Brian felt a sudden whoosh as his body was slammed against invisible barriers. He had seen green flames in the fireplace, but they hadn’t burned him. On the contrary, he was now standing in a small but cozy living room. AJ, Alex, Leighanne, and Nick were already standing there. Now that they were all through, Leighanne flicked her wand at the fireplace and an actual fire lit the room. Nearly a dozen stockings hung over the fireplace. A Christmas tree sat in the corner; instead of lights, candle rested on the branches. They were lit but must’ve had some enchantment on them for the wax wasn’t burning down.

A sudden wind whipped around the house and caused the door to creak open. Everyone jumped, already on edge from the events of the Yule Ball. Leighanne shut the door, but not before Brian heard the unmistakable sound of waves crashing.

Brian looked out the large window at the darkness beyond and when the others headed toward the kitchen to look for their mother, he went outside. A bitter breeze sprayed cold mist on his face and he shivered. Brian was standing near a cliff and beyond it was the sea. He looked around. The coast line was remarkable. The only times he’d been to the beach in America he’d seen nothing but hotel chains and tourists red from the sun. Here, the shore was undeveloped. He could see the light on in the window of another house, but it was a good half of a mile up the coast. The moon reflected over water and he could hear waves crashing at the bottom of the cliff.

Turning around, he saw the Weasley’s home. A dirt pathway led toward the home and a small, lop-sided sign sat next to it. In the darkness, Brian had to squint to read it. The Beach Burrow.

“You coming back in? It’s freezing out here!” Nick appeared behind him.

The house was several stories high. Like the sign, they looked a little lop-sided. He saw several balconies that could only be held in place by magic. It was the most amazing beach house Brian had ever seen.

A minute later, he was being introduced to Mrs. Weasley. He instantly liked her for not making a fuss over him. At least for not singling him out.

“You poor things, you look chilled to the bone. I’ve just made some soup, would you like any? Have a seat, the lot of you.” She was a short, cuddly woman and, even though all of her sons towered over her and even Leighanne had her by a few inches, Mrs. Weasley had a commanding voice and tone that implied, when she wasn’t being motherly, she was not a woman to cross.

Brian sat at an extremely large table. For a moment he felt like he was in the Hogwarts Great Hall. The soup was delicious. Brian simply sat and enjoyed it while he listened to Alex and AJ finish telling Mrs. Weasley what happened at the school.

“I’m so glad none of the students were harmed,” Mrs. Weasley looked panic-stricken. “To think, my children in the same building as Sirius Knight...”

“Don’t worry, mum,” Alex said. “We were at the Yule Ball. None of us even saw him.”

“I did,” Brian said, taking another spoonful of soup. He looked up when he realized there was silence.

“What? When? You didn’t tell me that!” Nick said.

“Why do you think I was in Dumbledore’s office?” Brian asked. It hadn’t occurred to him that they didn’t know. After all, someone had extended him an invitation to come here for Christmas. Now he realized they had done it simply because they knew Knight was in the castle because of him.

When Brian relayed the events of his short encounter, he was surprised at how calmly he was about to tell it. It had been a long night, though, and he was too tired to be scared at the moment. He’d been living with the idea that Knight was after him for awhile now. Besides, it was hard to feel frightened with Christmas lights dangling from the ceiling and a warm fire crackling in the other room.

Nick had to sit down as Brian told the story. And Leighanne looked pale.

“Well, not to worry, dear,” Mrs. Weasley said when Brian was finished. She turned to her children. “That’s where your father is. He’s meeting with some ministry officials putting extra precautions around the house.”

Everyone finished their soup. Brian followed Nick up several flights up stairs to his bedroom. He was too sleepy to appreciate Nick’s posters with Quidditch players zooming around. Or the view from the window that magically turned the already seaside view into one with palm trees and warm winds. He didn’t even bother changing from his dress robes before he plopped onto the sleeping bag Mrs. Weasley had put down for him and went to sleep.

Brian couldn’t remember when he’d had so much fun. Although he still missed his family, he felt like he’d been inducted as an honorary Weasley. He’d spent his time here eating delicious home-cooked meals from Mrs. Weasley and even went to the village with them to do some last minute Christmas shopping. He mailed the presents, including those he’d already purchased in Hogsmeade, to his parents in the regular post. He couldn’t see an owl being able to handle such a heavy load.

While Mrs. Weasley preferred to spend much of her time indoors, Mr. Weasley enjoyed the muggle sport of surfing. In his workshop, he’d tinkered with surfing attire so that it kept him completely warm in the icy waters. Brian and Nick would sit on the shore and cast a spell that caused huge waves to form and Mr. Weasley, on a surfboard he’d also “improved,” would ride the crest to the shore while humming Beach Boys melodies he’d picked up from a muggle radio station. If you hadn’t known these were England’s icy waters in December or the fact that the man was a wizard, you’d assume he was a blond surfer from California taking advantage of a perfect tide.

Christmas was here before Brian knew it. They stuffed themselves full of Christmas dinner and then lounged in the living room by the fire, opening their stockings. Brian’s was full of treats from Mrs. Weasley, as well as some prank candy concoctions from AJ and Alex. Mrs. Weasley had the radio playing, but none of the Christmas songs were ones Brian had ever heard before.

“Ooh, this is my favorite,” Mrs. Weasley said. “The Backstreet Goys.”

Frost grows outside of Hogsmeade

Eating Berty Botts Flavored Beans, oh ho, ho ho

Inside, drinking butterbeer

Even the Dark Lord would not draw near oh ho, ho ho

And when the owls fly from the sky, sky, sky

Those Slytherins cannot deny-ny-ny

That’s when it’s Christmas time again

Mrs. Weasley grabbed an embarrassed Nick and they danced around the room while Mrs. Weasley hummed, la da, la da, da da da . AJ and Alex and howled with laughter before Mrs. Weasley told them they were next.

