1968
Her first Christmas as an orphan was the hardest one.
Cecilia was used to Christmases with her parents, to trips to Switzerland and the French Alps for a winter holiday, and Christmas Day at home in London. She was used to her mother cooking and baking, with Cecilia helping her, and her father decorating the house with floating candles in every room, enchanted to glow in multicolored splendors of red, green, and gold, and freshly conjured fir branches draped over every mantlepiece and doorway. She was used to hanging her grandmother’s baubles on the tree, to seeing her parents dance in the living room as Christmas music played on the wireless, and to her father kissing her mother under the mistletoe that somehow appeared at random over her mother’s head in any room of the house. That was the Christmas that Cecilia had always known.
The last Christmas her parents had been alive, she’d had both her best friend and her boyfriend over. Siobhan Fitzgibbon, her best friend since their first year at Hogwarts, usually stayed the entire Christmas holiday, and had been there last year when Cecilia had brought her boyfriend over to make sure her parents understood how serious she was about him, though they’d only been seventeen then.
So serious she’d eloped with him that summer, a month after burying her parents.
He’d been willing to wait, to let her have however long she needed to mourn the loss of her parents, but she hadn’t wanted that. She would be mourning them her entire life, so she might as well do so as Cecilia Akins instead of Cecilia Fletcher. Her husband of all of four months had done much to comfort her for the loss of her parents, and sometimes she thought being with him was the only thing keeping her from drowning. Reid was a fire in her heart, warming her before the ice of grief could take hold.
It hadn’t been long enough for healing yet, though, and Christmas felt difficult. She didn’t quite know what to do with herself for it, caught in that in-between age of young adulthood where she still felt that she should be at a home she no longer had, but was instead in her own home where she ought to make her own Christmas traditions.
Most of their friends were still spending Christmas with their families, and while Cecilia knew she could go to her in-laws for the holiday, it wasn’t the same. She wanted her own family, and they were gone. Instead she’d made Reid promise they would stay home, just the two of them, for Christmas Day alone in their flat. She didn’t want to go visiting people, or even leave their bed. She just wanted Reid.
Reid had been telling her it was fine, that he didn’t want to see anyone but her anyway, and had assured her that his parents understood. So long as he and Cecilia came over for New Year’s for the big Hogmanay party they always threw, the Akins had apparently assured their son that they would forgive his absence at Christmas.
It didn’t really feel like Christmas yet. So far that had felt safer emotionally, something Cecilia couldn’t say out loud but Reid seemed to know anyway. They hadn’t even decorated, but he had brought home a tree. It had been sitting bare in the living room for the past fortnight, waiting for Cecilia to be ready to hang baubles and lights on it. She didn’t know when she would be. Maybe the tree would go through this first Christmas bare and plain, waiting for a holiday that would never come.
On Christmas Eve, she woke up alone to the sound of voices in their flat. She slid out of bed and threw on her dressing gown over her pajamas, following the familiar voices to the living room.
“She’s going to kill you,” came the sarcastic voice of her best friend. “And you’ll probably deserve it.”
“Yeah, usually do,” was her husband’s amused response. “I just want her to smile a little bit.”
Cecilia rounded the corner to the living room to see Siobhan on the sofa with a cup of tea in hand, her legs curled up underneath her, and Reid standing next to the tree. While she’d been asleep, he’d decorated the tree.
Garlands of red roses wrapped around the fir tree, and tiny twinkling fairy lights glowed on the branches. Gold and silver baubles were scattered throughout, and Reid had his wand out to conjure a star on the top.
He looked over at her and froze. Siobhan had seen her too, and sipped her tea with a smile that looked rather smug.
Cecilia arched an eyebrow at her best friend and then turned to her husband.
“It was Siobhan’s idea,” Reid said immediately.
“Liar,” Siobhan said, amused. “You could at least pick a lie she’d believe.”
“All right, it was my idea,” he admitted. “My mum bought the baubles, but I did the roses myself. I thought you’d like them. I know you said you might get the baubles from your parents’ house, but it’s Christmas Eve already and you haven’t been able to bring yourself to go over there, so I thought we could just start fresh. Don’t kill me.”
Cecilia went over to wrap an arm around his waist, kissing him softly. Reid made a little hum of approval, hugging her tight.
“I love the roses,” she told him in a whisper. “It looks beautiful.”
“There, you see, she didn’t kill me,” Reid said to Siobhan.
She rolled her eyes and reached for the teapot on the sofa table. “Cecilia, have some tea and let the man finish decorating.”
