That night Ava tossed and turned in her bed, the bruise on her cheeck was hurting and the thought of Draco wouldn't leave her mind. The next morning Ava slowly got up and walked down to the common room.
" Well good morning sunshine, you sure look happy today" Tyler said. Ava scowled but it soon turned into a smile. Tyler laughed and walked upstairs to get his trunk. Donna all of a sudden came down " Oh Ava your up! Good, the train is leaving in about 3 hours, and we still have to get breakfast".
Ava suddenly remembered that it was the Christmas holidays, she was going to see her parents.
.
Ava got her trunk together and took out some of the stuff that she didn't need to bring home. She left some shorts that were for the summer and some tank tops and left them on her bed. She was coming back to the same room anyway. She filled that empty space with some souvenirs and wizard candy and other magical stuff that she could show her parents.
She took her trunk and headed down the stairs. Donna came down right after her and they took their trunks to the Grand Staircase where they would be loaded onto the train. Then they went off to Breakfast. There were still some people there eating, " Everyone must be on the train" Donna said. Ava and Donna ate a quick meal and before they could leave they saw Ron and Harry playing chess. Ava went over to them ignoring Donna's protest's about missing the train. " Aren't you guys going home?" She asked.
" My parents are visiting my brother Bill in Romania, so I will be staying here with Fred and George" Ron said.
" My uncle and aunt are away so I can't go home". Harry murmured. The way he said it was what bugged Ava the most, she had a feeling that there was something more than to his aunt and uncle just being busy, but she didn't push the subject. " I hope you guys have a good holiday, Merry Christmas!". Ron and Harry smiled at Ava " Merry Christmas" they said. Ava turned and ran after Donna, " Come-on Ava or we are going to miss the train."
They ran and boarded the train right when the whistle blew, they found the compartment that their friends Nancy, Gemma, Hermione, Elaine, Mary, Stacey and Evelyn were in and sat with them. " Sheesh, we thought you guys would miss the train" Nancy said. " Yeah, Ava you sleep forever, you are also a very heavy sleeper, the guys were even throwing pillows at you to get you up but it wouldn't work" Gemma said.
" I am usually not at all a heavy sleeper, I only don't wake up if I didn't get a good nights sleep". Ava stated.
" You couldn't sleep last night?" Donna asked. Ava would never tell anyone about her dream, even Donna. So she lied " Yeah I had a awful nightmare". " Awe what was it about?" Mary asked. " I forgot" was all Ava said.
Nancy scrunched her face " Ohh I hate those dreams, you forget them right when you wake up and even though you try so hard to remember them you can't". Ava nodded " yeah I hate those too, but I do know that the dream was really bad".
Ava turned to the window, she was going to see her parents very soon, she was actually getting exited, she couldn't wait to show them all of the magical stuff that she would bring home and about all the stories that she would tell.
The rest of the train they group of friends just talked and laughed. Ava all of a sudden realized that she didn't she Seamus or any of the guys today. She wouldn't be seeing him for 3 weeks, no more of him teasing for 3 whole weeks, she felt relieved to get away from it all, and most of all she was happy to get away from Draco. She didn't have to see his face or be scared of walking in the hallways alone, she could just relax and visit with her parents.
When they reached at the halfway point to get home, Ava felt her eyes start to droop, she laid her head down on Donna's shoulder and fell right to sleep. A few hours later she heard a whistle and was soon been shook by a hand. " Ava, Ava wake up, were here" Ava opened her eyes to see Donna and her friends eyeing her. They all smiled.
" Good afternoon" She joked while stretching, everyone laughed while getting out of the compartment and off of the train. They all did a group hug when they got onto the platform " Now everyone has to promise that we will all write to each other" Ava said. Every nodded and agreed. Then one by one each one found their families and hugged their friends and waved goodbye.
Now it was just Donna and Ava waiting, actually it was just Ava, Ben took Donna somewhere to speak with her. She looked over at them, they were over by the doors of the train, she saw him give her something and she gasped and gave him a hug. She watched them say goodbye and she walked back over to where Ava was standing " What was that about" Ava asked. Donna sighed " oh he just gave me a Christmas present" Ava saw the bracelet on her wrist, it was beautiful, it had a dark green gemstone on it.
" Wow he must care about you" Ava said.
" No not really, he was just being thoughtful" Donna replied
" How many boys do you know that are thoughtful?" Ava said and laughed. Donna shrugged " okay maybe your right but I am sure that he doesn't like me".
Before Ava could say anything else, She heard Donna's name being called, they both turned and saw Mrs. And Mr. Reed waving toward their daughter. Donna waved back and turned toward Ava " I will write to you as much as I can and you will get your Christmas present in the mail sometime next week. Before Ava could object about the Christmas present Donna gave her a tight hug and ran off to her Mom and Dad, she saw them hug her daughter tight and looked over to Ava to make sure that she knew that her parents were coming. Ava nodded toward them and they smiled and waved and turned around to go.
