A/N:Hi, sorry I haven't updated in a while. Holiday's got the better of favourite, review and follow:)
On Christmas Eve the Lake family found themselves on Louisa's parents door step. It was the family tradition to stay at their house till Boxing Day, and to have Christmas lunch at the local pub. Shortly after they had rang the doorbell a short elderly lady answered wearing antlers.
"Hello Dears! Come on in we're only waiting on Matthew and their lot now. Hello Katie and Clara," their grandmother's said as she swung the door open wide.
"Hello Grandma," they sang in unison. They went into the front room and unloaded the cakes and mince pies on the table. The fire in the corner was roaring, and the tree on the other side, which currently was surrounded by a sea of presents. Louisa's other brother Rory and kids were already sat down on one of the sofas, tinsel and Santa hats already on.
"Hey Laura!" Clara called to her cousin, who was currently studying a Lego instruction manual. Laura said something incoherent, and then went back to the booklet. Clara then went off to the kitchen to help her mum and aunts with the food.
"Hello Auntie Amy! How's work?" Clara asked as she grabbed her old apron and tied up her hair.
"Fine, could you possibly help your mum with the trifle?" said her flame haired aunt, who was currently sorting out the potatoes. Clara nodded and then walked over to her mum who was making strawberry jam.
About an hour or so later, after Matthew and his family had arrived, and they all sat down at the now extended (not by magic, but by human labor. This was one of the many times when Clara realized how much easier it was to be a witch) table for dinner; it was their Christmas Dinner, just on the wrong day. Even though the family was close they rarely did get to see each other, but this had been the tradition for a very long time.
"How's school Clara?" Rory asked as he poured gravy all over his plate.
"Fine, made friends. You know, still getting used to it," She answered and she was being a little more distant than she had the previous years. She knew she couldn't't tell them that she was a witch, but she felt bad that she couldn't't share it. Out of all her larger family she liked her Uncle Rory and her Aunt Amy the best, she knew they'd understand if she told them but she knew she couldn't't. Rory noticed her sort of absentness from the conversations, so sensed it was better to leave her. He didn't't ask about school for the rest of the evening.
"Lou, how's work?" Rory asked a few minutes later; for some reason Rory reminded Clara of Molly, always asking away, and not in a nosy way. The rest of the dinner was filled with conversations of nostalgia, and laughter. It went rather fast and too soon was it over and the children were forced to get dressed, so they could go to sleep and the adults could have a chat in private.
That night was a dark and cold one, even though all the children slept in the living room, next to the fire; they were all still huddled in their sleeping bags. The younger ones tried to do an all-nighter, but they fell asleep shortly after about ten thirty. By eleven the house was silent, except for the slow rumbles coming from upstairs. Clara had never slept the night before Christmas, even though it meant that she no longer believed in Father Christmas because of it, she still loved to go outside, to her grandparents garden and watch the stars. Sometimes her mum would join her and they'd sit together, and she'd point out what the constellations were, and what the stars in them were.
Clara snuck out shortly after midnight, wrapped in a blanket, with her pajamas and wellies on (the wellies were for the annual walk to the pub the following day). There were a few sun loungers in the garden and Clara climbed on the closest one and lied down. As Clara now had friends in the Wizarding World, she'd had to inform them that she was in a muggle house for Christmas, and random owls knocking on the door would be rather confusing. So she'd said if they wanted to give her anything either do it before she went or at midnight on Christmas. Minutes after she'd lied down a tawny owl approached her with a parcel. She took it, along with the note attached and let it fly away. She had received a few presents so far, from Scorpius, Louis, Eliza and Poppy. This particular parcel was from Al. She ran inside quickly and placed it under the tree, skillfully dodging the sleeping children.
About an hour later her mum came down, wrapped in a blanket holding a box of chocolates.
"Hi, did I miss much?" Louisa asked as she lied down next to her daughter and handed the box over.
"Nah. What took you so long?" Clara asked as she ate a peppermint cream.
"Grandma wasn't very tired, so it took her ages to sleep, and I didn't't want to wake her up again," her mum answered, "Any owls yet?"
"Al's one came," Clara answered. They sat their quietly for a while, Louisa keeping the tradition up by going into a long speech about Polaris, the north star. At about two Louisa started yawning and decided she should probably get some sleep. Clara stayed though watching the world go by, deep in thought. Her eyes were drifting off slowly until she heard the creak of the door, and she jolted round to see her uncle looking rather bemused, but holding two cups of tea.
