Chapter 9:

Winter dragged on as Christmas drew near and it was soon time for students to board the Hogwarts express back home for the holiday season. Christmas, as far as Leah was concerned, meant no school, no lagging books and no homework for two weeks. This was probably so for most of the student body, but some looked forward to the Christmas feast waiting for them at their family table.

Teachers also were looking forward to the two week holiday from which they could escape from their… less favourite students they had been seeing day in, day out. In their last week, their facial expressions changed considerably from their 'twisted from teaching' look to "only four more days of teaching these -" looks of relief.

In Slytherin house, there were only a handful of people who would be staying back at school for the holidays. The rest of the house however, was packing their belongings into their trunks and most of their lively talks were focused on Christmas and their families. Draco had launched into excited boasts at the start of the week about what he would be up to in the holidays. Prime turkeys for every meal, a room full of presents and magnificent decorations was all Leah heard before she spaced out to think of much more interesting subjects.

Chatter around the corridors became more and more excited as the days were counted down from 4 days… 3 days… 2… and finally the day arrived for students to wave goodbye to the big castle standing alone, overshadowing the little town next to it.

Leah sat with Elise in an empty compartment in a carriage reserved for Slytherins. Several times some of the other members of Slytherin would come in and chat, but they never seemed to stay long. Leah took the liberty to catch up on some sleep as the last few nights were full of holiday chatter. Elise followed, but buried her face in the Daily Prophet before she did so. She was an up-to-date girl and was usually like this in her spare times. Before Leah fell asleep though, Elise read out a small article, "Look, Leah. The Daily Prophet came up with a recent survey that three out of four people make up 75% of the population. Hah, what people think up these days…" Leah silently laughed and stored it in her brain for later review.

By the time Leah woke up from her sleep with rather a stiff neck, the view from the window had changed from forests to tightly squished houses of London's suburbia. Another 15 minutes brought her and the rest of the students to Kings Cross Station to meet their excited and ecstatic parents.

Draco sat in a compartment with Crabbe and Goyle. Crabbe and Goyle sat opposite him, snoring so much that the compartment windows shook slightly. Draco considered moving compartments when his headache worsened, slid the door open and started walking towards the back of the train. He looked into every compartment of the carriage for a free compartment to himself. He looked into the last compartment on the right in the carriage and saw that it was occupied by a girl –Leah. She was sound asleep; lying along the seat with her arm folded underneath her head. He didn't mean to stare, but he was drawn to the sleeping figure and stood there mentally fighting to both stay and leave. Just leave! You know, put one foot in front of the other towards the –

"Hem hem." Draco turned, cold dread running through his body. It was Elise who had returned from visiting Millicent and Blaise. "And what do you think you're doing?" asked Elise.

Draco stood there, unable to find words let alone an insult. At last he gripped onto a word, "N-nothing," he stammered and shot her an evil look before dashing back to his own compartment.

When Leah boarded off the train carriage, closely lagging behind her trunk, she searched through the crowd of people in robes of various colours. It took her some time to find her parents; a woman with coffee coloured hair and soft facial expressions standing next to a man with a slightly stern-looking face and dark hair. They both stood near the wall opposite the train, both searching through the massive crowd that roamed, weaved and scattered in front of them. "Mum, Dad!" she shouted and pushed her way frantically. She was so frantic that she didn't see a black cloaked figure also push his way through and collided squarely into his trolley. Both of them lay on the ground sprawled out and both their luggage lay scattered around them.

"Watch were you're going you -" the voice started to say and Leah brought her head up to see who was speaking. It was Malfoy.

"Talk for yourself," she muttered and got up to pick her belongings off the ground. Draco also followed her actions and started shoving books, clothes and odd objects blindly into his trunk. While they did this, Leah's parents heard of the commotion, like most people on the platform did, and came forward. Their faces lit up as they saw their daughter pile her books in her trunk neatly and she also looked up and said, "Mum, Dad!"

"Hello, darling," her mother said near-tears, almost squeezing the life out of her as she hugged her. "Hello, pumpkin." It was her father, and Leah playfully punched him and said warningly, "Don't you call me that."

The family reunion was all well for Leah, but Malfoy was still on the ground picking his things up, occasionally looking sourly up at Leah and her family. He grumbled and shoved the last of his things, slammed the lid shut and sat on it, in order to shut the bulging trunk. He heaved it on to the now battered trolley, after getting the lid to stay on.

A slender woman with long, blond hair glided to his side and said, "Hello, Draco." He recognised the voice immediately and said, "Hello, mother." she embraced him and him back, but soon realised that this was public and he quickly spaced away from his mother. He looked down and smoothed out a couple of creases in his immaculate black cloak and started to push his way towards the barrier.

The last of Draco that Leah saw for the next two weeks, was his cloaked back that swished in time to his footsteps and was soon drowned in the crowd that swirled around them.

Christmas was a joyous occasion as always in the Harrison household and Leah, her parents and her Uncle, who lived in the attic room, all sat around the table. This Christmas though, was enjoyed most thoroughly as the sky turned grey and the ground was soon covered with a crisp, white blanket of snow.

Each at the table took turns in opening their Christmas crackers and sat around wearing various hats with assorted oddments stuck on it. Everyone looked quite hilarious, especially her father, who kept on blowing purple feathers out of his eyes.

By the end of the meal that the house elves had superbly cooked, everyone sat satisfied in the lounge room and started opening their presents.

A few days beforehand, Leah had gone shopping at Diagon Alley with her mother and took particular interest in a new shop that had been opened recently, called The Weasley Wizard Wheezes. The young owners had given a trial pack of their Skiving Snack boxes once they had found out that she was a student at Hogwarts. They told her many stories of their doings at Hogwarts and Leah eagerly listened to them, until her mother pulled her away to finish their shopping.

