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Chapter One

Charms and Quidditch

"There you are. Don't you know we have Charms soon?" Marlene McKinnon remarked, running her fingers through her thick dark blonde hair and fixing her hazel eyes on brunette kneeling in front of her, holding out a handful of insects towards what appeared to be a baby Hippogriff with Stormy Grey feathers. The creature regarded Eve warily with its orange eyes before stretching its neck forward and plucking the dead insects from her hand with his tiny beak and chomping down on them loudly.

"There we go," Eve said softly before standing up and brushing the grass and dirt stains from her robes and straightening her yellow and black tie. She then turned her teal eyes towards Marlene and blinked, as if just realizing her friend was there. "How long have you been standing there, Lene?" Eve asked the Slytherin while shouldering her book bag.

Marlene rolled her eyes. "I swear, it's like you go into a completely different world when you're around creatures." She peered around Eve and at the young Hippogriff, who screeched warningly at Marlene.

"You have to bow to them first, remember?" Eve reminded her. Marlene looked like she wanted to roll her eyes, but turned to bow very low to the baby Hippogriff.

"Keep eye contact as well," Eve whispered. After a few moments of regarding Marlene suspiciously, the tiny Hippogriff bent his knees and bowed.

Eve looked like she would have rather stayed with the Hippogriff all day than go to class, but Marlene managed to successfully drag her away. "So did Hagrid name it yet?" she asked as they walked up the hill towards the castle.

"Buckbeak," Eve answered, glancing back at the baby Hippogriff and wanting to spend more time with him.

Marlene snorted. "Buckbeak? What kind of ridiculous name is that? That's like naming your owl Screechtalon."

Eve felt her cheeks becoming warm. She thought it best not to tell her best friend that she'd once considered naming her owl exactly that before having settled on Freya, inspired by a book she read about Norse Mythology. The rest of their conversation during their walk to Charms consisted of Quidditch talk and the fact that Hufflepuff would end up gaining a new Beater and Seeker since the previous two had graduated last year. Eve, herself, couldn't wait to be back out on the Quidditch field and putting her Keeper skills to the test.

Eve had been excited to start learning nonverbal spells, especially after seeing her parents and other family members perform them every day. They had made it look so easy, however, the sixteen-year-old Hufflepuff had learned that it was anything but. Only a few other students had managed to succeed on the first try, including Gryffindors Lily Evans and Remus Lupin. Then again, they were considered the brightest in their year, so it came of no surprise that they would be able to master it very quickly. Even Remus' two best friends, James Potter and Sirius Black had managed to non-verbally cast Reducto on the set of brass scales in front of them after their fifth attempts.

The Hufflepuff watched Remus as he helped his other friend, Peter Pettigrew who also seemed to be struggling. A light smile played at her lips at Remus' willingness to help others. She often teased that he would make a really good Hufflepuff or even a Ravenclaw with how smart he was. But she knew that he was a true Gryffindor through and through. Not taking her eyes off of him, she flicked her wand, which created a hole in the table about the size of a golf ball and narrowly missing Marlene's hand who was sitting beside her.

"Hey, watch it!" Marlene hissed. "You almost bloody well took my hand off!" In previous years, Eve normally would have had this class with only the Ravenclaws. But as N.E.W.T. classes had begun, many Houses had begun attending various lessons together that they hadn't previously.

Eve grinned sheepishly and muttered the incantation to repair the desk. "But I didn't, did I?" She gave her friend an apologetic smile before looking back across the room at a certain light-haired wizard.

Marlene scowled at the absent-minded Hufflepuff before following the brunette's gaze, her lips curling into a knowing smile.

"Oi, Lupin!" the blonde Slytherin called, smirking in the Gryffindor's direction.

Remus looked up at Marlene questioningly. Eve tugged hard on Marlene's robes. "What're you doing?" she hissed her cheeks a bright shade of red.

"Helping you out," Marlene whispered, then called out to Remus again. "Eve needs help with her nonverbal practice! Think you could lend her a hand?"

Remus' eyebrows furrowed and he rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I'm kind of helping Wormtail here." He inclined his head towards Peter.

Marlene leaned over to mutter in Eve's ear out of the corner of her mouth. "I will never get used to their ridiculous nicknames." To Remus, she spoke more loudly. "Eh, that's all right! I have a pretty good grasp of it. I can help out...Wormtail." She grimaced at the name. "What do you say? Besides, she's less liable to almost blow your hand off with you beside her.

"That was an accident!" Eve cried indignantly a little louder than she meant to, which caused Professor Flitwick to clear his throat.

"Not so loud, Miss Gamp. Other students are trying to concentrate and I suggest you do the same." Eve's cheeks flushed at the scolding and a few Slytherins snickered in her direction, including Mulciber and Avery. James and Sirius glared at them before giving their friend a light nudge.

"Go for it, mate," James encouraged. "You were saying a few days ago that you hadn't seen her all summer. This is your chance to catch up."

