Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling, nor will I ever be. Therefore, I do not own Harry Potter or it's characters... Just wanted to make that clear... haha

This story is rated T for foul language

Chapter 20

Ari's POV

I hear the faint sound of a door closing from behind James' bedroom door so I pull my lips away from James with a laugh and prop myself up on my elbows on his bed. "Jamie, not that this isn't loads of fun, but I think the others are back and we've been at this for a bit."

He props himself up too and shrugs his shoulders. "We can let everyone else say hi to them first. Besides, I've got a few lost months to make up for…" He leans over and plants a kiss on my nose.

At that moment, James' bedroom door opens and Eli pokes his head in. As soon as he sees James and me tangled up on the bed together, he smirks. "Really Ari? How many times am I going to catch you two like this today? What, were you trying to keep warm again?"

James smirks at me. "Your brother's a real prat…"

I nod my head and return his smirk. "That he is." I turn my smirk over to Eli. "What's up?"

He rolls his eyes with a laugh. "I just wanted to let you know that everyone is back and just fine. Oh and we 'kids' are going to go to Landen's house to play some quidditch since he has a pitch in his back yard. Do you two want to come with?"

I give James the most pleading look I can manage. "Oh please, Jamie? I haven't played in ages!"

Landen pokes his head in under Eli's. "Are you two coming?"

James smirks at Landen. "Of course!"

Landen lets out a laugh. "Good! You can be the other captain then!"

James and I jump off the bed and Landen laughs again. "You two might want to get dressed first…"

I look down at my clothes and a laugh escapes my lips; I'm still in my pajamas. "Valid point… Give me ten minutes."

I run out of James' room and up to my room on the fifth floor. I walk over to my closet and grab a red long sleeved shirt. I change into the shirt then walk over to my dresser and pull out a pair of jeans. I quickly change into those and pull on my black converse. I look at my alarm clock and grin. Four minutes to spare…

I quickly brush my hair and pull it up into a ponytail before tucking my wand behind my ear and running back downstairs. I meet up with Landen and sigh. "Do you have an extra broom? Mine is still in my room at Hogwarts."

He nods and holds his arm out to me. "I might have an extra broom… Are you ready to go? You're the only one left."

I return his nod and grab his arm. In an instant, he and I leave Grimmauld Place and land outside a large white house with a black roof. We walk through the big double doors into the house I can't contain the gasp that escapes my lips.

There is a gigantic crystal chandelier hanging from the eggshell colored ceiling and long, winding stairs that lead up to a second level. There are large glass doors on either side of us. One that leads into a gigantic kitchen, where I can see multiple house elves working, and one that leads to an office. In front of us, there are huge, ornate wooden double doors with wrought iron windows that show a quidditch pitch out back. I look over to Landen with wide eyes and my mouth agape. "Lan, your house is AMAZING!"

He looks at me with a grimace. "If you say so…"

I smack him on the arm. "What are you talking about? This place is huge!"

"And empty..."

I roll my eyes and smirk. "What? This place is the opposite of empty!"

"I meant empty as in my parents are never home, you twat! Any time that I'm here, I'm here by myself. Now! Let's go find you a broom. As I said before, I might have an extra one you can use but I'm not positive."

We walk through the wooden double doors to the back and Landen leads me to a shed. "If I do have a spare broom, it will be in here." He smirks at me as he opens the door to the shed. "If you can manage to find a broom in here, you can use it."

A laugh bubbles up out of my lips as I look into the broom filled shed. "It was a bit difficult, but I think I found one… Thanks."

I grab a broom that is hanging on one of the walls and Landen grabs the broom next to it before we take off toward the pitch. Once we get there Eli lets out an impatient huff. "It's about time Ari! Once again, we were stuck waiting on you…"

I flip him off with a grin and look at Landen. "Who's the other captain?"

He places his hand on his chest in fake offense. "Me, of course!"

I let out a laugh as I shake my head. "Okay, well who picks first?"

He points to James with a grin. "Loser picks first."

James flips Landen off with a laugh while the rest of us roar with laughter. "Fine. I pick Freddie."

Landen grins. "I pick Al."

Once the teams are set up, we mount our brooms and get ready to play. Landen is playing seeker while he has Roxanne at goal, Al at chaser, and Eli as chaser with him, while James is playing chaser and has me at seeker, Brittney at chaser and Freddie at goal. Since Brittney and Eli haven't ever played before, we have them both playing chasers and we are playing without beaters. We are all also playing new positions since it's rather unfair for us to play our normal positions against two new people.

