THIRTYONE
Eve spent the following week swearing off alcohol and her dating practices, decidedly reinventing herself as the only teenage girl on the planet that had neither drama nor misery to partake in.
This, of course, only worked in theory, as there was always gossip heard within earshot throughout the walls of the castle, and if not tales of other's drama and emotions, there was always a badged Slytherin or two close by to tell their exact feelings towards you.
And then, there was George. Eve couldn't believe she had spent five years barely brushing past the boy through the corridors, and now, for some mystifying reason, he was everywhere she turned. If she looked up from her meal, there he was sitting directly across from her in the Great Hall. In the corridors, in passing classes, there he would be casually leaning against a wall with his friends, looking entirely unconcerned and yet so bloody conspicuous. Eve thought she was going mad. As if she was receiving some divinely sent karma for being the first Hufflepuff in history to ever ignore a wave. Eve imagined it so clearly: Helga Hufflepuff looming over her as she slept in her dormitory, cursing the stain Eve left on her house's name.
"How could you do that? Ignore another classmate's wave to you? To be so impolite!"
Helga would float away before turning to a terrified Eve again with one last call of outrage.
"And he was cute, too!"
There was nothing worse than DA practices, though. Harry held double meetings this week. Because, of course, the wizarding world is crumbling to the ground, and it is inevitable children will have to fight for their right to study Potions and talk back to their teachers. Not that Eve will have to worry about that, she'll just have to avoid murder for the unfortunate luck of being born by parents who asked if Hogwarts had an email her first year.
But all she could worry about at this current state of time was avoiding George's eye contact. They spent both meetings on opposite sides of the Room of Requirement. Eve would glance up at George ever so often, and then George would do the same to her. And then, in the most consequential of moments, their eyes would meet at the very moment of their glances, and they would be forced to decide who would break first.
It was almost always Eve, but sometimes she would hold on until George's eyes burned into her soul. And then she would frown, and George would smile, and then the game was over, and they would go back to casting shield charms.
Eve realized there was an art to avoiding boys. And perhaps it seems she is not as skilled at it as she is with her other artistic endeavors. But she did find it quite an easy thing to accomplish when the castle dorms separated girls and boys. Not to mention, Eve got the particular advantage of living in an entirely different area of the castle than the specific boy she was avoiding eye contact with. Where were Gryffindors again? Sleeping in some sort of painting somewhere?
Eve knew today would be different, though. Because, as Eve woke up on this gloomy late Saturday morning, with the corner radio playing bubblegum pop songs and Lucie pacing the floor in hair curlers, she knew there was no amount of drama she could avoid today.
"Is it Valentine's Day already?"
Eve's question caused Lucie to halt her pacing and turn, the blonde's eyes lighting up at the sight of her friend's eyes seemingly finally opening up.
"Oh, you're awake. Finally. I need your help," Lucie said, plopping herself at the foot of Eve's bed, "My hair is a disaster, I'm no good at magic hair products, but I've also just realized I'm rubbish at muggle ones too."
Eve studied the curlers in Lucie's hair, her blonde locks entangled in cheap pink plastic spirals, completely uneven and entirely frizzy in creation. Eve poked one of the curlers gently, watching as it immediately became undone and fell onto her bedsheets, leaving a pathetically mangled-looking curl behind. Eve giggled, causing Lucie to groan with unmeasurable misery.
"Don't you and your natural curls laugh at me, Eve. I've been falling apart since dawn," Lucie reprimanded, falling back onto Eve's bed with a loud thud, causing another curler to unravel and roll off the bed. Eve bit her lip to avoid giggling.
"Ask Fiona. She knows styling spells. I never do anything to my hair," Eve said, reaching to smooth a fallen piece of hair off Lucie's face in some sort of weakened attempt to ease her despair. Lucie didn't seem the least be comforted by the gesture, though.
"I don't want to wake her. I know she's going to be miserable today," Lucie huffed.
"Why would she be miserable today?" Eve asked, although she already had an inclination of what the answer would be.
"Oh, you know. The usual rollercoaster romance with the Ravenclaw," Lucie sighed, straightening herself up again on the bed as if the reminder of a doomed relationship brought her some boost of confidence in her current condition.
