A.N.: Hello there. So, it's been a month since I've updated. For those of you who didn't have the chance to read the temporary chapter I put a while ago, Christmas holidays are more complicated to write than one would think. I hope you are all well and healthy in these troubling times. Quick thank you to gollydov and shadowsedai review the story.

Trigger warning: I would like to warn any French people that the word 'chocolatine' is used. This is because Anthonie is native and lives somewhere in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, so I thought this would add a bit of character and personality.

Disclaimer: It took me an entire day to figure out what would be the Christmas gifts, I also don't own Harry Potter and the political or social views of certain characters do not represent mine.

December 23, Palais des Beaussiers,

"Il est sept heures!" loudly said a high-pitched voice owned by the person who knocked on his door.

Pierre opened his eyes and rubbed them before getting up from his bed. Taking little time, he washed his face after casting a Water-Making Spell to fill the simple porcelain bowl on his room's desk and brushed his teeth next before putting on his livery and tying his shoes quickly. He left his bedroom and went down the service stair along with the rest of the family's personal staff.

Pierre took his place between Herr Alhbrecht* and Sébastien and waited for M. Bélanger to seat himself before he and the other members of the non-kitchen staff did the same. Pierre put some fruits on his plate before taking two toasts and putting strawberry jam and cream on them. Meals were generally a quick affair for the servants, though not as fast as the house-elves', who had to wake the entire staff, light the fires in the edifice, and prepare food for everyone as well as cleaning the palace, making the beds, and much more.

At eight o'clock sharp, just like every day, the bell to the Marchioness' bedroom, shortly followed by the Marquis', rang. M. Lauzier and Mlle Cormier got up, the latter going to the kitchens to go fetch Her Ladyship's breakfast tray and the morning newspaper, while the former went directly up the Servants' staircase. It was only a couple of minutes after that that Maître Anthonie and damoiselle Catherine's bedrooms' bells rang. Pierre heard M. Bélanger finishing giving his instructions to the house-elves and the rest of the staff before Mlle Daigle and he went up the stairs.

Anthonie woke up in the most comfortable bed he'd slept in for the last year. But he was probably biased, considering it was his bed he'd woke up in. His dormitory bed at Hogwarts was far from being uncomfortable, but Anthonie had really been used to luxury since before he could remember. Just compare the pillows from home to those of Hogwarts. Each pillow at Hogwarts probably had a Cushioning Charm on them, but Anthonie's pillow from home had had so much more effort and sacrifice put into it. Each feather, expertly chosen, had been enchanted with an individual Cushioning Charm onto them, making for probably the softest thing someone could lay their head-on.

He opened the curtain beside him to get up from his bed and rang for Pierre. While waiting for his valet to come up, Anthonie went into his en-suite to wash his face and then let down his hair. Anthonie heard the door knock and Pierre calling his name before opening it. He went back to his bedroom and smiled at his valet who opened the room's curtains with a movement of his wand. It was good to be back home.

"Bonjour, Maître Anthonie," said Pierre.

"Bonjour, Pierre."

Anthonie got behind the folding screen and undressed from his nightwear, giving each piece to his valet after he'd gotten them off and taking the fresh pair of drawers Pierre passed him by levitating it from above the screen. White linen shirt and stockings were put on before he rejoined Pierre on the other side of the screen.

Anthonie was handed a pair of indigo breeches and he tucked his shirt in them before he let Pierre buttoning them with a wave of his wand. The great thing about being home was that now Anthonie had Pierre to adjust his corset and if Anthonie wanted it to be a little more tight or loose, he didn't have to fear that the enchantments on his self-lacing corset could completely fail. He'd look smart, having to lace his corset by hand. Next was the blouse so that his corset wouldn't show under his robes and after that the two petticoats.

They were at the robes proper, now. Pierre levitated the under-gown, of a deep purple and with short lace ruffs at the cuffs, so that the train of the gown was above his head. Anthonie put his arms up and Pierre slowly levitated it down until Anthonie was able to put his arms in the sleeves and let his head get out by the collar.

Pierre was going to help him put the second robe on when a house-elf knocked on the door.

"Monsieur Johann is waiting for you, Pierre," it said before they heard a popping sound.

The robe put over the gown was akin to a cassock; a full-length garment slightly form-fitting (though not as much as the under-gown) and could be closed on the front by a multitude of small buttons which Pierre magically fastened. The lace ruffs peaked out of the robe and Pierre was now holding the final robe. It was long – trailing several inches behind him – and had large flowing sleeves opening at the elbows but still trailing down to his mid-thighs. An intricate and complex pattern of black, white, and purple made of silk decorated the robe and ending at the snow-white trims. The last touch was a white, beetle-like, jewelled pin with eight silver 'legs' which were attached to the trims at the level of his stomach.

