The Demise party was indeed very different from the last one. Dumbledore, McGonagall and Harry gasped, when they entered the Great Hall together. James and Sirius had, apparently with the help of Remus, Severus and Lily, managed to change the whole Great Hall into a tropical paradise. They had configured the upper part of the hall, where normally the Head Table was placed, into a lake. The big house tables were replaced by many smaller tables surrounded by comfortable chairs on the beach. Many palm trees completed the scene. Fawkes was sitting in a palm tree, trilling happily. Dumbledore allowed Harry to sit at a table with his friends, but told him he would have to come over to the guests’ table whenever being called.

“Dear students, ministers and guests of the house, I welcome you to our Voldemort demise beach party. We have many guests here tonight from several countries, but before we talk a lot I would like to invite you to enjoy what our house elves have prepared for you. Dig in!”

When they had finished their main course, Sirius said in a loud voice

“Five minutes for the Animagi to play before the dessert,” and the Marauders changed into their animagus forms. Harry was stunned. Lily and Severus had managed it – great! Without thinking, he quickly changed into Icicle and joined Fawkes on his tree.

#Hi Icicle, nice of you to join me, I was a little lonely here on my palm tree.#

#Hello Fawkes, oh my, and I had thought you enjoyed sitting above everybody else and looking down on us.#

Two Ravenclaw 7th year students had transformed into a cat and a lizard, and Professor McGonagall and Dumbledore joined the students in their cat and phoenix forms. A crocodile was approaching the water – ‘probably one of the foreign ministers,’ Harry thought. At least he didn’t know such an Animagus. Severus in his black snake form looked beautiful on the white sand of the beach. They had a lot of fun until Dumbledore transformed back a few minutes later and called, “All Animagi back for the dessert please!”

-----

When dinner was over, Minister McNeill stood and addressed the hall.

“Dear Professors, dear students, dear guests. Thank you very much for the invitation to this joyful party! The whole wizarding world is very happy about the end of the war. I want to express my sincere thanks to Mr. Harry Pane, who has somehow managed to vanquish the evil that pulled us into this war for many years. Could you please explain to us how you were able to do us this big favour?”

Harry stood up. “Dear minister, dear foreign and other guests, welcome to Hogwarts. In order for you to understand how I could do this I have to tell you a little about myself. When I was just 1 year old, Voldemort tried to kill me, after he had killed my parents. He used the Avada Kedavra curse, but somehow I managed to survive and only get away with this scar.” He lifted his hair to show his scar.

“Ever since then I have had a connection to Voldemort via his scar. I often could sense his feelings, especially when he was full of strong emotions, for example, when he was very excited, angry or glad. Recently I had started to get visions of him speaking to his Death Eaters, too. That was why I was able to warn Professor Dumbledore about the attack on Diagon Alley on Halloween.

Anyway, I tried to use the connection to speak to him, because my greatest power is love, while he was so full of hate and negative feelings that he couldn’t stand positive feelings like love. I told him that I love my friends, my teachers, the whole world etc. and that I would like him as well if he and his Death Eaters died and left the world in peace. Then I tried to summon all the love I had and sent it over to him. That’s all, he just couldn’t stand it and died and took all his Death Eaters who had the Dark Mark with him. So, you see, it was not me who managed it, it was my parents, friends, teachers and everyone else of you who gave me all the love I could summon. You don’t have to thank me, just thank my friends and everyone in this hall. Thank you.” He sat back on his chair tiredly.

Severus handed him a phial under the table.

“What is it?” Harry whispered.

“A very strong pepper-up Potion. I made it for you this afternoon. Drink it.”

The minister was speaking again. “Representing the Ministry of Magic I would like to present Mr. Harry Pane with the Order of Merlin 1st class. Please join me for a moment Mr. Pane.”

Harry went over and received the Order of Merlin for the second time. He shook the minister’s hand and retired to his seat again.

-----

Several other people gave their speeches; Harry didn’t really listen. As long as he didn’t have to interact, he didn’t care at all. When all speeches were finished, Dumbledore rose to speak again.

“Now I have some smaller issues. First of all, I want to thank the students who have provided us with such a beautiful place for our party. I would like the responsible students to stand up for a moment.”

