Family Reunited
Platform Nine and Three-Quarters was a whirl of steam, sharp winter air, and shouted goodbyes. The Hogwarts Express hissed behind them as the four Lee siblings stepped onto the platform, boots crunching softly against slush. Their excitement built with every step as their eyes scanned the crowd faces blurring past cloaks, coats, and fluttering owls.
Then Leo saw them.
His father, Ji-ho, stood slightly apart from the wizarding families, wrapped in a thick wool coat, looking just a little out of place among enchanted trunks and floating pets. Beside him stood Cassiopeia Lee, tall and composed. She wasn't wearing her Auror uniform, but she might as well have been, her posture sharp, her presence commanding. Her grey eyes found her children instantly, her expression unreadable after months apart.
Leo's chest tightened.
He wanted to run. To bury his face in his mother's cloak, to tell his father about every spell he'd mastered, every ridiculous thing that had happened. His feet almost moved—
Orion's hand closed firmly around his shoulder.
"Easy, Leo," Orion murmured, his face already settled into cool Slytherin indifference. "People are watching."
Leo understood. Orion had to keep the façade. In Slytherin, warmth could be mistaken for weakness, and weakness could be exploited. Orion would be the first target if that happened.
In a way, mother and firstborn son were the same both carved from steel in public.
They approached their parents with measured steps.
Cassiopeia's gaze swept over them carefully. She didn't rush forward. She didn't hug them. Instead, she gave a curt, aristocratic nod.
"Trunks in order?" she asked, her tone crisp for the benefit of listening ears.
"Yes, Mother," Lyra replied just as coolly.
Ji-ho said nothing, but his hand reached out and gave Leo's a brief, firm squeeze—quick enough that no one else would notice. The smallest crack in the public mask.
Beside him, little Carina vibrated with effort, fists clenched in her coat pockets as she fought the urge to sprint forward.
Cassiopeia glanced back toward the train. "Where is Nymphadora? I expected her to be with you."
Orion stepped forward smoothly. "She had a last-minute detention, Mother. Something involving a prank and the Great Hall ceiling. She's staying at the castle for the holidays."
Cassiopeia sighed, rubbing her temple. "That girl. I'll need to send an owl to Andy."
Leo remembered that this year, all the Tonks were meant to be celebrating christmas in America, Nymphadora Tonks refuse to go to America so, she was asked to celebrate with the Lees instead.
But her plans had changed in a very last Minit, suddenly one day before the journey home.
Only Orion knew why.
Cassiopeia didn't know the truth: that the reason Tonks was staying behind not because of detention but rather she want to celebrate christmas with her new boyfriend instead, Charlie Weasley, whom she'd been dating since the start of term. Orion, in the same year as Tonks, was the only one she trusted with the secret. Orion suddenly realized the full reasons on why Tonks keep on changing her hair before school started.
Orion knew better than to tell his mother that her niece had skipped family Christmas for a boy.
The Home Sanctuary
The moment the front door of their London townhouse clicked shut, the masks shattered.
"Oh, thank the stars!" Lyra cried, dropping her trunk with a heavy thud.
Carina sobbed outright and launched herself at Leo, her head hitting his chest as she clung to him.
Ji-ho's eyes filled as he pulled all six of them into a massive, clumsy group hug. "It was too quiet," he whispered thickly. "Every sound I thought it was Leo singing, or Vela shouting about a book, or Orion's ridiculous video games noises, or Lyra playing her basketball I though it was you guys, I missed you all so much."
Cassiopeia removed her coat and folded her children into her arms, her Auror composure melting away. Her fingers brushed through Leo's dark hair, lingering.
"You grew," she whispered, her voice breaking. "My lion. You grew so much."
They were finally home.
"Right," Ji-ho said, wiping his eyes and clapping his hands together. "The stew is almost ready, and I believe you four haven't had a proper Muggle dessert in months. Carina, help your siblings with their coats. We have a lot of stories to catch up on."
Christmas Morning
Christmas morning at the Lee house was absolute chaos in the best possible way.
The living room was buried beneath torn wrapping paper and flying ribbons, the air thick with the warm scent of cinnamon buns and spiced cocoa. All five siblings crowded around the tree in a tangle of limbs, laughter, and half-opened boxes.
"Presents first, breakfast second!" Carina declared, hurling a small, unevenly wrapped package straight at Leo.
Leo laughed as he caught it, already knowing his younger sister had ignored every rule of order known to man.
