Thanks for the reviews, Madmad237, Weasleytwinslover87, SuperNovaWriter, JulesDragonlady, and Sarah Liz B! :D
We're moving along!
Sorry this took so long, I had my audition earlier today. It was the strangest thing, and it was so incredibly hot here today.
So, I have a question, mainly geared at my returning readers - I've thought about this over the last week, but how would you guys feel if I did a little series of one shots? I'm considering titling it "Deleted Scenes." Each one shot would be based from The Dark Lord's Last Hope, and this story (once its done at least.) and it would be certain scenes from other character's perspectives. Yay or nay?
Review, review, review! I've got exciting things planned. ;]
DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANY OF THIS, EXCEPT FOR ANY CHARACTERS YOU DON'T RECOGNIZE. JK ROWLING IS JESUS!
CHAPTER 21
After chasing her two cousins around the house for what seemed to be hours and catching up with her family members. Audrey set out around seven to meet Sven and Karl in the square.
She sat on the fountain and waited, looking around. As always, the city square was filled with people. Mainly muggle tourists, walking around and snapping pictures with their cameras. She remembered Lily telling her their first year that Muggle pictures don't move like wizard ones. Lily showed Audrey a few of them from her home.
I always found it quite sad that muggle pictures didn't move like ours. Lily had shown me a picture of her childhood dog that had passed away the year before. It made me reminisce of an old stray dog that used to come to our home often, we named him Jackson. One day he just stopped coming to us. My parents and I like to think that maybe he found a home somewhere else, or that he was reunited with a long lost owner. But something always told me that he had died, though whenever I look at the pictures I have of him it makes me smile. He's moving around excitedly in the photo frame, barking. To see Lily's still photos, I just felt such pain to think that when she looks at it that her dog wont move.
"Muggle watching?" said a familiar voice. Audrey turned to see Sven sitting on the fountain next to her. She nodded.
"Look at that one's shirt." He chuckled, pointing into the crowd. Audrey remembered something.
"Hey Sven?"
"Yeah?"
"What were you laughing about earlier?" Audrey cocked her head.
"Oh!" Sven laughed again. "That. Well, I was laughing because every time Karl sees you or someone mentions you in front of him he looks all goofy. Then of course, watching you two have normal conversations is priceless."
"How so?" Audrey asked, blushing slightly that Sven had told her such a thing about Karl.
"You both get this dreamy look in your eyes. He grins a lot and you certainly bat those eyelashes of yours a lot." Sven elbowed her, she blushed again, covering her face.
"Muggle watching?" said Karl, just arriving at the fountain.
"Yes." Audrey replied, still covering her face with her hands. Karl sat next to her trying to pry them off.
"Did Sven do something?" He laughed as she was struggling with him.
"Nope." The other two said together at the same time. Karl raised a suspicious eyebrow at Sven, who looked away.
"I was just so embarrassed by some of the muggle tourist apparel around here." Audrey said, covering for Sven and finally taking her hands off her face.
"Audrey! Where'd you come from?" Karl asked, joking. She lightly slapped his arm and he grinned, wrapping his arms around her waist. Sven shot her an 'I told you so.' look.
"England." Audrey replied, giving him a look.
"Well your Russian is impeccable." Karl mused. Audrey slapped her palm to her forehead and he laughed.
"Can we go to dinner before I vomit?" Sven asked, getting up. The other two followed, laughing.
We almost always ate at the same café, a small, old building that few muggles visited. I was surprised it was still even in business after all these years. Despite being a muggle business it was owned by two wizard brothers. Like almost everyone, they knew nothing about my family. They only knew them as 'the famous Ivanoff family' …my grandmother's family. Though I wasn't necessarily aware of what the Ivanoff family had done that they were considered so aristocratic in wizard Russia.
"Welcome back, you three." said Gosha, one of the brothers who worked behind the counter. "The usual?"
The three nodded and he laughed.
"Always the same." He tutted, shaking his head and walking away.
"Well it's not our faults it's the only good dinner entrée they have." Sven muttered to his friends. They laughed.
We spent the holidays as we always did, wandering the city, eating at Gosha's café. We went to a secluded beach near the Neva river all the time, sitting and watching the water. Of course, we attended Sailing Week every summer, a festival and competition among wizards and muggles. The three of us didn't care much for the boating, but there was music, dancing, and good food.
Audrey laughed when Karl twirled her around and then continued to dance.
"Where's Sven?" She yelled over the music and cheers.
Karl nodded his head in the other direction where Sven, and her two cousins, Hans and Peter, were talking to a group of girls, most likely tourists.
"Are they-?" Audrey began, as they started dancing for the next song.
"I think they're muggles, but they've been looking at him all night." Karl replied.
"Our little boy is growing up." Asia mocked, Karl grinned twirling her around once more.
