A/N: Hello once again to all of you lovely readers! It's been a little bit since I last updated this story and I'm happy for the people that have stuck around for so long. Your reviews are encouraging and I would thank you all personally if I could. However, I would like to introduce you to another update. A short one, but an update nonetheless.
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Avonlea remained silent in Snape's class for the rest of the week. Whenever she was in his presence, she would draw a cloak of silence around herself. Her eyes would burn on his for several moment when she was getting ready to leave class or study hall, telling him that she not only was she not able to find her mate, but that she was still very pissed at him for the conversation that they had shared earlier. And the professor would glare darkly back at her and copy the silent treatment.
"Dress shopping! Dress shopping!" Katia sang, dancing around the private common room that Avonlea and Carissa shared. "Tomorrow morning is dress shopping time!"
Cassius made a small annoyed sound and stretched out like a feline on the sofa by the fire with Carissa wrapped in his arms. The daughter of Severus Snape was browsing through a witch magazine, looking content and bored at the same time. Avonlea sat before the fire, doing her best to ignore everything that was going on inside her mind.
"I can't believe your mom sent more money," Carissa commented, glancing in Avonlea's direction. "Like that bag of money wasn't enough to buy out the whole dress store. Why'd she send more?"
"Because she can," Avonlea muttered, narrowing her eyes at the tongues of flame that twisted in the fireplace. "And because she wanted me to have enough money to buy quality jewelry and makeup for the event." She poked her wand at the burning logs. "Like I want to wear pounds of jewelry and cake my face with horrid makeup at all. She's impractical all the time. And all because she wants the best for me, as she likes to say."
"Well, you're graduating from Hogwarts at the top of the class," Carissa pointed out, tossing the magazine away. "That's something that she can't say that she's done. What place did she graduate in? At the very bottom of the class, right? And look where that got her." Her eyes closed. "Look where it got our moms…I mean, my mom is very intelligent, but look where they are." She waved her hand. "And look where we are. We're not heading in the same direction that they are. We're going somewhere with our lives after Hogwarts."
Avonlea's expression soured. "You're going somewhere. You're going to be joining one of your favorite Quidditch teams and become famous as the best Chaser in the world. Me, I'm going to either find myself as a true Half-Veela or end up being a vampire by the end of this year."
Katia plopped down on the floor next to Avonlea. "You're so pessimistic. Wasn't your plan to graduate and become a teacher of magical creatures?"
"It was."
"And it still is," Carissa called from her spot on the sofa. "You can't give up on your dreams yet, Avonlea. You can never let them go. I won't give up on you and the search for your mate until you find him and make sweet, passionate love to him all over this common room."
Heat flooded Avonlea's face as she whipped her head around to look at her best friend. Carissa smiled wickedly from her place in Cassius' arms and snuggled closer to the man. Cassius smiled and rubbed a hand over Carissa's back, choosing to remain silent for the moment.
"I wouldn't do it all over the common room," Avonlea said heatedly.
"Why not? I do."
"That's you. It's not something that I would do with anyone."
Avonlea's best friend shrugged a shoulder. "You say that now because you're a virgin, but just you wait until you get your first taste at the primal dance of passion. You're going to be shagging all over the place, especially when you come into your heritage. I remember a note saying that Veela can be very, very horny in some cases."
"Explain my dad then. Why doesn't he shag Mom all the time?"
"Have you been around your mother?" Cassius asked. "That woman could kill a man's libido after a few hours alone with her."
"Yet, somehow she acts like she's the most used whore in the song house," Katia added. "Are all pure bloods like that?"
Avonlea shrugged. "I don't know. And I don't want to think about what will happen if I find my mate."
"When," Carissa corrected. "When you find your mate – or rather, when you accept him as your mate, you're going to have a lot to think about. Trust me."
A silence fell over the gathered group of friends and Avonlea turned her gaze back to the fire, trying very hard to focus on keeping her fangs back. She was hungry for blood after not having it for a couple days, but she didn't want to feed off of Carissa with the other two in the room. Her tongue swiped across her teeth and she shuddered as the sharp fangs cut into her tongue.
Carissa let out a loud groan and rolled out of Cassius' arms and onto the floor. Yawning loudly, she stretched her arms out looked around the room. "I want to have a picnic," she announced to the room, dropping her arms to her sides. "Katia, Cassius, be a couple of dears and go get what we need for a picnic."
"Out in the cold?" Cassius asked, sitting up slowly. "In the snow?"
"No. We're going to have a picnic in this room. So, we're going to need plates and plates of good food and some bottles of liquid." Carissa's eyebrows rose and fell as she smirked. "Avonlea and I will go around and look for a perfect blanket for us to sit on by the fire." She waved her hands. "Go, go."
Katia bounced onto her feet and held her hand out to Cassius. No one spoke until the two of them had vanished through the door. Carissa let out another loud sound and crawled over to the fireplace. She sat back on her heels and pulled up the sleeve of her shirt, baring her pale flesh to the glow of the fire.
