The next morning and the weeks that followed, Eden was on thin ice with her parents. Her father and Lucius had returned to Malfoy Manor after her father gave her a long-and loud-lecture about respect. During which Eden simply kept her head down and mumbled "yes, sir" and "I'm sorry, sir", as anything else would have been unacceptable.
She kept to herself after that, only coming out of her room for meals, and even then she wouldn't say a word. She did start eating again, however, which did little to ease her loneliness.
Her birthday came around on August 12th, twelve days after Draco and Narcissa had finally returned home. Of course, no one in her house even acknowledged it except their house elf Chauncey, who snuck her a very special breakfast pastry that morning. Not even Sebastian had said anything despite his kind nature recently, but then again he had barely been home due to him being so busy at his new job at the ministry.
She got her usual cards from Hannah and Justin, and while she knew that should have brought a smile to her face, all it did was remind her of the lack of a card she would be getting from Cedric. She cried herself to sleep that night.
In the blink of an eye, she was back on the Hogwarts Express. It seemed like only yesterday she had been on her way to begin her fourth year, so hopeful and excited. She felt bad for avoiding Hannah and Justin on the platform, especially since she hadn't replied to their letters all holiday, but the idea of having a compartment all to herself was too alluring and she was lucky that no one seemed too keen on sitting with the depressed-looking girl and they simply shuffled past her compartment with sad smiles.
Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, and Harry Potter had even stopped outside of the door and she sat up straighter in her seat. For some reason, she didn't hate the thought of sitting with them. But, as Ron reached for the door, Harry stopped him and ushered them forward, shooting Eden a wide-eyed look but disappearing on the other side of the glass.
Perhaps he just didn't want her to ask questions about Cedric but that hadn't been her intention. In fact, she'd like to think about anything but Cedric. She wanted to be able to move on and hopefully, this long train ride would give her time to think about how exactly she could do that.
"Bloody hell, mate, I don't think she has the plague," Ron frowns at his best friend after he so urgently rushed them away from the nearly empty compartment containing only a very glum-looking Eden Haywood. Ron didn't know Eden well but he knew she was far more pleasant than her siblings and he didn't mind the few interactions that they had.
Harry doesn't say anything in response until the trio is in their own empty compartment and he takes a seat on the bench across from Ron and Hermione, "Francis Haywood was there that night. In the graveyard, with Voldemort." He ignores the intake of breath from his two friends at the mention of his full name and continues, "He's one of them, a death eater. And from what I saw, a very loyal one."
"Well, it's always been rumored he was a follower." Hermione speaks up, her hands folded over on top of the book in her lap, "I mean, Eden was the first one of her family to be sorted into a house other than Slytherin in centuries. The Haywoods have a very dark past."
"But I don't think Eden knows anything about it, do you?" Ron asks the two of them, but mainly Harry who seemed pretty bent on not trusting her, "She doesn't seem like the type to share her family's morals."
"She might not have a choice to disagree with them." Harry sighs, glancing out the window, "Either way, I don't trust her. I don't trust any of them."
Back in her lonely compartment, Eden was sunk down in her seat, her legs stretched out so that she could rest her feet on the bench opposite her with a book placed in her lap. The quiet was nice, even if she had it all summer. It was a different kind of quiet, one that she knew would end soon with their arrival at school.
Although, it did end sooner than she expected as the distinct crack of someone apparating filled the nearly empty space, making the young girl shriek in fright and drop her book onto the ground.
Holding her hand to her chest and trying to control her breathing, she looked up at the two intruders and her eyes widened at the sight of the Weasley twins, "Merlin!" She exclaims, standing up to retrieve her book, "You two scared the daylights out of me!"
They both let out a small chuckle, "I think we apparated one compartment too far, Georgie," Fred nudges his brother with his elbow and smirks down at Eden.
"I suppose you're right, Fred," George glances around the small space, "although it doesn't look like we were interrupting much, except little Haywood's pity party."
Eden rolls her eyes but can't help the smile that tugs at her lips, a real smile that she hadn't felt in a very long time, "You two are insufferable, you're lucky I wasn't changing into my robes yet." She smacks Fred in the chest lightly with her book and he rubs the spot with a grimace like she had actually injured him.
"Damn, should have waited a minute longer, Freddie." George snaps his fingers and Eden gapes at him.
"Out!" She shouts with a small laugh, pushing them toward the door, "Both of you!" She successfully pushes the tall lanky twins out of her compartment and closes the door behind them. She couldn't deny the small blush that remained on her cheeks even after their chuckles had faded down the corridor. Every interaction with either of them, while few and brief, always managed to leave her flustered. But, who wouldn't be? The charm must run in Weasley's veins.
As they arrived at the station, Eden decided to wait until a majority of the students had exited before she opened the door and slipped out of her compartment.
"Ah, Eden," She jumps a little bit as she feels an arm slide around her shoulder. She looks around at the group she was now surrounded with and sees Draco with his usual posse, minus Clara and Pansy. Thank Merlin.
