A/N: Hi! Sorry for the delay! I'm starting school this week so it's been kind of a busy week for me! I'll try to update as soon as I can though! But here you go... Things are getting interesting in this chapter. R&R!


CHAPTER 7: Everything Can Change

Regina was finishing packing for Christmas break, when she heard a knock on her door. "You know you don't have to knock, silly" she said, as she flung the door open.

"Oh, Kathryn, I thought you were… never mind. What are you doing here?" Regina said looking startled.

Kathryn and Regina still got along. Regina kept her relationship with Dani a secret from her childhood friend. Even though she still hung out with Kathryn to keep up appearances, she felt that they had grown apart. Regina had changed so much since she had started dating Dani, she had become more comfortable in her own skin, letting her true interests surface. She had started to take horseback riding lessons again. Cora had allowed it when she was younger, but she had stopped taking them, insisting that she now had more important things to focus on. And Kathryn, well she had become the new Queen Wannabee of the Slytherin crew, trying to imitate every single aspect of Regina's previous bitchy behavior.

"Well, I actually wanted to know if you were ready. We're riding on the same compartment on the train back home, right?"

Regina sighed with inner exasperation. Dani was staying at Hogwarts for the holidays. She was going to miss her, and have to endure her overbearing mother and annoying sister for two whole weeks.

"Yeah, sure, Kath" she said with a forced grin, while closing her trunk.

"Great! Cause I have juicy gossip. You'll never believe what I heard from Killian this morning…" She said, as she linked arms with Regina and led her outside their room continuing her excited chatter.


"So, are you sure you can't come over to visit?" Emma said wrapping her arms around Neal's neck.

"Sorry babe, but I really need to stay and study for the OWLs" Neal said.

"Since when are you the studious type?" Emma asked humorously and a little bit confused.

"This is serious, Emma. You'll understand when you get to fifth year, trust me" he answered. " I'll be thinking about you, though…" he added apologetically.

Emma huffed. When it came to their studies, Neal always acted as if he knew everything, when Emma knew her grades were far higher than Neal's had been when he was in her year. She liked hanging out with him, and being with an older guy had its perks, but she hated that he still treated her like a little girl sometimes.

"Fine, you better write to me…" she said as she pointed at his chest with her fingers.

"Uh… sure," he answered distractedly turning his gaze back to the castle and then looking down at his watch. " Hey … I have to go. Sorry I can't wait until the train leaves… That ok?" Neal asked sticking his hands inside his pockets.

Emma shrugged "Yeah, whatever"

"Thanks, babe, bye!" Neal said, as he turned and rushed back to the castle, without even hugging her goodbye.


Regina sat in the train gazing out the window. She was sad and angry she couldn't say goodbye to Dani. Kathryn had practically dragged her to the Hogwarts Express, without giving her any time to figure out an excuse to go and see her girlfriend.

"Regina, what's up with you? I feel like there's something you're not telling me, and we're supposed to be friends."

Regina arched an eyebrow looking at Kathryn. "Well, if I am not telling you something is because it's none of your business" she said, sighing exasperatedly.

"You know, there are rumors… about you and that girl from Ravenclaw… Danielle?" she started with airs of superiority.

Regina kept her poker face on trying not to show any signs of nervousness.

"What about it?"

"Umm… That you've been spending a lot of time with her…" Kathryn replied questioningly.

"Yeah, we're friends Kathryn… And friends spend time together… Is that so hard to believe?" she replied.

"But she's from Ravenclaw!" Kathryn replied in shock.

Regina started becoming frustrated and raising her voice. "The fact that she's from Ravenclaw doesn't mean anything, Kathryn...Did you know I was almost sorted into Ravenclaw? Yeah, me, Regina Mills, with a Slytherin legacy of more than 400 years. The hat almost sent me there…"

"But…. she's not even pure blood, Regina!" Kathryn said while trying to process her friend's revelation.

"You know what, I think I might have been better off in Ravenclaw, where people don't judge you for who you're friends with, and not everything is about who has the purest blood!"

"Well, I thought we were friends, but clearly you're acting like a completely different person. So let me know when the real you comes back and stops talking nonsense"

"What if this is the real me?" Regina asked defiantly.

