Disclaimer: I don't own Dragonball Z or Harry Potter.

Chapter Seven

Dear J.B. –

I hope Kinto'un gets your present (and this letter) to you before Christmas. It's snowing like mad back in Japan, and I'm not sure if he'll be able to make it to England within the next few days. If he's a bit late, I apologise.

My holiday has been…exuberant, to say the least. Vegeta (I know I've told you about him) has been over at my house every day, trying to get me back into shape within the few weeks he has a hold of me. He got me up at five o'clock in the morning the first day back and demanded I had a spar with him. I might also add that it was five degrees below zero outside, nearly a foot of snow was on the ground, and that I was in nothing but my pyjamas…

"WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM, VEGETA?!" Gohan howled, dodging a kick to his head and flipping over backwards to avoid a ki-blast. "I'M IN NO CONDITION TO SPAR!"

Vegeta elbowed Gohan hard in the stomach, leaving him momentarily winded. The Saiya-jin prince took advantage of this and hit him hard over the head, sending into a snow bank for the second time in his short time back home.

Gohan shook the snow off himself and was just about to get up and give Vegeta a piece of his mind, when the said man's boot came crashing down on his chest, forcing him back into the snow bank. The elder man smirked down at him, and Gohan was once again strongly reminded of Professor Snape.

"Obviously, brat," Vegeta replied, grinding his heel into Gohan's chest. "But I will make sure – by the time that you go back to that stupid school of yours – that you are in perfect condition to spar and that you will stay that way. Do you understand me?"

"But I'm not allowed to train – UGH!"

Vegeta kicked Gohan in the chin, hard enough to snap his head back.

"I said, do you understand me? I will not have the last of my race dwindle into weak excuses for warriors! You will train at that damnable school or else I'll have to come over there and see that you get trained myself!"

…I hate him.

During the time I managed to get away from Vegeta and his maniac training sessions, I got to visit some of my other friends too. A few of them were still quite sceptical of my wizarding powers (like Piccolo, for instance) while the others were afraid that I'd turn them green again even though I didn't have my wand with me at the time. I think they'll be pleased to learn that we can't do magic over the summer holiday.

My Mom was…er…happy to see me, to say the least. She got all hysterical and cried for quite a while after I had come back. Then, after she composed herself, she flew off the handle at me for no reason at all, and then started crying again. Bulma had to escort me from the room and explain that Mom's mood swings had recently started up. Yeah, like I couldn't already tell.

I would write you a longer letter, but I promised Ginny and the twins that I would write to them too, and I want to get those done tonight. Also, Vegeta started pounding on the door, and I think he wants to have another sparring session. Did I already mention that I hate him?

Enjoy your present!

Gohan

It was not surprising, with the ways things were keeping up at the Son household, that Gohan was wishing to be back at Hogwarts by the time the second week of Christmas holiday came around. Vegeta had successfully beaten him into the ground more times then Gohan cared to remember, Piccolo had now joined in the beating sessions (which seemed to remind him of the days when he could easily beat up on Gohan), and Chi-Chi had whacked him over the head with the frying pan a few times, just for good measure.

Sometimes, Gohan really had to wonder whether the madness at Hogwarts could ever match the madness at his own home.

Then again, as Christmas morning proved all too well, it was better to be around a madness that you were used to, then a madness that was still surprising you.

Once again, Piccolo and Vegeta had taken it upon themselves to ruin Christmas by dragging Gohan outside for some more training right after all the presents were open. Gohan had fought tooth and nail to this decision – as a blizzard was occurring for the second day in a row and he had actually wanted to enjoy Christmas, unlike some people – but Piccolo eventually pried his hands away from the doorframe and he was stuck sparring.

The two of them had teamed up (not very willingly, mind you) and had forced Gohan to power up to super saiya-jin. They had done a bit of physical combat for a good while and had moved onto ki attacks. Currently, Gohan was trying very hard not to get a free ride back to Hogwarts via Vegeta's Gallic Gun attack.

While he was holding back the attack (and gradually making a ski-track in the snow as he did so), Gohan started to wonder how he had gotten so rusty within a few months time. After all, he had been one of the strongest people in universe back in May. Surely his lack of training couldn't have affected him this badly…

Suddenly, a very shrill scream cut through the chilly mountain air. Vegeta let his ki attack dissipate in surprise and glanced curiously over at the Son home in the distance. Gohan let his guard down and looked over at his house as well. Piccolo snorted in disinterest and threw a ki blast at Gohan while he was distracted.

