Chapter Ten: A Very Gryffindor Christmas
Maria's Christmas break had been amazing so far. Because of the Second Wizarding World War looming over the horizon, she had spent every moment possible with her mother and father. Though her parents not knowing that a war was just around the corner were sometimes confused by the enthusiastic attention they had received. They were all sitting in the living room, each with their own reading material when Maria's mother stood up and said: "I'll be right back."
Maria quickly put her book down and sat up from her slouched position, her feet hitting the floor. "Where are you going?"
Her mother furrowed her brows, "I'm only going to the toilet," she explained. She looked up and made eye contact with Maria's father before sitting back down, this time next to Maria. "Mia piccolo uccello, are you okay? You haven't left our side since you got home. Is school okay?" her mother's accent always got stronger when she was nervous or worried about something, and right now it was only thanks to Maria growing up with her that she could understand what she was saying. "Your friends maybe? Are they mean to you? Is it your teachers? Tell us mia caro," she took her hands and squeezed them.
"What?" she pulled back, "I'm fine mamma." Maria looked between her parents and their concerned looks. "I just missed you guys I guess," she said with a shrug. Her mother's eyes filled with tears and Maria found herself suddenly trapped in her embrace, the top of her head tucked under her mother's chin.
"You can owl us whenever you want to, honey," her father said taking her hand and giving it a quick squeeze before sitting back in the chair and going back to his crossword.
"I know, I know," Maria laughed, "I've just been so busy with my O.W.L's coming up and all."
"I had a friend who did the same thing, you know. All of his letters suddenly stopped in his fifth year and then again in his seventh year during his N.E.W.T's," he smiled shaking his head.
"Well Maria will do very excellent on her exams if she is spending time doing her studying," her mother declared. "You are studying right?"
Maria laughed, "Of course mamma." Her mother nodded and gave her a quick kiss on her head before releasing her from her grip and standing up to leave the room. Maria smiled until her mother had left the room, then she slouched back onto the sofa and began biting her lip in worry.
Their Christmas Day was a very relaxed ordeal. They spent the day in the pyjamas they had all received on Christmas Eve eating treats, watching movies, and opening presents. From her parents, Maria had received more charms for her bracelet –a book, and a flower- some new dresses, and some books. From Draco she had gotten a new clasp for her cloak in the shape of a twisting snake, Tracey had sent her some earrings that were supposedly supposed to change their color to black when you were in danger and were green any other time, Daphne gave her a book about how to get any boy interested in you –which Maria rolled her eyes at and chucked into her trunk- and from Pansy some fur-lined Dragon hide gloves. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had sent an owl explaining that she would get their gifts when she visited them later on in the break.
Before she went to Grimmauld Place she promised Pansy that she would visit. So, she donned her nicest dress and cloak which she had placed her new snake clasp on, a pair of earmuffs and her new gloves and Floo'd over to Pansy's house. Not five seconds after she had arrived Pansy had taken her by the hand and dragged her outside to go for a walk in the snow.
"You are so much more interesting to hang out with than Queenie right now," Pansy said as they trudged through the snow, her hand in the crook of Maria's elbow. "It's like she's suddenly turned boy crazy, it's all she can talk about. You know she sent me some book about getting boys to like you for Christmas."
"Me too!" Maria exclaimed.
"Of course she did," Pansy sighed. Then after looking around and making sure they were alone, she continued, "though I do think we should read it sometime together, you know just to see." Maria could tell she was trying to act nonchalant about it.
Maria laughed, "Of course," she looked at Pansy a smirk on her face. "Purely for research."
Pansy stopped and put her hands on her hips. "Maria Rossi are you making fun of me?"
Maria gasped and dramatically placed her hand on her chest, "Me? Make fun of you? Why I'd never. How dare you accuse me of something like that Pants!"
"How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me Pants!" Pansy whined.
