We're moving along! :D

*Oneesan - My friend in Japan told me it means 'big/elder sister' in Japanese, and can also refer to a mentor. (I hope that's right...well anyway, it's in this chapter. I've found that oneechan means 'little sister'?)

Reeevvvieeewww?

DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN ANY OF THIS, EXCEPT FOR ANY CHARACTERS YOU DON'T RECOGNIZE. JK ROWLING IS JESUS!

CHAPTER 30

October flew by as quickly as September, and James and Sirius were still being difficult. I admired Karl for having nothing but patience for the two, mainly Sirius. At the time, I still disregarded what everyone had told me which was so "blatantly obvious."

So blatantly obvious that even Hisoka had to bring it up…

Audrey had just finished playing something for Hisoka.

"Excellent, you'll be set for the competition next Saturday." She smiled pleasantly.

Since my first year, I had done four competitions every year. It was a loophole through my father's rules. I couldn't make a professional debut until I turned fifteen, but going to competitions provided me with some good exposure when I placed. Of course, most of these competitions were around England and Scotland, and Angeline Hayes was at every single one.

After my first competition, where I had met Angeline and "overthrown" her, she wouldn't leave me alone. She had won multiple competitions over the years and she wasn't quite used to anyone coming in that could actually be of equal caliber. Angeline and I, neither is better than the other. One unspoken thing we have agreed on is that we are incredibly different. Angeline was more stoic, and technical, whereas I was more in motion and emotional. Though if you were to ask Angeline herself if we were equals, she would say no. We have different ideas of music and if a musical hierarchy exists. She appeared to feel as though music was a limited thing, it had to be in your blood, or you had to have money. I strongly disagree, and hope to emphasize the point that music cannot be owned and cannot be caged.

As Audrey was packing up, Hisoka spoke.

"I noticed you've been having some gentlemen following you around…"

The way she spoke of it, there was a mixture of curiosity, innocence, and conviction. It was the way she had spoken to her clients, and pretty much everyone else. But I had caught it, as she had been training me in other subtle art forms besides music.

"Really, Oneesan?" Audrey replied in a similar manner, she was being sarcastic but hid her sarcasm well. Hisoka was quite impressed.

"Really." Hisoka gave a tiny laugh. "Have you not noticed?"

"I have been a bit preoccupied." Audrey replied. "And I have Karl." She added, giving Hisoka a knowing look.

"Beyond Karl, Ayla."

She had insisted on calling me by my stage name, so I would be used to it in the outside world when she spoke to me or about me.

"I haven't really noticed anyone but Karl." Audrey replied, blushing slightly. Hisoka laughed.

"Half of the young men in this school have looked at you and you haven't noticed?" Hisoka glided across the floor, fixing an arrangement of flowers on her table.

"How do you have flowers in the fall? It's far too cold…" said Audrey.

"That is off topic, Oneechan." Hisoka replied. "But if you must know, they are from a friend of mine. He is also a vampire, and he's quite good friends with the Headmaster. You'll meet him soon, he's lovely."

"As I was saying, you should be more observant. You may only have a quarter veela in your blood, but it works more to your advantage than you realize…physically and mentally." Hisoka continued.

I was quite annoyed with her at the time, just as I had been slightly annoyed with Dmitri and the rest of Karl's team calling me out on Sirius. I am very plain looking, and I must emphasize that. I may have the hair of a banshee, but I'm sure that there are tons of young women across England that have the same features as I do. Brown eyes, black hair, pale skin…I saw a lot of them in St. Petersburg.

As for the comment regarding the sliver of veela in my blood…well, I had a lot of other creatures in my ancestry. You can imagine how skeptical I was…I learned I was wrong in later years.

I swear to Merlin, sometimes she really made me want to hit my head on the wall…or stick it in a Dragon's mouth.

"I will try." Audrey replied, bidding her a goodnight. She had a late lesson with the Headmaster again, and decided to drop her cello off in the common room

It was unusually deserted for this hour of the evening, I felt a jolt inside but I ignored it. I assumed that everyone was off for a late session at the library, or up in their dorms.

Audrey brought her cello case up to her dormitory, and went back down the stairs and through the portrait hole.

ARGHHHH.

Audrey paused in the hallway, listening again.

HAHAHAHAH!

She knew those laughs very well, and sprinted to the end of the hallway and turned down the corridor.

Severus was stuck to the wall, upside down at an odd angle. Audrey checked to make sure no one else was around and walked over. She had almost forgotten to take out her wand, not like she needed it…but it was more for show.

Before she could cast a spell to free Severus, someone else already had done that. Karl was walking down from the opposite end of the hallway, he helped Severus off of the ground.

Audrey was about to walk out again when someone pulled her back, it was Marlene.

"Marlene, what?"

"Shh!" Marlene replied, pressing a finger to her lips and pointing at the boys. The two girls watched as Karl had his back turned to Sirius and James for a moment.

Sirius was about to take a cheap shot, and Audrey wanted to punch him more than anything. Just as Sirius cast the hex, Karl whipped around and blocked it.

Audrey checked the clock on the wall near them, it was ten to eight. "Marly, I gotta go…lesson."

