CHAPTER TWELVE:

JINGLE BELLS

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      Christmastime wasn't exactly a favorite of Nova Nott's. 

      This was due to the fact that Christmas was mostly spent silently at the Nott manor. The twins would get up, open the few gifts their father had gotten them, and then retreat back to their bedrooms with nothing else to do until dinner time came around, where they would then sit at the long table and try to make small talk, which was neither Nott twins' forte. After the awkward dinner, that was that. Christmas was over and the next morning, their father would be up and already at work before either one of the twins had even fathomed getting up.

      So when December reared its ugly head, Nova was feeling slightly dejected. Theo was spending more time with her since Greengrass had pointed it out to him, so she supposed she was grateful for that, but the looming dread of another Christmas with her father was bringing her spirits down. Which was something that the Weasley twins noticed when she was talking to them in the kitchens the night before the next D.A. meeting that Potter had finally gotten around to scheduling. 

      "That sounds like the worst Christmas ever," Fred (she was getting better at telling them apart, but the big F on his sweater certainly helped) mentioned as he bit into leftover turkey from dinner that evening. George nodded his head in agreement but didn't speak, for he had chocolate pudding shoved halfway in his mouth. 

      Nova shrugged. "I'm not a big fan of it, but I'm used to it. What's Christmas like at your house? Weasley mentioned something about being on the outs with one of your brothers. Peter, or something like that."

      Both of the twins scoffed. "Percy. Yeah, he's a git. Doubt he's celebrating Christmas with us this year. Might be better without him, though. All he does is make mum upset and if he's going to do that, then I certainly don't want him there," George answered, rolling his eyes. "Thinks he's too good for the family."

      The Slytherin girl nodded. The people she loved the most were some of the ones who hurt her the most. Her brother, her father. She thought that maybe it was like that in other houses as well. She'd never have imagined the Weasleys would be feeling that way, but they surprised her everyday. 

      Nova woke up the next morning with feeling slightly better. Today was the D.A. meeting, and it was something Nova had been looking forward to ever since Potter had announced the date and the fake Galleon had burned in her pocket in the middle of Arithmancy. When she arrived at the Room of Requirement, she spotted Weasley and Granger hanging around and waiting for Potter to start the lesson, so she made her way over to them. Weasley gave her a smile of acknowledgement while Granger launched into speech.

      "Any plans for your holiday, Nova?" Granger asked, and Nova shook her head.

      "Nothing of significant importance." She stood for a few moments as Weasley and Granger stared at her expectantly. When Granger slightly raised a brow, Nova understood what she had done wrong. "Oh. Right. Do you have any plans for the holiday, Granger?"

      "Just skiing with my family."

      Nova's nose crinkled. She looked at Weasley, the redhead shrugged, as unfamiliar with the muggle term as Nova was. "What is skiing?"

      Granger's cheeks tinted red. "I'll show you sometime, but it's difficult to explain."

      She wouldn't have had time, either way. Potter cleared his throat and mentioned that they would be reviewing, since he didn't want to teach anything significant that they would probably forget over the holidays. 

      "We're not doing anything new?" Smith whispered, but the arrogance of it was enough to propel it to reach Nova's ears. She gritted her teeth. "If I'd known that, I wouldn't have come."

      "We're all really sorry Harry didn't tell you, then," Fred Weasley said loudly, and Nova resisted the urge to laugh. Even Granger looked like she wanted to laugh, but quickly disguised it as a cough when a small giggle escaped. 

      "We can practice in pairs. We'll star with the Impediment Jinx, just for ten minutes, then we can get out the cushions and try Stunning again." Nova had become accustomed to making her way over to Longbottom whenever Potter said they were working in pairs, and Neville sent her a small smile when she stood next to him.

      When they started practicing, Nova noticed how much Longbottom had improved. He froze her with the jinx three times before Potter announced they were working on Stunning once more, and even then, Longbottom had managed to knock Nova over. Granted, it wasn't a very strong push, and Nova had more or less fallen over for the sake of Longbottom feeling better, she had still felt the small tug of her feet that would have tripped her had she not propelled her body downwards. 

