Holidays
The house was decorated to the extreme: two beautiful trees filled with ornaments, recently decorated cookies and cakes, tinsel everywhere, red and green decorations everywhere. There was such a warm and welcoming feeling that consumed everyone during Christmas. My mum and I got up early so I could help wrap gifts for the boys and dad and so we could finish decorating cookies. I thought Philly would join us, but I hadn’t seen her yet. I decided against bringing up whatever happened because I couldn’t ruin this magical, magical, day. It was Christmas Eve, tomorrow everyone was coming over. Everyone. But that was later, now it was just breakfast.
Philly had finally come down, but she wasn’t talking. James and I were getting water, juice, milk, biscuits, toast, everything.
“Good lord Potter, what would Evans say if she saw you pampering another girl!” Sirius teased James as he turned bright red.
“She’d be thankful it was no longer her.” Remus shrugged and stuffed his face with toast.
“Maybe she’d finally want to come over.” I sighed and sat in between Remus and Sirius, James sat next to Philly across from Sirius.
“Wait Haze, that’s brilliant! You should invite Evans over!” James' eyes lit up, Philly smiled and tried not to laugh.
“She would never come as long as you live here.”
“What about Macdonald? Would she come?” Sirius turned to me, Remus tensed up.
“What Mary?” Remus asked, Sirius nodded.
“Mary would come.” I smiled, “Especially if you asked her.” Sirius smiled and went back to eating his breakfast. Remus said nothing.
The boys went outside to play quidditch, Peter wasn’t allowed to come over because Philly was here, so the boys begged me to come out and play. Sirius and James ran to the broom closet and soared into the air like there was no tomorrow, Remus and I stayed on the ground. We sat down and played in the grass as they flew above us pretty much just passing the quaffle around.
“So who’s all coming to this party tomorrow?” Remus asked as I was braiding the grass strands together.
“The usual, Mad-eye, Mr. Barebones, the Cornwalls, the Weasleys who are new, Darius-”
“Fuck, mae e’n dod.” Remus said in a thick Welsh accent. He apparently hated one of our guests, but I was more confused about the language change.
“What?” I had no idea that Remus even spoke Welsh, I guess it made sense since his home was from Wales.
“Wait, you don’t know Welsh?” He asked, almost laughing.
“No, why would I?” I asked, but now Remus was fully laughing.
“You are the girl obsessed with languages and you don’t speak Welsh?”
“I never learned it.” I shrugged.
“Wales is the closest country to England.”
“Yes and they also speak English.”
“Wait wait, how many languages do you know?”
“I’m fluent in English, French, and Spanish but I know some sign language and I guess now runes.” I said, now Remus was laughing even more.
“Five languages but no Welsh?!” He sounded so shocked it made me laugh.
“Ask Sirius, he speaks more than me, but I doubt he knows Welsh. It’s simply not a common language!” I laughed and so did he.
“Nawr byddwch chi’n gwybod sut deimlad yw peidio â deall yr hyn rydw i’n ei ddweud.” He smiled. He spoke with so much confidence and class. I liked this side of Remus.
Christmas Eve melted into Christmas morning. Presents were torn open, breakfast was eaten almost as fast. My parents had gotten me exactly what I asked for, James got a new broom, Sirius got an album, Remus got chocolates and games. It was all perfect. We sat on our living room floor in our mountains on unwrapped gifts. James was cleaning his broom, I was folding all the new clothes I got, Remus was reading the box to his very own wizard chess set, even Philly was reading through muggle books my parents got her, but Sirius just sat there.
“What’s wrong mate?” James asked the mopey Sirius.
“Nothing from Andromeda yet..” Sirius sighed, James and I made eye contact. The truth was our parents invited Andromeda and her husband to the party tonight and for dinner earlier to surprise Sirius. We were under strict orders by Andromeda and our parents not to tell Sirius, it was a hard secret to keep.
“Post must be running late.” James said.
“You know how crazy post services are on Christmas.” I said, only somewhat nervously. We were great at this lying thing.
“Right.” Sirius nodded, he definitely did not believe us.
“Oh good! You’re all here!” My mum came through the kitchen smiling in her Christmas attire. “I need you all to clean your rooms before the party and then help me finish up on the main floor.”
“Of course Mrs. Potter.” Sirius sounded way too enthusiastic, but none of us said anything.
After breakfast, we all went to our rooms to clean. Mine wasn’t overly bad. There was sheet music all over my desk and my trunk had vomited my clothes everywhere while I was trying to find a shirt to wear. The only clean thing was my bed that was made before I left for school. The boys were unpacking and finishing cleaning up James’s room, Philly was downstairs helping mum.
I started by unpacking and putting all of my clothes away and everything else I brought home. I folded my school uniforms and placed them in my wardrobe. I hung up all my sweaters and shirts, I folded my pants and skirts, and finally I put my empty trunk under my bed.
I then changed into my Christmas outfit. I wore a sparkly red dress that started right under my shoulders. The top of the dress was a line from my left shoulder to my right shoulder and was lined with white fuzz. The dress was tight until my waist then the skirt was nice and flowy and ended right about my knees. I put all of the products Mary gave me into my hair. I had no idea what the products did, I only knew the order in which to use the products. I dampened my hair with a spray bottle, and I put some product in. I brushed my hair with a brush that she gave me, and I put more product in. I used a smaller brush to curl my already curly hair to “define the curls”, whatever that means. Then of course, more product, then I bunched my hair up into my head for the curls. It was a long process. I decided to just leave my hair down after all that time perfecting it.
