Chapter 57 – Christmas Spirit

Anna woke up the next morning in Lupin's bed. She rolled over and remembered everything that had happened in the common room last night. Though she didn't remember going to bed. She looked at her watch - it was 8:30am. She got up and ran out the room. She had class in half an hour and she had missed Quidditch practice. She went through the common room earning raised eyebrows and sniggers from the people left in there. Ignoring them she got dressed and went down to the Great Hall.

"Why didn't you wake me up for practice?" she asked Lupin as she sat down next to him.

"I thought you could use some extra sleep?" he said winking at her and kissing her on the nose.

"Thanks, I bet Remus wasn't very happy, though," she said.

"He wasn't until I asked him if it he had seen Nicky today. He didn't say anything else after that. She wasn't at practice either," he said.

"You didn't! He is going to kill you," Anna said, laughing for the first time in a very long while.

They walked to their first lesson, Defense Against the Dark Arts, together. Anna sat between Lupin and Sirius. They took out their books and chatted about the Christmas holiday and waited for Professor Black to start the lesson. He entered the room.

"Good morning class," he said running a hand through his hair, looking tired. "Since this is the last class before the holidays I thought we would just review what we have done. So split up into groups and just practice what you have learnt this term," he said and he sat behind the desk, put his feet up and pulled out a letter he had gotten at breakfast and began to read it.

"Or in other words do what you want until the bell rings," Sirius said quietly as they took their wands out and held them in their hands chatting.

"Hey Sirius?" Remus asked suddenly.

"Yeah?"

"What happened to Katlyn?"

"She erm—well we broke up," he said looking uncomfortable.

"When?"

"A few days before the attack."

"Why?"

"Well, she was getting really annoying. Too clingy," Sirius said.

"Wow she must have been bad if you're saying she too clingy," Lupin joked.

"I thought I told you to practice what you had learnt," Professor Black said.

"We are," Sirius said in a voice that fooled nobody.

"Then why were you laughing?" He asked, his eyebrows raised. Sirius looked around, not wanting to answer. Anna jumped in before he could make up an excuse.

"We were talking about Sirius's love life," she said and Professor Black laughed.

"Now I know why that's so funny," he said and Sirius glared at him and Anna.

"Anyway I did want to talk to you lot," he said looking around at Anna, Lupin, Remus and Sirius.

"It turns out we are going home this Christmas," he said to Remus, "but we are all having Christmas lunch at your house," he said looking at Anna. "Us, all the Weasleys and your family," he said now looking at Lupin and Sirius.

"You think all the Weasleys are going to fit in Anna's house?" Sirius said.

"No but it will be fun trying to find out, don't you think," Professor Black said.

"Maybe for you but not for me," Anna said.

"Why?"

"I'm going to be the one who has to cook," Anna said seeing their blank faces.

"I'm sure Harry and Ginny will give you a hand," Remus said.

"Dad has never cooked and Ginny Owled me this morning and mentioned in her letter that seeing food cooking makes her nauseous."

"It was Molly Weasley's idea. She seemed to think a big family Christmas was a good idea these days." Everyone looked doubtful.

"I think it's a good idea. Brings people together," Anna said quietly. Not many conversations didn't turn depressing these days. They spent the rest of the lesson talking. As they sat there talking and laughing, Anna felt as though something inside her had gone. It was as though talking about what happened and getting back together with Lupin had freed her. She wondered why she hadn't done this a long time ago. She felt Lupin take her hand under the table and they intertwined their fingers. She wanted them to be together forever.

After dinner that evening Anna had finished her homework and was about to go to Snape's dungeon and work on the potion when Lupin stopped her.

"Alright I give up," he said as she got out of her seat and picked up her bag.

"What do you mean?"

"Where are do you go each night at this time?"

"I told you last night, I am going to see Professor Snape."

"Every night, that's where you go every night?" He asked amazed. Anna nodded, smiled and bent down and kissed him.

"Yeah you see my affair with Harry Potter didn't quite work out well so I am seeing how things go with Professor Snape. I don't think I am related to him. See ya later," Anna said to Lupin, Remus and Sirius. She laughed at the looks that passed between them.

