Christmas Eve and the manor was alight with joy and chatter and cheer. Narcissa glided through the living room, meeting guests and family and friends, laughing at all the right jokes, asking all the right questions; she'd been trained for this since she was a child, she knew how to be a hostess. But this year, her heart wasn't really in it. She always held these Christmas parties; decorating was a spark of enjoyment for her, a time to spend with her son as they put up the tree, covered it in ornaments and set up the halls and rooms in preparation for the oncoming guests. And her husband insisted on it. It was good for networking. But this year, her son had chosen to stay at Hogwarts, his letter to her had said he was sure his father wouldn't miss him and that he'd see them in the summer.
Lucius was a mediocre father. Sure, he was there, tried to teach his son how to be a future Lord and the importance of social roles and the expectations of a family like theirs, but affection? Empathy? Care? It really wasn't there. This past summer, her husband had been particularly occupied, barely sparing his son a second glance. Now, he barely seemed to notice his only son wasn't home for Christmas. She saw how Draco looked up to his father, following him around like a puppy, copying whichever mannerisms he could, but Lucius dismissed him, often angrily even. He was never outright insulting, but clearly his dismissal had finally gotten to their son.
She sighed as she entered the kitchen. Of course, she wasn't cooking or serving, they'd hired help for such menial tasks, but she needed a breather. It had broken her heart receiving that letter, packaging his presents for him to open away from home. The party felt less alive without her boy. A server entered the kitchen and she fixed her smile, bracing herself for the crowd of guests in her home. This Christmas was absolutely not what she wanted it to be.
Christmas at Hogwarts was always magical. Though the warmth and familiarity of home could be missed, that feeling was immediately overshadowed by the awe created by the grand decor of the Great Hall and the incredible spread of food provided throughout the day. Ginny bounded down for lunch with her brothers. She'd been feeling somewhat better. Her 'new year, new me' was starting early: she was going to focus on herself and she was going to be happier because of it. She'd been spending more time with the twins and though they spent most of their time with her trying to prank her in one way or another, she was still having fun. As she bounded down to lunch, even Ron, who was now known for having a constant scowl on his face seemed to be in a good mood.
As he made his way through his breakfast, he smiled up at his sister. Since her weepy mood had finally dissipated, she was much more tolerable to be around, and she'd made herself the newest target of the twins pranks, sparing him from their holiday cheer. His winter holidays had been, somewhat boring. He was working on himself, going to the library, actually trying to improve, revisiting old spells from his first year. He wasn't sure what he was going to do with all this. Fight Hermione. Impress Harry. Impress his family. Impress Dumbledore. Finally stand out. Whatever it was, it couldn't hurt. He was overlooked by everyone, he was going to make sure that changed.
As they sat down to eat, the twins dragging Percy along to join them, carrying armloads of presents.
"Here we go everyone," Fred began handing the presents down the table. A sweater for each of them and something new. For once, their dad had sent them each a present too. It was a surprise to all of them. Normally, their dad just claimed to pitch in with whatever their mum sent them. Ginny put a small butterfly clip in her hair, apparently muggle girls really like them, but her dad had charmed hers to flutter slightly. The twins had received a pair of mood rings that muggles claimed changed colour according to how you felt, according to their dad he'd found it didn't actually work but it was a fun gimmick, and they appreciated getting something from him. Percy had received a collection of notebooks, supposedly easier to take notes on than the parchment and ink pots Hogwarts used - Percy wasn't sure how much he believed that muggles could provide better stationary than his Flourish and Blotts premium parchment and ink but he was excited to try it all the same.
Ron looked at his present. A collar? On a small tag it read To replace scabbers. How would a collar replace his pet? Sure scabbers wasn't all that beloved, and was just another hand-me-down to Ron, but this was a pitiful attempt at replacing a whole animal. He scowled at it.
"What's wrong, little brother?" Said Fred.
"A problem with your gift?" Chimed in…maybe also Fred?
"It's just dumb," he threw the collar down on the table.
"Oh!" Ginny squealed picking it up. Why was she so excited? "We're getting a cat!"
"Oh." Ron remained dead pan while his siblings celebrated. Why was his gift a gift for everyone? Why didn't he get one for himself? He felt his ears burning red and his scowl deepened. He reached over to grab the collar out of Ginny's hands but as he reached over he fell forward into his plate with a clang, that silenced the Hall. Slowly, small tittering was heard around the Great Hall, accompanied by the great guffaws of the twins. He swiped gravy and mashed potatoes off his face as a smirking Draco strutted past, "In civilised society, no matter how much food excites us, we use a knife and fork, we don't smash our face in like pigs." His snide comment did quieten the twins, not wanting to stand with a snake against their brother, but Ron was angry at them and his sister and Draco all the same. He snatched the collar and stormed off to his room. They'd soon see what making a mockery of him meant.
