First off, I hate , because as I was getting ready to save this, it exited and my long pre - and post-story notes were all erased and I had to start over. Ok, onto better things.

Hello all! Sorry it took so long to post--I had about a million things going on and add that to the fact that this chapter wasn't even supposed to exist and then I got wicked writers block...well, you see where I'm going with this.

I'm so sorry I didn't respond to any reviews last time: if you post a review for this chapter I promise I'll respond :-)

One more thing before my standard A/N; as you may have noticed, I changed the rating on this story from "T" to "M". I did this for two reasons: 1) something that happens in this chapter, though not at all graphic, I felt warranted the change; and 2) It may be indicative of things to come in the future.

Enjoy!

A/N: If you recognize it, it's JKR's; if not, its mine :-)

Her parent's so-called "surprise" was just the tip of the iceberg that was Evey's miserable summer.

After a six hour flight (first class because her parents would not accept anything less than the best), her American relatives met her at the airport in Providence. Her uncle John was a handsome man with movie star looks - wavy, blonde hair, chocolate brown eyes set in a face with amazing bone structure, perfect tan tinting his skin and gleaming white teeth. Good looks were offset by his shallow and materialistic nature. Her aunt, Georgina, had the same colouring as her brother, Evey's father, but her features were much softer.

Georgina and John had met years ago at a country club in Newport while Georgina's father was in the States visiting with a business associate; just like Evey's parents, it was more a marriage of obligation than anything else. Though unlike Evey's parents, they were a bit warmer to Evey and their children, Robert (or as his parents called him, Robbie) and Jacqueline. Evey barely remembered them from her last visit so long ago, but it soon became abundantly clear that the siblings could not be any different.

Robbie, in short, gave Evey the creeps. He was only a year older than her, and would be entering his final year of prep school in the fall before his father bribed him into going to some Ivy League school. He was a little distant, giving Evey the obligatory ice cold hug (prompted by his mother) at the airport when she first arrived. This didn't bother Evey -- her parent's weren't exactly warm -- but there was something…odd about Robbie and the way his narrow eyes followed her.

It didn't take long for Evey to realize that Jacquie (as she insisted on being called) was a total free spirit, going against her parents' views on traditional when it came to...well, everything. She was the same height as Evey--both girls just barely reaching 5'2"--though Jacquie was much skinnier. Her hair, which Evey remembered to be brown like her mother's when she was younger, was now a mix of brown, black, and platinum blonde, all of which was obviously from a bottle rather than nature. Jacquie's nails were always painted black, she wore heavy eyeliner and, Evey discovered later, she had a total of fourteen piercings and three tattoos. She also bucked the family tradition of lukewarm greetings by hugging Evey hard and chatting incessantly as they collected her bags and left the airport.

Jacquie's room at the family's beautiful Newport home was covered in posters of bands Evey had never even heard of, the walls behind those posters a very watery black colour over what looked at one time to be pink wallpaper. The room itself was a mess, clothes strewn about over every surface, Jacquie just stepping over the clutter without so much as a second glance. Music was always blasting from the stereo-system in the corner, music with fast playing instruments and singers who sounded more like they were screaming than singing. Jacquie was a constant source of irritation to her father who couldn't tolerate the mess and she turned a deaf ear to her mother's constant pleas for her to "just tidy up a bit". Jacquie was nothing like Evey or the ideal girl that her parents wanted her to be, and Evey loved it.

Her cousin wasn't shy about expressing her opinions - including the view that Evey was too prim and proper and in desperate need of a makeover. Still furious at her parents for shipping her off, Evey readily and excitedly agreed, her only stipulation that Jacquie leave her dark red locks alone. The deal was made and the very next day, Evey's transformation began.

Jacquie started with her wardrobe, saying it looked like all of Evey's clothes were picked out for her by her mother. Evey laughed it off and didn't bother to verbalize that it was very much true. Save a few favourite items, all of Evey's clothes were thrown away and the teenagers had a great time hunting through the Rhode Island and New York City stores and boutiques for new outfits. Her new ensembles consisted of mostly dark coloured clothing, all of which Evey thought to be scandalously tight fitting. At first she wasn't sure she'd be able to pull off wearing such risqué clothes, but after getting a lot of compliments from boys they passed while shopping her opinion changed.

As the summer wore on, she noticed that Robbie started appearing nearly everywhere she went; when she went into town to go shopping with Jacquie, when she went to the beach, when she was doing homework in her temporary bedroom. Evey started wondering whether Robbie was actually a wizard and apparating all over the place, but she had no other evidence to support or disprove that particular theory so she let it go.

