The girls really weren't surprised when the boys didn't show up for breakfast, nor were they surprised when they didn't see them getting into a carriage, they just assumed they were late. The same thing had happened last year.
"You don't think that they will actually miss the train do you?" Gemma asked, a smirk on her face, "Aunt Isabel would flip, and James would not be allowed to fly, do you know how much taunting I could do?!"
"I highly doubt they are that stupid…" Lily said, and everyone gave her a look that clearly said 'are we talking about the same four people?'
They all burst into giggles, knowing that it was something that their friends would do. The idea just became more plausible when ten minutes had passed and there was still no sign of the boys.
"You don't think they are that stupid do you?" Alice asked, "Because Aunt Isabel will most likely kill us too…We're supposed to keep him in line…"
"We're?" Gemma asked raising her eyebrows, "I seem to recall she told you that not me. We both know that you are the most responsible out of the three of us."
Alice glared at her friend, knowing she was right.
"Sirius is in trouble…" Adrian said, after fifteen minutes had gone by, "His mother will kill him, he'll be lucky if he can hear when the banshee is done screeching."
"Is it really that bad?" Lily asked.
"Yes," Adaline said, shuddering, "I swear all of the maniac pureblood mothers take a course on how to sound like a banshee."
Lily, Alice and Gemma all cringed. And they sat, talking about what they were going to do for Christmas, all throwing glances towards the door every so often. So when the door to the compartment opened, they all turned, expecting to see the laughing faces of their friends. Instead they found the thin, pale, sneering face of Lucius Malfoy, backed of course by his cronies. Behind him were Narcissa Black, Severus, and the ape Crabbe. Narcissa was shooting them an apologetic look from behind her long blonde hair, while Severus was refusing to look at Lily or Adaline. Crabbe was standing behind Malfoy, sneering, with his nose stuck in the air like he was better than everyone.
"Adrian, Adaline, if you do not come with me I will tell your mother that you are still talking to blood traitors and mudbloods," Lucius said, glaring around the compartment, but refusing to get to close, as if he was afraid to get a disease, "But if you do the smart thing and join me your little secret will be safe with me."
"Tell mother whatever you like," Adrian said, glaring at him.
He just glared, clearly not getting the reaction he wanted, "You will have to spend break locked in your room. Is that really what you want?"
"It's better than being stuck in the same room as the family," Adaline said, and Lucius sauntered away, seething.
"Prick actually thinks that I would spend most of my break outside of my room? I mean really, even if I wasn't locked in I would spend my time there," Adrian said, rolling her eyes.
They continued to insult Malfoy and his stupidity until the compartment door opened again. This time it was their friends, looking slightly annoyed and James, Remus, and Peter were supporting pink hair, but otherwise alright.
"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN!" Alice shrieked.
The boys' eyes widened in shock, Alice shouting and cursing?
"Sorry mum…" James said rolling his eyes.
"That doesn't answer my question James Harold Potter!" she said glaring at him.
"It's actually a funny story…" James started, but before could say anything else on the matter Sirius cut in.
"It all started last night…" he started, and the girls sat back in their seats, knowing this was going to be a long story.
The boys were sitting on their comfortable beds, staring at their trunks as if willing them to pack themselves.
"We really need to learn the spell that packs your stuff for you…" Sirius said, saying what was on all of their minds.
"I really don't want to pack…" complained Peter, looking around the room at all of their stuff.
If one of their mothers were to walk into their dormitory they would all run for cover. It looked like a war zone. Socks were everywhere, chocolate frog cards could have been mistaken for rugs, and candy wrappers were scattered across the room. Then you had all of the ties, some hanging around bed posts, some on the floor. Their robes and uniforms were everywhere. It really looked as though something had exploded.
"That means that we actually have to have the room somewhat clean…" Remus said, shuddering at the thought.
"Merlin knows what we could find…" James added.
"Do we have to pack?" whined Sirius.
"Yes," Remus said.
So groaning they all got up and started sorting through their stuff.
"We could just play Exploding Snap instead…" Peter offered, pulling a deck out of one of the humongous piles.
"Sounds like a plan…" Remus said, dropping a mysterious sock back onto the pile.
"Okay!" James shouted, happy to have something else to do.
