"You're an Ancient," Evey said slowly. "Like the ones from the tales? The Pirate, the Dragon, the Queen? Those Ancients?"
"Precisely." Tony grinned at her again, but his fangs weren't showing anymore.
"But I thought… I mean, I've read a lot about vampires, from the points of view of both Muggles and wizards, and there have been a few people who went as far as to suggest that the Ancients were real, but…" She trailed off. Her mind was a whirlwind. Vampires had always fascinated her, even before she found out that she was a witch, but Ancients were something else altogether. They were legends even in the wizarding world.
"I didn't believe it at first, when Jeanne told me, but then I met the others."
"Do you know who they are? All of them?" One author, an expert on vampires who had been exiled from his native country for his exuberant views on the matter, had mused on the likely identities of the Ancients, but they seemed a bit extravagant to Evey. Dracula, for example, was too obvious, as was Elisabeth Báthory.
She told Tony as much but, before he could reply, Macnair decided to speak for the first time. He had a deep, quiet voice and, to Evey's disappointment, no trace of a Scottish accent. "I thought you weren't supposed to tell anyone about it," he remarked with a frown.
Tony shrugged. "What difference does it make? Dumbledore must have figured it out already, and he will have told the others."
This time Macnair directed his scowl at Evey. "What's the kid even doing here? Does Molly know she's with you?"
"She's here because I like her and it's nice to have someone to talk to. I get barely ten words from you on a regular day. Wal, you do realise that I've been locked up in Azkaban for fourteen years, don't you? That I had no one to talk to, unless you count Bellatrix, who was right across the hall from me?" He grimaced. It seemed that he'd wanted to say that for some time. Being penned up here was certainly weighing on him, and no wonder. Evey had been at the Black house only for a couple of days and was already suffocating, and that was with being allowed to wander freely around the place.
Macnair's brow was still furrowed, but he had apparently used up his supply of words for the day, because he returned his attention to his book. Tony rolled his eyes in frustration. "See what I have to live with?" he told Evey. "He was never talkative, even before, but Merlin, I'm going crazy here. I talk to myself most of the time. I wasn't doing that even in Azkaban!"
"Well, I'd love to stay here all day, but that's probably not the best idea." Evey glanced at her watch. "Actually, I should get back downstairs. They'll start a full-scale search soon if I don't show up. As long as they don't know I've been here, I can keep coming back once in a while," she ventured a bit hesitantly.
"Yeah, you do that. It might keep the madness at bay." He sent another glare in his brother's direction. "Just make sure Molly doesn't find out, or she'll have our hides."
Right on cue, there was a knock on the door.
"Do you think Evey's still in the loo?" George nervously asked no one in particular. "I mean, it's been over an hour."
"Of course she's not, you dolt," Ginny told him. "She probably needed some time alone, and no wonder. You and mum are smothering her."
"I don't like to leave her alone," George said with a grimace. "She's depressed, Gin. She might hurt herself."
"Don't be daft. Evey's tough. She just needs time to process." Hermione nodded in agreement beside her.
"Well, I'm going to check on her," her brother said as he stood up.
Ginny sighed. "Don't, George. I'll go. I have to get something in our room, anyway," she said. "I'll be right back."
She made her way to the bedroom she shared with Hermione and Evey and knocked on the door softly. When she received no answer, she walked in quietly. Evey wasn't there, and the bathroom door stood ajar. With a frown, Ginny retrieved her chapstick and made her way down to the kitchen, but Evey wasn't there, either. She didn't ask her mother if she'd seen her. She might get worried. Instead, she returned to the twins' room.
"Is she alright?" George asked before she could even close the door behind her.
"I don't know. She wasn't in our room, and she's not downstairs."
George jumped to his feet. "I knew it! We shouldn't have left her alone."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "She can't have gone very far. Maybe she's upstairs with Buckbeak, or talking with Sirius." She paused. "Um… she knows about Sirius, right? Because she might panic if she runs into him. I mean, she doesn't know the whole story, does she?"
"No, but she never struck me as the sort of person who panics easily," Fred pointed out.
