(Dedicated to Unga Bunga!!! - My favourite Review!)
Chapter Three: The Decision
They stood together just outside the school gates. Kris and Tegan, waiting.
"It's a boomerang, they always come back."
"Kris it's been over an hour, I don't think its coming back," Tegan said in a consoling tone, "You just have to accept this."
They were waiting fora Portkey to activate, so they could join the others at Tanya's house for the April break, and were throwing boomerangs while they waited. The group always tried to do something together, and this year, with the lovely weather they'd been having, Tanya's house on the Noosa beachfront seemed like heaven.
In Australia, the legal wizarding age was sixteen, and all of the prefects were proud to have their Apparating licence. (Although it had taken Saul two tries, and Jeffery and Ax had to appeal to the Australian ministry, as they were technically underage in their home countries.) Portkey was sending their bags and things in about five minutes.
"Portkey is ready guys!" A student called out to them.
"Let's go Kris," Tegan said, laying a hand on his arm. "The boomerang is gone, trust me, it's time to move on now."
"O … ok then," Kris said dejectedly and, with his head bowed and shoulders slumped, walked away from the gates, towards Tegan.
There was a sudden whoosh of wings in the air, followed by the thud of wood hitting flesh and Kris's cry of pain. Then a tiny, pure black dragon, hardly the size of the boomerang, landed on the ground, in front of, was it … it was! Kris's boomerang!
"My boomerang!" Kris fell upon it with a shout of glee. Then scowled at the dragon. "Aiden?" he enquired, arching an eyebrow.
The dragon looked innocently up at them. "I was waiting for you to give up, it was quite amusing," the dragon murmured in their minds.
"You little shit!" Kris yelled. "You stole my boomerang!" then he turned to Tegan. "I told you they always come back. This one was brought back, but oh well, it still came!"
Tegan rolled her eyes. "Of course Kris, whatever you say."
Aiden let out a draconic sigh. "Well, my fun is over now. I suppose you will be leaving for Tanya's house. Please pass on my regards, and inform her that I miss her already."
"You only said goodbye an hour and a half ago Aiden, get over it," Kris growled.
"We dragons become attached quite easily," the dragon sniffed, "It's something a human like you wouldn't understand. Besides, she has a very comfortable shoulder."
"I can become attached when I want to!" Kris howled, with a mock wounded expression.
"You can?" Tegan asked, staring at Kris as if he had suddenly turned into an alien.
"The tabloids think Justine and I have been attached to one another for years! Just ask them, they'll tell you I'm great boyfriend material."
"Yes, and the press think that Jeffery's father can be sensible. Come on, you're asking them to vouch for you?"
"Good point … let's go," Kris quickly changed the subject, in case anyone else heard him losing the argument.
They appeared in a fairly large living room. Suddenly they were surrounded by … white. White walls with metallic trimming and a glass wall showing a panoramic view of the beach. Down on the beach they could see the rest of the group, the females lounging in bikinis and the males in board shorts, showing off their muscles to the watching Muggle girls. Ax had accumulated himself a following of gigglers.
"Why does that happen to him every time he goes out … They could be paying attention to much more handsome guys …"
"Though I would not want to touch him with a ten foot pole, even I can admit that he's handsome as."
Kris scowled. Down on the beach, Ax was signing little pieces of paper. "Is he signing autographs with his phone number again?"
Tanya appeared outside the wall that doubled as a door. "How'd you guess? Come on, someone has to stop him, maybe you can help me deflate his ego Tegan … I've been trying. Let me show you to the beach."
"Yeah!" Kris cried out, "I can find myself one of those really cute Muggle girls!"
"Unfortunately, Ax has stolen every female heart on the beach … I don't think you'll have much luck," Tanya said, "Hate to burst your bubble, but truth is truth."
"I knew I should have made him wait for the bags …"
"Let's just go," Tegan said quickly.
"Yup," Kris agreed, not so enthusiastic as he had been now.
They walked down a set of sweeping stone steps opening onto the beach, and Kris turned to look at the massive structure of white paint and glass that they had just exited. "Wow … how'd you manage to convince the owner to let us Apparate in there?" he enquired, sounding very awed.
"I hardly think I have to convince myself to allow my friends to come over … and the house is mine … do the maths Kris. You know my parents are dead, and I inherited a whole heap more junk, not just this thing."
Kris looked at her. "Why did no one tell me you were rich? Why have I not heard about your parties before? Why was I not invited to them?"