She realizes that the arm around her shoulder belongs to Theodore Nott and she smiles at him kindly, "Theodore," She greets him with a small nod.
"Take a carriage back with us," He says as they start walking off the train, "It'll be a nice change, won't it lads?" Eden takes a look over her shoulder to look at Draco, almost as if for approval. He was clad in a black suit and black turtleneck, his hair looking as platinum as ever and a copy of The Daily Prophet in his hand. The only look on his face, though, was a glare that seemed to be directed at the arm around Eden's shoulder.
"Um, sure," Eden agrees to the venture meekly, slipping out of Theo's gasp as they step onto the platform. She misses Draco's smirk of triumph as he makes his way to the front of the group since he always had to be leading the pack.
Her eyes land on a familiar trio up ahead and her heart drops into her stomach as they get closer and closer. Please don't start anything, just keep your mouth shut and keep walking.
But, Draco never did what she hoped he would do. "I'm surprised the Ministry is still letting you walk around free, Potter," Draco sneers as they come to stand next to the trio and Eden speeds up her steps to come and stand right behind Draco, "You better enjoy it while you can. I expect there's a cell in Azkaban with your name on it."
Eden tries to grab a hold of Draco's arm to keep him from getting in Harry's face, but she's too late. Before he can get too close, Harry lunges at Draco, a furious look on his face that shocks everyone around them. Draco seems disgusted by this action, straightening his jacket as Ron holds Harry back.
"What'd I tell you? Complete nutter."
"Just stay away from me!" Harry shouts at them and Eden presses her hands against Draco's back, pushing him along.
"He was going to attack me," Draco hisses as the group walks along, Eden making occasional glances over her shoulder to make sure the group stayed a good amount of distance away from each other. "Imagine what my father would do if that scar head laid a finger on me."
Eden rolls her eyes at his empty threat. Lucius wouldn't do anything about such a petty thing like that, he had bigger issues at the moment. "You didn't have to be so nasty to him, you could have just left it alone and walked past him."
All of the boys stop walking to look at her but she keeps on ahead, nearing the carriages. Apparently, none of them had so casually questioned Malfoy like that. "Are you saying you're on his side?" Draco asks, outraged as he takes long strides to fall into step with her.
"Who said I was picking sides?" She sighs at him, "I'm just saying you could have left him alone and avoided the whole confrontation."
Draco scoffs at her, "Well, that would be your advice, wouldn't it? Just ignore the confrontation and eventually the problem will go away." He forces her to stop walking by getting a firm grip on her arm and she turns to look at him, her jaw clenched and eyes narrowed.
"You know nothing about me." She tries to rip her arm out of his grasp but his fist tightens, forcing her to hold back an audible wince, "You lost that privilege a long time ago."
Eden herself didn't realize how upset she was with Draco until seeing him again. After that night on the roof where he was so close to kissing her, and then only minutes later was being dragged into a bedroom by her sister, she felt the anger growing deep inside of her, and apparently, it had been well nourished because it was quite large right now. The fact that he could have been so close to her, mere inches from closing that gap, and then turned right around and acted like that had never happened when her sister had her hands all over him made her sick to her stomach.
"Alright, I think that's enough excitement for one evening." Theodore places his hands on both of their shoulders and Draco reluctantly releases Eden's arm, "Haywood, you take this carriage with Zabini and me," He nods to the carriage in front of them, "Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy can take that one." He knocks his head back a little bit to gesture to the carriage behind them and Eden feels her anger subside as Draco moves out of her line of sight and she climbs onto the carriage.
"Holding a bit of a grudge, are we?" Blaise asks as the three of them sit on the carriage and it begins to slowly move on its own.
"I'm not holding a grudge," She says firmly, crossing her arms over her chest and resisting the urge to turn and look at the carriage behind them, "he started it."
Theo lets out a small chuckle and Blaise gives her an amused smirk, "Maybe you are more like Clara than we thought."
Eden kicks Theo lightly in the shin, "Take that back." She insists and he holds his hands up in surrender, "Speak of the she-devil," Eden sighs, feeling herself growing comfortable around the two Slytherin boys, "where is my lovely sister?"
"Must be on one of the early carriages," Blaise says, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees as he lowers his voice to a whisper, Eden leans forward as well, "Draco and her got into it on the train," her eyes widen, "she got all pissy about the fact that Draco doesn't want to wear his ring at school, he took it off about halfway through the train ride."
Eden sits back in her seat. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't noticed the piece of silver jewelry on Draco's left hand. Why didn't he want to wear it, "I wouldn't want to wear it either," She shrugs lightly. The boys raise their eyebrows at her, knowing she isn't finished, "It's hideous, my ancestors have no taste."
Blaise and Theo start chuckling and it doesn't take long for Eden to join them, still resisting the urge to turn and look at the carriage behind them despite the feeling she has of two eyes burning into the side of her face.
