Yuletide
Sunday, 20 December 1998
“Harry,” a voice said, “what are you doing here?”
Harry blinked awake and took in his surroundings. This absolutely was not his bedroom and the voice talking to him absolutely was not Theo. He looked around and realized he was in a twin-size bed with Ron, Neville was curled in a ball asleep at the foot of the bed, Seamus and Dean were comfortably cuddled in the bed across the room, and Hermione, Lavender, and Parvati were in a tangle, crowded into the third bed.
“Mate,” Harry mumbled back, “I’d love to tell you, but I haven’t the foggiest bloody clue.”
“Enough with the talking,” Seamus grumbled, grabbing the pillow out from under Dean’s head and throwing it across the room.
“Who is on top of me?” Hermione muttered.
“Me, I think?” Parvati responded.
“Does anyone have any clue what happened last night?” Harry asked, trying to sit up and immediately flopping back down with a grunt.
“I remember leaving the ball,” Seamus said, not sounding entirely confident in that fact.
Harry took a longer look around the room and would’ve cracked up if his pounding headache weren’t preventing him from laughing. Seamus’ tie was wrapped around his head and he was naked except for his boxers, Dean was still in dress pants but was shirtless, Hermione was in Ron’s quidditch jersey, Parvati appeared to be wearing Harry’s trousers and one of Dean’s hoodies, Neville, Ron, and Harry were all only in their pants, but Lavender looked like she’d actually returned to her own room to change and was the only normally dressed one amongst them.
“I have to assume someone called a class meeting,” Hermione said.
“Why would we possibly have needed a class meeting while everyone was utterly pissed?” Neville muttered, shoving his face into Ron’s duvet in an effort to block out the light.
“Maybe it wasn’t a class meeting,” Harry said, following Neville’s lead as he rolled over and buried his face in his pillow. “Maybe,” he said, his voice muffled, “we just went lions only.”
“Why would we have gone lions only?” Ron asked, throwing his arm over his eyes to block out the light after he’d failed to muster the energy to find something to shove his face into like Neville and Harry had.
“Either someone had good alcohol they didn’t want to share with a full party,” Dean answered, “or someone had a vault secret.”
“Well if it was the vault secret option it’s apparently so deep in the vault that not a one of us remembers it,” Parvati said with a laugh that turned into a groan, “what the fuck did we drink?”
“Good morning, lions,” Padma’s cheerful voice greeted as she slammed the door open, ignoring the cries of protest from everyone in the room, “are you lot ready to interact with the rest of us again?”
“What are you talking about?” Neville asked, picking his head up just enough to look up at her.
“An hour after we got back Seamus screamed ‘pride’ and you all disappeared,” she said with a shrug. “Just thought I’d check and see if you were ready to rejoin society yet.”
“Has anyone ever thought about how funny it is that a group of lions is called a pride and we’re all gay?” Dean chuckled.
“Hermione and I are dating,” Ron pointed out, “and Neville’s also straight.”
“I’m sorry, Ronald,” Seamus started, “but you’ll never convince me that you and Harry’s friendship isn’t at least a little homoerotic.”
“I’m too tired to argue with you right now, Finnegan,” Ron muttered, not helping his case at all as he rolled over and slung an arm around Harry.
“Alright so all the gay lions disappeared,” Padma said, rolling her eyes, “that doesn’t answer the question of whether you’re ready to interact with the public yet.”
“Does a single one of us look like we’re prepared to interact with humankind right now?” Parvati asked, glaring at her sister who was still speaking at full volume despite everyone’s protests.
“No, you all look like utter shite.”
“Thanks, Padma, that’s really kind,” Dean grumbled, “can you go away now?”
“Alright,” she said with a shrug, slamming the door behind her.
“The second I can stand up again,” Seamus vowed, “I’m killing your sister, Parvati.”
“I’ll help.” Parvati responded.
“Are you lot alive?” Draco yelled sometime later, slamming the door open somehow louder than Padma had slammed it shut.
“Draco,” Harry said, voice hard, “I’m going to murder you in cold blood.”
“You’ve tried that before, it didn’t stick.”
“I’ll try harder this time.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Dean groaned. “Both of you.”
“You’re all aware it’s 10:00 and the train leaves in an hour, right?”
“What are you talking about?” Harry asked, finally sitting up.
“The train?” Draco repeated, “it’s the last day of term. Yule is tomorrow, the train leaves today.”
“Draco,” Harry sighed, rubbing his eyes, “are you aware that there’s a functional floo downstairs and, beyond that, we’re all capable of apparating?”
“Not to mention the fact that at least Harry and I have to be here tomorrow to bleed all over the ritual circle?” Neville added.
