the song in the header is what will be towards the end, I've put a little note at the point I suggest you play it if you'd like!
Euphemia Potter loved Christmas, why? Because she loved family and she adored being a mother. It certainly isn't an easy job, but days like today where she sat around the table with her husband, son and Sirius; a second son of hers. Tonight was the first night the boys had returned from Hogwarts, so Euphemia had cooked her famous lasagne for the four of them.
"Mia this food is delicious as always." Sirius sat proudly next to James, loving every moment he spent with the Potter family.
"Thank you Sirius, although you do not need to tell me every time you come."
"See Sirius, even mum is starting to realise this good boy is just an act." James elbowed Sirius, food crumbs spilling from his mouth whilst he spoke.
"James Fleamont Potter you are disgusting. Monty we raised a pig." Euphemia turned to her husband, who let out a belch almost as if on queue. "Merlin, I married a pig." The table erupted into laughter that only caused Euphemia's smile to grow - this life was perfect. "How has your school year been so far?"
The boys discussed the year so far, enjoying the cheers from Fleamont each time they spoke of a prank whilst ignoring the tuts from Euphemia.
"Oh mum, you'll like this though, we got pranked." James smiled thinking of the day.
"What?"
"Fi pranked us."
"Fi?" Fleamont placed his fork down, more interested in the conversation than prior due to the new name.
"Fi is new this year, she was home-schooled until now." Sirius explained.
"She?" Fleamont questioned again. "Dear merlin has my boy moved on from the Lily Evans?"
"What! No! She's a friend, plus Moony likes her. I couldn't do that to Moony." James and Sirius continued to fill the parents in, even including how rude James was to Ophelia upon first meeting.
"She sounds lovely, even after everything you did James." Mia sighed, the pride in James was definitely from Fleamont. "Right, let me get this tidied up and I'll go grab the brownies."
"I'll help mum!" James jumped up quickly and stacked some of the plates on the table. Following his mum into the kitchen, he ensured he was out of earshot from his father and Sirius when he spoke. "Mum?"
"Yes darling." Euphemia had guessed James wanted some privacy from his spontaneity in wanting to help.
"Fi, I worry about her. I-I just want to help her for some reason, and I don't fancy her mum. It's like I see her as a little sister, we just clicked and now I just want to help her." James scrubbed at the plate he was cleaning harder, very close to cracking it until his mum placed a hand over his.
"I can tell you didn't fancy her James, your eyes don't light up like they do with Lily." Mia squeezed her sons hand harder. "What is worrying you."
"I don't think she's sleeping well at all, she says she has nightmares. Mum are regular nightmares normal at our age?"
"Not common no, you can still have nightmares. But regular would lead me to believe she's struggling with something, maybe from her past."
"Remember when I was little and had nightmares? You made me Fuzzy?"
"Of course I do, I still have Fuzzy upstairs."
"Could you make a Fuzzy for Fi?"
"Yes, I don't see why not." Euphemia smiled at the kindness her boy displayed. "Go back to Sirius, I'll finish up in here."
"Thanks mum. Love you."
"I love you too."
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Almost all of the Hogwarts students had left for the Christmas holidays on the Saturday, leaving the castle eerily quiet. Ophelia had decided to move herself into Minnie's chambers for the duration of the holidays because there was only two other Gryffindor's staying, both students from Year 1.
The Great Hall looked different from the usual Saturday dinner; not just because of the breathtaking Christmas decorations that filled it. The main difference was that all four house tables had completely disappeared, and instead a long single table sat in the centre of the hall; it looked to seat possible thirty people maximum.
There were a few spaces left on the table: one was next to a first year Hufflepuff who seemed lovely, but Ophelia wasn't really in the mood for speaking to someone younger. The second space was next to Professor Trelawny, Minnie had gently warned Ophelia that this lady was 'unique' so Ophelia decided against sitting next to her. The last seat a available was next to someone Ophelia recognised from Potions class. Other than the Gryffindor house, Ophelia hadn't ventured out into befriending others. It wasn't that she didn't speak with anyone else, in fact she spoke to many, but she just hadn't felt able to bond with others like she had with Gryffindor. Maybe now was the time to try and get to know others.
Ophelia walked over to the empty space and took a seat next to the boy.
"You wouldn't mind if I sit here would you?" Ophelia asked, the boy still facing the opposite way.
"Looks like you made the decision for yourself." The boy turned, his greasy black hair swinging with the movement.
"I guess I have." Ophelia kept a smile on her face, people being rude to her wasn't anything new, it came with being 'known'. Kindness was the best weapon with these people. "I think we share the same Potions class?"
