It was only a month until Christmas, and Eva was on yet another Hogsmeade trip with Hermione and Ron, but still without Harry. This time around, Hermione had dragged them out towards the Shrieking Shack, supposedly the most haunted building in Britain.
"It's meant to be the most haunted building in Britain," Hermione mused as she gazed over the wooden fence at the run-down shack in the distance. "Did I mention that?"
"Twice," Ron laughed.
Eva was sat on top of the fence, sucking on yet another lollipop from Honeydukes. "I feel like you'd do good, living in a haunted house."
"Well, do you want to move up a bit closer?" Hermione suggested.
Ron seemed bewildered. "Huh?"
Eva had to cover her mouth to stop herself from giggling. Ron was absolutely terrible at covering his ridiculously obvious crush on Hermione. Honestly, she felt like she was watching some kind of romcom but live.
Hermione blushed and glanced down at the powdered snow by her feet. "To the Shrieking Shack," she corrected.
"Oh," Ron began to blush too, "a-actually, I'm—I'm fine here."
"You two are adorable," Eva remarked with a soft laugh as she continued to suck on her apparently strawberry-flavoured lollipop.
"Well, well, look who's here."
The three of them glanced around behind them. Malfoy, accompanied by Crabbe and Pike, skidded down a snowy hill towards them, as arrogant as ever. Though Eva did find it quite difficult to take Malfoy's little furry hat seriously.
"You two shopping for your new dream home?" Malfoy taunted Hermione and Ron. "Bit grand for you, isn't it, Weasel-bee? Don't your family sleep in, er . . . one room?"
"Oh, knock it off for once in your life, Malfoy," Eva snapped, hopping down gracefully from the wooden fence with her lollipop still in her hand.
Ron frowned. "Yeah, shut your mouth, Malfoy," he muttered slightly sheepishly.
"Ooh, not very friendly," Malfoy laughed. "Boys, I think it's time we teach Infernum and Weasel-bee how to respect their superiors."
Malfoy adjusted his coat over his shoulders smugly while Pike nodded and smirked in agreement and Crabbe cracked his knuckles, ready for a fight. Eva stepped forward, so ready to punch one of them, and surprisingly so did Hermione.
"Hope you don't mean yourself," Hermione laughed coldly, her fist raised and ready as she stood beside Eva.
"How dare you talk to me," Malfoy spat angrily. "You filthy little mudblood-"
His sentence was cut off when a snowball collided with the side of his face, seemingly out of nowhere. Everyone turned their heads confusedly while Eva simply laughed at the sight of the entitled blonde covered in snow.
"Who's there?" Malfoy asked worriedly as he scanned their surroundings.
Suddenly, a stream of snowballs flew straight at the three of them, causing them to stagger backwards confusedly. Even Eva, Hermione, and Ron were confused, not that they were complaining.
Malfoy shoved Crabbe. "Don't just stand there, do something!"
Chaos just continued from there. Eva was struggling to keep up when Crabbe had his trousers pulled down, Pike's view was covered by his hat before he was spun in circles by his scarf, and Malfoy was dragged half way down the hill by his feet.
In pure fear, Malfoy shoved the other two out of the way as the group fled the scene. Eva and Hermione were laughing absolutely hysterically, barely standing up straight anymore. She felt someone tugging her curls of hair up and turned around.
"Harry," Hermione whined jokingly, causing Harry to reveal himself from under his invisibility cloak.
"Bloody hell, Harry, that was not funny," Ron said, clearly still stressed out.
Eva was barely breathing anymore from how hilarious she'd found it. "That was absolutely priceless," she wheezed, leaning on Harry so she wouldn't fall over.
"Those weasels!" Ron complained as the four of them strolled through the high street in Hogsmeade. "Never told me about any Marauder's Map!"
"But Harry isn't going to keep it," Hermione told them matter-of-factly. "He's going to turn it over to Professor McGonagall. Aren't you, Harry?"
Eva stared at her blankly. "You're joking."
Ron scoffed. "Oh sure, along with his invisibility cloak."
They stopped suddenly just a few metres away from the Three Broomsticks pub. "Oh look who it is, Madam Rosmerta," Hermione laughed. "Ron fancies her."
