Chapter 7
A/N-I'm so sorry peeps for being absent for a while. I've been run down by sixth form and my first year at university but I'm back!
Time had flown by again and it was the Christmas holidays. Harry, Will, Hermione and I were going home which put a set back on finding information on Nicholas Flamel. Harry and I are going to look in the library at home. However, Ron is staying here for Christmas though. Currently though, We were playing chess before we leave. "Knight to E-5." Harry's knight moves to E-5. Harry was awful at chess.
"Queen to E-5." Ron states and the queen whacks the knight off the board.
"That's totally barabaric!" Hermione exclaims.
"That's wizard's chess. I see you've packed." Hermione and Ron were still working through their problems. To be honest, I think the way they argue is kinda similar to how mum and dad describe what they were like to each other while in Hogwarts. Although, Ron clearly is pining after Hermione but I have a bet with George and Fred that they will get together before they leave Hogwarts in Seventh Year. I better win.
"See you haven't." Hermione retorted.
"Change of plans." Ron explains. "My parents decided to go to Romania to visit my brother, Charlie. He's studying dragons there!"
"Good. You can look in the library for information on Nicholas Flamel." Hermione states. Damn that Nicholas Flamel person!
"We've looked a hundred times!" Ron exclaims and Hermione leans closer.
"Not in the restricted section…Happy Christmas, Ron. I'll see you two on the train." Did Hermione just recommend breaking the rules?
"I think we've had a bad influence on her." Ron comments as an after thought. "How am I meant to go to the restricted section though? It is restricted." Harry and I exchange glances.
"Ron, do you promise to keep this a secret?" Ron nods and I take out the cloak from my suitcase, and hand it to Ron. "This isn't just any cloak. This is a heirloom passed from Ancestor to descendant. It's an invisibility cloak. Please don't lose it or damage it in any way." Ron looks at the cloak in awe.
"I promise that I won't." Ron reassures. "I won't let the twins see it either." He hides it in his cloak. "You two better get to the gate or you'll miss the train." I hug Ron before leaving while Harry pats him on the back. "Merry Christmas, Ron." Harry and I just get to the gate as people were leaving to go to the train on carriages pulled by themselves. We get on a carriage with Will, Lyra and Hermione.
"Have any plans over Christmas, Hermione?" I ask.
"Yes." Hermione answers. "From the 23rd to the 1st, we are going to France to visit my grandparents. What about you guys?"
"Having the whole family come over." Will answers. "Mooney, Pads, Nadi, Zo, Reg and Tris. Although, we generally go over to Spain during the holidays to visit my Abuela. To be honest though, she is more like everyone's abuela." Harry and I nod in agreement.
"She is also the reason why we know so much Spanish." I comment. "Fluent. Better than most foreign speakers of the language, I would say." Hermione gives me a look. "Sorry, arrogance is a trait that I get from our dad. He was horrible in school but then my mum mellowed him out."
"Also, sarcasm is a definite traits of yours." Harry adds on, much to my bemusement. "Once we get home, she will be more level headed. It's just because she's away from mum who makes all of us mellow. Including me." Hermione gives a doubtful look. "Trust me, I may not seem like it but I can be very sarcastic and arrogant at times. I just tend to do it more in my head then flaunt it." Hermione gives us disapproving looks.
"Hey, it's not like we are like it to our friends or family. Maybe a bit of sarcasm here of there but no arrogance with family or friends." I comment.
"You really are digging yourselves a deeper hole." Will says. "You get used to their quirks. It's like, everyone has a bad trait about them. Arrogance for Steph, Harry and I have short-tempers. I have a really short fuse. Even better, when I get started, I don't stop. I even on occasion slip into Spanish accidentally. Surely, you have a bad trait like everyone?" Hermione huffs but nods.
"I can be bossy."
"Oh, come on!" I exclaim and I fake a hurt look. "It has taken my over 5 years to find out and 2 minutes for Will? I'm offended!" I can see Hermione begins to feel bad. "Don't worry, I'm joking." The carriage suddenly pulls to a stop and we pile into a compartment on the train after making sure our luggage is put on to the train.
After a long 9 hour journey home, we collected our luggage, and look around for our parents in the midst of the chaos of children and parents alike. I spot mum and dad talking to Mr. and Mrs. Granger, and nudge Hermione. "Over there." Will walks ahead of us.
"Heya Prongs, Lils." I heard Will greet. "Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Granger. Can I just say that Hermione is a wonderful friend?" Hermione's parents smile at this. Nice charming skills, Will. Harry and I hug Dad and Mum while Hermione hugs her own parents.
"Happy Christmas." I say to Hermione as I hug her goodbye.
"Happy Christmas to you too." Did I mention that her parents moved house during the summer? Well, they did and too a different area completely. I notice Lyra behind us looking awkward.
"Dad, Mum, meet Lyra Lestrange." I nudge her forward. "Lyra, meet my mum and dad." She puts her hand out to be shaken by dad and mum.
"Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Potter." She greets shyly, not even looking at their faces. So shy. "Nice to meet you both." Dad shakes her hand.
