White Christmas

[Sybella Winterdowne]

• Christmas had always been Sybella’s favourite time on the year. She and Horace had outdone themselves with the house’s decoration and Syb had instructed their maid-cook to prepare her children’s favourite dishes.
  
  After breakfast, Pandora and Horace departed - her husband wanted to show their girl something, though she wasn’t sure. They’d likely join her and Gigi later, when it was time for tea.
  
  In the meantime, she and her little baby boy could spend some time together, like before he left her to go to Hogwarts.
  
  “Would you like us to go outside, love?” Syb asked her boy with a soft smile, as she moved to brush his cheek with her hand. “We could build a snowman!”

  

[Gandalf Winterdowne]

Gandalf was enjoying christmas, even if it was still a bit sad to know that Jason was close enough that they could meet and all without problems, but his mother had not allowed him to go out and meet Jason. It was not fair. Instead Gandalf had spent a lot of time with the family, as well as his blue owl. He had been completely unable to get his mother to turn the owl brown - he guessed that it was a lost fight, and the owl was actually quite sweet.

With Dora and his father out, it left him and Sybella to spend time together - they used to do that before he had gone to Hogwarts - so it was not something that surprised him a lot when she asked if they should go outside and build a snowman together.

"I would like to ... but I would really like to do it with Jason. Please mother, why can I not be friend with him."

  

[Sybella Winterdowne]

• Sybella frowned. Who was Jason and why was Gandalf mentioning him out of the blue? She felt slight concern raise in her chest, for her son’s sudden strange behaviour.
  
  And then it occured to her.
  
  “Oh, Gigi!” she exclaimed as she approached to hug him. “Is Jason your imaginary friend? Do you really have no friends at all at school?”
  
  Her poor boy!

  

[Gandalf Winterdowne]

Gandalf could not help but feel slightly sad that his mother could not even remember that one friend he had mentioned in his letters home. "No - Jason is in Gryffindor, and he is muggleborn. He lives here in Irvingly." he insisted, but did not move to hug her, nor move away from the hug.

But the sadness stayed with him - how could she forget about Jason? Gandalf usually thought of his mother as someone who always seemed to remember what was important to him - and now she forgot his best friend?

  

[Sybella Winterdowne]

When Gandalf started describing this friend of his, she assumed that it was just the details his little mind had created. Imaginary friends were rarely just a name and gender, they always came with a backstory.

But when Gandalf mentioned Irvingly, Sybella remembered.

"Oh, that friend" she said as she pulled away and put her hands on her hips. "That boy you were planning on meeting without even asking me!"

  

[Gandalf Winterdowne]

Gandalf just sighed when his mother seemed to become angry at Jason, without any reason. "Yes, my friend. He is in Gryffindor, you seemed so happy that I had a friend in Gryffindor." he said, thinking back on how she had reacted when he had been sorted into Slytherin. The Howler was still a memory he would prefer to have been without, especially because of the 'common' nickname Gigi had been used. He hated his nicknames, his name was to begin with not something he really liked, his mother's seemingly endless amount of nicknames did not make it any better.

  

[Sybella Winterdowne]

Sybella resisted rolling her eyes at Gigi's comment. He was only a child, so it was normal that he couldn't see why she had been upset with his decision to meet up with children neither she nor Horace knew about. Gandalf had had a safe childhood, and he couldn't realize that the world was not always safe. While she was sure that the Rohlwings were a lovely family and that they wouldn't try to kidnap Gandalf, one still had to be cautious! She constantly heard stories about disappearing children and Gandalf was not like one of those Lestrange girls - nobody would care if he disappeared.

"I am still very happy that you have a friend, Gigi." Syb told her son as she softly stroked his hair. "But I sadly know nothing about the boy or his family."

  

[Gandalf Winterdowne]

"What is the difference between me being at Hogwarts and then being here? Jason has not changed, and no one will hurt us." he asked and looked stubborn up at his mother. He just wanted to meet with his friend and have some fun, why did she always have to stop that from happening?

"You can come and meet them if you want?" he said, hoping that it might give her enough reassurance that he could run off.

  

[Sybella Winterdowne]

When had Gigi become so daft?! It must have been the children he had met during his short time at Hogwarts. Her baby was more reasonable than that when he was still at home!

"There is a huge difference between being at Hogwarts and being here, my little rabbit! You can't leave Hogwarts and end up being kidnapped by some mean, shady person because you wandered in some dark alley after dark!" she told her son. Irvingly was not as big as Hogsmeade, but there were dangerous people everywhere. And even if Jason's family consisted of decent and honourable people, how could she be sure that the other boy wouldn't persuade her baby to wander outside in the dark?!

  

[Gandalf Winterdowne]

"We will not be out after dark, we will stay close to the houses. Please mama, I just want to spent time with him, we have homework to do as well. And he still wants to meet you and dad, we could stay here if that will make you feel better?" he tried, he would continue to try and talk her into letting him spent at least parts of the days in the christmas vacation with Jason.

  

[Sybella Winterdowne]

“No, Gigi!” Sybella told her son. When had he changed so much? Gigi used to be such a good boy! It seemed that Hogwarts had destroyed him if he insisted on not doing what he was told.

  

[Gandalf Winterdowne]

Gandalf realized that there was not a way that he could convince his mother to let him spend even as much as a few hours with Jason, not even in the home. "I do not understand you mother, you seemed so happy that I had made a friend in the beginning of the school year." he said and looked at her with wondering eyes. It was his friend - why could they not meet?

  

[Sybella Winterdowne]

“That’s enough about your little friend, Gigi!” Sybella said. “We can talk about this when you aren’t planning on running around outside in the dark! Why don’t you find Father and Pandora now?”

  

[Gandalf Winterdowne]

Gandalf just sighed. It was pointless to talk his mother into letting him meet Jason. "Yes mother." he just said and quickly went in search of his father and sister.