2,734A massive Thank You to all of my brilliant supporters, with a shout-out to Amethyst Dragonfly, Gini Eatan, TypistTyphon, WriterEltzu, Tasty Muffin, Silver1119, Joel miller, sam, Jimmy Adams, Jo Daviz, LegendaryWasabi, and Optimum Prime. I would really struggle to keep this up without the support you guys give me. I really don't say it enough you guys are amazing.
Chapter 65
After Harry and the grangers had gotten home from shopping, they had a surprisingly late night not going to bed until two in the morning. They spent the evening having fun and wrapping presents together. Harry and Hermione were too old to worry about the myth of Santa, so the Granger solution was to enjoy wrapping the gifts together. This was done by each of them taking turns in the kitchen to make everyone something to eat or drink. During the time someone was out in the kitchen, the other three would wrap as much of their gifts as they could. Then, when they came back, they would set aside the wrapping and eat together. Then they would send the next person to the kitchen to prepare a small plate or drink for each of them.
It was a surprisingly fun evening, and they all ended up in the kitchen, making something at least twice. Harry's favourite was actually something Hermione made, small deep-fried stuffing balls stuffed with sliced turkey and cranberry sauce. The surprise was because Harry knew this time last year Hermione wasn't confident in her cooking. She must have put a lot of effort over the summer after she got home from their lesson in Potter Manor. Harry could only guess why she hadn't told him but made sure he complimented how delicious they were.
Harry ended up sleeping in Hermione's room again that night. This time on purpose. Harry had told Hermione about the conversation her father had ambushed him with. Hermione had decided after that, "Well if my father is going to ambush you like that about how we handle our relationship, then he can't complain if you sleep in my room again tonight."
So it was almost half nine when Dan knocked on Hermione's door and woke up the two teens. "Come on, you two, it's time to wake up. It's Christmas." Before he walked off toward the bathroom by the sound of his footsteps.
"Morning Love." Hermione said as she stretched her legs under the covers and kissed Harry on the cheek, avoiding exposure to either of their dreaded morning breath.
"Merry Christmas." Harry still sounded half asleep.
It took the two of them half an hour to get up and go down for breakfast, where Harry had a surprise. Sitting at the dining table with Dan, the two of them eating breakfast while Emma was standing by the cooker watching over a pan of bacon, was Sirius.
"Sirius." Harry said in surprise, quickly followed by. "Did something happen?" As his mind reached for why Sirius might be here, his anxiety over Voldemort threw up a concern first.
"Everything is fine, Harry. Dan and Emma just invited me over for Christmas day." Sirius immediately laid Harry's fears to rest. "They knew I would be on my own with you here and Uncle Charlus still in the school, so they thought this would make it a far better Christmas for both of us. So Merry Christmas. And yes, I brought presents." He grinned at the two teens, obviously hoping they would start acting like little kids at the idea of presents.
"Now everyone needs to have breakfast before we even think about presents." Emma called out over her shoulder as she started cracking eggs into a second pan.
A few minutes later, the teens were enjoying bacon and cheese omelettes while they all talked.
"So Harry, I got a message from Krum yesterday confirming his travel arrangements. He will arrive on the twenty-seventh, and he will stay at the leaky. You will join him in St Mungo's and do the procedure on the twenty-eighth. My cousin Andromeda is a healer. She will be on standby just in case and to check everything is in working order. Then if everything goes according to plan, Krum will go back to Bulgaria on the twenty-ninth." Sirius told Harry.
In truth, Harry had forgotten about Krum coming during the Christmas break to get a new hand. Something about getting stabbed and then Hermione being targeted in Hogsmeade by Draco Malfoy had shifted his priorities. Still, Harry was sure he was ready. He had performed the spell perfectly a number of times now.
"It will be good to see him again. Are the contracts ready?" Harry asked.
