I said my quick goodbyes to Padma, promising to write every day and meet in her Diagon Alley like we do the day before every winter term. I hopped off the train car and ran toward the luggage carrier at the end.
I had been incredibly successful in avoiding Malfoy in the common room last night after the kiss, in the morning at the breakfast table, and loading onto the train at eleven o'clock. Padma said my behavior was more erratic than usual, but I refused to relent. I had even vowed to stay in the compartment we picked for ourselves, drawing the curtains tight and only opening the door for strict every-two-hour bathroom breaks and the food cart.
"Merlin, crazy! Open the damn door!" Padma whined as she bounced up and down, clutching her bladder. "If you don't let me out of this compartment I will pee on the floor!"
I was guarding the door with my life, my arms thrown open so she couldn't reach the handle. "Good thing I have something to clean it up with!" I started to take my wand out of my back pocket, but she took the opportunity to push me out of the way and run down the hallway before I could catch her.
My best friend asked more than a few times what was going on when she got back, but I always gave a vague, non-answer such as 'Pansy' or 'I thought I saw Snape board the train.'
She didn't believe me, but I didn't indulge on the kiss Malfoy and I had shared the night before. That didn't mean that I didn't think about it, because, boy, did I think about it. Just once though. Maybe twice. A third time may or may not have slipped in there.
Okay, it was like a constant film was playing in my head over and over again. The butterflies in my stomach, the heat rising to my cheeks, his soft lips against mine. I shook my head as I waited in the line for my trunk, trying to knock the memory from my head.
I was just at the front of the line when I saw bright, blonde hair bobbing toward me from above the crowd. I ducked down so my trunk was taller than me, earning an odd glance from the luggage distributor. I didn't want to talk to Malfoy at all. That would mean bringing the kiss back up and Merlin knew that was the very last thing I wanted to talk about.
I walked in a kneeling position, making sure I didn't get run over by excited parents or children running amuck with their trunks stacked taller on a trolley than they were. Not that I had any room to talk, because if someone saw me from the right angle all they would see is a moving trunk.
I managed to kneel-walk my way over to the man who was guarding the brick column back into the muggle world. I stood up slowly, shaking the sore feeling out of my knees in the process.
"Don't even ask," I warned him as he sent me a look of concern, "You don't even know that half of it."
I grabbed one end of my trunk, about ready to pull it through the brick wall until I heard a loud "Natalie!"
I sucked in a large amount of air, coughing harshly as I whipped around in surprise. Malfoy was turned away from who I assumed was his mother, giving her the "give me a moment" gesture with his hands. He started to make his way toward me.
"You need to let me out of this station immediately," I said to the surprised guard, his eyes widened in shock. "Please, just let me out of here."
He shook his head. "Sorry, miss, but it's not safe to go yet. I haven't had the all clear-"
"You don't understand!" I yelped as I grabbed the front of his robes and shook him lightly. "That boy with the blonde hair that's headed over here…he kissed me last night and if I don't get out of this station NOW then he's going to try and talk to me!"
"Miss, I can't just-"
"This is a matter more important than the statue of secrecy!" I cut him off as I shook him lightly again, glancing over to Malfoy who was looking at me strangely from twenty feet away. The look on the guard's face was more than an answer for me and, right as Malfoy was about to open his mouth to say something, I grabbed my trunk and pushed my way through the brick wall.
"Merlin, Nat, you look like you've seen the ghost of Christmas past, present, and future wrapped into one."
I spun around, my hand over my heart as I spotted my older sister, Vanessa, standing behind me with her arms folded over her chest. I took a deep breath, scowling at her silently as I did so.
"You don't even know," I grumbled as I kicked the ground with the toe of my shoe. She smirked down at me, grabbing the other end of my trunk.
"You'll have to tell me about it when we get home." We started to make our way toward the exit door of King's Cross. "You're staying with me, by the way. Mum is at home with Eli. He has a bad cold right now."
We looked a lot alike, except she had gotten her height from our father. She stood at around five foot ten whereas I stood at five foot three; her dark, wavy locks cascaded softly down her back. She had deep, brown eyes that shimmered when she smiled.
Vanessa was gorgeous by any standard and I constantly told her to be a muggle model so we can be incredibly rich. She scoffed at me every time, but I wasn't going to back down. It was only a matter of time.
"Is Fletcher still at mum's house?" I wrinkled my nose in disgust. Fletcher was my mother's current boyfriend and Eli's father. He was, at best, around for six weeks before taking off again to do Merlin knows what.
