Author's Note: Audrey's dream was a lot of fun to write especially since I have odd dreams like that myself. Really, all I did was just write whatever popped in my head when writing her dream. Question, when you eat in your dream, does your stomach hurt the next day, are you hungry, or what? Reviews on this matter would be much appreciated.

Not many people focus on Christmas during Voldemort's reign, but I consider taking away Christmas a capital offence. I do not believe that Voldemort would celebrate because he is that kind of evil. I believe that he would make Ebenezer Scrooge and The Grinch look like Christmas carolers. Honestly.

Anyway, sorry that this is summer as opposed to December which would make a lot more sense, but this allows me to share one of my favorite Christmas/Summer/Muppets quote. Enjoy.

Two of the Three Little Pigs: Santa! Santa!

Miss Piggy: Think. Christmas is in December. This is the middle of summer.

Two of the Three Little Pigs: He's early!

Now, enjoy the actual story.

"And so then, Professor McGonagall walks in holding a dozen or so balloons and she starts yelling at me for not doing my homework on time and I tried to explain to her that it was summer so it didn't matter, but then she yells at me saying it's Valentine's Day and I need to get professor Flitwick a card. And all the while, I'm still trying to finish this stupid tapestry that Joey wanted me to weave for him. And honestly, what professor McGonagall was doing in my grandmother's living room was beyond me. So then you burst in saying that there was a tidal wave which is ridiculous because my grandmother doesn't live anywhere near the ocean and McGonagall takes points away from Gryffindor because you're not wearing a shirt and your tie was purple rather than red, but you said that Dumbledore wanted you to wear it….."

"Wait, I wasn't wearing a shirt?" Percy interrupted.

Audrey threw her hands up and shrugged. "I told you, it was really strange. So then, Jennifer Cole, you remember her right? She was one of my dorm mates at Hogwarts. Anyway, she comes in soaking wet because of that tidal wave you were talking about and she was also trying to unclog the sink but it exploded on her….."

"What are you talking about?" Joey, who'd just passed by the door asked.

"The dream I had last night, now shut up. I'm getting to the good part!" Joey sighed and walked away, shaking his head at his sister's strangeness. "So anyway, I told you about how I thought it was summer and McGonagall thought it was Valentine's Day? Well, apparently everyone was messed up on the date because then Flitwick and Sprout came in holding a cake that was decorated to celebrate both St. Patrick's Day and Easter. Apparently they couldn't decide either so they just put lots of decorative icing on it."

"Which one thought it was Easter?" Percy asked.

"I don't know! Does it really matter?" Audrey took a deep breath. "Anyway, it was then, when they starting cutting the cake that I remembered it was my birthday actually making it April. And suddenly that orange tapestry I was weaving earlier was suddenly finished and so I stuffed my face with cake (it was red velvet, my favorite) and then I woke up. And that's why my stomach has hurt all morning because when I eat something in my dream, it always gives me a stomach ache the next day."

Percy nodded, unsure of what to say. "That usually just makes me hungry the next day."

"Most people say that!" Audrey exclaimed. "But not for me for some reason."

Percy nodded once again.

"You don't say much, you know," Audrey pointed out.

"I'm just not sure what I'm supposed to say…That was a rather odd dream." Percy had slowly become accustomed to Audrey having strange dreams that she felt the need to tell everyone the next day. One of her previous dreams involved a member of the Weird Sisters balancing a pumpkin on his head while juggling parrots and another Joey becoming an animagus (despite the fact that he was a Muggle) and randomly turning into a zebra whenever someone said the word "the." (This made Joey sulk for the rest of the day as he would have loved to turn into a zebra at will.)

"Well, surely you must be thinking something!"

"I'm mostly thinking 'She's mental,'" Percy replied honestly.

"I could have told you that ages ago!" Joey shouted from the other room while Audrey smacked Percy over the head with one of the couch pillows.

"Dinner's served!" Mr. Simmons called.

Once everyone was settled at the table and the dishes were being passed around the table, Joey asked, "So, what are we doing for Christmas this year?"

An abrupt silence fell over the table.

Percy had not celebrated Christmas properly in three years (he didn't count that horrible encounter with this family that Scrimgeour had dragged him into the previous year).

