Harry Potter and the Final Curse

Chapter 13 - The Christmas Party

Harry woke on Christmas morning in an unusually good mood. Glancing over at his alarm clock, Harry found the time to be only just past six o'clock. Normally he would still be incredibly tired, especially considering he didn't actually fall asleep until about one o'clock in the morning, but today he was unusually alert, making Harry suspicious that there really was something 'magical' about Christmas at Hogwarts.

This would be the first Christmas, in many years, that he would spend without the company of Ginny, which left him a little sad. Most Christmases they would spend over at Ginny's parents, where a few other members of the Weasleys would usually also turn up. Ginny was still doing the same this year, and she had arrived there a couple of days ago. It wasn't all bad news though; Harry still had his daughter here, along with several of his nephews, and Hermione, who was practically a member of the family.

Although full of energy, Harry decided to lay in bed a bit longer, savouring the warmth under the quilted bed sheets. Reaching over to his bedside table to retrieve his glasses, Harry also opened the single draw on the table and pulled out the manuscript Hermione had given him the other day. He didn't normally have much time to himself, but Harry tried to read Hermione's biography of himself whenever he had the opportunity; he normally only managed about three chapters a week, and was now reading about his first trip on the Hogwarts Express. It was all remarkably well written, even for Hermione's normally high standard, and Harry felt himself compelled to keep reading, even though he had experienced what was written first-hand and knew exactly what was coming next.

After he had finished the chapter he was on, Harry decided it was about time he got up and got ready, so he pulled the covers off his bed and went into the en-suite bathroom. The bathroom wasn't very big, a few metres square at the most, but at least it was his to use alone. He took extra care this morning in his daily routine of showering, shaving, and brushing his teeth, and used his best aftershave too. He then attempted to control his untidy hair, using the bathroom's only mirror above the sink, but, as usual, it was a losing battle, and he gave up after a couple of minutes.

Walking over to his wardrobe, back in the main part of his room, he then had to make the decision about what to wear today. Since it was Christmas, he thought he'd better wear something extra nice, and he picked out one of his smartest robes, a black one with a gold trim. With the party in mind, Harry had asked Ginny to send him his best robe - a silk one that was entirely emerald green apart from a tasteful blue stripe around the edges, and accompanying the robe would be a dark green cloak.

Harry put his glasses back on, as he had taken them off while in the bathroom, and made sure he had his wand firmly secured in his robes, before leaving his room for an eventful day. He strode perkily down the short, portrait-lined, corridor and into the staff common room, and surveyed the room, admiring the Christmas decorations that covered almost every surface, like he had been doing every morning since they had been put up. However, now it was the big day, all the wreaths, baubles, and tinsel seemed to look more gratifying than they had previously.

Harry had half-expected him to be the only one up this time in the morning, but was pleasantly surprised to find several people scattered around the room in various places. Harry was surprised at himself how quickly he integrated into the teacher society, and considered many of the faces he saw before him to be his friends.

Professor Cortes had obviously already finished with his present unwrapping, and was now sat down on the couch in front of the nearest fire, practising his guitar for tonight's performance. He played a pleasing old muggle Christmas tune, of which Harry had long since forgotten most of the words; he could recall only the chorus, of which 'Jingle Bells' was the most commonly used phrase. Professor Cortes, like Harry, was fully dressed, and he wore his ususal purple-coloured robe.

Stewart Ackerley, still wearing his paisley-and-white stripped pajamas, was seated by himself in the centre of the room, knee deep in boxes, ribbon, and wrapping paper. He was emptying the contents of a gift he had just received, what looked like a broomstick maintenance kit, onto the surface of the coffee table in front of him. He didn't seem to be that excited about the present, and Harry imagined it was probably something that he got every year.

Also present in the room were Professor Prose, the elderly wizard who taught Ancient Runes, and Professor Vector, the witch who taught Arithmancy. Both were huddled together at one of the tables in the centre of the room, going over what looked like a spell book.

"Morning, guys," said Harry cheerfully to everyone, giving a small wave. "Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas, Harry," replied Stewart, looking briefly away from the twig clipper he had in his hand.

"Or Feliz Navidad, as it's called in my native tongue," said Professor Cortes, still playing his guitar.

Professors Prose and Vector also returned his Christmas greeting.

Harry wandered over to the large arched-windows and gazed at the heavy snow fluttering to the ground below. It was fairly dark outside, as the sun had not completely risen yet, but it was still possible to see the thick layer of snow covering the school grounds. In his opinion, it wasn't Christmas without snow, and he was glad that it always snowed at this time of year at Hogwarts. The only drawback to the snow was that it was so cold, but the heat emanating from the two roaring fires in the staff common room negated that.

Harry noticed a rabbit (at least he thought it was a rabbit, it was difficult to tell precisely at this distance and in this light), hopping along in the snow near to a clump of trees that belonged to the Forbidden Forest, and he found himself watching its every movement. Then, all of a sudden, something large inside the forest grabbed the rabbit and fled, in a 'blink-and-miss-it' moment. For the fraction of a second that he saw it, it appeared to be some sort of large creature with black fur and big fangs, which he was sure was never mentioned in 'Fantastic Beasts and where to find them'. The phrase 'what's Hagrid been up to this time?' ventured into mind.

"Coffee, Professor Potter?" came a squeaky voice from behind him.

Forgetting about the monster, Harry turned round and looked downwards to face Tolby, the house elf, who was wearing a Christmas hat in addition to his simple grey clothing. He was holding out a sliver rectangular tray with half-a-dozen steaming hot mugs of coffee on it. Since he really wanted one, and to make Tolby happy, Harry picked up one of the mugs.

"Thank you, Tolby," said Harry, smiling down at him, "and Merry Christmas."

