First Book

Christmas Break, 1991
Third Year

Ara Malfoy, much to Ron Weasley and Harry Potter's shock, had not gone home for Christmas break. They could've sworn that they'd seen her leaving with her brother, and were bewildered when they saw her walking the halls of Hogwarts the first day of break.

They were right about seeing her leave, they just hadn't seen her come back after.

"Ara, why can't you come?" Draco pouted as he waited for the Hogwarts Express to pull in, he'd desperately been trying to convince his big sister to come home for Christmas, with no success.

"Drake, I told you, I've got to much to do here, besides, you won't even notice me gone!" She'd never give him a straight answer on exactly what it was she 'had to do'.

"I noticed last year," Draco crossed his arms, Ara smiled a sad smile at her little brother.

Truth be told, she wanted to go home, but had decided against it for the same reason she had last year, she was dreading to see her father.

"Be good for mum and father," Ara mumbled softly, and then pulled Draco in for a tight hug.

"Mum will be so sad, you know, last year-" Ara drowned out her brother telling her about how much their mother missed her, it'd only make her sadder.

"The train is here, Drake," Ara pointed her head towards the locomotive that was about to pull into the station.

"You know, you don't even need to go back for your luggage if you changed your mind, we've got loads of your stuff at home," Draco reasoned with his sister, Ara chuckled and ruffled his hair while levitating his suitcase and walking him to the train.

"Unfortunately, I haven't changed my mind, Drake,"

Draco eyed his sister for a moment, and then sighed, he practically jumped onto Ara.

"Bye Ari, I hope you have a good Christmas, even if you're alone, I'll make sure to send you loads of presents!" Draco whispered and Ara laughed while rubbing his back.

"Thank you, Drake,"

Ara watched the train pull out of the station, waving to her brother as she did, when it disappeared from sight she turned around and went straight back to Hogwarts.

The twins, and even Percy, did not seem to find her presence strange, but refused to tell the First Years why.

"It's none of your business!"

That's what the twins would bellow every time the pair would ask.

Harry couldn't help but think she looked rather lonely. He'd quickly learned it was quite peculiar for Slytherins to stay at Hogwarts during the break, and she was the only one in her year that had chosen to do so.

At least she had her whole dorm to herself.

Ron, on the other hand, did not like Ara enough to notice her loneliness.

Harry assumed Ron's strong dislike had something to do with the hatred he had for Malfoy (her brother) transferring onto her. Harry did not have this problem. He could easily separate the two in his mind.

The other, more personal reason as to why Ron didn't like Ara, was because she was able to get him into trouble at the snap of a finger. Luckily, she'd only done so once, when telling the twins she'd found a sobbing Hermione in the bathroom due to their brother.

Ron would complain about how she had his brothers wrapped around her finger. And in a way, she did.

Nearly every day, during breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the twins would go sit with Ara for at least half of the meal, chattering away. Ron would roll his eyes and complain every time her loud laugh echoed through the Great Hall, but Harry found it quite pretty.

The days when the twins would miss meals, for a variety of reasons, such as sleeping through breakfast, Ara would sit alone at the Slytherin table, reading a book while she ate, or more scarily, conversing with the Bloody Baron.

Harry and Ron were shocked the first day they'd seen that happening, because up until right then, they'd never seen the Baron even open his mouth, but there he was, smiling at the Third Year Slytherin.

"I see you're spending another Christmas at school, Ara," The Barons voice nearly made the blonde jump, she turned her head away from her book and over to where the ghost stood.

"Afraid so," She smiled widely at him. The Baron returned her smile, although not as widely, and shook his head.

The pair had become well acquainted the year prior, Ara assumed that she'd gotten on his radar after being one of the only Slytherins to stay for the break, and then, when Peeves tried to play a trick on her Second Year self on the very first night, he'd come to her rescue.

After that, she supposed he felt sympathetic seeing her eating alone everyday. Last year, the twins hadn't even stayed for the break, so she truly had no company, the Baron had decided he would join her whenever he was needed.

"And why is that? I know that the Slytherin Dungeons are certainly not worth it," The ghost could crack a joke or two.

The Slytherin Dungeons, where the common room and dorms were located, were always freezing. Ara couldn't help but hate it, she'd tried every heating spell she could think of, but for squat, nothing worked.

"Same reason as last year,"

Ara had quickly learn that the Baron was not nearly as frightening as he seemed and was quite nice to talk to. He listened to her problems without judgement and offered advice where he could.

"Miss Malfoy, problems cannot be solved when you avoid them," The Baron crossed his arms, Ara chuckled.

