Disclaimer: I don't own anybody you recognize.

This was written for Mystii's 'Prompts, oh, Prompts' challenge on the Next-Gen Fanatics forum. The prompts were 'peace, 'joy, 'map', and 'clock'.


Dear Santa,

To be perfectly candid, I do not believe in you anymore. This is partly because the idea of a fat man who goes around the world, delivering presents to children in one night by squeezing through their chimneys and riding in a reindeer sleigh led by a red-nosed reindeer is, quite honestly, silly.

But mostly, I don't believe in you because I was up late one Christmas and caught Daddy eating the milk and cookies I left out for you.

Still, though, I figured I would write this letter and address it to you just to make myself feel better. You see, there is one—and only one thing—I want for Christmas this year.

I want peace, Santa.

Peace between the countries of the world, peace between the magical and muggle worlds, or simply peace between the members of my family.

Any of those will do.

Just, please, try

"You're an insufferable prat!"

"Well, you're a spoiled brat!"

"Both of need to stop yelling before I hex you into silence!"

"Oh, please, you couldn't hex a rock!"

Rose lets her pen clatter onto her desk, a half-determined, half-annoyed look on her face as she stands, walks very calmly over to the staircase, looks down at where her cousins are gathered for lunch, bickering over every little thing, braces herself, and—

"All of you shut up!" she yells at the top of her voice.

Everyone goes very silent. Lily and Hugo drop their wands, looking up at her with guilty expressions. Dominique shoots Fred a death glare before smiling innocently up at Rose. Albus manages to get in one last shove at James before offering Rose his most imploring expression.

Rose exhales deeply, curling her hands into fists around the stair railing. "Why, oh why can't you all just get along? It's almost Christmas, for Merlin's sake!"

Lysander, lost somewhere in the crowd of redheads, nudges Louis out of the way so he can face her. "Rose, we're trying our best."

"Clearly, you're not trying hard enough," she replies coolly, trying not to blush when he smiles at her. "Just—try harder, would you? I am so sick of all this fighting; you have no idea. It's just horrible."

With one last, exasperated huff, she storms back to her room and slams the door in the time-honored fashion of angry teenagers around the world.


Knock-knock!

"Come in!" Rose sighs, hoping it wasn't yet another one of her cousins come to tattle on someone else. Ever since Teddy and Victoire went on their year-long honeymoon to Hawaii, she had apparently been designated as the peacemaker of the clan.

Lysander enters, watching her cautiously for any hint of her legendary temper as he closes the door behind him. "Hey, Rosie."

Rose offers him a tired smile, thankful for someone who didn't share her blood. "Hi, Lysander. What are you doing here?"

"I came to talk to you," he answers, shoving his hands in his pockets and ambling further into her room. "Rose, you seem to be getting a little…high-strung recently."

"Oh, really?" she mutters sarcastically, tugging on a hopelessly frizzy red curl. "What would give you that impression?"

Lysander kneels down next to her, bracing his hands on the arm of her desk chair. "Rosie, c'mon. We're worried about you. All this tension in your family is getting to you, obviously, and I'm not sure why—"

"I'll tell you why," Rose interrupts fiercely. "Because for my whole life, I've looked up to Victoire. She's always been the peacemaker out of all of us. She was the oldest, the smartest, and with Teddy at her side, she could take care of everyone. And now she's gone, and it's up to me to keep the order around here, and I just can't do it like she can! I've tried and tried and tried, and I just can't, Lysander! And I hate not being able to do something, almost as much as I hate listening to you all fight endlessly over the stupidest things!"

Rose finishes off her explosion with a frustrated huff and returns to her astronomy map. Lysander sits there, apparently stunned into speechlessness.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I have Astronomy homework to do," she mutters, focusing her suddenly-wet blue eyes on the map in an attempt to find Orion's Belt.

"Rose," Lysander whispers. "Merlin above, Rose, nobody's asking you to do that. You don't have to put yourself through all this!"

"I'm asking myself!" Rose snaps at him, feeling instantly bad when he looks crestfallen. "Ly, look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. I just—I really can't handle this right now."

"You shouldn't have to," Lysander urges her. "C'mon, Rosie. Just relax a little, would you?"

"I'm sorry, Ly," Rose flashes him a genuine, if rather wistful smile. "I just can't, all right? You should go back to your friends. Don't worry about me."

Lysander sighs. "You're too damn selfless, Rosie," he tells her, sounding half-impressed and half-exasperated as he stands and exits her room.

She watches him go with a heart that's slowly turning to lead. God, she just wants this Christmas to be over already.


"Guys, this is serious," Lysander says firmly, standing on top of the makeshift stage that Lily and Lorcan and Hugo have built for him. "She's killing herself trying to keep you all in line. Haven't you seen how tired she looks these days?"

