The following morning, Iris woke up much earlier than she had expected herself to. The previous evening had been spent drowning both of her and George's sorrows following the rather disaster that the Weasley family gathering had become. And Iris had stumbled into her room in the Leaky Cauldron at about 3am. She had been out almost the second she had made it into bed, expecting to go into a drunken snooze for the best part of the morning only to wake 4 hours later. 

Being awake at 7am probably wasn't the worst thing to happen to the witch that morning. It allowed her enough time to wake up, freshen up and hopefully knock some of the hangover that made her want to curl over and feel sorry for herself for the rest of the day. But she had to be at work at 11am to be the most happy go lucky waitress watching families come in for their Christmas dinner at the pub. All whilst pretending that her parents hadn't sent her away the moment she turned up on her childhood home's front door a few days ago, still completely unable to see the one daughter when they should have seen two. 

Christmas day sucked, Iris hated nothing more than the holiday and she wasn't sure her opinion was likely to change. She knew she had a few presents, three she could easily see, and had she been the same teenaged girl she was when she stepped into the Battle of Hogwarts she would have opened them the second she could. However, now as she looked on and realised just how lonely she had become, opening them wasn't going to bring her any joy. Sure some people had thought about her, but everything this holiday was supposed to represent she no longer had. 

Iris allowed herself to sulk, to feel sorry for herself for a little while. But eventually and very begrudgingly she did get herself up and out of bed. It took her a little while to get dressed for she knew that she did not really have anyone to impress, but she still needed to look presentable enough for work. She had a reputation as one of the best waitresses the pub ever had to uphold after all. Or if Tom was anything to go by. But then again Iris could not be sure he wasn't trying to butter her up after making her work the day. And before she knew it she was downstairs in the centre of the pub meeting Tom as he appeared from in the kitchen. The man doubled well as the owner and chef but he had started to train someone new up so he could inch closer and closer to retirement. 

"Good morning buttercup. rough night?" Tom called from where he stood, a plate of toast in one hand and a bubbling cup that Iris immediately recognised. 

"You are an absolute life saver Tom." Iris was quick to take both items before downing the cup instantly. The affects of the hangover curing potion, potions was never Iris strongest subject she could never had made one so well, taking effect as her headache cured and her stomach started to slowly stop twisting and turning. 

"Can't have my best waitress struggling all day." The older wizard smiled and Iris for a moment saw a resemblance between Tom and her father. The man had the same atmosphere her father had and for sure she felt some days that Tom treat her like the daughter he never had. 

"What would you do without me?"

"Have someone paying a lot more rent per week than you are in that room." Tom responded before he started to head back in the direction of the kitchen it was currently half nine in the morning and the earliest families were due to be seated at 11. The planned number of tables was much more than the pub usually catered for, but they had been preparing for this for a few weeks now. They were due to finally calm by 2pm though, and due to close at 4 allowing the staff on to go and spend the rest of their day with their own family. Closing this early was definitely not a common thing for the pub and Iris was sure there were going to be people who were not happy with this decision but it would be nice to be able to finish work and retire to her room and not hear some of the patrons trying to come upstairs and snoop about. 

"Also you don't look very much in the Christmas spirit Iris." Tom called out from the kitchen and Iris knew that this was his sneaky way to say she needed to make herself look more in the theme. It was a reoccurring theme in the last couple months she had worked there. Often she was told that she was not in theme enough for the days where the themes were necessary. 