Tolby smiled and gently curtseyed before scampering off to serve coffee to the other teachers.

Harry savoured the coffee aroma for a moment (a lovely rich blend, even better than the usual offering) before turning his attention to the mountain of presents, of varying sizes and colours, lying under and around the elaborately decorated Christmas tree that lay in the far corner of the common room. After a good rummage, Harry discovered that he had received about twenty presents, ranging from one the size of his fist, to one about half the size of his whole body.

These presents, like all parcels and letters that came to the castle, had been screened by one of the members of staff to ensure that they were safe. Harry, himself, had examined many of them, although, for obvious reasons, he didn't check presents addressed to him.

"Looks like you got a good haul this year, Harry," commented Stewart as he noticed him organizing his presents.

"It sure looks that way," said Harry, turning back to his gifts.

The little kid inside Harry took over, and he went straight for the biggest present, wrapped delicately in blue paper with a red ribbon. The tag read 'To Harry, love from Ginny', and he ripped it open immediately, revealing a box with the insignia of 'Farnsworth & Sons', who, as Harry was well aware of, were the leading manufactures of protective wear for witches and wizards. He couldn't wait to see what was inside, so Harry broke the seals on the box with his wand and opened it. His mouth was left hanging wide open in astonishment as he was faced with one of the most beautiful sets of dragon skin armour he had ever seen, made from what looked like the hide of a Swedish short snout.

Dragon skin was an excellent material to make armour out of, not only for its strength, but also for its ability to resist magic. He was fortunate enough to already own a set of dragon armour, but that was second hand when he bought it and it was really showing signs of wear and tear. This new set was much better than his old one, even when it was brand new. Taking the breast plate out of the box, Harry tried it on over his clothes. Despite being quite flexible, the silvery-blue armour was remarkably strong, and he could feel the magic within it even though he wasn't wearing it properly.

The initial excitement had now worn off, and it dawned on him that the armour must have cost an absolute fortune. Panicking slightly about the state of his Gringotts' vault, Harry rationalised that Ginny wouldn't have been stupid enough to waste a sizable chunk of their combined wealth on one gift, no matter how good it was. She had probably been saving up for some time now, which probably explained the lacklustre present he had received for Christmas from her last year.

"Dragon skin?!" asked Professor Cortes with amazement, as he admired the armour. "Someone actually bought you dragon skin armour?"

"Yes," said Harry proudly. "It was a present from my wife."

"I wish my wife gave me presents like that," he said regretfully. "The best thing Estrella gave me this year was a new hat. Still, it's a nice hat, and I really needed a new one; I shall probably wear it at the party tonight."

Harry then remembered the main gift he had bought Ginny, a stunning diamond-encrusted gold necklace, and felt that it was in no way a fair exchange of presents, even though it wasn't exactly cheap and he must have spent hours upon hours searching for it. He would have to make it up to her, and he had a few ideas. At the very least he would have to talk to her via Floo, and thank her directly.

"I just wish I had a wife, or even a girlfriend, to give me presents," said Stewart sadly, "but so far I've had no luck meeting anyone like that."

"There must be someone that you like?" commiserated Harry, taking a gulp of his coffee.

"No," moped Mr. Ackerley. "There's no one. Truth be known, I've never had much luck with women."

Suddenly, the door that led to the common room from the broom cupboard opened up, and Herbology teacher Professor Greenvale entered, still dressed in her flowery nightwear with a dressing gown wrapped around her. Her eyes darted round the room for a few moments, apparently looking for someone, or something.

"What are you looking for, Flora?" asked Harry curiously, although most of his attention was firmly fixed on the rest of his presents.

"Well err...," she said nervously, sounding like she had forgotten the purpose of why she came to the common room. "Has has anyone seen P....Professor Granger?"

Mr. Ackerley went red, and tried to avert his eyes from her by using his right hand as a shield. "Nnnnn.nooo," he babbled.

Flora looked at Stewart strangely, in a half-sympathetic, half-embarrassed look.

"What he means to say," said Professor Cortes, butting in, "is that we haven't seen her. She's probably still up near Gryffindor Tower."

"Urthanks," she said, as she left the common room, closing the door behind her in a slight haste.

Harry and Professor Cortes just stared at Mr. Ackerley for a moment, which made him blush even more. He looked extremely uncomfortable under all this scrutiny; there was clearly more to the relationship between him and Flora than meets the eye.

Harry stared at Stewart for a moment longer, putting all the pieces together. "You like Flora, don't you?" he asked, with a sly smile.

"What?" answered Stewart immediately, putting on an obviously fake shocked tone. "What are you talking about?"

"You like her, Stewart," Professor Cortes repeated. "It's so obvious."

"I don't know where you got that idea," said Mr. Ackerley going through his box again and trying to look busy.

Harry and Professor Cortes just smiled broadly at each other. Harry made a plan to sort Stewart's love life out later, but for now he got stuck in to the rest of his presents.

From Hermione he received a desk organiser that resembled an in-and-out tray. According to the instructions with it, aside from serving as a handy place to put your incoming and outgoing papers, the organiser would actually tidy your desk for you, putting things into neat little piles and could also clean up ink spills. This gift was no doubt something to do with her constant remarks about how messy his office was.

From Ron he received an old leather-bound spell book, which according to the note that came with it, he found in an antique shop in Diagon Alley. Quickly flicking through the book, it contained a wide selection of spells, written in old English. It looked very interesting, but Harry put it aside for now, with every intention of coming back to it later.

His other presents, although not quite as impressive as the suit of armour, were just as welcome. These included - from Fred and George, a sample of prototype merchandise from their shop (there were some bonbons that were supposed to make the eater's ears grow to the size of an elephant's), and from Hagrid he received a fancy new quill, which made a change from the usual grizzly gift. He also got the usual assortment of socks and toiletries.

