'Ian' the Annoying

'Ian' the Annoying

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The four of them stepped into the wooden hut that would be their home for six weeks. Six other people were standing around, practically doing nothing.

"Who are you?" The simple question came from a tall girl with bright hazel eyes and long brown hair. It hadn't been hostile, just curious.

"We're the other four in this cabin. I'm Sanna. This is Tash, Bryce, and Clay," pointing as she went along. Sanna saw that the three sets of bunks had already been taken, leaving another set of bunks and two single beds which stood side by side.

Tash followed her sister's eyes and saw the two single beds. When she moved towards them, she saw Sanna move with her. Clay saw them and snagged the bottom bed of the bunk. Bryce was left blinking by the door as the other three moved to claim their beds. He sighed and climbed to the top bunk.

Clay studied the room's occupants through half-closed eyes. The girl who had first talked to them went back to four of the other people, acting somewhat put out, but that wasn't what caught his eye. It was the boy in the bottom bunk at the far side of the room, who was surrounded by power his mother had taught him to see, the power he saw surrounding Tash, Sanna and Bryce. The boy wasn't part of the same group as the others were.

He had sandy blonde hair, spiked by what was assumably gel and had eyes like amber. He was sitting against the wall, slouched over a book. Clay knew that the others didn't like him by the way they cut him off using body language alone.

Clay was jerked out of his assessment by the boy lifting his head to look at Sanna. "Weasley!" Sanna jerked her head up from the conversation she was having with Tash.

"How did you know I was a Weasley?" She looked at him with a frown creasing her forehead. Her eyes widened and flickered around the room. Everyone was watching them. She grabbed Tash and headed outside. The boy followed them. Clay frowned, copying Sanna's expression minutes before, but stayed where he was. It wasn't his business and Tash could look after herself. Besides, he was comfortable where he was.

Bryce, however, didn't share Clay's view and followed them. When he got outside, he stepped to Sanna's side in silent support.

"Who are you?" Sanna looked questioningly at the boy in front of her.

"Chester." He didn't look like he was going to divulge anything else so Sanna sighed.

"Susanna. That's Tash. The guy's Bryce." Bryce raised an eyebrow but didn't take his eyes off Chester.

"I heard. So, what's a Weasley doing in a muggle camp?"

"I wanted to get out of Romania."

Chester nodded. "Fair enough. What about her?"

"Maybe my sister just dragged me along. Or maybe I thought a ‘muggle’ camp sounded like fun. Or maybe," Tash got a dangerous twinkle in her eye which made Sanna look smugly at Chester. “Maybe we aren’t even related at all, and just happen to look alike!” Sanna had just finished filling Tash in about Fred and George and their twins, and Tash thought messing with the rude boy would help her fit in well, prank-wise. Sanna’s grin made it appear that she agreed.

Chester raised an eyebrow but shrugged. "Fine."

"What has you so curious? It's not like you know the Weasleys or anything." Bryce spoke for the first time, glaring at the way the other boy was talking to his cousins.

"I'm Chester. Chester Zabini."

Bryce blinked and he snapped his fingers. "You're dad's in Azkaban! That makes you a filthy little Death Eater."

Sanna stiffened and took a step away from the boy. "Tash, get away from him. He used to follow Voldemort."

Tash frowned at Sanna then looked closer at Chester and her eyes softened. "What did he do to you?" Chester stepped back and Tash followed him. "He did something to you. What is it?"

"You don’t know anything. Nobody did anything to me. Why, you’re as dumb as a mudblood."

Sanna's eyes clouded with fury and she stepped up beside Tash. "Don't you dare talk to her like that! I bet you're just angry 'cause our family's honest!"

Clay stepped out of nowhere to stand between the boy and the twins. "I don't know what the hell your problem is, but don't insult people you know nothing about. Tash was honestly just trying to help you. She knows about this stuff. If she thinks that something happened to you and you're too scared to admit it, then you're nothing but a coward."

Chester blinked and looked slightly ashamed but didn't back down. "Well, muggle, I suppose I didn’t have to insult her. But right now, I have better things to do than consort with Weasleys." He stepped away from them and wandered off into the bush, disappearing from sight in a few moments.

Tash turned to Sanna. "What's Azkaban and what the hell's a Death Eater?"

"Azkaban is the most secure of the wizarding world’s prisons. It's one of the worst places in this world. It's guarded by Dementors, creatures that suck the happiness and joy right out of you so you'll never feel happy again and Death Eater's were Voldemort's servants during his reign as the most evil wizard since Grindewald. They were the worst scum to be around."