Mr. and Mrs. Simmons were so focused on being alive that celebrating something as trivial as Christmas hadn't occurred to them.

Christmas was Audrey's favorite holiday.

But she wasn't going to put more stress on everyone to have perfect Christmas what with the circumstances. She sent Joey a dirty look. "There's a war going on. We can't stop to celebrate some holiday no matter how…," she sighed

"Oh, sorry," his face fell.

"No, that's okay," Percy considered for a moment. "I don't know. What do Muggles usually do for Christmas? I mean…" his face flushed.

"That's fine," Mrs. Simmons smiled. "You've never celebrated Christmas with Muggles before and we've never celebrated Christmas with a wizard before." Her smile broadened. "This could be a learning experience for all of us."

Percy's cheeks returned to their normal color a little too quickly. No one noticed this except Audrey of course who smiled slightly.

"So we get to do Christmas this year?" Joey asked trying to conceal his excitement.

"Why not?"

"YES!"

The rest of dinner was spent making plans about having a Christmas despite being in hiding. As the table was being cleared, Audrey caught Percy and pulled him aside. "I know what you did there."

"What do you mean?" Percy asked feigning innocence. His act was so good that she almost believed him. Almost.

"You know very well what I mean." She jerked her head over to the dinner table. "The whole 'Muggle' thing. You and I both know that Muggle and wizard Christmases are almost the same. Really, the only difference is that Muggle Christmas lights run on electricity rather than magic."

"And your point is…..?" Percy asked.

"You needed an excuse to have Christmas." She poked him in the stomach playfully, "You did it for me, didn't you?"

"I most certainly did not. I did it for Joey. Besides, I would love to see how Muggle eckeltricity Christmas lights work. It would be very educational. Very intriguing. Very fascinating. Very stimulating. Very captivating. Very didactic. Very enlightening. Very informative. Very…."

"Okay, I'm sure," Audrey said abruptly. "Before I start calling you a human thesaurus."

XXX

Percy sighed as he looked around the office. Normally by the fifteen of December, the entire Ministry would be covered with crepe paper, red and green and gold lights (with live fairies in them, of course), trees that always seemed just a little too large for the room, and foot-tall Father Christmases that delivered presents to Ministry workers from their more Christmas-loving coworkers. And of course it would be snowing. One must always remember to bring a coat and gloves between the first and twenty-fifth of December. But this year, there wasn't so much as a piece of holly hanging from the ceiling.

Until this year, Percy had never appreciated the Ministry's over the top Christmas décor until now. A few cheerful coworkers of his had decorated their owns desks, however, apparently that now went against new Ministry employee policies. Still, some very jolly co-workers still managed to find little ways of celebrating the season. Whether it was merely wearing a red jumper or drinking hot cocoa rather than tea or very quietly humming carols or even just using green stationary, these employees proved that no matter how hard the new Ministry may try, Christmas was the one thing you cannot destroy.

However, there were perks to not celebrating Christmas a work: mistletoe. For the past three years, his coworkers had taken great pleasure in placing mistletoe above his usual haunts (his desk, his seat in the break room where he occasionally ate his lunch, above the door to the men's bathroom, etc.). Not because anyone wanted to kiss him, no.

Quite the contrary actually.

Because they knew how uptight he was and how much he absolutely hated the very thought of mistletoe.

But luckily, this year, there was none of that foolishness. And none of the likeable foolishness either.

XXX

"And a haaaaaaaaaaaaapy new !" was the first thing Percy heard as he neared the house. He opened the front door to see three of the four Simmons hanging ornaments on a large pine tree while the fourth (Audrey) was clumsily attempting to place a gold star atop the tree. The chair she was standing on wasn't quite tall enough and the tree was too wide for her arm to reach.

"Need any help?" Percy asked. He scanned the rest of the room and quickly swallowed the lump that formed in his throat; the living room could be best described as a paper-chain explosions, much like how his own sister would decorate it. Though, Ginny would have preferred gold to the red and green decorations that lined the walls.

