Bad Blood | Draco Malfoy

e i g h t

When Christmas comes along, I decide to go home. After all, it's my first Christmas home with Mum, Tia and Dave and it would be rude not to go home and spend time with them.

As soon as the Hogwarts Express reaches Platform 9 3/4, I speed out of the compartment with my trunk in hand. Tia's owl Bobbie was screeching the whole way home, so I had to get away from her as soon as possible.  I rushed out onto the Platform and looked around for my mother or Dave, who would hopefully have a special eye out for me.  I hear an owl hooting behind me and I spin around and am met by a pair of brown eyes and a small face: Tia.  "Get your stupid owl away from me, Tia!"  I exclaim.

          "Bobbie isn't stupid!  She's just misunderstood!"  Tia defends Bobbie, caressing her cage.  "You'd love her of you knew her properly."

          "If I try to kill her don't get angry at me - it's the owl that's the problem," I roll my eyes and turn my back, walking forward to try and find any hands waving directly at me.

          "Mira, do you know where you're going?"  Tia asks as I continue to walk ahead.

          "Nope," I pop the 'p'.  "But that won't stop me finding Mum!"

          "She's over by the clock," Tia giggles.  I look for the clock and see at least ten people standing there.

          "Where?"  I shout, frustrated.  Tia laughs and grabs my free hand, pulling me and her cart to where Mum is.  We reach the area under the clock and Tia lets go of me, running up to a woman in a grey dress with black heels and a light amount of makeup upon her tanned brown skin.  Mum.

          "Hi Mum!"  I beam, dropping my trunk down and embracing my mother in a hug.  When we pull away from each other she grins at me widely.

          "You remembered what I looked like."  I just laugh softly in response.  There isn't much to say back to that anyways.

Mum grabs Tia's hand after she's grabbed her trunk and owl cage and she then apparates us back to our house. We land in front of the door, where Dave (who I identified by his broad shoulders, dark skin and one sided grin) leans against the doorframe coolly. Behind our house, the lake and the pier have been frosted over, and the trees in the forest in front and around our house is also covered in a thin layer of ice. Tia looks to me and gives me a small smile.

"The best thing about it here is that we can skate on the lake when it's frozen," Tia tells me. My eyes light up and I begin to grin. In France, my father and Belle would take Elliot and me to the nearest frozen lake where we would skate upon the ice. That was at least four years ago, as Elliot had grown out of it and my dad was always busy.

"No way." I gape.

"Yes way," Tia nods.  "Christmas at home is the best."

          I believe that.

***

          "Oh my gosh, Mira, stop!"  Tia screeches, falling down on the ice for at least the fifteen hundredth time.  After four years of not skating, I seem to have not lost my best skater title.  Tia, however, isn't too great.  She can skate, but not at my pace.  "Help me up you idiot!"

          "No!"  I laugh, slipping past her with my skates.  I watch the girl use her all fours to shakily regain her balance, only to tumble upon the ice once again.  I bend and laugh hard, almost falling like Tia.