A/N: Hello everyone! I have received a lot of nice comments and critiques on the last review and I thank you whole-heartedly for that. I have another update ready for you and I hope that you enjoy it. Onward to reading, my friends!

OOOOOOOOO

Avonlea ducked her head, focusing her attention on the mass of parchment before her and scratched out the notes that Snape was telling her from the third book that he'd found. Her nose twitched as she breathed in his scent, though he wasn't standing very close to her. Taking notes did very little to keep her from thinking about her dream about her mate, but she kept telling herself that she needed to listen to him for the sake of her future. There had to be something in the books that would help her figure out if her mate was standing before her or if there was some other person that she was meant to be with.

Just focus on the notes, she told herself, pinching her thigh to get her thoughts back to the present duties. Focus on the notes like your life depends on it…It does depend on it. Damn!

She looked up when she heard the whisper of magic in the air and saw that a cat Patronus was bounding into the room. McGonagall's voice floated from the unopen mouth of the Patronus, gaining Snape's attention as well.

"Professor Snape," the Patronus said, its throat glowing with each word. "Your presence is required as a few of your students have gotten out of hand. Come to my office immediately."

Something pulled on Avonlea's heart, but she kept silent as the Patronus vanished in a wisp of silvery light. Snape closed the book in his hand with a snap and placed it back on the shelf that he had found it on. Avonlea watched his every movement with her bottom lip being held between her teeth.

"Miss Raven," Snape said, looking at her. "It appears that our study session is over for the day. We shall return to the studies of Veela tomorrow at one o'clock. And, as you have had very little information to share, perhaps you should contact your mother for more information that she may have kept to herself."

"Yes sir," Avonlea answered, gathering her notes up and placing them in the bag at her side. "I'll try to get her to open up some more…"

Snape's dark eyes burned on her for a moment like he thought that she was some kind of worm. The Veela Halfling lowered her eyes on the pretext of adjusting the strap of her bag. She hated that look and knew that it would hurt her more if it had come from the disgust of having such a pathetic connection to her.

He's not it, Avonlea thought. I would know if he was it…I would know…He'd know. Right?

She followed the dark man out of the Restricted Section without saying a word. When he left the library, she didn't follow him. Instead she just stood there awkwardly, watching his retreating back. Thoughts about what made him the one that she feared and needed the most circled through her head long after he disappeared. Shaking her head, she went over to a desk and placed her head on her hands.

Oh God! What am I supposed to do? Avonlea asked, letting her forehead rest on the cool wood of the table. Her body trembled. What the hell am I supposed to do with this situation without making a fool out of myself?

"Hey Lea!" Carissa's voice floated to her ears as the other witch plopped down next to her. "I knew that I was going to find you here, but did I see something else?"

"Rissa, go away," Avonlea whispered, her voice muffled by the desk. "I am so not in the mood for this…"

"Well, just answer me this," Carissa said, bumping her shoulder against Avonlea's. "Why did I see my father heading from here like a bat out of hell? Did something happen between you two? Did he find out -?"
"No. There was nothing to find out," Avonlea's head popped up so that she could look at her best friend. "McGonagall told Snape about my condition and forced him to help me do some more research on Veelas from within the Restricted Section. We just spent two hours looking at books and I took notes and I have to come back here tomorrow to do the same thing over again. It's torture. Our Headmistress is a really evil woman."

"Do you think that she knows that something's up between you and -?"

"No! No one knows that! Not even me!" Avonlea growled, earning a dirty look from the librarian. "I just think that she – that she has a sick sense of humor. There's just no way that she knows about it because I don't and if I don't, then…"

"But how could you not know it? You've been panting over him at night in those dreams of yours. You've stared at him and tried to keep on his good side for the past few months. You put more effort into the homework that he assigns than any of your other classes. And you're trying so hard to run away from him – how is that not knowing that he's the one for you?"

"I just don't think that he's the one, okay?" Avonlea gathered her bag and headed out of the library with Carissa in tow.

"No! It's not okay!" Carissa snapped, grabbing onto Avonlea's hand and pulling her to a stop. "Lea, you need to stop running away. You know that he's meant to be with you and that only he can keep you from becoming a true bloodsucker. Why do you keep running in circles away from the truth? From him?"

"Because I'm scared!" Avonlea snapped, yanking her hand free. "All right? I'm scared. I'm scared that I'm going to be rejected, that I've been chasing after a lie. I'm scared of that man and the way that he looks at me like I'm a parasite. I'm scared that he will reject me if he finds out what I am and how he plays a part in it. I'm scared that I will lose my humanity and that I will never see the sun again. I'm scared to lose you and I'm scared to admit that your father could be the one that I need to retain everything that I've known for my entire life. I'm scared, Carissa. So very scared."

