eleven pipers piping

[Deleted]

Christmas break, 2023

Viovinnia had actually slept... exceptionally soundly. It was actually kind of mind-boggling how well she had slept in a strange bed for the first time. Her mind had been very calm throughout the night and it had brought pleasantness to her as she had slept. But now the morning was calling her name. Always an early riser, Vi awoke at the crack of dawn. After all, she had gone to sleep fairly early the night before.

The Slytherin opened her eyes to see her face was buried in a blonde mess of hair. And it wasn't her own. Her arm was draped over the body next to her and her body was pressed snugly up against the person. As Viovinnia became more conscious of where exactly she was, the smallest smile appeared for just a moment. She had slept beside Dustin Bainbridge. She had slept next to someone who loved her. She had slept next to someone she loved. And she was happy. The lion had tamed the snake.

Viovinnia was an early riser but for some reason, her body was telling her to stay in bed; to stay absolutely still. Normally she would get up and ready herself for the day with a run, but they were in the middle of the Alps. Where was she going to run? Besides, she found herself oddly content with laying in bed next to that blonde head of hair all day.

@dustin

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Waking up in the morning was not one of Dustin's strong suits. He was often teased for being a late riser, and a sleepyhead, and a generally lazy person, unless it came to Quidditch. When he had come home from Hogwarts for breaks, he had spent most of his hours sleeping instead of waking, and every waking hour he spent thinking about sleep. But now, here, on his first vacation as an adult, he couldn't wait to get up. He wanted to spend as much time as possible with Vi - actually with her, not just sleeping next to her, though the sleeping next to her part was also...quite fun. When he woke up, Dustin found an arm draped over his shoulder and a body pressed up against his back. He let out a yawn and stretched, flipping onto his back instead of his side and curling his arm around Viovinnia. "Good morning, my love." Dustin said sleepily, sure that Vinnie was already awake. She had said she was an early riser, after all. "Ready to start our Christmas preparations?" Sure, it was a week before Christmas, but that didn't matter - Christmas was every day in December, as far as Dustin was concerned. With only two people, it was going to take a lot of work to get the cabin up to Dustin's Christmas standards.

@vi

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Vi hadn't been staring at the wonderful back of Dustin's head long before she heard a yawn escape his lips just before he rolled over and wrapped an arm around her. The feeling of his arm around her was... quite nice. And only solidified her want to stay in bed with him more. Vi was already mostly awake as Dustin bid her good morning. "Good morning, sleepy head," she greeted him softly.

As Dustin mentioned something about Christmas preparations, Viovinnia raised an eyebrow at him in question. "Christmas preparations?" She repeated. "What kind of 'preparations?'" Viovinnia's family had never been big on Christmas. They never decorated the tree or had a big family ceremony setting it up. No, the help did all that. Vi wasn't even quite sure how to properly decorate a house or anything. She usually spent her days leading up to Christmas studying as normal, since she was homeschooled, and maybe reading by the fire if it was chilly. Other than that? She had no special Nott traditions. At least none worth telling Dustin about.

As clueless as she may be about 'Christmas preparations,' she was pretty much willing to do anything as long as Dustin was by her side.

@dustin

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The fact that Vinnie even had to ask about what kind of Christmas preparations they were doing made Dustin’s heart sink a little. He had a tendency to forget that they were raised in two vastly different homes – him in a place that was always loud and full of people, and her in a place that was quiet and oftentimes empty. “Well, there’s a lot to do!” Dustin said, sitting up suddenly to make sure he didn’t accidentally fall back asleep. That was a real danger when he was so nice and warm and curled next to Vinnie. “We need to decorate the tree, for one thing, and wrap presents – you did buy me a present, didn’t you? Mine for you is actually very nice – and put up stockings and make gingerbread houses, and Vinnie, this is going to be the best Christmas of your life!” Even if it was only going to be the two of them, Dustin was sure that this Christmas would have more love and light and laughter than any Christmas in the Nott house. “I guess the easiest thing to do today would be make our gingerbread houses, which means we need to make gingerbread, and icing… Oh dear, Vinnie, we should have woken up earlier!” Dustin leapt out of bed, eyes shining like a child’s on Christmas morning. Having twelve uninterrupted days with Viovinnia Nott was the best Christmas gift anyone could’ve given Dustin that year.

