DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER, BUT I DO OWN MY CHARACTERS.
The library was empty that Saturday morning. It didn't surprise her as the library had opened minutes ago and everyone liked to sleep on their days off. Not her though. She had to study for her upcoming OWLs exams. She didn't have time to waste by sleeping.
Evelyn pushed a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear and took a deep breath. She flipped through the Ancient Runes book as she started to take notes of the latest lesson they had learned. She was supposed to take notes last night, but she was unable to focus because of the loud music in the common room.
Why there was loud music in the common room? It had been Diana's birthday party. While the girl's actual birthday was on Monday, her friends had decided to celebrate it on Friday. Evelyn hadn't attended it. Not only because she didn't have the time for it, but because she wasn't talking to any of her best friends. Ten days had passed since their fight and none of them had bothered to approach each other. She was sure that even if she attended the party, she would have been thrown out by Diana and the others."
"There you are."
Evelyn was surprised to hear Marlene's voice. Her friend usually skipped breakfast on Saturdays as she liked to sleep late those days. However, today seemed to be different as her friend was wearing her Quidditch robes and was holding her broom. The only reason Marlene was awake was that she had Quidditch practice.
"Hey." She greeted her friend before returning her attention to the book in front of her.
Marlene walked up to her. "You know when you talk to someone, it's common decency to look them in the eye." Her friend told her as she leaned against the desk near Evelyn.
She pressed her lips together, realizing her mistake. She couldn't let Marlene realize that she wasn't perfect like she had done with her friends. "What do you want to talk about?"
"Where were you last night?" Marlene questioned her and Evelyn gulped down. "I looked everywhere for you. When I asked Diana where you were, she was visibly upset and she told me that you weren't coming."
"I was in my dorm."
"Then why didn't you come to the party? It was one of your best friend's birthday party." Marlene reminded her.
Evelyn breathed out. "Because that said best friend alongside the others disliked my boyfriend and are unsupportive of our relationship." She was minimizing the issue. Her friends hated her boyfriend, constantly misjudged him and there was a chance that they were making lies about him.
Marlene rolled her eyes. "You're still not talking to them because of that?" Evelyn pursed her lips in irritation. During these past few days, she had relied on Marlene who was very dismissive of the issue at hand. She didn't understand why Evelyn was so upset by her friends' accusations. "You're being ridiculous."
"How would you feel if someone talked about Benji liked that, huh?" She whispered harshly at her friends.
"No one would say that about Benji because he would never do that."
Evelyn blinked a few times in realization. She realized that it wasn't that Marlene was dismissive of the situation, she was trying to hide that she felt the same as her friends.
"And you think my boyfriend does?"
"Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised." Evelyn gaped in shock. She couldn't believe that another friend of hers was stabbing her in back. "You say that he has to hide because of his family, but why doesn't that apply to someone like Sirius? His family is known to be horrible too and he still speaks up about what's going on. Last week, he said that he'll fight against Death Eaters if he had the chance."
Evelyn got up from her seat and gathered her books. "Why are you all having difficulties to understand that they are two different people? And besides, Sirius himself said that Rabastan's family is the most dangerous one."
"Why did Sirius say that to you, Eve?" Marlene furrowed her eyebrows. Evelyn bit her lip when she remembered why. If she told Marlene the truth, her friend would insist even more that Rabastan wasn't good. "Eve?"
"It doesn't matter why." She brushed her friend's question off. "What matters is that my boyfriend is a good person and he shows it every day."
"To you." Marlene reminded her. Evelyn shuddered, but she didn't say anything. "He doesn't show it to anyone else. I've never seen him do good. He only acts passive or joins with his friends." She realized that no matter how many times she had told her friends why Rabastan did the thing he did, they wouldn't understand. Her friends had already made a judgement on him and they were too stubborn to see past through it.
"You know I'm done with this." She snapped at Marlene. "I'm done with all of you not showing any kind of support about my relationship. What kind of friends are you all supposed to be?"
"Good friends," Marlene whispered to her.
"No, you're bad friends." Evelyn shot back and Marlene's green eyes widened. "You're bad friends that can't let go of your prejudices against a person."
"And you're too blind to see the truth." Marlene barked at her making Evelyn take a step back. "We're trying to help you, Evelyn. We're not trying to ruin your relationship."
She shook her head. "No, you are. You all gathered up and are trying to ruin the one thing that makes me happy in this life. You just want to keep me to yourselves."
To Evelyn's surprise, she noticed that Marlene's lips had started to tremble. Other than that, her friend was gripping her broomstick hard as well. "If you think I'm such a bad friend, then just walk away, Evelyn. After all, I don't want to keep you from your source of happiness."
