I woke up the next morning to my cousin Frankie, pounding on the door. I threw my pillow in that general direction, but missed, and told her to go away. It got quiet so I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.

After a minute I heard muffled voices on the other side of the door. One was Frankie's and the other I thought was Padfoot's. After a few seconds they stopped and I heard foot steps going down the stairs.

There was a soft knock at the door. "I told you to go away!" I grumbled.

"It's me." Grandma Kate said from the other side of the door. I sighed and threw my legs over the side of the bed. I took a second to find the t-shirt I wore the day before, and opened the door.

"What's up?" I asked, my voice groggy.

"You have visitors, Elinor dear."

"The house if full of visitors, can you be more specific?"

"I believe it's that Dan boy and his brother and lovely blonde girl." I sighed deeply. Yup, Cassie is just like Lily, nice to everyone but me.

"Alright, tell um' I'll be down in a minute." She smiled brightly at me.

"All right dear." She said as she turned to leave. Once she was gone I closed the door and hit my head against the door frame repeating STUPID! Over and over again. I had totally forgotten about Dan and them, after everything that happened yesterday. He was probably going to be pissed. Especially if Cassie said anything about it. I used my sore, red forehead to push off the door, and set to the task of finding clothes.

I picked out a black short sleeve shirt, and a pair of blue jeans. I threw my long red, red hair into a high, tight pony-tail and was ready to go.

Dan, Mark, Cassie, and Sirius were sitting in the living room. Sirius and Dan were glaring at each other from opposite ends of the couch. Cassie sat between them, her hand slowly gliding over Padfoot's right arm. Mark sat on the other side of the room in the recliner that I fell asleep in last night. Someone must have switched the chairs back this morning.

Mark jumped up as soon as I entered the room. "Thank god you're here. I thought they were going to kill each other." He exclaimed. The boys turned away from each other and looked at me, just happy to see me, Cassie glared and placed her hand on Padfoot's knee. Although he ignored her.

I knew she was just trying to get a rise out of me, even knowing that I couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy. I mentally shook it off, forcing myself to smile.

Dan looked at me and scowled. "Where were you yesterday?" He asked accusingly. I shrugged.

"We had a mishap on the way over there."

"What kind of mishap?" He sounded suspicious.

"The kind where I fall of my horse." He shot up from the couch, all done being suspicious of me and was now very worried.

"What happened?" He asked as he was walking towards me. "You're not hurt are you?" I shrugged.

"Majesty must have gotten spooked by a snake or something."

"Are you OK?" He asked again. I nodded.

"Twisted my ankle a bit but I'm alright now." He nodded and excepted my story. A quick look at Mark told me he knew it was a load of shit.

Dan was asking me for the third time if I was alright when Frankie called down the stairs.

"Ellie, where are you!" She sounded like she was about to have a fit. Then she bound down the stairs. Dan froze. For the past 3 years she has had a crush on Dan, I knew part of him loved the attention but the other part hated it.

"There you are Ellie." She said as she came into the room. She looked around, said hi to Dan, more out of politeness then anything else, when she saw him and gave a dark look to Cassie. She now had a big crush on Sirius.

She marched over to them and sat, half on each of them, wiggling in between them, wearing a triumphant smile. Cassie scowled down at her, but smiled brightly when Frankie looked at her. I started to laugh, but covered it up with a fake cough.

"Hey El, can you show me where the bathroom is?" I nodded.

"Yea, come on." I said and started walking towards the hall.

"What really happened yesterday?" He asked once we were outside the bathroom door.

"I fell." I said

"I don't believe you, first, you haven't fallen in years, second, Majesty doesn't spook that easily."

I shrugged. "Well she did."

He looked at me long and hard for a moment. "If your lying tell me now and I promise I won't get mad."

I sighed. "I promise I'm telling the truth, I have no reason to lie." Which I guess isn't true but that's all he's getting. He started at me for a few seconds then nodded, and closed the bathroom door. I left and went back in to the living room.

When I walked in I could only stare. Gezz, they all seemed to want to kill each other!

Frankie somehow managed to be draped over both of the boys, her head by Sirius her legs on Dan. She was smiling sweetly at Cassie who was being pushed to the end of the couch by Frankie's feet. The boys were sitting pretty close, Sirius at one end, Dan in the middle and Cassie being pushed off the other end. Of course they were glaring at each other, not even seeming to notice Frankie.

Hmm….I think I'll keep Frankie around for a while.

"Anyone up for a ride?" I asked as I regained my senses.

