b Chapter 25: Christmas /b

For the last month, give or take a couple, the trio and Emma had been trying

to figure out and work out a plan for what mother nature had said to them

through the fire. They had yet to talk to Julia about any of this. They

now sat in the Great Hall eating breakfast as the owls arrived delivering

the mail. Letters are dropping in front of students all over the Great

Hall, one lands in front of Emma.

"Who'd you get an letter from Em?" Harry asks a little concerned at the way

she is looking at it.

"Its from Saint Mongo's, it must be about my mom, 'Emma says scared to touch

the letter in front of her, 'I asked them to send work about her every once

in a while."

Harry reaches out and places a hand on her arm, "do you want me to open it

for you Hun," he asks softly.

Emma shakes her head reaching out for the letter, "no its my letter,' she

pauses before finishing opening it, 'though I wonder if I should go find

Julia first. No, she would be more interested if it was about dad!"

Harry watches her open the envelope and read the letter, "what does it say

Hun?"

"Mom is getting better, they plan to take out her breath tube sometime soon,

but they want her to stay in the hospital indefinitely' a tear rolls down

her cheek 'I was kind of hoping she would be home for Christmas, but I guess

that was silly."

Harry reaches out and wipes the tear away and the rests his hand on her

shoulder, "it is not silly to want a parent to be home for Christmas. What

are your plans for the holidays anyway?"

Emma sighs before speaking again, as Ron and Hermione join them at the

table, "Most likely go to the Malfoy's for Christmas, Lucius and Narcissa

are like an Uncle and Aunty to us, they are going to want to see how we are

doing."

"Christmas with the Malfoy's', pauses as Hermione hits him in the arm, "I

mean I know you are like family but I'm just saying." Ron trailing off at

the end.

"don't mind him, we really just know Draco and have only meet Lucius on a

couple occasions, I know its different for you and Julia."

Just then Julia and Draco enter the Great hall, they pause at the door and

Draco whispers something in her ear before the separate to go to their

different table.

"Speaking of Julia, are we going to tell her anything about what's been

going on, I mean she is apposes to help us with this big fight and all." Ron

asks.

"you were the one that had the premonition Ron, what was her part of the

dream," Hermione asked."

Ron shrugs a little, "she just seemed to know about the new powers we were

getting and that it was important that we learned to use them. We just

seemed to be scared of her because she seemed to pop up out of the blue all

of the time."

"well, she will never tell us what the sorting hat said to her at the

beginning of this year but,….

"shh you two she is going to hear you,' Harry says as Julia approaches the

table but sits away from them, 'I know you are friends with Draco and all

Emma but if she hears anything I know she will tell Draco."

Emma smiles at Harry nodding slightly looking over at her sister, who was

sitting by herself like usual. She finishes her breakfast and stand up,

"I've got to go back upstairs and pack."

Emma leaves the great hall and heads up to the Gryffindor common. As she

enters the room she moves to her chest at the end of her bed and opens it.

She pulls out a box that hide in the very bottom of the chest. She sits

down on the end of her bed and opens the box and looks down at the bottle of

colourful liquid. Emma guess up and starts to wrap the present.

As she started to wrap it Julia entered the girls dorm, and she walks up

behind Emma. "Is that for Ego Head, your little boyfriend!"

"I know you don't like him, or trust him, to much but he is a great guy……but

not my boyfriend!" Emma replies.

Julia gives a little laugh as she walks over to her bed, " A great guy, I'm

not to sure about that sis, but you got to remember we are trying to get

information out of him. You know we need to figure out if the dark lord is

going to call on us again to help him out."

Emma gives a small wave of her hand at this, "Yes I know sis but to get

anything out of him we need to get closer to him not farther away. Which is

what you are doing with all this hanging around Draco all the time."

Julia rolls her eyes getting off her bed and walking over to her chest to

pull out some closes tossing them onto her bed and starting to change for

the trip home, "Emma for the last time, I don't care what the trio or any of

the kids here think of me and Draco hanging out. We've spent four years

going to different schools and never seeing each other at all during the

year except for two months in the summer this is special to me. But of

course you wouldn't understand."

"what do I know understand, you want Draco to be your boyfriend, but can

that not wait for this summer, 'Emma says getting up from her bed and

walking toward her sister, 'I mean you are the one that wanted me to be more

into the plan to get Harry last time. Why does it seem like the positions

have changed this time.?"

Julia gets up and looks down at Emma, "A) I am into this plan to figure out

what's going on, considering it was my idea to try to spy on the trio…. And

B) mind your own business about me and Draco, I can handle anything that

comes my way…. Now get ready to go, I'll meet you downstairs." Julia grabs

her favourite shoes and chest hand head out.

When Emma finally drags her chest down to the common room Harry is waiting

for her with his hands behind his back and their eyes meet. After a moment

of them just standing there Harry finally speaks.

