Disclaimer: I own nothing, except for my character Jenaya Potter
CHAPTER TWENTY
thoughts´
"talking English"
°°Vampire language, also called Vampiric Mot°°
House-elf language, also called Gaëla
# Language of the Werewolves, also called Grawl #
/Language of the Goblins, also called Gobbledegook/
§ Centaur language, also called Starwan §
Written language
LAST CHAPTERFred let out a laugh. "Wow that´s great. You can help me with my NEWT´s!"
Smiling Jenna cuffed him on the head. "You can do it yourself buddy. I´m only a fourth yearstudent remember?"
"Maybe I can blackmail her into it or bribe.." Fred mused to himself.
Jenna only rolled her eyes. She noticed the Centaurs come closer again and only now did she recognise the other two with Denaro. The two blond Centaurs were called Faramo and Danze. They were the usual Centaur, quiet and introspective unless with their foals.
Preparing herself for a strange conversation at this clash of two cultures, Jenna put on her brightest smile. A small voice in the back of her head told her this must be the feeling of the boyfriend meeting the parents, only with two boyfriends and ´parents´ who understood and approved of very little in the wizarding world. Yes this would be very interesting indeed.
With a big swoosh, five people returned to the Weasley lands. This time, Bill managed to stay on his feet with Jenna, but the others fell once again.
Jenna giggled at them. She felt so much lighter than before. Her closest friends knew her secret and they didn´t mind. They had sworn an oath of silence after Denaro´s friend, Faramo had implied the Weasley´s would betray Jenna. Faramo in particular had a bad opinion of the wizaring world and wasn´t pleased with meeting the redheads. He seemingly disregarded the fact that Jenna wasn´t a true Centaur and took personal offense that she had chosen two wizarding mates.
Fred had almost blown up at the idea that somebody accused him of betraying his girlfriend, but Bill, ever the practical one had averted a crisis by suggesting the oaths. That had mollified Faramo somewhat and the rest of the conversation had been tense, but polite.
A swish with her wand and a muttered spell showed Jenna that they only had half an hour until dinner. "Get up lazybones! We need to hurry. Dinner starts in thirty minutes and I still have to change."
George smirked. "Never thought you to be vain, love."
Jenna blushed embarrassed. "The Potters will see it as an insult to your family if I don´t show up all dressed up. I really want to avoid trouble tonight if I can." Looking down she muttered. "Besides I want to make a good impression on your parents."
Charlie shot his little brother a glare for making her so uncomfortable. George winced and then tried to cover up his mistake by smiling brightly. "Alright then. If we hurry, you´ll make it in time. Let´s go!"
They hurried back to the house and easily slipped in. Lily Potter shot a disapproving look at her daughter when said girl shot up the stairs to her rooms. With a sigh she apologised to her companion. "I´m so sorry Molly. I just don´t know what to do with her. She shows no respect at all for her superiors."
Mrs Weasley covered her surprise at the words. In the time the girl had been in her house she had been unfailingly polite, even with the less than friendly welcome. With an uneasy smile she answered. "She´s only a child Lily. Children don´t know any better."
James Potter, who had overheared the conversation, growled. His face grew dark when he commented. "That´s no excuse. She should know better." Lily nodded her agreement with a scowl on her face.
The Weasley parents exchanged nervous glances at the anger both Potters projected. In an attempt to change the topic of conversation, Mr Weasley asked about how Galen was settling in in Hogwarts. At once both of the Potter´s faces cleared of the anger and they began to explain happily how their son had befriended so many and was doing so well in his classes.
The Weasley parents breathed a sigh of relief.
Upstairs Jenna reverently took her dress out of her trunk. It was a gorgeous shimmering, darkred piece of work. Madame Malkin had made this especially for her as a gift for finally going to Hogwarts and today would be the first time Jenna wore it.
The dress had long sleeves which flowed out by her hands. A loop was on the inside to put her thumb through, so the sleeve would cling to her arm nicely. The upper part of the dress was tight again her skin but the lower part flowed out and swirled around as if ruffled by a gentle breeze.
Jenna smiled as she looked at herself in the mirror. She looked like a princess from a fairytale, a person from one of the stories she used to imagine to make her feel a little less alone. But now she no longer needed her fantasy for that, she had friends and that thought alone made her nearly glow in happiness.
She adjusted the angelnecklace so it hung in the small of her throat and removed her fingerless gloves. Tonight she wouldn´t need the extra protection they provided. Instead of her combat boots, Jenna chose her black sandals with high heels. She pinned her hair up and let a few locks fall out to frame her face.
