Hey everybody, Merry Christmas! Since i'm on break now, I'm going to have more time to write, so I'll be putting a part up maybe every couple days for the next week or so, so don't forget to check back! And review :) Think of it as my xmas present :D Enjoy!
21. A Very Weasley Christmas- Part 1
The fourteen of us piled out of the car, glad for the cold blast of fresh air. One by one, Dominique, Louis, Molly, Lucy, Fred, Roxanne, Rose, Hugo, James, Albus, Lily, and finally myself grabbed our trunks and things from the back and began stuffing ourselves into the already filled-to-brimming Burrow.
Upon entrance, I was assaulted by the smells of a home cooked meal, the never-ending hum of people talking, and the warm browns and reds of the paint on the walls and the furniture displayed haphazardly around the living area.
As soon as I was inside, I was being called from every which way and corner of the house.
"Thalia! Bring your trunk this way!" I could hear Lily calling me, waiting at the end of the staircase.
"Thalia! You're staying with us! Come this way!" Another, I think Dominique, called from the opposite way.
"I thought we were staying out here!" Rose yelled above the bustling mass of people. I couldn't see over everyone's heads, all the aunts and uncles it must've been, to decide which way I was supposed to be going.
"Oh, for heavens' sake!" A plump woman of about seventy years started walking my way, shaking her flaming red head, setting her hands on her hips.
"It's a wonder any of you have brains with the way you're talking now!" She yelled at her grandchildren.
She walked up to me, holding a wooden spoon in one hand, and stuffing her wand into the pocket of her apron with the other.
"Come with me dear," She said upon reaching me. "I'll show you where you'll be able to set your things down. I swear, I did my best to teach them their manners, but none of them ever seem to listen. Not that it matters anyway, they'll do what they please, won't they?"
I nodded mutely, as I followed her through the house, past the many people, and out a back door through which we had to stoop to get through.
"I hope this will be all right." She was saying, leading me through a frosted garden. "There just isn't enough room for thirty-four people in the house. We had to improvise. I hope it will be all right."
I dragged my trunk along in my wake, following her as we left the garden and continued a ways out into the snow until we'd reached a small congregation of four tents, set up with a little light glowing from the inside of each.
"You kids will be staying out here. You'll be able to divide yourselves up, just as long as I don't have to hear anything in the morning. I know how they love to argue sometimes." She looked back at the house. I turned and saw that everyone else must have finally gotten the memo and were starting to bring out their things as well.
I looked back at the tents. I wasn't sure if one would be able to hold one person comfortably, let alone three.
"Well go on in," she smiled next to me, her eyes sparkling. "Make yourself comfortable. I'll have some tea for you when you come back in, to warm yourself up. If you need anything else, dear, you just come right along and ask someone. We're all very happy to have you for the holidays." Unexpectedly, she crushed me in a hug. It was very nice of her.
"Thank-you ma'am." I smiled as she pulled away.
"Mrs. Weasley, dear. Rose's grandmother." I nodded as she started making her way back up to the house.
"C'mon, Thalia!" Rose jumped up to me, dragging me into the closest tent with her. "I'm just so excited for Christmas, aren't you?"
I froze when I entered the tent. Lucy pushed their way past me and into the tent as well.
I realized that we wouldn't have had any problems fitting all twelve of us into one tent, let alone three.
Rose turned back to me and smiled, dropping her trunk onto one of the bunks. "You like it, Thalia?"
"Wow," I muttered to myself, looking up at the impossibly high ceiling of the tent.
[[[[]]]
We tramped though the snow towards the house, the sky starting to darken. I was introduced to everyone over dinner: a delicious meal of pasties and pies, with a treacle tart for dessert, all made by Mrs. Weasley.
"Mm, my favorite!" Harry exclaimed across the table, reaching the dish.
"Now, tell me Talia," Mr. Weasley turned to me. He'd insisted on sitting next to me at the table to talk to me.
