Know Thyself {Neville Longbottom}

X. Holly

Holly

A symbol of good luck, and protection.

It was mid-afternoon, Christmas day, and I was currently recovering from the lavish breakfast my aunt had prepared for the family. She always went all out on holidays, making everyone's favorite dishes and treats. The only difficult part was finding room for supper, which she was already preparing in the kitchen.

Stretching out on the old sofa of our parlor room I contentedly watched my cousins, Owen and Olivia, as they rummaged through their open presents deciding which ones to play with first. They were twins, only seven years old, and certainly a handful at times. My older cousin Roger, who was in his last year at Hogwarts, sat in a worn, but comfortable, armchair gazing admiringly at the new chess set the rest of us had saved up to get for him. My Uncle Phil sat across from him, reading the paper, no doubt waiting for the inevitable invitation from Roger to join him in a game. They were really the only ones who offered any sort of competition for each other, seeing as myself, Benny, and my Aunt Marge were quite awful at Wizard's Chess.

Benny was in the kitchen, most likely attempting to swipe some more treats while my aunt wasn't looking. He was the only one in the family who never seemed to be full, eating was almost as important to him as breathing.

"Come on sis, you've got to go outside with us!"

"Please, we want to play in the snow again!"

The twin's voices pulled me from my drowsy state of mind, and I blinked several times trying to focus on what they were saying. Even though they were technically my cousins, I had lived with them since they were just toddlers so they had come to think of me as their sister. I was, of course, overjoyed by this and loved the little ones dearly, but at the moment leaving the comfort of the sofa for the cold outdoors didn't seem too appealing.

"Sorry kids, I don't think I can." I replied, patting my stomach. "'fraid I'm a bit stuck."

"Yeah," Benny piped up from the kitchen, "She's bound to break the couch at any moment!"

"Oi, you're one to talk!" I yelled back, but smiled when the twins giggled at our exchange.

"You go on ahead, I promise I'll catch up later alright?"

They pouted for a moment, but quickly resumed their cheery disposition and ran towards the door.

A couple hours, and several short naps, later I had finally summoned the will to move from my cozy position. Making my way to the kitchen I found my aunt surrounded my numerous cooking tools, all of which she had enchanted to help her prepare tonight's meal.

I took the liberty of the setting the table, as I usually did when I was home, until my aunt called me over.

"Laura dear, I believe there's someone at the door for you!"

Frowning slightly I made my way to the door, wondering who could possibly be visiting me on Christmas.

I opened it to see, much to my astonishment, my best friend Cece Bruins.

She was clutching the locket I had mailed to her, and her eyes were red and puffy.

"Damn you, Laura Caldwell! Damn you for making me cry on Christmas!" she cried, before pulling me into a bone-crushing hug.

__________

"So how exactly did you make it here?" I asked Cece as we sat on the sofa together.

After much hugging and tears on both our parts, we had finally settled down enough to talk some things through.

My aunt made her way over to us, directing two mugs of hot coco our way with her wand.