The school woke to horrible news the next morning. A first year Gryffindor-Colin Creevey, Ginny Weasley's normal Potions partner-had been Petrified. Evanna heard some of the boys in her year plotting to get a glimpse of him in the Hospital Wing, but all she could think of was poor Ginny Weasley and how pale the girl had been looking since the incident with the cat.
With that thought in mind, Evanna dressed early, not even bothering to Transfigure her clothes like she normally did, and rushed to the Great Hall, hoping to see Ginny. Already, she saw Bridget Travers and Luna Lovegood sitting at the Gryffindor table by the redheaded girl. Steeling herself, Evanna went and joined them. Luna waved happily at her, and Travers gave her a nod. But, she could feel the eyes of the other Gryffindors at the table heavy on her back.
"Weasley," she said as she took a seat next to the girl. She had lost any color she once had-even her freckles were deathly pale. "I heard about what happened. I'm sorry-I know he was a friend."
Evanna felt an overwhelming sense of guilt, but it was muted somehow. Whatever Professor Snape had done to her bracelet had worked, apparently.
"Thank you-"
"Oi, what d'yeh think yeh're doin' over 'ere?" a voice with an Irish lilt said behind her.
"That's Malfoy's little sister!" someone said beside him.
Evanna turned to see several second and third year boys marching towards her, wands out.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" she asked.
"What's a filthy little snake doing at our table?" one of them said.
"Tryin' to Petrify another one o' our first years, are yeh?"
Evanna wasn't sure who fired the first spell, other than it had to be a third year, because suddenly her wand was flying through the air as the boys surrounded her and cut her off from her friends. She heard the other girls shouting over them, but they weren't allowed towards her.
"Let me go! My father will hear about this!" Evanna said, struggling to find a way out of the circle. A stinging hex hit her in the same wrist as she had sprained the day before and she hissed. The shouting and spell-flinging grew and grew until she heard one voice above the cacophony that she desperately wanted to hear.
"What is the meaning of this?" Professor Snape roared. The boys scattered and Evanna immediately snatched up her wand from the ground. "Four Gryffindor boys on one first year girl? Despicable-Detention for a week, all of you! And fifty points from Gryffindor!"
One of the boys swore, and Snape rounded on him. "Each, Mr. Finnegan! And be thanking your lucky stars that I am not your Head of House or you would be out on your ears!"
Professor Snape grabbed Evanna and steered her away.
"Are you quite alright, Ms. Malfoy?" he asked lowly.
"Yes, I-"
"I can't believe them!" her brother interrupted, rushing over from the entrance to the Great Hall. "That scum-how dare they attack you?"
"Oh, now you care if I take a few hexes?" Evanna sneered and flounced away, leaving both her brother and Head of House alone. She stopped in an alcove just outside of the Great Hall as everything that had happened over the past few days came crashing down over her. Her breath caught in her throat and she felt her lungs constrict, barely able to take in a deep breath. Tears blurred her vision. She had been tortured. She had been cornered and attacked. She had just turned eleven, she shouldn't be dealing with this.
Eventually, she became aware of someone in front of her, holding her hand and speaking in a soft, low voice.
"Breath, Malfoy, breath, that's it," a boy with unruly hair was saying in front of her. As soon as Evanna recognized the boy, she jumped away.
"Potter," she said. All of her problems stemmed back to Potter, didn't it? "What, what are you-"
"You were having a panic attack," he said, almost defensively. "Used to have them when I was little-I was worried you'd pass out and crack your head open. Any way, I'm hungry."
He turned to walk away and Evanna bit her lip before making a very impulsive decision.
"Potter, wait!"
He turned back toward her. "What?"
"Thank you," she said. "And I'm… I'm sorry for what I said yesterday-I just-"
He looked at her worriedly. "Your father… he's not a very nice man, is he?"
Evanna snorted. That was putting it mildly.
"Well, I'm pretty sure I flattened your brother and your House yesterday, even with a bludger after me," he said with a wry grin. "We'll just call it even, yeah?"
Before Evanna could say anything else, Potter left, disappearing into the Great Hall. She slumped against the wall, feeling utterly drained, no matter that it was barely past nine in the morning. She sat up as she heard footsteps coming towards her.