"Nah, we're almost done," Audrey replied. "Just…gotta…..get…..the….star!" she reached out as far as humanly possible and placed/threw the star atop the tree. Of course it didn't quite make it and Percy caught it before it reached the floor. Audrey blew a strand of hair out of her face.

"You want me to get it?" Percy asked.

"And let you have all the fun?" Audrey grinned. She frowned and stepped of the chair, "Huh, this is your first Christmas with us. You haven't gotten to put the star on the tree yet."

"Of course," Joey grumbled. "If I want to do the star, no, we can't do that, but when Percy wants to….."

"He hasn't gotten to at all yet. Besides, you did it last year….."

"I did not! You got to last year!"

"QUIET, BOTH OF YOU!" Mr. Simmons shouted. He sighed and turned to Percy, "It's been like this all day!"

"Er, is putting the star on the tree some sort of honor….?" Percy asked completely bewildered. Percy was amazed at how often he said "er" and "um" around the family.

"Just between Audrey and Joey, it is," Mrs. Simmons replied. "They have a tradition of arguing over who gets to do it each year."

"And who usually wins?"

"Audrey."

"Joey."

The two glared at each other.

XXX

"….and then we go see The Christmas Carol," Mrs. Simmons said. "The local theater always does a special showing on Christmas Eve. After that, we usually stroll around down town and look at all the stores' Christmas decorations. Then we go home and put our stockings by the fire. Of course then Audrey and Joey beg us to let them open just one present," she smiled at her children, "and sometimes we relent."

"Hardly," took a sip of hot cocoa.

"Rarely," Audrey agreed.

"Almost never."

"Maybe twice. In my entire life."

"About every other year," Mr. Simmons corrected.

"What do you usually do for Christmas, dear?" Mrs. Simmons asked Percy.

"Sulk mostly," he replied.

Everyone chuckled.

"But my sister often decorated the house a lot like Audrey did," he took a sip of his cocoa, "only there would be about twice as many streamers and they'd be gold. Oh, and we do something different each year for the angel/star on the tree."

Joey asked, stunned, "How'd you have twice as many streamers? Wouldn't your house fall in from the weight? Or the world run out of paper or something?"

"Magic," Percy took a sip of his cocoa. "And of course there's the sweater thing. My mum always makes us sweaters with our first initial on them for Christmas. My sweater's always dark blue, Ron's is always maroon, Fred's is green, George's is orange."

"That's cool," Audrey said. "Mum and Dad do something like that. Every year there's one present that both Joey and I get. Last year we got watches. The year before that they were copies of The Christmas Carol….."

"You keep talking about The Christmas Carol. What is that?" Percy asked.

The three Muggles in the room froze, but Audrey shook her head. "Sorry, I forgot that you weren't raised by Muggles. The Christmas Carol was written by Charles Dickens…."

"Charles…."

"Dickens," Audrey nodded. "He was a very famous Muggle writer."

"I think I've heard the name before," Percy nodded. "My dad's obsessed with all things Muggle."

"Yeah, well, The Christmas Carol is about, well, why don't you just read it? I have a copy upstairs. You'd probably like it. Anyway, one year Mum and Dad got us sleds, but it didn't snow all winter….."

XXX

"Can you believe that?" Yaxley asked.

"Eh?" Percy looked up. He'd been so immersed in the report he'd been writing that he hadn't even noticed Yaxley coming up to him, much less hear whatever it was he was saying. Sometimes Percy believed that Yaxley's job was to just distract Percy from his work and/or prevent him from getting home to Audrey…no, the Simmons on time. Right. Because he didn't want the Simmons to worry. And he loved the whole family equally. He wasn't mostly interested in just seeing Audrey. No. It was the whole family…

"Did you hear a word that I said?" Yaxley asked amused.

"Sorry, I was working on this report….."

"I was talking about how the Ministry is closing for Christmas," Yaxley interrupted. "Apparently so many people asked off for work that day that the Minister just decided to close down for the day. Can you believe that?"

"Er," Percy said knowing very well that this was probably the worst possible thing to say at that moment, "we always have before. And usually we close for New Year's Day because most people are so hungover from the night before that they'd probably kill themselves trying to Apparate here and they wouldn't get any work done."

