A/N: Thank you so much to my reviewer! I have a lot of free time to update whenever I choose, so the more reviews, the faster the chapters come! I'm not going to add Ch. 6 until I get at least two more reviews. I appreciate any creative criticism, so if you have any ideas on how I can improve as a writer, please tell me. This story is completely written, so I can't change anything, but I have so many stories that I am writing and all of them need help in their own ways. Anyway, enjoy!

The days until Saturday were the average day of work, eating and sleeping. On Saturday, however, Jessica woke up with excitement running through her.

Oh, please, she thought, why am I so excited about Christmas shopping? Yeah, it's fun, but is it seriously because George is coming?

She took more care to what she wore, again wondering why in the world it was such a big deal. After all, it was only George.

Work seemed to go slowly, but finally, they were out in the streets of Diagon Alley, looking in the shop windows as the snow fell softly about them. George forced himself to look in the windows of shops to keep from looking at Jessica. First, they headed to Gringotts Bank to extract money from their vaults. When the entered, the familiar feeling of discomfort enveloped Jessica and unknowingly, she drew closer to George.

"Miss Jessica Baine would like to remove money from vault 671," Jessica said hesitantly at the sharp look from the goblin at the main desk.

"And I'd like to take money from vault 923, for Fred and George Weasley," Fred said confidently.

"Do you have your key?" the goblin croaked.

"Yes," George said. Jessica could only nod.

"Follow me please."

They followed the waddling goblin to the track where a cart was waiting to take them under Diagon Alley. Though Jessica was wary of the goblins, she loved riding the carts. She settled herself in and secured her hair. George sat beside her, also looking forward to their ride. The goblin released the brake holding the car in place, and Jessica let out a whoop of laughter while George pretended to be falling out of the sides of the car.

Finally, they reached Jessica's vault. George helped her out and stood beside her as the goblin unlocked the vault and handed her the key. George could not help but gasp as he looked inside. It was nearly empty. A small stack of galleons was located near two columns of knuts. Behind them, a small pile of sickles glittered in the torchlight. Jessica blushed as George's jaw dropped to the floor. She self consciously counted out an exact number of galleons, sickles, and knuts placing them carefully into her purse.

George helped her back into the rolling cart, but the ride seemed to have lost its normal fun. How could Jessica have so little? He decided to give her a pay raise at next chance. George wanted to save her the trouble of seeing his vault, but before he could stop her, she came to stand beside him as the goblin opened his safe. Jessica gaped, too, at the amount of gold and silver in his vault. George walked in and grabbed a few handfuls of galleons and walked out, avoiding eye contact with Jessica.

Once they were out in the free air of Diagon Alley, all apprehension left and the delights of the Christmas season set in.

"Oh, I'm glad to be out of there," George breathed.

"I like roller coasters!" Jessica exclaimed.

"What's that?"

"It's a muggle sort of train on a track, like Gringotts, only ten times better and safer!"

"Wow! Does it run on eclectricity?"

"Electricity, and yes."

"Well, where to first?"

"How about Laeticia's Gift Shoppe?"

"Sounds good to me!" George said, smiling.

Inside the shop, Jessica tried to veil her desiring eyes as she saw all the beautiful jewelry and turned to the discount section. George noticed her eyes drawn to a particular necklace. It was silver, with a single sapphire charm on it. He made a mental note. In the discount section, George watched with interest as she picked out the most amazing things from what seemed like an impossible wall of junk.

She made her purchases after debating long and hard to keep everything under her budget and still have money for food. She had bought a gift for each of the Weasleys and snuck a couple of pieces to Fred and George's gift. She had yet to find a gift for Lee, though.

George headed to Quality Quidditch Supplies to get a gift for his brothers. While he perused the selection, a magazine caught Jessica's eye. On the front, it said Win Four Tickets to a Puddlemere United Match! For some reason, she could not get the magazine out of her mind as George made his purchases. At the last minute, she grabbed the magazine and bought it. George waited as she filled the form out and ran to the Owl Post Office. She tied the prepaid envelope to an owl's leg and it flew away.

"Why are you so excited about the chance in a million to get tickets to a Puddlemere game?"

"If I win, it'll be the perfect gift for Lee. I'm still going to get him something if I find it."

George tried to smile.

"Don't worry, guess who else would get the other two tickets?"

"Who?"

"Only my favorite twins!"

"Really?"

"Of course! Who else do I know?"

"Good point. Want a Snout Pop? My treat?"

A vendor was passing them with some candy on his tray. "Sure!"

George paid for two and they walked contentedly down the street through the dwindling traffic of people. At nine thirty, they still had not found the perfect gift for Lee, so they decided to call it quits.

"Sorry I dragged you through all those shops," Jessica apologized.

"No problem. It was fun! Now I just need to figure out how to wrap a gift."

"Don't tell me you have never wrapped a gift before!"

