Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

YAY FOR FINISHING STORIES!!!

"Neville!"

Neville looked up from the book he was reading in a golden armchair in the Gryffindor common room. "Evee!" He jumped up and put the book down, cover up to mark his place. "I heard about what happened to Malfoy! Are you alright?"

The genuinely concerned look on his face made it all the more difficult to tell him what she wanted to. But everyone makes mistakes. And now she had to correct hers. All of them. Even if they hurt the people she was trying to help.

Evee took his hands and said quietly, "Break up with me."

Neville looked confused. "Right now?" He scanned the room. "But why?"

"I've been using you! Can't you see?" Evee's voice was steadily rising. She forced herself to calm down so they didn't draw the attention of the other Gryffindors in the room. The last thing Evee needed right now was another one of her little "outbursts".

Neville opened his mouth like he was about to say something, but changed his mind, and stared at the floor. "You didn't use me. "I used you... To make Ginny mad... To get attention..." Neville sniffed. "It's my fault. You break up with me!"

Evee shook her head and dropped his hands. "No. It's not the same." She leaned forward and hugged him hard, and as she did so, she whispered into his ear, "In five seconds, I'm going to walk away. If you haven't broken up with me, you'll regret it. That's not a threat. It's a guarantee."

She pulled away and stared at Neville. He seemed to be wondering what to do; he had his "I'm thinking real hard" face on. After a few moments and he still hadn't said anything, she shrugged and turned back to the portrait hole, ready to move on.

"It's over," Neville said finally, his voice emotionless.

Evee paused, but didn't turn back around to face him. She just nodded and left to meet Ron and Harry, who had waited outside the entrance for her. Hermione had run off to the library, which is what she always did in a crisis. Hopefully, she'd learn something that could help them.

"I'm done," Evee said as she stepped over the threshold and out into the hall. The Fat Lady gave them a curious glance as she swung shut behind them and watched them walk down the hall.

"That girl is more trouble than she's worth," she muttered as the trio disappeared around the corner.

"I don't know what to do now."

Ron, Harry, and Evee were outside on the castle grounds, where they had agreed to meet back up with Hermione. Evee, who had been so sure of what she had to do before now, felt utterly lost. She sat down in the coarse grass and looked up at the sky.

"How will I know when he's here for me?" she asked quietly, studying the twinkling stars.

"What do you mean 'here for you'?" Harry snapped. "We're going to him!"

Evee and Ron stared at him and then said simultaniously, "What?"

She rose and put her hands on her hips. "But we don't even know where he is!" she argued.

Harry furrowed his brow. "I think I do..." He looked back up at the castle. "As soon as Hermione comes back, we'll know."

Evee was still confused, as was Ron. But he was almost always generally confused, so he just sat down and crossed his legs, facing the Forbidden Forest, staring past the trees as if he was looking for something. Evee was thinking hard. What could Hermione have found out that could possibly help us? Why Voldemort wants to kill me? Why he killed my mum? That's a good start. I'll be sure and ask him when we see him...

Harry suddenly looked back towards the castle again, Ron and Evee did the same. There was a figure running towards them with long, bushy hair, waving a piece of paper back and forth frantically as she ran. Evee smiled. That must be Hermione, she thought and then stopped. Since when had she begun to refer to people by their real names in her head? Maybe it was a sign that she'd finally grown up a little. Or at least was a bit more mature.

Hermione got to them and bent over, her hands on her knees, trying and catch her breath. Apparently, she had just run all the way outside from the library, and that was a very long run indeed.

"Well?" asked Harry expectantly, his green eyes shining with anticipation.

She held up the paper. "Got it!" Hermione straightened up and smoothed out the creases in it, holding it in the middle of their little circle so everyone could see.

"Lumos," Harry muttered. He positioned his glowing wand tip above them so they could have light to read by.

