Thank you Splendora-C.A.M-McGonagall and Cookie05 for reviewing!
Your comments encourage me to write more, and drag my laptop all the way to school to catch 5 minutes of internet in between the classes.
I apologize for any typos - I wrote this one late at night/ early in the morning..
Another chapter… Enjoy!
Jade knocked on twins' bedroom door loudly and came in, knowing they'll still be asleep. With Weasley kids you could be sure about one thing, they could sleep through loud noises, extended periods of time and if you wanted to wake them up, you'll need to be patient.
Jade walked across the dark room to the window between Fred's and George's beds and pulled the curtains open.
She turned around and pushed George over to the wall to make some place for herself.
"Hey! Wake up!" she said sitting down next to him, and pushing him even further into the wall, squishing his face against the wallpaper.
George groaned and pulled the covers over his head, but Jade wouldn't stop until she woke them up.
"Come on, it's just a few days till Christmas, we have lots of cleaning to do!" she exclaimed cheerfully and shook his shoulder again.
George turned around without even opening his eyes and started to push Jade off his bed. He didn't kick her down, just softly pushed her over to the edge of his mattress and down on the floor.
Jade jumped right up and continued shaking him.
"Alright, alright, we're awake, now go wake up the rest of your unfortunate brothers." Groaned George, turning to lie on his back.
"Sweet Merlin, what's wrong with you? It's the first day of our winter break!" yelled Fred and threw his knitted slipper across the room just as Jade run out giggling.
There wasn't anyone else to wake up. She has met Percy going to the bathroom with his towel, ready for morning shower, and Ginny was still in bed sick.
"Alright everyone, we have the whole first floor to clean. Fred, George, you can start with the garden path. I've defrosted it and broke the remaining ice, but it's starting to snow again so you'd better hurry and shovel it to the side before it freezes again.
Percy, here's a cloth, could you wipe dust from the bookshelves in living-room?
Jade? Could you go out and get us some more branches from the Holly bush we have growing in the back corner of the garden? Don't worry about destroying it, it'll just grow back after winter, just pick some really nice ones, I want to make a huge decoration for living-room. Ginny darling…" she turned to Ginny who was bundled in warm blankets on the sofa, looking quite comfortable, close to the fireplace, but bored because she hated being sick and stay in bed. "…here's the box of cards we have, can you sort through them and find some empty Christmas ones? We'll need at least ten."
Ginny happily dug into the heap of paper cards, looking for some really nice ones. Fred and George were already pulling on their boots and Percy was dusting off the shelves rather aggressively, determined to get all the dust off.
Jade took her winter Jacket (which used to be Charlie's long time ago) and put on her knitted hat.
She took down the dragon hide gloves they were always keeping on the coat hanger by the door and as she pulled them on, she realized how at home she felt right now.
Little things, like knowing where work-gloves are, made it all suddenly feel real and Jade finally had a place to call her home.
It was freezing outside, with huge heavy snowflakes rushing down from grey skies.
She crossed the garden, smiling at the last few deep red apples left on the trees which now had no leaves. Arthur always told them in August that the biggest and healthiest apple from each tree will be left there to feed birds in winter.
There were three or four small bushes of wild Holly growing over the fence in a far corner of their back garden, berries nice shiny red and hard green leaves.
Jade picked the nicest ones, pulling down the branches and softly stacking them on a pile. When she had as many as she could carry she took them in her arms, barely seeing her way through the blur of green and red.
Inside of Burrow was beautifully warm and inviting after the grey coldness of the garden. Sky was getting darker any minute, predicting a huge snow storm coming from the north.
"Fred, George! Come in boys, that's enough for now. You got most of the ice away and it's gonna snow a lot today. Come on in. Quickly." Called Molly from the back door holding it open while twins rushed inside with rosy cheeks and snow covered hats from that quick snowball fight they managed to sneak in between the chores.
When everyone was safely inside and Molly closed the door, looking out on their yard a little bit worried, they took off all the winter clothes and hang them close to the fire to dry. Ginny had all the postcards sorted and there was a roll of parchment with names and addresses of family and friends they had to wish Merry and bright holidays.
Jade sat down next to Ginny who still looked really pale and sick, and pulled first card closer to her, taking a quill from the ink bottle.
Boys sat down, doing the same, while they snacked on the broken or misshaped cookies Molly set out for them. They were keeping all the nice ones for Christmas, to give away or keep at the coffee table in case some visitors came in.
Jade wrote the first address from the list on an envelope, as neatly as she could and then crossed it out of the list.
"What should I write?" she asked, looking around the room to get some advice from her brothers.
"It doesn't really matter, just something nice, nothing too formal and then leave enough space for everyone to sign at the bottom." Explained Percy, already scribbling first lines on his card.
"Well, that helped a lot." Said Jade with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.. Then she looked down on the blank piece of paper and inked her quill.
