*clear throat* I thought we were friends!?

But awesome chapter Lulu Behr!

Chapter 6: Better Than Expected


A few days had passed and now it was one sunny, peaceful morning at the Way residence. Sadly ruined by Kat coming down to the kitchen, hysterically crying her eyes out. Stephen, Leonard and Lexi were both seated at the counter, eating cereal when they looked up at her.

“Uncle Tyler...” she sniffed and rubbed her eyes. Tyler looked up from his newspaper, arching an eyebrow. “The other day at the mall, some boy told me I looked like a parking ticket. Does that mean I’m flat?!”

“Oh my god,” Lucy whispered, trying to hold back a laugh. But Stephen couldn’t control himself. He spit out his cereal and began to laugh. Lexi hid her face behind her hands and giggled away. Tyler, on the other hand, along with Leonard, were laughing so hard, they began to cry.

“It’s not funny! That hurt my feelings!” Kat cried.

“It was kind of a compliment. But since you don’t have enough smarts, you took it the wrong way,” Stephen finally said, once his laughing fit had toned down. “But if you don’t mind, I’m going to get ready to head out today,” he added, placing his dish in the sink and heading towards the stairs. Quickly changing into day clothes, Stephen decided to lie down on his bed, thinking about how today was going to turn out.

“Are you going to visit that address today?” Lexi asked, lying down next to Stephen. “I want to come with you. So far, this summer has been quite exciting,”

“Obviously for you it’s exciting,” he laughed. “For me, it’s been a whirlpool of mixed emotions. I’m always paranoid going to these addresses we’ve gotten so far,”

“I think it’s normal. Anyone would be nervous looking for their birth parents and having to go to many different places and not knowing what to expect. Life’s full of the unexpected,” Lexi said, fiddling with her fingers in front of her face. Stephen just gave her a weird look for the words that just came out her mouth.

“Alexis De Luca, the world’s newest philosopher,” he joked, sitting back up and sighing. “Do you think they would accept me?”

“Dunno. Your aunt seemed pretty happy when she saw you. Maybe they will, I guess it all depends on what they know and what you tell them,” Lexi answered, getting to her feet and heading towards the door. “Well come on now. We can’t be here forever if you want to meet them,” she smiled and headed back downstairs. Stephen nodded, following behind her as well.

“Now be careful, no talking to strangers and all that stuff,” Tyler laughed, handing Lexi the car keys and address.

“Wow, not the best parent out there,” Stephen joked, making Tyler shrugged and pushing him and Lexi out the door. “We should make sure Kat isn’t in the trunk again,” Laughing, Lexi searched and gave a thumbs up, letting Stephen know Kat wasn’t here. “Okay good,” Getting into the car, Stephen turned it on while Lexi put the address into the GPS thing.

“The things muggles come up with these days,” she huffed, sticking it onto the window.

“They’re just too lazy to use maps anymore. It’s making their IQ drop so much,” Stephen laughed, driving off into the busy streets of London. Chatting about the most random things they could think of, Lexi was distracted when they entered a shopping district. Making a pouty face to Stephen, he just shook his head and kept driving. Lexi then proceeded to poke Stephen until he stopped the car. “Would you stop?” She didn’t answer, but began to punch him instead. After a few more seconds of this, he lost his patience and parked the car. “I hate you,”

“Oh please, if you hated me, you wouldn’t have stopped the car,” she smiled, hurrying out and into a store.

“I stopped because I think my ribs are now bruised,” he whispered, following behind his obsessed friend. As soon as Stephen stepped in, he saw Lexi swooning over a pair of glittery shoes. “You always seize to amaze me,”

“Oh, shut up. But aren’t they the most gorgeous shoes you’ve ever seen!?” she asked, clapping her hands together like a little kid how got exactly what they wanted for Christmas.

“Yeah, sure, very gorgeous,” he said, sarcastically. His eyes began to gaze around when he noticed a girl with brown hair and hazel eyes, staring at him. Arching an eyebrow and turning back to Lexi, he decided to ignore the girl. He followed behind Lexi as she headed to the clothing section of the store. “Are you window shopping or are you actually going to buy something?”

“A bit of both,” Lexi giggled, grabbing a purple dress and heading in another direction. Sighing, Stephen followed behind again and noticed the same girl still staring at him. “You seem distracted,”

“There’s a girl over there that keeps looking at me. It’s a bit awkward,” he answered, rubbing the back of his head.

“Well, it’s not every day a girl sees a pretty Italian boy with light green eyes, dark hair, glasses, in a white V-neck with jeans, sneakers and a beanie around here. Not to mention an adorable accent,” Lex laughed, picking out a pair of shoes to go with her new dress.

“Did you just call me pretty?” Stephen said, giving her another weird look. Lexi was about to answer until Stephen felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around. Oh great. It was that weird girl that kept staring at him.

“Hi, I’m Bethany and I couldn’t help but find you to be very attractive. Not many London boys look like you, so I’m guessing you’re not from here?” she asked, touching Stephen’s arm.

Trying hard to restrain himself from laughing, he nodded. “I’m from Italy and thank you,” he said, eyeing Lexi, who was hiding a smile behind her hand. Shoving the Bethany girl’s hand away from his arm, Stephen stepped back a bit, knowing she was trying a bit too hard.

“Maybe we can get to know each other more while you’re in London,” Bethany suggested, batting her eyelashes and trying to grad his hand.

“No thanks, I’m not interested,” he said, walking away and back to Lexi.

“Playing hard to get, huh?” the girl called out to Stephen, following behind him.

“Actually no, he’s just being faithful to me,” someone spoke up. Stephen and Lexi turned around to see Aimee standing in front of the girl.

“Why do people always pop out of nowhere?” Lexi asked into Stephen’s ear, which he responded with a shrug. The look on the girl’s face hinted that she was most likely annoyed that Aimee was there. Fuming, the girl stormed off in the other direction and was now out of sight.

Aimee then turned towards the pair, walking over to hug Lexi and slapping Stephen on his arm. “How dare you flirt with her?” she said, a bit too loud that the people around them turned their heads.

“What? I wasn’t flirting with her,” he said, rubbing his arm. Aimee laughed, reaching up to kiss Stephen and place another slap on his arm. “Alright, that’s it. I’m wearing padded clothing around you two,”

“Might as well,” Lexi said, walking to the line to pay. “So what brings you here, Aimee?”

“Dress shopping. My dad’s aunt is turning sixty in about two weeks and she’s having this big party and I’m forced to go. There’s going to be plenty of old people and relatives there so I’m not really looking forward to it,” she spoke, leaning on her left leg and sighing. “I’m sadly not allowed to bring any guests. I would’ve invited you two to keep me company,”

“Well that’s rubbish. Is it more of a family only event?” Stephen asked, fixing his glasses from sliding down his nose again.

“Yeah, but here’s the date and address to the place, in case you guys want to crash it,” she smirked, handing Stephen an invitation and watched as Lexi joined them again.

“Who knew clothes were a lot less expensive here?” she said, tucking away the receipt and looking over at the invitation.

“I’ll see you guys then,” Aimee said, kissing Stephen goodbye and hugging Lexi before heading another way. The duo left the store and continued on their way to their designated destination. Picking up on their strange conversation, Lexi and Stephen began to plan for the party.

“What if we use polyjuice potion to disguise ourselves as someone in her family?” Lexi asked, jotting down some ideas.

Stopping the car and parking in front of a house, Stephen thought about Polyjuice potion for the party. “That’s a bit too risky. I’m sure we’ll think of something soon,” he answered, getting out of the car and knocking on the door.

A woman with short brown hair opened the door and greeted them. “Hello, how may I help you?”

“Cristina Marino sent us to this address,” Stephen answered.

“Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Ricci’s youngest daughter. Do come in,” she smiled and let them in. She let them in a living room, where everything was mostly colored red and gold, reminding Lexi and Stephen of Gryffindor. “Please sit here while I get the mister and misses,” the lady smiled again, nodding her head and headed out.

“Do you think they know who you are?” Lex asked sitting down with Stephen on the scarlet fancy couch. Shrugging, Stephen leaned his chin onto his hand and began to fiddle around with his fingers. Hearing footsteps, Stephen turned his head to see both and older man and woman entering the living room. They both had the same green eyes and hair color as him. But they both stopped in their tracks once they laid eyes on Stephen.

“Look, Charles! He looks just like his father!” The woman pulled Stephen to his feet and hugged him tight. The man then proceeded to shake Stephen’s hand firmly and gestured him to sit down again. “I’m sure you have many questions. But first, what did your parents name you?”

“My parents named me Stephen, I prefer to go by that name,” he explained, hoping it wasn’t sounding rude in any way.

“No problem. So Leslie told us that Cristina sent you here. How did you manage to find her?” the man asked. “Oh, please excuse me. My name is Luke and this is Susan, my wife. We’re your father’s parents,”

“I’m Stephen Fanelli, now,” Stephen chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. “This is Alexis De Luca, my best friend from home. I took the birth certificate my parents had and made my way to a Roman hospital where I was born and they gave us her address,”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all. Last we heard from your parents, they were in the United States. Your father became a doctor and I hear your mother models for a clothing line named Last Spare,” Luke said. Lexi and Stephen just looked at each other and nodded. “But maybe you should visit your mother’s grandparents first to get their side of the story,”

“So then what’s your side?” Lexi asked.

“Stephen’s parents were very young when they had him. They were terrified about having a child at their age and were confused on what to do. We always told them that no matter what happened, we will always help them. But I guess they were just too scared and left you in front of your parents’ home. Neither of us knew who the Fanellis were but we’re glad they took you in,” Susan said, smiling.

“Do you know what my mother’s parents are like?” Stephen asked, taking a cup of tea Leslie was now serving.

“Well, when we first met them, they weren’t such nice people. They were very strict on your mother, from what Raul told us. We never really spoke to them much. They invited us over to dinner once and it wasn’t very pleasant,” Luke mentioned, taking a sip from his tea and setting it down. Luke then noticed something brown sticking out from Stephen’s pocket. “So Stephen, are you a wizard?” he asked, pointing to his pocket. Lex and Stephen froze, as if they saw a ghost pass right in front of them.

“It’s alright, you two. We’ve met lovely witches and wizards before. We know not all are kind as others, but we only communicate with the ‘good’ ones,” Susan smiled. “Even though we’re non-magical people, we hold no prejudice to the magical kind,”

Looking at his phone, Stephen saw it was time to go. “We’re sorry but we have to head back now. I really hope you don’t mind,”

“No, no, you go. We really hope we helped you in finding your parents,” Luke spoke, hugging them both before heading into his office.

“Please, don’t become strangers now,” Susan laughing, kissing Lexi and Stephen on the cheek and showing them the door.

“That went pretty well,” Lexi said, as they got in and began heading back to Tyler’s house.

“Better than I expected. Now, we have to figure out how we’re going to attend that party in two weeks,” the best friends started plotting again, wondering how they could crash the party without using magic.

FINALLY, another chapter! You took your sweet time.
BUT I loved it (as usual) annnnd the parking ticket thing was hilarious! Oh, Kat!
OMG and Bethany!!!
Keep writing! <3

LuluBestie! Brilliant, I absolutely loved it!
So funny, can't wait for the next one.<3

Love love LOVE it!
Sorry it took me a little while to get here!
But I got here before the next chapter!
Write more soon please?
Very funny
I'LL BE WAITING!

Shh! I was in the mountains! x3
Thank you, Bestie <3
Didn't you miss the last chapter? But thank goodness you saw the message I sent you lol

Chapter 7: Going Down From Here

“Well, that’s all I can think of,” Stephen said, tossing away yet another piece of paper with useless ideas. For the past two weeks, Lexi and Stephen just couldn’t come up with a plan to get into the party. Polyjuice Potion was out of the question. Claiming to be a long lost cousin or something was definitely not going to work.

“The party is tomorrow already, how are we still going to get in without making a scene?” Lexi asked, tapping her head with the end of a pen. “Maybe Kat can help us. She’s pretty good with pranks and stuff like that,” Stephen nodded, knowing Lexi was right. But did Kat know about disguises? Reaching into his pocket, he felt something cold and round. Taking it out, it was that small metal ball he had taken from Kat a few years back. Stephen had completely forgotten about it in his trunk since he never managed to open it. “Kat, do you know any good ideas on how to get into a party you’re not invited to?”

“How about you dress up as a clown? Everyone loves clowns!” Kat chimed, putting on a big grin on her face.

“But the person who’s celebrating the birthday is turning sixty. Don’t you think she’s out grown clowns by now?” Stephen asked, playing with the metal ball again.

“True. So why don’t we go to the place where the party is and get ideas from there?” she asked, spinning around in circles until she bumped into an end table and tipped over a vase. “Lucy! Stephen broke your vase! But let’s go to the place thingy,” she added, and hurried out the door. Stephen and Lexi followed behind and got into the car. Since they were always using the car, Tyler made them a separate pair for when he or Lucy weren’t home. “You know some muggles hide in cakes, right? I don’t know why but it seems fun!”

“No, I will not have my hair covered in cake just to get into a party because Stephen is being such a nice boyfriend,” Lexi teased, starting to poke Stephen again.

“If you don’t stop, I’m pushing you out while the car is still in motion,” he said, making a turn and stopping the car in the parking lot. Walking over to a fence, they all noticed a familiar head of red hair, walking around and giving orders to the workers. “Guys, we’re in luck,”

“Lucy! OH LUCY!” Kat called out, running to the red head. Lucy turned around to see the trio of misfits, waving at her.

“What are you guys doing here?” Luce asked, eyeing them all as she walked over. “This is going to be a private party of family only attendees,”

“We can ask you the same thing. This is Aimee’s aunt’s party. Aimee told us to come here to help her feel more comfortable. So we need you to help us get in without anyone else knowing who we are,” Lexi responded, showing Luce the invitation she took out of her bag.

“A friend of mine got sick and asked me to fill in. It’s not every day a witch helps set up a party with muggles. It can be very difficult at times without magic,” she said, crossing out things in her to-do list. “Well, I’m not sure how I can get you guys in. But, we are three servers short so I guess you can take their place. I’ll bring you their uniforms when I get home,” And with that, Luce walked back to the party and the trio headed back home.

“Do you actually think Lucy will let us serve at the party? Does she actually trust us to do that?” Kat asked.

“Us, as in Lexi and myself, then yes. You, I don’t think anyone would trust you with their food. But she must be desperate to have servers there,” Stephen replied, entering the house and heading to his room, but not before noticing Tyler in the nursery. “Decorating?”

Tyler turned around and smiled. He had been trying to figure out what color to paint the nursery for some time now. “Still wondering what color to paint it. I really want us to have a girl, for some reason. But what if we have a boy instead? The baby’s not here yet and it’s getting complicated already,” he chuckled, sitting down on an empty chair in the room. The trio walked in and began to look at the patches of paint that were currently on the white walls. Not much else to do since the crib, toys, dresser and other things weren’t in place yet.

“Have you seen my brother?” Stephen spoke up, turning to the other raven-haired guy sitting in the chair. “I didn’t find him in his room this morning,”

“He left; said something about doing some business in America and he took off,” Tyler answered, knowing Stephen would most likely throw a fit. But to everyone’s surprise, the tall Italian boy stayed quiet and continued looking out the window. “I’m pretty sure it was an emergency,” he added, placing his hand on Stephen’s shoulder, assuring him it was most likely true. Stephen just nodded and walked into his room, throwing himself on the bed. But then Stephen noticed his closet door slowly opening, creaking almost every inch it moved. Slowly moving towards the edge of the bed, two big green eyes stared at him.

