Disclaimer: Harry Potter characters belong to JKR.
After several long hours spent flying through the cold December air, the girls drifted off to sleep, careful to avoid the edges of the carpet. No matter how adept Montgomery was at Charms, one glance over the edge at the ocean below was enough to make even Lily laugh nervously and pull her robes tight around her body.
The sky began turning pink as the sun set to their right. Janis stirred awake and looked warily over the edge at the ground below.
"I think we're getting close," she said, shaking Montgomery awake. "That looks like Madrid." Lily gave a low groan and rolled over before sitting up.
"My back is killing me," she said, looking down where she had been laying moments before and giving a laugh. "And no wonder!" She reached down and picked up Snuffles, who glared at her. "It seems we have a stowaway. He must have still been in your robes when we left." Montgomery took him from Lily and held him up to her face.
"Does Snuffles want to learn how to ride motorcycles too?" she said in a baby face before nuzzling their noses together. His eyes closed and he gave a squeak of content before jumping out of her hands and back into the pocket of her robes. They all laughed and took turns peering over the edge of the carpet as they began to descend.
The clouds around them were a deep purple against the rich green of the countryside, and moments later, Janis gave a cry and pointed to a large castle on the horizon. "There it is!" she said. Montgomery and Lily turned and gaped at the looming chateau before them. Even in the low light, Montgomery could tell that Janis's grandmother must have been bordering on royalty to have lived in such a place. Although not as vast as Hogwarts, the structure still boasted several turrets, and as the carpet continued to drop, she noticed a deep moat surrounding the enclosed space.
"Wow," she said, and Lily nodded in agreement. "Do you guys have crocodiles in there?" she asked, pointing to the moat. Janis rolled her eyes as the carpet came slowly to a stop, hovering a few feet off the ground. Montgomery jumped off and straightened her robes, looking around.
"I think someone's already home," she said, pointing at the drawbridge, which was stretched out across the moat. A sleek black car was parked on it, and she heard Janis give a low gasp.
"Alejandro," she whispered, grabbing her bag and getting to her feet. The name rang familiar in Montgomery's mind.
"Your brother?" she asked. Janis nodded and began walking towards the large double doors, rummaging through her robe pockets. Finally, she pulled out a large brass key and stuck it into the lock, looking over her shoulder.
"Don't worry, I don't think he'll bite," she said, laughing nervously and turning the key. With a resounding click, she pulled the door open and held it for her friends. "Come on, chivalry isn't dead after all," she said, ushering them forward. Montgomery looked at Lily and shrugged her shoulders before rolling up the carpet and walking inside.
Her face became immediately stuck in a large spider web, but it was too dark to properly swat it away. "I can't see a damn thing," she whispered as Janis and Lily sidled in behind her, closing the door and engulfing them in blackness. She raised her wand to light a lamp she'd seen on the way in, but Janis grabbed her arm.
"Are you loco?" she whispered harshly. "There are no wizards for miles around here and we've all got the trace on us." Montgomery rolled her eyes but lowered her arm all the same.
"How are we supposed to see then," she said, a bit more grumpy than usual from the poor night's sleep and the face full of cobwebs.
"Hellooo Monty," said Janis, "This is a muggle castle." With that, she reached over to the lamp and turned up the gas, illuminating the hallway in a soft yellow glow. Montgomery looked at the lamp with a grin.
"Wicked," she said. Janis and Lily sighed in unison before making their way up the stairs, lugging their bags behind them.
As they climbed through the castle, Montgomery noticed signs of recent life. Papers were scattered across the floor. Dirty clothes were strewn over the lush runners carpeting the ground. And as they passed the kitchen, she noticed a sink full of dishes and empty peanut butter jars.
"We can stay in the wing on the main floor," explained Janis over her shoulder as she shoved her shoulder into a partially opened door. "This is the room I stayed in over the summer…" she began, turning her head back around. She let out a sudden yelp and grabbed the handle, slamming the door shut with a blush. Montgomery heard an exclamation from the room.
