Disclaimer – The original Harry Potter characters and the world of Harry Potter are not of my own invention and I do not claim ownership of them. KC
After finding out that her parents had disappeared, Aubrey had had to find herself a new place to live during the summer holidays. Even though Henry had offered to let her stay with him that night in the owlery, they still hadn't made up after their fight or even talked for that matter. So Nell and her family had very graciously invited her to stay with them for her last two summer holidays.
Nell lived a couple of hours out from the city of London in a large housing estate where all the houses looked the same. Aubrey desperately missed her little city townhouse but Nell's house was warm and welcoming.
Nell's parents pretty much become her adoptive parents and completely spoiled her. Nell's father was a wizard while her mother was a muggle. Mrs Green told Aubrey quite often how she wished she could also do magic. But she made up for her lack of magic through love and kindness and she made Aubrey feel very much at home in the Green household. Even though Nell had taken after her mother through looks, she shared her father's personality. Mr Green often encouraged the girls to be adventurous and he let Nell get away with almost anything, even laughing at her ridiculous pranks.
The Green family had also been kind enough to give Aubrey her own room, that is, after they relocated Nell's baby brother into the study. Aubrey had asked them not to worry about giving it to her but they insisted that she have the room. She had her belongings left in her old room delivered from the storage facility at the Ministry to the Green's address but had not unpacked any of it. She didn't want to be a burden on the Green family any longer than she needed to and had decided that as soon as she graduated from Hogwarts, she would find her own place to live. Therefore she only used the things she usually took to Hogwarts each year and kept it all in her trunk.
The Green's kept her occupied with things to do and see all holidays in what Aubrey believed was an attempt to distract her from the fact that her real parents were no longer around. However this fact stayed in the back of her mind all day every day and she questioned herself often about what she could have done to make them stay. But her large pile of homework was a comforting distraction from this and she worked steadily on it throughout the holiday period.
Even though her fight with Henry and the disappearance of her parents had greatly affected her work at the end of the last school year, she had still done fairly well in her O.W.L. examinations. She had achieved a high enough result in Transfiguration, Charms, Muggle Studies and Potions to be allowed to progress to the N.E.W.T level this year and was very happy with the result. But even though she had dropped all her other subjects, her work load had increased considerably and she knew a lot of time would be spent devoted to it over the next two years.
Most Sixth Years usually studied three or four subjects (Nell was studying three; Charms, Divination and Potions) but there were the exceptions who were studying more than that. Aubrey had heard that Henry had achieved 'Outstanding' O.W.L results for all nine of his subjects and it had taken Professor McGonagall a long time to finally convince him to drop four to get him down to five N.E.W.T level subjects. In the end he had chosen Charms, Potions, Arithmancy, Study of Ancient Ruins and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Aubrey could only imagine the work load he must have for those subjects and she didn't envy him in the slightest.
Aubrey still felt rotten about what had happened between them that night in the owlery. He had been so nice to comfort her when she was distraught and she had paid him back with insults. She had sunken to the level of all the other students at Hogwarts who stereotyped the Slytherin students as dark wizards and she knew she had deeply hurt Henry who was trying so hard to destroy the stereotype. She had written him many letters, telling him how sorry she was, but had been unable to send any of them. Nell, who Aubrey had told all about the fight, thought Aubrey was being ridiculous and that she should send every one of them. But Aubrey couldn't help but feel that her apology should be delivered in person.
However when she saw him at the station on the first of September, boarding the train to Hogwarts to begin their sixth year at Hogwarts, nervousness overcame her and she avoided him. What if he wouldn't forgive her? What if he no longer wanted to be friends with her?
She boarded the train, waving goodbye to Mr and Mrs Green, and found the compartment that Mitch was sitting in with some of his Quidditch teammates. As she entered the compartment she picked up that the conversation he was having was about his selection for a professional Quidditch team. Aubrey had already heard the story several times from Mitch over the summer but she sat down next to him nether the less.
By winning the game against Slytherin last year, Aubrey had placed Gryffindor into the game against Ravenclaw for the Qudditch Cup. Gryffindor won spectacularly with Mitch not allowing Ravenclaw to score once. Little did he know that scouts from the Chudley Cannons, Montrose Magpies and Puddlemere United were in the stands watching and each of them approached Mitch after the game to ask him to come their tryout sessions. So over the holidays Mitch had gone to the tryouts and afterwards received invitations from each of the teams asking him to join them as one of their players.
"It's a tough decision," Mitch was saying to his friends when Aubrey walked in. "I mean, the Montrose Magpies is the team I have followed ever since I was little and it would be amazing to play with them. But Puddlemere United have been on the top of the leader board for five years in a row now and the Chudley Cannons have the best looking uniforms."
"I'm just flattered that so many teams want me," he continued smugly and then turned to Aubrey. "So how does it feel to be dating the next best Quidditch player in the league?" he asked her, beaming smugly.
"Fantastic," she said plainly. But Mitch didn't seem to have noticed her lack of enthusiasm because he had launched into a retell about an 'awesome' save he did at the Puddlemere United tryout.
She zoned out and stared out the window; she was getting rather bored of hearing about Quidditch.
It was only two weeks into the new school year and Aubrey was already overwhelmed with the amount of work she had to do. She collapsed on her bed in exhaustion after a particularly draining Charms class. The professors really weren't kidding when they said the N.E.W.T. level subjects were a lot of work.
She was just closing her eyes to have a quick nap before dinner when a very upset Nell came running into the dormitory. The door slammed against the wall as she came through it, making Aubrey jump off the bed in fright, and Nell collapsed on her bed with tears streaming down her face.
