In The Fight To Survive (Golden Trio Era) {4}

Merry Mirth

A/N: hey guys! Sorry for not publishing a new part over the last two weeks, but I was working and spending time with family for Christmas, and I was suffering from a bit of writers block. But I'm back now, and regular updates will be happening once again every Saturday. Love you all, comment below what you did for Christmas and what you got, and what you think of this book so far. X

George looked around in awe at the masterfully decorated Carra Manor. He was the last of their party of 58 to arrive, but he came baring two sacks of gifts like he was Saint Nicholas himself. Fred greeted his brother with a bright grin, that George immediately mirrored as they shared a hug. George had organised to bring a surprise for all of the kids that were attending the party. Every adult that was attending the party, and the handful that couldn't come due to plans of spending Christmas with their families (Angelina, Alicia, Oliver, and Vector), pulled some money together to fund the surprise.

They all put in a minimum 2 galleons each, those who were a bit more well off donating more, to spend on some extra gifts for each of the twenty-two underage kids that would attend the dinner party. Mikayla had gone out of her way to invite as many people as she could without putting herself, or the rest of attendees, in any danger of getting gatecrashed, that said the guest list was quite long for the Order's usual gatherings. Her extensive list had raised a few eyebrows during the planning stages, Arthur and Remus trying their hardest to get her to downsize the party as she'd have to give away her secret location to people they considered as strangers.

Mikayla wouldn't budge with her list, she knew everyone she invited to a certain degree that she could deem them as trustworthy, all apart from one man and a few of the kids, but she didn't see them as a threat at all. The man being Thomas Wilson, she has never met him before this party, he was only invited because he's the husband of an old friend of her's, Aoife Wilson (née Murray), who happens to also be Séan's sister. Surprisingly, Remus and Arthur were mostly worried about the kids babbling to the wrong people of who was in attendance of the party and putting a target on everyone's back.

Mikayla acknowledged their worries and placed a nifty charm on all of her invitations, it was a modified tongue-tying curse that prevented everyone from speaking about the party to anyone apart from those that also received an invitation. It will even work if the person is unaware that someone is eavesdropping on their conversation, their voices will be silenced immediately. That took her a while to work out the kinks of, which was why she didn't send out invites until two weeks before Christmas. She knew that this year would be tight for everyone to scrape together the funds to have a proper Christmas dinner, never mind the gifts they wanted to get for others.

Most of the Order were barely living off of the measly wages they got from their 'real world' work, while some of them struggled to keep a job outside of the Order or caring for their children. That's where she got the idea to host the Christmas party, instead of just having a small family dinner with some notable people missing. She even went as far as organising a Kris Kringle amongst the adults, to save them from feeling obligated on bringing multiple gifts for people they didn't know very well out of politeness. Mikayla made sure to give everyone someone that they knew, to prevent any awkwardness in the gifting department.

"Am I the last to arrive?" George questions as Mikayla beams brightly at him as she greeted him with a tight hug and an affectionate kiss on the cheek. Mikayla hums to confirm that he was in fact the last people to show up, while Fred carries the sacks of gifts over in front of the tree in the main sitting room. "I half expected you to ditch us to spend Christmas at the Johnsons' house." Charlie commented as hugged his brother hello, "and risk this one showing up to drag me out by my ear, no thanks." George gestures to Mikayla with one hand while the other moves to cover the ear that was cursed off.