Choo-doodoodoo-choo-doodoodoo-choo-doodoodoo-choo! I sit in my compartment, watching ponds and trees fly by in a blurry wave of color. Out in the hall I hear voices and laughs of the other students. A loud ME-ow! From my bag brings me back to the real world. I open the bag and a calico cat jumps out. A few licks to her paw, and then she looks at me." Kat, you look paler than a sheet." she jumps into my lap. "Are you nervous?"
"NO, Jingle, I'm not nervous! I'm not nervous at all! Who are you?" I ask the greasy-haired boy who came in the door.
"Malfoy, just Malfoy. You are…"He held out his hand. I eye him suspiciously.
"Katriona Auriana. Enough oil on your hair, Malfoy?" he growls.
"Witch."
" I thought this was a school for witchcraft, Malfoy. Are you all right? Maybe a hex..."I draw my wand and he is on the floor. I kick him into the hall and close the door. Jingle gives me a reproving look.
"You didn't deal with that well, Katriona." She curls up on the seat next to me and promptly begins to snore.
My compartment door opens with a rush of air that blows my bangs back. Hastily I cover it up with my hands. In walks a girl that looks to be about my age. She has brown hair and green eyes, and wears baggy robes. We look at each other.
"Hullo," she says in a perky sort of way." I'm Heaven, Heaven Lavine."
"Katriona Auriana here. Just call me Kat. What house do you want to be in?"
"Oh, Griffindor, definitely! You?"
"Ravenclaw or Griffindor."
SQEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK! The train shrieked to a stop. I took a deep breath as the door opened. Heaven gripped my hand as I put jingle in my bag.
A large castle loomed in the distance. We followed a giant of a man to a lake. There we got in rickety boats and sailed across the smooth dark expanse of the lake's surface. When we got to the other side I stepped out, bag still in hand. We walked in a tight group along the shore, my circulation still being cut off by Heaven. The Large doors slowly creaked open onto a long corridor and I stared into the depths of the hall, waiting for something to happen...
I step up to the tall stool, my heart in my throat, and I then I see him at the Ravenclaw table, His Blue eyes meeting mine, brown locks of hair falling down his forehead. I sit on the stool, and then I hear a voice in my ear.
"Caught young Michael's eye, aye, Jupiter?" I start. It knows my name!" Yes, I know your name, Jupiter, and your heritage. But you do not belong in Slytherin, No, Quite the contrary, RAVENCLAW!" It whispers a last bit in my ear," Do not lie to him you love, Jupiter." And then I walk off the stool and sit next to Michael.
"Go, sister, soul sister!" I sing.
"Hello, hey, Joe!" the girl behind me sings and soon we have the whole dorm singing and dancing to the beat.
"First class, Potions!" We march down the stairs; twelve girls ready to kick anyone's butt who messes with us.
"GO! GO! GO! GO! GO!" We sing as we twirl in front of the mirror in the common room. Boys whistle as we do the routine in front of the mirror. Out the portrait, into the hall. A group of Slytherin sneer at us, calling us something.
"Wands out, ladies!" I grin at them as our wands fly out and the Slytherin are gone, running down the hall, their books on the floor. We march into the gray dungeon and sit in the front, taking up the first two rows. We pull out tablecloths of bright blue and vases of blue with blue flowers in them.
"Oi, Kitty, What with the Mudblood apparel?" Malfoy shouts at me. A collective gasp flies around the room.
Michael was on him before he knew what hit him, and then Snape swooped down on them.
"Fighting in class, Weezemburg? 10 points from Ravenclaw. Malfoy, did you provoke the attack?"
In his smooth voice he whines," No, Professor Snape, I never-"
"Quit the crap Draco! He called Kat a Mudblood, professor!" Michael snarls at him.
"Terasulae!" Malfoy points his black ebony wand at me. She heard eleven wands being drawn, but no, I'm falling back, down, down, down into a black pool of nothing, Michael picks me up, "Proffesor..","Infirmary","Malfoy, come with me!" Heaven screaming, "Oh my God! He killed her! Oh my God!"
I woke up in an iron bed staring at a picture of a nurse on the wall. To my astonishment it called out,
"Madam Pomfrey!" A lady in gray robes scuttled into the room.
"Oh, my. You survived! You really survived!" I groan as aches spring up all over my body.