"I didn't know if we wanted to wait till after you got back to exchange

gifts or not…… so I kind of went ahead and wrapped mine…. I mean yours….. I

mean mine to you…….."

Emma puts up her hand to try and stop him from continuing, "its alright

Harry, 'she says reaching into her pocket puling out the box she had been

wrapping earlier, 'I wanted to give you, your gift right way to. With a

smile she holds out the gift towards him and he takes it and hands her his.

"do we open them now or wait for you to get back from Christmas?" Harry

asks.

"I would like to know if you like it or not, 'Emma says 'and I'm kind of

excited to see what you could of got me."

"ok we open on three, 1….2….3 " Harry madly rips of the paper of the box and

opens it a smile on his face at the potion in the box. He picks it up and

takes the cap off the bottle and smells the sweet smell. "this is

beautiful."

Emma smiles at him shyly and starts to open her gift. She opens a small box

to find a anklet with a small "E" hanging off it. "Oh Harry! I love it." She

steps over to him and gives him a small hug.

Julia, who had been watching rolls her eyes and make a gagging noise, "ok I

can't take any more of this, I'm going to be sick, come on Em its time to go

meet up with Draco."

As she walked passed Harry dragging her chest he reached out and lightly

grabbed her arm, turning her slightly towards him, "I know this is not going

to mean anything to you, but have a good Christmas!"

Julia quickly pulls her arms away from him rolling her eyes again "yea sure

whatever, come on Em, we've got to go."

Emma smile apologetically and leans over and gives him a quick kiss on the

cheek before following Julia out the door of the common room with her chest.

Emma spent the whole ride back to London watching Julia and Draco cuddle

in a corner of the car whispering in each others ears. She just sighed

lightly and turn to stare out the window and think about Harry and the whole

experience in the forest.

Lucius and Narcissa meet them at the platform and there where a lot of hugs

and kisses on the cheek, and talk about what was going to happen during the

holidays. The car ride was quick and soon the girls were standing in the

front hall of the Malfoy manor looking at all the Christmas decorations the

house elf's had put up for the family.

The next couple days go by fast for the girls and everyone is happy. The

girls had never noticed that Lucius and left the manor at some point in

time.

There were rumours going around the school that Lucius was around talking to

Dumbledore about some policy or something like that. It had been said that he

was seen walking around on the outskirts of the Forbidden forest. Some one

even said that he might have puts something down or buried something out

there. Harry, Ron and Hermione ended up seeing him quite a few time during

the days that past.

There was not much snow on the school round this year and it was quite warm

outside so one day Harry decided that he wanted to go fly his broom one

afternoon. Harry had been out for a while but he never realized it until he

noticed that it was getting dark. He landed softly and stepped off his

broom and tucked it under his arm. He slowly turned to head back into the

school when he heard a noise behind him. Harry, being aware that things

seemed to be after him a lot, stood still and listened but the noise had

stopped just as fast as it had started. He took a couple more steps before

he heard it again and froze. This time he turned around slowly and looked

towards the forbidden forest. He saw something that looked like a rabbit

who seemed to be favouring one of his front legs.

Harry leaned over and set down beside him, and walked towards the rabbit

talking softly "its ok little guy, I will not hurt you! Are you hurt little

guy."

Harry kneeled down beside the rabbit and reached forward towards the rabbit.

At first the rabbit kind of backed away from him but Harry just stopped

for a moment before reaching out again. It took a couple times but finally

Harry was able to pick up the rabbit and put it down on his knees.

Harry softly touched the rabbit paw, 'it doesn't look to bad little guy, but

I know who would be able to fix you right up." Harry slowly got to his feet

and walked back over to where he had put down his broom before.

As Harry reached down for his broom the rabbit suddenly jumped at his neck

and dug his teeth in, "Hey little guy what are you doing?" Harry yelled

trying to get the rabbit off his neck. Harry tried to fight the rabbit for

a bit but after a little while he started to feel a little weak and suddenly

the world went black as he passed out.

When Harry finally came to the rabbit was gone and he was alone again on the

school ground. He sat up slowly still feeling kind of weak and not trusting

himself to get up. He looked around for the rabbit and called out to him,

but the rabbit was gone. When Harry finally decided he could stand up, he

moved to get up and right beside his broom was a photograph. He reached

over and picked it up and found that it looked to be a picture of Julia, a

younger Julia, and some man he guessed to be her father. It looked like it

was an old picture because it was ripped down the middle and taped back

together. Harry shook his head not sure what to think about this and pick

up his broom and headed back inside.

As he entered the Gryffindor common room he found Hermione and Ron still

there. They both looked up as he entered and rushed to his side.

"Harry where have you been, its dark outside." Hermione said

"I know that Mione I lost track of time," Harry replied rubbing his neck.

"Mate what happen to you, you look horrible, that can't be from flying can

it." Ron asked.

"No mate, a rabbit attacked me and it left this for me to find," Harry said.

The other two walk over to Harry and look over at the picture. They look at

each other and Harry confused.