The Marauders Part 7 Okay, it's a half-interesting part. Stuff happens. I love everyone who has been archiving me lately, so thank you! Shout outs to Kris (QuatreChan) who betaed this fic for me and also did some WAYYY fab drawings of the gang, THANK YOU SO MUCH! *hugs* You can get a gander of those here: No, those aren't the only ones, but the rest would somewhat spoil the plot, so NONE FOR YOU YET! Mua haha. Oh, by the way, I'm going to do Steve Tyler a favour and plug Aerosmith's new album. Having been a rabid Aerosmith fan for eleven years, I bought the new CD, Just Push Play, the day it came out and I haven't stopped playing it since . . . SO GO BUY IT! And then listen to Track 12. It's my favourite. But now, onto the fic, onto the fic! Draca ** there's a girl livin' under my skin there's this girl and she's wearin' me thin and I think she's the reason that it's open broken hearted season! ~Aerosmith~ Narcissa, Jada, Scarlett, Cirrus, and Adara were walking down to the Great Hall for dinner. Well, they weren't really walking, it was more of a slow mosey. They were already late, and it didn't matter to any of them if they missed a meal anyway. Narcissa way always on a diet, and Adara was hardly ever hungry because of her small size, and the others mostly went along with the two leaders. "So," Narcissa commented innocently. "It would seem that Ms-Playing-Quidditch-Is-So-Much-More-Fascinating-Then-Lads has finally received her comeuppance, would that be it?" "Shut up." Adara muttered, rubbing her temples. "I'm thinking." All of a sudden, they became aware of a flurry of commotion coming from the Great Hall up ahead. "What the heck's going on in there?" Jada inquired loudly. Cirrus giggled. "It's a hoedown!" "Hold on, nobody pushed Narcissa on the floor, did they?" Adara wondered out loud. "HEY!" Narcissa snorted. "Loser." "Easy." "Hermit." "Hufflepuff." "Flobberworm." "You're just jealous." "Ouch." "Break it up, you two." Scarlett sighed loudly, pushing in between the two girls in order to prevent the tiff from escalating into bloodshed. "What say we go find out who's causing all that noise in the Hall, eh?" "You know, I'm in no position to say, but it sounds mightily like one of the contenders is probably Sev." Adara commented, speeding up her pace. "I'll bet James and them started another row." "Adara, what did your little Gryffindor friends do now?!" scolded Jada, fiddling irritatingly with one of her (surprise, surprise) expensive jade earrings. "Hey, I'm not their mother. They're welcome to pound Sev if they have a good basis argument." reasoned Adara. "Okay, so they usually don't have a very good basis argument, but it's okay, because he's a jerk anyway!" "I think he's actually kind of cute." Cirrus countered. "And you know what everyone says about the nose being the measure of what's in the hose-Mmmph!" Adara had clamped her fingers tightly over her friend's mouth. "Shut your gob, Caranni, none of us want to hear that!" Scarlett grinned. "Hear, hear!" Narcissa pushed open the door gingerly. "Well, either way, I suppose we're about to find out. AAAAUGH!" The other four looked at each other, smirking, and then back at Narcissa. "Something wrong, dear?" Adara inquired, trying to keep the smile off her face. The blonde girl closed the door and stepped several feet away from it, yanking her wand out of her robes. "Well, it's a food fight. We know that much." Jada offered nastily. "That's a good look for you, Cromorne. I especially like the pink accents." Narcissa performed a cleaning spell to get the strawberry shortcake off of her face and neck. "Honestly. How unbelievingly vulgar, odious, and loathsome." Narcissa couldn't abide by filth. The other third-year Slytherin girls left the dormitory a mess; it was always she who actually kept her section clean. "We missed more of the supper then I thought. It's mostly the boys left in there, I suppose all the girls have gone back to the dorms." "Well, where are the professors?" Scarlett wanted to know. "McGonagall sure put a stop to that last food fight right quick." Adara opened the door a crack. "Well, she's in the infirmary, remember? I heard it was a bad lycanthropy vaccine that did it. Whoa, the Headmaster's sure enjoying himself." she reported, watching Dumbledore hurl a plateful of green gelatin at Professor Flitwick. It landed on his hat and quivered as if it were alive. All of a sudden, she opened the door further to admit Lily into the hallway. She was covered with pudding and there were lima beans in her