Two Letters

James looked up from the letter he was holding in his hands and examined Mary Alice who was sitting across the table from him with an amused expression, thoroughly engrossed in the toast she was eating. Noticing her little brother staring at her, Mary Alice glared at him and demanded, "What are you looking at," as she sprayed bits of toast across the table.

"That's disgusting," James grumbled before he held the letter up, "So you couldn't resist crushing all Mum's ridiculous fantasies could you?" Mary Alice grinned evilly as she proceeded to shove another piece of toast into her already stuffed mouth. "Well I really wouldn't be me if I didn't try would I little brother?" James rolled his eyes.

After Gryffindor's first match of the season, (which is not summarized simply for the fact that the Gryffindor House Team was mercilessly beaten, no make that pummeled into the ground by Ravenclaw), Mary Alice had taken it upon herself to dash off a letter to her mother graphically detailing every reason why she hated Gideon Prewett, the person who, according to herself and Fabian, had single handedly thrown the match when he proved in front of the entire school that he was the worst Keeper Hogwarts had ever seen.

Of course Arabella and James, who had been sitting next to each other at the match, had realized the real reason Gideon couldn't do a thing right was because he was staring at Mary Alice the whole time. "Poor love sick sap," Arabella had exclaimed as they made their way up from the pitch after the game.

James had made a strange noise in the back of his throat. Sirius had been rather put out by the whole thing and somehow managed to convince his new comrades to help set off a barrage of Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No-Heat Fireworks in the entry hall, which had earned them all a weeks worth of detention but managed to make Sirius feel slightly better, especially after seeing Filch's furious face and hearing his threats to string the group of boys up by their ears.

Arabella had refused to help, "Not if that overgrown ape is going to be there," she had said heatedly well starring at Sirius before running off to join that Lily Evans girl. McGonagall had given all four boys detention and written to their parents.

But the letter which James held in his hands mentioned little of the incident in the hallway although it did touch on it briefly at the bottom of paragraph three. No, the majority of the text was devoted to Evelyn Potter's heartbroken ramblings.

"What did you do now Mary Alice?" Sturgis cried from where he was sitting several people down from the two Potter's. "What? Nothing," Mary Alice claimed as she glanced nervously at the letter James held. "Yeah I'm sure," said Sturgis as he bounded up and grabbed the letter in one graceful movement. "Oh what does it say?" Emmeline and Alice chorused together as the made to read over Sturgis's shoulders. Mary Alice made one half hearted attempt to grab at the letter before resigning herself to eating more toast. "Your sister certainly likes to eat," commented Sirius under his breath to James. James nodded, "nervous habit of hers," he muttered back.

"Dearest James," Sturgis read out in an overly mocking feminine voice. "So is Sturgis reading another one of your Mum's letters then," asked Arabella as she sat down on the side of James that was opposite Sirius. "Well yeah it's about Mary Alice so I guess he just feels the need to make her life a bit more miserable. Must not have hit his quota yet this week," James said in an offhand manner.

Mary Alice glowered at him over the table as she proceeded to eat the better part of a blueberry muffin. "You're going to get quite fat one day if you keep on eating like that," Arabella said distractedly as she strained to hear what Sturgis was reading. It wasn't hard to do. He was quite loud.

"I have just received the most distressing letter from your sister. She seems in a right state although I am sure you are quite aware of this. It would appear from her words, that she is rather unhinged after losing her first Quidditch match," Sturgis paused here and guffawed loudly, "As if you weren't already completely off your rocker before!" Mary Alice muttered something under her breath that sound particularly explicit to the group first year's sitting across from her. Sturgis hardly noticed as he continued reading dramatically for a giggling Alice and Emmeline.

"Now James, you know quite well that I am all for athletics but I am very worried that Marigold isn't quite up to the challenges that such strenuous activities entail. This is especially the case when those aforementioned emotions cause her to take on such strong feelings of resentment towards other members of her team." "Oh here it comes, my favorite part of every Evelyn Potter letter," Alice cried with glee. "Yours and mine both" muttered Mary Alice as she rolled her eyes up to the story ceiling of the Great Hall.

