Green Apples and Parchment

Chapter Thirteen

The first thing I noticed when I woke up on Christmas morning was the pile of presents at the foot of my bed. I was momentarily surprised, but I guess it made sense. With all the people in this house, opening presents under the tree would be almost impossible. 

"Merry Christmas." Ginny said as she reached for a present.

"Merry Christmas." Hermione and I echoed. 

I smiled and grabbed my presents. I got a planner from Hermione, a bracelet from my parents, Honeydukes candies from Harry and Ron, a few pairs of earrings from Ginny, and the shirt I had been eyeing for weeks now from Hannah. There were still two presents left, but neither of them had names on them. 

I examined the first gift. It was a comfortable-looking yellow sweater with a black "C" in the center. 

"Oh, that's from my mum." Ginny told me when she caught me staring at it. "She makes them for the whole family every year." Both Ginny and Hermione had similar looking sweaters in different colors laying on their beds. 

My heart warmed. I couldn't believe that Mrs. Weasley would spend all that time making me a sweater when we had never met. I carefully folded the sweater and placed it on top of my trunk. 

The last gift was a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I inhaled deeply, and the scent of the flowers was incredibly familiar. I looked at the flowers closely, and suddenly realized that the bouquet was made up of lavender, lilac, and baby's breath. Lavender and lilac. There was only one person that this gift could be from. 

"Those are gorgeous, Cass. Who are they from?" Hermione asked. 

"Oh, just my parents. They get me flowers every year." I lied. Thankfully, Hermione didn't know what was going on between me and Draco, and Ginny was too distracted with her gifts to see through my lie. 

"I think I've got a clean cup around here that you could put those in. Hold on a second." Ginny started rummaging around her room. 

As I waited, I couldn't keep my eyes off the bouquet. I couldn't believe that Draco Malfoy sent me  flowers for Christmas. Well, I didn't technically know that Draco sent them for sure, but who else could it be? I was sure that the choices of lavender and lilac were deliberate, and only Draco would know how much it meant to me. 

A harsh knock at the bedroom door startled me from my thoughts. "Breakfast!" Ron's voice called through the closed door. His heavy footsteps quickly pounded down the stairs.

I stood up and gently placed the bouquet on my bed. 

"Sorry, Cass, I couldn't find a cup. I can ask mum if she has any spare vases though."

"No, that's okay." I reassured Ginny. "I'll just press the flowers. They last longer that way anyways."

Ginny, Hermione, and I made our way down the stairs and into the kitchen. Everyone was already there. There were heaps of food on the table. Plates full of bacon, sausage, eggs, potatoes, pancakes, and muffins filled the table, as well as pitchers of water, milk, and juice. 

"Ugh, finally!" Ron groaned and reached for a piece of bacon. 

Mrs. Weasley slapped his hand before it could touch the food. "Ronald Weasley! Where are your manners? They haven't even sat down yet."

Ron groaned again, and stared at the plate of bacon. 

"Finally?" Ginny said as she pulled out a chair. "It hasn't even been five minutes since you called us down here." 

"Yeah, but I'm hungry." Ron complained. Hermione laughed and rolled her eyes. 

As soon as we all sat down, everyone began reaching for the food. I didn't want to seem rude, so I waited while other people piled food on their plates.