A/N: Hey, guys! I know, I know. I'm a horrible person and I haven't updated for a month! I'm sorry. Truly, I am. The first chapter, albeit better, was deleted, and so I had to start all over again. And then when I had done half I had a sort of writer's block, and I found that I couldn't go on with it. Then I had exams and loads of homework so I didn't have time… and yes, that is a reasonably long list of excuses.

The bottom line is: I'm sorry. What more do you want? Lol. Please R&R.

December 21st

It's almost upsetting to be going home for the holidays. I'm so totally going to miss the four til ten detentions every day, not to mention cleaning the toilets. Which, for some reason had the remains of a polyjuice potion that smelled as if it was made years ago. But whatever. At least I have Moaning Myrtle for company. Then again, even being alone is preferable to her moaning.

"I don't want to go home," Angelina mutters, packing her bag whilst gazing wistfully out at the Quidditch pitch. She's the only one that's all for the dawn practices Oliver schedules in the blizzards, when it's minus fifty degrees. And that's Celsius.

"I do!" Alicia exclaims excitedly, jumping up and down. Gah. We have to remember to stop feeding her red cordial. Not that I would ever drink it. I mean, it's made of bugs. I told her that, and the response was amazing. She literally snorted it out of her nose, and back into the cup without leaving a single drop on the table. Course, she didn't drink it again. Well, until she allowed Lee to pour her another cup and Fred switched them. But what she doesn't know won't hurt her.

Anyway. "You're just lucky you're an only child," I grumble back at her. All I've heard from my relatives in the last week and a half is how I'm a disgrace to the name Bell, and that my brothers have never gotten into such serious trouble and that they would never even think about leaving the castle when they were at Hogwarts, much less get drunk.

Alicia grimaces. "I would give anything to have a brother," she says, "even yours."

"What are you trying to say?" I ask, leaping to the defence of them. Hey, I'm the only one allowed to backstab and abuse them. After all, it's my biological right.

"Whoa." She holds out her hands and takes a step back, discreetly looking over at Ange. "Nothing. I'm just saying, that's all."

"Sure, sure," Ange mutters under her breath, burrowing into her chest to look for something. She looks back up to see both me and Alicia staring at her. "What?" she asks defensively.

"Nothing," Alicia sighs. "You guys ready to go?"

"No," I groan exaggeratedly, flopping back down on my neatly made bed, which, for once in my life, is free of junk. You can actually see the gaudy old green and purple bedspread! (And the chocolate marks that have resided there since the time I had some cake mix and then fell flat on my face against the bed…)

"Katie," Alicia whines, still suffering the after-effects of her red cordial high, "come on!" She tugs at my hand, and it sends me sprawling off the bed. For such a skinny stick, she's awfully strong.

"Ouch." I say after a few moments. Talk about delayed reaction.

"Whatever," Angelina says, raising an eyebrow at me disdainfully as I attempt to get up, "we're going to miss the train."

"No we're-" I start to say, having managed to get to my feet and look over at Alicia's clock, "shit! Let's get moving!"

In case you're wondering, we have exactly three and a half (I know! Who even buys their clocks that precise, anyway?) minutes until the train whistles for the last time this year and pulls out of the station.

Alicia grabs her case, Ange grabs hers and I attempt to pick mine up, except it weighs like a million tons so I drop it, resulting in a huge oof!

"Uh, guys?" I yell sarcastically as they leave the room, without even checking over their shoulders to see what all the noise was about, "a little help here?"

Okay, so I sounded a little desperate. It was just so heavy!

I finally get down the stairs, dragging it down the stairs one at a time. (And funnily enough hearing strange sounds that didn't sound like normal bump, bumps. Maybe it's special, or something. Although I might believe that a little more if it could actually lock properly and didn't have a hole the size of next week (yes, I do know what next week looks like. Professor Trelawney showed us in Divination.) in the middle of it, so I have to put enlarged band-aids over it.)

"Hello? Hellooooo?" I call out. "Anybody there?" Sadly enough, it echoes. Gah. I'm so pathetic.