The paper was very old. It had turned yellow from age and dissuse. Hermione probably only knew where to find it because she had spent so much of her free time in the library. She knew where things were better than Madam Prince, the librarian. In green, caligraphy at the top of the page was "Slytherin" and below it, names. Thousands of tiny names, most with a red slash through them, like blood, with lines connecting one to another.

"It's a family tree," observed Ron. "Why is this helpful?" He had always somewhat doubted Hermione's faith in the library.

Evee nodded in agreement to his question.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I found it a few years ago. I think it was when we were looking for a way for Harry to breathe underwater for the Tri-Wizard Tournament our forth year. It was stuck between the pages of one of the books we used. It's not really a good place to be keeping and old document like this." She shook it slightly. The soft wind was blowing under it, causing the edges to fold over. "It could be damaged or-"

"Please, Hermione!" interrupted Harry with an exasperated tone. "Just tell us what you found!"

Hermione looked hurt that Harry had cut her off so rudely. She narrowed her eyes at him and continued, "Anyway. When I found it, naturally, I read it."

"Naturally," Ron interjected sarcastically.

Hermione ignored him. Now she was talking only to Evee. "And I saw your last name mentioned a few times!"

"What?" Evee asked. McGonagall had told her her mother was a desendant of one of the four founders, but Evee hadn't thought to ask which one. But if her mother was desended from Slytherin, then that must mean Evee was too.

Hermione handed Evee the paper and pointed to the very bottom. Evee squinted and sure enough, there was her name in small, black letters, a line connecting her to her mother and father, both of which had their names crossed out in red. Evee feared hers would be too soon enough.

Hermione asked, "See it?" She seemed quite pleased with herself that she had found this piece of information.

"But if you found this three years ago, how do you remember seeing my name?" Evee asked, astonished. Certainly no one could remember something as unimportant as a random last name for a week, let alone three whole years.

Hermione smiled. "I never forget anything I read."

Ron leaned over and said, more to Evee than anyone else, "It's true. She's like an elephant."

Hermione gave him a dirty look.

"I mean in that respect... That you never forget..." he finished meekly.

Evee was still studying the family tree. There was Charlie. She traced the line from his name to her mother's and then to Severus Snape and shuddered. The thought of her mom and Snape was just... icky! (yes, Evee actually thought "icky"). She scanned the page for more familiar names. "Tom Riddle," she said and pointed to his name.

"Better know as 'Lord Voldemort'," said Harry with a grimace.

His line went to another Tom Riddle, whose line went to Voldemort's mother, Merope Gaunt, and from his mother to another man named Manfred Collins. And from between Manfred and Merope came Edwin Collins, Evee's grandfather, her mother's father. (And FYI, when Evee's mom married her dad, she chose to keep her maiden name and then when Evee was born after her father had died, Catherine decided to give Evee her name too... so yeah.)

"Then Voldemort is my..." she counted the names, "Half-grandfather?" She double checked her counting. "Or... something... but whatever he is, we're related." She thrust the paper back to Hermione who folded it carefully and shoved it down her shirt. (Evee gave her a strange look, but Hermione just shrugged. Well, at least if we're caught, they won't think to look there... Evee concluded.)

"Looks like it," sighed Harry.

"Ooh. I feel bad for you..." consoled Ron.

Evee rolled her eyes and turned back to Hermione. She seemed to be the only helpful person in their group at the moment. "Is that why he's going to kill me? Because we're related?"

"'Why he's going to try to kill you'! You're so negative!" Harry said, folding his arms. "We won't let him kill you."

Evee smiled at him. She admired his courage and wished she could be as brave as that. She took a deep breath. Now came the moment when she had to set things straight. It was now or never, and Evee took the term quite literally in her mind. "Well before we run off to stop Voldemort, there're some things I need to tell you."

"Can't it wait?" Harry complained. His gaze moved to the horizon beyond Hogwarts as if Voldemort would appear there any second.

Evee turned to him. "No. And I'll start with you."

