A/N: Usual disclaimer.
Thanks to all of my loyal reviewers, including the real Aelda Stefano who reviewed this story. HEHEHE. Keep on reading and reviewing.
Chapter 22: Let's Party
A couple of days later, Ashley was taking out her frustrations on her drum set, in the corner of her music studio upstairs, when Severus appeared in the door frame. "Must you do that so early in the morning?" Ashley smiled and nodded while mouthing, 'I can't hear you.' She was wearing some muggle clothes that had tons of frogs on them. She moved to one drum and giggled as Severus plugged his ears and left the room.
About ten minutes later, Ashley was screaming something at the Dane and a the clumber that decided to play chase in her studio. Severus came up the steps just as Ashley shouted, "MARS AUS! JETZT! SCHEISSKOPF!!! BRANDON AUS!!! JETZT!! KLEINE FICKER!!!"
Severus tilted his head and let the dogs scamper pass, "What was that?"
"Sorry, all of my dogs are trained in German first. It is a protection thing, if your attacker doesn't know what the commands are then they can't call off the dog. That is the theory any way. They also know English and hand signals too. I just got a tad bit carried away."
"Can I get a translation?"
"Sure, Mars out! Now! Shithead! Bradon out! Now! Little fucker! I don't want their drooling hides in here. They could ruin everything, which would really suck because I have this room set up for the best sound and all of the muggle and wizarding production equipment money can buy."
"Do you mind if I take a look around?"
"Sure, that drum set is my custom Pearl that I got when I graduated from ODU. All of my louder drums are in the soundproof room next door."
"Soundproof....why didn't you just play in there instead of waking me up?"
"It is 11am, jet lag is a bitch isn't it? Plus, the party starts in 3 hours so I suggest you wake your ass up. Also, I could have easily taken one of the feild corp snares in there and popped it right by your ear. Then you wouldn't be hearing a thing for a couple of days.
"Really try me."
Ashley laughed and levitated a large drum with a harness attached to it, over to her. She put it on and transfigured the drum sticks in her hand to the proper size. "I am going to start soft to get you used to it." She did a roll and cresendoed up and then went down. She accented soft then started to increase the volume. Severus winged slightly at the loudest Ashley hit. "That isn't anything. You ready?" With out any time for Severus to answer Ashley cracked the stick across the drum head. The sound was like a gun being fired. Her stick cracked in half and flew across the room. "That is what I would have done if I wasn't so nice."
Severus shouted, unaware that his voice was that loud, "Shit, ye Gods! How the Hell didn't you winge?"
"I have been doing this since I was 14 my ears are used to it. My hearing is so damaged by close range pops, that I have to take a hearing potion once a year to make sure that I don't go deaf. Don't worry, I am fine."
"Is that heavy" Severus questioned as he watched Ashley rub the small in her back.
"Slightly, my quints are heavier. When I was in DCI I used to walk around the house with my quints on to build up my strength."
Severus walked up and lifted the drum off of her back, "Yes, and you would carry things around heavier than this, just for strength?"
"Yeah well, I marched with a xylophone and those are really heavy. I had to build up my strength or I wouldn't have a shot at drum corps." Ashley took the drum from Severus and placed it back in the room and headed downstairs. She looked into her living room and notcied the house elves putting the finishing touches on the last of the four christmas trees.
The guests began arriving around twenty minutes early. The first to arrive were the Stefanos and their dogs. Ashley and Aelda stood by the biggest christmas tree and exchanged gifts. Ashley gave Aelda an autographed Josh Groban CD, which she claimed "Was very hard to get and give up, so I got one for myself."
The front door was left open, much to Severus' disgust. Pawprints littered the snow covered ground as the dogs moved in and out of the house. More people that Severus didn't know arrived but he was quickly introduced to. Most shook his hand, others that Ashley knew very well embraced like a member of the family.
The house quickly became crowded with people and dogs, mostly beagles and Great Danes. Ashley's mentor showed up with a loud round of applause. Apparently everybody there knew who they were except Severus who just stood by Ashley and stared at the people that walked through the door. Ashley took that as a point to make a speech, just as the Malfoy's walked in the door.
"Welcome everybody, I am glad that you all made it. Thank you to the Prontos who have helped me, mentored me, and took a chance with a 14 year old girl who had just lost the best thing that had ever happened to her. Thanks to all of you who adopted a dog from me and took care of them better than I hoped. To you I am greatful. Thanks go out to those who have adopted more than one dog from me, namely the Stefanos who have houses packed with little Foxgrove beagles. All of them champions I might add. Thanks also go out to my professional handlers and juniors who have furthered the sport. Thanks need to really go out to the juniors who I have pestered and understood everything that I was saying. They had to deal with my constant pestering and quizing. They knew that I expect nothing less than perfection every time and that is what I usually got.A big thanks goes out to the rare few juniors who were in my band class and had the guts enough to learn from me. I really felt sorry for you on those days where you had me fussing in class then fussing again in conformation lessons. I take it now to say that I will no longer be teaching juniors to show during the months of September through June. My duty is to my teaching now, I hope you understand that I went to bigger and better things in my music than I ever thought. I will try to work in some during summer holiday but I will see what I can do. I am rambling now. So everybody, have fun, dont let the dogs get into the chocolate, I don't want an emergency visit to the vet tonight. So drink, eat, and have fun."
