THIRTYSIX

There was something so relieving about watching the winter season melt away. The sun felt brighter, and the air softer to the touch, and everywhere fluorescent green grass began to unearth from the melting snow. New beginnings, that was what springtime meant to bring. Or perhaps, if not beginnings, the clearing of the new season brought clarity to awaiting possibilities. Things made far better sense when one could lay in the sun for a bit. Or at least, that was a truth Eve believed.

She had these thoughts made sense to her on this particular Wednesday afternoon.

Eve had just ended her work with Professor Sprout, and a peculiar sense of reflectiveness overcame her as she lingered outside the greenhouse gardens. Eve walked as she pondered the strange affairs that had become her life at school, hopping over puddles of mud and snow as she went.

Eve had realized for some time now that it was only in these quiet moments of solitude that she ever felt any sense of normalcy in her existence. Being alone meant escaping the various scrupulous circumstances that this school year brought Eve and consistently kept her head spinning.

Here, alone in a winter ravaged courtyard, Eve could almost forget that somewhere, at that very moment, Umbridge dwelled inside the castle walls, awaiting trouble and disobedience at any turn. She could even pretend for a split second that she was headed to quidditch practice, that her teammates and friends awaited her soon, and that they would all be there to greet her, alive and well, and without the drama, and death, of young adult age.

And here, there was also the strange occurrence of remembering a life before George Weasley had stumbled into it. But then again, George had always been in it in some odd way.

It was perhaps the strangest fact of all for Eve to realize. For five years, the pair had walked the same cobblestone halls that they now walked together through. How many times had they passed by each other in a corridor without a second look? How many times had they glanced at each other during a quidditch match without a second thought? Had they danced by each other at the Yule Ball? Had her name been in his memory when he first snuck into the greenhouse on that day last year?

George had always been there, existing in his own world, and Eve in hers. That was the undeniable truth of their inexplicable blossoming of a relationship. And yet, Eve couldn't shake the feeling that there was her life before meeting George, and then, in this very moment, her life after meeting him.

Would this past year have been so complicated if he hadn't been there? Would things have changed for her all the same? Would she have found a way to be as happy without him?

The answer was 'No' to all the questions. Eve was sure of it just as she asked them. And it left her with a peculiar sense of clarity and insecurity within herself. How had a boy seemingly changed so much about her life in such a brief period of time? How had she become so entangled so quickly? And at what cost to her heart and schoolwork?

These further anxieties plagued Eve for a moment or two as she roamed an empty space of a courtyard. It was only when the image of her in George's bed from the weekend before trailed in her memory did she finally let her thoughts at ease.

It was like her to overthink and to worry, and most of all, expect disaster to occur. But how was she not able to form such premonitions in such dire times? Were there not student police gangs and death eaters on the loose?

Eve began to hear the distinct sound of wet patter on ancient stone, and after a moment, the raindrops reached her cheeks and curls. Eve sighed and quickly made her way into the open corridor.

Leave it to melancholy to bring the rain, she thought.

And so, the mood continued, through the castle corridors, past a shrieking Peeves and a fallen suit of armor, and all the way down into the Hufflepuff common room.

The fireplace was already lit as she entered, and Eve was struck with the profound longing for chocolate and her bedsheets. Was this the workings of teenage hormones at play? Or was Eve truly meant to worry about all these feelings at once?

"What's gone all wrong with your face?"

Eve came face to face with Fernando at the bottom of the dormitory stairs, the boy studying her countenance with equal amusement and worry, a temperament Eve had come accustomed to from the older boy. Any other time would have given Eve equal opportunity to reply with her usual sarcasm and snark, but she had no resolve to give in this very moment.

"I just need a nap or something," Eve murmured, giving her shoulder a shrug and moving to pass Fernando's side. The boy grabbed her arm in the motion, though, and stopped her with a gentle grasp.

"Did you forget we have a meeting tonight?"

Fernando's whispered words caused an audible groan to escape at once from her lips and seemingly gave a prompt answer to his question.

"You're not thinking of missing, are you? We were just perfecting our curses last week," Fernando continued as if the only thing that could be plaguing Eve's mind at that very moment was the accuracy in her Reductor Curse.

Eve paused for her reply, thinking over the possibility of ditching the DA meeting that night. The image of her pillows and comforter came into view, but then came the thoughts that would surely evade her the moment she met her bedframe. She decided further distractions were necessary.

"Yeah, I'll be down at 9."

The hour came quickly for Eve. In her time of waiting, she had managed to busy herself between her Potions homework and listening to Lucie complain about her Potions homework until the clocktower rung the ninth hour.

Fernando was already waiting for her when she made it down the common room stairs, the boy sitting on an armchair facing the glow of the grand fireplace, his nose in a Daily Prophet, and looking entirely unlike a boy at all.

"You look like your father," Eve greeted, a slight grin settling on her face as she watched Fernando peel away from the newspaper.

"My grays have come in already?" Fernando asked. He ran a hand through his dark locks, not an aged hair in sight, but that didn't stop him from putting on a shocked appearance for Eve's joke.

