(Chapter 1): Morning Glory

Author's Note:: I've decided to re-release this story. I've been working on it for a couple of years, and I finally ironed out everything so it should be pretty fantastic. But I'd love to hear what you think, so let me know!

"Wren, get up; it's time!"

Wren made a muffled sound of disapproval as she squeezed her eyes shut tighter together, and in one fluid movement, pulled the blankets up higher while rolling away from the hand that was attempting to shake her awake.

"Geroff." She mumbled into her pillow.

"Honestly, Wren! Come on!" Her cousin reached further, leaning on the bed and continuing to shake Wren. Wren retreated even further into her sheets so that they now covered her head. After a few more seconds of shaking, Wren felt her cousin take a firm grip of the sheets and Wren quickly shot up, flinging an arm out to stop her cousin.

"Ok, I'm up." She gasped.

Her cousin relinquished the sheets with a small, "Good!" as Wren ran a hand over her face, attempting to wipe away some of the residual sleepiness. Her heart was still pounding from her near encounter with the floor. She should have known that her actions would only lead her cousin to take more drastic measures.

Calmer, Wren turned to face her cousin, Nora, who stood completely dressed in her muggle outfit. She wore a faded denim button up shirt, tucked into a red plaid skirt that had a zipper running from top to bottom right in the middle of the front. She had pulled on a pair of her own light green tights to pair with the outfit, which ended in a pair of black combat boots. She had pulled her curly light brown hair up into a ponytail. Wren had a hard time believing that muggles would ever wear anything so ridiculous, but she had been there when Nora bought the outfit in the nearby muggle-inhabited village, and no one had looked at her too oddly. "Now hurry up and get dressed or we'll be late."

"I can hardly imagine being late for anything if I'm getting up this early." Wren grumbled. Unlike Nora, Wren was not a morning person.

"You know how it is. It's not like we haven't been before. Now come on." Nora took Wren's arm and pulled on it. It was as if she were eleven and eager to get to the Hogwarts Express for the first time. Her behavior did not reflect that of someone ready to start their penultimate year of Hogwarts.

"Ok, ok!" Wren said, kicking the sheets off of her legs and using her free hand to help her stand up.

"Now you're up." Nora let Wren's arm drop with a bright smile. "I'll see you downstairs. Mum made a full Irish breakfast! Yum!"

Hufflepuff. Wren thought begrudgingly, a yawn overtaking her as her cousin left.

Luckily, Wren had somewhat prepared herself for this morning and had laid out her outfit on the top of her dresser last night so that she didn't need to think about it now. Quickly changing out of her pajamas, Wren tugged on a pair of purple tights and pulled a rose pink, floral babydoll dress over her head. Wren finished the look with a denim jacket and a pair of black combat boots that matched Nora's. Without much care, Wren brushed her hair back, and considered twisting it into a plait before deciding that she was much to tired to let her arms do all of that work. Instead, Wren left her hair down and slipped a couple of hair ties onto her wrist just in case. There was no point in seeking out any more accessories due to the fact that she was already planning on spending a good bit of money on Irish merchandise once she was there. Wren quickly moved down the stairs and found the rest of her family was already about halfway through their breakfast that her Aunt Kathleen had made in order to get them into the spirit of the upcoming match.

"Now look who's decided to join us for breakfast." Wren's mother teased, looking up from her plate.

"Morning" Wren said, still a bit moody as she sunk into the chair next to her mother. He rmother leaned over and kissed the side of her head.

"Eat quickly. We have ten minutes before we should make our way out." Wren grumbled a little more just for good measure before quickly piling food on her plate and devouring it as quickly as possible. Soon, the two families were out of the house and walking down the path to where the Portkey was located.

Leading the way down the path was Wren's father. He was a rather handsome man, tall and thin with bright blue eyes and a long nose that Wren's mother would tweak when he was being too silly or too serious. While his hairline had noticeably receded over the past few years, he still had a good amount of dirty blonde hair. However, this condition led Wren's mother to frequently tease him that his forehead was growing and soon it would take over the rest of his head. She would then kiss his head and ruffle his hair lovingly. Wren's mother was quite the teaser, and she could get away with it, not only because she was his wife and generally kind, but because she was also quite beautiful. Wren's mother was tall and lithe with dark brown (almost black) hair that fell down just past her shoulders. She had an ovular face with dark brown eyes that always seemed to sparkle set on either side of a straight, thin nose. But what Wren loved most about her mother was her huge and bright smile which always seemed to pull the attention of the men wherever she went. Wren's mother was just one of those girls who exuded class, charm, and yet somehow fun, managing to have everyone falling all over her; however, she was far too much in love with Wren's father to ever capitalize on her position.

While Wren had inherited her mother's looks for the most part, she had not inherited the aura that surrounded them that made her mother such a popular figure. Perhaps it was the fact that Wren did not look exactly like her mother. Like both of her parents, Wren was thin and relatively tall, a good six inches taller than her cousin, coming in at about 5'8". She had a heart shaped face with reasonably sized features so that they all worked, none sticking out more than the rest to form a defining feature. She was lucky enough to never have had to battle with acne, so her skin was smooth and clear, and though it was pale, it was a bit tanner for the hours she spent enjoying the outdoors in the summer. She had her mother's round dark brown eyes, and straight nose, but her father's dusting of freckles across her nose as well as his shy smile. Her hair was her own, a glossy chocolate brown that fell down to her mid back ending in gentle waves.

