The léitheoir aigne can achieve more than first glance. The mind is a complicated, many layered thing, as is the Gift granted to the violet-eyed. With outside stress or inward meditation, there is nearly no limit on the young léitheoir aigne's powers. Indeed, the original order was equally feared and revered for their abilities over thoughts, desires, memories-
"What are you reading?"
Evanna looked up from the ancient text that her mother had recommended to her on their last visit to see her brother looming over her in the common room. He had a quaffle in one hand, his broomstick in the other.
"Thought you were a Seeker?" Evanna said, ignoring his question.
"Quidditch is cancelled this year, remember?"
"Hmm," Evanna grunted back and returning to her book. According to the text, there was much more to her Gift than she had ever realized. Longevity, communication across distances and species, heightened senses and magic, manipulation of desires and memories, all that power hers for the taking if only she could figure out how to properly control it. A tall order, she knew, for a third year who still had issues with wingardium leviosa…
"Don't you dare touch my book, Draco Lucius Malfoy," Evanna growled. Her brother snatched his hand back.
"I just thought that you could use some fresh air-you've been looking awfully pale-"
"Liar, you're just nosy," Evanna shot back, closing the book to deal with her brother. "What can I do for you, Draco?"
"Fine, you always could tell when I wanted something," Draco admitted, sitting down across from her. "You and Snape get along rather well."
Evanna blinked. "What is that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing-just that-maybe you could talk to him? I mean, she's getting stronger everyday-and he's coming for the Task-maybe things could-you know, get back to normal?"
Evanna blinked at Draco. "What are you on about, brother?"
Draco heaved a big sigh and leaned in closer, looking around the Common Room. There had been a snowstorm that week, and it was finally warm enough for the kids to go out and enjoy the snow, so very few people were inside that day.
"I think Mother needs to go home with Father," he said in a low voice.
It seemed to go through a great distance to get to Evanna's ears. "I'm sorry you think what?"
"I think Mo-"
Evanna held up her hand. "No, you're not thinking. Father is who cursed Mother in the first place!"
"Look, Ev, I know that Father is-well-Father, but Mother belongs at his side. She's his wife!" Draco insisted. "I know that you respect Professor Snape and all-and I am grateful for him taking care of her-but it's not right! He's a half-blood and she is the wife of one of the most notable pureblood families. The Malfoys are already laughing stocks-you saw what Professor Moody did to me-what if this were to get out?"
"What if Father were to finish Mother off?" Evanna demanded. "Have you anything inside your head?"
"Do you?" Draco shot back. "Father was angry two years ago, yes, but I know he wants Mother to come home. It's why he's been so-so-angry with us all the time."
Evanna shook her head. "Don't talk to me about how Father has been."
Draco winced. "Look, Ev, just think about it. Mother could be getting treatment from the best Healers in the country and getting better so much quicker than she has been. And if we tell Father that we found Mother, then maybe he won't be so upset about that article Skeeter wrote."
For half a minute, Evanna imagined it. Mother home, brushing her hair every night and setting out her clothes again. Father distracted by that, not making Evanna do as he says every day and night. Life becoming, if not easy, bearable as it was before everything had gone wrong in second year.
Father getting upset with Mother. Mother pale and sad and with bruises on her wrists and face. Mother receiving every bit of anger from him that Evanna had taken until it became too much again one night, only that time, Lucius would finish the job. And that time, there would be no Narcissa showing up on Professor Snape's porch and being nursed back to health over the course of a year and a half.
"Draco-"
"Just-think about it, okay?" he said. "I'm going to play quidditch."
Evanna frowned, watching his back closely as he left. She stayed sitting only for a moment before packing up her school bag with the book her mother had given her and launching herself to the Common Room door and out and around to Professor Snape's office and quarters. She slowed down only to knock, just in time to hear someone else's voice in the room. She held her breath, teetering on her tiptoes as she listened carefully at the door.
"It is getting darker every day, Severus! You know what that means-it would be best for us-"
"I have already told you I have nothing to be afraid of, Karkaroff. If you would kindly leave my office, I have work to do."
"Our chances of survival-"
"Remain exactly the same. Leave!"
"You are a fool, Severus Snape. A bloody fool!"
Evanna pressed herself against the wall as the door swung open, Igor Karkaroff storming off angrily, evenly as she felt the rolls of fear coming off him. He did not even notice her as the door swung back and forth lightly on its hinges. Evanna stood still for a moment before creeping toward the door, peeking around it just in time to see Professor Snape bang a fist down on the table.
I'm running out of time. I can't protect them and keep my promise if he is back.
She had never seen the reason the other students were all so afraid of the Potions Master, calling him the Bat of the Dungeons and other such nonsense, but now she did. He looked like a mad man as he paced his office, muttering curses and periodically pausing to swipe at his possessions in frustration. Evanna gulped down her fear and lightly knocked on the door.
