Here's another chapter! Be warned, this one has some angst, swearing, and implied explicit content. Christmas can't be completely happy all of the time, can it? Anyway, I think it's a pretty good chapter, so I hope you agree.

~Robin

Chapter 7

A New Family or Nobody Should Be Alone on Christmas

"You're staring at me again," Nat laughed, not even needing to turn around to be able to tell that James' eyes were trained on her.

"Can you blame me?" he asked. At the moment, they were hidden away inside the confines of her very large bedroom. They were hidden because her parents didn't know that he was there, or even that he was dating her daughter, and her bedroom was very large because her father was Blaise Zabini and her mother was Pansy Parkinson.

She just laughed delicately and James attempted to look over her shoulder without sitting up. He failed miserably. "Stop trying to look at your present," she scolded him. He just shook his head in amazement. Without looking, she had known exactly what he was doing.

"You know me much too well," he told her.

"I know," she said. After another minute, she turned, holding a brightly wrapped package in her hands. Unlike most Slytherins, she preferred to do these sorts of things without the help of magic or house elves. "Voila!" she finished, holding it out to him.

He took it and shook the box. Nothing rattled, so it probably wasn't joke products. It wasn't too heavy either, so it wasn't a book, although she would know better than to get him a book. He liked to read of course, but he liked picking the books out himself. There was always the risk of it being boring if somebody got it for you, and James Sirius Potter did not accept boring. "I wonder what it could be," he mused, watching her face from the corner of his eye.

"Oh just bloody open it already!" she said impatiently.

He chuckled before ripping the paper off of the gift. He opened the box quickly took out the chaser's gloves that were inside it. They were very nice, made of supple leather. He tried one on and flexed his fingers before curling them into a fist again. A perfect fit. "They're perfect," he told her, "but do you really want to give me another thing to beat Slytherin with in quidditch?" he teased.

"Oh, we both know perfectly well that Gryffindor couldn't possibly lose with its line-up this year," she said, "but you missed the best part."

"I did?" he asked, frowning. He picked up the box again and on the bottom were two chocolate frog cards, placed with the picture facing down. He picked them both up and flipped them over. James Potter I and Sirius Black, his two namesakes.

"How did you know?" he asked her. In his seventeen years of life, he hadn't been able to find either of them, and he didn't know anybody who had more than one copy or who was willing to trade one away. Now he had both.

She shrugged. "Like you said earlier, I know you too well."

"I'm glad," James said, pressing his forehead to hers and pulling her into his arms. "I have something for you, too," he whispered. He took a simple black box out of the pocket of his jacket, which was lying on the bed, and handed it to her.

She took it carefully in her hands and opened the box slowly. Inside it was a beautiful necklace. It was a simple amethyst drop pendant on a delicate golden chain. "Put it on me?" she asked him.

"Of course," James said, smiling at her softly. She lifted the sheet of brownish-red hair from the back of her neck and he deftly did the clasp on the necklace. The jewel dropped right between her breasts, perfectly matching the earrings that he had gotten her the year before, which she was wearing in honor of their being together.

"It's perfect," she breathed, looking at herself in the mirror.

"No, you make it perfect," he argued. She smiled, turning around and wrapping her arms around his neck and stepping up on her the tips of her toes to plant a kiss on his lips. She let herself linger there for a moment before descending to flat feet again. James wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his forehead to hers once more, looking into her eyes.

"I love you so much," he told her.

"I love you more." He was just leaning down for another kiss when the door burst open and they jumped apart in shock.

"Nattie! Somebody's here to-What the bloody hell is going on here?" a woman's voice said, starting off in an overly cheerful tone before switching so that it almost spat. Mrs. Zabini had just interrupted them.

Neither James nor Nat said anything. "I said what the bloody hell is going on here?" she snarled at them.

Nat took a shaking breath, stepping forward. "Mother, this is James, my boyfriend." James took a protective step closer to her, taking her hand with one of his and putting the other on her shoulder.

"What?" Mrs. Zabini snapped. "You mean to say that this half-blood scum, this Potter boy, is your boyfriend. That's-" she stopped, seemingly at a loss for words. Then she yelled, with all her might. "BLAISE!"

It was worse than Grandma Weasley's, although probably only because it was coming from somebody that James thought might actually hurt him.

Within seconds, Mr. Zabini had arrived in the room too. He took in the sight, ushered his wife into the room and closed the door behind him, muttering a silencing charm. James was grateful that he hadn't locked it.

"Nataliana, what is going on here?" he asked in an icy tone.

James was about to speak up when Nat shushed him, elbowing him in the stomach. "Daddy, this is my boyfriend, James," she said quietly.

"It's nice to meet you, sir," James said, holding out his hand.

Mr. Zabini looked at it in distaste and didn't offer his in return. James awkwardly dropped his hand back to his side.

"You mean to tell me that you are dating the oldest Potter boy?" he asked his daughter coldly.

"Yes, for over a year now," she said shakily. The intensity of his gaze deepened.

