Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the characters created by the extremely talented J.K. Rowling. I only own the characters and plot lines you don't recognize from the original story.
Previously in Living for the Moment: Book 1…
"I have to talk to some people but I promise by tomorrow night, all will be explained. I think it's time you met a friend of mine."
Her guardian kissed the top of her head hurriedly before rushing off, most likely to his office. Alex was left holding the raw chicken and feeling very confused. Knowing that her uncle would explain in his own time and nothing she said or did could change that, she resigned herself to going about preparing dinner…
Chapter 2 More Questions Than Answers
"And your uncle just left you standing there in the kitchen?" Erin asked as the two girls sat on the roof outside of Alex's bedroom window, two bowls of soupy leftover ice cream between them.
"Yeah, it was really weird," replied Alex with a sigh. "I thought that since he knew how much dancing meant to me, he'd let me pursue it. It sounded like this friend of his wasn't involved in the Royal Ballet School, though."
"Maybe your uncle knows someone in the Russian ballet!" said Erin eagerly, sitting upright and facing her best friend as she brushed her light brown fringe out of her sapphire eyes. "Your uncle said that you couldn't go to the Royal Ballet School but nothing about the Vaganova Academy. Didn't you say that your uncle has traveled a lot for work? Maybe he knows someone!"
"Erin," Alex laughed, leaning back against the side of her home, "Uncle Monty traveled through the British Isles and in America, not Eastern Europe. Besides, Vaganova doesn't take international students until they're sixteen."
"Oh." Erin returned to her position of laying out on the roof, looking up at the stars. "Who do you think your uncle wants you to see, then?"
"I haven't the foggiest. All I know is that I knocked on his office door after I made dinner to see if he'd come down and I heard him talking with a man on the phone. Whoever the man was though, he was talking pretty loud because I heard two sets of voices coming from the other side of the door."
"You sure no one was in there with him?" Erin asked, frowning.
"Positive. Uncle Monty wanted me to bring his dinner inside for him and when I came into the office, there was no one in there. I would have heard the front door opening and closing from the kitchen too; I always hear it when Uncle Monty comes back from work."
"Did you hear anything they had been talking about?"
"No," replied Alex forlornly, "they were speaking too quietly for me to make the words out. I guess I'll find out tomorrow though. It's just weird because Uncle Monty never hides stuff from me. I'm worried that whoever this is, he's coming here for a serious reason."
There was a long stretch of silence as the two girls mulled over the words that had been spoken. Alex looked up to the stars and smiled softly. One of the perks of living in the country was that the stars were always so bright. She didn't remember much about her life with her grandparents but Alex did remember how bright the stars could get at night when she would be out in the middle of their Montana horse ranch.
"Oh, I ran into a new kid today," said Alex suddenly, changing the subject to something less grim. "He's a little odd but nice enough. His name is Draco Malfoy, do you know any kid named that around here?" Erin had lived in the town her entire life, as had her parents, so she knew more people than Alex did.
"Definitely not, I'd remember hearing that name around," her friend replied. "Maybe he's from the next town over and was visiting with his parents? Or was he a tourist?"
"No, I asked him where he lived and he said the abandoned mansion next door to us. He said that his parents never let him leave those grounds. Sounds to me like they're those weirdos who don't believe in electricity or medicine or that kind of stuff."
"Ah, I heard my mum talk about them before," said Erin with a nod. "What a shame to be raised like that without a choice in the matter. Anyway, you going to see this boy again?"
"Yeah, tomorrow I'm going to take him into the village to the playground. He said he's never seen the village so I wanted to show him around."
"Is he cute?" Erin asked with a sly smile.
"Eh, he's okay," replied Alex, shrugging. "When he doesn't sneer or give off this air of condescension, he's all right-looking. He's just so pale!"
"Welcome to England, Alex," said Erin with a laugh. "Aren't we all a bunch of pale, funny-talking people with ugly teeth?"
"Shut up! I was five when I said that, okay?" Alex cried, shoving her friend lightly while recalling her first response when Erin had tried to be her friend and asked what she thought of England so far. "God forbid I had a few stereotypes coming in to a new country."
"Well now you are a seasoned Brit, accent and all. Actually, except for when you're pissed off because then your American accent really comes out." Erin threw her friend a grin as she sat up and stretched. "Anyway, I should head home before my mum calls the coppers on me again. You want to come over Sunday for lunch? Then you can tell me all about the mysterious man your uncle is bringing over…and about the just "okay" pale friend of yours."