Ava stood there waiting. All of a sudden she heard her name being shouted out. She turned around and there was her Mother and Father standing waving " Mama?" Ava said and she turned and ran to them. She ran right into her mother's arms, she felt the tears on her mother's face. " Don't cry mom, I am here we are a family again" Her mother smiled and gave her the biggest and tightest hug Ava could ever imagine. Then she ran into her Dads arms and he gave her the biggest hug ever too and a kiss on the cheek which made Ava wince
" I have missed you so much these past months" he said, she could see tears in his eyes too, her father was always a big softie. " How are you darling?" her mother asked. " I am fine mom I have missed you all so much but lets get to the car, I have so much to show and to tell you". " Yes, lets get your trunks"
Her father said. Ava went back to the train and grabbed her trunk, she walked back over to her family where her father took hold of her trunk. They all walked over to their car, her moms arm around her. When they got into the car Mr. Bronson looked in the back seat at his daughter, " I think this calls for a celebration, why don't we get some ice cream?" If she were a muggle, she would have been excited, but she was too use to eating wizard candy now " Its alright Dad, I am not really in the mood for ice cream, plus I have loads of wizard candy in my trunk for you to try."
" I can't wait to try them" her mother stated. Ava was waiting for the question that she knew that they would soon be asking, finally her dad turned around " Honey what on earth happened to your face?"
" I just bumped into a wall thats all" Ava said, Her mother sighed " Really Ava you should learn to be less clumsy, I don't like the fact that you are hurting yourself just because you can't watch where your going"
" Sorry mom, I promise I will be more careful"
When they pulled into the driveway, Ava just stared at her house, she hasn't seen it in a while, and she completely forgot about it. Then she thought of her bedroom, she hasn't slept in that for a while either. She couldn't wait to go back into her house. They took her stuff out of the trunk and walked in the house, she looked around, it was cleaner than usual. Probably because she hasn't been there for over 2 months. Then Mr. Bronson brewed some coffee while Ava took her things up to her room.
She looked around. It seemed so different. She sighed and put her trunk of the floor, then she took out all of her stuff that she was going to show her parents. She walked down the stairs to see her parents lounging on the couches in the living room.
For the rest of the afternoon and all the way into night, Ava showed her parents all of her wizard stuff and what she can do. Lastly she showed her parents was a picture with all of her friends, they were all smiling and laughing at one another in the picture. Her parents where awed at the moving picture and then her parents beamed " Wow look at all those girls, I have never seen so man girls in all my life" Her father joked.
" Our little Ava is just the little popular one now isn't she" Her mother said as she kissed her on the head.
" Mama" Ava huffed " of course I am not popular, I just have a lot of friends". Her father stood up and walked over to a still, where a newspaper lay. He picked it up for Ava to see. She saw that it was the
" Daily Prophet". Ava looked confussed " You get the Daily Prophet?" she asked. Her mother chuckled
" Of course we do, we want to know what's going on in our daughters life".
" We also read about Harry Potter and He – who- must – not – be – named. We understand everything that is going on in the Wizarding world". Ava smiled " But I would like to say that I can tell the Daily Prophet is a load of rubbish". Ava nodded " your right dad, they sometimes try to blame incidents on innocent people, but even though they are stupid, it doesn't mean that they are always wrong about stuff, but usually you would know what is a load of crap and what isn't".
Her parents smiled at her. She bid them goodnight and walked upstairs to her room. Right when she hit her comfortable mattress she fell asleep.
The Christmas weeks went by fast. All she ever did with her Mom was shop and went to movies and did as much as they could together. As promised almost every single day she got a letter from Donna, and almost every single day Ava would write one to her. She also got letters from all her other friends on the latest gossip and how much they missed her.
One day she got one particular letter, it was white with some green stripes along the side. She looked to see who it was from and she gasped. For it said " The Malfoy residence." Ava wanted to be sick. How dare he write to her. She wasn't sure if she should open it or not. She listened to her brain and ended up opening it. She wanted to see what he would say. As she opened it and looked at what he wrote, her face paled and she ripped the letter into millions of pieces. On the letter were only three words. It said
I Miss You
Ava was sick. He was disgusting and she was furious that he would even think about writing her a letter. She wrote to Donna right away about what had happened. She was hoping to get an answer by tomorrow. Christmas day was the day after tomorrow so she wanted her to write her a letter before she was too busy to talk to her. Ava hopped into bed but she couldn't help but stare at the torn pieces of the letter. She made a disgusted face and turned over and went to sleep.
Ava woke up early in the morning with the letter still in her mind.
