Anthem
By Serendipity

Author's Note: PHYSICAL FITTNESS SUCKS MAJORLY! AND FOR SOME REASON I CAN NOT STOP SNEEZING! But I do have a three day weekend, which means a lot of typing, even though I have tons of homework! That's not due till Tuesday, but that's not the point, the point is that my legs hurt! I get doughnuts in school tomorrow! FIELD TRIP! Um, sorry. I have no clue what's going to happen in this chapter, therefore I have nothing to write here, so I'm just rambling. I'll just leave now.

Disclaimer: I'm BACK! Well, just to tell you that I don't own anything that you may recognize. Now, on with the story!

Another Author's Note: HaHa, you thought that you were really going to get on with the story huh? Well I wrote all of that up there yesterday and here's what I have to say today. The field trip rocked, the doughnuts were good, I stopped sneezing, but my leg still hurts. So do my abs. Anywho, as much as I love this story, I think that after I get done with this chapter I'm going to take at least a couple days off of it. I've been really angsty the past couple of days and I'm getting in trouble for it. My mom tried grounding me for not zipping up my coat this morning.

Chapter Three

Jumper

One would think that after spending seventeen years apart from each other, a father and son would have oodles to talk about; however, that is not the case with Harry and I. We spent the past couple of days with Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron, and when we are alone together, we don't talk. I know that he want's to; that he's plotting out conversations in his head, but none must be very good, if he hasn't said more than two words to me the whole three days that I have been here. And this day was just like the others.

It was a Saturday morning and Harry and I were quietly eating cereal in his small (but cool looking) dining room. Harry mentioned something about the weather and I grunted in my cereal. That was as far as conversation ever got with us. Then we received three very unexpected visitors.

"How's the father/son bonding going?" the playful banter of a teenage male voice called out from the living room.

"Oh, no, don't tell me that they're out of school already!" Harry mumbled, turning the page of the Morning Prophet (he was on the cover as usual). I looked over my shoulder, wondering which one of my many cousins (and I do have a lot) decided to stop by. My question was answered when three redheaded sixteen-year-olds walked into the dining room. They were Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione's eldest children, better known as 'The Triplets'.

I guess I should give you a brief description of 'The Triplets'. 'The Triplets' consists of two boys, Tristen and Tove, and a girl, Tatum. They are only two and a half months younger than I am. They live in England and attend Hogwarts (I finally got that name down), and from what I hear, they're pretty damn good wizards too. Though I've never seen any of them perform wand magic seeing as they're only allowed to use their wands in school.

Tristen is the oldest of the three. He's an inch or so taller than I am, and he keeps his red locks gelled down to his forehead. He's the brains of the outfit, and is usually calmer than the other two though he has been known to have little outbursts of hyperactivity every now and then.

Tatum is next in chronological order. She is two inches shorter than I am and she has darker red hair than her brothers' and her hair is long and wavy. Tristen is the brains and she is the bait. It is easy enough for her to lore unsuspecting males (other than me and other males who are related to her) into her brother's brilliant pranks. She is really bubbly and outgoing though she can be quiet too.

Quiet is something that Tove, the youngest of the three, is not. He's a bounce of the walls, in your face kind of guy. Even though he and Tristen look similar, they are not completely identical, but if you have problems...Tove spikes his red hair. I get along with Tove the best, mainly because he reminds me of, well, me.

Presently, Tove draped an arm around Harry.

"What are you three doing here so damn early in the morning?" Harry asked jokingly.

"We're here to take Hayden to Diagon Alley, to get his wand!" replied Tove.

"I don't want one," I said immediately. The four of them stared at me like I was insane.

"Of course you do," said Harry before turning back to Tove, "But still why so early in the morning?"

Tove shrugged.

"Walking around Diagon Alley is exercise, and I need to exercise in the morning before my brain realizes what I'm doing," he replied.

The others laughed, but I just glared. They were acting like I wasn't even in the room! 'Of course you do?' How dare Harry tell me that! If I don't want a damn wand, then I don't want a damn wand! I felt someone watching me. It was Tristen. He was leaning on the wall with his hands in his pockets observing me closely.

"I don't think that he wants to go," Tristen told the others.

"Why wouldn't he?" Tatum asked, helping herself to a banana.

"Because I don't want to be here!" I yelled, getting up from the table so quickly that the chair fell behind me. A nearby window broke. That has been happening a lot lately.

Harry winced. Damnit! Why do I have to feel sorry for him right at this minute? Don't back down Hayden, you may get to go home.

Tove and Tatum looked shocked. Their turquoise eyes were wide and Tove's jaw was tight. Harry looked as if someone had stabbed him repeatedly with a butcher knife. He got up and walked calmly out of the dining room.