"I feel like a large semi truck mowed me over." She helps me sit up.
"Oh, that will wear off eventually."
"What did he hit me with?" She begins to busy herself with my sheets.
"Terasulae Devida, the lesser known death curse. You are the first survivor. Ever." I gape at her. "You, my dear, are a medical miracle."
"Malfoy, what happened to Malfoy?" She looks at my anxious face.
"Expelled. For two years." That is all I can get out of her. An hour later she shoves me out with a chocolate bar in my hand. I head for the common room.
It's way too quiet in here. The place is quieter than a crypt. BAM! Fire bright sparkles fall from the ceiling as a group of boys put me on their shoulders. Girls are yelling and cheering, "Malfoy's gone! Malfoy's gone! Go, Kitty Kat, Go!" Jingle is sitting near the fire, purring as girls wrap flowers in her fur. Then, oh, then! Michael, no, Mike, Mike is holding me, saying, oh, those precious words:
"Will you be my girlfriend?" With no thought at all, I hug him.
"I'm not crazy enough to let you go, Michael Weezemburg!" He picks me up and twirls me around. We hold each other's hand as we disappear into the crowd.
"Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, ring the hogwart bell. Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, cast a Christmas spell." I sing as I walk down the corridor with a troupe of singing ghosts beside me. "Ding dong, ding dong, cast a Christmas spell."
"See you later, guys!" I shout as I head into my new classroom. I've been promoted. I am now in advanced Transfiguration, at the top of the class. We are learning self-transfiguration, and the professor has unwittingly taught me a valuable trick. I go down the dank hallway, seldom used and musty. I hear a whoosh and I am slammed against a wall, my feet dangling a foot above the ground, a hand holding my neck. I then see the face of my attacker.
"Heaven?"
The familiar face twists with recognition and she lets me go and slumps to the ground.
"Kat, oh, Kat…" She puts her face in her hands. I hug her and she begins to cry. Slowly she looks at me; her eyes are red, no, her eyes are supposed to be green…
" It's taking me over, Kat, my vampire blood, it's taking me over. If you hadn't said my name…"
Her eyes are green.
"Dumbledore." I whisper it, but it echoes strangely in the hall. "Come on, get up. We're going to Dumbledore."
When we reach the picture of Pearl the chatty pear we stop.
"Porkulyptusal Porpoise." The picture swings open.
"You have visitors, Dumbledore!
Visitors, visitors,
You have visitors!" pearl sings.
We run up the stairs, bursting into the office.
"Dumbledore-" but he is not there. Sitting in the chair is- No, no, it cannot be it- Now I understand, my jewel turning red, my eyes turning to violet, Heaven. The snakelike face opens its mouth.
"Welcome home, daughter of Voldemort."
" I searched for you, Jupiter, for days and years, but never would I dream that you would go to shelter under my very own enemy!" He grabs my wrist, twisting it. I fall to the floor. "And you, Heaven. Yes. I knew that you were my daughters trusted friend, would win her trust. Yes, you did well. But she disobeyed me, and for that she will be punished." My heart skips a beat. He pulls me to my feet. He has a knife in his hand, and he slowly cuts my shoulder. Heaven's eyes turn red. "Come, Heaven." Voldemort hisses in my ear. I feel so tired, so tired. I feel Heaven's sharp teeth in my shoulder, and then I know no more.
I awake on the hard floor of the dungeon. I feel strange, my shoulder is numb, and I have no idea what has happened. I look around. Chains, stone, glowing red eyes, a door- eyes?
I see her huddled in the corner, tears streaming down her face, and then it all comes back. I bite my lip. Heaven looks at me.
" I'm sorry."
"It's ok, Heaven."
"We need to get out of here, Jupiter."
"I can get out in ten seconds flat."
Heaven stares at me.
"Well, why on earth didn't you do so before?"
"I WAS ON THE FLOOR OF A STONE ROOM UNCONCIOUS FROM LACK OF BLOOD!" I shout. I tap the door, then turn the handle and open it.
"It was unlocked the whole time, genius."
"It was?" Heaven asks sheepishly.
"Yeah. Lets go."
I turn, and run up the stairs, up to Michael.
I find him in the library, sitting there reading a book on Vampire myths. I grab his hand, pulling him out into the hall. Mike looks at me and sees what has happened.
