Disclaimer: Don't own anything, please don't sue me :)
A/N- Wow this I think this is the longest chapter I have ever written...mostly because I was having fun writing it. Okay, I do not speak a word of Russian, much as I wish I could and seeing as I didn't wish to utterly destroy the language using babelfish, I just decided to write in English with bold and italics to mark the transition. If any of you glorious readers out there are fluent in Russian and would like to translate for me, that would be great but unless that happens, this is how any Russian will be typed. Also, I am saddened by my lack of reviews because it really helps me to get some feedback. Not to whine, but my last chapter only got one review. So EmeraldGreyClouds, I thank you for being the only person out of the 300 people to read that chapter to give me a review (and yes, you were right :)). I really want to know what you guys think- good, bad, or indifferent- critiques make for a better and more informed writer, so please hit that magical blue link at the bottom and review! :)
Chapter 11
The rest of Roman and Alexei's school week passed by in a haze of boredom and a growing popularity among the students. They had more classes with Snape who had apparently decided to ignore them rather than provoke another disruption like that which had occurred in their first class, were introduced to astronomy, excelled in charms, met the very strict Professor McGonagall, and they had also had their first class with Professor Potter, which had been a very difficult class for Alexei.
Knowing that his biological mother was standing right in front of him, very much alive and unaware of her son's presence had been beyond strange. He spent much of the class studying her features and watching her expressions, recognizing a few of them as ones he shared with her just as they shared the same unique emerald green eyes.
And maybe it was his imagination but every time he locked eyes with the red-haired History Professor, there was this odd gleam there showing something like suspicion. Did she know that she was in the same room as her eldest son? If she did, why didn't she say anything?
For these curious glances continued in all of the classes that he had with her, but never did she ask to speak on him or even call on him to answer a question. Brooding on these thoughts as he left the History of Magic classroom, he was startled when a hand came down in front of his face.
Roman was waving at him, trying to get his attention. "Oi! Lex! Anybody home...?"
"Huh- Oh, yeah. Sorry, what were you saying?" said Alexei, shaking the thoughts from his head.
Roman rolled his eyes and muttered "You are such a space cadet." then he repeated, "I was saying, that we need to find out where the kitchens are so we can get some food for the party tonight."
"Oh! Right..." It was Friday, he had forgotten.
"What's up with you, you're acting strange...?" said Roman, concerned.
Alexei ran a hand through his hair wearily, "Nothing. I think I might have left my brain in that last class..." Roman wanted to say something to comfort him but realized he really couldn't in their present company and settled for looking sympathetic.
Sera cut the tension by asking slyly if he had a crush on Professor Potter, triggering vehement "No!"s and faces of disgust.
"Whoa! It was just a joke guys, calm down!" she said holding her hands up defensively in front of herself, "Oh and I was going to tell you that I can show you how to get into the kitchens, it's really easy."
Distracted from the disgusting question, Roman's face cleared, "Oh, that makes things simpler. I guess we'll go after dinner then."
Alexei nodded.
"This is going to be so wicked!" exclaimed Sera. There was an extra bounce in her step as they walked into the Great Hall, due to her excitement. "The only time we ever really have parties is after we win at quidditch, which I have to admit, isn't all that often." she said disappointment at Gryffindor's recently abysmal quidditch stats flooding her tone.
As they sat down at the Gryffindor table, Alexei turned to her in surprise, "I didn't know you were into quidditch?"
"Well, I'm not really," said Sera, "but I still want Gryffindor to win and the fact that Slytherin is the one consecutively beating us for the cup is really frustrating."
"Hey, Lex, maybe you should join." grinned Roman.
"You play?" Sera asked Alexei, who nodded. "Are you any good?"
"He's excellent." Roman boasted.
"Well you're definitely trying out then."
"Don't I get a say in this?" Alexei questioned plaintively.
"No." they both answered with a tone of finality.
"Well." Alexei huffed, taking a bite of his pork chop. They could tell he was faking though.
Roman turned to look at him and said cajolingly, "Oh come on Lex, you would enjoy it!"
Alexei stared at him disbelievingly, "You just want show up Malfoy, you know he plays quidditch for Slytherin."
Knowing he'd been caught out, Roman just answered "So." and shoved a mouthful of potato in his mouth.
