Holiday From Real

I flopped onto my bed and sighed loudly. Lauren looked up from her star chart for Astronomy, "What's wrong with you?"

"I can't remember much from the Harry Potter stories, detail wise."

She put down her star chart, "Me neither, I can hardly remember what we're supposed to do with this damn chart, and we have a class tonight."

I turned my head to the right in order to look at her, "My chart is done and in my bag, if you want to take a look. Try not to just copy me, though."

She smiled, got off of her bed, and then walked over to my book bag, "Did you write any notes on the bag, that'd be the most helpful for me."

"I don't know, I might have."

There was a moment of silence between us before she said, "Yeah, you did." She walked back to her bed and said, "Thanks Karma, I appreciate it."

"You're welcome," I yawned, "Astronomy is really cutting into my sleep schedule."

Lauren groaned, "I totally know what you're talking about. I don't see why we have class on Sunday night."

"Technically, it's Monday morning since class starts at midnight."

Lauren jokingly sneered at me, "Okay, little miss know it all."

I smiled crookedly, "Stop yo hatin'."

She laughed.

I sighed with contentment, "At least we don't have class Friday since it's technically Saturday."

"Yes, that is nice, Lil' Miss Know It All."

I laughed and then sighed, "So I was with Tommy Boy—"

Her eyes widened with excitement and curiosity, she slammed her things down next to her, and then flopped down on my bed by my knees. She sat up and said, "Tell me everything!"

I laughed, "I winked at him right before leaving the Great Hall, he followed me out to the Quidditch Pitch,"

Lauren quickly raised and lowered her brows several times.

I laughed again, "Don't get ahead of me, we didn't do anything like that. You know I'd have come in here bragging right away."

Lauren thought about if for a minute and then frowned approvingly, "Very true; please continue with your story."

I chuckled twice before telling her, "He talked to Nalo, I told him to never do that again, then he sort of taught me how to ride a broom – not a dick, don't even bother asking,"

We both laughed hysterically for the next three minutes.

When I caught my breath, I told her, "He snapped at me a few times, and when I didn't slow down like he said to, he gripped my hips really hard. I immediately slowed down and then landed back in the Quidditch Pitch, and then I came up here."

"He gripped your hips?"

"Yeah, I was sitting in front of him." I then stood up, pulled my pants down an inch or so, and then lifted my shirt up enough to look at where he gripped me. Lauren quietly gasped when she saw the already dark bruises on my hips,

"Jeeezzzus, what was he trying to do?"

I looked down at them and sighed, "I don't know, be a doucher, I guess."

"And he passed with flying colors."

I laughed and started to put my shirt back down, but then Lauren laughed and said, "I forgot you got that!" She pointed to my tattoo and continued to laugh. I looked down and laughed at my own tattoo. I have medium sized, medium brown and Weasley hair orange cat ears tattooed barely above the top of my vagina; the tips of the ears are about two inches under my belly button, well, that part of my stomach, and I have a matching tail that starts at the very top of my inner thigh and ends about halfway down my thigh; the tail is somewhat wavy, but it has one loop half way down.

"How'd you convince Jane's brother to give you that?"

"Years of wearing him down. Then I told him that in Nevada you can get a tattoo at sixteen."

"Can you really?"

"Yeah."

"Good to know," Lauren laughed, "Doesn't Doug have a tattoo, too?"

I howled with laughter, sat down on Lauren's bed, and laughed until I cried and couldn't breathe. Once I could breathe, I told her, "I don't know how I convinced him to get one, but he did."

She looked confused, "So he has one?"

"And it's hilarious!"

"What is it?"

Though giggles, I told her, "Elephant ears," I used my hands to almost frame my vagina and said, "Elephant ears, right here."

At first she didn't get it, but after a minute of thinking about what I told her, she howled with laughter. We literally rolled around, cried, and gasped for breath because of the intensity of our laughter.

-------

I woke up Lauren at eleven fifteen PM so that she'd be ready in time for our astronomy class. She was immediately upset with me; she mumbled, "You asshat."

I quietly laughed with confusion while slipping into a pair of grey indie jeans. One of the cool things about Astronomy is that the professor doesn't care for the Hogwarts uniform; as long as we're dressed, he doesn't care. "Why am I an asshat?"

