Time seemed to fly by and, before Harry realised it, it was Yule. He had been informed, on several occasions, that they would be celebrating Yule and not Christmas after making the mistake of asking if they would be having a feast on Halloween. The former Death Eaters had looked at Harry aghast and Sirius had laughingly informed Harry that traditionally wizards celebrated the pagan holidays, not the commercialised or Christian ones. It had been a surprise for Harry at first but had proved to be a nice bonding moment for Harry, Sirius and the portrait of Orion, Harry's grandfather, as they taught Harry about the traditional celebrations and what he could expect over the rest of the year.
Harry had enjoyed the traditional wassailing of the orchard at the beginning of December and had found the sight of dozens of increasingly drunk purebloods and werewolves, dancing through the trees, singing off key and generally making a lot of noise, absolutely hilarious. It had been a shame that he and the other children had only been allowed one small drink at the beginning and end of the celebrations but it had still been an enjoyable experience as they chased away any evil spirits and blessed each tree for a good harvest the following year.
It had been fun decorating the castle for the season. He was used to Petunia and her "traditional" tree and a few other ornaments around the castle but the purebloods seemed to go all out, starting at the beginning of the year with the house elves using special cleaning potions to clean everything down and the wixen going around the rooms and doing something called smudging to chase away any evil spirits. The whole place was then decorated for the season, with stars and snowflakes charmed to hang around the ceiling and mantelpieces and bannisters decorated with boughs of holly, pine and ivy as well as juniper with and cedar which was new to Harry. Even the pillows on the sofas and chairs were changed to seasonal colours and filled with herbs so that people got a waft of scent every time they sat down.
It turned out that Bellatrix was a bit obsessed with the power of aromatherapy and crystals, apparently having raged a lot when she was younger about there being no option to study them at Hogwarts. She had apparently insisted on dragging Rodolphus around various markets on their honeymoon smelling different herbs to the point that the poor man had gone nose blind for a week.
They had set up an altar though, one in the castle and one in the werewolf's community hall, where they could offer thanks and prayers for the following year. It was a new idea for Harry but he was all for trying it, having been used to religious services in Primary school, although he spent more time watching than participating most times. There were lots of group activities though and a lot of their normal lessons were co-opted with learning things for the season, be it history, appropriate spells or simple crafts. Harry particularly liked making pomanders that required them to practice their drying spells and preservation spells. Harry had a lot of fun that lesson and came back with a whole load of them to place around the castle.
There was a huge amount of feasting and festivities over the season, including a celebration of Saturnalia, the traditional Roman yuletide holiday. Sirius had been looking forward to and was happy to be named the lord of Saturnalia, or Lord of Misrule to use the anglicised version, and led all of the merriment and mischief of the day with an abundance of pranks played on everyone. Harry's clothes and hair changed colours multiple times over the day the the point that they ended up technicolour by dinner time which looked particularly interesting when he sat next to Tom who was sporting both Elk and Deer antlers.
Of course there was the traditional family feast on the 21st itself although it was crazier than Hogwarts despite having fewer people involved. It started with a late breakfast in the castle's great hall where gifts were exchanged. Sirius had informed him not to go too over the top with the gifts as they were traditionally meant to mean something but also the escaped death eaters had limited funds so there probably wouldn't be anything big. It had taken some thought but when he learned that Rodolphus was planning on giving everyone crystals as a Christmas present, using his father as a way to source them, Harry decided to supply everyone with a necklace and a cage so they could carry their crystal wherever they went. He was surprised at the ingenuity of some of the gifts he received, from candles and homemade incense to homemade wine (non-alcoholic for Harry) and even poppets for healing and protection.
After breakfast they all headed out to the werewolf colony for a feast on the now named village green, mostly because the colony now was a village near enough, with over 100 residents and counting. Eric had argued that technically they needed a pub and a church to be a village but Ruby pointed out that they had the altar in the hall, as close as they were going to get to a church since they were pagan, plus they had the brewery that basically worked as a pub since none of them had money to pay for their alcohol, not currently necessary as everyone did their bit to support the colony and got their share of produce in return. Eric had explained it as communism but on a very small scale although, if they were to keep growing, some form of currency may be required to prevent people feeling hard done by.
