Eva woke up slowly, feeling like she'd just had the best nap of her life. She wasn't entirely sure what she'd missed, until she identified the hospital smell and realised she wasn't in her own bed.
Her eyes darted open as she checked her surroundings confusedly. She began to sit up but her entire body felt so tired and aching.
"Eva, don't get up so quickly!"
Hermione suddenly appeared in her line of vision, handing her a glass of water. Eva only took a few pathetic sips before placing the glass back down beside her bed.
"W-where—" Eva rubbed her temples as she attempted to refocus her eyes, "where am I? What-what happened to Lupin? What about Sirius?"
Hermione rolled her eyes humouredly. "Eva, did you even take a look at your arm while we were outside?"
Eva paused for a moment. "No . . . why is that important?"
Hermione nodded her head towards Eva's right arm. Confusedly, Eva glanced down at the rest of her body. Her hoodie had been removed and there were a few odd blood stains on some of her clothing. Bandages covered her right forearm and her knuckles for some reason.
"I don't know how someone can go for so long without realising they're bleeding," Hermione mused as she sat on the edge of Eva's bed. "You fainted because you bled out so much. Snape had to carry you half of the way back here and Hecate the other half. Your jumper . . ."
Almost reluctantly, Hermione lifted up the discarded clothing from the back of the chair beside Eva's bed. The light grey fabric of her entire right sleeve, from her elbow downwards, was completely covered in blood, to the point where it looked like it had been dipped in dark red paint. There were several tears and holes too, presumably from Sirius' dog teeth.
"Oh, damn it," Eva whined. "I promised my mum I wouldn't get into any more trouble. If I go home with a blood-soaked hoodie and bandages all over my arm, that's definitely not going to put me in her good books."
Ron scoffed. "If you think your life is hard."
Eva turned her head to the bed beside hers and gasped. His leg was bandaged just as much as Eva's arm was as it sat elevated on several pillows. In all honesty, he looked absolutely miserable.
"But if Ron's there, and you're there," Eva pointed to Hermione, "where's Harry?"
Hermione bit her lip. "There's something we need to tell you, Eva. Sirius led Lupin away from us, but was seriously injured, and Harry went after him. They were both attacked by Dementors. Before you say anything," Eva held her gasp, "they are both okay—actually that's a lie. They've captured Sirius. The Dementors are going to perform a Kiss on him."
"B-but . . . what about Pettigrew?!" Eva shouted. "He's the one they should be destroying, not Sirius! There's got to be something we can do! Wait . . . is that why my knuckles are bandaged?"
Hermione nodded. "Those punches were admittedly very useful, and cool to witness, but they did nothing good to your hand."
A faint groaning sound came from across the room. Eva peered over and her gaze locked on Harry, who was in the bed opposite her, completely unconscious. Well, he had been completely unconscious. He began to move slightly and shake his head, as if waking up from a haunting nightmare.
Hermione went over to stand beside his bed. "Harry?" she asked softly.
Harry's eyes fluttered open. "I-I saw my dad," he announced quietly.
'Yep, definitely gone around the bend, that one,' Hecate remarked.
"What?" Hermione asked.
"He sent the Dementors away," Harry insisted. "I saw him across the lake."
Hermione shook her head. "Look, just listen, Harry. They've captured Sirius. Any minute, the Dementors are going to perform a Kiss."
Harry bolted upright, his eyes wide with horror. "You mean they're gonna kill him?"
Again, Hermione shook her head in denial. "No, it's worse, much worse," she explained. "They're going to suck out his soul."
The doors to the hospital wing suddenly slammed open, causing Eva's heart to skip a beat. She placed her bandaged hand over her chest and glanced over at the source of the noise. Dumbledore walked straight through, his light grey robes billowing behind him.
Both Harry and Hermione stood up, desperately pleading with him. "Headmaster, you've got to stop them!" Hermione insisted. "They've got the wrong man!"
"It's true, sir, Sirius is innocent!" Harry protested.
Ron sat up slightly. "It was Scabbers who did it."
"Scabbers?" Dumbledore questioned.
"Scabbers was the name of his rat, who was actually Peter Pettigrew in animagus form," Eva explained.
Ron nodded. "He's my rat, sir. But he's not really a rat, but he was a rat."
"Ron, I've already explained that part sweetie," Eva cooed condescendingly.
He narrowed his eyes at her. "He was my brother Percy's rat, but then-"
"Point is, we know the truth," Hermione cut in. "Please believe us."
Dumbledore shook his head gravely. "I do, Miss. Granger, but I'm sorry to say the word of four 13 year old wizards will convince few others." He moved to stand beside Ron. "A child's voice, however honest and true, is meaningless," he patted Ron's injured leg, causing him to whimper in pain, "to those who've forgotten how to listen.
A few bells chimed in the distance. "Mysterious thing, time. Powerful and, when meddled with, dangerous." Dumbledore stopped by the door. "Sirius Black is in the topmost cell of the Dark Tower." He spun around quickly. "You know the laws, Miss. Granger. You must not be seen, and you would do well, I feel, to return before this last chime. If not, the consequences are too ghastly to discuss."
"Do you have any idea what he's saying?" Eva whispered to Ron.
Ron simply shrugged, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he attempted to make sense of Dumbledore's explanation.
"If you succeed tonight," Dumbledore murmured, "more than one innocent life may be spared. Three turns should do it, I think."
Dumbledore then left, but stopped just before he closed the doors behind him. "Oh, by the way, when in doubt, I find retracing my steps to be a wise place to begin. Good luck."
The door then closed fully with a loud creak. "What the bloody hell was that all about?" Ron asked.
Hermione turned around briefly. "Sorry you two, but seeing as you can't walk."
