Why was this move bold, even crazy?
It was a serious gamble. Will had no idea whether Santa Claus would treat him like Krampus. And if Santa Claus was still active in the modern age, the old man was probably at least as powerful as Dumbledore.
If the old man had lived this long, he certainly wouldn't be weaker than a certain Pharaoh who had needed an evil Ritual to turn himself into Magic and "ascend."
Of course, Santa Claus had lived in the third or fourth century AD, while Ramesses II had lived around 1300 BC. Perhaps magic for extending life had advanced over those sixteen or seventeen centuries.
That night, back in the Room of Requirement, Will thought it over for a long time.
Summoning Santa Claus came with both risks and opportunities.
On balance, though, the risk seemed small. Every account portrayed Santa Claus as a good man. The same could not be said of Ramesses II.
And however he looked at it, he had to try.
Will gave himself some time to recover, mainly because he needed to get his emotions under control. Otherwise, he might finally meet Santa Claus only to have the man mistake him for one of Krampus's minions and finish him off.
But he couldn't rely on time alone.
In the Scottish Highlands, a crescent moon spread silver frost across the land.
Will hovered half a mile from a Muggle village. A Disillusionment Charm blended him perfectly into the dark sky. Below, the village held only a few homes, their scattered lights flickering in the cold wind like candles on the verge of going out.
This time, he had chosen a more remote village, one he had spotted by chance while returning to Hogwarts one night. It had fewer than a