Chapter 15---
Mackenzie's POV
If someone asked me where the one place in the world I would want to be at Christmastime, it would be The Burrow. Christmastime at the Burrow is probably the most massive, chaotic, entertaining event to take place all year.
Of course, you have Molly and Arthur Weasley, the Heads of the tribe. They love to have everyone around even though they're getting on in age.
Next, you have the Bill Weasleys (you have to specify): Bill and his wife Fleur, Victoire (now technically, she's a Lupin but I'll get to that later), Dominique and her boyfriend Ralph, and Louis and his flavor of the month (he generally goes for blondes that none of us really like).
Next, you have Charlie Weasley. One time, Charlie brought a dragon to the Christmas Eve dinner. That was an interesting affair in itself. Anyway, Charlie is a bachelor and doesn't have any illegitimate children (that we know of) so it's just him.
Then, we have the Percy Weasleys: Percy and his wife Audrey, Molly (sometimes she brings a date, but for the most part, she flies solo), and Lucy. Lucy never brings a date unless she's really serious about him (which happened once) because she doesn't like to scare off her love interests by bringing them to meet the family.
The George Weasleys are next: George and his wife Alicia, Roxanne (who is basically a female version of Louis, always bringing someone different) and of course Fred II.
Next would be the Ron Weasleys: Ron and his wife Hermione (nee Granger and two thirds of the Golden Trio), Rose, and Hugo.
Now, the Potters are a different story. Technically Mrs. Potter is a Weasley so I could say the Ginny Weasleys; but their name is Potter….whatever. At any Rate, the Potters consist of Harry and his wife Ginny (nee Weasley), James, Albus, and Lily.
Another family also in attendance is a smaller, but growing family: the Lupins. Teddy Lupin is Harry's godson, so he was just adopted into the crazy family, but another tie really made him related: his wife Victoire, daughter of Bill and Fleur Weasley. They now have a daughter Isabel and are expecting another baby soon, but they do not know the sex of the baby just yet because they want to be surprised. Isabel is a Metamorphagus just like her father and is a real cutie.
Finally, you have the guests of the family members. Now, that's 26 people in all, not including the guests. I'm kind of amazed that the Weasleys want guests. Including me and Scor (who come almost every year) there are nine guests coming this year from Hogwarts plus whoever Louis and Roxanne are bringing which leaves the total head count to be 37 people.
Of course, not everyone is staying at The Burrow, that's just where we all convene for the celebrations.
I was jolted awake by Rose hitting me.
"Rose!!!" I groan whilst not opening my eyes, "is that really necessary?!"
"Only when I've been trying to wake you up for the past 5 minutes and you refuse to wake up!" Rose says.
I open my eyes and squint at her and realize that we are the only two people in the carriage. "Where are Scor and Al?"
"They went to get changed in the loo, but they'll be back soon so you should get changed."
I sigh and heave my trunk down from the overhead compartment, grab jeans and, a t-shirt and sweater and quickly replace my trunk. I noticed Rose had already changed, probably before trying to wake me up.
I quickly change into my jeans and was just putting on my t-shirt when the compartment opened.
"Oh, shit, sorry-"Al says while trying to look away.
I roll my eyes at him "its fine Al, it's just pretend I'm wearing a bathing suit." I say as I pull the shirt over my head.
"So, has anyone heard any gossip about Dominique and Ralph?" I ask curiously, looking at Al and Rose as Al and Scor make themselves comfortable in our compartment again.
Al looks confused "Should I have?"
I sigh, "I guess not."
I have been waiting for Ralph to propose to Dominique for ages. They're such a cute couple and have been going out a long time. He has been to almost as many Weasley Christmases as I have! I thought that maybe this year would be the year that dear old Ralphie decided to propose, but obviously not.
Rose sees my disappointed expresssion and nods "I feel the same way, he's taking forever!"
I giggle, but before I can reply the train stops. "Yes! We're here!!" I exclaim and jump up.
We make our way slowly to the station. Once we're outside the train, we follow the flow of people to a secluded corner where the Weasley/Potters are. "Mum, Dad!" James, Al, Lily, Rose and Hugo all exclaim at the same time. I laugh at how alike they sounded there, proving the fact that they are related.
Hugs and kisses go all around to the parents/aunts/uncles and soon Scor and I are acknowledged.
"Z!" Ginny Potter greets me.
"Hi Ginny!" I say excitedly as I hug her. "Long time no see!"
She laughs, "I know! It's been six months!"
I lower my voice "I'll give you reports later, but for the most part they were all behaved."
She winks at me and I smile back at her, the turn to greet her husband Harry.
"Hey Harry!"
He smiles at me, "Hey there Z" he says while he hugs me.
I notice him looking in the direction of Ginny and Scor. To everyone else it looks like he's looking at Scor but I know that he's looking lovingly at his wife. I casually make a mental note to myself to remember that their anniversary is coming up.
I smirk and turn again and see Ron Weasley. "Why, hello Ronald!" I say in greeting.
He rolls his eyes in my direction, "Hello Mackenzie!"