"Yeah." Karl said, getting closer to her.
I don't think I was entirely sure what was happening, but my heart was fluttering and it felt like there were pixies in my stomach. His lips collided with mine, and if I had been human, with the speed of my heart I probably would have died.
Audrey ran her hands through his hair as he deepened the kiss, coming back with as much force. She couldn't hear much at all. Time, sound, and everything else seemed to be non-existent at that moment.
Hahahahahaha!
They broke apart, looking to where the laughter had come from. Of course it was Sven. He wore a huge grin.
"It's about time." He said, smirking and crossing his arms. Audrey blushed and buried her face in Karl's chest.
"Now, if you'll excuse me. Hans owes me some money." Sven said, skipping off.
"You bet on it?" Audrey said incredulously and Sven called over his shoulder.
"Da!"
Karl and Audrey exclaimed glances, she shrugged her shoulders and pulled him in for another kiss.
The second time didn't last as long as the first…
Sven came charging between the two purposely, breaking them up. He put one arm around each of them.
"Oh and I'm totally telling both of your grandfathers!"
The two groaned, Audrey knew Edik would be fine, and Grigori would be fine. But she would never live it down, and she was sure Karl wouldn't either.
"You're so cute when you're both in unison." Sven smirked. "Get back to sucking each other's faces off." He waved them off and went running through the square.
As always, my time in Russia flew by in a breeze, I was leaving the night after Sven and Karl would set off to school. Durmstrang started two weeks before Hogwarts, and I was sad to see my best friend and my boyfriend leave. I wouldn't see them for another year, and every year it was always a little more painful. I hated waiting, I loved the city, and I cherished our times there.
The way Durmstrang students traveled to school, at least from Russia, was by boat. Like the Kings Cross station, the port to Durmstrang was hidden. It didn't have a "stupid" name like Platform 9 ¾ , which Sven and Karl had found incredibly funny. In order to get into the Port, you would have to board a boat. A small, rickety, old yacht that Muggles couldn't see. Once entering the yacht, you'd take the first door on the left and be on the docks.
Despite Karl and Sven insisting to me numerous times that their docks were a whole different world from Platform 9 ¾ , but really, it was just the same.
Audrey slipped quickly and quietly into the boat, took the first door on the right and was out on a large dock. There was a huge white roof over it and several parents bustling around, kids with trolleys, trunks, and pets. Audrey snorted.
She made her way through the crowd, taking in the large black boat that was tied to the dock. It was labeled DURMSTRANG, like the dock. And they thought Audrey's means of transportation weren't original. Right.
After breaking through a crowd of rowdy boys who were cat calling at her, she had seen the back of Karl's head easily, and then spotted Sven some feet away chatting with someone she couldn't see. She ran towards them, not sure when the ship was set out to sail.
"Karl!" Audrey called, running to him. He turned around, an expression of surprise and happiness on his face. She ran into his arms and kissed him.
They pulled apart once out of breath, he rested his forehead against hers.
"That was some good bye." He breathed, she gave a small laugh. In the distance, they heard two fox whistles. Audrey looked over to find Sven and Afanasi, the vampire they had befriended a few years before.
"Afanasi? Out in the day time? What is this?" Audrey said sarcastically. The vampire grinned.
"Just had to see dear old Sven off here." He patted Sven's shoulder. "I'm being temporary daddy for the moment." Afanasi grinned, bearing his fangs slightly, Sven's real father was on a business trip.
There was a foghorn sound that cut through the air. Karl sighed, and looked at his best friend.
"We better board before all the compartments are full."
"And before the train leaves without you." Afanasi said pointedly.
"That too." Karl agreed.
Sven gave Audrey a tight hug, then began to wheel his stuff over to the boarding ramp. Afanasi followed, muttering something about awkward situations. Karl and Audrey exchanged glances.
"You'll write me?"
"Of course." Karl's eyes were magnificent in the sunlight. "Only if you write me." He elbowed her lightly.
"Da, Karl!" Audrey said, as if it weren't obvious enough.
She gave him a final kiss before he boarded, then walked off the docks with Afanasi.
After spending the rest of the day roaming the city with Afanasi, and spending some time with my family I began to pack for England once more. I would go home for a day or more, and then head to James Potter's house for a week and a half. Mr. and Mrs. Potter had offered to take all of us to Diagon Alley for school supplies, and my parents wouldn't pass up that opportunity. My mother refused to be seen in front of humans with me, and so did my father. Though it was for safety reasons, it seemed to me that my parents worried more about my reputation then I actually did…
Usually, I did my shopping in Russia with my aunts and grandmother but this year was different.
I wasn't sure what to expect at the Potter residence, as weird as it was I had never stayed in an entirely human household. I had visited Karl's grandfather's house…but that was different. Mr. and Mrs. Potter didn't know what I was...
…though their son did.