Incendio

Chapter 7: Yuletide Troubles

Christmas morning arrived and Samantha was only slightly disappointed to not be spending the day at home. She was very pleased with the gifts she had received. Her parents had sent her a beautiful set of hair combs to be worn with her dress that night. Her father had also sent her a special gift of his own, muggle pens, two dozen of them. Ginny gave her a new scarf her mother had knitted, saying her mother had insisted since Samantha's mother had helped with Ginny's dress robes. Ginny's mother also kept insisting she would pay Samantha's mother back, but Samantha was sure her mum wouldn't accept it. Samantha gave Ginny a new journal in return, it was gold and green, the color of her favorite Quidditch team, The Holyhead Harpies.

She also received a few cards from both sides of the family. Her maternal grandparents sent her a card with a few Galleons. Her paternal muggle grandparents who didn't know they were wizards, sent her a gift card to a muggle restaurant. After opening her gifts, she dressed in her favorite sweater, which changed to feature green Christmas Trees instead of golden stripes.

She decided since it was Christmas, she'd eat breakfast with her brother.

"Merry Christmas Jack." Samantha said sitting down across from him. She handed him the small package. Inside was a new book about muggle philosophy compared to wizard philosophy.

"Yeah, Merry Christmas." Jack barely looked up from the food he was eating. He did smile though and handed her another package.

"Thanks." She responded before opening it. It was some new parchment with her name in beautiful calligraphy at the top. She smiled and momentarily thought maybe her brother didn't hate her.

"Are you excited for tonight?" Samantha asked trying to break the silence between them.

He nodded.

"I heard you are going with Tracy Davis." Samantha continued. "I've had potions with her before." They'd never spoken, but they'd seen each other. Tracy was a pretty scarlet haired Slytherin with olive skin.

He nodded again. "Yeah, she's alright. Do you have a date?"

Samantha smiled, just happy he was asking her. "Yes, his name is Nicolas."

Her brother's demeanor slightly shifted, looking her in the eyes, for the first time in a while. "What house is he in?"

"He's from Beauxbatons." Samantha started eating her breakfast with a smile.

"Oh," His eyebrows stitched together. He was being oddly quiet, normally he had something outrageous to say. Instead, he stayed relatively quiet through the rest of breakfast. 

Samantha spent much of her Christmas afternoon alone, working on homework in the Gryffindor common room. She suspected she may be too tired the next day after dancing to complete it all. She also knew she wanted to have time to write about the ball. 

Hermione met her in the common room around five pm. The two of them planned to give themselves ample time to do each other's hair. They had been practicing, but they wanted to make sure it was all perfect. They weren't the only ones, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil, their bunkmates were also in early to do their hair and makeup. Hermione also took the time to give her a small Christmas present, a book with a bunch of archived Daily Prophet articles. Samantha gave Hermione a jar of Coshmere's Coil Oil to use after the ball as her Christmas gift in return. Preparing for the ball had truly brought them to become closer friends.

Ginny would eventually join them as well, showing them how beautiful she looked in her robes.

Samantha's dress robes were everything she could have wished for. She almost felt she looked grown up. She also hadn't seen herself in anything other than her signature pig tails in a very long time.