Chapter 9
Christmas
Christmas. My favourite holiday of the year came quicker than anyone expected it to. Our teachers still piled on the homework, making it almost impossible for anyone to get anything other than tat done. I still felt guilty about breaking it off with Lynch. I tried to resign so that it wouldn't be awkward for the rest of the team, but that almost caused a riot. I don't get it though, because my broom may be the fastest but I'm not the best player in Gryffindor. I stopped trying to resign after attempting it for two weeks and just lived with it.
It was the fifteenth of December when we were allowed to go home. Jeremy and Sri were staying at school, but Will and I went home. We sat together on the train, talking about stupid stuff and laughing at the least funny things in the world. Something tells me that we'd had too much sugar.
Halfway through the ride a head peered in. It was our first year friend, Rachel. "Oh sorry," she apologised embarrassed, she turned around and left with a blond boy. Soon, I realised it was Mark and wondered what they were doing together, guess they were friends.
We reached King's Cross and I my parents were waiting for my brothers and me. I said goodbye to Will and went through the magical barrier that lead into the Muggle world.
We got into our car and drove home.
"All right children get packing!" Mum said. "Tomorrow we go to visit your uncle in Romania, so get moving."
I went up to my room and sat on my bed. This was the first Christmas I'd ever spent out of Hogwarts. Usually Jeremy, Sri and I would hang out and Will would go somewhere with his family. He hadn't spent a single Christmas at Hogwarts. It's not like he was missing out on much though. All you do is sit around, talk, go outside and have a feast on Christmas day. Then sit around, talk and go outside some more.
I went upstairs and was surprised to see my window was open. "What the hell…?"
I saw Alexandrite's head pop in the window and for the first time in a while remembered I owned a dragon. I walked over to the window and patted her head, hoping she wouldn't get the sudden urge to burn everything in my room. I headed downstairs, got the biggest raw steak and when I got back in my room I fed it to her. "Too bad I can't take you with me," I sighed. She looked sad at this. "Don't worry we can spend the whole day together after I'm done packing." That cheered her up a bit. I'd never really thought of dragons as anything but big dangerous creatures before this.
I packed up all my stuff and closed my trunk.
I went to put on my coat and then realised I had packed it. You're kidding me! I thought. I opened my trunk and unpacked a few things, cursing myself for being stupid enough to pack my coat, and not having it being the most accessible item in there. Sometimes I can be really thick.
I re-packed my other stuff put my coat on, and headed downstairs into the kitchen. "James, have you seen my mitts?" I asked.
"Well, if you're looking for mittens, the kitchen isn't exactly the best place to look. They'd probably be in the front hall or something."
"They're not there. I checked before when I came down for food for my pet"
He just shrugged, obviously not wanting to help. He was too busy raiding the fridge. "How can guys eat so much? I mean you'd think you and Al had a hollow leg or something."
"High metabolism?" he said his mouth full of food so it sounded more like "Figh motablum?"
I just rolled my eyes and continued looking for my mittens. I looked all around the house and finally found them in my closet.
I put them on, along with my school scarf and my black tuque. I headed out the back door that we'd built when we'd renovated the house and stepped into the snow. I smiled, loving that I was on holidays. Walking over to Alexandrite made my toes cold and I shivered. I decided to try to climb oh her back. Her scales were warm and I warmed up quickly. "You're very tame, you know that?" I whispered to her. Smoke puffed from her nose and I smiled, really relaxed. "I wonder if I could fly you," I said more to myself. Her eyes lit up, (can dragons eyes light up?) and she positioned herself for a take-off. "Wait! That's not what I-AAAAAAH!" I screamed as we took off and I tried not to fall off. We shot through the sky. I closed my eyes hoping we would land soon. The ride seemed to slow down and I dared to open one of my eyes. The scene was breathtaking. Everything was covered in a layer of snow that glinted in the sunlight. It looked like someone had ground up a million diamonds and sprinkled them over the forest. I hugged Alexandrite, "You really are full of surprises." Of course, she probably heard the word fly and just took off but she had just giving me a wonderful Christmas present. We reached the edge of the woods and she turned around, heading back home. The wind cut through my skin but the heat from her body kept the rest of me warm. The sun had started to set by the time we got back home. I got off and kissed her neck, burning my lips. I went inside, my stomach rumbling.
