It was a cold December morning and I was helping Lily pack her suitcase for the Christmas break. She was going to James' house for the first time to meet his parents, and she was extremely nervous about it. Remus and Peter were going to their parents houses and so was Izzie, meaning I was left with Sirius over Christmas.
'Sure you'll be okay?' Lily asked, as we packed the rest of her growing things into her shrinking suitcase. I gave her a reassuring smile and said:
'Definitely, Its way better than being stuck with my mum all Christmas' Lily pulled a face and we finally managed to fit everything into her tiny suitcase, well, saying that we did have to get all my textbooks and Lily to sit on it, but then it zipped up and we managed to haul it down the stairs without falling on our faces.
I walked with her to the entrance gates where we said our goodbyes. James, Peter, Remus and Izzie were all there too, but their suitcases seemed average sized.
'See you soon Av, oh by the way, Sirius is in the boys dorm, if you want to go say hi' James said, and I tried to ignore how dirty minded he made it sound. I swear, that boy can make anything sound dirty even 'I ate pizza' or 'I read a book' but surprisingly, we learned to live with his immature snorts everything someone said something that could be taken as being dirty.
I turned to Lily and rolled my eyes: 'Good luck'
'Thanks, I will definitely need it' I laughed, but hugged James anyway, since his constant whining was getting on my nerves.
'Okay, ill see you all later! James, behave yourself, Remus, owl me because I need help with the Charms homework, Lily, also behave yourself, Peter, say hi to your mum for me and ask her to send some of her famous cakes to Hogwarts for Christmas! Izzie, owl me, we'll need to have our annual gossip about these guys!'
'Okay! We get it! Goodbye Avalon!' Laughing, I waved at them until they disappeared into the horizon, and with a sigh, I walked slowly back into the Common Room where I found Sirius stretched out on the sofa, his eyes flickering to me as I entered the room.
'Hey' He said quietly. I sat opposite him on the sofa, my feet resting on his legs, and I smiled sympathetically.
'Missing James already huh?' He looked up and sighed.
'Its not that, its just I hate not having a family to go back to, well, not a proper family anyway' I looked down at my lap, and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.
'Why do you think I stay at Hogwarts?' I asked quietly, not looking up from my lap, but out of the corner of my eye I saw Sirius look at me in worry.
'I've never heard about your family, you've never told anyone'
'I have my reasons, I don't know much about your family either'
'Tell me and I'll tell you' I sighed:
'Fine, my mother's a muggle. When she found out my father was a wizard she left me, which I wasn't bothered about because I didn't particularly like her that much' He nodded.
'Carry on'
'When I was thirteen, Death Eaters came to my house, they killed my father because he was a Muggle-born, and I was fighting by his side when he died. I have no other family, so the Ministry found my mother, and she looks after me. I say that, she doesn't care about me. In fact, she hates me, she thinks im a freak and that locking me up in the cellar etc will wear my magic away or something, she doesn't really understand. So I stay here each year, I only go back when I have to, and even then I don't spend much time in the house, im always sat by the river outside my house all day, with Blacky, my owl, and my Qudditch broom. I don't have a proper family to go home to every holiday, but my best friend does, I know exactly how you feel' It was Sirius' turn to look down, and he muttered something under his breath.
'Sorry.'
'Don't apologise for something you didn't do. What about your family?' He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, like what he was about to say was almost painful.
