*Fair warning, this is a long chapter, the longest chapter so far in this story. I just really love Christmas*

"Rosie! Happy Christmas!"

Hugo, as usual, was jumping on my bed to wake me up.

"Happy Christmas Hu! You are getting too heavy to jump on my bed."

"Never!" he shouted cheerfully. "Come on, Mum and Dad are waiting for us downstairs already!"

I pulled back my covers and looked at the end of my bed. A nice pile of presents lay there waiting for me to open them. Hu helped me carry them down to where my parents were waiting on the couch, sipping some early morning coffee.

I opened my presents from my Aunts and Uncles first, my favorite of which was a mini figurine dragon from my Uncle Charlie. He apparently gotten each of his nieces and nephews a different breed of dragon. Mine was a Antipodean Opaleye, a gorgeous pearly dragon. I named her Scarlet, after the little dragon walked around, spewing Scarlet flames everywhere.

My mum and dad got me a telescope. Astronomy was always one of my favorite subjects, right behind Potions.

"Aww thanks Rosie," Hu said when he opened the present I had given to him. I had gotten him a frame with a picture of the two of us laughing on our vacation last year. The engraving on the frame changed to a different saying every day. Today it simply read "Happy Christmas Hugo" with a tiny heart.

I was already wearing the St. Mungo's t-shirt Hu had gotten me (all proceeds from the sales went to the Hospital fund) that said "Future Healer".

"No present from Scorp?" Dad asked as I tore open my last present from Sarah.

"We decided to give them to each other at dinner today."

I laughed when I saw that Sarah had gotten me a blanket with Peeta Mellark, one of my favorite muggle book characters, on it.

"That's lovely," my mum said, "Now we have to get going soon, so I can help Ginny and Harry prepare for dinner. There's a lot of people coming this year, even more than last year!"

I ran upstairs to quickly get ready and grab my gift for Scorp. It was neatly gift-wrapped in a small golden box.

Before we left I put on my sweater from Nana, as tradition, and then dialed up Sarah on the phone.

"Happy Christmas Rose!" she sang through the phone, "I loved your present! I may have screamed because the first thing I saw was a man standing in my room. And then I was confused because why was Benedict Cumberbatch in my room. And then I was relieved when I saw he was cardboard. Then I was confused again because how did you get that in my room?"

I laughed. "I had it shipped to your house, and your mum set it up for me. I loved your present too! I'm going to take Peeta with me to Christmas Dinner."

"I asked dad if I could bring Benedict to Granddad's but he said no. Oh my gosh! Albus's present to me is the most amazing thing! Did you help pick it out?"

"No he did it all by himself!" I exclaimed, "Aren't you proud of him?"

Sarah agreed that he did extremely well. Mum called up the stairs to me, saying we were leaving soon, so I said my goodbyes and jumped down the stairs.

"Little excited Rose?" Hugo asked, amused by my enthusiasm.

"Of course! Weasley-Potter Christmas is my favorite day all year!"

I got into the fireplace, gift in hand and Peeta blanket around my neck and disappeared through the fire to the Potter house.

Even though it was just across town.

But why waste the time to drive there when you can just use the fireplace.

"Rose!" Al shouted, as soon as I appeared in his house, "My parents got me a new broom for Christmas!"

"That's awesome!" I said jumping out of the fireplace, and quickly dusting myself and Peeta off. "Lemme see!"

I loved arriving at the Potter's house early to Christmas dinner for multiple reasons. Number one was that Nan was cooking when we arrived, and when I walked into the kitchen to wish her a happy Christmas, the smell of ham and potatoes was already in the air.

The second reason was that out of all my cousins, I spent the most time growing up with the Potters. It was nice comparing gifts and chatting before the chaotic-ness of all the family coming over ensued.

The third reason was it was a tradition that Al and I sat on the couch while people were arriving. The children of course would always come by the floo network, and most of the adults did as well, otherwise they apparated onto the back porch which we had a great view of from where we were sitting. We liked to make bets on who would arrive next.

I predicted, and was right, that Aunt Fleur would want to come help with dinner so that family would come first. Louis came over excitingly and thanked me for the jersey. He was wearing it under his sweater. Dom came and sat with us for a bit, before getting bored and going to the kitchen to help out.

Uncle Percy, Aunt Audrey, and Lucy came next, followed by Uncle George, Aunt Angelina, Fred, and Roxy. Roxy never had the patience to sit with us either, so she bounced off to go bug James and Fred.

As dinner grew closer, more and more people started to arrive. Teddy and Victoire arrived hand in hand, as usual. As soon as Vic saw me she squealed and said, "Rose! Let me just say that I knew that you and Scorpius would be a cute couple since I saw you first year. I called it, didn't I Teddy?"