"Well assessed."
"Ok, I'm Ophelia McGonagall anyway. Might as well introduce myself."
"Hm." The boy grunted and began to fill his plate with food.
Ophelia wished she could continue the conversation but seemed to stuck on where to go. Taking her eyes from the side of his head, she leant forward to grab some mashed potato, only to reach for the spoon at the same time as someone else.
"Oops, sorry Miss McGonagall." Professor Slughorn had that usual smile on his face, a look where he seemed to know something that others didn't.
"Oh, it's no problem. You go first."
"Thank you." He looked to Ophelia, then obviously drew his eyes to the boy next to her. When his eyes caught Ophelia's once more he mouthed the word - "potions." Ophelia seemed to understand the short message and once plating up her food she took one last attempt at talking to the boy next to her.
"I was reading ahead on some potions we will be studying and I'm amazed how something so dangerous could be so easy to brew."
"Weedosoros." Ophelia hoped the boy would answer with the name of the potion, it was exactly why she had left it out of her sentence.
"Yes! Have you read up on it?"
"Last year."
"Oh." Ophelia felt the conversation coming to an end there.
"It's not used often now though, too easy to detect. So even if it's easy to brew, you'd be foolish to think you'd get away with it."
"I hadn't thought of that. What would you use instead then?"
The boy began to speak more freely from then, mainly about potions but that didn't bother Ophelia. She was pleasantly surprised by how much she enjoyed listening to his knowledge, but also by how passionate he seemed to be. Soon dinner came to an end and Ophelia spotted Minnie preparing to leave.
"I must head off now, it was lovely chatting with you." Ophelia smiled to the boy.
"Severus Snape." Severus knew Ophelia already knew his name, but hoped this would be like a thank you for sitting with him.
"Well it was lovely speaking to you Severus, I'll sit with you tomorrow?"
"I don't think you'll give me much choice." Severus returned to his usual depressing tone.
"Oh I won't." Ophelia stood to leave, but caught Professor Slughorn watching the exchange. "Goodnight Professor."
"Goodnight Miss McGonagall." The Professor winked in response, still eating his third helping of ice-cream.
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It was the first Sunday of the holidays, Ophelia and Minnie had decided together that this would be the best time to return to her muggle 'life'; then they could have the rest of the holiday to relax. Much to Ophelia's dismay they had travelled once again by Portkey to the same place as previously. 'T-Rex', who had offered to accompany Ophelia, drove them to the hospital. They were currently sat in the car for the final part of the journey.
"So dear, what exactly are you doing today?" Minerva asked the girl.
"Well we are going to a children's hospital, they look after children with complex chronic conditions."
"Forgive me, but you'll have to explain further. Witches and wizards do not suffer from the same illnesses as Muggles."
"Oh really, I didn't know that." Guilt seemed to fill Ophelia from hearing this, it seemed so unfair that there was nothing she could do to help them. "Basically these children have conditions that impact their day to day life. They need lots of support almost all the time."
"I see."
"So for the past few years, much to Mr and Mrs Montgomery's anger, I put money aside before they got hold of it. Then at Christmas I go out and buy lots of toys, accessories, books or anything these children may like and bring them in as presents." The car rolled to a stop just as Ophelia finished her conversation.
"Squirt we're here." 'T-Rex' rolled down the screen that divided the car.
"Thank you." There was no paparazzis around due to the nature of the location, so Ophelia was able to take a calm walk to the hospital. Waiting at the door was a young lady in a brightly coloured nurses uniform.
"Thank you so much for coming again Lia." The lady beamed, and although it hurt Ophelia to hear the name Lia, she kept that smile on her face to respond.
"You're more than welcome, nothing would stop me." This was true, Ophelia didn't care how hard it would be to get here, she knew she wanted to do this.
Mindless conversation about the weather followed whilst Ophelia, Minnie and T-Rex signed into the hospital. The nurse then showed them into the ward, which mimicked more of a hotel than a ward. There was a large living room like seating area; a large tv that played a Disney movie to itself, whiteboards covered in drawings, toys scattered across the floor and colourful books lined the walls.
"So first for you to meet is Lucy, you may remember her from previous years." The nurse spoke whilst walking ahead. "She's in a chirpy mood today so I'm sure you'll have lots of fun."
"Amazing, I'll grab her gift from the bag and head in. Minnie are you ok out here for now? I don't want them to feel uncomfortable with a stranger."
