Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(168) Holiday Haze

The Price manor was packed.

Something Florence never thought would happen in her lifetime, but there it was, each and every room occupied for the holidays. Their big holiday party. The manor was so packed that other people had to share rooms for everyone to fit.

The whole Weasley family was present. With the obvious exception of Percy, who still continued his agenda against his own family. Ron, Harry, Ginny and Hermione Granger were scheduled to arrive in a week. Fortunately, Sirius was kind enough to leave Florence's old room unoccupied for her and Fred to use. George had to bunk with Charlie and Bill, who were sleeping in the biggest guest room.

They had spent one whole day putting up all the decorations. Sloan also came home that day with the perfect sized tree for the living room, Florence and Sirius going down to the basement to look for the tree ornaments.

"I forgot how much stuff is in here. It might as well be a museum." Florence said as she turned on a light, coughing slightly due to the dust particles swirling in the air. She would occasionally bump in to a few things, making her frown, "I have to clean this basement out when I get the chance. I don't think we even need half the stuff in here anymore."

"Be careful, you might end up getting rid of some family antiques." Sirius said, "Your ancestors will haunt you. They love their antiques."

"Maybe Sloan will know which ones to keep," Florence said, making a mental note to ask for his help when she eventually cleans out the basement. She paused, seeing a box with the least amount of dust sitting on top of it, "This must be it." she said, stepping over other things to reach it. "Come on, Sirius, let's get out of here."

She turned to find him sitting in front of a box, the lid sitting beside him as he ransacked through it.

"What'd you find?" Florence asked, setting the box of ornaments aside to sit by Sirius.

He lifted an old looking camera from the box, before smiling, "This was your Aunt Marlene's camera. I thought she had it with her that day..." he held it in his hand for awhile, before handing it to Florence, "She and that thing were inseparable. The minute her parents got it for her that one Christmas day, she couldn't let go of it." He took a stack of pictures out, looking at them one by one with a glint of nostalgia in his eyes.

He showed one to Florence. It was a picture of her mum, laughing at the camera as she held up a tiny baby in her arms, swaddled in bright red cloth with a small Santa hat on its head, Gabriel right beside her, his hands in a weird angle as if he were scared that the baby was going to fall.

"Happy Christmas." Sirius smiled as he handed it to her, Florence looking at it with teary eyes, the sight of her once youthful and happy parents warming her heart, "They're probably spending the holidays together now... The first one in more than a decade of being apart."

"Jane and Gabriel, finally together again," Sirius nodded.

After looking at more pictures, the two finally went up with the Christmas ornaments, by that time the tree was already standing upright, which was evidently a courtesy of Fred and George magic, since Molly was now scolding them yet again about using magic in the house. Again, it was weird for Florence to hear so much noise in her childhood home, but she wouldn't want it any other way. It somehow filled the void that her mum left. She realized, with a heavy heart, that it was going to be her first Christmas without her.

But she wasn't alone, and she was thankful for that. She had the Weasleys, as Fred had told her several times that his family was hers now too. She had Siris and Remus, Sloan and Julien, and even Alanna who dropped by for a few days during the second week of December. She had thought that she would be especially depressed over the Holidays, but she found herself basking in the joy of having an idea of what a complete family looked like.