Sirius glanced at James curiously but James just motioned for him to listen, a small grin across his face. Sturgis cleared his throat dramatically and continued reading the next sentence. "Your Father seems to think this is all completely ridiculous, but I know better. It's setting precedence for year's to come, and knowing your sister and her habits quite well I am more then worried. If your sister writes such horrid things about Gideon Prewett, how can she possibly be pleasant to his face? If she is rude to his face, how will he ever fall in love with her? If he doesn't fall in love with her how are they supposed to get married? Mrs. Prewett and I are just beside our selves with worry about the whole situation," Sturgis had to stop reading here because he was laughing to hard to continue.

He wasn't the only one. Alice was practically rolling on the floor, Arabella was engaging in a very un-Arabella session of hysterical giggles. Even Emmeline, the normally composed member of the group, was laughing so hard that tears were coming to her eyes.

"What? Your Mum wants to marry Mary Alice off to Prewett," Sirius asked with surprise. "Only been planning it since the day she was born," replied James. "That seems a little er…odd" concluded Sirius finally. "Yeah well if you ever see me Mum and Mrs. Prewett in action together you'll find a whole new definition for odd. Dad tries not to let them get together very often anymore after the whole New Year's Eve of 67'…actually he tries not to let them get together when there is a large supply of Champagne around, is more like it. Either way it's a bad idea in my opinion." "That would be quite interesting to see though," said Sirius with a grin.

"No, really you don't want to! It happened again last summer it was horrible! Ask Arabella!" James hissed forcefully. Arabella turned starred at Sirius with a scared expression on her face, "I've never seen anything like it," she whispered in a frightened voice. "His Mum tried to get me betrothed to Fabian Prewett. They planned our whole wedding and that was before they brought out the Mulled Mead!" James nodded wide eyed, "See what I'm talking about mate?" Sirius secretly still thought this would be quite an interesting occurrence to see but decided by the reaction he had just received, keeping this opinion to him self might be the best course of action.

Sturgis was still attempting to read the next line of the letter, but was having quite a time with it as he was gasping for air between bursts of laughter. That was when Gideon Prewett walked into the Great Hall. Mary Alice took one look at Gideon, causing her eyes to grow the size of small dinner plates before she jumped up grabbed the letter from Sturgis's hand and hissed, "That is quite enough of that!" and hurried out of the hall, ignoring the sounds of laughter trailing her as she went. Gideon, for his part, starred rather forlornly at her retreating back. "Poor sap," muttered Arabella before turning to James and inquiring as to whether he had finished his potions essay.

Arabella and Lily were sitting in their room one evening in early November, it was a rainy night and the wind could be heard as it howled around the windows of Gryffindor tower. Both had found themselves unable to concentrate in the common room where they had been sitting earlier trying to complete their Transfiguration homework.

James had taken it upon himself to keep Arabella company; despite her insistence that she really didn't need any and that she actually would prefer he left so she could concentrate on what she was doing. Lily had spent the entire time she should have been practicing wand movements, shooting James the most evil looks she could possibly manage.

So finally Arabella had excused herself and Lily, while Lily narrowed her eyes and glared at James, and both girls had retreated to their room where much to their delight they realized they had all to themselves as all their room mates were still down in the common room.

Abandoning her homework Arabella sprawled out onto her bed and grinned at Lily. Lily looked up at Arabella and decided to take a five minute break, just this once. Pulling her knees in so she was sitting Indian style she smiled at her friend. "Can you believe it's already November?" she asked. Arabella ran her fingers through her long black hair as she glanced up at Lily, "Yeah I guess it went kind of fast. I don't really pay attention to that sort of thing you know."

Lily rolled her eyes, "Right off course not, well I just said that because it means it's almost Christmas." Arabella's expression which she worked so hard to keep indifferent sagged noticeably at Lily's words. Lily knitted her eyebrows, "What? Don't you like Christmas?" Arabella sighed, "Its fine. Really Christmas is over rated Lily."

"What do you mean? No it isn't!"

"Really I don't like it. Never have."

"Are you mad?"

Arabella glared at Lily, "No I am not mad. Thank you. I just would rather not think about it is all."

"Well why not?"

Arabella glanced up, "All right I'll tell you. But you cannot tell anyone else. Promise!"

"I won't tell anyone," replied Lily automatically feeling herself get rather excited at the prospect of learning something that no one else knew.

