Precognition

3rd year chapter 3: a name not worth protecting

They say news travels fast. And with the help of magic it does travel faster.

It appeared that some of the Slytherins had found a piece of information which was delighting students through each year.
Rita Skeeter had even written about it, although she did write about everything.

Ava Weasley had been hiding a secret. Her mother was shunned by her own family. Her mother's maiden name was no secret to her children. Black.

One of the most feared names in the wizarding world. In fact it made her a relative of her friend Artemis and her classmate Sirius. Although they would never consider eachother cousins due to their family nature.

Many of the Slytherin took it upon themselves to make her life miserable. Taunting her with rumours in the hallways.
"I can't believe her mother was shunned"
"What a stupid bitch"
"Imagine trading in the Black family name for the Weasley name!"

It was becoming exhausting. In fact Ava was debating simply living in her suitcase and having Emma take her to and from lessons.

One day it all came to a boil, Ava was clearly on the brink of tears every time she walked past the writhing cluster of slytherins.
However this particular day was proving far too difficult for her to cope with.

Lucius Malfoy was - evidently- not fond of the girl. He was very proud of his name and could not respect the child of a traitor.
He had decided to pull something unforgivable in her eyes.

He knew she had a niffler with her, after all he was always in her pocket. Therefore he cornered her in the corridor, threatened her colourfully before reaching into her pocket and pointing his want to her niffler. The small creature cried in retaliation, fearful that it was the end of his days and the last thing he would see was the pleading expression on Ava's face.

But by the grace of some powerful wizard a fist met Lucius head with a loud 'thwack'.
He dropped to the ground, dramatising the interaction significantly, letting go of the rodent instantaneously.

The terrified creature scurried back into Ava's pocket and she could feel his heavy breathing.
Her heart softened as she placed her hand inside of her pocket, comforting the niffler.

"Are you alright A- Weasley? Are you ok Weasley?"
Artemis corrected herself, fixing her robe out of embarrassment.
Artemis never called people by their first names unless she respected them... a lot. Ava knew this and it actually meant more than it was supposed to.

"Yes, I'm alright- honestly, how can I tha-"
Before Ava could even finish her sentence the girl had vanished.

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Ava was pretty shaken up. Well. That was an understatement to say the least.

She was working up the courage to ask someone to hang out with her, she needed someone to talk to after all.
Emma was off the table as she was currently doing extra potions work with Slughorn.
Artemis was also off the table as she had seemingly vanished off the face of the earth.
She could only think of one other person.

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"You sent me an owl?"
Remus slipped into the seat next to Ava, being careful not to spook her shaking figure.
"Yes, sorry- I couldn't think of another way to get to you and then I felt really bad for distracting you from your studyi-"
"Hey hey don't worry- being here with you is so much better than listening to James talk about his girlfriend."
"He has a girlfriend?! That pompous pri-"
Ava covered her mouth with her hand. Forgetting momentarily that James -whilst he was indeed a pompous prick- was remus' friend.

Remus let out a laugh. A genuine laugh. The sort of laugh you try to hold in but can't.
"Don't even worry Ava, James Is a handful, I'm surprised lily can put up with him."

Ava nodded and offered Remus a small smile.
"So do you wanna get a drink?"
"Of course"

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"So do you wanna talk about what happened earlier or?"
Ava placed her mug down, spilling a small drop of hot chocolate as she did.
"They were just being dicks, it's not important"
She sighed and paused briefly.
"I'd rather forget about it and just, hang out here... with you?"
At the end of the sentence she raised her glance to Remus', as she did he quickly lowered his own state to his hands, which he only began to realise were lightly shaking.

"Really? I mean I enjoy hanging out with you too but, you prefer me to your friends?"
"Why would you think we're not friends?"
The boys face paled. Did she think they were friends?
Did she think they were friends and nothing more or was this his opening?
Wait- his opening to what? Did he want them to be more than friends or was this simply the first positive interaction he had ever had with a girl?

He decided on not knowing the answer to his own question as he began to think very fondly of the time they had shared together.