Yaxley glared. "Do you get drunk on New Year's Eve?"

"No, I can honestly say that I've never gotten drunk in my entire life," Percy turned back to his work. "Besides, a lot of people want to take off to spend time with their families. Their kids come back from Hogwarts and the Christmas and summer holidays are really the only time parents get to see them."

"But you don't have kids."

"I don't, but there are a lot of people who do," Percy was surprised by his own boldness. "Besides, don't you want to spend Christmas with your wife?"

"Percy, don't you know by now that I would do pretty much anything if I could avoid spending time with my wife?" Yaxley asked and Percy shrugged in response. "You don't have anywhere to go, do you?" Yaxley's eyes narrowed. "Not spending Christmas with that family of yours, are you?"

"Why would I do that?" Percy asked.

"Just checking," Yaxley nodded. "Well, I don't want to keep you from your work."

"Sure you don't," Percy muttered under his breath.

XXX

"Smells amazing," Percy said to Mrs. Simmons who was cooking that night. As he set the table he noticed something. Mrs. Simmons was tending to the roast in the oven, Mr. Simmons was tossing the salad, and Joey was reading a book in the living room. "Where's Audrey?"

"In her room. She's been there all day," Mrs. Simmons answered, never turning her head from the stove. "Tell her to come down, dear. We'll be eating in about five minutes."

Percy walked upstairs and knocked on Audrey's door. "Hang on!" came her hurried reply and Percy thought he heard her scrambling to put stuff away. She opened the door not long after. "What's up?"

"Dinner's almost ready. You mum wanted me to come get you," he tried to see over her shoulder. "What's that?" he asked pointing to what looked like a shoe box sticking out from under her bed.

Audrey hurried over to it and shoved it under her bed. "That's for me to know and you to find out in two days. Oh, hey, I have something for you." She ruffled through her dresser which Percy could see was not at all organized and finally she found what she was looking for. She handed him a novel, "The Christmas Carol. Knowing you you'll probably have it finished by tomorrow."

Until he was sitting at the dinner table with roast on the plate in front of him, Percy had his nose stuck in the book.

XXX

It had been agreed (seeing as four of them were stuck in the cottage) that they wouldn't do gifts that year for Christmas. Percy would just buy some candy that they'd put in the stockings, they'd cook a nice Christmas dinner (there was quite a, ah, discussions on whether they'd have ham or turkey), and that would be that. However, there were two people in the house who refused to follow through with that. Those first was, obviously, Audrey and the second, less obviously, was Percy. Though he'd never gotten very excited about Christmas himself, he wasn't planning on letting this family go without a proper Christmas.

While the two of them probably would have benefited working together (Percy had had much trouble deciding what to get everyone), neither of them knew anything of the other's mission. That is, not until exactly 11:53 PM on Christmas Eve.

Both of them had had the brilliant idea of putting their presents under the tree at about midnight and both had decided to leave the lights off so the family wouldn't notice. With such being the plan, neither of them saw the other and ended up tripping over each other.

"Ow!"

"Ouch-get off me!"

"Ow-Percy?"

"Audrey?"

"This is stupid. Lumos," her wand lit up and instantly she stood; they had landed in a quite awkward position where she'd ended up on top of him. She helped him to his feet and asked suspiciously, "What were you doing down here?"

"Getting something to drink."

"With all those boxes?" she jerked her head to the pile of packages wrapped up in bright, Christmas paper in the neat-only-a-store-cashier-could-have-possibly-wrapped-it manner. She glared at one of the smaller boxes which she was pretty sure had hit her in the head when the two of them had, ah, collided.

"And you're here with all those boxes…..?" Percy gestured to her not-at-all-neat-I-was-in-a-hurry-and-I-wrapped-them-myself boxes.

"Putting them under the tree so when everyone wakes up tomorrow they'll have presents," she whispered brightly.

"Right," Percy sighed and the two of them proceeded to place the (only slightly damaged) boxes under the tree.

XXX

Percy awoke on Christmas morning and nearly strangled himself. Well, not quite. But someone (he had a pretty good idea who) had wrapped an extremely long red ribbon around his headboard, dresser, ceiling fan, the doorknob on his closet, around the lamp and then finally out the door. When he sat up, he'd gotten caught up in all the ribbon.

