Chapter 3

Evalane paid close attention to Harry's body language as she told him her story. She studied his expressions as she told him about their family life before their parents' death, her life with Todd- though she once again modified how intensely her life and struggles have been to spare her brother of the burden -her friendship with Sherlock, the complexity of her memory and mind palace, and finally finding her letter to Hogwarts. Harry seemed hesitant to believe her story, at least at first. As she divulged deeper into her history, his face softened and the muscles in his body relaxed. He transformed from a predator on the verge of attack to a lost child looking for comfort.

"Wow." Hermione breathed out once Evalane had brought them back to the present. "Every article I have ever read suggested that you had died, if they even mention you at all, so to actually sit here and hear what you have been through is just heartbreaking."

"I can assure you I'm not dead," Evalane grinned, but it quickly disappeared. "I am a little concerned as to why there is very little to say about me...You would think there would at least be a search for me…"

"There was talk of one," Ron offered to Evalane's surprise. Ron had been especially quiet during her explanation, but Evalane could tell that he was protective of Harry and worried that she was a snake of some sort, trying to persuade his best friend into a lethal trap. "My father said that many people in the Order wanted to start a global search party for you, but Dumbledore ordered against it because he didn't see any way that you could have survived…"

"I survived." Harry finally spoke up, quietly but speaking nonetheless. "Dumbledore should have at least tried, especially because I survived. I don't understand why no one ever told me about you..."

"So you believe me?" Evalane reached across the compartment and gripped Harry's hand. She tried to conceal the trembling in her hand from Harry and his friends. Her world was about to change forever in this moment. If Harry chose to turn her away, she would be doomed to spend the rest of her life with Todd, and she was certain he would not be so forgiving if she went back now. On the other hand, if Harry accepted her, then she would finally have some light in her life. She would finally have hope.

"Yeah," Harry stood, Evalane quickly followed suit. "I believe you."

The two siblings pulled one another into a warm embrace, but this time both Harry and Evalane were crying. No words were exchanged between them, but no words in the history of humanity could describe how joyful they both were to feel what it is was like to have sight of a tangible and healthy family in their future. One had been burdened by painful memories and the knowledge of something better Hermione was also allowing herself to shed tears over the beautiful reunion, and even Ron was moved. The moment was abruptly put to an end when the train came to a sudden halt, causing Harry and Evalane to fall back into their seats.

"Why are we stopping?" Hermione looked out the window of the train. "We can't be there yet…"

"Many they're having engine troubles?" Harry offered, but it was hard to ignore the darkness brewing outside. The sky had turned completely black, though it was only three in the afternoon and had been completely sunny a few moments ago. Frost crept up on the glass windows, and a cold breeze swept through the compartment. Screams could be heard from around the train.

Without warning, an unidentifiable being drifted past the compartment door. The door gently opened on its own, and a cloaked figure stood in the threshold. Evalane could see no face under the figure's dark hood, and she was fairly sure the mysterious creature was hovering above the ground. Her mind began to spin, and she struggled to focus on the figure. She felt as though a weight was pushing down on her shoulders, and only feelings of sadness and despair surrounded her. Her head started to pound, and a woman's scream filled her ears. Her mother's scream.

A bright light filled the room, and the figure slinked away as quickly as it had come. The scream silenced, but her head was throbbing in pain. Evalane turned to see the man had awoken from his sleep, and he had armed himself with what Evalane assumed was his wand. When the light dimmed, she immediately realized why the name Lupin seemed so vibrantly familiar.

"U-Uncle Moony?" The man froze, confusion spread across his face like oil diffusing in water.

"Evalane?" The man's voice was quiet, like it had been broken a million times over. His eyes screamed of demons from the past, and Evalane could tell the man had more emotional scars than those across his pale face. "Evalane is that you?"

Evalane simply nodded her head, trying to soak in the image of the man who once been such a significant part of her childhood. Remus J. Lupin had always appeared rather disheveled, and time had not him in that sense. His eyes were glazed over with over exhaustion, and he had dark circles resting permanently beneath his eyes. He was wearing an old and worn blazer that had clearly been washed multiple times, so it was rather obvious that he cared about his appearance but was unable to afford to buy the fancier attire. Perhaps it had been a long time since her parents' friend had been employed at all; they always did speak of Moony in rather hushed tones, and when he would visit her and Harry, he would act as though they would break at his touch.

"Harry!" Hermione gasped, snapping Evalane out of her trance. She looked towards her brother. Whatever the creature was, its presence had a much more intense influence on her little brother, as he had passed out in his chair. Before she could react, Lupin was by his side trying to gently shake Harry awake. Harry's eyes fluttered open, and Lupin reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a bar of dark chocolate.

"What happened to me?" Harry murmured as he shifted himself back into consciousness. Lupin broke the candy bar into multiple chunks and began passing it to the young teens in the compartment.

"That, Harry, was a dementor," Lupin handed Harry a piece of the chocolate. When Harry hesistated, Lupin simply said, "It's alright. It's just chocolate."

"Are you okay, Harry?" Evalane sat herself next to Harry and placed her arm around him. "You passed out before that thing…"

"A dementor." Ron chimed in through a rather large bite of chocolate. "My father told me about them. They're these sort of monster things that guard Azkaban."

"Azkaban?" Evalane raised her eyebrow inquisitively.

"It's like a wizard prison," Lupin explained, standing up from his seat next to the Potter siblings. "The dementors are meant to keep anyone or anything from getting in or out. Dumbledore must have ordered dementors to watch the school under the, well, under the current circumstances." The ghost of a smile spread on his face but did not quite make it to his eyes.

"I'm okay, I suppose…" Harry finally spoke up, but he must have subconsciously leaned into Evalane's embrace. His sister tightened her grip, resting her head on his.

