With the Christmas highs tumbling down. For some, more gracefully than for others, Alice had been eager to catch up with those whose absence was too keenly noticed over her holiday break. Her parents, as loud and as proud as they were, were only a portion of the makeup of Alice. Their humour and willingness to build bridges even perhaps where they weren’t due resonated with Alice. Though perhaps at times she was laughing on her own at the tail end of one of her jokes--- it was the thought that had counted. Once upon a time, Alice and Ted had been the apple of one another’s eye. Children, in love, dancing ring’o roses until their feet were saw and coated in a thick layer of dust. It was a naive affair, short-lived but Godric had it made its mark. Alice was a romantic. She had known it since she was just four years old that she wanted love and light and laughter and whatever all that meant? She hadn’t a clue. But there was something magical about it. More magical than spells and potions and text between the dusty jackets of old library books. It was deep-rooted and she watered it like it was her birthright. The ‘inner circle’, if you could call it that, and the close company that Alice kept was a surprise to many. A variety of presences, made up of some both sour and sickly sweet characters, each and every one holding their place in her heart like soldiers awaiting their officer’s command. Ted Tonks had been one of those since before she could remember. They had entered Hogwarts hand in hand, ready to face the world together. And she had intended to keep that promise. No amount of miscommunication and sparse meetings that subdue the burning flame she kept for him. Nothing more than platonic however, Alice knew her boundaries. “Teddison!” Came an out-of-the-blue exclamation, riddled with a hoarseness product of one too many nights drinking firewhiskey, fittingly by the dancing embers of the fire. Nothing more than a chest-pieced-size silhouette in the distance, Alice could recognise that bed of blond from miles away. Her stance increased to a brisk walk, a quiet spell being murmured as she spoke to bring a misshapen box tapered in brown parchment paper and finished with a golden box. Christmas was for giving--- and although overdue: Alice loved doing nothing more. “I’ve missed you so terribly. How have you been? Godric, what a belly you’ve got on there. Did you just eat the turkey, or his entire family too?” Every syllable was said in nothing but sheer jest, a beam stretching a smile from ear to ear. Arms outstretched to offer a rather garish embrace, dimpled cheeks standing their ground on her elated expression.
@ted-xtnks
