The Heir of Merlin
A/N: I do not own Harry Potter; however Evie is my own OC!
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Chapter 2
July 7th 1995
Albus Dumbledore was talking quietly with Minerva McGonagall, as the other teachers chatted quietly around them. The Great Hall was empty of students, it was the teachers leaving feast. It was a very subdued affair especially after the death of one of their students in the tournament and the horrifying news of Voldemort's rebirth.
Albus was about to ask the real Alastor Moody who was sitting at the table a few seats down a question when there was a flash of bright light which made everyone close their eyes as a reflex.
When they opened the again there was a black portal floating in mid-air, in the middle of the Great Hall. All the teachers made their way warily from their seats to the come to stand in front of the staff table. However before they could go any further there was a small yelp followed by a small figure falling head first out of the portal.
Out of shock no one reacted in time, fortunately however the figure managed to not only land on their hands but also push their body back in the air and flip forwards to land in a standing position a few feet away from the open doors of the Great Hall.
Once standing the figure straightened up and they could see that their mysterious quest was a woman. Dressed in a very strange, and what they guessed to be muggle attire.
Indeed Evie was wearing a pair of skinny black jeans which hugged her womanly curves, a fitted corset style top with a slight V neck, and loose sleeves which became form fitting at her wrists. She had her hair in a high ponytail and yet it still fell down to the middle of her back, and adding to the girls petite stature was her needlepoint, black lace up, skin tight, 5 inch high heeled boots. Around her neck was her necklace that she hardly ever took off, she wore a gold charm bracelet and in her ears she had pendant teardrop earring made with emeralds and Rubies.
Her back was facing them, and as if she sensed their presence she turned around and her eyes widened. Dumbledore could sense her wariness of approaching them and went to speak to her holding both hands open to show he meant her no harm.
However before he could Moody, paranoid as ever yelled out:
"Stupefy!"
Evie eyes widened and with the adrenalin still coursing through her veins from her unexpected tumble, she reacted purely on instinct. She dodged the spell and then hightailed it out of the Great Hall.
She vaguely registered the raised voices behind her and the sounds of people following her, but she kept running her mind racing.
'Come on Evie you know this castle like the back of your hand! Think where to hide where they can't find you!'
She was halfway up the stairs to the second floor when it came to her.
'Sals' chamber!'
Dodging yet another spell, she put on an extra burst of speed and sprinted to the bathroom. Bursting through the door to the girls bathroom she hissed out :
"Open!"
The chamber quickly opened and Evie jumped into its entrance , yelling in Parsletounge as she went:
"Close!"
Dumbledore and Snape burst through the door seconds after the last sink had locked into place only to find an empty bathroom.
At the bottom of the tunnel Evie stood and caught her breath.
'That did not go as planned. But either way it was one hell of an entrance.' She thought before turning and making her way deeper into the chamber and climbed into the Statue's mouth and made her way towards the quarters Salazar had created there.
/-/-/-/-/
Dumbledore and Snape along with the other teachers who had given chase made their way back to the Great hall to find Minerva in full swing scolding Alastor.
"What were you thinking! In the name of Merlin Alastor, she wasn't armed!" ranted Minerva; you could almost see the steam rising from her ears.
"Dumbledore did you find her?" asked Hagrid, noticing his return.
"No she lost us in the chase. Really Alastor, she was clearly wary of us and now you've probably scared her out of her mind." Replied Dumbledore.
Alastor made to argue but Dumbledore held up his hand.
"Right now my priority is to find the young woman and talk to her. That is if she will trust us. I would be grateful if everyone took the areas they would normally search if there was a student missing. I will go to my office and see if Fawkes can help us."
With that said everyone went to carry about their tasks.
A couple of minutes later Dumbledore walked into his office. Fawkes trilled in greeting.
"Ah Fawkes my friend, I need your help if you would be so kind."
Fawkes titled his head to the side showing that he was listening.
"A young woman has arrived unannounced at Hogwarts, however she was accidently scared by one of the staff and has fled into the castle. She lost us as we chased after her. Could you possibly aid in the search for her?"
Fawkes nodded his head once as an answer. Dumbledore smiled.
"Thank you my friend, now let me just quickly write a message for you to give her if you find her."
Five minutes later Fawkes soared out the window and Dumbledore went to join the search for the young woman.
Evie was at that time siting crossed legged on the bed in Salazar's chamber trying to come up with a way to get a message to Dumbledore without revealing herself or appearing too suspicious.
Her question was answered as a trill sounded and in a burst of flames there was a red and gold phoenix perched on the edge of the bed looking at her curiously.
"Fawkes." She said softly in shock, before smiling at the phoenix.
He seemed to judge her before gently flying over to land on the bedspread barely a few inches away from her.
Slowly as not to startle him Evie opened her hand flat in front of him and waited for him to make the next move.
