On Christmas morning I awoke with a flush of excitement as I did every Christmas day. Without a moment of hesitation I flung my covers off in order to eye up the presents at the end of my bed. All of my usual gifts were there, such as my annual Weasley jumper and condiments, Fred and George's joke box and my parent's care package of supplies, sweets, home baked goods and an extra present, which this year was a rather special one. It was a snow globe with Hogwarts centred in the middle, surrounded in snow and sparkles with miniature owls swooping through the sky, and around the base the Hogwarts Express puffed and steamed upon its railway tracks, appearing briefly before then disappearing into the tunnel only to reappear again in a constant loop. I immediately set it on my bedside table next to my Swedish Short-Snout miniature dragon who was now sleeping on a pile of coins it had stolen from my pocket to keep as its hoard.
Every time I tried to take the money back it nipped at my fingers, so I let it have them for the time being, intending to find something else for it to keep as it's treasure trove later. Turning back to my presents, I found one from Lupin. There were two parcels from him. One was a book containing a collection of papers released by renowned witches and wizards focusing on the intricacies of magic and magical theory, so I eagerly tucked it under my pillow in order to read later. The second was smaller, and when I opened it I found a circular handheld mirror which clicked open and shut with a pretty design on the lid.
Opening it, I looked over every inch in a bid to try and find out more about it. It looked old, so it may be an heirloom of some kind, and there seemed to be some kind of magic on it. Taking my time and softly waving my wand over the mirror as it lay open in my palm, I came to understand that the mirror was a 'lucky charm'. These were popular a long time ago, ordinary objects which were charmed to bring things like luck, prosperity and health to the carrier. Smiling, I tucked the little mirror right into my pocket with a note in my head to write back to Lupin and thank him. I'm fairly certain this lucky charm was meant to bring me just that, luck, as I would certainly need it this year.
There were other presents in the pile too, things from Ginny and Hermione, Harry and Ron as well as gifts from Fleur and the Beauxbatons students, which made me very glad that I had thought ahead and sent gifts to them and Madame Maxime as well, otherwise I would have felt exceedingly guilty. I'd even sent something to Viktor and a few of the Durmstrang students I was familiar with, though I hoped they didn't snitch on me because I'd sent them plenty of Christmas mead. It would definitely warm them up, at the very least.
Finally there was only one gift left, and I had been saving it especially because it was from dad. I recognised his handwriting immediately so I smoothed open the crisp envelope and began to read, already smiling to myself as I did so.
Mia,
Merry Christmas sweetheart, I hope you find use for this old trinket. Been in the family for generations.
Loving you always,
Dad.
Chuckling softly, I then reached for the black velvet pouch with curiosity, feeling there was some weight to it so I pulled the top open then tipped out its contents into my hand. A large gemstone fell into my palm embossed upon the finest silver, a delicate chain carrying the pendant as I choked on my own breath as I stared at it. Old and trinket were definitely not the words that came to mind. I was no expert on stones, but it didn't take me long to find the card inside the pouch which was the receipt which told me everything I wanted to know.
Heirloom of House Black.
One goblin-made silver pendant. Blue diamond centre. Diamond star frame.
Withdrawn from vault seven hundred and eleven by written request of vault sharer.
Recipient: Vault sharer Euphemia Selene Black. Full access.
It was then dated and signed by the goblin in charge of the vault, but my head was still reeling. There was too much going on at once. Firstly, I was holding a priceless heirloom in my hand, the centre stone being roughly the size of a quail's egg. Second, it said on the receipt that I was a sharer in the Black's vault and that I had full access. Did this mean dad had put my name onto the account when I was born? He must have done, but I hadn't known about it. This meant that there had to be an entire fortune in there that I could use as and when I wished?
Some Christmas present. I hardly knew what to think. In the end I decided to properly study the necklace, unable to deny that it was very beautiful and it set off my eyes rather effectively as I held it up around my neck and used the pocket mirror to see my reflection. It felt perfect, so I decided that I was definitely going to wear it tonight with my dress. For the moment however, I need to put this somewhere safe. First I slipped it back into the pouch, placed a sealing spell over it as well as an alarm, then suddenly eyed up my miniature dragon which I had named Prism. "Here, guard this with your life and if anyone tries to touch it other than me, bite their fingers off." I told her sternly, making her shift over so that I could put the pouch on top of the pile of knuts and sickles.
