Hermione sat and stared at the un-decorated Christmas tree. Everyone else had left the room for various reasons. Molly was getting cocoa for everyone, with Ginny helping her. Harry and Ron had gone up to the attic to get a few boxes of decorations. Fred, Angelina, Fleur, and Bill had yet to arrive, but were expected at any moment. Arthur wasn’t home from the Ministry yet, but should be home shortly.
When Hermione heard lots of familiar voices in the kitchen, she went to greet the newcomers. Harry and Ron arrived in the kitchen at the same time as her. Their arms were loaded with boxes, and a few more were floating behind Harry. Fred, Angelina, Fleur, and Bill were all standing around the hearth, while Molly was looking them all over and giving them big hugs in turn. Hermione walked across the kitchen to give her own round of hugs.
Molly started chasing everyone out of her kitchen so she could finish getting the food and beverages ready. Everyone gathered around the tree. Ginny and Molly brought loaded trays in and Arthur was right behind them having arrived just after everyone else left the kitchen.
Hermione opened one of the boxes and started going through the ornaments. On top was a bunch of shrunken Weasley sweaters. There was one for each of the Weasleys. Many looked worn and some of the cuffs had strings hanging off of them. Molly saw what she was pulling out, and walked over to start hanging them.
“I managed to get one old sweater from everyone, and decided to shrink them to make these ornaments,” Molly explained
Tears came to her eyes as she saw the P, G and C sweaters. There would never be a need for more sweaters for them. This was the second year without them, but they were still sorely missed. Percy, George and Charlie had all been killed the last year of the war.
Fred looked out of place without his look-a-like in the room. He was a lot quieter than he used to be, or so it seemed. Angelina was the one that had gotten him back to work at Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes. He was managing to laugh more and more. He knew George would have wanted that. It was just hard to live their dream when one of the dreamers was gone. Not everything in the store was a joke anymore, though the majority of the products remained that way. Laughter was the best medicine after all.
Percy had shown he was a true Weasley before he died. He brought proof that some of the Ministry of Magic were really under Voldemort’s control. That really helped the Order of the Phoenix finally beat the Ministry’s crazy ordinances and rally most of the wizards in England against it. Things had changed greatly. Arthur had a much higher position, and there was talk of trying to make him Minster some day. He said he would decline though. It isn’t what he wants in life.
Charlie had been killed trying to protect the children of Hogwarts when Voldemort finally broke in. His parents were proud of his bravery.
Everyone had started listening in to hear what other stories would come from the Christmas ornaments. Molly even had sweaters up for Harry, Hermione, Fleur, and Angelina. Only Harry and Fleur were actually family, but it was only a matter of time. Next year at this time Hermione would officially be a Weasley, and everyone had a suspicion that Angelina would be also.
Fred pulled a yellow canary ornament from one box. “This reminds me of one of George’s best ideas! He was the one that came up with the idea for the Canary Creams. Ah, those were the days,” he said as he hung the ornament right up front.
Bill retrieved a few dragon ornaments out of a different box. They were slowly flapping their wings.
“Mom, remember when Charlie brought these home from Romania? They almost carried the tree off! That was when he put the slowing charm on them so they couldn’t flap fast enough for it to happen again.”
Harry removed a few black cauldron ornaments from yet another box. “Remember the report Percy had to do on cauldron bottom thicknesses. He was such a bore that summer,” he said with a laugh while ornaments flew around the tree, finding branches to hang on.
Ginny sat to the side and looked thoughtful for a moment. Then she went to the door and cast a summoning charm. In a few minutes, a bunch of fairies came flying in, and the entire tree began to twinkle.
“Now I feel like I’m back at Hogwarts the year of the Yule Ball! Everything was so beautiful and sparkled brightly. I remember how much dancing Harry and Ron did,” Ginny exclaimed with a laugh.
“Ef not for dat year, I would ‘ave never met my Bill. I am glad we ‘ad the tournament. I just weesh dat the last challenge ‘ad ended differently,” Fleur grabbed some bows from a box and spread them evenly around the tree with a spell.
“Ah, I was wondering where these were! Here are all the baby ornaments! They have to go on the tree,” Molly exclaimed excitedly as she unwrapped lots of glass balls.