While Landen talks to his team, James flies up next to me and says, "I bet you a proper dinner that I can score ten times before you catch the snitch."

I arch my eyebrow and smirk at him. "You're on, Potter…"

He returns my smirk as he flicks me on the nose. "That's captain to you, Brighton."

I roll my eyes and stick out my tongue at him as he flies back down. I lower down next to Brittney and grin. "Are you ready?"

She shakes her head nervously. "NO! I have NO idea what I'm doing!"

I pat her on the arm with a laugh. "Just try to get the quaffle through any of the three hoops over there and avoid touching the gold ball with wings. Only Landen or I can grab that. Each time you toss the quaffle through a hoop its worth ten points and if Landen or I catch the snitch, it's worth 250 points and the game ends. Oh! And you can take the quaffle from Eli or Al if necessary, but they will be trying to do the same thing to us. You good now?"

She nods a little less nervously and looks forward. "I think it's about to start. Oh hell, I think I'm going to hurl…"

I chuckle at her and take a deep breath. I know this isn't a real match, but I still hate to lose and I don't plan on losing to Eli. He'll never let me live it down…

Suddenly Landen's voice interrupts my thought. "So how about we make this interesting?"

James laughs. "What did you have in mind?"

Landen grins at him. "How about the loser has to cook a delicious dinner for the winners, AND clean up the mess afterwards… All without magic…"

I look down at James and see him looking up at me with a smirk before he answers Landen. "Perfect. Now are we going to continue talking or are we going to play?"

Lily yells "GO!" as she lobs the quaffle up as high as she can and releases the snitch. As soon as the quaffle leaves her hands, everyone mobilizes. Al, Eli, Brittney and James all rush toward the quaffle while Landen and I circle above looking for the snitch.

Al catches the quaffle first, much to my dismay. James flattens himself to his broom and chases after him as Al races toward Freddie. James is almost close enough to get the quaffle from Al when he shoots on Freddie.

Freddie blocks the shot and flexes his arms. "Yeah! Nothing gets past Freddie-o!"

Brittney catches the falling quaffle and looks at me panicked. "What do I do with this?"

I point down the pitch. "GO THAT WAY!"

She looks up at me and frowns. "DON'T YELL AT ME!"

James snorts as he clutches his sides and laughs. "Just fly toward Roxie and try to score on her!" Brittney tucks the quaffle under her arm and races toward the Roxanne. Once she's close enough, she hurls the quaffle at the bottom left goal, sending it sailing through unopposed.

(Break)

I circle above the pitch looking for the snitch, a grunt of frustration emanating from my throat. The score is 20-90 with us in the lead. Brittney has scored twice while James has scored seven times, which means he's almost at ten goals and I still haven't found the snitch.

Suddenly I see a glint of something off to my right. A grin spreads across my face as I press my body to my broom and race toward the glint, only subconsciously noticing the three people standing next to the house.

Apparently Landen saw me take off because I can hear him following behind me. I see the snitch take off to the left, toward the center of the pitch, so I turn my broom to follow it. It dives toward the ground and so do I; making sure to mimic it's every movement. I outstretch my hand toward the golden ball and stretch, my fingertips almost grazing the edge of the orb. Before I can grab the snitch, it levels out and zooms forward. I jerk my broom flat and narrowly avoid hitting the ground as I rush to follow the snitch.

I hear James yell above me "That's eight now, Ari! Are you trying to let me win?"

I roll my eyes with a laugh and extend my hand out again as my feet lightly brush the grass below, stretching my arm to its limits as I get closer to the winged ball. I tightly enclose my fingers around the snitch, earning an angry shout from Al.

I can hear Freddie cheering and then I'm tackled off my broom to the ground. "Good catch Ari! I really didn't want to cook these blokes dinner."

I try to wriggle free, but I'm pinned tightly to the ground. "Get off of me Freddie!"

He gets up off of me with a laugh and helps me up. "Sorry, mate…"

Everyone else lowers to the ground and walks over as I dust myself off. James walks over and claps me on the back. "Bloody good catch, Ari!"

Brittney runs over and gives Freddie a hug. "We won!"

Landen, Al, Eli and Roxanne all walk over to us with disgruntled expressions on their faces. James looks at them with a smirk. "So what are you making us for dinner?"

Landen looks around at his team then smirks at James. "That's a surprise."