And now I'm feeling sorry for myself. Which is even more pathetic. I'm stuck in a pathetic rut.

"Katie!" Harry sounds surprised. He's come in with Hermione, but there's no sign of Ron.

"Hey, Harry," I say casually, trying to disguise my hyperventilating. I have issues when it comes to being in rooms all alone. "What are you doing?"

I half expect him to go, "Wouldn't you like to know?" all mysteriously, but, of course, Harry, being Harry, just says something boring and sensible. "I'm staying here for the holidays."

Oh. Der, Katie. The kid doesn't have a home. That makes me feel sad, but only long enough to cause Hermione to glare and look pointedly at me. Jeez. Just because she wants the room to herself so she can snog Harry behind Ron's back doesn't mean we all want to see. Two-timing… pre-teen bimbo. After all, everyone can tell Ron likes her. He just doesn't have the guts to say so. Or maybe he's secretly looking at Harry, but Hermione just gets in the way. Ha. Lock up your boyfriends!

"So," I say slowly. "This is awkward."

Harry doesn't look relieved that I've broken the ice. "Yeah," he says.

"You… and Hermione… how do you think Ron will feel about this?" I ask, draping an arm over Hermione's shoulder. Or, at least, trying to. She's taller than I am by half a head.

"That's it!" She screams, shrugging me off. "Get out!"

Whoa, talk about bossy. Then again, that's a quality she'll need to control all her and Ron's kids, if they take after the current Weasley matriarch. I hold up my hands in a peace offering. "I'm going, I'm going. Don't get your jockeys in a twist."

"The correct term is panties!" She screams after me pompously, as the portrait closes on the trunk, and another muffled sound is emitted. Maybe it has feelings, only I've never payed attention to it before!

But wait… wouldn't that hurt it's feelings?

Gah, social etiquette is so hard to understand. Especially that of trunks.

"Okay," I say to my trunk, as I drag it along the corridor. "I'm going to push you off the balcony to the first floor, so I don't have to carry you all the way down." Is it my imagination, or does it make noises that sound not unlike that of a terrified hippogriff? (Not that I've ever heard one... It just seems like an appropriate metaphor.)

"Bye!" I yell after it, watching as it twists and turns in the air, eventually landing with a huge crash! On top of several knights that have sharp, pointy spears. "Ouch," I say, unable to tear my gaze away from the spears. "That's gotta hurt."

Is it my imagination or does the trunk scream that it does?

I jump down the stairs, whistling whilst taking my time. "So," I tell my trunk, inspecting it for damage, (the band-aids didn't even break!) "I think we should get a move on."

It doesn't say anything, so I take that for a yes. Not that I asked it a question, but whatever. It does occur to me that talking to your trunk might not be normal, but is it normal for it to talk back? Yeah. I thought so.

It's very cold outside, and the snow is swirling everywhere and gets in my eyes, so I have to stagger around yelling, "my eye! My eye!" Fortunately, I don't think anyone sees me.

"Well," I say, through my blurry vision (the snow's melting), "that was a success."

As soon as my eyes have stopped watering enough so that I can see two feet in front of me, I look down the hill to where the train should be.

But isn't.

I let out a stream of obscenities. "I can't believe I missed it," I curse. "Now I'll be stuck here with Lee!"

Is it my imagination, or did the trunk just let out an indignant noise? How dare it feel sorry for him but not me?

Lee has to stay at Hogwarts because his parents are travelling to Australia, where it's nice and warm and they prefer to let their son freeze over here in Scotland rather than take him with them. It's actually like a business meeting. I mean, I see why they would prefer to go on a business meeting rather than spend time with their son, but do they have to make it so obvious? Evidently 'subtle' is not a word in the Jordan family dictionary.

Anyway, he did try to guilt us into letting us stay with him, but because Michael told dad that we're going out he wouldn't let him come over, much less stay the whole week and a half. Fred and George were going to invite him over, except they locked Ron in the girl's toilets with Moaning Myrtle last week for the entire weekend until I decided I should do my detention and found him, so their mum wouldn't let them invite a friend.

