Ava P.O.V
It's almost 5 o'clock so I'm just making me way to Dumbledore's office. I've tried coming up with ideas on why he wants to see me, but I've come up with nothing. Hopefully I'm not in trouble or anything.
I knock on the door and hear a loud. "Come in" I open the door and walk in. "Ah Ava, you got my message, come in" I close the door behind me and walk over to his desk. "How are you?"
"I'm fine, sir, you?"
"I'm good dear" he smiles. "Enjoying your classes?"
"Yes, sir" I say smiling. "Although, it's weird not having my dad teach potions, but we are learning a lot in Defence Against the Dark Arts" I look at him. "Thanks for giving dad a chance, by the way. I know you were worried that he might be tempted to go back over there, but I don't think that he would do that. He loves me and mom too much to betray us - again" I add in a whispers.
Dumbledore smiles at me. "Are you and your father ok given everything that happened last year?"
"Yeah, we are fine. We talked everything over and I know he's working you for and not him, but my dad is safe though, isn't he? You know, with what he's doing?"
"Yes, Ava, he's perfectly safe. Your father knows that he's doing."
"Ok, good, because I dunno what I'll do if I lost him too."
"How are you and Mr Malfoy?" Dumbledore asks. "All good, I hope."
"Yes, we are all good, great even."
"And what about you and Harry?" I frown at him. "Well, I couldn't help but notices that you punched him in the face in front of everyone."
"Oh, that. I didn't mean to do that, I was just angry because he said some stuff about my dad, but we are all good now. He said sorry for talking about dad, and I said sorry for hitting him, so we are the best of friends again."
"Good, I'm glad" he smiles.
Just then there was a knock on the door. "Come in" the door opens and Harry walks in. "Ah, Harry, you also get my message, come in." Harry closes the door behind him and walks over to Dumbledore's desk. "How are you?"
"I'm fine, sir."
"Enjoying your classes, I know Professor Slughorn is much impressed with you."
"I think he overestimate my abilities, sir."
"Do you?"
"Definitely" Harry says, gripping his potion book.
"What about your activities outside the classroom?" Dumbledore asks, which makes me snort way louder than I meant it to be. Since when did Dumbledore take an interested in people's love life?
"Sir?" Harry frowns.
"Well, I noticed that you spend a great deal time with Miss Granger, I can't help wandering if -"
"Oh no" Harry quickly cuts him off. "No, I mean, she's brilliant and we're friends, but no."
"I think you're barking up the wrong tree there, sir" I say, looking at Dumbledore. "Besides, Harry as a thing for a feisty little red head."
"Shut it" Harry hissed, nudging me in the side, which makes me laugh.
Dumbledore smiles at us, then stops and suddenly stands up and walks over to a cupboard filled with little vials. "You must be wondering why I summoned you both here night, am I correct?"
"Yes sir" we answer, moving closer to the cupboard.
"What you are looking at are memories. In this case, pertaining to one individual, Voldemort, or as he was known then, Tom Riddle. This vial contains the most particular memory of the day I first met him. I would like the both of you to see it, if you would."
He hands the vail to Harry and we walk over to a silver plate that's floating in mid-air. I look inside and see that it's full of water, well, that's what it looks like anyway. Harry looked at Dumbledore, who nodded. Harry nods back and opens the vail. He pours it into the plate and the water starts swirling black.
Me and Harry look at each other before putting our heads into the water. All I can see it black smoke, then it suddenly faded away.
It was an early evening when a younger version of the Hogwarts Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, walked down the street holding his black umbrella to keep himself dry from the rain. He entered a yard that it's giant gate wrote WOOL'S Orphanage before he walked into an old tall stony building and an old woman walked to him.
"I admit some confusion upon receiving you letter, Mr Dumbledore" the woman said as she guided him upstairs. "In all the years Tom's been here he's never once had a family visitor" she said as she walked along with him to the narrow hallway.
"There have been incidents with other children, nasty things" she said before she stopped before a door knocking it and then opening. "Tom, you have a visitor" she said before she walked away leaving those two alone.
"How do you do Tom?" Dumbledore asked as he walked into the room, the boy looked at him suspiciously, before turning his back to him. Dumbledore walked to the wardrobe ready open it so he could put his coat in it.
"Don't" Tom said, as he turn to look at Dumbledore, stopping him in his tracks.
Dumbledore nodded as he walked to the bed and sat down, the young boy was sitting at his desk chair. The room was empty, there was only a few notes and a book along with a sea's picture and some rocks at the window.
"You're a doctor, aren't you?" Tom asked.
"No, I am a Professor."
"I don't believe you" Tom said and Dumbledore looked at him confused. "She wants me looked at, they think I am different."
"Well, perhaps they are right" Dumbledore said.
