The Holidays

Each day onwards was spent in a rush, with each second treated as a precious commodity. Whether it was night or day, weekday or weekend, not a moment was wasted.

This fervor kept building and building, reaching a climax just days before the big day. Corrin had been drawing up new plans and formations to make up for the modified rule of only one beater. You may be wondering why they are only playing with one beater. The reason is quite simple, actually.

The "bludger" for this game was actually an enchanted ball of wool as to not cause any serious injury. That's not to say it was any less aggressive, and it could still disrupt an unaware player's movements. It just seemed unnecessary to have two beaters. Also, they didn't have enough players because Lorraine and Evelyne could not participate. The real reason being someone not being able to count while writing.

The night before Christmas Eve, Corrin awoke in a cold sweat, feeling a sudden urge to find something. Something was calling out to him, promising something he couldn't quite figure out. Deciding to follow, Corrin carefully got out of bed, making sure not to wake Evelyne and Femi.

Tip-toeing down the halls, passing by room after room, the calling got stronger and stronger. The noise in Corrin's head grew to a deafening crescendo approached a door with an A on it. Corrin tried the handle, finding it unlocked, and quietly slipped inside the room.

The noise went silent, with not even the echoing reverberations of a faded sound. It was dark, yet there seemed to be something glowing, burning even. An unfamiliar scent reached Corrin's senses, emanating from slowly smoldering sticks. As his eyes adjusted, he saw a small picture illuminated from the light. A smiling man, who looked similar to Arthur, yet noticeably different somehow.

Looking around the table on which these items were resting, a long, thin piece of wood caught his eye. It was a wand! Corrin knew he wasn't supposed to touch other people's things without permission, but something in the back of his head was compelling him to grab it, and make it his.

Trying to resist the urge, Corrin tried to leave the room, but surprisingly found the door to be locked. Running out of options, he coerced himself into just holding it for a bit. Slowly walking back to the table, he reached for the wand. The moment he made contact with the wand, a bright light rushed from it, blinding Corrin temporarily.

When he could see again, Corrin found the wand in his hand still glowing, yet significantly dimmer. Noticing something new in the back of his head, Corrin tried to bring it to the front of his attention. A flood of emotions came crashing through his head, flashes of memories, it was all a blur. The last thing he saw before passing out was a fiery silhouette of a dragon's face, staring him down.

Lorraine had just finished paying her respects to her brother when she thought she heard a noise in the hall. Investigating for a bit, she was unable to find anything of note. Returning to Albion's room, she fished out a key from her pocket and locked the door. After thinking for a bit, Lorraine made herself a cup of tea before returning to her room. Passing the door to Albion's room one more time, something felt odd.

Shaking her head and trying to ignore the feeling, the door to the Laplaus parents' room burst open, a frightened looking Kate in the doorway.

"Something's happened to Corrin!" Kate frantically whispered.

Rushing over to his and Evelyne's room, the opened the door to her peacefully sleeping, her arms wrapped around Femi.

"Did he take a broom out for some extra practice? Could he have fallen and hurt himself?" Kate was even more frantic than before.

"He couldn't have... I remember locking them up," Lorraine was concerned and utterly confused. She thought back on that strange feeling she had outside Albion's room and the feeling got stronger.

Grabbing Kate's arm and running towards Albion's room, she once again fished out her keys and fumbled to put it in the keyhole. Turning the key and hearing the door unlock, they rushed into the room to see Corrin sprawled on the floor, snoring peacefully, with a wand in his hand. Lorraine immediately recognized the wand as her late brother's, yet felt like it somehow belonged in her grandson's possession. She was hit with a sudden wave of déjà vu, remembering back to a time when she found Albion passed out in the middle of the hall, wand in hand, sleeping with the same calm look on his face.

Kate's worry had significantly subsided, seeing her precious baby boy cutely sleeping, but wondered why he had a wand in his hand, and who's wand that was in the first place. She had a feeling that she shouldn't move him anywhere, but that didn't stop her from getting her pillow and a spare blanket from her room, slipping the pillow under his head and covering him with the blanket.

After a cup of tea to fully calm herself down, Kate fell asleep on the floor next to Corrin. Lorraine chuckled to herself as she got some spare bedding for her daughter in-law and tucked her like she did for her son. Now that Corrin had Albion's wand, Lorraine wondered if he and Evelyne should stay longer than just the holidays. What was before just mere wishful thinking was now a promising option. This was a question for another day as tomorrow was a big day, and she needed all the rest she could get.

As the new day dawned, everyone was up early, even the two resident sleepyheads. Evelyne was deeply perplexed when she woke up, as Corrin was nowhere to be seen. In fact, the reason she woke up so early is because it was much colder than she was used to.