"It's Thalia, Grandpa," Albus corrected his grandfather. Albus sat across from me, Rose on my other side. Albus's foot rested on mine, and I raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, I'm sorry dear," Mr. Weasley patted my shoulder, "Not as young as I used to be, unfortunately. Now tell me, Thalia. You say you're from the Demigod world?"
I nodded.
"And you've been in the muggle world, yes?"
I laughed. "Yeah, I guess I live there. Usually."
"Now, in this demigod camp of yours, do you use hair dryers?"
I giggled, glancing a Albus for a moment, "Well, I never really needed to use one, but I'm sure my friend Sarah does…"
Mr. Weasley continued asking me questions throughout the remainder of the meal. He was fascinated with the muggle world, and how it meshed with my world at camp.
As the last of the dishes sped off for the kitchen to be washed, Bill, Ron's eldest brother, raised his glass in a toast.
"I would like to toast to our family gathered here again for another Christmas together. To Albus's birthday tomorrow. And to Thalia, joining us this year. May the rest of her family travel safely, and join us soon."
The entire table raised their glasses in unison, and drank to Bill's proposal.
I looked over the rim of my glass at Albus to see him already looking at me. Casting my eyes, down, I set my glass back on the table and turned to talk to Rose.
All the while, I was acutely aware of Albus's foot still resting on top of mine. Slipping mine out from underneath, Albus jerked his leg away. I didn't meet his eyes, and he quickly turned to talk to his Uncle Percy next to him. Which was a bad idea as Percy started talking about his work.
I could see Albus falling asleep before my eyes.
Laughing, I yelled down the table to Roxanne.
[[[[]]]
We stayed in the house until the moon was long in the sky. Filled with good food and drink, everyone was perfectly happy to sit before the fire, remembering old times, and stories of the 'good old days' told mainly by Ron and George.
One by one though, the adults started to make their ways up to bed, dropping hints for us to make our ways outside. Finally, when Lily and Hugo fell asleep on the floor, we decided it was time to go out to the tents.
Waking up the younger ones, we began the trek out to the circle of glowing tents waiting just beyond the garden.
I wasn't going to complain, but couldn't they have put them just a little closer to the house?
Ducking through the tent opening, Rose, Lucy and I collapsed onto our beds, glad for the warmth in the tent.
"Hey Thalia," Rose whispered to me from above, "What'd you get Albus for his birthday?"
The truth? I'd racked my brains a thousand times over and couldn't think of something original and not cliché. I hadn't come up with anything yet, and his birthday was tomorrow.
"You're just going to have to wait and see." I told Rose instead.
She shook her head and yawned, "Well, I'm sure he'll like it, coming from you." And with that, Rose turned over under the covers, and within the next few minutes, I heard her breathing even out.
Lucy hadn't said a word to me the whole time. I don't think she liked the fact that I was not, strictly, supposed to be there, being a demigod and all. She was very particular about following the rules, and making them up as she went along, just like her father, so I was told.
I half-drifted off to sleep, listening to the wind and snow as it whistled past the walls of the tent.
Then I could hear something else other than the wind, voices coming from the tent next door:
"So what do you want for your birthday, Albus?" Fred asked quietly.
"Oh, I don't know…" Albus stuttered, trailing off with a yawn.
"Probably Thalia." James said, laughing.
Fred erupted into laughter. I heard James grunt as the pillow hit him that Albus had chucked at him.
I turned over in a huff.
"Shut up, you guys." I heard Albus growl before I hid my head under the pillow, trying to block out the sounds of their voices.
Of course, it didn't work.
It didn't make me happy that Albus and I were the laughing stock of the family. I didn't understand what was going to happen, and this prophecy didn't help matters. That it was already predetermined that Albus and I would save the world was annoying. I wanted to make my own decisions. I wanted us to make our own decisions.
