Midnight Nightmares, and Some Sweat

Ev sat there, mouth shut tightly, hoping not to hurl.

The sound of water dripping off the oars. Ah yes. Lovely.

She ground her teeth together. In front of her were two very scared looking boys, one blond and chubby, the other brown haired and timid. Both of them kept skirting glances at her and tried to make themselves smaller.

Ev smiled at them, causing them to gulp, but then she stopped because she felt as though she was going to up chuck, puke, throw up, hurl, blow chunks, heave, or whatever.

One of the boys leaned over, making the boat rock nauseatingly. He stuck his fingers in the water then brought them up, looking at them. Quickly, he sat up straight, once again moving the boat.

"That's right, rock the boat, honey, just rock it." Ev snapped. She closed her eyes, holding her stomach.

She heard one of them whisper "wimp".

"What did you say?" she cracked like a whip. He turned slowly up and she narrowed her eyes at him. His eyes widened and he turned back around.

We're almost there.

Surprisingly, Ev was deathly nauseous on boats. Not because she was scared of the water or something. She could swim. Don't make her show you. But boats, especially tiny ones, made her more than slightly skittish. Everard was, how do you say, edgy around tight spaces. Claustrophobic is the right term for it. It just made her feel like she was in a tight coffin, and she sometimes forgot to breathe. Not big deal.

Breathe. Breathe. Whoo, okay, you're good. You're fine. Hunky dory. It's all good.

She felt the boat touch ground and like a flash she was out of that thing.

Ah, the ground beneath my feet. I could kiss you.

"Com' on 'ight 'ere, kids," a gruff voice said. The students all lined up, following the large man into the castle.

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The group of students marched into the Great Hall, under the scrutiny of all four houses and the teachers. They all huddled near the front of the hall, next to a three-legged stool.

Ev looked down at the people around her.

She stood out like the sorest thumb in the universe. Most of these kids were hardly over five feet, but Ev was quite tall. Exactly 6 foot, to be exact. Sirius was only an inch taller than her; Remus was 3 inches shorter, and James 2 inches shorter, if you're wondering. Rae, Lily, and Ara were all at least half a foot shorter than her. Ara was the tallest of them at 5' 6.

Meanwhile, McGonagall, after the sorting ceremony speech, had just started calling out names.

"Archibald Alderton, the," McGonagall squinted, "the 84th?" She looked up at him doubtfully.

"The 97th, madam," the fine haired boy said, in a small voice. She smiled at him, knowing who he was (go to - c.html and look the name up), and he grinned at her. Some confidence back, he walked to the stool and plopped the hat on his head.

"Ravenclaw!" the hat screamed abruptly. The boy grinned, walking to his house table amidst the cheers. Ev lost interest about halfway through the sorting, instead staring up at the ceiling, which was dark and cloudy.

Tut, tut, looks like rain, she thought to herself.

McGonagall was already in the T's by the time Ev realized her name hadn't been called.

Finally she was finished and started another speech, "I have an announcement to make. This year we have a new student." Ev could hear people whispering but paid no mind to it. She glanced at Malfoy and saw him give her a dirty look. She was gonna have fun with him. "She's in her sixth year and transferred here from America where she went to Horsefly. I trust her house and its students will welcome her and answer any of her questions. You all remember what it was like to be the new student." She sternly looked around the hall. "Rhyahnnon, Everard." This McGonagall called out sharply.

Ev, the only person standing in the hall, slowly made her way towards the stool amidst the whisperings going on around her.

She snatched the hat from McGonagall's hand, who only look shocked for a second, and, sitting on the stool, placed it on her head.

"Mmmmmm," the hat mumbled in her head," smart. could be Ravenclaw.daring, certainly a lot of nerve, do well in Gryffindor.cunning, very cunning. lots of Slytherin in you. won't be Hufflepuff. Mmmm."

"Oh get on with it!" Ev snapped to the hat.

"Touchy! Another Slytherin trait. Where to put you. Eenie, meeny, miney, mo. Okay GRYFFINDOR!"