Cecilia curled up on the sofa with the cup of tea her best friend handed her, and watched quietly as Reid finished off the tree. The star was glowing now, a flickering light that looked like a candle. It really was beautiful. The roses looked like they’d come from her mother’s garden, although it was the wrong time of year for those. Reid was nothing if not a genius at magic, though, so he’d probably found some spell to enchant them into blooming out of season.
“Was it Fiona’s idea?” she asked Siobhan in a murmur, referring to her mother-in-law.
“No, it really was his,” Siobhan answered as she sipped her tea. “He’s been talking about it for the past fortnight. His mum chipped in because she agreed it might be less painful to have all new decorations of your own. You can always get the ones from the house later.”
Cecilia tended to refer to her childhood home as ‘the house’, so Siobhan did too. She hadn’t managed to set foot in it since her parents’ deaths. Reid and his father Stuart had gone round and closed the house up, repairing the doors that had been damaged in the attack, and locking it down so no one but Cecilia could enter. She owned it now, her parents’ only heir, but she didn’t want to live there ever again and couldn’t yet bring herself to sell it, so it sat empty, filled with the old possessions she wasn’t sure she wanted to see again, including the Christmas decorations that were the Fletcher family history.
One day she’d want those. But today she wanted the brand new, modern and shiny glass that was a gift from Fiona Akins.
Maybe they could take Boxing Day to go see Reid’s parents. She thought she could stand to leave the flat after all, just to see Fiona and Stuart.
Reid finished the last of the baubles and tinsel, and came over to sprawl on the sofa between his wife and her best friend, throwing his arms out across the back of the sofa.
“Looks pretty good, if I do say so myself,” he said proudly.
“It’s beautiful,” Cecilia said softly, her eyes on the tree.
“Quite the hidden talent,” agreed Siobhan. “If you can’t make it as an Obliviator, you can always be an interior decorator.”
“I’d be a bloody good one,” Reid told her cheekily.
Cecilia scooted closer to him, and he wrapped one arm around her, kissing her temple.
“Happy Christmas, Cilia,” he said, looking over at her with a smile.
“Happy Christmas, darling.”
“Happy Christmas, you bloody egomaniac,” Siobhan put in, then stretched briefly before leaning forward to catch Cecilia’s eye. “I was promised breakfast, you know.”
“Well, if he promised it, he can cook it,” said Cecilia.
“Bloody women,” Reid said, but he got up to make breakfast anyway.
Cecilia sipped her tea in silence for a while, looking at the tree. The twinkling fairy lights and flickering star gave off a warm light reflected in the glass of the baubles, and she felt herself relaxing in the peace of the quiet sounds of Reid in the kitchen, probably making a bloody mess as he cooked.
Eventually Siobhan reached for the teapot to pour herself another cuppa, and looked over at her.
“Are you all right?” she asked softly.
“No,” Cecilia said truthfully. “But I think maybe I will be, one day.”
“Hmm.” Siobhan leaned back to settle into the corner of the sofa, her back against the armrest so she could face Cecilia. “I think you will. When you’re ready to go back to the house, I’ll go with you. You don’t have to do it alone.” She smirked then over her teacup. “You can bring the jackass, too.”
Cecilia chuckled. Siobhan actually did like Reid, though she was fond of calling him a jackass. “Before next Christmas, I promise. Just… not yet.”
Siobhan nodded. “In the meantime, you’ve got your own Christmas tradition to start.”
“Yeah.” Cecilia smiled at her. “That sounds kind of nice, doesn't it? A fresh start.”
“I suppose we all need one now and then,” Siobhan agreed, and then after a brief pause added, “Happy Christmas, Cecilia.”
“Happy Christmas, Siobhan.”
*
1969
Christmas Eve in the last year of the decade felt like a hopeful one. Since the Muggles had landed on the moon, violence from the Death Eaters seemed to have slowed, so there hadn't been any new deaths in the wizarding world for five months now. It didn’t feel entirely safe again yet, but the lull was a much-needed breather for everyone, and people seemed to be throwing themselves headlong into Christmas celebrations.
Reid and Cecilia Akins were no exception there.
They had planned their first Christmas party mostly without arguing, though the guest list had caused some rancor when Reid had added an old school friend that Cecilia didn’t want, though she felt she was actually being the compassionate one there for booting Roddy Feltham off the list.
“Don’t invite Roddy,” Cecilia had told him, reaching across to scratch off the name from the parchment Reid had been writing names on. “Siobhan will be there, you know it’s still hard on him.”
“He’s got to get over her eventually,” Reid had pointed out.
