Chapter Four

Ava woke up to voices. Not opening her eyes, in case they should see that she was awake –chatting in her frightened and half asleep state seemed like a waking nightmare- she carefully listened to the voices, registering them after a few moments of incomprehensible conversation.

"You'd have thought they'd have at least have told us that we were getting a new person in our dorm, wouldn't you?" One of the voices sounded almost offended.

"Totally, but I guess doing so in front of the whole school would've been over the top." Another voice replied.

"You two!" A far more hushed voice hissed, "she's sleeping, stop being so loud, or you'll wake her up."

Faint murmurs came from the other two, and a fourth voice made a noise of agreeance. Ava heard a pair of light footsteps approaching her side of the room and tensed, worried about the sudden presence near the bed. Then she feels something warm and soft fall over her, someone tugging up it to reach her shoulder.

"Lily, what are you doing? You don't know the girl and you're giving her one of your blankets?" The fourth voice whispers.

"I don't need to know her to know that she'll get cold soon. It's her first night here, I'd rather she not be uncomfortable that quickly. Plus, it's only temporary. She's asleep, what do you expect her to do with it?" The girl- Lily, still standing by Ava's bed, responded.

A conceding noise came from the other girl, and Ava could only guess that she was nodding. She heard Lily, as she now knew her to be, get into the bed next to hers. The other girls exchanged goodnight's as she listened, and eventually, with time passing slower than it ever seemed to have before, their breathing turned into light snores. Ava let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

Brushing her hair from over her face, she looked around the room quickly to check they were all asleep before she slipped out from under the blanket, still fully dressed from the day, and did her best to stay as quiet as possible whilst she pulled her shoes on. Clearly, the girls she was sharing a dorm with weren't all that bad, but she felt like she would suffocate if she stayed in there any longer.

Thankfully, the common room was empty when she went down, which seemed peculiar when she looked at the old grandfather clock standing by the portrait hole. It was barely past nine pm, but it seemed that all of the Gryffindor students had cleared off into their dorm already. She guessed they must have had a lot of catching up to do, although it was an unfamiliar concept. It also meant that she had managed to get a few hours of sleep, but she felt, if anything, more tired than before.

The castle wasn't so hard to navigate when the only aim was to get outside. Soon enough she found a door against the outside wall, granted it was small enough in comparison to the rest of the overly grandiose castle that it certainly wasn't the front door. It wasn't her intention to be picky regardless, a side entrance – or perhaps exit- sounded a million times more convenient than anything she could picture the front door to be.

When she stepped outside, the cool air twisted her hair around her head lightly, and she took a deep breath. Not far away, she could see the lake that she knew to be on the grounds. Professor Dumbledore had warned her away from the giant squid during his talk, but if anything it made her more excited to meet it.

Shivering a little, she made her way down to the lake, passing through a small collection of trees to find somewhere to sit. At the edge of the lake, she stopped to sit looking out, cross-legged on the bank. She leant her face into her hands, breathing slowly and letting her mind go blank to release the flood of nervous energy she had spent all day collecting.

Distantly, there was a bout of raucous laughter. She scrambled up with an undignified squeak, darting behind the nearest tree and peering round to find the source of the noise. A group of boys were making their way through the trees, very undoubtedly heading in her direction. She wanted to slap herself for not paying enough attention to notice them quicker.

The boys pressed closer as her thoughts raced frantically, looking for a way out. When they got too close, she pressed behind the tree entirely. With very little time to think of a better solution, she shifted into a little grey and orange fox, as average as she could think to make herself in that moment. When the boys rounded the tree, three of the four headed past her to sit at the lakeside, whilst the other, apparently rendered completely oblivious in his amusement from whatever boisterous discussion the group had been having, flopped down next to her against the tree.

After a moment he calmed down enough to glance away from the other boys, running a hand through his hair as his eyes rested on her frozen form. For a second he looked startled, but then his mouth pulled into a wide -albeit slightly lopsided- grin, his eyes sparking behind his glasses.

