A.N. Hey guys, I know that I usually don't put author's notes but I thought I would fill everyone who is following or has favourited this story as to whats going on. So I started writing this months ago and had written chapters 1 up to this one, but after this one I stopped writing. I just lost motivation and got busy with other things happening in my life, and I just haven't found my way back to this story yet. I got motivation to write other ffs and have two that I'm currently working on, but between those and school, all of my time had pretty much been taken up.
I'm not saying that I'm giving up on this story because I really am happy with my own work and how this has all played out so far, but like I said, I just don't have the motivation right now for it. With exams finishing up this week, I am hoping to return to this and try and continue, but I really don't want to make any promises as to when it will be back for sure.
To everyone who has favourited and is following the story, thank you so much. I never thought that people would actually enjoy reading my writing so your support means a lot to me. Please be patient with me and don't give up on this story because I promise it will be back!
I am planning on uploading my other two fics onto here as well most likely, one's a Vampire Diaries one and the other Twilight (I know, both about vampires because I really am that bitch). If anyone wants to check those out, keep an eye out for them coming soon! Thank you again for bearing with me while I figure out what's going on with this story and I promise I will be back soon!
It wasn't until the last week of November that the snow finally fell. With the Slytherin Common Room being in the dungeons under the lake, there was no way to see the thick blanket of snow that had descended upon the castle until we made our way towards the Great Hall for breakfast. At the sight of the fresh, untouched snow that covered the Courtyard, I was instantly put into a good mood. My spirits were soaring as I practically skipped into the Great Hall, taking a seat across from a rather tired looking Theo.
"Good morning." I sang, filling my cup with pumpkin juice.
Theo groaned and squinted up at me. "You know, right now I wish you were still giving us all the silent treatment."
"Come on, Nott. It snowed last night, it's exciting."
"No, it means it's cold and my feet are going to get wet anytime I walk outside."
"What is Nott's problem?" I heard Draco join us, taking a seat beside me.
"My problem is that it's Monday morning and Ana is far too cheery for me at the minute." Theo grumbled, holding his head in his hands.
"And why are you so cheery, then?"
"Because it snowed." I answered Draco, taking a bite of my eggs with a smile. "I love the snow, it means that it's nearly Christmas."
"I didn't know you liked it so much. I would've thought you'd prefer warmer weather." Draco reached over to my plate and grabbed a piece of toast that I had taken for myself and took a big bite out of it.
"Wanker." I shook my head at him. "No, I quite fancy the cold weather. I don't like being hot, it's never a comfortable feeling."
Draco just shrugged and finished off the toast before grabbing his own food for his plate. Slowly, Daphne, Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle all joined us and tucked into their own breakfasts. It seemed that I was the only one who was in a cheerful mood, for the first time in nearly a month, and I was enjoying myself. I returned Draco's sneaky steal by taking one of his own pieces of toast, shooting him a wink when he glared at me. I felt the happiest I had been in months and I was finally looking forward to getting on the train with my classmates and going home for a little bit in just a couple of weeks.
"Miss Taylor." Snape's low drawl dragged me away from my thoughts of mince pies and pounds of sugar cookies. "Professor Dumbledore would like to speak with you in his office. Follow me."
I glanced over at Daphne with wide eyes and she just shrugged, not knowing what it could be about either. I slowly stood up and followed my Head of House out of the Great Hall. Snape didn't speak a word of whatever it was that I had been summoned about, he just walked quickly through the corridors until we reached a giant statue of a gargoyle and Snape muttered the password. He motioned for me to walk first up the staircase that lead to a rather heavy looking door. Snape rapped of the door before it swung open, revealing Dumbledore and McGonagall already in the room. Dumbledore was sat behind a rather large desk that was covered with different trinkets and looked as though there were no empty space on it with McGonagall standing behind him, looking down at me with a solemn look.
"Ah, Miss Taylor." Dumbledore offered me a gentle smile. "Please, take a seat."
"Have I done something wrong, professor?" I asked, slowly sitting in one of the arm chairs in front of his desk. I noticed that Snape hadn't moved from his spot by the door since we entered.
"No, not at all. I'm afraid we have received some news that I fear will be rather upsetting to you."
My heart immediately stopped beating for a moment and I feared that Dumbledore would reveal that they knew about Sirius Black being my father. I knew that the only way he could've known was if Daphne said something to him or if Lupin had assumed that my questions about Black were more than just the curiosity of a teenage girl.
"We received a letter from your grandmother this morning addressed to the school…"
How could my nan know about the school and where to send the letter? All mum had told her was that I was going to a boarding school in Scotland, but surely she didn't say the real name of the school.
