THIRTYTHREE

Umbridge had decided to teach today, if one could call what she performed in front of the classroom 'teaching.' It was a point Eve actually couldn't elaborate on at the given moment, as she had stopped listening to the woman the second the light of the projector flashed to life and Umbridge began pointing her scaly pink nails at the images ahead. To be fair, Eve was mildly impressed that the fraudulent teacher knew how to work the projector, even if it was just a tap of her wand.

Distractions were harder to come by in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom with Umbridge in charge. Long ago, the professor had gotten rid of the hanging dragon skeleton and the caged pixies. There were no longer jarred tarantulas to glance between or anatomical portraits of grindylows or werewolves. All Eve had now was scheduled stares between a corner of the chalkboard ahead and Lucie's blonde hair in the seat in front of her.

There was a change in the octave in Umbridge's voice, which was usually an indicator that the professor was saying something she found particularly offensive and amusing. Eve glanced at the projected image, studying the illustration of a group of men waiting in line for a train. There was nothing uncommon about the image, each man in a various version of suit and tie, briefcase in hand, and an expressionless stare in the distance.

The bottom of the image wrote:

CAN YOU TELL THEM APART?

Eve frowned and listened to the inaudible drone of Umbridge's voice. Had they been talking about muggles this whole time? Eve didn't have the slightest clue, although she wished she had the courage to tell Umbridge now that her father never wore a suit. Was courage the right word? Eve dropped her gaze to her desk, searching for any possible new territory to explore.

Her eyes went to her left hand, where they grazed the faded outline of her scarred handwriting before reaching the stone of her mood ring. The color was a dark, dirty yellow, and as she watched closely, she could make out streaks of deep green fading in and out of view. Pensive annoyance, maybe? Perhaps, sickly exasperation? A puke-colored mood was expected in such a time and place, but Eve was still mildly perplexed by it.

She considered an idea for a moment. And rapidly, her mind began to divulge into other places outside of the period and space of the classroom.

Then came the thought of her hands wrapped around cold naked shoulders and a warm mouth on her neck. There were clothes on the floor and a pair of hands all over her. George was between her legs, and Eve was having trouble keeping balance on the table.

Eve turned to the stone and watched as it swirled to crimson red, the shade deep in hue and texture as if she could reach out and feel velvet on the stone.

And so, the mood ring was working just fine. And with the notion of her ring knowing her thoughts, Eve couldn't help but grin.

"Miss de Santos, do you have something to share with the class?"

As if on performed cue, Douglas let out a shallow sigh from beside her. Eve looked up from her hand to meet eyes with Umbridge, who still stood in front of the classroom but now had her direct unmistaken stare at Eve. Eve almost felt the release of an eye roll, not even as a response of defiance, but rather just a simple reaction to the moderate drama that seemed to have taken residence in her present life.

"I have nothing to share, professor," Eve responded dryly.

Eve's reply garnered a sharp intake of a smile on Umbridge's lips, and wordlessly, the professor began to slowly advance from the front of the classroom and towards Eve's desk.

"Is there not something in your hand that has caused you to lose focus on the lesson?" Umbridge asked in her innocent condescendence, although her eyes were already on Eve's left hand. When Eve didn't immediately reply, the professor's palm was already outreached to her.

"Unauthorized jewelry is out of dress code, Miss de Santos," Umbridge stated, but before Eve could even form the motion of reaching for her hand, Umbridge's wand was out. In a flick, the ring ripped off Eve's finger and into Umbridge's grasp.

A soft gasp was heard from somewhere behind where Umbridge stood, a stark reminder to Eve that all eyes were now on her. Eve dropped her hand to her lap, along with her gaze. The motion must have been pathetic enough to satisfy Umbridge because, in a quick turn of her heels, she began her retreat to the front of the projector again.

"Now, you would take great advantage in paying attention to this particular lesson, Miss de Santos," Umbridge said. With a flick of her wand, the projector turned to another mundane muggle image with grotesquely inaccurate messaging.

A few low snickers erupted from a couple of Eve's amused peers, but she gave no inclination of having heard them. And so, the lesson commenced in cold silence as Eve traced her finger on the spot where her ring had once been. A strange gloom casted over Eve as she sat there quietly at her desk, the drone of Umbridge's words mixing uneasily with the blur of illuminated imagery.

