Cousins 5

Part 1: Chapter 33
Part 2: Chapter 39
Part 3: Chapter 47
Part 4: Chapter 49

"And that's why you never use bat's wings in any potion that requires a drop of troll's blood," one of the twins said, while a red faced Harry and Ron sat there smiling, having greatly increased the number of bare breasts they'd seen in their lives.

"You guys are only fourth years, how'd you see a potions accident in a class a year ahead of you?" Harry asked.

"Most potions accidents aren't," one twin began.

"It actually takes quite a lot of skill to cause an accident without Snape managing to stop you," the other continued.

"We know how to brew polyjuice and are paid quite well to take other students places and cause said accidents," the first twin started.

"Which of course, we'd do for free," the second twin continued. "But Charlie is right, there is nothing better than to be paid to do what you love, and we love annoying Snape."

"I don't know about that," Ron said, "Neville manages it nearly every class."

"Or is that you two too?" Harry asked curiously.

"That's all him," one twin said.

"He does it on purpose, because he hates and fears Snape," the other explained.

"Potions genius, that one," they chorused honestly impressed.

"He's forcing himself to overcome his fears by provoking Snape," Harry's eyes widened as he announced his realization.

"Might we see the troll incident?" one twin asked.

"Sure," Harry replied removing the memory and dropping it in the pensieve.

It was a short memory only about seven minutes long, so the four only took seconds to view.

The twins stared at the two younger boys in shock.

"Man we were small back then," Harry said with a chuckle, even though it had only been a year ago.

"Trolls a lot smaller than I remember it being as well," Ron agreed cheerfully.

"Wanna see the detention McGonagall gave me in the forbidden forest?" Harry asked, wanting to see if viewing it would also make it seem less dangerous and help lay it to rest.

"The one with Voldemort and the unicorn?" Ron asked curiously.

"That's the one," Harry agreed.

"Sure," Ron said before turning to the twins and noticing their condition. "What's wrong with you guys?"

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Xander held out his cupped hands, making sure he didn't spill blood on the ground and watched as various butterflies landed on his hand and sipped his blood. "I never pictured butterflies as blood drinkers," Xander admitted.

"That's because, like most people, you picture nature and think it's all peaceful and harmonious," Horse said and shook his head. "I blame Disney and hippies for that view."

"It isn't?" Xander asked a small cloud of butterflies swarming him.

"Nature is never peaceful, it's a continual fight for survival, from the carnivores eating the herbivores, who eat the plants, who absorb the detritus of their feast, to the insects who feed on the victims and the fallen alike. Even further down we have billions of bacteria, but you get what I mean, life eats life. Nature is called a mother for a reason and it's not because she's nurturing and kind," Horse explained with a chuckle.

"And what am I to learn from this?" Xander asked as he watched a bright yellow butterfly drink his blood and then flutter off, feeling equal parts amazed and repulsed.

"It's the cycle of life, and watching a Disney movie just doesn't have the same impact as showing it to you first hand and introducing you to exactly what life truly is," Horse told him.

"And what is life?" Xander asked.

"Think on it," Horse told him. "Now where should we go next?"

"Reptile house," Xander offered, shaking his hand to dislodge a number of butterflies.

"Our cold blooded brethren are quite different from us, for all we share the same earth we are worlds apart," the old man said. "We'll go over there as soon as you get rid of the butterflies covering you," he said cheerfully, lighting up a cigarette, paying no mind to the no smoking signs.

"And how do I do that?" Xander asked, absolutely cloaked in butterflies.

"Now that is a good question," the old man agreed with a grin.

Xander cursed Giles under his breath and looked around for some clue on how to de-infest himself.

*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*

Tara rolled to the side, a fireball barely missing her as it slammed into the dirt where she'd just been.

The woman in the red leather laughed and called another fireball to her hand. "You're an earth witch, but I don't see you calling on the earth."

Tara had lost her purse and had to rip off half her dress, when a near miss had set it alight and she had been dodging attacks for nearly half an hour, often by the skin of her teeth, gaining blisters from where she hadn't dodged fast enough, so she was hurt tired, and scared, not knowing what this lunatic wanted with her or why she'd kidnapped her.

"What's a matter little mouse, cat got your tongue?" she taunted flinging another ball of flame.

"I need calm to call on the earth, and I'm not calm!" Tara snapped out wondering why this crazy witch was doing this.

The woman laughed cruelly. "Tree hugging hippie crap! What use is magic that can only be called when you're calm and nothing is going on to inflame your passions?!"

Tara did a very credible tumbling roll to avoid a trio of fireballs and get some distance between them. Her eyes darted around, but there was no cover in sight just desert scrub-land.

"Maybe I should go visit the boy you were with," she said with a smirk. "I'm sure he'd be a lively sport before I played a little game of dodge with him." She drew on the earth blatantly, increasing the size of the fireball until it was nearly three feet across and threw it, melting a large patch of sand to glass and setting the nearby grass alight.

Tara glared at the woman. Xander had been nice to her, risking his life to save her and not asking for anything in return, even going so far as to comfort her later and hadn't even gotten mad that Tara wasn't comfortable doing certain things, even though she could feel he really wanted to do them with her. At the thought of this woman hurting him her anger exploded into flame that she gathered in her hand, copying what she'd seen the witch do just a moment before.

"Just fucking try!" Tara snarled flinging a soccer ball sized fireball at the red clad witch while forming a second one in her other hand.

The dark skinned witch had spun to the side and taken a step to the right to avoid the attack with a smirk on her face. "You're learning," she said, calling more fire to her hand.

Typing by: Stephenopolos