A/N
Okay, first off, sorry for the long wait, but I was on vacation in the Bahamas from May 1st-9th and I only got back a day ago, and I had brought my laptop to write more, but I had really bad writer's block, so this was written in a couple of days, so if it sucks, that's why.
Chapter 8
A Prank And Some Shared Secrets
Third Person P.O.V.
When the six Gryffindors got back to Hogwarts in January, they were all surprised to find that there was going to be yet another feast. The boys, recently named the Marauders, had created a prank, and they had needed help from Parker and Asana. But, not wanting the girls to get into trouble, Remus had suggested the nicknames Fangs and Raven to the two of them. While Raven was easy enough to figure out, (because of her dark hair) they couldn't figure Asana's out until Remus explained that she used to have a dog named Fangs, and it was her way of remembering him. At the time it had seemed like a good excuse, but it really was terrible, since, if she had had a dog, she probably would have drained it of it's blood quite quickly.
The true reason behind of her nickname was her condition. But if Remus had decided to nickname her on her eyes or inky vanes, well, that would have been hard to do.
-Asana's P.O.V.-
The six of us were sitting in the Great Hall at the Gryffindor table, waiting for Dumbledore to make the speech that he would probably make, seeing as he had yet to arrive. A short time after the six of us had sat down, the large wooden doors swung open, and in he walked, wearing teal robes, decorated with crescent moons, five pointed stars, and suns, walking up to the Head table. When he got there, he turned to face the students, and cleared his throat before saying,
"Welcome back, students of Hogwarts, I hope that you have all had a nice Christmas break. I know that listening to a long speech on an empty stomach can be hard, so I'll just give you the high points. Nothing new will be happening. And with that, thank you. Now my two favorite words; tuck in!" he said before sitting down and piling his plate with food.
The students had started putting food on their plates, and I was beginning to wonder when the prank was going to start. After the desert appearded on the table and everybody had eaten was when I noticed James bringing his wand out from under the table, and I could hear him mumbling spells under his breath, as well as Sirius and Remus. That was when a huge boom! sounded. Every head looked upward to see green flame hanging in the air, taking the forms of a lion, a snake, an eagle, and a badger. The flames exploded again, and green slime rained down on all of the tables, causing many of the female population to scream, 'my hair!', or 'ewe! How will I get that out of my robes?', or my personal favorite, 'Who ever did this is dead!', mostly because it was partially true, technically, I was dead. A few moments after the slime fell, it's actual intention flared up.
The slime was actually a transformation potion. The students that had been hit, turned into the animal that symbolized their houses; Ravenclaws to eagles, Hufflepuffs to badgers, Slytherins to snakes, and Gryffindors to lions.
Eagles screeched, and lions roared in frustration. Looking across the room, snakes coiled up in discomfort, and badgers scuttled around, looking utterly confused. Normally, I would have laughed, but as it was, my chest rumbled and I purred in amusement. My shoulder was nudged, and I found myself looking at a golden colored lion, with a familiar scar on it's left fore paw. I looked into it's golden eyes and nudged Remus' shoulder in recognition. I heard him purr, and knew that if he hadn't been hit with the potion, he would have been doubled over, laughing. That was when the last of the prank happened. Where the flames had been, writing appeared in fancy gold cursive, saying:
This Prank Has Been Brought to You
by:
James Potter, Sirius Black,
Peter Pettigrew, & Remus Lupin
With Assistance From:
Raven & Fangs
After ten minutes, all of the students had been returned to normal, and all were glaring at the Marauders with so much hatred, they might have burst into flames.
"Boys," called out Professor Dumbledore. All six of our heads turned when he called them, and I couldn't tell you why.
"Excellent charm and potion work, all six of you, whoever Raven and Fangs are. Fifty points to all four of you, but ten points will be taken from you. As for Raven and Fangs, since we don't know who they are, no punishment, but also no reward." Dumbledore said, his eyes sliding from Parker and I and back again. My head snapped over to Parker, and her eyes were widened, showing that she had noticed it as well. I raised an eyebrow, and she shrugged in response to my unspoken question of: how did he know? by telling me: we're always with them, it's not that big of a leap. I shrugged back at her, and turned my eyes back to Dumbledore.
