Boo! Hahahaha, scared ya, didn't I? No? Oh… ok, then… um…
Thank you Anon, Sam and Erin for reviewing!
Disclaimer: I only own Mia… oh! And Jess and Sally and Mia's parents…
Ok… so… this chapter basically just spans Christmas…
Chapter 10: Christmas!
December rolled around, bringing with it sleet and snow. Mia's cloak, scarf, hat and gloves moved from under her bed, to a new home right at the foot of it, where she could grab them quickly when she left the dormitory. Every morning, when she woke up, she groaned when she saw the new blanket of snow, and dreaded going outside and she also took to wearing two pairs of socks. During the weekends, the common room was emptier then usual, with everyone outside throwing around snowballs.
The only people in the common room during Sunday afternoon were people who either hated the cold, or were doing homework. Mia, Angelina, Hermione, Ron, Harry, some second years, and some fourth years. Mia stared at her blank piece of parchment, then started flicking through her Transfiguration book. "Ugh! I'm going to the library!" she muttered, slamming her book shut.
She was traipsing through the Entrance Hall when Fred and George came in through the doors. "Where ya going?" Fred asked as they came up behind her.
"Library," she replied.
"Why?" Fred asked, as if she was doing something utterly crazy. Well, I guess to Fred going to the library is utterly crazy…
"'Cause I need to find something for my Transfiguration homework."
"Fine, be boring," Fred shrugged, "I'm going to common room. Coming, George?"
"Uh… no, I'll stay with Mia," he replied.
"Fine, you be boring too." Fred rolled his eyes and went up the stairs.
Mia and George strolled through the castle. They passed McGonagall on the first floor, and Flitwick scurried past, followed by several first years, on the second floor. As they passed the first years, Mia looked down at them, and they looked up at her. She was sure she wasn't that short when she was in first year. As they were walking down the third floor, George slipped his hand into hers. When they finally reached the library, Mia looked back to him and breathed out heavily. Madam Pince looked up from where she was prowling around.
"What?" he asked. She shook her head, detaching her hand so she could pull a book off its shelf. "What?" he asked again. Before answering, Mia opened the book and skimmed her eyes down the contents, then put the book back, pulling down another one.
"Its just… ok… haw long have we known each other?" she asked, flicking through pages.
"Seven years, why?"
"And… when did you start liking me?" she put the book back and walked to the other side of the shelf.
"Forth year, I guess…" she looked up at him, closing another book and swapping it for a thin green one.
"I was a statue for most of that year," she replied, and he shrugged.
"Maybe you not being there made me realise I liked you."
"Well that makes sense," she put the thin green book back and trailed her finger across the shelf, pulling down one at random, but put it back as she realised it was actually a book on Divination, not Transfiguration.
"What 'bout you?" George asked. She thought about it for a second.
"Beginning of fifth," she pulled down a stack of books and dumped them down on the table a few feet away, sorting through them. "So how long ago was that?" she asked.
"Couple years ago," he shrugged.
"Exactly," she lifted up a Charms book and found a Transfiguration book underneath.
"Exactly… what?" she opened the Transfiguration book. When she answered, she didn't look up and continued turning the pages with glazed over eyes.
"We'd been friends for… four or five years… and then after that… we spent one or two years still… pretending we were still just friends… and then we got together… and it's all just a bit… I dunno…" she closed the book and put it down on the table, sorting through the pile to find another Transfiguration one. When she couldn't find one, she put all the books back and picked up the Transfiguration one, taking it up to Madam Pince so she could take it out.
"I don't get it…" he said as they walked out of the library. Mia sighed, frustrated.
"The point is… it's just… odd, I guess… to not have to… act like friends anymore…" they walked out of the library and started making their way up to Gryffindor tower. "I mean… it makes more sense in my head…" they turned a corner and saw peeves bobbing around, so they slipped through a tapestry and up a hidden staircase.
George looked down at the back of her head and heaved a sigh. He caught hold of her arm, twisting her around. "What?" she asked, looking up at him.
"Odd in a good or bad way?" he asked, crossing his arms. She smirked and laughed a bit.
"Good way, obviously," she replied. She continued walking and ducked through another tapestry at the top of the staircase, and walked down the hallway.
"Mia?" George said.
"Yes, George?" she replied. They rounded a corner and started walking towards the portrait hole.
"What would you if I told you-"
"There you are!" the Fat Lady's portrait swung open and Angelina poked her head out. "I was wondering how long it'd take you to get a book from the library!"
"It's a big library!" Mia defended, rolling her eyes. "What were you saying, George?" she asked, entering the common room.
"Never mind," he replied, sighing.
It was a couple of days before the end of term. The Room of Requirement was almost full, and finally, the last members of the DA, Colin and Dennis Creevey, entered. Up the front, Harry stood up.
"OK, I thought this evening we should just go over the things we've done so far, because it's the last meeting before the holidays and there's no point starting anything new right before a three-week break –" he was cut off by Zacharias Smith.
"We're not doing anything new?" he sneered, "If I'd known that, I wouldn't have come."
"We're all really sorry Harry didn't tell you, then," Fred said. Everyone in the room laughed and Zacharias glared moodily at the ceiling.
Harry carried on as if he hadn't been interrupted. "We can practise in pairs. We'll start with the Impediment Jinx, for ten minutes, then we can get out the cushions and try Stunning again."
