Winter Break - York, England

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One year and a half. It had been one year and a half since Anadil Winfield had claimed her severance from the Winfield family a week prior to her final year at Hogwarts and Lottie's first. A year and a half since Delphine had shut the doors of the Winfield manor. A year and a half since Lottie had started her first year at Hogwarts all alone. Now, a year and a half later, she stood in front of a lopsided purple and yellow townhouse with dark blue shutters and a calico cat wandering out front. Clutched in her thin fingers was a cream-colored envelope addressed to none other than herself. In her other hand was a leather suitcase.

It had taken her many, many hours and an indeterminate amount of "calming" tea to decide that yes, of course she would take a few days with her sister that she hadn't seen in months over a few days with her family that she had been quite unenthusiastic about returning to. It still hadn't made it any easier sending her mother a deceitful letter about staying at school for the holidays in order to keep up with her studies. It hadn't been the most favorable course of action, but Anadil wouldn't have it any other way.

Lottie felt herself being tugged towards the door, going through the motion of knocking in her head but feeling some invisible force keeping her hands close at her sides. She knew her choices were either letting go of the letter or just standing there motionlessly, and to her deliriously anxious mind, it really was no choice at all. So, she stood out there stupidly, waiting for a bomb to drop or a gun to go off or the door to open, all plausible events. To both her relief and disappointment, the door opened first.

The person at the door, however, was not who she had been expecting. This was not the sister that she had known a year and a half prior, and yet it was. Her hair was still short and thin, pale as the midnight moon, and her dark eyes were still as bold and fiery as they had always been, but there was just something about her that was untrue to her past self. Maybe it was in the looseness of her once tense shoulders, or flow of her once choppy mannerisms. Her smile was wiry and true when she saw Lottie, and immediately she threw herself forward into a tight hug.

"I wondered when you would get here," she exclaimed into Lottie's shoulder, parting from the hug only briefly to brush back her sister's dark bangs, "Look how much you've grown. Goodness, has it really only been a year?"

In response, Lottie mumbled a quiet, "And a half. Year and a half." She wasn't sure what to make of the reunion. On one hand, she was seeing Anadil right in front of her, in the flesh, real and tangible. On the other, some part deep inside of her spoke a dangerous reminder that this was the same Anadil who had left home without a word, left Lottie. And then she felt the warmth of her sister's embrace, and relented her spite. "I've missed you."

"Merlin, Lottie, I've been waiting so long for this moment," Anadil was grinning stupidly when the two parted, like a child on Christmas. "So much has happened in the last year- and a half, I suppose. I've been all over Europe, to Italy and France and Ireland, and yet I feel like I've missed so much. You must tell me all of it. How is Ethel in her first year? Is Francis doing alright at home? Is Louis's fiancée nice?"

A pin dropped. Lottie blinked dumbly, staring at Anadil with a mixture of confusion and betrayal. Her last letter to her brother had been a month ago, and not once had he mentioned a- "Fiancée?"

"Don't tell me you haven't heard?" Anadil's expression faltered, and a frown turned her face sour. "That jerk. He sent me a letter and not you? Unbelievable. He'll be hearing about this, I swear it."

Lottie just nodded shortly. The season's cold was starting to creep into her thin winter coat and making her skin tingle with goosebumps. The shaking in her legs could be attributed to either the anxious excitement pinging through her bones or the gentle downfall of snow that had only just begun. She looked out over the small street, admiring the cozy, quaint atmosphere. It reminded her faintly of Diagon Alley, and the thought made her gut wrench. Anadil clearly saw this, and however she interpreted it, she stepped aside.

"Seems we both have a lot of catching up to do, huh?" Anadil laughed, placing a hand on Lottie's arm and squeezing it softly. "How about some tea?"

Lottie didn't know what to say, so she said nothing at all. Instead, she leaned forward slowly and enveloped herself in Anadil's arms. One year and a half, and yet Anadil still felt like home.

dNPC Anadil Winfield