather does have a basic temperature control, so it doesn’t get over heated or too cold. It stays at seventy-two degrees comfortably year round, this will help with chaffing and saddle soars later on. Also it has rain repellant on it so the rain will not effect it at all, if you get caught in a rainstorm that is. Now I recommend that while we are off for the break we start working with the Darcorns and getting them used to the saddles, not necessarily riding them with the saddles on, but definitely getting used to the saddles. With the little ones, I talked to the clerk he said we could put a feather light charm on them and put them on the foals now. So they could get used to the feel of the saddles. Then take the charms off later, and allow them to get used to the weight when they are about one year old. But not to start actually riding them until they are around two and a half to three years old. He said they would probably be safe to ride at two but better be safe than sorry so two and a half is recommended. So not next year but the year after at this time you could be riding your own Darcorns. He also said that the trip this summer would be good for the muscular growth, just saddle them up and lead them while on another horse and he recommended three or four year old geldings. So the stallions wouldn’t get jealous and the mares wouldn’t feel as if someone was trying to take their place. So I am going to buy some geldings and keep them at Rider Hall. We are bound to have more foals so this will undoubtedly happen again, might as well have the rides available when it happens.” Harry explained, everyone was hanging on every word, listening with peek interests.

Next gifts to be sorted through were the big art sets that Harry had gotten Christian, Luna, and Neville. They were big boxes so everyone was waiting anxiously to see what they were. Luna was the first to get her’s open and she gasped at the site, then reached over and hugged Harry half to death. Harry managed to pry her arms from around himself, blushing madly.

“Oh Harry, thank you, it even has its own easel and everything, two easels in fact. Oh and look watercolors too. Thank you so much. It has oils, acrylics and watercolors, and brushes for all three, paper or pallets for each. Oh, I am going to have so much fun.” Luna squealed.

“Harry! Five-hundred and twenty colored pencils, sweet Merlin! Where did you find such a set?” Neville gasped, opened up the case and took out the trays of pencils, reverently running his hand along each pencil…looking at each and every color.

“Actually, I found them at Harrods. Same place I found Luna’s present.” Harry smiled, thrilled that they were so happy with their presents.

“Them? What do you mean…” Then Christian realized he had a package the same size as Neville’s in his pile so he quickly grabbed it and ripped open the wrapping paper and gasped. Sure enough it was a colored pencil set. The biggest set he had ever seen, or ever even heard about. Christian opened the case they came in and gasped, “I have never seen so many shades of red in my life, I didn’t know red came in that many colors. My gods. Then the greens, holy shit, blues… so many blues, oh my god what am I going to do with this many colors?”

“Your going to draw with them.” Sirius told the two of them. And he handed them the present he had gotten the two of them. They gave him a curious look and opened it up and it was sketch pads, three of them, one large eleven by fourteen inches, one medium nine by twelve inches, and a small one that was five point five by eight point five inch. They both looked at Sirius with an odd look but he just grinned and left it at that until he handed Luna her package. It was watercolor books, (140lb/300g) he got her a nine by twelve pad, and a five point five by eight point five (140lb/300g) pad, and he got her a set of sixty four loose sheets of watercolor paper that were five by seven (140lb/300g) that could be used for both watercolor and acrylics. And finally a twenty four pack of oil painting canvases of all sizes from four by four up to twelve by sixteen, three in each size.

By the time she reached the last of the big package Sirius had an armload of Luna just like Harry had. Harry couldn’t help but chuckle at his dad’s awkward look and decided to help him out and un-arm him. So he mentioned to Luna she had other packages to unwrap so she let Sirius go, and went back to her packages.

Harry picked up one of his packages and it was the t-shirts that Neville had gotten him, he was laughing so hard he grabbed his ribs they were hurting. He loved them. He turned the t-shirts around and showed them to everyone and the whole room was laughing.

It was about that time that Susan’s Aunt Amelia, Mad Eye Moody, Kingsley Shackelbolt, and Nymphadora Tonks showed up. Harry had invited them to come to the ‘party’ since he had gifts for them as well. As soon as they got there Harry handed them their packages and got a strange look from each of them. But he just grinned and nodded, then turned to see what Padma was opening up. It appeared to be a series of star charts that were designed for navigational purposes. And it included a sextant, compass and a book on navigating by the stars. She was totally fascinated by the whole thing, she started thumbing through the book but stopped when she realized she still had other presents to go through.

Harry picked up a package from Christian and opened it up, it was a Non-Magical knife sharpening kit, complete with wet stone, diamond blade sharpeners, manual sharpener, and leather strop. It was a fancy kit that was the nicest one he had seen in a long time.

He was just about to open another one of his presents when he heard a gasp from Amelia, apparently she had finally opened up her present.

“What in the world?” Amelia gasped.

“It’s a Swiss Army knife. Non-Magical all the way, it has seventy-three gadgets, including a lockable blade. If it can be put on a knife, then it is on that one you are holding in your hands. It even has a tiny pair of scissors in it. The instructions tell you what all the gadgets are and what they do, so you won’t get confused, but I find I still got confused with mine. But oh well, like I said it has everything, and then some. The only thing it doesn’t have in it is a spare wand.” Harry chuckled.

Mad Eye was looking through the gadgets when he found the little scissors and he laughed out loud at those. “Merlin help us, what will they think of next.”

“Swiss Army is the best you can get, WOW!” Tonks gasped as she looked at the different gadgets and gismos on her new knife.

Shackelbolt was still pulling the different gadgets out and looking at them to see what all was in the knife when Amelia got the call.

“Senior Auror Bones! Attention Senior Auror Bones! Attack on St. Mungo’s thirty perps apparent. Throughout all wards. Death Eaters! Taking on casualties, one fatality! Send assistance immediately! Attention Senior Auror Bones!” It was Auror Dawlish, he was in charge of the Aurors at St. Mungos, he had sent through a patronus message and everyone in the room had heard it, and stopped cold.

“Shit, that merc was right, dammit. Okay Moody, grab all the recruits you can find and meet me at St. Mungos in ten. Shackelbolt you and Tonks on my six. Let’s go.” Amelia headed through the floo, Yule and celebrating forgotten for now, now it was time to focus on work.

Harry didn’t pause for a moment. “Riders meet back here in full set up in ten.” Then he rushed off to the bedroom followed by every one else as they all hurried to follow his instructions. Christian wasn’t sure what was going on but he remembered what Cedric said, just follow what Harry said and you would be fine. He was part of Tier three, specifically he was forward wand, as he was calling it he was the first one into the fight while Hermione would be bringing up the rear, guarding their backs.

Everyone brought out their trunks and rushed down as fast as they could then changed into they Rider outfits as quickly as humanly possible, rushing out of their trunks and shrinking then down and putting them into their bags and running out to meet the others in the living room.

Sirius had corralled Matthew and James in their bedroom by letting them play on their new bicycles in there. But other wise the only ones present were the Riders. Harry went over to the fireplace and stood next to it “ Alright Tier one we go in, stay tight with me. Tier two we don’t know what we are getting ourselves into so keep a close eye on us, Tier three, we know this is a medical facility but we don’t know if they access to medical personnel. They could be starting fires like they always do and if so they may be cut off of assistance and you will be the only help some of these people have. We are going to be going in to the children’s ward and only the children’s ward. Let Amelia take care of the rest of St. Mungos we are there to guard and protect the children. So let’s go on my mark people.” And he threw the floo powder in but the other end of the connection didn’t open up. The flames didn’t turn green. What the hell. Someone must have shut down the floo connection at that end. Dammit.