"You know that he is a half-blood? A Gryffindor? His family all blood-traitors?" he hissed. James was reminded of a snake, and wanted very much to strangle that snake, but he repressed the urge, knowing that it wouldn't help the two of them get out of this.

"I love him, Daddy," she whispered.

"Get out of my sight," he told her.

"But-no-Daddy-I-"

"Get out! Now! You are no longer a member of this family! You are not my daughter."

Nat turned to her mother, pleading with her eyes, only to meet a face that seemed to be made of stone, and not the old, crumbling kind, either. She played the last card that she had. "I'm the only heir that you have," she said. "If you disown me, then you're fortune will disappear into the hands of the Ministry!"

"You shouldn't have even been his heir in the first place, you illegitimate bastard!" her mother shouted, saying something that it seemed like she had been holding in for a long time.

James felt Nat swaying in his arms and he steadied her. "What the hell are you talking about?" he asked hatefully.

"Don't you speak that way to me!" the woman exclaimed. "But you two hadn't figured it out. You didn't know that you were shagging a bastard child?" she asked sneeringly.

"I'm not shagging him!" Nat yelled, outraged at the accusation.

"Well of course you are," her mother smirked. "Why else would he want you?"

"Because I love her!" James objected, adding his own voice to the conversation.

"Silence!" Mr. Zabini exclaimed. He looked at his daughter. "You will leave with him immediately, and you will never return," commanded. "If you are still here in five minutes, I will have you physically escorted from the property."

He started to leave but Nat choked out one last question. "Who? Who is my mother?" she asked, her eyes begging to know.

He sneered at her. "Why, your dearest 'Auntie Astoria,' of course. And let me tell you, she didn't want it."

Then he swept from the room, his wife following him dutifully, nose in the air. The door slammed closed with finality behind them. Nat allowed herself ten seconds before ripping her hand from James' and running to her trunk, repacking the few things that she had unpacked over the holidays, along with the photos that she had, although she left those of her mother and father, and a few other important things. Then she took a bag and stuffed as much of her clothing in there as would fit before violently jerking the zipper up.

James watched her in dismay as she exited the room, hauling her trunk behind her, the bag slung over her shoulder. "Where are you going?" he asked her, racing to follow her and taking her trunk. She only glanced at him.

"The Leaky Cauldron."

He put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't," he said, spinning her around. Her eyes were blazing with tears and anger. James had no idea how she possibly could possibly have felt at that moment. He just knew that she needed him.

"I don't have anywhere else to go, James," she told him, shaking his hand off.

"Come home with me." It was a risky move, but was there really anything left for him to do? She couldn't be alone on Christmas, and he didn't want to leave her right now. She'd most likely end up doing something reckless, what with the state she was in.

She froze. "Your parents don't even know about us," she said.

"Well, to be honest, I probably should have told them along time ago. It was going to happen eventually either way, why can't it be now?"

She didn't know what to say to that. "Will they accept me?" she asked him.

"They'll be sympathetic. Mum will give you a big hug, but won't say anything, and Dad'll just watch us carefully to see how we're acting about everything. We've basically taken in Cait, Al's girlfriend, because her dad has some issues. Trust me, Dad didn't have a great home life when he was growing up either. He spent as little time at home as possible," James told her.

She broke down then, falling into his arms, the sobs ripping from her chest. "Let's go," James said softly. First, he banished her trunk and bag to his house, and then, wrapping his arms around her, he spun on his heal and apparated straight into the kitchen with a quiet pop. He hadn't thought about the fact that he probably should have brought her straight to his room and then explained everything to his family. Instead, everyone but his Dad was in the room when he appeared with a sobbing girl-a sobbing Slytherin girl in his arms.

Al opened his mouth to ask a question, as did his Mum, but he silenced them with sharp looks and picked Nat up, carrying her to his bedroom. He lay her gently down on his bed and kissed her forehead. "I've got to go explain to them, okay," he said. She nodded. "Do you want me to bring you some dinner or anything?" he asked her.

She shook her head. "No. I-I should meet them," she said, bravely, her tears starting to subside. "After you've explained, come get me and I'll meet them."

He sat next to her. "You know I love you, right?" She nodded. "They'll love you too, if only because of that."

He left, finally steeling himself to tell his family about the girl he loved, the love of his life, Nataliana Zabini, the fifth-year Slytherin, who at school he had always hated to the eye of the public. Then he would introduce her to her new family... his. This was going to be interesting.

Okay, so I know it's never really emphasized as Zabini being a complete git in the books, but I think being married to Pansy Parkinson for a few years could to that to anyone, so he kind of turned, well... evil. Though not to a Voldemort standard, of course.

And BTW, the Nat in my future stories will actually be a Malfoy, but I wanted to keep this a bit more canon, so I changed it a bit. Please review, I want your thoughts on Zabini, Nat, and the chapter in general.

Next: Lily (Weird, all the Potters were next to each other...)