Pierre opened the door for him and Anthonie went to the Breakfast Room while his valet magically cleaned the boy's nightwear before putting it in the wardrobe.

The Breakfast Room's door was already open and Bélanger was standing beside the service table while Sébastien and Martin were beside the high windows.

"Bonjour, Bélanger," greeted Anthonie.

The Butler bowed his head and smiled at the boy. "Bonjour, Maître Anthonie."

It was almost divine to be able to eat French food after a year of absence from his motherland. Anthonie's eyelids closed by themselves when he took the first bite from his chocolatine. The hot melted chocolate inside it was like nectar while the deep golden puff pastry surrounding it was in perfect balance between mellow and flaky. Anthonie finished the small pastry and passed it down with some milk.

It was so good, even, that Anthonie asked Bélanger to thank the house-elves on his part for their cooking. This caused the butler to look at him with wide-opened eyes and an expression of shock. The two footmen reacted similarly, if less outrightly than their superior. Grandfather Wilhelm choked on his tea at hearing this and got into a coughing fit after he was able to swallow it. Uncle Sylvester didn't show a reaction and instead helped Grandfather Wilhelm. Finally, his father was trying to hide his smile at the reaction of his servants and father-in-law behind his newspaper.

The news about a serial murderer in Eastern Siberia could be seen on the front cover under the headline of Spain's Viceroy's passing away. Apparently, a wizard had broken into the houses of multiple successful merchants and their victims looked like they had died of starvation. His victims' houses were also covered in graffitis like the hammer and sickle and messages that could be translated into "Death to the Empire!" "Live the proletarian dictatorship!" and other communist messages.

The article hadn't warranted the full front page since no victim had been significant targets, but it was what the article left out that made it worrying. The Muggle Act of 1920 in Russia effectively made living in or near Muggle areas and being in the presence of Muggles a criminal offence for any magical being inside the borders of the Russian Empire's borders. Not even MACUSA had been this bad during the time Rappaport's Law had been in place. This meant the magical folk of Russia and its dominions had no legal restrictions on the protections on their dwellings since they weren't close to Muggles and, so, that meant a serial murderer that could go through expansive wards without activating any alarms was on the loose.

At least there hadn't been any other mysterious night (or day) bombings accompanied by mass disappearances of witches and wizards in Yugoslavia. This murderer would probably get caught in a month or two just like the British Aurors had been able to catch Jack the Ripper in 1888.

But Anthonie was, for the moment, mostly focused on his meal rather than on murders happening on another continent. Hogwarts served fruits at breakfast, thank the Lord, but they were scarce and not fresh from the land like they were at home. At least the fruits he liked weren't. The best grapes from their vineyards were either used to make wine or reached their table, and they were able to make a multitude of exotic fruits grow in their greenhouses with minimal magic due to the generally warm and soft climate for most of the year in the region. Meaning he could eat mangoes and oranges year-long. At least, Hogwarts had good toasts and eggs even when compared to his home, so it wasn't all bad.

Catherine and Johann had arrived in the Breakfast Room – Catherine several minutes after Johann – while Anthonie was savouring his breakfast. His grandfather and uncle had already finished their breakfasts when he had arrived and were reading their mail. Uncle Sylvester received a letter from his brother's grandson who lived in Canada wishing him happy holidays while Grandfather Wilhelm received a letter from Grandfather Friedrich saying he would have to stay again for the night at the ICW's headquarters.

The currently in-progress dissolution of the USSR was making a ruckus in the wizarding counterparts of the seceding Soviet republics. Some of the higher-ups in the aristocracies of Lithuania, the Baltic Duchy, Ukraine, Crimea, Caucasia, and the Central Steppes were pushing for the independence of their region, no doubt seeing an opportunity of seizing the power for themselves instead of having to answer to the Romanovs. The same had been done when the Muggles had dissolved Austria-Hungary. Rumours had it some of the bodies of the instigators were still being searched.

The International Confederation of Wizards' Headquarters, Switzerland

"The Chair officially declares opened the three thousand five hundred eighty-eighth session of the International Confederation of Wizards!" announced a wizard seated on the left end of the High Desk where the Mugwumps were seated. At the middle was seated the Supreme Mugwump, the world-famous Albus Dumbledore.

His message was repeated in dozens of languages for everyone to hear and in other languages or dialects by private interpreters. After this, the doors were closed and locked. There was, of course, no real need for all of this interpreting and translation, considering the members of the assembly who were the less polyglot were fluent in at least five languages in this day and age. But it was nonetheless done out of courtesy and equity towards every culture.

