Eva's eyes darted open.
The pain in her arm was killing her. She'd tried to sleep with it, hoping the ache would simply fade away during the night, but she couldn't have been more wrong. If anything, this was the worst she'd ever felt it.
Still half asleep, she rolled out of Draco's bed with a green throw blanket wrapped around her, slipped her bottle of Burning Bitterroot Potion out from her bag, and left the pitch black room. She tiptoed down the stairs towards the common room, fortunately finding it empty.
It always felt surreal, seeing the usually lively room so desolate at that time of night. The only noise at all was the faint ticking of the clock above the mantelpiece, which read 3 o'clock in the morning.
Sitting down in front of the fire with her legs crossed underneath her and the blanket over her shoulders, Eva rolled up her left sleeve and uncapped the bottle. Hecate had already started up a fire which provided a comfortable warm lighting for her to work with.
She heard Hecate sit down on the floor beside her with a sigh. "Did you check the bed beside you before you got up?" Hecate asked her.
Eva paused her efforts of rubbing in the potion and sideways glanced at her demon. "No," she replied tiredly, "why?"
Hecate shrugged. "No reason. You'll find out in just a moment."
Eva opened her mouth to question her but she'd already disappeared from view once more. Glancing down at the mark on her arm, Eva traced the lines along the skull and the snake that curled out from the mouth with her fingertip. They were as clear as day, a defined black colour with not a single line smudged in the intricate pattern.
She remembered what Dumbledore had said, about Voldemort's work being incomplete until she had joined him, whether that was willingly or under the Imperius Curse. It hurt to think that someone like that existed, someone so cruel, so heartless, so inhuman, so evil.
Her bottle of Burning Bitterroot was still almost completely full, fortunately. Of course, if she ran out she could always somehow figure out a way to persuade Snape to brew her some more, but if he couldn't, that would've been horrendous.
Just as she began to screw the cap back onto the clear glass bottle, she froze.
There was the sound of a door creaking open, followed by quiet footsteps entering the common room. Very cautiously, she slid the potion bottle out of sight behind one of the dark green leather sofas.
It didn't make sense for anyone to be awake still, especially past curfew during this kind of time, where Death Eaters were constantly attempting to infiltrate and thus destroy the school. Trying to attract as little attention to herself as possible, she peered over the top of the opposite sofa to see who it could possibly be.
She gasped. "Draco?"
Draco was standing only a few metres away from her. He was still in his uniform, although his tie had been removed and the top few buttons of his shirt had been undone, and his white blonde hair was the same mess it often was after he'd combed his fingers through it several times when stressed. She hadn't seen it that messy since their OWL exams months ago.
"E-Eva," he said slowly, just as unmoving as she was.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, tugging her sleeve down before he could notice anything. "I thought you were already in bed."
Draco paused for a moment. "I could say the same to you," he retorted. "I thought you'd already fallen asleep."
"I . . ." Eva sighed, "I didn't feel well." Well, that was partially true, anyway. "Now I've answered my question, it's your turn to answer yours. Where were you?"
"Um . . .," there was a moment of silence as he debated his answer, "actually, now that I think about it, I'm not feeling too great so I'm just going to-"
"Draco!" she snapped, instantly stopping him from leaving the room. "Get back here before I haul your arse here myself."
Eva could see the reluctancy in his steps as he slowly turned back around and paced across the room towards her. His hands fumbling with the ends of his robe, he hesitantly sat down on the floor opposite her, his legs bent slightly and his elbows resting on his knees.
"Where were you?" she repeated again, pulling her sleeves even further down her arms.
He sighed, resting his forehead against his palm. "Does it matter?"
Eva made a confused noise. "Wha—of course it matters!" She suddenly realised she was raising her voice and decided to lower her volume to a murmur to prevent waking up any of the others in their house. "Draco, you've been acting weird since the summer. You've been distant, you've been distracted, you don't play Quidditch anymore," she counted each of these on her fingers, "you don't bully first and second years anymore, you don't pick on Harry, you got a detention for not doing any assignments for Transfiguration for goodness sake. For once, can you please just tell me what's been happening to you recently?"
"Eva," Draco groaned irritatedly, "can you stop making such a big problem out of everything? It's not important, seriously. Can we just go to bed now?"
She placed her hand on his wrist before he could get up. "Not until I get answers. I know you're lying, I can see it. Hecate, is he lying?" Eva's eyes visibly glowed red for a moment before reverting back to their lime green shade. "She said yes. Look, what could it possibly be that's so bad that you feel the need to hide it from me?"
Rather than reply, he simply refused to make eye contact with her. Instead, he stared at the floor beneath them and just shook his head.
"Please," she protested, "just tell me, Draco. Shockingly enough, I do love you and care about you, no matter how much you may want to deny it. Anyway, I'm sure you're secret isn't as big as mine," she bragged playfully
He glanced up at her very briefly, with a look that seemed to be masking humour. "I know what you're doing, but that trick hasn't worked on me since I was a child."
