Harry Potter Squib Tale Chapter 74: Christmas Chaos

Chapter 74: Christmas Chaos

“Welcome, welcome!” I said cheerfully, waving Sam inside. “You’re just in time for brunch!”

“Thanks,” he said with a shiver. It was bitterly cold, even though it was early afternoon. The sun was gone behind thick clouds and several inches of snow had decided to blanket London overnight in a white Christmas.

A steaming mug of eggnog spiced with cinnamon and extra nutmeg appeared on the coffee table as Sam took his boots and coat off, and he sighed gratefully as he took it.

“Thank you, Inky,” he said. The House Elf didn’t respond, but I knew the old elf would have a massive blush on his face.

“Take a load off,” Delilah offered, patting an empty couch cushion and Sam sat down next to her with a groan of relief.

My girlfriend had been over here since the morning. She’d wanted to spend some time with her parents, but at the last minute her father suddenly had ‘other plans’ and bailed. Her mother was naturally distraught but tried to put on a brave façade and urged Delilah to spend Christmas with me instead of her.

She hadn’t been happy, but Delilah had agreed, and she’d come over. We would spend time with Sam for another couple of hours and eat a hearty Christmas brunch, and then we’d head back to the Hunts’ for dinner.

‘Mrs. Hunt doesn’t deserve to be alone today,’ I thought to myself, before looking at Delilah. ‘And maybe it’s time we revealed the truth to her.’

Sensing the mood, Sam cleared his throat. “Was your Christmas party any fun?” he asked Delilah.

“It was boring,” she sighed. “Just old and rich people talking about old and rich things. It was only bearable because of Ed.”

“Indeed, I’m very entertaining,” I said with an expression of false modesty on my face. My mask broke a second later and we broke down giggling.

“Good news is that more people are remembering your name,” Delilah commented after settling down and recovering from her giggle-fit. “Last couple of years most people at the parties you’ve attended forgot who you were after being introduced. Now, though, with your company as a rising star, they deigned to recall who you are.”

“Not sure if that’s a good thing or not,” I grumbled. “Some of those people… completely out of touch!”

I then gave the pot of pasta a stir. “Think it’s about ready!” I called out. “Just a couple more minutes!”

“You know, I could totally help,” Sam offered.

“Nah, it’s fine, it’s almost all done,” I replied.

“At least let me set the table,” he said, not wanting to sit and do nothing. I rolled my eyes but nodded.

“You know where the plates and stuff are, right?” I asked, and he nodded. He finished off his eggnog and then stood back up. With his help, the table was set and then the food was brought over to it as well.

We then sat down to a nice brunch. Pasta with a shrimp-and-garlic alfredo sauce, deviled eggs, steamed veggies, Yorkshire puddings, and a tub of peppermint ice cream for dessert. I wasn’t the best cook – and Inky made the puddings and eggs – but I did a good job in my humble opinion. The happy noises everyone made as they ate certainly made me pleased with my work.

“That was good,” Sam praised as he put his spoon down in his now-empty ice cream bowl.

“Thanks, that means a lot from the future winner of the British Baking Battle,” I told him, and he blinked.

“Uh, what?” he asked. “I’m not participating in that.”

“Oh, no, did I spoil the surprise?” I asked, looking towards Delilah who pouted at me.

“Yes, you did,” she huffed, before pulling out an envelope. “Here you go, Sam.”

He took it, confused, but when he opened it, his eyes widened. Inside the envelope was a Christmas card. But inside that was a folded-up registration form for the British Baking Battle show, the biggest culinary competition on TV right now, with some of his info on it.

“I got a registration form through some friends,” Delilah told a stunned Sam. “Just finish filling it out and submit it before January 10th and you should get an invite to a tryout in late February. If you pass, you’ll be onboard for the March filming of the show.”

“I-I don’t believe it!” Sam gasped. “Thank you so much!”

“No worries,” Delilah assured him. “I’m looking forward to seeing you win!”

