Hey guys! Not much blabby intro this time. lol! Just a huge SORRY! :/ (But at least I didn't take as long as last time!) I've been trying to get my volunteering hours done lately and I'm currently alternating between volleyball and basketball every night, so life's been . . . well, busy and exhausting.

Huge thankyou's go out to: Sirius' sweetie, Sakura, kiwi, soccerchic1989, XoX-PaDfOoTeSs-XoX, Arianna, snap, rowan j. Weasley, abby, STari22, DrewOBrien, greenfairie, Aqua, nimbionic-no, Mz Marauder, baybrie, and Casco.

I heard a nasty rumor that fanfic will get pissed at an author for individually responding to her reviewers, and that totally ticked me off. Just all of you know that I am so, SO thankful for your words. They are truly my motivation to keep going. Hope you're all having a righteous summer! I love you all!

Special thanks to my new Beta, Casco! You know I love ya! And, Snap, I love you too for putting in the time and effort . . . your comp just hates us, that stupid piece of crap. lol!

Love makes everything lovely. -unknown

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For those of you who've forgotten where we are in the story -cause I know I always have to reread before I start up writing again- here is a little blast-from-the-past recap!

Well, it's winter break. Joey's back home with her family: Mom (Betty), Dad (Paul), Josh (and his fiancée Erin), Brian, and Sam. Sirius finally arrived and Joey took him shopping for all his Skiing stuff.

[As a side note, keep in mind that Brian is Joey's favorite brother, though he is a bit squeamish around Joey and Sirius when they get too close. He's a smidgen over-protective of his baby sis. lol. And also, Brian and Sam seem to butt heads a bit. You'll see a lot more of that in this chapter, but keep in mind that lack of sleep puts everyone on edge and tempers tend to flare. :]

The big detail of last chapter was when Betty, at the breakfast table, announces that she and Paul have to attend a Holiday ball, held for the American Ministry of Magic, because they'll be in the states at the time and it's good for European-American relations. One major problem though: The ball is being held by the Strumpets (who happen to send their daughter as a transfer student to Hogwarts even when they live in the US for most of the year), and Catrina Strumpet is Joey's worst enemy at Hogwarts. This is why Joey feels that she needs to go to the ball. She wants to see what Catrina's home life is like. Who can blame her? I'd want to know where someone that evil spawned off from too. lol! But keep in mind that Joey hasn't run this idea past her mum yet! :D

So happy reading!

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"So is that all of it?" Paul asked, slamming shut the trunk of a fairly small looking vehicle. From the outside, any muggle would have thought that only about three fairly large suitcases might have fit in it, but any witch or wizard would know better. Enchanted so that it could hold about a dozen times the amount of stuff it normally could have, Paul had easily crammed eight peoples' worth of ski equipment and suitcases into the trunk, with room to spare.

It had taken the whole group a good many hours more than they had hoped to gather all of their suitcases and last minute things together to pile them into the car. Mr. Atramentous was exhausted from pushing everyone along so that they could leave. Even when everyone had finally decided that they were ready to leave, Mrs. Atramentous was still going around the house, closing and locking things up. They had hoped to leave by noon, but now it was already early evening, and they were just about ready to go.

Exiting the house as a mass, the whole lot of people, clad out in comfortable traveling clothes, began eyeing Mr. Atramentous' small vehicle wearily. Sirius especially, accustomed to traveling in vast comfort like most wealthy pure-blood wizards are, was looking incredulously at the car that seemed to be the only mode of transportation for the eight people who had the same destination to reach.

Joey saw the apprehension in her boyfriends face, and wasn't too surprised when he asked, "And how do you expect us all to fit in there?"

She laughed slightly and tucked her arm into Sirius'. "Don't worry, we'll all manage to squeeze in," she tried to reassure him.

"Not with that fat bird of yours," Sam teased as he glared up at Flam who was perched happily up on Joey's shoulder.

Joey stuck her tongue out at her blonde brother as she stroked her bird with her mitten-clad hand. Needless to say, Flam was quite grateful for this. Sirius appreciated the humor in Sam's comment, but he still didn't seem very comforted. Bird or not, eight people was too many to fit into a car made for five people max.

"Don't worry, mate," Brian said, sparing Sirius a friendly pat on the back. "We won't be in the car for more than 10 minutes. It's a triggered port- key . . . We'll be in the states before you even know it."

Sirius didn't have much time to worry anyways, though, for the next minute the whole family was shoving in and buckling up. To his surprise, the back seat of the car seemed to (magically, no doubt) expand as each new person climbed into it. The outer appearance of the car, however, never seemed to change in the slightest.

With Betty and Paul sitting in the front seats, the rest of the six began systematically sliding into the back seat until they were all in. A passing muggle might have been reminded of a clichéd cartoon act where about a dozen clowns cram into a tiny vehicle that any normal sized person wouldn't dream of fitting in solo.

So without much delay, the rumbling vehicle was well on its way down the street of the pleasant, little neighborhood and off towards a destination that was still a mystery to Sirius. He found himself watching intently as Mr. Atramentous began flipping and turning all different knobs in the car that would have normally been part of radio, heater, and stereo systems in a muggle car.

To Sirius' amazement, all the houses of the neighborhood suddenly seemed to just vaporize before his eyes, and a swirling feeling could be sensed by all the car occupants as a lurching sensation could be felt at the pits of their stomachs. He had to suppress a gasp as a hail of snowflakes and wind began assaulting the front windshield of the car.

It was very clear to everyone in the car that they were no longer in the Atramentous neighborhood. The temperature of the car dropped significantly, and Sirius could feel Joey leaning into him for warmth. He slipped his arm around her and she looked up at him with a beaming smile.

