HERMIONE WAS PRACTICALLY CRAZED, ranting on and on about how ridiculous Ron Weasley was.

It was a couple of weeks later. Nikita begun to slowly adjust to the outside world, though she was still quite a bit behind on a few things, she was handling it pretty well.

Unfortunately, when it came time to fall asleep, all progress jumped out of the window.

Night terrors plagued the girl, and she was usually left alone to deal with them. Nik didn't know what they meant, and she didn't know how to stop them. It was like every bad feeling she had during the waking hours came back to haunt her.

Except, some of the feelings she had never felt before in her life. It was like a run by of the previous day, flashing before her and waking her up.

"Can you believe him?!"

Nik blinked, looking up at Hermione. She probaly should've been listening, right? She followed the girl's glare and caught sight of Ron and Harry, the latters voice drifting over.

"-I mean surely she must notice that's why she's only got one friend? She's insufferable-"

Hermione sniffled as tears began to pool in her eye's and pushed past them.

Nikita paused, surprised. She'd never seen anybody besides herself and the Azkaban inmates cry. Sirius had told her it was because the dementors made them sad, so sad they went insane.

She frowned. She didn't want Hermione to go insane, she'd spent her whole life expecting it to happen to Sirius, she didn't want it to happen to her new friend.

"Why did you say that?" Nikita asked, cutting Ron and his friend off in their path. A frown dawned on her lips, "She was only trying to help you, why did you have to make fun of her?"

Ron gulped. But Nik didn't stop there.

"And why were you pretending it's a bad thing to only have one friend? You've only got one friend too!"

***

Nik's stomach grumbled, begging to go to the Halloween feast that she could smell even though she was a hallway away. But she refused to move, her feet planted firmly on the tiled bathroom floor.

Hermione was sitting beneath a sink, sobbing in her hands. She'd been doing that for a while now, and Nik was beginning to wonder if Hermione was going to run out of water.

"I'm fine," Hermione repeated in a squeaky voice when Nik tried to approach her, "I'm just being silly."

Didn't Silly and Fine mean two completely different things? Sirius said that being silly made people laugh, and that when people said they were fine they were probaly liars.

Nikita turned on the tap above Hermione's head, making the girl look up in confusion.

"So you don't run out of tears," Nik said seriously.

Hermione choked out a small laugh, shaking her head at the girl. "Thanks, but I doubt it's neccsary."

They both stilled as a loud 'thump' - ing noise started coming towards the bathroom. Hermione grabbed Nikita's hand and pulled herself up. They shared confused looks. "Do you think it's Hagrid?"

"The giant?" Nik whispered, looking at the door in confusion. "Why would he-"

The door was shoved open and a large, snotty, green Troll waddled in, his feet cracking the floor beneath him with each step he took.

Hermione let out a shrill scream and backed up into a corner. Nikita didn't move, she found herself completely frozen. The troll swung it's huge bat towards her and she ducked- shards of the cerematic sink splattered over her and she ran for the bathroom stools, hiding in the one furthest away from him.

It let out a small disappointed whine, before starting to walk towards her.

The doors bursted open once more, Harry and Ron quickly appearing with their wand in their hands.

Which was just as well, because the girls wands had been left outside the door.

***

Nikita had never really celebrated Christmas.

She didn't have a tree, or a jolly old man in a red suit. She didn't get presents of candy cane, nor mistletoe and ginger bread men.

In Azkaban, the closest thing one got to Christmas was being let out of their cells for the day and were given stale chicken and under cooked fries, topped with suspicious looking sauce that Sirius had never let her use.

On that particular Christmas, she'd been surprised to receive presents. She carefully packed them in her trunk so they wouldn't get hurt and pulled on a large, orange jumper with the letter 'N' on it.

After that she grabbed the spelling books Hermione had gifted her and walked to the front steps to Hogwarts. Slowly, she began to write her letter to Sirius. Checking every few seconds for the meaning of each word.

"Yer alright there, lass?"

She squinted up at Hagrid, before nodding. "I'm writing!"

"Oh, aye? I'll leave you to it then, don't stay out here too long though, Scotland can be nasty in the winter," He told her gruffly.

She nodded, taking a bite out of one of the mince pies Tom and Missy had sent her.

Dear Siri,

Hello. It's Nik! My friend suggested I should write to you, but I'm not very good at it. She said I should tell you what my year's been like so far, so here goes,

I saw Hogsmeade! And I got a wand! Then I went to Hogwarts before anyone else and got sorted into Gryffindor, like you!

Then I met Hermi.. Hherminey... Her-mi-o-ne. I can't spell her name. She's a muggle born (whatever that means) and she's been helping me. And I have these two other friends. They look exactly the same and have this bright yellow and red hair and they're older then me but they got me presents for Christmas!

And so did their mum! She made me this BIG jumper the same colour of their hair and it's got a N on it like the one in my name!

Oh and I fought a troll! Well, not exactly. Harry did. He has the same last name as your friend James. It came after Hermione when she was crying on Halloween and the troll attacked us when Harry and Ron came out of nowhere and shoved their wands up it's nose!

Then Ms Minnerva came and told Harry and Ron off, but Hermineey stood up for them and lied about it being her fault. They're friends now I think.

I hope she doesn't forget me.

Love, Nikita (the moon goddess)

P.S
I miss you.

***

A/N

Two holidays crammed into one because I couldn't be bothered to change it.
Re-written- Thursday the ninth of July 2020.

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