The year after her brother James graduates, Teddy Potter returns to Hogwarts for her final year. With the Marauders gone, it should be a quiet, peaceful year despite the mounting tensions in the world outside of school.
The problem, naturally, lies...
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December in Hogwarts is unlike anything else in the whole world. The castle transforms for Christmas, with beautiful bright wreaths of holly and poinsettia decorating every single door and garlands of cedar and tinsel pinned to nearly every available surface. Everything seems brighter thanks to the fairy lights (made up of candles and real, glowing pixies) that stretch around every room and corridor, and the enormous Christmas tree in the entrance hall is like something out of a children's picture book.
While some professors have begun to ease up a little on work as they approach the holidays, others only pile on more work. It seems like McGonagall in particular is determined to completely overload them with homework, and the girls find themselves spending almost all their free time in the library practicing spells for their NEWTS.
"I'm going to fail everything, I'm sure of it." Mary groans, burying her face in the mountain of parchment spread out in front of her.
The table they've claimed in the library is by the window, and they frequently find themselves glancing miserably out onto the grounds below, at where a group of third year students are having a snowball fight and howling with gleeful laughter. At the very least, their enormously increased workload has successfully distracted Mary from dwelling too much on the mounting tensions within the castle. In fact, most days she seems entirely determined to pretend there's nothing wrong at all — she refuses to acknowledge the attack on her at all, and if anyone brings it up within her hearing she pretends she can't hear them.
"No, you won't." Alice says briskly, beginning to pack up her bag. "You might fail most things, but you surely won't fail everything. Come on, we have Potions next."
"Oh, cheers, Alice. That's made me feel loads better, that has."
Teddy laughs quietly to herself, making one last correction to her Ancient Runes homework before following Alice's lead and beginning to pack it all away. "What potion have you decided to do for the NEWTs project?"
"Me and Garridge have given Polyjuice a go." Mary says, "We regret it now, though. It's so difficult and complicated, and it's taking an enormous amount of extra time outside of class. We've to go and look after it every single evening, it's a total nightmare!"
Alice makes a face. "At least your partner is interested in getting a good grade. I'm with Dolohov, and he's more interested in hexing me under the table than working on our Draught of Peace. Shame, Merlin knows it could do him some good.
"You may not like him, but you're lucky to have been partnered with Black." Mary says, hauling her bag onto her back and following after her friends as they leave the library. "He's excellent at Potions and he hasn't tried once to hurt you! Plus," A smug, suggestive smile spreads over her lips, "He's certainly a lot of fun to look at."
"Oh, shut up." Teddy rolls her eyes, but she feels a mortifying blush beginning to steal over her cheeks. Merlin, what was wrong with her? She never would have reacted like this a few months ago.
