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･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.
THE EVE OF CHRISTMAS BRINGS WITH IT several feet of snow that covers the grounds in a blanket of pure white, frigid howling winds that whistle shrilly against the day, and a considerable amount of unformidable worry instilling in Lydia.
That's not to say she isn't delighted to be celebrating the holidays with her family or the fact that she, like many other Hogwarts students, is free from the ever growing stress of school work. It's just that, never in a million years, had Lydia expected to be standing at the foot of the front door of the Potter cottage for Christmas. It's not as if she hasn't been here before. Godric's Hollow shares quite a few fond and pleasant memories with Lydia from a childhood long abandoned, the quiet and peaceful streets scattered with a handful of passing people from Muggles to witches and wizards - some who wander into the warmth of the pub and others who are on their way to celebrate the day together. She even remembers the cottage in all its quaint and cozy charm as not much has changed, despite the lush hedges surrounding the perimeter stone wall fence growing a little taller, now just bare branches and icicles, and the wilted vines on the cobblestoned house reaching a little higher on the structure and grazing the sills of illuminated windows.
It's much different than her home in central London, less busy and less congested. The air even feels cleaner and lighter, and it reminds Lydia of how she had once favoured the idea of one day growing old in the little village.
But standing there now has whole deeper implications weighing heavy on her shoulders because she's no longer small Lydia Fletcher who once upon a time liked playing out in the surrounding fields with James Potter. Now she's simply Lydia Fletcher who is dating James Potter - and while she adored the Potters undoubtedly, their older age made them often more reserved and modest. She wasn't quite sure how they would deal with her being James's supposed girlfriend, if they would react at all. Her own family sure had, though not in the way Lydia expected the Potters would.
Apparently a factor that James forgot to mention when "inviting" Lydia to his home for Christmas was that, while James had told his parents, the Potters had already invited Lydia's family over unbeknownst to her. And it's the only reason why her father had found out about her dating James Potter. Supposedly. Her father, William Fletcher, is always a quiet and pleasant man, never really raising his voice to anyone and especially not his children, and always the sole person her and her siblings go to for advice and comfort. It's comforting to know he had at least been gladdened to hear the news, always thinking James Potter to be a - and Lydia distinctly remembers him saying - "wonderful young man." Really, it had only spiralled from there. Her brothers, Charles and Timothy, had managed to take time off from their work and arrive to Godric's Hollow right on schedule with them (with Charles bringing his very pretty Parisian newly wedded wife named Louise), and while Lydia hadn't seen them for a while, they had surely made certain to make up for lost time by relentlessly teasing their sister for finally getting a boyfriend.
