The Truth About Rudolph

"You will be the first one, in front of all the other reindeer," Klaus told him. "The moon is very bright here, but it might be hidden behind the clouds in other places. The… how shall I put it… peculiar properties of your nose might prove to be very useful in the darkness."

He looked at Rudolph thoughtfully.

"It was a hex, wasn't it? The lanterna rubea?"

Rudolph nodded. He hadn't heard Octavian's incantation very clearly, but it did sound very much like lanterna rubea.

"Don't worry," Klaus told him. "It will wear off by itself once your week is over and you leave the Ice Palace. In any other place but this one it would have disappeared already."

Rudolph wondered what it was about the Ice Palace that prevented the effects of the hex from wearing off. Had he been able to speak, he would have asked the wizard about it.

In fact, he thought as he watched the elves tie ropes around the enormous pile of presents in the sleigh, there was something else he would ask first had it been possible for him to speak. How was he going to lead the sleigh? He didn't know which way they were supposed to go!

"We're starting a bit late today — we'd better hurry up now! Did you take the Floo powder?" Klaus asked one of the elves.

"Yes, sir, it's here!" the elf said, pointing to a large bag under the fur-covered seat on the sleigh. Rudolph looked at the bag, wondering what the Floo powder was for; Klaus was apparently able to notice the expression of surprise in a reindeer's face, because he told him:

"Not all wizards know about this, but I see no harm in telling you. During the night before Christmas all homes — even Muggle ones — are connected to the Floo Network."

Rudolph turned to look at him, his eyes still wide with surprise.

"Well, I can't go climbing down every chimney, can I?" Klaus said. "I'm a large man, and some chimneys would be too narrow even for an elf."

Rudolph thought about it and decided that it made sense. One of the elves walked up to him and asked him to follow him to where the other reindeer were standing.

As he walked after the elf, he heard Klaus calling after him:

"When you reach the top of the hill, just keep running!"

Rudolph wondered what it was that the old wizard was talking about.

He stood in front of the other eight reindeer; suddenly there were two or three elves around him, fastening leather straps around his head, neck and body. They worked as quickly as they did when they had been packing the presents and it wasn't long before Rudolph was in full harness like all the other reindeer.

Rudolph turned anxiously to ask the two reindeer behind him:

"How shall I know where to go?"

"Don't worry about it," they told him. "Just start when you hear the whip cracking. You'll feel in which direction they're pulling the reins."

"Tell me if I do something wrong, will you?" Rudolph said, and they promised to do so.

Rudolph watched Klaus sit down in the large, fur-covered seat; an elf sat in a small seat in front of him and took the reins in his hands, and several other elves sat among the presents piled up in the sleigh.

In a little while the elf sitting at the front cracked his whip, and Rudolph started towards the open gate. There was nothing but snow outside, stretching as far as he could see, reflecting the bright moonlight. As he passed through the gate, the polar bear with who had spoken to him earlier gave him a friendly nod and said:

"So you did get the job! Good for you!"

Rudolph could see a hill slightly to his right and knew that it had to be the one that Klaus had mentioned, because otherwise the land around him was completely flat. He felt a pull on the reins signalling that he should go right, so he turned and galloped towards the hill. It felt good to run as fast as he could, listening to the soft sound of hooves on the snow and the tinkling of harness bells behind him. The weight of the sleigh wasn't very difficult to pull at all.

When he was just a few feet away from the top of the hill, he thought about Klaus's words. When you reach the top of the hill, just keep running, the old wizard had said. Why? What else did he think Rudolph would do?

Then he reached the top and understood.

On the other side of the hill, the slope was only five or six feet long. Then it ended abruptly, and the path they were taking seemed to lead into an abyss.

Rudolph turned to look behind, and all the reindeer shouted:

"It's alright! Don't be afraid! Go on!"

It was too late to stop anyway; he had gained too much momentum. Rudolph closed his eyes and ran downhill, comforted by the knowledge that the other reindeer were following him. After a while he thought he must have ran over the edge already, but he could still feel the snow under his hooves — or, at least, so he thought. When he opened his eyes he could see the snow, bright in the moonlight, far beneath him. He seemed to be walking on an invisible path in the air.

A pull on his reins signalled that he should turn slightly to the southeast. Rudolph ran through the night air and watched the land underneath. He wasn't afraid of heights at all because he was used to flying on a broomstick, and this felt even more enjoyable. He remembered how he'd wished he would become a bird Animagus so that he would be able to fly without a broom. Who would have thought that it was possible for a reindeer to fly?

After a while Rudolph could see a small town underneath them, the roofs covered with snow and a few of the windows still lit up with a warm, yellow light. He felt a slight tug on the reins telling him to go downwards, onto the roof of a large house. The roof was very steep, but after all the strange things that had happened Rudolph wasn't surprised to find that he was able to stand on it very easily without slipping.

He almost stopped when he reached the edge of the roof, but the other reindeer shouted:

"Hey! Move on! Where do you think the rest of us are going to stand? On air?"

Rudolph moved forward until he was certain that the four pairs of reindeer behind him and the sleigh had all landed safely on the roof. The sleigh was so tilted to one side on the steep roof that it looked as if the presents would start falling out, but they didn't — they were perfectly stable.

Klaus stood up and stepped out of the sleigh. He unwrapped a very long roll of parchment and read two names from it — probably the names of the children living in the house. The elves immediately took several parcels out of the sleigh and placed them into Klaus's hands.

"And the Floo powder!" Klaus said, and one of the elves reached for the bag under the seat and added it to the top of the bundle Klaus was holding.

It looked as if the old wizard was going to have difficulties keeping his balance on the slippery roof with his hands full, but he walked up to the chimney without any trouble. The chimney was very broad and Klaus was able to climb down inside it easily. After a while his voice was heard from inside, calling out another name. The elves took the right presents out of the sleigh and dropped them down the chimney. There was a faint flash of emerald green light from the chimney. Then a few moments' pause, another flash of green light, and Klaus's voice calling out another name.

So that was how he did it, Rudolph thought. He didn't have to climb down every chimney. He just had to find the largest one, and he would reach the other homes in the vicinity through the Floo Network.

It went on for some time. Klaus would call out another name, the elves would find the right presents, and there would be a flash of emerald light from inside.

Rudolph asked one of the reindeer behind him:

"What if there is no house with a chimney large enough in an entire town or village?"

"Oh, there is always at least one," the reindeer told him. "The wizards take care of that."

Finally Klaus climbed out of the chimney and said cheerfully:

"Well, we're done here! Let's go on!"