“That’s a really wonderful way of describing a solstice ritual, Longbottom,” Draco laughed, “but you might remember that McGonagall said everyone is required to take the train for breaks? Do you really want to piss off your dearly beloved former Head of House?”
“Fuck,” Parvati said, rolling out of bed.
“Goddamnit,” Dean muttered, grunting with effort as he tried to extract himself from under Seamus.
“Wow,” Draco said, looking around the now (slowly) moving pride, “who knew the threat of McGonagall was that effective?”
“Literally anyone with a brain,” Lavender snarked. “Now go away.”
“I’m going to find Theo and Teddy and I’m getting on the train without packing,” Harry declared. “I can come back for my clothes.”
“You might want to find clothes right now, though,” Parvati said.
“I’m fairly certain you’re wearing my trousers, Patil,” Harry responded, “I’ll just go through the connecting door. At least I remembered to put away my actual dress robes before we did … whatever the fuck happened last night.”
“You’re actually about to walk through this tower in just your pants?” Neville asked.
“So are you, Nev,” Harry said.
Neville looked down and realized he, too, was in only his pants and muttered, “we’re not going to survive a 9-hour train ride, are we?”
“Probably not,” Harry sighed, clapping Neville on the shoulder, “let’s go.”
Harry and Neville made their way out of the room, pausing to look at the hastily drawn sign that said “GRYFFS ONLY!! NO SNAKES, BADGERS, OR CLAWS ALOUD! (Except Harry. I love you, Harry. -Seamus).”
“Well,” Harry said, “that’s certainly something.”
“I think we need to frame that,” Neville laughed.
“What the fuck?” Theo choked out when he saw the pair coming down the stairs.
“I remember nothing except for the fact that we woke up in bed with Ron,” Harry said with a shrug, “have you gotten Teddy from Mary yet?”
“Yeah, I also packed a trunk for the three of us and sent Teddy and the trunk to Grimmauld with Kreacher and Mimi.”
“Have I told you lately how much I love you?” Harry said, grabbing Theo’s cheeks and smacking a kiss to his forehead.
“Several times a day,” Theo said, patting Harry’s cheek, “now please go shower, you reek.”
* * *
“Sweet Circe,” McGonagall muttered when she saw her Gryffindors ambling toward the carriages like a pack of fresh zombies.
“Morning, Minnie,” Harry greeted with a crooked grin.
“Potter,” McGonagall sighed.
“McGonagall,” he echoed.
“Get to the train.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said with a salute.
“She didn’t correct you,” Neville whispered with a mad grin.
“No, she did not,” Harry responded, matching Neville’s expression.
* * *
“Harry?” Seamus said an hour into the train ride. The eight of them were crowded into one compartment with Hermione, Ron, and Neville on one bench, Lavender, Parvati, and Dean on the other, and Harry and Seamus sprawled out on the floor. “Is this what death feels like?”
“Gotta be honest, mate,” Harry groaned, “death felt better.”
“Wonderful.”
“I think I remember playing strip poker,” Dean announced out of nowhere.
“That’d explain why most of us were half naked,” Ron said. “But it doesn’t explain why we all feel like we were run over by a stampede of centaurs.”
“I vaguely remember Neville trying to go down a moving staircase as Prongs,” Hermione said. “I think, though that might’ve been a strangely vivid dream.”
“That’d explain this,” Neville said, pulling up his shirt to reveal a massive bruise across his side.
“Merlin, Nev,” Harry said with a laugh. “Let me heal it?”
Neville shrugged and turned his side toward Harry who touched two fingers to the marred skin, closed his eyes, and breathed out. They all watched as the deep purple bruise faded to green, then yellow, then disappeared entirely.
“Well, that’s a useful skill,” Dean commented.
“Anyone else have any mystery injuries?” Harry asked.
“Ronald,” Hermione sighed as everyone scanned themselves for random bruises.
“Hermione?”
“Your ear is pierced.”
“Alright we must’ve been playing truth or dare,” Harry decided.
“How’d we get out of the tower without anyone noticing, though?” Parvati asked.
“Harry and Neville can manipulate the castle,” Lavender reminded her, “all they have to do is ask and a passage will appear.”
“Well, this is good,” Neville said, sighing in relief. “I’m sure we were drunk enough when we left the party downstairs to agree to veritaserum truth or dare meaning our memories will come back throughout the day. It’s just the aftereffects of the potion, we didn’t actually black out.”
“We really need to stop taking veritaserum while we’re pissed,” Harry said.
“We’ve been saying that for four years,” Dean pointed out, “I’m really not sure we’re going to stop now.”
