Uninvited Guests

It had been three weeks since Claudia was back with her parents. They could not have been clearer about the ground rules for this summer. She was not allowed to do anything. She had to practically beg them to be allowed out of the house at all. Claudia wanted nothing more than to go and spend some time with Alice's family, or even just to go and browse Flourish and Blotts. But her parents were clear. If she stepped out of line, she was going to find herself holding onto a portkey straight to Bavaria within the hour. Nothing was worth having to do that again.

Sky brought the mail into the dining room one morning. She placed a stack of letters by her Master's plate and then gave a solitary one to Claudia, who opened it eagerly. It was from Alice, wondering whether Claudia might be able to make it over after all. Claudia looked up from the letter at her mother. They could hardly punish her for asking.

"Mum." Claudia said timidly. "Could I go and visit Alice? Even for just a day?" She asked. Cassandra bit her lip and looked towards her husband. They must have argued about this before. Frederick looked up from the letter he was reading and shook his head.

"No. I thought I was clear about this." He replied sternly, before adding. "You are not to speak to that girl." Claudia closed her eyes. Predictable, but worth a try.

"The Adler girl is the least of your problems." Marcus said maliciously. Claudia rolled her eyes.

"We've been through this a million times… I don't care that Eleanor's and Lucy's parents are muggles." She said.

"I'm not talking about the mudbloods." Marcus scoffed at Claudia, before turning to their father. "She's friends with the Blacks' delinquent now."

Claudia swallowed hard. Regulus must have told him. Or Marcus had seen them around the castle. Hopefully, he had no clue what they were really up to. Frederick did not say anything, just stared at Claudia. Cassandra filled the awkward silence.

"Really? You're friends with Sirius?" She said, her eyes twinkling. Claudia did not like where this was heading.

"Not really. Just doing a project together." She said, shaking her head. Cassandra looked seriously disappointed.

"You should hear Walburga talk about that boy. He's trouble." Frederick said when he caught his wife's eye. He clearly was not convinced. Cassandra smiled encouragingly.

"Who doesn't get into bit of trouble at that age. He is from a good family. I'm sure Walburga will get to be proud of him one day." She said. This made Claudia chuckle. She was sure that whatever Sirius was going to do with his life, he was going to make damn sure that his mother would not be proud of him.

"Speaking of which, we have Orion's birthday party next week... I can't wait." Said Cassandra, excitedly. Frederick looked at his wife and then at his daughter.

"You will stay here this time. I don't want you anywhere near that boy." He said in Claudia's direction.

"Or the gazebo." Added Marcus under his breath. No one laughed. The embarrassment caused by the gazebo incident was still too fresh.

Cassandra did not look happy at all with Frederick's dictat, but did not dare contradict him. Claudia's heart sank. Normally, she would be delighted to skip one of those stupid parties. Not this time though. She would have quite like to see at least one friendly face. Sirius never turned up to these things, but Julius and Emmanuel were bound to be there. Even Regulus would have done.

On the day of the party, Claudia was sitting at her desk, watching her parents and Marcus leave the house from the window of her room. She was so bored that she decided to study for her OWLs. She was searching for her potions book, when she stumbled upon the notebook that Sirius gave her last year. She noticed that it was covered in tree leaves and opened it eagerly.

Sirius' handwriting had appeared on the first page.

"Are you coming to the party today?"

Claudia picked up her quill and replied.

"Been grounded. Sorry."

She looked at the page for a minute or two, but nothing happened. She left the notebook open on her desk and continued to read. After ten minutes or so, a new message had appeared.

"Damn. Might have considered making an appearance… Any plans?"

Claudia looked around at her textbooks. This was not the most glamorous thing she could be doing right now.

"Does studying for OWLs count?"

She wrote after hesitating a little. A single-word response emerged on the page instantly.

"Lame."