Harry didn’t hesitate to think about it, “Jeeves!”

“What may Jeeves do for Master Harry today?” Jeeves asked politely.

“Jeeves I need you and who ever else you need, to take the eleven of us directly to the children’s ward of St. Mungos Hospital.

Suddenly ten more elves popped into the room and each one approached a Rider, then everyone stood up in their standard formation, Harry called out,”Tier one, Ready, and head out!” With a loud pop all four elves including Jeeves who was holding on to Harry himself popped out of sight.

Next Tier two stepped up and Cedric raised his arm just like Harry does, “Tier two, Ready and head out!” Another loud pop and they were gone.

Finally Tier three stepped up and Susan raised her arm again copying Harry, “Tier three, Ready and head out!” A last loud pop and the last of them was gone and all of them had disappeared.

Harry looked around quickly, taking in the scene, apparently they had chosen to pop them into an unused patients room, which was good, no one knew they were there. All right once everyone was there he thanked the elves who smiled real big and popped away. Jeeves hesitated for a moment then popped away as well. Harry went up to the door of the room and opened it a crack and looked out not seeing any threat he opened it more. Then he heard it, a child screaming. Okay he had to go into action, “Tier one follow me, Tier two watch closely. be on stand by. Tier three we will set this room up as triage so if we have any wounded be ready for them, and be ready.” Harry gave out his orders quickly and then headed through the door.

Tier one in formation around him headed down the hallway, both Harry and Neville had dark green spheres (sleep) in their hands at the ready just in case as well as wands raised. Pavarti and Luna had their wands raised and they headed towards the screams.

The screams stopped for a moment and sobbing started, then laughing… much deeper laughing… and screams of a much higher tone started. Harry had heard enough he quickened his step and rushed down the corridor towards the screams.

One step inside the room and two men inside the room were hit with two dark green spheres(sleep) followed quickly with two orange(restraints). Harry walked over to the downed Death Eaters and checks them, both fast asleep, good. Then he goes and checked on the two kids in the room both were sobbing and shaking from the Cruciatus Curse they had just been hit with, so Harry went out into the hallway and raised his hand with and motioned for the number three to come forward. Very quickly both Tier two and Tier three come jogging up the corridor towards them.

He met Susan in the corridor “Looks like two females about twelve to fifteen years old, both hit with Cruciatus Curse at lease once, possibly more. Both in pain and showing signs of nerve damage. Both mentally exhausted, emotionally terrified.” He gave a short clipped review of what he saw to Susan and let her take it from there. “Both girls are here for unknown cause or reason, do take that into consideration before treating them. Oh and check to see if they have been given a pain potion with in the last six hours before you give one out, you don’t want to overdose anyone.” He thought all of the sudden.

Susan nodded glad he mentioned that last part, she knew it but she would have automatically wanted to ease their pain without thinking to check their charts, so she needed to do that first. She had to do this professionally at this point, if she was to give out anything potion wise she had to do it correctly and not risk a life.

“Got it. Thanks.” With that Susan and Tier three slipped into the room. While Tier one headed further down the corridor, checking each room and clearing it before they moved on to the next. Finding three more Death Eaters lurking about and knocking them down with dark green spheres followed by orange spheres. Then there were more screams and Harry quickened his steps again. These screams were different that the ones before these screams weren’t pain screams these were pure terror screams.

Harry made it to the room and peeked in, inside the room there were two Death eaters they had ripped open the gowns of two little girls who looked to be around nine to ten years old, and they were fondling them in places that Harry knew should not be touched, especially at their age. All the while they had exposed themselves and were wanking right there in front of the little girls. Harry turned and looked at Neville, “White(throw back) then, Dark Green and Orange” He suggested.

Neville nodded.

Both of them formed the first sphere and threw them, the men were thrown across the room and smacked into the wall on the other side of the room, and before they could get up off the floor they were hit with a dark green sphere follow quickly by an orange sphere.

Luna and Pavarti rushed around the boys and into the room. They helped the girls out of the torn rags of gowns and into fresh new gowns and back into bed, they were both sobbing into the girls arms. Harry walked into the corridor and put up his arm and singled for Tier two. Soon Tier two come jogging down the Corridor.

As soon as Cedric came to a stop before him “Two little girls, they looked to be around nine or ten maybe, the Death Eaters tore their gowns and were fondling them, and attempting to rape them, they were wanking while they were doing it right in front of the little girls. Guard from outside the room, don’t enter unless they call you in, stay here unless I call you otherwise.”

Then he went inside the room and up to the beds. “Misses, I am sorry but my name is Harry, I am one of the Riders, and we have other rooms to check for more of those men like what came in here, I have posted guards on your door so no one else can come in here. Would it be alright with you if we left and come back and check on you in a little while?” Harry asked as gently as possible.

Neither girl liked the idea but they both slowly nodded and released their hold on Luna and Pavarti, “Now the guards outside won’t come in here unless you call them so don’t worry about that, hopefully you won’t have to worry about anyone else disturbing you at all. At least until the Doctors come in to make sure you are all right that is, and that should be fairly quickly.” He assured them.

With that he, Neville, Luna and Pavarti, left and continued on further down the hallway. They made it to the nurse’s station at the end of the hallway and couldn’t see anyone. But Harry had a feeling that there was someone there, he just couldn’t see them. He walked into the nurse’s station and looked around, still not seeing anyone. Then he got an thought, and he began to look in the cabinets; sure enough he found two nurses had wedged themselves into the cabinets under the counters at the nurse’s station. Harry helped the two nurses out from under the cabinets and quickly told them about what had happened to the patients in rooms eighteen and twenty seven.

“We have guards posted outside of room eighteen and I have my medical personnel monitoring room twenty seven but your assistance would be greatly appreciated.” Harry stated and both the young nurses became professionals again, and headed off in the direction of the two rooms.

Harry could see the only entrance to this floor from this direction was here by the nurse’s desk so he and Neville went to work. First they sealed the door by simply raising their hands to the door and stating “Door seal” and all of the sudden the door and wall around it were one thing. You couldn’t even see a crease where he door used to be, then Harry had an idea. The door frame was still there, so why not use it. He focused his energy on what he was wanting, and created a ward around the other side of the door about two feet thick. That was designed if you get within the ward, you were stuck there, unable to move.

Neville looked at his brother and asked him what he had done, when Harry explained Neville just rolled his eyes and nodded. It was a good idea anyway. As long as Amelia or any Auror don’t get caught in it. Then their ass is history.

The four of them headed back up the corridor until the got to room eighteen, Harry dismissed Cedric, Fred and George and told him to have Tier three to fall back to position one they were going to be checking the opposite direction next. Cedric nodded and the three of them jogged down to Tier three’s position in room twenty seven, by that time the nurse had gotten to the room and Susan had told her what she had done for the two girls.

“Susan, Tier three is to fall back to position one.” Cedric stated. Then he went out into the corridor to guard their retreat with Fred and George and wait for Harry as well.

Susan had done her job in this room, she shook hands with the nurse and raised her arm in the air, “Tier one fallback to position one.”

Padma, and Christian immediately fell into step with Susan. Christian in the lead with Susan next followed by Padma. They didn’t even realize that Hermione wasn’t in formation until they got to room thirty nine.

“Where is Hermione?” Susan asked as she made a quick head count.

“She didn’t follow me, she stayed back there in room twenty seven.” Padma stated.

“WHAT! She was given a direct order! I’ll see her written up for this. I’m tired of babying her all the time, this time she is getting disciplined at the very least.”

