TEN
Eve found herself anxious to get out of her Potions class. Maybe it was because Professor Snape was particularly dry with today's lesson, or possibly, it was because she would be meeting the Weasley twins after class.
She felt maybe the fretting was over the prospects of her plants being bloomed and ready to harvest. She hoped they had done well in their makeshift little garden. But Eve didn't see why they wouldn't have done decent enough. Maybe they would need a bit more time to grow, but certainly, she didn't expect her handiwork to be completely unsuccessful.
Or maybe, just maybe, she was simply eager to see the twins. Their ever-growing presence in her life the last few months had served thus far as an outlet for Eve to be excited about something in her life. Being a part of something that felt secretive and rebellious made her feel thrilled in a way she hadn't quite felt before. The smiles and casual waves the twins would give her when they passed one another in the corridors were like tiny insurgents of electricity into her otherwise mundane routine.
It was only a year ago that Eve and the twins would pass the same corridors without a second glance at one another. During that time, Eve would have felt like the boys existed in another world entirely. Like they were some sort of background noise to her otherwise peaceful Hufflepuff life. But now, she found herself becoming more and more wrapped up in their own fantastical dangerous universe. Or maybe they were the ones getting wrapped up in hers? Eve didn't know quite yet.
"Blimey, I can't tell if it's the fumes from the potions or Snape's voice, but my head is pounding," Douglas announced the minute their feet made it outside the classroom door.
"Oh no, please tell me someone took proper notes," Eve sighed, turning from a hopeless Douglas to Lucie and Matthew Kiern, another Hufflepuff in their year, as well as Lucie's fellow prefect.
"Yeah, I've got them," Matthew said, waving the notebook in his hands with a reassuring smile.
"When she said "proper" she meant legible," Lucie teased, causing the boy to look at her with mild insult.
"Oi, my handwriting isn't that bad," Matthew protested, holding his notebook far out of reach when Lucie tried to grab it.
Eve glance between the two for a moment, surveying the teenage chemistry making unfolding in front of her. She turned back ahead to Douglas now, expecting to meet his eyes, but he was not listening, only rubbing his palms on his face in dramatic exhaustion. The Hufflepuffs climbed the dungeon's stairs and was immediately met with the bustling crowd of students in the corridor.
"I need to speak to Professor Sprout about something," Eve said to Douglas as they began heading in the direction of what would be their common room.
"Don't leave me with them, please," Douglas complained in a low sigh, glancing at Lucie and Matthew, who strayed a few steps behind them. As he said this, Dawson and Fernando came into view from the opposite side of the corridor, the boys also seemingly headed towards their living quarters.
"Never mind, I'll see you at dinner," Douglas muttered, and without a second glance, he left Eve's side to meet his friends, or specifically, one of them who was not so much as a friend to him.
Eve rolled her eyes before beginning towards the direction that would lead her to outside the castle grounds. She was met with a chilly gust of autumn air as she stepped into the outdoor scene of the courtyard. Adored with the yellow and orange hues of fallen leaves, the yard was bustling with different groups of students, some huddled in quiet conversations, others gathered in shouting games of exploding snap. Eve made her way towards the end of the courtyard that would lead her to the castle grounds' grassy field, where she could already see a familiar redheaded figure standing. But this figure was not accompanied by another identical one, causing Eve to stare in puzzlement as she finally met the boy at his side.
She glanced at his eyes, then his nose, and finally the state of his hair. The boy looked at her curiously, seemingly wondering the reasoning for her studied look.
"George," Eve stated with a simple nod, causing the boy to break into an amused grin.
"Correct. You're getting quite good," George replied, causing Eve's own smile to form.
"Should have just checked for Malfoy's blood on your hands," Eve said as the two began their walk down the castle hill. George laughed at this remark, turning to Eve with a dramatic hand on his chest.
"And, how do you it was me who hit Malfoy?" He asked. Eve shrugged.
"Fred seems to act first, so I figured it was you that had finished the job. Where is your brother anyway?" Eve asked, finally addressing his missing link for the occasion.