It was a shame, really, that no magical solution had been found to translate languages. But then again, Lord Grimmen suspected whoever had performed the ritual causing into what was now called the Tower of Babel incident had been no slouch and did their best for their curse to be permanent. He also suspected this individual wasn't from this world due to even the Elves not being able to counter it, but he was getting too deep into his musings.

"Our first order of business today is the demand for secession from the dominions of the Russian Empire."

But as soon as the Supreme Mugwump finished his sentence, he was interrupted by a diplomat who shot up to his feet.

"The Russian Empire won't allow some zealous and overly ambitious families to divide our great nation so that they can become some regional dictator with no higher authority to answer too!"

A flurry of translations followed what the Russian Ambassador said. The delegation from the Kingdom of the Central Steppes looked particularly affronted at the words but was stopped from any answer by the Supreme Mugwump.

"What do you mean by that, Ambassador Artemov?"

"What I mean, Supreme Mugwump, is that those secessionist feelings are only a façade. Those agitators have seen something happen and now they want to do the same thing. Similar circumstances have been seen in China before the Great War and in Austria and Hungary right after the conflict when the Muggles have redrawn the borders of Europe."

"Ambassador Artemov is right," said an African diplomat whom Lord Grimmen identified as being from the Congo by the little flag and the small sign located where he was seated at with his colleagues. "Why should the change in Muggle borders have any impact on ours? Do you also think Africa should change its borders to match those drawn by the Muggles without any consideration to the peoples who live in it and their cultures?"

Most of the diplomats from Africa and the Indies exclaimed their agreements.

"And what happened to the ideas of one state for one people?" exclaimed a member of the Crimean delegation.

"Oh please," laughed Ambassador Artemov. "The only reason Crimea has any sort of distinction between her and the Tsardom of Russia is so the Crown Prince can train to become Tsar. The Crimeans are Russian, and they always have been Russian."

The discussion went on. The delegations of the Russian dominions tried to plead their cause to the assembly with Poland and some of the South American countries defending them. But then there were the old arguments of the Basque and Galician and Kosovar wanting their sovereign states and it went on and on. The delegations were redundantly repeating the same arguments which were unsound at best. The only ones who had a somewhat good case were the Lithuanians, but their eastern and southern territories were filled with Russians and Belorussians as well as being well-represented at the Imperial Duma.

Lord Grimmen took his wand up and lit its tip to get the right to speak. He always preferred to do things by the protocol. In public, that is.

"The Chair recognises Germany to speak," said the Supreme Mugwump. A small smile showed through his beard, it was always nice when someone else also tried to keep the discussion calm and level-headed.

"Supreme Mugwump, Diplomats, Ambassadors, and members of this august assembly, we have to ask ourselves what the main goal of this confederation is about. And this goal is to maintain the secret about magic from Muggles all over the world.

"To help the assembly that we today constitute in this endeavour, we have created national governments all over the world who, I will admit, still somewhat parallel the Muggle ones. But what would the division of the Russian Empire really accomplish? Caucasia is in turmoil and the Muggles fight over it for natural resources as we speak it and the region is dependent from the rest of the empire for food, Lithuania is as much composed of Russians and Belorussians as it is of Lithuanians, and the Baltic Duchy, as well as the Central Steppes, is simply not ready to start a sovereign government dedicated to all aspects of society instead of a few.

"The children of the dominions would also still need to attend Koldovstoretz as it was prescribed in the International Chart of Schooling for Magical Children of 1869 and need I remind this assembly how difficult it is to arrange mass international travel?" He looked around and many nodded in agreement. Lord Grimmen looked at the Russian dominions' delegations and spoke a bit more loudly. "But what this decision would really mean is that the Muggles, the very ones that are destroying our planet as we speak and who kill themselves over liquid fossils and rocks, were able to dominate us to the point that we felt the need to imitate their every move into our world.

"So, it is your choice, your excellencies. Will we govern ourselves, or have we lost our magical identity?"

Lord Grimmen seated himself back and some of the diplomats all around the room applauded. The discussion went on to the passing of a vote.

"Those in favour of refusing the demands of the dominions of the Russian Empire?" said the Mugwump, an East-Asian witch all dressed in white, seating on the right of the Supreme Mugwump at the High Desk.

Lord Grimmen lit the tip of his wand and was followed by the four other representatives of Germany. Ambassador Artemov and his twelve colleagues were the first ones to do so and were quickly followed by the fifty-eight large Chinese corps led by Ambassador Su and the Scandinavian corps led by Lord Oxenstierna. In the end, a clear majority of the assembly voted for the refusal.