“HOLY SWEET MOTHER OF MERLIN!” the boy yelled, scrambling from his bed and getting his foot tangled on the sheets; making him end up on the floor near the door.

“Sorry, sir. Rosy didn’t mean to make you frightened or cause you any pain,” the little house elf spoke, from the other side of the bed. “Rosy was just organizing Sir Stephen’s closet while he stayed in the Way house. Please forgive her,” she pleaded and kneeled down, looking at Stephen with her big green eyes.

Stephen just looked at the house elf in her torn clothing. Was she really the Ways’ servant? Maybe he’ll be able to ask her if they had a conversation to kill some time before Lucy got home. “You’re forgiven. I just didn’t know the Ways’ had a house elf,”

“Oh yes. Master Way is very kind and giving. He gives Rosy holiday breaks to be with family,” Rosy spoke, straightening her rigid dress and sitting in front of Stephen. “Mistress Way is also very kind, except when she and Master Way are arguing and fighting,”

“Yeah, Lucy’s scary even when she’s calm too,” Stephen laughed, looking out the door to make sure the red-head was nowhere in sight. “So how long have you been here?”

“Since Mistress Way became pregnant with their child. Master Way was away too much at first and she couldn’t stay by herself sometimes so Rosy was hired. But now Master Way is home more often, but Rosy still likes to be around, especially with their dog,” Rosy giggled, clapping her hands and made her ears wiggle. The pair talked for a while, which actually felt like a couple of minutes had just passed by. But they only way they could tell plenty of time had passed by, was by looking out the window and watching the sky grow darker. “Rosy must go and prepare dinner now. Goodbye, Sir Stephen,” she smiled, snapped her fingers and vanish from the room.

“I’m home!” a voice called out from downstairs. The trio of misfits ran down the stairs, almost falling together in the process. “Didn’t your parents ever tell you not to run in the house?” Lucy asked, looking disappointed.

“Hasn’t my mom ever told you that I never listen to that rule?” Stephen smirked, adjusting his black shirt which had been pulled by Lexi to avoid herself from falling down the steps.

“True, but I got you three the uniforms for the dinner party,” Lucy said, tossing each of them a white dress shirt, a skinny black tie, black vast and a skirt for Kat and Lexi, while Stephen got slacks of course. “They’re a bit big, so I’m just going to adjust them,” she said while shooing the misfits to hurry up and change into the uniforms.

“How short is the guy this belongs to?” Stephen asked, stepping back into the living room, while looking down at his pants. “What is he, four feet tall?”

“Plus, these skirts are pretty big on us,” Kat added, stepping in with Lexi, who were both holding onto their skirts to avoid them from falling.

“Alright, hold still so I can adjust them,” Lucy said and waved her wand at them. The clothes began to shrink, but a bit too much. That’s when Tyler came to join them and watched as the clothes almost chocked the misfits.

“Too tight!” All three of them gasp and tried to stop the shrinking collar from choking them.

“Umm, I’ll take it from here, Luce. Not everyone is a walking stick like you,” Ty laughed, chanting Finite to their clothing and waving his wand to adjust to their actual size.

“Are you calling us fat?” Stephen asked, unbuttoning the first button of his shirt and loosening the tie.

“Well, you aren’t really ‘skinny’, Stephy,” Lexi laughed, patting Stephen’s stomach.

“Thanks for shooting down my self-esteem,” he said, slapping her hand away and making her tie tighter.

“Can we eat now? I’m hungry!” Kat complained; already back in her everyday clothes. Everyone else nodded and headed towards the kitchen where Rosy had finished preparing the table and asked to join them that night.

--------

“Kat, why are you such a twit?” Stephen asked as the misfits hurried to prepare tables with the proper cloth and decorations. Most of the tables were set up by Kat with red and green table cloths, as if it were Christmas time.

“I guess I said the wrong spell to change the colors!” She called out, hurrying all over the place with the right cloths to put on the tables.

“You’re not supposed use magic!” Lexi hissed as she finished up the last table.

“Now don’t mess up tonight, you three. I swear I’ll lock you all in the basement!” Lucy yelled at them, and pointed towards the inside hall where the misfits had to escort people to their seats outside.

“You’d think she’d be a bit more appreciative that we’re giving up a weekend to be here,” Stephen said, letting Lexi fix his tie and hair. Lexi shrugged, knowing that it was most likely Lucy’s pregnancy that had her all worked up. Plus having to organize a party which she probably hasn’t done before. And before they knew it, the attendees began filing into the hall, chatting along with each other.

“Name please,” Lucy asked from a small podium to each family member that walked in. The misfits walked back and forth with the group of families who were now seated in the garden section of the hall. They had decorated the garden with small hanging white lamps that brightly illuminated the garden, making the grass and flowers glow brighter than their usual color. Towards the right section, a long table was placed for the birthday person and who they choose to have sit with them. The other tables with round, enough for about five people each. A small candle was placed in the center, in case the lamps didn’t light where their table was placed. In the center, back towards the wall of the hall, a stage was set up for a band to play their music. The dance floor was white marble, with a small crack where Stephen had slipped earlier and fell. “Name please,” Lucy asked again to another family, only this time she noticed a blonde in the group.

“Beaumont,” Mr. Beaumont said, looking around at the golden walls of the hall.

“Stephen, please escort the Beaumonts to table four,” Lucy smirked at him, just to have Stephen smirk back. He nodded, trying not to let out a laugh as he walked out into the garden.

“Can I bring you anything to drink?” he asked, taking out a small pad and a pen.

“Yes, I’ll have just a glass of water. Boys? Aimee?” Mr. Beaumont asked his kids. One of which was trying not to smile as much as she could.

“We’ll have orange soda, please,” the twins chanted together.

“I’ll have a grape soda,” Aimee said.

“Alright, I’ll be back with your drinks,” Stephen smiled and walked into the kitchen. “Were you really that hungry?” he asked, eyeing Kat and Lexi who were eating small pieces of chicken on the counter.

“Yes. We didn’t eat before leaving the house today because a certain red-head was rushing us,” Lexi spoke, taking another piece into her mouth. “But I’m wondering why Aimee was so smiley when she saw you,”

“I wonder why too,” Stephen smirked, pouring the ordered drinks into glasses and placing them on a silver tray. “But I have to go and serve drinks now. Don’t finish the chicken!” he called out.

“WHO’S FINISHING THE CHICKEN?!” Lucy yelled, running into the kitchen. This only made Stephen move faster into garden. Walking over to the Beaumont table, he placed their drinks in front of them with a napkin each.

“Dinner will be served in an hour or so. So please enjoy the music and wandering the hall for now, and don’t get lost,” he laughed and walked away, but not before hearing ‘Waiter’. Of course he thought it must’ve been him considering he was the ONLY male waiter here tonight. “Yes?” he asked, walking back to the Beaumont table.

“What’s your name?” Mr. Beaumont asked. Stephen’s face became warm from being nervous. Why would he ask his name? Did he know Stephen was dating his daughter?

“My name’s Stephen, sir,”

“Well Stephen, do you mind serving us tonight. You know, just you. The waitress’ seem to be a bit confused over there,” he nudged his head towards Kat, who was scratching her head with a pen, looking as if she was lost about something.

“Sure sir,” Stephen nodded and made his way back into the main hall. Inside, he bumped into someone he really wasn’t expecting to see here. “I’m sorry,”

“Well, if it isn’t the little muggle-born boy Stephen Fanelli,” Peter Davies spoke. He was a pureblood wizard who had brown hair and gray eyes. For some reason, he was never fond of Stephen and always had something insulting to say to him. “I didn’t know they allowed such low wizards here,”

“Shut up. Now’s not the time for you and I to have another little brawl. Now if you don’t mind, I have to get back to work,” Stephen spat, heading towards the kitchen; but not before realizing something. “Why are you even here? You’re not part of this family, are you?”

“I’m dating one of your girlfriend’s cousins,” Peter smirked, making Stephen narrow his eyes at him.

“How did you know?”

“Aimee told her cousin about you then she mentioned it to me. Better be careful little Stephen. Don’t want things to get out of hand,” With that, Peter walked out into the garden and sat down at his table. Stephen continued his way to the kitchen, but was now stopped by someone else.

“What now?!” he retorted, yanking his arm away. He then turned to see Aimee, with a hurt look on her face. “Sorry, I thought you were someone else,”

“Who?” she asked. Stephen shook his head and pulled out two chairs for them to sit.

“Enjoying this party so far?”

“Kind of. But what has you so worked up? Did something happen to you?” Aimee asked again, leaning her head on his shoulder.

“It’s nothing. Just a bit jitty from not eating before leaving and they mostly have meat here so I can’t pick at any food,” he chuckled, hoping she would forget about the topic already. They talked a bit more until Aimee went back to her table. Then finally, Stephen quickly made his way into the kitchen where Lexi was now serving drinks. “Do you remember that Peter Davies person I told you about?” Lexi nodded, finishing filling the glasses and serving herself a glass of water. “He’s here,” and now Stephen was wet. Lexi spit her drink out towards him; eyes wide.

“Why is he here?” she asked, setting her glass down and quickly drying Stephen’s clothes before anyone saw. “Is he part of this family?”

“No, he’s dating one of Aimee’s cousins and he knows about us,” he answered, fixing his hair with the reflection of a tray.

“Come on, you two! People are beginning to dance and there are still drinks to be served,” Lucy hissed and pushed them out the kitchen and into the garden.

“Boy, come and dance with me,” Aimee’s aunt said, pulling Stephen with her towards the dance floor. Oh, this was so awfully awkward. But Stephen just laughed and agreed. Compared to Aimee’s aunt, Stephen had no dancing skills what so ever. He somehow kept tripping over his feet, which usually didn’t happen unless he was dancing fast. When the song was over, he quietly sighed in relief and thanked her. “Now dance with my niece,”

“Gladly,” he said and took Aimee’s hand. “Now, do you have your aunt’s dancing skills or no?” he asked as the pair danced to a slow song.

“No, remember my bad dancing in my room? I really have no idea what I’m doing,” Aimee laughed, looking down at her feet, trying not to step on Stephen’s.

“Don’t worry, I’ll guide you,” he smiled, guiding her through the two step dance. The moment felt like a lifetime but cut short when Lucy spoke and told everyone to sit down, for dinner was about to be served. “Thank you for the dance Miss Beaumont,” he smirked.

“Pleasure was all mine, Mr. Stephen,” Aimee laughed and walked back to her table. Being pulled by Kat into the kitchen, the misfits served every table before refilling everyone’s glasses with their order. After cleaning once everyone was done, they started the music and headed back once again into kitchen.

“Stephy, did you ever find out what this thing does?” Lexi asked, holding the metal ball in her hands; examining it.

“No, I never asked Kat how to open it. But maybe I’ll ask her later,” he said taking the ball and playing around with it. They now heard singing which was of course the birthday song and headed out to serve a piece of cake to everyone. “Kat, how do you open this thing?” Stephen asked, once done with serving the cake and more drinks.

“Dunno. I took it from some Italian first year at school. Well, at least I think she was Italian since she was speaking Stephen’s language,” she laughed and took the ball from him. “Try saying something in Italian to open it,”

Arching an eyebrow, Stephen shrugged and placed it on the ground, away from the guests. Kneeling down, Stephen said, “Aperto,” and slowly walked away from it. “Nothing happ-“ He had spoken too soon. The small metal ball burst open and released colorful fireworks into the night sky. All the guests jumped but began to cheer once they saw what was going on. “So much for a prank item,”

“I’m going to kill you three,” Lucy whispered as the fireworks quiet down and everyone began to leave. Only a few were left which were Aimee’s family, the Peter guy and Aimee’s aunt.

“I’ll be seeing you around, Fanelli,” Peter smiled evilly, walking away with his girlfriend.

“Not looking forward to it, Davies!” Stephen yelled and began his way into the hall.

“Thank you for your service tonight, Stephen. Hopefully we’ll see you around sometime,” Mr. Beaumont said, shaking Stephen’s hand and making his way outside with his sons.

“Stop being a stranger, Stephen,” Aimee sighed, quickly following behind her father.

“I-I will,” he said, confused. But he didn’t want to press on that strange matter right now.

“Child, you better work on your dance skill for my next birthday,” Stephen turned around to the voice behind him.

“I promise I will,” he laughed and nodded to Aimee’s aunt as she was the last to leave the party.

“Can we go home now? My feet huuuuuurt and I’m reeeeaaally tired,” Kat clung onto Stephen’s back and made him walk outside. Lexi followed behind, with her shoes hanging from her small fingers.

“Where are you going?! You still have to clean up this place!” Lucy called out. The misfits groaned in annoyance and walked back into the garden, where they were most likely going to spend the rest of their night at.

FINALLY!! Why do you always have to update at night?!
Anywho, I LOVED it! Poor Lucy, always yelling at people--it's all Nathan's fault!

BAHAHAHA!!!





And I love Rosy, she's so sweet!
I cannot wait for the next chapter, Lulu! Please hurry!

Ahhh!
I love this! Rather amusing, Stephen dancing with his girlfriends aunt.
Feeling a bit sorry for Luce now, awkward organising a party when Lexi and Kat are eating all of the food.

More soon?

First of all, I forgot you changed your UN
I was like "Who's Native Kiddy, why does it sound familiar, and why are they writing Lulu's FF?!?!!" lmao MY BAD!!!
And to your reply from before: NO lol I caught up xD
On to the chapter

"You know some muggles hide in cakes, right?" lol! I'm hoping she's not one of those (;

Aww I'd let Kat serve for meee! *nods*

I likeded it!!!
I'll be waiting for the next chapteeer!

Is a day fast enough for you?
I forgot what inspired the dancing part, but it HAD to be included.
BAD MEMORY, GISSEL!

Chapter 8: Misfits Stick Together
First time you get to see Stephen's mama and dada lol.

“Is that all she said to you?” Lexi asked Stephen as they walked the streets of Diagon Alley together. And what a mistake it was. Hogwarts students were already running all over the place in anticipation for their next year at Hogwarts.

Stephen just nodded to Lexi’s question, not much in the mood to talk at the moment. The pair squeezed between students who just wouldn’t move out the way unless one of them suggested somewhere else to go. “It’s my fault anyway,”

“How can it possibly be your fault?”

“Lex, look at me. I’ve been spending all this time trying to find my parents and not paying attention to much else. I don’t go to school, I don’t have a job, I’m mooching of the Ways right now because I don’t have money to stay somewhere else. Who in their right mind would date me?” Stephen said, frustrated. He wasn’t really doing much productive things at the moment and Stephen felt like it was his faults the bad things began to happen.

“Hey guys! I got some Peruvian Instant Darkness powder,” Kat said, running behind Lexi and Stephen, not caring if any students fell to the floor or if she stepped on them. “I think it’ll come in handy some time,”

“Kat, can you please tell Stephen that it’s not his fault Aimee has been distancing herself from him,” Lexi spoke, looking through the window of the robe store. Stephen was leaning on the store wall, trying to ignore this conversation before he began losing his temper.