"Wait a minute though. Being the child of scum doesn’t necessarily make you scum too. Look at Uncle Draco, if what you've told me about Lucius Malfoy is true. Draco turned out fine, so why not Chester? Geez, Sanna, don't you think?" Tash threw a furious look at Sanna and jogged after the amber-eyed boy. Sanna sighed and collapsed in the dirt. This was too much.

* * *

Dawn smiled insincerely at Deargal as she came down to breakfast the day after meeting Luna and Seamus again. A feeling of dread filled her and held sway with every growing minute. She couldn't help it. Tash would never forgive her if she found out she had a long lost twin sister that lived in Romania.

"Hey Summers. What happened to you?" He asked in his thickly accented Scottish brogue.

Dawn gave an unconvincing smile and sat down at the table. "Oh nothing, Deargal. I’ve just been thinking about something."

"I thought I told you not to call me Deargal. Call me Ian." Dawn just kept on smiling. She used to like 'Ian' but now, for some reason he was getting on her nerves and she knew that it was somehow tied to Tash going away to summer camp.
"Sure. . . Ian." Deargal seemed pleased with that and went back to his breakfast. Dawn grimaced at what was on his plate: sardines and runny eggs. She couldn't understand how anyone could eat that stuff, especially for breakfast. "So, what are we doing today? Something good, and hopefully interesting?" Dawn needed to get her mind off Tash.

"Remember? Last day in Scotland. We're bumming around." Dawn held a groan in. Great, she thought. Now he's going to try and get me to go out with him. Before he could even get his mouth open again, she stood up from the table and grabbed her coat.

"I'm going for a walk. I don't know when I'll be back." She rushed out, ignoring Deargal's cries from inside. She needed to get away.

* * *

Tash followed Chester into the woods, trying to track him. She was rather used to doing this in Cleveland, in familiar territory, but here it was more difficult. She stopped when she heard a noise and looked around. She saw Chester ahead, starting to climb a tree. Judging by the look of things, he was used to scampering up to high places. "Chester." She thought that she’d whispered, but somehow he still heard her.

"What do you want?"

He was obviously expecting the others to appear along with her, so she took a step towards him to show that nobody else was there. "I'm alone. I left Sanna and Bryce back near the cabin. What did he do to you?" She kept on approaching until she stood at the base of the tree, with Chester sitting on a branch several feet from the ground. "I've seen it in plenty of other people, just like in you. Roll up your sleeves."

Chester leaned back. "W-what?"

"You heard me. Roll up your sleeves. He beat you, didn't he? Him or perhaps someone you thought was your father. I'm serious, roll up your sleeves." She took another step and he broke. He scampered up higher in the tree with the agility of a squirrel. Thanks to hours spent up in trees in Cleveland, she was able to follow him. "Chester!"

He didn't stop until he reached the point where he knew that the branches would no longer be able to hold his weight. "Go away. I don't want to talk to someone like you."

Tash sighed. "I don't know what you mean by ‘someone like’ me. I’m just me, and I know trouble when I feel it. You are in it deep, so tell me what the hell he did to you!"

“You’re a goody-goody who never has problems like me, that’s what you are.” Chester was trembling by now and Tash frowned. "It wasn't him!" he blurted out.

"It wasn't him? Then who was . . . no. That's horrible! She did this to you! Your own god- damn mother did this to you?" Tash was horrified. All she had when she was growing up was her mother and she couldn’t imagine being without her mother’s strength. This poor boy had been stuck with some woman made her son a nervous wreck whenever someone mentioned his father. "Who is she?"

Chester looked at her funnily. "Who is who? What do you want to know?"

"I want to know the name of the woman who would do this to someone of her own flesh and blood. Who is she?"

"Pansy Parkinson Zabini." Tash nodded and started climbing down. "What the hell are you doing now?"

"Going to go ask my sister who the hell she is. I'm going to find the bitch who did this and somehow find out what the fuck she was thinking!" Tash went faster, driven by adrenaline. "I'm going to set this straight."

* * *

Sanna raised an eyebrow as she saw Tash striding determinedly into the camp. "Sanna, I need to know. Who is Pansy Parkinson?"

"A filthy little so-and-so with the face of a pug dog, who would sell her own mother's teeth if she thought it would gain her anything." Sanna had heard plenty of Pug-face Parkinson from her Aunt 'Mione and Uncle Ron. They had plenty to say about that subject with only the slightest provocation.

"Typical. Only a woman like that would do something that cruel. She's the one who married Blaise Zabini. The bitch is about to meet her goddess-damned match!"

"Look, you psycho woman, what the hell are you going to do?" Chester came racing in and stopped. "Should I be warned?"