"Because there haven't been any," Tanya growled, obviously having gone through this when the others had arrived.
"She only just became social," Saul pointed out.
"What about a boyfriend?" Kris asked, looking at Tanya as if she had suddenly revealed she was really a Muggle.
"I haven't had one of those," Tanya replied calmly, ignoring the surprised gasps of her friends.
"You're seventeen and you've never had a boyfriend?" Saul demanded.
"Yes."
Ax walked over and draped an arm over Tanya's shoulders. "I'd be happy to rectify that," he offered, and the rest of the female population on the beach glared at Tanya with undisguised envy.
She reached up and pushed Ax's arm off. "Back off playboy," she told him coldly, "I'm long over my crush on you. I'll rectify my lack of romantic experience when I find someone worth the trouble of going through all that crap with."
Ax looked at her, surprised, stunned and desiring her more than ever. "It's alright Axy," one of the girls purred, coming up behind him and wrapping arms tightly around his waist to breath in his ear, "I'd be happy to make myself available to you."
Ax pushed her away and stalked down towards the water. "I think you offended him," Justine muttered to Tanya.
"His ego could use deflating," Tanya responded.
Suddenly Saul and Kris came up behind her, lifted her up and carried her, shrieking, towards the water, while the rest of the group flowed to their feet and followed them. Swinging her between them, Saul and Kris tossed Tanya gently into what was for them waist deep water.
She came up spluttering, the water just up to her breasts, red hair flowing around her in the water and over her pale skin.
Coughing and spluttering, she glared at her friends, then Ax came over and patted her lightly on the back. Throwing herself sideways in an attempt to avoid his hand, Tanya stumbled and nearly went under. Ax quickly caught her and set her upright.
She glared at him. "I can swim on my own," she snarled, and pulled away from her, diving smoothly into the water and swimming beneath the clear green sea, a pale shadow with hair flowing around her, surfacing several meters away, shaking her head to get the water from her eyes.
"I do the same thing for everyone, don't think you're so special," Ax said to Tanya she resurfaced.
Cheated of using Tanya as a victim, Saul moved as quietly as possible over to the other girls, and suddenly splashed Justine. Justine shrieked in fury, then gave Saul a once-over. "It's on," she said and splashed him back, Tanya dove beneath the waves again and swam strongly over to join the fun, and soon the whole group was involved in a high spirited game of water wars.
In all the confusion, Saul lost track of Justine, and was starting to worry – he knew she would be after him … as he dove sideways to avoid a splash from Ax, he lost track of his pants as well.
Justine resurfaced, waving board-shorts over her head like a trophy. Saul, ducking in the water, glared up at her, "Bitch."
Justine smirked. "What did you expect?"
"Just that," Saul replied. "I knew you wanted to see what was under them shorts."
"Oh yes, oh baby," Justine fanned herself with the board shorts.
Saul suddenly lunged forward, his bare butt cheeks facing the shore, where the girls were swooning, and someone was yelling for Justine to go after 'the hot one', which one could only assume meant Ax.
Butt naked, Saul was after Justine and his board shorts. "Hell! I paid twenty bucks for those board shorts! Give them back!" he was yelling.
"Wow, so much money," Kris muttered in the background.
Justine, however, was more worried about the naked guy charging towards her. "Jeffery! Think quick!" she threw the wet shorts to Jeffery, who was hit in the face, not catching fast enough.
"Aww, dude!" he yelled, snatching them away, spitting into the ocean with a look of disgust, "Right in the crutch! Ew!!" Suddenly he saw Saul charging towards him.
"Shit!" he yelled, and threw the shorts, which sailed over Saul's head. Jacque reached up and caught them gracefully. She was a keeper, after all.
Saul spun and lunged, watched in helpless fury as the shorts sailed over his head to Jeffery again, and turned around, to see shorts thrown back to Jacque.
"Ahhh! Will someone give me my shorts back?" he demanded, spinning around again.
"Why would they do that?" Justine asked. "This is too much fun."
"You want me bad, face it," he said, forgetting the matter of the shorts momentarily.
"You wish," Justine replied, faking a repulsed look.
"Playin' all hard to get?"
"No, playing all not interested."
Tegan, who was standing next to Saul looked him over without embarrassment. "Wow, is that shrivilage? Or something more major?"
Saul looked at her, saw the direction of her gaze and followed it, confused. "It's COLD, alright?"
