Chapter 12

In the days following Santana's unexpected conversation with Brittany, she found that she wasn't so indifferent anymore. She was immediately irritated by Rachel during dinner that same night, found herself laughing along with Quinn and Sebastian in the common room watching a group of fourth years trying the sound producing sweets, and actually attempted her homework for the first time in weeks. 

The thoughts off her parents and what she'd felt in the dungeons were still there, but it no longer felt like a wall around her mind, keeping her locked in. For some reason, her brief interaction with Brittany had unlocked the part of Santana that cared. She didn't think about it much though, because Brittany was a Gryffindor. Santana hadn't even told Quinn about her talk with Brittany. She'd gone to find Quinn in the Quidditch stands and told her about the giant squid, but she said she saw it while on her way to the pitch. Quinn hadn't asked too many questions, probably just happy that Santana was saying more than a few words with more than a little enthusiasm, so Santana didn't feel the need to volunteer the information of who she had been with when she saw it. 

The fact that she didn't want Quinn to know that she'd been with Brittany told Santana a lot. It told her that try as she might, she liked Brittany, despite her being a Gryffindor. Despite not knowing much about the girl or having any real reason to. Santana was forced to admit that there was something about Brittany that she was drawn to. Something that made her want to share a boat with her that first night, or take note of the fact that Brittany was always alone. Something that made Santana check if she had come in for dinner yet, or how she was doing in flying class. Something inexplicable. 

She didn't want or need Quinn knowing that. Not when Santana was so strongly against Gryffindors that she'd been arguing for years that there was no such thing as a good Gryffindor. 

Thankfully, she had plenty of work to catch up on in the two weeks before the Christmas break. Spending almost a month zoning out in class and ignoring homework had given Santana such a pile of work that she spent every free period in the library, sometimes copying Quinn's notes and sometimes working on the multiple essays she was behind on. 

In class, she tried to participate as much as possible, just to make sure that teachers recognized the change in her. Flitwick and Lupin were pleased to see her change in attitude, Binns, like always, never acknowledged her, but McGonagall and Snape were hard to impress. Santana wanted to make sure she had gotten back into their good books before the break, so she worked extra hard in both their classes, spending more time on their homework to make sure it was exemplary. 

When Snape started taking down the names of the Slytherins who would be staying at Hogwarts during the break, he had at least stopped looking at Santana with a sneer. 

"Are you staying?" Sebastian asked the Sunday before the break. The three Slytherins, Mike and Mercedes were sitting in the courtyard, with Quinn and Mike playing exploding snap, Mercedes reading a book and Santana practicing the Flintifors spell.

"Me?" Santana asked, looking away from her empty ink bottle, which she was trying to turn into a matchbox, and facing Sebastian. 

"Yeah, both of you."

"Nah" Santana said, shaking her head. 

"Our families always vacation in Tinworth." Quinn said. 

"Unless we travel abroad."

"Yeah but that's usually summer." Quinn flicked her eyes quickly to Santana, returning them to her cards just as they blew up. "Oh no!"

Mike grinned. "I win again."

"Rematch."

Chuckling, Mike went about resetting the game. 

"Tinworth's by the coast right?" Sebastian asked. 

"Yeah" Santana pointed her wand at the ink bottle. "Flintifors." The ink bottle shrunk in size, and turned rectangular, but remained an ink bottle. "Damn it." She swore, knocking it over. "Why is this spell so impossible?"

"Why don't you try the…match to needle one?" Quinn asked. 

"Already did that."

"You got it?" Mercedes asked, looking up from her book. 

"Yeah. Like on Wednesday."

"I still haven't been able to. All I get is a sharp match stick."

Santana laughed. 

"What about you Mercedes?"

Mercedes raised an eyebrow at Sebastian. 

"Are you staying or going home?"

"Oh staying. You?"

"I'm going home. My parents want to go visit my dad's friend in America. He works at the American ministry of magic."

Mike lunged forward, about to tap his wand to a card when two exploded, making him jump back. 

"I win" Quinn said, smirking. "That's two games for me."

"Fine" Mike laughed. "That's cool that you're going to America. Have you been before?" 

"Yeah." Sebastian nodded. "We go every few years when my parents can get the time off work."

"I've always wanted to go to America." Santana said. "It's weird we haven't been actually."

Quinn shrugged. "Not really. What's so interesting about America?"

"I don't know. It's something different."

"No. Brazil's different."

"You guys have been to Brazil?" Mercedes asked with wide eyes.

"Yeah. My dad wanted to go scout a player there, so he took us with him."

"Did you go Quinn?" Sebastian asked. 

"Yeah. My parents had to work, but I went with them."

"That was fun hey?" Santana asked, finally dropping her wand and giving up on the spell. "We should definitely go again."

Quinn nodded. "Maybe we could convince your dad to take us during summer."

"Nah can't."

"Why not?"

