A/N

Okay, I guess that it's time for me to thank Livestrong617 for reviewing every chapter so far. She's been with me since the beginning, and she was one of the first people to read/review my story, and I just wanted to say thanks.

Other people that I would like to say thanks to are:

.Rebellious

shadowkitten11

.

the 4 guests who have read/reviewed my story

kate

anon

Thank you all for reviewing! And now that we're done with the thank you's, here's chapter seven!

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE PARTY

December 31st came too slowly for me. The time between my response and the party, seemed to pass by slower than time actually did. But eventually, it came.

The day after the patronus from James' father arrived, I had gotten a letter saying the time that I had to be there, and that the fireplace in my bedroom had been connected to the Floo network. Personally, I hated the Floo, it made me feel nauseous, and seeing as I'm a vampire and I never get sick, and since I was born a vampire, it's a totally foreign concept to me.

By the time I had to leave, I was literally shaking with excitement. I couldn't wait to see Remus and Parker again, even if it meant that I would also have to spend some time with James, Sirius, and Peter. They weren't bad people, we just traveled in different circles, and weren't forced to interact with one another all that often. But, they seemed like the kind of people that I would be able to get along with easily.

I sat in front of the mirror trying to decide what to do with my hair, and eventually settled on just leaving it down. It was too long and it took forever to do. I was wearing a blue dress that fell just above my knees, and had little designs sewn on in a slightly darker thread. A thin strap went from one side of the dress to the other, going around the back of my neck. An onyx pendant set in silver sat on a long silver chain around my neck, and a simple silver ring sat on my right ring finger. I looked into the mirror and sighed thinking this is as good as it's going to get. I looked at the large clock on the wall next to my bed and saw that it was 6:25. I walked over to the mantle of the fireplace, threw a pinch of green powder into the flames, and stepped into the now green flames.

"Potter Mansion!" I shouted. I started spinning and closed my eyes, hoping that it would be over soon. And unfortunately, it wasn't over nearly fast enough. I was holding onto my stomach out of reflex, and knew that this would put me in a bad mood for some part of the party.

When the spinning finally stopped, I stepped out of a grand white marble fireplace, and onto a plush white carpet that made my black ballet flats stand out in sharp contrast. Some of the walls were painted scarlet, while others were painted a nice beige color. A large Christmas tree stood in a far corner, decorated with red and gold garland, and sparkling ornaments. Elegant looking couches were being sat upon by witches and wizards of all ages, all wearing either a dress, a muggle suit, or formal wizard robes. I looked around and was relieved to quickly find a failure head of brown hair.

I walked up behind my friend, tapped them on their shoulder, and stood there, waiting for them to turn around.

"Asana? What are ya doing here?" Parker asked me, looking bewildered.

"What? I'm not allowed to come to a party?" I asked, mock hurt evident in my voice.

"No, I mean yes, I mean, I don't know what I mean. I just wasn't expecting you to be here." she said, looking around frantically.

"Okay, what's wrong?" I asked worriedly.

"Nothing's wrong, I just wasn't expecting to see you here," she said. She shook her head and reached over to hug me, and I hugged her back.

"So how was your Christmas?" I asked.

"It was okay, I guess. My parents took me to Spain, how was your Christmas?" she asked. I could feel my face frowning.

"That bad, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah, that bad." I said, sighing.

"Well I'm sorry to hear that, but it's time for you to move on, no?" she asked, smiling. I smiled back at her. That was when I heard somebody shout out my name.

"ASANA!" I whirled around and was knocked over by something.

"Ugh!" I grunted. I looked up and noticed that I seemed to be at the bottom of a dog pile. I tried to pick out who was who by sight, but somebody was covering most of my face. I inhaled sharply, and recognized who they were.

"Hey guys." I said, my voice muffled by Sirius' stomach.

"Boys, why are you on the floor?" I heard somebody ask. The person's voice was kind, and it sounded as if the speaker was middle aged.

"Um... because we got tired of standing, Mum?" I heard James answer innocently.

"Well, have fun then, but be careful not to get too dirty." she said, and I heard the soft clicks as her high heeled shoes walked away from us.

"Would you please get off of me, you guys weigh a ton?" I asked. I felt them shift, as if making themselves more comfortable. I sighed into Sirius's stomach, and heaved myself into a sitting position. I heard somebody grunt as somebody feel onto somebody else.

"Thank you for squishing me," I said sarcastically.

"No problem," Sirius said. I pushed James off of my legs, and saw that Remus and Peter were standing in front of me, shaking with silent laughter. I stood up, looked at Remus for a moment, and rolled my eyes. I walked over to him, and hugged him, and he returned the hug.

"So how was your Christmas?" he asked. Again, I just scowled, and he sighed sympathetically.

"I'm sorry to hear that, but we'll be at Hogwarts soon, and then you'll be away from your parents." he said, giving me a sad smile.

"Wait, your Christmas was bad? Join the club! Mine was awefull." Sirius said, a frown similar to my own crossing his face.

"How bad was yours?" I asked. After he described some of the things that his parents did to him, I could feel that my face visibly was giving off waves of sympathy.

"They really did all of that to you?" I asked. When he nodded, I could tell that my temper was beginning to flare.

"For the love of Merlin's baggy shorts, why did they do that to you?" I asked angrily.

"Well, my entire family has been in Slytherin, so when I got sorted into Gryffindor, well, to say it rubbed them the wrong way would be the understatement of the century. They feel that I'm a disappointment, so they want to teach me more of their ways, and if I reject it, they punish me." Sirius explained, his eyes burning with suppressed rage.