"Skirts? Really girls?" Wren's uncle, Jonathan asked from behind the two cousins as he walked along the path. There was a definite family resemblance between Wren's mother and Wren's uncle. He shared her almost-black hair, toothy smile and thin face. The only major difference (aside those that came with him being a boy and her being a girl) was that his hair was rather wavy, almost curly, whereas Wren's mother's was straight.

"I'm wearing a dress, actually." Wren said defiantly, over her shoulder.

"Ah, much better." He joked.

"Well, we'll be in the box this time, right?" Nora asked, turning around and walking backwards so she could face her father. "So it shouldn't matter. Besides, this is what muggles wear. It's phat." She sounded very pleased with herself as she said the last word.

"You can't have used that right." Wren said looking at the back of her cousin's head.

"No, that's what all the muggles say. I heard them. I think it's spelled differently."

"Nora, no one says that something's fat in a good way no matter how it's spelled." Wren mocked.

"You can't honestly tell me you didn't hear them use that word. They use it all over the village." Nora protested, turning around.

"If you say so." Wren said. "But, you know, just because we need to look like muggles doesn't mean we need to try to speak like them. Especially not when they say ridiculous things like that." Wren's mother and uncle were laughing.

"You should have skipped breakfast if you're going to be like this." Nora said, poking Wren in the side.

"I'm not being like anything!" Wren objected. "You're the one who's obviously crazy with lack of sleep, trying to use words like 'fat' and what not." Wren said, poking Nora back a couple of times. Nora retaliated, and soon they were running up ahead in a full out poking fight, the parents left long behind to discuss whatever they wanted to. The girls grew tired of their game rather quickly, calling a truce and stopping, waiting for their parents to catch up. Just as the parents had about caught up, Wren poked Nora in the side one last time.

"Madeleine Sorena!" Nora said, turning reprovingly to Wren.

"What?" Wren and Wren's mother asked together. Wren knew that her mother had answered just to be funny, but the fact was that Wren's mother had passed along more to her daughter than just her good looks. For 15 generations on her mother's side, every girl had been named Madeleine Sorena. It had all started with her great-great-great-great-great (and a lot more greats) grandmother who was given the name Matilda Sorence. After deciding that her name was horrible and that she would by no means pass it down (despite her husband's wishes to name their daughter after her) she changed her name to Madeleine Sorena. Ever since then every Madeleine Sorena named her daughter Madeleine Sorena. No one ever had ever had more than one daughter, and the sons did not follow this tradition (as evidenced by Nora who had been named Eleanora Charlotte Randolph). To differentiate between the Madeleine Sorena's, they each generally went by their own nickname. Wren's mother went by Addy, and Wren herself went (obviously) by Wren.

The name was the only pure legacy that Wren's family had. They were not known for much else besides that and their good looks. While Wren's direct line was pure blooded, there were quite a few "blood traitors" in the family tree, only Wren's family didn't really see them as blood traitors, thus turning the whole Collings and Randolph line into blood traitors. And while there were notable wizards in her family, there were also some disreputable wizards. Wren also didn't come from a pure House line. While most of Wren's mother's side of the family (the Randolphs) were Ravenclaws and the majority of Wren's father's side (the Collings) were Gryffindors, there were a few people on either side who were in different houses. So, Wren was left with her name and pretty face, which, she had come to accept, was enough.

Addy smiled. "What did she do this time?"

"She poked me after we had declared a truce." Nora answered in horrified tones. Addy gasped in mock-surprise.

"This is why you should always skip the niceties and just go straight to an Unbreakable Vow." Aunt Kathleen quipped. Aunt Kathleen was perhaps the best, better even than Uncle Jonathan, at keeping up with Addy. She had been Addy's dorm mate back in their Hogwarts days and it had been Addy's machinations that eventually got Kathleen and Jonathan to finally confess their love for each other. Aunt Kathleen was full-blooded Irishman with bright green eyes and curly light brown hair just like Nora.

The group laughed and continued along the path, breaking up into different conversations. Wren vaguely listened into all three, not paying a lot of attention to Nora who was eagerly chattering away about helping her mother with various experiments. Aunt Kathleen was a Healer who worked to invent different cures for known diseases and preventive measures for future dangers. Wren wasn't quite sure how one went about preventing a disease that didn't exist yet, but Aunt Kathleen was apparently rather good at it. Wren's mother sometimes helped Aunt Kathleen with the herbal remedies, as she was a somewhat famed herbologist. Addy had left the research field for the most part however, deciding to follow her passion of opening up an unusual flowers shop in Diagon Alley.

"Here we are!" Wren's father announced as they reached a small clearing, in the middle of which was an old hat that looked as if it had been through its fair share of storms and been left out in the mud and trampled by people and animals alike. "Come on, let's go. Hands on the portkey. We have 30 seconds" Her father prompted. The family gathered around, each laying a hand on the hat in some way. Wren's father glanced at his watch. "5, 4, 3, 2, here we go!" her father said cheerfully, and they began to spin, on their way to the Quidditch World Cup.

Ending Thoughts:: I love 90s fashion and slang. Also, just a quick disclaimer: while the characters are attractive, they are not perfect. Trust me. So, don't worry about Mary-Sues. Along those lines, though, I've posted a picture of all of the characters on my page. The play-bys aren't perfect, but they're close enough