"Hallo Evanna, did you have a good holiday?"
Evanna startled awake in the little train compartment as Luna Lovegood stepped in, smiling serenely. She barely suppressed a groan at the aching in her ribcage and the migraine behind her temples.
"Fine," she said shortly. She pointedly closed her eyes again, just as much to block out the light as to discourage the blonde from staying. Luna, however, had never been one for social cues.
"You're still wearing your bracelet-I had thought you would figure things out more quickly," the other girl said. Anyone else and it would have sounded insulting.
"I am figuring it out, but the Platform is… noisy," Evanna said.
Narcissa had spent every spare moment with Evanna trying to help her learn how to control "the Gift", though it seemed to have only made Evanna's headaches more frequent, even within the Manor. Luckily, Lucius' "business trip" seemed to have lasted awhile-he had not come back until the last two days of break. Those last two days, however, he had been brutal in their training sessions. Though she may have had her wand, there was sometimes just no blocking against certain kinds of Dark Magic. The day of the quidditch pitch seemed to open some sort of floodgate with Lucius, for he had used both the cruciatus and the imperius curse on her during their training sessions, trying to make her throw them off.
"Then I'll be quiet," Luna said and Evanna had to smile despite herself. How much easier would it be to be Luna Lovegood instead of Evanna Malfoy?
"Thank you," Evanna said. "And thank you for the book too."
Luna positively beamed at that and Evanna winced at the sharp spike of emotion. But, she couldn't be too upset. After a long break, she was headed back to Hogwarts.
She was herded into her Head of House's office almost immediately on arrival; the dour Potions master had been waiting in the Great Hall for her. He placed a hand on her shoulder, frowning, and guided her into the office towards the chair in front of his desk.
"Sit," he said. Evanna did so without protest. Professor Snape waved his wand over her, muttering different spells in Latin and frowning.
"Just what were you up to over break to warrant two cracked ribs and multiple contusions, Ms. Malfoy?" he said.
"Sledding," Evanna replied dryly. Professor Snape sighed and shook his head, but he waved his wand over her ribs in a complicated fashion anyway. Soon, the aching she felt as she breathed deeply for the first time in two days. She stood, smoothing her skirt primly. She was quite happy with the new clothing her mother had allowed her to order, even if it was not quite as scandalous as what she and her dormmates had been recreating from the magazines.
"Thank you, sir," she said, not insincerely as she made to walk out. He stopped her.
"I believe you ought not go sledding anymore. Perhaps we could make you a ward of Hogwar-"
"I am not a ward," Evanna said. "I am a child of the Noble House of Malf-"
"Can't you Purebloods forget your damnable pride for even a moment?" Professor Snape sneered. "That man is torturing you, using Dark Magic on you, making you use Dark Magic. You know most wizards don't start using Dark Magic until their thirteenth birthday, when their core is developed enough for it to not be dama-"
"Oh, and how old were you, sir?" she sneered. He shot her a glare.
"Fifteen and wiser to the world than you," he said scathingly. "Even now, there may be certain kinds of magic you will never be able to perform. What Lucius has done-"
"And why is it any of your business what Lucius does to me?" she demanded. "Why do you care? He is my father; if he wants to train me to be stronger and more powerful than anyone else, then what is it to you?"
"He is torturing you and stunting your growth, magical and otherwise. None of your family has ever been petite-"
"Oh, and now you're going to pick on my height!" Evanna exclaimed, throwing her hands up in a most undignified fashion. "What does it matter to you?"
"You are a student in my care, and as such-"
"There are over a hundred students in your House, including my brother, and you're not worried about them," she said, pushing further than she had ever pushed. The break had been so hard, and her head was aching and she wanted to go to bed, but more than that, she wanted to know what made Severus Snape so insistent on protecting her. "You are my Head of House, not my father!"
But I think I might be.
"Excuse me?" Evanna said loudly, not quite comprehending at first that what she had heard was a thought.
