Evanna groaned, rubbing her rump as she stood. She quickly stopped the motion as soon as she realized who was standing in front of her, though she nearly didn't recognize him without the fine layer of soot.
"Harry!" she exclaimed, excited to see the boy again. He blinked at the use of his first name, green eyes focusing almost immediately on the crest on her robes.
Slytherin.
"Oh-er-hi, Malfoy," he said in a rather toneless voice. Evanna frowned.
"It's good to see you again," she said, employing her best manners almost as a defense. "Are your glasses holding up well?"
"Harry, c'mon, we're about to be late and you know Professor Snape-oh, erm-Harry?" a frizzy-haired girl came around the corner, glancing between Evanna and Harry pointedly. "Isn't that Malfoy's little sister?"
"There's another Malfoy git?" a redhaired boy said following behind her-obviously Ronald Weasley, Ginny's missing brother from the night before.
Evanna stiffened at the obvious disdain in the tone. Despite her issues with her family, she had always been told that the Malfoys were almost like royalty to the Wizarding World. Yet, here this girl was (who, by the looks of it, did not own a hairbrush) sneering down at her.
"My name is Evanna, thank you for asking," she said primly. "Harry and I met over the summer in Diagon Alley, isn't that right?"
Harry's face was rather pink as the girl's eyebrows shot up. "Er-we bumped into each other-it's not as if I knew who she was-quit giving me that look Hermione!"
Evanna's mind went through several things at once. Firstly, that Harry was refusing to look her in the eyes or use her first name. Secondly, he had yet to acknowledge her polite inquiry as to how her spellwork had held up on his glasses. Thirdly, that his friends obviously hated her and he would not be standing up for the girl who had helped him over the summer. And finally, that Hermione was a name she had heard all too frequently since her brother had started Hogwarts. With all that in mind, she turned to the frizzy haired girl still trying to tug Harry away from her.
"Oh, now I know you," she said to the girl. "You must be that know-it-all little muggle-born my brother is always on about. You know, he really didn't do justice to the state of muggle dental care."
The girl's eyes widened in hurt, and the Weasley yanked out his wand.
"Oi, you take that back, you spiteful bint-"
"Put your wand away before you take someone's eye out," she scowled. "I've been dueling since I could speak sentences."
"But you're only a first year-" the girl said.
"Who was raised by one of the great Wizarding families of Britain-more than you can say, isn't it?"
"Quit talking to my friends like that!" Harry-no, Potter-said, green eyes flashing agrily.
"Some friends," Evanna snorted. "Next time, I won't bother helping you, Potter."
Evanna marched off, head held high, though she could not for the life of her figure out why she felt as hurt as she did. She had met the boy only once, barely had a five-minute conversation with him and cast a quick reparo on his glasses. It was really nothing more than her showing off with her new wand.
"Some people just have no manners," she mumbled to herself.
The rest of her first week at Hogwarts went much the same for Evanna. Her housemates found her to be old-fashioned, those outside of the House saw her through the lens of her brother's already growing reputation. Both Ginny and Bridget, who she thought would be good friends on the train, ignored her in favor of their own Houses. Only Luna seemed willing to still speak with her, though Evanna suspected that Luna would speak to anyone so long as they were willing to hear about nargles and Snorkacks for hours on end. And though Evanna was lonely, she wasn't quite that lonely.
Though she had checked and made sure that Draco had sent her letter to her mother, there had been no response. Once Evanna had taken off her bracelet in the Common Room, just to see what would happen, only to immediately shove it back on as noise worse than the train station seemed to hammer its way inside of her brain. She had thought of going to the library and researching what was going on herself, but she hardly knew where to even begin.
Evanna found herself taking to wandering the corridors until curfew, and sometimes a bit later, just to alleviate her boredom. The homework for first years was more tedious than challenge, not that Evanna would have found anything interesting about a stupid Levitation Charm anyways. Finally, Saturday came, and Evanna could not have been happier to escape the tedium of her classes.
She was the first to wake, as her roommates had figured out was her custom. For the first time in a week she would be able to wear something other than school robes, not that she found the pastel robes her mother always chose for her all that appealing. Evanna frowned as she took in the contents of her wardrobe, removing one of the less lacy outfits.
"Good Merlin, that's worse than your nightgowns," Eva said, coming up behind her. "Don't you have any denim? Or t-shirts?"
Evana scowled. The other girl made at least one comment a day about Evanna's proper clothing or fastidious manners.
"The way you're always on about how I dress and act makes me wonder if you're Pureblood at all!" Evanna exclaimed, all but hiding her dayrobes behind her back. Eva took half a step back.
I'm not.
"Well, you make me wonder if you were even born in this century!" Eva shot back, obviously a bit nervous. Evanna narrowed her eyes, a suspicion forming in the back of her mind-both about Eva and about herself.
"You're not, are you?" Evanna said, taking a step toward the other girl. "You're just pretending to be. How you made it into Slytherin-"
"Slytherin isn't just for Purebloods!" Eva snapped. "Take a look at our Head of House-he's a half-blood!"
