A/N: Thank you to everyone for 1700+ reads, I love you all!!
So here is chapter 9, I know it has taken a while because I was busy writing the first chapter of my new story called ‘Allie you’re not a Star’ which has validated so if you want you can go check it out and tell me what you think!
‘OUCH!” I yelled out as I hit the floor. I had been trying to lug my gigantic – no exaggeration her- trunk off of the train and managed to fall over it. Only I could do such a stupid thing.
As I just lay there sprawled on the floor, Al just rolled his eyes at me but he still made Scorpius help me up. Scorpius is far too nice and Al is just far too lazy. Scorpius grabbed my hand and hauled me upright – wait why did he have to haul me? I’m not that fat…not yet anyway.
Just as I was stood upright again Rose glanced over and saw my hand which was still being held awkwardly by Scorpius. Rose glared at me with such a hatred I had never seen in her. I wrenched my hand from Scorpius’ and tried to explain to Rose but she had already turned around. God Rose why do you have to be so aggy all the time?
“Come-on Snow, I’ll take your trunk” sighed James. Clearly he wanted to get home and I couldn’t blame him because just a few metres away stood his ‘fan club’ yes he really has a fan club made up of girls who just followed him around everywhere.
The Potter house is huge; in fact it is more like a mansion. Lily showed Ava and I to and enormous room which had two large single beds in. This was where we would be staying: there was even an en-suite bathroom with both a shower and Jacuzzi bath. I just gawped at it all. It wasn’t like my family was poor, my mother had to work a lot since Dad died but we still got by.
Ava and I unpacked and chatted about Christmas, we may be teenagers but we were still ridiculously excited for Christmas, who wasn’t?
The next day we had a girly Christmas shopping trip to Diagon Alley. We had mostly bought all of our Christmas presents either from Hogsmede or by owl order so we mostly spent the day looking around and wishing we had everything.
After ten minutes of my nonstop teeth chattering Ava took matters into her own hands –she isn’t very tolerant that girl- and we all headed off to ‘Wander’s’ which was the best coffee shop in Diagon Alley.
As I sipped my fizzing whizbee latte Evie droned on and on about how she wished she had a cat as cute as ‘Stottle’ which is what we had nicknamed my kitten Aristotle. I just looked at her incredulously and hastened to tell her to be careful what she wished for because she didn’t want to end up with a retard cat that enjoys joining you in the shower. Could he be any less normal? I mean what cat can tolerate water let alone enjoy it. I know, my cats a freak. Then again I suppose you could say me and ‘Stottle’ where similar in that sense.
After a long day of moaning about how much we wanted things, we all headed back to our respective houses.
Ava and I spent the rest of the afternoon wrapping presents, as neither of us were of age and Ginny was strict about magic being used in the house, we ended up having to wrap them by hand.
After managing to somehow selotape both of my hands to a present it was decided that Ava would wrap and I would cut pieces of selotape for her.
By the end there were two neat piles of presents, one wrapped in a shiny red paper with ‘merry Christmas’ scrawled all over it and the other –my presents- wrapped in a blue paper with glittery baubles all over.
There were only a few more days until Christmas and we couldn’t stop talking about it even though we weren’t five year olds anymore, who said we ever have to grow up?
It was Christmas eve morning and Lily, James, Al, Scorpius, Ava and I were all in the Potter’s games room attempting to play snooker or was it pool?
Anyway we had split into a girls and a boys team and none of us girls could play for shit. I think I had managed to hit the white ball in every go so far…however hard we tried we just couldn’t do it. After the 10th loss we accepted that we weren’t going to win and it would just get even more embarrassing if we carried on playing.
“Come on, just one more game!” begged Al. Then he pouted, I know he POUTED! Not like full on ‘duck pout’ but an ‘please just give in’ pout.
“I have lost enough dignity for one day thank you very much.”
After long last Al thankfully gave up realising that I was a lost cause. Maybe the fact that I hadn’t taken a single shot that hadn’t ended up being a foul was what was putting me off trying again.
Lily was still grumbling about our losses. She hated loosing especially to her brothers. As you can probably tell the Potter’s are a very competitive family. Lily was still grumpy about the fact she wasn’t on the Gryffindor quidditch team but unfortunately, like me she played the position of seeker and there was no way I was going to give the position up however grumpy it made her. She can just wait about three years! Patience is a virtue which she also happened not to be blessed with, though I can hardly talk.
We were just about all comfy on the giant ‘L’ shaped sofa watching ‘The real housewives of Diagon Alley’ as a consolation prize the boys had let us choose what to watch and were now clearly regretting such a rash decision. Al just kept moaning on about how absurd it was that they couldn’t stop arguing for five minutes.
Then Ginny walked in and burst into fits of laughter. None of us joined in because now of us understood until we looked around and realised how weird we must look. You see we couldn’t sit on the sofa like normal people.
Lily was sitting at the end on James’ lap, I was leaning on James and I had my legs on Al, Ava was sitting on Scorpius and had her legs on top of mine.
