• Serena Black •

"Even if we might not meant to be,
we were meant to find each other."

"I actually forgot all about that," Serena breathed into the receiver of her flip phone after Edmund had finished telling her about her very first day at school. He laughed and she remembered how, just months before, she had thought he was a pretentious prick, which, admittedly, he was. She would have mocked anyone who told her that they would one day find themselves in that situation.

Perhaps she had underestimated how good Cupid's aim was.

Serena lay on her little bed in her old room. At least it would soon be her old room and most of her things were already in boxes scattered all over the room. She ran her fingertips over the woodchip wallpaper on the slope directly above her and rubbed the rough surface as she had done many times before. The unevenness and the slow peeling of the wallpaper proved this.

When there was a knock on her door, she hurriedly said goodbye to the person she was talking to and closed her mobile phone.

Her father poked his head into her rather small room and entered it for the first time shortly afterwards. "Do you need help with the boxes?" He paused for a moment and stared at her, a little puzzled. "Have you finally made friends with the move or why are you smiling like that?"

Serena hadn't even noticed that she had smiled unconsciously and fiddled a little guiltily with the mobile phone, which she was still clutching. "I've never been averse to it..." she disagreed and sighed, "It just feels weird to leave this home behind. Besides, Mum's been having a nervous breakdown for days and she's been taking it out on me."

"Yeah... I've just had a taste of that too." He scratched the back of his head a little sheepishly and cleared his throat. "So Remus and I were going to bring a few things over in case you're already done."

She nodded and handed him the boxes she had finished packing, knowing that she wouldn't need the things in them for the next few days. After her father had left, Serena trotted into the kitchen. So much had changed in her life over the last few years, but her childhood home still smelled of coffee and fresh ischler tarts. She was grateful that there were things she could hold on to and that could conjure up memories forever.

As she drew herself a glass of water from the tap, she listened to the words of the radio station for witches and wizards. She didn't know who had switched it on, but she didn't hear any news anyway. The appointment of the new Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, had caused a sharp ripple in the Ministry's politics and it was probably he who had prompted the constant warnings to the population. Whilst this was probably a step up from Cornelius Fudge, who just didn't want to believe what was coming, whether it would actually do any good was probably something else.

"Rule six: If the dark mark appears over a residence or other building, do not enter it, but contact the Auror's office immediately. Seven..."

A little annoyed, Serena switched off the radio and sipped from her glass, lost in thought. She hoped that her mother hadn't noticed too much of the security measures and would therefore forbid her to go outside, as that had actually been her plan for the afternoon.

In the living room, she finally found her mother, who was still busy touching up the blemishes on the walls with white paint. "Mum?" she asked cautiously, stepping a little awkwardly from one foot to the other. She could probably already see it on Serena's face that she wanted something from her. "I was about to go out for ice cream with Nate."

The look that met her eyes said a lot before her mum had even said anything; no.

"Serena, the reason we're moving in the first place is because it's not safe here anymore," she said, instead of a direct denial, but in the end it probably had the same effect.

"It's the middle of the day and the ice cream parlour is only a ten-minute walk away," she tried to convince her mother. "Besides, Nate will be there!"

"I'm sure that won't scare these people away," she simply replied and continued to brush the white paint on the walls without looking at her again.

"But we do this every summer and now is the last time we can." Serena tried to make her voice sound as pitiful as possible, but she was still ignored. "Mum, please!"

"Shouldn't you be packing your things?" her mother asked without looking up, not seeming in the least impressed by her statement or her tone.

"I'm done so far," she replied defiantly and crossed both arms in front of her chest, "Besides, I still have three days left and it's such nice weather outside that I don't feel like it anymore."

She was finally getting some attention again and, if Serena wasn't mistaken, she thought she could actually see some hesitation on her mum's face. "You take your mobile phone with you and you don't take any detours. From here straight to the ice cream parlour and back again."

"I may go?" Serena asked, her eyes shining, but her mum looked as if she was already regretting her decision. "You text me every quarter of an hour and if I don't hear from you, I'll send Sirius or Remus over immediately."

"Alright!" the Gryffindor called over her shoulder as she was already on her way to her room to grab her mobile phone, worried that she might actually change her mind. Remus, who was rushing out to meet her, had opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, Serena was already out the door.

It was probably the perfect summer's day. The sun was beating down on the small town in north London, prompting more than a few residents to treat themselves to an ice cream in the pleasant shade. Serena sipped her milkshake contentedly and was glad to have regained the bit of freedom that had been denied her for the most part over the last few weeks.

"So how have your holidays been so far?" Serena asked the Ravenclaw, letting her eyes wander over the small tables between the houses. "Have you been seeing Tim a lot?"

