A/N
Just to answer a few questions that are in the comments,
ch3rrypops asked: are you basing your vampires on those from The Vampire Diaries?
Well my answer is partly. See, I'm really into vampires, and I've read a lot about them, so I've kind of pushed it all together, because different places say different things.
Livestrong617 asked: when is Asana going to tell the Marauders about her "condition"?
Well, at first I had no idea, but then I planned ahead a little (so far this story has just been written when I got bored, I haven't figured out a plot yet) so now I know, and you will soon.
Lupinismywerewolf pointed out: But... vampires don't show up in the mirror.
Well, you're right, but along with my explanation about why Asana can go in the sun, I'm going to say that she can because she's a pureblood vampire, and they have evolved from those that were bitten.
And some guest asked if there will be L/J and my response is: yes, there will be, eventually. And with that... here's chapter nine...
Chapter Nine
Time Lapse
Too soon it was time for me to say goodbye to Hogwarts and hello Russet Castle. With no huge end of the year test, the year ended with no more stress that just that for packing up my belongings, and going home. Through the train ride, Parker and I had sat with Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter, exchanging jokes and different ideas for new pranks. Amazingly, Parker and Sirius managed to get along, and even hugged before Parker left with her parents. The rest of them departed quickly, leaving me to find my brothers. I found them, and they apparated us home quickly.
All summer long, I hardly ever came out of my room. The only time I ever came out was to get more blood, or when my brothers forced me out, to get some exercise, or when the needed a seeker when they played Quidditch. The rest of my summer was spent reading my second year text books, or writing letters to Parker, Lily, Remus, James, and Sirius.
When the time finally came for me to go to Diagon Alley and get my new robes, I bumped into James, and we spent the day shopping together, even though the only things that I needed was new robes, and new potion ingredients, wanting for them to be as fresh as possible. After exchanging stories about our summer, both families sat down to eat ice cream at Fortesque's Ice Cream Emporium, even though eating the ice cream made my family nauseous, seeing as we only need to drink blood, and anything else is foreign to our stomachs. I had built up a sort of tolerance to it, as I needed to eat at some point in school to seem normal, but my brothers tended to stay away from everybody except each other, except for the odd friend, so they had never bothered.
When it was time for me to go back to Hogwarts, I was excited that I could finally try out for the Quidditch team.
- flashback -
Wake up, take shower, brush teeth, brush hair, get dressed, get morning supply of blood, that was my morning schedule. And all would have continued as normal if I hadn't seen something that made me stop in my tracks on Monday. It was in the Gryffindor common room, 7:45 in the morning. I was walking down to the Great Hall with Parker and Remus, when I looked over at the notice board on the wall next to the portrait hole, and saw something that got my pulse running with adrenaline. Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts were scheduled for 7:00 p.m. on Friday, October 7th. The new captain was Drake Reynolds, one of my brothers' best friends. He was a fourth year, and he was the Keeper for the team.
I pulled on Parker's arm, but she had already seen the flyer. We had grinned at each other. Remus had seen our expressions and raised an eyebrow, but then followed our gazes, and he smiled right along with us.
"Let me guess, you two are going to try out, yeah?" Remus had asked. We just looked at him.
"Yeah, I know, stupid question. You guys are going to ditch me until tryouts are over aren't you?" We looked at each other, then at Remus, both of our faces saying; sorry, but it has to be done. He just grinned and had said,
"Okay, but I expect at least one of you to get on the team out of all of this."
"We will," Parker and I had said.
"Good, now can we go? I'm hungry." Remus had said, before turning and climbing through the portrait hole.
-xXx-
The day of the tryouts, Parker hadn't been able to eat anything without feeling like she was going to throw up, and I felt like I was going to explode from all of the energy I had yet to expel. Every spare moment we had, we had spent practicing. But we weren't the only ones. James and Sirius were often using the field as well, but we didn't mind. Sirius and Parker often practiced together, as they were trying out for the same position; Beater. And James and I would practice together since we were both trying out for Seeker, but he was also trying out to be a Chaser. He was good, but he didn't know about me being a vampire, and the bonuses that came with that; sharper eyesight than any mortal could ever hope to have, and lightning fast reflexes, unmatchable by anything aside from another pureblood vampire.
Parker and I would be out as soon as classes were over, and we often stayed through dinner. We had taken to giving Parker a bag full of golf balls to hit with her Beater bat, trying to gain better accuracy, and I would have to find and catch those balls before they hit the ground. Our high score was 57 in a row before one hit the ground. Parker had just hit number 58 when we heard people approaching. I dove and caught the ball, then landed on the pitch, with Parker right behind me.
"Well you girls sure have been practicing hard," came a voice I knew very well.
"Hey Drake," I said smiling.
"Oh crap, Asana. You had better be good, or your brothers will kill me if I don't let you onto the team." he said, frowning slightly.
