T H I R T Y - S I X
Turkey Day

"How can you two possibly be swimming in this cold?" I questioned, raising a brow at both Alexius and Lavender who splashed around the black lake.

Walter and I seemed to be the only smart ones as of now, deciding to take refuge under a large Willow tree overlooking the lake. Most of the Hogwarts students were out enjoying the day off from classes everyone had.

Yeah, that's right for the first time in Hogwarts history they got the holiday known as Thanksgiving off, courtesy of Alexius and I. When I realized they didn't celebrate Thanksgiving, the two of us marched up to the Headmasters office requesting in celebration of America they take the day off. Of course, Dippet said no, at first. After about three hours of whining, refusing to leave, and threats of being expelled he finally gave in too exhausted to battle any longer.

Now, the entirety of the school kept thanking us, even a few Slytherins cheered us on.

"Oh, boo, you're no fun." Alexius groaned, Lavender swimming closer to the shore agreeing with him.

"Is the fearless Rhiannon scared of a little water?" She pushed her wet hair out of her face, giving me a small smirk.

The blue hues of her irises seemed to sparkle even more than usual at her cat-like grin. From the corner of my eye, I could see Abraxas practically drooling at the sight ignoring the rest of his Slytherin companions.

Nott whacked him across the head snapping him out of his daze the rest of his buddies laughing at Abraxas's whipped nature, Tom only glancing up from his book to glare at their noisiness in annoyance. My attention was then diverted back to Alexius who was wolf-whistling at me.

"C'mon sis, are you really that much of a prude." Scoffing at him, I stood from my spot pulling my shirt off revealing the undergarments.

"I'll show you prude." I muttered, Walter watching me shove down my skirt with huge eyes.

As I kicked away my skirt, Lavender cheered me on motioning around. "You have admirers, dear." She mocked, me looking around only to scoff seeing as practically the entire male population watched me with desire apparent in their gaze.

However, my surveillance was only on Tom who still sat with his nose dug deep inside his book. From his left, one of his mates nudged him causing for him to glare heatedly at the male, that was until he pointed my direction making Tom follow his gaze.

Shock entered my being when Tom for once actually shamelessly allowed for his eyes to run down my body appreciatively. Shivers spread across the nape of my neck, and I spun around facing the lake.

Alexius only smirked at me, tossing me some odd wink Lavender laughing at my flushed face. Shaking the feelings off I only handed a cocky smirk to my amigos.

"Is this what you call boring?" I mockingly rose a single brow before walking up the small hill leading to a miniature cliff.

"Lightly, get down from there right now!" Tom shouted from below, looking up to where I stood on the cliff exasperation and slight concern covering his features.

Alexius only gazed up at me with a knowing smile and Lavender looked just as worried as Tom. The students of Hogwarts focused their attention on me most with gazes eager to see what I would do it.

Making no comment my feet carried me away from the edge of the cliff by a few feet, causing it to look as if I was on my way down. However, at the last possible second, I turned back around pushing into a jog and jumping off the cliff.

"NO!" I heard Tom's yell, but the wind whipping by my ears distracted me from that.

I could feel it, the life of the lake. And at that moment I saw it all, the life beyond the shores of the lake, the steadiness of the forest, nature at its most raw. It was right there and it was pulsing with existence.

Nature moved as God's finest beauty, showing off all he had created. There it was right there, the beauty of it all and no one could see it.

The water simply glided through me as I hit it in a perfect dive sinking deeper and deeper to the bottom. As much as I wished for myself to be able to go to the bottom and explore further, I knew I couldn't. How would it look if I didn't come back up for minutes? People would think I was dead.

With that thought, I pushed my feet to paddle me to the top being welcomed with cheers and applause from that trick. Alexius chuckled waving me over, Lavender looking relieved. Alike to a fish, my body seemed to be one with the water, rippling around me.

Walter only shook his head as I approached. "It's still too cold." He disagreed, myself laughing at him.

"Yeah, it is pretty cold." Agreement stirred within me, the water was cold.

Before either of us could add to the conversation we were interrupted by the sound of footsteps. My breath caught in my throat at the sight of Tom walking over, and without meaning to I quite literally dropped in the lake to avoid any sort of confrontation.

Unfortunately, I was only able to hide for a few seconds before Alexius forced me up. Coughing out the water I stuck a glare on Alexius who was flashing an amused grin between Tom and me.

"What the fuck, man?" I yelped as I finished my coughing fit, Alexius gasping in dramatic disturbance shaking his head.

Spinning me to face him, he shook me by the shoulders earning small squeals. "Dearest sister, you can't be using that language." I managed to shove him away, scowling at him.

