Keegan's sudden swerving brought Pam back to reality. Which gave Pam just enough time to lift her feet as the slimy slugs came out of Jez. She sighed as a bucket appeared. This was going to be a long trip. She pulled out her wand, and tapped it against Des' head. During the first part of her school term, Pam really needed the help of her wand to get her own hair back to its original color. So she knew how to do the color changing spell without speaking.
Within moments, Des' hair was back to its original color. "There you go Des." Then she flipped around and glared at Nate. "Wait until we have come to a stop before causing trouble." She hissed.

Jordan had stayed quiet for long enough watching the Blacks bicker amongst themselves, and he found it ridiculously funny when Nate turned Des' hair a violent shade of orange. He erupted in an uncontrollable laughter until Keegan swerved almost hitting a hedge. "I do not want to die in a car crash Keegan!" he yelped, his face whitwe with shock. He recoiled quickly as Jez began chucking up slugs, alarmed by the suddenness of Des' spell. Feeling sorry for Jez, Jordan pointed his wand at her muttering "Finite Incantatem" under his breath, if it had worked she'd stop spewing slugs soon. "I might go for the orange look next year," he said loudly, wondering if Des would explode.

Watching Jez vomit slugs made Nate consider admitting it was him, but seeing Jez spit even more slugs made him reconsider. He didn't want to chuck slugs. He had actually enjoyed the swerving Keegan had done despite the danger involved, and it made it more fun to know he caused it. Still, he didn't want everyone's minds to linger on the incident, the near-near-death experience, or on the slugs, so he piped up after a minute or so of silence (silence save for Jez's slimy heaving, of course). "About how long will the trip take us?"

Des smiled at Pam when she restored her hair to its rightful colour. "Thank you." Her eyes flickered between Nate and Pam, realising who cast the charm in the first place. She shrugged. Jezabel vomiting slugs wasn't a loss on her part.

Jez stopped spewing as soon as Jordan cast the spell on her. She leaned back against the seat, her face a little paler than usual but otherwise okay. "Thanks, Jordan," she whispered gratefully. She smiled as he made a jab at the incident. Des flushed pink but didn't say a word.

Keegan glanced back at Nate as he asked how long the trip would take. "A couple of hours, so you guys should get comfy," he advised. "It's a long way."



That was an understatement. Six hours, twenty-three failed I-Spy games, and a nap later, Jez was bored out of her skull. She wasn't used to sitting still this long staring at endless fields, and the motions of the car were starting to get to her.
"Are we there yet?" she sighed for the millionth time in an hour.
Keegan groaned. "NO!" he yelled in exasperation. "Five more minutes!"
"You said that 10 minutes ago!" protested Jez, slumping against the window again.
"This time I'm sure. Look." Keegan rounded a corner, and pointed. Jez glanced over listlessly, and got her breath taken away. Lagrasse was settled below them in a beautiful valley, surrounded by green. In the slightly dark afternoon light, it looked like a little island in the middle of a sea.
"Wow." Even Des seemed impressed. "This was worth the tedious ride in Muggle transport."

Jordan was surprised at the lack of outburst from Des, but was satisfied enough with the pink that flushed her face. "No problem," he whispered back to Jez. He smiled slightly to himself, maybe this would turn out to be a good holiday after all.

6 hours later Jordan discovered that he was wrong about his earlier thought. At first he'd gotten into it; doing the normal car games etc. But now he was extrememly bored, bouncing along with the motions of a car. "I spy with my little eye something beginning with 'T'" he shouted for the 20th failed time... He'd been the one to initiate most of the failed eye-spy games, and all his little eye could see was trees. When Keegan said that they were almost there, Jordan pinned himself up against the window with wide eyes, in an amazed trance and looking at the breathtaking scenery.

Nate couldn't see the city when they came up on it. Why? Well, because he had twisted and turned in his seat so much that by the time they had nearly arrived he was sitting upside down and scrutinizing the ceiling. He was about to ask Keegan for about the fiftieth time why he hadn't allowed him to have his guitar for the car ride when the word, "Look," came out of Keegan's mouth. They were almost there. Nate flipped over and looked out the window, breathless like the rest. But when he saw the river, it reminded him of an earlier happening. Concerning Jez, and the slugs.
"Hey, couldn't Jez still have slugs in her stomach? It doesn't seem like Finite Incantatem would actually get rid of them all, even I'd it did stop the chucking." It was an honest question. Freaky, but honest.

