Devon had had a brilliant idea, or so she had claimed. She rounded up the girls and asked what they were doing for Christmas. While some mentioned staying at the school, most mentioned going home. Devon had decided since it was their last year, they needed to have a ball. They had occasionally, on special events, had Yule balls, and Devon had decided that this was the perfect time. She created a petition and headed off to see Dumbledore.
It seemed a while yet till Christmas, but Devon said they had to be prepared. Lily seemed excited at the thought of a dance. It had been a few years she told Ava. Most of the girls decided that if there was to be a dance than that was cause to stay over the holidays. Ava said she would have been staying anyways.
On a night that the wind and rain seemed to meet at just the right time to make the weather particularly nasty, Ava sat in front of the fire curled up with a book. Lily came over after a hard couple of hours of studying. She peeked over Ava's shoulder at the book she was reading.
"Birds?" Lily asked her, her brows raised in surprise.
"Yeah," Ava shut the book and sat up to talk to Lily. "I have a project in Care of Magical Creatures."
"But birds?" Lily asked again, wondering at her friend's choice.
"I like birds," Ava defensively and stuck her tongue out at her. "Besides don't you have patrol?"
Lily smiled a sweet smile at the thought of patrolling with James. With a glance at her watch she stood up. "You're right, ciao."
Ava laughed as her friend skipped out the door. Lily was quite happy with James. They had been doing well together so far. Remus walked up behind Ava, looking over her should very mush like Lily. "Birds?"
"I like birds!" she said in a tired loud voice.
Remus shrugged. "Well, whatever. They're not bad." He flopped down next to her. She rolled her eyes and threw her chair pillow at him. Catching it he tossed it back at her. "Ornery."
"Better believe it," she teased him. "So what can I help you with?"
"What makes you think I'm here for something?" Remus looked false hurt. "Can't I visit one of my favorite femmes?"
"Yes, you can. But I see that look in your eyes, spill."
Remus gave her a sly smile, but stood up. "I think I'll have to come back and talk when you're not quite so suspicious."
Ava laughed at him as he walked off. He heard her laughter and looked back at her with smile as he pretended not to know why she was amused. Ava smiled as he socialized across the room. Just like Lily, he had needed a break from studying for his N.E.W.T.s.
Devon came running in and threw herself into a chair next to Ava. Other girls seeing her come in rushed over to crowd around her to hear the news. Ava dropped her book as Isobel took the last remaining spot near Devon, in Ava's lap. They all waited patiently while Devon sat with an indiscernible look on her face.
Taking a deep breath and letting it out again, Devon looked around at the surrounding girls. Instead of giving an answer she just squealed in delight. The rest of the girls followed suit. Ava, being an exception, covered her ears with her hands and looked at the girls like they were crazy. Isobel hopped up and down on her lap.
While some groaned at the thought of the dance, the rest of the guys in room shrugged as the mentally made the choice to stay for the holidays. The girls dispersed quickly chatting with one another making plans, and talking about obviously needing to stay now.
Ava just laughed as they went back to what they were doing. Devon was leaning back against her chair looking exhausted from all her hard work. "Did you see Lily?"
Devon sat up. "Yeah I saw her on the way in and told her. She seemed excited. So who do you want to go with, Altair?"
"Hadn't really thought about it," Ava told her truthfully. She hadn't given to much consideration to the dance.
"Well, you better get one quick, before the good ones are gone." With the Devon got up and went to be girly with the rest of the hens upstairs in the dormitory.
Ava frowned at what Devon had said. The good ones? That was a terrible thing for her to say. Like there were people who were too ugly or not good enough to go with. This is why she wasn't excited about the dance, stupid girly shite like that. She rolled her eyes in contempt.
Two fourth year girls walked by, chattering about staying since the seniors had worked out the dance. Devon had barely told them half an hour ago and people were already obsessed with the idea. "It's a good thing Hogsmeade is this weekend. I so need a new robe. Did you see that cute magenta number in the shop…" they kept gossiping as they got out of earshot, babbling away.
Ava's eyes lit up at what they had said, but for completely different reasons. If this weekend was Hogsmeade, she could use the land behind the village to bird watch to finish her project. Smiling she headed up to bed for an early night.
