stardust ⋮ george weasley

thirteen :

T H I R T E E N

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Adeline actually didn't mind the rest of her winter holidays. She enjoyed it quite a bit, if she was being honest. Most of her time had been spent with Hermione, who was still reeling from her argument with her two best friends who had yet to even speak to her.

The two girls loved spending time together, and Adeline found herself almost a little glad that she found Hermione that day because she loved hanging out with her. They spent hours either in the library, helping each other with their studies and reading fascinating old books for the fun of it, or roaming the grounds with Adeline's owl and just talking.

Hermione and Adeline found they had a lot in common, especially being muggle-born witches who placed a lot of pride in their studies. Despite years at Hogwarts and having friends who had grown up in the wizarding world, there were still times where they felt like outsiders. Adeline remembered how despite reading up on everything she could the summer before her first year, there was still times now where she felt confused about wizarding culture. Both of them had faced bullying from pureblood students, but had still become some of the top students of their years.

But even then, Adeline still found herself waiting outside the Hogwarts entrance the moment she saw the first carriages from the Hogwarts express begin to pull up, excited to see her best friends after weeks apart.

Melanie was the first one to reach the girl, a blur of yellow and black as she practically tackled the girl in a hug. She had always been the most affectionate one of the group, so this didn't surprise Adeline in the slightest.

Estelle and Ophelia were close behind, and Adeline found herself engulfed in a huge group hug. "It's only been two weeks!" Adeline said with a laugh. "Did you guys really miss me that much?"

"After spending the holiday with my family," Ophelia began as she began to away from the hug. "I frankly just missed not having to live in the same house as them. But seeing you all again is a close second."

"I'm honored," Estelle laughed as the four girls began walking away from the entrance of the school and towards the inside of the castle. "Ophelia, you've been promising us all these crazy stories about your family the entire train ride over, but you've refused to share them because you wanted Adeline to be there as well. Since Adeline's here, can we please hear about your bonkers family?"

"How about I grab my stash of candy from my dorm and we head down to the tree by the Black Lake?" Melanie chimed in. "It's unusually warm for a winter day in Scotland, and we can always have one of those fire in a jar things."

All the girls nodded in agreement, and the four best friends skipped off to the Hufflepuff common room, ecstatic to finally be back together again.

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After Ophelia regaled the group with dramatic retellings of Christmas incidents with her family – the highlight of which being one of her aunts drinking too much mead and nearly burning down Ophelia's family home – the girls turned their attention to Adeline, who had yet to say anything about what she did over her holidays.

At the same time, Hermione, who had been on her way back from Hagrid's, noticed Adeline across the grounds. Just as she was about to run towards her though, she saw all of Adeline's friends sitting with her. While Hermione loved hanging out with Adeline over the break, she wasn't sure whether Adeline would want to continue talking with her once her friends were back at Hogwarts. A small, nervous part of her believed that Adeline only hung out with because her friends weren't there, and now that they're back Hermione and Adeline would go back to barely speaking to each other.