Chapter Sixteen: A Very Merry Weasley Christmas
Lina had never slept in a house with so many people before, one set of parents, seven kids and Lina herself but despite the explosions coming from the twin's room and the music from Charlie's she slept soundly.
Waking up the next morning Lina temporarily forgot where she was, she looked around frantically but at the sight of all the Holyhead Harpies posters she remembered and relaxed back into her pillow falling asleep again.
She woke up an hour later when something extremely heavy landed on her, it was Fred, the mass of orange hair and George laughing at them gave that away "get, off, me" Lina huffed trying to push Fred off her but he wasn't budging. "Fred!"
"Never!" He screamed back.
Lina looked around the room desperately, Ginny was awake and laughing and George was laughing by the doorway "help me!"
George looked from his twins and best friend "Nah" he shrugged.
"George!" She looked at Ginny pleading with her eyes "Ginny, help me please!"
Ginny scrambled off her bed but instead of helping she jumped on top of Fred putting more weight in Lina "someone help!" She yelled through her laughter.
"What the-" Charlie who had come to see what all the screaming was about stopped dead at the scene in front of him, Lima was being crushed under Fred and Ginny and George was doubled over laughing.
"Charlie help me!" Lina squealed. Charlie who was now laughing uncontrollably as well picked Ginny up and placed her on her bed then he grabbed Fred and threw him on Ginny's bed as well, Lina with some difficulty pushed herself up on her bed "my stomach hurts" she pouted.
"I'm sure it does, will you be alright eating breakfast?" He raised an eyebrow up at her.
Lina perked up "I think I should be alright" she then glared at Fred "you weigh a lot more than you think you would."
Fred gasped "are you calling me fat!?" Lina only shrugged in response.
"Alright you lot, come on mums been calling you for the last ten minutes, dad and Bill are home," Charlie said.
Ginny leapt off the bed and sprinted down the stairs "Bills our oldest brother" the twins informed Lina, they the. followed Ginny downstairs.
Charlie and Lina followed behind. Sitting at the head of the kitchen table was Mr Weasley, he had a thin build and like the rest of his children had flaming red hair that was starting to bald at the back, sitting next to him sat Bill Weasley the eldest child, he looked like his father with the same thin build and the fiery red hair but his was grown out past his shoulder and was currently tied in a ponytail, his left ear was pierced an, animal fang dangling from it.
Ginny had practically jumped into her brother's arm who, laughed and looked at the doorway where Lina and Charlie stood, his eyes scrunched up confused at the sight of Lina "mum" he called out "did you adopt a child while I was away?"
"What?" Mrs Weasley said entering a tray of food floating in behind her, she followed her sons gaze to Lina "oh this is Lina, Fred and George's friend she's staying with us for the holidays."
"Hi," Lina said waving shyly.
"She's also Sirius Black's daughter," Fred said through a mouthful of bacon.
There were several different reactions to this news, Ginny squeaked, Mr Weasely stopped eating, Mrs Weasley sent a sharp look to her son, Percy looked appalled, Charlie, Fred and George made no change in demeanour already knowing this information and a "bloody hell" came from Ron.
Lina glared at Fred "I'm dead now aren't I?" he asked, Lina wordlessly nodded, her anger written all over her face, maybe it wasn't too late to go back to Hogwarts.
"Sirius Black?" Mr Wealsey questioned.
"Yes, sir" Lina replied timidly.
Mr Weasley's face turned calculating like he was working something out "your mother was Marlene McKinnon wasn't she?"
Lina nodded "yes, did you know her?"
"My brothers were friends with her, she was an extremely talented witch" Mrs Wasley answered, her eyes glazed over but as quickly as it came it disappeared, she shook her head dismissing any sad thoughts she had "now, breakfast."
"Mum already knew about your dad, if she had a problem with it you wouldn't be here right now so don't worry" Charlie informed her as the pair sat down to eat.