“True. But maybe not at Christmas.”
Reid had suggested they invite a friend of his from work as something of a blind date for Siobhan, to even up the numbers, but Cecilia had rightly pointed out that if Siobhan slept with him and dumped him immediately afterward, this might make things rather awkward for Reid at work. Instead they’d invited Cosmo Graham, one of Reid and Arthur Weasley’s crowd at school. Siobhan had never shown any interest in Cosmo, who had likewise not had much interest in her. He had actually dated Cecilia and Siobhan’s arch-enemy, Acacia Bushby-Ferris, for a brief time. Siobhan would, thanks to that, reliably not want to sleep with Cosmo, thereby avoiding the potential fallout for her tendency to make boys fall in love with her and then promptly chuck them.
It was their first Christmas together in the Georgian terraced house they’d bought a few months back, after Cecilia had sold her parents’ home. She’d decorated it for Christmas in a blend of new and old, putting up a few of the things she’d found in the attics when they’d emptied out the house, and newer purchases they’d made together. Reid’s parents had gifted them quite a few beautiful additions to the decor, and Cecilia’s close friend Molly Weasley had knitted some red and green afghans that were now draped over the sofa in the parlor. It felt like a home, and Cecilia was ready to fill it with guests.
They had only invited a handful of people, actually, so it wouldn’t be a large party, but Cecilia felt it was a more manageable size this way. Her four closest friends and their significant others, plus Cosmo Graham to fill in for Siobhan’s inability to allow a man to become significant to her.
Hattie Habbershaw was the first to arrive, with her boyfriend Edwin Smythe in tow. She had been dating him for just over a year, and Cecilia was betting that Edwin would be proposing sometime in the next few months. Hattie would be engaged by spring, by her guess. Edwin was a few years older than the rest of them, and though he hadn’t gone to school with them all like the rest of their group, he was easygoing and kind, and blended in well with everyone.
Molly and Arthur Weasley arrived next, with Cosmo on their heels. Molly and Arthur had eloped shortly after Reid and Cecilia had (Reid had cheerfully called them copycats for doing it), and been happily ensconced in a little house in Devon ever since. Arthur and Cosmo were close, and seemed to be deep in conversation about the moon landing, which Arthur was obsessed with still and Cosmo, being Muggleborn, had watched at his mother’s flat on the telly. Molly rolled her eyes at Cecilia as they came inside.
“Arthur, that’s enough about the moon, please,” she said severely to her husband.
He looked a little glum at having to drop the subject. “Yes, Molly dear.”
Cecilia sent them into the parlor where Hattie and Edwin were drinking eggnog, then leaned out the door and looked up and down the street to see if Petula and Thomas Ockham were on their way. Petula was notoriously late to almost everything, and marrying Thomas at the last New Year’s Day hadn’t changed that.
Siobhan arrived next, and Cecilia ditched the rest of the party for a few minutes, dragging her best friend off to the kitchen under the guise of getting fresh hors d’oeuvres.
“Did you accept the job?” she demanded.
Siobhan rolled her eyes, her arms folded across her chest as she leaned her hip against the cupboards. “I haven’t decided yet.”
Siobhan had received a job offer from the Black Mountains Dragon Reserve, and inexplicably had been waffling over whether or not to take it for the past week. Cecilia had a bad feeling Siobhan didn’t want to go to Wales because she felt she was needed in London, and didn’t want her to be held back thinking she needed to look after her best friend.
“I think it would be good for you. You love dragons. Take the job, Wales isn’t so far away you couldn’t take a Floo to come visit.” Cecilia gave her a little push. “You don’t have to babysit me constantly, you know. Reid already has that well in hand. Practically follows me to work every day.”
Siobhan threw her a look. “Dragon reserves are a little harder to get in and out of than a regular job. You know I’d be living there. I don’t think I’d see you nearly as often.”
There was no way Cecilia was letting her give up a job she knew Siobhan genuinely wanted just to hang around her. It was time to boot Siobhan out of the nest, figuratively speaking. “Are you really going to pass up free room and board?”
That got a laugh out of her. “Oh, fine, I’ll take it. I suppose it might be fun living among the dragons. And the dragon keepers.”
“I’m sure you’ll find someone to enjoy yourself with,” Cecilia said with an exaggerated eye roll. “Come on, grab that tray of vol au vents.”
Siobhan popped one in her mouth as she followed Cecilia out to the parlor, where Petula and Thomas were just coming inside with Reid at their heels.
“There you are,” Cecilia exclaimed.
