The conversation over breakfast was dominated by Fred, George, Bill, and Tyler expressing how pleased they were about Harry’s memory being restored, and then trying unsuccessfully to force him to recount exactly how it had happened. Other than that, everything that was said had a somewhat stilted and forced quality to it as everyone tried their best to ignore the earlier confrontation between Percy and Harry. As soon as the meal was finished, the family returned to the living room and began opening the rest of their presents. Harry participated along with everybody else, but his attention was elsewhere as he pondered exactly what he should tell Ron, Fred, George, and Bill after Percy departed.
All too soon, the presents were all unwrapped, the thank-yous were all exchanged, and Percy announced that he had to be going. He hugged his mother and shook hands with his father before waving to the rest of the family, stepping into the fireplace, and disappearing in a swirl of green flames. Harry braced himself for what he knew was coming.
“How’d you do that to Percy?” Ron exclaimed immediately.
“Did you know you could do that?” Fred asked.
“What’s this about Malfoy losing all his hair?” George added.
“Let him breathe, boys,” Mr. Weasley said firmly. “I think it would be best if you went ahead and explained, Harry.”
Harry nodded reluctantly. “Ron, isn’t Hermione coming by in a little while?” he asked.
“Yeah, that was the plan,” Ron confirmed.
“Would it be all right if we waited for her?” Harry asked the group at large. “I’d rather not do this more than once.”
Bill answered first. “That’s fine, Harry. Right?” He looked pointedly at his brothers, who all either nodded or shrugged.
“Well, now that’s settled, what do you say we start putting some of these new things to use?” Mr. Weasley said brightly. “Now, what exactly are these, Tyler?” Harry looked over to see that he was holding several vinyl records, which Tyler must have found at a second-hand shop in the village.
“They go with that old phonograph you charmed to work without electricity,” Tyler explained. “They’re called records, and they have music on them. Mum and Dad used to have some when I was little. If you want, I can help you bring the phonograph in from the shed and I’ll show you how it works.” Mr. Weasley, his eyes alight with excitement, threw on his shoes and cloak, and followed Tyler outside.
Harry watched with a satisfied smile as everyone began sorting through their gifts. Ron soon challenged Bill to a game of Wizard chess, while Fred and George began building a house of cards out of an Exploding Snap deck and Mrs. Weasley looked on with an indulgent smile.
This is how Christmas ought to be, he thought as Ginny joined him in the large armchair after carrying some of her gifts up to her bedroom. She rested her head on his shoulder, both of them content to just relax and be close to one another for a while.
Soon, Mr. Weasley and Tyler returned, carrying a large antique phonograph. They set it up in the middle of the floor, and Mr. Weasley looked expectantly at Tyler.
“Okay, first you have to put the record in place like so,” Tyler explained, sliding one of the smaller black discs onto the metal post in the center of the turntable. “Then you start the turntable spinning-” he nodded at Mr. Weasley, who tapped the phonograph with his wand, “-and you gently move the needle onto the edge of the record.” He swung the arm into place and carefully dropped it onto the shiny black surface. There was a burst of static as the needle made contact, and then the music began.
“Listen closely, Arthur,” Tyler said with a wide grin. “I picked this one out just for you.”
Intrigued, Harry paid close attention to the words of the song that began streaming from the phonograph.
Sparks fly from her fingertips
Echoed voices in the night
She’s a restless spirit on an endless flight
Wooo hooo witchy woman
See how high she flies
Woo hoo witchy woman
She got the moon in her eye
Harry suppressed a chuckle at the gleeful look on Mr. Weasley’s face as he listened to the lyrics.
“You see, Molly?” said Mr. Weasley, winking at his wife. “Not even Muggles can resist the charm of a beautiful witch.”
About the time the song ended, the fire flared up with bright green flames, and Hermione tumbled out onto the hearthrug. Ron hurried forward and helped her to her feet, and she greeted him with a quick kiss before wishing a Merry Christmas to the room at large.
Very soon, everyone settled back into their comfortable seats, and Harry noticed with some trepidation that they were taking turns stealing glances at him. Now that Hermione was here, he’d have to explain about his wandless magic soon. When he finally couldn’t stand it any longer, he quietly asked Ginny to move out of his lap so that he could stand and address everyone. After he got to his feet and she took over his chair, he cleared his throat nervously.