* * *
“Where is your boyfriend?” Blaise asked Theo as the train passed through Glasgow.
“With the Gryffindors. They all slept in the same dorm last night.”
“How?”
“I really don’t know but Harry said something about waking up in bed with Ron and Neville.”
“They’re all over six feet tall,” Pansy laughed. “How’d they fit in one single bed?”
“I haven’t the foggiest,” Theo said shaking his head. “What do you need him for, Blaise?”
“I wanted to ask if I could invite my mother to the family Yule celebration tomorrow. I know he, Neville, Luna, and Susan have to go back to school and it’s also his first real Yule, so I don’t want to overwhelm him with guests without asking.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. All the Weasleys are coming, so are the Greengrasses and Hermione’s parents are staying at Grimmauld for the whole break since they sold their house when they went to Australia.”
“Wait,” Pansy cut in. “Does that mean we’ll get to do Muggle Christmas too?”
“Probably,” Theo said with a shrug.
“Yes!” Pansy cheered, “I can’t wait to ask who the hell Father Christmas is.”
“Your obsession with Father Christmas needs to be studied,” Daphne teased.
* * *
Monday, 21 December 1998
“NEVILLE!” Harry’s voice yelled through the main hall of Longbottom Manor from the silvery form of Prongs, “GET YOUR ARSE TO HOGWARTS!”
“I think you may be running late, dear,” Gran said with a laugh.
“I know, I know,” Neville said, hopping across the room on one leg as he tried to tie his shoe, “you’ll be at Grimmauld when we’re done?”
“I’m heading over right now,” she answered.
“See you later, then,” Neville said, pressing a quick kiss to his Gran’s cheek before he apparated out.
He appeared at the edge of the stone circle and found Luna and Susan sitting with their backs to one of the stones watching Harry trace runes in consecrated ink with the shades of the founders crowded around him.
“Are we using a Peverell ritual?” Neville asked as he approached.
“No,” Luna answered. “They just showed up as soon as he passed through the stones. He’s not actually sure if they’re here because the Stone or because of the Circle’s magic.”
“I think it’s a combination of the two,” Rowena said, looking over her shoulder. “Hello, Neville. Lovely of you to show up.”
“I’m like 3 minutes late,” Neville argued.
“That’s still late.”
“You’re right,” he sighed, ignoring Luna and Susan snickering behind him, “I’m sorry, Lady Ravenclaw.”
Rowena nodded and turned her attention back to Harry who looked like he was about ready to start banging his head against something solid.
“What is happening?” Neville whispered, crouching down next to Luna and Susan.
“Godric and Salazar can’t agree on what he’s supposed to be doing,” Susan told him. “This has been going on at least since I got here 15 minutes ago.”
“It’s been going on for a full hour,” Luna said. “Harry and I got here early because we wanted to visit the thestral herd, but we made the mistake of walking through the stone circle to get to the forest and now here we are.”
“Does that mean you have a bucket of raw meat stashed somewhere?” Susan asked, looking around.
“No, Harry told me to go in alone thinking this would be quick and he’d have time to meet me but after 30 minutes he still hadn’t shown up so I came back out and he’s just been getting increasingly irritated. It was funny for awhile but now I’m just waiting for him to explode.”
“Oh my god!” Harry yelled, as if on cue, “I’ve decided I’m only listening to Rowena now. The rest of you can go away.”
“I think the circle’s ready, Hades,” Rowena said, patting Harry on the shoulder before she turned to Neville, Luna, and Susan, “you three, come here. The sooner you get started the sooner you can leave.”
“I still don’t understand why we have to do the ritual here,” Susan sighed as she stood up.
“The excess magic from the ritual feeds the wards,” Harry explained, “doing the rituals here is the easiest way to recharge them after decades of neglect.”
“Alright that explanation made far more sense than whatever that lot,” she said, gesturing toward the founders, “was rambling about last week.”
“Glad to be of service,” Harry said with a laugh, taking up his place at the North point of the Celtic knot, “let’s do this.”
As one, the four went through the motions of opening the circle for a ritual. Once that was done, Harry took seven even steps forward until he was standing in the middle of the knot and allowed seven drops of blood to fall over the Raido rune carved at the center. The Yule ritual they were using was from the Slytherin Family Grimoire which was written almost entirely in Gaelic.
“Iarraimid ar na déithe an ghrianstad seo a bheannú, ár n-anam a bheannú, agus ár draíocht a bheannú. Cuirimid ár gcuid fola, ár draíocht, agus ár mbronntanas ar fáil mar cheiliúradh ar an séasúr.”
