CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE - Christmas Plans

As Christmas edged near, everyone began to discuss their holiday plans. Hermione was going skiing with her family, while Ron was going home to the Burrow. At first Harry was apprehensive about staying at Hogwarts for Christmas, but then it turns out Ron's family had invited him to stay with them. Attuoria stood by awkwardly everytime the topic of Christmas came up. She was unsure of where she could possibly go.

Attuoria hadn't heard from Snape since the last time they spoke during 'detention'. He was once again completely ignoring her existence in Potions. On many occasions, Attuoria tried to ask him if he had any updates on her spending Christmas with members of the Order, but he always walked away before she could finish her question.

She could never catch Draco alone, either. Things had only worsened since she 'insulted him' in Potions. After being mauled by Harry and George during the quidditch match, he was always surrounded by his Slytherin cronies. Along with Pansy Parkinson, the two never passed up the chance to sneer at them in the hallways, throwing out an insult or two that made Harry and Ron's knuckles grow white.

"I thought you would be going back with the Malfoys?" asked Hermione when the subject of Christmas came up again. They were sitting in the Great Hall having breakfast. Today was the day of their last DA meeting before the holidays, as well their last day of classes.

"With the Malfoys?" Ron spluttered, almost choking on his pumpkin juice. "No bloody way. You'd rather stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, wouldn't you, Attuoria?"

"I wasn't talking to you," Hermione snapped. "Plus, Attuoria might not despise Malfoy as much as you do. He's quite nice to you, isn't he?"

Attuoria shrugged. "Well, he was, for a little bit. Not anymore, though." She glanced over at the Slytherin table. Draco was laughing along with his friends, no doubt over a rude comment one of them made.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Malfoy was scared of you." said Harry. "He's never said a single bad thing about you."

"Oh yeah," Ron piped up. "While he's being a right foul git towards us, he pretty much ignores you. Maybe that's his way of being nice?"

"I don't know," said Attuoria, pulling her gaze away from the blonde Slytherin. "I don't really care, either. He's not obliged to be nice to me. It's not like I've done anything particularly nice for him."

A flurry of owls entered the Great Hall, each bird carrying a post of their own. Attuoria watched as a tiny grey owl flew down next to Ron, an envelope attached to its feet.

"Oh it's Pig," said Ron, holding his arm out for the owl to stand on. "Haven't gotten post for weeks."

Attuoria glanced at Harry, who was looking rather nervous.

"What if the Weasley's don't want me over for Christmas anymore? I don't want to stay at Hogwarts," his thoughts echoed into her mind. She turned back to Ron, who was opening up the letter.

"Hey, would you look at that, mom says Attuoria can come over for Christmas!" Ron said happily, waving the letter in Attuoria's face. "She still thinks you're from Romania, though," he added with a frown. "Even apologised that Charlie's not going to be there."

"Wait, I can come?" said Attuoria, still processing what he said. Mr and Mrs Weasley were both members of the Order. Is this what Snape meant for her Christmas plans?

"Yeah! She said she'll make some, uh, ciorba... de... perisoare? Whatever that is." Ron cringed at the complicated word, glancing at Attuoria for an explanation.

"That's a traditional Romanian soup," said Hermione. "Meatball soup, I think."

"Oi! Fred! George!" Ron yelled, waving at his brothers. The two were not too far away from them, eating breakfast with Lee. "Attuoria's coming over for Christmas!"

"You are?" They yelled back, twisting their heads around immediately.

"Yeah!" Ron replied for her, hollering down the table. "Fred, did you tell mom about the two of you? I don't think she knows!"

The twins looked at each other.

"FREDDIE'S GOT SOME EXPLAINING TO DO!" George yelled, cupping his hands around his mouth. The entire Great Hall was staring at them now.

Ron suddenly realised the commotion he caused and quickly went back to eating his eggs, the tips of his ears turning slightly pink.

"Nice one," Harry chuckled.

Attuoria felt a nudge on her arm.

"Hey," Hermione whispered, nodding in the direction of the Slytherin table. "Malfoy's looking at you weird."

They all immediately turned to look. Draco was giving Attuoria a look of disgust. The moment he caught their gazes, his mouth opened.

"You too, Knight? Spending Christmas at the Weasley's hovel with Potter? Shouldn't be too hard for you to get used to the stink, after all, didn't you live on dumpsters half your life?"

Pansy let out the most shrill laugh, slapping the table in her fit of hysteria. Out of the corner of Attuoria's eye, she saw Hermione's fist clench around her fork.

Fred stood up so fast that the people on his bench nearly fell off. "Malfoy if you don't shut your mouth -"

"Oh look who's talking?" Draco interrupted, a smirk growing on his face. "Want to get yourself banned from the Great Hall, too? If I were you, I'd be careful. With the amount of money your family has, they can't afford to be mailing meals to you everyday. Might have to sell King Weasley's broom for that -"

Harry, Ron and George had all stood up, and the benches scraped across the ground with a loud screech.

