Déjà Vu

Chapter 19

a/n

i'm so sorry for the inconsistent updates you guys :( school is kicking my ass rn

anyways, enjoy the chapter and thank you all so much for reading!! ily

~ Evelyn ~

Hogwarts is in a frenzy during the time leading up to winter break, each and every room filled with stressed-out students trying to study for all of their tests and finish all of their papers that just had to be due the Friday before break starts, but once it's time to go home, Evelyn finds that she doesn't mind having had to go through that week of hell to get there. Sure, Hogwarts' beauty has become even more apparent than usual when that gorgeous blanket of bright white snow took it over, but she's ready to go home.

The train ride had been mostly tame, 90% of the students sleeping inside of their carriages in order to make up for all of the sleep that they'd missed over the last week. Evelyn can't sleep though, much too antsy to finally return home for a bit, and is practically on the edge of her seat when the train pulls to a very loud stop at Kings Cross.

She runs -- as fast as she can with her luggage -- to her mom's car, the old, rusty, red thing bringing a sense of familiarity that only childhood things can bring. Her mom is looking at something outside of the window while Evelyn makes her way to the car, but when she sees her daughter, her face breaks out into an impossibly wide smile and she immediately climbs outside of the car.

"Hi honey," she says warmly, a bright smile still stretched across her face. She opens her arms for a hug when Evelyn sets her bags down.

Evelyn immediately tugs her mom into a tight embrace. "Hi, mom," she says into her hair. "No Dad?" she asks when she pulls back.

Her mom shakes her head. "He's stuck at work, but he should be home in a couple of hours."

Evelyn nods and picks up her things, lugging them around the car and into the trunk.

When they're both settled into the two front seats, her mom turns to her with an eager smile instead of starting the car. "You need to tell me absolutely everything about Hogwarts."

Evelyn laughs. "I'll tell you on the way back. Let's get going."

Her mom rolls her eyes but gives in, starting to drive the route home while Evelyn tells her all about the beginning of her year.

~~~~~~~~~~

It doesn't take long to get settled back in at home. Like Hogwarts, her hometown is covered in a layer of that light, fluffy snow that looks straight out of a Christmas movie. She would love to just look at the snow from a distance, her aversion to the biting, cold flakes that fall from the sky not a secret, but her mother has other ideas. Her mother has a lot of ideas, apparently, each centered around her dream of the 'family time' that she seems to want so much now that Evelyn and her brother are home. The family's days are filled to the brim with holiday spirit; there are Christmas cookie bakes, pictures containing far too many matching pajamas, and a terribly built snowman with a baby carrot for a nose.

Evelyn loves her family, don't get her wrong, but the extent to which her mom wants them all to hang out is a bit much. That's why she's a bit happy when the holiday finally passes, the morning outdoing every other single thing her mother had planned. She'd never think that she would be admitting happiness to Christmas being over, but she just wants to have some time to herself in her hometown.

She's enjoying said alone time in her bedroom on the 27th of December when her mom yells, "Evelyn!" up the stairs.

She rolls her eyes and tosses her book face down on her bed, inwardly groaning at the interruption. She hopes her mom hasn't come up with something else for them all to do together, some sort of New Years Eve Eve Eve Eve Eve celebration or something.