She grinned and pulled the newspaper from his grasp.

"Any good news?" Eve asked, glancing between the folds of the paper.

"Yes, apparently Dolores Umbridge is doing a marvelous job here at this fine educational institution. It's been reported that she's rehabilitated the worst of us all together," Fernando grinned, raising himself from the armchair.

"She's saving me for last then, I assume?" Eve asked, tossing the paper on the now empty seat.

"I don't know. I think that spot might be taken by your boyfriend and his clone," Fernando replied. He sent Eve a wink and turned towards the door, missing the eye roll she gave him at his words.

"I don't want to talk about my personal life," Eve muttered as the pair dipped their heads to crawl their way out of the Hufflepuff tunnel.

Eve heard the echo of Fernando's laugh from his spot ahead of her.

"Oh, but that's exactly what I want to talk about," Fernando replied, pushing open the door ahead and disappearing on the other side of the barrel. Again, he missed an eye roll from the girl.

"As I recall," Fernando continued, not at all relenting in his chosen topic of discussion, "Your presence was missed from last week's quidditch game."

"And let me guess, you took that personally," Eve continued.

"Oh, I didn't," Fernando replied first, his voice innocent but suspecting. He sent Eve a raised glance, "Until I found out you had missed it to hang out with a boy. A Gryffindor, I might add."

"Oh, the shame, the scandal," Eve replied, raising her arms in a guilty wave. This time, he did catch her eye roll.

"And we won, I'll have you know. Despite your lack of stadium seated support."

"Yes, I heard."

The pair were now in a section of the castle that marked dangerous territory for them. A part away from the dormitories and the library, and any other grounds to which a student caught out of curfew could give a faithful excuse for being caught in.

Eve thought this marked the end of the discussion, but she was wrong. Fernando turned to her with a whisper.

"And I'm going to guess you and George Weasley found your own way of celebrating the win."

"You know, Fernando. I really implore you to realize not even every human interaction has to consist of quidditch discourse."

"That didn't answer my question."

Eve turned away from Fernando and began to lead the way, the pair climbing the staircases until they reached the seventh floor. By now, Fernando must have decided gossip was perhaps not as crucial as getting caught, and so the conversation momentarily ended.

Eve wasn't exactly sure why she found the topic so unappealing to talk about. Maybe because she wanted to spare the details, or maybe because her friends knowing about George still felt fresh in her mind. It wasn't that they were a secret, indeed from his end, they weren't. She knew from the way his Gryffindor friends glanced at her knowingly at DA meetings and in the dining hall that she was more to them now than just another Hufflepuff girl they passed in the corridors.

Maybe, their relationship just felt like hers to have. Alone and without teenage gossip and petty interferences. George was not just a boy Eve had snogged at Madam Paddifoot's, or shared a pint with at her local pub.

There were feelings there, between them, marked by details and rare occurrences Eve had never experienced or considered before. What was it to her friends what they did together when they were alone? And what was she really meant to tell Fernando about last Sunday? That George stole her ring back from Umbridge's office and then stole her virginity back at his dormitory? Technically, neither had happened. But Merlin, they did get close to succeeding.

The Room of Requirement was in its usual state of teenage commotion when Eve and Fernando finally slipped inside it. Upon their appearance, a familiar blur of faces drew to their direction, where they received hellos and nods from their fellow members. By now, the group of students had merged from their respective houses and formed a collective bond of rule-breaking comradery and friendship. If there was anything that could bring students together, it was rebelling against adults.

From a distance, Eve watched Neville's face appear from the assembly, and immediately the boy sent a wave and began making his way over to them.

"I'm glad you two showed up," Neville said, smiling between Eve and Fernando in his usual good-natured way and always with a tinge of anxiety.

"Why wouldn't we?" Eve asked.

"Haven't you noticed? Quite a few members have stopped showing up the last couple of weeks," Neville replied, his eyes taking a moment to scan the room, perhaps making a note of his claims for certainty. "I think a lot of kids are getting scared."

"Well, I can't blame them," Fernando replied, earning a nod from Eve as she took a note of the faces in the room. She did notice there was some missing within the crowd.

"Harry thinks it's just going to get worse," Neville continued.

"He's never been quite the optimist, has he?" Eve asked, her direction turning to the front of the room, where the Gryffindor boy stood with his usual pair of best friends. As if he had heard her words, the boy's eyes turned to meet hers, and upon recognition, Harry nodded and gestured a hand towards her.

Eve raised her brow at the request but moved all the same towards him.

"Hi, Eve. How are you?"

The question came from Hermione, who had spotted Eve quickly as she came into their direction, the girl offering Eve a smile and a nod of her head.

"You know, worrying about impending world destruction, but what's new?" Eve replied with a careless shrug, her words causing an uncertain laugh to emit from Hermione and a grin to form from Harry.

"I was going to ask, Eve, if you happened to know-" Harry began, but his voice was cut off by a flash of red hair appearing beside him.

