Disclaimer- see first chapter

Silver-tigress71- Thank you. This is one of my favorite stories.

Now, on to chapter four.

He had spent the whole day driving here, enveloped in his own misery. Now that he was actually at the club, he would have to put on a different sort of face. His I-don't-give-a-damn face he hadn't put on since he'd met Mare and joined the Circle. But it hadn't been that long, so he was sure he hadn't forgotten anything.

Ash slowly got out of his car, and carefully shut the door. He was parked in front of a shabby, worn down brick building in one of the more unsavory Vegas side streets. Here in the alleyway, there were few street lamps to expose beggars, tramps, and thieves going about their illicit affairs. It was a dim, dark and musty place, where rats fought with each other for little crusts of bread dropped on the sidewalk.

Not the kind of place he normally liked to be, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He walked up to a side of the building where a burnt out neon sign said "Andrew's Palace Hotel, rooms, $20". He proceeded to knock on the door, and wait for someone to come let him in. He put his hands in his pockets to protect them from the cold draft that was swirling crackling leaves around his tennis shoes. He had just begun to whistle "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" through his teeth when a skinny kid with yellow eyes opened up the door a crack. Ash rolled his eyes heavenward.

"Luke, it's me. Now for God's sake let me in!" Jeez, he thought to himself, I wonder how Jeremy Lovett was as tricky as he was when every other member of his species can't even spell their own name?

The door opened just enough to let him in, and then closed with a resounding click behind him. The room Ash entered wasn't any brighter then the dim outdoors he had just left. It was smoky, and filled with people from end to end. Some were sitting at tables chatting with one another, but most were on the dance floor. The DJ was playing "Hey Jealousy" by the Gin Blossoms. Ash pushed his way through a few dancing couples and found himself an empty table. As he sat down, the whole club went quiet. Ash looked up and saw dozens of people staring at him, mostly extremely beautiful girls. He awarded those stares with his most charming cat-grin, and then a few of the girls broke away from their dance partners to come and join him.

Pretty soon, there wasn't anymore room left at the table, and one of the girls had taken a seat in Ash's lap. They were all full of questions, wondering where he'd been all this time and such.

He just laughed, and told them about his sisters. He told them about Mare too, calling her an easily manipulated, intellectual vermin psycho. Although it was a knife in his heart to talk of her in such a way, he ignored the pain, reminding himself that there would be more if he thought about Mare constantly, and then she died.

Thankfully at that point, one of the girls asked him to have a dance with her. He consented and let her tow him to the dance floor; letting thoughts of nothing go through his mind.

Mare was feeling extremely uneasy right now. She had tried reminding herself repeatedly that this Lupin guy was a good driver and that there was no way whatsoever that he would let her fall off the broom.

She didn't know how long it had been since she and her three companions had left Oregon. But what she did know was that this broom was going very high and that the longer she had to stay in the air, the more nervous she was. And the fact that Moody had tried to make them travel via Greenland three times already didn't inspire any votes of confidence either, but at least she wasn't driving with him.

"Hey Remus," she asked him, "How long will it be until we get wherever it is we're supposed to be going?"

"Five minutes," he told her. "Then you can meet the others."

She sighed, feeling a little bit better now that she knew she didn't have to be on the broom and in the air much longer, and let herself wonder just how many others there where, and what they would be like.

Ash had been dancing for quite awhile now. He didn't want to stop, because lack of activity turned his brain back on, and he really didn't want to think about anything just now.

After a short break to change partners, there was another round of dancing. Ash was careful not to dance with Amber again. She was a girl from a very prominent lamia family, and her father and Ash's did business together. The two of them had gone to one of the back rooms during one of the slow dances, and apparently his thoughts were still full of Mare, because when they came out, Amber had seemed upset. She had yelled at him for a long time, hitting the wall over and over again and saying she hoped Ash would be happy with his "vermin whore", because he certainly wouldn't get any from her anymore.

Now she was on the phone. Ash didn't particularly care about who she was talking to, he was just extremely glad that it was over. She got off the phone, and put it back in her purse.

Next it was time for the poetry readings. Ash didn't like poetry very much, so he just stared straight ahead, his brain empty of thought.

About halfway through the readings, two more people entered the club. The man was tall, with blond hair and green, tilted eyes. His female companion was tall and graceful, with dark brown hair, and cinnamon brown eyes.

Ash felt something stir at the back of his mind, and turned his head toward the door. When he saw the two people, his eyes widened fearfully. They were his parents. He looked at Amber. She had a malicious grin on her face. She had called his parents? Why?

He strode over towards them. "Hey Mom, Dad, what's the matter?" His mother, who not only looked like Rowan, but had her gentle disposition as well, bit her lip and stared at him with troubled eyes.

"We got a call from Amber a while ago, and she says you've apparently become affectionate towards a human girl."

Ash stopped breathing.

"And I'm sorry Ash, but this is the last straw. You know we've got to keep up appearances, so we think that you need a year away from human contact. Yesterday, I talked with Grandma Harman, and she recommended a nice sorcery school in England, which you will be going to this year."

Sorcery school in England? There couldn't be very many of those. Maybe he'd get to be with Mare! Ash began to breathe again.

"It's called Hogwarts."

It was all Ash could do not to send any jubilant thoughts through his aura where either of his parents could sense them.

His mother looked at him. "What are you so happy about?'

He cleared his throat. "Nothing, I've just heard good things about it from Thea and Blaise."

After his parents had left the club he headed out, and went back to the mansion to pack for Mare, and Hogwarts.