Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series or anything Harry Potter related!
Hey all! Sorry I've been away for a couple of days! I've been super busy! Hope you enjoy this chapter! :)
Adrien, it turned out, was much easier to convince than his mother. He nodded understandingly the entire time Dumbledore was explaining things to him, while he absent-mindedly played with the necklace that hung around his neck. It was identical to mine Athena's and mine, except that the pendant was white in colour. When Dumbledore got to the part about Voldemort's plans for him, Adrien merely stared. Dumbledore was very careful with his words, and was honest without giving him unnecessary, or terrifying information. After everything was explained, Dumbledore asked that Adrien went and packed him things.
Mrs. Morgan and her son went upstairs, while Dumbledore, Athena and I sat quietly in the living room. It took about an hour for them to return to us. I had a sneaky suspicion that Mrs. Morgan was trying to delay the moment that she would have to say goodbye. But alas, that moment came. They said a tearful goodbye, and then we were off.
The chilly wind outside meant that the quiet suburban street remained empty, allowing us to escape the prying eyes of the neighbours. We hastened away from his street, coming to the muggle train station that we had arrived at just hours ago. The long train ride took us back to busy, crowded streets of London that we had encountered earlier.
"Excellent! We are well ahead of schedule! We must make a stop in Diagon Alley," said Dumbledore. We walked to the Leaky Cauldron. Before entering, Dumbledore explained his plan to us. We would meet us back here in an hours time to pick us up. He had some business to attend to in the area, and he was sure that he would draw too much attention to us if we were with him. Instead, Athena and I would accompany the little boy to get him Hogwarts things and then reunite with Dumbledore after we were finished. We said goodbye and parted ways.
Our first stop was to convert his muggle money into galleons, sickles and knuts. Afterwards we strolled through Diagon Alley getting him a wand, robes, supplies, and finally, a small brown owl. His bright blue eyes were wide in shock at all the new sites. He talked animatedly about all the things he was seeing, while we explained different things that he didn't recognize. I could already see that I was going to get along well with this boy. There was something about him that reminded me of myself when I had first found out about magic. So full of wonder and excitement... simpler times.
Finally, weighed down with packages and bags full of new stuff, we headed back to the Leaky Cauldron to meet Dumbledore. He was standing cheerfully in the entrance, waiting for us. I was surprised to see that he was not surrounded with admirers, but I suspected that this was due to some clever spell that Dumbledore had up his sleeve.
We continued along the way back to Hogwarts. It was a slower journey that ours this morning, seeing as we now had a small child with us. Dumbledore had relieved us of the school things and with a flick of his wand the packages and luggage disappeared. We kept walking down the street, down to a more private, abandoned street. Dumbledore, after quickly glancing around to make sure we were alone, raised his wand and sent red sparks into the sky. I was about to ask him what he was doing when a black muggle care pulled up in front of us.
Dumbledore strolled over and got into the front seat. Athena, Adrien and I got into the back. I noticed that Kingsley Shacklebolt was driving the car.
"Ava, how are you doing?" He said in his deep, quiet voice.
"Not too bad, yourself?" I asked.
"Not too bad," he said with a small smile.
"Adrien, Athena, this is Kingsley Shacklebolt. He is a good friend of mine," said Dumbledore. They just nodded. Then, we took off. I wasn't exactly a fan of muggle cars. They seemed so dangerous, but then again, I was with Dumbledore so I knew I had nothing to worry about. The drive was long. It was slow and boring to be sitting in the car, but I was kept entertained by Adrien. He had continuous questions about magic, that he directed to me. I found it quite adorable, and I explained everything to him. He was especially interested in finding out more about Hogwarts. I explained the difference with the different houses, and the classes he would be taking.
After the extremely long drive, we finally turned into a muggle street. I recognized it as the street to Grimmauld Place. We exited the car, and Kingsley drove away. Dumbledore handed Adrien a slip of paper, that I assumed had the address on it.
Suddenly, the entrance to Grimmauld Place appeared out of thin air.
"Wicked," I heard Adrien mutter from beside me. We walked up to the front entrance and stepped inside the house. Dumbledore immediately started towards the kitchen. When we entered, I saw Sirius sitting at the dining room table.
"Dumbledore! Ava!" He exclaimed, jumping up to shake hands with everyone. He was clearly craving company.
"Please, sit down. I'll get some butter beer! Kreacher!" He yelled.
"Sorry, Sirius. No time to waste. We must get back to Hogwarts!" said Dumbledore. Sirius looked disappointed, but nodded in understanding.
"We must create a portkey that will take us back to Hogwarts," he explained.
"But sir, isn't that dangerous? What if somebody from the Ministry finds out?" Asked Athena nervously.
"Do not worry about that, my dear. I had made it clear that I would be going to pick Adrien up. The Ministry will not be able to check the location from which the portkey left, or how many people used it, so it will be ok," Dumbledore assured her. He then pulled a plate off the shelf and tapped it with his wand. It glowed blue for a moment.
"Adrien, just touch the plate with one finger. When I tell you to, let go," said Dumbledore. We all placed a finger on the plate. After a few seconds of waiting, the portkey glowed again brightly. I quickly said goodbye to Sirius before I suddenly felt a hook feeling behind navel. We were being pulled back to Hogwarts.