Each one had a picture of a baby on them, and inside a toy spiraled around. They all shined a different colour.
“Each toy is what the baby liked most as a child. My mom had made these for us. It took me years to work out how to get the colours right, but I was finally able to do it.” Molly smiled with tears in her eyes.
Harry brought out a box that looked brand new. “Here are some new ornaments! I had a few made to remember the changes of the past year.”
Everyone gathered around to see what he had brought.
Harry pulled out what looked like a framed picture, with a hanger on it to put it on the tree. The picture was of Ginny and himself facing each other at their wedding. Ginny looked to be glowing in happiness, as did Harry as he finally officially became a part of the family that had adopted him years before. Everyone passed it around. Ginny was the one who finally hung it on the tree. Everyone was remembering the small family wedding. Only the Weasleys, Remus Lupin, Remus’s wife Tonks, Neville, and Luna had been present. They kept it small due to Ron’s inability to stand for a long period of time. Ron had only been mobile for a few weeks by the time the wedding took place. He had a long road to follow before his strength fully came back.
Harry pulled out a ball that seemed to have captured a moment in the Weasley kitchen within it. All of the family was gathered there, eating a great feast such as only Molly Weasley was able to create. It seemed to have been taken just a few months earlier, when everyone had gathered to celebrate the birth of Remus’ and Tonks’ baby girl, Emma. Tonks sat at the middle of the table, glowing in motherly pride.
Everyone knew that Tonks wasn’t the proper way to address Nymphadora, but she still hated her surname and continued to insist everyone still call her Tonks. Lupin was her new last name, but Tonks was like a first name. She had even adopted it as a middle name.
Before Harry could pull the last ornament out of the box, Ginny worked her way over to him. Raising her hand for quiet, she paused for moment before addressing everyone.
“Harry and I have an announcement to make. We just found out this past week that we are going to parents! All of you will have another baby to play with come autumn!”
The entire room erupted in laughter and exclamations of joy. Molly rushed over and gave both the parents a huge hug.
“It will be wonderful to have a baby in the family again! I can’t believe my baby is going to have a baby. Oh this is so exciting,” Molly cried in joy.
“How wonderful! Congratulations Harry, Ginny! You have no idea how excited I am to find out I will soon be a grandfather,” Arthur added in enthusiasm.
As the room finally quieted down, singing was heard from outside:
Here we come a wassailing, to see the pixies shine.
Here we come a wondering, some great food for to find.
Love and Joy come to you, and to you great wassail too.
Remember Hogwarts and have yourself a Happy New Year,
Have yourself a Happy New Year.
Everyone gathered around the door as Fred opened it. Tonks and Remus who held baby Emma stood outside the door. Emma cooed along as Tonks and Remus sang loudly. Laughing, they came in the house after finishing the loud chorus.
“It is so great to see you! Ginny and I just made an announcement before you got here. We are expecting a baby next autumn,” Harry said as he ushered his friends into the house.
“Congratulations!! Emma will finally have a playmate. I’m sure she will love that. I’m so happy for the two of you. It will be great seeing James’ grandchild. I just wish he were here to see the child as well,” Remus said in joy.
“Wotcher everyone! I’m so happy to see everyone and hear the happy news also,” Tonks added.
“Well, I have one more new ornament to pull out of my box here. I guess we should show it now, Ginny,” Harry walked back over to the tree. “This is actually an old ornament, but I found it at my parent’s house. I thought it deserved a spot on our tree though.”
Tears filled Remus’ eyes as he saw the ornament. He held it close to his heart a moment before passing in on.
“Oh my! Harry, this means more then you will ever know,” Molly exclaimed as she saw the picture in the pink glass ball. “That is Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and my brothers, Gideon and Fabian. I have no idea when it was taken, but it definitely deserves a place on our tree.”
“It was taken at an Order meeting the year before Harry was born. Lily had it made into an ornament for the following Christmas. It was one of her favorites,” Remus told them.
At that moment, Emma broke into baby laughter. Everyone turned to her and smiled at the simple joy she showed. Her laughter was catching, and soon everyone in the room was laughing along with her.
It wasn’t very long before Tonks started singing again, and this time, the entire room joined in.