"Those in favour of initiating the process of independence demanded by the dominions of the Russian Empire?"

The representatives of Ukraine and Lithuania, who still had seats in the ICW despite being annexed by Russia two centuries ago, lit their wands and were followed by the corps of Poland and Romania. Tibet and Korea also lit their wands, but other than that the other representatives who voted for this were far and few in between.

"By a vote of 277 to 23," announced the Supreme Mugwump, "the motion to refuse the demands of secession in the present case is passed."

Lord Grimmen was glad and just a tad relieved. He took out a small, black leather journal with golden embellishments in the corners and wrote a small passage under the already written date: 'The motion to refuse the demands of secession was passed. Today, another step towards the separation between us and the Banausen.'

"How was home since I left for Britain?" asked Anthonie to Catherine. They were walking in the palace's garden a few ways behind their mother who was speaking with their three grandmothers. Aunt Athena had written the family she would stay at the academy during the holidays to research for her thesis, but that she would be able to come back for Ostara. With her letter, gifts had appeared under the enormous Christmas tree in the Library.

"It felt empty with the two of you gone. Mama is very busy and Célestine is just as busy as I am, so we don't have much time to see each other."

Contrary to him, his sister found herself making friends with other girls in their country instead of needing to go literally oversea. The two girls had met during a social event three years ago and had gotten along splendidly. Unfortunately, Célestine and her family lived in Verséans, and with only two days without lessons and one of them being taken by church meant they had very little time to see friends.

"I can only sympathise with you." Anthonie paused for a short moment to think. "Would you like to play Journey Through Europe?"

"Oui, it has been so long since we played a game."

The two siblings turned back and went to a boudoir on the first floor, where the games were, and installed the board game on one of the tables. The board showed a map of wizarding Europe and had eighty cities highlighted with different lines linking them representing roads. It was the eleventh Marquis who had brought back a copy of the game in 1769 that he'd seen played at Versailles by other courtesans of Louis « le Bien-Aimé ».

The game had of course been enchanted to enhance and improve the gaming experience. Instead of the original cloth map, the one-inch-thick board felt and looked like a miniature replica of Europe with the snow-covered mountains, the sea and the green forests. The pawns had been shaped to look like miniature-sized – though not to scale with the board – young nobles on their Grand Tour and animated like those in chess.

"Where should we start?" asked Anthonie.

"I would like to start in Reykjavik, so it's out of the way."

They each took one pawn and applied Colour-Changing Charms on them to suit their clothing: purple for Anthonie and blue and pink for Catherine. Catherine played first and rolled a six on the teetotum. Her pawn advanced to the city's port and went to a stall where she took an object and disappeared only to reappear on the Faroe Islands and disappearing again to reappear on the Norwegian coast. She walked from there to Oslo and took a carriage from there to Helsinki by Stockholm and a village in the north of Finland. Anthonie rolled a seven on his turn and his pawn took the same path as Catherine's but continued to St-Petrograd and had to pick a card as indicated on the map.

"A group of Bolsheviks noticed you and your clothes and alerted the local guard. Take one turn to lose them."

They played like that for nearly an hour when Johann entered the boudoir, ignoring them and going straight for one of the plushy sofas and promptly falling on one of them.

"Problem with homework?" Anthonie asked.

Both Anthonie and Catherine's pawn were in Vienna eating small cakes at a café while listening to some music. As luck would have it, Catherine had picked a card saying she had misunderstood the Turkish wizard she had asked directions for Constantinople and her carriage took her to Jerusalem instead and Anthonie's advance was lost when he rolled one for three consecutive turns while in Greece.

Johann looked from the cushion his face had planted into. "No problem per se, it's just my Arithmancy calculations are taking forever to do."

"So, you don't think you'll continue the class after next year?" He spun the teetotum and rolled a one. His pawn got up from where it was enjoying itself and took a carriage that crossed a bridge going over the Danube and deposed it to Prague.

"I'll see for now if I get the grip of the more advanced stuff."

Johann stayed there on the sofa for a short while before he took a seat at the table with them. He looked at his two younger siblings playing while also talking to them.

"A bunch of idiots thought they'd be cool by copying Grindelwald's symbol on their books and clothes, but Magnus, Viktor, Lukas, and I taught them better."

Anthonie gasped at the mention of Grindelwald's emblem, letting go of the teetotum too early. The multi-faceted objected barely spun before it landed and showed a measly two at its top.

"Who is Lukas?" asked Catherine, who wasn't as bothered at the mention of the Austrian dark wizard because she hadn't yet learned about the monster that was Gellert Grindelwald.

