TWENTYFOUR
Navigating London already felt like a wildly painstaking task for Eve, but navigating London in the rain? Now that was dreadfully, and impeccably, impossible.
Eve had always found the city too crowded, too pushy, and far too confusing for her sleepy beach town liking. But to add morning traffic and unbearable English downpour to the already stressful task of making it to King's Cross station, Eve might as well have stayed home for the new term.
Eve always figured the reason so many wizards lived in the city was that the muggles in London were far too occupied in their morning papers and briefcases to ever even glance up long enough to catch a bit of magic from the corner of their eyes. Which was why, when Eve's father finally managed to pull up to the station, and Eve flew out of the car with barely a breathless goodbye, she knew she would be soaked and entirely unaided by the bustling crowd around her. She was sure one of the wheels on her suitcase was loose, but there was no chance she would stop to check it when her hair was already turning into a wet black mop.
She heaved her trunk and bookbag through the station entrance and down the crowded terminal. Had everyone decided to leave the city on the same day? Eve could hardly blame them, at the least.
Eve shuffled through, her heavy boots echoing an excruciatingly sharp squeak as her eyes quickly scanned the platform numbers above her. As soon as she read '9', her eyes glanced at the crowd in front of her, where she spotted a familiar pink wool cap amongst the hazy heads. She waved to Fiona in a kind of desperate plea for help, the latter girl noticing after a moment and sending Eve a perplexed stare.
"I can't wait to apparate," Eve huffed as she greeted her friend with the drop of her bags.
"Six years we've been doing this, darling," Fiona replied pointedly, although she took Eve's suitcase in her hands.
"Thanks for waiting up," Eve said, glancing at the giant clock tower overhead that indicated they were dangerously close to missing their train.
"It's no problem. I'm avoiding Demetri anyways," Fiona said with a shrug, turning on her heels and heading for the tall pillar that would mark a three-quarters distance.
"Oh, better make it a short story," Eve said with a grin, following Fiona's quick stride right through the pillar, the loud groan Fiona let out at Eve's words getting lost in the transporting stone.
At the magical speed of a second, the girls stood in front of the shining red vision of the Hogwarts Express. Familiar faces now replaced the gray of the London crowd from only moments ago. There were students still lingering at the platform, giving last-minute farewells to their departing families, but most had already boarded the train, their faces filling the reflections in the windows above and the loud clamor of their voices trailing down into the platform below.
Fiona turned away from the sentimental scene and rolled her eyes.
"Demetri's parents don't like me," Fiona said, her tone sounding more like a diplomatic statement than a heartbreaking reveal.
"I'm sorry," Eve replied, trying her best at a sympathetic look, although Fiona had already turned and started for the train again. The girls walked along the side of the train, passing the linked cars one by one, just as the train let out its loud call of departure.
"It's a good thing I don't like them either," Fiona said, stopping at the individual car Eve assumed held their Hufflepuff friends and began her hoist up the train.
"Well, at least you're all on the same page," Eve said, following closely behind Fiona's steps as the girls finally entered the confines of the train. Fiona turned back to her with raised a raised brow before shrugging in casual agreement.
The girls walked through the train corridor, glancing between compartments as they went, before catching a glimpse of a familiar blonde bob. Lucie sat next to Matthew, the pair seeming to have put the secrecy of their relationship to rest of the break. A lonely Douglas sat across from the couple, looking anything but pleased at his current arrangement. When Fiona knocked on the glass of the door to announce their arrival, Eve was sure she saw him give a sigh in relief.
"Oh, we thought Fiona was never coming back with you," Lucie grinned, pulling Eve into a hug as her suitcase was thrown overhead by Matthew.
"Fiona found me seconds before I was going to jump right off the platform and into the tracks," Eve said with a dark and slightly exhausted laugh, turning to sit next to Douglas, who eyed her amusingly. Eve thought for a moment how strange it was that things had gone back to normal so quickly between them. Teenage theatrics did tend to work on the same time frame as rotating trains schedules, though.