"Where were you?" Al asked me as soon as I came inside.
"Out flying," I smiled, the wonderful feeling of riding a dragon still lingering over me.
"No one saw you did they?"
"No. No one lives in the woods. So, don't worry."
"Yeah, Al calm down," James added ruffling Al's hair up.
"Stop it!" he complained.
These guys are out of control, I swear one day it's going to get them into trouble.
He laughed and didn't stop, he stopped ruffling his hair and moved on to a noogie.
"AGH! Uncle, uncle!" he yelled and James immediately stopped. "Don't ever do that again!" he growled.
James laughed, while this was going on I decided to leave.
I lied on my bed and looked at my ring. How could I ever think that it had all been a dream? I thought. I pushed the button on it and all the creatures sprang from it, filling my room with silver light. I smiled before realizing that I hadn't spoken to Scorpius since our last meeting at the Owlery. I sighed, knowing that it was easy to avoid him since we were in different years. I was relieved and disappointed at the same time.
My life was a total mess and it was entirely my fault. Something told me that I was going to curse myself a lot over the next few weeks. I guess when you're as stupid as me you become accustomed to cursing yourself and start to know when you've been extremely dumb.
Mum called for dinner. And I headed down to the dining room.
We all ate in silence, seeing as my parents weren't too chatty and James, Al and I were all half asleep. I just played with my soup and stared at my ring, day dreaming. I finished up and went back up to my room. It was already dark out and I lay down on my bed. I pressed the small button on the silver ring and watched as the silver figures filled the room and I fell asleep.
When I woke up the next morning the sun was just coming up. I climbed out of my bed and looked out the window. My first day of the Christmas hols and I didn't even sleep in. I think I'm getting dumber every day. I walked into the kitchen and poured myself some cereal. I headed back upstairs and got dressed. Then I put on a coat and some boots. I headed out the back door into our yard and sat down where Alexandrite was asleep. I heard a loud pop and jumped. I looked around, but no one was there. Must've been my imagination I thought. I started to sing. I don't do it very often but when the mood strikes and no ones around I sing the soft tune of Fearsome and Wonderful by Opal, The Witch. It's a song about a girl in love with a boy that's frightening at first but after talking to him she realizes how great he is.
I think back to me first year at Hogwarts. Jeremy and I finding a compartment… Will getting shoved inside with us along with his twin brother. Getting sorted into Slytherin and making plots with Scorpius late into the night in the Room of Requirement. And then I think to our second year when I met Sri. They changed into Gryffindor when they realized the Sorting Hat had been cursed by that lunatic that I mentioned at the beginning. I don't know what he thought he would accomplish by that. In my third year I'd started noticing Scorpius. How he always fought with my brother, how he would snarl at me in the hall way, and how I once caught him staring at me during lunch. Oh, young and innocent me who didn't understand the concept of love while everyone around her was noticing other people. Sri had started going red whenever she saw my brother. Jeremy and Will were just as clueless as I was though. Fourth year, the year I spent three weeks in the Hospital Wing because of some stupid venomous bite. I don't even know what creature bit me. Madame Seifert refused to tell me. It was really annoying because I had to do all my homework alone and it got very quiet and spooky at night. That was also the year I'd dated a weirdo who tried to slip me a love potion. Thinking back on all this made me realize how little I had accomplished in life and it made me feel like a loser. Alexandrite opened her eyes and I felt like talking to someone. "How do you think we'll get to Bucharest? Portkey? Brooms?"
She just looked at me with her yellow eyes and didn't say a thing. She was a really quiet dragon. I heard the loud pop again and jumped. Again, I convinced myself it was all in my head.
I went back inside and took off my winter stuff. Everyone else should've been waking up around then and all I wanted to do was to go back to sleep. I headed in to the kitchen where Mum was frying some eggs and sausages. I sat down by the table and sighed.
"How are we getting to Uncle Charlie's house?"
"Portkey, Dear." She smiled at me. "We'll be leaving at around quarter to eleven so I think it would be best if you woke up your brothers."
"Do I have to?"
"Now."