hair. "Honestly! How repulsive!" she snorted loudly at Adara. "It's all Sirius Black's fault, I swear. He was flicking peas at Snape and then this happened!" The four other Slytherins snicked loudly, but Adara shushed them. "Uh, there seems to have been a pudding incident here." "Oh, that was James. He's a complete nimrod." Lily proclaimed. "It was supposed to hit somebody else, or at least, I hope it was. Now I see why he's a Seeker instead of a Chaser. He's got no aim!" "Aren't the teachers trying to stop it?" Narcissa asked disdainfully, surveying the usually tidy Gryffindor. "Well, McGonagall would, but she's in the hospital wing, bad lycanthropy vaccine, I heard. The rest of 'em look like they're almost having fun. I suppose they don't get out much." she said with a grin. "Oh, by the way, the boys want you." she told Adara. Adara cocked an eyebrow and grinned. "Since when do you call them 'the boys'?" she wanted to know. "I was under the impression you weren't overly fond of my gang of pranksters." To the amusement of the other girl, Lily blushed. "Well, they aren't so bad, really. Just a bit loud sometimes, I suppose." "Yeah, yeah." Adara kidded. "I guess you're about to go take a shower, huh?" "Of course," Lily confirmed, brushing back a strand of pudding-y hair. "I'll see you later, right?" "Right. Ta." Adara grinned. And then, to the Slytherins, "Cover me. I'm going in." She dashed through the tall door and hurtled through a hailstorm of vegetables, partially eaten pork chops, and particularly painful hard rolls. "James!" she shouted, over the din. "Lily said you wanted to talk to me?" James took careful aim at one of the older Slytherin boys and hit him with a fistful of mashed potatoes. There was strawberry icing on his nose, and he reached into a pocket of his robes and pulled out a note. "Here. Sirius worked this out this afternoon. Read it." he hollered back. "Now, get out of here if you don't fancy a faceful of shortcake like Narcissa got!" he added, pointing at Sirius, who was grinning maniacally and holding a strawberry. Adara shrieked good-naturedly and ran back out to the hall, clutching the folded piece of parchment, and rejoined her friends. "Oh, well. No dinner for us. More's the pity." Narcissa said, shaking her head sarcastically. "Ciss, you get weirder every day." Adara said with disdain. "Eat something once in awhile, you're stick-thin already, you don't need to be on a diet." "Easy for you to say, what are you, a size zero?" "If I'm a size zero, you're got to be size one. And it's not my fault. I'm petite." Adara scowled at the taller girl. "I haven't seen you eat for days." "Hey, I eat, just not a lot." Narcissa said defensively. "She's right, Cissa. You're beautiful enough without being on a diet." Scarlett put in. "You don't want to look like Adara, do you?" "No offense, dear. We all love you, but you're too skinny, not to mention flat." Jada informed the black-haired girl. "You should eat more." "I'm quite comfortable with whom I am, thank you." laughed Adara. "So, what are our Saturday night plans? Narcissa, I assume yours are snogging with some poor unsuspecting fool by the statue of Lars the Incontinent?" Narcissa smiled. "Maybe, maybe not. But probably yes. And what are yours, Dragomiroff?" Adara waved the note from James back and forth. "I wouldn't know. I assume it has something to do with the contents of this message. But, of course, it's private." she added with a grin. "But you'll tell us later, right?" Scarlett prodded, straightening the broad belt cinching the waist of her robes. "Right?" Scarlett was a ravishingly pretty girl who looked a lot younger then she was, much like Narcissa looked older. She was dating - well, trying to date - Jada's twin brother. "Well, if depends." Adara teased, as the bunch turned down the corridor to the dungeons. "You know." Cirrus and Jada looked at each other. "She'll tell us." they said together, with a confident tone. Adara sighed. "Yeah, bog standard. I always tell you guys." She reached behind her head and smoothed down some of her wavy black hair. It stuck out at spiral angles from her scalp. She hated it, but not as much as she hated the way Narcissa made her tell her everything. The taller girl was such a bully, even though Adara wasn't exactly an innocent victim. She was capable of being as intimidating and bossy as Narcissa was. "So," Narcissa cut into Adara's thoughts, "about your plans to snag that Black fellow. What have you decided?" she asked, with her all-too-customary demanding tone of