"Come on, you need to get out of the school for once in your life," she urged him. "No one knows for how much longer we'll have all this before Voldy destroys it, so live a little."

Eva was holding Draco's hand, practically dragging him through the snowy village of Hogsmeade. He'd been so cooped up indoors, and she had no idea why he'd been acting so distant, but she knew she couldn't just leave him to stew and suffer in silence. Okay, so maybe forcing the angry ferret to go on a Hogsmeade date with her was a dumb solution, but it was better than nothing.

Squeezing past a few tall people—tall to Eva, anyway—they entered the Three Broomsticks. Draco dusted off his shoes and Eva proceeded to do the same, also slipping off her hat and gloves and placing them in her pocket.

"Come, let's find a table," she suggested positively as they weaved through the pub, stopping at a table for two. "Are you sure you're alright?" she asked, glancing up at Draco while he placed his tailored coat over the back of his chair. "You look pale."

He gulped. "I-I'm fine," he replied distantly, his eyes darting across the room as they sat down. "You having a Butterbeer?"

Eva shook her head. "I've grown fond of their cherry syrup and soda, no idea why."

Once they ordered their drinks, what would've regularly been a lively conversation between the pair was met with silence and clipped answers. Eva wasn't entirely sure why, whether it was that she'd changed or he had, but it just didn't sit right with her. Even his endless whining and complaining about muggle borns was more interesting than whatever this was.

"So," Eva sighed, tapping the edge of her glass with her nails and stirring her drink with her straw, "what do you think of Slughorn? As usual, on a scale of 1-10, 10 being alright and 1 being annoying as fuck."

Draco wasn't listening, instead staring into the distance and leaving the bottle of Butterbeer in front of him untouched. "Um, yeah."

With her eyebrows drawn together in confusion, she tapped his hand but, when he didn't respond immediately, she continued to poke him until his attention turned to her. "Not trying to be needy, but can I at least be heard when I'm talking to you?" she snarked. "Look," she sighed, "Draco, it doesn't take a genius to realise that something's up with you, but can you at least just talk to me rather than isolating yourself? I only ever worry about very few people, but you're on that list."

He had his arms rested on the table, his hands fumbling uncomfortably. "I-I don't feel too good," he said as he stood up, causing his chair to squeak painfully against the floor. "I'm just going to pop to the toilet and head back to the castle."

Eva nodded in understanding but, just before she could grab her coat too, Draco stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"It's fine, you can stay here," he assured her as he slid his coat neatly over his shoulders and placed his black leather gloves back on. "Go and sit with mudblood, Weasel-Bee, and Potter."

Slightly confused, Eva looked into his silver eyes. For once, she couldn't tell the genuineness of his words. Generally, he had quite expressive eyes, allowing her to tell his true emotions hidden by his words, but now they just seemed cold and closed-off.

She sighed as she picked up her coat and half-finished drink. "Fine," she relented, not in the mood to argue, "just get back safe and stay out of trouble, okay?"

He simply nodded and brushed a quick kiss against her hairline as he left towards the back of the pub. Now that she was alone, Eva carried her things over to the table Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sat at. She placed her coat over the back of the empty chair and sat her glass on the table beside Hermione.

"Hey guys," Eva said brightly as she joined in their conversation.

"Hey," they all mumbled in unison, equally unenthusiastic.

"I thought you came here with Malfoy," Harry inquired.

Eva sighed. "Yeah, but he wasn't feeling great, so he's going home early. I offered to go with him, but he wanted to go alone."

Harry seemed unconvinced, only offering a sceptical hum in response. He then waved suddenly over her shoulder, prompting her to turn her head. Slughorn was standing directly behind them with a mug of Butterbeer in his hands.

"Harry, my boy!" Slughorn exclaimed, shaking Harry's hand.

"Hello, sir," Harry replied somewhat timidly, "wonderful to see you."

"And you, and you," Slughorn said.

Harry cleared his throat unnecessarily. "So, what brings you here?"

