Yuletide
Hari stayed at Hogwarts over winter break that year. Minerva had some important things she had to catch up on which kept her at the castle, so Hari simply stayed there. It wasn't too quiet anyway with many students staying at Hogwarts that break, particularly older students who wanted to study for exams. Hari enjoyed watching the students huddled together with their hats and scarves, the air buzzing with excitement for the upcoming holidays. The grounds were covered in a thick blanket of snow and Hari watched from his bedroom window as Hagrid dragged massive snow-covered evergreens up the lawn and into the castle.
The festivity didn't end there. The two evergreens were placed on either side of the front of the Great Hall, decorated with twinkling lights, massive baubles in all the Hogwarts house colours and floating candles. Filius made garlands of holly hover merrily on the walls and the blizzard outside made the ceiling covered in flurries of thick snow. Someone had even placed a large, 4-foot menorah in the Hall, which Hari delighted in watching various students light up each night.
On the morning of the Winter Solstice, Hari woke up to the sound of the wind howling outside his window. He pushed aside his curtains to look outside and saw the sun barely peeking over the snowy hills, a bright orange orb surrounded by pale peach and lavender. Hari could see a small heap of presents at the foot of the bed and resisted the urge to open them. He was too excited to fall back to sleep so he clambered out of bed, pulling on his dressing gown as the cool air sent a chill through his body and hurried into Minerva's bedroom.
"Minnie! Minnie, wake up! It's Yule!" Hari sang, jumping onto the foot of Minerva's bed, grinning. Minerva huffed under the covers, rolling onto her back to look at him through narrowed eyes. "Come on, Minnie. It's Yule!"
Minerva sighed, rolling onto her side to look at the clock sitting on her bedside table. "Yes and it's also 6 in the morning," she grumbled, lightly pushing Hari away with one of her feet. "Come back in an hour and a half and then I'll consider getting up."
"Okay!" Hari jumped off the bed and skittered out of the room. Still wide awake, Hari pulled one of the books he got from Charity to read and curled up on the couch under a fur blanket, filling the time with reading. After almost an hour, Minerva wandered into the living room, dressed in her tartan dressing gown and her hair in a messy braid down her back. Hari leapt off the couch, abandoning his book. "You're awake! Happy Yule!" he exclaimed.
Minerva huffed a laugh, shaking her head. "I had hoped you would have gone back to bed," she admitted, ruffling his hair.
“I was too excited.”
Minerva raised her eyebrows, Summoning Hari's presents onto the floor in front of the fireplace. She cast Incendio so that a roaring fire came to life, warming both of them thoroughly as well and she sat down on the couch."Which one have you got first?" she asked. She gestured to the perfectly wrapped package covered in shiny purple paper and tied up with a gold string.
"It's from you," Hari said, carefully removing the string and searching for the spellotape to peel the wrapping paper off. Inside was a copy of Dragon Species of Great Britain and Ireland with a gold cover depicting a silhouette of some type of dragon. "Oh, cool! Thanks, Minnie! I can't wait to tell Charlie I got this!" Hari exclaimed, crawling over to hug her tightly before returning to the rest of his pile.
After half an hour unwrapping presents, Hari had acquired a knitted green scarf and some homemade fudge from Hagrid; a set of Ladybird books from Charity Burbage; drawing parchment and quills from Filius; a mini succulent shaped like a heart from Pomona; Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them from the Malfoys; and another two unopened presents from Minerva.
"Open that one first," Minerva said from the couch, putting aside a pair of wool gloves from Pomona and gesturing towards the long, thin parcel wrapped in yellow and blue wrapping paper.
Hari pulled the paper off carefully and nearly dropped it onto the stone floor. Shoving aside the paper, Hari revealed a small Training Broomstick with a navy blue handle and two silver hand holds on either side. "Merlin, this is amazing! You got me a training broomstick?" Hari exclaimed, putting the broom on the ground and throwing his arms around Minerva. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he squealed into her neck, burying his face in the folds of her dressing gown.
"Open the last present as well." She pointed at the final package, wrapped in the same yellow and blue paper as the broomstick.
Hari peeled the tape and paper off to reveal a thickly bound, bright blue book with the title Learning to Fly: A Beginner's Guide to Riding a Broomstick. "Thank you so much, Minnie. These are such cool presents!" Hari abandoned the book in favour of hugging Minerva once again, nearly knocking her over in his haste.
"It was no trouble, dear. I knew how much you wanted to have a broom of your own, so I've been planning this for ages," she replied as Hari pulled away, still sitting on her lap. "Thank you very much for my lovely card and the Fizzing Whizzbees. When did you get those?" she added, lifting up the homemade card Hari made a few weeks ago with blue parchment he borrowed from Filius.
"I asked Hagrid to get it for me."
"That was nice of him. I shall thank him as well once we go up to breakfast."
Hari dragged Minerva to the Great Hall for breakfast a little while later, dressed in his new scarf from Hagrid. He waved hello to Charlie and Bill, dressed in jumpers with letters on the front and made his way towards the staff table. Filius complimented his jumper and Hari thanked him for his present, shouting his thanks down the table to Hagrid and leaning over Minerva to thank Charity and Pomona. Hari was absolutely stuffed after breakfast, having gorged himself on stacks of pancakes with too much syrup.
