[december mp] all wrapped up || isaac

Just Before Winter Break - December 2003

An unapologetically avid holiday enthusiast, Magnolia had started decorating for Christmas the day after Halloween but waited to put the little light display that she was using to decorate the wall which her bed was pushed up against until after Thanksgiving Break, once she had taken down all of the hand-shaped turkeys she had made. The magical little pine tree that sang Christmas carols as soon as someone passed by it was probably not the most popular item in the room but one of her favorites and she’d spend much of her morning pre-class preparations singing along wrapped in a towel and brush in hand until it was almost time for breakfast.

Though all the holidays got equal wall decoration space when the time was right, there was something so special about winter that made it particularly special. For one, it meant that she would be returning home soon for winter break and would therefore have the time to spend with family and friends outside of the school setting. She’d be baking gingerbread man-shaped cookies, decorating the living room, wrapping meaningful gifts for the people she cared about most, and most importantly, preparing for the new year which she intended to greet full of resolutions. By the time she came back, Magnolia had resolved to really put forth the effort on those resolutions she had made at the beginning of the year.

In fact, she had already gotten started on some of them! All that Christmas spirit got her into the mood for doing homework, a rare sort of feeling that normally only came around gift-giving time. So before heading into Hogsmeade to help gift wrap some presents and set up decorations for the children’s community center in town, she had even made the effort to stop by the office of the Muggle Studies professor to leave her homework (two days early!) sadly, he wasn’t available which was weird. Weren’t teachers supposed to be in their offices on the weekends, too? Regardless, she repositioned the reindeer eared headband (which went perfectly with the white Christmas-light decorated sweater she was wearing) she picked up the pile of toys, clothes she could do without and in need of a new home, and wrapping paper she had gathered over the last month and made her way towards the entrance of the castle.

And everything would have been perfect, the day was looking like it was going to be absolutely great, but then, of course, she had to run into Hackney and his group of delinquent friends, making whoever was outside of the window’s life a living nightmare. She couldn’t save all of them, but at least she could save that one boy that was particularly annoying from getting coal for Christmas.

“Hackney, you’re obviously not busy,” she announced, ignoring his friends as she made a bee-line straight to him, “do you mind helping me carry this into Hogsmeade? My arms are just about to fall off and you could use this time to be productive,” she added pointedly, giving him a bright smile. “Oh right,” she added as an afterthought, “please?”

"Got him that time," Allison announced, giggling like a snake in the grass, as Duncan did his best to drop a Bertie bott's bean and hit another kid in the head as they walked around outside the castle. Hanging out the window, messing with classmates, was a favorite pastime for the little group of Slytherins, and even though he was a bit bored, Isaac wasn't about to give up his lead in the game. A laugh escaped his lip, but the smile didn't reach his eyes, at least, not until he saw Magnolia passing by them. "Yeah, yeah, whatever," Isaac replied to whatever Duncan was saying as she approached them with that Gryffindor sense of importance. The teenager stood up from the window sill as he eyed her up and down. What the fuck was she doing?

And then she answered, bringing gifts to Hogsmeade because, of course, she was. Isaac rolled his eyes at her non-request request, scoffing when she added please, and shook his head. "I am pretty busy here," He told her, garnering a giggle from Allison before she turned back to Duncan, finally earning a point in their game. Even though Isaac had said no, he already knew he was going to help her. And as if there was some invisible force pushing him forward, he moved away from his friends and toward her as he observed the ridiculous pile of things in her hands. "Is this shit fragile?" He asked as he tried to figure out how to take the stack from her without knocking everything over.

Finally, he sighed, holding his arms out toward her so she could just dump it into his hands, and ignored his friend's questions about where he was going, why, and their game. "Fuck off, besides, I already won," He told Duncan before waiting for Magnolia to lead the way.

“Well, it’s not like you’ve ever had trouble taking my things before,” she retorted, not about to take no for an answer now that she’d invested the time in walking over to him to distribute a task. Sure, he hadn’t asked for it but she also hadn’t asked for half of the things he felt it necessary to do (though that was a pretty weak excuse) so he’d just have to deal. The entire double entendre of the sentence wasn’t missed on her, but one really had to look for it to find it. Magnolia looked over at Allison, then over at Duncan, making a face that made it clear she was disgusted with their bad behavior before her eyes returned to Isaac. He was in on it, too, but it didn’t seem as bad when he did it? Okay, she might have been a bit biased but for good reason. He had been teasing her for months now, but Christmas was all about forgiveness, and she was willing to be the bigger (and prettier) person if he didn’t ruin it by being a big brat.

