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Albus Potter and the Deathly Hallows | ||||||
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Category: Post-Hogwarts Characters:Harry/Ginny, Other Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama, Humor, Romance Warnings: Death, Intimate Sexual Situations, Violence, Violence/Physical Abuse Story is Complete Rating: R Reviews: 77 Summary: Albus has his challenges during his first year. Cleopatra is obviously his soulmate, and has brilliant insights into magic, except she cannot do it like anyone else. Albus has to help her while keeping peace between the two brightest and most competitive students at Hogwarts, Scorpius and Rose. It doesn’t help that people are out to get Albus. Harry is not sure he can keep everyone safe. Then you have Ginny and Cleopatra. Hitcount: Story Total: 145961; Chapter Total: 4674 Awards: View Trophy Room Author's Notes: The poem in this chapter is from Winnie the Pooh by A.A.Milne. I gave my set to my wife the Christmas we were engaged. As always edits and help from Arnel and FriendofMolly |
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Friday, 22 December, Narcissa came over to Potter’s New Burrow in the morning. She greeted Ginny, and asked, “Did you find any clothes for Cleo?” Ginny said, “She has new dresses, skirts, blouses, and trousers, plus shoes and accessories. We tried to make them all stylish, but by the time Cleo was done putting in pockets …” Narcissa said, “Merlin, the girl is obsessed with pockets. Why do you think she had that ugly dress? It was the only one in the Muggle store with pockets she liked.” Ginny said, “After I met you I could not quite figure out why Cleo had such an ugly dress. Maybe it wasn’t all your fault.” Narcissa said, “I am not totally innocent. If I had taken her to Missy Malcom’s Modern Muggle Clothes instead of a totally Muggle store we might have done better. I just have a hard time shopping with Cleo without some sort of argument.” The two witches shared stories about shopping with Cleo. Finally Narcissa said, “Thank you, Ginny, for shopping with Cleopatra. You obviously do a much better job than I do. You are most welcome to shop with her from now on.” “Thank you, I think,” Ginny said. She felt the baby bump again. She really had not planned on two new children, a newborn, and a twelve-year-old, this year. Narcissa told Ginny that Scorpius and Cleopatra were going to be going back December twenty-third to spend Christmas Eve, Christmas and Boxing Day with the Malfoy Family. Then she went over to the New Burrow next door to visit with her sister and Molly. Shortly before noon Ginny received a call on her mobile from Fr. Lewis of St. Merlin and Mungo’s. “Ginny, I have a problem. Mario and his family cannot do the usual two services Christmas Eve. Everybody is sick. I have looked everywhere for music, and cannot find anyone. Then my daughter Susan mentioned that Albus is in a band. Could he play for Christmas?” Ginny said, “I can ask him.” Ginny asked Mitzi, the Elf who was almost always with her to compensate for her terrible sense of balance, and she found Frerin, the Elf who was usually guarding Albus, and a short time later Albus and Cleopatra were in the kitchen of Potter’s New Burrow. “The church does not have any music for Christmas Eve,” Ginny said. “Could you play some Christmas music on your guitar?” “Christmas music?” Cleo asked. “Like Angels We Have Heard On High. and Joy To The World? I can play those on the organ. I can play Silent Night too, but that was first written for the guitar. So was What Child Is This. Albus, is this helping people? You talk about how we need to be good people. Is this a way we could help bring Christmas joy to people?” Albus said, “I cannot imagine a Christmas without music. Tell Pastor Lewis that we will do it.” Ginny said, “Grandmother Malfoy said you need to be back at Malfoy Mansion Christmas Eve.” “That will not bring joy to anyone,” Cleo said. “I didn’t practice the organ all these years just to be told that when someone needs, NEEDS, someone to play I may not do it!” Ginny and the children went over to The New Burrow to see Narcissa Malfoy, and after a great deal of pleading and explaining Narcissa agreed. She even agreed to go to church with the children, just to see what it was all about, since she had never been in a church of any kind. Cleo said, “We ought to get the band to help.” So Albus and Cleo rounded up the band. Hanna McGonagall had been singing backup, and she convinced a large portion of the McGonagall clan to come to church with her, including her Aunt Minerva. Colin Creevey had been singing backup as well, and the rumour had it that it was partly to spend more time with Christy Shook, although he had a good voice and enjoyed singing, so the Creevey family also decided to go to church Christmas Eve. Scorpius had a passable singing voice, but was not that interested. Rose, who suffered through piano lessons without ever developing a good ear or sense of rhythm, was glad not to be involved. The members of the band practiced at the Potters New Burrow the evening of the twenty-second and additional practices both in the morning and afternoon of the twenty-third and twenty-fourth. The last practice was with a few choir members who usually sang at the later service. * Thursday night Ginny told Harry, “Albus seems to have accepted that Cleopatra is going to be part of his life, but does he love her? Should he love her at his age? I’m terrified of that relationship, but if Cleo is going to be part of Al’s life, I would like some symbol that there is more than just acceptance there.” “I’m not sure we can do anything about it right now, but just watch them,” Harry said. “I would like to ask Albus how he feels,” said Ginny. Between the Christmas Eve practices Ginny asked Albus, “How do you feel about Cleopatra? I know she is your soulmate, but do you like her?” “Sure I like