Disclaimer: See previous chapters.
Summary: We have all read the whole 'Harry/Malfoy/Hermione has a sister, yada, yada, yada.' Idea, but what if the aforementioned sister was not a Potter/Malfoy/Granger? What if she was a Dursley? Meet Roisin Dursley. Witch of the family.
A/N: My own Grandmother is Irish and I'm taking my knowledge of celebrations from her stories and some of my own research. No offence is meant to anyone of Irish Birth, and I apologise in advance for any offence taken.
Chapter Ten
Term had ended and the Winter holidays had arrived.
Harry was staying at Hogwarts for Christmas (Roisin didn't blame him) along with the Weasly children and a few others, but most of the student population was happily anticipating returning home for three weeks.
Holidays and various celebrations were coming up, trunks were packed, the halls of Hogwarts resonated with carols, along with some very rude alternate lyrics from Peeves (the Prefects had flatly refused to explain what 'Glory streams from Heaven great/Heavenly Hosts forniticate' was supposed to mean, and Professor Snape had turned a very interesting shade of purple before yelling for the Bloody Baron) and it was in a similar spirit that the students prepared to board the Hogwarts Express.
As few of the older families celebrated Christmas, many having at least one ancestor who suffered a burning or some of the less tolerant aspects of Christianity, the Slytherins rarely exchanged more than simple tokens as Midwinter gifts, usually before leaving Hogwarts.
For Roisin, whose parents had always gone with extravagant and expensive as the theme for presents, this was a large change, if a welcome one, as there was no way she would be able to fit her usual Christmas load into her dormitory, much less her school trunk.
With this in mind, Roisin had chosen her gifts carefully. Harry had grown up virtually without sweets, and as good as wizarding candy was, Harry had a weakness for Mars Bars. This in mind, Roisin had ordered a sweet assortment from one of Dublin's main sweet shops, thrown in several king-sized mars bars, and wrapped it up as his Christmas gift. His gift would not be received until December 25th, but still.
The other gifts were simple, but well though out, such as books on a topic of interest, or sweets, or a subscription to Witch Weekly that Pansy had been (loudly) wishing for. It was an unspoken agreement not to let Desdemona near sugar or caffeine if at all possible, but Roisin hoped that she liked her gift of Unusual but Useful Charms That No-one Else Thinks Of. Blaise received a set of Gobstones, as his parents considered a waste of time, but they really couldn't expect him to throw away a gift.
Although nothing like what she would have received at Privet Drive, Roisin would never deny loving her gifts. Draco had given her a book on Magical customs and etiquette, claiming that if she was going to be seen with him, Roisin would need to know how to behave. Pansy had hit the blond and told him to stop being a prat.
Blaise had a cousin who did wooden carvings charmed to move, and had given one to each of his year-mates. Pansy, Millicent and Theo had joined forces to give everyone a voucher to their favourite shop. Now all Roisin had to do was actually convince someone to take her to Bookworm's Haven to use it.
Crabbe and Goyle had also pooled resources and gone with the theory of 'give as you would receive' (Draco wondered where they had learned the phrase. Roisin and Millicent hit him)
It was Desdemona's gift, however, that she loved the most. One of the third-years, Amanda Flynn, was very camera-happy, and Desdemona had nagged the poor girl into taking several discreet photos of their little group, copied them, and started a photo album for each.
It was Saturday, December 14th, and Fionna O'Conner-Dursley waited at Platform Nine and three-quarters, counting the minutes until the Hogwarts Express arrived with her Grand-daughter Roisin.
About a third of the way through November, Fionna had received a very important letter from her Grand-daughter.
Fionna had sent several letters to her grandchild, Roisin, about visiting over the Midwinter Holidays and meeting the rest of the O'Conner clan. To do this, however, Roisin would need her parent's permission, and that presented a problem, as Vernon and Petunia Dursley hated and feared anything out of the ordinary, and had been decidedly chilly toward her ever since they had found out about Fionna's own magical heritage. Therefore, Roisin would have to be the one to get permission.
Fionna had long since resigned herself to the fact that laughing at her children and daughter-in-law was the only way to deal with them if she didn't want to burst into tears and wonder how she had failed so badly with them. With the shock of a new world and being away from home for the first time, perhaps Roisin was adopting a similar attitude. The letter that Roisin had just sent enclosed not only signed permission for Roisin to visit others over the holidays, but also a copy of the letter that had persuaded them.
