Door 4

When they arrived at the gate Montague asked himself for the first time in his life why his great-great-great-grandfather had wanted a large garden in front of his house in addition to the park behind it. Had he just let the house be build right behind the front gate, Montague would be rid of his three guests soon, so he still had to endure them for several – seemingly endless – minutes.

And worst of all was that Johnson couldn't be quiet for five minutes! She had kept asking the two children since they had left the orphanage – of course not before she had him carry the children's luggage. As soon as they had been out of sight of any muggles he had charmed it to fit into his pocket.

The first two times the boy had answered each question with an added 'Ms. Johnson'. And of course, the typical Gryffindor couldn't keep it that way and told the boy to call her Angelina and forget this 'Ms. Johnson'. He guessed she had expected him to do the same, but Montague wasn't planning on being the new best friend of these two, so he had no problem with being called Mr. Montague by them.

Angelina looked at the dark stone building in front of her. It looked like it had just sprung from one of the thriller or horror books her father liked to read in cold autumn nights: uninviting – frightening even and she found herself lifting her chin and straightening her shoulders as though she wanted to show the house that she was not afraid of it – nor of his owner.

The inside looked even gloomier – if that was even possible. The furniture was mostly made of dark wood and the colours on the walls were dark as well. The few portraits that hung in the hall they had entered looked haughtily down at the three visitors. It looked just like one might imagine the home of a – former – Slytherin. And yet, nothing of this seemed to be the biggest difference between Montague's house and her own or that of any of her friends. It was the lack of Christmas decoration that caused a frown to appear on her face.

"You have noticed that it's almost Christmas, haven't you?" Angelina asked him and looked around in the cold room. Montague didn't respond but merely glared at her.

"Your rooms will be here." He said and led them towards a long hallway. He stopped in front of the third door and opened it.

"Johnson." He simply said and nodded towards the room that could now be seen through the open door. Angelina walked past Montague and stepped into the room. It was a beautiful room, she had to admit that. But of course, like the rest of the house it was dark. Starting from the dark brown panelling at the wall and the dark wooden floor that was covered by three rugs around the huge four-poster-bed and a carpet in front of the fireplace, over the dark furniture consisting of the bed, a large wardrobe, a table and two chairs, a bookcase and a small couch in front of the fireplace to the bedding itself – surprisingly it wasn't a dark green but a dark red in colour.

"You two can have the two rooms next to this one, or you can share one room if you'd prefer that."

Angelina turned around at the first words Montague directed at the children.

"Come, I'll help you unpack." She said and smiled at the children as she walked out of her room. Montague left them alone as soon as she spoken and murmured something about showing them the rooms they might have to use after lunch. A house elf was to bring them to the dining room.

True to his word, Montague had showed them the ground floor of the house and the park behind it through a window. He also pointed out that no one was to go upstairs – ever. Angelina had just waited for a sign to appear that read something like 'Go upstairs and die!'.

The rest of the day was spent mostly in silence. Angelina played with Samuel and Emily while Montague kept to himself, avoiding his three 'guests' completely. After dinner Angelina brought the siblings to bed.

"How about we decorate this house for Christmas tomorrow?" Angelina asked while she pulled the blanket up to Emily's shoulders.

"That would be great!" Samuel beamed at her and Emily smiled happily at the suggestion.

"Then that's settled. We'll go shopping tomorrow." Angelina smiled and wished them a good night before she turned off the light and closed the door behind her.

"Montague, get down here this instance!" Angelina yelled at the bottom of the stairs, hoping wherever he was that Montague would hear her. And just when she was about to yell again, he appeared at the top of the stairs, looking angrily down at her.

"I swear Johnson; you better have a good reason to yell around like that. If not at least this house is about to explode I'm going to…"

"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but your house will not explode. I just wanted to tell you that we will go shopping tomorrow."

"WE? You mean 'WE' as in you and the annoying brats, right?"

"No, I mean 'we' as in you, me, Samuel and Emily."

Montague let out a dry laugh and made to turn around.

"Forget it Johnson. I have a reputation to lose. I'm not going to be seen with you and a bunch of children in public!"

"Well, since this is as much your order as it is mine, you will come with us to Diagon Alley, so we can buy some decoration and afterwards we decorate your house."

Montague stopped and turned around, glaring down at her. He walked down the stairs slowly, as though he was trying to calm himself before he reached her. And as he reached her he spoke in a seemingly dangerous calm voice.

"Listen Johnson, and listen well, because I'm only going to say this once: I don't like Christmas; I don't like children and least of all I like you! So going with you and a bunch of children to buy Christmas decoration is the LAST thing I'm ever going to do!" he turned around and was about to leave but then he noticed a snow white owl sitting on the banister, looking directly at him and hooted.

"What?" Montague wondered aloud and took the letter from the owl's leg.

Stop fighting you two!

And Alexander, you WILL accompany Angelina and the children! And be nice to them!

Yours sincerely

Father Christmas

Montague didn't even have to turn around to know that Angelina was smiling triumphantly at him.