Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I wouldn't be on FanFiction, now would I?

Author's Note: I know that this hasn't been updated in a long while, (and I apologize a thousand times over) but that's partly because of the amazing lack of reviews. Also, blame basketball, family, and ninth grade in general. I should be back to writing regularly now though... I hope. Megan will help me if I get stuck, won't you Megan? Also, I would have thought that somebody would have said something about the title, but no one did, which kind of worries me because it makes me think that it was a bad idea. Was it? Unless you review I'll never know.

A sudden jerk of the train woke Aubrieanna. Reluctantly, she lifted her head, squinting in the almost-afternoon sun. Across from her, Lily was sprawled out on the bench, her red hair resting on the glass of the window. Aubrieanna's feet were still propped up on the seat that Lily was lying on, which was surprising given how poor her balance usually was.

Both of the girls in the compartment were exhausted. It was hardly surprising, the shopping at Hogsmeade had been particularly grueling, almost as much as the nasty essay for Slughorn that they had both let lie until the last minute. After they had carried their purchases back to the castle, they had been up almost all night packing. It would have been easy to blame the amazing amount of clutter that had accumulated in their room for holding up their packing, but, in truth, neither of the had been enthusiastic about the task. Aubrieanna was dreading the pepper-less dinners with her relatives, and Lily was still horrified by the hideous bridesmaid dress that she had packed at the absolute last moment, perhaps in the hopes that it wouldn't fit in her trunk.

Aubrieanna didn't blame her, the aforementioned dress was a true abomination. The pink satin bodice and skirt was attached to a floral lace almost like a leech attaches to a screaming piglet. The lace not only crept half-way up Lily's neck, but tried to strangle her wrists in over-dramatic ruffles. Even the shoes had an obnoxious lace bow at the toe.

There was a word for that thing: a monstrosity.

While Lily had been avoiding packing the dress, Aubrieanna was trying to decide which blouse would be more appropriate for Christmas Dinner, Slytherin green or Gryffindor red. To comply or not to comply? To rebel or not to rebel?

In the end, she packed both.

Along with the shirts, Aubrieanna's trunk contained two small, impersonal gifts for her family. There were school supplies for her half-brother, and several pairs of dress socks for her father. She only had one other gift left to give; any presents that were going to her friends back home had already been sent (and they included such curiosities as the surviving pieces of a violent wizard's chess match and the snitch that she had nicked from James Potter when his attention was on Lily. She didn't feel bad about it in the slightest, everyone knew that he had knicked it from the school's supplies in the first place). For Lily she had gotten a copy of Hairy Snout, Human Heart as she knew for a fact that Lily had checked it out no less that eight times this semester alone.

The result of all of the packing, shopping, and wrapping had been falling asleep only a few hours before it was time to drag their trunks downstairs and board the train. As such, the girls dozed for most of the rest of the train ride, both waking only when the trolley passed, but even then only long enough to eat about half a pasty each before they began drifting off again. Only when the train began to slow down did both of the girls wake up completely.

Lily looked briefly out of the window, stretching as she did so. "Hmm.." , she yawned, "I expect we'll be arriving in a half hour or so."

"Time flies when you're fast asleep." Said Aubrieanna, irritability trying to rid her foot, which had fallen asleep, of pins and needles.

After a few minutes of silence, Aubrieanna levitated her trunk down from the rack and opened it, searching for only a moment or two before she located what she wanted. "Happy Christmas, Lily." She said, thrusting a poorly wrapped package at the red-head.

Lily, in return, removed an envelope out of her purse and tossed it at Aubrieanna, who caught it smirking.

"Shall we open them now or later?" She asked.

"Now, naturally." Lily grinned.

As Lily carefully removed all of the tape from the paper, slowly unwrapping her gift, Aubrieanna wrestled with the envelope in a bizarrely murderous manner. For some unknown reason, she had never been able to open them neatly, and this particular envelope was no exception. By the time Aubrieanna got to the slip of paper with in, she was surrounded by bits of paper that had once been part of the mutilated envelope. Upon reading it, she grinned.

"A subscription to the Daily Prophet? Is this a hidden message, Lily."

"Yes it is, and it screams 'Don't steal my paper anymore'." She laughed as she finally pulled the last of the clinging wrapping paper from the gift, exclaiming as she did so, "Thank you so much! When Madame Prince told me I couldn't check it out anymore I was worried I'd have to use my prefect duties for evil and confiscate it from the younger students."

"And we just couldn't have you misusing your powers now, could we?"

