just for me ⚘ a Fred Weasley Fanfiction

9. christmas break

"Did you hear who Potter's planning to kill?" Draco rounded the side of the couch, keeping his hand flat on its back. He dropped a bag at Juniper's feet before leaning in to whisper to her. She kept her eyes on it, trying to look at what gifts he had gotten his parents. 

"Me, hopefully." She sighed, letting her book drop in her lap. She nudged the bag to hear a rattle, then looked up to Draco, centimetres away from her. 

"Sirius Black." He widened his eyes sarcastically, letting a laugh leave his lips. "As revenge for killing his parents."

"Oh wow." Juniper replied dryly, picking her book up and ignoring Draco's attempt at a goodbye kiss. "He's an ambitious young man, isn't he?"

"Are you not going home for Christmas?" He pulled back, grabbing his bag again.

"There's not enough people to celebrate with. Just me and my Grandmother." 

"Oh." He took the slightest step back. "I thought you had a big family?"

"Had." Juniper rolled her eyes, folding the corner of the page she was on and closing her book. "My family died in the war, the rest of them are either in Azkaban or, I don't know, on the run?"

"Are you close with your Grandmother?" He leant back in, not breaking the eye contact. 

"I... guess?" Juniper furrowed her eyebrows in response, not wanting to give him anymore information about her personal life. There's a long pause while he studies her, before he stands back up.

"Well, Merry Christmas then." He walks towards the doors of the common room. "Happy new year too." He turned to give her a small smile and wave goodbye. 

"You too, Draco." She smiled back to him, watching him turn on his heel and leave. She sat in the leather couch, trying to read but ended up watching as each student left the common room, returning home to their families for the holidays. Every time one of them closed the door, another came out, hauling a bag full of their things they were taking home, it was like a never ending cycle. She watched the corridor for twenty-minutes after the last kid had left, waiting to assume that everyone that was leaving, had left. And with her new peace, she laid back on the couch and was able to finish her book by that afternoon. 

The morning of Christmas Eve, Juniper set off to the library with her very last holiday assignment, hoping to finish it before the end of the day so she'd have the rest of the holiday for herself. Normally, the library was quiet, and on the holidays it was dead silent. Harry Potter and his friends seemed to not know this, or at least care about it. Juniper had managed to sneak past the trio as Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley were screaming at each other, and Harry was face down, probably napping. Juniper started on her Defense Against Dark Arts assignment, trying to drain out the sound of the constant arguing and noise that the group had managed to spread through the entire library. She was four hours in, a few sentences away from finishing, when Ron's voice caught her attention, sounding closer than before. 

"What are you doing here?" He sneered, turning his nose up. Juniper looked up from her parchment to see the three of them, staring at her, completely dumbfounded. 

"I was trying to finish my homework." She growled, scribbling down the last word before putting her quill down and glaring at each of them. "And trying my hardest to ignore you. But that's pretty hard wen you three get a library confused with... wherever debates are held."

"A chamber?" Hermione said, earning a glare from Juniper before she turned back down to her page to start proof reading her assignment. Harry, Ron and Hermione started whispering loudly, still standing in front of Juniper.