"Sounds good, Erin." Alex waved as her friend went over to the nearby tree and used it to climb down instead of going through the window and out the front door of the house. She chuckled at her friend's preferred method of leaving and shifted so that she was lying down and looking upward.
Constellations had always fascinated Alex. There had been countless nights when she and Uncle Monty had laid on this roof together while he pointed out different stars and told her the myths behind them. She searched until she found the constellation Draco, thinking of the new friend she had made that day. The story went that the dragon constellation was named after the dragon Ladon who guarded Hera's golden apples of immortality. Hercules killed the dragon during his twelve labors. Personally, Alex preferred the legend that said that the goddess Minerva killed the dragon and tossed it into the sky, where the dragon froze before he could straighten himself out. Who said that only men were the heroes?
"Find any answers in the stars?" Alex turned her head to see her uncle poking his own head out of her window. She scooted over so that he would have enough room as he opened the window wide and climbed out. "I'm getting too old for this," he groaned, leaning against the wall.
"You're not old, Uncle Monty," said Alex with a small smile. "Anyway, you can't find answers in the stars. My teacher told us that stars are just balls of burning gas and most of them are probably dead but are so far away that we still see them."
"This is what my money is paying for: the murder of imagination, one penny at a time," sighed Uncle Monty.
"I like the stories better. I don't care that there probably weren't any dragons soaring the skies or three-headed dogs with snake tails guarding the underworld. Those stories are a lot better than reality, don't you think?" Alex asked, turning back to the sky wistfully.
"Aye, that they are," her uncle replied. "But Alex, don't write off those stories as completely fantasy. You might be surprised how much truth is in those mythologies. The Greeks and Romans were pretty smart, a lot smarter than people are now I'd say."
"Yeah, I know. There are the whole "morals of the story" and "take-away lessons"," said Alex, looking at her uncle sideways. "Still, how cool would it be to see a dragon?"
"I'd say pretty cool, so long as you avoid the teeth and fire," quipped Uncle Monty, causing Alex to grin. "Now come on, dearie. You should get to sleep."
Alex nodded and climbed through the window, getting ready for bed and quickly pushing the blankets down to the end of her bed as she waited for her uncle to come in again to say good night. The mid-July night was warm and humid, despite the air conditioning blasting from other window units throughout the house. When her uncle finally came in, Alex plucked up all her courage to ask her uncle a question.
"Uncle Monty, this friend of yours that I'm going to meet, who is he?"
Her Uncle Monty didn't answer right away, looking out the window as a shadow crossed his face. He suddenly looked much older and more tired. Sighing heavily, he sat on the side of her bed and put a hand on Alex's arm, the one with the scar on it.
"He's by far the most kind, the most generous, and the most brilliant man I have ever met," said Uncle Monty quietly. "He's also the only one who can tell you everything about your parents and answer all your questions."
"He knew my mum and dad?" asked Alex eagerly.
"Well, he knew your mum and aunt better than your father, but he still knew your father relatively well," her guardian replied. "I asked him to come here tomorrow for dinner so he can talk to you. It's about time you learned everything about your parents. You've never really asked about them."
Alex shrugged and looked down at her hands. She had never asked about her parents because her grandparents refused to talk about them. Alex remembered them yelling so loudly whenever she brought them up so she quickly learned to avoid the taboo subject. When Alex came to live in England, she had casually brought up her parents to her new guardian. He had seemed hesitant to talk about them and said that he hadn't spoken to her parents in years before they had passed away. The only memories she had were the pictures in the locket around her neck. That didn't mean that she didn't think about her parents, she thought about them practically everyday. However, she had yet to find someone who would talk to her about them or who knew them at all.
The thought of a man coming that knew her parents sparked Alex's long-dormant curiosity. What had her parents been like? How had they met? Did they truly love each other? What kind of jobs did they have? What were their dreams? Had they wanted more kids? These questions and more suddenly swirled around in her mind and Alex put a hand to her forehead to try and steady them.
"I never thought anyone besides my grandparents knew them that well," said Alex quietly. "I mean, you were my mum's friend but you said yourself once that you hadn't seen her in years before she died. My grandparents refused to talk about my mum and dad so when they died, I figured I'd never really know everything about them."
