AMORTENTIA // Luke Patterson *COMPLETED*

•Chapter 28•

After what happened with the car, a lot of things have been on my mind. I know that material things can be duplicated, but what about living things? Unfortunately I haven't had the time to actually test out the whole 'living' thing. But I hope that I can before I go back to Hogwarts.

The last few days, I had been helping grandma get ready for Christmas Day. Christmas was one of the only holidays that our whole family could get together, and needless to say - we needed to prepare for days, to make the event successful.

Thankfully uncle George convinced aunt Angelina, to come and help out with the preparations. I do believe that no matter how hard we all tried to make this day perfect, something was always bound to go wrong for us.

"Everyone should be here in about an hour, so you can go get ready." Grandma says to me as she adds some more carrots to her stew. As I was about to walk away she reminded me that it was a necessity to wear the infamous - letter jumper. Grandma always made it a habit for everyone to wear it, even if they hated the idea.

I ran upstairs and quickly put on my jumper, while pulling my hair into a bun - just so it's out of my face, for the havoc that was about to arrive at the burrow.

When I went downstairs again, Fred (my cousin Fred) had arrived with his sister, Roxanne, aka Roxy.

"Roxy!" I shout as I run up to her, she embraces me.

"Good to know that you like her more then me." Fred says from behind Roxy.

"Oh dear Fred, I don't like her more then you, I can just be alone with her for longer then you. I suppose it's all a matter of being able to deal with someone so annoying." I hug him, despite my words.

"Always a pleasant welcoming when you're hear." Fred mumbles.

I let go of him, and turn my attention back to Roxy. I grab her hand and pull her to the living room section of the house.

"So, dad told me about what happened with your friend. I'm very sorry about your loss."

"I appreciate the condolences, but the death of my best friend is not something that I want to talk about, especially on Christmas." It did hurt me, to see the look of embarrassment on Roxy's face, but it is a very obvious thing - to not mention death on Christmas Day.

"Oi! You two, guests are here. Make yourselves useful and greet them. Thank you." Fred peeps his head out from behind the wall to tell us.

Roxy and I giggle, before getting up to greet everyone.

I head out first, seeing uncle Charlie, and mum and dad there.

"Uncle Charlie?" I'm pleasantly surprised at his arrival, as he isn't usually at family events - he still lives in Romania with all the dragons. Although I hadn't seen him in so long, he still looked the same as I remember - especially with that tiny green dragon on his shoulder

"Why, is that Danielle Potter? How big you've gotten since I last saw you." He extends his arms and hugs me.

"That's usually what happens in 5 years." I see him frown a little before I'm pulled into another hug by my mother.

"How are you feeling? Has the stay here, helped with your grief?"

"So far so good, uncle George has made sure that I was busy most days, and those days that I wasn't, I dealt with it in a way that wasn't as sorrowful as I would've expected."

"I'm glad. I know it can be hard to loose -"

"Alright dear, I think she would rather go outside to play with her brothers and cousins, then talk about the events over the last few days." I was actually really glad that dad had told mom to stop, he somehow always knew when things were getting too much for me, even if I didn't know it myself.

"Go have fun outside, the boys have been waiting for you to join them." Dad pats my head before walking away. I turn back and grab Roxys hand, before running outside to join the boys.

"Finally the princess decides to join us." James mocks me, as he sees me, earning him a slap from Albus.

"I admit that I haven't been the best person to be around these last few days, but I'm okay now. Besides, today is one of the only days that our whole family is together again. I have to enjoy the happier things, that others might not have."

"I'm glad you're seeing things in that way again, now come on, we're starting a game of quidditch." Albus was never a fan of quidditch at school, but when all the cousins got together, he was all for a little competition.

"Really quick, why is there a car in the middle of the garden?" Fred asks, we all turn our attention toward the light blue car.

"That was my fault, it's my present for grandpa, I couldn't park it in the front of the house, or else he would see it." I admit, everyone seems confused at the very boring present, but hopefully my makeshift gift would make grandpa happy.

"Right. So what positions are we playing?" James asks.

"I do believe that I'll be keeper." We all turn around to see Teddy standing there.

"In your dreams lupin. I'm the only keeper here." James laughs, showing off his cockiness.

"Then let's have a real game. We need 14 players and their are 14 of the younger kids."

"There are only 13 of us, Teddy." I call out.

"Not today, looks like your father invited someone without your knowledge." I furrow my eyebrows, and run up to the house, to ask dad who he invited.

When I swing open the door, I am met with the face of Draco malfoy, standing in the middle of the room, while everyone around him, looks just as shocked as I am.