Lina couldn't tell what she preferred, breakfast at Hogwarts or The Burrow, every time her plate got near to being empty Mrs Weasley would pile more food on it, by the time breakfast was over she was sure she had gained at least a stone in weight.
After all the plates were cleared from the table and in the sink magically cleaning themselves Mrs Weasley told all the children what they would be doing for the day. "Fred, George you two will be de gnoming the garden."
"But mum-"
"No buts, that's what you get for sharing personal information that Lina probably didn't want to be shared" Lina stuck her tongue out at them, the pair returned the gesture knowing they weren't getting out of this.
"Charlie, would you mind helping them?"
"Course not mum."
"The rest of you can help decorate the house for Christmas, your father insists we do it like the muggles!" She threw her hands up "well what are you waiting for, get to it!"
The first thing everyone did was change into appropriate clothing, the twins grumbled as they trailed after Charlie outside complaining how it was too cold, while the others were in the living room, a warm fire warming them all.
"What do you normally do for Christmas lee?" Ron asked Lina as she decided where to hang a star ornament.
"Well normally it's just me and my uncle, we stay up until midnight on Christmas eve and open one present each, he's not the best cook in the world so my aunt drops over some food the day before which we finish in like ten minutes. We open the rest of our presents in front of the fire and drink hot chocolate, sometimes we'll go for a walk and then I end up falling asleep wrapped up in blankets while my uncle reads The Tales of Beedle the Bard" Lina smiled thinking about her past Christmas's, they never had much but Remus always made sure that Christmas and Lina's birthday was special.
"Sounds quiet," Ginny said.
"It is but that's the way its always been though" Lina hung the star ornament on a branch in the middle section of the tree. "What about you guys, what's a Weasley Christmas like?"
"Loud" Ron answered.
"And don't forget about the fighting" Ginny chimed in.
"You two are making our Christmas's look bad" Percy snapped, he turned to Lina "there actually much calmer than there making it out to be."
"Yeah if you forget about the infamous food fight last year," Bill said holding Ginny up so she could put an ornament on one of the higher branches.
"Oh yeah," Ron said, "totally Fred and George's fault, I've never seen mum so mad."
"But it was fun" Ginny giggled.
"No, it was not" Percy mumbled.
"You only think that because you got a face full of mash potato."
By the time the five was finished it looked like Christmas had exploded in the Weasley household, the tree was overly decorated, snow globes covered up the free spaces on the mantlepiece, small flying Santa's were flying around by the paper chain covered ceiling but would occasionally swoop down, paper chains were also wrapped around every bannister right up to the attic. Mrs Weasley was extremely impressed with their work.
***
Lina's days leading up to Christmas were spent playing Quidditch in the yard with all the Weasley children or helping Mrs Weasley along with Ginny baking all kinds of Christmas foods.
When Christmas morning came Lina was woken up by not only Fred jumping on her but also George, Ron and Ginny "oh come on!" It took Lina twenty minutes to get all four Weasley off and when she did the five raced downstairs nearly tripping other up.
Pilled under the Christmas tree were tens of presents, Lina even spotted one with her name on it. "No presents until after dinner!" Mrs Wealsey yelled coming down the stairs already dressed, if she had come down even five minutes later half the presents would have been unwrapped.
"But mum-"
"No buts you know the rules, Ron." All the children but Lina groaned and dragged their feet to the table for breakfast. "Oh, Lina dear."
"Yes, Mrs Wealsey" she replied as bacon was placed on her plate.
"We received some presents from your uncle and friends, there all under the tree."
"Thank you."
Once they finished eating a lumpy package was placed in front of them all "one present won't hurt" it seemed everyone but Lina knew what the parcel was and immediately tore into it, Lina who had no clue opened it with care not wanting to damage what could be inside. She needn't of worried as the package turned out to be a black knitted jumper with a silver L in the middle.