"Whatever you say," Tegan replied, unfazed. "Would someone give him his shorts back? That's just scary."
Adam, who had gotten possession the shorts, shrugged and tossed them to Saul, who caught them, then did a little show for the girls on the beach of redressing.
Once Saul had redressed, the group headed up the beach, to where Alyson was lazing on the towels with a small contingent of boys standing around, trying to catch her attention.
"Are these guys bothering you Aly?" Ax enquired, hands travelling towards a shrunken sword, a dangerous gleam in his eyes. He knew that Alyson did not enjoy the attention of nameless, brainless wanna-be macho types.
"Guys?" Alyson looked up, blinking. "Oh! Guys! No, they weren't bothering me… at least not yet."
"Bugger off anyway," Kris told the hopeful guys … hopeless, more like.
Now that he was sure Alyson wasn't being bothered, Ax stood over her with a wicked grin, dripped water. "Ax, if you get that water near me you are a dead man!" Alyson said warningly.
Ax grinned roguishly and shook himself, as a dog might, showering droplets of water over Alyson, who shrieked, because the water was cold. "Don't touch me!" she warned him, but too late, as he reached down and pulled her to her feet, for a bear hug.
"You're cold! Let go of me!" Alyson screamed.
"Don't you love me anymore?" Ax pouted.
"I love you just fine … when you're dry, now let go."
"OK," Ax said agreeably, and dropped her.
Meanwhile, Jacque and Jeffery were still on the topic of the brainless guys. "Should we hex them?" Jacque murmured very quietly to Jeffery.
He looked at the retreating males. "Only if they come back," he replied.
"Good plan," Jacque said, "Want to see the Kallaix website I've been working on?"
"Yeah, OK," he sat down behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, looking over her shoulder as she set up the palmpilot.
Seamus Finnegan fell flat on his back to avoid the mace which only minimally missed his nose as it went zipping over his head, lifting his legs and flipping back to his feet, turning and grinning at his opponent, holding his own weapon tighter. He missed the days when he had been in the beginners sword play class, these days he was terrified that he would die every other class.
Again with a mighty swing from his adversary Seamus was forced to defend, this time the mace swinging down from overhead to almost cleave his head in half, Seamus swung up and stepped to the side of the blow, moving as quickly as he could out of the reach of his opponent
He faced his opponent who lazily lifted his own mace again and grinned. "Come now Seamus, your just not putting in any effort today are you?"
Seamus grinned. "Damn you Malfoy, I'll beat you one day, just you watch!" Seamus parried at him with a strong upper thrust, which Draco knocked cleanly to the ground, stepping over it to kick Seamus in the shoulder, causing the Gryffindor to smack inot the wall.
Draco looked at him condescendingly and let out a short laugh, "You irishmen, you have such imaginations…"
Seamus grinned back and squished his nose up happily, as if in a nice daydream. "Im imagining you flat on your back…"
Draco smirked and swung at Seamus's neck, forcing him to duck and defend, "I'm worried, you fantasise about getting me on my back? I knew you were frigging gay, I knew it!"
Seamus chuckled and without warning swung at Draco's side, stepping into the swing lightly, crouching down as he went to add diagonal thrust. The Slytherin, with fast reflexes, managed to jump out of the way, but the mace ripped through the silken fabric off his silver shirt, shredding it into tattered strips down on side. Seamus knew he was in trouble even before he loked up at Draco. He knew the snooty little Head Boy had gotten this training outfit specifically tailored for sword play, but Seamus had ripped it to shreads with his mace.
"Uh, Draco, I was an accident I swear!" Seamus said with a hopeful smile as he backed across the room, Draco stalking him, a malicious gleam in his eye.
"Your in so much trouble," he quipped, grabbing his own sword off a rack as they passed, tossing Seamus his and discarding his mace.
Seamus let out a small laugh and armed himself. "Remember, if I die, people will come after you! I'll haunt you! Oh, and make sure Dean gets my coolest stuff."
Draco laughed and a short sword fight ensued, which ended with Draco victorious and Seamus flat on his back with a sword at his neck. "Seamus, you should know by now, never mess with the Slytherin snob's precious clothing, it's instant death," came Harry's voice from the other side of the room. "I once accidently threw a red sock in some washing, and died all Draco's underwear pink, I think I still have the scar's in some very… precious… areas"
"I'm not a snob!" Draco pouted. "And it took the house elves hours to get my underwear right again, as I recall you deserved it."