Ev stood up among polite applause. Walking to the Gryffindor table, she courteously shook all the offered hands. With a sigh she plopped down next to Remus and Rae.

"Couldn't do without you," she muttered sarcastically over the food that had just appeared on the tables.

Her mouth fell open and she watched as the others piled food on their plates, or, in Ev's mind, dead carcasses.

"Want some?" Sirius asked, holding a plate of turkey in front of her.

"No thanks, I don't eat flesh."

"What?" Lily asked from next to Peter and James.

"That's flesh you're shoveling into your mouth. It was a living-breathing creature. I mean, it probably had a name."

"Hey, I didn't climb my way to the top of the food chain to be a vegetarian." Peter said loudly, offended that she was dissing his food, the love of his life.

"Come on, an animal had to die so you could eat him and then poop him out. You might as well let him live and just eat something else. Like salad, salad's good," Ev stood up slightly and reached out in front of Sirius to grab a bowl of salad. She continued to load her salad with croutons and salad dressing.

Disappointingly, the others continued with their meals of dead and helpless animals.

"So," said Sirius, chomping on a piece of shepherd's pie, "you're a vegetarian. Isn't that cute."

"Yeah, whatever. It's not just that. I've never really liked meat." She chewed contentedly on her salad and took a sip of her pumpkin juice.

Her eyes widened suddenly and she leaned forward, grabbing a large roll. The others watched as she opened it up, buttered the warm inside, and placed strawberry jam on it. "This is what I'm talking about. God, I love bread!"

The others just continued eating.

"So.you're American," Peter piped up, voicing all the others thoughts.

"Yeahhhh!" she answered slowly.

"What's with your accent?" Ara asked.

"My accent!" Ev laughed. "What about yours. The freaky adult sounding voice. It's deceiving. You think 'wow, they must be smart'." She looked at Sirius. "Then of course they speak. And you almost have to really pay attention to understand. And don't even get me started on all of your complexions. It's like Children of the Corn or something."

"Children of the what?" James asked incredulously. Ev rolled her eyes.

"Our complexions?" Sirius voiced. "What about yours."

"What about it?" she said looking at him with attitude.

Undeterred, he said, "You look like you were burned within an inch of your life."

"It's probably fake. I saw on T.V. show once that people don't wanna get burnt or skin cancer, so they go to a booth and they spray it on or they put on a fake tan lotion." Peter put in his two cents.

Ev whipped her head toward him. "What are you babbling about?"

Peter lowered his eyes.

"Shut up. Stop being such a bitch to him." Sirius exclaimed.

"Oh okay." Sarcasm actually hit Sirius in the face.

They spent the rest of the feast talking about this and that and the other thing.

Finally the feast ended and they all stood up to go to the common room. The others all stayed up to talk, but Ev went straight to bed, tired from having to wake up early to pack since she waited until the last minute.

After changing into white pajama cotton bottoms and a white spaghetti strap tank top, she laid down on her bed. She knew it was hers because her trunk was at the end of it. Her bed, covered in a red comforter, was next to the large window and the glass doors that ran out onto the balcony. She stood up and cracked the window, loving the feeling of the breeze on her face, and laid back down on the bed.

Ev sat straight up in bed, gasping and panting. A cold trickle of sweat ran down her face. A single tear closely followed it, but that's as far as Ev let it go. She refused to cry, not for him, not for that.

She held up the ring around her neck and looked closely at it. Sighing, she pulled back the curtains and stood up. She tiptoed, quietly so as not to wake up Ara, Rae, or Lily, to the bathroom.

Seeing her pale, wet face in the mirror she sighed. "What's wrong with me?"

Placing a silencing charm on the room, she stripped off her clothes. Turning on the shower, she stepped into the hot, steamy shower. Turning the nozzle, she made it cold. Ah, this she liked a lot better.

After her long shower, she dressed again in her pajamas. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she hated herself.

Wimp, she thought to herself.

She lay on her bed but was unable to sleep. Images that brought back awful memories flashed in her head. She felt it on her skin, inside of her. Closing her eyes, she saw him. A strangled sob tore out of her throat.