Pam was bored within the first hour. There was nothing to do, and the scenery got really lame really quick. After a few more hours, she decided that she was never going to Paris again. Not by car anyways. She sighed heavily when Jordan asked another I spy question. "Turkey!" She said out of annoyance. She hoped if she said something with T, he'll keep his mouth shut. When Keegan said 'look', she looked out the window at a bunch of houses. Normally she would find this view really beautiful. But today, she was too irritated to care. She just wanted to get into the house, and stretch.
When Nate asked a strange question, Pam sighed again. "That wasn't really needed right now." She said.

Keegan was as anxious to get out of the van as the rest of the group, and his driving for the last 5 minutes of their journey may have been a little bit riskier than usual. At last, after 6 hours and 32 minutes on the road, Keegan pulled into the driveway of a large house set into a hill overlooking the medieval village.
"We're here!" he announced, looking back to grin at the kids in the back. But Jez had already leapt out of the van, leaving the door open as she did two cartwheels onto the grassy lawn, transitioned into a handstand then fell onto her back, relishing the fact that she wasn't moving. "Sweet ground!" she cried, kissing the grass. "I missed you so much!"
Keegan shook his head as he got out and slammed the door. He glanced over at Des, who was leaning against the car, looking a little green. He couldn't help thinking that it was karma from cursing Jez with slugs.
The journey had been more taxing than Keegan had anticipated. He loved Muggle cars, but even he had to admit that that had been horrible. It had to have been, if it had even driven sweet-natured Pam to irritation. He'd fully expected Jez, Nate and Jordan to be problematic - they were all too energetic to sit still that long. Nate's unusual seating choices displayed that. Des hadn't been too bad - except for the slug thing, she'd been quite well behaved.
Even he felt like screaming out his thanks to Merlin for it being over, but he managed to keep his maturity. He walked over to the house, excited to see his friend Leigh again after 3 years of almost no contact at all.

When the car stopped, Pam lept out after Jez. She wasn't skilled enough to do cartwheels, or handstands, but she did lie on the ground in happiness. After a couple minutes, she looked around, and saw Des. She was leaning against the car, looking a little sick. Pam remembered back to when they first landed by port key. She had felt like she was ready to puke. She got up and walked over to her. She felt the need to say, or do, something to help her feel better, since Des did the same for her earlier this morning. But Pam had heard how Des always fought with her sister, and didn't want the same fate to fall to her. So she played it safe, and kept her hands to herself. "Are you ok?" She asked.

Matt was lying quietly in his bed, staring at his ceiling. His long black hair fell around him, almost ethereally, but to Matt, it was in a specific pattern. And that was due entirely to his state of mind. After sitting around at home for a few months after being expelled from his third wizarding school, his life really had become a drag to be in. Granted, he had his family here, and that was something he was incredibly grateful for, but he hadn't been able to pull off anything more than simple, childish pranks in far too long. His creativity was left completely stagnant, and other than playing his brother, Leigh, in Wizard's Chess, his intellect was left unstimulated as well. However, he viewed this time off as the perfect chance to plan something monumental for his arrival at Hogwarts. I bet I could give half of Slytherin house a nasty case of diarrhea before the end of the first night.

Matt's daydreaming was snapped when he heard a car door slam. He quickly got up and went to the window, and he was bewildered when he saw Des leaning up against the car. Then he saw a strange girl walk up to Des. His confusion furthered when he saw two boys get out of the car. His confusion quickly turned to relief when he saw Jez and Keegan get out of the car. He was very excited to see his old friends again. He still was just hung up on the mystery of the other three with the Blacks. As he walked from his bedroom down to the front door, his mind was racing with all of the different possibilities of their identities.

Des gave Pam a small smile. "Yes, I'll be fine, just as soon as everything stops moving," she said. Having never travelled in the long, mundane way before, motion sickness was not something the eldest Black sister was used to. She appreciated Pam's concern - not many other people showed concern for Des.