"Are you ready for a real match, you bloody woman?" Harry asked as he picked up a sword and faced Draco.
"You don't stand a chance Potter." Draco stated with his trademark smirk.
"Wow, you really can cook," Adam didn't know which girl to look at.
"Which dish would you be referring to?" Tegan asked.
"Umm … all of them?" he hoped this was the right answer, as when girls asked questions, when you answered them wrong, you could get hurt.
The girls had all teamed up to make the meal, and the dishes were … eclectic to say the least. Tegan had done big juicy steaks, Jacque had done pizza, Alyson decided on satay chicken, Tanya had wanted to do pizza, but Jacque stepped in before her, so she ended up with roast vegetables, and Justine made cheesecake … which was also on the 'main course' table.
Kris and Saul had piled their plates high with a bit of everything, and Justine was looking oddly at Saul's plate, which had her cheesecake right next to Tegan's steak. In fact, everyone was looking somewhat oddly at this. "What?" Saul asked.
"Cheesecake and steak on the same plate?" Justine asked, curling a lip in slight disgust.
"It's a taste infusion my friends," Saul told them, grinning, then cut a piece of steak and put cheesecake on top of it to eat.
"Ew!" everyone cried in unison except Kris, who looked at Saul, then shrugged and tried it himself. It soon became a challenge between the guys to discover the nastiest combination – the girls were the judges, and depending on the volume on the ewws, the grades were awarded.
Jeffery had satay chicken and roast broccoli, then politely enquired whether Tanya had any chocolate sauce. He got the loudest eww of anyone who had not yet even eaten the food.
Tanya shrugged and walked over to a large cupboard and returned with an armful of various sauces. "I love you," Ax cried, spotting the bottle of brandy sauce.
Tanya shrugged, dumping the armful of sauces on the table, which were immediately pounced upon by the guys. "I hate you," Justine muttered to Tanya, "I was feeling sick enough with just the food!"
Tanya smiled, "I'm enjoying this."
Justine sighed, and watched as Ax selected her cheesecake. "What are you going to do with it? Not the ketchup! Not the ketchup! I'm begging you!"
"No, the brandy sauce," Ax replied.
Justine's eyes widened in delight, "I'm in!" she yelled and hurried around the table, plonked herself on his lap and stole his fork.
"Hey! My fork!"
"Steal Kris's."
"He's already used it!"
"Here," Tanya sighed, passing him a spoon. "You don't just need forks you know. Spoons work just as well."
"Oh, really? I'd never have guessed," Ax replied, taking the spoon from her.
To the surprise of everyone, Alyson ended up winning the night, after requesting ice cream to go with satay chicken and bbq sauce … she only won after eating half the plate.
After that, everyone was treated to a tour of the house. Kris and Tegan were amazed to discover the large living room in which they had arrived was actually the smaller of two. The entire top floor of the house was a single multi-purpose room filled with tons of equipment. The third and fourth floors were bedrooms and bathrooms, second floor had a library and office, and the bottom floor had a double-story living room facing the beach (which was where everyone arrived), a kitchen-dining room plus a small toilet/change room.
The bedrooms were huge, or, in Justine's words, "Scarily echoy," and because she didn't like it at all, they all went to sleep downstairs in the double-story living room.
As the sun set, Alyson, Justine, Tanya and Jacque turned to Tegan. "Taken the potion?"
"Of course, like I'd want to hurt any of you … or the house," Tegan replied. "Everything looks breakable … so not at home here."
Having been a werewolf for three and a half years now, Tegan found breakable things and full moons really didn't mix. "Well, let's get down to the cellar, I'll get you settled in for the night," Alyson soothed.
"Don't worry, it looks breakable, but most of it is strong as steel," Tanya added.
"Kinda like you?" Tegan tried to joke.
"Lots like me," Tanya smiled back.
"Come on bugalugs," Justine said, draping an arm over Tegan's shoulders.
"We'll see you guys soon … mind if we turn on the Quiddy?" Kris was hopeful.
"Go ahead, but it goes off when we get back," Tanya replied.
Kris tried the famous puppy-dog eyes. "But you wuv me!" he cried.
"I wuv my sanity more."
"You can't stop me! I shall rule the TV remote!"
"Sorry, I have a clapper, and its my house," Tanya replied. "You may watch Quidditch all you like when I'm not here, but otherwise, save it for Kallaix … it's not like we don't know that you steal the TV in your common room every night to watch sports. Nothing against Quidditch, but it gets a bit much for us gals sometimes."
