The day before Christmas had arrived much earlier than Ben wanted it to, and it meant the students who weren't staying in Hogwarts for the break had to take the train that took them back to London.

When Ben woke up that morning, he found a small note on his bedside table. He recognised Audrey's letter almost instantly, and felt something inside him telling him to throw it out of the window, yet he didn't listen to it.

'Meet me on the train.

Audrey, your sister'

Ben was incredibly grateful for the last clarification, since he wouldn't have had a clue of who Audrey was if it hadn't been because of it.

"Are you sure you are going to go?" asked Ron for the seventh time that day when he finished preparing his trunk.

"Yes, I'm absolutely, entirely and unequivocally sure that I'm going to go," he said, putting on his most realistic fake smile.

"Okay, then."

A few hours later, Ben got onto the train with Hermione, who told him she was going to be starting an essay McGonagall had sent them.

"Really? Now? But you have the whole break to do that!" he laughed.

"I want to take advantage of these hours to finish some work so I can enjoy the holidays," she explained. "You can join me if you want, but only if you promise you won't distract me."

"I think I'll pass, thank you," he said. "I have to see my sister, though."

"Oh, yes, I forgot." Hermione nodded. "Good luck."

"Thanks, and have a nice holiday if we don't see each other later."

"You too!"

She got in an empty compartment, as Ben walked through the corridor. There wasn't as many people as there was on their first day, but mostly all the students were coming back home for Christmas, so it was still kind of hard to walk between so many people.

He finally saw Audrey sitting in a compartment at the end of the train, and opened the door to get in. "Hi." He greeted coldly.

"Hello," she said.

"I thought you said you didn't want to have anything to do with me."

"I did say that," Audrey stated. "And I stand by it."

"Lovely," he replied. "Then why am I here?"

"Because I wanted us to have a small chat before going back home."

He eyed her suspiciously. "Okay, about what?"

"Take a seat," she pointed at the seat in front of hers with a strange seriousness. He did as she said, feeling like he was about to do an interview for a job. "I know some stuff you have done."

"What are you even trying to say?"

"I'm trying to say that I know who you are hanging out with," she explained. "That stupid Potter, one of the many useless Weasleys, and nothing less than a mudbl-"

"Don't you dare call her that," he stated, his voice as cold as ever.

"You know perfectly well that is how Mother and Father will call her if they find out," she replied. "They might even say, or do, much worse things."

Ben shifted uncomfortably on his seat, refusing to verbally admit she was right. "Okay, you know who my friends are, what's the big deal about it?" he spat. "You already told me how much you hate me for it, and they already told me how embarrassed they were to have a son who 'consorts with blood traitors and mudbloods', so you can't blackmail me."

"They know?" she asked, looking genuinely surprised.

"Of course they know," he laughed bitterly. "And drop that stupid surprised act, you know they do, since you're the one who told them."

"No, Ben, I didn't tell them," she said, her cold facade falling off for a moment. "I swear, I only told them what you told me after the sorting, I don't know who told them that."

Audrey never swore, unless it was something very serious which she was completely sure of.

"Okay, I guess. Continue with what you were saying."

The girl cleared her throat, and lowered the volume of her voice. "I wanted to make a deal with you."

"A deal," repeated Ben.

"Exactly, a deal," she confirmed, leaning forward. "You found out Steve's a Hufflepuff. I told our parents he was a Slytherin. You know what would happen if they found out, too."

"Yeah, I do," he nodded.

He nodded.

"On the other hand, I know that you befriended at least two muggleborns, that you defended Potter from some Slytherins and that you punched Draco in the nose."

Ben went silent, feeling cold sweat in his back. If he was already worried about having been sorted into Gryffindor, the idea of them knowing that he had punched Draco was driving him crazy.

"There's no need to worry, I won't tell them," said Audrey. "As long as you don't tell them about Steve."

She waited for him to say something. But he didn't say a word. It all smelled too good to be true. He wasn't even going to tell his parents about her boyfriend in the first place, he wasn't like that, and now he was going to be rewarded for not doing something he wasn't going to do anyway.