Once dinner was over, Sera led Roman and Alexei down a hallway just off of the Great Hall and stopped at the very end of the corridor in front of a very large oil painting of a bowl of fruit. She reached up to tickle the pear, which giggled slightly, and the giant painting swung forward to reveal a round doorway leading into the kitchens.
The Ivanovs' felt as though all of their wildest dreams had come true, as tiny bat-like elves ran to prepare every food they could think of for the party. They were in and out in a matter of minutes, their arms laden with bowls of popcorn and nuts, boxes of pizzas, assorted crisps and dips, biscuits, and crispy mozzerella sticks. Stuffed in their schoolbags were bottles of beer and large amber bottles of firewhisky that clanked together when they walked.
Roman, realizing their fairly big oversight said "Now, how exactly are we going to get all of this back to the common room without being noticed."
"Sera just smirked and replied "Follow me."
She took them through several secret passageways that wound through tapestries, mirrors, and even through what at first appeared to be solid wall. Exiting the last one, they found themselves directly in front of the Fat Lady, who snorted at them with one eyebrow raised. "I suppose I won't be getting any sleep tonight, will I?"
"Intrepidity." said Sera causing the Fat Lady to swing forward on her hinges. "And don't worry, you can always sleep it off tomorrow." she added.
The common room was filled to the brim with students of all ages, talking, fighting, playing chess and doing homework. None of them noticed the three come in.
"Alright everybody, gather round!" Alexei shouted. "There's about to be a party in the common room! If you don't want to have any fun, or you are younger than fifth year, head on upstairs and study or whatever it is you people do."
There were shouts of "Not fair!" from the younger years, while the older students looked vaguely excited.
"Also," Roman began "if anyone has any music they want to be played-"
"Within reason!" interrupted Alexei. He did not want to listen to the musical stylings of Celestina Warbeck.
"-Come talk to us!" finished Roman.
Hermione, who had been frozen in shock and anger strode forward, her polished prefects badge shining brightly on her chest. "You will not!" she shouted, "If you even try, I'm going to report you immediately to Professor McGonagall!"
Roman stepped in putting an arm around her, "Whoa there, Hermione! Don't do that, come on, join the fun!"
"You'll have a great time, we promise!" added Alexei, putting his arm around her on the other side.
Hermione just scowled more fiercely.
"Oh Hermione..." Sera drawled sweetly.
"What do you want Walker?" she snapped.
"I was just thinking about how you wanted to borrow my rare, limited edition copy of 'Omnicious' Guide to Defending the Mind', and I was thinking that if you let this slide, I would be willing to lend it to you, no strings attached." she smiled charmingly.
Her expression changed so quickly and entirely that it was frightening, "Really?"
"Definitely." the blond promised.
"Well..." she glanced around at the hopeful students surrounding her, "Okay."
The common room erupted in cheers and everyone began placing the food on tables and moving chairs away from the middle of the floor to set up a kind of dance floor. Roman ran up to the dorm to bring down his shrunken stereo and a huge stack of CD's. Alexei began shooing the younger students up to their dorms, who groaned such things as "Aww...why can't we stay?" and "But it's only 7:30!"
Alexei cheerfully consoled them as he pushed them onward, "Oh, that's okay! That just means you'll be more refreshed tomorrow! You'll have the whole Saturday rather than sleeping in!"
They still grumbled under their breaths but nevertheless they went up with out a fight.
As he made his way back down the staircase he heard the blast of the stereo starting up and when he arrived at the bottom, students were already dancing to the beat.
He met Roman by one of the food tables and was handed a beer. "Cheers!" he said happily.
Alexei sipped his beer and looked out on the dance floor to spy Hermione dancing with their roommate Ron, who kept throwing glares at Ginny and Dean's hyper-sexual dancing style. "So, are they an item then?"
"I think so, although I didn't actually expect her to stay. I'm glad she did though." Alexei raised an eyebrow at his brother, who quickly came to the defense, "That's not what I mean, I just think she needs to loosen up some." he took another swig of his beer.
"If you say so..." Alexei teased as he walked away.
Roman watched him as he pulled Sera away from the punch bowl and out into the middle of the throng to dance. "I can't believe he was teasing me about having a crush, it's so obvious he's got a thing for Sera." he though smiling. He was pulled from his thoughts by a small voice at his shoulder saying "Hi."
He looked over to see a mop of dark red hair that glinted in the dim firelight; the Potter girl. "Oh, hey. Why aren't you out dancing?"
