It was a sunny Friday afternoon, which meant that Evelyn was in the library as usual. Her table was covered with open books and parchments full of ancient runes and strange drawings. The fourteen-year-old pure-blood Slytherin was sitting there frowning and glaring at her notes.

'This doesn't add up. I probably missed something... But what?'

With a sigh, she leaned back in her chair, and closing her eyes, she thought about the research she was doing. It was her life; her mind came up with a theory and she couldn't rest until she found out whether it could or could not work.

'Did I make a mistake in the translation?' she wondered, opening her eyes and reaching for a very old book, which looked like it would fall apart by the softest touch.

'No. I already went over it a hundred times. If there was a mistake, I would have seen it.'

As she sat there contemplating the words on the pages, someone pulled out the chair next to her and sat down.

"Tough day, doll?" came the deep voice of Hogwarts' bad boy, the one and only Sirius Black.

"What do you want, Sirius? Right now, I am not in the mood for your games," said Evelyn, head still in her notes.

"Straight to the point, I see. However, it's not about what I want, but what you want," he said, and Evelyn didn't even have to look up to know that he was smirking.

With a sigh, she leaned back in her chair to look expectantly at Sirius.

One look at the Black heir was enough to know that he was no ordinary wizard. Just like Evelyn, he had the air of casual elegance around him, even though most of the time his tie was crooked, not tucked in, or even missing, and his black hair was messily hanging on his shoulders. Even when - just like today - he was wearing Muggle attire, in this case, shredded jeans and a grey shirt with a symbol Evelyn assumed belonged to some Muggle rock band. All these things made him look nothing like the refined pure blood he was.

Evelyn raised a brow over his attire, but knew better than to comment on it.

Instead, she asked, "And what do you think I want?"

"Hah, easy. You want to ditch the books and spend the rest of the day with me," he said as he flashed her a charming smile.

"And why would I want to do that?" asked Evelyn with a smile on her face, deciding to play along.

"Why wouldn't you want that? Admit it, you are curious. You want to know what kind of fun I can show you today," he said as he leaned closer.

Evelyn leaned in close before whispering, "Keep telling that to yourself…"

'So much for getting things done,' she thought, annoyed as she leaned back in her chair.

She knew that Sirius' appearance marked the end of today's studying.

"By the way, don't you have something better to do than annoy me? I don't know, cause mischief, bully people or flirt with some unfortunate girl?"

"Funny that you bring up other girls. Are you, by any chance, jealous?" smirked the boy.

Lately Sirius Black has become hot stuff at Hogwarts. Before their third year he has been the rebel, misbehaving and pranking people, but then he grew a few inches, his voice deepened, and before Evelyn knew it, the girls were talking about Sirius as the hot bad boy type. Not to say that since school began, he had received a lot of attention and compliments from the girls, causing his already large ego to grow with every passing day.

"Don't flatter yourself," rolled her eyes the girl, but the small smile on her face indicated that she was not as annoyed at the boy as her words suggested.

"Of course, of course. Just so you know, my offer still stands; you should leave the books and at least take a stroll with me,"

"I will have to refuse."

"Oh, come on, you can't spend your whole life holed up with your books," groaned the boy.

"Just watch me," winked the girl.

The boy just sighed as he leaned back in his chair.

"What are you working on, anyway? School started a couple of weeks ago, and you are already working on something?" he asked as he leaned closer to look at her notes.

However, Evelyn quickly stood up, closing the books with a swish of her wand.

"It's none of your business. Now, if you will excuse me, I have somewhere to be," she said as she gathered the books.

"Actually, no, I will not excuse you," said the boy as he stood up quickly to follow the girl.

Evelyn was about to retort when she heard another boy's voice cut in, causing her to groan mentally.

'Great, just what I needed… This day can't get any worse…'

"Jeez, Black, can't you take a hint? She wants nothing to do with you, so just get lost, would you?" came the confident voice of Matthias Bulstrode, the fifth year Ravenclaw prefect, and Evelyn could feel a headache forming.

As soon as he entered the library, everyone went quiet. Some girls sighed dreamily, while others held hands in excitement, barely containing themselves. It was nothing new, as Matthias Bulstrode was the perfect prince every girl dreamed about. Not only was he the heir of a wealthy pure-blood family, but he was also tall, handsome and charming. He walked up to Evelyn and Sirius confidently.

