As they got off the train, Violet was nervous. She didn't know what exactly to expect from Theo's parents. Sure, they wrote to her a few times to check up on her, but that was it.
Most adults in her life didn't like her. They would complain about her guts and tell her she was trying to hard to be an adult when she was just a child. She didn't want her friend's parents to dislike her as well. She wanted them to like her, so she could take at least some of Theo's stress away. Just like he knew her well, she did too. She could tell how much it weighted on him not knowing how exactly this Christmas would go. She planned to do her best to make it a happy one.
Waiting for Theo and she, at a distance from all the parents fighting to reach their children were Theo's parents. They were wearing matching Christmas jumpers and they were looking around for them, not seeming to be able to see them. They weren't pushing or yelling like the others and were simply scanning through the crowd with smiling faces. Mr Nott even whispered in his wife ear to make her laugh. It was the first time Violet saw a husband try to make his wife smile.
As soon as Theo saw them, his face lit up and he wanted to run towards them, but he remembered that he had Violet with him. She looked extremely nervous and jumpy, he couldn't leave her. He took her hand and started rubbing circles on the back of it, trying to make her relax. He couldn't even imagine how jumpy she was and how being away from Harry might also be finally catching up to her. He stood by her side with a smile. "It'll be amazing, Letty. I'm sure they'll love you." He offered her his best attempt at encouraging words.
The two adults finally spotted them and their smiles became even wider if that was possible and they started to move their way.
Mrs Nott was the first one to reach them and wasted no time to give the two a very brief hug. "We missed you so much, sweetheart. You've definitely grown since you left." Said Mrs. Nott to Theo as she gave him a second and longer hug. She missed her baby even if he wrote to her. Call her a mother hen, but she liked to have him close and so did her husband. They enjoyed his experiments, his loud laughter and his passion for gardening, not that anyone besides the two of them knew of it. Her son was very secretive when it came to that side of him. She then let go of him to go to his father and turned her attention to Violet. "I'm so glad to finally meet you in person. I know we talked and all that, but I couldn't hug you through the letters." She smiled warmly and hugged her close. She loved hugs and from the little Theo told her and the little snippets from the letters from Violet she wanted to give her the best Christmas.
She heard so many stories in the letters from her son and the other kids about her. They all seemed to like her and think very highly of her. She was quite excited to get to know her better since she couldn't exactly talk to her a lot through letters since she understood her hesitation at sharing things via paper when her owl could be stopped by people and others could also read what she wrote.
It took Violet a few seconds to return the hug. She wasn't very used to affection. Her brother never really was for physical contact, so she only hugged him or took his hand when he needed comforting. Luna was more for acts of service and words of affirmation, so she respected it and didn't really go for hugs or handholding unless it was a special occasion. Only after befriending Theo she started to be more open to physical contact since her friend seemed to be glued to her side and kept randomly hugging her or holding her hand, even offering her piggyback rides.
She asked herself in that moment if her mother would've hugged her that way when she returned from Hogwarts. Would her parents have been as welcoming to her friends as Theo's parents seemed to be. Maybe her dad would've been upset over her choosing to spend most of her time with Slytherins and not trying harder to spend time with her brother. Would her uncle Padfoot be upset that she wasn't in Gryffindor like him and the rest of her family. Would her uncle Moony be glad to answer the million questions she had about Muggle books or would he send her away to ask someone else. It was very hard for her to make sense of how her family would've been like. All she had as a reference were memories from when she was a baby and she was terrified of the possibility of them not being as supportive and amazing they were in her mind.
Mr. Nott put a hand on her shoulder and also hugged her as Theo wiped away one of her tears. She hadn't realised she had started to cry. She guessed it was because she'd been thinking about her family and their lives and because these two adults showed her more care and love than her supposed family did, her aunt not included.
"I can't imagine what exactly you went through or what your guardians are like, but we will make sure to protect and love you, starting with this Christmas. Promise." Whispered Mrs. Nott to her as she hugged her even closer. She wasn't going to let anything hurt this girl anymore. She felt safe enough in her arms to be vulnerable and cry, so she was ready to protect her as one of hers.
