[december mp] all wrapped up || isaac

The Slytherin raised an eyebrow at her counter-argument, finding the fact that Magnolia made perfect sense and absolutely no sense at the same time frustrating and endearing. At least she admitted that she could have done more, and Isaac found it annoying that she had rendered his complaint about the saying invalid by saying that. There was more she could do, but she didn't, so it was the least. It worked. And he scoffed at her. As they got inside the center, Isaac was assaulted by the number of people hustling about; it was enough to make him frown as he turned back to her and shrugged. Yes, he did tell the first years where to go, but he wasn't going to tell Magnolia he wasn't actually helping them when he did, not when she was looking at him suspiciously.

Magnolia ushered him toward the Christmas tree, and Isaac stopped dead in his tracks when he laid eyes on it. "Wow, someone threw up Christmas spirit all over that," Isaac began to say, cut short by her claim on the tree and the obviously proud way she was looking at it, and Isaac fought back the smirk. "It is, uh, cool," He said, barely covering up for his underhanded words as he dropped the box unceremoniously in front of the tree and shoved it underneath with his foot. He should have known Magnolia had something to do with it when the typically silver colored tinsel was replaced with neon pink and purple. It seemed like something she would do. And it was maximalist to the extreme, just like Magnolia.

Isaac hoped she hadn't caught his words, a rarity for the typically unkind teenager, but doubted he was that lucky. He deserved every bit of coal that made a home in the stocking he didn't have over the fireplace. His apartment would never fit. "Extra marshmallows, but not the mint ones," He said, smiling a little kinder this time, suddenly not minding if she knew that she was right about how gross the minty ones were.

His comment had not been a raving review, no matter how proud of the tree Magnolia was she also knew that she’d gone a bit overboard with the decorations. But it was Christmas and if one was not going to go overboard then what was the point to begin with? But in the spirit of the holiday, Magnolia was willing to let the mean comment go, especially when it seemed that he was trying to cover his tracks by calling it cool. It wasn’t convincing enough but the Gryffindor shrugged it off, he had said much worse before. She’d let it slide. “I know, right?” she said happily instead, readjusting her reindeer ears headband as she made her way around the counter and into the pantry, in search of ingredients.

“The secret is to make the hot chocolate with a bit of creamer, then it’s super yummy and chocolate-y,” she offered, setting the ingredients one by one on the counter, including the tin of magical sprinkles that had a label on them warning the user to handle them with care. That had been put there for Magnolia who, in a fit of excitement over the charmed sprinkles, had almost poured the entire tin into her hot chocolate. “See, I told you mint has no business in chocolate,” she chastised him a little, “can you get the mugs out of the cupboard, please?” she asked.

“You should come more often, you can drink all the hot chocolate you want and sometimes I bake cookies too, last time I made gingerbread cookies and they were all the rage,” she said proudly. She wanted him to know that she had talents too, apart from leading a disastrous life, she, too, could do many things he probably didn’t know about.

Magnolia went on to tell him about the secret of hot chocolate, and Isaac tried to pay attention, but he just wasn't terribly interested in the science of sugary drinks. He liked hot cocoa, sure, but he wasn't nearly as invested in it as Magnolia seemed to be. And even though her enthusiasm was a little bit infectious, the teenage wizard was less interested in sprinkles than he was opening and closing every cabinet in the kitchen. The shelves were half full, but it was clear they were highly trafficked; nothing was super organized, but enough that a stranger could find their way around.

When she asked him to gather the mugs, Isaac returned to the third of twelve cupboards he had already opened and shut and pulled down two mugs. A sparkly pink ceramic one that someone had sculpted by hand in the shape of a cat, painted, and then donated (no doubt) for Magnolia, and a plain black one for himself. "You know the elves make holiday cookies by the pound, right?" Isaac was quick to highlight, because as with most things Christmas related, the typically intelligent wizard didn't get the point of a tradition he had never participated in.

"I like gingerbread though, and the other one with cinnamon, you know, the one with the dumb name," He chewed on the inside of his cheek, trying to remember snickerdoodles.

