Chapter 3 Butterbeer and Boys

It had been a great day for Harry. Besides hanging out with Ron and Hermione, he had managed to covertly buy a ring from one of the venders and slip into Ginny's bag. When going through her things, she was immediately suspicious of it, but after a private chat with Hermione, had decided to wear it. Harry wondered just how underhanded he had become, because everyone in the group now had something from him. He was pulling Percy away from an argument over a tagless mattress when they ran into a pair of wizards getting into a fight.
The two seemed to be going at it like cats and dogs. Harry was reminded of Ron and Hermione almost immediately. The girl was on the ground, protesting how much mud the boy was getting on her robes. The boy was puffing red, dragging her with all his might to their campsite.

"I don't wanna!" She screamed like a small child. The boy paused, his eyes glued to Harry.

Ron let go of Percy, who muttered about the letter of the law and walked off. The boy let go of the girl, and made his way over.

Harry waited for the eyes to sweep his scar, but it never came. Apparently he knew without having to check.

"Hey Harry," The girl bubbled animated, "You have a scar, just like that Jerry guy…" Her bounce seemed to have returned to her step the second Justin's attention shifted. "Wait! You are that Harry Potter, guy!" She practically screamed it.

"And you are Justin Russo," interrupted Hermione, turning a bit pink. "I saw your presentation on the misuses of dragon blood, you're a genius!" Justin smiled. Hermione started a conversation with him. She twirled a bit in her skirt, and laughed at everything he said. Alex's eyebrows flew up and she stepped between the two.

"Alright, we get it; you want to have a super-dorky baby. Well, the world does need one. Time for you to flash out of here- oh, that's right, you can't do that yet!" Though a bit rude, Alex felt very proud of her ability to humble the girl so much like Justin. Ron stepped up and patted Hermione on the back.

Justin rolled his eyes and introduced himself and his sister to Harry.

"You two are related?! Doesn't seem like it…"Harry was further amazed when Viktor Krum came up and told Justin it was time for them to go. The Russo boy nodded, pulling his sister away from the celebrity.

"Alex, no problems, none, okay?" with that he left her in the capable hands of Hermione Granger, who sounded so much like Justin, Alex wondered if she was a clone. Ginny, on the other hand, was much more fun, the two of them walked back to the camp thinking up revenge schemes.

"Gosh! I can't imagine having…" Alex ran through the list, "seven?"

"Close enough," Laughed Ginny.

Night was falling, and Alex did not feel like walking all the way back to the Russo's room. So, she decided to stay with the Weasleys, who were parked between Mr. Crouch and Mr. Diggory. Justin dropped by to make sure she wasn't troubling anyone. Apparently Mr. Weasely was a family friend that their father mentioned in class, thus escaping the memory of Alex. How was she to know that some guy her father used to be in a club with would pop up?

Alex dragged Justin out of the tent and into the shadows. She rounded on him with the determination of a raging hippogriff folding her arms over her chest seconds after he had his crossed.

"Justin, what are you doing here? Trying to embarrass me?" she hissed, clutching his arm stubbornly.

"Oh Alex, you do that all on your own. Actually, I was going to let you stay the night, but if you're such a child," Alex let out a rude noise at that moment, "Then you might as well come back with me right now!'

It was at this moment that she choose to unleash her most powerful weapon against him; puppy-Alex.

"Okay Justin, please help me. I just wanna stay with my friends one night, and I was being nice, too. But if it's too much to ask for even one night of peace…." She threw in a bunch of words that polite people tended to use, the whole time letting her puppy-dog eyes unleash their power. Unconsciously, she stroked the bicep of his left arm until he released his wand. Once the muscle in his arm relaxed, she latched onto him until every muscle in his body slack off. She closed her eyes and imagined herself back on the couch of Waverly Place, clutching to him as he saved her once again. He was more than a brother to her, more than a rival wizard. His smell was of a thousand different spells mixed with his monster hunting masculinity. Here, win, lose, or draw he would always look after her. And they both knew it.

Justin let a knot of worry he did not know he had been harboring go. He knew the Weasleys, but he also wanted to make sure his sister was okay. Somehow, he knew she was more important than anything else in his life. When he was younger, he had taught her a spell to take her to Istanbul (he knew where it was, but she did not.) He and Max played a prank on her by tricking her into transporting herself there. His father's anger was…. Palpable. It did not matter that Justin regretted it almost immediately. Jerry Russo was furious at his sons, but he came down harder on Justin than Max, who thought it was hilarious. Justin had found her in the midst of a party, but had been unable to convince her to return with him. He left the party and sat by himself, as she had convinced him to let her stay, 'forever, and ever, and ever….' But then, the party had died down, and she had come crying to him, because she was afraid, and no one had taken her home, and she was scared that nobody liked her, and she needed him. As her tears poured down, her face, Justin immediately took her home. She ran from him, and his father was still upset.

She had not spoken to him for days. He could not know whether or not he was feeling bad or just upset. From then on, he made her ask him for help before teaching her his magic. To him she was that little girl again, but this time, he had to let her stay. This time she would not come crying to him afterwards. The over-bearing conscience that had been pounded into his mind told him to watch her, but his heart told him she should be okay…

He muttered something about checking out the neighbors and dropped her suitcase in the girl's side of the tent. On the way out he made arrangements to meet up again later.

Once he was assured that his sister would be fine, Justin flashed himself back to his tent.

"Americans," muttered Fred, "Always so flashy." The night was winding down; the males in the tent had stuffed themselves, and napped out. Harry less so than the others. He had kept his snacking to a minimum, excited at Justin's offer to play Twelve Ball, and also, he was afraid of going back into Voldemort's mind.

Ginny was cleaning up, helped by Harry. Alex noticed, absent-mindedly, that watching these two were like watching her better days with Justin. They were connected, two of them, like peanut butter and jelly, Romeo and Juliet. She shuddered at the last one. Juliet was gone; Alex was all that Justin had left.

"Ginny, can you levitate me upstairs?" She whined loudly to get the two moving, "C'mon, a little bit of magic never hurt anyone." There was silence as everyone in the room realized just how wrong she was. "Fine, a little bit of magic always helps a relationship!" She perked up.

She staggered under the effects of butterbeer and an unholy amount of Bertie's Every Flavored Jellybeans. She let out a laugh; "I think Harry wants to help me to bed…" she winked suggestively. Harry blushed, stuttering out an explanation to Ginny. The red-head was ignoring him.

"C'mon, Harry, I think it's bedtime," She set Harry down on the couch. Alex could read the promise in her eyes to return. As her hand left Harry's arm, a knot of fear appeared as he wondered what would happen if his newest protector vanished…

Alex watched as they cuddled up, just like she and Justin would many late nights, both exhausted, but too comfortable to sleep… She felt a stab of loneliness, figuring that her brothers were probably messing around in their room. Her eyes drifted off as she watched them…