Evanna blinked. That was a bit of information she would have to file away for further inspection, but at the moment she was just ready to make sure the other girl stopped making fun of her.
"You've been ridiculing me all week, but you're what? A mudblood pretending?"
The other girl looked ready to breath fire, but at that moment, Elin stepped in between them. "Calm down, Malfoy, Blishwick," the girl said. "If you'd been paying attention to your yearmates instead of gallivanting around the castle all week, you'd know that Eva is more a halfblood than anything else-her parents are Squibs."
Evanna felt herself deflate, looking at her roommate with new eyes. "Oh. I'm so sorry," she said. It was a great tragedy in Wizarding circles to give birth to a Squib, though it had been becoming more common as the great Pureblood families dwindled.
"There's nothing to be sorry for," Eva snapped, still looking angry. "So what if my parents can't do magic? I can-and I'll be great at it!"
Elin rolled her eyes. "I said to calm down. Maybe instead of making snippy comments at her, you can just ask her?"
Elin seemed to give Eva a significant look. Eva pouted, crossing her arms, but Elin kept staring her down. "Oh, alright. I really like fashioned and I've learned a few charms from Witch's Weekly and I know you can't actually like all that Easter egg nonsense and canIpleasegiveyouamakeover?"
Evanna shook her head as though dislodging cotton from her ears. "Excuse me?"
Elin sighed. "She wants to test out some clothing charms and cosmetic spells but her father has forbidden her from doing it to herself and I personally like my clothes the way they are."
"Who says I don't like my clothes?"
"You're hiding those ghastly pale green things behind your back."
Evanna nodded. "Alright, fine. Just don't touch my nightgowns-I do like those."
Eva squealed and rushed to her nightstand to pull out her wand and a copy of Witch's Weekly: Autumn Style Edition. She flipped open to a page full of charms that could be applied to update a witch's wardrobe.
"Oooh-look at that one-it would look so cute on you!" Eva said, pointing to an outfit consisting of some very low-slung trousers, a tight animal print tank top and a red-leather robe to go over it all. Evanna grimaced at the ensemble.
"I don't think she's ready for that one yet, Blishwick," Elin said dryly. "How about that?"
She was pointing to something that was a cross between a skirt and a set of muggle coveralls overtop of a turtleneck short sleeved top, a simple black capelet around the shoulders. Evanna knew her mother would find the skirt to be too short, the top too tight, but it was the least scandalous outfit on the page-some of the tops were barely more than underwear, not that Evanna was even old enough to need that kind of underwear yet…
Eva was giving her a hopeful look. Evanna bit her lip, but nodded. Both Eva and Elin squealed, foisting Evanna into the outfit she had first pulled from her wardrobe before both began shooting different spells at her. At one point, Evanna was fairly certain that it was her face that was purple and plaid, but her roommates had quickly turned her away from the mirror and begun shooting several more spells at her.
"Now, what can we do with her hair? It's just so long…"
Evanna yelped, covering her hair with her hands. The long black curls were a source of pride for her, even if they made her stick out like a sore thumb amongst her family.
"Don't touch my hair!"
In the end, the girls simply put her hair into two plaits down her back, fixing the bottom of each with two large snake-shaped clips. Then, they turned Evanna to the mirror.
She had to admit, she had never felt more… herself. Sure, it was a little odd, the skirt ending above her knee but the knee high black socks helped her feel a little more confident and she was at least wearing a cape if not full robes. And the clips in her hair were quite fun-not too mention there was a bit of lace or pastel in sight.
"Thank you," Evanna breathed in amazement. Her two roommates high-fived one another before scurrying to put on their own weekend clothes for the day. When the three of them left the dorm, they linked arms and sang the Hogwarts fight song all the way down to breakfast until a grumpy seventh year warned them to shut up. Evanna felt herself unable to stop smiling. Maybe, just maybe, Hogwarts would not be so bad.
At least not until she heard the murderous voices in the walls.
A/N: And we finally get to the plot of Chamber of Secrets! Evanna and Harry bumped into each other again, and no, it was not exactly as pleasant as the last time. Don't worry, Evarry?Harvanna? shippers, we've much time to go for these two. It's no fun if they fall in love at first/second year without a bit of hardship first, amiright? Besides that, Evanna isn't real sure how to deal with half-bloods, much less anything else yet. I warned you last chapter that she was indeed raised by Malfoys and all that entails.
I hadn't originally planned for her 'makeover' scene to come so soon, but it felt right and I wanted her out of pastels! Sorry if y'all ain't here for it, but as I am headed to get my MFA in Costume Design in a month(!), clothing and the role it plays in telling a story is very important to me. Part of Evanna finding her own identity will be her shedding the stuffy Pureblood robes she's been wearing. Eventually, clothing will become her armor as she finds her place in the war, but that's several years away ;).
Huge thank you to my reviewers and shoutout to Jensbertino! Right now I am updating this story frequently (my apologies to any Bailey fans reading this), but that is not always the case. You can typically check out my profile page to get an idea of what I am up to/how that is affecting my updates.
Thanks for reading and please review!