Alicia would have had him, except she's planning on spending Christmas day with her extended family, who have a bunch of little kids, so Lee politely declined. Angelina asked, but her parents wanted to have a 'family' Christmas, so that was that.

I have to admit, I did feel bad. I considered sneaking him in my trunk, but then Lee pointed out that he didn't think he would fit in my trunk, and besides, it smells like stale band-aids, so that put a dampener on that.

We're all having a Christmas dinner at my house, though, and going to the Weasley's for New Year's Eve. We were going to find a way to smuggle Lee out of the country (considering we live in England) but now that I'm not there to plot with, I doubt the twins will come up with an effective way to get him across the border.

I know! He can fly over, using a broom! Gah, I'm so clever. And so modest.

"How else to leave this castle undetected…" I wonder aloud. I glance over towards the wood, and spot Hagrid's hut. "I could always use Fang," I muse, "but I don't think he'd like running that far."

The trunk groans, not unlike the sound of a person slamming their fist against their head. I would know. My brother wanted to know what it sounded like, so he asked me to do it.

Of course me, being me, obliged. It hurt a surprising amount, actually.

Then I catch a glimpse of Hagrid's Hippogriff's pen. "I know!" I shout. "I'll use Buckeye!"

There's an applauding sound. Huh.

I leave the trunk where it is and stomp through the very, very many layers of snow to Hagrid's hut. "Hagrid," I pant. You would not believe how much more tiring jumping through snow almost as tall as you is, compared to playing Quidditch for four hours. "D'you think I could borrow Buckeye for a little while?"

Hagrid beams at me, glad that someone at least thinks he's useful. "Why, Buckbeak? Course yeh can!" He smiles toothily. "I'm sure he'd love to have yer keep him comp'ny!"

"Thanks, Hagrid. It's an emergency," I say dramatically.

Hagrid stands up. He's about three times as tall as me. It sucks being short. "Yeh know how to handle him?" He asks, gesturing towards his paddock. There's still no sign of Buckbeak, although technically Hagrid's already leant him to me.

"Yeah, I took Magical Creatures in third and fourth year," I say, smiling reassuringly. In truth, I've never even patted a Hippogriff. After all, Professor Kettleburn was a lot more… responsible than Hagrid. She only ever gave us sticky things to play with, or cute little porcupines that tried to bite you if you went within ten yards of them.

"Oh, course you'd know then," Hagrid mutters to himself. He looks down at me. "You just go'n get him, then," he tells me. "If you whistle long'n loud, he'll come."

I grin brightly, trying to disguise my shaking knees. "Thanks, Hagrid," I say cheerfully. "You've really helped me out."

"It's no problem," he answers. "B'fore you go, would yeh like a rock cake?" He holds out horrible looking things that are the same yellow as a faded newspaper and about as dry as it, too.

"No thanks." I rub my belly. "I've just eaten."

"Oh." Hagrid is visibly crestfallen, so I take one, rather righteously if I do say so myself.

I only- just barely- manage to keep myself from throwing up. I look exactly like Ron did that time he threw up the slugs last year. Luckily- or maybe not so- Hagrid doesn't notice. "Glad yer like it," he says, happily. Then he thrusts a whole box into my hands. "Here, happy Christmas."

"Oh, Hagrid, you didn't have to do that," I say, feeling guilty that I think his present was so crap. Especially because he doesn't even really know me. But maybe I'm the only one that's never spat his rock cake back out, so in that case I guess in a way I actually deserve it.

Maybe they're giving out awards for worst cooking effort at the local Christmas show?

"You go'n now," Hagrid says, patting my arm so hard that I think it might be permanently bruised, "and don't forgot to send Buckbeak back."

"I won't. Thanks again!" I back away as quickly as I can, smiling and nodding the entire time.

Buckbeak isn't in his pen, so I climb the fence and walk right into the middle of it, desperately hoping that I'm not obstructing some territorial law or anything. It'd be just my luck if I overstepped some boundary and he came crashing down, only to tear my throat apart.