Her friend's voice cracked as she spoke, but Marlene carried her composure as bad as she did. Evelyn could see the cracks of it though. However, even the cracks of her friend's composure didn't change her mind. Evelyn brought her books closer to her chest before walking away from her friend.
"She was my first friend outside of Ravenclaw," Evelyn mumbled as she leaned against the window. "We became friends when she stopped me from getting pranked by Peeves. She threatened to call the Bloody Baron on him." A faint smile appeared on her face as she reminisced on the old memory. "After that, I sat down with her in Charms and we became best friends." A single tear slipped down her cheeks. "I don't think I'll ever be sitting with her anymore."
"Do you regret it?"
Rabastan's voice made Evelyn shiver. It felt as a cold breeze had gotten inside the classroom even though the windows were sealed shut. Even the weather wasn't that cold for her to feel that breeze.
"No," Evelyn told him. Or did she tell that to herself? She had no idea and worst of all, she didn't know if it was a lie or truth.
He lifted her chin and smiled down at her. "Good. You need to get used to ending your friendship from now on."
Evelyn's throat went sore. "Why?" She cleared her throat as she could barely speak. "Why?" She repeated.
"Because it's going to happen with your other friends too." He told her and she looked down. "You thought that it wouldn't happen? Oh, Evelyn."
She turned her head the other way. She felt a bit embarrassed thinking that maybe everything would work out in the end. She thought that all she needed to was have a heart to heart with her friends. Maybe she could even talk to Marlene again. Why was she even so optimistic?
"I'm so stupid." She mumbled to herself.
Rabastan heard her and he turned her head to him. "You're not stupid. Not even a little bit." He assured her. "You just except the best out of people. That would be naive, but not stupid."
"So, you think about being too naive about this situation?"
"I think you are forgetting that in relationships, people need to make sacrifices for the relationship to work." He started to explain to her. She turned her whole attention to him. "It would be great if no one made any sacrifices, but that would be too ideal. It would be a concept that could never exist. That's why people sacrifice friends, family members, their jobs and dreams to make their relationship work. Of course, it's hard and many people fear regret, but in the end, they know that it would be worth it."
What if it wasn't all worth it in the end?
Evelyn tensed at the question that overwhelmed her head. She tried to ignore it, but it didn't listen to her. It insisted that she acknowledged this question. No, it begged. Yet Evelyn ignored it. She asked herself too many 'what if' questions to take this seriously. This was what Rabastan was describing. This was the hardship and the regrets that came with it.
In the end, it would be all worth it.
"Cutting ties with your friends is a necessary sacrifice you need to make." He continued. "It wouldn't be if they were supportive of our relationship, but the sad truth is that they will never be. After all, they went to the degree that they would make up lies about me."
She remembered how shaken up Diana was that night. She couldn't believe her friend was that good of an actress. Maybe she had been right. Maybe she wasn't the only one who had been lying about her true self.
"Of course, you can always choose to cut ties with me."
Rabastna's words shook her core and she looked up to him. "I would never do that." She told him. "You don't deserve that and you have done nothing wrong." She couldn't believe he wouldn't even say that. "My friends are being unfair and if they don't do apologize or say anything, I have no choice but to end my friendship with them."
Evelyn hated that she had to throw four years of friendship. She didn't want to. The problem was that she needed too. She couldn't continue being friends with people who were so against her boyfriend and their relationship.
She loved her friends, but she loved Rabastan more. He was her true source of happiness. Her mum had always told her that she should always choose her happiness before anyone else's. What she was going to do in this situation was to follow her mum's advise. She was going to choose Rabastan over her friends.
"It's going to be alright." He moved closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. "You are going to lose your friends and you'll have me. I can give you everything they could give you."
Evelyn didn't know about that. She and Rabastan had never been friends for him to give her the friendship that her friends provided. From the start, their friendship had more of a romantic tone to it rather than platonic.
He could give her love, devotion, care and happiness. She knew that she would be satisfied with that. She knew that as long as she was with him, she wouldn't miss any of her friends. It was even better because she could only focus on him.
She leaned her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around his neck. He wasn't warm, she noted. He was rather cold and it made her shudder. She didn't care though. All she could care was that she was in his arms and that was good enough for her.
"I love you." The three words came muffled as her lips were pressed against his shoulder.
Rabastan held her tighter. It seemed like he had heard those words. "I love you too." He whispered and Evelyn closed her eyes, letting herself relax in his arms.