"Janis?" cried who Montgomery assumed was Alejandro from the other side of the door. "Que estas haciendo aqui?!" Janis smiled sheepishly at Lily and Montgomery before walking quickly away from the door.
"He was…just getting out of the shower," she explained, walking into the kitchen and setting her bag down. "I think we caught him a bit off guard." Montgomery laughed as she sat beside her friend. Alejandro's continued to shout at Janis from the room, and they heard him stumbling over furniture before he emerged fully clothed but still damp from the shower. He looked almost like Janis's twin, with the same golden skin and dark hair, except for about a foot in height difference. He brushed his bangs carelessly out of his black eyes as he turned to glare at his sister.
"Janis," he said, trying to compose himself as he leaned against the doorframe. "What are you doing here? Why aren't you home?"
"Uh…" Janis looked at Lily and Montgomery, who shrugged their shoulders. "My friends and I just needed to get away from it all."
"Away from it all? Dios mio, you're fifteen, what exactly is there to escape from?" He ran his fingers through his hair and looked at Montgomery with a raised eyebrow. Janis rolled her eyes.
"Sorry we can't all be super cool nineteen year olds," she said, picking up an abandoned ham sandwich on the counter and smelling it skeptically. "And where are all the maids that came with this joint?" The four of them looked at the mountain of dirty dishes.
"I told them to go home for the holidays," Alejandro answered simply as he began to poke around the cupboards. "They were distracting me from my work anyway."
"And what is it exactly that you do?" asked Montgomery as he opened a fresh jar of peanut butter and scooped some out with his finger. He looked up at her and was about to answer when Janis interrupted him.
"He's a writer," she said, with obvious sarcasm. "Writes all these trashy Spanish romance novels that sell like crazy."
"Yes," Alejandro jumped in, sticking his peanut-butter covered finger in his mouth and sucking on it thoughtfully. "And I thought I would be able to come down here and get some peace and quiet so I could meet my next deadline, but apparently…" he waved his sticky fingers at the girls and sighed. A loud squeak erupted from Montgomery's pocket, and before she could stop him, Snuffles leapt out from her robes and landed neatly in the crook of Alejandro's arm. As the four of them looked on in awe, he shuffled slowly into Alejandro's big hand and began licking his fingers.
"Um," Montgomery said, as they sat transfixed, staring at the rabbit. "Snuffles likes peanut butter." The four of them burst into laughter, but Snuffles was undeterred and continued his ministrations. As they began to calm down, he picked up Snuffles by the scruff of the neck and held him up to meet his eyes.
"I feel like you're just looking for a physical relationship," he said seriously. Snuffles licked his nose in response. Alejandro sighed. "I guess it's lucky I'm unattached then," he said, before heading back towards his room. "I'll be borrowing your little friend here," he shouted over his shoulder, slamming the door behind him. Montgomery looked at Janis for an explanation. Janis just shrugged.
"He's just some crazy artist," she said. "Snuffles should be fine with him," she added as Montgomery raised her eyebrows expectantly. With that, she picked up her bag and led down the hall to pick out their bedrooms.
The next few days passed in a blur. Montgomery, Lily and Janis steered clear of Alejandro's room, where he could be heard typing away feverishly on his typewriter. They spent their first morning exploring the castle, which had its share of secret passageways. But they soon gave this up since the occasional doorway concealed behind a bookcase paled in comparison to the endless twists and turns of Hogwarts. And even those had lost their appeal to Montgomery years ago.
So they took instead to spending time in the castle's vast car garage, which had obviously been an add-on by Janis's eccentric grandmother. Several rows of motorcycles and spare parts filled the room, and Montgomery and Janis spent hours tinkering and doing test runs around the castle. Montgomery was very interested in the different parts of one Harley in particular, and began thinking up ways she could charm it into the air. Lily feigned interest at first, but ended up sitting on the floor catching up on homework most of the time.
Christmas came and went without incident. Mary sent Montgomery a letter a few days later, explaining that she had chosen a locket from the piles of presents and would bring them the rest of their loot upon returning to Hogwarts.
