I woke up Christmas morning to Fred and George shaking me to wake me up.
"What do you two idiots want?" I said. They started singing random noises and got on one of the abandoned beds next to mine.
"It's Christmas Bella!!" George said and Fred kept singing.
They pulled me out of bed and threw a shirt at me. I was only in my sports bra and I didn't realize I was only wearing sweats. I didn't really care so I threw the shirt on and groggily followed them to the common room.
There was a pile of presents separated for all the Gryffindor's who stayed. One for Fred, George, Ron, Harry, and I. Harrys was by far the biggest pile and then mine. Fred opened the present I bought him which was a set of personalized fireworks which when he set them off would spell out Weasley, Fred, and Wicked. I got George the same thing but instead of wicked had them say Weasley, George, and P + G. He was so excited about the P+G one he ran out of the common room to show Pacifica.
I got Harry and Ron Candies from Honeydukes since Harry wasn't allowed to go. Fred shoved two presents in my face.
"Ones from me and ones from our mum." He said.
I opened his first to find he also got me personalized fireworks, mine said Arabella, Dupont, and showed a quidditch chaser scoring a goal. When I opened the one from his mum he, Ron, Harry, and I all opened at the same time as to not ruin the surprise. They were matching sweaters with our initials on it. We all threw them on and admired the wool sweaters.
"I hate maroon." Ron said. Mine was dark green, how did she know that was my favorite color? I hugged Fred and opened my presents from my dad and mum. They each got me a present, our tradition is to guess which one is from which. One of the presents was a quidditch repair kit for my broom. The other was a box full of fireworks, candy, and a few books. I was always pretty good at this game, the quidditch kit was from mum and the books from dad.
Mum primarily cares about quidditch and dad will always buy me some sort of prank item, candy, and a book. The books this year were very interesting ones though. Jobs in the Magic World for adventurers and rebels, Crazy Quidditch Stories, and a notebook that would send messages to the person who has another one. Sort of like what muggles call email but as a journal. Dad always liked to try out new magic things. The only thing written in there was "Merry Christmas -Dad"
The rest of the week went by pretty quickly. Fred and I used up most of the fireworks my dad gave me and half of the ones we got each other. Harry told us all about how the muggles celebrate the new year. We found it all quite odd but decided to celebrate how the muggles do for fun. We made some cheesy banners and decorations. Fred and George snuck some fire whiskey from the kitchen and brought it up to the common room.
"Pour me some of that my man!!" Ron said to the twins with a tall glass in his hands.
"Very funny little brother. We may only be 5th years but you are far too young for that" They said back to him. The twins poured themselves, Pacifica, and I each small glasses of the fire whiskey. We sat around talking, playing chess, and telling stories until midnight. At around 11:00 Ron and Harry fell asleep on the couches and all of us were about 3 drinks in. Surprisingly the twins got very drunk very fast so they stopped at 3. Pacifica and I (despite weighing significantly less than the twins) stopped at 4. We didn't want to be drunk just in case a professor or someone came in.
The twins were fairly tipsy by the time midnight hit and George and Pacifica went back up to Georges dorm. Ron and Harry were dead asleep when Fred checked his watch.
It read 11:50.
"10 minutes" Fred said in a calm voice. "Listen ummm... Arabella. It might be because I'm very close to drunk or something else but you look so stunning right now." Fred said. I blushed.
"Thank you Freddie." I said.
11:55.
"You are so beautiful Arabella. like seriously so beautiful." Fred said.
"Thank you. Weasley. You aren't too bad yourself." I said.
11:58.
11:59.
"There's a minute left Fred." I said as a loud snore came from next to me.
"So close." I said covering Fred with a blanket. Midnight.
"Happy new year Freddie." I said, I was sort of wishing I wouldn't be the only one awake. I grabbed blankets from the chest in the common room. I covered Fred in a blanket and then covered Ron and Harry who were now about to fall off the couch. I took a seat and opened the journal to dad.
"Happy New Years dad. I miss you. -Arabella" I wrote.
"Happy New Years kiddo. I miss you too. Your mother is asleep on the couch. Couldn't even make it to midnight. What a party animal she is. - Dad" showed up on the paper.
(Possible TW- talk about depression and anxiety/being in a bad place)
Tomorrow is that last day of our holiday break. I woke up groggy but surprisingly not hungover at all. I walked downstairs to find George and Pacifica both sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee in their hands. Harry and Ron were playing chess. Fred was no where to be found.
"Where's Fred?" I asked as I sat down.
"Breakfast." Ron said focusing on chess. I stood up and went down to breakfast.
"Morning" I said to Fred sitting next to him. He was shoving eggs in his mouth and smiled at me.
"You are such a pig sometimes Weasley" I said imitating Hermione.
"You love it Dupont" He said shoveling more eggs into his mouth. We all 4 spent that whole day getting ready for school to start again. Tomorrow was another early morning and if I'm being honest I'm not ready for us to go back yet. I cant believe this year is already half over. That night I decided to go up to the astronomy tower after dinner. I normally left earlier than everyone else so they didn't expect much. I loved to come up here and think. I would sit by the railing and let my feet dangle off the edge. I held the letter I got from my mum a few weeks ago in my hands.
I never cared about what she thought of me before. Never. I never cared what anyone thought other than maybe my dad. I mean was it Fred? Was it Hogwarts? I used to get in so much trouble at Beauxbatons, detention every day. There were days I was the only one there, days the teacher would let me leave since they knew I would be back the next day, and times where they kept me late to try and force the problems out of me. The truth is I didn't care. I couldn't care less about school, and I was too good for them to cut me from the quidditch team.
Then, when I got expelled my life just went even more down hill. I mean I've been an emotional, traumatic, mess since birth but being expelled was the icing on the cake. It was embarrassing and the look on my parents face made me fall into this hole.
Over summer dad took me to a muggle psychiatrist behind my mums back- she doesn't trust muggles. The doctor was the sister of a witch so she knew all about the wizarding world and was very accepting.
"The tests show severe anxiety and depression." She told my dad and I. He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. I saw her 3 more times in the summer. She writes to dad about me, I tell her about my mood and how I'm feeling and she gives me ways to help. I love what she's done for me but it didn't change the fact that I had messed up.
My mum talked to me about finishing school for troubled witches. Some boarding school in Wales. We visited for a day and watched the girls learn. They sat up straight, hair perfectly pulled back, and sipped tea. It was your generic boarding school. Dad took one look at the girls and walked out.
They fought the whole way home about me, I sat in the back with my mouth shut.
Tears welled in my eyes and I heard footsteps approaching. Guessing it was a professor coming up to bust me I grabbed my broom and went to head down. The door to the tower pushed open and I said, "I'm sorry professor I was just heading down." I turned around expecting McGonagall but saw Fred.
"What's wrong." Fred said looking angry, "Who hurt you? It wasn't me was it? It better not have been." He said trying to help. I shook my head no and wiped my tears.
"Just thinking I guess." I said calming myself down.
"About?" He said.
I looked down and shook my head. "The past."