Lucius Malfoy walked over to Ashley and gently planted a kiss on her hand, "Thank you for having us here. I hope that Draco will be one of the lucky ones in getting private instruction on how to show Ed."
"You're welcome, of course I will teach Draco. Did you bring Ed? The other Clumbers are around here somewhere. All of the girls are with handlers and they took time off from their busy schedule to come."
"Ed is here, with Narcissa my wife." Lucius glanced beyond Ashley and noticed a firmilar face. "Severus, I didn't know that you would be here."
"Yes well I didn't know I would be here until a couple of weeks before the end of term."
"Quite the shock to spend your Christmas holiday in America with so many muggles and muggle lovers." Lucius commented dryly, noting Ashley chatting away to Aelda Stefano.
"Yes, quite the shock." Severus would never admit to Lucius that he was actually having a good time or that he was enjoying himself.
"I'll bet Severus, but she would be quite a catch in some circles, old pureblood family."
"What are you getting at?"
"Well I am just saying, that you have never been able to find a woman with a respectable enough family to tie down. I think you might have met your match and for once Dumbledore might have done something right in hiring her."
"Quite possibly Lucius."
"There again her family ties would only carry her so far, before people found out what a blood traitor her family really is. Much like the Weasleys, really."
All Severus could do was nod and slide out of the way as a young clumber zipped past, followed closely by a beagle barring its teeth. Lucius tried to dive on the beagle but Ashley was quicker and scooped up the dog in her arms, before Lucius could do anything to it. The beagle howled and growled while squirming in her arms. Lucius leaned towards the beagle and the beagle nipped his finger. He glarred at the dog before turning on his heels and returning to where his wife and son were standing with their terrified Clumber Spaniel.
Ashley handed the beagle to its owner, Aelda. Aelda glanced over at the Malfoys who were glaring at her, "What was that about?"
"Oh they are pissed because their dog got to cocky and a little beagle put it in its place. They better be lucky that Ed didn't try that with Mars because they would have been looking at quite a costly vet bill, that I would refuse to pay." Ashley smiled at the Malfoys, who simply nodded at her. She mumbled quickly to Aelda, "Never again, never again."
Aelda whispered, "What?"
"I will never sell a dog again, just because they double the asking price."
"Wow, you did that?"
"Yeah, I can't believe it though. At least Ed looks to be in a good home though, be it if he is spoiled, oh well."
"So how far have you gotten with Mr. Tall Dark and Greasy over there talking to Mr. Tall Blond and Arrogant?"
"Further, than the catholic church would allow before marriage."
"Ashley?!?! You freaking idiot!" With that Aelda slapped Ashley hard on the shoulder, while Ashley laughed uncontrolably. "Plus it was darn good too." Ashley gave Aelda an evil grin, before going to go talk to her mentor.
Everybody had left around 10, except Aelda, Drew, John, and Kerri Stefano. Ashley was showing them the studio which had been a recent upgrade from the old one. Ashley pressed a button and music blarred thorughout the whole house. Severus was leaning up against the wall in her studio, grimaced as she turned it up louder. Drew literally started bouncing up and down and he recognized the song. Aelda just smiled and summoned a microphone to her. Ashley grabbed a portable one on the table. Must to Severus' surprise they all started singing, very badly. Ashley winked at him as the song sped up. She stopped the music and Drew fussed at her.
"Severus, have you lived in a bubble?"
"No I have not."
"Please tell me you have heard of Bohemian Rhapsody?"
"Bohemian Rhapsody? That wasn't a Rhapsody."
"Yes, this is Bohemian Rhapsody. For lack of better words, Queen kicks ass." As soon at the word 'ass' left her mouth, Aelda slapped her hard on the shoulder. Ashley grimaced as Aelda told her to watch her mouth. "Well Aelda, it is physically impossible to watch your own mouth without the aid of a mirror. So I can't, sorry." She stuck out her tounge and gave an evil grin. Ashley used her wand this time to cut on the music. Ashley and the four Stefanos sang happily as Severus shook his head.
A/N: Well it is a friday night and I am stuck in my dorm. I am currently listening to Queen so I figured that it would be a great add to the story. Plus this is a fun little thing that me and the real Stefanos do. We have actually done this on the I-95 during rush hour, so not smart but oh well.
