Summary: Christmas break, from four other perspectives.

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Susan's Christmas is a quiet affair. It's not diifficult to be such - she has a friend in Hermione, and an unfortunate aquaintence in Zabini, if only because he's annoying, but no great big extended family, so here she is, quietly opening presents on Christmas morning alone, because her Aunt, as Head Auror, got called in due to a small emergency or another that she can't explain to Susan, because it's classified, dangerous information.

Susan gets a few surprises; Weasley sends her a note on some parchment and a chocolate frog; the note reads expect something from my mum, she's gone and made everyone who helped out last year a jumper, somehow, and scribbled below, oh, also, I had a couple frogs spare, so, I hope you like them.

Susan does, when the damn things don't just immediately hop into a fire or out an open window, so she'll wait until later to eat the thing when she's safely ensconced away in her room with all the curtains shut. Who knows, maybe she'll get a card other than Dumbledore this time.

Susan gets, as Ron said, a jumper, a thank you letter, and some fudge from Mrs. Weasley. She shrugs and puts on the jumper - it's suprisingly soft, given... well, given the Weasley's financial situation, which is a pleasant surprise. She makes a mental note to send a thank you card and a return present for the Weasleys and something for Ron's chocolate frog, which he probably did, genuinely, only have spare because he decided to send his friends one out of a pack - they're cheaper to get in bulk, but not cheap.

Surprising no-one overmuch, Hermione sends her a muggle fantasy book and a muggle journal, along with some pens, pencils, rubbers and a sharpener, because of course she does, though the fact the book isn't non-fiction is both mildly odd and actually quite pleasing. Susan bought Hermione a book, too, because - well, she's Hermione. She'd like most any present so long as it was book-shaped, probably.

Zabini sent her and her aunt some ridiculously expensive chocolate, in a very formal way, supposedly from the whole Zabini family to the whole Bones family.

The whole two of both of them. Susan snorts and puts it aside - there's alcohol in some of them, and Susan doesn't trust anything with the Zabini matriarch's name attatched to it on top of that, so she won't be eating any of them until her aunts looked at them and taken all the dangerous or alcoholic ones away.

Susan notes the invitation to visit, and then pretends she hadn't. She puts the card aside, and then reaches over and grabs fletchely's present.

Surprsing that he got her one - but then, he's the sort to get everyone he knows something, even if he only ever met them in passing. Susan thinks it's something about being rich or what have you, that makes people do things like that. Money to spare, might as well use it.

It's a book, one on muggle law, which might be interesting. She'll send a thank you note and some sweets, before the holiday's over.

Susan will open her Aunt's present for her later, when she gets back home - so, for now, Susan makes herself some brunch, then curls up on the couch with that muggle law book. It's shorter than the one Hermione got her, which isn't surprising, by the way - so she'll likely be able to finish it before Hogwarts starts up again.

Ron's christmas is probably much less exciting than this, Ginny thinks, grinning widely at the dragon in the enclosure. It breathes fire, which just disperses on the shield - the poor thing's injured and agitated, but she'll make things worse for herself if she tries to fly, so... magical barrier it is.

"We got another in not too long ago!" Charile shouts over the roaring. "Norwegian Ridgeback! It's hatched - just a baby, really, barely any danger if you're careful! We can get close if you want, Gin!"

"Charlie-" Mum tries, but Ginny jumps on the spot, and then hurries over to her older brother. "Yes please!" She shouts, not quite as loud as Charlie can, but she'll get there one day, she will. She'll also let him get away with calling her that just this once, because she really wants to see a baby dragon!

"Great!" He grins, and leads the three of them in the direction of the baby dragon's enclosure. "She's called Norberta!" He says, "Promised the person who, uh, fount it we'd call it 'Norbert', but it turns out she's a girl, so - anyway, here we are!" He gestures, as he opens the door. There's someone in there with very thick gloves on, ones that reach past their elbows, which looks kind of funny, mixed in with their missmatched, assorted clothing.

"Hey, El," Charlie greets, no longer needing to shout - once the door is closed, the outside sounds die down a lot. "Mum, Dad, Ginny - El, our resident medical heroine. El, my family."

"Hey, Weasleys," The mediwitch nods to them. "Berta here's doing well, despite the lack of a mum = I think she thinks J's her mum, hoenstly," She snorts at the same time Charlie laughs. "But, well, you know what J's like. Anyway, she likes you, so I'll leave you to it." She claps Charlie on the shoulder as she passes, and the sound from outside cuts in then out as she leaves the enclosure.

"Okay," Ginny says, "Can I see? Can I?"

"'Course, Ginny," He says, and then walks over to the baby dragon. Ginny grins, and follows.

Best. Christmas. Ever. She hasn't even had to worry about Fred or George or both of them putting something 'funny' in a fake present for her this year!

Mandy's entire extended family gathers at the home her gran lives in, in that muggle-magical town near Glasgow, and it's... hectic. She's only ever vaguely enjoyed seeing more and more people she doesn't know each year. There were some reoccuring faces each year, but for some reason, Mandy swore half the guest list changed every time Christmas rolled around, from one petty feud or another.

Gran does the usual speech, and then everyone digs into the food. Mandy spots cousin Callum and her other cousin, Callan, trying to flick food at each other. She sees Sarah texting under the table, and she thinks Uncle Liam is asleep, or unconscious - he'd drunk a lot of wine by now - but the people not enjoying the feast are few-and-far between.

Mandy shrugs, and digs in herself.

Blaise avoids his mother over christmas break, mostly because she'll probably want to try and drag him into pretend-mourning for her newest victim - ah, Husband.

It's stupid. He knows she's killed him, or chose him because he was going to die - it doesn't matter. This is going to go about the same way it went for every step-father he's ever had; he'll pretend on the day and hide away long enough that people will think he prefers to mourn in private.

He never gets to know them, because that would also be stupid, so the mourning is only - mostly - fake. Every time.

Five, so far. This would be the sixth, so. Six, so far - next, seventh. She'll probably take a break after that - seven's a lucky number, after all, and she won't want to jinx it - and maybe won't even marry for a few more years.

If Blaise is lucky, that is.

Blaise sighs, and looks out the window. His mother is greeting the guets, downstairs, so Blaise is going to have to get ready and head downstairs, soon, for the Yule Ball, but he can't be bothered yet.

He has presents he's not yet opened, surprisingly. Susan sent him a thank-you gift, it looks like. Granger sent him a book, for some likely beignin reason, even though they aren't actually the sort of aquaintances that send each other gifts at christmas time. That's it, of course, but it's more than he'd truthfully thought he'd get; Blaise hasn't had the chance, this year, to charm many of his classmates into friendship. Too busy - it's been a very interesting year, so far, and he doubts very highly that it will get less interesting as it goes on... rather, what's going to happen is likely the opposite of that.

Blaise flicks through the book - muggle fantasy, interesting, it might be a good idea to see what the muggles think magic could be like, he could get some useful ideas from it - for a few minutes, then sighs when he sees the crowd outside thin down to a mere five people.

Blaise puts the book under the pillows of his window seat, stands, stretches, then moves over to his wardrobe. He enters, finds some robes he hasn't worn yet, and gets ready for the party.