Surprisingly he trilled before jumping to perch on her one of her crossed thighs. Evie blinked before smiling, and saying gently to him while gently stroking his breast:
"Hello Fawkes, My name's Evie."
Fawkes trilled a hello back before dropping Dumbledore's note in her lap.
Curious she opened it and read it:
'Hello my dear,
My name I Albus Dumbledore. Firstly let me apologise for the hasty actions of my colleague, I assure you we mean you no harm. I would greatly like to speak to you, please do announce yourself to one of the staff; they will lead you straight to me.
Sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore.'
Evie smirked slightly, before summoning a quill and ink wandlessly and writing a response.
/-/-/-/-/
Dumbledore turned at the sound of Fawkes trilling as he flew towards him. Letting him land on his arm Albus spoke gently to the phoenix.
"Well my friend did you find anything."
Fawkes held out the note to him and Dumbledore quickly opened it to read.
'To Albus Dumbledore,
Apology accepted, I simply reacted on instinct. I will be willing to speak to you if you swear an oath that you will not harm me nor allow any of your staff to harm me. Send a reply with Fawkes and if you agree I will find you in your office.
E.S'
Dumbledore hastily agreed, using his wand to cast the oath and pen a reply. As soon as he handed the reply to Fawkes the phoenix disappeared through the closest window.
After sending a quick Patronus message to the members of the staff, Dumbledore made his way to his office. At the Gargoyle he ran into Minerva and Snape both whom he had asked to come along to the meeting.
The three of them made their way quickly to his office only to find it empty. With feelings of impatience and anticipation they sat down to wait.
They didn't wait for long.
There was a trill and then a burst of flames as Fawkes reappeared in Dumbledore's office, this time with an added guest.
Evie waved her right hand in front of her face to chase away the smoke which was threatening to make her cough as Fawkes quite happily landed on her left shoulder. After the smoke cleared, Green eyes did a quick scan of the room.
Dumbledore stood quickly and came around his desk to greet the mysterious young woman.
"Hello. Welcome to Hogwarts. I am the headmaster Albus Dumbledore., this is my deputy Professor Minerva McGonagall and the school's Potions Master Professor Severus Snape."
Evie slightly bowed her head in greeting.
"Please sit, now my dear if you don't mind me asking, who are you and how did you end up here."
Evie sat before answering Dumbledore with the story she and Merlin had come up with.
"My name is Evelyn Scarlet Hope Sangria, most just call me Evie. I am a 26 year old witch. As to how I am here. My home was under attack and my relatives did a spell I don't know to send me to a safe location. He barely finished the spell in time. The room exploded in fire seconds after he finished the incantation, and the next thing I know is I am falling head first towards the ground and then dodging spells. "
"Ah, once again my apologies for that, Alastor unfortunately is quite paranoid."
"I am not harmed, therefore there isn't a problem." Answered Evie.
"Now what country do you come from?" Asked Albus very interested with this woman. He was intrigued the woman had natural occlumency barriers, yes he was definitely intrigued, and he wondered if she would be willing to join the order. She was old enough and he could sense a strong power within her.
"I am originally from the United States; however I have no family left there. From the fact that this is Hogwarts I guess I'm in England. I think I'll stay here and start my own life here. There is nothing left for me in the States."
"Indeed my dear now if you wouldn't mind me asking could you please show us you left forearm."
Evie laughed outright.
"Sorry." She said with a smile as she rolled up her sleeve to show her bare un-marked forearm.
"May I ask what you find so amusing Miss Sangria?" Demanded Snape.
"Professor Snape there is absolutely nothing in this world or the next which will make me join Voldemort."
"You do not fear his name."
"It's just a name. Fear of a name increases the fear of the thing itself. It's stupid."
"Indeed my dear I could not agree more." Said Dumbledore, his blue eyes twinkling.
"Excuse me Albus, just a quick question if I may. Can I ask what were your result s on your OWLS and NEWTS?" asked Minerva.
Albus chuckled, that was so like his deputy to thing about the young woman's grades.
"No problem at all, as subjects I sat for both my OWLS and my NEWTS : History of Magic, Divination, Herbology, Healing Magic, Care of Magical Creatures, Potions, Defence Against the Dark Arts, and Transfiguration. I also took classes in Duelling but sat no formal exams for the subject. Since I grew up in the Muggle World I saw no point in taking Muggle Studies. I managed to achieve an Outstanding in all my exams." Evie answered with a smile trying not to laugh at the stunned faces in front of her.
"Well my dear that is quite an achievement." Said Dumbledore leaning forward in his chair. "In fact I would like to offer you a job as such. I am the leader of a group, the Order of the Phoenix. We are a defence which stands against Voldemort and fight for the light. Would you be interested in joining?"
