ten — four of wands

upright: community, home, celebration.

reversed: lack of support, transience, home conflicts.

( alternatively: it's christmas! )

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DAYS BLUR INTO weeks and Verity finds herself in the eye of a hurricane as the school begins its final preparations for the highly anticipated Yule Ball. Outside the cold temperatures have frozen the world into hardened snow and icicles that disrupt the light that passes through them in fractured, glittering rays. Even the Black Lake has succumbed to winter, the water underneath pushing at the ice laid on top creating an echoing, eerie singing noise as the material shifts from side to side.

She's woken unceremoniously on Christmas morning by a pillow hitting her face. She peels open her eyes, squinting up at the grinning form of Imogen, her friend pulsating with energy.

"C'mon Vera! It's Christmas, you can't sleep in on Christmas!"

Verity doesn't have the energy to form an intelligent response so she just grunts and tugs her covers over her head. Less than two seconds later, her covers are pulled off of her and Imogen has grabbed her hands, pulling her up into a seated position.

"Oh no you don't, we have a lot of things to do today and you are not skipping out on any of them."

Verity glares at Imogen. Imogen glares back. After a moment Verity sighs and gets out of bed.

She dresses comfortably, tucking a black turtleneck in to her favorite pair of worn, black jeans and layering a charcoal grey sweater on top. She pulls her hair back into a low ponytail using an emerald green ribbon she nabs off of Imogen's nightstand, rubbing the lingering residue of sleep from her eyes before picking up Atlanta from where she'd been sleeping. The tiny dragon huffs as Verity places her on her shoulder and shifts around before curling into a small ball in the junction of her shoulder and neck. Verity then gathers the handful of gifts she'd hidden underneath her bed into her arms.

Imogen, who had already gotten dressed before she woke up Verity, shifts her weight onto her right leg as she waits, her own arms full of wrapped packages. She's wearing a cream turtleneck that's tucked into a green, velvet midi skirt, polka dot tights peeking out between the end of her skirt and the start of her heeled boots. Her kinky hair is piled on top of her head in a haphazard manner, a few random pieces tugged free. On anyone else, it would've looked ridiculous, but on Imogen it looked as if she belonged on the cover of Witchy Wonders! or another fashion magazine.

The two walk side by side through the common room, the elegantly decorated place mostly empty due to the early hour. The halls have a few other early risers, but were thankfully uncrowded, and by the time they reach the Great Hall neither are surprised to see only a handful of students scattered throughout the tables.

A waving hand from the Hufflepuff table catches their attention and the two girls make their way over to where four students are sitting. Viktor and Cedric pause their discussion as they approach, the two sitting across from each other. Niko is slouched over next to Viktor, head resting on his arms folded on top of the table, and Verity can hear the soft snores emitting from him. Anastasia is leaning slightly against Niko, her chin propped in her head, eyes closed part way. Verity slides into the open seat next to Cedric, distributing the appropriate gifts before putting the few remaining underneath her seat. Imogen copies her movements as she sits down next to her.

"Morning!" Cedric chirps, pushing two boxes towards them, one wrapped in silver wrapping paper, the other in gold.

"Good morning, Merry Christmas everyone," Verity mumbles, still feeling a bit of sleep lingering in her system.

Her sentiments are echoed around the table from four other mouths and Anastasia scowls at the still slumbering Niko, poking his shoulder, "Wake up you lazy mutt."

"Shut up you overgrown house cat," comes his muffled response, "some of us require ten hours of sleep."

The Hogwarts students watch, each showing various states of amusement as Anastasia and Viktor exchange an exasperated look as though it's second nature. Anastasia quirks one of her eyebrows to which Viktor just shrugs, and then they both frown slightly in contemplation before simultaneously dumping their goblets of water on top of Niko.

Verity laughs as he splutters, shaking his head back and forth like a dog, water droplets flying everywhere. Imogen is quick to take out her wand and evaporate the water, not wanting her outfit to get wet.

Niko blinks sluggishly at Verity before perking up, "Ah, Vera! Mo! You're here, we can swap gifts now, yes?"

"If you'll stay awake long enough," Anastasia mutters into her goblet.

Niko huffs at her jab but doesn't respond, instead pushing a few parcels towards Verity and Imogen. It's quiet for a moment as they all finish passing around various sized boxes and then the sound of paper tearing fills the silence as they all begin unwrapping their gifts.

Imogen and Verity open each other's first out of habit. Imogen lets out a soft gasp of delight as she tears off the shimmering wrapping paper to reveal a dainty silver bracelet home to a moon charm accompanied by a few glittering stars. The metal moon would wax and wane in tune with the real moon, the stars rearranging themselves to whatever constellation is most prominent at the time. She looks over at Verity and promptly holds out her wrist, Verity complying and attaching the charm bracelet to her friend's wrist.

