✧HAPPY FESTIVITIES✧

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The next morning was abruptly disturbed as James came running, only for Aurora to jump and interrupt Snuffles cuddling position beside her. 

"OH RORY! COME ON BREAKFAST!" She panted seeing the other two look sort of guilty coming in, but before she could even get a 'goodmorning' out. Her attention went straight to Snuffles as she shouted as she pulled him closer.

"SNUFFLES!" The other boys had been laughing, but it meant a lot to the young girl to see her brother keeping her promise. And so when he switched back he looked to the rest of the boys. "Food?"

James nodded in conformation and Aurora pushed them all out saying that she would be out in a minute or two as she wanted to get dressed.

"Come on Rory, we can wear our PJs to breakfast here! We don't have to get ready for breakfast." That had the three look in confusion, not understanding the concept of 'getting ready' for something so simple like eating breakfast.

"Really?" 

"Yeah course, what were you gonna—" Sirius waved it off and told his mates that it was alright. But the fact that Aurora could just simply go down in the clothes she slept in and that would be enough was bewildering to her.

All she had done really was throw her hair up into a bun to head off downstairs, and the smile she had received from her brother was all she needed in terms of looking alright.

"Oh there you are, lets get you set up darling..." Aurora giggled as Mrs.Potter started piling food onto the girl's plate and before she could say anything about not being THAT hungry. Sirius nudged her.

"Better eat Rory, we have a long day." He spoke, shoving down his counted third waffle. The girl looked quite nervous, and it had only been Remus to offer her a smile and the given understanding.

Was Mrs.Potter really going to let her eat all of it? There was a universal rule of eating what you took, but did it really transfer off this far when she herself didn't put it on her own plate.

So the girl picked around a bit, eating the fruit, the pancake and half of the meats. Altogether she ate 1/4th of the plate while the rest had taken second to third helpings.

Maybe Mrs.Potter confused her appetite with a boy's? 

Because her eyes had been sanctioned on her for some time making her even more uncomfortable. "I can make you something else if you prefer darling, Sirius is right, we're probably going to have a late lunch." Aurora simply shook her head and said that she wasn't that hungry.

"Oh rubbish Rory, Mother isn't here. You can eat however much you—" Her desperate stare had silenced him within the moment, but the idea lingered into the air. The boys knew of course, how Aurora was given strict diets at home and that caused her to stop eating at Hogwarts for a whole half of the semester.

All of them were tasked with the mission of getting her to eat if they saw her, inviting her to the grand hall or even to go to the kitchens. And sooner or later it brought back her stomach, but now she was just nervous to eat all of what's on her plate.

"What does he mean by that Aurora?" Mrs.Potter attempted, and the girl looked down. Feeling utterly sick for sharing, but Sirius wasn't. He adored talking ill of their family and so he explained it.

Making Mrs.Potter lost for words as there wasn't anything more damaging to a young girl's mind than that. And when James jumped into the conversation as well, he shared the fact that she skips meals at Hogwarts.

"You eat as much as you please Aurora, especially in this house." Aurora nodded, and the only sanction she had for comfort at the moment had been Remus' smile and lack of involvement in the conversation.

He knew well enough that if it made her sink in a posture that they should end the conversation. And it was easier said that done considering he had to nudge James. And kick Sirius from under the table. The girl was already experiencing anxiety about being here, amping it up is just going to be worse in experience.

However, the entire group of them decided it would be best to go into the muggle town. Luckily, on the last Hogsmeade trip the young girl had switched out her gallons for some pounds and was off with the rest of the group to enjoy the day.

Remus wasn't complaining that she stuck by him most of the time, because in case the rest hadn't noticed...Aurora still had questions about the muggle world, and of course he was going to answer every bloody single one if it meant her clinging to his arm.

Guess his ability to overproduce heat was working out for him rather well.

The girl was wearing a beanie and her trench coat, it was rather posh for the area but it was the closest to toned down and not a cloak as she could get.

But the girl wanted other things, she wanted jeans, she wanted to see how muggles dressed. So he helped her to the point of finding all these little knick-knack stores for her to purchase the strangest things.

