a/n: Hello, hello, everyone! You know, it's just occurred to me how annoying these notes must be for those of you who were just starting to read this maybe tonight or yesterday, and you have to listen to me ramble every time you click to go to the next chapter! Haha, my apologies to those of you who are finding that annoying…and to everyone else: HEY!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, but I do own the gum that's in my mouth at this very moment as I'm typing this Disclaimer. That is, unless anyone else wants it? Nope, didn't think so….

Chapter 23: Post Holiday Blues

"I appreciate the feast of a dinner you've brought me, little fellow."

The small owl hooted graciously in reply. Desperate to get away from Claire, who was so bored hanging out in a tent all day that she had taken to hexing the trees nearby to change into brilliant shades of neon colors at random, Aquinas decided to bring a little bit of Christmas dinner to Sirius. Since he was just an owl, and a tiny one at that, it was simple for him to sneak back into the castle every now and then for a little extra food and perhaps a nice nap in the Owlery. In fact, he quite enjoyed doing this, simply because he enjoyed the look on the girl's face when she couldn't come along. Oh, how he loved torturing her!

Sirius sunk his teeth into a turkey leg, chewing happily as he said, "I would have had a very lonely holiday if you hadn't dropped by again. Not that I ever had much on the holidays…not since…"

He trailed off. Aquinas frowned. He knew Sirius was thinking about his friends who had passed on many years before. Although Aquinas often tried hard not to get attached to the characters in the stories he inhabited, he couldn't help feeling a bit sad that the cheerful young group of marauders had never got to spend a proper Christmas together.

Sirius forced a smile onto his rugged face.

"You don't seem to be having such a jolly time either, my friend," Sirius said.

He was pointing at the owl's singed tail feathers. Aquinas sulked. It was hard to be comforting and helpful with half your tail missing. He wasn't sure why; it just was!

Sirius chuckled, "Well, I hope things go better for you. After all you've done for me these past couple months, the least I can do is wish you happier days."

If you could just promise not to die you'd make my days considerably happier, Aquinas thought, thinking longingly of the days before he had met a certain girl by the name of Woods whose goal in life was to save a fictional person's life. How sad, indeed.

Growing disheartened from their little talk, Aquinas nibbled the ragged man's boot and flew out of the cave, remembering all too quickly how much he loathed the cold.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeease?"

"I said no."

A moment's pause pursued.

"Pretty please?"

"What difference does it make if your request is attractive or not? I said no!"

Silence.

"What if I just went—"

"NO!"

Claire sighed and stared out the opening of their little heated tent longingly. She had been trying to convince Aquinas to let her fly one of the school's brooms in the Quidditch shed up to Gryffindor Tower just to peak in a window and see what was going on.

"If you are so curious as to what's going on," Aquinas persisted, using a nail file to perfect his already perfect talons, "why don't you just open that handy little book over there and read about it?"

Claire narrowed her eyes at her obsessive compulsive little friend. She had been checking her book every hour on the hour and nothing had been altered. But still, Aquinas knew perfectly well she just wanted to watch events play out. It was a thousand times more fun than sitting in a tent watching a bird clipping his toenails.

Having witnessed quite enough of Aquinas's odd hygiene habits for one day, Claire exited the tent and flopped quietly down into a snowdrift. She sighed boredly. Only a few more days and she could go back to the castle…

On the second day of January, Aquinas and Claire merged into the mob of students trudging back into the castle from Hogsmeade Station. Most them seemed generally in good spirits, but none more so than Claire. It was so nice to be among people again!

She felt a tap on her back and turned around to see Bethany, who was wrapped in a new scarf and hat that were made out of the same purple material. No doubt these were a Christmas gift from a certain jolly old man in a red suit.

"I'm so glad to see you!" Claire said, feeling that no truer words had ever passed her lips. She embraced Bethany in a tight hug.

"Good to see you too," Bethany laughed. "How was your holiday? We got your note in the morning, Ginny and I. I thought you hated to spend your breaks at the orphanage?"

Claire grinned guiltily.

"Erm—well, I didn't exactly go home for Christmas…" she muttered, shifting her eyes back and forth so that her friend would catch on.

Bethany's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.

"You mean you stayed here?" she asked loudly, Claire having to check to see who was listening and shush her. "But where! I mean, you weren't in the dorm in the morning—"

Claire cast a sideways glance towards the trees in the distance. Bethany's eyes narrowed.

"You're a fool!" she said bluntly. "Why didn't you just come stay at my house? Or anyone's house? I mean—the forest! You're nuts!"

"Hey now!" Claire said, blushing slightly. "I had some things I needed to take care of." She glanced behind her once again to see if anyone was paying attention to them and then lowered her voice as she added, "Important things."

"Oh…" Bethany said, catching on. "Well, alright then. But your cheeks sure are pink! Are you sure you feel okay?"

"Never better!" Claire said with a grin.

Secretly though, Claire knew she hadn't been up to anything that couldn't have been done quietly while staying at the warm residence of one her friends. It really was the obvious thing to have done! But, after reflection, Claire decided in defense of her stupid (and very cold) hiding place—at the very least there was no need to worry about messing anything up. While Claire was in isolation, the story was guaranteed safe.

They made their way up to the common room along with their fellow Gryffindors. Immediately, Claire surveyed the scene. Harry and Ron were sitting on one side, Harry pretending to read Flying with the Cannons and Ron glaring across the room, and Hermione was sitting on the opposite side, taking notes out of a large book and pretending she didn't notice a certain red-head glaring at her back. Everything seemed to be perfectly in order.

Claire and Bethany went up to their dormitory to drop off their things and found Ginny and Robin both already there, loading clothes and personal items back into their proper places.