The conversation in the compartment quickly filtered into holiday break discussions. Douglas recounted his uncle Jeffrey enchanting the Christmas roast to fly around the table and land on his brother's head, as well as took the time to describe in vivid detail the mermaid sculpture currently in Eve's garden. Lucie and Matthew talked of their Christmas spent together. Matthew proudly recalled Lucie beating his father at wizard chess, but not before she helped his mother wrap last-minute gifts for his younger sisters. Eve nudged Fiona with her elbow, Fiona having watched the couple during their holiday babble with murderous eyes. She said nothing and only nudged Eve back harder, though.
Fiona's edgy mood was soon dwindled by the rotation of the sweets cart through the corridor, and the group quickly moved amongst their bags and seats in attempts at collecting gallons from amongst each other. Eve watched Matthew shuffle through his bookbag, where she caught a glimpse at a moving colorless face, unfamiliar to her but concerning in distinguish.
"Matthew, can I see that Daily Prophet?" Eve asked, nodding to the bag Matthew's hands were still rummaging through.
"What? Oh, yeah," Matthew said, handing the newspaper to Eve without a second thought and collecting his coins finally in his hand. He stood and turned to Eve and Douglas, the only ones left in the compartment, having had made no attempt at the sweets cart.
"Do you two want anything?" Matthew asked.
"No, we're alright," Douglas replied, seemingly already knowing to answer for Eve, who now had her face in the paper.
Eve studied the front page intensely, her eyes first examining the plastered pictures decorating the page, each face within them their own version of a horrifying moving mugshot. Her eyes then read the headline, and then reread it, again and again: 'ANOTHER AZKABAN BREAK-IN LEAVES MORE ON THE LOOSE: HAVE YOU SEE THESE FACES?'
"More Death Eaters escaped last night. My father has been at the Ministry all night. I can only imagine the absolute hysteria erupting over there," Douglas said, as he eyed the paper, and then Eve's reaction to reading it.
"Lovely back-to-school surprise," Eve remarked flatly, taking one last glance at the grotesque faces and quickly covering them with a fold of the page.
"No need to worry. Umbridge has had us trained all year, remember?" Douglas said, his face twisting into an awfully performed grin.
"Oh, that's right. 'Duck and cover,' I remember now," Eve said, although she couldn't bring herself to laugh at her joke. Her insides were still twisting from the headline.
Loud laughter filled the train corridor, and from Eve's ears, she could recognize the tone as Lucie's.
"Where is she, anyway?"
This time the voice was coming from a boy, and from the way Douglas whipped his head in the direction of the glass compartment door, Eve confirmed that it had come from Fernando. For a second or two, the pair just stared at the empty corridor from behind the door before Fernando quickly appeared in stride, stopping moments before passing their compartment to lock eyes with Eve. Eve figured he must have been looking for her because his face was bright and still playful from his interactions with their friends only moments ago. But just as quickly, his eyes moved to Douglas beside her, and Fernando's smile fell into a sort of open-mouthed gape.
Eve nodded at him in a gentle attempt to break his stare. Fernando glanced between the two for another moment before lifting his hand in a sort of casual but entirely awkward wave. Before either of them in the compartment could reply back with equal uncomfortable greetings, Fernando turned on his heel and disappeared down the train corridor again.
A short laugh escaped Eve, followed quickly by a deep miserable sigh from Douglas. But before either of them could even begin to unpack the bizarre display of friendliness that had just occurred, Lucie appeared in front of the door, a confused but otherwise casual look on her face.
"Where did Fernando go? I just sent him to go look for you," Lucie asked as she slid the compartment door back behind her. Eve shrugged in equal confusion because she did, in fact, not know where he went.
"Can I have a licorice?" Douglas asked, quick to change the subject as he stuck his hand out to Lucie, who nodded and handed him the bag in her hand.
The train ride commenced back to normal after the others returned. Matthew and Lucie giggled and fed each other sweets when they thought the others were not looking. Fiona complained loudly about the uselessness of boys, while Douglas agreed silently beside her. And Eve stared out the window and thought about the frightening faces on that newspaper. Thankfully, her anxious thoughts eased a bit as the colors of the sunset came into view.
The sight of Umbridge's face during the back-to-school feast vanished any further leftover cheer from the holiday break. With Dumbledore lost from attendance, the pink-clad professor took the reins of the students' attention. Umbridge's welcome speech was short and unusually tense, even for her standards, and with no mention of the headline splattered on the front of the morning's Daily Prophet. Not that Eve was particularly expecting it. They were back in the confines of the Ministry's coddling grips.
