As much as I love the books, I regret to say that all of Harry Potter belongs to J K Rowling. This includes all of the characters except for Ryua (who's mine) most of the places, and an awful lot of the spells. Oh, and if you see something that looks like one of your stories, I'm really, really sorry. I don't mean to plagiarize. I've just read a lot of really cool fanfics, and they melt into my brain, but I'll try not to use any of it.

December

Ryua woke up cold. Although she might hate the company at home, at least it was never this cold there. Who decided the dungeons were a good place to make students sleep? she thought bitterly. Hufflepuff had a lovely sunroom on the first floor near the greenhouses, and Gryffindor and Ravenclaw were in towers, all dry and easily heated. There were spells in place to keep out the damp, but Ryua was constantly finding drippy spots or patches of moss where the spell had degraded. And regardless of the roaring fire in the common room, the dormitories were still cold, lately with lines of frost appearing on the walls. Ryua gritted her teeth and sat up, the extra blankets the house elves kept bringing down slipping into her lap. She sprang out of her bed, feet only touching the floor three times on the way to the lavatory. The mat in beside the shower provided some protection from the piercing cold stones while she turned on the hot water full blast. By the time she was clean, she could feel her toes again, and the stones felt much warmer underfoot.

While she was getting into her warm winter robes, Ryua thought about the last quidditch match. The Slytherin team appeared to have one style: ruthless. That 6th year Marcus Flint had no guilt about trying to take out Potter. And wow, could that boy fly, even on a jinxed broom. Ryua had paid close attention to the first quidditch match of the season, and realized just how pathetic her team really was, only having an advantage because most of the families were rich, so they all had decent brooms, and most of them were also quite willing to risk fouling to score. Terrence Higgs was a fairly decent player, but obviously no match for Potter, and would be graduating this year anyways, and the keeper Bletchley was at best clumsy. Although her father wasn't likely to allow it, Ryua planned to try out for the team in her second year, and already knew she could fly circles around any of them if they would let a girl on the pitch.

By the time Pansy and Millicent were stirring, Ryua was on her way out to the common room. She and her brother would be leaving tonight for Christmas holidays, and she wanted to enjoy her last day in Hogwarts. She remembered McGonnagal's list of students who would stay at Hogwarts over the holiday, and was starting to wish she had signed up. She was likely to have more fun with those silly Gryffindors than her family. Well, at least the breakfast was good. Apparently, Dumbledore wanted to give them a cheesy 'farewell feast', and for the first time, Ryua appreciated the gesture. Classes flew by, even potions failing to interest her as usual. She actually dropped three extra echnida quills into her potion, and was humiliatingly rescued by her stuck-up brother. ("Oh, I'm sorry sir, she just must be excited about holidays..." Draco had said, sickeningly sweet. Luckily, Professor Snape liked them both, and barely acknowledged the mistake).

All too soon, the train had pulled into the Hogwarts station, and the students loaded back into the horseless carrages. The train ride back to Platform 9 3/4 was a dark blur, and all to soon, they had to get off. Ryua looked glumly around at all the happy students, the Patil twins giggling by one trolley, Hermione Granger ecstatically hugging a pair of muggles, obviously her parents. She looked over to where her parents were standing, looking aloof and proper, and utterly dull. At least people at Hogwarts were warm and feeling, even if it wasn't directed at her. She and Draco walked over to them, and together went to the floo chamber. Ryua woke up Christmas morning. Her room looked beautiful, perfectly decorated, and very impersonal. She got into the dark green houserobe her parents insisted on, and went down into an equally perfectly decorated familiy room. After a very perfect gift giving ceremony, they went upstairs to get dressed in their Christmas company clothes, for they were expecting the Crabbes, Goyles, and Parkinsons over for a perfect Christmas feast. Ryua changed into her perfect green dress with white fur trim, (maybe that's where Cotton went... oh ugh, don't think that!) and put on the perfect silver locket her parents gave her with its perfect little pictures of their perfect little family and sighed. It was all so dull. They all bought each other presents, and gave each other polite little Christmas pecks on the cheek, and had their closest (gag, yuck) friends over for a beautiful feast, but only because they were supposed to. The Daily Prophet often did a column on the perfect Christmas families, and Lucius and Narcissa had deemed it necessary to feature in the article at top of the list. Otherwise, Ryua thought, they would probably leave us at Hogwarts all year long. Well, me at least, they actually seem to like Draco. And for some reason, he actually likes these ridiculous family rituals. Or at least the ridiculous family. Ryua immediately stifled that thought. If she thought it too loud, there was a very slight chance her Father would hear it somehow, and she wanted to get back to school unscathed.

On her way down to the dining room, however, she was sidetracked by Dobby. The wide-eyed little creature whispered, "Merry Christmas, miss!" Ryua smiled for the first time in a long time.

"And to you, Dobby." She then turned her back on the one feeling creature in the house and went down to prepare for the guests.