The twins dragged Julian into a massive snowball war after breakfast, one that maybe got a little out of hand.
"They have us pinned down, mates, and I see no hope of a sacrificeless victory," Julian declared dramatically as he took the brunt of a hailstorm of icy snowballs to cover for his friends. "Avenge me!"
It was, all in all, a good day. Julian spent it laughing more than he had in a while.
...
Dinner was a grand feast full of Christmas favorites, along with wizard crackers.
Unlike the muggle versions, which made a quiet pop and released a bit of confetti, wizard crackers were loud and produced completely random things when you pulled them.
Julian had personally seen one release live mice, a wizard's chess set, and even a broom.
Harry got the chess set.
Julian got the broom.
Ron looked like he wanted to commit a crime.
Normally, first-years weren't allowed to have brooms, but given the circumstances of how Julian had acquired it, nobody made a fuss.
Still, Julian planned to sneak out later that night to truly let loose for the first time.
...
Right after dinner, Julian slipped away with the broom without telling anyone and made his way to the Astronomy Tower.
The top of the tower was cold and dusted with snow, untouched during the holidays. Julian didn't care.
He mounted the broom, hovered an inch above the "ground," then leaned forward.
The broom shot ahead like lightning.
Wind whistled past his ears, and Julian didn't bother thinking about technique. He let instinct take over as he tore across the sky at breakneck speed.
...
A wide grin split his face as he leaned back, sending the broom straight upward until he punched through a cloud.
Cold mist and wet air wrapped around him, then he burst out above it, soaring over the cloud layer beneath pale moonlight, feeling more alive than he had any right to.
Then he did something reckless.
He flipped the broom, released it, and let himself fall.
A spiraling freefall.
The black lake rushed closer and closer, but Julian stayed completely relaxed. The entire sky was his domain, and he couldn't crash in it.
A heartbeat before he would have slammed into the lake at terminal velocity, he curved the broom underneath himself and redirected all his downward momentum into forward motion.
He skimmed over the lake so low and fast that the air pressure left a massive wake behind him.
Anyone with real broom knowledge would have been shocked at how nimble he was, how fast, as if he'd been born to fly.
...
After a couple hours in the night sky, Julian finally landed back on the Astronomy Tower and began moving carefully toward Gryffindor Tower.
Filch had caught the scent of someone sneaking around the castle, apparently because a book in the forbidden section had been disturbed.
Julian was surprised by that. Harry already knew about Nicolas Flamel. There shouldn't have been any reason to break into the restricted section the way he did in the book.
Julian was good enough at transfiguration to sink into a wall seamlessly as Harry rushed past on the first floor and slipped into one of the disused rooms.
...
Julian's magical senses told him nothing about Harry's presence.
That chilled him.
It showed the power of a Deathly Hallow. There wasn't even the faintest ripple in the magic around Harry as he moved, not the way there would be with normal concealment. Not even Dumbledore's disillusionment charm pulled off something like this.
And the fact that Dumbledore was following Harry explained the restricted section.
The old goat is still trying to manipulate Harry for some reason, Julian thought, eyes narrowing.
He'd assumed that with Julian around, Dumbledore wouldn't risk something like that, since Julian had been influencing Harry's personality so strongly.
Apparently, Julian had been wrong.
...
Once he was sure Filch wasn't coming, Julian rippled out of the wall, restoring his shape, and walked toward the door Harry and Dumbledore had entered.
He pulled it open.
Harry jumped, and the cloak was no longer covering him.
"Julian?" Harry asked, confused. "What are you doing here?"
Julian chuckled and lifted the broom in his left hand. "I snuck out to play around on my new broom. What about you?"
Harry shifted the subject and pointed toward the large ornate mirror in the center of the otherwise empty room, then started explaining what he'd seen inside it.