I stick my tongue out at him in retaliation. "Fine, hey Ron"
He laughs at me "Hey Z"
"Just to let you know, I'm still angry with you."
"About what?"
"You never gave me a lesson on how to play wizard's chess!"
He laughs again "Well, we'll just have to do this time around, yeah?"
I nod in approval at him, and then turn my attention to Hermione.
"Hey Hermione!" I say enthusiastically.
"Hello Z" she says and hugs me tightly.
"I need some good recommendations for books; I'm dying a slow death of literature boredom." I confide in her.
She laughs "of course I'll be able to help you out."
Next, I had to greet George (I told you there's a lot of flicking people!). "Hey George!" I squeal at him.
"Z!" He cries jubilantly has he spins me around while hugging me, "I heard that you and the boys played some great pranks this semester!" he whispered in my ear while winking.
"I'm appalled! I had nothing to do with those pranks that James and Fred played!" I reply snootily.
All the kids let out a snort of laughter behind me. "Well, I mean besides planning them…and taking part in them…and getting a detention for one of them…But other than that I didn't do anything!"
But George just laughs and high-fives me, then turns to great Scor.
The last person I greet on the platform is Angelina. Angelina is a cute brunette, about the same height as me who is really quite shy. It's strange because she is pretty much the opposite of George, but I guess it's as they say 'opposites attract'.
"Hi Angelina," I say more quietly for fear of scaring her.
She smiles shyly back at me then says quietly "Hi, Z it's been so long."
I smile genuinely at her, "It really has; I love your robes!" I squeal.
Angelina is an amazing dressmaker. She really has a great sense of style and I know for a fact that her shop in Diagon Alley is one of the most visited shops ever. Witches come from all over the world to have them make their wedding dresses. She actually made Victoire's wedding dress a couple years ago, and it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. Angelina spent some time in France over the years, so she always knew what was going on in both the Muggle and Wizardring world fashions.
"Thanks," she says humbly, "I love your hair!"
I giggle, "I was bored one day…and this happened!"
She chuckles and is about to say more until we are rudely interrupted.
Ron clears his throat, "Well, let's go its bloody freezing and we have to go to the Burrow for the first feast tonight, and I'm also bloody hungry!"
"Ronald!" Hermione laughingly scolds but after looking at her pocketwatch seems to agree with her husband, " Ron's right it is getting late, we might as well go, I suppose."
Rose, Hugo, Alice, Brody, Luka and I say a quick goodbye to James, Owen, Lily, Majerle, Lauren, Scor, and Al and then we make the way to the car.
The car ride passed quite uneventfully, all of us tired from our long journey.
We troop into the Ron/Hermione Weasley house, a cute, modest sized house not too far from the Potter residence, 12 Grimmauld Place. Rose, Alice and I are sharing her room, which size has been magically altered to fit us three girls comfortably, while Brody, Luka and Hugo are sharing Hugo's room.
Rose and I throw on cuter clothes which actually means we put on different shirts. I throw on a white v-neck and Rose throws on a matching green v-neck and we set off to the Burrow.
Luckily, we didn't have to use the Flew Network to get to the Burrow; Hermione decided that since there were so many of us, we would just use Rose's old hairbrush as a portkey.
When we arrived at the Burrow, things were already out of control. I quickly said hi again to all those I had seen on the platform, and then began greeting those I hadn't seen with quick hugs. Faces flashed before me, Molly (the elder one), Arthur, Bill, Fleur, Dominique, Ralph, Louis, some blond bimbo, Percy, Audrey, Molly (the younger), Lucy, Teddy, Victoire, Isabel…it was never ending.
When things finally started to settle down, we all went to the dining table outside in a huge white tent. We couldn't all fit inside the Burrow so every year Molly and Arthur set up a huge tent (complete with warming charms) so we could all eat in one long, loud, obnoxious, chaotic mess.
The table was nicely decorated. Kind of… well there was no table cloth (did that one year….stained it…even with magic the stains were difficult to get off)… There were soft candles flickering which gave the tent a warm, homey atmosphere. But there were napkin rings on the paper napkins that matched the paper plates. I think the only reason there were napkin rings because one time George, Louis, James, Fred, and Al saw the Lord of the Rings at a Muggle movie rental and were deeply disappointed that there were no napkin rings so they couldn't pretend to have The Ring and therefore they complained about it for ages, so Molly finally gave in.
Everyone just kind of randomly sat down in no particular order hoping that the meal wouldn't start without them.
Arthur pounded on the table trying to get everybody's attention. It wasn't working out too well until he tapped his wand to his throat and magnified his voice "PLEASE BE QUIET SO I CAN MAKE A SPEECH BEFORE WE BEGIN TO EAT!"
Everything was dead silent. It was actually kind of funny if you thought about it and I resisted the urge to start laughing hysterically.
"THANK YOU." Arthur winced, I don't think he remember to take the spell off. "Ok, that's much better, Merry Christmas everyone! Ok, now you may eat."
I start laughing, what a phenomenal, life-changing, earth-shattering speech! I happen to notice that Ralphie and Dom are sitting opposite of me, while Rose and Al sit on either side of me and Lily and Scor a few seats down. Suddenly, I get a wicked idea.
