Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter I wouldn't be on fan fiction, would I?

Author's Note: Thanks to my reviewers, those few special people who make my day just by typing a few sentences... Give me advice that I think is valid, odd and unusual names, or a new and better title and I'll dedicate a chapter to you! And, yes, now I'm berating myself for sinking so low into bribery. Fast fact, I'm writing about winter in 95 degree weather. It doesn't help you cool down, so don't bother trying it for that purpose.

On the morning after Gryffindor's narrow defeat of Ravenclaw, the Gryffindor Common Room was almost completely deserted. No one had slept much the night before, and Aubrieanna was no exception. She was, however, one of the few house members that had summoned up the energy to emerge from their warm beds into the cold. She was just finishing addressing a letter to Morgana as she noticed a Prefect tacking up a notice. She folded the letter and walked over to the notice board.

There were various papers for things like the Gobstone's Club or missing items, but the new notice would capture the interest of far more students. It announced the date of the next Hogsmede visit.

December eighteenth, two weeks. Aubrieanna frowned. Surely it wasn't December already?

As she navigated through the castle to the Owlery, her mind drifted off to what the next few weeks would hold. Christmas was coming up, and that meant that soon the students would be leaving for Winter Break.

The original plan was for me to go back home for the Breaks, but now... Now that would be impossible. Without her mother to help her, she would be unable to return home. Morgana was the only other Fayne willing to help here who was powerful enough to be of any use, but Morgana was half insane, and also underage. She couldn't attempt something like that, it could easily turn disastrous.

So she couldn't go home. It would be impossible. In theory, after either she or Morgana turned sixteen they would receive the necessary power and control to send her home, but that would take a while. For them to get her here had required the two of them and a spell that her mother had already created. She wouldn't be able to return until next September.

That left two options; stay at the castle, or return to her father's.

Aubrieanna barely even considered the latter option before she wondered what all of the Hogwarts Christmas traditions were.

Aubrieanna's dislike of her father's house had been formed shortly after she was told that she was to be staying there. It wasn't as though her father was terrible. While he had hardly been happy to find that she needed to be placed under his care, he had let her have leave of the guest room in the attic and kept her feed. The worst part about being there was the fact that almost no one would meet her eyes. Her father usually looked slightly to the left of her, as if by not seeing her she would not exist. It had not taken her long to determine that, to him, she was an embarrassment. After she had determined that, she had started to take her meals in her room, served by a house elf whose eyes would dart fearfully every time she entered a room containing Aubrieanna. She all together avoided her half brother , who would look at her, although it was clear that his gaze contained only hate. At first she had thought it was jealousy, however after hearing what Remus had said about how purebloods viewed half bloods, she was hardly surprised at his instant dislike of her.

It appears that I will be having a Christmas all alone. She mused silently as she placed her letter in the mouth of a willing owl.

-----

Aubrieanna turned another dusty page of another dusty book. She and Remus had paper spread all over one of the Library tables as they worked on a Runic paper. Typically, these assignments were easy for her, much more so then Potions or Transfiguration. She dreamt in Runic most of the time. This one involved actually reading a work that was entirely in Runic. Once again, this wouldn't normally be a problem, but the wizarding would had forgotten so much of the language over the years, and although the books were highly regarded by wizards, anyone who had grown up speaking Runic would go insane. It was like forcing yourself to read a novel by a four year old, one without out punctuation, with missing words, and scores and scores of backwards letters. Aubrieanna realized within the first few days of her Runes class that any wizard would think the same thing of anything her culture still had that was in English, but at this point it time, frustration was causing any empathy she might have felt for the incompetent authors to disappear. She felt her head drop steadily until it was resting on the pages. She wondered idly if moldy books could spread their fungus into your hair.

"It's not that hard." Remus said when he saw her, half laughing. "You're usually so quick at Runes."

"Yeah, well this is insane. I'm getting such a headache." Unlike herself, Remus was cheerfully translating word by word. His understanding of the language was very good for a wizard, and equivalent to whoever had written these bloody books They were on the same wavelength, and he was actually enjoying the assignment. She slammed her head against the book a few times, hoping it would stop the throbbing in her brain. It didn't.

"Well, this looks like it's going well." Said a voice from behind them.

"Shut up Lily." Aubrieanna replied. "Beating you with this book might not match the pain of having to read it, but I'm sure it would come close."

Her two companions laughed, and even Aubrieanna managed to smile.

"Just thought you'd like to know that there's a sign up sheet in the Great Hall for anyone who wants to stay here over break." Lily said before turning and attempting to smirk evilly. "Now I guess I'd better leave you to your reading."

The thought of processing one more sentence of the cursed book in front of her made Aubrieanna want to scream. "No." She said forcefully enough to earn her a withering look from a Hufflepuff who was browsing through the shelves containing wizard biographies. "I mean, I'll just go do that now... Wouldn't want to forget." She stuffed the massive book into her bag and headed for the Great Hall.

As she navigated her way to the Great Hall, Aubrieanna kept seeing Runes scrolling through her mind. Even when she wasn't reading the book it was driving her insane. Her frustration caused her to walk down the wrong staircase without realizing it, one that descended to the courtyard. Right floor, wrong side of the building. She scowled and began to travel down the corridor leading to the Great Hall when she heard someone enter through a door behind her.

