Sorry this has taken so long! I've had so very much trouble with the chapter, and I'm not really sure if I'm happy with it, even now. Please let me know what you think, I'm trying to keep this canon so let me know if I've doofed anything (other than the fact that Quinn would not have the same last name as Seamus since it's his mother who's the witch and Quinn is magical too and... bullshit.)
Hope you like it more than I do.
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Chapter 8- New Years Eve
Phoenix:
Phoenix got up to look out his front window for what felt like the fiftieth time in an hour. Teddy had said that they would be fetching Phoenix at five, and it was five on the dot and they were nowhere in sight. They were wizards, what was their excuse? It's not as though they could blame the traffic.
Teddy obviously didn't understand the severity of Phoenix's situation. He didn't appreciate that it was a matter of life and death, because if Teddy didn't show up soon to save him, Phoenix would have had to Avada Kedavra himself… if he had known how to…
Christmas had been terrible. His parents had not only let Grandma Matilda stay for the holidays (which would have most likely ruined any chance of a good holiday anyway) but they also had a muggle man named Frankie staying with them. Apparently Frankie was an acquaintance of Phoenix's dad, and he had been evicted from his house at the end of November and so naturally his parent's decided to let the strange man stay with them. The man was disgusting. He was stout (which was a bit of an understatement seeing that he was nearly as wide as he was tall) and he wore a rather distracting mustache. He always smelt like muggle beer, which Phoenix's father had taken to drinking, and he would often fall asleep in the living room and snore at an alarming volume. Phoenix always felt uncomfortable with the man in the room, and had spent most of his holidays hiding in his room to avoid the company of both Frankie and Grandma Matilda.
The only gleam of hope over the holidays was that he was going to go with Teddy on New Years. But now Teddy had apparently forgot entirely about Phoenix's existence! It was 5:02, which meant he was late… Those two minutes may as well have been days because he was sitting in the same room as not only the snoring Frankie, but also batty Grandma Matilda who at the moment was rambling on about the psychic healing powers of squibs.
Just one more peek out the window wouldn't hurt anyone. As the boy got to the window there was a cracking noise from outside, and two figures were standing in the driveway. Teddy and his Granny!
Phoenix ran to the front door as fast as his awkward eleven year old boy legs would carry him, and grabbed his backpack which he had put there earlier and flung the door open.
He yelled so that his parents could hear "Bye Mum! Bye Dad!" and he shut the door before he could get a response. He didn't want a thirty minute departure where his mother cried and his father warned him of all the dangers of the outside world.
"Phoenix!" Teddy was grinning at him.
"Evening Lupin," Phoenix couldn't help but smile, this boy was freedom.
"This is my Granny, Andromeda Tonks. Granny this is my friend Phoenix Flannery." Teddy introduced them. Andromeda was a nice looking lady, not as old as Phoenix had assumed she would be. She didn't really look like Teddy, though it was hard to compare Teddy's looks to anyone. She looked about fifty, though she had to be older than that, her eyes gave the woman's age away as closer to sixty. She had obviously had a tough life. Her hair was brown and liberally streaked with grey. She smiled politely at Phoenix and shook his hand.
After the usual pleasantries the two boys each grabbed onto one of Andromeda's arms and the trio apperated to the location of the Weasley's party.
The Burrow was the strangest place Phoenix had ever been. It looked as though it was about to fall apart at any moment, and walking inside only intensified that feeling. It was cluttered with knick-knacks and comfy furniture and people… so many people. Teddy introduced Phoenix to what felt like hundreds of different people who all seemed friendly enough. There was Molly and Arthur Weasley, their six children, their six children's spouses, a total of nine little Weasleys (and three little Potters), a handful Delacours, Professors Thomas, Hagrid and Longbottom, Quinn and her cousin Seamus, a man named Lovegood, and a family of Scamanders including their little twin boys. And he was still probably forgetting someone… It was all very overwhelming.
Everyone there seemed very welcoming and receptive of the young boy. There were numerous comments about Phoenix being a long lost Weasley child, and even he couldn't help but laugh at that. The Weasleys seemed to have made red hair a dominant gene.