By this time in the school year, Eve had gotten used to the idea of getting into trouble, had even welcomed it in moments of teenage angst and willful misbehavior. But to be punished for daydreaming was a particular misfortune to swallow. But at the very least, Eve thought, she wouldn't get a scar for it.

When the clocktower chimed, Eve was the first out the door, followed quickly by Lucie, the blond offering her a frown and a shake of her head.

"She took the ring, didn't she?" Lucie asked, her voice coming out at a low grumble, although the loud echo of clamoring students was already erupting from the corridors. Eve nodded.

"Oi, what did she take?" Matthew asked, appearing beside Lucie from the crowd, Douglas quickly in tow, although he did not hold the same confused look as Matthew.

"My ring," Eve sighed, lifting her naked hand with an exasperated wave, although her reveal did not offer much expression from the boy that had asked.

"Oh, that's it?" Matthew replied, raising his brows in male apathy. Lucie was quick to knee her elbow in his stomach.

"It was the ring I gave her for Christmas, don't tell me you don't remember?" Lucie asked incredulously, and as the couple's stares held on for a moment or two, Eve quickly realized the question held a pass or fail result.

Eve rolled her eyes and turned to Douglas, who offered her the same mildly interested glance.

"Lunch?" Eve asked.

Douglas nodded, and the pair turned to follow the direction of the crowd, leaving behind the couple that was still standing debating their integrities.

"Alone at last," Douglas murmured as they began their climb up the corridor stairs, turning his face from side to side to make a note of the company of their peers. Eve raised a brow.

"You coming on to me?" Eve asked with a short laugh, taking a glance behind them at a group of younger Ravenclaws.

"Fernando has amped up quidditch practices for the game, and you've been locked in the Herbology classroom all week. What happened on Saturday?" Douglas whispered.

"Strange that you should mention the Herbology classroom…." Eve said, her voice trailing off as she sent Douglas an playfully innocent glimmer of hesitation.

Douglas's eyes bulged to a comical size, and his arm flew to grasp Eve's, stopping them both in their tracks and causing the Ravenclaws behind them to disperse around them with alarmed stares.

"Eve, you didn't…." Douglas began, his voice lowering to a tone of fevered secrecy, "In the bloody Herbology classroom? I know you like the subject, but that's a bit much…."

Eve gaped at Douglas before letting out a loud cackle of disbelief.

"Blimey, Douglas!" Eve exclaimed before quickly lowering her voice to a close whisper, "Obviously, I didn't do it in the Herbology classroom. I'm not that demented."

"I don't know. I would say your behavior this entire year has been objectively concerning," Douglas murmured with a raised brow, but when Eve frowned in response, he softened to a grin.

"Okay, so purity is still intact…." Douglas retorted coolly, seemingly deciding to take on a calmer approach to the conversation upon deciding a public freak-out wasn't needed for the occasion.

"I wouldn't say that…." Eve grinned, and with a slow-motion of her heels, she began their walk to the Great Hall again.

"Oh, nothing you haven't done before," Douglas replied, meeting Eve's pace easily and sending her a sly grin.

"What? Not impressed anymore? You wanted some dirty cherry popping story for your perverted teenage brain?" Eve asked, her voice taking false offense as she shoved his side harshly. Douglas grumbled and rubbed the arena of his stomach that had been punched.

"When people say 'dirty,' they usually just mean it in a metaphorical sense, you know," Douglas said.

"I happen to keep the Herbology classroom very clean," Eve replied with a scoff.

"Of course. All of those after hours at the greenhouse have to pay off somehow," Douglas said. He grinned and motioned towards the entrance of the Great Hall that had come into view.

"All sunshine and rainbows again, then?" he asked.

"I could ask you the same thing," Eve said, reaching to grab his arm and yank him from his steps. Douglas huffed and twisted to turn to her.

"You forgot to contribute to the conversation, Mr. Dempsie," Eve continued with a raised brow.

And to her surprise, a wide grin formed onto Douglas's face, and he sheepishly turned back towards the doors of the Great Hall.