"I didn't tell you about him, did I?" They both shook their heads. "We met him last year in our Ancient Runes class. He's brilliant in the subject, he learnt how to read, write and speak Norse and Ancient Norse alongside Norwegian and Danish."

Anthonie half-listened to his brother while he played and thought. Runes. Those were such a useful and powerful part of magic. They were one of the oldest forms of magic used in Europe alongside the Druidic traditions of Northern Europe and Alchemy in Greece and potions and rituals which were already used globally. The other ancient forms of magic which were still used today came from all around the world. Arithmancy was a Middle-Eastern invention, almost the entirety of the human-made Mind Arts were created in China and Divination, Necromancy and the little that constituted Soul Magic was of Eastern Mediterranean and Mesopotamian origins, and that was only the Old World. Not much had been developed in the Elemental Magic field before the first Elven contact in Greece. Staves, and rings for the much more advanced and richer ones, begun to be used by witches and wizards from all around the Mediterranean and from the Roman Empire to China until the Romans invented wands which quickly outgrew staves in popularity.

Of course, Runes had the drawback of needing many hours of preparation and work so they could do anything. but that was what made the beauty of it. Wand magic, although efficient and useful in its easiness and rapidity, generally was weaker than most forms of magic. Potions constituted the largest part of remedies and Alchemy was able to empower or quicken the process but brought its own array of quite problematic... problems. The strongest wards were anchored by runestones or rune circles and even the strongest form of wand magic, enchantments, which were largely used in the creation of magical objects, still requires long minutes if not hours of work for it to work as intended. Runes even covered wands from one end to the other. He would know, he had spent hours examining his two wands under a magnifying glass when he'd got home after buying them and spent weeks noting the runes in a journal and identifying them and their uses.

Johann stayed with them for half an hour before he went back to finish his homework.

"Don't you too have homework?" said Catherine, watching her pawn disappearing from Malta and reappearing in Barcelona.

"Yes, but my homework was assigned during the week before I left, and I spent nearly an entire day on a train. I had time to finish most of it.

"Besides, I'm not a fourth-year, yet. My homework is considerably less than Johann's."

"Any other news from Dalmatia?" wondered the Dowager Marchioness of Beaudelaire.

"No," replied Lady Grimmen. "They wrote in their last letter they were still searching, but my niece said they will hold funerals for her if she isn't found by November's end."

The Italian witch took her handkerchief and wiped her eyes.

"There, there. I'm sure they will find her." She wanted to sound honest and recomforting, but the truth was that the world was an ugly place filled with most horrific people.

They turned the discussion to the other side of the family tree and to more happy news after that.

« Cousin Mirjami got married to Lord Hämeenlinna's second grandson five days ago, » said Lady Beaudelaire, addressing her mother and grandmother who hadn't heard the news. "They said they would spend four days in Québec so as to have a white Yule before going to New Zealand for two weeks."

"How lovely," said Lady Marysa. "I heard New Zealand was quite lovely this time of year… although maybe they should have waited two weeks before leaving so the intercontinental Portkey would have cost them less."

The Dowager Lady Beaudelaire huffed. "Oh, I only know too well what you are talking about, my dear. Thirty Galleons per person only for a Portkey from Paris to Alexandria without the additional fee for luggage."

"Do the companies think we're made out of gold? At that price, it would almost be better to move the Muggle way from Sicily."

They were silent for a short while. The Dowager Lady Beaudelaire spoke again with a subtle hint of smugness that her daughter-in-law only caught due to her now being used to it.

"Speaking of intercontinental travel, my late husband's distant cousin, Donat, told me in his last letter he became Head of the Department of Magical Transport in Québec and he wrote they were discussing the possibility of making access to the country easier for Louisianan, French, Dutch, Luxembourgian, and Swiss citizens."

"Any particular reason why?" asked Lady Beaudelaire. News like this accompanied with that tone generally meant only one thing.

"Apparently, the Minister had the idea of a cultural and historical project, some kind of Universal Exposition with a goal to trace back the roots of the Québécois."

"And no other reasons?"

"Well, I might have sent him a Howler or two about the astronomic cost of transatlantic travel."

"But I thought you hated America."

The Dowager Marchioness looked at her daughter-in-law with an affronted expression. "There are many places that I hate, but it doesn't mean I like my holiday options to be limited."

It appeared that even after almost twenty years of knowing her, Alexandrina von Alhbrecht was still surprised by Clémence de Brandebourg.

"Besides, there is a difference between visiting a place and living in it, and Québec, Louisiana, Guyana and most of the Caribbean are quite nice places in plus of being civilised, unlike MACUSA and Texas."

