Disclaimer: Harry Potter has not suddenly become my possession. I could never have written anything as amazing as JK Rowling did.

The Magic Word Is Sorry, Not Please
(Chapter Twenty One- Open Your Hearts)

Christmas came and went too quickly every year. Or at least, Dominique thought it did.

This year though, it was probably her own fault. She'd not bothered to get up until midday, so by the time she went down stairs no one was as excited as they would be at home.

"Morning." Fred nodded as Dom sat next to Louis. She spent every Christmas with him, and she wasn't about to let this year be any different.

"Hey, am I the last up?"

"Duh!"

"So let me guess; you've opened all your presents?" Dom asked. It was rhetorical really; of course they'd already had a big present session. That was ok, she didn't mind doing it on her own... much.

"Nope. We decided to wait for the whole family to be together."
Dom raised her eyebrows. "Are you serious?"

James just nodded as a reply. "We figured since it was weird enough that we weren't at home, we may as well do this part as a family. With tag-alongs." James smiled, nudging Louisa in the ribs.

If she was more emotional, Dom would've cried. Because it was weird, she never really felt like a big part of the family. She didn't spend much time with them out of school, as she and Louis spent most of their holidays at their Grandmere's in France, so she felt like about as integral as Anna, or Scorpius. It was like she wasn't actually a Weasley, despite the surname. They'd just completely proved her wrong.

She glanced around to see exactly who was there, to find that there wasn't one member of the family missing. Roxy was sat by the fireplace, next to a mini Christmas tree, leaning her head on Craig's shoulder, while Rose and Scorpius were curled up in the armchair. As was expected, James, Fred, Louisa and Anna were sharing the sofa as normal, and Louis, Hugo and Jake (and now Dom) were sat on the floor by them. Lily and Al were sat on the other sofa.
They were all there.

The weirdest part was that they were the only people in the whole common room. Normally, there were a few lingering Gryffindors, trying to hear what was going on in the Weasley corner, but it seemed that they were the only people to have stayed over the holidays. That was the way it seemed, anyway. It was more likely that the other Gryffindors had been so intimidated by the large family that they'd run off to open their presents in the Great Hall, or just decided to hide away in their dorms.

But it was cool that they were alone. Sometimes Dom really loved having a famous surname.

"Right, great, now my stupid sister's here, can we please open presents?" Louis asked mercenarily.

Dom rolled her eyes at her brother who didn't seem to appreciate that she had sat next to him extra-specially. Roxy nodded, flicking her wand and sending the presents below the Christmas tree flying towards the relevant recipient.

As was to be expected, the boys immediately ripped their presents open, and paper flew around the room.

"You really are patient!" Dom said, sarcastically.

"Er, we've waited like three hours with them just sat there waiting for us!" Fred replied, kicking her.

She shrugged, and began to open her own presents carefully. There were twelve presents in front of her, so she began with the smallest, and worked towards the biggest.

As was expected, she'd received another Weasley jumper from her Grandma, and a large box of sweets and chocolates and cakes to go with them. Her Uncle George had sent her a Daydream charm, which Dom smiled after opening, remembering the time when she'd confessed to him as a little girl that she had nightmares, so he'd promised her an unlimited supply of the charms. Aunt Hermione had sent her (and the rest of the family, as she could tell by the groans) a homework planner, which Ron had apologised for on the accompanying card. Harry and Ginny had sent her a new crystal ball, which Dom appreciated after Fred had smashed her old one, and her parents had sent her gift vouchers to the boutique on Diagon Alley. It was classic for her parents really, as it required no actual knowledge of their daughter. James and Fred had, irritatingly, both bought her another large box of chocolates from Honeydukes with a card saying to "fatten up". Roxy had bought her a new mirror, and Louisa had got her some new lipgloss from some muggle brand which she swore by. Anna had bought her a pair of omnioculars to apparently watch the Quidditch matches, and Rose had bought her a new quill, Al had got her a new notebook; it was pretty clear that the four of them had desperately bought the first thing they found that could count as a present. Louis had bought her a small porcelain box, with a scribbled card next to it saying "Noticed you broke your earring thing. Here, new one. x" Dom smiled slightly at that. Louis was capable of thinking every now and again. Hugo had bought her yet another box of sweets from Honeydukes. She also had cards from Scorpius, Jake, Professor Longbottom, Craig, Hagrid - from somewhere in the mountains-, Charlie, her French Grandparents and her Aunt Gabrielle. Then the cards got weirder; random Gryffindors, Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs she'd never spoken to, letters from fans sent through Witch Weekly or The Daily Prophet. All the kids had those; Fred was reading his adoring letters loudly just to annoy Anna.