“I guess everybody’s waiting for me to explain what happened earlier,” he said haltingly. Why was he so nervous? These people were his friends, after all; they wouldn’t think ill of him, would they? He cleared his throat again. “I should probably start with what happened last night - or really early this morning, I guess.” Over the course of the next ten minutes, he described his visit from Hagrid and Dumbledore, and explained how Hagrid had reversed the Memory Charm.
“Harry?” a teary-eyed Hermione asked tentatively when he had finished.
Harry held up a hand to stop her question. “There’s one more thing I want to say, and I only want to have to say it one last time.” He swallowed hard. “I miss Sirius - I’ll probably always miss him. But I know he’d want me to be happy, not mope around feeling sorry for myself. I’ve learned a lot in the time that’s passed since Umbridge ambushed me. Mainly, I’ve learned that my life really isn’t so bad. It’s actually pretty good. I mean, so what if I’ve got a Dark wizard out to get me, right? I’d rather live with the threat of Voldemort in this world than go back to Privet Drive and St. Brutus’s with no knowledge of him. So if you’re wondering how I’m doing, I’m fine.” He smiled slightly. “Really, I am.”
Hermione, unable to restrain herself any longer, rushed forward and hugged him tightly, sobbing quietly into his shoulder as she welcomed him back. After a long moment she stepped away, smiling at him through her tears, and settled back into her seat on the sofa next to Ron. As she rested her head on her boyfriend’s shoulder, Harry sank down onto the floor in front of Ginny and leaned back against her legs as he prepared for what was about to come.
“So, are you going to tell us how you did that to Percy this morning?” George asked after a moment.
Harry took a deep breath and nodded. “Before I do, though, I need you all to promise not to breathe a word of this to anyone.” They all nodded solemnly.
“What did he do to Percy?” Hermione asked, sitting up and looking around at the rest of the gathering.
“The git tried to curse him,” Ron explained with a shrug, “so Harry disarmed him, tied him up, threw him across the room, and hit him with a Silencing Charm.” He looked over at Harry. “That about cover it?”
“Yeah,” Harry answered. “Except for-”
“Oh, yeah,” Ron interrupted, turning to Hermione with a hint of a smirk on his lips. “Harry didn’t have a wand.”
“Be serious, Ron,” she huffed, turning to look expectantly at Harry.
Ron shrugged. “I guess I wouldn’t have believed it either, if I hadn’t seen it.”
Harry nodded, resigning himself to giving a demonstration. “Fred, hold up that pillow you’re leaning on, will you?” Fred complied, and Harry pointed at it and said, “Accio.” The pillow flew toward his outstretched hand, but before it reached him he muttered, “Abigo,” sending it zooming back toward Fred, who caught it easily and tucked it back under his arm.
Harry looked back at Hermione to see her shaking her head in disbelief. “Why are you doing this, Harry?” she asked. “We all know it’s impossible to do proper charms without a wand, so why are you pretending?”
“How could I be pretending?” Harry demanded.
“I don’t know,” Hermione exclaimed. “Maybe you’ve got a wand hidden up your sleeve, or somebody else is really casting the spells while we’re all focused on you.”
“I don’t believe this,” Harry grumbled as he got to his feet and took off his new Weasley jumper. “Look, Hermione,” he said as he rolled up the sleeves of his pajamas. “There’s nothing up my sleeves. Now, what’s it going to take to convince you that I’m really the one casting the spells?”
No one responded, but it only took a moment for the answer to come to him. He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and let his thoughts drift back to the time he had spent alone with Ginny earlier that morning. He completely immersed himself in the way she had fit perfectly in his arms, the soft feel of her lips on his, the warmth that had flooded him despite the frigid air....
“Expecto Patronum!” Harry bellowed. He opened his eyes to see a magnificent silvery stag cantering around the living room of the Burrow. He waved his hand at it, and it dissolved into a cloud of mist before disappearing entirely. Very cautiously, he turned his gaze back to Hermione. Her face was pale, and her eyes were wide and unblinking.
“Impossible,” she whispered. After a long moment, she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head violently. “How...?”
