Flying High

Flying High

Chapter Six: Christmas

November soon turned to December and Christmas was soon upon us, a thick layer of snow had settled over the grounds…luckily there wasn't another match for Gryffindor until the next year which meant we didn't have to train in the snow, until we got back. All of us would be heading our separate ways home, not seeing them until January was sad but I hadn't seen mum or dad in a long time so it would be extremely nice to see them.

"Right guys, let's swap presents!" I exclaimed running into the Common room with present in both my hands, the others were already sat around the fireplace their presents scattered around the floor. It was the last week before everyone would be going home for the holidays, so we decided it would be a good idea to swap presents before we left. I sat down on the sofa opposite the fire in between Percy and Angelina; the Twins were sat on the floor, Oliver in an armchair. "How shall we do this?"

"Let's all give Angelina hers first and then go in alphabetical order." Suggested one of the twins much to Angelina's delight; from Oliver she received Quidditch related things, from Percy…stationary, from the twins some jokey presents and from me she received a charm bracelet with all magic related charms. Fred was next in receiving his presents again Oliver had given a Quidditch related present…a running theme with his gifts it seems. Once Fred was done opening his gifts it was my turn to open mine; from Percy I got a lovely set of new quills, from Angelina a lovely set of earrings with matching necklace, from the twins some sweets and jokey gifts like always and from Oliver a copy of Quidditch through the ages and a golden snitch necklace.

"Thank you guys, there all such lovely presents." I thanked as George began opening his presents and once more Oliver had given him Quidditch related items and Percy had given something studious. Once George was done opening his presents and thanking everyone, Oliver began to open his, I'd gotten him a copy of a book about the history of Puddlemere United along with some other Puddlemere stuff. Percy was last to open his presents and this time Oliver had broken his pattern of giving Quidditch related presents and had gotten Percy some very fancy looking quills and matching parchment, well he did know Percy well enough to know that Quidditch things wouldn't be best suited to get him.

"Can't believe it's already the Christmas holidays, it only felt like yesterday that we were coming back from the summer holidays." Angelina stated, time really did fly when you were having fun, why couldn't time going really quickly when we were stuck in double Potions with the Slytherins?

"I know, I really don't want the year to be over so quickly."

Christmas Day

Christmas day was spent with the family, my grandmother on my mother's side came down later in the day after my cousins, aunts and uncles from my father's side of the family came to visit. As my mother was a muggle and thus her family were all muggles she rarely had them come to visit, if they saw us it would more than likely be at one of their homes, except for Grandma. She had found out that my father was magical and she was absolutely thrilled, however she kept this to herself, not even Granddad knew. Christmases in our household were kind of hectic due to this, if my aunts and uncles from my mother's side decided they wanted to come to the house we'd have to usher my father's family out of the house…which I guess isn't the nicest thing to do on Christmas day, but my mother believed they would totally 'wig out' on us if they found out about magic. But this year only my Grandma came from that side of the family and by the time she had arrived the rest of the magical side of the family had gone home.

"Now Hannah isn't there any strapping young lads at this school you attend?" she asked that was always the topic she'd bring up, whether or not I had acquired a boyfriend. Soon it would be Charlie's turn to answer her repetitive questions about whether he had a girlfriend. She never asked if I had acquired a girlfriend, but then again I don't think she ever thought about asking.

"No Grandma, no strapping young lads to speak of." I answered out of the corner of my eye I could see Charlie holding back his laughter.

"What about that Oliver boy?" she questioned I shook my head, why had mother mentioned him to Grandma? When had it come up in conversation? And exactly what had been said about him and me?

"He's a friend Grandma." I answered but I could see in her eyes that she wasn't convinced, the little twinkle in her eye seemed to suggest that she believed that Oliver and I would suddenly become a couple and get married and start having kids the moment I returned back to Hogwarts. It just wasn't like that, I wasn't going to spontaneously ask him out one day and neither was he going to randomly ask me to date him, there was too much of a good friendship there to ruin, to act on any feeling…if there were any feelings between us of that nature. He was my best friend, someone I could rely on to be himself in any situation, someone that never changed no matter what occurred, I could tell him anything…well most anything, I left 'girly' chat alone when it came to him.

"I'm sure he is. So Charlie any girls that you are fond of?" she asked my brother who up until this point had been holding in laughter with a right face on him. His face immediately dropped once he was asked this, he scowled at me as I pulled a tongue. About time for him to be asked these questions from Grandma, after all I had been asked them nearly every year, while he was left to play with toys or silently laugh at me. I didn't want to really hear about Charlie's love life, but it was inevitable to hear something about it in Hogwarts after all secrets never really stayed secrets for long.

"None at all Grandma." He replied however according to several people in Gryffindor and some in Hufflepuff, Charlie quite fancied a third year Ravenclaw by the name of Rachel or Nina, but these could have been rumours. But whenever I asked him about this certain Ravenclaw he'd turn slightly pink and brush off the topic by either saying he needed to do homework or switching the topic to Quidditch, which when you are near Oliver Wood is very easy to do. Thinking about everything Hogwarts related made me really miss the place, but soon we would return there.