Between all the shopping trips, Jacquie and Evey found time to go to the beach. They swam mostly, and Jacquie tried teaching Evey to surf, but after falling off her board for the twentieth time, she decided surfing wasn't for her and spent her time laying on the sand. All this time in the sun was giving Evey a slight bronze tint to her pale skin--not to mention at least a hundred new freckles--as well as natural blonde highlights in her wine red hair.

And then there was the running. Jacquie loved to take early morning runs through her large, upscale neighbourhood, and forced Evey to tag along. At first she could barely keep up with her fit cousin, becoming short of breath after just a few minutes and her muscles protested for hours afterwards. But as the days and weeks passed, her muscles grew stronger, her tolerance became greater, and soon she was out running Jacquie, passing her while making friendly taunts about her speed.

Of course, in Jacquie's eyes, Evey's makeover couldn't and wouldn't be complete without putting some extra holes in her body. When she first brought this up to Evey, it made her remember the fit her father had when she was ten and asked to get her ears pierced. Her father insisted that only tramps and other miscreants would mutilate their bodies by piercing holes in them. Regardless, Evey did get her ears pierced, her mother arguing that a proper young lady needed to wear earrings. It was the only nice thing her mother had ever done for her, even going as far as taking her to a very high-class jewellery store herself and holding her hand as the small diamond studs were pushed through her earlobes. Evey remembered that it had hurt, but it wasn't intolerable. So, when she walked away from the piercing store with an extra ear piercing (two sets of holes in each ear now), a stud through the upper cartilage of her left ear and a navel ring, she smirked to herself as she imagined her uptight father's reaction to the 'mutilation' of her body.

Halfway through the summer, things took a disturbing turn. Robbie still seemed to be everywhere, but now instead of just being on the sidelines, he was uncomfortably close. On more than one occasion he offered to put sun-tan lotion on her back when they all went to the beach, and each time he had a strange glint in his eyes that sent a cold shiver down Evey's spine. Jacquie would always save her and dismiss her brother with a wave of her hand before helping Evey herself.

Shortly after those incidents started, the scariest one of all occurred. She was taking a break from her homework, reading a book in the library when Robbie appeared out of nowhere - suddenly right at her side.

'Good afternoon, Evelyn,' he said with what she was sure he thought was a charismatic smile, but in reality, was just creepy.

'Robert,' she greeted politely, glancing up briefly before going back to her book.

Uninvited, he took the seat beside her, leaning in close over her shoulder.

'Whatcha reading?' he asked softly, his perfectly shaggy blonde hair falling into his bright green eyes.

'The Wizard of Oz,' she responded absentmindedly.

'Ah, a classic,' he said with a smile.

Evey just nodded and continued reading.

After a few minutes, Robbie spoke again. 'What do you think Baum was trying to get across to his readers when he wrote this?'

The intellectual question surprised Evey and she looked up at her cousin, jumping a bit when she noticed how close he was.

'Oh,' she stuttered, 'um, I think he was saying that even though you may want to escape sometimes, home will always be there for you to come back to. '

Robbie nodded as he stared down at the book in her hands. After a pause, he looked back up to her.

'What I think he was trying to get across,' he said quietly, 'is that when there are things you want so badly you can feel them in your bones, if you work hard enough, you can get them in the end.'

Evey didn't realize Robbie was slowly moving closer to her until his perfect nose brushed hers. She gasped and a tremor shook her. But Robbie mistook that shudder of fear for something else entirely and before she knew it, his slobbery lips were crushing hers. She screamed, the sound not entirely muffled by his greedy mouth and pushed him away as hard as she could. To her shock, her shove sent him flying out of his chair, across the room, and into one of the bookcases, his head hitting the solid wood hard.

Evey started hyperventilating; what had just happened?! Not only had her cousin--her FIRST cousin--kissed her but she'd used accidental magic to push him away?! She didn't even realize that she had started to cry until a sob escaped her throat. Seconds later, Jacquie was running though the door, drawn by Evey's scream.

'Eve, what is it? What's wrong?' her cousin asked as she kneeled at Evey's side, her dark brown eyes wide with concern.

She shook her head, unable to speak through her sobs and just pointed weakly to where Robbie lay unconscious. Jacquie looked back and forth between her brother and cousin quickly, her shoulder-length, multi-hued tresses flying around her face. After a moment, her chocolate eyes darkened further with anger.

'Evelyn,' she said quietly, her jaw very obviously clenched, 'did my brother try something with you?'