'I come from the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black. My family are all death eaters, apart from me, and my cousin Andromeda, who married a Muggle-born. They're all obsessed with the Dark Lord rubbish, and think Purebloods are somehow a better 'breed' than Muggle-borns, and that they don't deserve to practise magic. I ran away from home two years ago, because they wanted me to join Voldemorts Death Eater army, and I refused. So they tortured me, and when they told me to get out of their sight, I grabbed my things, and ran. I went to James' house, and stayed there ever since, I have my own room there now, his parents were so welcoming to me. Regulas, my brother is probably already a Death Eater, but I desperately wanted him to refuse like I did, because deep down he's a decent person, and I wish he could realise that it's a bunch of nonsense and none of it makes sense, but all he wants to do is to please my stupid mother and father, who now say he's their only son. I was blasted off my family tree, so was Andromeda. I was the first Black to be a Gryffindor, which was basically the first stage in my rebellion, as was making friends with James, Peter, and Remus, who were considered 'Blood traitors' and hanging around with Lily, who to my family, is 'Mudblood scum' I don't want to be like them, but I really hoped they would realise their mistakes and become normal, if that makes sense. Sorry, ive been ranting for ages now, I must be a complete bore.' He laughed quietly, and I squeezed his hand sympathetically.
'No, you don't bore me, if anything you fascinate me'
'I fascinate you?' I blushed red and felt my eyes change colour, I wasn't suppose to have admitted that.
'I never thought someone could hold in that many feelings, I'd just about burst' I giggled and Sirius laughed along, until we were laughing so hard I couldn't breath, and felt my lungs tighten.
'So, what do you wanna do now?'
We spent the day walking round the castle, with the Marauders Map in one hand, and our lit up wands in the other, so Sirius could show me all the secret passageways he and The Marauders had found over the years.
After what must have been at least 5 hours, I realised it was dinner time, and my stomach grumbled angrily. Hearing it, Sirius laughed and led me down a small corridor, where I saw a portrait of fruit hanging on the wall. My stomach growled louder at the sight of food.
'Siriuusss' I whined 'Did you bring me here to brag about my hungriness?' Laughing, Sirius reached up and tickled the green pear, with giggled a squeaky laugh, and the portrait opened, revealing a set of stairs down into what must be Hogwarts basement. 'I'm not even going to ask how you found out it opened if you tickled it'
'Because we knew what was down here, but we didn't know how to get in, so Remus decided to poke each one, and it opened!'
'Cooll' I said wearily 'But what is down here?'
'Ah, you'll see' Sirius took my hand and led me down the stairs, and I tried to ignore the butterflies that were in my stomach, whether it was because of the uncertainty, or the fact that Sirius was holding my hand, I don't know.
When we reached the bottom of the stairs, I saw four tables lined up, and the room was covered in ovens and cooking untensuls. Tiny house elves were scurrying around, and one particularly small one stopped as it saw Sirius and bowed deeply, its long but adorable nose almost touching the floor.
'What may Pinky be able to help Mister Sirius with today?' I couldn't help but go 'AWW!' at her name, and her voice, with sounded just like tiny bells.
'I'll just have some pumpkin pie please Pinky' Sirius said, trying not to laugh at my face when I saw Pinky.
'Certainly, and what may Pinky get Mister Sirius' lady friend?' I smiled and outstretched my hand at the elf, who looked at it in bewilderment before looking at Sirius, who nodded eagerly, and she shook my hand carefully. Once again, I couldn't help but go 'aww' at her adorableness.
'Hi Pinky, my name's Avalon, I'll just have some strawberry pie please, with strawberry ice cream on top and a butterbeer' The house elf nodded, and scurried off, while Sirius and I sat down on one of the benches, which I presumed was Ravenclaws.
'You're slightly obsessed with strawberries aren't you?' Sirius chuckled, as my pie came, and I smiled when I saw Pinky had put a pile of strawberries next to it.
'I absolutely adore strawberries!' I said through a mouthful of strawberry pie, strawberry ice cream and strawberries.
'I never knew that about you'
'Theres a lot of things you don't know about me' I smiled before trying to eat a huge chunk of pie with ice cream on top.