Not that there weren't a lot of jobs for people to do, including building houses for the new werewolves. Some of the older members from Regina's pack struggled with some of the more physical work about the village, however, especially as the older women, who were still recovering from the abuse they'd suffered under the other pack's alpha, Jacob. Greyback and Deliah had been a little worried about possible repercussions from that and the worry that Jacob and his men might find a way in as well. Not that anyone thought that Jacob would actually be able to beat Greyback but he would still be able to do a lot of damage. And he likely would attack as well as, especially when Regina admitted to have purposely pushed the idea in his mind, wanting to send the abusive alphas up against the hunters to basically act as a human shield while she snuck the weaker members past the barriers.
They had spoken to Arcturus's portrait, as the one responsible for setting up the new wards and he pointed out that Regina's group were likely only allowed to pass as the wards recognised them as injured animals on the full moon. It didn't necessarily bode well for stopping Jacob and his followers, however, as they would likely have been severely injured in the attack meaning that there was still a chance they could sneak through at some stage. The wolves had pushed the boundaries on their patrols of the perimeter and Tom had used his animagus ability to turn into a crow and spy on the hunters to see if they could discern what happened. It was good news, for them at least. Jacobs group had been all but dessimated and those that survived had skulked off away from where the castle was, likely going back to where their pack camped. Tom had managed to drop in on a planning session of the hunters who were hoping to track the survivors down and wipe out the pack completely which meant that there was at least one less threat for them to worry about.
Admittedly the biggest threat to them that winter had been the lack of food. The problem of living in a closed community like that was that supplies were limited, especially over winter when provisions had not only been sown but harvested. The colony had been good and had made allowances for low yields and possible issues such as summer droughts so there would have been more than enough normally but the addition of the death eaters and Regina's colony had caused the population of the community to double in a few short months which would have been too much, even for their well stocked supplies. Thankfully there were the likes of the Malfoys and the Parkinsons who were able to buy extra supplies and send them to the castle but everyone had been very conscious of relying solely on buying produce, especially when there was technically no new money coming in.
Food had been lean between feast days but that only made the festivities all the more special as everyone went all out on those days and Yule was the biggest feast of all. A huge tent had been erected over the village green with long tables on three sides which were all groaning under the weight of all the food. From traditional turkey and goose, to venison and boar. There was pigeon and partridge, pheasant and quail as well as a vast array of fish and shellfish including trout from the river. The sides were various as well, with bowl after bowl passed around until Harry had to pass things over simply because there was no room left on his plate. The drink flowed freely as well and Harry was happy to sneak himself a couple of glasses of cider through the afternoon.
After the food the music started with various instruments charmed to play and, after everyone's food had settled, the dancing started up. Many of the other death eaters came in through the evening, brought by Kreacher to be able to show their respects to their Lord and bring him gifts. Harry was surprised when he was presented with some as well but Tom pointed out that, as the Lord of the castle, it was only appropriate that they present a gift to him as well. They were very expensive gifts and Harry wondered why he would possibly need a fancy quill set or crystal vials but he figured he could always share some with the likes of Severus, and Sirius as Harry was sure that his father would appreciate some aged Fire Whisky.
As it was Yule it didn't take long for the evening to draw in and Harry was amazed to see the tent lit up in a variety of colours, similar to the muggle houses he knew. Rabastan had apparently learned how to use runes to make crystals glow and had not only gifted everyone with a glowing salt rock pebble as a Christmas present but had managed to string various stones up in the tent making them look like multicoloured stars in the sky.
The arrival of the other death eaters had meant that a lot of the adults had begun huddling together to talk politics and planning and, while Harry was aware that it would be a good idea to listen to it, he knew Tom and Severus would catch him up on anything important and he was happy to use the opportunity to spend some time with his school friends and some of the new teenagers who had come from Regina's pack. Harry hadn't had the chance to spend a lot of time with them since, despite the fact that many of them were older than him, none of them had had any sort of education, thanks to Jacob, so they had all been put in the lowest level classes. That isn't to say that he hadn't gotten to know any of them and Matthew, the male breeder that had come with Regina's pack.
"I wish Regina had brought us here months ago," Matthew sighed, staring longingly at Greyback.
