Silent Night, Lonely Night

A/N: Hello! This one shot is written for day ten of the Countdown to Christmas Drabble / Oneshot Competition (link can be found in my bio)

Prompt: Silent Night (bonus points for using the background information of the carol)

Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the Harry Potter series nor am I making any money from writing this, just having a lot of fun!

Enjoy!

It was a Sunday night, the kind of cold, still evening that the Slytherin Common Room usually dodged because it wasn't as open to the elements as the towers were, and the fireplace was enchanted to keep them warm. But the enchantment included, unfortunately for the Slytherins, moderation. The crisp air was still a welcome change; it reminded them the holidays were close.

Pansy Parkinson sung softly as she sketched the drawing of a Mulber Root for her Herbology report. "Silent night, lonely night, all is calm, all is quiet."

Blaise, sitting next to her, looked up. "Um, no."

"What was that?" Tracey asked, having also heard Pansy's singing.

"Some song I found amongst Mother's old vinyls," Pansy said nonchalantly. She'd gone through a lot of her mother's favourite rooms of their house in the year since she'd passed and discovered many things, including a vinyl collection in what she'd used to think was a reading room, but must have been some kind of music parlour. "Why?"

"Because your lyrics are all wrong," Tracey laughed. "It's 'silent night, holy night.'"

"What does that mean?" Holy? Holey? Full of holes? Was it the night of a full moon?

"It's a holy night," Blaise told her. "The holy night; the night Jesus was born."

"Don't you know the nativity story?" Tracey asked.

"Er, none of us do," came Greg's voice.

Blaise and Tracey were surprised with the blank looks of not only Pansy and Greg but Vincent, Daphne, Theo, Draco and Millicent as well. Everyone's homework lay forgotten on the table or floor.

"See this is what's wrong with Purebloods," Tracey said with a slow shake of her head. "You don't even know your Christmas Carols"

"You're a Pureblood, Trace," Millicent reminded her.

"By blood not mentality, this is why my family's the best."

"It's your Muggle loving ancestors that got you off the Sacred Families Charter," Draco said.

"Cantankerus Nott always hated Siarl Davis. And he lost his position as scribe after he did it anyway."

"Whatever," Pansy said. "What's the real lyrics? I just guessed, I can't here it all that well."

"Do you have it here?" Theo asked. "We could run through some repair charms and it might sound better."

Pansy, delighted at the idea of hearing the soft song without the scratching and muffling, ran to her dorm where seven of her favourite vinyls hid under her bed. She found the one with Silent Night written is in someone's messy hand and took it back to her friends.

Theo and Daphne fiddled with the large disc for a few minutes, and Greg even ran to the upstairs balcony of the common room where there were a number of shelves, but couldn't find the Fixing Spells for Every Home he sought.

Draco and Vince carried the gramophone over to their table, with a number of stares from other Slytherins, and Pansy slid it gently into place.

When it began to play, the students in the Common Room, another thirty or so, and stopped what they were doing to listen. A woman's solo voice carried the first verse through, and Pansy was able to clearly make out the lyrics.

With the second chorus came a number of voices, the melody now carried by a full choir of young children.

"So, what is it?" Daphne asked eventually. "I've heard Christmas Carols, but never this one. Just normal ones like Santa's Broom is Glowing and A Potion for Christmas."

"An Austrian Priest wrote it," Tracey said, looking thoughtful. "It was for a Christmas Eve service way back in... I don't know? Early 1800s, I think. Blaise?"

He nodded. "1816."

Pansy didn't care when it was written, or when it was first sung, or who this singer was and why she'd recorded it and which choir she'd recorded it with. Blaise went on about some broken organ (whatever that was) but Pansy did not care.

She cared about her mother.

How did her mother get hold of a copy of a Muggle Christmas Carol? Did she ever listen to it? Did she sit in the music parlour with a tall glass of wine and close her eyes to the sound of this record, gently tapping her foot in time with the harp? Did she dance to it? It certainly sounded like something one could slow dance to.

If her mother was still alive, would she have ever heard this gentle carol?

A/N: Hope you liked it! Drop a review and let me know what you think! Have a nice day!