Violet hadn't met a lot of kind people, most were barely even cordial, but the Nott's seemed made of gold as they hugged her and promised to look after her like she was their daughter and not just their son's friend. It was a drastic change from what she encountered over the years, but she wouldn't complain.
They stood together for a few more minutes before they broke apart, so they could get home. Violet straightened herself and stood tall. "Thank you again for having me over for Yule, Mr and Mrs Nott." She smiled at them as she dried her eyes as subtly as she could. It was ridiculous that she was crying this hard over nothing.
Mrs Nott gave the girl another warm smile and hugged her again. "You can call my husband and I Sylvia and Thomas. Mrs and Mr Nott makes us feel old." She told her with a warm tone to make sure Violet was comfortable. She hummed with a smile after Violet nodded in agreement.
The four apparated after that to the Nott Manor. Sylvia and Thomas wanted to get Violet away from the prying eyes from the people on the platform. They noticed them staring at her, whispering and casting them judging looks. Sylvia wanted to hex them all and then hide Violet from the attention that was clearly making her nervous with the tense posture and slightly irritated face as she noticed all the people going out of their way to find an excuse to be near her.
They arrived in the kitchen where a house elf was waiting patiently with a tray of hot chocolate. "Welcome back, Theo! And you must be Theo's Violet. I am very happy to meet you. I am Mickey, the Nott family elf." The small creature said as soon as his eyes landed on Violet. He offered each of the family members and Violet a cup of hot chocolate. "I will take your luggage to your rooms. Theo, Violet's room is the one next to yours. Call for me if you need anything, miss Violet or ask Theo." The elf nodded at them before taking the trunks and disappearing.
Theo took Violet's hand and guided her away. He wanted to show her everything. He loved his house and always found it a safe place, he wanted to offer her that as well. He presented to her the library, the kitchen, the dining room, the second library, the office, the guest rooms, the banquet room, the ball room, the interior garden, the service bathroom, the walk in closet for guests, the interior tennis court, the interior minimalised Quidditch field, the pantry, Mickey's room and the game room.
He was quite surprised when she told him that her room was even smaller than their elf's room and that most houses didn't have even a quarter of the rooms the Notts had. He was under the impression that everyone had a room for every possible wish, but he was informed that most just used the same four rooms for all they wanted or needed.
He then walked her to his bedroom. He opened the door a little more nervous than he was with the other rooms. His room was large and had a high ceiling. From the ceiling were floating different replicas of butterflies. His walls were a light green of moss and had shapes of different flower petals and leaves. Two of his walls had large windows, almost from the ceiling to the floor. The furthest wall had a small balcony that was transformed into a sitting area with a lot of pillows and fluffy blankets. His bed was on the right large and with Slytherin green sheets and silver pillows. There were nightstands on both sides of the bed and on each of them rested multiple books on butterflies and marine life. In the corner of the room was Theo's trunk. Where the wall had the larger windows was a longer desk with over half of it covered in open marine life books and with different items like a microscope, test tubes, dissecting set, forceps, glass slides and petri dishes. And where should've been an empty room was a huge aquarium filled with plants and quite a small number of fishes to respect their territories and needs.
Violet looked around in wonder. She hadn't seen this type of quality equipment anywhere. She wasn't even sure if it was purely Muggle, some of it seemed to be altered a little with charms. It was impressive and it was also interesting to see a different side of her friend. She realised now why he wasn't as interested as all the other children, not that he didn't exceed expectations in classes, but it was clear that he already had his heart set on what he wanted to study.
He felt the tension leave his shoulders as he watched the smiling expression of his friend. "I guess this might also be a reason for my family to disown us, but I guess this would take more work." He chuckled bitterly at his own joke. What did Muggles say, better laugh than cry? He found them just as sad.
She turned her attention back to him, but she wasn't smiling like he expected her to. She was serious and she was using her no nonsense tone. "Theo, this is incredible. It's obviously something that you care about deeply and possibly want to pursue further. Your family is filled with trolls if they can't see how cool this is and how amazing you are." She said pointedly, but he could see the pride in her eyes. "I for one haven't found what makes me happy yet." She added, a smidge of sadness or maybe jealousy could be heard, but it wasn't enough to be with mean intent, it was just a human reaction.