I sorted my sheet music so all the corners lined up and placed it in a drawer in my desk. I haven’t played in so long I missed it. Each time I played, it was like I no longer had to think, my fingers just moved around and a beautiful song played. It was all so relaxing. I grabbed my guitar and sat down. I stroked a G chord.
“Haze, they’re here.” My brother interrupted me, I would have to play later.
James and I ran downstairs to the door, Remus and Sirius were in the living room. All three boys wore their dress robes, I assumed Remus had borrowed one of James’s. Sirius looked tense and scared. I remembered the last unexpected guest at Christmas was his mother, this was so much different.
“Sirius!” A soft and welcoming voice called from the door. James and I were grinning from ear to ear, Sirius deserved something good.
“No!” Sirius jumped up, smiling more than I’ve ever seen him. A man entered the common area, he had brown curly hair and a smile that was wide and bright. He seemed like the happiest man on earth. Andromeda was everything a Black family member should look like. Her features were sharp and exact, her hair was pitch black and even curlier than mine, her eyes were gray just like Sirius’s and Regulus’s and Narcissa’s. The one thing that was different from the rest of their family was something I had only ever seen in Sirius: kind eyes and a smile that didn’t look like she wanted to kill us. The other surprise was the small baby in Andromeda's arms.
“I can take your coats.” I smiled at our first guests, we were trained to be excellent hosts.
“Would you like anything to drink? Water? Maybe some champagne.” James grinned.
“James!” I hit his arm, our two guests laughed.
“You two must be the Potter children. It’s so nice to meet you.” Andromeda smiled, we nodded. Andromeda handed the baby to her husband as we took their coats. Sirius ran to Andromeda and hugged her, this is how his whole family should’ve felt.
“You did this?” Sirius looked at my mum, there were almost tears in his eyes.
“Ephie was kind enough to invite us here, finally nice to meet someone in Dromedas family.”
“Please come in, tables almost set!” My dad welcomed our guests. I put their coats in the closet then joined them all at the dinner table. We were making a small meal before the real party where we would have the real dinner.
The conversation started out as Ted asking my dad what he did for work with James commenting whenever he could, Andromeda and Sirius talking about whatever they talk about, Philly and my mum conversing in hushed tones, then me questioning Remus about muggle books he read.
“A toast! To the Potters!” Ted raised his glass, “For being such wonderful hosts!”
“For always taking in the outcasts, the strays, and the black sheep of the Black family!” Andromeda continued, Sirius raised his glass higher.
“I think I must be the most outcast,” Sirius grinned, “I’m a Gryffindor, after all.”
“To Gryffindor!” My dad cheered, James yelled like banshee, Remus and I laughed at him.
“Think so, little cousin? Try marrying a non-relative.” Andromeda eyed her only relative.
“I’ll have to, after Cissy’s wedding there aren’t any Black women left.”
“There’s Dora.”
“Excuse me,” Ted almost spat out his champagne, “Could we please get her through her first Christmas before arranging a betrothal?”
“I’m teasing,” Andromeda kissed her husband, “Dora can marry anyone she likes when she’s old enough, and I can say with absolute certainty that it won’t be anyone at this table.”
The first arrival was Moody, then Mr and Mrs. Weasley and their two children, Uncle Lonnie and Emmet (who brought many gifts), A few of the adults that used to live at Pot-key: May Cogsworth and her husband, George Nolin, Conlin Keys, and a many others. James and I stood by the door to greet people for at least a half hour. After we broke our ranks, James fled to Sirius, I made my rounds.
I spent the rest of the night talking to relatives as they asked about school and my marks, the friends I was making, how it felt being at school with my brother. I liked talking to aunts and uncles and friends, I liked spending time with all the people that became family over the years. I completely skipped Moody though, I didn’t need another war story. The only thing I wish was there to be other kids our age. The newest editions (the Weasley’s) had sons, but they were only one and two. Even so, I spent some time with them, I watched them play with their fathers wand, Billy even managed to make bubbles. We sat on the floor in our living room as the fire burned. The adults were all around us, talking to each other. I had no idea where Philly or the boys went. But I didn’t have to look for long.
The three boys rolled a piano we had in storage into the living room while my dad carried my guitar. I stood up and took the instrument from him.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“We thought you and Sirius could perform for us!” My dad smiled showing all the wrinkles around his eyes.
“I heard you start to play earlier, thought I’d join.” Sirius whispered to me. I knew that the piano brought bad memories from his parents, and yet he was still doing this for me. He was everything my brother was and for that I loved him. I put the guitars band around me and sat next to Sirius on the piano’s bench.
“Attention Everyone!” My dad called everyone's attention. “I interrupt your evening for a small show presented by the most talented kids I know!”
“What shall we play?” Sirius asked me. I thought for a minute.
“Do you know Silent Night?” I asked, he nodded. Together we started playing. We both started quiet and soft, the song wasn’t ever loud and upbeat and we had to play it like that. The notes just flowed from my head to my hands to the room. I knew this song, Sirius knew this song and we played it to perfection. I didn’t even realize that the whole room had gone quiet, everyone around us was simply listening. When we stopped the room ignited into applause and cheer.
“Enchor!” James yelled through cheers. I looked at Sirius and he smiled at me. So we played more.