ON HOLD! 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 ~ 𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘑𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘗𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳

9. new secrets

a/n- check cast list for Odette! Blaise cast is just Blaise as in the movies (Louis Cordice)

The rest of November flew by and faded into December. The weather got cold: a lot of snow had fallen on the grounds of Hogwarts very early in the month already. Lately, there hadn't been any more news on Sirius Black. That caused for Lara to try and take her mind off of him as much as she could. Instead, she would just have fun with her friends.

The black dog was also becoming more involved in Lara's life. Whenever she would be outside on her own, the dog would come out of nowhere and stick to Lara's side until she returned back into the castle.

Lara didn't really know what to think of the dog. There was something familiar about his eyes, but Lara just couldn't figure out  where she had seen that pair of eyes before. All she knew was that it felt comforting to have someone like him to tell everything on her mind to. He was an animal, animals couldn't judge.

Sometimes, Lara would come back to her common room, freezing cold because she had spend so much time in the snow with the dog. 

However, Lara didn't get time to enjoy the snow at Hogwarts anymore because it was now time to go home for two weeks. Lara was excited to see Lily, James and Amelia again. She wondered what they had been up to for the past three months.

She also wondered how Pansy was going to get along with them. The Slytherin girl had a habit of being kind of cold and closed off towards people she wasn't close with or didn't know, but Lara hoped Pansy and her family would get along alright. 

Unfortunately, Pansy was not able to stay for the two entire weeks. Her parents wanted her back home by the time of Christmas. Lara and Pansy both were annoyed by Pansy's parents because  of course, Christmas was the exact day both girls would wish for Pansy to be able to be there. 

"I'm going to miss this." Fred breathed as he broke off his kiss with Lara. The two had met up in one of the bathroom stalls of the Hogwarts express to say their goodbyes for two weeks.

Lara grinned up at him. "Come on, don't whine so much. You'll be able to spend your time pranking Ron instead of snogging my face off in every broom cupboard available." 

Fred rolled his eyes and bent down to peck Lara's lips once again, but the girl quickly dove away and opened the bathroom stall. 

"I should get back to my friends, or they'll wonder where I have been." She looked down and made sure her hair covered the light marks on her neck as much as possible. 

A low chuckle came from Fred. "Alright, I'll see you in two weeks Lupin."

"See you, Weasley." And with that, Lara left the bathroom stall to get back to the compartment where she sat with Terry and Padma. Her and Pansy had decided to meet on the platform later.

Lara walked through the hallway, deep in thought about what her plans for the upcoming weeks were going to be. Her feet moved on the red carpet on the ground and Lara had her eyes fixed upon them, trying to walk in a straight line. 

"Lara."

The deep voice that came from behind her took Lara off guard and she turned on her heel to see who was trying to get her attention.

It surprised her to see it was Blaise Zabini, a Slytherin in the same year as her. Lara raised her eyebrows, not really expecting what the boy needed from her. They had never talked to each other before and Lara wasn't sure if she even wanted to ever talk to him. After all, he was one of Malfoy's best mates.

"Zabini." Lara acknowledged his presence. She didn't really know what to do with his approach.

"I was supposed to give you this." Blaise extended his hand and placed a piece of folded parchment in Lara's hand.