"Cause I'm going to be training for the quidditch team."

"Oooooh" Sebastian and Mike both reached out to shove her playfully. 

"You're already thinking about joining the team?" Mercedes asked, laughing as Santana tried to push the boys off her. 

"Of course." Santana said. "Leon's been running his mouth about me joining the team, so I have to be good."

"You are good" Mike said, finally leaving her alone. "Better than most of the chasers on your team now anyway."

Santana shrugged. She couldn't know, since she hadn't gone to watch Slytherin's match versus Gryffindor, but they had lost that game in the end. Gryffindor's seeker had caught the snitch. 

"We'll see." She said, just as the clock chimed twelve o'clock. Mike and Quinn packed up their cards as Mercedes put her book back in her bag and Santana and Sebastian stood up, stretching. "I think Slytherin's practicing again today. Wanna go watch?"

"Sure" Santana said. Quinn nodded. 

"Come on I'm hungry" Mike whined, gripping his stomach. 

"When are you not?" Quinn asked, shaking her head at him. 

"Exactly" Mike grinned, as the group made their way to the great hall.

  *****

They were just about to take their seats when there was some kind of commotion at the entrance. A few people burst out laughing, others were shaking their heads. 

"What happened?" Mike asked. 

Shrugging, Santana climbed onto the seat, trying to see over the crowd. Right at the doors to the entrance hall, a Ravenclaw boy was sprawled on the floor, his bag open beside him and all his books spread out on the floor. Azimio, Puck and Finn were standing behind him, laughing. When he tried to pick up his bag, Puck kicked it under the Gryffindor table. Azimio high fived him.

"Urgh" Santana rolled her eyes and jumped to the floor.

"What is it?"

"The bloody Gryffindors."

"You know…they're really starting to get on my nerves." Mike said, sitting next to Santana. 

"Me too" Sebastian agreed.

"I wish first years were allowed in the dueling club." Santana said. "Cause then we could at least teach them a lesson and not get in trouble for it."

"Who says we have to be in the dueling club?" Sebastian asked. 

"Do you know what Snape would do to us if we got caught hexing one of them?" Quinn asked. 

"Probably give us points." Sebastian and Santana laughed. 

"No." Quinn said seriously. "McGonagall would be pissed. He'd probably give us detention for months, or worse, leave our fates up to McGonagall."

"That's a bit dramatic." Mercedes said.

"Yeah." Santana said as she picked a piece of chicken and dropped it onto her plate. "I doubt Snape would be that fussed if we gave a couple of Gryffindors boils or something."

Sebastian and Mike cackled. 

"Oh man we should."

"Or the curse of the bogies." Sebastian suggested. Santana nodded, grinning. 

"Or both." Mike said, barely able to talk for how hard he was laughing. 

"That would teach them" Santana laughed. 

"Don't get that idea in your head." Quinn pointed her spoon at Santana. "We've gone along with one too many of Sebastian's stupid ideas."

"Hey." Sebastian frowned. 

"We're not going to be jinxing any Gryffindors." Quinn said with authority. 

Sebastian turned pleadingly to Santana. She shrugged. 

"Guess we'll have to wait till next year."

  ****

They took their time eating, as they always did on Sundays, because they had no classes to get to or assignments to try and get done last minute. Even when the food disappeared and then the plates, the group remained sitting at the tables, talking idly about what they were going to do over the Christmas break. 

As they did, Santana spotted Brittany walking out of the great hall, trailing behind two Gryffindor girls. She shook her head as she watched Brittany walking with her head down, like she was trying to be invisible. 

"Santana run!" 

She jumped as Sebastian shook her roughly, standing up on reflex. Quinn and Mike were already halfway down the Slytherin table, laughing loudly. Mercedes was still at the table shaking her head with an amused smile. 

"Come on" Sebastian urged, ducking low and running as fast as he could. 

"What is happening?"

"Santana"

Santana sighed, closing her eyes in exasperation. 

"Is she behind me?" She asked Mercedes. All she got was a giggle in response.

"Santana?"

Spinning around, Santana faced Rachel. 

"Good afternoon."

"What do you want Rachel?"

"As you know, we are about to break for the Christmas holidays. That will be a three week break in which we will not be seeing each other."

"Mercifully" Santana muttered, throwing Mercedes a look. 

"As such, I have taken it upon myself to try and get as many of us to meet up at least once over the break, at Diagon alley or somewhere of equal convenience."

Santana was so taken aback by this information that she actually found herself moving the conversation forward, which she usually tried not to do with Rachel because it encouraged her to talk more.

"Why?"

"Well because it will help to build house comradery."

Santana turned to Mercedes, frowning heavily. 

"What?" she mouthed. Mercedes shrugged, looking equally as confused. 

"I am proposing that we buy each other Christmas gifts and exchange them at this meet up."

"Who else is coming to this thing?"