"Good afternoon, Evelyn. Is he bothering you?" he asked as he shot an annoyed look at Sirius.

Evelyn just smiled, as she answered nonchalantly, "Nice to see you, Matthias. He is just being his annoying self. Don't mind him."

"Hey!" came the protesting voice of the Gryffindor. "Sod off mate, we were just talking."

"Well, it looked more like you were bothering her…"

"Just go back to whatever boring thing you were doing and leave us alone, would you?" said Sirius, crossing his arms.

"Open your eyes, Black. She wants nothing to do with you. Why would she even spare a minute of her time for a delinquent like you?"

"I could ask you the same. Why would she waste her time with someone boring like you? At least I could show her some fun," smirked the Black heir.

"Yes, I can imagine what kind of fun. One that would probably only cause her problems..."

Now she had to agree with the Ravenclaw. Being a member of the pure-blood society came with numerous appearances one had to make, therefore, the young heirs were usually acquaintances long before their schooling began. Such was the case of Sirius Black and Evelyn Williams. She knew him long before school and if there was something unchangeable about him, it was his ability to always cause trouble. And that was something Evelyn couldn't afford to associate herself with.

Evelyn just sighed as she felt the beginning of a headache.

She gathered her books and went to return them to their places; the boys following her like puppies, still arguing. While the girls kept whispering among themselves about how lucky she was to have the "Bad Boy of Hogwarts" and the "Prince of Hogwarts" fighting over her, Evelyn was not enjoying it one bit. If anything, she found it annoying to have to put up with their banter day by day.

As the boys got into another heated argument, she used the time and quietly slipped away, heading to the Quidditch pitch. It was the first practice with the new recruits, and she promised her friends to watch it together.

Nearing the training grounds, she could hear her friend's commanding voice:

"Come on! Regulus, you can do better than that!"

Soon enough, she saw the team, high in the air, while her friend and roommate, Emma Vanity, tried to encourage the team to do better.

Looking through the field, it was evident that it was a private practice, as there was no one in the audience. Well, almost no one. She could see her other two friends sitting in the tower, chatting excitedly. 'Probably fangirling...' thought Evelyn with a smile.

However, after she made her way to the tower, she was surprised to see there someone she never expected.

"Severus? I didn't take you for a Quidditch fan," she said as she walked up the stairs.

The black-haired Slytherin didn't even look up from the book he was reading as he responded. "I am not."

"Oh, then, what brings you here?" she asked in surprise.

The boy sighed as he put a bookmark in his book and closed it. "Regulus asked me to come and watch so that I can help him become a better player."

"I see. How is he faring?" she asked as she looked out to the field to see the new seeker now flying laps, while Emma timed him.

Snape just snorted as he answered. "Terribly. He is too nervous and keeps messing up,"

"Poor thing. I hope that he will get better with time, otherwise, Emma will have to kick him out."

"If she doesn't kill him with the harsh training first," he said, motioning to the Quidditch field with his head.

Sure enough, the new seeker had received a new task. He had to catch a small ball, controlled by the captain's wand, while the rest of the team kept throwing things at him.

"During the match, you don't have the luxury to focus only on the snitch! It only takes one second and we will have our seeker out of commission! Pay attention to your surroundings!" shouted Emma, while Regulus was busy trying to dodge the heavy-looking wooden chest that his teammates sent flying at him.

Evelyn couldn't help herself and laughed, "Oh gosh, poor boy! To think that he is willingly undergoing all this torture just for a Quidditch cup…"

Snape just nodded. It was common knowledge that Emma Vanity was the youngest captain the team has ever seen, but also the most demanding. Her skills and passion were the reason why she became a captain in her 3rd year and since then the number of applicants for the Slytherin Quidditch team has drastically dropped. On the other hand, since she became the captain Slytherin never lost a game, only to Gryffindor, but as Emma put it, this just shows that we must practice more. After the brutal try-outs, this was the first practice, and it seemed that the players were already sweaty and tired.

Suddenly, Evelyn heard her friends calling her name.

"Well, I have to go. See you later," she said, and Snape just nodded.

"What took you so long?" asked a brunette with bangs known as Bonnie Travers.

"Sorry, I got held up in the library," said Evelyn as she sat down next to her friends.

"Let me guess, Black again?" laughed the other girl, Lucinda Talkalot, already knowing the answer.

"You know, you are probably the only girl in Hogwarts who is annoyed by the attention," said Bonnie.