Percy followed the ribbon out of his room, into the bathroom, back out again, into the library, back out again, and to the stairs where it became twisted up with three others, one gold, one silver, and one green. He grinned and followed the red ribbon down the stairs and as it parted from the others, going into the kitchen, the downstairs bathroom, and finally into the living room where it ended in his stocking that hung above the fireplace.

Despite that fact that Percy knew exactly what was in the stockings (he bought all the candy after all), he couldn't help but grin at Audrey's "Christmas cheer."

"I was wondering when you'd wake up," Audrey, who Percy hadn't noticed when he walked in, said. "I've been up for hours!"

"Doing what?"

"Somebody had to hang all those ribbons and fill the stockings."

"And here I thought it was Father Christmas," Percy smiled.

"Since when do you sleep in?" Audrey asked.

Percy glanced at the clock. "It's 7:15. That's not sleeping in."

"It's 7:14 to be exact and on Christmas that is sleeping in."

"And where's everyone else?" he asked.

"One of their many Christmas traditions is to torture me by making me wait as they usually don't get up until around eight." She scowled. "By the way, I'd be careful where you step."

Percy stood up straight. He was all too used to Fred and George's Christmas pranks to let his guard down at a comment like that. "Why?" he asked suspeciously.

She pointed to the ceiling and said brightly, "Mistletoe."

Slowly the rest of the family came in (Mrs. Simmons following the gold ribbon, Joey the green, and Mr. Simmons the silver).

Joey's face lit up when he entered. "PRESENTS!"

And then the four Simmons were tearing through the presents Percy had bought them (Audrey insisted that they open hers last). Once everyone had had a suitable amount of time to admire their gifts (a pair of diamond earrings for Mrs. Simmons, a watch for Mr. Simmons, a new paint set for Joey, and a gold locket for Audrey), Audrey sat back in satisfaction as they moved on to her gifts.

"Since I've been cooped up in this cottage, I wasn't able to buy you anything as nice as what Percy got you, but I'll think you'll still like them."

What she'd done (Percy had given her the idea) was knit for them.

A scarf for her mother. Hats for her father and brother. And a sweater, a Weasley sweater for Percy.

He stared at the dark blue sweater, unable to speak.

"You said that you mum knit your first initial onto the front of it, but I'm not that good at knitting so..."

"Thank you," Percy took a shaky breath. "Thanks, Audrey."

XXX

Percy would have loved to say it was the best Christmas he could remember, but no, it was ruined by the most foul, vile Christmas had to offer: mistletoe. Really, who hangs mistletoe everywhere in a house with only one couple! Percy thought, though otherwise he enjoyed this Christmas.

They'd made snowmen, had many snowball fights (somehow Percy always seemed to lose), enjoyed a lot of hot cocoa, sang many a Christmas Carol, and (though he'd never say it in front of his mother) they'd eaten one of the best Christmas dinner's in Percy's life.

Percy, of course, had worn his sweater the entire time.

"If you stand there any longer, I might just have to kiss you," Mrs. Simmons pointed to the mistletoe just above Percy's head, laughing.

He jumped out of the way, his face as red as his hair. "Wouldn't your husband get jealous?"

"He's not really the jealous type," she shrugged. "He's also not a really over-protective father, either." She glanced at Audrey (who was walking towards them), winked at Percy, and walked away.

"She left in a hurry," Audrey commented.

"Yeah," Percy nodded, his face still red.

"You realize that you're still standing under mistletoe right?"

Percy looked up and found that, yes, someone had two pieces of mistletoe merely two feet apart. "Who does that?" he asked angrily.

"Probably someone who expected someone to take only a step away without actually bothering to look up," Audrey answered.

"It wasn't you?"

"No, I think it was Joey, but I'm not sure."

"I hate mistletoe."

"Why?" Audrey grinned. "You don't like getting kissed?"

"It's not that. My co-workers just liked to annoy me with it and…." He shrugged. "I don't know."

Audrey shrugged and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Merry Christmas," and with that, she was gone.

It was quite the best Christmas ever, Percy decided.