Hello all! Sorry it's taken my so long to post this, I've been distracted by the recent freedoms that summer offers. :)
Okay so you FINALLY get to meet my OC, I'm sure you've been curious about him...I'll admit, the main reason this was late was because I couldn't figure out exactly how I wanted him to act, but I figured everything out now, so hopefully that means updates will be faster.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything except my OC, Kol Ashford, and I'm not making any money off of this. :)
Chapter Four
The silence pervaded throughout the house, and remarkably, the portrait of Sirius's mother did not wake. There was a short pause, as if everyone was holding their breath.
The knock came again; three sharp raps, as if the person on the other side was impatient. This seemed to wake everyone from their haze of trepidation. Snape led the way; he stalked down the hallway to the door. The entire group quickly followed Snape, trailing behind him and spilling into the entryway.
It was an anticlimactic reveal when Snape simply yanked the door open, displaying Kol Ashford standing on the other side, one arm raised, as if to knock again.
There was an awkward silence when Kol dropped his hand.
The group stared at Kol.
Kol stared back.
Then he turned to his head towards his older half-brother, "Did I miss something?"
Snape rolled his eyes, grabbed his arm, dragged him inside, and closed the door.
Everyone seemed to suddenly realize that the entryway was now very crowded and started shuffling through the hallway back into the kitchen.
Fred, George, and Harry were the first one back into the kitchen so they quickly took their seats so that they could observe their new roommate.
He was tall, that much was certain, Harry was sure he was almost as tall as Sirius. From a simple glance, the only thing that Snape and his little brother had in common was the dark black shade of their hair. But where Snape's hair was long, greasy, and lank, Ashford's hair was cut in a modern style, it wasn't hanging limp, it was spiked up in a way that Harry would have said was gelled were it not for the fact that it looked like he'd just walked away from a tornado.
What Fred found the most amusing was that, although his elder half-brother was the Slytherin's Head of House—the biggest group of muggle-haters in Hogwarts—Kol Ashford was sitting there looking perfectly comfortable in a pair of muggle jeans, converse, and a white button down with the sleeves rolled up. He also had a grey-black backpack slung over one shoulder. All in all; he looked like a perfectly normal muggle teenager.
George, on the other hand, while paying some small attention to these details, he was more focused in studying the facial expressions and gestures of the brother; trying to find the contrasts and similarities. Snape seemed to be sticking to the Slytherin playbook and was keeping his emotions off of his face rather nicely, George noticed. However, he also saw that Snape had yet to release Ashford's arm, and was making sure that the younger was staying close. It seemed that Snape's overprotective big-brother instincts were kicking in, despite what he had protested earlier about leaving once his brother had arrived. Ashford was doing a good job of schooling his features, though his bright blue eyes betrayed the faintest hint of exasperation at his older brother's antics.
The rest of the room seemed to not know what to make of him, and it was quiet until the last person to enter the room—Dumbledore—sat.
Unsurprisingly, it was Remus who killed the silence. With a small smile on his face, he spoke in a friendly tone, "Well, I'm glad to be the first person to welcome you to number twelve Grimauld Place." He stretched his hand across the table, "I'm Remus Lupin, please call me Remus."
Ashford nodded once and shook the offered hand.
"I guess I don't really need to tell you my name."
Harry cocked his head slightly to the side at the unfamiliar American accent-it would take some getting used to.
Remus chuckled at that.
"No, I don't suppose you do." He turned to glance about the table. "Why don't I get the introductions out of the way?" He started spouting names and pointing to the appropriate people.
"That's Tonks, well, Nymphadora's her first name—"
"DON'T CALL ME NYMPHADORA!"
"—but she prefers Tonks. I'd stick to that if I were you." If Ashford was at all startled by Tonk's outburst he didn't show it, though the corner of his mouth did twitch up.
"This is Molly Weasley, the best cook you'll ever meet, and her husband Arthur. They've seven children but not all of them are here, I'm afraid, but that's Ronald, their youngest son.
Ron just glared at the older boy. Ashford paid the glare no notice, simply nodding curtly in Ron's direction and then moved his attention to the next person.
"Then this is Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley, who is the youngest Weasley, and the only girl."
To the shock and somewhat amusement of Harry, Fred, and George, both girls blushed violently at the mention of their names and, when Ashford sent a polite smile their way, they both ducked their heads without saying a word.
George leaned in towards Harry and whispered, "I guess you don't have to worry about Ginny's hero worship anymore, eh?"
