Chapter Text
In the Potter household, the first of December was a date that seemed to creep upon its inhabitants, a feeling more than a simple block on a calendar. A cheeky guest that silently entered through the front door, slipped off its shoes in the foyer and tiptoed upstairs, eager to surprise and enthral. And so, when Harry opened his eyes, greeting the bitterly cold morning, he immediately knew, it was here.
The air seemed crisper, outside of the duvet that he was trying- and failing- to reclaim from his wife, who was still happily cuddled into the covers. The light that came through the curtains seemed brighter, whiter and filled the room with a charming glow. He turned on his side and tried a new tactic to gain some duvet. He sidled up to Ginny, having to faff for a moment, as she really was cocooned in the duvet, and put an arm around her waist.
She relaxed into the embrace, still fast asleep, and with that she relinquished some of the tight hold she had on the duvet. Harry greedily redistributed the covers, then, feeling quite proud of himself, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Perhaps it was only November thirtieth, because usually by this time, on the first of December-
‘It’s Christmas!’
He should know by now that he was never wrong about his instincts.
He opened his eyes and rolled onto his back, just in time to catch a red bundle of limbs and hair.
‘It’s not Christmas just yet, Lil,’ Harry mumbled. He stretched for his glasses and his daughter came into focus, hair clashing violently with her red chequered Christmas pyjamas. He frowned. He didn’t remember her wearing those last night.
‘It’s almost! And James and Ted will be home, and- ‘her eyes widened ‘-we need a tree!’
Harry laughed, just as Ginny turned to mimic him and lie on her back. She was squinting up at Lily, hair a mess, nose crinkled slightly. Lily wasn’t yet old enough to pick up on such social cues and so she squirmed between her father and mother, under the duvet. Harry let out a yelp when her frozen feet brushed his calves.
‘Mum! We need a tree.’ Lily dragged out the last syllable and looked at Ginny with wide eyes. Ginny brushed a hand over her daughter’s hair.
‘We’ll get a tree love, but as it’s six thirty on the first morning of December, I’m sure they won’t be all cut down by the time we get one.’
Lily gave her mum a sceptical look, then shouted her agreement, and tried to escape from the confines of the covers that she had just so finely wheedled her way into. It didn’t help that Harry started tickling her halfway through the ordeal.
‘Dad!’ Lily finally gasped, giggling as she exited the duvet and ran over the bed, narrowly missing stepping on her mum. ‘I have to go and start with decorations for the tree!’ she exclaimed urgently, as if it was the most obvious, and important, thing in the world.
‘Call me if you’re going to use the scissors!’ Ginny shouted after her daughter, who was already skipping out of the room. She shook her head, then turned back to her husband. They lay on their sides, facing one another.
She traced a finger along his jaw. ‘Do you think-?’
‘Already done. The office is slow in December anyway.’
Ginny wiggled her eyebrows at him, ‘Well, aren’t you eager to go tree shopping.’
Harry laughed, but moved quickly to hover above her, her back now against the mattress. Ginny squealed at the quick movement, then looked up at him impishly. He kissed her softly on the lips, then moved further down, kissing and nipping at her neck. She gasped and sighed and laughed when his stubble brushed against her skin, her hands came to rest on his shoulder blades.
‘I am eager for that, but I do think it can wait.’ She heard him murmur, still at her neck.
‘You know, I don’t really mind.’
He drew back to kiss her on the lips again and then said, through a lopsided grin, ‘I didn’t think you would.’
‘What is everyone laughing and shouting about?’
Their heads snapped quickly to see Albus standing in the doorway, rubbing one eye and yawing. Ginny gently pressed her palm against Harry’s chest, and he rolled off her with a rather audible sigh. She got out of bed, threw on a dressing gown and slippers and bent over to talk to her son.
‘Well, do you know what day it is Al?’
‘Um, it’s Thursday, I think,’ he said tiredly, counting on his fingers.
‘Yes, love, but the date? It’s December first, and your dad is going to take you Christmas tree shopping later today, and Lu is making decorations and you can help me make biscuits all week. That’s what everyone is shouting about,’ Ginny said.
Albus’ eyes grew wider and wider as she spoke, he looked past his mom, to make eye contact with his dad who was still sprawled out on the bed.
‘When are we going? I want to help pick the tree! Please!’
‘Well I was thinking we might try and find our own tree this year, go out in the woods and cut one down, that sounds even better doesn’t it?’
‘Yes! Then no-one will have one like ours!’ Albus jumped up excitedly.
