Avery

For all the greatness in Avery's life, there is only one thing that can turn her life upside down.

Draco Lucius Malfoy.

She may never confess it, but she knows she loves her Draco, the man who has a father who is faster than any other family, the man who will always be there for her, the man who never makes her feel alone in this world, the man she can turn to when life gets rough, the man she has always dreamt of being her future husband, to become the lady of Malfoy Manor, to give him beautiful Malfoy children. That’s her real reason for trying to live her best life so that the Malfoys will see her proudly as their perfect daughter-in-law. I think her unconscious knows that if she does not become this great ideal daughter-in-law, somehow she will be replaced.

When there are people around, she becomes this confident, ambitious, smart, strong woman, but when it's just her and him, she turns into this soft, fragile, weak, and almost stupid woman, as if her life depends on Draco's mood and feelings, like he is the only one that matters.

So when Draco starts changing towards her, she feels restless, almost crumbling because she knows his heart just by looking into his eyes. After the Triwizard, after she was discharged from St. Mungo’s, Draco never came to her house to see her. They were usually inseparable in sickness and health, but then the Yule Ball was approaching, and Draco never came to ask her to be his date, so she went to him instead.

She walks to the Slytherin common room, waiting for Draco to come out. While a lot of Slytherins look at her with a "she's out of her place" look, she is always fascinated by Slytherin’s common room; to her, this is where all her ancestors from her father's side lived. She is actually a fan of the house. She could have just asked someone to call Draco out, but she chooses to just stay and wait, afraid she might be bothering Draco.

After waiting for almost an hour, Draco and his Slytherin gang come through the corridor: Goyle, Crabbe, Zabini, and Nott. She looks at him from afar, a girl named Parkinson holding his left arm, walking beside him while he talks to Blaise. Behind them are the Greengrass sisters, who walk together after lunch to return to their dorm.

Avery just stands there, feeling like her tears are about to fall or as if she should run towards Draco and hug him, saying, "I miss you so much," and he would hug her back, smiling and saying, "I miss you too, I’m sorry." But she never did that. She's looking down while everyone is looking at her; she felt like she committed a crime or something, but she catches a glimpse of Draco's eyes, and his face shows her that he is in shock that she is there. That breaks her heart a bit, and a piece crumbles. The voice won’t come out, and she swallows, knowing well enough how this is going to end just by looking at his face. But Draco gets the message that she wants to talk about something. All of Draco's friends are waiting for him at the entrance while he walks to Avery.

Avery looks at him as he walks towards her, thinking she misses him so much it hurts. It hurts that he never came to check on her while they always did for each other when they were sick. It hurts that there is a girl he has allowed to touch him.

His face looks sad now as he gets closer to her.

"I just want to ask you about the Yule Ball. Since you never asked me to be your date, I thought you were busy, so I came, and I'm so sorry if I'm bothering you right now."

Avery gazes at the crowd that is waiting for him, seeing Parkinson showing off her right wrist to Avery on purpose, the green corsage beautifully wrapped around it, signaling Avery that he has already asked Parkinson to be his date. Seeing Avery with a box of a yellow corsage, Parkinson knows what's happening.

Right away, Avery is suddenly confused by the situation. She never dreamed of the fact that her fiancé would ask another girl to be his date while he has a fiancée; that’s Draco telling her that he does not want her to be his date.

Another piece crumbles.

She doesn't understand what's going on since she didn't see this coming. She’s caught off guard; if she had known how this would turn out, she would never have come here.

"I'm sorry, I already have a date," he says coldly. He sounds so cold; this is new to Avery.

She gapes. "Oh! I'm... I'm... okay, I gotta go now. Sorry for interrupting you." She walks away faster, almost getting hit by another Slytherin student. "Sorry," she says. She has never felt this weak before, flustered and ashamed. All her power feels like it has been drained by the man called Draco.

Avery sat in the fountain in the corridor between Slytherin and Hufflepuff common rooms, in shock and huffing. What a plot twist in her life since she didn't have a date to the Yule Ball. What's the use of being the Triwizard Champion now, after almost dying because of it? No one was asking her to be their date. She was still looking at the fountain water, feeling like crying just like the water falling, but she held back the tears, trying to be strong after everything that had just happened.

She then went to the magical creatures room near the Hufflepuff common room, just trying to ignore her broken heart, watching the animals without trying hard not to think of anything. Suddenly, a man came in, clearing his throat.  

"Avery...? Why are you in here?" Leo asked her.

"Sorry."  

"Uhm, why are you sorry for?"  

"I don't know... I've been saying sorry a lot lately."  

"The girls don't exist in the school these days; they're hunting dresses. Don't you? The dresses are going to be sold out," he said, smiling, but Draco's smile suddenly appeared in her blurry eyes.

Leo is Hufflepuff's number one most eligible bachelor; any girl he asked out to be his date would definitely say yes.  

"I'm not going."  

"What? Is Malfoy sick?"  

Right, everyone knew she and Draco were betrothed.  

"Uhm, no, not that. Um... I have no one asking me to go on a date with," she smiled bitterly.  

"What? Are you kidding me? All the boys will definitely ask you out if they knew you weren't going with your fiancé. You are Avery the... Avery." 

That made sense; of course, boys didn't ask her; they thought she would go with Draco.  

"Will you go with me, then? I wasn't going to go; I hadn't asked any girl. I was planning to stay here," he looked very sincere.  

He's a Newt Scamander prodigy; of course, he'll stay here.  

"Why did you change your mind, then?"  

"Looking at you here, Avery, every man will ask you immediately. I'm not stupid; gotta take my chance while it's there," he smiled again.  

My hufflepuff mom always says a person who likes animals must be a kind person.  

"Alright," she answered in a weak voice.  

"Alright?! Yes!? Wait here, I've got to go find my ribbon flower."  

"A corsage, you mean..." Avery corrected him.  

"Yeah, that one. We don't have to change the color since we came from the same house," he said and apparated away.  

He got back while Avery was feeding one of the magical creatures.  

He gave her a box with a yellow corsage; it was beautiful, but it made Avery sad suddenly knowing the corsage would never be yellow mixed with green. Also, the person that gave her the corsage was not Draco; her chest shrank.  

"Is he cheating on you?" Leo asked suddenly.  

Avery was silent, blinking. Yes, that's it, that's the word Avery hadn't found. The word Leo gave her.  

"If he is, he must be the stupidest Slytherin ever."  

"He's not; his scores are always good." Why am I still defending him?

"You know I always wondered what you see in him, Avery. He's not us; he's a Slytherin. We don't have people that date Slytherins; Slytherins date each other. It'll be difficult, you know; we're so different from them."  

Avery answered, "It was never difficult between us," longing for the memories she had with Draco, for the past years they had been together, longing for Draco to come and tell her it's not true what he said, tell her they were meant to be together.  

"Maybe you should try dating another Hufflepuff; you never know until you try," Leo giggled.