Long Day

As the day wore on, more wizards and witches arrived at our house. Some arrived on brooms, but most came through the floo network. Among their number were my three aunts from my mom's side of the family. As they arrived within the fireplace, I noticed that they brought with them their gaggle of kids consisting entirely of girls, nine of them to be exact. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor I left the room in a hasty retreat, determined not to get volunteered to entertain my cousins.

I retreated to my father's study, where he and my uncle were debating with some old friends of theirs from Hogwarts. The subject was whether the Appleby Arrows or the Winbourn Wasps were the better quidditch team.

"I'm telling you the Arrows have got this next match in the bag. They have three good chasers, and their keeper is one of the best there is; the Wasps have no chance at all." Dad argued.

"Rubbish," snorted a brown haired wizard, "The wasps have two world-class beaters who will prevent the Arrows chasers from scoring, and they have the better seeker."

"Come off it, Amos, I wouldn't call their seeker better, at most they are about even," dad retorted.

Uncle John shot a smile my way and interjected, "Alright, let's ask the little guy who's better."

Everyone in the room turned in my direction. Without saying a word, I pointed at my blue shirt with silver arrows that were always moving.

"Of course he sides with the arrows, the poor boy has had them shoved down his throat his whole life," Amos scoffed.

Uncle John winked at me and asked, "What are you doing in here with all these stuffy wizards? Go have some fun with some other kids; I'm sure some are running around here that are your age. Just don't burn the place down."

Amos moved a young boy with dark hair into view and piped up, "Speaking of which, this is my son, Cedric. He is about your age, why don't you boys run along and see what sort of trouble you can find."

I froze once I heard the name, I was not prepared to come face to face with someone from the books. I didn't know how to respond. What do you say to someone who has been marked for death? Eventually, I stammered, "Nice to meet you. I'm Alex."

Cedric gave a hesitant smile and replied, "Cedric."

Not knowing what to say, I awkwardly blurted out, "Want to go see my egg?"

He raised an eyebrow and hesitantly replied, "Sure, why not."

I motioned him to follow as I headed upstairs, carefully avoiding the attention of my French cousins who were running and driving the adults nuts. After making our way through the house and up the stairs to my room I closed my wooden door behind me with a sigh of relief.

I walked over to my bed and grabbed the big black egg and turned to Cedric, and said, "Check this out."

Cedric came over, and I handed the egg to him, he ran his fingers over the strange patterns. He asked curiously, "What is it?"

"It's a Lamussa," I gleefully responded.

"Cool," responded Cedic.

While studying the egg, my door burst open. Cedric and I jumped and nearly dropped the egg. Angered that I almost dropped the egg, I carefully set it back on the bed, and I turned on the intruder and yelled, "Get out."

Breathing heavily by the door was a blond haired girl who said, "Shhh, they may hear you."

Confused, Cedric asked, "Who?"

"Those little french monsters," she retorted, "Now be quiet."

I felt conflicting emotions within me, on the one hand I wanted her gone, on the other, I had the feeling she would not go quietly, which may attract the attention of the monsters. Deciding that one more addition to the room was better than the rest of my cousins finding us, I sighed, "Fine, you can stay, lock the door behind you, and don't touch anything."

"Ooh, what is that?" she said, looking at my bed.

"It's my Lamassu," I proudly said.

"And that is?" She questioned.

Annoyed that she did not respond the way Cedric did and too embarrassed to admit I hadn't the faintest clue what a Lamassu was, I dramatically said, "It's a magical beast of great power."

She smirked and asked sweetly, "What does it look like?"

Glaring balefully at her, I mentally added her to my list of nemesis. "It's kinda hard to describe their species," I said through gritted teeth.

Meeting my eyes, she countered with a knowing grin, "You know, there is nothing wrong with not knowing everything."

Somehow we ended up in a staring contest. Glaring at her strange purple eyes vowing to myself that I would die before I would let this little girl get the best of me.

Interrupting our strange staring contest, Cedric, holding my book, Fantastic Beasts And Where They Come From, said, "This book states that everyone is unique, they take many different forms, cats and bull like creatures are most common. They also have wings, and sometimes they can even develop horns."

After hearing about the strange species, I gave Cedric thumbs up for coming to my rescue. I shot a triumphant look towards the girl, and haughtily said, "I told you it was hard to describe their species, I don't know what it looks like until it hatches, because each one is unique."

She looked at the pair of us suspiciously and huffed, "Fine, I was just saying."

"So, what's your name?" Cedric asked.

"Anna Lancaster, what's yours?" She replied.

Not quite ready to forgive being challenged, I grunted, "Alex."

"Cedric Diggory," Cedric responded with a natural smile.

"Wait, you said Lancaster, you wouldn't happen to be related to Taylor Lancaster, who plays keeper for the Appleby Arrows, would you?" I questioned.

With a proud nod, she replied, "That's my dad."

I mentally erased her from my list of nemesis and casually asked, "Is your dad here today?"

"No, my mom brought me, right now, dad is practicing for his next match."

Mentally disappointed that I wouldn't be meeting my favorite quidditch player, I asked, "Who is your mom?"

Anna's face fell and quietly said, "Barbra is my mom. I think she is friends with your mom."

