It was Christmas during first year when I finally made a friend. I didn't go home for the holiday because, really, there was nothing to go back to. I never got post from my family with the exception of a monthly newsletter from my mother, which was mostly about distant family members she was under the impression I actually cared about.
Granted, I had a few companions, but no one I was close to. No one I spoke to outside class. The other boys in my year kept to themselves for the most part, with the exception of Severus Snape who was quite unless he was around a red haired Gryffindor, during which his demeanor changed. But he was hardly the kind of person I wanted to surround myself with.
I would eavesdrop on conversations between Amycus and Walden and desperately want to be a part of the banter, but I wasn't going to beg. Actually, I wasn't even going to ask. I would wait for them to come to me, even if I had to wait an entire year. Is that selfish? Yes. Did I care? Absolutely not.
When Christmas morning rolled around, I stumbled into the Common Room to find Aria Avery, the first person in my year to be sorted. I didn't know much about her other than she was in all of my classes and she was as smart as she looked. She didn't participate as often as some of the Ravenclaws but she had corrected them on a few of their facts on more than one occasion. If I were easy to impress, she would have impressed me. I was under the impression that I was the only Slytherin staying behind for the winter holiday but apparently not. She was sitting beside the Christmas tree holding a letter with a soft smile on her lips. She looked happy which immediately put me in a bad mood.
I stumbled down the stairs and cast a pointless glance in her direction before helping myself to a dessert tray complete with strawberry tarts. I had intended on ignoring her presence when I felt the cushion next to me sink down.
"Happy Christmas." She said indifferently, her letter sitting on her lap.
"Yeah." I said, my mouth full of strawberry filling. "Same."
"You're Evan." She observed.
"I am." I confirmed, slightly annoyed by her matter of fact tone of voice.
"I'm Aria." She outstretched her hand in my direction.
I have to be honest; I'd never met anyone like her before. This was the first time anyone had introduced them self to me so I didn't quite know how to react. I know, I know. I'd been in school for four months already but no one had extended them self to me. And my logic has always been to let the other guy make the first move, the key word here being guy. But I was in no position to turn down a friend even if it was a girl. T
I brushed the tart dust off onto my pajamas and shook her hand. Her grip was firm and it took me by surprise. Girls never were my area of expertise. But I had never known one to approach a boy first, shake his hand and have a stronger grip at that.
"Why aren't you going home?" she asked curiously, reaching across my lap for one of the treats off my dessert tray. I'd be lying to you if I said I didn't want to smack her hand away.
"Why aren't you?" I wasn't about to volunteer information without getting some first. Plus, the time she spent explaining herself gave me the chance to fabricate a nice lie.
"I asked you first." She said simply.
"So?" I shrugged.
"You didn't want to go home, did you?" she said, a knowing – and annoying – smile on her face.
I thought about the pros and cons to this situation. We were the only two members of the house who had stayed behind. If anyone saw me in her company, there wasn't a thing that could be said about it. I didn't fancy spending my days with a female but I was tired of spending them alone.
"No, not really." I admitted. "You see, my father takes loads of holidays when he's not working. And whenever I'm home, we venture to different countries, that sort of thing." I lied coolly. "Well, for Christmas, he wanted to take my mum and myself to China and then Japan, maybe Indonesia. But I told him I wasn't interested. We went there a few years ago and it was so boring. I couldn't wait to leave. I told him that they could go if they wanted, spend some time alone and all. I'd just spend time with my friends."
Aria listened patiently, quietly as I spoke. Not to pat myself on the back – well, maybe a little bit – but I was always a great liar. I had my mother convinced that I could speak three languages once. I only knew a few simple phrases in German and Norwegian but it was enough for her to brag to the neighbors. When she found out I lied she was, of course embarrassed but I weaseled my way out of that one, too. I explained that I had no recollection of the incident and made her believe that she was going insane. I suggested she check herself into the infirmary, which she still thinks about doing. It's a handy little tool that I keep in my back pocket at all times. It was no picnic convincing people who had known me my entire life but I had a feeling that it would be simple to pull the wool over Aria Avery's eyes.
"China, huh?" she said, impressed. "That sounds amazing."
"I know." I said, leaning back against the black leather couch.
"That's nice of you to let them have a vacation alone." She nodded. "So, where were those friends you were going to spend time with?" she said, looking around the empty room.
Had I known she was so goddamned clever, I would have tried harder to hide my look of surprise. No one had ever called my bluff, I thought angrily, and this was one of my better lies. I balled my hands into fists and tossed her a glare that she laughed at.
"Fine then. What're you doing here?" I challenged.
"I didn't really want to see my brother." She said simply.
"You're brother?" I asked. When she nodded, I shrugged. "Why?"
