For the most part, no one brought up Avalon's boggart again—at least not while she was within earshot. She once came into the commom room and spotted Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode sitting on a couch laughing, only for them to stop abruptly and give her the side eye until she disappeared into their dorm. Draco tried to make her feel better.
"I understand. My father is pretty intimidating," he muttered as Avalon they walked to the Quidditch Pitch. He had reached out to slow the pace of her footsteps until they were separated from Theo walking slightly ahead of them, and his voice dropped down to a whisper. Avalon knew he was making sure that no one else would hear his confession. It took her by surprise. Draco Malfoy, scared? He had a 'reputation' to uphold. But as he spoke, Avalon was mentally picturing her father in the heat of their argument, and she wondered if Draco truly understood her pain.
She cleared her throat. "Has Lucius ever… you know…"
Draco turned to her, searching her face for the end of her sentence. "No, has my father ever what?" he asked, genuinely confused.
"Never mind. Come on, we'd better hurry up before you're late to practice."
Avalon was off before he could wonder what she meant by that, and Draco had no choice but to follow or risk upsetting Flint. He was known for making team members run for the slightest infractions. They caught up to Theo, who hadn't even noticed their slowed pace.
Theo looked over at Draco. "How long before you're done making us come with you to practice? I feel like it doesn't make you look as cool as you think it does. Besides, the two-person schedule we came up with is really starting to cut into my 'putting-off-homework' time, you know?"
"It'll be fun."
By the time they reached the Quidditch Pitch, the team was coming out with brooms in hand. "You're late, Malfoy! Grab a broom or start running!" Flint shouted. Draco sped up and joined the others. Theo and Avalon took their normal spots in the stands to 'cheer' on their friend.
After 14 agonizing minutes of watching one of the Slytherin chasers fail to catch the quaffle repeatedly, Flint sent the offender to the stands to watch the practice while one of the younger players came in as a substitute. Instead of just observing, however, the boy came to sit near Avalon and Theo.
"The name's Montague. Graham Montague. You lot are friends of Malfoy's, yeah?"
Avalon nodded, and Theo seemed to be weighing the pros and cons of each possible answer. "What do you mean when you say 'friends?' Do we hang around the same crowd? Yes. Would I want to be stuck on a desert island with the bloke? Absolutely not. Have we stayed up in the dorm at night talking about our fears? It's possible. But do I—"
"Yes," Avalon interrupted. "We're friends of Malfoy's. This is Theodore, and I'm Avalon."
Graham smiled at them. "Oh, I know who you are. You're the girl with the boggart in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Some girl in your year has been telling everyone about what happened." Her face fell, and he continued, "I don't usually concern myself with the gossip of the younger years, but… I'm making an exception."
"Oh."
Theodore squinted at the Quidditch Pitch, where the substitute Chaser was flying around in Graham's place. "So what's your deal, Montague? I mean, no offense, but you were bloody awful out there, and the alternate is doing a great job."
"That's rude, Theo," said Avalon.
"No, it's all right." The fourth year boy continued, with a laugh. "But I'll let you in on a little secret. I'm an excellent Chaser. I was actually just was looking for an excuse to come over and talk to you."
"Why did you want to talk to me?" Theo asked. Exasperated, Graham gave him a look, and Theo's eyebrows shot up after a moment. "Wait, you meant Avalon, didn't you? I see that now. Actually, I think I'm going to get a closer look at the practice." Theo quickly stood up and moved further down the stands.
Avalon glanced at Graham out of the corner of her eye. Although he was only a fourth year, he hung around fifth and sixth year Slytherins. She had seen him around before, in the common room or the Great Hall, laughing with his Quidditch buddies. Tall, dark hair, striking eyes. Despite this, she had never given him much thought before right now. "Why did you want to talk to me?"
"Is that not okay?"
"It's fine."
She was extremely aware of his knee pressing against hers.
Graham cleared his throat before speaking again. "Do you remember anything? From last year when you were in the Hospital Wing?"
"Is that why you wanted to talk to me? To ask me what I remembered about petrification?" Avalon asked. They watched as Lucian Bole, one of the beaters, smacked a bludger with his bat. It nearly hit flint as he flew towards the keeper with the quaffle tucked under his arm. "You've never talked to me before."
"I've wanted to for a while, actually."
Avalon didn't meet his eyes, but she was smiling.
His knee hadn't moved.
From down on the pitch, Marcus Flint noticed his teammate for the first time since sending him to sit on the sidelines. "Oi! Montague! I didn't take you out of practice for you to sit up in the stands and flirt with Malfoy's friends. Get your arse down here and start running."
"Sure thing, Flint."