After skimming the letter's contents and laughing, Fionna quickly located her second cousin, the current Head of the Clan, and showed him the letter. Fionna had managed to contain her amusement to some degree, Vernon being her son, after all. Michael O'Conner had no such reservations. After spending several minutes incoherent with mirth, he ordered that the keep be made ready for her arrival in December. Bringing a child into the clan was cause for celebration, after all, not to mention the Midwinter Celebration.
Then again, one did have to remember the old saying; 'No one can celebrate life like the Irish'. The O'Conner Clan took this saying to heart, and celebrated whenever a reasonable opportunity presented itself.
"Reasonable Opportunity" could be anything from a good spring rain to a wedding, but the most important ones were occasions when someone was brought into the Clan, such as a birth or marriage, and the Solstice and Equinox celebrations. Like many of the older families, especially those who could trace back to the Witch Burnings, the O'Conner's ignored Christmas and Easter, and instead celebrated Wren Day on December 26, and the four Great Festivals of the year: Imbolc, Beltaine, Lughnasadh and Samhain.
Three of these four holidays would take place during the school terms, but the students usually held their own little celebrations or, if the holiday fell on a weekend, port keyed home for the celebration.
Fionna was shaken out of her thoughts when the Hogwarts Express pulled into the station, and students started to pour out, running to meet their families. Looking around, Fionna spotted Roisin with a small knot of other First Years, waving goodbye as they separated.
Hugging her granddaughter, Fionna twisted the Claddagh ring on her fourth finger, a ring that never failed to make her feel a pang of grief for her husband, activating the charm that would bring them to the O'Conner Keep.
The O'Conner Keep, like many others, was actually a large stone Fortress, which served as a refuge in times of Danger and as home to the Ruling family. The rest of the Clan occupied the small village that surrounded the Keep, but it was hard to tell, with the amount of interaction.
People were constantly in and out, and it was impossible to tell who was a resident and who was just visiting. Roisin stayed close to her Grandmother as they walked through the halls to meet the current Head of the Clan.
Roisin didn't really know what she had been expecting, but she was fairly sure that it hadn't included a spacious study and a small group. Michael sat with his wife, Nessa, who had immediately pulled her into a hug and started on how it was wonderful to finally meet her.
Roisin was rescued by sixteen-year-old Aiden, Michael's oldest son, who grinned at her as he carefully extracted Roisin from his mother's arms. The rest of the immediate ruling family was the ten-year-old twins Seamus and Mary, who would be attending Hogwarts next year and could barely wait to start asking questions, and six-year-old Erin, who shyly asked Roisin to help her look for a faery fort at some point during the holiday.
After the initial introductions, Mary and Seamus immediately volunteered to show Roisin to the guest room where she would be staying until she and Fionna could work out a more permanent lodging for the future. The muttering about never having to go back to 'those idiot muggles' did not go un-noticed. Roisin foresaw extreme mothering in the near future. Maybe it would even surpass the fussing that Petunia used to do.
Roisin started to regret her acceptance of the twin's help about halfway to the guest wing, and wished she had paid more attention to the sympathetic look Aiden had been giving her. Roisin was sure that she had never had this much energy when she was their age, and knew for a fact that the last time she had asked so many questions was when she had discovered the existence of magic.
What House was she in at Hogwarts? How were you sorted? Where did everyone sleep? What were classes like? Did she have any favourites? What was the castle like? Did they have any activities other than Quidditch?
Roisin mentally added another question: Did these two ever stop talking? Even saying that she needed to unpack didn't get rid of them. Mary opened her trunk, Seamus started taking her non-school clothing out, and they continued asking questions. She nearly cried with relief when Nessa came and shooed them off to get ready for the feast that night.
Fionna had told her about the feast to welcome her into the Clan (and welcome Fionna back to the Keep, which she had often avoided thanks to the memory of how they had been so reluctant to accept Frank), but Roisin still wasn't quite prepared for the celebration in their honour, or the loud cheering when they walked in the door.
