• Serena Black •

"I have loved the stars too fondly
to be fearful of the night."

"Professor McGonagall let us know that you were sneaking around the castle the night Arthur was attacked." Remus gave her a stern look, while her father merely grinned knowingly.

Serena almost choked on her pudding and was pretty sure that if her father knew the reason for her nightly walk, he wouldn't be grinning like that. Unhappily, she looked back and forth between the two of them, while the others' gazes prickled on her skin.

"Er... I was looking for Harry," she tried to pull herself out of the affair with the same excuse she had already served up to her tutor.

"How did you know about Harry?" Ron interjected, furrowing his brow, "I thought you were looking for Ha... OUCH!"

Serena had kicked the redhead hard in the leg, but by now everyone present knew that something wasn't quite right with her story. Everyone promptly turned to her again with curious looks.

"I was just seeing someone," the Gryffindor finally said quickly and quietly, feeling the blood rush to her head at the same time. She hoped that she had spoken so indistinctly that the others hadn't understood, but Remus smirked slightly now and her father grinned even wider if possible. He obviously had no idea that it was Hall.

"Is that a problem now?" Serena finally asked, looking around embarrassed. She hoped that it wouldn't be pulled out of her nose who she had been seeing.

"I don't think so," Remus sighed and was immediately interrupted by his best friend, "But don't get caught again! Will you tell us who the lucky one is?"

Serena hadn't actually intended to, but Ginny had already answered for her, "Well, I think you and Maxon are really cute!"

"Who's Maxon?" Her father, Remus, Tonks and Mrs Weasley asked almost simultaneously, causing the Gryffindor to sigh in exasperation, "I was going to tell you about it, but then the correspondence was monitored and...." She searched for the right words for a moment, "So he's kind of been my boyfriend for three months."

"Why didn't you say anything?" her father asked reproachfully.

"I just said that," Serena replied, still feeling the heat swirling in her head. "Besides, I didn't want you to freak out like you did with Hall."

He seemed to gasp and his expression tensed at the mention of that name, "This is completely different."

"You know a Hall?" Tonks had leant over to her and was now looking at her curiously. "They're always home-schooled, aren't they?"

"Well, if you ask me, Elijah has a bit too much say in the Ministry," Mad-Eye grunted, his normal eye taking on a grim expression.

"From the looks of it, his son is cut from the same cloth. He's been hanging around the Ministry almost as much," Tonks agreed. Serena strongly assumed that she was referring to Damien. "But how do you know him?"

"His younger son goes to Hogwarts," she replied. In the corner of her eye, she could see her father starting to rage: "Elijah should be locked away instead of blaming me for the Azkaban outbreak."

But Tonks didn't seem to be paying any attention to him. "I didn't realise he had two sons. What's more, he's not home-schooled as well."

"They only ever focus on the heirs," Mad-Eye grumbled.

"That doesn't give the other one the right to harass my daughter."

"Dad!" Serena looked angrily at her father and turned bright red again. Tonks began to smirk knowingly at her, which only made the Gryffindor's cheeks colour even darker. "Maybe I'd stay away from him if you gave me a good reason to," she said sourly back to him.

"If?" he asked so sharply that his voice could cut through bricks at that moment. His grey eyes glared at her warningly. "You promised me you'd stay away from him!"

"Well, maybe it was him I was seeing that night." Serena defiantly crossed both arms in front of her chest and gave him a challenging look - which she regretted the next moment.

After this statement, silence reigned at the table, which was still laid. None of those present dared to make a sound while father and daughter exchanged blows. Finally, Mrs Weasley was the first to speak again. "It's getting late, I think it's better if we all go to bed."

Serena did not go quietly. She took in every sound she could get from the old staircase and stomped up louder than necessary on purpose. She also closed the door behind her with a loud bang.

Still with anger in her eyes, the Gryffindor lay in her bed and stared at the ceiling. She was still awake when she heard Tonks come into the room she shared with her. Serena didn't take her eyes off the ceiling until she realised that her cousin was staring at her from her bed, grinning, "Don't you want to tell me a bit about the Hall boy?"

She gave a short snort, "He's a bit of an idiot."

The next morning, the guests and residents of the Blacks' old house were busy cleaning and decorating for Christmas. The choice of colours had promptly fallen on red and gold, much to Kreacher's displeasure and the delight of everyone else.

Serena was surprised by the fact that her father didn't seem a bit angry any more. On the contrary, she had rarely seen him in such a good mood. He sang Christmas carols loudly, which echoed throughout the house and kept popping round to see everyone. Apparently he was happy not to have to spend Christmas alone and was as happy as a little child, so Serena couldn't be angry with him either.

After hours of work, the Gryffindor treated herself to some time out with the twins. It would be an understatement to say that their room was merely untidy. Nevertheless, Serena managed to find an empty space on one of the beds to sit down with her hot chocolate.

"From a snake?" She looked at Fred and George in turn in amazement as they told her what had happened, "How did it get into the Ministry?"

"Not a clue, but if it hadn't been for Harry, things wouldn't look so rosy now." George's face darkened at the thought of what could have happened. But Serena still couldn't make heads or tails of the story she had just been told. "Why Harry?"

Fred sighed, "He had a dream, or a vision for all I care. If he hadn't told Dumbledore, they wouldn't have got Dad out of the Ministry in time."

She, too, shivered at the idea and sipped her cocoa, lost in thought. The hot drink warmed her body, but it couldn't keep out the cold in her thoughts, "We're about to go to war, aren't we?"

