The Price manor was packed.

Something Florence never thought would happen in her lifetime, but there it was, each and every room occupied for the holidays. Their big holiday party. The manor was so packed that other people had to share rooms for everyone to fit.

The whole Weasley family was present. With the obvious exception of Percy, who still continued his agenda against his own family. Ron, Harry, Ginny and Hermione Granger were scheduled to arrive in a week. Fortunately, Sirius was kind enough to leave Florence's old room unoccupied for her and Fred to use. George had to bunk with Charlie and Bill, who were sleeping in the biggest guest room.

They had spent one whole day putting up all the decorations. Sloan also came home that day with the perfect sized tree for the living room, Florence and Sirius going down to the basement to look for the tree ornaments.

"I forgot how much stuff is in here. It might as well be a museum." Florence said as she turned on a light, coughing slightly due to the dust particles swirling in the air. She would occasionally bump in to a few things, making her frown, "I have to clean this basement out when I get the chance. I don't think we even need half the stuff in here anymore."

"Be careful, you might end up getting rid of some family antiques." Sirius said, "Your ancestors will haunt you. They love their antiques."

"Maybe Sloan will know which ones to keep," Florence said, making a mental note to ask for his help when she eventually cleans out the basement. She paused, seeing a box with the least amount of dust sitting on top of it, "This must be it." she said, stepping over other things to reach it. "Come on, Sirius, let's get out of here."

She turned to find him sitting in front of a box, the lid sitting beside him as he ransacked through it.

"What'd you find?" Florence asked, setting the box of ornaments aside to sit by Sirius.

He lifted an old looking camera from the box, before smiling, "This was your Aunt Marlene's camera. I thought she had it with her that day..." he held it in his hand for awhile, before handing it to Florence, "She and that thing were inseparable. The minute her parents got it for her that one Christmas day, she couldn't let go of it." He took a stack of pictures out, looking at them one by one with a glint of nostalgia in his eyes.

He showed one to Florence. It was a picture of her mum, laughing at the camera as she held up a tiny baby in her arms, swaddled in bright red cloth with a small Santa hat on its head, Gabriel right beside her, his hands in a weird angle as if he were scared that the baby was going to fall.

"Happy Christmas." Sirius smiled as he handed it to her, Florence looking at it with teary eyes, the sight of her once youthful and happy parents warming her heart, "They're probably spending the holidays together now... The first one in more than a decade of being apart."

"Jane and Gabriel, finally together again," Sirius nodded.

After looking at more pictures, the two finally went up with the Christmas ornaments, by that time the tree was already standing upright, which was evidently a courtesy of Fred and George magic, since Molly was now scolding them yet again about using magic in the house. Again, it was weird for Florence to hear so much noise in her childhood home, but she wouldn't want it any other way. It somehow filled the void that her mum left. She realized, with a heavy heart, that it was going to be her first Christmas without her.

But she wasn't alone, and she was thankful for that. She had the Weasleys, as Fred had told her several times that his family was hers now too. She had Siris and Remus, Sloan and Julien, and even Alanna who dropped by for a few days during the second week of December. She had thought that she would be especially depressed over the Holidays, but she found herself basking in the joy of having an idea of what a complete family looked like.

When Ron, Ginny, Harry and Hermione arrived, the week before Christmas, the house was at its full capacity. It was definitely livelier with Ginny badgering her older brothers, as well as what seemed to be Ron and Harry's nightly Wizard's chess match in the living room right after dinner.

Florence found herself sitting amongst the many people during dinner one night, and she smiled absentmindedly, before returning to her food. Fred, ever so observant of his fiancée, had noticed, and asked her what it was for.

To which Florence shrugged, "I'm just really happy, that's all."

———————

Snow fell from the sky that Christmas morning. Florence waking up to the sound of wings fluttering to the window. Peering her eyes open slowly, she saw a brown barn owl perched on her windowsill, staring at her curiously before dropping an envelope on to the small pile of mail on the door. She glanced over to the clock that usually sat atop her nightstand, but was blocked by Fred's head, the redhead still fast asleep and snoring slightly. One hand was slung lazily over Florence, who had to move it carefully as she sat up, swinging her legs off of the bed and walking to the small pile of mail.

She picked up the first one, smiling as she recognized Xander's handwriting. Carefully she peeled back the wax, taking out the Christmas card.

On the cover was a picture of the whole Haddlowe family in a snowy area, smiling and waving, what looked like thin metal poles in their hand as they did so. Olivia was also there, her arm on top of Asher's head as if she was leaning on him. Florence smiled, flipping over the card to see more of his handwriting.

Happy Christmas Flo,

Family decided to go skiing in the alps. I don't know if you know what skiing is, it's sort of a muggle thing but it's fun. Hope you have a wonderful time during the holidays!

Love,
Xander

p.s: please look after Nicolai for me. I'll be back in the country before New Years. I think. Who knows with these people.

She slid it back in to its envelope, before picking up another piece of folded parchment. A letter from Nicolai.

Hey Flo,

I'm fine, seriously. I appreciate all the writing to check up on me. I'm just with family right now. We're in Marseille for the rest of the month 'cause they think it's good for me to travel, you know, to get away from it all. France is okay. I've eaten a lot of bread. And did I mention? I'm okay, so don't spend your holidays worrying about me.

Enjoy it. For me. I'll be alright.

