The last few days of term drudged on. Evanna tried on her Yule Ball outfit several times for her roommates, who oohed and ahhed over it suitably each time.

"Where did you find this?" Eva had gushed.

"How did you get away with it?" Elin asked in awe.

"What Father doesn't know won't hurt him," she said with a shrug. "Now can I practice my Cheering Charm?"

The two girls exchanged wary glances. Evanna's Cheering Charms seemed to almost have the opposite effect-instead of simply being happier, the target would laugh for a moment before the laughter gave way to sobs. It was frustrating to Evanna, who had grown up mastering spell after spell in training with her father, and highly unpleasant for the recipients of the charm.

"You know, my brother is pretty good at charms, maybe he could-"

"Your brother is upset that I'm going to the Yule Ball, Elin," Evanna said, rolling her eyes. "He thought our study sessions were something else."

"Yes, I know. Elias has been rather irritating about it, I'm just tired of redoing my eyeliner," she said. "Maybe you should just ask Snape for a tutor."

"Malfoys have no need of tutors," Evanna sniffed, gathering up her books and heading to a study room. "I'll just practice on myself."

After tossing her books onto the table, Evanna pulled her wand from the holster her father had sent for her thirteenth birthday and pointed it at herself.

~Don't flinch, he'll hurt you if you flinch, you have to take it, you are a Malfoy~

Evanna's breath hitched in her throat as she looked down the pale shaft of wood. She closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath through her nose and breathing out again. She had to focus. If she continued doing so poorly in Charms, she knew that Lucius would be most displeased.

"Hilaritates," she said, moving her wand in a swooshing pattern. The effect was immediate. She began to laugh loudly at first, but soon was sobbing instead, big fat tears rolling down her face. Only, she didn't stop like her classmates had when she had practices on them. She kept sobbing and hiccoughing, feeling as though she was about to hyperventilate. Her vision was blurring and she leaned forward on the table, panic rising in her chest.

"Evanna-what the hell?" Draco exclaimed as he burst into the room, Blaise Zabini right behind him. Had Evanna had the wherewithal to care, she might have been embarrassed, but as it stood, she just wanted to breath.

"Looks like some sort of spell gone wrong," Blaise said, pulling his wand. Evanna flinched back, forcing herself not to hide behind the table.

"N-no," she choked out between sobs. Draco looked even more worried and before she knew what was happening, he had pulled out his own wand and cast a finite spell on her.

"Are you alright, Evanna? Do you need to go to the nurse?" Blaise asked, reaching toward her. Evanna gave him a tremulous smile.

"I-I'm fine," she said in a shaky voice.

"But-"

"I've got this, Zabini," Draco said, gesturing for his friend to leave. Blaise gave a little smile at Evanna and she blushed.

"I'll see ya around, then," he said before leaving.

"What were you doing?" Draco demanded.

"Practicing Cheering Charms," Evanna replied.

"By yourself?"

"Well, I can't go home with another 'Acceptable'," Evanna groused, flipping through her text. "And no one lets me practice on them since Elias Gamp finally realized that I wasn't going out with him."

Draco shook his head. "Why not just ask me? Or your date?"

Evanna blushed, looking away from her brother. "Thought you'd be playing quidditch or something."

Draco pursed his lips and shook his head. "I don't like hearing you like that, Ev, especially when it's avoidable."

Evanna refused to meet his eyes. "You ought to be used to it. I'm no stranger to pain, that was just a nuisance."

"I know, but still," he replied. "I don't like it."

"You also don't like me going to the Yule Ball, but there's nothing you can do about it," Evana said in a singsong voice. Draco scowled.

"He'd best be on his best behavior if he knows what's good for him. Don't know what he was thinking, asking my sister."

"Oh, get over yourself before I use you as my next dueling partner," Evanna scowled. "I can handle myself."

Draco shook his head. "So long as he doesn't get any betrothal contracts in his head-"

"I'm thirteen!"

"That's when Mother was betrothed to Father!"

Both siblings went silent. There was an unspoken agreement amongst pureblood circles that no one mentioned Narcissa Malfoy; in Malfoy Manor it was a cardinal rule. It had been one year, six months and fourteen days since the Malfoy children had seen their mother and they still had no idea where she was or even if she was still alive. Judging by the anger that rolled off of Lucius any time Narcissa was mentioned, not to mention the training sessions that occurred immediately after, Evanna feared the worst. Her brother, however, was not privy to all that, and seemed to still hope that their mother would come home one day.

"You've nothing to worry about, Draco," Evanna finally said with a smile, choosing to ignore her brother's misstep. "Given his background, I doubt Father would accept anyhow."

Draco mumbled something under his breath, but ultimately decided to leave it alone. He had enough experience to mostly know when to back off at this point in time.

"I'm going to the center," Evanna said. "Maybe Luna wouldn't mind being my Charms subject."

