"Is it okay to be afraid of hope if you don't know how to keep it?"

An Early Christmas Surprise

At last, it was time to go home for Christmas. The week of detentions had flew by, given they didn't require much hard work as the teachers didn't need much done prior to the holidays. Riley left the castle with Lily and Mary and stood outside a carriage to wait on Snape. When he arrived, all four of them got in.

No one really said much except for Lily who was obviously trying to get the other three to converse with each other, but it wasn't happening. It was an awkward silence once Lily gave up and Riley almost fell out of the carriage just to escape it all.

When all four of them were out, Lily walked with Mary and Riley to the station where they hugged and said their goodbye's.

"I'll send your presents as soon as I can," Lily said pulling the both of them into another hug. "Have a lovely time!"

"Bye, Lils," Mary said, pulling away.

Riley hugged her for a little longer but let go.

"Bye! I'll miss you!"

"I'll miss you too, Riles!"

Riley and Mary both left their trunks and got onto the train. The two girls looked a each other, not use to being alone together without Lily. Mary was friends with almost everybody in their year from every house except Slytherin and other than Lily, her other best friend was Kirsty Letham, a Ravenclaw.

"Riley! Are you sitting with us?"

With a quick glance behind her, Riley saw Sirius, Remus and Peter sticking their heads out of a compartment door. She then turned back to Mary.

"I'm going to go find Kirsty. Have a nice Christmas."

Feeling like a weight had been lifted off of her shoulder, Riley wished Mary a Merry Christmas too and walked down and into the compartment the boys had occupied. The place was a tip already.

Peter seemed to be going through his trunk, looking for his wand. Remus had stacks of chocolate piled next to him, five wrappers were already open and the train hadn't even moved yet and Sirius had parchment everywhere.

The only spot Riley could find was in the right hand side corner next to the door. She sat down and dug into her bag and pulled out a list.

"What's that?" Sirius asked her.

"My Christmas list for everyone."

"Oh! Let me see!"

Sirius dived for the list but Riley was to quick and scrunched it up and put it in her mouth. Sirius stared at her in shock. The whole compartment was quiet with the boys waiting to see if she would take the paper out. Riley just stared at Sirius.

"Okay, I won't steal the list!"

She gave him another look.

"I promise!"

With this, Riley took the paper out of her mouth and straightened it out.

"Well I didn't expect you to do that!" Remus said, laughing.

"I like presents to be a surprise and he gave me no other choice!"

Sirius glared at Riley who gave him a cheeky smile in return.

X

"Riley," Sirius said. " Riles, you gotta wake up. We're almost at Kings Cross."

"What?" Riley mumbled and opened her eyes and lifted up her head from Sirius shoulder.

"We're almost at Kings Cross," Sirius repeated. "You better get your stuff packed up."

"Oh, right," Riley said and moved back over to her side of the compartment and started to tidy away her books. "Where's Remus and Peter?"

"Bathroom."

"Okay."

Once Riley had packed away her bag, she sat back down where she did when she first entered the compartment and sat quietly. She had realized that she wasn't going to see the people she had grown close with for two weeks. Lily, James, Remus and Sirius would all be out of reach from her when she might need them.

"You ok, Riles?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied smiling at him.

She was surprised really. She thought that by liking Sirius, she would be nervous and embarrassed around him, but she wasn't. It was nothing like that. She was just thankful that they were friends at this moment in time.

The compartment door slid open just as the train came to a halt. Remus and Peter entered and gathered their things. The four of them stepped off the Hogwarts Express and into the crowd of people on Platform 9 and ¾.

"I'll see you when we get back," Remus said to Riley in mid-wave but she pulled him into a hug and then let him go.

"Have a nice Christmas!" Riley said and then saw Peter. "You too, Peter!"

Peter murmured a thanks and then set off into the crowd along with Remus.

"Well I see my parents," Sirius said darkly. "See you in two weeks?"

"Two weeks!"

Sirius quickly hugged her.

"Are you okay or do you want me to wait with you until you see your parents?"

"Oh, no," Riley said. "It's fine, they always wait on the muggle platform. They always complain about it being too crowded here!"

"Alright then," Sirius said, backing away. "See you soon!"

"Bye!"

After seeing Sirius disappear in the crowd, Riley set off for the wall to take her to the muggle platforms. She wheeled her trunk through the wall and saw her parents standing waiting right in front of her with Claudia.

"Riley!"

Riley's mother came over to greet her, pulling her into a tight hug with a kiss on the head.

"How are you? How's school? Oh, I've missed you!"

"I've missed you to, Mum," Riley said and she pushed her trunk towards her father and Claudia, her eyes now growing cold. "Papá, Claudia."

"Riley," her father replied. Claudia, however, acted as though she wasn't there.

"Are we not leaving?" Riley asked, wondering why they hadn't started to leave.

"No," her father replied. "We need to wait on a few people who will be sharing Christmas with us."

"What do you-?"

"Bella!" Claudia cried and ran over to Bellatrix and hugging her.

"The Blacks are coming to share Christmas with us."

I'm soo sorry about the wait and this crappy chapter! I really am! The school excuse again! So sorry!

Abbey xoxo