"Ok." Jenna took a deep breath, ran her eyes over her reflection one last time and nodded. "Ok, I can do this. James can´t hurt me, Lily can´t hurt me, Galen can´t hurt me. I´m gonna have a great night and make the Weasley parents love me." Nodding decisevely again as she finished her little peptalk, Jenna let go of the breath. Time to face the parents.
Jenna came down the stairs carefully. She had worn high heels before, but it was always a chore. Fred stood at the bottom of the stairs, grinning up at her maniacally. "Wow kitten. You look absolutely stunning."
With a smile she reached her boyfriend and took his offered arm. "You don´t look too bad yourself. I thought you didn´t want to change for dinner?" Jenna asked, motioning to the formal black slacks and the white dress-shirt.
Fred grinned bashfully. "Couldn´t let you be the one to steal the spotlight, now could I?"
Mrs Weasley was the first to notice them as they entered the dining room. Her eyes filled with proud tears at seeing her boy so grown up. She had to admit the two made a striking pair, and they would look even better with George at Jenna´s other side. "Oh you two look wonderful."
Her outburst brought everyone´s attention to the new arrivals. Bill and Charlie were already there, both dressed in somewhat formal clothing. They nodded appreciatively and Bill leered at Jenna cheekily. She didn´t react but for the small twitch in her lips and the slightly rosy colour in her cheeks.
Ron and Ginny looked from Jenna´s custom made dress to their own secondhand clothes. An unpleasant expression passed Ginny´s face, while Ron grew steadily more red. He exploded just as the rest of the Potters walked into the room. "You snob. You think you´re so much better than us, flashing with your fancy clothes. Well guess what, nobody wants you so why don´t you just sodd off!"
He would have gone on if not for the outraged outcry of Mrs Weasley. "Ronald Billius Weasley, how dare you insult a guest like that?" The redhead wilted under the glare and scuttled to his seat after shooting one more dirty look in Jenna´s way.
Jenna didn´t even notice the look, too caught up in her parent´s reactions. James soothed the still angry Mrs Weasley. "Don´t worry about it Molly. Let´s not ruin this night because of some childish stunt." His eyes never strayed from Jenna´s as he spoke and it was clear to her who he blamed. And who would be punished.
Lily looked irritated at the attention Jenna had drawn to herself and tried to lead the conversation away from her troublesome daughter. To her it was always best to keep the girl as far away as possible and give her absolutely no attention. If the girl saw nobody cared about her stupid stunts, she would stop eventually. With a deep snif and an exaggerated happy face, Lily asked. "What have you made for us Molly? It smells absolutely heavenly."
Miserable that it had already started out so badly, Jenna avoided Fred´s worried gaze and sat down at the table. She tried not to see the smug Galen, who had witnessed his father´s words and knew what they meant.
George joined the table soon afterwards, dressed like Fred. He slid onto his seat, his eyes gliding from the happily chatting people to his quiet girlfriend. It didn´t take him long to reach the correct conclusion about what had happened. With an unaudiable sigh of regret he reached for Jenna´s hand under the table. His thoughts drifted as he tried to ignore Percy droning on about his Head Boy duties and he shook his head sadly. ´What a great start of the Christmas evening!´
After dinner Galen and Ron were the first to charge into the livingroom towards the pile of presents. The other people in the dining room hadn´t even left the table yet. In their haste the two boys failed to notice the malicious glint in Fred´s eyes as his gaze followed their retreat. Just before they reached their destination they bounced off an invisible shield around the entire area of the tree. Dazedly they got up from the floor where they had fallen down and scowled fiercely. They didn´t notice yet that their scowls weren´t as effective now that they had deer antlers on their heads and their noses were red.
Mr Weasley sighed and shot a tired look at his twin-sons. He waved his wand to remove the spells, and the shield before the younger boys noticed they had been pranked. It worked in time, but Mr Weasley didn´t notice George grinning as he put his magical camera back into his pocket. He would make sure that particular picture circulated the halls of Hogwarts in no time.
"Come on everyone. We can sit around the tree. I think it would be best for everyone to accio their own presents and then we can all unwrap them at the same time. I don´t want to keep the kids waiting for each other, that would take too long." Mrs Weasley looked around to see if everyone agreed.
As she received nods from all directions, she sat down and called her own presents to herself. That got the others moving and for a few minutes the air was filled with packages flying through the air of the small livingroom. To her surprise, Jenna saw a fair amount of wrapped boxes flying towards her after her accio-spell. It held no candle to the veritable mountain Galen was gloating over, but it was more than she had expected.