"Does she have anything to do with potions?" I queried.

Anna carefully nodded

"I thought her name sounded familiar; I heard my mom talking to my dad about her the other day."

Anna narrowed her eyes and sneered at me, "Oh ya, and what did your mom say about my mom?"

Confused by her words, I replied, "Only that her apothecary was one of the best, and that's where she got her rarer ingredients from. Why? What were you expecting?"

Not expecting my response, "Oh," she responded in a small voice, "Yeah, her apothecary has a lot of connections and is able to get ahold of all sorts of ingredients."

After a moment of uncomfortable silence, I changed the subject. "So is there any possibility of getting tickets to see the Appleby Arrows, they are my favorite quidditch team.

"Maybe, I can always ask," Anna replied.

All of a sudden, my mom banged on my door and raged, "What do you think you're doing hiding in your room, I thought we had discussed you getting to know some kids your age."

Shooting an embarrassed look towards Cedric and Anna, I retorted, "I am hanging out with some friends."

Not believing me, she tried to enter my room but wasn't able to get past the locked door. After a moment of silence, the door was thrown open with a bang, she entered with her wand out and hair whipping about madly. Seeing that I did have company, her hair settled and she said righteously, "Well, it's nice that you're up here with friends, but everyone else is wondering where the man of the hour is, so get your butt downstairs or else."

"Fine," I gloomily responded. Turning to Cedric and Anna, "Let's go."

Surprisingly the rest of the party wasn't terrible; having Cedric and Anna by my side made the rest of the party go by in a flash. As people began to leave, a tall woman with blond hair came over and said, "Come on, Anna time to go."

As she and her mother headed toward the fireplace, I called out, "Maybe sometime, Ced and I can come and meet your Dad."

Seeing her mom's nod of approval, she said, "Sure, it'll be fun." Then she shot me a sarcastic look and mockingly said, "Maybe you can bring your magical beast of great power along," and then she disappeared in a green flash of fire.

Annoyed that she got the last word in, I turned to Cedric and sighed "Girls,"

"Girls," He agreed.

Luckily, Cedric and his father were among the last to leave, as they were on their way out. I thanked Amos, "Thanks for getting my Lamassu approved."

Winking at me, Amos replied, "whatever do you mean?" And then he grabbed Cedric and disappeared with a crack.

Later that night, I lay in bed, thinking over the day's event. I had met people from the books, but instead of characters, they were real people. What was I supposed to do? Should I tell them about their future and risk sounding like a crackpot?

Hell, maybe me being here alters the future, perhaps this universe is only similar to the book and not 100 percent accurate. Deciding I would need more information before acting, I put it out of mind.

Opening Fantastic Beasts and Where They Come From, I turned to the sections on Lamassu. Lamassu are protectors and guardians. Upon birth, they will create a lifetime bond with the first creature or person that they see. They are highly territorial and protective of what they consider family. It has been confirmed that they can see through most disguises such as invisibility cloaks and polyjuice potions. They also seemingly can sense when another is directing hostile thoughts towards them; it is unknown how they can do so. The ability to sense danger makes them effective protectors and guardians; it is currently unknown how they can detect threats.

Absorbed with reading the book, I didn't notice the red glow emanating from the patterns on the egg. The egg, seemingly annoyed that I wasn't paying attention to it, rolled into me. The egg settled down after I gave it my full attention.

A long two hours later, and I was barely able to keep my eyes open when I heard the egg begin to crack. My sleepiness vanished into thin air, and it was all I could do to stay still. A small piece of the egg broke off, and a paw emerged. From there, the Lamassu sensed freedom was within its grasp, and it increased its struggle, which broke the egg into many pieces. A small dark bundle rolled out and landed in my hands.

I brought it closer to my face to get a better look. It was catlike with black fur and tiger stripes made of gold, it's wings were covered with dark midnight blue feathers tipped with silver upon them. Small little black nubs adorned its head, and it let out an adorable cry and bit me on the hand.

"Ouch," not expecting to be bitten, I dropped the Lamassu on the bed and felt a wave of energy pass through me along with the knowledge that it was a female. Seemingly upset that I was no longer holding her, she mewled like a kitten.

Realizing that she was most likely hungry, I called out, "Lola."

With a loud crack, our house elf appeared next to the bed and bowed, "Yes, Master Alex?"

I hurriedly asked, "Do you have any food; I think she's hungry."

She smiled widely, happy to be of service, and snapped her fingers and a plate full of fish appeared on my bed, "Here you are, master Alex."

The furry creature launched itself off my hands onto the plate and began devouring the fish at an incredible pace. When all the fish was gone, she ambled back over and curled up in my hands and began purring contentedly.

Rubbing its head, I asked, "Now what should we call you little one." She cocked her head and looked up at me with surprisingly intelligent green eyes.

"Athena," I whispered, "You look like an Athena to me."

Athena nodded indicating her approval and promptly fell asleep. The next day I couldn't wait to show my parents how awesome Athena was. It was then that I discovered if I so much as set her down, Athena began wailing at the top of her surprisingly loud lungs. On day one, it was adorable, but as time went on, I found it increasingly annoying.