Claudia chuckled and buried her face again in Potions. After about half an hour, she heard a tap. Then another one. She looked out of her window and saw Sirius on the street, throwing gravel at it. She gestured at him to stay there and run down the stairs.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, as she closed the front door carefully behind her.

"I'm bored. You're bored..." Replied Sirius with a smirk.

"I'm not bored. I actually find studying quite interesting." Claudia begin to say, but Sirius was having none of it.

"Claude, you're studying for your OWLs on a day like this. You're bored… Let's get out of here." He replied.

Claudia really did not want to go back to Bavaria. But she was dying to get out of the house. She convinced herself that Sky would not tell on her, took one last look at the front door and they set of towards Hampstead Heath.

"How do you even know where I live?" Claudia asked as they turned the corner.

"Mother's address book…" Replied Sirius. "Why have you been grounded anyway?" He added.

"My father thinks you're a bad influence." Claudia muttered, blushing. Sirius laughed.

"Not this time, I'm not. Makes a nice change..." He said and smirked at her.

It was a hot day. They found shelter under the branches of an old willow by one of the ponds.

"How about your summer?" Asked Claudia as she took off her trainers, sank her feet into the cold water and laid down on the grass. Sirius shrugged.

"Nothing much. Hanging around with James, mostly." He replied.

"What about your girlfriend?" Claudia asked, smirking a little. Sirius narrowed his eyes.

"I think we broke up… Not quite sure. I hope so anyway." He said with a sigh. Claudia shook her head.

"I'm surprised that they all want to keep dating you. Surely, they must realise that you're not exactly boyfriend material." She replied. Sirius stretched across the grass next to her, looking dejected.

"I'm not sure they care. Not one of them likes me for me. It's just a game to them." He whispered.

It was weir hearing Sirius talk like that. She always thought that he was enjoying the attention from all these girls. Claudia did not know what to say. She was not good at talking about this stuff. She mostly just nodded when Alice told her things. Luckily, Sirius spoke again.

"You aren't like other girls, you know… I can actually have a conversation with you. And most importantly, you don't do that annoying thing when you curl your hair and flutter your eye lashes." That made Claudia giggle.

"Like this?" She asked, playing with her hair, and blinking profusely.

"Exactly like that." Sirius laughed.

Claudia looked at her watch. It was getting late.

"I have to get back. Otherwise, I'll be in so much trouble." She said. Sirius lifted his head and propped himself up on his elbow.

"Why do you care? You hate you parents. Yet you stick by their rules, study hard… I don't get it." He said. Claudia shrugged.

"Your rebellion is causing trouble. Mine is not being someone's trophy wife..." She replied, as she sat up and began hastily tying up her shoelaces.

"Should I go with you?" Asked Sirius. Claudia looked at her watch again.

"I'll need to run, I think…" She said, squeezed Sirius' shoulder and used it to push herself up. "See you at school." She added and run back to the house as fast as she could.

Claudia successfully avoided Sky and managed to sit back down at her desk just as the rest of her family had returned. She got lucky.

Nothing at all interesting happened over the next few weeks. Claudia gave up on the summer altogether. She did her homework and read. She searched the family's library top to bottom for any hints on how to destroy the artefact and found nothing. She could not wait to get back into the Hogwarts Library, or even a book shop, to keep looking.

There was, however, one more thing that she could not get out of her mind. Her Hogwarts letter. Normally, it just contained a book list, but maybe - just maybe – this time it might include a prefect's badge too. Claudia tried very hard not to get her hopes up too much. But she could not stop thinking about what it would be like. She did well in her exams, she was on the Quidditch team. And Slughorn seemed to have been warming up to her too.

When Claudia got to breakfast the following morning, her letter was there. She ripped it open and a shiny prefect's badge fell on the table with a loud thud. It was not excitement that filled her at that point, it was relief…

If she were to be honest with herself, she would have been gutted if she did not get it. No one in Slytherin deserved it more, she was sure of that.

