Christmas Number Seventeen

AlwaysPadfoot

For: Duct Tape Comp - Not-A-Christmas Comp - All Year Comp - The HG Comp.

Prompts: Pink Leapord - None - Mandatory (Genre, Word, Object, Dialogue, Lyric), Bonus (2, 3 and 4) - None

Pairing: Leanne/OFC

10.12.95

"Earth to Leanne. Honestly, what are you like?"

I blinked out of my trance to find both Susan and Hannah staring at me from the former's bed across the dormitory. I gave them a blank look as if to ask what they meant, even though I knew exactly what trait in me Susan was referring to.

"Oh Leanne, don't give us that look. You do this every year around Christmas," Hannah interjected.

I sighed, "That's because of how everyone acts, and no one seems to understand that I don't celebrate Christmas."

"Yet you always give us presents," Susan countered.

"That's only because you and Hannah insist on buying them for me," I replied, "And before you say anything, I do appreciate them."

As always Hannah rolled her eyes and the two went back to discussing their Christmas plans again. For once I'd decided that I would be staying at Hogwarts for the winter holidays, every time I was at home it was the same story over and over again. My Mum, as expected, hadn't been particularly enamoured. She simply couldn't understand why I wouldn't want to spend Christmas at home with my family. I could give her a million reasons, but there was only one that caused me to despise Christmas so much.

When I was younger I thought I might just get through Christmas, enjoy it, maybe even celebrate it without someone bringing that reason up.

"We're so lucky, we never thought Leanne would make another Christmas."

Every year. Every bloody year, it was all about how lucky they were that I hadn't died at some point in the preceding twelve months. What about me? Was I not lucky to have made it to the next year?

I hadn't been in St Mungo's since I started Hogwarts, sure I'd visited the Hospital Wing on the occasion, but I was getting better. I'd been born with the magical equivalent of Muggle cancer. It attacked my magical core so badly that I didn't even start Hogwarts until I was two years older than my classmates. Since I was born and up until I was twelve and a half I was in and out of St Mungo's, had at least six near-death experiences and it wasn't until I appeared to be recovering that St Mungo's offered an explanation.

Once the other girls in my dormitory had gone to sleep, I quietly slipped from the Hufflepuff Common Room and up towards the seventh floor corridor. Right now the Slytherin and Ravenclaw fifth years were probably heading back to their Common Rooms after Astronomy in the tower. I was just about to head towards the Astronomy staircase when someone grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the Transfiguration classroom. A hand clasped over my mouth and she pulled me into her body, my back against her chest.

"What made you change your mind?" The familiar voice whispered, lifting her hand from my mouth and letting go of my wrist.

I turned around to find Rose O'Neill loitering in the darkness behind me and I rolled my eyes before smiling, "What?"

"About Christmas, what changed your mind?" She grinned, "Obviously, you didn't stray so far from the Badgers Den for no reason."

I didn't say anything because I knew in five seconds she'd interrupt and explain for me. I watched as she removed her glasses from where they were nestled in her dark hair and wiped the lenses before her blue eyes snapped up.

"Wait don't tell me, you didn't want to do the whole 'Leanne survived until Christmas again'." Rose observed, "You're fed up of being babied, you hate Christmas because every year it's a marker that you've made it and you don't feel like you should celebrate making it another year. You're Mum was devastated wasn't she? You feel a little guilty because you've got that old family photo sticking out your shirt pocket again, but you're excited because you've come all the way up here to tell me something you could have told me either at breakfast or in class tomorrow."

"You're really annoying when you do that," I retorted as Rose replaced her glasses with a smirk.

"You knew I'd do it, that's why you waited," she replied.

I rolled my eyes and watched her a little more as she straightened her green and silver tie and brushed the creases out of her skirt. In the moment it took her to look down, I threw my arms around her neck and hugged her tight. I felt her hesitate for just a second before she reciprocated, but that was normal. Rose was very outwardly Slytherin, probably more so than any other in her year, but I guessed I was just lucky that I was me. We met in the Hospital Wing of all places, she was suffering with nightmares or something along those lines. We didn't talk about it and I didn't really care.