“Worry about Hermione later, worry about the here and now, for now.” Christian stated. He had a bad feeling about this, the hair on the back of his neck was standing up and he was getting shivers up his spine, he told Susan to get behind him, and pulled out his bow and arrows. Throwing the quiver over his shoulder he nocking an arrow and aimed it at the door. Susan immediately got behind him and took out her sword putting Padma behind her.

It didn’t take long when all of the sudden the door flew open and a white light rushed into the room at both girls who dodged it but it caught Padma on the right shoulder, just grazing her, she let out a shriek as the pain hit her all of the sudden. Padma was partially protected because of her dragon hide uniform but the spell still made contact and cut shallowly into her shoulder.

Susan dropped her sword, and caught Padma as she fell to the ground, lowering her the rest of the way to the ground. Then immediately put pressure on the wound, creating some surgical dressings to do so. Almost immediately she cast Sarcasmus to disinfect the wounds and then began to heal the cuts with Vulnera Sanentur. There were three cuts about four inches in length and they were shallow in comparison to what they could have been. So Susan felt they were in luck, the cuts were healing relatively fast for these type of cuts.

While Susan was working on Padma, Christian was dealing with the two Death Eaters that had crashed into their room.

“TWANG” The first arrow flew threw the air and the man screamed as it speared his hand that held his raised wand and stabbed through the wand hand and his shoulder and into the wall. He struggled against being pinned to the wall to no avail that arrow wasn’t budging.

“TWANG” The second arrow flew and the second Death eater was stabbed through the right shoulder and thrown against the wall and attached there on the other side of the corridor opposite the entry to room thirty nine.

Christian nocked another arrow and held it in waiting standing guard over Padma and Susan. Damn it, where had Hermione gone. If she had been here, maybe none of this would have happened. She would have been guarding the door and they would have had early warning, so no one would have gotten injured. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.

Harry, Neville, Pavarti and Luna came jogging up to where Cedric, Fred, George and… Hermione? Why is Hermione here, why is she not with her Tier? Just as he was about to say something they all heard a shriek of pain from a female, followed by the scream of pain of a male then another scream of pain by a male.

“Tier one!” Harry shouted and began to run down the hallway in the direction of room thirty nine. He was taken back by the two Death Eaters hanging by arrows in their shoulders, seeing this he rushed into the room and saw Susan and Padma on the ground. “Report!” Harry demanded looking to Christian.

Christian stood at attention, “We made it into the room, all but Hermione that is, we don’t know where she is, she is MIA. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck rising so I nocked an arrow and had it ready, Two Death Eaters burst open the door. The one on the left fired a shot into the room both girls dodged the shot, but it clipped Padma and she went down. Susan immediately began to do triage and treat the wound. While she was doing that I released the arrow and got him in the hand and shoulder. Then nocked another arrow and got the second Death Eater in the shoulder. Both arrows went through the bastards and attached them to the wall across from the room we are currently in. Then I notched a third arrow, but the next person to show up was you. And so I put that arrow back into my quiver, for the moment.”

“Padma!” Pavarti shrieked and rushed around Harry, she fell to the ground beside her sister and gasped as she saw the three tears in her uniform.

“Don’t worry sis. Susan has already taken care of it and given me blood replenishers and pain potion. I can’t feel a thing. Although could you do something about the tears in the suit, I really do like this suit?” Padma said, her voice was nice and strong, much to Pavarti’s surprise.

“Reparo” she aimed her wand at the shredded edged of the dragon hide and watched it repair itself good as new. “There you go sis. Good as new. Now if we could just do that with you, things could be perfect.” She joked weakly. Then she turned to Harry.

“If my sister was hurt because Hermione wasn’t at her post, I want her reprimanded and a demerit in her permanent record for dereliction of duty, which led to the injury of a fellow Rider.” This was one of the most serious demerits they had discussed so far except ones that led to the death of a fellow Rider.

Harry nodded. By that time most of the other Riders had made it down the corridor Cedric came into the Room and had heard Christian’s report, “Tier Leader, as Tier Leader of Tier two I Cedric Diggory, formally request that Hermione Granger of Tier Three be formally sanctioned and be given a permanent demerit in her file for dereliction of duty, which led to the injury of a fellow Rider.”

Then Susan stood up and repeated, “Tier Leader, as Tier Leader of Tier Three I Susan Bones, formally request that Hermione Granger of Tier Three be formally sanctioned and be given a permanent demerit in her file for dereliction of duty, which led to the injury of a fellow Rider.”

By that time Hermione had made it into the room and had heard both of them, and was in tears. They both wanted her to receive a horrible demerit on her permanent record, just because she wanted to ask a question.

Harry nodded and went over to Hermione. “You have heard what your superiors have stated, I would hear now what you have to say. When your Tier was ordered to fall back to position one, why did you not maintain your position and stay with your Tier?” Harry asked slowly.

“I wanted to know why we were falling back and if I could stay with Tier two, but Cedric wouldn’t speak to me. He was too busy watching for your next signal and the twins were keeping watch on Cedric so no one knew what to do but Cedric, and he wouldn’t stop and tell me.” Hermione said frustrated.

“So in other words you walked away from your post, when your Tier fell back you decided you wouldn’t go. And you stayed with Tier two instead. And when Tier two refused to pay attention to you, you attempted to interfere in their carrying out their duties as well. Am I reading this correctly?” Harry said even slower, as if he was talking to a child in stead of a Rider.

“Your making this out to be worse than it is, I just wanted to know why I had to fall back, what is the big deal about that?” Hermione put her hands on her hips and glared at Harry.

“The big deal about that Miss Granger, is that your duty would have been to be at the door as lookout, your Tier would have had the precious seconds warning they needed to prevent the injury they concurred and without you there we were out of formation. We did not have the proper person at the proper post to prevent that injury and hence I have a man down that didn’t need to happen, but it did. All because you wanted to know ‘why’. Miss Hermione Jean Granger of Tier Three, you are here by formally reprimanded. You are going to be receiving a formal demerit in your files for dereliction of duty, which led to the injury of a fellow Rider. You are here by on Suspension until further notice, stand down Miss Granger.”

“WHAT! You can’t do that! I just wanted a stupid answer to a question! It was no big deal!” Hermione shrieked.

“I am Leader of Tier one Miss Granger, which means, I can and have done that. Your actions today lead to the injury of a fellow Rider. If you can’t see that, it is not my or our problem. You are Suspended until further notice, stand down Miss Granger.” Harry said in a very serious tone. “Since there is still the rest of this ward to finish searching Riders, all able bodies continue. Tier one with me, Tier two be on guard and ready to follow if called, Tier three use this room as triage, tend to the wounded, and guard her here, Christian take Miss Granger’s post as position one by the door.” With that Harry and the rest of Tier one went out into the corridor.

Harry and Neville made dark green spheres and cast them at the two men that were hanging from the arrows in the corridor. Luna picked up their wands and placed them in her pouch with the other wands she had gathered so far. Then Neville cast orange spheres at the two of them, while Harry cast Evanesco at the first arrow shaft that was holding the Death eater to the wall. He was aiming at the place between the Death Eater and the wall, the small piece of shaft disappeared. When it did the Death Eater fell down from the wall and down to the ground. With the remaining arrow sticking out of his shoulder. Harry then did the same for the other Death Eater and that Death Eater also fell to the ground, again with the rest of the arrow sticking out. Harry decided to leave the arrows in place and let medical personnel take care of it, better to be safe than sorry.

“Tier one with me,” Harry said as he headed down the opposite direction the they had previously gone. He made it all the way down to the end of the hall way and didn’t encounter any more DE’s so he and Neville sealed that door as well. Harry also put up the same wards around the door as he did the southern entrance. And then Tier one went back to position one, he knew Pavarti was anxious to get back to her sister.

