April 1, 1978
St. Mungo's Hospital, London, England

Mrs. Molly Weasley lay on her bed in the maternity ward, tired but happy. Her husband, Arthur, was seated next to her with a huge smile plastered on his face. He stood, still grinning from ear to ear, and set the bundle he had been holding in between the two Molly already had in her arms.

"I'm going to go and get the boys. I'll be right back," he whispered to her, and she nodded without glancing away from her precious bundles. He went out to the waiting room, where an eight-year-old Bill and a six-year-old Charlie were watching their two-year-old brother Percy. The older boys immediately started asking questions at the pace of a machine gun.

"How's Mum?"

"Is it a boy or a girl?"

"Is the baby ok?"

"Is Mum ok?"

"You were in there for a while, does it always take that long?"

"I bet it's another boy."

"When can we see it?"

Percy just ran over to his father and held his arms out to be picked up. Arthur did so and shook his head at Bill and Charlie, waiting until they had finished asking questions before speaking.

"Your mother is fine, no it doesn't always take that long, and we've got a bit of a surprise for you. Come on in, you can see them now."

The four of them went back through the door and into their mother's room, whereupon the boys' eyes widened at the sight of three babies in their mother's arms.

"Did you steal someone else's baby? There're three of them!" Charlie exclaimed.

"No, silly," Arthur replied, ruffling Charlie's hair. "They're triplets."

"What's that?"

"It means that all three of them were born to the same mum on the same day."

"Woah, cool! So we have three new brothers!"

"Not exactly," Molly said, finally looking up at them. "You have two new brothers."

"But why isn't the third one our brother too? Are you sending him away or something?"

"No, dear, you have a sister. Two brothers and a sister."

"What are their names, Mum?" piped Bill.

"This is Fred, and this is George," she replied, referring to first the baby in her right arm and then the one in her left. "And this one in the middle is Ava."

~T~

April 7, 1982
The Burrow, The Triplet's Bedroom

"Ava, George, I'm bored," Fred whined. "Let's play a game."
"Sure. What game?" George asked, sitting up from where he had been lying on the floor.
"I dunno. What do you wanna play, Ava?" Fred asked his sister, who was lying half on and half off her bed, with her head hanging upside down and her bright red hair cascading across the quilt.
"Hmmm," she thought, trying to decide on a game. "How about..." her eyes lit up with an idea, and the boys looked at her in anticipation. "Hide and seek!"
"Perfect!"
The three leapt up from where they lay and tromped down the stairs, nearly knocking down their brother Percy as they did so.
"Sorry Perce!" the three called back in unison, not slowing down a bit.

"Mum, we're going outside to play!" Ava shouted when they reached the door to the yard, stopping just long enough to hear the reply of "Alright dearie, but don't go too far and be back before dinner."

"Yes Mum," the three responded, and ran out to play.

"I'll count first, and you two hide." Ava told her brothers, and the two nodded. "One, two, three, four..." she started to count, closing her eyes, and the boys ran off.

~T~

Four rounds later, George was counting. Ava ran off as he began to count, making for a thick grove of trees not too far away. She found one that was easy to climb - even for a four year old - and clambered up the branches to hide in the leaves. I hope he won't find me. She thought to herself, and felt a rush of warmth flow through her. She shook herself, wondering what the strange feeling was, but then wrote it off as her imagination. After all, Mum's always saying mine is so big. She leaned against the trunk of the tree, nestled in a crook created by two branches and hidden by leaves.

~T~

"... Fifty! Ready or not, here I come!" George called, and he immediately started looking for his brother and sister. Not in the hen coop, not under it, either... Not in the garage... Not in the broom shed, he thought after checking those places thoroughly. He was about to leave the broom shed when he had a sudden thought. Wait a sec... he looked up and grinned. Sitting in the rafters of the shed, leaning on a supporting beam, was Fred.

"Found you!" George called, grinning. Fred grinned in return and clambered down from his perch.

"Now let's go find Ava." Fred said once he had reached the ground. "Where've you already looked?"

"Umm, the coop, the garage, and here." George said, and they nodded together before running off to find Ava.

~T~

An hour later, Ava was still sitting in her tree. What's taking them so long? I guess I found an awful good hiding spot. The boys had passed under her tree several times, but not once had they seen her. She had had to suppress a giggle when they had last looked in the grove of trees, and had heaved a silent sigh of relief when they noticed nothing. But now it was starting to get dark, and she was bored of sitting still, and her butt hurt from the hard bark, and she just wanted to be found. She climbed to a lower branch, one that was less hissed by leaves, in the hopes that the next time the boys went by they would see her.