"I could ask the same of you. Your brother sure is into it." she said staring at Alexei and Sera who seemed to be competing with Ginny and Dean for the title of most sexual dance moves.
"Well I didn't really have anyone to ask, until now. You wanna dance milady?" he held out a hand and gave her a small bow.
She hesitated slightly before stammering "B-but, I-I don't really know how to dance." her cheeks flushed in embarrassment at the admission.
"Aww...don't worry about that-" he grinned "I'll teach you!" he grabbed her hand and pulled her out to the middle of the mob with her protesting all the way.
She shoved him off and hissed "I can't!"
"It's alright...Come on, just feel the music...let your body move to the beat and don't worry about what you look like. No one's watching anyway." he said as he himself began to move to the music.
She still stood there looking at him unconvinced, the worry written clearly upon her face. "I don't know..."
"Look don't worry about anyone else, not even me...just feel it." he smiled encouragingly.
It took another moment but she closed her eyes and soon began to sway and bounce on the balls of her feet to the beat of the music. When she opened them again, Roman was dancing with her and she started dancing in earnest.
After hours of dancing, many of the crowd were lounged on rugs and couches some making out, others passed out from exhaustion, and a few sipping beers and eating crisps.
Alexei, noticing the dwindling enthusiasm shouted over the music "Hey everybody, how about a drinking game?"
There was a good response so he led a group over to one of the empty round tables and arranged a pack of cards in a circle around the table while Roman came over with a case of beer and plunked it down in the center.
"Okay, the game kiddies, is called Circle of Death." announced Roman. "The rules are simple; we go around in a circle and when it's your turn you pick a card. If you draw a two, that's You so you pick a friend who has to drink every time that you do, three is Me, meaning you have to drink, four is Floor, everyone has to slap the table and the last person to slap the table has to finish their drink, five is Guys, all the blokes take a drink, six is Chicks, all the ladies take a drink, seven is Heaven, just like four except you point up, eight is Mate, you pick a special someone you think is sexy to drink with you, nine is Rhyme, the person who draws says a word and everyone has to rhyme with that word and whoever doesn't has to finish their drink, ten is Category, the person will pick a category and everyone has to say something in that category or finish their drink, jack is Never Have I Ever, so the person has to list things they have not done and everyone at the table who has done that has to raise a finger, once you reach three you have to drink the rest of your drink, queen is Question Master, everyone goes around in a circle asking random questions until someone can't think of an answer and then they have to drink, king is Rule, so you have to make up a rule for everyone to follow until a new rule is made and if anyone breaks it they have to drink, and finally ace is Waterfall, so whoever draws it starts drinking and the person beside them starts drinking and the person beside them and so on and they can't stop until the person beside them stops drinking. Whew, Any questions?"
The table, which consisted of Alexei, Sera, Dean, Ginny, Rachael, Hermione, Ron, and Neville all, barring Alexei, stared at him blankly.
Alexei saw their faces and said "Don't worry, if you're confused we'll explain as we play."
Roman rubbed his hands together and asked smiling wickedly, "Ok, who's first?"
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By the end of the game everyone was quite drunk; Neville had actually fallen asleep at the table, Hermione was practically sitting on Ron's lap, who grinned stupidly, Alexei kept whispering things into Sera's ear, making her squeal with laughter, Ginny was leaning on Dean, who had a beer label stuck to his forehead, and Roman had begun chucking cards at Rachael's head, who had just laughed at him for slopping beer down his front.
After a while they all wandered off to find a place to sleep, some not even managing to find a couch, just sprawling out on a soft rug. The all drifted off to sleep, the alcohol putting them out like a light.
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Professor McGonagall was striding up to the Divination tower to have a few strong words with a certain Sybill Trelawney about predicting one of her newest students' death by decapitation, when she heard a dull thumping noise.
Diverted from her mission she followed the noise up to the Fat Lady's portrait, who appeared utterly woebegone. "Please, make it stop...My ears are bleeding from the noise." she wailed.
"Intrepidity?" McGonagall said, the password coming out as a question.
The portrait slowly swung open to reveal a scene of utter devastation. Dozens of her little Lions were lying prostrate on the floor, slumped over couches, and asleep at tables. Around them were bottles upon bottles of beer, what looked to be two empty bottles of firewhisky, and all varieties of food covered the floor. In the corner a large black stereo beat out a loud tune. She flicked her wand at it to cut it off.