We must have looked just like a pile of bodies and limbs.
“Anyway, you all need to go upstairs and sort out the rooms. Everyone is arriving tonight” she nagged. Ginny didn’t nag often but when she did she could compete for Britain. Maybe then we would win something for once- we never win the international quidditch games everyone else is just too good either that or the British team is just really bad…
I had forgotten what Christmas for the Potter’s and Weasley’s was like. The Burrow had become too small to accommodate the whole clan many years ago so it was decided that Christmas would be held at the Potter’s ginormous house.
All the adults slept in the bedrooms and each of the children were given a sleeping bag and simply told to find anywhere in the house to sleep. It was like a giant sleepover thingy.
We all untangled ourselves and got to our feet before trudging upstairs all of us dreading the task ahead.
“I can’t wait to see everyone tonight” I grinned as I walked around playing hide and seek with all of my things. Merlin only knows how it has all managed to get out of my trunk.
“Yeah! It feels like ages since we’ve seen Amie, Evie and Rose” She exclaimed.
The mention of Rose’s name made my stomach clench up. I really need to sort out things between us soon.
“Ava…” I started to say tentatively. She just looked at me questioningly as though I should just get a wriggle on.
“Why is Rose so annoyed at me? It can’t be because I complained about History of Magic surely?”
“Well…” Ava faltered, trying to choose the right words, “Well I suppose…she didn’t exactly say it in so many words but she implied it”
“Implied what?”
“She thinks you’re messing James around” my jaw dropped in confusion and shock; I have to say I looked most attractive. “Not only male Weasley’s are protective” Ava added.
“But, I only kissed him once, and that was for spin the bottle, you know it meant nothing…she MUST know it meant nothing”
Ava simply shrugged, “I know, well I don’t know. I can’t really explain it but you need to talk to her yourself Esmie.” I nodded.
When we had succeeded in stuffing everything into our trunks we dragged them down the corridor to a cupboard which was filled with sleeping bags of all colours and sizes. We quickly pulled them all out ready for tonight and shoved our trunks into the now empty cupboard.
At about 6 o’ clock that evening everyone started to arrive. First Harry Potter came back from what we all assumed was a last minute shopping trip judging by the bags and rolls of wrapping paper.
The came Hermione, Ron, Amie, Rose, Evie, Hugo then Percy & CO. After that George, Angelina and their children arrived . Then the Delacour Weasley’s came plus Teddy Lupin and his and Victoire’s daughter Louisa. Finally ‘Nana Molly’ and ‘Grandpa Arthur’ arrived.
Once all the adults were settled all the children and us big kids ran upstairs to grab a sleeping bag. We then charged off all determined to get the best room to sleep in.
In the end Al, Scorpius, Amie, Ava, Evie, James, Fred and I all shared the lounge which was debatably the best room in the house. It had three very large sofas and various armchairs. It also had a fire so it was toasty and warm.
It was funny how much like claiming land it was, and predictably there were always a few wars over territory.
The evening was hilarious, we talked about literally anything that came into our heads and some of the things we came out with were truly ridiculous. For example one minute we had been talking about how crap exams were when Evie suddenly yelled out, “WE SHOULD START A LLAMA ARMY!”
To which I hastened to tell her that someone had already done that which reassured us all that somewhere there was someone as insane as us.
It was started by a guy called ‘Danisnotonfire’ a video maker on a muggle video sharing called ‘youtube’ he was amazing and the most hilarious person I had ever met/ not actually met. Along with his friends ‘amazingphil’ and ‘Jacksgap’ they had to be the most hilarious people I knew.
After I recovered from my fan-girling moment we talked about why llamas were so cool. Yet we only managed to come up with one reason: because they just are! God we talk about some weird things.
However mad my friends were they were still amazing and the never failed to cheer me up.
At about 10pm, everyone had gone to bed. Al, James and Fred being the selfish bastards that they are stole a sofa each to sleep on. Rose and I squidged ourselves into a pair of armchairs leaving Evie, Ava, Scorpius and Amie fighting over cushions to sleep on.
Long after everyone else had gone to bed, I was still awake. I looked around and noticed that Rose was sitting fiddling with the zip of her sleeping bag absentmindedly.
“Rose?”
She nodded.
“Do you really think that I am messing with James?” I asked begging and hoping that she didn’t say yes.
“Yes Esmie, I do” Oh god. Ava was write you don’t have to be a male Weasley to be overprotective.
“But I kissed him once and that was only for spin the bottle. There is nothing between us” I pleaded
“We were all there Esmie, we all saw what had happened. Yes you kissed him for the game but you didn’t stop there did you? NO you carried on and made James think you liked him.” She hissed venomously.
“What?” I was struggling to keep up with what was happening.
“You’re just messing with him, you’re a heartless user Esmie James!”
“Rose it’s not like that!”
“Isn’t it? You don’t give a shit do you. As long as you’re happy it doesn’t matter about anyone else!”
“Rose!” I begged trying to explain.