"Detention. Umbridge didn't trust us to have it with her together. He had a full-blown meltdown when Umbridge kicked us off the team," George said, causing Eve to slightly wince at his words.
"Oh, yeah. I was going to say sorry about the quidditch match. Umbridge is completely demented for doing all of that," Eve said, sending the boy a sad, apologetic glance.
"It's alright. We'll figure a way to get back at her," George said with a slight shrug, but Eve could see the disappointment in his eyes.
"Anyways," George began, his face turning back into amusement, "I heard Umbridge is overseeing quidditch now, so perhaps I should be the one apologizing to you."
This statement caused an audible groan from Eve, as she was now reminded of her own misfortune.
"She's coming to watch our practice," She grimaced. George gave a short howl of amazement.
"You know what, maybe I'm lucky to be off the team. I would be hitting bludgers straight at her if she came to our practice," George laughed.
"Consider yourself a martyr for the cause. You gave the entire school the shared experience of watching Malfoy cry," Eve smiled.
"In that case, you're welcome," George smiled back, but this time, his stare lingered for a moment longer, causing a small nervous laugh to emit from Eve's lips as she glanced back at the approaching forest in front of them.
"What was the fight about, anyway?" Eve continued the conversation quickly, "Was he bullying Potter or something?"
"I mean, he's usually bullying Harry and my brother, Ron," George's face contorted in a look of exasperation when he said this, and Eve felt initially startled at his expression. She was so used to the boy's happy-go-lucky attitude towards things, she had never considered the other parts of him, such as being vindictive, or bitter, or perhaps just a protective older brother.
"He had that song prepared for Ron at the game. And then, afterward, he started saying shit, obviously upset that we had won anyways. Rubbish about our family and stuff, the usual Slytherin nonsense."
Eve mulled George's words over carefully, not entirely able to grasp the nature of this kind of argument. She could understand Malfoy's hate for Harry, as the Gryffindor boy had all the birthed glory and attention Slytherins so desperately sought after. Still, she couldn't quite grasp the comparison between the Malfoy and the Weasleys.
"I don't understand. Isn't your family pureblood?" Eve asked, her voice's genuine tone seemingly softening George's hard expression.
"Yeah, but there are different kinds of purebloods. You know how some families are," George shrugged, just as the pair reached the edge of the forest.
"I don't know. Being muggle-born makes you a bit detached from that side of the wizarding world, I guess," Eve said with a shrug. Her words, though, made George stop for a moment and turn to her. He gave her a curious stare, and for a moment, Eve wondered if this was meant to be an adverse reaction to this new information about her.
"I didn't know you were muggle-born," He said simply before casually starting his pace again as they walked through the crowded trees.
"I mean, you hardly know me," Eve said, watching his reactions carefully now. He glanced over at her and smiled softly.
"I guess that's true."
The pair walked in silence for a minute before their tiny little garden came into view amidst the shrubs and trees.
"Oh, they look perfect," Eve declared, breaking into a proud Herbology student grin. She surveyed the small row of Aconite, each one fully sprouted with its own leaves and sister stems.
Eve knelt down on the dirt in front of them and reached for her book bag, where she had hidden away a pair of planting shears in the morning.
"Doing Professor Sprout proud, I'd say," George smiled, taking his own seat on the dirt next to Eve. She could feel George's gaze on her as she began to work, causing a slight jolt in her stomach. She quickly ignored this feeling, though, and went to work with her shears.
"When did you know you were magical?" George asked after a moment of silence. The question caused Eve to pause mid-cut and glance up at him with a mildly confused look.
"It's called getting to know someone, Eve. Don't go playing mysterious now," He continued with a laugh.
"I'm not playing anything, George," Eve said with her own small laugh before turning back to the Aconite.
"Well," she started, "my parents are adamant that they always knew I was special, but I think parents always say that. When I was a baby, my mum said when I would cry, the whole house would shake."
