WARNING! There are dreams/flashbacks that may be triggering in this chapter, dealing with the aftereffect of child abuse.

Evanna had strange dreams that night. She was in the ballroom, dancing by herself when first Blaise offered her a hand and dipped her into something like a tango. He smiled gently and then it turned vicious as she fell into Harry's arms. As he spun her, she could hear Professor Snape saying "Choose a side," over and over again.

"It'll be my side, won't it?" Harry said with a boyish grin before spinning her into someone else's arms-Draco.

"You have to act like a Malfoy, Evanna," he said. "You can't abandon your brother."

"Abandon you?" she repeated.

"You can't abandon me. You know what he'll do," he said. And all of a sudden, Blaise, Harry, Professor Snape, and Draco were gone and she was alone in the ballroom. Her dress had disappeared too and she was in a summer nightdress and her mother's old dressing gown. She felt hands grip her.

"Tu vas faire comme je dit."

Evanna woke with a start, but the details of her dream quickly faded from her mind. Her hair was rather wild and tangled from the night before and she had apparently not managed to wipe away all of her makeup. Knowing her dormmates would be up soon to question her about every last detail of the ball, Evanna gathered up a wool skirt and jumper before heading to the bathroom to shower. It took far longer than usual to tame her curls, so after getting out, she put her hair into a tight plait. When she reemerged from the bath, Elin and Eva had already left for breakfast. Evanna breathed a sigh of relief that it would be another few moments before she was barraged with questions. She was wrapped up in thoughts of the Yule Ball as she wrapped a thick cloak around her and made her way to the Great Hall.

She truly didn't know what to think of the previous night. She hadn't won the bet with Ginny, but somehow she had a guy feeling that she had come closer to it than her redhaired friend, only not with her date. Harry Potter was as much an enigma to her as he had been the day she bumped into him in Diagon Alley. She wasn't supposed to like him, wasn't supposed to associate with him, but somehow despite differing Houses and years, they were drawn to each other. It was as if there was something deep inside her that tied her inextricably to him.

A part of her was shamefully happy that no one had noticed the two together except for Professor Snape. She knew he would never divulge her secrets; he had too many of his own, even if it had become harder to get a read on his thoughts since he learned of her abilities. But she knew how her family would look at her continuing friendship with the Potter boy. Draco would be completely aghast, spouting off something about how horrible Potter was and how everyone just loved him but he was highly overrated. Lucius, well, her father's reaction did not bear thinking on this early in the morning.

The Great Hall was back to its usual self, long tables and no sparkling snow. Yet, it was still buzzing with energy, though a different kind to the previous night. Evanna furrowed her eyebrows as girls she didn't even know sent her death glares. She glanced at the Gryffindors to see if Ginny perhaps knew what was happening, but the redhaired girl was frowning and trying not to look at her. Further down the table she could see Harry, who was looking very pink, and Hermione and Ron both seeming rather out of sorts with each other and Harry. She glanced at the Slytherin table to see her brother looking abnormally pale and Eva and Elin whispering. Pansy looked rather pleased with herself while Blaise looked rather like he was going to fall asleep. Evanna shook her head; Blaise was never too concerned over the Hogwarts gossip mill.

Still confused, Evanna joined her brother at the table.

"What's going on?"

"I would eat quickly," Draco said in a bland voice. "I expect a Howler to be coming any minute."

"A Howler?"Evanna asked. "What for?"

Draco shook his head and Blaise looked up from his scrambled eggs, yawning widely.

"Good morning, beautiful," he said. "I hear you had a good night even after I went off with those Beauxbatons girls. Glad to see at least one Malfoy relaxed last night."

Blaise was giving her a smirk that Evanna didn't fully understand. She looked back at her brother who sighed and gave her a copy of the Daily Prophet. The headline screamed out at her: "FORBIDDEN ROMANCE FOR TRIWIZARD CHAMPION?"

Beneath the headline was a moving photograph. Evanna watched in horror as her photographic self reached up and touched Harry Potter's face over and over again. She twisted around to face the Gryffindor table and met Harry's eyes. Somehow, his thoughts had always overpowered anyone else's in the vicinity. But not today-today his thoughts were hidden from her. Or maybe she secretly did not want to know.

Evanna turned back to the Slytherin table and flipped open the article which was, of course, written by Rita Skeeter.

