AN/AR: I got the words maternal/paternal mixed up, Emily is related to the Addams through her dad, not her mom. *headdesk.*
The summer of 1992 found the Addams/Munster/Wallace/Alp/Frump children doing a very great and many numerous things. Now, I am going to be quite a fair bit lazy and not go into them in detail, but instead, I will just record the summer for you. Now, I suppose I shall start around late July, and explain to you just how the individual Addams cousins got to the mansion that summer.
You see, at the start of the summer, when twelve-years-old Emily was first at the Addams Family mansion, she and her mother had stopped by to visit Emily's fathers family before continuing on their way to their new town. Again. After Emily left, she duplicated herself, essentially splitting herself in half, her the good her, and the duplicate her evil half. The good her was trained by a neighbour, Venus Fang Fang, who was the foremost spy trainer in the world. After Emily joined with her evil self, however, and became the complete Emily again, Venus and the Wallace family came to the agreement that it would be for the best if the Wallace's left the town. They did, and by the end of July, Emily's mom had left for another new town, leaving Emily in the care of the Addams. She left quite quickly after she saw her daughter and Vendetta dissecting a Boggart, for some reason . . .
Vendetta Frump was ten when her Baba, (Granny in Bulgarian) Granny Frump, died. Vendetta had been living with her Baba after her parents had died in a boating accident when she was six, and after Granny Frump died, Morticia became Vendetta's guardian. It was little Eddie, only a few months younger than Vendetta, who came up with Vendetta's first-ever nickname; Venna. Only family could call her that, however. Vendetta had declared quite firmly that should anyone else attempt to call her by that name, they would find themselves in concrete shoes at the bottom of a lake. Covering up evidence from things like that had been one of the many things that her father, a professional criminal, had taught her before his death. He had been a subtle man, but Vendetta's mother, a trained since birth assassin, had taught Vendetta other things. Like making gum that you could chew, spit onto the floor, and then would blow up when it came into contact with any sort of shoe. It always had amazed Vendetta how a simple mission to kill the other person could cause such a faithful marriage and a child.
Eddie had been brought over around the same time as Vendetta, when Granpa Munster had declared that he would only go to see his sister if he could drag someone along with him. Eddie drew the short straw, but he had stopped minding that after he and Vendetta had scared a few townsfolk. They hadn't gotten mobbed yet, sadly, but you couldn't have everything in life. Although, they weren't too sure on that. Everyone had been quite pleased, after all, when Great-Aunt Millie came to stay at the mansion for the summer. Something about keeping Emily from too much trouble. Eddie had overheard her telling Gomez, however, that it was more to make sure the girl didn't brood even more than usual. What was wrong with brooding? Then again, it did get quite smelly when Granpa started brooding in his lab.
The Alps arrived just before the Addams twins did, and Ellen had immediately grabbed Emily from her attic room - it was decorated in a beautiful crumbling castle style this year, Ellen made a note to set up a prank in it - and brought her to the kids' lab to start working on making electronics work around magic. Wednesday had written about a hunch that putting some sort of solvent on the inner parts of the electronics to make them resistant to the destruction that magic caused them might be the solution. Ellen had a hunch that you needed to reinforce any plastic parts with some sort of paste. This had lead to a rather… loud argument that had only ended when Emily threw some sort of tiny rocks at them that shut them up and freeze them in place long enough for her to grab their notes, scan them into her computer, and combine them in what would hopefully work as a sort of force field against magic. Edgar had been working with Grandmama and Granpa for most of the summer, learning potions and such things from them. (And breaking up more than a few fights . . . )
Now then, I suppose that this author has told you enough of that, how about we get to the fun part: pranking everyones most darling dearest Cousin Snape?
Of course, if you'd rather wait until the next chapter, that is perfectly understandable . . .
Oh, so you DO want to see them prank him? Well . . . I suppose . . . Let's see . . . July 15th was a good prank . . .
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"YOU! SNIVELLING! BRATS!" Cousin Severus screlled(A cross between a scream and a yell).
Emily, Edgar, and Ellen all just laughed, while Wednesday and Harry looked at their cousin with innocent expressions. Vendetta and Eddie continued throwing bits of rock, grass, stick, what have you, at the greasy haired man.
"Do you think we should tell him that it's just an illusion, and that he's only been there five minutes, not most of the night? Or that he hasn't moved an inch?" Eddie asked.
Emily was the one to answer him first. Her eyes never leaving the Potions Master, who was running the same course she had at Venus Fang Fang's, or at least, who thought that he was, murmured, "Oh, why ruin the fun?"
"FLATHERING JIMJARS!"
This brought about another round of sniggering from the cousins. Ellen moved Cleopatra off her shoulder. "I wonder, Cousins, if Dear Severus would like a personal introduction to fireworks?"