Nothing from Victoire. Or Teddy, as it happened. She glanced at Louis' presents to see a large box of sweets from the pair; she had been deliberately forgotten.

It tipped an already bad Christmas into the diabolical standards and Dom found herself in a bad mood, not that she'd been in a particularly good mood before.

Despite the relative uselessness of all the presents, with the exception of maybe Louis, Uncle George, Uncle Harry and Roxy, Dom thanked everyone with a smile on her face.

Everyone else finished opening their presents at about the same time as Dom. Noticeably, Lily and Hugo had received new brooms and Scorpius had new keeper-gloves. Fred now had a massive box of fireworks, and prototypes from his Dad, and Roxy had a new bracelet hanging from her wrist thanks to Craig. James had been surprisingly romantic, buying Louisa a necklace. It made Dom regret not bothering to get a boyfriend before the holidays; she needed some new jewellery. James himself had a large book from his father about Quidditch. Dom had bought Louis a book on getting girls, mainly as a joke, but she noticed that he was flicking through it next to her. And Rose had a beautiful bracelet hanging around her wrist which Dom could swear was new, but she'd had it on before they'd opened presents... weird.

Dom sat and picked at her jumper in her arms as everyone thanked each other. She loved the Weasley jumpers. It made her feel so at home. Realising this, and realising that so far this Christmas was turning into a massive anti-climax, she pulled the jumper over her head.

She looked up at her cousins once she had done so, and they all went quiet for a second as they did the same thing. Now it felt like Christmas… A little bit.

"Ok, does anyone else think it's weird not being at home?"
"Yeah, I kind of miss Mum shouting at Dad for letting us open everything too quickly!" Rose laughed.

"I just miss the smell of food. And then Mum trying to help Grandma and getting shouted out of the kitchen!" The family smiled, remembering how much havoc their Christmases usually were. That was the problem; this year's was far too calm.

Dom didn't notice Roxy actually doing the magic, but suddenly the wrapping paper and presents disappeared, as if they were never there.

"They're all in your rooms!" Roxy told them before they questioned her. "Sorry, I couldn't handle the mess!"

They laughed at her, so she turned and hid herself in Craig's chest.

Dom hated being alone more and more each second of today.

"Right, before we all go our separate ways for the day..." Fred stood up. "I figured someone should do Grandad's thing of talking about what a good year we've had." They laughed a little. "So, well done Al, you actually passed your OWLs. Lily and Hugo got on the Quidditch team. Rose, you successfully started to go out with someone without us killing him, although there's still time for that. Dom, you were actually in a relationship for a month..." Dom rolled her eyes. "Louis, you're catching up with your sister's record- only with girls, I hope- and Roxy, you're head girl so you're continuing to make us all look bad, and James... well, after years of whining you finally got Louisa. And I... Well, I forgot to give my girlfriend her Christmas present!" Fred said, his hand in his pocket.

Dom looked at James confusedly, and he just shrugged as a reply.

And then something very, very weird happened.

Fred got down on one knee.

Roxy, Lily and Rose squealed. Anna stared with her mouth open. Dom had a weird feeling inside her, a half need to squeal and a half need to slap Fred around the face and tell him to get a grip and remember that he was still in school.

"Hold on, you're not actually proposing are you?" James said, ruining whatever moment there may have been, but also asking what everyone else was thinking.

"Kind of." Fred replied.

"What?" Anna squeaked.

"Well, it's not an engagement ring."
"Thank god." James said, throwing himself back on the sofa. Dom agreed.

"It's an eternity ring. Louisa told me about them. They're this muggle thing that basically means you'll spend forever together."
"You gave him this idea?" James asked his girlfriend.

"James, shut up!" Lily whined.

"So, will you?" Fred asked, opening a ring box to show a simple silver band with a green diamond sparkling brightly; the colour of the diamond was the exact colour of Anna's eyes.

"Will I what?" Anna asked back, raising her eyebrows.
"Will you spend forever with me?"

For a second, Dom thought Anna was going to say no; that was what she would do in this situation. He was asking her to give up her future that was full of possibilities to spend her life with the idiot that he was. She was completely ready to hug Fred and tell him it'd be ok and that-

"Yes. Of course I will you stupid bloody boy!"

Ok, so maybe Dom was hoping she'd say no; jealous and lonely didn't even cover how she felt right now.

As she expected, Fred and Anna began to kiss once she had the ring on her finger, except they didn't really stop.
"Woah, woah, woah! Get a room!" James commanded, kicking them. Louisa slapped him slightly for this, but thankfully Fred and Anna did pull apart.