“Just take it,” she insisted, “carefully,” she emphasized, making sure to gently put the box in his hands, not completely ignoring the fact that her hands brushed against his in the process. Not completely intentionally of course but there was probably a small part of her that intended to do it in the first place. After placing the box in his hands, she led the way, walking only a step ahead of him and very much in a rush to get out of earshot from his annoying friends. The more the two of them spent time together the more she realized that he was much easier to deal with when he wasn’t hard at work trying to one-up those hooligans, he called friends. And deep down, in the more unrealistic part of her heart, she wished that there was something about her that sparked this slight change in attitude. Annoying or not, the Gryffindor did enjoy the attention.

“Do you and your friend always waste your Saturdays picking on other people?” she asked before slowing down to match his pace, “you could literally accomplish so much if you’d actually put in the time, imagine all those volunteer hours!” she added enthusiastically. “So, just out of curiosity, how would you rate your gift-wrapping skills?”

"Fine, whatever, hand it over then," Isaac said, pretending like he didn't find this entire situation at least a little bit amusing. When she put the box into his hand, he was surprised by how heavy it was, but his shock was quickly outweighed by seeing her sweater. The reindeer ears were cute, but the shirt was obnoxious, and he broke into a laugh. "Seriously, are you twelve?" Continuing to laugh and shake his head Isaac fell into step behind her. She was a riot.

"Do you and your friend always waste your time picking on other people?" , she had asked, and usually Isaac might have had something snarky to say in return, but he was still laughing about her shirt. Maybe it put him into a jollier mood than he had expected, and he joked back. "Sometimes we waste Sundays too," He told her with another laugh. Wondering how much he could volunteer was not something the teenager typically contemplated, and he rolled his eyes at her.

Gift wrapping? Was she joking? Isaac's face fell, and then he shook his head at her. "Oh, no, you are not signing me up for shit, do you hear me?" He moved faster to catch her and her ridiculous sweater. "Magnolia, tell me you understand?" Isaac's idea of wrapping gifts was shoving everything into a bag and calling it a day. Not that he even did that; hell, he didn't even buy people gifts in the first place, so his wrapping skills were nonexistent.

Magnolia ignored his petty insult, not about to let his question change her mind about how particularly cute she felt that morning, two people had already complimented her festive sweater, and though on second thought it could have also been an underhanded insult, she was going to stick to the positive side of things. Plus, she did not really understand why anyone would not be festive considering that Christmas was right around the corner. Then she remembered, Isaac’s patronus was probably the Grinch.

“Of course you do,” Magnolia rolled her eyes at his response, thinking about how much of a good time the two of them could have had if they were actually friends, much better than whatever stupid activities he and his crew were up to, that was for sure. The Gryffindor might not have been any good at doing homework but she certainly was excellent at getting involved, between extracurricular activities, dates with her friends, learning fun new skills, shopping, and decorating her room to correspond with the upcoming festivities, her life was relatively busy. Of course, some of her professors had said that if she spent as much time as she did socializing on her homework, she might have been the most brilliant witch at Hogwarts. All Magnolia took from that sentence was that she was the queen of socialization and that in another life, she had academic potential, too.

Magnolia was also pretty confident in her skills to convince others to do what she wanted just as she intended to convince Isaac as soon as he told her he would not be joining her in gift wrapping. “Oh come on, don’t be a total bore, gift-wrapping is all the rage nowadays,” she teased, “plus it takes skills to wrap things that are unusually shaped,” she offered, and to make her point, she plucked one of the teddy bears sitting at the top of the box and teased him with it, bringing it close to his face, her voice slightly higher as she pretended to impersonate the bear, “Oh come on Isaac, isn’t spending time with your favorite person worth the trouble?” she said, bursting into a high-pitched giggle.

"All the rage?" Isaac blinked; it was like when he thought Magnolia Hawkins could not possibly be any more of a square, where she was showing up as a Christmas Elf and explaining the challenge of awkwardly shaped boxes. "Do you even listen to yourself?" He hadn't meant to ask it out loud, Isaac had been in the middle of an internal rant about it, but once he said it, he watched her for an answer anyway.

