I slowly open my eyes only to get blinded by the sun coming through a gap in the curtains. I frown when whatever I'm lying on moves. I look and see that I'm lying on Buckbeak. "Good morning Buckbeak" I say stoking his head. I don't even remember sleeping asleep on him.

I look around for a clock but there isn't on the wall. Better get up and see what time it is. Hopefully it's not too early in the morning. I sit up and stretch out my arms only to have a shooting pain go through my shoulder, but it's not my shoulder with my scar.

I move my top and gasp when I see that my shoulder is all bruised. I knew Harry grabbed me pretty hard but I didn't think that it would leave a bruise.

"I'll see you later, Buckbeak" he gentle knocks my face with his head. I stand up and walk out of the room, across the landing, down the stair and into the kitchen. I look at the clock on the wall and see that it's half 7 in the morning. I walk over to kettle and click it on and get everything I need to make a hot chocolate.

Once the kettle is boiled I make myself a hot chocolate and sit down at the table. I've been sitting here for about 15 minutes when I hear someone walk into the kitchen. I look up and see Harry looking at me. He doesn't say anything and starts looking in the cupboards and banding them closed when he's finished.

"Did I hurt you yesterday?" Harry ask, standing behind me. I shake my head for no, but he must have known I was lying because I feel him moving my top to reveal my shoulder. "Ava" he whispers.

He sits down next to me. "Look, I just want to say sorry for yesterday. I never meant to hurt you like that, or shout at you the way I did."

"It's fine, it was stupid of me to bring up my dad knowing how you feel about him."

"I still shouldn't have done it."

"Yeah well, what's done is done so let's just forget about it and move on."

He sighs, but nods. After 10 minutes of talking about anything, but yesterday, everyone else gets up. Mrs Weasley made us all pancakes for breakfast then she told everyone that they can visit Mr Weasley in hospital. I've decided to stay with Sirius because I think it's better if he spends time with his family, and Harry is closer to him than I am.

Sirius told me that the Animagus potion is ready and that there's meant to be a storm later, which is an important part of becoming an Animagus. I ended up putting a charm on the Mandrake leaf so that it stuck to the roof of my mouth since I ended up swallowing my first one. Plus that way, I could eat without swallowing it and talk without it falling out of my mouth.

I've also been doing the incantation that needs to be done every morning and every night leading up to the day of the storm. I'm really hoping that it works the first time because I don't know to do this all over again.

It's later in the day and everyone has gone to the hospital, so it's just me, Sirius and an house elf called Kreacher, who doesn't like us being in the house that much. He's called Hermione a Mud-Blood more than once, all the Weasley's are Blood-Traitors and me and Harry are filthy Half-Bloods, something that he's reminds us all on a daily basis.

Me and Sirius are just sitting in the kitchen at the minute. He's been telling me some lovely stories about mom and her time at Hogwarts. It sounded like she had a lot of fun with Lily, James, Sirius and Remus.

"Are you sure you still want to so this?" Sirius asks, as he stirs the potion.

"I'm sure."

Sirius goes into pocket and pulls out a small crystal phial. "You need to put your leaf in there, along with a strand of your hair" I nod and undone the charm on the leaf and put it into the phial, then I add a bit of my hair. Sirius adds something else, then shakes it up.

"Once I've mixed this to the potion, it should turn blood red" he says, taking off the lid. He pours it into the cauldron. I grin to myself when I see the potion going red. Sirius pours it all back into the phial and hands it to me.

"Don't drink it until you see a bolt of lightning, and don't stop doing the incantation. Ready?"

"Ready" he nods and leads me out to the back garden. It's raining but there's no storm just yet. I walk out into the middle of the garden and point my wand to my heart and start saying 'Amato, Animo, Animato, Animagus' over and over again.

"Keep going Ava" I hear Sirius shout over the rain. I nod, not that he could see me. It's raining so hard. Hopefully the lightning comes soon because I'm cold, wet and shriving.

"Amato, Animo, Animato, Animagus" I say for the millionth time. I jump when I bolt of lightning comes out of nowhere. I quickly open the phial and drink the potion. Once I've swallowed it, I carry on saying the incantation. I gasp in pain when my whole body feels like it's on fire.

"That's normal" Sirius says, walking over to me. "Just keep going."

"I-I can feel a-another heartbeat" I say breathlessly, before saying the incantation again.