"I can't remember a single time when you've told me-" she started sarcastically but was stopped by a snowball flying past her head. "Oh, that's how we're going to play?" she bent down to grab a handful of snow. A snowball hit her in the back of the head, falling down the back of her cloak, she screamed from the cold. Pansy shrieked with laughter before Maria stood up and began retaliating, then she ran away shouting about her impressive snowball fighting skills.
The fight lasted for a good 20 minutes before Maria surrendered, and the two made their way back into the house leaving their dripping cloaks in front of the fireplace and drinking hot chocolate while gossiping away.
The next week Maria rose early and got ready, packing the last few items in a small trunk ready for her night at Grimmauld Place. When she was ready she sat in the lounge, her cloak and gloves on and trunk at her feet waiting to be picked up. It was 10 minutes before the doorbell rang. She jumped up and ran to the door shouting "I'll get it!" to no one in particular. She swung the door open to find Sirius and Remus standing there.
"Hey Kitten," Sirius smiled his hands in his trouser pockets. "We volunteered to come pick you up!" She stepped out of the way for them to step in and Sirius patted her on the top of the head as he walked past, and Remus gave her a side hug.
"Good to see you, dear," he said with a smile.
"Now where's this father of yours?" Sirius asked turning around and putting his hand on his hips. Maria laughed.
"Dad, there are people here to see you!" she called through the house in Italian.
"Hey, no secret languages. I wanna know you're not saying stuff about me," Sirius joked waggling his finger at her.
"Who is it dear?" her father replied in Italian walking out through the door to his office. "Well if it's not Sirius Black, you old dog!" he smiled walking over to shake their hands.
"Hey Jonny Boy, long time no see!" Sirius grinned ignoring Jonathon's offered hand and hugging the man.
"Haven't heard that name in many a moon," her father laughed after Sirius' embrace and shaking Remus' hand.
"Yeah, I've been a bit tied up the past 12 years you see," Sirius said following Jonathon into the lounge.
"Wait," Maria followed them into the room, Remus behind her. "You know each other?" They nodded. "But how?"
"Well after I completed my Auror schooling I decided to move to England for a while. And while I was here I joined the British Aurors, which is where I was paired up with Sirius. He introduced me to Remus and James and we all became good friends," her father explained. "I was only here for a couple of years before moving back to Italy. It was before James and Lily-" He turned to Sirius, with a crestfallen look. "I'm so sorry to hear what happened to James and Lily, they were such a lovely couple."
Sirius clapped Jonathon on the back, "It's alright mate. Nothing you could have done."
The three men talked for 20 minutes catching up with each other while Maria sat on the stairs using Wingardium Leviosa on all of the shoes sitting by the front door.
"Alright Kitten, let's get going. If we leave now we can make it in time for lunch, Molly's cooking up a Roast," Sirius announced walking out of the lounge rubbing his hands together. Remus and her father followed behind them, Remus holding Maria's trunk in one of his hands with the other hand he shook Jonathon's hand.
"It was good talking to you Remus," he said with a smile, "you too Sirius. We'll have to catch up again sometime." The two Marauders nodded in agreement. "Have a good visit, sweetheart," her father said pulling her up from her seated position and giving her a hug. "And don't get into too much trouble."
Sirius laughed, "Trouble in my house? What are you talking about Jonny boy?"
"I heard enough stories from James about you lot in school, and then lived two years as your Auror partner," her father replied shaking his head with a smile.
"Can't argue with that," Sirius' laugh echoed through the entrance hall. He put a hand on Maria's back and led her out of the house, "Come on then, Kitten. See ya, Jon," he waved as they walked down the drive.
"So how has your Christmas been Maria?" Remus asked catching up with them. "Been anywhere?"
"It's been really good, thanks," she smiled in reply. "I've been mostly at home with my parents. I did go to Pansy's house for a visit, that was fun," she looked up to find the two men giving each other a look. She sighed, "What did I say?"
"Nothing Kitten, I'm just trying to think of what kind of things Slytherins would find fun to do. Maybe beating up children, or kicking kittens," he suggested.
"I think you're mistaking Slytherins for Harry's cousin." Sirius shrugged. "We're not that bad," she insisted.
