I should totally be sleeping right now, but I can't so I decided to post this. I would like to thank Jesseloverleona and bluebookbutterfly for reviewing; klutzygal12 and .Mistress.92 for adding this story to their favorite story list; nixipixi96 for adding this story to their story alert subscription. I would also like to give a big thanks to bluebookbutterfly for betaing this chapter! THANKS A BUNCH!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I own only Willow as well as a few other people, places, and things.
I awoke the next morning, with the events of the previous night swimming through my head. Had I really attacked Alicia? Was I really going to punch her? I thought for a moment, thinking that I should apologize. Sure, I'll slap someone across the face when need be, but to actually attack someone like that and want to do damage? That's not like me at all. Stupid Tiff and her letters are really getting to me.
I showered and put on just a normal T-shirt and sweat pants. It's Christmas and I really don't feel like dressing up and doing anything special. Once I was showered and dressed, I went down to the common room. No one I really cared about was present. I figured they had all woken up awhile ago and were at breakfast by now.
"Merry Christmas!" I said as I bounced my way into the Great Hall. For some reason, I was very cheerful.
"Happy Christmas," all my friends said to me. I took my normal seat in between the twins.
"How was the rest of the dance?" I asked, not really caring which one answered.
"You mean after you almost killed Alicia? Great!" said George.
"Yeah, sorry about that," I said looking down.
"No need to be sorry," said Fred.
"Yeah, it was amazing!" added George.
"You saw, too?" I asked George.
"A lot of people saw. Didn't you notice?"
"No, I was too busy thinking about punching her face in."
"There was a small crowd gathered around you guys. Did you really not notice that?" asked Fred.
"Was there really? Oh, God. I'm sorry!"
"They were all cheering for you Willow."
"Yeah, they thought you were great."
"You act all sweet and innocent that seeing you attack Alicia was a shock for everyone," Fred and George said respectively.
"Anyway," I said, putting some pieces of bacon on my plate, "you ok, Fred?"Fred didn't get a chance to reply because McGonagall came up to us.
"Miss Lamel, the Headmaster would like to see you in his office right away." I glanced at Fred and George before I left for Dumbledore's office.
I was scared out of my mind! I've never been called into a Headmaster's office before! I'm Willow Lamel, I don't do bad things...well I try not to do bad things. The halls seemed to be extra long as I made my way down them, my feet dragging behind me. Did he know about the fight? Am I going to be expelled? Is he going to tell my mom? By the time I made it to his office, I felt like I had had at least eight heart attacks.
"Miss Lamel! Happy Christmas! Would you care for a lemon drop?" Dumbledore asked, as soon as I stepped in.
"Thanks you, sir. Same to you, sir. No, thank you, sir," I said shyly closing the door.
"I'm sure you're wondering why you're here," he said, placing the dish with the lemon drops back on his table. I nodded my head. "I think this young woman here, might be able to explain better," he said, gesturing to a girl standing next to his fireplace. The girl was short, small, and thin, but fire glowed in her eyes. Her eyes, such an odd shade of green, but in certain light looked blue. Her dirty blonde hair appeared to be shoulder length, but he was hard to tell for sure because she had it up in pigtails. The pigtails gave her a childlike appearance, but after a closer inspection, it was easy to spot that she may be small, but she is very fierce. At that moment, I had only one thing to say.
"TIFFANY!" I yelled as loud as I could. I ran as fast as I could toward my best friend, engulfing her in a huge hug.
"WILLOW!" she yelled back, as she hugged me back.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, holding her shoulders length away.
"I wrote to Mister Dumbledore here and asked if I could come and spend Christmas with you. And he said yes!" She grabbed my hands and we began to jump up and down, squealing happily.
"Thank you professor!" I exclaimed to Dumbledore.
"You are very welcome," he said and stepped toward us. "Miss Lamel, Miss Jones will be staying in your dorm room tonight. I'm sure you'll make her feel at home." I nodded. Tiff picked up her bag and we exited the Headmaster's office.
"Oh I can't believe you're here! This is so exciting!" I said as we made our way down the hall toward the Gryffindor common room.
"It's great right? Oh, and this is my Christmas present to you, so don't be expecting anything else from me. I got the gifts from the others though."
"Aw yay!"
"Oh, and don't you ever call me by my full name again. Since it's Christmas, and you were super excited to see me, I'll let it slide this one time," she said, playfully glaring at me.
"Well at least I didn't call you Tiffany Bethany Juliet Jones." I snickered as I watched her cringe at me calling her by her full name.
"I swear my parents were high when they named me. It's a complete disgrace to baby name books everywhere."
"You were named after your grandmas. I think it's cute," I said, bumping her shoulder.
"Well then it's my great grandparents' fault for naming their daughters something stupid," she mumbled. I laughed, and put my arm around her as we made our way to the common room.
"Password," the fat lady said when Tiff and I approached.
