Kiara Cartier (Fred Weasley Love Series)

Ch. 26: A Different Christmas

"Kiara Cartier."

Chapter 26: A Different Christmas

It was the very first Christmas that was unlike the rest. It wasn't the traditional decorations, tasty food homemade and prepared by Mrs Weasley, the Christmas tree decorated from head to toe in matching colours or the crackling from the fireplace that was different from the other years though. In fact, if you walked into the Burrow, you couldn't tell from looking that there was any difference this year.

You could feel it though. There was no Christmas spirit in the Weasley household at all.

Kiara couldn't help but think about the Christmas before, where it felt like the Burrow was bursting at the seams with people. Bill and Fleur were deciding to spend their first Christmas in the married life as husband and wife together at Shell Cottage. Mrs Weasley was devastated, as anyone could imagine, but she understood. Out of her seven children, she only had three children at home this year: Fred, George and Ginny. Four were in the Order of Phoenix, one she didn't speak with, one was at Hogwarts being taught by Death Eaters and the other was on the run. There was also the awful fear that any of them could die at any moment or even worse for all they knew that one of them could be dead already.

They tried their hardest to not think about the latter as much as possible.

They recently found out that Tonks was pregnant with her and Lupin's first child, expecting a baby in the new year of 1998. To keep herself and the unborn baby safe, Lupin and Tonks were staying at Andromeda's home, given that Ted Tonks was on the run as a Muggle-born. They hadn't heard anything about his whereabouts but there was no news that he wasn't alive either. No news was not necessarily good news.

Fred, George and Lee did a broadcast the night before on Christmas Eve at Oliver Wood's house in Dorset. They tried to keep the tone of the broadcast somewhat more merry than usual, with advice on how to celebrate Christmas in safety and how to act if anything dangerous occurred. They closed the broadcast with seasonal wishes of staying safe. But they knew better than that. The Death Eaters and Snatchers wouldn't take a day off for the holidays.

There was an ugly feeling that hung over all of them as the group of six gathered round the Christmas tree on Christmas morning. The same thrill that they usually felt was no longer there. They didn't speak about it aloud, but they all were worried about the family members who weren't present this year to celebrate with them. They were concerned about themselves as well, but to a lesser degree. It was awful to think that they may never get the opportunity to spend Christmas together again as a family.

They didn't do Christmas presents this year, for a mixture of reasons. Namely the fact that it was far too dangerous for any of them to go shopping to try and purchase presents for each other. The only present they each received was from Mrs Weasley, which was her usual hand knitted jumper with their initial. No one had the heart to tell her not to worry this year. They knew it took her mind off things for a short period of time.

There were three wrapped jumpers under the tree unaccounted for, addressed for Ron, Hermione and Harry. Mrs Weasley was trying her best to hold herself together and they all knew it was her way of coping. No one except Fred, George and Kiara knew that Ron was at Shell Cottage. Bill had been very clear to his parents that they wanted to spend Christmas alone this year. They weren't sure if Ron was even still there, since they hadn't been back since. They tried to avoid mentioning his name though, knowing that Mrs Weasley would burst into tears when she heard it.

Kiara pulled on her purple jumper with the gold "K" at the front, smiling appreciatively. Mrs Weasley charmed it in such a way that the letter on the front would be an "A" to anyone except Kiara. She was grateful for the efforts that they all made to maintain her disguise. It would not be possible without them.