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[lilium_evansiae]

The sign on the bar this evening is written with glowing red and green letters:

Free Cracker with Your Drink

There is a large pile of gaily colored Cribbages Wizarding Crackers stacked next to the sign.

And there is a young, ginger-haired witch waiting to see if she has any customers. If the hat perched on her head is anything to go by, she has

Comments

[real_or_notreal]

"Bartending, now, are you?" That would be Peeta. Settling on a stool.

[real_or_notreal]

"You like it?"

This might be a generic question, or might not. But his focus is on the hat in his hands. The smallest reference to endless things here. Something that made her night. He at least decides to just go with it. He already got it. And he already managed not to either hide under the bar or attack someone for the cannon explosion.

He puts the hat on his head, turning it this way and that as he tries to figure out which way was right. Not having the smallest clue. And it ends up anything but straight, by the time he raises his eyebrows, mockingly, for an appraisal of this situation of Witchy Christmas Hat Wearing now.

[lilium_evansiae]

"Very jaunty," Lily says, cheerfully, of his new hat. "And very festive.

"You look quite ready for a tea party."

[real_or_notreal]

He had meant to be asking about the book, but he doesn't correct her. Reaching out instead for his mug covered in trees. Still warm enough he presses his hands to it, to soak in the heat of the drink and the mug itself to his skin.

"And the rest of this, too?"

There's still a wrapped something. And a folded piece of paper.

[lilium_evansiae]

"Yep! Your gift and your joke," she says.

"The three things you get in a Christmas cracker."

[real_or_notreal]

"And this is normal where you're from." That might sound like a question more than a statement. There are not things like this in District 12. Not really. And not entirely, for about eighty percent of it.

He's entirely new at this, but he still manages to grimace, naturally, enough at the written words on the piece of paper he picks up next. Paper over the wrapped gift. Glancing up at her, before back at it.

"What is the best xmas present in the world?"

[lilium_evansiae]

"Perfectly normal. And Muggles have Christmas crackers, too. They're just a lot quieter and a lot less elaborate. The hats are paper and the gifts are just little things."

She grins.

"And I dunno. What is the best xmas present in the world?"

[real_or_notreal]

"A broken drum." He looks up, while adding, with a tiny almost drumb beat with his fingers in the air. "You just can't beat it." Maybe a little more drily than it should be, but the hint of smile is quite right.

[lilium_evansiae]

Lily laughs, and groans.

"Oh, that's terrible," she says. "Very typical, of this sort of joke, but terrible."

[real_or_notreal]

It was terrible, but amusing. Peeta drank some of his butter beer, letting the very different flavor and the warmth sink in still more, as he cast aside the slip of paper. Before gesturing to the wrapped box. "Do those have normal typical things in them, too?"

[lilium_evansiae]

"One of my roommates got a canary once," Lily says cheerfully. "So ... no, not really."

She grins.

"Aren't you going to open it?"

[real_or_notreal]

"It's a Christmas present, right?"

This might sound rather normal for the asking.

[lilium_evansiae]

Lily nods.

"Yeah, basically.

"It's the gift in the cracker."

[real_or_notreal]

But it isn't normal. Because rather simply. "That would make it my first."

They had winter holidays. But not this Christmas everyone talked of.

[lilium_evansiae]

"Then you should open it and see what you got, Peeta."

Especially if it's his first.

[real_or_notreal]

Peeta picked it up and set it with one edge still on the bar, attacking part of the paper. Less methodical than he could be, not really caring when parts of the paper ripped. At first it is a box. White box, two pieces. Fighting it free of all the paper. Tiny zooming brooms and witches on them.

And then it is -- "A feather?" Not alone. With rolled up paper. And he can't help still looking baffled even for noting it and the small closed colored jars running one side of the box.