The Gryffindor looked around in the living room. His aunt was gone to make some last Christmas purchases and Camden and Brannon were in their rooms leaving the two minors to decorate the tree. The living room looked expensive with two leather couches a fluffy rug on the ground with a glass table. A Muggle television with a flat screen was propped up on the wall and whatnot else was decorating the room.

But the focus of the boy's attention was directed towards the huge christmas tree in the corner of the room and the two cardboard boxes that stood in front of it full of decorations for the tree and the house.

The day before Alan had showed Elena around in the city and just introduced her to his family. Now they had some calm time to decorate the tree. These two boxes would have everything needed so Alan turned to Elena.

”Ready to make this place shine?” The young second year asked, a grin on his face as he motioned for Elena to go ahead and open the boxes. He was sure that this was the most awesome moment. He always enjoys opening the boxes and seeing all the decorations. Elena was younger so she would probably enjoy it more!

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Everything in the room seemed expensive, and Elena being dressed as normal with crazy blue hair and a hoodie that she'd owned for years, felt extremely out of place. It'd been easier when they were outside, going around the city. Although meeting his family had made her a little bit paranoid, that was easily solved by remembering why she was here, and that Alan was the important one here.

"Always happy to add a bit of sparkle." Elena smiled and walked over to one of the boxes, carefully opening it. She couldn't help the look of awe that crossed her face at all the ornaments inside, it looked like every one shimmered with its own special light, if this was the meaning of Christmas, then Elena could definitely tell why everyone liked it so much.

There was beauty in this world, as well as pain. That's what Elena told herself whenever she was down, or thought it was going to be the end. There's beauty in this world, and right now there was nothing more amazing than the boxes full of ornaments and Alan's excited grin. Elena's first real Christmas looked like it was going to be spectacular, and she turned back to give the boy a grin, "So, where do we start?"

Alan grinned at her, hoping she would have as much fun as he. He wondered why she did not know about what to do? Did she not celebrate Christmas? He made a mental note to not forget to ask her about it later, but who knows if he would not just forget about asking. This already happened more than once, he sometimes even forgets what he wanted to say mid sentence and it made him look like a fool. To be honest a lot made him look like a fool.

”We can just put decorations everywhere on the tree! It will make it shiny, sparkling and just pretty! We also have lights to place around it so just take whatever you want and put it on the tree!” he instructed happily. Some of the baubles had moving images in them of galloping reindeers and some would sparkle when the light hit it from the right angle.

There were all kind of colours , glitter on non glittery and candy canes, small ornaments and whatever you could dream of. It would be fun. Alan bend down and opened the second box with decoration for the house. Mistletoes, variations of walnuts and hazelnuts to put in bowls. Gingerbread figures and and and.

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"Decorations everywhere! I can do that." Elena picked up a couple of ornaments and put them up on the tree, marvelling at how beautiful it looked, she laughed and started to put up some more. Elena managed to find the ones with moving pictures and kept rearranging where she was putting them, "Lights too! What kind? I heard there were like ones that flash and change and stuff!"

"So, do you have any favourites of these? I can make sure they're easy to see!" Elena asked as she swapped a red and a gold bauble, they needed to sparkle in the right way, and that meant correcting the positions a little bit more, "I'm really liking the red shiny ones, they're so adorable, and the moving ones with the little reindeer are so cool too. Nobody does Christmas like wizards I guess."

Suffice it to say Elena was getting into the Christmas spirit, her first real holiday seemed to be working out well, she had friends, she had a place to stay, she got everyone gifts. It probably wasn't perfect, but to the girl without a past or a family, it meant the world. Nothing could ruin the day for her.

Her words brought a grin to his face. His face would light up as he turned around to face Elena, who was standing there and picking out some of the ornaments that could be found within the two card board boxes. ”Yes that is basically the only instruction you will need for this, because when it comes to Christmas decoration there is nothing you can do wrong; It does not have to look amazing as long as you like it!” He explained, excited. He just loved Christmas and doing the decorations. He could not wait until his aunt will be back with some pretty cookie tins with Christmas motives. She always got new ones each year until the collection of cookie tins grew eternal. They would be able to find every motive when they would form the dough later. He would have to make Elena taste the raw dough, she would probably love it!

Alan was watching her decorate the tree, while he searched for reindeers and stars in the second box that they could place in front of the windows. ”Yes! We even have some that change in color making some kind of blinking light show, where it changes through different color ranges!” He loved how excited she was and that finally he was the one being able to explain something to her friend. He would teach her anything he knew about this because it was so nice to celebrate this event. His whole family promised to talk only English while Elena was there so that she would not feel excluded by them talking German, It was probably awkward enough h´for her to celebrate this with other people in a different country and not at her home. Alan kind of wondered where she lived so that he could visit her too sometimes.

Alan giggled when she began to talk about the baubles, they indeed looked pretty. ”I really love the reindeer ones, I love them even more after this Muggle-blood in Hogwarts explained the story behind this for me. Do you know this story with uhm- I cannot really remember but he has a song and is saving Christmas!” Alan hinted, hoping that Elena maybe knew what he was trying to hint on. Maybe she would know, he wondered. Well also he could send Henry an owl if they could not get it themselves, or he could ask Brannon if they were in sight at some point.