      Potter called the end of the meeting after an hour. "You're getting really good," he mentioned, and his smile was so wide that Nova wondered if it would crack his lips open. "When we get back from the holidays we can start doing some of the big stuff. Maybe even Patronuses."

      Nova felt a twinge of excitement rush through her when she helped Longbottom stand from her recent Stunning spell sent his way. He accepted her hand with grace, and flopped up once he was righted once more. 

       "Longbottom," she said before he could fully leave. He turned to her in confusion. "Are you going to St. Mungo's over the holidays?" she made sure to speak lowly so no one else would hear, and he gave her a soft smile of appreciation for the fact.

      "Yeah. I reckon I'll go over sometime with my gran. You?"

      She hadn't stepped foot in St. Mungo's since the night her mother had died. She wasn't sure she would ever again. "No, probably not. I hope everything's okay when you do go. Merry Christmas, Longbottom."

      Neville Longbottom gave her another smile. "Yeah, Merry Christmas, Nova."

      Once Longbottom had left, the twins mentioned that a few of them were going back to the kitchens to have a celebratory holiday dessert. Nova saw that Granger and Ron and Ginny were included in the group, but noticed that Potter was staying back to chat with Cho. When she raised a brow and gestured to them, Fred snickered.

      "You're thick, Nova. He's only fancied her from the get-go."

      "Forgive me for not noticing what Potter's love life is like," she replied, rolling her eyes. She followed the twins to the door and left in a group with them. She thought it was a bit overdramatic that they couldn't all leave at once, but Potter insisted on leaving in small groups of three. Once they stepped into the kitchens, Nova plopped down on a chair and immediately asked for whatever chocolate dessert the house elves had on hand. Winky rushed around the kitchen in a flurry, knocking over pots and pans in her haste to get Nova what she wanted. 

      Granger and the remaining Weasley siblings still attending Hogwarts made their way into the kitchens five minutes later. Weasley sat down next to her, and she held out some of the chocolate cake she was eating as an offering. He grabbed a fork from the center of the table and took a large bite that devoured most of the helping, but Nova didn't mind. She knew Winky would be willing to give her more if she asked.

      "Is anyone else excited to be working on Patronuses?" Ginny Weasley asked with some excitement as Winky set down a piece of pumpkin pie in front of her and flinched violently when Granger tried to offer her a knitted hat. "I wonder what mine will be."

      Nova had wondered that as well. From her knowledge of Patronuses, she knew that the animals produced often reflected on the person that was casting the Patronus spell. What would her animal reflect? Before she could think on it too hard, Fred and George grinned.

      "We expect our Patronuses will be something dashingly witty and incredibly handsome," Fred mentioned, winking at Nova in an overdramatic fashion. The Slytherin simply rolled her eyes. "Maybe I'll get a stallion. Or a phoenix."

      "Patronuses often reflect personality traits in the person conjuring it," Nova said simply, examining her nails. "I'm assuming yours will be along the lines of a toad. Maybe a rodent, if you try hard enough."

      "The harsh sarcasm is not appreciated," George said, ruffling her hair. Nova sent him a harsh glare and reached to the back of her head to adjust her ponytail. "And we'll get you back for it. But in the meantime, what do you think your Patronus will be?"

      "I'm not sure," Granger offered when Nova looked like she was thinking much to hard. "I'm hoping it will be something intelligent, like maybe a eagle."

      Nova could see a huge eagle flying around Granger when she finally did produce a Patronus. Still, her mind was on what her Patronus might be. Something that was loyal, since her loyalty to Theo was one of the things she prided herself on. She couldn't think of much else. Everything, it seemed, came back to her twin.

      The six of them sat in the kitchens for a little while longer before Fred and George suddenly grinned wildly, looking towards Granger and Ginny Weasley, who were wearing equal expressions of mirth. Nova raised a brow, slightly intimidated by what she found when she looked at the twins, but only because they were directing their grins towards her.

      "I reckon we should get our revenge now, don't you think?" George asked his twin, who nodded happily before waving his wand over the top of Nova's head. She snorted when she looked up and realized the twins had put a measly twig of mistletoe above her and their little brother's head. While Weasley's cheeks tinted pink, Nova just rolled her eyes.