Verity unwraps her gift from Imogen, smiling widely at the set of enchanted paints and high end brushes neatly placed on top of a dove grey blanket streaked with iridescent colors she had seen Imogen knitting the past few weeks. She runs her hand over the soft, plush material, watching as the colors change depending on the way the light hits it.

Keeping the blanket and paint set on her lap, she thanks her best friend before picking up the next closest gift, peeling off the black wrapping paper. She gently picks up the small wooden box inside, mouth dropping slightly at the traditional artwork on top of it. She runs a finger over the stylized art, watching the scene of a familiar Russian folktale play out, the colors melting and twirling together before the scene begins again.

"It's a Palekh jewelry box," Niko says from across her, "Ana helped me pick it out though so I can't take all the credit."

Verity looks up at the black-haired teenager, "I love it, thank you."

He nods, grinning lopsidedly at her, before going back to the mess of wrapping paper littering the table in front of him. She knows he's found the bag she charmed to fit a mass of muggle candy and snacks when his face lights up like a little kid, his hand emerging from the bag with a fistful of chocolate, "Hell yes, Vera you're the best!"

Anastasia takes one look at the pure delight on Niko's face and peers into the bag, a look of concern flashing across her face, "You're going to be bouncing off the walls," she then looks up at Verity, lifting the book on advanced combat spells of Japanese origin off of the table slightly, "thank you for this, by the way."

Verity nods and unwraps her next two gifts, finding a set of three candles with stress relieving scents from Viktor and a book on dragonology from Anastasia. Viktor thanks her for the healing balm she got him, examining it with Niko who had already inhaled a concerning amount of the candy.

Out of the corner of her eye she can see Cedric opening her gift and she fiddles with the silver wrapping paper on her final gift, anxiously awaiting his reaction. He sets aside the wrapping paper he'd carefully undone and opens the velvet pouch curiously, peering inside. She can see his eyebrows furrowing together in confusion as he turns the pouch upside down, the metal rectangle inside falling into his palm. It's roughly the size of a muggle wallet and she can see him messing with it for a moment before figuring out how to open the locket-like object.

His eyebrows shoot up and he looks over at her, a smile slowly spreading across his face, "Really?"

"Don't lose it," she responds, "it took me ages to make them."

He grins widely and throws an arm around her shoulder, tugging her into his side in a quick hug, "Wouldn't dream of it!"

She doesn't stop the smile that spreads across her face and she hugs him back, glancing down at the gift. A tarot card deck was split in two, half secured on the left side of the locket and half secured on the right. She'd made each card with Cedric in mind, all the shimmering gold images based off of him or his interests in some manner. They were slightly smaller than normal tarot cards and their case was the perfect size for him to keep in his pocket, the inside bigger than it looked while the outside retained a slim structure.

She lets go of him and he nudges her shoulder, "Well don't leave me in suspense, open yours!"

Verity tears open the silver wrapping paper, revealing a small black box underneath. She opens the box and takes out the ring within, looking down at it. There's a small, oval shaped black stone laying on its side in the center of the ring, the stone rimmed with gold and connected on either side by a thin band. The simplicity of the ring's design gives the illusion almost as though the stone is an eye.

"It's cat eye hematite," Cedric explains, "you seemed really interested in it when we learned about all the properties it holds in Divination so I thought you might want something you can wear daily."

Verity takes the ring out of the box, surprised that Cedric had remembered that. They'd learned about different stones at the beginning of the school year and she had been very interested in hematite, the stone known for its ability to absorb toxic emotions and, if it was a true cat eye hematite, it was prized for being able to ward off true evil.

Verity slides the ring on her left middle finger and smiles widely at Cedric, "Thank you."

He smiles back and helps Viktor clear the table of the errant wrapping paper. The six spend their morning trying the various holiday foods that appeared on the table, Verity content in the presence of her friends as she eats her way through one too many croissants.

A small explosion draws their attention temporarily to the Gryffindor table where two familiar redheads are howling with laughter, the aftermath of their prank one very vexed Lee Jordan who's hair is now a myriad of clashing neon colors. Excusing herself from the table, Verity grabs the remaining presents she'd stashed underneath and made her way over to their table.

"Hello boys," she says as she comes to a stop behind the twins, "I see you've had a productive Christmas morning."

They twist around in synch to see her and she realizes that they're wearing similar sweaters; George's is mostly grey with speckles of green and soft yellow woven throughout, an emerald green G in the center while Fred's has the colors inverted and switched around a bit, the main color yellow with a grey F in the center, speckles of green and grey adding tiny pinpricks of texture.

"Productive?" Fred hums in thought, "I suppose you could say that."

"We've got to be productive," George adds on, "McGonagall threatened to wring our necks if we did any pranks during the ball tonight..."