“I know,” she replied almost immediately to his question, the tone of her voice making it obvious that she was annoyed by his mere suggestion as if she wasn’t aware that it was how it worked. “But I always make cookies for Christmas when I’m home and chocolates for Valentine’s Day and so on and so forth,” she explained, all events she planned to drag him to participate in should she have a say in it. “Don’t you and your mum have any traditions?” she wondered, her voice lowering a little as she heated up the milk, added a dollop of cream, and then stirred, the power into the mugs.

It was a sensitive topic, sure, but she wanted to know more about him in the context outside of school. Then again, he was never forthcoming with that information so she wasn’t expecting him to answer. “Snickerdoodles?” she smiled, the name was a bit dumb but those were also her favorite, followed by chocolate chip and double chocolate chip. “I can uh…make you some of those if you want?” she offered, but then wondered if he’d get the wrong idea from her offer. “Like as a thank you for helping, I mean,” she attempted to qualify her statement.

“Look, look,” she beckoned him to look as she set out the mug in front of him, sprinkling the tin in front of him as she watched the sprinkles swirl around as they settled into a shape, “aren’t these the coolest thing ever? Daisy said they got them abroad, but I totally need some in my life like every day,” she smiled hoping he’d be as impressed as she was.

Isaac was emotionally intelligent enough to know that Magnolia wasn't insensitive by asking him about traditions with his mother. The teenager understood that she was nice, but it made him feel uncomfortable, and he wasn't fond of the questions. She was always asking questions, and maybe it was because his own friends never cared to ask, or maybe because he hated the answers, but either way, Isaac didn't care to answer most of the time. He looked away from her, chewing on the inside of his cheek, and then turned back, "Not really?" He half answered, the end of his response sounding more like a question than an answer as he slid into one of the many mismatched chairs around the island.

"Mum usually works doubles on Christmas; holiday pay is twice as much as her regular shifts," As a kid, Isaac hated his mother for it; he didn't understand the need for extra sickles in the way that most children don't. Still, as he grew up, he started to care less and less, and soon enough, he didn't care about the holidays at all. "Sometimes my aunt gives me a beer on the holidays, though," He said, a little laugh escaping his lips, and he shrugged. Whatever he didn't care anyway. "What other traditions do you have, then?" The wizard knew he'd regret opening the door, but it was better than talking about his family and their shitty nonexistent traditions for one second longer.

"Yeah, fucking snickerdoodles, that is the name," Isaac pointed at her like she'd won a prize and smiled, thankful for the distraction, and then she made it weird offering to bake him cookies or some shit, and he shut down again. "Uh, like right now?" Magnolia started pouring the hot chocolate, and Isaac finished unwrapping her scarf from around his neck, folding it into a lopsided ball, and set it down on the counter in front of her as she slid the mug across. He wrapped his hands around the ceramic, letting the hot liquid inside bring back some warmth, and leaned in to watch her sprinkle show.

It was cool, magic was always unique and entertaining, but Isaac wondered if she was this excited by all surgery treats or just the ones that did tricks. "Thanks, yeah, it is cool," And then smirked at her, "Like everyyyy dayyy," The Slytherin teased her choice of words before rolling his eyes and moving on to blow on his hot cocoa. Isaac retrieved his wand from his pocket, performing a cooling charm easily, thankful they were in the Wizarding Village where magic was still permitted, and then held his wand toward her cup, making eye contact and silently offering to cool hers off as well, if she wanted.

Though they had vaguely discussed it before, the idea that Isaac was not close to his mum was a little strange to Magnolia, who had been close to her family her entire life regardless of their many disagreements. She did not want to push it further, but it had to do more than just with his mum’s work schedule, sometimes it seemed like he avoided talking about his parents altogether and Magnolia wanted to know why. But it had nothing to do with the usual reasons, she did not want to gossip with her friends she wanted to understand him and that was a challenge the gossip queen of Hogwarts was ill-prepared for. So, for now she would let it go.

“A beer on the holidays, huh?” she repeated, it made him sound a little sad and lonely around the holiday which was more reason to want to have him over for breakfast, but they had argued about that already and his resounding no had sounded absolute. “Well, my accessories revolve around a monthly theme,” she offered, pointing to her headband across her head for emphasis. There were sparkly hearts for February, flowers, and rainbow clips for the coming of spring, little clouds, and raindrops for April, and so on. “But at home, we do all sorts of things together, but baking cookies is my favorite,” she emphasized.