Around an hour later, The children looked up from their tome of pranking ideas, having just finished putting the crowning touches on the newest one, to see a panting and wheezing Cousin Severus standing above them, clutching his side.
"You - pant - bloody little - pant, wheeze - Hellions. Run."
For once, the children did as asked, Edgar snatching up the Prank book as he scrambled. Thankfully, they were quite a bit quicker, and not to mention in better shape, than their adult cousin and had run around enough to lose him so that they could make it to their hideout.
"In!" Wednesday hissed at them. While the cousins were not as fluent as Harry, Pugsley, and Wednesday in Parseltongue, they understood the order. Pulling down the rather thick bark, Raven, Emily's Golem, held open the tree trunk for the children to dive in.
They landed with a soft thud, Emily last, pushing the others into the corners of their underground suite. Before anyone could ask, Raven fell headfirst onto the ground, then got up and slunk into some dark corner of the room.
Blinking, Wednesday turned to the other dark haired kids. "Same sleeping arrangements as before?"
The others nodded. Ellen and Edgar and Eddie all pulled out wands. Edgar and Ellen… that was expected, for them to have extras, but the cousins all looked at Eddie. Since when did his parents let him have an unTraced one?
Eddie shrugged happily. "Granpa said I was old enough. I'm not supposed to tell anyone though. Shh!" He help up one finger to his pursed lips. The older cousins smothered chuckles, and Vendetta muttered something about stupid, idiotic boys, and dynamite caps.
Wednesday smacked her arm and led her into the room that she would be sharing with Eddie.
Now, some of you readers may find it inappropriate that a boy and a girl were going to share a room. Perhaps I should outline the underground suite for you, and the sleeping arrangements? You see, There were rooms for all of the cousins. One for Edgar and Ellen, one for Harcourt and Wednesday, one for Vendetta and Emily. Well, there were some new additions this year; Eddie and Raven. So, Emily would be sharing with Eddie and Vendetta, and Raven would… Well, Raven would be setting up booby traps up and down the Rabbit Hole of sorts leading down to the cousins' clubhouse.
Other than the children's' rooms, there was a large rectangular main room, where they fell in. The North and South walls were one and quarter times as long as the East and West walls. It's floor was covered in thick soft pillows under the entrance, and the rest of it was reddish sandstone all over. On the East wall were the three dark marbled wood doors to the kids rooms. The Alp twin's was musty red and grey wood, the Addams Twins black and greenish wood, and Emily, Eddie, and Vendetta's door was greenish, black, and bluish wood. The bedrooms were each large enough for two beds; in Emily, Eddie, and Vendettas case, one bunk bed and a normal bed, and each had one nightstand with a candelabra and an alarm clock. The Addamses also had a bunk bed, but they had moved it into the Emily and the younger sets room when Pugsley had left to Africa for that year long study for aspiring Witch Doctors.
On the North wall, there were two doors. One to the kitchen, and one to the study. Closest to the East wall was the study, which held seven desks and six chairs; thirteen was such a luck number. Six desks and their chairs were pushed against the walls, with a bookshelf filled to the brim with books and pranks and various knick-knacks between them and the next pair, while the seventh desk was in the centre and held a train set and dynamite to blow it up. It had a rather nice vent system leading up and out of the ground and through a tree some several yards away from the entrance. It connected to the vent system for the potions lab and kitchen as well, making quite the maze of vents, backup vents, and backup vents for the backup vents and so on and so forth.
The kitchen was all black and white, in contrast to the rich woods and gilding of the study, and had white marble walls, a grey and sliver veined dragon egg floor. (From hatched dragons, of course, who would ever kill a poor innocent dragon? Other than those disgusting knights in shining armour of course, but still . . . The Addams Clan may be happy with death, but the murder of innocent creatures was different.) There were bleached wood cabinets and drawers, with black stone counters, and silver appliances like a stove, an icebox, and a popcorn machine. Everyday stuff, on the North and East walls of the kitchen. It had a grey wood table and white wing-backed wood chairs with black doilies on the backs, thanks to Ellen's knitting phase a few years back. The little miniature tapestries in them, though, of ancient battle scenes and man hunts and the like were astoundingly well done, though. On the south wall of the kitchen was an island with barstools, and in the cabinets of the island were sparkling cider, grape juice, and a few old bottles of blood, a very good 1736, once they had heard that Eddie was coming for the summer.