"We're almost there!" she said with definite excitement. He gave her an incredulous look. Surely they weren't there yet. He thought Brian was exaggerating when he said less than 10 minutes. He hadn't been to the states before, but surely traveling across the world takes more than 10 minutes, right? Maybe they were driving to another port key.

"Almost where?" he finally settled on asking. Joey's smile seemed to falter slightly as she seemed confused at Sirius' confusion.

"The cabin, of course!" she laughed. And sure enough they had already slowed down to a crawl and were looking to park in a little tree alcove near a very long case of snow-covered stairs. Though difficult to see through the thick snow, if one looked really hard through the window, they could see them leading up to a fairly large log cabin.

When they had come to a complete stop, Betty had signaled for everyone to stay in the car for a second as she got out of it. Though it was snowing quite hard, they could still easily view the woman raise her wand above her head, hear her mutter a few spells, and watch as the ground directly around the car magically cleared itself of snow and as a single path cleared its way up towards the stairs leading to a large wooden deck of the cabin.

Mr. Atramentous then got out of the car and opened the door to the back seat, motioning for the kids to pile on out and help him with the luggage. As they all exited one by one, they could see that it was definitely still snowing, however the snowflakes would vaporize before they hit the ground in the areas that Betty had cleared. They could easily grab their luggage and ski equipment and make their way up to the cabin without having to worry about tromping through the snow.

Joey was the last one to exit the car, and Mr. Atramentous was still holding the door open and waiting for her to come out when he finally poked his head in to see what the hold-up was. What he saw made him want to laugh out loud.

"Joanne, Sweetie, what on earth are you doing to that poor bird?!" Paul asked with a tone of hilarity in his voice. Joey was currently pulling a small little snow hat over Flam's head and tying the hat's little poof balls together that hung down below his beak. Flam looked distressed, to say the least, and Joey was completely ignorant to this fact.

When she had finished, she returned Flam to his perch on her shoulder, and got out of the car. The bird looked miserable, but Paul couldn't help cracking up, despite his sorry feelings for the owl. He knew that animal loved Joey too much to object to the subtle torture of clothing (let alone poof balls that tie below the beak), and it really was just too funny to look at the bird looking so dejected and compliant at the same time.

When the whole parade of them finally made their way up the stairs to the front deck of the cabin, they waited for a bit as Josh fiddled with keys and eventually unlocked the door. They all uncoordinatedly piled themselves in the heavy wooden entrance and shut it behind them to lock out the cold. The only problem was that the cold was already in the room. Sirius thought that if he closed his eyes it wouldn't be too difficult to imagine himself in a meat locker.

"Well we're here!" Betty said extremely cheerfully into the darkness of the cabin.

"Mum, what time is it here?" Sam had asked, looking over in the general direction of his mother through the dark.

"I believe we left at about five o'clock in the evening our time, so I'd say it's about nine o'clock in the morning here, seeing as there's an eight hour time difference." Although it was mid morning there, it was still pitch black in the room due to the nasty weather and depressing lack of sun. It seemed a bit shady and foreboding not being able to see anything, leaving everyone's minds to focus on the howling winds beating against the windows.

Everyone was grateful when Betty began brightening up the room by turning on a few lights. The room looked suddenly much more inviting. Directly in front of them was a very large rectangular room, subtly divided into different sections according to furniture and half-walls that only went up to about mid-ribcage height. Along the length of the left side of the room were a few fairly large windows looking out to a deck that peered out to the lake. Normally during summer the lake would be easy to view, but during winter, the windows were quite frosty and difficult to see out. There were still, however, three cushioned lounges shaped like half-domes taking up a nook on the far corner of the room, facing out towards the water. Each one was huge and could easily fit two people in its squishy hallow. They looked like comfortable places to sit and read a book.

Taking up the rest of the far end of the room was a very large sitting area, complete with couches, a fire place, and a short table that looked to serve as a place to rest your coffee as well as your ski-worn feet. There was a door over there, as well, that led into one of the main bedrooms.

Directly in front of the group on the left side of the room was a large wooden dining table that looked to seat about eight. It was sitting in front of one of the windows, and looked like a pleasant place to have a few meals while conversing with friends and family. And directly to the group's right was an attractive kitchen, enclosed by its counters and bar stools that ran along the outside of it. It contained all of the necessities: refrigerator, oven, microwave, cabinets, etc., and it was big enough to fit a few cooks bustling around in it. It was Betty's favorite place in the cabin, as she loved to bake.

Between the kitchen and the sitting area on the far right side of the room was a passageway to a long hallway. There were three doors in the hall way -one a bedroom, one a bathroom, and one a closet- and one door at the end of it. The door at the end of the hallway led back outside onto a tiny deck that was enchanted to keep snow off it.

Walking out to this very small deck would lead you left, through another wooden door, and into another bedroom. This bedroom was about twice the size of either other bedroom because it held two queen beds (barely within jumping distance from each other) and could certainly hold more than just two people. There were also a few windows in the room, a door leading to a bathroom, a television, and a couple reading lights on nightstands next to the beds.

"So where are we all sleeping?" Josh asked his parents as everyone was now looking around to unload all of their heavy stuff.

"Well your mother and I can take the front room and you and Erin can take the hallway's bedroom," Paul reasoned. "I'd suggest that Joey and the boys take the back bedroom and split up the beds however. Anyone with skis can just leave them here in the front. We won't make it out to the lifts until tomorrow anyways; hopefully, the weather will start looking a bit more welcoming."

"It'll be better to spend a day getting settled in anyways," Betty said as she picked up her bags and began making her way across the large room towards the door to the front bedroom. Paul followed behind her, and Josh and Erin made their way towards their own bedroom to offload, as well.

Brian grabbed the keys from Josh and made his way down the hall and out the door, closely followed by his other three roommates. Once in the room, Sirius managed to haul his heavy bag over to the bed at the far end of the room and heave it onto the squishy bedspread. Joey followed him, haphazardly lugging her bag along and chucking it next to Sirius' on the bed.