Evelyn felt sick. She had been feeling sick since the start of the semester. She was having a hard time sleeping, her heart always seemed to have an erratic beat to it and she was sweating more than she used to. Now, her symptoms were added with a pounding headache and this everlasting nausea. The nausea was the worst in Evelyn's opinion. It felt like every minute she was going to vomit and that was extremely uncomfortable when she was in classes.
She held her hand over her stomach as she descended the stairs that led to her dorm. As she was about to step into the common room, someone called her name.
When she turned around, she was met with an overjoyed Nailah. The little girl was smiling ear to ear.
"Hi." She greeted the girl. "How are you doing?"
"Great." Nailah beamed. "I just returned from home after celebrating Eid-Mubarak with my family." As she looked at the girl, Evelyn felt envy. She wished that she could smile like that. She doubted that she even had the energy for that.
"Did you have a good time?" Evelyn asked as she could feel the nausea build again.
"Yes. I didn't realize I was that homesick until I saw my parents and little brothers-" Nailah cut herself off and frowned. "Are you alright, Evelyn? You look a little green."
Evelyn swallowed down nausea and nodded her head. "Just a bit tired." Nailah raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything else. "I'm glad that you had such a great time with her family." At the mention of her family, Evelyn realized how much she missed her mum. She had received a letter from her yesterday and it had been the best part of the day hearing how her mum was doing.
"It wouldn't be possible without you," Nailah told her. "So, thank you from both me and my family. My mum told me to specifically thank you for helping me out."
She smiled the first genuine smile in weeks. "You're welcome." She said. "If you have anything else, you can always come to me."
Nailah nodded her head. "I'll keep that in mind." She took a step back. "See you around, Evelyn."
"You too."
The first-year girl rushed back into her dorm. She found herself wishing that she was in the first year again. All her troubles seemed so far away at that age.
Shaking the thought out of her head, Evelyn made her way out of the common room. When she stepped outside, she was met with an angry redhead.
"Lily?" She called the girl's name in confusion when she saw the creased eyebrows and the curled lips.
"Finally," Lily muttered and stepped closer to Evelyn. "I've been waiting here for minutes. Stupid Ravenclaws wouldn't let me in even though I solved the riddle."
Evelyn tilted her head. She had no idea why the Gryffindor girl was here. "Is there something wrong? Is this about our prefect duties?"
"No." Lily barked at her and Evelyn took a step back. "Severus just told me that you gave the Marauders an idea to prank him. Precisely, the prank when they made a bottle of shampoo follow him."
Her stomach fell at the reminder of that prank. She had forgotten all about it. She had meant it as a joke when she had told Sirius about it, but she had never expected him to like it that much. She had hurt someone with her silly idea. She also had ruined her perfect persona with that prank.
"It's true, isn't it?" Evelyn didn't answer her, she only looked down. "I would never think you were so cruel to do that. I know you like the Marauders, Merlin knows why, but I would never think you'd sink in their level."
Lily's words struck a nerve with Evelyn. "I'm not like them. To be honest, I didn't even think that they would listen to me. It was meant more of a joke than that."
"Yet you still thought it would be funny." Lily pointed out. "You thought that it would be funny for Severus to be embarrassed by his bullies." The redhead hissed at her. "You helped people bully someone and let's not mention that Severus has done nothing wrong"
"Snape has done nothing wrong?" Evelyn repeated. "You must be joking." Lily crossed her arms and glared at Evelyn. "People say that he's meddling with Dark Arts, he hangs out with the future Death Eaters and most importantly, he has insulted Diana and many others before. He even mocked Diana a few days after the war was announced and called her..." She found herself unable to say the word. "you know what he called her."
Lily shook her head. "Severus would never do that."
Evelyn's heart started to beat fast. The conversation she was having with Lily was quite familiar to her. "How would you know that?" She asked out of genuine curiosity.
The redhead narrowed her green eyes at Evelyn. "Because I know him." Lily's voice sounded as sure as it could be. "And I don't think I know you at all." Evelyn felt her throat go dry and her palms started to sweat. She noticed that the perfect mask that she had put on for years was slipping off. "For all I know, all that you said was an excuse for your poor behaviour towards Severus."
With that, Lily turned around and left the Ravenclaw tower. Evelyn was left alone in the corridor, wondering how blind Lily must be to deny the truth like that.
Evelyn entered the dorm to see that all of the girls were there. She had been in the library since her fight with Lily. she had talked to Lily after finishing classes and now, it was almost time for her to make her rounds with the Slytherin prefect. She walked to her bed and put her books on the desk near it. She needed to hurry as she had promised Rabastan that they would spend time together before they started their rounds.
For a minute, she thought that her friends would ignore that like they had been doing these past few days. Evelyn was very wrong about it.