She looped some kind of necklace around both her and Harry. Eva glanced between Ron and the other two, watching to see what would actually happen.
Hermione began fiddling with part of the necklace and the pair faded away. At that exact same moment, Hermione and Harry both ran in through the doors to the hospital, slightly more rugged and tired than they'd been before.
"What the fuck is happening?" Eva asked slowly.
Ron pointed at them. "How did you get there? We were talking to you there." He pointed where they had been. "And now you're there."
"What are they talking about, Harry?" Hermione asked, treating them as if they had lost their minds.
Harry shrugged, but Eva knew something had happened by his subtle smirk. "I dunno. Honestly, you two, how can someone be in two places at once?"
The next week passed quite quickly for Eva. Her mind was at rest, knowing that both Buckbeak and Sirius were safe and alive, and strangely few questions were asked about her arm. People were simply used to her being injured at this point, so yet another injury seemed to make no difference.
Malfoy, unsurprisingly, had been pretty glum after the news that Buckbeak had escaped. Eva knew that Malfoy was annoying as he was, but as soon as sadness or disappointment was added to the mix, he tended to be horrendous to be around.
"Outsmarted by a game-keeper," Malfoy muttered yet again as he lazily picked at his bacon and eggs.
Eva laughed under her breath. "In fairness, you wanted to donate Buckbeak's head to the Gryffindor common room."
"And they would be thanking me," he snarked. "That thing is a hazard to society."
"Is not," she argued.
"Is too!" he snapped. "It almost took off my arm!"
Eva rolled her eyes. "Again with the arm. Malfoy, I'm dealing with my third injury this year. Third! So just give it a rest with your arm. At least that was healed the night you injured it."
"I was still experiencing agony," he countered.
"I don't think whining like a newborn baby counts as agony," she teased. "Remember, Madam Pomfrey said you were completely healed, but you kept arguing with her the entire time. Your arm was fine."
He shook his head. "No it wasn't."
Eva raised an eyebrow. "No? For an injured arm, you seemed to have no problem with using it to shove people across the room. Yeah, I saw you in that boggart lesson with Lupin. You were shoving Gryffindors all over the place."
"They were in my way, and it was still painful regardless," he snapped. "I'm so glad that the werewolf is gone, though. How Dumbledore could ever bring in someone so dangerous and incapable of teaching is beyond me."
She rolled her eyes. "Lupin is not dangerous. He may be a werewolf, but he doesn't just sit there at the front of the class and eat child sacrifices we bring to his desk. And secondly, he's way better than any Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher we've had."
"I disagree," Malfoy muttered.
"Come on, at least he knows something about the dark arts! Quirrell was a host for good ol' Voldy, and Lockhart was a self-obsessed fraud who's currently staying in St. Mungo's because he quite literally remembers nothing."
Malfoy paused for a moment and then shrugged in agreement. "He was a horrendous teacher, but in no way was he worse than Lupin."
Eva stared at him blankly. "Lupin controlled a boggart, and he can perform a Patronus charm against Dementors. Lockhart took one look at a bunch of Cornish Pixies and skedaddled straight into his office. I had to whack one out of all that hair gel you used to use."
"My hair gel?" he sneered. "What are you suggesting? There was absolutely nothing wrong with my hair."
Eva tried to suppress a laugh. "You spent 20 minutes every morning perfecting that perfectly gelled style, and you even used a fine comb to ensure each of the strands lay flat and neat."
"And how do you know that?" Malfoy snapped, although he suddenly seemed considerably less sure of himself.
"I have a demon, you know, and you were only a few walls away, making it very easy for Hecate to see and mock you," she taunted.
"Stupid demon," he muttered.
"Call her stupid, but I know that you would point at yourself and pose in the mirror every morning," she laughed, standing up out of the way with her empty plate before Malfoy could throw something at her. "Bon appétit, spaghetti hair."
Fortunately, the Hogwarts Express back from school was much less eventful than it had been at the start of the year. Eva spent the duration of the journey with Fred and George, playing several rounds of Exploding Snap and even starting a tournament with some of the other crazy boys in the twins' year.
Once the train pulled up at Platform 9 and ¾, the rest of Eva's family were all standing there, waiting for her to arrive. Her brother Toby looked like he wanted to be literally anywhere but there, Daisy looked as sassy as ever, and Luke, freshly returned from University, seemed like he was brimming with sarcastic comments to use against her.
"Eva, you're back!" Her mother ran up to her and enveloped her into an embarrassingly tight hug.
Over her mother's shoulder, Eva saw Malfoy walk past, but didn't miss the taunting grin he gave her as he left the platform with Crabbe and Goyle. She managed to flip him off as they left, which only made Malfoy laugh harder and her father raise a warning eyebrow at her.
Just as Eva was pulling off her jumper in the warm station to hand it to her father to hold, her mother stopped her. "Eva, what's that on your arm? And your face?!"
Toby glanced up from the ground momentarily and his eyes widened when he did. "Whoa."
"Uh-oh, did someone get in trouble again?" Luke laughed with his arms crossed over his chest.
"Not the time, Luke," her mother scolded. "Look at this," she held up her arm to examine it closely, "it's bandaged and . . . bruised too! And your face! Is that . . . medical tape? Just there, just above your eyebrow. What did I say to you about staying out of trouble this year? Just for one year at least! Is it truly that hard to stay alive, just for your mother?! It's like I'm talking to myself!"
Eva laughed awkwardly and glanced down at the ground to avoid her ice-cold glare. "It's . . . er . . . it's a long story."
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Author's note: I know, I know, the last update was only 6 hours ago, but I already had this one prepared and got bored, so you get it wayyy earlier than planned. I was just too excited to wait!
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!