voice. The short girl shrugged. "Well, I guess I'll attempt to make him jealous either with Lucius, because Sirius hates him, or with James Potter, because Sirius loves him." Adara loved James too, but only as a friend. He was one of the few boys she knew whom she could actually talk to. Self-confidence and intelligence fairly emanated from the dark-haired boy, not to mention the ever-present mischievousness. She really didn't want to hurt him like that, but she knew getting involved with Lucius Malfoy was more dangerous then it looked at first glance. The whispers that went around about that family were all but pleasant. Lucius's father worked with Him, the dark one whom they did not name. "Or maybe I'll just give his girlfriend a black eye and offer to buy him tickets to a Rolling Stones concert." Cirrus said the password and the five of them filed into the dark stone chamber. Somewhere, water dripped endlessly, adding to the foreboding atmosphere. The common room was empty as it usually was, after dinner on Saturday nights was when the older Slytherins were getting ready to go slink off with their boyfriends and girlfriends. They climbed the stairs and hurried into their dormitory, where Cirrus and Jada pulled pyjamas out of their wardrobes, Narcissa reapplied her makeup, Scarlett lifted her mattress and pulled out her journal, and Adara sank into her black beanbag and opened the note James had given her. Her name was on the outside in Sirius's handwriting, bold and dark red, almost like blood. Adara - I have devised a plan for telling each other where we want to meet. It's a secret code. Yes, I know it's childish, but here goes: When one of us wants to speak privately to the others, just write the time on a piece of parchment in a specific ink colour and give one copy to each of us. The ink colour will represent the place to meet. Chart is as follows. Ravenclaw Window Alcove: Blue Empty Dungeon next to the Potions Room: Green Very Top of Gryffindor Tower: Red The Shrieking Shack: Black Invisible Entrance Room across from Hufflepuff Commons: Yellow The Broom Closet: Purple Moaning Myrtle's loo: Orange I didn't have time to think of others, so we'll have to add them as we think of them. Keep this list in a safe place. Let's see how well all of you paid attention. 10:00 -Sirius Adara smiled and smoothed out the creases in the parchment. She looked at her watch. It was antique, tarnished silver, a wind-up she had found in a Muggle pawnshop, and she loved it to death. Its tiny hands pointed to 8:45 through the tiny foggy glass face, and Adara groaned. Ten o'clock was an hour and fifteen minutes away. How to pass the time . . . "I'm out of here." announced Narcissa grandly. Her long light blonde hair was swept back and pinned half-up. "I won't be back until late." "Try not to wake us." mumbled Jada. "I had a hard day." Jada was an authentic spoiled rich girl. If she had broken a nail that day, she classified it as hard. Adara rolled her eyes. "We'll see you later, Ciss." she told the other girl. "Have fun with whatever poor slob you're toying mercilessly with now!" Narcissa smiled nastily. "I'm sure I will." As soon as Narcissa was down the stairs and her footfalls had faded away, Adara dove into her trunk and pulled out her jeans. They were artistically ripped and painted with designs. She liked to customize all of her clothing, and this particular pair of bellbottoms had a large painted dragon breathing fire up the left leg, with a fist-sized tear in the right knee. She pulled them on and added a black tank top which she had borrowed from Jada and forgotten completely to return. It wasn't that Adara didn't like wizards' robes, they were ridiculously comfortable, but they weren't at all flattering, especially the plain black ones Hogwarts students were forced to wear every single day. So after hours, when hardly anyone saw her, it was Muggle clothing. Adara looked at herself in Narcissa's full length mirror and grinned. James had put that rip in this pair for her, they had been new and she hadn't had the strength to shred the denim herself. Running her fingers fruitlessly through her hair, she opened the door and ran down the stairs two at a time, and then up the boy's staircase three at a time. She stopped at the fourth-year's dorm and knocked rapidly. It opened almost immediately. "Malcolm, where the hell have you been with that potion? I sent you for it nearly an hour ago! When I say 'go get me a love potion,' I mean go see Snape NOW, not three hours from now!" Lucius Malfoy