Chapter 12

--- Hey everybody! I'm back! It's been a long time. Sorry about that. I've still been getting your reviews and I really appreciate them. I don't know why I forgot about this, but I'm back to it now and I'll try to update it a little more regularly. Feel free to leave more reviews! :)

After their trip to the hospital Ginny didn't see Tonks for a few days but soon she was back at Grimmauld Place as they celebrated her dad's return and Christmas. Grimmauld Place was bursting at the seams with people on Christmas eve.

After a huge feast everyone was relaxing either in the kitchen or sitting room. Ginny had a feeling that a few of the adults had had quite a bit to drink seeing as Moody was singing along with the radio's Christmas broadcast. He didn't seem to know all the words and hummed vaguely along with the singer. Lupin and Sirius had disappeared somewhere for a while and then come back a lot louder, laughing at what anyone said whether it was funny or not.

Ginny had been sitting with Hermione, Bill and Tonks for a while. They were all just relaxing and talking about nothing specific. A few minutes later Sirius invited everyone to stay the night if they wanted since it was late and no one really seemed to be in any hurry to leave. Moody said that he couldn't but Lupin, Bill and Tonks said that they would. Sirius seemed very excited and charged off to get beds ready. Tonks caught Ginny's eye when no one else was looking and winked. Ginny was happy that Tonks would be around so that they could spend Christmas together.

After a while everyone seemed to settle down and start getting tired. Fred and George had disappeared long ago to their room where they seemed to be spending a lot of their time. Ginny figured that they were working hard on their joke products and was rather glad that Fred wouldn't be around to spy on everything Ginny was doing.

When everyone started to go to their different rooms Ginny whispered to Tonks that she would meet her in the sitting room in a few minutes. Then she ran up to her room and got Tonks' Christmas present. She didn't want to have to give it to her around everyone else around the next morning. And since it was well after midnight she figured that that was good enough.

She knocked softly and then pushed the door open. Tonks had her back to Ginny and was rummaging through her knapsack. She turned when she heard Ginny enter and straightened up.

"Hey. I was just looking for your present." Tonks said.

"Yeah, I brought yours too." Ginny said handing Tonks her wrapped package.

Tonks untied the ribbon and the paper fell away revealing a multicolored scarf.

"Oh cool! Thanks Gin!" Tonks exclaimed wrapping the scarf around her neck.

"You're welcome. I decided to take up knitting this fall and I thought that you might like it."

"Here's yours. I didn't make it, which is good because I'm absolutely rubbish with crafty type things." Tonks said with a laugh as she pulled a long rectangular package out of her bag.

Ginny took it and unwrapped the paper. It was a wooden box that had an intricate design carved on it. In the center was a heart with vines and flowers curving out away from it.

"It's a box to keep important stuff in. It's made so that only you can open it with your wand, that way no one else can see what you keep in it." Tonks explained.

"Thanks Nym!" Ginny said rushing forward to hug her.

--- Sorry this is short… I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with this story. But I wanted to give you guys a little update.