"I'm not mad" Tom argued back.
"Hogwarts is not a place for man people, Hogwarts is a school, a school of magic" he said, as he tried to understand him better, but Tom still didn't trust him. "You can do things, can't you, Tom? Things other children can't?" he asked and Tom seemed to trust him just a little.
"I can make thing move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want without training them. I can make bed things happen to people who are mean to me. I can make them hurt, if I want. Who are you?" he finally asked.
"Well, I am like you, Tom. I'm different."
"Prove it" Tom challenged him.
Soon his wardrobe was on fire and Tom smiled at the sight, but as the wardrobe was burning, or so it looked like, there was a sound coming from it.
"I think there's something in your wardrobe trying to get out, Tom" Dumbledore said.
Tom walked to the wardrobe that was still on fire and opened it talking out a silver box. Dumbledore stood up from the bed and Tom opened the box showing what was inside, as he place the items on the bed.
"Thievery is not tolerated at Hogwarts, Tom. At Hogwarts you will be taught not only how to use magic, but how to control it, you understand me?" Dumbledore said, as he started walking out the door.
"I can't speak to snakes too" Tom said and Dumbledore looked shocked by what he heard. "They find me, whisper things. Is that normal for someone like me?" Tom asked him as Dumbledore turned and looked over his shoulder.
Suddenly there was a black smoke and the memory stopped. I lift my head up and see that I'm in Dumbledore's office.
"Did you know, sir?" Harry asks. "Back then?"
"Did I know I had just met the most dangerous dark wizard of all time? No, if I had known, I -" he starts himself from saying anything else and turns to me and Harry. "Over time, while here at Hogwarts Tom Riddle grew close to one particular teacher, can you guess who that teacher might be?"
"You didn't bring Professor Slughorn back simply to teach potions, did you?" I ask.
"No, Ava, I didn't. You see, Professor Slughorn possesses something I desire very dearly, and he will not give it up easily."
"You said Professor Slughorn would try to collect us" Harry says.
"I did."
"You do want us to let him?" I ask.
Dumbledore looks at us and nods. We nod back and leave his office.
"I don't understand how a little kid like that could turn out so evil" Harry says, as we walk down the corridor.
"I know, but did you see that way he was acting? I reckon that evil has always been with him."
Harry looks at me. "How are we meant to let Slughorn collect us?"
"I have no idea. We could try and get close to him, maybe? You know, like try and get a detention or something."
"I don't think he would bother giving us a detention. He likes us too much."
"Oh right. I forgot that you're his potions prince. Actually, you're his potion cheater."
"I didn't cheat."
"You must have done. My dad told me what you were like in potions when he taught it, and you were awful, but now all of a sudden you're top of the class."
"Wow, jealous much?" he smirk.
"I'm not jealous" I huff. "I just want to know how you've suddenly got so good" I see him grip his potion book out the corner of my eyes. "It's that book, isn't it? Has that book got the answer in?"
"Of course not, Ava. It's just a book. Maybe Slughorn is just a better teacher than Snape."
"Yeah, Slughorn is a great teacher, but my dad is better."
Harry rolls his eyes as we carry on walking to the Gryffindor common room so we can tell Ron and Hermione about what we have just saw.
Today is the Gryffindor Quidditch try outs and Ron is trying out for Keeper. He's very nervous about it. Hermione is sitting in the stands, where I will be joining her soon, but Harry has asked me to stay with him. He's been made Quidditch Captain and he worried that no one will listen to him, so he said I could use my big mouth to tell them to shut up.
I'm just standing with Ron at the minute and he's already thinking about quitting before he's even tried out.
"You can't quit" I say, pulling him back before he could walk off. "I won't let you, besides, you haven't even tried yet."
"What if I make a fool of myself?"
"You won't make a fool of yourself. I've seen you play with Fred and George and you're really good."
"You think so?"
"I know so" I say smiling.
Just then Harry walks onto the field with Ginny following him. "Alright, everyone listen up" Harry says, but no one other than me and Ron are listening. "Attention, please" Harry says loudly, but everyone carries on chatting, so I put my fingers in my mouth and whistle really loud, making everyone cover their ears.
I smirk and look at Harry. "Continue."
"Thanks. So, this morning I am going to be putting you all through a few dills to assess you strength. Now, just because you made the team last year doesn't guarantee you a spot this year, is that clear?" everyone nods. "Ok, talk amongst yourselves whilst I'll get everything ready."
Harry walk off somewhere whilst everyone starts talking again.
"No head feeling, alright, Weasley?" someone says. We turn around and see Cormac McLaggen walking over to us.
"Hard feeling?" Ron frown.
"Yeah, I will be going out for Keeper as well, it's nothing personal."
