I approached Susan's house, but I must say that it has more protections than some of the houses I visited before, I guess Amelia is very protective of her home and her niece.
When I arrived, I had to call from afar without being able to get very close. After a while, Susan came out of the door, surprised by my arrival and appearance. She got excited, but she sadly told me that she couldn't disable the wards her aunt put around her house.
I had an idea that might work, so I asked her if she could wait for me for a while, and she agreed. I used my map to search for a certain place and when I arrived I used one of my abilities, which after ten minutes made me appear in the front yard of Susan's house, beyond the protections.
The skill was [Travel] which, considering that Susan is considered an ally, her house became a teleportation point. Once past the protections, I approached the house and knocked on the door. Susan opened it quickly, it seemed that she was waiting behind her.
"Red, how are you? Do you want to come in?" She greeted me excitedly welcoming me.
"Thank you" I entered the house
Everything inside was clean and tidy, there were various decorations, as well as furniture, only apart from Susan there was no one else. I wasn't going to ask where Amelia was, since I knew where she was, a non-magical Tenebrius was working alongside her.
"Do you want something to drink? I think we have something" she asked, somewhat excited, I think she felt lonely.
"Okay" I decided to spend some time with her while with Tenebrius I talked to Amelia
...
Amelia? I tried to get her attention.
"What's the matter?" She asked without separating her gaze from her writing and without stopping to write.
"It's Getting Late"
"You can go if you want, your work hour is over"
"No, I'm not talking about that... Aren't you planning to go celebrate Christmas with your family?"
"I can't go, there's still a lot of work to do, Fudge asked me to finish it" she said somewhat annoyed.
"Why don't you go home and leave the rest to me? Go home, you've done too much already."
"I'll just go on a little longer, there's still time"
"..." It didn't seem like I could convince her.
...
Back at Susan's house, she brought me some juice from the kitchen.
"So you're going from house to house delivering gifts?" she asked excitedly.
"Yes, even enter through a chimney to give it more style... but I don't recommend it"
"I would love to go with you" she said somewhat excitedly, but then she got depressed "but I can't leave the house"
"Okay, it's not that exciting...and there aren't many places left either" I said as I pulled myself up.
"Waiting!" She shouted exalted "...sorry, I didn't mean to shout" she was a little embarrassed and there was a moment of silence "... I just... I wanted to ask you if you could stay a while longer"
I stared at her and felt sorry for her, it seemed that Amelia was going to take a long time, and spending this moment alone shouldn't be nice for Susan. I thought about it for a bit and realized that the most important people I had to deliver gifts to were already there, so I could send the rest with my ability.
"Okay, what do you think if I accompany you until your aunt arrives?"
"Really?!" She was startled, very happy.
"Yes, there are only a few presents left, and enough of this 'Red Claus' thing"
"Great" she jumped from the couch with a lot of emotion, like a little girl.
"Well, I guess it's late, so we should worry about dinner" I said, because if it was late and since Amelia hadn't arrived, Susan hadn't eaten anything.
"There is food in the kitchen"
We both went to check, Susan here had a place full of prepared food, I think Amelia has a habit of not being on time. I realized that despite being wealthy they don't have a house-elf like other big families, maybe they don't have that custom.
"What do we eat?" Susan asked.
"Hum... I don't know if I want to eat this food"
"What? Why? What do they have?" She asked her consecutively, she was afraid of being a bad hostess.
"It's not 'that they have' but 'that they don't have'"
"What is?"
"Soul"
"... Soul?"
"This food is not suitable for these dates, we need something that not only feeds the body, but also the spirit"
"I... I don't understand" she said, somewhat embarrassed to be confused, although it wasn't her fault, I was the one who became a poet.
"Have you ever cooked?"
"Well... no, just simple things... like some toast"
"Well, today you will learn some cooking with chef Red. The two of us will prepare the Christmas dinner in the time we have left"
"Really?!" She said very enthusiastically, she never did things like this, she never had the chance.
"Yes, I will teach you, we will take some ingredients and start, wash your hands"
With that I improvised some aprons for both of us, transfiguring our clothes, which Susan seemed to be fascinated by. We took out many ingredients that I thought were necessary and distributed them around the kitchen.
"Well, the normal thing would be to make a sumptuous dinner with a large roasted dead bird, but I wasn't ready for this, so we'll do some quicker and easier things" I explained "To give this meal more excitement we will do it almost without magic"
"Without magic?" She asks surprised.
"Yes, without magic... now go and wash these vegetables well" I pointed to the pile of vegetables that I prepared for cooking.