Fred smiles impishly, "But she said nothing about pranks done during the day."

Lee scowls at them, "If this isn't out by tonight I will destroy your bloodline."

They glance over at him, glance at each other, and then grin as they look at him again, "We look forward to it."

"Okay," she drags out the word slightly, "before you three get into a brawl, mind if I give these to you? I don't want to lug them around all day."

Three pairs of eyes catch on the presents in her arms and Fred presses a hand against his chest, "Presents? For us? Aw itty bitty Finch, you shouldn't have."

Verity frowns good-naturedly, "If you're going to make fun of my height I'm not going to give you anything."

Fred mimes zipping his mouth shut before holding out his hand expectantly. Verity shifts the presents in her arms around, handing him the book shaped present. She then offers a similarly shaped present with an extra box on top of it to George who takes them with a grin, and Lee catches his present when she tosses it to him.

"You shouldn't have gotten him a book," George says as he begins to unwrap his gift, "Fred can't read for the life of him."

"I hope you got him a bunch of coal," Is all Fred says as he tears off the paper, "it's what he deserves."

Verity laughs softly, "Well, sorry to disappoint but I didn't get either of you those things."

Fred's eyebrows furrow together as he discards the wrapping paper, opening the plain looking journal that mirrored the one George was currently unwrapping, "What is this?"

"A business planner," Verity replies, letting the sleeves of her sweater fall over her hands, "you can keep track of orders, inventory, and plan out new things with it. The worker helped me link them so whatever one of you writes in one will appear in the other."

For once Fred doesn't give her an answer that was wreathed in mischief, instead he just stares at her for a moment, an indiscernible expression on his face. Then he sighs, "Great, now I can't give you your gift."

George is quietly flipping through his own planner as Verity tilts her head to the side, "...why not?"

"Because I'd feel guilty when it exploded in your face after you gave me something so nice."

Verity laughs softly, "Let's just say that you not pranking me can be my gift."

"Deal," his face warps into an all too familiar look of mischief and he sniffs slightly, "but I will say, you playing favorites isn't very nice of you."

"Playing favorites?"

He nods and points at the second gift George was currently unwrapping, "How come he gets two and I get one?"

George looks over at Fred as he finishes unwrapping the small wooden puzzle, "Because she likes me better, obviously."

"It had nothing to do with favorites," Verity interrupts them, "I just saw this as I was checking out and thought he'd like it, that's all."

George smiles at her, already fiddling with the puzzle, trying to figure out how to get the different edges to align, "And I do, thank you."

Verity goes to respond only to flinch back as something hits her face. She catches the material as it falls, nose wrinkled from the impact, and she holds up the pair of scarlet socks, a lion prowling across the fabric. Lee snickers as she looks over at him, her eyebrows raised.

"I figured you'd want something to wear to show support for the superior Hogwarts champion." He says with a cheeky grin.

"Thanks Lee," is all she says, tucking the socks into her back pocket, "but I think you got the colors and animal wrong."

He just grins, popping one of the candies she got him into his mouth.

Presents successfully given, Verity takes a step back, "Well, Merry Christmas boys, I'll see you guys at the ball?"

Fred elbows George in the side, smilingly wickedly, "Georgie hasn't given you your present yet though."

George blanches slightly, "I erh-, I don't have a present for you. I mean, there was the exploding box that Fred was talking about, but..." he trails off and she can see red creeping up the back of his neck as Fred gives him a pointed look, "I mean there is something, but it's not- I haven't finished it so, yeah."

It was rare for Verity to see George in such a flustered state, and not wishing to somehow make him more uncomfortable (which was clearly Fred's goal), she just offered another small smile as she turned to leave, "That's alright. Bye- oh sorry, I didn't see you there."

Her apology is directed to the messy haired boy she'd nearly ran into. It isn't hard to recognize Harry Potter; if his round glasses and scar peeking out from his hair hadn't given him away, his two friends that were always by his side would have. All three are openly staring at her and her genuine smile warps into a polite smile and nod combination she's perfect over the years as she walks around them to get back to her friends.

As she sits in between Cedric and Imogen, her best friend who nudges her, "Interesting conversation?"

"What makes you say that?"

Imogen casts a pointed look over her shoulder and Verity follows her gaze to where Fred is patting George on the back, the latter with his face buried in his hands and clearly ignoring the questions of his younger brother and friends who had sat down next to him.

They leave soon after, Imogen proclaiming they had to start preparations which made Cedric give Verity a sympathetic smile.

Verity lets Imogen drag her out of the Great Hall without much complaint, her friend's enthusiasm easily rubbing off on her. Imogen's mother was a well-known fashion designer and her eye for clothes and love for jaw-dropping looks had been inherited by her eldest daughter. So, when Imogen had approached Verity with a detailed itinerary of what they could do on the day of the ball to get ready, along with several sketches of potential dress ideas, Verity had agreed to letting Imogen plan out their afternoon.