"Just who I was looking for." Said the voice behind her, although its owner didn't seem happy at all to have found her.

She turned, and, after recognizing the figure felt a mask of emotionless cold fall onto her face. "And why would that be, Myron?"

Her half-brother scowled. "Father wanted me to deliver this to you." He said, thrusting a piece of parchment at her. "Something about Break." Myron glared at her a few moments and stalked down to the dungeons. Only after she was positive that he truly had left did she sit down on the steps and opened the letter.

Aubrieanna,
While I am aware that Hogwarts offers any student the option of remaining at school over Christmas Break, I would kindly request that you come home. Myself and the Minister both agree that it would be beneficial to you to experience more time living in a wizarding home. I expect to see you soon.
Grogen Platt

Aubrieanna reread the note before crumpling it into a ball and throwing it into her bag. The Minister advised that she go home? As angry as it made her, she realized that she didn't have much of an option. She would be forced to spend Christmas with her relatives in London.

Suddenly, her Runic homework was looking rather inviting.

-----

When Aubrieanna returned to the dormitory, Lily was sitting there with a piece of parchment in front of her, tapping her quill impatiently as she debated what to write next. Aubrieanna dropped her bag on the floor by her bed, announcing her presence to Lily.

"So, all set to spend the holiday here then?" She asked, her attention still mostly on whatever assignment she was working on.

"Not exactly." Aubrieanna said quickly, moving without pausing into a new topic. "What are you working on?" She tried to keep her voice light, but to her ears it sounded as though she was being strangled.

"An essay for potions. I can't remember what the third use for... Hang on a minute, what do you mean 'not exactly'." She said, finally looking up.

"My father thinks it would be beneficial for me to stay with him over the break."

"You don't sound very excited." Lily commented.

"I'm not. I've already told you, I don't really get along with most of my family." She began to crack her knuckles one at a time wishing each pop was the sound of the breaking of one of her family member's bones. "I can just see Christmas dinner. We'll all sit at opposite corners of a huge table, glaring at each other. I'd bet you five Galleons that the only words I'll hear the whole meal will be 'please pass the salt."

"Well..." Lily began, but Aubrieanna was in the middle of a rant and cut her off before she could get farther.

"I don't even like salt!" she growled. "I like to put pepper on things, but there's never and pepper in the bloody house because it makes bloody Myron sneeze. I don't even know why they want me to come. For the three weeks I was stuck there this summer, and I thought that I would loose my mind. They ignore me, glare at me, refuse to look me in the eye, have an inability to say my name... It's fairly obvious that they can't stand me, and I know that I can't stand them. I was able to live fifteen years without even knowing them, so I can't figure why it's so damn important that I see them now..."

Aubrieanna would have gone on, but Lily stopped her.

"Is it at all possible, Aubrieanna, that you might be able to use this to your advantage. Maybe you can be so great that they are forced to speak to you, or at least buy you some pepper." She said. "Or, maybe you could spend Christmas with your mum. I'm sure she wouldn't mind." She said.

"First, I can't spend Christmas with 'Mum'. Second, and if you haven't noticed this by now your observation skills are rather lacking, I can't do anything that would make them think that I'm 'great'. I'm not talented. I don't have people skills. People don't like me. I don't like people. It kind of works the same way my family does."

"First, why not. Second, if you don't like people then what am I, a dead walrus? Third, you do have people skills and that in itself is a talent." Lily responded.

"Name three."

"Well, you can carry on an intelligent conversation. It's not always cheery but..."

"You're coming close to making a negative comment, Lily."

"Right. You, um... You have an active, if bizarre sense of humor."

"So I'm bizarre, depressing, and under the impression that you're a walrus? Wow, I guess I do have all the qualities of a people person, Lily." Aubrieanna said with mock enthusiasm.

"And you have leadership abilities." Lily concluded.

"And you have the ability to be really corny."

"Seriously Aubrieanna, people listen to you. On that rare occasion when you're forced to be in a group, you're always the one initiating something. Granted, it's usually a fight with one of those idiotic 'Marauders' or a weird discussion, or people dancing around like heathens for the Gryffindor parties, but people listen to you. They don't always obey, but the do listen. I listen to you. Seriously, sometimes when you talk to a group of people you remind me of a Queen or something. Maybe you could become Minister of Magic..."

After a quick bit of still irritated laughter Aubrieanna said, "I doubt I'll become Minister of Magic."

"Yeah well, if you survive break I'll start making your campaign posters."

"Good luck with that." She said before sighing. "I'm going to get ready for bed. Maybe this will be an instance where I'll go to sleep and wake up with things all better." Aubrieanna said without much conviction, before heading off to take a shower.

"Before you go," Lily said, "I need some help looking for Christmas gifts, and since you're going home, it sounds like you do too. Want to go to Hogsmede with me?"

"Why not?" Aubrieanna said, smiling in way that was neither joyful or amused. "I might as well enjoy myself before I die from pepper withdrawal."