The conversation Evanna had had with Draco to make him leave the manor would not grant her any rest.
"You can't order me out of my own home," he said aghast. "Father will not stand for me staying with Mother's side-"
"This is an order, Draco," she said, still feeling dazed by all that had happened.
"An order? Where is Father? I don't-"
"Don't ask questions and go!" Evanna all but shouted. His eyes narrowed.
"Where. is. my. Father?"
"You shouldn't ask questions you don't want answers to, Draco," she said. "Your father…. Has faced his punishment."
Draco's eyes widened. "You-you or the Dark Lord-"
"Draco, stop, please, and just listen to me and go," she begged.
"I'll never forgive you for this. Never."
It had been nearly a week after Lucius' death when the house elves had brought a message from Evanna's father for her to dress warmly in clothes she could move easily in. So Evanna dug out the pair of dragon-hide trousers that she determinedly hidden from her mother-from Narcissa-and a turtleneck before wrapping herself in a knee-length pelisse coat. Before leaving her room, she also pulled on her fur-lined boots and gloves before joining her father on the grounds of the Manor.
Since returning from Hogwarts, her father had not joined her for breakfast the way he had in the summer. Evanna did not know that it was not that he was simply busier than he had been in the summer, but she was more inclined to believe that she was being punished for her continued involvement with Harry Potter. So the few times she had seen him in the manor, she had taken to bowing-not as deeply as her father's followers did, but deep enough.
And he had largely ignored her.
But, today, he had finally called her to him again. When she stood in front of him in the middle of Narcissa's rose garden, Evanna again bowed low. For the first time in a week, he immediately rose her up and Evanna studied his pale, snake-like face, trying to find the memory of that handsome boy she had met in the Chamber of Secrets.
That boy was still there, she realized with a jolt as her father gave her a small smirk.
"You cannot wallow in the mud if you wish to fly, Evanna," he said in a soft voice.
"I still don't understand how it's possible," Evanna said. "I was taught that wizards could only fly with the help of broomsticks or rugs."
"And who taught you that?" her father prodded.
"Lucius Malfoy," Evanna admitted. The name still tasted funny in her mouth.
"And where is he now?"
Evanna's gut roiled. "I killed him."
The Dark Lord smiled. "And so too, you must kill the ideas and weaknesses he tried to bury you with. Rid yourself of the connections and boundaries you made to survive him and you will fly."
"You are sounding awfully metaphysical, Father," she said.
He shook his head again. "Did you not listen to my story the other day, Evanna?"
"Of course I did, Father."
"The problem with society Purebloods is that they have made all sorts of rules regarding what magic can and cannot do, who can harness it, who can even be told about it," he said in a scathing tone. "I do not adhere to such limitations on power."
Evanna frowned. What her father was saying was so very far from all of the things Lucius had taught her about blood and magic.
"But that-I mean-I'm not sure I understand," she said. "What you're saying-well it does not sound like what I've been taught-"
"You will find, Evanna, that what I say to my followers is more often motivated by my ambitions for this world than their small-minded ideologies. Power is power, Evanna," he said. "And you and I will rise higher than the rest, if you will only let go."
As he said the words, dark smoke began to gather around him and he indeed rose higher and higher in the sky until he was floating level with the roof of the manor. Evanna gaped as her father floated high above her.
"You took care of the deadweight of Lucius Malfoy," he said, his voice somehow still soft but completel audible. "You can shed the rest and join me up here."
"How?" Evanna demanded, all but forgetting who she was talking to.
"Let go of everything anyone has ever told you you cannot do," her father said, still floating above her. "Let go of your attachments to the earth, to the obligations that demand to be filled. Instead, let yourself be filled with your magic, your power. Let it fill every part of you and remember-you are its master, not the other way around. And when you have done that, demand that it lift you to where you want to go-in this case, up."
Evanna closed her eyes as her father's voice washed over her. She immediately saw Lucius' glassy eyes and flinched away from them. They morphed, though not much and she saw her brother's accusing eyes.
"You took my father from me! You said you were still my sister, my family and you murdered him!"
And then she saw brown eyes, full of worry and tears.
"You are supposed to be my friend and speak to me! But now my father is in the hospital because of yours!"
Finally there were green eyes, so confused and hurt as this time he tore away from her moments before their lips met.
"You are supposed to be in love with me! But my father is dead because of yours!"
"If you make yourself beholden to the world, Evanna, it will do nothing but weigh you down!" the Dark Lord warned. "You will never reach great heights unless you let it go."
Evanna grit her teeth and fought to dismiss all those eyes staring her down, judging every mistake she made, trying to force her inside a box of their own creation. Then, she saw the ancient man and the three women on the hilltop, all of them pointing at her.
"What do you want from me?" she screamed at them in her mind.
But, they were silent, still pointing those accusing fingers at her.
"I am not yours!" she shouted at them. "I owe you nothing!"