"Uncle Harry," Tatum said, following him.

"Why the hell did you say that?" Tove yelled, throwing his hands up in the air. He walked over to me and grabbed a hold of the front part of my shirt. Could I take him? Not when he's angry. "Answer me!" he yelled again.

"Because it's true!" I answered. "He never gave a shit about me until now! He's nothing but a selfish bastard who was just looking for a good time off of my mother!"

Tristen had to pull Tove off of me, which was a very hard thing to do because I believe that at that moment Tove was planning to kill me. He forced his angry brother to look at him by holding Tove's head firmly in his hands.

"Leave him alone, he doesn't know," Tristen whispered.

"Know what?" I asked angrily.

Neither answered.

"Know what?" I asked a bit louder.

"The whole story," Tristen replied.

What whole story? Didn't Mom cover everything that one night in the storm? I didn't care. I didn't want to hear the whole story, all I wanted to do was go home. I ran out of the dining room and into the living room where I found Harry sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, his fingers getting tangled in his messy mane. Tatum was sitting next to him and was trying to comfort him. She gave me a look that seemed to say, 'How could you do this?'. I ran into my bedroom and slammed the door behind me.

A half an hour later Harry knocked on the door.

"Hayden would you please come out?"

I didn't answer him.

"The others are gone," Harry continued. "Please, I need to talk to you!"

I continued to stare out of the window, storm clouds were gathering. What's with me and summoning storms when I'm mad?

"Hayden, this is the last time that I'm going to ask you," Harry bellowed. "Please open the door!"

Thunder was beginning to rumble. Take the hint Harry! I'm about to summon a friggin' hurricane here!

The door burst open. Harry had his wand with him. Of course magic could get through locked doors, why didn't I think of that?

"Get the hell out of my room!" I yelled and when he refused to leave I somehow made a huge pile of books (presents from Aunt Hermione, but that's not important) fly at him. I was shocked. No, I was more than shocked! I was traumatized! Never before had I actually hurled objects at someone by magic.

I had been standing on my bed, but after the book incident I slid down the wall and sat crossed legged. I stared at my hands in disbelief. I was breathing hard and was drenched in sweat. Harry, too, was breathing hard and looked completely shocked. Rain began to splatter against my window.

"What did I just do?" I asked Harry.

Harry walked over to the window and looked out at the storm. He sighed.

"Your mother told me that you summoned storms when you're mad," he said calmly.

I was confused.

"Can't you?" I asked.

He shook his head.

"You're the only known wizard who can do it," he said, continuing to stare out the window. "And wandless magic such as hurling books is extremely powerful and difficult. I can hardly do it," he continued.

I was cold. I took my blanket and wrapped it around me. It helped very little.

"I'm scared," I whispered finally. "This whole world is strange to me."

Harry nodded and finally turned from the window.

"That's my fault," he said. "I've been going about this all wrong. I've introduced you to too much, too soon."

We were silent for awhile after that. Harry waited until the storm outside had blown itself out. Then he sighed again.

"Pack your things, we're getting out of here," he said suddenly, getting up.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said, stopping in the doorway. "How about Paris? You wanna go to Paris?"

"Sure," I said slowly.

I began packing and Harry managed to get to plane tickets to Paris for that night. We decided to take the plane because I'm not a big fan of Floo Powder and even though I'm the legal age, my inexperience with magic disqualifies me to apparate.

We arrived in Paris after midnight. Harry had managed to get us an incredible suite in some fancy smacy hotel and I fell asleep still in my clothes.

If Harry had brought his wand, I didn't see it. We lived completely as muggles. The first couple of days were okay, but the little conversation that Harry and I spat out was forced politeness.

On the third night, Harry roused me from my warm bed at four in the morning.

"Damnit Harry!" I griped. "It's four o'clock in the fucking morning! My teenage alarm clock does not permit me to get up this early!"

"Watch your language!" Harry scolded, yanking my covers off.

I glared at him

"What are you going to do?" I asked him. "Turn me into a ferret like Mom did?"

Harry was taken aback.

"Your mother turned you into a ferret?" he asked amused.

"Yes!" I said, getting annoyed. "When I wouldn't get out of bed she turned me into a ferret and started bouncing me up and down. My cat tried to eat me!"

Harry started laughing.

"Stop laughing it wasn't funny!" I said, though I started laughing myself.

"I want you to meet someone," Harry explained at last. "I stumbled across him on my walk this evening."

I eyed him suspiciously.

"Another wizard?" I asked.

He sighed. He does that a lot.

"Yes, but he's also family, so would you please?"