But in reality, all she wanted was a camera. The ones that print out on the spot and don't move. That indeed fascinated her as it was an 'in the moment' capture. He adored hearing her versions of things, but when it came time for paying, he was utterly shocked that she knew how to convert and understand.

"I have been to the states Remmy, not entirely clueless." 

"Right, says the gal who didn't know that jeans come in shorts." 

"Or skirts, merlin that just sounds awfully uncomfortable." Aurora of course offered numerous times if he wanted to get something. In payment for being her tour guide of course, but the others were moaning and groaning at the idea.

"Rory, can I borrow some—" 

"What happened to thinking ahead Siri...Or did it give you a headache?" She questioned, and Mrs.Potter simply chuckled, absolutely loving this childish banter.

"Come, the tree lighting is about to start." The elder witch offered, only making Aurora squeal with delight as she had far too excited to see it.

Only to be passed a small pamphlet with songs on it. "Remmy, who's Mary?" She asked, pointing to the song 'Mary did you know?'

"Oh, that's er...That's who gave birth to Jesus." She nodded, reading the lyrics a few times over and smiling at how magical muggle religion had been placed.

"So there's Jesus, god and...The holy spirit?" He nodded, waving his hand at the methods. 

"Jesus was born on Christmas, that's why muggle celebrates it." So it wasn't in correlation to Yule at all?

"Then...Easter is—" 

"He was resurrected by easter, it's all speculation Rory." She nodded again, reading the song over and over to get more of feel as the damn little caption didn't give much an offering.

The people surrounding the tree were patiently waiting on the tree to light, and so Remus nudged her to pay attention. And caught the entire scene of the tree suddenly sprouting both lights and fireworks.

"Muggles have fireworks?" She gasped, the girl was so new to this world that he defiantly wanted to share this knowledge as he was a half-blood.

With the tree being introduced, the rest of the people had begun to sing 'Carol of the bells', and although she had sung perfectly well...Too well as Remus had been appalled to know that the young girl actually had a lovely singing voice, that he couldn't wait to hear her when it turned softer.

There were two more songs to get through, and for some reason the entire group had felt the spirit of this night as Sirius and James were beside one another smiling and giggling. Either set of parents adored the sibling-like relationship that they all had with each other that it aided the festival to the brim.

"Good evening everyone, I'm sorry to tell you that our pianist took ill this weekend and we won't have any—" Sirius nudged his sister as she took the moment of a break to look at the rest of the songs.

"You should go up and play." He issued, and she hesitated. "Siri I've never even heard of these songs." 

"Oh bull Rory, you can sight read." She rolled her eyes and she shook her head, growing a blush and so he hooked his arm over her shoulder.

"Come on, I'll even be your page-turner." 

"Siri come on, I don't even know the—" It had been too late, Sirius grabbed his sister's hand and pulled her through the crowd.

"My sister can play, she's brilliant at it!" The women who had been speaking into the microphone was shocked to hear that there was a willing girl who wanted to save the day.

"Show them what Ravenclaw really stands for Rory." He whispered into her ear, and so she nodded at the kind muggle who was more less likely hosting the event.

Mrs.Potter and Mrs.Lupin had been distracted, and while looking for the missing two James simply pointed. And the instant smile graced the adults. "Since when could she play the piano?" Peter asked, and Remus shook his head yet again but said that they should get closer for moral support.

Luck would have it on Aurora's side that whoever was in the choir had the pianist notes, and she simply looked it over once again before judging the given time for an introduction, yet the conductor looked to her and nodded for her to start.

It wasn't that fancy of an introduction, and Rory learned early on as her fingers slid up and down the keys that muggle music was simple and less constructed than that of magically gifted musicians.

Perhaps because they could charm a simple rhythm and be fine to make it even more challenging and impossible for a single person with only two hands to ever perform.

She had looked at both 'Mary, did you know?' As well as Hallelujah a few times as they were the biggest in pertaining to her and their clarity for being interesting.