"Sirius knows that he's just teasing you," Remus explained. The trio walked down an alley that was out of the way, so no Muggle would spot them apparating.
"Ready to go?" Sirius asked offering his arm out, she nodded and took his arm. She felt the familiar pull at her navel as they apparated onto the front steps of Grimmauld Place, Remus appearing a few seconds after them. Sirius opened the door and Maria followed him into the house. She took her trunk from Remus and made her way up the stairs to the room that Remus pointed out to her. As soon as she walked into the room she was enveloped in a hug, she dropped her trunk in shock.
"Calm down Hermione, don't suffocate her," Ginny laughed. After Hermione pulled back from the hug Maria looked around her to see Ginny lounging on one of three beds in the room, a Quidditch magazine in her hands. One of the other beds had books on it, obviously Hermione's, so she chucked her trunk onto the last bed and followed it sitting with her knees to her chest.
"So, let's talk. What have you two been up to?" Maria asked resting her head on her crossed arms.
"Well we went for a walk the other day and this Muggle boy seemed to be very interested in Hermione," Ginny laughed as Hermione hit her with a pillow.
"That's not how it went!" Hermione shrieked.
"Well then please do tell us what happened," Maria said. Hermione huffed and began telling the story from her point of view. After a lot of giggling later, the three of them decided to venture out and finds the boys. They found them in the lounge, where they all exchanged gifts. Hermione gave her books –no surprise there- and the Weasley's present was a hand knitted woolen jumper with enchanted waves moving on the front. Harry jokingly gave her a Gryffindor shirt and dared her to wear it in her common room.
"Here Maria," Fred said, stopping her on the stairs on their way down to the kitchen.
"Try one of these," George finished the sentence offering his hand out. She put hers out and he dropped what he was holding.
"A sweet?" she said turning it around in her hand.
"Don't eat that unless you want to start throwing up all over the place," Ron called up.
"Don't ruin the fun, Ron," Fred shouted down.
"What is it?" Maria asked.
"One of our newest creations of Weasley Wizard Wheezes, part of our Skiving Snackboxes. Need to get out of class or a tricky situation? Just take a bite of the purple end, and when you've gotten out eat the orange end to be healed good as new!" George explained proudly.
"That's genius!" Maria exclaimed. "Are there other kinds?"
"Of course, this one here's called a Puking Pastille," Fred said.
"Then we've got the Fainting Fancies."
"Fever Fudge."
"And the Nosebleed Nougat!"
"Well I'll be sure to let you know if I need anything," Maria smiled as they walked down the stairs to the kitchen, handing the sweet back to the twins.
After a long, very tasty, very filling lunch they all sat around the kitchen table talking. "So, what is it you Slytherins do in your free time?" Harry asked casually, grabbing a mince pie from the middle of the table.
"What is it with you Gryffindors today?" she exclaimed. Harry looked confused.
"What?"
"I asked her basically the same thing earlier," Sirius said from across the table. Harry nodded.
"We do normal stuff, like homework and hanging in the common room talking and playing games and stuff. Poker seems to be very popular right now, which reminds me I still owe Blaise a Galleon. And Draco is obsessed with playing Wizards Chess," Maria replied also grabbing a mince pie from the table. Harry's nose wrinkled.
"Wizards Chess?" Maria nodded taking a bite. Harry took another bite and chewed for a while. He looked around and noticed that everyone had lost interest in the conversation. "Is he any good?" he asked curiously.
"He's the champion of Slytherin, unbeaten so far," Maria revealed.
"It's weird," Harry murmured tracing the patterns in the table, "hearing about them all doing normal teenage things. It's hard to think of him as the enemy when all I can picture is him sitting by one of those big windows playing chess."
"That's because he's not the enemy; that would be Voldemort." Maria snorted. "And it's hard to hate him when you're sitting with him by one of those windows laughing and attempting to speak Mermish to the Mermaids that swim by," she paused and then realized something. "Wait, how do you know about the windows in our common room?"
