Blue Christmas Solo Finished

Date: 5th of Januray, 2021
Where: Hogwarts Express

Laying her head over the window, Lydia left her gaze wander on the numerous faceless people that roamed the platform 9 ^3/4. So far she was sitting by herself, her trunk safely with the other students' ones, and her beloved car sitting next to her; her wand was tucked safely in her Hogwarts robes, waiting to be finally useful again. Even if Lydia, for a short while, thought she would have never used it anymore.

The sudden movement of the train made her jump up, her shoulders tense as the crowd started to fade, and the London landscape welcomed her eyes. She really wanted to get comfortable, it was a long ride until Hogwarts after all, but she didn't want to risk annoying anyone; so she waited a good ten minutes, but when nobody joined her compartment, she quickly took off her black Dr Martens -one of the Christmas presents form her Grandma- and sat cross legged on the seat.

Lydia realised she was staring at the seat in front of her when Mačka's meow made her blink several times, before she looked at him and softly moved her lips up, the smile not reaching her eyes. She gave him a small pet, before leaving her hand next to him, as her eyes moved back towards the outside of the train. The London houses and buildings were running fast outside of the window, the colours all merging together as they passed in front of her eyes. She would have missed that city back at Hogwarts, more than she did after the summer break.

It wasn't like she didn't want to go back to school, but after what happened during the holidays...

Taking a deep breath, fighting the tears that had already started forming in her eyes, Lydia pulled up her air into a messy bun, stopping that train of thoughts before they could get the best of her. Instead, she picked out a book from her backpack and started reading, trying to understand some more about one of the Potions in the manual.

After a little while, Mačka crawled all the way to her lap, deciding that with all the space he had, he definitely needed to sleep on her legs. Lydia gently scratched his head, and put down the book next to her, resting then her forehead against the glass of the window. The landscape outside was oddly familiar, just like it happens when one travels along a road they had done many times already. Her eyes briefly scanned around her, and she noticed she was still alone.

How fitting.

Bringing her eyes back on the landscape outside the window, Lydia let her mind wander towards those thoughts that she had stopped earlier. Around her she could hear chats about Christmas presents, happy times with the family, and for once, she could not relate to that. Christmas had always been her favourite holiday, a day of joy to spend with her family and friends, a time to laugh, eat and play all together. But not this year. Or well, Christmas had been a good day, but those that followed... well, Lydia wished they did not happen.

It was the day after Christmas that it happened, when her world was shaken and everything changed. Her dad had always been a healthy man; sure, he had a couple of health problems in the past, but nothing too serious, he was still young after all. However, Chris Cooper had suddenly gotten sick the day after Christmas, and after a couple of days things were so bad that he had been taken to St Mungos, where he stayed for almost a week.

Lydia still could not understand how her dad got sick or why, all she knew was that one day they were all laughing together, and the next one he was gone and taken to the hospital. That was probably the worst part of all, not knowing what was happening or how he was doing. For the week her father was away, Lydia had stayed at her Grandma's with her sister, as her mother tried her best to keep everyone updated. The young Hufflepuff girl knew things were bad when she saw her mom crying one night, as she was sitting at the kitchen table. In that moment, she ran towards her and hugged her, holding her mom close and not saying a word. It didn't matter what had happened in the past between her, that she had kept from her a lot of secrets about her side of the family. Nothing mattered, not now that her dad was not there.

That night she slept in the big bed with her mom, hugging her and trying to find again that feeling of safety that she could not feel anymore. Her father was one of the most important people in her life; he had always been there for her, ready to help her if she needed a hand with something. He was caring, lovable, had a laugh that could make one smile even if they were sad. But most of all, he had always made her feel safe, as if she had a warm blanket around her shoulders, protecting her from everything.

Lydia never understood what caused her dad to get sick; she heard some words, but had no idea what they meant, all she knew was that she wanted her dad to get better and come back home. For a while it looked as if he never would; during that couple of days she spent her time in her room, her nose stuffed in school books, trying to concentrate on anything that could somehow distract her. Those days passed so slowly that they felt like weeks, and all Lydia could really remember was feeling scared and lonely. But despite that, she never lost hope; she hoped and dreamed of her dad coming back home for his birthday, that ironically would have been the day of her departure for Hogwarts again. But still, she really wanted him to be back home by then.

And that happened.

Chris Cooper was sent back home after recovering, the day before Lydia had to return to Hogwarts. They spent that day sitting on the couch, hugging her dad and just talking with each other; for the occasion, even her aunt and uncle had come to visit, and they all spent the day together; her mom and aunt -and even her dad- shared some stories about their Hogwarts' time, and in that moment, Lydia thought that she would have gone back to school.

For a couple of days she didn't want to go back, when her dad was still really sick and she didn't know if he would have come back home at all; she thought she was done with magic, that she didn't want anything to do with it, that nothing else mattered except for her family. She was too scared that anybody else might have suddenly gotten sick while she was away; what would have she done then, all those kilometers away from home?

But that thought went away once her dad came back home, and Lydia was happy about that, even though she was still worried and anxious about her parents. But who wouldn't, after something as unexpected as that?

Blinking a couple of times, Lydia closed her eyes, her hand resting on the cat on her lap, as she felt her head getting heavy. She was quite tired, she had woken up quite early, and the holidays hadn't been exactly resting for her. She reached for her wool scarf and wrapped it around herself as if it was a blanket, before she closed her eyes once again, her forehead leaning on the window.

Lydia let her mind go as sleep took over her, her body weightless as she saw herself and her family curled up on the sofa. She would have missed them a lot during the next months, and she would have definitely gone home for the Easter holidays.