"Marlene told us what happened," Christina spoke up. Her shoulders tensed and her jaw clenched. "She told us that you chose your precious boyfriend over her." The dark-haired girl snorted. "You truly outdid yourself, Evelyn."
Evelyn turned to look at her friends. "What do you want from me, Chris?" She snapped at her friends. "What was I supposed to do in this situation? Be friends with the people that insult my boyfriend-"
"No." Diana cut her off. "You need to be friends with the people who are warning you about him."
She shook her head. "I asked Rabastan and he said that you're lying."
"And you believe him over us?" Gabriela questioned her. She noticed that the girl's lips were parted in shock.
"Of course, she does." Christina scoffed. "Eve, here, believes that he's saying the truth because he has never done that in front of her. If she cared about anything but herself, she would have noticed that his behaviour in front of her isn't the best either."
"I pay more attention than you know, Chris." She retorted back to her friend.
"Oh, I doubt it." Chris snorted. "Your wold revolved around yourself too much for you to notice people around you." Christina shook her head in disbelief. "To believe I didn't notice this part of you until now."
Evelyn's heart ached. She realized that she wasn't the perfect girl anymore. All those years that had taken crafting the perfect self had vanished.
Just like Hart said. She exploded and right now, she was dealing with the consequences of that explosion.
"You aren't the same person anymore," Gabriela whispered. "You have changed so much since the fourth year. It's like you're a different person."
Her breath seemed to have stopped. She realized that she had been ticking for longer than she had thought. Had she been ticking since her conversation with Hart? Or maybe even before?
"We don't know what it is, but we suspect Rabastan has something to do with this-"
Evelyn cut Gabriela off. "Stop blaming him about everything." She snapped. "He has nothing to do with this. He has done anything wrong."
"He called me a mudblood a few days ago, Eve," Diana said and Evelyn shook her head. He had told her that he didn't do it. She believed him. She knew that Rabastan would never lie to her. "He's friends with people that try ruining all of our lives, including yours. He's controlling and using you since you started to date him-No, he probably has been doing it before."
Rabastan loved her. If someone loved you, they could never harm you like her friends were saying. The love that Rabastan had for her would never turn into control and use.
"He's not using me. He doesn't even have a reason to use me." She whispered more to herself than her friends.
Diana heard her nonetheless. "Remember a few months ago. He was being extremely jealous of you talking to some blokes. You told me about what happened and I gave you some advice. After talking to him and made up with him, I asked you how it went and you told me that it was none of our business. We all know he told you not to share anything with us about your relationship."
"But that's a reasonable request." Evelyn insisted. "He's not comfortable with sharing his private business with others."
Christina scoffed, Diana shook her head while Gabriela bit her lip. It seemed like none of them were satisfied with her answer. Her friends couldn't see how unreasonable they were all being.
"He doesn't believe in Voldemort's ideology." She told her friends what she had said a million times before. "He never did."
"That's not true." Christina disagreed with her. "Before you started to hang out with him, he acted like the others. Don't you remember?"
Rabastan didn't act exactly like others in their first two years. Yes, he was hardly the best person, but he was better than his friends. When they started to hang out and he learned more about muggles, Rabastan understood that he was wrong.
"He didn't start acting passive until he started to spend time with you," Christina added. She was about to respond. Christina didn't let her. "Don't say that you taught him to be better. You didn't teach him anything. He pretended to be better because he wanted you."
She shook her head. "That's-that's not true-true." Tears started to well up in her eyes and she wiped them off as soon as she could. "He is good. He told me that he will his family because he doesn't agree with their views."
"It's not just views anymore, Evelyn." Diana's voice turned cold. "It's actions. We all know his family are Voldemort's strongest and most powerful supporters."
"But he's not like them," Evelyn said for the millionth time.
Gabriela sighed. "When is he leaving his family?"
"When he turns seventeen."
"Some of us might be dead by then." Diana pointed out before looking away.
Christina turned to look at Diana immediately while Gabriela kept her attention on her. Evelyn herself didn't even have the state to pay attention to Diana.
"What if he doesn't? What if he wants you to join his family?"
Evelyn's jaw fell at the questions. Her friends had said some horrible stuff to her these past few days, but this took the crown as the worst. "How can you say that, Gabby?" Her voice cracked as she spoke. "How can you even think that I would do anything like that? I would never join them. Never."
Silence fell after those words. Not even Sabrina moved. It was the kind of silence that petrified people to their spots and only left them with their thoughts.
As per usual, her thoughts were running wild. She couldn't control them or even sort them out. Memories, images, words and possible scenarios all went around her head. She couldn't focus on any single one of them. All she could think was that she didn't know how she ended up here.
