The Invisible Beast and the Blood it Wanted

Chapter 10 - The Black Market at Hogwarts

During your teenage years, you might find it a lot easier to get embarrassed. Everyone has a certain embarrassing story from this time of development that they learn to laugh about as they grow older. Maybe it was when your mom tried to sound cool in front of your friends or when you ran into your crush during the weekend and looked like you had been mugged. But for Aviana Scotney, it was when someone pretended to be her and confessed all of her deepest darkest secrets to one of the only friend she had.

'And then you told him you liked Orlando except...ruder,' after Greer had finished explaining what "Aviana" had done she felt her weight increase with embarrassment as her body sunk deeper into the squishy blue chair she was sitting in. She wished that she was back to before she had entered the common room. As this was when she hadn't discovered this unfortunate story and when she was content for the first time in what felt like a long while. Back to before, she had entered Hogwarts.

'But once we tell him what really happened it'll all be fine,' Greer sounded hopeful and Aviana didn't have any reason to believe that what she said wasn't true. But of course, for Aviana, telling Alphard would not make it all be fine.

They both sat together, rather tensely, in the great hall for dinner. On their way, they prepared a small and unorganized speech that explained the whole scenario to Alphard. A speech that would hopeful fill the cracks in their friendship with glue. But as they continued to piece together an explanation, the more they realized how little they actually knew.

'But how did they look like me?' Aviana asked over the increasingly large crowd of students.

'My guess is they used polyjuice potion,' Greer replied. Aviana had read about polyjuice potion and therefore knew that it could change anyone into anybody. It would have been so perfect and easy to tell Alphard that this was how the person he had spoken to looked like her. But there was one crucial error that ruined this theory.

'But it takes a month to make it from scratch, and I have hardly been here for 2 days. And who even was it that spoke to him?' Aviana's head was growing closer to Greer's as she demanded answers. But Greer hardly noticed this as she kept a keen eye on the people entering the hall, desperate not to miss Alphard.

'I'm guessing you've made a couple of enemies by being a muggle,' Aviana was yet to meet someone else like Greer who spoke the word "muggle" like it wasn't a cuss. The word left her lips freely and she would happily use it to describe Aviana. But others were not like Greer. Others said it behind her back like it didn't hurt her if she didn't hear it or said it out of curiosity so that they could study her reaction as if they were poking a snake with a stick. And others were even too afraid to say it at all. But worst were the ones who spoke the word as if it made her less of a person and more of an animal.

'There!' Greer's eyes widened as they met Alphard's. She curled her fingers into her palm repeatedly and pointed towards the chair opposite of them. He did as Greer gestured and placed himself so that the table filled with food stood between them. It wasn't very hard to notice that Alphard's dark eyes hadn't looked at Aviana at all and were instead entirely focused on Greer. The fact that Alphard couldn't even look at her for something she hadn't done made a fire of anger heat her throbbing veins.

'When Aviana spoke to you it wasn't Aviana,' Greer had spoken their ill-prepared speech but her tongue would seem to go numb at times and stumble on words. Alphard was clever and knew that their explanation didn't make any sense at all.

'How would they have known all of that?' Alphard asked.

'Well, it was obviously all made up...right?' a silence followed after Greer's words and it felt like everyone in the hall stopped talking. Greer did not look or sound like her usually confident self and moved nothing but her head nervously toward Aviana. Alphard, on the other hand, jerked his neck at her with his nostrils flared. Both waited to hear her reply and both hoped that everything "she" had said was a part of some stupid made up story to make them upset. But unfortunately for this group of 3 that were friends everything "Aviana" had said was true.