Thanks for finding time and review guys! I'm sorry it took so long to update...
fantasybookworm2012 – you asked about Jade being older than Ron – yes, she is one year older – so she went to Hogwarts one year before Ron (in 1990 – according to HP wiki) … right now we are in 1990/91 school year in this story so Ron will be going to Hogwarts after summer – hope that explains your question – I checked the dates in HP wiki, let me know if I made some mistake, but I can't see any…
and about the "wet Harry" part in chapter 19 – Ginny has a doll Molly made for her – it's Harry Potter – as Ginny is fascinated by his story (which is well known in magic world) and he (the doll) was wet because they forgot him outside on the rain…
thanks for reviewing, here's next chapter
Enjoy!
Next morning was chilly. The fire somehow went out during the night and Burrow woke up to a very cold day.
Molly was already in the kitchen fixing breakfast and Arthur was sitting at the table, talking to Bill who was hugging a cup of steaming black coffee with both hands.
Fire was blasting again in both fireplaces – the huge one for floo in the kitchen and also the smaller fireplace in living-room but house was still cold.
Jade put on an extra pair of wool socks and went downstairs to eat something before they'd go get a Christmas tree. Her very first real tree, which wouldn't be artificial, or bought in a store but real tree they'd pick and cut themselves.
Sun was shining brightly and it was hard to look at the snow reflecting light all around them. They followed Arthur who made a path in the deep snow with his huge winter boots, chatting happily as they went.
The path leading to the forest seemed much longer than last summer. Snow was squeaking under the soles of their shoes and when Jade looked back, there was a stream of light grey smoke coming from the chimneys of the Burrow, which stood well visible on the white snow.
"This one!" exclaimed Ginny, pointing to a huge tree next to her.
"Na-ah! This one's better!" argued Ron.
"Stop it you two, you know it should be Bill's turn this year, then Charlie next year and so on." Arthur held back Ron, who was about to jump on his younger sister and pull her down to the big heap of snow which accumulated on the north side of the tree.
"But it should be Jade's turn, because we kind of skipped her before." Smiled Bill, picking up Ginny and setting her on his shoulders. She hugged his head, and Bill had to reach up and straighten his hat, which she almost pulled down over his ears.
"I wasn't here before so it doesn't count." Jade pointed out quietly. She didn't want to take someone's place. She could happily just stand there and enjoy one of the boys picking out the tree.
"Alright, if you think we should continue in the order oldest to youngest then …" Bill had to stop mid sentence and catch Ginny who was reaching out for the top of the nearest tree and almost fell down. "then I give up my place, just skip me."
"Me too, I'm getting' too old to pick trees anyway, right?" Charlie winked at Jade and looked expectedly at Percy who was standing there in silence, breathing at his fingers which were positively freezing off in spite of the mittens he was wearing.
"Yeah, yeah, you can skip me too, let's just pick up the tree already." He said impatiently.
"Alright, you can skip us too, but we have one condition." Said the twins together. "Jade, you have to pick the most epic tree of the entire forest."
Jade looked around on all the trees. There were small, somehow lighter in color – baby trees. And big, fat ones with long pines and almost black branches, and she had no idea which one of them was the most epic one.
The Christmas trees she saw before were either perfectly even artificial ones, with soft fur of plastic pines, or trees produced in tree farms, grown in rows, all identical, same height and width.
She looked at Arthur, wanting some kind of advice, and he understood.
"We need a tree which will fit our living- room, let's say, nothing higher than me. And we also want one with a lot of branches and not too wide, mom doesn't like when the whole room's filled with tree." He smiled at Jade who was already walking around the trees.
And there it was. The right height, maybe slightly taller than Arthur, but not more than two inches, and it wasn't too wide, but at the same time it looked fluffy and full of branches with long pines. There were even two or three pine cones on top.
She looked around, smiling shyly at everyone.
"Is this one ok?" she asked, but twins pushed her down to the snow seconds after, all of them landing on top of each other.
"It's awesome!" Exclaimed Ron, trying to hug the tree, pines poking his cheek.
"We have a tree!" chanted Ginny running around.
"Alright, everyone, step back." Announced Arthur, coming to the tree with long axe he brought with him.