"Alright..." Christina took a step forward. "This isn't working. You're unwilling to listen."
Evelyn shook her head. "No, you are unwilling to listen." She pointed out. "Rabastan was right about everything. He told me that this will happen. He told me that you'll try to turn me against you and this will end up with me having to make a choice. Between you or him just like I did with Marlene."
Christina's eyes turned blank and she gulped down. Behind her, Gabriela and Diana were hiding their faces with their hair by looking down.
"Since he said that, I think there's no other possible solution to this." Christina's voice was cold as ice. "Make a choice, Evelyn. It's all of us or him."
Evelyn wrapped the scarf around her neck. While it was still early October, she felt chills run around her body. It was so cold she was sure that she wasn't frozen. What didn't make sense was that if you touched her body, she was hot. Hotter than the summer days that had just passed.
Other than that, her heart was beating fast. Faster than ever. She had her hand over her chest as she was afraid that it would fall off it at any given moment. It didn't help that her heart was aching as well. It felt like someone had just stabbed her, but she knew the reason why it was hurting so much.
As expected, Evelyn had chosen Rabastan over her friends. She had chosen Rabastan over all of them.
There was one slight problem though.
It didn't feel like it was going to be worth it.
Yes, it was the beginning. He had told her that it would be hard and she would have regrets. She expected this as she expected it to be worth it in the end. What she didn't expect was it to hurt this much. She would have never predicted this.
The worst was that as much as she thought about it, it hurt more. She kept thinking about her friends and how much she would miss them. She would miss Marlene's energy, Henrik's wisdom, Edrick's hugs, Carter's theories, Gabriela's sweetness, Diana's openness and Christina's passion. Despite all the hurt, they caused her, she would miss them with all of her heart.
More tears started to fall down her eyes. She had been crying since she had stepped outside the common room. She tried to stop crying, but it was futile. She needed to grieve the friendships that she had lost. She needed to grieve the sacrifice that she had made for her relationship with Rabastan.
What she could only expect was for him to come. She needed him to hold her as she cried for the friendships she had given up. She knew that his touch would melt away the pain. He only needed to come and hold.
Evelyn waited. She waited for minutes and minutes. He was running late. Too late. They should have started rounds by now. She should start it herself.
She just couldn't. She couldn't move her body away from the wall. The wall was supporting her. Right now, it was serving as a substitute for Rabastan. Admittedly, it was doing quite a good job at it.
When she heard rushed steps, she lifted her head and sighed in relief. He had finally come to her and reminded her that her choice was right.
It didn't take long for Evelyn to realize that those steps didn't belong to Rabastan. They were too quiet to be his.
Evelyn was right. It wasn't Rabastan coming to patrol with her. It was her cousin, Elena who stopped as soon as she saw her.
"Evelyn?" Elena called her name. Her cousin scrunched her nose and tilted her head as she approached her. "Are you okay?"
She opened her mouth to talk. Instead of words, a sob escaped her. She covered her mouth to prevent them, but it did nothing. Her sobs continued as her cousin approached her.
No one did anything for the longest time until Elena moved closer to her. Evelyn barely paid attention to her cousin. that was why she was so shocked when Elena pulled her into a hug.
Her eyes widened, her body stiffened and her jaw fell as her cousin hugged her.
It was the last thing Evelyn would expect from someone like Elena. Her cousin was always proper and distant with her. She would have never thought this would happen. She never believed she and her cousin would share a hug. It was strange, but most importantly, it was appreciated.
So, when a few seconds passed, Evelyn wrapped her arms around her cousin as well. She started to sob louder in Elena's arms while her cousin held her and shushed her down.
I'm sorry that this update took more than a month. I was extremely busy with exams in uni and couldn't even find the time to sit down and write. I will try my best to update weekly from now on since my schedule is freer than before. I hope you enjoy this chapter (a lot happened in it) and please, tell me what you thought of it.
Thank you for reading, following, favouriting and reviewing my story. It's very much appreciated. If you can, please tell me what you thought of the chapter in the reviews.
Guest Your Fan: Yeah, the previous chapter was sad and this one is sadder. As for Evelyn, calling her stupid isn't the best word for it. She's a victim of an emotionally and mentally abusive relationship. She's in a really bad state right now and as you said it yourself, Rabastan is manipulating her. He has been manipulating her for a long time. As for why Rabastan is doing this, you'll find out in the next few chapters. It's not much of a secret why he's doing this, but he does have a lot of things that he has been hiding. Glad that you enjoyed the chapter.
Next up, The Come and Go Room