Albus Potter and the Prophesied Year

Ch 56 Another Christmas (Twenty-Twenty-Five)

At least Sammy Sun's house was above freezing, acceptable if you wore heavy clothes. It was high enough in the mountains to cause you to be a little short of breath. One of the disadvantages of living most of your life close to sea level was not being used to working in the mountains.

Harry looked around at the large living room. The building was made of stone, which didn't seem to provide much insulation, but there were heavy carpets on the floor and all of the walls, and behind the carpets the room was lined with wood. There was a magical fire in a fireplace in the room, but if you were furthest away from the fireplace the room was still cold, and unless you were right next to the fire the room was cool.

Everybody in the family wore heavy clothing year round, because if it was warmer this close to K2 in the summer it was never really warm. December it was cold.

Harry, Sammy, and several other Aurors looked over the reports on the latest Honor Guard practice early in December. He fixed several maps that Albus had charmed so they could record and play back what they did. Somehow only Albus and Cleo could make the memory maps.

There were a couple of excellent Chinese map makers, but one of them told Harry, when he asked, that, "When Cleo tried to describe what she did to make the memory maps I had a headache. She is a very strange person sometimes. Very powerful but strange."

Harry had to admit that the Magi map maker was right. Cleo could be uncommonly strange.

"It is not just the Honor Guard that has to Portkey or Apparate or somehow find their way to where Albus and Cleo are," Harry noted as he looked at the results of the latest practice session. They were doing these six times a year, once only three weeks apart but other times as much as three or three and a half months apart. Half of them involved Apparating to the area around K2, the others involved Apparating to other places.

Sammy Sun agreed. "It is getting better, but it is not good." He looked over the reports they were writing. "I don't want to have these exercises more than six times a year, but I am as worried as you are. I'm just not sure any amount of training will prepare us for what we will face."

"I'm glad we called on some of the other people that we are going to be able to call on if things get bad," Harry added. "I know on my side Kingsley and Minerva have been glad to be involved. Not everyone is, however."

"I've problems with Chinese and Indian Magi as well," Sammy reflected. "Less being unwilling and more not wanting to acknowledge that the chance of them being needed are real."

"Too blasted cold up here," Harry shivered.

"Just not dressed well enough for it," Sammy countered. "Brush up on personal warming spells."

Harry used a warming spell, and it was better, but he could still see his breath. And he had to use the oxygen concentrator. It was not a comfortable place to be. Sammy had spent enough years up near K2 that he was accumulated to the low pressure and cold, but Harry was not.

And if Albus and Cleo ended up here they may need the oxygen concentrators too. How would Harry and the team arrange that? Yet most of the prophesies pointed to K2 being where Albus and Cleo would be taken if they were captured. It was a difficult situation to plan for. Difficult, and terrifying.

*

Just about every major religion was represented among the Magi in Switzerland, although more than half were 'none of the above.' More were Christian than any other type, however, and more were joining because Albus and Cleo were Christian.

Rich and Molly Hudson and their two children, Kyle, six, and Scarlet, four, climbed the stairs into the choir loft, and then walked along the side of the church at the mezzanine level to the front most seats. That way she could look down at the front of the church, the altar, the stable with the baby Jesus and all the other figures, and the other Christmas decorations. They were early, but Rich and Molly were going to be writing Christmas articles.