Secret Santa
Caitie, I hope that you enjoy these two little ficlets :) I hope that you had happy holidays and that you have a great 2021!
Dani
Start of A Friendship
May 4th 1997
Charlie Weasley stood over a newly dug grave. Nymphadora Lupin 1973-1997. Beloved Mother, Wife, Daughter, and Friend.
He couldn’t believe that bright feisty Dora was just gone. He felt numb and he couldn’t stand the sniffling and the sobbing that he heard around him. It was bad enough that Dora and Lupin had lost their lives to the war but his own brother, Fred, also lost his life. Cut down too short in the prime of his life. But Dora had a family, a baby son who now had no parents.
Charlie stiffened as a baby’s wail reached him. He glanced over to see Mrs Tonks rushing away holding a wailing bundle tightly to her chest.
His gaze returned to Dora’s new grave and let his thoughts drift back in his mind to the very first time, he had met her and how they had become friends in the very first week of First Year.
September 1st 1984
Charlie Weasley followed the rest of the children trailing after the huge man up the stairs into the castle. He had waited for so long for his turn to come to Hogwarts. He had heard his parents’ stories of the castle and it was unfair that two years ago, his older brother, Bill got to come.
As Charlie pondered this, his attention was caught by the strands of bright pink hair peeking out of the school hat the girl on his right was wearing. He was so mesmerized by this that he came to a complete stop, causing the children behind him to crash into him and everyone else in front.
Children started to cry and a stern-looking woman hurried over to the small group.
“What happened?” She quickly asked as she helped a little boy get up from where he had fallen.
Charlie gulped and glanced at the girl, who was somehow still standing on his right. He let out a little gasp. Somehow, her hair colour now was a mousey brown and not the vibrant pink that he had seen not even a few minutes earlier. That was so COOL in his opinion and he wondered how she could do it. She looked straight at him and quietly put her finger to her mouth.
Silently, he nodded. She didn’t want people to know.
It took a few minutes to settle everyone down and the woman introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, the deputy headmistress. She led the group of first years into the Great Hall and once again, Charlie’s attention was diverted as he glanced up at the beautiful clear night sky that was the Great Hall’s ceiling.
It was twenty minutes later when he learned the girl’s name- Nymphadora Tonks and sadly she was sorted into Hufflepuff.
A few minutes later, he himself was sorted into Gryffindor. His brother, Bill, excitedly greeted him to the house. Charlie forgot about Nymphadora Tonks once the food appeared on the table.
September 8th 1984
Nymphadora “Dora” Tonks had been at Hogwarts for one week. A week in which to get used to being away from her beloved parents. She very much missed her parents. She had never been separate from them until now. While she had been very excited about going to Hogwarts because she had grown up hearing all about the magical castle and how her parents had met, it was very daunting actually being here.
There was also the matter that she was a Metamorphmagus. A witch who could change her appearance to different shapes. When she was little, changing her body into different shapes was very fun. But now it wasn’t so fun. Her Hufflepuff roommates, Sally, Rose, and Susan had taken their first look at her bright pink and immediately laughed. Sally called her a freak and made her cry. Since then, Dora tried to keep her hair a light brown which was her dad’s hair colour.
Dora was happily doing her homework in her little corner of the library which she luckily found a few days beforehand. It was nice and quiet and the best part of it was that no one tended to go near it so Dora could sport her bright pink hair as much as she wanted.
But the quiet didn’t last long, as she heard two boys arguing nearby.
“Charlie, NO! I am with my friends now. Why don’t you go and find your own friends?” One boy said to the other.
“But Bill, I want to be with you! You promised!” Charlie who was much younger-sounding replied.
“Not now, maybe later okay?” Was the answer.
Next thing, Dora heard was one set of footsteps walking away as quiet sniffing began. She felt sorry for this Charlie because all he wanted was to send time with the older boy. So she found herself coming out of her little corner to comfort Charlie. She found him standing by himself looking past the bookshelves.
“You okay?” She asked.
The boy jumped at her question and spun around. “Where did you come from?” He exclaimed.
Dora shyly pointed to her corner. “I came from there. Do you want to join me?” She had no idea why she said that but it just felt right.
He nodded and came up to her with his hand held out, “Hi, I’m Charlie Weasley!” His eyes went wide as he noticed her bright pink hair.
Dora internally moaned and prepared herself mentally for his rejection.
“OH, You’re the girl from the Welcoming Feast! I really love your hair! How do you do it?” He asked all excited.
It took Dora a minute to process the fact that Charlie was excited to see her bright pink hair and accepted her. She didn’t say anything for a second too long because Charlie’s face dropped and he mumbled a “never-mind” while starting to walk away.
“Wait! I just realized that you like my hair. Not everyone does.” Dora said, “I am Dora Tonks.”
“Why? I think that it looks awesome. How do you do that?” Charlie replied.
“Well, I am a Metamorphmagus.”
“You are?! COOL! I thought that they were very rare. So what can you do?”
Happy that she got to show off her rare magical talent, Dora started showing Charlie the different nose shapes she could do and was delighted over again when he exclaimed with glee with each new shape.
That is how the friendship of Dora and Charlie grew. Since they were from different houses, they would frequently meet in their little corner of the library especially during the cold winter months. Charlie encouraged Dora to try and make friends with her roommates and eventually, she became okay friends with at least one of them. Dora showed Charlie that he didn’t have to be in the shadow of his big brother, William and he could pursue his own interests.
Frivolous Time
Hermione sat in a quiet corner of the Burrow’s garden reading her year 7 textbook in preparation for her return to Hogwarts. Next minute, she felt a fly land on her nose and she smacked it away while continuing to read her book. The persistent fly was determined to land on her nose so she swat at it again. And again. And again.
Mumbling little curse words under her breath, Hermione moved away from her corner but that didn’t stop the fly. Hermione tried her best to ignore the fly and almost succeed at doing so when she caught the sound of quiet laughter coming from the direction of the house.
She bookmarked her page and got up and wandered in the direction of the laughing which had surprisingly stopped completely once she had stood up as did the annoying fly which had flown away in the direction of the house as well. Suspicious of what was going on, she moved forward quietly towards one of the trees that stood in the garden. As she came closer to the tree, two very familiar boys sheepishly peeked out of the sides of the tree.
“Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley! What are you doing?!” She exclaimed as the two boys, but especially Ron looked guilty as hell trying to look like an innocent eleven-year-old boy which he definitely was not.
That is when Hermione noticed that he was holding something in his hand.
“Ron, what do you have in your hand?” She asked quietly.
“Um…nothing.” He stammered out nervously.
“RONALD WEASLEY! show me what you have in your hand!” Hermione barked doing an impressive imitation of Mrs Weasley.
Slowly he opened his hand to reveal the annoying fly that had been buzzing around her head beforehand.
“It was just a joke.” Harry quietly said as Hermione’s face started to turn red in preparation of yelling at the two of them. But then she realized that for the first time in forever it seemed, they had the time to do silly things like making a magical fly buzz around her head. The revelation made her giggle which confused the two boys before they too started giggling in response.
Half an hour later, a very puzzled Molly Weasley found the three of them sitting in the grass laughing as each one took their turn magicking the fly to annoy the other two.