Most of December had gone in a blur. The excitement of returning to the safety of our families had everyone in high spirits no matter how many beatings we endured at the hands of the Carrows. In fact, the degree of violence we experienced had somewhat reduced in the week before we returned home. Probably so our parents would send us back. I didn't even mind getting whacked across the temple in our final dark arts lesson before term ended because I knew I was getting on the train today. After some complicated mailing, it was agreed that Blaise would be spending the holidays with us. Mum seemed very excited that I was bringing him home. I think when she found out what usually happened to him at Christmas her maternal instincts screamed out that she much shower this boy in as much love as possible. Which is why were currently stood in a small nook on the train.
"You'll have to apparate by the way, mum cut off the floo network"
"How do you know she cut it off since mail got stopped?
"kitchens, anyway you'll have to apparate so here's a photo just so you don't end up knocking on the wrong door"
I hand him a photo taken last year, the five of us all posing dramatically in front of the house, dad posing like a muggle spy, mum pretending to be a model, Gina levitating Emily. Mum had charmed the snow so that it actually looked like a good family Christmas photo. Like the Christmas jumpers wouldn't be enough of a clue. I say it's a house, more like a giant cottage. The thatched roof was absolutely covered in white, as was the edges of the windows. The only bright colour being the front door, which is red.
"Are you pretending to be a dragon in this?"
"Yeah, why else would I be wearing the wings?"
"Your family is strange"
"I think the word you're looking for is fun, aren't you worried someone won't realise your home?"
"Binky and I are on good terms"
"Binky?"
"House elf, she won't say anything to mother, she probably won't even ask to be honest"
"Your family is the strange one if you ask me Blaise"
The look on his face tells me he agrees. I say goodbye to him and leave the nook on the train we are hiding in, making my way back to my compartment. When I arrive back, I find Daniel, Trevor and Kate squished in with Julia, Lachy and Maisie. I manage to find a spot next to Trevor and Julia and we spend the majority of the journey playing exploding snap and wizards chess. The last half hour was spent discussing what everyone's family was doing over Christmas. Daniel was spending the holiday with his father's side of the family in Ireland, although he wasn't looking forward to seeing his cousins. Kate was having a quiet Christmas with her parents, while Trevor was having family descending on his place from all over the country. The conversation fizzled out then and we concentrated on making sure we had all our belongings as the train was pulling into the platform. The platform was packed with parents, all anxiously waiting for their children. We all shuffle off the train, all nodding at each other before heading our separate ways. I grab Maisie's trunk and guide her through the crowd looking my parents. I spot my mum ten metres down the platform and point to her, Maisie pushes through the crowd and my mum engulfs her in hug. I push past the last few people and drop the trunks hugging my mum. We break apart and she cups my face in her hands, examining my bruised temple.
"What in merlins beard has happened to you?!" she says in frantic whispers
"It's nothing" I say
We walk through the station and outside into the streets of London, she guides us down an alleyway before grabbing both our hands and disapparating with a faint pop. We land in my hallway, leaving our trunks by the door and trailing into the kitchen. Dumping our coats and scarves on the dining table and sitting by the counter while mum boils the kettle. We move into the living room and sit on the couches, talking about the good aspects of the year so far, avoiding the bad as much as possible. It's another half hour before everyone else arrives back from work and apparently all at once from the clatter in the hall and the shouting from my sisters who clearly landed on the trunks. All five of them stumble into the living room and greet Maisie and me. It's another half hour before Maisie, my aunt and uncle leave.
