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Genevieve's room was exactly how she left it before leaving for Hogwarts.
Gold fairy lights lined the beige walls, illuminating the room and making it homely. Both wizarding and muggle books (mostly muggle) were stacked up in several piles on the floor and on her wooden desk. The net curtains were still pulled back, displaying the beach not so far away and her bed in the middle of the room was still messy from the last time she slept in it.
"You could at least make some effort to clean your room, you know," Mrs Lewis suggest, leaning on the doorway with her hands crossed.
"Or you could do it," Genevieve gave her a look jokingly.
"You scream at me whenever I go into your room, honey," Mary chuckled.
"You scream at me to get out the kitchen whenever you're cooking," Gen challenged her mother, sitting herself on the edge of her bed.
"Ten minutes you've been home and you're already giving me grief," Mrs Lewis scolded playfully, throwing her hands up and making her way to the staircase.
"You love me really!"
The Lewis house wasn't the biggest house but it also wasn't the smallest, in a way it was perfect. Attending Hogwarts was a dream for Genevieve and she had claimed it as her second home, but nothing compared to the one here. No matter how much magic hovered inside the walls of Hogwarts, more magic was made in the house she grew up in.
A soft knocking came from the bedroom door making Genevieve's attention turn to it. Anna stood with a plate of hot brownies in her hand and chocolate sauce in the other, making Genevieve's eyes glimmer in hunger.
"Dad and I made these earlier today, we just reheated them," she explained and sat on the rug in the middle of the room, placing the brownies and sauce in front of her.
"Might need to make some more because i'll be eating the lot," Genevieve suggested greedily while moving to sit across from her sister.
"Fine by me," Anna murmured, pouring the chocolate sauce all over the brownies messily, sticking her tongue out in concentration by habit.
The younger girl sat back and observed her work, giving it a nod of approval and flicked her platinum hair behind her shoulders sassily. "Bon Appetit," she giggled, exaggerating a french accent.
Genevieve took no time in scoffing down half of the brownies down while Anna did the exact same.
Anna gossiped about all the 9-year old drama to a very amused Gen for an hour so before stalking off to her room to go to sleep.
That girl had more drama than anyone she knew.
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It had been a few days since Genevieve had returned home and it was now Christmas Eve.
Currently, she was curled up on the sofa, snuggling under the warmth of her blanket while halfway through watching a movie.
It was peaceful in way. The only sound that could be heard was the ticking from the grand clock that read 9pm.
That was until the fireplace glowed green and an extremely beat up and bruised Sirius appeared in it with several bags that were clearly overpacked.
"Jesus Christ, Sirius," Genevieve cursed, leaping from the sofa and to where Sirius was sat clutching onto the table to make sure he didn't fall.
"It was bad, Genevieve. Really bad. She got more mad then she ever had before," he confided, hissing when she wrapped an arm around his, guiding him to the sofa.
"What happened this time?" she muttered, opening a cabinet to fish out a first aid kit.
She then sat back down and pulled up his shirt up to show a large, bloody gash spread across his skin. She scowled at the thought of what Walburga Black had to do in order to give him that. Genevieve began applying some ointment onto a cloth.
"She was saying the usual and then she brought my friends into it and," he stopped for a moment, squeezing his eyes shut and clenching his jaw as she dabbed the cloth on his wound, "So I said things back and she beat the shit out of me then disowned me. She completely lost it."
"I think she lost it ages ago, Sirius," she looked up at him and smiled, trying to take his mind away from the pain. A surge of empathy rushed through as she cleared away the blood from the surrounding skin and was able to see the wound clearly. It looked painful, and she had no idea how Sirius wasn't crying out in pain. "I'm going to kill that woman one day," she swore.
Sirius shook his head. "No, you won't. You don't want to stoop to her level Genevieve, you're too good for that."
Genevieve looked up at him and offered him a small smile for reminding her of that, but it didn't change the fact that she wished to hurt Mrs Black in every way she knew how.
He would have smiled back, but the bruise spreading rapidly across his face prevented him from doing that. He hissed inwards suddenly as Genevieve applied a little more ointment to the wound. "How bad is it?" He asked, gesturing to his stomach.
"I wont lie to you Siri, it's really bad," Genevieve admitted, tying a bandage around the cut with her eyebrows knitted together from concentration.
"I'm sorry for coming here I know it's really late I just didn't want to burden James like I always do. He's already done enough for me-," Sirius started but was cut off by Genevieve cupping his face and brining it to look at hers instead of the ceiling.
"Trust me Sirius, you are not a burden. We both know James would be more than happy to have you around, and so am I. You wouldn't be here if I wasn't," she scolded him.
It went silent for a few seconds and before Gen could comprehend what was happening Sirius had already smashed his lips against hers.
Her breathing cut off and she stopped moving completely, almost like she was trapped in a strange trance. Genevieve pulled away, and Sirius's eyes went wide when he realised what he had just done.
