Chapter 8: Ava vs. Hermione

The End

Chapter 8: Ava vs. Hermione

Harry stared at Aislin in Potions. She was talking about something. Harry couldn't make out the words she was saying. It just looked like her lips were going in slow motion. Harry blinked once, twice, three times...

"HARRY!" a voice yelled. Harry's eyes flew open. Aislin was standing over him, looking extremely pissed. Next to him, Ava nudged him in the side. Harry flinched and shot a nasty look at Ava who shrugged. Then he turned his eyes back to the raging witch named Aislin Douglas.

"Yes, Professor?" Harry asked meekly. Aislin sighed, looking down on the poor boy.

"Are you a little tired, Mr. Potter?" Aislin asked, crossing her arms. Harry shook his head at an alarming speed. Aislin raised an eyebrow.

"I was just resting my eyes, Professor," Harry said quietly. Aislin's eyes continued staring down into him.

"Isn't that the same thing as sleeping?" Aislin asked. Hermione turned her head and opened her mouth to say something. As if sensing her oncoming argument, Aislin shot her a malicious look. Hermione turned back to her potion, not uttering a sound. Harry shook his head slowly. Aislin smirked wickedly. "Twenty points from Gryffindor and take another five for Miss Granger's attempted comeback." Aislin turned to walk back to the front of the classroom.

"But I didn't even say anything!" Hermione screeched. Aislin turned her direction, smiling evilly.

"You did just then, didn't you? What you've really gotta think about now is if you would've said something if I hadn't said anything." Aislin smiled. Hermione made a frown so deep, it looked as if her face was going to be permanently stuck that way. Draco and Aurora snickered quietly.

At lunch in the Great Hall, Hermione was fuming about Aislin. She was just shooting off at the mouth to the Tremaine sisters and the Assante sisters. They all watched her with wide eyes, and she was just laying into Aislin.

"What an evil little... ooohh! She makes me so mad sometimes. How are you going to take ten bloody points for me not even saying anything? That is so unfair. Then, because she took the points, I made an outburst, and she said that's what caused it in the first place. That doesn't even make any sense! She basically egged me on!" Hermione fussed. Ron and Harry sighed.

"She's been mental about that all day, mate. I'm afraid to just tell her to drop it. She might chuck a book or something at me," Ron said through a roll in his mouth. Harry nodded and looked back over in Hermione's way. She was still going on about it when Ava and Draco graced everyone with their presence.

"Potter, Weasley," Draco said, sitting next to Aurora. Harry and Ron nodded in his direction. Aurora sighed.

"When will you all start calling each other by your given names?" Aurora asked. Draco raised an eyebrow.

"What? Potter and Weasley aren't their given names? I honestly didn't know that. How did you know, Aurora?" Draco asked in a teasing tone. Aurora glared at him with all the malevolence she could muster. Harry and Ron snickered and looked down at their plates.

"You know very well what I mean, Draco Malfoy. Call them by their first names," Aurora said through her teeth. Draco shrugged.

"Harry and Ron just doesn't sound right coming from his lips, Aurora," Neve said. Draco, Ron, and Harry all nodded.

"I already can't stand calling him Draco. It's been Malfoy since the day we met," Ron said coolly. Aurora rolled her eyes.

Meanwhile, Ava was getting very tired of listening to Hermione's tirade of insults on Aislin. She'd been listening to them since they'd left Potions nearly two hours ago, and it was really starting to take its toll on Ava's patience. Sighing very loudly, she got the attention of everyone. She turned toward Hermione.

"Pourquoi vous ne vous taisez pas juste?" she asked. Hermione looked at her with a surprised look. Ava stared right back at her. Tommy leaned over to his sister.

"Do you realize that you are speaking in French?" he asked. Ava looked at him. Tommy nodded. Sighing, she turned back towards Hermione.

"Why don't you just shut up? We get the point that Aislin was being a bit unfair. You've been going on about this for about four hours, and it's really getting annoying. Complain about something else," Ava said. All was silent as everyone turned to look at Hermione's reaction to Ava's words.

"What?" was all Hermione said. Ava sighed.

"Donc vous ne parlez pas d'anglais maintenant? J'ai dit pourquoi ne font pas vous fermez ce trou dans votre visage. Personne ne veut entendre votre fait de plaindre stupide tout le jour."

"You're speaking in French again, Ava," Tommy mumbled.

"She understands me," Ava said. Everyone looked at Hermione, who somehow looked even angrier than she did before.

"You understand French?" Ron asked. Hermione nodded.