…happy and bright Christmas from… she finished second postcard and put it down to dry.
Snow was starting to pile behind the windows, making the room darker than usually.
Warm air smelled like cinnamon and honey and silent noises of nuts being finely chopped were coming from the kitchen.
"Let's make some ornaments for the tree!" suggested Ginny, sounding a little bit funny because her nose was full and she had to breathe with her mouth.
"Sure! We'll bring the craft box!" exclaimed Fred and George at the same time, running upstairs to get the cardboard box filled with old magazines, wrapping paper and colored paper of all shades.
"How are you feeling Gin?" asked Jade putting her hand on Ginny's forehead.
"Tired." Ginny said softly and snuggled deeper into her blanket.
Percy took one of his school books and started to read again, sitting on the window seat, catching the last bits of daylight, before Molly came over and turned on a lamp, then checking Ginny's temperature and setting cups of tea on the table.
"Not now mom, out of the way!" yelled Fred and run over to the coffee table with huge brown box overflowing with craft supplies.
Twins made really long paper-chain, while Ginny worked on some ornaments for the tree and Jade cut out millions of tiny colourful triangles and then glued them to a long piece of string to make a miniature bunting, long enough to hopefully go around the whole tree.
When they all finished, whole room was covered in glue and sticky bits of paper.
"Alright kids…" started Molly but then stopped in the middle of the sentence. "… you need to clean this mess, and then we can have lunch together.
they started to pick up the papers, and forming a huge ball of mess on the coffee table.
Molly walked over to sleeping Ginny and pulled the covers higher around her shoulders.
After delicious lunch of corn tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches they sat down in the living room, doing whatever they wanted.
Jade finished her school essay, happy to have all homework over and long winter break ahead without having to worry about it.
"Hey family, where's everyone?" came a loud yell from the hall.
"Daddy!" there were several yells and sound of sock-clad feet stomping on wooden floor before Arthur got buried in a pile of his children dressed in various hand knitted items.
Despite almost all of them being teenagers, Weasley kids always welcomed their dad when he came home from work and as Christmas was getting closer the family atmosphere grew more intense and even more hugs and kisses were shared every day.
"Arthur! You're home early!" Molly walked out of the kitchen with a bowl of cookie dough in her hands, her left cheek smudged with icing sugar and her fiery red hair all around the place.
"Hmmm, looks delicious." Arthur winked at her, kissing her sugary cheek.
Molly blushed (she still did, after years together), and rushed him upstairs to change from his wet work clothes.
Ginny slept through the whole ordeal of greetings, but when Arthur sat down next to her she sleepily murmured "Daddy?" and snuggled to his side as he pulled her into his lap, setting his cold hand on her feverish forehead.
"Fred, would you fetch some more of the fever-reducing potion? Mom has it in the kitchen." Asked Arthur and continued to comb Ginny's hair with his fingers.
Fred came back with Molly carrying a bottle of the potion, big spoon and a mug of steaming apple tea.
"Here you go honey." Said Molly giving her youngest generous dose of the fever reducer, before she handed her the mug to wash down the bad taste with a little bit of tea.
"So, we had a pretty big action during this shift." Started Arthur.
"You did?" asked Molly, keeping the conversation going but concentrating fully on Ginny who looked really ill.
"Yeah, found a wizard who was stealing muggle cars and then trying to sell them with false papers."
"That's bad, why would someone want those muggle contraptions anyway?" asked Molly shaking her head while picking the remaining bits of paper which were still stuck to the table.
"Well, they were regular muggle cars so he wasn't selling them to wizards. Anyways, we were able to get most of the cars to their owners but one was left over, apparently stolen from some yard, but it doesn't work, you see, so the muggle didn't even want it back, he said someone did him a favour by stealing it." Arthur chuckled.
"And they wanted to vanish it. Just like that! Can you imagine?"
"I don't like where this is going." Said Molly getting up.
"Just don't tell me you are going to bring it here!" she said angrily walking back to the kitchen.
"Well…" he started nervously, but was cut off by Molly again.
"No way. I don't want any more junk in my house. End of discussion Arthur." She yelled from the living-room door where she reappeared.
"It's in the garage." Said Arthur softly and walked to the kitchen, closing the door behind them.
Jade looked worried at twins. She hated when people argued, and when parents argues, it was the worst.
"Don't worry, when mom's yelling it's ok, we're only in trouble when she does the silent household thingy." Reassured her George and continued to arrange their paper chain around the room.
After almost an hour of shushed exclamations and angry steps up and down the kitchen floor there was a minute of silence and when they heard Molly giggle a bit Jade finally let out the breath she was holding.
Arthur came back to the living-room, looking almost as pale as Ginny but smiling widely. He knew that the only way to win arguments with Molly was passive resistance, but you still didn't have a chance, unless she wanted to let you win.
"So…" he looked around the room at all the waiting faces.
"Who wants to see our new Ford Anglia?"