Brian let out a blatantly audible cough, causing both Joey and Sirius to look over at him with innocently curious glances.

"And what, may I ask, do you think you are doing?" he asked after throwing down his bag and glaring pointedly at his sister. Joey's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.

"What?" she asked a bit defensively. Without having to say anything, Brian strolled across the room, grabbed Joey's bag and chucked it onto the other bed next to his own duffle.

"First of all," he started out rather snappily, "I am not sharing a bed with Sam." Sam took the opportunity to let out an offended scoff as he put his stuff down next to Sirius'. "And second of all, you are not sleeping with Sirius while Sam and I are in the room."

Sam, who was now currently standing next to Sirius, glared over at him with one of his eyebrows high up on his forehead. It looked like he was challenging him, and Sirius wasn't going to get in the middle of this. He knew Joey had three older brothers who would gladly kill him before having to see or hear him even kiss their little sister.

But Joey seemed to think otherwise. She was now glaring up into Brian's face, hands on her hips, and chin jutting out. "Oh, pulease, Brian! It's not like we haven't already-"

"I BEG you not to finish that statement!" Sam cut in rather desperately. Joey glanced over at the youngest of her three brothers, and let out a laugh. He really did look quite pleading. Shifting her eyes over to Sirius' she gave him half a smile and a shrug.

"Oh, fine!" she conceded. "As long as Sirius doesn't mind getting kicked by Sam all night, I suppose I'm fine with it too." Joey crossed her arms. "Just be wary. One time he kicked me off the bed and I hit my head on the night stand." Sirius' eyes widened slightly, but he just smiled and shrugged.

"Whatever," he said with an amiable laugh. "I'll kick back." The other three found themselves smiling, as well.

"Well now that that's settled . . ." Sam started as he immediately went digging in the front pocket of his duffle. "Think fast!" he shouted as he chucked a blue and green stringyball-looking thing at his sister, who easily caught it without trouble.

"Kush ball!" Joey said sounding really happy. It was one of Sam's favorite games, if you could even call it that. They'd played it since they were little, and it could easily be labeled as one of those games everyone has fun playing until someone gets hurt. The ball itself was more of a weapon than a ball. One hit to the eye and a good icepack and bandage would be in store. Sam and Joey, of course, were in complete denial of this fact though.

Brian, however, despised the game.

"Oh no you don't!" he snapped, ducking behind the bed. "I always end up getting pegged in the head when we play with that stupid ball!"

Joey just rolled her eyes and then focused back on the ball she was currently tossing up and catching with her right hand. "Oh, come on Brian! It's really squishy! Not like it hurts when you get hit with it!"

"That's what you think!" Brian spat back. "It doesn't hurt so much when you can't get walloped by your own throw. You pitch harder than anyone else does, Joey!"

His sister looked a bit offended, and when she looked back to Sam for some support on her side of the argument, he simply shrugged and nodded along with what Brian was saying. The mischievous smile that then found its way to her face was just a bit unnerving for her brother across the room. Winding up, she chucked the kush ball really hard back at Sam, who ducked, and caused the ball to smack Sirius in the side of the head.

"OUCH!" he bellowed, causing Sam, Joey, and even Brian to start laughing. He started rubbing the side of his head when Sam lunged for the ball and flung it back at his sister. Joey dove behind the bed next to Brian, and the kush ball ended up smacking into one of the bed lamps and knocking it over onto the carpeted floor. Brian had to duck out of the way as the lamp came crashing down past his spot on the floor.

Brian went to snatch up the ball and hide it, but Joey got there first. She hurtled it across the room, much like a grenade, in the direction of her blonde brother and boyfriend. There was a sound of kush connecting with skull for a moment before the blonde boy let out a shriek of pain. Joey had to put a hand up to her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

Brian looked livid.

"Guys! Quit acting like five-year-olds before someone gets hit in the face!" he yelled over the commotion as he stood up and glared across the room at his brother's very blonde head of hair sticking up from behind the other bed. Brian was answered with a blow to the face when the ball connected hard to his upper lip and nose, and Sam let out a wild battle cry. Brian sat down on the floor immediately, cradling the lower half of his face. It wasn't helping his situation with Joey next to him, practically dying from laughter.

Joey tried desperately to straighten her face into a sympathetic expression for the sake of her favorite brother, but she just found the situation too damn hilarious. Finally managing to gain some composure, she scooted over next to him and put her hand on his back.

"You alright?" she whispered. He pulled his hands away from supporting his tender nose, and looked over into her face. Running his tongue over his front teeth, he tasted a good amount of blood in his mouth and just glared over at his younger sister. His eyes moved to the ball that was sitting on his opposite side. Picking it up, he tossed it lightly over to Joey who easily caught it.

"Oh, I hope he knows this means war," he said with his best melodramatic tenor. Joey grinned broadly. "Just make sure you peg him between the eyes," he mumbled, groaning in defeat as his sister jumped up and let out a battle cry of her own, chucking the ball in the direction of the opposing side across the room.

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Nothing much else happened that morning since the whole family stayed cooped up in the cabin with some pretty bad weather outside. Joey and the three boys continued playing with the kush ball until even Joey was practically bleeding from the nose.

It was around midday when everyone started slowing down. The jetlag started catching up to them, and while it was only a little past lunch time there in the states, at home it was way past bedtime and that was the clock that their bodies were set to. When they were all planning to lie down for a nice long nap, however, Paul came in and advised against it.

"The fastest way to get your bodies to adjust to the time change is to not give into the urge to remain on the same sleep schedule you were in," he had explained. "The sooner you get used to staying awake this time of the day, the sooner you'll adjust to the Western sleep cycle."

