The Little Lightning Girl

32-Haagen Das Repairs A Relationship Once Again

As fun as the dance had been, it passed quickly, and we were soon on the Hogwarts train bound for London. Rose and Kaley sat on the bench opposite me, knowing that I preferred having some space, and while Rose read a book and Kaley painted her fingernails with a surprisingly steady hand, I just stared at the two of them.

Eventually, Kaley jerked her face towards me, "Why are you staring at us?"

I frowned, "Sorry."

"Seriously, though, why? You've been doing it for twenty minutes."

Rose had closed her book, but her finger was marking the spot she'd left off at.

I sighed, "I'm sorry. I'm just really grateful for you guys."

Immediately, I could see the questions in Kaley's blue eyes soften, she knew exactly what I was talking about, "Alana, you don't have to be grateful. You're our sister, in every possible sense of the word except the genetic one. You can't honestly think we'd have left you to fend for yourself coming back to Hogwarts after you went through Hell."

"You visited me every week in the hospital, you recorded your lessons for me, you adapted to my quirks... nothing you can say will make me take you for granted."

Rose tossed her messy braid over her shoulder and set her book aside, "Yeah we came to visit you in the hospital, who else could we gossip with? And that reminds me..."

Rose started digging through her bag and Kaley groaned and began doing the same. Both of them surfaced with coins in their hands, which they offered to me. I didn't take them, instead looking at my best friends with utter confusion, "What's this for?"

Rose shrugged, "They let us read your medical charts at St. Mungo's, and as we're honorable Gryffindors, we're not ones to back out on a bet."

I smirked now that I understood, "No... I won the bet?"

They both nodded but eye-rolling went with the acceptance. Both girls tossed coins at me but Kaley spoke, "Whatever, yes, you got a bigger ass before either of us. Now you'll have to work it off at Camp."

"Work it off? I'm not the one who got her ass purely from eating fried chicken. Wrong friend."

Rose chucked her book at me and I proceeded to laugh at the indignant look on her face.

"Speaking of camp," Kaley said after I tossed Rose's book back to her, "would you be able to get away for a weekend or two this summer?"

My eyes narrowed, "Why?"

"Well," Rose began, "my uncle Charlie is working on some things in America these days, and my father was planning to visit him. I asked dad if I might tag along, and he could just drop me in Manhattan, and for some reason he said yes. I suspect because he knew America is far away from Scorpius Malfoy."

I gasped, "You're joking, aren't you?"

She shook her head but Kaley interrupted, "And then I asked my mum if I could strategically visit my most favorite older brother a few times during the summer, and she agreed. We've considered a few weekends."

I squealed, a sound that was far girlier than normally came out of my lips, and brought both of them into a group hug. They were taking time out of their lives to come to another country to see me during their holidays. They truly were the best friends I could have asked for.

"Does this mean you can carve out some weekends?" Rose asked, her voice muffled by my shirt.

"Of course I can! We're going to have so much fun!"

............

I had a week to spend at home with my mum. This was more than I'd expected, but Chiron claimed that the monster activity had been lower in England recently. He was full of shit, but I wasn't going to complain. The second I saw a monster I'd be out of there, but for the time being I got to be home.

Mum picked me up at the Train Station and gathered me in a hug. I noticed for the first time that we were nearing the same height. I actually looked more like my grandma than I looked like my mum, but the resemblance was there for sure.

Before we left the station, my mum made sure to acknowledge my friends. She knew James and Rose and Kaley, but I introduced her to the other three Marauders before they slipped off. Louis managed to charm my mother to a degree I hadn't seen in a while. I'd have fun telling her later why his clumsy flirting had worked. The boy had Veela blood in his veins, and had never bothered to learn how to properly "woo" a woman because he'd never had to. Most girls at Hogwarts fell at his feet. This was precisely why he never dated, claiming that he'd never know if they liked him for any reason other than his genetically enhanced charm.

My mum had really been wonderful after the coma. She'd taken two weeks off of work, and would have taken more if I'd decided not to go back to Hogwarts right away. One night, when I'd awoken screaming, she'd come to my room and sat with me just to talk. She told me how I'd looked when she saw me in that muggle hospital, and how it was then that she regretted all the time she'd wasted. Years had gone by during which she'd paid me hardly any attention. She'd done it to protect me and I understood that, but no one regretted it more than her, and not ever more than now. So for the week that I was at home before going to camp, she took work off again and vowed to spend the week with me.

By the time we got home, it was late enough that I was just going to go to bed. But we walked into the house and she said suddenly, "I'd like some ice cream, would you?"

I frowned appreciatively, "You know what... sure."

And so Mum and I sat on the kitchen counter, digging into a tub of ice cream. Neither of us felt like doing dishes, so we ate straight out of the tub. This was the kind of moment I loved best. I wished we'd had them more when I was younger but I was happy that we were having them at all.

I licked my lips when I was done and pronounced, "Well, this sure beats dungeon food."

I was trying to make a joke out of it for her sake, I didn't actually think it would work. But maybe because she could see that I was trying to have a laugh, she shrugged, "beats my cooking, that's for certain."

"Wish I could argue."

She laughed and shoved my shoulder playfully, putting our spoons in the sink.

Once more, before I wandered upstairs and off to bed, she pulled me into a hug, "So good to see you."

I smiled into her hair and just gripped her tighter.