Sirius's son

Rita Skeeter

Twenty years later, that was the same thing he would've told his children. Yep he got jealous, left, and practically yelled he loved Elizabeth Potter.

Rigel saw how her jaw dropped and color flooded Rigel's cheeks. Great now she's going to think he was a fanboy.

But what he didn't expect was Eliza walking towards him, grabbing his sleeves and pulling him down into a kiss. Rigel's eyes were wide but he didn't pull back.

Oh dear Merlin, please please tell me this isn't a dream. 

But it wasn't because he could smell punch and firewhiskey and... strawberries? Maybe her lipstick. 

"I love you too" she whispers after they broke the kiss.

"And... I'm sorry for yelling at you." Rigel said rubbing his neck sheepishly. 

"It's okay" she assured. "It is nice to know that you care. Besides, if you hadn't exploded, who knows how long it would have taken you to tell me that you liked me," she smirked.

"Honestly I have no idea," Rigel admitted with a small smile. "But I just want to say, Best Christmas ever!"

Everybody woke up late on Boxing Day the next morning. The Gryffindor common room was much quieter than it had been lately, everyone yawning and having lazy conversations.

Harry, Ron Rigel, and Eliza were already in the common room when Hermione walked out of the girls' dormitory, Crookshanks following her right behind.

"Morning," said Hermione as she sat on the couch beside Harry, though avoided even looking in Ron's direction. Crookshanks hopped up on a nearby armchair as well, curling up against it.

"Your hair is back to being bushy again," Rigel said reading the daily prophet that covered his entire face.

"I don't even how you figured it out." Hermione shook her head. "I used liberal amounts of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion on it for the ball, but it's way too much bother to do every day."

"Ironic that our grandfather invented that potion," Eliza said. "But our dad nor Harry will use it."

"And I never will," Harry muttered.

Ron and Hermione seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement not to discuss their argument. They were being quite friendly to each other, though oddly formal. 

Ron and Harry wasted no time in telling Hermione about the conversation they had overheard between Madame Maxime and Hagrid the previous night, about how Hagrid was a half-giant.

"Well, I thought he must be," Hermione said, shrugging. "I knew he couldn't be a pure giant because they're about twenty feet tall. But honestly, all this hysteria about giants. They can't all be horrible. . . . It's the same sort of prejudice that people have toward werewolves. . . . It's just bigotry, isn't it?"

"Actually." Rigel said shaking his head. "giants are horrible. They're dangerously violent and incredibly aggressive. Just like half of my family. I'm guessing Hagrid's dad was a very patient man."

It was time now to think of the homework they had neglected during the first week of the holidays. Everybody seemed to be feeling rather flat now that Christmas was over. Eliza had already told him how they could figure it out before Christmas and the two had figured it out easily. Rigel had managed to convince Neville to bring back gillyweed while Eliza had gotten herself a bubblehead charm spellbook.

The snow was still thick upon the grounds, and the greenhouse windows were covered in condensation so thick that they couldn't see out of them in Herbology. Nobody was looking forward to Care of Magical Creatures much in this weather, though as Ron said, the skrewts would probably warm them up nicely, either by chasing them, or blasting off so forcefully that Hagrid's cabin would catch fire.