227There was a day on the calendar that Fleur looked forward to more than any other.
Some might assume it was her anniversary to her darling Bill. But they would be wrong.
Others might think it was her birthday. But whilst special, there was far too much focus on her and not enough on the goodness she was surrounded by.
No, what made this day special was its simplicity, its comforting predictability. Every year, they did the same things with the same people on the same day.
Except for last year.
Last year was the first time Harry had joined Papa, Maman, Bill and her darling angel, Gabrielle on this special holiday. And unlike her Papa and husband, Harry hadn't needed any incentive to join in on the festivities. The way he seamlessly fit in with everyone and made Gabrielle's day so memorable still made Fleur feel warm and fuzzy inside.
Gabrielle had been through so much before finding her match in Harry Potter. At first, Fleur could admit she'd been worried. Everyone knew Harry's bedside demeanour was severely lacking and his attitude in public left a lot to be desired.
Their Soul Bond had been quite the reveal. And as much as she loved Harry as a friend, he would have been at the bottom of the list of people she'd set up with Gabrielle.
But Magic had a way of working things out and any doubts she'd had for the longevity of their relationship had soon vanished.
Today, the only real doubts she had left revolved around her William.
He'd been such a knot face last year towards Harry before he'd been set straight. She'd hoped that he would learn from Harry's example of enthusiasm and good cheer, but no. This year, Bill only seemed to be hiding something from her.
"What is there to be secretive about?" she asked with a sigh.
Her Maman frowned as she wiped at the glasses they'd be using later for their traditional toast. "You're sure it's not another woman?"
Fleur rolled her eyes. "I'd sooner believe it was a goblin."
Apolline chuckled and nodded in agreement.
Her and Bill's love wasn't superficial. They'd had their chances to walk away, but every time things got tough, their love only grew deeper.
"I just wish he'd stop keeping whatever it is from me. I mean, who does he think he's fooling?" Fleur said.
"Even your father has noticed," Apolline said. "According to him, William kept smiling furtively to himself last week."
Fleur frowned. "When did they even see each other?"
With a dismissive wave of her hand, Apolline explained. "You know your father loves bringing William along whenever he yearly-removes his second cousin."
She nodded in understanding. "You're definitely a part of this family when Papa invites you to yearly-remove Bighead Garcon."
"Don't forget the cedille!" Gabrielle said, bursting into the room with infectious enthusiasm.
"Yes, yes," Fleur said, with a chuckle as Gabrielle wrapped her in a hug. "Bighead Garçon. How could I forget?"
"If you were at the last Weasley dinner, you certainly wouldn't have," Gabrielle said, hugging her mother next. "Can't with that big head of his. And it's only gotten bigger since he married Ginny!"
A small gasp escaped Apolline. "Non, that's not possible."
"It is," Gabby said. "And if William isn't careful, he'll start looking like his yearly-removed-brother-in-law. Secrets overinflate the head almost as much as arrogance."
Fleur shuddered.
"Not to worry," Apolline said, tapping Fleur on the cheek. "Today will be a great day. It's our second Christmas with Harry and last year was our best ever, yet. As long as William remembers the eggnog this year, everything will be perfect."
x-x-x
Bill was practically grinning.
Fleur could see him attempting to hold it back every now and then, before it split across his face once more. It was unnerving, to be honest.
They were situated in the sitting room with Gabrielle and her parents, the fire crackling cheerfully whilst dulcet Christmas tunes played on the wireless in the background.
Gabrielle kept looking over her shoulder at the door, and Fleur gave her a sympathetic frown when they made eye contact.
They'd all agreed to start the annual festivities at noon. But now it was nearing a quarter past, and there was still no sign of Harry. It was quite a stark difference from last year when he'd arrived precisely on time, merriment practically exuding from his every orifice.
She only hoped everything was okay.
The sound of a sigh reached her ears, and she turned to see Bill shaking his head as he stared pointedly at his watch.
"Nearing half past, now," he said in a disappointed tone.
Fleur raised an eyebrow in his direction, wondering what he was playing at. Bill was the last person who'd care if they were running late on their festivities.
Reading the look on her face, Bill shrugged. "I just think it's a bit rude, is all," he said, louder than necessary. "Making everyone wait on him. But that's Harry for you, isn't it? Only on time when it suits him."
"William," Fleur hissed. "What's gotten into you?"
