a/n disclaimer: Do not own. You recognize it it belongs to JK Rowling.
September 1992
The next morning Ascella and Harry chatted easily as they made their way out the portrait hole and down to breakfast. They talked about summer, Quidditch (Harry wanted to know if Ascella would be trying out for her house team this year, she wouldn't), and how awful Snape was likely to be to the pair of them this year, Harry especially as Snape hadn't managed to get him expelled.
"Seriously though, he won't stand for it. Just think he was that," Ascella held up her thumb and forefinger milometers apart," close to getting rid of you, his least favorite student. Well one of, but you know with one gone he'd have thought it easier to get rid of me. Still don't know why he hates me so much. Say, do you think he and Malfoy have little meetings together over tea where they bond over how much they hate you?" Ascella said as they sat down at the Gryffindor table.
"Probably. And then they brainstorm ways to annoy me the most and orchestrate it so their plans line up for maximum effect."
"Most definitely," Ascella agreed, heaping some bacon onto her plate.
Shortly after this they were joined by a small first year boy with a camera.
"Hi Harry!" the boy said excitedly. Harry looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there at the moment.
"Er, hi Colin," he said back not wanting to be rude, Ascella assumed. Ascella, meanwhile, had no scruples about that.
"Hey squirt," she said bluntly. "Budge up. The great Harry Potter can't have people within ten feet of him before he's eaten anything, otherwise you might find out just how he was able to fight off Voldemort." The kid, Ascella could only assume was Colin Creevey's eyes widened in a mix of shock and awe before moving further down the bench, even putting a few people between him and Harry. He stayed there for the rest of breakfast, though he did shoot Harry looks periodically, as if hoping for a display.
"Thanks," Harry mumbled into his eggs.
"No problem," Ascella replied. "Colin Creevey?" she asked. Harry nodded. They were soon joined by Hermione and Ron.
"Have a bit of a lie in Weasley?" Ascella asked Ron as he piled his plate with food. He grunted. Charming, Ascella thought her lip curling in disgust.
"No. You lot did forget to wake me though." Hermione heard and looked at Ascella sharply. Ascella pointedly didn't meet her eyes. Hermione didn't exactly approve of her spending the night in the boys dorm. It was why she had a mattress for Ascella under her own bed but Ascella would always prefer Harry's bed, even if she had to deal with Ron's snoring, albeit only until she figured out the silencio charm. She'd gotten it to work on small animals (like Neville's toad) for hours but hadn't quite gotten the adjustment yet for humans.
"Really Ascella! You should sleep in your own dorm, and at the very least up in mine. I shudder to think what kind of punishment Professor McGonagall would give out if she found you there." Ascella bowed her head. She knew Hermione was right but she also knew she wasn't going to stop and she really didn't feel like getting into an argument this early in the morning. It turned out though, that she didn't need to say anything as Harry came to her defense.
"Relax Hermione. We were just talking and fell asleep, otherwise she'd have been over in the girls dorm with you. Besides McGonagall won't ever catch her. We have the cloak, so the only way she'd find out would be if one of you told which we know isn't going to happen, right?" Harry asked looking pointedly at her. She huffed but didn't say anything. Harry must have taken that as all the agreement he was going to get and turned back to Ascella and his toast.
Ascella shot him a grateful smile and finished her own toast.
"What do you have again this morning?" Harry asked Ascella as they all rose to head to lessons a short while later.
"Herbology," she answered, less than enthused. By far her worst subject was Herbology. Sure, she still pulled top marks in her essays and exams but she just didn't have a natural ability for it and as such she had to work a little harder, particularly during practicals. Despite Meda's attempts over the summer to get her to help with the gardening, she still did not have a green thumb. "And it's in greenhouse three. Which means I'll probably get bit by some dangerous plant or poisoned by a Venomous Tentacula. In all honesty we'd best say our good byes now, as this might be the last time you see me alive." Harry looked sideways at her and grinned.
"I don't know about all that. Just be sure to keep your earmuffs on tight."
"What?" Ascella asked making a face. Harry merely laughed and told her she'd see.