The Countess and her daughter-in-law chuckled at the Dowager Marchioness' antics and the four of them continued their walk through the stately gardens of the palace. Even in winter, the gardens were formidable and magnificent to look at. It was also quite nice that there was no snow over them or even on the paved paths.

They talked about their hobbies and past times while walking between the rose bushes when a sudden thought appeared in Lady Marysa's mind.

"Lady Beaudelaire, I was wondering why you didn't speak much about your own family."

"Well, as much as I am ashamed to say it, there is simply not much that happens in Luxembourg. My parents and my uncle, as you know, are dead, my brother is only in the sidelines of politics, at best, unlike how my late husband was and my son currently is, and the only other relatives I have met are my uncle's children, not much compared to the families of our husbands or even yours."

The Dowager's family was indeed quite small compared to those of Lord Grimmen and the late Lord Beaudelaire. Outside of Lady Beaudelaire herself, the family consisted of only five people when counting the Baroness of Honville, eight when one counted the spouses. On the other hand, both Lord Grimmen and the late Lord Beaudelaire had numerous siblings.

Armand de Bousquet had a younger brother and two sisters, his brother and younger sister both having some children and grandchildren of their own while his older sister, who had renounced her claim to the title of Marchioness of Beaudelaire to become a writer and living a well-off life in le Troisième-et-Demi Arrondissement as a writer, had no biological child and never married but adopted a little Muggle-born girl right after she learnt about the magical child's presence in the orphanage funded by their family. Then there was Albert's sister, Rosaline, who had married a wealthy gentleman from Switzerland and who had two children of her own. Friedrich von Alhbrecht, for his part, had two younger brothers and a younger sister who each had multiple children and most of them were married and with children.

"But as I was saying," said the Dowager. "I have plans to buy some Galearis from Siberia for my gardens…"

Grandfather Friedrich barely had the time to exit the fireplace and the flames were still emerald green that Bélanger rang the gong to announce the family they should go up and change for dinner.

"Opa!" exclaimed Catherine before Anthonie and her ran to hug their great-grandfather.

He patted their backs. "Hallo, children. It's good to see you."

"How was the ICW?" asked Anthonie.

"I'll tell you everything about it during dinner while you tell me how Hogwarts was. Now, we should go change."

The three of them got up the Entrance Hall's grand staircase and the two children headed towards the aisle reserved for the marquis' close family while he went to the married couples aisle. There he entered his pretend room he only used for changing. Holzman was already there waiting for him and he changed from his dark grey day robes into black velvety dress robes with burgundy embellishments. He took back his walking cane and exited his room and encountered his host at the top of the grand staircase.

"Ah, Albert, it's good to see you. How are things?" he said to his grandson-in-law.

"Bonsoir, Friedrich. Things are going as usual, and I can't complain about that. I hope you didn't have too much trouble coming here."

"The Portkey spot was cramped, as always, but I was still able to leave the Headquarters quickly."

"I'm glad to hear that. Yuletide should be spent in family, not in political assemblies isolated from the world."

"That is because of those damn atheists and progressives who pushed for the ICW's complete religious neutrality twenty years ago. Nothing is considered sacred in the eyes of the young of today, I'm telling you." He sighed. "What happened to our world?"

Albert knew exactly the answer Friedrich was currently thinking of; two global wars, numerous genocides, the spreading of communism in the Muggle world, the end of the European hegemony and many other things. But he kept silent instead of answering the question and did so for the continuation of their descent.

Bélanger opened the door for them and they both took seats near the fire and discussed politics. They were soon joined by Wilhelm and Lord Oldham whom both joined in their discussion.

"The Geongragamot is voting for a new Muggle Act first thing next year," Lord Oldham told them.

"What do you think are the chances for it to pass?" asked Wilhelm.

"I cannot say for certain, as I haven't had the chance to read it over, but the Geongragamot is heavily progressive. Unlike the Wizengamot, which balances more towards tradition."

"How is the change of capital going? It has been a while since I read anything about it," said Albert.

Wilhelm sighed. "Slowly, the Nationalversammlung is still the only institution to have moved to Berlin from Frankfurt in the past two years."

"People are not overly keen to change cities again, I presume?"

"Well, people start to develop habits after nearly fifty years. And believe it or not, but I heard some Ministry employees had gotten to walk to their work."

"Really?" asked Lord Oldham, a hint of shocked disdain in his voice.

"Yes, we had to make an entrance for them because of their complaints."

"What about France?" asked Friedrich, turning to his host. "Anything new happening in the Hexagon?"

"I wouldn't give our Prime Minister four months before the Chiefconseil ousts him with a vote of no confidence."

The three others were visibly shocked.

"After only eight months in office?" said Lord Oldham, his eyes slightly more open.