"Really? A strapping guy like you, you have got more of a Beater's build, don't you think? Keepers need to be quick, agile" Ron says, right before Cormac catches a fly that was flying in front of my face.
"Woah" I whisper. How the hell did he even manage to catch a fly so easily? I glance at Ron and he looks even more nervous than before.
Cormac looks at Ron. "Oh, I like my chances. Say, do you think you could introduce me to you friend Granger?" he says, looking up at Hermione. "Wouldn't mind getting on first name basis, if you know what I mean?" he looks at Ron with a smug face.
"She already has a boyfriend" I say.
Cormac looks at me with slightly narrow eyes. "Who?"
Now it's Ron's turn to look smug. "Me."
Cormac was about to say something but stops when Harry walks back on to the pitch carrying a trunk.
"Everyone is the air, please" Harry says, putting the trunk on the floor. One by one they start flying into the air. Cormac give Ron a cocky look before joining the rest.
I look at Ron. "You're going to be ok. Just try your best and don't let Cormac into your head."
"I'll try" Ron mutters, mounting his broom and flying into the air. I walk off the pitch and make my way to the stands to sit with Hermione. When I reach the top I can see her sitting there staring at Lavender Brown. I walk over to her but before I could say anything, Hermione grabs my arm and pulls me down on the bench.
"I think Lavender fancies Ron. Look at her."
I look at Lavender and see that she's looking at Ron with dreamy eyes. "Doesn't she know that you're going out with him?"
"No! We haven't told anyone other than you and Harry."
"Maybe you should say something before she thinks she can have him."
"I know what to do" she smirks, before standing up. "Woo! Go Ron! You got this!" she shouts loudly. I think it's the loudest I've ever heard Hermione talk. She looks at me. "Come on, Ava, cheer for my boyfriend."
That's one way of telling her. Lavender glares at her in shock and anger, before turning back around. She smirks to herself before she gets up and storms off. She better not do anything to ruin their relationship.
Me and Hermione have been cheering for Ron but it's not exactly having the effect we wanted. He letting his nerves get the better of him and he keeps missing the ball. Stupid Cormac isn't helping either. Me and Hermione can hear him laughing and taking the piss out of him.
"We have to do something" I whisper to Hermione.
"Way ahead of you" she whisper, pulling out her wand.
"You can't hex him!"
She laughs. "Don't worry, I'm not going to. I just need to time it right" she says, putting her wand up her sleeve. I look at her confused, but she just smiles at me. Can't wait to see what she's going to do. I look Ron and see him flying down to the ground whilst Cormac takes his place in front of the rings.
The Chasers fly over to him and start throwing balls for him to save. He managed to save 3 balls with a smug look on his face. I thought he was about to save another ball but at the last minute, he went the opposite way and looked at his broomstick in confusion. I look at Hermione and see her smiling happily.
"Do you just use the Confundus Charm on Cormac?" she nods whilst smirking to herself and putting her wand away. Just then Harry blew his whistle making everyone fly down. "Come on, let's see how everyone did" I say, grabbing Hermione's hand.
We stand up and rush down to the pitch where we see Cormac arguing with Harry.
"But that's not fair!" Cormac says, rushing after Harry, who's trying to get away from him. "His sister didn't even try! I want to try out again!"
"No!" Harry says, turning to face him. "You saved 4 balls, Ron saved 5. Ron Keepers, end of story. Now, leave me alone" Harry goes to walk off but Cormac isn't finishes with him yet. He rises his fits and was about to punch Harry in the back of the head, but I quickly pull out my wand.
"Petrificus Totalus"
Cormac freezes and fells on the floor, unable to move. Harry turns around and frowns when he says Cormac lying on the floor. "What that -?"
"He was about to hit you" I say, putting my wand away.
"Oh. Well, thanks. Anyway, I just going to the changing rooms to see Ron, do you and Hermione want to come?"
We nod and start walking to the changing rooms. I glance over my shoulder and see Cormac still lying on the face, unable to move. I can't leave him like that. I pull out my wand and point it at him. I take the curse off him and he's able to move again.
He stands up and glares at me, but I quickly rush off before he could say anything. I walk into the changing rooms only to found Ron and Hermione snogging. I go to leave but they jump apart and look at me.
"Sorry, that's the second time I've done that. I'll just be off then."
"No it's fine. We can carry on later" Hermione says, making herself and Ron go red in the face.
"I promise I won't walk in on this time. Where's Harry anyway?"
"He's in one of the changing rooms, he'll be out in a minute" Ron says.
Hermione looks at me. "We are going back to the common room after this, you're more than welcome to join us, unless you have plans with Malfoy."
I shake my head. "No, I don't have plans with him. He's busy doing something with Blaise anyway."
"What's Malfoy and Zabini busy doing?" Harry asks, walking into the room.