“No Esmie, you can’t explain yourself out of this one! Why don’t you just shove off and stay with April Long and all the other sluts!?”
I pulled my legs out of my sleeping bag. I needed to get away before she could see the tears forming rapidly in my eyes.
I crept upstairs as quietly as possible and retrieved my trunk from the cupboard and grabbed Stotle who was sitting on the bannister.
I only lived a street away so it didn’t take me long to get home. When I arrived it was, as I had expected, locked.
Inside there was no indication that there was anyone currently living there. I knew that Mum would be at her flat in London, it was just easier for her to get to work that way as she wasn’t all too keen on apparition.
Now that I thought about it, I supposed that Charlie must have gone to stay with Connor for Christmas or someone else because there was no sign that he had returned here.
My room was cold and it looked lifeless. It was always weird returning to your own room after being away at a boarding school for such a long time. I dumped my trunk and got straight into bed trying not to think about the fact that I would be spending Christmas alone.
I woke up, it was just any other day except it wasn’t because today was Christmas day and I was on my own. The house felt so empty and lonely. I didn’t know what to do with myself.
James’ POV
I woke up and it took a moment to realise that someone was missing. Esmie was no longer squidged in the armchair beside Rose’s. Maybe she had just gone to the toilet however I had a feeling that it was not the case.
I ran my hand through my hair trying to think of why she had gone. It was obvious where she had gone seeing as she only lived a street away from us. The sad thing was that I knew that she would be alone.
Everyone began to wake one by one and they each in turn asked where Esmie had gone. I simply shrugged not knowing what to tell them.
The most surprising reaction was Rose’s, she didn’t seem to care. It was blatantly obvious that she had something to do with Esmie’s reaction.
“Where’s Esmie?” asked Evie anxiously. No-one knew. There was nothing we could do however there was a rule. Once Christmas day had started, no one was allowed to leave the house.
Instead I decided to text her using the phone she had given me for Christmas the previous year, I just hoped she would reply.
Christmas didn’t seem right without her especially when I couldn’t thank her for the really nice watch she had bought me. It was silver with a soft brown leather strap.
I wondered what she had been feeling, being alone at Christmas, why hadn’t she stayed? I still can’t understand why would she go.
Christmas just isn’t the same.
We were all sitting in the lounge and mum plonked herself beside me.
“James, are you alright she asks”
I shake my head, “Not really mum, I can’t imagining how crap it must feel to be alone at Christmas. Can I go and see her?”
She knew who I meant without me having to say it. I was allowed to go as long as I was back in time for Christmas Lunch which would be in about an hour.
“Esmie” I called banging on her front door but there was no reply so I opened the door and walked straight in. I found her in the lounge lying on the sofa, a bottle of firewhisky in her hand and tears slowly streaming down her face.
I sat on the sofa with her head in my lap. Nothing was really said but it didn’t matter. I think just the fact that I was there had made her feel better even if only a little.
When she eventually drifted off to sleep, I left but not before leaving her a quick note. Mum would kill me if I missed Christmas lunch however much I wanted to stay with Esmie.
Esmie’s POV
God my head was killing me. I wondered what had happened before remembering that I was alone at Christmas apart from I hadn’t been alone for the whole time. James had visited. We hadn’t spoken at all but that didn’t matter. I was almost sad that he had left.
I walked into the kitchen vaguely thinking about having something to eat when I found a small hand written not.
Dear Snow,
I am so sorry I couldn’t stay. If I had the choice I would have done. I hope you feel a bit better soon. If you need anyone to talk to, I am here just owl me.
James xx
p.s. there is a hangover potion in the fridge for you x
I sighed and left the letter on the side in the kitchen. I heard a small meow from somewhere in the kitchen. I looked around and saw Stottle crawling out from behind the microwave.
“Heyy Stottle” I cooed. He mewed back at me again. If only he could speak English, then again that would be a bit odd.
That night when I went to bed all I could do was hope that the holiday could get better. It wasn’t exactly possible for it to get worse was it?
A/N: So heyy here is Chapter 9, quite proud of myself because I decided that I wouldn’t post this chapter unless I got it over 3000 words which I have done. From now on I am going to be making the chapters a bit longer mainly because I have now started a new story called ‘Allie you’re not a Star’ I want to be able to write both at the same time but this means that each update will take a bit longer. I have decided whilst I am waiting for a chapter to validate I will start writing the chapter for the other story so that by the time it is validated I have a new chapter to post for you. Just bear in mind that I will only be able to do it if I don’t get too much homework and or writers block.
I hoped you enjoyed it, what did you think?
Please leave me a review because reviews= metaphorical mars bars
Beth xx
p.s. I will be announcing the amounts of metaphorical mars bars everyone has earned in the author’s note at the start of chapter 10! xx
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing at all, credit to the amazing 'danisnotonfire' for creating the 'LLAMAARMY' and to 'amazingphil' for just being amazing and 'Jacksgap' who is also amazing xx
Write a Review Just any other year at hogwarts...: A lonely Christmas and talking cats
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