She turned to look back at the ripped letter. She scowled at it. If only she was allowed to use magic outside of school, she would if burned the letter until it turned into nothing. Not even ash.
Ava realized that she couldn't go back to sleep, so she spent the rest of the early morning writing letters to her friends and reading her books and reading some history on Hogwarts. At 6 am she got out of her warm bed and trudged down the stairs. She ate breakfast and went to go have a shower. When she came back down her parents were already up. " Good morning darling" her mom said and smiled and kissed her on the cheek. Her dad just finished reading the Daily Prophet and the Muggle newspaper and looked at his daughter. " Your mother and I will be gone all day, so you can do whatever you want, you can go swimming, I will leave you money for pizza, but don't leave this neighborhood" Her parents both kissed her on the head and they left. Ava looked at the Daily Prophet and walked upstairs to her room to read some more.
Pauper was sitting on her bed with a letter in her beak. Ava patted the owl on the head and gave her a treat as she opened the letter, To her relief it was from Donna.
Dear Ava.
What a disgusting pig. Don't send him back any more letters, if he sends more tell me straight away. Remember the promise you made to me Ava. If it is getting worse you will tell someone, and this is getting pretty bad. Please tell me if anything else happens, I miss you and hope your having a wonderful vacation.
Talk to you soon.
Love Donna
Ava folded the note and put it with the rest of her letters. At least Donna is there to help her.
The day dragged by very slowly, Ava wrote more letters and she cleaned up the house. She did order a pizza and watched a movie which she enjoyed, then she went to the neighbourhoods indoor pool and did some lengths. Ava was a swimmer and she did as much as she could to make herself even better. In the summer she would try out for competitions and she has gotten 1st three years in a row. She was very proud of herself. She stayed practicing at the pool for two more hours. She was exaughsted, Christmas was tomorrow and she couldn't wait to open presents.
When she got home she pulled on her fuzzy pajamas and jumped under the covers. Next thing she knew everything went black and a second later she was being shaken awake by her mother " Honey com'on get up". Ava groaned and rolled over " Mama leave me alone, I am trying to sleep". " Its Christmas, don't tell me you don't want to open your presents. Ava groaned and rolled out of ben. She walked down the stairs and into the living room. Her father lit the fire and she could smell coffee and cinnamon rolls. Cinnamon rolls were her favourite part of christmas.
When Ava walked into the living room, her mouth dropped. There were presents scattered all alone the floor, and under the tree. Here parents have never given her so much before. " Mom, Dad, you really out did yourself this year" she said. " Oh honey be quiet, we wanted to show you how proud we are of you and anyway since you have been gone for 2 months we have some extra cash. Now come on lets open your presents"
It took all morning to unwrap each and every single present. Her mother gave her many clothes and hair and nail accessories. She had to admit her mother had a very good sense in fashion. Her father gave her books and magazines and even Pauper got presents. He got a little toy mouse to chew on and a ball. Ava got him a little blanket for those extra cold nights. Pauper seemed very grateful for all her presents and she flew to a corner of the room and chewed happily on her toy mouse.
Ava went over to her mother and father and gave them both tight hugs. " Thank you mom and dad, I appreciate all of it". Before she could take her stuff up to her room her parents looked at her " I think you missed a present dear" her mother said and pointed to the rather long present that her dad was holding.
Ava gasped. She knew what it was. When her father gave it to her she ripped open the wrappings. Sitting there was a broomstick. But it wasn't just a normal broom, it was the Nimbus 2003. She couldn't stop staring at it.
Even though she didn't say thank you, her parents knew that it was one of the happiest moments in her life.
Ava gently ran her finger over the shiny new wood. This broom was all hers. She couldn't wait to go outside to try it. She gently set her broom on the floor and turned to her parents to give them her presents. She gave her Mom and midnight blue witch's hat and a golden necklace that had a picture of Ava waving and smiling at them. Her mom's eyes filled with tears and she gave her daughter a kiss on the cheek. Ava then gave her dad a penknife, which allows anyone that has it to open any locked door, even if it has a spell on it. She also gave her dad a red and gold sweater that had the Gryffindor lion on the front on it. Her father smiled happily and put on his sweater.
Ava thanked her parents again one more time and went up to her room to send all her friends presents. She wrapped a pair on beautiful earring for Donna. She has been constantly telling Ava for a while on how much she wanted them. She even sent Seamus a present since he was kind enough to give her one, she also gave him a Penkife, though right as she wrapped it she realized all thing trouble he could do with it she debated on wether unwrapping it and giving it to someone more responsible like Dean but she ended up deciding that Seamus deserved it.
She would send Pauper tomorrow with her present, right now she was happy with her new toys. Then she went downstairs to eat a Christmas breakfast with her parents.