A/N: Second chapter! I don't have much to say about this chapter, so...enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or its characters. I can only take credit for the characters I make up. Everything else belongs to the incomparable J.K. Rowling (and maybe Warner Bros.)


Damia practically sprinted from Holland Park Station to her family's apartment in Holland Park Gardens. The Gardens were considered to be the most romantic gardens in London, and Damia nearly upturned several lovey-dovey couples as she took a shortcut through a rather pretty, quiet part of the park. Damia finally reached the doorway of the apartment block, Abbotsbury House. Her apartment was on the eighth floor and when she stepped out of the elevator she could hear the twins, Gabriel and Bryan, shouting excitedly at someone.

Damia's brothers were ten years old. They both had shocks of curly, cherub blonde hair, round mischievous faces and dark oval eyes. They looked totally unlike her except for their sharp noses. As Damia let herself in, her brothers were dashing around the living room. In the centre of all the chaos was one Naomi Winchel, clutching a large white shoulder bag and looking worn out. Naomi was a thin, attractive girl with jet-black, shoulder length hair and slightly slanted brown eyes. Damia squealed and threw herself at the girl. "Naomi! When did you get back from California?!"

Naomi grinned. "Just this morning. You're the first person I came to see." Naomi, always a bit star-struck, had been thrilled when her parents suggested going to Hollywood for summer vacation (in fact, she persuaded her parents to leave a week earlier, before school ended).

Damia regarded her suspiciously. "What, and you haven't gone to say hello to Charlie yet?"

Naomi had been dating Charlie for approximately two weeks. He was tall, blonde, and rugged (he was also seventeen to Naomi's fourteen). Naomi shrugged dismissively. "All right, so you're the first friend I came to see."

Damia rolled her eyes at her friend. "D'you wanna stay over for a while?" she asked Naomi. "My mum and dad are going out and they asked me to baby-sit Gabriel and Bryan."

Naomi threw up her hands. "I knew there was a catch!" At her friend's pleading look, Naomi added, "All right, I'll stay if we watch a really violent action movie. That always makes them sit still."

Damia sighed heavily, but relented. "Okay, but if my brothers grow up to be violent serial killers, it's your fault."


The last few rays of evening sunlight were streaming through the slits in Laura's bedroom's blinds. Laura was sprawled on her bed, flipping through several magazines at once. Laura's two giant St. Bernard dogs, Eeyore and Ernie, were attacking Misako. Laura laughed as she watched Eeyore drag his long tongue across the side of Misako's face. Misako squealed.

Misako's mother didn't allow pets in their home, so she enjoyed spending time with either Laura's two dogs or Nathan's cat, Macaroni.

"Who's a good boy?" Misako made kissy faces at Ernie. Ernie whined and pawed at Misako's leg. "Who's a good boy? Ernie's a good boy!"

"Mi, if you're going to do that all day…" Laura looked pointedly at her friend. Misako sighed. "Oh, fine…Eeyore! Ernie! What's over there?" she pointed to the hallway. The two dogs perked their ears up and bounded out of the room in a flurry of shaggy fur coats.

Misako shut the door behind them and tried to ignore their pitiful whining.

"So is your dad back yet?" Misako asked Laura. Laura looked wistful. "No, he's still in Russia."

Laura's father, Terrence Taylor, was a businessman whose dealings took him all over the world, usually short trips to North America. This time, however, he was attending a conference in St. Petersburg for three weeks.

"And then, he comes back for three days and has to leave for Salt Lake City."

Misako smiled wryly. "How does your mother feel about that?"

Laura grinned back. Both girls knew how irritated Laura's mother, Sheila Taylor, got when Terrence didn't spend enough time at home.

"She feels about the same as she did three weeks ago." Laura replied jokingly.

"My dad used to travel a little for his business," Misako mused. "Although it was mostly to Asia."