Aubrey immediately went over to comfort her yet allowed Nell time to explain to her what was wrong.
"He broke up with me!" Nell wailed, throwing the scrunched up letter towards Aubrey, allowing her to read it.
Sure enough it was from Nell's Ravenclaw boyfriend who had graduated from Hogwarts at the end of the last school year. In the letter he said that he had met a witch at the Ministry, where he now worked, and that he wanted to date her instead of someone who was two years younger than himself. Aubrey suddenly felt very angry; if he had found someone else and wanted to move on that was all very well, but breaking up with Nell via owl was just disgusting and juvenile. She wanted to tell Nell that she would be better off without him but in her friend's current state, she decided to just comfort her instead.
Once Nell had finished having a good cry, Aubrey helped her tidy herself up a bit and then walked down to dinner with her. They sat next to the Gryffindor Quidditch team in the Great Hall and Nell tried to hide her blotchy face from them. But Roman, the team's Seeker, noticed that she had been crying and scooted down the table to sit next to her. He soon had her laughing though as his jokes had become even worse over the holidays.
Aubrey relaxed a little, seeing that her friend's mood was brightening, and turned to join in Mitch's conversation with his team. Not to her surprise though, he was again talking about his tryout with the Chudley Cannons and so instead she turned her attention to the food on her plate.
"And you should have seen me," Mitch boasted, "I lunged in front of the hoop and smacked the Quaffle out of the way. Even their usual Keeper wasn't able to do it!"
He stopped to take a breath before continuing. "But I think I've finally decided on the team I will join. Even though it's been my dream to play for the Montrose Magpies for most of my life I think I'm going to choose Puddlemere United. They have the best training facilities and regimes and I can get all my friends and family free tickets to my games. Aubrey is going to lead my fan club," he said and squeezed her waist.
"I will not!" she said jumping up from her seat; the last straw has finally broken. "I'm sorry, Mitch, but I can't do this anymore. I'm tired of only hearing you talk about Quidditch and boasting about your prosperous career. I am happy for you that your dream has come true but I am not going to hang around to only be your fan club leader and biggest supporter. I want to have my own life too. So I don't think we should date each other anymore."
The team, Nell and Mitch all looked completely stunned at her sudden outburst. But even after she allowed him time to recover, Mitch said nothing to her in response. So taking that as an agreement to her words, she walked briskly out of the Great Hall.
As she turned the corner out into the corridor, Aubrey spotted Henry walking towards her. Her face must have still been slightly flushed with anger as he immediately stopped in his tracks.
"Aubrey, are you alright?" he asked, concerned. It was the first thing he had said to her since their fight last year and she noted that his voice had become considerably deeper. His hair too had also darkened slightly but his eyes were still the same bright silver.
"I'm fine," she said, sighing. "I just broke up with Mitch."
"You did?" he said, looking surprised.
"Yeah, we have become different people since we first started dating each other and we don't really fit anymore. We both have different goals for the future..." she said, letting her voice trail off at the end. "But where have you come from?" she asked, changing the subject.
"The Headmistress's office," he replied. "Today was the first meeting of the new school prefects. I've been made the school prefect for Slytherin house."
"That's wonderful, Henry!" she exclaimed, smiling at him.
"Thanks," he said humbly, "Professor Slughorn recommended me for the position to Professor McGonagall and you can bet she was pretty pleased about it."
"Well, you deserve it," she said, causing a silence to follow shortly after.
"Please let me apologise for how I have treated you over the last couple of years," Henry started, "I can see now that I was ignoring you and that wasn't fair. You had been such a great and supportive friend and I pushed you aside thinking that my studies were more important. I forgot what Professor McGonagall told me back in our second year, about friendship being the greatest gift, and I am ashamed of myself that I allowed myself to forget that."
"If anyone should be apologising it should be me, Henry," she said, "I was the one who said such awful things to you and using the Slytherin stereotype as an insult was way out of line. You were only trying to comfort me and I treated you so badly. I'm sorry."
"I wrote so many letters to you over the holidays but I wasn't able to send any of them," he sighed. "I kept thinking that you no longer wanted to be friends with me."
"I did the exact same thing!" she said, smiling, which caused him to smile back.
"So, all is forgiven?" she asked him.
"Of course!" he exclaimed. "I've missed my best friend."
"Then let's never fight again," she beamed. "Now, you're just the person I've wanted to see because you are going to help me with my Potions homework, whether you like it or not!"
He laughed. "After you then," he said, bowing jokingly and waving his hand in the direction of the library. Aubrey smiled; she was so glad to have her confidant and friend back.
They turned to head down the hallway but paused when they saw Mitch strutting out of the Great Hall, followed by a giggling group of girls. He didn't look to have been affected at all by their breakup and was now lapping up the attention of his new admirers and most likely, eager potential girlfriends.
"News sure does travel fast," Aubrey muttered, frowning as the girls flirted shamelessly with the now single and soon to be 'famous' Quidditch player.
"Yeah but just think, as soon as he trains up all those girls to play Quidditch, he will have an entire team!" he whispered cheekily. "With you as Seeker of course," he added and Aubrey punched him in the shoulder.
However they laughed together, receiving questioning looks from Mitch, and walked down the corridor towards the library.
CHAPTER 8 (YEAR 7) NOW AVAILABLE
As a first-time FanFiction writer, I would love a review or feedback from you on my writing. Just like Aubrey I am very excited to be setting out on a new journey and I can't wait to share more of my ideas with you.
KC