"That's not true," Ron argued indignantly.
"No, Ron fancies you," Eva added.
"What?" Hermione questioned.
"What?" Ron repeated, just as they both turned to glance at each other and blush. Eva and Harry still found it quite funny though.
A small sleigh pulled up, and both Cornelius Fudge, Minister of Magic, and Professor McGonagall hopped out, briefly accompanied by Hagrid. They approached Rosmerta, Fudge with a forced smile on his face.
"Rosmerta, my dear, I hope business is good," Fudge greeted.
"It would be a lot better if the Ministry wasn't sending Dementors into my pub every other night!" Rosmerta waved the hammer she'd been using in Fudge's face angrily.
Fudge stumbled on his words. "We . . . we have a killer on the loose."
"Sirius Black in Hogsmeade," Rosmerta said in disbelief. "And what would bring him here?"
"Harry Potter?" Fudge whispered, though not very quietly considering they could hear.
Rosmerta turned around confusedly. "Harry Potter?" she questioned.
McGonagall quickly shushed her as she led Fudge and Rosmerta inside the pub. Unsurprisingly, Harry felt the need to cover himself with his invisibility cloak and sneak off after them. He even left footsteps as he trailed through the snow.
"Glasses!" Eva called after him, but it was useless.
With a shrug from Ron, the three of them ran off after Harry towards the pub. They managed to catch the heavy wooden door behind him just in time and push it open again.
"I say! No underage wizards allowed in today!" one of the shrunken heads shouted at them.
"Shut the damn door!"
Hermione rolled her eyes at them. "So rude."
"Assholes," Eva grumbled.
Ron nodded in agreement. "Thick heads."
While Harry snooped on a conversation which didn't involve him, Eva, Hermione, and Ron were sat on a bench outside in the snow. That was until Harry's footsteps reappeared from inside, leaving small boot prints in the otherwise untouched snow, but he didn't stop at them. No, he continued walking ahead, and even shoved through a group of carollers without a care.
The three of them ran after him, chasing his lead back up to the woods near the Shrieking Shack and further away from the rest of the village. When they eventually stopped at the small snow-covered clearing, it sounded like Harry was . . . crying?
Eva and Hermione started ahead, but they were both held back by Ron. Hermione stepped closer in anyway, kneeling down by a rock Harry was sat on and carefully pulling the invisibility cloak off his head.
Harry had his head bowed down, and his eyes were still red with tears. Eva instantly moved to sit beside him, hugging him in an attempt to soothe him.
"Harry, what happened?" Hermione asked carefully.
Harry took a few trembled breaths. "He was their friend," he muttered, "and he betrayed them. HE WAS THEIR FRIEND!"
Eva flinched and loosened her arms slightly from around his shoulders but still rubbed soothing circles on his back.
"I hope he finds me, because when he does, I'm gonna be ready!" Harry declared. "When he does, I'm gonna kill him!"
The New Year came around, and Eva was ready for her first Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. Since Malfoy's arm was obviously back to full use and all that remained from Eva's injury was a barely noticeable scar, they were both fully cleared medically to play in the match.
Eva had been given a new Nimbus 2001 broomstick, identical to everyone else's on the team. She still felt like she looked stupid in her Quidditch robes, but she didn't particularly care.
The team simultaneously mounted their broomsticks, Eva near the front beside Flint, and took off onto the pitch. The stands were filled with cheering Slytherins and Ravenclaws as the teams flew loops around the stands.
"Hello and welcome to today's Quidditch game: Slytherin vs. Ravenclaw!"
Eva zoomed around some of the stands and met back up with the team again at the centre of the pitch between Warrington and one of the Slytherin Beaters. The weather was still freezing, so Eva's fingers were feeling numb, but the sky was clear and apparently free from Dementors this time around.
Hooch stepped out onto the field and opened the chest containing the balls. She glanced up at the two teams, one dressed in emerald green and the other in royal blue. Eva noticed her broom wobble slightly but she simply assumed it was due to the same strong gust of wind that ended up blowing a flyaway out of her hairclip.
"I expect a clean game from all of you, do you understand?" Hooch instructed firmly as she glanced up at them, her hands on her hips.
