What would happen? (Hogwarts marauders era)

16: The Christmas holidays II

The old house needed cleaning.
It was obvious from the start, but when the young woman, called Tiana, found a large spider crawling from her bed, she decided that they would clean the whole place.
I helped, of course, when I got promised an owl of my own. Now I used the old man's owl to write letters. The old man was called Many, he was rather kind once you got to know him, but really, he was rather boring.

"We just have to look after you for two weeks," he told me one day when we were scrubbing the floor, "For summer we will do it again, but... maybe then it will be just me."

"Why?" I asked as I looked up from my work. Then I remembered being in the body of Tiana's daughter and said, "Nevermind, no need to say it out loud." Many smiled sadly but returned to the cleaning.

Once I got my first letter back, I opened it excitedly.

'Dear (Y/n),

I received your letter. I'm glad you're doing well, but honestly, I can't wait for you all to return to Hogwarts.
It's been boring without you guys, but at least Marlene is here to keep me company. Don't tell her, but whenever she starts making homework she gets this confused look on her face. You should pay attention to it, it's funny.
'I can't wait for the Christmas dinner at Hogwarts. Of course I talked to some ravenclaws, Rodric and Temur, and they said it's been a great thing each year, this party. I only wonder how they get the Christmas trees all the way to Hogwarts. There's no such pine trees anywhere near, and I doubt they fit through a hearth.
'But enough about me, what's your holiday going to look like? Will you have a nice dinner as well? I can't wait to hear from you,

'—Remus Lupin'

As I felt the parchment under my fingers I decided it was sad I ripped open the envelope. I would have wanted to save it.
Grabbing some parchment of my own, I dipped a quill in a bottle of ink and started to write a letter back. I didn't really tell him much about my Christmas, but I told him about cleaning a lot. Finally I asked him wether he had heard anything from Sirius yet and finished with signing my name.

When I handed my letter to the Hogwarts owl, I waved it off and went back to cleaning.
My room looked all right now that the cobwebs and dust were gone. Still the walls needed a paint, and the wooden bed needed replacing. I knew that the house was connected with flow powder, but I could only wonder if an eleven year old could get a job in diagon alley. No way was I going to sit still in an almost magicless house when I could be in diagonally all day, earning money to expend my chocolate frog card collection.

When my owl returned with a letter I jumped up and dropped what I was holding (which was a bucket with rather hot water) and ran towards the window.

"Oi, don't make a mess!" Many called out when he saw what I was doing. I ignored him and opened the window, catching the owl from the air and grabbing the letter from its paw. The owl flew away from me as soon as I let it go and I opened the letter.

'Dear (y/n),

'I hope your holiday is going well. Mine isn't going too great, but what do you expect when you're from a 'prestigious family'. I hate it here, I wish I could apparate back to Hogwarts and hang out with Remus. That makes me think, we could give Remus a surprise for when we get back. I was thinking something like sweets, but no doubt James will want to do a prank.'

Part of the letter was smudged and I wondered what happened to it. Sirius wasn't messy with his things, so what caused the letter to be crumbled up a bit?

'Again, I hate it here. I'll see you back at Hogwarts. —Sirius'

I sighed at the short ending. The slight change of colour in ink made me theorise he had written it later. My mind made up multiple situations before I put the letter down and wrote a new one.