Chapter Thirteen
A/N: Thank you to lunalovegood564 and ThatHufflepuff for reviewing the last chapter.
As the moon began to sink in the sky, Lily rose in parallel with it, her childish anticipation of the day's celebrations overcoming her need to sleep, as it had always done. The girls she shared her room with, hardly less than she had done in the dorm rooms, slept peacefully, being at an age where they did not awake at a time when the sun was nowhere nearing surfacing above the horizon. However, Lily did not share this skill, and her excitement had woken her far earlier than it should have done, by the standards of her parents, at least.
Disregarding her white bunny rabbit slippers in the need for utter quietness, the redhead tiptoed out of her bedroom, descending the many flights of stairs that led down to the living room at the Burrow, the paths twisting and turning as they had always done, turning what should have been a simple task into an adventure, or for the adults, a nightmare. Along the bannisters, garlands of leaves and mistletoe berries were hung, little fairies charmed to fly through them every now and then, to give off a magical glow that Lily was glad for, as in her hurry, she had left her wand on her bed, and there was a large amount of stairs to take a tumble down, should she lose her footing in the dark and fall.
When she had finally reached the bottom of the endless steps, Lily stood in awe of the beauty that was the Weasley family Christmas tree. Though they had never had much money, due to them having had seven children, of which her mother was the youngest, her grandparents had never once scrimped their money away from the winter celebration, as it was the one time of the year when they did not really mind about the cost, and so they had purchased a tree that reached the very ceiling of the room, decorated from stump to tip with tinsel, baubles and a string of devices that Arthur had brought home from the Ministry over two decades back, which he called 'fairy lights'.
Underneath the tree, as always, piles of presents lay on the floor, with wrapping paper that coordinated to each person. Her presents, for instance, had always been wrapped in silver paper, dotted with white lily flowers that seemed to endlessly fall around the paper, as her cousin's did, though they were wrapped in gold with roses. It was a lovely touch that just showed how Weasley Christmases could be as special as any other families', even families who spent money like water, such as the Malfoys.
For a moment, and only a single moment, Lily merely stood stock still, admiring all the hard work and effort that had gone into making one day special for the whole family, no easy task given the size of the Weasley clan, and all the effort that had been gone to for all those years before, back to a time when her mother was but a baby, and even before that. It was just another reminder of how special her family was, not that she had ever needed reminding, as she saw that fact quite clearly with every single day that went by.
In the slight glow of the fairy lights, the young girl moved towards the tree, taking her time to admire the beautiful baubles. The orbs each bore the name of one of the Weasley family, leaving a considerable number on the tree, and a magical flame with each one lit when the corresponding person awoke on Christmas morning, illuminating the elegant script of the writing. The girl quickly swept her gaze across the tree, and was glad to see that her bauble was the only one that shone. As much as she loved sharing Christmas with her family, and that was the thing that she adored the most about the occasion, but she also enjoyed the moment at the very beginning of the day, the enchanting moment that she had to share with no one. The moment for herself.
It was only now, when she looked at the moon, which was only just beginning to fade, that Lily realised just how little sleep she had had the previous night, given the time that she had woken, not to mention her excitement, which had not allow her to close her eyes and submit to slumber. Her cousins, as always, had stayed up talking, but she had not been included in these discussions, as the only one of her female cousins that she shared any conversation points with was Rose, and she had long since gone to sleep by the time Lily had settled down. Therefore, she had slipped into darkness, silent and lonely, and had awoken just the same.
If she thought about it, the redhead realised that she did not know why her cousins, Victoire and Louis did not like her. She could easily guess that it was due to the fact that her mother and theirs had always had their times of being at odds, but it could also be something to do with the amount of publicity she had received, due to her being Harry Potter's only daughter. After all, Fleur had always wanted to be famous, and that may well have been a trait that she had passed on to her children. However, as she got on quite well with Dominique, another light sleeper, it may just have been a matter of which parent they listened to the most. In the case of their middle child, she listened to her father, Bill, alone.
For the next few minutes, the girl allowed her thoughts about her family to fill her mind, considering each member individually. Before long, she had fallen fast asleep, and only one orb glowed on the tree. The bauble representing her own father, who carried her back to bed, until the dawn, when she would wake once again, ready to celebrate alongside her family, the only thing that she had wanted to.
A/N: Little vote; do you want the next chapter to be more Christmas, or back to Hogwarts? Let me know in a review!