chapter ii rolling stone

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THAT MORNING, WHEN AVERY'S EYES BLINKED OPEN, SHE FELT HERSELF IN A CALM STATE OF OBLIVION REGARDING HER PRESENT SURROUNDINGS.

     With her head nestled within the royal blue covers, Avery recognises her sleep took place in the spacious quarters of a double bed - not the same four-poster bed she'd spent the previous six years sleeping in. Peeking her head up a bit with a slight strain to the neck, she saw a desk — far larger and more luxurious than any writing area in Ravenclaw Tower — then a wardrobe — which, in all her years at Hogwarts, she'd never had the pleasure of being accommodated by a wardrobe — and finally, it was the flat loveseat at the window, padded with dreamy blue cushions, that helped her distinguish where exactly she was; not the Ravenclaw dormitories, like her initial unaware thoughts would lead her to believe — but rather, the Head Girl dormitory. Because after all, like Avery hadn't needed to hear the words be iterated yet again, she was Head Girl.

     She swung her legs over the edge of the double bed, and walked up to the loveseat, gazing out at the daylight cascading over the grounds of Hogwarts. Avery had to stifle a groan, reaching a hand behind to her back as she felt an upwards pain shoot through her spine. Must have slept funny. Though, as much as she'd wanted to blame this back pain in the new bed, (out of sheer spite of not wanting to be Head Girl) Avery couldn't deny that that would be worthless, because grudgingly, she knew that bed had been comfy.

     The morning light had certainly done its work's worth for Hogwarts because the grounds looked beautiful. From the window, the light seeped through with an opaline tint, refracting with a pearly white shine through the glass, but in the grounds the light covered the fresh grass in a golden blanket, dotted with spontaneous flowers, the trees swaying happily under the limpid breeze, the mountains being visible in the distance from the lack of clouds present. She could see the Great Lake, twinkling remarkably in the sunlight. The Whomping Willow was also seen from Avery's window, at a halt and seemingly asleep. For it being the beginning of September, the harsh weather hadn't yet hit the castle of Hogwarts and instead provided it with the clearest of blue skies, bringing with it a exuberant atmosphere of vicarious gleefulness.

     Avery notices a door on the opposite side of the window seat, realising it was probably the bathroom. I have my own bathroom, she thinks wondrously to herself. And, seeing herself in the full length mirror that was propped against the wall near her, she saw herself clad in nothing but cotton pyjama shorts and an oversized t-shirt spilling past her thighs, and most notably her deranged morning hair, which was spilling out of all ends of the topknot she'd tied the previous night, and Avery realised it was probably best for her to freshen up in preparation for the day ahead. She bent down to her unemptied trunk and made a self-plea to unpack her clothes into the provided wardrobe later on, just to make use of it. Picking up her toothbrush and toothpaste, Avery was just about to head to the bathroom when she'd heard a knock on her door.

     Avery places the two items down on a chest of drawers she hadn't noticed before — Goodness, does this room have everything in it? — and walked over to the oak door. Twisting the doorknob, she opens the door to reveal a smiling Charlie Weasley on the other side, leaning against the doorframe classically, and yet another revelation reprimands Avery's mind.

     Charlie Weasley was Head Boy. She was Head Girl. And they would be sharing a dormitory for the coming year. That's why he was here.

     Weasley must be an early bird. At seeing her fellow Head standing, beaming in front of her, it took Avery a couple of added moments to notice that he'd probably just been out of the shower. For one, his vivid red hair was dripping with minuscule droplets of water with a towel draped around his neck, and was wearing nothing but joggers. So, he was shirtless. Firm lines of definition were indebted into his chest and abdomen, similar lines replicated along his toned arms. By the looks of things, Avery saw yet another reason to knight him Mr Perfect.

     I mean, I knew Weasley did Quidditch but I didn't expect him to be this ripped.

     "Morning, Avery. Nice hair." He chimes with a wide grin, and Avery realises he was talking about the behemoth situated on her head as she tried to suppress the urge to drop her head into her hands. "Good sleep?"

     "Oh — uh, yeah. It was fine, Weasley." She replies, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "What's up?"

     "Your hair—" Charlie jokes, before piping down at seeing the way Avery's eyes narrow at him, "Okay, no, that wasn't funny. Erm, okay. I'm gonna be ready in a bit and was actually wondering if you wanted to walk with me to the Great Hall for breakfast?"

     The question took Avery by surprise, and she ended up blinking a couple of times to regain herself. Weasley wanted to walk me to breakfast? She then realised that she'd left him without an answer for far too long because he'd started furrowing his eyebrows at seeing her apprehension to answer.

Avery shook her head out of her trance-like state. "Uh — sorry." She apologises. "Um, sure. Yeah. That's fine."