Unexpectedly Evee reached out and smacked Harry on the forehead with her palm. "What is wrong with you?" she yelled at him.

Harry just looked at her, one hand on his head where she had hit him. He seriously had no idea what she was talking about.

"Ginny is in love with you, you git! Can't you tell?"

Harry took a step back, dropping his hand from his face, and Ron whispered "Evee!" through his teeth. Hermione just stood there, her eyes wide and moving back and forth like she was watching a tennis match.

"I know! That's why I broke up with her last year!" Harry shouted back and sat down hard in the grass.

"Oh..." Evee hadn't known that. She'd meant to ask Ron, but just forgot. If she had known, she might have gone about telling him a little more sensitively.

"I don't want to see the people I'm close to get hurt," he said morosely, inspecting a blade of grass.

"Aren't we close to you?" Hermione asked, kneeling beside him.

Harry smiled. "I think you guys can take care of yourselves. Not that I don't worry about you every time we do something dangerous. But I couldn't get rid of you if I tried." Harry laughed anxiously. It sounded strange in the dark night, like it didn't belong there.

"He's tried to abandon us before," Ron told Evee. "Didn't work. It was like feeding a stray cat."

Evee smiled, she could actually relate to the analogy.

Evee turned to Ron next. "Ron..." she didn't know quite how to say what she wanted to, but before she had the chance to say anything, Ron took her hand in his.

"I love you," he said, totally serious.

"What?" Evee asked, shocked. She jerked her hand out of his and put it in the pocket of her sweatshirt, trying to make it look useful so he wouldn't be tempted to grab it again.

Hermione looked like she wanted to throw something large at Evee's head, but didn't have just the right size object to do so, and Harry just looked mildly impressed.

"No!" Evee said so forcefully that everyone jumped slightly.

"What?" he asked her. "You don't like me?" He was rapidly turning scarlet. How could I say that? he thought furiously. She doesn't like me like that. I can see it in her eyes.

"I do like you, Ron..." she cast Hermione a sideways glance. "It's just that there's someone who likes you more... You're not really in love with me."

"But I am!" he argued, taking a step towards her.

Evee shook her head and Ron looked down at his feet, then turned and stomped away. He was just so tired of being rejected. And he had thought Evee liked him too! She just sent him so many mixed messages that it was hard to tell which ones were serious and which were just for fun.

Hermione followed him and placed her hand comfortingly on his back, rubbing up and down and in circles.

He turned to face her. "It's you, isn't it?" he asked. How had he not noticed before? The girl he had so often dreamt about before he met Evee had been dreaming of him too. And it wasn't until now that he saw it.

"Well, if it was Harry, I think we'd have a problem." Hermione quipped.

Ron smiled before leaning down and kissing her gently on the lips.

He pulled away and Hermione was smiling too. She took his hand and they walked back to Harry (who was whistling) and Evee (who was just smiling). Hermione and Ron both blushed different shades of pink. The perfect couple... Evee thought sadly. She'd never find her perfect match... Even if she lived past this night. For a while, she'd thought it was Ron. But after seeing him with Hermione, she knew she was wrong.

"And Hermione..." Evee turned to her. "I guess I don't need to tell you to dump Seamus now, huh?"

Hermione laughed. "He's a pig, I know."

Then there was an awkward silence, much like the one that they experienced on that first day when Evee had met them.

But somehow, she didn't feel as awkward. Maybe it was because she wasn't "the new girl" anymore, but "one of the gang". Or maybe it was because she'd grown up in the last few months she spent at Hogwarts. Or maybe it was the cold wind blowing steadily harder and faster that seemed to sharpen her senses, yet dull them at the same time. She felt Harry stir next to her and saw him draw his wand from his pocket.

"So when do we leave?" Evee asked him.

"It's too late. He's already here."

The New Apprentice coming soon!

(hopefully!)

love, hanyouinlove