I got up and got dressed, grumbling immensely and letting a few more swear words slip by mind you, but the point is that I did it. We left the hotel and walked the pretty much empty streets of Paris silently. Which was just peachy with me. The moon was full and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Guess I was in a good mood. Harry took me to the Eiffel Tower. He took out his wand and broke the locks.

"Come on," he instructed, as he began to climb the steps.

"Isn't that illegal?" I asked him.

"Probably," he replied. "Just don't you do anything illegal."

I was already getting tired of climbing those stupid steps.

"So it's ok for you to do illegal stuff, but not me?" I tried to keep the anger out of my voice. The top of the Eiffel Tower is no place to summon a storm.

Harry stopped and looked at me for a long while. Finally he just shook his head.

"Let's just drop it okay?" he asked.

"Fine," I replied, and we continued out trek up the stairs. Half an hour later I realized one thing. I HATE STAIRS! Finally we reached the top. Both of us were panting excessively.

"Took you long enough."

I looked up from crouching over in severe pain to see a man standing by the edge. He was leaning on the guardrail casually and I was pleased to see that he was dressed normally; not in some weird robe like most wizards do. He was around the age of fifty, though he looked pretty good for his age except for his grey hair. Sitting beside him, I was shocked to find a wolf. A big wolf. I was even more shocked to see Harry walk over to that wolf and scratch behind it's ears, affectionately calling it, 'Moony'. Also beside him was a bungee cord. Harry was saying something about this man running a business up here. That many witches and wizards pay good money just to jump off of the Eiffel Tower.

I turned my attention back to the man who was looking me over with scrutinizing eyes. Who is he? Harry said family, but I didn't know Harry had any family save for me.

"He sure has sprouted," the man commented, smiling at me.

I returned his smile and offered my hand.

"I'm Hayden," I introduced myself.

"Sirius," the man answered back. "Sirius Black, Harry's Godfather."

Bells went off in my head. I remembered Mom telling me about him. I also remembered that I thought that he was cool. An ex-convict on the run. Of course his name has been cleared but still it was cool. Then I looked down at the wolf that Harry was still petting and the rest came back to me.

"The Marauders," I whispered.

Sirius laughed.

"So you heard of us," he said, raising an eyebrow at Harry.

"I didn't tell him," Harry said.

"Mom did," I told them.

"Oh, yes, Ginny," Sirius stated. "Merlin, she was a sweetheart. How is she?" he asked me.

"Fine," I replied.

Harry made some weird sound and left us, going back down the stairs, the wolf (whom if I remember correctly is named Remus Lupin) following close behind.

"Oh, now I've done it," Sirius groaned.

"Done what?" I asked.

Once again I was confused.

"Brought up your mother," Sirius replied. "Bit of a soft spot with him. Would you excuse me for a moment?"

I nodded and Sirius walked off. Some family reunion. I looked down at the bungee cord. You're only young once. I attached it firmly to my ankles and was just standing up when...I felt someone. You know that sixth sense thing? Well that was definitely happening. I somehow knew that it was Harry, Sirius, or Remus. I also somehow knew that who ever it was, was female. My shyness with girls got the best of me and I hid.

I had the perfect view of her from my hiding place. She had long black hair and seemed to be crying. I didn't like where this was going. She stood up on the guardrail. Not good. She jumped and I jumped after her.

I was plunging headfirst to the solid ground below me. The wind blew in my ears and dried out my contacts, but I kept my eyes on the girl. I caught up to her and grabbed a hold of her, bringing her close to my chest. She wrapped her arms, almost resentfully, around my neck and looked into my eyes as we continued to fall. She had blue grey eyes. We were nearing the ground. She smiled at me. We seemed to be slowing, though according to my physics class, oh nevermind you guys don't want to hear about physics anyway.

She brought her lips close to my ear.

"Thank you," she whispered, and we were stopped right above the ground. I wanted to kiss her for some odd, unknown reason, but the upside-down kiss had been down too many times before. Plus, physics kicked in again, and I was shooting up in the air. The girl was becoming a mere speck below me.

Sirius pulled me in when I reached the top.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" Harry asked me.

"Bungee jumping," I replied vaguely. I looked over the edge. She was gone.

"Well I see that," Harry continued, he didn't seem too angry (almost as if he expected me to do it). "But why?"

I shrugged.

"I've had the strong urge to jump off of a building for the past couple of days."

Author's Note III: There it is. If I had anything that I needed to tell you guys, I forgot it. Toodles! Oh, next chapter: Hayden falls into something that's enough to even bring Ginny out. Wanna know what it is? I'll give you a clue. It starts with an L and rhymes with dove. And I'll probably start writing the next chapter tomorrow, cuz well, I can. (I'm not angsty anymore)