Santa's Secrets
Oh the weather outside is frightful,
And a Weasley Christmas can be a handful,
But since they refuse to go,
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
Christmas day could not start until everyone had their hand knitted Christmas sweaters on, that this year was made by both grandma Molly and aunt Ginny. Victoire was sat on the sofa in her tyrian purple sweater, her legs crossed and playing around with Dominique's hair who sat on the floor in front of her. The family was scattered across the house, with the younger boys playing outside or in one of the bedrooms, most of the adults telling embarrassing stories of their children in the dining room with glasses of any alcohol and others taking turns in attempting to help Molly with dinner. Both the fire and being surrounded by family created a warmth in every inch of the house that ignited an infectious everlasting joy in everyone. To reduce the taunting from the family, especially uncle George and uncle Harry, Victoire and Teddy would distance themselves, only being next to each other during dinner and when Victoire wanted the occasional cuddle. She tried her best to not start any fights with her sister, doing bonding activities with her and Louis that reminded her that her siblings were actually awesome.
Fred entered the living room, slumping onto the sofa next to Victoire with uncle Harry following him.
"Why won't you tell me?" uncle Harry complained,
"Nothing happened," Fred insisted with a sigh.
Victoire could guess that the subject of why Fred seemed so happy after returning from Hogwarts had arisen and uncle Harry was always the one to try and squeeze information out of him. Though she wanted to know what had Fred so giddy with joy, she knew he would tell her when he was ready and simply assured him that she was always there for him when he wanted to talk. But Harry was the opposite, pressing him like wine grapes until he had enough juicy gossip in his goblet.
"The Yule Ball was great, I met some nice people and that's it," Fred stressed,
"Oh 'and that's it'," Harry wasn't buying it and turned to Victoire, "do you know what happened?"
Victoire sighed, "Well, he did stand up to his bully which was awesome and then there was that guy he talked to erm, Miles I think,"
"His name is Carlisle," Fred instantly replied before covering his mouth.
Harry clapped with entertainment as uncle Ron came in and stood in front of Victoire, hand on his hip and the other lifted to the side with a mischievous young strawberry blonde boy dangling from it. Blocking out the vertical line of the L on Louis's sweater was chocolate that also surrounded his mouth, was smeared on his hands and Victoire could even spot some at the tips of his messy hair. Though there was a frustrated face on Ron, Louis was in hysterics and obviously proud of the trouble he had caused.
"What did he do now?" Victoire laughed at her brother,
"I found him eating the chocolates Ginny got me, AGAIN," Ron's annoyance only made the situation funnier,
"They were good too," Louis giggled before being dropped to the floor with a thud.
This was how Dominique and Victoire were when they were younger. They had put it down to the mix of Weasley and Delacour blood creating the ultimate recipe for young mischief and therefore, no one was ever surprised when Louis was the culprit of another crime.
"How much did you eat this time?" Harry asked,
"Half a box, but they melt quickly so-" Louis was interrupted by Ron grabbing him by his sweater,
"This is the last year you'll be able to do this Louis! Do you hear me? No one touches my chocolates and gets away with it," Ron threatened.
There was a silence as Louis looked at Ron in shock and his body resembled a ragdoll with his arms swaying by his sides. This was the first time Ron had ever talked to Louis this way- well, Louis had been stealing his chocolates every Christmas for the past three years- and Victoire worried that such an angry tone would upset her little brother and having him go from cheery to teary. Almost out of nowhere, Louis burst into laughter, pressing his chocolate coated hands on Ron's face, kicking his legs and rolling on the floor when Ron let him go. The spectators couldn't help but join him, and so did anyone who entered the room to enquire about the nonsense.
"Victoire, get a top for your rascal brother, while I clean him up," Fleur forced the words out as she attempted to control her laughter,
"That's it?! No telling off, no 'don't you ever do that again', nothing?" Ron's rage wasn't helping his case,
"Oh, Ronald. He's just a kid, and they're just chocolates," Hermione found a way to speak seriously,
"I'll go find something," Victoire announced as she began to walk upstairs with the sound of Ron whining in the background.