“Same,” I agreed. “You’re doing great at culinary school, and if you managing to pass the tryouts – which you will – it will totally boost your chances of finding a place to work after you graduate.”

“I’m not going to waste this opportunity!” he declared eagerly.

“Oh, and before you fill the form out, there’s one thing I need to give you,” I told him. “My present.”

I got up and grabbed his gift out of the closest, placing it on the table in front of him. Festive wrapping paper decorated the box-shaped present and he eyed it curiously, surprised by the size.

“And this is for you, Sam,” I declared. “It’s from me, Sirius, and Nym.”

“All three of you got me a gift?” he asked as he accepted the wrapped object.

“Sure did! I supplied the materials, Nym and Sirius did the enchanting,” I said.

Curious, Sam peeled away the paper, revealing a fancy wooden box made of walnut. I’d made it myself, covering it in protective runes. It’d be hard to break or scuff it, and there were some special runic sequences to prevent anybody from detecting the contents as being out of the ordinary.

Sam admired the box for a moment, running a hand over the surface of the lid, before opening it up. Nestled within was the silver belt Nym had delivered the other day, the interlocking plates clinking softly as Sam picked it up.

“Whoa,” he murmured.

“It’s an enchanted belt,” I told him with a grin. “Nice and fancy. Go and try it on! It adjusts to any size and won’t ever accidentally fall off!”

“Looks really expensive,” Sam murmured.

“The silver came from the recycling plant and it took a couple minutes for your girlfriend and the weirdo to add the enchantments,” I assured him. “Come on, I now you’ll love it!”

After a moment he nodded, and put it on, buckling it around his waist. The moment the two halves clicked together, however, a change overcame Sam.

He shrunk two inches, and his waist became narrower. Fingers turned slender and his limbs lost a bit of muscle tone. The hair on his head – including his eyelashes – grew longer, his chest and hips began to swell, and a few seconds later Sam the Man was gone, replaced by Samantha the Woman.

“W-what?” he – now she – whispered in shock, staring at her hands.

Delilah grinned as she snapped a picture with a camera Inky had sneakily provided, and I helpfully held up a mirror for him.

“Is this… me?” Sam whispered in disbelief as she touched her face, then her waist.

“This is what you would look like if you’d been born in the body of a woman,” I confirmed.

“How?” she asked, still in awe.

“Technically, it’s a curse,” I admitted. “The Black family had a lot of nasty ways to punish people without killing them. The Gender Swapping Curse was one of ‘em. It turns a woman into a man, or vice-versa.”

I pointed at the belt. “Sirius and Nym toned it down a bit. You can remove the belt whenever you wish, so you’re not stuck in that form. Keep in mind though that an aspect of the curse is that it makes people assume you’ve always been whatever gender you currently are, but it only affects those without magic, so when you wear it, everyone around you will think you’ve always been a woman. And when you take it off, the effect fades. So, uh, don’t undress around people or it will blow their minds.”

“Also, because it’s cursed, Aurors might notice and think it’s Muggle baiting,” Delilah added.

“Yeah, that, too,” I nodded. “So careful when you walk around places near the magical hotspots in London.”

“Thank you,” Sam whispered, starting to tear up, and Delilah and I quickly wrapped her up in a hug.

“We’re there for ya,” I promised. “It’s a big change, but you’ll always be you, no matter the gender. You’ll always be my best friend.”

“Thank you,” she repeated, but this time there was relief in her voice.

“This is gonna be an awkward conversation with my parents,” Sam sighed after wiping away her tears of joy, and Delilah and I winced.

“We could help?” Delilah offered.

“No, this is something I should do myself,” Sam admitted. “I know they know I'm... different, but I suppose this will really drive it home for them.”

I patted her back. There wasn’t much else to say or do beyond that.

“Now I feel like my own gifts for you two aren’t as good,” Sam claimed with a weak chuckle a moment later.

“Anything you give us is great and appreciated,” Delilah assured him. “It’s the thought that counts.”