Eve shrugged, tossing her bedsheets off of her torso and sliding her legs out of bed. She beelined for Fiona's bedframe, where the latter girl slept soft and sound despite the multiple meltdowns happening within earshot.
"Wake up, darling. The earth is imploding, and you're our only hope," Eve cried, shaking Fiona's violently and watching the sleeping girl come to a startling stir.
"What is it?" Fiona grumbled, her eyes opening wide at the sight of Eve's hovering body, "What's happened, Eve?"
"Lucie needs her hair done," Eve breathed, watching as Fiona's face fell significantly and a massive groan of contempt left her lips.
"You woke me up for that? I thought the world was ending, you psycho," Fiona exclaimed, but as she pulled herself further out of sleep, perhaps to get a hand around Eve's neck, Fiona's eyes traveled across the room and landed on Lucie.
Fiona studied the blonde for a second, her eyes trailing the hideous curlers and then to the miserable expression just below them. Fiona burst out laughing, and Eve grinned, knowing her work was done on the manner. Eve heard Lucie's wail from over her shoulder.
"Oh, stop crying and take those bloody Pound Store curlers out of your hair. I'll fix it," Fiona sighed, pulling herself out of bed and heading for the direction of her trunk.
Lucie crawled out of Eve's bed and onto the floor beside Fiona, like a child patiently waiting for its mother to clean the breakfast they just spilled on the floor.
And in no more than 20 minutes, Eve returned from her shower to find a hundred pink curlers scattered around her dormitory floor and a very pleased, curly-haired Lucie studying herself in their room's long mirror.
"Wow, you look like Madonna," Eve grinned, watching as her friend turned to her with a curious look.
"Who's Madonna?" Lucie asked.
"Never mind, I just meant you look nice," Eve laughed. She sat on her bed, watching Fiona begin to pick up the curlers.
"I should burn these," Fiona mumbled under her breath.
"So, Hogsmeade weekend on Valentine's Day. Very exciting," Eve started, glancing between the girls with a raised, expectant stare. Lucie grinned from her reflection in the mirror while Fiona rolled her eyes.
"Where are you and Matthew going then? Madam Puddifoot's?" Fiona asked Lucie, the latter girl giving a guilty glance between the three of them.
"It's a bit cheesy, isn't it?" Lucie asked, although the grin did not leave her face as she shuffled back to her bed, where her makeup was already perfectly displayed out for use. She really had been up since sunrise.
"I think it's sweet, Lucie," Eve replied, sending her best smile of encouragement to the blonde before tossing a warning glance in Fiona's direction. Fiona shrugged in defeat and sat back on her bed.
"I think he's gotten me something big, but he wants it to be a surprise," Lucie said, excitement radiating her face as she began to smear concealer on it.
"And what are you giving him, then?" Eve asked.
"Her lovely feminine chastity, of course," Fiona grinned, meddling back into the conversation with delicate ease.
Eve grinned, waiting for an aggressive retort from Lucie, but when nothing came, she shared a raised glance with Fiona.
"Lucie…" Eve started slowly.
"You did, didn't you?" Fiona continued, and when the silence remained, Fiona let out the sharpest squeal.
"Am I, a respectable young woman of the wizarding upper class, not allowed my privacy?" Lucie asked, turning now from the mirror to send her friends a distinguished hard look of disbelief. Eve snorted while Fiona mouthed "of the wizarding upper class" to her in amused astonishment.
"If you two must know-" Lucie began.
"-We must indeed," Fiona interjected.
"It happened over Christmas break. And it was perfect," Lucie finished, although the rest of the girls were just getting started.
"Perfect? How could anyone describe their first time as 'perfect'? Fiona asked, looking at Lucie as if the girl had utterly lost all sense of reality.
"Because it was with someone I love," Lucie retorted flatly.
"I can't believe you lost your virginity before Eve," Fiona murmured before quickly turning to her side, "No offense, Eve."
"None taken," Eve shrugged, as the sentiment was shared with her as well, although she would have never said it out loud.
"What are you two doing then?" Lucie asked with a raised brow, daring the two girls in front of her to reveal their own plans for the special day. Fiona frowned at the question, and Lucie grinned, having successfully shifted the attention of the topic away from her.
"I'm opting out of this rubbish holiday," Fiona stated, falling back onto her pillows with a soft thud.