Sirius had to finish his mouth full before answering. "The executives of the Bulgarian national critic team said they wanted their lawyers to write the contract. So Krum will be bringing them with him along with his manager. So we will have Miss Twist there to go over the contracts to make sure that there are no surprises."
"You know, it's stuff like this that makes me so jealous as a doctor, even if it's only a dentist." Said Emma. "I wish I could just heal people with a wave of a wand like that."
"That's a little unfair, mum. Harry isn't just waving a wand. He has spent a long time working on this spell. And even then, it's not like Harry is doing any healing. The best description would be a near-perfect prosthesis?" She looked over at Harry for the last part to see if he would agree with her description.
Harry nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I'm no healer. I know a little, but it's the magical equivalent of pulling out the first aid kit and putting a plaster on it."
"Still, he will basically walk away with a new hand that could do everything his old one could, right?" Asked Dan.
"Everything except feal and it will stop working if he ever fails to pay his subscription on time." Harry said in a tone that said he thought both of these were bad things
"Harry, you set the price at a galleon a year. For the contracts to work right, you literally couldn't set it lower. Krum is most likely gonna stick 200 galleons in an account and let it auto-pay you every year. And you know he would haply pay fifty times as much for what you're doing for him and would consider it a bargain."
Dan nodded at what Hermione said but had something to add. "Don't forget," Hermione said, "that they gave Krum compensation to pay for dealing with his injury." You aren't taking Krum's money, but money from that Crouch fellow to pay for fixing the damage his actions did to Krum." That helped Harry put everything in a better context.
-ϟϟϟ-
After breakfast, it was soon time for presents. The Grangers apparently had a tradition for this. First Hermione put on a film in the background. 'The Snowman' was a British Christmas classic that entirely animation put to music. The charters never said anything and even only one of the songs had words. So while they listened to the soundtrack of a film about a snowman coming to life and taking a little boy flying around the world, they handed out presents.
The presents were all sorted out and given to the person who had bought them so that they could then personally hand them to the recipients. Harry felt a little bad because he hadn't known Sirius would be here. He didn't have a gift for him here. Harry had already sent his gift to Sirius a while ago. It was a Weird Sisters t-shirt that Harry had found in Hogsmeade before the unpleasant attempt on Hermione's life by Malfoy.
Sirius, however, knew his presence was a surprise, so he didn't expect anything at all. Still, Dan and Emma had gotten him a bottle of scotch and a nice cologne, so he wasn't entirely left out.
Sirius, however, knew exactly who was going to be there, so had come prepared. He had presents for everyone. For Dan and Emma, he had brought a set of enchanted mugs and glasses. They would keep whatever drink was poured into them at the same temperature it was when it was poured. You'd be able to leave a cup of coffee out in a blizzard for three days and it would still be as hot as it was straight from the kettle. Or a glass of ice water in the oven and it wouldn't even melt the ice.
To Hermione Sirius gave a collection of beauty potions and creams, the magical equivalent of a spa gift set and a voucher for a visit to Twilit and Tattings, the most upscale robe shop in wizarding Britain.
For Harry Sirius went all out. He got Harry three sets of robes, one formal and two casual. He gave Harry a new wallet that looked like a normal mundane wallet but also had a secret pocket to carry wizarding money or anything else that you wanted to fit in there. The main gift, however, was a magical gramophone and a collection of records from magical bands like the 'weird sisters' and 'the neck romancers'
The largest pile of gifts by far were the gifts Dan and Emma gave Hermione. In part this was because Hermione's parents did what parents always did and gave Hermione a stack of new clothes she would still need even if there wasn't a holiday. Jeans, skirts, tops, socks, scarf, hat, gloves, hair accessories, shoes and a few that were set aside to open later that probably contained items the teenage girl wouldn't want to open in mixed company. There was a small mountain of some rather fancy-looking snacks and chocolates. "Hey, we're dentists, not crazy." Dan joked at Sirius's raised eyebrow. But the main thing they got Hermione was a Christmas card in which was a promise to take Hermione's book shopping in both the magical and mundane world.