"That's also normal. Just try not to panic and keep say -"

I look at Sirius when he suddenly stopped talking. I was about to say something but stop when it feels like I'm shrinking.

"Amazing Ava" Sirius breathed out. "Truly amazing."

"What?" I ask, only it wasn't my voice I heard, it was a squawk. What the hell?

Sirius laughed. "You're a phoenix, Ava. A beautiful orange phoenix."

I look down and see the body and legs of a phoenix. No way! It worked. It's actually work. I can fly. I open my arms, well wings, and fly into the sky. I fly around for a few seconds before landing back into the garden.

"Just concentrate on turning back into a human again" Sirius says. I close my eyes and thinking about myself turning back into me. I thought it wasn't going to happen at first, then I felt myself growing. I look at my hands to double check. Yep, I'm back to normal.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you" I say, giving Sirius a hug. He laughs and hugs me back. I pull away from, grinning. "I'm a phoenix. I can fly."

"I'm proud of you, Ava. Not many people get it right on their first try. Now, let's get out of this raining, I'm freezing."

Oh right, we are still outside. I was so excitedly about becoming a phoenix that I didn't realise that we are standing in the rain. We walk into the house and I head upstairs to take a nice warm shower.


It's a few days later and Hermione had turned up two days goes. We all went to see Mr Weasley yesterday, I wasn't going to go again but Mrs Weasley told me that Mr Weasley wanted to see me and thank me for saving his life. He's a lot better than he was the night of the attack. The nurse said that he's going to be fine and should be out of hospital sometime after Christmas.

We also saw Neville's there with his nan. They were visiting his parents, only me and Harry knew about what happened to them, so for Hermione and Ginny is was quite a shock. Neville's nan seemed to like me until I told her my name. I'm guessing Neville has told her all about how my dad treats him at school. He assured her that I'm not like my dad but that didn't stop her from talking to me like dirty.

Me, Harry, Ron and Hermione are just sitting in Harry's room at the minute and I'm telling them how I'm now an Animagus.

"Show us" they all say excitedly. I stand up and close my eyes and concentrate on turning into an phoenix. It must have worked because I saw their jaws hit the floor. I laugh and turn myself back to normal.

"Woah, Ava" Hermione breathed out. "That's honestly amazing."

"Does it feel weird?" Ron asks. "I mean can you feel yourself changing?"

"Yeah, it just feels like I'm shirking."

"And it doesn't hurt you?" Harry asks.

"No, I don't feel a thing."

Hermione was about to say something but stopped when there was a knock on the door. "Come in" Harry says. The door opens and Mrs Weasley walks in and looks at me and Harry.

"Ava dear, your father wants a quick word with you and Harry downstairs."

"That's this about?" Harry asks.

"He didn't say. Anyway, hurry up, he can't stay long."

We nod and leave the room. I wonder why my dad is here for? I mean I don't mind because I get to see him, but I'm a little worried on why he wants to talk to Harry too. We walk into the kitchen and see Sirius sitting at the table whilst dad is stood in front of it.

He looks at us. "Sit" he says, pointing to two chairs that are in front of him.

"You know, I think I would prefer it if you didn't give orders here, Snape. It's my house after all."

Me and Harry glance at each other before sitting down. "I'm here because the headmasters wishes for you two to study Occlumency this term."

"But I can already do that" I huff. I hate studying Occlumency. It gives me horrible headaches and the last thing I need is dad looking through my mind. He can not see the things I've been up to lately.

"I know, Ava, but Dumbledore thinks it would be for the best if you have a few lessons."

"What's Occlumency?" Harry frowns.

"Dad is a skilled Legilimens, which means he has the ability to read minds and -"

Harry looked at dad shocked. "You can read minds?" dad doesn't answer him and just rolls his eyes.

"And Occlumency is the art of shielding one's mind from invasion. So basically you just have to block him out of your mind or he can see anything he wants, which isn't a good thing when you've got stuff to hide."

Dad looks at me suspiciously. "Got something to hide, Ava?"

I glance at Sirius, then look back at dad. "No, of course not. I was just saying."

"Who's going to be teaching us?" Harry asks, making dad rise his eyebrow at him.

"I thought that would have been obvious, Harry" I say. He looks at me and I nod towards dad, which makes him groan.