"Is that it?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow. "I only have you keep that secret, and you will keep mine, right? No small print?"

"No small print," she reassured him, and extended an arm for him to shake. "So, what do you say? Do we have a deal?"

He took her hand, and shook it. "We do."

———————————————

Ben found himself in the empty corridor a few minutes later. He leaned against the door for a few seconds, processing what he had just done, when he heard a familiar, sweet voice.

"Hello, Ben!"

He looked up to see Cedric's smiling face.

"Cedric!"

"I didn't know you were going back home for Christmas," the Hufflepuff commented.

"I would've rather to stay at Hogwarts, but I had to come back," shrugged Ben.

"Oh, I see..." Cedric nodded. "Are you alone here or are you waiting for someone?"

"I'm alone, Harry and Ron are at Hogwarts," he said. "And Hermione said she wanted to start homework."

"Already?"

"That's what I said, too," laughed Ben, and was soon joined by the older boy.

"You can come with me, then!" suggested Cedric, smiling from ear to ear. "I'm in that compartment with a friend."

Ben's eyes widened. "Can I really?"

"Of course!" Cedric chuckled, guiding him into a compartment. There was a skinny brunette boy sitting next to the window, reading a book with a side smile. "I'm back, Rolf."

The boy, Rolf, looked up from his book to greet his friend Cedric by waving his hand. His eyes stopped on Ben, who stood close to the Hufflepuff, not knowing what to do.

"Hello," said Rolf, and grinned at him. "Who are you?"

"Ben," he said, a bit shyly.

"Ben what?" asked the Hufflepuff.

A bad word went through his mind. "Ben Walker."

As Ben had expected, Rolf's grin inmediately dropped, and he pursed his lips as he tensed up.

"Rolf, he's my friend," assured Cedric, tilting his head forward. "He's really nice and funny."

The boy stared at Ben for a couple of seconds, then looked back at Cedric, who raised his eyebrows.

"Okay," he finally said. "My name's Rolf Scamander."

Ben's jaw dropped. "Are you somehow related to Newt Scamander?"

Rolf nodded proudly. "He's my grandfather."

The younger boy gasped excitedly. "Woah! That's amazing! I've read his book about seven times. I love his way of seeing magical creatures!"

Cedric sat down, and signalled Ben to do the same.

"It was quite revolutionary back then," told Rolf, running his left hand through his hair. "People used to think they- fantastic beasts, I mean- were dangerous and that, instead of taking care of them, wizards should find ways of fighting them."

"That's so unfair," said Cedric.

"Right, but thanks to that book people started seeing them differently, they began wanting to understand them." Rolf concluded, and took a deep breath. "I wish I could do something as honourable as he did."

"You're still fourteen, Rolf," Cedric reminded his friend. "You still have time, we all have."

"I suppose you chose Care of Magical Creatures as one of the elective courses, then, right?" wondered Ben.

"Yes, we both did," nodded Rolf. "It's nice, definitely one of the best options."

"He's right, you should pick that one when you start third year, if you are interested in it, of course."

"Oh yes, I'm definitely going to pick it! I'd love to learn more about them. I have loads of books about magical creatures at home, and I'm pretty sure I've read all of them. I like to paint how I imagine them when there isn't any drawing."

"Oh, you like drawing?" asked Rolf. Ben nodded vigorously. "Are you good at it?"

"Er- I don't know, I just do it in my free time because it makes me take my mind off the world for a while," he said awkwardly.

"I wish I knew how to paint, I'm awful at it!" Cedric laughed, his eyes narrowing a lot.

"Oh, Ced, do you remember that drawing you made of Snape last year?" Rolf reminded him in a fit of laughter.

"Oh yes! He was so mad he took ten points from Hufflepuff for it!" he snickered.

"What did you draw to make him so angry?"

"It was a wonderful portrait of him," began Rolf sarcastically. "But wearing an astonishingly gorgeous green dress."

"I wish I could show it to you, but he took it from me."

"I bet it was because he loved it so much he wanted to frame it and put it on his nightstand." Ben joked.

"Imagine that!"