"Well it's not that big of a deal, but I just found out the other day…that well…I have to stay here for the Holidays. It would be alright I guess, but well no one else is going to be here. You're going home, James is going home, obviously Mary Alice is and well…I mean I am used to spending the Holidays alone. I have all my life, but it doesn't make it all that pleasant you know?" Lily looked at Arabella incredulously, "What do you mean you have always spent the holidays alone?"

"Well I've told you about Mamma and Papa, they are very busy. Especially around the holidays, they have parties to attend every night. Meetings during the day, luncheons, brunches, balls. You can't really take someone who is my age with you to those things. This year is no different of course, they wrote me and said that it would just be easier to have me stay at school since they are going to be in Italy, then at least they don't have to worry about hiring a nanny back on over the holidays. But it isn't a big deal of course; I mean I understand that is just my Father's job. It's important." Arabella added quickly at the end, making an effort to show Lily that she really couldn't care one way or the other. She didn't do a very good job.

"That's really horrible Bella," Lily finally said, unsure of what else to say, "I'm very sorry." Arabella shrugged her shoulders, "Like I said Lily, I don't care." Leaning back for several seconds Lily starred up at the curtains above her head, like she always tended to do when she was deep in thought.

"What if….what if you came home with me for the holiday," she sputtered suddenly as she sat up quickly, feeling a smile spread across her face at the sheer brilliance of the idea. Arabella looked at Lily with wide eyes, "Really? You would want me to?" she said with excitement.

All though not many people noticed, Arabella was rather unconfident when it came to people really caring about her and it would always come as a bit of a shock to her when people made large gestures like Lily was prone to making. Unselfishness was not something that she was used to, as she had spent the first eleven years of her life living with one of the most selfish women in Wizarding Europe.

Lily grinned, "Well of course. I can't believe I didn't think of it before! I mean how much fun would that be? You could meet my parents and see my house, live like a Muggle. Have you ever been in a Muggle house?"

The two girls spent the rest of the evening discussing the upcoming holiday, both absolutely beside themselves with excitement. The next morning Lily awoke early and dashed of to the Owlery to send her parents a quick note asking if Arabella might come and spend the Christmas holiday with them.

All day the two girls talked about what they would do over their break together. "I can't imagine nearly three weeks without magic," Arabella said with wonderment. "It's not as bad as you're imagining Arabella" Lily laughed.

The next morning at breakfast as Arabella and Lily found seats as far from James and Sirius as they could possibly manage without having to sit at a different table, the mail arrived. One of the large tawny colored school owls swooped down and deposited a letter next to Lily's goblet of pumpkin juice.

Lily recognized the swooping handwriting on the outside of the envelope as her mother's. Excitedly she ripped it open, as her green eyes scanned the letter Arabella held her breath and felt her heart plummet as she saw Lily's face droop with disappointment. "What did they say," Arabella finally asked. Lily looked up at Arabella as her lip began to quiver familiarly, "Don't cry," Arabella said loudly. Lily paid her no heed as she jumped up and hurried out of the great hall. Arabella rolled her eyes and noticed that Lily had left the letter sitting on the table.

Unable to resist, after all, she reasoned, how she was supposed to comfort Lily if she didn't know all the pieces of the situation, Arabella picked up the letter and began reading.

Dear Lily

You're Father and I think it is wonderful that you have made such good friends at school. We know this Arabella girl has been a good friend to you so far, as much we have gathered from all your letters. We understand that it might seem like fun to have a friend come home with you for the holidays but we certainly wouldn't want Arabella to not spend Christmas with her family. After all that is what Christmas is all about, dear. I am sure that you were quite excited about having her come home with you, but imagine how Arabella's family would feel if they learned that she wouldn't be joining them for the holidays. That is the question that your father and I asked ourselves and we decided that if it were you asking to go somewhere else for Christmas we simply would be heartbroken. So my darling, please try and see where your Dad and I are coming from. We aren't trying to be mean or upset you; we simply want Arabella to have the opportunity to see her family over the holidays. That's not to say she couldn't spend a weekend with us or something, but we just don't believe the whole break would be a good idea.

