The-Merry-Yule (I) [Chapter 219]

~~Malfoy Manor~~ (December 25th, 1994)

“Stop dragging me, Sirius” Harry drawled blandly, but his overly excited Godfather, who was also dressed as the Old Saint Nicholas, chose to ignore his words as the man continued to drag him through the manor. The duo finally arrived in the drawing room and the whole room was filled with Christmas decorations.

“I am surprised that he is still alive” Tonks griped unhappily when she noticed Sirius enter the room with his unhappy Godson in tow.

“My Godson is a man of taste, so I didn’t have to wake him up” Sirius snorted in amusement. “He was already up by the time I reached his room” Sirius added with a mocking grin.

“I did tell you that he likes to get up early” Jacklyn recalled in a sour tone.

“There is no reason to feel so sour!” Sirius defended his actions. “Where is all of your Christmas energy?” Sirius asked in a passionate tone. It was 4 am when he woke up and after getting dressed to look like Santa Claus, he woke up all the residents in the house except for Lucius as he didn’t like the man.

“Not all of us are a child at heart like you, Sirius” Andi pointed out, but Sirius simply gave her a mock outraged look before he looked around at everyone. “We are also excited for Christmas, but not at this ungodly hour. The sun isn’t even up yet!” Andi complained and Sirius simply hummed in indignation before he started to pout like a child.

“I don’t mind… I am excited about Christmas” Surprisingly, it was Harry who decided to agree with Sirius’ line of thinking. The first time he was able to celebrate Christmas was after he managed to run away from the Dursleys. The celebration wasn’t anything big, but for the first time he enjoyed the day, even though he only had Norton and his Mom, who was trapped inside his head for company.

And the first time he got to celebrate Christmas with the others was when he was in his first year at Ilvermorny… So, he could understand why Sirius was excited and to be honest, he didn’t want to ruin the mood…

“See, my Godson gets it!” Sirius exclaimed cheerfully before he slung his arm around Harry and started to laugh like Santa Claus.

“But you didn’t look happy when he was dragging you around” Tonks pointed out dumbly. She wasn’t happy being woken up so early in the morning even though it was Christmas, especially with how hectic yesterday was. The Minister and his pet toady were dead, and while the death of the toady itself was celebration worthy, the Junior Aurors were being run ragged by Senior Aurors who were nothing more than headless chickens.

With Amelia Bones gone, there was nobody to hold the helm of the DMLE and with the Minister gone too, they were yet to get a new Director of the DMLE. Only a Minister could appoint a new Director, which meant that they needed to wait until a new Minister or a temporary Minister was appointed by the Wizengamot.

The Wizengamot could appoint a new Director of the DMLE, but they could only do that if Wizarding Britain was in a state of war. Unfortunately for the people of Wizarding Britain, even with the undeniable proof that You-Know-Who was back, Wizarding Britain was not in a state of war and to be honest, she wasn’t sure if it was Voldemort who killed the Minister and his pet toady.

Instead, she would bet her gold on Harry… According to the interview published by Rita Skeeter, Bellatrix Lestrange was the one who kidnapped Dolores Umbridge from her home, but the last time Tonks had seen the deranged woman at Azkaban, the woman was extremely weak and malnourished, so there was no way that the woman could have kidnapped Dolores Umbridge from her home until she was back in shape.

And the last time she checked, it was impossible for such a heavily malnourished woman to get back into shape in a matter of a few hours… Even with Magic, it was supposed to take at least a couple of months. That was her first clue and then there was the fact tha Rita was a member of Lost Garden.

Even after she managed to conclude that it was Harry and not You-Know-Who who killed the Minister and his Undersecretary, she wasn’t as upset as she expected herself to be and at the end of the day, she was only an ickle junior Auror. So if none of the Senior Aurors could come up with the same conclusion, then it was not her place to say anything, and as long as she was concerned, Harry did the world a favor by killing them.

Additionally, it was her day off so it would be kind of wrong of her to investigate such a high-level crime, especially with her being a Junior Auror, and she wasn’t assigned to the case in the first place, so she didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes… It should never be said that Nymphadora Vulpecula Tonks wasn’t a thoughtful colleague…

“I don’t like being dragged around” Harry corrected the misunderstanding. “So, what now? Do we start unpacking the gifts?” Harry asked as glanced toward the gifts lying under the Christmas tree.