Carissa stared at her for a moment before blinking twice. "Lea, I didn't know. I didn't know all of that was on your shoulders. Why didn't you tell me?" She reached out and put a hand on Avonlea's shoulder. "You know that I'm your best friend .You could have told me all of this and I would have understood."

No one can understand what I'm going through, Avonlea thought, looking at her friend, but keeping her mouth shut. You can't sympathize with someone who's going through something that you never will.

"C'mon," Carissa said, turning Avonlea and propelling her forward. "Let's go get something to eat and then we can go outside and throw snowballs at whoever is brave enough to be out in the snow. It'll cheer you up."

Doubtful about that, Avonlea let her best friend take her away from the library.

OOOOOOOOO

Snape had had to deal with six of his students, who had decided to turn several Hufflepuffs green with horns. They had been put into detention for two months and lost their House seven hundred points. This punishing of students was something that he found a lot more satisfying than spending time in the library with one of his other students. To be in such close quarters with the best friend of his daughter had been annoying to him. After all of the secrets that he had had to learn from the Headmistress about the girl's upcoming transformation, he felt like giving her a month of hard detention too. As her Head of House, he should have been the first to know that she was becoming a dangerous creature in the midst of normal students.

And yet, he didn't want to give her detention. He didn't want to punish her for something that he knew that she couldn't control. Students these days, he realized, were in the mindset that they knew everything that needed to be done in new, dangerous situations. Many times they failed, but this girl was one that he knew couldn't be allowed to fail. If a vampire was loose in the castle, no one would be safe. And he could only imagine how horrible his daughter would act if she found out that her friend was not helped all the way up to the end of her human life.

"The girl is nothing but trouble," Snape muttered to himself as he wandered along one of the open outer halls of the castle. "Both of them…"

He paused when he heard the sound of laughter. Glancing out into the snowy world outside the castle, he saw his daughter and Avonlea Raven running through the snow. They were pelting each other with snowballs, charmed to float around them. His heart clenched at the sound of their laughter and his pulse quickened when he saw Avonlea trip and fall into the cold snow. She laughed again and rolled over, sweeping her arms and legs as she made a snow angel.

"Come on, Rissa!" the Veela Halfling's voice floated to him through the air. "Make yourself a snow angel!"

Carissa laughed and fell onto the snow next to her friend. "Knowing my breeding, I'm going to make more of a snow demon than anything."

Snape stood there for a moment, watching the two girls in the snow. Avonlea rose to her feet and brushed back her hair as she turned to look at the results of her sweeping. Snape shook his head and started walking away again.

"Nothing but trouble," he muttered.

OOOOOOOOO

Avonlea looked at the fireplace as she thawed out from the adventure she'd had out in the snow with Carissa. She had received a message from her mother that she would be contacting her through the fireplace in ten minutes. Wrapped in a light blanket and holding a steaming cup of hot chocolate in her hands, Avonlea watched the flickering flames in anticipation of her mother's presence. The sound of Carissa singing from her room made her smile slightly, even as she prepared herself to be talked down to by her mother.

Should I have brushed my hair before this? Avonlea wondered, touching her hair. I should have at least dried it before this…Do I have time to get it done?

The flames turned green in the fireplace, quieting the thoughts in Avonlea's mind. A woman with flowing blonde hair and grey eyes appeared in the flames. Well, at least her head did. She blinked as if to fight off the ashes and soot that flew up in her eyes, but quickly looked up at her daughter with a small smile.

"Avonlea, darling!" she crooned. "How are you? Have you been eating enough? Why is your hair wet?"

"Um…I've been eating enough. I was outside in the snow for a while and I didn't have enough time to dry it."

"You were out in the snow?! Avonlea, do you realize how sick you could become out in the cold with a wet head? Has that school taught you anything about taking care of yourself?"

"It's only happened once, Mom." Three times actually. "I'll be staying inside for the rest of the winter, if that makes you happy."

Avonlea's mom sighed. "It would make me happy to know that you were healthy. You're my baby. I always want you to be healthy and bright…"

"I know, Mom. I know what you want." Avonlea glanced over her shoulder when Carissa's song changed. "Mom, why didn't you tell me more about my breeding sooner?"

