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Chapter Nine
TRAIN HOME
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I was excited to be heading home. I missed my mother but I still hadn't heard from her and as far as I knew Anne and Sebasian's parents had not gotten back with them about Ominis. Anne and I sit on our bed packing up our belongings. We don't speak much I think both os us are nervous about our friend and the possibility that he might have to go back home.

"Are you guys going to try out for Quidditch next year?" Imelda asks. I had been so busy this year that I had completely forgotten about the game. Anne and Sebastain had once talked about joining the team but they never tried out.

I shake my head, "I'm not." I say and then look over at my friend.

"Yeah, I will. I hope to be a chaser." Anne tells her.

"I'm the Seeker, and one day I'll be the captian." Imelda says.

We finish packing up our things and head down to the common room where the boys are waiting on us. When they see us they smiles and the four of us head out towards the great hall for the end of the year feast.

I hope that the reason I haven't heard from my mother is because she is preparing the spare bedroom for Ominis, but I highly doubt it. She hates his family. That is all I can think about as we make our way down the halls.

Once again the banners that hang in the great hall have Slytherin serpents on them. "You know, I'm starting to think this is rigged." I say as we head to the Slytherin table. "I mean I cearly remember Ravenclaw being in the lead a few weeks ago."

"Oh it is rigged. Professor Black was Slytherin, it's his favorite house." Ominis says as we take a seat.

"That's so stupid, I want to win because we earned it, not just favoritism." I say letting out a huff.

"Next year we can win the Quidditch cup fair and square." Sebastian says. "You'll be joining right?"

"No, I really don't care that much for the game. But if you guys join, I'll be in the stands cheering you on."

The noise in the great hall died down at Professor Black stepped up to the podium. "Another great school year has gone. As you can see Slytherin has one the house cup with a one hundred point lead, Ravenclaw came in second." The Slythein table roared at the mention of us winning and the others groaned.

Professor Black kept his speech short and to the point and then the food appeared on the tables in front of us and we all dug in. Once again I hear the sound of my owl entering the room. I glance up with hopeful eyes as she drops the letter in my lap.

"Is that your mom?" Anne asks, hope lacing her voice as well. Sebastian looks up from his plate with hopeful eyes. Only Ominis doesn't bother to look up already expecting the answer to be no.

I nod my head, suddenly nervous to open the letter and see what she said. "Yes," I manage to say and then turn the letter over and slowly open it up. I pull out the paper and my eyes scan the words written on it.

I know you are friends with the boy, and I have talked to your father about it. I told him about his family and he says it would be best if the boy didn't come home with you. I told you to stop hanging out with him, and now he's trying to drive a wedge between us.

I'm sorry, Lila, but my answer is no. Nothing good ever comes from that family. It would be in your best interest to ditch whatever friendship you have with that boy and move on from him.

I will see you at King's Cross today. I love you.

I feel tears start to form in my eyes from anger. My mother's hatred for the Gaunt family is stopping her from seeing how much different Ominis is from the rest of his family. And how he wants to get away from them but she isn't letting him.

Anne and Sebastian still eye my with hopeful looks and I let out a sigh. "She said no, didn't she?" Ominis says.

"She has a grudge against your family for some reason." I tell him letting out a defeated sigh. "Maybe you can stay with Sebastian and Anne this summer." I tell him.

We had found two other notebooks and enchanted them so we each had one. We could at least all still communicate this summer if we all had to go out separate ways. At least this way I wouldn't have to run into the trouble of Finn hiding my letters from my friends again this summer.

"Yes!" Anne shouts and stands up, "Come on, lets go ask our parents." she says to Sebastian and the run up to the table in the front of room where all the faculty sits. I can see them talking to them but I can't make out what is being said.

I instead to to Ominis. "I'm sorry," I tell him.

"It's fine," he says sadly.

"No, I mean not just that you can't stay with me this summer, but also for my grandmother." I tell him and he seems confused. "She insulted you, and I feel bad about it." I tell him referring to how she had called him defective.

He shrugs his shoulders, "It's nothing I haven't heard before."

His words makes me sad, "You shouldn't have to hear that. You're one of the brightest wizards that I know."

I see him smile at my words, "Stop it, Lila, you're going to make me cry." I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. I see the twins making their way back to us, their expressions masked so that I can't make out if they received good or bad news.

"Well, what did they say?" I ask as they sit back down.

Sebastian lets out a sigh, "They said not this year, maybe next year. They said we were going to some trip and I guess they didn't want you coming." He tells Ominis.

He lets out a sigh, "It's fine, I figured I would have to return home." His voice shakes as he speaks as if he is afraid of going back home, of his parents.

The feasts ends shortly and the results of the exams are passed out. I did better than I had expected considering I hadn't tried all that hard this year. Anne and Ominis had both tied for the highest score in second years. Sebastian's grade had improved a lot from last year.

We board the train and head off quietly. None of us really felt like talking since we had just received bad news. I made sure we all had our notebooks though so we could write to each other. And all too soon we were pulling into King's Cross station and we had no choice but to exit the train and face reality.

I quickly gave each of my friends a hug, promising to write to them as soon as I could and then we parted ways. Finn finds me shortly after. "What did you do to mom?" he asks and I glance up at him confused. His black hair looks like he didn't brush it.

"What do you mean?" I ask him.

"She sent me a letter telling me to make sure that don't bring your friend with you." he says.

I let out a sigh, "Yeah, I asked her if Ominis could spend the summer with us because he didn't want to return home." I tell him knowing that he will have the same reaction as out mother.

"Are you kidding? He's obviously just using you to get what he wants. His mother and ours have always had a feud and he was just wanting to get information on us." Finn explains to me.

I nod my head not bothering to argue because I know that he won't listen to me when I try to tell him that Ominis is nothing like his family. That he wants nothing to do with him. He has already made up his mind about him and nothing is going to change that.

Our mother shows up shortly and I can tell that she is mad at me. This is going to be a long summer.

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And here's the last chapter of year two. Year one and two are the shortest because I'm excited to get to the lawyer years. Year three is a good year but so far I think year four is my favorite. But I am also looking forward to writing year six because I have so much planned for it.

I really love this story and I'm so excited to finish it so that I can read it all at once.