Leah now sat on the rugged floor in front of the fire, opening her first present, this one from her beloved uncle. The small parcel wrapped in gold paper, contained a small pen knife. Her uncle sat in a squishy couch close by, watching her and sucking on his ivory pipe that blew multicoloured smoke rings. She went and hugged him 'thank you' and went on to her next present.

By the time everyone had opened their presents, people moved on to start fiddling with their new gifts. Leah went upstairs with her uncle to his room and sat on a pouffe while her uncle rocked rhythmically in his rocking chair. She talked about her time at Hogwarts and he showed her how to use her pen knife while they munched on pieces of homemade fudge. Leah had her presents spread out in front of her; her pen knife, three new novels, and a bag of assorted sweets. She also had a big block of Honeyduke's chocolate from Elise that had arrived with a screech owl.

Leah loved spending hours at a time in her uncle's room. The space in his room was occupied with moving models of the galaxy and other wild and zany machines that puffed smoke and had multiple pipes twisting and turning around the room. His room was also full of books; one wall filled with them and others were scattered around. There was absolutely no need for any tea tables or night stands, as the piles on the floor were well supplied for the purpose. He had books of every kind imaginable; books on history, discoveries, astrology, maps and atlases, jokes and biology, leather-bound and silk-covered and even muggle literature. The only thing he lacked was an encyclopaedia; once she had questioned him about this and he simply answered that they were only good for collecting dust in alphabetical order.

Leah loved his sense of humour, and loved his way of wisdom from years of experience living around the world. He was retired now, after working for sometime as an Auror, but age hadn't taken away his wisdom, only increased it. He was one of those special people that you find in your life that always encouraged you to be your best.

Draco also had one of these relationships and this, was his mother. The weekly packages of sweets that was delivered to him for the last six years, was of course sent by his mother. Most of the persuading that Draco did was to his mother, who in turn persuaded his father, a tougher nut to crack. He never considered himself as a 'mummy's boy' but a son that kept a good relationship with his mother.

Christmas for him, was a quite affair; consisting of only him and his mother. They sat opposite each other at a long, rectangular table and talked quietly in the dark room that was decorated with Christmas decorations, even if it was too dark to see them. His mother was unusually quite for the day and after their Christmas lunch and their exchange of gifts, neither of them had much else to do and went their separate ways. The absence of his father had made a severe change in both Draco and his mother and also took a big chunk in what Draco knew as home. His mother too, was quieter by the day and spent more and more of her time in her wing.

Draco called for a house elf to prepare the sleigh, and for the next hour or so was spent sleighing around the quiet manor. He rugged up in his woollen cloak and tugged at the reigns. The two black horses sped up to take him further out in the field of white.

Once he had gotten back, his cheeks flushed from the bitter cold, he walked to his wing and sat around doing nothing.

Leah returned from spending most of the afternoon in her uncle's room and went into her bedroom. On her bed, was a Kneazle, a cat-like creature with spotted fur, large ears and a ferret's tail. This was Elise's birthday present that Leah had bought at Diagon Alley. Krysta was coiled at the bottom of her wardrobe, taking a dislike to the new guest. The Kneazle on the other hand, was totally ignoring the python and lay purring on her bedspread. However, this Kneazle was no ordinary Kneazle but was a half-breed of a Jarvey, and could speak. Fortunately, Jarveys would only utter words of insult, but was bred out of everyday use from this particular creature, perhaps the only one of her kind.

As Leah put down her armful of presents on her dresser top, the Kneazle stoped purring and looked up as she came to sit on her bed. It spoke, "It looks like you got quite a loot out of today, Leah."

"Yeah," she said. The Kneazle was very intelligent and had already leant her name. Of course, the Kneazle being the cautious creature it is, took a few days to become used to Leah. The pet shop owner had warned her of the Kneazle's nature of acting quite severely towards unsavoury and suspicious people and often swore and shot insults towards those.

"So what are you planning on doing for the rest of the day?" the Kneazle asked.

"Some visitors are coming tonight for tea."

"Oh really, who?" the Kneazle took slight interest.

"Chris Kettleburn and his family," Leah said absent-mindedly.

"And who may that be?"

"A close friend of mine," she lied, not willing to take it further than that.

Six thirty arrived and at precisely one minute past, a series of loud popes emitted in their hall and there stood three people.

"Flaccus, Amanda!" her mother sped forward and embraced them. "And Chris too, my, haven't you grown since I saw you last and become quite a young man also!" her mother said, embracing him and then standing back to get a better look at him. His sandy hair curled on top of his head and his dark blue eyes shone from the depth of his pupils.

Leah, thoroughly embarrassed of her mother's antics, shoved her aside and went forward to welcome him. "I've missed you," he quietly said in her ear and kissed her softly on her cheek as she tightened her embrace. She greeted Mr. and Mrs. Kettleburn and invited them into the lounge room. Her father later came out of his study and shook hands with the guests and settled down in a couch. "Can I offer you a drink of some sort?" he casually offered.

"A brandy for me thanks and, a gin and tonic for you darling?" Mr. Kettleburn asked his wife. She nodded with a smile.

"How about you Chris, can I get you anything?" her father offered, but Chris just shook his head and thanked him.

As soon as his father had taken the orders, a house elf standing at the door hurried off, who immediately came back with a tray balanced on its head with the drinks and a plate of nuts.

By the time the brandy pudding was lit, Leah and Chris hadn't had a proper conversation. This continued until the time came for them to leave. They made plans for them to meet again, which would be in a few day and the Kettleburns would also be staying with them for four days.

"See you then," he said after he kissed her and disapparated.

Leah tried returning his farewell, but was too late.

A/N: Please R&R! Comments would be REALLY appreciated!!!