Chapter 143: Reunion at the Evans House

-In the Evans' house-

"It's a huge castle, I got lost several times and would have been late for many classes if it wasn't for the help of the older students," Lily continued.

"And what about the ghosts you mentioned in your letters?" asked Petunia.

"Yes, and there's a specific one for each house. Mine is Nearly Headless Nick," Lily replied.

"Nearly?" Petunia asked curiously.

"Don't ask, I didn't have a good meal that day after talking to him," she made a disgusted face.

Lily couldn't contain herself and told us everything she could about her experience, even repeating things she had already told us. The only person who seemed to not participate in this conversation was Sev, who just kept eating with a lost look in his plate.

"Is he okay?" Petunia asked me.

"Probably... he received too much overwhelming information in a short time," I replied.

"About his parents?" Petunia asked.

"More or less... I'll tell you later if you want," I said, as I didn't want to mention Andra and Eileen's lesbian relationship in front of their parents, considering the time we're in and that homosexuality was punished with prison in the muggle world here in England.

We continued chatting for a while until Lily brought up an interesting topic: her train ride to Hogwarts.

"And there were these hateful boys on the train. They wouldn't stop teasing Sev, for God knows what reason. Tell them, Sev," Lily asked.

"Whatever," Sev responded apathetically. Although the boys on the train had bothered him, he wasn't in the mood to talk about it at that moment.

"The worst part is that they're in my same house, so I see them quite often. They're idiots," Lily added with annoyance.

"They don't bother you as much, do they?" I asked.

"Not as much, but more than I'd like," Lily replied. She didn't suffer much from those boys' stupidity, but some unpleasant teasing or comments did affect her.

"How's Sev doing in his house? I don't think he talks much," I asked curiously. I wanted to call him "Bitch Snape" as I usually did, but I was in front of the girls' parents.

"He got into the house he wanted, but he's become a bit of an idiot without you around," Lily responded with a mocking smile.

"So... Sev misses his brother Red," I said very provocatively, smiling widely.

"Shut up!" Sev complained.

"He acts like a different person, and his housemates aren't very pleasant either," Lily added purposely.

"Seems like I have to remind little Sev who his friends are. I think he forgot who's in charge," I said in a taunting voice.

"Don't get too full of yourself. Before, I didn't have access to much magic like now. Things are very different," Sev retorted.

"Seems like a few months away from home have given you too much courage. Let's see if you can do more than just bark," I challenged him with a challenging smile.

So I provocatively argued with Snape. We were certainly friends, but we had our moments. We fought regularly, sometimes just for the sake of it, and I think for a while Sev has wanted to get back at me for all the times I've beaten him... added to the strong emotions he has due to what he found out about his mother and "my aunt."

Things were settled with a quick fight in the yard that ended with me as the undisputed winner. It only took reminding Sev that he couldn't use magic outside of school to distract him enough and throw him to the ground for a good shake-up.

Was it a trick? Maybe, but I came out on top and Sev's frustration only grew, threatening me that if we were in a place where he could use magic freely and blah blah blah... I told him whenever he wanted, we'd have plenty of opportunities now that we're "family," driving him crazy once again. The girls didn't understand the last thing I said, but I haven't explained it to them yet, and Sev didn't want to mention it either, so they were left hanging.

Back in the house, Lily brought up a pretty important topic.

"Red, what are your plans for Christmas?" she asked curiously.

"Well..."(Red)

"Because this year you could spend it with us, I have little time before returning to Hogwarts."(Lily)

"Yes! I mean... you could... if you want to," Petunia embarrassedly added.

The Evans couple looked surprised as their daughters invited someone else to spend Christmas with them. Not that they had a problem with it, they were good friends, but they would have to talk to their daughters, especially Lily, who seemed to have too much confidence

"This Christmas will be something different for me," I said with a certain indifference.

"Different?" the girls asked with some intrigue.

"Yes, Elise and I are going to spend the holidays with... how to say it... some friends," said Red.

"Do you have more friends?" the girls asked.

"Lily, Petunia, don't ask like that, it's impolite. Of course, he can have more friends," their mother scolded them.

"It's just that he never said anything about other friends," Lily excused herself to avoid her mother's gaze.

"It's because they're not friends like you guys... they're more... like grandparents," said Red.

"Grandparents?!" exclaimed the girls.

"Can you stop being surprised?" I said with some annoyance.

"It's just the first time you talk about your life like this," said Petunia.

"Yes, you never talk about your family, never said anything about having grandparents. I thought you said your parents...," added Lily.

"I said they are like grandparents, we're not related by blood. They are, well, an elderly couple who lived with me and Elise for a while. We get along well... some of the cookies I brought on those occasions were made by my 'grandma'," I clarified.

"Wow, that's a surprise... what are they like?" Lily asked with more curiosity after remembering the cookies.

"What?" I asked confused.

"Your grandparents, what are they like?"

"They're not really my grandparents," I clarified again.

"But it's the closest thing to family that we know. You said we can't see Elise, and your aunt always stays away from us," she affirmed, which was true in both cases. I didn't let them meet Elise to avoid revealing that she was a unicorn, and ordered Andra to stay away from the girls, if possible.

"How did they become your grandparents?" (Lily)

"They're not... they're just a friendly older couple we share things with. Actually, I'm getting an education at their house," I replied.