"Does this have anything to do with Longbottom going to the hospital wing because he passed out in class yesterday?" she asked trying to get the answer out of him. Harry laughed harder.
"Something like that," he said before darting up the Marble Staircase in the Entrance Hall with Hermione and Ron.
"Potter!" Ascella yelled to him.
"Have fun Cells!" he called and then he was lost in the crowd, swept away to Charms.
"Damn him," Ascella muttered turning to walk through the oak front doors and head to the greenhouses. She arrived just before the bell and slipped into her spot next to Entwhistle, who smiled at her in hello. She was annoyed to see Zabini had decided to continue his tradition of working at the same station as her, Entwhistle and Morag. Nothing like someone she didn't like to make a class she didn't like all the worse. At least he wasn't Malfoy, she supposed.
Ascella blew her bangs out of her face and pulled her braid over one shoulder and turned to listen to Professor Sprout as she started the lesson. Ascella soon learned what the earmuff comment had been all about and why Longbottom had been knocked out; they would be re-potting Mandrakes. She couldn't help but feel bad for Neville but at the same time she didn't want for herself to be a repeat performance.
"Worried Black?" Morag whispered, wiggling his eyebrows at her as he put on his normal looking earmuffs. Ascella had ended up with a pair of pink fluffy ones but she was okay with this as they looked to have more material with which to drown out the Mandrake shrieks. She wasn't taking any chances.
"Please," she scoffed, hiding the nerves she was actually feeling, with her usual bravado. Still she made extra sure that her earmuffs covered her ears and that she couldn't hear anything, including Morag's laughter at how ridiculous Entwhistle looked in pink earmuffs. Ascella noticed Zabini had pink ones too but no one was laughing at him. somehow even those he managed to pull off, then she turned to her pot and plant, a determined look on her face.
An hour later Ascella thought she'd done quite well. If she hadn't re-potted the most mandrakes she had at least gotten as many as Zabini and she hadn't had any mishaps like Entwhistle who'd thought he was being funny when he stuck his finger in one of the mandrakes mouths and had been bitten. He'd dropped the plant to the greenhouse floor and received a months detention from Sprout. It was rather entertaining to watch the normally easy going Professor Sprout lose it on a student, especially when no body could hear what she was saying. Entwhistle, meanwhile, had been cowering and still looked shocked as they left the greenhouse.
"Congrats mate," Ascella said patting his back as they made their way back to the castle. "A month's detention from the nicest teacher in the school. That's impressive really." Morag shouted in laughter.
"Shut it, Cella," Kevin muttered darkly, his cheeks flushing ever so slightly. Ascella smirked at him in response.
"Oh cheer up! Charms next!" she said tugging her bag higher on her shoulder, as they trudged up the front steps.
Morag rolled his eyes.
"Oh yeah. The one class you actually admit to liking," he said.
"You are just jealous that I am better at it than you are," she replied airily.
"You're better at everything than me."
"Hmm, well you're not wrong."
"Glad to see you haven't learned any humility over the summer Ascella," Aaron grinned at her.
"Me? Humility? Never!" she replied pretending to be offended. "You can't change perfection." Their banter carried them to the Charms classroom. Ascella was pleased to see Kevin looked mildly better now, then again he, like Ascella, rather enjoyed Charms.
Walking in Ascella did a double take when she said hello to Flitwick. He had a rather large, green boil on his forehead. Sitting down in her usual seat next to Terry Boot she asked him what had happened.
"Some mishap with the Gryffindor's and Hufflepuffs the class before," he whispered back, his parchment and wand already on the desk they shared. Ascella always sat by Boot in Charms ever since they had realized their mutual love and competency for the subject the year before.
"What? Did someone stab him with their wand?" she asked incredulous, pulling out her own parchment and wand, eyeing Flitwick out of the corner of her eye as he tried to reduce the mark.
Boot shook his head, looking concerned, as Flitwick only managed to reduce the boil a small amount. At least he got rid of the horrid green color; now it just looked like an overgrown zit.