The players looked between each other and Eva gazed upwards where Malfoy was hovering above them opposite the Ravenclaw seeker. Now that it was all happening, Eva couldn't have been more excited.
Meanwhile, in the stands, Lucius Malfoy was spectating the game beside Snape. Lucius glanced down at the team below with a confused frown on his face.
"Is that . . . the Infernum girl?" he questioned.
Snape simply hummed in confirmation, observing the game closely.
"And I thought the team could fall no lower," Lucius remarked quietly. "A mudblood on the Slytherin Quidditch team? Simply an abomination if you ask me."
The Bludgers and the Snitch were soon released, followed by the Quaffle which was grabbed skilfully by Flint. The game instantly began, with the Ravenclaw Chasers frantically swiping at the ball while Flint swerved around their every attempt.
Eva flew much closer to the goal. Just before one of the Ravenclaw Chasers was able to knock the ball out of Flint's arms, he threw it over to her. Using her previous Volleyball skills, Eva easily bumped it straight through one of the hoops, earning the Slytherin team the first goal of the match.
Throughout the stands, the Slytherins cheered triumphantly as Eva laughed, adrenaline pumping through her veins while she flew in excited circles and loops.
"And Eva Infernum scores for Slytherin! 10 points!"
As she swerved through the field, she high-fived Flint. "Not bad, Infernum," he remarked, almost disappointed that he was wrong about her Quidditch abilities.
The Quaffle was then retrieved by one of the Ravenclaws, who managed to agilely dodge everyone who came in their path. Eva inadvertently knocked one of their players off their broom during her attempts at retrieving the Quaffle, but she wasn't given a chance to dwell on it.
Just as Eva began to steer her broom to the side, she noticed something was seriously wrong. The broom seemed to be flying itself, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't control the direction it travelled in.
This wasn't like when Harry's broom had been cursed by Quirrell, she noticed. No, hers wasn't specifically trying to knock her off but instead it was simply moving on its own accord without any instruction.
When she thought it couldn't get much worse, a Bludger came flying directly at Eva. She ducked downwards as quickly as possible so that it just scraped the top of her head and she heard a series of gasps and "ooh" sounds through the crowds.
"But what's this? Eva Infernum seems to have lost control of her broomstick!"
Eva realised she needed to get off the broom, and stat, but she wasn't entirely sure how she would do that. Then a really dumb idea came to her head, dumb but certainly her only option.
She spun upside down on the broomstick so that her arms and legs were wrapped around the handle, using her weight to drag it downwards. Surprisingly, it worked, and she felt herself gliding closer to the ground, although in a rather uncoordinated fashion.
Eva glanced over her shoulder and saw the grass of the field just below her. Knowing she didn't have many other options, she took a deep breath and let go.
Only for a moment was she flying through the air before she slammed straight into the hard ground. Her right foot made impact first, and she felt a sudden pain shoot straight through her knee. Her body skidded to a halt on the lawn so that she was lying on her back as the game continued above her.
Eva attempted to sit up, propping her weight up on her hands, but her knee was causing her pain every time she moved a single part of her. At least it wasn't broken, since the bones were clearly intact.
"Eva!"
She turned her head to the side and saw Cedric of all people running out of the stands towards her. He knelt down beside her, his eyes moving between her tearful expression and her injured knee.
"Cedric? Wh-what are you doing here?" she asked him, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand.
"I came to watch your first game, and maybe it's a good thing I did," he chuckled under his breath. "What happened up there?"
Eva shrugged and then winced at the pain the movement caused. "I-I don't know. My broom just started flying in all directions so I jumped off before it had the chance to kill me. I think my knee's hurt too."
Cedric nodded. "Wait there," he ordered, making his way over to her neglected broomstick. He knelt beside it and examined it closely before turning his gaze back to her. "Eva, did you check this broomstick before riding it?"
"Um . . . no, why would I check my broomstick?" she asked.
With an exasperated sigh, he picked up the broomstick and carried it over to her. "This," he pointed to the name engraved in it; 'Nimbus 2001.2', "is a trick broomstick, Eva. Someone swapped yours with this instead. Classic prank, but not so good in an actual match."