"Lina got a Weasley jumper" Ginny called holding up her own green knitted jumper with a yellow G in the middle, Lina noted these were the colours of the Holyhead Harpies
"This officially makes you an honorary Weasley" Bill smiled at her.
Just like the rest of the week after breakfast was finished they were shooed out the room so Mrs Weasley could prepare the dinner. At three o clock, they were summoned back in to eat. The food was amazing, it was the best Christmas dinner Lina had ever had, of course, she knew her uncle did his best but nothing would ever beat a mother's cooking, most importantly there was no food fight.
When Christmas dinner was eaten with no leftovers to feed the family owl, Mrs Weasey had barely said the words to excuse them from the table when the kids were going for the presents. Lina now having more friends then she had ever had received the most presents from any Christmas, she received a lot of hot chocolate mix from Lucy, a step by step guide on how to be a Slytherin and how to be a Hufflepuff by Zonkos from Danny, an enchanted flower crown from Cedric, the flowers changed with everyone season, right now the flowers were pansies, cyclamen and red berries, in addition to the jumper from the Weasleys she also go some homemade fudge and an enchanted Christmas ornament with her name on it just like the rest of the Weasleys and finally from her uncle a year supply of chocolate frogs, liquorice wands, Berty bots every flavour bean and pumpkin pasties.
By the time everyone was finished opening there presents the excitement of the day was started to wear off and all the food they had been eaten started to kick in making the residents of the burrow extremely sleepy, everyone sat on sofas curled up against each other, fighting the urge to fall asleep, it was all peaceful until an owl swooped in through the open window, dropped something on Lina's lap and flew off again, Lina looked at the small package suspiciously she wasn't expecting anymore presents so had no idea who it could possibly be from, all the Weasley looked at her curiously as well.
"Who's it from?" Ron asked
"No idea" she opened the brown paper wrapping and a letter, a note and a small velvet pouch fell onto her lap, Lina picked up the note first.
"Your mother wanted you to have this,
Remus."
Lina's breathe caught in her throat, her mother, there was no way she was going to be able to open this in front of everyone. "Mrs Weasley, would it be alright if I opened this in Ginny's room?" Mrs Weasley could tell whatever the package was caused great personal emotions, she nodded her head and Lina left upstairs. She walked into the room closing the door behind her, she placed the note down and with shaking hands, she opened the letter.
My dearest Angel,
If you are reading this then that means I am no longer with you. I want you to know that I love you very much, I hope the world you are living in is one where you can live without fear, where you and your father are safe. I don't know how the years have treated you both but I pray you are happy and that your father doesn't blame himself for my death.
Attached with this letter is a necklace your father gave me for our first Christmas together as a couple, it felt only right for you now to have it on your first Christmas at Hogwarts. On the back it reads "Always in my heart, forever in my soul" I hope when you look at it you will think if me, and I'm sure your dad will tell you an inappropriate story to go along with it, egged on by James no doubt hopefully Lily, Remus, and Peter will stop them.
My sweet little girl be brave, have courage and be kind, this will see you through all the trials life can offer and most importantly, a lesson I'm sure your father would have taught you many times never take any shit from anyone.
Love always,
Mamma.
She didn't know and she never would, she would never know that her father would never tell her inappropriate stories while egged on by James while Lily tried to stop them, she would never know that her father never gave her any advice but maybe that was for the best, what Marlene hoped the future would hold was much better than the reality of her life.
She picked up the small pouch and tipped it upside down, a necklace with a silver chain pooled into her open palm, at the end of the chain was a pendant, it looked like a family crest but when inspected closer it was an S and M intertwined, Lina flipped the necklace over and inscribed on the back was "Semper in meo corde, anima mea, et in saecula saeculorum."
Lina smiled to herself, this was her mothers necklace, it was given to her in a time where everything was simple and easy, where anything seemed possible, it was hope that everything would be alright, Lina clutched the necklace just as Charlie popped his head through the door. "Everything alright Lina?"
Lina gave Charlie a genuine smile "never better."