CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
BIG FUN
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CHRISTMAS WAS QUIETER when Briar couldn't spend the day with any of her family. Livvy hadn't been speaking to her, the only contact she'd had with her parents was through letters, which felt strange, compared to having the whole day with her family. Her Christmas presents had been swapped with her parents by the twentieth, but neither side was yet to open them.
The entire lead-up was weird. Every inch of it had been pleasant, but the strange sort of pleasant. But, what Briar found odd was that, ever since she had befriended Fleur, Cedric had too, and the three ended up talking often. Briar felt like a groupie. She also felt very cool. A lot of people looked at her in admiration — even if it was the sort of admiration that stemmed from, oh, wow, they're pretty.
A lot of people, ever since the string of Rita Skeeter articles on the tournament, were also stopping her in corridors to ask her questions. The majority of the time, it was the same stuff Rita liked to comment on. How she did her hair ("I saw it in a muggle magazine...?"), where did she get her makeup from ("Random muggle shops that sell cruelty-free stuff — MAC and Chanel aren't cruelty-free! Don't trust them!"), how was her brother...
The last question, as of late, was answered with an awkward laugh and lie. "Oh, he's, um, fine," she'd say, and dart away before they asked anything else.
But, Briar liked the questions. She liked to discuss makeup and fashion with someone who was interested in the topic. That was originally why she clicked with Fleur so easily because no one else she knew actually liked to talk about it. Which was a shame, really. Briar just wanted to trade secrets.
She crossed her arms and stood next to Fleur and Cedric. Fleur was talking about the Yule Ball, and Briar was standing close to Cedric to steal his warmth. Brightly, Fleur said, "My grandmother bought this beautiful gown from a Parisian designer years ago. It never fit her so she saved it, in case it suited any of her children or her children's children."
Cedric asked, "Was that the Veela grandmother?"
Fleur nodded. "Ah, oui," she said. "She's lovely. One day, I hope that you two get to meet her. She always has the best selection of food and wine."
"Are you inviting us to get drunk with your grandmother?" asked Briar. She raised an eyebrow. Fleur let out a laugh as she nodded, in a why not? sort of fashion. Briar and Cedric looked at each other, and high-fived. "Let's ditch the ball to get drunk with Fleur's grandma!"
"She sounds better than my grandma," said Cedric. "Mine likes to complain that I'm not engaged yet. No, seriously, I'm not kidding."
Fleur and Briar had been looking at each other, not knowing whether they could laugh or not. Briar put her hands in her pocket. "Well, my dad's mum died around the same time that the first war ended, and I've never spoken to my other grandma," she shrugged. Fleur frowned, and Briar quickly filled her in, "My mum was kicked out by her parents. On Christmas Day. I was conceived a couple days later, so I'm not complaining I don't have to see my shitty grandparents."
"That is not nice, though," said Fleur. Briar frowned. "They told her to leave on Christmas Day. Is it different in the UK? In France, it's viewed as a day to celebrate Christ, obviously, and family?"
"It's meant to," said Cedric. He smiled slightly. "Now, it's more of a consumer trap."
Briar gasped. "I'll platonically marry you. Tell your grandma."
Fleur giggled at Briar, to which Cedric laughed, and Briar smiled awkwardly. It was those moments that Briar felt completely and utterly over the moon with the fact that she was best friends with the two of them. She didn't need to date them. She figured that the only reason she thought she fancied Cedric in the past was because she just really enjoyed talking to him.
(Not that the flower thing wasn't cute.)
(That was never going to be forgotten.)
"Do you know, Briar, where you get your Seer abilities from?" asked Fleur. Cedric looked as if he would've asked the question, if he had ever thought of it. Briar thought that was cute. The amount of times she had explained to him how her visions and predictions worked, and he never asked about the cause. She didn't think that there was anything wrong with it, because there wasn't a definite reason. "My grandmother is the reason why I'm part Veela. I just wondered."
