The weekend passed at the pace of a funeral March for Avery. She had attempted at first to be mature and go about her normal routine, pretending her embarrassing attempt at making the Hufflepuff quidditch team and her even more embarrassing tantrum had never happened, but by lunch time on Saturday, she decided she had no qualms with wallowing anymore.
She had been sitting with Marilyn, poking at her lunch, but hardly eating, when Marilyn said, "for what it's worth, I can't believe how poorly you did." Slowly, Avery turned to face her friend, hurt etching lines in her face. It came from out of nowhere, and the harshness of it stung her deeper than she would have admitted.
"Oh don't be so sensitive," Marilyn scoffed. "It was a compliment. I just meant that you are such a good player it's hard to believe you did badly. Don't linger on it."
"Well excuse me for being 'sensitive' but that was a terrible way to phrase it," Avery spat, looking back down at her meal.
"Its quite alright," Marilyn replied, either not detecting Avery's tone, or, more likely, purposefully ignoring it. Whichever it was Avery didn't care, it was enough to make her push herself into a standing position and leave the table without another word. As she left, she noticed Fred and George giving her matching sheepish looks, but to her relief they did not follow her. She wished they hadn't the night before, too. Although she was grateful for their helping getting back to the common room, she was terribly embarrassed of her outburst. She hadn't cried that hard and done something that reckless in her entire life; the whomping willow easily could have turned her into mush with one feel swing of it's branches. And the fact that it was over quidditch made her feel even more foolish. She should have remained stoic and polite, but she had acted like a toddler who had been told it was nap time. She should've just accepted she didn't make the team and went to Fred and George, who were kind enough to come and cheer her on, and asked to be a part of their business again. But after them seeing how childish she could be, she wasn't sure she could ever look them in the eye again, much less work with them.
So she made her way down the common room, still miserable, but holding herself together nicely in front of anyone she saw. She was heading straight through the common area to her dorm when she noticed Anne, the new Hufflepuff keeper, sitting by the fire, writing a letter. No doubt it was a letter home, gloating about making the team. Avery kept walking, white hot anger and shame burning it's way from her stomach and up her throat. She knew it wasn't Anne's fault, but she couldn't help but hate her in that moment. Anne would more than likely remain the house keeper until she graduated, so unless she made some sort of huge mistake or bowed out, Avery would never have a chance to make the team as a keeper again.
When she got to her room, sat down, and made to drag the curtain around her four poster, when she spotted her new Cleansweep in the corner, where she had tossed it in frustration the night before.
She stared at it, crestfallen. She had spent all she had on that broom and now she wouldn't even be able to use it, but after a few minutes of feeling sorry for herself, she realized who could.
Grabbing the broom, Avery made for the common room, glad to see that Anne was still cozy by the fire, quill between her teeth. Avery walked over and stopped just in front of her. When Anne looked up, Avery spoke.
"Listen, I know I wasn't a very good sport yesterday, and I'm sorry. You flew beautifully and I know you're going to make a great keeper. I bought this broom to use for the season, but since I won't be playing, I would really love it if you used my broom." She held out the Cleansweep to Anne, who's mouth hung open.
"Oh no, I couldn't," she said, eyes wide.
"Yes you could, and you should. I saw you're riding a 260, and if you're that good on that old of a broom, I can't imagine how well you'd do on this. Hufflepuff needs to win this year. But it's just a loan. I like to ride in the summer," she explained. Anne held out her hand and took the broom from Avery.
"Thank you, Avery... I'm sorry-" Anne began, but Avery held up her hand and stopped her.
"You have nothing to be sorry about. You're fantastic and I'm sorry if how I acted made you feel otherwise, even if just for a moment. I'm very sad not to be part of the team," she paused, fighting to keep her voice from breaking, "but the better keeper won and I look forward to seeing you and the others play this season. Congratulations again," Avery ended on a note of finality, turning and retreating back to her room.
She felt a little better after that, knowing that her broom would be put to good use and that it would help the Hufflepuff team during the season. And apologizing made her feel a little better about her outburst, too, although not good enough for her to leave her room the rest of the weekend. In her pajamas she kept her curtains drawn, doing her homework, and reading a little ahead into her potion books, bookmarking pages she thought might be helpful to Fred and George. She still wasn't sure she could face them, even just to tell them page numbers, but it was nice to focus on something other than her failure.
On Monday morning Avery dressed quickly and quietly a half hour earlier than she normally would have. She wanted to have breakfast alone, or at least no where near Marilyn. She had told Avery through her half drawn curtains that she needed to "lighten up," but Avery remained silent until she heard Marilyn's retreating footsteps. She needed to be upset for a bit, and she was worried if she ate with Marilyn she would feel guilted into letting the whole matter go, and she refused to let that happen.
Crawling out the portrait hole, Avery was surprised to see the twins were also awake and waiting for her near the portrait of the fruit bowl.
"Hello, Avery... Alright?" Fred asked. Avery shrugged.