It had been a good selection of gifts he got this year, and he was pleased that he had so many friends and family that cared enough for him. With a little help from magic, Harry took his pile of gifts into his room where he could peruse them more thoroughly later. For now he had to sort out today's security arrangements.

Leaving the staff quarters with a spring in his step, Harry left like nothing could dampen his mood today.

* * *

Carrying out his usual morning security rounds, Harry's first port of call was the Auror headquarters in the old classroom, where he would issue today's orders. Tonks, it seemed, had wasted no time in putting up a few Christmas decorations, including several live fairies that flickered around the room. The three Aurors were all in high spirits, and happily accepted this morning's duties.

"If only young Neville were here," said Albert, "then this day would be even better than it already is."

Harry's own internal security rounds were fairly normal, requiring the wards on a few doors needing touching up, and his standard search of the castle. It was both comforting and disheartening that he found nothing that morning; after weeks of all these routines, Harry was hoping he'd find something substantial, but he never did. But no news was good news, or so Harry kept telling himself anyway.

Harry then had to go outside do a tour of the schools perimeter, where he would check whether the giant bubble-ward was still functioning correctly and touch it up if necessary. Putting on his warm winter cloak and scarf, Harry left through the main doors and ventured out into the school grounds.

Many of the members of the press, who were normally found to be camped outside the school gates, had evidently given up their surveillance for the day and had probably went to spend time with their families. There was still, however, about half-a-dozen still remaining, and they let rip with their questioning as Harry got near to the wards surrounding the school gates.

"Mr. Potter!" called a short, and very rotund, wizard, holding a notepad and quill. "A couple of questions if I may?!"

"Like I told you yesterday," said Harry, shouting back slightly aggressively, "and the day before that, and the day before that, and so on and so forth - I've already told you everything you're at liberty to hear!"

"Have you caught the murderer yet?!" shouted a young witch with a camera, taking a quick snap-shot of Harry.

"If there was any news!" said Harry, angrily, "I assure you that you lot will be the first to know!"

Harry ignored the constant badgering of questions, and didn't bother to answer any of them, as he did his scan of the wards. Luckily they were all still intact and Harry quickly left the press in the cold as he went back to the castle. Harry loathed journalists, and hated every time he had to check the wards on the school gates.

* * *

After his rounds were completed, Harry went up to Gryffindor Tower, where Hermione kindly let him into the common room in order to see his daughter. It was comforting to see that the common room had changed little over the years, the only real difference being a slight change in the placement of the furniture and one or two new pictures.

The common room was packed with students, most of them comparing and trying out their Christmas gifts. Sweets seemed to be a popular gift this year, like most years, and the room was so full of confections, in a whole range of colours, that it could almost be mistaken for Honneydukes. Harry sneakily took a couple of the 'Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans' when he thought no-one was looking; the first being a mouth-watering Strawberry, but the second was a disgusting furniture polish, which ended up being discreetly chucked in the bin..

It was strange to see the common room so busy during the Christmas holidays, but many of the Gryffindors saw it as a good thing, which was quite evident from the remains of yesterday's mini-party littering the entire room and surrounding area. To say it was a complete mess would be an understatement, with numerous discarded Butterbeer bottles on the floor, and the remains of several magical fireworks. The party had obviously gone well into to the early hours of the morning, not giving the house elves any real time to clear up. Harry remembered the parties in his day well, and it seemed that they had lost none of their zest over the years.

Still mounted above the notice board were photographs of the Gryffindor house Quidditch teams that had won the cup in a particular year. Harry's eyes immediately scanned the photos to find the one taken in his third year, and he found it, just as the little version of himself was smugly showing off his Firebolt to the gaping mouths of the Weasley twins. Oliver Wood stood at the back of the shot, surrounded by the three Chasers, and proudly held the cup itself above his head. Looking at the rest of the photos since that event, Harry saw that there were only another four of them, and none for the last three years.

One of the students, a second year girl known affectionately by her nickname of Twinkle, greeted Harry soon afterwards and went to find Lily and his nephews for him. He only had to wait a minute before Lily was running up to him and threw her arms around his neck, dragging him down to her level.

"Thanks for all the presents, Dad," said Lily, relenting with her hug and allowing Harry to stand up properly again. "I really liked the massive slab of chocolate, and all the other stuff, but where was that owl you and mum promised me?"

"If you remember correctly," said Harry, drawing her mind back to before she had left home, "we said that you could have an owl only if you behaved yourself."

"But I have been good!" moaned Lily. "I haven't done anything wrong for weeks now!"

"That may be so, but the things you did before that, including the episode with the broomsticks that I won't mention here, were more than enough to strike the owl from your list. But, considering your recent spell of good behaviour, I'm willing to consider getting you an owl for your birthday, providing this pattern of admirable conduct continues."

"But my birthday's in May! That's ages!" she whined.

"Sorry, Lily, but that's my final offer," said Harry firmly.

Lily's lamenting about not having an owl continued for a couple of minutes, before she finally gave up. She then proceeded to tell Harry all about the other gifts she had received today, including, from Fred and George, a selection of their most popular products. Harry reminded himself not to accept any food from Lily for the next few weeks.

Harry then caught a glimpse of striking red hair in the corner of his eye, and he turned to find both of his Gryffindor nephews, Jacques and Philip Weasley. Harry had not really noticed it before, but Jacques was starting to resemble his father, Bill, including his slightly cavalier attitude to presenting himself. Philip on the other hand, took more from his mother - thin and gangly but with the red hair of his father.

"Jacques, Philip," said Harry, beckoning them to come and join him and Lily.

Harry spent about an hour in the Gryffindor common room, relishing the time there as much as possible. Apart from his conversations with Lily and his nephews, he enjoyed talking with many of the other Gryffindors he had gotten to know over the past couple of months.

