Chapter Twenty:

Ev walked into History of Magic and was relieved to find a subject where he could excel at. True, Professor Binns was incredibly lifeless (no pun intended) and his voice was painfully monotone but the subject itself was fascinating. And wands remained in their owners' backpacks and were not needed for this class.

Ev opened his textbook and followed along to Binns' lecture on a goblin rebellion, making notes. He mostly tuned Binns out, only paying attention every so often to make sure he was on the right page. Liam eyed Ev's dedication with disbelief. Liam, already bored, alternated between sketching in the margins of his book, staring out the window, and laying his head down on the desk. Ev looked up from his notes to see Liam shading in a picture of a gigantic tortoise devouring a tiny rabbit in its massive jaws.

"You're disturbed," Ev whispered, grinning despite himself. His brief distraction caused a giant blot of ink to fall from his quill onto his notes. He groaned and blotted it out with his sleeve. He hated quills and desperately missed pens. He looked down at his sleeve, inspecting the damage. The ink was as black as his robes and couldn't make out a stain. Small mercies.

Liam rolled his eyes and then held up his wrist in triumph. He pointed to his watch. It was nearly time for class to end.

Ev, who was now lost, turned his attention back to Binns, skimming the page of his book to try to find whatever it was that Binns was talking about. However, it turns out he needn't have bothered.

"That's when Bodrod the Bearded decided—" Binns dry voice was drowned out by the bell, signaling the end of the classes for the day.

No one bothered to wait for Binns to bid them farewell or assign them homework. They bolted for the door and went down to dinner.

Ev sat down with Liam and Tyler again, in addition to Lily and Hugo and Aidan. Neither Lily nor Ev mentioned the incident with Cory McLaggen from break. Ev decided to give up on getting an answer about it from Lily. He resolved instead to ask Brielle the next afternoon when they had Potions together. After all, she had all magical relatives. Ev felt sure that she was bound to know something.

Unfortunately, when he saw her on Tuesday, Brielle had no idea what he was talking about. Ev asked her about it, trying to sound as casual as possible, as they walked into the dungeon where Potions classes took place. Liam lagged along behind them, shuffling his feet.

"Are you sure it's not just because you're related to the famous Harry Potter?" Brielle asked she placed her cauldron on a nearby empty table and started to unpack her potion making kit.

"Yes," Ev insisted as he set up his cauldron next to hers. Liam followed him, even though he looked slightly perturbed about doing so. "It's definitely not a good thing."

Brielle shrugged as the bell that signaled the start of classes rang. "I don't know then. I'm real sorry. My parents rarely told me any stories about Harry Potter and the few they did tell me probably weren't true and would make your skin crawl. He's not a hero to them. Mum was really furious when I told her that I met him and that I said he was nothing but polite and helpful." Her face lit up, a spiteful gleam in her eye.

Ev sighed. "Thanks anyway." At the very least, it was obvious she wasn't lying in an effort to "protect" him like Lily and Hugo were. Then he voiced something else that was bothering him. "If your parents don't like Harry… wouldn't they be upset that you're hanging around with me?" Ev whispered as Professor Carmichael, the Potions teacher, finally ambled into the classroom.

"Oh, yes." Brielle laughed quietly as she brought out her set of brass scales, sounding rather proud of herself. "Trust me. That's a good thing."

Liam was now eyeing Brielle like she was about to stab him with something sharp. He edged further down the table, getting as far away from her as possible. He shot Ev a look that silently demanded, "Why are you associating with her?" Out loud he said, "I heard that Carmichael is one of the best teachers here. Aidan said this class is really good."

Ev took a moment to appraise the professor standing in front of the room, who scribbling something onto the blackboard. Carmichael had strolled into the classroom without even bothering to greet his students. He had made a beeline for the chalk and started immediately writing directions.

"Are you sure?" Ev asked, unconvinced.

"Yeah."

Professor Carmichael turned to his students, a slight grin over his face, as if he heard what Ev and Liam were talking about. "Hello everyone. Sorry I'm late. I'm Professor Carmichael." He pulled out the class list from his pocket. "Okay. I know a lot of you are probably disappointed that you're not going to need your wands much when you're down here. But I promise you, Potions is a really useful class. Potions are an incredible brand of magic all of their own." He waved his free hand in a wide sweeping motion, apparently trying to convey the power of potions. He dropped his voice, as if about to reveal a secret. "You're going to learn some really great stuff. "

When the class didn't immediately leap for joy at his words, Professor Carmichael added, "If you work hard and are efficient, you'll be out of here ten minutes early and you can beat the mad rush to lunch time."

The class broke out in an appreciative murmur at this statement. "Told you," Liam whispered triumphantly to Ev.

Professor Carmichael smirked. "I thought you'd like that. Okay. I'm going take roll call and then after that, I want you all to get started on this potion. It's a cure for boils. Hopefully none of you will ever need it." He laughed as he watched his students squirmed in disgust at the very thought of ever requiring such a potion.

He called out names as the students pulled out their potion ingredients.

Finally: "Dursley… Evan?"

Ev raised his hand as he heard some of the Slytherins break out into whispers.

Then very clearly, a boy's voice rang through the air:

"Look out everyone, it's the magic hater. He's probably here to try to burn us at the stake. Everyone practice the flame-freezing charm!"

Ev felt as though an ice cube slipped down his throat into his stomach. Was this about his grandparents' attitude towards magic? But how on earth would these people know?

"Look out everyone," Professor Carmichael retorted in a deadpan voice. "Jared Flint just lost Slytherin House three points for interrupting me. Everyone practice the cold shoulder."

Shock flickered across the boy's face, obviously believing he would have some anonymity because his name had not been called yet. "Yes, I know who you are! Barely a day and a half at school and already you are subject of much complaint in the staff room." Carmichael narrowed his eyes. "Now, can I get back to taking attendance now? Or perhaps, do you want to shout out a few more poor attempts at insults?"

Jared Flint mumbled something under his breath and the rest of the class tried their best to smother their snickering. Professor Carmichael rolled his eyes and continued down his list of names. "Finnigan, Liam…." His eyes flicked upward, noticing Liam's raised hand. "Here… Flint, Jared…" He didn't bother searching the crowd for Jared. "Here, obviously."

Looking somewhat perplexed, Brielle and Liam peered at Ev, who wanted nothing more than for someone to wave a wand and make him vanish.

"Well," said Brielle after a moment. "I'd say that's absolute proof it's not all in your head, at least."

A/N: Doctor's appointments have all gone okay. They're telling me I'm fine. It would be better if they knew how to fix the problem, but whatever. Hopefully, once I get caught up on work, I can start writing more.