“Stephen, it’s all your fault Aimee doesn’t want to be your girlfriend anymore,” Kat smiled. Stephen just looked at her then to Lexi and walked away. “Did I say something wrong?” he heard Kat’s voice ask. Not really paying attention where he was walking towards, Stephen yet again bumped into someone.

“I guess muggle-borns have no sense of direction,” he said, with a small chuckle.

“Why are you so annoying?! Go away! NO ONE LIKES YOU!” Stephen yelled at Peter Davies and shoved passed him. But it didn’t take Peter long to spit an insult at Stephen.

“Flithy blooded wizard!” Peter said loud enough for the students to stop what they were doing and stare. A red flash flew in the air and pushed Peter onto the floor. The crowd cleared the streets and either hid in the shops, the small alley ways and pressed against the walls of the shops. Lexi and Kat ran towards the front of the crowd to see Stephen holding his wand in his left hand.

“My patience is running low with you. Leave me alone. I’ve never done anything to you, nor have I ever said anything insulting for you to come after me,” Stephen huffed. Seriously. He had never met a more annoying person who would insult him everything they saw each other.

“Stupefy!” Peter yelled towards Stephen, only to have him block it. “Wizards like yourself shouldn’t be allowed to walk among purebloods! You filthy mudblood!” Peter now shoot Stephen’s wand out of his hand.

“Give me a wand!” Stephen called out to Lexi and Kat. Kat quickly tossed him one she had managed to pull out of her bag. Catching it, he waved it, only to have flowers pop out from its tip. “THIS ISN’T A REAL ONE!”

“Sorry!” Kat stepped back as Lexi threw Stephen her wand. “Don’t worry, Stephen! I’ll help you fight the mean guy!” she yelled, running towards Peter and jumping on his back. “Now leave Stephen alone! He’s a nice boy!” she yelled, covering Peter’s eyes and pulling on his ears. But Peter managed to get Kat off him and threw her onto the floor; making her get a cut on her arm. The two rivals went at it again, throwing spells everywhere and breaking a few shop windows and signs in the progress. Stephen casted another spell at Peter, right before he felt someone harshly grab him arm.

“Alright, you three are coming with us!” they said. All three of them looked up to see three officers staring at them sternly. They yanked the trio away from each other and made them kneel on the floor. Stephen felt the cold handcuffs being placed on his wrists and tightened when the cop closed them as he was being dragged to his feet. He caught a glance of a certain blonde headed girl who had a disappointed look on her face. Sighing and slightly rolling his eyes, he let the cops lead him towards the police station he had never noticed in Diagon Alley before.

“Does this mean I’m going to eat jail food!?” Kat cried, being pushed in along with the other two. “Wait. This means I get to go on the Wall of Shame. I GET TO BE FAMOUS LIKE MY UNCLE TYLER AND AUNT TAYLOR!” she cheered, earning a deathly glare from Stephen. About thirty minutes had passed before they were let out to have their picture taken.

“Okay, you first girlie,” the officer with the slightly gray hair motioned Kat to step forward. Another officer with dark hair walked in, carrying three folders in his hands. The old officer took one from him and began to read Kat’s file out loud:

He finished off, preparing a camera. Kat stepped in front of it, grinning like she had just won a grand prize and holding a name plate. Stephen couldn’t help but chuckle lowly at the way Kat was smiling. After she was done, it was now his turn. “You’re up, pretty boy,” the old officer called out, pulling Stephen forward and reading his profile:

Pushing Stephen to take his picture, he made bored faces to show his “excitement” while holding a name plate. Being escorted back to the cell when it was over, Stephen hadn’t seen a sign of Peter.

“Do you reckon they actually let him go?” Kat asked, twirling around. Stephen just shrugged, hoping that twit really didn’t get off the hook that easily. But before they knew it, Peter walked into the cell, grabbed his jacket and walked back out.

“Having connections is a glorious thing, isn’t it mudblood?” Peter smirked and chuckled evilly from the other side of the bars.

“I swear if you call me that again, I won’t hold back,” Stephen hissed, clutching his fists around the steel bars. Peter just raised his eyebrows and made his merry way out onto the streets.

“Alright you two, you each have one phone call and it better be to your parents,” the old officer said, opening the cell door. But weren’t they both of age by now? And why did it have to be to their parents? Stephen stepped out, cursing under his breath for not remembering the Ways’ number. Quickly dialing home, he prayed his mother wasn’t there to pick up.

About three rings later, someone picked up and said, “Hello?” Oh thank Merlin it was his dad.

“Dad, I-I need you to come get me,” Stephen stuttered, already worried about what was going to happen if he ever got home.

“Stephen? What happened? Are you okay? Where are you?” his dad asked, the worry being noticeable in his tone.

“I’m at the police station at Diagon Alley. I just need you to come, and quickly. Kat is starting to scare me,” he said, looking back to see his friend still twirling in the cell.

“I’ll be there soon,” his dad sighed and hung up. Stephen knew he was disappointed in him and he was most likely grounded for the rest of his life. Kat walked passed him as she went over to call her dad. From the cell, Stephen could hear her dad frantically screaming and yelling until she hung up. Not even five minutes back in the cell, Kat began to sing.

“I’m a little teapot, short and stout. Here is my handle, here is my spout,” Kat sang and did the gestures to the song. Stephen, on the other hand, was chipping paint off the already chipped wall to keep himself distracted while they waited for their parents to arrive.

“I’m Daniel Way, I’m here to get Katlyn Way,” Immediately, Kat stopped her dancing and singing and tried to hide behind Stephen. Stephen looked over to see Daniel holding her wand in his hand and a cup of coffee in the other. As soon as he nudged his head for them to leave, Kat ran out the cell and disappeared from sight. Now Stephen just had to wait for his dad to quickly show up.

Stephen then noticed a mop of brown hair walk to the front desk. “I’m Giovanni Fanelli, I’m here for Stephen Fanelli,” Stephen gulped. He really had no idea what his dad had in store for him. But as the old officer opened the cell door, he stepped out, not wanting to look at his dad in this moment. Walking back onto the streets, Stephen squinted his eyes due to the light and tried to follow behind his dad.

“Stephen,” someone said. He turned to his left to see Aimee standing there. “We need to talk,” she added. Great, that phrase could only ever mean one thing. Sighing, he walked over to her, looking down. “We haven’t been seeing each other much lately and it’s really bothering me. And now you’re getting into fights and being arrested. Things are getting out of hand with you and I don’t know if I can be a part of it anymore,”

“So you’re breaking up with me because I have a lot of things going on right now? Besides, you can barely see each other because your dad doesn’t know about me. If he did, it’d probably be a bit easier to be together. So don’t blame all of this on me,” he retorted, not wanting to feel like everything had always been his fault.

“Don’t you think I know that? But you know how my dad feels about wizards and he wouldn’t be too pleased,” Aimee said, reaching into her pocket and taking something out. “We can’t just keep going like this but it ends here. I’m sorry, Stephen,” she placed the bracelet he had given her a few years back into his hand. Without looking at him, Aimee walked away back towards the shops of Diagon Alley. Stephen stood there, upset at himself for having another good thing leave his life just like that.

“Are you alright?” his dad asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m fine, let’s just go home,” he answered, taking a hold of his dad’s arm and apparating back home. Stephen felt weird being back home, a place he hadn’t seen in months but nothing’s really changed. “Does mom know?”

“Oh trust me, she knows,” Adriana Fanelli walked down the stairs, glaring at her son. She now had long hair. But he guessed being a hair stylist and a witch, her hair would be many different lengths every day. “So explain yourself, Stephen. Why did you get arrested?”

“I got into a fight with someone because they called me a mudblood,” he said, stuffing his hand into his pockets and rolling his eyes. He really didn’t want to do this right now.

“What have we told you about ignoring people who call you that?”

“ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BECAUSE HE WAS THE FIRST ONE TO DO SO! Not like it really matters to you because you’re all purebloods!” he yelled, no longer being able to contain his anger.

“Don’t raise your voice at me, Stephen Fanelli! You’re grounded! Give me your wand!” Adriana demanded, sticking her hand out. Stephen was hesitant, not really knowing if he should actually give in his wand that sudden. But he knew his mother wouldn’t move until he gave in. Slowly walking away, he tossed his wand at her and headed towards the stairs. “What has gotten into you lately?”

“You’re acting as if this is the worst thing I’ve ever done! Okay, why don’t just ignore me while I’m here? That way you can go back to that happy little family you were before I came along?” Stephen smart mouthed his mother. That’s when Adriana smacked Stephen for the first time, or ever placed her hand violently on either of her sons.

“Adriana,” Giovanni gasped, putting his hands on her shoulders and looking at Stephen. The monster had a shocked looked on his face and with his hand he reached up to touch his cheek where his mom hit him, feeling the dull sting as he made small circles in it. Without another word, Stephen made his way to his room, not needing to lock every door since his mom could easily unlock them. But once he walked past the little passage, his mood became worse now that his mother had taken away all his entertainment devices, leaving behind just books.

Then a sudden pop sound made Stephen jump. Turning around, he saw Lexi and Kat waving at him. “What are you doing here?”

“We came to get you. We both know you don’t want to stay here any longer, especially without any entertainment or magic. So pack your things. We’ll go somewhere else,” Lexi said, enchanting her bag with the Undetected Extension charm. She then quickly ran to his closet, taking extra clothes and stuffing it into her bag. She then tossed him a stick he thought he would’ve never seen for a while.

“How did you-?”

“Accio, of course. Well, Kat did it when your mom placed it down in the study,” she added, closing the closet along with her bag.

“Come on, Stephen. We have to find a good place to stay now or else we’ll end up living under a bridge!” Kat whispered loudly and made crazy gestures around her head. Without another word, Stephen quickly wrote a note to his parents and joined the girls by their arms. Right now, he really didn’t care where they were all going, as long as they were going to the same place together. And with another pop, the misfits disappeared from the room without a trace.

sorry sorry sorry, I got distracted again *blushes*

LULU!
Great entry! (:
I wish I had read it sooner! :3
Can't wait to read the next oooone!

I'm backkk! And one of the first things I did when I was awake enought was read this.
Poor Stephen. Aimée's moaning now, because I don't like her for hurting him. D:
But it was such a great chapter! More sooon.

School is being so distracting to you!
Oh But maybe Aimee will have a way to make it up to him? lol.


Chapter 9: Fixing the Broken
Guys, I cried in one part of this chapter when I was writing it. :/


It has been four months since Stephen last talked to Aimee and his family. He already felt bad enough about the way he spoke to his mom. He was pretty certain they knew he was alright, due to his older brother visiting him now and then. For about two weeks, the misfits were living at The Leaky Cauldron. It wasn’t until pregnant and crazy Lucy convinced them to stay with her and Tyler. Lexi and Stephen wouldn’t go unless they helped pay rent or something. Lucy refused to let them pay, so the pair refused to live with them. Without a word, Kat accepted and apparated to the Way house. After frequent visits, Lucy and Tyler agreed to let them pay rent, but ONLY rent. The remaining misfits moved in, but dreaded it sometimes due to Lucy having her pregnancy tantrums. Kat managed to get a job at Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes, Lexi at Madam Malkin’s and Stephen at Florean Fortescue’s. Besides all that, Stephen had given up on trying to find his biological parents. He felt as if they weren’t worth it at the moment.

“Stephen, that man over there wants you to take their order,” his coworker, Pete, motioned to their left. Stephen nodded, taking the last glass cup away and leading towards the table.

“Hi, I’m Stephen and I’ll be your server today. What can I-" he stopped mid-sentence to look at the person’s face. “Why are you here?” he sighed.

“Well, I was in the mood for some ice cream and decided to visit my baby brother!” Leonard, laughed, adjusting the black buttons on his gray coat. “But I actually came here to talk to you about something, or someone,”

“Is it about mom?” Stephen asked, worried that something might have happened to her while he was gone. Leonard nodded, and headed out the door. Looking at the clock, Stephen quickly went to grab his coat. “I’m leaving early! You can deduct it from my pay!” he called out and walked out behind Leonard. “Did something happen to her?”

“Yes and no. Mom is feeling down because selfish little you don’t talk to her anymore. Do you know what this is doing to her?” Leonard asked, sitting down on a bench out in the snowy streets of Diagon Alley. Stephen sat next to him, feeling the guilt in him build from not talking to his family lately. But he shook his head, wanting to know exactly what was going on. “When mom and dad were young,” Leonard laughed, but continued. “They couldn’t have any more kids after me. They tried but mom had secondary infertility. She then got depressed, not wanting to see anyone, talk to them to even leave the room. So dad’s says. I was only like three when you came around. But when we found you, mom’s depression went away and she treasured you,”

“Is that why she feels bad whenever she punishes me and I don’t talk to her?”

“Yup. You were the little baby she couldn’t have but eventually got. Stephen, you have no idea how much you actually mean to her. By you not talking to her, it’s killing her little by little inside. But I have to go now and sort some things out. I hope I see you for her birthday at least,” With that, Leonard apparated and vanished. Stephen stayed seated in his spot a bit longer. He decided not to apparate to the Ways’ house, but instead take a walk. He put his headphones on and turned on his iPod.

‘Loved ones back home all crying ‘cause they’re already missing me,’ Stephen stopped and saw that a song named Afterlife began to play. But this song was about someone passing on. He continued walking, adjusting his former Ravenclaw scarf around his neck. Feeling someone put something on his head; Stephen jumped and quickly turned to them.

“You’re going to get sick if you don’t cover up.” Lexi giggled and properly fixed Stephen’s beanie. “What will you do without me?”

“Probably freeze out in the cold,” he laughed, linking her arm into hers and continued his way home. They made some idle chit chat before Lexi dragged him to a nearby park.

“Are you going to see your mom on her birthday?” Lex asked, throwing snow in the air and dancing around it.

“Yeah, I think she’d come after me and murder me if I didn’t. Besides, I don’t want to cause her anymore pain by not showing up,” Stephen responded, kicking the white snow underneath his feet and following Lexi as she kept moving around in her dancing. She gave him a bewildered look, and of course, he had to explain.

“What you need is some cheering up!” Lexi piped after Stephen told her the story. “There’s a fire starting in my heart! Reaching a fever pitch and it’s bringing me out the dark!” she began to sing, quite loudly where people stopped and stared. Stephen eyes went wide as he tried to get away from her. Why would she sing a love song though? “The scars of your love remind me of us, they keep me thinking that we almost had it all! The scars of your love, they leave me breathless, I can’t help feeling!” Oh good lord here comes that part. Stephen tried to get farther away but Lexi had just jumped onto his back and sang into his ear. “WE COULD’VE HAD IT ALLLLLLLLLLLL! ROLLING IN THE DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP! YOU HAD MY HEART INSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE YOUR HAND! BUT YOU PLAYED IT TO THE BEAT!”

“Okay, now that I’m deaf in one ear, I think it’s time to take you home,” he said, quickly finding an closure spot and apparating to Tyler’s house. Lexi finally jumped off Stephen back and went into kitchen for something to eat. It seemed like no one was home yet so he decided to relax, but not before a little house elf appeared.

“Sir Stephen! Sir Stephen!” Rosy called out, frantically running towards him. “Please come quick! Mistress Lucy is in terrible pain!” she ran off up the stairs. Still trying to sink in of what just happened, Stephen quickly snapped back into reality. Running up the stairs and into Lucy’s room, he saw a puddle on the floor. Please, not right now.