"No problem dear." Minerva responded with a smile, a smile that grew larger when she heard what sounded like excited claps and cheers when Ophelia entered to hospital room.
"Got a heart of gold that one." T-Rex came to stand beside Minerva with two mugs in his hand. "Plain tea, might as well sit down and have a cuppa whilst we wait." This was the first time the man had interacted with Minerva, and although it was a shock initially, she soon accepted the invite.
"You're right, sometimes I fear her heart is too kind and she forgets about herself." Minerva took a seat on one of the sofas in the room.
"Oh I agree, but she seems happier now than ever before. You mean a lot to her."
"And she means a lot to me." A phone rang, startling Minnie slightly by the unusual noise.
"Sorry, I'll have to take this." The large man put his mug down and headed towards a door for the conversation. Minerva pulled out a book from her bag and began to read; at some point 'T-Rex' came back and joined her in silence.
A flurry of activity pulled Minerva out of her reading and she spotted Ophelia leaving a room with two girls holding either hand. Each room soon had someone leaving and heading towards the living room. Ophelia still held a smile on her face, but Minerva spotted something she wasn't entirely expecting; Ophelia looked exhausted.
"If all of you would like to go sit in a circle of some sort near the tree, we can then take it in turns as to who places their decoration on the tree." A nurse in Christmas tree printed scrubs explained to the families and child patients.
"Can Lia sing for us please." One of the little girls tugged on Ophelia's arm, a pleading look in her face.
"Of course, let me just go grab a drink whilst you all get ready." Ophelia masked the sudden nerves with a huge grin and walked over to a water machine. "It's just one song." She spoke aloud but quiet enough just for herself to hear.
"Are you ok dear?" Minerva had taken the opportunity to walk over to the girl whilst she was alone.
"Oh yes." Ophelia attempted to reassure Minnie but noticed the creasing around her eyes. "Ok I'm not, I'm just a little nervous to sing it's silly."
"I see. You do look exhausted, are you sure you're ok to do this?"
"I'm exhausted yes, but I think it's just purely from coming to a hospital. It happens every year when I come here, maybe it's just the emotions in these places get to me." Ophelia shrugged. "It's just one song I'll be ok."
"We can discuss this more when you're finished." Minerva had a strange feeling as to why Ophelia may have become exhausted so easily, but wanted to hear more first.
"There's nothing to talk about!" Ophelia seemed genuinely unconcerned. "Right who's ready for a classic?" The children let out a series of whoops which caused Ophelia to giggle. "Ok press play then Nurse, Lucy you can go first for the tree decorations."
(play song here if you'd like!)
"o holy night..."
The music began to play and Ophelia began to sing.
"the stars are brightly shining..."
Singing has a way of unlocking emotions we keep locked deep within. Ophelia had forgotten how beautiful singing was when she wasn't forced to do so. In singing she was able to heal herself temporarily and those who love the music too.
"the soul felt it's worth..."
Singing removed the sting from emotions that needed feeling, that needed mothering like a teddy bear and allowed you to smile once more. When singing you could forget the world for those moments and be happy to just simple be alive.
"the weary world rejoices..."
Minerva listened intently, each word sinking in deeply. Muggle music wasn't commonly listened to by wizards and this was the first time she had heard this song.
"he taught us to love one another..."
These words resonated with Minerva, although it was still relatively quiet, a war was brewing in the Wizarding world. A war she could not avoid. But the one thing keeping her positive was that love will conquer all.
"o night divine..."
As the song began to close, as the remaining children sat down, as Ophelia began to reach a higher note; a soft but natural silence fell upon the audience. In this moment they were living in Ophelia's voice and everything else was forgotten.
"o night divine."
Enthusiastic claps from the children and emotional applause from the adults filled the room once Ophelia finished. Each person feeling something different that only they would be able to describe.
"Merry Christmas everybody." Ophelia smiled to her mini audience. "I think I have to get going, but never forget how amazing you all are and I hope you have a lovely holiday!" She blew a kiss to everybody and headed over to Minnie.
"You have a beautiful voice dear." Ophelia noticed a slight glossiness over Minnies eye.
"Minnie did I make you cry?" Ophelia teased and gave the lady a cry.
"I'll have you know not many people can manage that. But yes you did."
"Can we go home now? I love them all but I really need my bed."
"We can certainly go home."
This day had taught Minerva a lot about Ophelia and she was extremely thankful that she could spend it with her. But nothing meant more than to hear Ophelia refer to Hogwarts as her home. That was possibly the greatest Christmas gift Minerva has ever received.
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