"How…. What…happened?" He stutters.
"Voldemort is my father, Mike, he did it to me, and now I have to save you and the rest of the students and staff here." Heaven runs up behind us," He's coming, and Malfoy's crew is with him."
"Oh, well, I was about to have a cup of tea with Mike, but if you insist we hurry," I say sarcastically. "Warn all four house leaders, even Snide, Snape, I mean."
I look urgently from face to face.
" What about Voldemort?"
I grin wickedly.
"Oh, I'll have some fun with him."
Voldemort is running from room to room. I appear in front of him.
"So my daughter comes to me willingly."
"I know I should obey you, Father," I grin and pull off my robe, revealing Jeans and a T-shirt.
"But I'm not your average Riddle." I launch myself forward, grabbing his wand and stepping on it. He screams and grabs my arm. I kick him in the stomach, he doubles over and I run into the courtyard where the students are gathered for recreational time. I jump onto the Column in the middle of the courtyard.
"HE IS HERE! VOLDEMORT HAS RETURNED TO HOGWARTS! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES AND FOR YOUR SOULS!"
The students scatter, and suddenly Michael is near me.
"Mike, he doesn't want you he wants me, I have to leave."
He looks desperately at my face, but the crowd is sweeping him away.
"Jupiter!" He calls out my name.
"Jupiter!
So tell me,
Did you ride on a shooting star,
One with out a permanent scar,
And did you miss me while you were
Looking for yourself out there.
I hear the words echoing
Drops of Jupiter
In her hair
Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter in her
Hair
Drops of Jupiter in your hair.
I see Voldemort coming, running down the stairs on the second floor.
"Michael Weezemburg! I will love you until the day that I die!"
(No, not really, but it's a sweet line, especially since I am doomed to eternal life as a vampire, but back to the story, before the corny sentiment.)
"Mike.'"
"After dawn when the sixth star is aligned, Jupiter appears in the seventh hemisphere of Ra."
"What?" He calls. Voldemort is searching the courtyard for me.
Jingle jumps up on my shoulder. I feel a soft mist forming around me.
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
When love is true,
You must trust.
Dawn on the day
Sixstar aligned,
Jupiter appear
In the southern sky."
Michael grabs my hand and pulls me close to him. I look into his eyes, and then he kisses me on the lips. Mike breaks away and I see tears in his eyes through my own drops of sorrow. I look behind me. Voldemort is only a few yards away. I push Michael away
"GO, MIKE, GO!" He runs away, looking back.
I feel a cold hand grab my arms. It turns me and I see Heaven there, with Voldemort behind her. She bends down, her lips near my neck, and whispers.
"Be quiet, Jupiter, If you let me do this then we will be safe. It might hurt, but I'll be careful." She gently sinks her sharp canines into the flesh of my neck. I yelp, it stings! She begins to lick the blood away from the wound, drinking it slowly. I try not to be tense, but it feels as if I, slowly, am being skinned alive by an invisible knife. Heaven puts an arm around my waist and a hand on the back of my neck. I hear Heaven speaking in my mind, Sleep, sleep, it will be safe when you awake, Jupiter, my friend. Sleep. My head falls back as I sink into the oblivion of peace.
I watch my sleeping friend as I carry her in my arms. A small trickle of blood running from her long neck drips onto my blue robes, leaving a red stain. It takes all of my strength to keep myself from drinking past the point of no return, after which the only way to save her would be to turn her into one of my kind. But she might not mind if I have one more, tiny sip… No! I can't let the instinct take over! Then He yells,
"Heaven! Finish the job!"
I must obey… I lean my head down and drink, fighting with every fiber of my being against it.
By the time it is finished, Jupiter lies limp and pale in my arms, and no breath passes between her cold lips.
I cut my wrist and hold it to her mouth, praying that it is not too late for Jupiter to become a vampire.
My blood passes past her lips and trickles down her throat. She groans as it spreads through out her body. Her hair turns black, and when she opens her eyes they are violet as usual, though her jewel is black. I breathe a sigh of relief, but it causes a sting of pain in my chest. Vampires don't breathe, or have a pulse. We're the undead, as some people may say.
Jupiter's eyes close again as I put her to sleep. If she's asleep, Voldemort will ask fewer questions. He may think that she is dead. Well, that is kind of true….
