Matthias and OPEN! (have fun with him, kiddos! X-D <3)
Matthias had indeed been wandering around after midnight- unable to sleep, yet unable to seek shelter inside the Church - partly because it was in ruins still, of course, but - also partly because the idea of sitting in the Church alone was too depressing; he was more accustomed to finding some solace there in hearing the Priest wandering about late into the night... At any rate, he found a certain amount of solace in walking alone, making the noise himself as he wandered about - and then - he was NOT alone, all of a sudden....
Where was that little girl's voice coming from? Was this - magic of some sort? Was she even old enough to work with such a powerful spell as this one sounded? He certainly doubted it, and prepared to duck in case the Santa sleigh dove-bombed him as suddenly!
At any rate, he found himself filling with a certain sort of - peace, rather... The Peace of his G-d, in fact? He would like to think so, after all....
And so... he went "home" (he would NEVER think of the Hemingways' flat as HIS home, no matter how long he stayed there!) and slept soundly until morning, for once, not tossing and rolling around his bed until he nearly (or did in fact) fall off...
And in the morning, he found himself still filled with a certain sort of - glee, rather than peace per se.... At any rate, he found himself wandering outside again, drawn irrevocably to the "Spire" tree - where he found a surprise waiting for him, almost glowing in the gold wrapping paper it was done up in, in fact: under the tree. It seemed to call to him, and he picked it up, the small parcel that was - apparently addressed to him.... From- Santa? As in, Father Christmas? Or Saint Nicholas, rather...? He grimaced slightly as he considered the package, and the coal he surely deserved for this past year's actions, ruining the gold wrapping.
But anyway's, he finally decided to open it, urged on by his -- step-nephew, rather than by his own curiosity... For his own curiosity was still stymied by the idea that there was naught but coal inside the parcel!
Indeed, there was something besides coal in the package - Hell's bells, there wasn't even any coal within the parcel! What had he done to deserve this, anyway's? He smiled softly as he viewed the photographs from home: the picture of his mother, looking so blissful and peaceful with him in arms.... And then, there was his sister, as a baby, wailing her head off as he mugged a grin for the camera - a grin that was clearly faltering, within the small life-shot of the pair that a wizarding photograph was! And then, of course, there was the last photograph Matthias could remember taking of his baby sis, before she was- before she had died, by his own hand...
He gulped a little at that image, of course, but - at the very least, the album contained no photographs of her actual death; instead, the rest of the album was focused mainly around the photographs that he'd recovered from her flat, after he'd cleaned her possessions out of the flat, post-her-death. Including - a wedding photo, that she'd kept hidden from everyone - probably because like she'd told him, she regretted that first marriage so dearly...!