"Wait a minute" Sirius says, making us all look at him. "If I hear that you're giving Harry or Ava a hard time in these lessons, then you will have me to answer to."

"Touching, Black, but haven't you noticed that Potter is just like his father?"

"Yes, I have" Sirius smiled proudly.

"Well then, you would know that he's so arrogant that criticism will simply bounce off him."

"Dad!"

Sirius stood up and pulled out his wand, which made dad do the same. "Sirius" Harry warns.

"I've warning you, Snivellus."

I glare at Sirius. "What did you just call my dad?"

"It's just a nickname."

"An insult is more like it. Don't call him that again!" I feel dad put his hand on my shoulder and squeezes it a little. It's his way of telling me to shit up without actually saying it.

Sirius looks at dad. "I don't care if Dumbledore thinks you've reformed, I know better -"

"Reformed?" I mutter. What does he mean by that? I look at Harry but he quickly looks away from me. He knows something about this.

Dad looks at Sirius. "Why don't you tell Dumbledore what you think, or are you afraid he might not take very seriously the advice of a man who has been hiding inside his mother's house for 6 mothers?"

"Tell me, how is Lucius Malfoy these days? I expect he's delighted his lapdog's working at Hogwarts, isn't he?"

"Speaking of dogs" dad says softly. "Did you know that Lucius Malfoy recognised you last time you risked a little jaunt outside? Cleave idea, Black, getting yourself seen on a safe station platform, give you a case-iron excuse not to leave your hidey-hole in future, didn't it?"

Sirius raised his wand. "No!" me and Harry shouts. We dive up from our seats and Harry rushes over to Sirius and I rush over to dad.

"Are you calling me a coward?" Sirius growled.

"Why, yes, I suppose I am" dad smirks.

Sirius pushed Harry to the side and went to dive on dad, but I pulled out my wand and pointed it at his chest. "Don't even think about it" I say in my best warning tone. Sirius looks at me and blinks a few times.

Just then the door opens and the Weasley and Hermione walked in, but they all stopped in their tracks when they saw us all stood there with our wands pointed at each other. "Ava, Sirius, Severus" Mrs Weasley gasp. "What are you all doing? Lower your wands this instant."

We all lower our wands. Dad looks at Harry. "My office, 6 o'clock, Monday!" then he looks at me. "Ava, a word" he drags me out of the room before I could open my mouth. He opens the door to the living room and pushes me in, closing the door behind him.

"Dad, what did Sirius mean by you being reformed?" I ask, before I forget to ask him about it.

"T-that was n-nothing" dad stutters. Stutters. Dad never stuffers. He clear his throat. "It's nothing to worry about."

I look at him. "You would tell me if something was wrong, wouldn't you?"

"Yes, of course I would sweetheart, but I don't have to because there's nothing wrong. Anyway, I've got something for you" dad says, going into his pocket. I look and see that it's a little black box. "It's from Malfoy."

"How is he? I mean I left without saying good bye to him or the boys, and I can't even tell them why I left in the first place."

"He's fine, Ava, and don't worry about that, I told him a cover story on why you had to leave early."

I nod and open the box. Inside was a mood ring. I laugh to myself. Am I that unpredictable that he needs a ring to tell him what mood I'm in? I put it on and it turns purple. I wonder what purple means? I look in the box and see that there is a letter at the bottom. Maybe this will tell me what the colours mean.

I open it an read it to myself.

'Ha, Ha! You thought I was going to write down what the colours meant. As if! That's for me to now and for you to find out'

I roll my eyes. Of course he wouldn't tell me.

'I've got something else I want to give you, but it's something I need to give you in person ;)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday and I will see you soon.

I love you.

Draco x'

I fold up the letter and look at my ring, which is still purple. Maybe purple means happy, I mean that's what I'm feeling at the minute.

"Fuck" I hear dad mutter. I look at him shocked. I've never heard my dad swear before. He looks at me. "I've got to go, Ava, but I will see you at school in a few days."

I give him a hug. "Please be careful in whatever you are doing."

"I will. I love you, my Ava."

"I love you too, dad" he kisses the top of my head, then walks out of the room. I sigh loudly before walking into the kitchen and seeing everyone sitting around the table.

"Ahh, Ava" Mrs Weasley says. "Just in time for dinner. Is your father joining us?"

