To: Hayley (girlnumber20) From: Santa Fandom/Game: Harry Potter Characters: Susan Bones & Fellow Hufflepuffs Summary: Susan does her best to bring Hannah a little Hufflepuff joy, the Christmas she needs it the most. Warnings/Rating: G
Susan Bones couldn't help but think that something was missing from the common room Christmas this year. Sure, they had the normal decorations, but there was a certain feel that they were doing without. She sat and stared across the room until it came to her, hitting her and almost overwhelming her, when she realized what it was. There was no Hannah fluttering around the common room, organizing their annual gift exchange (“It’s a secret, you can’t tell anybody” - with everyone finding out who had who within a handful of days), no Hannah asking what she should buy for her mother, no one pushing sweets onto them.
Susan sighed. It was the day before they were supposed to leave on the train to go home and on top of that tension, there was something missing. She looked around the common room. Ernie was sitting around with his nose in a book and Justin had his legs propped up on the couch. Everyone else had long since given up on staying up and had gone to bed.
~*~
“I don’t even feel ready for Christmas,” Ernie said, as the Hufflepuffs sat crammed together on the train in their own compartment. Susan’s knees were pressed against Eloise and Justin’s and she couldn’t help but agree. Her own favorite Aunt Amelia had been killed at the beginning of term and she was sure that Christmas would be hard. Still, Hannah was on her mind and how difficult this year would be for her.
“It’s hard to feel ready for Christmas this year,” Susan agreed.
“We could just not celebrate Christmas,” Zacharias said, from where he was sitting with his eyes closed and Susan rolled her eyes, biting her tongue from telling him what she thought of his unhelpful remark.
“Hannah isn’t here,” Justin said.
Susan nodded. “I’m going to visit her tomorrow.”
“Let us know how she is,” Ernie said.
“I will,” Susan said.
“Let us know if Hannah has a nervous breakdown while you’re there,” Zacharias added, unhelpfully and Susan rolled her eyes again. She lifted her wand and Silenced him and didn’t remove the hex until they were most of the way home.
~*~
The next day, Susan went over to see Hannah. She wasn’t sure what she had been expecting but what had happened wasn’t it. Hannah’s home had been devoid of any feeling of warmth. Sure, her father had been kind, but much like Hannah, he appeared to be grieving the loss of their mother. She remembered him being kinder and warmer on all her visits, but he’d seemed stressed out and exhausted.
Hannah, herself, had seemed tired in ways that Susan had never seen before. She’d lost weight and Susan hadn’t been able to stop herself from hugging Hannah multiple times.
“How was it?” her father asked, once she was home.
“Sad,” Susan said. She pulled her boots off and hung her scarf and cloak up before placing her gloves carefully nearby as to not lose them. She sat on the couch. “I don’t think that Hannah is going to have a very good Christmas or holiday.” She paused for a second. “I know that there are more important things, but Hannah was always so excited about Christmas and -”
“You want good things for your friend, there’s no shame in that, Susan,” her father said, taking a seat across from her.
She nodded her head.
“They might just have a bad year this year, which is too bad, but it happens,” he said.
“I don’t want it to though,” Susan said.
“Well you could do something about it then,” he said. “You could invite them here. Does her father have to work over the holiday?”
“I didn’t ask,” Susan said. Hannah’s father was a Healer and Healers didn’t always get holidays off because they were holidays. He might have to work and she hadn’t thought of that. That would make the season more depressing and she exhaled.
“Maybe you should, we they won’t want to come, but you know that they’re always welcome here Suze,” her father said.
“I will,” Susan said, nodding her head.
~*~
It didn’t go as well as she’d planned, Hannah didn’t want to come over and intrude and even after begging, Susan couldn’t convince her. She sat on her bed and sighed. Normally, it was Hannah who fixed these things normally, it wasn’t Susan. She didn’t know how to do this, she didn’t know how to make her friend feel better.
She pulled her blanket over her head and groaned. Tomorrow was Christmas Eve and she was running out of time. What would Hannah do to make someone feel better? She would go out of their way to make sure that they had a good day and enjoyed themselves but Susan didn’t know what to do. Hannah would bake or something or make something but Susan wasn’t good at that.
She tossed in her bed and pressed her hands against her forehead. She could figure this out, she would figure this out. She had to figure it out, she needed to take care of Hannah. Somehow.
~*~
It wasn’t until later that day when Susan figured out what she should do. She was barely paying attention as she sat, listening to her father talk to her aunt while she listened. They were going to have a hard enough time of it as it was, their aunt Amelia wasn’t going to be at dinner.
“It will just be different this year.” She swung her head around and looked at her aunt. She was right, it would be different this year.
It would be different and maybe that’s what Hannah was afraid of, maybe it would be too different. Maybe nothing would be the same. Susan tripped over herself as she stood up. She knew what she needed to do, it wouldn’t make Hannah’s loss better, but maybe for a second, well she would feel better.
“Honey, where are you going?” she heard her dad ask.
“I’m fixing something,” Susan said.
~*~
Susan showed up at Hannah’s door, hours later. She had a hat pulled down around her head and it was starting to snow.
“Are we really doing this?” Susan turned around and smiled at Zacharias.
“We are,” she said, her smile still on her face. She leaned towards him and squeezed the red nose that he was wearing. “Just remember to do the charm that glows.”
Zacharias glared at her as the door opened and the group of Hufflepuffs turned towards the door and started to sing. Maybe it would be different this year for Hannah, Susan thought, but maybe there would be some good things.