(A/N: Smut alert!)

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

A Birthday Interrogation

Harry used the Moon Guide to check up on Eva after he spent the evening in the library with Ron and Hermione. Ron was right. Eva wasn't at Hogsmeade. She was still at the Burrow. Harry saw her discussing things with Mr. Weasley, and she said she wanted to be back at the Hog's Head by Friday for her birthday. Harry took it as an open invitation to spend the day with her.

When Friday morning rolled around, Harry checked to make sure that Eva was at the Hog's Head using the moon guide. She was awake, but still in bed, reading a copy of The Daily Prophet and drinking some tea. He wanted nothing more than to spend every morning like that with her—as long as she forfeited the Quidditch pages to him.

His stomach churned at the thought that she shared any sort of blood with Lucius Malfoy. Was it really possible that he was her father?

Harry got up and dressed. He had told Nora to meet him in the common room at nine in the morning, when the others were supposed to be meeting outside the Great Hall to leave for Hogsmeade. He had given Ron and Hermione instructions to tell McGonagall that he was sick and wouldn't be going. This would leave him in the clear to smuggle Nora into town.

He grabbed his satchel with the invisibility cloak and the map, along with a change of clothes and a few other items inside, and left the empty dormitory. He quietly made his way down the stairs and into the common room. Nora was sitting on the couch with another first year. Alley was in her lap and playing with the ribbon of a beautifully wrapped gift at her side.

Harry cursed under his breath. He had been so distracted the past few days that he completely forgot to get Eva a gift—again. This time there would be no magic to get him out of it. He would just have to scramble to find something when Eva wasn't paying attention.

He didn't know how he was going to make it through the entire day pretending that everything was fine when he was dying to know the truth about her past.

Nora shooed the kitten from her lap, picked up her backpack and the gift, and marched up to Harry. "I'm ready." She looked cute that morning. She was wearing a pair of light-colored slacks and a green pastel sweater that brought out the color in her eyes. She had even managed to tame some of her curly hair with a silver barrette.

"You look nice," Harry said with a smile as he casually led her out of the common room. The gray tiger-striped kitten followed after them.

"I've got to convince her that I'm fine at Hogwarts," she replied, shrugging. "I need to look presentable and all."

"Are you really fine at Hogwarts?" Harry asked, genuinely concerned.

She grinned. "Of course. I just know that she still worries." Nora chewed her lower lip, looking a lot like Eva when she was concerned about something. "Really, I think I'm more worried about her than she is about me."

Harry nodded. "I know how you feel. Follow me."

He ducked into an empty classroom and threw the invisibility cloak over both of them. After a quick explanation and some amazement on Nora's part, they took off to the third floor and to the statue of the hump-backed, one-eyed witch.

When they arrived at Honeydukes' cellar, Harry safely navigated through the crowd of Hogwarts students and out onto the street. He waited until they were a safe distance away from the crowd and closer to the Hog's Head before putting the cloak away.

"This is where she lives?" Nora questioned, looking slightly alarmed at the state of the inn. She had been mesmerized at the shops—especially Honeydukes—as they made their way to the Hog's Head.

Harry nodded. "But the people seem nice." He took a moment to run his fingers through his hair straighten the shirt he was wearing before taking Nora inside the Hog's Head.

Annabelle was behind the bar, scrubbing the top of the counter. Harry gave her a nod. The barmaid smiled. "Who's this little angel?" She came out from behind the bar and bent down to Nora's level.

"I'm Eva's sister, Nora," she replied. "How do you do?" Nora balanced Eva's gift on her hip and held out her hand to the barmaid.

Annabelle grinned, showing a gap between her two front teeth, and shook her hand. "Very well, thanks. Nice ta meet ya." She turned to Harry. "She's still upstairs. Ya can go on up and see her if ya want."

"Thanks."

The bar was empty as Harry and Nora trekked to the other side and up the stairs to Eva's room. They could hear her humming. Nora smiled. Harry could tell that she was overjoyed to hear her sister in such good spirits.

Without hesitating another minute, Nora burst through the door and shouted, "Surprise!" at the top of her lungs.

Eva squealed as she ran over to Nora, knocking the girl over as she squeezed her tightly. The towel wrapped around Eva's head fell off and landed on the hardwood floor, exposing dark, wet curls—apparently she'd just gotten out of the shower.

"Oh, Nora! What are you doing here? I missed you so much!" Eva gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"I missed you, too!" Nora exclaimed. "Happy Birthday!"

"Thank you!" She hugged her sister one more time, and then approached Harry. She gave him a quick kiss on the lips. Harry could smell her lilac soap on her skin, beneath the brown peasant dress she was wearing. "And thank you for bringing Nora! I don't even want to know how you managed to get her here, but this is the best birthday present ever!"

"And here's another gift!" Nora said, handing her the box that she had been lugging around.

"Ooh," Eva cooed. "Should I open it now or save it?"

"Open it now," Nora said. "I can't wait until you see what it is!"