Most of them seemed to be looking forward to tonight's party, and some of them had already started making their preparations for it, as Harry noticed a group of sixth years discussing what they were going to wear tonight, sharing make-up tips in the process. It appeared that many of them were considering the night to be really special, and had arranged dates with other students; One sixth-year boy, who Harry was fairly certain was called Kevin, was nervously asking a trio of similarly aged, giggling girls whether they had a date yet. Luckily for Kevin, one of the girls agreed to go with him.

Harry said farewell to all the Gryffindors as he left the common room and went back to his duties.

* * *

Harry arrived in the Great Hall at around one o'clock to find it packed out with students and teachers alike, all waiting for the magnificent lunch they were about to have. The usual doom and gloom that covered the student's faces seemed to vanish as they sat there chatting and joking with their friends, although he could easily imagine that many of them would rather have spent this day at home with their families. In order to help lighten spirits, students were allowed to sit anywhere they liked. While most sat at their normal house table, some had swapped in order to sit with close friends and family from other houses.

The decorations in the hall were simply magnificent, with literally dozens of live fairies, colossally long streamers of all different colours that snaked their way around the hall, and stars that actually twinkled. Harry couldn't recall a time when it looked this good before, and the teachers responsible deserved congratulating.

A small table, only big enough to seat six people at the most, had been set up near to the main doors leading into the Great Hall, where the three Aurors were sitting, making sure no student decided to slip out unnoticed. Harry sat down with them for a moment, further discussing the security arrangements, before he left to go to sit at the teacher's table.

Upon walking up towards the teacher's table, Harry was pleased to hear several of the students wish him a merry Christmas.

"Merry Christmas, Uncle Harry," said Arthur Weasley as he stood up proudly and sharply from the Ravenclaw table, not noticing that he had almost unseated the boy sat next to him. "Thank you so much for the present you got me."

Harry couldn't actually remember buying a present for Arthur, and so assumed that Ginny must have been the one that bought it, although he had no idea what it was.

"Errr no problem," said Harry awkwardly. "Glad you liked it."

Harry quickly left before he had to answer questions about the gift, whatever it was, and sat down at the head-table in his usual spot, between Hermione and Professor Lal. Most of the teachers were already here, the only exceptions being McGonagall, Snape, and Professor Greenvale. The feast would only start once everyone had arrived.

"Merry Christmas, Harry," said Professor Lal, heartily. "Hermione tells me that her house had a really amazing party last night, but I'm sure it wasn't as mad as the one Hufflepuff had."

"Well, I can't comment on Hufflepuff's party, having not seen it," said Harry, "but, from what I've seen of the state of the Gryffindor common room, it was really wild."

"Did all the houses have a party?" asked Mr. Ackerley, who sat next to Professor Lal.

"From what Severus told me, the Slytherins did, yes," said Professor Lal. "Apparently he broke up the celebrations at two o'clock in the morning, and insisted that everyone behave themselves and go to bed. I don't think many of the Slytherins argued with him."

"Flora told me that the Ravenclaws had an exciting one too," said Hermione, "but she may have exaggerated things a little. She's never really been one for parties, or any other social occasion for that matter. I once arranged a quick get-together for her birthday one year, scarcely more than a couple of friends and a bottle of wine, and she said it was the most enjoyable time of her life."

"I know what you mean," reminisced Mr. Ackerley. "When I knew her as a student, she was always the quiet one who sat in the corner with her head in a book, never really spoke to anyone unless she wanted something. Naturally, she never joined in with any parties or anything, and I don't think she had any true friends. It was a shame really, since I ."

Mr. Ackerley broke off in mid sentence as he apparently noticed something on the other side of the room. Following his yearning gaze, Harry saw Professor Greenvale as she walked up towards the teacher's table and sat down in her usual spot, next to where Snape would be seated.

"Everything ok, Flora?" asked Hermione kindly.

"Yes," she said quietly. "Everything is fine."

Professors McGonagall and Snape entered the Great Hall shortly afterwards, apparently having just been in one of their usual administrative meetings. Most of the students seemed to quieten down as they entered, although there was still a fair amount of chatter.

After they both found their seats, McGonagall stood up and held a spoon in the air. With a quick flick of her wand, the spoon changed into a magnificent silvery-white dove, which flew around the hall, cooing loudly, before perching itself on McGonagall's hand and being turned back into a spoon. The students seemed deeply impressed by it, and began clapping.

The whole dove-spoon routine apparently had two objectives - getting the students attention, and proving that she hadn't lost her skills at Transfiguration. Hermione, Harry could tell, was racking her brains for something equally as stunning to show to the school, which probably involved her animagi abilities.

After the applause stopped, McGonagall spoke. "Thank you, all," she began. "I'm glad to see such cheery faces in such dire times such as these. It has now been three weeks since the unfortunate deaths of Professor Asgard and young Mr. Smith from Slytherin, but it seems that our extra security measures had proven to be effective at preventing any more tragedies. I thank all of you for your corporation and resilience; I know it has been hard," she paused before carrying on. "Moving on to tonight's events, the party I'm sure most of you have been looking forward to, will start at half past seven. As normal, you will be collected in small groups from your common rooms by members of staff. Those of you who have decided not to attend are reminded to remain within your common rooms and dormitories, which will be checked at regular intervals."

Snape then spoke up. "I know tonight is designed to be a chance to enjoy yourself, but I expect you all to show some signs of sensibility, and try not to break the security arrangements that have been made for your own safety," he said in probably the most monotonous voice he had.

"Yes, of course," said McGonagall, nodding politely at Snape. "Now, after those few words, I believe it is time for the Christmas lunch to begin. So without further delay - tuck in!"