Gabby openly glared at Bill for his comment, but before she could say anything, a knock on the door sounded. She immediately jumped up and raced towards it.
Bill leant back in his seat, crossing his arms as he observed the scene.
"Harry!" she said, ushering him in and hugging him at once. "I was so worried. Is everything okay? I know how excited you were for today so I thought there must be something wrong when you were late."
"Oh, he's not late, Gabby," Bill piped up. "He just operates in his own time zone. Isn't that right, Harry?"
Harry chuckled good-naturedly and shrugged.
"What kept you?" Gabby said, taking his coat off for him.
"Oh, just work stuff," he said, with a dismissive wave.
Gabby frowned. "You got pulled in on Christmas? Why didn't they just go to St. Mungos?" she said, her nose wrinkling adorably.
"Couldn't resist taking them on, eh?" Bill said, with a grin. "We know you love your moments of glory."
Fleur glared at her husband once more before turning back to Harry. "Was it very serious?"
"It was similar to a case I've seen before," Harry said, his face growing sombre. "The Case of the Carnivorous Christmas Cracker."
Gabby gasped, slapping a hand to her mouth. "It happened again?"
Harry closed his eyes and nodded. "A sweet little boy around five. Went to pull a Christmas cracker only for it to latch onto his arm instead," he said. "Only took one shallow bite, thank goodness, but he had to be rushed to hospital. You never know what's in those carnivorous crackers. Could be anything from gingivitis to dragon pox."
"Oh, the poor dear!" Appoline said, placing hand over her heart. "He could have died!"
"Bloody monsters whoever jinxed it," Jean-Claude said, shaking his head. "Good man, Harry. Thank goodness you were there."
"My hero!" Gabby said, grabbing his head and placing a kiss on his cheek as he lowered his head humbly.
Bill muttered to himself as he sank deeper into his seat.
Fleur, on the other hand, beamed as she stood up to place a kiss on Harry's cheek as well. "You were so brave to treat him not knowing what he had…whether it was contagious or not."
"Was it terrible?" Apolline asked, looking almost afraid of the answer.
Harry closed his eyes, looking haunted for a moment. "I'd prefer not to talk about it," he said, causing everyone in the room besides Bill to give him a sympathetic look.
Apolline stood up and joined her girls in giving Harry a big hug, while Jean-Claude gave him a pat on the back, his eyes filled with utter respect.
"And to think," Apolline said with a sigh. "You still made sure to come here straight after–to your family."
"My hero," Gabby said, placing more kisses on his face.
When Fleur made her way back to the couch, she was surprised to find Bill clenching his teeth hard, his face bright red.
x-x-x
The horror of that poor dear, sweet little boy being bitten by the Carnivorous Christmas Cracker had sapped the festivity right out of the room. They had decided that everyone would be given time to freshen up and regain some cheer.
As soon as Fleur entered her bedroom, she was hit with a pile of clothes.
"Here," Bill said with haste. "Put these on."
Holding out the article of clothing, she was bewildered by what she saw.
"Aren't they amazing?" he said, putting his on. "They're matching!"
Fleur stared at him, lost for words. For what she saw was an abomination. A grotesque crossbreed of a Weasley Christmas jumper, a way-too-festive-Christmas apron, and a glitter bomb.
"What are these?" Fleur said, wrinkling her nose as if she was smelling something particularly foul.
"Waprons," Bill said with enthusiasm. "Weasley Aprons. All the comfort of a snug jumper mixed in with holiday cheer and the utility of an apron."
She held hers as far away from her body as possible with just one finger. Eyeing Bill's up and down, she observed various decorations made out of flashy glitter. Reindeer, candy canes, trees, biscuits, cakes and even spatulas.
"Why do we need them?" she said.
"For the cake decorating," Bill said, as if he was stating the most patently obvious thing. "Nobody will be more appropriately attired than us. See, I even made these!"
From behind his back, he whipped out two ghastly green sheen pointed hats. They were perfectly cone shaped and had text above them that kept changing.
"You know the best part?"
Fleur shook her head, having a hard time taking her eyes away from the fluorescent red words that had just rearranged themselves to read "Deck the halls with boughs of holly!"
"The words are timed perfectly to match the songs the hat plays."
"It plays music?"
Bill tossed her a cap. "Of course! Like this," he said, his wand touching the words. "It plays on a loop but so quiet that you can't hear it without a Sonorus charm."