*(~)*(~)*
Saturday came but brought a chilling wind with it. The sun still shone and didn't make for a completely terrible day. Ava headed out the door with Lily telling her she would meet her later at the Three Broomsticks for a drink after she was done with her project.
They walked along and waited for Filch to glare at them all and give them the traditional lectures. On the way out, Ava spotted Remus ahead of them and quietly snuck up on him. Sirius saw Ava coming out of the corner of his eye but said nothing. Remus and she had an undeclared war going on. Ava reached up and tickled the back of Remus' neck slightly with her nail so as to lightly touch him. He shivered and turned around grinning because he knew who it was. He reached and grabbed her at the waist tickling her.
Lily walked up and James slid his arm around her. They watched as Ava laughing so hard begged him to stop, giving up her defense. He stopped giving her a 'that should teach you' look with a sly smile. Sirius grinned at Ava's ease with them. She had certainly grown to feel comfortable with them, especially after the way she had felt about guys.
James and Lily managed to wander off together. Although Ava caught this, she let it go. She looked at the scenery behind the houses and shops. She turned around to look at the boys. "I'll see you guys later. I'm going to go see the scenic sites."
Remus laughed as he lunged toward her threatening to tickle her again. She leapt back, realizing he was kidding she broke in to laughter. Remus walked off laughing too. Sirius turned towards her, "what are you going to do out there?"
"Oh, a magical creatures task. I figured there'd be something interesting back there."
"Yeah there is, what are you looking for?" he tilted his head in interest. Peter stood there awkwardly.
"Birds." She told him. "You know it well?"
"Yeah, actually, want me to show you around." It seemed like a silly thing to ask, but that didn't stop him. There were interesting things back there. Birds he wasn't sure about but they'd see. They walked off together, leaving Peter alone. Shrugging he walked off to find something to do.
"So what's your project?" Sirius asked her as the walked in a field behind a house. He turned to look at her and saw the way the sun danced on her hair. A cold wind went shooting by them bringing him back to attention.
"Birds," she repeated. She shrugged. "I have a thing for birds."
"Of course, Altair." He smiled at her as the walked along. It was almost a nice day. He smiled as he remembered his past excursion out and around in dog form. He tried not to frown at the thought that she didn't know about that. She didn't know that about him. Maybe one day…"So, Ava, tell me something random about yourself."
Ava stopped, the sun shone on her face as she faintly squinted at him, the wind whipped her hair around. "You've never called me that. Ava, I mean, by my first name."
Sirius sent her a devilish handsome smile. " I am sort of partial to Altair I admit."
"Oh, well ok. I'll just stick with Black than." He sent her a pretend glare. They started walking again.
"Ava," he nodded at her. "You didn't tell me anything yet."
Laughing she tossed her head side to side lightly, going through things in her mind trying to find a interesting piece of her to tell him about. "Ok how about this, I am one of the few girls you'll find muggle, wizarding, or halvesie," she referred to half muggle and half wizarding families, "that restored her own Austin Healey. '67 3000."
Sirius didn't know much about muggle cars, but he did know that that was a decent piece of transportation. He nodded in appreciation. "How'd you do that?"
"Well, I restored friends cars, did odd jobs stuff like that for money. Bought a shoddy car and worked on it little by little. My dad taught me about cars before…" she caught herself. She looked away uncomfortably. She tried to look interestedly around for some birds.
"You did say you'd tell me about your family someday." Sirius touched on the subject. "I told you about mine."
"True."
Sirius waited. He wasn't going to pressure her about her family, but he did wonder. He had told her about his and that had been hard. They walked in to the woods still looking around for some creature life. Just when he didn't think she was going to talk about it, she sighed and looked at him turning him towards her.
"You're right, fair's fair. I told you I'm half and half right?" he nodded. He figured this might be going in the traditional halvesie way. The father finds out that the mother is a witch and leaves her to raise the kid on her own. He listened patiently anyway.
"My father was a wizard, my mum not. They met and fell in love, had a one night stand," she gestured helplessly, "I have heard it both ways from various family members. But anyway, she became pregnant and he told her that he was a wizard. She was slightly if not hugely freaked out by this. He also told her that his son would be going to a wizarding school. As soon as she had me she left us, leaving me in his care.