"Let go!" commanded Dumbledore. I removed my finger from the plate and felt myself spinning, until I made contact with a hard surface. I looked around and saw Adrien lying beside me, looking a little bit dazed. Athena had managed to land quite gracefully, and was standing beside Dumbledore. We were back in his office. I stood up and brushed myself off.
"Adrien, welcome to Hogwarts," said Dumbledore cheerfully. Adrien smiled happily, looking around the circular office.
"Well, our first order of business will be to sort you into a house. If you will please sit down," Dumbledore requested. Adrien took a seat on a small couch near a window. Dumbledore went to a glass cabinet and pulled off the grubby looking Sorting Hat, and placed it on Adrien's head.
I smiled slightly when he jumped violently, as the Hat began talking to him. Of course, I couldn't hear what it was saying but it was funny all the same. The Hat took several minutes talking to Adrien. I could hear him quietly muttering back to the Hat.
"Fine! It will have to be GRYFFINDOR!" the Hat cried. I jumped with excitement and gave Adrien a high five. I would be able to spend more time with him this way!
"Excellent! Now, Ava and Athena, if you'll please make your way back to your respective quarters. Ava, please send Hermione Granger back to my office. It will look less suspicious for her to show Adrien around the castle," he us. "And please use the cloak," he added as we made to leave the office. I pulled up the silvery cloak and threw it over the two of us. I dropped Athena off to her suite and continued back to Gryffindor tower. I expected Hermione to be sitting in the common room surrounded by books.
Of course I was right. Hermione was sitting at a table with about ten different library books opened around her. Typical.
"Hermione! Dumbledore wants to see you in his office. You're supposed to show Adrien, the new Element, around," I explained.
"Oh, alright. I really need to study though! Is there any way that you could do it?" she pleaded.
"I would, but Dumbledore thinks it'll look less suspicious if a prefect is showing him around. He doesn't want Umbridge to know what's going on, obviously," I told her.
"Fine, fine. I'm going," she sighed, getting up and leaving her stack of books sprawled all over the table. She left the common room. I knew that I should start studying now, but I decided that I had earned a bit of a break. Rather than going up the girls' stairs to get my book bag, I went up the boys' to Harry's dorm.
I knocked loudly at his door. After a few minutes, the door opened, and Ben was standing there.
"Ava! Did you get him?" Ben demanded.
"Yeah! He's in Dumbledore's office right now! He got into Gryffindor!" I told him.
"Awesome!" He cried.
"Hermione's gone to his office now. She's supposed to show him around," I explained.
"Ah, ok. Does he seem alright?" He asked.
"He's cute. He seems really eager to learn. I like him!" I told him.
"That's good. It's going to be difficult to teach him though. He doesn't know any magic yet," he sighed.
"He'll do fine. I'll work with him outside of class if I need to. He's going to do fine," I assured him.
"Alright. I hope you're right," he said, unsure.
"Oh, by the way. Where is Harry?" I asked.
"I think he's in the Great Hall, getting a late dinner. He got a detention, so I think he went there after," Ben explained.
"A detention? From who?" I demanded.
"Who do you think?" said Ben.
"UGH! That Umbridge woman is such a troll!" I cried. "Well, I haven't had dinner either, so I'll go and meet him!" I said, rolling my eyes. I said goodbye and started towards the Great Hall. When I got there I was greeted by a surprising sight. Harry wasn't alone. Sitting beside him was Cho Chang. She had her hand casually placed on his arm. She was giggling incessantly. To be clear, Harry looked pretty uncomfortable with the situation, and he kept trying to pull away from her. I decided to rescue him. I strolled over and sat down beside him.
"Hey Harry," I said, with a small smirk directed at Cho. I leaned over and kissed Harry on the lips forcefully. I hoped I didn't over do it, but I mean I had to show her who Harry belonged to here. When I pulled away I knew I hadn't. He looked a little bit dazed for a second, before coming back to his senses. "Oh, hi Cho," I added as an afterthought.
"Ava, you're back!" he said with a big smile. "How's your gran?" he asked, playing along with my cover story.
"She's doing alright. I'm sure she'll make a full recovery," I said. I wasn't looking at him. Instead, I continued looking at Cho, who looked disappointed at my sudden appearance. I linked my fingers with Harry's.
"Alright, I'll see you later Harry. Bye Ava," she added, throwing me a sour look before going back to the Ravenclaw table.
"Ava, I can explain..." Harry started.
"Don't worry, my dear!" I said, leaning over and giving him a quick peck.
"So, were you just a little bit jealous?" Harry asked, with a grin.
"I don't know to what you are referring," I said, playing dumb. He just laughed at me.
"Well, don't worry about Cho. I think she likes me, but I'm definitely not interested," he assured me.
"Good to know. I don't like how she was hanging onto you though," I admitted. "I think it's time that Cho moved on."
"Well, do you have any ideas?" Harry asked.
"Well, I was thinking a little while ago, that it was about time that Ben moved on as well. Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone," I suggested.
"You're suggesting that we hook them up?" asked Harry.
"I'll figure something out," I said distantly, already formulating a plan. As I thought I picked up a bread roll and started on dinner.