"What is your problem!" My comment was cut short, by Tom clearing his throat making heat rise to my cheeks.

I hate you, Alexius.

Turning around, Alexius gave Tom a sorry look. "I am so sorry, Tom. Rhiannon has issues, but I swear she is quite a lovely person underneath all the layers!" The look I gave Alexius was enough to burn him on the spot.

What the hell was he doing?

"I mean I know most men, including me, mind you," Alexius let out a small laugh, me watching to the side of his head in disturbed confusion. What was wrong with him? "Want a woman with a little less fire and more domestic, knowledgeable traits to wed." My eyes widened in horror when I realized what Alexius was proposing. "But, I can assure you even if Rhiannon doesn't always show it, she's extremely clever and pleasant, and she's easy on the eyes." I was about ready to pass out, Tom only tilting his head looking between the two of us amusement clear on his features. "Our father will surely approve of you and we're pureblood, dating back centuries, so don't worry about that. Trust me, marrying Rhiannon isn't a mistake." My jaw dropped, eyes bugging out of my head.

Shock and embarrassment must have been evident on my features for I was able to say nothing, only a sad puff of air leaving my lungs. Lavender snorted, Walter only shaking his head as he laughed at my face.

Arranged marriages were common in this era, especially in the wizarding world. In fact most of the time the husband would choose the bride and only ask the family if it was okay to marry the daughter.

"No," I said looking between Tom and Alexius, face red as a tomato. "I am so sorry, please pretend this never happened." I squeaked, grabbing Alexius's wrist and forcing him to run away with me.

"I promise if you marry her, you'll never have a bland day in your life!" Alexius shouted just as we got through the doors of the corridor, me wanting to cry from embarrassment.

Our bodies dripped lake water, hair shimmering from the glow of the many lanterns lighting up the corridor.

"I hate you."

"What can I say? I want to be the best man at the wedding."

~

The prefect bathrooms were nothing less than a blessing. Honestly, it wasn't fair that prefects got to bathe this well every day. Lavender being the saint she is allowed me to bathe with her in the bathtub which was more of a small swimming pool if anything.

Now, the two of us sat in the warm breath doing nothing but relaxing, washcloths strewn across our eyes.

"Mmm," I sighed in peaceful bliss, bringing my arms up so they rested behind my head. "We need to do this more often." Lavender made a small noise of agreement, the two of us falling back into a peaceful sort of silence.

We stayed like this for another five minutes before Lavender suddenly let out a squeal and darted out of the bath. Lifting the cloth so I could peek at her naked form rushing to put on clothes, I rose a simple brow.

"What are you doing, I thought we were relaxing?" I lazily inquired, swimming to the edge of the bath playing with her ankles as she scrambled to pull up her skirt.

Huffing as she finally managed to get it over her more than generous size of a butt, she frantically turned to face me. "I forgot I have a meeting with Dumbledore and Dippett about the Gryffindor's recent rebellious behavior." She said it in one breath, hopping to the door as she pulled on her shoes. "I need to go! I'll see you later!" She rushed out of the bathroom, hair wet and flying behind her as she went.

Shrugging, I only examined the large bathroom further satisfied with what I found. Beautiful stained glass windows illuminated the dusk lights stood pointedly around all the edges. Letting out yet another sigh of contentment, I once again relaxed allowing the water to soothe my bones.

The scent of which Lavender had picked out for us, which was coincidentally the scent of lavender tickled my nose. Subconsciously I began humming a tune to the one and only song by Fleetwood Mac song, 'Rhiannon.'  To be fair, there was a reason I chose Rhiannon to be my false name.

Stevie Nicks ruled.

"What is the name of that song?" A loud yell escaped my lips at the familiar tone, and I quickly made way to cover myself.

How could I have not sensed him coming?

Tom stood at the foyer of the bathroom just a few feet away from the tub, clad in his robes. He had his hands clasped behind his back and he had no shame in allowing his eyes to wander over my form. I thought he was checking me out earlier, well now he was practically eye raping me.

Geez, did his hormones suddenly swing on overnight or something?

"What are you doing?" I questioned scooting back in the tub as Tom chuckled showing off a viper-like smile taking steps closer to me in an almost predatory manner.

"I should ask you the same question, after all, this is the prefect bathroom." His eyes trailed down my form which was covered by water and bubbles once more. "And you are most definitely not a prefect, quite the opposite actually."

Narrowing my eyes, I brought out my hand snapping my fingers around my face causing Tom to look up and at my face. "Stop looking at me like that." I scolded, dropping lower into the water so not even my shoulders were visible.

