About Harry

​Chapter 11 - What do we do on Christmas day?

The morning of the 24th at 7 o'clock they were woken up by Lily. She sprinted in the room and jumped on the bed between them 'Wake up!' she shouted, 'We need to go to pick James and Albus up!'
'Lily, it is not until 1 o'clock!' Ginny mumbled turning on the other side.
'I know but we have to make the house look pretty and cook something nice for dinner!'
'Why don't you start, and we will follow up?' suggested Harry hoping against hope she would let them sleep at least an additional hour.
Surprisingly, she was so excited, she agreed instantly.
They heard her steps down the stairs and a crash after a few minutes.
'You know she is going to demolish the house if we let her alone' Ginny's voice came from somewhere under the duvet.
'Let's leave her run amuck. We will have James and Albus tonight anyway. It's gonna happen. We cannot stop it.' Harry answered ready to fall asleep again.
'Harry, please, go and check on her. I feel so tired'
He groaned disgruntled but sat up trying to gather the energy.
'Thank you, you are the best husband in the world'.
'yeah, yeah, yeah. Up to yesterday I was messy and careless' he yawned and went down to see what Lily had manged to do in the space of five minutes.
It turned out be quite a lot not surprisingly. She was floating on a stool trying to get the flour from an upper shelf. On the floor were already two pots smashed and sugar everywhere.
He took the flour with one hand and Lily around the waist with the other arm. She started laughing as she was released safe on a chair. He went to get his wand 'Reparo' he murmured sleepily and the jars were whole and full again.
'So, what were you trying to do?'
'I want to make biscuits'
'Alright' he had never done it but how difficult could it be? He got a recipe book from the shelf and started to study it. Mysterious spells and ingredients he'd never heard of were written on the page. Lily was looking at him expectantly.
He shut the book.
'Right! What if we wait mummy for this? We can have breakfast and then we clean the house.'
She agreed cheerfully. Harry made a simple breakfast of toast more adapted to his cooking skills and then they proceeded around the house tiding up and cleaning, Harry casting all the spells and Lily copying him with her toy wand that had no effect whatsoever if not emitting some colourful sparks. She seemed however well satisfied with it.
At ten o'clock he went to check on Ginny 'Are you ok?' he asked finding her still in bed.
'I feel lousy and so tired' she answered, her face pale. 'This Ron thingy is starting to worry me very much. I don't want my family to split up.'
The night before Hermione, dejected and weary, got to their place quite late to pick Hugo up. She told them how difficult had been speaking with Ron. At first, he didn't even want to see her. She asked him if he wanted to get a separation, but he didn't give a proper answer and, at first, he seemed inclined to want to take the kids with him there at the Burrow. However, on that point she had been adamant; he wasn't in the right state of mind to take care of them and in the end, he agreed to leave them to her for the time being while they would decide on what to do. She concluded saying 'He is determined to go and pick up Rose. Alone. He will take her to us and with an excuse he will return to the Burrow. I couldn't deny that to him. You know how close they are. I'm sorry Harry but as things are standing right now I strongly advise you not to go. And only god knows what's going to happen on Christmas day.'

