"Merry Christmas!"

Morgan rolled over, took one look at Drefinia's cheerful face and groaned. She pulled the covers over her head. "Leave the hung over girl alone." She moaned indistinctly.

"Not a chance!" said Drefinia, whipping the covers back. "You're not allowed to mope on Christmas. Time to get up and face the world again." She turned and left.

Morgan sat up, knowing it was futile to try and get back to sleep. One of the twins would be sure to come back in and wake her up again. "Where would I be without them?" she asked herself. "For a start, I'd still be asleep." She sighed and started to try and find some clean clothes in her bombsite of a room.

After they had opened their presents, there was nothing to do except sit around. "Hey, I know!" Hermione cried suddenly. "We could have a picnic."

Morgan shot her a questioning look. "Out there in the cold?"

"Well why not?" she replied. "It's got to be better that sitting here doing nothing. Anyone else got any better ideas?" She looked around in triumph as everyone just stared blankly, completely out of ideas.

They were just walking out the door when Harry realized something. "Hang on, I forgot something." Hermione looked around the door and saw him fetch his wand from his bag and stash it in his coat. He saw her approving look.

She smiled grimly. "You can't be too careful. I've got mine and I made Ron bring his too."

"Good thinking." He replied.

"Hey you two!" Morgan shouted. "What's taking so long?"

"Coming!" Hermione called, hurrying down the stairs.


In the midst of unpacking, Morgan stopped watching her breath making little clouds in the freezing air. "It's so cold out here." She said, shivering.

"We could try making a fire." Drefinia suggested.

Morgan was skeptical about that. "Can you do that? Here?"

"How hard can it be? Cavemen managed it didn't they?" But it wasn't as simple as she had hoped.


Twenty minutes later, Drefinia threw down the smoldering twigs in frustration. "Why can't there just be a magical solution to everything!"

Everyone except the twins froze. Drefinia looked from Morgan who was desperately trying to stifle a laugh to Ron who had inhaled part of his sandwich out of shock. "What?"

The awkward silence was broken by a sudden crack. Everyone jumped.

"Damn backfiring cars." Tremain muttered.

The others weren't so easily calmed. Harry stood up, his clasped hand on his wand in his jacket.

About to sit back down, he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned just in time to see a Death Eater jump out into the open, wand raised. They didn't recognize him, but could see he meant business.

But he wasn't quick enough. Harry whipped out his wand and cried. "Stupefy!" The Death Eater dodged, but only just. When he looked up, he saw three wands pointed at him.

"Good thing we outnumber him." Ron said, relieved.

That statement was closely followed by four more cracks as the same number of Death Eaters apparated.

"What the hell is going on here!" Tremain raged.

One of the Death Eaters turned. It was Lucius. "Don't worry, you filthy little muggle," he sneered, "we're only here for the Potter boy. You are of no concern to us."

"You're the filthy one!"

Lucius turned to the voice. "Ah, my little mud-blooded niece. How is your mother?"

"How dare you!" she launched herself at him, but Hermione held her back. "Let me go! This waste of skin doesn't deserve to live!"

"Oh, now that hurt." He said, a smug grin on his face. "I can't let an insult like that go unpunished." In one fluid motion he seized Tremain and holding him in a headlock, pressed his wand to Tremain's neck. "You're friend will suffer because of you. Cru-"

Before anyone else reacted, Drefinia had cried out, "no!" and reached out for her brother. Lucius went flying. But no one had any time to think about how strange that was as the battle had begun.

In one word, it was chaos. Spells were flying everywhere. Morgan managed to stupefy one of them, but no sooner had she done that than another was pointing his wand at her.

Tremain may not have had a clue what was going on or what had suddenly happened to reality, but he instinctively knew that there was danger here. Very real danger. And Morgan was right in the middle of it, shooting light out of what looked like a stick. He could see Lucius aiming directly at her from behind. "Don't you even try it."

He did try however, only to find himself mysteriously under the silencing charm. This was odd because no one had shouted 'silencio' – or even anything that sounded remotely like it.

In the midst of it all, man appeared with the crack of a whip. "Dumbledore!" All those around cried his name, but in varying tones. His students called out in relief, while his enemies spat it, full of hatred.

As if at some unknown signal – or just possibly the sight of Dumbledore – the Death Eaters all disapparated.

Morgan sank gratefully to the ground. "Thanks much to whoever silenced that dirtbag."

The others looked confused. "It wasn't me." Hermione said.

"Or me." Harry added. They looked at Ron, but he shook his head.

Morgan stood back up. "Who was it then? And who disarmed Lucius too?"

"It appears," Dumbledore said slowly, "that if it wasn't any of you, it must have been them."

They all turned to look at Tremain who was helping Drefinia up off the ground. Tremain didn't like the way they were all staring at him. "What?"


A/N: So aparently her 'muggle' friends aren't. Who could have seen that coming? Me apart me from me obviously, I did write it. R R!