"What does it matter?" James grumbles, leaning against a tree and shooting Albus a dark look merely on principle. "She can't just magically change our feelings for each other."

Lily shoots a hex at him that turns his face bright green with silver polka dots, making him yelp in mortification. "Stop glaring at Al," she commands. "This isn't about you and your ego, James. This is about Rose, and how we have to make this Christmas extra special for her because she's going through so much to try and keep us happy and quiet."

"We need to make this good, guys," Lysander adds, flashing Lily a grateful smile. She grins at him and trains her wand on James to keep him in line. "She wants to get along. That is seriously all she wants. I found her letter to Santa—and Rose doesn't even believe in Santa, so you know this serious. She just wants peace. Can't you give her that much?"

"I have a question," pipes up Scorpius from his place next to Albus. "Why do you care so much, Scamander?"

His voice carries a smirk in it, though he keeps his expression blank. Lysander feels himself blushing.

"Shut up, Malfoy," Lily commands, aiming her wand at him instead. "You don't have to be mad that other people know how to care about Rose. It makes you look insecure."

Scorpius scowls at her. Albus elbows him sharply, though, and he falls silent with only a glare at Lily.

"Yeah, shut up, Malfoy," Lysander repeats. "Rose is my friend. She's a friend to all of us and she's a cousin to most of us, as well. She deserves something great for Christmas. She'll be overjoyed if we can pull this off. Are you all in?"

He gets a chorus of 'Aye's in response, roused by a beaming Lily, and finds himself hoping that Rose will finally be truly happy and relaxed again.

Maybe that makes him a cliché or something. But whatever, okay? He just wants her to be happy.


Tick-tock-tick-tock-ti—

"Oh, shut up," Lysander grumbles at the clock sitting calmly on the wall of the porch and fires a Silencing hex at it.

"That helped—not at all," Lily grins, ruffling his hair. "Relax, would you? She'll be here soon, Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione will make sure of it, and look at how well your plan is working already!"

She spreads her arms wide and swings around in a circle to demonstrate her point. All throughout the backyard of the Burrow, their family and friends are gathered. The adults are dispersed along the sidelines, but the kids make up a majority of the people attending the Christmas Eve party, and they are all, for once, getting along splendidly.

Lysander grins, thinking of his plan, which was really nothing more than simply shooting everyone with a Cheering Charm. "Yeah, I guess so. I just—Rose!"

Before Lily can reply, he's lunged past her, through the foursome of Roxanne, Dominique, Molly, and Lucy, and to the door leading inside where Rose is standing with her branch of the family. Hugo nods at him and runs off to join Lily and Lorcan by the refreshments table.

"Hi, Ly!" Rose greets, much more cheerful today than she's been for the past few weeks. "What's up?"

He grins and sweeps an arm at the chatter and laughter filling the backyard. "Notice anything out of the ordinary, Rosie?"

Ron winks at him and leads a beaming Hermione over to where Harry and Ginny are sitting. "Good job, kiddo," he mouths, clapping Lysander on the back as they pass by him.

Lysander smiles at his honorary uncle, enjoying the look of growing disbelief and amazement on Rose's face.

"Oh, my goodness," she breathes. "Nobody's arguing!"

"That's right," he says cheerfully. "Nobody's—oof!"

With a laugh of pure joy, she's launched herself into his arms, hugging him tightly until she's all but squeezed his breath out of his lungs. "Oh, Lysander," she whispers, burying her head in his neck. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I love you!"

Lysander gulps, forces himself to not interpret that statement the wrong way, and flashes her a smile. "Anytime, Rose."

Rose doesn't leave his arms even when she stops hugging him, instead just standing there and beaming at him. "You're amazing, Ly, you truly are."

"Well, I had some help—" he begins bashfully, but is interrupted by Lily's delighted giggle from behind him.

"Hey, look!" she says brightly. "You guys are standing under mistletoe!"

Rose's blue eyes travel hesitantly upwards and he follows her gaze, feeling his face grow redder and redder by the second.

"Oh," she says very softly.

"Um," he swallows, finding it hard to breathe.

And then, suddenly, her lips are on his, warm and sweet and tasting like her grandmother's delicious gingerbread cookies, and he's pretty sure he's never known true joy until this moment.

"Merry Christmas, Ly," Rose whispers against his mouth, smiling brightly.

Lysander grins. "Merry Christmas, Rose," he tells her, and then claims her for another kiss.

Behind them, Hugo makes a face. "Oh, gross."


Author's Notes: So, apparently, writing about ships I passively support makes me fall in love with them XD Go figure, huh? I hope you guys enjoyed the ridiculously sweet Christmas fluff!

As always, please don't be one of those annoying people who favorite without reviewing! Thanks!