THE CHOSEN ONE'S CHOSEN GIRL - BOOK 1 ~ HARRY POTTER

seventeen.

I continued to hum and twirl around the kitchen as I made hot chocolate for Dad and I and decided to make breakfast while I was at it. Bouncing around similarly as I did last night, I grabbed the ingredients I needed for pancakes and sipped my hot chocolate. Dad and I came to an agreement that I could spend the day going back and forth between his sleeping quarters and the Common Room with Harry, Ron and Hermione. It was the first Christmas I was able to celebrate with friends and they were staying at the castle too! We had Gryffindor Tower all to ourselves and I was so excited.

Still humming as I slid the pancakes onto my plate, I grabbed my fork and spun around to jump and sit on the worktop, stopping mid-bite when I saw Dad grinning at me from the doorway with raised eyebrows. I smiled sheepishly around my fork.

"You do realise it's nearly five thirty in the morning?" he asked and I nodded slowly.

"I couldn't sleep," I declared after swallowing my pancake bite. "And I was hungry. Pancake?"

He chuckled and walked over to me to slide his own breakfast onto a plate as I passed him his hot chocolate I made earlier, which was surprisingly still warm. He smiled and kissed my head as he thanked me, sitting beside me. We sat in silence as we ate and I had to hide a smile. This was our Christmas. Sitting on the worktop beside each other, scarfing pancakes and hot chocolate down our throats with nothing spoken between us. This was the Christmas I knew and loved.

After five pancakes each, we ventured into the living room, back to the Christmas tree, and sat in the same positions as we did last night. We talked and laughed as the pile of wrapping paper grew beside us, expressing our gratitude when we'd open a present from each other. Around twenty-five minutes after we'd started opening presents, I was clutching a notebook, giggling at some of the notes Harry'd written for me, before Dad fell silent after opening his present. Quizzically, I looked up and grinned. It was the canvas.

"Dess..." he whispered and my grin turned into a soft smile at the barely-audible crack in his voice. "Did you do this?"

"Dean and I did," I clarified, hugging the notebook to my chest. "Dean's amazing at drawing so he did the drawing and showed me how to paint. I did take the original photo without asking to do this though. Do you like it?"

I bit my lip nervously as Dad gazed at me silently before shrieking out in laughter when he pulled me into his chest, kissing my head multiple times. Oh, I was so glad he loved it.

"You know, I had just asked her to marry me in this picture," he reminisced after releasing me from his clutches and I looked at him in shock.

They were going to get married? Tears flooded my eyes as I smiled at the painting. It pained me to hear that my parents had plans for after the war was over but it also comforted me. It meant that they weren't together because of the war or because they had me. They were in love. I shouldn't have second-guessed but I was glad to have it confirmed, I wasn't sure why.

After about an hour and a half, I kissed my father on the cheek and informed him that I'd be back for lunch after spending some time with my friends and he'd only encouraged it when he heard my plan. I laughed as he shooed me away and started my way towards the Common Room in my pyjamas and slippers, marvelling at the now-silent castle. Apparently, only seven of the students of the entire school stayed over Christmas this year and that included me and my friends. I'd never known the castle's busiest corridors to be so lacking of chatter and laughter. It was unnerving honestly but... I also liked it. Hogwarts still felt like its own little world so I felt like I was the only person alive. Cheesy, I know.

Cheerfully giving Sir Cadogan's portrait the password and wishing him a happy Christmas, as he'd replaced the Fat Lady after Sirius Black attacked her, I climbed into the Common Room and made a beeline to the stairs to the boys' dormitory after noticing they weren't by the sofas. Upon seeing me in the doorway, Ron smiled and waved, holding up his box of Honeydukes sweets.