The droopy eyes and looks on the four faces in front of him told him that they were about to crash. So he did what any parent would do in trying to keep some kids awake. He dragged them into the other room for some game playing and hot chocolate.

They resorted to playing pinochle, a muggle card game. Brian ended up beating the others so badly that they eventually had to call it quits and play a different game. The card playing helped loads to keep them conscious, though. Everyone was awake and having a good time without even thinking about the fact that in Europe they would have been sound asleep at least a couple hours before. The only problem was that once they had all finished their hot chocolate, their bodies started slowing down again, and eventually Joey's head drifted off onto Sirius' shoulder.

She was about half a yawn away from drooling all over his shirt sleeve when she was suddenly startled awake by a long strand of holly streamer dangling in her face. She nearly fell off her chair in surprise as her eyes focused on, less than an inch away from her nose, a huge knot of spindly green garland that was meant to resemble evergreen needles. The knot was so big that the ball actually resembled a small boulder more than it did Christmas decorations. Joey's mom was energetically standing somewhere behind the giant boulder, supporting it up with both of her short arms.

"So you guys will be helping me with the Christmas decorations, right?!" she said with so much zeal, that anyone just meeting her would not believe that jetlag even existed in this woman's world. Joey let out an audible groan that was surprisingly difficult to hear over the groans of her brothers sitting around her.

Betty was notorious for going crazy with Christmas decorations. It was her favorite time of year, and she always insisted on doing the holiday "by hand." She refused to put up any decorations with magic because she believed that it took all the fun out of it. So every year she insisted on her daughter and three sons to help her work out all the knots, hang up all the trimmings, and set out all the decorations. It'd been a tradition for longer than any of them could remember.

"Can't we just do it with magic for once, mum?" Sam pleaded. He absolutely hated putting up Christmas decorations. He always said it was a waste of time since they'd be taking them down before they knew it anyways. But Betty always chose to ignore him and recruit him as part of her festivity team all the same.

"Absolutely not!" she said, all but stomping her foot adamantly. Sam and Brian sighed in defeat, shared a look, and then got to their feet to grab some décor to hang about the room.

Joey reluctantly took the giant knot of holly-streamers from her mother and adopted Sirius as her helper to untangle it. Everyone had a job, and even Paul and Josh had gone out in the snow to find a Christmas tree to chop down and bring back to the cabin to hang the ornaments on. Betty and Erin had eventually retired to the kitchen to cook up some dinner for everyone, and the four younger adults were left to their labors.

It seemed like forever before Joey and Sirius finally managed to untangle the huge, green rat-nest and hang it up all around the room. By the end of everyone's efforts, the room was almost overly dressed with red and green to the point of being sickening. The four workers left stood back to admire their work.

"Wow," was all Brian mumbled, all but hiding the grimace on his face. It really was a tad sickening.

"Yeah," Joey muttered back, "Mum really had us smother this room." Sam snorted.

"Yeah . . . I'd say it's pretty FF," Sam snickered. Joey smacked his arm and Sirius looked questioning.

"What's FF?" he asked quizzically. Both Brian and Sam grinned before cracking up.

"Fucking festive," Joey grumbled under her breath so as not to let her mom hear her from the next room. Sirius started laughing too. Joey just rolled her eyes. Boys, honestly.

"Well you have to admit it looks like Santa's sleigh barfed all over this room," Sam laughed defensively. He managed to crack a smile on his sister's face.

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That night everyone had decided to turn in somewhat early. They'd been up for about 24 hours straight thanks to the time change, and they had good prospects for the next day. In hopes of some better weather, they were all looking forward to getting up early and heading to the lifts.

So it was around eleven o'clock when Joey, Sirius, Brian, and Sam all headed back to their room for bed. They just about collapsed under the covers once they had dressed and brushed their teeth. Joey was so tired she felt like her mattress was swallowing her body the minute her head hit the pillow. The lights when out and everyone was quiet . . .

All for about a minute.

"Ouch, Sam!" Sirius cried through a stupor of drowsiness. Why did he have to sleep next to the boy who apparently had some major issues with limb control while he slept?! Then he remembered the whole scene Brian had made, and the fact that he was doing this for Joey. He just kept telling himself this was all for his girlfriend's sake.

"Sorry," Sam responded through the darkness. Then he started laughing. Apparently the jetlag was beginning to have the reverse effect on him as his body was used to being awake right about now. Brian growled grumpily at his loud brother from across the room.

"Sam, shut up!" he snapped from somewhere in the direction of the other bed. "We've been awake for, like, a day straight. How can you have enough energy to laugh right now?"

The blonde boy continued to giggle through the darkness. It was really the fatigue that was getting to him. Joey just sighed audibly, inadvertently catching the attention of her brothers.

"Joey, you awake?" Sam asked as he ignored his older brother, pausing for a moment in his laughter to sound genuinely curious. The room went silent as they all listened for a response. She groaned into her pillow, hoping the other noises in the room that were her brothers would go away. There was silence for another moment.

But Sam started laughing again.

"ARG!" Brian growled. "Sam, pipe down already!"

Joey mumbled something and the two brothers fell silent again. Sam grabbed his wand, muttered a lumos and shined the light over in the direction of his sister who was in the other bed across the room. She was face down in her pillow, breathing deeply and peacefully.

"What was that?" he asked the girl who was now in a spot light. They all practically held their breath for a moment to listen for a response. "Joe, you asleep?"

There was a moment's pause before she broke the silence.

"No," she grumbled through her fatigue, yet the sarcasm was still very much there, "I'm just looking for something in my pillow."

Both Brian and Sam blinked for a moment and stared at her. Then Sam felt a rumbling next to him under the covers and realized that Sirius was laughing. Sam turned his light to the guy sleeping next to him and got a slight whimper in response. He had blinded him.