Eva took the gift and sat on her bed. She quickly tore open the shiny packaging on the rectangular box and lifted the top of the box off. Inside was a dark, soft blanket. Eva gently pulled it out of the box. Nora grabbed the bottom hem and pulled it to the foot of her bed. At first, it looked only like a pitch-black blanket. Slowly, small flecks of light started to appear on the blanket. Harry recognized a particular pattern—the Orion constellation. Eva gasped.

"It's a star chart!" she exclaimed.

Nora nodded eagerly. "Professor Sinistra showed me how to enchant it. When it's in the dark, the stars will slowly burn out. But once you put it in light, they'll glow again."

"It's gorgeous," Eva gushed. She rubbed the fabric against her cheek. "So soft, too."

Harry was hoping that he would get to find that out later on in the evening, when he had Eva to himself. As long as his curiosity didn't kill him first. He tried not to look at Eva differently, but it was hard not to. Knowing that she shared blood with the Malfoys…

But he didn't know. Not yet. If only he could ask her when Nora was around.

"…if that's alright with you, Harry."

"Hmm?" He hadn't been listening.

Eva looked at him strangely. "I said that we could have some lunch downstairs, as long as you think it's safe for all of us to be seen."

"I think we'll be safe," he said. "Not too many people from Hogwarts go to the Hog's Head."

"Excellent," Eva said. She folded up her new blanket and laid it at the foot of her bed. She stood up and tightened the cords of her dress around her waist, and then hugged her sister again. "I can't believe you're really here on my birthday."

I can't believe that Lucius Malfoy had anything to do with your birth in the first place, Harry thought grimly.

After a good, but somewhat distracted lunch with Eva and Nora, Harry brought the younger Finnigan sister back to Hogwarts under the cover of his invisibility cloak. He had barely touched the food in front of him during the meal, and as he dropped Nora off he could feel his stomach churning.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Nora asked. "You've been acting weird all day."

"I'm fine," Harry said quickly. Too quickly. Nora studied him with disbelief. He sighed. "I… I forgot to get a birthday gift for Eva. I've just been so busy…" It was partly the truth.

Nora seemed to buy it. "Don't worry about that. She'll understand." She paused, then gave Harry a surprising hug. "Thank you for letting me visit her today."

"You're welcome," Harry replied. "Now you'd better go make an appearance in the common room before people start to miss you." He ushered her out from behind the statue of the witch after checking that the coast was clear on the Marauder's Map.

He sighed. Now was the hard part. He was dying to know if what he thought he knew was true. But part of him wanted to go on pretending like he didn't have this new knowledge of Eva's origin. As he turned around and began his journey back to Honeydukes, he contemplated stalling some more and finding a gift for Eva. However, he knew that he would never be able to concentrate on getting her a good gift. He had to get to the bottom of this now.

His stomach was in knots the whole journey back to Hogsmeade. By the time he discreetly made his way out of the sweets shop, the sun was setting and Harry followed the hues of orange back to the Hog's Head. He strolled right inside, still under his invisibility cloak, and felt the eyes of the grumpy-looking old man behind the bar following him. Harry waved beneath the cloak. The old man seemed taken aback by Harry's sudden greeting. The barkeep smiled. So Abe was able to see through invisibility cloaks.

Harry trampled up the stairs to Eva's room, not caring who heard him at this point. The only thing on his mind was Eva. He burst through her door and found her lighting candles around the room. She just blew out her match as Harry uncloaked himself and walked over to her.

Eva jumped. "You scared me! You're back early. I didn't even have time to change…"

Because he couldn't help it, Harry wrapped his arms around her body where the cords belted her slender waist. "You don't need to change on my account." He kissed her on the cheek. Feverishly, Eva turned her head and kissed him deeply on the mouth. She moved her hands up to his chest and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt.

This was already going too fast. He didn't want to ruin this moment, or her birthday, but he had to know. He had to find out before he lost his nerve. "Wait…" Harry mumbled.

Eva didn't even break away from his lips. "For what?"

"There's something you have to explain. Something I have to know." His stomach was in knots. He could feel his heart racing, and this time he was pretty sure it wasn't because of Eva. "You have to tell me what happened the night your mother died."

Eva stopped kissing him and frowned. She pushed his arms away. "It's my birthday. I don't want to talk about that," she said angrily.

Harry stood silent for a moment. Did he really want to confront her about this? But he had no other choice.

"I know you're Lucius Malfoy's daughter."

Eva turned, her blue eyes pooling with tears. "I wish you were right, Harry. I wish it was me. But it's not. It's Nora."

Harry took a step backwards, feeling like he'd just been slapped. Reeling, he took a seat on her bed. That sweet girl, who he had just dropped off back at Hogwarts, had Malfoy blood running through her veins? In the back of his mind, he was relieved—overjoyed, even—that it wasn't Eva. However, the truth did not make him feel much better.

Eva sat beside him and wiped her tears with her sleeve. "I-I wanted to tell you, but I just didn't know how. I've never told anyone before. Not even Nora."