"Kind of tradition to do it the muggle way." Explained Charlie, standing next to Jade, as they watched Arthur cut down the tree.
"Nah, it's just because of dad's love for all things muggle." Chuckled Bill and pulled back Fred and George by the hoods of their jackets because they were getting too close to the flying axe.
"What a lovely tree" Molly exclaimed, coming to the living room where Arthur was putting the snow-covered tree to the stand.
It did stand slightly askew, and it almost touched the ceiling.
"Jade picked it up,…" Ginny announced, and Molly turned around to compliment Jade on the selection of this year's tree but Ginny continued without stopping "…can we decorate it now? Please!"
"Arthur dear, can you run up to the attic and bring down…" but Molly was interrupted again by flash of emerald light coming from the kitchen's fireplace.
"Arthur?" an unknown voice called from the kitchen.
Kids watched their dad run to the kitchen and after quick hushed conversation through floo he came back with serious face, already heading for the stairs.
"I'm sorry kids, they called from work, pre-Christmas emergency. I should be back around six Molly." He looked at his wife with apologetic eyes. Arthur knew how Molly hated these emergency calls during holidays but there was no way out of it.
"Alright, you heard daddy, he'll be back before dinner and you can decorate the tree together. Why don't you lot go outside and play after lunch? It's such a lovely day." Molly suggested from the kitchen, where she was packing a sandwich with cold ham and mustard for Arthur to take with him.
Jade sat down on the sofa, next to Percy and pouting Ginny. Fred and George who were sitting on the floor looked equally bored.
Charlie was lying under the tree, looking up at the ceiling through the branches, enjoying the peace and quiet, and the beautiful scent of pines and almost-Christmas, when Bill threw a ball of old newspaper he found stuck between the cushions of the couch, to the tree and sent a shower of half melted snow straight to his brother's face.
A little fight started with twins somehow getting into it and soon all four boys were laughing and rolling around on the floor, almost kicking down the tree more than once.
Arthur run down the stairs dressed in his work robes, tying the travel cloak under his chin. He chuckled at the antics of boys and wished the rest of his kids nice day, before going to the kitchen to kiss Molly good-bye and floo to work.
"That's enough! Lunch's ready, go clean up a bit." Scolded Molly, looking at all the cushions and throw pillows which were lying around the previously-clean living room.
They spent afternoon outside, sledging on the hill behind the house. Soon they had nice track made all the way down to the kitchen door and it was getting faster with every slide down.
Sun was already setting down when Fred and George decided to slide down the hill together, which gave them extra speed and they flew straight through the door when mom opened it to call them inside. They stopped under the table, bringing in snow and ice.
Green flames flashed in the fireplace as their dad came home, and suddenly there was no time for Molly to be angry with her kids for messing up her clean kitchen or for almost knocking her over. All Weasleys clan suddenly run inside, filling the kitchen with excited laughter and questions about daddy's day at work and about when they could start decorating the tree (which was now completely snow-free and ready).
"Let your dad have some rest." Said Molly, pulling Ron down from the chair where he was standing, getting ready to jump on the back of his father to give him a hug.
"That's quite alright dear." Smiled Arthur and leaned over Jade and twins to kiss his wife quickly on her cheek. "I'll bring down the boxes just let me change to something more comfortable first." He said to his kids, pulling at the string which was holding the cloak on his shoulders.
After quickly running upstairs to change from work/snowy clothes, Weasley kids all gathered in the tiny living room, enjoying the warmth of the fire. It was pleasant, after all day spent outside.
"Here we are." Announced Arthur as he walked down the stairs, levitating several boxes filled with Christmas ornaments.
There were electric Christmas lights (Arthur's Christmas present from few years ago), big box full of tinsel, smaller one filled with ancient glass ornaments from Molly's grandma, and a couple of boxes filled with ornaments kids made during the years.
Molly brought a plate of gingerbread hearts and stars, with red ribbon tied through the center. She carefully decorated them with thin white lines of sugar icing and they looked like little pieces of art. They would hang them up on the tree.
There was another plate of gingerbread and glass of creamy raw milk for everyone.
"And I have a surprise." Smiled Arthur, pulling out a box wrapped in ordinary brown paper bag. "Our boss apologized for calling our team on our day off and after we were back from the mission, he got us this…" he said excitedly and pulled down the bag, revealing a rather large box of muggle chocolate ornaments with strawberry fondant filling.