"I don't know," Boot said. They spent the rest of the lesson practicing all the spells from the previous year. Flitwick was so impressed with Ascella and Terry's work that he let them work ahead with the next spell they'd be working on the following week. They also earned five points a piece. Professor Flitwick told Ascella she should think about joining the Charms Club with Boot. Ascella had almost snorted, (her in a school club?) but managed to hold it in as Flitwick was probably her favorite teacher at the school. It didn't help that Terry earnestly told her she should really think about joining, his brown eyes warm with excitement. Somehow she couldn't bring herself to dash the hopes of such a nice boy by snorting, so instead she just gave a close lipped smile in response.
At lunch Ascella marched over to the Gryffindor table and demanded to know what they'd done to Flitwick.
Ron flushed red and Harry, grinning, told Ascella that Ron's broken wand had flown out of his hand and struck Flitwick in the face. Ascella turned horrified to Ron.
"You're lucky it was only a boil!" she said. "And that it didn't hit him in the eye!"
"Oh sod off," Ron mumbled, hunched over his potatoes.
All of sudden a flash went off followed by a click and Ascella was left blinking away tiny little lights. When she could see again she saw a little first year making his way down the Gryffindor table, a camera in his hand. Ascella stared after him her mouth open.
"You weren't kidding," she said to Harry. "That kid is a nutcase."
"I know," Harry said miserably. "He's been popping up everywhere! Between classes, at meals, in the common room, when I'm trying to go to the bathroom..." Ascella snorted.
"We should start calling him Colin Creepy." Harry choked on his juice, while Ascella turned to her own food.
"Merlin, that's perfect!" he said when he could breathe again, meeting her eyes, laughter in his. "Colin Creepy," he said trying out the words. "Yeah, that's a thing now."
"Glad to help," Ascella grinned, spooning a spoonful of mashed yams and brown sugar into her mouth.
The next day was Friday and Ascella had already counted more birthday wishes than the number of people she'd told about her birthday. All of her Ravenclaw friends had met her in the common room and wished her a huge happy birthday.
"But - How did you all know it was my birthday?" Ascella asked confused but with a big smile as her, Padma, Terry, Aaron, and Kevin made their way out the entrance to their common room, headed down to breakfast.
"Potter," Padma replied flippantly. Ascella smiled pleased. Of course it was because of Harry. "Can't believe you weren't going to tell us!" Padma exclaimed.
Ascella laughed. "What and miss an opportunity for blackmail you if you didn't know it was my birthday?" Padma shoved her into Aaron. Ascella stumbled and laughed harder.
"Oh you are so full of yourself, Black," Padma huffed, but Ascella saw the smile tugging at her friends mouth so she knew Padma wasn't really upset.
"And proud of it!" Ascella called ducking behind Terry to dodge any further violence from Padma. Boot rolled his eyes at the pair of them and stepped out of the way.
"Traitor!" Ascella called to Terry, darting away from the group, Padma close behind her.
She managed to lose her friend when she ducked through a secret passage she and Harry had found the year before and arrived in the Great Hall a good ten minutes before the rest of the Ravenclaw second years. She looked to the Gryffindor table but didn't see Harry so she sat down at her own table and proceeded to eat a hearty English birthday breakfast. She was halfway through when she felt someone sit down next to her and put an arm around her.
"Happy Birthday Cells!"
It was Harry. Ascella beamed, returning his hug.
"Thank you!" she said pulling away a little. Then she stared at him. Harry had begun buttering some toast but he turned to her amused when he felt her staring. He raised an eyebrow.
"Yes?" he asked innocently.
"I can't believe you told everyone it was my birthday," she said bluntly. He grinned and went back to his toast.
"You're welcome," he said taking a bite of his toast. Ascella couldn't help the smile that radiated across her face. Harry was being so caviler about it all and she was trying to pretend it didn't mean a lot to her that he had cared enough to tell everyone else about her birthday, but it did. It meant a lot, because it meant that he wanted her day to be special and he wanted everyone to know why it was special; he'd gone out of his way to make her birthday better and he hadn't had to. Ascella didn't know what to say to thank him so she leaned her head onto Harry's shoulder and snuggled close to him instead. She felt him smile and she knew that she didn't need to say anything. He knew.
