Four Candle Christmas Challenge - week #2~ RESULTS

[thegirllikeme]

Name: thegirllikeme
House: I be a Turnip…er I mean a Ravenclaw
Clothing: Glove
Title: Her Hands
Word Count: 487
Authors Note: It’s meant to be Harry and Lily Luna in the drabble.

I am supposed to be bringing down the rest of the Christmas decorations so our family can finish our annual decorating when I find them nestled in a box of old forgotten clothes.

They are an old pair of gloves, that if my memory serves me right and it didn’t always these days, had once been a bright red. Time had changed them, as time changes everything. They are now a muddy shade of maroon, but their size is completely the same.

She had such tiny hands.

This pair of gloves are like so many that Molly had knitted her granddaughter, but there was only one pair that had ever been this size. She had worn them the winter she was five.

Though it was many years ago, long before the first gray hair had appeared in my hair, I still remembered these gloves and the hands that had fit inside them. How could I ever forget her tiny hands?

Hers were the hands that had always seemed to get lost as they put on the gloves, two fingers always finding their way into the same hole, leaving me to untangle them. Hers were the hands that gathered snowballs and thrown them at my and her brothers’ heads. Those were the precious hands that had grabbed mine as she begged, “Snow angels, Daddy!”

We would fall to earth, swinging our arms to leave our imprints in the snow. Hers had always looked more like an angel than mine.

And hers were the hands I would take and lead back into the house as her brown eyes smiled up at me, as though her daddy was the center of the world.

But that was so very long ago.

“Dad,” a voice says from the door, and I turn to look at my precious little daughter. Well, not so little anymore. She is nearly as tall as I and she has to stoop to enter the attic. “What are you still doing up here?”

She touches my shoulder and I see the ring on her grown-up hand, a constant reminder that I am no longer the center of her world. But he loves her, and she is happy, and that is enough for me. Still, I miss her, and I wonder why no one every told me she’d grown so fast.

I hand her the gloves; they look so small in her hands.

“You used to have such tiny hands,” I say sadly.

She smiles at me, as though she understands. I cast my eyes at her growing stomach and know one day she will.

She takes my hand, and this time is her hand that guides me, pulling me to my feet.

“Grown or not,” she says, “I can still make snow angels with my daddy.”

It is her hands, dressed in a new pair of red gloves, that lead me down the stairs and out into the snow.

[princessbipolar]

Name: princessbipolar
House: Ravenclaw
Clothing Item: Scarf
Title: You Have Made My Day
Word Count: 496 (According to Microsoft Word)
A/N: Thanks to Justice for betaing this.

''Rose, did my parents send you any presents?'' James flicked a concerned glance at his favourite cousin who was unusually quiet today when compared to her usual talkative self.

''Yes,'' Rose replied.

She looked sullen and irritated by the shrieks of laughter echoing from the various corners in the Great Hall. Despite the contagious excitement alongst the students who were looking forward to Christmas, Rose felt slightly homesick as her parents had left her at Hogwarts to prepare for a vacation in Romania.

''Rose, are you feeling well?'' This time, it was Lily who was asking her.

''Of course,'' Rose snapped as she rose from her seat noisily. ''I'm going out to take a breather.''

It was simply impossible for her to stay within the company of her cousins any longer.

As she emerged into the dark corridors, Rose exhaled a sigh of relief. The tension in the atmosphere had dissipated into thin air the moment she was alone. Suddenly, Rose froze. She heard a soft patter of footsteps approaching quickly in the distance. As the person came into view, Rose frowned upon recognising his identity.

It was Scorpius Malfoy.

''Hey Rose.'' he cheerfully greeted upon seeing her.

''Hi,'' She answered flatly.

''Having a great time?''

''Yes.'' She tried to lie somewhat convincingly.

''Received any interesting presents?'' Scorpius sounded curious.

''Not really. It's the same thing every year,'' Rose sighed, trying to disguise her moodiness with an attempted smile.

''That might change.'' His blue eyes twinkled with excitement. ''I've something for you.''

''Did you buy it?'' Rose raised her eyebrows skeptically. It was certainly unusual for Scorpius to prepare a gift for her.

''No.'' He answered before admitting a little sheepishly. ''I made it.''

Before Rose could give any visible reply, Scorpius handed her a large lumpy package from behind and leant back with an expectant smile plastered on his handsome face. Feeling curious, Rose carefully unwrapped the present whilst trying not to feel overly self-conscious with Scorpius’ firm gaze on her.

At this moment, she caught sight of a red scarf peeping out from the edges of the torn wrapper. She gasped, trying to hide her astonishment as she held up the beautifully sewn piece of fabric.

''Do you like it?'' Scorpius asked impatiently.