When I wake up I feel strong arms carrying me. When I open my eyes, Heaven is carrying me through the dark streets of a town. She turns and enters one of the houses nearby. She knocks on a door inside. A tall woman opens the door.
"Well, hello, Heaven. First Blooded, I presume?" She says to Heaven.
"Yes, Alee," she replied.
"Set her down."
Heaven sets me down on the bed in the corner.
"How do we wake her up? We could slap her or something. Oh, I'll dump water on her. Be right back."
"OH NO YOU DON'T MITHY! NOT ON MY NEW TANK TOP AND JEANTH, HEAVEN!"
I sit up and yell at the top of my lungs. Heaven grins.
"Well, it got you up."
The woman, Alee, went into the kitchen and came back out with a cup of green liquid.
"Drink it."
"It lookth unthanitary." She shoves it down my throat.
"What are you doing, you thycotic freak! It'th poithon! Ahhhh! It tathteth dethpicable! What'th wrong with my voith? What'th wrong with my teeth?" Heaven smirks.
"You'll get used to it, Jupe. It takes a while to get used to having those teeth after you've become a vam-"
She turns bright red, and looks suspicious- thuthpithouth.
"Let me guess; you had a bit too much to drink when you couldn't resist the smell of blood so in order to thave- save me you turned me into a vampire."
"Maybe, maybe not, but that's all in the past, right?"
"Depends. What's the deal with being a vampire?"
"Your eyes turn red when you get pi-" She shrinks under the glare of Alee "mad."
"I'm thirteen and the latht thing I need ith a mood indicant.
'Ahhhhh, run, Jupiterth on the war path, ith the end!'"
Another smirk. I swear, one more sarcastic grin I will kill her.
"Thuper. Jutht thuper dee dooper."
"Get used to it, dear. You're stuck. Oh, you don't age after you turn eighteen, and um, you have to drink blood to survive."
I stare at her.
"So much fun! Ooh, can I control people's minds and stuff? Can I teleport? Is it true that I can't have garlic?" I love Italian. Especially garlic.
" It's just as if you're human except you need to drink human blood now. Are you quite satisfied? We need to get back to school."
"But can I teleport?" Alee sighs.
"You can." Heaven looks at her.
'She can? I can't?"
"She's stronger."
"Alee!"
"Heaven Maria Lavine! Not one more word, or I'll file your fangs." That actually worked to shut her up. Need to remember that- File your fangs…
"Well, you little brats, get back to school! You're safer there than here!" She waves us out the door.
As soon as it closes Heaven turns to me.
"Teleport?" She pleads. I sigh, acting reluctant.
"Sure." I grab her arm and leave the empty street.
We arrive back at a school in lockdown. As soon as I step foot in the gates, we are swooped down upon by Professor Taikes.
"Foolish girls! Do you have any idea what has happened since you left?" She hisses in our ears as she ushers us into her office.
"Did the cows come home? Have the students formed a rebellion like they did back in the second Dark Age?" I drawl, rolling my eyes.
"No, but if McGonagall's ranting is correct, there's a third one on the way. The ministry has set yet another High Inquisitor, and you happen to be high on the hit list." She slams the door behind her, latching it quite firmly.
Mike sat in a chair in the corner of the office, eyes half closed. The back of his hand was dripping blood onto the chair's arm. Dear God above, Professor Potter had told me about this once, in my first year. Some woman named Umbridge, an odd woman who thoroughly enjoyed turning her detentions into torture sessions.
"Mike, are you alright?" I run over to his chair, throwing my arms around him. He returns my embrace, mumbling.
"Umbridge has a thing about us Potters, eh?" I stare at him.
"Potter? You aren't- He isn't your- "
"My gramps, Harry Potter. And I wish that his daughter hadn't married my da, either. He's leaving her, and he told me that he wanted none of my Potter filth to grace his door step ever again." His eyes are puffy and red, and one of his teeth is missing.
"Send a boy home for the holidays, comes back beaten and bruised." Taikes grumbles sympathetically. I giggle and sit on the arm of his chair.
"We should start a dysfunctional family club." He looks up at me and begins to laugh as well, until our eyes are streaming and our faces are red. Taikes stares at us through her rectangular spectacles.
