William and Harry descended on Henry from both sides, firing questions in overlapping volleys, crumpling his coat and dislodging his scarf in the process.
Henry did not step back. He simply reached out and ruffled both their heads.
"Merry Christmas," he said.
"Merry Christmas!" they chorused instantly—and then, almost simultaneously, looked down.
There was Lucy, standing half a step behind Henry in her neat tea-towel, her bat-like ears at full extension, her eyes the size of tennis balls.
William's mouth fell open.
Harry retreated immediately behind William, one eye peering around his brother's arm.
Lucy looked back at them, blinking. She clutched the corner of her tea-towel and did not speak. His Highness had not said she could.
"Is that..." William asked, with great caution, "your pet?"
"William," Diana said from a short distance away, very gently.
"Not a pet," Henry said. He stepped aside so Lucy could stand beside him. "This is Lucy. She is my assistant, and my friend."
Lucy's eyes brightened considerably at that. She looked up at the two small boys taking shelter behind their mother.
They were quite different from His Highness, round faces, round eyes, with none of His Highness's particular quality of quiet authority.
But they appeared to have good hearts.
William gathered himself and stepped out from behind Diana with the deliberateness of someone performing an act of courage. "I'm William," he said. "And that's Harry."
Harry, from behind William's shoulder, gave Lucy a small wave.
Lucy was visibly startled. Then she bent into the deep, formal bow of a house-elf, the corner of her tea-towel nearly brushing the pavement.
"Your Highness William. Your Highness Harry." Her voice was soft and careful. "Lucy is very pleased to meet you both."
William's mouth fell open again. Apparently he had not anticipated the house-elf being able to speak.
Harry stepped fully out from behind his brother, studied Lucy with enormous seriousness for a long moment, and then asked, "Can you do magic?"
Lucy blinked. The question confused her slightly, of course she could; house-elves were born with it.
But the earnestness with which it had been asked seemed to require a straight answer.
"Yes, Your Highness Harry," she said softly.
Harry's eyes lit up immediately.
"Show me a bunny! Please! A bunny!"
Lucy looked at Henry.
Henry gave a small nod.
Lucy drew a slow breath, extended two slender fingers, and clicked them together.
Snowflakes gathered at her fingertips, drifted down, and assembled on the ground into a small, round rabbit about the size of a palm.
It twitched its ears, took two small hops through the snow, and looked up at Harry with bright red eyes.
Harry's mouth formed a perfect circle.
William's did the same.
Even Diana's expression shifted, both eyebrows rising slightly.
"Goodness," she murmured. "That is extraordinary."
The rabbit hopped forward, pressed briefly against Harry's boot, and then vanished with a soft pop back into scattered snowflakes.
The pedestrians passing along the pavement outside paid no attention whatsoever, they could not see the entrance to the pub, which was shielded by the usual enchantments.
Henry's family were among the exceptions; they had been here before and were on the permitted list.
Harry stared at the spot where the rabbit had been, waited exactly two seconds, and turned back to Lucy with an expression of absolute devotion.
"One more," he said, with great feeling. "Please. One more."
"Harry," Diana said, with warm patience, "give Lucy a moment to breathe. We're going home."
She looked across at Henry, her eyes settling on the dark leather trunk at his side.
"Did you find everything you were looking for?"
"Yes. The gifts for everyone are all in there."
Diana looked at him for a moment. "Not one of those terribly conventional royal gifts, I hope."
Henry thought of the Spare Corgi Commemorative Edition, the Escape Colouring Book, the Four Seasons Tree, the small Whomping Willow for his grandfather, and the bag of Canary Creams he intended to produce at some carefully selected moment when his grandparents were present to witness the results.
A smile came onto his face before he had quite decided to let it.
"Quite traditional," he said.
Diana looked at his expression and had the distinct sense that this was not true in any meaningful way. She shook her head with a smile.
"Get in. It's cold."
William and Harry had already launched themselves back into the car and were hammering on the seat cushion. "Henry! In the middle! You have to sit in the middle!"
Lucy stood very still for a moment, looking at the car with the expression of someone encountering an entirely new category of object and uncertain of the protocol.
"Lucy," Henry said, "you sit with me in the back."
She nodded with great energy and climbed in, a little stiffly, under the curious gaze of both younger brothers.
Within a few minutes, however, William and Harry had been entirely distracted by the lights on the trees outside and were arguing companionably about how many there were on one particular specimen, and Lucy relaxed by degrees.
Henry leaned back in his seat and caught his mother's eyes in the rear-view mirror.
Diana smiled at him, and started the engine.
The snow had thinned considerably by the time the car passed through the gates of Kensington Palace.
The guards saluted, the iron gates opened, and the cobblestone path Henry had known all his life came into view.
The butler took the car, and Diana led everyone inside.
The entrance hall was already warm and yellow-lit, the oil paintings on the walls soft and familiar in the lamplight.
One of them showed Henry as a small child in a miniature naval uniform, seated on a rocking horse with one hand pointing into the distance at a diagonal angle that suggested either great purpose or the influence of whoever had posed him.
William and Harry pelted through the hall, their feet loud on the wooden floor.
"Mama! Can we open the presents now?"
Diana followed at her own pace, smiling and shaking her head gently.
Then she turned to Lucy, who had come to a stop just inside the door and was looking around with wide, careful eyes.
"Lucy, isn't it?"
Lucy startled, then bent into a deep bow, folding herself nearly in half.
"Yes, Your Highness Princess Diana! Lucy is Your Highness's, Your Highness Henry's assistant!"
Diana crouched down, bringing herself level with Lucy's eyes, and looked at her directly.
This produced in Lucy a visible shock. In all her years at Hogwarts, not one witch or wizard of any station had ever looked her in the eye quite like that, let alone a princess.
"Welcome to Kensington Palace, Lucy," Diana said, quietly and entirely without performance. "There aren't many rules here. Please make yourself at home."
Lucy's tea-towel was wound into a tight ball in both hands.
Her large eyes blinked, and she appeared to be searching for a response equal to the occasion and finding the task difficult.
Diana straightened and looked at Henry with a warm smile.
"Your father is in his study, he said he'd like to talk when you arrived. But there's no rush. Dinner is ready first."