     "That's your big revenge plot? Really? May I mention how ashamed I am that this is all the Weasley twins could come up with?"

      Fred nodded. "Mention it all you'd like. We'll just be heading back to the common room, if you'll excuse us," he added, and the four of them walked towards the portrait before slipping out silently, one by one.

      "Your brothers are losing their touch, Weasley." She reached up and tried to knock the mistletoe aside, but it seemed to be permanently stuck. "I'm heading to bed. Night, Weasley."

      Nova went to step forwards after she had gotten off her chair, but she couldn't move. It was like there was an invisible wall, blocking her from moving forwards and towards the portrait the twins had just walked out of. She pushed again, but her hand hit what felt like a shield.

      As Nova stared at the mistletoe hung above them, she realized it was enchanted. She reached her hand out behind her, to try again, but she couldn't stretch her palm past the invisible force surrounding the two of them. Ron didn't seem to realize this, for he started got up from his own seat and started walking backwards and trying to get away.

      "The mistletoe's enchanted," she said, however it was unnecessary. He was thrown back, nearly landing on top of her and knocking the two of them over. "Merlin, Weasley, I told you it was enchanted! Did you not believe me?" She pushed the boy off of her and smoothed down the skirt of her uniform, grumbling underneath her breath as she used her hands to push herself off the ground.

      "I was hoping you were just wrong," he argued, letting out a humorless chuckle. "Don't know why. Godric knows you're never wrong about anything." His tone had a bite to it that she didn't appreciate, especially since it wasn't her fault they were facing the mistletoe problem.

      "What's that supposed to mean?" Immediately, Nova was defensive.

      "That's really not the point right now, is it? We've got to figure out a way to get out of here." Nova rolled her eyes when Weasley stupidly tried to step back once more, and found himself getting shoved forwards and nearly colliding into Nova once more. She reached out her hands to balance him, giving him an annoyed look.

      "Do you know nothing about enchanted mistletoe?" The look on his face provided her with an answer. Rolling her eyes one more, a habit she was getting familiar with around anyone with the surname Weasley, she crossed her arms over her chest. "There's no way to get out unless we kiss."

      The entirety of Ron's face went red. From where Nova was standing, she could see that even his ears tinged the color of a sunburn. It would have been slightly endearing, if he didn't have a look of complete fear on his face. Nova tried to not feel offended, but it stung her ego just a bit. "W-well... that's not gonna happen," he stuttered out, voice an octave higher than it should have been.

      "Am I that repulsive, Weasley?" Nova rasied a brow, curious to see what his answer was. He was certainly looking at her like she repulsed him, his eyes wide and a slight twinging of his lip that suggested he had just tasted something disgusting. And while she still clung to that last shred of not being offended, she knew that deep down, she was. 

      "W-what? That's... that's not the point."

      Nova's eyes bulged. "That's not the point? Are you saying you are repulsed by me?"

       "Nova, listen," Weasley groaned, and he almost stepped backwards once more before he seemed to realize that would be an awful idea and planted his feet on the ground. "The point is that obviously someone put this up - my bets are on my lousy twin brothers and their stupid friend - "

      He was silenced when Nova reached up and slid her arms around his neck, the cold of her hands meeting the warmth of his neck. His words cut comically short as he audibly swallowed, tugging at the collar of his shirt. Nova could see that his cheeks were tinged a brighter red than his hair. "What, erm... what are you doing?"

      "Getting us out of this mess since obviously you aren't going to do anything."

      It was annoying that she had to get up on her toes (he'd grown an inch or two since the first Dumbledore's Army meeting, when she'd first noticed the height difference), but since Weasley was frozen in place, the weight rested on her shoulders. As she leaned forward, she gave him a short glare. He still looked like he was afraid she was going to kill him.

      "You look like kissing me is going to be equivalent to drinking Polyjuice Potion," Nova snapped, his eyes glaring. "I'm trying hard to not be insulted."

