Tara's POV
I woke up early on Christmas morning. And by early I mean ten. It wasn't my choice either. The James monster snuck into my room and tried jumping on my bed to wake me up but in the end he landed on me. My poor stomach. Nonetheless I soon remembered it was Christmas day and, slamming James into a wall on the way, charged down the stairs where the others were waiting impatiently.
I threw my hands ip in the air and jumped onto the loveseat with Sirius and shouted," IT'S OKAY YOUR QUEEN IS HERE NOW!!!! WE MAY OPEN PRESENTS!!!!"
Lily looked at me and asked," But we need James. Where is he?"
"He is quite possibly figuring out how to detach his face from the wall. But why do we need him here? I certainly don't need or want him here. He can stay in the wall."
Lily sighed and got up to go help detach James's face from the wall. The others looked at me with raised eyebrows.
"What? Maybe it wasn't my fault that he somehow ended up in the wall. Maybe he did it because he felt guilty for waking me up so early in the morning."
Remus rolled his eyes," Really? Can you explain how our wimpy little James became strong enough to slam his head through a wall?"
Uh oh that was a hard one," Ummmm... He may have had a little boost from me?"
Remus shook his head," You and your brother I swear."
James came down rubbing his head, Lily close behind him, hovering like a worried mother or in this case, almost girlfriend. He looked at me and suddenly burst out laughing. I joined him a second later.
"I'll have to slam you into walls more often Jamesie! It's funny when you're this delusional."
He glared at me playfully before tackling me off the couch and landing on top of me hard. My ninja skills kicked in and as he began to pin my wrists to the ground I rolled over, twisting my wrists painfully and pushing myself and a very fat James up before landing on him and forcing him to let go of my wrists. So now I was sitting on his face and ignoring how uncomfortable it was. That is until a pair of arms wrapped around my waist and lifted me up onto the loveseat again. James gasped dramatically. Sirius just sat me down on his lap and held me back from going after James again.
"Tara, as much as watching you attempt to kill your brother is funny and all, I think if I didn't pull you off him he might have tried to bite you and I can't let him do that to you so..." he said when I glared at him.
I turned to James with my mouth gaping in fake astonishment," Really James you would go to unfair fighting to beat me? James, sweetie, you of all people should know that I am the queen of fighting without rules."
He looked up at Sirius with wide, desperate eyes," Sirius, control your girlfriend!"
Sirius rolled his eyes," I dunno about that mate. She's your sister."
"Yeah and my sister will try to kill me if you let her go, so continue to hold her back while I walk over to my seat over there, okay," he walked towards Lily.
That's when my eyes refocused on the Christmas tree and all the presents underneath it," PRESENTS!!!"
I ran towards them and began handing them out, ignoring James and refusing to get his for him. Finally he got to the point where he just got up and grabbed them himself. I sat down next to Sirius again on the loveseat and grabbed a present at the same time as everybody else.
"READY... SET... GO!!!!"
I tore open the present from Lily that was in my hands and found that she had gotten me, along with a whole bunch of chocolate and candy, a pair of nice boots with removable heels and, of course several secret pockets. I grinned and gave her a quick hug with everybody else except James and of course, herself. Lily had given Remus a ton of chocolate(which he was already eating) and a book while she gave Sirius a bunch of exploding muggle candies which he tried and found he could not discover the proper way to eat, as much as he liked them. James she was saving for last. Remus handed out his presents quickly and watched us open them. I opened mine to find an old book on Ancient Greek mythology and candy, excepting chocolate. Sirius got a book on how to prank muggles and get away with it, and James got the same thing. Lily got a Gryffindor scarf and some candy also excepting chocolate.
I looked up at Remus and asked," So did you just not buy us chocolate or did you eat it all?"
He turned red," Well..."
I laughed and waved him off," Remus it's fine thank you for the mythology, it's always nice to have dirt on the gods."
He smiled hesitantly and Sirius got out his presents for everyone... except me. I gave him the puppy dog eyes.
"No present for me?"
He chuckled," No, not yet."
