Johanna Potter and the Marauder's Map In Which We Have The Perfect Christmas, a harry potter fanfic

Chapter Fourteen: In Which We Have The Perfect Christmas

Well here it is, folks, the obligatory Christmas chapter. Hope you like.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock

Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring

Snowin' and blowin' up bushels of fun

Now the jingle hop has begun

Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock

Jingle bells chime in jingle bell time

Dancin' and prancin' in Jingle Bell Square

In the frosty air

What a bright time, it's the right time

To rock the night away

Jingle bell time, it's a swell time

To go ridin' in a one horse sleigh

Giddy up, jingle horse, pick up your feet

Jingle around the clock

A-mix and a-mingle in the jinglin' feet

That's the jingle bell rock!

That was our hollered refrain in our horrible singing voices as we stomped across the snowy grounds to Herbology. It was Thursday, December 13th. I was 12 years, 3 months, 1 day, 17 hours, and 5 minutes old (I haven't done that since Chapter Eight).

"We're lucky," Lane informed us as we entered Greenhouse One.

"Why?" asked Alicia, screwing up her face in confusion.

"Because it's Thursday the 13th. We missed having Friday the 13th by one day," said Lane as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Fred, George and I rolled our eyes at each was very super-stitious. We were very not superstitious.

After Herbology, we went inside, where we blew into our mittens as we walked down the corridor to DADA.

After our very enjoyable lesson, we went to dinner. Well, we only made it down three flights of stairs and half a corridor before Angelina noticed the—

"MISTLETOE!"

Our heads snapped up. My stomach did that thing. You know, the thing Harry's stomach used to do when he saw Cho Chang. Oh, you know what I mean. Anyway, my stomach did that thing because I was standing directly underneath the aforementioned mistle-toe.

And so was Fred.

Our eyes widened. The others whooped with laughter.

"NO WAY!" we screeched in unison.

"Yes way!" sang Angelina. "C'mon, it's the rule!"

"Yeah!" said George. "You guys have to kiss!"

"We are not kissing! No kissing here!" said Fred vehemently.

"Ki-iss! Ki-iss!" George and Angelina started up a chant. Some others walking around took it up too.

"FINE!" we yelled, again in unison.

We turned to face each other. Both our faces flamed in embarrassment. We took two shaky steps forward. Then, very slowly, we started to lean in. We leaned in as slowly as possible. The signal that we could lean in no more was when our noses brushed together. Finally, we couldn't put it off another second. We kissed.

An explosion of cheering, catcalling, and wolf-whistling (the last two mostly from George, Angelina, Lee, and Charli, the latter of which had just gotten there) went up around us. Our lips were barely touching at first, but then we unconsciously pressed harder. The kiss lasted exactly twelve seconds according to a fourth year Ravenclaw's watch.

We stomped back over to our friends, even redder than before. "Happy?" I inquired.

Charli got her Slytherin Look. "Very," she replied.

That night in the dorm, I couldn't sleep. Somehow, Angelina knew this. "Thinkin' 'bout the kiss?" she asked, grinning wickedly.

"No," I shot back.

"You know what I think?"

"What?"

"I think you love him."

I sat bolt upright. "You cannot be serious."

"I am."

"How can you possibly think I love him?"

She grinned wider. "I think you were enjoying yourself under that mistletoe."

"I was not! Well, maybe a little, but that doesn't mean I love him!"

She grinned even wider. "Methinks she doth protest too much."

"Oh, shut up."

"No, you shut up."

We continued in this vein until we argued ourselves to sleep. I dreamed about mistletoe coating the entire ceiling and even the sky, but somehow, Fred and I were the only ones standing under it. Our friends laughed and urged us to kiss, again and again and again and again and again and again until our lips were chapped. I was about to collapse from the pain and humiliation when I woke up and remembered that the sky bore no mistletoe and our friends would never force us to kiss ourselves to death. Still, the dream unsettled me.

The next week passed with us wishing hard that it would pass quicker. Fred and I, in retaliation for the mistletoe, repeatedly shoved our friends under mistletoe with random people. We got Angelina with some Slytherin third year who seemed a little too enthusiastic about kissing her and Lee with Piper Wright, a Ravenclaw, who went a little wacko afterwards, screaming about how sick we all were. We even got Charli once. I accidentally shoved her under the mistletoe with a girl (now, that was a weird afternoon). She acted odd all day after that. But that's beside the point.

Christmas Eve finally arrived. The others went to bed before us (me and the twins). We just sat there for a little while. "Tomorrow is Christmas," said Fred, stating the obvious like a pro as usual.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," George and I told him in perfect unison, also as usual.

"You know, this year's Christmas has to be perfect," I told the twins.

"Why, Johanna?"

"Because it's our first at Hogwarts." We were silent for a while longer. We were silent a lot, but only when it was just the three of us. That was why everyone thought we never shut up. Because we didn't, not in the company of anyone else. We preferred being loud. But we liked being quiet when it was just the three of us, because we had been best friends for practically our whole lives and we could just sit and be friends around each other. I know, I know, it sounds really gushy, but it's true.

Finally, George spoke up. "How much more perfect could it get, really?"

We just smiled at him in response.

The sun was just beginning to creep through the dormitory windows when I woke up. I was the first to wake up. I looked over to the foot of my bed. "PRESENTS!" I hollered. Suddenly, though I have no idea how, I was not the only one awake.

Of course, from Mrs. Weasley, I got a mince pie and a royal blue sweater. From the twins, I got a huge container of vanilla bean ice cream (I felt the need to dance around the room with it). From Angelina and Lee, I got a T-shirt that said, "If you can read this, you're in my way (I'm not the only one who got a T-shirt. I got Charli one with a picture of a dalmation)." From the aforementioned Slytherin, I got a card with a haiku about bananas and a book. Oh yes, and the book had a note on it that said, "Look at the title. I practically see you throwing it out." When I obliged, I saw that it was, "Spells and Potions with Humourous Results." And from Percy, I got a note that had the incantation for the Silencing Charm and underneath it, it said, "Use this often." Once I got that he meant on myself, I got seriously annoyed. After all, I had given him something awesome: the rules for The Shut Up Percy Game (Step 1: Shut up. Step 2: Keep doing it. Step 3: The end)!

The others (the twins, Percy, and Charlie) got sweaters too. The twins were only slightly ticked off that they had letter sweaters ("We know our names!" "Yeah, you're Gred and Forge!") That exchange made me insist on calling them Gred and Forge all morning. Charli, Angelina, and Lee joined in with enthusiasm. As usual, we forced Percy to put on his sweater and wear it around all day.

So, my point with this chapter is this: yeah, there may be ups and downs. There may be morbidly embarrassing mistletoe moments. There may be notes that tell you to use a Silencing Charm on yourself. But there will always be waking up to find a huge pile of presents at your feet. There will always be following the twins around calling them Gred and Forge.

Basically, even though it had its ups and downs, it really was the perfect Christmas.

Reviews are nourishment. If you don't review, you're starving me.