Marauders, the next generation

Christmas

The Christmas holidays were fun; there were very few Gryffindors left so Gregory and I got the common room to ourselves. We only had to share it with two second year boys.

Gregory and I were playing wizard chess, or rather, I was beating Gregory at wizard chess when the two boys came over and looked over our shoulders.

"You don't want to move your knight there," one of them said to Gregory, "Can't you see her bishop? Move that pawn two steps forward."

"Oi!" I cried, "Don't give him advice."

"Hey," said the other boy, "You're the girl who pulled the whoopee cushion prank on Snape aren't you?"

"Yeah."

"I'm Robin Little, this is Arry Shunpike."

"Lione Davies," I said, "Call me Lee. This is Gregory Weasley." I paused as something about his last sentence just hit home. "Arry?"

"Well technically his name is Harry, I think."

"But if yer take someone's name ter be whatever they introduce themselves 'as," said Arry,

"'m Arry."

"Nice to meet you, Arry," I said, "And you Robin."

"Good to finally talk to you," said Robin, "Li."

I almost shivered with joy. I loved the way Robin pronounced my name. You can almost hear the L I spelling. Gregory, however, didn't seem to like him. He was practically glaring at Robin. I had no idea why. Maybe Robin didn't come from one of the families on the Weasley list of approved names to have.

"So, Lee," said Arry (They both seemed to be ignoring Greg), "Do we 'ave ter watch where we tread this 'oliday"

"No," I said, "We decided to call off all pranks till there's more people here. Not everyone knows it's us."

"Yes they do."

"The teachers don't."

"Good point."

I pointed at Arry.

"But not as good as this one"

"Hey, Li," said Robin, "Look! It's snowing! Wanna come outside and have a snowball fight with us?"

I glanced over at Gregory; he didn't meet my eye. He just kept looking daggers at the two boys. I decided it wasn't a good idea to put as deadly a weapon as a snowball into his hands.

"No thanks," I said, "I think we'll stay here and finish our chess game."

Not until after they were way out of the common room did Gregory speak.

"I don't trust them."

"Why not?" I queried.

"Because..." he paused, "because they don't smell right."

"Then why did you have to pause?"

He paused again.

"Because I had to think about it."

I smiled.

"You know," I said, "I heard about a very interesting word yesterday. Wanna hear it?"

"What?"

"Trust."

By the time the boys returned, dripping wet and with crystals of snow in their hair, the game was almost mine. All that remained of Gregory's set were his king and one brave little pawn that had already claimed both my knights while I was taking the rest of Gregory's pieces and was slowly advancing across the board to the other side. My remaining pieces were eyeing it with suspicion.

Robin and Arry came back over.

"I'll play the winner," said Arry.

"No thanks," said Gregory, grinning at me.

I glared at him and moved my bishop forward ready to take the pawn as soon as it stepped on a white square. Gregory smirked and moved his king one step to the right instead.

"So," said Robin, "Bet it's hard not having any pranks to pull this holiday. Bet you're getting bored."

I ignored him and concentrated on the board. I moved my bishop down, check. Gregory moved his king diagonally.

"If I were you, I'd do something about trick presents in people's bedrooms or something," said Robin, "You know, those snakes that jump out at you when you open the box."

I moved my knight back to check the king again. Gregory moved it diagonally again.

"Now that I've said that, you're going to do it to me, aren't you? I just don't want to get concussion from a fluffy purple snake going fifty miles an hour straight towards me."

I moved my knight again and almost laughed. He was cornered; if he tried moving again my castle would catch him. The King moved forward and took my knight. I almost swore.

"If I were you," said Robin, sounding as if it was his last resort. "I'd be looking for the ring."

I stopped, mid instruction. My Castle decided to send it's self level with Greg's pawn rather then one space ahead of it.

Gregory and I stared up at Robin.

"What?"

"The Gravity Ring," said Arry, "Yer never 'eard of it?"

My mouth dropped open.

"Oh, it's this Ring that gives the vampires-"

"We know what it is," snapped Gregory, "What we want to know is what you know about it."

"And how," I added.

"Can't you just take it as 'I know'?"

"No."

"All right," said Robin, "An ancestor of mine found it."

"Brenda Cobble?"

"Yeah. How'd you-"

"Never you mind."

"Well if I have to-"

"You overheard Mr Creevey, didn't you?"

Robin and Arry gaped at me.

"Don't suppose you know where it is?" Gregory asked haughtily.