"What are you doing out here it's about three in the morning, Christmas Morning?" Rory asked as he sat down, handing her a steaming mug.
"I always come out here on Christmas Eve night, Mum comes out too. She went back in about an hour or so ago," Clara answered as she took a big sip, then realizing it was a mistake, as it was too hot. She set it down on the ground.
"Oh, I was just not sleeping, and I looked out the window and found you lying down, and thought maybe it's not that cold. What are you expecting for Christmas? Lou said you made a pretty sizeable list," Rory asked as he too took a sip, because it wasn't too hot for him.
"Umm, well just some stuff for school, not much," Clara lied, she couldn't't say she wanted a new broom and an owl; it would sound a little odd.
"Oh, I hope we got you the right stuff. It was all from the list so…" Rory answered. They chatted for a bit then Rory went in; Clara still stayed out but drifted off to sleep. She woke up at eight, the sun still quite low in the sky. She walked back into the house to find all the kids awake and Amy.
"Morning! Merry Christmas! Tea?" Amy said in her sweet Scottish accent. Clara nodded sleepily, and went to sit on the sofa, among her cousins, who were watching some Christmas movie. A few hours later everyone was sat down in the living room, hot drinks in hand, children beyond excitement.
"Right three presents before breakfast, the rest afterwards. Three, two, one," Matthew said. The kids immediately went for the biggest ones with their name on. Clara had received a large parcel from Rose's owl an hour after Rory had left the previous night. Clara didn't't open the presents from her friends at school because there was a high chance that they would be some form of Wizarding object. Clara opened two small presents from her mum and one from Rory and Amy. Clara got a gift card for the pet shop in Diagon Alley from Louisa (This was the present that excited her the most, as she really wanted an owl), Louisa also gave her a letter that said that she could buy a broom in Diagon Alley when they went the following week. Rory and Amy had got her a small notebook (she had asked for a nice notebook on her list) that had a darkish blue cover with eight raised panels on the front. They had said that one of their close friends used to have one.
A few minutes later they were back sat down at the table eating a full English breakfast, they had their crackers on Christmas breakfast, so now they were all telling awful jokes, and wearing paper hats. They all got dressed quickly and assembled in the living room again, for the rest of the presents. Clara opened Katie's present; it was ten bars of Cadbury's Caramel chocolate, her favorite. She smiled and gave her sister a large hug; she had given her eleven bars of her favorite chocolate, Milka chocolate. Matthew and his family weren't't that great at giving presents, they always gave Katie and Clara girly things like cosmetics; they hated that sort of thing. This year Clara had received a set of eyeshadows that she'd never use, but she said thank you and hugged her aunt and uncle anyway. Clara didn't't like opening all her presents at once, so she left one more of her mums, another of Rory and Amy's and her grandparents ones.
Soon after all the kids had finished playing with their toys, or what was left of them so far Jake, Matthew's youngest son had broken six already and it was only twelve thirty. They started watching more Christmas TV, and then they put their wellies on and started walking to the pub. They knew the people that worked there so they accommodated them nicely and they enjoyed their Christmas meal. The rest of the meal was funny and just like any other. After they had finished they walked back to the house, to watch Christmas day TV. Then the younger kids would go to bed, and the older ones and the adults would watch more TV then rather late they'd go to bed and they'd leave at about eleven.
They watched Arthur Christmas, which was the one movie they watched every year. They then watched Polar Express, a film no one liked but watched any way. After they watched the normal TV, they tried to get the younger ones to bed.
After that the kids unwillingly went to bed, and settled down. The adults went into the other room to watch a bit more TV. The next morning was a grim one, it had started to rain, and well it wasn't Christmas any more. It was a solemn and grumpy breakfast of leftovers. They said their goodbyes and Louisa, Clara and Katie left. It took them a few hours to get back home. They dumped their things and they slumped themselves down on the sofa. Clara got out the bag of presents she hadn't opened yet; Katie did the same. Louisa had given them both extra presents that were under the tree.
