A/N: Adoring all you new followers! I love you guys reviewing! please review! it gives me so much motivation. Two chapters in one day i hear you shout? Here's Christmas!
Pyxis began to really start to enjoy being in Gryffindor. People began to smile at her in the corridors and say hello as they passed her. She could safely say things were looking up. She was sitting in a compartment of the Hogwarts express on her way home for Christmas. Fred and James were playing exploding snap and Dominique was watching intently, laughing hard when the cards exploded, burning the tips of the boys' fingers.
'So what do you do for Christmas Pyx?' James asked absentmindedly, trying to concentrate on talking and beating Fred at the same time.
'Well every year we either go to my grandmother's house at Malfoy manor or we go to my other grandmother's in London.'
James was paying Pyxis too much attention and ended up burning his fingers again. With Fred's victory, James let out an exasperated sigh and turned back to Pyxis.
'So which one do you prefer?' he asked, slumping back in his seat dejectedly.
'Neither really. At the manor, it's always very quiet and my dad's mother is quite strict, but at my mum's mother's house I have to put up with Arianna so, whatever I choose is going to be a boring Christmas. Me and Scor just end up playing jokes on each other to lighten the mood.'
There was a astounded look upon all three of her friend's faces.
'So there's no big family dinner with all your cousins?'Fred asked incredulousy.
'And no cramped sleepovers because everyone has to share rooms?' Dom added.
'Well.. umm.. no. There's not really enough of us.' Pyxis replied, feeling as if she was missing something.
'Weird!' commented James.
'Why? What are your Christmases like?' questioned Pyxis.
'Well all of our cousins, we all go over to our Granny Weasley's house on Christmas day and have a big family dinner and we all stay over and we all get knitted Christmas jumpers from granny Weasley.' James explained offhandedly.
'And how many of you are there?'
James took a while to work out the arithmetic in his head. He looked like he was in deep concentration, scrunching up his nose and sticking his tongue out slightly.
'25' he said thoughtfully. ' I think..'
'Woah, that's a lot of cousins..' James shrugged. She couldn't imagine having 25 people sat around a table at Malfoy manor. Her grandmother would have a heart attack. Luckily, she was going to her other grandmother's house this year. She couldn't bear to face Narcissa. She had seen some of the Weasley family at Hogwarts of course, including Molly, who was one of the Gryffindor prefects. She loved the way they acted around each other, they clearly were a very close family. She imagined them all sitting around a giant table, all laughing and wearing party hats. The very idea of wearing party hats would mortify her grandmother.
The compartment door slid open to reveal Teddy and Victoire dressed in muggle clothing.
'All right you lot! Best get changed seeing as we're about ten minutes out from the station. Pyx, I think I saw your Slytherin mate looking for you up the train earlier.'
Teddy grinned and pulled Victoire further along the train.
'How come you still hang around with that Slytherin?' James huffed with a sour look on his face.
'Me and Ezra have been friends since before I can remember! You guys don't know him, he's really nice.'
James gave a non-committal eyebrow raise.
'Anyways, I best go find him, his dad is probably going to be waiting with mine. See you after the holidays?'
'Yeah of course! See you Pyx.' Fred pulled her into a one armed hug.
'Have a nice Christmas.' Dominique smiled widely and gave her a quick squeeze.
James still looked a bit moody but pulled her into a tight hug. 'Don't forget to write.' He whispered in her ear.
Pyxis left the compartment. After she changed, she set off down the train towards the end where she knew the Slytherins all sat. She spotted Ezra sporting a dark green jumper and a pair of jeans, leaning against the compartment door. As soon as he looked at her, he rushed over and picked her up, twirling her around.
'Where have you been? I've been looking for you for ages!' He laughed.
'Probably with her new blood traitor friends.' A venomous voice came from behind a compartment door, which slid open to reveal her cousin.
