On Saturday, Christmas Day, Alex woke up at half past five. Knowing that his parents wouldn't appreciate being woken up that early, he tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. After tossing and turning in bed for fifteen minutes, he got up and grabbed a random book from his bookcase. It turned out to be his copy of Tales of Beedle the Bard. He settled back in bed and flipped to his favorite story, "The Tale of the Three Brothers". According to Sirius and Remus, his invisibility cloak was the one from the story, as it had been handed down from the Potters for many generations, and other invisibility cloaks were either ordinary cloaks with Disillusionment Charms or Bedazzling Hexes on them or woven from Demiguise hair, which lost potency over time. They had then explained that the the three brothers were the Peverells, who most likely created the Deathly Hallows themselves rather than getting them as presents from Death, and according to James Potter, the Potters were descended from the youngest brother.
After finishing the story, he had then moved on to his second favorite, "Babbity Rabbity and the Cackling Stump." By the time it was seven o'clock, he had read every story in the book, with the exception of his least favorite, "The Warlock's Hairy Heart." At that point, Alex put the book away and got dressed and brushed his teeth. The rest of the family and Hermione were up as well, and a few minutes later, they were all gathered around the Christmas tree in the living room.
Ana and Stephan started handing around the presents that were under the tree. The first one that Alex opened was from his maternal grandparents, and contained a bottle of fruit drops and an envelope with twenty Galleons instead of the ten he normally got (he supposed his grandparents had done as requested and put the money he had earned that week in his Christmas money.) The next one was from Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and had the usual sweater, this one scarlet with the Gryffindor lion knitted on the front, along with a box of nut brittle and some Christmas cake. Next came the present from his paternal grandparents, which was a book on Romany history and a scarf and pair of mittens that matched the sweater.
Beth had given him a Quidditch book, and as expected, Sirius's present was a Firebolt. In fact, he had gotten Beth a Firebolt as well, his accompanying note saying that he knew her broom wasn't the one destroyed, but it wouldn't be fair to give his godson such a great broom and not do the same for his de facto goddaughter. Beth shook her head at the note and said, "Honestly, it's like Sirius has forgotten that we're not actually twins, not to mention that I wouldn't be jealous at all if I hadn't been gifted the Firebolt."
"But we still were raised most of our lives as twins," Alex pointed out as he unwrapped Neville's gift of a pair of Seeker gloves (his old ones were becoming worn and frayed around the edges). "And we've always gotten the same brooms together, so Sirius is hardly going to want to break that tradition now."
"Yes, but what am I going to do with my Nimbus now? I can't just give it to Ron. He has a perfectly good broom of his own and it would look like, well, however you would describe someone well-off getting a new and better item and giving the old one to someone that's less-off. Not to mention that our aunts and uncles might be offended that I just gave their birthday gift to me to someone else.
"Why don't you give your Nimbus to Jonas or David?" Ana suggested. "Having one of your cousins get a hand-me-down won't be seen as charity, and your aunts and uncles won't be offended by that. They might even be relieved that they don't have to buy another one."
"I'll do that then," said Beth, unwrapping her next present. "Uh, I think David mixed up our names on the packages, Alex, because I've got an Appleby Arrows jersey, and you're a fan of them, not me."
"I figured, since I've got one of the Holyhead Harpies, which is your Quidditch team," said Alex with a grin. "Let's swap." The two traded jerseys and then opened Cara's present to them.
"Cool!" they exclaimed, seeing that she had gotten them the entire Discworld series by Muggle author Terry Prachett, whose books they'd discovered at the local library before the Egypt trip. A few of them were new, but the rest were secondhand copies that Cara had found in a used bookstore.
Ron's present was a bag with some prank items from Zonko's Joke Shop, Hermione's gift a luxury quill pen and a box of sweets from Honeydukes, and Hagrid had given him a box of treacle toffee. Beth had gotten Alex a wand holster, and he in turn had gotten her a book that he'd bought at the bookstore in Hogsmeade. It was titled Full Moon, and according to the clerk at the store, it was a relatively new book that was very popular with teenage witches. Alex had no idea if Beth would like the book, though, since based on the summary on the back cover, it was about a young witch that fell in love with a werewolf, and Beth didn't normally read romances (other than the time last summer when she picked up Vera's copy of Pride and Prejudice).
"I see," said Beth slowly, looking at the cover which depicted a brunette girl and werewolf standing under a full moon. "Thank you for book, Alex. But I hope the cover is lying, because even with the Wolfsbane Potion, there's always a chance that a werewolf will slip and accidentally bite someone."
"I know the cover's not realistic," Alex said. "The clerk at the bookstore said it's popular with teenage witches, when I asked him what fiction books I could get for my sister's Christmas present. That's why I bought it. Maybe the artist messed up and the book itself will be interesting. Don't worry, Hermione, I didn't get you that book. I know you prefer non-fiction books, and when you do read fiction, it's definitely not a romance book."