Chuckling, Tom only leaned on the wall raised his brows. "What? Shouldn't I know what my future wife has in store for me?" I choked on my own breath at that comment, eyes going huge. "Perhaps, I should join you?" My cheeks and neck were no doubt inflamed as my thoughts became flustered.

"No!" I stammered out, my own voice sounding unsure to me. "Get out, right now!" I pointed to the door, slowly inching my way to where my towel hung just outside the bath.

Tom only moved closer, his footsteps falling heavy in my ears. "You can't tell me what to do." His voice was low, and commanding sending waves of desire through me. "Besides, you sound like you want me to join you." I wasn't able to breathe as he began undoing the buttons to his dress shirt.

Realizing I couldn't let this situation escalate any further for multiple reasons, I grabbed the towel covering myself standing from the tub. I was almost to the door when I was blocked by Tom standing in front of me.

Swallowing, I closed my eyes trying not to fall prey to my own inner desire. "Move out of my way, Tom." The friction between us seemed impossible to fight off.

"No." It was so simple that I nearly moaned out and gave into my own sinful feelings.

But that couldn't happen. He doesn't know, we can't go that far without signs of my true nature shining through. Don't risk it!

We were close, his eyes looking as if they could straight through my thin towel. No words were said as I quickly passed by him leaving the bathroom despite everything in me begging to stay. Begging to give into him for just a bit.

I would have time for things like that later, but not now. It's too soon.

Luckily I didn't run into any students or teachers on my way back to the common room only covered by my towel. However, when I got into the common room, that was an entirely different story.

Students gasped, and books dropped as everyone watched me walk in half naked with huge eyes. Alexius who was flirting it up with some girl choked on his breath, eyes questioning as he took in my state. Walter who was talking with Sandy looked as well, appearing as if he were about to fall over.

I only ignored them walking up the steps which lead to my dormitory. No time for this, Alexius and I had plans.

~

"I can't believe you and Tom nearly did the deed without me recording," Alexius complained me hitting his shoulder at his nasty mind.

"That's disgusting, never say that again."

Alexius only shrugged holding the fireworks closer to himself.

"It's true, I bet you two have really hot sex." He explained as if it made it all better. "I want to take notes."

No matter how bad I wanted to swat him, I couldn't for my hands were filled with fireworks.

As we turned down the stairs to the Slytherin common room, I only shook my head. "Nope, I will talk to you about everything, but I will not give you a video of that." Alexius groaned, me only scoffing at his nastiness. "Anyway, we need to hurry with this prank. We only have until the end of the feast till the Slytherin's come back." Alexius agreeing with me sped up, the two of us finally getting to the wall leading to the dorm.

"Salazar." I rolled my eyes at their simple password, waltzing in the aristocratic place.

Starting to put fireworks down at random places on the ground, I pointed Alexius upstairs. "You get up there, I got down here, hurry!" I told him, Alexius smirking with a nod.

The two of us worked quickly to get the fireworks prepared and set. Thank god for Alexius being smart with magic as he was able to place a spell on all the fireworks to go off in thirty minutes.

"C'mon." He pulled me out of the common room and behind a wall that overlooked the common room as we heard voices coming through the corridors.

I felt bad when I watched Tom walk inside, wanting to warn him, but also not wanting to chance a ruined prank and detention. Alexius and I were watching for thirty minutes in silence until finally, the fireworks started going off.

The two of us snickered as screams emitted from the common room and Slytherin students began running out of the room which was filling with smoke.

"We need to go, I don't want to get caught." Alexius and I were laughing all the way back to Gryffindor tower, where from there we proceeded to tell Lavender everything.

"Are you serious!" She yelled, scolding us walking in front of the flames. "I was just yelled at by the headmaster earlier for allowing Gryffindor to get away with this naughty behavior lately."

Alexius snickered nudging my side. "She said, naughty." I cackled with him, Lavender only hitting us up top the head for our comments.

Just as she was ready to scold us more, Dumbledore cut her off walking into the room. "Attention." He caught the attention of the house. "Slytherin house has been deemed unable to sleep in for tonight because of the smoke caused by a prankster we are still trying to find." Alexius and I subtly fist-bumped each other. "Therefore, Slytherin house has been split by groups on where they are to bunk. Gryffindor house has been gifted with the sixth and seventh-year students, so please for tonight make them comfortable." A chorus of disagreement was heard from around, me biting my lip when I realized Tom and most of his hoard were to be in here tonight.

