She was on the hill top again. This time, the women were gone, and there was only the black-haired man in long, green robes, a forbidding expression on his face. Evanna was almost fearful to approach him, but it was as if she had no choice.
"Who are you?" Evanna asked, finding her voice. "Where are the women? What do you want from me?"
"You are falling into the trapssss of your ancesssstorssss," the man said, his voice long and sibilant. "Our pain too often has become dangerousssss for the world."
"I don't underssstand."
"No, few ever do," the man mused. "Our world musssst change if it is to ssssurvive. We cannot remain hidden."
"I don't know who 'we' are!" Evanna exclaimed, getting frustrated. The man smiled a little.
"You're more sssssspirited than lassssst we met, I'll give him that," he muttered. "You look much like my daughter, did you know?"
"So you're real, then?" she asked. "A real person?"
"A persssson, a myth, an idea-who issss to ssssay?" the man said cagily. "But, know this-I have fallen to the ssssame hubrissss your father possssesssssessss. I have made the misssssstake of thinking that pain made me wisssse, wisssser than my friendsssss. Do not continue down our path, Evanna."
"Don't sssspeak against my father," she said immediately.
"My daughter wassss loyal, too. Sssssome would say loyal to a fault," the man had the same wistful look in his eyes.
"What happened to her?" Evanna asked, unsure why she felt the need to know.
"She loved a boy. She loved a boy who-it doessss not matter," he said, shaking himself out melancholy. "Sssssoon, you will see my desssscendantssss wrath on thissss world and you will have to assssk yourself if it isss worth it to do asssss my line hasss done in the passst. You can acheive greatnesssss, but at what cosssst?"
Before Evanna could say anything more, the man had vanished, leaving her alone on the hill. There was something there that she had never seen in her dreams before-a stone bearing a name, as well as a badger and serpent emblem.
Morgane Slytherin.
Evanna reached out to touch the stone...
And then she woke up. Only wisps of a smokey green hill and the man's warning remained in her mind. You can achieve greatness, but at what cost?
Evanna was still puzzling through the dream as she made her way down to the Common Room to make her way to breakfast. It made no sense. None of her books-however few of them there were-had ever made any mention of a Mind Reader being a Seer as well, though she supposed the two disciplines could cross over. But, it did not feel like she was seeing the future-rather the past was reaching out to her.
"Are you alright, Evanna?"
Evanna blinked, looking up to see her boyfriend standing in front of the fireplace.
"Alright?"
"You look-I dunno-upset?"
"No, no," Evanna said. "Just thinking."
"Well, it's much too early for that," Theo responded, dropping a kiss onto her forehead. She tried to smile.
"Yes, that's the attitude one should have in a school setting," she quipped. "And in your OWL year, no less."
He took her hand and they made their way toward the door. "I rather think that I'll be fine. And you of all people have no need to worry about such trivial things as school."
Evanna pursed her lips as they made their way to the Great Hall. She was proud of her lineage, she truly was. But, to hear it referenced so casually, especially after having had to convince one of her oldest friends that she was really alright with everything… Well, it didn't quite sit well with her.
"I didn't mean to offend you," Theodore offered at her silence.
"You didn't," she said a little too quickly.
"That's obviously not true," he said as they came to the Entrance Hall.
"I just-it's just-I'm not completely used to it," she admitted.
"Even before this summer, you were hardly ever going to be some sort of career-witch," he said reasonably. "You were always meant to marry well, live as a society wife."
"Says who?"
"Well-"
"I'm a Slytherin, moreso than you are," she said. "I trained before ever arriving at Hogwarts-I had every intention of leaving Malfoy Manor when I turned seventeen."
"I just assumed-"
"You assumed wrong," she said icily. He fell silent just as they were walking into the Great Hall. The school was abuzz-students sharing newspapers and teachers muttering amongst themselves. Evanna broke from Theodore, making her way to her brothers, who was reading the paper.
"What's going on?" she asked.