Charlie smiles. "Great. I'll wait in the common room for you, just come when you're ready and then we'll go." And with that, he left the room, leaving Avery to stare at the space he'd previously occupied with a confused sort of airiness. Goodness, was her mind out of it this morning.

     With that on the cards, Avery went to do what she'd originally planned and started to clean herself up. She went for a shower, which was blissful in its entirety, afterwards discovering that there was a freaking hairdryer waiting in the bathroom cupboard for her — she was not expecting that, especially considering that electrical appliances don't mingle well with the magic at Hogwarts, but found out that it wasn't electric at all? It made no sense to Avery, but she wasn't complaining — she'd never had the luxury of using a working hairdryer at Hogwarts, and always had to settle for towel drying or warming charms, both of which didn't work as well as an actual hairdryer would. She fixed her hair, transforming it from the mammoth it was previously and neatly tying up half of it, letting the remainder of her strawberry blonde hair flow underneath the ponytail. After changing into her uniform, with the blue and bronze tie perfectly matching her gleaming Head Girl badge, she sorts out her bag for the day, swinging it onto her shoulders to head to breakfast.

However, throughout the duration of Avery's routine of getting herself prepped for the day, she couldn't push aside the thoughts wavering through the already busy mind of hers. Like, why on earth had Charlie Weasley offered to walk her to breakfast? She tried coming up with various solutions, like, maybe he wanted to discuss some Heads' business, or more simply, maybe he just wanted to be polite and give me a good impression? He's Charlie bloody Weasley, Quidditch Captain and Head Boy, you can't get as good an impression as that.

As Avery ventures into the common room, adjusting the tie, she saw that Charlie wasn't present, but could hear him bustling away from the slightly ajar door leading to his bedroom. She took this time to explore their common room, remembering she hadn't had much of a chance to do so the night before and instead went straight to bed. In the centre of the common room, there laid the already noticed maroon sofa with pillows dotted alongside it, and there was another window seat at the back of the room, overlooking a similar patch of Hogwarts grounds as that in Avery's room. There was the coffee table in front of the sofa, and at the side of the room, veering towards Charlie's door was another desk. In the kitchenette, there was a microwave with a small fridge beneath the countertop it was placed onto. There was also a kettle, a small stovetop and an overhead cupboard. Which, again, surprised Avery, because electricity wasn't meant to work at Hogwarts.

     "I know, I was shocked at seeing electrical items here too." A voice says from behind Avery. She looks back and saw Charlie, fully-clothed and fixing his red and gold tie around his neck. "My guess is it's magically-powered." He smiles at her. "You ready to go?"

     Avery nods, and they set off throughout the ancient corridors, the portrait swinging behind them after bidding Sir Cadogan good morning (he was still trying to coax them into the unachievable duel). They walk alongside each other, and Avery takes care to put some distance between the two of them — not enough to make him suspicious that he has rabies she doesn't want to catch or something — but enough for them to not be so directly in step with each other. It seemed an aloof move, but in Avery's defence, she didn't know what Charlie Weasley wanted. Maybe he was just nice? Or maybe he wasn't. Avery didn't know! She didn't know how to deal with new people that well!

"So — uh — how did you sleep?" Charlie asks, the two of them making their way through the morning-lit castle. Avery had to suppress an inhale. She hated small talk. And he asked this question before?

"Fine, I suppose. The bed was comfy." She answers. Perhaps a bit too blunt, because Charlie frowned. Avery felt a bit bad.

He smiles again. "Is it different to the Ravenclaw common room?" Whatever he was trying to do, Avery decided that this boy was determined.

"Yeah, I guess so," she says. "It's much larger and there's a lot of things we never had."
Avery presses her mouth into a thin line, with it being a weak attempt at a smile. Charlie could sense the distant behaviour Avery was giving him. Thankfully to both of them, on their morning stroll to the Great Hall, they got stopped in their tracks by a Gryffindor. Sixth year, Avery thinks? But then she saw the Prefect badge on her robes and she just knew.

Oh no. Not so thankful now.

The Gryffindor female looks at them both. Or more specifically, at Avery. Goodness knows why she's looking at the Ravenclaw, when the Gryffindor Head Boy is tight beside her.

"Hi?" Avery says.

"Hi." The Gryffindor replies abruptly, jittering in her steps. Avery could tell Charlie was probably going to have little input in the conversation, considering that the body language the Prefect was exercising was clearly directed to Avery and only Avery. "You're the Head Girl, yeah?" Avery nods, though she wanted to say Unfortunately. "I need a new rounds partner. My current one — Darlington — we broke up, and he's an asshole. I think you understand why I can't patrol with him?"

Rooted to the spot, Avery had no idea what to say. Why wasn't she asking Charlie? Why did it have to be her? All she could do was nod and say, "Sure." She was even more taken aback when the Gryffindor girl hugged Avery by the shoulders before speeding off in the direction of the Great Hall.