But, instead of immediately going to their dorm room, Verity lets Imogen take her gifts from her and briefly parts ways from her friend, making a detour outside. It's snowing softly and the world has become much brighter as the sun glints off the white blanketing the castle grounds.

A thin layer of frost that hides beneath the freshly fallen snow crunches underfoot as she makes her way out of one of the side courtyards and to the familiar tree that hides away from the world. Her clothes were all enchanted to keep her warm, but that did little to protect her face, the tip of her nose turning cherry from the cold.

Verity hesitates as she draws nearer to the tree, trying to not get her hopes up as she reaches the tree. The bark is rough against her palms and frost bites into her fingers as she hoists herself upwards, the climb so deeply ingrained in her memory that it's second nature at this point. Halfway up the tree, nestled between a thick cluster of branches, is a small crack in the tree trunk that is impossible to find unless one was looking for it. Reaching inside, Verity holds her breath, only to let out a shaky exhale as her fingers brush against an envelope.

She wrestles the envelope free, relief crashing over her like a tidal wave, tension rushing out of her in a half laugh, half exhale.

 The envelope is plain and Verity uses her wand to open it, casting a quick spell to hide herself before tucking her wand behind her right ear as she takes out the blank piece of parchment within. She curls up, nestled high above the ground, secluded from the outside world as snow continues to fall around her. After unfolding the parchment, she fishes her mother's lighter out from its hidden pocket in her sweater, the familiar flick-woosh accompanied by the wavering flame soothing to her soul.

Verity carefully waves the flame underneath the parchment, smiling so widely it hurts as her father's familiar, slanting scrawl is coaxed out by the heat.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

December 21st, 1994

Dearest L'venok,

Before you tear my head off, I want to let you know that I'm doing well. I'm sorry that I haven't been able to write to you and I hope that this letter finds you before you become a little ball of stress (if you haven't already). I'm afraid my current job is taking longer than I hoped but it should be over soon. I've gotten your letters and I'm happy that you've made some new friends, Durmstrang students tend to get a bad reputation, but some of the bravest and kindest wizards I know went there alongside me. 

This letter will likely reach you on Christmas day, so Merry Christmas L'venok! The Yule Ball is tonight and I hope you have a wonderful time. If it's not too much trouble, take a few pictures for your dear old dad, and have lots of fun. It's a once in a life-time opportunity and I'm sure whatever festivities they have planned will be memorable.

Take care of yourself and have an extra slice of medovik for me.

Love you kiddo,

Dad

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

When Verity returns to her dorm room, an extra spring in her step, Imogen takes one look at her and gives her a knowing smile before gesturing to the explosion on the floor.

"Alright, I've got all the masks; face masks, eye masks, hair masks, hand masks, feet masks. We've also got a healthy selection of magazines to read, some snacks because duh, nail polish, the new Hair Begone! shaving cream that's all the rage apparently..." She continues to list all the items she's spread out and Verity takes a seat on the floor where Imogen has conjured up cushions for them to sit on, her father's letter tucked safely in her hidden pocket alongside her mother's lighter.

When Imogen finally reaches the end of her extensive list, she looks expectantly at Verity, who just shrugs, "You're the one with the plan and fancy beauty routine, I'll do whatever you want to do."

Imogen grins and rubs her hands together, "Let's start with masks!"

Between fancy face masks that made her skin turn different colors for a few minutes as the magic evened out her complexion and cleared it of a few pesky spots to being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of nail polish Imogen hoarded, the two girls spent several hours pampering themselves.

It was only after they'd been lounging around for an hour as their nails dried that Imogen breaks out her extensive makeup collection, spreading it across Verity's bed. Verity sits in the center of the barely controlled chaos as Imogen hums softly, running a critical eye over the various products before selecting her favorites. She unscrews a small pot, a faint floral smell emitting from the liquid inside.

Imogen dips a makeup brush into the pot, "Close your eyes unless you want me to poke them out."

Verity snorts, closing her eyes, "I'm trusting you to make me look halfway decent."

She can hear her friend's smile as a brush gently passes over her eyelid, "Oh Vera, it's not like you need my help to look good. But since you asked so nicely, I'll do my best, now stop squirming and let me work my magic."

Verity wrinkles her nose but does as Imogen asks, lacing her fingers in her lap as she lets her friend's imagination run wild. 

thanks for reading!

let me know what you think :)

anyways, my inconsistencies aside, I hope you guys liked this chapter! originally, this and the yule ball were all one chapter but it ended being over 9k words and so much happens during the ball that I thought it should have its own chapter ;)