Jez jumped up as she spotted a figure in the doorway. "Matt!" she shouted in delight, hugging him quickly before pulling him out into the yard. "These are Pamphylia Barstow, Nathaniel Stone and Jordan Macey, my best friends from Hogwarts." She pointed out each of them in turn, then reversed the introduction. "Guys, this is Matthieu Valentine."

Keegan, however, was more interested in the young man who'd followed Matt. He looked a lot like his little brother, with a shorter haircut that just seemed to make his hair look untidy and warm brown eyes. The two friends were talking animatedly. Keegan's smile was more genuine than it had been since the whole nightmare had started. He bent down to pick up one of the identical little girls that had come running out to see what all the fuss was about. Tessa giggled madly as Keegan turned her up upside-down, and Leigh quickly scooped up Mary-Todd and did the same before the other twin could whine for the same.

Matt graciously accepted Jez's hug and was promptly pulled out into the yard. As Jez introduced him to her friends, he maintained a cold, distant look in his eye. Meanwhile, his mind was racing. His gaze swept over Jordan and Nate trivially, but stoppped for a moment longer on Pamphylia. There was something different about her, Matt could feel it. He glanced around the yard quickly, then walked to Des and greeted her with a warm smile and a hug. "It is good to see my old frienda again," said Matt. He gave another quick glance around the yard and noticed something was awry. "Where are Lex and Kieran? I've missed them dreadfully."

Jordan slumped out onto the ground gratefully when the car stopped, the drive had been too long! He looked at Des, who was looking green and being co frites by Pan, "Don't worry Des, the feeling goes after a while." he told her with a slight smirk. He'd been in enough car journeys to know that. He felt something in his pockets press against him as he rolled on the ground and then realised that it was his iPod. He could've been listening to music at full blast for the whiole of that journey!

He raised a hand in greeting when Jez introduced the long haired boy named Matt, but Jordan wasn't sure what to make of the new kid. Why did he have such a cold look? Then he brought up Keiran and Lex ad Jordan turned away whilst switching on his iPod. He wasn't going to be the one to have to relive the last Summer to a complete stranger.

"Yea, that's how I feel when we travel by portkey." She said with a soft smile. When she was introduced, she turned and nodded towards the boy. She blushed a little as he stared at her longer than he did the others. But then she realized it could have been because of the odd color of her hair. She quickly looked down and sighed a sigh of relief when her hair maintained the brown color.
Looking back up, she realized how cold and distant Matt looked. When he looked at Pam, she felt as if there were something else he was thinking about. As if his mind weren't totally there. But remembering that he was kicked out of three schools for doing mischievous things, so he could just be thinking about the next prank he was going to pull. That was something Pam was not looking forward to this summer.

When introduced to Matt, Nate gave a casual wave (his usual form). As he did, though, he noticed the seemingly soulless eyes that Matt possessed and was kind of thrown off. He had heard of this kid's wild endeavors and his three expulsions, but the appearance didn't fit the story. "Hey," he added rather weakly in his confusion. He would have to get to know Matt before he could judge, so he just let his thoughts be. As he was getting ready to go scrounge the house for his guitar, Matt brought up Lex and Kieran. Oh dear. Since nobody else was saying anything, Nate decided to speak up. "Kieran died at the end of last summer..." he said, not willing to explain that it was at Lex's hand. Keegan could elaborate.

Matt heard Nate reveal the news of Kieran's death. He quickly turned and faced him. "What did you say?" Matt's eyes went from cold and distant to sorrowful. His heart sagged and his shoulders dropped. He had known Kieran since he was a young child. He was never very close with Kieran, yet he knew that Kieran had always looked over him and Leigh. Then, his thoughts suddenly stopped racing. He turned to Jez and looked her in the eye. "Jez... if Kieran is dead... what happened to Lex?"

That was the answer Matt was most concerned about. Lex had always been a role model to Matt. He was the first person to tell Matt about magic, and even showed him a few pranks to pull. Lex, for all intents and purposes, was Matt's best friend, and his idol. He took a step closer to Jez and asked again. "Jezabel... where... is... Lex?"