"I'm confused," she murmured as she squinted to read the name closely again, "why would someone give me a trick broomstick?"
"I don't know," he pondered, "for any number of reasons. For now," he placed the broomstick back down again, "let's get you to Madam Pomfrey. Can you walk?"
Eva scoffed and hurled herself to her feet, trying to ignore the agonising pain this caused. "Of course I can walk."
She instantly regretted saying that because as soon as she took a step forward, she would've tripped over if Cedric hadn't caught her first.
"Need me to carry you?" he offered, still laughing.
"No, it's fine," she snapped, hopping painfully, "I can just hop, it's fine, I'm fine-"
Just as she almost lost her balance once more, Cedric lifted her up, one arm underneath her knees while the other supported her back. Ignoring her weak protests, he carried her back inside and up to the hospital wing.
Eva arrived back to the Slytherin dungeons that evening, fully healed minus her slightly purple and bruised knee. It turned out that she'd simply landed on it wrong and torn a ligament, but fortunately for her, torn ligaments were one of Pomfrey's specialities.
She knew that she was unlikely to be kept on the team after the scene she created. They already weren't keen on her playing in the first place, and the whole incident provided the perfect excuse for them to replace her.
Still in her Quidditch clothes minus the protective gear, Eva walked wobbly over to the Slytherin dorms. She didn't even spare a glance at everyone else, most of whom were either still in their Quidditch gear or wearing their green and silver scarves. She would've continued to ignore their stares if a nasally, bitchy voice hadn't called out for her.
"Oh, the little mudblood is sad over her terrible Quidditch game and her Hufflepuff boyfriend," Millicent mocked.
Pansy laughed tauntingly. "Aw no, is she gonna go and cry over her trick broomstick?" she sneered.
That was when Eva froze. She turned around slowly, wiping any remnants of tears from her eyes, and paced over to Pansy who was perched on the back of the sofa as usual.
"How do you know about the trick broomstick?" Eva questioned, her voice still quivering. "No one's been told about that yet except me and Cedric." She received no response, yet the silence spoke volume, which caused her to gasp. "It was you, wasn't it? Oh, you little bitch!"
Eva whipped her wand out from inside her green robes and angled it straight at Pansy's neck, her hand trembling in fury. Everyone in the room gasped, watching the scene with wide and surprised eyes. Pansy kept her head tilted back but otherwise didn't seem bothered by Eva's threat.
"What are you going to do then, Infernum?" Pansy asked, giggling manically. "You remember what Snape said before. You'd really bother to risk your unworthy place at this school just to hex me?"
Shaking her head, Eva stowed her wand away back in her robes. Pansy sat up again and laughed along with the other girls, but her laughter was cut short when Eva raised her hand at her and slapped her hard across the face.
"Fuck you, Pansy," Eva spat in her face, another hot tear running down her face as she ran out of the common room and back into the corridor.
Eva forced her legs to allow her to continue to run, at least a little farther away from the dungeons where anyone could easily catch up with her. Unfortunately for her, there weren't many places she could go to due to the time of day. Curfew was only less than an hour away.
The one place she knew she could go to was the library. Eva pushed the heavy wooden door open and wandered through, hoping she'd find at least someone she knew or something to occupy herself with. She sighed of relief when she saw Hermione at the main table in the middle with a large book open, again probably for "light reading".
"Eva?" Hermione asked, noticing her red, blotchy eyes and the slight limp on her right leg. "What happened to you?"
Eva took a deep breath and sat down beside Hermione. "Worst Quidditch game ever," she sobbed, wiping her eyes using a tissue Hermione had handed to her. "Pansy switched my broom for a trick broom, a 'Nimbus 2001.2'. I fell off, and I heard they're gonna kick me off the team for it."
"What?!" Hermione yelled. "They can't kick you off the team, not after all the effort you put in to get on in the first place. You're better than even your team's captain, for goodness sake. Have you told any of the teachers about Pansy?"
Eva shook her head. "That's the whole reason I'm here. She accidentally told me it was her and I slapped her in the face. There's no way I'm going back there, not after that."
