36 Summer Solstice

The Malfoy family considered the matter of Voldemort's Horcrux to be temporarily dealt with and no one brought it up again.

As summer approached once again, Draco went back to stay with his grandfather in France. Over the past few years, he got a lot better in his swordsmanship technique and could already cast a lot of simple spells wandlessly.

Aside from the first three (Lightning charm, Disarming spell and Unlocking charm), Draco was very proficient with 'Incendio' – the spell which creates fire and 'Diffindo' – the Cutting charm. In his spare time, he also learned 'Reparo' – the Mending charm, which could restore broken objects as long as all of its pieces were present. However, he had a hard time with this spell as it required very fine control, which was difficult to achieve without a wand.

Despite his rather small spell repertoire, Draco wasn't worried as he knew that with a wand he will be able to learn them quickly and more efficiently later. However, knowing some wandless magic was very useful, so he didn't reject Abraxas' intentions of teaching him more magic.

The first part of June was spent very peacefully as Draco settled back into his usual routine. However, one day, almost two weeks after his tenth birthday, as they were conversing over breakfast, Abraxas started an unexpected topic:

"You have learned how to conduct rituals from your tutor for the past three years, however, have you ever participated in the actual rites?"

Draco thought back to his classes. Aside from the beginning, Rituals class wasn't all that interesting. Although, after learning theory, he conducted a lot of small rituals, they weren't significant.

"We only did a few simple ones, like offerings to Magic, thanking for the rain, asking for small blessings and such," the blond boy answered as he counted his fingers, trying to remember them all.

"Bah! Those are just children's rituals to familiarize them with the subject," Abraxas scoffed unhappily.

"Well, on Samhain I usually observe how my parents conduct the 'Communicating With the Dead' ritual. During Yuletide, we also do a few small rites…" Draco added after thinking a bit more.

"Those are just simplified things. As muggle culture influences us more and more, it is hard to practice the traditions fully, like before," sighed Abraxas regretfully. "Before you go to Hogwarts, I want you to experience the actual Magical World and its rites. That's why, to celebrate the Summer Solstice, we will go to Scotland, where a special gathering is organized every year on the 20th of June!"

---

Because Draco had been spending all of his summers in France, his friends had fewer opportunities to see him during this season. So the blond boy decided to invite them to come along to the Summer Solstice Festival since most of them hadn't experienced it either.

"Draco, Happy late Birthday!" Hannah pounced on him with a hug as soon as she showed up via portkey to the Malfoy Manor, where Draco and Abraxas arrived the day before.

Susan was also with her, however, the red-head just smiled wryly at her best friend's behavior and rolled her eyes at Draco behind Hannah's back.

Although it has been two weeks since his actual birthday and all of his friends already congratulated him via post or communication mirrors, the blond girl still felt like she should mention it when she saw her friend in person.

"Thanks, Hannah," Draco smiled helplessly and released her from the hug. "Hello, Susan. How are you?" He greeted the other girl.

"Been a while, Draco," she said with a smile and also came forward to hug him. Their brief conversation was suddenly interrupted by a shout.

"Oh! Merlin! I am hallucinating! What's this?! A phoenix?" Hannah's eyes almost popped out of her head when the gorgeous bright bird entered her vision.

Although Draco sometimes met up with his friends in and out of the Malfoy Manor, he never introduced them to his familiar. Only Theo knew because Zosar helped to heal the boy when he stayed in the manor to spend the Winter holidays after the whole 'getting tortured by his father' fiasco.

• She is one of your friends, Draco? Oooooh, I really like her! •

Zosar was perched on the fireplace's mantle when Hannah and Susan arrived, however, as soon as the blond-haired girl saw the bird she went over to stroke his feathers. The phoenix seemed to really like it. If Draco didn't know any better, he would have thought that his familiar was a cat – the sounds which he released resembled purrs too much to come out of a bird's beak.

The blond boy looked away, feeling embarrassed for his familiar.

"How come you have a phoenix, Draco? Have you two bonded with each other? Oh, Merlin! Is it from the time you and Theo went to the Phoenix enclosure?" Hannah questioned without stopping for breath.