Briar explained, "I don't really know, but my mum said that her grandma was a Seer. But, then again, my mum also said that her grandad — the husband of the Seer — was also a Metamorphmagus. So, yeah. I have two weird genes in my blood to hand down."
Cedric told her, "Your child's going to be weird."
"They're either going to be haunted by the future," she said, smiling bitterly, "or have colourful hair. I know which one I would've bloody chosen if I got the choice."
Fleur smiled weakly. Letting out a soft sigh, she told the two, "Yes, but, at least, with your abilities, you're not accused of using your powers and manipulating them every time you try to talk to a boy. Everyone thinks that I only like people if they're attractive."
"Well, you are our friend," said Briar. She and Cedric gave her a thumbs-up. Fleur sniggered. At the same time, Briar also had an odd recollection of both Molly and Bill, which she didn't understand. She didn't get why Molly or Bill would have anything to do with Fleur. Not unless— "Oh, you're definitely going to find someone that likes you just as much as you like them. Trust me on this."
Her brows furrowed. Fleur began to ask, "Who is—?"
"Hey! Fleur!" let out Ron. Fleur, horrified, looked at Briar, for confirmation. Briar shook her head, and Fleur sighed. "Want to go to the ball with me?"
Fleur went dead silent. Briar wasn't sure if she had died. She wondered whether she should put two fingers to her neck, to check for a pulse. She exchanged a look with Cedric, and then at Ron, whose eyes had widened.
Briar smiled awkwardly at Ron. "She has a date, chap," she explained. Ron's eyes were still the size of oranges. "They'll probably be someone in Gryffindor without a date?" She forced a grin, nudging him. "Hey, ask your older brother where to find a date, considering he was turned down."
Ron nodded. "Yeah, I'll ask him."
"That was a joke," she said.
"Yeah, that was a joke," said Ron.
Briar frowned. Ginny awkwardly rushed over, but before she could usher Ron away, Ron spun around on his heel and took off. Briar smiled awkwardly at Ginny, whom quickly ran off in the direction her brother ran, in an attempt to calm him down.
She glanced at Fleur and Cedric. "I should probably check on him," mumbled Briar.
As she began to move away from them, Cedric grinned at her. "Check on your siblings in law," he said.
"Oh, piss off, Ced," she muttered.
Briar tried to catch up to Ginny, but Ginny was damn quick, and Briar couldn't bring herself to properly run when it wasn't a life-or-death matter. The last time she had ran like a life depended on it — because it did — was during the attack on the campsite. Before that, it was when she had the vision, and tried to save Sirius.
But, as she reached the corridor that led to the staircases, Briar spotted Fred and George. If they were to find out about Ron, they'd tease him mercilessly. So, Briar ran up to them, jumped up to put an arm around both of them.
"They're wrapping your Christmas presents in the common room — Ron and Ginny, I mean — so I've been sent to distract you."
Fred frowned. "Are we supposed to know that they're wrapping our presents?"
George asked, "What are the presents?"
"What aren't the presents?" asked Briar.
Both looked confused. Briar smiled brightly.
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On Christmas Day, the whole morning felt off, solely because Briar was used to waking up at home, and celebrating with her family. But, this year, Briar was opening her presents in her dorm room, along with Angelina, Alicia, and Katie. And Sergeant, who was given a bone as a joint present from the other three girls, and he was happily chewing on it next to Briar's bed.
She had tried her best to open her presents at the same pace as the other girls, but, what she really wanted to do, was to just go and find the twins and have breakfast. Briar felt like opening the presents on her own was mildly sad. It made her feel lonely. She also felt crap, because Livvy had only given her a card, and she was certain that it wasn't even his handwriting on the inside — she presumed that one of his friends had told him to do something, but he wasn't interested, so they ended up trying to encourage him by starting it off, but ended up doing the whole thing.
When the other three started to get dressed, Briar did so too. Sirius had — after being heavily informed the year before that Briar had a deep love for glittery eyeliner — and had bought her a set of them. That had resulted in Briar getting one of her eyeliner brushes out and jump from bed to bed doing the other girls' eyeliner depending on what their favourite colour was.