Enough of this.

Ev stood up and tiptoed out of the dormitory and out of the common room.

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15 minutes later found her standing on the tallest tower of the castle. The wind whipped at her hair and clothes. A light rain fell down and quickly turned into a downpour. Her pajamas were soaked through. She loved water. Loved the rain pouring down her body, washing everything away. Cleansing her.

She lifted her face toward the sky.

As she always did when alone with her thoughts, Ev began to sing. It was a song she loved for the lyrics. Card Michael's Gods Own Fool (good song).

Seems I've imagined Him all of my life

As the wisest of all of mankind

But if God's Holy wisdom is foolish to man

He must have seemed out of His mind

Even His family said He was mad

And the priest said a demon's to blame

But, God in the form of this angry young man

Could not have seemed perfectly sane

We in our foolishness thought we were wise

He played the fool and He opened our eyes

We in our weakness believed we were strong

He became helpless to show we were wrong

So we follow God's own Fool

For only the foolish can tell

Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well

So come lose your life for a carpenter's son

For a man never died for a dream

And You'll have the faith His first followers had

And you'll feel the weight of the beam

So surrender the hunger to save us now

And The courage to say I believe

For the power of paradox opens your eyes

And blinds those who say they can see

So we follow God's own Fool

For only the foolish can tell

Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well

She sang in a clear, low voice. She'd sung this song hundreds of years ago it seemed but it was only a couple of years since she'd laid in her bed, tears pouring down her face, whispering the song to herself.

Ev spent a long time there. Long enough to witness the butt-crack of dawn. She watched as the first light of the morning touched the sky.

She went back to her dormitory, gaining only an hour of sleep before she was forced to get up for her first day of school.

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At breakfast she once again sat by Lily, James, Remus, Sirius, Peter, Ara, and Rae, just for lack of knowing anyone else.

The others stared at her as she loaded her plate with a biscuit and other non-animal items. Her eyes were shadowed and she looked tired. Yet, unlike Sirius who got enough sleep and was still tired, she didn't yawn or complain. It was like she was used to it. Used to sleepless nights.

McGonagall handed out their schedules. They all compared theirs. Ev had most of her classes with Rae, James, Peter, and Sirius since the other three had a lot of advanced classes. In fact, Ev all the same classes as Sirius and James. Rae had advanced Transfiguration. Peter was taking remedial potions.

As Sirius, James, and Ev walked toward their first class, Muggle Studies, with James in the middle since Sirius still hated Ev, Ev promised herself to be happy during the day. Hide your pain. That was her philosophy in life.

(She takes muggle studies even though she's a muggle-born because it's easy)

The professor of Muggle Studies was a young man named Professor Schneider. He asked everyone to call him Dave. He was automatically in with everyone.

He was a blondish radish haired guy. He had an easy smile and a dark tan. He was what you called buff. Many girls sighed as they saw him; not Ev.

"Hello, everybody. Lovely morning isn't it?" He smiled at them. The girls grinned back. Ev rolled her eyes. The guys rolled their eyes.

The class was quite small. About thirteen students sat in the small room.

"I want to get to know everyone a little better. What we're going to do is go around the room, say our name, and something no one else knows. Okay? I'll go first." He rubbed his chin, thinking. "My name's David Jonathan Schneider. Something no one knows.I'm an identical twin." He waited for the collective "ooh"s from the girls. Having it he continued, "When I was young I used to think everyone was a twin."

Around the room people laughed and grinned. Dave pointed at the next person.

"Johnny Sherwood.ummmmmm." this boy decided to be funny too, "I used to think that Gunpoint was an actual place." The people who knew what gunpoint was laughed. "Think about it. 'Tourists are being terrorized at Gunpoint.people are being held at Gunpoint. I just kept thinking 'why do people continue to go there'." This caused uproar among the class. Dave himself was doubled over laughing.

///////////////////////////////////// Review! Review! More of Muggle Studies in next chapter. Tell me if you don't like the way something's going. I'll tell you to shove off! Ha! I'm the ruler here!