She nodded her head, wrinkling her nose too. "Which is why you're staying with me. Grab my arm. This train station is giving me breathing problems."
We apparated back to her small flat on the outskirts of London. She had moved out of my mother's apartment right after graduating from Hogwarts three years ago, where she then went on to work as a secretary in the Auror office.
We had our share of sisterly hate, but it was her who stuck up for me when my mother left my father. She didn't have much, but she did make sure that I had everything I needed. Sometimes she even pulled doubles at work so she could send me some extra money. I don't know what I would do without her.
I set my trunk down next to the couch in her living room, where I would probably be sleeping for the next couple weeks. One thing I would be missing from the Slytherin dormitories- my own bed.
"Hey, Nat? It looks like you have a letter waiting." I turned away from the couch and headed into the small kitchen around the corner. There waiting on the fold-out table was a black eagle-owl. He hooted softly before taking off out the open window over the sink.
Vanessa picked up the letter and stretched out her arm to hand it to me.
"Whose it from?" I asked suspiciously. I had seen that owl many, many times in the great hall bringing sweets from home for a certain blonde haired boy.
She shrugged and flicked the envelope toward me like a Frisbee. I caught it clumsily between my two palms, effectively smearing the still-wet ink onto my top palm.
"Damn," I shook my head as I stuck my little finger into a flap in the envelope. I tore it open quickly and took out of the thick, folded parchment.
You're being really immature about this. It was just a kiss.
Merlin knows you do not need to ignore me.
Just write me back.
I rolled my eyes at the note. I tossed it onto the kitchen table, where it slid a few inches and then stopped. Vanessa cocked an eyebrow at me.
"Aren't you going to write back?"
I blew air out of my nose, irritated. "Nope. Not going to happen."
She chuckled before patting the doorframe leading to the kitchen. "I'm going to see mum in a few. Are you coming?"
I nodded my head. "Yeah, give me a few minutes. I'll go with you."
My mother lived in an even smaller flat than Vanessa's on the other side of London. It was a pretty bad area, which meant we usually kept to ourselves as children. I was six when we moved from my hometown in Spain with my parents and sister, eight when my mother took us and moved out of our home in the English countryside, and nine when she took up residence in the small apartment she still lives in now.
Vanessa rapped on the door quickly, shooting me a glare telling me to behave when we heard "I'm coming!" yelled from inside the apartment. It's not that I didn't love my mother, because I did. It was just…I blamed her for a lot of things that happened when I was younger.
The door flew open, revealing a short, disheveled woman. Her dark, curly hair was frizzy and everywhere despite her best efforts. A waft of cooking food drifted into the hallway and I breathed in deeply. One reason I was glad to me home- my mother's cooking was amazing.
She grabbed Vanessa and pulled her into a tight hug. "You work too much!" she exclaimed happily as she pulled back, placing both hands on either side of Vanessa's face. She looked over Vanessa's shoulder toward me, where I shuffled awkwardly under her gaze.
She held her arms out toward me, pushing Vanessa gently aside. I smiled slightly, moving into her grasp. She pulled me close, hugging me tightly as she rocked back and forth.
"My baby girl," she whispered into my ear. She moved away slowly, smiling at me. "Come inside, tell me all about your school year so far."
Vanessa gestured for me to go in first. I obliged, following my mother back into the small flat. It was the same as it was when I was a child. Two bedrooms down the hallway with a kitchen and living room that were technically the same room. It was decorated heavily with Spanish pictures, statues, and other tokens my mother had collected over the years.
Eli sat on the floor sniffling, waving a wand around his head playfully.
"Eli!" mum shrieked as she scrambled over to the three-year old, grabbing the wand. "What did mummy tell you about playing with wands?"
I tried to hide my snort by coughing, but Vanessa caught it and elbowed me in the side. I rubbed the now sore spot, glaring at her.
"Oh, Nat, darling. A letter arrived for you just before you showed up," mum said as she put her wand on top of the refrigerator, where Eli couldn't reach it. "I was really surprised actually. I thought it would be delivered to Vee's house."
I eyed the letter in her hand darkly. "Do you know who sent it?"
My mother shrugged, laying the letter back onto the countertop. "I have no idea. Chicken scratch on the envelope, delivered by a black owl." A look of contemplation flashed across her face. "Looked like a pretty expensive owl."
I stormed over to the letter, ripping it open angrily. Ignoring my mother's cries of surprise at my sudden outburst, I tore the letter out of the envelope and unfolded it quickly.