"Stark raving mad, you are. Children, go to your common rooms. Go to your regularly scheduled classes, and stay out of trouble!"
Two nights later, I jog silently down the hallway, trying to beat the clock to the common room. Two feet away from the column of marble that marks the entrance to our common room, and the clock chimes nine times. Umbridge is before me, her mouth set in a smirk.
"Katherine, how nice to see you. You are out of your common room past nine o clock, I see." She looks pointedly at the clock nearby.
"My name's Katriona, and if it's all the same to you, I need to pass you to get to my common room." The smile slowly fades.
"Pert child. Kaitlin, I may have to take you to the headmaster's office."
"It's Katriona, thank you." She snarls at me.
"You arrogant child! Just because you have the favor of your headmaster, that does not mean that you have the right to reveal the dark and evil side of your personality that you hide so well." I gape at her. Dark personality?
"You self absorbed, obnoxious, inflated, cow! If I had my wand in my bag, I would change you into the pig you are, you worthless slime pit and dirt on the floor upon which the livestock tread! You-" She cuts me off with a sharp slap across my cheek. As I cry out, she slaps my other cheek, grabbing my hair and yanking it sharply. I fall onto my knees, and she backhands me in the face, bloodying my nose. A second backhand hits me in the eye, pushing me backwards onto the floor. She kicks me in the back of the head, and my vision blackens. I hear a sharp voice, who is it?
"Umbridge! May I ask what is going on here?" I can feel my own blood puddling under my face.
"This student was speaking quite rudely to me, and I felt the need to take her punishment in my own hands-"
"As I can see you did, and quite literally! The beating of students is not practiced at Hogwarts! Potter wishes to see you!" A gentle hand turns me over, and I see MacGonagall's face above me.
"P'fesser… " I groan, my head spinning as she inspects my bruises.
"Kat, don't talk. It will hurt more if you do." She turns to a hovering ghost, barking muddled commands.
"Pomfrey is on her way, dear. Just don't move." She takes hold of my hand, and I yelp.
"Hurts- bad." I pant. I hear the scuffling of shoes. Pomfrey and Taikes, along with Potter, are standing above me now. My eyes throb and my skull burns with invisible fires.
"Oh, dear!" Pomfrey and Taikes cry once they see my bloody face. They kneel next to MacGonagall, steering clear of the puddle of blood from my nose and skull. I shriek when they touch my skull, and Pomfrey pulls her wand out. Next thing I know, every thing is numb blackness.
When I wake up, I'm in the hospital wing and Pomfrey is washing my face with damp gauze. My hair has been washed, and my skull is slowly returning to its normal shape. My nose is in a bandage, and my robes have been laid on a chair nearby. I'm in dressing gown that's pink. I like pink, its fun!
"You have a concussion and a fractured skull, along with a broken nose. Your concussion is the only thing that I haven't taken care of, and it will take a while to heal." Madam Pomfrey says. She hands me my robes and one of my shirts and jeans. After I change into them behind a screen, she lowers me back down onto my pillows. So fluffy, so warm! Mmmmm… I fall asleep with these warped thoughts of perkiness in my head.
The next morning my concussion is gone, and I get a day of rest in the common room. The blue couches are soft, and after the third period of classes clatters by in the halls outside, I am at the end of a very short fuse.
"Jingle! Get down here, you spoiled feline!" She pads softly down the stairs, taking her precious time about it. She jumps onto the couch with my wand in her mouth. She spits it out onto the blanket on my lap, jumping off again to lie on the hearth.
"So you enjoy not talking to me, don't you? Did I betray your darling master? My dear father? No betrayal occurred except the backstabbing of dearest daddy unto his daughter. So much love and affection found within our dear family. And I'm the daughter who must fulfill his lost chances to rule. Pureblood daughter, Mudblood father. How on earth did it happen?" I snarl at the uninterested cat. "Well one day, fourteen years ago, a mysterious man fell in love with a distant relative of the former Sirius Black, otherwise known as Snuffles. He never loved her, and he just wanted to have a child. Guess who? I am just another tool for him to use." She sits up, her ears pointing toward me. "Once, he told me that he loved me. I believed him, but now- now I don't know. All I want is a family, someone who cares what happens to Jupiter Riddle." Jingle is looking at me now, and her tail is twitching.