"Why? So you can warn the sub-human little beast?" Sanna was amazed. Her sister was really on fire. Sanna was only this passionate about family, and had assumed that her sister would be the same.

"So I know when and where I should bring the snacks. I wanna see her go down." Sanna blinked again. This was a real change in his attitude. What had her sister done to inspire such a turnaround?

Tash turned to Sanna. "You coming with me, or do I have to get mum?"

Sanna waved her hand offhandedly in the air. "Duh. I'm not going to leave my sister facing off against a quote sub-human little beast who's about to meet her goddess-damned match unquote." Sanna grinned at her sister's raised eyebrow. "Sorry. I guess my Uncle Draco is rubbing off on me."

"Right. Anyway, I want to get back at this bitch. Nobody deserves that." Tash thought for a while and no one dared interrupt her. She suddenly grinned viciously and looked at Sanna victoriously. "We switch."

"What?" Sanna blinked again.

"We switch places. You go to Cleveland and I go to England slash Romania. We learn completely about each other using the time we have here at camp, and then do our best to get our parents back together."

“What are you talking about?” Chester asked. “Are you sisters or not?”

"Yeah, whatever. We are sisters, but our parents split us up a long time ago, and we just found out about it,” Sanna answered before turning to Tash. “I thought this was about Pug-faced Parkinson."

"It's about both. I get to meet Dad and beat the shit out of this idiotic Parkinson woman. Not to mention you getting to meet mum." That sealed the deal. Sanna had no objections after that, but that still left Chester to deal with.

"What do you mean beat the shit out of her?"

"What did you expect me to do? Scold her? Of course I'm going to beat the shit out of her." Tash hmmphed and moved into the cabin. Sanna nodded and went after her, reminding her they were supposed to meet everyone at the seats.

* * *

Charlie was in agony. 'Why's it so bright?'

"Oy! Charlie boy, get up!"

He groaned. "Tonks. . . go away!"

"Why would I want to do that when you seem so happy this morning? Seriously, get up though. We have four other pissed Weasleys and one pissed Potter. You need to get up and kick them out." He groaned again and rolled over, only to fall off the table he’d been perched on. He moaned and sat up groggily. He saw Harry and Ron collapsed on opposite sides of the sofa. . . with Fred and George in between them. Bill was asleep on the floor, looking rather like he’d been pushed off the couch.

"Where were you sleeping?" Tonks blushed and Charlie grinned. "You were on top of Bill, weren't you?"

"Maybe," she grinned, leaving no doubt which way the ‘maybe’ went.

Charlie got out a half-assed laugh before the pain shot through his skull again. He groaned and cradled his head between his knees. "Tonks, you kick them out. I hurt too much."

"No way! They're you're brothers slash younger brother's best friend slash savior of the world. You do it." Either she wanted to avoid the others swearing at her in their hung-over state, or she was getting a perverse pleasure in making him move. He strongly suspected the latter.

Charlie got to his feet, clutching the table for support. He looked around and saw five empty bottle of Firewhiskey. "Where'd we get all the booze?"

"Dunno. But there's more in the bin."

Charlie's headache was now understandable. "Bugger."

The next half hour was dedicated to getting the others up. Getting them out of the door took even longer. After seeing Tonks off, Charlie went into the bathroom and started up a shower. He sighed in relief as the hot water washed over his body. Within a few minutes he was already feeling better and of course, feeling better also made him think about how Dawn was. He sighed again in acceptance that he was never going to get her out of his mind. He was doomed to die with the thought of Dawn on his mind.

He needed to get over her.

* * *

Sanna giggled at the expression on her cousin's face. Bryce was having the hardest time trying to go along with this. If they couldn't do this at camp, then there was no way that they'd be able to do this when they actually swapped. "Come on. If you can't pretend that I'm Sanna, then we're stuffed. Do this for Sanna. Please?" Tash pulled a look, using the full force of the blue eyes that she had inherited from her mother.

Bryce tried to put on a defiant face but sighed and caved in. "Fine. I'll try harder." Tash squealed and hugged him.

"You're one of the best cousins ever!" She grinned and hugged Sanna as well. "This is going to be so cool!" Tash was fully psyched. In less than six weeks, she was going to see her dad and even though he wouldn't know it was her, they'd still be together.

She stopped grinning when she bumped into someone. "Hey, watch where you're going!"

"Is the little mudblood witch trying to stand up for herself?"

Tash almost groaned. More prejudiced bastards, she thought. She knew that word would quickly spread through the camp that her mother wasn’t a witch, at least not the wanded type, but she hadn’t realized just how pig-headed some of the others would be. "Who the hell are you to get so nasty over nothing?"