"OW! Piccolo!" Gohan cried, quickly putting out the flames on the front of his gi. "I thought we were past the random zapping!"

Piccolo smirked, showing one of his fangs, and Vegeta – apparently convinced that the scream from the Son house had been one of those 'there's-a-bug-get-Vegeta!' type of screams – turned his attention back to Gohan. He was powering up another ki blast when –

"GOOOHAAANN!!"

"Insufferable woman!" Vegeta growled, powering down and glaring at the Son home again. "How are we supposed to get any training done with her screaming all the time?"

Gohan didn't reply, as he had taken his mother's scream as a cue to get out of training. Without waiting for Vegeta or Piccolo to tell him what to do, he blasted off toward his house.

"MOM!" he called, bursting through the kitchen door, snow-covered and still in super saiya-jin form.

Chi-Chi and Bulma (with baby Trunks clutched close to her chest) were huddled in an area of the kitchen far away from the living room door. The both looked very perturbed about something and Bulma had just finished downing a quick shot of brandy when Gohan had burst in.

"What happened? Is there anything wrong?"

"Wrong?" Chi-Chi shrieked, getting up slowly and pointing at the living room door. "Wrong? There's a FLOATING HEAD in my fireplace, Son Gohan!"

"A…floating head? A – Are you sure?"

Gohan eyed Bulma's empty brandy glass warily.

"Yes!" Bulma replied, hiding her glass from view. "We were just sitting in the living room, and that – that head appeared! And it – it…talked too!"

Gohan blinked once. Twice.

He stared at them sceptically for a moment and then decided to check this 'floating head' out for himself. He walked over to the living room door and was just about to open it, when it swung forward and hit him in the forehead.

"OWW – !"

Gohan's exclamation of pain died on his lips as a human head stuck itself out the opening of the door and into the kitchen.

Chi-Chi screamed in panic at the sight, Trunks stared crying, Vegeta and Piccolo burst into the kitchen, demanding to know what was going on, and the head asked, "That you Gohan?"

Gohan stared at the head for quite a long while – his forehead pounding viciously throughout the entire while – and then finally realised that he might've just lost whatever sense he had left. There was no way he could be here, because he was all the way back in England and he didn't know how to Apparate –

"OY! Gohan! Are you all right?"

Gohan blinked at the head. And then –

"J.B?! HOW'D YOU GET HERE?"

"So let me get this straight…You popped into my fireplace using Floo powder - "

"Yup."

" – scared the living daylights out of my mom and Bulma – "

"Pretty much."

" – and then decided to Floo over to my house to give me my Christmas present, which is actually a connection to the Floo Network?"

"That about sums it up."

Gohan rubbed his temples. And here he had thought nothing could surprise him any more.

He and J.B. were up in his room, having retreated up there (Gohan had to drag J.B. up the steps to stop him from staring at Piccolo) after Chi-Chi had calmed down to the point where they could rationally explain that J.B. was a friend and after Gohan told Vegeta where he could shove his training regime for the rest of the day. Gohan was seated on his swivelling chair and J.B. was currently bouncing on his bed.

"Well, could you warn me the next time you do that? You nearly gave me a heart attack."

"Sorry mate, but do you know how bloody early I had to get up to try and catch you before you left to go train? Looks like I didn't do a very good job of it either." J.B. replied, bouncing one last time on the bed before sitting down. "My mum's going to all but kill me when she wakes up – she's the one who got your house connected to the Floo Network. She works at the Ministry, in the Department of Magical Transportation, and I had to practically beg her to hook you up because usually Muggle-born students aren't allowed to be on the Network."

"I won't have any wizards flooing in my house at random moments, will I?" Gohan asked, suddenly envisioning his mother hitting a defenceless wizard (or witch) over the head with a frying pan.

"Nah, you shouldn't. Unless, of course, it's by accident, but they should be able to fix that. Anyway, the Network's great. You can go anywhere in the wizarding world – except if it's blocked up or restricted, that is – and you can communicate through the fire." J.B. explained, getting off the bed and walking over to Gohan's bookcase to examine an object or two. "I got some Floo powder for you too, so you can actually use the Network. I think you can even use it from Hogwarts, so you can talk to your mum all you want."

"Really?" Gohan asked, brightening suddenly. "That's great J.B.! What an awesome Christmas present!"