Dumbledore didn't bother with listening to the complaints walking out of the room most likely to go grab the Slytherin students. "And that's my cue to go and change." I smiled, bouncing up the steps rolling my eyes as Alexius followed after me cackling like some madman.

Lavender scowled at us, angry she had to stay down there to greet Slytherin house. As a prefect it was her and Walter's duty to stay and organize the Slytherin's. A lot of student's followed our lead going up to hide in their dorm rooms, though my roommates had once again decided to bunk with their friends in Ravenclaw.

They were never here, not that I was complaining though. It was only when Alexius and I shut the door to my room that we heard Dumbledore walking in with Slytherin house. Ignoring them, I didn't hesitate in pulling my uniform clothes off changing into my pajamas.

Alexius not reacting to my undressed state only began snooping through my other roommate's items. Alexius and I were so close at this point that nudity didn't affect either of us. A gasp escaped me when I saw Alexius going through Lavender's underwear holding up a largely sized bra my way with huge eyes.

"No way." He whispered, sounding excited. "Her boobs can't be this big." Rolling my eyes I ripped the bra from his fingers, shoving it back in her drawer.

"And how would you know?" I popped out a hip crossing my arms. "Lavender wears baggier shirts, her boobs aren't always exactly on display." He scoffed at me before a grin ate way on his face.

"Listen, babe." A lollipop was assimilated out thin air and in his hand, me rolling my eyes as he carelessly used his demonic abilities to his advantage. "You have known Tom for almost a year at this point, and the two of you haven't even kissed yet! Where the fuck is this relationship going!" He screeched me covering my ears, as untwisted the braid in my hair allowing it to flow freely.

"Just because we're soulbound doesn't mean we have sex or fall in love at first sight." I sang as I fluff my pillows preparing for a long night's rest.

Alexius only snickered at my words beginning to float in the air, something that after many years of knowing him I realized was subconscious for him. He for reasons unknown generally floated in the air, it was natural because the both of us were powerful entities with more power than we knew what to do with. Sometimes we would do stuff without realizing it, Alexius floated without realizing and I... well, I kind of had a problem of just making things appear when I thought about them.

Shaking his head, Alexius got a sort of dreamy look in his eye. "If I ever meet my soulbounder, I'll fuck her when I first meet her." I let out a small noise of disgust at that.

"It's not the same for everyone, in fact, there might even be a small chance that you don't realize your soulbound at first. Hell, maybe you already met her." I waggled my brows, Alexius scoffing as if the thought was the most preposterous of them all.

"Yeah, I'd think I would know." A snort left me when he said that, the idiot still had no clue.

"I'm going to sleep now. Are you staying tonight?" I questioned, crawling in bed Alexius shrugging.

"Yeah," He pulled his shirt and trousers off so he was only in his underwear. "Swimming really took it out of me." Alexius stopped levitating and teleported so he was laying next to me in bed.

"You're like a needy teddy bear." I laughed but made no protest as he cuddled up to me.

It was a few months ago when Alexius admitted to me that he enjoyed sleeping in the same bed as me because I apparently reminded him of the few good times he shared with his mother. When he was young, his mother allowed him to sleep in the same bed as her. My thoughts drifted away wavering alike to the ocean as I fell asleep, peace eating me whole.

~

The cemetery was dark and full of mystery. Unnatural silence blanketed over the boneyard, drowning out any noise the city New York may hold. New York City lay just miles away, but here in this cemetery was the forest. It was an old cemetery, falling apart and long since forgotten by many.

It was so old that rarely anyone was laid to rest here, and almost no visitors came by. Despite the little population of it, it abnormally well was taken care of not a single overgrown plant in sight. Around the cemetery stood many statues of angels, angels that almost overlooked the resting place as if protecting it.

Perhaps they were protecting it, for one woman's bones in particular lay here. This woman was important as she was the first human in history to ever birth the offspring of an archangels' child. This woman was Danielle Claire.

Yes, Danielle Claire, mother to Pandora Claire. This was her resting place and it was protected by her one and only daughter. Something got through the barriers and now Pandora was to see who dare disturb one out of the two of her late parents.

Standing facing her mother's grave was the silhouette of an unrecognizable man. Though, it was obvious his clothes were nothing but blood stained rags and he had gone through an extensive amount of torture.

Everything froze in place when the man turned around revealing himself. There in all his glory stood a bloody, broken, beaten down Gabriel. The very same archangel Gabriel who was dead, or should have been dead. But no, there he stood alive, not looking well, but alive.

Gabriel looked to nothing, in particular, his eyes holding only pain. And with that, his raspy voice whispered one single desperate plea.

"Help."