Rose sighed, "So are you busy around, say the twenty-fifth?"

25.12.95

Rose saved me from Christmas and when I found her on the morning of the twenty-fifth, there's a lit cigarette in the hand of my new angel. I stood behind her in the snow on the grounds as she took a long deep drag and blew out rings of smoke into the air.

"Morning," she said without turning around.

"You're smoking now?" I asked, wrapping my arms around her neck and kissing the skin beneath her ear.

"Thought I'd give it ago, personally I can't see the fascination," Rose replied, "But the rings are pretty cool. It's taken me all morning to master it."

"It's only eight-thirty."

She hummed, "That long?"

She flicked the stub into the snow and crushed it underfoot before turning slightly. I could see the cogs turning inside her head, like she was planning the whole day ahead before we could even talk about it. I didn't really care what she had planned, as long as I didn't hear the word Christmas all day I would be fine with anything.

"Have you eaten?" She asked eventually, taking my hand and pulling me in the direction of the gates. I shook my head, the Great Hall was way too seasonal and the last thing I wanted was someone screaming Merry Christmas down my ear every five seconds. I may be a Hufflepuff, but today I figured patience was not going to be my strong point. Rose said nothing more until we got outside the gates of Hogwarts.

"Hold tight."

I barely had chance to open my mouth before she side-along disapparated me. The feeling of being shoved through a small tube engulfed me and when we finally hit the ground my knee's buckled. Luckily Rose kept me standing, but even so it took me a while to catch my breath and survey the surroundings. We were in the Muggle countryside, I knew that much and there was only one place that looked open, the only place for what seemed like miles around. It was a small pub, and what surprised me even more was that there was not a single Christmas decoration in sight.

"I thought breakfast here, then maybe I'll show you the fountains," Rose said, "If you're lucky."

I was eternally glad that I didn't disagree because the day was perfect. I didn't even think about Christmas, Rose was careful that I didn't see anything remotely related to Christmas, everything except the snow of course. I loved snow anyway. My parents had never let me go out in it when I was younger, and I could understand why, but I had felt ever so deprived.

Rose showed me a set of fountains named Fairy Pools and they'd all frozen solid, making everything seem a thousand times more beautiful. We stayed there a long while and she had cast a warming spell so we remained warm. I'd ask her how she could do magic outside school, but she probably wouldn't answer truthfully and all things considered I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to know. I knew Rose was practiced in the Dark Arts, another thing she didn't really talk about and I knew that Voldemort had returned so it was simple enough to put two and two together. Even so I felt like she was outcast even from her fellow Slytherins sometimes just like I felt detached from the other Hufflepuffs on the odd occasion. Maybe that was why we got on so well.

The day ended sat outside The Three Broomsticks with two Butterbeers under a cloudless night sky. I was lying against Rose and her face was buried in my blonde hair. Every time she breathed out, my body tingled as the rush of air spread across my scalp. I stared up at the sky, counting the stars I never usually got to see. On the odd occasion a pub regular would stumble out into the snow, too drunk to care about the two of us leaning against one another, before disapparating with a obnoxious pop.

After what felt like hours of perfect silence Rose spoke up again, "Back to Hogwarts. McGonagall and Flitwick will be down here soon."

I didn't ask how she knew, again because I wasn't sure I wanted to know. Whatever the two heads were up to, Rose could keep to herself.

When we arrived back at the main doors of Hogwarts and I pulled her to the side just for a brief moment. I gently took hold of Rose's forearms, letting her shake off the flinch from the personal contact before I pressed my lips against hers. Of course, when she regained all sense, I found myself pressed back against the cold stone wall, the kissing deepening and my hands quickly sliding into her hair.

"Thank you," I whispered against her lips. She leant her forehead against mine, her lips turning up ever so slightly at the corners into the smile I recognised.

"Has everyone gone home in your dormitory?" Rose asked.

I nodded, "Yeah they have, why?"

Her only word as she turned and headed through the main door was 'good'. I assumed without any doubt whatsoever that her word was good news for both of us and I could barely contain my grin as I reentered the castle. I decided very quickly that not celebrating Christmas was the best idea I'd ever had and it was certainly something I'd be doing again.