Our young hero is not so lucky in love, it seems. Readers will remember when we last checked in with young Harry Potter, he seemed quite smitten with plain muggleborn, Hermione Granger. However, that romance has been dashed as Granger attended the Yule Ball with Quidditch star, Viktor Krum. One wonders if she has a taste for the famous.

"She's really smart," an anonymous classmate informed yours truly. "I wouldn't put it past her to have brewed a love potion."

It seems young Harry has emerged from Granger's spell, however it was not with his own Yule Ball date. Late in the night, Mr. Potter was spotted with a dark haired beauty in a truly daring outfit. But who was this new young woman that our Champion seemed so smitten with?

Well, dear readers, I can tell you here exclusively that this dark haired beauty was none other than Evanna Malfoy, the younger, enigmatic child of Lucius Malfoy and still missing Narcissa Malfoy nee Black. Whilst her brother, Draco, has been an active part of Wizarding High Society from a young age, very few knew of Ms. Malfoy's exitstence until she showed up at Hogwarts three years ago.

The Malfoy family is not known for being particularly friendly to the Potters and the rivalry between Slytherin House and Gryffindor House is legendary. One wonders if these star-crossed lovers will be ill-fated as friends and family learn of their relationship. Or is something more sinister going on?

"She's in my House and has always been quite odd. She collapses at weird times and some people still say she was involved with the opening of the Chamber of Secrets," the same anonymous source told us. "There are rumors she is really good at Dark Magic."

There you have it, readers: Has Mr. Potter fallen into a doomed forbidden love? Or has another dangerous Dark Wizard taken an interest in him-

Evanna put the paper down as a large eagle owl landed in front of her. She recognized her father's owl, Crius, immediately. The owl had a bright red envelope attached to his leg. Evanna took it with shaking fingers. Draco was already out of his seat, pulling her to her feet as well.

"C'mon," he muttered. "You don't want this to happen in front of the entire Great Hall."

Whispers followed the siblings out of the Great Hall as Evanna tried to hide the envelope. She saw some movement out of the corner of her eye and thought someone was following her, but she was more focused on hiding the smoke coming from the envelope while not allowing it to burn her favorite sweater than she was the room around her.

The siblings had just rounded the corner when the Howler exploded.

"How DARE you?" Lucius' voice roared from the enchanted parchment. "You are NOT to associate with Potter-or any other blood traitors again. I will remind you of your station in life when you return home for Easter holiday, that is if I don't remove you from that school this very week! Tu vas faire comme je dit!"

Evanna was shaking all over now. Draco stood just in front of her, head hanging limply and hands in his pockets. Lucius may well have been standing right in front of her, ready to curse her, to hex her, to hurt her…

A hand reached out and touched her and magic exploded from her in a way it hadn't since she was very young.

"Gahh!"

"Potter!" Draco spat. Evanna fought hard to squash her shaking, not wanting to look weak, she couldn't look weak, she was a Malfoy, a Pureblood, she wasn't weak… "Haven't you done enough?"

"I wasn't here to talk to you, Malfoy," Harry hissed. "Are you okay Evanna?"

Her throat was dry. She couldn't swallow. She couldn't speak. Those green eyes… those green eyes were dangerous. She knew what was coming. She knew that what she had been doing was not smart, that Lucius would be upset. She only hoped that maybe, just maybe, Draco would be there with her…

"I said, haven't you done enough?" Draco repeated, stepping in front of Evanna. He pulled his wand.

...she was defenseless. She had been asleep, why would she have to have her wand on her in her own bed? But she had to do as he said, he would make her do as he said. Tu vas faire…

It was then that Evanna snapped. Without her brother or Harry Potter uttering a single spell, she ran. She ran all the way to the second floor bathroom, hissing as she ran. She did not even stop as she jumped feet first into the pipes leading to the Chamber of Secrets.

"Master-master is afraid-what is wrong with Master?"

"You were placed in here to keep Hogwarts safe, right?" she said, the hisses coming in between sharp breaths. "Please, keep me safe."

Evanna sank into Del's scales as the basilisk promised no harm would come to her beloved master and did not leave the Chamber for a long time.

A/N: Hi friends! So I am posting this because some of my homework was pushed back (thank God!). Was very busy this week moving and going to orientation and whatnot. Thursday begins classes, including 2 classes I'll be teaching myself (!). Right now, I am going to aim for a chapter every other week, though that may change after I am reduced to tears and wine next week.

Anywho, hope you enjoy! Lemme know what you think in the reviews!