Teddy took Phoenix to go and hang out with his cousins after a good half hour of introductions to many of the most powerful wizards alive. Most of the Weasley cousins were fairly young, but Teddy's sort of cousins Victoire and Freddy were nine and eight respectively and didn't act quite as babyish as the others.
Teddy, Victoire and Freddy seemed to have all grown up together and had a sort of careless closeness. Phoenix felt a bit like an outsider, though both Victoire and Freddy were very welcoming. The four children played exploding snap for a while before Freddy got mad from losing (again).
"Can we please do something else?" The boy looked awfully sulky.
"Well what do you want to do?" Teddy asked with a slight twinge of annoyance in his voice since he saw nothing wrong with consistently beating Freddy every round.
"I dunno…" Freddy sank back into the chair he was occupying.
"I wonder what the parents are doing." Victoire said as she began to clean up the game they were playing.
"They have probably drunk half the wine in Devon by now." Teddy smirked.
"You could always go down there looking like one of them and start talking to them and see how long it takes for them to catch on." Victoire giggled a little.
"That'll only work if they really have drunk all the wine in Devon." Phoenix was smiling at the idea.
"Try it with Uncle Ron! It'll be funny." Freddy had a mischievous look in his eye.
"He's too tall." Teddy frowned, "I can't really change my height."
"You can always make yourself look like the eleven year old Ron, then go up to Grandma and ask for something." Victoire said looking nearly as excited as Freddy.
"The look on her face would be amazing…" Teddy smiled, "but what did he look like? Do we have a picture?"
"There's bound to be one in an album somewhere." Phoenix said, smiling at the excitement the others seemed to get from the plan.
"I think Grandma keeps the albums downstairs." Freddy said as he went off to go find one.
"I'll make sure he doesn't die." Victoire said with a cheeky grin.
After the two younger children left the room Teddy turned to Phoenix, "I'm sorry we've got to hang out with them."
"Why? They're fun." Phoenix really was having fun with the kids.
"I know. I just didn't want to seem lame for liking them." Teddy smirked, "Though I'm not sure if I like their prank ideas."
Phoenix laughed, "As long as this one turns out better than the Halloween pudding fiasco than I'm sure we'll be fine."
"Least if it goes wrong we don't have McGonagall here to yell at us." Teddy said with a laugh.
"Though I don't think I would ever want to cross Mrs. Weasley." Phoenix gave a comical shudder, "Imagine if the two of them ever met!"
"They have met! They were both in the order together." Teddy laughed, "I'm surprised they didn't just grab Voldemort by the ears and drag him off to Azkaban like that!"
"Could you imagine?" The two boys were falling about the place laughing when the lady named Hermione poked her head through the door, "Oh dear, laughter like that coming from you, Teddy Lupin can only mean trouble."
The two boys breathed deep, trying to calm themselves. "Am I really any trouble?" Teddy said, still grinning. This made Phoenix laugh even more.
Hermione smiled, "Dean and Neville were telling me about some of the trouble you and Phoenix here have been causing. You're worse than Harry and Ron were."
"We try." Teddy smirked at her.
"Just don't get yourselves expelled." Hermione said, looking the two boys over.
"We won't. We've been in detention too long to get into any more trouble." Phoenix smiled at the woman.
Hermione couldn't help but snigger at this, "Definitely worse than Harry and Ron."
"Where is Ron? I haven't seen him." Teddy said.
"I'm not sure. I came up here to look for him, actually." Her brow creased a little.
"Maybe he's with the baby?" Teddy suggested.
"Probably… He is hardly ever without the baby anymore," she smirked, "I'll go check in the nursery." Hermione walked to the door, "Oh yes, and the photo albums are on the shelf in the family room." She smiled knowingly as she walked out of the room.
The two boys looked at each other.
"How did she…" Phoenix was thoroughly confused.
"They say she is the brightest witch of the modern age." Teddy said, looking just as confused as the other boy.
Freddy and Victoire came into the room carrying a photo of a grinning and waving eleven year old Ron Weasley.