When they got back Susan had moved Padma from the floor to one of the beds in the room and was giving her the once over. But was smiling so Harry guessed the results were good. He smiled as he approached the bed, “Well how is our patient doing Doc?”

“She will be doing just fine, managed to get the cuts healed without issue, there will be some scarring but with proper applications off scar salve that should lessen the appearance to a great degree in no time at all. No major muscles or nerves were hit, so should be no restriction of movement. There shouldn’t be any residual pain but if there is I have authorized on pain potion every six hours for two days. But I highly recommend that she have that looked at by a trained medical professional before then.” Susan stated, very professionally.

“Okay we have this ward secure, I’m going to let Amelia know.” Harry stated.

Harry went to the center of the room and cast his patronus “Expecto Patronum!” And his great grizzly bear appeared and bounded around the room looking for dangers, when it found none it came back over to Harry and he stated, “I need you to take a message for me, ‘Attention Amelia Bones, Harry Black the Leader of Tier one of the Riders, we are present and have secured the children’s ward. We have secured both north and south entrances, wards present, use caution.’ Ok take that message to her, please.” The bear nodded and took off out the door and then to the right.

Harry looked over to Hermione who was sobbing over by herself to the side.

He approached her “Why are you still in a Rider’s uniform, you were told to stand down. You are no longer in commission, I want you to get in your trunk and change into your causal clothes then return up here.” Then he turned and headed back over to where Padma was laying chatting with Pavarti about what presents they had gotten some of their friends.

“Well you two are rather chatty, gonna tell me what you got me?” He joked.

“Nope” came the twin sisters answer.

“Oh, I see how it is, well then I guess I don’t have to do this then, Jeeves!” Harry called out. And Jeeves appeared. “Could you find several small packages that are identical that are from me for Susan, Padma, Pavarti, Luna and Hermione. They should look identical. Thank you.” With that Jeeves popped away.

“What are you up to Harry Black?” Susan asked.

“You will see.” He said with a grin. And Jeeves popped back in with five identical packages each about the size of a large shoe box. And he began to give out the packages to the people on the tags. Each girl looked at them funny but opened them all at the same time, and it was a symphony of squeals.

“Oh my goodness, look at this. Sample size bottles of almost everything you could imagine!” Padma squealed.

“Oh… ah, sorry about that,” Harry reached over and tapped the box with his wand and the whole makeup kit went from sample size packages to regular sized items and Padma squealed again. Then the girls all tapped the boxes with their wands and squealed as well. They were busy rummaging through the different items when a reply from Amelia came in.

“Attention Harry Black Leader Tier One of the Riders, Acknowledged. Open south entrance and expect company.” Then the German Shepherd dissipated as soon as the message was given.

Harry nodded and raised his arm “Tier one with me. Tier two watch and cover, Tier three guard our wounded, and stand by.” With that he headed back up the corridor to the south, stepping over the two sleeping Death Eaters on his way out. Pavarti and Luna immediately sat down their boxes on the bed next to the one Padma was in and took up formation without blinking an eye.

Christian couldn’t help but appreciate the true professionalism that everything was handled in, well except for Hermione. He couldn’t believe her, how could she abandon her post to question an active order. She had broken rule five, ‘listen to your boss, it may save your life some time, or someone else’s life.’ And if it hadn’t been for him feeling anxious and the hair on the back of his neck giving him that little bit of warning, someone could easily have died today. A few inches over and that shoulder wound could have sliced Padma’s throat. What gets him is that she still doesn’t get the severity of what she did. She walked away from her post during active duty and someone was injured because of it. The aren’t that many things that she could have done that could have been worse that that.

Abandoning your post while on active duty, and a death ensues.

Failure to lend aid to a fellow Rider when in need, and death ensues.

Abandoning your post while on active duty, and injury to a fellow Rider ensues.

Willingly and Knowing helping the opposition while on active duty.

Attempting to sexually molest/rape an individual either on, or off duty.

Any involvement in any manner with pedophilia.

The willful neglect or injury of a Darcorn, either yours or that of another Rider, or a wild Darcorn.

Abandoning your post while on active duty, and injury to a civilian endues.

Attacking a Superior Officer while on active duty.

Attacking a fellow Rider while on active duty.

The list of grievous offenses the Riders had were short, and Hermione had definitely picked one of the top ten. Christian couldn’t help but wonder if she would ever realize just how serious her mistake had been or if she was going to continue on this “but it’s not fair, I just wanted to ask a stupid question.” Kick until she is either removed from suspension or relieved of active duty permanently. Which she may not realize it, unless she takes up responsibility for her actions, is a very real possibility. Christian’s thoughts were buzzing around in his head.

Harry led his Tier down to the southern entrance to the children’s ward at St. Mungo’s hospital and once they got there he and Neville released the hold they had placed on the door, then he released the wards. Then Harry heard what sounded like several bodies hit the floor so he cautiously opened the door and found three Death Eaters and one Auror on the ground, he helped the Auror up out of the tangle of limbs. Then Harry and Neville tossed dark green spheres at the three Death Eaters still wiggling on the ground. Then they tossed orange spheres on them to secure them for transport. He then tossed a light yellow sphere on each one and did a feather light charm on them and began to move the Death Eaters around out of the way of Amelia and her crew that would be coming soon. Just as he positioned the last DE where he wanted him Amelia appears with about ten Aurors including Shackelbolt and Tonks with Moody bringing up the rear.

“Report!” Amelia demanded.

“The Riders were transported by elf into an unused medical room, room thirty nine, where we established as triage and position one. Tier one checked for hostiles and found none, but I could hear screaming to my left so Tier one was given orders to advance, Tier two to support and Tier three to standby and hold position. We made it to the room the screams were coming from, room twenty-seven. There were two hostiles inside and they were casting Cruciatus Curse at two juvenile females. We subdued the two hostiles with dark green spheres and subsequent orange spheres. And called forth Tier three to have a look at the two girls. Tier two and three advanced and took up position at room twenty-seven while Tier one continued forward. Again screams, but not pain scream, terror screams. Tier one advanced and I found two Hostiles attempting to rape to juveniles, eight to ten year old females in room eighteen. Longbottom and myself cast white(blow back) spheres to get the hostiles away from the girls quickly, then dark green and finally orange spheres on them. While we were doing that Lovegood and Patil were changing the girls out of their ripped gowns into fresh gowns and attempting to calm them down. I went out into the hallway and called in Tier two to guard the room while we continued the search. We found three further Hostiles and subdued them with dark green and orange spheres. We managed to make it to the nurse’s station with no further difficulties, but there were no nurse present. We sealed the door and put up the ward. Then checked the nurse’s station again, something didn’t feel right, two nurses had barricaded themselves inside two of the cabinets at the nurse’s station. We extracted the nurses and explained the situations with the injured children; they immediately became very professional and headed to the two rooms in question and to the girls who had been injured. When we got to room eighteen I released Tier two to fallback to second position and to send Tier three back to position one. When I got to second position I found that Rider Granger had not fallen back with her Tier, but had instead stayed with Tier two. Before I could ask questions, there was a female scream, followed quickly by two male screams. I assumed it was Tier one, and went immediately to see to my people. When I got to room thirty-nine I found two Death Eaters that were pinned to the wall by arrows through the shoulder in the hallway, inside the room Padma Patil was down, shot in the shoulder by a Sectumsempra, Susan Bones was attending her and Christian Anderson was in guard position in front of them. Christian informed me that Hermione Granger was MIA from her post and due to that fact they had no guard on the door, and we subsequently had a Rider down. I then had Tier three maintain position in room thirty-nine, for Tier two to watch and be ready to move in if needed and Tier one to follow me. We continued down the corridor to search the rest of the children’s ward, finding no further hostiles. We reached the northern exit and sealed and warded it. Then you were contacted. You replied and we went down to the south exit to open it up for you, when we got there we found three more hostiles and one Auror trapped in the wards. We helped the Auror to his feet and secured the hostiles. Then moved the hostiles out of your way. End report.” Harry finished with an exhale.