Thanks to all of my loyal reviewers, including the real Aelda Stefano who reviewed this story. HEHEHE. Keep on reading and reviewing.
Chapter 22: Let's Party
A couple of days later, Ashley was taking out her frustrations on her drum set, in the corner of her music studio upstairs, when Severus appeared in the door frame. "Must you do that so early in the morning?" Ashley smiled and nodded while mouthing, 'I can't hear you.' She was wearing some muggle clothes that had tons of frogs on them. She moved to one drum and giggled as Severus plugged his ears and left the room.
About ten minutes later, Ashley was screaming something at the Dane and a the clumber that decided to play chase in her studio. Severus came up the steps just as Ashley shouted, "MARS AUS! JETZT! SCHEISSKOPF!!! BRANDON AUS!!! JETZT!! KLEINE FICKER!!!"
Severus tilted his head and let the dogs scamper pass, "What was that?"
"Sorry, all of my dogs are trained in German first. It is a protection thing, if your attacker doesn't know what the commands are then they can't call off the dog. That is the theory any way. They also know English and hand signals too. I just got a tad bit carried away."
"Can I get a translation?"
"Sure, Mars out! Now! Shithead! Bradon out! Now! Little fucker! I don't want their drooling hides in here. They could ruin everything, which would really suck because I have this room set up for the best sound and all of the muggle and wizarding production equipment money can buy."
"Do you mind if I take a look around?"
"Sure, that drum set is my custom Pearl that I got when I graduated from ODU. All of my louder drums are in the soundproof room next door."
"Soundproof....why didn't you just play in there instead of waking me up?"
"It is 11am, jet lag is a bitch isn't it? Plus, the party starts in 3 hours so I suggest you wake your ass up. Also, I could have easily taken one of the feild corp snares in there and popped it right by your ear. Then you wouldn't be hearing a thing for a couple of days.
"Really try me."
Ashley laughed and levitated a large drum with a harness attached to it, over to her. She put it on and transfigured the drum sticks in her hand to the proper size. "I am going to start soft to get you used to it." She did a roll and cresendoed up and then went down. She accented soft then started to increase the volume. Severus winged slightly at the loudest Ashley hit. "That isn't anything. You ready?" With out any time for Severus to answer Ashley cracked the stick across the drum head. The sound was like a gun being fired. Her stick cracked in half and flew across the room. "That is what I would have done if I wasn't so nice."
Severus shouted, unaware that his voice was that loud, "Shit, ye Gods! How the Hell didn't you winge?"
"I have been doing this since I was 14 my ears are used to it. My hearing is so damaged by close range pops, that I have to take a hearing potion once a year to make sure that I don't go deaf. Don't worry, I am fine."
"Is that heavy" Severus questioned as he watched Ashley rub the small in her back.
"Slightly, my quints are heavier. When I was in DCI I used to walk around the house with my quints on to build up my strength."
Severus walked up and lifted the drum off of her back, "Yes, and you would carry things around heavier than this, just for strength?"
"Yeah well, I marched with a xylophone and those are really heavy. I had to build up my strength or I wouldn't have a shot at drum corps." Ashley took the drum from Severus and placed it back in the room and headed downstairs. She looked into her living room and notcied the house elves putting the finishing touches on the last of the four christmas trees.
The guests began arriving around twenty minutes early. The first to arrive were the Stefanos and their dogs. Ashley and Aelda stood by the biggest christmas tree and exchanged gifts. Ashley gave Aelda an autographed Josh Groban CD, which she claimed "Was very hard to get and give up, so I got one for myself."
The front door was left open, much to Severus' disgust. Pawprints littered the snow covered ground as the dogs moved in and out of the house. More people that Severus didn't know arrived but he was quickly introduced to. Most shook his hand, others that Ashley knew very well embraced like a member of the family.
The house quickly became crowded with people and dogs, mostly beagles and Great Danes. Ashley's mentor showed up with a loud round of applause. Apparently everybody there knew who they were except Severus who just stood by Ashley and stared at the people that walked through the door. Ashley took that as a point to make a speech, just as the Malfoy's walked in the door.
"Welcome everybody, I am glad that you all made it. Thank you to the Prontos who have helped me, mentored me, and took a chance with a 14 year old girl who had just lost the best thing that had ever happened to her. Thanks to all of you who adopted a dog from me and took care of them better than I hoped. To you I am greatful. Thanks go out to those who have adopted more than one dog from me, namely the Stefanos who have houses packed with little Foxgrove beagles. All of them champions I might add. Thanks also go out to my professional handlers and juniors who have furthered the sport. Thanks need to really go out to the juniors who I have pestered and understood everything that I was saying. They had to deal with my constant pestering and quizing. They knew that I expect nothing less than perfection every time and that is what I usually got.A big thanks goes out to the rare few juniors who were in my band class and had the guts enough to learn from me. I really felt sorry for you on those days where you had me fussing in class then fussing again in conformation lessons. I take it now to say that I will no longer be teaching juniors to show during the months of September through June. My duty is to my teaching now, I hope you understand that I went to bigger and better things in my music than I ever thought. I will try to work in some during summer holiday but I will see what I can do. I am rambling now. So everybody, have fun, dont let the dogs get into the chocolate, I don't want an emergency visit to the vet tonight. So drink, eat, and have fun."
