Black Pages (Harry Potter fanfic)

6)Accepted

Dumbledore instructed Ava to go along with the what he called the light fib to anyone outside the Order that she was a previously homeschooled individual who came from America for a better education at Hogwarts. He explained it best to wait for revealing her secrets until he was most definitely certain no prying ears would hear it. Dumbledore said the best place to make sure Ava's secrets couldn't be overheard was at Hogwarts. Snape most definitely seemed conflicted over what to do with Ava, but Dumbledore was adamant she remain with the Order of the Pheonix out of safety precautions. He claimed it was too dangerous to broadcast her sudden arrival to the Ministry of Magic - that last part was something Snape seemed to agree with.
 How Dumbledore explained to the Order of the Phoenix about Ava was rather simple. He just told as close to the full truth as he possibly could.

There were a few individuals who wholeheartedly accepted his answer that Ava was from the future. They believed that even though she arrived accidently, Ava could help provide future knowledge to the Order of the Phoenix.  There were however others who were not so trusting of this. They believed Dumbledore, but they still looked upon Ava rather strangely. Sirius, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Ginny, Ron, and the twins seemed to wholeheartedly accept Ava's predicament of being transported to the past upon a magical heirloom. The three who seemed completely distrustful of Ava were Harry, Hermione, and Remus. The three of them would watch her with heavy suspicion, as if silently daring her to try something dangerous. If Ava was fully honest, their dirty looks were creeping her out.

It was two days after Ava first arrived at Grimmauld place that she was woken up by Molly.
"Up, up, dear! I will not allow you to hide away from the rest of the house any longer!" she said, using her wand to open the blinds to the windows of the small room Ava's been residing in.
The joke was on Molly for even bothering to open the blinds. Opening the windows only allowed an easy view of the neighboring brick wall - there was no outside view to this room. Molly frowned seeing no actual light was cast into the room upon the blinds being opened, so she her wand to light the oil lamp on a nearby desk.

"I'm not hiding....I just don't think people like me too much," Ava admitted, sitting up with a sigh. She truly wasn't actually hiding; the last two days Ava quickly realized she didn't want to be around anyone. She couldn't decide whether her sanity was lost, or she was actually transported inside a book.
To compensate for all the bizarreness happening around her, Ava stayed in her room. It was mostly in order to avoid the rude stares people would throw her way. While everyone seemed accepting that Ava was valuable to obtain important information, Remus Lupin and the golden trio kept throwing Ava the strangest glances. She couldn't figure out whether the looks were of fear or just dislike of not knowing what possible threat she could pose.
Either way, Ava didn't care to sit around and have people lock her out of rooms or look at her like she was a three headed leprechaun.

She knew their whispers were regarding her, and she knew people locked themselves in other rooms so she couldn't listen in on what they were saying.
As antisocial as it was, Ava purposely began sitting up in the room Sirius allowed her to stay in. Staying away from people meant no more random glares or whispering. It also gave Ava time to try and figure out what to do about her predicament. She ultimately had no solutions; she was trapped inside the fifth Harry Potter book!

"Nonsense!" Molly gasped, shaking her head in dismay at Ava. "How could people not like you? You seem to be a very lovely girl with the exception of your wanting to play hide and seek all the time."
Ava was about to say something to this before she noticed Molly winking at her. She was joking. It caused a light smile to creep across Ava's lips.
"I....really appreciate you wanting to be nice, but I don't want to scare anyone by being around them," Ava said, finding she wasn't even lying with this declaration.

Molly stared at the teenager with raised brows, a slight scoff stuck in her throat. "Sweetheart, you are not scaring anyone. Everyone inside this house would love to get to know you if you allowed them to. Besides, cheer up. Today we're bringing you to Diagon Alley to get your new wand - after all, Dumbledore said you accidentally left yours in your old time period."

Ava's brows raised in surprise. It appeared Dumbledore covered all his bases upon lying where she came from. The joke was going to be on him when it was discovered Ava wasn't actually magical. "It's quite fortunate that your mother had a vault in Gringotts already before moving to America." Molly beamed, fluttering around the room before motioning for Ava to follow her.

Of course the strange woman named Estelle Thornheart had a vault in Gringotts. That alone caused Ava to start wondering is she herself was actually a nutterbutter. It seemed a creative enough concept that Ava could have concocted in the realms of her imagination.
Glancing down at her ratty Pittsburg Steelers hoodie and jean shorts, Ava realized she should change. "Can I meet you downstairs...?"

Molly watched her with a cocked eyebrow before smiling. "Yes I suppose you shall. However, if I don't see you downstairs soon, I'm coming back," she warned with a smile, before coming up to randomly engulf Ava in a hug.
It was only as the older woman made arm contact with Ava did she realize she wasn't actually used to receiving hugs from parental figures. She received some in her younger years from foster moms, but the last she can remember getting a genuine hug is from when she was seven or eight. Ava carefully hugged Molly back, slowly feeling she had at least one friendly face while living here.