"That's right, Evanna, keep on-"
The smoke that was beginning to gather around Evanna was not black, but colorful with flashes of purples and greens and yellows. She gasped as she looked down at her toes, which were hovering just an inch or so off the ground.
"Now, focus that power," he father instructed. "And come join me."
Evanna closed her eyes again, swirling through the smoke with her hands. She banished the image of the three women and the ancient man, banished the eyes that watched and haunted her every movement.
"I am powerful. I am free," she murmured under her breath.
The wind picked up, tugging at her hair and her jacket, brushing its cold fingers across her face. When she opened her eyes, she had shot far off the ground and risen even higher than her father.
The grounds of Malfoy Manor sprawled before her, snow dusted trees to one side and the face of a great hill to the other. Evanna breathed the crisp, cold air deeply, the first full breath she had allowed herself since…. Well, she wasn't quite sure when exactly. Certainly long before she had killed Lucius. Probably even before her father had been restored. She narrowed her eyes as the morning sun glinted off long white feathers.
"Might I make a request, Father?" she asked.
Her father raised a wry eyebrow and floated so that he was looking down on her once again.
"What would that be?"
"Those peacocks are bloody annoying," she said. "Might we replace them with some friends for Nagini?"
Her father laughed at that and Evanna felt lighter than she ever had, even as a niggling in the back of her mind threatened to pull her back down to earth.
Harry POV
The lessons with Professor Snape did not get any easier. Harry left each lesson irritable and exhausted and Sirius was always waiting outside the door ready to fight the potions master. Harry could not say that he didn't appreciate the sentiment, but he rather thought that made everything harder than it actually had to be.
He was in the Chamber of Secrets, angry after that awful detention and Evanna was telling him he needed training. Night after night he returned, excited to see what new she would teach him. She fell backwards, and Harry rushed over to her, scared his spell had hurt her in some way, and she sat up laughing. They were in the Room of Requirement, Evanna complimenting him on how well he was teaching the others.
"What," Professor Snape snarled, "the hell was that?"
"Training," Harry panted.
Snape was silent for all of one moment before he exploded.
"Training?" he said. "With Evanna Malfoy-the girl who is currently living under the Dark Lord's roof? Are the two of you utterly mad?"
"Well maybe if someone-"
"It is one thing for you to have your little teenaged romance-the Dark Lord would regard it as nothing more than human desire-but this is outright treason! She has to know better than this!" Snape yelled, spittle flying from his mouth. Harry had only ever seen him this enraged once before, the night Sirius escaped.
"She's not-"
"And you-following the child of a known Death Eater to the deepest pits of the castle-where no one could hear if you were to be attacked-are you out of your mind, boy?"
"Well maybe if someone would actually teach me what I need to know to defeat Voldemort, I wouldn't have to!" Harry shouted back.
"What do you think I'm doing, Potter?"
"Yeah, now after how many times of him attacking me?" Harry pushed back. "And none of those times has it been this weird mind magic shite-it's been wands and basilisks and duels. But no one has bothered to teach me except Evanna!"
Professor Snape was silent at that moment, eyes narrowing at something just beyond Harry. Harry turned to see Remus holding Sirius back from fully entering the room. The former professor went a little pink.
"We heard yelling," he said.
"What the hell do you think you're doing to my godson?" Sirius said before Remus fully got the words out.
"I am trying to impart the least bit of sense into his thick skull," Professor Snape snarled.
"I was alway under the impression Evanna Malfoy was somewhat a favorite of yours, Severus," Remus said lightly. "Quiet, and rather shy, but she never struck me as being wholly in favor of her father's politics, with the company she kept. She was never like her brother."
"Do not speak on things you don't understand, wolf," Professor Snape said. "The only sensible thing that those two idiots have done is realize the need to train the bloody savior of the Wizarding World."
Sirius seemed to consider this. "Then let's do it," he said. "If you're training with us, then you don't have to train with little Malfoy-ette."
Harry blinked. "That's not what I-"
"Finally a way to make yourself useful, Black?" Snape sneered.
"Better than being a washed-up Death Eater, Snape," Sirius shot back.
"This is hardly useful," Remus said, stepping between the two men. Harry wasn't sure which one was shooting the former professor the worst glare. Professor Snape was the first to speak again.
"If Black hasn't lost all of his faculties from Azkaban, you should be worn down enough from a mock duel with him that clearing your mind should be no issue tonight. I will be back to check your progress day after tomorrow."
"That's Christmas Eve, you hardass," Sirius scowled.
"You think the Dark Lord breaks for Yule? I will see you day after tomorrow. Be ready."
With that, Professor Snape swept from the room, Sirius muttering curses after him. Harry gave his godfather a small grin. A mock duel with Sirius… the idea sounded fun.
"So," he said. "You haven't lost all your faculties, have you?"
Sirius gave a playful growl and Remus snickered.
"You'll regret that, Prongslet," he joked. And then they began.