"Well tomorrow, you'll learn everything. However, you won't be able to do that if you don't get some sleep. Good night, dearie." Uncle Monty bent forward and kissed Alex's forehead before rising to his feet and going to the door, closing it quietly behind him.
Alex rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. The day had been full of strange encounters and it seemed the next day would be more of the same. Deciding to get some sleep and silence the musings of her brain, Alex closed her eyes and forced herself to not think about anything but her tired muscles. Soon, she was fast asleep.
The next morning, Alex woke up at nine and automatically started getting ready as though she was going to the studio. However, halfway through brushing her long thick hair back in a bun, she remembered that she was given the day off and that she was meeting with her new friend Draco at two o'clock. Then afterwards, she would be meeting with the man who knew her parents. A feeling of nervous energy that she had suppressed the night before finally came bubbling over the surface and she had to take a deep, calming breath. Alex threw her hair back in a long braid to give her hands something to do and went downstairs to make herself breakfast. She was surprised to find Uncle Monty sitting at the kitchen table. It was a Friday and normally her uncle was at work by eight.
"Did you take the day off?" asked Alex, giving her guardian a kiss on the top of his head as she made her way to a drawer to get some bread for French toast.
"As a matter of fact, I did. I was thinking the two of us could do the shopping for tonight since we don't have much in the way of guest-approved food," said Uncle Monty, folding his paper and smiling jovially.
"Okay, sure! I'm meeting up with a friend at two though, so maybe we can go right after breakfast?"
"Of course, dearie. Who are you meeting with?"
Alex moved through the kitchen to grab the ingredients she needed as she replied, "I met a kid while walking home from the village yesterday. He's new in town and I wanted to take him to the playground so he can meet the others."
"Does he have a name?" her uncle asked, eyebrow raised.
"Drake," she replied, deciding to fudge the name a little bit. She didn't know why but something inside her told her that telling the full truth to her guardian would lead to a messy situation. She turned around to face her guardian as she continued, "He's a good guy, kind of quiet but nice. I'm definitely stronger than he is and I'll bring my pepper spray if it makes you feel any better."
"That's my girl," Uncle Monty said with a grin while Alex chuckled and went back to cooking.
After an eventful shopping trip where her uncle and she raced their carts down the aisles in attempts to beat each other and almost colliding with an elderly woman on a motorized scooter, Alex helped put the groceries away and rushed out the door with the promise of coming home in time to get dinner started. She was going to make chicken piccata with angel hair pasta for themselves and their guest. Alex ran down the hill and soon found herself standing in front of the rusted gates of the abandoned mansion. She still didn't fully believe that Draco lived in that house with his family; maybe there was an old servant's house on the property somewhere?
"You showed up." Alex looked to her left and saw Draco leaning against a nearby tree. He wore the tiniest of smiles across his pale face and stepped out of the shadows and into the light. Today he had on a pair of black cargo shorts and dress-length white polo shirt with black knee-high socks and sandals.
"Of course I did! Did you doubt that I would?" asked Alex with a smile. She could easily fix his outfit so that he blended in better with the local kids.
"Of course not," he replied quickly and she saw right through his attempt at playing it cool. "Ready to go, then?"
"I am, yes. But first, take those socks off and leave them here," she commanded, slipping a hair-tie off her wrist in the process.
"What's wrong with my socks?" demanded Draco haughtily.
"I don't know who dressed you this morning but you look like an eighty-year-old tourist with those socks and sandals. When you're done with that, come here and I'll fix your shirt so that it isn't so baggy." When Draco didn't make a move to either take his socks off or come over to her, she sighed and added, "I'm helping you out here, Draco. I don't want the other kids to pick on you for looking weird. Believe me, I know what it's like to be different and get made fun of for that."
Draco eyed the elastic in her hand warily before he slowly slipped his feet out of his shoes and peeled his socks off, throwing them under a nearby tree. He pushed the gates open so Alex could pass through and she began pulling up his shirt to his hips. Draco froze, muscles tense, and Alex gave him a comforting smile.
"So I was thinking that since you've never gone into the village before, I'd take you to the main square first and point out the major sites. Afterwards, we could go to the playground if you'd like and I could introduce you to the other kids. They're always hanging out there," she explained as she tied her hair-tie around the excess fabric and tucked it underneath the bottom of the shirt. She stepped back, admiring her handiwork, and threw Draco a grin. "Ready?" she asked.