"Well…I've got a tentative yes from Lauren."

"Who I'm sure you bullied."

"I did no such thing. I simply persuaded her-"

"Who else?" Santana cut off. 

"Um.." Rachel shifted, looking nervously around the great hall. "You I am hoping."

Santana laughed, shaking her head and bending to pick her bag. 

"No."

"Santana, if you agree then getting the rest of the Slytherins to will be easy."

"Yeah no." Santana continued to shake her head. "By Cedes."

Mercedes waved at her as she was taking out her book from her bag.

"But why not?" Rachel whined. 

"Many reasons. One" Santana held up one finger, "I don't like you. Two," she added a finger, "I don't want people in Diagon alley to see us together. Three" She held up three fingers, "there is no bloody way I am buying Christmas gifts for people I barely know. Four, there is no way I am taking time off from my holiday to sit awkwardly with people I barely know and-"

"Santana surely getting to spend time with your housemates is worth-" 

"Five…" she stopped walking, holding her palm out in front of Rachel's face and stopping her in her tracks. "I don't want to."

There was giggling beside them, causing them both to turn and see Brittany standing outside the great hall.

Rachel blinked rapidly, taking a step back. 

"Is that enough reasons for you?" Santana asked, turning back to her. 

"You really aren't going to come?"

"Nope."

Huffing, Rachel stomped her foot. 

"Fine. You'll miss out."

"I'll survive." Santana rolled her eyes. 

Rachel stormed off, down the stairs to the Slytherin common room. 

"I see what you were saying." Brittany said, walking towards Santana. 

Santana nodded. "Told you."

Brittany smiled, stopping several feet before Santana and clasping her hands in front of her. 

Santana sighed heavily, closing the distance. 

"You see that girl?" She said, pointing into the great hall. 

Brittany followed her finger and nodded. 

"That's Mercedes." Santana told her. "She's a Hufflepuff."

"Okay?" Brittany turned back to her, raising an eyebrow. 

"Are you staying for Christmas?"

"Yeah" Brittany nodded. "Are you?"

Santana was pretty sure she saw a gleam of hope in Brittany's eyes. She shook her head quickly. 

"No. But she is."

"Cool." Brittany looked down at her shoes. 

"You should talk to her."

"Why?"

"Cause she's not a Gryffindor and she's nice. If Azimio and Puck won't let any of the other Gryffindors be nice to you then maybe you should start hanging out with other houses. Rachel's annoying but she's always happy to talk to whoever will listen. Lauren's nice. I don't know any Ravenclaws but maybe you should try them out too."

"You're saying I should be friends with them?"

"Yes. Who said you have to sit at the Gryffindor table, or with a Gryffindor in class? The only time you have to be with them is in the dorms, and you'll be sleeping." She stepped forward and put her hand on Brittany's shoulder. "I'm saying you don't have to spend the next seven years alone."

They held eye contact for a moment. Brittany looked like she was searching for something in Santana's eyes, and after a few seconds it began to make Santana feel uncomfortable. Like maybe Brittany was reading a little too much into it. So she stepped back and dropped her hand. 

"I can't be your friend, but…that doesn't mean you don't deserve any."

Brittany smiled, which threw Santana off. She'd been expecting Brittany to be hurt by her saying she wasn't going to be her friend. 

"What?"

"You can't be my friend?"

"No" Santana shook her head. 

"But you want to be." Brittany smirked. 

Santana frowned. "I never said that."

"You didn't have to."

"Whatever" Santana rolled her eyes, feeling slightly annoyed. "I'm leaving."

Brittany's smile widened as Santana took a few steps away. 

"Santana?"

"What?" Santana asked irritably. 

"We already are friends."

The look Brittany was giving her made Santana feel a little sorry for her, despite her irritation. Brittany was so desperate for friends that she confused her few interactions with Santana for friendship. She shook her head, deciding there was no need to break the girl's spirit. 

Without saying a word, she turned and made her way to the stairs. Before she descended she glanced over her shoulder to see Brittany walking back into the great hall. 

Good, she thought. The sooner Brittany stopped looking like an abandoned Bowtruckle, the sooner Santana could stop caring. 

  ****

The thought of being back home was a weird one to process for Santana. In just three and half months Hogwarts had already started to feel like a second home. The amount of time she had to herself, without any adult supervision or interference had given her an unbelievable sense of freedom. She couldn't imagine going back home where her mum was always in her business. 

She couldn't deny that that she missed home though. She missed flying with her dad when he was around, and going over to Quinn's for dinner when her mum was making shepherd's pie, which was one of the most delicious things Santana had ever eaten. She missed shopping with Quinn, and spending afternoons with Mike and Sam in Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, trying to finish the homework Mike's mum set them. 

It would be nice to remember what the real world felt like. 

It would also be nice to see her parents and get the image of them dead and bleeding out of her head. 

"Ready?" 

