Gryffindor Black brothers - Slow updates

Chapter 19

On Saturday, December 20th, the Hogwarts students who were going home for the holidays boarded the Hogwarts Express and readied themselves for the long train ride back to London. During the bumpy carriage ride down to the village, Hestia watched the snow that was just starting to fall from the window, the flakes drifting down tentatively only to melt on the not yet frozen ground. On the train, Hestia, Mary, Emmline, Dorcas and Marlene found a compartment for themselves

After only five minutes, the girls were joined by Lily, much to their surprise, though they all hid it studiously. Lily didn't usually sit with the other girls in her dormitory and her ravenclaw friends on train rides to and from Hogwarts, and Mary wondered if her sudden presence signified a further deterioration in her relationship with her best friend, Snape. While the two were usually inseparable, Mary had noted that the air between the two had grown as cold as that of the winter grounds lately. Still, Lily said nothing to either confirm or deny Mary's theory, so she kept it to herself, choosing to talk to Emmeline about the hols.

Emmeline turned to Lily, zeroing in on Lily's obvious distraction as an outlet. "Are you looking forward to going home for Christmas, Lily?"

Lily was staring at the snow falling outside the window but started when Emmeline addressed her and turned to look back at her friends, "Yes, I suppose so," she said. "I miss my parents. It'll be nice to see them again."

"And Petunia?" Mary asked as she looked at Lily. Lily sighed and met the other girl's light brown eyes, shaking her head slightly.

"Who knows how Tuney will be this year," she said rather sadly. "Her behavior's unpredictable whenever I go home. Sometimes she's alright, but other times she's awful."

"How old is your sister, again?" Emmeline asked

"She's seventeen, but she turns eighteen at the end of December," Lily said. "She's almost finished with college."

"I always forget that Muggles come of age at eighteen," Hestia said "Do you know what she's going to do after she leaves school?"

"I don't know, she never talks to me about that sort of thing," Lily replied. "Or anything, for that matter. I don't think she's applied to university, or one of my parents would have mentioned it in a letter."

"That's too bad," Emmeline said, giving Lily a sympathetic expression "I'm really sorry, Lily."

"It's alright," Lily said, giving a tight smile. "It is what it is."

"Are you looking forward to seeing your brothers, Em?" Mary asked, giving Lily one last quick glance before changing the subject.

"I'm not sure," Emmeline said, carefully spacing out her pieces on the board as she spoke. "My youngest brother, yes."

"Where does he go to school?" Hestia asked curiously,  as she looked up from her book

"Just a local secondary school," Emmeline replied, shrugging and looking down at the board before her in concentration even as she spoke. "He's constantly asking about Hogwarts, though. I just wish he could go."

"It must be hard for him," Lily said, frowning slightly. "Growing up expecting to go and then realizing he can't."

"It is," Emmeline said. "At least we don't disown the squibs in the family like some."

"Like the Blacks," Marlene said, rolling her eyes. "The Lestranges, Malfoys, Notts, Parkinsons..."

"Traverses, Jaxleys, Aubreys, Averys, Rosiers..." Mary continued the list as she exchanged a knowing glance with Marlene.

"There are so many of them it's hard to keep track," Dorcas snorted.

"Fuck them all," Mary said, turning back to Emmeline, her tone still pleasant as ever.