Harry's eyes widened, realizing what he'd said. "Uh… Well, you see," he started guiltily, "Ron and I Polyjuiced ourselves to look like Crabbe and Goyle in Second year so we could sneak in to find out if Malfoy was the heir of Slytherin."
Maria laughed, "Are you kidding me? That's amazing! You know if you just thought to do some research you would've found out that the Malfoy's don't go back far enough to be the heir of Slytherin."
"Yeah, we figured that out later on," Harry laughed scratching the back of his head.
"Maria dear do you want to come and help me bake some brownies? The other girls aren't interested, but I thought it was more up your alley," Mrs. Weasley smiled at her as she started clearing away plates. Some people started standing up and walking into the lounge or out into the garden for a game of Quidditch.
"Of course, Mrs. Weasley, I would love to," Maria replied standing up and beginning to grab the rest of the plates and dishes. She put the dishes she had grabbed into the soapy water and watched as Mrs. Weasley waved her wand setting them to wash.
"Perfect! Now if you could go over to the cupboard and grab me some cocoa powder and some flour that would be lovely." Maria enjoyed baking the brownies and even asked for the recipe to take home with her afterward.
Later on in the night, the majority of the gathering were sat in the lounge split into teams playing a giant game of charades. Right now, Harry was up and acting something out.
He had his hands balled into fists and was turning them up by his eyes like he was crying.
"Crying!" Ron called out. Harry sucked his thumb.
"A child?" Suggested Hermione. He laid his hand out flat and tilted it side to side, motioning that they were sort of right. He put his finger to his temple thinking. Then he rocked his arms back and forth.
"A baby!" Maria shouted. Harry grinned and nodded before squatting down repeatedly.
"Pooping?" George said confused. Harry started laughing shaking his head.
"Are you serious?" Maria snorted.
"No silly, I'm George" he replied.
"I'm Sirius," Sirius smirked. Maria lent around Remus and slightly whacked Sirius on the knee.
"I think he's sitting," Hermione suggested. Harry nodded his head.
"So 'sitting' and 'baby'," Sirius mumbled. "So, no one leave Harry around your babies or he'll sit on them." Everyone laughed.
"Baby sitting!" someone called.
"Finally!" Harry burst out trading places with Sirius, who took a slip of parchment out of a woolen hat. The front door opened and closed, and Maria saw a figure walk past the lounge to where the kitchen was.
"Ladies and gentlemen prepare to be amazed," Sirius called out.
"At how horrifically bad Sirius will be at this," Remus finished.
"That cheek is not called for Moony," Sirius replied, hands on his hips. Maria stood up and left the room to Sirius waving his hands around.
"What in Merlin's Beard is that supposed to be?" she heard one of the twins say as she quietly closed the door behind her. Maria wandered down the stairs into the kitchen. Snape was pulling a chair out from the table and sat down.
"I shan't be here long Molly, I'm only here to give Harry a message," he said stretching.
"Severus, you're wearing yourself out. Stay a while and join everyone upstairs; have some fun," Molly said washing the table with a rag. Snape snorted.
"I hardly think I would be welcome up there and you know it." Molly clicked her tongue in disapproval.
"At least have something to eat while you're here," she said pushing the plate of brownies down the table towards him. "Look your favourite!" He looked down at the plate and back up at her.
"Double chocolate fudge?" he asked.
"Of course!" he grabbed one off the plate and took a bite. He sighed, and Maria quietly snuck into the room careful to not draw attention to herself.
"Brilliant as ever Molly," he complimented.
"Oh well, I had a lot of help this time. I just instructed, and Maria here made them," Molly said pointing towards Maria as she shuffled over and took a seat at the table. Snape quickly sat up straight.
"Well then," he cleared his throat, "compliments to Miss Maria." She smiled and took a brownie for herself.
"Thank you, sir," she said taking a bite from her brownie. Molly sat down opposite Snape.
"Now Severus, tell me about your classes." As Snape answered Maria stood up and walked over to the counter where all of the freshly cleaned dishes sat and began to put them back where they came from. "Thank you, dear," Molly said as Maria made another trip back to the sink for more dishes. "What about this Umbridge woman? Arthur said a few people from work aren't too fond of her."
