Artemis Black - Fred Weasley

The hearts desire

Artemis had never in all her life had such a Christmas dinner. A hundred fat, roast turkeys; mountains of roast and boiled potatoes; platters of chipolatas; tureens of buttered peas, silver boats of thick, rich gravy and cranberry sauce — and stacks of wizard crackers every few feet along the table. While Artemis did miss Remus dearly, she couldn't deny that she was having a fantastic Christmas with her friends, in fact it was one of the best Christmas's she had ever had.

Artemis pulled a wizard cracker with Fred and it didn't just bang, it went off with a blast like a cannon and engulfed them all in a cloud of blue smoke, while from the inside exploded a rear admiral's hat and several live, white mice. Artemis had nearly shat herself when the blast from the fire cracker and everyone around the table cracked up while the girl blushed red

"shut up" she mumbled out with a pout

"Its alright Artie, nothing is going to happen to you while I'm here to protect you" JJ said and puffed his chest out bravely

"Don't worry Maybank, im sure I can look after her just find" Fred said harshly from across the table and Artemis furrowed her eyebrows

"calm down boys, I don't need protecting, I can look after myself" Artemis said with a grin and the boys nodded their heads, knowing she was right, but that didn't mean that they wouldn't do everything that they could to protect her.

Up at the High Table, Dumbledore had swapped his pointed wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet, and was chuckling merrily at a joke Professor Flitwick had just read him. Flaming Christmas puddings followed the turkey.

Percy had nearly broke his teeth on a silver Sickle embedded in his slice. Artemis watched Hagrid getting redder and redder in the face as he called for more wine, finally kissing Professor McGonagall on the cheek, who, to Artemis's amazement, giggled and blushed, her top hat lopsided. Artemis made a mental note to thank hagrid later on, when he wasn't flat out drunk.

When Artemis finally left the table she was laden down with a stack of things out of the crackers, including a pack of non-explodable, luminous balloons, a Grow-Your-Own-Warts kit, and her presents from her friends, she had been twisting the ring on her finger for the whole night. The white mice had disappeared and Artemis had a nasty feeling they were going to end up as Mrs. Norris's Christmas dinner.

Artemis, her Hufflepuff friends, Harry and the Weasleys spent a happy afternoon having a furious snowball fight on the grounds. Artemis had stopped playing early due to her getting so cold and all of her friends had seemed to have piled a heap of their clothes on top of her, even though she continued to tell them not too, because they would just end up getting sick.

Fred made his way over to the girl who was sitting against a tree, breathing into her hands to try and warm herself up. Fred sat down next to her and pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her

"wh-what are you doing?" She asked him in shock and surprise

"Keeping you warm obviously" he said with a chuckle "and trying to warm myself up"

Artemis sighed and laid her head on his chest, not caring about what anyone would think, he was warm and she craved warmth

"So, do you trust me enough to tell me why you are getting so cold now" Fred asked her and rested his chin on top of her head and held onto her tightly.

"I do trust you Fred, there is only two people in this world that know what it is and I'm one of them. I want to tell you Fred, I really do but... but if someone else found out, someone important then I could get into a lot of trouble, and I mean a lot" she muttered out and he nodded his head and leaned back against the tree and they sat in silence, watching the others continue to throw snowballs at each other