TWENTYSIX
Eve was not expecting to spend her Tuesday evening in the dark crevices of the library. The number of students that filled the desks and long tables, heads down and covered in various ancient books and scribbled scrolls of parchment, seemed a bit excessive to her. Although, she didn't actually know the general ambiance of this particular section of Hogwarts. She only ever lied about going to the library, after all.
"I'm pretty sure every seventh year is in here," Eve muttered to Fernando sitting across from her. However, as she made her observation, she immediately guessed of a pair of seventh years that were certainly not in the library with them.
"N.E.W.T.S in a few months, Eve. What do you expect?" Fernando replied, taking a quick, anxious look at his fellow seventh years around him before dropping his gaze to his Potions textbook again.
Fernando had asked Eve to accompany him to the library that evening in hopes of helping him study, although Eve figured he might have just wanted the company. Because if he had wanted help or even just a simple conversation, he had not given any indication of it in the last two hours.
"Merlin, I don't even want to think about N.E.W.T.S next year," Fiona mumbled from beside her spot next to Eve.
The girl had practically chased Eve and Fernando when she spotted them leaving the common room together, demanding that they let her come along, as she was desperately behind in her work. Eve's female teenage mind was clever enough to translate this to 'I can't be around my snogging friends as long as I'm not getting snogged as well.' Eve glanced at Fiona's parchment, which had grown an astounding four lines since the three of them had gotten there. She couldn't blame Fiona, though; Eve had hardly made a dent in her DADA essay as well. Eve had already long ago made the decision that if Umbridge was hardly going to make an effort to be a proper teacher, Eve would do the same with her efforts to be a proper student.
"I'm going to stretch my legs," Eve said, pushing herself away from her spot on the long wooden table and getting to her feet. Fiona shot her a slight nod while Fernando kept his eyes firmly on his textbook.
Eve turned on her heels and started towards the massive shelves of books, casually passing row after row, mostly filled, as she expected, with silent studying students. As she traveled deeper down the aisle, she found a row empty of students and strolled within it, glancing at the antique spines with careless interest.
All of these books, all of this knowledge about a world she hardly understood, Eve thought, and she had spent all her time giggling and doodling. As if she was merely a bystander in this magical world around her. To think it took her six years for her to realize she had always been a part of it. Footsteps from behind her broke her momentary idling.
Cho Chang's head peaked into the row Eve stood in, and when their eyes met, the girl's face broke into a soft smile.
"I was trying to find which way you disappeared to," Cho said.
"Hey, Cho," Eve grinned, "How was your holiday break?"
"Strange," Cho shrugged, and Eve nodded, knowing precisely what she meant. But she had a feeling it wasn't what Cho came to talk about. And Eve's inclination was proven right as she watched Cho take a few steps closer to her, forming a sort of huddle in what was now a customary approach between confidantes in a school filled with reproachable teachers and student spies.
"We have a meeting at ten tonight," Cho whispered.
Eve raised her brow at the information. She had known it was only a matter of time before the mention of the DA would begin again, but she hadn't expected the news now, especially on such short notice.
"Bit late, isn't it?" Eve asked.
"Harry told me only an hour ago, said to find as many members as possible," Cho began, "You think you could tell some of the other Hufflepuffs?"
Cho's words offered little explanation to Eve's question, but she nodded at the Ravenclaw girl and waved her off with intentions to see her later. Eve stood in the bookcases for a moment or two longer, wondering how much time she exactly had to round up her fellow Hufflepuff DA members and why exactly the short time was given to begin with. Though, at least she had reason not to touch her essay again.
Eve slipped out the row of shelves and followed her path back to the crowded group tables. Fiona and Fernando were exactly how she had left them, the former with her chin resting in her palm and her eyes slightly closed, the latter with his nose still pressed in his book, and his hand tensely gripped to his quill. Eve pulled her empty chair back and took her seat across from Fernando, waiting for his attention to find her, but his head did not raise. She opted to kick his leg from under the table.
Fernando grunted and raised his head finally to meet her, his face contorted in a confused grimace as he waited for an explanation for the violence. Eve spread her mouth wide and mouthed an exaggerated D and A with her lips, although Fernando only raised a brow. Eve sighed, glancing at Fiona's side, who now had her eyes fully shut and her mouth slightly ajar. Fiona dozing off indicated Eve had a bit more privacy than previously perceived, but she still leaned over the table to whisper in Fernando's ear.
"DA. Tonight," Eve said, pulling away only slightly from Fernando so she could watch his eyes raise in surprise. He opened his mouth to form some sort of reply, but Eve shrugged in an anticipated response, letting him know she wouldn't be able to answer any questions he might have.