His other Christmas presents from his friends had been great as well. Ginny had got him a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans (Gohan planned on giving Vegeta a few of the nastier flavoured beans), Hermione had sent him a book, and the twins' present had been an assortment of practical jokes.

"Yeah, that's what I said when I got my present – after I realised that it was a cool book, that is. Practical Jinx and Hexes, huh?" J.B. said, picking up a box on the shelf. He opened it and pulled out a capsule. "What's this thing?"

"A capsule," Gohan replied. "Bulma's dad invented and makes them. They're really useful."

"What's so useful about them?"

Gohan got up and took the capsule from J.B. He looked at the label, before putting it carefully back in the box. He glanced into the box and took out a different capsule.

"Watch," the demi saiya-jin said, clicking the top of the capsule and throwing it out into the middle of his room. A second later, there was a poof!, a cloud of smoke, and then a large stack of books appeared.

"Whoa!" J.B. exclaimed, his eyes widening comically. "…Did all those books come from that tiny capsule?"

"Yeah. A capsule can store anything in it, except for people and animals…I think. Nearly all of the Capsule Corp cars come equipped with a button that turns their vehicle into a capsule. That one capsule you were holding before has a house in it." Gohan explained, closing the capsule box and setting it back on his shelf. "I can't believe you've never heard of them before. Then again, I don't think Capsule Corp has expanded past Asia yet…and I heard that capsules are really expensive in other countries."

"Wow…Japanese Muggles are really smart," J.B. replied at last, eyeing the box warily. "It's kinda like shrinking things then?"

"Er…I guess."

Gohan sidestepped his pile of books and sat back down in his chair. J.B. observed the bookcase again, before plucking some picture frames off the selves, and walking back toward the bed. He sat down and pointed the first frame.

"That your dad?"

Gohan nodded, his throat tightening. "…Yeah. Son Goku."

J.B. observed the picture for a few moments before setting it carefully on the bed.

"Goku…Cool name. He looks like a nice guy. I would've liked to meet him." He replied at last, before looking at the next frame. He stared at that one for a moment, before glancing up at Gohan, and then back down at the picture. His brow furrowed in confusion, and suddenly Gohan – with a wave of terror – which picture he was looking at. "How come you and your Dad have blond hair in this picture?" The demi saiya-jin froze, realising only too late that he had forgotten to power down. "Speaking of which, how come you have blond hair now? Last time I saw you, you had black hair. Did you colour it?"

Gohan sighed and looked down. There was no way that he was going to be able to pass his hair colour off as a spell this time around. J.B. knew that they weren't supposed to do magic over any holiday and had solid proof sitting right in his lap that he had been blond before Hogwarts at some point in time. He was going to have to tell the truth.

He took a deep steadying breath and glanced back up at J.B., who was staring at him expectantly.

"J.B. …Do you believe in aliens?"

Chi-Chi glanced up as she heard two sets of feet pounding down the stairs. A moment later, Gohan appeared at the bottom, his English friend not to far behind.

"Hi, Mom!" Gohan called, bounding past her and to the closet. "J.B. and I are going outside, and I'm going to blow up stuff!"

Thankfully, J.B. hadn't thought he was a freak (it had taken him a full five minutes to recover, and when he did, the first thing out of his mouth was, "Wicked!") and still wanted to be his friend after he learned that Gohan wasn't exactly human. He had been a bit sceptical about ki and even the half-alien bit, but he had seen the Cell Games on TV, so he an idea about what Gohan was talking about.

Gohan had admitted to being at the Cell Games (only because J.B. put two and two together, and realised that he looked exactly like the little boy from the Cell Games), but hadn't told his friend that he – not Mr. Satan – had been the one to defeat Cell. He figured that learning your best friend was half-alien and was one of the most powerful beings in the universe was enough of a shock for one day.

"That's nice dear," Chi-Chi replied, calmly taking a sip of her tea. "Will J.B. be sticking around for lunch?"

"Um…Probably not. He has to get back home pretty soon, but I'm going to demonstrate my ki powers to him because he needs a bit of proof that I'm actually half saiya-jin."

"Well, if a certain unmentionable snail had left your tail attached to your body and hadn't blown up the moon, you'd have your proof, wouldn't you?" Vegeta asked, before shoving a Christmas cookie in his mouth.