"Sir?" she said quietly. Professor Snape froze, then turned to her, face utterly unreadable.
"My quarters are not a tea parlor, Miss Malfoy, for you to come and go as you please-"
"I'm sorry, sir," Evanna said quickly, and, before she could lose her nerve, she slipped inside, closing the door. "I just-my brother is wanting to do something terribly stupid."
"I would say that about most adolescent boys-"
"Sir, he's wanting to tell Father that Mother is here and alive, to send her back home."
I truly cannot protect any woman I love.
"Please, sir, you have to tell him what a terrible idea that would be. You have to stop him, you have to protect her-"
"If your brother has made up his mind, then there is nothing I can do about it besides prepare your mother for the inevitable."
Evanna shook her head. "But, Professor, you have to protect her!"
Something in the statement must have touched a raw nerve in the professor's mind, for she watched his jaw twitch just before he turned and grabbed something off his desk-a vial of a student's potion, she guessed-and flung it as hard as he could against the wall. The potion steamed and hissed as it connected with the limestone.
"What do you people not understand about me? I am no one! I am a half-blood who can make a potion, not some bloody guardian! Everyone I ever tried to save just ends up dead or worse!"
"So you're just giving up?" Evanna demanded. "You're going to let Lucius have my mother? She'll die!"
"There is nothing I can do!"
"You could try! But you won't even do that, will you?" she shouted back. Somewhere behind her, she heard glass shattering, but she didn't care. Professor Snape's eyes flicked to her hands, which were sparking with magic.
"Miss Malfoy, control your-"
"I don't have to do what you tell me to!" The words ripped from her throat as the back of her eyes seemed to burn and her vision blurred. "I'll find a way myself, you coward!"
"How dare-"
Evanna didn't give him a chance to yell or assign detention before she left his office. She stormed out the door, much the same as Igor Karkaroff had done not ten minutes previous. Her mind was whirring. She knew that her brother had not been asking her opinion on the matter this morning-he had simply been looking for confirmation on something he had already made up his mind to do. If Professor Snape wouldn't put his foot down, Evanna knew her brother would not listen to her; beyond that, Wizarding Law was certainly on Draco's side. There was no way to stop him using reason now that he had made up his mind.
But she had more than reason.
Evanna ducked into an empty classroom and pulled out the book her mother had given her before flipping through the pages to the chapter she had been reading: "Manipulations of the Mind". She quickly pulled out her quill and parchment and began to translate.
The well-controlled léitheoir aigne can do more than simply listen to the thoughts of others-they can manipulate and even project thoughts onto another person's mind. It has even been theorized that the imperio curse originated from one of the original léitheoir aigne who perfected this aspect of the artform. Bewarned-this exerting of will and thought can result in a near vegetative state if performed incorrectly….
Evanna heaved a great sigh. It seemed that was all the book had to offer-a list of things she could do with her powers and warnings against doing so, but never any instructions on how to achieve them. She had done as the book suggested and meditated every night with the bracelet off until her mind was numb from the noise of the castle, but she never seemed to make any progress on isolating her own thoughts from everyone else's, much less developing anything else the blasted book said she should be able to do. And now she had found something that might save her mother while putting her brother into a coma.
She looked at her watch-it was nearing curfew. She sighed heavily as she put the book back in her bag and walked to the Common Room, arriving just in as the clock chimed. She spotted her brother from across the room, holding court with Parkinson, Crabbe, Goyle, Zabini and his usual crowd. He caught her looking at him almost immediately and stood, making his excuses.
Evanna quickly scanned the room, her eyes landing on her dormmates and she made a beeline for them.
"Hey, Eva, Elin," she said. "I just got some new nail varnish from Owl Order-it's supposed to change color when someone who has a crush on you is nearby. Do you want to try it out with me?"
Her dormmates exchanged glances before nodding eagerly.
"I bet I know who yours will change around," Eva said, waggling her eyebrows as they made their way to the dorm. Evanna saw Draco glower out of the corner of her eye as she passed him.
"I doubt mine will ever change color," Evanna said haughtily.
"Oh, don't try and sell me that the daughter of the Great and Noble House of Malfoy is humble," Elin replied, rolling her eyes.
"Banish the thought," Evanna replied before winking playfully. "I doubt that I am ever far enough from an admirer for it to change."
Elin snickered. "You little-"
"Don't bring her height into it!" Eva teased. Evanna stuck out her tongue, causing the other girls to cackle.
She would find a way to save her mother. But, for that night, she would allow herself to have fun.
A/N: Hey! Lookie there! Several regular updates in a row! I am super excited to get to the Second Wizarding War, and have more of an idea of how I'm going to get there than I did, so right now it's just kinda pouring out of me. I don't expect to have the time/energy to keep doing this for much longer, but so long as I do, I'll keep updating! Please leave your reviews!