"Or if you two would rather catch up in a more private setting, we won't judge. I'd be more than happy to give you some pointers." Sirius waggled his eyebrows and earning a snorting laugh from James.

"Come off it, you two," Remus muttered, his normally pale face slightly pinkened. Still, he got up just the same and walked across the room to sit down next to Eve just as Marlene crossed over to the other side to go help Peter. He flopped down next to her. "Sorry about those two. They're right gits sometimes."

Her cheeks were still red, but she managed a cheerful smile. "Only Sirius would suggest something like snogging as a way of 'catching up'." She made air quotes. "Isn't it awkward whenever you catch him in the broom cupboard with a random girl during your prefect rounds?"

"You kind of get used to it after a while," Remus answered while picking up his wand. "I think he does it as a way to rebel against his family. You know, with them being fanatical about keeping the bloodlines as pure as possible, which is why he usually tends to snog Half-bloods and Muggle-borns."

Eve nodded, able to sympathize with Sirius, being a pure-blood herself and her parents wanting to keep the family that way for as long as possible. But unlike the Black family, sans Sirius, who was completely bigoted against witches and wizards of mixed or Muggle parentage, her own family welcomed them with open arms. Case in point, her mother was best friends with Remus' mother, who was a Muggle and the two of them got together whenever possible.

"There is probably another way to get your point across to your family other than snogging random girls in a broom cupboard," Eve said, twirling her Cedar wand in her hand.

"True, but the thing is, Padfoot would probably snog me if I was the opposite sex. He's mentioned a few times that I'd make a really good looking girl."

Eve chuckled. "I bet you'd also have great legs like a girl too," she teased. "But I think you're perfect just the way you are."

Remus seemed to become tongue-tied at that moment as his already pink cheeks turned a much deeper shade of red. To Eve, it looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end, he cleared his throat and turned to the brass scales.

"Right, so...nonverbal magic. It's not too difficult…"

That afternoon after class, Eve had changed into her Quidditch gear, grabbed her Cleansweep Six and headed out onto the Quidditch Field where her other teammates had gathered, along with a few other students who had shown up to try out for the team.

"Eve!" exclaimed fifth-year Chaser, Olivia MacMillan, as she enveloped the brown-haired witch into a hug. "How was your summer?"

"It was all right." Eve tightly hugged the blonde witch. "What about you?"

Olivia let out a groan. "Ugh, it was so boring! I spent the entire time with my grandparents in the country! I thought the summer holiday was all about sleeping in late, but they'd get up at the crack of dawn and have me up too! Insisted that they didn't want me to waste my day sleeping, even if it was just a few extra hours."

Eve patted Olivia on the shoulder and turned to talk to one of the other Chasers and the only other player that was in the same year as her, Christina Fawley. But before she could say anything, their Team Captain, Daniel Turner, blew his whistle, calling them to attention.

"How were everyone's summers?" he asked and was answered with a mixture of enthusiastic and not so enthusiastic reactions by those who had boring summers in their eyes. Like he always did, he began pacing back and forth in front of his team.

"He looks like a drill sergeant when he does that," Fourth-year Chaser, Sam Abbott whispered, earning chuckles from the rest of the team, including Eve.

If Daniel heard Sam he didn't say anything but continued to pace back and forth as he spoke. "As you all know, this is my very last year as Team Captain and I have to say, despite never winning the Quidditch Cup for Hufflepuff, I've never been prouder of all of you in my whole life. Throughout my years as Captain, you've all proven what it's like to work as a true team...to have each other's backs on the playing field and caring more about each other than about winning."

"Awww!" Eve, Christina, and Olivia sighed in unison while Sam made gagging noises and earning a glare from all three girls.

"Don't listen to him, Danny," Christina reassured the seventeen-year-old. "We're happy to have had you as our Captain as well."

"That's right! We won't let you down this year, either!" Olivia exclaimed with a huge grin.

"We'll do our very best!" If Eve wasn't pumped up before, she was now and couldn't wait to start practicing.

Even Sam finally relented from his teasing. "Yeah, mate. We'll do great this year!"

Daniel's eyes seemed to be glistening, but he was grinning from ear to ear. "Right, enough of this sappy business. Let's get to the tryouts!"

About eight people had shown up to try out for the team, including a first-year who thought he could sneak his way onto the team, using one of the school's brooms. As much as the five members of the team loved his enthusiasm, rules were rules and he was sent to the stands to watch after being reassured that he'd be able to try out next year.

Four out of the seven remaining people trying out proved to be slightly better than the rest. It turned out to be a tough decision, but in the end, the Fifth-year Edgar Bones and younger brother to another one of Eve's dorm mates, Amelia Bones, was appointed the second Beater. The other student they had considered was a fourth-year who had a more suitable build toward the position, but Edgar proved to be more precise with the bat. For their new Seeker, they had chosen a third-year named Beatrice Cadwallader, or Bee as she insisted on being called.

"All right! Now that we're a full team again, what do you say we get in some practice?" Daniel suggested, earning cheers from the rest of the team.