"Sam, would you have enough courtesy to turn off that damn light and go to sleep?!" Brian snapped at his younger brother. Sam frowned slightly, his brother's attitude finally getting to him.

"You know, you could use to be a little nicer," Sam pouted.

"Not when I'm sleep deprived!" he growled back.

"Sleep deprived or not, you still don't have to act like a prick!" he spat back.

"Both of you shut up!" Joey barked.

"I'll shut up when I get an apology," Sam said obstinately. Brian scoffed.

"Then I guess you'll have to keep making noise all night long while the rest of us go to sleep. No way will you get me to say sorry to you," he retorted rather snootily.

Joey just let out a frustrated huff of air. All the while, Sirius remained sleepy and silent, just lying there awake next to the boy who was both the cause and the instigator of this noise. He felt like leaning over and strangling him, but instead just kept asking himself why he wasn't curled up in a bed with Joey, peacefully snoozing in a warm cocoon of just the two of them.

Then he remembered it was the other brother's fault for that.

At that point in the middle of the night, completely sleep deprived thanks to Joey's father and completely worn-out from decorating thanks to her mother, Sirius didn't have the most grateful feelings towards his girlfriend's family. The only family member of Joey's that he didn't find blameworthy of his angry stupor of exhaustion was Josh . . . but by that point, Sirius was just about ready to blame the oldest brother of the Atramentous family for taking the last single bedroom.

"I could make you apologize!" Sam growled back like a stubborn kindergartener. Brian let out mock laughter.

"What are you going to go do? Tell Mummy that Brian told you to shut up because you're being an annoying arse?!" That was the last sound that any of them heard before they heard the one noise that set the night off into a pandemonium.

It was the sound of one particular kush ball making a belting contact with the forehead of one already fuming Brian.

And then there was a whole sequence of noises that followed suit. First there was the rustle of sheets; Brian was leaving the bed despite Joey's protests of him letting the situation go and just trying to get some sleep. Then there was the adamant padding of feet across the floor to the bathroom; the bathroom light flipped on and spewed light across the carpet of the bedroom. Next there was the most horrifying sound that could have reached the ears of the blonde boy sitting up next to a Sirius who had finally decided that sleep was futile at this point; the toilet flushed.

The toilet flush would not have been such a horrific sound had it not been followed by the mumbling phrase, "huh, -what do you know?- it actually flushed."

Sam shrieked loud enough for it to echo across the room. He jumped out of the bed and ran across the room to the bathroom. Both Joey and Sirius sat up in their beds and shared a look that was a mixture between uncertainty and dread. This was going to be bad. From the bathroom, they could hear Sam scream,

"I don't believe it! You actually flushed my kush ball down the toilet, you bastard!!!"

Then there was the skirting of skin and against skin, the obvious sign that the boys were wrestling and no doubt trying to choke each other to death. Joey and Sirius jumped out of the bed and rushed over towards the bathroom completely ready to have to break-up a nasty brawl. But as fast as they approached, they had to back out of the doorway as the boys moved their scuffle into the bedroom. They were ripping at hair and grabbing each other around the necks, grunting and growling all the while trying to bruise up the other the best they could.

The problem here was that Brian was much stronger, bigger, and in better shape than his younger brother. As a member of the Order, Brian was quite in a fit state of health. He could easily take down his little brother who chose mediwizarding as his profession. But, obviously, Brian wasn't really aiming to fatally hurt his brother . . . they were both just angry and taking some physical rage out on each other.

So it was to Joey's and Sirius's surprise that the brawl didn't last as long as they thought it would. Unfortunately, it took a turn for the worse as soon as Brian managed to pick Sam up off his feet and haul him towards the door of the cabin. Practically flinging the wooden door off its hinges as he opened it, he chucked Sam, bare-footed and bare-chested, out onto the cold, icy deck. Then he whipped the door shut.

And locked it.

"Anyone who opens that door back up gets to join him," Brian growled as he crawled under the covers. Joey spared her boyfriend an apologetic glance before she crawled in next to her brother. Sirius hesitated for a moment before moving back towards his bed that was now quite empty. He sighed.

Even if Sam was outside, making it virtually impossible for the fighting with his brother to keep them awake, there was still the issue of drowning out the blonde boy's yells and screams from out on the porch.

Sirius' eyes fell shut as his ears focused in on the hullabaloo Sam was making from outside the door, banging on it and yelling at the top of his lungs to let him back in. Then all three of them heard something they didn't expect. It was the sound of the other door on the porch, leading into the main cabin, opening. They could all clearly hear Josh's angry voice cutting through the night as Sam was muttering something back to him, incomprehensible to anyone in the room. They heard the other door fall shut again and then the night was silent.

Finally.

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The next morning was . . . interesting, to say the least.

At least everyone's spirits were a bit higher because the weather was so nice. They had all woken up to actual sunshine beaming through their window shades. It was a wonderful feeling to see the sun glimmering off the snow-covered ground outside. Everyone seemed to share the thought that it was one of the most beautiful things one could see in nature. It was truly an invitation to grab some skis and head out to the lifts.

But there was certainly still a bit of animosity in the air . . . especially when Brian had woken up the next day to find a dark purple bruise smack-dab in the middle of his forehead. He was still fuming at his younger brother all through breakfast and on the drive over to the ski resort. Josh, too, was a little ticked at his youngest brother as well, seeing as it was his screaming and yelling the night before that had woken him up.

But over all, Betty and Paul had done their best to smooth the situation over by the time they had reached the lifts. On arrival, Paul and Betty had gone to get everyone lift passes, and by the time they returned to the group, they were all suited up and ready for the day.

As much as Sirius kept telling himself that he wasn't nervous, he was certainly still feeling the butterflies in his stomach. He did not feel balanced at all with those metal things attached to his feet, and he had half a mind to just ditch the skis and slide down the slopes on his butt. . . it might be more comfortable.