"Well, I am going to have a word with the train's conductor. Perhaps he or she has some idea as to why a dementor made it aboard the train." He stepped out the door, but before he disappeared, he ordered the four teens to eat the rest of the chocolate. "You'll feel better." He avoided eye contact with Evalane, much to her dismay. It then occurred to her that he possibly wasn't expecting to see her or even Harry in his compartment. She wondered if she was at fault for his reaction because, as Ron eloquently pointed out, no one had known she had survived that night.

The rest of the train ride was mostly silent between the four of them, except Harry quietly asked Evalane if she too had passed out from the close encounter with the dementor.

"I didn't faint," Evalane whispered. "However, I did get a mind splitting migraine. I felt like any joy I had was being sucked out of me."

"Did you hearing someone scream?" Harry's voice grew small, like he was once again the young child Evalane once knew him to be. Evalane's heart ached at the thought of him spending so many years alone. While she at least knew she had people somewhere in the world that had and would love her, she had an inkling that Harry had not grown up with such a luxury.

"I did…" Harry seemed relieved, maybe he felt better knowing he wasn't going mad, but Evalane only adopted his worry into her own mind. She recognized the high-pitched scream from that dark and terrible night like it was yesterday. Hermione and Ron seemed unaffected by the scream, leading Evalane to believe that only herself and her brother had the misfortune of hearing it.

"Evalane," Hermione cautiously spoke up. "Were you able to purchase anything for the school year?" One aspect of moving to boarding school that had failed to cross her mind. Buying new supplies was never much of a priority for her because most of her paycheck was not hers to keep, so she would simply borrow Sherlock's textbooks to memorize the first night.

"I'm afraid not; Hogwarts this term was a spontaneous decision. Besides, I would not even know where to go, since I'm sure I would not be able to find these textbooks at any random bookstore."

"Unfortunately no," Hermione smiled. "Well, you're welcome to borrow my spare set of robes until we get you your own. I'm sure they'll allow you to go to Diagon Alley this weekend to buy your textbooks and such. For now, you're welcome to skim through my potions textbook for this year, just so you can get a general idea before you meet Professor Snape."

She handed Evalane the textbook she had been reading through for most of the train ride, but Evalane could barely focus on any of the words on the page- she could always review them in her mind palace later -except for one: Snape. The name set off about a million alarms in her memories, so she allowed herself to fall into her palace to recall the name's significance. She found herself back in her childhood home, her parents wandering about the living room while she and Harry play with a puzzle on the floor nearby.

"Have you thought about what I said earlier?" Her mother asked, clearly anxious to hear the answer.

"About?" James tugged Harry's shirt back in place as he had gotten it stuck around his head.

"You know what James," Lily's face fell slightly due to her husband's dismissiveness to her question, like she knew a bomb was about to explode in their small home.

"Oh, you mean what you said about Snivellus Snape." James spoke with such a bitterness at the very mention of the harsh nickname that it could have turned a sugar biscuit rotten and sour.

"Yes, about Severus," Lily carefully corrected him, attempting to have a civilized conversation with the man. "What were you thinking about Severus?"

"You know how I feel about him Lily, and I thought you felt the same after he called you that horrible word," James's voice was heavy yet soft, as though he were holding back tears or white hot rage.

"Things are different now, James. If this horrible war ever ends, he's going to need friends to keep his head above water. I'm really worried about him. I know I should still be angry with him for what he said—and I suppose a part of me always will be –but if we've learned anything through this whole mess isn't it that life is too precious and short to hold grudges? He needs good people in his life, and I know we can help him. James, he needs us."

"How is it fair that one person could be so beautiful and so kind? Now I understand why there is so much darkness in this world; you are the only light we could ever need." He pulled her into an embrace and kissed his wife passionately on the lips.

"Thank you, James. I love-" Before she could finish, a deafening alarm broke out in the small home in Godric's Hollow. Evalane was all too familiar with what was about to happen next, so she left the scene as quickly as she had come and returned to the present.

"I bloody hate Potions," Ron groaned in his seat, seemingly not noticing Evalane's momentary lack of mental presence. "I swear if Snape gives us any trouble this term, I may lose my shit on the man."

"Do you think he's still angry about the Whomping Willow?" Harry chuckled at his past memories with his friend.

Ron's eyes practically rolled into the back of his head. "Probably. Never really took him as much of a tree hugger, but hey, who knows what that man's into."

"What happened with this 'Whomping Willow'?" Evalane chose to keep the information about this Snape man until she could speak to Harry more privately. She had no doubt that his two friends could be trusted; however, she felt like he would have many questions about what she remembered of their past life. She wanted him to feel comfortable enough to ask the questions, and she had a feeling that he did not ask as many questions as he should.

"It's this massive tree on the grounds that will beat you to a pulp if you get too close." Harry began to laugh, a sweet laugh that most likely did not get the recognition it deserved. "Ron and I flew a car into it second year! Nearly got expelled for it."

"Flew a car?" Evalane's eyebrow arched and her head tilted involuntarily in confusion.

"My dad managed to make our family car fly! Harry and I didn't make it onto the platform to get on the train last year, so we had to take the car to make it to Hogwarts!" Ron sat up in delight at the memory, and Evalane could only imagine how reckless their decision and its execution must have been.

The Hogwarts Express soon came to a slow stop, and Evalane peered out the window to see a massive castle standing proudly on a mountain top. The moonlight shone through the hundreds of windows on the palace, causing the school to glow softly. Hogwarts was her lighthouse, guiding her soul's ship to safety and the opportunity to live a better life. A life free of fear and being a helpless captive; a life where she can build a reputation of inner strength and a determination to succeed not only for herself but for all she cares about. Evalane Lily Potter was ready for Hogwarts.