Common Ground ⌁ Draco Malfoy [2/4] ✔

18

The first week was spent with Harry complaining to Ron and Emma about how the chance to talk to Mr Weasley about Snape and Draco always managed to slip away - Mr Weasley had had a lot of work at the Ministry and was always working late. Emma, while helping Ginny decorate the living room one morning, was distracted when she heard Mrs Weasley yelling happily outside, and then she heard one of the twins' cries from the opposite window. She dropped the tinsel from the Christmas tree, went over to the window, opened it, and poked her head out to see that a garden gnome had it's mouth over Fred's ankle, and he was jumping around trying to throw it off. 

"Hold still, hold still!" George exclaimed, chasing his twin, getting ready to shoot a spell at the gnome. 

"Not with your wand, George! Do you want to take my whole foot off!" Fred cried, still bouncing around the place. 

Emma frowned and looked over toward the garden to see that the twins had been pulling carrots out of the ground. 

"OK, stop moving..." George said darkly, approaching his twin. He rolled up his sleeves and said, "I'm going to pull it off."

"Why didn't you two just magic the carrots out of the ground?" Emma said loudly. 

Fred and George cried out again, but merely ignored Emma as they tried getting the garden gnome off Fred's ankle. 

"Get off me, you stupid, ugly, potato-looking -"

"Bill's here everyone!" cried Mrs Weasley as she entered the living room, where only Ginny and Emma were. "And Fleur..." Emma quickly pulled herself back through the window and shut it so that Fred and George were inaudible. She turned around to see a tall man with his red hair tied back in a pony tail. "Bill, dear, this is Emma Baranov. Lily and James' daughter..."

Mrs Weasley tried saying the rest of her sentence quietly, but Emma didn't mind being introduced this way. 

Bill nodded and said a loud, "Ah," as though he had already been told. He stuck out his hand for Emma to take, and shook her hand. "Pleasure to meet you. Of course, even if you weren't Harry's sister, I still would have known all about you. Fred won't stop talk- ow -"

Mrs Weasley had slapped him in the chest and pointed a finger at him. "Don't go teasing your brother."

Emma smiled and then walked over to the blonde French woman who she had once seen all over the daily prophet when the Triwizard Tournament was on. 

"Hi, Fleur," Emma greeted with a smile, shaking the woman's hand even though she did not stick it out. "I'm Emma."

Before Fleur got the chance to say anything, Ginny pulled Emma back over to the decorations piled up on the lounge. When Bill, Fleur and Mrs Weasley left the living room, Emma and Ginny both glanced at each other but said nothing as Fred's loud cursing could be heard from outside, obviously Stupefying the garden gnome. 

Christmas Eve night, everyone was gathered in the living room. A Christmas broadcast by Celestina Warbeck, apparently Mrs Weasley's favourite singer, was floating around the room from the wooden wireless, and it was getting louder and louder every time Fleur spoke. Emma could slightly understand Ginny's annoyance toward Fleur, as she was a rather blunt but unintentionally rude person, but she wasn't as bad as what Ginny had made her out to be. Emma would have loved a sister-in-law. 

Emma was staring up at the gnome on top of the Christmas tree, which only she, Harry, Ron, Fred and George had known was not angel. She didn't understand how the four boys thought it was ugly...it was really rather cute. It was painted gold and stuffed in a miniature tutu with wings. 

"Still worrying about the gnome?" said Ron, following Emma's eye. "Why...?"

"It's actually really adorable," Emma pouted. "You're going to let it go after Christmas, aren't you?"