CHAPTER XIX:
home for the holidays

( December 1994 )

      "AMOS, HOW I'VE MISSED YOU SO!" Ginger tightly embraced the man in front of her.

      Hogwarts had sent every student from each and every school home for the holidays before the tournament was to continue. Leaving the school in a rush, Cedric and Ginger were now embracing Mr Diggory just as they relieved themselves from the presence of the Hogwarts Express. Initially, Ginger had left Cedric with both of their trunks but he left them a few feet away from their small family to avoid carrying more than he needed to.

"Merlin, Gin, let me hug my father, will you?" he joked while she let go of the man.

      Skipping over to her trunk, Ginger picked up the handle of her royal blue and black trunk and put her hand on Amos' forearm. Cedric followed suit putting a hand on his father.

      "Let's go home."

      THE TRIO APPARATED SAFELY TO THEIR HUMBLE ABODE, IMMEDIATELY BEING WELCOMED BY THE COOL BREEZE OF THE COLD FRESH AIR. It was dark already, beginning to become late with the stars and moon out above, but the luminescence of the small lights leading up the trail to the door were bright enough to be able to see where they were going. Cedric and Ginger raced inside, leaving Amos to use magic to avoid carrying their things, they were both immediately engulfed in the warm smell of their lovely home.

      Everything in their house made it all the more welcoming to be home again, even if it wasn't for too long.

      "Before you two retreat to your rooms to do whatever it is that leads to yelling or go to sleep," Amos began speaking as he entered the house behind the best friends. Cedric and Ginger shared a look fully being aware they always end up being loud together no matter what. "Go change into your pajamas so you can open your gifts that are near the fireplace." Their faces lit up with glee at the mention of presents.

      Dashing upstairs hurriedly, Ginger and Cedric became slightly physical with pushing each other around to get to their rooms first, and in the process, Cedric may or may not have stepped on her foot.

With both of them running into their rooms, Ginger quickly took off her winter attire and came to notice the canary yellow and black trunk that had been brought into her room. Groaning, she sluggishly paraded herself into the connecting hall in between hers and Cedrics rooms. He seemed to realize the same thing she did because he too was in the hall standing in front of her.

      Wordlessly they acknowledged each other and awkwardly walked past each other to get to their trunks in each other's rooms.

      Ginger got on her knees and unclipped the latches on the chest and opened it completely with it being fully flat open on the floor. She rummaged through her things, pushing her freckled hands over a pair of pajama pants, she lifted them up and out of her trunk to reveal a red and yellow knit sweater. Furrowing her eyebrows she examined it with a hint of a smile on her pink lips.

Slipping on the light blue pajama pants and taking out a loose sleep shirt, she left the sweater where she found it and left Cedric's room without closing the trunk.

      Cascading down the simplistic staircase, Ginger's gaze fell on the boy with brown locks of hair dressed in yellow. He was sat crisscrossed on the floor in front of the sage sofa they had in front of the furnace.

      Silencing her steps to surprise Cedric, she tiptoed over wearing fuzzy socks, the boy sat fidgeting with the hem of his pants that appeared to be a few sizes too small on him, not aware of her presence creeping upon him. She inched to him, crawling over the back of the couch, she readied herself to tackle him.

Then she pounced. And missed.

Cedric had moved swiftly out of the way, Ginger harshly crashed on the floor, though if the rug hadn't been there she probably would've hurt herself more.

The young Diggory laughed proudly beside the groaning Lunette heir. When she crashed, her knees had made an impact first so they were the most injured.

"You're such an asshole," she laughed through the pain.

"Says the one who tried to tackle me!" he scoffed recovering from laughing so much.

"Whatever!" she sat up and pushed his shoulder. Her sparkling eyes shifted over to the neatly wrapped gifts beside the warm fire, a smile graced her features as if she were a young child and she began rummaging through the packages with Cedric beside her. They went back and forth with giving each other their gifts if they found the others name on a gift.

Finally having gone through about twenty gifts, the two had put their gifts on their left and right sides to avoid any gift's becoming mixed up.

      Just before they could destroy the wrapping paper, Amos came out of the kitchen with a camera in hand. "Alright you two, just let me take a picture or two so I can send it on to your parents." The two mentally groaned but nonetheless complied with the man. Showing picture ready smiles, the teens showed their toothy smiles towards Amos' camera.

      The flash went off, practically blinding them. Blinking rapidly to regain her vision, Ginger sarcastically commented "couldn't they make the flash any brighter?" The duo laughed loudly regaining their sight and Amos snapped another picture of them just as their eyes were almost back to perfect vision.

      "That one was better because you two actually seemed like you were enjoying yourselves, unlike the first one that made it seem like you two were being threatened into taking a picture," Amos let out a hearty laugh while Ginger and Cedric could now properly see their surroundings. Now ready to open their gifts the duo waited three seconds before unwrapping their presents at the same time.

      Ginger was given a magical tapestry to hang on her ceiling, it showed what kind of constellations had been out at the moment and the placement of the moon. Sort of like a telescope for her ceiling while Cedric was gifted a new broom for quidditch.

The friends continued their night by opening the rest of their gifts, thanking Amos multiple times each time their faces lit up in glee.

Their time of spending holidays together over the years always seemed to get better and better as time went on. Every year they came home together it was always some of the best times of their lives. Cedric and Ginger were an inseparable pair, always proving fate that it was a great choice to put them in each other's lives. Ginger was always thankful for her time with Cedric as the years went by, and couldn't wait to see the next year and holiday with him.

NOTE. heyy so im sorta moving... idk when im going to update this or any of my other books over the three day weekend but updates are probably gonna go on during the week 🧍🏽‍♀️ idk about next weekend tho soo