"Fine, fine," she said with a nod, shoving her hands into her pockets, not sure what to do with them. The air between them was tense and it made Avery feel guilty. She wished again that they had just returned to their common room after the tryouts instead of following her.
"We were wondering if you wanted to eat with us in the kitchens today? You know, avoid the crowds in the great hall."
"It's six a.m. It's not exactly a madhouse at this hour," Avery chuckled, but reached over and tickled the pear regardless. If they had gone to the trouble of waking up so early, she didn't want to be rude by declining. Besides, this completely eliminated the chances of running into anyone she didn't want to see.
The three filed in to the kitchens and were ushered to a table by the over-accommodating house elves, who wasted no time in shoving plates of eggs and toast at them. They ate stingily in silence for a few moments before George spoke.
"We're really sorry about your not making the team," he said. Avery glanced up and saw he was looking at her very solemnly. She sighed deeply.
"Its alright. I'm just sorry about how I acted afterwards."
"We didn't realize it meant that much to you," Fred added, looking down at his eggs.
"Yeah, well..." Avery trailed off, not sure how to vocalize how it felt or why she cared so much. So instead she poked at her eggs also, letting the silence hang between them.
"We know you're still upset, but we also wanted to let you know that we would love to have your help, if you haven't already made other plans for your free time," George said.
"While I was moping in my pajamas all weekend? No," Avery scoffed, still pushing her eggs around her plate. "Actually, the most productive thing I did other than homework was mark some pages in my potion book that I thought might help with the snackboxes." As soon as she said it, the twins went from solemn to ecstatic.
"Really!? Brilliant! I mean," George stammered, putting his sober expression back on, "I'm still sorry about quidditch, but, it's just... really nice to have you on our team." Avery smiled at him and took a bite from her breakfast, unable to admit that she was glad of that, too.
As planned, Avery, Fred, and George met that night and Tuesday night that week to work on the skiving snackboxes. And while Fred and George practiced quidditch Wednesday through Friday, Avery found herself in the room of requirement anyway, either to flip through the books or to do her own homework. It was a nice getaway from the Hufflepuff common room, where Marilyn was often lurking. She hadn't again attempted to apologize, but Avery had often noticed her eying her expectantly, both in the common area and in their dorm, but Avery refused to talk first. As far as she was concerned, Marilyn's comment had been rude, no matter how well intended, and she deserved a real, face to face apology. So, other than seeing her in class and in the evenings and mornings in her dorm, Avery didn't go near her.
Over the weekend, Avery and the twins worked in the lab and created several different variations of a candy called the nosebleed nougat, and that Monday, the twins sat her down and told her it was time they tested it out.
"Alright. You have fun with that," Avery said with raised eyebrows, sliding the platter back across the table towards the brothers.
"Are you trying to tell me that you don't have the confidence in our products to taste them?" Fred asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Actually, quite the opposite. I am so positive that the product is going to work that I don't want to try it because, lets face it, nosebleeds are no fun."
"Look," George said, arching an eyebrow, "we have three variations. We'll each try one. It's as fair as fair can be." He reached over and lifted one of the pieces of nougat, which had been labeled "type one," and bit into it. Fred and Avery watched him closely, and after about two minutes, there was still no blood, but his nose had began to turn a deep, deep red color.
"I don't think type one is working. Your nose is just really red. Trying the antidote half, see what happens," Avery reasoned, pushing the "type one" antidote half towards him. George wasted no time in biting into it, only his nose didn't get any less red. In fact it's redness only seemed to be accentuated by the fact that it suddenly began to swell rapidly, like a clown's nose.
"Oh bollocks, that's not good," Avery said worriedly, racing over to the medicine cabinet, looking for something that might help. She found a bottle of shrinking solution, and ran back over to the table. George was cursing under his breath, hands on his face, trying to contain his now softball-sized nose, and Fred was laughing hysterically next to him. Using the dropper that was inside the bottle, Avery droppered some of the solution onto George's nose, and it shrank quickly back to it's normal size. It was still quite red, but that seemed to be gradually fading, too.
"Thanks Avery," George sighed gratefully before slapping Fred on the back of head, as he was still chortling on the stool beside him.
"Your turn," George said bitterly, pushing the plate over to Fred. He took a bite in between laughs, chewed, and swallowed. They sat and waited, but after ten minutes, nothing happened. His nose or any other part of his body, as far as they could tell, changed.
"Huh, must've been a dud," Fred said shrugging. With a smirk, he handed Avery the third nougat sample. "Enjoy."
Swallowing hard, Avery took a bite of the sugary sweet candy. It certainly tasted good, she thought. Again, they waited about ten minutes, but nothing happened.
"Well that was a little disheartening," Fred muttered, and Avery had to agree. She had hoped there would be at least a little blood so they would know they were heading in the right direction, but after putting so much work into the candy and not getting any indication of how well they had done, she couldn't help but feel a bit crestfallen.
"Seems type one is our best hope so far though. It had some reaction, and that's something," George chimed in, whose nose was now back to it's normal shade. "I think it'll have to be enough for tonight, anyway. It's getting late," he went on, looking at his wristwatch. It was half past eleven, and if they were caught out of bed at this time of night they would easily lose points and gain detention.