Marcus was the first to notice and frowned. He never made prefect. It was like the Quidditch try-outs all over again.

"I guess congratulations are in order." Marcus managed to get out of him. He was not sporting a Head Boy badge, which was no surprise to anyone, except perhaps Marcus himself.

Cassandra stood up and went to hug her daughter.

"We have a Slytherin prefect in the family! First one, as far as I can remember." She said jubilantly. But Claudia's father could not bring himself to say anything at all. Claudia knew it was killing him. He wanted his son to be the prefect. He wanted to be proud of him, but Marcus was a buffoon and Frederick knew it.

He always treated Claudia like she was her mother's to look after. She was not meant to be good for anything other than pretty dresses and entertaining guests. She certainly was not meant to grow up to fraternise with mudbloods and blood-traitors, as her father liked to call her friends. And now, she was a prefect too.

If Frederick knew that Claudia was the one who found the artefact, it would kill him. But not before he would have killed her. It made he happy. She loved proving her father wrong.

Claudia's parents kept postponing their trip to Diagon Alley. Probably to punish her. Or to make sure she did not run away. Finally, just one day before she was due back on the Hogwarts Express, it was time to go. Her mother still watched her like a hawk, making sure she did not wonder off too far. Claudia could not wait to be back at Hogwarts. To regain some form of freedom.

Claudia finally managed to shake off her mother in front of Madame Malkin's and made her way to Flourish and Blotts. She always liked browsing through the bookshop. But this year, she had other plans. She went straight into the Defence against the Dark Arts section. They must have something about dark artefacts. She searched the bookshelf as fast as she could and there it was: Defence against Dangerous Artefacts: A Practical Guide by Conan McAllister. She grabbed it from the bookshelf and began looking through it.

"Avery." Someone said from behind her. Claudia was startled, she turned and dropped the book.

It was Severus. He moved faster than she ever saw him move and dived for the book. Claudia tried reaching it first, but she was too slow. Severus was already holding it in his pale fingers. He looked at the book and then at Claudia.

"Thanks." She said sharply and snatched it from his hands. "Extra research for Defence against Dark Arts." She added but could hear her voice shaking. Severus was too smart to believe her. It was just a matter of time before he told Marcus.

Severus did not say anything. He turned on the spot and walked away. Claudia was shaken. Of course, it occurred to her that Marcus might find out what she was up to. But not like this. She would be so much safer if it happened back in Hogwarts. She touched a small bulge under her shirt. What was she even thinking taking the artefact back with her this summer?

She quickly put the book on artefacts back on the shelf and went to collect her school books. Her mother caught up with her by the till.

"Muggle studies? I thought you switched to Divination." Cassandra said, as she saw what Claudia had picked out. Claudia frowned.

"You switched me to Divination. I switched back." She replied, sharply. Anger was Claudia's natural reaction to anything she could not control. Her mother's lips narrowed. Cassandra hated public arguments. Her image was everything to her. Claudia knew that she was going to pay for her impertinence later. But she could not care less. A slap in a face for talking back at her mother would be nothing compared to what her father and Marcus would do to her if they knew the truth about the artefact.

Claudia just needed to get through one last evening in that house. She hid her wand in her shirt sleeve as she went down for dinner. She knew that she could only use magic outside school in life-threatening circumstances. But if her father found out that she had the artefact, the circumstances would indeed be life threatening. She could, of course, try and pretend that she was trying to fulfil her father's mission and give it to him willingly. Bad idea. They would surely see through that.

Claudia contemplated writing to Sirius. After all, she promised him that she would if something happened. But there was absolutely nothing he could have done. Well, nothing that would improve her situation. No. Her only hope was that Severus had decided to wait until tomorrow to give Marcus the news in person. Marcus would still be mad, but he would be alone, and she would have her friends around her.

Claudia got down to dinner. Everyone else was already there. A small package, wrapped in green paper, was lying on her plate.