All the tables in the Great Hall were suddenly covered in delicious looking seasonal foods, including multiple plump turkeys that looked simply wonderful. Harry, having deliberately skipped any sort of breakfast that morning in order to create more room, immediately tucked in to the feast, beginning with a turkey leg. Hermione showed a little more restraint in her consumption, claiming she was trying to watch her figure, but Harry knew she couldn't resist the food any more than he could.

After gorging himself silly for a few minutes, Harry then just remembered the crackers that were on the table. Most of the other people, it seemed, hadn't forgotten about them, including McGonagall who was wearing a set of antlers on her head. Harry pulled his own cracker with Professor Lal, and ended up with a fairly plain-looking black bowler hat. Feeling a little disappointed, Harry stuck it on his head anyway.

Mere moments later, the bowler hat began to get very hot, before exploding loudly and covering the entire top table and surrounding area in bright multicoloured sparks, which vanished after about ten seconds. There was a lot of laughter from the students and teachers alike, and Harry was forced to laugh himself.

"Let me guess - this one came from Fred and George?" Harry asked Hermione, pulling the charred remains of the hat off his head and casting it aside.

"Naturally," she smirked, adjusting her own hat - an garishly bright-pink top hat.

"Fred and George?" inquired Professor Lal, who couldn't help overhearing. "Who are they?"

"Proprietors of 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes'," said Harry.

"You two know them personally then?" he asked.

"You could say that," said Hermione. "Apart from going to school with them, I just happen to be engaged to one of their brothers."

"And I just happen to be married to their sister," said Harry.

"Wow," said Professor Lal. "Their family sure gets around. I heard a rumour that their father is the Minister for Magic himself, but I'm sure that's just mumbo jumbo."

"No," said Hermione. "That most definitely is true."

"Really? Well you find out something new every day," remarked Professor Lal.

After everyone had eaten their share of the main course, dessert was served immediately afterwards. Harry had already eaten so much that he felt he couldn't eat another bite, but the various puddings looked too nice to pass up. He decided that if he ate slowly enough, he might just about manage to eat some Christmas pudding without throwing up. After about the fifth spoonful, Harry just couldn't eat anymore, and he gave up for now, with the intention of bringing some of the sweet stuff back to his room for later. Hermione had also given up by now for the most part, and was now just nibbling lightly on a piece of fruit cake. Harry had considered beforehand about taking a 'Stomach Stretching' potion so that would be able to eat more, but the potion nearly always left an very unpleasant aftertaste in the mouth which discouraged him from doing so.

Many of the students seemed to have limitless, and un-magically enhanced, stomachs and kept shovelling the food in, especially one rather fat boy at the head of the Slytherin table, who was betting to his mates that he could finish a whole five Christmas puddings in one go. Thinking the task was impossible for anyone other than his cousin Dudley, Harry watched in amazement as the boy downed the final mouthful in triumph.

After everyone had finished eating, McGonagall gave them all a short break before she instructed the rest of the teachers to begin the escorting process. After all the students had been taken back to their common rooms, the teachers then began to make final preparations for the party.

* * *

At seven o'clock that evening, Harry had just about recovered from the Christmas lunch. He was now in the Great Hall with the three other Aurors, double, and triple checking the security. Several areas had been designated for party use, where the students were not allowed to venture from. It seemed to defeat the objective of having a party by having restricted areas, but it was agreed that they needed to be there.

The Great Hall itself would be there for the vast majority of the partying, with the only exit being the main door. The five large tables that normally resided in the hall were packed away and were replaced by numerous smaller tables scattered around the edges, creating a large dance area in the middle. Where the teacher's table used to be, was a slightly elevated wooden stage, which would primarily serve as the station for the musicians. Behind the stage was the magnificent tree that Hagrid had procured, adorned like the rest of hall in exquisite decorations. There were also a few buffet bars in various parts of the hall that were due to be stocked with food and drink.

The Entrance Hall would serve as a sort of 'crash out' area so people could take a break, for which numerous pieces of seating had been provided. The main doors out of the school along with the staircases would be sealed off once everyone had gotten here. It hadn't been as elegantly decorated as the Great Hall, but it still looked very nice and festive.

Several adjoining areas of the Entrance Hall had been set for party use, including a couple of bathrooms, and a smaller room which the teachers would use as a sort of headquarters.

In order to help security, students were asked not to bring their wands with them, and leave them back in their dormitories. All students would be checked as they entered the party area to ensure that they weren't carrying a wand or any other contraband. The last thing the teachers wanted was a repeat of the 'Pink Mischief' incident, and so Lily and Tina were to be watched like a hawk.

Once Harry had finished sorting out security, he then put his attention into sorting out something else he'd been planning all day - setting up Stewart Ackerley with Flora Greenvale. Initially Flora didn't want to come, thinking that she'd just be a loose part, but thankfully Hermione was able to change her mind. Stewart was easy enough to get to the party, since he had been looking forward to it for the past few days. It was obvious that Stewart liked Flora, but what wasn't known was whether the reverse was true, but Harry had to at least try and set them up.

Stewart arrived shortly before the students were due, wearing a very smart, dark grey suit with a simple black cloak around him. It was a bit of a surprise to see Stewart dressed so formally, as he normally wore more a more casual get-up.

"Evening, Harry," said Stewart exuberantly as he surveyed the hall's furnishings. "This place sure turned out well."

"Nice of you to come, Stewart," said Harry. "And so smartly dressed as well."

"Thank you, Harry," said Stewart, looking at Harry's green silk robes. "Nice to see I'm not the only one who made an effort."

Flora arrived shortly afterwards, being almost forcefully led by Hermione who was at her side. While Hermione generally didn't make a big deal out of her appearance when it came to everyday life, her demeanour at parties was a completely different story, and she wore a stunning white dress; although she wasn't the woman for him, Harry could clearly see why Ron found her so appealing.