While they continued their conversation, Eva felt a sudden painful burning sensation in her arm. This had become a regular occurrence, Voldemort taking opportunities to ruin her day by burning her skin during what happened to often be the most inconvenient moments. Trying to remain as discreet as possible with her actions, she slipped her bottle of Burning Bitterroot Potion out of her pocket and handed it to Hermione under the table.

"Can you unscrew the lid?" Eva whispered while she winced in pain.

Hermione nodded and quickly pulled the lid off. Placing her fingers inside the bottle, Eva collected a small amount of potion on her right hand and slid it up her sleeve. The potion got to work instantly, the soothing effect acting like water to a blazing fire. She sighed heavily as the burning became only a slight tingling feeling once more.

Just as she'd finally freed herself from the pain, it seemed that Slughorn had been so deep in conversation with Harry that he'd forgotten about Eva and Hermione still sat down beside him. He tipped his glass to the side, causing them both to get completely splashed by his drink. Eva's lap was now covered in Butterbeer as she frantically wiped it away with the end of her scarf.

"All hands on deck, Infernum!" he exclaimed while Hermione used the Scourgify spell to quickly clean both of them up. "Listen, my boy, in the old days, I used to throw together the occasional supper party, for the select student or two. Would you be game?"

Harry seemed taken aback for a moment. "Well, I'd consider it an honour, sir."

Slughorn was pleased, turning to the two girls sat at the table. "You would be welcome too, Granger, and you, Infernum."

Hermione laughed. "I'd be delighted, sir."

"As long as I don't get any more Butterbeer spilled on me," Eva frowned at the slightly damp state of her clothes, "then I'm game."

"Splendid." Slughorn smiled happily. "Look for my owl!" He turned to Ron briefly before leaving. "Good to see you too, Wallenby."

Once he left, Eva snorted with laughter, rubbing potion into her skin from under her sleeve. "That was brutal, Ron Weasley, or should I say Ronald Wallenby."

Ron narrowed his eyes at her and took an overly aggressive sip of his Butterbeer, only making her laugh harder.


Once Eva finally made it back to Draco's dorm successfully, she angrily threw down her coat, scarf and gloves on the end of his bed. Draco was in the room, but it looked like he'd only just come in himself, judging by the remaining tidiness of his suit and the fact that he hadn't even untied his tie or kicked off his expensive shoes yet.

"You won't believe what just happened!" Eva grumbled as she bustled around the room, placing things away and changing out of her jeans into some grey joggers. "On the way back from Hogsmeade, we reached the end of that main path, and guess who was there?!" Draco shrugged unbotheredly as he flipped through his book. "Katie Bell, and guess what happened to her?! She was cursed!"

Draco's hand halted turning the next page in his book. He stared solidly at the worn pages, apparently deep in thought, although it was difficult to tell about what.

"Yeah, nuts, right? It's like how Sirius used to always warn us, 'the devils are in the walls'," she rambled continuously. "So when I say cursed, I mean like probably would've died kinda cursed, can you believe it? Anyway, we get back to the castle and talk to Snape and McGonagall about it, and guess what Harry says? He has the audacity to blame you! With no evidence! Can you believe it?! As if you'd do something like that!" She looked to him but he didn't respond. "Draco?"

"Crazy, yes," he answered somewhat uncomfortably, "h-how was she cursed?"

Eva shrugged as she moved to sit beside him on the bed, her head resting against his shoulder and her fingers playing with the ends of his hair. "Some kind of cursed necklace I think? Apparently she'd been forced to take it to Dumbledore. Now that could've ended pretty badly. Sad though, right? Katie was so nice too, don't you think?" She sighed. "Aside from that craziness, I've been invited to Slughorn's little evening dinner tomorrow night, along with Hermione and Harry, but apparently not Ron. He called him 'Wallenby', which is a new one for me, but I think it kinda has a ring to it-"

"Slughorn's?" Draco tilted his head up but didn't look directly at her. "Do you mean the Slug Club?"

"The-what now?"

"The Slug Club," he repeated himself. "A society for his favourite students. Most people he invites go off to lead successful lives and careers, and he gets the benefits from being associated to them."