Anna entered the dungeon and got out her notes and books. Snape was still not there Anna waited for a few minutes until the door banged opened suddenly and Snape strode looking furious. Anna sighed this was going to be fun, she thought. He took out his books and the cauldron they had been using. He grabbed the ingredients and threw them down on the desk. Anna wanted to ask what was wrong but knew better than that.

"Where were we?" he asked not looking at Anna.

"We just added the shredded lacewings," she said quietly.

"Right, right, ok, so we have to," he looked at the notes spread out on the desk, "find something that will make it stable when ingested." He said. Anna nodded; they spent the next hour testing different ingredients in different samples of the potion. They tried so many that Snape was running out of ingredients. After two hours both were getting annoyed.

"Alright let's leave it for tonight I dare say you need to pack, and I have to go and sort things out," Snape said.

"Ok, I'll keep working on it during the holidays," Anna said putting her notes away.

"And I will do the same when I have time and we can compare notes when we get back," Snape said.

"Are you going to be busy this Christmas?" Anna asked cautiously.

"Yes I am… I have to tread carefully from now on. What is that supposed to mean," Snape said and Anna knew he wasn't speaking directly to her.

"Merry Christmas, sir," Anna said and Snape looked up at her and there was a flicker of a smile.

"You too Ms. Potter," he said and Anna left as quickly as she could, not wanting him to get annoyed at her, she needed Professor Snape to finish the potion. She didn't want to get on his bad side. Without him she would be lost. Right now though she just wanted to curl up in Lupin's arms and try to get rid of the headache that had started almost as soon as she walked in the dungeon.

Harry sat in a room with four other people; all were sitting at desks writing furiously on the exam paper in front of them. He was watching them work. He had been done for almost 15 minutes now and still had half an hour left. He looked up at the witch over seeing the exam. She looked at him and smiled at him. He smiled back.

Harry sat looking around the room taking in every corner and re reading his exam paper over and over again. Harry had finally come to terms with the ludicrousness of it all. He decided he didn't need to fight two wars. There was no point fighting the Ministry as well as Voldemort.

Finally the witch told everyone to put down their quills and leave. The first part of the exam was over; the second part the practical part came next. Harry was partnered with a weedy looking wizard called Paul Clinton, who kept falling over his shoelaces. He rolled his eyes as the Wizard bent down and did them up. They got their instructions – to retrieve the muggle trapped in one of the rooms and get them out safely. They went inside the house they were going to be taking the test in.

"So what are we going to do?" Paul asked.

"We are going to be quiet so we can hear things," Harry said irritably. Suddenly something came out in front of them; Harry shouted the first curse that came to mind. The thing that had appeared went flying backwards and smashed into the wall. It was a person, an evil wizard by the black coat it was wearing. Paul stopped in his tracks.

"I can't do this, I can't, they expect us to just go and react like that," Harry rolled his eyes he was never going to get anywhere with this guy as a partner.

"Look they wouldn't have let you get this far if they didn't think you could do it," Harry said and the wizard took a deep breath and smiled.

"Ok," he said.

"Ok, so be quiet now so we can concentrate."

They crept around the house looking in all the rooms and met a variety of obstacles. One room was full of dark creatures; another had a mist in it that made them both sleepy until Harry had enough sense to cast the counter charm on them. When they finally got to the room with the muggle in, there was the witch who was watching over at the exam sitting in the middle of the room with a sign saying "MUGGLE" hanging around her neck. They went back out the house with only a few attacks.

"You will get your results in a day or two, thank you for your time," said the witch.

Harry Apparated back to his house and found Ginny throwing up in the bathroom. He went and sat next to her, she smiled weakly at him.

"How did it go?" she asked, her face pale and sweaty her hair sticking to her forehead.

"Fine, I get the results tomorrow I hope," he said wiping the hair away from her face.

"So you will be here more from now on," she asked still trying to smile.

"Yeah, along with all the other Weasleys for Christmas," Harry said grinning.

"Oh Merlin I forgot about that, how am I supposed to make Christmas dinner when I throw up every time I see it being made?" she said panicking.

"Don't worry about that I have it all sorted out," Harry said stroking her hair.

"Oh ok good," Ginny said and threw up again.