"No one protests!"
"Honey, they're scared of you," Justine told him.
"Whatever," Kris muttered, and sulked off the living room, where the sound of cheering was suddenly heard.
"Yay, stuck with a Quiddyhead for who knows how long," Saul sighed.
"Guys?" Tegan's voice was slightly strained.
"Let's go, cellar this way," Tanya said rapidly. "Alyson, you'll stay for a minute once we leave, just to make sure everything's OK?"
Silver eyes smiled, "Anything for a friend," Alyson replied.
Jacque and Jeffery took a three-seater lounge, and Tanya and Alyson, when she returned, took one two seater lounge each. These three couches enclosed a small square area facing an entertainment centre. On the floor Ax, Justine, Kris and Adam laid across a large, enchanted mattress, covered in a pile of blankets. Everyone gathered around to watch Pirates of the Caribbean.
When the movie was over, Jacque and Jeffery were forced to turn their couch turned bed around, as no one wanted to see them in action. Saul raised a finger to his lips and cast a silencing charm on the area. Everyone struggled to conceal their laughter.
"Saul, are you going to tell us what you're going to sleep on yet?" Tanya asked with a sigh. Saul had been loudly proclaiming that her deck chairs were the most comfortable things in the world, and he would be sleeping on one of them. Everyone thought he was joking, as usual.
"On the deckchair, I told you," Saul replied, then wandered outside, and there was the sound of the deck chair dragging across the outside tile, and Saul's curses. Then the door closed, "Finally," Saul could be heard to say, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
There was a short silence, then, "Justine! It's not working!"
"You're not saying it properly – you know you can hardly say leviosa when you're awake, right now you're half asleep."
"Oh, right …" another pause, "Help?"
Justine sighed. "Your princess in shining nightdress has arrived," she told him.
"And she looks hot," Saul flirted.
"Save it for the morning when I can retaliate properly."
"You're on baby."
"I'm seriously going to regret saying that … Wingardium Leviosa!" A moment later a deck chair floated into the room, followed by an exultant Saul.
"Haha! My accommodation has arrived! Anyone want to join me?" Saul shot a suggestive look at Justine.
"You wish," was the unison reply of the females, by now well used to Saul's rather pathetic attempts to get laid.
There was a disturbance in the middle of the night when Tegan's brother, Mark, Apparated in, landing on top of Justine and Kris, who both screamed loudly. "Wow, I never knew you screamed like a chick Kris!" Mark's voice exclaimed from the darkness.
"Mark! What are you doing here?" Justine knew her cousin's voice perfectly.
There was a flicker, and Tanya turned the light on, everyone sat blinking for a while, then greetings were exchanged and Mark explained why he had come in the middle of the night. "OK, I forgot that most people go to sleep before three in the morning, so sue me!"
"You wanted to check on Tegan?" Justine translated, arching an eyebrow.
"That's the one," Mark yawned.
"Men. Can't you try to have an emotional moment without ruining it?" Justine demanded.
"How did I ruin it?" Mark asked, around a second yawn, "It's three o'clock in the morning dammit, and I've already been to sleep! This is not natural! I think I'm doing a good job. I was worried about my widdle sister."
"Your widdle sister is downstairs ripping pillows to pieces as we speak. I think she's probably enjoying herself," Alyson said.
"I hope you didn't leave the good cushions down there," for a moment Mark looked worried.
"It's called a cushion charm," Alyson said, stretching slightly, "Tegan was worried about breaking things, so I thought I'd better make her a little more comfortable. She isn't usually transforming in one of her friends places."
"Thanks," Mark said. "I should probably go."
"What kind of hostess would I be to let you arrive and leave in the space of five minutes at three in the morning?" Tanya asked. "Stay the night, you can go back when you wake up."
"Do you really want this lump in the middle of your living room at midday tomorrow?" Kris asked.
"This lump just got a million dollar deal for his latest movie. I need my beauty sleep."
"Wanna share some of the riches?" Saul asked from his deckchair.
"Dude, why are you in a deckchair?"
"It's comfortable," Saul replied protectively, then added to the chair, "Don't worry Bobby, I appreciate you, even if no one else does."
"Bobby?" everyone stared at Saul.
"I couldn't just sleep with him without knowing his name," Saul said. "And he wasn't exactly forthcoming so I gave him one myself – we're soul mates," he wiped away a tear.