With a discreet flick of her wand, Jenna set up a notice-me-not and silencing bubble over herself, Fred, George, Bill and Charlie. Many of the gifts would undoubtably be from people she didn´t want to explain to the ones outside the wards. Bill sat up straight when he felt the magic tingle along his skin. He easily recognised the spells and shot Jenna an approving smile, before turning to his own gifts.
With her eyes shut Jenna grabbed her first present to open. It was a small flat package wrapped in red paper. She opened it and laughed quietly as she saw what she had received. A framed wizardingphoto showed Vivian and a greenhaired boy as they made the most outrageous faces at the camera.
It came with a small note.
Hey J,
Merry Christmas! The boy in the picture is called Tup. He´s from the Silverfoot pack and he´s a blast to have around. When I told him about you needing a cheering up picture, because looking at Galen all day must be horribly depressing, he insisted we should start practicing our ´scary faces´. This is the result. :D
Tup really wants to meet you, so maybe we can arrange something soon? I already introduced him to my parents and the pack. They have expressed their blessing for our Mating. I know he´s the one, J. It´s a wonderful feeling to know I´ve found him. Our Matingceremony won´t be for another year, but you´ll be there, right?
Anyway, sorry for not writing so long. I think you understand why now.
Love,
Viv
Jenna grinned. That was so like Viv, blunt and to the point. Peering again into the picture for a closer look at ´Tup´, Jenna nodded satisfied. He looked like a nice boy, but she would reserve her final decision for when she met him.
With a smile she picked her next present. It was from Mapplegob. To her amusement it was another book on how to best handle accounts and invest money. He had gotten her one every year, hoping to get her more interested in his job. Jenna always dutifully skimmed through the books, but couldn´t quite bring up the same enthousiasm as her Goblin father when it came to matters of money. Besides, the texts were very, very dry to read.
Xele gifted her with a new dagger and a small note describing a new barfight she had been in.
A box of sextoys from Umara and Mella had her blushing so fiercely George became quite interested in the gift. When he wasn´t allowed to see it he remarked. "At least tell me who it is from."
Jenna glanced around to see if anyone was listening, before she remembered her silencing wards.
With a small sigh she leaned in and said softly. "My Veela friends."
George´s gaze heated up and his mouth curled in a knowing smile. "I see."
After that Jenna kept her gaze away from the redhead and dug back into her presents with vigor. Unfortunately the next gift was a book from Alpha Grahm about Mating and the proper customs of introducing the Mates to the pack. Jenna stuffed it out of sight with a warning glance at a quietly snickering George. To Jenna´s relief the next one was a scarf made by Frazzel, Dobby, Mipsy and Tinky. It was so brightly coloured that Jenna was certain she would never wear it, but the idea was sweet.
The next present, a small tin with birdfood puzzled her, until Jenna read the note. With a smile she set the tin aside. Fred looked at her with a frown. "From who?"
Jenna thrust the note into Fred´s waiting hands and proceeded to rip the paper of the next present. Fred arched an eyebrow and read the short note.
We will complete your animagustransformation when you return.Master
Jenna explained without waiting for the question. "He only allowed me to do parts until now. But I´ve got feathers so I´ll probably be a bird of some sorts." She shook her head in amusement. "Leave it to him to suddenly develop a sense of humor instead of buying a normal present. I don´t think I will ever understand that man."
From her Sire she received a very precious gift. He sent a tiny vial with ten drops of Sire´s blood. To the Vampire Childe that Jenna was, Sire´s blood was the ultimate healing and strenghtening potion. These ten drops could made the difference in a life or death situation. With a reverent sweep of her wand, the vial was unbreakable and it slid easily into pile of unwrapped gifts.
With only a few gifts left, Jenna took her time to savor them. She had already seen there was no gift from Draco, and while she was a bit sad, it wasn´t really a surprise. Jenna only hoped he would react well to her own gift.
As she picked up a plain box with holes on the upside she saw Charlie nudge Bill and give her a smile. She didn´t need to read the card who it was from. Still it wouldn´t hurt to look.
Hey imp,
We decided you needed an imp of your own, so here he is. When he comes out of the box, make sure you are the first to touch him. He will see you as his mistress then and turn into your favorite colour. Not sure why that is, though.
Love
Bill and CharlieHer curiosity peeked, Jenna carefully opened the box and peered inside. In the box was a small animal, the size and shape of a tabletennis ball. He was white and fluffy with two little antenna on his head. He had big black eyes, no nose or mouth and two flat feet that were nearly as big as the rest of his body.
The little animal looked back with just as much curiosity as Jenna showed and he skipped forward. Jenna held out her hand and the little ball of fluff jumped into it without any hestitation.