Immediately Prism sniffed at it then gave a squeaky roar before jumping up on top, circling several times before then squatting down, lingering over it protectively. Useful little thing. Anyway, I suppose it's time to get up. I could hear the other girls in my dorm room starting to stir, but seeing as I'd already finished unwrapping my gifts, I quickly organised them all and pulled on my Weasley jumper before stuffing my feet into my slippers then bounded out of my room to wake everyone else.
First I got Ginny, leaping on her with a cheerful cry of 'merry Christmas sleepyhead!' before then going to Fred, George and Lee. They were just about awake, but after I flung open the door and breezed in, they were snapped to their senses and Lee gave a girlish shriek as I strode in, snatching his covers up to his bare chest indignantly. "Morning all! Wake up and get a move on, this day won't spend itself you know! Weasleys! Get your jumpers on already! There's no time to waste!"
"Do you have to be so noisy in the morning?" George groaned as he yawned, only now pulling back his curtains so I jumped over with a smile, kissed his cheek then ruffled his hair.
"Yes I do. Now hurry up! Oh, and thank you for my presents, I'll be sure to make good use of them!" Singing happily I then skipped along to Hermione's dorm room where Ginny then joined us as we sat together, talking excitedly about getting ready and agreeing that we would all come in no later than five in order to start getting ready. Hermione had already enlisted my help for her hair as she'd purchased some sleeking potion and wanted help applying it, so I was looking forward to trying that out whilst secretly hoping I didn't mess it all up for her.
Once all presents were opened we then went downstairs in order to eat a festive breakfast, all of us smiling and laughing as the games started, waiting until everyone had finally roused themselves from sleep and opened their own gifts. Harry and Ron took even longer than the twins, but eventually we were all together where we pulled Christmas crackers, ate dessert for breakfast and generally had a wonderful morning which was then followed by a snowball fight. I was in a serious deadlock with the twins who seemed to be taking revenge for bursting in on them this morning, my shrieks echoing over the grounds as I continually dove for cover before I quickly waved my wand to make a branch full of snow drop on their heads.
"Hey! That's cheating! No magic allowed Mia!"
"Get her!" Harry and Ron joined the fray, and soon it was boys versus girls in an all-out war. I completely boycotted the no magic rule in the end, creating several zombie like snowmen and made them chase after the boys until my charm started to ring on my wrist, informing me that our time outside was up.
"We'd better get going. See you later boys!" Waving to them, they all frowned at me in confusion.
"We're going to go get ready for the ball." Hermione explained as Ginny and I dusted ourselves off from any reside snow as Ron then checked his watch and frowned all the more.
"What, you need three hours?" Choosing this moment to aim a snowball at his brother, George launched it at Ron's distracted face to hit him right in the temple and I laughed, enjoying the look on his face though Ron didn't seem to care, now shouting after Hermione as we started to head off. "Who're you going with?!" Ignoring him, we all wading our way through the snow before I used magic to dry ourselves off so that we wouldn't start to freeze.
"Come on, I'll take you two to the prefects bathroom. My treat, only don't tell anyone else. I'd get into trouble if we were found out." I invited them, promising them that they were going to love it, and love it they did. We all wore bathing suits in order to go into the water since none of us were particularly comfortable with the idea of being naked and whilst I filled the bath, Hermione and Ginny deliberated over which scents they would like. "Just don't choose too many at once, otherwise people will smell you from a mile away and it'll linger for weeks. Look, you can even select which part of the bath you want to put the scent in and it'll stay in that section, so we can all choose one."
Directing them on how to work it, we filled the bath with plenty of bubbles before choosing a fragrance of our own. Ginny went for rose, Hermione selected almond and I chose raspberry and mint. We all thoroughly enjoyed warming ourselves, bathing and washing our hair, splashing around and waving our wands to make the bubbles float and dance around us until it was time to get out. In seconds we were dry and smelling perfectly fragrant, leaving the prefect's bathroom with all our belongings and sneaking away before we could be caught. Then we all made our way into my dormitory as it had the best light in order to begin preparing.
We focused on Hermione's hair first, brewing the sleeking potion before she had to stick her head over a cauldron and let it seep into her hair in order to do it's work. Meanwhile Ginny primped and preened herself, filing her nails so that they were smooth and clean before then spreading out her dress to look at it. I thought it was a lovely dress, though she worried it may look a little frumpy since she had had it for so long. "Well, we can fix that. Come on, put it on and let's see if I can work my magic." Joking lightly, I had Ginny go change and whilst she got dressed, I stirred the cauldron of sleeking potion according to the instructions. Three times clockwise and once anti-clockwise. "How are we doing there Hermione? Feeling light headed yet?"