"It wouldn't have made a difference," Harry smiled, having had this conversation several times before. Matthew had developed a crush on Greyback shortly after arriving and now frequently cursed Regina waiting as long as she did as he thought he might have had a chance with the alpha, regardless of how much Harry tried to convince him otherwise. "Greyback sees you as a child and always would have."
"It doesn't seem to have affected your partners," Matthew whined.
"That's different and you know it," Harry chuckled. "Tom had bound us before either of us knew that was an option and even now they are waiting to actually do anything, although the sexual nature of vampires makes that difficult."
"Werewolves are sexual in nature," Matthew grouced.
"Not in the same way and you know it."
"I don't know why you're so obsessed with him anyway," Daisy said. The girl was only a few months older than Matthew but a lot more mature in a number of ways and had taken the new boy under her wing, in a similar way to how she did with Harry. "Sure he's a great alpha but otherwise, meh."
"What are you on about! He's perfect!" Matthew exclaimed. "He's strong, smart, caring, handsome. What more could someone want from their partner?"
"Pretty sure he's also old enough to be your grandfather," Daisy smirked.
"Age is just a number," Matthew huffed.
"Daisy, are you winding Matthew up again?" Marius asked, sitting down to join the group.
"He makes it so easy though," Daisy said jokingly.
"That's true," Marius agreed with a laugh, earning him a scowl from Matthew. Suddenly they heard the tinkling of a bell and looked up to see some charmed mistletoe hanging over Marius and Matthew. The slightly werewolf smiled and didn't hesitate to lean in and kiss Matthew on the cheek causing a faint blush to appear on his cheeks as he looked away.
"Perhaps I should just hang around him waiting for the mistletoe to come by," Matthew suggested, causing the others to shake their heads.
"You do know that there's no guarantee that the mistletoe will choose you and Greyback," Marius pointed out, "unless you were literally hanging off his arm all night and, no offence, I can't really see that happening."
"That would be a sure fire way to really wind Lupin up," Daisy laughed. "Honestly its no wonder the man won't speak to you."
"He didn't speak to me from the beginning," Matthew said, "before I'd even realised how great Greyback really was. All I wanted to do was ask him some questions about being a male breeder and what to expect as there are many of us around and I thought it would be a good idea to pick the mind of someone older."
"That's no loss to you," Harry snickered. "From what I know Remus doesn't even want to be a breeder. Dad didn't go into detail about it but I know Remus hurt him a lot because he was fighting against his nature. I don't know if he even wants to have children, I know Dad never talks about it."
"All the more reason for Greyback to get a proper partner," Matthew declared. "A leader as great as Greyback needs a child who will continue his great legacy."
Marius shook his head. "That just shows how little you know Greyback. He is more than aware that there is no guarantee that your child will hold the same values as you and, heir or no, he will choose the person, or people, he feels will be best to lead the pack when he steps down, to make sure that we have the best chance of continuing."
"He should still have the option of having an heir," Matthew argued, "and denying him that Remus is failing as a partner and letting down the pack."
The discussion soon moved on to other topics, like how many times Harry had managed to sneak kisses with his partners, but, unknown to the group, their words had been overheard and had struck the eavesdropper greatly. There was no denying that Remus's decision to fight his nature had been his alone, based on his own hangups from his father, but he had never imagined that his actions would be the source of so much gossip in the pack. He had assumed that Greyback was fine with his decision from the simple fact that the man had never said anything otherwise but, thinking about it, and the man's caring nature, Remus realised that that could simply be him suppressing his own feelings so that Remus didn't feel bad.
A part of him had always been aware that he was being a little selfish in denying Greyback an heir but he'd had the security of their relationship to lean on; his original bond with Sirius and Greyback's obvious feelings for the man. If Sirius had been able to have children there would likely have been some issues but, as it was, he had felt safe and secure with how things were. The arrival of Matthew had changed that. He knew that Greyback only saw the boy as a child now but that didn't mean that things wouldn't change in the future. Down the line the alpha might start to crave a family of his own more and the fact that there was now someone other than Remus who could give that to him, and who seemed more than willing to at that, and that fact had not only caused Remus to feel suddenly very jealous and possessive regarding the alpha and to begin questioning his own stance on bearing children.