Flora, who didn't make quite as much effort as Hermione, was still fairly pretty in a dress, which was exactly the same colour as Ravenclaw blue. The dress she now wore was much more fitting, allowing her slim figure to be seen. She had also changed her hair; it was now hung loosely and seemed to shimmer more in the light.

"Evening, Hermione, Flora," said Harry smiling, as he greeting the pair. "Don't you both look gorgeous?"

Hermione tittered slightly and waved her hand coyly at Harry. "Oh, you're such a charmer."

Flora didn't say anything, but just went slightly red and avoided anyone's gaze.

Harry made a forceful gesture over at Stewart to try and get him to join him, which he did rather reluctantly.

"Don't Hermione and Flora look lovely, Stewart?" asked Harry.

Stewart looked at both of the ladies, although it was obvious he gave Flora only a cursory glance. "Yes, you look beautiful, Hermione."

Harry coughed deliberately at Stewart and nodded his head over in the direction of Flora, trying to prompt him.

"And you look really nice too, Flora," said Stewart tensely, without actually looking at her.

Luckily for Stewart, Professor Cortes entered the hall, guitar in hand, followed by the students who had volunteered to play music tonight, which distracted the attention from Flora. Prospero was wearing a violet-coloured robe like he normally did, but with the addition of the new hat he had received as a present from his wife. Prospero was right, it was a nice hat; a standard shaped wizards hat, black in colour, covered in tiny animated stars, planets, and other astrological phenomenon.

"Come along, boys and girls," said Professor Cortes merrily, his guitar clutched in his left hand. "We can get a little last minute practice in before everyone else arrives."

Professor Cortes and the five students went up on the wooden stage, where the student's instruments were already set up. They all found their respective instrument and began to make sure they were tuned. Harry gave his nephew a slight wave, as Jacques Weasley picked up the double bass and plucked a few notes.

Once everyone was reasonably happy, Professor Cortes began. "Right, let's start with a nice easy one to get warmed up - Witch's Mantra, by the Weird Sisters."

All the students agreed to it and started playing; the instruments magically amplified to reach every corner of the hall. The tune itself, although very simple, was quite catchy, and Harry found himself humming along to it. All the musicians played extremely well, and he thought the music should go down well with the rest of the school.

Just remembering about Professor Greenvale, Harry looked around to see where she was, but she seemed to have disappeared somewhere. Hermione shrugged and went to go look for her.

After ten minutes or so, Hermione could find no trace of her, but that was the least of Harry's worries as the first batch of students entered the hall, escorted by Professor Lal. Even though most students didn't really have any dress robes with them, nevertheless a lot of them made every effort to dress up as smartly as possible. At first they looked a little lost, but after a couple of minutes they began to spread out, investigating the food and decorations.

Tonks arrived shortly afterwards with the next batch of students. Tonks wore a very festive red dress with tinsel around the edges. She had also changed the colour of her hair to snow-white, to match the Christmas theme. The students began to fan out like the others, finding their friends among the earlier group.

At around a quarter to eight, all the students and teachers that were attending had arrived in the Great Hall, although there was still no sign of Professor Greenvale. McGonagall, dressed in her usual prim and proper manner, went up on the creaking wooden stage in front of the musicians, who stopped playing for a moment.

"Welcome to you all," announced McGonagall. "First of all I'd like to thank the students who sacrificed their time in order to provide us with some entertainment this evening," she gestured towards the musicians. "I'd also like to thank the members of staff without whose efforts this night would not be possible. We're all here to have fun, so I won't bore you with an exceptionally long-winded speech that I am told I am famous for"

"Too late!" shouted a boy from the back of the hall.

Most of hall broke out in soft laughter. Harry was almost expecting McGonagall to single out the person responsible for that remark and give them detention, but instead she smiled herself at the humour of it and let it fly.

"Indeed," said McGonagall. "Well anyway, let the merriment begin!"

McGonagall nodded to Professor Cortes who started the music up again, this time a very mellow tune in order for people to mingle more easily. She went down and joined Harry and Hermione, who were lurking towards the left of the stage.

"Well I'm not afraid to say it," said McGonagall. "Good work to you and everyone else responsible for tonight."

"Thank you, Professor," said Harry.

"Oh, come now, Harry," she said. "I think it's time that you start calling me by my first name. We're both on more or less the same level now."

"Of course, Minerva," said Harry uneasily, having to force the last bit out.

"What's happened to Severus?" asked Hermione. "I haven't seen him yet."

"Severus says he has urgent business to attend to and will not be making an appearance tonight," said McGonagall. "That's his official statement anyway. He will still be doing his rounds though, ensuring no student is somewhere they're not supposed to be. And by the way, before I came down here, I was in touch with the Ministry - they may have found us a replacement for Professor Asgard."

"Who?" asked Hermione.

"They didn't say, probably because they haven't secured his or her services yet. They did assure us, though, that we will have a Muggle studies teacher by the time the new term starts."

"Well that's good news, isn't it?" said Harry, hopefully. "At least now, Hermione, you won't have to juggle the teaching of two subjects at once."

"Anyway," said McGonagall. "I'll let you know the very instant I find out some news about the new teacher. I think I see Professor Lal wants a word with me, so if you will excuse me."

McGonagall left to mingle with Professor Lal and the other teachers, who were scattered around various parts of the Great Hall and nearby areas. Hermione left on another quest to find where Flora had gone to, while Harry went to socialise with the teachers and the students, and check on security one more time.

After about an hour, the party was really starting to get going. The students were obviously enjoying themselves as they danced, ate, drank, and joked with their friends. The music had now picked up the tempo a little, enticing more people onto the dance floor. Harry was briefly tempted to go and dance himself, when they played a favourite song of his, but feared he'd look a right idiot among all these people less than half his age. He was pretty sure he saw Dumbledore lurking in a few of the paintings, apparently enjoying the party as well.