@vi

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When Dustin shot up suddenly, Viovinnia followed suit just slightly slower. Her eyes were widened to show just how clueless she was about all of this. As Dustin began naming off things they had to do, something that felt like excitement was rising up inside of her. Vi let out a laugh that was disguised as a scoff. "Well, I did have a present, for you" she began, folding her arms across her chest. "But I lost my bag. Remember?" Vi felt suddenly terrible about that, but she was certain that she could somehow make that up to him.

Vi's eyes widened again before settling into a small smirk when Dustin said they should have woken up earlier. "It's as early as can be!" She said through a small smile. "How hard can all of that really be?" She asked, getting up out of bed after Dustin. The Notts had never had gingerbread houses in their home so the whole process of how to make one was not know to Viovinnia, but she was actually really excited for Dustin to show her the ropes. It also kind of made her happy, seeing how excited he was. It was an attitude she certainly wasn't accustomed to during the holidays but one she could easily come to love.

@dustin

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Dustin’s face fell a little when Viovinnia reminded him that she had lost her bag. “Well, I suppose I can forgive you. But next Christmas, I expect double presents.” Next Christmas, where would the two of them be? Together, still, he hoped, but would they be in the Alps, or some exotic island, or in their own home in England, surrounded by the people they loved? The thoughts summoned a smile back onto Dustin’s face. “You can just help me wrap my gifts for my family, then.” He added with a smirk. His parents probably weren’t going to be thrilled if their presents were poorly wrapped, but Dustin had always enjoyed wrapping his presents the old-fashioned way.

“Trust me, Vinnie, decorating gingerbread houses takes forever. Especially because I can never make just one. I usually end up making five or six, with different color schemes and decorations and stories, and they’re amazing.” Dustin hated to toot his own horn (okay, maybe he liked it a little), but gingerbread houses were his specialty. “Come on. Kitchen. Gingerbread to be made, you know.” He had brought the recipe and half a kitchen’s worth of ingredients (and candy) with him in preparation for his very moment. Dustin stopped by his suitcase to dig out a pair of slippers, throwing them at Vi while he pulled a thick pair of socks onto his feet. “Kitchen!” He repeated, breezing out of the bedroom and into the room in question.

@vi

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Viovinnia had to admit, seeing the small way that Dustin's face fell, even the slightest bit, tug at something. But he still seemed in high spirits as he mentioned there being double the presents next year. The thought of being with Dustin for a whole other year... That was something else. But a good something. A little scary, but good. "We'll see about that," she smirked, though she did rather like that idea herself. Vi looked at Dustin with an oddly confused looking face. "You brought gifts for them too?" Her face settled slowly back into a smirk. "Are you going to have your avian friends deliver them Christmas Day?"

Vi was definitely interested in this gingerbread house decorating business now. "You decorate them any way you like?" She asked. For some reason she had been thinking they strictly had to be Christmas but perhaps she could get creative... Her mind began to thing of different ideas but she caught the slippers when Dustin threw them. She slipped her feet into them and couldn't help but smile to herself as Dustin declared her presence in the kitchen before leaving the bedroom. She followed him into the kitchen. As she did, she had realized she was still in his clothes that she had changed into and it brought a small smile to her face before she turned back to Dustin. "Just a warning: cooking is one thing I dont do so well," she narrowed her eyes in warning. "So your clothes may get a bit messy. You may, too," she added the last bit with a smirk.

@dustin

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Dustin looked at Vinnie, coughing slightly. “I, uh, still haven’t really gotten around to telling my parents about the bird thing.” Sure, they knew that Dustin’s owl was practically his best friend, but they attributed that to Flounder being his first pet and other equally normal things. They never would have guessed their son could actually speak to the bird. “Or the Animagus thing, either.” Dustin was registered, but it wasn’t like there was an announcement of newly-registered Animagi. In order to find the information, his mother would have to go looking for it, and in order for his mother to go looking for it, she’d need a reason. Dustin hadn’t given her one, so his secret had stayed suitably safe. Really, only Viovinnia knew, though Dustin wasn’t going to come right out and say that he had shown her one of his best-kept secrets on…what, their second date?