Avery didn't know what brought her into agreeing to changing the patrol schedule. On the first day? Being the Head Girl was already a chore. But perhaps she just wanted to give them a good impression of her? She could've been like, "No, suck it up." Instead, she just said "Sure." Maybe they'll like her now? She didn't exactly want to be Head Girl, but she didn't want people to dislike her either.

"Wow. Breakups already? We haven't even been here a day!" Charlie marvels, shaking his head in amazement. Gaining sense again, Avery nods.

They begin to walk again, after the small interruption, and reach the doors of the Great Hall quickly. They stand at the top, Charlie looking over at Gryffindor table and Avery searching Ravenclaw table for her friends.

Charlie turns to Avery and smiles. "I'll see you later, Avery." He says.

"See you, Weasley." Avery replies, before joining her friends at Ravenclaw table, with only the girls present for breakfast.

"Morning." Avery smiles, taking the seat beside Juliet, pouring out some cereal for herself.

"Morning." The other four said in unison.

"How was your first night?" Dominique asks. Her red hair was sleek and shiny, tied up into an elegant ponytail. Her makeup was minimal, yet effective. Avery wished she could make herself look as effortlessly nice like that.

"Not bad." Avery replies, spooning some cereal into her mouth. "A bit of a sore back, but I think I slept in a weird position. My bed was cozy, though. And the room is big, and you can see the castle grounds from outside the window and the Lake looks beautiful in the sunlight. Also, there's a common room with a sofa and a small kitchen. And, I have a hairdryer!"

"An actual, working hairdryer?" Rowan frowns. Her hair was golden, wavy and short, and bobbed up and down when she walked. Cute, Avery always thinks. "I thought Muggle appliances weren't meant to work in Hogwarts?"

Shrugging, Avery says, "That's what I thought too. Weasley thinks it must be magically powered or something, because there's also electrical things in the kitchen."

"I saw you come in with Weasley." Hannah says, her fingers clasped around her mug. She had really long eyelashes and the sleekest black hair Avery had ever seen. Hannah was a firm believer in astronomy and celestial life. She loved the stars. "How is he?"

Avery furrows her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

"Like, how is it staying with him?" Juliet clarifies. Her dark brown hair was always in thin yet abundant waves, and she was by far the most energetic and mischievous one of the group. The teachers at Hogwarts would be glad to not have to deal with her endless pranks anymore once she left, though she was a good student and managed to achieve full marks in her Defence Against the Dark Arts O.W.L two years previous.

"I don't know? He came to my door this morning asking if I wanted to walk with him to breakfast. Being nice, probably." (She left out the part that included Charlie being shirtless. Avery knew what her friends were like) "I feel like he wants us to be friends? But I don't expect us to be, you know? It's unprofessional, like, we're meant to be co-heads and not friends, you get me?"

All of Avery's friends were staring at her with their faces contorted, eyes squinting at her revelation.

"Aves, you can't be so close-minded!" Frowns Dominique. "You two are gonna be roommates for the next year. You'll be working on things together, seeing each other almost constantly outside of class.. surely you can't tell us that you two won't at least be friends? He seems nice!"

"Yeah, but I don't want us to be friends solely for the reason that we're roommates. It's so... unnatural, and forced. I don't want him to force himself to be friends with me." Avery explains. She heard her friends' incessant mutters of 'you're being stupid'. She ignores them. "Oh, and he saw the hair." Avery adds.

"He what?" Juliet blurts. Of course, sharing a dorm with Avery meant the four girls had grown very used to Avery's morning hair. They were even acquaintances, you could say. (As acquainted as humans and hair could get.)

"He saw my morning hair." Avery shrugs nonchalantly, taking a sip of pumpkin juice.

"That's the biggest mistake ever! Your hair is, like, the number one turn-off for any guy!" Dominique exclaims.

"Dom!" Avery says, looking at her best friend scoldingly. "It's not even a big deal. He didn't really care. He actually made a joke. Besides, like I haven't already said, nothing will happen between me and Charlie Weasley. Absolutely nothing."

Dominique sighs. "But — " she took a look up the aisle between Ravenclaw and Slytherin table, sinking into her seat. "Nevermind. The boys are here."

"Morning, girls." Eric Feng greets, taking his seat beside Avery. He nudges her, grinning. "Morning, Head Girl."

Avery rolls her eyes, chuckling. "Morning Eric, Ben, Julian." She says, addressing the boy beside her and the two who sat opposite him, beside Dominique.

Julian wiggles his eyebrows. "How was the first night with Weasley?"

Avery sighs. This was going to be a long year.