Evie pretended to think about it for a couple of minutes, before gently nodded at the headmaster and saying:
"I'd be honoured."
"Wonderful! Well my dear I think I better take you to headquarters, we will have you reside there while we sort out the paperwork for your transfer to the country. Now I hope you don't mind travelling by floo." Said Dumbledore as he steered her towards his fireplace. "Now I will go first then you can follow me and Minerva will follow you. Severus are you coming for a visit?"
Snape sneered and was out the door heading to her potions door faster than you could blink.
Albus shrugged before taking a handful of floo powder, and going into the fireplace he called out:
"Number 12 Grimmauld Place"
/-/-/-/-/
Sirius Black and Remus Lupin were quietly talking about their school days when the fireplace filled with green flames and Albus Dumbledore emerged from the fireplace.
"Dumbledore?" asked Remus surprised at his appearance. Sirius raised an eyebrow in question as well.
"Ah Remus, Sirius, good you're here. We have just recruited a new member for the Order. She's from the United States. Sirius I hope you don't mind but she needs somewhere to stay while we sort the paperwork out."
"The more the merrier." Answered Sirius shrugging slightly.
"So when is she arriving?" asked Remus.
"Ah she should be right."
Dumbledore was cut off as Evie literally came tumbling out of the fireplace with a yelp. Tucking her body into a forward roll she rolled forward only to crash into a chair.
The three men started at the bits they could see, which for Sirius and Remus was only a high heeled boot in the air.
"I hate Floo powder." Evie growled from her sprawled out position on the floor. Her attention flew to the fireplace as Minerva emerged; the witch in question did a double take at the sight of her on the floor.
Evie groaned before extracting herself from the chair she had crashed into and standing up, muttering under her breath.
"Well that was an interesting entrance." Commented Sirius with a smirk on his lips.
Evie turned around and came face to face with Sirius Black and Remus Lupin.
"Ah introductions. Evelyn this is Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, Boys this is Evelyn Sangria, our new order member." Said Dumbledore.
Remus and Sirius both stood and took turns in shaking her hand in greeting.
"Now unfortunately I must dash, so boys I leave it to you two to show Evelyn around." And with that Dumbledore was off with an exasperated McGonagall following him.
There was silence in the kitchen for a couple of seconds before Remus spoke with a smile.
"Well let's get you settled. It's usually quite quiet here at the moment since it's only Sirius and I who live here. However in a week another family will be joining us living here, once they get here it will be noisy and chaotic."
"I don't mind chaos. I'm used to it really." Said Evie thinking back to the usual hectic lifestyle as a surgeon.
Remus merely answered back:
"We'll see if you still feel that way after you meet the Weasley Twins, and encounter Sirius here when he's in a playful mood."
"Playful?" repeated Evie turning to raise an eyebrow at Sirius, who only smirked in reply.
Remus was about to say something when a light glow came from one of his pockets. Removing a small pendant from him pocket he took one look at it before facing the other two sheepishly.
"Sorry, I'm being called. I need to go, Order business."
"That's fine. I'll see you when you get back." And "See you later Moony." Were Evie's and Sirius's answers.
And with that Sirius and Evie were left standing alone in the hall.
"Well let's get you to a room." Said Sirius as he headed to the stairs.
A few minutes late they reached the second floor, going down a corridor Sirius opened a door and motioned for her to go in. Evie did so and stopped a few paces into the room to survey it. Everything was ….. dark. The room needed a major clean and the bed needed new sheets and the curtains had to go, but otherwise it was suitable.
"Sorry it's not much. This place has been empty for years." Said Sirius as he watched her eyes survey the room.
"It's alright, all it needs it a good clean and a woman's touch." Answered Evie.
"Good Luck with that" said Sirius after scoffing.
He then found himself staring into bright green eyes which for some reason made his breath catch in his chest.
"Is that a challenge Sirius Black?" asked Evie with a glint in her eyes.
Sirius seemed to search her eyes for a few seconds before answering with a smile.
"Yes. Yes it is Evelyn." he answered with a smirk as he leaned against the doorframe.
"It's Evie. And you're on."
With that a new tentative friendship was formed.
/-/-/-/-/
Over the next week Evie raged a full on attack against the grime and darkness left behind in the house.
Sirius and Remus were frankly stunned at the amount of cleaning she had managed in the short time she had been there. Although the screaming match between her and Sirius's mother had left the two men with ringing ears for the better part of the day.
The three of them got along very well together. In Evie, Remus found a kindred spirit who like him loved to read; and Sirius found in her a fellow prankster and someone who had a comeback to all his comments.
The two really were quite formidable both alone and together. They could spend hours arguing or simply siting in each other's company. They also every so often decided life was too quiet and declared pranking wars on each other. More often than not Remus found himself stuck between the two of them during these wars, and he had thought that James and Sirius had been bad; Sirius and Evie were worse.