“Any way you like.” He confirmed at Vinnie’s question. “Though I’ve never been a fan of the whole ‘less is more’ approach. So keep that in mind as you decorate.” Dustin grinned at her. Vinnie warned him that she wasn’t good at cooking, and Dustin laughed. “I’m not much of a cook myself. But I think between the two of us, we should be able to follow a recipe.” Dustin produced the recipe in question, and handed it to Vi. “Take the lead.” Merlin knew that was what Vinnie was best at.

@vi

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Viovinnia was somewhat surprised as Dustin said he had not told his parents about his ability. She raised an eyebrow at him when he also added that they didn't know about his Animagus ability either. She would have thought that someone as close to their family as he was, they would have been the first to know. "Well, I'm honored you bestowed upon me such a secret," she said, only playfully sarcastic. "Why haven't you told them?"

The Slytherin's smirk grew more wicked as different types of gingerbread houses danced through her thoughts. This was certainly going to be fun. Well, that was, until Dustin handed her the recipe. She sort of just stared at the recipe in his hand for a moment, kind of surprised he would let her take the reigns on this when she had never done it before. But his words only reassured her and she snatched the recipe with a smirk. She read over the recipe first and then looked down at the counter. "Okay. So, bowls and measuring cups. Where are those?" Viovinnia didn't know her way around her own kitchen, much less someone else's. But diving headfirst into something like this, when Dustin wasn't even that great a cook himself, was exciting.

@dustin

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Dustin paused for a moment when Vi asked him why he hadn’t told his parents about either of his abilities. “Dunno.” He said after he was done thinking. “It’s kind of nice to have an escape, you know? Plus, I think they’d bolt the windows to keep me from sneaking out at night if they knew I could fly.” His parents had threatened to put Anti-Apparition Charms around the house once because they’d been so afraid that he would sneak off.

“Bowls are up here.” Dustin said, walking over to one of the cabinets and throwing the door open. He hadn’t even looked at the recipe long enough to know what size bowl they ought to be using, which was kind of a problem. Dustin reached up and grabbed all of the bowls, shrugging to himself as he did so. They’d probably need all of them eventually, if only to serve as candy-holding receptacles when the time for decorating came. “Measuring cups, measuring cups…” He said to himself, twisting once before remembering where he had stored them, and opening that cabinet as well. As he had with the bowls, Dustin decided that it was better just to take the entire ring of cups, as well as a glass liquid measuring cup. It would save them time in the long run, right? “All the ingredients are in the pantry.” Dustin said, gesturing towards the door to the small walk-in pantry. The refrigerator was obvious, so he didn’t point that out, hoping that, though Viovinnia was not a self-proclaimed cook, she would know which ingredients needed to stay cold.

@vi

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Viovinnia could just picture Dustin being trapped behind a bolted window, but still managing to find a way out of that mess somehow. She could understand, as well, not wanting to tell his parents. Viovinnia probably wouldn't tell her own parents if she had such an ability. She could never be so sure what they would do if they found out their child possessed such an ability... Plus, an escape sounded nice. "Yeah... you flying on anything on than a broom is a pretty frightening idea," she teased him. Vi, of course, was rather fond of Dustin's abilities. Even though those abilities had embarrassed her at school more than once with his deliverance of letters with birds other than owls.

The Slytherin watched the Gryffindor alum throw the cabinet door open, just looking at the back of his head as he reached up for the bowls they needed. It still hadn't completely settled in with Viovinnia that Dustin loved her. Just thinking about that brought a small smile to her face. "You seem to know your way around a kitchen fairly well," she commented playfully, watching as he gathered the measuring cups as well. Vi looked over at the pantry when Dustin gestured toward it. She walked over and opened both of the doors to grab some things herself. She looked around the cabinet a moment before taking out the brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, sugar, and flour; her arms full of ingredients as she walked back over to where Dustin had placed the bowls and measuring cups. "I hope you have a ton of candy," she smirked as she set the ingredients down.

