Scopophobia | H. POTTER [4]

8 | christmas at the burrow

"Maybe you guys should go without me," Abigail suggested warily. It was now the holidays and she was at Grimmauld Place with her father and Sirius. "They're all kind of pissed at me at the moment."

"Mrs. Weasley invited all of us so all of us will attend or none of us will," Lupin informed her. "Besides, it's the season of forgiving or whatever it is they say."

"I said and did some pretty awful things."

"I'm sure they knew what you only said it to push them all away."

"Doesn't make what I said any better."

"Try and apologize," Lupin recommended, "We'll leave early if we have to."

"If it's any help, Harry is mainly just confused," Sirius spoke up, "Not even sure you'd have to apologize to him just explain why you did whatever you did."

"What exactly is it that you did?" Tonks inquired.

Abigail bit her lip in thought, "You want me to name just one thing?"

"Sleep on it," Lupin suggested, "You'll have a different view in the morning."

She did not.

"Dad, please don't make me go," Abigail begged.

He let out an exasperated sigh as he faced his daughter, "They'll want to see you."

"No," she countered, "They won't."

"At the beginning of the year you wanted nothing more than to be with your friends."

"Things change."

"Abigail, I really don't have the energy for this right now."

"Fine," she frowned, "But only for a little."

"You're staying at the Burrow for the rest of break."

"What?" she gaped up at the man. He looked tired beyond measure. It didn't help that it was the first night of the cycle. "You can't be serious!"

"Tonks and I will be gone all week and Sirius has tasks from the Order."

"I can stay at home alone," she countered, "Better yet, I'll stay here with Sirius and keep him company while you're away mingling."

"No."

"Why does he get to stay here?"

"Because he's technically dead."

"I could be technically dead," she pointed out, "It would make a lot of other things easier too."

"You really want to have this conversation with me?"

Abigail thought it over for a moment before shaking her head, "No, I don't." She fell back on the couch with a dramatic sigh, "Fine, I'll go but I won't be happy about it."

He patted her leg as he made his way out of the room, "You wouldn't be you if you were." She frowned slightly but sat up, "We leave in an hour. Have your things packed and be ready to go please."

"I think it funny that now that I'd rather stay home he's changed his mind about everything," Abigail informed Sirius and Tonks with a huff. "It would be nice if he would just agree with me for once." She faced Tonks immediately, "Don't give me the 'it's a full moon speech', this is an all the time occurrence."

She put her hands up in surrender before leaving the room where her father had just walked out.

"And if you start the whole, 'everything will be okay' speel, I will hit you because we both know that's crap."