“Stephen! The baby’s finally coming! I need to get to the hospital NOW!” Lucy yelled. Lexi then came rushing in; horror in her eyes. “Oh thank god Lexi! Guys, I really need to go now!”

“What?! We’re only eighteen! We don’t know anything about babies or how to help those in LABOR to the hospital. But I guess we apparate there,” Stephen said, taking Lucy’s hand and helping her out the room. This was probably the biggest mistake he’s ever done. Lucy’s pain grew more as she yelled and squeezed Stephen’s hand tight. “OH LORD, LET GO! THAT’S MY GOOD HAND! I CAN ONLY WRITE WITH THIS HAND! LET GO, WOMAN!” But Lucy only squeezed tighter. Lexi quickly grabbed the bag of clothes for this moment and apparated to the hospital with them.

After contacting Tyler, his parents, Lucy’s parents and everyone else who decided to make the hospital such a get together, the little Way boy was finally born. So Stephen wasted about more than a halves day worth in a hospital, sleeping on cushioned seats.

“Episky,” a healer fixed Stephen’s fractured hand. Who knew a pregnant women had so much strength in one hand. “Okay Mr. Fanelli, you’re all healed now. Next time, have her hold onto your right hand,” the healer added and walked out the room. Stephen wiggled the fingers on his left hand, to make sure everything was in place.

“Being a lefty must suck sometimes,” Lexi laughed, heading out into the hallway with Stephen.

“Sometimes, especially when people make you write with your right hand and you obviously can’t,” he said, sitting down on one of the cushioned seats he slept on.

“Have you talked to your parents lately?” she asked, swinging her legs onto his and adjusting herself closer to her green-eyed monster.

“No, because the guilt in me would just grow even more,” he answered.

“How about Aimee? Did you fix things with her?” Lexi kept asking, wanting to know the latest gossip on everything.

“Nope, I’m too stubborn to do so. I’m giving it time before I talk to her again,”

“I guess four months wasn’t enough time,” Lexi murmured. Ignoring her, Stephen began playing with his shoelaces, when he heard heels clicking in the distance. He turned his head to see his mom, but she just glanced at him and walked into the room Lucy was staying in. His dad slightly waved and smiled, earning the same gesture from Stephen. But of course his brother had to be completely different. Leonard grinned and waved his hand ferociously at Stephen. Rolling his eyes, Stephen hid a laugh. “Hurt, doesn’t it?”

“Shut up. I’m going outside for a breather,” Stephen glared and went to get his coat. Stepping in, his mother didn’t look at him once. So he quickly put on his coat, scarf ad gloves and left the room again. Stepping out into the cold, he felt someone behind him. “Do you follow me everywhere I go?”

“Yes,” Lexi laughed, and quickly apparated with Stephen before any muggles were able to see them. Feeling his face land on something cold, Stephen looked around to see that she had taken them to Hogsmeade. Getting to his feet, Lexi called out to him as she entered The Three Broomsticks. “Remember when we used to come here all the time during school?”

“If it was only so easy to forget those times you kept throwing snow at me for not buying you sweets,” he laughed and followed behind her. They took their usual seats to the back, but someone with platinum blonde hair was already there. Sighing, Stephen sat next to them, feeling a bit awkward.

“I’ll go get us some butterbeers,” Lexi said, heading towards the bar and disappearing in the small ocean of people.

“So, how have you been lately?” Stephen and Adriana asked each other at the same time. “No, you go ahead and answer first,” Adriana said, playing around with her fingers.

“Um, I’ve been alright. Just working and healing,” he showed her his bandaged hand. “How about you?”

“Depressed, devastated, lonely, stupid, heartbroken and more. You know that happens when someone you really care about just leaves like that, without saying a word,” she said, wiping away some tears.

“Mom, I’m really sorry, I am. I’m sorry that I’m always bringing you pain when I was the one who took it away a long time ago,” Stephen said lowly, no one else needed to know their business. But the questioned look on Adriana’s face made Stephen chuckle. “Leonard told me about what happened before I came around,” he explained. “Orchideous,” he murmured and moved his wand in a circular motion. “So please, forgive me. I promise I won’t treat you bad ever again. I just want the woman who broke her back raising this little monster to talk to me again. I want you to give me those annoying lipstick stained kisses on my cheeks that took me minutes to get rid of,” Stephen choked up, covering half his face with the roses he conjured up. Adriana smiled, with tears in her eyes.

“I’ll give you one right now,” she laughed and placed a hard kiss on Stephen’s cheek. “Now try getting rid of that one,” she laughed, gladly taking the roses from his hand.

“Oh good, you two made up,” Lexi cheered, bringing back their drinks and sitting down with them. They chatted for a bit more on topics like what they have been doing this summer, what are some plans for Christmas and punishment, of course. An hour passed and the group apparated back to the hospital.

“About time you’re back. Stephen, Lexi, we want to ask you guys something,” Tyler began, sitting next to Lucy on her bed. Lexi and Stephen just looked at each other with worried faces and nodded. “Lucy and I would like to know if you’d be the baby’s godparents.” Both their jaws dropped.

“Wait, why us two? Why not my parents, or Leonard or – No, sorry, Kat wouldn’t make a good godmother,” Stephen said, pointing to her and earning a pout from Kat.

“Because you two have personally gone through so much that no one else would be a better fit for his godparents,” Tyler added. “So, would you do us the honor?” The pair smiled and nodded. They signed the paper, feeling as if it were a contract they could never break.

"Mine looks so strange," Stephen added, tilting his head side to side.

"Mine looks very pretty!" Lexi added, feeling proud of her signature.

“Hey! If I can’t be a godparent, then I want to name him!” Kat retorted, stepping forward and pushing Stephen and Lexi out the way.

“Well, his first name is going to be Nathan, so you can give him a middle name,” Lucy said. Kat pondered and finally came up with something.

“His middle name will be Stanley, after Tyler’s teddy bear!” Kat said, jumping up and down. Tyler covered and his and shook his head. Everyone else left and started heading home. The following week, Stephen had to keep his mother occupied while they set up a surprise party for her at their home. This sadly meant that he had to go shopping with her everywhere. Yes, because every eighteen year old boy loves to go shopping with his mother on her birthday to every store that catches her eyes. Not to mention he also had to go into makeup shops for quick promotions Adriana had to make.

“Ma, can we go home now? My feet are killing me and people are giving me weird looks,” Stephen asked, looking around at everyone, mostly women who kept eyeing him and whatnot.

“Okay, let’s go home,” Adriana said, setting down an eye shadow palette and heading to her car. Putting the bags into the car, Stephen joined his mom at the front and closed the door behind him. He took a quick nap and before they knew it, they had arrived at their home. “I’ll go on ahead,” she said, walking up the path way and unlocking the door to the house.

“SURPRISE!” Stephen heard people yell out and his mom yelp from actually being surprised. Stephen quickly made his way up to the house and set the bags aside. To his surprise, a six layer cake rolled in.

“Happy birthday, Stephen’s blonde mommy!” The one and only Kat popped out from the cake, throwing pieces and icing everywhere.

“KATLYN WAY!” Chelsea Way, Kat’s grandmother, hollered and charged her way towards the dissembled cake.

“Oh, hi grandma, I didn’t see you there,” Kat waved and turned towards Adriana now. “Hi, I’m Kat Way, Stephen’s friend. I can see he didn’t get his looks from you because you’re very pretty,” she giggled and slowly made her way from under the cake. Stephen took a piece of the cake and shoved it in her face, or the comment about the looks.

“You know what I’m wondering?” Lex asked, as everyone went their own way, cleaned up and began to play music around the house. “I know Nathan has Lucy’s blonde hair, but where did he get his blue eyes from?”

“My mom has blue eyes, and so does my sister,” Tyler answered her. “I guess it kind of skipped a generation in a way, but not too sure. I sure hope he looks more like Luce because I know I wouldn’t want my kids looking like me,”

“No one wants their kids to look like you,” Stephen smirked, making Tyler shoved cake in his face and walk away. Lex quickly cleaned it up and two familiar voices came from behind him.

“Stephen, you have gotten so tall,” his grandmother said to him and went in for a hug. “Haven’t proposed to Alexis yet?”

“Hi grandma. And no, I haven’t proposed to anyone yet,” he laughed and hugged her back. Yes, everyone in his family, besides his parents and brother, thinks Stephen’s going to end up with Lexi one day. It was probably because the duo always said how their children will have his eyes and her hair.

“That’s too bad. She’s such a lovely and pretty girl,” his grandfather gave him a hand shake and hugged Lexi.

“Thank you, sir,” Lex smiled. His grandparents walked away, only to run into Kat and somehow start laughing hysterically. The pair decided to ignore it and go around dancing with family members who wouldn’t allow them to sit down. This was one of the reason Stephen hated family at parties. THEY ALWAYS MADE HIM DANCE WITH THEM. But at least they were mostly pureblood wizards and he was allowed to do magic. Stephen tried to escape a few times but they caught him and made him dance more. Thankfully, it was time to cut the cake. Everyone cheered for Adriana to take a bite of it. When she finally gave in, and went in for a bite, Leonard pushed her face in and ran off before Adriana had the chance to go after him.

“Thanks for coming everyone,” Adriana said her goodbyes to the guest as they left the house about three hours later. As Kat walked out the door, Adriana quickly grabbed her wrist. “No more surprises in my cake,” she laughed.

“Aww, but it was so much fun!” Kat protested.

“Okay, next time you can do it is when I turn fifty,”

“Deal, but that’ll be in a couple of years anyway,” Kat ran out the door and waved. Adriana’s jaw just hung open but she laughed it off. Giovanni and she went to cleaning the house, but she stopped when she realized it was too quiet.

“Where are the kids?” she asked him. Giovanni nudged his head to the living room, where Stephen, Lexi and Leonard were now asleep on a separate couch each.

“I’ll go throw these out,” Giovanni said, taking the garbage bags from his wife and heading outside. Adriana walked over to the couches, seeing small gifts placed on the coffee table in front of them. Lexi was lying on her stomach, occasionally moving her hand to make sure her dress hadn’t ridded up. Leonard was on his back, with one leg off the couch and the other straight on it. Stephen was on his side, the way Adriana had remembered he always slept on as a baby. Quietly looking at each gift, she also realized a note attached to each.

Dear mom,
Happy Birthday. I hope you enjoying this music box I looked so hard for. Thank you for always being the mother I needed when mine was never around. Oh, and can you adopt me already? I prefer the name Fanelli to De Luca.
- Lexi

Adriana smiled, summoning some blankets and pillows for each of them. With a wave of her wand, the pillows found their way under each of her kids’ heads as the blankets gently covered them. Walking over to Leonard’s gift, she took the note and read it.

Happy birthday, mom. Please don’t break this. I don’t bust my butt touring all over the world to buy you something nice and then having you break it. But this gift was so worth it.
- Leo

Adriana gently picked up the box, quietly opening the box. It was a vial with a rose inside of it, just like in Beauty and The Beast. Placing it back inside, she stepped over to Stephen’s note.

Sorry for everything again. I hope you love this locket I managed to find and place something special inside. Thank you for taking in a little monster and making him into your worst nightmare.
- Stephen

She laughed lowly to herself before kissing them each on the head and grabbing her gifts. Adriana knew exactly where to put all these presents so they wouldn’t get damaged. Turning off the living room lights, she quietly mad her way to her bedroom, and allowed her three little monsters to finally rest after a long day.

Awwww such cute chapters! And yayyy for Nathan being born! finally! I wonder when Stephen and Aimee will get back together.

More please!

I always feel like I'm repeating my last comment, but I really love it!
It's because of people who write like you that I don't want to put up anything I write that's a compliment, just so we're clear (:
Hooooray for baby Nathan!!!
I'll be waiting for more! (Even though I'll probably forget when there is more )

don't worry, I'm wondering the same thing.
My writing skills are NOT good lol. But I remember telling you this time lol unlike for the last chapter :/

Chapter 10: With Age Comes Pain


Ever since his mom’s birthday, Stephen stayed at home. Lexi had officially moved in, after the long fight Adriana put up with her father to let her stay. Stephen was sleeping peacefully on his bed, his entire body covered by the blankets, when someone decided to rudely awake him.

“Stephy, wake up! It’s our birthday today!” Lexi jumped up and down on his bed. Stephen groaned in annoyance, changing his position on the bed.

“Correction, it’s MY birthday today. Yours isn’t until tomorrow, now go away and let me sleep,” he said, pulling the blankets closer to his head, making Lexi fall to the floor. But then his puppy, Rocky, decided to jump and make his way under the blankets with Stephen, licking his face. “Okay, I’m up, I’m up!”

“Good, because mom says come down for breakfast,” Leonard said from the door and headed back out. Sighing, Stephen got out of bed and headed down the spiral stairs of his house. In the kitchen, Adriana and Giovanni were making breakfast like muggles did. “Ignore them, they wanted to make everything ‘special’ for you two,” Leonard laughed, heading over and sitting at the counter.

“Um, good morning,” Stephen said, eyeing his parents who seemed to be struggling with the cooking.

“Happy birthday, sweetie!” Adriana greeted Stephen and Lexi, kissing them both on the cheek and gesturing her hand for them to sit. “So after breakfast, how about you open presents and then we go somewhere special?”

“Where is there a special place to go in the middle of winter?” Lexi asked, her eyes glistening as Giovanni placed a plate of food in front of her.

“Dunno, but hopefully they’ll be some place,” Adriana added, placing Stephen’s plate in front of him.

“Anyway, I want them to open presents NOW,” Leonard spoke, getting up from his seat and rushing to his room. By the time he came back, everyone else had finished breakfast, since it was never such a big deal in this household. “This one’s for Lexi, and this one is for little Stephanie,”

“Shut up, but thanks,” Stephen said, slightly lifting up the box. Lexi wasted no time in ripping off the snowflake printed paper and tossing it onto the floor. She shrieked and Stephen knew he was definitely deaf in one ear now. Leonard had given her a pair of sparkly lavender colored heels she had wanted since Christmas, but didn’t have enough money to buy. Being even more curious now, Stephen unwrapped his present, to see a book inside. “You remembered?” he laughed, covering his face with the present box.

“Of course I did. I may not remember much, but I knew you really wanted this so I decided to help you out,” Leonard hugged his brother’s head, only to have him pushed away.

“What are you two talking about?” Giovanni asked, watching Stephen as he quickly began to read through his new book.

“We were talking about what type of career we’d like to have in the future. Leonard stuck with being a musician, I’m undecided for now and Stephen wants to be a healer. So the book Stephen’s reading is about how to become a healer and succeed. It was actually nice of Leo to get him something like that,” Lexi explained, trying on her new sparkly shoes and walking around with them. Both parents looked surprised and pulled out their presents before Lexi fell and broke her neck.

“Oh, what is it?!” Stephen asked, taking the present from his dad and shaking it. Stephen opened it to see a broom cleaning kit inside. “Um, thanks but I don’t have a broom,”

“And I don’t have one either,” Lexi said, taking out a cleaning kit from her box too. Adriana pulled both of them into the backyard, covering their eyes. Once passed the screen doors, Adriana put her hands down and watched as Lexi and Stephen jumped up and down like little children. The pair rushed to their brooms and began to ride them around. Close to the ground of course, since they did live around muggles. Stephen had gotten a green broom, for his favorite color. Lexi received a purple one, her favorite color as well.

