"Hark! how the bells
Sweet silver bells
All seem to say,
Throw cares away."

"This seems nice, don't you think?" Arlene asked her mother, picking up a tiny glass object.

Being in a non muggle setting, the two were free to dress in a Magical attire.

They were both wearing black corset dresses but while Paloma's outfit was, what Arlene called 'full on witch' and gave a regal vibe, Arlene's was a tad too gothic.

One thing they had in common though, was the heavy charmed cloaks that fell from their shoulders to keep out the cold weather and falling snow.

The object in question was a Sneakoscope, unlike the knockoffs, this one didn't have flamboyant colors but rather golden lines.

"Who are you getting it for?" Paloma asked, looking away from a Remembrall.

"Christmas is here
Bringing good cheer
To young and old
Meek and the bold"

Arlene tried to ignore the song playing in the store, it wasn't loud by any means, as a matter of fact, it was white noise, but it was the seventh time she had heard it in the past hour.

"This lovely person called myself." She joked, putting it in the basket that was floating behind them.

Paloma chuckled and added a pair of two way mirrors.

Ding, dong, ding, dong
That is their song
With joyful ring
All caroling

"One of your co workers?" Her daughter guessed.

"Who else do I have to buy gifts for?"

Arlene made an offended face "Your brilliant daughter?"

Paloma rolled her eyes "You've already got five gifts, and those are just the ones that you picked out yourself."

One seems to hear
Words of good cheer
From everywhere
Filling the air

"Reminds me, I need to go to Flourish and Blotts, and Quality Quidittch." Arlene commented as she checked out an unspillable goblet, putting it upside down and watching the water hit an invisible barrier.

Her mother nodded "I need to go to Apothecary and a couple other stores as well, tell you what," her mother handed her a tiny bag, small to fit anything other than some knuts, but Arlene knew it had an extension charm "Get all you need and meet me back at the Ice Cream Parlor in three hours."

And so there she was, an hour and a half later, she had already picked out Sage's gift (a self writing typewriter) and was now in Quality Quidditch to continue her shopping.

She needed to get something for her teammates, nothing major, maybe broom polish and new Quidditch gloves, then she was faced with a dilemma.

Should she get something for Draco?

On one hand, they only hang out because they're mutual friends of Theo and Blaise and while she mostly tolerates him, they occasionally clash, not to mention the rivalry between him and her other maybe somewhat friends, Hermione and the boys.

But on the other hand, she only argues with him because she knows that he isn't as arrogant or as entitled as he seems, and it frustrates her to no end when he acts like a jerk.

She sighed angrily and snatched a little cheap looking necklace shaped like a snitch with the words "Ain't no snitch" written across.

"If only I wasn't so fucking nice." She declared in an exasperated tone.

She wrapped the seven token gifts, and placed them along the typewriter inside the charmed bag and thought about where to go to next.

Ever since the holidays started, Arlene had the thought of Hermione on her mind, recently, it was because of that letter, but mostly it was about her gift.

Arlene was more aware of the muggle world than most purebloods, she did, after all, live in a muggle building, but she still wasn't that much informed in order to pick out a muggle present. And considering the fact that Hermione was the only witch in her family, any item that was charmed without a wizard or witch of age would warrant a ministry visit and she didn't want to put Hermione in trouble. So, she went with the safest option, books.

With that sorted, she thought about who else she would get a gift for, she had already gotten her mother a statue of Lady Justice and a couple of Agatha Christie's books, except that they were from a magical library, which meant that the author bio wasn't about how unlike all the female writer of her time she used her own name, but rather about how she became both a muggle and magic icon.

Then she thought about Pansy, should she get Pansy anything? Crabbe, Goyle and even sometimes Draco made plenty of purist remarks, the former way more than the latter, but Pansy was never more than your average fourteen year old 'insecurity manifested into bullying' and after seeing how passionate she is about magical creatures and that day before Sage's date, Arlene had started to look at Pansy in a different light.

It wouldn't be that much of inconvenience anyway, both she and Blaise were Magizoology nerds, so she wouldn't need to make extra trips.

Alene made a plan in her head, she would go back to the store she had left her mother at, get a unicorn themed object, go to the bookstore and get two copies of a Magizoology book, preferable something of Newt Scamander's and another for Hermione, then to a music store that she had stumbled upon months prior that was known for selling some muggle tracks.

A wave of guilt fell on the girl as she thought about her friends, she hadn't even sent a letter to any of them since she went home.

Arlene knew that Sage would be fine, too happy about her father's return to even notice. Draco would be fine two, probably being spoiled to death with a couple hundred presents. And Blaise? Well, Blaise's mother fit the perfect description of 'rich widow with a lot of secrets' after all, having seven husbands dying in mysterious ways warranted some rumors but she had seen the woman interact with Blaise on several occasions, he would definitely be having the time of his life.

What worried her were the other two.