"Come along, Hari. We're meeting Remus at Hagrid's hut for lunch," Minerva said once everyone was beginning to file out of the Great Hall to continue with the festivities elsewhere around the castle. Hari's face lit up at the prospect of seeing Remus, begging Minerva to let him try out his broom and show it to Hagrid and Remus. "Yes, alright. Just be careful."
Hari was in the middle of racing around the grass nearby Hagrid's hut, toes barely skimming the ground as he flew his new broomstick around. Minerva was standing with Hagrid watching, both clutching mugs of steaming hot eggnog and talking quietly while Hari roared with laughter. Even this low down, Hari felt freer, the cool breeze and snow brushing past him as he flew in circles with glee. The broom was, of course, enchanted to fly no higher than waist height and couldn't go much faster than 7 miles per hour, but Hari didn't care so long as he was allowed to continue flying over the grass.
"Wicked broom, Hari!"
"Yeah, that's a great practice broom!"
Charlie and Bill were making their way over to say a quick hello, both wrapped up in scarves, gloves and hats, jackets pulled tight around them. They greeted Minerva and Hagrid as well, wishing them 'Happy Solstice,' which they returned in stride.
Hari finally paused his flying to talk to the Weasley brothers. "I got a book about British dragon breeds, Charlie! It has loads of pictures and facts about dragons!" Hari told them enthusiastically, grinning.
"That's awesome! You have to show it to me later!" Charlie replied, returning Hari's smile. "We've gotta get back to the castle soon. We just thought we'd come and say hello since we saw you out here." He pointed his thumb over his shoulder, gesturing towards the castle.
"See you later, Hari. Happy Yule!"
Hari returned to riding his broom again and had only been on it for a further five minutes when Remus appeared up the lane leading to Hogsmeade. He was looking very pink in the face and his scarf whipped behind him as he walked over, waving to the three people standing outside the hut. "Uncle Remus!" Hari yelled, nearly falling into the snow as he jumped off his broom and jogged over to give Remus a hug.
"Hello, Hari," Remus greeted, squatting down to catch Hari in his arms. Hari refused to let go, insisting on being carried back over to the other two adults. Remus chuckled, grunting slightly under Hari's weight but carrying him over nonetheless. "Happy Solstice, Minerva. Hagrid," he said, handing Minerva a package wrapped in red paper and adjusting Hari on his hip.
"Did you see I got a broom, Rem?" Hari asked as Remus put Hari back on the ground so they could step inside Hagrid's hut.
"I saw. May I see it closer up?" Remus replied, pulling out a bottle of Firewhiskey with a yellow bow on it and handing it to Hagrid and a bottle of wine for Minerva in his pockets. Hari jogged over to where he left his broom on the ground and walked back over, brushing the snow off. Hari handed it to Remus once he made it back and Remus inspected it as they stepped inside. "This is quite a good broom you got. I quite like the blue," Remus commented, handing it back to Hari with a soft smile.
Hari leaned the broom against the wall by the door and settled into one of the large chairs around the table next to Remus. While Hagrid prepared them all cups of tea, pottering about the kitchen area wearing a massive pink apron, Remus and Minerva discussed their latest gossip since they last spoke. Hari eyed the unopened present on the table, trying his best to keep up with their conversation but quickly losing interest as he had no understanding of half the stuff they spoke about.
"You can open your present, you know. I can see you eyeing it," Remus teased a few minutes later once everyone had their own cups of tea. Remus laughed as Hari instantly pushed aside his mug of tea and lifted the parcel.
Hari carefully pulled the wrapping paper off and handed it to Minerva to Vanish it. Remus had gifted him an olive green cable knit jumper and a packet of Exploding Snap cards. "Thank you so much, Rem!" Hari whooped, scrambling off his chair to give Remus a tight hug. He pulled the old jumper he was already wearing and immediately pulled the new jumper over his plain t-shirt and smoothed it over himself. "It fits as well! Thank you!" Hari gave Remus another hug, this time staying with his arms wrapped around the thin man while everyone else fell back into conversation.
After their tea, they all played a few rounds of Exploding Snap, still gossiping and joking together over the small explosions. Hari giggled as Remus recounted a story of getting banned from a Muggle supermarket after James thought it would be a good idea to steal a shopping cart to go for a ride, enhanced even more by the sounds of the cards exploding suddenly every few seconds. When they made their way back to the castle for dinner, Hari riding on Remus' back while they all sang Yuletide carols, Hari could not stop grinning.
He was so glad he could have holidays like this. Back at the Dursleys, Hari had spent every Christmas hoping to get some good gifts only to watch as Dudley opened endless presents full of things he'd never use while Hari got a pair of old socks or a packet of stale crisps in a flavour Hari hated. Now, since coming to live with Minerva, Hari was able to enjoy himself fully with his favourite people, celebrating the holiday of Yule. He could ride mini broomsticks and play exploding card games and pull crackers with people who loved him unconditionally, instead of watching longingly as his cousin got doted upon and he got ignored.