Harry Potter and the Year of Surprises by erinpotter

Christmas Is Coming

The headmaster called Harry and Hermione over to him at the teacher’s table. He stood up to talk to them.

‘How was your little trip today?’ he asked them, with that familiar glint in his eye.

‘It was great, Professor. Really cool.’ Harry said.

‘You four still want to be aurors then?’ 

‘Of course!’ Hermione nodded.

‘Then there is no point in me turning bad. Oh well, my life dream ruined. Anyway, I wanted to tell you that you two are now excused from all classes because you will have to oversee the decorating of the castle for Christmas and you will have to sort out the lists of everyone who was staying behind and make sure that there are no changes of plan. That sort of thing. And Harry. Please see that it looks original. I always think it looks the same each year. Hermione, dear, please make sure this young fellow doesn’t leave all the hard work to you!’

Hermione laughed. ‘Oh I won’t, Professor. Believe me.’

‘That will be all then. You must be in the kitchens tomorrow for nine o’clock to instruct the house elves on what way to decorate the common rooms. They always do them. We get in specialised wizards to do the great hall so you will see them at twelve o’clock. Good luck!’

Harry and Hermione walked back to the table. Hermione was immersed in her thoughts; Harry knew she was thinking of the decorations. He wanted to do something special too, but he’d think about it after, in the common room.

When they got back to the table, Ron and Ginny got up to go to the tower with them. On the way, Ron saw that Hermione was very quiet.

‘What’s up?’ he asked her, taking her hand.

‘Oh, I'm just thinking about Christmas decorations. Harry and I aren’t going to be in class all week. We have to oversee the decorating.’

‘Do I get to go too? And Ginny?’

‘No, Dumbledore didn’t say so, but we might need your help.’

Hermione went back to her deep thinking then burst out. ‘Harry, I'm not going to do all the work, you know. Just remember that!’

‘I know Hermione. I don’t want you to.’

‘Good.’

There was silence all the way up to the tower where Hermione told Ron and Ginny that she and Harry only had three days to perfect this whole castle for the Christmas celebrations. They left them alone in the common room and each went up to their dorm. Hermione guessed that Ginny might be glad of the spare time because they had their NEWTs in June and none of them had looked over any work they had done so far. She didn’t expect Harry or Ron to start revising until May time, which was ages away, but she was sure Ginny was a bit more worried about it than them, Hermione hoped.

‘Right, Harry.’ she said. ‘Any ideas?’

‘Well, I was actually thinking about ditching the whole, twelve Christmas tree, thing.’

‘What? It’s one of the really old traditions!’

‘Yeah, but Dumbledore said to keep it original, and to be honest, there’s nothing all that wonderful about the twelve trees. They all look the same.’

‘Well what were you thinking of instead?’

‘I was sort of thinking about having only five trees.’

‘Why five?’

‘See, I thought that we could have four medium sized trees, each decorated in one of the house colours, and then we could have one big one decorated in all the colours.’

Hermione thought for a minute. Harry thought she didn’t like the idea but just didn’t know how to tell him.

‘Hermione, it's alright. It was just a thought.’ he said.

‘Yeah…but it's an ingenious thought! I think it's a great idea! I’ll have to check it over with Dumbledore but I think it's great. Could you maybe draw me out a plan of where they’ll be and stuff, just to make sure there’s going to be enough room.’

Harry nodded and went over to his desk. He got a piece of parchment and a pencil to draw it. He placed the four ‘house’ trees in the four corners of the room and the big tree behind the teachers’ table. It was the best he could do.

He gave it to Hermione, who nodded and ran out of the tower, presumably to the headmaster.

Harry sat back in his seat. He thought about the rest of the castle and started picturing the decorations he would like. He got more parchment and sketched out his plans. When Hermione came back with a large grin on her face – she had obviously got permission to ditch the tradition – he showed her the rest of the plans. She flicked through them, studying each of them, nodded and smiling and ‘Mmmming’ and ‘Ahhing’.

Harry knew she would be pleased with them. He even had a plan drawn out for the kitchen!

‘Harry these are wonderful! You could go into interior design, you know. Or even architecture!’

‘I think I’ll stick with being an auror, thanks.’ he smiled.

Yeah, me too. I think I’ll enjoy whole package. The mystery, the working it out and the chasing. It's going to be great, Harry! Us four can be a little team and do all our cases! Haha, it will be absolutely fantastic!’

Harry laughed. ‘Yeah, it will.’