She had been envious when she found out that her male friends went off to such a magical place without her. However, when she was told about the adventure they got into, Hannah was furious. She couldn't tell whether it was because of those poachers, who kidnapped innocent animals, or because of her friends, who stupidly went off and got involved in something dangerous.

"I will explain when Daphne and Theo are here," Draco interrupted her questions quickly. He didn't want to repeat everything endlessly.

While they waited, both girls played with Zosar, who was really happy from all the attention he received. Draco decisively tuned out the phoenix's inappropriate sounds and moans of 'yes, there, stroke me there more'. It was too bad that he was the only one who understood the bird. If either of the girls knew what Zosar was saying, they would stop their pettings immediately.

'POP'

'WHOOSH'

As though they had an agreement, Daphne and Theo arrived moments after each other – one via portkey, whilst another - via the fireplace.

"Draco! Happy late Birthday!" Daphne, like the other two girls, didn't forget her well-wishes when she saw her friend in person. However, her eyes didn't stay on the blond boy for long. When she turned to greet Susan and Hannah, her gaze automatically landed on Zosar.

She didn't exclaim or act surprised. Instead, after a short contemplating silence, she said:

"When everyone else finds out about the bird, I bet you won't get out of the newspapers' front pages for a whole year."

Theo, who stood at the side, let out an involuntary snort at her comment.

---

After some explanations and long stories, when the girls have finally satisfied their curiosity about how Draco got such an outstanding familiar, they gathered around an old quill (which acted like a portkey) and set off to Scotland, where Summer Solstice celebrations were being held.

Zosar also wasn't forgotten, although he came only after being charmed by Missy to be invisible. Draco wasn't ready to expose his familiar to the public yet.

"I never thought that there would be so many people," said Theo with wonder as he looked around. Draco let out a sound of agreement.

Around them were hundreds of people – if he didn't know any better, he would have thought that whole British Wizarding World gathered here today. However, most of the people assembled were purebloods, who still followed some of the wizarding traditions and celebrated the important dates.

"I still can't believe that you have never been to a festival!" Exclaimed Hannah. It wasn't the first time that she enjoyed the Summer Solstice festival's atmosphere. "There are so many things to do. It's just too bad that we are too young to do a lot of interesting stuff – why won't they let children race on hippogriffs or flying carpets?" She pouted slightly.

Draco raised an eyebrow at the girl, who just an hour ago lectured him and Theo on the stupidity of doing dangerous activities.

Susan interrupted her friend's babbling: "We should first go and try different kinds of food and then join some group rituals. Later we can go and play some games or observe some races."

"What kind of rituals do they conduct here?" Asked Draco curiously.

Although from his lessons he learned that during this day it was appropriate to bless the land, celebrate life and strengthen Light magic, the Ministry banned a lot of rituals so he didn't know what people would do here.

"Well, the usual. I always participate in the one, which blesses family members and wishes everyone to be in good health. It's very effective – we rarely, if ever, get sick because all of us sincerely participate in these events every year," recounted her experiences Hannah.

Susan nodded. "My family works in dangerous professions, so we always participate in rituals for health and general wishes to have a good year."

"My family always conducts rituals in private during Summer Solstice, so it is the first time that I am here. I heard that the more people participate in a ritual, the more effective it is?" Asked Daphne.

She was very interested because her little sister, who wasn't seven yet, had severe health problems. If these rituals could help her even a tiny bit, Daphne wouldn't hesitate to perform all of them wholeheartedly.

"Although large rituals require more people to conduct them, they aren't all that effective for solving specific problems," answered her question Theo. Although it was also his first time here, he liked to read books on varying topics, so he was very knowledgeable on miscellaneous subjects. This was just one of them.

"Then why perform them?" The dark-haired girl asked seriously.

"The specific types of rituals, such as wishing to strengthen a particular talent, or heal a particular illness – although require fewer people – need dangerous sacrifices. Besides that, one needs to be very skilled in arithmancy to calculate the best date, time, position, etc. to conduct one. Large-scale rites on specific days just require more people. As the magic during this time is more abundant, the non-specifications of the ritual are covered by the overflowing magical power. But, because everyone's wishes are a bit different, the blessings are diluted and you will, maybe, have slightly better luck or slightly better health over the year."