Santana jumped slightly as Quinn dropped heavily onto her bed. 

"You haven't finished packing?"

Santana glanced at the open trunk on her bed that she had completely forgotten about in favour of staring out the window. 

"Basically done." She said, throwing in a sweater from the pile of clothes beside the trunk.

Quinn rolled her eyes.

"You're useless."

She switched positions so she was sitting cross legged, and pulled Santana's clothes towards her. Santana grinned. 

"That's why I have you."

"To fold your clothes?" Quinn scoffed.

"And copy notes from."

"Screw you" Quinn chuckled, placing the shirt she'd folded into the trunk and taking out the sweater Santana had haphazardly thrown in. "I'm only doing this because your parents are picking us from the train station and I can't show up without you."

"See we both have uses for each other."

"Just hurry up and help me. We only have an hour before we're leaving for the train."

  ******

Willow was the one to come and get them when five minutes to the time they were supposed to be leaving the castle the two were still sitting on Santana's bed. 

She knocked twice before opening the door. 

"Snape said he gonna leave you."

"We're coming." 

Quinn jumped off Santana's bed to collect her own trunk from beside her bed. Santana stood up and stretched. 

"Santana!" 

Giggling, Santana dropped her arms from above her head and pulled her trunk off the bed. 

"I love it when you get so stressed Quinnie." She said, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "It really makes you a lot more fun."

"Because you're a sadist?"

"Both of you need to hurry up." Willow said, ushering them out the door. "Cause if I get left because I came back for you, I'll murder you both in your sleep."

They met the rest of the students congregated at the side entrance of the school, where they had come in on the first night. There were dozens of black carriages lined up, waiting for students to pile in, but Santana couldn't see any horses, or any other animal attached at the front to pull them. 

"Got them professor" Willow said, patting Santana and Quinn's shoulders. 

"Holding us all up." Snape said slowly, narrowing his eyes at them. "Do you think you're more important than everyone else?"

"No sir" Quinn said, as Santana shook her head. 

"I assure you that you are not. Had you been even one minute late I would have left you."

"Sorry sir" They both said.

"Pull this again, and I will make sure you spend the entire Christmas break helping Hagrid tend to the grounds. Understand?"

Santana's eyes widened as she and Quinn nodded feverishly. 

"Good." He turned to professor McGonagall, who was standing with a clip board watching all the students. "All the Slytherins are accounted for."

"Good." She nodded curtly, ticking something on the clipboard. "Everyone take a carriage. Four per carriage. They will take you to the Hogwarts Express."

"Hold on" Santana said, as students climbed into carriages and were carried away. "There's another way to get here from the station?"

"Yeah" Willow nodded. 

"Then why the bloody hell did we have to cross the bleeding lake with blasted mer people and the bloody giant squid!"

Willow giggled. 

"Tradition." She grinned. When Santana continued to stare unimpressed at her, she winked and shrugged. 

"We all had to do it baby Lopez."

Santana's mouth dropped open. 

"Don't call me that!" 

Willow shrugged again and walked away, making her way to a carriage that had Leon, Zachary and the girl Santana saw Willow with most of the time. She assumed she was Willow's best friend. 

"People better not start calling me that." Santana mumbled. 

"Come on" Quinn tugged Santana's sweater. "There's Sebastian."

  *****

Santana was immediately emotional when she, Leon and Quinn made their way out of the platform and she saw her waving excitedly at them. 

She stopped walking, clenching her jaw furiously to keep the tears she could feel forming a lump in her throat from spilling out. 

Quinn and Leon didn't notice. They both continued to walk, dragging their trunks behind them. Her dad hugged them both, taking Quinn's trunk and putting it on a trolley he'd gotten. Leon went to get his own trolley. It wasn't until Quinn turned to look for Santana's trunk so that they could hoist it onto the trolley as well that they noticed Santana wasn't there. Her father frowned, walking towards her. 

"Santana what are you still doing over here?" he asked, pulling her into a hug. "Don't tell me this thing is too heavy for you to pull."

"No" she said quietly, not wanting to risk her voice cracking. 

"Well hand it over then." He chuckled. Santana let go of her trunk and stepped aside for her father to take it. 

"Oof…Did you bring everything back?"

She shook her head.

"Feels like you did, but your mother always tells me not to question how many things a woman needs so…" he bumped her shoulder. "I'll lug this thing along for you without complaint."

Santana stared straight ahead, trying not to blink. 

"Thanks dad."

"Mr Lopez do you think we can get some food on the way home?"

"Yeah please dad?" Leon asked, pushing his trolley up next to his dad as he lifted Santana's trunk onto Quinn's. "I'm starving."

"I'm sure we can find food at home."

"No." Leon groaned. "We'll have to make it ourselves."

"Do you really want to cook Mr Lopez?" Quinn asked, raising an eyebrow. 

Mr Lopez smirk tapping his nose. 