It seemed Dan had a good measure of Sirius's taste because Harry's godfather's eyes went wide with delight when he unwrapped a bottle of single-malt Irish whisky. From the Grangers Harry got a couple of the outfits he had tried on the day before when they were out shopping.
Next, it was Hermione's turn to hand out gifts. She, like Harry, hadn't known Sirius was going to be there, so she hadn't gotten him anything. For her parents, however, Hermione had gotten something that Harry had only ever seen in one place before. It was a clock, but not one that told the time. This clock was like the one he had seen at the Weasly's. The clock had a hand for everyone in the family that would point at things like home, school, work, travelling, hospital and even danger and mortal peril.
Apparently, the clock would take some setting up, it would need a drop of blood on each hand to link it to whom it represented, for example. Her parents were thrilled by the gift and Hermione told them she had seen one in the Weasley's home and it had taken her a while to track down someone who sold them.
Hermione then handed Harry his gift. Harry opened the gift that fit in the palm of his hand, curious as to what it might be. Under the Christmas paper was a box and in the box was more paper, this time the type used as padding to protect items. Harry pushed aside the paper and was confronted with a silver pocket watch. There was an intricately carved design on the front and when Harry opened the watch, he saw there was an engraving of a date on the inside of the cover. .94.
It took Harry a second to realise the significance of that date. The twenty-third of June nineteen-ninety-four was the date when they helped Sirius escape, it was the date Harry learned he had more family than just the Dursleys and it was the date he and Hermione became more than friends by sharing their first kiss.
Harry couldn't help but throw his arms around Hermione and pull her into a hug before kissing her right there in front of everyone. A few seconds later Hermione was smiling up at him and said. "So you remember the significance of that date, then?" She asked.
"It was one of the most important days of my life. Not only was it the day I learned Sirius was innocent, but it was also the day we took the first step to becoming more than friends. Thank you, not just for the watch but for everything it means. These feel a little anticlimactic now, but here is your gift." And Harry handed her the small box that contained her gift.
Hermione tore off the brightly coloured paper to reveal the dark velvet-covered jewellery box and her eyes took on an interested sparkle. Then she opened the box, revealing the two strings of sparking stones set in golden earrings.
"oh, they are beautiful. Can you help me put them on?" Hermione asked, handing Harry the box so that she would have both her hands free to take out the simple golden-coloured studs she already had in her ears. They shaped out the studs in her ears with the ones in the box to keep from losing the small pieces of jewellery and Harry carefully slid the point of the new earrings into Hermione's ears.
In truth, Hermione could have done it herself. She also could have done it faster. She had plenty of practice taking out her earrings and putting them back in. Hermione's mother was very specific that you needed to keep piercings clean, despite the fact that they rarely had any issues once healed, they can get extremely painful if they get infected. So she took them out regularly to clean them. However, Hermione liked the idea of Harry putting them in for her.
Once they were in Hermione pulled Harry with her so she could look at them in the mirror. "They are brilliant, Harry. thank you." And Hermione kissed him.
-ϟϟϟ-
Just like at Hogwarts, the start of Christmas Dinner in the Grangers was the pulling of Christmas crackers. But they were the mundane ones with paper crowns, bad jokes and cheap little toys. Harry ended up with a pack of playing cards that were maybe an inch and a half on their longest side and Hermione actually got a mini Rubix cube puzzle. The jokes, as always, were terrible and had the table groaning together with the bad puns they made.
Christmas Dinner at the Grangers was delicious, and for some of the sides, like the carrots, surprisingly sweet. The carrots and parsnips were glazed in enough honey that they may technically count as candied. Even the main event was a honey roast ham. Emma explained. "While we don't have an outright ban on sugar here, we don't have as much as most homes, but Christmas is one of the few days we agreed we could really indulge our sweet teeth."
Hermione nodded. "Christmas, Easter, Halloween and birthdays."