Resentment had started to grow in Harry 'What did he think he could accomplish with this behaviour?' he asked himself. Even in the unlikely case that the whole family decided to side with him and to alienate Harry from their life, would he be satisfied in making Ginny, the kids and in consequence Molly and Arthur miserable for his sake? Was he that selfish?
Why does he want to split the family up so much?
And the answer came as he was formulating the question.
Because he knows how much I value it. He doesn't care how many people will suffer to achieve this.
And the deepness of Ron's hatred scared him.
Do I deserve this?
He had always tried to do his best as a friend to pay up the debt he felt towards him. Ron had been the best of mates when he most needed it.
He refused to think this could not be mended. it was just too fresh.
Give it some more days and everything will be solved. And then I will just have to decide how long I will need to forgive him.
He tried to reassure Ginny with this idea 'I will fix this, I promise. When his anger will subside, I'll try to talk to him. He cannot hold it forever... Come down now, I will prepare some sandwiches. Lily would like to make biscuits for the boys, I tried, and it was beyond me'
She giggled as she tried to shake away the bad feeling 'You can produce a Patronus and you cannot make biscuits?' she said rising from the bed.
'Well, it took me some time to learn and Lupin was a good teacher. You cannot expect me to achieve biscuits just like that at the first try!'
At twenty to one Ginny and Lily were ready to go. They told Lily Harry would stay behind wrapping presents. Only an excuse of that kind could make amends at his not going.
However, Harry felt a bitterness hovering on him. How long was it going to last?
The two families were so linked together, it was impossible for Harry and Ron not to encounter sooner or later.
And it was probably going to be sooner, Harry realised with dismay. The following day was Christmas. The whole family was invited to Shell's cottage, together with all the other Weasleys, Ted and Andromeda. To accommodate everybody, Bill and Fleur had built a big shelter in the garden protected by magic against wind and cold. Hermione was going to cast many of those blue fires, she was so good to produce, to be hanged all around in jars and they were going to have a bonfire in the middle.
All the children were overexcited about it. Lily every morning crossed out a day on her calendar and James and Albus mentioned it in almost every letter since the plan had been explained to them.
They could not miss it, and obviously Ron couldn't miss it either. Would Ron be able to overlook what was happening just for the day? By the sounds of it, Harry was obliged to acknowledge that the answer was no.
Not even an hour later he heard the door and the boys were there. They ran to hug him, something they would never had done at the platform with their friends looking, overjoyed to be at home. Albus was eager to show him all his Gryffindor garments and to tell all the things he learned, James couldn't speak fast enough about the journey, the snow and all that he and his friends said and did and Lily was jumping around them delighted to have her big brothers at home and to hear about Hogwarts.
They had a very pleasant afternoon hearing and talking and a lovely dinner afterwards. The boys seemed to have endless energy. After dinner James took the lead of two young ones as they went to the living room to play before going to bed.
Harry seized the opportunity to talk to Ginny about the morrow.
'What do we do?' ha asked.
They were washing dishes together. They liked to do it by hand time to time. It gave them chance to chat about the day.
'We could stay here I guess...' she said grudgingly.
'You go and tell the kids though. I'm sure they'll take it well'
At that moment Albus ran into the kitchen in a frenzy, his face glowing with excitement 'Mum, James said we could bring marshmallows tomorrow to cook on the bonfire! It is the coolest idea! Do we have any?'
Harry looked at Ginny meaningfully trying to suppress a smile while she purposely avoided to meet his gaze and answered 'Yes sweetheart, we do have some but I'm not going to tell you where otherwise, I'm sure, we'll run out before tomorrow'
He gave her a mischievous smile and ran back in the living room to share the news with the others.
'You were saying?' Harry asked smirking.
She shrugged her shoulders and gave a little laugh 'Ok, so what do you think we should do?'
'We, nothing. You go with the kids and I'll stay here'
It was a big sacrifice, and it was done reluctantly but he couldn't see any other option.
She looked at him archly 'That is out of the question. You aren't staying here alone for Christmas. Either we all go, or we don't go at all.'
'If Ron will be there it won't be nice, I don't want to ruin everybody's Christmas.'
'You are not ruining anybody's Christmas' she piped up starting to get upset 'It is Ron, if we want to find faults, who is ruining everybody's Christmas. You shouldn't be driven away by him.'
'How was he at the platform? Was he there?'
She sighed 'Yes he was, but we didn't talk. The kids were there, and I could see he wasn't friendly toward me. He knows by now "I chose you" to say it in his words. We just exchanged formalities. And I think Rose suspects something.'
She finished rinsing the last plate giving it to Harry to dry. 'But I don't think he is going to make a scene in front of everybody. Probably he will just ignore you and that will be the end of it.'
He didn't answer. He'd like to think it was true but something in him was inclined to suspect the opposite.
'We could ask Molly's opinion. She is there she must now what we better do'
She reflected on it 'We could, but I don't know how to do it without him realising it. I should think she would notify us if we better not go though. She wouldn't leave it unsaid'.
Her expression saying that much was strained and Harry noticed a lingering paleness.
'How do you feel?' he asked taking her in his arms.
She shrugged her shoulders 'it's ok, I'm just worried. That's all.'
'It's going to be over soon. Don't worry too much about it.'
She nodded and rested her head on his shoulder.
At that moment Lily ran into the room, if possible, even more excited than Albus 'Mum James wants to build a tent in the living room and sleep all together in it tonight. Can we?'
'Yes, you can. Take all the pillows and duvets from your beds though. Not from ours!'
She emitted a shrill of pure joy and ran back to the living room.