Chapter Eighteen

For luck is most definitely what they will all need, luck and bravery.

All day Ava and Sirius walked, climbed and pushed on. Deeper into lands that were soon unfamiliar to the both of them. Lucky enough Ava found that she only fell over once and that was only because she had to climb over a tall bush and Sirius was beside her to pick her up. She was grateful for that. The few spoke little to each other, the sheer size of the Moors compared to the two of them made them feel small and unimportant. The land that surrounded them both was vast and empty. Lush fields of grass spread around them for miles. Small hills grew into small mountains and although their surroundings were beautiful, it was very lonely. All day the two of them had been out there walking south- east and had not seen another person. Sheep yes, lots of sheep. But no sign of human life. This caused Ava's small amount of hope to shrink, rapidly.

The sun was starting to set in the sky once again and Ava took a small amount of time to watch the sun make its slow descend down the sky, Sirius kept walking around the large hill they both decided was too big to climb and they were both too tired to try. Noticing that he was walking on his own he turned around and saw Ava standing facing the setting sun with her eyes closed soaking up the sun. He stood in awe. She looked beautiful. Her dark hair tied back and wisps of hair blowing loosely in the gentle wind, her cheeks flushed and her body leaned towards the fading light. He gave her a moment alone before clearing his throat to get her attention. Startled Ava's head snapped too quickly to face Sirius, hurting her neck. He nodded his head toward the other side of the hill.
"Fancy getting to the other side and call it a night?" He asked with a small smile on his lips and his silver, grey eyes focused on her hazel nodded whilst rubbing the back of her neck. He waited until she caught back up to him before he continued to walk around the sun bleached hill.

Expecting to see more grass, fields and hills Sirius was shocked to a standstill, to see a wide stone cottage that when he actually stopped dead in his tracks he caused Ava to walk fully into him.

"God, Sirius what happened to getting to the other side?" She grumbled as she walked around him only to stop and gasp at the cottage.

The stone cottage was an ordinary looking one. It was brown stoned, with two chimneys attached to each end of the house. Wood ran around the edges of the windows a large dark wooden door stood in the centre of the building. Over grown flowers and plants grew around the house and ivy grew wildly up the right side of the house. The whole cottage looked cute, it looked like something that with a bit of love could be on the back of a post card. It did not look like a torture house used by Death Eaters, thought Ava.

She was the first to regain the ability to talk. "Do you think that's the place? It's got to be. Only thing round here for miles. There's no way it isn't." She kept rambling nervously hoping Sirius would interrupt her. She couldn't look at him though, her eyes wouldn't look away from that cottage. She felt as if she were to look away the house would cease to exist and disappear suddenly.
"No clue. Honestly? I didn't expect to find anything so soon." He told her bluntly. He too was still shocked.

Ava stood next to him wringing her wrists out. She took a deep breath in, rocked on her heels then took off striding across the few hundred yards or so between them and the cottage.
Sirius spluttered for a moment and chased after her. Once he caught up to her he quickly tackled her to the ground.
"Stop moving. Or they'll see us." He ordered looking down on her. His hair fell across his face as he straddled her waist to keep her still. Ava quickly stopped and she laid flat under him. He rolled off her but kept his hand on her arm ready to pull her back down if she got up. "Now got any smart ideas that would get us safely to the house without being seen? We don't know who's in there. Can't afford to be stupid now." He said through his white teeth, with his dark eyebrows raised. Ava sighed, released the tension from shoulders and rolled onto her stomach to look at the lonely cottage. she shook her head once.

"Good thing you were partnered up with someone who has a brain. James has the cloak so that leaves disillusion charms." He told her, still lying on his back looking up at the quickly darkening sky.

If they were going to check who was in that house safely. They would have to do it quickly, light was fading fast and they also had to get back to base camp to inform Lily and James on their find.