"I took it at school before I started at Hogwarts. My parents liked visiting Paris when I was younger. It's like their second home or something. Listen, AVARIELLE, I'll say what I want, when I want to say it. No one else here seems to mind it." Hermione turned to face Ava. "Pourquoi tu ne reculez pas juste et allez et boudez ailleurs? Personne n'a besoin de votre attitude renfrognée pour toujours casser l'humeur," Hermione said. Ava and Hermione continued to stare at each other with spiteful looks in their eyes. The others could practically see the lightning crackling between the two. Then, Ava got up abruptly and stormed off.

"Well, that went rather well," Harry said with blunt sarcasm in his voice. Ginny laughed as Hermione shot him a glare of doom.

"And the rivalry begins," Draco said.

"What do you mean by that? There is no rivalry between us," she said. Ginny sighed.

"Oh, come off it, Granger. If Ava went here her entire school career, she would probably be Head Girl instead of you. That or Dumbledore would have a mighty hard time choosing between the two of you. The girl has all the same classes as you and is the only one in the school with the same grades. When I say the same grades, I mean the exact same. You are both tied," Draco said. Hermione frowned at him.

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. I have the highest scores on everything," Hermione said.

"Sorry to push you off your 'throne,' Granger. Ava is just as good as you in everything," Draco said. Hermione frowned and stood up.

"Look, MALFOY, I don't have to listen to this. I'll be in the library. See you in class," Hermione said. With that, she was gone in a swirl of her robes. Ron watched her go.

"I told you she's straight psychotic," he mumbled to Harry. Hermione whirled around, glaring at Ron.

"I heard that, Ronald," she said. Then, with her brown hair swinging, she disappeared out of the doors. Ron looked at Harry who was laughing his head off.

"Yeah, she's really psychotic, Ron," he said in gasps of air.

"Sod off, Harry."

Two days later, Tommy and Neve were sitting outside, watching Draco and Aurora pelt each other with snowballs. Tommy thought this was as good a time as any to start asking Neve questions about the group.

"So, tell me about your training, Neve," Tommy said. Neve looked over at him as Draco got in the face with snow, knocking him backwards. Aurora nearly fell over with laughter.

"Well, training to become a Magas is really hard work. I'm not too good at the spell casting stuff. I would probably say I'm mediocre to above average. I like other methods," Neve said slyly. Tommy smiled.

"Other methods?" he asked. Neve smiled.

"Well, I like Muggle weaponry and hand-to-hand combat. I pretty sure I could beat your arse. How do you think I managed to beat up Millicent Bulstrode? The girl is twice my size. The only person I have a remotely hard time with is Draco. He's not the strongest person, but he is the fastest. Almost as fast as me. Plus, I also like espionage. I could be a spy if I wanted to." She said.

"What does everyone else excel at?" Tommy asked. Neve looked up at the clear sky. By now, Ginny, Harry, Hermione, and Ron had joined the fight, and it was girls against boys.

"Well, Harry's extremely good at Soliopathy. He's better than most people who've been practicing it for years since he's a natural. Aurora's okay at Soliopathy, but she is better at telepathy. Harry seems to have thrown telepathy off and doesn't really practice it. Ginny's a Shai and a partial telepath. Hermione is above average in almost everything. Draco is good with magical weaponry; mainly the enchanted arrows. Neville is good at various charms, especially medical ones. Ron is the best at almost everything. I've never fought him, but I'd expect him to be pretty tough. He almost killed Harry last year when he found Ginny and him together. That was a great fight." Neve looked at the two boys, who were throwing snowballs at a pretty fast rate.

"You mean to tell me that those two got into a fight and Ron almost murdered Harry? I thought they were best mates," Tommy said. Neve nodded.

"Well, Ron had a mildly good reason. I mean, Ginny is his younger and only sister. He was just being protective of her. Harry's a pretty good fighter, but Ron managed to break not one, but two ribs. Both punctured one of Harry's lungs. I think that may be Ron's greatest weakness: his temper," Neve said. Hermione was now wrestling Ron in the snow. She was rubbing his face in the snow before he rounded on her, causing her to go flying backwards. Neve chuckled a little.

"So, you all have weaknesses?"

"Well, yeah. Everyone has at least one weakness, right? Ginny's weakness is so obviously Harry. She'd do just about anything for that boy. Hermione's weakness, believe it or not, is being so damn smart. Aurora's weakness is that she's entirely too nice. She believes in giving people second chances or what not. That's a load of shit if I ever heard one, if you ask me. My philosophy is this: If you're bold enough to do it in the first place, you're bold enough to take the consequences and repercussions. Neville's weakness is clumsiness. I am surprised the boy doesn't tie his shoes together in the morning. Draco and Harry have the same weakness, amazingly. They are so much alike, and yet they don't even know it," Neve said. Tommy looked eagerly at her.