"That's better than cleaning!" Sirius said, happily.
They after about two hours Peter and Sirius were tied with three wins each, and were facing off to see who was the champion of Exploding Snap, while James and Remus sat laughing, cheering Peter on.
"Wow, thanks guys!" Sirius said, as the cards exploded, burning his eyebrows.
"No problem!" James said, as Peter did a little happy dance of victory.
"Pete," Remus said, "You should never do that again."
"Yeah, I wasn't planning on it…" Peter said, shaking his head, and they all laughed.
"Should we pack or sleep?" Remus said, and they laughed at the question, all climbing into their warm beds.
None of them thinking to set an alarm, or to pack anything. So the next morning they were awoken when Star the house elf woke them up.
"Masters are going to be late! The carriages leave in ten minutes!" she said, and the boys all jumped out of bed.
"Why did we not learn last year?" Peter asked as they all scrambled to throw anything and everything into their trunks.
"Because we…" Remus started, "Wait, I can't think of anything."
They all laughed and continued throwing things in their trunks at random.
"Guys! My trunk isn't closing!" Sirius shouted.
"Sit on it!" James offered.
"I am!"
So James quickly ran over and jumped onto his trunk, and the two of them locked it, and then quickly did the same to James'. When the four of them had their trunks packed they quickly changed into clean clothes that Star had brought them, and then they dragged their trunks into the Great Hall and dove into the last carriage.
"Whew. That was close…" James said, grinning.
"I'm hungry…" Peter complained, as the carriage started moving.
"Me too… Breakfast is my favorite meal," Sirius said, and everyone rolled their eyes.
When the train pulled into the Hogsmeade Station the boys got out and literally jumped onto the train as it started moving.
"Let's go find the girls," James said.
"What about our trunks?" Peter asked.
"They're trying something new this year," Remus said, "They'll show up in our compartment about half way through the train ride."
"Will that work?" Peter asked, uncertainly.
"It should," Remus said.
"Well, then let's go find the girls," Sirius said, and they started walking.
They were walking for about five minutes when they came across a group of Slytherins picking on a few first year Hufflepuffs.
"Leave them alone!" James said.
"Would you rather we picked on you?" one of them growled.
James glared and pulled out his wand, while the Slytherins erupted with laughter.
"The wee second year thinks he could beat us…" one of the girls laughed.
"You wouldn't attack me would you cousin?" the other girl asked.
"Of course I would Bella dear," Sirius said, with so much hatred in his voice his friends almost flinched, but she looked unfazed.
"You don't have the guts," she threatened.
"Try me," he said, glaring and pulling out his wand.
"Stop," a voice came from behind Bellatrix, "It will bring shame to the family if the two of you fight."
Bellatrix turned around and glared at her sister. The two of them could not have looked any different if they tried. Bellatrix, who was two years older than her sister, had black curly hair that looked more like a mane than anything else. Her eyes were dark and had a crazed look about them. She looked evil. Her younger sister Narcissa on the other hand looked sweet. She had the same high cheek bones and slender face, but her eyes were a soft watery blue. Her hair was completely straight, and such a light blonde that it could have been mistaken for white.
With one last look at them Bellatrix started walking away, the rest of the Slytherins following her. Then she turned around so quickly that no one saw it coming and dyed everyone's, minus Sirius' (couldn't embarrass the family), hair bright pink.
"You're lucky I'm feeling nice today blood traitors!" she yelled at them as she entered one of the compartments.
"That is when we made our way here and found you guys," Sirius finished.
"Can you fix our hair?" James asked, looking desperately at Lily.
"I can yes, but I like the pink…"
James glared and Alice said, "You should leave it, maybe it would teach them not to be late again!"
"Alice!" James groaned.
"Why can't Remus do it?" Gemma asked, confused.
"I'm not nearly as good at Charms as Lily is; besides, I think she knows a little more about hair than I do…" Remus replied, and Lily turned bright red.
Gemma just shrugged, "Fair point."
With that Lily fixed the boys hair, though she thought about leaving some of it pink, she controlled herself.
"How about we play Exploding Snap?" Peter said, pulling the deck out of his pocket.
"You are so on!" Sirius said, and everyone got into a circle, and started to play.