“Alright you lot, go get cleaned up so we can head out soon,” Giovanni called out. Lexi and Stephen hugged his parents as they rushed inside to get ready for the day.

--

“Ugh, mom, leave my tie alone,” Stephen complained as Adriana kept adjusting his lavender-colored skinny tie. Tyler’s mom invited them all to a wizard’s fashion show she was part of every year in February. Stephen debated whether to go or not, but once Lexi begged him over twenty times a day, he had given in. Last week, the Fanellis flew to New York City for the fashion show. The muggles also had their own show going on the same day, so it was more likely wizards and muggles wouldn’t bump into each other much.

“There, it’s all fixed now. You won’t look like you just rolled out of bed now,” Adriana said, smiling and walking over to her husband. Lexi came over; wearing a lavender dress and the heels Leonard gave her for her birthday.

“Are you all ready?” she asked, slightly fixing her hair and adjusting her dress. Stephen nodded, linking arms with Lexi and walking out onto a red carpet where their pictures would be taken. His mom was already there, along with his dad, Lucy and Tyler. Being a bit camera shy, Stephen tried to escape, only to have Lexi pull him back next to her.

“Can we go already?” Stephen whispered in her ear. Lexi responded with a nodded and hurried into the building where the show was being held. Signing to each other, the pair went in search of Kat, who had become one of the models for tonight. “Why is she here?” Stephen asked, stopping in his tracks and looking away.

“Who?” Lexi asked. Stephen nudged his head to the right and pretended to look at the marble statue figurine in front of him. Lexi turned her head to see Aimee, standing with her cousin in the distance. “Maybe her cousin was invited by someone else and she brought Aimee along. Stop being stubborn and go talk to her,” she said, continuing her search for Lucy and Tyler. Stephen followed behind her, until he heard someone call out to him.

“Stephen? What are you doing here?” Aimee greeted him with a hug. Yes, Stephen felt a bit awkward since the breakup but he wasn’t going to show it right now.

“My mom’s boss invited the family so I got dragged along. So how have you been and why aren’t you in school?” he asked, wagging a finger at her.

“I’ve been alright, just worrying about NEWTS later this year. I just took this week off for this since my cousin didn’t want to come alone. Her boyfriend is in the fashion show,” Aimee explained, turning her head to see her cousin calling her over. “Well, I have to head over now. Hopefully we’ll get to talk more later,” With that, Aimee followed behind her cousin into the seating area. With his blood beginning to boil, Stephen went in search of Lexi, to find her in the makeup rooms where his mom was painting Kat’s face.

“Stephen, why are you huffing?” his mom asked, placing eye shadow on Kat’s eye lid.

“Running around, trying to look for you guys,” he answered, pulling Lexi towards him. “I think Peter is here too. Aimee said her cousin’s boyfriend is in the show and it was the same cousin from the party,”

“Great, that little twit is going to ruin things by starting another fight with you. What are we going to do?” she asked, taking her wand from the holder on her leg and placing it into her purse.

“Just stay away from him, and if something does happen, I want you to get out of here as fast as you can,” Stephen warned her. Lexi seemed scared, but nonetheless nodded. “Where’s Nathan?” Stephen asked Lucy and Tyler.

“He’s with my sister and Ashley. I’m pretty sure he’s in good hands,” Tyler said. Adriana then shooed them all away into the seating area, where the show was about to begin soon. Stephen sat next to Lexi, near the front and being a bit fidgety about Peter Davies being here. But as soon as the show started, his nightmare came true. Peter was the first to walk out and model. For the duration of the hour, Lexi cheered loudly whenever Kat walked out and didn’t fall. That was until the final run through where she slipped on her dress and fell on top of his mom.

“Do you think he’ll actually try to start something?” Lexi asked, getting them both drinks before heading out soon.

Stephen shrugged. “Maybe only if he sees me. Otherwise, I think we can have a peaceful night with him being around,”

“Stephen Fanelli?” a man walked up to them. Stephen nodded, looking at the man in front of them suspiciously. “Your mother would like you to get her makeup bag and equipment from the room,” The man left in a hurry. The pair looked at each other and headed towards the room, but of course someone else joined them.

“Guys, did you laugh when I fell?” Kat asked, changing into sneakers to walk around better.

“Can’t say we didn’t,” Stephen answered.

“So what did you and Aimee talk about when I left you?” Lexi smirked, opening the door to the makeup room.

“How we’ve been and schooling for her,” Stephen answered and walked in with Kat hot on his heels. Taking his mom’s bags and cases, he looked up to see none other than Peter Davies leaning on the wall towards the back.

“I didn’t know they allowed mudbloods here too. What is happening to the wizarding world nowadays?” Peter smirked, taking out his wand. Giving the stuff to Lexi and Kat, Stephen took out his own wand.

“You two need to get out of here. I have a feeling this time he isn’t going to hold back,” he said, turning to them behind him. The girls didn’t move. They didn’t want to leave Stephen here knowing Peter has been going after him since they met about five years ago while visiting Tyler. “I said go!” Stephen said firmly, finally being able to make Kat and Lexi leave.

“Do you remember why I began to hate you so much, Fanelli?” Peter asked, slowly walking closer to him. Stephen shook his head, though trying to remember the reason from many years ago. “You don’t remember that I used to fancy your friend Lexi? I asked you to talk to her for me and you blankly said no. Since then, I always knew you wanted her to yourself, selfish little brat!” Peter launched Stupefy at Stephen but missed, though one mirror was broken by the spell.

“Are you serious right now? This is why you’ve disliked me all these years besides me being muggleborn?” Stephen asked, casting Expelliarmus at Peter, hitting him on the shoulder. Then the pair began to go at it again.

“Confringo!” Peter shouted. Many chairs and mirrors were now broken. Stephen had a cut on his arm from being hit with a spell, causing him to fall back and cut himself on a broken mirror piece. Stephen felt exhausted, but he had to keep going or else Peter wouldn’t give up on making his life miserable. Not paying attention, Stephen got hit on the chest with a stunning spell. “Seems like the little muggleborn boy can’t defend himself,” Peter laughed, standing over Stephen. Just as Peter was going to attack Stephen again, he went flying into the air, landing on the floor about ten feet away from him.

“Didn’t I tell you guys to leave?” Stephen said, taking Lexi’s hand and getting to his feet. Rolling his eyes, he walked towards the door to finally leave. Hopefully no one would make him clean this up.

“Ugh, my dress got caught on something,” Lexi said. Stephen stopped by the door and leaned on it, hoping she would at least let it rip so they can get out.

“Haven’t people ever told you to mind your own business?! Sectumsempra!” Peter yelled, casting the spell at Lexi. She tried to pull harder on her dress, but it just wouldn’t budge. Lex prepared herself for the curse, but something or someone had blocked it. She felt something heavy fall on her, only to see Stephen’s body in her arms. Her chest became heavy, as if someone had tied something tight around it. Lex carefully placed Stephen on the ground and ran to the door.

“Help! HELP!” she screamed from the top of her lungs, hoping at least one person had heard her. Lexi hadn’t cared that Peter was still in the room. Her best friend was on the verge of dying because he had saved her life. Quickly running back to Stephen, she heard his low cries as more gashes appeared on his body. “Stephy, don’t leave me, not yet,” Lex began to cry, taking his hand and kissing the back of it. Hearing footsteps behind her, she kept talking to Stephen, hoping he would answer. “You’re the only one I have left and ever had. You were there when no one else was, even if you didn’t want to be. I still need you around,” Lexi cried harder, watching his eyes as they went from a bright green to almost pale in an instant.

“..I’m not leaving anytime soon,” Stephen said, in a voice so low, that one had to be close enough to his mouth to hear him.

“Stephen?! STEPHEN!” he heard his mom screamed and beginning to cry. Adriana hurried over to Stephen and knelt next to her almost unrecognizable son.

“What did you do?!” Tyler yelled at Peter, who was still in shock, witnessing Stephen practically give his life up. “Immobulus!” he casted the spell at Peter and hurrying out to go get security.

“Come on, we have to get him to St. Mungos,” Adriana said, taking Lexi’s hand and apparating. All Stephen could hear were people yelling orders at each other and felt his body being levitated away from his friend and mother.

“We're losing him, hurry!” someone called out. Stephen slowly closed his eyes, hoping he'd be able to open them again later.

--

"Do you think he'll finally wake up today? It's been three days since then," someone said someone else. Stephen stirred on what he guessed was a bed and covered his face away from the light. But that didn't really help considering the blankets were very thin.

"Go away and let me sleep!"he huffed. But then a certain little person jumped on his bed and hugged him. Stephen knew exactly who it was, so he hugged them back.

"Thank you," Lexi sobbed quietly into the sheets.

"You know I'd do anything for you," he said, kissing the top of her head and pulling her closer.

"How are you feeling?" Adriana asked, wiping some tears away.

"Alive," Stephen laughed, to receive the same reaction from his mother. Adriana kissed his forehead and left the room. He guessed she was going to tell the healers he had finally awaken from the long slumber he had greatly enjoyed.

"Why can't you ever stay safe when I'm not around?" Leonard walked in, placing his guitar case on the floor and walking over to the right side of the bed. "Dad told me what happened. Feel special I left the tour to come visit you on your death bed,"

"Now why would you do that?" Stephen asked. Lexi finally let go and sat on the bed, playing around with her small fingers.

"Because you're my brother and the same way you protect Lexi, is the same way I'd protect you," Leonard smiled, sitting down on a nearby chair. A trio chatted a bit more until more guests walked in.

"You really shouldn't scare people like that, Stephen. They become very sleep deprived," Kat said, walking in with Lucy, Tyler, Nathan and Giovanni.

"How are you feeling, son?" Giovanni asked, waving his wand to open the window curtains. Squinting his eyes, Stephen used his hand to block the light.

"Fine, until recently," he pointed to the window. "I'm sorry I worried you guys. It was just something I had to do,"

"We understand. I think any of us would do the same for each other," Tyler said, sitting down and taking Nathan in his arms.

"Seems like you're one popular guy, Mr Fanelli," a healer walked in and headed to hi bed. "I'll just be checking to make sure you don't have any scars from the attack. I'd say, you're a lucky one to be alive from such a powerful and forceful attack like that one," she added, checking his arms and legs. "But you seem completely fine now and may head home," With that, the healer walked out and onto other patients.

"So what do you want to do when we get out of here?" Leonard asked.

"GET REAL FOOD!" Stephen whined, feeling his stomach grumbled from the hunger.

I FINALLY READ IT!
Not gonna lie, didn't expect that lol
Great chapter though! xD I'm glad Stephen is okay
Can't wait for moar!

OMG I THOUGHT HE WAS GONNA DIE!!!! DON'T DO THAT TO MEH, LULU! You almost gave me a heart attack!

BUT. I'm glad little Stephie is alive and well. Stupid Davies What happened to him?
SNAP OUTTA YER WRITER'S BLOCK AND WRITE ANOTHER CHAPTER, WOMAN!
<3

I'm glad you like.
I can't let Stephen die or else it would be the end of the story! asdfghjkl
I updated just for you since you want to be mean about my writer's block

I highly apologize for my short writer's block of almost two weeks lol.

Chapter 11: Finally a Break


“Are you ready, Stephen?” Adriana called out from downstairs. Stephen had finished tying his shoes and putting on his gray blazer. It has been almost a month after the incident at the fashion show. Adriana and Giovanni wouldn’t let Peter get away with almost killing their son. So today was Peter’s trial. Stephen finally joined his parents downstairs and apparated with them to the Ministry of Magic. It was busy as usual. Small stands with Daily Prophets stood in different corners with their vendors. People hurried either to work or the floo network to finish their jobs. Stephen followed closely behind his parents and walked into the elevators.

“Department of Magical Law Enforcement,” a voice came from within the elevator. The Fanellis headed out and walked towards the department court rooms. Though he had never been here before, the court room seemed so much ore scary and depressing than what Stephen had thought.

“Stephen Fanelli?” a woman in a black cloak asked, holding up a long piece of parchment. Stephen arched an eyebrow, but nodded either way. “Good. You’re just in time dear. Your family may sit along the benches. You have to sit in the center until the trial begins,” she smiled, walking away to her post on the upper benches.

“Remember, be completely honest and everything’s going to be alright,” Adriana said, hugging him and walking over to sit next to Lexi, who the monster hadn’t noticed was there before.

“Good luck,” Giovanni said, patting Stephen on the shoulder ad sitting next to his wife.

“Mr. Fanelli, you may take a seat, we’re about to begin,” the woman from before gestured to the empty chair in the center of the room. Nervously walking to it, Stephen sat down, tapping his fingers on the armrests. From the corner of his eye, he could see Peter sitting with, who he thought was his father, looking rather mad. Well, no one sent him to curse his friend that night, or anyone for that matter.

“We are gathered today for the trial of Peter Davies. He has been charged for misuse of spells and charms on Muggleborns, Halfbloods and muggles. We will have his side of the story in a moment, but first we will speak with a witness,” the judge spoke, taking out a beige folder. “First witness is:”

"Now, please tell us what happened the night Peter Davies and you dueled,”

“It was at a fashion show my mother’s boss was attending. She invited the entire family as friends. No one had seen Mr. Davies until he was on the runway and knew he would probably start trouble if he saw me. Someone had told me my mother wanted her makeup supplies, so I went to get them. Mr. Davies was there, apparently waiting for me. I told my friends to leave and that’s when we began to duel,” Stephen answered, trying to remember even the smallest details of that night.

“It says here that he tried to curse Alexis De Luca, but you had jumped in the way. Why?” one of the jurors asked.

“Because she’s like my sister, like family. We’ve been friends for years and I would always protect her no matter what. I’m sure she would do the same for me,” Stephen smirked, turning his head to Lexi who mouthed ‘I love you’.

“Your record says that you were once arrested with Mr. Davies and Ms. Way. Same reasons?”

“He called me a mudblood that day. I’m not sure what he has against muggleborns, but I obviously didn’t like it very much,”

“Nor do we, thank you, Mr. Fanelli,” The judge gestured him to sit at then benches. The monster did as instructed and felt Lexi slide towards his left side as he sat down. Kat suddenly appeared to his right, leaning forward on her knees. He didn’t question it, but glad she was there. The judge now signaled for Peter to sit in the chair. Out of nowhere, Kat began to making hissing sounds, like snakes.

“Kat, what are you doing?!” Stephen whispered to her.

“Speaking parseltongue. He’s evil so he should be able to understand it!” She answered, continuing her hissing sounds.

“Kat, stop, just stop,” he poked her, which actually managed to make Kat quiet. Lexi moved closer, trying to hide her laughs from the way Kat was acting. As Peter took his seat, his was offered a glass of water, which he gladly accepted.

“Why do they offer him water and not you?” Lexi asked, eyeing the boy who finished half the glass.

“Dunno, but I’m pretty sure that isn’t an ordinary glass of water,” Stephen said, leaning forward on his knees.

“So Mr. Davies, would you tell us why is it that you dislike anyone who isn’t a pureblood?” the judge asked.