"You're a smart girl Quinn, though you forgot about Genjin, but alright" he began pushing the trolley. "Let's get to the car and then we can decide where to go."

  *****

They ended up at a muggle restaurant in London, Ciao, where Santana and her parents often used to stop after dropping Leon at King's cross. They hadn't been in over a year, and Santana had actually missed the Italian cuisine. She ordered the spaghetti and a lemonade and sat silently in the corner of their booth, stirring the lemon with her straw while Quinn and Leon talked her dad's ear off about the three months they'd spent at Hogwarts.

"Course you are" her dad said, beaming at her. "You were bound to be a natural, what with the way your brother's been letting you use his wand all these years."

"Hear that Santana?" Leon smirked. "Your success is all thanks to me."

Santana rolled her eyes. 

"Not in history of magic." Quinn laughed. "Or Herbology."

"Oh" her dad grimaced. "I don't blame you." He took a bite of his pizza and shook his head. "How anyone stays awake while Binns is talking is a right mystery to me."

Leon and Quinn laughed. Santana barely cracked a smile. 

"Hey why so glum chum?"

"Really dad?" Santana cringed, letting go of her straw and sitting back in her seat. 

"What?" her dad grinned, taking another bite. 

Santana shook her head. 

"What is wrong with you?" Quinn asked, leaning into Santana and lowering her voice. 

"Nothing." Santana dismissed. "Just tired I guess."

Quinn didn't seem fully convinced, but she nodded and returned to talking to Santana's dad. 

No longer being forced to participate in the conversation, Santana let her mind wonder. It was strange being back around muggles and not seeing magic everywhere she looked. For the first time in her life Santana felt annoyed by the statute of secrecy. At Hogwarts she'd been able to see for the first time what it looked like to really be a wizard. To use magic for everything and have magic everywhere. Floating candles, moving staircases, talking portraits, ghosts, and even the scary stuff in the dungeons. Everything about Hogwarts was magical, and it felt right. It felt like that was how they were supposed to live. Being exposed to that and then coming back to London and having to hide their wands was like a wake up call. For the first time ever, Santana resented muggles. 

She frowned as she looked over the muggles in the restaurant. They were all laughing and chatting happily, completely unaware of the power sat at Santana's table. She had been studying magic for all of three months and was already more powerful than all of the muggles in this place. So why was the ministry so afraid?

She resolved to ask Quinn's dad when she next spoke to him. 

Frankly, it didn't sit well with her. Hiding didn't sit well with her. 

"I'm done dad." She announced, interrupting the others' conversation. Her dad frowned at her half full glass of lemonade and clearly not finished spaghetti. 

"No you're not." Leon said. 

"I am."

"Well we are aren't." Her dad said, cutting Leon off from speaking again. "And despite your bad mood, you're not going to rush us."

He turned away from her, cleared his throat, and asked Leon about Quidditch so far at Hogwarts.

"Seriously, what's wrong with you?" Quinn asked.

"I'm just done." Santana crossed her arms over her chest. "I wanna go home."

  ****

Santana was sure that her father and brother took their time finishing their food just to spite her. By the time they were finished it was dark outside and her legs felt numb from sitting for so long. She followed behind them feeling increasingly annoyed by their slow pace as they walked to the car, and then her father had the audacity to get into the car and not immediately turn the damn thing on. By the time they were getting home Santana was in such a foul mood that she couldn't even appreciated being home after so long. She went straight to her room, ignoring Ginjin's cheerful greeting, and slammed the door. 

Being in her room didn't bring the comfort that it used to. It didn't feel like the safe place it had come to be. Not that it felt unfamiliar, but its familiarity just emphasized how much she had changed in three short months. She smiled at the Slytherin poster on her wall, unable to belief how naïve she had been about Hogwarts. Nothing she had ever imagine when she was putting that poster up was anywhere close to the real thing. Deciding not to think too much about it, she decided she would make some changes. Make the room reflect who she was now that she knew better. 

It was nice not have to share her room with four other people though.

Her bed was as comfortable as she remembered it when she dropped onto it, bouncing slightly. Her sheets smelled clean like they'd just been washed, but she wasn't surprised. Ginjin was obsessed with everything smelling clean. More than how it looked, he was concerned with how it smelled. Leon's room always had him stressed. 

"Home sweet home." She mumbled to herself, falling onto her back and rubbing her hand over the covers of her bed. 

Just as she was about to get up to change into her pyjamas, there was a series of knocks on the door seconds before it opened. 

"Really?" Santana sighed.

"It feels nice to be able to do that again" Leon said, grinning as he crossed over to her bed. 

"Any particular reason why?"

"I wanted to see what you were finding so interesting in your room that you didn't want to come hang out with me and dad."

She sat up. "Since when do you want to hang out with dad?"

"Since I just spent three months away."

"So?"

"So he missed us." Leon frowned. "Are you really going to do this now?"

