Starry Nights

Christmas Hols

Things back at the Lupin House are going surprisingly well. They all miss Cathleen of course, but nobody's set anything on fire, well there was that one incident but that's besides the point. Did Sirius cry when he got Cathleen's birthday gift? Yes. Did he have a bit of a proud dad moment when he got word from Charlie about her throwing her friend a birthday party after curfew? Also yes. Did Ariella wear the outfit Cathleen sent her for a whole week straight? Maybe… But it was completely normal for her family to miss her like crazy, which is why they were all in high gear at home preparing for the Christmas Holiday that was weeks away.

~~~
November passed in a blur of chilly days, quidditch games, piles of schoolwork and thankfully, very few interactions with Ivy, since Bill took all those points from Slytherin. Yet somehow, Slytherin was still leading in house points. Ravenclaw was in second place though, and weren't behind by much. Hufflepuff and Gryffindor were competing for 3rd, it changed every other day, but both are trailing Ravenclaw by a wider margin than normal.

Either way though, Cathleen has bigger things to worry about then edging Slytherin out of winning the house cup. She was more nervous about figuring out a plan for Christmas break. Her friends are all very excited about going home and obviously she is too, but there's one person in their group who isn't so excited, Joseph.

When prompted, Joseph had confessed to the group that he was planning on staying at Hogwarts during break, because his parents were going on a "no kids" trip, Cathleen didn't really believe that excuse. It was a bit heartbreaking to hear either way though, considering how right before that, everyone else was gushing about their excitement to see their families and go home, and Joseph's excitement for the upcoming holidays had completely left his face once he realized he'd be alone all break.

Right now, she was trying to work on the way to convince Joseph to come stay with her over break. It was hard to get a word alone with Joseph because they were part of a huge friend group of six, but Joseph hadn't confided in everyone about his family issues and she wanted to keep his private life just that, private. Luckily, they had a defense assignment that they were doing in pairs and they had been able to pair up.

So in the library, finally a minute to themselves, felt like a perfect time to ask. "So Joseph, I've been thinking, why don't you just come stay with me over break?"

"Stay with you? I mean I'd love to, but you know my mother would never allow that. The whole thing about hating your parents."

"Exactly, so don't tell her."

"What do you mean don't tell her?"

"Well if there's anything I've learned from being Sirius and Remus Lupin's daughter, well- okay I forgot what I was going to say. But my point remains, you don't have to have a parent's permission to go home during break, just like you don't necessarily need permission to stay. And once we get to the station, there's no one checking to see who's picking you up. It's actually a pretty unsafe system, but it might work out in our favor."

"I'm sticking by what I said earlier, you should have been Slytherin."

Cathleen smirks at his comment, "does that mean you'll do it, come with me for break? It wouldn't feel right to have you stay at the school all alone."

"Will your dads be okay with it?"

"Yes, yes, yes," Cathleen squeals, "They'll adore you."

"Plus you know my dad Sirius, he did the same thing, used to stay with his friends during breaks secretly. Oh this'll be so fun, I'm going to write to my dads now." She moves their assignment out the way as she dives into a letter asking if she can bring a friend for the upcoming break.

"What about our assignment?" Joseph asks as she runs off out of the library, presumably to send her scribbled letter.

"Later," she whisper-yells, still earning a "shhh" from some older students nearby. "Let me be the Ravenclaw, why don't you?"

(A/N)
Running late to work, didn't edit this chapter at all. Short update, prepping for a much longer chapter coming soon. Enjoy!?