The children stood around Theo and listened to the short lecture, occasionally nodding with interest. Even some other people, who passed them by, stopped and listened to the young boy.

As soon as he finished, Theo seemed to snap out of his 'teacher mode' and slightly blushed due to the large crowd, which gathered around him. His friends, seeing the dark-haired boy's shyness, quickly escaped the encirclement and finally went to enjoy the festival.

Draco wasn't very interested in food – he was always served the very best at home so there wouldn't be any surprises at the festival.

...So what if he was a bit spoiled?

The blond boy decided to check out the rituals and Daphne also followed behind him.

"Which one first?" Draco observed the different magical circles, which were of varying sizes. Rituals class allowed him to roughly recognize what each magical circle was for.

"Let's go bless our families with good luck. It appears that they will be starting soon," indicated Daphne to the side where a large magical circle was painted.

Around the circle, preparing to conduct the ritual, were gathered around fifty witches and wizards. There were also a lot of young children, who seriously listened to the adults' explanations. Because most of these rituals weren't dangerous, they could be performed by kids as well.

However, there were some rituals which didn't allow for the presence of those, who were underage. As Draco and Daphne approached, they were quickly spotted by one of the supervisors.

"Hello, you want to conduct the ritual? Do you know what it is for?" asked a kind-looking young witch with a smile.

Both children nodded. Daphne opened her mouth to say: "We want to bless our family members with good luck."

The witch's smile widened in approval. Although children were allowed to join in the rites, however, if they had misconceptions as to what these rituals were for, their intent could disturb the magic and make it ineffective. So everyone, who wished to join in, was carefully debriefed about what they should wish for.

Draco and Daphne were quickly ushered to stand in the inner circle together with other children. In outer circle stood adults, who had more magic and would be the main performers of the event.

Draco closed his eyes, as he had been instructed, and started to wish for good luck, erasing all other thoughts out of his mind. He didn't know when it started, but suddenly he could hear voices humming a song, which didn't have any words. Its melody was both, happy and a bit solemn.

Draco abruptly realized that his own mouth was also releasing the humming sounds without his consciousness. The song was hummed for about two minutes and Draco felt the energy rise up with every passing second – the magic was responding to their request.

However, just as unconsciously as everything started, it ended in the same way. Draco opened his eyes, only to realize that the ritual was completed and many people were already leaving. The blond boy turned to see where Daphne was, only to meet her gaze straight away.

"That was interesting, right?" She asked when she saw that Draco fully woke up from the trance. "Whenever we conduct a ritual in my family, we have to say specific things and are conscious the entire time. However, this…"

Draco nodded silently. He could understand why so many people joined in these celebrations – the feeling of magic rising around you and filling you up until you were full – who would be able to resist the sensation? Casual rituals certainly couldn't do this much.

Draco felt energized and revitalized, and he wanted more!

---

Draco and Daphne strolled around the place and joined in a few more rites. They also met up with Theo, Susan and Hannah, who ate their fill and decided to perform a couple of rituals as well. After they got tired of that, the group went to observe some races and fairy dances, magical performances and duels. The atmosphere was very merry and they had a lot of fun.

As night gradually approached, a huge bonfire was finally lit up in the middle of the clearing. In the sky floated colorful magical lights, which had different shapes – flowers, dragons, phoenixes, and fairies. They lit up the night sky so well, that it almost seemed as though it was still daytime.

Finally, everyone gathered in few circles near the bonfire. As though a secret signal was given, all witches and wizards who came to celebrate the Summer Solstice grabbed neighbors' hands and started dancing without music.

Just like when Draco was performing the rituals earlier, now he also started to hear an involuntary humming song, which also came out of his own mouth. However, this time it was undeniably a happy and lively one, completely matching the fast-paced dance and crackling fire, which also seemed to emit an energetic aura.

Draco and his friends danced all night together with everyone else. The blond boy couldn't remember how he got home or even the song which he sang, or the dance which he danced.

He couldn't remember Zosar, who suddenly appeared (completely visible) at the top of the bonfire and happily thrilled a song together with everyone else.

In fact, no one realized that there was a phoenix who joined the celebrations, because every dancer was completely drunk on the rising lively magic, which could only be experienced on that day, once a year during Summer Solstice.