"Well," she swished her hair back unnecessarily, "I've always thought of myself as the charismatic type. Don't worry though, when I have my millions, I'll be sure to share," she joked.


Eva arrived at the Slug Club dinner at a fashionably late time, wearing a black miniskirt with yet another curve-hugging long-sleeved top which was thick enough to fully cover her arms. As her eyes scanned the pretty much full table, she spotted Hermione and Harry, Cormac McLaggen who she really couldn't stand even the mere sight of, but also surprisingly Blaise.

McLaggen stared at her for a moment, licking a small droplet of ice-cream off his fingers in a way she assumed was supposed to be seductive. He did that with both her and Hermione very frequently, apparently not caring at all about the fact that she was in a public relationship with Draco already. She had to admit, it wasn't that McLaggen was necessarily unattractive, but his mere presence just made her feel oddly uncomfortable.

"Phew," Blaise pulled out an empty chair beside him, "thought I was going to have to put up with this sorry lot alone," he murmured quietly.

Eva sat down beside him and took a light sip of champagne that had been poured. "Glad to know I'm not part of that lot."

He shrugged. "Well, you've been shagging Malfoy for a year, so I tolerate you slightly more than most."

At that, she almost snorted her drink up her nose. Her sudden loud spluttering laugh seemed to catch everyone's attention, including Slughorn who had been in deep conversation with Harry.

"Oh, Infernum, my dear, didn't see you there. It's wonderful to have you here," he greeted happily. "And your first name is, sorry?"

"Eva," she reached across Blaise to shake his hand, "nice to see you, sir."

"You too, you too." He smiled happily, probably enjoying being surrounded by so much promising potential. "So, your parents are something special indeed, from what I've heard. Tell me, what has your mother been up to as of late?"

Eva pursed her lips in thought. "Well, she still does occasionally do work representing non-wizards within the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, but not nearly as much as previously. It also might interest you to know that she's had the same rivalry with Lucius Malfoy for 20 or so years now."

"Your mum doesn't like Malfoy's father?" Harry asked.

Eva shook her head. "Not from what I've heard. Any time I bring up the Malfoy's, even Draco, she has something negative to say about Lucius. It's funny though, I have to admit, but anyway, her work's been more sparse as of recently."

"Hm, interesting," Slughorn mused. "And what of your demon?"

"Me?" Hecate appeared behind Eva, leaning against the back of her chair casually. "Aside from fighting against the forces of evil in this world to maintain peace between humans, I also feed off of souls and I've been told that I'm a talented hair stylist."

Eva pinched the bridge of her nose. Having a demon had its ups and downs, but there were definitely more downsides, especially in that moment.

She glanced up. "Finished now, Catrina?"

Hecate rolled her eyes. "I was just speaking to the nice gentleman, sugarplum," she retorted, disappearing behind her chair.

"As you can see," Eva motioned to the empty space behind her, "Hecate tends to make random appearances, and doing so makes my eyes glow red."

"Incredible," Slughorn breathed. "And what about you, Miss. Granger? What does your family do in the muggle world?"

"My parents are dentists," Hermione responded, sending the room into an awkward silence. She gulped slightly. "They tend to people's teeth."

"Fascinating," Slughorn remarked. "And is that considered a dangerous profession?"

Eva's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Would you say it's particularly dangerous to poke around other people's mouths?" she asked, bewildered at the lack of common sense the wizarding community held sometimes.

"No," Hermione concluded, although for some reason she felt the need to fill the void of silence. "Although, one boy, Robbie Fenwick, did bite my father once. He needed 10 stitches," she laughed. "Another odd fact is that boy used to go to the same primary school as Eva, and she even had a crush on him apparently."

Eva's cheeks turned bright red. "Hermione, we talked about this," she whispered across the table.

"But it's funny," Hermione laughed again, which seemed to be the only thing that lifted the awkwardness of the conversation.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: More Draco weirdness, that's cute. In case you haven't noticed, shit's about to hit the fan very soon, I promise. Realistically, it's not like he'd be able to keep a secret like that from her for that long, especially considering how much they gossip together haha.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!