When we sit down for dinner, focus remains on Gina and Emily, as I ask constant questions about work. Considering all that's going on at the ministry it seems that their department hasn't felt much of the pressure of the new regime as rather than gaining more work, they've lost it. Plans for next year's league have been put on hold and any plans for England, Scotland, Wales or Ireland entering the next world cup are definitely not happening. All they do all day is play gobstones or fantasy quidditch, making it look like they're doing paperwork whenever someone comes in to check on the department. The only reason they even still have jobs is because of the number of people on the run or in Azkaban. Dads work has become a lot more difficult as he has become buried in paperwork and reports about magical incidents witnessed by muggles and working overtime to deal with all the ensuing chaos. Mum has also been charged with figuring out how hundreds of illegal portkeys are being used by fleeing wizards, despite nearly everyone in her department being responsible for the creation of them without ministry authorisation. Currently the investigation is still 'halted' by first discovering each wizard who has used the illegal portkeys. Blame is being shifted daily by the discovery of new 'leads'. Thankfully the people upstairs are believing the department and all the lies they've been feeding them. Though if they do catch onto what they're up to, it's safe to say the department is well equipped to disappear.
We finish dinner and curl up in the living room. Gina and I have a couple games of exploding snap before she gets annoyed at losing. Emily takes over from Gina and we have a good few more games before the clock strikes 10. We decide to wrap the game up and go to bed, as everyone in the house but me needs to start work at 8:30 tomorrow morning. Mum seems determined to be even more herself this Christmas ever since she found out that Blaise's mum usually leaves him alone. I have a feeling she might overdo the kindness and invite him to stay forever.
When I wake up the next morning, the house is silent. Everyone has left for work around 45 minutes ago so when I trudge downstairs to the kitchen, I've only got the cat and dog for company. There's a note on the counter.
Iso,
Remember to feed Tabitha and Monty and take Monty out for a quick walk around the back field. Don't wreck the house before Blaise arrives and there's plenty to eat for lunch. Be home at 5:30
Love mum xx
I start by feeding Tabitha and Monty while looking out the back window at rain battering down on the fields. After spending ten minutes looking for his leash that mum has moved to a new spot under the stairs, I pull on my boots and coat and lead an apprehensive Monty out into the cold. Moving through the gap in the hedge and into the field at the back of the house, we walk around a bit before we finally give into the weather and trudge through the muddy field back into the house leaving my boots at the door. I end up half carrying half dragging Monty upstairs to wash his paws so he doesn't trail mud all over the carpets. By the time we finish our little battle of cleanliness its 10:30. Blaise isn't arriving until 12, so I decide to curl up in the armchair by the fire and read a book mum picked up for me.
I'm a third of the way through it when Monty raises his head from the floor and walks towards the front door, sitting attentively and letting out a low howl. I look out the window in time to see Blaise materialising outside the gate. I run to the door and wrench it open before he tries to open it.
"Wait! You need someone to take you through the barrier!" I shout
His hand freezes just as he's about place it on the handle. I put dads snitch slippers on and shuffle down the path, Monty following me. When we reach the gate, Monty jumps up and leans on the garden wall letting out small woofs.
"Don't mind Monty, he gets excited when he meets new people" I say opening the gate and taking his arm and leading him past the barrier
"He's alright, who's a good boy?" he says scratching him behind the ear "anyway nice to see you"
"Nice to see you too, take it your mother made it off alright?"
"Left half an hour after I arrived home, off to the Caribbean"
We trudge back into the house, Blaise dragging his trunk with Monty trailing after us. After taking his trunk up to my room, we sit and eat cake and biscuits in the kitchen. We get through two pots of tea when he asks out of the blue.
"Are you sure your parents are alright with me staying here, you know given the whole hangs out with death eater kid's thing?"
I look at him blankly before rolling my eyes.
"Have you forgotten who my grandmother is?" I ask
"No, it hasn't slipped my mind that she's married to the ex auror that brought in the Lestranges"
I give him a look.
"my grandmother is related to some of the worst people in the wizarding world, however, despite spending her entire wizarding education in Slytherin she didn't become a death eater, she married an auror that would one day arrest her niece and nephew in law for kidnap and torture, you get what I'm saying?"
"Not really"
"She's saying just because you grew up surrounded by bad people doesn't mean you're a bad person" says a voice from the door
We both jump and turn to the door. Gina is leaning on the door frame and smiling.