Bringing it up to her ear, Fleur strained herself until she thought she heard the faintest of tunes.
Waving his wand, Bill cast the same spell at his own hat.
"We wish you a merry Christmas. We wish you a merry Christmas," the familiar tune played out.
"This is what you were being so secretive about?" Fleur said, raising an eyebrow at him.
Bill smiled. "Just you wait," he said with some patented Weasley mischief leaking into his words. "We're going to crush it this year."
Fleur put the Wapron on but kept the hat in hand, growing concerned about Bill's attitude.
Surely crushing anything on Christmas didn't bode well.
"C'mon," Bill said, bounding out of the room. "Let's go decorate that cake."
Feeling a bit concerned, Fleur followed after her husband.
x-x-x
"Oh, wow, that's…" Appoline said, gazing at Bill and Fleur's Waprons as they walked into the kitchen where the cake of France was set out on the table already. "That's a choice."
Fleur huffed, the soft humming of We Wish You a Merry Christmas playing on a loop near her ears.
She appreciated Bill's attempt at getting more festive, but Merlin, at what cost. These monstrosities they both wore were an eye-sore galore. And she swore the singing hats were only getting louder.
"What's that singing?" Gabby said as she and Harry walked into the kitchen as well, wearing matching chic dark green aprons with snowflakes on them that looked lovely and minimalist.
Bill frowned as he took off his own hat. "That's odd…" he said, fiddling with his wand. "I charmed them to go off every 15 minutes and stay at the same volume."
"Would you like me to have a go?" Harry offered, when he saw Bill struggling to fix the timing on the hats.
Letting out a bark of laughter, Bill took a step away from him. "In your dreams, Potter," he muttered, pointing his wand at the hat only for it to get louder. "There must be something faulty with them. I found them in the attic at the Burrow."
"WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS, WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
Fleur grit her teeth as the singing got louder. But everyone tried ignoring it in favour of starting on the cake decorating portion of their festivities.
Jean Claude and Apolline paired up to take the section in the middle, Bill and Fleur took the section at the top, and Harry and Gabby took the section at the bottom.
"WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS, WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
Each couple set to work discussing their vision for their portion of the cake, Fleur following Bill's lead as he claimed he had a special idea he didn't want to share aloud lest someone steal it.
She rolled her eyes and simply followed his directions by charming the frosting different colours based on his preferences.
"WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS, WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS!"
"It'll all come together in the end, I promise," Bill said.
"What?" Fleur shouted, unable to hear him over the singing.
"We WiSh YoU a MeRrY cHrIsTmAs, We WiSh YoU a MeRrY cHrIStMaS!"
A sudden jet of light whizzed towards Bill's hat, causing it to fly straight into the wall behind him and burst into a thousand little pieces before disintegrating to the floor.
Blessed silence ensued.
Everyone looked to Harry who'd just put his wand away before loud cheers erupted throughout the kitchen as the blasted singing finally stopped.
"My hero!" Gabby said, pulling him in by the chic apron and giving him a smooch.
Appoline wiped proud tears from her eyes, while Jean-Claude nodded with utter respect.
Before Bill could throw a fit, Fleur directed his attention back to the cake.
She glanced over at her parents who were both working away in tandem, the type of coordination that could only come from years of marriage as they set about creating a lovely pristine beach scene in between the other two pairs. Grains of sand were represented by pretty gold glitter and the water by carefully placed sprinkles in different shades of blue.
Fleur couldn't help but gasp at the dynamic nature of the waves her father had created by using different shades of blue sprinkles in different areas. From afar, it could almost look like a real photograph with dimension and movement.
On the other side, Harry and Gabby were happily giggling as they put frosting on each other's noses. Gabby took Harry's hand in hers, guiding him to draw a lovely abstract sight of a bright night that filled Fleur with quite some delight. Gabby used Harry's finger to blend the swirling colours together before she grabbed it and licked the frosting off.
Fleur smiled and sighed wistfully. It just felt so right.
"Care to clue me in on what we're doing here?" she said, leaning close to her husband who was muttering something under his breath as he waved his wand over all the little bowls of coloured frosting that Fleur had charmed.
"Almost ready," Bill said, with a grin that made him look almost maniacal.
Ready for what, Fleur wasn't sure. But as he spread the first layer of frosting over the cake, her eyes widened.