"Geez, I never you went that way … is there any name for guys who go out with deckchairs?" Ax demanded.
"Mark, where are you going to sleep?" Tanya asked.
Mark, who hadn't hadn't moved since he arrived, simply snuggled under the blankets between Justine and Ax. "Here will be fine," he replied.
"Hey! You stole my hot water bottle!" Ax yelled.
"Where is it?" Mark asked, snuggling up against Justine to let Ax find the hot water bottle. "Oh! I get it. Justine, you're so warm!"
"Hot don't you mean," Saul called from Bobby.
It was the last Hogsmeade visit before the Unicorn Hunt was to begin, and Harry was determined to enjoy himself, and make sure that all of his friends relaxed, for once. Ron, Hermione and Draco had been working around the clock to try and get everything for the Hunt organised. Today, Harry had decided (without telling his friends all of his plans), they were going to all go down to the village and just hang out, talk about things that normal teenagers might talk about, rather than plans and complicated magics that would get the Unicorn Hunt to work.
Of course, Draco and Ron would probably bitch about it all, Harry thought, and his face fell a little. The situation between Draco and Ron was one that was like a constant itch he couldn't scratch. Draco was his brother, Ron was his best friend, and they continued to hate one another.
Ron refused to trust Draco, and had, for a long time, tried to persuade Harry that Draco was evil and would turn on him. That had come to stop when Harry had yelled at Ron afternoon, but he knew that Ron's feelings had not changed – Hermione had told him that Ron mentioned Draco occasionally when they were alone, and never in a good way.
Of course, Draco was no angel himself. He continually bated Ron about anything and everything, and Ron baited him back. Harry had ended up informing them that if Draco baited Ron about his family, or if Ron baited Draco about his father in particular, he'd hurt them both. They now tended to avoid the subjects now … at least, they did when Harry was around.
Draco had accepted some of Harry's friends, especially Seamus. He didn't really like Hermione, but the two of them put up with each other and remained civil at all times. Hermione had not forgotten all of Draco's old insults, and Draco, while he no longer acted as a pureblood was still having difficulties completely accepting Hermione has a child of Muggle parentage.
Well, today, hopefully they would be able to get along for a couple of hours while they had a relaxing drink. He had asked both Ron and Draco separately to meet him in the Entrance Hall before the students left the school, and when he arrived, Ron was, predictably enough, late.
"Well, let's go shall we?" Draco asked, "As Head Boy, I don't have to wait for Filch, after all."
"No, we have to wait for Ron," Harry said.
"Weasley?" Draco groaned. "Why? Why in the world do we need to wait for him?"
"Because he's coming with us," Harry said stubbornly.
"Harry!" Draco sighed.
"What?" Harry asked innocently. "Ron's getting better, isn't he?"
"Only when you're around," Draco replied wearily. "Why must you continue to inflict his presence upon me?"
"Because you might be my brother, but Ron is my friend, Draco," Harry informed Draco loftily, "The two of you could be really good friends if you tried."
"I do try!" Draco protested.
"That's what Ron said," Harry muttered. Just then, Ron and Hermione appeared at the top of the stairs – Hermione must have joined Ron on the way, Harry thought. Ron bounded to stand near Harry, and Draco backed off to let the two of them talk.
"What's he doing here?" Ron demanded.
"Coming with us," Harry said evenly. Ron opened his mouth to protest, but Harry forestalled him, "Draco has already agreed to it."
Ron's shoulders slumped and he nodded miserably, as if he had just been informed that he would be given a life sentence in Azkaban. "Fine," he muttered. Harry sighed inwardly. It had been over a month since he had tried to get the two of them to get along last time, and it looked like neither of them was willing to give it another try.
"Well, let's go then!" Hermione said with false cheer. With the two head students accompanying them, they were permitted to leave the school grounds without getting into trouble. As they walked, Harry did his best to chat about everything and get all of his friends to get involved with the conversation as well, but it wasn't working very well. Hermione was doing her best to help him, of course, but it didn't do too much.
Finally, without much talk on either Ron or Draco's part, they reached the Three Broomsticks and settled down over cups of Butterbeer. Everything went well – Ron and Draco spoke to both Harry and Hermione, but refused to talk to one another, like five year olds holding a grudge.