They were shortly joined by the Ravenclaw second years as well as Hermione and Ron, the latter of whom both wished her a cheerful Happy Birthday. The rest of breakfast passed with all of her friends around her chatting and laughing merrily with each other. It was a bit of a strange sight for Ascella because she didn't think she'd ever seen all of them together before. Padma and Terry tended to be around Goldstein and Corner more than Aaron and Kevin, who when they weren't with Ascella were either off alone or hanging with Mandy and Turpin (what Aaron saw worth while in Turpin Ascella couldn't fathom, she was right annoying, even Kevin agreed!) or Aaron's older brother and his friends, and as for Hermione and Ron, she'd never seen them at any table aside from Gryffindor and Harry, who probably got on with everyone the best since he'd spent more time around her Ravenclaw friends, still wouldn't go out of his way to speak to them unless Ascella was with them. Then Ascella realized something, as Padma snorted at a joke Ron had made, it was for her. She was the reason they were all brought together. People who would normally never interact were because they all cared about her. Ascella felt a bubble of warmth spread through her insides. She smiled despite herself, not a sassy smile, or a grin, or a smug one, a real genuine smile.
Too bad she wasn't smiling that afternoon as she walked into the Potions dungeon. The only bad thing about her birthday was that it had fallen on a Potions lesson day and she wasn't looking forward to finding out how Snape was planning on torturing her this year. Turns out he was planning on ignoring her. Ascella was quite fine with that. Ascella sat in her usual seat next to Padma, groaning.
"What's with you?" her friend asked snippily. "It's your birthday. That's like everyone's favorite day of the year."
"Yeah but it's still Snape," Ascella replied glaring at the greasy haired man in the front of the room.
Padma's eyes widened in understanding. "Oh yeah, he hates your guts for some unknown reason, right?" she replied also looking at the front. Ascella nodded.
Shortly after that, once all the Hufflepuffs had found their seats, Snape began class. He started off with a brief lecture that had Ascella bored to tears but she didn't dare not take notes, or goof off, like she usually would have, lest Snape give her a detention on her birthday. Even so Ascella only just managed to contain a laugh when she saw MacMillan's hand shoot up into the air.
MacMillan was notorious for asking more questions than anyone else combined in any class. He was a nice bloke but he liked to talk. After his one question had turned into a string of questions Snape cut him off by taking off 5 points from Hufflepuff.
"You'd think he'd learn," Padma said to Ascella. MacMillan looked down at his table his face flushed. Ascella nodded. It seemed this happened at least once a term. MacMillian just couldn't help himself. If Ascella didn't hate Snape so much she might have been grateful to him for getting the boy to shut up, but as it was it just made her hate him more.
Luckily, they all managed to make it through the rest of the double Potions lesson without mishap. Ascella was even able to turn in a vial of her potion to Snape at the end without him trying to break it or mess it up. He didn't even have a sneer for her. Ascella decided she rather liked the silent treatment.
At dinner Ascella slumped down next to Harry at the Gryffindor table and sighed happily.
"Well Snape still hates me," she announced. "but he's showing it by ignoring me, so I think I'll live. Now, what's the menu for my birthday dinner?" Ascella looked around at the spread and smiled in delight. "Oh! Lamb!" She gave herself a healthy helping while Harry laughed at her.
"So when are you going to give me my birthday present?" she asked Harry.
Harry grinned at her sideways from his seat on the bench next to her.
"Later. You did keep this evening open like I asked, right?"
"Er. Yes! Just like you asked." Harry looked at her hard.
"You forgot I asked that didn't you?"
"Noooo, of course not." Harry continued to stare at her, an eyebrow raised.
"Okay yes, but in my defense I was really tired! And as I don't have any plans, no harm, no foul, right?" Ascella beseeched her best friend.
"Whatever," Harry replied, but he was trying to hide a smile so Ascella knew he wasn't really mad.
Later that evening found Ascella walking along a corridor with Harry, her, constantly pestering him about where he was taking her. Harry had started amused but he soon became short with her and was now refusing to respond to any of her questions.
"Well fine -" but she was cut off as Harry dragged her into an empty classroom by a loud "Surprise!"