"We've been over this, Avonlea. I didn't tell you because I didn't know what you would have to go through. You know that your father isn't in the picture, Avonlea. I may be his soulmate, but he doesn't come here except for two times a year when he needs to crawl into bed with me. Three, if he's feeling generous." A frown line appeared between Avonlea's mother's eyebrows. "What could I tell you when I don't even know what the hell is happening to you at the moment? It's not like your father sat down and talked to me about the possibility of you becoming a vampire for hours on end. It was just a note say that if you don't find your mate by your next birthday, that you would become a vampire…Can you imagine how embarrassing reading that note was in the midst of my friends?"

Probably not as embarrassing as it was to have to have the Headmistress wipe the minds of your housemates and shove you into a room far away from the people that already ostracize you. And let's not think about how my mate could possibly be the most hateful man in the entire castle, Avonlea thought, but kept the rant choked back in her throat.

"Have you found your mate yet?" Avonlea's mother asked, looking up at her daughter with what could have been hope.

"Not yet," Avonlea said, hugging her knees closer to her chest. "But I'm working on finding him."

"Good." Avonlea's mom sighed dreamily. "I hope you find a wonderful pureblood with money enough to pamper you like you deserve. I only want the best for you – so that you don't end up in the whorehouse with Carissa and the others. Just think of how people will treat you when you have a pureblood name on both sides of your life."

Avonlea didn't want to point out that her Veela blood made her a non-pureblood because of her father's breeding. The argument, she knew, would be fruitless and her mother would go away all huffy, muttering how disrespectful children were these days. She sat there, frowning but silent as her mother mumbled to herself the daydream fantasies that she had for Avonlea's future.

"My dear, I have to go now," Avonlea's mother said, turning her head slightly. "I have a business to run and only I can do it properly. I will see you on New Year's, right? You and your mate, right?"

"Yes, Mother."

"Good luck on the search," she said, smiling. "And do tell your friend that her mother says hello…as if I was the messenger for the house…Goodbye, Avonlea."

There was a small flare up in the flames as Avonlea's mother pulled her head back into her side of the Floo-powder connection. Avonlea sat there in front of the flames, watching the sparks and sipped at her drink.

"I thought that she would never leave," Carissa said, spooking Avonlea so much that she spilled some of her hot chocolate on the rug. "I was about to sing Bye-Bye Bitch Time at the top of my lungs."

"Rissa!" Avonlea exclaimed. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

Carissa made a small apologetic gesture and then sat down on one of the overstuffed chairs. "You realize that she never calls me by my name except when we're in front of my mother, don't you? She doesn't even say it in my presence. It's always 'you' or 'dear' or 'child', but never my name. It's like she doesn't think that I'm worthy of having a name."

"She's like that with all the prostitutes in the house," Avonlea reminded her friend, wrapping a blanket around her shoulders as she rose to sit next to her friend. "Well, mostly the prostitutes that don't have pureblood clients or heritage. Imagine what she'd be like to me, her own daughter, if I ended up with someone without the pureblood standards?"

There was a smirk on Carissa's face. "Now I'm definitely rooting for the ultimate relationship between you and my dad."

Avonlea didn't know if she should be worried about that sneaky grin or not. "Why's that?"

"One, you'd be mating with a half-blood. Two, you'd be connected to me through the relationship – maybe becoming my step-mother. And three, you'd be with my dad, the person that your mother despises the most."

"Let's just drop the step-mother title, okay? I'm always just going to be your best friend."

"And my dad's bed-buddy." Carissa leaned forward and caught one of Avonlea's hands between hers. "Just think about how that's all going to be handled by your mother. She's going to blow her one brain cell to smithereens and be absolutely traumatized that her little baby is banging my dad. We'd totally be on the same level as each other and enjoy the hate together. It's going to be brilliant!"

Avonlea sighed. "You do realize that I haven't even confirmed that your dad is my soulmate and I haven't gotten him to see it either. Your brilliant plan could possibly backfire and nothing would happen. I'd become a vampire and you'd still be hated by my mother…"

"Shh! I'm not kidding when I said that you were going to be with my dad. I know it. I can feel it in my bones and that's a good sign. Everything is going to be okay and your mother will be pissed as hell." She gestured at the pile of parchment paper on the table. "Let's look at the notes that you took with my dad and see what we can find out about your soulmate. You've got to have noticed some of these things…"

OOOOOOOOO

A/N: What did you think about this? It was a little short again, but that's what I have to deal with. I hope to have a name for Avonlea's mother soon, so keep an eye out on the future updates. Future updates may be delayed and sporadic, but I'm not forgetting this story. Please read and review responsibly. Thanks! -Scarlet