Ava sighs, she knew this would happen one day, but she thought she could just skip it.
"So does anyone know who the Brooks family is or what they are known for?" Her teacher looked around the class, ignoring Hermione who, of course, raised her hand. He fixed his eyes on Ava, raising a brow and jokingly asking:
"Perhaps you, Miss Brooks?"
Avas blood started boiling, every teacher in Hogwarts knew about her relationship with this side of her family, so she had all the right to be mad. Still, she kept her voice calm, not showing how mad she was at her teacher. She shrugged and answered: "Nah, never heard of them." Without responding to her, the teacher calls on Hermione.
"The Brooks family is one of the sacred twenty-nine, existing since one could think. Most of the Witches and Wizards practiced Dark Magic, especially Necromancy, the first Brooks in recorded history even created some spells to raise the dead."
"That's correct, very good, Miss Granger. Altough they aren't only famous for the Dark Magic they practiced, the Brooks had a huge impact on the ministry."
Ava tries not to pay attention, she doesn't want to hear anything about that disgusting pack. Unexpectedly McGonnagall pushed the door open and walked to the other teacher. They seem to talk about something, but not for very long. McGonnagall nodded and walked towards Ava, urging her to stand up. Ava understood and followed her, everything was better than sitting in this class. Minerva led Ava into her office and when both sat down, McGonnagall immideatly started talking: "So, Miss Brooks, I figured out what your punishment will be." She stops, pulling out a pen and a paper. She starts writing something and then continues talking. "You will have to go into the forbidden forest with Hagrid. It will be tomorrow evening. Please go to Hagrids Hut at 6. pm." She turns around the paper so it to now faced Ava. McGonnagall hands over the pen. "Please sign down there." Ava takes the pen and signs the paper.
"Why is it called forbidden forest if you continue sending students in it?" Minerva ignores her, just sending her back to class. Ava is pissed, while everyone else can go home and have vacation she has to go into a forest, how kind of McGonnagall. Even if she likes Hagrid, she simply is not in the mood for it. She needs to continue searching and doesn't want to walk around in some forest. She forces herself through the day, hardly staying awake. Especially in Divination, with the insane Miss Trelawny, who doesn't mean to be rude, but she is. But finally it's over, with her classmates already gone home Hogwarts seems so empty now, it's kind of creepy and the missing sunlight doesn't help that either. Ava still goes to Hagrid, weirdly motivated. "Good evening, Hagrid, nice to see you in one piece", Ava laughs as she hugs the half giant.
"Ava! Just when I started to worry about you."
"No need for that...soo, could we please hurry, I want to go home, well you know what I mean."
"Yeah sure, follow me."
Hagrids walks into the forest with Fang and Ava close by his side.
"Where are you going? I doubt that you want to go home."
Ava smiles at Hagrid.
"Nah, I won't go home, I'm still looking for something, so I'll be probably camping somewhere in the woods."
"Alone? Are you sure?"
"Yeah, i'll just scream when i get into danger", Ava ironically says.
"Wait here." Hagrid walks away, checking for something, but he quickly comes back to Ava.
"Alright, we're safe."
"What? Wait what are we even here for?"
"We're just checking if everything is okay. And it seems like it is, I'll just feed Aragog real quick, but you can leave."
Ava smiles again, she knew Hagrid wouldn't have forced her into staying too long.
"Thank you! I'll see you when I'm back, alright?"
Hagrid nods, waving her and walking deeper into the dark forest. Ava doesn't want to waste any time, she runs into her room, packs her things and waits for her teachers so she can drive away from Hogwarts with the train.
"Fuck this shit", Ava angrily mumbles. She tried to put up her tent for the fifth time now. She sits down on the slighty wet dirt, just to take a short break. She quickly stands up, remembering that she is kind of on the run. Ava raises her wand and began to walk in a wide circle around the place where her tent should stand, murmuring incantations as she went. While doing that she notices a small river, perfect for a bath. "Thank god now i don't have to smell bad for weeks", she thinks. When she is finished, she starts taking out a towel, still not having the nerves to try putting the tent up again. She heads over to the river and takes her clothes off, slowly placing a foot into the fresh water. With one fast motion she is now in the water, swimming around to warm herself a little. She swims over to the shore, grabs the bar of soap and starts to wash herself and her hair. She sits still in the water, just enjoying the fresh feeling on her skin and the way the moon reflects in the water. She wasn't sure but she thought she heard steps and someone talking. She decides to ignore it, but she is a little more carefull, in case she was right. A few minutes later she is very sure that she isn't alone anymore, the voices becoming louder and the steps closer.
"Hm, wait. I smell someone." The voice was quiet, but still familiar. It was Fenrir and he isn't alone. She hears the steps come into her direction so she quickly jumps out of the water, grabs a towel and runs to her safe space. It was very close because as soon as she seems to be safe for now, the Snatchers arrived at the river and among them a few men she didn't recognize and Scabior himself. Scabior walks to the pile of clothing that are laying on the floor, grabbing Avas shirt. He moves the shirt to his nose and takes a deep sniff, he knew whose shirt that was, he recognized it by Avas perfume. He squats down and touches the floor. "It's wet, she must be close. Check the area and be careful, I don't want to lose her again." He watched his men run into different directions and he himself followed the wet spots in the earth.
"It stops here, weird", he mumbles. He is right in front of Ava now, she quickly wraps the towel in her hand around her body, scared he might see her, although it is impossible. He pushed his hand into Avas direction, she quickly takes a few steps back, holding her breath. Scabior just growls and walks toward the pile of clothing again, picking them up. She doesn't want to know why he would take her clothes, but she is happy that she seems to be safe for now. Ava goes over to her tent, and finally sets it up correctly. Exhausted she places herself in her sleeping bag and closes her heavy eyes, she is too tired to even think about the Snatchers, she knows she is safe.