"C'mon Lea," she said, holding her arm out to Avonlea. "You haven't had a drink in a few days like an idiot. You have to eat something that's not people food, but comes from people." She thrust her arm closer to Avonlea. "Chow time, table for one."
Avonlea frowned and turned her gaze away from her friend. Her body shuddered once more. Carissa punched her in the side, earning a dirty look.
"If you want to eat before the guys get back, you better start feeding, Lea."
The Half-Veela reached out and grabbed her friend's arm. Without meeting her friend's gaze, she bit into the pale flesh of Carissa's forearm. Carissa let out a hiss of pain and then fell silent as Avonlea fed off of her life's blood.
I hate this so much, Avonlea thought, closing her eyes as the rich liquid slid down her throat. I hate this hunger so much!
Carissa placed a hand on top of Avonlea's head and petted her hair, making soft soothing sounds as Avonlea became aware of the hot tears filling her eyes. The tears slid out from beneath her lashes and fell upon Carissa's skin.
I hate this.
OOOOOOOOO
Snape came into the Great Hall near the end of the dinner period, ready to eat without having to converse with his fellow faculty members or watch over many students. The weekend was one of the rare pleasures that he allowed himself to enjoy in solitude. No bratty kids asking stupid questions in class or tripping over themselves and making a mess of his classroom. And certainly no child that they could talk back to him with inappropriate words like they could stand up to him, their superior.
"Severus," McGonagall's voice said from his side as he tucked into his evening meal. "It has been a while since I have checked in with your assignment. How is Miss Raven's search for her mate coming along?"
Snape's mood instantly soured and he set his fork down for a moment. "Miss Raven would do better in her search if she would not flirt with boys that she knows aren't her mate. Yet, she does the complete opposite of what she should do."
"She hasn't come any closer in her search?"
"No."
McGonagall picked up her goblet and took a sip from her wine. "That girl has always been such a dutiful student…I wonder why it is that she hasn't invested herself in the search. I had thought that she would not want to become a vampire on the day of her seventeenth birthday."
"It appears that Miss Raven is no longer concerned about the state that she will achieve at the end of the year," Snape said, chewing slowly on a piece of chicken. "All that time spent hunting down clues about her heritage, wasted. If she doesn't find her mate, then I believe that we will have to remove her from the castle, Headmaster."
"I do not want to think about the life that the girl will lead if she doesn't find her mate," McGonagall said, showing the rarely visible concern that she had for a select few. "She has worked so hard to get herself out of the whore house and worked so hard on her studies. To have her turn into a vampire and force her to leave the castle before her graduation, it is sad." She dabbed her lips with a napkin and pushed herself away from the table. "Perhaps I will have to have a talk with her tomorrow after the students go to Hogsmeade. There is much that needs to be discussed." The Headmaster looked down at Snape. "Thank you for doing so much to help that girl, Severus. I hope that your time has not been wasted after all."
Snape glanced at her as she walked away. "Good evening, Minerva."
Snape was allowed to eat for several moments in complete silence before he heard the loud laughter of two students who had just run into the Great Hall. Cassius and Katia, his daughter's lovers, were carrying a large basket as they approached the Slytherin House table. Neither sat down, but gathered foods which they quickly placed in the basket. It surprised Snape to see that his daughter was not with them since they had always seemed to be joined at the hip every chance that they had gotten.
The Defense Against the Dark Arts professor watched his students gather what they could, chewing slowly as he wondered where his daughter was.
And where is the other one? Snape wondered, watching the two turn around once their basket was heavily laden with filched food. What are they planning?
Cassius and Katia each took hold of one handle and, smiling, departed from the Great Hall with the same enthusiasm as they had entered. No one else seemed to notice or they simply didn't care what was going on.
Snape jumped in surprise when he felt someone's hand grip his arm. His gaze turned to the blank of one of Professor Trelawney. He frowned as he realized the eccentric woman was having a genuine psychic moment.
"Stay close to the Changeling, Severus Snape," she said in a strange voice. "Soon your eyes will be opened for the first time in your life. Happiness lies beyond the blood and in the blood. By the end of this year, two half-hearts will be complete once more. Beware anger and cling close to the Changeling. Beware."
Trelawney moved back away from him and blinked several times. Pressing her hand against her chest, she glanced around her in obvious confusion. "Umm...What did I just say?"
That's what I would like to know as well, Snape thought. "You were babbling, Trelawney," he told her instead. "Perhaps you have consumed too much wine tonight."
The psychic glanced at the half-empty bottle of wine that sat by her goblet. "Perhaps, I did. I did, I do believe. I do…"
Snape went back into his quiet shell as Trelawney babbled on to herself. The woman's prophecy made no sense, but he knew that there was something contained within in that was important.
But what is it? And what does it mean?
OOOOOOOOO
A/N: I do believe that there will be a conversation between McGonagall and Avonlea in the next update where Carissa is probably not invited. I feel like Avonlea needs to have a one-on-one for the first time in a while. Please leave a review or a comment in the little box and I will do my best to get back to you soon. Thanks everyone! -Scarlet