"Yeah, I mean, if they were after me, I would totally enjoy every minute of it. Bulstrode during the day and Black during the night," smirked Lucinda.

"Go ahead, I will gladly redirect them to you," deadpanned Evelyn, but the girls just laughed.

"I mean, can you imagine going out with Bulstrode? He's a rich bloke. I could get so many pretty gifts…" sighed Lucinda dreamily.

"Yeah, but you would die of boredom…" murmured Evelyn.

"That's when Black would come in the picture," laughed Lucinda, "It's easy, you just have to do it smartly, he would probably enjoy making an ass out of Bulstrode. Too bad he only cares about stupid pranks…"

There was a moment of silence before Evelyn asked, "Anyway, how is the training going?"

Even though Emma became the captain last year, she was still quite nervous about doing it right and while she pretended to be the confident coach the team needed, in real life, she was anxious about every choice she made as the captain.

"She is doing great," said Bonnie.

"Yeah, a bit ruthless, but that just means that the team will be prepared for the worst," said Lucinda.

"You make it sound like she is preparing them for a war," laughed Evelyn.

"Well, you know how seriously they take the sport. Also, make sure that Emma never hears you say that. We would just receive another lecture," smiled Bonnie.


"Good job everyone, we are finished! Grab your things, head to the showers and see you all at supper," shouted the team captain as the training ended.

The girls made their way down the stairs of the tower and waited for their friend to catch up. After ten minutes, she came with a smile on her face. Her medium-length strawberry blonde hair was still a bit wet from the shower, however, she didn't seem to care.

"So how was it? I hope I didn't go too easy on them. We need to be on top if we want to win the cup!"

"EASY?" questioned the girls.

"If you went harder, they would have died," said Lucinda.

"Especially Regulus," commented Bonnie.

"Yes, Regulus. I have no idea what happened to him. He was the star of the try-outs, but now that he got in, he is pretty much useless. Evelyn, you know each other well, please talk to him."

"I talked to Snape earlier. He said that he is just nervous. Give him some time to get used to it," said Evelyn, and Emma nodded.

"I will try. By the way, what took you so long? You arrived in the middle of the practice!"

"She got held up by her suitors," smirked Lucinda and Evelyn just sighed.

"Again? They are persistent," laughed Emma.

"Yes, I really wish they weren't," groaned Evelyn.

"Well, you can always tell them off," pointed out Emma.

"Or have me do it," suggested Lucinda.

"Absolutely not. You are too harsh," said Evelyn.

"Hey! At least I am honest!"

"No, you are rude," teased Evelyn.

"Yeah, yeah, we all know that you and Bonnie are the nice ones in our group," said Lucinda as she put her arm on Evelyn's and Bonnie's shoulders.

It didn't take long to get to the Great Hall, where supper just started. The girls took their place at the end of the table, where there were not so many people around.

"So, what are you going to do about your situation?" asked Emma.

"I don't know. Should I do something? I think they will just get bored and they will eventually leave me alone..." trailed off Evelyn as her friends looked at her like she was crazy.

"You think?" asked Bonnie.

"Well, I hope so,"

The girls just sighed.

"You are too nice for your own good. If you don't do something, you might get stuck in this situation until the end of our school years," said Emma.

Now this made Evelyn think. She came to a halt in her research. Was it because the boys always bugged her? While she had no problem socialising, she was still an introvert. Was she just tired of the constant interactions? What if Emma is right and it will only get worse?

Then all that time spent researching will be wasted.

Maybe she was right, and it was time to do something.

"So, what do you suggest I do?" she asked.

"Tell them off," came the simple answer from Lucinda.

"You know," started Bonnie, "when my cousin was in a similar situation, she made them think that she was already promised to someone,"

"Yes, but she is not. If she were, it would be all over the press," said Emma.

"Well, she can say that it's only a boyfriend. You know, nothing serious, just harmless fun," suggested Lucinda.

"Creating a fake boyfriend? Isn't that what losers do?" asked Evelyn and the girls went quiet.

"You could ask someone to pretend to be your boyfriend," suggested Bonnie.

"Yes. That's perfect!" said Emma excitedly.

"Eh, I don't know," said Evelyn.

'A fake boyfriend? That would be weird, wouldn't it?' she thought. However, she couldn't get rid of the thought.

As she fell asleep that night, she kept wondering whether it would be a good idea.