But Joey had a leash on him right from the start.

"Now we'll start on the learning slopes," she had reassured him as they watched the other six people in their party head on over towards the lifts leading up to some more challenging slopes. Sirius gave her a grateful nod, and Joey took his hand and began making her way over towards a group of young kids in line with their parents. They seemed to be waiting to get up a hill that was barely even a slant.

The line led up to the base of the slant where the skier was supposed to grab onto a little make-shift-lift thing that towed them up the miniature 'hill' to the top.

"Joey, this is so uncomfortable!" he whined in her ear once they reached the top. "I feel like such an idiot around all these little kids!" Joey started giggling.

"Well then, I guess that's your incentive to learn how to ski before moving onto a bigger slope!" she said cheerfully, not sounding a bit as embarrassed as he. He glared at her slightly.

"Why are we even over here? This area is meant for people who aren't four feet tall yet!"

"So I can teach you how to turn, how to slow down, and just basically how to maneuver on the skis. Believe me, you'll be happy you have the knowledge once you get flying down an actual hill," she reassured him. He gave her half a smile and a nod, yet still managed to maintain this doubtful glare in his eyes. He knew he should listen to her, but this just felt like torture.

Sliding down the hill at snail pace was not only quite boring for Sirius, but it was humiliating too. It got worse, though, when the little kids behind him began to overtake his speed. Especially when a little girl about the age of five lost her balance next to him and grabbed onto the pocket of his ski pants as she was falling. She pulled him down along with her, and Joey had made the effort to keep Sirius in a standing position by putting an arm around his shoulders, making for a very awkward landing. He had luckily managed to keep his pants up on his waist, but had made a rough landing on his butt, Joey somehow landing gracelessly on top of him. The little girl had gotten up easily enough and skied off, but it took a lot of balance on Joey's part to pick herself up off her boyfriend and help him to his feet at the same time.

It was bad enough that they were the two biggest people on the 'mini- slope,' but here they were the only two who had fallen down, as well. Not only that, but it had also taken more than a couple of tries before the both of them were standing successfully without slipping again. At that point they were practically shooed off the slope by one of the lift workers.

Apparently, they had been holding up the traffic of five-year-olds behind them.

Currently, Joey and Sirius were standing in the middle of the ski resort, looking around for an idea for their next course of action. Sirius' butt was already bruised, but he wasn't sure if that was what was hurting so much as his ego. He was still fuming at that lift worker who'd kicked them off the learning slope, but there was nothing he could do about it. Bastard.

"Well do you feel ready enough to try out an actual slope now?" She asked with genuine concern. Sirius shrugged nonchalantly. Please. He was a Black. He could handle anything.

"I'll go with you on whatever slope you choose," he said compliantly. Joey smirked at him.

"Well, I'm not going to throw you on any black diamond just yet," she said with a laugh. "Why don't we start with a friendly bunny slope?"

Sirius just shrugged and followed his girlfriend as she began making her way over towards a fairly small slope jam-packed with little kids. His eyes bugged out at the enormous line they had to wait in just to get to an itty-bitty lift that took them about half-way up a shallow hill. Craning his neck around to try and see what was taking so long for their line to move, his eyes focused on the entrance to another lift off in the distance. It was for an intermediate slope, had barely any line, and its passengers were circulating through the lift with ease. This was about the time he felt a lot like a burden to Joey. He sighed audibly to get her attention.

"Joey, I'm sorry I'm ruining your vacation by making you stand in these ridiculously long lines with a bunch of kids. I know you'd rather be skiing on more challenging slopes with people who actually know how to ski."

Joey's eyebrows furrowed up and she gave him ones of those 'you idiot' kind of looks. Then she just smiled up at him as she tucked one of her delicate arms inside his jacket and around his waist. She pulled herself closer to him, though quite hindered from doing so by the long skis attached to her feet.

"Sirius, there is no one else I'd rather spend my vacation with . . . even if it means I have to wait in line with a bunch of brats the whole time I'm here."

Sirius just leaned in towards her face and she got the hint, tilting her head up slightly to meet his lips in a soft, slow kiss. She smiled slightly against his mouth and turned her head to the side to get a better angle.

"Ewww, guys, LOOK!"

"Sick!!!"

"Gross!!!" they heard some little pip-squeaks chorusing behind them. Joey and Sirius both broke apart grudgingly and turned to face the jeering trio of seven-year-old boys behind them.

"Get a room!" one of them laughed as his other friends high-fived him. Joey couldn't help but blush a little as most of the people in the line turned their attention towards them.

Sirius' eyes narrowed instinctively. "Speaking of brats . . ." he muttered angrily under his breath.

"Oh, ignore them," she growled with a roll of her eyes, grabbing Sirius' arm to get him to face back towards the front of the line. When they had turned back around, they had made sure to keep the distance between them obvious enough to avoid drawing any more attention to themselves.

"But, seriously," she said, trying to get back to their original conversation, "it's so much more fun hanging around with you. Normally I'd have been riding the difficult courses all day with my brothers, having to put up with their annoying competitions as to who can reach the bottom first or do the most tricks. It's quite annoying, really."

Sirius just smiled. "Glad I could help," he said teasingly. Joey just smirked.

Riding the bunny slope was anything but challenging. Even Sirius found it yawn-inducing, and that was the first time he had actually been on an incline big enough to cause a marble to roll. Even the lift was ridiculously easy. It was set up in a way that children could get on and off of it easily, and if you possessed the powers of sitting and standing, it was a piece of cake. Joey was still just slightly nervous about bringing Sirius onto an intermediate slope. She knew the slopes weren't as easy to get on and off of, and the courses were significantly more difficult than the children's slope. But Sirius had done fabulously well on the bunny slope, and Joey finally decided that he had merited the promotion to a tougher one.