"Exactly" says Emily walking into the kitchen "We're all related to death eaters and we turned out all right. I mean our great aunt was married to Corban Yaxley. Yaxley! Well until she found out he had a mistress and put him in St Mungos for two weeks. But you get the point, pretty horrible family members"
"Yaxley? As in that Yaxley? I know you guys are pureblood, but you don't seem that sort of pureblood"
"Different times, she thought she was in love"
"How come you two are home early?" I ask
"We don't have any work, it's very hard working in our department since quidditch got cancelled, and I've had it up to here with fantasy quidditch" Gina finishes
"Only because Ludo keeps beating you"
"That man is a cheat and you know it Emily Dorea Macdonald!"
"Gina is quite competitive just so you know, has a habit of flipping chess boards" I tell Blaise
Gina turns and glares at us as we laugh, Blaise even cracks a smile. She shuts the pantry door loudly, resulting in a hiss from Tabitha who was sleeping on the bookcase next to it.
"Oh shut up tabby, you're going to have such a great time over Christmas with us, did she show you last year's Christmas photo?"
"The one where she's pretending to be a dragon?" asks Blaise
"Yeah, well you get to be in this year's one, so I suggest you start planning your pose"
Fear flashes across his face for a split second.
"Yeah, Em and I are definitely going to outdo last year, levitation is nothing compared to what we've got in the works this year"
"let's just say it involves feathers and glitter"
We're sitting around the dinner table. The initial meeting had gone better than I had hoped. Mum had enveloped Blaise in a hug and dad made plenty of conversation. So much so that Blaise had barely stopped talking from answering questions about himself. Gina and Emily had taken over from dad when he began reading the evening prophet he picked up from work on the way home. Mum is finishing the final touches of dinner while dad reads out an article from the prophet.
"…although they have a tremendous task ahead of them, discovering not only how the witches and wizards in our community have been using illegal portkeys, but also discovering each and every person using these illegal devices. Mrs Yvonne MacDonald, deputy head of the Portkey office, has urged for patience from the public 'the task ahead of us is mammoth in size and requires immense patience and time, please allow us this time so that we can hold the right people accountable for these illegal activities'. Mrs Macdonald refused to comment further on the subject, citing that she did not have the time to talk to a 'jumped up, spotty little git about issues and subjects he knew very little about'. We will keep you updated on this story as it progresses."
"Very nice" sniggers Gina
"Very nice indeed, congratulations sweetheart, you've made your Evening Prophet debut. Let's all hope you continue to delight the public by calling journalists jumped up little git's dad laughs
"Don't forget spotty as well" Emily says cackling
We're sitting in the living room playing chess, I didn't want to push Blaise too far out of his comfort zone for the Christmas picture so had asked mum to buy a trench coat and fedora for him so he could be an old muggle detective and a striped jumper for me to be a burglar.
"Are you sure I should be in this photo tomorrow?"
"Um yeah of course you should"
"But I'm not part of the family"
"Yeah well, Iso is clearly adopted and we still let her be in the photo, and we actually like you" says Gina
I glare at them as they laugh at my expense.
"Anyway I don't know if mum has told you but her and dad have decided to adopt you practically"
"Really? You've known me for like 3 hours"
"Well in that time you've proven to uphold the MacDonald family values"
"And I know it might seem weird being adopted by us seeing as how you and Iso will get married one day but really it just means you're arriving at the party early" Emily says with an encouraging smile.
"We're not getting married" I say looking at Blaise
"Definitely not, we're just friends"
"Yeah sure sure" Gina says
At midnight mum comes downstairs and tells us to get to bed. We trudge upstairs and part ways to our respective bedrooms on the landing. The next morning when I wake up I roll around and find the bed mum and dad had set up for Blaise empty. I bound down the stairs nearly slipping on the second last step as always. I grumble as I stumble into the kitchen where Blaise is sitting sporting a silk emerald robe over his pyjamas. I pour myself a cup of hot chocolate and sit next to him. It's another ten minutes before everyone else makes it down to the kitchen. Dad yawns into his morning tea and Gina and Emily look like they might fall asleep into their bowls of pixie puffs. Clearly, they had stayed up later making sure whatever they have planned is perfect. After breakfast we all make our way to get ready.