Slightly apprehensive now. Images of blood and guts causing alarm bells to go ringing. Block out the images. Block out the images!

"Here, birdie!" I whistle three times, long and hard, and pause. For a moment I don't hear anything, but then there is a sudden flapping off wings, and a huge, half horse half eagle thing stops in front of me, rearing. It looks not unlike a taller version of Goyle, that dude who always calls me the Gryffindork. Which, really, could be any random Slytherin, but whatever.

Staring up at it, I start to panic. Oh my God, what do I DO? Yeah, I don't really have many thoughts going through my brain apart from 'Get the hell OUT of here!'

Just as Buckeye comes towards me menacingly, some strange little thought (must've been leftover from my 'smart' days… no, really…) and tells me to bow. Why the hell I am bowing to a Hippogriff, I have no idea. I don't even bow to my teachers! Hell, I wouldn't even bow to the Minister of Magic. Oh… I do bow to my Gran. But she's an old person, and she probably can't even see me, anyway. I've had to do that ever since I was four and I went over to her house and 'spoke back' to her when she asked me if I liked the carrots.

I hate carrots.

Bucky eyes me, then drops his head the teeniest bit, as if I'm not even worthy of bowing to. I'll have you know, Buckeye, that loads of people bow to me. I just haven't seen them yet.

"Glad that's settled," I say cheerfully to him. In response, he just bares his teeth… er, beak, at me. "Jeez, no need to get huffy. Um… do you think you could take me and my trunk to London?" I meekly ask, aware that it is not all that normal to be talking to a Hippogriff.

Buckeye charges at me, but just as I close me eyes, patiently awaiting my gory death, he passes by and stares in the direction of my trunk, which has sunken so far into the snow that only the very top part is visible.

"Ooooh," I say, comprehension dawning, "that's a yes, right?"

Bucky, being the clever little Hippogriff he is, nods.

So I cross the paddock carefully, making sure to give Buckeye a wide berth (hello? Have you seen the CLAWS on that thing? They're enough to make even Malfoy cry!). It's a hard slog through the snow back to my trunk, but I'm tough. I can handle it.

Unfortunately one thing I can't do, however, is drag it over the snow back to Bucky. And since he has no intention of coming over to me, I decide (very smartly, if I say so myself) to dump some things out of my trunk, so that it isn't so heavy.

I know! Why didn't I think of that before? Probably because I was in shock. You know, that it was so heavy… whatever.

The locks on the hinges unclasp loudly. The creaking as the lid is slowly opened breaks through the picturesque silence, as all the plants have died because of the Dementors and the animals have all gone south (I don't get it! I still don't see why they can't go north…) for winter. I'm expecting just to see a pile of weights or something that the twins sneaked in when I wasn't looking, or something.

What I get is far stranger. Lee Jordan, in all his putrescent glory, is crumpled in there, moaning. What. The. Hell?

"Um… Lee? You can get out now," I say, just staring at him with my mouth hanging open.

"Oh," he replies, sounding surprised, as if he had no idea how he came to be in my trunk, "what a coincidence! Fancy seeing you here!"

"Fancy that," I answer drolly. "Never would have expected it."

"Especially considering this is… still at Hogwarts?" Lee asks, taking a closer look at the castle wall, then reaches out to touch it. He wipes a finger against it, then tastes it. "Yep, still at Hogwarts," he declares, whilst I'm struggling not to throw up. (Have you seen the castle walls? They are- no exaggeration- disgusting. Besides, what if a different student did that every year since it would opened? Can you imagine the bacteria crawling on that wall? Ew… Not to self: Don't ever, ever kiss Lee again. Ever.)

"That. Is. Disgusting," I note, eyeing the wall to check for alien invasions.

Lee nods solemnly. "Yep." Then suddenly, he leaps towards me and gives me a huge kiss on the mouth. "But you love it!"

