Harry Potter gets smart and takes control - The Goblet

Chapter 44 Christmas Shenanigans

As fascinating as Nocturne was now that it was the middle of the night and was all but bursting with people, he didn't have time to loiter. Instead, he shook off whoever was tailing him; probably another pick pocket, one of the local watchers guarding the alley from outsiders, or maybe that vampire he'd seen lurking. Indeed he headed over to the roof of The Hung Drawn 'n' Quarters.

He set up his trunk, then paused when he was about to set the wards. He could feel his magic humming under his skin, and he wasn't sure how it would react now it was unbound. He didn't want to blow anything up. He frowned and pulled out a pebble from his bag.

Holding it in his hand, he sat himself down on his trunk and focused on the pebble. Concentrating carefully on his magic, he tried to gently float the pebble with his wand. It rocketed upwards but not as far as he feared it might. He twitched his wand to the left and marvelled at the steady stream of magic he could feel moving from his core into his wand and to the pebble. It was amazing.

His magic seemed both highly sensitive and highly responsive now. It also seemed to be bursting at the seams. It was a little like holding back a flood. A few things Professor Flitwick had said about the flow of magic, back in his first year, now made sense.

He put the pebble away after a little while practising with it and carefully cast his wards. It was challenging to hold the magic back now. It seemed to be fighting to get out now, to run wild. It was hard to control it enough to set the wards safely.

He was panting and sweating when he'd finished, and the wards were sloppier but stronger then they had ever been before. He thought he'd overpowered them a little much and hoped that the proprietor of the Hung Drawn 'n' Quarters wouldn't notice them. He'd been careful so they shouldn't interfere with any of the inn's wards. But it did look like he'd need a lot more practice to get his control and finesse back over his spell casting and not continue to over power things.

He sighed, cursing Dumbledore for all the trouble that man was causing him and climbed down into his trunk. He was eager to keep practising with his magic now it was free. Now he could feel it, he hoped he could end up much better at it than before. But he came to a grinding halt when he spotted the Christmas tree by the fireplace. Dobby and Winky must of set it up while he was ill.

He'd forgotten it was Christmas, and that people would be celebrating. Ordinary people did presents and decorated trees and things. No wonder the street was so busy! Even if Yule had been last week...

Being on a nocturnal schedule was still a little discombobulating, Harry thought.

He should probably get his Christmas gifts finished and posted out then. He'd perfected the protection bracelets now that he was going to give some to his friends. He just had to put the finishing touches on them.

They should protect the wearer from most low and middle-level hexes and jinxes. He had the recycling magic system down pat now so it would shield the wearer from the spell and absorb the spells magic to re-power it. It wasn't foolproof yet though, and Harry still wanted to make it stronger than a weak Protago. He had to admit though, having one, with the magic humming warmly on his wrist, was comforting.

So he wrapped them in parchment and transfigured it into brightly coloured Christmas paper. His magic was still a little out of whack, so the Christmas paper ended up far more garish than he intended. The tiny Christmas images moved a lot faster than he expected, reminding him a bit of Pigwidgin.

But he let it go and handed them off to Dobby and Winky with letters. One for Bill and one for Charlie went through the Gringotts box, and those for Fred, George, Hermione, Luna, Hagrid, as well as the four Slytherins 4th years and his younger Slytherin study group went to Hogwarts with his elves. He added an endnote on Hermione's Christmas Card hoping to hear all about the Yule Ball and sent them off with Dobby and Winky too.