'Tell me about yourself then'
'Well…' I paused, what didn't Sirius know about? 'My middle names Sara, and my fathers name was Cedric, I can play a Muggle instrument called a guitar and I've been told by my father that im good at singing, I don't know what my boggart is and I don't know what I'd see if I looked into the Mirror of Erised and being old scares my. My worst fears are not being accepted and being thought of as a freak, I love being a Metamorphmagus, because I can change my image, ive always wanted a pet turtle, and I'd love to be a wizard fashion designer, because no one else has ever thought of that. I love being different, I don't like my middle name, I have an obsession with cheese, I have OCD about people moving my things when they're in my room, I keep a diary, I love listening to Muggle music and I love reading Muggle books. There, that's just about everything about me' Sirius smiled and for a while we ate our food in silence, and when we got up to leave, Sirius motioned Pinky over and asked her for something quietly, so I couldn't hear. Moments later, Pinky returned, and instead of walking over to Sirius like I thought she would, she scurried over to me and I bent down so I was level with her. Sirius watched from the door in amusement as Pinky held out a dainty hand, in which she held a block of cheese. Laughing, I glanced at Sirius who was smirking and thanked Pinky, who said her goodbyes and scurried away quickly. I stood up and turned to Sirius, ripping the block of cheese in half and handing him a half.
'Here' I smiled, laughing at what had just happened.
'Thanks, im very glad I'm worthy of your obsession' Smirking, he took the cheese and we walked back to the Common Room together, probably looking like right wierdos since we were eating cheese in silence.
'I think Pinky is my favourite elf!' I said, when I finished my cheese.
'She's the only elf you've ever met'
'True, but shes so cute!'
'I always knew Pinky and I had something in common!' I laughed at Sirius and hit him round the head.
'You're so arrogant'
'You didn't deny that I was cute!'
' You are defintiley not cute. Attractive at the most, but I wouldn't go as far as saying you were cute.'
'Flattering'
'I know right, its just my charm that makes me so complimentary'
As we reached the Common Room, I realised we were the only Gryffindor's staying behind and I hated staying in my dorm by myself, I always felt so vunerable. Without even asking Sirius, I followed him up to the boys dorm and went to change in the bathroom, borrowing a pair of his boxers and oversized t-shirt. I came out of the bathroom to find Sirius lying on his bed, but when he saw me he literally jumped up into the air and landed on the floor, muttering words that I can not repeated while I stood there histerically laughing at his outburst.
'Merlins beard Rusty what the hell are you doing here? You do know that this isn't the girls dorms?' He said while clambering up back onto his bed and trying to regain the little dignity he had left.
'Oh my god really?' I said sarcastically and he rolled his eyes 'Of course I knew this wasn't the girls dorm, I just don't like being by myself okay?'
'Sure, whatever you say, we all know you were just dying without me' He winked, but moved over anyway, and I jumped onto the space, pulling the duvet up to my chin and closing my eyes. I had gotten so use to being in the boys dorm I had completely forgotten what mine looked like.
'Night Rusty'
'Night Sirius'
After a few minutes, I had grown tired of trying to get to sleep, and my many methods of trying to get to sleep were failing miserably. Looking over, I saw Sirius had his eyes closed, and was breathing deeply.
'Sirius' I whispered and he opened one eye slowly.
'Hmm?' He grunted, and stiffened slightly as I wrapped my arms round his waist and rested my head on his chest.
'Merry Christmas' I breathed, and he relaxed, so I closed my eyes and was almost asleep when I heard Sirius whisper so quietly I thought he never said it. But he did.
'Merry Christmas Avalon'
And I fell asleep smiling, ignoring the butterflies in my stomach and ignoring my racing heart, only thinking about the three words he had just said, sure, they were not the three words I've been dreaming of him saying for the past year but they were close, and that's all that mattered to me.
A/N Aww! I love this serious chapter (excuse the pun) I've been waiting for one for ages! Theres only so much humor you can take before you're just dying for them to have a moment.
Do you guys like how it ended?
Do you like Avalon?
Anything you would have changed about this chapter?
Did you like the cheese part? Yep, have to admit, I loved that bit.
To all the people who reviewed: Thanks so much! Especially Lizaluvsdoggies, im glad you liked it!
To the others: Please review!
To everyone: THANKS FOR READING!
- SiriuslySlytherin17 x