"Do what?" Santana crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm minding my own business in my room. You're the one that's-"

"You're hiding." Leon cut her off. 

"What?"

Leon smiled, shaking his head. "Okay." He said, sitting on Santana's bed. "Do you remember when mum and dad had put you in a muggle kindergarten?"

Santana's annoyed scowl dropped with her hands. 

"I was in a muggle school?"

"Yeah, when you were like…3."

"Why?"

"They were really busy and abuela was still in Spain. They needed somewhere to put you."

"I don't remember that."

"Well I do. I remember how much you loved it. You'd come home every day so happy, and so excited to go back the next day."

"So what happened? Why didn't I keep going?"

"The reason most wizard kids don't go to muggle school. One day a kid refused to share a colour or something, and you set it on fire."

Santana's eyes widened as her mouth dropped open. 

"What?" she gasped. 

"Yup" Leon chuckled. "Straight up set the thing on fire. The kid burned his fingers and everything."

"Oh my god."

"It wasn't your fault." Leon shrugged. "When we're that young we don't have any control over it. You barely have control over it now."

"True" Santana nodded, smiling. 

"Anyway, you couldn't go back after that. The ministry had to send someone to wipe the teacher's memory, and after that abuela moved to England."

"Hmm…"

"You were different for a while after that. Quieter. Usually you never shut up, but for two weeks you were silent. You didn't laugh, you didn't even really cry, you didn't throw tantrums, you just gave us all the silent treatment. It was scary."

Santana looked down at her hands. 

"What's the point of this story?"

"The point is that since you were three, you've reacted the same way to intense emotions. You were sad that you couldn't go back to school and you didn't want to deal with it, so you shut it out. You shut us all out. It's what you did last month, when you weren't talking to anyone at school, and it's what you're doing now with dad."

Santana frowned. 

"I'm fine."

"You're not." He put his hand on her knee. "What you saw…it got to me too, and it wasn't my boggart. I can't imagine what that felt like. That's why I didn't say anything all of last month. I got it. But we're only home for three weeks, so I don't have a month to let you work through this." He shoved her knee playfully and stood up. "Dad doesn't know what happened or what you saw. If you hug him and end up crying, just tell him you missed him, he'll believe you. He doesn't have to know what you're really feeling."

"I'm not going to cry." Santana rolled her eyes. 

"I saw those misty eyes at the station" Leon smirked. He ducked quickly as Santana launched a pillow at him. It hit the wall behind him. "Missed" he grinned. 

"I won't if I use my wand." Santana reached for her wand, which was on her bedside table. 

"Alright, alright" Leon held up his hands in surrender. Santana smiled, putting her wand back down. 

"That's what I thought."

"I'm leaving because I want to, not because I'm afraid of you."

"Sure" Santana laughed. 

When Leon got to the door, he turned to look at Santana over his shoulder. 

"Crying would be better than shutting him out like this. Just think about it."

He shut the door, leaving Santana to stare at it, feeling horrible. 

  *****

When Santana's mother came home, she decided to take her brother's advice. She ran from her room to the front door and threw her arms around her mother, not caring about the lump in her throat as her mother's hugged her back just as tight. 

"Mija" her mum crooned, stroking Santana's hair. "Oh I missed you."

Santana pressed her face into her mother's stomach, allowing the tears to fall for the first time since Halloween. 

"I missed you too mum."

Despite Leon's speech Santana was still a little embarrassed when she finally pulled back from her mum. Leon was right behind her, pulled into a hug by his mum, so luckily for Santana he didn't see her wet cheeks. Her dad frowned slightly at her, so she threw herself at him, hugging him quickly. 

"I missed you too dad. Sorry for being weird earlier, I was just tired."

"That's okay dear" her dad said, hugging her back. "Glad you came around."

Santana couldn't take any more. Her chest felt tight and nearly painful, and the last thing she wanted was both her parents fussing over her. So she pulled away from her dad and walked as casually as she could back to her room. 

"I'm going to bed" she called over her shoulder. 

"Alright." Her dad called back. 

"Sleep tight honey" her mum's voice followed her up the stairs. 

Santana kept up a steady pace until she was in her room with the door closed behind her. She waited a few seconds to make sure no one had followed her up and sighed. She'd missed her parents and was happy to see them, but she still hated how suffocating they could be. Tomorrow hopefully things would be a bit more normal, now that she'd gotten the tears out of the way. Hopefully she could forget that awful bogart.

She jumped nearly a foot in the air when a loud 'hoot' sounded throughout the room. She turned to see a medium sized owl with light brown feathers and white spots sprinkled all over it standing on her desk, a piece of parchment tied to its leg. 

"Jeez." She scowled at it. "You nearly gave me a heart attack."

It blinked at her and raised its leg.

"Yeah, yeah." She walked towards it. "Who's are you anyway?"