Was that what they were doing? Flirting?
Graham stood up and bent over, pretending to lace up his Quidditch boots. Flint wouldn't be able to tell that he was stalling. "You know, Malfoy takes for ever to get dressed after practice. If you don't feel like waiting around for him, I could walk you back up to the castle."
"You're too kind, but I could never leave Theo."
"There are dangerous things out here. Can your friend protect you from a centaur, or a vampire?" Graham asked. He started stretching and winked at her. "You should know more than anyone not to go around by yourself."
Avalon laughed. "We get it, I was petrified last year. Is that the last joke I'm going to hear about it?"
"That depends on if I see you again."
"Oi! MONTAGUE!"
At Flint's next shout, Graham finally turned and jogged down the stands to the pitch, preparing to run laps around it. The minute he was gone, Theo came back and rejoined her. He gave her a look similar to one Daphne would have given her in the situation. "Are we going to talk about what just happened?"
"No, we are not."
"Okay."
ASGMTNDM
For once, Avalon was looking forward to having what she could only assume was a normal year at Hogwarts. There were no teachers with the Dark Lord on the back of their heads and no deadly snakes roaming the school putting students' lives in danger. There was the issue of Sirius Black being on the loose, but Avalon knew there was no way the man could get into Hogwarts, and he probably wouldn't be so keen to do so with Dumbledore around.
Things were going so well. She went to class, hung out with her friends, fought less with Pansy, talked to Graham, and blushed more than she'd care to admit. Avalon claimed she was only watching Quidditch practice for Draco, but he once fell off his broom and injured his hippogriff arm. Flint excused him for the rest of the day and sent him to Madam Pomfrey, and at the end of the two and a half hour practice, Avalon asked Graham where he had gone. The latter often came and sat with her in the common room when she was studying. His excuse was, as a fourth year student, he knew the material already and was a valuable academic asset to her. However, they usually ended up getting distracted from the textbooks, and talking about any and everything else.
On Halloween, the day of the first Hogsmeade trip, Avalon and her friends waited in Filch's long line to get permission slips for the village checked.
Daphne was bouncing up and down on her toes. "I have a list of things we should do! There's something for everyone on here: Zonko's for Theo and Honeydukes for Draco, Dervish and Banges for Blaise, Scrivenshaft's for me, Gladrags for Avalon, and then we go to The Shrieking Shack and the Three Broomsticks. That way, we can maximize the limited amount of time we have to—"
"Uhhh…" Avalon's voice trailed off. "That sounds really great. You obviously put a lot of thought into those plans. Are they concrete?"
"What are you asking?"
"Last week, Graham asked me if I wanted to go to Hogsmeade with him and I said yes because you're the best friend in the world and I didn't think you'd mind if I didn't see the village with you?"
Daphne's brow furrowed. "It's fine. It's not like we've been planning this trip for two years. You could send me a postcard from Madam Puddifoot's, or wherever it is that people go when they ditch their best friends for a random boy they only really started talking to a couple of weeks ago. I hope you have fun."
"Don't be like that, Daph."
"Like what? I said I hope you have fun."
Avalon smiled sweetly at her friend. "But that's not your 'I'm-okay-with-this' tone. How about this: I'll join you guys for the Shrieking Shack and the Three Broomsticks—without Graham. I'll buy you all butterbeer. Does that make it better?"
Daphne sighed. "Fine. I guess if it were me going to Hogsmeade with a boy, I would want you to be supportive. But I want every last detail about it later."
The boys gagged, and Avalon hugged Daphne tightly. Of course she would never say this, but Avalon was greatful that the other girl was so understanding, because it was similar to the time her sister did the same for a boy she liked, and Avalon had been nowhere near as understanding as Daphne.
Harry Potter passed them on his way up the stairs, sulking. "I heard he didn't get his permission slip signed," Blaise whispered. "He can't go to Hogsmeade. Sucks to be the boy-who-lived I suppose."
Draco cackled. "Staying here, Potter? Scared of passing the dementors?"
Crabbe and Goyle laughed.
As the line continued, Filch approved their permission slips and the third years were on their way. Avalon bid goodbye to her friends and began looking for the sign to the Hogsmeade Owl Post Office where she was supposed to meet Graham. She found it, but assumed he was still in the throng of students waiting to be allowed into the village.
"Avalon, hey!"
She turned and saw Neville coming towards her with a huge smile on his face. "Hey, Nev! How are you?"
"I'm great. We're on our way to Honeydukes now. Are you here by yourself?" Neville asked. The question of who he meant by 'we' was answered as Finnigan and Dean Thomas rounded the corner and joined them. They had clearly already been to Zonko's, if the parcels in their arms were anything to go by.
