Harry Potter and the Book of Impossibility

Chapter 15 - Christmas Dinner.

 

When they finally got home, they were all in a bad mood. They had to wait half an hour for the bus to arrive, they were tired, and they were still not very pleased about the events from that night. To make their bad mood even worse, they were freezing because it was cold and there was a lot of wind, their ears and noses ached very much.

 

Karlien made four hot-water bottles and placed them in both beds.

Karlien and Harry placed one at their feet, and one in their pillow, they fell asleep almost immediately.

 

Next morning, they were all in a much better mood, Harry and Karlien spent two full hours in a hot bath, and Hermione and Ron did the same when Harry and Karlien were finished.

 

That night, all the old snow had been replaced by fresh, beautiful, white snow, and after brunch, they went to the playgrounds of the school, where all the kids from the neighbourhood were having a snow fight.

Karlien asked them if they were allowed to join, and they were.

Ron was getting pretty good in snow fighting, because of all the practise in Hogwarts.

There were two teams, Harry, Hermione, Karlien and Ron against all the others.

The others were with much more people, but Harry and co. seemed to resist very good, and the game ended with no winners, it was tie.

 

After the fight, Karlien introduced them to some old friends, muggle friends.

They went to the house of one of her friends. Her mother made hot chocolate with whipped cream. It was delicious.

"I have to do some Christmas shopping, are you coming with me?" Eline, Karlien’s friend, asked.

"Of course," Harry said, "I’ve forgotten to buy something when I did my own Christmas shopping, I can do it now."

So they went to the mall, it was very near by, they walked to it in five minutes.

It was all very new, some parts were still under construction.

"Welcome to ‘Plein 1960’, it’s built in, you’ll never guess, 1960," Eline said, "but last few years they are rebuilding it, the cinema opened last week, soon it will be opened officially by the queen of the Netherlands, Queen Beatrix.

The Crown Prince and his future wife, Maxima Zorreguieta, will be here too." Eline said.

"Future wife, have they got permission to marry then?" Karlien asked.

"I can see you haven’t been here for a while, they got permission months ago, they’re going to marry next year, 02-02-’02, funny date, isn’t it?"

"It’s my mothers birthday! She’ll be honoured, a country celebrating her birthday! Haha!" Karlien laughed.

 

Eline gave them a tour through the mall, and Harry saw the shop he was searching for.

"You guys go ahead, I’ll meet you here in half an hour, I need to buy something." Harry said.

"Can’t we come with you?" Karlien asked.

"Christmas shopping" Harry said. They understood, and left him.

 

Harry looked in the shop for a while, searching for the right thing.

After a while he found two, it was hard to decide, because they were both beautiful, after making a hard decision, he bought one of them.

The 30 minutes were almost over, and he was satisfied.

Karlien, Ron, Eline and Hermione were already waiting for him.

 

"Lets buy some doughnut balls." Eline said.

"Good idea," Hermione said, "My mother used to make them when I was little, I loved them."

There was a shop, called ‘Oliebollenkraam’, that’s were they bought a dozen doughnut balls with powdered sugar. They loved it, they had eaten them on Hogwarts, but these were much better.

 

That night, Karlien’s family had prepared a Christmas dinner.

There was a long table in the living room with enough seats for the whole family and Harry, Ron and Hermione.

 

There was a turkey, and a lot of other food. For the smaller kids, they had gone to a snackbar, to buy chips.

It was a long and enjoyable evening. Long after the dinner they talked. They small kids were already in bed, and suddenly Harry stood up.

Every looked at him.

"I’ve got something to ask." Harry said nervously.

He walked to Karlien, and hold her hands in his hands.

"Dear Karlien,

Since we’ve known each other, I’ve loved you. You are the first person in my life I remember to love me, my parents must have loved me, but I don’t remember that."

Everybody was listening to Harry, and Karlien blushed furiously.

"On our first day at school, you told me about a thing called ‘being meant for each other’. Some people don’t believe in it, but I do, I’ve never felt so certain about anything in my whole life.

On our first day in school, I’ve also promised something.

First I saw it as a joke, but after a long talk with you, Ron and Hermione, I realised it was for real.

We made a deal, I would ask you, and if I did, Ron and Hermione would take care of everything.

This afternoon, during the snow fight, I remembered this, I hadn’t thought about it at all. I realised there was something I had to buy. Luckily I got that opportunity, and I bought it. You guys thought it was some Christmas shopping, it wasn’t."