"Oi, you know where my brothers are?" Ron asked, the younger Weasley emanating his usual confusion and exasperation, this time onto the Hufflepuff girl, who responded to his question with a black stare.

"No. How would I know where your brothers are?" Eve asked, her words genuine but her voice offering a slight tone of annoyance.

"We haven't seen them all afternoon," Harry began.

"And it's not exactly a rarity for you to be found in their presence nowadays," Ron continued.

"One of their presences," Hermione corrected, offering a stern nod, although Eve could see her expression fighting off a smile.

"I haven't seen either of them all day," Eve replied, carefully, looking between the trio with a skeptical stare, "But surely it's not cause for alarm. They are late to almost everything."

Eve's answer earned sufficient nods from the three Gryffindors, evident that their questionings hadn't provided to be useful, and with that, the meeting proceeded.

Eve had spent her time casting spells between glances at the Room of Requirement door, confident that at any given moment, she would see the pair of identical troublemakers burst through the door with their usual tardy frenzy.

But, unlike Eve's perceived expectations, the Weasley twins did not arrive late to the DA meeting. And as the clock tower struck the eleventh hour, it was inevitable that they wouldn't arrive at all.

Eve couldn't help but feel a tinge of disappointment plague her mood as this realization hit her, which then caused a sheen of embarrassment when she caught Fernando's expression directed at her the very moment the meeting disassembled.

"Your boyfriend is up to no good, I presume?" Fernando asked, the grin on his face growing as he watched Eve's expression downturn.

"Since when did I become his secretary?" Eve rebutted. She turned from his direction now, aiming her sights on the exit ahead as she watched students begin to disappear from behind it.

"Well, you usually are a part of his late-night romps," Fernando replied.

"Romps? You are not at all using that word correctly," Eve said, a slight exasperated laugh leaving her lips as she reached for the knob of the door.

"I don't know. I think I might be," Fernando grinned.

"Well, I can assure you, you're not," Eve said, turning to give one last glance at the boy before slipping out of the door.

"I have to say, I'm surprised," Fernando whispered, now without the confines of the Room of the Requirement.

Eve rolled her eyes and gave a shove at his side.

"You know, I'm getting quite concerned with the frequency of my virginity of everyone's minds."

"I'm sorry, did you just figure out this whole boarding school thing?"

"And here I was thinking we were preoccupied with saving the entire wizarding world."

"Oh, I'm sure we can multitask."

A wink accompanied Fernando's last words as the pair began to descend the staircases. Eve only replied with an eye roll.

The rest of the journey back to the common room was silent, Fernando smart enough to cut his teasing short to mind all the creaks and echoes accompanying their sneaking. Eve was relieved, but only briefly, because as the kitchen's fruit portrait came into view, Fernando decided safety was definite.

"Surely you're going to lose it by the end of the school year, though? He is graduating this year," Fernando began, earning a deep sigh from the girl beside him.

"Don't worry, I've got it all planned out. The second I start shagging, I'll submit the news to the Daily Prophet immediately."

"Shagging? Who's talking about shagging at such an hour?"

Eve was sure her life was turning into the American sitcoms her parents had made her watch growing up. It was all becoming too coincidentally ridiculous and humiliating for her to fathom as real life.

George appeared from behind the stack of barrels just as Eve and Fernando approached it, the boy's expression glancing between Eve's embarrassment and Fernando's amusement.

"Oh, look who's finally graced us his presence," Fernando greeted, "You've had this girl quite distressed."

"Can you please go away now?" Eve asked, giving Fernando a shove towards the barrels. The boy let out a laugh but obliged in her request, exchanging one last look of amusement between the pair before slipping into the common room entrance.

"You know, I wasn't done with that conversation," George remarked, turning his expression back to Eve to meet her frown.

"Yes, well, I most certainly was."

George grinned, stepping forward and easily pulling Eve into an embrace. Eve let out a sigh and accepted his arms.

"You missed the DA meeting, you know," Eve finally said.

George pulled away from Eve, but only to meet her eyes. His expression was upbeat and enthusiastic, which meant to Eve that he, indeed, had been up to something with his other half.

"Fred and I were busy with gathering supplies for this weekend."

Eve furrowed her expression, her mind working with her memory of holidays and scheduled activities, but nothing came to mind.

"Don't tell me you don't know what this weekend is," George remarked as he watched Eve's growing puzzlement. His tone was of fake offense, which meant that Eve was dealing with something of importance.

"Oh, spit it out, George," Eve sighed.

"In just a few days, you will be looking at a newly grown man."

Eve raised a brow for a moment before catching on.

"Ah, your birthday," Eve grinned.

"Not just any birthday, Eve," George began, giving her arms a slight shake to rally up the enthusiasm, "My 18th birthday, and my last one at Hogwarts."

Eve raised a brow.

"I'm scared, Weasley."

"As you should be, Miss de Santos."


Author's Note: Sorry if this one is boring! The next one will evidently more fun! Happy Valentine's Day.