"Hold up!" Cirri stormed over, grey eyes flashing. "What's going on here?" She glared at the blonde girl who had collided with Tash. "I know you think that being ‘pureblood’ makes you hot stuff, but when it comes down to it, you're no better or worse than the rest of us, 'filthy little mudbloods' or not!" Cirri spat the insulting three words out like they were poison. Bryce and Sanna winced, remembering the tales from their relatives about all that had happened while in school, especially regarding the year with the Chamber of Secrets mess. "Start behaving properly or I'll call your father, Miss Goyle." Cirri glared at the 'Goyle' girl and stomped off.

Tash snorted at the girl's last name. She wondered if perhaps the blonde’s first name was ‘Gar’ or something. It made her want to laugh, but Chester, who had decided hanging around with the Weasley girls and Bryce wasn’t such a bad thing, and Bryce both glared at the girl.

She smirked. "Ahhh. It's the adopted Malfoy. And, oh looky, how sweet. It's Zabini, following along with his tail between his legs like a good little mutt," the girl purred.

Chester backed up a step. “You’re a bitch, Heather,” Bryce said.

Clay stepped forward. "Watch it, Goyle. You never know when the muggles are going to strike back." Clay made to throw a punch but stopped a mere centimeters from her face. "You'd better hope I'm not the one that does."

He strode towards the 'gathering' place at the center of the camp and sat down regally. Tash grinned and followed her cousin with Sanna, Bryce, and Chester trailing behind her. Sanna caught up to Tash and tugged on her sleeve. "I thought Clay was quiet and well.... not scary. I'm not so sure now."

"Don't worry, sis. He only gets like that when the family gets threatened."

"So, he wasn't protecting Chester then. He was defending you, and I suppose me too, from the comment about us being half-blood?"

Tash nodded, and then a thought occurred to her. "Is this place supposed to be filled with witches and wizards? I mean, I thought this was a non-magic-y camp."

"It's supposed to be," Sanna said. "But I think somehow this camp got to be accepted by wizarding parents as a good place to send their kids here to get them out of the house for the summer. I’m sure plenty of the kids want to get away from their parents just as much." Sanna cast a sad look towards Chester. "Poor kid."

"He's our age, Sanna, and we're not exactly toddlers. Just leave him alone." Tash sighed. "I've seen too many people like this. Their parents are worthless scum. They don't even need to hit their kids to hurt them." Her voice was quavering and her eyes were wet. "They all seem to say that they never wanted the kid, that they should’ve have left them on the steps of someone who actually cared, or even just left them to die. And that's how I thought our dad must have been. I thought he didn't want me anymore so he left mum and me in England and ran back to Romania. I didn't know, Sanna. I didn't even know and so I thought the worst."

Tears were now trailing down Tash's cheeks. She shook her head and looked down so her hair covered her face. "Parents all over the world either give their kids up for adoption or just up and leave them. I've seen some kids who wake up in the morning and their parents have left. They've been left all alone because their parents couldn't handle it. It's not fair." They'd stopped walking and the others had caught up. Clay sighed and hugged her.

"Tash, shhhh. You know your dad didn't leave you. You know, even without him, you do have family. Uncle Xander's been both a father and an uncle to both of us. I know what it's like to want a dad, and you're lucky enough to have a chance with yours. You should be happy."

Tash sniffed and nodded. "Thanks Clay. You're right. We have Xander to look out for us, goofy as he may be. How could I complain?"

"At least your dad's not in prison."

"My aunt was," Tash stated simply. "She was in prison for three years, for murdering people. Way dangerous. She’s one of my Aunt Buffy's friends now. She always thought she was on the outside and that Buffy and the others never gave her a chance. Or so my mum said. So she went psycho crazy for a while, but she's back now."

"What's so dangerous about your aunt going psycho crazy?" Bryce asked.

"She's the second Slayer. My aunt Buffy stabbed her in the gut and put her into a coma at the end of her last year of school before she blew said school up." Bryce blinked. "Sorry, Scooby history can get confusing."

"Obviously. Anyway, I have to at least kind of understand it if we’re going to try to pretend that we're each other," Sanna commented. "So, as of right now, you are Sanna and I'm Tash. If we answer to our real names, we could blow the whole thing to smithereens and our parents will be angry at us and-"

"Who cares?" Tash huffed. "Tash, you're going to have to calm down. Dad won't be angry, right? And I'm pretty sure mom won't be either. So just, you know, chill."

Sanna nodded. "You're right, Sanna. Let's go!"

Chester shook his head. Boy, this was going to get confusing.