The Big Dipper

The Future Mr. Scamander

"Merry Christmas, Ursula!"

"Dad!"

Ursula ran to hug him. Uncle Barnaby — Uncle Bat for short — had picked her and her cousin Leon up from King's Cross and brought them here, to her grandparents' house for Christmas.

"Hi Tony," said Ursula brightly, greeting her dad's boyfriend as well.

"Hello Ursula," said Tony. "Merry Christmas."

"Don't just stand there at the door!" said Grandma Maggie, bustling out from the kitchen. "Come in, come in."

Ursula and Leon followed her into the kitchen, where Leon's siblings nine year old Beatrice and six year old Felix greeted them with equal enthusiasm. Grandpa Laurie and Grandma Maggie owned a large house out in the countryside, with plenty of room for Uncle Bat and Aunt Willa, their three kids, and Ken, Tony, and Ursula to stay.

Today was Saturday, Christmas being the following Friday, but there was lots to do before then. Her grandparents' house was minimally decorated, so that was the first task. They decorated the house with several dozen strands of twinkling, multicolored lights, erected inflatable reindeer and light-up Santa Clauses in the yard and on the roof, and wrote their names in gold glitter onto new red stockings.

On Monday, Ken and Uncle Bat brought home a large Christmas tree, and they had great fun decorating it and stacking presents underneath. Once they had finished, Leon cheerfully declared it was time for a snowball fight, to capitalize on the thick blanket of snow that had descended on them overnight.

It was Ken, Tony, Ursula, and Felix versus Uncle Bat, Leon, Beatrice, and a begrudging Aunt Willa. Each team constructed a small fort to hide behind and the snow packed excellently into snowballs.

"Fire!" shouted Leon's high voice, and a barrage of snowballs came raining down on them.

"Attack!" shouted Ursula's father. He put Felix on his shoulders and jumped up, running around and throwing snowballs at his brother.

The snowball fight went on for some time, with Ursula landing hits on all of her relatives, Ken being as just invested in the game as his daughter, niece, and nephews, and a well-placed snowball from Tony hitting Uncle Bat in the face.

"I think that's enough for me," said Aunt Willa eventually. "And for this little one, too."

She plucked a tired Felix off of Ken's shoulders and joined Grandpa Laurie and Grandma Maggie on the porch.

At one point, Ursula got in trouble for levitating snowballs to make them attack her cousins. Well, she didn't really get in trouble — in a house full of wizards, no one would notice underage magic — and Ken was grinning through his obligatory reprimand, which didn't leave Ursula even the least bit chastised. Tony loved it, and declared it a valid means of warfare, but Leon pouted. In the end, Ken gave Ursula a slingshot as a compromise, but that turned out to be an even more effective means of launching snowballs.

The game came to an end when there was now snow in the backyard left untouched, and they were all cold and wet.

"Hot chocolate for all!" declared Grandpa Laurie, ruffling the damp hair of each of his grandchildren as they reentered the house, grinning past blue lips.

On Tuesday, they headed into town after dinner to go ice skating.

"It's been a long time since I last did this," said Tony as he laced up his skates.

"You and me both," said Ken.

They made quite a wobbly pair out on the ice, with numerous falls that ended in laughter and one or two in apologies, but eventually — and with considerable help from Ursula — both were able to stand on their own.