      "N-no, that's not... that's not - "

      She saw his eyes, saw them widen when she leaned forwards and finally pressed her lips to his. Her arms, wound around his neck, tugged him down so she didn't have to stand in such an uncomfortable position. He was still frozen as her lips moved against his, but his arms numbly moved to grip onto her waist so he wouldn't fall over again, which was a possibility due to the fact that he was struck dumb. Nova Nott was kissing him. He was kissing Nova Nott. He'd never kissed anyone before in his life, and his first kiss was with the daughter of a Death Eater.

      It wasn't a bad kiss. There weren't any sparks, but Nova never really believed that sparks existed when kissing someone for the first time, before you really knew them. In her opinion, the sparks came later, like the first kiss after you realized you were in love. Weasley's lips were chapped from the cold, but it wasn't painful as her mouth moved over his bottom and top lip. His hands were fisted on her waist, as if he was afraid he'd do something wrong if he unfurled them. All in all, it wasn't the worst kiss she had ever received. She made a mental note to not mention he was a slightly better kisser than Malfoy, which would only inflate his ego. When Nova pulled away, she saw that Weasley's eyes had never truly closed, still staring wide-eyed down at her.

      She threw her hand behind her, satisfied when it seemed like the enchantment had worn off. Testing more, she pulled away from Weasley's grip on her waist and took a few steps backwards, relieved when she realized she could. "There. We're free to go. Happy Christmas, Weasley."

      He didn't reply, just stood and stared at her in shock. He remained like that even when she left the kitchens, rooted to the ground as if the enchantment hadn't worn off for him yet. When he heard slow clapping, he finally moved and saw Fred and George with identical grins on their faces, peering into the kitchens from their place outside the portrait.

      "Want to remind us again that you don't fancy Nova Nott, ickle Ronniekins?" George asked with a chiming sing-song voice.

      "I believe his words were, 'never going to happen', Georgie," Fred added, pretending to be thoughtful. "But believe me brother, you were staring at her like you wanted it to happen over and over again."

      "I don't think I've ever seen his cheeks get that red, Freddie," George commented, moving to stand beside Ron and poking the skin of his cheekbone harshly. Ron made a muffled sound of annoyance, but his eyes were still locked onto where Nova Nott had just disappeared.

      "Me either, George. Really makes you wonder, doesn't it?"

      He smelled like her. She had been wearing some kind of damn perfume and now he smelled like her. He took the sleeve of his shirt and tried to wipe away the aroma of scent that was all over him, but to no avail. He would be smelling her for the rest of the night, until he changed his shirt. And maybe even after that, too. He didn't like it.It would cloud his mind over with thoughts and he would overthink things, like he always had. He would be permanently set on panic mode.

      Any other time, he would have been furious with his brothers. This time, however, they unfortunately happened to be completely right.

      He didn't tell them this, of course. He simply walked in a numbing trance to the Gryffindor tower, making his way into the common room with a vacant expression on his face. Hermione was waiting up for him, and she had a slight grin on her face. Before she could mention it, however, Harry walked in shortly afterwards, and Hermione seemed to think she could get information from Ron about the twins' little prank later.

      "Are you alright, Harry?" Hermione asked, her face growing worried. While Ron's face depicted an obvious embarrassment that meant he and Nova Nott had gone through with what Fred and George had planned, Harry looked mildly terrified. 

      "Yeah," Ron mentioned, and his voice was still registering an octave higher. "Yeah," he repeated, trying to lower it. "What's up? What's happened?" Ron was welcoming the distraction as best he could.

      "Is it Cho? Did she corner you after the meeting?" Hermione asked.

      Harry nodded. Ron felt a laugh bubble up in his throat, but he was afraid that he'd sound a bit like a murderer if he laughed now. His voice was still much too high.

      "So - er - what did she want?" Ron asked.

      Harry tried to stutter out an answer before Hermione rolled her eyes. "Did you kiss?" she asked, apparently done with beating around the bush. 

      Hearing the news about Harry's own kiss seemed to break Ron out of his spell. He sat up quickly, staring at his best mate. "Well?" Harry looked back and forth between the two of them and nodded. "HA!" Ron couldn't help himself from throwing his fist up in the air. The laughter left him now, and he wondered if his kiss with Nova Nott had driven him insane. "Well," he said when he finally got control of his breathing, "how was it?"