"I'm going to see him tomorrow for the rest of the holidays," Nate told her and couldn't help but smile at the thought of his boyfriend, "So today is the last chance we can see each other."

"At least I'm glad it worked out," she murmured, her eyes now fixed on a man in his mid-thirties with reddish-brown hair and a three-day beard, who was sitting at a table at the far end, engrossed in a newspaper. It was only when Nate asked her how her holiday was going so far that she slowly turned around and stirred her milkshake a little uneasily. "Pretty uneventful really, except for the move," she then mumbled.

"Everything okay?" he asked, stretching his head to also catch a glimpse of what had so obviously just tied his friend's wand in a knot.

Serena sighed and didn't know if it was a good idea to tell him about it. After all, she didn't want to worry him unnecessarily. Finally, she tapped her fingertips together a little uncertainly and lowered her voice. "See that man back there with the paper who didn't order anything?"

The Ravenclaw nodded, now looking at her with increasing confusion as she took a deep breath, not knowing exactly how to put it, "I-I think he's following me."

"What?"

"Well, he was always there when I was out, even if Mum or someone was there." Nate's jaw dropped and he stared at her, completely stunned, when she finished. "Have you told your parents?"

"Of course not, then I wouldn't be allowed to go out alone for the rest of my life," Serena snorted and, still looking at him in bewilderment, began to tear up her serving, "Edmund said I was being guarded so that nothing would happen to the future Mrs Hall." She grimaced and peppered the torn pieces of paper onto the tabletop.

"Who are they trying to protect you from?" Nate asked, half amused, "They're the reason Britain is in turmoil and they're slaughtering people for no reason."

Serena shrugged her shoulders and began to sip her milkshake again, which had become almost completely liquid thanks to the sunlight, while Nate began to rummage in his bag. "I think I know who this guy is."

She looked up with interest as he placed the Daily Prophet on the table. On the front page was a huge moving picture of Lucius Malfoy being led into the courtroom. He walked tall and arrogant, but his appearance gave no hint of how charismatic he once was. Nate turned to the next page and pointed to one of the mugshots that filled the entire double-page spread, asking for information on the wanted Death Eater.

Alaric Avery. Serena didn't have to look a second time to recognise that it was the same man sitting a few tables away. Nevertheless, she dared to look again and could see the Death Eater looking directly at her over his newspaper, as if he suspected what they were talking about.

The Gryffindor began to look through the Daily Prophet a little more closely, as she hadn't done so for weeks. The number of deaths shocked her and Harry was still part of almost every headline. "There's not a single word about Elijah Hall," Serena then realised after going through the list of wanted persons and the article about Lucius Malfoy again.

"Are you really surprised?" Nate asked with a raised eyebrow. "The bloke's supposed waistcoat is whiter than a Malfoy's hair. At least according to my father and he's in charge of law enforcement."

She sighed and sucked the last remnants of her iced drink from the tall container. A cursory sideways glance told her that Avery was still staring at her suspiciously, which was why she asked the Ravenclaw to make his way home. Because despite Edmund's reassurance, she wasn't entirely at ease.

Serena wrote a last message to her mum and then made her way back home with Nate a few minutes later. "What is it between you two now?" he asked.

She lowered her eyes and randomly kicked some pebbles lying on the pavement in front of her. "We're not a couple, if that's what you mean."

"So you're just carrying on as before?" Nate wanted to know, looking at her a little incredulously, "And what about the kiss? What happened to all the times I had to put in a nice word for the git?"

"He's just not a relationship person," Serena replied dryly, because even if Edmund had never said it in those words, he had made it abundantly clear to her that he didn't want anything like that.

"Did he say that or did you?" Nate wanted to know, snorting, and seemed barely able to comprehend their decision. "That means after everything that's happened, after everything you know, you're just going to sit around and watch him keep seeing random girls?"

"What am I supposed to do?" she asked heatedly, already seeing her house looming at the end of the street. In fact, she had thought about it a few times herself and each time it left her with a bitter aftertaste, because even when they weren't together, she felt strangely betrayed. "We'll find a way to break that stupid vow."

Nate seemed to have picked up on the slight desperation in her voice, or maybe he just knew her too well, because he hugged her as they pulled up in front of her house and whispered, "We'll figure it out, I'll help you and I'm sure Hailey and Astoria will too."

"Thanks," Serena mumbled, breaking away from her best friend, who was still looking at her worriedly. "You should still tell someone from the Order that you're being watched. After all, you never know."

She nodded and sighed before watching one last time as Nate walked down the street that they both shared so many childhood memories with. "I'll see you on the train!" Serena called after him before disappearing into her house herself, not knowing whether she should be looking forward to the new school year or not.