“Yeah right now,” she nodded then wondered if he was asking her because he thought she sounded desperate for asking or because he didn’t really want them and felt the need to be polite (though that second one didn’t sound like Isaac at all). “Thanks,” she smiled, sliding the cup closer to him, well aware that had she tried to do it she’d cause chaos, Charms wasn’t her favorite nor best subject.

“But never mind the cookies if you don’t want them,” she brought it up again because she needed a definite answer, “we can wrap gifts instead.”

"Well, yeah, we're not the fucking Windsors, a beer on Christmas and a smoke on New Years'," Isaac felt defensive again, but he masked it by going back to being offensive and giving Magnolia a bit of a scowl. Feeling like she was judging him, even if she wasn't, and like he was unable to live up to whatever standards she had dreamed up, the Slytherin set his jaw. The hot cocoa was good, but his mood was quickly cooling again. "Not that I smoke or anything," He felt the absolute need to add; because of all the bad habits he could have picked up (and probably would in time), Isaac had never been a fan of cigarettes.

"Must be nice," He said, barely hiding the notes of jealousy in his tone when she explained that at her home, they did all sorts of family things for the holidays. Until about twenty minutes ago, Isaac hadn't realized he felt this way, and he would give just about anything to go back to being blissfully unaware. Life was a lot easier when he didn't give a shit about the holidays. Magnolia confused everything.

And then, despite his best efforts to make her feel as lousy as he did, Magnolia showed once more what made her a good person. Setting aside his attitude and offering to bake him cookies right then was a surprise to Isaac, and for a second, he thought to pass it up. "I don't need any pity cookies, thanks," He said coldly, rolling his eyes at her before realizing she wasn't trying to guilt him into it. She had already gotten him here, he carried the box in, and by standard Slytherin logic, there was nothing more she could gain from his company. Everything was a transaction to Isaac. This for that. Payment. But it seemed like Magnolia might have actually been offering out of the goodness of her heart. And that, too, was confusing as hell.

"I mean, okay, yeah, sure, uh, can I help or something?" He backtracked awkwardly, busying himself with another sip of the cocoa and not noticing the bit of chocolate left on his upper lip when he pulled the mug away.

Magnolia wasn’t sure what drove Isaac to being so defensive all the time but it also made her want to fix whatever he was holding onto that made him this way. It was a prevalent topic in the novels she often read, after all. Sweet, innocent girl saving the boy that had been roughened by his experiences only for him to turn around and become the love of her life. She giggled internally, that was pretty dramatic even for Nola standards but it was a nice little thought. “You smoke, too?” she widened her eyes a little at the thought, though really, she was no prude and thought he might look pretty good doing it. Of course, she only felt stupid moments later when he made sure to state that he was indeed not a smoker. Hopefully he’d overlook the judgement in the voice from earlier.

“It is nice,” she reiterated, she heard the sarcasm or jealousy or whatever it was that he was angry with in his voice but tried not to linger on it too long. Magnolia had only intended to share information about herself to get to know him better not to make him weirdly angry at her for having Christmas traditions. She had invited him, after all, and he had just flat out rejected her. “And it’d be nicer if you came to visit,” she said quietly, hoping to drown out that stupid statement by muffling her voice with the mug in her hand as she almost immediately brought it up to her mouth. If he’d heard her she’d just play it off as nothing. Why couldn’t her mouth and brain ever cooperate?
 
“They’re not…” she started but rolled her eyes instead, “yeah, whatever,” she said, heaving a heavy sigh as she walked around the counter closer to the tape in the corner that was doubling as a workstation for wrapping up gifts. “How good are you at wrapping those beers you drink for Christmas?” she teased though, as an afterthought, it felt a little sad to say it out loud. It made her wonder if his dad was not around during the holidays because he was so busy at work either. “Don’t you spend time with your cousins or anything?” she said. The conversation was done, possibly, but she still needed to know.