'Shut up Arianna, you have no idea about any of them.' Pyxis shot back. She mustered up the dirtiest look she could and stared at Arianna. The train came to a slow halt. Breaking up the tension, Ezra grabbed his trunk and pushed Pyxis out onto the platform. It took the pair a few minutes to find the faces they were looking for. They dragged their trunks down the platform and Pyxis ran to hug her father, whilst Ezra grasped his father's hand briefly. Pyxis gave Ez a quick hug.
'You're coming over for new year, right?'directing her question more at Mr Zabini rather than Ezra.
'We'll be there' assured Mr Zabini. The two men brief grasped each other's hands and Ezra and his father disapparated with a loud crack. As Pyxis and her father made their way off towards the gate, she caught sight of the Potter- Weasley clan. Dominique and Fred smiled at her. James waved and mouthed 'See you soon' and gave her a thumbs up.
When they got home, Pyxis opened the front door only to be knocked over by her brother who had threw his arms around her neck and jumped on her. They both burst into a fit of laughter.
'Missed you too Scor' she managed to choke out.
After they had settled down to eat dinner, the awkward questions started to be asked.
'So how was your first term?' her mother asked sweetly.
Pyxis mind had gone blank. 'Umm.. yeah.. it was okay.' She muttered stupidly.
'Any boys you like?'
Draco spat out his drink and look absolutely horrified.
'What? No! Mum, that's disgusting!' replied Pyxis, who thought she might be sick if her mother continued down that line of questioning.
Pure joy and relief spread across Draco's face. Pyxis' mother raised an eyebrow and smiled knowingly, she knew that a time would come when Pyxis wouldn't be disgusted at the thought of boys, and it would probably be very soon.
Dinner continued as normal, with Scorpius excitedly telling Pyxis about how we went to Diagon Alley with Draco a day previously. Later on that evening, Pyxis sat in her room writing a letter to James about the upcoming Quidditch match between Puddlemere united and the Wimbourne wasps (James' favourite team). Astoria Malfoy appeared in the doorway.
'Writing to your secret boyfriend?' she teased.
'No! mum I told you! I'm not interested, I'm writing about Quiddi-.' Pyxis stopped abruptly, unsure if her mother knew that she was on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.
Her mother raised an eyebrow.
'I know about the Quidditch team.' Astoria stated. Panic grabbed onto Pyxis' heart. What if she wasn't going to be allowed to play anymore? What would she tell Teddy?
'I disapprove.'
Pyxis' heart sunk.
'But I respect your decision, and if it's what you really want, then I'm not going to stop you.'
Pyxis breathed a sigh of relief. She nodded at her mother. There was a long pause. Pyxis began pulling at her jeans and looked at her feet.
'I also hear that you've made friends with the Weasley's and the Potter boy.'
Pyxis didn't look up. It was a statement, not a question.
'Are they…nice..?'
Pyxis looked at her mother.
'Uhh yeah, they're really nice.'
'Well at least you have some good friends at Gryffindor.'
Astoria placed her hand on her daughter's knee and squeezed it. She smiled and left the room.
Pyxis was dumbstruck. She didn't know what to think of her mother's strange behaviour and her semi-positive responses. She hoped it was the start of her family accepting her.
Christmas day came around very quickly. She had sent boxes of various sweets to Fred and Dominique and got Ezra a silver watch with green inlay. She received a beautifully decorated set of red and gold guitar picks from Ez, Weasley wheezes products from Fred and a framed picture of herself, Dom, Fred and James from Dominique. James had been considerably harder to get a present for. However she received a beautiful gold bracelet that has a lion charm and a snitch charm attached. Pyxis wondered how on earth James could have picked such a beautiful bit of jewelry. She wore it on Christmas day. It matched perfectly with the black dress she was wearing to go to her grandmother's house. When they arrived her grandparents greeted them affectionately and the amazing smell of roast turkey and cranberry filled Pyxis' nostrils. She peered into the kitchen and found their house elf Caulda stirring away at a gravy pot.
