Enchanted | James Potter

Chapter 12: I Don't Like My Family Either.

Flora was glad the Christmas break had started. She could not wait till most of the students left Hogwarts so she could roam around in peace and quiet. She loved Hogwarts at Christmas. It looked like a castle from a fairy tale and Flora felt like a princess living in the castle, awaiting her lover's arrival. The reality was a little sad. Flora stayed at Hogwarts during Christmas so she didn't have to face Karla and her half sisters. She would do anything to avoid their dreadful Christmas parties. She got an invitation from Alice to spend the New Years Eve at her house with their friends. They could not meet up for Christmas since Alice was going out with her family on a vacation and so were Lily and Evanna. She was excited for New Year's Eve though. The Fortescue's were amazing and she loved all the gifts they sent to her on her birthday and Christmas. Florean Fortescue, Alice's grandfather, also always gave her free ice creams from his ice cream parlour whenever she went to Diagon Alley. 

On Christmas, she received gifts from all her friends and as was their tradition, Professor Mcgonagall. She gave her a book "Peculiar Witches and Wizards" as she knew Flora loved reading weird books. She also gave her some home baked cookies. Professor Mcgonagall had guessed Flora's living condition and how her step mother treated her even though Flora never told her. She always gave Flora gifts on Christmas so Flora remembered that she was loved and cared for. Flora really appreciated her for that.

It was soon 31st December and Flora went to Professor Dumbledore's office so she could take the floor powder to Alice's house. Evanna was already there and her father was talking with Mr. Fortescue. They knew each other through their work, Evanna told her. Marlene and Lily soon joined and their party/ sleepover began. 

Evanna told them about the gifts and letters  she received from Matty. They were going well and all the girls thought it was the sweetest thing ever. Both Evanna and Matt had been very happy since the Ball and it was evident on their faces. 

Their sleepover was well spent and Flora, for the first time in a few days , managed to not think about James Potter.

"Why did you run away yesterday?" James had written in the diary, the day after the ball. Flora didn't reply. More like she couldn't reply.

"Did you run away because you found out I am James Potter?" He wrote later that day. Again there was no reply. James was an anxious mess after that. His Christmas went terribly and even by New Year's, there was no reply. He had started wearing the necklace, the girl left, now.

The Christmas break ended and the classes started again. Their OWLs examinations were only a few months away and the fifth years had by this time started preparing for it, forgetting everything else. James and Flora decided the same.

Flora was not gonna worry about James Potter for a while. She needed to study for OWLs if she were to get good results. So she put her entire focus on it.

James Potter was determined to be an Auror when he graduated from Hogwarts. For that he needed good OWLs results and so he decided to forget about the enchanted diary for a while and focus on the exams. Even the marauders had become serious about them now.

Right after the Christmas break, Mathias and Evanna announced that they were officially together now. All their friends were excited about that and the marauders and the girls had started hanging out with each other even more because of them.

One evening when Flora was taking a stroll along the gardens after Herbology lessons when she saw Edward sitting alone near the Black Lake. He looked sad, so she approached him.

"Ed."

"Oh hey Flora." He instantly smiled, forgetting about his troubles.

"What are you doing here, all alone?" She asked.

"Oh just thinking."

"About what?"

"Had a nice little chat with my father over the break. Merlin, I hate him so much." He said after a while. His father and older brothers had called him one day to their library to have a serious conversation with him. Man to man, as they said. His father had told him that he already had a few connections through which he could land a good position in the Ministry. He also told him that they were thinking of setting him up with Lucinda Talkalot and the parents had already talked amongst themselves. Now all he needed was to become good friends with Lucinda so they could get married soon after graduating from Hogwarts. 

Edward hated Lucinda. She was the captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team and was very annoying and mean in his opinion. Hecould not imagine his father was arranging for a marriage between them.

He told Flora about it. Flora was sad to hear about everything. She did not know what went on in pure blood families. Arranged marriages and Ministry positions were all too foreign for her but still she sympathized with Ed. She hugged him and told him she would always be there for him.

After they had had a long conversation about Ed, his parents and all that was upsetting him, Flora thought that she should tell him about her family too and so she did.

Edward didn't know that Flora's real parents were dead. He was sad that Flora never told him any of this before. He thought Flora didn't trust him much. When she told him about Karla, her step mother, and her half sisters, Edward was enraged. No one should treat Flora like that, he thought. If he could set everything straight, he would. He hated them.

Flora had almost cried telling Ed about her family. About how much she missed her mom and dad and how much she hated Karla. 

Both of them bonded over their terrible families and promised to always be there for each other when they wanted to talk about their families.