was yelling, before he actually saw who it was on the other side. "Must you be so loud?" Adara asked dryly. "There are people trying to snog in peace down there, you know." "Yes, I wish I was one of them." he replied, whippet-quick as usual. "Oh, Lucius, don't give me your pity-poor-me act. All you have to do it open the door and whistle and the girls'll be queuing up." she snapped, leaning against the doorway. "Turn down your hormones for a minute and let me in. We need to talk." He stepped aside and she strode through the doorway into the common room. Lucius was the only one there. Unlike the at least relatively clean girl's dorm, to call this one a pigsty would have been insulting pigs. "Oh, Malfoy, this is disgusting!" Adara groaned, sinking onto the bed after kicking a pair of black silk boxer shorts onto the floor. "How do you boys live like this?" Lucius made a face and reclined against a gigantic Black Sabbath poster. "If you have a problem, we could continue this conversation elsewhere." Adara ignored him and noticed the poster. "Why, Lucius, I had no idea you liked Muggle music." "Yes, I find it's the only good thing about them, the wretched plebeians." he replied royally. "What did you want to speak to me about?" "Well, I figured we might as well get this afternoon's incident out in the open." she said bluntly. "Can't just leave it a moot point or I'll never be able to look at you again." She fixed her dark blue gaze on his pale grey one. "It won't work, Lucius, I'll tell you that right now. I'm sorry, but it can't work. We're different, you and I." Lucius left the wall and sat next to her. "That's a lie." he whispered. "We're just the same and you know it. You're just as smart as I am and you're just as wicked, you're just too young to realise that yet." "I'm ten months younger then you!" she yelled. "Just give it a chance, you'll see." Lucius murmured. "I think you're too intelligent to miss it." Adara rolled her eyes. "Why me? I've got no family, I hate you, and I spend most of my time with the boys from Gryffindor!" "Ah, well, all mistakes on your part." Lucius yawned and laid back on his pillow. "Well, not the no family aspect, obviously. But the others could certainly be remedied, especially the part about hating me." "Lucius, you're mad and no mistake." she proclaimed, lifting an oddly shaped black crystal from among the various junk all over his night table and setting it down again. "I came up here to tell you it wasn't going to work. Don't you ever give up?" He licked his lips. "Hardly. I'm not the sort of person to give up. I'm the sort who'll take what they want if they can't have it." "Unfortunately, I've noticed." she said, in a weary voice. "Give up, Lucius. Please. You're wasting your time with me. Go date Narcissa. She actually likes you." "But, I like you." he countered, sitting up again, definitely too close for comfort. "Oh, fewmets, you're not gonna try to kiss me again, are you?" she muttered irritably. Lucius put on a very effective hurt puppy dog expression. "Well, not if you don't want me to." "That's good. I don't want you to." She stood up and then sat back down again. "I don't have to leave for another half-hour, pity. What else can I yell at you about until then?" He caught a lock of her hair and started playing with it. "About how I'm so charming you could just . . . " "Throw up?" offered Adara, jerking away from him. "Lucius, how could somebody so damn skinny have such a thick skull?" She sighed and rested her chin on her palms, her elbows on her knees. "You really aggravate me, you know that, right?" "That's rather understandable. I'm trying to wear you down, obviously." he commented, picking up his wand. He pulled a flower of the air and handed it to her. It would have been very romantic if it hadn't been black. She tore all the petals off and scattered them on the floor. "No! It's not going to work! I'm not going to fall for all your cheesy pickups, even if we sit here all night long! Lucius, you are a manipulative, depraved, immoral bag of scum with little or no respect for women." "Ouch!" he said with a smile. "So, you're sure you're not up for a quick snog session?" "AM I SPEAKING SOME LANGUAGE OTHER THEN ENGLISH?" Adara bellowed. "Here, let's try French, because obviously you're not acquainted with the mother tongue! Je ne vous aime pas, Luci! Je n'ai jamais!" "You're not helping at all. I happen to think girls who speak French are really rather desirable." "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH! Sod it for