It was easily on par with the Hogwarts Welcoming Feast, if not bigger. It was also a lot louder and more raucous, probably to do with a wider age variety, and the presence of alcoholic beverages.
She was originally seated at the head table, but when the music started, everyone abandoned the seating plan to join up with their friends. Roisin was dragged into a group of children around her age, talking and laughing and daring each other to ask someone else to dance.
On December 26th they celebrated Wren Day, where the boys chased down a wren until they caught it or the bird died of exhaustion. The wren was paraded through the streets with the boys singing and asking for donations and handing out feathers for good luck.
The donations were used to hold a dance that night with the wren sitting on top of a pole decorated with ribbons, flowers and wreaths. It was nearly as much fun as the feast the first night that Roisin had arrived.
The rest of the holidays consisted of getting to know her extended family, especially her wealth of cousins, forming friendships and participating in whatever said friends could think of to pass the time.
Fionna was of the opinion that everyone should know how to ride, and there was no shortage of horses to learn on. Roisin had taken riding lessons when she was younger, when Petunia had thought that she needed a hobby and Roisin had baulked at ballet lessons, not having the patience or co-ordination to really do well. The riding lessons had lasted until the horses were unable to move faster than a walk while carrying Dudley, and often had to be left in the paddock for the rest of the day when the lesson was finished.
After hearing this via eavesdropping, her older cousins and their friends took it upon themselves to take her riding with them on a regular basis. She could also go with younger friends as long as she had an adult accompanying them.
They could also watch the older children practice fighting or duelling. Roisin found the staff-fighting to be quite fascinating, and immediately started watching whenever possible, plotting a response for the next time Dudley tried to hit her with his Smeltings Stick.
A few days after arriving, Roisin had located the extensive library and happily spent hours there, reading her way through the seemingly limitless volumes. Of course, she was usually interrupted about an hour or so in by someone who thought she needed to spend more time in the sun.
Erin and the younger children were always looking for a 'big' person willing to play with them, which was an adventure in and of itself, and if all else failed; she could resort to finding new and different ways to hide from Seamus and Mary when they were in an inquisitive mood.
Her friends from Hogwarts also owled her on a frequent basis, asking about how her holidays were going. Draco wrote about the Yule parties and other functions he attended with his family and complained about being forced to mingle with the 'lower class' children while his father talked business with their parents. Pansy and Desdemona asked how she was and if there were any cute boys there, said that they were having fun at home and complained about being forced to listen to Draco complain.
Crabbe and Goyle had little to say, as usual, and their letters rarely consisted of more than: 'We are having fun, what about you?'. It was the thought that counted, however.
Blaise had been dragged off to visit his paternal relatives in Italy, but still had a lot of interesting things to talk about. He said that it was annoying that his aunts, uncles and various cousins were constantly going on about his mother's questionable judgement in marrying an English wizard, but amusing to watch the reaction when his parents and grand-parents overheard. His mother researched spells for the Ministry of Magic, and his father, before his death, had apparently had no qualms about testing them out on his siblings. His current father was not quite the same, but still wouldn't tolerate rudeness toward his wife and step-son.
Theo and Millicent's holidays were very quiet by comparison, spent at home with parents and immediate family, with the occasional outing. The most notable thing that had occurred with them was the occasional spell gone wrong at Theo's house and Millicent's cousin tripping over the rug and accidentally setting the tree on fire as they were starting to add the candle decorations.
All too soon, the holidays were over, and Roisin found herself packing her trunk (again with help from the twins, who had come up with more last-minute questions.) and saying goodbye to everyone before port keying back to England and spending the night in London before boarding the Hogwarts Express back to school.
hp
hp
hp
hp
A/N: Put it this way: if you're young enough for me to have to explain what 'fornicate' means, you're too young for me to explain it.
In other news, I am so, so sorry about the lack of updates lately. Unfortunately, my teachers decided that the end of term was a wonderful time to spring any number of last minute tests and assignments. My Support Physical Development teacher gave us a test that counts for thirty percent of our overall grade on the last day of term. Sadist.
Anyway, I've been swamped with schoolwork, with two more assignments due on the first day back, but I should have more time for writing. I also added a few one-shots. Go look them up.
I have 98 hits for the last chapter alone and only 2 reviews. So, as always, Review and tell me what you think.
Thanks,
Nathalia.