“I believe that they’re all disgusting people who shouldn’t be allowed to walk the same space as purebloods. It’s one of the main reasons I dislike Stephen so much. He’s just not as skilled or smart as purebloods are,” Peter answered, seeming very proud of his answer. The monster just rolled his eyes and sighed. He had a gut feeling this trial wasn’t going to last much longer.

“Very well. Is it also true that you were going to attack half-blooded Alexis De Luca when Mr. Fanelli stepped in front of her and took the curse for himself?”

“Yes, and it’s a very good thing that he did. His blood type people deserved to be treated that way,” Peter smirking, making Stephen’s blood boil. He leaned back in his seat, feeling Lexi curl her arm around his.
“Why is he being so honest to everything?” she asked.

“Because that glass of water obviously has Veritaserum in it. He wouldn’t admit to everything so honestly and his dad wouldn’t be freaking out on the other side,” Stephen said, pointing to Peter’s father who was covering in face, in shame of what his son was saying in front of everyone. But either way, Stephen smirked a bit, hoping that Peter finally got what he deserved.

“I surely hope you begin to change some day, Mr. Davies. As you may or may not know, pureblood numbers have greatly decreased during the years. Seeing as your so called ‘private record’ has been kept quiet by your father, you two will gladly join each other in Azkaban. Matthew Davies will have a year in Azkaban for hiding information from the Ministry. Peter Davies will have two years in Azkaban for mistreating wizards, muggles and accomplice of your father,” The judge hit his gavel against his podium. “As for Stephen Fanelli, you, Mr. Davies, will be paying all his medical bills. Plus, you’ll be on probation and be monitored whenever you use magic until further notice,” he added, then dismissed everyone from the gloomy looking room.

“That went better than expected,” Stephen laughed, walking out arm in arm with Lexi and Kat.

“Congratulations, Mr. Fanelli. I will personally see that both Mr. Davies’ go along with their punishment. Hope you have a good day,” The woman from before, who Stephen found out her name was Betsey Ricks, spoke and stuck out her hand to him.

“Oh, thank you,” Stephen shook her hand and watched as she walked towards the elevators. The misfits made their way in the same directions once his parents finally walked out of the court room. The walk back onto the streets seemed shorter than the one getting into the ministry. Once back out into the cold winter air, The Fanellis and misfits apparated to the Ways’ place, where they had been invited for lunch.

“Are they allowed to put Veritaserum into people’s drinks in order to get the truth?” Lucy asked, as she served everyone water, tea or juice.

“They’re the ministry, Luce, I’m pretty sure they’re allowed to do anything they want,” Leonard said, finishing up his sandwich and gulping down his juice. “Besides, I heard that Peter kid had a lot of connections that made his file a clean slate,”

“Obviously,” Stephen piped in. “His dad was the department head of the law enforcement ad could’ve easily eased everything to make his son look innocent. Family’s not going to frame family, are they?”

“You’d be surprised at how many people do that to their families. But enough about the trial and whatnot, your mother and I have something to say,” Giovanni spoke, smiling towards Adriana.

“You’re having a baby?!” Leonard exclaimed.

“A baby!?” Kat gasped, spitting out her juice. “Another little Stanley! I call dibs on being the godmother!” She added, raising her hand and pointing to herself.

“No, we’re not having a baby. We’re were going to say that since we’ve been so caught up and paranoid about what happened, we should take a vacation. Anywhere you guys would like to go,” Adriana said setting her dish in the sink and thanking Lucy for the food.

“Let’s go to China!”

“How about Brazil? I hear it always has nice weather,”

“Uh, no, let’s go to Canada!” With Kat, Lexi and Leonard giving suggestions, no one really knew what place to choose.

“Why don’t we go somewhere warm like Australia?” the monster asked, not looking up from his food. Everyone stopped and looked at him and nodded.

“Australia it is,” Giovanni said. “You’re welcome to join us too, if you like,” he gestured to Luce and Tyler.

“Not sure, I have something to do in New York, as always and Luce returns to work soon,” Tyler said, fiddling around with his fingers. “But maybe we can work something out,”

“I’m pretty sure your little house elf would like to come dearly,” Stephen smirked. Out of thin air, Rosy appeared in front of him, making Stephen jump and almost fall off his chair.

“Rosy would love to join the family on a vacation! She has never seen much but the insides of houses and shops,” she added, in a sad tone. Lexi petted Rosy, nudging her head towards Lucy and Tyler. “Oh please, may we go?” she pleaded, making her already big green eyes bigger.

“Tyler, start packing,” Lucy smiled, taking Nathan with her upstairs to pack. Ty nodded, but first cleared the table as the Fanellis and Kat apparated to their houses. Once home, Stephen probably didn’t even get a chance to collect himself, when Lexi was already dragging him to his room.

“This is going to be so exciting!” Lex exclaimed, enchanting her bag and stuffing her things in it. Stephen, on the other hand, was still wondering how much he would actually have to bring. “I’m guessing we’ll be there for about a week, since it’s probably the most everyone is able to take off,”

“Plus, I still want to find my parents, but I’ve kind of lost hope in the search,” Stephen admitted, throwing himself on his bed, face down. “I can’t even remember what my dad’s parents told us months ago,”

“Your mom models for Tyler’s mom’s clothing line,” Lex said, taking it upon herself to pack for Stephen.

“How do you remember that?” he asked, sitting up and watched as Lexi walked back and forth with his clothes.

“I just have a good memory,” she smiled, finishing up the packing and lay down on her bed. “Where is Rocky going to stay while we’re gone?”

“Most likely with my grandparents, that way my annoying cousin won’t-,” Stephen stopped when he heard something peck on his window. Getting up, he noticed an owl was trying to get in. Opening his window, he let the brown owl in and sit on his window sill. Taking the letter attached to its foot, the bird flew off and out of sight. “Looks like it’s for you,” he said, handing the letter to Lex.

“If you’re all packed, dad says to join us in the kitchen with your stuff. Apparently in Australia, there’s a hotel for wizards and witches only and they have the best view of the beach. Guess who’s staying there?” Leonard sang, grinning like an idiot and popping his head back into the doorway where it had originally came from. Lexi jumped from the bed, taking her letter and stuffing it into her bag. Then, taking the monster’s hand, she yet again dragged him to the kitchen to meet with everyone else.

“I told the Ways where to meet us, hopefully they won’t get lost,” Giovanni said, bringing down Rocky with him. Handing him over to Leonard, he apparated to his grandparents’ home.

“Are you sure he’ll be okay there?” Adriana asked, to which Giovanni nodded. Taking everyone’s hand, once Leonard came back, Adriana apparated and finally off to their small vacation they went. The inside of the magical hotel, if you’d like to call it that, had white walls, with golden lines going up and down. There were chairs of a mahogany colored wood, with beige cushions and coffee tables in front of them with magazines and newspapers. Of course they were set up as it were at a living room. Almost every minute, witches and wizards apparated into or out of the hotel. Adriana walked to the front desk with Giovanni, whereas Leonard, Lexi and Stephen went to sit in the waiting area.

“DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?! MY GRANDMA DESIGNED YOUR CLOTHES!” someone yelled. Turning her head, Lexi saw Kat yelling at a concierge and poking him in the chest.

“Never seizes to amaze me,” Stephen said, flipping through the newspaper he just picked up. Coming back from the desk, Adriana handed a key to Leonard.

“You’re staying with your brother. Tyler and Lucy are together, I’ll be with your father and Lexi and Kat will share a room. I don’t want any mayhem from you guys here. We all need a little break from it sometime,” she shook her head and apparated to her room.

“Are there no stairs or elevators here? Do we have to apparate everywhere in this building?” Kat asked, walking over to them with a sad face. “I don’t really like apparating; it makes me feel sick and weird,”

“That’s because you’re not used to it and how did you even pass the exam?” Leonard asked, but Kat just shrugged and apparated to her room with Lexi. Feeling an arm around his neck, Stephen was a bit scared, until he was apparated into a room and found himself face to face with the floor. “Look, we have the best view!”

“Did you really have to apparate me like that?” Stephen asked, getting up and looking out the window. The view was the blue, clear ocean and the beige-white sand. Muggles could be seen running around and throwing themselves into the water.

“Let’s hurry up if we still want to get into the water!” Leonard said, rushing into the bathroom and changing into his swim suit. Just when Stephen was going to get his clothes, Lexi walked in, with a bag in her hand.

“Thought you might need this,” she laughed, setting the bag down on his bed and walking back out. The monster quickly changed, falling over a few times but managed not to break anything in the process; a new record.

“Come on!” Leonard said, pulling Stephen out the room and apparating to the lobby. Still holding onto him, Leonard ran across the street, onto the beach and into the water. “Swim, Stephanie!”

“You air-headed jerk! I can’t swim if you throw me in like that!” Stephen exclaimed, pushing Leonard to fall back into the water, while coughing and trying to get his breath back.

“Charming isn’t he?” Lexi asked, looking down at Stephen as he was looking towards the sky. Feeling sand being kicked onto his face, the monster rubbed his eyes, just to see Kat right in front of him.

“Guys, we can go visit Nemo!” she cheered.

“Nemo? The fish from that muggle movie ‘Finding Nemo’? How on earth are you going to find a fish?!” Stephen asked, still trying to make his eye sight well enough.

“I’ve got his address, duh! He lives at P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby, Way, Sydney, Australia! We are in Sydney so let’s go find him!” she added, showing the pair a paper and getting to her feet.

“We won’t be able to find Nemo because I ate him,” Stephen smirked, getting to his feet and wiping off some of the sand from his bum. When he looked back up, it seemed like Kat had murder in her eyes. Stephen broke into a run, feeling Kat running right behind him.

“HOW DARE YOU EAT NEMO! HE WAS GOING TO BE ONE OF MY BEST FRIENDS!” she screamed, chasing the poor boy back up to the boardwalk.

“You would think she’d remember Stephanie was a vegetarian and doesn’t eat any kind of animal,” Leonard laughed, leaning his arm on Lexi’s shoulder.

------

“Do you think your parents knew it was monsoon season here?” Lexi asked, looking out the window into the dark sky and the rain falling as if it were being held back for ages.

“Doubt it, or else they probably wouldn’t have agreed to bring us here,” Stephen said, flipping through his healer book, with Kat’s legs on his. “Am I really that comfortable to you?” he asked her.

“Yes, you’re very squishy,” Kat laughed. Rolling his eyes, the monster went back to his book, but heard the blue-eyed girl rummaging through her bag.

“Let’s watch a movie since everything around here is still flooded,” she said, excited that the hotel had a dvd player. She popped in Stephen favorite Disney movie; Beauty and The Beast. “Stephen likes this movie because the main character is a French girl,” she smirked, sitting next to Stephen, with Kat’s head on her legs.

“Funny, but no,” was his response. The misfits watched the movie in silence, as if it were full of suspense. His parents occasionally came in to give them snacks and whatnot so they wouldn’t be too hungry for later. Towards the end, Stephen’s legs were feeling numb from Kat not wanting to move. So in order to make the blood rush through them again, he pushed Kat off of him and sat on his brother’s bed.

“Can we watch Finding Nemo? It’s going to be a tribute because Stephen ate him!” Kat said, taking out the first movie once it was done. Leonard then came in, sitting himself down next to Lexi on Stephen bed. After Kat managed to finally put the movie in, she sat next to Stephen and held a pillow in front of her. Hearing Lexi giggle, Kat and Stephen looked over to see her and Leonard being lovey dovey with each other. Finding it a bit weird, Kat gave Stephen a questioning look, to which he just shrugged and turned back to the movie.

---

“I wanna scream ‘I love you’ from the top of my lungs, but I’m afraid that someone else will hear. You can only blame your problems on the world for so long, before it all becomes the same old song,” Stephen sang to himself in the lobby, still reading his healer book and waiting for the other two misfits to join him to go eat something.

“How cute, Stephen’s in love,” Kat chimed, pinching his cheeks in the process.

“Right, I sure am,” he answered sarcastically. Kat shrugged, linking her arm with his and walking out into the street, until Lexi met up with them.

“Don’t go off like that and leave me behind. What if I got lost?” she said, linking her arms with Stephen’s free one and continued on their walk.

“Do you think Nemo could’ve swum up here in all the flooding?” Kat asked, looking at the ground as she walked so she wouldn’t step on “Nemo”. Stephen gave her a ‘Are you kidding me?’ look but stopped himself from commenting. Finally being able to find a café open after the rain, the misfits walked in and ordered some food. “Next time, let’s go somewhere that doesn’t have weird seasons like Australia,”

“Deal,” Stephen laughed as he paid for his food and found an empty table. “To be honest, this vacation wasn’t so bad. Sure we spent five days indoors and such, but we kept ourselves entertained somehow,”

“Plus, being in another country away from my dad, beats being home, near him and his wife,” Kat added.

“Since we’re being all honest here, I have something to tell you,” Lexi spoke, making Kat’s and Stephen’s eyes land on her.

“You’re dating my brother?” Stephen asked, smirking as he drank some of his coffee. Lexi’s face turned red, almost the same color of the dress she was wearing.

“No,” she shook her head, “It’s something I’ve been keeping from you,” she added, taking out an envelope from her bag. The raven haired boy gave her a questioning look and took the envelope from Lexi as she held it out to him. “She told me not to show or tell you anything, but I felt guilty whenever I had to hide it from you. There’s a few more, but I don’t know if I should show you now or later,” Stephen just looked at his best friend, a bit upset that she had hid this from him. The letter he was holding was a letter Aimee had written to Lexi about him. “That’s the first one she sent me,”

“You’ve kept contact with her after all this time?” Stephen asked, not looking up from the letter.

“Yeah. After she broke up with you in Diagon Alley, I ran into her there and she told me what happened. Aimee says she misses you and feels like it was a mistake to break up with you,”

“But she was the one who did it. Why would she regret it right after it happened? If she knew she was going to feel like that, she should’ve never done it,”

“I know, but why are you getting so worked up about it?”

“I’m not, I’m just upset my best friend would keep secrets from me that she knew would make me more upset if I found out about them way later after they started,”

“At least I told you! I didn’t hide it until your death bed. Now did I?” Lexi asked. Kat, on the other hand, was eating her muffin fast, in the suspense that either one might walk out.

“Oh my god, the chismes are so great!” she exclaimed, earning confused looks from both Stephen and Lexi. “It means gossip in Spanish. But Stephen, do you still like Aimee?”

“A bit. We’ve only dated for a few months for me to have stronger feelings for her,” he admitted. “How many are there?” he asked, holding up the first letter.

“Plenty, since like you said, it’s been months since you two parted ways,” Lexi said, showing Stephen the couple of the letters that were in her bag.

“So on another note away from this awkwardness, are we still going to look for your parents?” Kat asked, hoping this would drop the Aimee conversation.

“Yeah, and you are just the person we need to help us,” Stephen smirked, planning out the next adventure the misfits were going to have once they get back home.

Awww that was nice! They deserved a vacation!
And what's up with Lexi and Leonard?! *puke* Hehehe jk
Poor Aimee!

MORE!!!

No, you're not allowed to have more because you're never on

Chapter 12: Reunited

“Make yourselves at home, and don’t be afraid to ask if you need anything. I should be back at around five. Please let me know if you head out somewhere,” The elder Mrs. Way waved her hand goodbye and left the misfits in her home, alone. After spending about two weeks convincing his mom to let them continue the “hunt”, Adriana finally gave in, on the condition they would all return home if things got really bad again.