The frosting was taking shape before her eyes, forming legs first, then a body, then arms and a head. Then another figure formed from the next coloured frosting.
Then another.
And another.
A whole group of little frosting people sprung up, growing taller and bigger by the second until they transformed into what looked like multiple Abominable Snowmen.
"Bill!" she shrieked as she watched them all start to attack the cake, dispersing towards the other two sections and completely destroying the others' hard work.
Fleur placed a hand over her mouth as her father's painstaking sprinkle ocean was completely upended and destroyed before their eyes by the monsters.
"Noooo!" Jean Claude said, grabbing at his balding head. "My life's work! Gone!"
Gabby shrieked as another monster jumped onto her chic apron before crawling up to attack her face. And while attempting to grab the creature away from her daughter, Apolline got a face-full of cake pelted at her from a smaller little orange monster.
"Immobulus!" cried a voice amidst the chaos.
All at once, everything stopped–the creatures all frozen in midair. Harry waved a cleaning spell at Apolline and Gabby's faces before looking over at a weeping Jean-Claude.
The room was eerily silent for several seconds, before he walked over with spirit brave, eyes grave and face clean-shaved. He patted the man on the shoulder who was reeling from this recent shockwave. "I know what was cruelly taken from you cannot be saved–"
Bill growled, depraved.
"–but would it help if I told you that I have a photograph to commemorate it?" Harry said, handing him a Polaroid. "I brought a camera with me today to snap some memories. I noticed your work, and thought for sure you'd want to remember it."
Jean Claude's eyes glistened, taking the photograph with careful, delicate fingers.
Harry shook his head sadly. "I just never thought you'd have to remember it so soon."
"Thank you, son," the man whispered, hugging Harry and patting his back with utter respect.
"My hero!" Gabby said, running up to him and planting kisses all over his face while Apolline and Fleur wiped tears from their eyes and cheered.
"That's it," Bill said through clenched teeth. "It ends now."
x-x-x
"Now remember," Fleur said, eyes entirely focused on Bill. "Hide and SO seek means each of your significant others have hidden a gift for you somewhere in this house."
"Yes, yes, we know the rules," Bill said dismissively, rubbing the palms of his hands together. "Count us off."
Fleur frowned as Bill crouched down into a sprinter's starting position.
"This was so much fun last year," Harry said to Jean Claude as he did an active groin stretch. "The ladies did such a wonderful job hiding them."
"They are wonderful, non?" he replied, slapping Harry on the back as he mirrored his son-in-law with his own active groin stretch.
The byplay warmed Fleur's heart.
"Are we going to start this or what?" Bill said with annoyance, skipping the active groin stretches all together.
Apolline sighed with disappointment and waved him off. "Go," she said with muted enthusiasm. "Just go."
WIth that, Bill tore off, bounding up the stairs.
"Right," Harry said, watching his brother-in-law run off, "guess we should get going,then, eh?"
"If you need help, just ask," Jean-Claude said with a wink. "Gabrielle is known for her most devilishly tricky hiding places."
"You as well. I'm happy to help," Harry said as they grinned at each other.
The two then jogged off arm-in-arm.
"I hope they don't have too difficult of a time," Gabrielle said, smiling demurely.
Fleur rolled her eyes. "Says the girl who asked for professional wards to stymie Harry."
"Well, can you blame me? You know my Beloved senses magic so effortlessly."
Apolline placed her hand on Gabby's shoulder. "I've long found that hiding in plain sight works best," she laughed. "Have a couple places hidden by magic but leave the actual item in plain sight."
"Where did you leave it, then?" Fleur asked.
"In the town square."
"Brilliant," Gabby and Fleur said at the same time.
At the top of the grand staircase, her mother had a family heirloom on display. Passed down from mother to daughter all the way from their great-great-great grandmother, was a quaint little Christmas Village. And with every new generation, something was added to it.
In the beginning, it was simply a replica of their cottage home in winter. Snow covered trees, a frozen pond, a homely house with smoke coming out of the chimney and candles in the windows. Each successive time it was passed on, a new building or feature was added.
The original building had been enchanted to appear picturesque. But as it increased in size, it increased equally in the complexity of magic. Veela hair had been embedded and the whole awe-inspiring Christmas Village became masterfully magical, including the aforementioned town square.
But all of the exquisite elements also made it disturbingly delicate.