"Really?" (Petunia)

"I always wondered if you went to some special school or something to know so much," Lily asked with curiosity.

"I can hardly go to a normal school without drawing attention with my appearance. The magical world and the non-magical world are supposed to be separated, and my appearance is very magical," I explained.

"Why couldn't you go to Hogwarts with us?" Lily asked with some excitement.

"Because only wizards go to Hogwarts. Squibs and Muggles can't attend," Snape clarified after his long silence.

"That's not right. I know they can't learn magic, but they should be able to teach other things so people like you can go too," Lily expressed with some dissatisfaction. She longed to have her compliant magical genius with her all the time like before.

"NO! Red should not go to Hogwarts," Petunia exclaimed with an involuntary outburst at the idea of Red also leaving and being alone.

"Don't shout at me," complained Lily rubbing her ear.

Then there was an embarrassing scene where Petunia made excuses for why she became so agitated and why she thought Red shouldn't go to Hogwarts to hide the real reason.

While the girls were arguing, Severus and I were also having our secret conversation. I made it clear to him that, as I said before, I would be leaving this Christmas and he would be left alone with Andra and his mother if he didn't come here. This both relieved and alarmed him, the thought of being somehow related to me and living together was a big blow, but having me away during Christmas was a well-deserved break. In the end, Sev would rather spend Christmas here with his 'beloved' than at home with his mom and his 'new girlfriend.'

"So you won't see us?" Lily asked me after finishing her argument with her sister, making a sad puppy face.

"I'll see if I can make a quick escape," I responded a bit Tsundere to play along. Anyway, it was my initial plan, her begging a bit was giving me a reason to come.

"And you'll give us those wonderful gifts that only you can give us," she sobbed tenderly at the level of a professional actress.

"Lily!" Her parents shouted at her, who like everyone else in this room could see her interest. They were already planning to have a talk with her about her overconfidence, but now they saw a new level of this.

"It's okay, at least I have a reason to come here. I know I said I would spend Christmas with my..." (Red)

"Your grandparents..." (Lily)

"... yes, my grandparents," I stopped trying to correct them, I had realized they were doing it on purpose. It seems that Lily became more mischievous and confident after returning from Hogwarts. "Well, as I was saying, I'll go with them, but they probably won't be alone. They'll have their family and friends with them, I suppose. Besides, they're a bit famous, so who knows if someone else will come. I'm not good with crowds of people I don't know, and if I have to bring them gifts, at least I'll have an excuse to leave if I don't like the atmosphere. A lame excuse knowing that we can use owls, but something to work with."

"Wait, did you say they're famous?" asked Petunia, my girlfriend, who was more attentive to every detail of my personal life she could discover, as I didn't usually reveal much to her.

"Hmm... yes, are they famous actors? Or singers?" asked Lily, who was more curious and excited.

"No, they're not from that world... they're..." (Red)

"Who are they?" (Petunia and Lily)

"Well, they're Newt Scamander and his wife Tina Goldstein..." I said, and there was a small silence before Lily and Sev shouted at the same time:

"SCAMANDER!!!"

"You're kidding, that can't be true," Sev said to himself.

"No, it's true," I replied.

"How are they your grandparents?!" Lily asked loudly without realizing it.

"Lily, don't shout," her father reprimanded her.

"But dad, it's Newt Scamander... the author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, he's super famous. It's like saying he's the grandson of Darwin or Einstein," explained Lily to her parents and sister, making everyone in the room redirect their gaze towards me.

"...they'd be closer to Darwin than Einstein, Einstein is a physicist while Newt is more of a biologist," I added.

"How do you know them?" Lily asked with real intrigue, even Snape was very attentive to what I was saying.

"Well... not much, Newt came to investigate me and Elise by order of Dumbledore," (Red)

"The headmaster?!/Our headmaster?" Snape and Lily asked again, surprised.

"Yes, there were some reasons... and one of them was that we lived in a certain area of the Forbidden Forest," I explained.

"What?!?!" they all exclaimed.

At this point, I didn't bother listening to their exclamations anymore. There were more and more questions, the Evans couple asked Sev and Lily about some things to better understand, but when they did, they also had questions.

"Why did you live in the Forbidden Forest?" they asked after explaining that it was a very dangerous area near the school.

"We were close to the other end of the forest, so it was safer," I tried to calm them.

After not being able to deny it, I explained that I lived with Elise in that dangerous area, but Dumbledore found out about us through Hagrid and notified Newt to investigate some things that I wasn't willing to tell them.

Newt came, we made a deal and he stayed with us for a while, then his wife came to be with him. Over time, we became familiar with each other and, being me and Elise quite young, they took on a more parental role in some aspects, but we still remained independent.

With that, I was able to silence the voices for a while. I had hoped to reveal these things, but not everything goes as planned, and it was much harder to make them understand some things and to have the conversation go the way I wanted.

They eventually accepted most of it and didn't question anything else for the moment, but Lily insisted on wanting to meet them and all that. I responded with a provocative tone that it wasn't as easy as she thought. We also discussed how far Elise's house was from Hogwarts so I could visit them, but Sev explained some things that shattered her illusion. On the other hand, Petunia, who didn't know much, was happy that I moved in with Andra, who lived closer to her house than to Hogwarts.

And so the reunion ended, with questions and some arguments.