That evening, Evanna decided to spend in the Castle Centre rather than the Common Room. Though she enjoyed the newfound feeling of safety amongst the children of her father's followers, as well as the company of one Theodore Nott, Evanna still couldn't quite get used to how much more the Slytherins seemed to want to earn her favor, and thus her father's as well. It was tiring when all she wanted was a moment's peace.

So instead, she was reading her Charms text, swinging in a colorful hammock in the room that she and her friends had claimed as their own. The room was empty, as Luna had gone off wrackspurt hunting and Evanna had seen Ginny on her way to the quidditch pitch. Who she was plying with, Evanna was unsure because she knew Ginny had a 'rule' against playing pick up matches with the twins or Ron. Bridget had taken to teaching the muggleborns in her House some of the popular Pureblood dances, so Evanna had the room to herself, which suited her purposes just fine. She hated the looks her friends would give her as she struggled with the Charms the rest of them grasped easily.

They were supposed to be practicing the Summoning Charm, and, as usual, Evanna was behind her classmates in actually achieving the Charm, despite her father's tutelage over the summer. The Dark Lord was adept at many forms of magic and a much better teacher than Lucius ever had been. She had made some progress, but not enough.

"Accio book!" she said, pointing her wand at one of the trashy romance novels Ginny had taken to reading aloud dramatically when they were all in the room. The redhead would not be out of place in the theatre, Evanna was sure.

The book didn't budge.

Evanna cursed and jabbed her wand more forcefully at the book.

"Accio novel!" she tried again.

The front cover flopped open, but did not otherwise move.

Evanna muttered under her breath and read the passage again. It said that sometimes the more specific a caster could be, the easier the spell would be for them. But, if the caster became too specific, then that would lead to the kind of logical over thinking that was usually the bane to magical work. Evanna couldn't help but think the author of the text must have been grossly overpaid to write so many words and yet say nothing at all. She rolled her wand between her fingers and pointed it at the book again.

"Accio Druid Paramore!" she cried. This time, the book lifted up in the air, but before it could soar to her, the door had opened to the converted unused classroom, blocking the book's passage.

"Damnit, Travers!" Evanna grumbled, shooting her friend a dirty look. "I thought you were teaching the muggleborns culture or something?"

Bridget rolled her eyes. "I don't know how much the Hippogryff dance counts as culture, but I wanted to talk to you. Did you just manage the Summoning Charm already? That's really impressive!"

Evanna flushed. "I would have if you hadn't interupted."

"Or maybe you just didn't actually want to see how accurate Ginny's readings are. There's a reason my mum has banned those books in my house"

Evanna laughed. "I doubt they could get any worse than 'following her body's secrets like a Point-Me charm'."

Bridget picked up the book and flipped to a random page. "'It was as if she had performed a Petrificus Totalus, but it was localized to one area of his-"

"Okay, I believe you!" Evanna cut the other girl off, face on fire. Bridget smirked triumphantly. "I thought you Hufflepuffs were supposed to be innocent?"

Bridget's smirk fell. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about… You know my family are symp-well my uncle is much higher up-but well-my father-he still keeps in those circles."

They are Death Eaters. Not high up, but high enough to hear some things.

Evanna swallowed and suddenly, all previous humor was gone from the room. She slowly walked across the room and closed and locked the door. Immediately, she felt a spike of fear. Bridget was scared of her. Evanna felt nauseous.

"What do you want to ask me, Bridget?" Evanna said softly, not able to meet her friend's eyes.

"They-they said the-the Dark Lord is back," she stuttered.

"We already went over that this afternoon," Evanna snapped. "Just ask."

"Are you-are you the Dark Lady? The heir to the Dark Lord?" Bridget asked softly.

Evanna knew in that moment that it was very likely she was about to lose all her friends. For the first time since that first night back in the Manor, Evanna wished that everything had stayed the same. That her father had remained gone, that she had remained ignorant of her true lineage. She had already lost Harry because of this. Her roommates could barely look at her. And now she would also lose Bridget and Ginny and Luna.

Tu vas faire comme je dit.

Evanna lifted her chin. Being the heir to the Dark Lord meant she never again had to do what Lucius wanted her to do. Being the heir to the Dark Lord meant she could more easily do simple magicks like the Summoning Charm, that she could rest peacefully at night knowing her mother was being taken care of by Professor Snape, that she would never be tortured again. No, she would not deny her lineage. Her father had already done too much for her to do that.

"Yes," Evanna said evenly, looking her friend in the eye, expecting the other girl to being yelling for a prefect or teacher to come and cart Evanna off to Azkaban.

She did neither of those things. Instead, she threw her arms around Evanna's neck, crying loudly.

"Oh, Merlin, Evanna! Are you alright? He hasn't-he hasn't hurt you for your friendship with us or Harry has he? Oh, you must be scared out of your mind!"

