Hey all! New chapter's up! I think I'm later than usual, sorry about that (my internet gave up on me). Second year begins here.
Thanks for Kalavinka and Infernalbooks for your lovely reviews. And to isn'tshelovely for following.
Disclaimer: Never owned.
Enjoy!
Christmas
25th December, 1972
It was Christmas. The entirety of the Hogwarts castle was cloaked in pure white snow, making the already surreal looking castle seem like a thing out of a muggle fairy tale. The Lake had frozen over, resembling a gigantic frosted mirror. To put it briefly, the entire scenario was extremely beautiful.
The cold wind blew around, beating against the glass windows of the Gryffindor tower.
"Marlene, wake up!" a familiar voice called out from the right.
"Go away, Lily," the blonde witch moaned from the sanctuary of her four-poster bed. There was a sigh from the redhead.
"Marls, it's Christmas!"
Marlene sat up straight.
"Oh! It's Christmas!"
Christmas was Marlene's favourite time of the year. The snow, the celebration, the gifts – she simply loved this day.
She hurried down from the bed, squatting down to the floor by the pile of brightly wrapped gifts, only to find her best friend, Lily Evans sitting in a similar position by her own bed.
"Should have known that Christmas was the key," Lily giggled.
"You're such a child, Marls."
"Hey!" Marlene huffed playfully, "We are all children, in case you forgot, Lils."
She turned her attention to the gifts. Oh, how she loved opening those brightly coloured wrappers and finding out what was inside! With each coloured paper that fell apart under her nimble fingers, she squealed with joy like a six-year old. Her friends just knew what she wanted. She only hoped that her parents hadn't made the same mistake this year too —
Marlene opened the wrapped parcel that her parents had sent for Christmas, and sighed. Purple. Again. Couldn't her mother ever remember that she hated purple? It was Michael's favourite, certainly not hers. Why couldn't they send something she liked, for once? She loved getting nice woolly gloves, but in that horrible shade of purple? Ugh.
Her parents always mucked up her choices. They did it every year. Sometimes it made Marlene wonder if they did it on purpose, just for a laugh, or if they were finally going barmy with age...
She was about to shove the new woolly gloves down her trunk, like she had pushed away a pair last year, and turn to the rest of her much more promising gifts, when a familiar voice called her name from the common room.
"Coming!" she yelled, and abandoning her earlier endeavours, ran down the stairs, gloves in hand.
Sirius was grinning up at her from an armchair by the roaring fire, a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavoured Beans in his hands. He was wearing a red Christmas cap on his head. Marlene skipped the last few of the stairs and ran into his arms, tackling him into a hug.
"Merry Christmas!"
He laughed and ruffled her hair affectionately. He seemed to do that quite often.
"A very Happy Christmas to you too!" He took off his cap and held it out for her to see. "James' parents sent this for me. Isn't this great?" he asked enthusiastically.
She grinned and nodded, suppressing a giggle. He did look comical in it, with his rather aristocratic looks clashing horribly with the Santa cap, but the article itself was nice. And Mrs Potter had without doubt, made it herself with a lot of love.
"Thanks for the book. I loved it!" she exclaimed, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.
"You're welcome," he replied. His eyes fell on the pair of purple gloves clutched in her hands. "Your parents sent this?"
She looked down and nodded, grimacing. He looked puzzled at her reaction.
"Don't you like it?"
"I hate purple. I like blue, but mum and dad always forget. Mum keeps confusing my choices with Michael's. The pains of having so many siblings."
He laughed. "Tell me about it."
"Oh no, you will get bored listening to my blabbering."
"Of course I won't, Marlene. What do you take me for? I would love to get to know about your family," he smiled. "They have to be better than my own, anyway," he muttered to himself, but she pretended not to notice.
So she began speaking as they made themselves comfortable in the cosy armchairs, occasionally popping a couple of Every-flavoured Beans from the box that he had been holding. She talked about her parents, her five brothers and sisters and her hoard of cousins and uncles and aunts, how Michael and Malcolm, her elder brothers, always teased her, how managing the baby Maria was so much of a bother, how her mother always kept confusing her choices and preferences with those of her siblings, how she would like someone to really give them a little more of their time and attention, and finally, how, despite all her problems, she loved her family more than anything.
She stopped to look at him, expecting him to have dozed off or something out of the sheer monotony of her rambling. But he was listening with rapt attention, and as she finished, he gave her a big smile.
"You have a lovely family," he said sincerely.
"Thanks," she replied bashfully.
"Enough about me. Now you tell me..." she thought for a moment, "What Christmas presents did you get?"
He grinned, and began ticking the list off his fingers. "James gave me a fantastic wizarding chess set, Remus gave me a stash of Honeydukes' best chocolate — honestly, I could swear that guy is in love with chocolate — Peter gave me this box of Beans, James' mum a tub of chocolate gateau and this cap —" As he finished his list, Marlene noticed that he had not mentioned anything from his parents, but she did not comment on it.
"It's a nice day," she said. "What do you say about a snowball fight?"
He gave her a wicked grin. "You're on. Beware of my deadly skills."
Half an hour later, half of the population who had stayed in the school were rolling and running about in snow, screams, squeals and laughter ringing everywhere.
And as Marlene said, it was a nice day.
How was it, then? I know this is light and no suspense, nothing, but it will come soon, promise. Until next time :) Meanwhile, please lighten up my days with your reviews :)