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BOOK TWO: CHAPTER NINE

As Veronica sat eating breakfast with Charlie and Bill at the Gryffindor table, she couldn't help but admire the beautifully decorated Great Hall. It always amazed her when, overnight, the Great Hall would go from plain and boring to wonderfully festive. Not just for Christmas, but for all major holidays. This morning, any students going home for the Christmas break would be heading down to Hogsmeade station at 11 AM to catch the Hogwarts Express back to London. Veronica had loved spending Christmas at Hogwarts last year; it was the first time since her grandparents died that she got to celebrate Christmas again, the first time she received any presents, and she had adored the intimate Christmas dinner they had had with the few teachers and students that stayed behind for the holidays. It was wonderful. But this year, Christmas would be even better. It would be Veronica's first Christmas at the Burrow, and she was both excited and nervous at the same time. She knew the Weasley's loved having her around, but she hated feeling like she was intruding on their family. However, the excitement was rolling off of Charlie and Bill, which helped to calm her nerves a bit.

As Veronica sat at the Gryffindor table chatting with the Weasley brothers, she subconsciously reached for the bowl of fruits in front of her and added a large spoonful to the pancakes and syrup that were already waiting on her plate. If someone had asked Charlie at that moment, he would say Veronica never looked happier. While she enjoyed savory food, sweets made her soul happy. She could eat desserts every second of every day. It got to the point where Charlie and Bill had to actually force her to eat proper food, otherwise she would go straight to dessert at every meal. Once they were satisfied she had eaten enough food with actual nutritional value, they would laugh as they watched her pile her plate high with sweet treats. Veronica always seemed to have an additional stomach saved solely for dessert. She could be full to the brim, but once dessert was served, it was like she hadn't eaten in weeks.

At breakfast, the tables were laden with fresh fruits, pancakes, waffles, syrup and a million different spreads and sauces to choose from. At lunch, there would be bowls full of candy and chocolate, and Veronica always gravitated towards the many chocolate options as she much preferred chocolate over candy. Though, she could never say no to a sherbet lemon. Finally, at dinner, the dessert options were endless: from cauldron cakes and trifle, to chocolate eclairs and her personal favorite... TREACLE TARTS! Not to mention the many bowls of ice cream that adorned the tables, causing her affinity for the sweet treat to increase drastically.

The house elves that worked in the kitchens of Hogwarts had grown very fond of Veronica since she first came to the school last year. She suspected it was due to her aura as house elves are technically magical creatures, but Charlie insisted it was from their own free will and was attributed to the fact that she treated them better than they've ever been treated by wizardkind. Either way, when they realized that she had a sweet spot for sweets, they made sure the tables were extra stocked with all her favorites, and everything was strategically placed in front of her usual spot at both the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. Seeing as she always sat in the same spot and consistently alternated between the tables, it was easy for them to know exactly where she would be sitting each day in order to place everything she loved within arms reach of her seat.

In her first year at Hogwarts, she had snuck down to the kitchens before bedtime and asked the elves if she could take some treacle tart back to her dormitory. The elves' eyes widened at her asking rather than demanding or threatening, and they all immediately ran around the kitchen bringing her as many treacle tarts as she could carry in her arms. From then on, it became a daily ritual. However, one day earlier this year, Quidditch practice had run late and she hadn't had time to go to the kitchens, but when she got to her room and pulled back the curtains of her four-poster, she found a plate piled high with treacle tarts. On her pillow, she found a note: