Winter Holiday - Gemma Farley (2)

Christmas morning was as always, my parents' 'gifts' appeared at the foot of my bed, probably placed there by one of the house-elves and I could feel that it wasn't worth opening them.

It was just a dress and a necklace.

Like every year.

Jewelry and dresses.

Everything my parents knew how to buy, things that would make me appear more attractive to their heirs.

Not to mention that the one who bought it was my father and he had terrible taste.

I took a deep breath and meditated, if it weren't for the technique that Kai gave me I didn't know what I would do at that moment, having the technique was having something to do.

Before the technique I was able to absorb magic, but I didn't know how much. Now I felt my magical power growing little by little.

The New Year's ball was coming up quickly, meditating makes the day go by faster.

This time my dress was cream colored, but still full of fringe.

Using Floo's network we arrived at the Ministry for another edition of Farley's perfect family performance. We arrived earlier than the Christmas ball, something I think was due to my father's ego, having been late last time.

This time I was able to see the arrival of the Parkinsons.

Felicius and Selene arrived a few minutes after us and I could see the difference in her face. She seemed more alert, paying more attention to everything around her and especially to what Felicius was doing.

She seemed to find an excuse to get away from him and, not as discreetly as she thought, watched him from a distance.

From the way she was acting I could be sure she had had the conversation with Milli, but the lack of communication on their end made me anxious.

My appetite was totally ruined because of this. I had to spend the whole night refusing waiters who brought canapés one after another because just the thought of eating something at that moment made my stomach turn.

My parents thought I was watching my weight and nodded at each other at my attitude.

Another thing that made my stomach turn.

I was suffering from anxiety and I had no one around me who could understand me. I needed huge doses of motivation not to break my performance and even more so I didn't run towards Selene and ask her how Milli was.

My parents weren't part of the suspected group, not that they didn't want to be. But they were getting a cold shoulder due to what happened with me.

Once again, when the ball was about to end, Milli's father appeared to socialize with the friends who surrounded Malfoy.

I was already feeling the urge to lunge at him just to make sure she could stay safe. But I still needed to keep up my act.

When the dance finally ended I went straight home, I went for another shower to try to get rid of that dirty feeling that came over me after participating in the dance.

The shower wasn't enough to wash away my anxiety and I spent almost the entire night awake.

With the arrival of the new year, nothing new came to me.

No news, nothing.

I suspected my parents were hiding something from me and I hoped it wasn't letters from Milli, otherwise I didn't know how I would react.

My parents ignored my presence since everything they had to say had already been said the day I got home.

I alternated my day between trying to meditate and laying in the fetal position on my bed with my worries eating me away. I didn't usually indulge in this kind of behavior, but the frustration my family caused me and the lack of news from Milli were breaking my convictions.

This lasted until the early morning of the second day of the year.

As luck would have it, I had my window open looking at the garden after another almost sleepless night. I say lucky because if I hadn't been like this, my suspicions could have been reality.

I put the owl inside and then took the letter.

Just seeing her handwriting made my heart calm down.

Gemma Farley

I talked to my mom and aunt Selene on December 28th, they listened enough to investigate. They are still not happy with the path I decided to take, although they are not opposed to us, they are worried about the transformations I will go through.

This morning of January 1st I reached my goal, I couldn't hide my happiness at having reached this stage. My mother, seeing my situation, made a decision, she put my father out of the house, she discovered that he and other confirmed people were absent from work at the same time.

At lunch time she looked for Aunt Selene to take refuge here at home. She's expecting a retaliation from my father. From the way she said it, we should soon see something being published in the Daily Prophet.

I'm afraid of what could happen to you, you need to go back to Hogwarts, there we will be able to plan our next steps with Kai.

I believe he will be able to solve something, especially with his books. We've already seen what he was able to do without any support, imagine what he will do with access to all the education Hogwarts can provide.

I miss you, I don't know how I've been able to sleep these days.

All yours, Millicent Bulstrode.

I took a deep breath of relief.

Things were going better at her house than I could have imagined.

My mind started to think how the letter arrived at this time of the morning, it would need to be sent early in the morning given the distance from our homes.

The facts she narrated were interesting, after I saw her father arrive at the Ministry balls at the end of them just to interact with those people, I had already determined that he was returning to active duty.

With him out of the house he couldn't hurt her, but expecting something from the Daily Prophet made me a little anxious.