''Yes,'' Rose stuttered out. It seemed utterly unbelievable-that a boy had made the effort to actually sew a scarf for her.As Rose gently draped the red scarf around her neck, she was unable to restrain the rush of happiness that pulsed through her.

''That's good.'' Scorpius lips curved into a truimphant smile. He was feeling extremely pleased at the sight of seeing his masterpiece on Rose Weasley.

''The red matches your hair,'' he quietly added after a beat of silence.

''Thank you, Scorpius.'' Rose’s throat tightened. She was genuinely touched by his gesture.

''No problem.'' He paused. ''So, do you want to join in the Christmas celebration with me?''

''You bet I do.'' Rose grinned. ''The scarf has made my day.''

[coolh5000]

Name: Hannah
House: Slytherin
Item of Clothing: Hats/Scarves (and jumpers because I also consider them traditional winter clothes )
Title: Wrapping Up
Word Count: 499
Authors Note: Written in rather a rush - this is a continuation of my previous drabble and has been cut down rather a lot from it's original form.

Half an hour later, and the table looked almost as good as new – sort of. Ron was satisfied, anyway.

“Ron?” Hermione shouted. “Could you put the heating on – it’s a bit cold.”

“No problem.” The house was rather an old building, and on cold nights, the icy air seemed to creep through every available crack, making them very grateful for central heating.

At seven, when they were both changed, the doorbell rang.

“I’ll go,” said Hermione. “Could you check the heating – it still seems cold.”

Ron went to check the boiler, and the switch was still set to ‘on’, but if anything the house was getting colder, not warmer. The radiator in the kitchen was stone cold.

He had no idea how to fix Muggle boilers, and doubted that Hermione did either.

“Um, Hermione,” he said, poking his head around the living room door. “I think there’s a problem with the heating.”

“Hang on, I’ll come and take a look.”

Hermione fiddled with the switch while Ron greeted the rest of the guests, but the boiler was completely broken.

“What are we going to do?” Hermione asked. “The house is freezing!”

“A warming charm?”

“It’ll never be effective in somewhere as large as the dining room.”

He paused for a moment and then grinned. “Here’s what we’ll do – you go upstairs and find all the warm clothing you can – jumpers, hats, scarves, and everyone can put them on. We must enough jumpers from Mum for everyone to wear at least one, and I’m sure there’s a whole stash of scarves up there too, from the time she taught Rose how to knit.”

“But it’ll look ridiculous!”

“It’ll keep us warm at least.”

Ten minutes later, they returned to the living room, arms laden with knitwear.

“We appear to have a problem with our central heating,” Ron announced. “So you’d better wrap up warm.”

He dropped his pile on the carpet. “Everyone take what you want.”

“Have you got any that aren’t maroon?” George asked, holding a jumper up gingerly. “It’s not really my colour.”

“Unless you want to want to wear one of Hermione’s then I suggest you shut up and put up with it,” Ron shot back.

“Hmm…now that’s a suggestion,” George replied, eying the more attractive female jumpers.

Angelina pretended to swipe him over the head. “Here you,” she said, “take a hat. I don’t want your ear hole getting cold.”

“Oh thank you, caring wife, for drawing attention to my terrible affliction in front of my entire family. How will I ever recover from the embarrassment?”

She threw the hat at him in reply.

After a few more minutes of chatter, everyone was warmly wrapped up in an interesting array of jumpers, hats and scarves.

“My scarf appears to have several holes in it,” Bill observed.

“Ah yes, that is probably one of Rose’s earlier attempts. Don’t tell her you’ve seen it!”

“Is everyone warm enough?”

“Great,” said Ron as they all nodded. “Now let’s eat!”

[ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor]

Name: ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor
House: Ravenclaw
Clothing Item: Scarf, Gloves, Hat
Title: None
Word Count: 495

The snow was nearly a metre deep, but there was work to be done; the horses weren’t going to feed themselves. Even through her massive overcoat, Cho could feel the wind bite into her limbs.

The barn was barely visible, but she knew it was fairly close, as the slight impression in the snow of the path she’d shovelled the day before led the way. However, when she got there, something odd was near the door — a large, dark blob against the innate whiteness of everything else.

Curious, Cho diverted her path toward the mysterious figure, only to find that it was moving, barely, but moving nonetheless. At first, she thought it was some sort of animal that had wandered away from its winter shelter, but upon further examination, it was a man.

His face was tinged in blue, and his eyelids were flickering like he was on the verge of losing consciousness. He was trying to get to the barn for shelter, she reckoned, to get out of the wicked weather. If he didn’t, there was almost no chance of him surviving.