We're all waiting outside for Gina and Emily outside twenty minutes later. Mum has charmed more snow again and it's clearly taking all of Monty's' self-control not to run around in it. Mum and dad have donned their old school quidditch robes and are currently arguing over what pose they should take on their broomsticks. Blaise and I are fixing each other's costumes when the door open and what can only be described as a ball of glitter and sequins emerges from the house. Gina is dressed as a phoenix covered in red and orange sequins complete with a beak, Emily comes prancing out dressed up as a unicorn throwing glitter at us. We stare at them in awe as they strike a pose. The rest of us begin looking at our own costumes in slight disappointment.
"You guys look awesome" they say together
"Well it's pretty obvious what you guys have been spending all your free time at work doing" dad says with a slight frown
It's another five minutes before dad manages to set the camera up and by that time the cold is starting to get to us. After posing for multiple shots, with mum and dad hanging upside down on their brooms, we finally manage to get a photo that everyone likes. We head back into the kitchen where mum makes us more hot chocolate and dad sets about creating around twenty copies of the photo, passing each one to mum as she writes merry Christmas on each of them and passing them down the line for each of us to sign our names, Blaise looks shocked when we pass the first to him but signs it with a smile. The last two copies sit on the counter and mum fetches a package from the hall and unwraps it to reveal a new hand carved photo frame and she places the photo in it and places it on the kitchen fireplace.
"What's the other copy for?" asks Blaise
"It's for you" says mum handing it to him "to remind you that you're always welcome here Blaise Zabini, you're an honorary MacDonald"
He holds it in his hands and smiles. Mum looks like she might cry. But she gains control and ushers us all out the kitchen so she can start cooking for tomorrow. Dad goes off into the office to send off the photos to everyone and the rest of us end up in the living room still dressed in our costumes and play chess. It doesn't take long for Gina to flip the board and the pieces wave their fists angrily at her as the lie rolling around on the floor. She stomps over to the chest by the window and pulls out our old gobstones set. Mum brings us through more hot chocolate and sandwiches for lunch. We scoff them down as we play, Blaise and I are an even match so the games are unusually tense. Blaise wins and we leave it there and move onto playing dominoes. Dad comes back into the room looking slightly shrivelled mumbling about how the owls weren't too happy about having to deliver multiple cards on the one trip. No doubt he had to bribe mums owl Emerald with treats before she complied.
At 4:30 dad leaves to go and accompany my grandparents over for dinner and we all shuffle upstairs to change into clothes that are a bit more appropriate. When I arrive back in the kitchen, I find my grandparents sat at the dining table with Blaise having an in-depth talk. A book lays on the table, I peek over to read the title. The Darks Arts Outsmarted. I hug my gran and bend over and kiss grandpa on the cheek.
"Your mum mentioned that Blaise had an interest in defence so your grandpa thought this book would be an interesting read"
Dinner with my grandparents went very well. My grandpa was on his typical form, telling us stories of his glory days as an auror. Including the day he raided the homes and arrested death eaters after the fall of you-know-who. His crowning glory will always be arresting Bellatrix Lestrange. Blaise listened intently to that story. Talk soon turned to how they met and got married.
"Well it was a bit different back then, wasn't as taboo as it seems now to have friends in Slytherin. We started dating in fifth year and got married a few months after we graduated. That's when the chaos started. Druella was very cruel as was the rest of pureblood society. A Rosier girl marrying a blood traitor. The shame!" chuckles grandpa
"The Rosier family really pushes for good marriages. Not for blood purity mind you, for power. Druella married into the Black family but she was already poisoned by that attitude at school, my brother Magnus married a Bulgarian pureblood and they built a very happy life together despite it being arranged, just his son Evan that became the disappointment by becoming a death eater. Magnus was distraught actually, my parents cut him off completely. Then I did well socially but not power wise though my parents didn't care. My sister Williamina married Yaxley because he was charming, and she loved him. Then he showed his true colours. She's married to a muggle now. A proper gentleman took on the kids and the magic without a care. Then my sister Elizabeth ran off and eloped with a muggle born. That caused a stir in pureblood circles. No one in our family beside Druella really cared"
"Yet Druella still tries to push for arranged marriages, did it with our kids and now the grandkids, how is that going Iso?"