"Muggles put them on the tree, look, they have little loops on top to put them up like this…" he hung the first piece of ornament on the closest branch and admired the way it sparkled in the light of fire.
"Can we have one?" asked Fred reaching for the box. Each of the kids got one piece of candy, while Arthur put the lights on the tree. They knew lights go on first, so they could hide the cables closer to the centre of the tree. Then ginger bread and chocolate, then paper decorations, and mom's old glass ornaments went on the tree at the end, so no one would knock them down while decorating.
The carpet was covered in tinsel and everyone was busy adding the last touches to their masterpiece when Arthur sneaked into the kitchen, bringing a small chocolate, wrapped in shiny red paper with him.
"A chocolate for lovely lady." He smiled, handing Molly the muggle candy over her shoulder as she was standing at the counter, finishing last batch of fig newts.
She giggled when he tried to kiss her ear and turned around, to find Arthur standing close to her, holding a small branch of mistletoe over their heads, smiling mischievously. It was the same smile George and Fred had when they were caught doing something silly.
"You mister, are very sneaky. The chocolate was just trap wasn't it? To make me turn around and then I'd be trapped under the mistletoe with you." Smiled Molly, looking up into the insanely blue eyes of her husband.
"Of course not, I saved the chocolate from the hungry candy addicted gang we have in the living room because I knew you like strawberry fondant the best. And the mistletoe just happened to be in my pocket so I thought…why not?" he winked at her and Molly blushed a little.
"And how did the mistletoe got inside your pocket? I'm pretty sure it wasn't there yesterday, when I washed these corduroys for you." She giggled like a teenaged girl.
"Well, I've spent whole morning in the forest looking for some, while our kids were searching for the best tree as you know." He whispered and stepped even closer to Molly.
"Well, we wouldn't waste a perfectly fine mistletoe right?" smiled Molly and kissed Arthur, feeling just like when they were still at school and he would sneak up behind her during Christmas in a classroom.
Another snow storm was starting and it was beautifully cosy inside. When there was a knock on the window.
Jade run to open it and let a rather large, faun colored owl inside. It was carrying an envelope addressed to Jade, with neat even handwriting which Jade recognized as Joyce's.
It was a beautiful Christmas card, with little verse inside and wishes for Merry Christmas from Joyce, who also reminded her that every Christmas is different and every Christmas is beautiful when we spend it with people who love us.
There was also a line about the charms essay which Joyce was struggling with and the letter was ended with cheerful " xo xo see you after New Year, Joyce."
Jade smiled and carried the owl on her arm to the kitchen, followed by Charlie who insisted to check the bird over, if it wasn't too frozen from the storm to fly back home.
When they entered kitchen, Molly was still standing in Arthur's embrace and they were still kissing, to which Jade reacted like honorary Weasley kid with loud "Eeew!" accompanied by similar sound of disgust from Charlie. They laughed when Arthur looked at them with a stare which surely wanted to be imitation of mom's most deadly stare but it looked ridiculous on his face.
"I got a letter from friend at school. Can I write her back?" asked Jade, sitting at the chair close to Molly, straightening out the card in front of her, reading it again.
"Oh that's lovely. Of course you may write her back, let me check if we still have some Christmas cards." Molly opened drawer on the side of the table and went through the stack of cards and envelopes. She found one small card with Christmas tree and golden star on top and even an empty envelope, which was slightly bigger and didn't match the card completely.
"Now, we could add something little to the card, a gingerbread perhaps?" smiled Molly, handing Jade the card so she could write on it, while she went to the living room and soon came back with one of the preciously decorated heart with red ribbon. She wrapped it in a piece of wax baking paper to protect it from any humidity of the snow and pushed it inside the envelope, sealing it tightly.
"Alright little one." Jade talked to the owl, which ate a bit of crumbs from coffee cake they had after lunch and drank a bit of water. "Can you bring this to Joyce? Be careful, it's snowing outside and I don't want you to hurry and get lost. Take care of yourself." She smiled as she opened the window and let the owl out. "Have a safe journey back home!" she called after the bird quickly disappearing in the snow.