———

AVERY IS RELIEVED WHEN HER FIRST DAY OF CLASSES ARE OVER. Sure, she only takes five classes now: Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts and Transfiguration, (thank goodness she no longer had to take History of Magic) all at N.E.W.T level, and she had two free periods today. But, still. School is exhausting.

     She'd spent the end of her Transfiguration lesson talking to, or, no, being lectured by Professor McGonagall on Head Girl duties. Like she didn't already feel overwhelmed by the thought of being an authority figure at Hogwarts. In Charms, Professor Flitwick was being an absolute angel to her because of her being a Ravenclaw and getting Head Girl. Avery loved Flitwick. He was so... chill. And in Care of Magical Creatures, she'd had a lengthy but hearty conversation with Professor Kettleburn about her post-school aspirations and wanting to be a Magizoologist. Kettleburn was by far Avery's favourite teacher. Partly because Care of Magical Creatures was her favourite subject. And Kettleburn just... understood the students. Understood Avery. And he was really encouraging.

     Turns out though, in the N.E.W.T Care of Magical Creatures class, Charlie Weasley was also apart of it. It was a pretty small class, consisting of maximum eight students, which allowed Kettleburn to talk to each of the students about their plans for the following years post-Hogwarts. Because Kettleburn was cool like that.

     (She made eye contact with Charlie, who smiled at her. She just pressed her lips in a thin line, like she'd done that morning. She was still suspicious. She did happen to see him frown (curiously, perhaps?) when her career in Magizoology got brought up as a topic. Maybe he hadn't been expecting that from Avery. Perhaps there's more to Avery Carmichael than meets the eye.)

     Anyways, Avery then went for dinner with her Ravenclaw friends. Despite loving the constant supply of pancakes from her mother over the summer, Avery forgot how much she enjoyed the Hogwarts gravy that the house elves prepared — even more than she did last night, probably because it brings on a sense of routine for her. And Avery is not Avery without her routined life. (Which is partly what could make being Head Girl even more difficult, because there's a massive change and adjustments to routine.)

     After dinner, Avery heads back to the Ravenclaw common room with her friends rather than to the Heads' dorm, because she misses being in that place. It's not like she'd give it all up for being Head Girl. Besides, it's not illegal to be in the Ravenclaw common room if you're the Head Girl in that house. And anyways, she's so sure Charlie went back to the Gryffindor common room too.

     And Avery found her guesses right. After spending an enjoyable few hours in her old dorm room, where her old four-poster bed looked very lonely with none of her belongings surrounding it, she found it was time to head back to her new dorm. She did need to sort out that Prefect rota, anyways. So when she grudgingly left her friends to go grudgingly become the Head Girl again, she found herself grudgingly stopping in her tracks at the call of a familiar voice.

     "Avery, wait!"

Avery turns her head around and spots a familiar redhead walking briskly up towards her, breaking out into a small jog. He was smiling. He's always smiling? She allows for Charlie to join her in the walk back to their joint dormitory.

"Just thought we could walk back together. You know, since we're in the same dorm now?" Charlie says, beaming.

"Erm — sure." Avery replies, looking down at her feet.

Charlie frowns. She keeps on giving him this distant behaviour, and he's not quite sure what he's done. We've only been sharing for a day — maybe she's just not used to this change. Maybe she's not that good with new people.

"So — er — do you know when our first patrol is?" Charlie asks again. Maybe he could get some more words out of her other than yeah or sure.

Avery itches her forehead, before saying, "Erm — we're doing our rounds on Wednesdays and Fridays, 11 till 1. After those two Slytherin fifth year prefects."

Charlie raises his eyebrow. "You know the timetable that well? Already?"

"I have a good memory." She says, shrugging casually. She abruptly smacks her forehead, remembering the events from that morning. "And I have to reorganise the patrol schedule." She mutters to herself.

"I can help if you like?" Charlie says, hoping to be of some assurance. (He didn't want to get on her bad side, obviously. They were sharing a dorm and patrols and tasks for the next year, and not to mention them both being two out of a handful of students doing Care of Magical Creatures this year. It would be awkward as hell if they didn't have some sort of a good relationship.)

Nonetheless, Avery shakes her head rapidly. "No. It's fine. I'm sure you have a bunch of tasks from McGonagall, anyways."

"Alright..." He says, inhaling through his nostrils. That wasn't so bad? He got a couple of words out of her. Even if they were a bit hasty and brisk.

Baby steps, Charlie reminds himself. They can't be best friends overnight. If that's even what they would become.

***

this was shorter in comparison to other chapters (3700 words) but i hope you guys liked it??

i love writing this fic even if it hurts me writing aves like all closed off cos she's baby🥺 things will get better tho just have patience🤞🏼hope i'm not boring you guys too much with this LMAO just stick with me and good things will happen🥺😗😌💞

— saar xx