Alan remembered making Elena a gift and really hoped she might love it. He put a bit of thought into it, trying to find something that she might enjoy and something that was not as materialistic but had a deeper meaning. Alan had the impression that something like that would make her more happy than something that had cost a fortune but had little purpose. In the end he just wanted to spell a smile on her face and if he managed to do that, he would be happy. He smiled and took another reindeer bauble from the box, handing it towards Elena with a happy smile.

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"As long as you like the tree too!" Elena beamed at her friend, "You're the one that's brought me to my first real Christmas after all. Have to make sure you're happy too!"

Elena kept resisted the urge to dance as she put more ornaments up on the tree, even the revelation about her family hadn't kept her spirit down. In a way, Elena was easily made happy, a little bit of kindness, maybe a juice box, a cloak. Any of those things and the girl could feel calm and happy, two things that had been sorely lacking in her old life. Which is a big part of why she was a little broken, lack of peace really messed with you, she really needed to get her hands on some more books about that.

"Those lights sound awesome!" She chirped, "Light shows are awesome, I saw one once, best day of my life! Until going to Hogwarts of course."

"Reindeer with a shiny nose?" Elena smiled, now that was a song she knew, so she place another ornament on the tree and started to softly sing, "Rudolph the red nose reindeer, Had a very shiny nose, And if you ever saw it, you would even say it glows..."

Alan grinned at her, being happy that she was thinking about him too. But his opinion stood, that there was not much one could do wrong when decorating a christmas tree as long as they had fun doing it. "It already looks fantastic, so I ain't sure why you are overthinking this; it's gonna be the prettiest christmas tree the world has ever seen!", the young Gryffindor would flaunt with an unusual confidence, getting caught by the christmas spirit himself. He wondered why it was Elena's first ever real christmas and wondered if her family just did not celebrated it and if so what the reason was. Because why would anyone not ike to spend time with their family? He just sighed and grinned at Elena, totally oblivious to her dark past.

He stared at her with sparkling eyes when she mentioned being to a light show once. "Really? How was the light show? I think I have been to a real one when I was like real small", he explained to her, cheerfully with a soft smile tugging at his lip. He stretched his arms above his head, yawning slightly as it had been an eventful day and it was nowhere near done. ”How was it for you after you got your letter”, he asked her, watching her and grinned excitedly when she began singing the tune the Muggleborn already had sung. He loved it! This might be one of his favorite christmas songs from now on.

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Elena grinned and bowed after finishing singing, before moving on to answer Alan's questions. It was a lot of fun hanging out with him, and it actually made her really happy that he liked the tree. Like she lived up to what he'd hoped after inviting her.

She beamed, "The light show was amazing, it even had these really cool paintings that it made, I even recognised a few of them. Although I did leave early, it was still going at like, two in the morning when I left."

"After I got my letter?" Elena thought for a second, "Well at first I thought I was dreaming, and then I was scared about leaving one of the people I knew behind. After that I was sort of terrified I couldn't trust anyone at Hogwarts, or that they wouldn't like me, or be scared of me. Then on the first day I made two friends, one at the station and one on the train."

She smiled at the memory, "I didn't know I'd be that popular, and it turns out a few of the professors are actually pretty trustworthy too. So, all in all, when I got my letter I was excited and terrified, and now I'm still excited and terrified, just in a different way."

The young Gryffindor enjoyed hearing her sing that small Christmas tune. She had a pretty voice when singing and he hoped that she knew that, if not Alan would have to tell her at some point. He hoped that he did not have to sing along with her, as he just hummed the melody. He loved singing and music, surely, but not in front of other people. The only people who could coax him into singing where his mother, Cam and Brannon as they were never judging him or anything. Camden on the drums and Brannon on his guitar; it was an odd duo, but dynamic nonetheless.

”Two in the morning?”, Alan shrieked in shock, looking at her wide eyed, ”That is like so late! My mom would have pulled my ear for that or worse, she would have grounded me or something!” He shook his head and did not even want to think about everything his mother could have done to ground him. He probably would have to help in the house and the only way he could do that was the Muggle way. Usually he did not bother to do something the Muggle way but as soon as it became a punishment it was no fun anymore.

”Well someone as nice of you has it easy to make friends, because you are simply someone people want to be friends with!”, he pointed out cheekily, as he put some last few ornaments on the tree. ”I think one of my cousins will mount the fairy lights on the tree, because we are not tall enough... We could go outside into the garden, maybe? Building a snowman?”, he suggested with a shrug.

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"You'd think that, but it's actually sort of hard for me to make friends, I don't really trust people you see, and that makes it a little bit harder to actually get along with anyone. I trust you though, I thought you should know that." Elena couldn't stop the confession, it was hard to lie to Alan, he was just too caring, too understanding, "I still thought people wouldn't like me though, mostly because sometimes I go a bit weird. Like when I stood really still the other day, and I ramble sometimes, and use weird metaphors and occasionally I look like I'm sleepwalking and people don't always understand what I'm saying."

Elena's eyes lit up at the idea of a snowman, "I'd love to! Snowmen are the best. There's a song and everything too."

She beamed at her friend then started to sing again, "Frosty the Snowman, was a jolly happy soul. With a corncob pipe and a button nose, and two eyes made out of coal!"

Elena had never really gotten the idea behind Christmas songs before, but something about decorating a Christmas tree and hanging out with her friend made her want to sing them. It really was the most wonderful time of the year.