When they were ten minutes from the Station it was clear that Adaline had not lost her touch because she won every time.
"Remind me to never play against her," James grumbled, while she smirked, gathering all of the chocolate frogs she just won.
"We should sort through our trunks…" Remus said, and all of the boys groaned.
They pulled their trunks off of the racks, and started going through them, swapping clothes while the girls looked on with disgust.
"I think that sock has something growing on it…" Gemma said in disgust, and the girls nodded, eyeing the boys carefully.
They finished just as the red train pulled into Kings Cross Station. After giving everyone quick hugs they parted and went their separate ways.
James, Alice and Gemma made their way over to Larraine Ryan. Marie was already there talking with little Jake. When he spotted his sister he sprinted towards her, away from a laughing Marie.
"GEMMA!" he shouted, throwing his arms around his older sister.
"Hey Jake," she said, hugging him.
When they got to her mother she gave her a quick hug, and then started telling her brother about her year. Larraine moved to hug the other two.
"Did you get into any trouble?" she asked, looking in between the four of them.
"Of course not!" James said.
"For some reason I don't believe you…" she said, "But we can discuss that later, right now the Ministry car is waiting."
"Whose house are we going to?" Gemma asked.
"Ours," her mother replied as they walked single filed out of the barrier and into the Muggle world.
Adrian, Adaline and Sirius walked slowly towards their families, each new step bringing a wave of dread. They knew that their parents wouldn't be happy, but they still would rather not go deaf.
"On a scale one to ten how dead do you think we are?" Adrian asked.
"Ten," Sirius and Adaline said in unison.
"Well, it was nice knowing you," Adrian muttered as they grew closer to their families.
Their mothers were grinning at the, but the look on their faced clearly said 'the only reason I am not yelling at you is because we are in public and I do not wish to embarrass the family, you are dead when we get home'. Now that was a look, one that the three of them had come to recognize. It was a look that could put a small sliver of fear in the rebellious children, because they knew that whatever was to come was not going to be good.
Lucius was standing behind their mothers smirking, ever so proud of himself. Bellatrix was smirking because she knew that they were going to be punished, it was almost better than having the satisfaction of hexing her cousin. Almost being the key word their
The only two people that were happy to see them were Regulus and Henry; they ran and gave the three of them a big hug. That is what reminded the three of them why they came home, why they put up with their mothers. They wanted their younger siblings to have a good role model in their lives.
Peter made his way to where his father was standing, not too far off from the Princes or the Blacks, and he felt his heart drop when he found that his mother was nowhere in sight.
"Hello Father," he said, in a cold voice, knowing that he was the cause of his mother not being there.
"Son," his father said, and he turned and walked away as Peter followed behind, knowing that this was not going to be a good break.
He highly doubted his mother would come home, just like last year. But at least he would get to spend the holidays with his friends, because he sure did not to spend them with his father.
Lily got off of the gleaming train and made her way towards the barrier, excited to see her father and Petunia.
"Daddy!" she said, when she appeared in the Muggle world, running towards her father.
"Lils!" Harry Evans said, hugging his youngest daughter.
Lily turned to hug her sister but stopped when she saw the glare her sister was giving her.
"Let's head home, shall we?" her father said, "I have something to show you girls."
So with that they pushed Lily's trunk out and towards their car, before driving off towards their house. The problem was that they kept driving. Lily watched with a confused look on her face, wondering what on earth was going on, and judging by the look on Petunia's face she was just as confused.
"Where are we going?" Petunia asked.
"Well, I've been thinking that maybe it was time to move. The house reminds me too much of your mother and with my new promotion at work we can afford it…"
"How far would we move?" Petunia asked, nervous at the possibility of changing schools.
"I don't want to move," Lily said, liking how the house reminded her of her mother, and not wanting to go to far from Severus.
Her father didn't reply, but he pulled into the 'richer' part of the neighborhood, which seemed to calm Petunia's nerves slightly.
"When do we move?" she asked.
"This Friday," he replied.
"So that's why we have been boxing things up?! You told me we were just moving it into storage!" Petunia said.
"THIS FRIDAY? AS IN SIX DAYS FROM NOW?!" Lily shouted at the same time, "There is no way we can pack and sell the house in a week."
