A/N: Hey there, people reading this (if any). I'm so sorry that I haven't been updating. I started this chapter in August but then school started, and then college applications and midterms happened. Yes, that's a crappy excuse, but now that that's all in the past and senior-itis is in full swing, I will be updating far more regularly to this story. This chapter is kind of a filler, it's pretty much just showing how Avalon is beginning to change following her time with the Weasleys, and the choices she's beginning to be faced with (which will play bigger roles later). I don't own any of the characters, settings, events, objects, or ideas you recognize, those all belong to the queen herself, JK Rowling. Without further ado, here is the next chapter of the Gates of Avalon (also I'm thinking about changing the name of the story, so if you have any suggestions feel free to leave them below).

Sitting in what had become their normal compartment on the Hogwarts Express, Theo, Blaise and Daphne could tell that something was wrong with Avalon. They also knew that she would tell them whatever it was when she was ready, and badgering her would do nothing. So they changed the conversation.

"How was Diagon Alley with your Dad?" Theo asked after a moment.

Daphne groaned loudly, but Theo scooted away from her before she could get a chance to elbow him in the ribs. Avalon didn't respond. She laid her head on the table as Blaise absentmindedly turned the page of the third book in the Enchanted Encounters series.

"He sent me with the Malfoys."

"I'm sorry," said Blaise. "That must have been difficult. I know how Draco can get when he's with his dad."

As if summoned by Blaise's words, the compartment door opened and Draco walked in, trailed by Crabbe and Goyle. The two larger boys squeezed themselves in, one sitting next to Daphne and the other next to Blaise, while Draco just stood in the doorway fuming. "I looked everywhere for Potter. I wanted to try out my snarkiest lines on him, but he's nowhere. Goyle, Crabbe and I searched every compartment. Do you think he finally got kicked out of Hogwarts?" Draco began to sound hopeful.

With a shrug, Daphne responded, "Maybe Crabbe and Goyle got confused and they searched the same compartments over and over."

"I searched with them."

"Well, please consider the face that we don't really care where Potter is," Blaise added. "I know that you have some sort of weird fanboy crush on him, but—"

Draco rudely continued talking over Blaise and sat down on Crabbe's other side, squishing Daphne and Theo further. "Now that I think about it, I didn't see Weasley either. It was just Granger sitting with Longbottom and the girl Weaselette."

"Still not interested," Theo muttered.

"Well, the mention of Weasley might pique the interest of someone in this compartment," Draco said. With a self-righteous smirk, he raised his eyebrows and watched as Avalon's friends looked at one another to figure out who he was referring to. "Care to explain, Avalon?"

If looks could kill, Draco would have spent the first few weeks of term in Neville's spot inside the hospital wing. Avalon avoided the stares of the other second years and wondered how she was going to wiggle her way out of the accusation.

She sighed. "The truth is, I spent some of the summer break with the Weasleys because Lucy desperately wanted me to get to know Charlie's family. It's possible that while I was there… I didn't completely hate the experience."

"You liked staying with the blood traitors?"

"Was their house as disgusting as we thought?"

"Did they give you actual food, or were they too poor to afford it?"

Avalon rolled her eyes. "I didn't complete hate it at the time. They sucked me in to their strange blood traitor circle. I wasn't used to being with a father who actually cares about his children, for example. But since I left I've come to my senses, and the next person to bring it up is getting hexed. Clear?"

"Clear," came the response from all her friends.

Since they needed a new topic, Theo pulled out the Exploding Snap cards he carried all the time, and Blaise pulled out the Enchanted Encounters book to read again.

Avalon stood up. "I'll be back in a bit."

"Where are you off to in such a rush? Didn't you hear me?" asked Draco, not looking up from his hand of cards and furrowing his brow. "Weasley isn't here, there's no need to run off like that to find him."

"Stuff it, Daddy's boy."

Avalon was gone before she could hear Draco's sputtering retort. There was only one person she wanted to talk to at the moment, and she had an idea of where she could probably find him.

When she did, his companions were less than thrilled to see her

"Tell me again why she's here?" Finnigan asked. He sneered across the compartment at Avalon, who was silently eating a chocolate frog. In response, she stuck out her tongue at him and made a face back.

"She's Neville's friend," answered Thomas. "And Neville is our friend."

Avalon smiled awkwardly at the Gryffindor boy for being welcoming, but tapped Neville on the arm. "Hey, I actually came down here because I wanted to talk to you. Could we step out into the corridor for a minute?"

"Oh, thank Merlin." Thomas breathed a sigh of relief.

Neville filled his hands with jelly beans and followed Avalon out of the compartment. "What's wrong?"

She proceeded to tell him the story of her summer: of her stay at the Burrow, of her trip to Diagon Alley with the Malfoys, and finally about the conversation she had with her Slytherin friends about all the above. "I don't know what to do, Neville. I don't know what I believe anymore. In one week, the Weasleys made me question the things my father's told me for twelve years."

"I wish I knew what to tell you," Neville said.

"Nothing really makes sense anymore. I liked being with the Weasleys and I didn't hate Ron at one point. But when I saw Ron and Ginny while I was with Draco… it felt like I was on the edge of a fence. I probably have to choose."

Neville ate some more jelly beans before responding. "I know this is all new and different for you. It's weird when things change, and it's okay that you aren't sure exactly what you want to do. But I'm a blood traitor, and you don't have a problem associating with me."

"I wouldn't call you a 'blood traitor.' At least not by Weasley standards."

"The point is, that you don't have to think about it. This is a different world from the one our pa—erm, the previous generation—lived through. There's no dark wizard forcing wizards to make some grand decision about their beliefs. Just live your life, and if Malfoy and Zabini don't like it, so what?"

So, they're my friends.

Instead of telling Neville this, she simply thanked him. "All right. I'm going to head back so I can change before we get to school. Finnigan and Thomas are probably in there thinking I hexed you or something."

"See you, Avalon."

As she made her way to her compartment, Avalon did some more thinking to herself. She understood what Neville was saying, and her Slytherin pals had come to accept him as being friends with Avalon. But he was the limit, the exception. And Ron? Ginny? So much as breathing amicably in the direction of a Weasley would have been a low point for even her. She had no idea what would happen. They could excommunicate her from the circle. Or worse… they could write home to her father.

But after the talk she'd had with Ron on their brooms… she didn't necessarily want things to go back to the way they had been before.

Am I the same girl I was last year? Have I changed? Was it a good change?

Whatever the final outcome, Avalon knew that this would be an interesting year.