Evelyn took a few heaving breaths, trying to calm herself down before whispering, 'Yes.'

What happened next was a blur to Evey, who'd locked herself in her room as Jacquie reported what had happened to her parents. Her cousin told her later that night that Robbie was gone -- sent back to school a month early and his inheritance cut in half as punishment.

Evey was in shock for days, still unable to believe her cousin was such a sleaze and that she'd done wandless magic. Eventually, Jacquie was sick of her feeling sorry for herself and dragged her into town, supposedly for another shopping trip but she had a secret agenda.

They were casually strolling through the more family-oriented part of Newport, looking at the stores, when Evey heard something that made her newly pierced ears perk up.

'Oh I know! I heard everyone at the World Cup was in danger!'

Evey stopped dead in her tracks. The World cup? Did they mean the Quidditch World Cup? She wished now more than ever she had a wizarding newspaper, or that she was at least in contact with someone from school. But her American relatives were Muggles, so she had been left in the dark. She had to know what was going on.

'Eve? You ok?'

She turned towards Jacquie who was standing a few feet in front of her, suddenly realizing that her feet had stopped moving.

'Oh, er, yeah, I just, um, I just thought we could go to the surf shop and get new bathing suits,' Evey quickly suggested, wanting to follow the person who made the World Cup comment and knowing the surf shop was in that direction.

Jacquie's expressive brown eyes lit up, 'Awesome! You have the best ideas, Eve! Ok, let's go!'

With that Jacquie began to speed walk in the opposite direction, Evey easily keeping up as she strained to hear for any other news about the World Cup. She was more worried than she had ever been in all her life. Didn't Fred and George mention to Lee on the train that their father was trying to get them all tickets? What if something happened to them?

'No!' Evey shook her head lightly, refusing to think of all the things that could've possibly happened to her best mates.

After a minute, and ignoring whatever the hell Jacquie was prattling on about, Evey was able to pick up on the World Cup conversation again, coming from the two teenage boys about fifteen feet ahead of them.

'...heard it was some crazy Pureblood group. Remember what happened over there in the eighties? That crazy guy killing a bunch of people and then getting blown up by a toddler?'

'That guy? I thought he was dead!'

'Well, yeah, but, like, I think it was his followers.'

'Man, that sucks!'

'I know, I know.'

'Anybody die?'

Evey held her breath, mentally preparing for the worst as the other boy took a minute to respond.

'No, I don't think so,' he said, and Evey let out a huge sigh of relief. 'I think some Muggles got all bruised up, but nothing serious...'

Evey tuned out the rest of the conversation -- chatter about some attractive girls the boys had seen earlier in the day.

No one was killed in the attack! Thank Merlin! But then a sneaky doubt crept into her brain - what if the boy was wrong about no one being hurt? What if the twins... ?

'No!' Evey shook herself again, trying to rid herself of the thoughts.

'Eve? Did you hear me?'

She turned to her cousin, unsure of what she had said, just responding with a polite, 'Of course, Jacquie.'

'So, whadda you say? Wanna go to Vinny's?'

Evey remembered that Vinny was the large burly man who had pierced her and, thinking Jacquie wanted her to get another piercing of some sort, happily agreed, much to her cousin's delight. She practically dragged Evey to the shop at the other end of town, and it wasn't until they got inside that Evey realized what was about to happen.

'Ok, Eve, pick one.'

When Evey noticed Jacquie was gesturing to the wall covered in pictures of various tattoos, she audibly gulped. A tattoo?! A piercing was one thing, but a tattoo?! She wasn't sure she could get one of those -- the piercing had hurt like hell. Just to temporarily appease her cousin, she let her eyes wander over pictures of bare-breasted women and hideous tribal designs…and then she saw it; a picture of a small green tree frog. The image immediately brought back memories of her first prank with the twins, the prank that had bonded them. The memories conjured by that tiny picture made Evey smile, and three hours later, she was walking out of the store with a frog tattooed on her left hip.

As interesting, amusing, disturbing and life-changing as her summer in Rhode Island was, after worrying over her school mates fate for the last four weeks, she decided that nothing--not even her parents--could make her leave England, or her friends, again.

And there you have it--Evey's crazy summer holidays! Hope you all enjoyed it! In case you couldn't tell, the scene with Robbie is why I changed the rating. Tell me what you think about this chapter--I'm dying to know! And if you all be good little readers and review, you may ask one question about anything and I will answer it no matter what. (I think that's a pretty good incentive to post a review don't you?) Thanks everyone!