Oh my god, can it really be? Yes, it's an update! I'm so sorry that it had been forever and a day but this story just hit a wall for so long and then when the wall finally broke up, this chapter decided to be a pain in the butt about being written. I'm still a little iffy on the chapter but I hope it's okay. Reviews would be greatly appreciated and flames will be happily accepted. Well, maybe not happily but they will definately be warrented.

Chapter 22: A Late Christmas

Bella carefully stepped out of the dungeons and into one of the shadows that lined the corridors. It was far past her curfew, nearly one in the morning, and she was sneaking off to meet her friends in the Astronomy Tower. Only a week had gone by since term restarted. Malfoy had returned to classes the second day of the semester with only a few unwilling to heal bruises on his face and Bella had served out every one of her detentions without complaint and hardly talking at all.

Bella carefully shifted the wrapped packages under her arm as she started up the grand staircase, being wary of Filch or Mrs. Norris seeing or hearing her. After ten minutes, she finally made it to the top of the Astronomy Tower with all of her packages intact. She looked around for a moment wondering where her friends could be when she was tapped on the shoulder. She turned around barely keeping in a shriek to find a silently laughing Dustin and a disheveled Jared with an annoyed look on his face.

"He enjoys doing that way too much," he told Bella in a whisper. He then offered her a smile as he offered to hold the packages for her. Handing over three of them, the three friends sat to wait for the other four students that had been invited. Barely a minute later Dustin jumped to his feet as a scuffling noise was heard from the stairs.

"That's my foot Neville," Ron's disembodied voice said as a grunt was heard from another boy. "Sorry Harry."

"S'ok," Harry mumbled as the three boys and Hermione appeared out of thin air right in front of Dustin. The Ravenclaw let out a loud, high pitched scream before his mouth was covered by a fast acting Hermione.

"Shh!" she said as everyone listened for footsteps on the staircase. After a few tense minutes Hermione finally took her hand off of Dustin's mouth, allowing him to start questioning them.

"How did you do that? And I don't scream like a girl," he loudly whispered to Jared and Bella as they both started laughing when Jared commented on the pitch of the scream.

In answer, Harry held up a shimmering cloak. "This. Someone sent it to me for Christmas saying it was my father's," he said quietly.

"An invisibility cloak!" Jared exclaimed. "Those are really rare," he continued in a quieter voice. "I've never seen one that worked so well though."

The seven children sat on the ground in a tight circle as Hermione pulled out two jars and cast a flame spell inside them. She set them in the center of the circle so they could have light and some warmth. Bella then passed out the wrapped packages she had brought. Soon six people in the group had a package.

"Well, go on," Bella told them with a shy smile.

The six of them finally ripped open the plain brown paper on each of their gifts. Each of them pulled out a small painting, only a little larger than an average photograph. Hermione was the first to gasp as the objects on her painting began to move.

"Mum charmed them," Bella explained quietly. "I always make something for family and friends when the holidays come around," she continued slowly turning pink. "I thought you guys would like them."

"Bell, these are amazing," Harry told her from where he was sitting beside her. "Thank you so much." He gave her a one armed hug turning a little pink himself while Bella turned full out red. Dustin quickly hugged her with both arms from the other side once Harry let her go, causing the Slytherin to redden even more.

"Thank you Bell!" he whispered loudly once he released her.

Then they started sharing each of their paintings, smiling and staring in wonderment at each. Harry's was painted with the Gryffindor Quidditch stand in the background and his Nimbus 2000 in the center. Flitting around the painting was a blur that was the golden snitch. Jared's looked somewhat similar also focusing on Quidditch and a snitch but with the Ravenclaw colors and a Nimbus floated in the center. Dustin's was also a Quidditch looking painting but his had a Cleansweep in the center with a beater's bat attached to the broom by a length of leather and a bludger flying around almost as fast as the snitch in the other two paintings. Hermione's painting was covered with stacks of books, mostly their textbooks and other books Bella had seen at Whizz Hard Books, with sheets of paper with the Gryffindor crest on them and a periwinkle quill writing different words across the pages before they disappeared.

"Courageous, intelligent, friend..." Hermione quietly read. Bella scooted close to her friend and gave her a hug.

"All of them true," she told the Gryffindor as she scooted back.

Neville's painting had a large prickly plant painted on it. Hiding behind the untouchable plant was a frog that looked suspiciously like Trevor except that he had a collar and leash on that was attached to the base of the plant. Ron's painting had a Poster of the Chuddley Canons in the background and different types of candy that he had introduced to Harry. In all of the paintings sat a tiny sleeping brown owl in the one of the corners as Bella's signature.

The friends stayed in the Astronomy Tower for nearly another hour just talking about whatever they wanted before beginning to yawn and fall asleep. Soon everyone started sneaking back to the dormitories, the four Gryffindors under the invisibility cloak and Dustin, Jared, and Bella towards the Ravenclaw common room. The parted ways at the base of Ravenclaw Tower and Bella continued towards the dungeons. Before she made it to the dungeons however, she ran into the one Professor she really would rather have avoided.

Professor Snape.

Bella can't stay out of trouble, can she?