Evelyn was on the back of Sugar, her chestnut colored, not-actually-overweight horse. Riding along the edge of the orchard next to her house. The sun was in the baby stages of descent, casting small shadows and smearing the sky with colors. The earlier sticky heat had cooled into comfortable summer weather. It was one of Evelyn's favorite things to do to be out on her horse alone. She liked to imagine she was an explorer, a magizoologist discovering new creatures. Entirely independent, living off what was in her bag and sleeping in a tent. She knew she'd have to go home soon. Before dinner was served and her parents had to come looking for her. Yet she kept riding away. She just couldn't talk herself into turning around. The peace of being alone and away from the hostile air of their household was just too pleasant.

Only a week into summer vacation and Evelyn already dearly missed her friends, being in school, not being at home.

Lost in thought, she suddenly noticed she had traveled further from her house than she'd ever had previously.

She slowed the horse down to a slow walk and examined her surroundings. She could still find her way home, but it would take longer than she was originally going to risk. She was about to turn around when she heard voices. Coming from ahead, just out of her line of site. She kicked the horse into a faster pace forward. As she turned the corner of the orchard she'd been riding along side of, she saw several kids on broomsticks in a meadow. A home stood nearby, several stories tall and looking ready to collapse. After watching a moment, she figured they must be playing quidditch.

She trotted the horse up slowly, watching the people in the sky. Closer now she noticed almost all the players had red hair, and she realized which family's house she must have just discovered. A younger girl who wasn't flying, but sitting on the ground and watching, noticed and came to greet her.

"Hi! Can I pet your horse?" Evelyn guessed she was probably about nine years old.

"Yeah, her name is Sugar. She's pretty nice." The girl, not being able to reach the horse's nose, patted it's neck instead. "I'm Ginny."

"I'm Evelyn, I live over that way." Evelyn pointed in the direction she' just came from. Ginny nodded and asked "You wanna come watch with me? They won't let me play with them because I'm little, but I'm going to be really good when I'm older, they'll see." Evelyn smiled at the shear confidence the girl said it with. "Sure." She let Sugar wonder a little ways away and the pony took the opportunity to graze, completely unfazed by the people zooming around above her.

The home made team consisted of two older boys, Evelyn struggled to remember their names, the twins who Evelyn knew were in her year, and a very small boy she guessed wasn't at Hogwarts yet.

Last year, Evelyn had only ever gone to one quidditch game. She'd been bored, and had hardly payed attention and then her house lost. It was such a grand disappointment she hadn't bothered to come to one since. "So, have you ever flown?" Evelyn asked Ginny. Trying to act a little less awkward than she felt. Although she had her few friends, she tended to feel out of place when surrounded by anybody who wasn't them. "No" the little girl said in a depressed tone.

"I didn't before going to Hogwarts. Weird at first, but it's kind of like riding a horse, you have to squeeze with your thighs and find your center of balance." Ginny's eyes lit up. "Can I ride your horse?" She eagerly asked. Evelyn thought about that. She'd been about this age when she first had lessons. She felt a little bad for the girl too, wondering how many games the boys excluded her from. "I suppose you can ride with me."

Evelyn whistled and Sugar came trotting over. Evelyn helped Ginny up first and then sat behind her. She figured with Ginny between herself and the horse's head she'd have a harder time falling off than she would if she sat behind her. "Hold on to that saddle bit there, and don't pull on her mane." Evelyn instructed and kicked Sugar into an even pace. Ginny laughed excitedly as they made a few circles around field. A moment later the boys on broomsticks came down from the air, and Evelyn noticed a short plump women standing in front of the house waving them over. Evelyn picked up the pace, deciding to drop Ginny off by the door so she'd get there before her brothers. Ginny was absolutely delighted. When they stopped beside the woman who was clearly her mother, She shouted "Did you see that mum? I went so fast!" Evelyn smiled at that. Sugar could run much, much faster when she was permitted to. Ginny carefully hopped down on her own, stumbling just a little as she landed on the ground but didn't loose any pep to her step.

