a/n again I own nothing, you recognize it and it is JK's
November 1991
Quidditch season had arrived. And with it came all the excitement and pressure to do well. Harry especially was having a hard time. It had soon become clear to the foursome that despite Wood trying to keep Harry a secret, that half the school knew or suspected he was on the team. People none of them had met kept coming up to Harry and either telling him he'd be brilliant or telling him he was going to fall off his broom. More often than not Ascella hexed the later ones. Ascella even swore McGonagall had turned a blind eye when she'd laid into a 5th year Slytherin.
On the day of the match Ascella was walking down to breakfast with a nervous Harry. His tossing and turning had kept her awake most of the night, but she hadn't complained. Given between what he'd told them the night before about Snape, in particular Snape's three headed dog bite, his suspicions that Snape was after what the dog was guarding, and his nerves for the his first Quidditch game, Ascella couldn't really find it in herself to be annoyed.
Since Halloween Ascella had been able to spend some nights with Hermione in the girls dormitory. She even had a mattress under Hermione's bed and some spare robes in her trunk, but not wanting to admit just how often she got locked out she still found solace in Harry's dorm. Besides he was her best friend and she felt more comfortable there.
"Distract me Cells," Harry whispered to her in a strangled voice as they walked.
"Right. Well did I tell you who's been partnering me in Herbology recently?" she asked casting around for something distracting worthy.
"No," Harry shook his head.
"Zabini," Ascella said darkly. "He's been joining Morag, Entwhistle and I at our Jumping Beans plant. It's awful. I mean it's not like he says anything per say and you'd think since he doesn't get on real well with the likes of Malfoy and that crowd that he'd be alright, but then you realize its not cause he's any different, it's because he's a right prick! He doesn't get on with anyone; thinks he's better than everyone. I honestly don't get why he chooses my group to join. The other day I tried to slip one of the jumping beans into his robes but Sprout spotted me. For some strange reason she didn't believe me when I said it was an accident."
When they slide onto the Gryffindor bench for breakfast Harry looked mildly better. Hermione and Ron joined them shortly after. Harry even managed to eat some toast before Seamus Finnegan assured Harry that seekers always got beat up the most during a Quidditch match. Ascella shot daggers at him; he shied away but the damage was done. Harry refused to touch his plate after that, even with Hermione's gentle encouragement.
Soon after Harry was instructed to head down to the pitch with the rest of the Gryffindor team. They wished Harry luck ("Beat those damn snakes! I want to have something to gloat about to Zabini in Herbology!) but he barely acknowledged them. A short while later Ascella walked down to the pitch with Hermione and Ron. She was unashamedly sporting Gryffindor colors and sat in the Gryffindor section.
To say the game was exciting would be a vast understatement. It was probably the most intense game of Quidditch Ascella had ever watched, between the blatant fouls, to Snape jinxing Harry's broom, to Harry almost swallowing the Golden Snitch to win the game for Gryffindor. Ascella spent most of the match yelling obscenities at the Slytherin players, biting her nails in worry for Harry, and screaming herself hoarse when Harry held up the snitch triumphantly.
Ascella, Hermione, Ron, and Hagrid ran onto the pitch at the end as well as half the school. They reached a grinning Harry and all hugged him tightly. Harry met her eyes and she knew he was feeling on top of the world. She grinned at him and he grinned stupidly happy back.
Later they found themselves seated down at Hagrid's for a cup of tea (but just tea though, they had all learned by this point not to accept anything Hagrid had cooked; Ascella and Ron had almost broken teeth when they'd tried one of his aptly named rock cakes).
Once the Quidditch talk died down, the trio told Hagrid of their suspicions about Snape, while Ascella nursed the last of her tea. It wasn't that she wasn't suspicious of Snape, it was no secret that he hated both her and Harry and the feeling was mutual, it was just that she felt they didn't have all the facts yet. She'd told Harry this on multiple occasions, but this had only made him more determined than ever to find all the facts, if only to prove her wrong.
Things got interesting when Hagrid revealed that the three headed dog had a name. Ascella almost spit out the tea she was swallowing.
"Fluffy?" Ron said incredulous. "That thing has a name?"
"Not to mention that the name is Fluffy!" Ascella added.
Hagrid, realizing that he shouldn't have revealed that, then tried to do damage control, telling them that Snape was one of the people protecting the item. Amid protests he revealed that a man named Nicolas Flamel was involved. Ascella could swear the name sounded familiar to her, but she couldn't place it.
Hagrid kicked them out a short while later. Ascella walked back with the trio whispering furiously to each other. She walked along next to them thinking. At the fifth floor she bid them good-bye saying she needed to go to Ravenclaw tower. Harry looked up disappointed but he let her go.
On the way she ran into Terry Boot. He saw her coming and slowed a smile on his face.
"Fancy seeing you in this part of the castle," he teased. Ascella just smiled in answer. They made easy conversation as they headed back to their common room. Boot had been on his way back from the library, but he had gone to the Quidditch match earlier that day. His intense interest in the conversation caused Ascella to realize that Boot was as avid a Quidditch fan as any of them. And she'd thought he hadn't any interests outside of school. She really shouldn't have been surprised though, everyone loved Quidditch and everyone was more than met the eye.