"EWW!" I dance around, in between swearing violently and trying to spit out the germies. "Ew, ew, ew!" Just as I turn around again, I trip over my trunk and fall, so that I'm lying in the snow with my legs in the trunk. "Well. That hurt."

"You don't say?" Lee says sarcastically, not even bothering to reach down and offer me a hand up. He just stands there, staring at me as if to say 'Well?'

"You know," I say after a moment, "why were you in my case, anyway? Just a little random question, is all."

"Oh, that." Lee laughs and waves a hand dismissively.

"Well?" I raise my eyebrows at him expectantly. Gah. The snow is cold…

"Fred-and-George-bet-me-five-sickles-that-I-couldn't-stow-away-in-your-case," he says in a rush, then looks down at my footprints from when I was dancing around.

"I see." I reply flatly. "I guess you lost."

"No kidding," Lee says. We sit there a moment (well, Lee stands) until I sigh and give in. He's like one of those Energiser bunnies that Alicia loves. He just keeps going and going and going until you have to throw it out the window and lands in the lake, during which a merperson stabs it with their pitchfork. (But shh… she doesn't know that.)

"So… you were trying to stow away in my school trunk, in order to… get to my house?"

"…Yes…"

"And you still didn't come out when I dropped it out of the portrait hole, down seven stories and down some stairs, or left it in half a metre of snow?"

"Um. No. And Bell?"

"Yeeeeees?"

"If you ever do that again, I will personally set Edward on you!" He takes a step towards me, and then I have to get up, screaming.

It's only now that I notice the purple and blue bruises on his face. Heh. That's what you get for willingly being thrown down seven stories. It does hurt a tad, you know.

"Okay. I'm sure my mum would simply love to have you," I tell him, a touch too enthusiastically.

He raises an eyebrow at me. "As if."

"No, really!" My mum probably would take one look at him and go, "So he's sleeping in your room, then?" My dad would take one look at him and throw him out the door. As I've mentioned before, my mum is a tad ditsy, whilst my dad can get over protective… especially when he's watching Quidditch. Then it's all, "No! You can't nudge the Chaser there! I demand a replay!"

For once Lee just sits there quietly, whilst I decide what to do. "I've got an ingenious plan!" I yell, jumping up from the snow which has melted a wet patch through my jeans.

"And?"

"We get on the Hippogriff and fly to London!"

"We get on the Hippogriff."

I nod happily. Sometimes I'm so proud of my ideas I just want to go, "And who was it that thought I'd go to special school when I was a kid, huh? Huh?"

"And fly to London."

"Yep."

"And you don't, maybe, think that muggles will see us?"

Lee's looking sceptical. Oh no. Someone didn't take his vitamin K today. Sheesh. "Er, yes," I say. "Der. That's why we disillusion him."

"Disillusion a whole Hippogriff?"

What the hell? Why does he keep repeating everything I say? "That's what I said, der-brain."

"Well if you can do that, you're smarter than I thought, genius." He sits back and smirks at me.

"Nice to know how lowly you think of my magical abilities Mr Jordan," I tell him formally, a little hurt that he doesn't think I can do it. Hello, I got an O on a Charms essay about this. I think I can do a little bit of magic.

Half an hour later, I'm ready to change my mind. Lee is standing a few feet away, every now and then giving Bucky these discreet little wary glances. Ha. He's friends with me and the Weasley twins, yet he's scared of a little old Hippogriff?

I mean, I know that my original plan was to fly Bucky all the way home. But seeing Lee has presented a few problems, all of which would have been fine until he pointed them out and I realised that it really wouldn't work. I would have forgotten to disillusion Buckeye, I probably would have flown to my house even though my parents would be waiting for me at King's Cross, and I forgot that my trunk wouldn't stay on Bucky. Damn.

"Hey! I've got it!" I scream, running at Lee and dancing for joy. "Take that back, Leroy Barnabas Jordan the third! I DID IT!"

Lee is quite content to snog me outside in the freezing cold until he actually looks over my shoulder (which, unfortunately, isn't that hard to do.) "Um, Bell?" He asks, hesitantly.