Harry and Sirius could see where the grangers were coming from but the two had spent ten years each going without, besides there was nothing sugar could do to them that couldn't be fixed with a bit of exercise and a few potions.
After dinner was dessert and the grangers had gone all out again. They had actually gone and made sure to have everyone's favourite dessert available. Treacle tart for Harry, chocolate ice cream with caramel sauce for Hermione, cherry pie and custard for Emma, a black forest gateau for Dan and nobody knows how the grangers had found out but pumpkin pie for Sirius.
The only rule was that the person who's favourite it was got the first slice or scoop. After that, there was plenty to go around. It was no surprise to anyone by the end of the meal. They were all dozing in a food coma in front of a television playing Christmas television.
-ϟϟϟ-
The next day was pretty hectic for Harry and Hermione. Despite her parents being home, Hermione and Harry practically moved into the manner that morning. With Krum arriving in the country the next day to have Harry give him a new arm, there was no time for Harry to relax. Harry had to practise the spell and he couldn't do that at the grangers' house. Hermione decided she was going to support him. So Harry, with Hermione's help, spent the day making sure he could do the spell perfectly.
The twenty-seventh was not only the day Krum was arriving, but it was also the day the Doctors Granger had to get back to work. Christmas apparently always led to a lot of work. Fillings pulled out by toffees, accidents resulting from alcohol or even injuries resulting from family squabbles or young kids swinging around new toys. And all of this while almost every dental office in the country was closed. So despite the fact that Hermione slept at her own home the night before, she was back in the Potter manor for breakfast because her home would be empty all day.
Harry wanted to spend the day practising again, but both Hermione and Sirius convinced him it was a bad idea. It was best for Harry to be well-rested for the spell the next day. So instead, the two teens decided to tackle their herbology homework since it was the least mentally taxing out of all the assignments they had been given. Harry thought it was because Professor Sprout believed that spending time with your family at Christmas was more important than homework. Unfortunately, not a view that was universal among the professors.
It was early afternoon when it was time to go meet Krum and his people. Harry and Hermione, despite wanting to go meet them, were left behind. This was because Sirius couldn't be one hundred percent sure it wasn't a Deatheater trap until he met up with them and confirmed their identities. It wasn't unheard of for death eaters in the previous war to kidnap someone and send a polyjuiced assassin to a meeting in their place.
Sirius was going alone, but he was meeting them in the Ministry of Magic. Considering how desperate the ministry was for some good press at the moment, Harry could easily believe that they would be willing to help facilitate Krum's visit. Actually, considering that Fudge had put Dumbledore back in the castle, just knowing that the Ministry wanted this was enough to make Harry want to cancel it. If it wasn't for the fact that Krum was an innocent caught up in an attempt to get to Harry himself, he just might have.
It took almost two hours for Sirius to get back. He had confirmed that it was indeed Krum and his people, and he was as sure as he could be that none of them were bewitched. And they were all settled in the Three Broomsticks, eagerly anticipating the next day.
"Thinking Krum and his people could be bewitched is a bit paranoid, isn't it?" Harry tried to joke with Sirius, but the dark look that came over Sirius's face was enough to tell Harry he crossed a line you shouldn't joke about.
Sirius wasn't angry. It was worse; he was hurt. "Harry, you don't know what it was like during the war. Bewitching someone to kill their families was something the people who Voldemort broke out of Azkaban liked to do for fun. I have seen it happen. I had friends who… no, it doesn't matter. Just be aware there is no such thing as too much paranoia when those people are involved."
-ϟϟϟ-
The next morning Harry and Sirius went to St Mungo's. Hermione was visiting with Ron as her parents were again pulling twelve-hour shifts to help their patients. If everything went smoothly, Harry would be joining her at their friend's home not long after he finished helping Krum.
