Hey, this is part three of my infernal devices fanfic. Hope you enjoy J

There was a stunned silence…

"Your parabatai?! James that's amazing!" For the next few minutes, everyone gathered around to talk and congratulate the pair. Felix's sister, Nora, stood to the side looking self-conscious.

She was wearing the tight-fitting gear of a European Shadowhunter with black trousers and a seraph blade strapped to her back. However, the girl couldn't be more than 14. She had hair like melted dark chocolate that flicked out at the end. Her eyes were large with thick black lashes and her skin had the colour of milky coffee that was unusual in England. She was the very opposite of her brother who was pale and blonde with a sharp pointed face.

"Hello, I'm Gabrielle Fairchild," she said smiling.

"Nora Blackthorn," the girl replied, inclining her head politely. She gestured to James who was at the centre of the group. "Is he your brother?" Gabrielle laughed, surprised.

"No, he's a family friend- I didn't realize we looked alike!"

"You don't." Nora had a curious accent and Gabrielle couldn't place where it was from. It wasn't like Sona or Elias's and nothing like Aunt Cecily and Uncle Will's welsh lilt. Where was she from.

Nora noticed the question on her face before she'd plucked up the courage to ask.

"The Blackthorn's are not my parents," she explained. "I was left at the Barcelona Institute as a young child," She glanced over at her brother who was still deep in conversation with Anna and Cordelia. "A Shadowhunter there, Genevieve, took me to Alicante where Helen and Peter were working. They took me in- they're my parents now," she smiled fondly, "and Felix is my brother."

Gabrielle was stunned- a Shadowhunter being abandoned was very rare.

"Did you ever look for your parents?" she asked, feeling a little embarrassed for asking. Was it just a trick of the light, or did she see Nora's eyes darken.

"I did look, but I never found them. I spend a lot of time in Barcelona with Genevieve- she's retired now. She's like my sort of grandmother." Her whole face lit up when she spoke of Genevieve.

"Do you speak Spanish with her?" Nora nodded.

"It's my first language," she said before giving an apologetic smile and hurrying to her brother's side. Everyone was reforming the circle.

"Ahem! May we continue?" asked Alex in a loud voice, "Luce?" Lucie looked pleased to asked.

"Right…well…I finished The Beautiful Cordelia. It reached a total of 2097 pages," she said proudly holding out the stack of notebooks all clearly labelled. Everyone looked impressed- especially her parabatai Cordelia.

"She's been writing that book since she was 13- it's a masterpiece!" explained James to Felix. He raised an eyebrow.

"Wow! Perhaps you'll let me read it sometime?" Lucie blushed and nudged Anna who was sat next to her.

"My turn! Mrs Ivory has decided that she will be taking on some of my more feminine designs. As most of you will know, I am an aspiring fashion designer and it's taken so long for her to finally look at my work!" This speech was delivered with the enthusiasm and bubbliness that was Anna. Nora looked bemused but began to study Anna's rather interesting outfit with increased curiosity. Anna had been rejected many times due to her tastes in masculine fashion. For Shadowhunter women, wearing trousers was an everyday thing but mundanes found in scandalous: something that endlessly frustrated her.

Next was Chris.

"I..I'm Chris…stopher Lightwood. I like inventing th..things. I s..spent my summer w..with Henry B..Branwell." He stuttered throughout his speech and his eyes darted nervously around the room. Anna squeezed his arm comfortingly.

"You had fun, didn't you Christopher? Your turn Alexander."

"Hey guys, I didn't do much over the summer. I helped Anna with some of her presentations to Mrs P but that's about it…" He shrugged emphasizing his laid-back nature. Then it was Barbara and Eugenia's turn- the two inseparable Lightwood sisters. They looked very similar with borderline ginger hair and green eyes. Despite being very tiny, they trained excessively. However, every morning they could be found with Sophie doing yoga or meditation.

"We went to the Japanese institute, Tokyo. We met Sensei San-Wo who taught us to use samurai swords." Gabrielle was confused.

"I thought you two could already use samurai swords- I would've taught you…" The look on Eugenia's face could've curdled milk.

"Yes, but I doubt you're as good as Sensei San-Wo." Gabrielle caught Cerise's eye and shrugged. The girls had always disliked her.

Continued in Part 4 – hope you enjoyed it.