"True, but avoiding is much easier," Ara joked, and the Baron managed to let out a small laugh.

Much to Ron's annoyance, and Harry's delight, the twins had managed to start sneaking Ara into the Gryffindor common room nearly everyday since the break started. Clamouring on about how she'd 'catch her death in that creepy dungeon' and upon hearing her say it wasn't that bad, they'd laugh loudly and call her a liar, to which she'd roll her eyes, but never disagree to.

The first few times she'd been snuck in, she seemed quite on edge, rarely leaving either twins side, but eventually she'd gotten used to it, and would sit by herself at the fireplace, sometimes conversing with Harry, or maybe Percy, who, much to everyone's shock, never said a thing about her being there.

The reason for that being, put simply, was that the twins had managed to convince him to feel sympathetic for Ara. Having to spend all her time in the cold dungeons all alone sounded awful, along with that, he'd made a point of asking Professor McGonagall if it was allowed, and she'd awarded him five house points for promoting inter-house unity.

It'd be quite silly if he didn't allow Ara to stay after that.

Ara also never caused trouble when she stayed at the Gryffindor common room, in fact if anything, she had been reducing the amount of trouble the twins got into, making Percy's job as prefect easier.

Although, Harry wasn't quite sure if it was because she was smart enough to stop the twins, or smart enough to help them not get caught.

"And here, we present the Gryffindor common room!" George ushered Ara into one of the last places she ever expected to find herself in.

The twins had managed to sneak their way into the dungeons, and upon realizing how cold they were, left no room for disagreement while they dragged Ara towards Gryffindor tower, to 'save her from her death'.

The blonde looked around.

It was cozy, and not cold in the slightest. She'd have to talk to Uncle Sev about remodeling the Slytherin common room to have a fireplace like the one here, it'd surely reduce the amount of First Years that got sick upon being unprepared for the cold in the dungeons.

"What's she doing here?!" At the sound of the voices outrage, Ara went stiff. Fred noticed her discomfort and quickly stepped in front of her while holding her in place reassuringly.

"Shut up Ron. She's a guest!"

By the time Christmas Day had rolled around, Harry had been shocked to find he had gotten presents. The three most unexpected being from Mrs Weasley, a mystery sender, and Ara.

It wasn't a very grand gift, similar to Hermione's, a few sweets, but it was unexpected nonetheless. Ron had gotten a few sweets from her as well, which was quite ground breaking to him because he couldn't find a way to justify it as evil.

By the time the two boys, the twins, and Percy had gotten to the Great Hall for breakfast, Ara was already there, with a book. The twins gave her a guilty look, to which she just smiled and shook her head.

'Christmas is for family' the twins had told Percy before they came down, to stop him from going to sit with the other prefects, it'd be a little hypocritical for them to go sit with Ara after that. Harry could tell they felt bad about it.

As they ate breakfast, the twins, especially Fred, kept glancing over to her, but she didn't seem to notice. She sat alone, looking content as she read, well, as content as you could look while alone on Christmas Day.

Harry thought about it for a minute, before deciding what he'd do. He stood up, his food in hand, and walked over to the Slytherin table, sitting across from Ara.

"Harry!" Ron called out after him, but the boy just looked back and gave him a shrug.

Technically, he wasn't family.

"Good morning?" Ara said curiously when the First Year sat down across to her.

"Merry Christmas," Harry nodded and proceeded to begin eating with her.

Ara laughed.

"Merry Christmas to you too, Harry," She crossed her arms and smiled, "Go on and sit with-"

"His friends?" Fred was suddenly standing next to Ara, she snapped her head over to him, he smirked and sat down next to her.

"They're already here," George was on the other side of Ara, he smiled widely at her, and he sat down too.

Ara looked between the three boys and chuckled, eventually Percy managed to drag Ron over, and they sat on either side of Harry.

The six spent their breakfast together, talking loudly.

"I quite like your sweater, Ron," Ara smiled towards the end of the meal, referring to the maroon sweater Mrs Weasley had made him.

"I hate maroon," Ron mumbled, thinking the blonde girl would not hear him, Ara gave him a curious look and chuckled.

"Really? I think it suits you,"

He gave her an unamused look, and then got kicked by Fred from under the table, Ron quickly thanked her.

"Have Fred and George not told mum about you? She would've made you one too, had she known you were spending the break here," Percy said very matter-of-factly, the twins rolled their eyes at him.

He'd been trying to get on Ara's good side ever since she'd told him she knew loads of people working in Magic Ministry, his dream job.

"Why don't you come outside with us after breakfast?" George mused as everyone began to finish their food.