She was festive, cool, but did she have to be this festive? When she grabbed the teddy bear from the box, Isaac paused, eyes on the stuffed animal, and then shook his head. Although it shouldn't have been possible with how much crap she had crammed into this box, Isaac managed to free one hand, call it a Christmas Miracle, and he snatched the bear back from her. Tucking it back into the box before gripping it with both hands once more, he grumbled. "If you want my help, stop acting like a fucking first-year," He was as grumpy as she was cheerful, and if he wasn't so lost in his ba humbug, he might have found that entertaining.

Isaac wasn't like her; he didn't like winter holidays, or summer holidays, or holidays in general. And he already had a whole list of assumptions on what her Christmases back at home must have been like. The entire family came together, with presents and home-cooked meals, and must have been nice, but he wouldn't know. And not knowing made him jealous.

Magnolia was being particularly annoying at this point but it was hard not to when she combined her feelings for the holiday, the spirit of winter, and the boy she (sort of) liked at the same time. This was really more of who she normally was with her friends, high-energy and very spirited, but it was hard to tell whether Isaac secretly appreciated her energy or was quickly becoming devoid of his own standing next to her. Regardless, he was being a complete gentleman and actually helping her tote the heavy box into Hogsmeade and that had to account for something, right? In a strangely twisted and very unlikely way, it felt like he was only doing this because it was for her? Maybe.

“You’re no fun, Isaac,” she said, sticking out her tongue at him momentarily before tucking into her coat a little as soon as they walked outside. “Fine, fine, I’’ll be serious and boring like you,” her voice dragged as she heaved a sigh. A first-year was probably a perfectly accurate description of how she was acting at the moment but much better than his irritable attitude. He really was the Grinch. She made a face when he took the bear from her hands, pouting a little as he did. 

It had been snowing all night and as the snow crunched under her boots, a pastel pink with glittery, white faux fur trim, she considered how fun it might have been to host a snow fight. She would have to raise some interest right after dinner among her group of friends though she knew she’d probably be able to count on them should she sell it at the right price. That was the great thing about her friends, they always did know how to make things fun.

“Why are you in such a bad mood anyway?” she asked finally, “Winter vacation is right around the corner, aren’t you just over the moon for Christmas? I bet my mum will invite yours over for breakfast, I make killer pancakes,” she added. It wasn’t the smoothest way to ask if he wanted to come over, but the effort had been there. She did want to spend more time with him for more reasons than one and it seemed like the perfect opportunity.   

Isaac shrugged his shoulders, well as much as he could under the crushing weight of her good deeds, and frowned. Did he care that he was no fun? Nope, not one bit, mostly when it was Magnolia's definition of fun. Because dragging bullshit gifts to Hogsmeade for people who didn't want or need this crap in the first place was not his idea of a good time. The Slytherin didn't feel the need to spell that out for her; the frown was good enough, even when she moved on to calling him boring.

The wizard opened his mouth to say something along the lines of he had no use for Christmas, but it slammed shut before mentioning it. Instead, he clenched his jaw so tight that he could have cracked a tooth. "She better fucking not," Isaac said between gritted teeth. If her mum invited his mum for Christmas fucking pancakes, he would never speak to Magnolia again. It wouldn't be a nice gesture, not in his mind; it would be worse like pity, or sympathy, or some other thing he did not want.

"We do not need your charity or your fucking pancakes," He shot back at her, honestly considering dropping her well-meant gifts in the snow and heading back to the castle.

“And why not?” she insisted, coming to a full stop to put her hand on her hip and showed him that she meant business. Sure she had been a little playful about it but if he was going to tell her no then she, too, would go out of her way to insist his mum came over for the morning after Christmas and she’d be damned if the woman told her no. Not that she didn’t have a choice, of course, but right now that was beside the point. “Stop being so full of yourself, my pancakes are fucking fantastic,” she added arrogantly, feeling very proud of herself for using the word in the context that she had. Though Magnolia was finding herself increasingly comfortable with swearing she realized, but only because the boy next to her had done his due diligence in influencing the change in the Gryffindor.

“Charity? What are you on about? Christmas is supposed to be celebrated with family and whether you like it or not, your mum is just as good as family to me,” she added. The girl had never been dismissive of the staff, having been taught a long time ago how far respect took someone and how important it was, especially towards the people who took care of her personal things. Magnolia did not know his mum as well as their previous cleaning lady but she seemed just as nice. The girl made a very conscious mental note to spend as much time as she could with the woman to get to know her, no matter how much it pissed Isaac off. Right now, he was being a complete jerk.