"I've got three left to shake off, although they aren't enthusiastic about it either so hopefully by the end of January, I can tell her to shove it"
The next morning I'm awoken abruptly by Monty jumping on my bed. I quickly sit up in a haze trying to get my bearings while Monty tries to give me kisses. I look over to the door and see Blaise holding in his laughter. I grab a pillow and throw it at him but he easily dodges it. He loudly shouts Merry Christmas and I grumble it back before getting out of bed and slumping towards the door. He gives me a small hug before turning and bouncing down the stairs. Blaise Zabini has never exhibited this amount of pure joy and happiness in the time that I've known him. I wander down to the living room and watch him closely as he sits on the couch looking like a 5-year-old at Christmas rather than a 17-year-old. He catches me looking at him in confusion.
"what?"
"its just I've never seen you so… normal"
"Christmas is my favourite day of the year, despite my mothers' excessive attempts to make me behave like I'm better than everyone else at all times, Christmas is just one of the days I couldn't bear to"
"I would like to point out that since being in the company of me and my friends you have become dramatically less pompous, arrogant and vain"
"well clearly you've had a good affect on me" he says with a smile
I'm about to reply when the sound of what can only be described as stampede of hippogriffs comes from the stairs and Gina and Emily bound into the room, making a beeline for the presents underneath the tree. They both make a grab for the first of their presents when mum yells
"Gina and Emily Macdonald! A single hand touches any of those presents before your dad comes into this room and I'll send them all back to the shops, you hear!"
After a quick breakfast which Gina and Emily consumed as if it was their first meal in a year, we all gathered around the tree and opened our presents. Along with the traditional hand knitted scarf and chocolates from my parents I also received a few books and a dress from Gina and Emily. Julia had sent her present by owl yesterday and I was extremely happy when I opened it to find socks covered in bowtruckles and a beautiful quill set with a handcrafted leather notebook, with a note attached;
For all those amazing stories in your head, now you have somewhere to write them down.
I nearly cried. Blaise seemed surprised to receive gifts from my parents and sisters. Mum and dad had given him a few books on a variety of different subjects. Gina and Emily were all smiles when he went red after opening the jumper the got him with a massive Swedish short snout emblazoned across the chest. When he asked how they knew he loved dragons they swiftly pointed straight at me. Then it was their turn to be surprised when Blaise handed out gifts to them. Gina and Emily were ecstatic with their quidditch team scarves and mum nearly cried when she opened the dessert recipe book that I mentioned she wanted to him before break started. And dad who only accepts joke presents burst out laughing when he opened the Remembrall before loudly proclaiming
"I can't wait to take this into the office. The whole obliviator department is going to love this!"
Which only left Blaise and I's gifts to each other. He beamed when he opened book about possible undiscovered dragon species but gave me a look that clearly said 'thank you but I am going to kill you later' when he opened the Ukrainian Ironbelly dragon model I gave him. I squealed when I opened the latest weird sisters record and silver necklace decorated with stars, but jokingly threw the book entitled, How to Be a Successful Wife, at him as he laughed. We spent the rest of the day playing around with our new gifts before sitting down for a full turkey dinner which left us slowly crawling from the kitchen to the living room where we spent the rest of the night playing games, even allowing Gina to win a few times. Just because its Christmas.