James, Sirius, Remus, Severus and Lily stood and were greeted with a grand wave of applause.

“Furthermore I would like to introduce our new Animagi. Please come here one by one so that I can introduce you properly.”

The students went up to the teachers’ and guests’ table and were introduced one by one. This time, Harry stayed at his seat and didn’t change into Icicle. When Fawkes came over and asked, #Why don’t you change, Icicle?# Harry only shook his head. He had received more than enough attention for one day.

Before the minister could ask anything, Dumbledore added, “Be assured, that all of them will be properly registered as Animagi with the ministry.” The minister nodded affirmatively.

“And last but not least I invite all of you to come out to the grounds. Mr. Daedalus Diggle has promised us a beautiful fireworks display in Hogsmeade just behind the lake that we will be able to watch from here.”

With this the whole hall moved outside – from the warm, tropical paradise into the snowy cold of Scotland. The firework was fantastic and lasted nearly an hour. Afterwards everyone nearly ran back to the tropical island to have a hot cup of cocoa before going to bed. While they were drinking their cocoa, Dumbledore came over to Harry.

“Harry, there will be a press conference in here after the students have gone to bed, and I think your presence will be required.”

Harry groaned. “Do I have to Professor? I am so tired; I would like to go back to bed. Please!” Harry begged.

Severus agreed, “Professor, I have already given him a really strong Pepper-up Potion which I brewed specially for him, but even that has run out; he is not well enough to answer lots of questions.”

Dumbledore gave Harry a piercing glance. “All right Harry, you may go back to bed. I will talk to the journalists on your behalf. Severus could you please take him to Minerva and ask her to accompany him to my guest room. Thank you my boy. Good night Harry.”

“Severus, will I see you before you go home tomorrow?” Harry asked his best friend sadly.

Severus gave him a small smile. “Harry, I won’t go home for Christmas but will stay here with you. I could convince my mother to visit her sister during the holidays, so that I don’t have to feel bad about leaving her alone. We will meet tomorrow morning, when all the others have gone.”

“Alright Severus, thank you,” Harry mumbled happily. He was dead on his feet.

-----

The next morning, Harry woke up just in time for breakfast. He went down to Dumbledore’s office. “Good morning my boy. What are you doing here?”

“Um… I thought I might be going to breakfast. I also want to say good bye to everyone going home today.”

“I don’t think you are supposed to go anywhere, but if you are sure you are well enough you may go.”

“Thank you granddad,” he gave Dumbledore a big smile.

“Harry, there is just one thing I wanted to talk to you about. You will be the only Gryffindor student staying at Hogwarts this year, and as your condition is not very good yet, we don’t want you to stay in Gryffindor tower alone. Now there are two possibilities for you to choose. You can either stay here in my guest room, which I do not mind at all, or you can ask Severus if he would stay in your dormitory with you. As he will be the only 6th year Slytherin staying for Christmas, it should not be a problem. Please think about it and inform either Minerva or me later.”

“Thank you Professor. I will discuss it with Severus and tell you at lunchtime at the latest. Oh, and… um… you know you didn’t let me go to Hogsmeade on Saturday and… um… I have to go and buy my Christmas presents sometime before Christmas, early enough to send presents to my friends by owl.”

“Harry, at the moment we can’t do anything about it; we have to wait until Poppy deems you well enough. As I told you, you are not even supposed to leave your room. When you are allowed to go, maybe sometime during the next week, Minerva will accompany you, or as Voldemort has gone now, maybe you and Severus can go on your own. We will talk about it in a few days’ time. Now let’s go to breakfast.”

The atmosphere at the Gryffindor table was full of excitement. Suddenly, James asked, “Harry, what are you doing for Christmas? Do you want to come home with me?”

Harry couldn’t believe his ears. His eyes began to twinkle happily, but then he remembered, “Oh no, I can’t. Severus is going to stay here for Christmas in order not to leave me alone here. I cannot tell him now I was going away. But thank you anyhow, I really appreciate it. Maybe another time?”

“Of course Harry, anytime. I’m sorry; I should have asked you earlier,” James apologized. Sirius was going home with him, too, as he wasn’t welcome at his parents’ house anymore and he Potters had taken him in a few years ago.

Only a few students were standing in front of the castle, when the carriages left for the station. It seemed that everyone wanted to enjoy safety and freedom, now that Voldemort was gone.

