~I still don't own any of the characters owned by anyone else.

Gabrielle landed in a crouched stance her hands sinking into the fresh snow. Her eyes flashed crimson few a second as she sniffed at the air and glanced around the cemetery angrily a few times before allowing the snow filled landscape to wash some of her aggravation away. She rubbed at her arms in frustration. She hated to travel via portkey, they always made her feel like her skin was trying to tear itself off her body and crawl away. She would have much rather just had Rose teleport her or take a portal, hell even traveling via storm cloud would have been more fun, even if it did tend to leave her hair slightly damp and take longer. She spared a glance at her father as Rose helped Trista to her feet.

Harry Potter didn't notice his daughter's interest as he was busy looking around the cemetery with interest. He pulled himself together and gave his wife a smile when he caught her looking at him with a bemused look on her face.

Harry finally noticed Gabrielle rubbing her arms, "I'll come back later and look, but right now it looks like some of us could stand to get out of the cold."

Ginny returned the smile, "You can always come back later and pay your respects."

Harry nodded, he had gotten so used to being able to talk to his parents in their portraits that he could almost forget the fact that his parents' bodies were rotting in a grave not more than twenty feet from where he was now standing. "Right, lead on."

Willow chuckled as she set off toward the house by way of the village. She was glad to have her children back if only for the holiday break. She had missed her children's laughter badly. She had thought it would be like sending them off to camp but as the days stretched into weeks and the weeks into months she had had to force herself to stay busy so that she wouldn't just rush to Hogwarts and steal them back. She just hoped they were having a good time.

Rose was delighted, the town was lovely though that could have just been because of the fresh coat of snow that gave everything a pure and almost enchanted look. She loved the bright Christmas lights that adorned the houses. Her gaze flickered between the different muggle houses as the group walked along the path. She briefly wondered if her mother would let her visit the stores in the morning just to see what they held. She stopped as Trista let out a small gasp. She glanced over at where Trista was looking. "It's an impressive work of magic that conceals the statue."

Harry shrugged, "It's fitting, we should get going though."

Luna noticed that Lenora was staring open mouthed at the statue. "Did you eat a nargle? You have that look on your face."

Lenora blinked, "What? No, I don't think so at least, I was just suddenly reminded how famous dad is."

Gabrielle was slightly relieved that Trista appeared to have missed Lenora's comment. "Hey I bet Dobby will have hot chocolate brewing, last one there is a rotten egg." She grinned even as she took off running.

Leo grinned even as he took off running after his sister. While he didn't really expect to catch up with Gabrielle, he wanted to beat the rest of his siblings. "Come on slowpokes."

Lenora and Lillian pulled an amused Luna with them as they took off running after Gabrielle.

Rose muttered, "Stupid dress." She hiked her dress up slightly with one hand so she could run. She reached out with her other hand and snagged Trista's hand. "Let's go."

Willow watched with amusement as the rest of the children took off running after Gabrielle. She knew they didn't have a hope of catching her, but they were putting forth a good effort. She smiled and reached out and clasped Hermione's hand. "So how did they do at Hogwarts?"

Hermione chuckled, "Top marks, and they appear to have made some friends."

Willow grinned, "Tell me everything."

Harry rolled his eyes, "I'm going to go supervise the kids."

Ginny chuckled as she watched Harry run off like a kid shirking chores. She was just happy that Harry was holding up so well after returning to Hogwarts and the wizarding world after so many years away. He had needed the break so badly back then, though she had to admit that everyone had needed a break after the horrible experience in the ministry. She was just hoping that their holiday plans went off without a hitch. She wasn't sure about having the whole family and friends gathered in one place but at least she would get a chance to hang out and relax for a couple of days before everyone got there.

Gabrielle stopped short as she approached the large stone wall that surrounded the land where her grandparents had been killed. She could feel traces of her mother's magic as well as traces of other strange non-wizarding magic on the walls and the gate. The wall looked to be made of some type of shiny black stone. She was impressed with the near seamless way the large stones fit together. She looked closer at the stones as she caught a hint of movement in one of them. Now that she was paying attention she could just barely make out arcane designs flowing beneath the surface of the stone. Her gaze swept over the large metal gate as she waited for her siblings to catch up. It looked sturdy enough to stop a rampaging dragon, that is if you didn't simply open the massive gate and let it walk through.

She would have to ask Uncle Xander when she got to the house how the walls had been made and why there were a number of strange black metal dragon claws lining the top of the wall every ten feet or so. She thought they were neat but couldn't figure out why they were there. As her gaze fell on the slightly overgrown hedges she fell in love with them. They easily and artfully blocked the line of site from the road to the property with the way the path twisted. She loved the slightly overgrown hedges that blocked the view of the house as it also meant that no one could see inside the grounds from the road. She had been afraid that she couldn't run around without her clothes for fear of the neighbors complaining. She couldn't wait to see the rest of the grounds.