"What is it?" Neve looked Tommy in the eyes.

"I think I'm the only one that sees it. They firmly believe that they both have no weakness. The truth about that is that they really don't have a weakness. They just tend to want to do things by themselves, and they don't think they need anyone's help. It's a really sad thing, to tell you the truth. They are both way too independent for their own good. One day, it will be their downfall. So, technically, their weakness is the fact that they try to avoid having a weakness. They try to keep us from being their weakness, but what they don't see is that because they do that, we will always be their weakness. Understand?" Neve asked. Tommy nodded. Neville, Luna, Rina, Ava, Lina, Seamus, and Dean had now joined the fight. They now had barriers and blockades out of snow built.

"Wow. That's pretty deep.You never did say what your weakness is," Tommy said. Neve looked at him.

"Now, I don't have a weakness, Tomás. Never have and never will. I'm way too strong to have a weakness," Neve said. Tommy smiled and leaned in for a kiss. Suddenly, a rather large ball hit them both in the face. They turned toward the group to see them all laughing like hyenas, and Draco standing there with a smug look on his face. Neve frowned and got up. "So you wanna play dirty, huh, Draco?" Neve balled up some snow and began hitting anyone within distance. Tommy laughed, but stopped as his arm began burning lightly. Raising up his sleeve, he looked down at his arm.

The Gryffindor common room fire

DO NOT BE LATE

Tommy sighed heavily then got up to join the fight, brushing off his discomfort. He didn't like using Neve, but it was necessary.

That Monday in Defense Against the Dark Arts/Dueling, Professor Catriona Onsu was looking very lackadaisical as she watched the Dean and Seamus going at it. Sighing as Dean finally disarmed Seamus, she stood up, clapping.

"Very good, you two. Finnigan, you need to work on being quicker. Who wants to go next?" Onsu looked out around her students. No one dared to meet her in the eye. Sighing, the brunette professor scanned the room. "Granger, you and... let's see... Zaviera." Onsu said. Hermione nodded and stood. Tommy stood also, thinking that Onsu meant him. Onsu shook her head. "Not you, Tomás. Avarielle, you go," Onsu said. Hermione's jaw dropped as Ava stood and glided over to the dueling stage. Ron and Harry exchanged cautious glances. "You know the rules, ladies. Anything goes with you two, since you've had exceptionally good training. On my clap..." Onsu clapped, and the dynamic duel began.

"This ought to be interesting," Harry whispered to Ron. Ron nodded slowly, watching the two girls exchange murderous glances. Hermione was first to draw her wand.

"Expelliarmus!" she yelled. Ava threw up a barrier with her wand. The spell disintegrated and Hermione frowned.

"Rictusempra!" Ava blasted Hermione backwards. Hermione stood quickly, shrugging off the tickling sensation, and then pointed her wand forcefully at her opponent.

"Tarantallegra!" she screamed. Ava was hit this time, and her legs went crazy against their will.

"Finite Incantatem," Ava muttered, pointing her wand at her legs. Hermione was smiling smugly. Ava stood up. "Gli Scarafaggi Seguono!" she yelled. Everyone looked amazed. No one had ever heard this curse before. Hermione dodged, but the curse followed her relentlessly. It finally it her. She flew forward onto the ground. Standing up, she glared at Ava, who was smiling very complacently.

"Wipe that smirk off your face, Avarielle. This is far from over."

"Yes, it is. You'll be reaping the rewards of that little curse in about two minutes anyway. Shall we continue?" Ava asked. Hermione looked at her for a moment, as if trying to read something.

In the audience, Aurora looked as though she was trying to comprehend something. Draco noticed her look.

"What are you thinking, Aurora?" he asked. Aurora looked over at him.

"Most spells are in Latin and resemble Italian a bit. The thing about it is that I know exactly what she just said, but that cannot be what that particular spell does," Aurora said. Draco looked confused. Aurora sighed. "Gli Scarafaggi Seguono, loosely put, means 'roaches follow,'" she said. Draco looked like a child that just walked into a room 1,000,000 Galleons, presents, and free candy.

"That should be pretty funny," he said, and then he turned his attention back to the girls.