"I do hope Papa will be careful," Gabrielle said with worry.
"It's not Papa we need to worry about," Apolline said, looking as though she wanted to say more but smiling half-heartedly instead.
Fleur let out a sigh. "It's William, I know," she said, giving voice to what they were all thinking.
The other two nodded.
As if summoned by his name, Bill came running down the stairs, limping slightly on his right leg. His face was as red as his hair and he had perspiration running down his forehead.
"First!" he said, grinning from ear to ear.
Fleur sat up in anticipation. "Well? Did you like it?"
"Like what?"
The women all glanced at each other. "Your present," Fleur said, looking back at him. "You know…the thing you were supposed to be searching for."
"Oh…right," Bill said, pulling the now smushed wrapped gift out of his pocket.
Fleur gasped and moved towards him. "That's not your gift," she hissed. "Put it back! Now!"
Shooting her a sheepish grin, Bill turned back around and ripped up the stairs with determination. But he was going much too fast for her comfort, and the words of her mother came back in a rush.
"It's not Papa we need to worry about."
With a sinking feeling, Fleur quickly followed after him to the bottom of the staircase.
But she knew she was too late.
She watched with horror as Harry walked back with his gift in hand, too delightfully focused on it to notice Bill trying to block him from descending the stairs. But what Bill hadn't accounted for was how slippery the stairway landing was.
His left leg came out from under him as he tried to juke right and he fell with a cry, groping at his crotch.
"My groin!" he yelled out as he started to fall.
Jean-Claude Pierre-Patrice Delacour-Béliveau had been jogging to catch up so he could link arms with Harry, but was knocked off his feet by Bill's flailing elbow smashing right into Papa's face, sending him stumbling back from a whack so wack that he fell right into the treasured Christmas village. The sound of a thwack and a crack caused everyone's faces to go slack, completely taken aback by this attack from a no-good hack.
"Ack!" Fleur yelled out before covering her mouth.
Jean-Claude's knee crashed into the table holding the village and he buckled over.
Her great-great-great grandmother's cottage flung upwards, sure to be crushed soon, along with any hope she had of inheriting the family heirloom. But before gravity could take over, it froze, suspended in mid-air.
"Got you," Harry said, holding his wand out and carefully levitating the priceless antique back onto the table while also holding a hobbling Jean-Claude up with his other arm.
"My hero!" Gabrielle called out, dashing up the stairs, neatly stepping over her brother-in-law, and squeezing past Jean-Claude's side to him.
Harry twirled her around with one arm so she could face him and then let her give him a smouldering kiss.
"Aww," everyone cooed besides Bill, who could only groan in pain.
"Thanks for saving our Christmas Village," Apolline said, affectionately squeezing his arm as he walked into the sitting room and set his father-in-law gingerly down on the couch. "I don't think we could have lived with ourselves if that had been destroyed.
They all shook their heads.
"But you saved the day again, Harry," she patted his cheek. "You're the best son a mother could ask for."
Everyone nodded.
But as they all took their seats in the sitting room, Fleur could see Bill mimicking her mother from her periphery. "Best son a mother could ask for, my arse."
x-x-x
After the near disaster and a hearty dinner, everyone collapsed in the sitting room for the annual cake and eggnog.
Except this year it seemed they would have to forgo the cake on account of Bill's dreadfully destructive decorations. The only thing left of the cake after his frosting monsters attacked were a few blue sprinkles and an explosion of coloured frosting.
Fleur glared at Bill who still had a sour look on his face from her mother's comment earlier. Served him right.
She also noticed with some annoyance that he still hadn't even opened his gift yet. He was being a right arse this year, and she was officially fed up.
The sound of a throat clearing brought Fleur out of her angry musings.
She looked up to see Harry rubbing the back of his neck shyly.
"So…seeing that it's cake and eggnog time, but well…there's no cake–"
Everyone glanced at Bill with varying expressions ranging from disappointment to rage.
"–I figured it was time to disclose that I actually baked a cake of my own in preparation for tonight. You see, I've been taking baking lessons to try and mimic the dangerously delicious Delacour cake that we had last year After the Credits of the movie we watched together. And by Merlin, I think I've gotten pretty close."
He waved his wand causing a cake to levitate towards them from somewhere upstairs.
