To say that the rest of the holidays were horrible would be a huge understatement. On Christmas day, he tried to get out of his room to get Timothy, the family's owl, and send his friends their gifts.

He hadn't been able to get them something fancy apart from the pile of sweets he had bought on the train, but he wanted to at least give them something.

However, his mother didn't remove the spell on his door until the day before he would go back to Hogwarts, so he couldn't do anything but stay between those four walls for the whole break.

Trying to do something useful, he finished all his homework, essays, and even cleaned up some notes. Hermione would be proud of him for that.

Not knowing what to do anymore, he took out the watercolors and other drawing materials that Grandmother Jacqueline had given him a couple of years ago and sat back on the ledge of the window to paint.

The views from there were beautiful. His window overlooked the backyard, which consisted of grass so soft it tickled barefoot, which had been decorated with shrubs and flowers carefully trimmed into graceful shapes. Closer to the house were three dark-leaved trees that Ben had climbed thousands of times.

He spent the rest of the holidays making a painting of it, reading and staring at the ceiling, with short breaks to change bandages, try to heal the burns, and to eat things from his emergency supply, since neither of his parents came around to leave him any food.

When Ebony, Audrey and Ben arrived at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters he was told Alycia wasn't allowed to go with them that time. Ben was confused about what had changed, but didn't say a word, he had decided not to complain about anything related to his parents anymore.

They got on the train, and Audrey soon disappeared without saying goodbye as Ben walked away to find a compartment. He was lucky enough to find an empty one, so he got in and sat next to the window.

He silently wished nobody joined him, because he didn't want to talk to anybody until he was back at Hogwarts. But, of course, it only took Ben to want something for the exact opposite to happen.

"Good morning, Walker," a voice crooned wickedly.

Ben didn't have to look away from the window to know who it was. "Please go away, Malfoy."

"Oh, I see we're brave again, aren't we?" Sneered Malfoy, making the brunette boy turn his head to glare at him. He was standing in the doorway, guarded by Crabbe and Goyle.

"What are you talking about?"

"You didn't seem so brave the other night," he smirked annoyingly.

"Seriously, go away."

"Or what?" Draco took a step forward, getting closer to Ben. "Are you going to cry to your mommy?"

"Don't worry, Malfoy, I won't steal your spot as Hogwarts' crybaby," said Ben coldly, standing up from his seat.

"What's wrong, are you jealous that at least my parents love me?" whispered Draco with a fake pout. "That at least my parents never hurt me?"

Ben swallowed hard. "T-They've never hurt me, either." He mentally cursed himself for stuttering, and pretended his words hadn't been painful.

"Are you sure about that?"

"Yes."

"Then why don't you show me..." he grabbed Ben's right arm, digging his nails into his wound. "This?"

"Stop!" Ben groaned in pain, trying to free his arm. He cursed himself for not having put on a bandage that morning. The wound was starting to heal, so he had decided to let it air for that day.

"Aw, am I hurting you, Benny?" he faked a sad face. "I wonder what she did to you this time, would you mind to illuminate me?"

"I'd need to gather all the stars in the galaxy for that."

That made Malfoy so angry that he slammed up Ben's sleeve and smiled cruelly at the sight of the burn. "Well, that must've hurt."

"Probably not as much as having to look at your face," said a voice from the doorway.

The Slytherins spun around, surprised, to see none but Audrey standing behind them. "What do you want, Walker?"

"You to stay away from my brother, Malfoy."

"And why would I do that?" he asked. "Are you going to hurt me if I don't?"

"I easily could," she replied coolly.

"I could easily report you to any prefect if you do," he spat.

Audrey laughed, and approached Malfoy. "Is a first year student threatening me? Come on, don't embarrass yourself any further, and get lost."

"Let's go, boys," he told Crabbe and Goyle. "Let's not waste our time on these losers."

He left after glaring at both siblings, followed by his two bodyguards. Ben covered his burn while Audrey walked in the compartment and closed the door from inside.

She sat next to her brother, who was looking through the window. "What happened?"

"Nothing, it was just Malfoy being a prick as always," he replied, refusing to make eye contact. He didn't want her to see the tears of rage and pain that were starting to form.

"Let me see that," she said, trying to reach for his arm.

"No." He refused, moving away from his sister.

"Benjamin, don't be stupid." Audrey warned him. "Let me see what she did to you."

"I'm not being stupid, she didn't do anything!"

"You know I have eyes, right?" She raised her eyebrows. "I saw it."

"Then you don't need to see it again."

"I'm trying to help you."

"And I'm telling you I'm fine, I don't need any help." He stated, trying to sound firm and secure, though his voice was shaking.

