Evan could feel his head slowly drooping towards his desk, and with a jerk he restored it to a proper height. His classes were fascinating, but he had barely gotten a wink of sleep the night before. Nev wasted no time in telling him it was quite his own fault—he'd left a long essay about a personal experience with accidental magic until the last minute—but she was looking awfully sleepy as well, and he had a sneaking suspicion he wasn't the only procrastinator in the family.
"That about wraps it up for today. I know you probably would have preferred to cover this subject in History of Magic, but Professor Binns declines to go into recent wizarding developments."
Evan looked up to see his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Tonks, erasing the board with a wave of her wand. She was a youngish woman, and he could have sworn she'd had pink hair during their last class, but it looked much more red today.
"What was she talking about?" he hissed to Zach Davies.
"The War on Evil," Zach replied in a barely audible whisper.
"Brilliant! Are we actually going to learn what happened?" Evan asked, perking up slightly. No one—being his parents—would ever tell him what had happened fourteen years ago, or why everyone was so afraid to talk about the Shadow Years.
Before Zach could answer, Professor Tonks spoke up. "Homework for next Thursday is to write an essay about the Dark Lords' downfall. There are several excellent books in the library, as well as some Professors who might not be opposed to being interviewed. Class dismissed."
Nev rushed over to Evan, her vivid green eyes flashing happily. "I can't believe they are actually teaching us what happened! I bet Mum would be so angry if she knew. Do you think that Professor Tonks will let us interview her?"
With a shrug, Evan slung his bag over his shoulder and was already going out the door before Nev had a chance to turn around. He was so tired! Let Nev chatter about all this to Kella, who seemed to maybe actually care what Nev had to say.
"I'm going to go to the library," Nev breathed as soon as she caught up to him. "Do you want to come?"
"Nev!" he protested, shaking his head. "We have over a week for this essay!"
With a slight frown, Nev slowed her steps to walk next to Kella and Zach, leaving him to lead the way up to their common room alone. Fine. He was going to catch a nice nap before supper time. Nothing that Nev had to say was going to prevent that.
"Pax Romana," he told their guardian portrait, and she swung open. He could hear Nev telling Kella about an odd incident in Diagon Alley. Well, he was going to take a nap.
"Hey, Evan, wait for a moment," Nev called when he started for his dormitory steps. "I'll catch up with you, Kella."
The black-haired girl and her cousin put their bags in the corner and then climbed back out the portrait hole, their voices cut off as the portrait swung shut behind them.
"What, Nev?" Evan asked, groaning inwardly. She had a very keen look on her face that didn't seem good for his nap.
"You weren't paying attention, were you?" she breathed quietly. "Professor Tonks said that this related to Defense Against the Dark Arts because it showed why we always need to be prepared. She said even Hogwarts isn't safe."
"So?"
"Oh, Evan, you're so thick sometimes! We always assumed that Mum and Da didn't have anything to do with the War on Evil because they were at Hogwarts. But what if the Final Battle took place at Hogwarts?" Nev's face was pale under her freckles.
"Don't be silly, Nev. Mum and Da couldn't have had anything to do with the War on Evil. We would have known if Hogwarts had been the site of a some battle. I mean, nothing looks any different than how Mum or Da described it." Despite his tiredness, Evan was slightly interested. Nev could possibly have a point. Maybe.
"Not the faculty!" Nev crowed triumphantly, and then looked around hastily. The common room was empty except for a pair of sixth years in the corner who didn't look up.
"What do you mean?"
"Surely it's not normal to change the faculty that much from year to year? In the past fourteen years, since Mum and Da were here, a lot of teachers changed."
"Like who?" Evan asked, but a few names were already coming to mind.
Nev rolled her eyes and took a step closer. "Professor Dumbledore. Professor Snape. Professor Trelawney. Professor Shacklebolt. Professor Hagrid. We've heard Mum and Da talk about them before, and all of them are gone now. It doesn't seem likely that at least five professors died when the War on Evil ended."
Evan shook his head. He was definitely going up to his dormitory right now to take a nap. "How do you know they're dead? People retire, you know."
"I checked," Nev whispered.
"Why would you do that?" Evan protested. "You just came up with this harebrained theory a half hour ago!"
"I know that. I'm just connecting pieces that I already knew, though. You see I wanted to send an owl to Professor Hagrid and to Professor Dumbledore."
"Why—?"
"That's none of your business!" Nev snapped. "Anyway, I did some research and it turns out they're both dead. Coincidence? I decided to check the other teachers that I knew Mum or Da had in their seventh year. All those five are dead. Plus there are teachers that Mum or Da might not have had, and they might have died. So at least five teachers died, Evan! That has to mean something!"
Evan tried to flatten his mop of curls, his hazel eyes scrunched up as he thought. Nev was right; it was a very large coincidence that five teachers would have died around the same time. Yet it didn't really mean anything, not to him and Nev. Their lives weren't going to change based on something that happened three years before they were born.
"I'm going to take a nap," he informed Nev, and her face fell. "Maybe I'll go to the library with you after supper."
"Thanks, Evan!" she declared, giving him a quick hug. "I'll go get started. See you at supper!"
Evan made his way upstairs very slowly. It's just an essay, he told himself firmly, taking off his shoes and drawing the curtains around his bed. It took him quite a while to drop off to sleep. Even if it was true, there was no reason that it would have any effect on him or Nev. He reassured himself with that thought several times before finally slipping into a fitful sleep.