"But, I take it I'm not the only one who wants to get away from their family. So what's your grief?" Sirius asked. James, for some reason, seemed to know that I was about to get very worked up, and started to lead us over to a grand staircase. He led us up, and directed us over to a mahogany door with a gold plate on it, with the name James Potter written on it in James' messy hand writing. He opened the door, and directed us over to a section of his bedroom that was basically a small sitting room. Remus, Parker, and I flopped down on a large couch, James sat in a large armchair, and Peter and Sirius occupied a loveseat.

"Okay, so what actually happened over Christmas break so far?" Sirius asked.

"Well, I stayed in my room for all of break until Christmas day, where I was forced to sit in my mother's stuffy sitting room, and all she kept doing was reminding me to sit up strait, enunciate each of my words precisely, and just be a perfect little girl. After having to sit there and be obedient for three hours, I was finally able to get back to my room. And then the owl was being a pain in the ass and wouldn't cooperate, and then my quill snapped, and them I ran out of bl- food, and had to come into contact with the guards before I could go out and get more, and WHY THE HELL COULDN'T THE JUST LEAVE ME IN MY FREAKING PEACE!" I shouted, now yelling, and getting more riled up.

"I SHOULD HAVE JUST STAYED AT HOGWARTS BY MYSELF! I WOULD HAVE HAD MORE FUN, AND I WOULDN'T HAVE TO DEAL WITH MY MOTHER'S POMPUS ATTITUDE AND VIEWS ON PURE BLOODLINES, AND NO INTERBREEDING, AND JUST UGH!" I shouted.

"Wait, your parents are purists too? I've never heard of the Russet family in the world of Dark magic." James said, looking confused.

"They aren't dark, they just want to keep the Russet bloodline as pure as possible, they don't want it tainted with anything they think to be beneath them, which of course is everybody else in the world!" I said, my emotions starting to run wild, and I could feel myself starting to lose control of my actions, my teeth, skin, and eyes changing. I took a few deep breaths and felt myself regain control.

"Okay then. Compared to Sirius, your Christmas wasn't so bad but if you forget about him, your Christmas definitely sucked. But yours was just unpleasant. Sirius' was actually putting him in danger," James said. He looked sympathetic and all, but that just made me feel weak. My dear mother's words echoed in my head:

"Asana you must remember that if you ever take pity from anybody, it just means that you're weak, insignificant, and worthless. It means that you don't deserve your birthright. It means that you have failed me, your father, your brothers, and your people. You don't need pity when you are who you are. And you are Princess Asana Rene Margaret Russet, and don't you ever forget who you are." As much as I knew that what she had said was as wrong as a Malfoy in Hufflepuff, she thought that she had a point, and she had been drilling it into my head for the past eleven years of my life. And as much as I wanted to be able to get it out of my head, she was always there, criticizing my every move and thought. I hated my mother, and I hated my freaking birthright, and everything that my family stood for; power, purity of the bloodline, respect, and dignity.

I closed my eyes and counted to ten in my head.

"Okay, well how has yours been so far?" I asked turning to James.

"Well compared to you two, my Christmas break has been absolutely heaven, aside from not seeing my friends for about two weeks." James said, shrugging.

"How about you Pete?" Remus asked.

"I just stayed home and spent time with my parents. We didn't do anything special, just spent time with them, and caught up with everything that's been going on." Peter said, looking around at us.

"What about you, Remus. Did you pull a Sirius and Asana, as in wanting nothing more than to get away from your family, or were you more like me and go someplace, or were you more like James and Peter, as in just stay home and hang out with your family?" asked Parker.

"Pretty much a combination of Sirius and Asana, and Peter and James. I just stayed home and spent time with my parents, but at the same time, I wanted to get away from them, but not for the same reasons as you two," Remus said, giving me a knowing smile, "Mostly, they were just smothering me, and I wanted to have some time to myself."

"Well, you're an only child, and your parents could be suffering from separation anxiety," Peter said, shrugging. Every single one of us stared at Peter for a full minute before James spoke up.

"Wow dude, I didn't know you even knew about muggle brain ailments."

"And I didn't know that you knew what that was," Parker said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. James scowled at her, and she glared at him. Remus sighed tiredly and was about to say something, but Sirius cut him off.

"Honestly you two, would you please just cool it for once. It's Christmas, the time for miracles is it not? So for once, can you please just not hurl insults at each other, and just pretend to be civil?" Sirius asked, glaring at the two of them. They both looked at him for a moment, and then sighed, mumbling apologizes to each other.

A few hours later, we were down in the Potter mansion's grand living room, sitting on couches and drinking butterbeer, when somebody who I assumed to be Mrs. Potter came over to us.

"Hello, children. I'm sorry, I don't recognize you two young ladies. I'm Mrs. Potter, and you are?" she asked, looking from me to Parker, and back again.

"Parker Brown," Parker said, nodding politely to the older woman.

"Asana Russet," I said, nodding as well. She gave me an expression that was barely startled, but it was still there. I guess she recognized my last name.

"Ah, I've heard a lot about you two from James. It's nice to finally meet you two. I just thought that I'd tell you two that the new year starts in five minutes." she said, smiling, flicked her gaze in my direction for a moment, and then walked away. James blushed a little, but had a slightly lopsided grin on his face.

"Uh oh, I know that look. What's going on in that head of yours, James?" Sirius asked, a mischievous smile on his face.

"Well, I had an idea for a welcome back prank at Hogwarts." James said, and I could almost see the ideas forming in his head.

"Should Parker and I be afraid?" I asked suspiciously.

"Yes," was all James had to say.

"Great," Parker sighed...

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