Leo was only slightly out of breath as he finally reached the gate just slightly ahead of Rose and Trista. He had had to sprint the last hundred yards just to keep ahead of them. He glanced at the large forbidding stone wall. The thing felt a little creepy to him, as if its magic was slightly off. He had to admit that it looked like a formidable wall. He guessed that it was at least ten feet thick and had to be a good thirty feet tall. He was rather impressed with the metal work on the black iron gate though he was slightly curious where the lock was supposed to be. There was nothing more than a blank plate in the middle of the gate where the two halves met. He figured the lock must be some magical lock that Willow or Dawn had cooked up.

Rose let go of Trista's hand as she stopped a few feet from where Leo and Gabrielle were looking the walls over, "You sure this is the place? It looks a little scary."

Gabrielle sniffed at the air, "Mom said it was a walled property with a large gate. You see any other property around here that has Mom's magic and matches the description? What happened to the twins?"

Rose rolled her eyes, "They were running with Luna, she isn't exactly in as good of shape as the rest of us. Most people can't sprint for half a mile let alone a mile."

Trista grinned as Gabrielle looked at her, "Werewolf, makes certain things easier, especially around the full moon."

Leo watched the twins come jogging up the path with an out of breath Luna trailing along.

By the time Harry reached the children he was silently thanking the council for forcing watchers to maintain a minimum amount of physical fitness. As it was he was still slightly out of breath when he reached the wall. He could sympathize with Luna as she good-naturedly tried to force more air into her lungs by breathing deeply. He felt like glaring at the smiling little munchkins that didn't look at all out of breath. Not even Lillian, who normally came in the slowest of the children, looked winded, though he supposed it was because she had only been jogging at Luna's pace rather than competing against her sisters and brother.

Rose frowned at the door, "So can we open it already?"

Harry chuckled, "Willow says it's keyed to each member of the family. Just put your hand on the door and it should open."

Rose reached out and placed her small hand on the large metal plate. After a second the door swung open without even a squeak or groan. She was impressed that the gate didn't even make any noise as it came to rest against the walls of the short tunnel. "I guess that means we can enter." Rose stepped through the gates and started down the tunnel.

Gabrielle's smile was wiped from her face as she stepped into the tunnel and staggered drunkenly. She placed one hand against the wall as she fell to her knees. She bit back a gasp as she felt the magic wards ripping into her painfully. She could barely do more than curl up into a ball and cry in pain.

Rose turned and shouted in surprise as her sister collapsed. "Gabrielle?" She frantically looked around for a cause. As her quick look didn't show anything wrong with her sister physically, she opened her mystical senses as wide as she could trying to figure out if there was a mystical cause. She had to force herself to not take a step back as she felt her sister's unshielded power for the first time in years.

Leo ran up to check on his sister, "What's wrong with her? Dad!" He turned back to look at Harry.

She ignored Leo's frantic questions as she put her mind to work on looking past the blinding crimson light that was her sister. She knew her sister was more powerful than she was but still, "Bloody hell," she hadn't really understood just how much more until now. As she concentrated harder she was able to 'see' past the blinding light and was able to get a better picture of her sister. She was however more than slightly surprised as her sister's image wavered and changed before her eyes. It was the little details that she noticed first, Gabrielle's fingernails were some type of dark purple almost black crystal, her eyeteeth were much longer and sharper looking than normal. Her hair was blood red and her eyes were flickering between her normal green and a pulsing green that was too bright to be normal. The largest surprise other than the fact that her skin was even whiter and paler than normal was the strangely pulsating design on Gabrielle's chest that looked to have been penned with some psychedelic color changing ink that glowed brightly. Rose tried to ignore the pulsing tattoo as she went back to searching for the real problem. She was more than a little shocked as she realized just what the changes to her sister's aura meant and why she was being attacked. She briefly wished that Willow wasn't so far away or that her dad knew more about Gabrielle's style of magic.

She wasn't sure why the wards were being stupid but she knew that at this rate they would either kill her sister or her sister would rip them and grounds apart when the pain finally made her lose control. Rose wasn't going to let that happen to her sister so she did the only thing she could think to do, she pulled deeply on that fragment of her own soul that held the unique powers she had inherited from her mother. While she couldn't do the same things as her mother they were still related. She reached out with her raw power, wrapped it around the strand of magic attacking her sister and traced it back to the keep. She felt along the magic until she traced it back to the crystal for the temporary wards and tweaked it so that they unlocked for Gabrielle.

Gabrielle gasped for breath as the pain stopped, she could still feel the wards but they weren't ripping at her essence anymore. She couldn't seem to stop sobbing even as her dad pulled her into a hug.

Harry wasn't sure what had gone wrong with the wards, but as he was holding his crying daughter in his arms he was going to find out. "Rose since you don't seem affected can you run to the house and get Dawn to turn the wards the hell off. Leo find Willow and get her here now."

Leo and Rose took off running.

Trista nervously watched Gabrielle and the tunnel.

Willow wasn't sure what to think as Leo came rushing back down the path as fast as his legs would carry him but whatever it was flew out of her head as Leo shouted for her attention, "Willow, Gabrielle got hurt by the wards come quick." Willow didn't even hesitate as she called on her magic and flew toward the house as fast as she could."