“I don’t really know,” Harry admitted. “Dumbledore thinks it’s because Umbridge’s Memory Charm was so dodgy that I kept dreaming about magic.” He ran a hand nervously through his hair and let out a long breath. “If I’m going to explain, we’re going to have to go back to the beginning. I haven’t exactly been honest with all of you about what went on when Tyler and I were at St. Brutus’s. You all know I had a lot of dreams about things that went on at Hogwarts, but what you don’t know is that I did a lot of experimenting with the magic I learned from those dreams. One night, Tyler and I almost got caught out of bounds after hours, but we escaped when I accidentally used an Unlocking Charm on one of the teachers’ offices and we hid inside.”
Tyler grinned reminiscently at him. “I remember that night. I kept telling you that you’d done magic, and you didn’t believe me. Remember what you said? ‘There’s no such thing as magic,’ or something like that, wasn’t it?”
“Ha, ha; very funny,” said Harry as everyone had a laugh at his expense. “I seem to remember you spending several months trying to convince me that I was a witch.” This brought about more laughter, but didn’t have quite the effect Harry had hoped.
“Oy, Ginny!” called George. “Are you really sure you want to be snogging Harry?”
“Yeah,” said Fred. “Maybe we’ve been wrong all these years and we should’ve been calling him the Girl Who Lived.” Ron, Fred, and George broke into a fit of laughter as Harry felt heat rising in his face.
“I suppose I could always check just to make sure,” Ginny replied in her most innocent-sounding voice. Her brothers immediately stopped laughing to gape at her, and she broke into a fit of laughter of her own.
“Don’t joke around like that, Ginny,” Fred protested.
“You started it,” Ginny shot back. “I was just finishing it.”
“As fascinating as this discussion is,” Harry called out, “we really ought to get on with this so it doesn’t take all day.” Ginny batted her eyelashes dramatically at her brothers, and Harry rolled his eyes. At this rate, he was going to be standing here until the New Year.
“Over the course of the school year, I picked up a handful of other spells,” he continued, “mostly from when I dreamed about Hermione helping me prepare for the third task in the Triwizard Tournament. Magic kept me alive at St. Brutus’s. It kept both of us alive, really.” He nodded at Tyler. “You remember me talking about Big Tom? He smuggled a gun into school- do all of you know what a gun is?”
The Weasleys all nodded, and Harry continued, “Well, Big Tom tried to shoot us both one night, but I was able to block the bullets with a Shield Charm. I didn’t know much about magic yet, so I still got beaten up pretty badly, but that Shield Charm kept me alive and gave Tyler a chance to go for help. After I got out of the infirmary, I started practicing magic every night. I never even knew about wands until I started writing to Ron and Hermione and they mentioned them.”
Harry went on to explain that the only reason Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had found out about his wandless magic was because he had repaired a glass in front of them without even thinking about it. They hadn’t known what to think, and had contacted Dumbledore.
“But how is this possible, Harry?” Hermione asked, unable to restrain herself any longer.
“Nobody really knows,” Harry answered. “All I know is that Dumbledore thinks the reason I can do it is because I knew how to do magic, but I didn’t know I needed a wand.” He chuckled to himself. “Maybe I should send Umbridge a thank-you card. If I didn’t have to keep all this a secret, I might actually do it.”
“How come this has to be a secret, anyway?” Tyler asked. “I’ve kept quiet about it for months, but I never understood why it’s such a big deal.”
Hermione shook her head as if to clear it. “Wizards are a lot more like Muggles than most like to admit, Tyler,” she explained. “We all tend to fear the unknown, and this ability of Harry’s definitely qualifies as unknown. If word of this gets out, he’ll be accused of being a Dark wizard. That’s why Dumbledore tried so hard to keep the fact that Harry’s a Parselmouth quiet.”
“What’s being able to talk to snakes got to do with being a Dark wizard?” Tyler asked in a confused voice.
“For the most part, only Dark wizards can do it.” Harry answered. “I sort of knew that back at St. Brutus’s, actually; Hassseth hinted at it the first time I talked to her. That’s not the point, though. The point is, I can do magic without a wand, and it needs to be kept quiet. Alright?”
Everyone nodded, and Harry breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. Back to Christmas, then.”
“And speaking of Christmas,” Ginny piped up, “I’ve got something special for you, Hermione. I didn’t send it to your parents’ house because I wanted to see your face when you open it.” She held out a present, which Hermione took after a moment’s hesitation.
“This isn’t going to blow up, or turn my hair purple or anything, is it?” she asked warily.