Isaac was starting to understand the different sighs that frequently found a way into their conversations. Magnolia had a sigh when she was angry, and a sigh when she was bored, a special one when she was irritated with him, and once when she thought he had said something rude. He could tell from the way that she stopped talking, exhaled, and moved across the room that he'd said the wrong thing, and the favor of baked goods was off the table. Isaac tried to convince himself that he didn't want them anyway, but of course, the fact that she'd taken it back only made him want them more. He wasn't even hungry five minutes ago, but now, he felt famished.

Adding it to the growing list of things about Magnolia that confused and annoyed him, Isaac followed her across the room and to the gift wrapping station. "Why would I wrap them?" Isaac asked immediately, the fact that she was snarky with him occurring a moment too late. Scrunching up his nose as he leaned against the counter, Isaac replied again, a little bit in her way entirely on purpose. "Wrapping gifts for yourself sounds like the most pathetic thing ever," Isaac hated feeling like she had the upper hand. Obviously, she was the better person, that she existed on a moral high ground he could never reach, but that didn't mean he liked to lose.

"No? Not really? Perpetua always with her mum and their new family, and we don't really hang out," Isaac shrugged, answering the question honestly even though he wanted to say something rude instead. "Not that I want to," Isaac's eyes moved from Magnolia to the mess she was making of some shiny wrapping paper, and he laughed. "Stop, just stop," The Slytherin told her, moving closer to put his hand over hers and wiggle the scissors out of her grip. "Do you know how to use a pair of scissors?" He asked, his shoulder bumping into hers as he took over cutting the paper. Isaac made a face as he cut away the shredded edge she had made before he went to work getting her straight-cut pieces. "What is first, then?"

“Because you owe me,” she retorted but the girl had not really been keeping track, it was all a very elaborate but poorly-planned mission to spend as much time with him as possible without letting on that she had a major crush on him. She was being pretty stealthy, right? Or at least if he did notice, he was not making a big deal out of it, thankfully. But maybe that was part of his plan. “For the hot chocolate,” she clarified, thinking her transition rather smooth as she pointed to the general area of the kitchen as if he would have forgotten something that happened a few minutes ago. “Yes well it’s good practice,” she reiterated because it made sense to go against what he said. Always.

The name sounded familiar, though just barely, and Magnolia figured it was a cousin from Hogwarts that she’d have to do a little more digging into. Maybe this cousin could be the key to getting another angle on Isaac, one that she couldn’t likely explore through Allison or any of the other dunces he spent time with. “Well Christmas is all the rage at my house,” she added, though it had always been more of a family thing rather than a big party where all family members were invited. Magnolia looked at the shape of the teddy bear in her hand, set it down on the middle of a piece of wrapping paper, and thought hard.

Then, she started rolling and folding the wrapping paper the best way she could, trying to make sure to cover all parts of the bear and going as far as ripping a corner that she had pulled too hard. Tape could fix that, she decided, and unrolled some of the tape, losing her place as the wrapping paper unfolded and letting out a small sound of frustration. As she reached for the scissors, cutting a crooked line that surely she could hide somehow she looked over at him when he pulled the scissors out of her hand, surprised by his sudden closeness. “Uh maybe not teddy bears?” she decided to take the stuffed animal off the wrapping paper.” Books?” she tried.

Isaac frowned at the bit of tape that transferred from the tool to his own hands, pulling the scissors from her hand. Plucking it off of his finger and trying to drop it on the ground only for it to stick to his slacks, he groaned. "You are a menace," He told Magnolia, but as he turned to look at her, there was a faint smile on his face. He hated the holidays, and he was a bit of a grinch every other day of the year, but Isaac wasn't absolutely without joy. "You know they make bags you can throw shit like that into?" The wizard offered, still smiling, as he pointed at the teddy bear she was close to giving upon.

Books were a lot easier to wrap, square edges and all, and Isaac wasn't going to fight her on it. "Pretty sure that hot chocolate only settled the score, by the way," Isaac nudged her shoulder again and finished cutting a piece big enough for the small stack of books she was donating. She had better not be planning to wrap them all individually, but somehow, Isaac felt like that was a very Magnolia thing to do. He sighed, thinking about it, but began folding the paper around all of them quickly. Hopefully, if he did it fast enough, she couldn't stop him. "For carrying this crap all the way here,"

"Makes us even," More than anything, Isaac hated the idea of owing someone anything, especially Magnolia. "Wait, is this your herbology text book?" The wizard stopped, his smile growing, as he held up the book toward her.

