Cait watched as Lexi stormed off to her bedroom, she hadn't even bothered to say hello to her. It wasn't like Caitlyn minded, she'd completely distanced herself from her now wayward child. They'd fought four different times since she'd gotten home from Hogwarts. The bus ride of course, had been unbearable.

And she knew Cynthia knew how awful the situation really was. The disapproving glares she'd been sent were enough. And Cynthia had asked if she'd come over to help out with Christmas preparations. As Cait grabbed her coat, she knew this conversation wasn't going to be about Christmas.

She walked out the door, trudging over to Cyn's house with a backward glance at the Windell house and the crime scene tape up. She felt awful for Jack, and it was surreal that their quiet neighborhood had a real, actual murder. It was terrible.

Cait walked into the Hunter's house, hanging up her coat and looking for Cynthia. "Cynthia?" She called, "It's Cait."

"Cait! Hey, in the kitchen." Cynthia called from the stove. She was making dinner and had cookies in the oven. Needless to say, Cynthia was knee deep in work that had to get done. And christmas was only in two days. And besides all that, she was now taking care of seven kids. It was a lot of work, but she didn't mind. It was Christmas. This was what it was about.

Cynthia rushed over to the kitchen table, clearing off the scraps Alice had left from her art project, putting all the supplies away. She didn't want to even look at the living room. Cynthia's house wasn't ever dirty. She was always vacuuming. It was, however, messy during the holidays. Pillows were misplaced. Toys littered the ground. Things were left out. She'd get to cleaning it all by tomorrow. Tomorrow, she'd enlist everyone's help.

Cait walked into the kitchen with a smile, Cynthia on the other hand looked really stressed. She could smell the cookies in the oven and wondered how Cynthia could grow up without a mother, and still turn out so perfect. Even when she had just gotten out of school, Cait knew Cynthia would never be happy until she had a loud house full of children.

"Anything I can help with?" Cait asked, standing in the doorway. She didn't know what to help with, Cynthia looked like she was on top of everything, and Cait didn't want to upset the balance. She watched Cynthia clear the scraps of an art project, and Cait assumed it was from Alice. Mark wasn't the artsy type, Colin would have made a bigger mess, and Jane didn't seem like a glitter loving person.

"No, I've got everything under control. Look, Cait. We gotta talk." Cynthia put the glue away as she saw her four year old toddle into the room. "Colin, go play. Auntie Cait and Mommy need to talk." Colin went over to Cait, and clung to her leg. Cynthia approached her sister, taking the toddler off, then placing him in the entry hall way. "Go play with your cars." She said.

"Look, the way you treat Lexi I can't handle anymore. You're turning into Mom." Cynthia said, getting right to the point.

Cait watched little Colin tumble off to play with his cars, and looked back at her sister, waiting for any sort of direction. But the words that came next were harsher than she'd expected. Cait was turning into Mom? Oh, no she wasn't. There was no person who could be worse than Mom. Mom abandoned people, Cait hadn't abandoned anyone yet, or at least that was how she saw it.

"Really, Cynthia? Could you make it sound any worse?" Cait sneered, "And for your information, the relationship, or lack thereof, that I have with my daughter is none of your business." She crossed her arms and shifted her weight, knowing that she had to get some sort of upper hand in the coming argument, but she didn't know how.

"None of my business? None of my business! For your information, your daughter comes crying to my house when you ignore her! I'm pretty much her stand in mother because you're incapable of it." She crossed her arms. This was her turf. Her turf, her rules. "You can't accept your daughter just like Mom couldn't accept me. One day. One day changes everything. One day, I start lifting things without touching them. One day, Lexi risks her life for a friend and gets bitten by a werewolf."

Cynthia scoffed. "Both things were out of the person's control. And in both cases, the mother never speaks to the daughter again. You judge your daughter on something out of her control. And that's wrong. So wrong, it makes me sick! Do you think I'm going to disown Colin because he's not my kid? No! That was out of his control. But do I care? No. I love him anyway. I always will love him."

She turned her back, stirring the stew for tonight's dinner. "You don't realize how similar you are to Mom. You just don't get it."

Caitlyn was not where she wanted to be, her arms dropped to her sides as her older sister yelled at her. Her hands balled into fists as she took each word like a bullet to her heart. To hear this from her own sister cut her to the core, and she couldn't believe how much it hurt.

"It wasn't out of her damn control, she shouldn't have risked her life! That move was completely in control! She knew what she was doing, and now she's a werewolf! Werewolves don't deserve to be treated like the rest of us, they're out of control beasts. They have no regard for anything or anyone around them, and they sure as hell don't deserve my love!" Cait shouted, making a statement.

"And really? You're comparing me to Mom? That wack job of a woman?" Cait said harshly, "I don't think you understand, Cynthia. I was alone with her for five years! Five whole years! You were gone! You can't just compare me to her!" She said, her eyes watering.

