A/N: It's been awhile. I do apologize dearly. I got caught up with life, and still am struggling with writers' block for this story. But I was able to cut the chapter I was currently writing, and here I am posting it! Thanks for staying dedicated to this, and please do review!
Chapter Seven: The Tenth Year
When returning to London after Luna's wedding, life at the Leaky Cauldron appealed boringly to me. After just several days spent at the Lovegoods', I was used to little privacy, about a dozen other children running about, and mouthwatering meals at the Burrow. I hated to go back to the obscure and grimy pub, despite the fact that I had gotten used to living in it over the course of my first few months there.
But things wouldn't be quiet and dull for long. On January 1st, 2015, Liana surprised us by arriving via Floo powder at the stroke of eight in the morning, prepared to spend the day with us before returning home. The Potters arrived about two hours after Liana's appearance, and although I was willing to reconcile with James about his doings on Christmas Day, I was hesitant to face him.
"Don't let him ruin your fun, Alice," Liana told me firmly. We were sitting on my bed, while my family and the Potters were helping themselves to an early supper in scattered parts of the flat. I had just spilled out my story to Liana – about how James was dared by Rose and Albus to kiss me, and how he succeeded at this dare. "We'll be going to school with him soon, and I think it's quite obvious that we'll all be Sorted into Gryffindor. We might as well get used to James now."
"He's just changed so much," I revealed glumly. "He didn't use to care that I was a girl."
"What did he do? Treat you like a boy?" Liana smirked as she said this, I merely giggled and tossed my pillow at her.
"No. I guess he treated me a little gently, because I was a girl, but…we did use to wrestle." I blushed uneasily and avoided eye contact with Liana.
Liana's eyes widened, but she looked a tad impressed. "Wrestle? Did you beat him anytime?"
I grinned at a memory from when James and I were four, and I beat him in a wrestling match by biting his hand. "Once, I remember."
"Brilliant!" Liana roared. "Look, if you don't want to see him, then how about we just spend the day outside? Your parents let you out in Diagon Alley by yourself, right?"
I rose from the bed, making my way towards the bedroom door. "Of course. Let's go ask them."
Mum and Dad granted us permission to go exploring in Diagon Alley, and without a second glance at James, Liana and I brushed outside to the brick wall behind the pub. We did not have wands to tap out the order of bricks needed to push the wall aside, but Dad had installed a second entryway off the side of the wall only weeks before he left for his first month of teaching. Liana, who had obviously had not visited Diagon Alley as much as I, pushed past me, practically bouncing with eagerness.
"Oh!" Liana drew in a breath as she entered the main street of the Alley. "It's beautiful!"
As a New Year's Day tradition, several Diagon Alley shopkeepers had set up stalls carrying their store's merchandise, at half-price, on the street curb. The closet stall to us at the moment was one from Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. Liana squealed delightedly and dashed forward to observe several of Madame Malkin's latest robe designs. Although the Flourish & Botts and Quality Quidditch Supplies stalls both appealed promisingly to me, I joined Liana at the robes' stall, only to be asked which color – sky blue or midnight blue – made her eyes more vibrant.
Once Liana had tried on at least five different-colored robes, I dragged her over to the bookshop's stall, to see if the first and now rare edition of Hogwarts, A History was available – I could possibly ask my father to buy it for me as a late Christmas present. Once I had racked the stall's bookshelves thoroughly, and when Liana began to cough impatiently, I decided to grant her the prize of skipping the Quidditch stall, but only when I spotted James and his brother scoping that area out together.
This was how the rest of our day was spent. The Potters finally Flooed home around eight, and Liana would have spent the entire night if Molly Weasley had not Apparated and insisted that she'd take Liana home ("Xeno might not care to have her here this late, but she really must come home!")
On January 3rd, Dad returned to Hogwarts, promising me that one day he'd send me a care package laden with culinary delicacies from the school. Instead of moping around the bar missing Dad – like I had done in the pre-Christmas months – I spent my time penning letters to Liana in Ottery St. Catchpole. About three times every month, she would visit me in London, or I would visit her. Our play dates would consists of at least one meal – usually it was lunch, but occasionally, we'd be visiting each other early or late enough to have breakfast or supper together. Besides a meal, we would create stories of two girls that we admitted were our parallel selves, these girls attending Hogwarts together.