Boot easily answered the riddle correctly and they entered the common room together. Ascella bid Boot good bye and headed to her dorm. What she really wanted was a nice shower and a quiet night in her own bed. The first one was easy to come by but the second wasn't going to be. Apparently the girls of her dorm had decided to have a girls night, one where they painted each others nails and stayed up late doing whatever girls did at sleepovers. Pillow fights, gossip, Ascella didn't know nor did she really want to find out. Padma had been kind enough to invite her but she'd declined. Instead she grabbed her favorite blanket and book and headed to the common room.
Ascella normally loved noise, and loved finding things to entertain herself, whether it was pranking someone or a rousing game of exploding snap, but sometimes she got into moods where she just wanted quiet. They would come on her unexpectedly and could last anywhere from an hour to a week. She hadn't had one since she'd come to Hogwarts but this one had been lurking since Halloween. Ascella had always been good at hiding her true emotions behind a mask of perfection and indifference, but in these moods she was shorter of temper and just wanted to be left alone.
Meda had always said it was this part of her personality, beyond even the mischief and quick tongue, that had always reminded her most of Sirius. It was at these times Ascella would catch her whispering to Ted, "She's so much like him. I didn't know how to help him and I don't know how to help her." Ascella knew Meda worried she was depressed but she knew it wasn't as simple as that. Sometimes being quiet didn't have to mean anything aside from being quiet.
Of course thinking about that only made Ascella angry and upset. She hated that she was so much like him; her no good murdering father. Why did it have to be him she inherited her personality from? Why couldn't everyone tell her how much she was like Marlene? Sure she looked just like her mother, except for her eyes, but no one ever told her how much she acted like her. In fact no one ever talked to her about her mother. She knew nothing except that she'd been a McKinnon, that she'd loved a murderer, and that she was dead.
Ascella felt a single tear slide down her cheek as she stared into the fire, her book completely forgotten. She'd just wiped it away angrily when she felt more than saw Terry Boot sit down across from her.
"Hey," he said. "Are you okay?" She met his caring brown eyes and smiled weakly nodding.
"I'm good," she assured him. He looked like he didn't believe her but let it slide.
"Okay," he said. "Anyway I just came to tell you that Potter is outside the door and he'd like to see you."
"Harry's here?" she asked sitting up surprised. Boot nodded.
"Do you want me to tell him to leave?" he asked.
"No! I'll go see what he wants. Thanks Boot," she said sincerely grasping his arm as she passed him, her blanket falling from the couch. Boot nodded but she was already past him.
At the door she made sure to not let it close as she didn't plan on getting locked out tonight. Then she turned to Harry. He met her eyes concerned.
"What are you doing here Harry?" Ascella asked quietly.
"Looking for you. You didn't seem yourself earlier. Well you were and then you weren't," he corrected, shuffling his feet awkwardly. "I just wanted to make sure you were alright." Ascella felt touched. She also felt a little of her normal self creep in. She leaned against the open door and crossed her arms.
"You know I'm allowed to be quiet sometimes," she said teasingly but Harry caught the undercurrent of seriousness in her tone. He was starting to get good at reading the emotions that she tried to hide behind her mask.
"I know," he said meeting her eyes. "I guess I just wanted to know if you wanted to talk about it?" She shook her head slowly. She didn't talk about how she needed to be quiet and how it always made her think about her parents. "Or not talk about it," Harry continued. "Either way I wanted you to know you could do either with me if you wanted company." Ascella felt tears well in her eyes. Aside from Dora she'd never come close to having a friend as good as Harry. She knew that she wasn't ready to talk about her problems with him but she knew that one day she might. And so she took the first step towards letting someone in and nodded.
"I'd like that," she said her throat tight and she pulled Harry into her common room. "Not talking with you would be nice." And so it was. They spent the rest of the evening on the couch by the fire, her feet in Harry's lap enjoying the companionable silence, and unspoken understanding between the two. They may not have spoken but Harry's presence kept her confusion about her parents at bay and put her in a better mood. And so when Harry left she was able to go back to her dormitory and partake in the rest of girls night.
Padma painted her nails a pretty blue and told her how jealous all the girls were of her gorgeous blond hair. Mandy jokingly added that they all secretly hated her because she was twelve and was already by far the prettiest girl in school. Ascella blushed. She'd always been told how pretty she was but she'd never really ever tried to make herself that way, she just was. She had thick brown eyelashes despite having golden blond tresses and rosy lips, but she'd never felt particularly pretty.
She denied it and countered with how the two of them were really much prettier. They rolled their eyes as Sue Li and Beth Vance threw pillows at Ascella, telling her to shut up. Ascella was surprised; she'd thought of Li and Vance as nice girls. But then she saw their smiles and they all started laughing. And Ascella realized it was nice, they were nice, and it was nice being here with them.