"No, I'm meeting someone."
Finnigan rolled his eyes and adjusted his grip on the box. "Neville come on, I want to get to Honeydukes and check out their supply of sugar quills. I always pretend to take notes in class anyway, I might as well get a snack out of it."
Avalon laughed, which only seemed to upset him more.
"Stuff it, Steele."
"This has gone on long enough. What's your deal, Finnigan?"
He frowned. "You honestly don't know what I'm upset about?"
"No!" She waved her arms, exasperated. "Like I said, I don't know what I did to make you upset. You haven't said a word to me all since the term started, and we didn't talk over the summer. Whatever I did, I'm sorry."
Finnigan turned and gave a look to his friends, and Neville stepped to the side and started a conversaiton with Thomas about something or other. He continued. "After we got back to King's Cross last year, you told me to write you. And I did. I waited for a response. Not all the time, obviously, I had better things to do. I thought maybe the first one was bad, so I sent you a second letter… and a third. But your response never came. If you didn't want to write me, you shouldn't have brought it up at all. It was a dumb thing to do. And a bloody awful one as well."
"That's why you're mad?"
"Yes. Why are you laughing?"
Avalon quickly filled him in on the story of her invasive cousins going through her mail, leaving out the part where her father convinced them to do so and the fight that ensued. With the boggart story floating around, she didn't need those implications joining them. Finnigan's eyes widened when he realized that Avalon hadn't spent the summer ignoring his letters after all.
Neville and Thomas weren't the best at pretending not to listen to conversations, if the side-eye looks they kept shooting the pair were anything to go by. Finnigan ignored them. "I feel like I might have overreacted."
"Your response made sense, but next time you're mad at me for something I did or didn't do, talk to me about, you git. Don't just give me the silent treatment for two months." Avalon jokingly hit Finnigan's arm to emphasize her point. "So, are we okay?"
"Yeah," said Finnigan. He smiled at Avalon.
Neville sighed in relief. "Oh, I'm so glad that's over."
"Me too," added Thomas. He looked over at Finnigan. "You're not that much fun when you're brooding, mate."
"We'd better get to Honeydukes and beat the line. I still want my sugar quills." Finnigan adjusted his robe and then readjusted it. "Umm… Avalon, you can, er, come along too. I mean if you want. Want to come. Or want some sugar quills."
"I'm waiting for someone, but thank you."
He nodded, his head bobbing quickly. "I thought when you said that, you didn't want us to know that you were here by youself. Because I saw Daphne and your friends on the way here, on their way to Dervish and Banges, and I didn't think… you know…"
Didn't think she had other friends?
Hurtful. A little true, but still hurtful.
"No, I'm—"
"Avalon!"
They all turned to see Graham coming down the street towards them. He was talking to Slytherin keeper Miles Bletchley, but Miles turned and went in the other direction before Graham reached Avalon. She smiled and waved at him, and he gave her a quick hug. "This is Graham Montague. Graham, this is Neville Longbottom, Seamus Finnigan, and… Thomas. Sorry, I don't really remember your first name."
"It's Dean."
Graham started to put out his hand for them to shake, but thought better of it when he noticed their ties. His lip curled. "Gryffindors. I mean, I'm sure you're nice people. I'm not judging." He clearly was, and turned to Avalon in the worst whisper she had ever heard. "They're not coming on our date, right?"
The three younger boys exchanged looks. "Oh, you guys are on a date?" Finnigan asked after a few moments of silence.
"Not that it's any of your business, little boy, but yes," Graham answered.
Avalon didn't point out that Graham was only in the year ahead of them. Finnigan looked annoyed at the 'little boy' jab, but didn't respond to it. Neville and Thomas exchanged looks again. They were standing in an uncomfortable silence until Avalon leaned forward and patted Finnigan's arm. "I'm glad we worked things out. I'll see you lot around, yeah?" She let Graham take her by the hand and pull her further into Hogsmeade.
"I'm sorry, mate," Neville said.
Thomas nodded. "Yeah. It's too bad."
Finnigan scowled in his friends' direction. "I have no idea what you're talking about." But immediately after he said it, he turned and watched Avalon walking away with Graham and laughing at something he was saying to her. "Was it that obvious?"
"A little bit."
"Don't worry. Let's go get you your sugar quills."
They started walking in the direction of Honeydukes, hoping to distract him from whatever it was Avalon and Graham were doing.
ASGMSFDTNL
After the day's trip to Hogsmeade and the Halloween Feast, Avalon and her friends were extremely tired. In fact, Blaise didn't even take the time to sit in the common room with Enchanted Encounters and immediately headed to the dorm, with Theo following closely behind him.