-----

Harry and Severus spent the time until lunch in the Room of Requirement in order to work on one of the Potions Severus was inventing. They still could not manage to get it precisely as Harry remembered it, but at least they were making progress. As there was still time until lunch, they tried to make a plan for the holidays with enough time for homework and lots of time for Potions studying.

“As we have so much time just for ourselves, maybe we should start working on a Potion to send you back,” Severus proposed and Harry reluctantly agreed.

“Severus, you know, I’m willing to help you as much as I can, but I won’t be able to help a lot, you know that I’m a dunderhead at Potions. And the other point is, as much as I’d like to see my friends again, I don’t want to lose my friends here again. Anyway, I thought I might just stay here until the end of 6th year, and then I will go back in case we have found something to send me.”

“Believe me. We will, and you have changed the future so much, that you should be able to meet all of us again as soon as you arrive in the future. At least I will always be there for you. And I don’t think you’re so bad at Potions. You just haven’t learnt the fundamental things about Potions, but I think you have improved a lot since we have started our tutoring.”

Harry threw his friend a grateful smile. “Yes, I think I know a lot more than before, and I like it very much – thanks to you of course. All right, so we will try. But I have one other thing to discuss before lunch. Um… Dumbledore talked to me this morning and said all Gryffindors have gone home, and I’m not allowed to stay alone in the tower. He said either I might stay in his guest room or I could ask you if you were willing to stay in Gryffindor with me to baby-sit me. Maybe I could stay in Slytherin as well, I don’t know, I didn’t ask him.”

“Probably not, because your very protective Granny wouldn’t be able to check on you which she will do on a regular basis, you can be sure. I don’t mind staying in Gryffindor, no problem, especially when all Gryffindors have gone home.”

“All right. I promised Dumbledore to inform him at lunchtime.”

“That’s good, then he will arrange for the house elves to take my trunk over to your dormitory. Now let’s go down to lunch.”

-----

They arrived just in time for lunch. The house tables had gone, and the few people remaining in the castle were all sitting at one round table in the Great Hall. Harry earned furious looks of his grandmother and Madam Pomfrey and the question, “Where have you been the whole morning?”

Severus managed to reply innocently, “Sorry Professor, we have been in the Room of Requirement, working on a Potion. He did nothing strenuous, and we were careful to be back in time for lunch.”

Harry didn’t say anything; he only threw a very annoyed look in their direction and tried to focus on his meal.

Dumbledore managed to change the topic efficiently by showing Harry the morning’s newspaper. The headline of the Daily Prophet read,

“The vanquisher of Voldemort – Harry Pane – Grandson of Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall”

Harry gazed at Dumbledore. “Why did you tell them?”

“Because, my dear boy, they kept asking about whom your guardians were and questions like this. So in order to stop them speculating I had to tell them. Fortunately, I had spoken to Minerva about this possibility in advance. As Voldemort has gone now, it is all right. But of course we won’t tell anyone more than that.”

“All right … Granny and Granddad.”

The first week of their holidays passed in a flash spending the time between breakfast and lunch at varying places doing homework, sleeping two hours after lunch on Pomfrey’s request, brewing Potions afterwards until dinner and working on some more Potions in the evening.

Finally, it was Friday morning, Christmas eve, and Harry had not yet been to Hogsmeade. After breakfast, he told his grandfather, “Sorry, Granddad, but I just have to go to Hogsmeade today; I have to buy Christmas presents.”

“Yes, my boy, I know, but I’m afraid you have to ask Poppy about it.”

“No, Granddad. I will not ask; she and Granny are treating me as if I were an infant. I will flash there, buy my things and will be back before they even notice I’m gone. Severus, are you coming with me?”

“Why not, may I go Professor?”

“You may, but I don’t know if Harry is allowed.”

“I don’t care. Let’s go, Severus, grab my tail feathers.” He changed into Icicle and was gone. Dumbledore sighed and looked at the papers on his desk. Hopefully, Minerva wouldn’t realize it; she was over protective of the child.

It took Severus and Harry about an hour in Hogsmeade to gather the Christmas presents Harry wanted to get for his friends and family. Suddenly they noticed a well-known coldness spreading around the village.