Lauren breathed in deeply to wake herself up, "I was having a wonderful sex dream, and now you've woken me. I hope you're happy with yourself."

I bit my bottom lip to keep from laughing and sat down on my bed to put on my white vans; thanks to the Patil cousins, will never, ever, get dirty. I slowly pulled Doug's white T-shirt – yeah, I took it, whateves, he keeps my stuff, too – off of my body and put my bra on. "I really am, I really am."

Lauren rolled her eyes and sat up. She slowly got dressed; she decided to wear her Victoria Secret sweat pants, a pair of slip ons for shoes, a bra, and then a thin, but long sleeved, black shirt. I put on a black, long sleeve, thermal shirt, but it's pretty cold at the Astronomy Tower, so I quietly dug out my warm, soft, white, pull over sweatshirt with a vintage, nineteen forties, Superman on the chest; it was a sa-weet deal at a thrift store back in Chi-Town. Lauren and I put on our Gryffindor beanies, – she put it on to accommodate her hair, I lazily twisted my hair onto the top of my head and slid the beanie over it – slung our messenger bags over our preferred shoulders, and quietly left our dorm. We didn't really talk on our walk to the Astronomy Tower, we were pretty sleepy, and didn't really have anything to talk about.

I sat down at my usual telescope, and she sat down a few telescopes away from me; it's not anything personal, that's just the one she likes best. I took my wand out of my bag, a quill, some ink, and then my star chart. The rest of the class trickled in over the course of ten or fifteen minutes; once everyone was there, Professor Blaine checked our star charts and gave us the credit we deserved. I received full credit, and since Lauren copied a few of my diagrams and used my notes to her benefit, she also received full credit. Professor Blaine is a Satyr; the first night of class, we were slightly shocked, to say the least. Not that we were rude about it or staring at him, but we've never seen a half animal, half human before, much less a half goat, half human. Professor Blaine is pretty chill; he drinks a lot of wine during class, but never gets drunk. He ranted at the beginning of last week, he shouted, "The only bad thing about being a Satyr is that it takes ya fifteen bottles o' wine 'fore ya get buzzed. It's bullshit, it's bullshit I say!" It was pretty much hilarious to the max. Blaine also doesn't care if my friends and I get vulgar, even if we're speaking in a manner that would be unacceptable back in our own place and time. He usually thinks the things we say are funny, and unless we're going to have a physical fight, he lets everything slide.

Three times a week, the first day of class, the third day of class, and the second to last day of class, we get lectures. The first lecture is short and he's just telling us what we're going to do for the week. He goes over new (to class) constellations, tells us stories about the stars/"mythology", or speaks about planets and other things in the cosmos and further into the universe. He just finished up his short lecture; tonight, we're getting another star chart. This week he is testing us through our work to see how much we know about Astronomy past stars, so instead of charting stars, we're going to focus on one of three different galaxies: The Triangulum Galaxy, Seyfert's Sextet, or The Andromeda Galaxy. Most people picked Seyfert's Sextet since there are so many different things going on in it, especially since it'll give them the chance to talk about how much they know about astronomical predictions and elliptical galaxies.

However, a few of us chose the Andromeda Galaxy. We recently studied the Andromeda constellation, so we're already somewhat familiar with the area. The telescope to my left, and the telescope to my right were claimed in almost the same minute, but I only paid attention to the one to my left. "'Sup, Doug?"

He yawned and adjusted his telescope so he could clearly see the first part of the Seyfert galaxy he was ready to chart. "I'm tired."

"You're not the only one."

"You know," he yawned again, "I wouldn't mind if we were here Friday night from eleven to four, just get all of the shit done. We could just postpone our shows to Saturday; notin' would be a big deal."

I couldn't resist yawning, too, "I guess, I just go to bed earlier now to accommodate this class."

"How do you go to bed earlier with all the work we gotta do?"

I shrugged, "I just spend less time slacking off."

Doug smirked crookedly, "What are you saying, be responsible?"

The person to my left coughed; I didn't look over, I just hoped he or she covered their mouth. I smirked back at Doug, "Why… I suppose I am."