"Watch it, Malfoy," Harry growled, his hand closing in around the wand in his back pocket.

"Want to fight again, Potter? All four of you?" Draco had a sly grin on his face, and he folded his arms across his chest. He knew they couldn't risk it. Harry and the twins had already gotten into enough trouble.

Attuoria sighed. She stood up, pressing Harry and Ron back down onto their seats.

"Attuor -"

"Sit down." Her voice was quiet but firm. The twins glanced at her from the side, their anger turning into curiosity.

Draco glared at her from his table, and she glared right back. Maybe this was his payback for what she said about him during Potions. Maybe this wasn't even a jab at her. He was probably just trying to get Harry and the Weasleys riled up.

But her friends stood up for her without her asking. It was her job to shut Malfoy up, not theirs.

"Ooh, Knight wants to fight too?" he sneered, a flash of worry crossing his eyes for a brief second before it was replaced with a hard glare.

"When will you ever learn to stop picking fights with people you can't beat?" Attuoria said, not raising her voice a bit. The Great Hall suddenly grew silent.

"People I can't beat?" Draco scoffed. "You think I can't take on a few blood traitors like Weasley?"

"TRY ME!" Fred roared, and George quickly grabbed onto his arm. "If you had any balls Malfoy, you would fight me right here -"

"Draco," Attuoria raised her voice slightly, interrupting Fred. "If this is because of what I said in potions, I get it. We're even now. Leave my friends out of it."

"You really think I care about what you said? Don't flatter yourself, Knight, your opinions don't matter to me as much as you think. I'm just trying to warn you here, you might come back after Christmas looking even more like a stick after spending the holidays with the Weasleys -"

"Huh," Attuoria let out a small laugh. This guy was really good with insults. Dragging not just two people, but an entire family under the bus in one sentence. Now that's talent. "I didn't know you were deaf, Malfoy. I just said: Leave my friends out of it. Trust me, if I wanted to hurt you, it would only be too easy."

"Oh yeah?" Malfoy stood up now. Pansy was grinning like a puppy. "Do it, then. You've got much more to say than what's really up your sleeve."

The two glared at each other. They both knew, deep down, that they didn't want to fight. But neither of them wanted to back down. Draco was upholding his pride, and Attuoria was upholding her loyalty.

Attuoria knew that one sentence from her about his father's expectations of him would break him immediately, but the damage would be permanent. If she let that out of her mouth, Draco would never want to face her again.

Draco knew that, too. There were many things she could hold against him that would destroy him in an instance. He could only hope that she wouldn't, that she would protect his frail pride.

Luckily, neither of them had to make a choice. Professor McGonagall walked into the Great Hall right at that moment.

"Mr Malfoy and Ms Knight, sit down right now." Her demanding voice boomed across the hall as she briskly strolled over to where Attuoria stood. "You too, Mr Weasley. Both of you. I don't want any commotion in the Great Hall, especially not from the two of you again." She gave Fred and George a hard look. They sat down, casting one final glare at Draco.

"I trust you weren't about to fight Mr Malfoy?" Professor McGonagall asked Attuoria.

Attuoria shook her head. "No, Professor. I would never fight another student."

"Good. It's a lesson your friends still need to learn," McGonagall glared pointedly at Harry and Ron, who purposely avoided her gaze. "Now, I've just heard from Mrs Weasley that you will be going to their place for Christmas?"

"Yup," said Attuoria. "We just got the owl."

"Well you better start packing tonight. You've only got a few days left."

As Professor McGonagall left the Great Hall, her friends let out a breath they were all holding in.

"Kind of wish she didn't stop you," said Ron. "I wanted to watch Malfoy get absolutely slaughtered."

"Kind of glad she stopped me, actually," said Attuoria. "I don't think he would've been able to take what I was going to say." She glanced back over at the Slytherin table. They were now eating in silence, carefully avoiding looking back at the Gryffindor table.

***

That night, after their final DA meeting, Attuoria, Ron and Hermione returned to the common room without Harry. He had stayed behind in the Room of Requirements ("with Cho," said Hermione, "let them have their moment."), supposedly cleaning up the room.

As Ron lay down on the rug by the fire to finish his Transfiguration homework, Hermione pulled out a long roll of parchment and began writing a letter. Fred and George, who were going to head to bed, noticed the three of them sitting at their usual spot and joined them.

Fred forcefully shoved himself onto the same armchair as Attuoria and hooked his arm around her shoulder. "So you're spending Christmas with us." he said, tossing a small round bundle of fur to George.

"Yeah," said Attuoria, watching the twins throw the 'ball' back and forth. "Is that a puffskein?"

"Yup," said George. "We were thinking of breeding them, but they're much more fun to just toss around."

"I think my bird would eat it." Attuoria said randomly. She visited Eylense earlier today, before their DA meeting. There was a large pile of dead animals near the pumpkin patch, and Hagrid proudly told her that those were the results of Eylense's hunting during the day. Amongst the dead rats and rabbits, there was even a small goat. Attuoria wasn't even surprised. Eylense was huge.

