Eviena sat on the staircase listening to her aunt and her uncle argue. She had grown accustom to their marital woes but this was different, this fight had even the house elves running.
"I see the way you look at her Aemon, the way your eyes watch her." Her aunt shouted hysterically, something shattering against the wall.
"She's a child!"
"Not anymore." Aemon said sternly. "You will calm yourself. She is 16 now and a young woman."
Eviena wanted to walk away, but she needed to hear what was to become of her. She didn't know where she would go if her aunt kicked her out. It had been 7 years and she still had not spoken a word but she was not stupid. She knew her looks were the cause of all her woes but she had cut her hair twice and mastered every body morphing charm there was, but the fairy blood in her didn't allow the charms to hold. This was another thing she had never told anyone but being mute it was never a question that could come up in conversation.
"Don't you dare think of her that way, she your niece." Her aunt shrieked.
"No she is yours and I will not have this conversation any longer. Because let us be frank it is no secret that I detest this marriage and have been with many women since our union." He walked into the main hall but didn't notice Eviena, for this she was thankful.
"Don't you dare walk away from me! Tell me! Tell me that I cannot trust my own eyes. Tell me I am wrong. Because I love you, but she is my niece."
Her aunt sobbed into her uncle's chest as he looked away un-amused. She was a small frail looking woman with brown hair and small dark eyes. She looked like her father but the years and a loveless marriage had taken there toil on her. Her uncle on the other hand was tall and had short dark grey hair, he was muscular and Eviena always feared what would happen if she came across him when he was drunk or not thinking rationally.
"If you want to avoid an incident, then she needs to leave this house. I will not feel…repressed within my own home." He turned from her hysterical aunt to see Eviena sitting on the steps.
He walked up the stairs quietly stopping and eyeing her. His desires hardly masked by his haughty posture.
"Never did I think you would grow to be such a problem." He looked down at her but she turned away. "I curse the lucky bastard who wins your favor, or is bold enough to take it." He whispered the last part but she didn't turn back to him only waited for his footsteps disappear.
Eviena helped her aunt from the floor and into the black tiled bathroom.
She wet a rag and gave it to her sniffling aunt. A woman she did love but didn't quite understand.
"Thank you, my sweet. You have always been so good to your frazzled aunt." Eviena looked at her aunt and smiled, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She wanted to know why anyone would stay with someone who could cause them such pain but she knew her aunt did not have the answer to such a question. So there was no sense in asking it.
For years Eviena had stayed silent due to her parents' murders fearing the first thing from her mouth would be the screams she had been deprived of that night. The night which had plagued her dreams for so many nights.
As she grew older she found comfort in her silence. No one asked her unnecessary questions or attempted to have conversations with her. Everyone eventually grew frustrated with her unresponsiveness, for this she was thankful. Increasingly she began to wonder if she had lost the ability to speak but she couldn't find a good enough reason to test that hypothesis.
Her aunt stood up and turned her towards the large gold rimmed mirror.
"Don't look away. I could never fault you for being your mother's child." Her aunt lifted her chin and picked some lint off of her dark red sweater shoulders.
Her hair was darker than a ravens feathers and curled slightly as it touched just bellow swelled chest. Her skin was porcelain white and luminescent when the light hit it just right and her lips were a deep shade a red and pouty. Her eyes were emerald green and sparkled slightly and her figure was as her aunt put it worth killing over.
In short, her mother's genetics made it very hard to live a quiet life where she went unbothered and unnoticed. One of the reasons she rarely left the house and had cut her hair crudely a number of times.
"I love you, you know that don't you?" Eviena turned to her aunt and nodded with a smile. Her aunt had always been good to her but she saw the sorrow filling her brown eyes and knew something bad was to come.
"This year you will be attending Hogwarts." She said quickly.
Eviena took a shocked step back a gasp falling from her lips. She felt the tears welling in her eyes and shook her head in disbelief. She never knew her aunt could be so cruel as to subject her to the real world, where human contact was not only encouraged but guaranteed. She had tried school shortly after her parents had been murdered but she had no desire to be around others or talk and this made her the subject of ridicule and despair.
"V, I know that school hasn't been the easiest for you but you'll like Hogwarts, its not like muggle school. You are already a gifted witch and your pretty." Her aunt tried to move a strand of hair from her face but she stepped out of the way.
Eviena shook her head again and ran from the bathroom nearly tripping over a house elf that was water a baby flitterbloom.
Eviena locked herself in her room taking a seat behind her cello and staring out into the grey sky. She hadn't feared the dark in some time, in fact she hadn't feared anything, even now she couldn't. She was angry and knew it was because of her uncle that she was being banished from the only home she had.
For the month leading up to her expulsion she attempted to stay out of sight from everyone. her fingers going red and bleeding from the amount of time she spent on her lone friend. Eviena didn't know what to expect from the students of Hogwarts but every bone in her body told her that it wouldn't be a very pleasant experience.