"That's a relief," said Hermione, unwrapping Alex's gift to her to reveal a book about magical education in Europe.
Once the presents had all been unwrapped, the three teens gathered up the scattered paper and tape and threw them out. They then put their gifts away, while Ana and Stephan got started on breakfast. After a breakfast of bacon, scrambled eggs, chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes, and French toast, Ana and Stephan made their contribution to the Christmas dinner, which was half a dozen mince pies and a green bean casserole. Alex settled down to read Equal Rites, Hermione to read An Appraisal of Magical Education in Europe, and Beth to read Full Moon.
An hour later, Beth put down her book in disgust. "This is absolute rubbish. I don't know why it's so popular among teenage witches, unless they're all such hopeless romantics that they'll overlook this tripe. I don't blame you, Alex. You only got it for me because the clerk recommended it."
"It still was a waste of money if you don't like the book," Alex said. "What's wrong with it?"
"Well, first of all, the writing could use some work. Being descriptive is fine, but the way the author goes about it is awful. Do I really need to read a sentence like 'I touched my cheek and felt traitorous tears glistening on the skin, betraying me.'? First of all, how does someone know that their tears are glistening when they're touching them? And second, there's no need to add 'betraying me' when you've already described the tears as 'traitorous'. And don't get me started on the main leads. I can understand a regular girl falling in love with a guy that's a werewolf and him being reluctant to pursue a relationship because of that. It's another when the girl insists on wanting to be bitten just so she can be werewolf too, and the guy says that he sneaks over to her house every night and casts protective charms on her room."
Alex choked, and Hermione said, one brow raised, "Well, I'm definitely never going to read that book if it sounds like that."
"I'm sorry that I got you that book, Beth," Alex apologized. "At least I didn't get you the sequel, Half Moon. The clerk suggested that too, but I said I'd wait to see how you liked the first book before committing to buying it. According to the summary of that book, the werewolf tries to leave her because he feels he's too dangerous for her and she hooks up with an old friend that fights Dark creatures or something like that."
"Thank Merlin you didn't get me that," said Beth. "From the sounds of it, Half Moon would involve a love triangle, and I don't want to read something like that. Ugh. How can any girl read and actually like this stuff? I can't stand it, and I know Vera and Cara are too sensible to read this dreck."
"If you want, I can get Mum or Dad to return the book for me, since we don't know when the next Hogsmeade trip will be, and I'll get you something else."
"That would be wonderful, Alex. Here, you can have the book back." Beth handed over Full Moon, a look of distaste on her face.
Half an hour before noon, the family and Hermione Flooed over to Petrov's Potions. Dobby took the casserole dish and basket of mince pies, for he was in charge of setting up the two dinner tables. The elf was quite cheery as he greeted everyone, and he was dressed in the new clothes that the clan had given him for his Christmas present (minus the extra pairs of socks he'd been given). A red and green cap was on his head, looking a great deal like the caps that Father Christmas's elves normally wore in depictions of them. He had on a scarlet sweater and dark green pants, all elf-sized, and a pair of socks, one red with a pattern of holly and the other green with a pattern of bells. Over it all was an elf-sized apron of green, with candy canes embroidered on the pockets and hem and the words "HAPPY HOLIDAYS" in crimson letters on the bib.
"You look very festive, Dobby," Alex said, smiling down at the diminutive elf.
"Thank you, Master Alex," Dobby said, bowing. "Dobby is wanting to be dressed for Christmas, so Mistress Lise and Master Eli gave Dobby these clothes to wear. Mistress Ilsa said Dobby also had day off, but Dobby wanted to work. So Master Vlad-dek said Dobby could set dinner tables and wash dishes after."
They ignored Dobby's mispronunciation of Granddad Vladek's name and Ana and Stephan went to the adult dining room while Alex, Beth, and Hermione went up to the top floor. The cousins had already arrived, all of them wearing the jumpers that Mrs. Weasley had given them, and the Rosenbergs were there as well, for they had come down on the train from Yorkshire the day before and spent the night in the guest rooms at Granny Ilsa's insistence. Neville and his grandmother arrived a couple of minutes later, followed by the Weasleys and Luna and her father.
Cara looked a little left out, since none of her friends were there, as they all had family plans of their own. On top of that, while she was on friendly terms with Ivan, the Weasley twins and the Gryffindor quintet, they were either in the year above or the year below her. Also, unlike Percy and Vera, who were in a similar situation, she wasn't in a relationship with any of the guys present.
"Hey, Cara, you can hang out with us," Neville suggested. "Since none of your friends are here. We did do that a lot before you started Hogwarts."