Ginny ruffled her son’s hair, then asked him if he wanted some breakfast. As they left the bedroom for the stairs to the kitchen, Ginny looked back at Harry, winked, and promised him a cup of coffee.
It was after breakfast that the real chaos began. Harry had announced that tree hunting would be starting in half an hour when he had gotten up from his chair at the breakfast table, and his two youngest had erupted into frenzied talking and running around, trying to find their wellingtons, their one left sock, their right hand glove.
And so, tree hunting had started an hour after breakfast.
Harry laced up his last boot, fit a Holyhead Harpies beanie on his head, kissed Ginny goodbye and then stepped out into the winter landscape, armed only with his wand, and two small toddlers. Lily and Albus immediately started gathering balls of snow and hurtling them at each other. Harry made a path to the driveway as they ran about, at one point Lily used him as a shield, and he got hit square in the chest.
Albus covered his mouth, not in shock, but to hide his laughter. ‘Sorry, dad,’ he said through a grin, Lily was clinging to her father, laughing in earnest. Harry narrowed his eyes comically at Albus.
‘I’ll get you for that one.’
He stooped down to roll a ball of snow himself and ran towards his son like a mad man. Albus squealed with laughter and ran up the driveway, until he reached the row of ash trees that bordered the little lane that led to their house. Their tree hunting was momentarily held up by an impromptu snowball fight, which Lily and Albus won, having teamed up against their father.
Harry turned to face the two of them as they reached the border of the forest, situated at the end of a snowed in footpath. It hugged the curve of a valley that led away from their house, and from this distance Harry could still see their chimney, already emitting small puffs of smoke. While the forest, which was generous to term it really, was also accessible just from the back garden of Ashden Run, Harry was sure that the fir trees he sought were near this entrance.
‘Alright, you know the rules. Stay together, if you lose me, we’ll meet at Klipman’s stream. Don’t run off too far and Lily,’ his daughter perked up, looking at him expectantly, ‘if you see a fox-hole, don’t crawl into it.’
Lily looked down at the ground dejectedly and twisted her foot in the snow. Harry held out his hand to her and she took it, then repeated the gesture with Albus. Harry led them into the forest.
The ground was almost completely clear of snow under the canopy of trees but was still thawed over and hard. It was considerably darker under the sheet of snow above their heads, and slightly warmer. Birds chirped in the trees and leaves crunched underfoot.
Albus and Lily soon let go of their father’s hands and rushed ahead to explore, attempting to climb trees, looking at interesting insects. Harry kept half an eye on them while he scanned the trees. Most of them were completely bare save for snow. Definitely not lush firs, definitely not Christmas trees.
They ventured further into the undergrowth, past the path that veered off to the stream where their family had spent many a summer afternoon swimming, past the furthest point Harry had ever been in the forest, when on a run with Ginny. The trees only became denser, helped by the steady appearance of foliage on their branches, dark green leaves that struck out against the white snow.
They came upon a fork in the rough path after a while, a yew tree separated two trails, tall and proud. Its branches stretched far from its trunk, gnarled and twisting. Harry stopped when he reached it, it must have been at least a hundred years old by the size of it. His children were already climbing all over it, taking advantage of the low, flat branches.
‘Let’s take this one, daddy!’ Lily shouted from the top reaches.
‘I think this tree is quite happy here, Lu,’ Harry replied. Even if it wasn’t impossible or impractical to cut it down and haul it back home, Harry could feel something strange about the tree. Ginny’s wand was made of yew, and he had always found it quite unyielding to him, when he had used hers on the odd occasion.
‘Be careful, some trees can feel a great deal, remember that story Uncle Ron once told you about the tree at Hogwarts?’
‘This tree is nice though, it likes us,’ Lily said. She was lying down on a branch, like cat, arms and legs hanging off and swinging languidly in the air.
‘We’ll come back to it some other day. You’re forgetting that we still haven’t found our Christmas tree.’
‘Christmas tree!’ Albus descended rapidly from the yew and ran onto the path that forked to the left, Harry stepped closer to the yew and beckoned Lily down, eventually lifting her from the lower branches. She whined at the disturbance and reached out at the leaves and twigs as Harry carried her away.
‘Dad! I found it! I’ve found our tree, it’s huge!’ Albus came tearing back down the pathway, clutching his beanie on his head. He grabbed Harry’s hand and tugged him along.