(Loosely translated to ‘We ask the gods to bless this solstice, to bless our souls, and to bless our magic. We offer our blood, our magic, and our gifts in celebration of the season.’)
As he finished speaking, raw flowed out in waves from where Harry stood until it crashed into the stone circle where it dissipated. During the Samhain ritual they’d all be rather distracted by the spirits who’d joined them, but today they were all solely focused on the magic of the ritual and how it reacted with the wards.
“Whoa,” Harry breathed out.
“I understand what you were saying about recharging the wards now,” Susan said, shaking her head like a dog, “that was crazy.”
“Is that all we have to do?” Harry asked, looking up at Salazar once he’d regained his senses.
“That’s all,” he said, starting to fade away. “We’ll see you in the new year, enjoy your break.”
“Happy Yule,” Harry said with a nod, watching as the four founders shimmered out of existence before he turned toward his friends, “ready to go?”
“I’ll see you lot later,” Susan said, “I’m with the Abbotts and Diggorys tonight.”
“Well, if you want to come to Grimmauld at any point you’re more than welcome,” Harry said, “and pass that on to Hannah as well.”
“Will do,” Susan said with a salute as she turned on her heel and apparated away.
“I’ll come for dinner if that’s alright?” Luna asked.
“Of course,” Harry said, slinging an arm around her shoulders. “What’re you doing for the rest of break?”
“Dad and I will be joining Rolf and his family in Iceland to catalog some creatures,” she answered with a bright grin. “But we don’t leave until Wednesday.”
“Sounds like a great way to spend break,” Neville said. “Harry and I will be hanging out with Death and doing unauthorized medical procedures at St. Mungo’s.”
“That’s an insane sentence,” Luna pointed out.
“It’s also accurate,” Harry said. “Let’s get going before Andromeda thinks we got lost.”
They appeared in the front hall of Grimmauld place to the sounds of utter chaos.
All of the Weasleys were there which meant the Delacours were there as well along with Penelope Clearwater, Angelina Johnson, and Katie Bell. Harry was pretty sure he saw Alicia Spinnet and Lee Jordan in the mix too. That alone was 18 people plus the eight who lived at Grimmauld Place full time, Blaise and his mother, Tracey Davis, four Greengrasses, three Grangers, two Longbottoms, and Luna.
It was like an insane version of the 12 Days of Christmas.
“Holy shit,” Harry muttered, looking around. He wasn’t sure if he was ecstatic that he had this many people to spend a holiday with or if he wanted all of them to leave his house so he could remember what quiet felt like.
“This is…” Luna started before trailing off.
“Oh, hello Harry dear,” Molly greeted, hurrying over to pull Harry into a suffocating hug, “I didn’t get a chance to tell you at the ball last night how incredible that Children’s Welfare legislation is. I’m so proud of you.”
“Thank you, Molly,” Harry said, hugging her back nearly as tight. “Is there anything we can do to help out here?”
“Not a thing,” she said, patting his cheek. “Just go say hello. Kreacher’s decided he’ll accept my help so I’m going to get back downstairs.”
Harry previously couldn’t imagine a world in which Kreacher would willingly accept help from someone, the nearly 40 houseguests must’ve really thrown him off.
“I told begged him to let me bring in elves from one of the other houses,” Harry muttered under his breath, shaking his head. “Alright,” he said with a deep breath, “let’s do this.”
* * *
“I’m never having that many people over again,” Harry sighed, throwing himself face first into his bed.
“There were more people at my birthday party,” Theo pointed out.
“A party is different than a dinner,” Harry argued. “Just don’t ask me how, I’m too tired to explain it.”
“You’ve had a long couple of days,” Theo said with a light laugh, rubbing the back of Harry’s neck gently. “How was your first Yule?”
“It was nice,” Harry replied with a soft smile. “It’d be nicer if my ridiculously beautiful boyfriend would get into bed with me though.”
“Your ridiculously beautiful boyfriend would like to take a shower first.”
“Can it be a bath instead?” Harry whined. “I don’t think I can reliably stand up.”
“I didn’t say you had to join me.”
“Are you saying you don’t want me to join you?” Harry asked with a pout.
“No, love, of course not,” Theo laughed, running his thumb across Harry’s cheek, “come on then.”
* * *
Tuesday, 22 December 1998
“Is that it?” Harry asked, stepping back from Frank’s bed and looking over at Death who was sitting by Neville, blocking the door.
“That’s everything we planned to do,” Death answered. “Run your diagnostics and then we’ll wake them up.”
Harry nodded and started to wave his wand in practiced motions before tapping it to a sheet of parchment. He grinned and then passed the paper over to Death who let out a whoop.
