Eve's POV

Chapter 10 - Hatred, Love, and Irony

"Nadine!" I cried, how could she do this to me? Sneaking out of the room, stealing Harry's Invisibility Cloak, and kissing...Ugh... Draco Malfoy.

"Eve.... Eve...what are you doing here?" she stuttered guiltily.

"How could you Nay?" I asked tears in my eyes. "Not now when everything is so wrong, when I need you the most, how could you? How could you kiss the guy who

has made my life hell from the moment I came here, how could you Nay, how?"

"Eve, I didn't sneak out to meet Draco, I-" she started, but I didn't hear the rest, I turned invisible and just ran out of the hallway and out the doors of Hogwarts, my

mind jumbled with thoughts of hatred toward Nay, toward Draco, toward David, and most of all, toward myself. I ran all the way to the lake, took of my clothes, and

jumped in the water. I turned visible again. I just stayed still there, in the freezing cold water, not feeling it. Not feeling anything, anything except hatred. I wanted to

drown right there, to remove all the pain.

I stayed there all night, when the sun came up I finally got out. I changed my clothes magically and started walking towards the school. I was walking along the

corridors, when a hand shot out and grabbed my arm. I turned around ready to kill the person who dared disturb my thoughts. Standing there was Harry.

"What do you want?" I asked annoyed.

"Where were you? I was worried" asked Harry concern written all over his face, I didn't know if it was sincere, I didn't seem to know if anything was sincere these

days.

"Nowhere and why would you be worried about me?" I asked and rose up my eyebrow.

"I just was. Okay?" he said annoyed and then stalked off.

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"Okay class, that's it for today, you are excused early" said Professor Spencer. Everyone filed out quite happy by the unexpected extra time before potions. Everyone

except me, Nay would try to talk to me and if she did I would go off at her and regret it later so I stayed seated. "Is anything wrong Eve?" Professor Spencer asked.

"No, just life" I said simply and I could tell that she could hear the sadness in my voice..

"You know what? Follow me, don't ask questions just follow" she said and went to get her coat after I nodded.

I followed her out of Hogwarts and into the Forbidden Forest. We walked about 2 miles before we came to a unusually silver tree.

" This" she said proudly, "this is the Tree of Dair" she said pointing to the tree. "Dair was one of the most powerful wizard forests in the world. Well that was before the

muggles decided to chop it down for wood, we wizards couldn't do anything because then the muggles would know we existed and the wizarding world could crumble

as we know it." she said sadly, but then she brightened up and said, "But, my father was able to save one tree, the most important one, you see, this tree can hide you

from all evil. When you climb up into it, you are protected from even the most powerful wizard. This tree was planted in the Forest of Dair by the first wizard, Emilio

Andrond."

"Wow" was all I said, I was speechless.

"You, Dumbledore, me, and my father are the only ones that know it is here, and I trust you not to tell anyone of it's existence, you understand that if this leaked to

Voldemort, then" she shuddered" you don't want to know what will happen".

"I understand" I replied.

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"Eve! Eve talk to me!" pleaded Nay at dinner. I just looked at her blankly. She stared into my eyes searching for some feeling, but I knew she couldn't find anything, I

was empty of feeling and I don't think I will ever regain it.

I got up slowly as to not cause a scene. I walked quickly out of the Great Hall. I went to the lake. I wanted to drown again. I was also having the feeling that became

so frequent now, the feeling that I was being watched. I ignored it at first, when I was in Lebanon but it was becoming harder when I was at Hogwarts. I never felt

safe anymore. I looked at the water, it was still and you could see the reflection of the stars, the beautiful stars that were so far away from all the pain of living.

"Eve" said a voice behind me. I turned, Harry was there.

"What-" I started to snap at him but he cut me off, he hugged me tightly and I stayed there, not fighting. I was happy, for the first time in a long while, I, Eve Skariek,

was happy. I looked up at him; his green eyes sparkled like emeralds in the moonlight. I never noticed how beautiful they were, how deep and how much pain I saw in

them. It hit me he had gone through as much pain as me and more for all I know.

"Listen Harry, I-" he stopped me, he took my head in his hands and leaned down. He kissed me and I kissed him back, overwhelmed by all that I was feeling, there was

so much in that kiss that was never in any other kiss that I had. There was trust, honesty, passion, lust, innocence, and most of all, need for one another. There were

sparks with David and Joey but with them there was always an underlined agenda, but with Harry, it was raw, it was real. It was the only real thing in my life. The kiss

only lasted moments but felt like decades, and I didn't want it to end. When we finally parted I looked up at him and knew this was the guy for me, the man I was

meant to be with. My only problem was, did he feel the same? Or was he just using me? I pushed all these thoughts away and focused on how happy I was.

"We have to get back," said Harry and we walked back hand in hand. We were almost to the doors when something pecked my shoulder, I turned around there was a

strange owl carrying a letter addressed to me. I took it and opened the letter and read it, thinking that nothing could ruin tonight. How wrong I was, the letter read:

You bounce back quickly.

That was all it said but it was enough to scare me, someone was watching me. Harry saw my face and took the letter and read it, he looked up at me with the same

expression. But then it changed to one of determination.

"I won't let anyone hurt you, while I am here" he said angrily. Then he softened his expression and I smiled, I felt safe with him around me.

"Thank God I found you" was all I said.

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