“So you captured two, two, three and three hostiles, correct?” Amelia questioned.

“Correct.”

“Are all secure?” She asked.

“They are. Each are under sleep spheres and secured with orange restraints spheres.” Harry responded.

“You have one injured, do you seek medical attention at this time?” Amelia asked.

“We do, her condition is under control but we would prefer if she received professional medical exam as well.” Harry stated.

“Very well, I will get my people in here to clear out the hostiles, and medical assist in here for your downed Rider. Is there anything else that you need at this time?” Amelia asked.

“Not at this time. Your assist is appreciated.” Harry responded.

“Do you wish to press charges against Hermione Granger for dereliction of duty?” Amelia asked seriously.

“Not at this time, I am going to handle it as an internal Rider matter for the time being, I will let you know if further action is required. Thank you for the offer though.” Harry responded sadly. He hated to have to discipline any of his people.

Amelia could tell from the tone of his voice that he regretted having to take any form of disciplinary action against his people, maybe she would talk with him more about this later, when they were not in an active scene.

“Very well, lets get these hostiles to booking and get you back to your Yule celebration.” Amelia stated and began giving out orders to her people, who jumped to follow her instructions. Harry went to gather his people together and let them know that relief has arrived. Within minutes a Medi-Wizard made his way to their room and was tending to Padma. He complimented Susan on her work and agreed with the potions she has suggested, authorizing them to be prescribed. He even authorized a higher strength scar cream and two nights of dreamless sleep, if she needed it, that is.

It took all of an hour or so to wrap things up there at St. Mungo’s, and then Harry called for Jeeves who called in the other elves and they all took them back to Hogwarts. Lunch had long since been over and it was a while until dinner so Jeeves arranged for a meal to be sent down to Sirius’ room, which they were very thankful about. So everyone grabbed a quick shower and changed into their casual clothes and came back out ready for gifts again.

Harry handed out a few presents once they got back, and sat back to open up some himself. Luna and Pavarti loved the pretty little vanity he bought them, and were excitedly talking about where they would put it. Christian was already wearing his leather jacket and it looked great on him, apparently he liked it, ha ha ha. The girls had brought their make up kits with them he had got them back from St. Mungo’s and were still going through everything. Every new find brought about another squeal or gasp, another winner there. Then he handed out the gag box to Fred and George and you would think he had just handed them a box of solid gold the way they were whispering and rummaging through it.

“Those gags all came from America, so folks from here haven’t ever even seen them yet.” Harry whispered to Fred and George when they had him in a grapple hug in a response for the box of gag gifts. This tidbit of information only made them squeeze him harder until he gasped out “Breathe!” And they let him go and fluffed him up, making sure they hadn’t hurt him or anything.

“That’s enough, that’s enough. Go back to your box of goodie you two, geez.” Harry chuckled shaking his head, slapping their hands away.

Harry opened a box that had inside it a series of miniature carvings of Darcorns in different positions, eleven of them, apparently one for each of their Darcorns they currently had. They were beautiful, beyond beautiful, so lifelike they looked like they were breathing and everything. Harry pulled one of the stallions out of the box and placed it on the table and realized how close it matched his very own Storm, he looked over to Christian and with a tear in his voice he thanked him, “My gods man, you are incredible.”

Christian awkwardly cleared his throat, “It’s just something I do in my spare time. I enjoy doing it, you know.”

“Thank you doesn’t seem to do it justice, but… thank you.” Harry barely whispered. As he picked up the Darcorn and held gently looking at the eyes and the way that they glistened.

“The eyes are garnets. The horns are onyx, so they are stronger that standard wood. I used ebony wood for the horses so I could get the meaning behind the wood, it stands for power, purity, balance, protection and clarity. It is suppose to help you make wise and well informed decisions. The wood is endangered now, but I found some old furniture that was falling apart, I managed to get the owner to let me have it for a steal. I took it apart and glued the pieces together to make the wood necessary to make the horses. Originally it was an old formal dinning room table and twelve chairs, most of the chairs were broken, but their legs were fine, or their seats were fine, just something needed repaired. I working on those now. But the table had dents and dings in it that needed to be sanded out and its supports were missing. So I used the wood from that huge table to make the horses, and now I am going to make some trunks and boxes from what is left, maybe some more figurines, they were fun.”

“As I said, you are incredible, anything you need from us to help you with your endeavors, you let us know. We will gladly support you in this. Just like Luna’s painting, Neville’s drawings, and Cedric’s music…it makes you who you are and you are good at it, we are behind you one hundred percent.” Harry said seriously.

Christian didn’t know what to say so he just nodded. No one had ever supported him in his life like these people are, and he had only known them a matter of weeks. They had offering him more safety, security and purpose in his short time with them that he has ever had in his life, and they have no idea what that means to him.

Harry got up and took a nice size box over to Susan and handed it too her. “This is from us all now, so take that into consideration when you open it Doc.” Harry used her new moniker he had decided for her as appropriate.

She cocked one eyebrow but accepted the box and opened it up, inside was a black old time doctor’s bag, at first she thought it was a gag gift or something, then she opened it up, thinking there might be more inside. Boy was she right. There was a lot more. There was space, a lot of space, it was a bottomless bag! What the hell!

Harry smiled.“I found the old bag at a thrift store but it was someone else’s idea,” Looking over towards Luna, “To go have wizards space put into the bag and make it a bottomless bag for you to have for your doctoring. And we all chipped in for that, so it is from us all.”

“Wow. Just wow, I don’t know what to say, thank you all. This is wonderful. I can organize a full medical kit and keep it handy and ready at the drop of a hat. Oh my goodness. I am going to have to have Madam Pomfrey to help me pick out what all to put in here and how many of each thing to keep on hand. Need to be prepared and all that.” You could just see the sparkle in Susan’s eyes at her new bag and new project.

Then Harry handed her a big flat box, “This one is just from me,” he said with a little boy grin.

She gave him a skeptical look and tore off the wrapping paper and began to laugh out loud. Then showed the rest of the room what it was. It was the game of Operation that he had picked up, apparently she wasn’t offended by it, ok maybe she was she hit him with the box, but she was still laughing so he didn’t know which way to take that. She just shook her head and laughed some more. And set the game aside and grabbed another gift still smiling.

Then Harry handed the twins two similarly sized boxes one to each twin and they tore the paper off and looked confused.

“In America games are a huge hit when it comes to a regular pastime, here in Britain too, this is the British version of one of Americas favorite games, Monopoly. The other is a who done it game, it’s about a murder and your job is to solve the murder using clues you find. I’ve played both and they’re great. But people may have between ten and twenty different games in their closet that they play regularly, and you would be surprised how much money you could make in your shop if you dedicated a part of it on games and puzzles for people to play and solve.”

“Really, they really love them that much?” Fred looked at the box excitedly.

Harry handed Cedric and Christian a box appease as well. They looked at Harry oddly but took the presents and then smiled real big as they broke open the wrapping paper. Christian received the game of Yahtzee and Cedric received a professional poker set, professional cards, full set of chips included and a rotating holder for it all to go in.

