Disclaimer: The characters in this story are owned by J.K. Rowling.


Chapter 1.

The Nutcracker Totem

With no children to spend the holidays at home Hermione had decided rather than bringing out the Santa's bag Advent Calendar that her mother had made her for Rose's first Christmas, she would take the 24 days leading up to Christmas and add one ornament a day to the tree. On Christmas morning she would put the "baby Jesus" on the tree. Her Christmas tree was going to be the Advent Calendar this year. She wished her family was here with her, but they weren't.

She knelt on the floor over the box of ornaments and withdrew a tissue wrapped package about six inches long. Leaning back against the sofa, carefully she unwrapped the long thin ribbon of paper from around the tall stack of four nutcracker soldiers. When Ron had brought it home he said that it looked like their family, except for the original hair color, of course.

They each had a different that and a unique gaping smile as the lever on the back was moved. The top soldier had a tall black palace guard hat, a black beard, and blue eyes. He wore the red jacket as well. As the smallest one the top one had been named Hugo. Hugo's big blue eyes were the exact shade of blue that had been painted on the nutcracker image. Hugo was no longer the smallest. That honor was now held by Hermione. When had the height of the children exceeded hers? At nineteen Rose was two inches taller than her mother and Hugo at seventeen was more than a foot taller. He was like his father, tall and sturdily built. Both were muscular men after years of Quidditch playing. Hermione remembered the game where Hugo would put his finger in the mouth of the soldier. Rose would squeeze the handle closing it and pretend to bite Hugo.

The second soldier was a Russian Cossack. He also wore a bearskin hat, flat and curly. He was clean shaven and his eyes were painted a golden hazel colour. The jacket he wore was a rich green with silver embroidery painted on. This one they called Rose. The hair was originally blonde strands of yarn had been dyed red by Rose because she wanted it to match her own bright locks. She had read that you could dye hair with powdered soft drink mix and bought orange and red which she mixed together with hair conditioner and not only this soldier, but all of her dolls had ended up with the most brilliant shade of red-orange hair. A few blobs had dropped down the back onto the bright white jacket of the third soldier leaving a stain here and there where she had tried to clean it away.

The sailor in his white uniform and square collar trimmed in navy blue and a navy blue tie under the collar tied at the front. He wore a white sailor cap perched jauntily on top of his short brown locks. He too was clean shaven, with a toothy grin and fudge brown eyes. This one they named Mom. When you turned the totem around to the back to play with the lever you could see the three light orange spots where Rose had splashed "hair dye" when she had "fixed" the Rose nutcracker. The reason that the sailor was called Mom was that she didn't like to fly so they decided that she could be in the navy.

The final and bottom nutcracker was wearing a crown. The family often thought that this was ridiculous because a king should have been on the top. The king was Dad, dressed in all his regal glory. Rich royal purple robe that extended to his gold shoes and gold ruffed collar and cuffs finished the ensemble. Hermione had said that Ron was king of the castle, therefore this one was appropriate. His white beard and hair had been messily dyed by Rose. The "hair-dye fiasco" they laughingly called it, but loved her ingenuity. Ron was proud that he had been crowned king of something.

When Hermione and Ron divorced and had split the ornaments four ways. The ones they had bought for Rose—her ballerina, first Christmas bootie with her name on it, the wand bought her first Christmas at Hogwarts, the red convertible purchased her sixteenth year because she wanted a muggle car, and many more—had gone with her to hers and Scorpius' new home. They would be joined with the "White china" later this evening. Hugo's box had been carefully stored in the attic of Ron's house. He and Lavender had bought a large estate on the outskirts of London, while Hermione had bought a sixth floor, four bedroom flat on the edge between muggle and wizard London when they sold the family home after the divorce. The remainder of the ornaments had been split carefully between Ron and Hermione. The ones that held sentimental value to Hermione had gone to her, the gifts from Ron's family had gone to him and the remainder had split fifty-fifty each drawing an ornament in turn. Hermione had drawn first and had chosen the nutcracker. Even though they were no longer the family it represented, it still represented the family they had created.

Hermione stuck her right index finger into the top nutcracker and pinched it by closing the mouth with the left. She smiled, pulled the finger out of the mouth, picked up an ornament hanger, slipped it through the top loop on the ornament and hung it on the tree. Maybe the tree and ornaments would fill that hole in her heart for the ornaments had been given in love and each represented memories of the times they had together. She no longer wished they were here, because they were—just look at the totem with the red dyed hair.


Advent Calendar Challenge December 1 Prompt: Advent Calendar

Astronomy Assignment #9: Write about a character's secret desire.