Hot Chocolate

The kitchen cupboard doors slammed shut.

Mari stood in the middle of the kitchen and huffed very loudly, louder than she had huffed all week. Her eyes were still stuck on the wood that began the root of her disappointment.

Her hope of enjoying a steaming mug of hot chocolate was completely ruined by one, tiny, crucial detail. She had no hot chocolate in the house. She didn’t even have any blocks of chocolate to melt into some milk. How on earth did she forget to stock up for the holiday season?

The back door opened and a flustered-looking Neville hurried in, brushing snow off of his shoulders. A trail of snowflakes followed him in though within seconds, droplets of water covered the snow. Frowning at her boyfriend, Mari watched as Neville glanced up and noticed her expression.

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Neville had always been a worrier.

Mari sank down onto the nearest chair and shook her head. “It’s nothing-,”

“You’re pouting and it’s Christmas Eve – what’s wrong?” asked Neville again, pulling his gloves off and Mari groaned even louder than before. She had completely forgotten that all of the shops were closed tonight considering nobody wanted to be working the night before Christmas. Her eyes darted to the clock on the wall and leant her face on her palms. Now there was absolutely no chance for her having a hot chocolate.

“I can’t believe we forgot hot chocolate powder or, as a matter of fact, anything chocolatey. We have nothing and I really want some hot chocolate,” explained Mari and Neville gasped.

“I knew we forgot something but I couldn’t think of what it could have been. Are you sure there’s none in the cupboards?” wondered Neville, walking over to the units and Mari shook her head.

“I’ve searched every single one. We’ve got nothing,” she sighed, exaggerating her sadness and Neville creased his brows. He didn’t want to upset Mari on this special evening. He looked out of the windows, ignoring the mesmerising Christmas lights and thought of an idea.

“I’m sure that my grandmother sent us some the other day,” he said aloud to himself before looking back at Mari, the corners of his lips perking up. Mari glanced up from her hands and felt her cheeks lifting as she smiled. She shot up from her chair, straightened her fluffy socks and beckoned Neville to follow her.

Dashing into the living room where their beautiful Christmas tree upstaged all of their decorations, they sank to their knees and began shaking the presents, trying to find the package from Neville’s grandmother. Neville grabbed a particularly pretty box and shook a little too vigorously, making the contents rattle and smash. They froze and stared at the box, not daring to even breathe in case the box fell apart in Neville’s hands.

“Who is that present from?” whispered Mari and Neville checked the label. The pink in his cheeks burned red and he swore under his breath.

“Er Jessica and Draco… Shit,” he cursed and Mari pinched the bridge of her nose. Standing up, the pair placed the broken present on the floor and backed away. Mari drew her wand from her back pocket and muttered “Reparo.” They heard a small click and the present was perfect once again.

“Lucky we have magic, right?” laughed Neville awkwardly, scratching his tousled hair and Mari snapped her fingers.

“Oh my… We could have just… Accio chocolate!” exclaimed Mari, her wand directed at their present but nothing jumped out. Waiting a few more seconds, Neville tried yet still, no box of chocolate whizzed into their hands.

Depressed and slightly pissed off, Neville and Mari collapsed on the sofa with frowns and pouts. The Christmas-y feel of the room had no effect on them and neither of them felt like turning on the tv to watch a heart-warming film. Mari still wanted hot chocolate and Neville wanted to help.

“There’s bound to be a shop still open nearby. They’ll have chocolate?” suggested Neville but Mari shook her head then rested it on his shoulder.

“No, I don’t want you to get worked up over something like my need of chocolate-,”

“I’m not getting worked up, I just hate to see you upset, Mariana,” mumbled Neville, absently stroking her hand and Mari huffed. She stood up, grabbed her woollen beanie hat from the coffee table and nodded to herself.

“Fine, fine. Let’s go and search for an open store at ten o’clock in the evening on Christmas Eve. Jesus Christ Longbottom,” she exclaimed and Neville grinned, stood up and slipped on his winter jacket.

“Let’s go.”

The snow had gotten heavier, to their dismay. Neville grabbed Mari’s hand tighter just in case she slipped over yet (Mari didn’t say this out loud) Neville was the more accident-prone than her. Still, she thought it was extremely cute that he tried to protect her from the icy ground.

The houses on their street were all lit up, each and every one of them reminding Mari of twinkling Christmas cards. They hobbled down the path, kicking inches of snow out of the way and ventured towards the town centre.

Watching their own breath cloud in front of their faces, Neville and Mari hurried towards the row of shops, hoping and praying that they were still open but alas – all of them were closed. Shutters were down, closed signs were up and interior lights were off.

Mari felt her lip wobble and she swore, shaking her head at her futility. Obviously, no shop would be open. How stupid of her and Neville to even second guess it. She looked up at Neville and sighed softly.

“Never mind, I’m sure we could get some from the others tomorrow when we pop round to their house,” reminded Mari and Neville nodded then draped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer. His cold lips pecked her forehead and she felt him smile against her skin.

“Ok, as long as you’re sure. We could always apparate into the city to find a 24 hour shop-,”

“No. No apparation on Christmas Eve. I can survive without it for tonight. Let’s just go home,” insisted Mari and the pair slowly made their way through the snow storm to their house.

When they were only a block away, Neville managed to find the slippiest patch of ice possible and skidded across it. Unluckily for Mari, however, she was still attached to his arm and fell down with him. They both crashed into a few feet of snow beside the walkway and received a face (and mouth) full of fresh snow.

“What in the- Flipping hell!” cried Mari, immerging from the snow and Neville laughed, brushing snow from her face with a grin.

“You’re so cute when you’re covered in snow,” he told her and she grumbled, stumbling to her feet.

“You make it sound like this is going to be a re-occurring thing. I’d like to remind you that this Christmas is my first snow experience, so don’t do anything stupid,” she said and Neville nodded.

“Oh, I know…” he trailed off gently but Mari refused to even diverge into what could be a terrible plan of Neville’s involving her and heaps of cold, cold snow.

Eventually they made it home and brushed off all of the snow from their clothes in the kitchen. They abandoned their boots by the back door and shoved their gloves and coats near the log burning fireplace, hoping their clothes would dry off soon.

“Sorry about not finding any chocolate, sweetheart,” murmured Neville as they lay on the sofa and Mari shrugged, flicking through their movie collection to find the first Santa Clause film.

“Aw well,” she replied, turning on the DVD player. Muggle objects like that always intrigued Neville so he just left her to it and decided to make them cups of tea instead.

As Mari climbed back onto the sofa, watching the title screen of the Santa Clause appear, she heard a soft thud in the kitchen and Neville gasp.

“Mari, come here,” he said after a few seconds of silence and she wandered out, curious.

She found Neville staring at the kitchen counter where a rather large bag of cocoa powder had fallen from the cupboard above them. She blinked and looked at Neville.

“Where did you find that?” she asked quietly and Neville simply opened the cupboard and pointed to the first, very visible, shelf.

“It was sat right there. Right in front of your bloody eyes,” he told her slowly and Mari burst out laughing.

“Oops?!”