I headed upstairs and knocked on James' bedroom door. No answer. I opened it and found James lying half naked on his bed with the sheets only covering his torso. I rolled my eyes. He always looked like a drunken seventeen year old when he slept. I walked over to him and started shaking him; trying to wake him up.
He made a sound of protest and opened one eye.
"What is it?" he asked, slurring his words.
"Breakfast."
I left the room and walked up another flight of stairs until I reached Al's room in the attic.
The same thing happened here and I went back downstairs.
I sat at the table and started to nibble on some toast. Soon my brothers came downstairs as well. They started to shovel back food in an utterly disgusting way. I decided to leave.
Within the next five hours we'd made it to Romania and said all our "Oh hello!" s and "Oh my! You've grown so much!" s.
Timothy's twenty one and works alongside Uncle Charlie with dragons. His hair is sandy blond and his yes are blue. Almost every girl in his class in school had a crush on him at least once. Glen's nineteen and he works for the Ministry here. He's some kind of intern or something, I'm not really sure. His hair is a dark chestnut and so are his eyes. Glen is eighteen. He's unemployed at the moment because everywhere he applies they don't like the idea of an English person working there. He wants to work in a particularly strange job. His eyes are green and his hair is mud brown. Justin is sixteen and still at school. He also has blond hair and blue eyes. He showed me a picture of his girlfriend a few minutes after arriving. She's actually really plain and she's short. She looks like she weighs about one hundred and twenty pounds. Not bad if you're five foot two. Tilly, Shayna and Billy are all fourteen. Tilly's hair is red and her eyes are blue. We're almost identical. Shayna's hair is black and her eyes are blue as well. Billy's another blond hair blue eyes guy. Uncle Charlie's family is definitely the one that looks the least like they are Weasleys. Aunt Pauline's genes are probably stronger because most of the people definitely look more like her side of the family.
The next week went by fast, yet uneventful.
On Christmas Eve I was lying on my bed and heard something coming from my window. I tried to ignore it. I heard it again. I looked over and saw that someone was throwing stones at the window. I opened it ready to yell at some kids, not really thinking about the fact that they probably wouldn't be able to understand me.
I stuck my head out the window and a familiar smell filled my nostrils. All the way from the second floor. I close my window and run outside my window.
"What are you doing here?" I asked Scorpius.
"I wanted to give you this," he handed me a package. "I was going to give it to you the one morning, but I overheard you saying that you'd be spending he holidays here."
I opened the gift. "It's a locket." I said. "It's beautiful. I'll put it on right now."
"Let me," he smiled. I turned around and held my hair up. He put the locket around my neck and clasped it together.
I turn around to face him. I don't care if my family's inside, I want to be outside. I kiss him without thinking. These kisses are always much more satisfying than Lynch's were, but they also seem to cause more trouble. He kisses back.
I smiled at him. "You're parents will wonder where you are."
"I don't care," he smiled back.
"Go home… Be with your family. I'll see you in January. We still have months of school ahead of us."
He kissed my cheek and Disapparated.
"So… who was that?" said a voice behind me.
I turned around and gasped. I could barely see Justin's blond hair but it was obviously him.
"Is he your boyfriend?" he asked seductively.
I almost said, "None of your business." But I guess was too happy and said, "Yeah… He's my boyfriend."
He smirked. "Is it a secret?"
"Um… maybe for now, okay?" Then a wave of realization hit me. "WHY WERE YOU SPYING ON ME!" I screamed at him.
He laughed and answered, "I was taking out the rubbish. By the way, that locket looks like it was expensive. You should get him something really nice in return."
"I guess so…"
We went inside. I sat on my bed and fell asleep right away.
The next morning I woke up to banging on my door. "Wake up you lazy bum! Everyone's waiting for you!"
"Shut up, James!" Did I ever mention how grouchy I get when I'm sleepy?
I put on a bath robe and headed downstairs with him.
"Well, look who's finally awake!" Uncle Charlie joked.
I sat down at the breakfast table. "What's for breakfast?"
"Pancakes and bacon. We're going to be American today." Said Timothy.
"We're being American? I didn't know that eating pancakes and having bacon was being American but… okay."
We ate and then opened presents. It was a wonderful Christmas.
The only problem was, the rest of the stay I couldn't help but think of how much I wanted to be back at school.