By the time New Year's Eve rolled around we had ate so many turkey-based meals that we were close to blasting the damn bird to hell. When mum had announced in the morning that the bird was officially done, we all breathed a sigh of relief and welcomed our first lunch with no turkey. We had spent quite a lot of time since Christmas day out and about visiting family all over the place. My granny almost knocked us over when she came running out to hug us. Maisie hadn't spoke about school at all to her parents. My granny was the only person that managed to make her laugh and open-up about was going on. One afternoon of baking with her and Maisie had come out of the kitchen with a weight lifted from her shoulders and a look of determination on her face. Granny couldn't fix the problem, but she could give her advice to stop it being as bad next time. The main news granny had was that Bathilda Bagshot had been found skinned in her cottage up the road and that her cottage windows had been blasted open on Christmas. The news had drove the wizarding community in the village into panic. Thankfully she had been at my aunts for Christmas. Despite the fear, she wasn't moving though. No matter how many pleas my mum and aunt made. She wasn't budging. Voldemort could kill every wizard in the village and she wouldn't move.
After doing absolutely nothing today though, we were looking forward to getting out tonight for the new year celebrations at my grandparents' house. All Blaise and I had accomplished today was that we made a snowman, which Monty soon knocked down. Other than that, we had lounged about reading and stuffing our faces with chocolates. Gina and Emily had eaten their way through 10 galleons worth of Honeydukes chocolate. They were currently laying in front of the fire moaning and groaning. They got no sympathy from us. They had started off normally, but it had soon turned into a competition to see who could eat the most. Emily won. She did not look happy though. Dad was sat in his armchair, looking at them every so often over his Daily Prophet, and smirking.
"I think you may have rubbed that reporter the wrong way dear, he's tried to write a rather scathing article about you" dad says to mum as she knits
"Read it out please" says Gina with excitement from her place on the rug
Dad clears his throat.
"With such a tremendous task ahead of them, this reporter has decided to look into the people we are trusting to bring the illegal portkey users to justice to see if they are really up to the challenge. Starting with deputy head of the portkey office; Mrs Yvonne MacDonald, aged 37.
Mrs MacDonald has had a somewhat humble beginning in life for a pureblood witch. Growing up in the picturesque village of Godrics Hollow, Miss Fortescue as she was known then, grew up exploring the village around her and making regular visits to Diagon Alley to visit her uncle Florean Fortescue, missing since 1996, at the family ice cream parlour. After being accepted into Hogwarts, she was sorted into Hufflepuff. During her years at Hogwarts she had an exemplary school record, playing on her house quidditch team as a seeker, as the rival of her future husband, Archie MacDonald. As well as this she served as team captain in her final two years before graduating with nine N.E.W.T.S.
Six months after graduating, she married Archie Macdonald, son of well-known ex-head of the Auror Office; William MacDonald. After marrying into the affluent family, Mrs Macdonald found her career at the ministry to accelerate despite taking extended periods out to give birth and raise her 3 daughters. Beginning in the Department of Magical Games and Sports in the Ludicrous Patents Office she made the leap to the Department of Transport into Broom Regulatory Control before rising through the ranks of the department. It was her success during the last quidditch world cup that cemented her promotion to deputy head of the Portkey Office where she has sat for the last 3 years.
Despite all of this is this the woman we can trust to bring these criminals to justice? 3 months into the investigation, and the Portkey Office is no closer to making any sort of arrest in conjunction with the Auror Office. Is it really so hard to locate these fugitives as we've been told or is she just not up to the task? Can someone who belongs to a family of blood traitors really be trusted to bring people of impure blood status to justice? Can we trust a woman from a family of muggle sympathisers? These are points that surely have to be raised when we question whether this woman can be trusted. For now, I am not convinced."
"Oh well that's just rude"
"Next time I see that little git I'm going to give him a piece of my mind. I mean, really?! This could lead to you being taken in for questioning! I'm going up to dads!" shouts dad before grabbing his coat and trudging outside still in his snitch slippers
"Have you heard anything about Florean since his disappearance?" asks Blaise
"Oh… he's dead. Family house elf turned up on granny's doorstep announcing her sadness that her service with master Florean had come to an end" says Gina
"Shouldn't someone go after dad?" asks Emily
"Nah let him calm down first. He has to come back anyway; he can't attend a party in snitch slippers" says mum going back to her knitting.