metanoia

Chapter Fifty-seven

"What do you mean, you're spending the Holiday with the Prewetts? We've never spent a Holiday apart in our entire lives, Letti. Ever," Alex gasps as Letti walks onto the Hogwarts Express in front her.

Letti looks down grimly at her calloused hands, avoiding her best friend's eye, "Allie, we're getting bigger, older. You know that I love you but this year I just really want to spend this Christmas with Fab. I'm even going to tell him and Gid about the furry little problem. And before you offer, I don't need you to come. I want to do this alone. Please, don't be mad at me."

Alex looked deep into her best friend's eyes, remembering the flashes of bright green that engulfed her best friends' flat in her dream. Reminding herself that she would soon lose her, Alex shook the image of her friend's death out of her mind whilst giving her a hug, "Of course I'm not mad at you, Letti. I can never be mad at you. I've got to get used to us being apart more often somehow, right? And I'm happy that you're finally going to tell them, I know how hard that is for you. Make sure you owl me though because if you don't I will be very upset."

"Thank you, Allie," Letti whispered into her friend's ear, kissing her cheek.

Alex playfully wiped the kiss off her cheek, pretending to be repulsed by the display of affection, "Ew, gross. I mean, sure Lis, I love you but not like that."

"Wow, you'll kiss both Remus and Sirius but not me? How rude. And to think, we've grown up together," Letti laughed, poking Alex's sides to make her squirm.

Alex shrugged, dismissing the brunette's comment about who she's kissed in the past, "Well they don't have Fabian cooties."

"Or so you think," Sirius laughs, mischievously winking at the pair before pushing them towards their group's crowded compartment.

Letti rolled her eyes at Sirius' comment, following him into the compartment that their group claimed. As Alex slammed herself down onto the seat beside the window that they'd left vacant for her, Letti hands James a folded piece of paper. James opens to parchment curiously, looking over the messy scrawl, "What's this?"

"Since this will be your first unsupervised vacation with the lovely yet chaotic Ms. Alexandra Worth, I thought it best to provide you with some helpful hints and tips about handling her," she explained as she took her seat on Fabian's lap, one of the only vacant spots in the full compartment.

"Are you- are you serious? You actually believe that I need a list on how to handle my cousin? My best friend?" James asked incredulously, insulted by the insinuation as he looked between Letti and her best friend.

The blonde seated by the window smirks at Letti's list of surely unhelpful tips, shrugging in response, "Let's hear them. Let's see what he knows?"

James looked at the first thing on the list, analyzing it but then Lily took the paper from his hand and began reading the itemized list as questions, "Okay, James, when are you allowed to talk to Alex in the mornings?"

"When she wakes up?" James guessed hesitantly, seeing that upon giving that answer literally everyone else in the compartment was shaking their head including Alex herself.

"After she's had her coffee," Remus corrects, passing Alex and Letti some chocolate frogs from the collection in his lap. "Or if she addresses you first."

Alex smirked as his correct answer, having been on the receiving end of her less than delightful demeanor in the mornings, graciously accepting the chocolate frog, "One point Remus, zero points Jamie."

"Oh, come on, that was one question. I'm sure I know the rest. Give me another one, darling," James urged as Letti gave him a pompous, victorious look when he had proved her point.