Fernando shut his textbook and began to fold his parchments, all the care he had for his schoolwork promptly disappearing with the appearance of awaiting plans of mischief. Eve turned to Fiona and reached to shake her shoulder, the sleepy girl stirring awake hastily and glancing around her surroundings with mild confusion.
"Dozed off," Eve whispered, a slight grin growing on her face as she watched Fiona glance down at her abandoned essay.
"Oh, what do I care?" Fiona mumbled, addressing her parchment directly, although a few faces around them at the table glanced up at her words in confusion. But when they realized it was only schoolwork despair that they had overhead, they quickly turned back to their books.
Eve and Fiona followed Fernando's actions quickly, packing up their untouched belongings and throwing their bookbags over their shoulders. They slipped out of the library quietly, although Madam Pince still made it a point to raise her eyes from her glasses and check to see if they were taking unrequested books from her. Fernando gave a friendly to the librarian, and Fiona shot Eve an eye-roll.
The walk back to the common room was relatively quick, although Eve couldn't help but notice the echo in their footsteps and the continuous empty corridors they walked through. There was no comfort in the vacantness of the castle anymore. The idea of sneaking out later created a slight pinch of dread in Eve's stomach, a relatively new change from the usual flutters of excitement and anticipation that she had from such antics only last term.
Thankfully, the Hufflepuff common room wasn't nearly as crowded as the library had been. Most students had already seemingly retreated to their dormitories or started to stir from their places on the sofas and armchairs. Fiona began making her way up to the girl's hallway, but when she realized Eve hadn't followed, she turned and sent an expectant stare.
"I'm going to hang back with Fernando for a bit longer, help him with his Potions essay," Eve said coolly, having already practiced the line in her head during their walk back from the library. Fiona raised a brow and glanced between the two of them for a moment before simply shrugging.
"Maybe you two are shagging," Fiona muttered before turning and disappearing up the stairs.
Eve had no chance at a reply as Hannah Abbott emerged from the bottom of the stairs and locked her direction on her and Fernando. The look on the younger girl's face indicated she already knew what they had come to tell her.
"The fifth years already know," Hannah whispered as she drew closer to the two, her eyes glancing amongst the faces around them for assured secrecy, "I'm going early. The castle freaks me out late at night. Harry better have a good reason for this."
Eve and Fernando nodded, watching as Hannah brushed past them and slipped out the common room door, thankfully without much notice from her peers. The two decided to give Hannah space between her voyage to the Room of Requirement and theirs. And as the clock ticked closer to 10, they watched the rest of their fellow house DA members slip out the door just as Hannah did, each giving their own knowing nod to the pair as they passed them. The pinch of dread in Eve grew ten times as she listened to the clock chime a quarter to the hour. She turned to Fernando, who was fiddling with his quill over his schoolwork in an attempt to look busy, although the common room had become scarce with peers to pretend for as time passed.
"I'm not walking alone," Eve muttered, her words confident in meaning, although she was sure Fernando heard the slight panic in it with the way his head shot up to meet her expression.
"Oh, you're proper nervous, aren't you?" Fernando asked, his eyebrows raising as he studied Eve's face, although his tone wasn't harsh in nature.
"I don't know. I just don't have a good feeling about tonight," Eve sighed, taking another glance up at the clock above the burning fireplace.
"Eve the clairvoyant," Fernando replied, his light laugh earning an eye roll from Eve, "We are going together, don't worry. There's no point going down for a cause if it's not in company."
Eve nodded, although his words gave little comfort to her. In actuality, she thought, far more damage could be done with two rather than one. Nevertheless, they slipped out of the common room together.
The walk to the Room of Requirement, although dark and terribly stressful for Eve, proved that perhaps her preconceived sentiments were not as fruitful as she believed them to be. The journey, although filled with giant black shadows and unprovoked echoes from the cobblestones, did not result in the appearance of a pink-clad monster or any number of Azkaban escapees. Not even a ghost paid them a visit, and you can always count on an appearance from Peeves when it is the least convenient and harmonious. When Eve finally spotted the hanging tapestry and the magical formation of the wood door began to build, she could have wept in relief.
A particular wash of warmth enveloped Eve the moment she and Fernando entered the hidden classroom. It had only been a few weeks since the last time she had been in the Room of Requirement, but it felt like years since she had felt the comfort of the castle's safe haven. It was as if, for the first time since being back at school, Eve could hear her voice again, clear and without whisper, and when she went to breathe out, it didn't hitch at the back of her throat and cause her to choke.