“Hell Yeah!” Cedric took one look at his present and grinned ear to ear.

“Yahtzee! YES!” Christian pumped his first into the air.

Then he handed one to Padma and one to Pavarti. Padma’s was a one thousand piece puzzle that was twenty by twenty-eight inches called Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita Cooking and Eating in the Wilderness Jigsaw Puzzle. Pavarti’s was a one thousand piece puzzle that was twenty by twenty eight inches called Shiva, Ganesha and Parvati Jigsaw Puzzle. Both girls gasped and looked at Harry in disbelief then tears came streaming down their faces. Harry had thought he had made a big mistake until the girls set the boxes aside and came rushing over to him and hugged him, explaining no one had ever cared about their heritage before. The puzzles were beautiful and they loved them. Harry breathed a sigh of relief and hugged both the girls back.

With some urging Harry picked up one of the boxes in his pile and opened it up, inside was a series of shrunken baggies of his favorite granolas and munchies mixes, he looked over to Neville with a grin, his brother did know him best. These must be like three pound bags or something when they were unshrunk, geez. Neville just grinned back and nodded. Harry put the lid back on that one and kept it close to him so he could keep an eye on it, which made Neville laugh.

The next box was from Cedric, inside was a case of chocolate frogs and a case of every flavored beans, and a note saying ‘just spotting you for the next game’. Harry through back his head and laughed at that. Considering what he got Cedric.

From Luna, okay what in the world did Luna get him. Oh wow! A new tea pot and a supply of his favorite tea! YES score! He was going to have a nice evening tonight with plenty of tea and a good book.

Then he opened the package from Pavarti and Padma, it was the entire collection of Sherlock Holmes Books. “We know how you love a good who done it and these are classics so when we saw them we thought of you.”

“Wow, thank you. I am going to love them.” He smiled.

They continued swapping presents until dinner time and by then it was time to go meet the family down in the dining hall. Everyone was going to meet in the dining hall then the family was going to congregate back in the Lovegood’s suite and that anyone that wanted to could join in.

Harry figured that Cedric was going to go over to Rider Hall and have Yule with his Mum there.

The Weasley twins were probably going to hang around their trunks and play with their new box of gags and pranks.

Susan was suppose to meet up with Amelia to have Yule with some of the officers at work.

Hermione, hmmm what was he suppose to do about her. He couldn’t act like everything that happened today just didn’t take place, even if it was in front of her parents. She was under suspension for a reason and she would stay that way, indefinitely if necessary. He wasn’t about to place her back on active duty until she recognized her mistake and accept responsibility for her actions, then and only then would he consider allowing her back into the Riders. She can be a solitary Rider all she wants, but if she wants to be in his crew she had to work for it. And this “I just wanted to ask a question…” crap was not going to cut it. She left her post, and a fellow Rider got injured because of it, plain and simple. Dereliction of duty in the second class. Dereliction of duty in the first class, would have been if a Rider would have been killed. If that would have happened he thinks he would have followed through with Amelia’s offer and pressed charges against her. Rider or not, if she caused the death of one of her own for no reason then she was not a Rider, she was a civilian in a Rider’s costume as far as he was concerned.

And what about Padma and Hermione working together again? Would Padma ever be able to trust Hermione, would any of them? Hell, would he ever be able to trust her again? The doubt ran deep and Harry didn’t know the answer to that question. He couldn’t have anyone on his crew that he couldn’t depend one hundred percent on and right now he couldn’t depend on her at all. She left her post to ask ‘Why they were falling back?’ Of all the lame brain, idiotic, moronically…calming breath, calming breath. Okay, he had to remember that he couldn’t let his emotions get the better of him and allow himself to loose control, it wasn’t worth it. Back to the issue at hand, how to behave around the Grangers… They hadn’t done anything to him or anyone else for that matter so he would treat them as he had always treated them with respect and friendship. How he treated Hermione would depend on her behaviors really, he would just have to wait and see.

Why did this situation remind him so much of Molly Weasley and her “But it was only a stinging hex.” And she almost killed her own son. The situations were different mind you but the lame excuses were practically the same. That reminded him, Molly’s trial was in three days. He wasn’t looking forward to that at all. He had known the woman since he was five years old and the Weasley kids started coming around to play with them all the time. He thought of her as an Aunt almost, not another mother figure, which is what she tried to be most of the time, but definitely an Aunt or something like that.

He hated having to worry about any of this crap, this was Yule damn it, and it should be a fun and joyous time of year not a depressing and confusing time. Okay, enough serious thoughts, gotta think of something else. Alright then, the gifts yet to give the little people, that is fun. Yeah, wonder which one they will like best? Matthew and James rode their bicycles down to the dining hall for dinner so no guess which one they are going to like the best there. But Sebastian, Astraea and Lillian he bet would like the bean bags best, especial Lillian, and her princess bean bag, she will probably pretend its a throne or something, Harry chuckled as the thought of his little sister sitting in the middle of her ‘throne’ in her new princess costume acting all regal and royal and stuff. Her and her bloody tea parties, good grief. At least now he had Matthew and James to take some of the heat of of him in the tea party area. Oh he would still have his tea parties with his little sis, but just not all the time. Every time he saw her she wanted to play tea party, and sitting at that little table dressed up like a knight of old was a little rough on a teenager of his standing, if it happened too often that is.

Sirius had solved some of the problem with getting the twins that playhouse, now all the kids spent a huge amount of time playing either on the swing set or in the play house. Misty love fixing up foods for them to keep down there to eat when ever they wanted something, mostly fruit or veggie plates, but she made sandwiches and things liked fish and chips or baked chicken for them to keep in their hot box. And they always had hot cocoa in there just waiting on them, along with fresh hot tea too, you never know when a spur of the moment tea party was called for. Misty kept a nice selection of finger foods and those little miniature sandwiches and mini cakes that she loved to serve at tea, just in case. Cucumber sandwiches, mini mincemeat pies, scones, macrons, strawberry cheesecake bites, mini bunt cakes, asparagus quiche, smoked fish dip, Waldorf salad. Okay he had to stop he was making himself hungry and he had just eaten. Waldorf salad really did sound really good right now though.

———————————————————————

The sparkly pink princess bean bag was a hit, so was the glittery purple bean bag, the suede bean bag was no less a hit but Sebastian seemed to be more interested in the knight in shining armor outfit than anything else. The girls loved their fairy and princesses outfits than some of their other presents though.

They all loved the games that Harry had picked out for them as well intact they were playing their games wearing their new costumes while everyone else was opening up their presents.

The Grangers were shocked at their present to say the least. “This is from all of the Riders and we hope that you enjoy it.”

Dan Granger opened the envelope to see the airline tickets and Broadway tickets and motel reservation information located inside with other documentation, to say the least he was shocked.

“Well Dan what is it?” Jean asked impatiently.

“If I am reading all this correctly it is a first class round trip to New York, New York in America. With a seven night stay at the Hilton there, and tickets to go see Cats on Broadway while we are there.” He said, as if he barely believed it himself even though he was holding the papers right in his hands right now.

“WHAT!” Jean squealed and grabbed the papers out of his hand and started thumbing through them looking at everything including some of the tourist brochures that they had included about things they could do while in New York.

Dan looked over to Harry in disbelief and Harry nodded, “But why, why would the Riders give us something so…so fabulous, I mean, broadway? Jean has always wanted to see a broadway musical. And Cats is one of the longest running musicals there is. My God man. Do you know how happy you have made my wife?”