Eventually, these heroines of ours became more lifelike than we had planned, and finally, I began writing down the tales we made, whilst Liana would sketch out pencil drawings of Alyson and Juliana (our characters that bore not only physical resemblance to us).
It was in March that Liana came to London for our first official sleepover. We spent the entire night in a pillow fort we built in my bedroom, relishing the privacy, as Eleanor had moved into Frank's room for the night. As we were munching away on the biscuits Dad had sent from Hogwarts the week before, Liana shared with me how Luna and Rolf's married life was going. "They came home from their honeymoon expedition last month, and said that they had saw herds of Nargles, but yet, they had no pictures of them! And Auntie Luna brought me an anti-Nargle bracelet all the way from a Brazilian rainforest!" She stuck out her wrist and shook the bracelet in my face.
Before I could hide the jealousy running through my veins, Liana began rummaging around in her bag consisting of pajamas and other little necessities. "Auntie Luna got you a present too…she told me to give it to you tonight…oh, where is it?"
She finally withdrew a miniature burlap sack, and passed it over to me. "Luna said it was a special truth potion that's a bit weaker than Veritaserum. This one is legal, but it'll only work for about an hour."
I slipped my hand into the sack and pulled out a tiny bottle with a blood-red liquid inside. "Oh, gosh! I love it! What do you suppose I use it for?"
Liana shrugged, adjusting her position so that she was on her back and looking up at the ceiling. "Anything, really. It'll last forever, so you don't have to use it on someone right away."
"Perhaps I'll save it for Hogwarts," I smiled slyly as I stored the potion bottle in the cedar chest at the foot of my bed, tucking it underneath Eleanor's baby quilt. "I could use it on a teacher to get answers for an exam."
Liana giggled. "We could use it with homework as well."
My mind once again wandered to the spontaneous atmosphere of Hogwarts. The upcoming summer would be one of our last before school began in September 2016. On the first of that month, Liana, James Potter, and I would all be taken to Kings' Cross Station, and our parents would guide us through the infamous absorbing wall that lead to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. We had only heard of this wall, but both Liana and I were itching to see it for ourselves.
"What do you suppose it'll be like?" I wondered aloud, tracing my finger over the stitching pattern on my pillow. "Hogwarts, I mean?"
Liana sat up to face me, eyes wide with marvel. "Just fantastic. Auntie Luna said it became like a second home to her. And I've heard so many stories about it from Victoire and Dominique Weasley." She smiled fondly. "And Ma Weasley told me all about the Gryffindor common room – you have to give a password to a portrait to get inside!"
My eyes were equally round in response. "How often does it change?"
"Ma Weasley said at least once a month."
"Do you think you'll get into Gryffindor?"
Luna glanced away timidly. "Who knows? My parents were American. They didn't even have Houses at the school they went to. At least you had a dad in Gryffindor."
"Yes, but a mum in Hufflepuff," I pointed out somewhat neurotically. "She never talks about school as much as Dad does. I think it wasn't as great as an experience for her as it was for Daddy. But what if we're in different Houses at school? We might not have any classes together!"
She patted my hand soothingly. "Don't worry about that. We still have two years to go."
Her words stayed vivid in my mind, even as we were lying on the floor later on, a voluminous duvet on top of us, and several pillows cushioning our heads and backs. It was past midnight, and Liana had fallen victim to sleep nearly an hour before. I lay awake, not helping myself by having my mind still glued on the looming future at Hogwarts, and what was there in store for me…
From February to July, my friendship with Liana grew, and we finally lived up to our 'best friend' status. Exchanging letters and photographs constantly during the months, I saw growth progress in not only Liana, but as well as Luna and Michael, all in the pictures Liana sent me. Liana wrote me that Michael had gone away to school again, and was doing well in my father's Herbology class. Meanwhile, Dad wrote me that Michael often disrupted the class, pushing around the boys and toying with the girls. I blatantly ignored Dad's comments, pretending that Michael was too smart to be bothered with Dad addressing the class as a whole.
