A/N
I only realized after I posted it, that chapter 5 didn't have a title, so sorry about that! But, I couldn't some up with anything! So deal with it. With my updating, I'm not going to be working on a schedule, because I would probably forget about it pretty quickly, so I'll just try to update as often as I can, and hope for the best. Sorry for the long wait, (Okay I realize that the waits between my updates and other peoples updates can vary by a couple of months, so waiting for me to update isn't so bad), but I had a severe case of writer's block. And with that, here's chapter 6! Please read/review! :~)!
CHAPTER 6
CHRISTMAS
It seemed that the first four months of school passed more quickly then they actually had. Over that period of time, I had become close friends with my dorm mates, and it seemed like Remus was getting closer to James, Sirius, and Peter. Since the four had become friends, a lot of odd pranks had started happening, and the four of them were almost always the cause.
After I had had a talk with Professor Dumbledore, it seemed like all of my major problems went away. I mean yeah sure, I still was a vampire, but that wasn't anything new, I had been living with that for eleven years. But a new problem would be coming up within the next few days, Christmas was coming up, and that meant that I would be going home and spend it with my family, and when I say my family, I mean my whole family, brothers, parents and all. By now I had gotten used to being around girls all the time, so having to acclimate to ten boys would probably take a while. And in the mean time, it would probably result in a lot of yelling as well.
"Hey, Asana, are you going home for the holidays or are you staying here?" Lily Evans asked me.
"I wish that I could stay here, but I have to do a traditional family Christmas. Ugh!" I said, groaning for emphasis.
"At least your older siblings still like you, after they found out what you are, mine hates me," Lily said sadly.
"My brothers are all exactly like me, you can take a few if you want, I won't miss them," I said sarcastically.
"Really?" she asked, equally sarcastic. I rolled my eyes at her, and she giggled.
"Knock, knock, is everybody descent?" a voice asked, the speaker hidden behind the partially opened door.
"Yep!" Mary MacDonald yelled out. Parker strolled in, hands in her jean's pockets.
"You packing already?" she asked me.
"Afraid so, you won't be seeing me for all of Christmas break." I said, and then started fake crying into her shoulder.
"Aw, no need to cry, you'll be back before you know it. And beside, I've met your brothers, and they're not that bad." she said, rolling her eyes at me, and pushing me off.
"You wouldn't be saying that if they all looked almost exactly like you, and you had to spent two weeks with them!" I wailed out. It was true, we were all tall, abnormally skinny (because we didn't have to eat anything, and we never did) they all have the same caramel colored hair that I have, the same pale skin, freckles, and same freaky eyes. Well, some people called them freaky, but they were my favorite physical trait.
If you knew what you were looking for, you would be able to tell that my whole family are vampires, even if you had never heard of us before. My eyes, along with all of my brothers' eyes are almond shaped and mostly cobalt, but there's a golden ring around my pupil, and an emerald ring around the outside of my iris. The gold is the giveaway. But I like them anyway, they're unique.
"Hey, how come I've never met any of your brothers?" Marlene asked.
"Our male prefect is one of them. One of the Chasers on our Quiditch team is one of them, and eight others are running around here somewhere, trust me, you've met at least one of them by now." I said, flopping down on my bed.
By the time I had been on the train for a second, I was wishing that I hadn't payed attention to the letters that my mother had sent me, and had just stayed at Hogwarts for Christmas break. I was in a compartment with Billy (2nd year), Ryan (3rd year), Derek (3rd year), and Kyle Russet (4th year), the four youngest of my older brothers.
"So Asana, looking forward to seeing our dear parents?" Kyle asked sarcastically. Instead of answering, I just snorted.
"Thought not." Billy said, looking at Ryan, who hadn't said anything so far.
"You okay, Ryan?" Billy asked. He gave a halfhearted shrug, and went back to staring out the window.
"I think somebody misses his girlfriend," Derek taunted. Ryan snapped out of it with the smart retort of,
"What are you talking about, I don't have a girlfriend!" We all raised our eyebrows at him, and his shoulders slumped.
"Okay, fine, I have a girlfriend, what's the big deal?" he asked, glaring at us.
"Who is she, who is she, who is she?" I asked, excitedly.
"Dorcas Meadows, she's a Hufflepuff third year." he said, getting a dreamy eyed expression on his face.
"Aw... Our little Ryan has grown up," Kyle said. Ryan growled and launched himself at Kyle. A strangled squeak came from Kyle and Ryan sat on is stomach.
"Take it back! Take-it-back! Oof!" Ryan yelled as Kyle pinned him on the floor.