Evanna stood stock still, unsure what to do while still in the grasp of the tall Hufflepuff. She had not before realized just how short she herself was than in that moment when all she could see was the yellow and black of her friend's t-shirt.

"I-I'm fine. He-he threw me a ball," Evanna said, finally regaining enough presence of mind to pull away.

Bridget shook her head in confusion. "Yes, I heard something about that, but it's You-Know-Who, Evanna!" Evanna frowned at that, not sure she like the implication. "Your reputation in the papers paint you as some sort of Juliet to Harry Potter's Romeo! I would think that he would have tortured you for that!"

"He's not Lucius! Father saved me!" Evanna finally snapped. Bridget's eyes widened and she took a step back.

"Evanna-"

"I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that-"

"What do you mean he saved you?" Bridget asked softly.

"It doesn't matter-"

"Evanna, I'm your friend," Bridget said. "You can trust me."

Evanna considered the other girl. Truthfully, despite having a more similar background to Bridget than to Ginny or Luna, Evanna had never felt as close to her as she had the other girls. And perhaps that was part of the problem; she couldn't trust anyone who could potentially report to Lucius, and so she had always distanced herself from Bridget. She tried to see if there was anything nefarious in Bridget's intentions, but all she could find was genuine concern.

"Lucius-well, it's not like he did to my mother-nothing that would kill me-but now Father is back and I don't have to see him again. Mostly," Evanna babbled, feeling less sure of herself than she ever had. Bridget blinked.

"Did he… abuse you?" Bridget said.

"He said he was training me. That I had to make up for Mother being gone-"

"That's not what I asked, but you answered my question anyway," Bridget said, looking more troubled than ever. Evanna still felt nauseous. "Does-does You-Know-Who know?"

Before Evanna could answer, there was a banging at the door.

"Who the bloody hell locked this?" Ginny shouted from the other side of the door. Evanna took the opportunity to escape the awkward conversation and rushed to let her friend in.

Ginny was carrying her brother's hand-me-down broomstick and absolutely covered in mud, with an extremely grumpy looking expression on her face as she stalked into the room, Luna following close behind. Bridget and Evanna exchanged looks and made a silent agreement to act as normal as possible.

"All men should go die in a hole," Ginny announced. Bridget forced a chuckle and Evanna winced at how fake the laughter sounded.

"Ginevra's brothers don't approve of her quidditch partner," Luna said softly as Ginny flopped into the hammock Evanna had been reading her Charms text in earlier.

"And I don't approve of muddy people taking my spot without properly bathing first," Evanna said, frowning. Ginny made a rude gesture. "Who is your quidditch partner?"

The redhead narrowed her eyes. "What was the door locked for any way?"

Bridget gave Evanna a panicky look and Evanna knew she was close to having her secret blown to a second and third person in one day if she left it up to the Hufflepuff.

"We-"

Just then Ginny's eyes landed on the romance book. She hopped out of Evanna's hammock and all but pounced on it, holding it up to the room.

"Were you two reading without me?" Ginny exclaimed, holding up the book with a look of utter betrayal on her face. Bridget visibly slumped with relief.

"We-"

"You precious Pureblood Princesses were reading Melynda Maenad without my edits?" Ginny asked again, her previous annoyance evaporating as she relished the thought.

"As if you are any more experienced than any of the rest of us," Bridget said, finally regaining some semblance of normalcy. "Evanna's the only one of us who has any romantic experience."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Yes, with a proper Pureblood suitor. Tell me, has he kissed anything but your hand?"

Evanna blushed. "Theodore is a gentleman and I am a lady-besides, I thought you wanted all men to die in a hole?"

Ginny shrugged off the comment. "Just my brothers. So I suppose that does mean Nott has been less gentlemanly than you say. Is he a good snogger? You can tell us!"

Evanna's face felt like it was on fire. "This isn't about me-who is your secret quidditch partner that your brothers hate so much?"

"I asked the first quest-"

"She's been playing quidditch with your brother since last term," Luna said helpfully. "I believe the current score is 7 to 7. Your brother just won this one."

Evanna gaped at Ginny. She knew she had been distracted last term and even moreso this year, but she had never imagined her brother and Ginny would continue their little competition.

"Why, Ginny Weasley," Bridget said, putting her hand over her mouth in playful shock. "Playing quidditch unsupervised with a member of the opposite sex."

Evanna snarled her nose. "That's my brother, Bridget," she said at the same time that Ginny said, "You're talking about Malfoy."

Bridget raised an eyebrow. "And yet you're on your," she paused to count, "fourteenth round of quidditch with him."

Ginny shrugged. "He's a decent player. We're doing best out of fifteen."

"Sure you are."

"Let's read some more," Ginny said, grabbing Druid's Paramore from the stone floor. "And since you two have been reading without me, I won't do any more editing. And we'll do shadow puppets."

Luna clapped, turning off the lights and casting lumos towards Ginny's hands as the other two groaned out loud.