"I don't understand how she ended up copying off my notes, but somehow, she raised her hand, got the bloody answer wrong, and blamed it on me!" Cassidy waved her arms around wildly as she tried to explain her story in even more detail. Ava was dying of laughter, and the rest of the Ravenclaws seated near her gave her a disgusted stare.

It was lunch time, and the Great Hall was buzzing with chatter. Ava caught whispers of different conversations, and plenty of students shouted at each other from across the room. The atmosphere was pleasant, just another normal day at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Wow Cass, the audacity." Ava nodded her head, pretending to be listening, but instead she was focused on her turkey and cheese sandwich in front of her.

"I know right! I can not believe the gi- Hey!" Cassidy placed both of hands on either side of Ava's head and  Ava found her focus shifting from her food to Cassidy's hazel eyes.

"I'm listening, I swear!" The two girls looked at each other and burst out laughing. After their laughing fit, Ava kicked her feet up on the bench next to Cassidy, and sighed.

"You know, you haven't really told me how things with you and Violet have been going." Ava smiled, her dimples showing.

"Shh! What have I told you about mentioning that in public?" Cassidy looked around nervously, and her eyes danced around the room until they landed on a girl sitting at the Slytherin table. Ava followed her gaze.

Violet Wells was laughing at something the boy next to her had said, and it appeared to be very funny. She flipped her red hair over her shoulder and continued talking. Her dark skin appeared shiny in the sunlight as she rested her chin on her hands.

"We went for butter beer last night, and it was amazing!" Cassidy clapped her hands against her thighs. "She didn't tell me if she wanted to go on another date."

"Oh for crying out loud Cassidy, you two aren't even dating! Of course she wouldn't tell you if she wanted to go on another date, because she didn't know it was a date." Ava jabbed her finger against the table, emphasizing her point.

"I know, I know, it's just," Cassidy fiddled with her white hair nervously, "I just don't know if everybody would accept me." She murmured the last part, as if afraid someone would hear.

"Our house is the most accepting house there is!" Ava took Cassidy's hand into her own. "Plus, I accept you, Cass." She smiled and squeezed her hand. "And we're best friends, aren't we?"

Cassidy gave her a wide grin. "Till the day we get expelled from this place together." Ava smiled.

"That's the Cassidy I know." They finished their lunch, and set off to Transfiguration together.

. . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . .  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . .  . . . . . . . . . . . .

"I can't take this anymore!" Ava exclaimed, slamming her quill down onto the tiled floor.

"Bloody hell, I can't either." Cassidy set her quill down and rubbed her eyes furiously.

The pair were sitting (Ava refused to believe they were "hiding" as Cassidy called it) behind the Rowena Ravenclaw statue in the common room. It was filled with the hum of conversation, as students sat in front of desks and buckled down to do their work. The glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling were shining brightly, and the ceiling appeared to have clouds moving in the background, as if the tower were open to the sky. Most students sat on couches in front of the fireplace, conversing with one another about the day.

"I know this is a simple review, but I simply can not remember the hand movement for Incendio!" Cassidy cried out.

Ava stared at her, dumbfounded. "It's...it's a flame, Cassidy. A flame. How could you not remember that!" Ava was wringing her hands frustratingly. "I can't remember if the porcupine quills come before or after the moonstone in the Draught of Peace!" She buried her head in her hands. "Slughorns gonna kill me!"

"I sure could use a swing of that right now!" Cassidy slid her book across the floor, away from her, and straight into the bookshelf. The bookshelf shimmered as the book hit it, and absorbed it. The book was then whisked away back onto the shelf next to Cassidy's bed.

Ava did the same and turned to Cassidy. "You know what? I'm going to go grab my laptop, and we can watch a movie to calm ourselves down." She stood up, and scanned the common room.

"As long as it's not Mean Girls again, I'm fine." Cassidy huffed and sat against the statue. "If I have to hear more of that stupid Karen's voice again, I'm gonna hurl.

Ava took a deep breath. It's alright, as long as you don't bump into anyone, or talk to anyone, you'll be ok. After hyping herself up, she began her way across the common room.

About 30 seconds after jogging across the floor, Ava bumped into somebody.

"Gah!" Ava realized the person she had bumped into had fallen. "Let me help you up!"

She offered her hand to the person, but they had already stood up by themselves.

"I'm so sorry, are you ok?" A semi-deep voice asked. Ava recognized that voice immediately.

"William! I-I mean, prefect Cary! I am incredibly sorry about that, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going an-hmm?" Ava stared down at her mouth, and realized it had been glued shut.

"Don't apologize so much! It's no big deal." William smiled, and waved his hands. Ava noticed that his fingernails were coloured purple, and remembered the first thing he said about himself when he arrived at Hogwarts was that he was gay.

"Hey, you're Ava Finch right?" Ava nodded her head slowly. Was she in trouble?

"You're friends with Carlisle Gaunt, the Slytherin outcast?" Ava nodded her head again, slightly scared about where this was going.

"Ah, where are my manners! My names William, although you probably already knew that. You can call me Will though, I hate my full name. It sounds so proper!" Ava was about to nod her head again, when she realized she could speak again.

"Yeah, yup. Totally proper." Ava hoped that by agreeing with whatever he said, she would get out of trouble.

"Sooo... I noticed you only really hang around with Cassidy Evans." Willam remarked, pushing his glasses up higher up the bridge of his nose. His brown hair fell into his gray eyes a bit, and it bothered Ava so much, she almost brushed it out of his eyes.

Almost.

"Yeah, we're just, really good mates." Ava stuffed her hands into the pockets of her skirt, desperately wishing the conversation could end.

"I can help you, you know, become more socially adept. Haven't you wanted to make more friends?" William blurted out.

Ava stares at him with her mouth wide open. "Uh, I mean, yeah sure." At this point, Ava didn't even know what was coming out of her mouth. Where did this sudden confidence come from?

William bit his lip and squealed a little bit. "You don't know how long I wanted to have a project before!" He pulled her into a tight embrace. Ava slowly wrapped her arms around his waist, hesitant to excite him anymore. She noticed he smelled like fresh linen though, and wondered where he'd been.

"Well," William pulled back, uncertainty dripping from his voice, "I only ask one thing. Remember how I mentioned Carlisle?" Ava hummed in response. "I wanted to know if you um, well if you could, I don't know, help me get closer to him?" A blush settled across his face, but Ava could barely tell since the room was so dark.

Ava realized William had a crush on Carlisle, and bit back a smile. "I'll see what I can do."

William gave a sigh relief. "Whew! I thought you weren't going to agree." He took Ava's hands out of her pockets and into his own. "Meet me tomorrow in the courtyard, alright sweetheart?" Before walking off, he pat her head. "We're gonna make you popular!"

Ava watched as he walked off, and took a moment to process everything that just happened. Did I just agree to popularity lessons... with the prefect?

"Hey Finch, what's taking so bloody long?"

Gah, thank you for reading this chapter! I mean, if you read this far. Hope you liked it! Let me know in the comments what you think!
Also, cue the song!
"Ava, now that we're friends, I've decided to make you my new project"
"Whenever I see someone less fortunate then I..."
-R