"As for the rest of you, it's almost curfew, so off to bed, all of you." he said, smiling at our group. We all stood and followed our prefects to our house.
"Nice job guys," I said to the Marauders in the common room when nobody else could hear me. Sirius flashed me a cheeky grin, James punched my shoulder lightly, and Remus gave me his best blank look, saying,
"I don't even know what you're talking about." My mouth curved into a small smile, and I said,
"Good night, boys. You coming Parker?" I headed up the stairs and we went into the dorm. Lily, Alice, Marlene, and Mary were already there, all in their pajamas, and were huddled on Mary's bed, exchanging stories about what they did over Christmas break.
"How did they do that so quickly?" Parker asked, whispering in an almost non audible voice. I shrugged and pulled a pair of black sweatpants and a black t-shirt out of my trunk. I ran into the bathroom before Parker could beat me to it, and changed quickly. I was out again in two minutes. Parker changed quickly, and sat on my bed. She pulled the curtains around my bed closed, and cast a muffling charm on it as well.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"I have a couple of questions that I wanted to ask you, the kind that not everybody should hear." Parker said, pointing to where the other girls were.
"Okay, ask away." I said, opening my arms as if to say: fire away.
"Okay, first off, if you're a vampire, how come you can go out in the sunlight and you don't burn up or whatever it is you're supposed to do?" she asked. I sighed quietly, and opened my mouth to respond.
"Well, for a vampire that turned, yes they would burn up, but since I was born this way, and my family has been this way for thousands of years, we just don't, I don't really know why, but if a person is born with any vampire blood in them at all, and they are a vampire, even if they had to be bitten, they wouldn't burn." I explained, knowing that it made very little sense.
"Okay, next question. How does the whole aging thing work? Will you look eleven years old forever, or will you continue to age until you turn to dust, or something in the middle?" she asked.
"Um... From the way I understand it, I will age normally until I turn thirty or so, after that, I can choose to look any age that I want, I could look twenty one second, and then the next I might look six, or eighty, or whatever. At least, that how I understand it, but I might be wrong, it does happen occasionally." I said, smiling a little bit.
"How about feeding, what do you eat?" she asked, looking slightly uncomfortable.
"Normally, I do my best to stay away from the human stuff, but sometimes I can't help it. I also don't normally drink straight from humans, even though I have lots of opportunity at home. And even then, I only drink from humans that offer willingly." I said, squirming a little bit, I hated talking about this kind of thing.
"So my neck should be safe?" she asked sarcastically. I knew she was joking but I couldn't help the small sigh that escaped.
"Yes, your neck should be safe," I said, "Anything else you want to know?"
"Yes, do you really sleep, or is that just an act?" Parker asked.
"Yes I really do sleep, it's not just an act." I said, smiling at how ridiculous that sounded.
"One more thing, are you really dead, or is that just a myth?" she asked, looking at me oddly.
"I'm dead, like a corpse. I'm a living corpse though, I can move, think, talk, experience emotions if I choose to, anything that a real person can do." I said, realizing after I said it that I sounded slightly bitter.
"Wait, you only have emotions if you want to? That sounds great!" Parker said, sounding envious.
"It's not nearly as good as it sounds. If I choose to feel at all, my emotions are intensified, anger turns to fury, sadness becomes crippling depression, but happiness becomes overwhelming joy. But if I choose to have feelings, my instincts tell me not to, everything in me is telling my to turn them off, to flee, because that's my natural instinct. I'm at war with myself all the time, and it's exhausting. But if I were to turn them off, I'd be a cold heartless murder. My conscience wouldn't exist anymore. And I wouldn't be able to come here, I'd be too dangerous." I said, rubbing my eyes and opening my mouth in a huge yawn.
"Alright, I've learned more about you, but I will be asking more later, but I can see that you're tired. Good night, Asana." Parker said, taking down the charm and climbing off of my bed. I saw her climb onto her bed and I whispered,
"Good night, Parker." She didn't seem to hear me, but my eyes closed anyway and I fell asleep quickly...