"The staff has seemed to have made the decision to stay well away from that woman, I can't say any of us enjoy her company," he confessed.
"What about you dear?" Molly asked her. Maria put away the last bowl and hopped up onto the counter behind her.
"Well," she started out slowly. "I'm not too fond of her really. Her ideas of teaching aren't quite... orthodox," she looked up to see Snape nodding. "Most of the Slytherin's seem to like her, but a few of my friends share my opinion now after a slight," she rubbed the back of her hand where the scar was hidden, Snape's eyes followed her hands scowling, "misunderstanding that we had with her." Molly tutted.
"Well, I hope something's done about her soon. And I hope you do try to stay out of trouble, young lady." Maria smiled and shrugged. "Ah, Harry there you are. Severus here has a message for you, come on in." Harry walked into the kitchen looking around at everyone suspiciously as Snape rose from his seat. "I'll just pop upstairs for a bit, give you some privacy." She looked at Maria. "Is Maria allowed to stay or should I have her come with me, Severus?" Maria looked to Snape.
"She may stay," Molly nodded. "Thank you, Molly."
"Of course, of course," she muttered waving her hand leaving the room and walking up the stairs.
"Mr. Potter, I'm just here to let you know that Dumbledore and I have spoken, and I shall begin teaching you occlumency once term resumes in order to prevent the Dark Lord from using this connection if he finds out. You can expect to receive notice of when we will meet," Snape spoke. "Let us hope that you pick this up as easily as Miss Rossi, though I highly doubt it," he said slightly smugly. Harry looked between the two of them looking insulted but nodded nonetheless.
Snape picked up his discarded cloak from the back of the chair he was previously sitting in and started to leave. "Miss Rossi, I have given it some thought and if you wish, you may help me brew some potions for Madam Pomfrey once the term begins for some extra credit work."
Maria grinned, "I would love to!" He nodded and turned towards the door.
"Very well." He paused before continuing. "Um, Happy Christmas."
"Happy Christmas to you too, sir!"
Harry coughed and mumbled a 'Happy Christmas' as well. After they heard him walk up the stairs and the front door opening and closing Harry turned to Maria, who jumped down from the counter.
"So, you're learning Occlumency as well?" She nodded. "Why?"
"Just for some extra credit stuff really" Maria lied with a shrug.
"Is it easy?" he asked.
"Not at first. You really have to concentrate, and it gets really tiring after a while, but he won't let you stop just because you're tired. He'll make you go until he thinks you've had enough." Harry sighed with a frown.
"Well if you can do it, then surely I can too right?"
"Probably. Let's get back up to the game," she said leading Harry back up the stairs.
"You missed a good one, Sirius had the word 'Star' and just kept motioning around and pointing to himself, it was hilarious. No one got the word until he cheated and started singing 'Twinkle Twinkle'." They laughed as they walked into the lounge.
"How is it still Sirius' go?" She questioned sitting down on the ground next to Hermione.
"He won't give up until someone guesses one of his," Remus explained with a shake of his head.
"I am brilliant at this, okay? You are just all terrible guessers!" Sirius exclaimed throwing his arms up into the air.
"A coatrack?" Ron asked tilting his head.
"NO! I'm a tree!" Sirius cried.
"How on earth was that a tree?" Ginny wondered. "You looked like a ballerina for a while there."
Sirius threw his hands in the air as everyone laughed. He huffed and walked back over to take a seat next to Remus, Ginny taking his place. "I can't work with you lot, I need a bunch of professional charades players to play this." Remus patted him on the shoulder.
"There, there. Maybe one day we'll be as good as you," he chuckled.
"Oh Moony, you wish you could be as good as me."
The rest of the night and the next day flew by with loads more games and one giant snowball fight after the girls were ambushed by the boys while building a snowman. The next few days at home flew by and before she knew it she was back on the Hogwarts Express chatting with her friends and trading holiday stories.