I huffed," Fine."
He turned to Remus," Both James and I pitched in on yours."
Remus opened his present and a bunny hopped out onto his lap. He burst out laughing. Lily ran over to him. I curled up into the fetal position and buried my face in Sirius's chest with a tiny scream. Everyone looked at me.
Sirius looked at me with a raised eyebrow," You're scared of rabbits?"
I whimpered and buried my face farther into his chest and gritted my teeth," Get... that... thing away from me."
Sirius wrapped his arms around me and said," It's okay. It won't hurt you. You can come out of your ball now."
I slowly uncurled from the ball only to find... the bunny right in my face. I let out a blood curdling shriek and, tipping over the couch, ran out of the living room and up the stairs into Sirius's room and curling up on the corner of his bed. I hate rabbits, they are the most terrifying things on earth.
Sirius's POV
James made to get up and go after her after she ran out of the room with a worried look on his face. I sat him down.
"She's scared of rabbits?"
He sighed," When she was seven, she was running after a rabbit in the yard while my mum dad and I were up on the porch. A few minutes later we heard this piercing scream and ran down the hill to find that she had caught the rabbit and it had kicked back at her, breaking her nose and scratching up her face a lot. Now for us it's kind of funny but she's terrified of them."
I nodded," I'll go get her."
I trotted up the stairs to her room. She wasn't there. I walked to my room and found her curled up on the corner of my bed, shaking. I walked over to her, picked her up and sat her on my lap.
"Hey I'm sorry," I said.
She hummed," It's fine. I don't know why I'm still scared of them. Probably has something to do with the stupid ass gods."
My forehead creased in confusion," Why would the gods have something to do with it?"
She looked up at me," Well see there's basically gods for everything and every god has an animal. Nearly all of the gods blessed me but a few didn't. One of them was a minor god. The god of freaking rabbits. Naturally, any of the gods that didn't bless me have given me enough reason to be extremely scared of their animal. For instance, the rabbit story you just heard from James. That rabbit was controlled by Phar, the god of rabbits. Scared me into being afraid of them. There's also spiders of course but that one I've mostly gotten over. And then there's a few more that I won't mention."
I leaned down and pecked her on the lips and then helped her up and grabbed her hand," Let's go face your fear together."
She held onto my hand tighter than ever as we walked down the stairs. I took the rabbit off the couch and held it out to her. She hesitantly held her hand out and shakily petted it. She flinched back a little bit however when it moved to nuzzle her hand but allowed it to sniff her hand and nibble it a little bit. Then she slowly backed away and sat back down on the loveseat. I gave Remus his bunny back and sat down next to her and draped my arm around her shoulders. She jumped up suddenly and grabbed her presents for the others but not me. I looked at her with my best puppy dog eyes like she had to me.
She smirked," Nope."
James jumped up and gave a huge whoop and he unwrapped his present from her. He had gotten tickets to the quidditch world cup.
She looked at him," Now James I expect you to root for me when I'm playing no matter what. Got it? Maybe I'll let you help me plan my prank."
He gasped and danced around the room a little more.
Lily had gotten a pair of sterling silver deer earrings that moved which made me laugh and Tara wink at her. That confused her but oh well. Remus got, surprise surprise, a book. Except it was different. It was a book of spells. Made up spells by Tara.
She pointed at the book," A word of warning Remus don't use the spells written in red they're really dangerous. That's how I blew up the house that one time."
He looked her wide eyed and nodded, grinning. Tara turned to Tonks.
"I'm so sorry Tonks. If I had known you were coming and knew you better I would've gotten you something."
Tonks waved her off grinning," No it's totally fine Tara don't worry about it!"
James smiled and began handing out his presents. Except to Lily of course. Couples exchange afterwards. I grinned as Tara and I appeared to get the same exact present. Remus got a collar for his rabbit. Then Tara and I unwrapped ours at exactly the same time. Inside were keys. I looked at James with an excited look on my face while Tara just about tripped and died running to tackle her brother in a hug.