a game of soldiers! You moron! That's it! I can't stand it anymore! I'm leaving!" "Give us a goodbye kiss." Lucius grinned. He could see he was really infuriating her, and it pleased him immensely. That is, until she landed him a resounding slap on his face and a small handprint materialized itself on his white left cheek. "Ouch! Bugger it! Fine, throw a strop at me, why don't you?" All of a sudden, Adara's hand landed on her back pocket. There was a rectangular bulge in it. "Hey, Lucius . . . Can I tell your future?" She pulled out a flat object wrapped in blue velvet and unwrapped it, revealing a deck of much used and quite antique tarot cards. Adara preferred to call her possessions 'antique,' instead of 'old and rubbishy." The silvery blonde boy appeared mildly surprised, but nodded, as she had expected him to, and the two of them sat cross-legged across from one another on his bed. Lucius cut the cards as Adara instructed him, and then she laid the cards out in the shape of a cross and leaned over to inspect them. "Let's have a look." She tapped the middle card. "The Moon. I thought so." "Oh, really? And what would that happen to represent?" Lucius murmured bewitchingly. To him, tarot cards were just a big hoax. He had no idea that Adara had been reading cards since she was ten and knew every single possible combination. She had tried every method of Divination, tea leaves, pouring the lead, palmistry, but tarot cards were her true talent, besides the occasional flashes she sometimes had. She loved seeing shock on people's faces when she told them their own secrets. "That tells me two things, especially when it's put with this card here." Adara told him, pointing to the card to the left of the Moon. "It's the High Priestess. You're lying, or keeping a secret from a mysterious woman." She sighed. "Well, since that's probably me, we'll look over here. Five of Pentacles, that means you're looking for money and love in all the wrong places. Oh, and look, it's your card, Lucius - the Seven of Swords." She smiled in such an amused way that he had to ask. "And what, per say, does the seven of swords mean?" Adara laughed and picked up the card. "Oh, dishonestly, theft, lying to get what you want, the like." "Funny, my dear, oh so very droll." he sneered, his eyes hard icy pools. "Why don't you keep going?" "It's no use, Malfoy. There's nothing here but lies and secrets and death." She looked at him. "I'm sorry, but that's all I see. You haven't got a very bright future, it seems to me." Lucius smiled lazily, gathered up her cards, and handed them to her. "Well, you're just made my night, haven't you? I wonder if you've ever bothered foretelling such doom for yourself or any of your little Mudblooded friends." She shook her head. "I don't ever read my own cards. I don't want to know. And I'll never read James, or Sirius, or Remus, or Peter." She had been tempted, of course, very tempted. It would be oh, so easy for her to lay down Sirius's cards and figure out where his weaknesses lay. But no, she reflected, that would be cheating. "And by the way, Remus, James, and Peter are pureblooded. Not that I put any stock in that sort of thing, of course." He ignored her. Adara looked at her watch and saw that it was ten of ten. "My, my, where did the time go? I've got to be out of here, Lucius." "Got a date, have you?" he inquired, watching her turn to leave. "Well, no, but it wouldn't be any business of yours even if I had. Oh, fiddlesticks and copper cauldrons, I've been here for an hour and we didn't clear up anything, did we?" she said, struggling to release the catch on the heavy door. Lucius contemplated. "Well, no. I suppose not. But not that you didn't have a jolly good go at it, my dear. Here, let me help you with that." He opened the door effortlessly and she thudded down the stairs, not looking back, not even to say, "See you later." He watched her go, leaning against the heavy wooden frame, his fleshless arms crossed, looking down the dark stairway myopically. (Lucius needed glasses but was much, much too narcissistic to admit it to himself.) He scowled, pursed his lips, and disappeared back into the murky dormitory. He'd thought he was a lot more intelligent then to actually . . . He pushed the thought out of his mind and flopped down on his bed, closing his eyes. ** Adara slithered down the hallway, pressed up against the wall. The Ravenclaw rooms were almost all the way on the other side of the castle, in the easternmost portion of the North Wing, and the Slytherin dungeons