“I am beginning to realize it. But it is because of the help you gave Hermione, and the love you have for your daughter and the way you helped her after her suicide attempt, when she was an active Rider. With out you she never would have survived. We know that and we appreciate that. We wanted you to know that and we all wanted to say thank you.” Harry smiled slightly.

“You don’t have to thank us for that, she’s our daughter, we love her with all our hearts, and would do anything in the world for her, we would change the world for her if need be. Wait, what did you mean when she was an active Rider?” Dan asked.

Jean looked up from the brochures a question in her eyes as well. Harry didn’t want to answer this but he knew he had to. So into the fires of hell go he. “Hermione is no longer an active Rider, she is on suspension.” He left it at that hoping that that would satisfy their curiosity but knowing it wouldn’t.

“Suspension! For what?” Dan asked shocked.

Harry sighed. Here it comes. “Abandoning her post during active duty without cause, and a rider was injured as a result. One of our most serious offenses Sir.” Harry was beginning to sound official, ah oh.

Dan couldn’t believe he was hearing this, “Leaving her post… active duty… without cause? Explain please.”

“It was the attack at St. Mungo’s… the magical hospital, we had positioned ourselves in the children’s ward and were attempting to clear the ward of any hostile individuals. We had already encountered seven hostile forces at that time and had four children in the need of medical assistance by then. We were falling back to search the opposite direction of the ward and I had given orders for her Tier, which includes herself, Christian Anderson, Susan Bones, and Padma Patil, to fall back to position one, which was room thirty nine. We were in room eighteen at the time. So Tier two which is Cedric Diggory, Fred Weasley and George Weasley, fell back to room twenty seven and and informed Tier one to fall back to position one. Everyone did except Miss Granger. She stayed behind. According to her she wanted to ask the Tier leader of team Two, which is Cedric Diggory, why their Tier had to fall back and could she stay with their Tier instead. Her Tier didn’t realize she wasn’t with them until they got to the room, since her position is to guard the rear of the group. Miss Granger would normally be the last individual out and make sure that everyone was in position before leaving herself. When they realized she wasn’t there it was too late to do anything about it, since they were set on by hostiles almost immediately. Two hostiles attacked, her position of guarding the door was left unattended for those precious moments that would have given them the advanced warning they needed. But instead they were surprise attacked by two Death Eaters and fired upon, Padma Patil was injured and down, Susan Bones, our Doc, was tending to her wounds while Christian Anderson used his bow and arrow and shot both hostiles successfully through the shoulder and into the wall behind them, attaching them to the wall, immobilizing them for the moment. I was in the process of falling back with Tier two and heard Miss Patil scream, then the two screams following it. I thought it was from Mr. Anderson. I assumed Tier one was was under attack and ran to assist. When I got there, I found one Rider down and two Hostiles stuck to a wall by arrows protruding from their shoulders, I checked on my Rider first, got a report from Mr Anderson then immobilized the hostiles and proceeded to clear the ward. We cleared the ward and sealed the northern door and returned to position one where I contacted Amelia Bones. Our primary Magical Law Enforcement Officer who was on scene. She ordered me to open the southern door and expect company, we did and found three more hostiles which we immobilized and we found one Auror as well which we assisted at that time. I reported to Madam Bones and she offered medical assistance which we most happily accepted.” Harry sighed. That was a lot to say. But it was all the truth and no embellishments or exaggerations were added.

“Let me get this strait, she abandoned her post to ask why she had to fall back?” Dan asked slowly almost as if he couldn’t believe it himself.

“That is what she informed me of, yes Sir. And to see if she could stay with Tier two instead.” Harry answered.

“Hermione herself told you this?” Dan asked.

“Yes Sir. I asked her immediately after we had completed our mission and all hostiles were attended too.” Harry added. “I wanted to hear the reason for her actions from her own mouth.”

“Hermione Jean Granger, is any of this that Harry just said correct?” Dan looked over to his daughter who had stood with her nose in the air until her father got her attention.

“They are making way more out of this than it needs to be, I just wanted to ask a stupid question, but nobody would stop and answer me.” Hermione stated in almost a whine.

“It is not their job to stop what they are ordered to do and answer the questions of a curious little girl, it is their job to follow orders and maintain their position. Something that you did not do. And as a result someone was injured.” Harry stated.

“Christian was there, he could easily have kept watch.” Hermione stated.

“It wasn’t his job to cover his position and your position. His position was position one, forward guard. Your position is rear guard, you would have been by the door as look out while he was inside the room guarding our Doc and medic. You weren’t in your position, so they had no warning of the oncoming attack and because of that our Medic was injured, Miss Patil would you mind?” Harry asked gently as he raised his hand towards Padma.

She nodded and moved over the blouse she had on, to expose the scars on her shoulder, three four inch long scars that went along her shoulder. Jean gasped as she saw the scars and Dan frowned deeply as he saw them.

“Since you still don’t seem to see the ramifications of your actions…” Harry went over to Padma, “do you mind,” He asked before he touched her. She nodded and he place his forefinger on her shoulder where the scars started. Then slid them over to where her neck was. “One moment of hesitation on Miss Patil’s part when they were attacked and her throat would have been cut. We would be talking about murder charges right now Miss Granger, and not just dereliction of duty, with injury ensued. If you think for even one moment that I would not have pressed those charges against you, then you are sadly mistaken. Thank you Miss Patil.” Harry removed his finger and nodded to her. She straitened her blouse and smiled a sad smile at him telling him she knew how lucky she had been too.

Harry looked at Hermione with a fierce look on his face. “You caused the injury to one of our own, that is not something I take lightly. And it was for a irrelevant and immature reason, that is something I will not tolerate. That is why you have been suspended indefinitely. And from the looks of things that suspension will become permanent. Which reminds me, I would like for you to remove your personal belongings from the bag and the trunk you are currently using, you will be moving back into Ravenclaw towers once that is done. Oh and do not try to take any books that you personally did not purchase from the library, you may copy any you wish and take the copy with you, but the originals stay in the library.”

“WHAT! But those are my books!” Hermione shrieked.

“HERMIONE! I can’t believe you, you caused that injury, almost cost Miss Patil her life and you are worried about god damned books!” Dan shouted, not believing his ears.

“But they are my books, you don’t understand they are all I have left.” She shrieked.

“After you lost your position as a Rider you mean, yes I can see how that would feel that way, but books are no where near as important as the life of your co-worker and friend.” Jean tried, seeing as her husband was getting too upset to talk right now.

“I need those books, I use them for homework and to study with. If I don’t have them then my school work will suffer and I won’t do as well. I can’t be a failure in school as well.” Hermione started to cry.

“The only reason you would be a failure at being a Rider is when you decided asking a foolish question and leaving your post was more important than your companion’s lives.” Dan stated between his teeth. His anger barely held in.

“Your being melodramatic…” Hermione started.

“Answer me yes or no… Did you leave your post to ask a question?” Mr. Granger asked.

“That was part of it, but I also wanted to stay with Tier two and stay in that position.” Hermione explained

“Yes or no only please.” Dan reiterated. “Did you leave your post to ask a question?” Dan asked again.

“Well yes. Hermione answered.

“Was the question an emergency?” Dan asked.

“No,” Hermione answered truthfully.

“Did the question assist you in doing your job or aid another in doing theirs? He asked.

“No,” Quite the opposite actually she thought.

“Did you get permission to leave your post?” Dan asked.

“No.” She didn’t think about it at the time, so no she didn’t get permission to leave.

“Did you give your Tier any advance warning you were staying behind or not at your post at all?” Dan asked.