"And well done to Fred, because he made all the boyfriends here look bad!" James said, standing up and jokingly finishing Fred's speech. "Merry Christmas!"
"Merry Christmas." Everyone echoed, before hugging various people. After hugging her brother, Louisa and Rose, Dom sat back in her original place and looked at the carpet for a while.

This Christmas really was the worse. And if Dom could physically apparate in Hogwarts, she would be out of here so fast, and back home. With her Grandma's cooking and the limited displays of affections because the parents were around. In fact, she missed the complete lack of girlfriends and boyfriends and non-family-members at Christmas.

Thinking this, she looked up to see everyone who was in a couple, behaving very couple-y. Rose and Scorpius were (daringly) kissing on the sofa, and Craig and Roxy were doing the same thing by the fireplace. Kissing didn't cover what Fred and Anna were doing, and James and Louisa were just staring into each other's eyes.

The single Weasleys looked at each other awkwardly, and Dom jumped up.

She couldn't stand being here. She couldn't stand being at Hogwarts, when she wanted to be at home. She couldn't stand not being acknowledged by her sister. She couldn't stand having couples shoved down her throat and feeling this alone.

"You ok, sis?" Louis asked from below her.

"Yeah." Dom lied. "I'm just... not feeling too good. I'm going to go and... g-get some fresh air." The fact she stuttered when she lied was something she needed to learn how to control.
"Oh, ok." Louis replied, looking at her disbelievingly.

She ignored the fact that her brother may be caring about her for the first time, and headed out of the common room. The various couples didn't even notice that she was leaving, despite the fact that the majority of them were her supposed best friends.

She needed to feel wanted. She needed to feel loved.

She knew what she planned to do was pathetic; she knew that it was the reason she had the reputation she did. But she also knew that it would stop her feeling alone, for now.

She ran down to the corridor by the courtyard, and then stopped by the window. She peered outside, and spotted some Ravenclaw guys from her year.
They'd do, she thought, flicking her hair and heading outside.

"Hey." She said simply to them, choosing her favourite mentally. The skinny blonde one wasn't ugly; he was a pretty good find, in fact.
"How's your Christmas going?" she asked them, barely listening the answer and just playing with her hair absentmindedly.

She vaguely noticed the chosen blonde one mentioning that his girlfriend had gone home for the holidays. And as much as she knew it was wrong, she told herself that the girlfriend didn't matter. She was just a complication for the guy; no difference to her.

It took about twenty minutes. Twenty minutes of flirting was all she needed to be down in the Ravenclaw common room, kissing the temporarily girlfriend-less blonde on his bed.

Whenever she wasn't kissing him in some way, the day went back to it's miserable self. But when his lips touched hers, she felt that love that she wanted, just for a second.

It wasn't worth it, but at least it distracted her. Distracted her from the worst Christmas she'd ever had.

...

This Christmas, Lily decided, was easily the best she'd ever had. Sure, she missed her home. And sure, she didn't really like being surrounded by couples and not being able to go near Jake, but she still loved it. There was just something memorable, something special, something independent about it all.

But the best part of her Christmas hadn't even come yet; there had been a note in her card from Jake. "Meet me tonight, in the common room, at midnight. Xxx". That, alone, was enough to make this Christmas amazing.

Luckily, she was sat next to Jake at dinner. Hugo was on one side, Jake on the other and Louis on his other side. Rose, Scorpius and Al were next to Hugo and Louisa, James, Fred, Anna, Roxy and Craig were sat opposite them.

Christmas dinner at Hogwarts wasn't as bad as she expected. In fact, it was possible that these potatoes even beat her Grandmother's.

"Anyone seen Dom?" Louis asked, looking around the hall as he ate.

Lily shook her head in reply, while a few other members of her family mumbled "no".

"Do you think she's ok?" Roxy asked.

"She'll be fine; it's Dom!"

They nodded in agreement with Fred, and returned their attentions to their food. The Weasleys and Potters sure could eat. Especially the Treacle Tart. They all had a weird obsession with the Treacle Tart.

As she ate, Lily reminisced about her Christmas. As different as it had been (for a start, she'd woken up early) it had still been as perfect as every Christmas should be. She'd surprisingly found Rose and Scorpius already in the common room, kissing under the fireplace, when she'd woken up. Feeling guilty for intruding, she'd gone back to bed for a few hours, returning at eleven and gladly seeing most of her family there. They'd waited an hour or so for Dominique, before opening the presents together. Then it had dissolved into a weird couples make-out session, so after Dom had left all of the single Weasleys (or pretend singles, in Lily and Jake's case) had begun to play exploding snap. The noise from the game had made all of the couples realise where they were, and the entire family had spent the afternoon playing the game and talking until Christmas Dinner.

When the food disappeared from the table, McGonagall stood up at the front of the hall.

