"It's so great that we're all sitting together again, I've missed that," my mum said. I hadn't seen her smile like that in a long time.

"Me too," I replied. "But if not on Christmas, when else?"

Because that's where - or rather when- we were. The noon of Christmas day, and all of the Tygrises, along with Francisca's boyfriend Henry, were gathered around to eat lunch together. Or in Marley's case, chew on a bone.

"Exactly," Francisca agreed loudly. "Screw St Mungo's; we don't have to work on Christmas day, we'll finally have our peace and celebrate as we should."

"Erm... for now, because I do have a night shift."

"MUM!" Francisca and I exclaimed in unison, staring at her in disbelief.

"What was I supposed to do!?" Mum said devensively, with a look on her face that clearly said 'you know I can't just not go to work, people might die'.

"Noone wants to work today, but someone has to, especially with all these increasing Death Eater attacks. And the feast will be over then, so I'm not missing out on anything."

"Except for time off," Francisca mumbled, obviously really angry at her boss.

But we all knew that complaining wouldn't work, so we dropped the topic.

"All this aside," Henry put a calming hand on his girlfriend's lower arm. "It's really delicious, Marenka."

I nodded, eager to distract from the previous topic. "Thank you so much for cooking."

It seemed as if my mother's cooking had only improved ever since I'd moved out. She felt much free-er to experiment and try something new, now that there wasn't a complaining male sitting in his corner and silently judging everything we said and did.

I had no problem saying that this was the best Christmas we had ever had.

Henry was a much nicer male companion than my dad.

Horrible to say, but I think his death might have been the best thing that had ever happened to us.

It was a really nice and peaceful day. Since we had given each other the presents before lunch, we later went for a long and refreshing walk through the snow (Mum had had a laugh when she saw that Francisca had given her an old Gryffindor wooly hat, so she immediately put it on and relived her childhood on that walk), played some nice games (muggle and wizarding) and just enjoyed the day to the fullest extent.

But when Mum had to leave for her work shift later in the evening, we sadly had to call it a day.

"Bye Mum, I love you so, so, so much, take care," I hugged her with all my strength. I always missed her horribly, living alone. I visited her quite often (perks of apparation: Even though we lived pretty far away from each other, we could meet up in a few seconds), but that just wasn't the same as living together, the way it had been when I was a small child.

"I love you, too, sweetie. So much, never forget that." She kissed my cheek. "You take care, too, alright?"

I nodded, although a lump formed in my throat. I still hadn't told her about the Order of the Phoenix. I didn't want her to worry, but felt horrible for not telling her at the same time. "Yeah."

Then Mum went on to hug Francisca and Henry goodbye, before we all stepped foot out of the garden; out of the disapparation ban. With a pop, Mum disapparated and I turned to hug Francisca.

"Have fun on your trip, enjoy the time," I said when I let go.

"Thanks," She grinned. "I'll keep you posted, and you enjoy your time off, too. I'll see you on New Year's Eve."

I nodded. "Bye, I love you."

"I love you too, you annoying shit." She tried to ruffle my hair, but it was French braided, so it didn't have any effect and I stuck my tongue out at her. She returned the gesture.

Henry snorted, tearing us out of our silent battle. "Goodbye, Freya," he grinned.

I quickly regained my posture and waved at him, pretending to be a very mature person again. "Yup. Bye."

And with three bangs, we dissapparated home, away from one another.

When I reached my apartment, and after I'd taken off my shoes and jacket, I took my bag off my shoulder and rummaged through it, to get the presents out. Due to the undecectable extension charm, that was harder than it sounded, but then I finally found what I was looking for.

Greating Asklepius, who flapped inside the living room just when I was walking past the door I gestured him to follow me.

I flopped down onto my couch, turned on the TV to fill the silence and focused on one of Marlene's presents, with Asklepius sitting on the right armrest of the sofa. I opened the empty, elegant looking book.

It was practically begging me to fill the empty pages.

I remembered the words Marlene had written down on the card. This is to share your genius with the world.

So with a small smile on my face, I summoned a quill and ink, along with all my cheat sheets I'd written throughout the past two years.

And that's how I spent the evening of Christmas Day, 1979.

Snuggled up beneath a blanket, hot chocolate in hands and my book on my lap, with the TV playing in the background, I began to work on my newest treasure.

'Useful Charms to Make Life Easier - Invented by Freya Tygris'

My a level exams are over so you bet I'm gonna keep writing this week☺️

- be prepared