Chapter Five
A/N: Thanks to my brilliant reviewers, Riding-Lover-17, dream-on-sunday and Karli.
The weeks leading up to Christmas passed far quicker than first thought and soon the holidays were upon them. However, despite regaining speaking terms with her daughter, Minerva had not let up on her punishment and Merida was still being made to return home to her grandmother's house for Christmas.
Though she truly loved Reay, the small village in which she had grown up, Christmas was still not quite the same without the comforting presence of her mother, something that she had not had for quite some time in the Yuletide season.
After bidding a slightly tearful farewell to her mother, who she had not been separated from since September, Merida McGonagall stepped from the common room and, just minutes later, left the castle walls.
Joining the crowds of students bidding farewell to their friends in the Entrance Courtyard, Merida began to search for the two people she wanted to say goodbye to. After half a minute of pushing through a group of squabbling Ravenclaws, she reached the pair of girls she was looking for.
"Ginny, Luna!" Merida cried, running to embrace the two girls, who had finally fought through the crowd of Hufflepuffs in front of them to reach her. "Oh my Godric, girls, I'm going to miss you so much!"
"But aren't you coming back, Meri?" Luna asked, in her usual dreamy tone.
"Of course I am, Luna! But I'm not coming on the train. I won't see you until next term now."
"Did your mum decide to let you stay, then?" Ginny asked. After the incident in Dumbledore's office, which the young Weasley had overheard, Merida had decided to reveal the whole story of her family to her best friend. She had also told Luna of her parentage, deciding immediately that the girl would keep her secret. The girl herself now donned a saddened expression, as Merida shook her head in disappointment.
"No. I'm still going home. My cousin's coming up to get me after the train's gone."
"Oh." Ginny sighed, turning towards where Argus Filch was ushering the students that remained towards Hogsmeade station with his usual downtrodden expression on his face, his feline friend, Mrs. Norris, echoing it with astounding accuracy.
"It's Filch! Meri, we have to go. He'll give us detention next term, you know what he's like." Ginny explained apologetically.
"I know." Merida replied. "It's alright, just go. I don't want you guys to get detention because of me."
"Are you sure?" the Weasley asked.
"Of course I am. Go on, I'll see you next term. Merry Christmas."
"You too, Meri. Goodbye!" Luna shouted over her shoulder as she and Ginny hurried forwards to join the masses on their way to the station, while Merida was left cold and alone in the doorway, the loud sigh that she let escape from her mouth the only noise clearly audible in the place.
"Well, it's a bit dead around here, isn't it?" came a voice from behind her, just inside the porch of the Entrance Hall. A beaming smile spread across the young redhead's face as she spun on the spot to face the brunette woman standing a few paces behind her.
"Vevi!" Merida exclaimed, running towards the woman and throwing her arms around her neck, the force of her embrace knocking Vevina back a step.
"Well, hello to you too!" she exclaimed, laughed at her younger cousin. "How's my little redheaded bombshell, then?"
"I'm alright, I suppose." Merida shrugged, a little more reserved, due to the question she knew Vevina was going to ask. A moment later, she did.
"Where's Auntie Minnie?" the brunette questioned, not knowing that her aunt was the cause of Merida's quietness.
"She's not coming. As usual. I was meant to be staying at Hogwarts with her, but she decided I'd let her down, so she sent me home."
"Auntie Minnie doesn't get mad. Merlin, what did you do?" the elder asked, her mouth wide open in shock.
"I screamed at three Slytherins, hexed one of them and got marched to the Headmaster's office. On my first day."
"Ouch." Vevina winced, biting one side of her lip to show her point.
"Yeah. So… can we just go? I don't really want to be here any longer."
"Of course we can. Let's go." Vevina suggested, taking her cousin's hand and walking briskly towards the gate of the castle. Merida struggled to keep up at first, but she was glad of it, as it meant she could get away from the castle far sooner.
After five minutes of walking to the gate, a quick Disapparition and fifteen more minutes after that, due to the wards around the place, Vevina and Merida finally reached the outskirts of Reay. For Merida, there had not been a more welcome sight since she had been in the Headmaster's Office all those weeks ago.
Another five minutes and there were standing just outside the front door of their grandmother's cottage. It was a very homely place, a creamy colour with a thatched room, trellises of peonies lining the wall, charmed to stay alive, despite the layers of snow all around. It was like a picture from a painting, or a postcard, it didn't seem real. But it was, and it was home.
Vevina put her key into the lock and turned it, stepping aside for Merida to enter first. She walked into the hallway hesitantly, expecting to have someone come and greet her, to enter an atmosphere of noise and fun, as the house had always had. But there was nothing like that. Just silence.
"Oh, they've gone out for a little while. They should be back by tea time." Vevina stopped, jumping almost a foot into the air as a knock sounded at the door. She had practically collapsed onto the sofa as it echoed through the hallway, so Merida decided to answer it herself. 'It's probably Uncle Malcolm, Granny maybe.' she thought, turning the key and swinging open the door. However, the figure, her hat covered in a good half inch of snow, was not the one that Merida had expected to see.
"Mum?" she asked, as her eyebrows rose a little in annoyance.
"Room for a guilty mother in the house?" Minerva asked, laughing feebly at her joke. Merida paused for a moment, weighing up her options before her face broke out in a wide smile.
"Forgiven?" she asked her mother.
"Forgiven."
And so, for the first time, Minerva spent Christmas at home with her family. And she had never had a better one.
A/N: I am writing this well after I should be in bed, so I hope you'll excuse any mistakes, or point them out to me. Either way, please review!