The Witch and Her Vampire

Sixteen

I sat on the open windowsill in the common room, watching as the snow fell from the sky, sometimes lightly and sometimes in small flurries.

I had always used to watch the snow fall at Christmas, but then again straight after Harry, Jake and I would go diving onto Dad's bed to wake him up so we could get presents, and then make Dad wake up Uncle Billy so we wouldn't get throttled.

Now, it was different.

My family was gone at the moment, and all I had was Harry. We were alone in London and, now that I think about it, practically raising ourselves since the Dursleys hadn't done the best job of it this past summer.

Sadly, since Hermione had went home for Christmas, I was left with the boys all break.

This wasn't going to bother me, because I had grown up with boys—lots and lots of boys, because we only played with the ones on the rez—but I would still miss Hermione, because even here, I only had guy friends and my only girl friend was Hermione. I didn't want any more—except Alice and Rose, of course.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by a cloak being placed around my shoulders—my dad's large cloak that dwarfed me at the moment.

I turned my head to find Harry standing there, a offering me a sympathetic look as he gestured to the armchair near me, and then to the window.

You had it sitting there, and it's cold out...

I gave him a small smile and nodded. I know. My eyes flickered toward the stairs. Is Ron up yet?

"It's bloody freaky when you do that!" exclaimed Ron, standing on the bottom step as he watched us.

Harry raised his brows in our friend's direction, before nodding to me with a grin. Yeah, he is.

"It's actually pretty easy," Harry told him. "Well, for us." He shrugged. "Now, are we going to open our presents or not?"

I hopped off the window and drew dad's cloak tighter around my shoulders, being careful not to trip over it as I grabbed one of my many presents and studied the name—it was from Jake and Billy. The present was a simple, chord woven bracelet that Jake had always been fairly good at making.

Fondly, I put it on.

The next was from Carlisle and Esme.
It was...a wand holster? How had they even gotten ahold of one of those?

I shook my head and moved on to the other Cullens presents; expensive, black dragon hide boots from Alice (that apparently would grow with me), a book on civil war history from Jasper, a prank kit from Emmett, a pair of gloves from Edward, and from Rosalie....from Rosalie, I received a black leather jacket that apparently went with the boots I had gotten from Alice. It looked...familiar somehow.

I held the jacket up to my nose and sniffed it—when I did, I felt butterflies erupt in my stomach. The scent was vanilla.

It was Rosalie's jacket, one I had seen her wear only once that I had mentioned looked pretty on her; apparently, she had been wearing it am awful lot lately, because the smell was strong, and I loved it. Gently setting it aside, I moved to other presents.

From Hermione, I got a copy of Hogwarts: A History, and smiled a little.

From both Ron and Harry, I got candy.

I grabbed a basket full of pastries and fudge and studied it—it was from Mrs. Weasley, Ron's mom, along with a blue knitted sweater with a white C on the front.

Harry and Ron both had one like mine, though theirs were green and maroon.

"Your mom gave us presents?" questioned Harry.

"Yeah," replied Ron a little sheepishly. "I might have told her about you a little, and she knew about Sirius...."

Oh. That explained it. I would never understand for the life of me how Alice, Carlisle, and Esme had gotten hold of wizard artifacts, but I loved them nevertheless.

"Whoa," breathed Ron suddenly, and my head snapped over to where my brother stood—or, where his head floated, more precisely.

"What the—" I cried, edging closer to him and roughly poking where his body should be.

"Thanks for that," said Harry sarcastically, after letting out a small yelp when I poked him in the stomach. He removed the cloak and stared at it in awe. "This is...it's...."

"Uncle James's invisibility cloak," I finished for him in wonder. I lightly ran my fingers over it.

"My dad...this was his..." Harry's eyes were glazed over, and I could see the tears shining in his eyes.

"Imagine what we could get into with this!" cut in Ron earnestly. "That's an invisibility cloak!" I glared at him. Friend or not, I didn't like that he had just interrupted a serious moment for my brother. Ron's ears turned red. "Er, sorry.."

I merely rolled my eyes.