Draco smirked. "Potter's gonna love this," he said gleefully.
"Does it ever get old, being obsessed with a teenaged celebrity?" Evanna quipped. Draco scowled at her and several Slytherins around them snorted. Evanna took a seat as she perused the paper.
UMBRIDGE NAMED HIGH INQUISITOR OF HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY
Evanna scowled herself as she read over the article, all but snarling at the quote from Lucius about how 'concerned' he was for the education of his children.
"My daughter is a strong witch-yet due to failing standards at Hogwarts her Charms are severely lacking. Though, what else can one expect when employing beings who are only half-wizard or less?"
"How dare he?" Evanna seethed, putting an end to the jokes her brother and his friends were making about which of their least-favored teachers would be getting the sack.
"Evanna, darling," Theodore said in a careful tone. "I do believe the newspaper is starting to smoke."
Evanna fought to reign in her anger at her foster-father's words. As though he had nothing to do with her aversion to Light magicks. As though he had any right to be playacting his concern for her, or Draco for that matter.
"Did you actually read this garbage, Draco?" she demanded.
"No-what-"
Evanna shoved the paper to him, pointing viciously at the quote. It was in that movement that some of the paper separated and Evanna saw another headline.
Muggle Family Killed Outside of Surrey-Sirius Black Suspected Culprit
"Merlin, Evanna I swear I wouldn't have-"
"Shut up," Evanna growled, snatching the other article. There were two pictures with it-one a still photo of a family of three, a little girl with missing front teeth holding a stuffed dragon in front of her smiling parents. The other a mangled vehicle, obviously having been on the other end of a blasting curse. The dragon was on the ground beside it, a wing torn off, spilling fluffy white stuffing on the ground.
Our pain has too often become dangerous to the world.
Evanna deliberately pulled out her wand and set fire to the paper.
"If I see anyone in our House reading this drivel, I'll do the same to them," she warned her brother and his friends. They all sobered immediately.
"Evanna-" Draco began, then fell silent at her glare as she stood to leave. Theodore nearly stood to go with her, but she turned the same look on him.
"I'll-I'll see you at lunch," he said lamely. Evanna didn't acknowledge it, choosing to simply leave the Great Hall instead.
The little girl's grin haunted her. Dead, blown apart, but so innocent. She had read muggle history that summer, both from the far past when muggles were attacking wizards, to more recent when their wars had threatened all of humanity and still wizards had not come out of hiding. She knew that they could be dangerous. Her father would say that the muggles needed to be taken in hand before they could inflict more damage on the world.
But that child. That child had not started wars, had not hunted down wizards and witches. She had played with her stuffed dragon and loved her parents. Why did that child have to die? If the goal was to rescue the world from falling at the hands of muggles, why kill more than absolutely necessary?
"...I just don't fully understand. She always seemed-well not normal, but-"
"Shh!"
Evanna stood in front of her roommates, both of them looking rather terrified at having bumped into her. She looked between the two of them.
She looks so angry. Hopefully she doesn't remember my blood status to my father.
Evanna gasped a little.
"Is that what you think of me?" she said, unable to stop herself.
Eva and Elin exchanged nervous glances.
"Erm-What are-We don't know-Milady, if you could-"
"I've been your bloody roommate for four years now and you think I'm going to kill and torture you or something?" Evanna wanted to shout and rave at them, wanted to lose control and show that she wasn't what they thought she was. That the terrible things she had read in the paper couldn't be attributed to her father. But, she could not do that.
Instead, she took a breath to her toes, filling her up and making her stand taller than before.
"Don't call me that in public," she said, slipping into the iciness that had become her armor. "And never mind what I said."
She pushed past the two girls, trying not to let them see her cry. Their fear clung to her like the stench of something rotting
She was good. She was.