"I saw, love." The women looked up at Evelyn. "Hello, dear, I'm Mrs. Weasley." She looked curiously at the blonde child who had appeared at her home. "I'm Evelyn Falkenrath, I'm kind of your neighbor." She pointed in the direction of her house. Hoping that somewhat explained her random presence. "Well it's nice to meet you. Would you like to join us dinner?"

"No, um, thank you, but I really need to go home." She glanced at the sun, which had partially set behind the trees. The boys from the field had caught up with them now. The older ones passed her by without a word and walked into their home. The twins seemed much more interested in the horse rider who had shown up in their yard out of nowhere.

"Hey"

"Who're you?"

"You should have just kept going."

"And stolen our sister."

"Then she'd stop crying at us to let her fly."

"You can have Ron too, actually."

"Hey!" The youngest boy exclaimed as he just caught up to his brothers.

Evelyn looked down at them, wondering how much conversation you can have from the back of a horse before it's considered rude to not dismount.

"You don't know her from school?" Their mother asked. They both squinted at Evelyn and said "Nope," at the same time.

"I'm in your year." Evelyn responded, hiding her impatience. They cocked their heads. "Ravenclaw." She added.

"Oh!"

"That's why."

She rolled her eyes a fraction. She didn't expect them to know her name, she wasn't the most social student. But they had a few classes together, they should recognize her face, at least.

"I need to go." Evelyn said and pulled the reins to turn sugar around.

"Come back and play with me sometime!" Ginny called after her as she started to gallop away. Maybe, Evelyn thought, if her father ever let her outside again.

The aftermath wasn't as bad as she'd thought. Yes there was yelling, but her parents had quickly turned on each other instead of centering their anger on Evelyn. She basically grounded herself to her room for the rest that night and waited. As a result, she'd fallen asleep much earlier than usual, and woke up before the sun had risen. She was also starving, having consequently missed dinner the night before. Evelyn cracked open her door and peered into the dark hallway. She didn't see anybody. She couldn't hear anybody. She silently stepped out and started to make her way to the kitchen.

"What are you doing up?"

Evelyn almost jumped out of her skin. As she had passed the entrance to the sitting room, she hadn't seen her father sitting on one of the couches. He was still in the clothes he'd been wearing last night. He slouched, and frowned at her. But he didn't look angry.

"I was hungry…" Evelyn started. She didn't know if she was still in trouble or not.

"Come sit for a minute." He commanded.

Evelyn sat on a armchair next to the couch. She faced him and waited. He sighed deeply.

"Your mother has left."

Evelyn blinked. Where would her mother go at an hour like this? She just about never left the house.

"It's not because of you, or the fight we had tonight. It's because-well, a lot of things." His voiced cracked a small bit when he said the last part. He leaned his head back, staring up at the ceiling. When he spoke again, he was more steady.

"We've had too many unresolved issues, and I think she reached her breaking point." Understanding dawned on Evelyn. She was surprised and, what else? She didn't actually know what to feel. She continued to sit in silence.

"Again, she didn't leave because of you, darling. She loves you. I'm pretty sure she only stayed this long for you. But you're older now, and so independent…" He trailed off. The young witch stared at her father. Now she noticed his eyes tinged with red. He looked older, and tired. Like a man who'd just lost a long battle.

Several minutes of silence passed.

With nothing else left to say, Evelyn told her father goodnight, giving him a tight hug, trying to say everything she couldn't with words. Then went back to bed. Her hunger gone. Like many nights, she stayed awake staring into the darkness. Her thoughts to loud to let her sleep, her mind too tired to really think.

Evelyn returned to the Weasley's many times that summer. Too soon she realized that the empty silence in her household could be just as oppressive as the constant tension it replaced. Her father returned to work as if nothing had happend. Maybe because he hated the silence as much as she did, or maybe he needed the consistency of the one thing he did well.