"Remind me to never get you upset," George teased. Eve rolled her eyes.
"Apparently, they would find me with random objects they hadn't given me. You know, food, random toys, the T.V. remote or something. They eventually figured out I had been getting the cat to do things for me. Imagine how freaked they must have been," Eve said with a laugh, cutting another leaf and placing it neatly in a pile she had made beside her.
"Do you have siblings?" George asked now.
"No, just me. My parents had me when they were older," Eve replied with a shrug, "I always wished I had some, though. It can be lonely sometimes when my parents are away."
"Oh, I've got six siblings. It's mental at our house," George said, but even with the exasperated laugh he gave, Eve could tell he said this with affection.
Eve knew a bit about George's family, as his family was considered prominent in Britain for pureblood lineage, but she hadn't known details about them. Eve had often sat and wondered how it must be to grow up in a magical family, especially a pureblood descended one like the Weasleys. How different George's childhood must have been to her own.
"Your mum cooks with spells and everything?" Eve found herself asking, the pureness in her tone and randomness in her question causing George to give a bewildered laugh.
"Yeah, of course," George replied, "Wow, you would probably freak if you came over."
"Probably," Eve replied with a small laugh, cutting the last leaf off of the Aconite. She grabbed two sheets of spare parchment from her book bag, laying the pile of cut leaves in one and freshly cut stems in the other.
"Five leaves," Eve said, handing the wrapped parchment to George, "and I have three new stems I can plant." She put the stems into her pocket and watched George do the same with his goods.
The pair stood, dusting their robes off and swinging their bookbags back over their shoulders.
"Guess we should head back," Eve said, and George nodded. They started their backtrack out of the forest now, neither of them speaking again for a few minutes. Eve thought the silence felt comfortable enough, but she couldn't help but wonder what George was thinking. He wasn't an awkward person in the least bit, so there must have been something on his mind. At least, that is what Eve reasoned. George finally broke the silence when they hit the clearing of the Forbidden Forest.
"What did you get from Honeydukes?" He asked absentmindedly, shooting her a slight grin. Eve was puzzled for a moment before remembering last weekend's Hogsmeade trip.
"Just some chocolate. Did you two even get anything? You left so quickly, I didn't even see you come in," Eve said, looking at George with a curious stare. He immediately gave her his classic smile of mischief, causing Eve to roll her eyes.
"Oh, we were just passing through, that's all," George shrugged, his gaze looking back ahead towards the castle, "Hopefully, we didn't disturb your date."
He had said this so casually that Eve didn't even register his words at first. When she finally did, she broke into laughter.
"It wasn't a date," Eve said, still grinning at the thought of her and Douglas seeming that way.
"Oh," George said, furrowing his brows a bit as he mulled over this information, "I just thought-I mean, didn't Dempsie take you to the ball last year?"
George's confusion was both amusing and bewildering to Eve. First, because she imagined now that there must be multiple Hogwarts students, who she only knew in passing, that must think she and Douglas were a couple. And second, because she couldn't believe George even knew that she and her friend had gone to the Yule Ball together. Eve couldn't even vaguely remember who his date would have been.
"We're just friends," Eve said plainly, figuring it was not her place to go into details about why she and Douglas weren't a couple or, more importantly, why they could never be a couple.
"Who did you take to the ball, then?" Eve asked, putting George in the hot seat now. He smiled, seemingly knowing Eve was doing precisely this.
"Alicia," He answered simply.
"Quidditch team Alicia?" Eve asked, recollecting the Gryffindor chaser in her mind. She was quite pretty.
Not that it matters at all.
George nodded, and after a few seconds of Eve not responding, he spoke up again.
"We're just mates."
Eve chuckled lightly, shooting him a playful grin.
"I don't remember asking if you were, George."
Author's Note: AHHH, so obviously this is a slow burn, cause I love a good slow burn, but damn the flirting just felt so natural to write LOL. Thank you again to everyone who is reading/reviewing! I really appreciate it. I have quite few chapters written in advance so I promise to update super soon.