"I don't think you know, but she used to do that to me too," she whispered. "When I was younger, and you were still a toddler. I used to be a really curious child, and I asked a lot of questions they didn't want to answer, so they got mad at me very often, and it usually led to that. Then, all of a sudden, it stopped. I learned not to ask, to just follow their rules and orders, and they had no more reasons to hurt me. I knew they had started doing it to you, and I was glad at least I was safe."

"What do you mean by 'safe'?"

"You were the one who got in trouble the most, so you were the one they punished the most," she told him. "As long as I remained silent, they didn't hurt me."

Ben was silent for a while.

"This was not the first time they did it."

"I know. And it's probably not the last time they will," she said. "We can't do much about it for the moment. But, as soon as I finish school, we can."

"How?"

"I might be able to take you and Alycia in when I find somewhere to stay and a job to maintain us," explained Audrey. "I can't assure you I'll manage to keep you completely safe, but we can work with a chance, even if it's small. But I need you to promise that you'll try to behave."

"Behave?"

"I know you don't want to, but it's impossible to keep you safe if you continue arguing and saying things like the ones you said on Christmas Eve. Even if you think it's true, you just can't go around shouting things like that at family dinners. And you shouldn't call Aunt Lydia a disgusting alcoholic."

"But she is."

"Well yes, but none likes being called that."

"I don't like being called a disgrace to our family, or a piece of shit," he comented. "Yet you and Mother called me that."

"Ben, can you not?"

"Not what?"

Did Audrey expect him to be all nice all of a sudden? She had been gone for years. She had left him alone, while she allowed their parents to hurt him, happy she was safe. She had only cared about herself, while he did every single thing he could to keep his younger sister safe. Why didn't Audrey care as much for him?

"Look, I'm just trying to help. But I can't do it if you keep talking back to our parents. It doesn't only get you in trouble, but Alycia and I, too. And I'm completely sure you don't want Alycia to get hurt."

"Of course I don't."

"Neither do I," she said, slightly harshly. "And that's why I need you to shut up, and avoid trouble at all costs. I know you won't do it for me, so don't do it for me. Do it for Alycia."

———————————————

When the train arrived at Hogwarts, Ben found Ron and Harry in the boys dormitory, sitting in their beds. As soon as he walked in, they told him everything that had happened during Christmas. Harry had gotten an invisibility cloak as a gift, but he didn't know who had sent it.

Then he told him that he had used it to sneak into the Restricted Section of the Library to find out about Nicolas Flamel, but he almost got caught.

Oh.

"Wait, you went to the Restricted Section?" asked Ben, eyebrows furrowed.

"Yes, Hermione said we should search there."

"I thought we had agreed that I was going to look in my family's library..."

"Maybe she just wanted to make sure we got the information," shrugged Ron.

"Did you get it?" Harry asked, looking at Ben.

Yes, but perhaps I wouldn't have climbed a bloody tree with a burned arm to get to the library if I knew Hermione had told you to go find it yourself.

"Yeah... I wrote down everything I found in that book on some parchment, wait," he got up from his bed and crouched down to open his trunk. He took the book in which he had left the piece of parchment and handed it to Harry. "There wasn't much more information, just something about him being friends with Dumbledore, and the rest was about his family, so I thought it wasn't too important."

Both boys took some seconds to read all his notes, and they looked up to Ben. "We need to show this to Hermione," stated Ron.

"We could tell her about it during dinner." suggested Harry, but Ron shook his head.

"No, someone might hear us," he said. "We should tell her after dinner, when everyone goes to bed."

"Good idea."

The three boys got up, but Harry suddenly stopped in front of Ben, staring at his cheek, an odd look on his face. "What's that?"

"What's what?"

He brought his hand up to Ben's cheek, brushing the small wound his mother's ring had caused. "This."

"He's right, you've got a scratch," commented Ron, tilting his head to get a better look at it.

"Oh, I don't know." Ben panicked for a moment; he had blanked out and couldn't think of any excuse for a while. "It must've been my sister's cat."

"Your sister has a cat?"

"Yes." Ben lied. Harry and Ron seemed to believe him, since they simply nodded, and the three of them walked outside of the dormitory.

"By the way, Ben," called Ron. "You've got an awfully posh handwriting, did you know that?"

"Oh, shove off." Ben rolled his eyes, nudging him playfully.

———————————————

"That's gotta be what Fluffy's guarding!" exclaimed Hermione after she finished reading the parchment. The three of them were sitting in the common room after dinner, next to the fireplace.

"It makes even more sense knowing Dumbledore and Flamel are friends," commented Ron.

"They were friends?" frowned Hermione.

"Yes, it was in the book, but I didn't write it in there."

"Oh, alright." She nodded. "Then it does make more sense. Flamel probably found out someone was after the stone, so he asked Dumbledore to hide it here, in Hogwarts."

"And that's why he moved it out of Gringotts."

"Exactly."

A/N: sorry this chapter is so short!