Evie knew about Remus's 'fury little problem' and was supportive much to their delight. However in her spare time she was running muggle biology test on his blood from when he was a werewolf, she had managed to get a sample from the room the two boys usually locked themselves in during the full moon, determined to find a cure.
She and Sirius had become very close as well due to an unexpected development which had happened only last night.
/-Flashback-/
A chocked scream pierced the silence of the night and woke Evie with a start. She shot up in bed ready to attack anything which was a threat to her.
Seeing no threat her sleep addled brain tried to determine what woke her. A moan from across the hall pushed away the last effect of sleep as she remembered that Remus wasn't home this evening and she realised exactly what had woken her.
Hurriedly throwing on a night gown and grabbing her wand she quickly left her room and hurried across the hall to Sirius's room.
She hesitated slightly at the closed door, but another pained moan coming from the other side spurred her into action. Casting a quick 'Alohomora' she made her way into Sirius's room, softly calling his name.
The man in question was tossing and turning in his bed, his whole body tense and he was caught in the throes of a nightmare.
Evie quickly made her way to his side, gently kneeling on the side of his bed; she put her wand down next to his on his bedside table.
"Sirius. Sirius. Wake up. It's okay, it's only dream." She called softly. Knowing that loud voices only made things worse.
She gently reached to put her hand on his shoulder, as soon as she made contact with him, his eyes shot open and her world spun, and she found herself pinned to his bed under him in an iron tight grip.
His eyes were wild and clouded with sleep.
"Sirius. It's okay. It's just me Evie."
She saw the second he realised what was going on. He let go of her as if he was burnt and jumped away from her.
"Oh Merlin. Evie. I'm so sorry. What are you even doing here? You shouldn't even be here!"
"You were moaning and screaming in your sleep. I was worried. It must have been a bad nightmare."
"It doesn't matter."
"Of course it does if they hurt you!" argued Evie annoyed that he was being stubborn and refusing help.
"I don't need your pity" he spat at her.
Evie eyes flashed.
"Fine. I'll go. But just for your information I don't pity you. I see a man who has been through horrible things and yet he is still a good person after everything he has been put through. I'm sorry for wanting to comfort my friend."
With that she rose, grabbed her wand and marched determinedly towards the door.
He moved faster than she though he could. She was almost at the door when she suddenly found her progress stopped. Two arms wrapped around her shoulders and a head of messy black hair bent into the crook between her shoulder and her neck.
"No wait please don't go. I'm sorry. It's just …" he trailed off not sure how to explain the conflicting feeling inside him. His voice was muffled since his head was pressed into the crook of her neck.
"Sirius your moustache and beard is itchy."
He let out a bark like laugh and loosened his hold long enough for her to turn around in his arms and wrap her arms around his neck and pull him back into a warm hug. His arms moved to settle at her waist as he sighed against her.
"I'm sorry it just difficult. I can't talk about it."
"I'm not asking you to Sirius. All I want to do is help comfort you after them. Now come on its late we should both get back to bed." With that she made to leave.
She was almost out of his arms when his hand grabbed hers. Looking into his grey eyes with a question in hers, he hesitated before asking.
"Could you stay? Just until I fall asleep. It helps; at least it does with Remus."
Evie smile and nodded gently at him. The pair turned and settled into a comfortable position on his bed.
/- End Flashback-/
Remus smiled remembering the event and the morning after.
He had come home the following morning from an order mission to find the house quiet which was strange, because while Sirius was content to sleep the morning away, Evie was an early riser usually.
A quick search and he found the two asleep in Sirius's bed, wrapped in each other's arms. He opted to leave them knowing that they would wake eventually, while he made a start on breakfast seeing as only he and Evie could really cook. Sirius was a terrible cook.
Sure enough Evie was down about 20 minutes later obviously drawn to the scent of the freshly brewed coffee. The loud bangs from upstairs signalled that Sirius was up and moving.
Indeed he came downstairs shortly after Evie. However since Remus was cooking his back was facing the door and he heard rather than saw Sirius come into the kitchen. However he turned around quickly as he heard Evie suddenly choke on her coffee.
Her eyes were wide and fixed on Sirius, Remus glance quickly at his friend before turning back to focus on Evie, and then did a double take.
He gaped at his friend, who was smirking at the pair of them.
"What?"
"Sirius what happened to your beard and moustache?" asked Remus as he took in his friend's cleanly shaved face.
"Evie said they were itchy."
Next to him Evie squawked in indignation before growling out "Black!"
Remus turned back to the stove with a slight twitch on his eyebrow, thinking it was best if he didn't ask.
As a loud crash came from the two so called adults bickering at the table he decided that yes he most definitely was better off not knowing.
/-/-/-/-/