"Thank Merlin it's finally Christmas break! I'm so exhausted from all this homework they keep throwing at us!" said James, who was now in his sixth year, to Albus's astonishment (times sure went by fast)
"Oh I'm sure it's not that bad, James. You need to learn as much as you can. Your last year of Hogwarts is NEXT YEAR!" Rose scolded James. She emphasized "next year" by saying it extra loud.
"I know, I know! Stop nagging me, woman!" James waved his hand to dismiss the conversation.
But Rose raised her eyebrow at him. She didn't say anything, but glared at James. That was the sign that James probably needed to watch what he said. Rose could be quite scary sometimes, to Albus's amusement.
The four best friends, Albus, Rose, Scorpius, and Holly, known around the school as the Fantastic Four, sat in their own compartment along with James, Lily, and Hugo, on the Hogwarts Express heading back to Kings Cross Station. Christmas was approaching fast, and the young wizards couldn't be more thrilled. They'd been pounded with mountains of homework all semester, and frankly they deserved a nice break. Albus was even more excited that he'd be spending the holidays with his friends that he loved dearly.
That's right; for Christmas, Albus's family and friends were going to be joining at the Burrow, like his family did every year. His Grandma Weasley absolutely loved having a full house. To add even more to the crowd, Albus and Rose invited Scorpius and Holly to stay with them. Holly happily accepted, and even her parents were going to be there Christmas morning. As for Scorpius, well, that wasn't exactly a smooth conversation...
The conversation happened two weeks ago.
"Scorpius, please join us at the Burrow! Come on, my family wants to meet one of my best friends. And think about Rose too. She'd be devastated if you didn't show." Albus had begged his stubborn blonde best friend. He even threw in the part about Rose, since he obviously knew Scorpius was in love with her.
"Albus," Scorpius sighed. "Your entire family would hate me. I'm the son of your parents' and Rose's parents' former rival."
Albus rolled his eyes. "Scor, my parents know who your father is. They're perfectly okay with it. My family is very accepting. Please?" Albus even dramatically dropped down to his knees in front of Scorpius, begging him.
Scorpius laughed and shook his head. "You're so retarded, Al."
"So does that mean you'll come?" Albus said hopefully. "Christmas day until New Years. Your parents won't mind, will they?"
Scorpius scowled. "They shouldn't. I don't know how they will feel about it, though."
Albus sighed, annoyed that he hadn't gotten an answer. "Will you ask them?"
"Yes."
Three days later at breakfast...
Albus watched excitedly as Scorpius's owl, Nightingale, swooped down and dropped a letter onto Scorpius's lap.
"So? What did your parents say?" Rose asked, eager as Scorpius unrolled the letter.
Scorpius cleared his throat, and read aloud: "'Dear Scorpius: We got your letter yesterday. And no, we are not angry at you. Why would we be mad that you want to spend Christmas with your best friends? I think it'll be great for you. We give you our permission to go to the Weasleys' home for Christmas break, on one condition. We want to meet your friends and their parents. Even though your father already knows them from school, your mother would like to meet them. Perhaps it'll be okay if we stop by for tea or something? We want to be polite and get to know the people who are so important in your life. Remember to let them know we're coming. Love, Mum and Dad.'"
Scorpius looked over at Albus, Rose, and Holly. They looked excited.
"YES!!!" They all exclaimed. Even Scorpius, the shy one of the group, exclaimed with them.
Albus was thrilled. In two days, they'd all gather at the Burrow. He was probably most excited that he'd get to spend Christmas with Holly. Yes, Albus was in love, just like Scorpius. It didn't help that the four of them were all so close, and neither Albus or Scorpius wanted to lose Rose or Holly as friends.
The train skidded to a stop. The friends each said goodbye until they all met again in two days. Albus and Rose, along with each of their parents and siblings, all apparated to the Burrow. They were going to be staying there for the entire break.
Once Albus recovered from the strange feeling of apparation, he looked around. He was at his favorite place in the entire world along with Hogwarts; the Burrow.
The Weasley family was one of the biggest families Albus had ever seen. Since Albus's father didn't have any other family besides his godson Teddy Lupin, they always spent Christmas at the Weasley home. And that included a LOT of family members.
Albus greeted as many family members as he could without getting overwhelmed; he hated being in small rooms with lots of people. He greeted Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron, Grandma and Grandpa Weasley, Uncle George and Aunt Angelina, Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur, Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey, Uncle Charlie, and his many cousins, Hugo, Victoire, Dominique, Louis, Roxanne, Fred, Molly, Lucy, and of course Teddy. (A/N: Hehe I named all the Weasley's XD)
And of course Grandma Weasley enchanted the Burrow to hold all these people. Albus was quite amazed.