Immediately the white colour stated to shimmer and turned to a fiery red. It wasn´t the same colour as the Weasley hair, but instead a darkred that blended over in a lightred, almost yellow colour. In short it looked like the poor little thing was on fire.
The beastie apparantly didn´t mind and squeaked happily with the new colour. Then he alternately waggled and skipped its way up Jenna´s arm. On her shoulder he settled and squeaked again in apparant joy. How he could squeak was a mystery for Jenna though, as he had no mouth. Eyes wide open in astonishment, Jenna turned to an amused Bill and Charlie.
"What the hell is it?"
Bill grinned. "That is a Wuppy. There very sweet animals, very loyal. Because they hardly have any way to defend themselves, they bond with a Master or in your case a Mistress. In return for protection they sense around for possible danger. They get jittery when they fear a threat to their owner, so they are quite good to have around as a warning system."
Charlie interrupted. "That´s not why we bought him though. We thought you ought to have a pet and this one was just perfect. We know you couldn´t take a pet before, because you couldn´t look after it properly." He shot an angry look at the oblivious Potters. After a bit of explanation from the twins he had understood why Jenna didn´t dare to buy a pet. Forcing his face into a pleasant expression again he continued. "But this one doesn´t take up much space and all he needs is a little water every day to bathe his antenna in. He´s not very noticable either."
Jenna raised a disbelieving eyebrow and looked pointedly at the fiery creature. Charlie winced and added sheepishly. "Yes, well we hadn´t quite counted on that particular colour." Amending his words quickly he added. "But it is still a small animal and not likely to be seen if you hide him in your robes." Jenna didn´t look convinced but let it go for the moment.
Fred amused himself by sticking out a finger to stroke the little guy. Apparantly he wasn´t considered a threat, because all the beastie did was squeak and hop closer to the finger. "What are you gonna call him, kitten?"
"Hmm." Jenna looked at the little creature and his strange colouring. "I don´t know why, but his name is Izzy. He just looks like an Izzy. What do you think? You like it?" She asked the animal.
He squeaked in response and Jenna smiled. "Izzy it is."
After a few minutes of playing with the small fireball, George nudged Jenna. "You can play with him later. Open our gift now, go on!"
Bill and Charlie leaned a bit closer, curious about the gift that the twins had been so nervous about. In Diagon Alley Fred and George had gone off to buy something for their girlfriend and refused to tell what they had found, no matter how much bribes Bill and Charlie offered. Charlie had seen his little brothers were a bit unsure about their gift though as had Bill. The two oldest Weasley brothers had a hunch what it could be and now they would find out if they were right.
With a laugh Jenna grabbed her last gift and opened the small box. Two nearly identical rings glowed back at her. They were black, with silvercoloured Celtic runes on them. The only difference between the two rings was that one of them had an ingraved letter ´F´ and the other a magnificent ´G´.
Speechless Jenna looked at her boyfriends. "Is..are y..I mean." She stuttered.
Fred took out the ´F´-ring and held it out. "This is a promise ring, Jen. This is my promise to stay with you and one day ask for your hand in bonding. Will you wear my ring and accept my promise?"
Lightheaded with joy Jenna nodded and felt Fred slip the ring on her lefthand ringfinger. From her other side George called out softly. "Love, look at me."
She turned and saw him with the other ring ready. "My promise joins my brother´s. Your present was to bare your deepest secret to us. Mine is to promise you I will guard it and guard you for the rest of my life. Will you wear my ring and accept my promise?"
"Yes." Jenna had finally gotten her voice back, though her hands still shook as George slid the ring with the sparkling G´on her righthand ringfinger. He placed a kiss on her trembling hand and smiled gently.
"Thank you."
Bill and Charlie exchanged amused glances as Jenna pulled her boys into heated kisses of thanks and promise. They had guessed the gift right.
END CHAPTER TWENTY
N.B. About wuppies. I got the idea from the stuffed animal mascottes that look the same in real life as in my description in the story, only obviously in the real world they are not alive. Dutch readers will undoubtably know of what I´m speaking as they were EVERYWHERE with the word cup festivities. I don´t know if they exist in other countries (My friend Lady-LunaPotter didn´t recognise them, so they aren´t well known in her part of Sweden at least.) It doesn´t really matter, but I have ALWAYS wanted one of my wuppies to suddenly spring to life (they really are very cute).
Thanks for all the reviews. I´m sorry it took a while before I could post this chappie, but I´m quite busy at the moment. Still, your encouragement keeps me working at the story. :D