"Cadere!" Hermione yelled. Ava's small frame was quickly drawn to the ground. She tried to stand up, but it looked like it was extremely hard to do so. Hermione took this opportunity to cast another spell. "Lumache!" The hex hit Ava as she stood completely up. Then, both girls doubled over. Hermione was holding her throat. She looked very ill. Ava looked the same way. Her face was becoming very pale.

"I wonder what's wrong," Ginny whispered to Harry. Harry shrugged. Both Ava and Hermione were now on their knees holding their stomachs. Then, they both put their hands on the ground and opened their mouths. Roaches began falling out of Hermione's mouth. Ava was belching up slugs one after the other. Ron's face frowned up in disgust.

"Aw, that's so bloody disgusting!" he complained. Onsu was desperately trying to stifle her giggles. She grabbed the two young women and started to drag them out of the room.

"I will be right back. No one is to do anything until I get back," she said, then left the room. They could still here both girls retching as they walked down the hall. The moment they were gone, Draco started laughing maniacally, as did Neve.

"That... was... so... bloody... awesome! I'm going to... have to ask... where they got those... hexes from. They... were classic... They must be hi... ding a book of some... sort," Draco said between fits of laughter. Neve was about to fall out of her chair. Aurora and Tommy rolled their eyes. Tommy noticed Ron's face.

"What's wrong, Ron?" he asked. Ron looked in his direction.

"One, I have to kiss that mouth later on. Two, I know exactly what Ava is feeling with the slugs right now. I had a bad experience in second-year," Ron said. Harry chuckled a little and Ron shot him a glare.

"What happened?" Aurora asked, trying to stop Draco from falling on the floor. He was still laughing like there was no tomorrow. Ron turned his attention to her.

"I... had... a... bad... experience. Let's just leave at that, savvy?" he said. Aurora nodded, smiling wryly. That's when Onsu returned.

"What is their fate, Professor?" Neve asked, wiping the tears from her face and sitting up straight.

"Well, Madam Pomfrey said there's nothing she can do. They just have to wait until it stops, which will be in about two or three days. Those were some pretty hateful curses. Did I do the wrong thing in matching those two up or something?" Onsu asked. Everyone in the room nodded. "Oh, well." Onsu shrugged. "You have to admit that it was pretty entertaining watching them destroy themselves. They are the best students I have; so attentive and willing," Onsu said, as if she wasn't aware she was still speaking.

That night, Tommy stared at the fire in Gryffindor's common room. He glanced at the large clock on the wall. The minute hand moved ever so slightly to the six. The fire roared upwards, and Voldemort's face appeared.

"Hello, Tomás."

"Père," Tommy said, inclining his head ever-so-slightly. Voldemort looked to his left and another face appeared. It was Giovanna's. Tommy's face lit up.

"Hi, Tommy," Giovanna said, smiling at her son.

"Bonjour, Mamá. How are you?" he asked.

"Je fais bien, mon fils," she replied. Tommy nodded. Voldemort cleared his throat, signaling to all that he was still present.

"So, what new information do you have for me, Tomás?" Voldemort asked. Tommy sighed and told them about their weaknesses. Voldemort nodded at all of this. After Tommy was done explaining, Voldemort looked long and hard at him. "What about Neveah?" he asked. Tommy frowned.

"Neve doesn't have a weakness. She's too strong for one," Tommy said. Giovanna shook her head. "What?"

"She told you all of this, right?" she asked. Tommy nodded.

"What does that have to do with anything?" he asked, looking from one parent to the other. Giovanna and Voldemort exchanged looks. "What is it? She doesn't have a weakness. I certainly can't see one on her," Tommy said.

"Oh, everyone has a weakness, Tommy," Giovanna said sadly.

"But, she doesn't..."

"I think she does, Tomás," Voldemort said evilly. Tommy's eyes widened in understanding. LOVE is Neve's weakness. In other words, HE was Neve's weakness. HE will be her downfall.

Pourquoi vous ne vous taisez pas juste = Why don't you just shut up?

Donc vous ne parlez pas d'anglais maintenant? J'ai dit pourquoi ne font pas vous fermez ce trou dans votre visage. Personne ne veut entendre votre fait de plaindre stupide tout le jour = So you don't speak English now? I said why don't you shut that hole in your face. No one wants to hear your stupid whining all day.

Pourquoi vous ne reculez pas juste et allez et boudez ailleurs ? Personne n'a besoin de votre attitude renfrognée pour toujours casser l'humeur = So why don't you just back off and go and sulk somewhere else? No one needs your sullen attitude to always break the mood.

Je fais bien, mon fils = I'm doing well, my son.