She rolled her eyes. "You are a child, ferret boy, you're only 16. Why can't you just tell me?"
Eva hadn't even realised she was still holding Draco's wrist until he abruptly yanked it away and crossed his arms over his chest.
"I-I just can't," he responded quietly.
"Where were you then?" she asked again. "It's 3 in the morning, why are you still up and dressed? Why are you walking around school alone at this time-"
"Stop," he interrupted, finally looking her in the eyes. The expression in his eyes seemed almost desperate. "Please. If I could tell you, I would, but I just can't. Why can't you just accept that?"
The further they got into their conversation, the more Eva was reminded of what Harry had been convinced of for so long. The claims he'd made, the wild, ridiculous, and honestly preposterous statements he'd put out about Draco and his family. She'd convinced herself that it wasn't possible, but time was starting to prove her wrong.
"D-Draco," she took a deep breath, "can I please see your arm?"
Draco went silent for a moment. "What?"
"Your left arm," she clarified, "I need to see your arm. I need to check something."
"No," he replied quickly.
Just as he began to climb to his feet, Eva managed to grab his elbow and pull him back down again. Before he had the chance to escape, she picked up her wand from where it had been left with her blanket and pointed it at his left arm.
"Locomotor."
The ends of his sleeves rose up despite the fact that he attempted to hold them down with his free hand. Stubbornly, she refused to remove her grip of his left arm, holding it out clearly for her to see.
Eva gasped. Across the pale skin on the inside of his left arm was a dark outlined mark, with the all too familiar skull and snake pattern branded into his flesh.
The Dark Mark.
She opened her mouth to try and say something, but no words would come out. "What?" she eventually whispered.
"E-Eva, it's—" he gulped, "it's not what it looks like-"
"It's not?" she questioned. "Because it looks to me like you're a Death Eater now, no? You've chosen your side, and it's Voldemort? It was you, wasn't it?" She looked up at him, a subtle rage brewing in her eyes. "You cursed Katie Bell, didn't you? You were trying to get Dumbledore killed?"
"Eva, just let me explain-"
"Do it then," she snapped, "explain. Explain this, explain how you willingly took the Dark Mark, explain how you plotted a murder, explain how you performed an illegal curse which almost got Katie killed."
"You don't get it," he argued, "don't talk about something you don't understand. I was chosen for this task, the Dark Lord chose me. I don't need your approval for everything I do."
"But why?" she pressed, her anger slowly bubbling up. "Why would you do this? What reason could you possibly have for becoming a Death Eater?!"
"I don't need to explain anything to you!" he hissed. "What about this is so difficult to understand?! I have to do this!"
"Why?!" she almost shouted.
"Because he'll kill me!"
There was a long regretful pause. Eva's heart was racing in her chest, and her breaths were still quick and even, but her gradually brewing rage had completely dissipated with a single sentence. It was clear that his response had been unintentional, the wary and pained look in his eyes gave him away, but it hadn't been the answer she'd been expecting nonetheless.
"I have no choice," he muttered sadly, "I can't disappoint the Dark Lord. I've been trusted with this task. If I don't do this, I . . ." he trailed off, his eyes becoming slightly red and watery. "But you're not supposed to know," he gazed over her shoulder and blinked a few times to clear his eyes, "no one is. I've already failed just by allowing you to find out. I've just put you and everyone else in more danger."
"Draco," she whispered, gaining his attention.
Figuring that it was only fair for him to know her secret if she knew his, she very hesitantly reached for the bottom of her left sleeve, rolling it up towards her elbow. Sometimes it even startled her, the unexpected appearance of the horrific mark decorating her skin. She moved her left arm so that it was side by side with his, noticing that they were now completely identical.
Without a single sound leaving him, Draco's eyes widened in horror, switching between her face and her arm. "But you—you," he mumbled, "why?"
"How the tables have turned," she joked in an attempt to relieve some of the tension between them. "This isn't at all what it looks like."
"But—but you joined—you joined us, you joined the Dark Lord—all this time you've-"
"Stop," she cut in, "you're rambling. During the summer, I was—I suppose you could say abducted—by Voldemort with the assistance of his Death Eaters, including crazy auntie Bella. I honestly don't know how I'm still alive," she confessed.
"Why would he give you the mark?" Draco questioned impatiently.
Eva sighed a trembled breath. "He wants me for my, shall we say, gifts. His plan was to Imperius me and add me to the Death Eaters, but he only got this far when I escaped."
"Does . . . who knows?" he asked.
"I've been made to keep it a secret," she answered. "There's . . . well, you've probably heard of the Order of the Phoenix by now, being a Death Eater, so they know, plus Harry, Ron, and Hermione. I had to leave home too. I'm being fostered by the Weasleys, since I'm less likely to be attacked if I'm with a magical family."
"Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.
"Why didn't you tell me about yours?" she retorted. "At least I was forced into this, but you actually chose to join."
"What else was I supposed to do?" he snapped. "My father's been incarcerated in Azkaban, my family is mocked by the Dark Lord himself, I come from a long line of Death Eaters-"
"Draco," she interrupted, "what you said earlier, about him killing you . . . is that true?"
Only when Eva glanced up did she realise that his eyes had begun to water up once more. Tears that threatened to spill gathered beneath his eyelids, leaving a slight glint in his metallic silver irises.
"I have this year," Draco began, "to complete my task. I have to figure this out somehow, because otherwise he'll hurt my family, he'll hurt me, he'll hurt you."
One single teardrop leaked from his eyelid and ran down the side of his face. Tentatively, Eva shuffled closer and wrapped her arms around Draco. She was still unsure of how he would react, especially considering how closed-off he'd been recently, but she almost gasped when he leaned closer into her, something he never did, and began to sob quietly. His face was resting against her shoulder, his tears soaking her top.
She moved sideways so that she was sitting on his lap instead, still trying and mostly failing to soothe an emotionally distraught Draco. "Is there anything I can do?"
"You can't," he insisted, his face hidden behind her neck. "I've gotten you deep enough into this as it is. I've already put you in too much danger. I have to do this alone."
"No you don't," she argued. "Draco, firstly, I'm way too deep into this shit as it is. Secondly, so what if I'm put into more danger? It can't be any more danger than I'm already in. I'm pretty sure I'm near the top of Voldemort's hit list, no matter how you slice it. What have I actually got to lose? My family have demons to protect them, I have Hecate to protect me, and there are absolutely no expectations of me. Just let me help you."
He moved his head back to face her. "I don't want your help. Don't you get it? This is my life now. I'm not pulling you into this too."
Tugging down her sleeve further, Eva wiped away some of the tears from beneath his eyes. "What is it that you've been doing apparently every night?"
Draco gulped. "Repairing the Vanishing Cabinet."
"The—what now?" she asked confusedly.
He rolled his eyes. "The Vanishing Cabinet, it's in the Room of Hidden Things. It . . ." he paused for a moment, debating to himself whether he should tell her of his mission. "It acts as sort of a portal between that and its twin, which is located in Borgin and Burkes. I need to fix it so that it can be used to transport the others."
"And?" she asked. "How's it going so far?"
"I've already said, you're not helping," he snapped.
"I don't care, Draco!" She took a deep breath to keep herself calm. "I really don't care, because I'm not going to just sit back and watch as you almost get yourself killed over this psycho."
He sniffled slightly. "But why? Why would you do this for me? You can be safe, you can pretend you have no idea about this, you can stay out of this entire mess. Getting involved with my mission . . . it can get you killed, Eva."
"You wanna know why?" she asked in disbelief. "Because I fucking love you, you idiot, that's why! And what kind of asshole-y girlfriend watches from the sidelines as her boyfriend goes on mission impossible? If you were still with Pansy? Maybe, but me? Absolutely not. So, as I said before, how's it going so far?"
A very faint smile twitched at his lips. "Not well. It's . . . it's a tricky task to say the least. I've been reading up on it, and I think I've found a spell that will mend it, but it hasn't made much difference so far."
"Oh, so that's the book you've been reading," she realised. "Next time, just talk to me, okay? It might surprise you to hear that I was actually planning on breaking up with you if this shit went on for any longer."
His arms subconsciously tightened around her waist. "You were?"
"I was," she admitted. "I hear Cormac McLaggen's still single and ready to mingle."
Draco turned his nose up at the thought. "You wouldn't possibly choose that lion."
She shrugged. "You don't know, maybe I would. He's been hopelessly flirting with both me and Hermione all term, but if Hermione doesn't want him, I suppose I could always-"
"You didn't tell me anyone was flirting with you!" he exclaimed indignantly. "If I'd known, I would've gone there and hexed him until his ba-"
"He's a moron," Eva interjected, "you're wasting your time. You should've seen the way he kept winking at me, though. During Slughorn's dinner party a few hours ago, he was even licking his fingers in front of me."
Draco's previous sadness had been replaced with bitterness. Seeing his reaction, Eva decided it was probably a good idea to shut up at this point.
"But anyway, enough of that bullshit," she interrupted his train of thought, "I said if you would've kept this from me for any longer. We said no secrets."
He nodded. "No secrets."
"Promise me you won't keep any more secrets," she urged him, "and be serious this time. It's for the best for both of us."
He sighed. "I promise, no secrets."
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Author's note: I just couldn't wait any longer and had to have her find out. Ugh, so what do you think, did I do okay? I wanted to stay true to the characters, obviously, but writing this made me veryyy unsure of myself to be honest. I mean, at least this leaves room for the remaining progression in the Half-Blood Prince arc.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!