“I’m always the last one here,” Petula said in good-natured complaint. “Did we miss anything?”
The party continued on an even keel, and Cecilia relaxed as she looked around at her friends drinking eggnog and laughing around the Christmas tree. Someone had turned on the wireless and it was playing a Christmas special of Irving Warble’s holiday arrangements. People were laughing and chatting, and occasionally singing along with the music, and the house felt like the gentle hum of background magic that always made Cecilia think of the winter holidays. It was perfect, exactly what she’d wanted.
Now this felt like Christmas again.
Over in the far corner, Reid drew alongside Siobhan, who was sipping a glass of what was purportedly eggnog but was really just rum with a splash of eggnog for color, and stood next to her for a moment, watching the party. His eyes stayed on his wife, who was sitting next to Molly and Hattie in an animated conversation about decorating with live greenery.
“Well,” said Siobhan.
“Well,” agreed Reid.
“I suppose she really is doing better.”
“I told you so.”
Siobhan snorted. “I’m going to take the job at the dragon reserve.”
“I thought you might.” He gave her a serious look then. “I wasn’t joking when I said you don’t have to put your life on hold for her. You know I would owl immediately if anything was wrong.”
“I know.” Siobhan smiled at him then. “Thanks, Reid.”
He smiled back but looked a little bemused. “For what?”
“For taking care of her, you idiot.” She heaved a dramatic sigh. “I suppose I’m glad she has you, even if you are a jackass.”
“Aw,” said Reid. “That’s sweet. Give the dragons a kiss for me.”
She gave him a playful shove, and he laughed as he went back to the party.
*
1970
The second annual Akins Christmas Party was in full swing already by the time Cecilia’s best friend turned up.
The house was already full, since they’d expanded the guest list this year to include Dunstan Birtwhistle and Gemma Folwell, who’d been dating since Hogwarts and had only just managed to get engaged, Thad Peabody and his girlfriend, a lovely young Frenchwoman who’d gone to Beauxbatons and moved to London only a few months back, and Maribel McQuillen, who’d been in Cosmo’s year back at school and now worked at the Ministry with Arthur and Reid.
The world wasn’t safer this year, but Cecilia had decided she didn’t care. She was going to celebrate even if it meant spitting in the faces of You-Know-Who and his followers. She’d sent out invitations to her Christmas party defiantly, wanting to rejoice in the ancient meaning of this holiday season: the return of light out of the darkest days.
That was what had Cecilia celebrating, what she wanted to remind the others was still true: the lighter days always returned, and darkness would be conquered. She wanted her house full of those she loved and trusted, full of friendship and laughter and new life. She wanted new traditions to replace those lost to death, and she was creating them herself, building the foundations of her new family holidays. Boxing Day was for the Akins family, Christmas Day for herself and her husband, but Christmas Eve was for her friends, and all of them were at her house for a few hours of good company.
Once again, Roddy Feltham had not made the guest list, despite having a girlfriend now and continuing his friendship with Reid. Cecilia still felt he ought to be kept away from Siobhan, lest he relapse and have sex with her again like the addict he apparently was when it came to her.
The real guests of honor, however, were the two youngest: in a pair of travel cots popped up in the living room, Petula’s six month old son Richard and Molly’s one month old son William were sleeping right through the party after having been handed round to everyone present for admiration and snuggles. Her own guest of honor wouldn’t arrive until February, and advanced pregnancy was sending Cecilia to the loo far more often than she would have liked. Molly and Petula were both very sympathetic to this, and Maribel seemed to think it was hilarious.
Cecilia had just come out of the loo for the fourth time when her last and (to her) most important guest finally arrived.
Siobhan was in the foyer, stripping out of her coat to reveal jeans and a very flattering green jumper. Cecilia stopped short, though, because her best friend wasn’t alone. A tall, dark-haired man was beside her, in jeans and an Irish woolen jumper. The pale, creamy wool served as a contrasting backdrop to Siobhan’s rusty mane of curls, since she only came up to his collarbone or so. Siobhan wasn’t short, either, at five feet eight inches tall. The man beside her had to be a foot taller than her. He wasn’t what anyone would have called handsome, but he met Siobhan’s favorite criteria for a man: he was very large and muscular. He was more than a little intimidating, actually.
Cecilia looked up at him a little warily. “Siobhan, who’s this?”
Siobhan glanced up at him and then back to Cecilia. “This is Barry.”
“Hi,” he said with an easy smile that transformed his face to a more pleasant and less threatening visage, and Cecilia found herself liking him despite her shock that Siobhan had actually brought someone along to the Christmas party. “I’m Barry Flanagan. You must be Cecilia.”