Briar eventually appeared out of the dorm room, proudly wearing glittery eyeliner as she walked down the stairs, where she usually met with her friends. Fred looked at her, and Briar hugged him tightly, loudly exclaiming, "Merry Christmas, ya filthy animal! And a happy new year, too!" She stepped backwards, smiling happily. "Where are the others?"
Fred told her, "Lee and George were brushing their teeth when I left. They're still in pyjamas, though, so they might be a while." Briar nodded. "Well, merry Christmas."
She looked at him. He looked at her. She assessed the situation and smiled slightly. They both went to move closer, to kiss the other. A small voice in Briar's brain was counting down, but another louder voice was alerting, Ron's going to appear in three, two —
Briar jumped backwards instantly. Ron appeared on the bottom step and frowned at the metre between Fred and Briar. He also seemed to be unaware as to why his older brother looked pissed off. Briar was laughing awkwardly.
"Have you gone down to breakfast yet?"
Briar shook her head frantically.
Ron said, "Well, I just saw George go off with Angelina Johnson, so he might be a couple minutes—"
"He got ready quickly," said Fred.
For a moment, Ron looked at the two of them. He frowned, shook his head, and said, "Well, um, Harry and Hermione are over there... Merry Christmas..."
Ron walked off. Fred glanced at Briar, who had stepped closer to him again, after considering and accepting how massive the gap between the two of them had been when she jumped backwards. "We should've gone off somewhere," said Fred.
"Yeah, well, the moment's gone," said Briar. She patted his shoulder. "Another day."
George soon arrived, and they went down to breakfast, with the two boys complaining about having to get dressed up, and Briar excitedly talking about getting dressed up. Lee left them to it around lunch, and the majority of the Weasleys sat together, with the addition of Briar, Harry, and Hermione.
After lunch, the entire lot of them went outside. Hermione, on the way outside, had taken Briar to the side and awkwardly asked if she could go back inside with her, because she wasn't entirely experienced with makeup or hair; the question had resulted in Briar bursting into a conversation about what Hermione was wearing, and saying which of her eyeliners and eyeshadows (and other beauty-related products that Hermione was unaware of) would suit her best.
Briar had been managing to miss the majority of the snowballs because Sergeant was thoroughly enjoying jumping up and trying to catch them, but ending up with a mouth full of snow. Whilst Briar threw the snowballs, Sergeant caught the ones aimed at her. Most of the snowballs were aimed at Sergeant, rather than Briar — George had thrown one at Briar, and Sergeant jumped onto him and licked his face in retaliation.
At five o'clock, Hermione began to stand up, and Briar clicked her fingers so that Sergeant would follow her. The two started to make their way back into school. "What, you need three hours?" said Ron. Hermione was silent. Briar kept her gaze on Sergeant. "Who're you going with?"
"Who are you going with?" asked Briar, once they had gotten inside.
Hermione looked around quickly, before letting out, "Viktor."
"Oh, nice!" said Briar. She smiled. "If it helps, I'll be there, since I'm going with Cedric. And there's Fleur — I don't think you've spoken, but Fleur's lovely, she's really friendly, it's just that customs and mannerisms are different in France and Britain."
"I overheard Livvy the other day in class," explained Hermione. Briar felt colder than she already was. "I think he's taking Astoria Greengrass, one of the younger Slytherins."
Briar frowned. "I'm guessing he just wanted to blend into the background," she said. Hermione looked confused. "He's gay, and if he brought someone that he fancied, then he'd be different to the rest, and he'd get stared at. At least, I'm guessing that's the case. We haven't spoken in a month."
After years of practice, it hadn't taken Briar long to do Hermione's makeup. She had taken longer getting ready herself since kept on getting distracted by Sergeant, until Alicia retrieved the bone from underneath one of the beds, and passed it to him.