Doug laughed and then picked up his new chart. He lightly drew an outline of the first part of the Seyfert Sextet. I started to focus on the Andromeda Galaxy and slowly draw its most inner ring and the compact star cluster in the absolute center of the galaxy. I looked through my telescope, down at my diagram, back up through my telescope, and then mentally decided that I did a good job. I was about to start the next area of the galaxy, but a silky, surprisingly kind voice drifted into my right ear. Barely above a whisper, Tom told me, "You missed a star."

I looked to my right and saw him looking down in my lap at my chart. "Where?"

A small, polite smile formed on his face while he pointed to a spot where the star I missed is supposed to be, "There."

I looked up at the galaxy through the telescope and saw that he's right; I quietly sighed and drew in the star. He smirked and said, "It's okay, I didn't see it at first, either."

I smirked and tilted my head to the right so that I can make eye contact with him, "Don't patronize me, I'm doing you a favor."

His smirk grew into something close to a smile, "And how are you doing me a favor?"

I drew in a silent, deep breath before replying barely above a whisper, "I'm not getting revenge for my new bruises."

He looked slightly curious, "What new bruises?"

I gave him the "I know you're not that dim, so stop trippin'" look and slowly pulled my shirt and sweater up a few inches; my indie jeans are slightly baggy, so I didn't have to adjust them. Tom's eye flashed from my eyes, to my right hip, back up to my eyes, and then he stared down at my right hip. He drank in the sight of his hand shaped bruise on my hip without an expression. After a minute or so, he looked back up into my eyes, so I put my shirt down. "I have two, the other is on my left hip, and it's quite complimentary to the one I just showed you."

Tom quietly chuckled several times, "Next time listen to me the first time."

I leaned away from him and towards Doug and gave him a look nothing less of offended, "You ain't mah bayb-aye sitta."

Doug immediately recognized my statement as a quote from a Cyanide and Happiness animated short, leaned forward and looked at us, "Yeah, she'll go to tha liquor store down tha street."

Lauren, Jane, and Jeff overheard this and started to laugh. Lauren looked over at me and said, "Why are we being so quiet and boring tonight?"

I yawned, "Because we're tired."

Lauren nodded to show that she agrees, but she didn't say anything. We quietly spoke amongst ourselves, but we were all pretty focused on our charts. Tom lightly coughed a few more times over a ten-minute span; when he coughed loudly, I looked up and asked him barely above a whisper, "Are you sick, or do you just want my attention?"

Tom smirked crookedly, "A bit of both."

I smiled politely and looked back down at my chart, "What do you want?"

"I'm just curious."

"About…?"

"You."

I fought back rolling my eyes, "Anything less vague?"

He laughed, it was only once, and it was quiet, – I almost missed it – but he laughed. "You're very odd, that's all."

I laughed the same way he did, "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Malfoy says you're exotic; he wants to get to know you."

I laughed again, but this time it was audible. I put my quill down on my chart and looked at Tom, "I have no desire to get to know Abraxas. He's polite and he's generally pleasant, but I don't want much to do with him."

Tom just looked at me.

I sighed, "Besides, I'm not a pureblood—"

"What are you talking about?"

I just looked at him.

He gave me a look that told me that I've volunteered myself for mental handicaps while he told me, "Your family history litters the trophy room and the restricted section in the library."

I laughed, "The restricted section? I'm sure we're all proud about that." Tom smiled crookedly and quietly put his things away. Once he was done, he looked up at me with beckoning eyes. "What are you doing?" I whispered, "You haven't finished your chart yet."

Tom whispered back, "We have all week to finish it; come with me, it's important."

I couldn't look away from his dark eyes. They were empty of any evil, apparent or hidden. They were filled with hope, filled with trust, filled with the things that I need. Filled with the things that I value, the things I need to know people still have, that I'm not the only honest, good person left. I gulped and quietly put my things back in my bag. I dried off my quill, closed my small ink jar, and then put them in a side pocket. I closed my bag, slung it over my preferred shoulder, my left one, and tightly held my wand in my right hand. Professor Blaine was involved in a passionate conversation with one of the Hogwarts students, so Tom and I silently jogged to the door of the Astronomy Tower and raced down the staircase; we didn't want anyone seeing us leaving class. I didn't talk to Tom, I just followed him to the trophy room.

He magically lit the room once he closed the door behind him; he was a gentleman and opened the door for me. I quietly gasped at the sight of the colossal room; it seems like Hogwarts has kept up every award since the very first award given. I scanned the room before walking up to where Tom decided to stand. Without looking at me, he asked, "Is this your grandmother?"