Jordan whipped his head around to listen to Nate's explanantion to where Keiran was, as watched in a slightly shocked state to see Matt's eyes turn from cold to full of sorrow. He didn't know what Matt's relationship was with Jez's Uncle and cousin, but his reaction inferred that they were close at the very least.

Then Matt asked about Lex, and Nate didn't seem to want to explain this part of the story and Jordan didn't think that Jez would want to have to explain so he spoke up. Standing up he looked directly at Matt and spoke softly, "I don't know whether you'll want to know this, but Lex made some bad decisions," Jordan explained, unsure of how much Matt knew of their Team Wolf predicament. "And that in turn resulted in the death of Kieran and more, it wasn't good Matt." it was easily one of the more eventful summers.

Nate nodded as Jordan spoke, and added a bit onto the end. "Yeah. We don't know what you know, though, so I guess it's up to Keegan to decide what to tell you." That definitely took the pressure off of him, and off of Jez. Now the most mature one could explain, hopefully to both Matt and Leigh.

Jez closed her eyes as Matt asked about Lex, as though that would make the question go away. This tactic failed, however, as the conversation went on. Keegan quickly noticed their somber faces and came over, flipping Tessa the right way up and setting her on the grass. Leigh, sensing that a serious discussion was imminent, put Mary-Todd down as well.

"You want to know about Lex?" asked Keegan, staring straight at Matt. "Fine. You may as well here the whole story from us now." He looked down at the grass, trying to think of the right words. "I work - worked - for a private company," he started carefully. "Sort of intelligence gathering. Not a government organisation, I doubt the Ministry even knows we exist. Anyway, I was sent to Australia with a colleague, Jaime." A small smile flitted across Keegan's lips as he said her name. "She was my girlfriend, which was a pretty bad thing to be when you're both on an undercover operation. You care too much about the other person to see the bigger picture ... One night, the day before we were due to return home, we were kidnapped from our hotel room, taken to the desert. Somewhere near Alice Springs. They put me under the Imperius Curse and ..." Keegan drew a shuddering breath, and Jez was shocked to see a tear escaping from under his eyelashes. She put an arm around him.

"They made him kill Jaime," finished Des, her voice emotionless. She had joined her siblings, her hand on her brother's shoulder. "Keegan escaped, but a new assassin team followed him to Britain, codenamed Team Wolf. They kidnapped our whole family from our house, and even lured Crevan and Eris from school under the pretence that our mother was ill. That excuse didn't work with Jezabel." Her lip curled, but she didn't say what was going through her mind. "They killed them. Keegan and I escaped, and Jez was safe at Hogwarts, but the rest died. We've been on the run ever since. We stayed with Pam's family in America, but Team Wolf found and killed them, and Nate's parents as well. Then we went to Scotland to stay with Kieran and Lex." Her voice grew harder. "Team Wolf found us easily. They waited until we thought we were safe, then attacked. Their leader, Jared, killed Kieran -"

"Lex killed Kieran!" Jez's eyes were blazing with fury. "He was their ally, he lead them to us, he was responsible for Kieran's death!" She clenched her fists, looking at Matt. "We don't know where Lex is," she snarled. "I know where I want him - in Hell!" The full extent of her anger at Lex's betrayal was finally out in the open.

Keegan tried to put his hand on Jez's shoulder to calm her down, but she shook him off and walked away, folding her arms across her chest and kicking at the grass, wanting so badly to duel, to get that anger out by fighting.

And thus spilled the metaphorical beans. Keegan broke down, and Jez blew up. Nate really should have seen that coming, but he really didn't expect it to be so bad. He followed closely behind Jez, pulling his wand but not throwing any spells yet. He knew that was Jez's 'I need a duel' face, but she wasn't paying attention. It would be indecent to hex her now. Instead he put his wand arm around her shoulder and gave a quick hug. "It's alright, Jez. We'll find him and we'll make him pay," he said softly, but in a solid voice.

