Riptides (Fred Weasley Fan Fiction)

Chapter 31

"Lyss, wake up!" she heard some call her name. "Come on down!"

She opened her eyes and noticed that she was still in the Weasley's house. To be more precise, in Fred's bed. So, she wasn't dreaming. For a moment, when she was laying on the bed, she was thinking that maybe it was all just an illusion and that this amazing Christmas wasn't true, but now, hearing Fred's voice from downstairs and seeing his bedsheets, she realized that it was really happening.

She got up and stretched. One of the men on the poster was smiling at her and for some reason, she smiled back. She was grateful for Fred inviting her to his house and still, on the third day there, she was amazed with everything she saw, from the moving posters to Molly using spells to clean and cook and claiming that it's very simple, easy to learn household magic.

She didn't bother getting dressed just yet. Instead, she run straight to the living room and noticed that everyone was still in their nightwear. Most of the Weasleys were already there, but it seemed that Ginny, Bill, and Ron were still trying to get out of their beds.

Lyssie sat on one of the sofas, right next to Molly and in a matter of second, the remaining three Weasleys stood in the living room.

"Finally, the sleeping beauties!" George said and everyone, except Lyssie, gave him a puzzled look. "That's from a muggle story," he quickly explained, and it was clear that he wanted to tell them more about the fairy tale, but Molly directed everyone to open their presents.

Arthur, wearing a red Santa hat, stood up and grabbed one of the presents.

"Ginny," he said and threw the bag to his daughter. She didn't open it, however, but waited for everybody to get their gifts.

Later, Arthur threw a box to the rest of his children, one to Harry and two to Molly. Then, he took one for himself and everyone was ready to open their gifts. Lyssie looked at Fred's present and couldn't wait to see him open it. She had no idea what wizards gave each other for Christmas. Usually, she would get some new novels from her dad, or a DVD with a movie she wanted to see. But the Weasleys didn't have a television, so this idea didn't make sense. She also suspected that they didn't read regular, muggle books.

"Arthur, there is one more gift," Molly said. "You didn't think we forgot about you, darling, did you?"

She was looking at Lyssie. Arthur found one more present under the Christmas tree. It was wrapped in red packing paper and there was a silver ribbon around it.

"You didn't have to..." she started.

"Oh, please," Molly interrupted here. "Were you supposed to be the only one without a Christmas present?"

Lyssie gave her a thankful smile and everybody carried on with unwrapping their gifts. She untied the ribbon and took the paper off. It was a dark green sweater with a yellow letter "L" on the chest. It reminded her of the sweated Fred was wearing when it started to get colder at Hogwarts.

"I love it!" she said and immediately put it on.

"When did you manage to make it, mum?" Fred asked surprised.

"Oh, don't worry. I had some spare time," she answered, and everyone understood that she was sat in the living room for the past two evenings knitting a sweater for Lyssie. She felt even more grateful for it and hugged her. Molly was surprised at first, but she quickly smiled and hugged her back.

***

Lyssie stayed with the Weasleys for the next couple of days. Even if she wanted to leave, there was no way to do it, as the train to Hogwarts was supposed to leave on the evening of the first of January.