her,” Albus said, “But it is more than like. She completes me in some way. I guess we do not act like Teddy and Victoire, or Fred and Miriam, or Roxanne and Frank.” Ginny said, “Sometimes you act like an old married couple, but you do not exactly act like boyfriend and girlfriend.” Al said, “Mum, I’m eleven. I am really not old enough to have a girlfriend. Besides, I am still a little boy. Cleopatra is in the middle of raging puberty, and I have not even started. We know that, well, I know that, once we are physically ready for sex we are still not going to be ready. “I’ve read enough about soulmates to know that we will probably be married as soon as we can, maybe even on my seventeenth birthday, but that is a long way off, five and a half years off.” Ginny asked, “You are sure that you want to spend the rest of your life with Cleopatra?” “Oh, yes!” Albus exclaimed. “I do, I, well, I really want to spend the rest of my life with her. It would be nice if we could sleep together, even in different beds, even if we didn’t have sex, which I’m really not old enough for anyway, but I know we cannot. So we have not snogged or anything like that, but I do … the word is love, isn’t it. I do, but I have not really told her, or you.” Albus thought of all the types of love in Elfish. The all really applied to Cleo, even eros, although he was too young for erotic love. “Finding your soulmate when you are eleven and still a little boy is really awkward,” Albus finally said. “That is one way to put it,” Ginny said. At least awkward, she thought, if not terrifying. Albus thought about his mother’s conversation. He was going to have to find a way of telling Cleopatra how he felt. * The first Christmas Eve service was at five in the afternoon. It was primarily for families with small children, and the church was brightly lit. Christy and the band played The Little Drummer Boy for the children before the service. The Magi Christian Church was sort of an Orthodox Church. It was very old, having separated from the main bodies of Christians early on, because of the problems it caused being a Christian and a Magi at the same time. Father Lewis started out the service by telling how the family that usually provided music was sick, and that he was having a very hard time finding someone to take their place. “It reminded me of how, in 1818, in a small Austrian town, Franz Xavier Gruber and Joseph Mohr composed a simple song for the guitar, because their organ was broken. If I could not find someone to play the organ maybe I could find someone to play the guitar, to play that song.” Albus walked out with the old gut strung guitar of his grandfather, magically amplified, and started to sing and play Silent Night, Holy Night. The entire congregation joined in the singing. Cleo came over to Albus for the second verse, and added a beautiful harmony to the song. When she did three small children ran up to the place where they were, and she took then into her arms and sat them down, entrancing them by her singing and presence, before gently leading them back to their families after the song. There was a scripture reading, and then Father Lewis said, “Instead of a psalm we are going to have another Christmas song.” Albus said, “The song Greensleeves was composed by King Henry the Eighth, or at least around his time. Christmas lyrics were later written to that tune.” Cleo brought out her keyboard, and Albus his guitar, and they played the melody to the last measure of the song. Cleo had the keyboard set to sound like a harpsicord, so the music was very medieval. Everybody joined in singing, What Child is This. Cleo had never been to a Christian service. There were two more readings, the last one about the birth of Jesus. This Jesus was apparently someone very important in the Christian religion. Father Lewis finished reading the gospel, and then started his sermon. Cleopatra had to think about this strange faith. Albus believed, believed enough that he thought going to church was important. Cleo knew that. But both this Father Lewis and Albus thought it was more important to have a faith than to be Christians. Father Lewis talked about humility too, and what he said bothered Cleo. She needed to ask Albus about it. Cleo played Away in a Manger on the organ after the sermon. She played Angels We Have Heard on High for what she was told was the communion part of the service. She ended with a rousing version of Joy to the World. Between the services everybody from the band and their families, a very large group, went back to the New Burrow for dinner. Harry worked Christmas Eve as usual, but was able to leave the Ministry in time to go to the late Christmas Eve service at St. Merlin and St. Mungo’s Church. Cleo and Albus had decided to exchange books for Christmas presents, books that they already owned. That way Cleo did not have to go Christmas shopping. She really didn’t have her own money, as far as she knew. Just before everybody went back to the church for the ten o’clock Christmas Eve service, Al and Cleo exchanged gifts. Cleo said, “I have a present for you, Al.” She handed him a wrapped present, a couple of books that they had talked about, that Al had indicated that he would like to read. Al handed a set of books over to Cleo. “Merry Christmas, Cleopatra,” Albus said. The present was a set of “The World of Pooh, ” the complete Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. There was a note Spellotaped in the front of the book, and on the page the note pointed to Albus wrote, “To Cleopatra, from Albus.” Below that was the following passage: TO HER Hand in Hand we come Christopher Robin and I, To lay this book in your lap. Say you’re surprised? Say you like it? Say it’s just what you wanted? Because it’s yours– Because we love you. Cleo looked at the book, and the little passage. Because we love you. This was the first time Albus really said that he loved her, not that he just accepted