Fred had to stuff his fist in his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Harry tried very hard not to smile, and he had to bite his cheek to stop himself from sniggering. George sat there smirking at the two of them and, though they kept their exchange silent, the slight movement caught Ashford's eye, and he watched them out of his peripheral vision, only listening to the introductions with half an ear.
"—and that's Albus Dumbledore, in case you haven't already met."
Ashford seemed to reassert his attention back to what Remus was saying right at that moment, and he smoothly slipped back into the conversation.
"No, we haven't, but I've heard a lot about you." He directed a tilt of his head and the second part of his sentence to Dumbledore.
Dumbledore inclined his head in return and replied, "It's an honor to finally meet you, Mr. Ashford. Tales of your exploits have reached us from across the sea, even if your name was not specifically mentioned in the reports."
For the first time since he'd set foot in the door, Ashford looked uncomfortable.
"Ah, yes." He said, fidgeting slightly, "That…erm, which incident are you referring to, exactly?"
The confusion in the room mounted as everyone except Snape, Remus, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley looked surprised. What were they talking about?
Dumbledore chortled lightly, "While I have heard of many of your 'incidents' as you call them, I was most impressed with the situation involving a dragon and the forest in California."
The kids in the room noted the adult's reactions to this sentence; Remus smirked along with Tonks, who also turned towards Ashford with a newfound sense of respect and a quiet 'that was you?" Mr. Weasley's face went pale and Mrs. Weasley's mouth thinned in disapproval. Snape looked like a cross between furious and proud, which was a new look for him.
Harry decided he wasn't going to wait for someone to come out with the truth by themselves, so he just outright asked, "What?"
All eyes turned towards him and his oh so articulate phrasing. Remus seemed to realize that he'd missed out introducing the last three people at the table.
"Oh! Kol, it seems I've forgotten about those three rascals." As if on cue, three pairs of eyes widened innocently to look in shock at the former Marauder, in unison they each pointed to their chests and mouthed 'Who? Me?' Much to everyone's amusement.
"Those are the infamous Weasley twins, Fred and George; I'll leave it up to you to figure out which is which—goodness knows nobody else knows." Everyone chuckled at that, "Well, except for Harry, there," He pointed, "That's Harry Potter."
Harry suppressed a flinch as he said that, preparing himself for the usual shock and awe that accompanied his name. The reaction was a somewhat less than inspired, "Huh." And then Ashford moved on with the conversation like nothing special had happened, instead asking if dinner was going to happen sometime this century. This brought laughter from the room's inhabitants (Snape merely smirked), and just like that, any and all tension was gone.
From everyone's reactions, it seemed that while there was no end of animosity from certain individuals (Ron and Sirius), there were definitely more in favor of this Ashford bloke than against. Although Mrs. Weasley was a little jumpy around him, when dinner was served and devoured he gave such glowing complements that she couldn't help but smile and say that he was still a growing boy and 'of course he'd say that about any sort of food.' Ginny and Hermione were both shy around the newcomer, but they vied for his attentions, and flushed whenever he paid them a complement. Remus and Tonks told jokes and teased each other and even Ashford, who was spending his first evening in their company caught on fast, and was busy sending subtle, teasing comments at the two. He even 'innocently' mistook the two for a couple and mentioned it, causing both of them to stammer out exclamations of 'No!' and 'I—I don't think so.' And everyone within hearing distance smirked.
After dinner, it was late and they decided that it was time for bed. And although the adults claimed that they too were ready to hit the sack, Harry suspected that they were just playing along for the children, and that they were planning to meet again to discuss the Ashford boy.
Harry and the twins led their new roommate upstairs, and showed him his bed, shoved in a corner like the other three, making enough room in the middle of the floor to sit down.
By this time all four boys were exhausted, with Kol being the worst; after a long day of traveling, he was worn out.
It was only once they'd collapsed into bed that Harry realized Ashford had never answered his question about the forest in California and the dragon. He lifted his head to look over at the next bed, and saw at once that Kol was dead to the world if the the slow rising and falling of his shoulders was any indication. The Weasley twins were softly snoring in unison.
Harry decided that he could always ask tomorrow, after all, this Ashford guy didn't seem so bad—even if he was related to the spawn of the devil.
It was with those thoughts that Harry drifted off into dreams filled with Hagrid letting loose the Hungarian Horntail in the Forbidden Forest, and a lonely door at the end of a dark corridor.
Dundundun...hope you've enjoyed this chapter, please R/R because I'm a review hog and I need more criticism. But, ya know, praise is always good too. :D