"I'm so full," Pansy moaned as the girls got ready for bed.
"Shut up, Pansy." Daphne put her pillow over her face. "You won't be able to feel how hungry you are if you just go to sleep."
And so Pansy did, followed my Daphne, Tracey, Millicent, and finally Avalon.
They hadnt been settled for very long when the lights flickered on, and shouts could be heard throughout the dungeons. "Everyone, get up! Find some shoes and line up in the common room. Don't ask questions, we have to hurry. Come on. Move it!"
The yelling prefect stormed into their room. "Did you hear me? Get out of the bed!"
In a half-asleep stupor, the teens stumbled around, pulling on cloaks and slipping on shoes before falling into the crowd of Slytherins making their way down to the common room. After a quick head count, the prefects began leading them to the Great Hall.
"What's happening?" Daphne whispered.
"I don't know," said Avalon quietly. She tried to focus on the quiet sounds of the students' footsteps instead of looking at the walls and portraits around her. She had never seen the corridors so dark.
She hated the dark.
Daphne slipped her hand into Avalon's and squeezed, a silent message of support to the other girl.
In the Great Hall, the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff students were already there. Dumbledore was talking to Percy Weasley and a Ravenclaw girl that Avalon didn't recognize, the Head Boy and Head Girl. The students who had been there for a while began whispering to the others—Sirius Black was in the castle, and he attacked the Fat Lady in an attempt to get into the Gryffindor dormitory.
To Harry Potter.
"Of course a mass murderer breaks into Hogwarts to get to him," Blaise said with an eye roll. The others glared at him. Their rule of thumb was that if Draco didn't bring up Potter, no one else did. They didn't want to get him going. But it was too late.
Draco scowled and made a loud sound in ht back of his throat. "Merlin's beard! I'm so sick and tired of everything in this school being about Potter. It's getting old. The other students are always collateral damage to whatever diaboloical plot Potter is overthrowing, or whatever person Potter is defeating."
The others mumbled their quiet agreement. Dumbledore cleared his throat loudly.
"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," he Dumbledore told them as McGonagall and Flitwick closed all doors into the hall. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately," he added to Percy, who was looked smug. "Send word with one of the ghosts."
Professor Dumbledore paused, about to leave the hall, and said, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing..."
His voice trailed off as he waved his wand. The long tables flew to the edges of the hall and stood themselves against the walls. He repeated the motion, and the floor was covered with hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags.
"Sleep well," said Professor Dumbledore, closing the door behind him.
The hall immediately began to buzz excitedly; the Gryffindors continued telling the rest of the school what had just happened.
"Everyone into their sleeping bags!" shouted Percy. "Come on, now, no more talking! Lights out in ten minutes!"
Students started grabbing sleeping bags and arranging them on the floor near their friends. As they settled in, Pansy sighed loudly. "What's the point of us coming to school every year only to have our lives endangered over and over?
"Yeah," Draco added. "When I'm at home, I have the luxury of feeling safe, and I should have the same privileges here."
Some nearby Slytherins agreed.
"How did Sirius Black even get in?"
"What if he comes back?"
"Do you think he's going to kill Potter in his sleep?"
"The lights are going out now!" shouted Percy Weasley. "I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking!"
The candles all went out at once. The only light now came from the silvery ghosts, who were drifting about talking seriously to the prefects, and the enchanted ceiling, which, like the sky outside, was scattered with stars. Avalon stared up at the stars.
She thought it was interesting. Being in the castle with a mass murder/convict wasn't as frightening to her as being left alone with her thoughts.
Once every hour, a teacher would reappear in the Hall to check that everything was quiet and under control.
As Avalon drifted off to sleep, her dreams were filled with boggarts.
A/N: So it's been almost a month and a half since I've updated this story, mainly because I spent all day working on a musical for a summer camp where I worked, and I had to pack for college/move in to college. But I'm back.
A few things about this chapter/the story:
1) It's very long. I apologize, but of the three segments of the chapter, I didn't feel like any of them would do well as a stand a lone chapter because of both length and story structure/flow. Sorry.
2) Graham's introduction and development as a "love interest" (if you can call it that) for Avalon seems very speedy and rushed. Which might be annoying, but she's a thirteen-year-old girl, and he is a boy who is showing an interest in her at an age when things are usually over dramatic and shes still figuring out who she is.
3) Compared to Harry and co., Avalon's adventures probably seem trivial. But while Harry was annually saving the world, there was an entire school's worth of students going through their own problems.
So stay tuned for the next chapter.