Laura stared at her friend. Misako didn't usually talk about her dad. Neither did her mother. When Misako was six, her father had been found dead in an alleyway. The autopsy concluded that he had died of natural causes. Misako's mother had become extremely strict with her daughter, enforcing all sorts of curfews and rules (Misako had failed on numerous occasions to adhere to all the rules and mostly wound up grounded).

In all the years Laura had known Misako, she had only talked about her father twice – once to explain his disappearance and now this.

Laura put her magazine aside. "Do you remember anything about your dad?" she asked quietly. Misako smiled.

"I don't remember much. Only, you know, a bit of his face. Mostly I just look at old photographs, but my mum saw me looking at them once and put them somewhere."

The two girls were silent as the sun set behind the house.


The only phone in Nathan's entire house rang when he was sitting at the dining room table with his family. His mother jumped and put a hand to her heart. She picked the phone up by two fingers like it was a dirty rag and handed it to him. His parents, though they encouraged his participation in Muggle activities, did not own a dishwasher or a telly. They had only owned a phone for two months (his friends had thought it was a bit strange that his family had no phone and it took a while to convince his parents to install one). Nathan shook his head at his mother, and took the phone around the corner into the living room.

"Hello?"

"HI NATHAN!" Nathan pulled the phone from his ear, wincing.

"Hi Lee." The loud, excited voice could only belong to Lee Owen, a short, redheaded girl that had gone to the same junior high school as him. "I thought you were visiting your aunt in Brighton?"

"We didn't stay very long. I don't know, my father just doesn't like to be around my aunt ever since my uncle went to prison…"

Nathan made a sympathetic noise. "Anyways," Lee continued perkily. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I was having dinner with my parents," Nathan started, but Lee cut in, "Okay! I'll call back later then!"

"Okay, well – " Lee was off the phone before Nathan could finish his sentence.

Nathan stared at the phone, and then walked back into the kitchen to replace the phone. "Who was that?" his mother asked as he sat back down. "Lee. Remember her? She's been over here several times."

Nathan's mother nodded. "Oh yes. If you're going to do something later, remember to not invite her over. I'm mixing something up and it won't be ready until at least tomorrow."

Nathan glanced over at the stove, where a small cauldron of violent purple potion was simmering on the heat unit.

"Right."


"Blech. Remind me why I'm watching this again??" Damia whined, pressing her back against the couch as the TV screen in front of her played Terminator, the metal skeleton of the Terminator chasing two people into a factory. Naomi, curled up at the end of the couch with a bowl of popcorn, motioned with her head towards Damia's brothers, who were staring at the screen in rapture. "That's why," she answered. Damia buried her head in her hands as the protagonist drove a metal axle into the Terminator's torso.

After the movie, however, was a totally different story.

"I'll be back!" Bryan drawled in a horrible German accent, pointing his fingers in the shape of a gun at Gabriel. Gabriel, meanwhile, had clambered onto the table and was attempting to do the robot, before pointing his fingers back at his brother and making machine-gun sound effects.

Damia shoved two couch cushions over her ears. "One day, Naomi, I'm going to purposely make myself go deaf."

Naomi was trying to watch a soap opera over all the ruckus, turning the volume up all the way.

Bryan aimed his "gun" at Gabriel and pretended to fire. Gabriel did a dramatic roll out of the way and consequently off the table, cracking his head against the side of a chair. Bryan was left pointing at one of the wall lamps that adorned the dining room. As he pointed, the lamp shattered, sending chunks of frosted glass across the room. Naomi instinctively dived to the floor and Damia screamed, throwing down the couch cushions. Startled, Bryan stumbled backwards and fell out of view. Gabriel started crying, heaving himself up onto the chair he had fell on. As he gave a particular ear-splitting scream, the TV screen flickered and went dark.

"Holy shit, what was that?!" Naomi spluttered as she got up again. The apartment was silent except for Gabriel's crying.

Damia and Naomi exchanged puzzled looks. Damia carefully shook glass off her lap and hurried over to her brothers. Naomi picked up the telephone. "What's your landlord's number?" she asked. Damia told her and she started to dial.


A/N: Stay tuned for the third chapter!