I sigh. "What now?"

"You missed his head. And, um, claws."

"What?" It's true. Where Buckeye should have been (although he would have been invisible, but whatever) there was half his head and three claws.

"Look at it this way," Lee says after a moment, during which we just stand there gawking at him, "muggles will just think he's one bloody big bird that's come into contact with a radio-active power-plant and been chased by rabid wolves."

Silence.

"Thanks, Lee," I roll my eyes, "so comforting to know."

I spend the next ten minutes trying to make his claws and head disappear, but all I succeed in doing is making one of his toenails go away. Bucky just stands there quite happily, as long as you feed him a possum head every few minutes.

"Look," Lee says, shifting a bit, "I think we should really go now. The train will already be at King's Cross by the time we get there."

I eye him. "What makes you so sure that I'm taking you?"

Lee starts to panic. If it wasn't so sad to see him hyperventilating over the fact that he has to stay at Hogwarts with Harry, Ron and Hermione it would be hysterical. "You can't leave me here," he says, after trying to calm himself down somewhat with the fact that I told him he could always borrow Hogwarts: A History off Hermione and read that.

"Like hell I can't," I reply, really playing the part as I start to pack up my trunk. Fortunately there's not much in there, because Lee had to take almost everything out just to fit. The irony is that the one thing he left in there was Alicia's curling iron (don't ask me why it's in there; I have no idea). So that's why he had so many bruises. I mean, apart from the obvious ones like smashing into the stone floor from seven floors above.

"Please!" He yells desperately. "I'll do anything!"

My shoulders shake as I try not to laugh. But, being the brave soul I am, I manage to hold it in. "Anything?"

Lee stops his melodrama to stare at me. "I just said that, didn't I?"

I shrug. "It always seems so much more evil if the villain repeats what the victim just said. More effective."

Lee thinks about this for a moment. "Oh," he says.

But then his shoulders droop and he turns away from me, and I feel so bad that I relent. "I was only joking, you know," I tell him apologetically. When he still doesn't turn around, I tell him that I'll even sit in the front, so he doesn't have to be near Buckeye's huge beak. He still doesn't turn around.

Oh no. I'll have to say it. He's forcing me to say it.

"Leroy Barnabas Jordan the third," I say, taking a deep breath after saying his long name for the multiple time today, "I-am-sorry."

"Pardon?" Lee asks, cupping a hand to his ear. I know now that he's not even being serious; he just wants to hear me say it and enjoy my discomfort. And also so that he can brag to everyone that he actually got Katie Bell to apologise. It's like a world first, really. As Trelawney would say, it's my first step to discovering my true self… whatever that means. "I didn't quite catch that."

"I'm sorry," I mutter, kicking my foot in the snow. Stupid prick.

"I can't hear you!" He sings cheerily.

"I'M SORRY YOU STUPID ARSEHOLE!" I scream at him.

Lee looks at me and smirks, satisfied. "Okay."

I groan and stare at him sullenly. "I hate you."

"I hate you, too."

Aw. It's one of those sappy moments that make you want to throw up and throw a shoe at the television. Alicia's mum wasn't too pleased about that. Neither was mine when we had to foot the bill.

"Now," I say, getting back to business. "We'll just have to cross our fingers and hope that no little muggle people take a picture of the three legged eagle freak. No offence, Bucky." Oh, shit. Angelina's little warning could have come in handy, but what did I do? Forget it until it was too late. I just insulted a Hippogriff, and by doing so, basically sentenced myself to be cut into little tiny pieces. Much like he's doing to the possum heads.

Evidently the same thoughts are going on in Lee's head, too, because he slowly moves closer to me and whispers, "stand behind me. Now."

Gah. Sexist, or what? He thinks just because he's a guy, he can fend off the big scary Hippogriff? And also quite possibly because he's tall. But hey! He's scared of them, but he's still willing to save me. How sweet.

Buckeye, however, has no intention of ripping anyone to pieces. Well at least, not me. He sort of hisses at Lee, causing Lee to jump back and knock me over, but other than that goes back to decapitating his possum heads.