"Here I come" she quickly took them away.
So we started to cook, while Susan washed each vegetable one by one with almost millimeter precision, I was in charge of treating the meat and preparing the utensils and pots. On the way, I also talked to Susan.
"Is there something you don't like?" I asked her whether she should add some things or not.
"Food and stuff?"
"Yes"
"Garlic"
"Ohh... you must hate Quirrell's class."
"Much"
"Anything else?"
"...Hmm...cucumber too..."
"Uhh... too bad you don't like to swallow cucumber" I said jokingly, a bit of a habit I had when I was cooking and Tonks was talking to me on the side.
"What?! Why? Are you going to cook cucumber? I can eat it if you want, I have no problem if you want me to eat" she said somewhat startled and fearful.
"Err, no, this isn't about that... it was just..."
"What? I don't have a problem, if you want to do something with cucumber, I'll eat it"
"No, don't misunderstand... it was... a dirty joke"
"Eh? How? Ehm... sorry, I didn't understand, I'll try to pay more attention" she said very embarrassedly, she seemed that everything she did today could be a big mistake and she was very tense.
"Susan, calm down, it doesn't matter if you make any mistakes, and this clearly wasn't. I won't go and leave you alone, no matter what happens" I tried to comfort her while I hugged her without touching her with my dirty hands, while it raised my auras of [tranquility] and [paternal].
She hugged me tightly and I could feel her crying slightly, the loneliness of this time tormented her so much that at this point she couldn't contain it. She went on like this for a few minutes and quickly pulled herself together, but still she kept hugging me for a few seconds.
Then she released me and quickly turned around to wipe the tears from her face, even though hiding them now would be pointless.
"Sorry I…" She tried to apologize, her current state was not something she wanted to show anyone.
"Okay, you don't have to worry about anything. How about we continue?"
"Yes"
"Okay, grate those carrots and pumpkins. Be careful not to hurt yourself...it happens..."
With that we continued, I used some magic to boil the potatoes, cool them and peel them quickly, since although I would like to do all this by hand we did not have enough time and the hunger was already present.
Susan did as I told her, but if she hurt her fingers, which I had to heal and joke that we would eat some of Susan's for dinner, referring to her blood. It happened twice, and I told her to only use magic for that, as we would end up ingesting a copious amount of her blood the way things were going.
After finishing with that, I asked her to make the dough with the potatoes, to add some eggs and the condiments.
"Well, put flour on your hands and try to make a homogeneous dough, if it's too sticky add flour, if it's too dry add water" I said while I continued preparing the sauce.
"Here I go" said Susan, who seemed to get a little excited when she started to knead and her hands were all sticky. In a moment of silence without her stopping, she asked me "Red?"
"Yes?"
"Can you explain to me the dirty joke you told?"
"I... I'm sorry, it was my mistake, I didn't want to say it in front of you... it was a bad habit" I apologized, I had forgotten about that and now that I mentioned it I felt a bit embarrassed.
"It's not that…it's that I didn't really get it…" she was blushing, but since we had our backs turned, I couldn't see it.
"You don't need to understand...it was very silly"
"But... I want to understand it" she said nervous and embarrassed.
"I... I don't think it's okay for me to tell you..."
"Please" she begged, it's not that she really cared, it was more that the fact that her friend had told her and she couldn't understand it bothered her a little, as if she was failing in friendship.
"Well... let's see, you said you didn't like cucumber"
"Yes, I don't like it"
"And do you know that there are parts of the body that are different between men and women?" I asked, although I didn't know why, if she didn't know that… then I wouldn't know how to answer, she would have put me in check.
"Yes…" she said, somewhat embarrassed, not because she was involved, but because of the feeling that this was a private matter.
"When I told you that it's a shame that you don't like to swallow cucumber, I meant that in the future when you have a boyfriend, you will make him sad by not wanting to swallow the part of him that looks like a cucumber"
"Does it look like a cucumber?" she asked, confused.
"Remember what we talked about the difference between men and women... if it stretches and hardens it looks a bit like a cucumber" even I was a little embarrassed to explain my joke.
"..." Susan seemed to process it for a moment and when she got it she suddenly turned to look at me and asked in utter shock "Is that eaten?"
When I looked at her so surprised and a little scared I said to myself 'shit', but she had already put me in the boat, so I could only row.
"It doesn't 'to eat' exactly, it's more... like an ice cream lollipop, you suck and lick... without biting. But let's stop talking about this, it's not something appropriate for me to teach you, especially at Christmas" I tried to finish this conversation, it was truly not suitable.