Just then, Harry and Landen's dad, Thomas, walk over with a third man. The third man has platinum blonde hair and grey eyes. His mouth is pulled up into a small smile as I look him over with furrowed brows. He is dressed in a black suit with a green tie and Italian loafers, carrying a cane in one of his hands.

I smirk at the sight of the cane as Thomas steps forward and clears his throat. "Ariana, this is Draco Malfoy. He is going to be teaching you occlumency to help you block out the new Dark Lord."

I glance over to Harry, who has his arms crossed and looks less than pleased about this. He catches my eye and sighs. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to…"

Draco looks over at Harry with a smirk. "What's wrong Pott… Harry? Still don't trust me after all these years? I thought we were past this…"

Harry narrows his eyes at Draco. "You know that's not it… She's like my daughter and she's been through a LOT. I remember how hard occlumency was for me and-"

I clear my throat and step forward. "SHE is standing right here. And although she appreciates e concern, she is always up for a challenge." I extend my hand out to Draco and smile politely. "Ariana Brighton, but everyone calls me Ari."

Draco accepts my hand with a smirk. "Scorp wasn't exaggerating when he told me about you… As stated before, I'm Draco Malfoy."

I frown at him. "Scorpius has told you about me? Oh Merlin…"

He nods with a chuckle then get serious. "Yes and, if what he has told me is true, then this is going to be difficult. Are you sure you want to do this?"

I glance over at Harry again and see his uneasy look. I answer Draco, looking at Harry the entire time. "Yes, I'm sure. I can do this."

Draco nods with a stoic expression. "Okay…"

"Well Mister Malfoy-"

He holds up his hand to stop me. "Draco, please."

I nod. "Well, Draco, when do we start?"

He raises his eyebrows at me and looks over to Harry then back to me. "We can start tomorrow, since it is still Christmas day and you probably have plans for the evening."

"As a matter of fact, I do. Tomorrow is perfect."

He nods seriously. "Alright. I will pick you up from Po… HARRY'S manor at nine tomorrow morning." With that, he apparates away.

I turn around and look at Landen, Eli, Al and Roxanne with a smirk. "Don't you lot have a dinner to prepare?"

Eli fakes a laugh and flips me off. Roxanne rolls her eyes and grabs Landen's arm while Al frowns and grabs Eli's arm. The four of them apparate back to Grimmauld place with a sharp POP!

I walk over to Harry and sigh. "I need to talk to you…"

He nods and gestures for me to follow him as he walks out of the group's ear shot. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing… I just didn't tell you everything I saw when we were at the Burrow. After I opened Grandma Weasley's present, I saw Caledon talking to Cass about the American Embassy. They didn't say anything more than that they were planning on attacking one of them, so I have no idea when or where this is going to happen."

He nods again and pinches the bridge of his nose before patting me on the shoulder. "Thank you for telling me… I will see to it that I figure out the details of this." He looks past me and then flashes a smirk at me. "Now go celebrate your victory." He walks over to Thomas and says something before they both apparate away.

I nod at him with a grin then walk back to James, Freddie and Brittney. "We better get back. I don't trust Eli and Landen to prepare us food without sneaking in something that will make us sick…"

Brittney laughs and nods her head. "Oh hell, you totally have a point…"

Brittney grabs Freddie's arm and they apparate back with a crisp POP!

I smirk at James as he holds out his arm. "By the way, I DO believe someone owes me a proper dinner…"

He laughs loudly. "I do believe you're right… Just let me know when you want to cash that in…"

I let out a laugh. "Oh don't worry, I will." I reach over and grab his arm with a smirk. As soon as I touch his arm, Landen's house disappears and number 12 Grimmauld place appears in front of me. We walk into the house and take a seat at the kitchen table to talk about the match with Freddie and Brittney while the others make us dinner.

Sorry for making yall wait so long for this update! I rewrote this chapter at least four times before I found a version of it that I liked. At first, I was going to kill off a few of the adult characters, such as Ginny or George, to give James a more personal reason to fight Caledon, but I figured out a way ro do that without having to kill any adults in the story just yet. Plus I didn't want to depress yall after I just cheered you up with some James/Ariana lovin. :P

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts and opinions about this chapter!

I would also like to thank those of you who took the time to leave me a review for the last chapter, those of you who added this story to your alerts, and those of you who have stuck with me through the good and bad chapters of this story. I really do appreciate all my lovely readers and I don't know what I would do without yall. :)

Thanks!

-Tx