Around half-seven, Briar went down to the common room. Those with dates in the same house were standing next to each other, and the majority of the students in her year were standing around in one corner since the majority of them were going together. The other kid that shared a dorm with Fred, George, and Lee had gone home for Christmas, so Briar was the only one standing without her date for the thing.
Her plan was to find Cedric once they all went down. For now, she wasn't too bothered with standing on her own, whilst her friends were with their dates for the ball. Briar was rather enjoying being stared at. She didn't often feel like Aurora. Usually, she felt like the cut briars.
At eight o'clock, they all went down to the hall. Briar weaved through the crowd to find Cedric, who was standing next to Fleur and her date, Roger Davies. Fleur let out a gasp. "Briar!" she exclaimed. "You look beautiful!"
"Coming from you!" responded Briar. "You look like a bloody princess—!"
Harry and Parvati appeared. Briar and Fleur looked at them. "You look really pretty, Parvati," said Briar. Parvati didn't respond. Fleur exchanged a look with Briar. Briar shared a look with Harry, and they smiled at each other.
Livvy showed up with Astoria, both of them laughing at something when they arrived. Briar was standing next to Cedric still and held onto his arm when her brother appeared. Livvy didn't speak to Briar, nor acknowledge her presence. He looked at Cedric, but Cedric was looking at Briar, both of them trying to communicate without talking. Livvy also looked at Harry and Fleur. Harry was unaware of what went on and nodded at Livvy, but Fleur glowered at Livvy.
Briar loved Fleur with all of her heart.
Viktor and Hermione arrived. Cedric and Fleur smiled at Viktor, and the three greeted each other, uttering merry Christmas to each other. Livvy was about to open his mouth, to try and include himself, but Viktor looked at Briar, and said, "We haven't spoken, really, but, merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas to you too," said Briar.
She looked Livvy dead in the eye. He looked pissed off.
Hermione let out, "Hi, Harry! Hi, Parvati! Hi, Briar!"
Briar said, "You look really great, Hermione."
"You do, too!" said Hermione.
Briar smiled warmly. They were let into the hall, and Briar and Cedric held onto each other as they walked in. Briar looked over at Fred and George, who sent her a thumbs-up. Cedric and Briar took a seat on the table, both of them smiling at how strange the whole thing was. "I feel like my parents, sitting with the teachers," said Briar.
"Or like I've broken all of the school rules," said Cedric, "and I'm now being watched by the teachers."
"I mean, I think I did that last year," replied Briar, her voice quieter than before. "And over the years, with the twins."
Percy was sitting in the seat set for Barty Sr., and he seemed to have straightened up at the mention of his younger brothers. Briar bit her tongue. "I'm afraid to say Mr Crouch isn't well, not well at all," said Percy. He had been speaking to Harry but glanced towards Briar to explain her grandfather's absence. "Hasn't been right since the World Cup. Hardly surprising — overwork. He's not as young as he was — though still quite brilliant, of course, the mind remains as great as it ever was. But the World Cup was a fiasco for the whole Ministry, and then, Mr Crouch suffered a huge personal shock with the misbehaviour of that house-elf of his, Blinky, or whatever she was called."
As he paused to breathe, Briar told him, "Winky. She was called Winky. And she didn't misbehave, she's good — she used to play with my mum, because her parents weren't interested enough to—"
"Naturally, he dismissed her immediately afterwards, but — well, as I say, he's getting on, he needs looking after, and I think he's found a definite drop in his home comforts since she left," continued Percy. Briar and Cedric shared a look. Cedric smiled softly. "And then we had the tournament to arrange, and the aftermath of the Cup to deal with — that revolting Skeeter woman buzzing around—" Both Briar and Cedric sniggered at that. "—no, poor man, he's having a well-earned, quiet Christmas. I'm just glad he knew he had someone he could rely upon to take his place."
The food was presented through declaring the desired meal on the menu, which Briar thought was unnecessarily extravagant. It wasn't Christmas Dinner without asking someone to pass a bowl of something.