Matt watched Keegan intently as he carefully tiptoed around the truth. Matt could see that Keegan was holding back some monumental information from him, and was getting rather suspicious. Then, he heard Jez's exclamation. He turned to his dear friend and saw her become consumed by emotion. As she went off on her own, Matt stood frozen. He couldn't believe that Lex, his fun-loving, innocent friend from his childhood, his role model, would do such a sinister thing. His eyes went from sorrowful, to flaming with rage. His body rose up in a huge conflagration of unbridled rage. The only thing on his mind right now was killing Lex. He saw Nate walk over to Jez and attempt to comfort her. He looked in Keegan's eyes and saw pain. He looked at Des desperately trying to calm him down. He looked around at Pam and Jordan, and saw that even they were devastated by this. The rage continued to build up inside of Matt until he couldn't hold it any longer. He walked to Nate and Jez in time to hear Nate say they would make Lex pay. Matt kneeled down on the grass in front of them and looked Nate and Jez in the eye and told them directly, "No. None of you are making Lex pay. Because I'm going to kill him for what he's done to all of us." In this moment, Matt felt himself grow closer to Jordan, Pam, and Nate. After he said this to Nate and Jez, he stood up and walked to Jordan and Pam and put an arm around each of them. "Listen closely, you two. I am going to kill Lex for what he's done. You guys are my family now. And family always sticks together." He looked at each of them and gave them a reassuring smile. He then leaned down to Pam and whispered in her ear. "You are especially troubled by this. Trust me. I'm going to avenge Kieran's death. If you need anything, come find me tonight. We can talk about it." He then walked from the two of them. As he walked toward the house, he called back. "If anyone needs me, I'll be in my room, playing my guitar."

At the mention of a guitar, Nate put his wand away and called after Matt. "Playig your guitar, or playing mine?" After all, he knew his guitar was there somewhere but he hadn't seen it since school. Six hours without it was enough. He ran after Matt, slowing when he got next to him. "Seriously, where's my guitar? I haven't seen it in a while. I'm getting withdrawals."

Pam stood still as the story came out. She was just glad she didn't have to be the one to tell it. How could she? She had a hard time keeping her tears in as it was. If she had to retell something that made her really upset, she probably would have broken down right there. So she just looked down at the grass, and heavily studied her shoes. She thought about how torn her converse looked, and how she should really think about getting a new pair. Maybe a black pair that glowed in the dark. As her mind drifted off about her shoes, she forgot about where she was for a moment. But only for a moment. When Matt came over, Pam was brought back to her harsh reality. Pam was shocked when he told them they were family. That was the one thing she had a hard time believing. She always believed her true family was gone, which was true. But what shocked her the most was when he told her they could talk, and how he could tell she was troubled. She was glad that someone actually got it, and she wanted to tell him that. But she knew now wasn't the time nor the place. So she just nodded, and hoped Jordan didn't hear. Once Matt went inside, she turned to the others. "I think we should all get inside."

Jez slowly let out a breath and managed to smile at Nate. He knew exactly what helped, but unfortunately they were still underage, and duelling wasn't an option here. When Matt came over and announced his plans for Lex's demise, Jez didn't argue. She understood. She'd already called dibs on destroying Jared.

She shook her head as Matt and Nate went into the house in pursuit of musical instruments. Something told her those two were going to get along. "Come on," she called to Pam and Jordan, going inside after the two boys. "I know where the spare bedroom is, our stuff is probably there."

Her guess was correct. Their trunks were piled in a heap on the floor, with three owl cages, a kitty carrier and a bunny carrier sitting beside them. Keegan's owl Toenails, one of the occupants of the owl cages, gave Jez the Evil Eye as she knelt beside the kitty carrier and opened the flap. Rowena came bounding out, looking relieved to be out of her prison. Jez hugged her tightly. She and her cat had never seen eye-to-eye, but Ro still meant a lot to her owner.

Matt turned to Nate as they headed toward Matt's room. "So you're a guitarist as well? I think we might just get along after all," he said with a smile. "Come on, check this out." Matt led Nate into his room, and pointed. There on the wall lay his most prized possession. "A Schecter Synyster Gates signature model. 24 frets. Seymour Duncan double humbuckers. Looks like a dream, and plays even better." He looked back at Nate, who was standing in awe. "You like metal?" he asked with a grin and a twinkle in his eye.