"Merlin Genny, I'm so sorry-"
"Don't do that again," Genevieve told him, her eyes fixed on her hands instead of him. After realising her tone might have been too sharp, she looked back at him with an awkward smile. "It's just the adrenaline," she assured.
She moved to sit back in the armchair, wrapping a different blanket around her.
They sat in awkward silence, avoiding each other's gaze. Both of them didn't know what to say. What were they supposed to say? Genevieve had always imagined her first kiss would be somewhat magical, but instead it was awkward and an impulsive move on the other persons behalf. But hey, at least she could say that her first kiss was with someone who she actually liked, and not a drunken kiss like many others had experienced.
The silence was broken by the sound of the staircase creaking and a few seconds later the living room door swinging open. Thomas stood in the door way, quite clearly being awoken from his sleep by the all the chatter downstairs.
"I know Genevieve fights rough, but what could you have said to piss her off so badly?" he asked after observing a roughed-up Sirius, flicking his confused gaze between the two of them.
"It wasn't Genny actually," Sirius chuckled and looked at her for the first time in a few minutes, "It was my mother."
Thomas scowled and shook his head, "I've never liked that woman."
"Nobody has," Sirius shrugged, his eyes drooping a little from exhaustion.
The first time Mr and Mrs Lewis had tried to introduce themselves to Walburga Black, she had screeched at them deafeningly about them being "filth" and advised for "such low lives" to stay away from her. Anna was more than ready to 'slap the woman silly' (as she liked to call it) but was held back by an infuriated Genevieve.
"How are you?" Thomas asked, his tone light and indifferent despite the bloody mess Sirius was in. "Hogwarts going well?"
Sirius let a small smile touch his face. It amazed him, the contrast between his family and others."I've been better," he replied. "And I should hope so."
"Good. You can stay here for as long as you like, Sirius," Mr Lewis smiled, picking up on how tired the boy was. He turned to Genevieve, "Take his bags up to the spare room, sweetheart."
"You really don't have to have me stay, Mr Lewis," Sirius told the man quickly, who only shook his head.
"I'm more than happy to have you here. And please, call me Thomas," he smiled warmly and raised an arm for him to follow.
Genevieve grabbed all the luggage Sirius had brought with him and gestured for him to follow, which he did but very reluctantly.
They walked up the stairs carefully, avoiding any creaky floorboards that might wake up Anna and her mother.
Once they were in the room Genevieve placed Sirius' bags down on the floor and switched on the lamp next to the bed.
"If you wanted to take me to bed you should have just told me," Sirius cheekily commented, sprawling himself out over the bed.
Genevieve raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "I can kick you out of this house aswell, you know?"
"Please don't," he responded quickly, causing Genevieve to laugh.
"I'm not that cruel, don't worry."
Sirius sighed in relief and jokingly wiped non-existent sweat from his forehead.
"You should get some sleep, once Anna finds out you're here she'll be waking you up as soon as possible" Gen smiled at the thought.
"And you're sure it's alright i'm here?" Sirius asks.
"Positive," she nodded and made her way towards the door.
She was just about to close it when she heard Sirius call her name. Gen turned around to look at the boy, rubbing her eyes so she could see him better despite how tired she was.
"Thank you," he says sincerely through a hoarse voice.
Gen nodded in response, walking out the door and closing it behind her. She crept across the hall and entered her own room, letting out a large sigh she had been holding in since Sirius had arrived.
She sat herself in front of her desk, taking out a piece of parchment and a quill. Gen waisted no time in scrawling out a letter to James, looping all her 'y's and dotting all her 'i's.
Dear James,
Sirius came to my house around half an hour ago after getting into a bit of a ... disagreement with his family, to put it lightly. Bad news - he looks like shit. Good news - He was disowned. I know being disowned sounds like a bad thing but with his lot I would call it a blessing and kiss Jesus' bare feet for it. Anyways, I'm sure you would want to speak to him yourself about everything. He would have come to you but he thought he would "burden" you strangely enough. Uh, Merry Christmas? I don't know if I should be saying that given the context of this letter. Get back to me as soon as possible,
The best,
Genevieve.
She sealed the letter in an envelope and walked over to the family owl waiting patiently at her windowsill.
"Hey Owlbert," Gen cooed, stroking his grey and ruffled feathers. She handed the letter to him which he gladly accepted, taking it in his beak and flying in the direction of the Potter Mansion.
Genevieve hated his name. Her mother had been reluctant in buying an owl during her first year, but soon enough opened up to the idea. She also found it hilarious to name the owl 'Owlbert' and still giggled a little every time the name was heard. For a 38 year old woman, Mary did act like a child sometimes.
Gen tucked herself under the duvet that was once neatly tucked into her bed, absorbing the warmth and snuggling into it a little bit more.
She drifted off into a soundless sleep not long after, dreaming dreams of Christmas Day just like she used to as a child.
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a/n: jesus christ 1.2k readers! that is a LOT of people holy shit. thank you ahhh <3
have a nice day!