"Because he's four and he's annoying. He wants me to play with him all of the time and I just didn't want to spend my holiday babysitting. I'd rather spend my time alone ... well, not so alone anymore." She considered.
"I didn't know you had a brother." I said absently, thinking more about my own deceased brother than her live one.
"It's not something I keep a secret." She said, looking at me with raised eyebrows.
I thought about mentioning Xaiver. I thought about how I would bring his name into conversation, if it were even worth it. There was this thing inside me that just needed to breathe and I couldn't compress it, not with Aria sitting right there. It was almost uncontrollable.
"I had a brother." I said before I could stop myself.
"Had?" That was another thing about her that drove me mad. The fact that she actually listened to what I was saying. She didn't just sit there and nod her head like any other girl would have. She asked questions. Questions I didn't want to answer. Questions I didn't even think about when I was alone.
"Yeah. He died a few years ago." I said without thought again.
"I'm sorry." She said genuinely. She had never spoken to me before but she seemed genuinely concerned. Her sincerity was almost enough to make me want to cry, something I hadn't done in years.
"I'm not." I said evenly without emotion.
I learned three things about Aria Avery over the course of those four weeks.
One, she was scared of spiders.
The night after Christmas, I heard a scream from the girls' dormitory. I knew that I wasn't 'supposed' to venture up there, but it was just Aria and myself. And her blood curling shriek sent me flying up the stairs without hesitation. Call it heroism, call it curiosity. I call it being nosey.
When I reached her bedroom, I found her curled up against her headboard, her eyes as wide as dinner plates, staring as what appeared to be a wolf spider, crawling along her footboard. Her face was white with terror and when she saw me, she wasted no time in instructing me to kill it.
"It's just a spider." I said, trying not to laugh.
"I don't care what it is! Please just get rid of it!" Aria said, her hands balled into fists and her eyes watery.
Without another word - and resisting the urge to crack a spider-related joke - I pulled my wand from my sleeve and levitated it out the window, watching it as it crawled along the window pane before turning it's hairy little body in the direction of the ground. Aria inched off her bed when I reassured her that it was two stories away.
"Why didn't you just get rid of it?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Because." She said, now turning a light shade of red as she stood up. "My wand was on the other side of the room."
I looked at her for a moment and tried again to stifle my laugh but couldn't conceal my grin.
"It's not funny!" She insisted.
"What would you have done if I weren't here?" I asked, my arm folded across my chest.
Aria fell silent for a moment, and tucked a lock of her thick, brown hair behind her ear. She looked at me squarely in the eye before taking my arm and leading me toward the exit.
"Let's hope I won't have to find out. Now come on, I'm hungry!"
The second thing I learned about Aria was that she loved to break rules just as much as any boy, but she was twice as careful not to get caught.
That same night she snuck me into the kitchens for a midnight snack. When I asked her how she found out where they were, she simply shrugged and said that she overheard a group of Hufflepuffs talking about it. Later on, she had pulled one aside and paid him to tell her how to get in.
One morning in the fall when she couldn't sleep, she came upon a very drunk and fumbling Professor Slughorn and watched as he emerged from a secret passageway. Eventually, she discovered that the passage lead to the southern most part of Hogsmeade and as a result, made weekly trips to Honeydukes.
Without using magic, she could build a house of cards and stand on her hands for three minutes flat. She told some of the scariest stories I had ever heard and the most remarkable thing about her was that she was genuine. I never got the feeling that she was trying to be impressive or showy. She never lied about anything as far as I could tell. All of these wonderful things she possessed made me envious of her. But not in the ways I was envious before. I didn't want to take anything away from her. I just wanted to know more about her.
Suddenly, I was no longer ashamed to be her friend.
When the snow began to fall and the castle got colder, we slept in the Common Room by the fire. One night, I woke up and found her sleeping so close to me I could smell her shampoo, which was soft and airy, like water lilies and peonies.
Then I learned a third thing about Aria Avery.
She was lonely, too. She didn't have to tell me this, but I knew she didn't have any other friends. She never ventured off with any of the other girls, and she kept quiet at every meal. Aria never gave me any indication that she was longing for someone to talk to, but I could see it in her face every once in a while. She would look outside at the snow and this quiet sadness would grace her features. She would mention one of the other students and a faint smile would fall on her lips. And when we slept in the Common Room, she clung to me as if I would disappear.
I'm embarrassed to say this but when her head was buried in my neck and her arms were slug across my shoulder, I never moved them, because I wanted her company too.
I was almost sad for classes to begin again. It didn't necessarily mean that things had to change, but they would. As soon as the other students arrived, Aria and I spoke less frequently, though for about amonth, once a week we went to Honeydukes together. We worked together on a few projects but our interactions weren't the same.
But the atmosphere had changed. When it was just us, things were different. And for a reason I'd rather not discuss, I wanted it to be just us again.