I drum my fingers on the table, "So, Ralphie" I drawl, "How's life?"
He stares at me, "um…fine?" he asks uncertainly.
I noticed in my peripheral vision Al and Rose giving me strange looks but I chose to ignore them, decidedly on a mission that must not be abandoned.
I smirk at him. Then, I grab the golden napkin ring and slide it on my left ring finger. "No…big news so to announce?" I ask him again.
He clears his throat, "not that I can think of right now."
I wave my left hand around, showing off the ring, hoping he'll catch on. "Well, that's a shame. I daresay that your life sounds boring."
He laughs at me, "Z, I work with goblins my life is anything but boring."
Ralph works at Gringotts, which is how he met Bill and Fleur and was later introduced to Dominique. Uncle Bill said that he knew he'd regret introducing them in the future, but we all know that he really approves of Ralph.
I roll my eyes at him, but continue to torture him for the rest of the meal. Eventually, I'm actually able to get Rose and Lily to also casually slide the napkin rings on their fingers.
After dinner everyone milled around, going in different directions. The kids[and by kids I mean Teddy, Victoire (who had given Isabel over to the adults; even though Teddy and Victoire were married, we still considered them kids), Dominique, Ralph, Louis, BB (blond bimbo), Molly, Lucy, James, Frank, Owen, Alice, Lauren, Fred, Roxanne, MD (mystery dude), Brody, Luka, Lily, Majerle, Scor, Rose, Al, and I] ended up on the living room of the burrow. Everyone was talking; people were playing teams chess (which was becoming really intense) and just hanging out in general.
Scor and Rose were both sitting on one chair. Well, Scor was sitting on the chair and Rose was sitting on his lap, their hands and fingers entwined. I fleetingly wonder if they have had the opportunity to tell anyone that they're dating even though this isn't a recent development.
"Z why don't you give us a concert?" Rose suggest out of boredom.
I shrug at her, "I don't have my guitar."
Louis looks up from his allegedly boring conversation with BB ( I can tell because his eyes has this glazed kind of look and he didn't really seem to be talking much, BB was babbling away) and says "I've got my guitar if you want to use it, Z. I'm sure you've written a lot of songs since summer" he says while wiggling his eyebrows at me.
I roll my eyes and sigh "Well, I guess I could play a couple songs."
Louis summons his guitar and hands it to me.
"What should I play first guys?" I ask politely, trying to keep my audience entertained. Muggle Christmas carols is the unanimous vote among us so, I strum the guitar and begin to sing,
Sleigh bells ring, are you listening,
In the lane, snow is glistening
A beautiful sight,
We're happy tonight.
Walking in a winter wonderland.
Gone away is the bluebird,
Here to stay is a new bird
He sings a love song,
As we go along,
Walking in a winter wonderland.
In the meadow we can build a snowman,
Then pretend that he is Parson Brown
He'll say: Are you married?
We'll say: No man,
But you can do the job
When you're in town
Later on, we'll conspire,
As we dream by the fire
To face unafraid,
The plans that we've made,
Walking in a winter wonderland.
In the meadow we can build a snowman,
Then pretend that he is Parson Brown
He'll say: Are you married?
We'll say: No man,
But you can do the job
When you're in town.
Later on, we'll conspire,
As we dream by the fire
To face unafraid,
The plans that we've made,
Walking in a winter wonderland.
To face unafraid,
The plans that we've made,
Walking in a winter wonderland
Walking in a winter wonderlandSleigh bells ring, are you listening,
In the lane, snow is glistening
A beautiful sight,
We're happy tonight.
Walking in a winter wonderland.
Gone away is the bluebird,
Here to stay is a new bird
He sings a love song,
As we go along,
Walking in a winter wonderland.
In the meadow we can build a snowman,
Then pretend that he is Parson Brown
He'll say: Are you married?
We'll say: No man,
But you can do the job
When you're in town
Later on, we'll conspire,
As we dream by the fire
To face unafraid,
The plans that we've made,
Walking in a winter wonderland.
In the meadow we can build a snowman,
Then pretend that he is Parson Brown
He'll say: Are you married?
We'll say: No man,
But you can do the job
When you're in town.
Later on, we'll conspire,
As we dream by the fire
To face unafraid,
The plans that we've made,
Walking in a winter wonderland.
To face unafraid,
The plans that we've made,
Walking in a winter wonderland
Walking in a winter wonderland
They all whoop and I laugh a little. Everyone claps and congratulates me on singing the repetitive song. Then, Lily pipes up "OOO!!! Can you sing that other song? What's it called?"
I have no clue what she's talking about but Owen seems to understand her perfectly and asks me to sing White Christmas. And so the night continues in happiness and muggle Christmas carols with all of us knowing that the best of Christmas vacation was yet to come.
A/N: I am sooo sorry!!! So terribly sorry I will understand if you never forgive me! Things have been so horrifically chaotic which is no excuse I know, but i promise you that the next few chapters will be in a quick succession and will so much better in plot and character development then the rest of the chapters put together!!! Forgive me. :(
~wwccd