The first thing that alerted Ginny that something was wrong with Elizabetha was the rough, raspish screaming. After all, any screaming tends to be quite the pointer on such matters, but Elizabetha screaming just seemed even worse, somehow. If she could survive being raised by dementors, creatures that literally sucked the soul out, what could possible scare her?

The second thing that alerted her was that the blond girl was currently clinging bodily to her side, one arm around her shoulder and the other with wand raised, and her legs wrapped around Ginny's waist.

"Er... Lizzy, are you okay there?" She asked, to which Elizabetha shimmied a bit further down her side to whisper/rasp quietly in her ear.

"There's green stuff on the walls." She croaked, still glaring.

Indeed, there was green stuff on the walls. Apparently, the house elves had deemed it a suitable time to start putting up Christmas decorations, and so had hung wreaths and garlands along the corridor walls. Ginny and Elizabetha were headed for an early breakfast when they left the common room, and soon ended up in the festively decorated halls.

"... Yes, Elizabetha, there is green stuff on the walls. That's a garland."

"Why is it growing on the walls?" Lizzy demanded, still whispering. Actually, Ginny's side was begging to cramp a bit from her weight, and her still blue hair was tickling her nose. She had done it up in ringlets as usual, and they bounced against Ginny's face as the other girl trembled.

"It's not actually growing there." Ginny whispered conspiratorially back, having decided to play along. "It was hung there. By elves."

"B-but- but... Why?" The blond asked, finally deeming it safe and dropping off her human perch and back to the ground. She still kept her wand raised at the offending greenery, though, and took a few slow steps forward, her pale, dark circled eyes wide and suspicious.

"To decorate for Christmas. It's only a while away now, you know. In just a few days, we'll be going for break soon."

"Huh? What break? And what's Christmas?" Ginny froze. Did Elizabetha not know what Christmas was? Was that even possible? Someone must have mentioned it somewhere down the line, right?

"I swear, first muggles, and now this. What else do you not know?" She demanded. She might as well have a heads up.

"Many things. However, some of them are more pressing in my mind then others. For instance, one I always wanted to know, was that Sirius always mentioned getting laid, but I could never get him to tell me what that actually meant. He'd just cackle and tell me to ask him again when I was older. Do you know what getting lain means?"

Ginny then concluded that this was going to be one of those days.

xXx

In the pitch black room, glowing pale eyes met his, big wide ones that looked a bit too unnatural to be completely human. "Sirius?" A voice asked, changing halfway through the name from hoarse, high pitched and feminine to a voice that was hauntingly familiar, a high, boyish tone that practically dripped excitement. James' voice. The eyes changed too, from icy greyish blue to brilliant, killing curse green. Lily's eyes.

"Sirius Black? I'll kill him. I swear it, I'll kill him." That same voice swore, vehemence leaking into the previously playful tone. "I'll kill him for betraying my parents."

Sirius awoke with a gasp and bolted up into a sitting position, his heart thudding away in his chest and sweat dripping down his back. He looked around for the green eyes or the owner of the voice, but all he saw was the chamber and it's occupants. A tangle of limbs on the rock floors where Nettle and Jacob formed a pile of pixie and werewolf, a great snake shaped pillar where Mika leaned, drowsing. A section of the floor spelled soft where Tom slept, breathing heavily and occasionally whimpering in his sleep.

Well. At least I'm not the only one with nightmares. Sirius thought, comforting himself slightly with the other misfortune. Wow, if that doesn't make me sound like a horrible person, then I don't know what does. Oh, right, the fact that I helped poison a woman. He paused for a bit before shrugging and laying back down on the hard floor.

...Nah, that toad had it coming. One simply does not wear that much pink and not expect someone top kill her sooner or later. Oh, plus she was a major *Bleep* Was his last thought before his drifted off to sleep again, this time blissfully dreamless.

Siriusly.

xXx

Elizabetha was highly confused. Every since these "Christmas Decorations" had been put up, her friends and class mates were acting differently. Even the meals were different, with some of her favorite food disappearing to be replaced with various roasted fowl and cakes and some of the remaining foods were dyed into shades of red and green. She could hardly eat without her stomach eating at it was, but now she could hardly eat at all because all of the food was now too strong for her. And, somehow, the dye made her feel even more self conscious about her hair. Was even food mocking the blue? Was food capable of such things?

But most upsetting, was when she walked into Defense Against the Dark Arts class.

Mrs. Malfoy had decorated her classroom, albeit in a very upper class, sophisticated way. There was a tree in the corner, and a wreath on the door, and she had little silver bells for earrings that jingled when she moved her head and reminded Elizabetha of Nettle.

And Elizabetha found herself actually liking it.

Oh no.

This would not do at all.

xXx

...This is what happens when you forget to actually put up the chapter you wrote... Oops...

Anyhow, you know that awkward part of the holidays when suddenly, your family starts asking whether you're dating anyone or not? And when you're not, they try to figure out why you're not? And then you try to tell them, but for some reason they won't accept "Well, I'm technically still married to that cat from when I was six, but I have had a few affairs with an alien named Kisshu, plus there's this really cute boy in Code Geass that I've had my eye on..." as a viable excuse?

...Okay, fine, the cat died two years ago, I'm a widow. But whatever.

Also, since somebody left a review about this, I just wanted to say that yes, I know, everyone does have a different name for Blaise's mother. It's a very interesting phenomenon, sort of like the Let's-All-Try-To-Kill-Harry-Potter Effect. But I actually stole the name from another fanfic because I loved how schmancy and sophisticated it sounded. I don't remember which, though. "Rise of a New Dark Lord," maybe? I don't know. So don't give me credit for how awesome "Maura" sounds.

Anyhow, excuse my ranting, thank you so much for reading, and please leave a review! Byeeeee!