A Very Harmony Christmas

A Different Kind Of Christmas Tree

Prompt: December 7th. Decorating the Christmas tree.

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A Different Kind of Christmas Tree

The sign drew Harry to it like a niffler is drawn to gold.

Give the Tamarins some Christmas cheer!
Decorate a tree for them with all their favourites.
Today at 1pm.

"Hermione! Look at this!" he exclaimed. "What do you think?"

She frowned for a second as she read, her eyes then flicking from it to the tamarins in the big cages behind it.

"I'm sure that this is aimed at children, Harry," she said, although Harry detected a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

"I don't see where it says an age limit," Harry pointed out. "And it is almost one o'clock now."

"What do you think, Mum?" Hermione asked.

Jean smiled at her daughter. "I guess you won't know if you don't ask."

Instantly, Hermione brightened and nodded. "Always sound advice."

Harry found his hand grabbed by hers, their fingers interlocking automatically, as she started off in pursuit of answers. Following the arrow on the sign let them to section of the tamarin enclosure that had been partitioned off from the tiny primates. A single zookeeper was in there, moving buckets of all kinds of fruit about half a dozen trees.

"Excuse me," Hermione called.

Instantly, the zookeeper looked up and around, saw them standing there and came over to the fence.

"Hi! How can I help?" he asked.

"We were wondering about the sign back there? About decorating Christmas trees for the tamarins?" Hermione asked.

"Sure! Are you interested in joining in the fun?" he asked.

"So, there is no age limit?" Hermione asked.

"Of course not," he laughed. "It's free for everyone."

"In that case, we'd love to do it!" Harry stated quickly.

Hermione's squeeze of his hand told him that she wasn't unopposed to the idea either.

"Brilliant!" the zookeeper exclaimed. "Well, it's almost one now, why don't you both come in and get started?"

"My name's George," the zookeeper said as he held open the gate for them.

"Thanks, George," Harry smiled at him. "I'm Harry and this is Hermione."

"Nice to meet you both," George replied. "It's pretty simple. Just pick a tree and start decorating it using anything from any of the buckets. I'll be over there at the table where we have cutting boards and a knife, in case you want to cut up any of the fruit. Once the trees are done, we'll let the tamarins in to enjoy their Christmas treat."

"Sounds easy enough," Harry nodded.

Hermione, he could see, was already sizing up the various trees in the enclosure. Assuming that she was picking out the best one, he left her to it, after all, what did he know of decorating Christmas trees? He'd never done it before.

"This one, I think," she said, moments later, pointing to one of the taller trees.

As they walked to the tree, Harry took the time to examine each of the buckets. Each one was filled with a different type of fruit. There were bananas, apples (both red and green), oranges, pears and even melon.