"No of course not." Lily laughed as the train slowed even more. Both of them lurched when the train jerked to a halt.

They looked at each other, neither wanting to get off the train, but neither could see a better option.

"Well..." Aubrieanna said, beginning to lug her trunk to the compartment door, "I supposed I'd better go."

Lily nodded. "Happy Christmas."

"Same to you."

And with that, the girls separated each facing their dreads alone.

-----

Aubrieanna sat across from her father for their Christmas Eve dinner, studying him as they waited for her brother to appear. The dinner which was now growing cold, had been prepared by an eerily cheerful house elf and, while it appeared delicious, she knew she would have a hard time choking down cold food. Her step-brother Myron was out doing some sort of deal with one of his friends. So far, Myron had been hostile to the extreme. Normally she would have gladly skipped a meal in order to not be forced to be in the same room with him. In fact, she had done so twice so far on this break alone. Tonight, however, she was hungry. As her stomach began to growl softly, she could only hope that Myron wasn't much later.

Her father broke the silence. "Has the first term gone well for you?" He asked carefully.

"Fairly." She replied. Then, after too long a pause said "Arithmany is great. Runes is fine for the most part. Potions is... challenging."

"I'm sure you do fine."

She shrugged.

"And how are your classmates. Any new friends?"

"Yeah, I suppose. It's inevitable to make friends when you're stuck in the same building with them every hour of every day."

"You are still allowed to go to Hogsmeade, correct?"

"On certain weekends. Once a month probably."

"Is that all? When I was in school we could go every weekend. Not that everyone did, but it was good to have options."

"Mmm. That's interesting." Aubrieanna replied.

"And how are your old friends? You know, back home."

"As good as can be expected."

"I suppose they would be missing you."

"Yes, they are, although why exactly I'm not sure."

Her father cleared his throat nervously, and Aubrieanna, suddenly and irrationally, felt a need to help continue the conversation.

"How has you year been so far?" She asked quietly.

"Me? Fine I suppose. I just file papers at the ministry. You knew that though, didn't you?" When Aubrieanna shook her head he continued. "Well, filing papers is filing papers. I'm looking for a promotion to become director of the archives, which essentially means that I delegate filing duties to other people, but other that that it's the same job I've been doing for the past eight years."

"Congratulations." Aubrieanna said, not sure if it was the right thing to say.

"For filing papers for eight years?" He asked, puzzled.

"No, for the promotion."

"Oh... Thank you."

Another pause. Across from Aubrieanna her father ran his fingers through his hair as he searched for something to say. "Your allowance is enough, I assume?" He asked suddenly.

The allowance he had been referring to was a decent sum of money that he sent to Aubrieanna every two weeks. At first, she had been loath to use it, but once Lily had found out and had accused her of being insanely proud and arrogant, comparing her to James Potter once even, she started to use it and had recently become very appreciative of it.

"Yes, of course it's enough. More that enough even. Thank you very much."

"Well, I knew that you could use something."

"Yes. Thank you... again..."

In another room an old grandfather clock chimed eight.

Her father began to unfold his napkin. "I don't suppose we should wait any longer. If your brother hasn't come by now then I doubt he'll come at all."

Obediently, for once, Aubrieanna began to dig in, helping herself to green beans, roasted potatoes, and roast beef. Eating it she noticed that all of the food contained pepper.

"There's pepper in all of this." She said before she could help herself.

"Why?" Her father asked. "Don't you like pepper? I know Myron claims not to, but if you cook food with it he never notices. I never thought that you might not like it..."

"No, pepper is fine. I can hardly stand a meal without it to be honest."

"Finally, something we have in common." Her father said, as he began to dig into his roast beef.

-----

Late that night, or early that morning, Aubrieanna found herself reflecting on her family. More specifically, on her father. Most specifically, how she was supposed to think of him.

He wasn't a bad man. She knew that. She almost admired him, almost. He was normal, and normal wasn't something Aubrieanna could ever be. He was meek and quiet, unassuming with no distinguishing characteristics or talents. He was what Aubrieanna always thought of when she thought of something weak. She had managed to despise him for that, that and the fact that she needed something specific to despise.

The problem was, compared to her mother, he was weak. He couldn't replace her. He just wasn't a leader. Her mother had been a leader to everyone. It was her talent, one that Aubrieanna was expected to have inherited, after all, her sister certainly had.

Her father was not what she needed. She couldn't see himself in him at all. Except for the fact that he liked pepper. That was a bit of a comfort.

And that's probably a good thing for him, all things considered.