Harry then decided to do his rounds again, and found Lily and Tina helping themselves to punch from one of the buffet tables.

Lily's normally limp shoulder-length black hair was tied in a plait, with a butterfly brooch tied around the end. She wore a pretty pink party-dress, a favourite of hers for about a couple of years now, although she was starting to get too big for it.

Tina was dressed in a more gothic-style black outfit, which clashed tremendously with Lily's pink outfit. Although she was naturally tall for her age (and lanky with it), Tina wore shoes with a fairly high heel, making her almost a head taller than her friend.

"Not causing any trouble, I hope?" inquired Harry, still deeply suspicious of the two of them.

"No, we're behaving ourselves, sir," said Tina innocently, hastily putting the ladle back in the punch bowl and putting her cup firmly on the table.

"Nothing going on at all, Dad," said Lily.

"Good," said Harry. "That's what I like to hear."

Harry had a look round the rest of the hall to see what was going on with everyone else. Hagrid, wearing an awful brown suit that Harry suspected was the same one he had twenty years ago, was chatting to a couple of seventh year students.

He was just about to go and talk to Hagrid when he spotted Stewart lurking in a corner of the hall, behind the stage, by himself. Leaning up against the wall with a goblet of pumpkin juice in his hand, Stewart looked miserable.

"There you are, Stewart," said Harry, joining him in the corner. "I wondered where you'd got to."

"I'm just taking a breather," explained Stewart. "Is it me, or is it hot in here?"

"Now that you mention it, it is a little on the warm side. Must be all these sweaty bodies on the dance floor? Either that or its all that clothing you're wearing," smiled Harry, gesturing at his suit and cloak. "Maybe you ought to cast a cooling charm or something?"

"Yeah, probably," said Stewart distantly, sounding like he wasn't listening to the conversation.

"What's up with you?" asked Harry curiously, leaning on the same area of wall as Stewart. "You seem a little ... distracted."

Stewart didn't answer immediately, and took a longer than normal swig of his pumpkin juice. "It's nothing," he said aversely. "Nothing that you need to worry about anyway."

"Oh come on," implored Harry, his face becoming more kindly. "I think we've known each other long enough now."

Stewart looked at Harry uneasily before finally revealing what was on his mind. "Well alright, it's about Flora," he admitted.

Harry grinned. "I though it might be. It's glaringly obvious that you like her."

"Yeah, I do like her," explained Stewart. "The trouble is I don't know where to go from here. I've never been any good at talking to women."

"Join the club," said Harry. "Anyway, I suppose in this case it's even harder for you; Flora's not exactly the easiest person to talk to socially. Have you ever had a proper conversation with her?"

Stewart thought hard for a moment. "There's only two that I can recall. Once, back when we were students, I asked her for help with my Herbology homework. The other time was last year, when we had to supervise an exam together. In both occasions, the conversation only extended as far as to what the weather was doing at the time."

Harry tried to think of some words of wisdom, but he came up with nothing aside from, "The only advice I can really give is to find something in common between the two of you."

Harry couldn't believe he had just said that. The phrases 'stating the obvious' and 'he's probably heard that a million times' came into his head.

Stewart, however, did not mock Harry's suggestion, and seemed to muse upon it, turning to face him for the first time in this conversation. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but what did you find in common with your wife? Ginny isn't it?"

"Well, nothing really specific at first," said Harry, remembering back to his early days with Ginny, "a lot of time we just used to talk about her brothers, but, as time went on, I found out we shared similar ideals and hopes. Plus we liked the same kind of music, and we both like Quidditch, which helped too."

"Trouble is, I don't think Flora's that interested in Quidditch, and I'm not that bothered about plants."

"It may seem like you're miles apart at the moment, but give it time and I'm sure you can find some mutual interest."

"How much time did it take for you and Ginny to get together?" asked Stewart, his posture changing from the disinterested one it was before, to one curious about a glimpse at Harry's past.

"Quite some time actually," explained Harry. "When I first properly met her, she seemed to have a crush on me, which, as a twelve year old boy, I found a little annoying. Things got easier though, over time, and I grew to like her as a friend. At the end of my sixth year, during the summer holidays, something changed between us, I can't explain what exactly, but it changed so that we decided to give the relationship game a go, and we officially became an item soon into my seventh year at Hogwarts."

"So, did your relationship continue to this day?"

"Not exactly. After I finished my final year and went off to the Auror Training Academy, she was still at school, and we sort of drifted apart a little, despite our best efforts to try and stay a couple. We might have actually succeeded, if it hadn't been for Felicity."

"Felicity? Who's she?" asked Stewart, his interest piqued.

"Felicity Heartland," reminisced Harry, staring dreamily into the air. "She was one of my fellow Auror trainees, and we hit it off almost immediately. I sort of started going out with her, even though me and Ginny were technically still together. Not wanting to upset Ginny, I discussed the possibility of us seeing other people and we agreed to it; it turned out that Ginny had her eye on another guy anyway and was only holding back for my sake. So, anyway, Felicity and I became a couple, while Ginny got on with her life."

"Go on," compelled Stewart.

"Things were great between Felicity and I. We had so much in common - both of us living as Muggles for the early part of our lives gave us an understanding that I never had with Ginny. She was beautiful, smart, kind, had a great sense of humour - I really though I had hit the jackpot."

"She sounded nice," commented Stewart. "So her parents were Muggles then?"

"Yes. The best thing was, since she was never brought up knowing about the famous Harry Potter, she liked me for who I was, not for what I had done. The fact that I had recently defeated Voldemort didn't even factor into our relationship. We became close, very close, until a little thing called 'love' blossomed. After two years, I proposed to her, and she said yes; we were both so happy."