"A little. Is it nearly finished?" Checking my charm bracelet and tapping it for the time, I informed her that it needed just another three minutes to stew. Now Ginny came back and I made her stand still so that I could get a good look at her. The dress was lovely, in my opinion, though it had pulled slightly in some areas and the colour had faded. Also, it was a little plain, so after thinking for a few moments, I waved my wand and began to work. I tinted it back to the original shade of mint green which I felt suited Ginny, pulling back her hair and having it weave itself into a simple plait for the moment.
Then I released a shower of sparkles from the tip of my wand, decorating the hem of the skirt so that it glittered every time she moved, tapping the places where it had frayed, pulled or stretched to fix them as I concentrated, sometimes muttering under my breath before then creating a thick ribbon of light blue which quickly wrapped itself around her waist as I twirled my wand, directing everything like I was conducting an orchestra until it had tied itself into a plump, neat bow at the back. I may not be into girly things, but I had practiced this enough times on Ginny to be able to tie bows with and without magic since she used to always ask for them whenever she had ribbon to hand. Now focusing on her hair, I used my fingers for this part.
Gently freeing it from the temporary plait, I combed through it carefully whilst also keeping an eye on the time. "You can get up now Hermione, use that towel there to wrap up your hair. It needs to sit for a further five minutes before you can start rinsing out the potion." I directed so she did just that, picking up the fluffy towel I had prepared for her to wrap up her hair before sitting on the end of my bed in her dressing gown and watched me fiddle with Ginny's hair. Not wanting to go for anything too elaborate, I added some glitter to her hair so that it looked like a fine layer of fairy dust had landed on her head before then pulling the top half back, plaiting it carefully before then securing it with another ribbon.
"There! Pretty as a picture. Take a look and tell me what you think." Waving my wand again, I made the full length mirror in the corner of the room zoom over to us so that Ginny could see, and the moment she took in her reflection she beamed brightly.
"It's perfect! I hope mum won't mind the alterations…I really need to learn how to do all that myself, it'll be useful for some of my other clothes." Glad that she was happy, I then focused on Hermione, helping her with her hair next. Once it was rinsed and dried, Hermione looked completely different. Her hair fell across her shoulders in a sleek blanket of mousey brown hair, framing her slim face prettily as she smiled at us.
"How does it look?"
"Amazing." We both said at once before I surged forwards with a fiery determination to make Hermione look her absolute best, if for nothing else than to make Ron jealous and perhaps even knock some sense into him. I meticulously curled her hair, arranging it into a loose twist and securing it whilst allowing some of the curls to fall free, making it seem that at any moment all of it would come loose and a wave of perfectly sleek curls would come tumbling free like a woven cascade. After adding a touch of makeup, donning her periwinkle blue dress and shoes, we finally deemed her ready.
Hermione had never been a vain person and never will be, however when she saw herself in that mirror she didn't come away from it for a good ten minutes, as if she herself didn't believe how different she looked. Despite being only fourteen, there was a certain maturity about her and she had always been a very classically beautiful girl, in my opinion. It's just that she had her nose buried so often in a book hardly anyone got to notice. Harry and Ron really were daft if they hadn't realised just how pretty the girl they'd been walking around with for the last three or four years was.
However now, it was my turn, and both the girls insisted on doing everything for me in a bid to return the favour. Ginny worked on my hair as she was also rather an expert at taming my head of curls, and Hermione helped her use what was left of the sleeking potion to make the curls disappear so that my hair became looser and wavier, almost perfectly straight. After much deliberating, they decided that it looked best simply left down, the rich blackness speaking for itself before I then pulled on my own dress.
Deep, midnight blue fabric formed to the contours of my body before flowing down to the floor in an airy fabric that felt like it weighed nothing at all. When I stepped out to show them both, their jaws immediately dropped. What made this dress special was the fact that the lower half was covered in little twinkling stars, mimicking the image of a perfectly clear night sky, occasionally catching a shooting star before returning to being the shimmering heavens. It flowed neatly and rose high enough off the floor so that I wouldn't trip over it, though there was an extra layer which gathered at the back which flared outwards whenever I twirled to create a sweeping canopy of astronomical wonder, a mesmerising galaxy of blues and purples appearing like mottled clouds with their nests of stars before the dress would then settle once more.
"You look…you look incredible Mia, no, gorgeous." Hermione stuttered, hardly able to believe it as Ginny grinned.
"And here I thought you didn't like girly things." I shrugged.