Lucius Malfoy walked over to Ashley and gently planted a kiss on her hand, "Thank you for having us here. I hope that Draco will be one of the lucky ones in getting private instruction on how to show Ed."
"You're welcome, of course I will teach Draco. Did you bring Ed? The other Clumbers are around here somewhere. All of the girls are with handlers and they took time off from their busy schedule to come."
"Ed is here, with Narcissa my wife." Lucius glanced beyond Ashley and noticed a firmilar face. "Severus, I didn't know that you would be here."
"Yes well I didn't know I would be here until a couple of weeks before the end of term."
"Quite the shock to spend your Christmas holiday in America with so many muggles and muggle lovers." Lucius commented dryly, noting Ashley chatting away to Aelda Stefano.
"Yes, quite the shock." Severus would never admit to Lucius that he was actually having a good time or that he was enjoying himself.
"I'll bet Severus, but she would be quite a catch in some circles, old pureblood family."
"What are you getting at?"
"Well I am just saying, that you have never been able to find a woman with a respectable enough family to tie down. I think you might have met your match and for once Dumbledore might have done something right in hiring her."
"Quite possibly Lucius."
"There again her family ties would only carry her so far, before people found out what a blood traitor her family really is. Much like the Weasleys, really."
All Severus could do was nod and slide out of the way as a young clumber zipped past, followed closely by a beagle barring its teeth. Lucius tried to dive on the beagle but Ashley was quicker and scooped up the dog in her arms, before Lucius could do anything to it. The beagle howled and growled while squirming in her arms. Lucius leaned towards the beagle and the beagle nipped his finger. He glarred at the dog before turning on his heels and returning to where his wife and son were standing with their terrified Clumber Spaniel.
Ashley handed the beagle to its owner, Aelda. Aelda glanced over at the Malfoys who were glaring at her, "What was that about?"
"Oh they are pissed because their dog got to cocky and a little beagle put it in its place. They better be lucky that Ed didn't try that with Mars because they would have been looking at quite a costly vet bill, that I would refuse to pay." Ashley smiled at the Malfoys, who simply nodded at her. She mumbled quickly to Aelda, "Never again, never again."
Aelda whispered, "What?"
"I will never sell a dog again, just because they double the asking price."
"Wow, you did that?"
"Yeah, I can't believe it though. At least Ed looks to be in a good home though, be it if he is spoiled, oh well."
"So how far have you gotten with Mr. Tall Dark and Greasy over there talking to Mr. Tall Blond and Arrogant?"
"Further, than the catholic church would allow before marriage."
"Ashley?!?! You freaking idiot!" With that Aelda slapped Ashley hard on the shoulder, while Ashley laughed uncontrolably. "Plus it was darn good too." Ashley gave Aelda an evil grin, before going to go talk to her mentor.
Everybody had left around 10, except Aelda, Drew, John, and Kerri Stefano. Ashley was showing them the studio which had been a recent upgrade from the old one. Ashley pressed a button and music blarred thorughout the whole house. Severus was leaning up against the wall in her studio, grimaced as she turned it up louder. Drew literally started bouncing up and down and he recognized the song. Aelda just smiled and summoned a microphone to her. Ashley grabbed a portable one on the table. Must to Severus' surprise they all started singing, very badly. Ashley winked at him as the song sped up. She stopped the music and Drew fussed at her.
"Severus, have you lived in a bubble?"
"No I have not."
"Please tell me you have heard of Bohemian Rhapsody?"
"Bohemian Rhapsody? That wasn't a Rhapsody."
"Yes, this is Bohemian Rhapsody. For lack of better words, Queen kicks ass." As soon at the word 'ass' left her mouth, Aelda slapped her hard on the shoulder. Ashley grimaced as Aelda told her to watch her mouth. "Well Aelda, it is physically impossible to watch your own mouth without the aid of a mirror. So I can't, sorry." She stuck out her tounge and gave an evil grin. Ashley used her wand this time to cut on the music. Ashley and the four Stefanos sang happily as Severus shook his head.
A/N: Well it is a friday night and I am stuck in my dorm. I am currently listening to Queen so I figured that it would be a great add to the story. Plus this is a fun little thing that me and the real Stefanos do. We have actually done this on the I-95 during rush hour, so not smart but oh well.