In Luna's profile shots, her hair appeared longer, and her face glowed lividly. Marriage had done her well. On the back of the photograph, Luna had written in her slanted script, Dear Alice: I spoke with several naturalists in Brazil about Crumple-Horned Snorkacks. Most said they don't exist, but I believe the last of them died out about a year before, (I read this line with a smile on my face, almost being able to picture Luna's cheerful tone of voice when saying this) and I plan to return to Brazil soon to search for them. Rolf says hello. Until we see each other again! Cheers!
Once again, envy of Luna's love for Rolf surged through me. I was young, only to turn ten years old that August, but I knew that someday I wanted a strong presence of love inside me. It seemed so wonderful, so lasting to seal a lifelong union with another who you loved. I began to dream of my own wedding, planning to break all formal wedding traditions and begin my own. The only custom I'd keep was my father ushering me up the aisle to my fiancé – I loved Dad enough to let him escort me to true womanhood when the time came.
In April of that year, I had a minor falling-out with Liana, when my great-aunt on Mum's side came to visit us in London. Auntie Rebecca was ancient, in my opinion, and I disliked her as much as I loved my father. She stayed the whole month, and Mum threatened to take away my letter-writing privileges if I didn't spend enough time with her aunt. Although I reluctantly sat through all of Rebecca's stories of both of the Wars, which I had honestly heard enough of from Dad, I found no more time to write my friend.
However, we had another sleepover at the beginning of May, this time at her house. To my hidden disappointment, Michael was at school, and to shown disappointment, Rolf was away on another expedition. However, Luna and her father were present along with Liana, and they immediately opened their welcoming hearts to make me feel comfortable for the night. Mr. Lovegood put together several strangely named dishes for lunch, which I arrived just in time for. But oddly enough, they were all delicious, although when Luna announced that we were invited to the Burrow for supper, it provided me an excuse to eat lightly in order to save room for Molly Weasley's cooking.
Besides Molly and Arthur, Percy and Audrey were at the Burrow as well, along with their daughters Molly Jr. and Lucy. The two girls were only six and three at the time, with Lucy's birthday approaching in several weeks, but Liana and I took them under our wings, treating them almost motherly as we played in the apple orchard together before supper. When Liana casually suggested us swiping food from the kitchen before mealtime, Molly eagerly started in on telling us of her cousin James's latest prank.
I must have gotten a pitiful look on my face when I heard Molly, for no sooner after she began speaking, Liana dutifully changed the subject. As we led the little girls back to the house for dinner, I shot my best friend a grateful look over Lucy's head, and Liana smiled in response.
I did try to write James, I really did. I personally thought that if it weren't for Albus and Rose's dare, James and I would still be on slightly friendly terms. Having not seen glimpses of him since New Year's Day, I was searching for another chance to see him and perhaps reconcile, but I didn't receive my chance until August, when the entire family was invited to the Scamanders' for my tenth birthday. It was summer, and Michael and the Weasleys were home from school.
"Your hair got shorter," Michael mused as I tumbled out of the fireplace from a rough Floo ride. It was the day before my birthday, and my mother and I had arrived at the Scamanders' just now – Mum needed to look after the bar for several more days, and insisted that she'd have me as a companion. Dad, Frankie, and Eleanor had left for Ottery St. Catchpole two days before.
"I got it trimmed," I replied hotly, wishing he'd notice something other than my hair.
But he did not. Afterwards, Michael went out to the Burrow to play Quidditch with James, Albus, and Fred. Liana insisted that I'd loiter at the Scamanders' until the next day, when we'd all join together at the Burrow for a celebration dinner. Rose Weasley had returned to the bedroom in which we three shared over the time of the wedding, and Liana and I found her more outgoing than she had been at Christmastime.
"Daddy told me that I'd should be more outspoken than I was," Rose explained to us embarrassedly, and added hermetically, "Do you think I'm doing a good job at it?"
Liana brushed forward to give her a hug. "Of course!"
We three spent my first day at the Scamanders' in our bedroom, merely talking girlishly and bubbly. We were put to bed early for no particular reason, but I lay awake, the conscious thought of tomorrow being my last birthday in which I wouldn't be gathering together school supplies vivid in my mind…
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