Harry was tempted to point this out to them, but he didn't have a death wish, and likening Draco to a child would likely incite the Slytherin to attempt to kill even Harry, his brother. And if he said that, Ron would refuse to talk to him as well, which would not be pleasant – Ron held onto grudges very tightly.
After a while of strained conversation, Harry sighed at the failure of his plan. Why couldn't the two of them just get along? "Why can't you two just get along?" He asked the two of them wearily.
"I would if he would," Draco and Ron said simultaneously, then Ron added, "It's not my fault that he's gonna turn out exactly like his father did."
"Ron!" Hermione scolded him.
"Ron, Draco doesn't mention your parents, so don't talk about his."
"It's not my fault his mother was a slut who couldn't raise anyone right," Ron muttered, and both Harry and Draco turned to look at him with fury in their eyes. Slap, Harry whacked Ron around the head.
"If you say that again, I will kill you," Harry said dangerously.
"Not if I get there first," Draco snarled, "And what are you talking about, my mother being a slut? You don't think your daddy could have sired all seven of you lot?"
Slap, Harry hit Draco over the head, somewhat softer than he had hit Ron, and Ron leapt to his feet and stalked out of the pub, Padma, who had just walked in, joined him, and asked what was wrong. Still within clear earshot of Harry, Ron snarled to her, "Harry's always being nicer to Draco than he is to me … should just transfer to Slytherin and be done with it."
Harry half rose, but Draco pulled him back down, "You know Weasley won't listen to you," he pointed out. For a moment there was silence, then Draco added, "Sorry, I took that too far. I shouldn't have retaliated, but he made me really angry, talking about mum like that."
Harry nodded, "She's my mother too now," he pointed out, "I feel just as angry with him as you do … but Molly was the first real mother figure I had, and I won't tolerate you saying stuff like that about her either."
Suddenly someone behind Draco slapped him, hard. "That's for dissing my family."
Then Harry got slapped around the head as well, "That's for hitting my brother.
Then both of them got slapped at the same time, "And that's for being stupid. Don't worry, I hit Ron too – for being stupid and dissing Harry's new family." Ginny Weasley plopped herself down in the seat that her brother had recently vacated. "Hi!" she smiled at them, anger apparently vented for the moment.
"Hi," Draco smiled back, rubbing the back of his head, "You've got a strong slap."
"I have brothers," Ginny shrugged. "What do you expect?"
Draco laughed, "The only brother I have is Harry, and I wouldn't hurt him too badly …"
Harry laughed. "Do I need to remind you about-"
"No, you don't," Draco interrupted and turned to Ginny, asking her what her day had been like. Harry and Hermione both just rolled their eyes. Draco and Ginny hadn't had much to do with one another before, but they seemed to be getting on alright. "How about we leave them to it?" Hermione suggested, arching a seductive eyebrow.
"Where do you propose we go?"
"The Astronomy tower?" Hermione suggested.
"Bold one, aren't you?" Harry asked, "Sounds like a good plan to me."
Breakfast next morning was a subdued affair. Tegan was completely worn out, and glared at anyone who asked why she had feathers in her hair. Even Alyson was only able to grumble.
Adam, Tanya and Justine were trying to make everyone perk but, but no one was paying much attention … not even ice cream for breakfast seemed to do anything.
"So, I suppose we aren't going to the conference thing? I mean, it starts in three days," Kris remarked as everyone wandered outside to lie on deckchairs. Saul grieved because bringing Bobby out was 'too hard without magic'. He had to lie on a new chair, which he named Frank.
"Conference?" Everyone looked at Kris blankly.
"Oh! I remember!" Justine cried suddenly, "That Unicorn Hunt thingy!"
Alyson shuddered delicately.
"It's on in three days? And you haven't talked to us about it again?" Tanya demanded.
"Well you didn't bring it up again," Kris sounded as if this was reason for everything.
"Because we forgot!" Alyson muttered. "It's called reminding."
"Well … fine … it's on in three days – do we want to go or not?" Ax reasoned.
"Yeah let's go," Tegan shrugged. "It's not like we could lose after all."
"So where is it? Sydney?" Jacque asked.
"No," Kris said, looking cautiously at the sky. "It's in England."
Justine spun around to face him and said a single word, "Where?"
"Uh … Hogwarts?" he said tentatively.
"OK, count me out," Justine said, and stalked down to the beachfront.
"Should someone go and talk to her? What's wrong with her?" Tanya asked.
"We'll explain," Ax said, Kris and Alyson looked at him.