"Can't, have to go give Uncle Sev his Christmas present,"

"Snape?" Harry asked, very confused, he and Ron shared a look.

"Professor Snape," Ara corrected while nodding, the twins both groaned softly, knowing what was to come.

"That git is your uncle?" Ron asked, shocked.

"Ron!" All three of his brothers gasped, Fred kicked him from under the table again.

"Ow!"

"He's not a git, and he's my godfather,"

"Sure he's not,"

Ara gave the First Year an unamused look, Harry awkwardly avoided everyone's gaze, suddenly finding his empty plate very interesting.

"Ron, stop it, right now," Fred hissed.

"It's only true!"

"Uncle Sev is a good man, perhaps if you were not blinded by hatred, and could see past meets the eye, you'd realize that," Ara stood up and shrugged, the five boys could tell she was slightly irritated.

She said goodbye to the twins, mumbling something about seeing them later, and then left.

Once she was out of earshot, the three older Weasley's scolded their youngest brother for being rude, while Harry wondered what she meant about 'see past meets the eye'.

Ara practically skipping through the school, she could hardly wait to see her uncle, once at his door, she knocked loudly.

"Uncle Sev! Open up, so I can give you your Christmas present!"

"Ara, I told you I didn't want a Christmas present," Severus said, not bothering to open the door, Ara smiled smugly and knocked again.

"I'm not leaving till you open this door, and soon enough the twins will come looking for me and will be waiting too!"

Severus Snape slammed the door open upon hearing that, he could deal with Ara, but the twins? Well, he could deal with them as well, but they were much to annoying for him to do so willingly.

Uncle Sev, and shockingly, Draco, never brought up the twins and Ara's friendship.

Draco turning a blind eye was what had surprised Ara. She'd had a whole plan set in place for when he'd decide to confront her about them, but that time never came. Either Draco didn't realize that the bickering his sister and the Weasley twins got into was much more light-hearted than it seemed and that when Ara told him she was going to the library or spending Hogsmeade alone, she was blatantly lying, or he simply didn't care.

Whichever option it was, Ara wasn't complaining, the longer her brother chose to stay in the dark about the friendship, the better.

Ara smiled at her Uncle, and he gave her an unamused look.

"Here you go, Merry Christmas!"

The man stared at Ara's outstretched arms, which held a perfectly wrapped present, he took it, while ushering her into the room.

"Thank you,"

"You're welcome,"

Severus stared at Ara for a moment, before sighing deeply.

"Your mother sent me a Howler along with my gift today,"

More like a crier.

Ara laughed, that did sound like her mother. She could already guess what the Howler was about.

"Why didn't you go home this year?"

"And leave you all alone during Christmas? I could never," Ara joked, her godfather gave her an unamused look, and let out a tsk.

The pair talked for a few more minutes, until Ara's godfather shooed her out, after he gave the girl her Christmas present that is.

Much to Ara's surprise, it had been a muggle book. A beautiful muggle book.

Romeo and Juliet .

Ara had, unsurprisingly, gotten loads of presents for Christmas.

The most notable being, one from the twins, a gag gift that made her laugh right away, more than she could count from Draco, as promised, a good few from her mother, ranging from jewelry to clothes to quills, and two from her father, a pair of emerald earrings, which she was sure her mother had picked, and a gold engraved bookmark, which she had to admit was lovely.

But, it was her godfathers present that she appreciated the most. It must have been hard to find, and even harder to intrust to her. If Lucius knew Severus was endorsing muggle made things to his daughter, well, Ara didn't want to think about what he'd do.

Unhinged man.

Later that night, as Ara read her new book in the Gryffindor common room, she felt herself beginning to lose her sanity while listening to Harry lose yet another game of wizarding chess.

"You're to bad at this game to be normal," Ara sighed, putting her book away.

As she walked past the boy to go talk to the twins, she bent down and whispered what his next move should be.

It'd been a good play.

"-Now you say 'checkmate'," Ara smirked, while Ron began complaining.

"That's cheating!"

"You've got Percy helping you," Ara shook her head, shooting the older redhead a look, "-Harry hasn't got the luxury of an older sibling to show him to ropes,"

Ara winked at Harry knowingly and walked off. He shot her a thankful smile and then defended her against the still complaining boy across from him.

happy holidays everyone! i've posted like seven chapters in the past three days, which is probably so annoying, but i reallllly wanted to post this chapter on christmas day, so here we are! like always, thank you so much for taking the time to read this, it really means so much to me! please leave a review if you'd like, i love reading them, and enjoy the holidays while they last!

that being said, i don't plan on updating again until at least after the new year, so until then i wish you all nothing but the best!