"So are you ready to try a harder slope?" she asked encouragingly. Sirius nodded in affirmative. He wanted a little challenge.

"I was hoping you'd say that!" she said with a beaming smile. ". . . mainly because I want to bring you onto one of my favorite slopes," she admitted. "It's actually a combination of an intermediate and an advanced slope because half way through there is a split in the route. Just make sure you stay to the left and you'll be fine," she cautioned, yet her smile never left her face. She seemed really excited about this slope, and Sirius didn't have the heart to tell her that he was already panicking. There was already too much to worry about with this being a more challenging course 'n all, and now he had to worry about a frickin' fork in the road?! His stomach did a flip flop, and he silently prayed that, by the end of this day, all his vertebrae would still be connected in one, healthy, non-shattered spinal-column.

The line to get onto the slope was practically non-existent, so Sirius had little to no time to back out of the situation. There were so many red flags going up all around him, and he felt just about primed for a panic attack.

The first red flag he spotted was, literally, just that: right before getting on the lift, he had spotted the medic's red snow-mobile driving up around a bend of trees and out of sight; up the back way of the hill they were planning on coming down, no less. Did that mean this slope was so difficult that people were frequently getting injured badly enough to need a medic to rush to the scene?! His imagination began running wild with what might have happened to someone to require a freakin' snow mobile to come rescue them. Sirius inwardly groaned. This was surely foreshadowing his death.

His second red flag was when his ski nearly fell off when they actually got on the lift. He was so worried about that damn medic-mobile he had seen, that he didn't even realize when his ski got hooked on Joey's and slightly unlatched. One of the lift workers helped him fix the problem before it really became an issue, though, and he had managed to keep his ski on.

This situation, however, was what set off the reaction for a third flag to go unnoticed . . .

Completely to Sirius' ignorance, his ski pole had gotten completely wedged into a tiny space between the seat and the chair-lift's side supports. He was still hanging tightly onto the pole, though, and the issue went completely unobserved. Joey didn't realize his problem either because, one, she was sitting on the other side of him, and, two, she was also busy lecturing him on what to do.

"So when you get off the lift, make sure you give yourself a good push off the seat. This lift is different from the other one because there's a dip at the end of it to get to the beginning of the slope. Don't be nervous, just hold onto your poles tightly and slide down the steep little drop to the flat area at the top of the slope."

"Okay," he responded somewhat wearily. Sirius was looking down, trying to grasp every bit of information Joey was sharing with him, but he was inevitably watching the ground slope steeper and steeper and the base of the mountain fall further and further away from him. He was so nervous, and he could only hope that he'd come out of this alive. This mountain was huge! Who in their right mind would connect an intermediate course with an advanced one?!!! They were just asking for a poor sap like Sirius to get scammed into going down it and smashing themselves into a tree! Joey noticed this look of trepidation on Sirius' face, and decided to make sure he was really processing everything she was saying and not just going into a catatonic state of panic.

"So tell me which way you're going to go when you get to the fork," she requested more than asked of him.

Sirius looked up into her face and confidently said, "left."

"Right," she replied.

"Right? I thought it was left! Oh, god, I'm going to die!" he practically howled in fright. That just confirmed his fears to Joey.

"No! Sirius, I mean, 'you're right, it's left!'" she said urgently, grasping his arm and giving it a comforting squeeze. Her eyes showed that she was really worried. "Are you okay?"

Sirius just looked over at her a sighed slightly, making an effort to let a strangled breath from his lungs. He nodded quite spastically, showing that he was in fact trying desperately to convince himself more that the girl sitting in front of him. "Yeah, I'm okay . . . really, I am . . . okay that is. Cause why wouldn't I be okay? This'll be really fun. Really. Okay?"

At this point, Joey's eyes were almost comically wide as she listened to her boyfriend ramble pathetically. If she had known Sirius was going to freak out like this, she wouldn't have brought him on this hard of a slope. Mentally slapping herself, guilt completely took over and she felt horrible. This was all her fault. She knew he'd only gone along with it because she wanted to do this. Joey knew this slope was too difficult for him, but somehow she'd just forgotten to register that fact. He'd only been on the freakin' bunny slope for crying out loud! Subconsciously she must have wanted to ski so badly that she'd forgotten about how Sirius was so new at this. She'd been skiing since she was four! Certainly it was an easy mistake to make. But now here they were and Sirius was going to have to suffer because of her lack of consideration.

Joey soon realized that she didn't have much time to worry about it much longer anyways, as they were nearing the end of the lift. The steep drop was just up ahead of them and both Joey and Sirius began preparing themselves for the departure from the seat. Right as Sirius tried to position his poles up in front of himself, however, he realized the issue he was having with the pole on his left side.

"Joey, MY POLE IS STUCK!" he practically screamed in a wave of panic. Joey looked over at him frantically, hoping she had heard him incorrectly. The last thing Sirius needed right now was to panic over yet another thing. That issue aside, the big problem was that they were about to get off the freakin' chair and a part of her boyfriend was still attached to it!

They both began yanking and pulling as hard as they could, but with all of their bulky clothes on and the small space they had to maneuver on the seat, their efforts were in vain. Within moments their chair had reached its drop off destination and was nearing the point where it would swing around to the left and head back in the opposite direction.

Sirius became frantic and his emotions were contagious. Joey, who by now had jumped off the chair and was getting pushed along in front of it, had gripped his arm already and began yanking him to get off the chair. They still had the steep little dip to worry about, but she just wanted to make sure he got off the lift safely before that was an issue.

"Sirius, come on! Give it a good yank and let's go!" she urged frantically. But Sirius continued to jerk at the pole to no avail. The strap at the end of the pole was still wrapped around his wrist as well, and his glove was hindering his ability to just slip it off and ditch it.