“But, if you really do wanna get us something extra nice, I’ve wanted to treat Delilah to a special New Years dinner,” I said leadingly and Sam giggled.

“Yeah, I can do that for you two,” she said.

“Great! Have I told you how glad I am to have a professional chef as a friend? Because I’m very glad,” I told Sam. She swatted my arm and Delilah rolled her eyes at my antics.

After that, Sam gave us the presents she’d gotten for us. Sam knew what I liked and got me a bunch of fancy dice and a couple new table top figurines I was going to have a fun time painting. Delilah got a bunch of hair and skincare products Sam had brewed herself.

“Thank you,” I said to Sam and Deliah. “This has been a great Christmas.”

“Shush, the queen is on,” Delilah said, nudging me. I nodded and turned back to the TV to watch the queen give her traditional Christmas speech.

‘Yes, this is a fine end to the year,’ I thought to myself. Yet I couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps something unpleasant was about to come after a string of successes.

111 ^^^ &&& ^^^ 111

Harry POV

The Boy Who Lived had been surprised when so many people had decided to stay at Hogwarts this year. With the Dementors prowling the grounds, the very idea of sticking nearby should have scared off most students.

‘I only did so in order to spend time with Remus – I mean Professor Lupin,’ Harry thought to himself. Ron and the Weasleys were sticking around, as were Susan, Hannah, the Patils, and Neville, to name a few.

‘Though in Neville’s case, I think his Gran wants to make sure he’s safe. And with the man who helped torture his parents on the loose, she probably doesn’t want Neville to be somewhere without heavy duty wards,’ Harry mused. ‘And despite what had happened last year… and the year before that… come to think of it, Hogwarts actually isn’t that same at all.’

He frowned to himself as that thought crossed his mind, but shook it off in favor of diving into the Christmas lunch that had been prepared. The tables in the Great Hall had been replaced with a single one, and everybody left in the castle, student and faculty alike, was sitting at it as they tucked into a mountain of food.

Duck, turkey, roast beef, potatoes in a dozen different styles, and of course puddings and pies had been provided by the House Elves, and Harry was pretty sure they’d gone all out this year.

Harry then chuckled as Ron popped a cracker and was immediately attacked by a big, Christmas colored goose that honked, stole his pie, and then ran off before anyone could catch it.

“Bleh!” Ron coughed, spitting out a feather. “What is with all the birds this year?!”

“Dunno,” Harry shrugged. His own popper had created a pink rooster while Neville had a miniature vulture perched on his head.

“According to Professor Trelawny, birds are representative of transformation,” Parvati suggested, glancing over at the Divination teacher who was drinking a bottle of sherry.

“Indeed, indeed! The avian form is a herald of transformation, but also transcendence! Depending on the species, it could mean great fortune approaches… or great doom!” the Seer declared, sounding a little sloshed.

While Parvati gushed over her teacher, Padma – and a few other people – rolled their eyes at her proclamation.

“It’s probably doom for me,” Neville sighed as the vulture pecked at his head. Hannah tried to shoo it away but it refused to budge.

Silently thanking Ed for suggesting he not take Divination this year, Harry instead turned to Remus. “Is there any chance we can have another lesson?”

“Certainly,” the secret werewolf replied. “I think after tonight, there will be plenty of cheer and pleasant memories to draw upon.”

Harry nodded, pleased by that. He’d been trying for more than a month to get somewhere with his Patronus. So far, he’d found he could create a couple silver sparks, but that was it. The spell was hard, but he was determined to master it.

‘And, since the full moon is a couple days away, this will be the last time Professor Lupin will be able to help before then,’ Harry thought to himself.

The cursed teacher always got ‘sick’ during and a day after the full moon. But even before that, a few days leading up to it he got… twitchy. As if the curse could sense it was almost time to awaken. And it was much harder for him to focus on something as complicated as the Patronus spell with the wolf clawing at the back of his mind.

“Harry! Did you get my gift?”

