Later that night - Bella's POV

I hear someone calling mine and James' names, I slowly stir and I wake James up, he decided to stay with me tonight in my room.

I put my glasses on and I stumble down the stairs.

I head to the living room where I see an anxious Sirius and a worried Mrs. Potter.

I look between them confused and half asleep, James stumbling in behind me.

"James, Bella." Sirius says to us and I rub my eyes, pushing my glasses up as I do so, only having to fix them on my face again when I'm done.

James yawns slightly as he walks in front of me. "Mate, is it your family again?" James asks worried.

Sirius nods and I feel sympathy.

Mrs. Potter and James talk to him while as I just sit next to Sirius, he's clutching my hand, terrified.

I look at our hands for a moment before I gently hold his hand with both of mine, in a comforting manner. "It may not be ok at the house you live in, and it may not be ok with your parents, but your ok, your injured, but your fine, because your with James and I." I say to Sirius and James nods.

Sirius seems to mull over those words, calming down, his clutch isn't as terrified and the color in his skin is slowly coming back.

"Arabella, where did you learn how to speak like that?" James asks me and I just stare at him for a long moment.

I think about all the brutal language lessons I had with my mother, whenever I didn't say something right, she'd slap me, or if I didn't get a phrase right, she'd whip me. "A text book." I say after a long moment of horrible memories.

Sirius laughs, probably knowing what I went through, but with his own parents. "You called your Mother a text book?" Sirius asks me and James snorts out the water he was drink as I take a moment to process this.

"MY NOSE!" James cries and I giggle quietly as Sirius laughs, Mrs. Potter just watches us.

Once we all calm, James yawns, as do I and Sirius rubs his eyes.

"Alright you three, time for bed, Sirius, I'll set you up here on the couch for tonight, Arabella, James, go back up to your rooms." Mrs. Potter says to us with a kind tone.

Sirius has a look in his eyes that makes me think that he doesn't want to be alone. So I mull over this as me and James walk up the stairs.

"Let's hide around the corner." I whisper to James who looks confused but goes along with it, I can see the Common Room perfectly from where we are at.

James looks too. "What's wrong?" James whisper asks me confused.

I shake my head slightly. "I saw Sirius's eyes, he doesn't want to be alone right now, once your Mother goes to bed, let's head back downstairs." I whisper to James.

James smiles slightly. "Alright." James says to me and we wait until Mrs. Potter goes to her room. "You know you can call her Mom, right Bella?" James asks as we wait.

I look at him surprised and I stand there, reflecting, liking the title better on Mrs. Potter than my own mother.

Once Mrs. Potter leaves to go to bed, me and James quickly, but quietly go back down the stairs to the living room.

Sirius looks at us surprised and James holds his index finger over his mouth as he climbs in beside Sirius.

I lay on the recliner next to them, making sure to take my glasses off and put them on the coffee table, James does the same.

We all end up falling asleep like this.

The next morning

I wake up before James and everything is blurry so I reach for my glasses.

"Here." Sirius says to me as he puts them in my hands.

I nod in thanks as I put them on, everything becoming clearer.

"What time is it?" I ask Sirius who shrugs.

"I don't know, but its still early." Sirius says to me.

I blink the sleep from my eyes as I sit up in the chair, my legs crossed over each other.

Nimbus jumps up on the chair and slaps me with his paw, as if saying 'feed me'.

"You have food in your bowl, I fed you last night before lights out." I say to Nimbus and she meows. "Your adorable." I say and she purrs as I shake my head.

Sirius watches amused as I argue with Nimbus and we totally forget about James.

James wakes up with a groan which startles me and Sirius. "Be quiet you two, one of us is trying to sleep here." James mutters.

Me and Sirius look at each other and then at James, Sirius tackles James and they get into a mini wrestling match which makes them fall off of the couch in a thump.

"And what in pray tell was that?" Mrs. Potter asks coming into the common room to see the boys frozen in fear while as I'm hiding behind the recliner.