"Aww! Guys, look, there's a fox!" He called to the other boys, a few meters away by the lake. Ava was surprised to find his hand petting her head gently, but the complete lack of hesitation on his part was enough to snap her out of her stupor. She scampered backwards and flattened her ears to her head before taking off through the trees, winding a little bit off path so that they couldn't see her heading towards the castle.

"James, you idiot!" A rough voice called out by the lake, followed by yet more laughter. She lingered around the school grounds as a fox all night after that, the fur providing some very welcome warmth. She didn't want to venture too far away from the castle, in fear that the might not be able to find her way back; which was frankly, ridiculous, considering the rather imposing size of the castle, but the concern was still there.

Eventually, she ended up in the same spot as earlier, although thankfully enough the boys -other students without a doubt- seemed to have vacated long ago. Curled up under the same tree to watch the sun rise, she started to look upon the experience in a more amused light. What kind of stupid do you have to be to pet a –supposedly- wild fox?

Remarkably, she found that even at the crack of dawn, there was food in the great hall. Most importantly, at the crack of dawn, there were no other students in the great hall. She peeled her eyes up the different tables until she found what she was looking for. Coffee. Back home, coffee beans were something she had grown, using charms to keep the plant small enough to fit in the tiny greenhouse set up against the side of the cottage, yet another thing her father had taught her. Enough to get her along by herself, which she didn't really want to think about. She had grown to like coffee, especially in the time after her father left, when she would spent days feeling too aimless to eat or sleep.

With the way her nerves were eating at her in the school, she figured she would need a lot of coffee. Every time she would hear a noise as she was sat down to finish her mug, she would jump, reminded of how she had no clue where she was supposed to be seated in the hall. Four identical tables, no students, and yet she was only supposed to be at one of them. But which one.

When another student finally did walk into the hall, mid yawn, with their yellow tie dangling untied around their neck, Ava thought it might be best to get on with the day herself. It would only get harder to avoid the other students anyway, there was, after all, enough of them.

When she reached the dorm again, after getting lost briefly looking for the common room, she was startled to find another person awake. The bleary-eyed redhead, seemingly in the process of meticulously unpacking her trunk on the bed next to Ava's, seemed just as surprised to see her walk in.

After a beat, her face seemed to light up. "Oh, hey! You must be our new dormmate, right? I'm so sorry we were so late in after the feast yesterday." The girl seemed to emanate enthusiasm. Ava couldn't return the sentiment.

"It's fine." Her voice was barely audible as she turned away from the girl to get her school uniform from where she'd shoved it under the bed last night.

Despite the muted response, the other girl continued on quite happily. "The other girls are impossible to wake up this early, but I'm sure you'll meet them later. I'm Lily Evans, but of course you can just call me Lily. What's your name?"

"Ava..." She paused before quickly tagging on the last name she and Dumbledore had agreed on using, "Bloom." She could only hope that Lily didn't think anything of her hesitance. Before she could say anything in return, Ava clutched her uniform in her arms and rushed into the bathroom on the other side of the room, closing the door behind her quickly.

At least that could have gone worse, she thought morosely as she changed into her uniform. The uniform itself was fine, but she couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed when she looked at herself in the mirror. In places it was too baggy for her tiny physique, and she couldn't help but feel like a child trying to fit herself into something she's not. She was glad when the long Gryffindor robe swamped her, easily pulling to cover the uniform underneath.

Lily was sat, then dressed in her uniform too, on her bed when Ava walked in. Upon seeing the grey haired girl, she jumped up, beaming once again.

"Hey! Since we're both up, do you want to come and get breakfast with me?"

With a small pang of guilt, Ava told her "I've already had breakfast." She figured that the coffee probably counted.

"Oh, okay," Lily's enthusiasm seemed a little dampened, "well, just tell me if you need anything, it's been nice to meet you. It'll be fun having another Gryffindor in our year."

Nodding a little bit, Ava gave a half wave as she grabbed her bag and left the dorm, trying her best to not come off as too stand-offish. She'd rather not make enemies of anyone she would have to live with until the end of her schooling, but she wasn't looking to be friends with them either. A tinge of sadness bit at her thinking about Lily, who seemed to have the best intentions at heart, but she knew that not getting too close was the best thing that she could do.