Eva stood outside Hermione's house and waited for her friend to finally leave, wearing another pair of jeans as usual, with a t-shirt, her light grey coat over it, and a pair of Converse shoes. It was strange to think that this could quite possibly be the last time she'd be on this street. Eva had grown up in that same house all of her life, and she'd had her great grandmother tell her stories about Hogwarts in that very living room. To think that her entire childhood would be over in the space of a few minutes was, needless to say, terrifying.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and spun around. Hermione was standing just behind her, her wand in her right hand. "Did you want to say goodbye?" Hermione asked.

Eva hadn't even realised that she'd been staring at her own home instead of the Grangers'. Her family's TV was clearly on which she could tell from the flashing lights against the sheer white curtains, and she could even see her bedroom in the top window. From the looks of things, nothing had even been touched ever since she'd left a year ago.

Eva sighed. "No," she replied sadly. "I'll get too attached. I can't do that to myself or to them."

Hermione nodded in understanding and took her hand. "Let's go," she said quietly as they walked down the middle of their childhood street together, quite possibly for the last time.


Due to Eva making a bet that she could take a muggle train to Little Whinging and arrive by nightfall, Hermione was at Privet Drive quite some time earlier than her. By the time Eva had walked in the dark from the little train station to Harry's house, there was no one outside, but the lights were already on in the living room.

Tucking her purse into her bag, she opened the front door which had already been unlocked and walked straight into the living room. All previous furniture had been removed, so the Order members were stood around in a big circle.

"Sorry I'm late," Eva apologised as she organised her numerous train tickets and slid them into her pocket. "The tube was stupidly delayed and I got sat next to this lady who wanted me to pet her cat, and then I finally got on the actual train from London Victoria, but I had to stand because there wasn't enough space and I got squished into the window by this old sweaty guy," Hermione snorted a laugh and covered her mouth, "but I'm here, so what did I miss?"

"It's already been nightfall," Hermione remarked.

Eva sneered childishly at her. "It's not truth day, Hermy."

"I suppose we will start from the beginning for our," Moody glared at Eva, causing her to take a few wary steps back and stand between Fred and George instead, "latecomers. Potter, you're underage, and so are you Infernum-"

"My birthday was last week," she interjected.

Everyone in the room murmured a happy birthday, ashamed that they'd clean forgotten.

Eva rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, shut up, I know you forgot."

"In that case, Potter, you're underage, which means you've still got the Trace on you," Moody informed Harry.

"What's the Trace?" Harry asked.

"If you sneeze, the Ministry will know who wipes your nose," Moody replied. "We have to use those means of transport the Trace can't detect: Brooms, Thestrals, and the like. We'll go in pairs. That way, if anyone's out there waiting for us, and I reckon there will be, they won't know which Harry Potter is the real one."

"The real one?" Harry asked.

Moody held up the bottle in his hand. "I believe you're familiar with this particular brew."

"No, absolutely not!" Harry exclaimed.

"Told you he'd take it well," Hermione said sarcastically.

Eva held her hand up, causing Moody to roll both of his eyes. "Don't put your hand up, Infernum, this isn't pre-school anymore."

"There are 15 of us here," Eva told him. "I may be shit at maths, but I'm not that shit. Someone's gonna have to go alone in that case."

Moody paused for a moment as he refigured his plan. "That's true . . ."

"I'll go alone, if that makes things easier," Eva volunteered.

As soon as those words left her mouth, she was bombarded with various versions of the same message; no. Why they were getting so worked up all of a sudden, she had no clue.

"Everybody SHUT UP!" Eva shouted, causing everyone to instantly close their mouths. "Thank you. I can apparate like the other Death Eaters, that smoky cloud stuff. No one will be able to tell it's me if I go fast enough."

"That is a terrible idea, Infernum, terrible," Moody growled. "You're only 16-"

"17," she sighed.

"17," he corrected, "and not to mention that you are not only tiny, but also just as vulnerable as Potter currently. Sending you out alone is far from a safe idea."

"There was," she laughed humourlessly, "no need to bring my height into this. Besides, nothing about this is safe as it is," she argued. "It's as simple as this. There aren't enough people for us to go in pairs. One person of us will have to go alone. The person who's least likely to die in this alone is me."

Moody went quiet in thought, which only angered Harry further. "No, if you think I'm gonna let everyone risk their lives for me, I-"

"Never done that before, have we?" Ron snarked.

"No, no," Harry continued, "this is different. Taking that, and becoming me, no."

"Well, none of us really fancy it, mate," Fred chimed in.

"Yeah," George agreed. "Imagine if something went wrong and we ended up a scrawny specky git forever."