The next night, Albus escaped to his guest bedroom after the huge family shared Christmas Eve dinner. He was sharing the tiny room with James for right now, saving the other bed for Scorpius. He couldn't wait until his friend got there, because James was annoying him right now.
"How do you even know how to use a telephone, James?" Albus asked his brother, who was on Grandpa Weasley's old telephone with, from what he learned, his Muggle-born, seventh year girlfriend Leslie Tompkins.
James rolled his eyes and excused Leslie on the phone, then pressed his palm to the phone, "Al, I am on the phone with the hottest seventh year girl at Hogwarts. Shut up." Then James went back to babbling away on the phone.
Albus had had enough, so he left the room. He just prayed James wouldn't be on the phone ALL night. He was bored, and it wasn't quite time for curfew, so he decided to go to Rose's room on the floor below to talk to her. As he headed towards the stairs, he heard banging coming from the attic, which was located on that floor level. The door was open, so he peeked his head inside.
Inside, Albus's cousins Hugo, who was in his second year at Hogwarts like his sister Lily, and Fred, who was a first year. The known-to-be-mischievous boys were sitting on the floor, looking through some old boxes. Merlin knows what they were up to.
Albus cleared his throat. "Um, what are you guys doing?"
Hugo and Fred spun around, looking pretty guilty of something.
"Nothing. Just bored." Hugo said. He had some cards in his hands, obviously some sort of Muggle items. Grandpa Weasley still liked Muggle stuff.
"We found some cool stuff." added Fred.
"Oh really, like what?" Albus asked. He must've been pretty bored, since he's come to a first and second year for entertainment.
"Just some cards. I think they're called," Hugo read the card carefully. "Poke-eh-mon."
"I call the one with the yellow creature on it!" Fred blurted out, taking the card from Hugo's pile.
"No way, you get the squirrel-turtle one!" Hugo threw a card at Fred, who looked outraged.
While the boys argued, Albus discreetly walked out of the room. "Nerds," he muttered.
Albus stepped carefully down the creaky steps and down the "girls rooms" hallway. He knocked on one of the doors.
"Come in." A voice called. It wasn't Rose's voice, so he figured it was one of his cousins.
Albus froze when he saw a familiar pale figure with extremely long, wavy, chestnut brown hair. He wasn't expecting her until tomorrow morning. She turned around, and when she saw Albus, her blue-gray eyes sparkled. "Oh Albus Severus! What a lovely surprise!"
Albus tried to speak, but he was speechless. Holly was wearing her sleep clothes, which were light pink short shorts and a white tank top. He'd never seen her in something so revealing before. He tried not to drool as he saw how long and smooth her legs looked.
Holly giggled. "Albus, you've got a bit of drool dangling out of your mouth."
He blushed. Cursing himself, he wiped his mouth with his sleeve. "Sorry." he muttered.
Albus didn't notice there were others in the room. Sitting on their beds, giggling like silly teenage girls, were Rose, Roxanne, Dominique, and Molly. They were obviously having one of those silly girly sleepovers tonight, because a television set was set up along with some video cassette tapes, and a huge bowl of popcorn. Roxanne was busy painting Dominique's toenails, the Muggle way, while Molly was braiding Dominique's hair. Rose was grinning at Albus like she was saying, "Look who just showed up."
"Uh, um, I'll leave if you want me to..." Albus stuttered.
"Nonsense! You're participating in our little slumber party! Now sit and help us pick out a film." Rose commanded in a bossy tone, which Albus knew better than to object against. He made his way over to Rose, who was pointing to a pillow on the floor in front of her bed where he was supposed to sit. Awkwardly, he carefully sat down on the frilly pillow.
Holly walked over, grabbing a pillow off the bed, and set it down by Albus. His heart pounded when Holly took a seat, which was very close to him. Maybe this slumber party wouldn't be bad after all.
"Now then," Rose said, clapping her hands. Then she chuckled. "Do any of you know how to work a television set?"
Albus raised his hand. "My dad taught me how when I was younger. I can see if I still remember how to work it."
"And I take Muggle Studies, so I think I still remember the little lesson we had once about Muggle appliances. The teacher showed us how to work a television." Holly explained, smiling.
Rose clapped her hands excitedly. "Okay, so while you guys do that, me, Roxanne, Dominique, and Molly can find a film to watch."
The four girls sat on the bed and went through a huge stack of VCR tapes.