On the night before the girls were planning to leave, Montgomery braved Alejandro's room with a knock to retrieve Snuffles, who had not emerged at all during the holidays.
She heard a muffled shuffling of papers before Alejandro opened the door, holding a pencil between his teeth.
"Yeah…" he began.
"Montgomery," she said, rolling her eyes. "Or Monty. Whichever."
"Right," he said, opening the door wider and stepping aside. Montgomery walked past him and began looking around the room. The floor was completely hidden under several layers of half-finished pages. She saw a typewriter on the disheveled bed in the corner and let out a laugh.
"Muggles are so interesting," she said, shaking her head and looking at Alejandro with a smirk. He scratched his shoulder absently and quirked an eyebrow.
"Yeah yeah, we can't all be super cool wizards," he said, sighing. "I supposed you're here to break my heart?" Montgomery stared at him and he laughed. "You want the rabbit."
"If you don't mind," she said, holding out her hand. Alejandro shrugged his shoulders.
"I actually don't know where he is at the moment…"he said, trailing off and getting on his hands and knees to look under his bed.
Montgomery joined him and they slowly made their way around the room. As she picked up a few sheets of paper in her way, she heard Alejandro cough behind her.
"Um," he began. "I don't think you're old enough to read those," he said, laughing. "So don't get any ideas." Montgomery laughed and put the papers back on the floor behind her.
"Well I wasn't going to," she said. "But now I'm kind of curious." She picked up another pile of papers and pretended to peruse them with a shocked expression on her face. Alejandro lunged to knock them out of her hand, but slipped on his knees and landed on top of her instead. They both blushed.
"Sorry," he said, pushing off the ground quickly. "But you really shouldn't read them." Montgomery recovered quickly from the awkward moment and laughed.
"I wasn't really reading them, just teasing." He looked relieved. "I'm not much of a reader anyways," she said, continuing the search for Snuffles. "I'd rather experience things than read about them." Another awkward moment passed as they shuffled through the piles of smut, thinking about the double entendre. Finally, Alejandro let out a cry and stood up, a peanut butter jar in his hand. He reached in gently and pulled out Snuffles, who was looking significantly stickier and fatter than Montgomery remembered.
"Damn, I'm going to have to scourgify him when we get back to school," she said, taking him from Alejandro's hand. He raised a questioning eyebrow. "It's a cleaning charm."
"Why don't you just wash him off here?" he asked, rolling his eyes and grabbing Snuffles back from her before heading into the bathroom. Montgomery followed him and leaned against the doorframe as he filled the sink with warm water and began gingerly scrubbing the rabbit's peanut-butter colored fur. "All you wizard-raised people have forgotten how to do things without magic."
"I can do things just fine without magic," said Montgomery defensively. "It just doesn't come to mind at first." Alejandro's eyes concentrated on Snuffles, who was none too happy to be thrown into a sink and made several escape attempts among the bubbles.
"I heard you guys riding the bikes the other day," he said after a few minutes of silence. He looked at her reflection in the mirror. "If you get any good we should race sometime," he added with a smile, pulling Snuffles out of the water and towel drying him playfully. He placed the rabbit, who was looking extra fuzzy from the static of the towel, back into Montgomery's outstretched hand and walked passed her to sit on his bed. He pulled a fresh sheet of paper out of his desk and placed it into his typewriter before looking up at her with a smirk. Montgomery laughed softly and walked towards the door.
"I'll take that as my cue to leave," she said, pocketing Snuffles and closing the door behind her.
The girls flew back to Hogwarts the next day, without any goodbyes from Alejandro. But Janis kept up a tirade concerning his "trashy" novels for a good portion of the day. They fell asleep later that night and woke up in the midst of a blue fog that hinted at the approaching dawn. The carpet had landed on top of the East Tower, and they decided to climb in through a window and make their way towards their dorms for a hot shower before class.
"That was a good holiday," said Montgomery as they headed down to breakfast. "And it gave me a lot to think about." Lily and Janis looked at each other and laughed.