"Agreed. We'll just have to work on it more tomorrow. I'll try to see if I can find anything helpful in between class," very replied, gesturing to the wall of books. So, they left the room of requirement, Fred and George with the marauders map in front of them, making sure the way was clear.
"Doesn't seem to be anyone on you path, but you better go quickly; that could change in a moment," Fred told her.
"Right. See you tomorrow, then," she said with a wave, and they split up, the twins off for the Gryffindor tower and Avery towards the basement. She went as quickly and quietly as she could, careful to peer around corners before she turned them, in case Filch or Mrs. Norris were prowling about. Luckily, she found her way into the kitchen corridor without incident. Just as she was about to tap on the barrels to gain entrance to the common room, the lid swang open to reveal Cedric.
"Avery! What are you doing out at this hour?" He said, crawling through the entry way to stand next to her in the corridor.
"I could ask you the same thing," Avery replied, half kidding, half defensively. After all, who was he to question her where she had been?
"I'm a prefect, remember?" he chuckled, "I was just doing my rounds."
"Oh, right," Avery laughed, scratching her neck nervously. "I've been... Well... I've been trying to avoid the common room lately and I sort of lost track of time," she stammered. It was a poor explanation, but it seemed to be enough for Cedric though. He waved away her meager excuse and smiled again, his teeth glaringly white and straight, even in the low light of the passaegway.
"I'll let you out of detention this time," he teased. "Actually, I sort of owe you."
"For what, exactly?" Avery said, confused. The last interaction they had was tryouts, and she hardly did anything there that would warrant him owing her a favor.
"For lending Anne your broom. It was very generous of you," he said, looking down at her. He was exceedingly tall compared to her, especially today (she had shrank herself about four inches, hoping it would make her harder to notice as she crept back to the common room).
"O-oh! Not at all. It was the least I could do after I took not making the team so poorly. It's not like she needed my broom to be great, anyway. She is a very skilled flier." Avery felt herself growing hotter and hotter as she spoke, nervous and rambling.
"I'm not sure what you mean. You got quiet, yes, and took off pretty quickly afterwards... But that's only natural when you're upset. I've handled smaller things much worse myself, actually. You really shouldn't be too hard on yourself."
"Really? I can't imagine you... um... handling something badly. You just seem so level headed," Avery replied, shifting her weight from foot to foot, full of nervous energy.
"Well, when you're passionate about something it's easy to get carried away," he smiled again, his eyes flickering down and back up to meet her gaze.
"Right, right, that makes sense," Avery said, smiling broadly back. Suddenly Cedric chuckled.
"That looks familiar," he said, gesturing to her face. It took her a moment to realize what he meant, but her hand quickly flew up to cover her mouth, which she had unintentionally changed to mirror his.
"I'm sorry," she muttered, focusing hard on her normal, gap-toothed grin, willing it to change back. "I don't do it consciously, it's just when I like someone's features I kind of accidentally end up with them."
"Don't be sorry; it's actually quite a compliment," Cedric said, his smile more dazzling by the minute. Unsure what to say, Avery just stared back at him, trying to breathe evenly. She felt stupid to be so flustered by a boy. She had always told herself that the way she felt about Cedric was just a silly crush, and very immature of her to be hung up on; most all the girls fancied him, of course. He was older and handsome and exceedingly kind, and if he were to choose a girl, it seemed unlikely that he would choose an underclassman when there were so many beautiful, intelligent, and kind girls in his own year. But standing there, just looking at each other in the dimly lit corridor in front of the common room, she briefly thought that maybe it wasn't just a meaningless crush, and that maybe, just maybe, the feelings could be mutual.
But, Cedric's eyes quickly went from exuding kindness and interest to pure horror. Before Avery could ask what was the matter, she felt something thick and warm dribbling down her lips. Her hand flew to her nose and she quickly realized it was bleeding. The effects of the nougat must have been delayed, but they were in full swing now, the front of her robes quickly becoming sodden in blood.
"Are you alright? We have to get you to the hospital wing. Tilt your head back, I'll lead the way," Cedric said urgently, resting his arm around Avery's waist and taking her back the way she had just came. She apologized thickly and, before long, couldn't stop herself from laughing. She couldn't believe her luck. It seemed to be an unfailing rule that, no matter what, she would always embarrass herself in front of Cedric Diggory. Cedric began to chuckle with her, although his voice seemed to be laced with concern as her described when to step up the stairs or asked her if she got nosebleeds often. Of course she couldn't explain the real reason behind it, so she lied and said she had no idea what could've caused it. He kept his arm around her the entire way to the hospital wing, where he reluctantly bade her goodbye in order to go preform his prefect duties. Although Avery previously never would have counted a night in the hospital wing a pleasant evening, she couldn't help but feel pleased that they had gotten somewhere with the snackboxes after all, and that there may a chance she could get somewhere with Cedric, too.