It was now that Eve realized that with the transfer of conversation between the girls also came the transfer of melodrama. With no hair disasters to worry about presently, Fiona was back to her current miserable romantic concerns. But Eve was not about to partake in any of it.
"Why does it always have to be about boys?" Eve challenged, sharing her question between the girls with equal steadfast glances.
A stunned silence amongst the room followed Eve's proclamation, Lucie halting her mascara application and Fiona immediately sitting back up on her bed. And for possibly the first time in six years, the two girls were on the same page as they turned to Eve with equal incredulous stares.
"How can you say that, Eve?" Lucie asked, her breath hitching as if she had just been stunned, her mascara giving a slight quiver in her grasp.
"Don't worry, Lucie. She's just trying to ease the pain of being miserable and lonely," Fiona mused, her ridiculous reasoning seemingly doing its magic to calm Lucie's nerves. The blonde nodded her head and went back to painting her lashes. Eve rolled her eyes at the both of them.
"Although I wish nothing but the best for Lucie's romantic evening, my miserable, lonely arse will be having a lovely day," Eve contented, raising herself from her bed and glancing at her reflection from behind Lucie's shoulder. Eve still had her bathrobe on and her wet curls stuck to the edges of her temples. Her untamed image grinned through the mirror, and Lucie's smiled back.
"See, now if we could all agree to have a nice day, then things would just be perfect, wouldn't they?" Lucie asked, tossing a look over her shoulder to Fiona.
"Yes, I think they would be," Eve continued, giving a nonchalant glance at Fiona in the mirror. She watched Fiona roll her eyes and let out a deep sigh.
"I do fancy a butterbeer. Or seven," Fiona said, her expression still serving bitterness although she did begin to pull herself out of bed.
"Good. Then we'll get butterbeer, and Lucie will…." Eve said, her eyes turning to Fiona again for assistance.
"Get laid," Fiona finished flatly, although Eve saw a flash of a grin form as Fiona turned away from the girls and centered her attention on her trunk.
"Let me do your hair, Eve. Might as well give some offerings to the virgin," Fiona said, tossing a few hair products on her bed. She glanced back at Eve with an expectant stare, and Eve replied with a shrug.
If treating the day as simply an excuse to perform makeovers was the only way to perk up Fiona, Eve would allow it. Lucie seemed to quickly clue in on Eve's maneuvers, the girl letting out a high-pitched squeal and clap on her hands.
"I'm sending Matthew to the kitchens to get us food," Lucie grinned, at once leaving her reflection in the mirror and heading for the door of their dormitory. By now, Lucie's makeup and hair were done to perfection, but she was still clad in her yellow, daisy patterned pajama set Eve could guess she had since her third year.
Some things never change.
By the time Lucie waddled back into their dormitory, her hands dangerously balancing plates of pastries and fruits, Fiona was almost done with her work.
"Curly hair is so hard to straighten, even with magic," Fiona said, one hand holding the remaining bundle of curls from Eve's head, her other hand reaching for a croissant.
"Nature fighting back," Eve said, leaning from her crossed-legged position in the middle of their dormitory floor to grab a string of grapes.
"And don't I love a good fight?" Fiona scoffed, tracing her wand down a section of Eve's natural hair, the curls falling and flattening straight with the instant magical heat. Fiona repeated this same movement a few more times before the strand graced into pin-straight perfection.
Eve reached for a muffin, and Lucie began rummaging through her wardrobe. And the afternoon of unnecessary teenage reinvention commenced. Lucie tried on seven different outfits, even though she already had one picked out since the week before. Fiona poked her eye with mascara, and Eve had to fix the streaks with eyeshadow. But despite the several beauty mishaps, the process commenced soon enough.
Lucie finally chose a pink floral dress and matching pink kitten heels for the occasion. And despite the gloomy weather, she insisted on going sans coat, as there was absolutely no possibility she would cover how good she looked.
On the other hand, Eve and Fiona decided to reason that even though they opted for cheerfulness on this particular day, they actually didn't, in fact, have anything to celebrate, so there would be no dresses and rained on shoulders for them.
"The straight hair is very chic," Lucie said, glancing from her place on her bed. Eve had taken the girl's usual spot in front of the mirror and was now studying her reflection with mindful care.
"Chic?" Eve grinned, dabbing a tube of red lipstick gently on top of the rounds of her face. She began blending the color into her cheeks as Lucie thought over her words.
