Hogwarts meets Waterloo Road, what could go wrong? I'm kidding, I hope my plotlines are more believabvle than that...
Anyway it's a next generation story predominately about Albus though a lot of other characters, invluding O.c's, will have bif roles. It's the same story as the one published here- .net/u/2090976/DayDreamerGirl4life so don't start hating on me for it. If I haven't already put you off, please enjoy.
Albus climbed the marble staircase with one thought echoing through his head 'There is no other way that you can do this'.
He had a wicked, awesomely brilliant idea. It could, well it would, solve house problems forever. Or that was the selling point anyway; Al had slightly less prestigious reasons for his actual plan but he couldn't focus on those tonight.
Tonight Albus had to get a good friend, and priceless ally, on side. Evelyn Zara Zabini was totally crucial to his plan. She was the undeniable queen of Slytherin house, despite only being a sixth year just like him. He needed her reputation to help him to bridge the gap between his house and hers, plus he would probably need her cunning to make it work.
Of course she was also the only girl in Slythertin he was reasonably sure wouldn't bite his head off and that was the real reason he was asking for her help tonight.
They had prefect duty together on the fourth floor and Albus was pretty sure he'd be able to persuade her to help. As long as he kept his personal reasons under wraps, although she might not mind them? Maybe he was being paranoid or just plain stupid. Maybe-
"Al?"
Oh damm it, he thought, she was already there; Al would have liked a few more minutes to get his arguments more fluent. "Hey Evie" he walked up to her "I hope you know how lucky you are, I'm missing Quidditch practice for this"
Evelyn raised her eyebrows and glanced towards the rain splattered windows "Well I am honoured" she replied, her utter contempt for anything to do with broomsticks clearly audible. "I suppose you also had to tear yourself away from doing that essay for Longbottom?"
Albus grinned at her "How did you know?" She smiled back at him knowingly and they started walking up and down the corridor under the cover of patrolling it.
As usual the pair of them just talked instead of worrying too much about any younger students out of bounds. Albus was trying to subtlety to bring up the growing problems with inter-house relations and other interlectual stuff but Evelyn seemed pretty preoccupied with the upcoming Hogsmeade weekend.
Albus eventually decided to take the bull by the horns, or the snake by the tail. "Hey Eves, can I ask you something?"
Evelyn turned to him "Course you can Al" her tone was playful but something in her eyes was serious "What is it?"
Albus nervously fiddled with an odd chess piece in his pocket. He had meant to sound inspiring but it sounded a lot more like a mumble "Don't you think that we have to do something about all the problems between Gryffindor and Slytherin?"
"What?" Evelyn's face momentarily fell before she looked at him, pulling her confused face. "I mean what so you mean Al?"
"I mean, the whole 'All Slytherins and Gryffindors must be sworn enemies' thing" Albus said more strongly "It's stupid and outdated"
"Yes I suppose" Evelyn clearly still didn't know what he was on about "But what exactly do you plan to do about it?"
Albus took a deep breath "We need to prove that Slytherins and Gryffindors can get on. We need to prove that everything that happened in the war is water under the bridge. And we need to prove this on the highest level..."
He'd never seen Evelyn this slow "And how are you going to do that?"
Albus could feel his cheeks going red and he looked down "We could prove...I mean if we...We could just pretend for a bit"
"Pretend what?" Evelyn's voice was sharp; Albus knew she'd finally got it.
If she was going to hex him, she'd do it now. "Pretend to be in...going out" Albus confirmed quietly "We can force our families to deal with it and show that it can work"
An ominous silence followed this proposal, Albus dared to look up and found Evie's face totally unreadable. She was just staring at him.
Albus had a nasty feeing that she had been studying Legilimency and was trying to read his mind. Trying, that was a laugh, if she wanted into his mind she'd get in. Oh Merlin that would be so bad-
"Let me get this straight" Evelyn said calmly "You want me to pretend to be your girlfriend in the hopes of forcing our families to publicly reconcile and manipulating our housemates to stop trying to kill each other?"
Albus winced; Slytherins didn't half have an uncanny knack for making things sound bad. "Yeah..."
"O.k." Albus looked up at her, had he actually heard that right?
Evelyn seemed to read his thoughts because she rolled her eyes "I said yes Al" She crossed her arms and stared out of the window at the storm, obviously thinking "You are right, things are getting completely stupid. And I suppose- well with our combined influence we could really change things."
"Yeah" Albus knew that he looked just as relieved as he felt "We can..."
Evie was suddenly business-like, turning to him briskly "So how do you plan to play this?" She turned to him expectantly "Do we start with a rumour or just announce it?"
"Err..." Albus felt himself go pink "I..."
"Hadn't really got to that bit?" Evelyn supplied with a smirk "I see. Well…"
For the smallest possible moment she looked very embarrassed so he nodded encouragingly at her "Yeah?"
She spoke faster than she normally would "I think the best thing to do would be to use, I mean to first be seen in Hogsmeade. It's a popular date location and it's usually the first step for two friends taking it to the next level"
Albus ran the scenario through his head "That's a good idea; loads of people would see us…"
"Yes" Evelyn brushed past that "But I suppose we'd have to be very believable…?"
Albus shrugged "Not really, why would anyone think we were pretending?" He felt himself going red "Most people think I fancy you anyway, all we'd have to do was hold hands in public and stuff like that..." He noticed his friend's expression "What?"
Evelyn looked highly unimpressed and she shot him a contemptuous look "I think the odd kiss might be required" she stated sardonically before looking back at the window "And at our age…oh never mind." Albus thought that she looked put-out for some reason. Why would she be put out at having less awkward situations? He'd never understand girls, they were just so weird.
Evelyn sighed, what was so fascinating about the storm outside? "It's a few days until Hogsmeade, what do you want to do until then?"
"Err…" Albus hadn't got much planned apart from that she had to meet his family over Christmas and he hers. Oh and she had to learn to love Rose and tolerate James and to like Quidditich, though the last one wasn't really related.
"I see" Evelyn finally looked away from the window and smiled at him patronisingly "Leave it to me, Al. All you have to do is deny anything you hear, o.k?"
"Hang on" Albus felt this slipping out of his control "What exactly are you going to do?"
Evelyn was already half way down the corridor, turning, she waved at him "You'll see, goodnight Al"
The middle Potter couldn't do anything but watch her go, a strange uneasy feeling souring his excitement. He had no doubt that Evelyn had her own plan forming under that mass of black curls. The hard part was going to making sure that her plan ran with his own.