“No, that would have to wait” Narcissa, who was sitting beside her grumpy son, while calmly sipping tea spoke up for the first time, but what surprised Harry was the fact that Draco was yet to say anything since he arrived. From what he had seen inside Lucius’ mind, Draco was a sissy who wanted to make his daddy proud and he was very much similar to his father when it came to the topic of blood status.

But here he was, sitting beside his mother like a good little boy. From the looks of it, he wasn’t happy and it looked like he had eaten something sour, but still, he was keeping his mouth shut… It seemed like Narcissa had some really strong words with her son after she returned to the Manor with her son in tow and honestly, Harry was quite curious to know what she had said to him to make him act so docile.

“First, we will get something to eat and then we will open the gifts” Narcissa declared, without leaving any room for arguments and from the looks of it, even Sirius didn’t want to argue with her at this moment.

It didn’t take them long to get something to eat as Narcissa had already ordered Alef to cook something for them and as soon as they were done with the food, they made their way toward the tree, looking excited…

“So, who is going to go first?” Tonks asked excitedly.

“Why don’t you go first, you look the most excited even though you were complaining some time ago” Harry suggested and when the others seemed to agree with Harry, she started to tear the wrapping of the closest package addressed to her. There was a helmet inside the package and Tonks could only stare at the package with a weird look on her face before she turned toward the person who gave her the helmet.

Yeah, she was clumsy, but there was no reason to give her a helmet as a Christmas gift, especially when her head was pretty strong… “Why the helmet?” Tonks asked dumbly as she continued to stare at the damn thing.

“I would say it is a thoughtful gift” Andi chimed in.

“Well, I thought, it would go nicely with your hair. It is Charmed to change color with your hair” Sirius, the person responsible for gifting her helmet, answered.

Tonks stared at the helmet for a moment before a grin finally surfaced on her face. “Really? That’s really cool!” Tonks exclaimed looking excited before all of a sudden she gasped and turned toward her parents. “Did you guys finally get me a bike?” Tonks asked giddily, only to receive frowns from her parents.

Andi shared a look with her husband before she started to speak. “We love you, sweetheart, but it is for the good of people on the street that you don’t get a bike, ever” Andi stated firmly and Tonks seemed to fume for a moment before she decided to move on to her next gift.

The rest of the gifts she received weren’t anything special until she got to the biggest package lying with the rest of her gifts. After reading Harry's name on the package, she started to gently tear through the wrapping and the contents of the package was finally revealed to her, she squealed like a little girl before she lunged at Harry.

From now on, Harry was on top of her favorite person list… “Thank you, thank you, thank you!!” Tonks continued to hug him like there was no tomorrow.

“A Firebolt?! Harry, I thought you were careful!” Andi exclaimed, looking concerned. After watching her daughter look so excited, she wasn’t able to stop herself from taking a peek inside the package.

“Don’t worry, Andi. I have modified the broom with her track record in my mind” Harry defended himself smoothly after Tonks finally let him go. “That is the safest Firebolt in the world. Tonks would need to say the safe word to disengage herself from the broom” Harry explained, earning a few chuckles and a blush from Tonks.

‘Don’t worry, it is also the fastest Firebolt in the world right now and the safe word is guava’ Tonks read the note that came along with the broom and a smile tugged on her lips…

After that, the rest continued with their gifts until it was finally Sirius’ turn. After opening a couple of gifts, he finally grabbed the smallest package and the said package was from Harry. He wasn’t sure what was in the package, but he was probably most excited since it was from his Godson. He hurriedly tore through the package, only to gape at the contents of the package.

He slowly pulled out the key from the package and held it in the air for everyone to see… “Is this what I think it is?” Sirius asked in a disbelieving tone.

“Why don’t you go out and see for yourself?” Harry suggested and Sirius immediately hushed toward the outside of the house with Tonks high on his heel as she could already guess the gift he received from Harry. Sirius arrived near the entrance of the Manor only to find a red Ducati Monster waiting for him.

Sirius squealed like a little girl as he rushed toward the bike… All in all, it was a really joyful day for all the residents of the Malfoy Manor… Well, not everyone as Lucius didn’t receive any gifts from anyone except for his son…