      "Wet," Harry replied, and Ron made a sort of croaking noise. "Because she was crying."

      "Oh. Are you that bad a kisser?"

      Harry looked terrified. "Dunno. Maybe I am."

      "Of course you're not," Hermione said absentmindedly, her attention still focused on the letter she had been scribbling. Turning to her in surprise, Ron felt his eyebrows raise.

      "How do you know?"

      "Because Cho spends half her time crying these days. She does it at mealtimes, in the loos, all over the place."

      Ron grinned. "You'd think a bit of kissing would cheer her up," Ron replied, catching Harry's eyes and grinning.

     "Ron," Hermione said, her tone deoicting that she was no less than absolutely disgusted, "you are the most insensitive wart I have ever had the misfortune to meet."

      "What's that supposed to mean? What sort of person cries while someone's kissing them?" Though, he supposed he couldn't judge Cho Chang too harshly. When Nova Nott had kissed him, he had stood there like an oaf, doing absolutely nothing while seemingly frozen.

      "Don't you understand how Cho's feeling at the moment?" she asked, giving them looks similar to that of a mother who knew her children were stupid. Like she loved them, but wished they would see past the obviousness of a situation.

      "No," Ron and Harry replied in unison.

      "Well, obviously, she's feeling very sad, because of Cedric dying. Then I expect she's feeling confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry, and she'd can't work out who she likes best. Then she'll be feeling guilty, thinking it's an insult to Cedric's memory to be kissing Harry at all, and she'll be worrying about what everyone else might say about her if she starts going out with Harry. And she probably can't work out what her feelings toward Harry are anyway, because he was the one who was with Cedric when Cedric died, so that's all very mixed up and painful. Oh, and she's afraid she's going to be thrown off the Ravenclaw Quidditch team because she's been lying so badly."

      Ron just stared at Hermione in complete shock. It was silent for a few moments as the trio digested what Hermione had said. "One person can't feel all that at once, they'd explode."

      "Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have," Hermione said in an annoyed tone, reaching for her quill once more and scribbling down words on the piece or parchment again. "Though, judging by the dumbstruck expression on your face from kissing Nova Nott when you walked in, maybe there's hope for you, yet."

      Harry's eyes zeroed in on Ron. "You kissed Nova? And you've been letting me sit here and talk about my kiss? Ron!"

      "I didn't know what to do," Ron replied quickly, and the embarrassment from the kiss was back. "Fred and George put enchanted mistletoe over us so neither of us could leave until we kissed and then she said something about me thinking she was repulsive and kind of angrily just... smashed into me. Hurt my nose a bit."

      "But how was it?" Hermione asked, not once looking up from her parchment. "How did you feel?"

      "I don't know, I was a bit in shock because I was kissing a Slytherin!"

      "Oh, don't be rude about her house, haven't we been past this? Nova's nice. She needs a little guidance getting there sometimes, but she's not bad." Hermione looked up then, and sighed. "Did you feel nervous when you kissed?"

      "Who wouldn't have?"

      "Were you a bit stunned?" Hermione continued.

      "Did I mention she just kind of attacked me with it? I think that justifies being stunned."

      "And most importantly -" Hermione looked at him in question "- did you enjoy it?"

      Harry leaned forward, almost as interested in the answer as Hermione seemed to be. Ron thought back to the kiss, how he had felt when Nova Nott had glared at him before she had just reached up and planted one. He thought about his nerves as he had reached down to grab her waist because he was fairly certain he'd fall over in shock if he hadn't. And then he thought about how he felt afterwards, when she had left and when he had noticed that he hadn't wanted her to.

      Hermione noticed the look on Ron's face and rolled her eyes. "Again, like I said. Maybe there's hope for you, yet."

      But Ron wasn't listening. His mind was far off, down in the dungeons, wondering what the only Slytherin he had never minded was doing. "Holy hippogriff," Ron muttered underneath his breath. 

      "What?" Harry asked.

      "Fred and George were right." Ron swallowed and the sound was audible. "I think I fancy Nova Nott."

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