"Jupiter, he loves you. He doesn't know how to show it. If anybody comes from a screwed up home, it's your father."
"Am I supposed to choose now? Just go on and decide who to stab in the back? Professor Potter? McGonagall? Snape?" My breath rasps in my strained throat, pulling on my lungs.
"Damn the Riddle dynasty…" I sob into the blue velvet pillow. Jingle is staring behind me, her muscles tense.
"Kat…" She mews, pointedly hissing at the person behind me. A voice sneers, cutting through the silence like a knife.
"Jupiter Riddle, how nice to see you once again." I twist around sharply, trying to differentiate the shadowy figure from the dark surroundings. A boy steps forward, and the first thing in my head is, Tom is in the Ravenclaw common room? How- and WHY?
Thomas Lestrange, son of Rudolphus and Bellatrix Lestrange. They are faithful little lapdogs to my dad's cause, and they named their darling son Tom in his honor. The boy's a constant pain in my ass, always following me and delivering messages from Daddy dearest.
"So I haven't done enough to make him disown me this time? Damn, I was just beginning to hope-"He cuts me off with a scything reply.
"Shut up, I would rather be anywhere but here, and you damn well know it." He sneers at me, flopping down onto a chair nearby. "He wants you to come back to the house with me. Don't ask me why, he just said that Christmas holiday would be the opportune time for a bit of family time, the five of us. They want to tell us something, but I don't know what it could be. Nothing of value that a blood traitor like you needs to know." My patience burns out just as the column slides open. Paige Johnson steps in just as I hurl myself upon Tom.
"Little shit, blood traitor indeed! Take this!" I shove my fist into his eye. His teeth sink into my arm as his nails scratch across my cheek.
"Blood traitor! Blood traitor! Filthy dung pile trash blood traitor !" He screams into my ear.
"You fight like a girl, Tommy! Get your filthy teeth out of my hand!" I kick his shin and he lets go with a yelp. Suddenly I'm on the bottom, and he's on my back, twisting my arm back.
"Say it! Say it!" He yells with a wicked grin.
"Fine! Tommy wins! Little good for nothing Tommy wins by fighting like a girl!" I screech quite loudly with my face pressed into the floor. He shoves my cheek down further as my jaw pops on the stones beneath me. I kick my leg up, throwing him forward onto the rug. I pull myself to my knees slowly, watching as Tom points his wand at Paige.
"It's time to go, Jupe. In three weeks. Blood traitor." He sneers as he melts into the shadows in the shape of a black cobra. I guide Paige up to her dormitory, the dazed look on her face from the memory charm barely distracting me from the curses, both magical and verbal, I'll be bestowing upon Tom next time I see him.
"I can't wait to leave for holiday! Transylvania, all my cousins, and my aunts and uncles, and everyone there! I just love vacation!" Heaven chirps as she packs her trunk. I sit on the bed, glumly watching her.
"So much to look forward to. And then you can come back and spend the week with Draco. How enjoyable for you and cheery cheeks in Slytherin over there. And-" Heaven cuts me off.
"You know just what to say to dampen a good mood, now, don't you?" She glares at me sideways, tossing a folded shirt into the trunk. "Don't you need to go and pack your own trunk?" I shake my head.
"Already done. And it took you long enough to sneak me into Gryffindor, I don't intend to leave until I feel the need to. Behind a picture is rather unoriginal, don't you think? I mean, Hufflepuff has the same thing, except they have some dumpy little dragons playing Wizards' Chess. Now Slytherin, that's original. A skeleton in the dungeons, chained to the wall. "
"How do you know all this? Besides spying on everyone."
"Spying on everyone, and everything." I grin sheepishly. Heaven closes her trunk, clasping the lid down with a satisfied sigh.
"I need a nap. Shoo, kitty Kat. Go take a catnap somewhere."
"How do I get out? I can't just stroll into the common room, they'll attack me with every curse and jinx in the book!" I protest.
"Run fast, don't stroll." She pulls the curtains on her bed shut, leaving me to fend for myself.
"No, really, I don't want you to go and tell McGonagall! They were completely within their rights to attack me, I was in their common room. But that little Weasley brat didn't need to chuck one of his daddy's candies down my throat. Never thrown up like that before, grape flavor though." I babble as Paige, Skyler, and Mike perform all the counter jinxes on me.