“What is it?” Neville asked, looking between the pair in a mix of excitement and anxiety.
“Vastly improved mental function for both,” Death answered, pointing to several factors on the diagnostic chart. “I haven’t the foggiest clue how you’re going to explain this to the staff here, but either way, it worked.”
“How much did it work though?” Neville asked.
“Their nervous systems are still mostly fried,” Harry explained. “I don’t think either of them will be able to walk again but both of them should be able to hold a conversation and we should be able to work on rebuilding their memories and finer mental functions. We won’t know our baseline until we wake them up.”
“You might want to spell calming draughts into their systems, Harry,” Death suggested. “We don’t know where they’ll think they are or when they’ll think it is when they wake up.”
“Good idea,” Harry said, reaching into his bag to pull out the potions. “Ready for this, Nev?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
Harry took a deep breath and muttered “rennervate” over Alice and then Frank in quick succession before stepping back to stand next to Neville.
Alice came to first and nearly flung herself out of bed before Neville darted forward and steadied her.
“Neville!” she cried, “Frank, they’re here! Get Nev…” she trailed off as the shock of the revival spell faded and the effects of the calming draught took hold, “Neville?”
“Mum?” he choked out.
“Neville,” she repeated in a whisper, running her hands along his face and arms as if making sure he was real.
“What’s happening?” Frank asked, his voice battered and cracking from disuse, “Alice? Who’s here? Where’s Nev?” He seemed less alert than Alice which Harry was expecting, but he was also far more coherent than Harry had thought possible.
“I’m right here, dad,” Neville said, reaching out his hand.
“I think this is my cue to go,” Death whispered at Harry’s side. “Before I forget, Gringotts got a request from their branch in Rome for our services, can you get away from school on the 15th of January?”
“I don’t see why not,” Harry whispered back, not taking his eyes off the impossible reunion happening in front of him. “I’ll see you later?”
“I’m always here,” Death said, clapping Harry’s shoulder, “you need only call.”
“You know it’s incredibly creepy when you say shit like that, right?”
“That’s why I do it,” Death replied with a light laugh before disappearing from sight.
“Mum, Dad,” Neville said, “this is Harry, do you remember him?”
“Of course I remember Harry,” Alice said with a bright smile. “How could I forget my godson!”
“How is this happening right now?” Frank asked, looking around the room like he was cataloging every detail. “You two are, what, 17? 18? Last I actively remember, you were a year and a half old.”
Harry pulled over a chair as Neville perched at the foot of Alice’s bed and they started to tell them the story of the last two 17 years.
When they got to 4th year, Harry looked wide-eyed at Neville, “I at least need to explain this to Josephine.”
“Fuck,” Neville muttered, running a hand over his face. “In all our preparation we never actually came up with an explanation, did we?”
“What is the explanation?” Alice asked.
Harry could tell Neville was about to spin a lie, so he cut him off, “I’m the Master of Death. Turns out master necromancers have insane healing powers.”
“Huh,” Frank said, “I guess that makes sense. Necromantic healing is blood and bone, mind and sprit, right?”
“Right,” Harry nodded.
“Mum told me about it when I was a kid,” Frank explained, his voice starting to even out the more they chatted.
“Do you think you should just tell her the truth?” Neville asked.
“I don’t think I can,” Harry said after a minute, looking deeply conflicted. “I can’t tell her that I’m the Master of Death because I possess all the Hallows and then tell her I can’t pull Cedric through the veil when she inevitably asks. I can’t disappoint her like that.”
“So then tell her half the truth,” Neville suggested. “It’s sort of common knowledge that the Peverell Family Magic is rooted in necromancy in some way, it’s just that no body actually knows how. Explain that you found some healing spells in the Grimoire and that you studied them with Madam Pomfrey and the Goblin healers and wanted to try them on my parents and I consented.”
“Alright,” Harry breathed, running his hand through his hair. “I’m going to go deal with that, I’ll be back.”
“Thank you for this, Haz,” Frank said, reaching out his hand as much as he could. Harry closed the gap and squeezed Frank’s hand for a second before turning and heading out of the room.
“That boy has a lot on his shoulders, doesn’t he?” Alice said once the door swung shut.
"Less now,” Neville answered. “He’s finally letting someone share the burden.”
* * *
A few hours later, Harry left Neville at the hospital with his parents and apparated home. Theo took one look at him and pulled him into a tight hug. He relaxed into the touch and let out a sigh, burying his face in Theo’s neck.
“It’s alright, love,” Theo whispered, running a hand down Harry’s back. “I’ve got you.”