"Here you go, it's the best one we could find." Victoire handed Teddy the photo.
Phoenix watched as Teddy began to change his facial features, and after a few moments he was looking at another young Weasley.
"Can I join your ginger club?" Teddy said to his gingery company with an impish grin.
"I think we can make you an honorary member." Phoenix said.
"That'll be alright, I guess," said Victoire with a smile.
The four of them went down to the kitchen, the youngest two giggling as they went. They walked into the kitchen where Molly was preparing more food for the party. They all tried to seem as casual as possible.
"Need any help, Grandma?" Victoire said.
"Sure, dear. If you want to-" Molly turned to them and froze staring at the young Ron.
"What's the matter?" Freddy asked obviously trying hard not to laugh.
It then clicked for Molly, "Theodor Remus Lupin!"
Phoenix couldn't help but laugh with Freddy and Victoire as Mrs. Weasley began to give Teddy a list of things he would have to clean for the next week for giving her a heart attack.
It was going to be a good night.
Holly:
Holly looked in the mirror and sighed. She ran the brush through her hair again hoping that this time it might make a difference. Nope, no difference... She would need to see if her mother could plait it or something.
It was New Year's Eve and the whole family was coming over. That's just what she needed, concerned glances from more people than she already had to endure on a daily basis. Her family seemed to be walking on eggshells around her, as though any minute she would turn into the monster and rip them to shreds. Tommy was her only real escape. Nearly every night he would come into her room and talk to her until she was so tired that she had no choice but to sleep. That hour with Tommy was the best in her day. He scared off the monsters that hid under the bed and stalked her in the shadows when she was left alone.
Lisa seemed to be mad at Holly. She was acting as though Holly had purposely ruined her holiday. The girl would glower at her sister as though she was not even worth the space she was taking up. Lisa's reaction made Holly feel like her stomach was tied up in knots. Daniel seemed to be avoiding her. Holly figured that he wanted to be comforting when she would catch him giving her sympathetic glances, but she knew he was unsure of how to go about it. Their father took a similar approach as Daniel, spending even more time with his owls than his children. Mary seemed to think that Holly needed constant attention. She would practically follow her youngest child around, which was comforting at first when Holly couldn't bear to be alone, but soon became rather annoying.
All of these reactions seemed to intensify when Holly got her second vision. It was the night before Christmas Eve and she was sitting on her bed reading Tommy's divination basics textbook. She all of a sudden saw a dark room. A blonde woman was crying. There was yelling, "I will not kill my son!" A yell of "He's a monster!" from another man who seemed to be confronting the first. The woman just kept crying, and praying. Her rosary beads clicked as she cried and rocked, her muttered prayers in what sounded like French. The men just kept yelling and the woman kept paying and the beads kept clicking and-
Holly was being shaken. "Holly! Holly! Snap out of it!" Tommy was shaking her by her shoulders and speaking in a hasty, nervous tone. "What is it? What did you see?" He let her go, but she still kept shaking, tears were welling up in her eyes. She told him what she had seen and he held her stroking her hair. He promised her again and again that nothing bad would happen to her. His words were coming like the woman's prayers, even though Tommy knew that Holly was beginning to doubt that as much as he was and the thought nearly made him sick.
And now Holly would need to face the whole clan, all of whom knew about her "strange new gift". It's still a curse, she thought as she walked from the bathroom and into her small bedroom. She had begun to do more research into seers and all books seemed to believe that being plagued by uncontrollable and rather horrific visions was a great thing.
She had put on the new dress her mother had made for her that morning. It was most defiantly something Holly would not have worn if her mother had not insisted that she had done so. It was a very pale blue with flowers stitched along the hem. The colour apparently brought out her eyes but to her that didn't even come close to justifying how frilly the dress was, what with its multiple layers of crinoline and numerous bows.
"I look like a powder puff…" she sighed as she looked down at her girlish body.
"Your hair looks more like a powder puff than your dress." Holly whipped around to see Daniel leaning against the door frame in a way that was faintly reminiscent of Tommy.