"I said nothing, Ms. Malfoy," Professor Snape responded, giving her an odd look. She shook her head. The older she had become, the more she had wished she was not a Malfoy, but this? Her mother was unhappy with her father, Evanna knew, and though she was only eleven, she knew the facts of life. But…
"Do you know something about me that I don't, Professor?" Evanna pressed.
"I know that you can be highly tiresome, Ms. Malfoy, and you haven't seemed to catch on," Professor Snape said slowly. Too slowly. As if he was pushing the thought deep, deep inside him.
"That isn't what I was talking about and you know it, sir," she said. "My mother just revealed to me some super secret family powers that I've apparently inherited that has been causing me all sorts of headaches. And I just can't help but wonder by the way you've treated me if there's not something you know about me, too."
Professor Snape was silent. "There is nothing that I know about you, Ms. Malfoy, that you do not."
Evanna narrowed her eyes. "Do not lie to me, Professor. I can tell when someone lies."
"I do not make a habit of lying to my students, nor do I make a habit of indulging their insolence, no matter what they may think of what I do or do not know," Professor Snape snarled. But Evanna was not having it, not now. Not when she knew there was something so large about her identity being hidden from her.
"Professor, please!" she all but begged. "Don't I deserve to know?"
"I don't know anything!"
"Then tell me what you suspect!" she yelled back. "Obviously Lucius and my mother won't tell me anything-he stopped her from even telling me that I was a leathy aggy thing!"
Professor Snape's head snapped up and she knew that he knew what she referencing and what it meant. There was fear that washed over her, fear and shame.
I have to let her know.
Evanna tilted her chin, equally nervous and triumphant at the thought that the professor would finally give her some straight answers. She was altogether shocked, however, when the door opened of its own accord and Professor Snape pointed to it.
"Get. Out."
"But, sir-"
"OUT!"
Evanna jumped at the harsh scream and rushed out of the office, heart pounding. The door slammed shut again behind her as she rushed to the Slytherin Common Room. Her brother greeted her at the door.
"Evanna! You're paler than the Bloody Baron!" he exclaimed at the door. "And you're shaking-no wonder, that's an awfully short skirt for the castle in the winter time. Were Mother and Father alright?"
"Father was away on business most of the break," Evanna said blankly.
"Well that's good, isn't it? Evanna?"
"Hmm? Yes, it was fine," she said distractedly. "And your own break?"
"Well, Crabbe and Goyle acted really strangely-I think maybe the Weasley twins snuck something into their Christmas pudding, but it was mostly quiet. I caught sight of Granger in the Hospital Wing-she looks like a cat, I swear, and-"
Evanna mostly tuned him out. Her brother could and would keep talking until the thestrals came home, the way he loved the sound of his own voice. But she had bigger issues to worry about. She had made Snape, her one adult ally, unbelievably angry with her. Yet, she needed to know what he knew. She would hate to leave her brother alone with an angry Lucius Malfoy, but if she was not his…. If she had a different Father to claim her….
Pureblood law was clear. The closest male relative was the automatic guardian of any magical child, unless they were stripped of their name and inheritance, in which case they were made wards of Hogwarts, a penniless charity case. That would not do. But, if there was someone who had greater claim to her than Lucius…
She had to find out what Professor Snape knew.
A/N: Sorry for such a long wait between updates! Got busy with work/performances/moving preparations. It is still my goal to finish Chamber of Secrets before classes start, just probably won't be daily updates. I think there are about eight chapters to go before I skip some time. I will probably also be upping this to an "M" rating for mature themes shortly. (I don't write things that are explicit, but there are some things more implied in Evanna's story that will not be suitable for younger readers.)
Anywho, I'd love to hear from you all! I know last chapter confirmed some theories, I'm sure this chapter will spawn/confirm some new ones. Evanna will be learning more about her powers and how to use them, and finding out that just because she can read a person's thoughts & emotions does not mean that she understands them. Tensions will also be rising between the school and Slytherin House, and what better targets than the first years?
Please read and review!