What had happened? And why had Hermione Granger informed her of this? Her first question was answered instantly, while several others were raised as she caught sight of Ms. Granger hanging off of a chair.
Furious, she held her wand up to her throat and whispered "Sonorus" then she yelled, "WAKE UP!" There were many soft thuds as students were startled from their sleep and fell off their precarious perches. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?"
A hand was raised slightly and she found it to belong to Alexei Ivanov, who answered sleepily, "We-er...threw a party..."
"REALLY, DID YOU NOW? AND WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU COULD GO AROUND GETTING YOUR CLASSMATES DRUNK AND MAKING A HUGE MESS?"
"No-one, we were just trying to have a little fun..." he muttered clutching his head, as were many others.
"WELL I HOPE YOU HAVE FUN IN DETENTION BECAUSE YOU'LL BE IN IT FOR A WEEK!"
Roman raised his hand, his head popping up from behind an overturned couch, "It wasn't just him, Professor, I started it too" he mumbled.
"And me..." said Sera, waving her hand as well.
"WELL THEN YOU WILL JOIN HIM! AND AS ADDITIONAL PUNISHMENT NO ONE IS ALLOWED TO USE ANY TYPE OF HANGOVER POTION! YOU'LL JUST HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT!" she undid the Sonorus spell and said "Accio hangover potions!" a surprising number flew into her hands and she vanished them all.
The room groaned as one as they disappeared.
Furious with the lot of them, she spun on her heel shouting "AND CLEAN THIS UP!" and left, slamming the portrait behind her causing the room to shake from the force and fresh moans from those on the floor.
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It was a long morning cleaning up all of the mess, everyone was grumpy and short-tempered from their hangovers, quite a few, including Hermione and Neville frequently rushing off to the loo to puke.
Once they were finished they all headed down to breakfast to get some food in their squirming stomachs.
Alexei and Roman were wearing sunglasses to shield their tender eyes from the bright morning sun and it was lucky they were, because they just happened to run into Auror Potter. Who immediately went into an explanation of who he was and how he wanted them to watch his children.
"You want us to do what, exactly?" Alexei asked in disbelief; his hungover brain just couldn't handle this right now. He could have sworn James Potter, his long-lost father, had just come up to him completely out of the blue, introduced himself, and requested that he and his brother become top-secret bodyguards for his two children. This had to be one of the strangest and most awkward moments he could ever remember having, including the time that he had been on a date and one of the more unruly fan-girls had barged into the restaurant to declare her undying love for him and their future children.
The whole situation was made even more odd by the realization of just how much Alexei looked like his father. Sure he had seen snapshots of him in the paper, but the pictures did not quite prepare him for the older doppelganger standing before him. He was all of a sudden very glad that he was wearing the sunglasses.
Beside him, he could feel his brother warring against a mixture of shock and ironic amusement to keep a straight face. Giving up the battle, he asked, "Er…are you sure we're the right men for the job, sir? How much do you even know about us?" Alexei could hear the laughter in his tone, but he doubted that Potter could.
"Well, you see…" he paused, looking over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening, then continued "I've been hunting around for someone that is around the school and could do the job…" his eyes darted again, "Professor Lupin told me that the two of you aced the review quiz he gave the first day, and each made an Outstanding on your defense homework. After that, I looked you guys up and found out your history with dueling and seeing as you are both Gryffindors it would be easy enough to watch them. Oh and you would also be paid of course." He finished with an air of confidence that strongly implied that they would be fools not to take him up on the offer.
The boys glanced at each other and Alexei turned to James and said "Give us a minute." before they walked a short distance, turned away from him, and began speaking in rapid Russian.
Roman spoke first, his dark eyes wide from the conversation they had just had, "What do you think?"
Alexei looked thoughtfully back at him and when he spoke it was in a slow, unsure tone, "I don't know...I can't believe I am saying this, but I'm actually kind of tempted to accept..." Maybe he could learn more about his siblings, possible even become friends with them. "What about you?"
"I'm up for it if you are."said Roman, determined to stick by his brother no matter what his decision was. "So is that it? Are we really doing this?"
"Yeah. Yeah, we are." Alexei responded firmly, nodding his head.
"This is so bizarre." Roman added blankly.
"Tell me about it." muttered Alexei.
They walked back over to Potter, who was looking anxious to hear their answer.
Alexei held out his hand and said "We'll do it."