"Hello Robin! Hi Ginny!" Claire said, flinging her knapsack onto her bed. "Have a nice Christmas?"

"Yes, it was great, thank you!" Ginny said, pointing to her brand new, bright blue Weasley sweater.

"It was fine, thanks," Robin said, not bothering to look up from her nightstand where she was loading fresh ink and quills into a drawer.

Something funny struck Claire at that moment. If she was right in thinking that Robin had also received the Gift and was sucked into the Harry Potter books like herself, then where did shego over the holidays? Claire made a mental note to find this out later and returned to unloading her own belongings.

After dinner, most of the Gryffindors were lolling about in the common room, discussing what they got for Christmas and trying to finish up all the homework they had put off over the break. Claire, who had had more than enough time to complete her assignments, was sitting in a corner reading Prisoner of Azkaban (which she had cleverly hidden under the book cover of Quidditch Through the Ages) and watching everyone else go about their business. She loved being in such a crowded, happy environment again!

Claire looked over towards the fire and saw Harry and Ron playing a game of chess when Oliver Wood approached them. Although she couldn't hear them over the noise, she followed along in her book to their conversation:

"Had a good Christmas?" he said, and then, without waiting for an answer, he sat down, lowered his voice, and said, "I've been doing some thinking over Christmas, Harry. After last match, you know. If the dementors come to the next one…I mean…we can't afford you to—well—"

"I'm working on it," said Harry quickly. "Professor Lupin said he'd train me to ward off the dementors. We should be starting this week. He said he'd have time after Christmas."

"Good book?" someone said.

Claire looked up. Robin was standing next to her, arms folded and a smirk upon her face.

"Very," Claire answered, shutting it promptly. "I was meaning to ask you—how was your Christmas break? Was it as cold and snowy as mine?"

"Just about," Robin replied. "Although, it doesn't really snow much in the Room of Requirement."

Claire was sure her realization showed all over her face. The Room of Requirement! Man, Aquinas was right—she was an idiot!

"I had some business to attend to," Claire said defensively, referring to her time with Buckbeak and conversations with Aquinas. Some business…

"Yeah, well, don't we all," Robin said, seating herself in the chair across from Claire. "I was wondering how long it was going to take you to figure out that I was in the story as well. I knew you had the Gift about two seconds after you first tried to talk to me and your attitude had supremely changed."

"Well, I must admit," Claire said honestly, "you through me off with that whole story about your parents in the hospital wing. You know, what you told me about the dementors coming to get you from your house when you were younger?"

"I wasn't lying about that," Robin said, cocking an eyebrow. "That really is what happened to the Gregorys in the story."

"Well, I know that," Claire said in an exasperated voice. "But I meant the fact that you described it all so vividly! I mean—how is it you have all those memories? I know what happened to my fictional parents but I certainly don't have any memories of it…"

Robin shrugged, "I read about it in the library. There's a big book of old Daily Prophet clippings from when the Dark Lord was in power and right after his downfall. The entire story of your parents' murder and my parents' trial is in there in great detail."

"Wow, smart of you," Claire said sincerely.

"If you use the resources around you, Woods, you'll spend less time running in circles and more time actually doing what you came here to do," Robin commented, leaning back against the armchair and cracking her neck.

Claire starred at Robin quizzically, another question popping into her mind.

"So…what exactly did you come here to do, then?" she asked.

Robin looked up without blinking.

"To save the life of a certain Snuffles," she said simply.

Claire nodded and replied, "Me too."

Robin nodded also, and then chuckled to herself.

"What?" Claire asked curiously. "What did I do now?"

"Nothing!" Robin said. "It's just that—well I just realized—you know how we're not really supposed to change the plot or anything major, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, if we aren't supposed to screw anything up, and the Bestower of each of our Gifts knew what we were coming here to do…how come they still let us into the story?"

Claire had to hand it to her; that was a good question.

"I don't know…" Claire said, thinking. "Maybe—maybe Sirius wasn't supposed to die. Do you think—no—I mean—can it be possible that maybe because someone came into the story, Sirius was killed? And maybe they let us come back her to try and fix it?"

Robin shrugged again, saying, "Your guess is as good as mine, Woods. Although, that does sound like a fairly decent guess."

"I can check on that," Claire said, taking out a quill and writing a large 'A' on her hand so she would remember to ask Aquinas. "I have connections."

"Alright," Robin agreed. "Sounds like a good idea."

There was a moment's quiet between them before Robin spoke up again.

"Now, I'm assuming you've realized that you really can't take Patronus lessons with Lupin, right?" she asked, as if Claire should have thought of this long ago.

Claire gulped. As much as she knew that witnessing Harry's Patronus lessons would be way too personal and could get very complicated, that didn't dissolve her desire to learn the spell entirely, let alone have private lessons with her favorite Hogwarts professor.

Robin's eyes narrowed at the expression on Claire's face.

"Think about it, Woods," Robin said logically. "Think of all the trouble you would cause. And furthermore, think of all the trouble you've already caused."

"You sound like Aquinas!" Claire said hotly, tired of being lectured every five minutes. "What's the point of having the Gift if we can't even experience the story, anyway!"

Robin shook her head and stood up.

"It's not a matter of how much you get to witness and involve yourself in the story," Robin said, "it's how much you love it not to."

With that, she left and headed up the girl's staircase.

a/n: DUN DUN DAAAAAAAAaaa! What did Robin mean by her last statement? Will Claire actually consider Robin's advice? Why was this chapter so boring? My apologies about that last one—I was going to tell you all about Claire's decision in this chapter, but it accidentally got a little too long because I had some clues to plant and some things to explain. Hope it wasn't too dull for you! I'll be back soon with a new chapter, although exams are in two weeks, so cut me some slack if I don't update too much before then! Thanks, you guys, you rock!