The Boy Who Lived turned his head to look at Susan, who was looking at him expectantly, and he nodded.

“I did. Thank you, it was a useful present.”

It really was. The Hufflepuff had given Harry a Quill of Many Colors, which could create ink in over seven different colors. A fun little enchanted object, but the gift was special because it had been Susan giving it to him.

“I also liked yours,” she informed Harry, and that made him smile in relief.

“That’s great. I wasn’t sure if you’d like an enchanted hat.”

“It keeps my hair perfect and dry? What’s not to love?” she replied with a giggle.

There was some more chatting with the others, but most were too busy eating to do much small talk. Afterwards, people ended up lazing around the castle for a few hours, until the mid-afternoon rolled around, and somebody suggested a game before dinner.

“WOOO!” Fred called out as a snowball came flying. “Missed me!”

A dozen more came hurtling towards him, propelled by spells, and the red-headed twin cackled as he leapt away, countering the flying snowballs with some of his own.

Yes, the students had decided to have a massive snowball fight. And Harry was having a great time trying to catch the Weasley twins who had decided to challenge everyone to a fight.

And they were winning. Of course, when someone cast jinxes onto the snowballs or mixed potions with funny effects into the snow, it created some, dare Harry say it, interesting effects?

“We need to win,” Susan muttered as she watched the red-heads beat everyone back. “Get your cloak.”

“Don’t you think using an Invisibility Cloak to win a snowball match is… cheating?” Harry asked. “Or overkill?”

“No,” she replied, shooting him a glare. “I am not going to lose my last bottle of Phoenix Peach shampoo to them!”

“I’m not the one who bet that,” Harry pointed out. “If you didn’t want to lose it, you shouldn’t have challenged the twins.”

“That’s a lot of excuses I’m hearing and not a lot of helping,” Susan said with a pout, and he winced, feeling his face heat up a little at the innocent expression she turned on him.

Harry tried to resist. Really, he did! But his burgeoning hormones betrayed him and the cute pleading look Susan was giving him made his stomach do kickflips. With great reluctance he nodded.

“Fine, I’ll grab the cloak,” he muttered. Why did he think it was a good idea to tell his friends he had one? They always wanted to borrow it! Even Hermione! Though she just wanted to use it to sneak into the restricted section of the Library.

“I’ll wait for you,” she replied, before looking up at the sky. It was getting late and the sun was going down. And was it getting colder, too?

Harry shrugged and went up to the Gryffindor tower and fetched his cloak. It shimmered in the light, and he couldn’t resist running a hand over the silken surface.

After admiring it for a bit longer, he brought it with him outside, and noticed two things: Susan had decided to hang around near the entrance to keep warm, while the snowball fight had drifted a bit, heading away from the edge of the lake and was now closer to the Forbidden Forest.

‘And it’s definitely gotten colder and darker all of a sudden,’ Harry thought with a shiver. The sun was gone, hidden behind dark clouds, and a stiff breeze was sending a biting chill through the area.

“We should end this quickly,” he suggested to Susan.

“Yeah, I’m not gonna let the twins take my hair care products!” she declared.

Harry rolled his eyes but threw the cloak up around them, and began to make their way across the snow-covered field. They left a trail of footprints, but Susan used her wand to cover their tracks.

As they got closer, and undetected by the twins, she began to create several snowballs. When the duo got too close, Susan acted, and unleashed a barrage of ice and snow upon them, and the twins yelped in shock as they were pelted and buried under a small hill’s worth of frozen water.

“Gah! Cheaters!” George cried out as Harry lowered the cloak, revealing the two of them to the rest.

“You never said we couldn’t use Invisibility Cloaks!” Susan laughed. “And that means it’s legal! Victory is mine!”

“She got us there, brother of mine,” Fred groaned as he pulled himself out of the snowdrift.

“Bah! She won the battle, but not the war!” George declared as the rest of the students began to gather together. “Tomorrow shall be different!”