that they were soulmates, but that the loving emotion was part of it. She just lost it. She pulled Albus close to her and said, “Thank you,” the tears flowing. It took a couple of minutes for Cleo to calm down. Ginny looked at the page that had caused such a reaction. She showed it to Harry, and then held on to him tightly, and whispered, “I should not have worried. He likes her.” “The right emotions are there,” Harry said. “Albus just doesn’t express them as freely as some people.” After the meal, before they went back to Church, Cleopatra asked Albus, “Is your family really one of the richest in the world?” Albus said, “We are wealthy, I guess. Dad says we have to use our money to help other people, not just to show off and to try and buy happiness.” Cleo said, “The Malfoy house is as large as the New Burrow and Potters New Burrow combined, but it is not a fun place to be. Everything looks like it was made to impress other people. “The talk the, is he a priest, like priests and priestesses? The leader, he said that Jesus could have been born in a palace, and instead he was born in a stable. Like, if you were not born at St. Mungo’s or even in your mother’s bed, but somewhere else. He grew up to be famous, but he never was rich. He wasn’t a show off. “So if you become rich, and you are a Christian, you are not to be just trying to impress people with how rich you are?” Albus said, “That’s sort of the point of the sermon, I guess. I know I don’t like a show-off, and Dad doesn’t either.” Cleo whispered, “What if you are powerful and important?” Albus said, “It’s a problem. The prophets and Christian clergy I have talked to all say that it is a problem. I know I am good at magic, and so are you. We just have to be grateful, and try to do good.” When they arrived at the church everything was dimly lit. Everyone was given a new candle, and they found their way into pews. The church was crowded. Finally the rest of the lights were put out, and Father Lewis talked about Joseph and Mary having to find a place to stay, and the despair they must have felt in the dark, no place to stay, with Mary due any moment. “They must have felt as much despair as Joseph Mohr and Franz Xavier Gruber did when the organ in their church was broken on Christmas Eve. Mario and his family are sick, and earlier in the week I was facing the same sort of darkness in my soul, contemplating a Christmas Eve without music. “My daughter Susan suggested a person who could provide music.” A small light from a single wand focused on Albus as he played Silent Night, and as before the congregation joined in. Cleo again joined in harmony as lights were lit, and by the end of the song all the candles were lit, the whole church was ablaze in light, and again there were children around Albus and Cleo. Albus and Cleo played What Child is This between the first two readings. After that Cleo went to the pipe organ, although she placed her keyboard on top of the console. The choir and the whole band joined in for the rest of the songs, and the music became more and more upbeat. For the song right after the sermon, while the priest did something, the choir sang Gesu Bambino. She again played Angels We Have Heard on High for what she was told was the communion part of the service, this time with an adult choir adding plenty of harmony. The last song was Joy to the World, and by this time the band, the choir, and the entire congregation was singing at the top of their voices. On the last verse Cleo pulled out all the stops, added some music from her keyboard, and all the band instruments were playing. When the song was over Cleo went into an amazing postlude, about five minutes of variations of Joy to the World that had everybody in the congregation in awe. When Cleo was done the church was stunned into silence for maybe fifteen seconds, before someone started to applaud. The church erupted into applause. The band and choir also applauded. Cleo looked at Albus, and asked, “What do I do now?” Albus smiled and said, “Bow, and say ‘thank you.’” Cleo did bow, and smiled at the congregation, especially at several children who obviously wanted to see her. She invited the children up, and over the next twenty minutes talked to them about the pipe organ, her keyboard, and music, charming not only the children but also their parents. Albus and all the band members shared their instruments as well. Finally Narcissa said, “Cleo, Scorpius, we really need to get back to Malfoy Manor.” Cleo packed up her keyboard, all the Christmas music, and the books from Albus. When they were back at the Manor, and she was in her room, she took out the books from Albus. She looked at the poem in the front, Say you’re surprised? Yes, she was surprised Say you like it? Yes, she liked it. Say it’s just what you wanted? Because it’s yours– Because we love you. Because we love you. Because we love you. Cleo took the books to bed with her, because he loved her, and she loved him. This was the MOST WONDERFUL Christmas EVER. * Harry was in and out of the Christmas Eve service, and Ginny knew something was wrong. At the end of the services he and a couple of other Aurors were making sure everybody either took the Floo, Apparated, or had escorts if they had to leave through the front door. So when they were alone at home she asked, “What was going on Christmas Eve?” Harry said, “There were a huge number of Dementors howling outside, and some very suspicious characters. One was Guts the Goblin, the same one who was with the group that attacked you in San Francisco when you first were pregnant with James.” Ginny said, “Did you arrest the goblin?” Harry said, “He was not in a place where we could, and none of the other suspicious people had done anything wrong.” Ginny said, “I thought we were through with drama and danger when Tom Riddle was killed.” Harry said, “It is getting worse. I am worried.” |
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