Toujours Pur | Euphemia Black

Chapter 101 | New Family

Christmas came around much faster than it usually did in the December of 1952 and Euphemia reckoned that that was probably due to the fact that she was actually excited for the holidays this year, as opposed to other years when she had always dreaded returning home.

In the Noble House of Black, the Christmas holidays was a very dreary time for Mia because it meant that she had to spend over two weeks with her awful family and she'd never quite had the courage to ask whether she could stay at Hogwarts for the festive season, mainly because she knew that her request would be denied due to her being needed for winter balls and family events.

Euphemia had always been envious of her friends when they had talked about the fantastic times that they had during Christmas, the magical days that they had spent with their families with a great deal of presents, love and laughter. Mia had never had that. The most she had gotten was presents and last year, she didn't even get many of those due to her parents just hating her at that point.

It was so strange to her how her entire life had completely changed since the Christmas holidays in 1951 - since then, she had started dating Charlus; escaped from her arranged marriage and been disowned from her family not to mention all the other bits of drama that had happened in between such as Orion threatening Charlus' life which had led to her and Charlus' breakup (though neither of them liked to think about that time).

Now, as Euphemia had stated to Walburga, she was happy. She had a wonderful group of friends who never failed to make her laugh; she was dating the love of her life and she was finally disowned from her horrendous family that had done nothing but make her existence a misery. However, something still didn't feel quite right and Mia couldn't help but wonder uneasily about what Walburga had meant when she had said for her to 'watch her back.'

Euphemia had obviously told Charlus about what her cousin had told her but her boyfriend had brushed it off, saying that it was nothing to worry about and that Walburga was probably just trying to mess with her which did make sense as the girl enjoyed cruel mind games but Mia still felt unsure - she knew what the Black family was capable of and she didn't quite trust that they would give up this easily without a fight.

She did have a new family now though, as the Potters loved to remind her pretty much everyday. If it wasn't Charlus talking excitedly about how much fun they were going to have in Godric's Hollow for the Christmas holidays, it was Henry sending her letters with Olivia's additional sketches and drawings thrown into the envelope or it was Everleigh sending her food packages which really warmed her heart because it made Euphemia feel like they had truly welcomed her into their family.

One such package arrived on the day before the Christmas holidays were due to start and Mia felt a massive smile making it's way across her face as she saw the Potter's family owl, Bubo, dropping mail packages off for both Charlus and Rochelle at the Gryffindor table before flying over to her. Unfortunately, Euphemia's eagerness to grab the package caught Heather's attention and she narrowed her eyes, elbowing Walburga.

Hey sweetheart! Here's a little something to keep you going. Can't wait to see you tomorrow, Liv and Henry send their love xxx was what Everleigh had written on the package label, with the address of the Potter's cottage on the other side. Mia smiled at the note and quickly tore it off, her excitement to open the package distracting her from the fact that the note with the address on it fell to the floor of the Great Hall.

Inside the small package was a batch of homemade vanilla fudge which smelt heavenly and a little drawing of a snowman from Olivia with a messily handwritten message underneath the snowman reading WE HAVE SNOW HERE which was something that made Euphemia smile even more as the Hogwarts grounds had only been graced with a thin layer of snow which rather resembled icing sugar or flour.