She had an odd feeling that Hagrid was using Eylense's hunting skills to gather food for his giant half-brother in the forest. He hadn't mentioned the situation to her, and she never asked, either. But with fresh cuts on Hagrid's face and hands every other day, she knew he couldn't keep hiding for much longer.

"This is your second Christmas, right?" George asked.

"Yeah, it is," said Attuoria. "It's becoming a bit of a tradition, isn't it? Spending Christmas with you guys and Harry."

"Oh yeah!" said Ron, looking up from his work. "During first-year Christmas, we all stayed at Hogwarts. Without Hermione," he glanced at her, but she ignored him.

"That was your first happy memory, too," said Fred, holding Attuoria a bit tighter in his arms.

"Hopefully this Christmas will be your second," said George, grinning at the two of them.

"You know, I actually already have quite a few memories that I would say are happy ones," said Attuoria, glancing at Fred.

Just then, Harry entered the common room. He looked dazed as he walked towards them.

"What kept you?" Ron asked as Harry slumped onto an armchair. He glanced at the twins awkwardly.

Attuoria immediately caught on that he had something to say, but didn't want other people to know.

"Alright, goodnight!" she exclaimed, roughly shoving Fred off the chair.

"What?!" Fred yelped, stumbling forward. He grabbed onto George's armchair to stabilise himself. "Since when did you set my bedtime, you crazy woman -"

"Okay Fred, off to bed!" George announced, giving Attuoria a quick nod of understanding before grabbing Fred's arm and marching him to the dorms.

"I can't believe it! My brother and my girlfriend are ganging up against me! At least let me kiss her goodnight, you madman…" his voice trailed off as they disappeared up the staircase.

"Alright, they're gone. What up with you?" Attuoria asked, resting her elbows on her knees. The three of them watched Harry, who didn't speak.

"Is it Cho? Did she corner you after the meeting? Hermione asked casually, dipping her quill into ink.

Harry nodded, and Ron immediately began snickering.

"So, uh, what did she want?" Ron said, trying to pull a straight face.

"She, uh -"

"Did you kiss?" Hermione interrupted. Harry, shocked by her straightforwardness, nodded meekly.

"HA!" Ron yelled, spilling his bottle of ink all over the carpet in excitement. He rolled around the rug, punching his fist in the air. They stared at him until he stopped. "Well, how was it?"

"How was what?"

"The kiss."

"Um, wet," said Harry, "because she was crying."

"Oh," said Ron. "Crying? Are you that bad at kissing?"

"Okay I am ninety-nine percent sure that was not why she was crying," said Attuoria, grabbing a ball of parchment Hermione had crumbled and throwing it at Ron. He deflected it deftly with his hands, sending it into the fireplace.

"Well yeah, but you'd think a bit of kissing would cheer her up," said Ron.

"Ron, you are the most insensitive person I've ever had the misfortune to meet."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron glared at Hermione. "I mean, you tell me, what kind of person cries while someone's kissing them?"

"Yeah, who does?" said Harry. He turned to Attuoria. "You've had experience with kissing. If you were crying and Fred kissed you, would you keep crying?"

Attuoria stared at him blankly. "I don't cry."

"Look," Hermione interrupted, unable to take it anymore. She set her quill down onto the table. "Cho has her reasons. Of course she's sad, Cedric died. But she's confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry, and she can't…"

Hermione continued explaining, but nothing made sense to Attuoria. Cedric was dead. Cho obviously can't have feelings for a person who didn't exist anymore, so clearly, she likes Harry.

Ron seemed to share her confusion. "One person can't feel all that at once, they'd explode."

Hermione glared at him. "Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have."

"Well technically, I have an even smaller emotional range than Ron," said Attuoria. Hermione glared at her, too. "I'm just saying…"

"Okay, well," Hermione turned back to Harry. "Are you going to ask her out? You've liked her for ages, haven't you?"

Harry grew silent, staring at the fire.

***

That night, as Attuoria lay in bed, she felt a strange uneasiness. She could sense a direction in the feeling. It was almost magnetic, pulling her mind further and further away from her body.

Since she didn't need sleep, her way of imitating sleeping was to rid her human body of it's consciousness. And the way she did that was by drifting off into other people's dreams.

Most nights, she would travel through the minds of different people in the school, finding someone who was experiencing a nightmare before settling down in their dreamscape. If that nightmare was about to end, she would go to a different one instead.

But today, she sensed an irregularity. Identifying dreams from nightmares were simple, she could sense which ones were draining the energy of fear and which ones weren't.

As her mind slowly drifted off towards the direction of her uneasiness, she realised it was much closer than she expected. Someone nearby was asleep, but their mind was open. Active.

That wasn't normal. She repeatedly tried to enter the dreamscape, but couldn't. It wasn't a dream.

She could sense another presence within that person's mind. Usually, that presence would be the Nightmare Demon or Dream Angel managing the dreamscape. But since this wasn't a dream, it wasn't.

It was another person.

And there was only one person she could think of that could enter dreams the same way she did.