were the southernmost part of Hogwarts. Usually Saturday nights were the worst times to sneak out because there were always teachers perusing the halls looking for truant students to seize by the ears and drag back to their common rooms. But Adara was unusually good at not getting caught, in fact, all the Marauders were. They had practiced the art of becoming dim. . . . not invisible but dim, just that if they were passed by someone, they could flatten against a wall or a door and just go unnoticeable. It was a talent that many of the Slytherins or in fact, many of the students would have liked to possess, but it was rare. James had been the one to figure out how to do it first. When she got all the way to the alcove, she pulled open the door, looked back and forth, and slipped inside. Ten-fifteen. "What took you so long?" complained Sirius. "What'd you do, get lost on the way?" "No, I was with Lucius." she said perfunctorily. "Nice system. I like it." she added. "Sirius, that is an unattractive position for your jaw to be hanging in. It's going to attract flies." "Oh," James fumbled in his back pocket. "Your owl brought these to our table by mistake. I think she's getting too used to you being with us." he said, pulling letters out of his pocket and handing them to her. "One of them looks kinda important." "Ta, luv." She tucked the missives away without looking at them and sat on the floor, not leaning against the wall. Leaning against the walls in the Ravenclaw alcove was a very bad idea, because they were made of glass. In fact, the entire room was made of glass except for the floor, so one could sit and watch the stars. Adara was surprised that it was empty at this time on a Saturday night, as it was a popular haunt. "Hmm hmm . . . when I tell all the world that I love you . . . " Remus sang, adjusting his big, awkward headphones. "Boy, this battery-powered portable record player is the best thing I ever bought . . . " He pulled the cord out of the jack, and soft music filled the room. "Ewww!" Peter moaned. "The Grass Roots! Gross!" "Grotty." Sirius commented. Remus looked offended, but had lost the popular vote, and therefore removed the record. "Hey, I like it." Adara sifted through the stack of seventy-eights in his carrying case and picked one. "Here. The new Pink Floyd album, Dark Side of The Moon. Play this one. It's totally trippy." "Meanwhile, Sirius, what did you want us all here for?" James asked, sinking onto the floor. "Is there a rationality to this delightful meeting?" Sirius bristled proudly. "Today, I got my owl order of . . . " He paused for effect. "Liver bird feathers!" "Where did you get Liver bird feathers?" Remus queried, wide-eyed. "Liverpool, where else?" Sirius grinned and produced them with a flourish from his bag. "So, we can add these to the potion now. And the Hogsmeade trip is in two weeks, so we can get a lot of the stuff then, too. But for now, I figure we can maybe move the cauldron down to the Shrieking Shack to decrease chances of anybody finding it." "Yeah, Moaning Myrtle's loo isn't exactly privacy at its finest." James agreed, nodding. "What say Remus and I do that, and the rest of you can go about your normal activities?" "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." conceded Adara. "That Quidditch match wiped me out. I'm going to bed." She stood up, straightened her tank top, and headed toward the door. "G'night, boys." She went into the hall (to a chorus of "G'night, Adaras.") and began to walk back to the Slytherin common room. When she got back to her dormitory, she started getting changed into her pajamas and heard a crinkling in one of her back pockets. She pulled out the letters James had given her and sat down on her four-poster to read them. It had been a while since Adara had gotten any mail, so she opened the first one eagerly. It was from Ms. McKenzie, the woman that owned Adara's orphanage. She sighed loudly and read it, half -aloud. "Dear Adara . . . blahblahblah . . . checking up on the girls . . . blahblah . . . hope you're well . . . yakkity yak . . . behave yourself . . . don't get in trouble . . . please, for the love of God, don't get in trouble . . . blah . . . sincerely, the horrible old bat whom you happen to live with." She crumpled up the letter, sighed again, and threw it over her shoulder. Then, she attacked the second letter. It was from Broomstick Beat, asking if she wanted to renew her subscription. She set it on her night table boredly and opened the third envelope, hoping it wouldn't