"Fernando and I talked it out on Saturday. Everything is quite alright," Douglas said. He took his arm back from Eve's grasp and began walking again towards the doors, a smile still plastered all the same on his face.

"Sunshine and rainbows, then?" Eve grinned, reaching his side and tugging on the sleeve of his robes.

"We're taking it slow. As adults should," Douglas said, his words causing her to scowl with all the apprehension of someone who had never considered such a resolution.

"All talk no snogging then?" Eve muttered just as the clamor of the dining hall reached their ears. On instinct, the pair began to scan the distant faces flocking the tables, searching for the forms of their discussion.

"There was a bit of snogging," Douglas murmured, but as Eve's mouth dropped to form an audible reaction to his words, he quickly nudged her side, "Shut up, now."

Eve frowned but looked to see the direction of Douglas's footsteps. Fernando and Dawson sat next to one another on the Hufflepuff table, deep in conversation but far too close for Eve and Douglas to continue theirs. Eve sighed and followed Douglas's lead.

"How was the pink devil herself?" Fernando greeted, his eyes wandering slowly from Eve to Douglas, who took the seat directly across from him.

"Eve got herself in trouble again," Douglas said flatly, grabbing a sandwich half from the platter in front of them as casually as if he was reading the morning newspaper.

"Eve, are you going completely mental?" Fernando asked, with all the concern Douglas's revelation had lacked. Eve rolled her eyes and reached for the platter.

"That's what happens when students don't participate in extracurricular activities," Dawson said, raising his eyebrows in some attempt to illustrate responsibility, but his crooked grin broke through quickly.

"She took my ring, hardly the punishment she is capable of, I would say," Eve shrugged.

"Devastatingly accurate, unfortunately," Fernando sighed.

"Lucie gave it to you for Christmas; it wasn't just some ring. Anyways, it was not for that hag to take," Douglas said, turning to Eve beside him now in some sort attempt to advocate anger, but the girl hardly glanced at him.

"What would you like me to do about it, Douglas? A million other things are going on around here to be upset about," Eve said between bites.

"Well, it's not right that she's taken your property, and she's sitting up in her office right now with it having no regard for ever giving it back to you," Fernando pressed, his expression hardening for a moment at Eve's, before giving a glance at Douglas, who nodded instantly.

Eve sent a frown between them, trying her hardest to send a subconscious shutdown of whatever tag team the two boys were trying to accomplish now. Was this Douglas and Fernando's attempt at bonding? Picking fights with others instead of each other?

"Why don't you just have your Gryffindor boyfriend steal it back for you? Aren't the Weasley's gifted in criminal behavior?" Dawson chimed in.

Eve turned to him, and for a moment, his words caught her off guard with their reckless content. Technically, the first part wasn't true, Eve thought. But the last part…

She grinned, and the three boys around her offered apprehensive expressions.

"Oh, Eve. Obviously, that was a joke," Fernando murmured, his face forming into an aggravated weary as he knew his words would have little effect on her now. As if they ever really did.

"Yeah, Eve. I mean, as much as I do love a good rule breaking, expulsion isn't one of them," Dawson laughed, his words trailing breathlessly as if he felt his own worry growing.

"I didn't say anything, did I?" Eve laughed, lifting her hands in front of her to offer surrender. But there was no genuine nature in the gesture.

"Eve, if you don't…." Fernando began, but his words trailed off with his eyes. Eve watched as his direction turned from her and followed something from behind her. For a second, she just raised a brow at him before Fernando's eyes quickly darted back to her.

"What are you…." Eve started, turning in her seat to spy whatever had caught Fernando's eyes, and very quickly, her question was answered.

George Weasley had waltzed into the Great Hall, Eve assumed only moments ago, and was now heading in the direction of his fellow Gryffindor years. Eve grinned, and she heard a groan come from beside her as if Douglas had felt the smile himself next to her.

Eve sat up quickly from her seat, and before she could think of how strangely alarming yelling across the Great Hall would be, she called George's name anyways. The redheaded boy turned, seemingly on instinct, knowing exactly what direction it had come, and a grin was already on his face when he locked eyes with her.