"I wouldn't expect you too," Hermione agreed. "What are you going to do now?"
"I don't know," Eva sighed leaning her head tiredly on the table. "I can't go back there near any of them, but I share a dorm with Pansy. By now, she's probably wrecked half of my stuff. I . . . guess I'll just have to stay here past curfew and hope that Filch doesn't come in to get me in detention."
Hermione placed her hand on Eva's shoulder and rubbed it soothingly. "I'm sorry Eva."
Eva nodded and took Hermione's glass of water from her, holding it up in the air. "Here's to my failed Quidditch career."
It was past midnight when Eva successfully snuck her way back into the common room. As soon as she entered the empty room, the fireplace blazed up, courtesy of Hecate, filling the otherwise cold room with a warm glow.
Eva prepared herself some Pot Noodles, chicken flavour, and sat down in front of one of the sofas by the fire with a blanket around her shoulders and a fork in her hand.
Hecate appeared beside her. "Why do you feel guilty?"
Eva stopped twirling the noodles around her fork and glanced up at her demon. "What do you mean? I'm not guilty, I have no reason to be. Pansy's the bitch, and she paid the price."
Hecate patted her shoulder. "That's the spirit, sugarplum. Though I did tell you that Hogwarts doesn't like bad language. Guess you've already forgotten, but that's hormonal teenagers for you."
"If you're not going to say anything helpful, just sod off," Eva muttered without breaking eye contact with the plastic pot in her hand.
This time, to her surprise, Hecate actually did as she was told, although the approaching footsteps made her realise why. Eva's head darted around to search for the source of the noise, but she was relieved to see that it wasn't any of the bitchy Slytherin girls but instead Blaise Zabini.
"Phew, it's just you," Eva sighed.
Blaise sat opposite her, leaning back against the opposite sofa. "I thought I heard someone down here, but I wasn't sure who it would be at 2 in the morning."
"That's me, the girl who sneaks out all night," Eva joked. "There's no way I'm going up to bed."
"Don't blame you, not after all of that," he said.
Eva offered him a spare fork. "Want some noodles?"
Blaise shook his head insistently. "I may be a food lover, but I'm not some kind of blood-traitor. You're a mudblood though, so help yourself."
"Pure bloods," Eva scoffed under her breath, picking at her food with her fork.
There was silence for a few moments, but to be honest there wasn't much to say between them. The pair weren't friends, not by a long stretch, and they didn't even usually say much to each other. His extreme pure blood supremacist views probably just added to their differences.
"What you did to Pansy was pretty rad," Blaise admitted, gaining her attention. "Been waiting for someone to do that to her for years now."
Eva drew her eyebrows together. "But I thought you liked Pansy? Every guy in here likes Pansy. You're the first guy I've met who doesn't."
"Hey, I have standards," he laughed quietly. "Nah, the guys here are less fond of Pansy than you'd expect. Anyway, she'd be an ideal girlfriend for anyone here, but she's really not my type, though she's Malfoy's apparently. She's too personality-less and . . . unattractive for me."
She shrugged. "Fair enough. Doesn't matter now though, I guess there'll be no need to wear these anymore." She gestured to her Quidditch outfit which she was still wearing, though the trousers now had a few grass stains from her fall earlier.
"Yeah, Flint really wanted you off," he noted with a yawn. "You'll be pleased to hear that he was convinced otherwise though, so you're spot on the team is safe."
"Convinced?" Eva questioned. "Who convinced him? Did you convince him?"
Blaise began to stand up again to head back to bed. "Not me, no. No, it was Malfoy, reminded Flint that it was a trick broom and you couldn't do anything about it, and they wouldn't have won without your goal. Anyway, I'm off to bed, 'night."
"'Night," she called quietly, though she wasn't paying attention.
Malfoy, the guy who hated her guts, who'd never shown an ounce of respect for her, who frequently called her "mudblood", who was the reason she remained injured for half of the year, who mocked her for wanting to even try out for Quidditch, who's father hated her even more than he himself did, fought for her spot on the Quidditch team?
This was a weird day.
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Author's note: Told you I'd have some petty jealous Pansy goodness. And Cedric, omfg he's so soft I love him awwww.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!