Suddenly, the walls of the tent seemed much too close, the ceiling so much lower.
I slipped off the bottom bunk and into my shoes, out the opening of my tent and into the right next to it.
James, Fred, and Albus had finally fallen asleep. I silently walked to the side of Albus's bed, careful not to stub my toe on his trunk sitting at the end of his bed. I rummaged around next to it, trying to remember right where I'd seen it this afternoon… Ah!
I picked up the Flame Runner, and propped it over my shoulder. I was just about to leave again, wrapping my jacket tighter around myself, when Albus muttered something behind me, sitting up a bit.
Frozen, I tried to blend in with the darkness. I'm not very good at camouflage.
"Thalia?" he asked groggily. "What are you doing?"
"Um… It's a dream," I walked over to make sure Albus laid down again. "Go back to sleep." I whispered, brushing the hair away from his face.
He sighed, closing his eyes. I started to back away when he opened his eyes again, "Is that my broomstick?"
"Um…" I was glad for the darkness, so that he couldn't see me blush, "it's whatever you want it to be. It's your dream."
And I backed out of the tent before Albus could respond.
Jumping onto the broom, I kicked off the ground and into the air. The snow slapped my face and bit at my nose and cheeks, but I hardly noticed. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but I'd know when I found it, I was sure.
Not sure of how far I'd flown, I dove down a bit, peering through the sleet for a landmark. Then I saw it, a lake, black and churning in the dark night. I landed on the bank, squinting back and forth, but I couldn't see any indication of the lights aglow in the burrow from either way.
Stuffing the uneasy feeling in my stomach back down, I hid the Flame Runner in the snow and dove into the waves.
My eyes adjusted instantly, and the cold didn't pierce my body in the slightest. I swam deeper down, breathing normally, watching as the fish and creatures swirled around me. I disentangled a little green fish that got caught in my hair.
"Thanks dear!" it spewed as it spiraled off in a whirl of bubbles. I smiled and swam farther on; glad to be back in the water.
Finally I reached the bottom and settled down on a little bed of sea grass. It waved at me, swaying in the moonlight that shined still all the way down here. The water was clean and sweet in a way that only I could feel.
I closed my eyes and sighed, feeling my hair sway slowly above me. Without meaning to, I drifted off, breathing in time to the currents flowing around me.
Waking up a while later, I wasn't sure how much time had passed. I just knew that the light that shined from above the surface was quite brighter.
Pushing off from the bottom of the lake, I broke through the surface in less than a few seconds, completely dry.
It had stopped snowing, and the new fluff sparkled like diamonds in the rising sun.
I had to dig quite a bit deeper to find Albus's broom, but when I did, I was back in the air and streaking back in the direction I'd come, searching avidly for any sign of the burrow, a stream of smoke, anything.
Then I could hear my name.
"THALIA! THALIA!" I saw them, a few people a little below me, flying in circles, yelling my name.
"Sorry guys," I said, stopping in the air next to them. James, Harry, and Ron all looked at me.
"Where were you?" James asked accusingly.
"Um…" I fidgeted with the handle of the broomstick beneath me. "I was…" Inspiration came then, "I was just getting Albus's birthday presents."
The three of them looked at me doubtfully. "Well, you better get down there, everyone's freaking out." James nodded towards the house beneath us.
Landing on the ground, I realized that by everyone freaking out, James had meant mainly Albus.
Not that anyone else wasn't worried, but the moment I landed, Albus came streaking out of the house, running into me with enough force, that the breath was almost knocked out of me.
"Thalia! Where have you been?! What'd you do that for? Telling me it was a dream! Are you insane!" He wrapped me in his arms, almost to the point of suffocation.
"I'm fine." I gasped. "Just fell asleep." I slipped my note into his back pocket as everyone else started coming out of the house. He looked at me then, pulling away for a moment.
I just smiled and leaned into him, "Happy Birthday, Albus." I whispered in his ear.