"Sorry, can't say that I have. Every time I try the charm, it ends up backwards or something."

"Well, you can always do it muggle style, that's what I do."

"I always end up with a mass of tape and ripped paper."

Jessica giggled. "I'll teach you."

"You will?"

"Of course. Come on, we'll have to floo because you don't know where you're going."

They headed to the floo station and a minute later, they were standing, ash encrusted, in Jessica's living room. The house was eerily quiet, especially with the snow falling outside. Jessica set her gifts down on the kitchen counter and brushed dust off of her robes. George followed her in, setting his purchases down as well.

"You live here alone?"

"Yeah," said Jessica as she leafed through a closet looking for the wrapping supplies.

"I'd find it amazingly odd to live alone." His voice echoed through the empty halls.

Jessica stood up, surveying her house. "I guess so. This house holds too many memories for me to move out."

"What kind of memories?"

Looking away from George's prying eyes, she said, "I don't want to burden you with that."

"Come on, you promised me you'd tell me!"

"One day, George, one day." She held up three rolls of festive wrapping paper, some different colors of ribbon, and a roll of tape. "Come on."

She led him to the living room and put her things down. George brought her gifts to her, along with his.

"First of all, what paper would you like?"

"I'll take the red and white striped."

"All right. Now what you're going to do is unroll a good amount of paper and place the gift on top. Now, you need to cut the paper off and pull it to the top of the box. Tape it here." She pointed to the seam, and George attempted to cut the tape, ending up with a length of tape two times longer than he needed. Laughing, she took the tape from him and told him to hold the seam. She cut a proper length of tape and rubbed it down onto the gift. "Now you are going to want to fold these ends down, creating a triangle." She looked up at George's vacant face. "You do know what a triangle is, right?"

"Yeah," he said, shaking his head. He had been looking at Jessica again. Focus. She has a boyfriend, remember? You are just best friend.

She taped one side of the box up well then did the other one. Reaching for a roll of red ribbon, she cut a long length and turned the box over. "Okay, the ribbon. You are going to want to slide it through the bottom until it's even." She deftly slid the ribbon up and held it over her head, carefully making the ribbon ends meet. "Now cross it here and pull it tight. Turn the box back over and tie a half knot." Jessica blushed as she realized what she was going to need next. "I'm going to need your finger."

"What?"

"Give me your finger."

George stuck his index finger out and she took it, placing it on the half knot. Ignoring George's face of what she assumed was disgust, she tied another half knot, tightening it slowly. "You might want to remove your finger now, unless you want to be tied to the gift until it's opened."

George laughed and slipped his finger out of the hole. She tightened the knot quickly and made a bow. She took scissors and opened them, curling the edges. Jessica handed it to George for his inspection. He laughed and held his next gift out to her.

"Your turn," she said, refusing to take the gift. George's shocked face was enough to make her chuckle. "You try!"

George, ears red, unrolled the paper and put the gift on top of the paper. He fumblingly went through the steps of wrapping the gift. When it came to the ribbon, he was sure his ears were so red that they blended in with his hair, but Jessica did not make him ask for her finger. She simply placed it on top when the moment came. George tried not to make eye contact as he tied the knot above her finger. In the end, he had a loosely wrapped gift, but a wrapped gift nonetheless.

"Good!" she exclaimed.

"No it's not; it's a horribly wrapped gift!"

She was serious, though. "No, it's great try! You'll get better! Come on, do another!"

They passed the time wrapping gifts and laughing together. Finally, a good sized stack of gifts lay beside each person. George sighed and looked around the room.

"I didn't know you lived in a house."

"Where else would I live?"

"I thought you rented a flat or apartment or something."

"No, I own it."

"How?"

"I don't want to go into detail. I guess you could say I inherited it."

"From your parents?"

"No."

"Who then?"

Jessica's eyes stared off sadly into space and George did not push.

"Can I have a tour?"

"Of course!" Jessica jumped up and led him into the hallway. "All right, I'll try not to make this too boring. This is the- the family room," she said, blushing. "Over here, we have a bathroom, and over here is the study." She moved on, but left one door unexplained. George decided to overlook it until later. She led him up the steps. "This is the guest room, another bathroom, another guest room, and my room."

She opened a door leading into a turquoise blue room. It might have been cheery, but the stark emptiness of the room was overwhelming. There was a single bed, white curtains, a dresser, a desk, and a closet. There was nothing on the floor; the room was almost too clean. Jessica smiled glumly and led George back down the stairs. As they passed the unexplained door again, George's curiosity got the better of him.

"What's in there?"

Jessica's face went white and she stuttered. "N-nothing!"

"Right. Are there presents in there or something?"

"Absolutely not!"

"Alohomora!" George said, pointing his wand at the lock. The door swung open and they both gasped. Jessica looked beyond George to see a dead body lying on the floor.