"Maybe if a certain bastard of a monkey prince hadn't decided to try and destroy the Earth, I would've left it on," Piccolo snapped from the corner he was meditating in. "And maybe if your head wasn't so far up your ass, you would've noticed that the moon was wished back a few years ago."

"Can't you two behave yourselves for one day?" Bulma asked, glaring at the two warriors as she bounced Trunks on her knee. "It's Christmas and there's a guest over for Kami's sake!"

"I used up all my good behaviour minutes on your birthday, onna."

Gohan finished up in the closet – sensing a Bulma and Vegeta argument about to commence – and hurried over to J.B. with a heavy coat. The other boy put it on, and the two of them ran out into the kitchen.

"What are they arguing about?" J.B. asked, obviously hearing the raised voices through the door.

"Vegeta was just being his usual obnoxious self," Gohan replied, rolling his eyes. "He and Piccolo started arguing about my tail - "

J.B.'s eyes widened (they seemed to be doing a lot of that lately) and he asked, "You have a tail?"

"Had a tail. All saiya-jins have had one at some time during their life. It's a thing of pride or something. I didn't really care for mine, but Vegeta got super pissed when his got cut off." Gohan explained, walking over to the kitchen door and pulling it open. "C'mon, let's get this over with…"

It was still snowing wildly out, but the wind had picked up a bit more strength since they had been inside, making the visibility none too great. Once he and J.B. were outside, he shut the door behind him, and they started walking away from the house.

"Good Merlin, it's freezing outside!" J.B. exclaimed, pulling the hood over his head and wading in the snow after Gohan.

"Yeah, it's a bit chilly!" Gohan replied, glancing over his shoulder at his friend. "We need to get a bit further away from the house…I don't want to damage anything, otherwise my mom will kill me…"

J.B. sneezed in agreement.

The lights from the Son home could barely be seen by the time Gohan decided that it was safe enough to go ahead and try a ki blast. J.B. was shivering wildly and snow was piling up on top of his hood.

"All right! This is far enough!" Gohan exclaimed. "Remember, you can't tell anybody about this - "

"Y – Yeah, I know G-Gohan!" the other replied, his teeth chattering nosily. "W-Who'd believe me anyway? J-Just g-get on with it!"

Gohan exhaled through his nose and crouched down low. He hadn't done this attack since the Cell Games, but it would be the best example of ki to show J.B., and he didn't want to spend time contemplating about it while his friend's teeth were chattering loudly like that. A rare, mischievous smile twitched at the corner of his mouth, then he cupped his hands to his side and chanted the most familiar ki attack in Earth's history.

"KA…ME…HA…ME…HAAAA!"

A brilliant jet of blue light shot from Gohan's hands, ploughing a huge path through the snow. J.B. stepped back, shielding his eyes from the blue radiance surrounding them. Sweat trickled down J.B.'s forehead as the air began to heat up, making it feel like a hot summer day rather than a cold, December blizzard.

The incredible beam roared like an angry dragon, its brilliance fading into the snowy distance before Gohan let it dissipate to nothing and stood from his crouch, wiping his brow. J.B could only stare at him, slack jawed with amazement at the power he'd felt – it was no other spell he had felt before despite the fact that it was something wildly different than magic.

"So…you believe me now?" the demi saiya-jin asked, looking over at his shoulder at him with a lopsided grin on his face.

J.B. made a high-pitched, squeaky noise in reply, and stared at the newly uncovered grass in shock.

A/N: Er…Hi guys! hides in bomb shelter Well, I updated at last. I would say sorry for the terribly long wait, but I know it just wouldn't do you any justice. This chapter has been sitting on my computer since last August and I kept trying to work on it, but I would never get anywhere with it when I had it open. So I just let it sit until I got my inspiration for Dragonball Z fiction back, which – unfortunately – didn't happen until a few weeks ago when I started watching Dragonball GT. gag I could go on and on about how GT sucks, but every other DBZ author does that.

Yeah, so I'm back for the time being. I'm going to try (that is italicised for a reason) to alternate updating between this fic and my Harry Potter fic, but once school starts, I'll be swamped with activity until November at the latest, so I probably won't update anything very much. As for my other DBZ fics? winces Heh. Don't hold your breath.

Even though I am the most evil and laziest author in the DBZ fandom, will you still review? Please?

Note: The last few paragraphs are not all my words. ClassicDrogn submitted a very fine and detailed review, and I decided to use some of her/his suggestions. It sounds loads better now, so thanks ClassicDrogn.