“Bring it on!” Ron declared, his competitiveness enkindled, and Neville nodded along, a surprisingly determined expression on his face.

Cheerful laughter rang out as everyone began to make their way back to the castle, though when another cold gust of air blew past, the mirth died out as everyone couldn’t help but shudder.

“Temperature dropped,” Parvati commented, blowing on her hands.

“Sure did,” Ginny agreed. “Pretty fast, too.”

“Sun’s gone. Probably had something to do with it,” Neville suggested.

“The Nargles are scared,” Luna suddenly announced, looking around worriedly.

“Pardon?” Hannah asked, squinting at the Ravenclaw.

“Ignore her, she says things like that,” Padma said, waving it off.

Harry frowned, and not just because he disliked how dismissive that sounded, but also because he felt something… wrong in the air.

“We need to get back to the castle. Now,” he announced as he suddenly took off faster.

“Harry?” Susan asked, hurrying along after him.

“There’s… I dunno, something bad is coming,” Harry replied.

And then the icy chill wrapping around them dug even deeper, sinking into their bones and chilling their blood.

“W-what’s going on?” Susan gasped, her breath turning to icy mist in front of her, eyes darting around fearfully.

“Dementors,” Harry hissed in horrified realization. “Dementors! Run!”

Nobody needed any further encouragement and the students booked it, rushing for the safety of the castle. Yet the monstrous guards of Azkaban had predicted this, and a group of the shrouded creatures flew out of the Forbidden Forest, cutting the stragglers off from Harry and Susan, who’d pulled ahead of the group earlier.

“No!” Susan screamed. “Hannah!”

“Run! Susan, run! Get help!” her fellow Hufflepuff shouted back as they began to cluster together, the temperature plunging. Frost began to creep across every surface as the Dementors, all thirty-three that had been assigned to guard Hogwarts, began to circle around the other students. They ignored Harry and Susan, content to menace the others they’d trapped for now.

“E-Expecto Patronum!” Harry shouted, whipping out his wand and trying to blast the Dementors, but the spell sputtered and failed, wisps of silver smoke seeping from the tip of his wand.

Unfortunately, that failed attack seemed to attract their attention, and a trio of Dementors broke off from the main group and began to glide towards them.

“Expecto Patronum!” Harry tried again, but again, it did not work, the magic fizzling out into nothingness.

“Stop them! Harry, please!” Susan begged.

“I-I’m trying!” Harry shouted, waving his wand wildly. Silver sparks and mist spurted out but nothing like the impressive quicksilver beast Professor Lupin had been able to conjure in their lessons.

“GAH!” Susan exclaimed, partly in fear, partly in annoyance, and she grabbed Harry by the shoulders and pulled him in, planting a deep kiss on his lip. When she pulled away there was a loud pop. “There! Did that help?!”

“Wuh?” Harry burbled, before blushing heavily. “Wh-why would that help?!”

“Didn’t you say a Patronus needed good memories?!” she shouted back.

“I did, but-!”

“Are you saying that you didn’t enjoy it?!”

“Maybe this isn’t the best time to do this!” Harry shouted back, before moving to keep himself between the Dementors and Susan.

The cloak-wearing creatures continued to float forward, the chill of winter growing increasingly worse and the shivering just wouldn’t stop. The students suddenly began to collapse into the snow, unable to handle the cold and the mind-numbing terror anymore.

Harry gasped in horror as he saw one of them start to lower itself towards an unconscious Neville, and the rest continued to circle around his fallen friends like ragged vultures.

‘No… No! I won’t let them!’ Harry thought to himself, determination pushing away the fear.

“EXPECTO PATRONUM!” Harry screamed. Fear for his friends. Love for them, too. And overall, a desire to protect. It overwhelmed him, flooding through his body and into his wand, and from the tip an explosion of silver fire enveloped the field.

The Dementors screamed in pain and terror, recoiling from the flames that writhed across the snow but did not melt it. The same could not be said of the soul-sucking abominations. The cloaks of the ones closest to the blast had ignored, and were devoured by the silvery blaze, turned into screaming pyres that were turned to ash and shadows.

