Thanks for the reviews, Sarah Liz B! :D

I obviously didn't publish Friday, I was recovering from DHp2. I enjoyed it, despite the fact that there was no Teddy or Victoire in the epilogue. :[

Anyway, I've been writing this for the last three days or so between other things. This was meant to be longer but I guess I'll split it into two or three chapters because I just really wanted to publish something today. I have a job audition Wednesday so my writing the next three days may not be as often.

Review, review, review! I've got exciting things planned. ;]

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANY OF THIS, EXCEPT FOR ANY CHARACTERS YOU DON'T RECOGNIZE. JK ROWLING IS JESUS!

CHAPTER 20

I spent the first half of the holidays with my parents, slowly going back to the routine life I had had before meeting Hisoka, and before going to Hogwarts. Though I loved having the time with my parents, I was completely miserable. I missed my weekly lessons, and the orchestra rehearsals. I missed wandering the forest with werewolf Remus, and doing magic. Above it all, I missed my friends…

But summer did have one certain advantage, I would see all of my childhood friends that didn't attend Hogwarts.

Audrey stepped into the familiar dance studio only to be tackled to the ground by a squealing mess of blonde and black hair.

"Hello!" Audrey laughed, shoving her two friends, Chantal and Teagan, off of her.

"When did you guys come home?" Audrey exclaimed hugging the two.

"I just came back from France last week." Chantal grinned, Audrey noticed she had gotten taller. Chantal was a veela that attended Beauxbatons.

"I came back two days ago." chirped Teagan, a banshee who had studied at a conservatory strictly for banshees in Finland.

"Nice and warm here, Teag?" Audrey smirked.

"Oh, it's like a sauna compared to Oulu." Teagan laughed.

They had arrived at the studio twenty minutes early to catch up as much as possible before Darcy, their teacher would arrive.

"She's going to work us into the ground you know." Teagan grumbled.

The other two nodded in agreement as their teacher entered the room. After two hours of an intense class, they started to cool down and stretch out. That was when they exchanged information about their year. Teagan had a major crush on a boy around their age from the vampire colony not far from her conservatory. Chantal had been hanging around Audrey's two older cousins, Hans and Peter. The stories she was told about her cousins vaguely reminded her of two Gryffindor boys that she loved, yet hated simultaneously.

When Audrey broke into details about James and Sirius, Chantal laughed.

"I remember you writing to me about those two, judging by your stories I reckon that Sirius bloke fancies you."

Teagan nodded in agreement and said. "He can't do all of that, be so cheeky, and not fancy you."

"He flirts with everything that moves, Teag!" Audrey exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. "I don't like him."

…Well, at least, I thought I didn't.

"Are you still corresponding with that gent from Russia?" Teagan asked suddenly.

"Sven? Of course, but he's one of my best-" Audrey began but Teagan cut her off.

"No! No! Not Sven, I know he's like your brother practically. The boy that's friends with Sven, the one a year older then us."

"Karl?" Audrey cocked her head. Teagan and Chantal nodded excitedly.

I had been corresponding with Karl Gregorovitch for a year at that point, we had had an interesting summer and he had asked me towards the end if he could write to me. I think he was my first definite crush, which had started the day I had gotten my wand at his grandfather's shop years prior. The first two summers after Hogwarts, he had been around Sven and I a lot and that's when this all developed. So I am sure you can imagine how much my excitement to get back to Russia was amplified because of him.

I told very few of my friends about him, and by very few I mean that I only told the girls, Severus, Remus, and Maksim. Telling James and Sirius things, well that never worked out well…and if I told Peter, he'd just go blabbering to the other two anyway.

"So you're going to see him in a few weeks?" Chantal prodded, a huge grin forming on the veela's face.

Audrey nodded.

"And what does the family think of him?" Teagan asked.

"Do they even know about him?" chimed in Chantal.

She laughed. "Yes! Yes! Our family has known the Gregorovitch family forever. They know of our little secret."

The girls giggled and Audrey continued. "And surprisingly, my father is completely fine about me writing to Karl."

The other two girls raised their eyebrows in shock, they knew how strict Isaac could be.

In the weeks that followed, we spent time exchanging whatever we had learned in our school's dance programs, as we had done the last few years. Our teacher Darcy found it funny that Chantal and I were intermixed with humans, who she had claimed were "silly" when it came to dance.

My father and mother still had the same summer routines as always, and I spent just as much time going off to carpentry jobs with my father as I did traveling to Banshee colonies around the countryside with my mother. If I've ever told you that I've felt like an outcast, I really felt like one whenever I visited a banshee colony. We all looked similar, black hair, with a lean yet curvy frame but I was the only one who wasn't green.

"Why is she not green?" A banshee some hundred feet away whispered to her companion.

"I don't know…it's so weird." said the other.

"I bet she's probably human." snorted the first one.

"I heard that." Audrey snarled. The two lost a bit of color.

"Oh look, the human has great hearing." said the first.

Audrey let her eyes glow from red to black. "Do I look human to you?" She sneered, cocking her head.

The two shook their heads and quickly walked away.

I always hated when that happened, I was either judged by my own for looking like a human or I was judged for not being a human. There was never any peace.

Finally, towards the end of July, I woke up and got ready for the train ride to St. Petersburg.

"Hello, Fiona." said a familiar, raspy voice.

Yuri, the werewolf conductor, stood behind her. Audrey grinned.

"Nice to see you again, Mr. Conductor." She curtsied.

"Oh please, call me Yuri. Mr. Conductor is too official." He barked a laugh.

