The carriages from the trip at the door of Hogwarts started arriving at the dawn of 23rd December. The decorations of the school changed in the meantime, Christmas theme prevailing everywhere. First and second years running around playing with snow in the fields of Hogwarts.
The students from the trip started getting down from their carriages with an amazed look on their faces. Hogwarts literally was the mist beautiful place in the world.

After yesterday's incident the students cancelled the further adventure in the forest, Vanessa was shook. When asked what actually happened with her she had no answer, so they decided to call it off. The rest of the evening was spent sitting by the bonfire and the whole night was spent in the carriages.

A tired Amelia along with Pansy and Daphne carried her luggage inside the castle, while roaming her eyes in the newly decorated corridor she saw her uncle standing at the far end of the corridor with his arms folded at the back watching intently all the students march inside the school. When he met Amelia's gaze he knew she had many things to tell him, giving her a curt nod he went inside his quaters, as it was sunday, there were no classes also the students will now have to leave for their homes for christmas, so he was free from teaching for a few days.

After spending her whole trip with the slytherins Amelia knew now she had to go back to the red colored dorm back. Letting out an exasperated sigh she dragged her trunk towards the gryffindor the common room with several other students. She felt eyes on her the whole time, not bothering to look because of the tiredness she carried on. Upon reaching inside the common room, now they had to climb stairs, every girl internally cursed the school architects for making such ling stairs. Levitating her trunk Amelia reached her dorm after ascending like a hundred stairs. Reaching inside her dorm she plopped herself on her dear bed and drifted to a very deep sleep, as did everyone.

After having a good sleep of some 5 hours Amelia's eyes started opening, now the uneasy thing was the rumbling sound coming from her empty stomach, groaning she decided to fetch herself something to eat. She left her dorm, the other girls inside were on about leaving for their homes. Amelia couldn't care less, her home for christmas was hogwarts with sev. There was no sign of Remus and let's not talk about her father right now. She knew sev doesn't goes to Leaky cauldron on the christmas holidays and same will go for her if she doesnt want to be homeless this christmas.

Amelia decided to directly go to hogwarts kitchen, her grumpiness didn't allow her to witness crowds of people in the great hall. Dragging her feet towards the kitchen she knocked on the door. The sweet little elf, Trinky opened with a welcoming smile Amelia forced a smile back.

" What can Trinky get for mistress" The little elf squeaked excitedly.

" How many times i have told you Trinky to not call me mistress- whatever just get me some nice full sandwiches i am really starved." Amelia said placing her head on the table, bowing the elf went inside to bring her lunch.

Amelia looked around the kitchen her memory reviving of the time when she spent her detention in here with the unexpected guest, the large containers, everything arranged the same way she left them with a smile she hummed a song to herself. Meanwhile Trinky brought the sandwiches, Amelia ate 'like a troll', as sev would say. It took her half an hour to finish 8 sandwiches.

" You are the best- burp- Trinky" Amelia said charged instantly chuckling on the sound she made, then she heard another chuckle from behind her. Great, just great. She turned around sheepishly. To see the most unexpected guy at the most unexpected time.

" Why cedric why? Why do you always have to come at the wrong time" Amelia whined playfully, the hufflepuff chuckled more.

"Forgive me my lady, i will make sure to carry a bell announcing my entrance" Cedric said bowing mockingly.

" You are an idiot" Amelia said playfully punching him on the shoulder.

" Right now i am hungry" Cedric winked at her and told trinky to get him something to eat. Trinky being an obidient and hardworking elf brought him instant noodles in no time. Cedric plopped himself on the small table while placing the tray. Amelia stood their awkward she didnt knew whether she should leave or watch the boy eat.

" You should watch me eat" Cedric said twisting his chopsticks, Amelia widened her eyes at him he just read her mind.

" Now you might be thinking i read your mind or something so to assure you i didn't, i just said what's natural from your expression" He said smiling at her, Amelia mentally facepalmed at her habit of reveling all her feelings through her expression.

" Make room for me then, i wanna have a proper view" Amelia said folding her arms playfully. Cedric shifter om his seat, although it was small but two petite ones could easily fit. Amelia sat down beside him, their sides brushing .

" Btw why did you come here instead of going to great hall" Amelia asked resting her head with one hand while cedric continued eating.

" Too much crowd, and i didnt see the charm there" Cedric replied shrugging.

" What charm" Amelia asked raising an eyebrow smiling.

" This charm" cedric said nodding his head in her direction. Amelia started going pink.

" You are awful at flirting" She laughed at him he joined too.

"Wow you use them like professionals" Amelia said gesturing to the chopstiks in his hands.

" Yeah.. a friend taught me" Cedric said suddenly off mood, Amelia furrowed her eyebrow at this but resisted herself to not question further. Both of them passed the time laughing, joking and flirting healthily.

" Ohh shoot Ced, i needed to meet Sev" Amelia exclaimed.

" Oh you really needed to take his name, you spoiled all the mood " Cedric whined sarcastically.

" Shut up you big baby, bye" Amelia said standing up and ruffling his hair and leaving the kitchens.

" Isn't she just amazing, trinky" Cedric said smiling looking from where she left.

Amelia stood outside the office of Severus Snape thinking whether to knock or not, obviously not. Without knocking she barged in to see her uncle nowhere. Now what to do? She thought to herself. Let's chill out a bit.
She started roaming in the whole office, the corners of the office were covered with dust and spider webs.

