Six months later:

"All aboard!" The conductor of the Hogwarts express yelled. The train slowly started moving and I leaned back against the soft seat. It was the first day of Christmas break and I was going back to London and then back to the Burrow for the Weasley Christmas Extravaganza.

Jade nudged me with her foot. "D'you know what we should do? We should meet in London a day before we go back. We can go shopping and see the muggle sights, take a tour, you know?" She suggested. Jade was spending Christmas with her mum in Brighton. Her dad had left them when Jade was 8. He lived in America now and they had no contact with him anymore. It was always weird for me because my family, huge and chaotic as it is, is one of the most important things in my life.

I grinned at jade.

"That sounds great. We can spend the night at my aunt Ginny's and then catch the train with my cousins." I suggested.

"Yes, love that," Jade squealed in excitement. "Speaking of loooove," she lowered her voice. Suggestively, "are you seeing a certain friend of yours at Christmas?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.

I shook my head. She meant Teddy of course. Jade had been updated about our summer romance constantly, mostly because I texted her a paragraph about how great Teddy was just about every day. Especially because Teddy and I had not told anyone in my family that we were dating. It would have been a bit awkward, because my family had not so subtly tried to get us to date for years and if they found out they would a) not have left us alone together and b) my dad would have probably tried to lock me into my room for the rest of my life.

"Unfortunately, a certain friend of mine wont be in the country this Christmas because he and my uncle have to take care of about 40 sick dragons. They have the flue and uncle Charlie and Teddy volunteered to stay behind so their Romanian colleagues could be with their families." I explained.

"So you're devastated?" Jade guessed.

"Honestly, no. It's easier to not think about Teddy when he's, you know, not there. She laughed and I felt a bit better. Thinking about him still hurt, even though I hadn't seen him for almost 5 months. Not like I was counting or anything. Plus, he had all but broken up with me at platform nine and three quarters before I went back to Hogwarts for my last year.

"You should focus on school and I wont even be in the country. You deserve someone who is actually here for you." Teddy had said before kissing me goodbye. I had spent half the train ride crying. Jade had done everything in her power to cheer me up and we ended up buying half of the pumpkin pasties and chocolate frogs from the trolley witch. After that it got better. At Hogwarts I could at least distract myself by studying, or snogging other boys, or drinking.

I was hoping that I could escape all mention of Teddy over Christmas, but knowing my family that was more than unlikely. Uncle Harry was well on the way to founding the official Teddy Lupin Fanclub and he talked about his godson and how proud he was of him every chance he got. My parents weren't much better. My mum had tried to set me up with Teddy since I was 5. My dad was way overprotective of me and would freak out. Teddy wasn't exactly the most innocent angel of all of Hogwarts. What really hadn't helped was that my cousin had absolutely seen Teddy and I kissing before I left for Hogwarts and she had for sure told everyone in the family. I hadn't received any angry letters about it, though, so maybe my dad was not as mad as I thought. I could already tell that this Christmas would be a lot of questions about me and Teddy and I was not prepared to talk about that, especially not with my collective family.

"I think we're almost there," Jade pointed out and I looked out the window. Sure enough, the fields and mountains had given way to the rows of houses of Londons suburbs.

Jade and I said goodbye on the platform, where she left to get a train to Bristol and I stayed to find my siblings. My dad was supposed to pick us up but I usually made sure to find them before we went to find him, just in case one of them had fallen asleep on the train or something.

I spotted my sister Dominique, she was almost as tall as me even though she was two years younger. She had more curves, too. We both had a very similar face, but my features always seemed pointier, more like my french grandmother, whereas Dominique had her Veela beauty, but also softer, kinder features. I made my way to where Dominique was standing with her Gryffindor friends and tried to get her to wrap up her animated conversation about international magical relations.

Dominique already had more of an idea about what she wanted to do with her life than me.

I was always pushing away any thoughts about the future, telling myself I had time, but I only had half a year left at Hogwarts and no idea what would happen afterwards.

"Where's Louis?" Dominique pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Dunno, I was looking for him." I told her and we left her friends to find our brother.

We found Louis already with our dad, chatting excitedly about everything he had learned.

"Girls!" My dad beamed when he saw us an hugged both of us.

I would have been embarrassed, but I was too glad to see him.