"The house is already sold," he said, "And you have most of your stuff at school."
"When did you sell the house?" Petunia asked, "I never saw a sign!"
"Your Aunt Helen bought it," their father replied, "So even if we can't have everything out by Friday we will have a little more time because she's family."
Lily shuddered at the thought of her Aunt Helen buying their house. She was their crazy cat-lady aunt who adored Petunia, but because she was very superstitious she didn't like Lily. Apparently she had no soul and was damned to hell.
"Why does she need a three bedroom house?" Lily asked, confused.
"She wanted more room for her cats, and your Grandma Evans is going to move in with her..."
Lily started out the window. She could not believe that her father hadn't told either of them about this. She knew that she would still be able to bike to the playground and see Severus, but this was big. This was not something that you waited to tell your daughters. This definitely not something you waited to do within six days.
They pulled into a drive way, and Lily looked up to see a beautiful white house. She would admit that the house was lovely, but still, six days to move in…that was pushing it.
"Why don't you girls go and take a look inside?" their father said, as neither of the girls had gotten out of the car, "You need to pick your bedrooms between the one's upstairs."
With the bedroom part both girls flung open their doors and raced inside, flying up the grand staircase. They each flung open a different door, and instantly claimed the room as theirs. Lily's room had white walls, a four poster bed, and a window seat with a lovely view of the trees behind their house. She had a large (much too large, in her opinion) walk in closet, and a door that connected the bathroom that her and Petunia would share.
The bathroom had a large mirror behind two sinks, a large shower that could also be a bath tub that was covered by an orange and pink curtain. Then in the corner was a door that led to the toilet.
Petunia's room was much like Lily's, except she had a small balcony outside. Lily was slightly jealous of this fact, but then she figured she could easily climb out onto the roof, and Petunia was at home all year round, thus she would have used it anyways.
"So what do you think?" Lily asked her sister, as she joined her on the balcony.
"It's nice," Petunia said, wrapping her arms around herself, "Mum would have loved it…"
"Yeah she would have…" Lily said, "How about we explore the rest of the house?"
Petunia gave her sister a soft smile, and they wandered back into the house.
"Any idea what color you are going to paint your room?" Petunia asked.
"I'm thinking about doing pale yellow," Lily said, "What about you?"
"I'm thinking about pale pink…" she replied, "Then maybe we could paint the bathroom bright orange and hot pink."
"That sounds like a plan," Lily agreed, and they continued to examine the rest of the house.
When it was time to leave Lily had three thoughts, the house was lovely, the house was too large for a family of three, and that she was definitely putting a swing outside on one of the trees.
"When do we paint and get things for our rooms?" Petunia asked.
"I was thinking that we would do that tomorrow," he said, as they pulled into their drive way, "Now, we are going out for a nice dinner tonight. I expect you both to be ready by five."
The girls nodded and went their own separate ways. Petunia went up to her room to call her friends, while Lily went to her friends to write letters to them. She just needed to wait for her friends to owl her first…
When five o'clock came around Lily and Petunia met their father down stairs, Lily wearing a cute green dress that went to her knees, while Petunia wore a black skirt that landed just above the knee and a pink blouse. Their father joined them shortly later in black dress pants, a nice white collared shirt and a blue tie.
The ride to the restaurant was a silent one, and Lily could not shake the feeling of dread. She did not know why, but she had a feeling that she would not enjoy this dinner.
When they pulled into the parking lot, her dad's eyes began scanning the crowd as if he was searching for someone. As they got out of the car her dad's eyes continued to wonder, and he made his way up to the hostess' podium.
"Reservation for Evans," he said, still looking around.
"Of course," the hostess said, "It will just be five minutes."
Her father nodded, and started making his way towards the back of the waiting area. He seemed to have found who he was looking for because he was walking straight towards a leggy brunette. She was wearing a tight red dress that looked slightly inappropriate for this restaurant. She had dull brown eyes and freckles on her nose. Her father walked over and kissed the women on the cheek, and Lily felt her stomach drop.
"Girls, I would like you to meet my girlfriend Pricilla," he said, wrapping an arm around her.