Mrs. Potter just scans all of us over for a moment and then sighs. "Well get up, wash up for breakfast." Mrs. Potter says to us and we nod.

We all go and get ready for breakfast.

I get changed into a white dress shirt with a brown sweater and black leggings.

I pull my hair back into a braided bun and then I head down stairs to meet up with James and Sirius.

James takes us to the dinning room and Mr. Potter looks at Sirius for a moment before shrugs and continues to read the paper.

"Arabella, I have a feeling you'd like these." Mrs. Potter says setting a book down in front of me and its got strips of pictures in it with writing with funny jokes.

I start reading them and some of them make me giggle quietly as the boys talk.

Mrs. Potter serves breakfast and its French toast sticks with over easy eggs, sausage and milk, with the option of maple syrup.

We eat and after breakfast is done, I help Mrs. Potter with the dishes and then I go to the common room with the book she gave me.

Sirius and James talk and do mischiefess things for hours, until the subject of Sirius's brother, Regulus, came up, and I happen to remember the face of my little brother as I watch the two boys.

"Bella, you mentioned you had a brother." Sirius says to me.

I nod slightly and that intrigues Sirius. "He's really kind, and that might get him into trouble, because our father is the exact opposite." I say and James nods.

"They do look a lot alike, considering Bella looks a year younger than her actual age." James says to Sirius who nods.

I hum. "But he'll get into Slytherin, after seeing what happened to me, he'll be too afraid to ask for anything else." I say as I stare at the fire for a long moment. "I still feel guilty for leaving him with those bloody people." I say and Sirius nods.

We talk for a while, and then Sirius decides to go back to be with his little brother.

"Bella, I have an idea." James says to me as he sits on the recliner with me.

I nod. "And what is your idea?" I ask James.

He looks at me. "Do you do anything special with your brother on Christmas Eve?" James asks me.

I nod again. "At midnight, when our parents are asleep, I'd sing him a song, because our parents hate Christmas, so its the only thing that would make him happy after a long day of the two of us being schooled." I say James and he nods.

"Do it, go do it on Christmas Eve at Midnight, talk to your brother and then come back." James says to me and I just look at him surprised.

"You want me, to do what now?" I ask him.

"And grab the rest of what you can carry that is yours." James says to me and I nod.

That Christmas Eve at Midnight

I walk into my little brother's room, to see him sitting by the window sill, looking outside.

I close the door quietly and I go sit next to him, which startles him.

"You aren't supposed to be here." Antonio says to me worried.

I smile at him as I hold him close to me. "Don't worry, our parents always sleep like the dead tonight." I say to him and I hold him closer to me. "Should I sing our song?" I ask Antonio.

He cuddles up into my side and hums.

I smile and start:
"God rest ye, Merry Unicorns, 
Let nothing you dismay, 
For Arabella will protect you,
On this Christmas day, 
So pass around the butterbeer, 
And take the time to say, 
Oh good tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and Joy
Oh good tidings of comfort and joy,
God rest ye, Merry Unicorns,
Let nothing you dismay
For Arabella will protect you,
On this Christmas day,
So pass around the Butterbeer,
And take time to say, 
Oh good tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and Joy
Oh good tidings of comfort and joy." I sing quietly and Antonio falls asleep with a smile on his face. "Merry Christmas Antonio." I whisper as I kiss him on the forehead.

I put him in his bed and I go to my old room to see my stuff hasn't been destroyed, so I grab what matters and I go back to the Potters.

James sneaks me up to my room and he looks at me curious. "How did it go?" James asks me.

I nod. "My brother fell asleep after I finished our song. Thankfully he's not corrupted." I say and James nods and we sit on my bed and stay up the entire night, resulting in waking his parents up at 5 something in the morning.

Mr. Potter gets up and makes him and Mrs. Potter coffee, while Mrs. Potter makes hot chocolate for me and James.

"Arabella, James, did you two sleep last night?" Mrs. Potter asks us with an amused smile since we're wide awake.

Me and James glance at each other and we slowly nod.