Indeed, Albus had found a fine tree. Or trees. The path from the yew had quickly become lined with tall and lush fir trees, powdered with snow, to Harry, every second tree seemed perfect, but his son led them along a winding path to his perfect tree. Harry had been treated to spiky bristles whipping his face along the way, his glasses nearly fell off as he worked to simultaneously follow Albus and cover Lily’s face from the same treatment his was receiving.
‘Al, are we almost there?’ Harry said, having to duck rapidly to avoid an outstretching branch. Lily laughed as she was hoisted back up, then remembered that she was upset and replanted a pout on her face.
‘It’s… just… here!’
Albus held his arms out and gestured toward a very nice tree. A tree that Harry secretly thought looked exactly like the ones they had just passed, but he ignored this and bounced Lily up on his hip, looking at her.
‘Look at the fantastic tree Albus found. What are your cousins going to say when they see this Lu?’
‘Looks the same as all the others,’ she mumbled into his shoulder.
Harry frowned, but thankfully it appeared that Albus had not heard. He set his daughter down, and she promptly ran back through the fir trees, Harry called after her, but she didn’t reappear. He assumed she was only going back to the yew tree, so he sent Albus after her, to make sure she was okay.
He pulled out his wand from his inside coat pocket and deftly flicked it, slicing the trunk of the tree cleanly. It fell to the ground with a muffled thump, some snow billowing out around it. He conjured some ribbons to tie the bristles closer to the trunk and then cast a levitating charm. He exited the thicket of fir trees with their chosen one floating behind him. He could see the footprints where Albus and Lily had run back along the path, and he promptly followed them.
As he approached the yew tree again, he could hear raised voices, Albus shouting. He walked faster and came out to the forked clearing. His son was looking up at the tree and calling out.
‘Lily! Get down, you’re too high up!’
‘There’s a little owl here! He’s all alone, just a bit further…’
Harry moved rapidly to the base of the tree, where, looking up, he could see his daughter nearing the top branches and climbing precariously even higher up. He hoisted himself onto the lowest branch and bellowed up the tree.
‘Lily! Don’t go any higher! Climb down slowly, please!’
‘I’m almost there, Dad!’
‘It doesn’t matter, whatever it is, get down here!’
He went up one branch further, trying to decide if climbing up to get her would be better than waiting at the bottom to possibly catch her, he held his wand too, unsure if he should interfere with magic. A streak of pink fell to the ground, and his heart skipped a beat, before he saw it was only her beanie on the ground.
‘Lily!’
‘I’ve got him!’
Lily exclaimed her success but was cut off short as her foot lost its grip on the smooth branch that it had been resting on, then she lost her grip on the tree entirely and Harry was momentarily struck with paralysis. Catching up with himself, without even thinking, he conjured a net at the bottom of the tree. It spanned almost the entirety of the clearing and Albus narrowly jumped out of its way.
But it had nothing to catch.
Harry looked back up and saw that his daughter was floating down to the ground, not very gracefully, kicking her legs about and trying to right herself. He could see that she clutched something close to her chest, seemingly more worried about it than herself.
He stared at her. ‘Lily…’
Only when he gasped did she open her eyes that had been screwed tightly shut. She looked around in awe.
‘Daddy…’ she said uncertainly.
Then Harry laughed. Wonder and relief washing violently over the feelings of fear that he had experienced not a moment before. He grinned up at her.
‘Lu! You’re doing magic!’
‘Me? Aren’t you doing this?’
‘No, love. Try and float down to the net, try to control it.’
Lily righted herself, then clumsily flailed her hands to move downwards. ‘Daddy, I don’t know how to get down!’ She said. Harry could see she was starting to feel overwhelmed.
‘It’s working, don’t worry you’re moving down. Just fall on the net,’ he assured, and as soon as she reached it, he ran onto the net himself and brought her up into a hug.
‘Don’t squish him!’ Lily admonished, pulling away from the embrace. Harry maintained his hold on her however, and he looked in wonder as she revealed the contents of her hands. A tiny baby owl peeked up at him from his daughter’s hands and let out a shrill tweet.
‘Look how cute,’ Lily cooed, stroking her finger over its almost bald head.
Harry sincerely disagreed but said nothing. He banished the net underneath them and he fell the short distance to the ground. He kissed his daughter on the forehead, searched for her beanie on the ground and placed it roughly back on her head.
‘Don’t do that ever again, Lily, you could’ve been very badly hurt. Call me if you want to rescue an owl or something,’ he said, lifting her chin up.