~T~

As dusk fell, Ava heard the boy's voices from over by the house.

"Come on out, Ava, we give up! It's time to go in for dinner!"

She scrambled down the tree and started running for the house, glad she could finally move again. Her short legs carried her quickly to where the boys stood, still calling her name. She stopped right in front of them, confused.

"I'm right here, you can stop shouting," she told them, but neither of them seemed to hear her. She waved a hand in Fred's face, trying to catch his attention, but he didn't even blink.

"AVA!" George shouted. "Come on back to the house!"
"But I'm already HERE!" she shouted back, but neither of them heard her.

Fred and George gave each other a worried look, and together they made the decision to go inside and get their mum. Ava followed them, starting to get upset at the way they were ignoring her.

"Mum! MUM!" Fred called, racing into the kitchen.

"Yes, dear, what is it?" she asked calmly, stirring the pasta she was making for their dinner.

"We can't find Ava."

"Well you were playing hide and seek, weren't you? She's just hiding."

"But we've been looking for ages and we finally gave up 'cause it's time to come in, but she won't come out! She's missing, Mum!'" George insisted.

"But I'm not missing, Georgie, can't you see?" Ava asked, tugging on George's arm. "Can't you hear me, Freddie?" she continued, turning to the oldest of the three of them. "Mum," she pleaded, tugging on her mother's apron, "You can see me, can't you?" Tears were starting to leak from her eyes, and her voice was naught but a whimper. "This isn't funny, guys."

Figuring that the young boys were exaggerating, Molly ignored the urgent tone in George's voice and told him to go get their brothers to help look. So Fred and George went banging on Charlie and Percy's doors to get them to join the search for Ava. The older boys came somewhat reluctantly, thinking that perhaps the triplets were playing a joke and intended to lead them on a snipe hunt for Ava.

After a half-hour of searching, however, they no longer thought it was a joke. When their mother called them in for dinner, Ava was still missing.

"Where is your sister?" Molly asked them, as they all sat down at the dinner table.

"She's still missing, Mum." George replied quietly, eyes moist. "We looked and we looked, but she's gone."

"I am not." Ava said, but it was half-hearted after all the attempts she had made to get their attention.

"Still?" Molly asked, her voice going weaker.

"We couldn't find her anywhere, Mum." Percy said in a near whisper.

"We looked everywhere," added Charlie.

Molly went out to the garden and called for Ava to come in, to no avail. At this point every one of the Weasleys who was at home was worried, Fred and George most of all. Ava, tired of everyone acting like she wasn't there, finally went out to the garden and started walking down the path to town. Maybe someone there would see her.

~A~

Ava had never been to Ottery St. Catchpole before. Her parents had always kept her and her siblings away from the town and it's residents in the fear that the young children would let something about magic slip to a muggle. Consequently, Ava was very much lost.

She had gone into town and tugged on the arm or clothing of every single person she met on the street, but not a one of them noticed her. After turning down a number of streets she had, as any four year old would, lost track of what direction she had come from. She had ended up, quite by accident, at a railway station that reminded her of the one that her family had seen her brother Bill off to school at. There we go. If I get on a train, It will take me to Bill's school, and maybe he'll see me, her young brain reasoned. So she climbed up the steps to the train, took a seat in one of the compartments, and waited. Nobody else entered the compartment before the train started moving, so she was left alone to wait for what she knew would be a long trip to find her brother.

After looking out the window for a while, she grew bored of watching the countryside pass and began to fiddle with the copper bracelet her mother had given her for her birthday. It was a simple band of copper with a thinner wire wrapped around it, ending in a spiral. On the outside of the band her initials, AW, were engraved in the copper. It was a little big for her wrist, but her mum had told her she would grow until it fit. She had taken to wearing it for the past seven days since she had gotten it, and she often fiddled with it when bored.

When she got bored of fiddling with her bracelet, she looked out the window again. She didn't want to risk getting lost on the train if she left her compartment. This is going to be an awfully long trip.

~A~

"Approaching the last stop, The Great Western Railway, Reading. Please exit the train when it has come to a complete stop."

Ava heard the announcement and stood as the train slowed, glad her trip was finally over. She didn't know if Bill's school was in Reading -she didn't even know where Reading was - but she supposed that if that was where the train took her, that must be where Bill had been taken as well. She walked off the train as soon as it stopped and slipped through the crowds, still unseen and unheard by everyone around her. She exited the railway by the first door she found and stepped out into the open air of the streets of Reading.