"Sorry, I did not mean to bother you"
"It's not that… it's just that I'm not the right one, it's something you should ask your parents" Although that is still awkward.
"But I don't have anyone to ask…" she hung her head, depressed.
"It's not...sorry, I didn't mean that... I wanted to tell you that you should ask your tutor. You should ask Amelia"
"..." She nodded and was silent for a while.
"Now you must create several strips and cut them into pieces of equal size... if you are afraid of cutting yourself use magic" I explained what she had to do, doing it once as an example.
"No, that's fine, I can" She stated confidently.
With that, we continue cooking and chatting, carrying out our respective tasks, and everything going quite well. But at one point, while I was tasting the sauce, Susan spoke again on the previous topic.
"My aunt is almost never here... I don't know if I can ask her about that"
"I think if you ask her she will take the time to explain it to you, I don't think she wants you to learn it from a stranger" I said with great confidence.
"Can't you teach me? It's just that I feel that with you... I can talk more calmly"
"It's not that I don't want to teach you, but those topics are…" dammit, I'm just getting past my malevolent acts and you throw something like this at me, it's like asking the fat guy to watch the cake"… no I would know what to teach you, I don't know what you want me to teach you, I don't even know if I should stay close to you talking about these topics... you could look in books"
"Are there books about that?"
"Well, I don't know if wizards have it that easy and understandable, and the others I know aren't exactly suited to... actually learning" I don't want to have a second Myrtle.
"Is it so bad to know about it?"
"No..." Damn, why does it look like she doesn't know anything? "Look, you ask Amelia, or your classmates, or maybe even your Hufflepuff elders, or your head of house, I'm sure they'll be willing to help you understand more about it... if all else fails, what I don't think it's possible, you can come and ask me anything you want, is that okay with you?"
"Fine" she agreed.
This was weird, and I don't possibly know if we would have ended up with any good results if I was the one explaining these things to her.
Susan finished her part and after giving the little balls of dough a little cosmetic tweaking with magic we brought them to a boil and once they floated we took them out and put them in a bowl. The sauce was also ready, so soon we mixed everything up and put it on the table.
It was just the two of us at a big table, but we only used one end of it to get closer to each other. With everything served, we began to eat.
"What do you think of the food you cooked yourself? If it's ugly, let the record show that it's 50% your fault"
"It's delicious" she said without stopping eating. It wasn't really an impressive dish, but the fact of making it yourself gave it a special flavor "What's it called?"
"Gnocchi or ñoquis...depends on where you are"
We continued our chat through dinner until it was over, we talked about everything a little bit, even making fun of a few people behind their backs, promising that what we said here would stay between us.
Once we finished, we put what was left in a bowl for Amelia, who hadn't arrived yet.
...
"Amelia! Look what time it is, you should go home" It was something I said repeatedly, but this time I put more emphasis.
"I still have time" she said without looking up.
By this time I was tired of her not listening to me and I got up from my seat, took the clock from her desk and put it in front of her, which would have made her quite angry if it wasn't for seeing that it was already December 25.
"Damn... there's still a lot to do" she exclaimed, she felt very guilty and repentant, she didn't notice the passage of time.
"Leave this to me, you go with your niece"
"I can't leave this to you"
"My family is dead, you go spend this time with the family you have left" I was direct with my words "Then you make it up to me by giving me something nice"
"But..." She hesitated, but once again she saw the time and thought that Susan had been alone all this time "Okay, I'll leave you in charge of the rest, I trust you, I'll take these documents to where they belong and I'll go…" She said, grabbing a large stack of papers from her desk and hurrying out the door. "Thank you!"
...
I was with Susan in the living room sitting in an easy chair and I realized the need for a TV, this is the perfect time to watch Christmas movies.
I talked a bit more with Susan and due to the absence of Christmas movies I could only kill time by telling her Christmas stories... from Christmas movies I had seen...
Little by little, Susan got closer to me until at one point she was sitting on my lap listening to my story without realizing it. I'm not going to say that I'm happy but I am not sad either. This situation is rare, and we got here in a most innocent way.
At this point, I stopped telling her the "Nightmare Before Christmas" to give her the gift I had forgotten about with all this Christmas dinner.
"Susan"
"Yeah, what happened to Jack?" she asked with emotion in her eyes.
"No, it's not that, I'll continue with the story, I just wanted to give you something" I said making the sack of gifts appear and taking out a small box from it "It's your gift, it's already Christmas, so I guess it's the right time, Happy Christmas"
She took the box and opened it, feeling a little bad that she couldn't give me mine in person as I did, She even thought about getting up to try and get one, but she didn't want to change her position, it felt so good.