"Tea?" Louisa asked. The girls said yes as they assessed their piles, they opted for small ones, Clara's from Louis. Louis gave her a chocolate frog, Scorpius a broom servicing kit (she had mentioned that she was hopefully getting a broom for Christmas), Rose gave her a large number of books, Eliza gave her some movies, Poppy gave her a poster of a book she had said she liked, and Al gave her Quidditch books and a pack of Bertie Bott's every flavor beans. Also enclosed in Al's package was a present from his grandmother, it was a Weasley jumper. The Weasleys had explained about the jumpers that they got annually and like all their friends also received them, Al had said she would get one with a large 'C' on the front. There was also a large box of mince pies from their grandma. She received a new hoodie from her mum, and a box from Rory and Amy, which also contained a few Marvel comics, a fez (it was an inside joke) and an offer to have her round over the summer. After they'd finished opening the last of the presents they watched some more TV.
The next day Louisa treated the girls with a trip to Diagon Alley, they flooed there in the morning. It was very busy, probably because people got vouchers and things for Christmas. The first stop was the Owl emporium where Clara brought an owl with her Christmas gift card.
"What you gonna call him?" Katie asked as they walked over to the broom shop.
"Umm…I don't know. Well I've got Moira so maybe Charles?" Clara answered after a few moments.
"Ooh! That's nice, if I had an owl, I'd call her Lucy," Katie said as they walked into the Quidditch supplies shop.
"So which one do you want Clara?" Louisa said as they surveyed the brooms.
"Don't know," she answered.
"Shall I ask someone?" Louisa said as she walked up to a witch wearing Quidditch robes who worked in the shop. Fifteen minutes later they walked out back into the street with a Firebolt 7. Clara was now smiling sheepishly as they walked to the supply store where she got some more quills and parchment.
She spent the next few days madly sending letters to her friends, thanking them for presents and things. They too were excited by the fact that she now had her own owl, so that they could send letters and things to each other easily. All her friends together had decided that they'd wear their Weasley Jumpers to the party. She was getting rather excited by the prospect of seeing her friends from school again, as great as Will and Georgie were, they weren't't magical, and so she couldn't't talk about the Wizarding World or worry about her dad.
Soon she found herself on the doorstep of the burrow, with presents and overnight bags and a large thick woolly jumper on. Katie had a very confident look on her face, she always looked very confident, but Clara knew behind it all she was insecure. Louisa looked quite worried, but she had usual clothes, dungarees, blue and white striped top and her mid length curly brown hair in a ponytail.
"Mum, its fine they're nice people," Clara reassured her mum as they rang the doorbell. It rang jingle bells, even though it was a little time after Christmas. Seconds later a fresh faced red-haired woman answered the door, and they all recognized her instantly as Ginny Weasley.
"Hello, nice to see you. Come on in, there's a few people here already you're not late don't worry," Ginny said as she ushered them in through the door. Upon entering they saw quite a few people chatting, holding drinks. She took their bags and showed them into a room on the left where the rest of the children were. There was still a Christmas tree up in the corner and fairy lights around the room. James, Molly, Fred, Dominique, Victoire (who was currently sitting on top of Teddy) and Neville Longbottoms eldest daughter Francesca were sitting on the sofa rather squished), his next youngest daughter Alice was sat on the floor. Al, Rose and Louis were sat by the coffee table on the other side.
"Sup?" Louis said as he drank his pumpkin juice.
"Don't…do 'that' again," Al said as he shook his head.
"Right… well nothing much. Where's the pumpkin juice?" Clara said as she took off her coat.
"Over there. How was your Christmas then?" Al said as he gestured to where Molly was sat. Clara grabbed a glass and sat back down.
"Fine, you know family gathering. What about you? Where are the others?" Clara said as she grabbed a mince pie.
"Great but busy you know. Poppy was in Wales so she may be a while. I have no clue where Scorpius is he usually is never late but you know maybe it's Bella. Lorcan and Lysander should be here in a sec as well. Chris Wood is also coming so is Lewis, who is in our dorm but I have no clue where they are. John was also supposed to come but he isn't anymore," Al said as he looked through the door, sort of waiting for them to suddenly walk through the door.
"Who's Bella?" Clara said.
"Younger Sister. You didn't't know he had one?" Louis asked.
"Nope, never mentioned it. What's she like?" Clara answered slightly worried by the fact that he never mentioned it to her.
"I think she's what six now, aww she's really cute," Rose said.
"K. So what are we like doing?" Clara asked.
"Parents are chatting, we will have to like mingle with them when the rest arrive though," Al said as he stood up and Chris walked in.
"Hey! Happy New Year!" Chris said as he hugged them, got a glass of pumpkin juice and sat back down.
"Do you want to play a game till the others come? Monopoly?" Al asked as he walked over to a big chest and opened it up.
"No way, it's too long," Clara protested as she walked over to the cabinet and assessed the collection.
"Cluedo?" Al asked as the others shook their heads.
"Well there is charades but that kind of sucks," Clara said, "Ugh! Guess its Monopoly then."
"Oooh bagsy the dog," Lewis said as he walked in.
"Oh hey! Well actually this is a like Wizarding version so there isn't a dog. There is a Thestral though," Al said as he opened the box up.
"Okay picks your pieces and I'll do the galleons," Al said as he grabbed the money bag. The others picked up the bag of pieces and grabbed one at random. Fifteen minutes after they had started playing the others arrived. They all packed the game away and went into the other room along with the rest of the kids. There were now quite a lot of adults in the other part of the Burrow.
"Right your dad is by the door talking to your mum, Clara's mum, Ginny and Harry. My dad is by the fireplace. Clara, Lorcan and Poppy go to the door and make sure he stays over there. Al, me and Lysander will go over to my dad. Chris, Louis and Lewis make sure that they don't go too near in general. But I think overall we should try to get them to speak to each other once but we need to be close when this happens so no one argues," Rose said to Scorpius.
"Rose it will be fine, stop worrying. How about we just talk over here and if there is an argument we come over?" Clara said.
"No but they could have a huge argument, we should just keep them away from each other," Rose said worried.
"It will be fine," Clara said as she shook Rose's shoulders.
"Rose its fine my mum talked to my dad about it earlier," Scorpius said.
"Fine, okay. Right okay," Rose said as she rubbed her forehead she shook her face and then smiled before turning back to Clara and Scorpius, "Right, Scor. Clara hasn't met or really heard about Bella yet, where is she?"
"Haven't you, sorry I didn't't mention it. She's over by my mum. Want to meet her?" Scorpius said as he walked to his mum Astoria.
"Hey, where's Bella?" Scorpius asked when seconds later his question was answered and he saw his little sister holding his dads hand and eating a mince pie.
"By dad," Astoria said, before realizing that Scorpius already knew, so she drifted off to speak to Hermione. Scorpius, Rose and Clara then walked over to Draco who was now getting Bella a drink from the table.
"Hi Bella," Scorpius said as he bent down to his little sister who didn't't really look much like him. She had wavy brown hair and green eyes like his mum, "There is someone I would like you to meet. This is Clara, and you have met Rose before haven't you. Say hello." The small girl instantly cowered behind her father's legs.
"Come on Bella say Hi," Draco said as he bent down as well, and shook her hand.
"Hello," A small voice peeped out.
"See that wasn't too hard was it," Draco said smiling, "She's a little shy as you can see."
"I love your dress Bella," Clara said.
"Thank you," Bella said smiling.
"Oh you haven't met our grandparents yet. My grandma gave you that jumper, remember. She was really excited to meet our friends," Rose said. They walked over to the big armchair in the next room where an elderly woman sat talking to her two eldest children, Bill and Charlie.
"Grandma this is Clara, and you know Scorpius obviously," Rose said.
"Oh hello dear. Oh you're wearing your jumper, how nice," Grandma Molly said.
"Hi Molly, haven't seen you in a while," Scorpius said.
"Oh it is nice to see you, how is Bella?" Molly asked.
"Great, she's with Dad now," Scorpius said, before the rest of their friends walked in.
"Oh I do hope to see her, she's eight now," Molly said before she excused herself a she saw Ginny on the other side of the room.
"What do you lot want to do?" Louis asked.
"Whatever, don't mind," Clara said shrugging, "Wait I'm just going to check Katie's okay. Give me a minute." She then rushed off to find Katie who was with Lily, Lucy, Hugo, Roxanne, Melody Longbottom, and her twin brother Oliver.
"Katie. Are you fine?" Clara said as she stood above her younger sister.
"Great, do you know where mum is though?" Katie asked as she stood up.
"Other room," Clara said as she walked back with Katie to the other room to join her friends again, "Right back now. What are we doing then?"
"Well we could all grab our things and go up to the tree house?" Al suggested.
"Sure I may just tell my mum though," Clara said as she walked over to her mum.