“Bags are lazy,” she retorted but looking back down at her work she realized that they probably looked a hundred times better than the mess she was making of the packaging. “Plus, it’s the thought that counts, it’s not like they’re gonna keep the paper, you know,” she added, another justification to make herself feel better about the whole wrapping business. If she knew that all Isaac was going to do was complain about it she might not have invited him. Well, in his defense, Magnolia sort of had expected all of this to happen (she was just trying to pretend otherwise) and that he’d find a way to make fun of her in whatever way that he could. So far, he was being successful.

“Did it? I saved you from your stupid friends, remember?” she added playfully, though it had been obvious that he had wanted to be there in the first place. “At the very least I’m bringing you a little good karma for the new year,” she added with a grin. “You do believe in good karma, right?” she asked though she could already guess his answer. Either way, Magnolia had always known, not just believed, that doing good for other people came back to you. Not why she did it but definitely an added perk.

“No, not together,” she complained, stopping him as he set a small stack of books onto the wrapping paper. “Plus these two books are for completely different people,” she insisted, pointing at the picture book and the little history comic he had stacked together. When he brought up her textbook however she shrugged, “Oops,” she said in response, returning to the box and shifting through it to make sure nothing else from her personal collection of books had found itself in the box. “Well, I’m sure someone else could put it to better use, it’s practically brand new,” she added “What do you want for Christmas?” she asked suddenly, as they continued working.

"Yeah, your right," Isaac remarked, but the sarcasm oozed from his words as he rolled his eyes. "Far better to toil away with wrapping paper that will end up in a landfill or the oceans than to be lazy with a reusable gift bag." Isaac wasn't some champion for the environment, he was as wasteful and guiltless as they came, but he wasn't going to pass up a chance to prove Magnolia wrong either. Especially not when she had made it so easy. He finished cutting another relatively straight square of paper and began reaching for whatever he could wrap as quickly as possible. Unlike Magnolia, Isaac always went for low hanging fruit first.

"Karma? No," Did Isaac want to believe that bad people got their comeuppance and good people got luck? Of course, but he was a rationalist. A fatalist, even. So believing in some cosmic balance when every shitty thing he'd seen people do each other proved the opposite was too far a stretch. "Pretty sure that is all bullshit, anyway. Karma, religion, morality... All some set of societal restrictions made up to keep us in line. Follow the rules, and you will be rewarded; it is nothing but a construct." He sighed, reminding himself that he was raining all over her good time parade, and then shrugged.

"But what do I know," Despite his best efforts, Isaac was aware that he wasn't an expert in everything, certainly not the rules of the universe, so he was probably wrong anyway. And some part of him, the part that peeked out more often around Magnolia, hoped that he was. "But if there is a karma calculator, how many points do you expect that shit wrap job will get you?" Isaac forced out a joke and a smile to follow, bumping his shoulder against hers as he stacked the books up to wrap together.

Of course, Magnolia had other plans.

"No, not together," Isaac heard her whine, and he audibly groaned, "Why not?" The petulant, irritable child asked. "Do you get bonus points for quantity?" Isaac wondered how the math worked in Magnolia's world; he thought about her world more and more these days. Returning to the books and wrapping them one by one, Isaac dramatically sliced the piece of paper he had measured out for the stack in half and gave Magnolia a look. He could have wrapped quietly for a while, just standing next to her, in the quiet back room of the bustling center, but he was starting to learn that Magnolia never stayed still for long.

"What?" Puzzled by the abruptness of the question but recovering quickly, Isaac shrugged. "World Peace," He teased, making a joke as armor because, in reality, he hadn't considered it. Isaac had stopped making Christmas Lists the year his dad walked out. And he'd stopped expecting a magical amount of gifts not many years after that. His mum wasn't a terrible person, she did what she could to take care of them, but Isaac had learned the truth about Santa a lot sooner than most of his peers. And once the fat man was out of the bag, he only got one or two gifts for Christmas, and they were always practical.

"What do you want?"