Wilhelm nodded. "What could he possibly have done to cause that?"

"He wanted to pass a law on marriage that would tax unmarried people over the age of twenty. I honestly cannot tell why he was elected in the first place."

"Oh, that isn't much of a mystery when talking about elections with the common people participating in it. You only need to shout the loudest and you will be voted in, no matter what you say."

"You won't hear protests from me," said Lord Oldham. "I'm just glad that woman isn't in office anymore. I wouldn't have taken Minister Bagnold's position for all the gold in the world."

The others came in at seemingly random intervals. His granddaughter arrived, shortly followed by her mother-in-law. His wife and daughter-in-law were next and, finally, his three great-grandchildren were the last to come down. They left the Drawing Room when Bélanger came back from the kitchens to announce them dinner was ready, foregoing the order of precedence as they were dining en famille.

The Bousquet family joined by the Alhbrecht family celebrated Christmas in the midst of the Yuletide during what was commonly called in France le Réveillon. Meaning, the Christmas feast and exchange of gifts were done on the evening of the twenty-fourth. This was all done to let the servants have Christmas morning and afternoon off and the family would give them gifts for their services, even the house-elves.

This meant the dinner was on another level. They were presented to an overwhelming number of dishes as was the custom among the French aristocracy. Caviar, Oysters, Foie Gras, Escargots, and Coquilles Saint Jacques amongst other things started the meal. Following that was a multitude of poultries one could choose to eat. There was guinea fowl, pheasant, quail, duck, goose, chicken, and the traditional roasted turkey with chestnut stuffing. The whole was accompanied by steamed or roasted vegetables and exquisite sauces.

Anthonie, who was seated at the left of his great-grandfather, decided to forego the sea dishes and took some Escargots, Foie Gras and cheese when they were presented to him accompanied with a small glass of wine. He talked with his great-grandfather about his time at Hogwarts and his classes and how his duelling practices with his friends went.

"You shouldn't worry yourself too much if you can't defeat your friends when you are put against them all. No one at any given age can possibly be better than four witches or wizards with the same level of skill, and your friends seem to be quite bright and skilled. Particularly that Muggle-born friend of yours. What was her name again?"

"Hermione."

"You could have fooled me. With a name like hers and the way you wrote about her, I would have thought she was a pure-blood heiress," he said after washing down his mouthful with some wine. "Hogwarts teaches about Muggles, does it not? Unless I'm much mistaken."

"Uncle Sylvester said Muggle Studies was an optional class available to third years and up. I also heard some upperclassmen talk about it."

"Then, if you ever intend to take this class, you should question her about her world as much as she questions you and your friends about ours. As researchers, it is our duty to seek knowledge from its source. You only have less than two years to learn about the Muggle world and their ways before you take the class.

"Which makes me think, we should restart your mathematics lessons come summer. It was all good sending you abroad to learn about the people of the United Kingdom and better your English, but if you want to be any good at Arithmancy, you will have to prepare yourself and it will be a year you haven't had any mathematics lessons come Ostara."

Anthonie took some pheasant and turkey with accompanying vegetables and a bit of sauce. As they ate the main part of the feast, the discussion turned to what everyone wanted to know about: what happened during the six days the meeting of the ICW took place. He first told them about the latest regarding the Yugoslavian situation and about the ICW denying the secessionist demands from the Russian Empire's Dominions before going on about the usual.

"China petitioned against Tibet's sovereignty before receiving an umpteenth categorical 'no' from the Mugwumps and the Northern Indies are still at a breeze away from literally going at each other's throats.

"Bulgaria and Romania officialised their bans on flying carpets, which doesn't help with the Indies, and Bulgaria is being pressured by Yugoslavia, Austria and Hungary to build a school pronto."

Protections were being set up to protect the southern Slavic school as the front was getting closer and closer. What they feared wasn't for Muggles to accidentally bomb the school, that was all taken for quite easily. No, it was the potential involvement of rogue wizards like in September. No one wanted for an entire generation of two and a half countries to be captured or killed and the castle could be potentially taken as a stronghold for a rogue or insurgent movement. It was even more worrying that no other attacks had happened since September.

Grandfather Friedrich told them next the East African Federation would enter into contact with the Muggle governments for the first time since 1935 and the discussion drifted from subject to subject well into dessert. No less than thirty desserts were put on the table, almost all of which Anthonie liked. What he appreciated about these kinds of feasts was that the wine they drank to accompany the substantial amounts of food was lightly infused with a potion allowing them to eat more than they normally could without causing any problem to their digestive systems or any kind of difficulties on the other end.

