A Snow Day

A Harmony One-Shot. Part of the Harmony at Home series

***

The large bed depressed unevenly, first on the left, then on the right. There was an exchange of low hisses, as blame was hastily assigned, but then all went still.

"You wake her."

"No...you wake her...as it was your idea."

"Celesca...you're younger than me...Mummy won't tell you off as much."

"Shut up, Soph. You know you're Mummy's favourite..."

Hermione huffed to herself and stirred awake as her daughters argued. "Girls, girls...stop rowing...I don't have favourites. I don't like either of you..."

"Mummy!" the girls chimed together, the first time they'd agreed all morning.

"I love you both!" said Hermione, grabbing her girls by their waists and pulling them to her in a fit of giggles. "Now, where are my kisses?"

She soon learned, as she was assaulted by them.

"That's better," Hermione grinned. "Now...why are you waking me up on Christmas Eve? At this hour?"

"Well," said little Celesca, bouncing on the bed. "Daddy and Uncle Neville have gone to get some carrots for Santa's Reindeer."

"Mummy?" asked Sophie, who was nine years old and worldly in her ways. "Does Daddy know that Santa isn't real?"

"Who told you that?" asked Hermione, sitting up.

"I did," said Celesca, calmly. "Last Christmas, see, when we had the Grotto in Godric's Hollow, Santa had a lightening-shaped scar on his head, just like Daddy. I knew it was him, just pretending."

"Why was Daddy pretending to be Santa Claus, Mummy?" asked Sophie.

"Well," said Hermione, mastering herself. "Santa is very busy at Christmas. It's really hard to get to every little boy and girl in the world in one night to give them presents. So, sometimes, when the workload gets too much, Santa asks people to go into shops and things for him. He gives the best presents to the kids of those mummies and daddies that help him out when he needs it."

"Oooh, ooh," said Celesca excitedly. "Does that mean that we'll get the best presents, because Daddy helped Santa?"

"I can't tell you that," said Hermione, evasively. "You'll just have to wait till tomorrow."

"But, Mummy," Sophie complained. "We can't wait. We've decided."

"Well, you're just going to have to," said Hermione, sternly. "It's only for one more sleep...then you can open all those presents under the tree."

"Can't we have just one?" Celesca begged. She was so earnest, so cute, that Hermione almost gave in to her youngest girl. But she managed to stay motherly firm.

"No."

"Just a little one? Please?" Sophie pleaded.

"No, not even a little one," said Hermione firmly.

"But, Mummy, that's really so unfair," Celesca complained bitterly. "We opened the last doors on our advent calendars today. Sophie had a new Gobstones set, but all I had was a silly little pill-o-pers stone. It's pretty, but it's rubbish. It doesn't do anything. It's really so rubbish."