"Holly berries," I said and the portrait swung open, allowing Tiff and I to enter.
"What the hell was that?" she asked, as we stepped into the common room.
"It's how we get in. If you don't know that password, you can't enter.
""Willow!"
"What happened!" Fred and George asked when we were fully inside.
"This!" I said. I outstretched my arms in the direction of Tiff. She set down her bag and waved.
"Who is this?" asked Fred. Tiff pushed passed me and walked up to Fred, holding out her hand. Her wrist was facing down, as if she was waiting for him to kiss her hand.
"Tiffany Jones. Call me Tiff. If you don't I'll kill you," she said with a sweet smile. I chuckled.
"She means it too," I added.
"Oh you're Tiff. Will's told us a lot about you. I'm Fred and this is George," Fred said. He looked at her hand for a moment, pondering what he would do. Awkwardly, he took it and shook it.
"You just shake my hand? I thought you said British boys were supposed to be charming and classy," she said, looked over at me.
"That was James who said that," I said, folding my hands across my chest.
"I knew I was getting my nails done with someone," she muttered as she pushed past the twins and looked around the common room. Other students were walking about, but they didn't really pay much attention to Tiff. "Nice lounge," she said.
"It's called a common room," I said, pulling her toward the couch in front of the fire place. She followed my lead, but she was still looking around. I pushed her so she fell onto the couch.
"What's she doing here?" George asked me.
"She said she wrote to Dumbledore and asked if she could come for Christmas. Said she's my Christmas present from herself," I said.
"I'm not deaf, I can hear you," she said, whipping her head to look at me and the twins. "And I'm only here for tonight. I leave tomorrow after dinner, but speaking of presents," she got up and walked over to where her bag was laying. She picked it up, "I have some of those for you." She came back and sat on the arm of the couch.
"Really? How sweet. I actually didn't get anyone anything." I turned to face the twins, "Sorry."
"Ah, don't worry about it Willow. We both got you this," said Fred and passed me a brightly wrapped package. Tiff also threw two gifts at me.
"Ow," I said, rubbing my face where the one gift hit me.
"Should've caught it," Tiff said. I rolled my eyes. I set the three gifts on my lap, picking up the twin's present first. I unwrapped it and laughed. "A book on pranks? Really?"
"The prank you told us about was pretty good-" started Fred.
"-but if you want to be able to keep up with the big boys-" continued George.
"-you're gonna have to know a thing or two-"
"-and we're pulled every prank in that book at least twice."
"Figured you'd like it." I turned and smiled at them.
"Thanks guys," I said, placing the book down and picking up one of the gifts Tiff tried to kill me with. I mean seriously, did she have to aim for my head?
The first one I picked off my lap was shaped much like the prank book was. I read the label and saw that it was from James. Gently, I unwrapped it. A picture frame. Well, several picture frames really. There was room for about five pictures total. It was black and metal with three rows to hold pictures. The first row had room for two, the second had room for one and the last had room for two as well.
"Aw that was so sweet of him," I said holding up the frame, inspecting it. I then handed it to Tiff so I could open the other, much larger, present that remained. I glanced at the label, already knowing it was from Erika, and began to open it. Two very big and very heavy books became exposed. I looked at them, puzzled.
"She got them when she and James were in Rome this summer. Said that it was 'filled with the ancient ways of healing',whatever the hell that means," Tiff said jumping off the arm of the chair and standing in front of me. "I mean you can barely read what's on the cover," she said pointing at the center of the top book. The books were dark brown and felt leathery. I tried to look at where she pointed. I could barely make out any letters. Only because I ran my fingers over where she pointed and felt the old essences of letter, did I know that any really existed.
"What's it suppose to say?" I asked squinting at the book.
"No clue. And frankly I don't really care. You're the one that wants to be a healer," Tiff said, placing her hands on her hips.
"Ah Willow, you wanna be a healer?" Fred asked.
"Yeah. Ever since the potion accident I've wanted to. I had such nice healers helping me, that it inspired me," I said, placing the books on the ground.
"That's very noble of you," commented George.
"Blah blah blah. Willow, show me to my room," Tiff demanded, picking up her things."Alright, hang on," I said rising from my seat on the couch.
"We'll see you later guys," I said to the twins and picked up the presents. With Tiff right behind me, we headed up to the girls dorm. This was going to be great! I haven't seen Tiff in three months. It's going to be awesome spending some time with her!
Tada! I hope you liked it. I was going to make this chapter longer, but then I just decided to stop it here. I think its because I used up all my creativity writing a different story with my friend and right now I'm waiting for another shipment to come in. And the next chapter will not be up next Monday. I am super busy this week, going down town and on college visits and what not that I am not going to have any time. Sorry about that. Like I said right now I should be sleeping cuz I have to wake up early tomorrow (Doctor Who marathon! Woo!) but since I'm a night owl I can't seem to go to bed early. Ah, oh well.
I believe that is it for now. REVIEW!