"Well, whoever you are right now, Regina, is not my friend, so don't expect me to be there or to stand up for you anymore and defend you when people talk and call you a dyke behind your back!" Kathryn said, standing up and slamming the compartment door behind her, leaving an even angrier and slightly panicked Regina inside.


"Hey, sorry, mother's calling me for dinner! Talk to you tomorrow okay?" Regina said in a low voice talking to the face in the chimney flames before her.

"Sure! I miss you"

"Miss you too Dani" Regina replied as Dani's face disappeared and the fire recovered its original form.

Dani had managed to bypass the floo network security system and communicate with Regina from a chimney in the Room of Requirement to Regina's bedroom. Apparently if someone checked, the fireplace would appear on the record as unregistered since it really didn't exist inside the Room of Requirement unless Dani needed it.

"REGINA!"

"Coming mother!" Regina replied as she walked begrudgingly down the stairs.

She entered the luxurious dining hall in the mansion and sat quietly next to her sister

"What took you so long?" Cora asked coldly.

"I was reading and lost track of time, mother" Regina knew she needed a believable excuse, even if it meant taking up her mother's scolding.

"You and your books, Regina. When are you going to do something that actually gets you somewhere? Look at your sister, she just graduated and she's working as the Junior Assistant to the Minister of Magic. You should do well and follow her footsteps, you have a responsibility to uphold the Mills name and you won't do that by locking yourself up and becoming a bookworm."

"Yes, mother" Regina replied. She hadn't realized how much she had changed until she arrived to her house for this Christmas break. She still wanted to make her mother proud, but she knew deep down that what her mother wanted for her and what she wanted, were never going to be the same. Nonetheless, she knew she still had time and maybe over the years, she could figure out a way to get what she wanted without losing her mother's approval completely.

"Have you talked to Kathryn? Is she coming over sometime?" Zelena asked.

Regina sighed. Great, just what she needed: her nosy sister meddling in front of her mother. She hadn't talked to Kathryn since their disagreement on the train and it didn't look like they were going to be friends anytime soon.

"Uh, we had a fight before Christmas break." Regina replied, too nervous to come up with an excuse. Kathryn's father worked closely with her mother at the ministry, so she would probably know if she lied.

"Really? About what?" Cora interjected.

"Umm, nothing important." Regina said.

"Well, Kathryn has always been immature. I just hope you two figure things out. I would hate to be at odds with the Nolans."

"Yes, mother" Regina said for the second time during dinner.


Regina was frantic. She couldn't find the letter she was writing to Dani for her birthday. She was going to miss it, so she had decorated a beautiful card and was planning on sending it along with a dress she had bought for her for Christmas.

She was sure she had kept it under the compartment in the bottom of her drawer so no one would it find it, but when she looked for it this morning it wasn't there. She scrambled through her drawers and checked the pockets of her coats and through the jumble of papers inside her trunk but she couldn't find it.

"Were you looking for this?"

Regina froze and turned around finding her mother standing in the door, holding a blue and green card.

Regina gulped and was at a loss for words.

"Do you want to explain the meaning of this Regina? Who is this Dani?" she spat her name looking firmly at Regina.

"A girl from school, mother," she replied, trying not to lose it.

"SHE'S A HALFBLOOD, FROM RAVENCLAW! AND A GIRL, REGINA! Are you insane? " her mother shouted.

Well, "I love her, mother!" Regina said.

"YOU LOVE HER!" Cora looked appalled. "I will not take any more of this nonsense Regina. This has to end now. I can't believe you would stoop to this level. You are a Mills, for Merlin's sake! You end this now, or there will be consequences."

"Mother, please. Don't make me do this." Regina pleaded.

"I'm afraid Regina, it's too late for that. And since you don't seem to be thinking clearly, Regina. I'm afraid I will have to take this matter into my own hands. In the meantime, you are forbidden to leave your room, unless I say so. You will have no access to your owl and… Fumario obstructo!" she said, as a bunch of rocks covered the now useless chimney.

"Silly girl, do you think I wouldn't find out? Believe me Regina, this is all for your own good." Cora said.

Regina heard her mother lock the door and seal it with magic, and she burst into tears on top of her bed, not knowing what would happen next.