Meant To Be

The Best Gift

"Wake up Avie!" Remington shouted as he barged through the door of my room.

I groaned. "Why?"

"Well fine then if you don't want your presents I will take them for myself," He said, turning around to walk out of my room.

I sighed. "It's too early to function."

He walked back to me and lifted the blanket off of me. "Put your arms around my neck."

I did as I was told so Remington picked me up and carried me downstairs.

I wasn't surprised that I was super tired, after dinner Mother realized that she had a few presents she still needed to buy and took me with her. I also wasn't surprised that Mother forgot about buying a few presents but I was surprised that dinner actually went quite well compared to previous years.

Remington sat me down on a couch, right next to Sebastian.

"Catch Avie," He said, tossing a small gift to me.

I surprisingly caught it and looked to see who it was from. "Hey dad bought something separately from mom this year."

I opened the small package to reveal ten galleons. I had to hold back from laughing because of the glare my mother sent my father, obviously wanting him to get actual gifts instead of money.

"Remy hand me my bag of gifts," I requested, I had done all of my Christmas shopping throughout the year so I was always extra prepared for Christmas day.

Once he passed the giant bag over I opened it and started dishing out the presents, starting with my mother and ending with Sebastian.

"Have fun," I told them, meaning they could open them now.

I looked around the room, satisfied with the gifts I chose. For my mother's gift I got her some new kitchen supplies, I got my father some new books for his library in his office, Remington's gift was quite easy to choose: I got him a kit for his broom because he likes to play Quidditch with his friends, I got some mugs for Mr. and Mrs. Louis last night with my mother, I bought a pair of earrings for the the Louis' daughter and the oldest of the three siblings, I got their youngest son a toy airplane that flies around the room, and last not least I got Sebastian a Wizard's Chess set because Marc let the fact that he plays it a lot slip one time.

As I looked around at all of their reactions I caught the faintest smile on Sebastian's face and that's how I knew I chose the right gift.

"You certainly know how to give people good and long lasting gifts, Avery," My mother praised.

I smiled. "Thanks."

Everyone kept passing out gifts and once everything was finally over I went back up to my room to take a nap.

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I laid there for about an hour, trying to get to sleep. Ollie would not allow such nonsense during his play time.

Instead of sleep I just played with the kitten letting him think my hand was a cat toy and it lasted for awhile until I heard a knock at the door.

"Come in!" I called out, sitting up on the bed.

The door opened to reveal Sebastian who--like the rest of us--was still in his pajamas. He looked different when he wasn't in his robes, he was wearing a black t-shirt with red and black plaid pajama pants.

"Hey I just-I wanted to," He paused. "I honestly don't really know what I'm trying to tell you."

I patted the bed. "Come sit down, I don't bite. Not so sure about Ollie though."

He slowly made his way into my room and sat down on the bed, placing a small box in front of me. "I was going to give it to you sooner but then I realized how awkward of a conversation this would be if it happened in front of our parents."

"Is this about you avoiding me the past few months?" I asked softly, avoiding eye contact and petting Ollie.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I just-I have a hard time trusting people because a lot of people I know never show their true self around others so I picked up the habit but I never picked up the part where you show you're true self around-around friends," He started. "When I first saw you on the train you caught my attention so I signed up for the 'Assign A Friend' thing and requested the girl who's eyes change colors. I didn't think I would ever care about someone other than family members but the more you tried to get close to me the more I let you, and then one day I messed it all up in my mind and freaked out."

"The day someone upset you," I said.

"Yeah, also known as the day that some stuck-up Slytherin who refused to make friends with anybody other than pure-bloods who come from all-Slytherin family lines decided to call you a freak because of your eyes," He responded, looking like he was ready to go attack the person even though it happened months ago.

I put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, I know this might not exactly make it seem better but I've been called a freak before, I know that my eyes can't really be explained by anyone and that makes people worried and afraid so I just take the insult and go on, they'll learn one day just not today."

He sighed, putting his head in his hands. "I'm such an idiot for avoiding you after you did nothing wrong. You were just trying to help and you did, I don't know what I was thinking."

"You were thinking that you let someone get too close too fast, what you did was try to understand the situation. Now the length of avoiding might have felt a little excessive but I understand, making new friends is a difficult process," I attempted to comfort.

He looked up at me. "How do you not hate me? I literally avoided you for months."

"I've been told that I am very good at being patient when it comes to people. Besides you never give up on your friends, even if you reach a rough patch with them," I answered. "Now come here, I hate seeing people upset."

I reached out for a hug and let Sebastian come the rest of the way, I didn't want to make him more uncomfortable by hugging him when he didn't want me to.

I heard him exhale a long breath of air before tightening his hold on me.

"I'm so sorry Avery," He whispered.

"Even though your apology is unnecessary, I forgive you Sebastian," I said before releasing my hold on him. "Do you want me to open that box now?"

He released me. "Please, before my siblings come and try and make me leave."

I grabbed the small box and opened it to reveal a necklace with a forest-green teardrop shaped jewel as it's only feature on the silver chain.

"It's beautiful."

"It's one of my favorite colors."

With those words I instantly knew why it was one of his favorite colors, it was the color of my eyes when I'm happy.

I didn't know that this day would be the one that Sebastian would decide to talk to me, but I would be lying if I said that his presence and his words weren't the best gift I received today.