The-Merry-Yule (V) [Chapter 223]

Tonks was nervously eating her dinner as the tension was too much for her to deal with. Amelia had glared at her when Harry arrived with them in the dining hall and the woman only stopped glaring at her when Tonks somehow managed to convince her old boss that she never spied on them for Harry.

“This is too much, no one is going to start a fight, so can you guys finally calm down?!” Sirius snapped as he glared at everyone. “It's Christmas for Merlin’s sake! So, can we stop acting like someone has died?” Sirius asked with a frown.

Harry could understand why everyone seemed to be uncomfortable, after all, it wasn’t every day someone would get to share a table with Gellert Grindelwald. Though Gellert seemed to be completely at ease… After all, there was only one person at the table who posed a threat to him.

But, at the same time, Harry knew that Sirius was right, so he decided to change the topic and there was something bugging him since he laid his eyes on Neville Longbottom. Augusta Longbottom was his ally, so obviously Harry had invited her and her Grandson to the dinner.

“So, Neville, how is Hogwarts? You are in Gryffindor, right?” Harry asked and everyone turned toward the boy. Harry felt bad for putting the boy in the spot, but as soon as he finished speaking, much of the tension disappeared. Except for him, Jacklyn, Gellert, and Violetta, everyone else was from Hogwarts, and Harry’s question started to bring back their own memories.

The boy froze and almost passed out when he realized that he had become the center of attention. He was already quite nervous due to the proximity to a former Dark Lord and then the presence of other high-class individuals… He was afraid that a fight might break out any moment and now that he had become the center of attention, he was barely holding himself back from passing out.

He slowly turned his head to glance at his grandmother from the corner of his eyes and from the looks she was giving him, he knew that he needed to start speaking very soon or he was going to get an earful from her.

“Uh…” Neville seemed to fumble. “Yes, Hogwarts is great and the Professors are really great, but I am not that good when it comes to Magic” Neville finished self-deprecatingly.

|Merlin, his confidence is shitty as fuck!| Harry exclaimed inside his head and when he noticed the look Augusta gave him, the boy whimpered and started to look down at his plate, like it was the most interesting thing in the room. Augusta was quite an overbearing woman, so he could see how the boy turned out like that.

“Ohhh… By the way, why are you carrying a mismatched Wand?” Harry asked, surprising both Neville and Augusta.

“Mismatched Wand?” Augusta asked, looking somewhat outraged.

“Yes, mismatched Wand. The Wand he is carrying doesn’t match him at all” Harry clarified and Violetta, who seemed to be impatiently waiting for Harry to bring up this particular topic, beamed with a bright smile on her face. Her very soul was screaming at her to fix the travesty, but she didn’t want to speak out of turn.

“What rubbish are you talking about? The Wand worked fine for Frank, so it should work for him too” Augusta stated firmly, but instead of answering Harry simply glanced toward Violetta, who realized that it was her cue to start speaking.

“Wands don’t work like that. A Wand chooses a Wizard or a Witch… The Wand worked fine for his father doesn’t mean that it would also work for his son. He is not his father, he also carries his mother’s Magic… I have been making Wands for a long time and I have seen children whose Wands are nothing like their parents” Violetta explained.

Augusta gave the woman a skeptical look and she wasn’t the only one…  Everyone who didn’t know her real identity looked at her skeptically. “You look pretty young, so I am not sure I believe your claims” Augusta said doubtfully.

Saul stared at Violetta for a few seconds, before his eyes grew wide in realization. “You are Violetta Beauvais, aren’t you?” Saul asked with a frown, but it was pretty obvious that it wasn’t really a question. There was a certain level of certainty in his voice.

Violetta looked at him completely surprised, but Harry couldn’t fault Saul for connecting the dots… “I don’t know what you are talking about. My name is Violet” Violetta immediately tried to play innocent, and Harry had to give it to her. If it wasn’t for her initial reaction then she could have probably convinced people by playing innocent.

“Sure, whatever you say” Saul gave her a deep nod.