There was a plain gray door on the east wall leading into a corner of the Potions Lab, which also had a door on the West Wall of the main room. It's walls were covered in titanium, with vents every two feet or so, and one large vent on the plated ceiling. The floor was metal as well, but it was some sort of space metal that Uncle Fester had found years ago. It glowed slightly, and made more than enough light in the lab. They had some every few feet on the walls and ceiling as well, and there was state of the art lab equipment all shelved along the North and West Walls. On the East wall, the shelves held Potions and Chemistry ingredients, and the South Wall held cauldrons. There were six metal tables for experiments, and attached to each one was a cabinet of potions and other such concoctions. There was also a storage room, it's blue metal door on the South Wall, filled with every ingredient, magical or no, and every chemical, that one could think to name. Edgar was quite fond of it.
There were only two other rooms, and each had it's dark red wood door on the South wall, on the East side of the Rabbit Hole, as the entrance had been dubbed. They were the play room, a plain light grey and white plastered room with some sort of carpet flooring that resisted dirt, yet was soft enough to fall asleep on, and with clear plastic cabinets of toys, games, and racks of music. There were shelves of music players and recorders. There were all sorts of instruments, and art supplies as well. It was also the only room, other than the potions room, that had electric lighting. It was, however, the ONLY room they had equipped with a fan, and the only one with magic windows. Their view of a dull, gray and stormy hail-ridden seaside was quite lovely. Wednesday especially liked the dying Weeping Willow that was near the pier.
The other room was, simply put, the loo. There were eight bathroom stalls, eight sinks, eight Hallowe'en-ghost-shaped mirrors, and it was painted purple, orange, black, and green, Harry had been six and a half when he won the straw drawing on decorating it. It had two cobwebbed chandeliers, and an ever-filled liquid soap dispenser, complete with nightshade scented soap.
The clubhouse was very comfortable, and a total secret from the adults. Whenever they spoke of it above ground in front of adults, or at any time, they spoke in Parseltongue, and called it Wonderland. Emily had come up with it as a tribute to their Great-Great-Great Grandmother Alice Kingsleigh, mother of John, Peter, and Wendy Darling. Wendy was their Great-Great Grandmother, and had married Futterwacken Addams, a Hatter in his spare time, and a very good example of a man, even if he did eventually die from Mercury poisoning rather than a fun death, like setting himself on fire and jumping from a plane onto a mountain of something disgusting, like . . . Marshmallows.
Now, perhaps I've explained too much, The children have already fallen asleep! Ah, well. Back to the writing . . .
The next day, the children did various things in their clubhouse; Emily played the guitar (Thanking Ellen for the weightlessness Charm, hanging upside down from the ceiling really did get the creative juices flowing) and played with her cats, Eddie played with Spot the Dragon in the main room, while Vendetta worked on a Fiend friend for him. She ended up creating an oddly purple Knucker dragon, about the same size as Spot - the size of a small horse. She had very small fangs, which made Vendetta feel a bit put out, but her venom was as corrosive as any Knuckers, proved by Spot, after he stepped on the poor thing.
Harry had told Vendetta of the Basilisk at Hogwarts, and, Vendetta being Vendetta, she had declared the entire school stupid for not letting the poor thing out and had decided to keep the fiend, whom she named Mordant, as her familiar at school. Grudge, her bear-like hamster fiend, she decided, could do as Raven would be doing and help (*cough*cause breakdowns from*cough*) the House Elves.
Edgar was concocting . . . Something, in the the Lab, while Ellen and Wednesday hung out with Emily in the play room, working on making their various electronics work, even when they cast spells near the things. Emily mainly made snaky comments and whacked them with her guitar when they got loud enough that she couldn't hear her own music. She brooded some on her experiences in Silifordville and wrote in her journal, but was never distracted enough to keep from smacking the other girls with what ever was handy. Whenever the cats were under the impression that Wednesday and Ellen were bickering to noisily, they had fun sharpening their claws. Not that the girls minded the pain, but the shock of it quieted them.
They had enough food to stay there a week, not to mention tunnels going all over town, and just about everywhere but the mansion, including, to Emily's delight, their own private sewers, just like her friend Binary Larry had had. The mansion . . . Yeah, easier keeping things a secret when said secret is AWAY from nosy grown-ups. They actually did stay there a few days, restocked, and then went back above ground.
Upon seeing the missing children after four and three quarter days, with the addition of a oddly purple Knucker dragon, the Addams, being Addamses, didn't question it, just asked if they were hungry for some eggs gloomy side up, or maybe some delicious eye of newt, broiled or fried.
In the end, the kids all had a treat - Marinated Gizzard of Lizard. Yummy, yummy!
AN/AR: It's been exactly two weeks, everybody! I really hope you liked this, and I am happy to say that I really like my first chapter. Anybody catch the references to Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland movie? Anybody? Anybody at all?
Well, I'm hoping to update again soon, nighty night! Oh, and what did everyone think of how I wrote everybody? Good, Bad, Something-ish?
Mercy. 7/1/2010