I knew you would ignore the first one, so don't worry.
I have a whole stack of letters here to send you until you stop acting like a child.
Until next time…
I shook my head, ripping up the letter. "Stupid, stupid, ferret," I grumbled as I tossed the pieces into the garbage.
"Geeze, Nat. Answer the poor guy, will ya?"
Eli started to cry at that moment, saving me from having to respond. The door flew open, bringing in a cold draft. Fletcher waltzed in, tattered jacket and all. He bared his yellowing teeth at me in a smile and I scowled back at him.
Mundungus Fletcher (I just called him Fletcher) was a man that my mother had met a few years back working at a local muggle pub in town. It turned out he was a wizard trying to stay out of the wizarding community. Something about a few bad men looking for him. A hop, skip, and a jump later Eli comes into this world and Fletcher still skips town every so often for "business" purposes, but I'm no fool. I've seen the cauldrons and other magical objects he's got stashed around my mother's apartment.
"Vee or Nat, could you get the bread out of the oven?" mum called from across the room as she picked up Eli off the floor, cuddling him for a moment to get him to stop crying. Vanessa grabbed a pair of oven mitts and set the bread on top of the stove to cool.
Fletcher pulled a pipe out of the inside of his jacket, lighting it quickly with a touch of his wand.
"Merlin, Fletcher, not in the damn house!" I exclaimed as I stomped over to him and pulled the pipe from his mouth, throwing it into the sink with a loud clang. He glowered at me silently.
"Please," my mom begged quietly, "It's Christmas. Can't we put aside our differences for now?" She walked over to me and put a hand on my cheek, but I brushed it away.
"Get him out of here and I will," I hissed at her. Tears sprang to her eyes as she backed up toward Fletcher, who pulled her down onto his lap, smiling at me from over her shoulder.
I shuttered in disgust.
He turned his gaze back toward my mother. "I've been able to sell a few items from my good, old friend Sirius Black. I'm hoping to be able to buy you and Eli something good this holiday."
I rolled my eyes, pleased when I saw Vanessa do the same out of the corner of my eye. He's said that every year, but hasn't come through with it once. I don't know why my mother stayed with the creep. I hated him and, despite her best efforts to deny it, I know Vanessa did too.
My mother smiled sweetly at him as he kissed her bare shoulder.
"Yeah, I'll come back tomorrow," I said as I quickly made my way toward the door before anyone could say anything. "I'll see you at home, Vee." I shut the door behind me with a snap, breathing in the cool, winter air. Like I said, it's not that I didn't love my mother. I just blamed her for a lot of things…Fletcher being one of them.
Over my dead body would I be around if Fletcher was. My mother made her choice three years ago and that's when I decided to move in with Vanessa for vacations.
I kicked at the snow on the sidewalk as I made my way back toward Vee's apartment building. It was a good walking distance from mum's apartment, so I decided to make the most of it.
That is, until that damn owl scared me to pieces by pecking on my head twenty minutes later.
"Hey!" I squawked in surprise, waving my hands above my head to shoo the bird away. "Get out of here. It's the middle of the day! Don't you have any common sense?"
The owl looked down at me blankly from its perch on a mailbox.
"Of course," I grumbled as I took the letter from its beak, "your owner is Draco Malfoy after all. How could you have any sense?"
The bird shot me an indignant look as I opened the third letter for that day.
This is getting out of hand, Garcia.
Can't you just suck up your pride and scribble some nonsense on a piece of parchment?
Lucky for you, I've instructed my owl to follow you around until you write back.
I folded up the letter and shoved it into my shoulder bag. I glared at the owl, daring it to follow me as I made my way down the empty street. A swish of air over my head and the noise of a small beat of a wing told me the bird was keeping its promise to Malfoy.
"You know what," I said in a frustrated tone as I took the letter out of my bag, "fine. FINE. You both win. How do you feel now?" I pulled a quill out of my bag, slightly ashamed at myself for venting to a bird.
I don't want to talk to you.
Make like a ferret and bounce.
-Nat
I folded the piece of parchment back up and stuffed it into the owl's beak. It gave a muffled hoot of gratitude before opening its wings and taking flight. I watched it fly away for a moment before putting my head down against the cold, bitter wind and fighting my way back to the warmth of Vanessa's apartment.
Hey everyone!
Sorry it's been so long. I had a pretty busy weekend, but I hoped you enjoyed chapter 11!
As always, reviews are appreciated!
-Ohsnapxitsemyy