Luckily, there were actually vegetarian options. On different sides of the table, Briar and Livvy seemed to exhale sighs of relief simultaneously.
Briar and Cedric had been engrossed in a discussion about muggle studies and Quidditch, until she heard Dumbledore say, "Only this morning, for instance, I took a wrong turning on the way to the bathroom and found myself in a beautifully proportioned room I have never seen before, containing a rather magnificent collection of chamber pots. When I went back to investigate more closely, I discovered that the room had vanished. But I must keep an eye out for it."
The first thing that her brain thought was, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, shit, that's the Room of Requirement.
"Possibly it is only accessible at five-thirty in the morning," said Dumbledore. "Or it may only appear at the quarter moon — or when the seeker has an exceptionally full bladder."
Briar shoved a spoonful of cauliflower cheese into her mouth to stop herself from awkwardly trying to say something, and finish the sentence declaring that she let Sirius hide in that room for the majority of the last year.
"Yeah, but, usually, at Christmas, we just stay at home," continued Briar, once she had swallowed the cauliflower cheese. She looked towards Cedric, who was nodding. Both were discussing what they did at home so that they didn't miss it as much. At least, Briar was doing that. She wasn't quite sure about Cedric. "After, um, my parents' friends died, they moved out of Godric's Hollow, and I've been living in a town in the middle of the countryside ever since. It's really nice. You should visit next summer or something. You can see the fields with the horses from my bedroom window."
Cedric smiled. "We've made this Quidditch pitch to practice — I've spent so many nights playing Quidditch, it's been great," he explained. Briar nodded along. "It's pretty close to London, actually. The year before last, I talked my dad into going to the Christmas events the muggles set up. There's this massive ice sheet, and you get shoes with knives on the bottom that let you move around—"
"Do you mean an ice rink and ice skates?" she asked. Sheepishly, Cedric nodded. Briar giggled. "I've never been. It sounds really cool, though. And not just because it's ice."
She had nudged him as she said it, and he laughed at her. "I'll take you next Christmas," said Cedric. "After our platonic wedding." He paused for a minute, before pulling a face. "Well, that's if you haven't asked Fred out yet—"
"Oh my God, shut up—"
Percy's eyes had widened. "Fred?"
"Absolutely not!" she exclaimed. Harry was sniggering to himself. "I said Ced! Short for Cedric! Like, this guy, right here!" Briar frantically gestured to Cedric, who was going red. "Not Fred! Oh, ew, definitely not!"
Percy frowned, then shrugged. "I thought I was hearing wrong," he said. Briar listened to him carefully. "In the nicest way possible, you're lovely, Briar, but I wouldn't imagine you'd go down with someone like my brother."
Before she could say anything, Harry stepped in. "He's your brother, Percy," he pointed out. Cedric had put a hand on Briar's forearm. She had two spoonfuls in her mouth to keep quiet.
"Well, yes, that is true," said Percy, "but he always breaks the rules, he doesn't know what he wants to do after he leaves school — both he and George just want to run a joke shop, they won't get any money out of that."
"You never know," said Briar.
After dinner, the tables were magically moved to the side of the hall, and a series of musical instruments appeared on a stage. Cedric swore under his breath. Briar sniggered. The Weird Sisters appeared, standing on the stage. As they began to play their selected instruments, Cedric took hold of Briar's hand, and the two of them shared a look of well, this is going to be fucking awful.
They began to dance. Both Briar and Cedric were smiling at each other through tight lips, to stop themselves from laughing at the ordeal. If they started to laugh, they'd end up in hysterics whilst they were meant to be representing the school.
Others began to join the dance floor. Briar felt a weight being lifted off of her shoulders. It was difficult to keep a straight face when she was being stared at, and when she was dancing properly. To classical music, not even something she liked. Like, Nirvana. Or, David Bowie. Or, something alternative or on the soundtrack of a teen film riddled with angst. Or, a musical. There was always that.