"What do you want?" Holly glared at her brother.
"Can't I talk to my dear little sister?" he asked.
"Talk then." Holly crossed her arms and looked at him. They looked rather alike. Both had blonde curls, though Daniel's tended to cooperate more, though perhaps that was because they were shorter, only falling just to his chin. They had the same blue eyes, though Daniel's didn't how the naivety that Holly's did. The boy was nearly a head taller and less scrawny than the younger girl, having gained a good coating of muscle from playing quidditch.
"I heard what happened last week..."
"And what did you hear?" she tried to keep her voice cold and unwavering.
"Tommy told me you had another vision." Daniel said, moving from the door.
"So, what about it?" her voice waivered a little bit, breaking the cold manner she was trying to portray.
"Are you okay?"
"What do you care?" she practically spat the words at him.
Daniel's eyes looked over Holly, "I'm your brother, aren't I? I'm allowed to care about you."
"Yeah, I guess…"
"Tommy is really worried about you." Daniel said, not taking his eyes from the girl. "I'm worried about you," he said, more sincerely than Holly expected.
Holly decided to watch her shoes rather than her brother. "Don't worry about me. Apparently all this is some sort of a gift." The bitterness seeped into the words even before they reached her lips.
"The only one who believes that here is Lisa," he said.
"Is that why she's mad at me?"
"Oh probably, she was always an attention whore and at the moment everyone cares more about you than her." His annoyance towards Lisa was apparent.
"I never asked for this…" Holly said.
"I know that, Tommy knows that, Mum and Dad know that, but all Lisa sees is that everyone is worried about you. And it's something she just doesn't understand. She can be a real bitch over stuff like this. I remember when Tommy was made prefect and we got the letter on her birthday. Of course everyone was happy for him, but she got all prissy about it." He looked at his baby sister.
"I think she thinks I'm ruining her holiday," she sighed, "I probably am."
"She's ruining her own holiday." Daniel said matter-of-factly.
"Am I ruining your holiday?"
He smirked, "I got a new Nimbus 3100, how could my holiday be ruined?"
She laughed, "Boys and their brooms!"
"If you ever have a vision of me falling off my broom, let me know." He smiled at Holly, who couldn't help but return the smile.
"You need to start training for next year's quidditch seasons. I expect you to make the Gryffindor team, so when Gryffindor loses to Hufflepuff, I can poke fun at you for it."
"Hufflepuff hasn't won yet this year!" Holly said with a grin. "But Gryffindor is in the lead for the cup, I may point out."
"The year is still young, dear sister," he said, "and besides it doesn't matter who wins as long as it's not Slytherin."
"Isn't that the truth." Tommy poked his head into the room with a goofy smile on his face.
"I mean look at the captain of your team, you lot have no hope." Holly giggled as Tommy put on a comical pout.
"I'll have you know we are putting in a valiant effort this year… even if we have a winning streak reminiscent of the Chudley Cannons."
"So captain, what brings you up here this fine evening?" Daniel asked his older brother.
"Came to find you two, actually. Aunt Virginia just got here and everyone else should be here soon enough. We're supposed to report to the living room."
"Am I the only one who's not looking forward to this?" Daniel asked as he slumped and headed towards the door.
"No, I'm not looking forward to this in the slightest." Holly said as she sighed and tried to smooth down her hair on last time.
The three Wiggins went down stairs to the party none of them were really looking forward to.
Phoenix:
"Okay Phoenix, truth or dare?" Teddy had a mischievous look in his eye that made Phoenix scared to pick dare.
"Truth," he said nervously.
"Okay, would you rather kiss Holly or Quinn?" said the giggling Teddy who, at the moment, was sporting a startlingly pink perm as a dare from Victoire.
"Um… Quinn?" he blushed, having never really thought of kissing either of them before. Holly was a bit wild, she tended to look a bit feral when she got excited, and he imagined kissing her to be like kissing a wolf. Though he couldn't imagine Quinn kissing anyone, so kissing her might be more like a punch in the mouth for anyone who dared try… Oh well. "Freddy, truth of dare?"