As for Albus and Holly, they began pressing buttons on the television set, hoping it would do something.
Holly pressed a button on the top of the television. Instantly, the screen came to life and turned blue. On the screen read, 'Insert tape.' There was a little slot near the base of the television where tapes could be inserted.
"You turned it on. That's a good start." Albus smiled at her. Holly giggled, which made Albus's heart swell.
"Alright, so which film shall we watch? We have The Nightmare Before Christmas, A Christmas Story, Mean Girls...Wow don't know why Grandpa Weasley has that one....Um, Frosty The Snowman, and Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer. Those are all the Christmasy-looking movies. Any sound good?" Rose asked.
"The Nightmare Before Christmas sounds interesting." Albus suggested.
"Oh yes, I like that suggestion." Holly agreed.
"Sounds good." Roxanne said. And shortly Dominique and Molly replied at the same time, "Yeah, sounds good."
"Alright, The Nightmare Before Christmas it is." Albus saw Rose cringe when she said "nightmare." They still didn't stop having those strange dreams.
Holly and Albus finally figured out how to insert the tape into the television. As they did so, Albus felt Holly's hand brush against his as they both pushed the tape in. His heart did little somersaults.
Everyone in the room watched the television in amazement. The animated film was absolutely fascinating to them. How could someone create something so REAL, but use animated characters? The idea amazed Albus. He'd watched a movie with his family when he was younger, just for the fun of it. He wished he could watch more films more often.
The characters looked so unique, compared to the film Albus remembered watching so long ago. What was it called? It was something to do with a lion and a king. This movie was very different. It was dark and haunting, something you wouldn't expect in a Christmas film. I mean, it's about a skeleton man taking over Christmas, for Merlin's sake.
When the movie turned romantic, involving the skeleton man and the creepy lady with stitches for a smile, the girls in the room awed. Meanwhile, Albus felt a hand land on top of his. He glanced down and saw it was Holly's pale, slender hand. Was this really happening? He didn't know why he had this instinct, but he lifted Holly's hand, then laced his fingers through hers. Their hands folded together perfectly. Her pale skin was surprisingly warm.
As Jack Skellington and Sally finished their song and embraced on the screen, Albus couldn't help but look over at Holly. She looked over at him also. The light from the television reflected in Holly's pale eyes beautifully, making them appear even brighter. Albus couldn't take this anymore. He quickly glanced behind him, and noticed all the girls were asleep on the bed. Holly seemed to notice the same thing, and smiled. Albus couldn't take it anymore. They were already sitting so close, holding hands...
Before he could think to do so, Holly leaned in quickly and pressed her lips softly to Albus's. Albus immediately melted into the kiss, his heart pounding. His first kiss was with the girl he truly loved. And it wasn't half bad either.
Holly wrapped her arms around Albus's neck, and began moving her lips. Albus cupped her face gently with his hand, and moved his lips in sync with hers. The kiss was absolutely magical. He didn't want it to end, but Holly pulled away, only stopping because she was out of breath. Albus himself was breathing heavily.
They rested their slightly dizzy heads by pressing their foreheads against each other. The two gazed into each other's eyes, Albus gazing into a pool of blue-gray crystals and Holly gazing into emerald green ones. Albus was mesmerized. Holly smiled and giggled happily. Then she grabbed Albus's hands and linked her fingers with his.
"I've been waiting to do that for forever." Holly said softly, still smiling.
"Me too." Albus replied, his heart filling with joy. She's been wanting to kiss him.
"I really like you, Albus." Holly whispered.
Albus felt like crying out in relief. "You have no idea how happy I am to hear that, Holly. Because I think I'm in love with you."
Then they kissed again for what seemed like hours, only to discover it's only been five minutes. Albus felt like he was in a whole other world with Holly. That is, until a voice ruined that world.
"Well it's about time, little brother." James smirked at the couple, who were clinging to each other, with swollen lips from snogging. They didn't even notice the door had opened.
"Oh, I know right!" A voice said from behind the couple. They both spun around. Rose grinned at them. She had been awake the whole time they were snogging each other passionately. "I didn't want to ruin the moment. It was just so sweet! Wait until I tell Scorpius!"
Albus blushed extremely red, but luckily it was dark. He could tell Holly was blushing too. And of course Albus's brother and best friend (They seemed like they were there for everything) were there to experience his first kiss. At least he was pretty sure he had a girlfriend now, since they just admitted their feelings to each other. Now if he could just get Scorpius to stop being such a chicken...
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Alright, that's chapter 6! Definitely my favorite chapter 😉
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