At one point, Cedric and Briar went to stand to the side, both smiling and laughing and looking like they weren't aware of all of the shit that they normally had to face. Briar wasn't bothered with how close she had been to Livvy, and how he had completely blanked her all night. Briar was enjoying herself. Briar wasn't going to ruin her own fun because her little brother was being a piece of shit.
"As your best friend," said Briar, "I will not be offended by the answer — but, was there anyone that you actually wanted to ask to this?"
Cedric stared at her. "Shit, yeah," he muttered. Briar was taken aback by the swearing. He noticed her eyes widen, and rolled his eyes. "I wanted to ask Cho Chang, but she was already going with someone else in Ravenclaw. And, you know, a lot of the girls have been clearing off, because they thought that were dating—"
"In about two minutes, her date's going to go off to speak to one of the Beauxbatons girls," said Briar. Cedric's eyes widened. "No, for real, you have a window of opportunity. Swoop in, introduce yourself, make her swoon, you defeated the dragon. Embrace your power."
He narrowed his eyes in confusion. "What the fuck, Briar?"
"C'mon! Go up to her! Talk to her!" said Briar. Cedric shook his head and laughed. "Okay, no, you can't shrug this off because you're attractive because that attractiveness might attract her. Might. Probably. My Spidey senses are a bit off right now."
"If I speak to her, you speak to Fred."
"Okay," said Briar. "Go on, then. You first."
"No, you first," he said.
Briar frowned. "No, you go up to Cho first."
"No, I'm not," he replied, "you're going up to Fred first."
"You. Cho. Go."
"You. Fred. Go."
"No. You go up to Cho first."
"Why don't we do it at the same time?"
"That's not how the world works, Cedric!"
"You first, then!"
"No, you first—"
"Do I want to know...?" someone asked. Briar turned around, and Fred was frowning at the two of them. She glanced at Cedric and smiled mischievously. Cedric shot her a look, and she wiggled her eyebrows in response. Briar turned back to face Fred. "George has just gone off with Angelina — probably to find an empty hedge outside — so I, um—"
"You were ditched," said Briar.
Fred told her, "I chose to leave before I saw my brother snog someone."
"That makes sense," she said. She turned around to speak to Cedric quickly, but he was already walking over to Cho. Cedric looked over at Briar, and Briar sent him a thumbs-up. Briar looked up at Fred. The two started to walk towards the hall's entrance doors, and in the direction of Gryffindor Tower. "Have you spoken to Percy tonight?"
"Unfortunately, yes," he nodded. "He won't shut up about that new position of his. I don't get it. Mr Crouch is a great prat. No offence."
Briar shrugged. "None taken," she said. She glanced around. The majority of students were also leaving; some were holding hands, some were holding their own shoes and walking barefoot. Some, Briar figured, was probably going to turn up at dorm rooms holding hands and holding items of clothing in a couple hours' time. Romantic.
"Enjoyed yourself, then?" asked Fred.
She said, "I got to go with one of my best friends. I'm happy." Briar looked around, glanced down at her pretty gown, and smiled to herself. "To be absolutely honest, I could've gone with Sergeant and I would've been happy because this gown is so bloody gorgeous!"
Briar did a twirl. She took hold of his hands and they spun around an impromptu dance. Her brain was trying to count the seconds before the next person would appear in the corridor, but she was enjoying herself too much to actually concentrate on her Seer-infused thoughts.
So, as they stopped, and her laughter slowly ceased, Briar told Fred, "I have no idea if someone's going to walk through. My Seer abilities seem to boycott me if I'm actually happy."
Fred questioned, "Well, would it be a problem if someone saw us?"
Briar mulled that thought over. She looked up at him, cupping his face with her hands, and pulling him into one of the sides of the corridor, where the walls went out to provide stone benches. All at once, they pulled each other closer, and they looked at each other. Briar moved upwards to kiss him, just as Fred leaned down to kiss her.
And then, they kissed.
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edited: 20.08.17