"It appears that the large amount of snow that we received here also fell in Manchester a few days ago, and your mother was involved in a car accident late at night two days ago."
"What?" I taken back by Dumbledore's revelation. "What happened? Is she alright?"
McGonagall finally moved from her spot behind the Headmaster and made her way beside me. She gently put a hand on my shoulder and I looked rapidly between her and Dumbledore. The elder man let out a soft sigh and adjusted the glasses perched on his nose.
"Unfortunately, Liliana, your mother didn't survive the crash."
My body went numb as soon as I heard the words come out of Dumbledore's mouth. My hand that had previously been raised up to my face fell onto my lap and I could feel myself shaking. I expected the tears to flow right away, just as they had when I learnt about my dad, but I couldn't feel anything. I could hear Dumbledore apologizing for my loss and telling me that it was never easy to lose someone close, but I just kept staring blankly at the spot in front of me.
"Your grandmother and the rest of your family have arranged a funeral for tomorrow night that you have been given permission to go to. Professor McGonagall will accompany you via the Floo Network to King's Cross Station where your grandmother will be expecting you. You will be given three days in the Muggle world before you will meet up once again with McGonagall back at King's Cross to come back to school. If you wish to stay with your family for the remainder of the time until the Christmas break, we will allow that, but we need to kn-"
"No." I finally found my voice, cutting off the Headmaster but still not looking at him. "I will come back to Hogwarts."
"Are you sure, Miss Taylor?" McGonagall tightened her grip on my shoulder slightly and I just nodded my head in response.
"Very well. Professor McGonagall will accompany you, along with Professor Snape, to your Common Room where you can gather some of your belongings before coming back here and using the fireplace to go."
I nodded my head and stood up, following the two teachers out of the office and back towards the corridors of the castle. I barely registered what I was doing, just went through the motions of packing my things until I had everything I needed then left once more. I heard Snape uttering some words to McGonagall before he left us and walked the opposite direction of where we were going.
"Miss Taylor, I just want to say how terribly sorry I am for your loss." McGonagall offered her condolences quietly, walking by my side as we made out way back to Dumbledore's office. "I know it's very hard to lose a parent, and I wish there was something more I could do other than tell you that, I might not be your Head of House, but don't be afraid to speak to me if you wish to."
I nodded my head, not trusting that if I opened my mouth my tears wouldn't start and I knew they wouldn't stop once they finally started.
"If you change your mind about coming back, just send us an owl so we know not to expect you until the rest of the students come back from their holidays as well." Dumbledore told me and I nodded my head. He held out a bag of Floo Powder and I took a handful, waiting for McGonagall to go first before I stepped in after her and carefully announced King's Cross Station before throwing the powder down.
The Floo Network took us to a small office at King's Cross that McGonagall led us out of us towards the platform. I could see my nan in the distance and I could already tell how exhausted and sad she was. McGonagall walked with me part of the way towards my nan before bidding me goodbye and reminded me she would meet me back there in three days. I nodded my head once more and continued walking towards my nan, who had spotted me at this point and had already started to make her way over. I met her halfway and practically collapsed in her arms, my sobs racking my body and finally flowing out of me after being held in for nearly an hour.
"I know sweetheart, let it out." My nan hugged me tightly, her own voice trembling. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
"It's not fair." I clutched my mum's mother tightly and cried freely into her shoulder.
"It's not. She was taken too early."
We stood there for a moment longer, just embracing and letting out the emotions we held inside until nan finally suggested that we go to the car so we could go to her place, where the rest of the family was. My sobs had subsided by that point, but silent tears continued to stream down my face the entire journey and never once wavered as each of my family members hugged me tightly. I was given a mug of tea at some point, I don't really know when, and was sat in one of the armchairs in the living room, surrounded by all of my aunts, uncles and cousins. I knew that each of them already had a couple of days of mourning behind them, but my pain was fresh, and it seemed to open up the wounds on everyone else. We all sat in silence for the longest time before my nan finally spoke up.
"Perhaps you want to change out of your uniform, Liliana." She placed a hand on my shoulder and helped me up when I numbly nodded my head. Once I had changed into more normal Muggle clothes, I rejoined my family. "The funeral is tomorrow afternoon at the church. You can stay here for as long as you want, love. I know your Headmaster mentioned that he had given you the option to stay here until your winter break is over after New Years, but I want to let you know that if you would rather go to school some place closer, you can do that."
I immediately shook my head. "No. Thank you, but I would like to go back to my school. I've decided that I'm going to go back to school on Wednesday like my Headmaster had originally offered." It was the first time I had spoken since I had entered the house.
"Are you sure, Ana?" My aunt, Mary, asked, leaning forward in her chair.