“Siobhan, you brought an American bloke?” Reid asked from behind her.
Cecilia glanced at her husband with irritation. As if his nationality was the interesting issue here instead of the fact that Siobhan had brought a boyfriend along to the Christmas party. She never brought her boyfriends to any gatherings. Cecilia wasn’t even entirely sure Siobhan had considered anyone she’d slept with a boyfriend since leaving Hogwarts. But this one had to be if she was bringing him to the party.
“Where’d you find him?” Reid was saying, looking over Siobhan’s man. “Good God, he’s a big one.”
“At the dragon reserve,” Siobhan told him. “The milkman brought him. Cecilia, are you all right? You’ve got a funny look on your face.”
Cecilia gave her a meaningful look, trying to convey that she would be demanding an explanation later, and Siobhan rolled her eyes at her. She reached for Barry Flanagan’s hand and pulled him along into the house without another word. Cecilia heard Hattie’s loud, indrawn breath as soon as they crossed into the parlor and she got a look at Siobhan’s date.
“Did you see that?” Cecilia demanded of her husband as soon as they’d disappeared, the sounds of the party covering her hushed voice.
Reid rolled his eyes. “I could hardly not see it. You can interrogate her later, right now let’s go have some eggnog. Thank God we didn’t invite Roddy this year, right? Pretty sure that bloke could crush him like a beetle.”
“If I drink any more eggnog, I might as well spend the rest of the party in the bloody loo,” Cecilia snapped at him as she followed him to the parlor. “Go bring out the other trays, we’re going to need all the food we have. Why does she always have to find these bloody huge men?”
Reid grinned. “I think you already know the answer to that, darling.”
Cecilia huffed at him and went into the parlor to rejoin the party.
She spent a good forty minutes pretending to listen to Molly and Petula talk about their babies while actually watching Siobhan and her man interact. Barry didn’t go far from her, and he spent a lot of time smiling down at her and doing things like putting one large hand to the small of her back, or touching her hair as he stood beside her, his fingertips brushing the curls so lightly Siobhan probably wasn’t even aware of it. She was touching him, too, her hand on his arm or his waist, and while Siobhan wasn’t shy about overtly sexual touches and looks, Cecilia didn’t think she’d ever seen her best friend touch a man with affection before.
And then Siobhan looked over her shoulder to catch something Arthur had said, a wide grin on her face. As soon as Siobhan’s head turned, Barry’s expression turned intense as he looked down at her, his pale blue eyes flicking over her face with a small smile, and even though that expression wasn’t directed at her, it made Cecilia a little breathless. Oh, bloody hell, he’s in love with her, she thought. She hoped Siobhan would let him down gently and not ruthlessly break his heart like she’d done to Roddy and Addae and a dozen other boys at school because she couldn’t admit when she truly fancied a boy.
But then Siobhan looked back up at him with a dazzling smile, and they locked gazes as if they were both caught in a spell. Cecilia watched them in shock. Maybe Siobhan wouldn’t be letting him down gently, or at all. Maybe Siobhan had finally found someone she couldn’t help but admit she fancied. It went on long enough that Cecilia raised an eyebrow at them. Molly had noticed too.
“Oh, she really likes him, doesn't she?” Molly whispered.
“What are you talking about?” Petula asked blankly.
Whatever little moment Siobhan and Barry had been having was over before Petula looked their way, however, and they were both laughing and chatting again now with Arthur and Cosmo. Cecilia and Molly exchanged a significant glance, and Petula looked irritated at being left out of whatever they’d seen.
Reid sidled up next to them a few minutes later and pointed upward. Cecilia looked up and saw a sprig of mistletoe hanging in the air above her, and looked back at her husband in time to catch his kiss. She smiled against his mouth briefly and kissed him back.
“Where did that come from?” she asked when they broke apart.
“I conjured it.” Reid glanced up and Cecilia followed his gaze, but the mistletoe had disappeared. When she looked around the room, it had reappeared over Hattie, who was standing near the record player with Dunstan and Gemma.
“Oi, Edwin,” Reid called out, and when Hattie’s fiancé looked his way, Reid pointed at the mistletoe. Edwin grinned and loped over to wrap Hattie in a gentle hug, kissing her soundly.
“Did you enchant it to obey you?” Cecilia asked archly.
“Nah, I just created it. It’ll go around at random until the spell dissipates.”