"Something from your father and me. For making prefect." Cassandra said, smiling. Claudia forced herself to smile back. She was sure her father had nothing to do with it.

"Thank you." She said, as she untied the bow and unwrapped a jewellery box. It was a necklace. Even Claudia had to admit it was beautiful. She thanked her mother again, this time with some sincerity in her voice.

"Try it on." Cassandra said cheerfully. Claudia froze. She was wearing the artefact hidden under her shirt. She could hardly try on the necklace now.

"I'm not..." She said, panicking. "I'm not wearing the right clothes. I will change after dinner and try it then." She finally managed to say. Cassandra looked disappointed but gestured towards Sky to start serving dinner. Claudia took a deep breath. This was going to be hard.

The family were in the middle of the main course when a loud bang echoed through the house. Someone was at the front door.

That was it. Severus was here.

Claudia really wished she wrote to Sirius now. At least he would know who to blame if she did not return to school tomorrow.

Sky hurried out of the room and returned few minutes later.

"There is a gentleman, wishing to speak to Master." She looked towards Marcus. "And the young Master too." She added. This was bad.

Frederick looked uncertain. It was nearly eight o'clock and late visitors were unusual in the Avery house.

"Who is it?" He asked impatiently. Sky did not say anything but took two tentative steps towards her Master and whispered something in his ear. Claudia could not hear what she said, but her father went pale. He stood up, his hands shaking.

"Come Marcus, let's not keep him waiting." He said. He sounded nothing like Claudia's father. He sounded terrified. Claudia could feel her chest tighten. She was pretty sure that it was not Severus, waiting in the sitting room. It was much, much worse.

"Should I bring over some drinks?" Asked Cassandra, seemingly oblivious to what was happening.

"No. Get Claudia to bed and make sure we are not interrupted." Frederick said quietly. Claudia looked at Marcus. He was looking at her with suspicion. That was not unusual. But today, he could have had a very good reason. It was still more than just possible that Severus had told him already. She had no doubt that if Marcus knew, he would not cover for her. Especially not in front of You-Know-Who. And she was sure it was You-Know-Who, who was waiting in their sitting room. There was no one else in the whole world her father would have been this scared off. He had a whole year to get that artefact for You-Know-Who and he failed. It was time to face the music.

Claudia went to her room as instructed, but she did not go to bed. She kneeled in front of her door and stared through the keyhole, just about being able to see the hallway.

She heard muffled voices coming from the sitting room but could not for the life of her make out what they were saying. They did not sound happy though. At one point, she could swear she heard a violent scream.

After ten minutes or so, the door flew open and a tall figure appeared in the hallway. It was You-Know-Who. She had seen his picture in the Daily Prophet once.

"Do not make me come here again." He hissed in the direction of the sitting room. "I do not like being disappointed." He added, turned on his heel and disappeared out of the house.

Claudia slid onto the floor. At least they did not know. She would have been dead if they did. The adrenaline had left her body. All she had left was fear.

She was shaking and could not move a muscle. She wanted to cry, but her eyes were dry.

Sure, it was fun, running around the castle with Sirius, trailing Marcus and solving riddles. She had never felt prouder than when they found the artefact. But she was being naïve. This was not some game and she was in real danger. Alice was right all along. She was way in over her head here.

Claudia did not dare move away from the door or close her eyes. She spent the whole night sitting on the floor, clutching the artefact in one hand and her wand in the other.

She pretended to pack all morning to avoid the rest of her family. She got down just as the car had pulled up in front of the house. Her father and Marcus were already there. Neither of them looked like they had slept either. Claudia got into the car with them. She had never been this uncomfortable before.

Few minutes later, Cassandra emerged from the house, handkerchief in hand. She was already on the verge of tears about her 'babies' going back to school again. Claudia experienced a new emotion in that moment. For the first time in her life, she was pleased to see her mother.

Half an hour later, she finally leaned into the brick wall between platforms nine and ten at King's Cross Station. She was safe.