Lily wanted to be sick, and judging by the look on Petunia's face she was feeling the same way.
"Why don't you girls introduce yourselves," their father said, glaring in between the two of them.
"Hi, I'm Lily," Lily said, not moving, simply looking Pricilla up and down.
"I'm Petunia," Petunia said curtly.
The hostess delayed the conversation, which the girls were quite happy about, when she called them and led them to their table. Lily knew that this was going to be a long dinner that she was not looking forward to.
"ALICE , GEMMA WAKE UP!" James shouted as he ran into their room excitedly.
Gemma and Alice groaned loudly from Gemma's comfortable king sized bed that they were sharing.
"NOW! I WANT TO OPEN UP PRESENTS!" James persisted, ignoring the fact that both girls had put pillows over their heads.
He walked over to them and pulled the blankets off of them, smirking.
"JAMES HARROLD POTTER IT IS 6:30 IN THE BLOODY MORNING! WHY THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU WAKING US UP?!" Gemma shouted at him, snatching the blankets back, while Alice opened her eyes just enough to glare at him.
"It's Christmas!" James said, completely confused as to why the girls had yet to have moved.
"It's still 6:30 in the morning," Alice grumbled.
"Well, duh, Gemma already said that," James pointed out, rolling his eyes, "Now get up!"
"James we can't even open presents until Neville and Susanna get here!" Gemma said, still refusing to move.
"Why the bloody hell are all of you yelling?" Marie said, glaring at James, "It's 6:30 in the morning."
Marie still looked half asleep and instead of waiting for an answer she crawled into bed with Gemma and Alice.
"Why does everyone keep saying that?" James asked annoyed, "I know the time, but it's Christmas, and that means PRESENTS!"
"James not even Jake is up," Marie growled, who at the age of fifteen quite enjoyed her beauty sleep.
"He is too!" James said, "He just went to wake up all of the parents, while I got stuck with you three."
Marie flung a pillow at his head, "Then go open your presents, we'll be down later."
"They won't let us open presents until all of us are up!"
"We still need to get Neville and Susanna!" she pointed out, "Wake me up when they get here!"
"FINE! I'll go and get them!" James said, marching out of the door.
"Umm, that might not be a good idea…" Marie said, but James was already at the fireplace with a handful of floo powder.
"NEVILLE! SUSANNA!" James shouted in the living room of the tiny flat they shared.
Grumbling could be heard from the bedroom, but James decided against going to see if they were getting up. Instead he stood outside the door and started knocking repeatedly. James could hear Susanna chuckling, and Neville swearing.
"HURRY UP!" he said, and he could hear them moving around the room and a loud thud.
"We're moving," Neville grumbled, "You do realize that it isn't even seven yet?"
"Why does everyone keep telling me the time?!"
"Because it's too bloody early!" Neville said, and James heard him mutter, "I am getting way too old for this."
Susanna laughed and the pair of them came out dressed and ready for the day. Neville was glaring at James as the flooed back to the Ryans'. After arriving James made his way back into Gemma's room where he found all three girls asleep and Jake standing in the door way looking confused.
"Let's wake them up shall we?" James said, and after sharing an evil grin they ran and jumped on the bed.
All three girls shrieked, and hit them with pillows, but eventually gave up, and they all made their way down stairs. Once in the living room they all sat and stared longingly at the piles of presents under the green tree. Opening presents went as smoothly as one would expect, and everyone was happy with their gifts.
After a delicious brunch cooked by Larraine, Melissa, Isabel and Susanna the boys and Gemma all went out to play Quidditch.
Alice, Marie and Susanna all shook their heads when they were offered to play, preferring to stay inside drinking tea.
"So when do you think that the wedding is going to be?" Marie asked, excited.
"Probably around next Easter. I always wanted a spring wedding, and that way you two would be able to make it. Plus I love all of the Easter colors, so we could do something like pale blue and yellow for wedding colors," Susanna gushed, with a giddy smile on her face.
"That's a brilliant idea!" Alice said, practically bouncing out of her seat in excitement.
"I was also hoping that the two of you would like to be two of my bridesmaids…"
"OF COURSE!" the girls squealed in unison, and they all hugged quickly in excitement.