"What are you thinking about?" Douglas's voice murmured in Eve's ear, the closeness causing her to slightly jump in her seat, realizing now that she had zoned out somewhere in the middle of a roasted chicken and dinner roll bowl.
"I'm thinking about how much I would give anything to be drunk in a dirty old pub right now," Eve remarked, turning back to her untouched food and sober reality. Douglas laughed and shrugged his shoulders.
"I have a good feeling about this term, you know," Douglas said, his words causing Eve to shoot her gaze up at him in strange bewilderment.
"There's absolutely no evidence to support such a premonition," Eve said.
"Which one of us took Advanced Divination, huh? It was definitely not you," Douglas replied, raising his eyebrows in playful defensiveness, but Eve only rolled her eyes and shot her gaze away from him, turning now to the faces of the students sat around them, as if searching for evidence of such optimism in other members of her peers.
"Have your tea leaves told you to speak to Fernando yet?" Eve asked, her words bringing Douglas back to reality as both pairs of their eyes landed on the boy sat a few spots across from them.
"Not yet, but that's hardly an issue," Douglas said, although his voice cracked in confidence for a second as he spoke, his smile becoming replaced by Eve's growing smirk.
"Oh yeah? And why haven't you done it yet?" Eve asked, turning her gaze back to Douglas, although his remained on Fernando. Douglas stared for a moment, his brows furrowing as if searching for an answer on the boy's face. Douglas cleared his throat.
"Oi, Wells. Can you pass the peas?" Douglas called from across the table in a deep boyish tone he usually only reserved for the quidditch pitch.
Fernando turned immediately at the sound, his eyes locking with Douglas's in a quick stare down of confusing tension. Eve was the only one at the table that noticed, though.
"Yeah, sure," Fernando finally answered, and Eve was impressed by his casual tone and glance, the boy handing the bowl of peas off to the Hufflepuff student sat next to him, and with a few passed hands, the bowl landed in Douglas's grasp.
Fernando turned his eyes to Eve now, his stare giving no hint of emotion other than perhaps just searching for an answer for the bizarre exchange. All Eve could do was shrug and take a spoonful of peas onto her plate.
"Exceptional communication skills," Eve murmured under her breath, knowing Douglas was the only one listening, "I mean, "Wells," like really?"
"We're mates, aren't we?" Douglas shrugged, although his reasoning was not the least bit convincing to Eve.
"Just because you got rejected doesn't mean you have to turn straight," Eve replied, a small smile creeping on her lips as she watched Douglas roll his eyes.
"It's called coping mechanisms. You should get a few," Douglas shot back, turning away from Eve and shooting his sight across the Great Hall. A short laugh escaped his lips when Eve made no attempt to follow his gaze.
"I'm not looking anywhere near the Gryffindor table," Eve stated sharply, filling her mouth with a spoonful of peas. But her maneuver was done far too aggressively than needed, and a loud cough burst from her lips as she choked on a few lodged peas.
"Merlin, Eve. Are you trying to end your life right over your dinner plate?" Douglas asked, giving a disapproving shake of his head as Eve continued to take heaping mouthfuls of air into her lungs. She considered for a moment if perhaps Douglas's statement was meant to be.
"He just waved," Douglas said, and Eve momentarily felt herself begin to choke again.
"You're lying," Eve said through gulps of air before grabbing her pumpkin juice and downing it in one sip. She did this all without a glance up from the Hufflepuff table.
"I swear on all that is right and true in this world that George Weasley just waved at us," Douglas said, a small laugh leaving his lips as he clarified, "Well, he waved at me since you were in the middle of a medical emergency."
"Why would he do that?" Eve asked, and her glance turned to Douglas as she read his expression still directed towards the Gryffindor table.
"I don't know. I suppose to be friendly," Douglas shrugged, a small smile building on his lips, "He keeps looking over here."
Eve sighed and turned away from him and back to her plate. There was no way she was looking up, but there was also no way she could escape the building of nerves in her stomach at the thought of his eyes on her. Again, she reached for the bowl of peas in front of her. Douglas let out a sigh and turned back to her finally.
"Death by peas it is then."