"Ha! Got you!" Kyle yelled.
"Okay, I give up. Let me up!" Ryan yelled. Kyle stood up and offered Ryan his hand. He pulled Ryan up, and the two of them sat down on the bench again.
After four hours, we were at Kings Cross Station. I looked around and eventually found Jason (5th year), Cyrus (5th year), Josh (6th year), Erik (6th year), Timmy (7th year), and Trent (7th year), all clustered together near the entrance. The five of us walked over to them and we walked out into the muggle world. We dragged our trunks behind us, and walked until we came to a dark alley.
"Okay, who's going with who?" Trent asked.
"For what?" Billy asked.
"Side along apparation, what else?" asked Timmy. Half of my brothers went to stand next to Trent, and the other half stood next to Timmy. I walked over to Timmy, and I closed my eyes, waiting for it to be over. I grabbed hold of somebody, that would eventually lead to either Timmy or Trent. After a few minutes, the world stopped spinning, and I found myself facing my home.
My 'home' is actually a castle that rivals Hogwarts in size. But it's nothing like Hogwarts. The castle is home to over a thousand vampires, all belonging to the Russet vampire clan, well they belonged to a vampire clan, but the name changed with whoever was in charge, and at the moment, it was my family. The castle was made out of a stone that shone pure black. Four guard towers stood at the cardinal directions, with somebody in them at all time. Vampires regularly patrolled the grounds, and the inside of the castle.
We walked over to the large wooden doors and Cyrus knocked loudly on the doors.
"Who goes there?" yelled a booming voice.
"Prince Cyrus and siblings," he said, his vampire side visibly coming out.
"So sorry, sir." said the guard, opening the door, and bowing to us deeply.
"See that it doesn't happen again," he said, briskly walking through the doors, and heading off toward a large staircase that led to the lower levels. My brothers and I all split up, each going to our rooms. I grasped the handle on my trunk more firmly, and started the long walk of dragging it up five flights of stairs. I dragged it down a hallway that seemed to go on for miles, but in reality, it was only half a mile long, and my room was all the way at the very end of the hall. I pulled it down, and pushed open my bedroom door. The trunk was then pushed over to the foot of my bed where I opened it and started searching for a book to read. I pulled out my History of Magic text book, and flipped it open. Am I really that bored? I thought to myself, and realized that the sad truth was yes, I was that bored. If I had only been here for twenty minutes, what would two weeks be like? In all honesty, I didn't really want to think about it. I flopped down on my back and started reading about some goblin war.
I stayed like that all day, and had read at least half of the book. I looked around quickly to see if it was still there, and I smiled when I saw it. I threw the book on the bed, stretched, and walked over to my bookshelf. I reached out and picked up the bottle of blood that acted as a bookend. I unscrewed the lid and took a quick drink. I always kept a little in my room in case I didn't feel like seeing anybody. I had once stayed in my room for three months before one of my brothers told King Fortesque. But that wasn't something that I wanted to repeat anytime soon. I had been lonely.
I stood up, and walked out of the room, and up to the highest point of the castle, Look Out Point. No lookouts actually used it, but that was what I called it, because you could look out and see for miles. But, that was also where the owls were. I walked over to one of the twenty pure black owls that resided in Look Out Point, and picked one called Ivy. I carried her back down to my room which was about an hour long walk, and settled down at the desk in the far corner of my room. I dug around it the desk's drawers until I found a piece of paper, a well of ink, and my last goose quill. I dipped the quill and began to write a letter to Remus.
Dear Remus,
Hey, just thought that I should tell you that so far, my Christmas break absolutely sucks. Please tell me about yours when you get around to it, I would love anything to distract me from this retched place.
Please write back soon,
wishing you well,
Asana
I folded up the letter, tied it to Ivy's leg, and said,
"Bring this to Remus Lupin." She tilted her head as if to say, 'Really, you expect me to do this on an empty stomach?'. I growled at her and let my vampire side come out. Her wings twitched nervously, and she hopped out of my hands, and flew out of my open window. I sighed, hoping that the temperamental owl would bring the letter to its intended recipient. I sighed and went back to my book
The next couple of days went by painfully slowly. I stayed in my room all the time, and only came out once to get more blood. I was almost thinking that I could get through Christmas, but I found myself realizing that I could not have been more wrong.
All thirteen of us were seated in Queen Angelica's private sitting room, a large Christmas tree sat in the corner, looking forlorn and abandoned. Presents were strewn about on couches and on the table, wrapped in plain black paper. They were piled accordingly to who they went to. Mine was the biggest, and I knew why, too. I was going to be the queen one day, and the vampires in the clan were hoping that I would go easy on them. My brothers, however, were not needed, as the throne was passed down through the females of the family, hence why I had so many siblings.