Teddy nodded. "She did."

"Anyways, guess what. Molly is bringing a boy to dinner."

Al started choking on the toffee he was eating. I stared at her wide eyed.

"I know right?" continued Vic, "She had actually came to me for advice the other day. Apparently she has been dating him in secret for a couple months, and wanted to know if she should invite him to dinner. I couldn't believe it! Molly coming to me for dating advice!"

It was something that I thought was never going to happen. Honestly I thought she was going to be a lonely cat lady.

The Dursleys pulled up in the driveway, and Perry and Jack came and joined us in the living room.

"Hey, thanks for the book Jack!" I said when he walked in.

"Don't let him fool you, I picked it out," Aunt Katherine said smiling.

Albus guess that Hagrid would come next, but actually Uncle Neville and Aunt Hannah appeared followed by Hagrid. Aunt Luna and her family arrived, Ly bringing along his girlfriend Amelie. I hadn't seen Ly and Lorcan since they had finished Hogwarts, so I got up and gave them both a hug. Lee Jordan, his wife, and children Zoe and of course Callum arrived, making a big scene when Lee saw his best friend, Uncle George. Molly came with her pretentious looking boyfriend. His name was Daniel, she introduced. I had never seen Molly look at anybody that way before. She must really like him.

Finally the person I had been waiting for finally arrived. The fire roared to life, and Scorpius appeared in the flames. I leapt up and walked to him slowly, conscience of all the people in the room.

As soon as he saw me, his eyes twinkled and he grinned holding out his arms. I fell into them, wrapping my arms around his torso and he pulled me closer until he could kiss me on top of my head.

"Happy Christmas Scorp," I said burrowing my head into his shoulder.

"Happy Christmas Rose."

There was a cough behind us, and I pulled away noticing that everyone in the room was watching us. Albus got up grinning and walked over to us.

"Way to make a scene guys."

Scorpius's mum and dad appeared outside on the back porch, Astoria carrying a dish in her hand. Draco held the door open for his wife, and she waved hello to everyone in the room.

Aunt Ginny came over from where she was talking with Luna to greet them. They nodded nicely to her and Aunt Ginny grabbed the dish and took it to the kitchen.

Astoria and Draco came over to where we are standing.

"Hello Albus!" Astoria said, hugging him. "I believe you have gotten taller since the last time I saw you."

Draco stuck out his hand and Albus shook it, before both his parents turned to me.

"And you must be Rose," Astoria said smiling. I was taken by surprise when she hugged me as well. When she pulled away, her eyes sparkled like her son's always did. "It's great to finally meet you. Scorpius has told me so much about you."

I shook Scorpius's father's hand who said, "Indeed, I've heard probably more about what you do at school for the last 5 years than what he does."

Scorpius gave him a sour look. "Dad."

"You have the hair like your father, that's for sure," he continued, "But your face looks more like your Aunt's."

Scorp sighed and said, "Shouldn't you two be going to talk to anybody else?"

Astoria threw her head back and laughed. "Alright, we will leave you alone. Come on Draco, there must be someone here who didn't hate you in school we can talk to."

When his parents left, Scorpius turned to me. "Sorry about them."

"They're fine," I replied, "Way better than my parents probably. I think we should steer clear of them tonight."

As I watched his parent's go around the room, I realized how out of place they must feel. Pretty much everyone in my family did hate the Malfoy's, and most still held a slight grudge. It helped that Astoria seemed very sweet and easy to talk to. But Draco on the other hand didn't talk to anyone, mostly stayed behind his wife listening to the conversations but not adding to them. The Malfoys had been invited to every family Christmas since Albus became friends with Scorp, but this was the first one they had actually attended. Draco and Astoria must really love their son to give up their own Christmas Day, to spend time with people they don't entirely get along with.

"Were we the last ones here?" Scorpius asked, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"No," I said looking at the back porch, "We still are waiting for one more person, but he's always late."

"Who?"

Just then there was a loud pop, and Uncle Charlie appeared on the porch.

"Sorry, am I late? I got caught up at the office."

I ran over to give him a hug. "No, you're not late Uncle Charlie. And you don't work in an office?"

"Office, dragon sanctuary, same thing," he said, squeezing me and picking me up off my feet, "How are ya Rose?"

I laughed, "Great, I loved the gift! Could you put me down?"

Nana came out and called for dinner. Everyone filed into the enlarged dining room, and took their seats around the table. Scorpius and I sat next to each other, his parents nearby sitting by Aunt Luna. That's one of the loveable things about Aunt Luna, she never was one to hold a grudge.