"Oi, keep moving, Weasley. You aren't allowed to speak to her," Fernando called from across his seat at the Ravenclaw table. George, of course, only reacted with a bigger smile as he began trailing past the length of the Gryffindor table.

"Yeah, she's not well. Best leave it be," Douglas continued after Fernando's warning, causing Eve to exchange a massive eye roll between the two of them.

"Mind your own business, will you lot?" Eve huffed, turning on her heels and heading in George's direction.

Eve and George's footsteps finally met each other in the space shared between their house tables. Eve grinned as she came face to face with the boy, but as she opened her mouth to speak, George gave a slight shake of his head. Before she could even remotely interject, he already had his hand on her sleeve and pulled her towards the massive wooden doors.

George's hand dropped to his side as they walked out the Great Hall together. The pair gave casual glances at passing late-coming students and an idling ghost as they strode along before George finally pulled her into an empty corridor clearing. And the moment they were covered by the shadows, George's lips were on Eve's. The kiss was brief but momentarily sublime, and it was all Eve could ask for out of being greeted by anyone in the world.

"I feel like I haven't seen you in ages," George breathed when they finally broke apart. His mouth was twisted into a sheepish grin, and he leaned against the wall behind him, crossing his arms in front of him in the process and looking as casual as one possibly could for having displayed manic teenage hormones only moments before.

"We saw each other at the DA meeting on Tuesday, George," Eve grinned.

"Yeah, but it doesn't really count if you're across the room and half of my family is there, does it?" George replied, earning a light laugh from Eve.

"Suppose you're right," she shrugged.

"And I suppose you have something to tell me…." George said, his expression now raising as his words baited for Eve's next ones.

"Well, it's more of a request," Eve started, her words coming out both slow and untidy, as the actuality of her plan began to unravel in front of her. "Erm, well, an idea more than anything. It's just… a bit dodgy,"

"My favorite kind of ideas," George perked up.

"Umbridge confiscated my ring today," Eve explained, raising her bare hand to show where her mood ring once was. George furrowed his eyebrows.

"What happened?" George asked, his accompanied with a deep sigh so remarkably similar to Douglas's, one could have thought it was the Hufflepuff boy's own.

"She noticed me looking at it and not her. You know how she is. And, of course, it's not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of everything going on right now. But it's just agonizing to think she's just got it locked in her office," Eve continued, entirely unsure of where to stop in her foolish explanation of her foolish idea.

"When it belongs to you," George finished, his expression beginning to curl into his signature smile again as he seemingly began to pick up the pieces of Eve's jumbled verses.

"I'm not asking you to do anything, of course," Eve interjected quickly, although wasn't that precisely what she was doing? "But you do happen to be the one person that would know how to get it back possibly..."

George stared at Eve for a moment, smirk still on his face, but his mind was working before his words.

"Are you asking me out on a date?" George asked finally.

"No, I'm asking you to help me break into Umbridge's office," Eve sighed.

"Well, sounds like a perfect date to me," George grinned. Eve sighed again at his reply, but this time a laugh followed it.

Eve took a step towards George now, reaching to extend an arm over his shoulder and plant her fingers on the nape of his neck.

"Perfect date, huh? Breaking and entering? Very romantic. If all goes well, the burglary might even end in third base," Eve said, grinning from ear to ear as she ran a finger through a piece of his hair. George raised a brow.

"Third base better be muggle talk for at least my trousers being off," He murmured, his expression growing severe, but Eve knew better than to play along.

"I'll find you later with concrete plans of action, Mr. Weasley," Eve nodded, retracting her hand from his hair and stepping into the space between them again. George only grinned at this.

"Of course. Always a pleasure doing business with you, Miss de Santos," he nodded back, grinning with his best professional demeanor.

Eve twisted on her heel and took a step out of the shadows, but in an instant, and hand was on her waist, and she was pulled back in.

"On second thought, Miss de Santos. I think I have a few more questions for you," George grinned, and his lips were on her again.


Author's Note: Wowww sorry about the late update! Hopefully you didn't all forget about this. I'm studying abroad currently, and well, moving countries makes you a bit busy, doesn't it? But hoping to start back up in this. Thanks for reading!