Without waiting long I started to organize my ideas, I needed to pack everything that mattered in my room without my parents noticing on the day I returned to Hogwarts.

Taking another deep breath I tried to calm myself down to write back to her.

I didn't want to seem desperate to her, but I also wanted her to feel the way I felt about her.

I took parchment and quill and began to write.

Millicent Bulstrode

Things aren't going the way I want here, but nothing is going to give me up. One way or another I'll be on the train back to Hogwarts.

Kai is a little box of surprises, I'm sure we'll be safe.

I miss you too, sleeping without you is very lonely.

I can't wait to see you after your unnecessary transformation. Just kidding, I know it's important to you.

All yours, Gemma Farley.

With the letter finished I handed it to the same owl, I felt a little sorry for the poor animal, but I didn't want to risk my parents seeing that I was sending a letter, much less finding out that it was for Milli and trying to stop me.

I needed to maintain their illusion that I wouldn't cross them.

After the owl flew from my window I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that in a few days I would see it.

With a calmer conscience, I lay down on the bed and let the tiredness overcome me, I slept like I hadn't done in days.

Everything seemed like it would work out, even the threat of her father going to the Daily Prophet escaped my mind.

Only my expectations were not met.

On the morning of returning to Hogwarts the Daily Prophet arrived with 'scandalous' news as its main headline.

Depravity Ends Two Noble Families

By Rita Skeeter.

On the first day of the year, an event ended up off the radar involving our most distinguished members of society, we know that they deserve their privacy, but this event shook our most primordial wisdom.

Driven by the perversion of the concepts of integrity, two members of our high society ended up deciding that it was time to end their marriages to live in debauchery in each other's arms.

This scandal is so big due to the fact that they have lived in betrayal for years, putting at risk one of the most sacred rituals in our world, the sacredness of marriage.

In addition to exposing their spouses to years of humiliation, they made the decision to overwrite their marriage contracts without caring about the damage they would cause.

Lady Bulstrode regained control of the family by force, canceling her marriage contract and throwing her husband Goboldo Talbot (née Bulstrode) out of the house on the morning of January 1st without any explanation. He had been enduring the humiliation she subjected him for years, together with Lady Parkinson they decided to humiliate their worthy husbands by having a degenerate relationship behind their backs.

Lord Parkinson, another victim of this conspiracy, was taken completely by surprise and is left by himself with sadness and anger at what happened, since he doesn't knows how to deal with the situation and cannot imagine how his daughter will react to such a betrayal of trust. By her own mother.

How far has our society fallen for someone to do something like this to two of the most esteemed members?

After reading the newspaper, I got up from the table without even drinking coffee, taking advantage of the fact that my parents hadn't arrived yet. I went to my room, put what was missing inside my suitcase and jumped out of the window and casting an Arresto Momentum.

When I landed on the ground I started running out of the property, I needed to get out of range of the wards before I could Apparate.

I went directly to London and started walking as quickly as possible.

There were still more than two hours before the platform for the train opened, not knowing much what to do I started walking around the Muggle side of the world to pass the time.

Kai and Bridget were right, things were completely different on this side of the world, I took my wand and transmuted my clothes to look like a girl I passed along the way.

It wasn't my best work, but it would do for an hour.

I might as well have apparated to Hogsmeade, but I had promised to be on the Hogwarts Express with Milli.

As the train's departure time approached, I Apparated to the designated location and hurried to platform 9 ¾.

I was almost boarding the train when a hand grabbed my arm.

I froze thinking it would be my father.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?" – asked a familiar voice.

When I turned around I saw someone I had never seen in my life.

She was a tall and delicate girl. And when I say tall, really tall, taller than Milli.

Milli…

"Milli?" – I asked in disbelief.

She pulled me and hugged me.

"I've changed more than I thought I would." – she said in an apologetic tone.

I was still trying to digest the sight in front of me, but I woke up enough to return her hug.

"Is everything okay at your house?" – I asked when I finally managed to process everything.

Milli trembled for a moment.

"My mother and Aunt Selene are at home trying to resolve the problem, my mother's marriage hasn't existed for a long time, but Aunt Selene's case is going to be a little more complicated." – she replied a little nervously.

I moved my head to show that I understood, even if I didn't loosen the hug.

"We need to board the train, I left the house before my parents could read the article, they must be looking for me here." – I explained after two minutes.

After the hug ended, we boarded the train back to Hogwarts.

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