Throughout the next hour, the mistletoe disappeared and reappeared around the room, catching Molly and Arthur, Thad and Zélie, and Dunstan and Gemma. Reid looked like he was enjoying watching his conjured mistletoe getting everyone to snog a bit. Cecilia had to admit it was rather festive, especially since everyone (except her) had been drinking eggnog heavily laced with rum and were mostly a little tipsy.
She wasn’t paying close attention to the mistletoe, though, trying to spy on her best friend with half her attention and enjoy the party with the other half. When she came back from another trip to the loo, it was to find Reid and Siobhan heading for the kitchen to fetch more food. Cecilia joined them, eager to question Siobhan about the man she’d brought and what on earth was going on between them.
Siobhan was not new to being interrogated by Cecilia, and rolled her eyes as soon as Cecilia pushed the kitchen door shut behind them. She didn’t brace herself like anyone else would have, instead adopting an air of insouciance and raising an eyebrow at Cecilia.
“Are you only sleeping with him or is he your boyfriend?” Cecilia demanded without preamble.
Siobhan shrugged, leaning against the cupboards as if she weren’t at all concerned at the question. “I’m sleeping with him for sure. I don’t know if he’s my boyfriend.”
“Didn’t you ask?” Reid said, sounding amused.
“Why would I?”
“Oh, for the love.” Cecilia gave her a severe look. “How long did it take you before you jumped in bed with him?”
Siobhan let out a low chuckle. “Three hours.”
“Wow,” said Reid with a grin. “That long?”
“I had to finish my shift first,” she told him. “Otherwise I could have gotten him quicker. He wanted me bad. Once I was back in my quarters, he came and found me, and it only took about five minutes to get him naked.”
Cecilia was shaking her head in dismay. “Five minutes? Siobhan! How long ago was that?”
“Over the summer,” Siobhan told her. “And I couldn’t help it, I had to find out straightaway. As soon as I saw him, I thought, oh God, please let him be hung like a-”
“Siobhan!”
Reid looked highly amused, and raised an eyebrow at Siobhan as if to ask silently, And? Siobhan smirked and wiggled her eyebrows at him, and Cecilia was left stuck with far more intimate knowledge than she’d wanted to have about Siobhan’s new man.
“Dear God,” Cecilia said severely, frowning at both of them. “Honestly, Siobhan.”
“What?” Siobhan rolled her eyes again. “I like sex. I like sex with him. What is the point in not doing it every chance you get?”
“Hear, hear,” agreed Reid.
“Five minutes,” Cecilia scoffed. “You didn’t even know anything about him.”
“I knew enough to enjoy getting naked with him,” Siobhan said with a shrug.
“And do you know more about him now?” Cecilia demanded.
“Well, yeah.” Siobhan didn’t seem to see why that was an important question. “We do talk to each other. And go to concerts and pubs. And we went to Lisbon for a week in October. He’s fun to talk to and I like spending time with him. But look, it’s just casual with us.”
Reid chuckled. He seemed very entertained by the entire conversation and of course had to egg Siobhan on. “Casual sex is the best. I’ve been having it with Cecilia for years now.”
“You idiot,” said Siobhan, but she flashed a grin at him.
Cecilia scowled at the two of them. “Reid, you’re not funny. Siobhan, you might say it’s just casual with him, but you brought him here to meet everyone.”
Siobhan was nonplussed, and behind her, Reid gave Cecilia a cut-off gesture to tell her to stop talking, probably anticipating an argument. She ignored him.
“What did you tell him about bringing him here?”
“I said, ‘do you want to come to a Christmas party with me?’” Siobhan gave a careless shrug.
“And what did he say?”
This time Siobhan looked a little thrown off from her usual confidence. “Well, he teased me about it. He said, ‘are you asking if I want to come meet your best friend?’ And I said ‘well if you’re going to be like that about it’, but he laughed and told me of course he wanted to come along. It’s not a big deal, Cilia.”
“Well, I like him,” Reid announced. “He seems like a decent bloke.”
“He is a decent bloke,” Siobhan agreed, but her eyes were on Cecilia again.
Cecilia’s annoyance with them had faded a bit at seeing Siobhan’s uncertain expression. “I’m not saying I don’t like him, I just want to know what it means.”
“Maybe it doesn’t mean anything,” Siobhan said, a hint of panic in her eyes. “Not everything has to mean something. Sometimes it’s just fun.”
Oh, it meant something, but Cecilia decided to drop the subject. She’d attack from another angle later. Siobhan took the plate with the cheese ball to the parlor, leaving Reid and Cecilia alone in the kitchen.