"A-woo!" Eva added jokingly before the trio high-fived each other.

"Everyone here is of age, Potter," Moody said. "They've all agreed to take the risk."

A man near the back cleared his throat and walked forward. "Technically, I've been coerced."

"We've all been coerced in our own way, you're not special," Eva sneered over her shoulder.

He ignored her and instead smiled at Harry. "Mundungus Fletcher, Mr. Potter. Always been a huge admirer."

"Nip it, Mundungus!" Moody snapped. "Alright, Miss. Granger, as discussed."

Hermione seemed to be finding way too much joy in yanking a few strands of Harry's hair straight out of his scalp. Harry gasped, grabbing the back of his head.

"Blimey, Hermione," he muttered.

"Ready to get your Death Eater on?" Fred humoured.

"With this," Eva rolled up her sleeve to show them her Dark Mark, which had remained the most red and swollen it had been in a long time for the last few weeks, causing a few to gasp at the gnarly sight, "I was born ready."


Only a few minutes later, everyone was organised and ready in the street of Privet Drive. There were seven Harrys, some on brooms and some on Thestrals, accompanied by their 'protectors' with the actual Harry in Hagrid's motorcycle. Eva was standing right in the middle, mentally preparing herself to apparate.

"You ready, Evie? Georgie?" Fred, physically Harry, asked.

Eva hopped between her feet energetically. "As ready as I'll ever be, you two?"

"Yeah," George replied, "yeah, I'm ready."

Taking one final deep breath, Eva pulled her wand out of her pocket and held it closely to her side. As much as she had been sure of herself for the past half an hour, her doubts were beginning to flood her mind.

"Head for the Burrow," Moody instructed. "We'll rendezvous there. On the count of three. 1 . . . 2 . . . 3!"

To allow the others to leave without trampling her, Eva instantly concentrated all of her energy into her limbs rather than her mind. To help with her apparition, Draco had previously suggested meditation of all things, because it can help to make the physical conversion to mist easier.

The same light as air feeling enveloped her senses, to the point where she was no longer able to feel her feet or her hands. Her eyesight fortunately was still able to focus in on her surroundings as normal, making navigation much easier.

Eva could see the others beginning to catch up with her in her peripheral vision. There were so many blurs of grey she knew to be Harrys whizzing past on brooms and Thestrals, which only motivated her further to keep up with their speed.

For the most part, the cloudy and darkened sky was clear of any threats. It was silent, almost too silent, to the point where all she heard was the whooshing of air past her ears. A little crack of lightning lit up a distant storm cloud brilliantly, almost startling her for a moment.

Her navigation skills may not have been too great, but she knew the general direction of the Burrow, which was just as well since she noticed she was beginning to drift away from some of the others in the group. She just had to roughly follow the direction of the main motorway, not that she remembered the name of it.

Once they passed one final cluster of clouds, the previous serene atmosphere completely disappeared. Death Eaters, many on brooms apparently, dashed in all directions, shouting things such as 'which one are you?' angrily as they chased the Potters through the skies.

Eva reformed her hand and pointed her wand out. Just as another masked Death Eater almost shot a spell at who she assumed to be Ron, she aimed her wand at them instead.

"Expulso."

The Death Eater instantly blew backwards in an explosive action and began to tumble towards the ground. Ron, as Harry, glanced around confusedly but then spotted the black mass of smoke lingering nearby and smiled as a few others began to fall at each discreet shot of Eva's wand.

Eva wasn't sure how long she had been flying and blasting Death Eaters away for, but she knew she was getting close now, so she began to look out for her destination.

'Duck, sugarplum,' Hecate warned.

She instantly did so, which she couldn't have been more glad about since another Death Eater was pursuing her, flinging all manner of dark curses in her direction. Her heart sank—they knew.

Twisting around slightly midair, she pointed her wand at the dark figure behind her.

"Confrin-"

Before she could even complete her incantation, some silent spell was flung straight at her. She wasn't even given a chance to defend herself before she felt a harsh impact with her chest, knocking the wind out of her completely. Similar blasts were sent at her and, in her weakened state, she was unable to shield herself, meaning that the same pounding sensation was felt in each of her limbs, and even on her jaw.

Fortunately, she could see the faint light of the Burrow just in the distance. Trying to ignore the irritating pain and discomfort she was in, she pointed her wand at the dark cloaked figure one last time.

"S-stupefy!"

Eva didn't bother to wait and see the impact her spell may have made. Her body weak and tired, she was only just able to propel herself towards the house, but her movements became shaky, similar to that of a car breaking down.

Before letting herself return to physical form once more, she pushed towards the front porch, where finally her limbs gave in. Now physically herself, she landed in a crumpled heap just in front of their front door, instantly coughing into the ground. A few small liquid droplets flew from her mouth, and it took her a moment to realise that it was blood.