She found herself hugging Hermione of all people.
"How was your break?" Hermione asked when Eve pulled away, and although a bit startled by Eve's gesture, she returned the embrace from the Hufflepuff. Perhaps they all needed a hug or two.
"The usual. Watched some television and pretended death eaters didn't exist for a bit," Eve said with a shrug and gaining a smile from Hermione.
"I forget you're muggleborn," Hermione replied, but before she could comment on her break, Harry cleared his throat and started for his usual spot in the middle of the room.
Hermione was swift to follow his lead with her customary spot at his side. Eve caught a familiar shade of red come into view, and Ron Weasley appeared from within the crowd of students and took Harry's other side. Eve bore a moment to glance around the room, taking count of the familiar faces, making sure to catch the notice of the crimson hair in the midst, but all she saw was the youngest of the Weasley siblings, Ginny.
Eve turned her direction to the trio again and watched as Harry and Ron exchanged words amidst the voices and faces.
"I don't know where they are at."
"Well, they should have been here already."
"It's not like this the first time they've been late somewhere, Ron."
As if at the summoned by mention of their presence, the giant wooden door of the Room of Requirement swung open and the last of the Weasley siblings made their entrance. Eve figured they had been running when they arrived because their hair tussled unevenly, and a thin bead of sweat framed their identical foreheads. But even with their frenzied appearances, two cheeky cloned smiles were spread wide on their faces. There was a flutter in Eve's stomach when she matched which smile was George's.
"Run into trouble?" Harry asked casually, seemingly far more amused at their dramatic entrance than their younger brother, Ron still looking a bit weary as the twins approached them.
"Mrs. Norris caught sight of us on the third floor," Fred began.
"We had to set a dungbomb for Filch to find her," George continued.
"And then we set another one on the fourth floor for good measure," Fred finished.
"You two should be more careful about doing those things. There's no reason to start trouble if you can find a way to avoid it completely," Hermione said, flashing a disapproving frown to each of the twins' proud smirks.
"Oh, but what's careful is not fun at all," George replied, earning a few laughs and smiles from a few Gryffindors around her.
All the arrogance and still all the admirers, Eve thought.
And yet, I freely let one of them stick his tongue down my throat.
"Can we start now?" Ron asked, breaking the amusing commotion the twins had brought with them, guiding the group to gather.
The twins moved to take a spot far across from where Eve and Fernando stood, meeting sides with Lee and a few of the other older Gryffindors. But Eve watched as George's head moved to circle around the group, his eyes taking his own turn counting heads. Eve felt her cheeks go hot when George found her face, her eyes already having been waiting for his. He grinned and winked, a move so confident and unabashed that all Eve could do was divert her eyes immediately away and pretend the interaction hadn't occurred at all.
"Something happened between you two, didn't it?"
Technically, Fernando's words formed as a question, but his tone made it sound like it was an affirmation of an undeniable truth. Eve should have known Fernando would have caught the sight of the exchange, standing next to her, front and center. And she couldn't even blame George for his part in it. Had she not been staring first?
"I'm not sure what you mean," Eve whispered back, raising her eyebrows in an attempt to look inconspicuous, but she knew her face was still burning red.
Technically, something happening was up for interpretation. It's not like any conversation was had between Eve and George that marked a significant happening between them. George was a flirt and dangerously confident for his own good, but Eve wanted the kiss just as much as he had. She had kissed him the second time, after all. And a snog was just a snog; they had all done it before. And it had only occurred twice between them now, and although Eve wouldn't mind if it took place again, she wasn't going to treat it as a happening until she knew George planned on making it one. The teenage logic made sense in her head. And Eve wasn't going to let it get to her, not when murderers were on the loose. She watched Harry wave his hands one last time and knew she was safe from further remarks.
"I'm sorry for the late notice and the even later hour, everyone," Harry started, glancing around the room, "As you all have probably noticed, Umbridge has gone full force in cracking down on student behavior. And now with the Slytherins apart of it, there's been some of us that have spent our time back at school being followed to no end."
Harry sent a wary glance amongst their faces, and Eve knew by some of us, he must have meant himself.
"I wanted to ask you all to come tonight in order to gather your concerns on moving forward this term. Things are going to be a lot harder from now on. The risks of practicing at school are only going to grow higher."
Harry finished his words to a unanimously quiet crowd. A few anxious looks were passed to friends. Eve glanced at Fernando, but his eyes locked on Harry.
"I'd practice at the dead of night in the middle of the Forbidden Forest if we had to," Dean Thomas replied from the Gryffindor corner. His words immediately caused an outbreak of nods and murmured agreements from his housemates.