They spent the rest of the afternoon looking at dresses, and planning, laughing, and enjoying the happiness while it lasted, not wanting a thing to change.
In the Lupin household was a quiet affair. Remus woke up, and excitedly opened his presents and eating some of his candy, before his breakfast much to his mother's dismay. For once the entire household was in high spirits, and the tension could be ignored for the day. They spent the day laughing and joking, you would think that they were completely normal; unfortunately that was not the case, and the joyous mood would come to an end.
Peter spent the holiday in higher spirits than he thought. His mother had returned, and the fighting had stopped, though for how long Peter was not sure. He was still angry at his mom, but decided to ignore it, in holiday spirt at least.
He spent the day opening expensive presents from his parents, trying to buy his love and forgiveness. It wasn't working, but he enjoyed the presents none the less. His grandparents came over for dinner, which Peter ate in silence, not wanting to discuss politics and whether of not Muggle Borns should be allowed to attend Hogwarts. He knew that if he shared his opinion he would have to sit and listen to a long speech by his father explaining why he was wrong. Peter knew he was right though, Lily was a Muggle Born and he hadn't met a witch that was smarter than her, and so kind hearted. After dinner he made his way quickly to his room to sort through his new chocolate frog cards. He didn't think he could stand another second of the conversation anyways. Unfortunately for him, it would not get much better in the years to come.
Adrian was going to kill someone, she was sure of it. Most likely Lucius, who was smirking and talking to her like she was a child. He knew full well that he was annoying her with talk of how awful Gryffindor house was, and how Dumbledore needed to be replaced as Headmaster. Unfortunately for her, her father was standing near by so there was nothing she could do other than glare and plot his death. She looked around the room hoping to find Sirius or Adeline, praying that one of them would come and save her. Much to her dismay Adeline was talking to the slime ball by the name of Severus Snape, most likely talking about some book he got for Christmas. Sirius was with talking with his cousin Andy and they were looking over and laughing at her pain. She turned her glare towards both of them, and she was sure that they would be dead if looks could kill. Finally Henry seemed to notice her distress and came to her aid, stealing her away from Lucius.
"That is why you are my favorite brother," she told him, giving him a grin.
"Thanks…" he said, laughing a little, "I really thought about leaving you to suffer, but you looked ready to kill him so…"
"When did you get so smart?" She asked, smiling at him.
"I have always been this smart!" He said, glaring at her.
"Lies…" She muttered, as the continued talking and laughing.
It was times like this that Adrian was happy to be home, though these moments did not happen often, and they would not become more frequent with time.
Lily's Christmas was emotional. Pricilla joined them, and they were celebrating at their Aunt's house (their old house). Her Aunt splashed her with holy water as soon as she stepped through the door, but otherwise kept her comments to herself. She tried her hardest to ignore Pricilla's presence because she made her father happy, no matter how much she didn't like her she would try for her father.
They sat in the living room opening presents and when it came to open her last present from her father she almost cried. It was in a small jewelry box and inside was her mother's favorite cross necklace. She looked up at her sister who was staring at her mother's pair of diamond earrings that Petunia had always wanted. They both quickly stood up and hugged their father.
"Thank you daddy," she whispered, "I love you."
"I love you too baby girl," he told her, and Lily smiled.
She knew that whatever else happened that day, she could handle it. She could handle Pricilla's presence, she could handle any of her Aunt's comments about her red hair, and she could handle her sisters hidden insults because she had a piece of her mother with her. And she knew that her mother would want her to keep her head held high, and that she would tell her that she could handle it. She could live above it. For the first time this break, Lily was finally happy. Unfortunately for Lily, things would not always be this easy.
Well, it's been a while...oops? Sorry guys. I had an inspiration to write...so I hope you like this chapter. It's been half written for a while so I decided to finish it. I know it was a little choppy at the end, but I figured this was better than going in depth about everyone's Christmas. Also because I lost some of this chapter.
So this is going to be the last chapter of this story. I know I said that I would go through the end of second year, but I decided that nothing really interesting happens at the end, so it's best to just leave it here. I will maybe do a sequel starting in 6th year (from Lily's POV) if people would like one. If no one will read it, then this has been fun! haha
Anyways, please review. Thanks! :)