Unlike Toffet, who at this point would be hooting happily, this owl seemed almost annoyed at having to be there. It hopped to the edge of the desk and raised its leg higher than before, fixing Santana with what she was sure was a displeased glare. 

"Alright" she mumbled. "Don't get your feathers in a bunch."

She reached forward and untied the parchment. The owl immediately opened its wings, making Santana jump back. It hooted at her, hopped off her desk, flew over her head once and then straight out the barely open window. 

Santana gaped after it for a moment, wondering whether it was just in her head that the owl seemed very much like professor McGonagall, before looking down at the letter. 

She recognised the writing as soon as she'd opened it. 

  "Santana, 

Come to mine tomorrow. Got a great coming home present that I know you'll want to see. I live at number 8, Tinseld Ave, London. Just take Flu powder. Also, bring Quinn along. 

  Smythe,

P.S: If you can't come tomorrow, come ASAP. You really want to see this. 

Santana placed the letter on her desk, her curiosity peaked. She quickly scribbled a reply that she would be there tomorrow, with Quinn, and that whatever it was better be good, before making her way to Leon's room in search of Toffet. 

She could barely sleep she was so curious what Sebastian's gift from his parents could have been. She settled on a new broomstick before finally drifting off.

  ****

Santana woke up a few minutes past ten the following day, which considering it was the first day of summer was way too early for her. She was turning over to go back to sleep when she saw Toffet asleep on the post she'd had put in for him a year ago, when she'd realised he liked her room more than Leon's. It reminded her of Sebastian's note. 

Suddenly wide awake, she jumped out of bed, rushing to get ready as fast as possible. She threw on a winter coat and ran down the stairs, barely calling good morning to her father as she went into the chimney. 

"Say hi to Quinn" was all she heard before she was engulfed in green flames. 

"Good morning mistress" Lemmy, the Fabray house elf said, bowing low as Santana stepped out of the Fabray's chimney. 

"Morning Lem. Is Quinn up?"

"The young mistress is still in her room, but Lemmy does not know if she has-"

"Thanks" Santana said, running past the house elf and up the stairs to Quinn's room. She didn't bother knocking, instead just throwing the door open and walking right up to Quinn's bed. 

Eyes still closed, Quinn frowned at the noise. 

"Lemmy what the hell are you doing? Why are you disturbing my sleep?"

"Nope. Not Lemmy."

Quinn cracked an eye open. 

"Santana?" She sat up, rubbing her eyes. "What are you doing here?"

"Seb says he's got some amazing gift we have to see. So come on."

"Right now?" Quinn mumbled lying back down.

"Yes" Santana tugged on the duvet. "Don't make me get physical."

"Urgh" Quinn threw the covers off and climbed out of bed. "Sometimes I wish you didn't know where I lived."

  ****

It didn't take Quinn long to get ready, but to Santana it felt like an eternity. When she was finally dressed, Santana barely let her grab her winter coat before dragging her out of the room and back down to the chimney. They nearly toppled Lemmy over in their haste, the house elf had to jump several steps to avoid tumbling down them .They barely noticed. 

Santana and Quinn climbed into the Chimney and Santana took out Sebastian's letter, reading the address again. 

"Ready?" she asked Quinn, who nodded. "Okay." Santana took Quinn's hand, holding it tight, tucked the letter back into her pocket and took a handful of flu powder. "Number 8, Tinseld Ave, London"

They landed in a large fireplace, so high it reached the ceiling. Santana brushed off her robes as she stepped out onto a dark green carpet with the Slytherin house logo on it. 

"Guess we know what house his parents were in" Quinn whispered as she stepped out of the chimney next to Santana. "What are we supposed to do now?"

Santana shrugged. "The letter just says to come."

"Did you tell him what time we were coming?"

"No…" Santana smiled guiltily. Quinn rolled her eyes. 

"Great. What if they're not even here."

"Welcome to young master Smythe's house, he told Kitso he is expecting guests. Kitso apologises for keeping you waiting." A small house elf wearing dark green clothes slightly big for him but looking otherwise pristine bowed low in greeting. 

"Oh great." Santana smiled. "See, you worry too much Q."

"Kitso will show the young mistresses to the dining room where young master Smythe will meet you."

The house had a weird energy to it. It wasn't as big as either Santana's or Quinn's, but it was still big, with high ceilings and beautiful hanging chandeliers. The walls were painted a forest green, alternating with some white on walls that had a window, and there were portraits of Sebastian and who Santana assumed were his mum and dad along the walls, but yet the house felt empty. It felt cold, like no one lived there, or whoever did wasn't happy. 

They turned a corner and walked up four steps, before entering a room that unlike the rest of the house, wasn't green. It was red. 

"The dining room ma'ams"

"Thanks" 

Santana walked to the long table and pulled back one of the long-backed chairs. 

"Why does this look like it belongs in an office?" She asked, sitting down.