“Wait! Wait! Wait! Who is this Violetta Beauvais?” Sirius asked, looking somewhat alarmed and Harry could guess why. Knowing his Godfather, he must have stirred the ancient cauldron with his Wand.

“Violetta Beauvais is a renowned Wandmaker from America and I am not sure if she is as good as Ollivander…” Saul began to explain, but he paused when Violetta screamed in outrage.

“I am much better than him!” Violetta screamed on pure instinct when Saul insulated that Ollivander might be better than her before she could realize what she was doing. Calling Ollivander better than her right in front of her was a big no-no.

Saul smirked at her and Violetta finally realized her mistake… “...Though she is as old as Ollivander and a few months ago, her family held her funeral, but it looks like the rumors of her death had been exaggerated” Saul finished with a grin and Sirius turned toward Violetta before he turned slightly green.

|Maybe, this will teach him not to shag every beautiful woman he comes across| Lily huffed vindictively.

|I won’t be sure about that| Harry wasn’t sure if his Godfather was going to learn his lesson. Violetta was sexy and beautiful, there was no doubt about that, and it wouldn’t be hard for her to convince Sirius to join her in the bed, once again. When it came to beautiful women, the head on top of his head stopped working and he would start thinking with his other head.

“You fucked her, didn’t you?” Tonks asked accusingly and from the look on Sirius’ face, it was obvious that she was right on her gold. She started to cackle madly.

“Nymphadora!!” Both Andi and Narcissa chastised Tonks, looking scandalized, but Tonks didn’t stop laughing.

“What is wrong with that? I am beautiful and sexy” Violetta decided to defend her actions and to be honest, Harry didn’t think there was anything wrong with that.

“Shut up, you old hag! I bet he found cobwebs down there” Jacklyn decided to include her two knuts. At her words, Tonks started to laugh even more loudly before she finally fell down from her chair, while Draco and Neville looked so red that it looked like his face was going to explode.

This time, even Augusta was looking scandalized. “I don’t want to hear anything from you, the nineteen year old virgin” Violetta snapped back and Harry finally decided to step in before Spells could fly true.

“Everyone! Calm down! While it was quite funny, I believe we got distracted from the original topic” Harry stated with a meaningful look on his face and Jacklyn who was about to deliver her own scathing reply, stopped. Everyone decided to drop the matter even though Sirius was still looking somewhat sick. Tonks also started to calm down… She slowly stood up and fixed her chair before she plopped down on it.

It was obvious that she was having a hard time holding herself back from laughing at Sirius’ misery, but she didn’t want to offend Harry. That line of thought sobered her up in an instant… Here she was, jeering at Sirius, but she wanted Harry to stir her own cauldron and all of a sudden, the thought of incest was quite a turn-on for her.

“Back to the topic at hand, you could at least get him a new Wand which actually fits him and if that doesn’t work, then he could always go back to using his father’s Wand” Harry suggested and after thinking for a bit, the ancient woman nodded her head in agreement. It was obvious that she was a stubborn woman, and she didn’t want to budge, but she realized that there was no harm in trying.

“Okay, Violetta can get him a fitting Wand after dinner” Harry stated with a smile and now that the previous tension was gone, small and mundane conversations started to break out all over. After dinner, as promised Violetta led everyone to her workshop and Neville looked even more nervous than before. He was afraid that even the new Wand was not going to work for him.

“12” Cherry and Unicorn Hair” Violetta said with a grin as she handed the Wand to Neville. It was the third Wand she handed him and she was almost certain that this was the Wand for him. Neville felt a warm feeling rush through his arm and engulf his entire body. He didn’t know much about Wands, but the Wand in his hand felt right for him.

A smile bloomed on his face and decided to cast the most basic Spell with it. With his father’s Wand, even the most basic Spell wasn’t easy for him. “Lumos!” Neville exclaimed as he flicked the Wand and a white light engulfed the room. He kept grinning like a loon ignoring the fact that he almost blinded everyone except for Harry with the most basic Spell…