"I wouldn't count on it," Draco said dryly. Evanna sneered at him as she gathered her books and left the Common Room. Almost immediately she wished she had remembered to grab her cloak-the castle was cold this time of year. That did mean that the halls were mostly empty as students stayed near fires in their Common Rooms. Evanna hoped that her friends had not decided to do the same.

"Luna? Are you in there?" Evanna called in a singsong voice as she entered their little haven. Luna was in there, but she was not the only one. Ginny was there too, frowning heavily at the two boys who had invaded their usually all-girls club. Evanna stood stock still, nerves on edge.

"It's not my fault you don't always get your way, Ronald!"

"Thanks for nothing, Gin," the taller of the two, Ron Weasley said with a heavy scowl as he turned to leave. His scowl deepened when he saw her. "Malfoy."

"Weasley." She gave him a sneer worthy of the name. "Rather far from the Tower, aren't you?"

"I heard what you did."

"What I did?" Though she held her head and her voice steady, her palms felt sweaty.

"Buying that dress. Weasleys don't need the pity of a Malfoy. If I find out you're up to something, trying to get my sister in trouble," he hissed. Hot anger flashed in Evanna's stomach.

"How dare you?" she said, staring down her nose at the freckled boy as much as she could at not-even five foot tall.

"Ron, I think we should go." The other boy finally spoke. For being the infamous savior of the Wizarding World who had faced down Dark Lords and dangerous criminals and dreadful beasts alike, Harry Potter was remarkably soft-spoken. At least, in Evanna's experience, he was around his friends. Despite evidence to the contrary, both Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger still thought Evanna responsible for the events surrounding the opening of the Chamber of Secrets and Harry had not seemed overly concerned in disavowing them of the notion. She was grateful that he had at least refrained from mentioning her Parseltongue abilities and Del's affinity for her.

Pursing her lips unhappily, Evanna nodded at Potter.

"Good evening," she said. He looked nervously at Ron, who was still fuming. Well, Evanna wasn't happy herself.

"Yeah, good to see you, Evanna," he said, offering her a small smile. Something fluttered in her abdomen, though she told it not to in her annoyance. "I'll see you at the Yule Ball?"

Completely against her will, Evanna felt her lips stretch into a smile. "Yeah. I'll see you there, Harry."

He gave her another shy smile and she found herself watching as he left the room. A small sigh escaped her lips as he ruffled his hair on the way out.

"...really think she was just trying to be nice, Ron, it wouldn't hurt…"

"Ahem," Ginny coughed loudly, forcing Evanna to turn around. "I thought you were studying with your dormmates tonight?"

"I was, but they wouldn't let me practice my Cheering Charm." Evanna sat on her hammock, as she thought of it, as gracefully as one could. Ginny blanched.

"Look, you know I'm just related to Ron, accident of fate or my parents. He's rather an idiot, but I know you have experience with idiot brothers yourself-"

"Relax, I've decided I'm giving up on it for tonight." Ginny's breath of relief was audibe.

"There's no need to give up," Luna from on top of one of the tables stacked in the corner. The girl seemed to like to be up high; she was always sitting on top of things. "You are a talented witch and Ginny and I would be happy to help."

Evanna almost laughed at the intense feelings of annoyance and trepidation that flooded her from Ginny. Her strange charmswork was known throughout their year; it made it both frustrating and fruitless to try and find a partner to practice with her during class time. She had been partnered with Professor Flitwick too many times to count.

"I've plans to get detention when we get back from winter hols so that Professor Snape can help me. But if you could look over my essay? It would be wonderful if my theory was at least Outstanding." She pulled out the piece of parchment and handed it to Luna, but Ginny stopped her.

"You first have to check my Potions," the redhead said, passing her own essay over.

"You know that Professor Snape's main complaint is your handwriting and I can't help you with that?"

Ginny waved her off and shoved the parchment in her hands. Evanna smirked as Luna flipped upside down to read her own Charms essay. She was surrounded by friends, well-liked inside her House and year, had a date to the Yule Ball. Even if her Charms could use some work, she lead a charmed life at Hogwarts and would not be going back to Malfoy Manor until at least March. Perhaps she could arrange some sort of tutoring that even Lucius Malfoy could not deny her… She shook her head as she rocked slowly in her hammock. It was best not to tempt fate with flights of fancy; instead, she should simply continue revising with her friends.

A/N: So I'm not altogether happy with this chapter, but I wanted to give you more of a sense for the past year or so before jumping into the Yule Ball. And we got to see some Harry/Evanna in this chapter, even it was not much! More importantly, I really want to develop the female relationships in this story, something that I felt was missing in my other fic, and, to be honest, in Harry Potter as a whole. As a girl who has not dated much, nor had many friendships with dudes, but had life-changing friendships with other girls, I want more of that in fiction. There is too little of deep, true friendship between girls depicted in media, though that is changing. And I really enjoy writing especially Evanna and Ginny's friendship!

Thank you to all my reviewers, guest and regulars! I love hearing from you!