'Merry Christmas Miss Pyxis!' Caulda squeaked.
'Merry Christmas Caulda.'
Pyxis had always been fond of the house elf. When she was a little girl Caulda used to make her toast and jam in the morning and always put on a bit extra jam. Pyxis heard a loud knock on the front door. She trudged back into the living room to find Arianna arriving with her parents. She looked at Pyxis whilst she was hugging their grandmother. Arianna raised an eyebrow and smirked arrogantly. They all sat down, thoroughly enjoyed their meal and as all relatives do, their grandparents began to ask questions. Arianna of course was very eager to impress everyone with the vast amount of gossip she had gained during her time at Hogwarts.
'..And wouldn't you believe it, I heard that Georgina Nott was seen with a Gryffindor boy no less. Though I suppose that Pyxis could perhaps enlighten us about that seeing as she's from the same house.' Arianna remarked snidely.
'Well we don't need to talk about that do we?' Her grandmother chipped in hastily. Her entire family seemed to be steering clear of the subject of Pyxis' sorting. Every time Arianna had slightly mentioned Gryffindor, Jocasta Greengrass seemed to always have the perfect change of subject. There was a long silence after that. The only noise made by the clinking of cutlery.
'Pyxis made the Quidditch team, the youngest person in years to be chosen. I went to watch her first match, she was quite brilliant.' Pyxis' father announced proudly, smiling at his daughter. And so a conversation about various Quidditch matches and tactics occupied the rest of the dinner, much to the displeasure of Arianna, who had nothing to say on the subject. In the late evening, Pyxis and her family bid farewell and travelled home.
Pyxis was busy getting ready for the annual New Year's Eve party that was held at Malfoy Manor. It was a grand party that most of the "upper class" society of purebloods (as her grandmother put it) attended. She straightened her dress and made sure there wasn't a curl out of place. She was tempted to persuade her father to allow her to stay home, but she could never abandon Ezra. She hadn't seen him since platform nine and three quarters, and she missed him terribly. She had written to him over the winter break along with Dominique, Fred and of course James.
'Ready to go little star?' Draco was standing in the doorway admiring his beautiful little girl. He couldn't believe how much she had grown up. It seemed like only yesterday she was learning how to crawl.
'Yeah I'm ready'
They flooed to Malfoy Manor. The party was already in action. A small brass band played in the corner, many people were laughing, dancing and looking extremely glamorous. They family found their way over to where Pyxis' grandmother was laughing at a joke told by a tall, bearded man with greying hair. Her grandmother took time to hug Scorpius and Draco and bumping her cheek in greeting to Astoria. She put her hand under Pyxis' chin and brought her face up to look at her. Narcissa smiled at her granddaughter but Pyxis could see the coldness in her eyes.
'Happy New Year darling.' Narcissa's voice was sickly sweet. When another voice called out to Narcissa, Pyxis took the opportunity to slip away and search for Ezra. She found him standing with a group of Slytherins from families that closely associated with the Malfoys. She greeted them in the hope that this wouldn't be different from any other year. Ezra greeted her with a hug and the rest of the group nodded politely.
'So then, the Pool house?' suggested Pyxis. They all wandered out to the pool house of Malfoy Manor after an assent of nodding from the group. It was tradition that whilst the adults were partying inside, the younger generation would go outside.
They all slumped down on the various seat and one of the older Slytherins bewitched some instruments to play in the corner. There was a lot of talking and some challenging games of exploding snap and a particularly courageous round of Truth or Dare. Five minutes to midnight, they all filed back into the main ballroom and counted down the timer with everyone else.
'3..'
'2..'
'1..'
'HAPPY NEW YEAR!'
Pyxis turned to Ezra and hugged him tightly. They held hands along with everyone else in the room and sang 'Auld Lang Syne.'
Pyxis hadn't felt this happy in months.