“I’m going to look for your mom’s file. Hopefully it won’t be too hard to find,” Kat said, heading up to her grandmother’s office and disappearing from sight. Stephen sat on the couch, taking his laptop out and setting it on the coffee table in front of him. Might as well find out more about his parents online, if it were still possible.

“Are you still mad at me about the letters?” Lexi asked, sitting in the opposite side of Stephen. Even after two weeks since he first read a letter, Lexi still felt as if Stephen would just stop talking to her because of it.

“Lex, that happened weeks ago, I’m not mad nor was I mad back then,” Stephen responded, typing away on his laptop. His eyes were going back and forth on an article about an upcoming modeling event in the city. It mentioned something about a reporter who will be covering the event and the main model, Diana Ricci.

“Alright, so do you want another letter?” she asked, going into her bag and taking one out. The envelope had deep wrinkles in it. Lexi could only ever keep her clothes without wrinkles but nothing else. Stephen took the envelope and set it down next to his computer; not wanting to read it at this moment. With a sigh, Lexi got up and joined Kat in the room. Losing focus on his search, the monster closed his laptop and lied down.

“Wait,” Stephen mumbled to himself and went back onto his laptop. Searching the recent article he was reading again, the monster paid more attention to what his eyes were scanning. Hurrying upstairs with his computer, Stephen tried not to trip on the stairs that always seemed to become slippery when he was on them. “Girlies look what I found,” he said, entering the room where Kat and Lexi were and settled his laptop on a desk. “This is an article about an upcoming modeling event, which your grandma is going to be at,” he said, nudging his head towards Kat. “If you could just kindly read this paragraph and look at the picture, you might understand where I’m getting at,” Lexi and Kat scanned the small paragraph and gasped at the same time.

“Stephy, does this mean that we finally found one of them?” Lex asked. Stephen shrugged, suddenly getting an uneasy feeling in him. Kat, not wanting to look for the file, just summoned it and began to look through its papers.

“It says here that Diana is one of the major models for Last Spare and she is married to someone named Raul. Is this the same lady from the picture?” she asked, pulling the photo out and placing it next to the one on the computer. Both women had the same color eyes, skin tone and hair to be the same person.

“Is there an address?” Lex asked.

“Umm, oh, it says she lives at 23-09 W. 75th St,” Kat answered. Stephen now felt a nervousness grow inside of him, with thousands of questions running in his head. Are they going to be excited to finally see him? Will they shun him away and not want to know anything about him? Or will they just stay speechless and let it all be awkward? “Oh look, her parents’ address is in here too!”

“Good, we’ll go here first. Kat, you’re taking us since we can’t apparate in the middle of the day. And don’t forget to tell your grandma we’re heading out,” Stephen said, writing down the address and feeling his hand, or entire body become all shaky.

“Are you alright, Stephy?” Lex asked, pulling a chair for him to sit on.

“I’m fine, just a bit nervous I guess,” he answered. Not really convinced, she placed her hand on his face and forehead.

“You’re warmer than usual and sweating a bit. I think you might be coming down with something,”

“I get like this when I’m nervous too,”

Before Lexi had a chance to say anything else, Kat came back from her little phone call. “Grandma says it’s alright for us to go. But we just have to be careful and to come back before it gets too dark,”

“Alright Kitty, lead the way,” Stephen said.

-----

“Kat, you never mentioned the underground train system would be so, what’s the word I’m looking for?” Stephen said, turning towards Lexi.

“Dirty, hot, crowded, smelly, or better yet, loud?” Lex answered sarcastically, holding onto both Stephen and a pole to keep her balance. But luckily on the following stop, most of people get off. The misfits had only guessed it was where most cooperate jobs were in the city. But the unexpected happened next. Two men got on their train, and began to play music.

“Does this happen occasionally?” Stephen asked, trying not to stare at the musicians towards the back of the subway cart.

“Yes, it’s not strange you see people play instruments and ask for a charity in the trains and stations,” Kat answered, making a path for the two musicians to walk through after playing their small set. They walked with a hat in hand, asking for a small charity as they passed by sitting and standing passengers. For a couple more stops, the misfits had to deal with being squished, obnoxious and loud teenagers and small children acting like monkeys on the poles.

“Next time, wherever we go in this city, we’re taking a taxi,” Stephen said, once they were finally out of the subway and out onto the “fresh” air of the city streets.

“I think it’s this way,” Kat said. The other two followed behind her for a couple blocks, not paying attention to much that was going on around them. The late winter air kept blowing, making it hard for Stephen to see. “You should wear your glasses more often, I think they suit you more,” she grinned.

“So you can start calling me names? No, thank you,” Stephen laughed, turning a corner and bumping into Kat when she suddenly stopped.

“We’re here,” she said, looking at the paper in her hand and up at the scarlet colored building.

“Relax Stephy, it’s going to be alright,” Lexi assured him by patting his back. Nodding, Stephen sighed and walked up the steps towards the off white door. Ringing the bell, he had so hoped no one would answer and he’d have to leave back to Kat’s grandma’s place. But to his bad luck, the door opened, revealing a woman with black and grayish hair and dull green eyes. She was most likely four inches shorter than Stephen and had a slender figure to go with her slender looking face.

“I was wondering when you three would finally show up here,” she smirked, with her boney fingers on her hips. “Well, come in. Wouldn’t want you to get sick in the cold, now would we?” With each misfit having a confused look and glancing at each other, they decided to take the risk and enter the house.

“Chelsea told me you were looking for your parents. Stephen is it?” she asked, leading them into a small living room.

“Yes, but how do you know my name or any of us? And how do you know I’m looking for my parents?” he asked, sitting down in a cushioned chair while Lexi and Kat took the love seat couch.

“I’m pretty sure you know my daughter, your mother, models for Chelsea’s clothing line. So Chelsea and I became close friends ever since Diana started working for her a long time ago. I always knew you were out there, somewhere with hopefully good people who taught you everything they could until this day,” his grandmother explained. “But I’m being so rude. My name’s Tatiana,” she smiled.

“Well, you already know my name. But this is Lexi and Kat, my best friends,” Stephen pointed out.

“I’m your best friend, Stephen?!” Kat yelped in joy. Excluding her from the “best friends” category would result in Stephen being ignored by her for the rest of his life. Though, it doesn’t sound so bad at times.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you all. But I’m sure you want to know the ‘long’ story of your past and all,” Tatiana nodded. “When your parents had you, they were still young. Fresh out of school, heading to college and starting a new life. But we were very strict on Diana to be in school and to do this and do that, so she began to act out and be reckless. When we found out about you, her father and I were furious about her foolish move. That same night, we met Raul’s parents and I personally couldn’t keep myself together and was rude to them. I’m sure you heard that we were not the kindest around, but we did have our reasons that night. We too told Diana that we would help her support you but she shunned us away. It wasn’t your parents who left you on that doorstep that night. It was your grandfather and I,”

“And where he is now?” Stephen asked.

“Sadly, he is no longer with us. Knowing how stubborn your mother could be, we decided that it was better if we left you with other people. It wasn’t in the greatest way to do so but it was less painful that way,” she finished.

“How exactly was it less painful? You left Stephen in the cold after being about three days old,” Lex spoke, not sure whether to believe this story or not.

“Going to an adoption agency would mean we’d have to wait in agony for someone to adopt Stephen. But before we left him with the Fanellis, Lucas and I did background checks on families who wanted to adopt. For some reason, Adriana and Giovanni stuck out to us the most, so we left you Stephen with them,”

“So you made sure I would go to a family who would actually take care of me?” bewildered, the monster asked. “But then why didn’t you take care of me yourself?”

“Because your parents would’ve known and taken you back. And of course we made sure you were with a family who’d take care of you. It wouldn’t be very decent of us if we didn’t. But, your parents were on and off for years until they finally got married and had two more children,” Tatiana finally finished, lowering her voice at the last part. Stephen began to sniff his suddenly stuffy nose, trying to breathe through his other nostril.

“Thank you, Tatiana, for your time but Stephen has to get back and rest. He’s gotten a bit sick since we arrived here,” Lexi explained, standing up along with Kat.

“It’s no problem. If you want to meet your parents, they’re both going to be at the modeling event a few nights from today,” Tatiana stood, taking Stephen’s hand, making him stand as well. “It was great to finally see you, Stephen. Now don’t jinx or hex anyone while you’re here. Wouldn’t want any more trouble, now would we?” Stephen arched an eyebrow at her. How could this woman possibly know so much? “I’ve been informed about your magical abilities and whatnot. It is a bit exciting to have a wizard in the family,” She smiled, hugging her grandson for the first time since she left him on the doorstep. “Good luck,” Stephen hugged her back, grateful for her actions and the new information he gathered. Letting go, he join Lex and Kat, who apparated with him back to Mrs. Way’s place.

“Off to bed young man!” Lexi demanded, pointing her finger to the guest room they were sharing here. “I’ll make you some tea or soup to help you fall asleep,”

“Thanks,” he chuckled, making his way to the room and making himself comfortable on the cotton sheets he didn’t want to get out of this morning.

-----

“Stephy, you really do have bad luck with so many things,” Lexi chuckled, as she took Stephen’s empty soup bowl away. The poor boy had been sick in bed for about three days now. And tonight was the modeling event he wanted to attend.

“I know, I know,” he mumbled, throwing the blankets over his head and trying to sleep. But not before he felt someone sit on the bed and place their hand on his head. “How is it that you know everything?”

“Mother always knows,” Adriana laughed, pulling the sheets away from his face. “Lexi called and said you were really sick, so I came out as quick as I could. Besides, I had to be at the modeling event,” she added, taking out a small vial from her purse. “Drink this, if you want to go out tonight,”

“But what if I don’t want to go anymore?” Stephen asked, sitting up on the bed. Adriana smiled, taking Stephen’s hand into hers.

“You don’t have to meet them tonight if you’re not ready. You can always come back another time,” she said.

“Honestly, I want to get it over with. But what if they get upset that I looked for them? Or are they going to be excited that I’ve found them? You know I’m never too positive about meeting new people,”

“If they’re glad to finally meet you, then be happy. And if they aren’t happy, you can say that you at least met them, but decided to not keep in contact with them. Now drink up, I would like you to help me tonight,” Adriana smiled, kissing Stephen head and heading out the door.

“Mom, I love you,” he smiled, finally opening the small vial.

“I love you too my monster” She walked out, just as Stephen drank the potion. He knew there was a reason why he didn’t really like to drink or taste potions. They had such a horrid tasting to them. But thankfully, it did the trick and Stephen could finally breathe through his nose. Heading out of the room and towards the kitchen, Lexi was munching on some apple slices while Kat was trying to feed the cat Cheetos.

“Is there something good to eat?” he asked, sitting down at the counter.

“I’ll go ask grandma,” Kat said, walking away with her chips, trying to get the cat to follow her.

“Lex, I, uh, I wanna talk to you about my brother. It’s okay if you guys are dating and all, we’ll just have to-,”

“Wait, what?” she asked, almost choking on her apples. “Your brother and I aren’t dating, nor would I want to date him,”

“Then what was the lovey dovey stuff in Australia?”

“I was showing him on how to propose to his girlfriend. It was all an act,” she laughed, tossing an apple slice to Stephen, which he caught in his mouth. “He didn’t go to your parents because they both would say something different. His friends and band mates would most likely worry about him not being around as much, so they were a no. No one would ever want to ask Kat. And you have relationship problems so that’s a definite no. So I was almost the last choice,”

“Next time, don’t do that around us. All the awkwardness shows up and it’s not a very nice feeling,” he said, his eyes gazing as Kat as she walked back into the kitchen.

“Grandma says there are frozen pizzas you can heat up,” She said, taking one from the freezer and putting it into the microwave. “So you’re going to meet you parents tonight?”

“I don’t know anymore, I’m too nervous to meet them now,” Stephen answered, placing his forehead on the counter and smelling the freshly warm pizza that was now in front of him.

-----

“Do you see them?” Lexi asked, jumping on Stephen’s shoulders to catching a glimpse of the top of peoples’ heads. Stephen shook his head, looking at the picture they had printed out from the computer. Not many people had dark hair and green eyes, right? Well here, they kind of did. Only his family stuck out like a sore thumb. Adriana was walking with Chelsea, who kept glancing over at Stephen and nodding.

“Can we go now?” Stephen asked his mom as she walked over. Adriana nodded, rubbing Stephen’s back as they started to head out the door with Lexi.

“Excuse me!” They heard a woman’s voice from behind them. The trio turned around, to see Diana Ricci almost in tears as soon as she saw Stephen. “I can’t believe it’s really you,” she sobbed, embracing the monster in a tight hug. Not wanting to be rude, or make himself feel more awkward, she hugged her back, only to have Diana hug him tighter. “Raul, look who it is!” she called out. Raul Ricci rushed over to see what the commotion was all about.

“Is it really him?” he asked, Diana nodded to his question. And yet again, Stephen was embraced in a tight hug.

“I see you guys like to hug a lot,” he laughed. Once being able to breathe, Stephen looked at his biological parents. All he could say was, “Hi,”

“How did you manage to find us?” Raul asked.

“Traveling all over Europe and almost dying,” Lexi chimed in. “I’m Lexi De Luca, Stephen’s best friend,” she smiled, hugging the monster’s arm tight.

“You go by Stephen now? I like it, much better than Marco,” Diana laughed. “But where are your parents?”

“That would be me,” Adriana stepped in and smiled. “Adriana Fanelli. All this time I’ve been doing your makeup and never once guessed you were my son’s biological mother,” Diana was about to say something, when a reporter interrupted the family meeting.

“Diana, a quick interview would be nice,” they said.

“Funny, Lindsey, but I found my son. Well, he found us. Linds, this is Stephen, his mother Adriana and his best friend Lexi De Luca,” Diana explained.

“Lexi De Luca? As in Alexis De Luca, born on January 5th in Italy?” Lindsey asked.

“Uh, yes?” Lex answered awkwardly, taking a step back and slowly shifting behind Stephen.

“I’m your mother,” Lindsey said, covering her mouth with her palms. Lexi now knew where she got her blonde hair from, including her blue eyes. She slowly inched closer towards Lindsey, but eventually jumped in her and hugged her tight.

“This is such a strange family reunion,” Stephen whispered to his mom.

“Don’t worry, I’ll come up with something to make things less awkward for you guys,” Adriana winked, stepping closer towards the newly found parents. “I wouldn’t want to break up the reunion, but maybe we can set us an arrangement so you all can get to know Stephen and Lexi better,” she proposed.

“I don’t see why not,” Lindsey smiled, along with Raul and Diana nodding.

“Alright, this is what I propose,” Adriana started, and then led the parents away from any press and the two misfits. Seeing her wink again, Stephen nodded and made his way out of the building and into the chilly spring air.

“Finally things can get back to normal around here. Oh, and your dad's parents were wrong. You look more like your mother,” Lexi said, taking Stephen’s hand and swinging it back and forth.

“This is us we’re talking about here. Nothing is ever normal for us. But hopefully, they’ll get better from here on. Yeah, I caught one when I saw my dad had dark brown hair,” he smiled, squeezing her hand and quickly apparating back to Mrs. Way’s home.