"So what went wrong?"

"It's difficult to explain," said Harry edgily. "I can't even make total sense of it myself. I suppose it all started when we actually moved in together, after we had both graduated from Auror training. I was twenty-one at the time, I think. Anyway, after about six months, she began to get very secretive with me, even with seemingly trivial things, until one day I woke up and she was gone, along with most of her stuff."

"She left you?"

"That's the way it looks. She left a note basically saying that we couldn't be together anymore, although she didn't give any real explanation. I've been over and over again in my head with it, and to this day I can't work out why. We were happy together, extremely happy, were even talking about starting a family."

"Sorry to hear that," commiserated Stewart. "My heart goes out to you."

"I was so heartbroken I didn't leave the flat for about a week; I just couldn't get over it. Luckily Ron was still my best friend in those days, and he tried to help as much as he could. He suggested that I come visit his family, to take my mind off what happened. Since work had forcibly given me time off, I agreed to it. That's when I came in contact with Ginny again, who I hadn't seen face-to-face in about three years."

"You and Ginny got back together then?"

"Not at first no, I couldn't face going into another relationship straight away. But Ginny was there to comfort me when I needed a shoulder to cry on, and after a while I realised how much I missed her. Since Ginny's love life was going nowhere at the time, we decided to try it again, though we proceeded at a very leisurely pace. A couple of years down the line we got married, and you can probably work out the rest."

"Did you ever see Felicity again?"

"I tried a couple of occasions to get in touch with her, for old times sake, but I never got anywhere," said Harry, before taking a long pause to ponder on Felicity; something he would occasionally finding himself doing during periods when his mind wandered, although he was careful never do it whenever Ginny was about. He often debated whether Ginny or Felicity was the true love of his life, although he could never make a firm decision; he was at least sure that he loved Felicity fifteen years ago, and that his heart belonged to Ginny now. "Anyway, here I am prattling on about a lost love when we're supposed to be talking about you and Flora."

"Right," said Stewart, re-acquainting himself with the original discussion. "The thing that I'm worrying about is I don't even know if she likes me in the first place. What if she just doesn't like me as a person? And I know what they say about physical appearance not mattering, but I think there has to be at least some sort of physical attraction for it to work. What if she finds me unattractive?"

"Well, I know this will sound a bit strange coming from a guy, but I think you're quite handsome. And, as far as your personality goes, you're one of the nicest people I know; any woman would be lucky to go out with someone like you."

"Err...thanks, I guess," said Stewart, noticeable embarrassed.

At that moment, Harry's attention was drawn by someone waving on the other side of the hall, not far from the main doors. On closer inspection, it appeared that it was Hermione, and she was waving straight at him. He waved back at her and mouthed the word 'what?', upon which Hermione pointed to someone standing by the entrance. It was Flora, and she was looking extremely sheepish.

Harry had a sudden brainwave out of nowhere. He wasn't sure whether it was going to work or not but it seemed as good a plan as any. Going over to the wooden stage, Harry whispered something into Prospero's ear. The music changed from the vibrant tune it had been to a much more mellow and romantic tune. Not all the students were completely happy with the change of music, but many of them saw it as the perfect opportunity to get in a little paired dancing.

Harry led Stewart to the centre of the dance floor where they met up with Hermione and Flora.

"Just ask her to dance and let fate decide," said Harry quietly to Stewart.

In order to show an example, Harry bowed graciously at Hermione. "May I have this dance?"

Hermione looked a little confused for a moment, since paired dancing was usually the furthest thing from Harry's mind, but she wasn't going to pass up this opportunity. At the very least it would give her a story for her and Ginny to laugh about. "Of course," she happily agreed, offering her hand out.

Harry took Hermione's hand and began to dance with her slowly in a sort of Waltz, all the while keeping an eye on what Stewart and Flora were doing.

"Nice idea," said Hermione, finally realising what this dancing was all about. "Do you think it'll work?"

"It better do," said Harry. "You know how much I hate dancing like this."

Stewart and Flora stared indistinctly at each other, each evidently waiting for the other to do something. After about a minute of this, Harry couldn't stand the sight of their indecisiveness much longer and took action. Wheeling himself and Hermione round, Harry gave Stewart a light kick in the back of the leg and muttered something than rhymed with 'duck'.

Stewart seemed to get the message Harry was trying purvey to him. Stewart was noticeably sweating, and he nervously tried to find something to do with his hands, before he blurted the question out. "Errrr ... err ... errr ... w ... w ... would you l ... like to dance, F ... Flora?"

Flora looked a little taken aback by the question, and she looked over at Hermione in the hope that she would provide the answer. Hermione forcefully nodded and mouthed the word 'yes'.

"Ermm ... ok," she said quietly. "But I'm not a very good dancer."

"That's ok," said Stewart, visibly pleased he was finally making contact. "I'm not very good either."

Flora stuck her hand out in front of her with the plan that Stewart would take it, which he thankfully did, and they began dancing. Harry stifled a shout of rejoicing that the whole hall would have probably heard. Hermione was equally just as pleased, although she was a little more restrained and settled with a broad grin.

Stewart and Flora continued to dance, although they still kept a respectful distance from each other, much like what it would be if you had to dance with your aunt or uncle, and there was little chance of anything other than their hands touching. Nevertheless, they still looked like they were enjoying themselves.

Harry wasn't sure what the cause was - perhaps the fact a friend of his was enjoying himself, the fact that he was dancing with a beautiful woman, or a combination of things, but he was starting to appreciate ballroom dancing for the first time in his life, something he never thought possible.

"Now all we have to do," said Harry to Hermione as they danced, "is get the two of them to kiss."

"One step at a time," reminded Hermione. "One step at a time."