"Yea, we were going to show you Mark's Tattoo shop yesterday, we can go today if you want to?" Dan suggested.

"Yea, I'd love to." I said excitedly.

"Love to what?" My aunt Monica asked suspiciously, as she walked into the living room. Frankie immediately sat up straight in between the two boys. I could tell by the look on Monica's face she was trying very hard not to laugh at her daughter.

"Go get a tattoo. Come on Mark." I said, as he had just walked up behind my aunt. Then I turned around and left before anyone could say anything.

I was halfway down the front stairs when Mark caught up with me. He grabbed my arm to stop me. "El, I can't give you a tattoo with out a parents permission." I sighed.

"If I had a parent I would get permission but I don't, so I can't, so I won't." I told him

The boys and Cassie, and Frankie caught up with us then.

"Can I come too Ellie?" Frankie asked hopefully. I glanced at her then Cassie, well she could come in handy. I thought to myself.

"Fine but don't you dare tell anyone." I warned pointing a finger at her. She nodded and smiled brightly, just happy she got to come.

"El, I can really get in a lot of trouble for this." I raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"Since when did you care if you got in trouble, what happened to the whole 'not letting the man get you down' thing?" Mark laughed a little.

"I guess considering the circumstances, I'll let it slide this time."

When we got to the tattoo parlor it was empty, Mark said the rest of the guys were already on Christmas vacation. Mark went into a back room while everyone else looked around at some designs on the wall, I didn't need to. I already knew what I wanted.

After a few minutes Mark came out and asked me if I knew what I wanted. I nodded. "Alright then come with me." He said leading me to the room in the back. "So what are we doing?" He asked, pulling on a pair of latex gloves.

"A paw print with claw marks above it."

"Nice choice."

Do you think you could make it look more feline?" He thought about it for a minute.

"Yea. Where do you want it?" I touched the left side of my chest, above my heart.

"Above my heart."

"Ellie, you really shouldn't do this." Frankie protested. I hadn't even noticed they followed us back here.

"Like hell she shouldn't." Dan and Sirius said at the same time. I ignored them.

"Uh, are you sure El, you uh, have to take off your shirt." He said nervously.

I smiled. "Chill, I trust you its ok." He smiled

"Alright then sit down right her, he pointed to a chair that looks kink of like the kind in dentist offices. He did something with the ink then looked up. "Guys. Out."

"Why do we have to leave?" Dan protested as he left the room.

"Because I have to take off my shirt."

"Well why else do you think we want to stay?" Sirius teased.

"Out." I told him firmly. The boys left, followed by Cassie. Frankie looked from me to the door, them back to me. "Go ahead." I told her and she hurried out the door, closing it behind her.

Getting the tattoo hurt, but what do you expect, a tiny needle is puncturing your body over and over again? Although the end result was totally worth it, now I have a pretty feline black paw print and red claw marks right over my hear.

They all wanted to see it, but I told them they would have to wait, otherwise I would have to take my shirt off. Besides, it was still bleeding, so they would have to wait till it looked nicer.

Around two, Dan and Mark had to go leave, so we went back to my grandparent's house. I stopped dead in my tracks as soon as I walked into my grandparents' living room. Ignoring Sirius's pleading to see my tattoo.

"Ah Miss Washington." A familiar voice said from the couch

"What are you doing here?" I snapped.

"Elinor! That is no way to talk to our guest. Mr. Kipton is here to talk to you about your incident yesterday." Grandma Kate said. "Now sit down." She tapped the couch next to her. I eyed the man suspiciously for a moment before I sat down. Padfoot stood behind me.

"So what did happen yesterday?" Mr. Kipton asked. I took a deep breath.

"We were going into town." I pointed over my shoulder to Sirius. "We were going to going to meet some friends of mine. The horses had been acting weird all morning. We were just off of the property when I heard a popping sound and a guy with snakish eyes appeared out of nowhere. I got thrown off my horse, then the guy pointed his wand at my head. Sirius knocked him over, but the guy sent him flying into a tree and he got knocked out. When the guy sat up he pointed his wand at my head again, them my horse hit him in the head with her hooves and he disappeared.

Mr. Kipton nodded his head. "Anything strange happen today?" I shook my head. "What about you?" He looked past me to Sirius. "Was anything left out?" I think he shook his head, because I didn't hear him say anything.

Mr. Kipton sighed and put his head in his hands. "Do you know who it was?" Grandpa Alex asked. The man was quite for a minute. "Voldmort." He said in a hushed voice.