"I was planning on surprising you all with it tomorrow, but seeing as Bill went out of his way to explode our dessert into disarray today…I suppose we could eat it now, eh? I just pray it tastes okay. What do you all say?"
The sound of Bill's dismay was drowned out by everyone else shouting "Yay!"
"My hero!" Gabby said, running up to snog Harry's face off.
Forgetting for a moment that she was mad at him, Fleur beamed at Bill, and he smiled back, looking relieved. "Bill, go summon the eggnog we trusted you to bring."
His smile froze in place. "Er…"
"Bill?" Fleur said as everyone turned to stare at him. "Bill, don't tell me…no. Not for the second year in a row, Bill!"
"What is it, darling?" Apolline said, seeing the look on Fleur's face.
"My husband forgot to bring the eggnog for the second year in a row! After we trusted him!"
Everyone gasped in unison.
Silence rang out throughout the room for a long moment, the tension thick enough to cut through with a Kiwi 830 6.5" Utility Chef's Kitchen CookWare Sharp Blade Cut Steel Knife.
A small sigh finally broke it.
"Well…I sort of hoped it wouldn't come to this, but…" Harry said, waving his wand once more. "I couldn't risk having another year without eggnog, so I made sure to bring some just in case Bill forgot again. I thought for sure it couldn't happen twice, but…here we are."
"Here we are," Jean-Claude echoed solemnly.
"And well…I couldn't really stop there," Harry said, flushing with a shy smile. "I got us some orange juice, as well."
Gabby squealed in delight. "From Brazilia?"
With a humble nod, Harry gave a stumble and a fumble and fell backwards as Gabby threw herself at him. She straddled him on the floor, giving him a passionate kiss. "My hero!" she sighed.
Bill gave a grumble and a mumble under his breath at the sight. But everyone else clapped and cheered for their hero, Harry.
And despite all the jumble and rumble from Bill's betumble bumble and the cake that disintegrated into a crumble, Christmas was saved.
x-x-x
"I've never had orange juice this good," Jean-Claude said, eyeing his glass Intently. "Is it magical orange juice? I don't understand how the flavours could all explode in your mouth with such harmony and intensity."
"Nope," Gabrielle said, clutching her own glass of orange juice with love. "Everything just tastes a bit better when my hero saves the day."
Harry nodded humbly and shrugged with humility.
"Who knew something could taste even better than eggnog on Christmas?" Apolline said, smacking her lips. "I'm almost grateful William forgot to bring it two years in a row so Harry could think of bringing some orange juice from Brazilia just in case."
At those words, Bill seemed to have had enough. He jumped up from his seat and threw his arms out. "I'm sorry, okay! I'm sorry. I'm a horrible, despicable excuse for a son-in-law and husband," he said, his face flushed with shame. "I just…I tried so hard this year to prove to you all that I could be just as good and charming and amazing of a son-in-law as Harry."
"Well, you certainly failed," Appolline said with eyebrows raised.
Taking a calming breath, Bill continued. "Yes, I know, okay? I failed."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"It took all my time and focus to practise those bloody charms for the frosting, and I scavenged for hours in the dusty attic at the Burrow for those stupid hats and Waprons–nearly got a black eye after the ghoul threw a punch at me for trying to take his fuzzy slippers. I trained for months running up and down stairs to prepare for the Hide and SO seek, and for what?" Bill said, covering his face with his hands.
"Only for you to not warm up with active groin stretches and injure yourself?" Harry said solemnly.
"You must never forget the active groin stretches," Jean-Claude agreed.
Bill hung his head as he adjusted the bag of ice on his groin. "In the end," he said, carrying on, "I only disappointed my beautiful wife and her family and forgot the one thing I was actually supposed to do."
Fleur smiled softly in his direction, taking his hand in hers. "Have fun?" she said.
"No…bring the eggnog," Bill said, looking at her confused.
Harry shook his head with great disappointment. "It's not about being the best son-in-law, Bill. It's about being here. With this amazing, warm, loving family."
Everyone but Bill nodded.
"It's just–" Harry breathed out a breathy breath.
Sensing his hesitation, Gabrielle leaned over and placed her hand on his leg, rubbing it lovingly.
He looked up at her and gave a small nod. "It's just that I always wanted to be a part of an amazing, warm, loving family. And now that I am, I can't help but overflow with enthusiasm. I'm sorry that it's too much for you, Bill. I never meant to be too much for anyone."
