just for me ⚘ a Fred Weasley Fanfiction

57. free therapy from Sirius Black

Juniper woke up on Christmas morning to a crack at the foot of her bed.

"Wake up!" Fred and George screamed at the top of their lungs, shaking Juniper and Ginny's beds. "It's Christmas and we want breakfast."

"Go make yourself breakfast then." Juniper groaned in annoyance, turning over and shoving her face into her pillow.

"Will you two ever comprehend the concept of privacy?" Ginny hissed at them, getting up from bed. "What if we were getting changed? What would you have done then?"

"Claw my eyes out." George muttered.

"But you weren't getting changed. Call that divine intuition." Fred sassed back to Ginny, walking his way over the Juniper, lightly shaking her by the shoulders to wake her up. "Come on! It's Weasley Christmas time."

"I'm a Jones, not a Weasley." Juniper said into her pillow. "I sleep my Christmas days away."

"Not this year you don't. I'll see you at the table when you're ready" Fred said, followed by another crack as the twins disappeared.

"Freaks." Ginny muttered under her breath. "Ooh, presents. Hermione wake up, there's presents."

"Should we look through them now?" Hermione whispered, thinking Juniper was asleep. "I mean... I don't want to rub it in or anything."

"It's not like she didn't get anything. And she's asleep, she won't notice." Ginny shrugged it off, looking through the presents on the end of her bed. At that moment, Juniper decided to keep her face pressed against the pillow, It would be way too awkward if the girls knew she was awake and listening to them talking about her. She listened for a while as they excitedly talked about what they had gotten from everyone, listing off names of who their gifts were from, just about everyone that was living in the house for the holiday's, including Juniper. They remained silent as they looked at the gift she had gotten each of them, making it impossible for Juniper to know their reaction.
Eventually, they had decided to visit the boys room, tiptoeing out of the room and gently closing the door behind them, at which point Juniper's head snapped up from her pillow, looking to the end of her bed.
For the first time ever, she had Christmas presents, her heart swelled with warmth as she crawled over to look at them. They were both from Fred. His "I ♥ Egypt" t-shirt that she loved to wear so much and the horse statue from the shop the visited yesterday, shrunken down to fit in her hand.
Her giddiness faded once she saw how big Hermione and Ginny's piles were, remembering the all the names they had listed. She wasn't a materialistic person, and she knew she was more than grateful for Fred, his gifts, and everyone who had accepted her into the house but that couldn't push the overwhelming jealously creeping through her body.
Refusing to sulk and feel bad for herself, she forced herself out of bed, heading through the house to the kitchen, where she assumed everyone would be eating. Instead, she found Mrs. Weasley alone at the table, sobbing.

"Uhhhh..." Juniper began to panic, turning on her heel to leave.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Mrs. Weasley lifted her head from her hands, her eyes red and puffy. "I didn't hear you walk in."

"I didn't really walk in, I can just... go." Juniper insisted, continuing on her way out.

"That's fair." Mrs. Weasley sniffed, before bursting into another sob. "All my children leave me!"

"Oh, I'm not your-." Juniper hesitated, looking back towards the stairs, then to the knitted sweater on the chair beside Mrs. Weasley. One that was identical to the ones on Ginny and Hermione's beds, but with a 'P' knitted on the front. "Did you want me to stay while you talk about it?"

"No, no, you can go." Mrs. Weasley insisted, waving Juniper away, before bursting into sobs again. "I just don't know why he'd choose the ministry over his family!"