He'd spent weeks preparing his own gifts. For most of his friends Fred, George, Elowen, Rowan, Tobias, and Maribel he'd sent large hampers stuffed with a mix of wizarding and Muggle sweets.
But for Cedric…
Without quite realizing it, Leo had gone a little further.
He'd asked his father to help him buy a very specific, expensive Muggle candy—one that Leo know that taste really good. The moment the parcel had been sent, Leo felt a wave of embarrassment. Cedric had always been thoughtful, steady and sincere. Leo had overdone it, he also embarrassed to realise that he Favor Cedric more.
As the family tore into their gifts, an owl tapped sharply against the window.
It carried a flat, awkwardly wrapped parcel.
Leo recognized the handwriting immediately.
"It's from Cedric," he said, suddenly careful as he opened it.
Inside was a hand-built wooden easel and a neat stack of canvases. But what made his breath hitch was the folded sketch tucked at the front.
It was the Hufflepuff common room.
The perspective wasn't perfect. The shading was uneven in places, and faint eraser marks told the story of countless corrections. But there—by the round window—sat Leo himself. His hair was a soft, focused white, his shoulders hunched over a sketchbook, completely absorbed.
Leo stared.
The note, written in Cedric's neat script, read:
I know I'm not the artist you are.
But I wanted to capture the person who captures everyone else.
Hope your Christmas is gold.
—Ced
Leo swallowed hard.
It didn't matter that the drawing looked a bit like it had been made by a determined kindergartener with too much heart and not enough practice. He could see the effort in every line.
"Leo."
Cassiopeia's voice cut through Orion and Lyra's argument over a new Wizard Chess set.
She handed a heavy box wrapped in silver silk.
Inside lay two instrument a guitar and a violin
"I bought it at the music shop that you really love in diagon alley"
Leo could see that the two instrument that he played before, amaze how beautiful it is and how her mother know her taste in style. The violin and the guitar base was white with an engraving of Leo constellation and their strings were the colour of the rainbow when if reflected from the light.
Leo hugged her tightly, instinctively shrinking into her embrace, just for a moment—still her little boy, no matter how tall he grew.
The rest of the morning disappeared beneath mountains of candy.
Fred and George sent a box of Experimental Toffees—one of which gave Leo long, silver-furred ears for an hour. The effect is Completely useless for him since he could revert it instantly—but the taste was excellent, and he knew the Muggle-inspired flavor had been his idea.Elowen, Rowan, Tobias, and Maribel sent assortments of Chocolate Frogs, Sugar Quills, Fizzing Whizzbees, and Drooble's Best Blowing Gum.
Lyra leaned over, inspecting Cedric's sketch with narrowed eyes.
"Is that the Diggory boy's work? His shading is terrible."
"It's perfect," Leo snapped, his hair flashing a sharp, protective gold.
During the rest of the holiday, the Lee family devoted themselves to proper family bonding—the Muggle way.
No wands. No charms. No shortcuts.
They went ice skating, where Orion discovered that strategy meant nothing when gravity decided to betray you. He fell exactly once, rose with dignity, and spent the rest of the session gliding stiffly along the railing while Lyra and Leo raced past him, laughing. Cassiopeia, surprisingly, was excellent—controlled, precise, and utterly ruthless in her turns.
They wandered through shopping malls, warm and bright against the winter cold, eating far too much street food and arguing over who got to carry which bags. Leo was fascinated by window displays, while Ji-ho patiently explained things the magical world had never bothered to replicate properly on muggle invention.
One evening, they went out for hotpot, steam fogging the windows as the table filled with bubbling broth and plates of meat and vegetables. Cassiopeia watched the broth boil suspiciously.
"So," she said slowly, "this contraption heats food… by itself?"
"Yes," Ji-ho replied, already reaching for more noodles.
"And it doesn't explode?"
"No."
"And it doesn't try to eat you?"
"Also no."
Cassiopeia frowned deeply. "Then what is the point?"
No one laughed.
They all just stared at her.
Cassiopeia blinked. Once. Twice.
"…You're all very ungrateful," she muttered, crossing her arms. "I make one comment about a ridiculous Muggle invention, and suddenly I'm alone in this family."
They laughter afterword make the customer around them to turn their head to see the commotion.
After charismas they went back to Hogwarts, load of tears and hug coming from both side. Leo felt satisfied enjoying his holiday with his family.