"We all signed up for a reason, Harry. None of us are going to give up now."
Neville spoke up now, and Eve turned at the sound of his voice to see the tall boy look as confident and defined as he had ever appeared. It was as if he had grown years in the weeks he had been away. For a moment, Eve thought of the timid first year she had met in the Herbology classroom, the crooked teeth, and anxious eyes. Time was a strange happening, Eve thought, and she found herself smiling.
The meeting was brief, much to Harry's surprise and no one else's. Even when Harry finally called an end to it and told everyone to get back safely, Eve overhead Hermione murmur in his ear, "I told you, Harry."
Students left quickly that night, anxious about the late hour and the influx of castle patrols. Fernando opted to let the younger years go first, having him and Eve hang back in some sort of attempt at Hufflepuff responsibility for irresponsible activity. After about 10 minutes of anxiously waiting around, at least on Eve's part, the pair watched Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones slip out the door, marking the last of their housemates to leave the Room of Requirement. Eve sighed and turned to Fernando.
"In case we don't make it back, I snogged George," Eve whispered, opting to keep her eyes firmly at the door in front of them in some sort of feeble attempt to appear serious. A loud cackle erupted from next to her, and Eve was quick to elbow Fernando in the ribs for it.
"Can you relax," Eve hushed, although when she finally turned to Fernando, his face was still bright from the outburst.
"Me relax? You're the one that needs to relax. Divulging secrets like you're awaiting a sentence to Azkaban," Fernando replied, giving Eve an incredulous look, although they both knew he appreciated the gossip either way.
"Did someone say secrets?"
The moment Eve heard the words come from behind her, she was sure her eyes would roll to the back of her skull. She already had an idea of what Fred's face would look like before she turned to him, although she had no intention of staying longer to explore it further.
"I certainly know of few she could tell, Fred."
Eve only took a second's glance at the Weasley twins behind her, noting Fred's cheeky smile and George's slightly cheekier one. She gave her best remarkable sigh and turned to Fernando.
"Right, I'm ready to go now," Eve said, grabbing Fernando's arm and practically pulling him towards the door.
"Oi, Eve, be careful" was heard right before the door closed behind them.
"Tremendous execution of embarrassment," Fernando murmured just as the wooden carvings of the door shrunk and disappeared from existence, similar to Eve's tolerance for teenage boys at that very moment. She only hushed Fernando and started in the direction of their common room.
Fernando was smart enough to obey the silence, and the two hurried from shadow to shadow, taking turns to peak their heads from the edges of new corridors and descending staircases. But as their journey grew longer, it appeared to mirror their uneventful sneak to the Room of Requirement that only happened a little over an hour ago. Perhaps Filch was still finding the dungbombs to clean up, or the ghosts had abandoned their nightly duties to protest the Umbridge reign of terror as well. Maybe Eve had been wrong in her premonitions all along.
They had just descended the staircase that would lead them to the kitchen corridor when there was a shuffling sound from behind them. It was low and quick in nature, but the pair both knew it to be the sound of walking on cobblestone. They paused just as the portrait of the fruit came into view. No sound came with their silence, and after a moment, Eve turned to begin towards the far side of the corridor again. They were so close, Eve could see the outline of the barrels come into view, and she felt stupid to let her anxieties take over now.
But then, in another moment, the shuffling began again, this time louder and continuous unlike before, and in one sweeping motion, she felt Fernando grab her arms and pull her back towards him.
"What are you-" Eve murmured, but her words were cut by Fernando's lips colliding with her's.
And in another moment, their faces were illuminated by a light that was far too bright and distant for a source to be attached to it immediately. The frantic and entirely sloppy kiss broke finally with the sound of a loud whistle.
"I'm improvising," Fernando huffed in Eve's ear just as the pair pulled away from one another and steadily watched the blinding mask of light grow closer in pace.
The light lowered just as Eve could make out a pair of shabby work boots from below it, and the distant smell of dungbomb beginning to waft the air around them. Eve had seen the infamous smile of victory from Filch in the past but never before had it ever been directed squarely at her.
"Oh, you lovebirds are in big trouble now."
As the groundskeeper said this, Eve brought her hand to mask over her mouth in an attempt to stifle the laugh that was begging to erupt from her lips. Fernando shot her a pointed glare at this while Filch's smile widened in perhaps anticipation for the eruption of tears.
Yes. Eve the clairvoyant, after all.
Author's Note: WOW, sorry about the late update, I have no excuses. I've just been out living my best life (watching Love Island). Thank you to everyone that has been reading in the meantime though! Happy August!