Harry flopped onto the sofa in the living room. He was ready to go into a food coma. This had to be the best Christmas he'd ever had. To be fair, the whole day had really just been food, food and then even more food. They'd exchanged gifts last night. Sirius had bought him a new broom and Remus had gotten Harry a magical pranks box - ready to continue the Marauders legacy at Hogwarts. Harry had given Sirius glow in the dark ceiling star stickers; Dudley had them on his bedroom ceiling and Harry had always been jealous of them - he was sure Sirius would like them though. For Remus, an assortment of muggle chocolates - again, something he'd always envied Dudley for. He hadn't been able to go totally crazy with their presents, he knew they'd not let him spend a lot on them, but all the same they smiled like he'd given them gold. As Sirius came in with what looked like the magical world's version of Monopoly, Harry smiled. He finally felt like he had a family.
Hermione and her parents were setting up a picnic in Hyde Park waiting for Harry to arrive. She couldn't possibly hide her excitement, trying to set up everything to be as perfect as possible. If her parents weren't so cold, they'd be smiling. At first, they'd thought a picnic would be an awful idea in English weather. And they were right. Why on earth had they agreed to this? It was the last day before the children returned to Hogwarts and they'd agreed to let them spend the day together while the Grangers were in London.
They were still fairly wary of this new friend of Hermione's. At first, Daniel Granger had been certain that this boy was the one who had broken Hermione's heart and was ready to show the boy the bad end of a dentist's chair, but after some cool rationalising from his wife, it wouldn't make sense for Hermione to so desperately want to see the boy who had hurt her so much outside of school hours. Still, though he'd seemed good enough over the previous summer, there was no denying the adults that accompanied him were somewhat odd. Boyish even. They looked to be a similar age to the Grangers but carried themselves as though they were still schoolboys. It was somewhat refreshing but in this cold, their teeth chattering away, the Grangers were very quick to criticise.
Finally, three figures could be seen emerging from the gate to the park. Hermione wasted no time in bounding towards Harry, hugging him closely and keeping hold of his hand as they walked back to the picnic.
"Gosh, you must be freezing," Remus exclaimed before quickly setting up a warming charm around the group before going over to greet the couple. Ok, maybe these guys weren't so bad.
The rest of the afternoon was actually fairly nice. Remus and Sirius had brought a great selection of finger foods, and the dentists had brought desserts - they make a living off of people's bad teeth choices, they know how to bake a good cake.
Harry and Hermione exchanged gifts, Harry immediately wrapping the scarf she'd knitted for him around his neck. Hermione hadn't picked up much when she'd been married to Ron, but she could comfortably zone out when knitting. It wasn't her best work, she hadn't done any knitting in over a year, but it was ok, by her standards. By Harry's, it was perfect, he felt instantly warmed as he wrapped it round himself. When Hermione had asked for knitting needles and yarn for Christmas, her parents were worried she'd drop it if she didn't pick it up immediately, like she had with the piano years before. But she was a surprising natural, knitting their gifts for the year as well. Harry had given her an embossed leather bound notebook - charmed to only be opened by her. Hermione had to admit, it was beautiful - intricately designed with flowers and vines embedded the cover.
Before they knew it, the winter dusk came in and the two families had to say their goodbyes as the Grangers went back to their hotel. Though the next day was a return to school, Harry and Hermione couldn't wait to be spending time with each other again. As fun as these holidays had been, they'd also been exhausting. Home was nice, but emotionally, they held a lot of comfort in each other. Last Christmas, the watches Hermione had charmed for them both was only able to transport small notes of parchment when needed; it was a good emergency communicator but they had missed each other. Yes, the threat of the chamber and a basilisk loomed, but how big even was that after everything they'd been through? For once, they were looking forward to going back.
The Weasleys gathered around a bed in the Hospital Wing. Mr and Mrs Weasley had floo'd in. Molly was besides herself, wailing and crying. Arthur had threatened to call the Ministry if this wasn't rectified quickly. The twins were downcast, their usually cheekiness completely erased by this. Percy was trying to hold it together, but he couldn't deny, seeing this made him want to cry.
Ron was stone-faced. Ginny would be fine. Yes, she'd been petrified, but it wasn't like she was dead. All he could think was, If this were me, I'm sure they wouldn't care this much.
Ginny had been found in the hallway leading to the Gryffindor Common room. A dead rooster lay beside her, its blood used to write the word PATHETIC on her arm. The message had since been washed away, but the students who found her had spread what they'd seen around the school.
Professor Dumbledore wasn't sure what to do. He was still waiting on Professor Sprout's mandrakes and if Mr Weasley lost enough patience the Ministry could get involved. After last year, Dumbledore didn't need this again, Hogwarts had already developed enough of a bad reputation for supposedly harbouring Pettigrew for the year. It was obvious to him now. Someone else had procured Riddle's diary, and their first order of business had been to punish Ginny for her failure with Tom. Though Dumbledore had grown weary of the Weasley children, he'd simply been preparing to no longer use them for his plans. He needed to find the new owner, they were completely unpredictable, who knows what they'd do next? He was not looking forward to the New Year.
So I had intended to release this chapter on Christmas Day - but I know myself, I'd probably forget - so you get it now! As always, thank you so much for reading please favourite, follow and review letting me know what you think! I love reading your guys' theories for future chapters and seeing you guys enjoy my story :)