"No-"

"Then go away."

"Asher!"

"Asher?"

Greg moved his pawn a step forward. Queen. Check. I moved my king forward a square to the protection of the Castle. Greg started to move his Queen back towards him for a diagonal attack but quickly stopped it, mid movement, when he noticed my pawn.

Robin and Arry decided that they weren't going to get anything else out of us and wandered off. After loosing two pawns and a castle but promoting two more pawns I finally caught Gregory's rampaging queen and put his King in to Checkmate, but it was a close thing. And by that time the sun had set and it was time for bed.

***

Christmas day was amazing. It was quite extraordinary to wake up in my large and empty, yet cosy dormitory alone rather than alone in my large, empty and rather cold attic convert. At the end of my bed was a pile of about eight presents at the end of my bed. The reason I know the exact number is that I carried them all in to Gregory's dormitory. At the end of his bed was a virtual mountain. My mouth fell open, dropping my present from my Dad's parents.

"Woah!" I cried.

Gregory looked up from the gift he was opening to the heap at the end of his bed.

"Yeah," he said, "I have a large family." He scoffed, "Nice PJs, Kettle."

"Yeah," I sighed, "But Asher. I hate to tell you this but... tartan clashes with your hair."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

The room was soon covered in multicoloured pieces of paper. Gregory had no less than sixteen parcels, and some of them contained more than one present. He explained that they were from his parents, both sets of grandparents, his Aunt Cathy, his Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione, his cousin Simon, His uncle George, his Uncle Percy and Aunt Penelope, their kids, his Uncle Charlie and Aunt Betsy. I stopped him there. The mass family that was the Weasley Clan was too much for me to take in, in only one day. I concentrated on opening my presents. From my Grandparents, parents, Uncle and friends.

I was just trying on my Uncle Martin's present, a gorgeous set of heavy boots, when Gregory decided to pull my hair out.

"Ow!"

"Sorry."

I looked up at him. He was fiddling about with something in his hands. I peered closer.

Greg hit the thing several times with the palm of his hand then gazed at it with the wonder of a job well done.

He showed it to me. It was one of those clocks that allow you to keep track of any friends or family. But usually they were huge things with masses of machinery inside and a whole bag full of extra hands in case your family didn't fit the two point four children average. While thinking about it I couldn't help but wonder if the Weasleys had been counted when that figure was worked out. From what I'd heard, the Weasley family was big, red headed and very poor. But now it had branches that spread all over the world, was on number two of it's Ministers of Magic and was keeping teachers on their toes all over the world.

But anyway, this clock was the size of a pocket watch. One of those old things that used to go in your pocket and you kept on a chain. It only had room for four hands and two of them already had names on. Asher and Kettle. Both were pointing at 'School'.

"Great," I said, "Though you could have warned me."

Gregory shrugged. I turned my attention back to the boots.

"Why do these have a pocket in?" I asked, showing them to Greg. "Look. It definitely isn't a rip because it's all sowed up. Pull down this flap and you can barely see it."

"I don't know," said Greg, "Maybe you'd want to keep something in it."

"Like what?"

"Well the pocket's only thin but it seems to go quite deep," Greg's eyes lit up, if that was possible. "Maybe a knife!"

I eyed him with slight suspicion. I've never been able to tell if he's joking or not. It's the one thing about him that worries me. I decided it would be better to sit on his fork holding hand at lunch.

Christmas lunch was even more amazing then any other feast so far. There were those huge crackers we're not allowed at home because my Mum's parents disapprove of them and my Dad's Mum has heart problems. There was a short firework display by Dumbledore because he felt the mood needed to be 'lightened up'. Everyone sat together at a big table in the middle. I had Greg on one side and Robin on the other, with Greg glaring at Robin with all his might. I secretly thought he was the reason the mood needed lightening.

I walked away from it full, glowing and with a fireman's helmet, a sickle I'd found in my Christmas pudding and a large stuffed dog that said 'I wuv you' when you squeezed it.

That afternoon Greg and I attempted to make a snowman out in the gardens. It ended up a foot high with my helmet on top of it for a while. It got knocked off when I dodged one of Greg's snowballs. When it started to get dark and we were both cold and wet through, we packed it in and went back inside.

"Can't wait till tomorrow," said Gregory.

I glanced sideways at him.

"Why?"

"Boxing day," he said, simply. "Bubble and squeak."

"Yay."

