Gifted

26

Late in the afternoon, a few days after New Year, Ron, Ginny, Harry, Bella, and I lined up in front of the fireplace to got back to Hogwarts. Fred, George, Fleur, Bill, and dad were all at work so only Becca and mum were there to see us off.

After the Minister of Magic had come to visit on Christmas Day, along with Percy, mum had been pretty easy to set off. She dissolved into tears as soon as we were about to leave.

"Don't cry, mum," Ginny said, patting her on the back. "It's okay..."

"Yeah, don't worry about us," Ron added, "or about Percy. He's such a prat, it's not really a loss, is it?" Mum started crying even harder as we all said our final goodbyes.

I was the last to leave and I took a handful of Floo Powder and stepped into the fire.

"Bye, mum," I said and smiled at Becca. "Hogwarts!" I threw the Floo Powder down into the fire and green flames engulfed me until I stepped out of the fire and just about ran into Bella.

"Ron, Harry, and Ginny went and left us," Bella said. "Professor, could we have the password?" I elbowed Bella.

"I got the password in the mail the other day," I whispered. "Remember? Prefect?"

"Oh, right," Bella said. "Never mind, Professor." Bella and I made our way out of Professor McGonagall's office and into the corridors which were filled with people returning from Christmas break and greeting their friends. I was able to glance out the window and see the grounds were covered in a thick layer of snow. That would be fun to go through for Herbology.

"Aly! Bella!" I turned to see Rachel running towards us. When she reached us she engulfed us both in a hug.

"I've missed you so," I said smiling.

"I've missed you both, too," she replied. "I had an awfully dreadful Christmas with mum and dad. We went to visit some family in Ireland and that wasn't to bad, besides the fact that they're muggles so I couldn't even mention anything about magic and school, not that I would to mum or dad anyways, but I really enjoyed your presents. They were amazing!" Rachel finally stopped talking. "How was your Christmas?"

"Well, it was interesting," I replied. "Fred and Becca are engaged now, and the Minister of Magic visited along with Percy. Mum's pretty worn about it."

"The Minister of Magic?" Rachel gasped. "You're kidding right? He actually went to your house?"

"I think he was only there because he heard Harry was there," I said. "He used Percy as an excuse to come."

"It wasn't pretty," Bella added.

"I wouldn't think so after all you've told me about Percy," Rachel said shaking her head. "You'll have to give me day by day details about your break later, but now, Luna coming over."

I turned to see that Luna was indeed walking over towards us, a dreamy expression on her face.

"Hello, Bella, Aly, Rachel," she said.

"Hi, Luna," Rachel, Bella, and I spoke at the same time.

"How was your Christmas?" I asked.

"It was really fun, dad and I went to visit some really cool places," she replied. "Oh, and Aly, Parvati Patil told be to tell you that Lavender told her that Dean told her to tell you that Seamus was looking for you."

"Oh," I hesitated, "thanks. I'll go find him then."

I walked away from the group as Luna was talking more about what her and her dad did over the break. I couldn't say I wasn't happy to walk away. After a few moments I found Seamus talking with Dean and Damon.