Magnolia pouted, hating the way in which Isaac so easily turned her act of kindness into some evil plan to pollute the Earth. Sure the girl could do a little better with her hairspray use and obsession with things covered in plastic but at the same time, she figured that her good deed was good enough to make up for the bad one. A bad one she didn’t even know she had done until he had pointed it out. She sighed a little, her enthusiasm dropping with her shoulders as she looked at him. “Don’t be rude, everyone knows that Santa comes in the day after and takes care of the recycling,” she said with a small smile, not allowing Isaac to ruin her festive move. At least not so easily.

“Well no,” she started, but didn’t get a chance to explain herself as he went in to tell her how wrong she was about everything. Again. Sure, he read books and he sounded smart when he talked but that didn’t mean he knew everything. Or did it? Apparently he hadn’t gotten that memo, she realized. No wonder he had shit friends. That made her smile a little to herself.

“A lot of points,” she said with a bright smile again, at least happy that he engaged with the topic even if he obviously disagreed with it significantly. But this was what conversation with Isaac was always like, he’d take a lot, joke a lot, give her a little leeway, and then they’d repeat the whole process all over again. And even if Magnolia realized that talking to him was sometimes very much like talking to a brick wall, he just happened to be a brick wall she likes. A lot.

She grimaced at the way he imitated her even if she probably did sound a little like that she didn’t want to hear that from him of all people and shook her head. “No,” she huffed, “but you know there are a lot of kids and I can’t afford to give them each a ton of stuff so I do what I can, why give one kid two books when two kids can get one each,” she reasoned. It made sense to her even if it didn’t make sense to anyone else.

She smacked him lightly on the arm, overexaggerating the look of anger on her face to show him just how ridiculous she thought his answer was. If anyone wanted World Peace it certainly wasn’t going to be Isaac. Not this Isaac at least. “Maybe like…I don’t know, to go on a proper date,” she suggested then instantly regretted saying it because it sounded desperate no matter how cool and grown-up it had sounded in her head. “Not that I don’t like to go on dates but like…I don’t know, I’m always busy on Christmas and it’s a family holiday but also like it’d be fun to do something with my boyfriend, that sort of thing,” she attempted to explain but made a mess of things so fell silent instead.

Squinting his eyes at Magnolia, Isaac was certain she had just made that nonsense up on the fly. Or maybe that was what her parents had told her, and Magnolia was still convinced. It was a nice thought, but he knew it wasn't true. At least not if all the trash lying around his side of Gravesend proved anything. "Yeah, okay." He scoffed but let it go at that, reminding himself he wasn't trying to ruin her day no matter how much his baser instinct wanted to. If she wanted to believe in sparkles and rainbows, that was her business.

These points were another thing altogether, though, and almost as soon as she reasoned why to give two kids one book instead of the other way around, Isaac wanted to find another reason to tear it down. Any other reason—unfortunately, he had nothing. In fact, it was worse than nothing; he actually... agreed with her. "That is actually... quite thoughtful." He admitted, the look on his face displaying that he was as surprised as anyone to hear the words come from his mouth. Isaac chewed on the inside of his lip for a second, nodding slowly.

Up until just then, Isaac was sure he had Magnolia all figured out. A spoiled rich girl with her head in the clouds and ear to the ground for gossip. He figured she was doing all of this charity stuff to give herself a clap on the back and not because she actually wanted to make someone else's holiday a little bit better. The fact that she was wrapping them separately so she could share as much as possible was so much deeper a thought than he gave her credit for. And Isaac actually felt guilty for thinking the wrong thing.

Like a dial being turned back, he paid better attention to what Magnolia said next in an attempt to understand her motivation. Of course, it was right when she smacked him. Caught off guard, Isaac laughed at the sucker punch. Still smiling, he was surprised by her confession. "Maybe you will get to this year, then." He offered, but in the corner of his mind, he was wondering if she had gotten a boyfriend since her birthday, and he didn't hear about it. He'd have to ask Jae, the Hufflepuff was a smart ass, but he had one foot in the Gryffindor group, so he usually had the information.

"You could split the day, I suppose. Go with your boyfriend in the afternoon and dinner with your family or something." Saying your boyfriend made Isaac feel some way he didn't want to, so he shrugged awkwardly and hoped they would leave this uncomfortable topic in the cocoa dust.