I was just about to launch in to a description of our traditional Boxing Day feast when I saw a shadow move ahead. Shadows don't move unless the light moves, so either there was someone or something moving ahead, or someone had moved the candle. Either way, I stopped in my tracks and stuck my arm out to stop Gregory. There was a slight rustle; a clatter of silver hitting marble and the light went out. Someone had knocked over the candle. I had just enough time to think 'Or somethi-', when a horrible creature jumped out.

It was human like and dressed entirely in black. It's face was so pale it looked as though it had not only seen a ghost but had walked through it and recognised it as its Aunt Edna who was still alive. But those are the facts I remembered afterwards. All I was concerned with at the time was the teeth. They were bone white and about an inch longer than they were supposed to be. Somehow I managed to find time to ponder on the amount of toothpaste they had to use before Greg grabbed me and dragged me away.

Half being dragged, half running we escaped down to one of the lower corridors. We must have been near the kitchen, I could smell the food. But as I realised what the creature had been and what it was trying to do I didn't really want to think about food. I turned to Gregory, my heart beating a thousand times a minute.

"There are vampires in the castle."

Gregory stared at me, his eyes wide with horror and open in shock.

"What?!"

"Vampires, Asher!" I cried, almost hysterically. "That last one tried to BITE ME!"

Gregory's eyes suddenly went narrow in the familiar look he reserved for glaring at Robin and anyone else he takes a dislike to. I myself had received several of those looks. I was extremely shocked to be receiving one at a time like this.

"I bet that Robin let them in," he growled.

I stared at him.

"Gregory!" I cried, "They're VAMPIRES! They don't need to be let IN! They can deal with that sort of thing themselves! Besides, if anyone let them in it was Jane Jordan. Personally I see her as the sort of person who-"

"They must be after the ring!" cried Gregory suddenly. "If we could follow them, we could get it before they do."

I found myself staring at him again. I was shocked that he would even consider going near them, let alone following them. I was also shocked to find myself making a mental note to ask Joseph for other words for 'Stare'.

"Yeah, yeah," I agreed, turning sarcastic in all my horror. "Because I always thought what my neck really needed was two little teeth marks. Get REAL!"

"Well I'm sorry for trying to make the best out of a bad situation!"

"You should be! I happen to like my blood level just as it is thank you very much!"

"There's no need to get all snarpy about it. It was just a suggestion! Don't you think I already knew about the dangers? I just thought you were brave enough to SAVE THE SCHOOL! But obviously I was wrong."

"Oh, don't you go there Gregory Weasley. I am far braver than you'll ever be. I come from a family that doesn't exclude people who stand up for themselves! What does snarpy mean?"

"I don't know. I just made it up."

"It's a good word. I like it."

"Good. But let me tell you this, I've heard a thousand tales about your family Lione Davies. I know far more than you'd like the school to know. Miss goodie Gryffindor."

"If you know half of it you'd know that I have a few bullets under my belt. You'd better not cross me. And that includes putting me in life threatening danger!"

Gregory appeared to consider this.

"Like what?"

I star- gaped at him.

"VAMPIRES!"

"Oh yeah," said Gregory, in the tones of someone remembering about a dentist appointment they'd forgotten about. "Completely forgot about what we were arguing about for a moment. How did it start?"

There was a single creak followed distinctly by a lack of footsteps. The vampire at the top of the nearby staircase had discovered the top stair that, this being a Wednesday, squeaked a B flat. The rest of the way it was making silence. Not a lack of noise, but a complete, overpowering silence that was worst than a trumpet being blown in your ear.

Instinctively Gregory and I moved together. Then, since in every situation, someone has to state the obvious, Greg said,

"They're coming."

A/N: Here we go! The Lovely Wonderful Brilliant list of Lovely Wonderful Brilliant people. For all those who were Lovely Wonderful and Brilliant and gave me a Lovely Wonderful Brilliant review and deserve a Lovely Wonderful Brilliant mention.

Silverdove (Who is also my Lovely Wonderful Brilliant Beta) **Yay!! Go me!!**

Gatty

B.R.Cobble

Srox4690 (Who actually owled me)

Princess Arisa (My very first reviewer on this story)

AquillisRose

Kiki

Maria1314

Tamsin Byrd (Who said my characters were realistic *smug grin*)

Allisandra

Mystril (Who, judging by their name, will recognise the ending)

Gsravya

Mabra46268 (who warned me of the dangers of cliff-hangers)

Christy

Silverviolinist

Mgd (who also owled me)

Sunshine13