"Doesn't hurt to try it every now and then. Besides, McGonagall said I couldn't show up in my quidditch gear." They both laughed at that so I stepped forwards, feeling my heeled shoes click lightly over the ground as I went to my bedside table, shifted Prism out of the way and took the necklace out in order to put it on. The moment I lifted it around my neck and held the two clasps together, they magically bonded so that it would be impossible for me to lose it, which was a great relief. If I lost this, I don't think I could ever face dad afterwards, though he'd probably just wave it off and say that it was just a necklace and that there were plenty more where it came from.
Neither Hermione nor Ginny could see what I was doing, so when I turned around and showed them the necklace, they immediately made a fuss over it, wanting to know where it came from. "My dad sent it to me, he had it brought out of the family vault for the occasion." Now, even though it was now widely known that my real dad was Sirius Black, most people still assumed that whenever I happened to mention my dad, I still meant Leo. Hermione, however, seemed to guess as her eyes widened all the more at me.
Now more or less ready, I picked up my wand and the little handheld mirror Lupin had sent me and slipped both items into the invisible pocket on the side of the dress, feeling much better having my wand with me so that I could hex anyone who dared laugh or even remotely irritated me. "Shall we go then? We don't want to be late meeting our dates." Ginny suggested, but I let them go on ahead without me. There was still one more person I needed to visit before this all started, and that was a certain Mr Ronald Weasley. I'd heard him say countless times that his dress robes were a sight of horror, so I thought I might take a look and see if I could offer my services. It was Christmas after all.
"Are you all decent in there?" Knocking on the door and calling out, I waited for a reply before opening the door and sweeping inside. "Evening boys, all ready for the ball?" Completely forgetting the fact that I was wearing a dress and a priceless necklace, I didn't understand why all the boys started gaping and staring at me until I looked down. "Oh right, mandatory dress code, unfortunately. Now Ron, let's get a look at you."
"Don't, it's hopeless. These robes are ancient, I can't go out there looking like this." He groaned, tugging on the frilly cuffs and the ruff around his neck. "They smell too."
"Well, that's why I'm here, dummy. Come on, stand here and don't move. I'll see what I can do." First thing's first, I waved away the rather stale smell that seemed to linger in the robes, like someone had died in them. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if someone had, though it seemed like Molly had done her best to wash the smell out. I had to make Ron bear with me as I doused him with water then showered him with soapy bubbles from my wand, making everyone else laugh as he just glared at me, thinking I was taking the piss.
However with a few quick waves of my wand, he was clean and dry with better smelling robes. Now I focused on what it looked like, and to be frank, it was awful. First off, I got rid of the ruffles. They just had to go, no questions asked. A neat severing charm had them gone in an instant, tidying up any fraying ends and mending a hole under the arm as I made Ron lift both up so I could see every inch of them. Meanwhile, the boys just watched me work and it looked like Harry was particularly enjoying himself, watching his best friend get tormented as I waved my wand again to summon pins, needles and thread from my room.
Mum had insisted that a sewing kit was a good thing to have to hand, once again she'd proven that mother's really did know what was right. So with pins floating around, I quickly adjusted the cut of Ron's robes and threaded the needles to quickly stitch neatly from the inside after I'd pulled off the outer robes and made them float in the air, filled out like Ron were still wearing them. Now they looked far neater and had a classic cut with smooth shoulders rather than having ridiculous puff monstrosities.
With a few more trims here and there, I then changed the colour from a faded maroon to a deep garnet red, almost black which looked extremely classy considering it was made from velvet. By the time I was nearing completion, Harry's face had long since dropped from smugness to complete gobsmack, staring at the newly improved set of dress robes which, when Ron put them on, made him look rather good looking. I fussed over him, teasing him for looking so grownup and, with a wave of my wand, brought my camera zooming out of my room and into Ron's. "Come on Harry, both of you stand together. Since this is probably the only time I'll ever see you both in dress robes, I want a souvenir."
Forcing Harry to stand for the picture, I noticed that Ron did look a lot happier now, in fact he seemed rather impressed as he inspected his cuffs to find large brass buttons that had been so covered in age and grime before, they had seemed black. Making them both stand up straight, I then rearranged Ron's longish hair so that it was swept backwards, borrowing some of Seamus's hair gel in order to make it stay before trying to combat Harry's hair, but in the end I gave up and just took the photo. Neville then kindly offered to take a photo with me in the frame too, and Harry thought this was a good idea so I was pulled in.
Finally I threw caution to the wind and had the entire dorm gather up for a photo together, taking a final one before I then chased them out, yelling at them for being late though I was laughing as I did so. "Thanks Mia! You're an angel!" Ron yelled over his shoulder so I yelled back as I booted Harry out of his own room.
"You bet I am, and don't you dare forget it!"