"Alexandra isn't even human anymore! She's an animal, an out of control freak. It's so bad that she gets locked up! In a cell! Like a criminal! And that's probably where she will end up like all the other werewolves, in prison where she belongs!" Cait shouted, not caring who heard.

"Your daughter saved Alice's life. She saved someone's life. You've never done that. I've never done that. You're right. You shouldn't accept your daughter. You should praise her as a hero." Cynthia shook her head. "See, this is what I'm talking about when I say that you'll never understand us Gryffindors. It's impulse to risk our lives. To save those who need to be saved taking any consequences that come along with it." She shook her head. "I mean, you are quite the hufflepuff, loving everyone regardless of their condition." She added sarcastically.

"Maybe you don't remember why mom forgot about us. Because I'm pretty sure it was because we changed. You were 11. E-LEV-EN. What? do you not remember the feeling of hatred from your mother like I do? Do you not remember how during the summer months, when we couldn't find someone to stay with how we had to stay on the streets? Because I remember that vividly. Having to steal, and take, so you had enough food. We had to go through so much when Mom forgot about us. And it's like you forget the pain. It's like you forget the hunger and the pity in people's eyes when they'd see us. When they'd ask if we lost our mother in stores."

"It's that kind of pain your putting your daughter though. Beast or not."

Cait bit her lip, feeling downright terrible at the moment. Lexi had saved Alice, and without that act of pure courage, there would be no Alice. She hadn't really thought on that fact, and it scared her that a change of events and both Cynthia and her could have lost their kids that night.

But the Hufflepuff remark was the last thing that drove the pain right into Cait. Being a Hufflepuff was the only thing she had to hold onto for seven years. It was what made her, what defined her. It was something special that she had and Cyn didn't. Cynthia was a rough and tough Gryffindor, and had their Mom not figuratively beaten Cait's lion into submission, Caitlyn might have been able to share a house with her best and only friend. She couldn't understand the risky impulses, or the tendency to lash out, or the need for friendship; something they could protect with their lives.

"Cyn," she said softly, leaning against the door frame and sliding down to the floor. And then she completely lost it, she buried her head into her hands and curled in on herself, sobbing; each cry shaking her body. She was a terrible mother, just like her own. She was awful, and hateful, and she would never be good enough. Not like Cynthia was. She would never be like Cynthia was.

Cynthia stood there fuming, as her sister started to cry. She was just so angry it was like the tears didn't even mean anything to her. "And the thing Lexi needs most in the coming days is love. Is attention and love. But you can't put your big girl panties on and deal with it. Because you're still the scared 11 year old. You've never changed."

Colin waddled in, sitting next to his aunt, and putting his head on her, and hugging her. "Mommy! Auntie's crying! Did she fall?" Colin announced into the kitchen. Cynthia had a change of mood, when she saw her little boy. She picked him up and placed him on her hip. His arms went around her neck.

"See, Cait? You've always gotta love your kids. No matter what." Cynthia added, as she went to the fridge to get her son some juice.

Lexi had her brown cowboy boots on and her wand was tucked into the one of the right. She commonly referred to these as her ass-kicking boots because they made her feel like one of the bad guys in the westerns her Dad watched. And Aunty  Jen back home had four pairs of cowboy boots, and Lexi idolized her. But she was stuck in Oulton Broad, and when things were tough in Oulton Broad, she went to go find Alice.

And that's what led her to the Hunter's doorstep. She didn't know her Mom was inside, she was clueless about what the conversation they were having was about. She just wanted to see her friend and try to figure out what she was going to do about Jack, and of course how he was doing. It seemed like one night had changed them all, and Lexi decided everyone in Oulton Broad needed some serious therapy.

She knocked on the door four times before opening it. It was her signature knock for whenever she was feeling polite enough to actually, you know, knock and not just throw the door open and announce that she was here. "Aunty Cyn?" She called, smelling the cookies and knowing her aunt was in the kitchen. "Is Alice up in her room?"

Just then, Lexi came in. "Hi honey, yeah she's upstairs. If you need anything, just yell." Cynthia called to the young Gryffindor. She loved Lexi. The truest Gryffindor Cynthia knew. "The cookies will be done soon, and I'm going to need someone to make sure they aren't poisoned!" She called, a smile on her face.

"I want a cookie!" Colin said happily, drinking his juice box.

"I know you want a cookie. Maybe after dinner, alright?" She said, putting her son down.

"Cait, time to grow up and move on. It's time to love, not hate."

Cait looked up at Cynthia and rubbed the tears out of her eyes, and then she pushed herself off of the ground.

"Easier said than done." Caitlyn said, turning on Cynthia and walking out for the door, grabbing her coat and heading for home. She couldn't handle this, it was hurting her.

She pulled the door closed behind her, happy Lexi had gone right upstairs and not even seen her. Better off not talking to her now.