Iris did not know how she was going to make herself more presentable or in theme. As she stared around her room she had at least changed so that her jacket was red but she still knew that this was probably not enough. That was until her eyes were caught on the tiny little Christmas tree she had on the top of the fireplace. It had been a gift from Padma who had been at disbelief, at first, with the lack of decorations that Iris had in her room. After all it had been a big contrast to how intensely Iris had decorated their dorm room back in the castle. But there had been one problem the tree had only been small, yet the two girls had decorated it as if it was much bigger and therefore, the tree was overwhelmed with decorations. At the time this had been a problem but now it was perfect. And Iris had to do a little bit of creativity with the items to make something work. The first thing she saw was the overwhelming amount of tinsel that Padma had tucked behind the back of the tree in an attempt to hide the fact that neither of them had been bothered to shorten it at the time. It was simple enough to grab a pair of scissors and cut enough off that she could use it to wrap around the small ponytail she had created with the half up do she had done that morning. The tinsel was messy and Iris was sure little sections of it would separate and then lay around in the rest of her hair but perhaps it would add to the charm. She then thought about finishing her hair, there was that tin of glitter hairspray that was probably a little past its use by date. But it would work well to add a little bit of extra fairy tale magic to her look. And it wouldn't matter as she had intended to wash her hair that evening and therefore it would be fine to go a little mental with the hairspray as she would be washing it out only hours later. The last thing she thought she could do to add that Christmas charm to her outfit would be to take too of the many bauble decorations she had. And Iris could always thank her ability to practise magic as she shrunk them enough so that they were small enough to be slightly obnoxious earrings. 

"Much better. Mind finishing laying some of those tables in the corner? We're almost ready for the first big wave in the kitchen might open the doors a little early for those outside as its rather cold." Tom caught Iris coming back down the stairs and she had to look to the clock on the wall to catch that it was quarter to 11 and she had been upstairs for about an hour trying to fake her way into the Christmas spirit. But she did not object moving over to the tables to finish putting the cutlery on the table. 

The first few hours of the pub being opened passed very quickly. After all it had probably been the busiest Iris had ever seen it and she felt like she had not really stopped in the three hours it had been opened. Yet now the number of patrons was finally dwindling down as they only had a few tables currently booked and the last hour was supposed to be even quieter. This fact would come true as 3pm hit and there were only six tables booked for the hour. Most of those tables had been seated and were getting themselves ready to head up and to the buffet styled Christmas dinner the pub had put on. The final table it would appear to be a no show. However, there was no contact details as to say who was supposed to turn up only something that was written in Tom's own scrawl. And therefore, Iris had no clue what was written under the booking which was the main reason that normally any other member of staff filled out the book other than the landlord. 

"Sorry I'm a little late. Tom advised me to get here a little bit later." Iris did not need to look up from where she was trying to work out what the booking was. From the moment she recognised the voice she knew why Tom had been the one to input the booking. For he had been conspiring to keep this quiet from her for who knows how long. 

"Are you eating alone today George?" Iris hoped her jealousy wasn't evident in her tone. George was able to come eat with anyone but there was something about him wanting to do that without her that caused an overwhelming sense of jealousy to strike through Iris.

"I hope not that would be rather tragic." George's whit was quick and it did not appear that he had been overly affected by the amount of alcohol they had consumed the night prior.

"Are we waiting on the rest of the party?" Iris knew this time around that her jealousy was obvious. Iris didn't want to be that person but she knew that at this moment in time that was exactly who she had become. 

"Not sure is there anyone else joining us that you haven't told me about?" George's smile melted the jealousy only to replace it with embarrassment. He knew that she was jealous that was obvious by the smile he had sent. And that was when his words really dawned on Iris and she had to remember that she was at work, on the clock she could not just sit down and eat with him even if she really wanted to. 

"George no I'm at work, I can't just sit down with you." 

"I cleared it with the boss. Show me to our table Rizzo." George had planned this out for a while and if the matching smile Tom had given her was anything to go by. And so Iris did not object walking over to the final two person table that remained. The pair sat down and at first they remained in silence. Iris was not sure if George quite realised what it meant him coming to spend the day with her. He had already seen her yesterday for the holiday period, she had expected him to want to spend today with his family, or anyone other than her. 

"Did I overstep by doing this?" George finally spoke up as he had sat there just watching Iris become stuck in her own mind. 

"I just can't believe you really want to spend today with me as well." Iris' voice was a little whimsical as if she was somewhere not quite in the room. She was almost in awe of the entire situation, pondering when her life started to look like a romantic novel.

"No one deserves to be alone this time of year." George shrugged as if his answer was the most obvious one in the world. 

"But you have your family George you should be with them in Devon today." Iris commented.

"And leave you all alone, never." That cheeky grin would be the death of Iris, it was more than enough to stop her from wanting to say anything against him. And she was sure George knew that by now.

"Merlin George, you really know how to charm a lady."

"Only care for charming one though."