"No, you'll explain. We'll go talk to Justine," Kris said.
"OK," Ax shrugged. "Rather you than me anyway – she's gonna be pissed."
"Hearing that way … why don't you go?"
"You already offered, off you go now!"
"Tell them," Tegan ordered Ax.
"OK, so you know that me, Adam, Alyson, Tegan and Justine were at Hogwarts for fourth year, right?" Ax said. Everyone nodded, waiting for him to get to the important, unknown information. "Just checking," he said defensively. "Anyway, while we were there, Justine fell for this pretty-boy bastard from another house."
"The only guy she ever loved," Tanya muttered. "He gave her some big stone bracelet didn't he?"
"Yeah, they were diamonds, nice piece of work, even if he wasn't. So, Justine loves him, and thinks he loves her back. I could have told her he didn't love at all. She wasn't hearing it though. In the first week of our fifth year, which is September in Europe, he showed his true colours. He told her she was a cheating little bitch and he hated her. Justine didn't know what he was talking about and ran for the Gryffindor tower. He followed her.
"I don't know exactly what happened, but they were in the common room, and he was yelling at her, saying how she broke his heart (not that he had one), and I heard. I went to check out what was going on, and saw the bastard hit her. I jumped down and told him to fuck off, but he didn't want to, so I introduced him to Mr. Pointy," Ax patted his sword affectionately. "He left, and Justine broke down – she didn't understand what was happening. I think she still loves him somehow even now…"
"Three days later her uncle, Severus Snape, who's the Potions Master (they call everyone Professor over there), asked who wanted to come back to Australia with Justine. I offered, even though I'd been in Hogwarts ever since I started school, Adam decided he was ready to come home, and Tegan and Alyson were sick of Hogwarts and the idiots there … besides, they weren't gonna let Justine go nowhere without them, Tegan had only been bitten by a werewolf a couple of months before, and she was having a hard time at Hogwarts."
"Amen to that sister!" Tegan yelled. "Severus sends me wolfsbane potion once a month. It pays to have friends in high places."
"So, I guess no trip to England after all … Pity, I was almost getting excited," Tanya remarked.
Just then, Justine stalked up with Kris and Alyson behind her. "We're going to England. We're going to show those English bastards once and fall that AUSSIES RULE!"
"AUSSIE AUSSIE AUSSIE!" Kris yelled at the top of his lungs.
"OI! OI! OI!!!" Everyone else thundered back.
"Get ready to Apparate home – we need to pack," Justine said, "I'll owl Uncle Sevie and tell him we're coming."
YAY!!!
Ok, so we realise we're giving you alot of OC'ed'ness, but we need you to get used to them before we throw them into Hogwarts, which is coming REALLY soon. For those who are having trouble keeping up however, this is the basic run down of the ones you might need to remember. We're actually making a website to help you with all this, sorry.
Justine Snape - Head Girl, Nice, Loved... Has a problem with negative emotion
Kristopher 'Kris' Crompton - Easy going, loveable, Just all round nice guy, head boy, son of the Aussie Minister of Magic.
Alexander 'Ax' Kidson - Perpetual bad boy and womaniser, Cocky and self assured, Irish, Went to Hogwarts till fifth year when he transferred to Kallaix with the help of Severus Snape.
Alyson Devereaux - Sweet and entirely loveable,sister-like with Ax.Has an uncanny ability to understand others emotions and even sense them due to her coughshutupprincesscough
Tegan Hall - Rebellious to the end. Easy going if in good mood. Warewolf. Famous older brother Mark.
Tanya Bussa - Only recently freinds with the rest, and has had a massive crush on Ax since he came to the school in fifth year. Close to Saul, shy, evasive but once she gets past that she's cute.
Adam Blake and Saul Thorpe-Townsend - The boy's, Adam is Sporty and Saul The perpetual Joker.
Jacque Quaine and Jeffery Campbell - The Steelwell prefects.
Thankyou's - To theeI do declare the OoK's (Order of Kalliax's)
Alaranth-88 - Thankyou so much for reviewing. Sorry bout' the OC's, does the list help?
Ava Munroe - Thankyou so much for reviewing! Ax went to Hogwarts from 1-4th year, and then to Kallaix, whereas Tegan, Alyson and Justine were only there for fourth. Sorry if it was confusing!
Unga Bunga!!! - (lol, looks down at the bambi eyes and giggles) Here's your chappie!