A chorus of "no!" and "you're not!" rang throughout the room.
As if by reflex Bill gritted his teeth. But then something changed in his face, and he dropped his shoulders and relented. "Don't apologise, Harry," he said, shaking his head. "I mean you're right, you are too much for me, but please don't apologise. I'm the one being a complete and utter knotface."
"No, darling," Fleur said, rubbing his shoulder. "You were being a right and proper dickhead."
Everyone including Bill and Overly Helpful nodded in unison.
"More OJ?"
Gabrielle screamed as she noticed Overly Helpful standing right behind her, a linen napkin over his forearm as he poured her a refill to the gill from a brill still chill swill of OJ.
"When did you get here, Overly Helpful?" Harry asked, his brows knitted together in confusion.
The man closed his eyes for a moment with a sigh. "Nauze, it's just Nauze," he said. "At least for my birthday."
Everyone gasped.
"Your birthday's today? On Christmas?" Gabrielle asked in awe.
Nauze raised a single neat eyebrow. "No, it's on February 18th," he said matter of factly. "But in my culture in Brazilia, we like to celebrate pre-birthdays 55 days in advance."
Everyone oohed and ahhed at this fascinating piece of utterly real and absolutely valid cultural knowledge.
"It's the Importance of Intent you celebrate things with, not the date on which you celebrate it" Fleur said, murmuring pensively.
"But as we've just learned from Harry, this day is all about spending time with friends and family," Bill said, eyeing the newcomer with distaste. "Seems like a right and proper dickhead move to make Christmas all about you when it's not even your real birthday. No offence to your culture, of course. Full offence to you."
Everyone nodded at once.
"Hold on a minute," Harry said, holding one finger up and directing everyone's attention to the invisibility cloak on the floor. "Were you hiding under there? You didn't say exactly when you arrived, Nauze."
Nauze shifted his eyes to the side. "When the OJ ran out," he said with a shrug.
"Be honest," Harry said, levelling him with a look.
Hanging his head, Nauze pointed his feet inward before pointing them back out. "When Fleur called Bill a complete and utter knotface."
"She called me a right and proper dickhead, actually," Bill corrected proudly, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Ha!" Harry said, pointing a finger at Nauze. "That proves you were here even earlier than you admitted. Now be honest!"
"Fine," Nauze said, rocking back and forth on his heels. "It was when Harry initially opened the OJ."
Gabrielle looked at him sceptically. "Be honest."
Nauze threw his hands in the air. "Fine, okay. Fine!" he said.
With a sigh, he looked at everyone in the room. "Bill didn't forget the eggnog…I took it. I wanted to promote my new OJ brand, and I knew Harry had bought some from me during his last trip to Brazilia. If you didn't have eggnog, then surely you would resort to my OJ instead."
"I knew it!" Bill said, standing up and looking around victoriously before wincing in pain.
"No, you didn't," Fleur said, rolling her eyes as she pulled him back down to sit. "I packed the eggnog when I realised you'd forgotten to pack it yourself, William. But then you went and forgot to bring the bag that I'd packed it in! I was just about to go check if you'd left it somewhere odd when our hero Harry came up with the idea of drinking OJ instead."
Everyone including Nauze smiled at Harry in wonderment and hero-worship.
"Well, that certainly clears up all of that," Harry said, raising his glass. "There's only one thing to say to all this: it's been a great day, and I, for one, am overjoyed that Nauze decided to share his perfectly normal, very real, genuinely valid, cultural pre-birthday celebration with us on Christmas."
"Cheers," everyone said in unison. "We'll drink to that."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
We'd like to Blame Nauze for not having his birthday on Christmas. If he'd been born on the proper day, this chapter would have come out on Christmas Day Alas, you've all gotten it 54 days later.
Further, we'd like to thank Petrificus Somewhatus for being born on a good and proper day of the year. We look forward to publishing a chapter from our other iconic story on that historically significant day.
We'd also like to blame Emp for using light mode. Our eyes are still hurting just thinking about it, and that caused us further delay in publishing this chapter. We'd also like to blame Emp for forcing us to give him the ability to pin posts. Please consider limiting your pinned posts. We've reached our maximum amount.
And finally we'd like to thank Keavs for being everyone's weather wizard. Keavs, please give us all in the northern hemisphere an easy breezy lemon squeezy Spring. Everyone in the southern hemisphere can go to hell.