Hecate appeared by her side with a bowl rather than a bucket. "Seeing as you can't lift your head properly-"

Eva didn't need any further permission. Snatching the plastic bowl away, she somehow managed to lift her head over it and retched heavily, throwing up blood too in the process.

She heard the door open in front of her. "Oh goodness!" Molly exclaimed. "Get her inside!"

"I-I c-c-can't move," Eva mumbled as the bowl was removed from beneath her once more.

"Wait," Remus ordered before approaching her almost warily. "What form did that boggart of yours take in your first lesson with me?"

"P-Pennywise, the c-clown." She coughed again and spat a small amount of blood onto the ground. "Y-you t-told me off-f for s-swearing."

"And you?" Eva lifted her head just enough to see that Remus was interrogating Hecate now with his wand at her head.

Hecate held her hands up in mock surrender. "Calm down, boy, you can't make a Polyjuice Potion for a demon. I'm legit."

Eva forced her eyes to stay open as someone who she quickly identified as Remus lifted her off the ground and carried her inside. There, she was carefully placed down across one of the sofas in the living room and handed a small bin by Tonks which Eva didn't hesitate to cough into.

"Evie." Fred glanced over at her from the other sofa opposite. "What happened to you?"

She coughed before speaking, a thin trickle of blood running down her chin which Tonks caught with a tissue before it could ruin Molly's proud furniture. "S-someone f-figured out-t who I was-s-so they hit m-me with s-something."

"Some kind of stunning curse I assume." Hermione sat down beside her. "It's slurred your speech entirely."

"It'll return to normal soon," Remus assured them.

Eva cast her eyes upwards between the faces in the room that had finally returned to their usual forms. "W-w-where's G-George?"

Fred stepped to the side, revealing George who was lying across the opposite sofa. He definitely looked in worse condition than Eva, his entire left ear missing and instead replaced with blood trickling down his neck.

"You missed his joke," Fred humoured.

"He asked me how I was feeling," George explained, "and I said saint-like, because I'm holy. Get it? Holy?" He weakly pointed towards his wound. "Because I have a hole where my ear was?"

Eva tried to laugh but coughed yet again, this one particularly nasty and splashing up towards her face so that she caught a tiny drop on her nose, which Tonks dutifully wiped away with another tissue. "H-hilarious, Georg-g-gie."

Bill Weasley hesitantly stepped forward towards the centre of the room while Hermione stroked Eva's hair out of her face. "Mad-Eye's dead," Bill announced gravely.

"N-n-no," Eva stuttered before coughing once more. The air in the room, which had been slightly lighter, was the darkest it could've been.

"Mundungus took one look at Voldemort and disapparated," Bill informed them.

And just like that, a new person was added to Eva's hit list—Mundungus Fletcher.


When Eva woke up the next morning for the wedding, she noticed that the painful thudding sensation in her head hadn't completely disappeared overnight but had only faded. She could hear voices downstairs of the people who were already up and awake, and noticed that Hermione and Ginny had vanished, so she didn't hesitate to change into the teal mid-thigh length dress she'd chosen out.

Once she was ready, which only took her a few minutes with her brushing her teeth and applying minimal makeup while Hecate styled her hair, Eva made her way downstairs without shoes and straight into the kitchen.

George was brushing his teeth and leaning against the kitchen table, but he seemed distracted by something else in the room. Just as Eva opened her mouth to ask, he placed his finger over his lips and shook his head with a mischievous grin.

Then it all made sense. Harry and Ginny were snogging in the middle of the room, obviously, the horny brats.

George tiptoed over to the sink to spit and then strangely used the wound where his ear had been as a toothbrush holder. "Morning," he greeted as he took a sip of coffee and winked at the couple, causing Eva to laugh.

"Eva," Harry turned around to face her, "has your voice returned yet?"

"M-mostly," Eva responded as she took a sip of George's coffee, not that he cared much. "S-some words I say still tend to s-slur and st-tutter, but it gets easier every m-minute."

George nudged her shoulder while Harry and Ginny uncomfortably left the room. "You'll be the light of the party at this rate."

"F-fuck yeah I will," Eva responded enthusiastically.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: How I've found so much time to write this week, I have no clue honestly, but I'm not complaining. And the Deathly Hallows arc begins, yay! Hopefully this chapter actually made sense, because my one worry with action-filled scenes is always that I'll mess up and it'll be too confusing to follow.

Of course, we're gonna be Draco-free for a bit, but I plan to skip some chunks of this arc to get to the juicy bits, so just stick with me haha.

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