If her mother's words were to be trusted, Mr. Parkinson was a raging traditionalist purist asshole and Mrs. Parkinson was a meek 'better seen not heard' trophy wife, not to mention how much Pansy seems to hate going home, she did not have a happy family life, as a matter of fact, Arlene had once overheard her mentioning to her friend how scared she is of her dad.

But the person she was Mega worried about was Theo.

Theo's mother, a woman remembered as lovely and sweet, committed suicide back in first year and left Theo in the care of his father, his father who was one of the most famed death eaters to escape justice. Moreover, Theo confided in her and Blaise countless times about how living with his emotionally absent father in that large, cold, dark mansion sometimes felt like he was being suffocated. Remembering that, she felt even worse about it.

Alas, she would make it up, she introduced Theo to The Beatles a while back and he was hooked, of course, his father would never allow him to listen to muggle music, so the only ones he has are the ones that were gifted to him by her and Sage.

She sighed in despair, why did her friends have the worst parents ever? Theo, Harry, and now Pansy.

In that moment, Arlene had a shocking realization.

In another world where Paloma and Regulus never rebelled, she would have probably had the same fate.

She should probably get her mother a third gift.

Arlene picked a few music disks for various artists, both magical and muggle, got them wrapped then made her way through the piles of snow until she reached the store, where she baught a little unicorn snow globe and a mermaid figurine, then finally made it to Flourish and Blotts with only twenty minutes left.

Fast forward quarter an hour and three books later, she was at the ice cream parlor, thinking about Hermione's gift.

She had gotten her a book titled "Twenty Centuries Of Magical Rebellion" a book starting with the Four Founder's fight against their government that refused to take action to prevent the Witch Hunts, and going through Blood Status Segregation, the Obscurus Crisis, the 'Beings Not Beasts' campaign for Centaurs Vampires Veelas Werewolves and Mermaids, and finally ending with the Blood Supremacy Resistance during Voldemort.

Would she like it? Hermione did seem to be interested in the geopolitics of the magic world, but would it be too boring? Maybe she should get a second gift just to be safe? Merlin, what if Hermione already had that book-

Arlene's anxiety about whether Hermione would like her gift or not was cut short when she saw her mother.

Or rather heard her.

She was standing behind the shop, only her back was visible and whoever she was talking to was hidden by the wall.

"-being bonkers! If Dumbledore just knew-"

"You know very well-"

"Yes, yes, but-"

"Mum?" Arlene called out in a questioning tone.

Paloma turned and looked at Arlene with an expression of a teenager whose parents had caught her with a boy. Paloma's hairstyle had been ruined by her running her hand through her hair, her face was filled wit anxiety and she was gripping her wand as though she was expecting an attack at any given moment.

"Arlene!" She exclaimed in surprise "oh good, you're here, come on."

Without waiting to hear another word, Paloma grabbed Arlene's hand and pulled her along away from where she had been standing, but not before she heard a CRACK, signaling that whoever she was talking to, had left.

Arlene frowned, that voice was oddly familiar, but she shook it off, it was probably one of Paloma's coworkers, she had, after all, met a lot of them.

'But then why did they meet under such shady circumstances?'

That night they made cookies. Normally, Arlene would have been freaking out over her mother's suspicious meeting and several other tiny things that seemed off about her, but it was Christmas, they would be having dinner with Sage's family tomorrow and going back to the castle the day after that, Arlene didn't want to start another flame before leaving again.

"Come on, say a lie." Arlene giggled, holding up the Sneakoscope.

"You are biologically my daughter."

"MOM!"

"Alright, alright," Paloma laughed "the sky is green."

The sneakoscope started whistling loudly and coping the movement of a rotary bee.

They both burst out laughing uncontrollably.

Paloma shook her head I amusement and looked back to the oven "Honey, can you go get me my notebook from my drawer? I need to check the recipe."

"Sure." She shrugged, hopping of the counter she was sitting off and went to get the notebook, it wasn't look before she spotted it.

But just as Arlene was leaving the room, she paused.

It wouldn't hurt to look for her presents, right?

She grinned mischievously and cast a silencing charm on the Sneakoscope so it wouldn't give her away, then she stuck it in the pocket of her sweater and started looking.

It was a few moments before Arlene realized that her mother probably had a concealing charm.

Taking her wand out again, Arlene whispered the revealing spell.

Arlene was expecting boxes in wrapping paper or shopping bags, but not a giant murder board hanging on the wall.

A picture of two young black haired teenage boys with grey eyes hung in one corner, red string connecting them to what looked like a picture of The Grim, clipping of newspapers, a picture of an amputated finger, the words 'SECRET KEEPER?', another picture of a group of teenagers, the words 'DUMBLEDORE KNEW?', sticky notes and even more pictures were all connected by the same red string.

It seems the universe is hell bent on making her life harder.

"Arlene? What's taking so long?"

The color drained out of Paloma's face once she noticed the board.

"Mum," Arlene said, very slowly as she looked her straight in the eyes.

"Do you think Sirius Black is innocent?"

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This was actually done four days ago but my laptop crashed.

I'll try to update every Saturday, so stay tuned :)