Ron, you are hopeless.
Mr. Weasley's driving skills seemed to have improved again; they sped through the sky and reached 12 Grimmauld Place in just over twenty minutes.
"Welcome home, kids!" Mr. Weasley said with open arms after getting out of the car.
When they opened the door, they were still greeted by the face of Walburga Black.
But Walburga's temperament wasn't as fiery as before; she even unprecedentedly nodded when she saw the kids.
Moreover, she greeted Harry and Draco with particular emphasis.
When she learned that Draco's parents would also come to 12 Grimmauld Place for Christmas, Walburga finally smiled happily.
"Yes, yes," she said, "this house can finally welcome the right people for Christmas."
It was clearly a loaded statement, but no one paid her any mind.
After all, the current patriarch of the Black family is Little Sirius.
And surprisingly, Walburga no longer used sarcasm on Little Sirius. Now, she sincerely believed that Little Sirius was her most promising child and the pride of the Black family.
After all, he is the Minister of Magic.
Most people here had their own rooms in 12 Grimmauld Place; they found their old rooms and also provided suitable suites for each other's parents.
After resting in the house for a night, they gathered the next day to decorate the entire house.
The outside was decorated first. Bill was eager to try something when he saw the tree in the garden, but fortunately, Little Sirius returned in time to stop Bill's dangerous idea of chopping down the garden's tree.
The garden was also enchanted with the Traceless Stretching Spell. Inside, there were hardly any flowers; it was mostly the little plots Kreacher and Ruby, the house-elves, cultivated themselves, and some trees that Little Sirius had somehow transplanted.
As for the Christmas tree, Little Sirius had already prepared it. Once back in the house, he had Kreacher place the prepared Christmas tree in the living room.
By then, the living room was already brightly decorated. Ginny, Annie, Hermione, and Pabi adorned it in a riot of color.
Meanwhile, Fleur was sitting on the sofa, being affectionate with Bill.
"I really want to use some gadgets on them," Fred whispered to George, but everyone around could hear.
"That's what I was thinking," George said sinisterly.
"You're talking nonsense!" Fred tapped George's forehead, "You're also one of the targets I want to prank—don't forget, you already have Angelina!"
"Haha." George could only laugh awkwardly.
"So, how about you?" George changed the topic and asked Ron, "I heard you are now the famous blockhead of Gryffindor? What's that about? Can you tell your brothers about it?"
"It'd be bad to tell you guys." Ron rolled his eyes.
That being said, Ron reached out and flicked the little angel on top of the Christmas tree.
—Only Fred, George, Harry, Neville, and Ron knew that the angel on top of the Christmas tree was actually a garden goblin.
Fred had his ankle bitten by this goblin while pulling carrots for the Christmas dinner, so it was hit with a Stunning Spell, painted gold, stuffed into a little ballet tutu, given a pair of small wings, and made to glare at them from the top of the tree.
"I think it's really unattractive." Neville gleefully criticized that ugly angel, "It's the first time I've seen such an ugly angel, you see—its head is potato-like, with hairy feet..."
"This is its punishment," Fred glanced at the goblin and said, "This is the most lenient punishment I could think of. In the past, I would have tied it to a Feiliba Firework, letting it experience the explosive feeling of a flying broom."
"Ron, Ron?"
Mrs. Weasley's voice rang out.
As soon as Ron answered, he regretted it; Mrs. Weasley called him over to peel cabbage for dinner.
Moreover, Mrs. Weasley had also taken away his wand.
Not far away, Ginny was looking at Ron meaningfully.
Clearly, Ginny seemed to have told on him to Mrs. Weasley.
Ron sat on a small stool, sighing sadly, holding a small knife, and looked over to Fred, George, and Harry.
"I say, you three—" he said, "can you help me peel the cabbage?"
"I don't think so," Fred said seriously,"this is a great character-building exercise; learning to peel cabbage without magic will make you appreciate how hard it is for Muggles and Duds—"
"—this is Mum's punishment." George said with a smirk, "You see, because of your actions, Mum decided to punish you—she's extremely fair and never wrongfully accuses a good person."
"And never lets a bad person get away." Ginny said with a huff.
"Ginny!" Ron immediately understood what was going on, getting furious: "Did you tell Mum?"
"Blame me?" Ginny spread her hands and walked away with a string of bell-like laughter ringing out.
The Malfoy couple and Neville's grandmother hadn't arrived at the villa yet because Christmas was still several days away, leaving only Neville and Draco sitting on the sofa with vacant expressions.
Both had to listen to Mrs. Weasley's favorite singer, Sedina Wobec's Christmas broadcast, as her songs flowed melodiously from the wooden radio.
Fleur seemed to find Sedina very dull; she was loudly talking in a corner, and Mrs. Weasley kept furrowing her brows as she adjusted the volume switch with her wand, making Sedina sing even louder.
Under the cover of a particularly jazzy tune, "A Cauldron of Hot Love," Fred, George, Neville, and Draco began playing Exploding Snap.
While peeling cabbage, Ron kept glancing over at Bill and Fleur, seemingly trying to learn some technique.
"Stop looking, you won't learn a thing." Ginny suddenly squatted in front of Ron, blocking his view, "Even if you look, what good will it do? You're just a love-clueless blockhead—"
"I don't need you to say it!" Ron said angrily.
"Even if I don't say it, it's still the truth." Ginny sneered, "Look at you. Not only do you not know what—never mind, Mum has already punished you, so slowly peel your cabbage with a knife, I'm going over to play Exploding Snap with them!"
With that, Ginny skipped off, plopping herself on the sofa and squeezing in with those playing Exploding Snap.
Draco looked very unwilling to be treated like this by a Gryffindor woman—
But there was no choice, as he was the only one from the Malfoy family, and the Weasley family...
Counting without Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, there were six siblings: Bill, Charlie, Fred, Percy, Ron, and Ginny, enough to take on four Malfoys in a fight.
Malfoys have always been pragmatic, so Draco wisely chose to yield.
"Where's Harry?" Neville asked, looking up after a particularly bad hand.
"Harry went out," Fred said, "he probably went to pick up Miss Malfoy—or Miss Grindelwald, I wasn't paying attention."
"I heard..." George tossed down a series of cards, teasing Neville: "It seems they've also invited Professor Snape this year, Neville."
Almost every Gryffindor knew that Professor Snape was who Neville feared most.
Sure enough, upon hearing George's words, Neville shook like a leaf.
"No, they wouldn't?" He forced a smile and asked, "You're joking, right? Fred?"
"I'm George." George said with a sullen face.