They looked at each other in silence for a moment. Cecilia was about to tell him that she was pretty sure Siobhan’s American beau wasn’t just someone she was sleeping with, he was in fact in love with her, and moreover she was also pretty sure Siobhan had feelings for him, but Reid spoke up before she could say anything.
“Just let her have it,” he told her. “If she wants to believe it’s just fun, let her have it.”
“But-”
Reid pulled her close, twirling her as he did so that she was standing in front of him with her back facing him, and slid his hands to the bottom of her belly, lifting the weight of the baby. At the immediate relief, Cecilia sagged back against him, resting her head against his shoulder and closing her eyes.
“Darling, it’s Christmas. Let her believe,” Reid murmured, dropping a kiss at the crook of her neck. “I know you’re both protective of each other, but I don’t think you need to protect her this time. I have a feeling he’s got that covered. Didn’t you see him out there?”
It was hard to want to argue when she felt so relaxed. “Oh, all right.”
His fingers flexed as if he were going to move, and she quickly covered his hands with her own. “Don’t you dare.”
Reid’s laugh was muffled against her neck. “I can’t stand here holding your belly all night, we’ve got an entire party in the other room.”
“Just one more minute.”
He kissed her neck again and stayed there for several more minutes, holding the weight of pregnancy for her and humming a little tunelessly, until Molly stuck her head in.
“Cecilia, the cream puffs are all gone,” she began, then smiled when she saw them. “Oh, that must feel so nice. I’ll have to remember it when Arthur and I have another.”
Reid released her belly slowly, and Cecilia sighed and followed Molly back out to the party while Reid located the rest of the pastries.
As soon as they were back in the parlor, Molly went to encourage Siobhan to sing for them. Molly had always loved listening to Siobhan sing, and got her to agree to one Christmas song. As Molly went to shut off the wireless, Cecilia began to drift toward them, trying to be casual in her movements.
“And I’m not singing any Celestina bloody Warbeck, I don’t care if they’re Christmas songs,” Siobhan was saying. She had been standing very close to Barry, but followed Molly to the wireless without noticing that Cecilia had managed to drift right behind Barry.
He noticed, though, and stepped back to stand beside her with a smile. She was just a little taller than Siobhan, and while she’d always thought of herself as tall, she felt rather tiny next to him.
“You’ll love listening to her sing,” she remarked to him with a smile, trying to look him over surreptitiously for his reaction. “Siobhan has a beautiful voice.”
“I know. I’ve heard her sing a couple of times,” he said with an answering smile down at her. “She’s probably already told you, but the Black Mountains Dragon Reserve is full of musicians. People are always singing there. I’m glad I could finally meet you. Siobhan talks about you all the time.”
“Does she?” Cecilia was pleased, but not enough to stop herself from attempting to poke what she thought might be a tender spot to see what happened. “I wish I could say the same, but I had no idea she was seeing anyone. You know how she can be, though. So secretive.”
Roddy would have lost his mind at hearing that, but Barry only chuckled, his gaze going back to Siobhan. “Yeah, sometimes. She’s pretty damn amazing.”
They both fell silent then as Siobhan began to sing. Cecilia had heard her best friend sing this carol before, ‘O Holy Night’, and though Siobhan sang it beautifully, she kept watch on Barry out of the corner of her eye while she pretended to watch Siobhan. His face as he listened to her returned to that intense expression he’d worn earlier. Cecilia was very, very sure now that he was in love with Siobhan.
Siobhan stopped after a single verse of the carol, and when everyone made disappointed noises at her, she rolled her eyes.
“You’re only going to do one verse?” Barry asked, sounding amused. “Heathen.”
She shot a challenging look at him. “Come sing it with me, then.”
He shook his head in mock dismay, grinning, but walked over to stand beside her. Cecilia had to put a hand up to cover the way her jaw dropped when they sang together, though. She would never have expected a man who looked like that to be a singer. He had a deep, rich voice, and sang a harmony to Siobhan while standing beside her with one hand at her waist.
She listened to them sing two more verses of the song, their voices blending beautifully, and wondered if she could get Barry alone again later to question him a bit more without Siobhan becoming suspicious. Siobhan had pulled him away before she’d really had a chance to ask him anything much.
Siobhan threw a look at her as they sang the last chorus, and raised one eyebrow. Bloody hell, she’d done it on purpose to get him away from Cecilia. Cecilia narrowed her eyes at her best friend, and Siobhan looked back up at Barry as they finished the carol, avoiding Cecilia’s eyes. Everyone applauded, and Cecilia joined in, feeling a bit irritable at being thwarted.