"Sultry? Is that the word I'm looking for? I never get those muggle magazines," Lucie said with a shrug.
"You should wear that lipstick," Fiona said, having paused mid-way of pulling up her jeans to eye Eve at the mirror.
Eve studied her reflection for a moment. She had chosen a dark jean skirt that came to her mid-thigh and had paired it with a dark red cropped cardigan she had borrowed from Fiona. The cardigan was slightly tighter on Eve because of Fiona's more petite frame, but the girl insisted Eve wear it.
"We are not worrying about our stomachs today," Fiona had said to her.
And just as she went along with the cardigan, Eve began to apply the lipstick with careful ease. Afterward, she glanced at her reflection one last time, reasoning that she possibly did look chic, or sultry, or whatever Lucie had meant. Eve slipped on her black penny loafers and grabbed a matching plain black coat from her wardrobe.
"I'll wait for you guys downstairs. I want to find Douglas," Eve said. The girls nodded and went back to staring at the mirror their reflections now shared.
Eve started down the girls' dormitory tunnels, and by the time she hit the stairs, she could already see the festivities of the day in full swing. Friends and couples alike littered the common room, some in loud conversation between one another, others in conversation between interlocked lips. Eve spotted Douglas at a corner in a game of wizard's chess with Louis Dawson, the latter boy looking entirely displeased by the nature of the game. Eve almost missed the sound of the chaser yelling her name during matches. Almost.
"I see the snogging is in full swing," Eve said, greeting Douglas at his chair. When the boy looked up at her, she motioned the antics of the room.
"Hot date?" Douglas asked, looking at her up and down with a smirk.
"Yeah, you," Eve grinned, leaning against his seat to meet his face, "Come to Hogsmeade with me. Lucie's going with Matt, and Fiona's mood is… unpredictable."
"Sure," Douglas said, turning his eyes away from her to mutter to his knight piece.
"You should join us, Dawson," Eve said.
"I was going to practice with Fernando later," Dawson said with a shrug.
"Who cares about quidditch? Come with us," Eve persisted, coming to Dawson's chair now with her best convincing grin. He glanced up at her with a raised brow.
"Easy for you to say. You got kicked off the team," Dawson replied, his words causing Douglas to let out a loud snort from across them.
"What's so funny?"
As if on cue, Fernando appeared beside the chess table, his question causing Eve and Dawson to turn while Douglas kept his eyes on the board.
"Eve's trying to sabotage the team now that she's off of it," Dawson said flatly, his eyes turning back to the game when Douglas's rook smashed his pawn. He grunted.
"I just thought it would be fun if we all went to Hogsmeade. But if you lot want to stay and practice, by all means, be my guest," Eve shrugged.
"That sounds fun," Fernando said with a nod, both Dawson and Douglas looking up with raised expressions at his reply.
Eve grinned, turning back to the common room just as Lucie and Fiona appeared by the tunnels. Eve spotted Matthew at the bottom of the stairs, patiently waiting for the arrival of his girlfriend. Fiona descended the stairs first, rather quickly, presumably letting Lucie have her grand reveal. Eve waved to her, and Fiona caught it and sent a nod.
"Fi looks fit," Dawson said, the chess table eyeing the girl as she grazed past the room to them.
"Oh, look who's in the spirit now," Eve said with an eye roll.
With plans settled, and Eve thoroughly pleased that her day was working out pleasantly in her favor, the group made it out of the castle and began their descent to the town streets. Fiona turned to Eve as they walked, her hands shoved in her jean jacket and her scarf now wrapped entirely around her neck.
"Oh, Lucie is dying for sure," Fiona said.
"Thankfully, she has Matthew to keep her warm," Eve said with a dramatic sigh of daydream, causing Fiona to let out a sharp laugh.
"Don't worry, Eve. I'm sure we can find at least one bloke in this castle to deflower you," Fiona replied, linking her arm with Eve's as the latter girl rolled her eyes.
Douglas turned from where the boys walked ahead and sent the girls a look of disgust.
"Eyes and ears ahead, Dempsie," Fiona called back.
Author's Note: I very much underestimated how long this V-Day chapter would be. SO, clearly you can see I split it into two. Next one has the juicy bits I promise! Just needs to be edited. Happy Sunday!