"Yeah, totally." James says to her and I nod.

Mr. Potter chuckles amused as we get handed the mugs of hot chocolate.

We then head to the common room and I watch as Mr. Potter sits next to the beautifully decorated tree that we all did a few days ago.

"I can pass out presents this year if you want, I don't want you to get hurt." James says to Mr. Potter who chuckles and I watch, curious, but also very worried.

I pull my legs up onto the recliner, my eyes peering over my knees as Mrs. Potter sits on the couch while James comes and joins me so his mother can be comfortable.

Mr. Potter takes a sip of his coffee before setting it down and then looking at the presents under the tree. "Which one should we start off first?" Mr. Potter asks himself.

James nearly bounces himself off the chair. "The middle sized one in the blue shiny wrapping paper!" James almost shouts and I just watch him for a few moments.

Mr. Potter just smiles warmly as I take a sip of hot chocolate. Mr. Potter reaches over for the present and its box shaped, perfectly wrapped with a blue ribbon on top.

I hold my mug in my hands, trying not to spill it as James bounces up and down on the recliner.

"Now who could this be for?" Mr. Potter asks as he sets it in front of him. "Bella?" Mr. Potter asks looking up and James grins as I internally feel extremely worried.

I put the mug down as Mr. Potter holds the present out, I carefully take it and hold it on my lap as I shift into a cross legged position.

James looks like he can barely contain himself as I take the wrapping paper off, its a box, I open the box, and in the box, is another box, so I pull that box out and I open that box, and there is another box. "James, why do you do this to me?" I ask as I look up at him, making him fall to the ground laughing.

I pull the smaller box out and I open it, and there's another smaller box in it, so I pull that box out and I open it, and there's another small box in it.

I shake my head as Mr and Mrs. Potter watch amused.

I pull the next box out and open it, and there's another box, and I pull it out and open it and then there's a small white box in it, so I pull it out, and open it, to find a paper folded up in it.

I pull the paper out and I unfold it.

The paper unfolds to about half the biggest boxes size, and its white.

The paper says: You went through all that trouble, for nothing.

I just slowly sigh and crumple the paper, I throw it at James' head and he laughs. "And this is why I have trust issues whenever James gives me something." I say and his parents nod in agreement.

Mr. Potter takes a sip of his coffee as he hands his wife a thin present that is flimsy and bendable. Mrs. Potter takes it and opens it to find its a calendar.

The calendar is enchanted for the owls in it to move.

James gets a small present and its a new glasses case, he lost his old one.

James finishes his hot chocolate as Mr. and Mrs. Potter pick up a flimsy looking present that looks like it has paper inside.

They hand it to me and I look at it confused.

I carefully undo the wrapping paper and there is a stack of papers inside and the first page I see has words on it, so I start reading through it.

Its adoption forms for me.

I just kind of stare at it as James nods, approvingly.

"She's happy, she's just surprised though too." James says to them and they nod amused.

I kind of just, tear up and hug them.

I mumble thank you a few times and not one of the four of us can stop smiling, and for me, probably crying.

We go on with more presents, I get a couple sweaters and a violin, James gets books and a guitar, Mrs. Potter gets a new cook book and more calendars, and Mr. Potter gets different types of coffee mugs and a thermos for when he goes to work.

I look at the violin and its from Mr. Potter and the Guitar to James was from him to.

My new sweaters are from Mrs. Potter, and they're incredibly comfortable.

The mugs for Mr. Potter was from the other two, I thought it was a good idea to get him a thermos, so we got him one.

The calendars for Mrs. Potter are from the other two, but I thought she could use a new cookbook because she said she wanted one, the other two don't pay attention though.

And the books for James were from the three of us, I gave him a book about flying on a broom, Mrs. Potter gave him a book about cleaning his room, and Mr. Potter gave him a book about learning the Guitar.

Mrs. Potter goes to make breakfast as Mr. Potter and I clean up the mess here in the common room as James takes everyones stuff to their rooms.
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