"Joey now I'M caught!!!" he screeched as the chair began pulling him along in its half circle on its return route. Joey panicked and began yanking on her boyfriend as hard as she could. They were nearing a point that would surely be dangerous for both of them to pass if they didn't sit back down on the chair and take the ski-lift back down the hill. They'd be dragged through the trees!

Finally, she just reached over, grabbed his wrist, and as hard as she could, wrenched his hand out of the glove and binding pole-strap. Sirius was ready to cry out in pain, but the yell was cut off as the momentum from the yanking cause him to fly backwards down the dip, rolling all the way. Joey slid down the mini-drop gracefully enough to land next to Sirius who was sprawled out in the snow on his back, blocking the way for most of the people behind them trying to get off the lift.

"You lost a ski," she pointed out as Sirius' gaze drifted over towards one of his skis that was lying a few feet away from his head. It had apparently flown off during his little trip down the dip.

"I lost more than that," he groaned painfully as he looked back at the lift. All its passengers were easily hoping off their chairs and elegantly gliding down the little drop with no trouble at all. He rolled his eyes. Bastards. He held his left arm up for Joey to examine his missing glove. "I think my wrist is broken," he said, sitting up and cradling it to his body.

"Seriously?" she asked, an extremely pained expression on her face. The wind was blowing sharply through the mountains, and a few snowflakes had collected in her hair. Her nose was a slight cherry pink and her cheeks were stained with a few wet splotches from her wind-whipped and watery eyes. "I was so afraid you were going to get pulled back the other way and get yanked into the trees," she whispered, her eyes large and glossy. "I'm just glad you're okay."

He smiled at her and tried to lighten-up the situation. "Well now I have a really good reason to love skiing. Who wouldn't love getting dragged through some evergreens because their wrist got welded to the chair-lift?"

Joey gave him a sad smile. "So how do you plan on making it down the hill with only one glove and one pole?"

Sirius shrugged as he put back on his ski that had flown off. "I just survived that dangerous ski-lift to get up here and now you don't want me to go down the damned slope?" he started laughing. "And I was worried the slope was gonna kill me. No, Joey. Don't worry about it. I'll be fine," he said casually as he began heading over towards the edge where the slope began; Joey followed close behind. "I'll just meet you at the bottom."

"Okay, but please take care of what's left of you!" she called out to him over the wind as he slowly began inching over the edge of the mountain. She couldn't help but to be worried.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't worry!" he answered, "So turn right at the fork?" he asked jokingly over his shoulder just before he began speeding down the slope.

SJSJS

Joey had been so proud of him.

Sirius had made it down the hill with one arm cradled to his body and only one pole to steer himself. He really might've been a natural had he not been so damn prone to accidents while skiing, Joey mused to herself. They'd decided to lay off the skiing for the rest of their day until they could get Sirius' wrist some medical help. And they weren't talking about muggle help. That was slow and pointless.

That's why they'd been sitting a ways away from the bottom of the advanced- side of the slope, waiting for when Sam would eventually pass by. Joey knew her 19-year-old brother would be going down that slope, since they both considered it their favorite. They'd always gone down it a couple of times together every time they had come skiing.

And Joey new Sam always had his medi-wand with him. He guarded it with his life and that thing never left his side. It was virtually good for anything, and it was especially powerful to help with the demanding task of healing a human wound.

And so they waited. And waited. And waited some more. Finally, Joey spotted her brother's towhead from about midway up the hill. He was wearing a red jacket and black ski pants, and he slid down the mountain like an expert would. Reaching the bottom at break-neck speed, he let out a whoop and lifted both of his arms in the air. A little behind him, Josh was visible skiing up from behind, knocking him playfully in the back of the head, and skiing off in the opposite direction. Their laughter was contagious and Sirius and Joey both found themselves smiling from just simply watching the scene.

Joey called out to her brothers and they responded in an instant, recognizing the sign of injury with the two stranded in the middle of the snow.

"You two all right?" Josh had asked with his deep voice resonating slightly off the snowy ground.

"Sirius hurt his wrist. Can you help him?"

"Yeah, of course!" Sam said with a nod and instantly unhooked his skis and knelt beside his sister's boyfriend. He supported the wrist with his own hands as he examined it, removing his wand from his boot and muttering a few things.

Josh had sat down on the other side of Joey, removing his skis as well and making himself comfortable. He decided to strike up a conversation as they sat there and waited for Sam to do his thing.

"Hey, you guys wouldn't believe what Sam and I saw getting on the lift!" he said with a bout of laughter behind his words.

Joey cocked her head to the side and looked genuinely curious.

"What'd you see?" Sirius questioned.

"Well it was the oddest thing!" Josh said. "Some idiot had gotten his ski pole caught in the chair-lift supports!!! And his glove was still attached to it too!"

Josh and Sam started busting up again from the memory. They had both gotten a good laugh out of the situation when they had gone to sit down on the lift earlier. However, when they had told Joey about the situation, her face had just turned a weird shade of red as she looked sheepishly over at Sirius. They didn't seem to think the situation was funny to them at all.

Josh frowned slightly. Sam noticed it too, but he just shrugged.

"Well, I guess you had to be there," he said casually and went back to healing Sirius' wrist.

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Hey guys! Guess what! My story's more than a year old now! lol! ...celebrates... So happy belated birthday to LoY. Haha. Oh! And I'm totally planning on changing my penname. I guess I'm just a bit worn out of Sportzjunkie. But do you guys have any suggestions? I'd love to hear them!!! I'm thinking about keeping the junkie, though, but just changing the prefix. I dunno, don't want anything too drastically different. I'm still a sports freak and all . . . I'm just dying for a change. lol. Anywho, I love you all and I look forward to hearing from you! ...hint review hint... :)

Much luv to you all!

-Sara