I stared up at the small portrait; it matched perfectly with a photo of my great grandmother in her youth in an old photo album my mom has; my mom told me it was a Halloween picture. I tilted my head to the right and laughed at her pose; she was a fun, goofy old lady. In the portrait, she starts off sitting up straight with kind eyes and a polite smile, but she quickly situates herself so that her left shoulder is relaxed behind her, and her hands are pointed like guns, but her left hand is pointed up and her right is pointed towards the ground. Her smile is a mixture of goofy and sleazy, it's crooked, just like mine, and she's jokingly winking with her right eye. Without looking at Tom, I said, "Yes."

He looked at me from the corners of his eyes with curiosity; I started to feel a sharp, needle like pain in the front of my head. I gulped and squeezed my eyes tightly shut, but then I realized what he was trying to do. I emptied my mind completely; I pictured a black darker than inside a cave at midnight. I then imagined a large, thick and tall, brick wall and mumbled, "Stop it."

He spoke so quietly I almost missed it, "Stop what?"

"Your legilimency, your mind reading, or whatever it's called! Stop it!" He didn't respond, and my pain didn't stop. I slammed my left arm out and hit him in the stomach; the surprise and pain of my arm broke his concentration. I glared at him and said, "You have no right, no right to enter my mind."

He was slightly shocked, "Karma—"

"No!" I gave him a very serious and angry look, "Who do you think you are? We are peers! Not some, some," I swallowed the spit in my mouth, "You are not above me, you are a prefect, so you may serve me detentions, but you may not enter my mind without my permission!"

He looked amused, you know, in a twisted sort of way. "I won't do it again."

I stared at him for thirty seconds before loudly breathing out of my mouth. With a stern, very serious voice, I told him, "Good."

He turned back to the portrait and acted like nothing just happened, "Your grandmother, Jackie, was the last of the Kinzek's to come to Hogwarts." He started to walk to the left; I followed him and looked at the awards on the wall. "Dippet and Slughorn were more than thrilled to hear of your arrival."

I stopped and stared at my great grandmother Jasmine's portrait and array of awards; top Prefect, top Head Girl, DADA awards, most skilled Gryffindor Seeker for her last six years of schooling; there's too many for me to list you. I stared up in awe; my mother never told me about these things. When I was younger, much younger, I used to see her play with a long, thin, smooth stick a lot. She used to keep it at the bottom of her purse, but I never thought much of it. We used to play weird games, she taught me how to make things move without touching them, and when Nalo was about four, she started to teach him, too. Our lessons stopped when she found out about all of Charlie's antics; she became depressed, and then she became a drunk.

When things became terrible in the apartment, I would call our great grandmother Jasmine and she'd immediately picked us up. She always arrived in her car and she always arrived within five minutes, but she lives two hours away. I never questioned it; it was too good of a thing to accidentally get rid of. Our grandmother Jasmine always seemed to know about things before they happened, even little things like the lyrics to songs that I never heard until months, even years later, on the radio. I never questioned her, I never wondered why or how she knew so many things or could do so many things. I didn't want to somehow upset her with my questions and end up losing her. She used to tell me about how she went to a boarding school in Scotland and how she wished I could go there, she said she didn't mind home schooling my mother, or sending her to the local high school, but she hated that my mother refused to go to her, "favorite place", and she hated that my mother wouldn't let Nalo and I go to the "best school possible." Again, I didn't question her; I listened and spoke when needed.

Tom basically showed me my whole family tree, he even told me who married whom, and what each person's specialties were. When we came to the last portrait, one of the oldest in there, he looked down at me and asked, "How do you not know all of this?"

"I… my mother never told me about it." I made up a quick lie, "Her and my grandmother didn't get along, so we moved far away and she never spoke of the family past, just of her and Nalo and me." I looked down at my feet for a minute before looking back up at me, "How do you know all of this?"