"You mean she doesn't know…?" Harry questioned. He turned to Eva, bewildered. She reached out and squeezed his hand.

"That night, Lucius Malfoy came into our house screaming filthy mudblood. I barely understood at the time, but somehow I knew that he was Nora's father. Maybe it was something in his face, in his eyes. I don't know. But he wanted to destroy all the evidence of his affair with me mum. Nora doesn't know why his son—this Draco—killed our mum. She just knows that he did. She was too young to understand what Lucius was upset about.

"If I had known he was there, I would have never let her go to Hogwarts. Nora saw his face, but Draco never saw her. Otherwise, if he did recognize her, she'd probably be dead by now." Eva shivered.

"At least… at least she is only half-Malfoy," Harry managed to choke out.

Eva smiled sadly. "Aye, and she is only half-Finnigan as well. She's just as much related to Draco Malfoy as she is to me."

Harry's blood ran cold. Perhaps that's why Nora was so good at Potions. "I thought… I thought you said that your mum had an affair with a tourist."

"Hardly," Eva replied. "My mother may as well have been raped by someone from another planet. It was just a lie to save face. Something to get in my uncle's good graces again." She shook her head. "If they only knew what we've gone through…" her voice trailed off. "When Malfoy saved us, and he told us to run, I took it to heart. We've never really stopped." She smiled sadly. "I guess we ran straight back into him."

Harry tried to process what Eva was saying. So this is what Draco was talking about to his mother that day. He knew of his father's betrayal. He knew Lucius had tainted the family name. He was not worthy of being the head of the Malfoy household. Draco wanted to do anything to get his father out of the way.

He sighed. "Well, there is good news in all of this. I don't think that Nora is in any danger at the moment. Draco has no clue that she's his half-sister. Even if he did, I don't think he'd be anxious to kill her."

"I find that quite difficult to believe," she declared, shivering. "He killed me mum. I see no reason why he'd hesitate to kill Nora—or me, for that matter."

Harry shook his head. "But you saw him that night. He ran away like a dog with his tail between his legs. You scared him."

"Startled him is more like it." She sighed. "Besides, why would he be afraid of me?"

"Well, you are a witness to him committing murder. You could easily put him in Azkaban."

"I would rather kill him myself," Eva said quietly. "Azkaban would be too good for him."

Harry turned to her and took her hands, holding them in his lap. He looked her straight in the eyes. "You are not a killer."

"Yes, I am," she replied, her eyes darkening. "Just one night a month." She stayed silent for a few moments, struggling with her thoughts. "Harry, I don't understand… How did you know? How have you known all of these things without me even telling you?"

He shifted uncomfortably. Would she understand? He had no choice; he had to tell her. He was not going to lie. "I'm sorry," he began. "I wasn't allowed to tell anyone. I'm not even sure if I should be telling you now, but I can't keep it a secret any longer. I've been studying a new kind of magic where sometimes I can feel what others are feeling… see what others have seen…"

"You mean like an empath?" she interrupted.

"Kind of," Harry replied. "Only more specific."

Harry had expected her to feel betrayed; he had expected more questions. He expected her to freak out a little like Ron and Hermione had. Instead, she leaned over and kissed him gently on the lips.

"Sometimes, I feel like I can read your mind, too. I know that I can't see all of your secrets, but I can see inside of you." She let go of his hands and draped her arms around his shoulders. "And I can't imagine being with anybody else."

Eva pushed him back on the bed, on top of the blanket Nora had given her. Harry realized that she was stronger than the times they met before the full moon. At least she had some days to recover. Now she was more herself.

And she was hungry.

She kissed him roughly on the mouth, pressing her body into him. Her mouth searched his until the two of them were gasping for air. Harry let his hands travel all over her body: the nape of her neck, her breasts, the small of her back, and her round bottom. He couldn't take it any longer. He had to have her. Now.

He didn't even bother removing his clothing as he wildly rolled her over so that he was on top of her. He was more than ready as he lifted the hem of Eva's dress up to her waist and removed any obstruction that stood between his lips and what he craved.

Eva moaned in ecstasy as she bucked against him. Harry grabbed firmly onto her hips and continued his assault. He kept bringing her to the brink of climax, then backing away, then bringing her there again.

"Harry, you tease!" Eva managed to call out in frustration. "Don't stop!" she whimpered.

Harry glanced up and saw that her face was flushed and beads of sweat had started to form at her hairline. He grinned wickedly, then pressed on at full force.

Eva's hands clutched the bedding and her toes curled as she exploded into incoherent screams. Harry did not stop until her eruption had subsided and her shallow breathing turned to deep, satisfied inhalations.

Knowing that he couldn't last much longer, Harry got up on his knees and grabbed onto the bedpost for support. Eva lay beneath him, purring like a lioness as he entered her. He pushed forcefully with every stroke, faster and faster, until all he could hear were Eva's moans of pleasure the sound of the bedpost bumping the wall. Eva clutched his back and dug her fingernails into his skin as she screamed his name.

Her scorching touch was all it took to send him over the edge.