"True," said Cara, smiling brightly. "All right then."
"Look guys," said Vera, interrupting whatever conversations were going on. She held up her left hand to reveal a silver ring with a heart-shaped red garnet on it. "Percy gave it to me today."
"It's not an engagement ring, is it?" Ivan asked suspiciously, darting an almost glare at Percy.
"No no no," Percy replied, almost babbling. "I haven't graduated yet, and Vera's not of age. It's a promise ring. Someday in the future, we do hope to be engaged, but that's not going to happen until Vera's at least of age, if not graduated from Hogwarts."
"Besides, Percy asked Dad about it first, and he was fine with it," Vera said. "In fact, Dad said that if I had to grow up and marry someone, then marrying into the Weasley family was the best choice I could have made. Oh, and Fred and George? If you say anything to tease us, you'll be spending the next couple of hours in St. Mungo's instead of enjoying a nice Christmas feast. And I'll tell your mother."
"We wouldn't dream of teasing you about that," Fred said quickly.
"And congrats on being promised to someday be engaged to our brother," added George.
Dobby popped into the room at that point. "Sirs and misses, dinner is being ready. Please be going to the large room at the end of the hall."
"Thank you, Dobby," several people said all at once, and the group of 'young folks', as Ana had put it, headed for their dining room.
The room was nicely decorated with tinsel, green boughs, red ribbon bows, and a couple of wreaths. On the mantle of the fireplace were silver and blue candles with holly surrounding the silver candlesticks. The chairs were covered with alternating red and gold cloth covers, with a blue and silver bow on the back of each. A small table to the side of the room had a red tablecloth with a pattern of holly, and various desserts were on top. The large table in the center that everyone was going to be eating at had two large platters, one containing a carved turkey and other containing a carved goose. Surrounding them were two gravy boats, a large bowl with a mound of mashed potatoes, a tureen of butternut squash soup, two plates of challah bread, a dish of green bean casserole, another dish of various mixed vegetables, three mince pies, and a platter with slices of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.
Each place setting had the special china that was only used during the holiday season, which had alternating driedels and holly around the edges (as a nod to Aunt Sarah's family, who were Jewish). Between each setting were four wizarding crackers stacked together. Everyone found seats and proceeded to fill their plates and have fun opening the crackers.
"What kind of bread is this?" Hermione asked, picking up a piece to put on her plate.
"It's challah bread," Leah replied. "Mum and Aunt Sarah made it, since today's also our Sabbath. Mum also made the Yorkshire pudding, since we're from Yorkshire and she knows how to make it."
"It's interesting having a Christmas dinner and doing some Christmas celebration," Adam remarked. "Mum always made a nice dinner on Christmas, but it was of traditional Jewish foods, and we never really celebrated the holiday. The only early winter holiday we celebrated was Hanukkah."
Once everyone had eaten their fill of the main course, Dobby appeared to clear off the remains of the food and they all went to get some dessert. Aunt Sarah and Mrs. Rosenberg had made apple blintzes and a kind of jelly doughnut called sufganiyah. Grandmum Lise had made a plum pudding and some apple pies and Mrs. Weasley had made Christmas cake.
"Is there any Roma cuisine?" Hermione asked curiously.
"Not exactly," said Cara. "Since we were, and some Romani still are, nomadic, there was a lot of picking up whatever cuisine was native to whatever country we were in. And what we ate also depended on what we could forage or could buy or trade for. There were soups made from wild greens and snails, for example. Since the quality of life is better now, eating snails doesn't really happen anymore, though."
"And considering how many of the Roma died in the Holocaust, a good part of our culture has been lost," Ivan added. "Anyway, bread, any kind of bread, is a staple of our diet. You might have noticed how we always have some kind of bread at mealtimes, Hermione. The only thing we consider more important than bread at meals is meat. That's why there was a lot of snail soup in the past, since there was no guarantee that the Romani could get other sources of meat."
"Oh, and we like cooking over wood fires," Vera said. "Of course, with magic, we can make fires without the need of wood, but sometimes our parents or grandparents will light wood fires when cooking dinner."
The conversation then turned to other aspects of the Romani culture, and Vera explaining the differences between them and the Irish Travellers, which some outsiders confused the Roma for and vice versa. After that, they all scattered to their various groups to play games, except for Ivan, who went downstairs to spend some time with his godfather.
For supper was sandwiches made out of the leftover turkey and goose and the other leftover food, and after that, everything was cleaned up and the party ended.
Author's Note; Yes, I did take a jab at the Twilight series with the book I had Alex give Beth. I apologize if any readers do happen to be a fan of the series. I have read the series and seen all the movies except for the third one, and while they were entertaining enough and I liked the books the first time I read them, I also acknowledge the flaws they have. As for the conversation about Romani cuisine, I did a Google search on the subject.