She tried to ask someone if they knew where she could find Hogwarts, but she was still unnoticed by anyone in the crowd. She stopped trying to ask when she remembered that she wasn't supposed to let muggles know about magic. Instead she wandered the streets, looking for a place to stay until she could find Bill. The longer she stayed unseen, the more she thought leaving home was a bad idea. It was very dark, and she was very alone, and she was very scared.

As she turned another corner, she saw trees behind a brick wall. She ran to reach them, finding comfort in the trees that were so similar to the ones near her house. She climbed into a tree and sat in a cozy nook, watching the area around her. In no time at all, she had fallen fast asleep.

~A~

April 8, 1982
Forbury Gardens, Reading, England

"I don't see her parents anywhere nearby."

"Do you think she was here all night?"

"Shhhh, I think she's waking up."

The two voices stopped as Ava slowly opened her eyes. She looked down to see two elderly women looking up at her with curious eyes. Her heart filled with joy as she realized they could see her, but just as quickly it filled with fear. She didn't know where she was, her home was nowhere nearby, and two strange people were looking at her.

"Hello, dearie, what's your name?" one of the ladies asked, her voice kind. Ava just stared at her, not saying a word.

"We aren't going to hurt you, if that's what you're worried about. We just want to know your name," the second said after a moment.

"'M not s'posed to talk to strangers." Ava told her quietly, then clammed up again.

"How silly of me! That's absolutely right dearie, you mustn't be talking to strangers. My name is Agatha and this is my friend Beatrice. You can call us Aggie and Bea if you want. We were just going to our Thursday morning Bible study at the church right over there when we noticed you sitting up there in the tree, just like a bird. Naturally, we were curious as to what a dear little girl such as yourself was doing up in a tree so early in the morning."

Ava nodded, beginning to feel more comfortable with the ladies. Surely two old ladies couldn't be that bad. Noticing the more relaxed look, Beatrice spoke up.

"Why don't you come down from there? An old soul's neck gets tired looking up so much."

Ava hesitantly started down the trunk from her little nook, watching the ladies for any sudden movements. When she finally reached the ground, Beatrice smiled.

"That's better, Birdie. Thank you for taking pity on my poor neck."

Ava gave her a little smile back, and remembering her manners replied "You're welcome."

Agatha chuckled and looked Ava over again with an appraising eye. "You look a mite hungry dearie, have you had breakfast?"

Ava shook her head and looked down as her stomach grumbled.

"Well we can't have that, now can we," Beatrice proclaimed. "After all, the early bird gets the worm, and you, Birdie, are out quite early. Why don't you come with us to our Bible study? There'll be food there."

Ava slowly nodded and the ladies both smiled broadly. As they began walking to the church, Ava reached up and grabbed Bea's hand to hold. Be smiled down at her and they walked into the church.

~A~

"Hello everyone!" Agatha called cheerfully as they walked into the meeting room. A few other people were there, and a few rose to great the two ladies as they walked in.

"Good morning, Aggie. Good morning, Bea. How are you t- oh! Who's this?" a man asked, crouching down to look Ava in the eye. Ava moved to behind Bea's legs, only letting her head peak out to the side.

"This is our little Birdie. We found her perched out in a tree on our way in. She's hungry, so we brought her in so she could have some breakfast. Go on, Birdie, get something off the table." Bea told her, giving her a small push in the direction of the food. Ava scampered off to the table and started putting food on a plate.

"So what's the little one's name?" the man asked Bea, standing up.

"We're not sure, Pastor John. The sensible little think told us she wasn't to speak to strangers, and hasn't said a word since. It didn't seem to stop her from coming with us, though."

The pastor chuckled. "What do you plan on doing with her after the study?"

"I thought we'd take her to the orphanage we help out at. Maybe if we take her there, she'll feel comfortable enough with someone to tell them her name and where she's from. Someone must be awfully worried about her."

~A~

Ava sat near the door the entire time they were at the study, eating pastries until she was full. Aggie and Bea, she had decided, were nice. Perhaps they would help her find Bill.

"Come along, Birdie. We have to go someplace now." Bea called. Ava jumped up from her seat and put her paper plate in the trash can before going over to where Bea and Aggie stood.

"Do you want to tell us why you were up in a tree this morning, dear?" Aggie asked nonchalantly as they left the church. Ava looked at her for a moment before deciding that, if she wanted the ladies to help her find Bill, she ought to tell them that she was looking for him.

"I was looking for my brother."

"Ah! Is he a bird like you?"

"No, he's a human. His name is Bill, and he's at school right now. I came to find him, but I don't know where his school is."

"Do you know what the school's name is? Bea and I know just about every place nearby. Maybe we can help you find Bill."

"He goes to- oh, but Mummy says we aren't allowed to tell people 'bout Bill's school unless she says it's ok."