I filled Yuri in on my year at school, as always. He always seemed so amused by my stories of the marauders and running around the forest with Remus. You can imagine my shock when he turned and said to me…

"I think you're going to marry Sirius." He said suddenly.

Audrey's face contorted into an odd expression, it went from shock, to confusion, to looking like she was about to vomit.

"Yuri!" Audrey said, hitting his arm. "How could you say such a thing? You've never met him!"

"Trust me, Audrey. I just know these things." Yuri replied, a mysterious glint in his eyes.

I wanted to hit him, I remember. Why was everyone saying that? It couldn't possibly be…Sirius Black and I were at two ends of a spectrum. Completely opposite. He was a git, and I was considerate.

Denial is always the first step.

Audrey said her goodbye to Yuri, and got off the train. She looked around the crowded station for a familiar face, her grandmother always came to meet her at the train station. It was safer for her family, she never knew why, but her grandfather and great uncle seldom showed themselves around the great city.

She bit her lip, worrying when she couldn't find anyone.

"You're so cute when you're confused." said a familiar voice.

Audrey turned around and laughed. "Karl!"

He grinned sheepishly and held his arms out for a hug, spinning her around a few times. She giggled.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, kissing him on the cheek.

"Getting you from the train station of course." He smirked, picking up her bags for her. "Your grandparents sent me."

"Quite bizarre. Have they grown lazy on me?" She asked, poking him as they began to walk through the crowd..

"No, but Sven and I bothered them relentlessly, we wanted to know when you'd be arriving." Karl said, taking her hand and lacing it with his free one.

"Oh really? Where is Sven?" Audrey asked.

"Right here!" said a voice popping from nowhere behind them, making Audrey jump.

"Sven!" Audrey scolded, but then laughed when he made a face.

The three set out walking through the city. The couldn't apparate and didn't have a portkey, they had no choice.

"So how was Durmstrangle?" Audrey raised an eyebrow, looking at the two boys.

"Suffocating." Sven replied cleverly.

"I swear the guys there get dumber and more gullible each year." Karl sighed, shaking his head.

"Practicing dark magic on first years, carving Grindelwald's symbol into their arms like they're something fuckin' special." Sven spat, annoyed just thinking about it.

"They seem dim, from what you both have told me in your letters." Audrey reasoned, they nodded. "Dim like some of the boys in my school."

Audrey remembered the Quidditch final this past year, Slytherin vs. Gryffindor. Marcus Flint had hexed Sirius' broom, he was thrown from it and nearly died. James was hit with an unidentifiable curse that made him bleed profusely, but he was stubborn and still wanted to finish out the game. Gryffindor ended up winning by ten points.

"Like that Quidditch final?" Karl asked, looking at her.

I could have melted in Karl's eyes…they were a strange mix of blue and green.

"Yeah." Audrey replied, snapping out of her trance. "Two of our players nearly died, and it was so painfully obvious that the Slytherin team had hexed them, but of course they didn't receive penalty"

"It always seems the worst people never are caught." Karl mused, as they approached the gate of St. Aleksander's palace.

"Are you guys coming in?" She asked, looking at the two.

They shook their heads and Sven spoke. "No, I don't need to hear your grandfather and great uncle give Karl the speech for the thousandth time."

Audrey giggled, and looked at the two. "Are you serious?"

"I'm pretty sure I can recite it to you by heart." Sven said triumphantly.

"I'd love to hear it later then." Audrey said, giving Sven a funny look and laughing. "Are we meeting for dinner?"

The boys nodded.

"We'll meet in the square." Karl said, his eyes lighting up.

"Excellent." She replied, smiling. Sven sniggered at something, she shot him a look…she'd ask him what his problem was later.

She entered St. Aleksander's palace with the usual greetings. She was surprised to see her grandparents sitting together in the study, reading. It wasn't as though the two were ever on bad terms with each other, but they usually liked to go off and do their own things within the house. At least from what Audrey knew.

They were reading and whispering in low, barely audible, urgent voices. Audrey could only hear half of what they were saying.

"Edik, she has to know! Isaac hasn't told her yet…"

"I know! I know!" Edik snapped. "Anastasia, the time…she's not ready to know this yet…it's too much to bear for her…she is still so young."

"Edik, if we don't tell her soon, she may never know! And we don't know if anyone else knows outside of the circle…"

"We have nothing to fear, Anastasia. I promise you." Edik said.

Audrey felt awkward outside of the door and decided to knock, snapping the two out of their conversation. Their smiles weren't forced when they saw her, something Audrey would have expected after such an odd conversation.

I was so confused at the time, but I knew better than to question them about it. I don't know how they would react if they had known I was listening.

"Audrina." Edik grinned, standing up and wrapping his granddaughter in a tight hug. "Always the last to arrive for the summer, but the saying is that they do save the best for last."

Audrey laughed.

"Hey! She by far isn't the best!" said Hans, Audrey's older cousin strutting into the room. "She couldn't play Quidditch to save her life, Papa."

"That is true." said Peter, poking his head into the room.

"Oh shut it, you two." Audrey swiped her hand, a nearby book levitated and flung itself at them with great force.

"Ooooh a book! So scary!" Hans waved his arms, Audrey's eyes turned yellow and the boys set off down the hallway, she kissed her grandparents both on the cheek and ran after them, laughing.

Anastasia shot Edik a look, a look that he knew well.

"Let her wait, let her enjoy herself and be carefree now." Edik gestured to his three grandchildren, distant blurs running down the hall.