"Dare!" the boy always picked dare, than always vowed he would never pick dare again, a vow that was broken without hesitation the next round.
"Okay, I dare you too… hmm… I dare you to ask Dominique to dance." Phoenix said.
"But she's my cousin, and she's a girl, and she's icky!" Freddy said.
"Hey! That's my sister!" Victoire said playfully.
"Are you too chicken?" Teddy said, knowing that would spur Freddy into action.
"I'm not a chicken!" Freddy said, standing up defiantly, "I'll go ask her right now!" He headed off down the stairs with the other three following in tow. He went up to the one of the many little read head girls on the dance floor and tapped her on the shoulder. The three watched from a distance as she adamantly refused, resulting in Freddy getting on his knees and begging. The girl eventually just walked away from Freddy which left him sulking as he sauntered back to the others.
"She wouldn't go for it." He mumbled, "Teddy, truth or dare?"
"Nope, you didn't finish the dare, you don't get to dare anyone." Teddy said looking rather pleased with himself.
"The dare was to ask her to dance, not dance with her," Victoire said, and everyone knew she was right including Teddy who grumbled something mildly offensive.
"Who's turn is it then?" Freddy asked.
"Phoenix's" said Teddy.
"Alright Lupin, truth of dare?" said Phoenix, who was now the one looking please with himself.
"Dare."
"Okay… I dare you… to…" he remembered something Teddy had mentioned earlier, "I dare you to go up to Mr. Potter and ask him about ministry policies." He smirked as a look of horror crept onto Teddy's face. Earlier that night Phoenix was given a warning about bringing up the ministry and their recent policies to anyone at the party. According to Teddy it almost always resulted in hours of boring talking about mistreatment of magical creatures, and misplaced authority, and shady dealings.
"That is cruel and unusual Flannery!" Teddy said looking less than amused.
"What's cruel and unusual?" Quinn said as she came over to them, having just got there.
"Quinn! Hey! Did you know Phoenix here want's to snog you?" Teddy said.
"Sorry, Flannery, you're not my type," she said with a laugh. "Oh, I'm Quinn by the way," she turned to Victoire and Freddy.
"That's Victoire and this is Freddy, they're my sort of cousins." Teddy said.
"It's nice to meet you. What are you playing?" She asked.
"Truth or dare, but Teddy just got dared to start a political brawl," said Victoire.
"Ah, so that's what's cruel and unusual." Quinn said.
"Yeah, pretty much." Teddy sighed as he got up, "but I will not be a chicken, I am a Gryffindor for Merlin's sake! Even if that means getting bored to death, it'll be a hero's death." And with that he headed down the stairs followed by four smirking children.
Harry Potter was standing talking to Quinn's cousin Seamus and Bill Weasley when Teddy walked up to them. Phoenix and Quinn came over with him, even though Freddy and Victoire kept back, suspecting things might get ugly.
"Harry?" Teddy looked up at his godfather.
"Hey Teddy, are these your friends?" Harry was smiling.
"Yeah, this is Phoenix Flannery and Quinn who's Seamus' cousin. They're in Gryffindor with me." Teddy said.
Seamus ruffled Quinn's hair much to her annoyance, "This one's parents left her with me for the holidays."
"Where'd your parent's go anyway?" Teddy asked.
"They're both researchers into cures for magical conditions. Right now they are working on a cure for lycanthropy." Quinn said.
"Isn't there already the wolfsbane potion?" Phoenix asked, he remembered reading about it somewhere.
"That's a treatment not a cure." Bill said.
"What does the ministry say about lycanthropy? " Teddy asked, knowing this will turn into a long winded explanation on ministry policies.
"New legislation was passed just the other day," Bill began, "and now I've had to register with the ministry- can you believe that!"
"You're a…" Phoenix looked at the man. The man didn't look like what Phoenix had imagined a werewolf to look like.
"No, I'm not. I got attacked by a werewolf when he was in human form, but apparently that's now cause to register." Bill said, looking rather annoyed by this.