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"oooo...ooooo....Mary, did you know? That you're baby boy, would one day walk on water...Mary did you know? That your baby boy, would one day save our sons and daughters..." Sirius chuckled as he flipped the page and smiled to his sister who suddenly began drawing her guardians for the evening closer as well getting some rather bright smiles from that of the choir's crowd.

"Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?... This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you..." Her voice started to carry, and one of the others had offered a mic to come closer to her given area. One had already been there for the piano, but one closed in Aurora's face and it allowed an echoing response for the rest of the people to listen to her.

Remus on the other hand had known that she was an angel, especially when it came to the more uplifting songs as he had called it earlier on.

"...The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again...The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of the lamb..." Aurora was getting into it now, and Hope finally had gotten the washing relief that the girl indeed was having fun.

However the next song didn't entail much of the piano and it allowed her to actually feel the strength in the song as she began to start up again, after the conductor's response that is.

"I heard there was a secret chord, that David played and it pleased the Lord...But you don't really care for music do ya?" She smiled, looking to her brother who decided it was finally time to join in as well.

His mother had forced a few lessons on him as well, enough to get by in this very moment as nudged her shoulder in clarification to wanting to join.

And so he had.

"...Well it goes like this, the forth the fifth...The minor fall, the major lift." She challenged, and he grinned ear to ear and retaliated with the next verse. "The baffled king composed, hallelujah."

After hearing how the chorus responded to the word hallelujah, Aurora had joined in a segment of finishing the word as he started it once more.

Taking her hand up for a moment to flip the page, only for it to do it itself. She giggled at the use of magic out in public, but she doubt that anyone at all had noticed.

"Well your faith was strong, but you needed proof..." She chuckled and started to sway at the continued method of their little singing battle, but he was having trouble reading and playing along.

"...You saw her bathing on the ro—" 

"Roof...The beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya...She tied you to the kitchen chair, she broke your throne. And she cut your hair, and from your lips she drew the hallelujah..." She giggled, flipping his hair out for him that cracked up a few families close by.

As the choirs continued the actual chorus and hums, she continued to nudge back and forth as she didn't know if it was her turn or not.

But since he wasn't going to sing, she nodded along. "Well baby I've been here before...I've seen this room and I've walked this floor. I used to live alone before I knew ya—" 

"...And I've seen your flag on a marble arch, and love is not a victory march...It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah."

As the local school participating in this event seemingly made it more dramatic than it had to be, the flare that Aurora had been adding really sparked their interest in being rather on the spot. Even challenging the conductor to furiously combat with the rest.

"Maybe there's a god above, but all I've ever learned from love—" 

"--Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya..." Sirius interrupted, and she rolled her eyes once more before turning the page to combat the rest. 

"And it's not a cry that you hear at night? It's not somebody who's seen the light..." 

"...It's a cold and it's a broken...Hallelujah..." As the others took over once again, she leaned into her brother. He knew she would get emotional, but her starting to cry was a bit much for him that he shook his head in amusement.

As the song had finally found it's end, Sirius pulled her close and the entire audience had erupted into applause just like the last.

To be fair the rest could be done with no piano whatsoever, the choirs children all crowded around the brother and sister to give them praise and applaud as well.

Questions popped up, like: "Where do you go to school?" 

"That was beautiful! Are you in choirs?" 

"Are you from around here?"

It had all been too much, and when of the boys in the group had asked if she had wanted to get something to drink afterwards but Sirius stepped in as he knew Aurora was never good with crowds or lying.

"Not from around here, and I don't take drinks from strangers." She offered, and it automatically had the rest of the girls adore her attitude as they continued to crowd around her. Yet the women who had voiced her dismay of not having anyone to play had given her own thanks as well as an ordainment from the tree.

She tried to deny it, but she finally took it with Sirius groan in agony. So she thanked the women for the opportunity to go and find the rest of the group, only to see James opening his arms wind.

"Merlin Rory since when can you bloody sing?!" He offered, and Remus was sort of at a loss at to what to do, but when she was smiling up towards him all breathless and glowing her too pulled her into a hug.