Ascella stopped dead. The empty classroom wasn't empty that night. No, it was decorated instead with streamers and balloons and even a banner that read 'Happy Birthday, Ascella!' in birthday party pinks, greens, yellows, and blues. And every single one of her friends were there too: Padma grinning at her next to a laughing Terry Boot, Kevin and Aaron were competing with who could greet her the loudest, Hermione and Ron beamed at her and held up a cake with her face on it, even Michael Corner and Anthony Goldstein were there looking cheerful. And they weren't the only people there. Harry must have invited the whole year (aside from the Slytherin's obviously) as Ascella made out Hufflepuffs Hannah Abbot, Ernie MacMillan, Justin Finch-Fletchey, Gabriel Fawley, Megan Jones and others she couldn't remember the names of, as well as Ravenclaws Sue Li, Mandy Brocklehurt and even Lisa Turpin (Ascella managed to only curl her lip a little when she saw that she'd gotten an invite too), as well as all the other Gryffindor's in Harry's year and even a few older students from the twins year, all from a medley of houses ("We never pass up a party, Black!" George had told her. "Besides who do you think provided all the food and refreshments!" Fred had added. Ascella made note to stay away from the refreshments Fred provided, not putting it past him to add a little alcohol to the mix).
Ascella turned to Harry astounded. Harry met her gaze looking right pleased with himself. "Happy Birthday, Ascella," he said smiling at her. "Do you like your present?" Ascella's mouth dropped.
"You. Did all this," she waved her hand around to indicate all the people and the decorations, "for me?" Harry shrugged, blushing but still looking pleased, as he nodded. "With less than three days of preparation?" she continued.
"Well, I had help, but yeah basically," he said, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck. Ascella threw her arms around him.
"Thank you," she breathed in his ear.
"You're welcome," he said hugging her back. When she pulled away he told her "Now come on we have a party to enjoy. Also, I'd avoid anything Fred gives you. He's spiked all of those drinks with alcohol for him and his friends. George's drinks should be fine though as he at least knew getting 12 and 13 year olds drunk wasn't a good idea."
"Why am I not surprised?" Ascella grinned, laughing that she'd been right about Fred and his drinks.
And so Ascella let herself be pulled into her birthday party where she was wished happy birthday by kids she barely knew the names of but nevertheless looked to be having fun and allowed herself to enjoy herself. There were games of exploding snap (Ascella creamed everyone), games of truth or dare, gobstones matches and even dancing and other general mucking about. All in all it was a wonderful time and the best birthday Ascella could ever remember having. And it was good to have this night, as in the coming months Ascella would look back and remember it fondly and wonder at how fast everything could take a turn for the worse.
a/n This chapter was fun (though the ending is still terrible...mostly last line)! I love using Ascella to add details about the world/story that I have always loved, filling in things that the trio might have experienced but just wasn't written about, especially being able to write about them with Ascella's usual level of sass. :)
At any rate I hope you enjoyed it! But let me know if there is anything I can do to improve the story for you! Or if anything doesn't make sense. I try to keep as canon as possible with the exception that Ascella is a completely new character who does and will continue to slightly affect JK's orignal Harry Potter plot.
A quick heads up too: Gabriel Fawley, who is mentioned this chapter is the little bro of another OC I've yet to get up on this site named Andreana Fawley (goes by Andy). I decided awhile before I posted anything that my two main OC's (Ascella Black and Andreana Fawley) would exist in my same AU universe together, hence the random mention of him with some of the other Hufflepuffs that Jo mentioned in the sorting in the first book.
Also I am aware that Neville only passed out in the movie version of this book but that idea was too hilarious and fit too well with this story so I had to add it!
Also, also is it confusing how I switch between calling Ascella's Ravenclaw friends by their last names to their first names and back again seemingly randomly? I've been trying to use the narrative to emphasize how Ascella doesn't know them as well, except for a few (like Padma, Kevin, Aaron and Terry to some degree) but I've also wanted the readers to have an idea of who they were supposed to be from having read the books, hence the last/full names usage in current chapters even though you've met them chapters ago in the story. So basically I'd love feedback on if you are confused or not with the way I've been referring to them.