Corrin, on the other hand, had just woken up from his most vivid dream ever. He could remember everything, every detail as clear as it was in the present. As he was reflecting on what it could mean, he felt a shiver down his spine. He slowly turned over to find his mother wrapped in a blanket with only her face poking out, staring at him with a pretty scary look in her eyes. If an older Corrin were to describe it in two words, it would probably be called "Loving Retribution" , or something along those lines.

"Corrin, sweetie, mind telling your dear old mother what happened last night?" Kate said with and edge in her voice.

"I found a wand!" Corrin happily said as he held up his treasure.

"I can see that... you're quite the troublesome one, aren't ya? That's a pretty cool wand, but you have to promise not to use it unless an adult is watching you, okay?" The last thing anyone needed was a curious kid burning the house down.

"Pinky promise!"

At this point a wailing from a certain someone could be hear throughout the manor, the sound breaking the hearts of its residents. This, of course, was poor Evelyne, squeezing Femi as she cried. As Corrin entered the living room with Kate, Evelyne started pouting, giving an evil eye to Corrin, much to the amusement of the adults.

Lorraine had already filled in the others on what had happened last night, and it was mostly accepted as a pretty Corrin thing to do. Now it was time to crush these young upstarts and show what real quidditch is about.

The next few hours were a blur for everyone. After meeting up with the Carmins, the long awaited match ensued.

The children's team was off to an early lead, with Corrin's tactics crushing the very underprepared adults.

The children's team looked like this: Corrin, Shauna, and Marcus were the Chasers; Milo was the Keeper; Aileen was the Beater; and of course, Alexander was on Seeker.

The adult's team was sloppily prepared minutes before the match, looking like this: Arthur and the two Carmin parents, Aman and Petra, as Chasers; Eli as Keeper and Ellie as Beater; with Kate as Seeker, of course.

Arthur didn't want to admit it, but he couldn't get a read on their plays. Being quite a quidditch fanatic himself, he had researched his fair share of plays and maneuvers, yet most of the things the kids were pulling off were either really advanced, or something completely new. The same could be said for the Carmin parents as well.

Just as they were beginning to grasp at the concepts, Corrin would yell something and the entire formation and strategy would be changed. Meanwhile, Aileen and Ellie were just doing their own thing, just whacking the puffy bludger at each other as hard as they could.

Kate and Alexander were also off in their own world, staring each other down, watching for the slightest change. Suddenly, Kate shot forwards, accelerating directly at Alexander. Flipping upside down while vertically turning around, he saw the glint of the snitch as well, immediately chasing after it.

Grandma Lorraine and Evelyne weren't just idle, as they were hold score signs. Well, Lorraine was making them float with magic and Evelyne was helping her keep track. Which was quite fun, as the signs were almost as large as her.

The match continued with the kids team's lead only growing, soon reaching un-winnable standards. That didn't stop the adults from trying, in fact, it made them more driven. Not to win, but to not be utterly destroyed by their offspring.

Seeing this change, Corrin ordered the team to do something , their stance changing to something more defensive. Even though they were able to have possession of the quaffle now, they were constantly denied points by not only Milo, but also from Shauna, Marcus, and Corrin. And every time, one of the three would quickly zip behind their respective parent and chuck the quaffle at the back of their heads.

After a fierce battle for the snitch, Kate finally got a hold of the golden snitch just moments before Alexander shot up from below right in front of her. This ended the game, but the point difference was just too large: four hundred and sixty two to one hundred ninety.

A crushing defeat.

They invited each other over for a dinner together, quickly setting things up so the adults could drown their sorrow in certain adult beverages. The kids were all super ecstatic that their grueling training had paid off, absolutely trouncing their foes.

A vast assortment of foods were available, from sweet to savory, to sour, to bitter, to rich, there was a little bit of everything in everything. No one knows how most of the food was actually eaten, but most think it was Kate and Corrin.

After wishing each other merry Christmas, both families returned to their respective houses, exhausted from the day. Soon enough, everyone was asleep. Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, nothing was stirring, not even a mo- hey wait that's a different story.

When Christmas morning rolled around, the munchkins were once again up early, eager to open all the goodies they would be receiving. The adults took slightly longer to wake up, but were up soon enough.

Corrin decided to open his biggest package first, ripping off the wrapping paper to reveal a brand new Cleansweep 420 with the Laplaus family crest engraved on it. Evelyne received a potion set from a medium sized present.

Not wanting to spoil their children too much, they didn't give unreasonable amounts of presents to their kids, as they got anything they asked for outside of Christmas.

Corrin also got some wood polish, wax, and buffer, while Evelyne was given some extremely rare medical ingrediants.

Arthur made Kate a hand crafted pendant, while Kate gave him a weird puzzle box. Ellie and Eli got each other the exact same gift. Grandma Lorraine refused presents.

There were more gifts, bit they werent the anything too important.

After yet another ginourmous feast took place, somehow even more foods were lined and piled up on the table, everyone felt bloated and felt like resting.

"Would you mind staying here permanently?"