Ginny laughed and shook her head. “Hermione, who do you take me for?” she asked in mock-indignation. “I know there’s a ‘G’ on my jumper, but I swear it doesn’t stand for George.”
“No, I’m quite aware that your ‘G’ is for Ginny. That’s what frightens me, actually,” Hermione retorted.
“Hey!” George shouted from across the room. “I heard that, Granger, and I consider it a challenge to make you fear me.”
Ginny rolled her eyes at her brother. “Just open it, Hermione. I promise it won’t attack you.”
With a hint of trepidation, Hermione carefully tore off the wrapping paper, revealing a framed photograph of Harry, Ginny, Colin, Luna, and Hagrid standing behind Hagrid’s hut. She scrunched up her eyebrows in confusion.
“Er, thanks Ginny,” she said politely. “Out of curiosity, though, why did you give me a photo of your Care of Magical Creatures class?”
Ginny smirked at her. “It’s more because of what the lesson was on that day,” she explained as she pointed to what looked like a potbellied pig with long horns curling around each side of its head.
“What is it?” Hermione asked, scrunching up her brow in thought as she tried in vain to recognize the strange creature. “I know a lot of magical creatures, but I’ve never heard of one that looked like that before.”
“Oh, you’ve heard of it,” Harry told her as he tried vainly to hide a smirk.
“You don’t know what that is, Hermione?” Tyler asked, looking over her shoulder at the photo. “Even I know what it is.”
“You do?” Harry and Ginny asked in unison as they and Hermione turned to look at Tyler with skeptical expressions.
“Course I do,” he replied. “I mean, I’ve never seen a photo of one before, but it’s easy enough to recognize from the drawings I’ve looked at.”
“Would somebody please tell me what this is all about?” Hermione asked in an exasperated voice. “What is that thing?” She pointed to the pig-like creature.
“It’s a Crumple-Horned Snorkack,” Tyler said matter-of-factly.
Hermione made a spluttering sound. “That’s impossible,” she scoffed. “Those things don’t exist. They’re just wild stories dreamed up by people who are slightly... off.”
Beside her, Tyler stiffened. “You know, Hermione,” he muttered, “I think what you said earlier was spot on. Witches and wizards really can be just as bad as closed-minded Muggles.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked defiantly. Harry and Ginny exchanged a worried look. They both recognized Hermione’s tone of voice as the one that had once been reserved for starting arguments with Ron.
Tyler calmly looked her in the eye. “It means just what it sounded like. Harry had to practically shove his wandless magic down your throat before you’d believe he could do it, and now you’re standing there looking at a photograph of your friends with a Crumple-Horned Snorkack and all you can say is that they don’t exist.” He shook his head in disgust, and when he spoke again his voice started rising steadily.
“If I thought the way you do, Harry and I would both be back at St. Brutus’s right now because I never would have thought to convince him that he could really do magic! No, I take that back. Pettigrew would’ve captured him and taken him to You-Know-Who! No, wait; I’m wrong again, because we both would have gotten killed by Big Tom long before Pettigrew even thought about showing up!” He took a deep breath to calm himself before finishing, “So pull your head out of the sand, Hermione, and try realizing that you don’t know everything about everything.”
Hermione’s mouth opened and closed several times like a fish out of water as Tyler turned on his heel and stalked out of the room.
Harry sighed heavily. “I’m sorry, Hermione,” he said. “I’m sure he didn’t mean it like that.”
Hermione shook her head. “No, he’s...” she murmured more to herself than to Harry. “Is this really a Crumple-Horned Snorkack?”
“Yeah, it really is,” Ginny replied.
“This isn’t some joke?”
Harry and Ginny both shook their heads.
Hermione let out a long, slow breath. “Maybe Tyler’s right,” she said quietly as she wandered back to her seat, never taking her eyes off of the photograph.
Harry looked up at Ginny. “Think I should go talk to him?” he asked.
“Well... I don’t remember ever seeing him act upset before, so for him to blow up like that.... He’s probably really angry. On the plus side, though, at least he can’t jinx you, right?” she answered.
“I don’t know,” Harry replied with a small smile. “Knowing the twins, they’ve probably figured out some sort of magical weapon for Muggles.” He sighed. “I suppose I ought to at least go see what’s wrong, though.” Reluctantly, he got to his feet, pulled his new jumper over his head, and headed for the garden.