Severus POV
The article had sent ice down his spine, though not near as much as watching his Slytherins at the table that morning. The boys, as teenaged boys were wont to do, were acting the dunderheaded fool, crowing about the 'victory' that had been achieved in the naming of Dolores Umbridge as High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. As if that would be as successful as Gilderoy Lockhart's tenure as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
But, as horrid as that revelation had been, Severus had not anticipated the shame that would roil in his stomach at the article about the muggle family. There had been a time, when he was numbed by youth and anger and no small amount of firewhiskey where such a report would not have bothered him. But, that day had long passed.
It was not the second article that truly chilled him.
No, after the Headmaster had been kind enough to point out that article, Severus had looked down at his Slytherins, wondering if any of them had cared to look past the first article to anything else in the paper. If any of them knew what their parents and families had been up to the night before and how well they approved of it. And that was when he saw Evanna Malfoy, face like a glacier, standing at the table, her brother's friends all cowering before her. Severus had seen that look before, had participated in the reaction to it.
The Dark Lord was not someone one ever wished to see truly angry. And now that she was out of the influence of Lucius Malfoy, his daughter seemed to have the same lack of mercy. The look on her face… Severus was beginning to fear that Evanna was truly her father's daughter.
"Severus, is something troubling you, m'boy?" Dumbledore asked as he watched Evanna stride out of the Great Hall, that foreboding expression still etched on her face.
Severus turned to the Headmaster, cursing that damnable twinkle in the man's blue eyes. Once upon a time, Severus had believed this man to be his salvation, his path to atonement for the sins he committed against his oldest friend. Now, however, it seemed that his loyalty to the old man would cause him to betray himself, and the woman who had helped him piece himself back together after Lily's denial of him.
The girl often did not realize when she was using those strange powers Narcissa had told him of, but the Headmaster most certainly knew when he was applying Legilimency to one of his employees, just as Severus knew his mind was being invaded. He didn't bother to make it look as though he wasn't trying to hide his thoughts to Headmaster, instead shoving the old man out with brutal force and a glare. Dumbledore's eyes still twinkled, though they had darkened somewhat with suspicion.
"Nothing at all, Headmaster," he said, fighting to keep an even tone. "I must prepare for my classes."
He stood and left the table, wishing to speak to Narcissa before the day's classes began.
Narcissa was poised on the sofa, reading a novel and drinking her tea when Severus came in. The two were always in striking contrast, Narcissa a well born lady with golden hair and a pale, lacy nightgown. Severus, the low-born bat of the dungeons with his brooding manner.
"Severus, don't you have to teach soon?" Narcissa said, looking up from her book.
"Do you ever fear that one's father may just be too much to overcome?" he asked. Narcissa's eyebrows furrowed.
"I would hope the mother had well-balanced the chi-"
"The way I remember her, the mother was distinctly unbalanced," Severus said sardonically.
A look of understanding came over Narcissa's face. "Evanna."
"Yes."
She looked at the floor, worrying the lace on the end of her sleeve delicately.
"My sister did not always hate the world the way she did when you knew her. The world first showed her its cruelty," Narcissa said softly. "And-and the Dark Lord-you once followed his ideals whole-heartedly, Severus."
"As did you."
Narcissa swallowed. "He wants to reform the world, Severus, make it better. Safer. Make it so that magic is valued-that I could have-that we could have-"
"There was a murder in the papers today. The child wouldn't have even been old enough to go to Hogwarts. Is that safer?"
Narcissa closed her eyes. His lover had always hated to face the uglier side of the world, not that she had had much choice when her parents married her off to Lucius to keep her away from 'that ugly half-blood'. The Dark Lord had told Severus of his own parentage then, had offered to Severus a world where a man's suitability would come from his own power, not that of his family's. And Severus had been foolish enough to believe it.
"What does this have to do with Evanna? She wouldn't hurt a fly."
"At the Slytherin Table today-something made her angry," Severus said. "The way her Housemates reacted…. Are you so sure that she wouldn't?"
Severus did not need to read minds to know what the dismayed look on Narcissa's face meant.
A/N: Obviously I am a procrastinator and have been writing way more than I originally thought... Enjoy my inability to function as a responsible adult.