When Harry and Sirius arrived at St Mungo's, Sirius introduced Harry to Andromeda Tonks. She had a thick black hair and her eyes were like Sirius's, a rich bark brown. She looked a lot like Malfoy's mother Narcissa, which, considering they were sisters, made sense. However, where Narcisa had a near-permanent look on her face that said, 'Something around here stinks of dragon dung.' Andromeda wore a wide smile and looked like she was about to give you a gold star for getting your joined-up writing done.
Andromeda told them that Krum and his people were already waiting for them, but Harry and Sirius had to wait for a bit for Miss Twist because Sirius and Harry were under strict orders from Charlus that Harry wasn't to sign anything without it being checked over for legal traps first.
Sirius and Andromeda stood to the side chatting and catching up for a bit, leaving Harry to go over what he needed to do in his mind. Luckily, Miss Twist was only about four minutes behind them. When she arrived after a quick round of overly professional greetings, Andromeda lead them to where the procedure would be taking place.
She led them to what looked like a treatment room in the basement. "This room is where we healers practise something new before we try it on a living patient. Unfortunately, it was one of the few rooms we had free for what the hospital considers an experimental treatment. Still, it's as clean as any other hospital room and has everything we need on the off chance something goes wrong."
Once they were inside, Harry saw that Krum and his two companions were already waiting for them. Krum gave Harry an awkward smile before saying. "It's good to see you again, Harry."
"You as well, Victor. How's life been treating you since you won the tournament? Gotten tired of the eternal glory yet?" Harry joked. Krum was already internationally famous before the tournament.
"You know it's been alright. You know how it is being recognised everywhere you go." Krum smiled as he shot back at Harry's own fame, bringing a smile to Harry's face. Krum was probably the only person Harry knew who he could joke about this with. People who were close to Harry like Ron and Hermione didn't feel comfortable making jokes about it and most others didn't get it. They wanted to be famous. Even the ones that understood that Harry had paid a high price for his fame saw it almost as compensation for what he lost.
Harry was about to say something else, but there was a loud rumbling sound behind one of the walls, startling them all. "What the hell was that?" Miss twisted demanded in shock.
"The Piccadilly line." Andromeda answered. "One of the muggle trains that run underground in this city. Noise cancelling charm must have worn off." She flicked her wand at the wall the rumbling had come from. "That should hold it. Now I believe there is some paperwork to look over?" She gently prodded them to get on with the reason they were here.
"Right." said Krum. "This is Ilian Iliev, the Bulgarian coach and manager and Mr Groginski, the team law wizard."
Harry stepped up to do the intentions on his side. "Pleasure to meet you. This is Sirius Black, my godfather and our family's law witch, Miss Anne Twist of GripSack, Anne Twist." Harry noticed a slight smile twitch on Miss Twist's face as Iliev shifted a little, turning his body away from her.
There was a quick round of handshakes and the two law professionals went to one side to go over the paperwork together while Harry explained to Krum and to Andromeda exactly what he was planning on doing and why.
There was a little arguing between the lawyers. Apparently, Miss Twist thought that the contract that the other man had brought with him was to restrictive on Harry. Harry privately agreed when he overheard Miss Twist saying. "This clause is ridiculously overreaching. It would penalise my client if he ever asked yours for the time or to pass the salt."
Harry understood there would be safety clauses involved. The spell required the recipient to almost literally become Harry's servant. It was probably the only reason Voldemort bothered to learn the spell. Safeguarding to prevent Harry from abusing that authority was necessary. But they were still real people and Harry was going to act like a normal person and in the right circumstances Harry could see himself asking for a lot of really small things the same way everyone does. Asking for an item to be passed over, asking someone to move if they are blocking a door. Things nobody even thinks of.
Not that Krum should be compelled in any way to do those things. But Harry didn't feel he should be bound to sanctions for such normal things people would do without thinking about it.
It didn't take as long as Harry would have assumed, probably because both of the law professionals had done their research beforehand, but between them, they had a new contract put together in under thirty minutes.