“No.” Again she didn’t think about it at the time.

“Did you think there might be other hostiles out there that your Tier might encounter?” Dan asked getting frustrated.

“No.” Hermione’s voice was beginning to break as she thought about it for a moment.

“Did you take into consideration at any point that your absence might be putting your fellow Riders at risk?” Dan was getting down to the nitty gritty here.

“No.” Hermione said at barely a whisper.

“Do you realize that if Miss Patil would not have ducked at the right moment that she would be dead right now.” Harry asked before Dan could.

“…” Silent tears began to fall on Hermione’s cheeks.

“I will take that as you either don’t know or don’t care. Do you realize that if Christian Anderson, who has only been with us a matter of days, had not been there to take up guard position over Padma Patil and Susan Bones that they would both be dead right now?” Harry thought that if he gave their names out that maybe it would seem more real to Hermione but he didn’t know.

“…” Again no answer.

“Why aren’t you answering him Hermione, afraid that the answer will be yes and you will appear to be a monster or something?” Dan asked and Hermione gasped at his words. She had never considered herself a monster, how could her father even say that.

“You chose to leave your post unattended and a beautiful young woman is scarred for life because of it. You wanted the answer to a childish question and chose your petty curiosity over your co-workers lives, you chose to endanger others rather than do the responsible thing and maintain your ranks and follow orders. Your orders were simple, fall back to position one, is that correct?” Dan asked.

“Yes,” She whispered as she cried.

“So as smart as you are, could not follow those simple instructions?” Dan asked sadly.

“I could follow them…” Hermione started.

“But you chose not to, you chose instead to behave like a childish, immature little girl, rather than a Rider and question a direct order and walk away from you post, without notifying your direct superior, or the leader of Tier two so that he could have sent one of the twins down to cover for your position. And before you state he knew you were there, and could have sent someone, he knew you were there… but by no means did he realize your post was left unprotected or that you had abandoned your post. Nor did he think he needed to alter his own Tier’s formation in order to make up for your desire to stay at position two. He was too busy doing his job.” Harry reiterated. “And it wasn’t his job to make sure you were doing your job. It is the job of each and every Rider to maintain their position for the duration of the mission or until they are given ulterior orders by a superior that state otherwise. You failed in your commission, and because of that the bag and trunk and all Rider properties are to be returned, and that included the books that belong to the Rider library.” Harry stated firmly.

Hermione was in tears. She thought that things would all blow over in a few days after Harry calmed down and reconsidered her suspension, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen now. If fact it looked like every time he talked about what happened the madder he got.

Hermione sat there tears streaming down her reddened checks, her breath coming in short sobs now.

The Patils that had remained silent through this whole thing came over and wrapped their arms around their daughter, holding her close to them. Ananya Patil placed her hand on her daughter’s shoulder and tears began to slowly fall down her face and hit her daughter’s shoulder. Padma wrapped her hands around her mother and she was whispering something in her ears and her mother nodded. Raunak wrapped his arms around both of them, holding them close.

Neville went over to stand next to the family, not sure if it was appropriate or not but he felt it had to be said, “Mr and Mrs Patil, no physical scar will ever touch Padma’s beauty, or could ever effect the way we see her. She is one of the most beautiful creatures in creation, and that has nothing to do with her physical appearance. She is precious and glorious beyond words that can describe it, and yet she doesn’t realize it. Or is too modest to understand it, which ever it is, the beauty is still there and nothing can ever remove that.” Neville blushed slightly he had just said all that about the twin sister of his person of interest. OH MY GOD… anyone could see that he was also referring to Pavarti when he was talking, because his eyes were looking strait at her while he spoke, now she realized just how deeply he cared about her.

Raunak reached over and wrapped his arms around Neville and gave him a huge hug, trying to squeeze the stuffing out of him. Neville returned the hug, lowering his head into Raunak’s neck, too embarrassed at the moment not to. This just caused Mr. Patil to squeeze him harder.

Harry watched all this with watery eyes. “You are just lucky Miss Granger that some people understand that physical scars are superficial things and know that with love, family and friends, emotional scars can be healed.” Harry stated. Luna nodded and came over and wrapped her arms around Harry. Pavarti stood up and wrapped her arms around her arms around her sister, placing her hand over her mother’s and grasping her mother’s hand squeezing it.

Jean was in tears now, unable to hold them back any longer, and Dan wasn’t far behind her. He handed the envelope with the information on New York back to Harry. “Take this and trade it in for something for that family, they deserve it, we don’t.”

“You’re wrong there Mr. Granger, when you helped Hermione, you helped a brilliant little girl in a very trying time in her life, you helped her and were there for her when she needed you most. You most definitely deserve it, it is by no means your fault that Hermione was not capable to carry out her commission, if anyone it is my fault. And I take full responsibility for that. I was too worried about hurting her feelings to remove her from her commission after her suicide attempt. I should have followed protocol and not put her into commission until she had been cleared by a professional psychiatrist. I was afraid what further trauma might do to her at an already fragile time. That is my failure and I accept that; and because of that a Rider in my forces was injured, that will never happen again I assure you.”

“Hey, wait a minute. I’m not a little girl. I’m a young woman. And I resent you calling me a little girl.” Hermione said wiping the tears from her eyes. Now she was getting upset, he had no right to call her a little girl.

“Either you are a little girl who merely wished to ask a curious question of why you were being asked to move to a different position. Or you were a young woman in the commission of your duty as a Rider who chose to leave formation, leaving your Tier vulnerable and a man short. Do to this factor a fellow Rider was injured and could have been killed. You can’t have it both ways. It is either one or the other. The adult, responsible thing to do would have been to follow orders and if you still had a question, to ask your question after the mission was complete and all signs of danger were eliminated. Not while the mission was still active and there was still a clear and present danger.” Harry turned and faced her dead on and looked her strait in the eyes, “So which is it Miss Granger, because you can’t have it both ways? Are you a little girl that made a mistake and didn’t think about the consequences of your actions might have on yourself or others around you? Or are you a young woman that chose to ignore the consequences your actions might have on others and act the way you did, contrary to the mandates of your commission?”

Hermione stayed quiet for several seconds, the whole room seemed to be holding it’s breath waiting for her to answer.

“He’s waiting for an answer Hermione, and he deserves one.” Jean Granger spoke up finally, breaking the silence.

“I am not going to admit to being a little girl.” Hermione stated stubbornly.

“You just did. She will have all of your property returned to you accordingly and without fail, by the end of tomorrow night, will that be acceptable.” Mrs. Granger asked Harry.

Harry nodded and handed the envelope back to Dan Granger and said, “You see, you do indeed deserve these tickets, you are wonderful parents, and you love your daughter very much. Nothing more can be asked of you. Why don’t you take these two tickets and trade them in for three, or add a third ticket and make it a family affair, the tickets to everything we set up is open date, so it is good for one year. Take the trip during the summer holiday and make it for the whole family, on the Riders.” Harry placed the envelope back in Mr. Granger’s hand and he only nodded, not saying a word in response. Just taking the envelope back with his eyes glistening with unshed tears. Dan walked over to Jean and placed his arm around her shoulder and gave her a hug, she leaned into the hug and nodded.

Harry felt a tug at his pants and he looked down to see Lillian, he knelt down to see what she wanted, “Will you play Hungry, Hungry Hippos with us, we need another player?”

Harry smiled real big and got up taking his little sister’s hand in his and let her lead him back over to the table where they had the game out ready to play, and sat down to play Hungry, Hungry Hippos with the little ones. Luna following to watch the game unfold with him, never having seen it played before.