"Why ever not?"

"It's a secret."

"And who is we?"

"Me 'n my brothers. Fred 'n' George 'n Percy 'n Charlie, 'n when Ron gets big like me he won't be allowed to either."

"Well then, why don't you tell us your name, and we can ask the police to try and find your family."

"I'm Ava. Ava Weasley. What are police?"

"They help good people and find bad people to put them in prison so that the bad people won't bother the good people."

"Oh." Ava thought that sounded kind of like Aurors, so the police must be the right people to talk to about finding her family. Aggie called a cab to take them to the police department, and the three of them got in.

~A~

The police department wasn't much fun, Ava thought. A bunch of people asked her a bunch of questions, most of which she couldn't answer. Where do you live? What's your address? What do your parents do for work? Where do your brothers go to school? And so on, so forth. By the time Bea and Aggie took her away from there to go to someplace they called a children's home, Ava was tired of being asked about things she either didn't know or couldn't tell. Hopefully, at the children's home people wouldn't ask as many questions.

By this time, Ava was feeling awfully lonely. Even though Bea and Aggie were nice, she missed her triplets. She had never been away from them this long; in fact, the longest she had ever been away from them was a few minutes when they would set up pranks and needed to do things in separate places. Ever since birth, the three of them had been completely inseparable. But now she was on her own, and she didn't know when she would ever see her Fred and George again. A tear fell from her eye at the thought, and soon more followed. Bea, looking a little startled at her sudden outburst of crying, gathered Ava up in her arms and hugged her tight.

"It'll be ok, Birdie. We'll find your family. Until we do, you're going to stay here - see, we've arrived. Why don't you put on a brave little face like you had on this morning, and we can go meet Mrs. Eleanor. She's the head of this children's home."

Ava nodded and wiped her face with her hand, sniffling a little. Fred and George wouldn't want me to cry. They'd want me to think up some joke, like we always do when we're together. I'll just have to think up a prank for this Mrs. Eleanor as soon as I can. She gave Bea a watery smile and the older lady set her down so they could walk into the building. The went through the door and into the main office, where the receptionist greeted Aggie and Bea warmly. Then the ladies ushered Ava into Mrs. Eleanor's office and sat her down in a chair to wait as they made arrangements.

Mrs. Eleanor was a skinny woman who looked to be around the age of seventy. Her gray hair was pulled back in a tight bun, and she had a sharp no-nonsense look in her eyes. Unlike every other person Ava had met up to this point, Mrs. Eleanor did not smile upon seeing Aggie and Bea. Ava got the feeling that she should not mess with this lady, but that had never stopped her before.

She looked around the room as she swung her legs, taking in her surroundings. There was one picture on the wall behind the desk - a nighttime landscape - and the other walls were full of bookshelves. The desk was meticulously organized, with pencils and pens in separate cups and all of the papers in neat stacks. It was the office of someone who did not approve of disorder, and who would most certainly not approve of pranks.

Ava wasn't sure if she would like it here.

~A~

Weeks passed, and then months, but no Bill Weasley was found in any of the surrounding schools. Nor was there a record of any Weasley in Reading. As more and more time passed, the police and child services departments held out less and less hope that anything would come up. Ava stayed at the children's home, and she got to see Aggie and Bea a few days every week when the ladies came to help out. Mrs. Eleanor was just as Ava had first thought her to be - strict and disapproving of anything Ava thought was fun. She had no patience for Ava, especially after the young girl had proven herself a troublemaker. Though the pranks she pulled were less elaborate than the ones she had done with her triplets, Ava continued to joke and plot as often as she could. The humor made her feel closer to her triplets, as if by pranking she conjured up their spirits.

A year and a half after she had arrived at the children's home, Ava knocked a boy backward using accidental magic when he tried to bully her. They had been near some stairs at the time, and the boy fell down them, hitting his head and breaking an arm. Ava was mortified that she had hurt someone, but it was the last straw for Mrs. Eleanor. Within the week, Ava was sent to another orphanage a few towns away.

Throughout the next few years, Ava was shuffled from orphanage to orphanage, with intermittent stays at foster homes every so often. Most of her moves were marked with a burst of accidental magic, but some were just because of a particularly large prank. Occasionally the orphanage or foster home she stayed in was in France, and those times grew more and more frequent as time passed. Ava grew used shifting homes, to not really belonging anywhere, but she never forgot her family and her triplet brothers.

A/N

Hi everyone! Neither I, Dovewing123, nor Ginganinja294 own any of JK Rowling's characters, settings, or concepts. We are not making any money off of this, so please don't sue.