“Whatever, I’ll do what I want, you can stay at home alone for all I care,” she added decisively, frowning at him before reaching for the box and attempting to tug it out of his hands. “Give it back, I don’t need you to ruin my Christmas spirit with your ridiculous behavior,” she said. Magnolia was starting to sound like somebody’s mum but he was really ruining this for her and it was making her upset. “Don’t even know why I even asked in the first place,” she grumbled, aware of why she had gone to him specifically, even if she didn’t want to admit to it.

"Because it is a weird fucking thing to do," Isaac spat back at her as she stopped. "Why would you invite your maid to Christmas breakfast?" Clearly, the wizard had a far different opinion on the service industry and his mum's profession than Magnolia did. He should have been respectful that she even had a job, he supposed, but instead, Isaac was ashamed. "I do not give a shit about your pancakes," Isaac narrowed his eyebrows at her, taking a step closer as they began to argue.

He couldn't believe that Magnolia thought of the help as a family, it sounded so fake and so fucking annoying, and that feeling was illustrated on his less than impressed features. "That is such bullshit," He countered, not taking what she said seriously at all. She seemed as angry as he felt, but of course, Isaac thought she was irritating, and he was justified.

When she tried to pull the box out of his hands, Isaac moved away from her, taking a step back, and frowned. "Then do not fucking talk about dumb shit like inviting my mum for Christmas," He warned, holding the box higher and out of her reach. Honestly, he had no idea why she had asked him either. He was the least likely person in her entire world that would probably help her without making it an issue, but still, she had chosen him (and he liked that), and now she was trying to un-choose him (and he hated that), so Isaac wasn't going to let her.

He started walking without warning, heading in the direction of the village, because if she didn't want him to come with her, then he was absolutely going to do just that.

“What’s so weird about it? We appreciate her help, what better way to show it than invite her over for breakfast?” she defended herself, not entirely aware of the connotations of what she was insisting on. There was much more to it. Magnolia had imagined that as soon as she mentioned her intention to invite his mum, Isaac would joyfully state his intention to tag along. He’d come over for breakfast, she’d confess how she felt while her parents had a nice chat with his mum over tea, and then the two of them would magically ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after. Well, not like that but something along the lines of she would tell him how she felt and he would validate her feelings. He had told her no before but Magnolia had eventually convinced herself that maybe she had not approached it correctly. Now that he knew how she felt, maybe he’d grow to like her too. Eventually.

“Why do you have to be such an arse about everything, Isaac?” she said angrily, not even the fantasy in her head could make up for how frustrated she felt with him sometimes. Especially when he pretended not to understand why she was doing any of this at all. Magnolia knew boys were supposedly dumb or disconnected from the way women thought but she didn’t know if she could make it any more obvious than what she had already.

She stumbled forward a little as he took a step back, balling her hand into a fist when he refused to give her the box. “I’ll do what I want,” she insisted, repeating the phrase in case he hadn’t heard her the first time. It was just a stupid invitation, Magnolia could not understand why he wouldn’t just go along with it this once. It didn’t have to mean anything to him, it wasn’t like he had other plans. Or, did he? The thought that he’d be spending Christmas with Allison for whatever reason made her even more upset.

“Argh,” she said in frustration, quickening the pace to catch up with him. “You are literally the most frustratingly dense person I’ve met in my entire life,” she grumbled.

"It is not help. You pay her, she does a job, she is not doing it out of the goodness of her heart," Isaac explained, his tone angry and his eyes fixed on Magnolia's, "Just like you would not be asking her out of the goodness of yours. You think you have to, that it would be the nice thing, but it is just fucking awkward," Isaac knew the difference between right and wrong, and he had morals sure, but he never did the nice thing just because it was that. He wasn't the kind to go out of his way to make someone else feel better. It didn't make him feel better, and he didn't care enough to try.

The Slytherin ignored her name-calling, shaking his head instead, and holding the box away from her so she couldn't snatch it back from him. The logical thing to do would have been to let her take the gifts and go on her Merry-Fucking-Way to Hogsmeade alone, but Isaac wasn't logical when it came to Magnolia. The wizard stayed when he should have run, and he fought when he should have smiled; none of it made sense.