"I saw you in potions and charms. Maybe you could mix those with helping people or magical creatures. You could be a rescue healer and be there for both creatures and humans or you could invent potions for different causes. And I've seen you with runes. Maybe you could experiment more with antient magic, because most are afraid of it, but you might enjoy it and then you would need potions to try and protect yourself in case something goes wrong. I've seen what you like and what you're good at, just because you are set on a specific things doesn't mean you won't achieve the incredible." He told her and started to blush by the end. He didn't want make it too much by info dumping her.
She hugged him close and then kissed his cheek. "You're sweet. Who would've thought?" She teased and Theo started to chase her around the room.
Mr and Mrs Nott were sitting in the living room and smiling as they heard laughter and heard some sort of yelling from upstairs. It had been too long since their son ler himself be free enough to do something so childish as he called it. They were so glad he found someone to make him see that being like a little child at times wasn't the end of the world and might actually do better for your spirit.
*
Two days later, Violet was wandering around the house lost, but she refused to call on Mickey again to tell her again where she had to go. She gave up a while ago of ending up where she wanted to go and just started to watch the house and make points in her mind of what she saw.
Thomas gave Violet a small smile as he noticed the girl trying to look around. He chuckled as he remembered how he used to be the same as a child. The house seemed like a magical castle to explore and then leave back then and now it felt like home. "Theo told me that you love potions. Neither of us in the family are pretty good at it, but my parents insisted on having a fully equipped lab along with an attached library for research. I'd like to take you there if you want to." He offered and almost laughed at how eager Violet nodded. He refrained himself, because he didn't want the girl to go back into her shell before he had the chance to get to know her better.
The two walked around the Manor for a few minutes until they stopped in front of a large door with a flower pattern carved in the wood. The man looked at her for a few moments, looking for something and finding it since he made a small dagger appear.
"This door was spelled to only open when a member of the Nott family touched it. With your permission, I'd like to add you to the people allowed in. Nobody else ever uses the room so it's a shame to not let you have unlimited access to it." He explained gently, the blade pressing against him to make sure that Violet wouldn't be scared. "Of course if you would like not to then I'll just open it for you and you could ask Theo to open it for you when you wanted to use it. I'm sure he wouldn't mind." He offered her a second option, so she wouldn't feel pressured.
Violet considered it for a few seconds, but realised that they wouldn't gain anything by letting her have access to a room they're not using. She swallowed her nerves and nodded. She took the blade and cut across her palm without flinching. Mr Nott started to whisper a few words and then he pressed her bloody hand on the handle and the room opened without her even pressing against the handle.
"Thank you, Thomas." She smiled at the man before somewhat running into the room to see all it had. She was in heaven with how many materials she had and the equipment.
He watched her a few seconds with a smile before he moved to leave. "I will leave you to it. Have fun, Violet. Mickey will bring you lunch here if you want or you can come to the kitchen, whatever option is better for you." He told her and he closed the door behind him.
*
Christmas day arrived sooner than she would've liked. She was woken up before even the sun came up with Theo barging into her room and jumping on her bed, more specifically on the portion of the bed she was sleeping on.
"It's time for presents. Let's go!" He simply said as he dragged her away from the bed as she grumbled and cursed him silently for waking her up at such an ungodly hour.
They ran together down the stairs to the living room the tree was residing in or more like Theo ran and Violet was walked carefully down to not fall and break her neck.
Violet had to keep herself from gasping as she entered the room. Sure, she saw it the night before when they decorated the tree, but it was nothing compared to now. There were shapes of boots walking all the way from the chimney to the tree, there was a messily written note and signed with red ink on the plate where the biscuits used to be. The space beneath the tree and the immediate space next to it was occupied with presents. Theo kissed his parents on the cheek as a good morning and sat on the floor to wait for Violet to catch up. Violet hugged them and told them a good morning before joining Theo on the floor. Mr and Mrs Nott also joined them on the floor along with Mickey.
"Everyone has a different wrapping paper, so figure out which are yours and then you gather them and we open them in order of age from the oldest to the youngest." Explained Mrs Nott to Violet since it was her first Christmas with them and she wanted the girl to blend into their traditions as much she wanted.
Everyone except Violet started to look through the various presents to see the names written on the paper and they sorted them in record time.