Ten minutes later they all climbed up the rope ladder to the large tree house.
"Woah this is so cool. When was it built?" Poppy asked as she put her rucksack down in the large hanging basket/ bag by the door.
"Well my uncles and my dad helped build it after they all found out that my dad and mum were having James. And he would be the fourth child in the family, so they thought it would be good if they had a place to go in family gatherings and stuff," Al said as he picked up the basket of food from the ground and climbed up the rope ladder.
"Oh okay, shall we lay out sleeping stuff?" Clara said.
"Sure, we should go in just before midnight for the countdown and stuff," Al said. They put their things down and sat on top of mats with blankets and the bowls of food in the middle, like they did at school.
"Your dad did what!" Lorcan exclaimed as he spluttered his drink.
"Well, it wasn't that bad the police didn't't take him. We did lose the car though and now I'm not allowed a new owl," Poppy said laughing.
"My parents have never done anything that crazy! The only thing I ever heard about them doing that broke the rules was the DADA club they formed during fifth year. Oh and they missed seventh year, but mum went back to finish it the next year," Rose said.
"My mum once broke into a park with my dad when she was younger apparently. But she won't tell me anything about it other than that," Clara said chuckling slightly.
"That's a good one; my parents aren't't breaking the rules kind of people. They do travelling and non-existent animals," Lysander said as he reached for some crisps.
"Anyone else got a funny story, we don't evidently?" Lorcan asked.
"Nada. Famous parents, not exciting…or funny," Al said glumly.
"A few years ago my parents, who played in different Quidditch teams, played a match against each other. My dad won and my mum didn't't speak to him for two weeks after that," Chris said chuckling; they all knew how competitive his parents were, as just about ten minutes earlier they had all been there when they saw that there was one mince pie left and they both fought over it.
"That's funny; well my dad is a wizard and also a metamorphmagus. Well when he was roommates with my mum, this was before she knew he was a wizard, he used to walk out the door and walk back in randomly looking like someone else. Once he changed to look exactly like her and mirrored what she said and did. She was very confused," Lewis said laughing.
"I always thought of how cool it would be to be a metamorphmagus," Al said airily, "Oh wouldn't it be funny if you changed to look like McGonagall and walked around giving house points and detentions all day." After they ahh'd'd at his comment, Alice popped her head up, she was in second-year but her birthday was in late august, so she might as well have been in their year.
"Just saying we are about to you know, get ready it's like quarter to," Alice said before she jumped off the ladder.
"Come on better go," Rose said as she made for the ladder followed by the rest of them. Inside everyone was in the main room, admitently very squished, for it wasn't that big. There were now a huge variety of sandwiches on the dining table along with rather a lot of cakes.
"Hey mum!" Clara said as she walked over to her mum who was currently talking to Ginny and Hermione.
"Hello Clara, what have you lot been up to?" Louisa asked as she put her arm around her daughter, Rose was now behind her and waving to her mum.
"Talking and a short game of monopoly," Clara answered, "Oh actually, please can you tell me what happened when you and dad broke into that park?"
"No! I am not telling you, go on back to your friends," Louisa said laughing as she gently pushed her back. Rose and Clara walked back to where the rest of her friends were, it was now five to midnight.
"Oh forgot to ask, you said you got a new broom for Christmas, what did you get?" Al asked, at the word broom Chris immediately came over.
"Firebolt 7, oh and I got an owl called Charles, but you know that already," Clara said.
"You got a Firebolt 7! You are being serious, that is the best broom around! My parents won't let me get one," Chris exclaimed.
"I really wanted a Firebolt 7; I have my dad's old Firebolt. But he said I get a new broom for my birthday, but that isn't until July," Al said rather sadly.
"My birthday isn't till August, but I did get all the things I needed for Christmas," Clara said.
"I'm twelve next month so maybe I will get the new Firebolt then, it is looking unlikely though," Chris said.
"I have only tried it out a few times in the field behind my house. I would've brought it with me but my mum said no. Wait, I could Floo home and get it tomorrow?" Clara said.
"That would be really cool. Ooh we could have a match tomorrow?" Al said very excited, "Wait I think it's almost midnight." Everyone was not staring at the clock (not the Weasley clock which now had rather a lot of handles all on home currently).
"10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1!" They all shouted rather loudly then cheered in the New Year.