"You had to register for that?" Seamus asked, "That's bollocks."
"I know..." Bill took a swig of his drink.
"The ministry's policies have become plain ridiculous lately. I got sent to investigate a woman who used an Expelliarmus spell. Expelliarmus." Harry said, obviously rather annoyed by this.
"On what grounds?" Seamus said.
"Apparently she might have been antagonizing someone. Turns out there was someone breaking into her house, so naturally she disarmed him. Then, about an hour of paperwork later she is let off, and the burglar is still out there." The man sighed, "Sometimes I think they are trying to waste as much of the aurors' time as possible."
"I know. I've had them come to my house three times in the last month." Seamus said.
Harry laughed, "Were you making explosives again?"
"Only two out of the three times," the man said with a slight frown as the other two men laughed.
"So what were you doing the third time?" Bill chuckled a little.
"Wasn't that when you got arrested for charming that motorcycle?" Quinn asked with a grin.
"It was something like that." Seamus said, almost proudly.
"You should have applied for the permits." Bill said.
"I did. They were denied, so I had to do it illegally." Seamus grinned, "It was great… until I got arrested."
"You three, don't listen to this one, he's a bad example." Harry said with a smile.
"As though you're a better role model! When you were their age what were you doing?" Seamus laughed.
"What were you doing when you were our age?" Teddy asked with a rather cheeky grin. Harry shot both Teddy and Seamus a look.
"In our first year he found the philosopher's stone," Seamus said.
"You found the philosopher's stone in your first year." Phoenix looked at the man with complete admiration.
"It was Ron and Hermione as much as it was me." The man shrugged it off.
"You're always so modest." Bill said as he looked at his brother-in-law.
"If you're not then you end up like The Party." The three men gave what could almost be called a bitter chuckle at that. Teddy, Phoenix and Quinn all looked at each other, obviously confused.
"What's The Party?" Quinn asked.
"Don't worry about it." Seamus said, "It's just some stupid ministry stuff."
"I'd say," Harry scoffed.
The trio looked at one another again as Ginny came up with the year old Lily wobbling in tow. "Have you seen our other children?"
"No. weren't they up with the others?" there was a fatherly concern in the man's voice.
"No, the others seem to have dispersed and I have a feeling that its James's doing," said the woman as she picked up the toddler that was trying to eat something off the floor.
"It probably is," sighed the man, "I'll help you track them down." Harry put his glass on the nearby table and followed his wife in the hunt for the children.
Speaking of children… Where had Freddy and Victoire gone? They had gotten bored and left at some point. Phoenix couldn't help but feel bad for having enjoyed the conversation with the three men. They seemed to know quite a bit about quite a bit and he felt as though it would have been great to sit and talk to them for hours, but Teddy was leading Phoenix and Quinn away to continue their game, so he didn't really get the chance.
There were questions Phoenix wanted to ask Mr. Potter, but he thought it would be strange to talk to him without Teddy there, and Teddy didn't seem to have the slightest interest in the ministry or the treatment of magical creatures or any of that. Maybe all of his parent's activism had been getting to him.
Holly:
As midnight approached Holly tried to keep away from the rather loud and exuberant members of her family. She had kept mostly to Tommy's side that night, knowing that everyone would have more to say to the older boy than to her. It was the one time she was more than content to be entirely in the shadow of her older siblings. A while before, Tommy had gone off with his girlfriend though, and Holly knew better than to follow them so she sat on the bench by the front window of the cottage.
She was watching the party unfold. Her family must have drunk half of the wine in Devon since they were all acting rather drunken and silly (including fifteen year old, Daniel who had been sneaking sips of drinks all night). The music was nice, she wasn't sure if it was muggle or not, but it was good regardless. And no one really seemed to be noticing her.
"Holly?" the voice was soft and feminine. Holly turned to see her aunt Virginia, who looked remarkably sober.
"Hey," she said, trying to sound just as soft and feminine.
"How are doing tonight?" her eyes were appraising.
"I'm fine, thank you. How are you tonight?" Holly gave a tight smile to the woman.