When Miss Twist went over it with Harry and Sirius, while Mr Groginski did the same with Krum and his manager, Harry was able to see the far more elegant solution to the problem that Miss Twist had come up with. Harry could ask Krum anything and Harry would have to accept it if Krum says 'no' only if Harry tries to persist, leverage the use of the arm, or make it an order after Krum would Harry face any kind of sanctions, and only then if Krum persuaded them. And as sanctions started at fifty galleons, Harry was well incentivised to not push.
Harry and Krum both had to sign the contract with blood quills, which was a pain, but it was the best way to make a magical contract focus on the correct person. You could sign someone else's while polyjuiced as them, but the blood would be yours and the magical contract would bind on you.
That done, there was no more point in waiting. Sirius pulled out a bag of silver powder he had gotten from the goblins with their assurance it was one hundred percent pure and would remain that way at least until Harry opened the bag. After that, it was just silver and would react and tarnish, just like any normal silver.
Krum sat on an examination table and after taking off his prosthetic and setting it down, he looked away from the stump of his arm and held it out, refusing to look at it.
Harry, taking that as his que opened the bag of silver, took a deep breath, focused on the task at hand then died the tip of his wand into the powdered silver and started to stir it around while reciting the incantation.
The silver liquefied and clung to the tip of Harry's wand. After a few moments, Harry pulled his wand out of the bag with a mirror-reflective ball of silver on the tip. Harry's eyes Krum's prosthetic for the right size and started to form the ball of liquefied silver into the right size and shape.
Once Harry had the hand formed as close to the right size and shape as he thought he could get, a process that still took Harry a good five minutes, Harry touched his wand to the tip of Krum's stump. The silver hand immediately stuck in place and Harry suddenly felt something he had never before when doing this spell. Every time he had done this part before, he hadn't attached it to anything alive. Sure rocks pretending to be alive, but that wasn't the same. The transfigured rocks didn't have a will of their own. Krum, however, did and Harry felt it as the magic took hold of Krum and bound Krum to him. Even if it was only in a small way, it was there and Harry could feel it.
Evidently, so could Krum because as Harry felt his magic take hold of Krum, a little Krum turned to look at Harry right in the eyes and Harry could feel that Krum was incredibly nervous about what he was feeling.
Harry finished the spell and thankfully, as he took his wand away, Harry felt the connection between them go dormant. It was still there waiting to be called on and used but it was now something Harry had to consciously reach for, to feel it.
Harry could see as Krum relaxed and was suddenly fascinated by his new hand stretching and flexing the fingers and making fists. "This will do nicely. You have my thanks, Harry."
"I'm just glad I could help." Harry said, meaning every word. It had been a lot of work to get this spell down, but seeing Krum's dreams of being the world's number one seeker be reborn right in front of him made it completely worth it.
"Mr Potter, this is amazing. I'm sure you know there are quite a few patients who could benefit from this procedure. I would like to try to convince the director here to offer this treatment to others. Would you be willing to help others in simmer situations?" Andromeda asked. As she was casting a bunch of diagnostic charms on Krum's arm to make sure that nothing had gone wrong and to understand how it worked.
Harry smiled. If he could help out more people like that, then it would really make learning that spell worth it. "If we can work out the details, then sure."
They all stuck around for a bit as they finished up the final details. Krum and Iliev presented Harry with a scroll as a thank you. It basically entitled Harry to free seats for life to any Quidditch game the Bulgarian national Quidditch team played in. "We are playing in Germany this summer first round of the next World Cup knockouts. I hope to see you there." Krum also gave Harry his prosthetic. "and here I have no more use for this. Maybe you can start a collection. A visible reminder of everyone you will help."
Not long after that, they all went their separate ways.
A/N.
The weirdest part of this chapter is the fact that it's late July, early August when I'm writing it. I'm writing about snow and chill during a heatwave where I'm doing everything I can to cool down. But I will be posting it in October November when those things are rather relevant.
Ilian Iliev is the name of the coach from the current Bulgarian football team. I wasn't going to try to come up with anything original and I thought that couch of their football team was a good parallel