The Malfoys seemed very uncomfortable, I don't think they've ever been to such large family dinners. Malfoy had only got a slice of the chaos during the summer.

Uncle Harry stood up and clanked his glass. The table quieted down.

"Thank you all for coming to another Christmas. I do believe in a couple years we will have to rent out a banquet hall, because our friends and family just keeps getting bigger. I would say we should hire a caterer, but I love Molly's mashed potatoes too much." Nana's cheeks turned red, but was grinning from ear to ear. "It's been a wonderful year, and I'm so thankful for each and every one of you. Let's eat!"

Cheers erupted up and down the table, and everyone started passing the plates of food around. The chatter soon became loud, as people talked about what's new and cracked jokes about each other.

Everyone was impressed at the news of Perry's amazing keeping skills last game, but equally amazed at Albus's great catch.

"Just like your Dad," boomed Lee Jordan, "He broke his arm playing to you know? Second year, I was the announcer. It was beautiful."

Hagrid, Luna's husband Rolf, and Charlie all chatted about the dragon's that Charlie was taking care of.

"You both will have to come see them. The sanctuary is a great place for them to be raised. Some Peruvian Vipertooths just hatched, they are quite adorable."

Astoria was having a lovely conversation with Aunt Ginny.

"It's so nice of you to invite us to these families gatherings. Scorpius doesn't have much family to spend time with," Astoria explained, "You know Draco was an only child, and my sister lives in America now. It's good for him to get to know this family bonding that you all of have."

"Of course," Ginny said, "He is able to come whenever he likes, we love to have him!"

"Well perhaps we will see a lot more of each other," Scorp's mom said, giving a pointing look towards us. Scorpius pretended not to hear that.

After dinner, Scorp and I helped carrying dishes to the kitchen. When I walked in, I couldn't help but close my eyes and sigh at the smell of the gingerbread cookies baking.

It was getting dark outside when Scorpius's father informed him they were getting ready to leave. Scorpius told him he needed 15 more minutes before turning to me.

"Ready for you present?"

I smiled at him. "Let me give you mine first."

I ran and grabbed his present where I sat it on the Potter's mantle.

"Why don't we go someone where more private," Scorp said when I returned, "Do you have a coat you could borrow?"

...

He led me out to the tiny gazebo in the Potter's back yard. Outside a light snow was falling through the chilly air. Lights were hung around the gazebo, and I realized that Scorpius must of had this planned.

I handed him the gift I had gotten him, and watched him nervously unwrap it. Inside was the fragile golden snitch that I had found in the shop.

"You have to ask it to open." I said. He looked up and me, a twinkle in his eyes before putting the snitch to his mouth and whispering open.

The snitch broke in two and soft music filled the air. A tiny image of two partners dancing emerged, a boy with white hair and a girl with red and a green dress.

"This is the song we danced to." I nodded. "And that's us."

"I asked the clerk at the store to program it to look like us."

The music stopped and the snitch closed.

"It's beautiful Rose. Absolutely beautiful."

A grin spread on my face. "I'm glad you think so."

"Now," he said, a mischievous smirk on his face, "I'm going to need you to close your eyes."

I did so and felt his soft lips kiss my cheek. I shivered as he walked away, hearing him step off the gazebo. A few minutes later, he returned.

"Alright, Rose. Open"

I gasped when I saw what he had gotten me. In his hand was the most beautiful owl I had ever seen in a cage. Silvery feathers and dark blue speckled eyes, that made them look like a galaxy.

"Do you like her?"

I finally caught my breath. "She's amazing! I-I don't know what to say..."

Scorpius handed the cage to me, and I held her up so I could get a better look at her.

"Scorp, she's so beautiful! How did you- when did you?"

"I had Ginny go pick her up in the shop for me. She's been living here for the past couple of days."

"I love her."

Scorpius sidled up beside me, making my breath hitch as he ran his finger down my cheek.

"I'm glad. There's one last thing before I go..."

Confused I looked up at his shining grey eyes. "What?"

He grabbed my owl's cage and set it down on the ground. "Look up," he whispered.

I glanced upwards.

Mistletoe.

As always, thanks for reading this chapter! I hope you enjoyed it, and please leave a review on your thoughts. Or leave a review on your favorite part of Christmas. I really like Christmas.

I have some good news; I have the rest of this story all mapped out and it shouldn't take that long to write and get them out (I am starting school soon, so don't hold that against me). The bad news is that there is only seven more chapters left.

Fear not I will probably write more stories about The Next Generation, and I like to connect all my stories together (hence how Friendship with Dudley Dursley goes along with this one). But I hope you enjoy the last several chapters, and I'll update soon! Love yeah!

-Macey