nothing to really say. just another chapter. a short one, because i thought going into christmas would take too long. little cutesie stuff, plus stupid siblings. SQUEE! read----- review. or die. x.x


For me, Christmas break could not come fast enough. I wanted to go home. I wanted to be away from this wretched castle and back with my family. When the list came around to be signed as of who would stay at the school, I didn't sign it. I tried to forge Lucius' name, but Bellatrix stopped me.

"What?"

"Don't do that."

And we had left the little argument at that.

Things hadn't been all too awkward since the kissing incident. None of us brought it up, therefore it didn't exist in our minds. Every now and then though, I would remember it and be almost ashamed at what had happened, though I wasn't quite sure why and I did not care to delve farther into my feelings to figure it out.

The ride home from school was a quiet one, for a change with the three of us. We had quickly become the loudest in our year, though Bella and Lucius vastly out-vocalized me most of the time. Within thirty minutes of being on the train, each of us had nodded off, one right after the other. Lucius had been the first to go, at which time I had started and looked over at Bellatrix.

"Did you do something?" I had inquired.

"No." She answered.

Somehow, I knew she was telling the truth, and didn't worry about it anymore. Stretching out, I leaned my back against the wall and soon dozed off.

Several hours later, I woke up and had to suppress a scream at what I saw. Bellatrix had somehow managed to crawl over me and was curled up in my lap, head on my chest, and right arm hanging lazily over me as well as the edge of the seat. I needed to get up. My neck was killing me, since I had slid down in the seat and come to rest in an awkward position. Both of my legs were asleep as well, but I didn't move. I didn't want to disturb her, mainly because I thought that she might kill me if I did. I slid down farther in the seat so that my head could lay actually on the seat and not half way on the seat and half way on the wall. My movements were slow and careful and I was scared to death that I would turn the wrong way and somehow throw her into the floor. Nudging around a bit, I made myself as comfortable as I could and tried to doze off again, but to no avail. Every time I breathed, Bellatrix's hair kept trying its hardest to go up my nostrils. And that wasn't fun. Not only did it tickle, but I felt like I was choking.

I tried pushing her hair back down, suppressing it. It worked somewhat, but I had to keep my hand on the top of her head to keep my nose from sucking it up. I was quite sure she didn't want snot in her hair. It was then that she decided to wiggle around a bit in her sleep and resituate herself. First, her knee went somewhere that I didn't particularly find comfortable and second, her hand ended up slapping me in the face and then covering it slightly, splayed across the bottom half of my jaw. I removed her hand and placed it down by her side, having to push her hair out of the way again. Eyes watering, I tried again to fix myself to remove her knee from its current place and eventually did, though how, I'll never know.

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The sound of a whistle woke me from my sleep and I sat up to see Bellatrix already grabbing her bag and tugging on Lucius' hair to wake him up.

He awoke with a start and began screaming something about shampoo and root perms. Staring at him quizzically, I smoothed out the wrinkles in my shirt and stood to collect my own things.

"RODOLPHUS! RODOLPHUS!"

The minute I stepped off the train, a wrapped up bundle of clothes came running at me.

"RABASTAN!" I screamed, voice nearly rivaling his. He ran at me and grabbed me around the shoulders and squeezed me so hard I thought I'd pop. "You're home. You're home." He squealed.

"Yeah, I am." I hugged him back, glad to see him again.

We broke apart and I ruffled his hair. The locks had gotten longer, nearly rivaling mine in length. "What has, or rather, hasn't happened to your head?" I asked, running my hands through his hair.

"Oh." He said, eyes growing in size as always. "Sirius and me are doing it. Growing out our hair until one of the adults says something. Well, they're saying stuff now, just is that they're not having it cut for us or anything. We've kept track of the comments and everything on a sheet of paper. You won't believe what the adults say!" He paused and looked around, suddenly seeming to remember something. "You might want to tell Bellatrix to watch out, by the way."

"Why?"

"Well you see, Sirius is—"

"IF YOU EVER LEAVE ME AGAIN I SWEAR TO MERLIN I'LL MURDER YOU!"

I turned around, recognizing the voice instantaneously. Searching the crowd, I found the source of the commotion not far from us. A few feet away were Sirius and Bellatrix. The former seemed to have tackled the latter, causing her to fall backwards onto the floor. His arms were wrapped around her neck, pulling his head close to her chest. "I've been so bloody lonely." He dramatized and then suddenly pushed her away to arms length. "Never leave me again."

I smiled. Same old Sirius, up to his old tricks, with considerably longer hair.

"Sirius Orion Black!" I heard a voice I had only heard maybe twice in my short life. Looking around again, I noticed the rest of the Blacks. Regulus was only standing a few feet away from Sirius, waving shyly to his older cousin. Narcissa and Andromeda were gathered around their mother; the children had their noses turned up to the display and Druella's face was unreadable. Mr. Black (grinning from ear to ear like a buffoon) was not far off, standing next to his brother-in-law, and next to his brother-in-law was his sister, Walburga Black—mother of Sirius and Regulus. She was a shrill, strict woman whom I highly disliked; a lot. She came marching forward and grabbed Sirius up by the collar and marched him from the station. He looked utterly shocked, but was smirking all the same.

I walked over and extended my hand to Bellatrix who was still on the floor.

"Some family you have." I commented, looking over my shoulder at the large group of them.

"Yeah." She pushed my hand away and got up herself.

It was at that moment that Mere came up behind me, putting her arms on my shoulders. Pere soon came up beside us and I noticed he seemed taller than usual. Looking up, I noticed his sudden burst in height—Rabastan was perched on his shoulders, hands wrapped around his head to keep his balance while Pere held onto his legs.

"Same to you." Bellatrix said, her eyes following the path mine had made.

"You should come over during the break." Mere cut in, her social butterfly side taking control. "Bring Sirius if you want." She added.

Bellatrix nodded, smiled at my parents and brother and walked off. Regulus came running up beside her and grabbed her hand, which surprisingly enough, she held.

I looked around as the Blacks left the station and noticed the Malfoys on the other side of where the Blacks had been. The three blondes came walking over toward us, Lucius lagging behind his parents slightly, closer to his mother than father.

"See you at work." Mr. Malfoy said, giving a nod to Pere and eying my brother rather oddly before walking from the station.

Mrs. Malfoy turned to us and gave a smile that seemed to want to excuse her husband's behavior. "You'll be coming to our Christmas party, I hope?"

"Oh yes." Mother said. "We wouldn't miss it for anything."