She’d told herself she’d never do it. Magic hadn’t been a part of her life for over six years — since the Battle of Hogwarts — but there was no way she would be able to carry this bloke, let alone slog through the snow with him. As quickly as she could, she wedged open the barn door and pushed aside as much snow as she could on her way back to her unexpected guest. She’d go back to the house to get her wand, but at the moment, he needed to be out of the weather.

After about ten minutes of dragging and pulling, Cho managed to manoeuvre the man inside the barn. The dim lights afforded her the first real look at this mysterious fellow. He was about her age with medium-brown hair and a tanned complexion, and by the appearance of his scarf and gloves, he was more well-to-do than poor.

Shivering had set in, which meant that he’d gone hypothermic. He was completely soaked, so she hastily stripped off all of his sodden garments save for the bare essentials. He was just so cold. Knowing he was still in danger of sickness, Cho wrapped him in every clean horse blanket in the barn and covered his exposed body parts with her own hat, scarf, and gloves. The shuddering lessened a bit, which made her comfortable enough to leave him there long enough to get her wand.

* * *

“Say, Cho,” Robert said as he mounted the star on the Christmas tree, as his very pregnant wife was forbidden to climb onto the step ladder. “I was thinking the other day... when you found me out in the snow, how the hell did a little thing like you get me inside?”

Smiling to herself, Cho said, “Don’t know, love. Must have been my magic pair of gloves I gave you.”

[lucca4]

Name: Ariana
House: Gryffindor
Clothing Item: Hat
Title: Vernon's Biggest Deal
Word Count: 500

Overall, Vernon Dursley believed the dinner had gone fairly well. Yes, Petunia had undercooked the meat a bit, and yes, they had gone through the awkward questioning about the Potter boy, but Mr. Morrison hadn’t seemed to care. The conversations lingered on Grunnings and drills and deals, which put Vernon in a cheerful mood.

They ended the meal with a large, frosted cake presented by Petunia, who served everyone a slice (though Harry’s was considerably smaller). Vernon gripped his fork tightly, pretending not to notice Dudley already reaching for a second piece.

“This is very delicious, Mrs. Dursley,” Mr. Morrison commented politely, eating his slice of cake in a delicate manner.

“Why, thank you,” Petunia simpered. “It’s just something I threw together when Vernon told me you were coming.”

“Well, it tastes very… gourmet,” he replied, smiling lightly. Petunia chortled softly and beamed back at him.

“So, what do you say, Mr. Morrison?” Vernon asked cheerfully after an unnaturally long bout of silence. “Shall we seal the deal in writing?” Mr. Morrison straightened his hat, frowning in concentration.

“Grunnings does seem to be a good choice for the company,” he admitted. “However, I think it’s best if we explore all options before committing to one.” Vernon pursed his lips, well aware that he was flushing a violent red. A few moments passed before he finally spoke.

“That is, I think, a very good decision.”

Mr. Morrison wiped his mouth and stood, fixing his hat yet again. “Thank you for letting me intrude upon your house this Christmas Eve. I hope I wasn’t a bother.”

Petunia’s eyes widened. “But of course not, Mr. Morrison! It was our pleasure.” Mr. Morrison smiled, and reached into his pocket to pull out a small bag of sweets.

“I brought these for your boy,” he said, “as way of thanks for inviting me to dine with you. Of course, I didn’t know about the other…” His voice drifted off as he gazed tiredly at Harry.

“Don’t be silly,” Vernon hastened to say as Dudley grabbed greedily at the sweets. “My nephew is… er … not quite right in the head, you see. We only reward him when he has been on his best behavior.” As way of proof, Vernon patted Harry delicately on the head.

“Ah, I see,” Mr. Morrison said, though he didn’t bother to hide his look of disgust as he glanced at Harry. In a loud, exaggeratedly slow voice, he added, “Thank…you…boy…for…behaving…at…dinner.” He maintained his distance while he spoke, as if worried that Harry might jump up and bite him.

Quite suddenly, a strong, cold breeze blew in the house. Without warning, Mr. Morrison’s hat blew off, and with it came all of his hair. He didn’t seem to notice this until he caught them all staring at his bald head. Patting his head frantically, Mr. Morrison’s eyes widened in mortification as he realized his subtly hidden toupee had fallen off with his sophisticated top hat. Harry was the only one laughing.

[Equinox Chick]

Thank you for entering. Results soon (ish) *We'll try and get these judged for end of term, but can't promise*


Carole

[Russia Snow]

RESULTS!

First Place:
CoolCatElly (10 points to Hufflepuff)

Runner up:
Hogwartsbookworm (5 points to Hufflepuff)

So at the end of Week two the house points look like this:

Hufflepuff 35
Ravenclaw 30
Gryffindor 10
Slytherin 10

Thank you all so much for entering!

Madam Russia and Madam Carole xxxxx

(If you're reading this and you haven't entered Week 4 yet, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?! Go enter!)