BEST CHRISTMAS EVER

Blake rolled over and peeled open his eyes. For a moment it took him a while to realise where he was. He was so used to waking up in his dormitory surrounded by the sounds of his classmates the silence momentarily confused him. Then he realised that it was the Christmas holidays and everyone was gone home for the holidays. But no, that's not what had happened either. Blake was confused in his sleepy state. Soon the information started trickling in and he now remembered that Lucia had offered for him to go home with her for Christmas. How lucky was he getting to spend two holidays at her house. He really was indebted to her. Blake lay in bed for a moment, remembering all the fun stuff they had already done in the short space of time since he had arrived back at the familiar house. His heart swelled when he had entered his room with the warm memories it brought back. He momentarily wondered if he should be calling it 'his room', but decided now wasn't the time to worry about it.

Blake suddenly shot up in his bed. "IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. How had he forgotten? He had been too caught up in reliving the previous few days that he forgot what day it actually was. Blake bombed out of his bed and down the staircase, in search of Lucia. He passed through the large hallway, decorated in Christmas attire. He had helped Lucia deck the place in mistletoe and tinsel, it was obvious which parts he had done as his parts didn't look half as good as Lucia's due to the fact that he had never decorated anything in his life before.

Blake got distracted looking for Lucia as he stopped running around the house as he entered the living room. Taking up his attention was a large Christmas tree decorated in a multitude of things in multiple colours. But what really interested Blake was the large array of presents laying underneath it. Blake stood rooted to the spot, his emotions threatening to overwhelm him. His mouth hurt, from the large smile that was fixed on his face. Blake had never experienced a Christmas such as this. He really couldn't get over how lucky he was.

Lucia had woken up at around seven am, but had stayed in bed for another hour, just thinking about the few days that had passed. She had thoroughly enjoyed her trip with Blake to Diagon Alley, in which she had gotten him to go to the apothecary to get some potion ingredients that she'd need for her plants. He knew of them, being her apprentice, so it was no problem.

And then she had dashed off to Flourish and Blotts and some other places to find a couple of nice things to give him for Christmas. She was going to make sure it was a good Christmas for him. So she got out of her bed at eight and took on some comfortable clothes before walking casually down the stairs to the living room, waving her wand, and all the presents underneath the tree were suddenly visible. All the presents had been at Hogwarts had been transported here, so there were quite a few.

Lucia continued into the kitchen and started making breakfast. She wondered what would be good. Bacon. Definitely. Not very holiday-like, but a good breakfast almost always contained bacon. So she started frying that in a pan, casting a charm so it would watch it until it was perfectly fried. She also wanted to make some scrambled eggs. And she had turkey in her fridge that she took out, and soon the knife started making really fine slices to be eaten.

She turned the oven on and started making bread. Nothing was better than newly baked bread. And then she sat down at the table, reading the Daily Prophet. She sat there for half an hour, the bacon and scrambled eggs been put in containers that magically kept their warmth. The turkey was standing ready in the fridge again. And then the bread was done.

She took it out of the oven and put that on the desk, casting another spell to make that keep its warmth as well. She then started baking. And put the products in the oven. She continued reading the daily prophet for a quarter before the oven pling-ed again. She jumped up and put the paper away, and turned the oven off, just as she heard someone scream upstairs. She chuckled to herself and opened the oven door, taking out the freshly baked cookies, putting them on the stove.

Lucia walked out of the kitchen, seeing Blake by the living room. He looked so happy. She grinned as she took of her oven mittens. "Merry Christmas, Blake," she said joyously. "You ready for breakfast?"

"Happy Christmas to you too." A grin was still plastered on his face, but somehow it got even bigger when Lucia had entered the room and before he knew it he was hugging the woman. "Breakfast?" Blake repeated like the word was foreign to him. He had still only awoke and only had eyes for the presents and colourful decorations that lit the Christmas tree. "Oh yeah sure." He said eventually with some effort at tearing his eyes away from the scene that depicted a movie to himself. He then followed on towards the kitchen. He would have opened all the presents there and then if it was up to him, but he knew Lucia had gone through a lot of effort for everything and even made him breakfast. He didn't want to disappoint her and now that he thought of it he was actually quite hungry. Still he wished he could fill himself up on christmas treats. Maybe not though he realised once the smell of breakfast registered with him. Then he decided to hurry up and not begrudge his visit to the kitchen. As soon as Blake had spotted the cookies and figured out what the lovely smell wafting through the halls were, his eyes bugged. HE LOVED HOMEMADE COOKIES! But then there was scrambled eggs and bacon and he figured that's what was for breakfast. Maybe he could sneak a cookie afterwards. "Thanks." Blake said for the breakfast. "Thanks for everything." He then added, unable to hide his gratitude much longer.

Blake felt so stuffed after his breakfast, thoughts of cookies long gone from his brain. He then spotted the turkey as he made an attempt to clean up his dishes. He tried to be on his best behaviour and polite at all times, he just wasn't used to clearing dishes. "Are we going to eat that too?" Blake asked, his jaw dropping at the sight of it and the expectations. Blake really was enjoying the day, and how lucky he was to get to spend it with the woman but then it made him think. If he wasn't here what would she be doing? Walking the halls of Hogwarts, celebrating with the professors or with her own family? It made Blake think again that she had another life outside of the walls of Hogwarts that didn't revolve around him. He suddenly became curious and chided himself for not wondering about it earlier.

As Blake went and got himself a cookie and a glass of milk (he decided he still had ample room for a cookie) he proceeded to question her before their return to the living room. "So what do you normally do around here, you know for Christmas?" Blake asked as he dipped his cookie into the milk and took a bite. It tasted so good, he needed another!

When Blake suddenly hugged her, Lucia was slightly surprised, but didn't hesitate for a moment before hugging him back. She then looked on as his completely lost eyes tried to refocus and he seemed to remember that breakfast was a real thing. Lucia gave a laugh and walked after him into the kitchen. His demeanor told her that he did indeed like what he saw, something Lucia was pretty happy about. They sat down by the table and started eating. And it was pretty good, if Lucia was to admit it herself.

And then Blake was over by the sink, obviously trying to do the dishes. Lucia smiled and got up herself. "Don't worry about that today. It's Christmas," she said and flicked her wand, the plate slipping out of Blake's hands and started washing itself. Lucia looked to the turkey. "Yes, I was thinking we could eat that for lunch or something," she said, "I'm not used to the standard food that most eat, but I don't know about you. Do you usually eat turkey for Christmas Day?" she asked him curiously. It was not going to be a problem to eat the turkey for dinner if he wanted to.

Lucia watched on as he went ahead and got himself a glass of milk and a cookie. She was weirdly happy about that, as if she felt like he was actually taking the opportunity to feel at home. That was a pretty good thing, as she was growing fonder and fonder of Blake. She took a few seconds to answer his question and looked into the roof. "I have every third Christmas at Hogwarts, to watch stuff there, which is pretty amazing. And when I don't have Hogwarts, I usually bring mom home and have her here for the holidays. Speaking of which, she might join us tomorrow, depending on what the doctors say," she said calmly. She gave him a light smile. "My mom's got diagnosed early with Alzheimer, so she lives at a home. She's often discharged at Christmas, but this time around, there's been a new doctor and he's a bit stricter than the previous ones." She then studied him a bit. "What has Christmas been like at the orphanage?" she asked, almost fearing the answer.

She then gestured for the cookies. "Take one or two with you and let's go to the living room," she said, a smile on her face as she lead the way back to the room with the tree and the presents.