be a bust like the other two. This one was black and written on with a silver pen. When she saw the silver pen, she knew right away whom it was from. "YES!" Adara cheered softly, not wanting to wake her roommates. She lay back on top of the counterpane and unfolded the letter zealously. My dear Adara, It has been some time since we saw each other, so not only do I miss you, but I am tres ennui without you here to entertain me. I am sorry, that sounded rude, but there is very little to do in this town when all the witches and wizards are away at Hogwarts, and life can be very tedious. I do hope you're having a better time of it then myself. I have taken a job working in Forbidden Fancies, and it would seem I am not quite cut out for the job as a garçon . . . you would say bus boy, I suppose. They did not want me in the bar as I am only two hundred years old, but the manager apparently took pity on me, which is good, because I am s'est très cassé, so broke! I was glad to receive your last letter and I am happy to hear of your friends, although they do make me a little jealous. And if you want, I shall give this Malfoy fellow une petite morsure sur le cou, although from the way you make him sound I doubt as if his blood would be sweet enough as is my liking. I am quite upset to not be seeing you until June, because I know you will probably have a happier Christmas at your school then at home with Madame McKenzie. I know you do not enjoy her company much, or the company of the other madèmoisèllès. In truth, neither do I. I find them coarse and boring compared to you, at least the ones who are left behind when the witches have gone away to school. On the plus side, to alleviate my monotony, I am learning to play the piano. It soothes me greatly. I now see what you mean when you say that music gets into the soul, and I find the works of Brahms and Mozart especially relaxing, along with some darker Transylvanian pieces that of course are near and dear to my heart, although the words are all in Romanian and as we all know, ma petite, I do not speak any Romanian. I would, however, enjoy learning, if I ever were offered the opportunity. Perhaps you, mistress of languages, could assist me this summer with that particular endeavor. How many do you know now? Six? It is a most impressive talent to possess. I have never even seen Transylvania, which for me is a great disappointment, for obvious reasons. I fear I must end this letter, as my new job is making me very fatigué et faible, and the sun is almost up. Perhaps you will change your mind about Christmas? I miss you, ma petite, on this I do not lie. Au revoir! Your dear friend, Jean-Pierre. Adara smiled, folded the letter, and slid it into the book that was sitting on her night table. Jean-Pierre was her very dear friend, but he was also a vampire. A very young vampire, to be sure. . .he had only been bitten two hundred years ago, which made him one of the youngest bloodsuckers in Britain. Every time Adara even considered studying Advanced Defence in order to become a vampire hunter, she thought about Jean-Pierre. It was true that most vampires were evil, had no respect for humans except as a source of type O negative, and were extremely dangerous, but as a witch, Adara was kind of exempt. Plus, Jean-Pierre didn't kill people if he could help it. She was amused to hear that he'd gotten a job at Forbidden Fancies, which was the local vampire bar. There was a high population of vampires in Raven's Ravine and the surrounding area. Adara's town was one that was about half and half, half Muggles who lived in happy oblivion, and half magical beings who lived in their own world. It was an amusing balance. Sirius, who lived three streets away from Adara, hated it. He hated vampires in general and he couldn't understand how she could be such good friends with one of them. She had been considering a job at Fancies too, until she realised that she didn't want to have to waitress a bunch of slightly intoxicated bloodsuckers. James, who also lived in Raven's Ravine, had actually been dating one of them until she tried to bite his neck. That had been entertaining, because it was followed by months of, "You know, necking is a lot more dangerous then it looks!" The door banged open suddenly and Adara jerked out of her thoughts and pulled aside the curtains. It was Narcissa, who had dishevelled hair, smeared lipstick, and a large smile. "Where were you?" Adara deadpanned. "Out." the other girl returned, kicking off her shoes. "I love Saturday nights!"