Mia partnered up with Katie. Since coming to DA meetings, her aim had improved immensely. She now managed to hit whatever she was shooting at eight times out of ten, and with quite good results.
"Impedimenta!" she said, pointing her wand at Katie, who stumbled back a bit before shooting the jinx at Mia. She felt herself slow down for a minute. A couple of times, her spell went off target and hit Ginny, who was practising a few feet away.
After about ten minutes, Harry blew the whistle and the group split into two so they could practice Stunning. Mia sat with Angelina and Fred, and watched Katie and Alicia stun each other, while George paired up with Ron, who continually missed the cushions.
When it was the second groups turn, Mia paired with Fred, knocking him back at least ten times in a row. She missed the cushions once, and when she unfroze, she stood up, rubbing the back of her head.
Finally, Harry blew his whistle. "You're getting really good," he said, smiling at all of them. "When we get back from the holidays we can start doing some of the big stuff- maybe even Patronuses!" there was a mutter of excitement.
Everyone left in their usual twos and threes. "Happy Christmas, Harry," Mia said, as everyone else had done.
The following morning, Mia woke up and headed down to the Great Hall, but Fred and George weren't there. She shrugged it off; they were probably doing something. But they weren't in Charms, or in Transfiguration, and McGonagall seemed distracted, she didn't even ask for their homework. At lunch, Hermione slipped into a seat opposite her, looking worried.
"What?" Hermione looked around, making sure that nobody was listening.
"Last night," she whispered, and Mia had to lean in to hear her, "Mr Weasley got attacked-"
"What?" Mia hissed. Hermione shushed her and went on.
"Harry saw it, in a dream. Mr Weasley's at St Mungo's now, and Harry, Ron, Ginny, Fred and George went back to Grimmauld Place last night. McGonagall just told me."
"So that's why she was distracted in Transfiguration!" Mia exclaimed.
"Mmm. I'm going to see them once term ends. Just thought I'd tell you."
"Thanks, Hermione," Mia sighed.
For the next to days, Mia sat in worry. She sat with Angelina, Alicia and Katie on the way back to London on the Hogwarts Express, but she didn't talk much. Just stared out of the window.
She grinned when she saw Sally at Kings Cross, and they Disapparated back to Mia's house. Sally had said that she'd been to visit Mr Weasley in St Mungo's, and that he was doing fine. Mia nodded and headed inside to greet her parents.
"How was school?" her mother asked her.
"It was fine. But we do have this one new teacher, she's horrible." She didn't elaborate on Umbridge. She explained to her parents about all the homework she'd been getting, but that she was coping with it, and that she wasn't really worried about her exams at the end of the year. Which was a lie.
On Christmas Eve, Mia's cousin, Jess, came down from London. Mia beamed when she saw here, and ran out of the door with bear feet. Which she later regretted, but oh well. Jess was a short woman, with short, choppy black hair and the same too-wide, brown eyes as Mia.
"How's the boarding school?" she asked. Jess believed that Mia went to boarding in the south of England. It was the only lie Mia had ever told her.
"It's good!" Mia grinned.
"And how's the boyfriend?" Jess winked.
"He's fine, too." Make that two lies.
With Jess there, Christmas seemed to go much quicker. Mia managed to send a few letters to Fred and George over the holidays, though they didn't say much. Fred and George couldn't tell her much in case the letters got intercepted, and Mia didn't really have much to say. Once, Jess caught one of the owls flying away from the house, but Mia managed to convince her it was probably a pigeon or something.
The day after Boxing Day, Jess went back to London, with the plan of having Mia staying at hers for a week in the summer holidays, just like she always did. A few days after New Year, Sally knocked on the front door, and Mia said goodbye to her parents, lugging her trunk out behind her, and wearing the new shoes she gotten from Jess. Electric blue boots, with a five inch heel and copper coloured zip.
They Apperated to Kings Cross, where Mia boarded the Hogwarts Express and found Angelina sitting in a compartment. Katie and Alicia joined them half an hour later, and the train set off back to Hogwarts.
"How was your Christmas, then?" Angelina asked.
"Yeah, it was good," Mia replied, and then held up her feet to show everyone her boots.
When they got back to Hogwarts, Mia had to accept that George, Fred, Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny hadn't returned yet and hadn't been in a different compartment because they couldn't find the one she was in. So she spent the rest of day finishing off some homework.
That evening, the portrait hole swung open to reveal Harry, Ron, Fred, Hermione, George and Ginny, with red faces from the cold outside. A few people looked up at them, and Mia shot out of her chair and was over to them in an instant. "What happened?" she asked. A couple of them shushed her and they settled in a group by the fire. "Well?" Mia said.
"Dad'll be fine," Ginny said.
"That's good. But… what actually happened?" they told her the story of how Harry had seen Mr Weasley get attacked by a snake in a dream, and how they had been woken up in the middle of the night and taken to Grimmauld Place. When they went to visit Mr Weasley and he'd tried stitches on the wound.
"Ugh, when I was ten I promised myself I'd never get stitches!" Mia muttered, "couple weeks later I slit my leg open on the garden fence when I fell out of the tree," she looked around at the, "but he'll be ok? Yeah?"
"He'll be ok," Hermione said.
So… I guess this chapter was alright… and you got to meet Jess, Mia's cousin, who's been mentioned many times before…
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