What lies within?

Chapter 17: The Christmas Party

I wrote this a whole ass year or two years ago now but it's Christmas meaning I can finally post. Thanks for sticking around and for clicking on this it means a lot to me thank you all for reading :) please enjoy!

Gellert POV:

Albus hadn't convinced me and I was staring to think there was more to our recent interaction than he was trying to let on. Or maybe I was just blind to the truth. After a tormenting evening worrying about Albus, it was certainly a relief to wake up to a new day, a new start and a new-

'Gellert!,' my aunt banged two pans together very loudly in my ear, recoiling herself even though for her they were at arms length.

The sudden sensory assault caused my body to flinch, catapulting me out of my bed and onto the hardwood floor, 'Jesus-'

'Don't be blasphemic around Christmas, Gellert, I raised you better than that,' Tante scorned, opening my curtains without permission and stepping on my hair in the process.

'I'm so exhausted and yet you treat me this vay?' I complained, picking myself up and dusting off my nightclothes.

My aunt sighed, hands on her hips in a way that made me know I'd already lost whatever squabble we were having, 'If I, a woman in her mid-forties, can get up in the early hours of the morning to get to work then you should too!'

That's when I noticed there wasn't any sunlight coming through the newly opened window, 'Vait, vhat time is it?'

My aunt checked her watch, 'Four am on the dot! Lots of prep work to do for the party! and I'm not making the Dumbledore's do it, it's their first Christmas with us after all,'

'Four am?!' I exclaimed, extremely unimpressed by Tante's enthusiasm at this hour, 'You've voken me up at four am?!'

'You're lucky it wasn't three,' She replied, not caring about my obvious objections to the act of cruelty, 'I decided to give you an extra hour,'

I scoffed and said, 'You needn't have been so kind,' in the most sarcastic manor I could muster up when my brain was half asleep, like it should be!

'Stop dilly-dallying or we'll never have everything ready in time!' She hobbled to the door but then turned back around, 'and don't even think about putting one toe back in that bed or I'll sit you next Fern at the table-she's been waiting to show you her new trick-you don't even want to know,' and with that final threat, she was gone, leaving me to hurriedly get dressed before the threats got worse.

Once my hair was brushed, I made my way down the stairs and into the living room which was scattered with various items I didn't even know we had. There were boxes of tinsel, boxes of baubles, boxes of candles and boxes of toys I'm sure Tante was itching to bring to life. Christmas with my aunt was always good fun...and yet this is the first year I've returned to my home at this time. I suppose I just wanted to pretend I only needed myself for a bit longer...

My first Christmas with my aunt had definitely been a strange one- with my parents freshly divorced each one fighting to give me to the other I was lucky-really lucky-that my aunt had agreed to take me in, in fact, she offered. As a young boy, I'd never felt more alone and yet she made me feel so welcome, we had only really seen her at family parties, most of which she held, but once I moved in, none of the family ever came to one of her parties again. It was just me and her and all the interesting people she's met over the years.

However, the lack of family was not at all what made that Christmas strange. It was strange because it was the first year I did anything remotely in the spirit of Christmas-other than attending my aunt's party annually as usual. I had never decorated a tree, eaten tons of cheese, turkey, trimmings with gravy and I had certainly not received a single Christmas present, I had never even been carolling let alone had one of our special pre-party breakfasts. It was like a whole different world.