a/n not mine! You recognize it and it's JK's!

December 1991

With the end of November and the beginnings of December the first years began to look forward to a well deserved break. Christmas spirit was alive and well, the Weasley twins had even charmed the suits of armor to loudly sing Christmas carols when anyone walked by. Peeves of course decided to hide in the ones they hadn't charmed and proceeded to sing the most vulgar version of classic Christmas songs he could think of. Ascella found this all rather amusing, in particular when she saw a frazzled Professor McGonagall chasing a cackling Peeves away from the suit of armor closest to her classroom.

The weather had tuned cold and everyone was eagerly awaiting the arrival of the holiday break. Ascella and her friends hadn't found anything out about Nicolas Flamel despite spending many of their breaks searching the library. At the first session Ascella had showed up to (she had honestly never been to the library before and had gotten quite lost on the way there), she'd seen their frustrated expressions and had asked dryly if anyone had bothered to check the biography section. Hermione had reacted less than pleased, so Ascella had taken that as a no and scuttled over to that section, lest she annoy her friend further.

When Ascella had reached the F's however she noticed that the books didn't seem to flow together as tightly as the rest of the library books, almost as if someone had removed or checked out all the books in the section where Flamel would have been. That was strange, Ascella thought but she headed back to the table where Harry was currently staring glazed eyed at a book about dark wizards and their contributions to society. Ron didn't look much better, but Hermione looked like she was in her element, her eyes zooming across the pages of the books she had in front of her. Ascella sighed and grabbing a book off of Harry's stack sank into the chair next to him.

Despite all their hard work they didn't find a thing. Hermione suggested the restricted section but they had no excuse that would be teacher approved to get them in there, so Ascella put it out of her mind.

Just over a week before the end of term, the Deputy Headmistress, more commonly known as Minnie to Ascella, came around requesting sign-ups for those wishing to stay at Hogwarts over the holidays. Harry, Ron, and the rest of the Weasley clan would be signing up, but Hermione and Ascella would be headed home.

Harry and Ascella were in the library, doing more research while Hermione attended a Charms club meeting and Ron had begged off saying he had something else to do. Ascella was beginning to think Ron had had the right idea when Harry turned to her and asked, "Are you going home for the holidays?" She stretched, working a kink out of her neck.

"Yes. I don't think anyone at home would forgive me if I didn't," she said smiling. Harry looked away lost in thought. She couldn't tell what he was thinking about, if he wished she was staying or if he wished he had somewhere to go that wasn't the Dursley's. She knew the Dursley's weren't the best people to have been raised by.

"Do you miss them?" Harry finally asked still looking out the window where snowflakes gently fell to the ground. "Your parents I mean?"

"Er," she replied. She still hadn't exactly told Harry she was more or less an orphan like he was. Most people just knew the story and so she didn't have to say it and it had been nice with Harry not having that hanging over her head. They had had a lot of conversations about their home lives but she'd managed to tell her stories in such a way that she didn't have to talk about her parents. Rarely did she feel guilty about it, but there was something about the way that Harry had asked his question, the longing perhaps, that was making her insides squirm.

"Well yeah," she finally replied lamely. "Of course I miss my family," she continued. "And it'll be nice to see them and all, but I don't know. The castle kind of feels like home now, you know? I'll miss all you lot."

Harry turned to her smiling. "Yeah it does, doesn't it?" he said referring to the castle.

"Yeah," Ascella agreed, smiling back, glad that she'd managed to cheer him up.

"I'll miss you too you know," he whispered five minutes later, once they'd gone back to their research.

"I know," she smiled into her book.

A week later Ascella was hugging Hermione good-bye and walking into the open arms of Nympadora Tonks, on platform 9 and 3/4. Dora was like a sister to her and she was happy to see her.

"Oh I missed you so much!" Dora said squeezing her tight. Ascella noticed her hair was a shocking red this time, as she pulled back laughing at her, most likely for the holidays.

"I missed you too!" she replied. Then looking around she asked, "Where are Meda and Ted?"

"Waiting to welcome you to the house. I told them I'd pick you up since I missed you so much! That and today is my first day of holiday break from Auror training, so it made sense for me to just get you on the way home."

"Oh how is training going?" Ascella asked eagerly as she dragged her trunk behind them.

Dora made a face. "It's both the most amazing thing ever and the hardest. Mad-Eye really doesn't go easy on you, but I guess it makes sense considering what the job entails. I just wish he'd stop popping up randomly and shouting 'CONSTANT VIGILANCE!'" Ascella giggled when Dora actually shouted the last part and got a bunch of weird looks from the muggles around them. Granted her owl was probably causing them to turn in puzzlement as well.

"So how are we getting home," Ascella asked when they'd exited the station.

"Knight Bus," Dora said waving her wand to flag the bus down. "Bought the tickets last night."

A moment later and the purple triple decker bus was pulling up in front of them. They clamored on and were soon banging about the country en route to the cottage they had both been raised in.

Ascella spent the trip informing Dora of what had been happening to her over the course of her first term at Hogwarts. They'd written letters to each other but some stories were better shared in person.

"Sorry about the tower situation, but it sounds like you found some really good friends!" Dora said after Ascella had told her about her troubles with getting into her home tower.

"Yeah I did. And I didn't get put in Gryffindor like you all thought!" Ascella said triumphantly. Dora shook her head and tried to hide her smile.

"No. No you didn't."

The welcome when she got home was jubilant. Both Dora and Ascella were drawn into big rib cracking hugs by both Meda and Ted. Ted even spun Ascella around and commented on how much she'd grown in the months they'd been apart. She rolled her eyes fondly, walking into the house with their arms thrown around each other. No Meda and Tonks may not be her parents and Dora may not be her sister, but she loved them and they loved her and for Ascella that was more than she could ever hope for.