Once he got up he smiled at us and said," The bikes are in an underground workshop near the house so you can modify them to your liking. However we can go get those later. Time for couples' exchange."
I held up a finger," I've got to go get my present for Tara be right back."
"Me too," Tara said before running off.
We returned a few moments later, me with a large box in my arms and her with nothing in her arms. I looked at the others.
"Us first."
I handed her the box carefully and it wobbled a little bit. She pulled the lid off and a small completely black kitten jumped out onto her lap and curled up. A red bow tied around her neck stood out on her black fur. Tara gasped and went awwww before looking at me and whistling. I had no clue what that meant until a small golden labrador puppy came running out and leaped onto my chest, tail wagging furiously. It licked my face happily. It pinned me down with both paws playfully.
After I finally got it to get off it licked the kitten's head and hopped off the loveseat to explore the room. I laughed and chased after it playfully. Lily and James exchanged gifts and suddenly were making out. Ew. Remus and Tonks exchanged gifts and Remus looked liked he was holding back tears. I tackled the puppy in a way that wouldn't hurt him and brought him down. I carried him back to the loveseat, sat him down and then pulled Tara away to give her her second present.
Tara's POV
Sirius pulled me aside.
"I have a second present for you," he said.
I smiled," Good because I got you a second present too."
I handed him the unwrapped small, metal box Hephaestus had given to me a few months ago.
"This is a tracker. It will always lead you to me. And it will always lead me to you," I said placing it in his hand.
He grinned and held out a necklace with a dagger trinket on it. I pursed my lips but forced a smile.
"Thank you Sirius. It's... Umm... beautiful."
He chuckled then brought out a similar one and touched it to mine," Pathes, wake up."
The miniature dagger in my hand grew into a fullsized dagger. I held it in my hands gaping. It was so well balanced and perfect. I could feel the power coursing through it. I held it by the hilt and swung it around ina simple attacking maneuver Yes. This I could use.
"The two apparently are connected. And according to one of your gods they are weapons of love. There's a lot more to them than that though but I don't really feel like explaining all of that crap so... I hope you like it."
I looked at him dead in the eye," Sirius you got me a weapon for Christmas. I honestly couldn't be happier!"
He smiled and gave me a quick kiss. At least until I saw the piece of paper drift down in front of me. I snatched it out of the air and the owl that had delivered it flew out. It was from Leonardo so it of course would be written in code. I went and sat down and began to read the code.
Dear Tara,
Your vacation is going well, I presume. Your parents told me that they would make sure you practice for your upcoming quidditch matches. And you have to make sure to keep yourself well practiced with your weapons. You probably have been practicing already given your dedication to the arts of weapons. I am glad they captured your attention that quickly.
You will also need to take Tide to exercise, remember? We need to be prepared for when we return to Durmstrang. We need to mostly protect the Hogwarts population. Anyway, I must go now.
They are great people, your parents, great people. There are not many people like them. Your family, in the money and yet so kind and giving. Living a truly usual life is typically difficult but they make it easy. They have picked a spot for you to practice I assume as well.
Oh dear look at the time. I must go as should you. Goodbye and good luck.
Leo
The decoded part read:
Your parents have been captured. You need to go. They are in the usual spot. Good luck.
I was out of my seat in a flash and flying up the stairs, ignoring the calls from my friends and brother. I stripped quickly and put on my skin tight fighting suit. I thought for a second before deciding against a lot of weapons. Two daggers and the dagger Sirius got me. That would be it. I hid my daggers quickly and then sprinted down the stairs. Sirius caught me by the arm just before I ran outside.
"What's going on Tara?"
"Voldemort is what's going on Sirius. Decode the letter and you'll figure it out. I need to go now!"
He looked at me with puppy dog eyes," Just come back alive okay?"
I nodded and said softly," Of course Sirius. I promise."
Then I wrenched my arm out of his grasp and apparated away. To Malfoy Manor.
A/N sorry it's been so long guys. The chapter turned out to be longer than expected. I'll get the next one done soon I promise. Thank you!!!