Amortentia (OC / Draco / Fred Weasley Love Triangle) (A HP Francise Fan Fic)

Chapter Twelve: The Yule Ball

The next few days leading up to Christmas Day and The Yule Ball was filled with excitement from all the older students. Everyone who was going to the Ball had found their dates, their dresses, and their robes. Gwen's dress was absolutely breathtaking. She was convinced she had never laid her eyes on something more beautiful. She ordered it from a muggle store, and her mother tailored it so it fit her like a glove. Her dad had let her splurge a little on price, since he knew how much she had longed to attend a proper school dance. His one condition was that she must send back a picture in it since he wouldn't get to see it on her in person.

Gwen, like many of the other students, had never stayed at Hogwarts during the winter break. Every year she had gone back to her family and spent the time catching up on all of her favorite parts of the muggle world. They had a tradition in their house where they would walk around on Christmas Eve and look at the lights all over town. Then they would go home and watch It's a Wonderful Life while Gwen and her Dad baked cookies from scratch the muggle way. Then on Christmas Day they would go to see their extended family.

On Christmas Day they would always start with the Thatcher side of the family and have breakfast. Her dad, Henry Thatcher, was the oldest of two children. His family was very plain. His younger brother, Uncle Matt, had married Aunt Jane and they had two children named Amelia, 16, and Eric, 13. They were perfectly muggle, and Gwen loved them, but none of them could sneeze fire at the dinner table. The only true plus was that her Grandparents knew how to cook an amazing breakfast. She would even be as bold as to say it was better than anything she had ever eaten at Hogwarts. Even though they only ever stayed a few hours, Gwen always felt 10 pounds heavier after leaving. Gwen's family was always ushered out of the home by her mother, Pearl, who would always talk about the dreaded "drive" they would be making to go visit her side of the family. Her family would then pile into the car drive back to their house before using Floo Powder to go to see the Thomas side of the family.

The Thomas side of the family was much louder, crazier, and scattered than the Thatchers. Pearl was the oldest of six siblings. Each and everyone of them magical. When all of the siblings and their children would arrive at the home of Oliver and Angela Thomas there would be 21 wizards under the same roof. Duncan, Freya, and Gwen were the oldest of their cousins on their moms side. The next oldest was Atlas, who would be arriving at Hogwarts next year, and the youngest was Suzette, who, if Gwen remembered correctly, was two years old. When the Thomas family was all together there was never a dull moment. Their family had been distantly descended from the Merrythought family, and her grandmother claimed that Helga Hufflepuff was a second cousin to some great great great relative. However, this didn't matter to most blood purist families, like the Malfoy's, because being a family full of Hufflepuffs was just about the equivalent of being a mudblood anyways. When Gwen's mother and her siblings attended Hogwarts each and everyone was sorted into Hufflepuff. Her grandparents, Oliver and Angela, had also been sorted into Hufflepuff house. Freya had been the only person in at least two generations to be sorted into a different house. This meant that even more so than most holiday festivities at the Thomas house always echoed with laughter and warmth. Her grandparents house reminded her greatly of the Hufflepuff common room. Their home was warm and cozy. The walls were decorated with thousands of family photos. The furniture was worn and soft. Gwen loved it there.

The idea of Gwen staying for the Yule Ball, while exhilarating, did make her feel homesick. She missed her family greatly. She missed her extended family. She wanted to see her little cousins. She wanted her grandmother's breakfast casserole. She wanted to watch It's a Wonderful Life with her parents. She wanted to wake up early and wait to open presents with Duncan. She hadn't seen or heard from her brother in months, and if she was honest, she missed him the most. She had written to him earlier in the school year, and never heard back from him. Gwen understood he was busy. She just never thought he would be too busy for her.