"Can't be denied anymore," George muttered, staring into space. Serena had to swallow at the serious expression on her otherwise bright friend's face. Finally, his brother stood up and the usual smile graced his freckled face, "So, enough negative vibes for today. Sirius said yesterday that we could let off steam by the tree."

Before either of them could answer, Fred was gone with a plop. Rolling her eyes, Serena turned to the remaining twin, who was now grinning at her too, "Who's down first."

The bet was anything but fair, as George had also decided to apparate down, leaving a scowling Serena behind. She deliberately walked down the stairs at a slow pace so that they could wait for her.

"You should consider yourself lucky."

The voice made Serena flinch in the entrance hall. It seemed familiar and yet so strange at the same time as she looked around for the supposed source. The portrait of her grandmother was only half covered by the shawl, but Serena could still see the woman watching her with icy eyes. It was unusual to hear her voice in such a calm tone, for Walburga Black was much better known for her unendurable shrieking in Grimmauld Place.

"What?" asked Serena, stepping closer to the painting to quickly hang the cloth back in its usual place, in doubt of another outburst.

"The Black family has fought for this honour for so long and you have sullied it with your blood!" the portrait replied and had now resumed its usual shrill tone, which is why Serena covered it up again, rolling her eyes and silencing it.

"What took you so long?" George asked reproachfully when Serena finally entered the parlour and just grinned. "If you're going to take the easy way out, you'll just have to wait."

The two of them grimaced and pulled out a huge box. "These are actually our Christmas decorations, Mum brought them. She thought your grandmother would have spent less time decorating Grimmauld Place nicely."

"Yes, the decorations here were simply terrifying!" Fred agreed with his brother and stared lost in thought at the box, the contents of which probably evoked childhood memories and a sense of security in the twin.

Serena marvelled at every little thing inside. Many parts moved, sang or twinkled like thousands of stars. She could hardly wait to finally admire her finished masterpiece and was sure that this would be the most beautiful Christmas tree she had ever seen.

However, not everyone seemed to share this opinion.

"Oh, if my mistress only knew!" Kreacher had stepped into the room, covering his large eyes with both hands. "Her beautiful parlour has been completely ruined!"

Serena climbed down from the chair she had been standing on to reach the branches higher up. Serena hadn't had this much fun decorating a tree since she was a child. At some point, her mother had given up on organising a real tree. She looked at the house elf with shining eyes. "Kreacher, it's Christmas! Why don't you be cheerful?"

When the elf caught sight of her, he bowed on the spot, but not without taking one last scowl around the room, in which not a single piece of furniture had been spared tinsel, "Kind-hearted like Master Regulus."

"He still thinks Regulus is your father?" George asked with a grin after Kreacher had disappeared again, actually putting on a cheerful face by his standards.

"Looks like it," muttered Serena, turning her attention back to the tree. It was perfect in her eyes, so she asked the twins not to change anything else and they seemed to be happy with the result.

Hermione, Ron and Harry started to set the table as it began to get so dark in the Blacks' old house that they couldn't see anything without extra lights. They all began to marvel at the beauty of the tree as they entered the room. A few inches above, tiny snowflakes were snowing on the dark green needles. The idea for the spell had come from Remus, who had also cast the spell for this gimmick.

"There's never been such a beautiful tree here!" The tree decorators received an appreciative look from the owner of the house.

Serena sat on one of the moth-eaten sofas and grinned at her father. She didn't want to argue any more, because she didn't want to waste the little time they had together on something like that.

He smiled back and she was sure she could detect a little guilt in his grey eyes. His attention was diverted, however, when Harry placed another plate on the long table. "Harry, what's that on your hand?"

The Gryffindor's hand was badly scarred, even Serena could see that from a distance. Harry promptly tried to put on a neutral face and pull his hand away from the plate, which landed on the table with a loud clink. But he couldn't fool his godfather, because he was with him in a matter of seconds, examining the injured hand. "You should not tell lies? Is this the work of this Umbridge?"

"Not so bad," muttered Harry. "Please don't get so upset. I can deal with it."

He laughed scornfully for a moment and let his gaze slide round the group, who had dropped everything and were observing the situation. "Did she do that to any of you?"

The blood rushed to Serena's head and she unobtrusively pulled her sleeve over her left hand. The wound didn't look nearly as bad as Harry's. But despite the fact that she had only had detention a few times and had used Hall's stuff, there was still a slight pink colouring visible on her pale hand.

"Serena, I saw that!"

Sighing, she rolled up her sleeve again and held out her hand to her father. "Did you put something on it?" he asked when he saw that it was almost completely healed.

"That was my cat, it scratched my hand while it was playing," she said simply and pulled her left hand back again. But he didn't seem to believe a word she said, so Serena put on a deadly serious face to give her statement a little more emphasis. "Really."

Serena breathed a sigh of relief when she realised that her father seemed to believe her after all. She didn't want to start another argument or fuel the fact that he was worried about her. But she especially didn't want him to take responsibility for it. After all, she had had detention with Umbridge because of his letter.

"When did you have detention?" George had leant over to her and scrutinised her curiously after her father had started arguing with Harry. Apparently, the Weasley hadn't missed her lie. Serena just smiled weakly and pulled her sleeve over the back of her hand again. "Just shut up."

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Merry Christmas everyone! 🎄

Do you celebrate Christmas? Do you have any special traditions?