"You having fun yet?" 

"I've been having fun since we left Hogwarts Remmy...Merry Christmas Eve." She giggled, but then a small tap on her shoulder as the conductor asked if she was available to play in the church that evening.

"My family live far away sir, I'm sorry...We were going to leave soon..." She offered, and he understood in the instant and gave her another prop for coming to the rescue.

"You know we could've gone if wanted to Rory." Remus offered, but she shook her head in the instant. 

"No offense to them and their beliefs, but not a fan of their branched off puritan relatives..." He choked on his own thoughts as he had completely forgotten that aspect, but all too easily had his mother tackled Aurora in a hug.

"Darling that was beautiful, where on earth did you learn how to play?" Sirius took the hit for that question as well, saying that they had all learned, only she was the one to keep up with it.

As the family moved along to get a cup of hot coco before all appointing back to the Potter house. Their house elf had been preparing a meal for them to return to and Mrs.Potter caught Aurora speaking with the elf in a very calming manner.

"You know you'll get in trouble kidnapping those two, correct?" Mr.Potter joked, but Mrs.Potter of course swatted him. 

"How god awful is her family? To shoot down her dreams of potions mistress, to starve her?" The mere thought was atrocious, but to say it out loud?

The dinner had gone wonderful, it was a lot of laughs and good times. But deep down, Aurora missed Regulus. The poor boy was probably sulking it up in Germany by himself, it was a holiday...It was in that moment she decided that she'd make it up to him as well.

Yet when it came down to it, the boys went off on their own. And even though the mother's offered to keep her company, she decided that she was going to read a bit before heading to bed.

Bidding everyone goodnight, and even knocking on the door to James' room did she shout goodnight to her brother through it before heading down the hall.

"You're going to bed?! Rory it's barely ten!" She rolled her eyes. 

"Siri I go to bed when I'm tired like a normal person, besides...You four are probably going to wake me up at the ungodly hour of eight anyway." She spoke, turning back around. Only for James to peek his own head through the threshold. 

"Actual at nine, mum won't allow anything before nine." Aurora's laughing only ended as she found herself in her own room completely alone.

It was then that Euphemia had shared the new information to Hope at the fact that their mother hasn't been feeling her properly. To say either of the women were enraged was an understatement of the century, and to add to the notion Mr.Potter told the group that her mother shut her down for wanting to be a potions mistress.

"What...What does that bring exactly?" 

"She'll make potions dear, whether that's for medical or personal use like Fleamont here has done." He offered, yet Mr.Potter had merely been entertained at Hope's muggle antics, just like most pureblood are.

Aurora hadn't gone sleep just yet, instead she had finally opened Rabastan's letters. But not knowing which one was sent first made her worry, but opening a gift before Christmas was considered bad luck.

Instead she looked at the package, this could be the one. They usually opened one at night anyhow, but it never happened lately as they were grown up.

Taking the letter first did she kindly rip the seal to unfold the letter entirely.

Aurora,

Please forgive me Rory, I never meant to be so bloody dumb or insensitive to the idea. It must've been Avery and McNair's words of encouragement, slip of the tongue. I never never never never would take advantage of your kindness like that, truthfully sometimes I wonder where we stand, it was my dumbarse way of asking how you feel about me I suppose.

Please write me back, I cannot go into the new year knowing you're upset with me.

-Raba

Oh it had been a good attempt at getting her to feel guilty at deny him. And so she closed her eyes and searched for the next letter in question and ripping the seal as well.

Aurora,

At least at home I could understand you being busy with family, but you being at Hogwarts and ignoring me hurts even worse. Please Aurora please, I'll do anything. I'll take a bloody essay about a muggle story at this point, just-

She hadn't bothered with the rest, now he was making fun of her? He was going to get an earful, or better yet...Perhaps he could simply take the opportunity to make him jealous. That could work as well.

Since she had given up on the letters she simply decided it was time for bed, curling up into the small little ball and propped the pillow as sleep was all too easy to come to.

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Date Posted: 03-13-19

Time: 7:47

Words: 3661