"Would that 'a lot' have something to do with Alejandro?" asked Janis with a knowing nod. Montgomery looked at her in surprise.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I saw you come out of his room the other night," said Lily, wiggling her eyebrows uncharacteristically. Montgomery rolled her eyes and sat down at the table.
As she began filling her plate with eggs she said, "You're starting to sound like James, Lily." The smirk slid off of Lily's face onto the floor.
"Oh please," she said, pouring herself some orange juice. "That stupid prat wouldn't know a romantic rendez vous if it smacked him in the face."
"And neither would you, apparently," said Montgomery, laughing and taking a bite of toast. "I was just getting Snuffles."
"Then how come you looked so flushed?" inquired Lily, recovering her smirk.
"I think your eyes are playing tricks on you," Montgomery replied, taking a sip from Lily's glass. "You just wanted me to look flushed because you think I'm hung up on Sirius." Lily and Janis exchanged a look. "Well, I'm not. I was just really annoyed at being used like that and it really bothered me for some reason." As she finished her eggs, she stood up and shouldered her bag. "And as far as what I have to think about, let's just say Hogwarts is about to be hit with some pranks the likes of which it's never seen before," she said with a smirk. Lily and Janis laughed and followed suit. The three of them began heading towards Potions and were soon joined by Severus.
"Hello, Lily," he said in a pleasant voice. "Good holiday?" She smiled at him and nodded.
Through all their classes that day, Montgomery had the distinct impression that Sirius was staring at her. But she couldn't be sure because every time she went to look, his head would jerk forward. That night, as she sat by the fire in the common room with a copy of Janis's Muggle Studies book in her lap, she contemplated whether or not she should confront him about it. But before she made up her mind, he wandered over and plopped down beside her.
"Hi Monty," he said hesitantly. "How was your break?"
"It was fine," she said, not looking up. "Janis taught me how to ride a motorcycle." She heard his quick intake of breath a looked up.
"You like motorcycles?" he said with a look of shock on his face.
"Yeah, it was a blast," she said, smiling. "In fact, I've gained a whole new appreciation for non-magical entertainment." She pointed to the book. Sirius looked at it and laughed.
"I didn't know you could read," he teased. Montgomery sighed.
"It's come and go, you know." A silence settled between them for a few minutes as Montgomery continued perusing the book.
"Um," he started, but was interrupted as Mary ran up to them with a small pile of presents in her hands.
"Hey Montgomery," she said, a bit breathless. "Here's your presents." Monty sat up and took the pile from the second-year with a smile.
"Did you enjoy yourself?" Montgomery asked with a knowing smirk. Mary laughed.
"You were not kidding about your parents," she said, playing with the locket around her neck. Montgomery noticed it seemed to catch Sirius's eye. "They were on top of me all holiday. Had a few close shaves with the potion, I'll have you know." Montgomery raised her eyebrows. "Well," continued Mary. "How was I supposed to know they would be waiting for me after showers and things? But not to worry," she said, seeing the look of distress on Montgomery's face, "They didn't suspect a thing." With that, she gave a friendly wave and skipped away.
"What was she doing with that locket?" said Sirius as soon as she was out of earshot. Montgomery stared at him.
"Oh, that must be the one she picked as her payment." Sirius quirked an eyebrow. "Well, me, Lily and Janis went to Spain for the holidays and I convinced Mary to take some Polyjuice Potion and pretend to be me for a couple weeks to appease my parents. We said she could have her pick of our presents and I guess she chose that. Why do you ask?" she said as she began unwrapping the small pile of presents Mary had delivered her.
"Well, I kind of meant that locket to go to you," he said after a minute. Montgomery dropped the half-opened bottle of lavender extract in her hand and looked at him with wide eyes. "You know, a sort of apology for being such a prick." Montgomery began to speak but he held up his hand. "It's fine though, all in the name of a good prank, right?" Without another word, he stood up and walked towards the boys' dorms, leaving Montgomery feeling very confused.