Walking away from her, Isaac knew she would follow, and not just because he was holding her gifts hostage, but because Magnolia could never let him 'win' a fight. They were the same in that way, it wasn't always about having the last word, but it was absolutely about having the upper hand. The control. And leaving her behind let Isaac feel like he had it, even just for a moment. "I am not dense," He countered, leaving the frustrating part behind because Isaac knew exactly what he was, "You just say dumb shit,"

Magnolia was not pleased that Isaac did not agree with her, though in all honesty she also did not understand in what universe she thought she was in if she thought Isaac would agree with her in the first place. “I know that,” she insisted, well aware that the exchange of business usually had nothing to do with friendship or anything else but was frustrated that he did not understand why she was telling him any of this in the first place. The boy being able to take a hint would have been the Christmas miracle of a lifetime, or maybe he did get where she was going with this and was choosing to feign ignorance so that she would drop the subject. But unless he told her directly that he did not like her (he had told her several times that he did not) Magnolia, herself, would refuse to accept this type of rejection.

She opened her mouth to say something else but closed it almost immediately, not sure if her feelings were hurt because he had called her dumb (it was what she had heard anyway) or because she had been frustrated with him from the moment that he had curved her for being in her festive mode. Magnolia was aware that she was ignoring everything else from the conversation but that was nothing new, none of the words he had said had been in her best interest anyway. But if she was going to give him the semi-silent treatment, he had to know that he was wrong.

Falling a step or two behind, Magnolia considered her options: she could handle this like the adult she wanted to pretend to be and have a sensible conversation in which she told him how she felt and await a response, (b) she can act like the big kid she knew she was and later pretend to be shocked by the consequences of her actions. Decisively, she crouched down, gathering a scoop of the snow in her hand, packed it in really tightly, and aiming for his back (though really he deserved it in the head) she tossed the snowball at him. “Take it back!” she yelled, “I’m not dumb.”

"Do you, though?" Isaac asked her, narrowing his eyebrows because he didn't believe that Magnolia knew the difference. It was the privilege of having money, he supposed; she thought she could be friends with her family's employees. And in a perfect world, maybe she could have been, but Isaac didn't believe in excellent. His mum probably would have been over the moon to be invited to Christmas breakfast, but Isaac didn't see it that way. And he hadn't even considered the fact that Magnolia had, by extension, been invited him to breakfast as well. Not that he would have gone.

They walked for a minute, and after insulting each other, Isaac wondered if that would be the end of the conversation. If she were silent the rest of the walk to Hogsmeade, he would be pissy about it. Of course, Magnolia never did what he thought she might, and before he realized it, she was pelting him in the back with a snowball. "The fuck," He started, feeling the icy wetness slide down his black canvas jacket. Isaac shook his head, found a relatively dry spot on the ground to set her stupid box on, and then turned to face her.

"I did not call you dumb, I said that you say dumb shit," Isaac narrowed his eyes on her for a moment, he could have yelled some more things, but something about the look on her face made him rethink his emotions. Instead, a smirk crept onto his features, and he reached down to make a quick half-assed snowball and threw it at her. "And you do dumb shit too," Isaac claimed as he threw the snowball, but there was no anger left in his voice when he said it.

“Only dumb people say dumb shit so by default you are calling me dumb so take it back!” she demanded. As she explained herself, Magnolia realized that her logic didn’t really make sense but considering she had already drawn her weapon in defense of a point she had not really thought through, she was determined to keep at it. Either way, things felt less weird between them when they were fighting instead of trying to have a conversation which was impossible with someone like Isaac because he never listened to what she said. Or if he did listen, he was obviously not acknowledging the ridiculously large purple elephant in the room.

Magnolia frowned at him when he threw the snowball at her, even though the snow was no match for the thickness of the coat she was wearing, it had still hurt her feelings. No, not really but she was determined to interpret everything Isaac did in a way that would fit her own narration of the events. Magnolia was not going to let him be the winner of this fight, not when she knew all along that he was just being a jerk to his mom and her occupation rather than trying to make a point that actually made sense. She was going to be nice to her whether he liked it or not and that was final.

Picking up another mound of snow, packing it quickly and throwing it in his direction again, she stomped her foot much like a little child that demanded to be heard. “Well sorry for being myself, unlike you whose a different person every time I meet him,” she scoffed, “talk about fake.”