"This whole house feels like an office. My mum would suggest some flowers."

"My dad hates flowers" 

They turned to find Sebastian standing in a different doorway than the one they'd entered through. 

"Nice place."

"For a portrait" Sebastian shrugged. "And my dad hates flowers, says they're for hospitals."

"Okay" Santana chuckled, standing up. "Well let's not waste any time. What did you get?"

Sebastian lifted the ball of cloth he had in his hands and placed it on the table. 

As Quinn and Santana watched he unwrapped the cloth until there was only one layer covering whatever was underneath. 

"You ready to have your mind blown?"

"Go on" Quinn said excitedly, taking several steps forward. 

Smirking, Sebastian removed the final layer. 

"BLOODY HELL" Santana couldn't help but shout, taking a step back.

"Are your parents mental?" Quinn's eyes bugged. 

Sebastian laughed. 

"They gave you a dragon egg?" Santana asked, bewildered. "Is that even legal?"

"Doesn't your mum work for the ministry?" Quinn asked. 

"It's not a dragon egg" Sebastian laughed. "I thought so too at first, but it's not."

Santana bent down to look closer at the shiny silver oval shaped stone in front of them.

"It looks like an egg." She mused, walking round to the side.

"It is."

"But if it's not a dragon egg then what kind of egg is it?" Quinn asked. 

"A Occamy egg."

Santana straightened, frowning at Sebastian. 

"What's that?"

"Come on, I'll show you."

Wrapping the egg up again, Sebastian carried it in his arms and led the way out of the door he'd come through. The walls turned green again once they were out of the dining room, but Sebastian took a quick left and climbed a set of stairs, the walls of which were white. 

At the top, they arrived at a medium sized landing, which had a couch, a television and a mini fridge. 

"My parents set it up for me so I don't go downstairs and disturb them when they have guests."

Santana and Quinn nodded, looking at each other with raised eyebrows. 

"You have a muggle television?"

"Yeah. My dad says wizards in America are starting to include muggle technology in their lives more, so he doesn't see why we shouldn't over here. When we went to visit his friend there last year they had one in their house, and my dad thought it was great fun, so he got one for his office and got me one."

"How does it work?" Quinn asked, studying the television. 

"I'll show you later. First I want to show you what this egg is."

"Oh right" Quinn abandoned the television and followed Sebastian through another door, this one was to his bedroom. It was large, with a king sized bed, a desk and chair, a bookshelf, and in one corner a table with a glass box with a small fire above it. Sebastian walked to it and placed the egg inside, directly under the fire. 

"To keep it warm. Mum says it shouldn't get too cold."

"Makes sense" Santana nodded. "So what is it?"

Sebastian got a book from the shelf and brought it to them, flipping through it as he walked. 

"Occamy" he said, finally landing on a page and turning the book for Santana and Quinn to see. 

  "The Occamy is a serpentine-bodied creature with wings that may reach up to fifteen feet in height. The Occamy is extremely aggressive to anyone who approaches it, and lives off of rats, birds, and occasionally monkeys. It is extremely protective of its eggs, which are made of the most pure and soft silver"

"Woah" Santana breathed once they were done reading. "And your parents just gave it to you?"

"Well my mum said I have to give it to the ministry once it hatches. But it'll be mine. I can name it if I want."

"Wow." Quinn said, shaking her head. "It is so pretty."

"So pretty and so cool!" Sebastian said. "I could train it to do whatever I want."

"Doubt it" Santana laughed. "First of all, they're going to take it as soon as it hatches. You won't have time to train it. And second, it says it's extremely aggressive to anyone who approaches it, so it'd probably try kill you if you tried to train it."

"It would know I'm the one that hatched it though."

"Sure" Santana laughed, shaking her head. "You believe that."

"Oooh I wish my mum would get me an egg. Where did she get it from?"

"She was working with this guy from India, but whatever they were doing…I guess finished, so he was going back. As a thank you he gifted it to her."

"How long does it take to hatch?"

Sebastian shrugged.

"I guess I'll know when I see a crack."

"You have to send for us as soon as you do" Santana said. "I wanna see it before the ministry gets it."

"Or you could just come over every few days to check. We could watch Tv while we wait."

"Tv?" Quinn asked.

"Television."

"Oh…" she nodded. "Stock up on sausages and I say we have our plan for this holiday."

"Watch an egg?" Santana chuckled.

"You have something better to do?" Quinn asked. 

"Shopping." Santana nodded. "Quidditch, spell practice-"

"Shut up" Quinn shoved her lightly. "You know you'd rather look at the gorgeous shiny silver egg."

"Only cause I don't want to miss the part where it becomes a serpent!"

"Come on" Sebastian laughed. "You guys can keep arguing or I can show you what a tv does."

"Isn't it like the radio?"

"Kinda." He nodded, leading them back out of his room. "But cooler."