“I’m so glad Professor McGonagall agreed that you should come and spend Christmas with us,” Leighanne whispered while the Christmas commotion distracted everyone else. The two of them were sitting in the love seat in the corner by the Christmas tree.

“So it was your idea?” Brian asked, stunned.

Leighanne nodded. “I just didn’t think you should have to spend Christmas alone.”

Brian smiled. You were anything but alone in the Weasley house. She pointed up, and Brian saw a bit of mistletoe hanging from the ceiling. He could’ve sworn it hadn’t been there a second ago, but who was he to argue with a holiday tradition?

Before he had time to act, Leighanne gave him a quick peck on the cheek and then blushed. She stood quickly and grabbed his mug. “More butterbeer?” She headed to the kitchen.

Brian sat with a dazed smile on his face while the Weasley’s continued to waltz around the room to a variety of carols. Even when Leighanne returned with two steaming hot mugs of butterbeer, they sat shyly by each other. Brian remained in his reverie until Nick jumped up with a cry and turned up the radio. His own favorite musician had come on the program.

“This is a brand new Christmas song from the Wizarding World’s favorite parody expert, Weird Wizard Al!” the newscaster exclaimed. The popular melody of Away In the Manger began to play, until the wizard’s choice chimed in with new lyrics.

Away in Azkaban, a price on his head

The felon Sirius was wanted for dead.

Then one day decided, would everything give

All the knuts in Gringotts, to find the boy who lived.

Dementors are livid, the Minister cries

But Sirius Knight is a master of lies.

The Forbidden Forest, Hogswart, and the coast,

If Sirius finds him then Potter is toast.

Suddenly, Brian was afraid the butterbeer was going to come back up. He could picture wizarding families across the country laughing at this obvious poking fun of his potential demise. Brian, of course, found nothing funny about the most famous wizard prisoner being on the loose and coming after him. Everyone else in the room had also gone quiet. AJ had frozen with a piece mid-air over the Wizard’s Chessboard.

Mr. Weasley cleared his throat. “How about some pudding, my dear?”

“Oh yes,” Mrs. Weasley agreed, “I suppose it is time for dessert!” She went into the kitchen and everyone could hear plates clinking.

Brian still felt awkward sitting in the living room, so he went upstairs to use the bathroom. On his way back down the windy stairwell, he heard Nick whispering to Leighanne.

“That’s the thing... He doesn’t know all of it.”

“What do you mean? I thought he knew about Knight. I mean, Knight’s after him because Brian defeated You Know Who.”

“There’s more to it than that. Knight is the one who led You Know Who to his birth parents. They were in hiding. He’s the reason his parents are dead.”

Brian froze on the steps. A pain like no other he’d ever experienced coursed through him. Even when finding out he was adopted and his real parents had died, he’d never felt like this. He’d been sad, sure, but he had wonderful parents in Kentucky.

No, this was different. Maybe before, he’d felt some sort of justice for having inexplicably defeated the wizard who’d killed them. But this man? He was running around England free with obviously no remorse for what he’d done despite the years locked away. After all, he was looking for Brian to avenge his old master.

Of course, Sirius Knight wasn’t in the house. But there was someone else who was around to take the blame for how Brian was feeling right now.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Brian finally remembered how to walk, to move. He’d finished walking down the stairs and around the corner to find Nick and Leighanne huddled away from the others.

Two sets of eyes widened.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Brian repeated and shoved Nick.

“Calm down, man...”

“Calm down? Why does everything think they have more of a right to know about my past than I do?” Brian raised his voice. He heard the dishes in the kitchen go quiet.

This explained something Nick had said to him, weeks before. Mr. Weasley told Nick so that Nick would make sure Brian didn’t do anything stupid.

They were worried Brian would go after Sirius Knight.

Brian would have to be absolutely crazy to go after a mad man with far more skill in magic than he possessed. Brian was only doing somewhat well in his classes because of the tutoring.

No, Brian wasn’t about to go searching for the wizard who wanted him dead. But he also couldn’t stand the sight of those who had been lying to him. He couldn’t stay in this house right now.

Brian headed back upstairs. Nick started to follow him, but Brian heard Mrs. Weasley say, “Give him some time alone, dear. Come have pudding.”

Once in Nick’s room, Brian grabbed a hat, gloves, and jacket. He shoved his wand in his back pocket and, when he was sure all of the Weasley’s were in the kitchen eating, he snuck out the front door.

The wind whipped around his face, an icy chill howling up and down the coast. He headed down the steep path to the sand. The waves were dark, but as they crashed on the shore, the white froth looked like the surface of butterbeer. Brian stuffed his cold hands in his jacket pockets and began heading up the coast. He wasn’t sure where he was going, but the sound of the wind and the waves were a welcome distraction from his own thoughts.

There was enough Brian didn’t know about his own life without others purposefully withholding information. Why didn’t they think he could handle it? He’d accepted the fact that he was a wizard, moved to another country, and allowed his whole life to change, for goodness sake. Dumbledore had trusted him to make the decision about not going home in order to keep his family safe. He would’ve told Brian about this, had he known.

Right?

Brian only faintly realized he’d felt something in his pocket move before it was too late. The sound of the sea had made it easy for someone to sneak up on him.

“Brian Potter. At last.”

With no Dumbledore to appear and save him this time, Brian turned to see Sirius Knight holding Brian’s wand in one hand and his own wand in another, pointing it directly at Brian.