"They didn't say, Draco just said he would see me later before walking out of the common room."
Harry opens his mouth but closes it when Hermione gives me a look. I look at her mouth 'thank you' She knows how annoyed I'm getting with Harry keep going on about Draco being a Death Eater.
We leave the changing room and head to the Gryffindor common room. When we walk in we see that it's empty, which is weird since it's only the middle of the day. I thought the common room would have been packed with people.
We make our way overt to the chairs and sit down in front of the fire where Hermione picks up the newspaper which I read with her. Harry pulled out his potion book and Ron seat there smiling to himself. We sit there not talking for about 20 minutes before Ron spoke up.
"Hey, do any of you know why Cormac missed that last ball, I mean, I thought he was going to save it but then we went the other way."
"Maybe he just missed judge it" Hermione says, looking at the newspaper.
"Yeah, maybe. He's got a bit of a thing for you Hermione, but he soon shut up when I said you're mine. If he does give you any trouble though, then just come to me and I'll sort him out" he says, kneeing over and kissing her cheek which make her blush and smile. I couldn't help but smile at them.
"Have you ever heard of this spell, Sectumsempra?" Harry asks as he shows me his potions book. I look at the page and see a recipe for a potion but all the ingredients have been changed.
"I knew it!" I say, before looking at Harry. "I knew that book was helping you in potions!"
He quickly moves the book away from me. "So you did cheat then? I knew it! I knew there had to be a reason on why you suddenly got so good. You little cheat!"
"Jeez, a simple yes or no would have done the trick" Harry smirks. I went to laugh but stopped myself at the last minute. Ron and Hermione, on the other hand, burst out laughing.
"What was that spell again?" I ask.
"Sectumsempra" Harry answered, showing me the page.
"It says it's for enemies. I wonder what it does?"
"I have no idea. Hermione, have you ever heard of it before?"
"No, I haven't, and if you had a shred of self-respect you would hand that book in."
"Not bloody likely" Ron says. "He's top of the class. He's even better than you and Ava. Slughorn thinks he's a genius."
"I want to know who that book belongs to, let's have a look" Hermione says, holding out her hand, but Harry doesn't give her the book.
"No, the blinging is too fragile" he says, standing up and hiding the book behind his book. I see him glance at the door, but before he could make a run for it, I stand up and grab the book off him. He tries to grab it back but I move behind the chair.
I open the book and read what's on the first page. "This book is property of the Half-Blood Prince" I look at Harry. "Is that what you're calling yourself these days?"
"Don't be so stupid" he snaps. "It was already written in there."
I look through the book as I walk around the chair since Harry is slowly walking over to me. I see that there are quite a few different spells on top of every other page, and I've never heard of any of them.
I look at Harry only to find him staring at me. "Just be careful with this book, Harry. All the spells in there are hand written."
"Why should that matter?" he frowns.
"Because it means they're not Ministry approved" Hermione answers.
"And you have no idea what they do" I add. "So don't get using any of them."
"I'm not that stupid to use an unknown spell, Ava!" he says, before holding out his hand. "Now, can I have the book back?"
"As you wish, cheater" I throw him the book and he catches it and puts it in his pocket.
"You're not going to let that go, are you?" he asks, as we sit back down.
"Oh, I think we both know the answer to that one."
"God, you're annoying!" he huffs.
"And now you know how it feels when you keep going on about Draco being a Death Eater."
"But it's true though!"
"No, it's not!"
"How do you know he's not one?"
"Because I've seen his arm and there's - nothing there."
I had to stop myself from saying that there's a bandage on his arm because I know that Harry will go off one and start saying that he's covering up his Dark Mark. Deep down though, I think that's exactly what he's doing. That's why I never questioned him when he said he cut his arm.
"Maybe he said a spell to cover it up before you saw him, or maybe he's using makeup or something."
"He wouldn't have had time to say any spell, plus, I would have heard him, and Draco doesn't have any makeup."
"Maybe he robbed some off you or his mother."
"I don't wear makeup and Draco would never steal from his mom, even if it is only makeup."
Harry looks at me. "All I'm saying is how can you be so sure that there's nothing there?"
"Because I said the counter spell that undoes the covering charm and nothing happened" I lied. "And he had a shower this morning and no makeup dripped off his arm" I lied again. Well, about the makeup dripping off his arm anyway.
"How do you know that he had a shower this morning?" Harry asks, looking at me suspiciously.
I look at him with raised eye brows. "There's only one way I would know that, and I don't think I really need to spell it out for you, do you?"
"You had a shower with Malfoy?" he growls.
I don't answer his question and stand up. "Anyway, I've got to go - ok, bye" I rush out of the common room before any of them could stop me. I really don't need that sort of conversation with Harry.