"Yes." I spoke more firmly than I had the first time. I didn't elaborate as to why I made that choice and it seemed like no one would push the topic for the rest of the day.
The morning of the funeral had me waking up earlier than necessary already in tears. I took a long shower to try and compose myself, dressing in a simple black dress that I had picked out from my wardrobe at Hogwarts to wear. I found my nan and my aunt Mary, along with her two children, already sat in the kitchen when I finally went down the stairs. Nan poured me a cup of tea right away and shared a look with my aunt before turning to me.
"Liliana, there's something we should tell you before we go to the funeral." My nan reached over and took my hand. "The car accident was a terrible one, and because of that, we decided to have your mother cremated. She was in terrible shape and we didn't want to have the last time we all looked at her to…"
"I understand." I didn't want to hear whatever my nan was going to say. "That's fine, I don't think I would have been able to see her anyways."
My nan nodded her head and squeezed my hand once more before letting go. The rest of the morning seemed like a blur as people were coming in and out of the house with the last-minute preparations or the funeral until it was finally time to go to the church. We were seated at the very front, right near a giant picture of my mother that showed her smiling, a picture that I remembered taking earlier that summer before I went to school. I barely heard anything the priest was saying as I thought about all of the happy memories the two of us had throughout my entire life. I thought about how it was always just the two of us, but that was all we ever needed. We went on countless holidays together, shared numerous happy times, and sad ones, but we had a bond that was stronger than anything I had ever known. Even when I was mad at her for hiding the information about my father for so long, I knew she did it to protect me because she didn't want me to spend my entire life trying to find the man who couldn't be found.
The reception was filled with people I hadn't seen for months, even years, coming up to me and telling me how sorry they were for my loss and I wanted nothing more than for the whole thing to be over with. I found myself carefully fiddling with my wand under the table as a way to comfort myself. Anytime someone would approach me, I would carefully tuck it back into my jacket, so it wouldn't be seen, and would take it out right after just so that I had something to do. Feeling the familiar hum of magic that flowed through the small wood object kept me at peace with everything that was happening around me.
At my request, my nan took me back to my house so I could collect the Christmas present my mum had already bought for me and anything of hers that I wanted to keep with me. She allowed me to go in alone and I took the time to memorize my surroundings, knowing it could be one of the last times I stepped foot into what had been my childhood home since it would be sold rather quickly once everything was moved out. I ventured into my room first, collecting a couple of jumpers that I had forgot to bring at the beginning of the year before moving into my mum's room. I was hesitant to go in at first, lingering by the door for a moment before finally stepping in. I moved to her dresser, looking at the pictures she had of us spread out across it and smiling fondly at the memories. I was about to move away until I noticed her jewelry box sitting in the middle of the dresser and couldn't help but open it. Sitting right on top was the bracelet she always worse, a simple silver chain with a small butterfly pendant on it. It was as soon as I held the bracelet in my hand that I broke down.
I fell to my knees and started sobbing loudly, crying out for the loss of the only parent I ever knew. Letting my emotions overtake me, I let out a loud scream, one that most likely could have been heard from outside, and I heard the sound of glass breaking somewhere in the room. I sobbed until there was nothing left and my throat was hoarse and I felt as though I was completely empty inside. I tried to compose myself as much as I could before getting up and clutching the bracelet in my hand tightly. I looked around the room and found that the source of the glass breaking had come from a row of pictures that were on the wall, the glass having shattered in what I figured was a burst of accidental magic that had come when I let my emotions take control of me. I quickly wiped away my tears and broom to sweep up the glass shards. I found the present my mother had bought for me in her closet, already wrapped in green and silver paper, something she had taken to doing ever since she learnt about my house colours. On my way out of the room, I stopped and picked up one of the pictures from the dresser, one of the two of us at my eleventh birthday, taken just hours after learning that I was a witch.
"Did you get everything you needed?" My nan asked me as I got back into her car. I nodded my head and she took us back to her house.
I didn't speak a single word to anyone once we got back to the house, just going straight up to the room I was staying in and spending the rest of the night there. I carefully put the bracelet on my own wrist and held the photo of the two of us tightly until I fell asleep.
True to her word, McGonagall met me at the King's Cross Station in the same spot she left me, allowing me to say goodbye to my nan before leading me back to the small office that would take us back to Hogwarts.
"Professor? Do my friends know what happened?" I asked her before we stepped into the fireplace.
"Miss Greengrass and Mister Malfoy were told, but that was it. If they told the rest of your housemates, that is something you will have to discuss with them."
I took a deep breath and grabbed a handful of Floo Powder, stepping into the fireplace before the Transfiguration teacher and sent myself back to Hogwarts.