In the box was a locket that when she opened it she saw a picture of herself, but then quickly changed to one of Amelia looking at her niece's picture, which I secretly took with Tenebrius. Then I move on to one of Hannah, to Pomona, to one of me, to one of herself with Hannah, Neville, Sprout, and me in the greenhouse...
"It has more pictures of me making weird faces at the end...it was just to add"
"It's…it's beautiful…" she began to tear up.
"I know you're lonely, but you have us all, I thought it would be a suitable gift. I know it may be wrong the way I say it, but... Don't feel bad about not having your parents with you, all of us we are your family, I will be your family whenever you want, so don't feel alone" I clarified, I felt very bad seeing her loneliness throughout tonight.
"... Thank you..." she said crying, hugging me. This time she didn't stop quickly like before, I wasn't the only one who noticed her loneliness, she was also holding back like she always did, and this gift was too much for her.
I comforted her a while longer and after a while of downloading her I used my magic and my auras to relieve and comfort her.
"What do you think if I continue telling you the story of the strange world of jack?"
"... Y-Yes...please" she wiped the tears from her eyes, smiling.
...
It had taken Amelia longer than she expected to finish those documents, so by the time she got home it was already too late. She felt terrible about it and she just hoped that Susan had eaten well and she had gone to sleep instead of waiting for her until now, she would find a way to make it up to her tomorrow.
After going through the chimney of the Floo network, she ended up in the living room of her house, but when she appeared there she got a big surprise. Although most of the house was dark, there was still some light, which made her think that Susan might be awake, but she wasn't.
Amelia saw how her niece was asleep on the chest of an unknown child, who she knew perfectly well that he did not have permission to enter the house.
"Who are you?! Let go of her!" she said, Amelia taking out her wand, and pointing it at him.
"I'm innocent" he raised both his hands "Susan, wake up, your aunt wants to kill me" the boy moved her slightly with one of her hands.
"One more time Dad" said a half-asleep Susan.
When both people heard this come out of the girl's mouth, they tensed up a bit, though perhaps for different reasons.
"Who are you?" Amelia again demanded.
"I'm a classmate of Susan's, from Hogwarts," He clarified quickly.
"How did you get in? How did you get past the wards? Susan doesn't have the ability to disable them."
"I used my own methods seeing that she was alone, the protections start from a point in the courtyard, if you manage to skip that part, once you're inside they don't have the expected effect"
Amelia listened to him and doubted, that she was suspicious that a child could bypass the protections, but when explaining how he did, she realized that it had some sense. She should remember to put new wards starting from the door. All this without ever lowering her wand.
"Susan, I know you're tired, but your aunt is going to do something very horrible to me if you don't get up."
"hmm... what...?" Susan half woke up.
"Susan?!" She called her niece.
"...Aunt? Did you come back...?" Susan finished waking up a little more and jumped off her friend's lap to greet her happily, she had been waiting for her for a long time.
"Susan!" Amelia hugged her "Do you know this child?"
"...who? Oh yes, this is Red Weasley, the boy I told you about in my letters, he came to bring me a gift and stayed with me until you arrived" Susan commented yawning, she was still very tired.
"Well" Amelia lowered her wand but she was still vigilant.
"Susan, why don't you go to your bed to sleep? We will see you later, you're very tired. I promise I'll get in touch with you during the day" The boy said to which Susan nodded, in fact, she was actually tired from how late they stayed up.
Susan greeted her aunt and then went to hug the red-haired boy, which brought Amelia a great surprise. After that, the yawning girl went up the stairs to her room, leaving the two people alone, in awkward silence.
"..."
"..."
"Thank you for accompanying Susan while I was gone" Amelia thanked her sincerely, she still doubted the boy, but she wouldn't deny that he was there when she wasn't.
"There's no reason... there's a bowl of food in the kitchen, Susan cooked a lot of it, I think she'd be happy if you tried it... I have to go"
"Okay, I'll open the wards"
Amelia enabled the red-haired boy to leave and he left, when she returned to the house she was trying to better understand the situation. She did not expect to be so late, and even less to find an uninvited guest who could get so close to her niece.
She went to the kitchen and found the food, although she was suspicious for a moment, she still took it along with some cutlery and sat down to taste it at the table. As she ate them, she realized that it was likely that Susan had cooked it, since in parts she could find mistakes.
At this point, tasting something that I don't expect her niece to prepare, she began to wonder if what she is doing is right...if she isn't failing horribly as an aunt...or rather as a mother.