"Don't call my cousin a brat. I might forget to remove a jinx." Skyler absently replies. Her father is Fred Weasley, owner of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Her cousin Remus, named after a former professor at Hogwarts, and is George Weasley's son. I went into their store once. I came out with a bloody nose and ten Galleons off of a bet that I couldn't eat all the types of Skiving Snackboxes. Dad was absolutely furious about that, and being whacked with a broom hurts. I use them all the time now, especially during Potions.
"The train's leaving in ten minutes! Hurry!" A student in the hall yells. I grab my wand and dash out the column.
As I walk into the hall of the old house that Dad's using for headquarters, he tells me to get dressed for dinner and come to the dining room at six. Of course, it's quarter till. I hurriedly pull on my dress robes. I run into the room and sit down with a clatter, causing Dad to glare at me. Bellatrix, Rodolfo, and Tom are sitting at the table as well. Tom kicks me under the table with a nasty grin. I glare at him, suppressing the sudden urge to stab him with my fork.
"Tommy dear, sit still. Dinner is almost ready." Bellatrix fawns over her darling child. Must- not- murder- with- fork. Maybe with the knife…
Dad clears his throat. Stay out of my head, dammit! I snarl at him mentally.
Jupiter Talia Riddle! Watch your mouth, or I'll use the broomstick on you like a five year old! He raises a threatening eyebrow.
I'm almost as tall as you are now, and you'd have to catch me first.
Jupiter…
The warning tone in his voice is just like it was before the Snackboxes episode. Maybe I should shut up.
As the food is set on the table by the house elf, we all sit up and begin to eat. Horrible stuff, the little prat of an elf is no good at cooking anything. But I can't yell at her. Broomstick. 'Unhappy servants are the beginnings of treachery." I grab the edge of my chair and bite my lip to keep from crying out. The little pain in the ass just kicked me in the shin. Now she's smiling at me.
"Does the master's treacherous daughter wish to have more food? Little misbehaving thing she is, Master says she never learns, always turning her back on her respectable heritage. Almost like a simpering Muggle brat, changing her mind always. Blood traitor, needs to make up her mind." Tom guffaws loudly. "She shall live in fear of her heritage, unless she is deciding soon." I look at Dad.
"You know, Dad, they've got cures for people who talk to themselves in public. In front of the little cow of a house elf, too. If you want to talk about something personal, like me, go somewhere else, away from treacherous little piece of shit elves like ours. And she's a little prat, too- ACK!" She jumps on my lap, her little hands wrapped around my throat. "Get off of me!" I tug at her twig thin arms, trying to loosen he grip. Tom is laughing hysterically, falling off of his chair. Dad is looking down the table disapprovingly. Bellatrix is just continuing her meal, and Rodolfo is glancing nervously around, trying to figure out how to react.
"Don't insult loyal servant of Master! Traitor! Traitor!" She screeches in her high-pitched voice. I whack at her with my soupspoon.
"Get off of me, you little-"I wrench her off with a grunt of exertion, flinging her onto the floor. She skulks off into the kitchen. Tom is laughing so hard that he's crying, rolling on the floor.
"You just were beat up by an ELF! HA!" I give him a disdainful look.
"Oh, just witty. Simply classic." He sits up, the laughter fading from his face.
"Shut up, Jupe. You just ruined my good mood." Dad clears his throat.
"It's time to talk about what this little get together was originally about. Jupiter, you know that you will be fourteen in a few months. Before your birthday, you-"
He turns to me, looking very stern.
"Jupiter, it's time to choose."
I sigh, slamming my fork into the plate. Not again. "Dad, I told you a million times before. Did you forget again? I told you no, I'm only eleven. Oh wait, thirteen now. Every Christmas, and Easter, and summer, and frigging Kwanzaa too! Get off my back."
Dad sits up. "Jupiter Riddle, you will not speak to me in such a manner!"
"I don't care! I hate you! Leave me alone!" I run upstairs, slamming my door and locking it before lying down on my bed. I hate him so much! Why does he always try to force me to take sides?
"I will be my own side, and nobody will tell me what to do!" I hear a tapping at the door, and I throw the lamp on my bedside table through the window. I look out to see Tom rubbing a bump on his head. I gesture rudely at him. "Merry Christmas, asshole!"