"Alright." Marlene whispered, smirking. "I'll keep you posted with what happens."

"Excellent." Audrey replied, grinning as she ran off to the Headmaster's office, managing to get there just intime.

"Lemon drop." She said to the gargoyle who jumped aside, muttering how she was almost late.

"I'm not late yet!" She called to the gargoyle as she ran up the stairs. She knocked with a moment to spare.

"Very punctual today, aren't we, Audrey?" Albus Dumbledore smiled, opening the door.

"Yes, sir." Audrey replied, standing in the doorway.

"Well? Arent you coming in?" Albus asked, taking a seat behind his desk.

"Sir, I thought we'd be heading out onto the grounds." Audrey replied.

"Ah yes, normally we would…however we must wait until the Thestrals finish practice at eight fifteen. So we have fifteen minutes to wait around before we can make our way onto the grounds."

Though one would expect it, the fifteen minute wait wasn't awkward at all. Audrey and the Headmaster conversed about the school year, the different professors, and the Quidditch teams.

Deep in the forest, Audrey was practicing duelling with her powers. Though she knew Albus Dumbledore was probably…no…definitely, the greatest wizard alive, she was worried she would hurt him. After all, she had almost hurt her father a few times by shrieking.

Though, Audrey was in an odd mood that night. She was still angry with James and Sirius, her anger flared even more noticing what they had done to Severus and Sirius' attempt to get Karl when his back was turned.

She curled her fingers slightly and a nearby tree had uprooted and shattered into a million little pieces. In one swift arm motion, she let all of the pieces fly towards her opponent. Albus blocked them of course, but he stopped for a moment.

"Quite impressive." He said, observing her. "I don't think I've ever seen that one done by your grandfather, or your father for that matter."

Audrey wasn't sure if Albus had ever duelled with, or along side her father, but her grandfather had told her that they fought in a few duels together before.

"I was feeling creative." Audrey shrugged.

"You're rather angry tonight, aren't you?" Albus observed, Audrey nodded.

"I suppose we should call it a night, it's getting late and judging by the way you've fought today, you look tired." Albus said, motioning for the girl to follow him out of the forrest.

Audrey made her way through the halls, and slowly made her way up seven flights of stairs. Albus was right, she was tired. She hadn't realized how much energy she had used into training today.

The common room was deserted, save for Sven and Karl, who sat in two of the arm chairs speaking in quiet Russian.

"Dobryĭ Vecher" Audrey murmured, walking up to them.

"Tired?" Karl asked, gently pulling her onto his lap. She nodded.

"What are you two still doing up?" Audrey murmured, running a hand through Karl's hair. Sven fake gagged and she laughed.

"I couldn't sleep. Your friends are loud." Sven said, shaking his head.

"Remus and Peter? They're quiet, and they're my friends. James and Sirius however…" Audrey replied, letting her eyes go red for a second. Sven laughed.

"I'm glad to see you're on our side, Audrey." Sven said.

"I've known you longer. We have history." Audrey replied, sincere.

"And Sven, what do you mean, our side? They've been on my back, not yours." Karl pointed out.

"Karl, if they're on your back, they're on mine. They may be friendly with me but no one screws with my best friend." Sven replied evenly. Karl grinned, murmuring a thanks.

"I'm so sorry they're being so rude to you guys, they never used to be like this…" Audrey replied, genuinely sorry.

"You shouldn't apologize. They're not children." Karl pointed out.

"He's right you know." said Petro, coming down the boys stair case. Hans followed.

"Don't get us wrong." said Hans, taking a seat on the sofa. "We like those blokes, they think like us."

"But we can't stand the fact that they're so rude to our little Karl." Petro cooed.

"I'll be fine." Karl murmured, as Audrey rested her head on his shoulder.

"I just don't understand why." Audrey said.

"Really?" The four boys looked at her.

"It isn't obvious, little Audrina?" Petro asked.

"I know that answer." Audrey snapped. "The thing is, Sirius dates around all the time. I have a solid relationship and it's a bad thing."

Her cousins shrugged, and there was a clamor from upstairs. Remus came down.

"I see I'm not the only one annoyed with their antics." Remus sighed, sitting down with everyone.

"Da, I couldn't sleep, they were giving me a headache." Sven agreed.

"Well, at least tomorrow's Saturday, we can all sleep in." Audrey suggested, they all nodded.

"I'm sorry about what happened in the corridor, Karl. Marlene told me she had seen, she wasn't pleased." said Remus.

"Thank you, Remus. I am sorry you are caught in between." Karl sighed.

Audrey remembered that Marlene planned on telling her what else happened in the corridor, seeing as she had to leave for her lesson. If she was still up, she'd ask, if not, she'd find out in the morning.

"I think I'm going to go up to bed." She said, more to Karl then anyone else.

"You probably should." Karl agreed, pressing his lips to her forehead. She gave him a quick kiss goodnight, knowing her cousins and Sven would make fake gagging noises, then went up to her dormitory.

"It's about time you got back…" Marlene murmured, half asleep.

"Albus kept me a bit late, wanna show me tomorrow morning?" Audrey asked.

"Sure." Marlene mumbled sleepily.

With that, Audrey closed the curtains of her four poster and drifted to sleep.