He nodded and walked with her to the edge of the fence. There he stopped, looking around warily. Alex stood in the street, waiting patiently for him to take the next step forward. She watched as he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and stepped over. He opened his eyes, looked down at himself and back at the house, before throwing her a huge excited smile. It made his entire face light up and look less sickly.
"Well, come on then, Muggle! Let's go!" he laughed, racing ahead down the road towards the village. Alex frowned at the strange nickname but followed him anyway. Perhaps it was some foreign term of friendship that she had never heard of before.
The village square had a huge, circular fountain in the middle. At the top of the fountain, a large scaly creature had its wings spread wide and its mouth turned upward, the water spouting out and down its chest and back. Toddlers splashed each other while parents watched on, trying to avoid the water but staying close enough to grab any child who looked like they were going to fall in. A few couples sat a safe distance away, holding hands and leaning against each other. It was a beautiful day and everyone wanted to be outside to enjoy it. The local ice cream shop had a line out the door and a few tourists mingled about, taking photos. Alex turned to ask where Draco wanted to go first but found him a few feet behind her, looking around with wide eyes. Shaking her head, she went back and grabbed his hand.
"Stay close, Malfoy," Alex said with a smirk. "I can't lose you now, can I? Let's find a place to sit down so I can explain everything to you."
They found a bench under a tree and there they sat as Alex explained the history behind the fountain. Apparently many years ago, a rich family who held positions of power in the town commissioned the local smiths to make the fountain in their honor. Their family sigil had a dragon on it so that was what the creature was meant to be.
"Personally, I think it looks more like a snake with wings or a scaly bird of myth than a dragon," said Alex with a shrug.
The family eventually fell out of power and had to sell part of their land and a home on the property to make money. The people who bought the house and surrounding land were ancestors of her Uncle Monty, hence why he inherited the large house. Later on, the family died off but the fountain remained. The mansion on the hill next to Uncle Monty's home fell into ruin and no one had been seen in the mansion in years.
"The fountain is all that remains of the great family's wealth and power," she ended her story.
"Do you know the family's name?" asked Draco, looking down at the hands clasped tightly in his lap.
"Nope, not a clue. No one knows anymore, I'd expect. There's no name on the fountain and, like I said, that house has been abandoned for quite a long time. I guess your family lives somewhere on the property, then? Maybe in one of the old servant cottages?"
"Er…yeah, yeah that's what I meant yesterday," he replied awkwardly. "My ancestors were the caretakers a long time ago and we still live there today."
"Wow, I bet that mansion was something in its prime," said Alex wistfully, her mind drifting off to a different time. Realizing she had been zoning out, she shook her head and returned to the present. "Anyway, all the streets in the village lead to this square so as long as you know where you are in relation to here, you can't really get lost. My dance school is a block to the left and the playground is straight ahead. The ice cream parlor is right next to the bank behind us and the bookstore is that building to the right with the green roof."
"You like to read?"
"No, I love to read," Alex clarified with a laugh. "Nothing makes me happier than being in that bookstore for hours. Well, nothing besides dancing."
"It sounds like you're really dedicated to it," said Draco. "Are you any good?"
Alex raised an eyebrow at the boy and replied frankly, "I'm bloody fantastic."
Author's Note: Hello everyone! I hope you guys enjoyed the last chapter. I wanted to post this sooner but had a huge examination this morning that I've been studying for over the past year. So glad to have that done so I have more time to write! I wanted to respond to my lovely reviewers so here you go:
xXxCorsaRoo450xXx: Haha, thank you for being my first reviewer! I hope your "Ooh" was because you enjoyed it and not because you hated it… ;P
CartoonGurl201m: Thank you so much for your review! I try to look out for grammar errors but I know they can be quite elusive creatures and hard to spot. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Xal (Guest): I'm sorry if the loss of chapters confused you. I took them all down when I updated the first chapter since everything is getting re-written anyway. I'll be updating with a new chapter every few days or so. I'm glad you were excited to keep reading though and hope you enjoyed the new chapter!
Thank you to my first reviewers for the updated story! I always appreciate hearing your thoughts on my writing so far. Also, I can't forget all the people who have favorited and followed both this story and me as an author. Getting those email alerts from the site always makes me excited. Don't forget to tell me what you liked or didn't like about this chapter! :D