Finally! AW such a nice reunion!
Although I was kinda confuzzled--I didn't know Lexi had never met her mom.
And I WILL have more cause I'm SPECIAL!

NO. I SAID NO.

Chapter 13: Is this Normal?

For this year’s spring break, the Fanellis and Lex decided to stay home, considering Adriana invited Stephen’s birth parents over this year. And what a big mistake that was. Too bad Lexi's mom couldn't make it. Things probably would've went better.

“Was that another glass thing in the house they broke?!” Adriana was going crazy. Leonard decided to smack Stephen awake this morning, causing Stephen to chase him around the house and break things. “Why out of all the days do they have to pick today?!”

“Relax, Adri, it’s not like we’re not used to this already,” Giovanni said, picking up the pieces to the broken glass picture frame. “They’re treating this like any other day, why shouldn’t you?”

“Because what if his birth parents don’t think that this is a stable home for him? What if they want to take him away and we don’t get to see him again? Do you not think about these possibilities?” she whispered.

Giovanni chuckled. “Okay, first, he’s been living with us for his entire life, I think that ship has sailed. Second, he’s nineteen; he can make decisions for himself now. And third, no because I’m pretty sure none of this is going to happen,” he said, tossing away the broken pieces and setting the picture on the counter. With the small talk Giovanni and Adriana had, they didn’t notice their sons tumbling down the stairs together.

“Why don’t you just move out already?!” Stephen yelled.

“Why don’t you go live with your birth parents already?!” Leonard yelled back, pushing Stephen off of him and heading towards the kitchen. “Mom, would you please tell your son to stop breaking things?”

“Me? You were the genius who smacked me awake this morning,” Stephen answered, sitting at the counter. Adriana held her hand up, signaling to not make her say anything before they both ended up grounded again. Lexi finally graced them with their presence, looking all dressed up for today’s barbecue. “Why so fancy looking?” he teased.

“I want to make a good impression,” she answered, sitting next to the monster.

“I want to make a good impression on the monster’s birth parents, but these two are making it too difficult,” Adriana pointed to Leonard and Stephen. “Now hurry up and eat and go get ready. Everyone will be here a bit after twelve,” she added. Quickly eating their food, and occasionally choking, the brothers went to their rooms and to get ready for a barbeque they weren’t looking forward to much. Slipping on his shoe, Stephen heard commotion going on in his small room and knew only one person who would make that much noise.

“STEPHEN!” Kat squealed and clanged herself to him.

“It’s nice to see you too,” he laughed and patted her head. The pair headed towards the backyard, but not before seeing people walk through the front door. Did it really take him that long to get dressed?

“Stephen, it’s nice to see you again,” Diana said happily as she walked over to hug him. He just nodded, starting to feel the awkwardness today was going to bring. Raul hugged him as well, and moved out of the way once a shorter person stepped forward.

“So you’re the parents have been talking about? I expected much more,” the smaller person said, her green eyes staring into Stephen.

“And I expected myself to be an only child. I guess we both didn’t get what we wanted for our birthdays,” he smirked, just to have the girl pout. “Next time, I suggest you wish for some height too,” he added.

“Alright you two, settle down. Stephen, this is Clare, your fourteen year old sister,” Raul said.

“You’re pretty short for a fourteen year old,” Stephen smirked, patting Clare on her head and heading towards the backyard with Kat again. The pair sat on the under the tent his parents set up about a week ago. Setting himself on a long beach chair, Kat pulled out a bag of sweets from her bag and began to eat it. “Isn’t it too early to have sweets?”

“It’s after twelve, so no,” Kat said, putting some chocolate into her mouth.

“Did that shrimp really just come into our house and said she expected more from you?” Leonard said, sitting down with the pair outside. “You don’t come into our house and insult one of the people that live here. She basically asking to be drowned in the pool if she keeps it up,”

“With mom around, I doubt we’ll be able to get away with anything,” Stephen said. “Plus, I’m getting bad feelings about today, so I’m paranoid around these people now,”

“Stephen, what if they want to take you away?! WHO WILL I BOTHER NOW!?” Kat panicked, stuffing all her sweets into her mouth. “I’ll miss you!” Kat threw herself on Stephen, cutting off his breathing.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he breathed, trying to release the hyperactive girl off of him. Managing to pull Kat off Stephen, Leonard set her back down in her chair and kicked his feet onto the small table in the middle. When Leonard opened his mouth to say something, the short person walked out into the backyard.

“This is the backyard? I thought backyards in Italy would look way better but I guess not everyone can afford a nice one,” Clare said, making her way back inside. Stephen and Leonard both looked at each other and smirked. Before Clare reached the door, Stephen took out his wand and locked it shut. Leonard then levitated the poor girl over the pool, for a bit of fun.

“Stephen, I want to fly next!” Kat squealed, getting to her feet and spreading her arms wide open, pretending them to be wings. “I’m ready!”

“So you think you can come into our house, act rudely to my brother, say our parents can’t afford a nice backyard and thought that you would leave here in one piece?” Leonard smirked, inching Clare closer to the water.

“YOU GUYS ARE FREAKS! NO WONDER MY PARENTS DIDN’T WANT YOU IN THE FIRST PLACE!” Clare spat, only to have the anger in the Fanelli brothers grow a bit more. Leonard looked over to Stephen, with a smirk on his face and slowly stepping back. The monster understood the signal and stepped closer to his dangling “sister”.

“I hope you know how to swim,” Stephen whispered, casting infinite to Leonard’s charm and watched with the other two as Clare fell into the pool.

“Help! HELP! I’M DROWNING! THESE FREAKS ARE TRYING TO KILL ME!” she screamed, splashing water all over the place. To their right, were her parents, frantically trying to get through the locked doors. Lexi popped up, unlocked the doors with her wand and walked towards them, hiding her laughter behind her hands.

“Stand up, girl! This part of the pool is only three feet deep!” Lexi called out, not being able to contain her laughter anymore.

“Rocky, come here boy!” Leonard called out and whistled. The silly dog ran towards them but instead directed himself towards the pool. Too bad Clare was in the way.

“Clare, are you alright?” Diana asked her daughter, slowing pulling her out of the water.

“Does he really have to come live with us?! I DON’T WANT TO BE ANYWHERE NEAR PEOPLE FROM ANOTHER PLANET!” Clare yelled, storming off into the house. Diana, obviously noticing the faces everyone had, she went off behind her daughter.

“Do you think I’m being paranoid now?” Adriana asked Giovanni.

“Since when were you guys here?” Lex asked.

“We were towards the back the entire time. I guess you were all in your own little gossips that you didn’t even notice us,” Giovanni answered. “Do they think that just because he’s their biological son, he has to live with them? Over my dead body if they think they’re going to get away with this,”

“Well, we should head inside to eat and see what this is all about,” Adriana said, pushing the misfits, plus one inside into the dining room. Quickly finishing setting the table, the group of four went into the living room and enjoyed some television.

“Stephen, go get us some snacks,” Leonard demanded, flipping through the channels.

“Fine,” he sighed, getting up and heading towards the kitchen. Sitting at the counter was Clare, now in dry clothing, then Adriana and Diana making idle chit chat. “Hey mom?”

“Yes?” Both Adriana and Diana answered. They looked at each other; faces flushed and looked other places.

“Oh, awkward. Let’s try this again,” Stephen said and leaned on the counter. “Mom,” he said, eyeing Adriana, who gave him a small smile. “Do we have any snacks here? Your other son is hungry,”

“There’s some soda in the fridge and chips in the cupboards. But don’t get stuffed on them or else your father won’t be too pleased,” she pointed out and brought down some glasses to place on the dining table. Stephen nodded, carefully levitating everything back to the living room.

“You’re such a good boy,” Leonard teased as the food was set down on the coffee table.

“Shut up,” Stephen replied, heading towards his seat, but groaned when he heard the doorbell. Getting back to his feet and seeing as no one else would get up; he answered the door, just to have the shock of his life. “Oh, um, hi. I didn’t know you knew where I lived,”

“Lexi invited me over. She said I had to come or else,” Aimee said. “Can I come in?” Stephen nodded, opening the door and closing it behind her.

“Mom, set another plate, we have more guests,” Stephen called out.

“Who?” Adriana walked towards the living room and stopped when she spotted the little blonde girl. “Oh, well I’ll tell your dad to make more food,” she smiled, walking to the backyard.

“Stephen, can we talk somewhere? With, you know, less people?” Aimee asked. A bit confused by the question, Stephen just nodded.

“Giraffe, tell mom I went to the park for a bit,” he said and headed out the door. The short walk to the park was quiet and awkward. Stephen guessed this happened when two people, who were formerly dating, hung out for a bit. “So what do you want to talk about?” he asked, walking into the park with Aimee. Luckily, most families went on vacations to other places for spring break and summers. So the park right now was almost deserted.

“I wanted to apologize about how I broke up with you. The reasons I said weren’t good enough to end our relationship. Plus, I should’ve understood that you wanted to find your parents, since you never met them and probably had many things to ask them,” Aimee answered, sitting down on a bench with Stephen, watching as a few kids were running around near a fountain.

“But I still should’ve made some time for us, not just get consumed with this hunt that wasn’t really worth it in the end,”

“What do you mean?”

“My biological mother wants me to live with her family now,”

“How do you know?”

“So earlier, Leonard and I dumped my ‘sister’ into the pool. When she got out, she began yelling about how she doesn’t want me to live with them because I’m a freak and such. So things are pretty awkward at home right now,” Stephen laughed, shrugging his shoulders.

“Honestly, I don’t think you should live with them. You barely know them and they might not be what they seem,”

“But then again, I should at least see what they are like for some time, and then make my final decision and come back home,”

“Well, whatever you chose, please be careful, boyfriend?” Aimee said, looking up at Stephen, who was smirking and chuckling.

“I promise, girlfriend,” he smiled, kissing her and getting to his feet. “Well, we should head back before my dad goes crazy with how much food he’s making,” Aimee nodded, taking Stephen’s hand into hers and heading back to the chaotic house.

“You could’ve caused little Stephanie some trauma for inviting Aimee!” Leonard hit Lex with a pillow as the couple walked back inside. Stephen cleared his throat, which caused them to stop and turn their heads. He held up his hand, which was still twined with Aimee’s. “Oh,” Leonard laughed and patted Lex before heading to the kitchen.

“Your brother really needs some help,” Lex said, trying to fix her hair in the hallway mirror.

“Oh yay! Aimee and Stephen are dating again! Time to celebrate!” Kat squealed, also heading to the kitchen with everyone else. Shrugging, Aimee and Stephen followed behind them into the kitchen, just to face an awkward silence that bloomed when they walked in.

“It’s nice to see you again, Aimee,” Giovanni said, pulling out a chair for her to sit on. “Time for food,” he added, setting the freshly grilled food on the table, along with some drinks.

“It’s nice to actually meet you all,” she laughed.

“And vegetarian everything for Stephen,” his dad said, setting down an oval white plate in front of him with a drink.

“You’re a vegetarian? By choice or were you forced into it?” Diana asked, to receive a glare from Raul.

“I’m pretty sure it was by choice, Diana. Why would they force him into something he wouldn’t like? Stephen would probably resent his parents a bit if they were to do that,” Raul explained. But apparently, Diana didn’t like Raul calling the Fanellis Stephen’s parents.

“You seem to forget that we’re his actual parents,” Diana said. Everyone around them sighed, trying to conduct their own conversations.

“This is not the time and place to talk about this-,”

“I want Stephen to live with us!” Diana said loudly. Stephen choked on his food, Leonard spit out his drink onto Kat, Lex quickly made conversation with Aimee, and Clare wandered into space, and Adriana and Giovanni glare at Diana. “I believe he should be with his parents,”

“He is with his parents and like I said to them before, over my dead body will I let you take Stephen. He’s of age and can decide whether or not he wants to live with you,” Giovanni said.

“Kids, go upstairs, the adults have to talk,” the group of five nodded and dashed towards the upper floor, but stayed near the stairs to eavesdrop.

“Do you think you’ll go with them?” Leonard asked Stephen. The pair stepped into Leonard’s room, seeing as the girl would most likely tell them everything later.

“I was talking to Aimee about it before. Maybe I’ll go with them for some time, just to see what they’re really like and come back. I don’t think I’ll be able to live with people who obviously don’t know me at all and can’t accept that we’re able to do magic,”

“Alright, but three months tops. More than that and I’ll personally come looking for you and bring you back,”

“It’s really weird to hear you say that,”

“I know. It’s because I’m not affectionate to you but you’re still my brother. Besides, you might as well give that Clare girl hell while you’re over there,”

“But if I go, I’m risking my relationship with Aimee again. Do I really want to go through this whole thing again?” Stephen said, sitting down on Leonard’s bed which he found out was pretty comfortable.

“If she really cares for you, then she’ll deal with it and understand,” Leonard answered.

“Stop talking like that, it’s freaking me out,” Stephen laughed. “Let’s hope Aimee’s okay with it then”

“But I am,” Aimee startled the pair as she walked through the door. “It’s going to be hard, but I think I’ll be able to manage,” she laughed.

“Plus, you better write to us every day or you’re next into the pool!” Lex said, walking in with Kat.

“Then I guess I’m going to New York,” Stephen sighed, heading back downstairs while Lex and Leonard went to pack some of his stuff. The “adults” were still going at it about the whole living with each thing when Stephen walked in. He cleared his throat, which got his dad’s attention, who nudged Adriana to stop. “So I decided that I’ll go live with the Riccis for some time, and if I don’t like it, I’m coming back. I’ll be there for three months and no more,”

“Are you sure that’s what you want?” Adriana asked, walking over to him and sighing. Stephen nodded, feeling Adriana’s fingers go through his messy hair. It was what she did before he made her cry. This was sadly many times.

“Mom, don’t cry, you’re going to make me cry,” he said, pulling her in for a hug.

“How can I not cry when my baby is leaving me to live with other people?”

“Is this how you’re going to act when I move out?”

“Move out? Oh no, you’re living here forever,” she laughed and kissed his forehead. “Make sure you write whenever you can. Visiting doesn’t hurt either,” she whispered into his ear.

“Just be careful and don’t get into any trouble,” Giovanni said, joining in on the hug. “I’ll contact Chelsea to keep an eye on you and these people,” he whispered, with a nod. Leonard then came down with Stephen bags and handed them to him. As he tried to take them, Leonard held a firm grip and didn’t let go. Aimee patted Leonard’s back, which finally made him let go and quickly head back to his room. “I’ll go talk to him,”

“I guess we’ll see you in three months. If anything goes wrong, we’re coming to get you,” Lex smiled and hugged her best friend. Aimee and Kat joined, seeing as those three wouldn’t have anyone to bother for some time.

“We should go now,” Raul said, and said goodbye to Adriana, who got along pretty well. Diana nodded her head and nudged it to signal Stephen to follow them outside. Putting his wand into his suitcase, Stephen waved as he made his way to a dark green car outside.

These next three months were going to be pretty long.

Awwww I loved it, LULU! But I'm sad for Stephen...I don't like Diana ONE BIT! She's so rude.
MORE PLEASE!

YEY! Aimée's apologised!
But I feel sad for Stephen, too. The three months better go quickly!
Amazing as ever, Lulu! More soon?