Many hours had passed, the train ride was getting closer and closer to an end, and Ben's nerves were getting worse every second. While Cedric, Rolf and Ben had been talking, he had managed to hold them back, but now that Cedric had fallen asleep and Rolf had gotten back to reading his book, Ben was left with his thoughts.

He was starting to panic, but he kept calm by thinking of why he was coming back. It was because of his friends. He was going back home to help them solve the mystery.

It was everything he had ever wanted, right? To be part of an adventure, to prove his worth and to feel helpful. And that had been a wonderful chance to do it.

Besides, he was thrilled to see Alycia and give her a huge hug. He had truly missed her during those months, not being able to talk to her had affected him more than he thought it would before going to Hogwarts.

And, while Ben was still lost in his thoughts, the train suddenly stopped. Cedric woke up, alarmed like he had come back from being dead.

"Are we here?" he stammered.

"Well, we certainly are here," Rolf teased as Cedric rolled his eyes. "But yes, we just arrived in London."

"I didn't hear the announcement," commented Ben.

"You seemed to be really interested in your shoelaces," the brunette laughed, getting up to take his stuff, followed by the other two boys. "My mother said we are in a rush, so I got to go, happy holidays!"

Rolf disappeared into the corridor as Ben closed the compartment door behind them and walked towards the front of the train. "Hey Ben, are you okay?"

The question took him somewhat by surprise. "Yeah, why?"

"I don't know, you seem a bit tense."

"Oh, it's fine, it's just from sitting for so long," Ben chuckled, trying to sound honest.

"Oh yeah, that happens to me a lot!" Cedric smiled, jumping onto Platform Nine and Three-Quarters gracefully. He seemed to have seen someone in the crowd, because he looked back at Ben and said, "Well, have a good Christmas, Ben, goodbye!"

"Bye!" he replied, stepping off the train while watching Cedric leave.

"Bye!" he replied, stepping off the train while watching Cedric leave.

He knew it was Ebony with Alycia who would come get him and Audrey, like she had always done the years before, so she tried to find her between the mass of parents and students.

But, suddenly, he felt someone hug him from behind. "Ben!" A girl's voice called happily.

"Alycia!" He exclaimed blissfully. He turned around to have a look at his younger sister, crouched down a bit to be at her height and wrapped his arms around her tightly. "I missed you."

"I missed you too," she said, placing her head on his shoulder. "I've been worried about you. Mother and Father were so mad, and-"

"I know, but it's fine." Ben interrupted her, wanting to change the subject to something that didn't make Alycia worried. "How have you been?"

"Good, I think," she said. "I did what you s-said, Ben, and Grandma helped me, and the stutter is getting better."

"That's wonderful!"

"I still s-struggle a lot with the 's', though," she admitted, looking down.

"It's still a great advance in just three months, Alycia, you should be proud of yourself for achieving this," he placed a hand on her shoulder and noticed she was wearing the dragon pin he had given her before he left. "I'm sure you'll be able to end up talking perfectly soon!"

The younger girl nodded, and gave him a smile. "Follow me, I'll get you to Ebony." She guided him to the exit of the platform, where the woman stood, with Audrey already on her side, looking slightly nervous, but doing a great job at hiding it.

"Hello!" he greeted.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Walker," she said politely. "Your mother wanted me to bring you home as soon as possible. So hold my arm, if you please."

The three kids did as she said, and Ebony took a deep breath before apparating them all to the entrance of the Walker manor. Alycia almost tripped when she arrived, but Audrey was quick enough to grab her before she hurt herself.

"Remember our deal," she whispered to Ben, getting excessively close to his ear.

"Yes, yes- But get off of me!" he groaned.

A creak of wood was heard, and a second later, Katherine Walker was standing right in front of her children, her long brown hair carefully smooth, with two strands gathered behind her head to stop them from covering her face.

Her fierce crystal blue eyes looked at her daughters for a couple of seconds, before settling on her son's hazel eyes, and gave him a dark look before speaking with her raspy and cold low voice, "Hello, children."

A/N: hope you enjoyed <3