A moment later, Harry stepped out the back door of the Burrow. Bright sunlight reflected off of the snow-covered ground, causing him to squint as he looked around for his friend. It didn’t take long to find him; Tyler was standing a short distance away, leaning against the house with his right shoulder while he gazed at something that was hidden in his left hand.
“Tyler?” Harry called hesitantly. Tyler spun around, shoving whatever he had been looking at into his pocket.
“Hey Harry,” he greeted. Harry was relieved to note that his friend’s voice held no hostility. “I suppose you’re wondering about my little outburst back there, huh?”
Harry nodded. “Not that what you said was wrong, though,” he added quickly.
Tyler exhaled loudly as he ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t usually blow up like that, but.... Gah! Her attitude is so infuriating sometimes. It’s like she thinks it’s impossible for anything she’s read in her books to be wrong.”
Harry grinned. “That’s Hermione, all right. She’s coming around, though; it’s just a slow process. She actually said that you might be right.”
Tyler’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Seriously?”
Harry nodded.
“Maybe I didn’t give her enough credit,” Tyler mused. “I’d always taken her for a complete conformist.”
Harry nodded. “She does come across that way most of the time, but she’s more than willing to break the rules when she thinks it’s for a good reason.” He chuckled to himself. “Actually, some of our more daring plans were originally Hermione’s ideas. She was the one who came up with the idea of making Polyjuice Potion and sneaking into the Slytherin common room, not to mention that she came up with the idea of the D.A.”
Tyler nodded his head, clearly impressed. “I’d forgotten that.”
“Yeah, well there’s a lot to remember. I’d say you’re doing pretty good,” said Harry. “Anyway, since you’ve calmed down now, I wanted to ask you something. How do you know what a Crumple-Horned Snorkack is?”
Tyler’s face flushed slightly, and he looked away. “Remember how I said I’ve been writing to someone?” he asked.
“Luna?” Harry supplied.
Tyler nodded.
“Is that what you were looking at when I came out here? One of her letters?”
Tyler shook his head and slowly pulled the item in question out of his pocket, holding it out for Harry to see. It was a photograph of Luna Lovegood, and Harry had to work very hard not to laugh at her appearance. While most girls would have sent a potential boyfriend a photo with their hair and makeup done perfectly, Luna had sent one in which she was wearing her usual necklace of Butterbeer corks, and her long, dirty blonde hair was pulled up into a messy sort of bun with her wand stuck haphazardly through the middle to hold it in place. As usual, she had a half-dreamy, half-lost expression on her face, and her protuberant eyes stared almost blankly into space.
“Unfortunately, I have no idea what to do,” Tyler said after a moment. “I mean, I’ve gotten to know her pretty well through our letters, but I haven’t seen her since Ginny’s birthday.”
“Can I assume this means you fancy her, then?” Harry asked with a slight chuckle.
“Is that a problem?” Tyler asked defensively, snatching back the photo.
Harry put up his hands in surrender and backed up a step. “No need to get upset, mate.”
Tyler shook himself. “Sorry. It’s just... I know she’s a bit-” he paused, searching for the right word.
“Odd?” Harry supplied.
“Different,” Tyler corrected. “But I like her anyway. I probably like her because she’s so quirky. I just have no idea what she thinks of me, that’s all. I mean, I don’t pretend to know a lot about girls, but if she was interested in me, don’t you think she’d have sent a picture of herself all done up or something?”
Harry laughed. “Any other girl? Definitely. Luna?” He shook his head. “Not a chance. You’ve gotten to know her a bit, right? She is who she is; if people accept her for that, then great, but if not she won’t waste her time on them. I think you ought to talk to Ginny, though - she knows Luna way better than any of the rest of us do.”
“Speaking of Ginny,” Tyler began with a playful glint in his dark eyes, “what happened there? You got your memory back and she just jumped into your arms, or what?”
Harry felt his face growing uncomfortably warm as he shook his head. “Actually, me getting my memory back almost scared her off. It’s a long story, though. Let’s save it for later, when we’re not outside in the cold.”
Tyler shrugged as he slipped Luna’s photo back into his pocket. “Okay. Want to get some hot chocolate?”
“Sounds good,” Harry agreed as they headed back for the house.