Love,
Nic

"What are you doing out of bed?" A groggy voice snapped her out of her trance, Florence swiveling back to find Fred patting the empty space on the bed beside, "Come back, I'm cold."

"I was just opening mail, plus, it's one in the afternoon, we need to get up." she chuckled, making a beeline towards the bed and sitting back in her spot, Fred crawling closer to lay his head on her lap, "Merry Christmas, my love."

"Merry Christmas." she smiled, planting a kiss on his temple, "Though we definitely missed Christmas morning breakfast."

"And lunch," Fred added, before snuggling closer to Florence, "There's still dinner."

"Right you are."

"Hey," Fred started, "Since we don't really have anything planned for the day, we can go visit your mum and dad for a bit. We'll be back by dinner."

"You know what? I'd like that."

Fred knew how much the first holiday without her mum was getting her down. She looked happy among the many people in her house, but whatever sized crowd could never really satiate the longing she has for her mother during supposedly happy times. Visiting them was the closest thing he could do to help her, one way or another. So, Fred packed their brunch in to a picnic basket and they set off.

Florence changed their flowers the minute the arrived, brushing off some of the wilted petals from their headstones before she sat down in front of them, a small smile on her lips, "Happy Christmas, mum, dad. I hope you two are together right now. Though I would've liked if you were here with me..." she sighed, "I thought it would be awhile before I had to visit both of my parents here... but here I am."

She fidgeted with the ring on her finger, "Fred asked me to marry him, by the way... I said yes." she looked to her mother's headstone, the to her father's "You never really met Fred, well, maybe you did when he was a baby, but he's very nice to me." she said, before shaking her head with a small laugh, before turning to Fred, who was already sitting on the blanket he had brought. Florence trudged over to him, before plopping down beside him. "Why do I feel weird talking to headstones now? I used to do it a lot when I was younger."

"It's not weird. It's understandable, love." he said, before handing her a mug of hot chocolate, just as a chilly December breeze swept past them.

"I really miss her..." she confessed with a sigh, "I miss my mum."

"I know you do. It can't be easy, at all. But you should never forget that I'm here for you, yeah? It's not gonna be the same thing but I'll try. For you, I'll always try."

This made her smile, reaching over and holding his hand, "I forgot to thank you, by the way, for putting flowers on my mother's headstone when I couldn't." she planted a kiss on the back on his hand, "Mum probably appreciated it too."

"Its no problem. I know I didn't get to spend a lot of time with her, but from what everyone else says, she's a great person. A total bad ass too, raising a child all by herself and her turning out to be one of the bravest people I know." he said, "Not to mention, that child is also the woman that I love now. So, I owe your mum a lot."

"I wish she could see us get married..." Florence said, "I've had that scenario in my head you know? When I was younger I'd think of the day when I got proposed to... the first thing I swore I would do is run up to my mum and tell her about it. Then we could gush about the ring together..." she sighed wistfully, "Then she'd see me; walking down that aisle in a pretty white dress we probably would've chosen together."

"She'll still be there with us, love." he said reassuringly, "I know its cliche and all but the people we love never really leave us." he pulled her in for a hug, "Your mum will be there. So will your dad. And they'll be just as happy for you and I."

Florence realized, in Fred's embrace, that he was her anchor now. She had lost the most important people in her life, but she still had Fred.

The rest of their holidays were long and somewhat painful for Florence, but she didn't show it. She knew she'd never be alone again in her life. This thought occurred to her that night after Christmas day dinner when they all sat around and opened presents from each other, as well as during New Year's eve, when they stayed up and waited for the New Year to arrive, the twins setting up a fireworks show to go off outside as the clock struck twelve.

Fred picked her up and kissed her as colorful beams of light skyrocketed in to the air, leaving bright lights trickling across the sky. She cupped his face and kissed him deeper, before wrapping her arms around him.

They went around to greet their friends and family too. Julien had pulled her in to a group hug with a fairly hesitant Sloan, who hugged back rather awkwardly. Her uncle wasn't the type to be affectionate at all, but the holidays had a weird effect on people.

Where Sloan lacked the capabilities of being affectionate, Sirius made up for. He scooped Florence in his arms, squeezing until she lightly tapped on his back to let go. The man was with Harry all night, as she had expected. After spoiling him absolutely rotten with gifts during Christmas, he and Harry had been wreaking all sorts of mischief together over the past few days before New Years. It was weird seeing a man of his age act the way he did, but Florence was all for it, since it brought such a huge smile on his face.

After going around to all their friends and family, Fred and Florence finally settled down on the grass together, hearing the laughter and seeing the smiles among everyone.

"This was nice," she sighed happily, leaning against Fred, "Same thing next year, yeah?"

"If you want," he chuckled, "We have so much time together, this is just one of our many many New Years together. We can go through almost every party theme ever created." he beamed at her, kissing her forehead before saying. "I love you. So much."

"And I love you."

"And I love you." they heard a voice say, looking up to see George smiling at them cheekily, "What? Am I not allowed to join the fun?"

This made Florence laugh, pulling George down on the grass with them, before giving him a big hug, "Of course I love you too! Like Fred said, you two are a package deal."

"Nice," he chuckled, before taking Florence's hand jokingly, "So when is our wedding, my love?"

Fred threw a handful of grass at him, making George laugh and scamper away, "Twat!" he called out, before looking to Florence, "He's not a part of the package anymore."

She laughed once more, before leaving another kiss on his lips. "Happy New Year, my love."