" This place need some dusting" Amelia muttered to herself shaking her head. Amelia explored the office for for an hour still no sign of sev, sighing she layed down on the large velvet couch. Not realising she drifted into sleep.

When Severus arrived in his office and saw his niece sprawled on the couch, he feet dangling, he hair covered her whole face. Shaking his head he shifted her feet back to the couch and removed her uncombed hair from her face covering her with a blanket, it was cold in dungeons at christmas times. And started doing his paperwork, there was a lot of paperwork during holidays. All the students were starting to leave for their homes, the school became more and more deserted only a few stayed, mostly seventh years. After what felt like hours Amelia started to stir in her sleep. Sev knew now she will wake up and ask grumpily 'what place is this'. A groan escaped Amelia's mouth, she rolled over to face the ceiling to she all dark and gloomy aura.

"What place is this" she asked to herself groaning. A smirk formed on sev's face, he continued doing his paperwork.

" I see the trip was really tiring" he said in his usual monotone voice. Amelia scrunched her face on the familiar voice.

" It was, but this sleep was because i was full" Amelia grumpled sitting up to leaning to support her back with couch. Sev hummed in response.

" What are you doing" Amelia asked sleepily.

" What do you think" sev questioned back, Amelia rolled her eyes.

"This man cant answer straight" she muttered to herself.

" Its christmas in 3 days" She said raising her eyebrow expectantly.

" I know" Sev said not looking up from his paperwork. Amelia stayed silent staring at him with a deadpanned look. Sensing the stare Sev sighed and closed his paperwork to look upto his niece with clasped hands

" what do you want" he asked still expressionless

" Open your black diary last page" Amelia said pointing to the dairy on his desk while sitting on her seat. Pursing his lips Sev opened the last page of the diary to see a long list.

𝓜𝓸𝓷𝓮𝔂
𝓐 𝓬𝓪𝓶𝓮𝓻𝓪
𝓐𝓷 𝓸𝔀𝓵
𝓐 𝓫𝓻𝓸𝓸𝓶( 𝓰𝓸𝓸𝓭 𝓸𝓷𝓮)
𝓝𝓮𝔀 𝓺𝓾𝓲𝓵𝓵𝓼 (𝓳𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓵𝓲𝓴𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻𝓼)
𝓜𝓸𝓻𝓮 𝓶𝓸𝓷𝓮𝔂
𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝓪 𝓭𝓪𝔂 𝓼𝓱𝓸𝓹𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝔀𝓲𝓽𝓱 𝔂𝓸𝓾

Sev roamed his eyes reading the list after finishing reading he put the kist back to its place. Amelia waited patiently yawing for him to say something.

" You will get the money " he said in monotone.

" There were several other things too" Amelia said with squinted eyes.

" I dont see any use of them in your life" he said.

" uggh i need them" Amelia groaned.

" Why camera" sev asked.

"Blaise had one in the trip, he kept clicking pictures throughout I want one too" Amelia reasoned whining.

" What about an owl" Sev asked ignoring her previous statement.

" Duh, what are owls for?" Amelia said raising an expectant eyebrow at him.

" Who do you have to owl to because if you say friends, then as you know your friends are in France and i doubt an owl will go all the way to France, and if its your nasty father and godfather then again i doubt if they have sent you any letter recently, you don't have any friends in your house except those nasty twins " he finished his reasoning while smirking triumphantly Amelia scowled at him.

"How rude of you, I have friends in Slytherin" She reasoned desparately.
Sev shook his head.

"An a broom?" He asked.

" Obviously i am going to give tryouts for chaser or beater" Amelia said steadily to sound serious this time.

" When was the last time you rode broom?" He asked raising a eyebrow. Amelia drifted into thinking. The last time she rode broom was two years ago, it wouldn't be a point in her favour.

" Dont dwell into past, think of the future, i want a broom and i am going to give tryouts, i will practise while in the vacations" She said trying to convince him.

" Moving further, Quills, why? I got you a whole new set of quills last month, what happened to them?" He asked.

" I want new ones just like yours you got me ordinary ones, they break easily" Amelia whined. Sev shook his head again.

" I dont feel the need of all those things" he said dismissively, Amelia scowl at him grew more.

" Now stand up and tell your house head you'll be staying here at hogwarts" Sev commanded.

" Its an obvious thing, or you could have told her, i dont want to see red again" Amelia said pouting.

"No, its a students task to tell the heads of the house, now off you go" Sev said opening his paperwork again. Groaning at his obstinacy Amelia stood up wearing her footwears.

" Oh wait Sev, there's something more" Amelia said as something popped in her mind. He raised a questioning eyebrow at her.

" In that forest um something happened and i saw something wierd" Amelia said confused how to frame it.

" What"

" You know Vanessa, she is in slytherin, she was attacked by some creature but she doesn't remember anything" Amelia said.

"Mulciber?" Sev asked gaining a nod.

"And-" Amelia trailed off. Sev gave her an impatient look.

" There was a tree where she was attacked, it was spooky but felt familiar, and also something was written on it a weird name" Amelia said.

"What" Sev asked.

" Half blood princess" Amelia said with eyebrows raised in confusion, instantly she saw all the color drain our of sev's face, her confusion grew more.

" What happened?" She asked him seeing he looked pale as a ghost.

" Nothing- nothing just go do your work" Sev said standing up and pushing her out of the office nervously.

" Wait sev what happened" Amelia asked trying to stop him but failed he already pushed her out of the room and shut the door in her face.

" Mysterious man" Amelia muttered with a clenched jaw.

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Word count: 2125

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