Strolling through the oranges and browns of the Weasley House was tranquilizing and Victoire enjoyed exploring it to see what changes had been made as people moved in and out. Though the weather was dim outside, there was a never-ending brightness that radiated off of everything in the house, from the wooden doors and stairs to the soft blankets and curtains. The room Victoire would always stay in as a child was one of the only ones that diverged from the orange and brown colour palette, as the walls were striped with pastel blue and coffee brown, yet the blanket over the bed under the window was like all the others with patches of oranges, browns and some white knitted together. The dresser that used to be against the left wall had been morphed into shelves opposite a large wardrobe and on the shelves were folded clothes for the children, an adorable cream teddy bear and dolls that she remembered playing with. Family pictures and serene landscapes decorated the walls and Victoire took a closer look at each of them after picking a jumper for Louis. Her favourite picture of her, Dominique and Louis was closest to the bed and showed the three lying amongst a mound of autumn leaves, holding each other's hands and grinning from ear to ear. It had been taken four years ago and there was something funny about how you could see the tips of their parents' feet at the bottom of the picture. As Victoire ran her fingers down the mahogany frame, the picture tilted and a letter fell from behind it onto the bed. Prepared to put the letter back as if it meant nothing, Victoire picked it up, but hesitated at the rare light tiffany blue of the envelope, the perfect white of the rope that crossed over it and the golden wax seal that had the Beauxbatons crest stamped into it. This being her mother's acceptance letter was a very logical excuse, until Victoire noticed her own name and the address for shell cottage written in elaborate swirls. This was impossible. She had spent almost every second during the time when acceptance letters were sent sitting behind her front door, waiting and begging for her Beauxbatons letter, yet she only received one for Hogwarts. She couldn't have missed it. Who would keep this from her?
Confusion with rising anger charged through her, reflected in how she made her way downstairs and looked for her mother. When she found her in the kitchen, delicately placing plates onto the dining table, she stood there briefly, watching her as she attempted to keep calm. As usual, her mother looked beautiful, with her hair tied into a bun, accentuating her elegant neck, a cream throw around her that never fell from her shoulders, and a knitted navy blue dress with her initial on in white. Everyone would say that Victoire looked the most like her mother with Weasley feature like freckles added onto her, but why would someone so close to her keep something so important from her?
"Qu'est-ce que c'est?" Victoire held up the letter.
Fleur turned to her with a warm smile which evaporated as soon as her eyes moved from her daughter to the letter in her hand. Her reaction only confirmed in Victoire's mind what had happened all those years ago.
"Comment as tu trouvé ça?" her mother replied with a wavering voice,
Molly and Ginny who were standing over a pot, rotated to watch the drama, but with concern on their faces.
"William, come here please," Fleur called,
"What is this, mother?" Victoire's voice grew more stern as she began to lose her patience.
Keeping her eyes fixed on her daughter, Fleur waited for Bill to enter the kitchen and grasped his hand, urgently pulling him to her side as he noticed the letter in her hand. Instead of repeating herself, Victoire shook the letter with her eyes demanding an answer.
"Vivi, just stay calm, please," her father's voice would've been soothing in any other situation,
"Why did I not see this?"
The answer she had hypothesised in her head wasn't enough. When she finally gave up on receiving a Beauxbatons acceptance letter, she cried in her bed for days, barely ate anything and began to question whether she was good enough- an insecurity that clung onto her throughout her life. She didn't have anything against going to Hogwarts, it was just that she wanted to make her mother proud and be able to say that she lived up to the standard of the tradition of being a head girl in the iconic French school. Her eyes began to water with a mixture of anger and sadness and her voice trembled as she asked. "W-w-why did you ke-keep this from me?"
"You had already received your Hogwarts letter and you were starting to be optimistic," Fleurs excuse was weak,
Victoire opened the letter, "'Dear future student, I am pleased to inform you on your acceptance to the Beauxbatons Academy of Magic; where magic meets magnificence'," she couldn't bring herself to read anymore, "you knew how much this meant to me, you knew! I just, I just, I don't understand."
As she clenched the letter in her hands, she looked at the faces in the kitchen. Her eyes drifted from grandma Molly, to aunt Ginny, to Dominique, to aunt Hermione and rested of Teddy. There wasn't any surprise in their faces, not even an inch, only concern and sympathy as a tear trickled down her cheek. How was she the only one shocked by this?
"You all knew," her whisper turned into a heavy cry, "you all knew?!"
"Not everyone," her father spoke calmly, "your mother and I just wanted advice as to what we should do,"
"And you decided to hide the truth from me, knowing how much I had my heart set on going to this bloody school! I cannot even explain the pain in my chest from this. Even if you wanted to me to choose Hogwarts, if you had just shown me this damned letter and expressed your opinion, I probably would have ditched my dream just to keep you all happy."
Looking at the same faces only intensified her tornado of anguish and she proceeded to leave the kitchen only to be stopped by Teddy who took her arm and pulled her gently towards him. She could read his face like a children's book- his eyes screamed that he was sorry and regretted keeping this from her and the inward slope of his eyebrows told her that he was concerned about her and wanted to hold her as she cried, "Of all people to keep something so big from me," her voice quietened and shook as she pushed him away, "the last person on this earth I would guess has kept anything from me, is you, Edward."