"No worries," I said brightly.
"Okay, everybody trying out for Chaser, stand under the hoops on the far side of the field. Beaters, stand near the stands, Seekers, stand near center field. Chasers are going first, so everybody else, start warming up." Drake said, walking over with the Chasers to the hoops.
"Good luck," I said, hugging Parker quickly, before shouldering my broom, and walking over to a group of tall skinny people. Do I look like them? I had thought. I shrugged and walked over to a fifth year that I knew was named Ken Moore.
All too soon, it was time for the Seekers to try out. I looked over at James who had come over at some point, and was doing my best to look confident. He looked like he was trying to be brave, but was obviously nervous.
"Hey, you'll do fine," I said, smiling reassuringly at him, and he actually smiled.
"Thanks," he said.
"No problem," I said.
I took a deep breath, mounted my broom, and kicked off. The rush of adrenaline was intense, and I felt my mind and senses sharpen. The feeling was euphoric. I shook my head to clear it, and focused on the task on hand.
"I'll be throwing golf balls, and you have to catch them before they hit the ground. Once you catch them, just drop them. I'll be casting a spell on you that will cause a big blue number to appear above your heads. It will keep track of the number of balls you catch. The two with the biggest scores will move on to the finals, unless the difference is significant." Drake explained, grabbing a bag full of golf balls. James and I grinned, because this was exactly what we had been doing all week. Drake pulled out his wand and cast the spell on us. Giant blue number suddenly appeared above our heads.
Suddenly, Drake threw a ball. Nobody had been watching him, since what sounded like an explosion had sounded near the stands, but I had been to last years tryouts, wanting to know what I would be going through next year, and I knew that that was exactly what he had wanted to happen, it caused a distraction. I had kept my eyes trained on Drake's hands, and then on the golf ball that was quickly falling through the air, and towards the ground. I urged my broom into a steep descent and followed the ball closely. I looked back for a second, and saw James' eyes widen as he realized what was happening. He silently started following me, gaining on me. The ball was too far away, I wouldn't catch it at the rate that I was going, and I didn't want to risk going any faster. I let go of my broom and free fell about twenty feet. I caught the ball thirty feet from the ground, and thought about my broom with every ounce of my brain, and it flew into my grasp. I let go of the ball, and climbed back onto my broom. I flew back up to the other Seekers, not knowing what else to do.
"Asana, did you just catch that?" Drake asked in astonishment.
"Yes," I said, blushing slightly.
"Hod did you catch that? How did your broom come back to you? How did-" James started but Drake cut him off.
"Ryan has been teaching you some new tricks, hasn't he?" I smiled and nodded.
"Well, I'm a little disappointed in the rest of you," Drake said, turning to the rest of them, "I can't believe that the only two people that even noticed that I had thrown a ball, were second years! And did any of you see that dive that Asana pulled off? That was freakin' amazing! I bet none of you could even pull it off! I think that this decides everything. Asana, would you please be my Seeker?"
I just stared at him for a minute before shouting,"Yes!"
"Good, now the rest of you, feel free to try out next year when you actually learn how to play the position of Seeker," Drake said. Personally, I thought that he was being kind of harsh, but hey, I got what I wanted, so I didn't really care all that much.
-end of flashback -
It hadn't been until later that I learned the outcome of that tryout. James had wound up with a Chaser position, but neither Parker or Sirius got the first Beater position, it had been given to a seventh year named Rodney Somerhalder. But he and the other Beater would be gone by my third year, so they would get to try again. And Parker got the second position, meaning that if one of the Beaters couldn't play for some reason, she would get to play.
The next week, Gryffindor crushed Hufflepuff 340-190. After that, Gryffindor won the Quidditch cup, and the house cup, so that was a pretty good year.
That summer, I got to spent pretty much all of it at either Remus' or Parker's house. I brought some blood with me, and when I was at Remus's house, I could hunt for myself, since he lived in the middle of nowhere. And I was at his house while the recently named Maruaders were there, so that provided some laughs. His parents knew about me, he just didn't tell them all that he knew about me, not knowing how much of it they would be okay with. After a little bit of difficult explaining with his father (who studied magical creatures for a living, and knew all about vampires, but fortunately didn't recognize me) he believed me that I could go out in the sun without being harmed, although he did seem suspicious.
When I stayed with Parker, I got to sleep in a bunk bed, because she and her family lived in an apartment in south London. Honestly, I had expected her to live in a mansion or something, since she was a pureblood from a very old family, but apparently most of the Browns and her mother's side of the family were dark wizards, and her parents had been disowned because they didn't share their parent's views on dark magic. And since they were disowned, they didn't get part of the ancestral fortune. When I stayed with her, my brothers had sent me blood, as it would have been very difficult to get blood in that part of London.
When summer was finally over, I was glad to be going to Hogwarts, and I was excited to finally be able to go to Hogsmead...