James rolled his eyes, Lily could see. She didn't understand it; she liked McGonagall. Sure, she'd prefer Dumbledore, but everyone would prefer Dumbledore- he was a legend. McGonagall wasn't half bad, though; James only had a problem with her because she punished him and Fred so often.

"Evening, children, and Merry Christmas to you all. I'm pleased that you all enjoyed the splendid food that the House Elves prepared for us, and I trust that you've all had a pleasant Christmas day. This year, the amount of pupils staying over these holidays has been relatively large," Lily turned and looked around the hall to see that the headmistress was right, the tables were still quite full. "And, taking this into account, the teachers and I have decided to hold a special New Years Ball." The hall buzzed slightly with excited teenagers. "All pupils in fourth year and above are invited to come and celebrate the New Year, and have an opportunity to dress up and dance. I look forward to seeing you all, but for now I will allow you to continue your Christmas celebrations." McGonagall moved back to her seat, and instantly everyone began to talk.

"A ball; that'll be so much fun!" Lily heard from Roxy and Anna, while she heard "Eugh, Dancing." from Fred and James.

"Guess I may as well ask then, you'll go with me right?" James asked Louisa, who nodded excitedly in reply.

"You and me are going right?" Fred asked Anna, who nodded back.

Roxy and Craig didn't even bother to ask, they just smiled at each other.

Lily glanced at Jake, realisation hitting her like a punch in the stomach. They couldn't go together; it would be too difficult, so she'd just have to miss it.

However, she decided that nothing would ruin this Christmas; it was ok, she told herself, she couldn't dance any way.

The excitement of the dance went just as quickly as it had come, and everyone else began to dissolve from the hall.

"Anyone up for carrying on playing snap?" James asked, standing up.

Everyone agreed, and started to leave the hall.

"As long as you're ok with me beating you!" Fred replied as they walked towards the door.

"Who're you kidding? You're being beaten by me!" Anna replied, nudging him in the ribs.

They began to bicker, jokingly, and by the time they reached the common room the game had been changed to boys vs girls chess.

Lily hated chess.

"I'm off to bed." She sighed, heading up the stairs when they entered the common room.

"Oh, come on Lils. If you're getting on the beauty sleep train I will kill you!"

"No, no. It's just been a long day. And I have to be up early." She looked at Jake meaningfully, and then headed up her stairs.

She came back down them at midnight, wearing her pyjamas with her new Weasley jumper to stay warm. She had deliberately plaited her hair, brushed her teeth and pinched her cheeks, just so she didn't look quite as dead as she normally did at midnight.

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, the common room was completely silent and dark apart from the fire.

She went and sat on James' seat on the sofa, somehow liking the connection to him she felt by sitting there. The remains of a chess game were laid on the table. Whichever team had been black (unfortunately, likely to be the boys) had won.

"Hey." She heard his voice from behind her, and turned around.

"Hi." She replied, smiling at Jake. He was wearing a ripped Gryffindor sweater and tracksuit bottoms and his hair was all messed up, but Lily was positive that he still looked better than her.

"We won." He nodded at the chess game, and sat next to her.

"I thought so." She replied.

Without a second thought, she leant forward and kissed him. It'd been almost three days since they'd last been alone together (which they'd disguised as a trip on behalf of the family to beg the house elves for sweets but had then forgotten to come back with any food) and she'd missed him.

"Hey." She said again when she pulled her lips from his. "So, what am I doing down here?"

Jake smiled, and then pulled something out from behind him.

It was a present, which was pretty messily wrapped up. He passed it to her, and she looked down at it.

"I didn't get you anything." She said sadly.

"It's fine, Lils. Just open it, yeah?"

She nodded. She was rubbish at opening presents. She was ridiculously impatient and just ripped them apart like the boys did.

When she'd massacred the paper properly, she saw a silver bracelet within it.

"Wow." She said, under her breath.

He picked it up, and held it out. "Right, it means something." Lily tilted her head at him. "See, all these links are just... links. See, like they're holding it together-"

"Links tend to do that."

"Shh. But this bit..." He turned it around and showed her a diamond lily-shaped charm . "This bit's you. Because all the links are your family, but you're the special Lily. To me, anyway."
Lily had never cried because she was happy before, but now tears were filling her eyes.

"That's beautiful."
"Nah, it's kind of stupid." He laughed.

She just shook her head, as the tears were now falling down her cheeks.

He took her hand and did the bracelet up, then reached up and wiped away the tears from her cheeks.

"Don't cry, Lils."
"I-I'm these are happy tears."

He nodded, then kissed her on the cheek where her tears were.

"Best Christmas ever." She sighed, mainly to herself.