Madam3Mayh3m: Thank you so much for the review. It really meant a lot!


Chapter 4

Holidays

Humming Christmas songs under her breath, Ariana searched the train for a vacant seat for her trip to the station. She couldn't believe how fast the year was going as it was already the Christmas holidays. No other significant event had happened to her since the troll incident. Her fellow Slytherins now either chose to ignore her existence or mock her for being friendly with people that were not from her house. She honestly did not care. She preferred things to be this way. There were minor instances where she would speak to the trio but she tried to keep things short. She mostly kept herself busy trying to understand the content in all her courses. Thankfully she had Cedric to help her, even though sometimes she still wouldn't understand the material. At least she was passing now.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be back at Hogwarts with the other unwanted?" she heard Draco say to her as she had opened the door of the compartment where he sat with his two sidekicks.

She rolled her eyes as she moved to sit next to him. She had to move the feet of Goyle who had tried to prevent her from taking the seat. The three boys looked at her with anger and annoyance.

"That seat is taken," Draco spat at her.

"Oh, by your imaginary friend?" she quipped back.

He got angrier, "No, you stupid mudblood. Get out." She knew by his expression that he was about to threaten her with his father again but stopped. He must have finally caught on that the threat had no affect on her.

She ignored him, which annoyed the boy even further.

"You don't belong here."

"I know," she responded, "You don't have to tell me that."

Her words held more meaning than simply being in there with the three of them. She should have just stayed standing up somewhere rather than occupying the only seat left on the train that so happened to be with Malfoy's group. But she did not feel like standing up for hours. And she wasn't about to let the boy bully her out of a comfortable seat.

"Aren't you an orphan or something? Where could you possibly be going? Back to the orphanage where you actually belong?" Draco continued to tease her, his friends laughing.

"No, actually," she said as she turned to look at him in the eyes, "I'm spending the holidays with Ripley."

"Ripley? Ripley Holmes? Spending the holidays with you?" he sounded disgusted, "He must not be as great as everyone says if he is this friendly with a mudblood."

Ariana's eyes darkened, "Careful, Mouthboy. I don't take kindly to those who speak poorly about the people I care about."

He held a smug expression, "What can you do?"

"Want to find out?" she raised her hand to his face as he began to cower away from her. She figured that he was afraid of what she might do considering he was very aware that she could do wandless magic. She sighed, opening a book to read to ignore them, "You are just a coward hiding behind his family name."

The rest of the train ride the three boys left her alone.


"Happy Christmas," Ripley greeted as Ariana entered the foyer of the rather large house. At one point she may have gotten lost but after her experiences at Hogwarts, she was better at finding her way around.

"Happy Christmas," even with eleven years in this life, she still felt the urge to say 'Merry Christmas' instead.

Ripley smiled at her as she made her way to the beautifully decorated tree that was filled with gifts of various sizes underneath it. Ariana wasn't expecting any gifts at all. She was just happy to be able to spend the holidays with someone.

"We should get started with opening your gifts," he said to her, gesturing to underneath the tree.

She looked at him with confusion, "My gifts?"

He nodded his head with an even warmer smile, "Of course.I noticed you don't have many possessions so I took the liberty to get you a few things. This was not what Ariana called 'a few things'. He nodded his head in the direction of the tree, beckoning her to come closer.

Filled with overwhelming emotions, her eyes began to sting. The scene reminded her of her past life with her kind, loving family. She had missed them terribly. But this moment made her realize just by how much. She was both extremely happy and sad all at once.

She was pulled into warm strong arms. The scent of a strong cologne hit her nose as she hesitantly returned to embrace. "Sorry," she shocked out, feeling ashamed of her sudden weakness.

"Shh," he said to her, soothingly, "It's alright. Take all the time you need, Ariana."

She did. She let herself into the comfort that his embrace brought her. It was like she was crying in the arms of her elder brother or even her father. She felt warm and protected.

After some time had passed, she pushed away from Ripley and wiped at her tears. She sent him a smile before nodding towards the gifts. He offered her a kind smile back.


"Here you are," Ripley said, handing Ariana a final gift.

She got so many pieces of clothing that she would need a walk in closet, a mountain of candies, and plenty of books to keep her entertained. She had been spoiled completely by Ripley and she was about to open her final gift that he had hidden somewhere.

He carefully laid the rectangular package on her knees. She noted the nervous expression he wore on his facial features. She decided to ignore it for now and unwrapped the tie around the box. She slowly opened the lid of the box only to eye the contents of paper. Here eyes read the words 'Adoption Papers'.

Her breath caught in her throat before she shifted her attention to Ripley, silently asking him all her questions.

Ripley rubbed the back on his head, "I uh. I wanted to surprise you. I got all of the paperwork completed. I just wanted to know if you were alright with it before-"

"You want to adopt me?" she interrupted. He nodded. "Why?"

"I have grown quite attached to you. To me, you are like family. And I thought, why not make it official?"

She smiled, "Alright."

He seemed to relax a great deal, "Are you sure? You'd be my daughter."

She nodded her head before quickly getting off the sofa and jumping into his arms. Out of all of the gifts she had received. This by far her favorite. She had gained a family. She had gained a home. No material objects would ever compare.


"I was wondering," Ripley spoke as he finished chewing on the turkey that he had in his mouth.

Ariana looked away from her plate filled with a delicious Christmas dinner to look at her adoptive father. She tilted her head to the side to sign to him that she was listening as she chewed on her food.

"Should I put in paperwork to also change your last name or would you prefer to keep the one you have now?" he seemed to have been dwelling on that for sometime.

She swallowed, "Hm. Ariana Holmes." She gave it a deep thought. Part of her wanted to keep her last name as a reminder of where she had been but the other part wanted to take on the Holmes family name and wear it with pride. Well, not in the same way as Draco would. But pride with the fact that she had someone who cared deeply for her. "Could…" she hesitated, "Could it go Ariana Zavier-Holmes?"

Ripley's face softened as his lips turned up and his eyes shone with warmth, "I see that it is perfect."

She smiled back at him. From then on, she would be known as Ariana Zavier-Holmes.