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Although Christmases at Hogwarts were more often than not rather lonely (if all of her friends didn't go home for Christmas then it was most of them) they were still guaranteed not to be as lonely as going home would be for her. At least this way she had someone to talk to besides a stern governess or her scolding great aunt.

This was her second to last Christmas at Hogwarts, she couldn't afford to waste it. She did wish Polly and Flora were around though, and Sirius... The latter would both be gone this time next year, she thought it would've been nice to have had Christmas with them before society and adult life in general sunk its claws into them all. There probably wouldn't be friendship with Sirius at all after Hogwarts, he'd kept her at arms length in her first year because of appearances and so naturally he'd do the same when society demanded the utmost formality of them. That would sting. Maybe once she was married, maybe if he was friendly with her future husband then they might be friends again?

Hesper hadn't realized how thoroughly she'd zoned out over her Christmas meal, not until the sensation of her fork starting to slip from her hand snapped her back to attention. Thankfully she managed to stop it from falling before she embarrassed herself but she still glanced across the table just in case to see if the Gryffindor across from her was staring. She thought he'd sensed her looking at him and was about to meet her gaze so she abruptly looked down at her plate before she could find out. She wasn't sure why she felt so furtive, it wasn't like she'd actually done anything embarrassing. However, it was probably a good thing she was looking at her plate now because she realized she didn't have anything left to eat anyway. She put her fork down safely on the plate. Next to her plate was her Christmas cracker. Who should she pull it with? She was sat on the end of the bench so there was no one to one side of her, and the girl sat on her other side was a lot younger and in deep conversation with someone else.

That left the Gryffindor sat opposite her, Rufus Osei. She didn't know him so much as she knew of him, although what she knew of him was very little. The only seventh years she really spent time around were Flora and Sirius' circle. Would you like to pull my cracker with me? Hesper picked up her cracker and held it out for him to take should he choose to oblige her.

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Outfit | Tag: Rufus Osei | Notes:

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His response - or rather the sincerity and warmth of it - took Hesper quite by surprise and so it was with a rather limp wrist that she held her cracker when he began to pull on the other end. It wasn't until it almost slipped from her hand that she tightened her grip. The predictably thunderous 'bang' made her ears ring and the blue smoke that had suddenly engulfed them made it impossible to tell who'd won the cracker. Well, she could've raised her end to her face to try and get a good look but she waited instead for the smoke to clear.

Once it had more or less cleared, she saw that the middle of the cracker had ended up on his end. What did you get? she asked enthusiastically. Wizard crackers were one of her favorite things about Christmas, in part because for her first year Christmas at Hogwarts all she'd had was a book on etiquette from her great aunt, the gifts inside the crackers she'd won had cheered her immensely. It had also been her first time ever having wizard crackers (she wasn't sure if she'd had them at Christmas with her parents) it wasn't as though her aunt suddenly thawed out her personality for Christmas and got merry.

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Outfit | Tag: Rufus Osei | Notes: