Chapter One: First Year
"Work, business or 'special circumstances'?" eleven year old Aveline Landon asked her best friend's mother as soon as she opened the front door of her father's mansion.
"I'm sorry Sweetie" Mrs Rivera said as she helped the young heiress take her trunk to the car "he wanted to be the one to take you to the station, he really did..."
"It's okay Mama" said Avie as she was known, smiling up at the kindly Puerto Rican woman who was like a mother to her, "I'm used to it, I think I actually prefer it like this. Hey Mila" she greeted her friend who had been yelling at her in a futile attempt to gain her attention, "I'm paying attention to you now so you can stop yelling"
"BUT AVIE THIS IS IT! WE'RE GOING TO HOGWARTS!"
The Latina girl had not changed much from when the two best friends had first met six years ago in the staff common room of Avie's father's business save for the fact that she was taller with less baby fat. She was taller than Avie with long straight dark brown, almost black, hair that she kept out of her face with a simple hair tie. She had impossibly large brown eyes and a near constant smile that never failed to brighten her surroundings. She was as loud as ever, not that Avie would ever want her to change, a person who demanded to be the centre of attention at all times, and one whose demands were always answered, post-haste.
"I know but if you don't shut up then you're not going to get your present" 'Well that worked pretty well...' Avie thought as Mila immediately shut up and looked at her with brown eyes that had suddenly doubled in size. Grinning widely as only Mila could make her, the young heiress held out her hand, silently calling her friend to her.
Mila ran up to her, throwing her arms around her neck in a hug and stooping a little to kiss her smaller friend's cheek, "I love you, you know that right?"
Avie giggled, wrapping an arm around her friend and pulling her around the house towards the gardens, "I know, love you too"
Upon reaching their destination, Avie flashed another grin at Mila, before whistling sharply, summoning what appeared to be a small moving mass of black and white fluff which upon closer inspection turned out to be a border collie puppy.
"It's adorable!" Mila squealed, picking the puppy up, "what's its name?" she asked, staring at the puppy's blank nametag.
"He's yours so I was going to let you name him" the British girl said, watching her best friend dote over the puppy.
"Dino" Mila said immediately, "his name is Dino, spelt D-I-N-O but pronounced Deeno"
"Yes ma'am" Avie said, mock saluting her before casting a quick charm to engrave DINO onto the name tag, "hey, where's Alex?" she asked suddenly, only just realising that the older boy was missing.
"He was staying at Mia's for the last two weeks of the hols so he'll meet us at the station" Mila explained as they made their way back to the car.
"Oh, okay then, have they made it official yet or are they still dancing around each other pretending to not know what the other feels?" Avie asked as they reached the car, introduced Mrs Rivera, or Mama as the two girls called her, to Dino and went over their belongings, trying to remember if they'd forgotten anything.
"Still in denial" Mila sighed as they drove off, "I was hoping that they'd get together while he was over there but I haven't heard anything from either of them"
Avie patted her friend's knee comfortingly, "they'll come around. And if they're not together by Christmas we can always lock them in a closet filled with mistletoe."
-Scene break-
'I can't believe it! This is it! WE'RE GOING TO HOGWARTS!'
It was only the fact that she had to cart a heavy trolley through the crowded station that prevented Mila Rivera from literally skipping for joy.
As it was she had a massive grin on her face and was talking loudly in Spanish, hoping that no one around who could speak the language was listening as she gushed about the fact that OMFGIT'SACTUALLYTIME!WE'REGOINGTOHOGWARTS!FORTHEFIRSTTIMEIWON''MGOINGTOBEONIT!
Beside her walked Avie who, Mila could tell even through her gushing, was putting a lot of effort in repressing her natural urges to bow to everyone around them who was staring at the pair and apologise in Korean.
It was Avie's mother whom she had never met that was Korean. All she knew of her was that she was a muggle her father had met on a business trip to Seoul. She, like most Asians, had black hair which she grew long and left loose to frame her small face. Her eyes, when not hidden behind thick plastic glasses, were large, like her father's, and her mouth was firmly set in an almost mirror image of his, but that was where her resemblance to him ended. She had, Mila supposed, her mother's build, small and slim, petite. She always seemed to fade into the background which, Mila knew, was exactly how her small friend liked it. She was forever the observer and, although she occasionally chose to observe from the middle of whatever was happening, was usually content in the shadows on the sideline.
As the trio, the two girls with Mrs Rivera trailing behind, made it to platforms 9 and 10, a loud voice called out to them.
Whirling around, Mila abandoned her trolley in favour of jumping on her brother who had been waiting with Mia, his best friend since before he went to Hogwarts, for their arrival.
"Hey Milsi, missed you too" the seventeen year old laughed, hugging his baby sister tightly, "Lini, nice to see you again"
"A pleasure Alex" Avie said, "It is good to see you are well Mia" Avie spoke with the distinctly formal language she tended to lapse into in public.
"So, are you two together now or what?" Mila asked as she let go of Alex to give Mia a quick hug.
Alex looked at his feet, shifting his weight between them while Mia covered her mouth with one hand to stifle her giggles.
"I would assume by your actions that your response is an affirmation?" Avie said, somehow managing to keep her face perfectly straight as if she were discussing nothing more interesting than the weather or the state of the economy.
Alex raised his head to glare at the girl, "yes, yes, rub it in why don't you?" he said bitterly, smiling only when Mia distracted him with a kiss.
Avie rolled her eyes at the couple while Mila was torn between jumping for joy because the oblivious couple was finally together and screaming in disgust because, hello? That's her brother you are making out with there and that is not something she wants to see.
She was still torn when Avie pulled her away from the couple to walk through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, appearing on the other side amid a sea of people dressed in a mixture of the traditional wizarding robes and the more modern muggle clothing.
"Quickly Mila, let us find a compartment before they are all filled" Avie said, smiling at her friend to let her know that she was torn about the actions of the couple they had just left.
Mila nodded and ran onto the train carrying Dino and Poe, leaving Avie to follow levitating their trunks.
They picked a compartment in the middle of the train so that they would be in the middle of things, Mila so that she could make new friends and Avie so that she could watch her fellow students and make a few observations.
They had just finished stowing their trunks when Mila noticed a commotion on the platform.
"Hey Avie isn't that your dad?" she asked, looking at the tall figure in black robes, "looks like he came after all, that's great!" she grinned at her friend.
"Lovely," Avie muttered, "well, let us not keep him waiting shall we? Seeing as he made time in his very busy schedule to come all the way out here just to see me off..."
-Scene break-
"Good morning Father, how have you been?" Avie asked, resisting, as always, the urge to bow formally to him.
"I did not come here to exchange pleasantries Aveline" Mr Landon said sternly, confirming Avie's suspicions, "I am very busy and the only reason why I am here is because I cannot trust anyone other than Layla to carry out my orders properly but she asked for the day off to see her daughter off on her first year of Hogwarts, something I would not begrudge her, so here I am"
Mila, who was about to angrily snap at the man, had a quick silencing charm cast over her and her subsequent silent tantrum went thankfully unnoticed by the pureblood.
"The reason I have come is to see Seunghyun off for his first time at Hogwarts, I am leaving him primarily in your charge as I do not fully trust Minerva McGonagall, as you already know him I expect you to keep him close to you so that you may help them make decisions about those worthy of association."
"Yes Father" Avie said dutifully, not even glancing at her supposed charge.
Mr Landon nodded at her before disappearing with a large crack and flurry of swirling robes.
"Oh thank fuck" the boy they knew as Seungri sighed, tearing off his formal robes to reveal casual muggle clothing underneath, "he's gone! I can breathe!"
"You're causing a scene Victory" Avie smirked.
"VICTORY!" Mila yelled, freed of the silencing spell, throwing her fist in the air.
"Mila, what did I just say?" Avie asked, giving her friend a stern look.
Mila just giggled and hugged her friend.
-Scene break-
"Well…this is nice" Mila commented as the train left London.
Avie stopped reading her Collected Works of Edgar Allen Poe to give her friend a quick smile.
Seungri just snorted, "Isn't it just" he snarked with an eye roll.
Mila was just about to start the fight of the century when the door to their compartment opened.
Two Asian boys poked their head in; they both had black hair, one with a innocently pleading look plastered on his face and the other with a smirk.
"Can we sit in here?" the cute one asked in a soft voice, "every where else is full"
"Hyukjae," Avie greeted without looking up from her book, "you should really be more polite when asking people favours."
"For the last time" the smirking boy snarled, "It's Eunhyuk"
"Whatever you say Hyukjae, do come in and close the door won't you? And I do believe you need to introduce us to your friend" Avie closed the book, not bothering to bookmark it and looked expectantly up at Seungri's cousin.
"Hi I'm Lee Donghae!" the cute boy said, grinning at the three original occupants of the room.
"Good morning Donghae-ssi, I am Aveline Landon, this is my best friend Mila Rivera and Hyukjae's cousin, Lee Seunghyun who prefers to be called "Seungri"" Avie introduced.
Donghae and Eunhyuk exchanged glances then: "Victory!" they shouted together, throwing their fists in the air.
"YES!" Mila yelled, jumping up to hug the two boys, "FINALLY! SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTANDS ME!"
"Well, seeing as you now have people who understand you, I would assume my presence here is now irrelevant" Avie said, getting up and stretching before heading to the door.
"Wait! Avie! Where are you going? Come back! I love you!" Mila screamed at her friend, latching onto her back and refusing to let go as she began to cry, thinking her friend was going to abandon her.
"Mila I'm just going to go look around the train" Avie explained, smiling at her friend's antics, "I'll be back later I promise."
Mila sniffed but let her go reluctantly, "okay Avie, but hurry back 'kay?"
"Of course" Avie smiled, kissing her friend's cheek.
Avie had just left the compartment when Mila realised she had left what the Latina girl called her "Great-Big-Book-of-Life-and-Other-Stuff" behind and scooped it up and rushed out the door to give it to her so that the half Korean could write down her observations immediately to reduce the risk of forgetting something.
Because she was in such a rush she didn't realise that someone was standing right outside the door and crashed into him.
"OhmigodI'msofreakingsorryIdidn'!" Mila said as she scrambled to her feet, making sure she still had Avie's precious book.
The boy she had crashed into was a second year and a Slytherin judging by the crest on his black school robes. He was Korean with dark brown hair that was long for a guy and a smirk that Mila would soon find out was rarely not present.
"Yah! Who do you think you are!" he snapped at her, his nose wrinkling in disgust as he took in her casual muggle clothes, "Don't you know who I am? I'm the mighty Kim Heechul-nim!"
Mila stared at him, trying to remember where she'd heard that name before. Maybe he was one of the friend's Avie had made one time when her dad dragged her over to Korea for some "bonding" which usually ended up with the girl left at some associate's house to make friends with their child/ren and thus further the business arrangements.
Heechul snorted at the vacant expression on the Latina's face and quickly brought her back to reality by demanding that she kiss his shoes and beg him for forgiveness.
The Korean's friend, shorter with short black hair and a sneer painted across his face was quick to join in. "That's right muggle, bow to Heechul hyung and kiss his shoes. You should be grateful he's even allowing you to touch his shoes with your filthy lips" he sneered.
"YAH! LEE SUNGMIN! JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE TALKING TO?" Yelled a familiar voice, although to Mila it was just a familiar voice shouting out in a foreign language as Avie was speaking Korean.
"Ave?" Heechul asked, looking at the young girl who had come to stand by her best friend's side.
"Apologise" the British girl, demanded, her eyes glaring daggers at the two Koreans.
"Sungminnie, Chul-ah" an obnoxiously high pitch voice whined from a nearby compartment, "just let it go, Landon-ssi's obviously decided to be a bitch about this so there's nothing you can do"
"Nice to see you again too Hyomin-ssi" Avie said, not looking at the girl, "please be so kind as to remove these two from my sight before I damage relations between our families"
Mila just hid behind her smaller friend, not understanding a word as they still spoke in Korean but safe in the knowledge that Avie was sorting everything out.
"Tch," Heechul said, "I don't want a filthy mudblood coming anywhere near me again anyway, come on Sungmin-ah"
Once the trio had left Avie turned to Mila, "you should be more careful Mila" she said, "most of the Korean's on this train are from really old pureblood families over there and they're all really stuck up."
"I'm sorry Avie, I just wanted to give you your book cos you forgot it" Mila muttered, holding out the book to her friend.
"Pabo," Avie said affectionately, "you're more important."
-Scene break-
Avie was surprised at the amount of people she knew on the train. And, considering that her social circle was almost exclusively filled with Mila and Koreans, that she knew anyone at all outside of the compartment she had just vacated was surprising.
"Hey! You!" a voice called out in Korean.
Avie looked towards the source of the voice to find two boys sitting by themselves in a compartment. The one closest to the door was the one who seemed to have spoken.
"How do you know Heechul hyung?" the boy asked, confirming Avie's suspicions.
"His father is a business partner of my father" Avie replied in the same language, "I am Aveline Landon" she bowed politely to the boys, hiding her irritation at his rudeness behind a well-practiced mask of indifference.
"I am Cho Kyuhyun and this is Zhou Mi, he is from China" the boy, Kyuhyun, replied, speaking informal and not even rising to properly acknowledge her greeting.
"Hello Zhou Mi" Aveline said, this time in Mandarin, "it is a pleasure to meet you" she bowed again, silently praying to whatever deity that might listen to allow this boy to be more polite than his friend.
Thankfully, the deities appeared to be listening as the Chinese boy rose from his seat to bow to her, "Hello Aveline Landon, I have heard much about to you from Geng-ge, it is an honour to meet you"
"She knows Hankyung hyung too?" Kyuhyun asked in Korean, surprising Avie, "Just who is her father? Robert Landon or something?"
"Yes actually, he is" Avie said, her tone sharp.
Kyuhyun's eyes went wide for a second before he hastily rose to his feet and bowed 90 degrees to her, "forgive me for my rudeness" he said formally, "I did not realise you were Robert Landon ssi's daughter"
"Not many do" Avie said icily, disgusted at the show of politeness cause by her father's name, "now if you'll excuse me, I shall return to my compartment."
The British girl spun around to leave but was halted by a hand on her arm, looking over her shoulder she saw Zhou Mi, "Please excuse him" the Chinese boy said in heavily accented Korean, "Kyuhyun-ah is not used to meeting people and he did not expect you to be the daughter of his father's closest business partner"
The boy's, Kyuhyun's, behaviour now made sense to the heiress but she was still unwilling to sit and have a civil conversation with him unless entirely necessary.
"Do not worry Kyuhyun-ssi" she said, her voice still cold and her back still turned, "I will not allow you rudeness to affect my father's business, I know better than that"
"Ave" the Korean called out desperately just as she began to walk away, "we used to play together when we were little before my father began expanding to China and moved our family there"
"So you do remember" Avie said, turning back to smile at her long lost friend, "But you do realise you just lost the game right?"
Kyuhyun just stared at her for a moment before bursting out into loud laughter, "I can't even remember the punishment for losing" he admitted.
"Neither do I" Avie agreed with a smile, moving to sit next to the Chinese boy as she caught up with Kyuhyun and got to know Mi.
-Scene break-
Mila held Avie's hand nervously as they waited to be allowed into the hall, anxiously bouncing on the balls of her feet.
"Avie" she whispered suddenly, "what happens if we're sorted into different houses?"
"Mila, we're always going to be best friends, just because we might not be in the same house isn't enough to keep us from spending 16 plus hours a day together." Avie whispered back, squeezing her friend's hand.
"But what if-"
Mila was cut off as the doors to the great hall opened and the first years walked forward in a huddled group with everyone trying to hide themselves in the middle of the herd.
Mila didn't pay attention to most of the sorting, choosing to focus instead on trying to memorize every aspect of Avie so that if the unthinkable did happen and they were sorted into different houses and never saw one another again until they graduated, she would still be able to remember her friend and recognise her again when that time came.
"Landon, Aveline" the scary looking man reading out the names called out sternly and Avie smiled and kissed Mila on the cheek before disentangling her hand from her friend's and walking over to sit on the stool and let the professor drop an old, worn wizard's hat over her head.
Mila waited, holding her breath as she waited for the verdict like someone standing trial for a capital offence.
Finally the hat seemed to reach a decision. "RAVENCLAW!" it shouted out and the table decked out in blue clapped and cheered a little.
'Okay' Mila thought, 'so now all that I have to do is wait until it's my turn, and then tell the hat I want to be in Ravenclaw. It'll listen to me right?'
Mila was so engrossed in her thoughts that she missed her name being called out the first time. And then the second time. It was only when she heard Avie's voice calling her name that she snapped out of it in time to see the scary professor gesture angrily at the stool amid peals of laughter from the students.
Blushing, Mila hurried over to the stool and the last thing she saw before the hat dropped over her eyes was Avie's face from the Ravenclaw table, silently telling her that it would all be okay.
"Hmmm"a voice whispered in her ear, "very brave, extremely loyal..."
'EXCUSE ME MR HAT!' Mila thought as loudly as she could, 'I WANT TO BE IN RAVENCLAW PLEASE SO IF YOU COULD JUST PUT ME IN THERE THAT WOULD BE GREAT!'
"I'm afraid that's not possible" the voice whispered to her and Mila felt her heart break as tears began to spill from her eyes. "While you do possess a quite fierce intellect, you do not seek out knowledge for it's own sake, something that is quite necessary for a Ravenclaw"
'Please Mr Hat' Mila thought desperately, 'I'll change, I'll seek knowledge for it's own sake or whatever, just please put me with Avie!'
"I'm sorry my dear, but there really is only one place for you. And that place is GRIFFINDOR!" the hat shouted the last word out for the entire hall to hear and the table covered in red cheered and clapped before trailing off into awkward silence as it's newest member ran instead to the Ravenclaw table where she clung to her best fried and sobbed her heart out.
"Mila, Mila" Avie said, trying to comfort her friend, "it's okay, Donghae and Hyukjae are in Griffindor remember? And so are Alex and Mia."
"I don't care about them" Mila sobbed, "nothing matters anymore because I'm never going to see you again!" she wailed causing Kyuhyun who was seated across from Avie to snort in contempt.
Avie shot him a look before looking desperately over his head, silently begging Donghae and Eunhyuk to take Mila back to Griffindor where she belonged. "Mila, I'll be seeing you every single day I promise" she said, stroking her friend's hair, "there is nothing in this world that could stop me from seeing you."
"R-really?" Mila asked, staring up at Avie, her eyes filled with hope as they continued to spill tears.
"Really"
Mila nodded and let Donghae and Hyukjae pull her away while she wiped her eyes, knowing that if Avie said it was, it must be so.
-Scene break-
Throughout the feast, Avie kept looking over at Mila, making sure she was alright. She was sitting between Donghae and Hyukjae, across from a pair of second years Avie vaguely recognised as Kwon Jiyong and Choi Seunghyun.
Mila kept glancing up from her plate to look at Avie as if to ask if things were really going to be alright and Avie did her best to reassure her friend. Ignoring Kyuhyun in the process.
"Yah, what's so great about that cry-baby anyway?" he asked as he turned around for the third time to find out what I was staring at and seeing Mila's tear stained face.
Avie repressed the urge to slap the boy, sternly reminding herself that publicly abusing one of her father's business partner's sons might actually be enough to get a strongly worded letter dictated by her father but written by Mrs Rivera sent to her, and comforted herself with the reminder that as they were in the same house, there would be ample opportunity to bitch slap the Korean behind closed doors.
"Oh nothing much," she replied, "that "cry-baby" as you so kindly dubbed her is only my best friend of six years for whom I would gladly end all of existence on this and/or any other planet" she said airily, helping herself to more bulgogi, "but please Kyuhyun-ssi, continue with your intriguing description of her. But first, would lilies be appropriate?"
"Appropriate for what?" asked Mi who had been the last to be sorted into Ravenclaw.
"Why for his funeral of course" Avie said, looking up from her plate at the two boys with a falsely innocent expression but they could tell from the homicidal gleam in the young girl's eyes that she was entirely serious. Deadly so if you'll excuse the pun.
It was then that all those surrounding them decided to never insult the Griffindor girl in front of Avie. Ever. And to warn all of their friends to do the same.
A/N: Next chapter skips ahead to sixth year because I can (and I need to finish this in about three months and don't have time to go through every single year)
Reviews are love, anything you don't understand ask and I shall tell.
Korean words used: -nim Korean suffix similar to the Japanese -sama, basically something you add onto the end of someone's name so people can tell you hold them in really high regard.
-ssi Korean suffix similar to the Japanese -san, basically something you add onto the end of someone's name to be polite.
-ah/-ie/-ee Korean suffix simialr to the Japanese -chan or -kun, basically somethign you add onto the end of someone's name if you're close to them
Pabo Korean for idiot, like the Japanese "baka"
Hyung Korean address from a guy to an older guy. Literally "big brother"
Also: Seungri is Korean for Victory, thus why Mila, Donghae and Eunhyuk(/Hyukjae) yell Victory whenever they see him.
Chinese: -ge suffix used when talking about one's older brother or an elder male who is like a brother
Note: Hankyung is the Korean name given to Chinese singer Han Geng when he performed there as part of Super Junior (a Korean band).
Pretty sure that's all, let me know if I've missed anything. 3~