stardust ⋮ george weasley

seventy-one :

S E V E N T Y - O N E

⋮✰⋮

On Christmas morning, Adeline woke up abruptly to both Hermione and Ginny jumping on her bed and screaming "Happy Christmas!" at the top of their lungs. On most days, Adeline might've been a little aggravated if she had been woken up so suddenly, but when it came to Christmas, Adeline didn't even mind. In fact, she was surprised how delighted she was waking up that morning and how easy it was for her to get into a good mood.

Adeline was even more surprised, however, to see a pile of presents slightly largely than normal at the end of her bed. All three girls began opening their gifts, making comments as they did and thanking the other people in the room if it happened to come from one of them.

"Ron got me perfume" Hermione commented with a bright smile. "That was nice of him!"

Adeline and Ginny exchanged a knowing look before shaking with silent laughter at Hermione's obliviousness. Hermione stared at the two girls, confused, but didn't question about why they were seemingly teasing her about something.

The attention moved on from Hermione to Ginny when she opened up a gift from Adeline. "No way!" She yelled excitedly as she held the Quidditch gloves up to get a closer look. "I've been wanting a pair like these for forever."

"Ophelia and Melanie had to help me find those," Adeline responded. "I don't really know what's considered good Quidditch gear and what isn't, but they said they're really good for handling Quidditch balls, especially for those cold games, so I picked those gloves out. I hope they're alright..."

"Merlin, no, they're bloody perfect," Ginny gushed, turning the gloves in her hands. "Seriously, thanks so much, Adeline."

A loud crack sound cut through the conversation, and all three girls knew who it was before they even looked up. Fred and George were standing in the center of the room in new, matching blue Christmas sweaters, minus the yellow initials in the center, and practically identical grins on their faces.

"Happy Christmas, everyone!" Fred yelled with a bright grin on his face as he practically jumped onto the end of Ginny's bed. "Mum's making breakfast, and it smells incredible."

"Although, I'd avoid going downstairs for a bit," George added with a wince, although he seemed a little more at ease once he had sat down on the end of the bed next to where Adeline was laying.

"Why, what's going on?" Hermione questioned.

"Mum's been crying," Fred explained, his smile beginning to fall slightly. "Percy sent back his Christmas jumper."

"Without a note," George said. "Hasn't even asked how Dad is or visited him or anything."

"We tried comforting her. Told her that Percy's nothing more than a humongous pile of rat droppings," Fred stated. "Didn't work."

"But Dad got out of St. Mungos yesterday, so that's helped cheer Mum up quite a lot," George said in attempt to stay more optimistic. "Remus is helping out, too. Best let them cheer her up before we go down for breakfast, I reckon."

The girls nodded and turned back to unwrapping the last few gifts they had. Adeline stared questionably at another large, wrapped package at the end of her bed because it didn't have a tag, and she had opened up all her gifts from people she had expected gifts from. "Not sure who that's from..." she muttered to herself as she grabbed it.

George noticed and answered, "Oh, that's definitely from Mum."

She nearly dropped the gift on the ground. "Wait, really?"