บท 35: Christmas Break

"I still can't believe you're staying here, are you sure you don't want to go back to your family."

"Pretty sure, besides a lot of Slytherins tells me Hogwarts is great in Christmas Break and I have to study some Potions some more otherwise Snape is gonna give me that looks again."

"Well then bye Drake," I looked at the two guys behind him. "You too Marcus, Dominic."

They gave me a little nod in return, they were strange guys these two.

"Oh just kiss already you pansies."

I hit the top of my head where Jarvey was resting soundly. "Shut up, you've made me lose tons of house points and we still need your papers from the Ministry."

I gave one final hug to Drake and moved with the others from our group, everyone except the boys from Slytherin were going back home. Our group was a little big now that I thought about it.

From Slytherin, Drake, Marcus and Dominic. From Hufflepuff, Cedric, Rosie and Charlotte. From Gryffindor, Kenneth, Bell and Lucy. From Ravenclaw Adrian, Penelope and myself though sometimes Roger came up with us from time to time, and sometimes we would spend our times with people from our own houses.

Still I made a point for us to keep being friends, after all Drake and Bell had been my first two wizarding friends since mom always made a point to keep her wizarding life separate from her normal life of which I wasn't a part of until I came to Hogwarts, though now that I think about it she never had told me what she worked as.

We went out of Hogwarts, used the boats of the to get out of the Great Lake, and got on the Thestral driven carriages back to the train station in Hogsmeade.

We found an empty compartment on the train, though fitting everyone was a bit of a squeeze. Bell sat next to me, with Penelope on my other side. Adrian sprawled across from us, while Kenneth and Lucy squeezed in beside him. Charlotte perched somewhat precariously on the armrest, while Cedric and Rosie opted to sit cross-legged on the floor.

"So what's everyone doing for Christmas?" Penelope asked, breaking the ice.

"Family's going to France," Ben replied, his face lighting up. "Dad's got some business with their Ministry of Magic, but we're making a holiday of it."

"Lucky," Charlotte sighed. "I'm stuck in Cornwall with all my cousins. They're all Muggles, so I can't even talk about Hogwarts."

"I know that feeling," Kenneth sympathized. "Try explaining why you're carrying a wand without mentioning magic."

"Just tell them it's a fancy stick you found," Adrian suggested with a grin. "That's what I'm gonna do."

Bell tapped my shoulder to get my attention, her hands moving quickly as she signed. "What about you?"

I translated for the others before responding both verbally and in sign language. "Probably just staying home with my parents. Though I'm a bit worried about how Dad will react to Jarvey."

"I heard that, you ungrateful shit," Jarvey's head popped out from my robes. "And I'll have you know I'm delightful company."

"Says the talking ferret who called Professor McGonagall an old hag and lost I don't remember how many points," Lucy pointed out.

"I'm not a ferret!" Jarvey protested indignantly. "I'm a magical creature of distinguished lineage and remarkable wit."

"You're a ferret that knows how to swear," Adrian countered.

"Come say that to my face, you walking disaster!"

The compartment erupted in laughter as Adrian and Jarvey continued their mock argument, with Jarvey throwing out increasingly creative insults while Adrian responded with increasingly ridiculous ferret puns.

As the train journey continued, we shared treats from the trolley (Jarvey developed an immediate addiction to Chocolate Frogs), played several rounds of Exploding Snap (during which Jarvey tried to eat the cards), and talked about everything and nothing.

Bell taught everyone a few basic signs, though Jarvey kept trying to add rude gestures to the lesson. Penelope shared some ancient wizarding stories passed down through her family, while Kenneth entertained us with tales of his Muggle relatives' reactions to his accidental magic.

The hours passed quickly, filled with laughter and conversation. As London drew closer, we slowly stopped talking as much, anxious to return to our families in fact some had already fallen asleep a few hours ago, since they had to take a car ride out of London.

The journey went by in a flash, and soon the train was pulling into Platform 9¾. We began to get off the train one by one, exchanging hugs and promises to write over the break. There in the crowd waiting for me I could see her, brown hair and golden colored eyes like my own, my mom.

"Mom," I yelled as I walked closer to her.

She immediately rushed at me and held me in a bear hug. "Oh sweetie I missed you so much."

"Thanks mom," I replied responding her hug in kind.

"Why hello beautiful."

Jarvey's voice ruined the moment, his head poking out from my robe.

"Oh a Jarvey how adorable."

"You aren't so bad yourself hot stuff."

I immediately struck his head. "Jarvey be quiet."

My mom however just raised her hand to her face and acted flustered. "Oh why thank you cutie."

"Mom please don't encourage him, I've been trying to get him to act more normal."

"And who is him exactly?"

"Jarvey, I found him in the Forbidden Forest."

"So what's his name?" she asked scratching Jarvey's head.

"Jarvey."

"Yes I know he's a jarvey but what did you name him."

"Jarvey, I named him Jarvey."

She looked at me for a second incredulity in her gaze. "My son, how could you be so bad at naming things."

"I'm not bad it's what he wanted."

"Hmm is that right," she muttered scratching his head.

"That's right indeed, my name is Jarvey and no one is gonna change that."

As he talked I thought for a moment of dad.

"Mom where is dad?"

"He's making dinner at home."

"Oh and one more thing how are we gonna hide Jarvey from him."

She looked down at Jarvey. "Yes your dad probably won't like an insulting ferret in the house."

"I'm not a ferret!"

"Of course you're not," she said while actually nodding her head as if to say that yes he was. "Still I don't want to lie to your father, so we'll see how he takes it, maybe he actually will like Jarvey after all he is quite adorable."

With those final words she grabbed my arm and I felt the same suction as before the one I had felt when Dumbledore grabbed me, apparition.

Which I had tried to figure out but I couldn't exactly make it work, I don't know how to explain it exactly, the magic didn't exactly move like it did for charms and transfiguration it was more like a bloch of ink, which seemed to had no rhyme or reason, so yeah I hadn't been able to figure it out and I wasn't willing to try right now since botching an apparition could quite literally mean getting torn in half which I wasn't keen on doing.

Once the sensation went away I looked up to see our house we were right in front of it, I wondered why we hadn't apparated inside but before I could say anything mom spoke out.

"I put an anti-apparition charm on the house just in case."

She walked over and raised her wand casting alohomora chantless and the door opened. We quickly walked in and before anyone could say anything Jarvey spoke out.

"That smells fur-licking delicious!!"

"Felice who was that!"

Well I guess dad and Jarvey already got acquainted.

Patreon.com/JoanjudoStories