Lucille Rose Potter

Chapter 77

"Ok, Christmas is at Hogsheads this year so I'll see you in a couple days!" Lucy said, pulling Ginny in for a hug.

She turned to Harry, "make sure you remind Sirius and Remus that they're in charge of the desserts."

"I will," Harry said, hugging his little sister, "I'll see you in a couple days."

"Bye," Lucy kissed his cheek, "stay safe!"

"Bye Lucy!" Ron called from the portrait hole, "come on you two! We're already five minutes late for our time slot! McGonagall's going to push us back if we don't go now!"

"Who would've thought it'd be Ron who's yelling at us for being late," Ginny laughed, embracing Lucy once last time, "he's right though, tell Sawyer bye for us."

"I will! Bye guys!" Lucy waved as they climbed through the portrait hole.

"Bye!" They chorused.

Lucy sighed as they disappeared, she walked up the stairs back to her dorm and collapsed onto her bed.

Harry, Ron, and Ginny had gotten one of the earliest time slots to floo home for the holidays.

The train had been deemed too risky for the students to take, so instead, the heads of houses had created a schedule to get all the kids home over the course of a couple days.

So that resulted in Lucy being up at five in the morning to see off her best friend, her brother, and Ron.

With a groan, she rolled off the side of her bed and began to throw last-minute must haves in her holiday bag.

Not liking the eerie emptiness of her dorm room, Lucy decided she might as well head home early.

She shrunk her bag with a wave of her wand, placed her Pygmy Puff, Pebbles in her hair and her cat, Matchi, into her carrier.

The corridors were dimly lit by the streaks of morning light coming through the windows.

The trip through the passageway in the Room of Requirement felt longer now that she was alone. It was dark, cold and damp, reminding her too much of the feeling she got during a dream a couple nights ago.

A half hour later she pushed through the portrait and climbed into the pub.

"Who's home?" Aberforth's voice called out.

"Me!" Lucy shouted back, letting Matchi out of her cage.

"Lucille!" Aberforth laughed, rushing to embrace her, "what're you doing back so early kid? Where's Sawyer and Draco?"

"Harry, Ron and Ginny had an early floo time," Lucy yawned leaning into his comforting embrace, "I wanted to say bye this morning and I just decided to come home now instead of later. I don't know what time the boys planned on leaving, we all decided to go separate because our schedules didn't match."

"I see," Aberforth squeezed her before letting her go, "why don't you try to get more sleep and when you wake up, I'll make you some waffles."

"Yeah," Lucy yawned again, "ok."

"Go on then," Aberforth chuckled.

"Why aren't you running the bar?" Lucy asked as she started to climb the staircase to her bedroom.

"We'll talk about it when everyone's here," Aberforth dismissed, "go rest, Lu, you look exhausted."