"There's no point in bullshitting me." Virginia sat down beside her niece, "I used to always be able to tell when something was wrong with your mother because she would get this look in her eyes- the same look you have right now."
"Would you be okay if you were me?" Holly tried to keep from sounding too resentful, but failed horribly.
"No, but I wouldn't lie about being okay." The woman took a sip of… was that water?
"I don't know what to say." Holly looked out over the party, not really seeing.
"And I don't know what to say to you, but I'm making an effort."
Holly couldn't help but to let out a sad laugh at that, "I guess that's worth something."
"Effort's worth an awful lot if it's genuine."
"I don't feel worth much of anything." Holly whispered.
"Then you're not putting in the effort, dear." The woman looked at Holly. There was something in Virginia's eyes that distinctly resembled sadness.
"Have you ever felt completely alone?" Holly seemed disconnected from her words as though if she thought on them she would never be able to get them out.
"More so lately than I've felt for a long time." The honesty in the woman's words made Holly turn to look at her.
"Why are you lonely?"
"Because I don't really have anyone, I haven't for years. I live alone and I hardly see anyone. Really there are a lot of things." The woman shrugged, "See, that's me not putting in the effort."
"Why haven't you ever gotten married?" Holly asked.
"Never really gotten there, I guess." She took a sip of her water, "Well, I almost got married once."
"Really?" Holly had never heard of her aunt even going on a date with anyone.
"Yes. His name was Allen… Allen Cooper. He was a muggle."
"You almost married a muggle?" Holly couldn't believe this.
"Yes, I was in love with him."
"So why didn't you get married if you loved him?" Holly had always been taught that when two people love each other they got married and had children.
"We never got a chance. Not long after we got engaged we found out he was sick with a muggle disease…Muggle diseases are different than magical ones. There's no way to cure most of them, and magic doesn't always work." Virginia looked down into her cup. "He died not long before you were born, and I haven't been with anyone since."
"Was he your one true love?" Holly asked.
Virginia chuckled a little, "There's no such thing."
Holly was taken aback by this, "What do you mean?"
"You fall in and out of love many times in your life."
Holly watched as her aunt finished the last of her water and thought about what she had said. She was too young to be concerned with love…
"Why are you drinking water?"
"It's not water," Virginia said with a wink.
"Oh…"
"Yeah… So enough about me and my problems, what are you going to do about your little problem?"
"I don't know yet." Holly hadn't really thought of any sort of long term action yet.
"You should talk to your divinations professor and maybe you can get some tutoring on how to control it." she looked at the girl, "I mean you've had two, and perhaps this is something that if controlled can turn from a problem to a gift… a bit like all magic really."
"What do you mean?"
"When you were a baby you used to throw things with your uncontrolled magic, you made a god-awful mess, but now I hear you're doing well in school, not that you can control your gift. It's all about harnessing it, right? "
Holly had never thought of that before, "That would be a lot better than how it is now."
"Of course it would be." Virginia smiled at the girl as from somewhere across the room someone shouted, "One minute until midnight!"
Phoenix:
"Come on, it's only one minute till midnight!" Teddy was pulling Phoenix and Quinn into the freezing cold December (well nearly January) night.
Seamus and Professor Thomas were standing in the center of the ring of people that had formed.
"Alright! Let's start the count down!" Said Seamus and with a flick of his wand a giant glowing, sparkly 20 appeared in the sky and began to count down to the New Year. Phoenix watched everyone smiling as they counted down. It was as though there wasn't a care in the word, and for a moment there wasn't. The only problem any of them were facing was what number came next.
Ten… Nine… Eight… Seven…Six…Five…Four…Three…Two…One!
Happy New Years!
Phoenix watched as everyone kissed and the sky filled with brilliant light and explosions courtesy of the two men in the center of the circle. Dazzling fireworks in enchanted shapes lit the sky. Phoenix watched in awe and couldn't help but smile.
Then Quinn kissed him and there was no debate as to who won truth of dare that night.
.
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Also, a special thank you to Ryan, my sometimes beta. I send you much love and kittens.