‘But I floated down, doesn’t that mean I can fly?’ she said, not taking her eyes off her owl.
Harry chuckled, ‘No. That was just one bit of accidental magic, it won’t always happen, you understand?’
Harry turned and looked for Albus. ‘Al, you remember your first bit of accidental magic. Why don’t you tell Lu about it, so she understands?’
‘Mine happened when I was at least a month younger than you are now, Lily. We were all at the Burrow…’
As Albus launched into his story about accidental magic, Lily listened keenly from Harry’s arms, all the while softly stroking her little owl. Harry’s heart was still returning to its normal rhythm, slowing down from the pace it had gathered watching his daughter fall from the sky. He made sure the fir tree was following them again and started to walk back home.
He looked briefly over his shoulder, back at the yew tree, which seemed to be emitting a happy glow, that certainly wasn’t there when they had first happened upon it. He looked back at his daughter. Perhaps she was going to wield a wand similar to her mothers.
He trudged his way back to Ashden run, chipping in occasionally to Albus’ story, but a little bit of his mind remained at the yew tree for the whole walk back.
‘Well, I must say I am impressed. I didn’t think this part of Dorset even had any fir trees,’ Ginny said later, standing back from the tree, which now stood in the corner of their living room. Not yet decorated, but looking festive, nonetheless.
Harry reached out to pinch her middle, which she easily avoided. He grumbled at her as she stuck her tongue at him. He pulled off his jumper, having become flustered from setting up the tree in the warm living room, where the fireplace was alive with flame, roaring happily.
The clock chimed four o’clock, and Harry stared, baffled, at it for a while, the afternoon had crept up on him.
‘Tea?’ he asked Ginny.
‘Mm, yes please,’ she said, following him into the kitchen, where he put the kettle on to boil.
‘So, we’ve gone three for three then,’ she said, leaning against the counter.
‘Hm?’
‘They’ve all got magic, I mean,’ she explained. He nodded. As they had set up the tree, Harry had relayed the mornings events to Ginny, helped by an enthusiastic Lilly and Albus, who were now fawning over Pluto, as their new adoptee had been so named.
‘Is it bad that I’m sort of- ‘
‘-relieved?’
Ginny blew out a long breath. ‘Yes, Merlin that’s awful though.’
Harry handed her a cup of tea and they returned to the sitting room, sitting on the sofa. ‘I don’t think it means we would’ve treated them any different. It just would’ve been a lot harder, I think for everyone,’ he said, ‘And why wouldn’t we be relieved that Lily’s life won’t be that bit harder?’
‘Yeah…’ Ginny chewed her lip then took a sip of her tea. She pondered the fire and smiled.
‘Looks like she’s going to get a proper wand then, not some silly Holly thing.’
‘Ha-ha,’ Harry said, ‘Keep your yew, that tree creeps me out, you and Lily can climb all over it all you want, thank you very much.’
‘You must take me to see it, the way you talk about it. Maybe it’ll listen to all my woes and worries, unlike someone I know,’ she said dramatically, and threw an arm over eyes, she simultaneously lifted her feet off the floor and deposited them on his lap.
‘You are very ignored around here,’ he said, starting to rub her feet.
She hummed in agreement and closed her eyes. For a while there was only the crackling of the fire making any noise. Harry grew more suspicious by the second of what his children were doing in such silence.
Suddenly, Ginny opened her eyes and sat up. ‘I almost forgot! Hermione sent a letter asking if we would join her and Ron at her parent’s house tomorrow, so I said yes. Apparently, they accidentally booked a holiday in the Virgin Islands over the twenty-fifth, so it’ll be a sort of early Christmas thing.’
‘Accidentally booked?’
Ginny gave him a look. ‘I know, but Hermione always says that they’ve been a bit addled ever since… you know. I for one know she genuinely prefers Christmas at the Burrow, so don’t feel bad about it, or I’ll beat you up.’
Harry gave her a smile, and she assessed him before nodding and settling back down on the sofa. He was just about to get up and check on Lily and Albus when they careened into the sitting room, paper chains streaming behind them.
They circled around the tree, throwing the paper chains onto the branches, which meant that the tree became very interesting on the bottom half, and was left rather dull at the top. Harry got up to help redistribute the paper.
When the tree was done, he ruffled his son’s hair, and looked back to where Ginny was on the sofa, now joined by Lilly, tucked up into her side. It had been quite an eventful day, and there was no mistaking it, Harry thought. It was definitely December first.