Tom gave me a look that showed he wasn't quite buying my story, but he accepted it nonetheless. He completely ignored my question and silently led me out of the room, magically put out the lights, and then led me to the library. We quietly snuck past all the noisy traps the librarian put out and walked into the restricted section. Tom led me to a bookshelf that was towards the back, and then pulled out a very thick book. He pointed the tip of his lit wand at the spine so that I could read the title: A History: Purebloods. He sat down at a near by table and shuffled through the pages while I sat down to his right. After a few minutes of looking through the pages, a small smirk appeared on his face and he pointed his wand at the page so that I could read it:

The Noble and Courageous Kinzek's

The Kinzek family is one of the oldest pureblood wizarding families. The majority of the Kinzek family continues to occupy Lithuania, Belarus, and Romania. Some of the Kinzek's have moved to Russia, many now live in Turkey, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Great Britain; few have moved to the United States of America, and to South America.

Many centuries ago, when the Kinzek's started to significantly grow in numbers, and begun to travel to different countries, in search for new homes, Alecto Kinzek put a curse upon all of the members of the family. To this very day, Alecto's curse makes it impossible for any member of the Kinzek family to procreate with any person not of pureblood. This being so, Pandora Kinzek was forced to leave her muggle husband for Gordic Gryffindor; their offspring have never been documented.

I had to stop reading there since my jaw fell to the floor; Tom laughed at me and then quietly said, "You, your brother, your grandmother…"

I looked up at him, but I couldn't close my mouth.

"None of you are in the Kinzek Family Tree this book offers."

I sunk my face into my shoulders and leaned closer to him, "Are you telling me that I'm a decedent of Gordic Gryffindor, the Gordic Gryffindor?"

"I think so," he whispered. "I've been researching your family for the past several days, it makes sense." He paused for a moment, "I couldn't find anything on your Slytherin friends, but I highly doubt they're anything less than halfblooded." He sighed with contentment and purred, "Like I said, it makes sense."

"No, it doesn't."

He tilted his head to the left and raised his right brow.

"Tell me, how do I remind you of Gryffindor?"

Tom drew in a deep breath and leaned closer to me; we ended up barely six inches away from each other. With his silky, relaxed, and confident voice, he said, "You're brave."

"Many people are, hence the house."

Tom smirked crookedly, "You've protected Nalo."

I stayed silent.

Tom tapped the side of his head with his right index finger, "He doesn't feel the pain you do."

I shot up from my seat and glared down at him.

"Calm down, Karma." Tom smiled invitingly, almost kindly, "I didn't look very deeply—"

"The fact that you looked at all—"

Tom stood up and closed the book while rushing out, "You're a boxer, you go into the ring knowing you could come out badly injured. You make sure that Nalo is never hit by his father; it's always you that takes his abuse. You always save or help your friends whenever they need you, you do the same thing for strangers. You've pulled a man off of the street and onto the sidewalk split seconds before a bus drove by—"

I harshly snapped, "Listing my good deeds won't make me get past this, Tom."

He stayed silent, but he never looked away from my eyes.

"You have no right to look through my brothers mind, you shouldn't even talk to him. And you definitely don't have the right to go through my mind," I pointed at the book, "or look up my business. What about you, Tommy Boy?" I spat, "What about you? I know nothing about you. Why don't you tell me some truth about yourself, eh?"

Tom smirked, walked around me, and put the book away. I angrily sighed and slung my messenger bag securely over my left shoulder. I didn't look at him as I left the restricted section; he followed me out, I could hear his dress shoes tapping ten or so feet behind me, but I didn't care. I stopped walking in front of the stairway that leads to Gryffindor Tower; I stared him down until he looked up and into my eyes. "Don't you tell anyone about your discoveries."

Tom laughed and casually slipped his hands into his front pants pocket, "Why would I ever share something this important?"

I leaned against the railing to my left, "I guess you wouldn't want anyone to steal your glory." I smirked, "Makes sense."

Tom quickly raised and lowered his brows, "If it'd make you feel better, you may research me."

I snapped at him, "I may? May? I don't need your permission to do anything." I slammed my right hand against my outer right thigh, "Especially if I'm going to do the same shenanigans you're doing!"

Tom smirked, "Anything? You'd need my permission if you were to—"

"I don't give a flying fuck!"

Tom looked very shocked; I forgot people don't speak like this yet. Whatever. "I will do as I please when I please!"

Tom drew in a deep breath, but he didn't respond to any of the things I just said.

I angrily breathed out of my mouth; "Potions will be fun today."

Tom's facial expression went from being calm, relaxed, and even a bit innocent to extremely humored. He smiled widely and laughed, "It will be."