JINX in JEOPARDY [fred w.]

xv. a toast to times long lost

A TOAST TO TIMES LONG LOST !

.  .  .

With dread pooling in the pit of her stomach, Avery stood on the platform. She held onto her trunk with both hands and looked up at the scarlet monstrosity before her, puffing out smoke into the winter air. She could feel Ella beside her lightly brush her arm and tore her eyes away from the train to glance at the girl. Ella smiled sweetly and gave her a curt nod. Then Thalia jumped onto the train with an excitement that could not possibly be contained.

'Christmas break, here I come!' she exclaimed delightedly, and it was the last push Avery needed to climb onto that train with her.

Still, however bubbly Thalia was, Avery couldn't help but feel as if she was racing at top speed towards her own undoing.

Her parents were nowhere to be found when she stepped onto Platform nine and three quarters. After looking around at the muggle station she couldn't find anyone, but the someone she'd been looking for had found her. A man she didn't recognize offered her an arm, and on a secluded corner they apparated into nothingness, with Avery's fist secured tightly around her trunk.

The manor looked exactly the same as when she had left it behind. The high gates at the front of the gardens had been given a new layer of paint, but that was all that had occurred, for what she could see. She breathed in deeply, gathering the courage to follow the man she'd come here with up to the steps of the house. A house she'd vowed to herself she'd never step foot in again. How naive she'd been, those months ago. Still a little girl.

The gate creaked and rattled, she flinched as the sound tore through the quiet afternoon. The man held the door open for her, and she stepped through with a heavy heart, praying that this Christmas break would be over in a flash.

The house seemed empty, quiet, there were no arms waiting to embrace her, no smiling faces to welcome her home. She placed her trunk by the grand staircase and stalked over to the living room. The only signs that someone had been in there recently were the half-empty cup of tea that stood at the side table, as well as the smooshed cushions. She sighed and turned back towards the hallway. Untying her cloak as she walked, she threw it over the bannister. She asked the man who had collected her to inform her parents of her arrival and she hauled her trunk up the staircase.

Her room had hardly changed at all. She could see it had been cleaned before her arrival, and fresh linnens were placed upon the bed. The chamber looked almost royal, and she missed the homeliness and messiness of her room back at Hogwarts immensely.

She dropped down onto the queen sized bed, burying her face in one of the many throw pillows. She slept until a bell sounded through the house, signalling it was precisely seven and time for dinner. She let down her hair from its messy bun and braided it to make it look somewhat more presentable. She smoothed the wrinkles out of her blouse and skirt and made her way down the stairs in a hurry.