That was why, unlike at Hogwarts, Anthonie was able to eat some chocolate truffles, meringues, macarons, biscuits, croquembouches, a bit of chocolate soufflé, two small cups of different kinds of ice cream, a piece of Yule Log, a couple of fruits dipped in chocolate and covered in whipped cream, and a spot of pudding to end in beauty without ending up under the table. He had been tempted by the flambé and the crêpes Suzette, but his two glasses of wine could only take him so far.

To an outsider with a Muggle background, this scene would have been overwhelmingly similar to a depiction of the French nobility during the Ancien Régime, but this went over the head of anyone present in the Dining Room of the Palais des Beaussiers.

When dessert was finished, instead of the women and children going to the Drawing Room and the men staying for a while in the Dining Room, they all went to the Library. The servants filled their glasses for the last time this evening before leaving the family to their privacy with what to refill their glasses if they so wished.

The adults exchanged between themselves gifts before the children were given theirs. Johann, in this instance, looked like he would have preferred the loneliness of opening one's gifts in their bedroom on Christmas morning instead of during le Réveillon. On the other hand, his two younger siblings were still very happy with this tradition.

Anthonie received many books from his family as well as a runes' graving kit and a new slide rule from his great-grandfather. He also received the obligatory refill of parchment and inkpots and interestingly enough a new jewelled brooch from grandmother Clémence. Anthonie's friends had been quite understanding about his family's Christmas traditions and made sure that their gifts would be there for the Réveillon.

In the spirit of getting to know Hermione better and her getting to know them better, the five friends agreed they should all give each other 'acquaintances' gifts for their birthdays and 'friends' gifts for Christmas. This way, Hermione, who had a September birthday, wouldn't have to feel left out for not having known them as long as they did. Speaking of Hermione, the Muggle-born witch had sent him a boxset containing four books all written by the same author named J.R.R. Tolkien. He had sent her a translated edition of L'Aventure Innatendue d'Adabert Petitpas and The Tales of Beedle the Bard to introduce his friend to wizarding fiction literature.

To Sybil, he had bought an invisibility cloak and himself had received a Colour-Changing ring that allowed to change the colour of many things on his person like his hair, eyebrows, eyes, lips and such. It was cheap in terms of monetary value compared to the invisibility cloak he had gifted her, but he appreciated the gift a great lot. He wouldn't have to powder his nose and hair anymore.

Anthonie was amused to unwrap a set of duelling robes gifted to him because he had sent her a set of duelling robes. The outer robe was made of a fine and thin white-blue fabric with puff sleeves that reached to the middle of his forearm. There were also two inside pockets where his two wands could rest inconspicuously and comfortably before he activated his wand holsters. The inner robe was a beautiful thing partially made out of dragon-hide that fell just short of touching the floor and had a turtleneck. It was engraved by an intricate design and the sleeves reached to his wrist without any frilly ruffs that could hinder the holding of his wand. All in all, it was beautiful and utilitarian, and it went along well with his knee-high dragon-hide boots.

To Tracey, Anthonie had sent her a beautiful and frilly parasol and fan worthy of an heiress to an ancient pure-blood family. Just like how the girl's cousins liked to think as for themselves. Since he had learned about the girl's relatives, Anthonie had started to send Tracey expensive gifts so as to both get his friend's spirits up and indirectly figuratively pulling his tongue out to the girl's bratty cousins. It was in these instances that he appreciated the most having more money than most people. In exchange, Tracey gifted him a book on famous relics and legendary artefacts, which looked to be a very interesting read.

Neville had gifted him various inkpots each of beautiful colours. Anthonie thought this would be great to colour-code notes or his planner when the time came to revise for the winter and spring terms' finals. He himself had sent Neville a book on Mediterranean magical plants.

Anthonie was surprised to find a small package from Paracelsus Black next to Susan Bones' one. The kind girl had sent him Sugar Quills with her Christmas card while he had sent her a small tin box of cookies he had asked the kitchens' elves to bake along with his. Paracelsus had sent him some Ice Mice and Anthonie, although he did not think he would receive something in exchange, had sent a couple of Chocolate Frogs to him.

The rest of the evening was spent discussing or playing card or board games and generally having a good time as a family. The children drank some hot chocolate and they ended the evening with everyone seated near the fireplace with the adults telling stories about their youth.

*(I have no idea on the basis of this, but apparently it was custom for manservants and Lady's maids to be called by their master/mistress' name by other servants when they were visiting other estates, as seen in Downton Abbey. I used this partly because it allows me to not lose more time than necessary on thinking a German name for really what is essentially an extra for the scene.)

A.N.: I hoped you liked this chapter and if you did then please follow it so you can know what will happen next. Please, also leave a review to tell me what you think about the story.