An hour later, a few people had gone home and the mistletoe had caught Petula and Thomas twice, and had even got Cosmo to kiss Maribel before they left for the night. The Gryffindor girls were all still present, sitting around the sofa together with Hattie and Siobhan on the floor, laughing together happily while Siobhan told them stories from the dragon reserve.
“I don’t know how you do it,” Hattie told her. “I’d be afraid every day around those beasts.”
“Well, I love them,” Siobhan responded with a smile. “Dragons are just another animal. I’m not afraid of them. Especially Welsh greens, of all dragons. Barry says they’re as stupid as pigeons.”
“Does he?” Molly asked softly, looking like she was trying to repress a smile. The corners of her lips twitched.
“Shut up, Molly,” Siobhan told her, pulling a face.
Cecilia was torn between being amused that Molly was teasing Siobhan now too, and being stunned because she didn’t remember Siobhan ever repeating something a boyfriend had said as she just had. Siobhan, for all she was heavily attracted to men, didn’t usually put much thought into them. It had always been very apparent that they held no real importance to her beyond sex. Not this one, it seemed. Barry says, Cecilia thought. Ha. They went to concerts and bars together, and a holiday in Lisbon. That wasn’t like Siobhan at all.
And that was probably a good thing.
Siobhan had made sure Cecilia was okay after her parents died, despite Reid being around to love and care for her. Cecilia wanted to do the same for her. She wanted to see Siobhan happy and smiling and being loved. She thought it would be a lovely experience for Siobhan to let a man love her properly, and for Siobhan to let herself fall in love.
The party began to wind down after that. Molly and Petula began gathering their babies to head home, dispatching Arthur and Thomas to take down the travel cots. Hattie bustled around the room with her wand out, directing the cleanup and assuring Cecilia she should rest and put her feet up.
She looked round and caught Reid’s eye, and then noticed the mistletoe over his head. He was sitting in the loveseat by the fireplace, finishing off the last of the rum and eggnog. Cecilia came over, pointed up at the mistletoe, and sat on his lap to kiss him. He rubbed a hand over her belly where their daughter was growing, nuzzling Cecilia’s neck while he caressed her gently, and then whispered in her ear, “I can’t wait to meet her.”
She put her hands on her belly, moving so she could twine her fingers with his. “Me too. Happy Christmas, darling.”
“Happy Christmas, Cilia.” He glanced up at the mistletoe and then made a small gesture with his free hand.
The small plant soared across the living room and stopped above Siobhan where she was standing in the doorway to the foyer next to Barry, talking to Molly while Molly swayed gently, her infant son tucked against her chest. Neither of them seemed to notice the mistletoe, but Barry was tall enough that the mistletoe was almost directly in his line of sight. He smiled at it and without hesitation bent to kiss Siobhan, threading his hands into her hair to cup the nape of her neck. She immediately wound her arms around his neck, holding on tight and going up on tiptoe to kiss him back. Molly chuckled at them and wandered off to check on her husband, still rocking the baby in her arms as she walked.
“I thought you said it was moving at random,” Cecilia whispered to Reid.
He grinned at her. “I lied.”
Cecilia watched her best friend being kissed under the mistletoe and smiled because she knew she was right about them. She glanced at her husband. “I don’t know what Siobhan thinks is going on between them, but I think he loves her.”
Reid had been watching them too, and looked up at her with his beloved cocky grin. “What, already? They only met over the summer.”
“Plenty of time for him to fall in love with her.” Cecilia watched them closely when they broke apart, the mistletoe still above them. Siobhan looked a little flushed, and was smiling up at him with delight. Cecilia turned back to her husband. “I hope she’s falling for him too. It would be so nice to see her in love.”
“I do like him,” Reid said. “If she’s going to fall in love finally, he’d be a good choice.”
“We should invite them out for New Year’s,” Cecilia suggested.
Reid raised his eyebrows. “What, to my parents’ Hogmanay party? Trial by fire there.”
She rather liked the idea, given how wild the Akins tended to get at the party, but since Siobhan had never been to one, and had only met Reid’s parents twice now, she didn’t think she could get Siobhan on board with that plan. “Saturday afterward, then. We can get to know him and I can see if I think she really does love him. And if she hasn’t cottoned on by next Christmas, next year’s party will be a Gryffindor Girls Council intervention.” Cecilia chuckled. “Between me and Molly, we ought to be able to berate her into realizing she loves him too.”
“You’re such a romantic.”
“Shut up, Reid.” She kissed him again before snuggling into him, their twined hands still resting on the mound of her belly.