Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(14) Gift Giving and Cheers

"Deck the halls with—bodypartsfromagirlnamed Holly, falala la la la la la la." Nicolai sang, her morbid lyrics making one of the house elves tremble. Alexander gave her a look from where he sat on the counter top, munching on a fudge cookie (which he had taken against Florence's will) with a busy Florence beside him, whipping up cake batter and cutting out gingerbread cookies.

Nicolai swooped her hand down to the bowl, fingers barely grazing the batter as Florence swatted her hand away, sending threatening glares at her friend who shrugged innocently, "What? At least I tried." she said sheepishly, before sitting beside Alexander. "Do you want people to die of bacterial infection with your constant unsanitary batter tasting?" Florence scolded, checking the oven to see if the cookies were doing alright.

"I suppose cookie dough would be just as tasty—" Florence scooted the bowl away, making Nicolai pout. "Oh come on, it's my birthday tomorrow. The least you could do is let me have some of that..."

"Nic, I'm baking you a cake... Why would you prefer eating the raw stuff?"

"Because she's impatient." Alexander answered for the brunette, to which Florence nodded in agreement. Nicolai frowned, crossing her arms over her chest as if she was a baby who was told that she couldn't have a cookie unless she went to the potty herself.

"You guys are being so rude to the birthday girl right now."

"Like you said, your birthday is tomorrow... We pretty much have, more or less, 9 hours to be rude to you."

"Well, fire away then." she muttered sarcastically, politely asking an elf to give her a bottle of butterbeer from the pantry, Lillie immediately complying to her requests as she hurriedly scampered away to retrieve a bottle. Emmy was arranging the gingerbread cookies onto a cookie sheet, whereas the other remaining elves were busy with the dishes.

Everyone in the house was busy enough, Jane deciding last minute to throw a Christmas eve party, inviting the neighboring wizard families in the area. She estimated about sixty people, maximum, and all of them divided the work that needed to be done and got on with it. Alexander and Nicolai were done producing copies of the invitation and helping Adrianna in handing them out, hence the reason why they aimlessly hung out with Florence in the kitchen.

"Xander, please take out the mint cookies. I think they're edible now," she instructed, the blonde boy giving out a brief salute before manually taking the cookie sheet out of the oven with kitchen mittens. Nicolai's mouth watered at the smell of the cookies fresh out of the oven, Florence chastising her even before she thought of swiping one from the tray.

"I'm not going to take one," she scoffed, putting her hands on her hips as she frowned at Florence, who continued to pour chocolate chips into her vanilla batter.

"You better not," she muttered, pointing her whisk infront of her face, batter dripping to the floor.

Lillie brought back not just one bottle of butterbeer, but three, blushing bashfully as Alexander thanked her. She returned the tray into one of the cupboards before returning to assist Jane with the tables and the tent in the backyard. Mr. and Mrs. Haddlowe were in the music room, bewitching several instruments so that it could play a few songs during the party; The Clearwaters (with the exception of Nicolai) meanwhile, had been busy with decorating the backyard so that it would look like a suitable venue for a Christmas eve party.

"Do you think everyone's coming tonight?" Alexander asked, taking a sip from his opened bottle of Butterbeer, "Yup, I guess so. Jane's pretty known in the ministry." said Nicolai, popping the lid off of her bottle.