Mr Nott smiled kindly when he noticed Violet's confused look when she noticed there was a whole set of presents in a different set of paper under the tree that nobody was claiming. "You didn't think we wouldn't get you presents, did you?" He asked and kept himself from going on his way to hurt her family for making her seem so happy and surprised to get a Christmas present. That was okay, they'd make sure she wouldn't go through that again, she had them now.
She felt her face go red from her ears to her neck and offered the family an awkward smile. She was still uncomfortable with unproblematic and kind family dynamics. It was a little too out of her comfort zone at the moment.
"Let's open them then." Slapped her hand Mrs Nott and Violet was grateful to her and the rest for not mentioning it anymore.
Mr Nott was the first to open his presents. He got a new cologne, a hand knitted scarf and some sort of strategy game from his wife. Theo offered his father a basket with his favourite sweets and a book on Wizarding Political Rules in Africa since he was aware of how much his father loved to learn new things about the other Wizarding communities. Violet was pretty unsure on what to get, so she offered a pen charmed to never remain without ink thanks to Mr Flitwick teaching her the charm before the break. He offered everyone a hug and told them he loved the gifts.
Mrs Nott was next. She received a designer purse, a philosophy book and a basket with home backed salted caramel fudge, her favourite, from her husband. Her son bought with some help from his father a music box that was singing with the exact voice of her former family elf who raised her and used to sing her lullabies as a child. She cried for some time after that since she hadn't heard that voice in almost twelve years. And then she started sobbing more when she opened a painting from Violet based on a picture of her, Thomas and Theo when he was a newborn. They were in their bedroom, with her on a rocking chair and lulling Theo to sleep while Thomas was staring at her with an expression filled with love. She couldn't believe the emotions captured in the canvas.
Mickey followed and he received knitting supplies and a box of Christmas biscuits from the family and a framed picture of the four of them from Violet.
Theo had the most presents to open after Violet. His parents got him a new specimen of starfish and a rare sort of algae. He also received the new books he's been asking for and a new game for his console. Violet gifted him a framed Queen Alexandra's Birdwing butterfly which was apparently gotten under unknown circumstances, so he just thanked her continuously for a few minutes since he was well aware that the species was endangered. Draco, Daphne and Pansy put money together and bought him small samples of magical marine plants from twenty five different species. He opened Blaise's present last. He sent him three different books on the language of merpeople and an aquarium in which were two flying sea horses with a small note on the front which explained that they were given since Theo talked about how fascinated they were when he read about them, so he should have them in real life as well.
Violet also had quite the number of presents under the tree. Her aunt and uncle gave her a penny and her aunt sent her a pack of panettone along with a pair of earrings that were apparently her mother's. She already sent her present and a letter. Mr and Mrs Nott also bought her presents. She received a professional kit for potions, broom polish and a sign copy from a famous potion inventor with advice, tips and his some of his inventions that weren't published since they weren't going to make him enough profit. She hugged them both closely. Theo got her supplies for advanced charms together with books from fifth year and up along with baking supplies. Draco, Daphne and Pansy again put together money to buy her a designer book bag along with a book on French politics. Blaise sent her a Wizarding chess set which she loved and two bottles of his mother's hot sauce. She was a little bumped that her brother hadn't sent anything, but she didn't let it ruin her day.
She and the Notts cleaned the wrapping paper and then spent the day together playing games and teaching her different Wizarding traditions while drinking hot chocolate.
She was wondering later that night if that was what family was supposed to feel like. Maybe family was this warm feeling inside that was in your body whenever you were around them. Maybe it was the security you felt when you spent time with them. Maybe it was that unwavering trust that formed unexpectedly and unknowingly, but that was there from the start. Maybe it was caring about what the others liked and wanted and gifting them exactly that. Maybe it was the feeling of love that had no business being there after such a short amount of time, but that was still there even after all the self threatening and the fake scenarios in your head. Maybe it was hot chocolate on the expensive rug and playing stupid games that nobody truly had an idea how to play. Maybe it was laughing more in an hour than you laughed in months. Maybe it was just the Notts and Mickey.
***
Merry Christmas! And happy holidays to those who don't celebrate Christmas!
I hope you enjoy this bonus chapter. I believe it is a good present and a better view into the Nott family dynamics.