@dustin

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Dustin rolled his eyes at Vi. “Worst part about being a bird is that I can’t force you to fly with me.” Dustin told her. He had been pondering trying to get Vinnie to ride on a broom with him for a while, and that seemed like a perfect chance to introduce the idea to her. His bird form wasn’t big enough to support a person of any size, except for maybe a newborn baby, and even then, Dustin had no reason to go around kidnapping babies. He’d never do that with his own child, just in case he dropped it or something. That did give him an idea, though. Not about kidnapping babies! But about something that he could do with his own kids, when he was old enough. Who wouldn’t want to see their dad turn into a bird?

“Gender roles don’t exist in the Bainbridge house.” Dustin explained. He and his father were horribly outnumbered, and they were forced to do things that other people thought of as girly all the time. And the toilet seats were always down. Always. Dustin had actually enjoyed learning how to cook, though; it made him feel a lot less nervous about what would happen when he moved out of the house, or married someone and wanted to have a date night with them. Or went on a getaway with his girlfriend and wanted to make gingerbread. “Define a ton.” Dustin said, chewing on his lip. He thought he had gotten enough, but then again… “If we don’t have enough, I can always Apparate out to get some.” He would loathe to leave Vinnie alone, but candy was of the utmost importance to gingerbread houses.

@vi

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Viovinnia stopped and looked at Dustin, raising an eyebrow a him. "Force me?" She repeated, somewhat incredulously. "What gives you the idea I'd need to be forced?" Her eyes narrowed into a glare at the Quidditch player. Truthfully, Viovinnia had never even been on a broom. Quidditch wasn't her thing. And coming from such a family that believed the girls should be married off as wives to cater to their husbands, her parents had never pushed her to. They preferred it this way, actually.

Vi could remember saying that Dustin had a lot of sisters. And since she had started dating him, she had tried to keep her eyes and ears more peeled at school for them but she had still never seen them. Figures, anyway; they weren't in Slytherin. Viovinnia looked at the blonde beside her again and raised an eyebrow at his words, though this time a small smile was at the corner of her lips. "Uh-uh," she said, then turning to face him. "I don't think you'll be going anywhere." She then grabbed his hand and gently pulled him to stand just beside her, their arms touching. "So. Gingerbread. Let's do this," she shrugged, looking down at the mess of ingredients before them.

@dustin

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Dustin shrugged at Viovinnia. “You never seemed all that interested in Quidditch beyond how it was about me.” He explained. Sure, she came to his Quidditch games, but other than that, and talking about how good he was at the sport, they didn’t talk about Quidditch much. Dustin had translated Vinnie’s lack of interest as aversion to the sport, but considering how offended she was by the whole idea, maybe he had misinterpreted everything. “Would I need to force you?” He asked her, just to be fair.

Vinnie said that he wouldn’t be going anywhere, and Dustin smirked. “Guess we have enough candy then.” He teased her. He hadn’t purchased any icing, but he figured that the two of them could make the icing, too, and they wouldn’t have to worry about running out of that. “You’re making this more complicated than it needs to be, Vinnie.” Dustin told her when she appeared to confront the mount of ingredients in front of them. “One step at a time. That’s why we have recipes.” Dustin paused. He didn’t want her to think he was criticizing her, but if they stood there all day, staring at the ingredients, they’d never be able to decorate the houses. “Tell me what to do. I am ever your obedient servant.”

@vi

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It was true: before Dustin, Vi really never was too terribly interested in Quidditch. She'd attended games before of course, but she had never really paid much attention until Dustin was out on that field. So, she didn't combat that statement. Instead she shrugged and smirked at him. "I don't know. I kind of like the idea of you attempting to force me," she teased. Vi couldn't be forced to do anything, of course. She was a very strong-willed individual. Though, Dustin was probably one of the few who could actually persuade her easily.

Viovinnia half smiled at Dustin's teasing, but it disappeared when he said she was making this more complicated. "Well, she let out a sigh. "Don't blame me if the gingerbread is rubbish!" She warned him with her index finger pointed at him. Vi turned back to peruse the recipe. "Alright then," she said looking up at Dustin. "I'm going to prepare the dry ingredients. I'll leave the egg cracking to you." Just the idea of Vi cracking an egg sounded like a bad one. "Hop to it, servant!" She smiled at him.

@dustin