"Hello, Lyra. Nice to meet you too." Dad replies with a smile. "You're going to love it with Padfoot, trust me. Also, it's James or Prongs, okay? Mr. Potter makes me feel old." Lyra nods.
"Okay, Mr. Pot-I mean, James." She still held her head down and mum pulls Lyra into a hug before letting go. This is the first time Lyra looks up and she looks up, wide eye at mum.
"Hey, Lyra. It's a pleasure meeting you." Mum says kindly. "My names Lily and please call me it, no Mrs. Potter, okay? You're family now." Lyra nods. "You know, you can look at adults when they speak to you."
"I was taught to look at adults only when they tell you too." I heard her mumble.
"Trust me, you don't have to do that. You have the free-will to do what you want and to think what you want." Dad comments. "And if anyone makes you do something against your will, this goes to all of you, tell a trusted adult."
"Thank you." Lyra says again.
"No need to thank. Right, kiddos. Apparating." Dad comments as Hermione and her parents leave. I grab Dad's hand and Will grabs the other hand while Harry and Lyra grabs Mum's hands. We land in the chaotic Potter-Black-Lupin family gathering at Potter Manor. Our siblings and cousins run to us while screaming our names. Aaron and Reg ram into me and I fall over while hugging them.
"Hello, you little rascals." They were both sitting on me and looking at me with curious looks. "Have you been creating trouble for everyone in our departure?" They grin and nod. "Good. Keep on doing it."
"No, Stephani!" Mum exclaims. "Don't encourage them! They are already encouraged by Sirius and James!" I snicker. "Now, Lyra." Lyra looks at mum. "This is Sirius." Lyra walks forward and holds out her hand which Pads shakes.
"Hello, Mr. Black. Thank you for taking me in." He cringes at being called Mr. Black.
"Just Sirius, Padfoot ot Pads please." Lyra nods. "No formalities are necessary. Also, the woman next to me is the love of my life, Nadiné." Lyra shakes her hand with a ghost of a smile. "This is Zoé who is my eldest." Lyra shakes Zo's hand. "These two are twins and my youngest, Regulus and Tristan." She shakes their hands.
"Regulus? I've heard that name before." She scrunches up her face in thought.
"It was my brother's name." Pads explains with a fond look. A few years ago, we found out what happened and that he was basically a hero.
"Oh, sorry." She mumbles with a wince on her face.
"Well, Lyra." I'm trying to take the conversation off death, so, bugger off. "You know Harry, Will, Mum and Dad. This is Darren." Lyra shakes Darren's hand. "This is another set of twins and the youngest again, Melissa and Aaron." She shakes their hands. "We have so many sets of twins in the family. Very rare." I wink at Lyra who grins.
"Eveyrone." Mum interrupts. "Lyra, Will, Harry and Steph need to pack for your Abuela's house. We are leaving tomorrow at 10am by floo." Dad, Pads, Darren and Mooney help Harry, Will, Lyra and I with taking our luggage upstairs. I release Athena from her cage when I get to my room. Athena literally runs to Lyra's room and jumps at Pads who yelps as she digs her claws in.
"Athena!" She looks at me. "You don't attack, Pads! Remember? You are an intelligent cat after all!" She meows in shame and jumps down from Pads. "Sorry. Cats and dogs thing. She knows your my dogfather."
"You cheeky bugger!" Pads exclaims with a grin.
"Yo, Padfoot!" Dad calls. "Don't kill my daughter please! Blood stains are so hard to clear up!"
"Thanks, Dad!" I yell back, sarcastically. "Really helping my case!"
"You're welcome!" Dad yells back and I grin before laughing.
"Hey, any chance we can prank Dad before we leave? Because Abuela would kill us if we pranked Dad at her house." Pads gives me an evil grin.
"I'm waayyyyyyy ahead of you." Pads replies, throwing his arm over my shoulder and Lyra's, and leading us downstairs to the kitchen. "Just little ones mind you. Lily-flower and my dear wife have tempers."
"Make sure they don't hear that, Pads." Will voice came from behind us and she moves into the room.
"Of course they won't hear it, Tig." Another name that Pads calls Will that I forgot to mention. Her dad's patronus was a tiger, so, Pads calls her Tig. Did I also forget to mention that Uncle Rowan was a wizard and mum's twin? You can imagine that she was devastated when he died. Then Maria, who was a Spanish wizard who went to Hogwarts, was one of mum's best friends. She was from a pureblood family and was put into Ravenclaw. However, luckily, her family aren't prejudice in anyway, so, YAY for us! So, basically, they fell in love and got married then had Will. Maria was actually 8 months pregnant when she was killed in the accident. Will's brother died a couple of weeks later because of complications after an emergency caesaran. Sorry, rambling.
"I need to talk to Harry quickly, be right back." I walk back upstairs and bump into Harry. I grab his hand and drag him to my room. I silence him as he protests. "We need to look in the library before we leave! I mean, we can look in Abuela's library as well but we have to search ours completely!"
"Search when everyone goes to bed? We'll be under the invisibility cloak." Harry replies.
"What if one of the adults is up?"
"Then we are screwed." I smirk.
"I like your way of phrasing, twinny."