"What the hell?" her brother shouted. "You've been ignoring me since yesterday and then you go off on me in front of Snape? What's wrong with you-I'm your brother!"
"A fact which you seem to have quite forgotten," Evanna said snidely, standing from her seat, despite the wobbly feeling in her limbs, and starting her way down the hall to the library. Draco chased after her.
"I've just been doing my best to look out for you, Ev-keep you out of trouble, with the right people. You don't have much experience-"
"Oh, who's fault is that?" Evanna sneered, trying to walk faster to dodge her brother.
"I know, I know, but I'm just trying to teach you how to be a proper Malfoy in pub-"
Evanna whirled around, wand digging into her brother's chest. "I already told you-I don't want to be a Malfoy! I'm tired of you dictating who I can and cannot speak with! I'm tired of being locked away in the bloody Manor all the time like some sort of damsel in distress! I'm better at magic than you! I'm tired of Father flinging spells and curses at me for everything and you-you being the bloody-perfect-heir!"
"Ow! Evanna!"
There was the smell of burning fabric. Evanna's wand had burned a hole through Draco's shirt. She took a step back from him, feeling someone's confusion behind her. She turned to see Potter, holding a glass of pumpkin juice, eyes narrowed on her brother.
"Nothing to see here, Potter," she spat, cheeks burning. She quickly dodged around the two boys and made her way by herself to the library, throwing herself onto a table in the furthest corner.
"Oh, hallo, Evanna," a dreamy voice said. "Feel free to move my books to the side."
Evanna looked up to see Luna and gave a soft smile. The other girl, while odd, never seemed to judge anything Evanna did.
"Hello Luna-no one steal your shoes lately, right?" she said.
"No, I think Eliza's been rather too sad to play any jokes," Luna replied. Evanna grimaced and began to pull out her parchment and quill and ink-Professor McGonagall had assigned them a rather complicated essay about Transfiguring non-similar objects that she was not looking forward to. She could do the spell, after all, who cared about how it worked?
"I'm glad they're leaving you alone," Evanna said.
"Yes, though it can get rather lonely in the Tower. I do wish you were a Ravenclaw sometimes," Luna said. Evanna shifted uncomfortably. To be perfectly honest, though she knew herself to be no studious Ravenclaw, she rather wished there was more distance between her and her brother.
"Rotten luck about Creevey," Evanna said. "Didn't like him much, but he's still just a first year. You would think school would be safer."
"Why?"
Evanna blinked. "Well… because. It's school."
"But school is meant to mirror life and magic," Luna looked more serious than Evanna had ever seen her. "And life and magic are dangerous."
The pronouncement sent a shudder down Evanna's spine. Before she could think of something to say Luna had dipped her own quill into an inkpot and began scratching out the same Transfiguration essay. Evanna took the book herself and flipped it open at random, plotting in her mind how best to avoid Draco for the next few days.
A booming trade of talismans and good-luck charms seemed to spring up overnight and Evanna couldn't help but scoff at how easy her classmates were to fool, not to mention the teachers' utterly futile attempts to dissuade the entrepreneurs.
"Why are you buying that?" she said dismissively as she watched Eva hand to sickles to a Hufflepuff boy who gave her a rabbit's foot in exchange.
"It's a good luck charm," she said. "It'll keep me safe from the monster."
"You're already safe," Evanna said, rolling her eyes. "You're not a Mudblood-you're a Pureblood."
Both Eva and Elin stared at her in disbelief.
"You really don't know do you?" Elin said.
"Know what?" Evanna asked, feeling a little irritated.
"She's a half-blood."
Evanna's eyes widened. She could feel it-a choice to make, two paths laid out before her. She saw her brother coming down the hall, loudly espousing the Malfoy line and making comments about Mudbloods getting theirs. She saw Potter on the other side, guarding his bushy haired friend and shouting back at Draco.
"Well," she said, in her usual posh way. "You are a Slytherin, aren't you? And this is Slytherin's monster. Besides, I'm as Pureblood as they come and you're friends with me. The monster wouldn't dare attack you."