Harry kneeled in front of her on one knee, and got a little box out of his pocket.

"It was this I bought for you." He opened the little box, and a beautiful engagement ring was in it. She gasped because of it’s beauty.

"Karlien, will you marry me?"

Everybody was staring at the couple, tears of happiness were running down Brigitte’s cheek, Ron and Hermione looked really happy, but also shocked because they had a wedding to organise.

All the other family members were just staring with open mouths at Karlien and Harry.

Karlien looked in Harry’s eyes for almost a minute.

"Yes." She finally said.

They both stood up and held each other, looking in each others eyes, slowly they closed their eyes.

Karlien’s mouth touched his, and they kissed.

 

His Patronus could kill a Dementor right now if he used this memory. Harry heard the Phoenix song in his head, but not just one, it sounded like all the Phoenixes in the whole world were singing. Flashbacks were running through his head. He relived the moment they had met each other, their first kiss and the look on Dudley’s face, the shower adventure on their first night, Halloween night, the night that was supposed to be this night.

There was even a memory of his parents, the first happy memory of his parents, he was lying in his little bed, and his parents were playing with him, he held his father’s finger in his tiny hand. Then his mother got him out of the bed, and hugged him. She gave him a kiss on his forehead, then his father joined the hug.

Harry had never felt so happy in his whole life. Winning the Quidditch cup in his third year was nothing compared to this.

 

Karlien’s father walked towards them, and shacked Harry’s hand.

"Congratulations, take care of her will you?"

"Of course I will" Harry answered with a smile from ear to ear.

They whole family congratulated them, and were happy for them.

"I guess we must start planning a wedding now." Ron said, with his arm around Hermione.

"Yes you do," Karlien said, "you have to plan wedding here in Holland, this summer, as soon as possible, that means on Harry’s birthday."

"Why here in Holland?" Harry asked his fiancée.

"Because there’s this place I’ve always wanted to marry, the WSA. We can ask someone from the English ministry to marry us, wizards don’t marry in churches like muggles, they can chose any place. We can even marry in the Great Hall if we want to." Said Karlien.

"Why don’t we have the ceremony twice, the real one here in Holland, with your family and Dutch friends, and one in the Great Hall for all the English people we know?" Harry asked.

"It’s a great idea to do it twice, but not in the Great Hall, because I thought we could invite some muggles too." Karlien said.

"Like who?" Harry asked.

"Well, Hermione’s parents, the Dursleys, Dudley would love to come to my wedding." Karlien laughed. They all knew Dudley had a major crush on her once.

"You two just say everything you want, and who you want to invite, and we’ll take care of it." Ron said.

 

A few days later, it was the last day of the year.

They had visited all Karlien’s muggle friends. She would invite them to the wedding, but therefor, they had to know the real identity of her and Harry.

None of them believed that they could do magic, but after they showed it, they believed them.

Her friends promised to keep there mouth shut about it. And even if they did tell to a friend, Harry wasn’t sure if that friend would believe it.

 

That evening, the whole neighbourhood was visiting, there were doughnut balls, apple turnovers, and four very large bottles of the best champagne, the champagne was to be opened at midnight.

Harry had a talk with an uncle of Karlien, he was very excited about the fact Harry Potter was entering his family, after all, Harry still was famous in their world.

At half past eleven, Brigitte turned on the television.

There was a special program, all the news from the last year was being repeated, and one minute before midnight, there was a large countdown clock.

"50 seconds" Harry said.

"40 seconds" Karlien said

"30 seconds" Hermione said.

"20 seconds" Ron said.

"10 seconden," Everybody yelled in Dutch, "9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1… GELUKKIG NIEUW JAAR!!!!!!!!!!"

Hermione and Ron’s version was in English, because they didn’t speak Dutch.

"Happy New Year, honey." Ron said, kissing Hermione.

Harry and Karlien did the Dutch version.

Soon, the champagne was opened, and everybody was kissing, and wishing each other a happy new year.

Fireworks were visible outside, and soon they decided to go to the school’s square.

Harry and Karlien got to light the first rocket of the neighbourhood.

Many rockets followed, lighted by other people. The children were holding stars, and the somewhat older children were lighting crackers, and other small fireworks you gave throw on the ground.

Ron lighted some Filibuster Fireworks, it lasted for 15 minutes, and all the muggle boys wondered where he’d bought it.