"Why thank you, twinny." Harry thanks. "We meet in your room at 11pm then we search the library." I nod.
"Agreed." I state before leaving the room and going to my own. It was 9pm when we got home earlier, so, we were meant to be asleep by now. I pack the things that I'll need at Abuela's villa and change into my pajamas before Dad walks into the room.
"On your mother's orders, it's time for bed, sweetheart." Dad repeats with a laugh.
"On our orders." I heard mum emphasis down the hall in a stern voice.
"Sorry, dear." Dad apologises with a not so sorry look. "On our orders, it's time for bed, sweetheart."
"Sure thing, dad." I reply and lower my voice. "Say if I wanted to cause mischief in the night…?"
"I wouldn't know a thing." Dad whispers back with a wink. "Do you need tucking in?"
"Sure." I say with a smile and climb on my bed. It was a pretty big bed to be honest and sometimes, hard to climb onto. I get under the duvet and Dad pulls the duvet over my face. "Dad!" He chuckles and removes the duvet from my face.
"Couldn't resist." He says with a smile and kisses my forehead. "Night, sweetheart."
"Night, dad." I mumble back as my mouth is muffed by the duvet that I snuggle into. After he leaves, Mum comes in and does the same thing. "Night, mum."
"Night, darling." She replies and turns off the light before shutting my door, quietly. I sit back up and look at my clock. 10:15?! I, sneakily, got my wand from my bedside table and a book. I can read until I get to work. I tiptoe across my room and grab a book before climbing into bed again.
"Lumos." I whisper and my wand shines, brightly. I quickly dive under the thick duvet as to block most the light. I start reading 'The Lord of the Rings'. It's one of Darren's that I never returned.
45 minutes later, I hear the door open. "Nox." I whisper and dive under my duvet, incase it isn't Harry.
"Steph." Harry whispers and I throw the duvet off me.
"It is you." I whisper back in relieve and climb out of bed. I put my duvet back in place before returning the book to the bookcase. "Shall we?" Harry opens up the cloak and I step inside. "Lumos." My wand lights up once again. "Let's go."
"When did we learn that?" Harry asks in a whisper as we walk down the corridor.
"We haven't yet. We're supposed to learn it in January." I answer in a whisper. "I've been learning spells ahead of everyone because I got bored as did Hermione."
"You two really should have been placed in Ravenclaw." Harry comments under his breath.
"We almost were but Gryffindor won out." I whisper with a cheeky smile as we head up the stairs. We almost make it to the library door when Athena starts to hiss. I open the cloak a little, so, she could see my face. "Athena, it's just me." She stops hissing and I pick her up.
"Really?" Harry questions.
"She would of just clawed at the door and it would of looked suspicious." I rationalise and Harry makes a face of agreement. We go into the expansive library and close the door. I set Athena down and she makes herself at home on the chair. "The forbidden books are on the top floor over there but they're in lock and chain but I smuggled the key from mum's bedside draw earlier."
"She's going to kill us." Harry whispers in dismay.
"I'll take the fall for that one, dear brother." I whisper back as I climb the stairs with him following. "My logic is, if Nicholas Flammel can't be found in any unrestricted section at Hogwarts then it's highly unlikely that we would find something in the non-forbidden section here." We reach the bookcase where the forbidden books were and I unlock the chains surrounding them. I pull one book out and open it.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Fudge! I slam the book shut and put the book back before relocking the chains as the sound of footsteps come running towards the library because of the noise. Harry throws the cloak over us and we start to, quietly, manoeuvre ourselves down to the bottom floor. Just as we reach the last step, the door comes flying open, wands at the ready from all adults. We move out the way as they make their way up the stairs. As they do this, we sneak out of the library through the open door and fast walk down the stairs. The loud noise had stopped but there was a loud discussion coming from upstairs which I did not want to listen to, particularly. "Wait, the key. It needs to be dropped off in mum's bedside table. We need to hurry." We get to our parent's bedroom door at the end of the hall which, again, was convinently open. I open the last draw of her bedside and slot the key back into place before we tiptoe out the room. "I think I'm going to bunk with you tonight. That man scared the shit out of me." Harry nods in agreement and we go into his room and shut the door quietly. We throw the cloak under the bed and climb into Harry's bed. "I never want to do that again. Not if the books do that."
"Agreed." Harry replies and wraps an arm around me. "We'll be okay. A book can't hurt us. However, we still have no clue who Nicholas Flammel is."
"Maybe Abuela will have something?" I put the question into the air.
"Maybe." Harry answers. "Although, her library is a little smaller than us but it's worth a shot." I heard the sound of the adults coming downstairs and close my eyes, and pretend to be asleep while try and get some sleep. I hear the door to Harry's bedroom open.
"You see?" I hear Dad say. "Stef is just sleeping in Harry's bed. That's why she's not in her room."
"You don't think the nightmares have started again, do you?" Mum asks in concern.
"We'll see if it's a one off." Dad replies. "If it isn't, we'll talk to her about it."
"Okay." Mum whispers back and I hear the door shut. All that's giving me nightmares is that book. Why would mum and dad even have books like that? These were some of the questions on my mind as I feel asleep.
