A hand had Evanna by the arm almost as soon as the professors had convinced the students to follow their prefects back to their dormitories. She looked up to see her Head of House positively fuming above her.

Insipid little fool…

"Come with me," he ordered, clipping each word. "Now."

Even if he had not been holding her so tightly, Evanna would have known better than to disregard his orders. She halfway trotted after him, his long strides being almost too much for her short frame. He all but threw her inside his office. She stumbled a little over the rough cobblestone.

"What have you done?" he demanded.

"Sir, I-"

"You leave the feast early only to be found clinging onto Potter like a limpet with bloody words painted above your head and a Petrified cat on the wall. Don't think I haven't noticed your scheming to help Lovegood-I know that was one of her tormentors," he scowled. "Tell me the truth-what have you done?"

"Nothing!" Evanna all but squeaked. "Fine-I was going to plant some dung bomb's in the half-blood's bed, but I wouldn't-that cat-the voice-"

Evanna looked at her hands. Funny. They were trembling. She had never been a shaky sort of person before Hogwarts. Why was she now?

"I swear, if this is some sort of scheme your father has pulled you into-"

There was a rush of noise and feelings that Evanna had no hope of sorting through at those words, but she latched herself onto one, like an anchor in the storm.

Not her father….

"Sir, what do you know of my father?" she demanded. "You're just a school teacher and he is the most powerful lord in magical Britain."

Professor Snape's eyes snapped to hers. She felt that same odd sensation that she had when she had first met the man-like he was studying every facet of her face, looking for something in her. His eyes were so black and fathomless, she could almost catch a glimpse of her reflection in them. Her curly black hair, so unlike the straight blondes of her father and brother-even different from her mother's. The hooded eyes in stark contrast to her family's delicate features. Vivid purple, so far from the steely grey. The only similarity was her pale, pale skin.

I wish I could know anything about your father.

Trembling. She was still trembling. She felt like she was on the precipice of something that would turn her whole world upside down. She had never truly felt at home in Malfoy Manor, not the way one ought to in their ancestral home, the way she had felt when she walked into Hogwarts nearly two months before.

She wouldn't face it. Not today. Not without her mother.

Evanna forced herself to stand up straight, like her mother had taught her to do with books and whatnot teetering on her head. She wrapped herself in every bit of Pureblood propriety that she had learned like it was armor. But she could not stop her trembling, so she held her hands so tightly that she thought they might bruise.

"I know your father to be a dangerous man with as many plots as he has galleons, Ms. Malfoy," the professor said slowly, tearing his eyes away from hers. "What I need to know is if he has endangered you or other school children?"

Evanna was shaking her head. "Father doesn't share plans with Draco or I. We're just children. We obey him."

Professor Snape was shaking his head, looking quite out of sorts. "What were you doing with Potter, then?"

"We ran into each other-he's been hearing the same voice, I think," she said simply. "Please, sir, I'm tired. I just want to go to bed."

The professor gave her another long look. "You may," he said after a moment. "Straight to the Common Room, no detours."

"Yes, sir," she said.

She walked out of the office with her head spinning. She didn't understand what was going on with her, the murderous voice she kept hearing in the walls, the noise that was like incessant buzzing in the back of her brain, the looks Professor Snape kept giving her, her mother's lack of meaningful communication, why she kept ending up in the arms of Harry Potter. Hogwarts was nothing like she expected; she almost wished for the simpler days where all she had to worry about was angering her father to the point that he pushed her far more than she could handle in training. A couple bruises, perhaps a broken bone-that sounded like bliss in comparison.

It seemed no one had gone to bed by the time Evanna arrived back in the Common Room. The noise in her head had returned with a vengeance and she did her best to sneak around the edges of the room to get to her dorm. One of the older Slytherins-Adrian Pucey, she thought-seemed to be holding court in the center of the room.

"We all know what it means-their ancestors were the ones who forced ours into hiding! Ours, who flew past the bounds of humanity to be like gods-"

"Evanna!" Draco hissed, reaching out and grabbing her wrist.

"-all of them who hate us-including Dumbledore-will pay! All we have tried to do-"

"Let me go, Draco," Evanna said, feeling utterly drained. She winced at the growing headache.

"What the hell were you doing with Potter?" he hissed.

"-protect and defend our legacy! We are wizards-and witches-"

"We just ran into each other. I'm going to bed," Evanna said irritably. But Draco didn't let go.

"Evanna, you can't just go around with blood traitors and mudblood lovers!" he hissed, narrowing his eyes. "And especially not Harry bloody Potter!"

"-and we ought to take back what is rightfully ours! The Dark Lord had it right-"

"Who says I can't?" Evanna hissed back. "You couldn't control me even if you tried."

"You are a Malfoy! You have to act like one."

"-the mudbloods and the blood traitors don't respect our traditions, our legacy. It's time we got rid of them!"

There was a rumble going through the crowd. The headache was fierce as it was when Evanna didn't have the bracelet, but conflicting emotions of fear and anger and excitement and anxiety would not let simply collapse as she had in the past. She held onto her bracelet with one hand. Something like a small explosion went off in her chest.

"Maybe I'm not!" she shouted. "Maybe I don't want to be a Malfoy!"

The Common Room seemed to have shifted focus from Pucey to the Malfoys in a flash.

Is she cracked?

Never thought she looked quite like a Malfoy...

Quite taken with Potter…

Professor Snape seems to take an interest in her…

Always thought she was completely bonkers...

She was standing there…

Could she be the heir of Slytherin?

Panic was welling up in Evanna, making hard to breath. She clapped her hands over her ears as the noise swelled in her head. She just barely noticed Draco's expression shifting from anger to concern as he darted forward to catch her as she swayed on her feet. She saw her roommates fighting the crowd on the other side of the Common Room.

"What is the meaning of this?" a familiar voice sounded at the entrance of the Common Room.

"Sir, we were just discussing the Chamber of Se-"

"Do not finish that sentence, Mr. Pucey," Snape hissed. "The last time the Chamber of Secrets was opened, a girl died. Given that the Chamber is a distinctly Slytherin legend, it would not do to make the other Houses anymore suspicious of us when no Slytherin has done any wrong doing in this."

The way Professor Snape said it implied that he would be killing anyone who brought more suspicioun towards Slytherin House himself.

"All of you, to bed now. I won't stand for any more gossiping about the Chamber of Secrets," Professor Snape sneered. Within moments, the crowd began to recede and Evanna's headache began to ebb away. She forced herself out of Draco's grasp, still a bit unsteady on his feet.

"Evanna, are you okay?" Eva asked worriedly.

"You've been looking sick the past two days," Elin asked.

"I'm fine," Evanna lied, refusing to look at her brother. "Just tired is all."

Her roommates fussed over her as they climbed the stairs to their dorm room, Evanna patently ignoring the angry looks Draco kept giving her. She was sure to get a nasty letter from their father in the morning, but she found herself not caring in the slightest. All she wanted was to sleep for a long, long time.