My brothers starting opening their presents slowly, but I couldn't bring myself to open them. Knowing my mother, she probably had given me something that I would hate, a new tunic or five, some kind of formal stationary, a new crown, or Merlin knows what else. From my father, I probably would would be given some books that I already had, or accidentally give me something that was actually meant for my brothers (that had happened a few times before). From my brothers, I would probably get something that I actually wanted. After I had opened a few presents, my suspions were confirmed.
Queen Angelica: a new silver tunic, and a crown cleaning kit
King Fortesque: a copy of to Kill a Mockingbird (which I had gotten last year from him) and a broom servicing kit (which had been meant for Trent, as he was star seeker for our house team.)
Timmy: a wide assortment of Honeydukes best chocolate
Trent: a new copy of a Tale of Two Cities (seeing as my old was destroyed)
Erik: a large package of sugar quills
Josh: A package of chocolate frogs
Cyrus: an enchanted journal that could only be opened by the heir to the throne of my mother and a brand new eagle quill, with self correcting ink
Jason: a book of riddles (I loved riddles, a lot)
Kyle: a pair of muggle clothes (my mother hated it when I wore them, but I almost always wore them)
Derek: a sketchpad, charcoal, colored pencils, and paint
Ryan: a copy of Hogwarts, a History
Billy: a set of wizard chess
I was happy with what my brothers had given me, and in all honesty, the tunic that my mother had given me was one of the most exquisite that I had ever seen. After we had moved our gifts to our various rooms, I stayed, and was surprised to see Ivy sitting on my open window sill. And I was more surprised to see that she had a note tied to her leg. I walked over to the window, let her in, and untied the letter, reading it quickly.
Dear Asana,
I'm sorry to hear that your Christmas break had 'sucked' as you put it. I guess my break has been going okay. On New Year's Eve, I'm going over to James' house for a huge party. I hope you come, or else it will just be Parker, Peter, Sirius, James, and I, because frankly, I don't know how much of James and Sirius I can take without some person's sanity. So I hope you can come.
I wrote to Parker and she said that she was doing well (aside from a small fire that was caused by some accidental magic on her little brother's part), and she told me to tell you that you had better be at that party or else. I swear those are her words not mine.
Please write back soon,
Remus
I smiled at the last bit, that was my Parker alright. I sighed and realized just how badly I missed my friends, even the Marauders, as the student body was now calling Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter. Remus had always been one of my best friends, but his three friends could drive a person crazy. They seemed to have no problem making Lily go nuts (James had tried to ask her out a few times, but she always rejected him). I was about to sit down and write him back when there was a tapping at my window. I looked over and saw a tawny barn owl flapping his wings madly, trying to get my attention. I jumped up and let it in. It flapped over to my bed, stuck out it's leg which had a note attached to it, and waited for me to take it off. I read it quickly and couldn't have been more shocked.
Dear Asana,
Hello! Happy Christmas to you and your family. Okay, now that we have the formalities out of the way, let's just get to the point already. As you have probably heard by now, my family is having a big New Year's Eve party at our home, and when I mentioned you to my parents (accidentally)they told me to invite you. So I hope that you can come. The dress is formal, so for you that means a dress, jewelry, etc.
Please respond with your answer by December 29th.
Sincerely,
James C. Potter
I dropped the letter and ran up to floor five and ran to Trent's room, hoping to find him there. I gues my luck was going good for now, because he was there.
"Hey, Trent, do you think you could cast a patronus and send it to mother, asking if I can go to the Potter's New Year's Eve party?" I asked. He nodded and shouted,
"Expecto Protronum!" A cloud of silver mist poured out of his wand and took the shape of a scarlet macaw. He repeated the message to the bird, and it took off. A few moments later, my mother's tiger came into the room and started speaking.
"Yes, you may go, but remember your manners. Come back when it's over." Once it was finished, it disappeared.
"Awesome!" I shouted.
"Anything else?" he asked, looking down at me with amusement written all over his face.
"Yes, can you please send one to James Potter, telling him that I'll be there." I said, quavering with excitement. He repeated the process. Eventually, a lion popped up and said in a deep voice,
"Alright, Miss Russet, see you in six days." I guessed that it was Mr. Potter who had sent the lion.
"Yes!" I shouted, jumping up and down like a crazy person, but I didn't care, I was getting out of the musty old castle, and I was seeing my friends for the first time in over a week, the longest I had gone since I had met them.
