Chapter 18: Christmas Parties

December dawned cold and snowy. For Khyana's birthday, Sirius took her out for dinner and no one made a big deal, which made her happy. She didn't like a lot of attention brought to her birthday, unlike most of her other friends. The fact that she was getting older (even though she was only turning 21) was a touchy subject, given her illness, along with the fact that her potion had stopped working.

It had been five months since Leanne's death, and Dumbledore had six or seven herbologists working on why Khyana's potion wasn't working, but so far they had come up empty.

As Christmas approached, the last thing on the aurors' minds was vacation. They had it in mind to work every day possible during the school vacations. Bill Weasley was coming home from Hogwarts, and Molly was having a big Christmas party with the Potters, Kelria and Remus, Khyana and Sirius, Peter Pettigrew and the Longbottoms in attendance. The aurors, therefore, had to do at least one big thing, and no one was going to be able to work on Christmas day (except Sirius and Khyana, who had no family to spend it with). Lily had planned a big Christmas dinner for Christmas day for Sirius and Khyana, Kelria and Remus and the Longbottoms as well, so Sirius and Khyana didn't have to spend it alone. Although they appreciated the gesture, it just put more emphasis on the fact that they had no family.

The day of the Weasleys' party (Christmas Eve) was grey and depressing, and when Kelria woke up, she groaned and rolled over onto her stomach.

"It's grey out," she said aloud. "I'm not waking up."

"Yes, you are," a voice said from her doorway.

She sat bolt upright, to see a very sick-looking Khyana standing in her bedroom doorway.

"What's up, Yana?"

Khyana shrugged. "I dunno. You just need to get up."

Kelria raised her eyebrows. "You don't look so good, Yana."

"Really?" Khyana looked puzzled. "I feel okay. You just need to get out of bed. It's 2 o'clock."

"AM or PM?"

Khyana rolled her eyes. "PM, obviously."

"It's 2 00 PM?!?!?" Kelria cried. "Yana, why'd you let me sleep so long?!"

Khyana shrugged. "It's not my job to wake you up."

Kelria jumped out of bed and tore through her closet looking for something to wear.

"Chill, Kelria, the party's not until 7."

"I don't have anything to wear!" Kelria wailed.

Khyana rolled her eyes again. "You sound like me during our auror exams."

"That was annoying."

"And so are you. So stop whining. You have lots of stuff to wear, you just want an excuse to go shopping."

"Yeah…" Kelria agreed. "What's your point?"

Khyana shook her head. "You don't have to go shopping every time you have to go to a party."

"I do!" Kelria argued.

"No," Khyana said firmly, walking over to the closet. "Look, you have a million things in here you've never even worn!"

Kelria pouted, but Khyana would have none of it.

"It's not a fancy party, Kel! You can just wear normal everyday robes."

Kelria smirked. "Are you going in black, then?"

Khyana glared at her. "You're so funny, Kelria. I just might do that."

Kelria grinned. "Okay."

The party, Kelria later reflected, wasn't that great. Mostly it was just Bill talking about Hogwarts, and Sirius, James, Remus, Peter and Frank reliving their Hogwarts days to him. The women just sat in the kitchen and talked and played with the babies.

Christmas morning dawned sunny, and Kelria smiled as she rolled out of bed at 10 30, looking forward to spending the day with her friends.

Lily had told everyone to be at her house for 11 30, so Kelria hurriedly showered, dressed, and ripped open the presents under her tree. It was a fairly small pile, since her mother had passed away the year before. There were a couple gifts from Remus, and one each from Khyana and Sirius, Lily and James, Alice and Frank, each member of her squad, and the Weasleys.

When she arrived at the Potters', she was surprised to discover that she was not the last one to arrive.

"It's Sirius and Khyana. Obviously they're going to be late," Lily said, sighing.

Everyone agreed, and the door burst open, admitting the two aforementioned late-comers.

"Well, well, well!" James said teasingly. "Look who decided to show up!"

"Shut up, Prongs," Sirius muttered. "Khyana wasn't feeling well this morning."

"Why?" Lily asked, concerned. "What's wrong, Na?"

Khyana, still looking like death warmed over, shrugged. "I dunno. Nothing too bad. I'm fine. Sirius made a big deal of nothing, trust me."

No one really believed her, since she still looked very ill, but no one said anything more about it, either, knowing they would all be hexed into next week if they did.

"Let's eat!" James said suddenly, and everyone made their way into the dinning room for the food.

Khyana barely touched her food, only eating a tiny bit of turkey and nothing else.

"Khyana, why aren't you eating anything?" Alice demanded worriedly.

Khyana shrugged. "I'm not hungry."

Everyone else at the table exchanged looks. Khyana Malfoy, turning down a free meal? It was a very rare occurrence that generated more than a little worry from her friends.

"No potatoes?" Lily asked, trying to entice her. Khyana loved potatoes.

Khyana shook her head. "I'm allergic."

"What?! Since when?"

"Last week," Khyana replied.

"How did you find this out?"

"Went to a herbologist," Khyana replied.

"So is that part of the reason your potion's not working?" Kelria asked eagerly.

Khyana shook her head. "That's what I thought at first too, but she said no, that has nothing to do with it."

Everyone fell into a contemplative silence, and Khyana continued to pick at her turkey.

For the next few hours, everyone talked and laughed and reminisced about their Hogwarts days (which is pretty much what they did every time they all got together), except Khyana was strangely silent, which made more than a couple people extremely uncomfortable, until finally Sirius announced that they really needed to be going. There was a collective sigh of relief around the room, after which no one would look at each other for shame.

"I'm sad that I'm sorry she's gone," Kelria said quietly once Sirius and Khyana had left the house, "But it was just creepy having her sit there looking like Death and not saying anything."

Everyone nodded and murmured their agreement.

"I think she should definitely go see a Healer," Lily said, bouncing the baby on her lap.

"For sure," her husband agreed. "I've talked to Sirius about it, but he says she won't hear of it. She's absolutely convinced nothing's wrong."

Lily and Alice shook their heads.

"She needs to see someone," Alice said firmly.

"Yeah, but she won't if she doesn't think anything's wrong," Remus said.

"So then maybe she needs to be convinced something is wrong," Frank said.

If Frank had known in what way his words would come true, possibly he wouldn't have said them…

A/N: Yes, I am the Cliff-Hanger Queen. So sue me. Haha. Anyway, sorry the update took so long...I had like four pages and then I decided I didn't like it, so I totally had to start over. And I've been super busy lately. Hopefully the next one will be up sooner. R&R people!