I give Lee a kiss, because, you know, he saved me and all. Well, at least tried to, before he got scared of it himself. But whatever.

"What was that for?"

"For saving me."

"Oh. Um. Right."

"You weren't saving me?"

"I was. But I figured if you died then I couldn't turn up at your parent's place all by myself, could I?"

That egotistical, self-centred jerk! He didn't even care if I died or not! I mean, technically he did, because he wanted to go to my house for Christmas. Still. "Guess not."

"Joke, Katie. You know, ha ha?"

No, shit. I've never heard of a joke before! Moron. It's not my fault I'm in a grumpy mood because we missed the train so I don't get any liquorice wands. Jeez.

"Come on, let's go," I tell him huffily. I look where Bucky's back should approximately be, and hop on. I reach down to give Lee a hand, except he can't even reach it. "Wanker," I mutter. "You should really be more fit."

"Hey!" Lee protests. "Just because you're all cranky that you didn't get liquorice wands, doesn't mean that it's okay for you to take it out on me." He says it all patronisingly, like he knows best.

How did he know about the liquorice wands? I think he knows me too well. It's actually kind of scary.

When we finally get to King's Cross station, I can see that the train is already there and that very few people are actually left. It's because Lee made us take a right instead of a left, illiterate moron. We ended up almost two hundred miles in the wrong direction.

"Um, Katie?"

"What?"

"How are we supposed to land? If Buckeye flies down there, your parents will know you didn't catch the train. And it might raise a few questions."

"No kidding?" I say. It's not exactly normal to land a Hippogriff in the middle of a platform. And by now my parents would have already figured out I wasn't on the train. I guess I'll just have to wing it. "We're going down!" I scream, as Buckeye dives and my stomach rises about fifteen feet above my head.

"Shit!" Lee's never exactly been a fan of heights. Come to think of it, he's afraid of a surprising amount of things.

Bucky ends up crashing into a couple of rubbish bins, but it's all okay because he doesn't hurt himself. Lee, however, lands in one upside down, so all I can see is his legs waving in the air and hear him screaming, "help! Help!"

"Katie!" My mum exclaims, giving me a hug. "What an… interesting way to arrive!"

See? She doesn't even think to tell me off, or ask questions. She's just that much of an air-head.

"Katie," Dad greets me gruffly, after carefully stepping around Buckeye, who's decided to taste the garbage.

"Hey," I say cheerfully, hoping that they won't notice Lee until I can get him out. At least he's got the common sense to shut up.

"Well?" Mum asks expectantly. "Who's you friend?"

I panic. "Um, what?" Yeah, great going, Katie. Use the old, I-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about-even-though-I-just-flew-in-with-him-on-a-Hippogriff excuse. A timeless classic

"The bird… horse…" My mum is a pureblood, but sometimes I swear it's like she's never come out of her little box before.

"Hippogriff, mum, it's called a Hippogriff. Say it with me now: Hip-po-"

"Katie," Dad admonishes sternly. "Who's that?" He points at Lee, whose legs are sticking straight up.

"A random pair of legs that are left there from a vampire's takeaway shop?"

"They were on that bird-horse!" Mum exclaims. "Well? Introduce us to your little friend!"

I sigh exaggeratedly; knowing that Lee's probably pissed off at me for having left it so long. I grab his left leg and try to haul it out. It's a bit hard, because he's so much taller than I am, so my mum helps.

My mum helped me pull my boyfriend out of a bin.

"Well!" My mum says, clapping her hands, "who's this? And why haven't I met you before?"

Lee just stares at me, doing the squinty-eye thing. Great. Now they'll think he's got a chronic eye twitch.

"Mum, Dad," I begin, "this is Lee, my-"

"Boyfriend!" Michael, who I haven't noticed until right now, shouts. "Lee is her boyfriend!"

I know. Terrible. Not v. good for my come-back chappie, hey? Lol. Well please review and tell me what you did/didn't like bout it. Come on, guys: it's my come-back chappie! Please?