Arabella stopped reading here and tossed the letter into her bad to give back to Lily later. Realizing that she wasn't the slightest bit hungry anymore she got up from the table and decided to copy Lily's exit. Don't be disappointed, she told herself, the letter made sense. It's your own fault for getting your hopes up. You should know better then that by now. Normal parents would of course want their children to spend the holidays with them, to bad my parents are completely out of their minds.

Rolling her eyes, she suddenly realized that Lily had clearly not told her parents the full extent of the situation, at least gathering from what the letter had said it certainly didn't seem like it. Finding herself slightly mollified by the fact that Lily had kept her promise about keeping Arabella's biggest secret, or what she considered her biggest secret at the age of eleven, that her parents would rather attend a party then spend time with their daughter.

Arabella felt herself less annoyed with Lily's parents yet no less irritated with herself. If their was one thing Arabella had learned over the years it was to not let herself get excited about anything that wasn't completely within her control and she had broken her cardinal rule. Sighing deeply she tossed her hair over her shoulders and grimaced as she heard a voice behind her. "That one certainly cries a lot."

Whirling around Arabella glowered at Sirius Black. "Why don't you go get eaten by the Giant Squid or something?" Peter Pettigrew laughed out loud from where he stood next to Sirius, despite the patronizing glare Sirius threw at him. "What's got your wand in a knot?" he said sarcastically. "Nothing, I just don't think you should make any sort of judgment on someone you don't know at all, especially someone who is my friend."

"Well she is really, really emotional Chiavatti. She cries at least once a week." Arabella found herself unable to argue with Sirius, but also didn't seem able to walk away from the situation either, as it would feel like he would win.

"Why don't you just keep your little comments to yourself Black? There's an idea. Keep your big mouth shut!"

Sirius narrowed his eyes with dislike, "Why don't you do everyone a favor and follow your own advice. You have got to be the rudest, self centered, stuck up girl I have ever met!"

"Your one to talk! You won't even talk to your cousins in Slytherin. You have got to be the most heartless git alive!"

"You know what Chiavatti, why don't you just go run home to your parents. We all know all about them, its completely obvious you're their daughter. The way you act. The way you expect everyone to treat you, like your bloody royalty or something. Here is a news flash your not. I bet you can't wait for the holiday so you can go home and get everyone to wait on you hand and foot and have your parents spoil you a bit more!"

Arabella nearly choked as she heard Sirius's last insult hurled at her, she could barely see. She could feel herself grinding her teeth. She wasn't exactly sure which statement had really set her off, perhaps it was the cut at her personality, or how she expected people to treat her.

More then likely though it was Sirius's misinformed cut at how alike her parents she was. But it certainly worked, she couldn't remember being so angry in a long time.

Forgetting everything, forgetting she was a witch and that she had a wand in her pocket, which she knew how to use. Forgetting that she was in the middle of a crowded hallway, she hurled herself at Sirius fists raised.

For a split second she saw the anger in Sirius's face switch to shock. But as her fist connected with his face she was stunned to realize he looked surprisingly like James.

She was even more flabbergasted to see James lying on the floor starring at her with a shocked expression, Sirius standing several feet back from him. "What the hell Arabella?" James yelled. "What are you doing?"

Arabella yelled right back, "I was trying to hit that git! What were you doing?" "I was trying to stop you from doing something really stupid." James yelled back as he massaged his cheek which was turning quite red.

"POTTER, CHIAVATTI!" came the furious voice of Professor McGonagall from behind them. "What are you- FIGHTING?! Like Muggles? I never! Disgrace! Detention for both of you! Thirty points from Gryffindor." "No Professor it wasn't J…" Arabella tried to get out.

"Quite Chiavatti you are in enough trouble as it is!" "No see Professor" Sirius attempted to say. "What is wrong with you Black? Do you want a punishment too! I dare say you are feeling left out!" James groaned up from the floor as he massaged his cheek, as Professor McGonagall yelled at him and Arabella for another ten minutes.

Authors Note- Sorry Sorry Sorry it took me so long to get this out. I am having the worst case of writers block imaginable. I know where I want this story to go...just having a little trouble getting there! Ill try and be more regular with updates.

I want to say a special thanks to AnitaPotter for her reviews, both of them :)! Oh and I know I do have a bit of a problem getting the chapters out- like I said above. Im trying to make it better though!