Door 7
Father Christmas nipped at his hot chocolate while he watched the siblings playing with Angelina. He had been watching them for a few minutes every day since Angelina and Montague had meet the children.
But he could see that there was still some work to be done. Although both children had taken a liking to Angelina, Emily still barely spoke to anyone but Samuel. And even then she only spoke when they were alone.
As long as the children were alone with Angelina, everything seemed fine with Samuel. He laughed and talked and played. But as soon as Montague was present as well a heavy silence fell over the group. And as much as Angelina tried, she hadn't yet been able to stop this.
Father Christmas sighed and looked sadly at the calendar on the wall. It was only a few weeks until Christmas – more like days actually and he couldn't see how he could fulfil Samuel's Christmas wish if things wouldn't change – quickly.
Samuel was reading a book by himself while Angelina read to Emily. It had become something of a daily routine for them to do this, sitting together in the library for an hour a day. Emily was leaning against Angelina and listened to the story. But she still barely spoke to her. She couldn't get more than a word out of her.
As Montague passed Samuel he caught a glimpse of the book the boy was reading and recognised it immediately: Quidditch through the Ages. Montague frowned slightly as a thought crossed his mind but a quick shaking of his head had this thought already disappearing into nowhere.
Angelina glanced at Montague and raised her eyebrows at him when she met his eyes. But he only glared at her and walked out of the library again.
That night, after dinner Montague called after Angelina just as she was about to leave the room.
"I bet you were one of those children who can't walk by a hurt or wounded animal."
Angelina glared at him, not wanting to admit how close he was to the truth. There was no reason why he should need to know about the times she took care of any hurt animal no matter if it had been a bird with a broken wing or a young fawn which had lost its mother.
"You are trying to say?"
"I'm trying to say that you have some kind of a helper syndrome. And I really hate to break the news to you but you can't save the whole world."
"Yes, well, imagine what a sad place the world would be if everyone would think like that."