"Not only was he disappointed at her leaving, he wanted a son. So I was a big disappointment, but he dealt with it. Which, I guess he raised me well enough for the most part. But things went down hill from the moment I was born. He started drinking after she left. It only started out small. His mother moved in with us to help care for me.
She would talk for a little bit and walk on. Sirius walked next to her, listening but not looking at her. He didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable. "On his good days we would get along sufficiently enough. He taught me all about cars, quidditch, other traditionally male subject matter. I guess that's why I'm not as giggly and fluffy as most girls. But, anyway, after I turned eleven and headed off to school he hit the bottle hard.
"Every year I came back it got worse. That's why I started working, getting money, just to be out of the house. I would work on my car when I was home for the summer or winter breaks, even if it was blizzardy and freezing out. He just sat inside never moved. His mother would mostly look after him instead of me. He needed it more.
She paused. She looked around some. Sirius thought she might be done, but didn't know what to say. "She died the summer before my sixth year. This pushed him over the top. He wanted other people to hurt as much as he did. I was the only one around. He sold my car out from under me, and gave my eagle away to a charity or owl post or something.
"As I was leaving for my sixth year, he told me not to bother coming back. I figured he was just hurt over his loss of his mother," she paused, "notice how I don't call her my grandmother, she really wasn't. But I came home that- last- Christmas and he hadn't changed. He still didn't want me there or anything to do with me and sent me on my way. Just like you, I guess, I stayed with friends for a few days, Isobel, the sweetheart, took me in for a few nights.
"I eventually made it back to school. I remembered hearing something about this exchange program and talked with my professors about it. They didn't know my situation but thought I was a good candidate. So I told them I would send my dad the papers, but I forged his signature. Didn't have any place to go back to or reason for that matter. This summer though I stayed with Cain some. He didn't like it though, the fact that I was leaving either. That's probably another contributing factor to our break. So somehow or another I made it here, and here I am." She finished up her story with a shrug.
Sirius was at a true loss for words. He wasn't expecting anything like that. He figured she had had a rough life, many did. But he felt like he did when she told him about Cain. He didn't pity her, but felt compassion towards her. She was truly amazing to have gone through what she had and still be such an incredible person. She wasn't crying though this time. He gave her a small smile, which she returned.
"Not as harsh as yours, I know," she said gently, her look shy, "but I don't like to tell people about my family problems, they just don't understand."
"I do," he gave her a hug.
"I know," she laid her head on his shoulder. After a minute he let go of her. Embarrassed, she scrabbled around for something to say. "So let's find some birds."
"Well, I know why you like birds. Just like I like dogs." He grinned at her. She smiled at him, he did seem to understand there was something in a name. "Even had an eagle, eh?"
She had loved her eagle and had been heartbroken when her father had given it away. It felt like he gave away a piece of her. On an impulse she told Sirius that. He looked empathetic.
"How's your dad now?" he asked gently.
"Don't know, don't care." She said bluntly. "Probably committed suicide by now." She looked at him to see him looking slightly shocked. "Sorry if that sounds cruel, but things got rough between us."
"Been there too." He identify with that. Cruel was the synonym for Black.
"You know, Lily was telling me about her family one day." Ava said distractedly. She was gazing at a bird she had found and was writing in a notebook she was carrying. "They sound nice, her parents. Her sister, well that might be another story, I don't know."
"James has a nice family too." Sirius nodded.
"So, I told you I like mechanics." She said, changing the subject entirely. Sirius was welcomed it. "I'm think about going into it after school. Maybe muggle university or something. I don't know yet. I just want to get out there and do something interesting. I thought about not coming out here and just getting a job as a mechanic. But I'd like to add some wizarding to my work. Like those wizards who have flying cars."
"Funny you say that," Sirius pointed at a bird. "I didn't want to come back this year, but felt like I might as well tough out one more year."
"Oh yeah?" she laughed because she had thought of dropping out after her sixth year, not having anything.
They talked for a while more and wandered back into the village to meet Lily and James for drinks. It was weird how they both thought the same thing about each other and their families. Ava and Sirius both felt that the other one truly understood what they went through. That was not a commonality at Hogwarts.