"No, he's just left to do something" I say, and I see Harry, Sirius and Lupin glance at each other. "What?"

"Nothing" they all mumble.

"If you know something about my dad, then I want to know."

"It's nothing, Ava, honestly" Harry says. "We were just wondering where he's gone, that's all."

"You and me both" I mutter, sitting down next to him.

"He didn't say where he was going?" Lupin asks.

"No, he muttered fuck under his breath, then left."

"Did he - did he touch his arm when he swore?" Sirius asks.

I look at him confused. "Why would he touch his arm? Maybe he just suddenly remembered that he needed to do something."

"Yes, of course" Lupin says, giving Sirius a little. "That would be it."

"Yes, I often swear when I remember I've got to do something" Sirius says, whilst Harry nods in agreement.

"You lot are weird" I mutter. They just smile at me.

It's later in the day and me, Harry, Ron and Hermione are sitting in me and Hermione's room. Mine and Harry have just told them why dad came to visit earlier.

"Woah!" Ron gasps. "Extra lesson with Snape. I would rather have the nightmares, if I'm honest."

"I would rather have the nightmares too" I say. "I hate having Occlumency lessons, they always give me bad headaches."

Harry looks at me. "What happens in these lessons?"

"Dad will invade your mind and you have to try and block him out, or he will have access to all your memoires."

"How do you block him out?" Hermione asks.

"You have to discipline your mind and learn to control your emotions, if not, then you make it easer for dad to read your mind."

"He's going to give me a hard time, isn't he?" Harry sighs.

"I really want to say no, but yes. He won't make these lessons easy, but that's how it's got to be, I'm afraid. Dad will push you to your limit."

"At least he will go easy on you" Ron says.

I look at him. "He won't. Like I've just said, dad will need to push us to our limit in order to get it right, but controlling your emotion is key. Feel nothing, see nothing."

"How do you block your father out?" Hermione asks.

"I picture myself locked in a empty that that he can't get it, but I'll have to work harder this time."

"Why?" Hermione frowns.

"Because I'm with Draco, and there's somethings that a dad really shouldn't see."

"What have you and Malfoy been doing?" Harry demands.

"Eww! Like I'm going to tell you that!"

"I'll kill him!"

"Oh Harry, stop it" Hermione says, smiling slightly, before turning to me with a look that clearly said. 'Tell me everything later.'

I smile at her and nod.

"Why does Hermione get to know, but I don't?" Harry huffs.

I look at him. "Because you're my cousin and it's weird, and it's normal for girls to share that sort of information with each other."

"Are you being safe?"

"We aren't done that yet."

"Good! And you're never going to because I'm going to curse it off" I couldn't help but laugh. "I'm being serious, Ava!"

"Ok Harry" I say, rolling my eyes a little.

"So" Ron says, looking at me and Harry. "Do you think you will be able to block Snape out?"

"I will be able to, after a few tries - I hope so anyway. I'm not sure about Harry though."

"I'm not sure about me either" he sighs. "I haven't exactly been the best at controlling my emotions lately."

I saw him glance at me when he said that. "Yeah well, everyone has off days, don't they?" I ask.

"I'm having too many off days lately" Harry says. "I don't know what's wrong with you. I've just been so angry lately."

"There's nothing wrong with you, Harry" Hermione says. "You are sharing his emotions after all. He feels angry, you feel angry."

"I don't want to feel angry though, because when I do, I take it out on the wrong person" he glanced at me again. I also see Ron and Hermione glance at me, then at each other.

I was going to say something, but stopped when there's a knock on the door. "Come in" Ron says. The door opens and Mrs Weasley walks in with Ginny following her.

"It's time for bed now, so, boys, in your own room, please" Harry and Ron nod and say good night to me, Hermione and Ginny before leaving the room. "Good night, girls" Mrs Weasley says, closing the door.

"So, what have you and Draco been up to?" Hermione asks as soon as the door closed. I look at Ginny unsure whether she would want to hear it or not.

"Yes, I want to know too" she says, before I could ask her. I sit there and tell them everything that we have been up to. Some things went into detail and some didn't. They asked all kind of different questions, but I don't answer the questions about Draco though, since that's for me to know and me only!

We spend the next 3 hours talking about boys, relationships, sex and babies. It was nice and we ended up in fits of giggles, but Mrs Weasley told us off in the end because we were being too loud.