However, as impressive and satisfying as the sight was, Harry couldn’t tear his eyes from the Patronus that had appeared in the snow.

It was a deer. It had dappled hide, like a fawn. It had a slender, almost feminine body shape, yet also had a rack of antlers like a stag, made from burning golden fire. When it exhaled, spurts of silver sparks escaped its nostrils and mouth.

“Harry!” the voice of a woman called out to him, a voice he’d only ever heard once: in the dream-like Limbo after his near-death experience at the fang of the Basilisk.

“Attaboy!” the voice of a man called out to him, and though he’d never heard it before, Harry knew it was filled with paternal pride and love, just as the former was suffused with motherly love.

“FATEBREAKER.” This voice was deep and rumbling, one that stabbed into his skull and drove him to his knees, all other noises drowned out by the single word. It had no gender. It was simply power and the essence of WINTER and the HUNT mingling into a singular entity.

It was the Ceryneian Hind, sacred cervid of Artemis and one of the beasts hunted by Hercules for his Trials.

It was the Horned God of the Wild, Cernunnos, hunt master of the Wild Hunt.

It was the hunted, the hunter, and the embodiment of one who denies their fate to be solely one or the other.

It glanced down at the Invisibility Cloak that lay at Harry’s side, discarded in the panic. The mystical artifact shimmered with reflected moonlight… and something else, before the Beast of the Hunt turned away, its attention on the Dementors.

“Demons who refused to return to the Other Side at the Dawn of Man’s Age… BURN.”

It leapt at the Dementors, goring one and causing the rest to flee in terror as the impaled monster ignited with golden fire. They did not get far, and were pierced and trampled without mercy. Within ten seconds, thirty-three Dementors ceased to exist.

When it’s work was done, the Patronus turned back to Harry and Susan, the latter trembling as she clutched onto Harry’s side, but refusing the flee.

“You summoned me,” it uttered, the voice no longer like a spike driving into his skull. It was still unpleasant, though, and the Boy Who Lived had his vision start to spin. “Do not do so again.”

“Y-yes,” Harry muttered, still not sure how he’d done it in the first place. Sensing his confusion, the God-Beast let out something that was like a chuckle.

“I am a relic beyond time, from a bygone age. Only a powerful artifact attuned to the Other Side could call for me again. And you possess such a thing. The Shrouded Deathly Hallow. Your spell latched onto it, summoning me. A minor Avatar, instead of my full radiance, but an impressive feat for a mere mortal… though given you’ve been touched by Death and Fate, I suppose it makes sense.”

The golden horned creature shook its head before dissolving away into sparks of silver and gold. “Should you ever make it to the Other Side, I will gladly welcome you into the Wild Hunt.”

And with that, it was gone, as if it’d never been.

“D-did that just happen?” Susan whispered.

“I dunno. Maybe,” Harry wheezed out. “Are they… okay?”

The Hufflepuff looked over at the unconscious bodies lying in the snow and winced, pushing herself to her feet to check. A quick examination to see if they were still breathing (they all were) was followed by a few Warming Charms to ensure they weren’t going to freeze.

“They’re fine,” she assured Harry. “They’re gonna be okay.”

In the distance, shouting was coming from the castle, and the duo turned around. They saw the teachers spilling out of the front gates, rushing towards them with wands drawn.

‘Better late than never,’ Harry thought to himself in relief. He did take a moment to stuff his Invisibility Cloak into a pocket, all while wondering if maybe, it wasn’t something… more.

‘What did the deer call it? A Deathly Hallow?’ Harry thought. He needed to look this up and find out more. Hermione would certainly like the chance to do some research, at least.

For now, though, he had to take care of his friends – and answer the questions of the professors as best he could. He really didn’t think they would accept ‘Oh, I summoned a magical deer-god that burned the Dementors to death after they tried to eat our souls’ as an answer.