She started staying for dinner when invited now, since her father usually worked late. Mr. Weasley had been visibly surprised when she first introduced herself to him. "I never knew Mr. Falkenwrath had a daughter. Well, it's a pleasure to meet you!" and he smiled genuinely and told her a few work stories where her father had saved him a lot of trouble with superiors and about him generally being a good person. Evelyn knew from her father's own stories and comments that Mr. Weasley didn't get very much respect at the ministry. With his open fascination of muggle artifacts and lack of wealth. But he seemed kind and welcomed her into his home, She decided she rather liked him.

Evelyn continued to play and talk with Ginny, and she imagined this is probably what it was like to have a sister. The younger girl had different interests than her and the conversations they had were nothing like what Evelyn had with her school friends. But the company was appreciated all the same. Evelyn taught Ginny how to ride her horse, and very soon she felt confident enouph to let the young girl ride alone. Evelyn was incredibly proud, no doubt, this would probably help her learn to ride a broom later. She'd be quidditch star like her brothers for sure, and Evelyn thought she might actually start attending games again.

The boys got use to her presence. One night, when the whole family was sitting in the parlor, Ron asked her why she never went home. Evelyn was sat on the floor, since there wasn't enouph couch space for everyone. Ginny laid on her belly, leaned against Evelyn's leg. She just had shrugged, and said it was boring at home. "Must be awful if it makes this place look fun." One of the twins joked from the couch. Evelyn grinned. "I don't have any siblings, so there's nobody to talk to until dad gets home. I use to not be aloud to ride Sugar either if nobody else was home, because he was worried I'd fall off and brake a leg. I mean, you can only read for so many hours at a time before you just need something else to do. Also, I can't even use magic when I'm home alone because my dad would know immediately because of where he works!"

"What? your not allowed to do magic at home?" One of the twins asked.

"Nope, technically neither are you, but I can't avoid getting caught." She leaned back on her arms. "I don't even get to keep my wand in the summer, dad takes it and keeps it somewhere out of my reach. "

"That sucks!" The other twin proclaimed in indignation on her behalf.

"Well, considering his position at the ministry, it be really embarrassing for him if his daughter got caught braking the law he is in charge of." Percy added. "It be like if you got caught flying the car."

Mr. Weasley started coughing suspiciously. Evelyn giggled and decided she would pretend to not have heard that.

"What about your mum?" Asked Ginny.

A short moment of silence. "Don't got one." Evelyn answered simply, looking ahead of her at nothing in particular. Of course the little girl was too young to pick up on the subtle implication that Evelyn didn't have a mom. She was sure the others had, but hadn't asked out of politeness. That social rule also escaped Ginny.

"Why not?"

Evelyn was silent again. She'd tensed up slightly, she noticed, and consciously tried to loosen her shoulder muscles. She'd been vague on purpose, hoping that they would assume her mom was dead, because she really didn't want to explain her parents separation.

"Ginny darling, time to go wash up and get ready for bed." Mrs. Weasley to the rescue. Ginny wined a little bit but got up anyways. Evelyn stood up as well, taking this moment to say a quick goodnight and mumble something about how she needed to get home before dark. Before she could exit the house, stopped her in the kitchen.

"You know Evelyn, I'd like to talk to your father about connecting our floos, since you come over so often anyways." Evelyn creased her brow but nodded at the older man. She wasn't sure why he was telling her this, if it was her father he wanted to ask.

"And If you ever need anything, you can just come over and ask us, okay?" Evelyn nodded again without saying anything. She bit her tongue anxiously, hating the attention she was getting even if she did appreciate what he was offering. He smiled and patted her real quick on the shoulder.

Later that night, Evelyn relayed Mr. Weasley's suggestion to her father and he agreed. They'd set up the floo soon so she could use it for the rest of the summer. Evelyn noticed he was still wearing his wedding ring, almost a month after her mother had abandoned them both without a word. She wondered how long he would continue to wear it, and if he was wearing it to lie to himself or everyone else about what was happening in the Falkenwrath household.