"That’s my secret." Ron said with a mysterious voice which made Hermione laugh.

When most of the adults were gone, Harry and Ron made a large bonfire muggle style. Hermione, Karlien and the other children were sitting near it to warm up a little, because it was cold outside.

Harry wanted to sit too, Ron had taken the last place in the circle around the fire.

Karlien stood up, to let Harry sit on her place.

"Where are you going to sit?" Harry asked.

"Between your legs." She said. And she did. Harry put his arms around her, and he placed his chin on her shoulder.

They sat there for hours, but the fire wasn’t very large anymore, it was decreasing.

"How about lighting it up a little, on the easy way?" Harry whispered in Karlien’s ear.

"Great idea!" She whispered back.

They pointed their wands towards the fire so that nobody could see it, and whispered a spell. Immediately the fire grew high in the sky.

"Who did that? And how?" Hermione asked.

She looked at Harry and Karlien with a did-you-do-this-look, a look only Hermione could give. Hermione was good in giving looks.

Harry and Karlien looked with a what-did-we-do-look, Harry and Karlien were not good in giving looks, because you could see on their faces that they did it.

Hermione shoot a you-know-you-can’t-do-magic-in-front-of-muggles-look towards them, and after that acted as if nothing happened, because the muggles were not supposed to know.

 

When it was four o’clock, most of the muggle kids became tired, and went home. Harry, Ron, Karlien and Hermione did the same.

The muggle parents were still at the van Voorthuizens house, and were having a great time talking to Karlien’s parents, talking about England.

 

They used the next morning, and part of the afternoon, to sleep in.

Finally at one o’clock, Ron and Hermione woke up, they were more tired than before they went to bed.

"Sleeping only made me more tired." Ron complained.

"Me tooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo" Hermione said, unable to control a huge yawn.

 

Ron and Hermione went downstairs, they were the first.

It was one big mass, everywhere were little saucers, glasses still with champagne in it, empty champagne bottles, crumbs of food.

"Let’s clean," Hermione said, "after what they did for us, we have to do something for them. You can use magic, the curtains are closed, nobody will see us.

Ron summoned all the dishes to the kitchen, and used the dish-wash spell Dobby taught him. Hermione used the vacuum cleaner to clean the floor, because she hadn’t learned magic to do that.

"I wish Neville was here to help us." Ron said.

"Yeah, he could teach me a vacuum clean spell." Hermione said.

 

After everything was cleaned, they gave the table it’s normal size.

When Hermione was finally satisfied with the room, she said "Let’s make brunch!".

Ron didn’t feel like making food right now, but complaining to Hermione was useless, Ron knew that after all those years.

Ron made toasts and put a tablecloth on the table. Placed ten plates, forks, knifes and glasses on the table.

"Ron, could you place ten egg-cups on the table? I’m cooking eggs." Hermione yelled from the kitchen.

"Ron, could make fresh the orange juice?"

"Ron, could you cast a warm-keeping spell on the eggs once you’ve placed them in the egg-cups?"

"Ron, could you help me with slicing the bread?"

And it went on like that for quit a while, until

"Ron, could you go see if Harry and Karlien are awake? Just listen at the door, don’t enter the room, because they’re engaged, and may want some privacy."

When Ron came back, he said, "They’re still sleeping."

"Well, wake them up then! It’s two o’clock, they have to wake up. Tell them food is waiting for them."

 

Harry and Karlien were still in their pyjamas when they came down, and they were still sleepy.

However, when they saw the delicious brunch, they were fully awake, and started eating like maniacs.

Ron and Hermione were also hungry, and started to eat too.

"Vis is vivicious." Said Ron, with a full mouth.

 

Five minutes after they had started to eat, Karlien’s cousins came down, they were very pleased with the food.

 

"Let’s bring some to mum and dad." Karlien’s oldest cousin said.

"Yeah, and my parent too." Karlien said.

They went upstairs.

Harry, Ron and Hermione stayed downstairs, finishing their meal.

 

That afternoon, they were going back to England, because their school was starting again in two days.

They had packed their stuff. Karlien’s uncle had called a taxi.

"We’ll see all you on the wedding, I guess." Karlien’s aunt said to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

She kissed Karlien and her parent goodbye.

 

Within an hour after their departure from Schiphol, they were back in Privet Drive, The door was blocked because of all the mail, and they had to use magic to get in the house.

They had dinner, and went to bed, because everybody was still tired from last night.