Hermione stood up. "We should find her, just in case," she said, looking at Ginny. The other girl was uneasy, if not quite as jumpy as George.
They went upstairs to the attic and found Sirius rummaging through old boxes. Buckbeak was napping peacefully. Hermione said that Evey might have decided to explore the rest of the house, but they couldn't find her anywhere. They tried every room, including the mouldy living room and the rooms their mother had discarded because they were either too encumbered or overrun with Doxies. Finally, Ron pointed out that, unless Evey was hiding in Kreacher's den, she must have gone outside.
"I really don't think she would have stepped out of the house. She's distraught, but she's not stupid. And actually, there's one place we didn't check," Ginny said grimly. "The vampire's lair."
Ron went pale, as he always did whenever Dolohov was mentioned. "Why would she be there?"
Ginny shrugged. "I don't know, Ronald, but I know where she's not, and that's everywhere we've looked so far."
"It does sound like something she would do," Fred said with a sigh. "If she somehow discovered that there was a vampire around…" He trailed off, looking at George, who nodded reluctantly.
"She does have a weird obsession for vampires."
Ron swallowed audibly. "We should tell mum."
"Don't be such a chicken," Ginny told him exasperatedly. "Mum is busy ironing, anyway. Let's just go and ask if they've seen her. They don't-" She caught herself at the last moment. They don't bite, she'd been about to say. Well, Dolohov certainly did.
They made their way back upstairs, to the last floor, just below the attic, and stopped in front of the Death Eaters' room. Ginny hesitated for a moment, but she couldn't back down now, not after calling Ron a coward. She knocked on the door, and everyone held their breath.
Evey opened the door a moment later.
"What the hell are you doing there?" George asked her before she could speak. "We've been looking all over the place for you! Evey, you're not supposed to be here. They're dangerous. And how did you even know that they were here?"
Evey gazed at him impassively as he scolded her. "I was just about to leave. We were watching a movie," she said casually.
"A what?" Ron asked, obviously confused. Hermione shot him a reproachful glare. She must have explained the concept to him more than once already.
"Never mind," Evey said. "Look, I'm fine. There's no need to make a fuss."
"But there is!" George told her. "Do you even know who they are? What they are?" he amended fiercely.
Ginny was trying to come up with something to calm everybody down, but Evey, at least, kept her cool. "Two former Death Eaters, one of them a vampire," she said matter-of-factly. "I was with you when you read the article about his death, remember?"
"Then you probably remember that he killed my uncles," George snarled. Ginny had never seen him so angry before; in fact, she had rarely seen him angry at all. Their break-up must have hit him harder than she'd assumed.
"George, I don't have to justify myself to you. I'm not a prisoner here – and neither are they." George started to protest but Evey cut him off. "Dumbledore requested that they stay in their room while you're here, probably because your mum asked him to. They're not captives. They're on our side." She raised her hands so that George wouldn't interrupt her. "It doesn't excuse what he did – what they did – but they're trying to make up for it, alright? At least give them the benefit of the doubt."
"And if Greyback comes begging us to take him in, should we give him a second chance as well?"
They all turned to stare at George in horror. Hermione let out a small gasp and put a hand over her mouth. Ron turned a sickly shade of grey. Even Fred stood gaping, struck speechless for once. Ginny didn't even know what to say. Merlin! What was wrong with him?
Evey's face was ashen, her eyes wide, as if she couldn't believe what she'd just heard, couldn't believe that George would say such a thing.
The scene seemed to be frozen in time; nobody dared make a move or speak into the uncomfortable silence.
Suddenly a man materialised at Evey's side. None of them had actually seen either Death Eater until then, and it came as more of a shock than Ginny had anticipated.
Antonin Dolohov. So this was the man who had murdered their uncles in cold blood, in front of their mother. He was the reason why Ginny had never known them. He looked impossibly young, she reflected, barely older than Evey herself. Did being turned into a vampire cause people to de-age? She racked her brain for the information – she must have learned that in class – but came up with nothing. She would ask Hermione later. Surely the other witch would have an explanation – for this, and for the fact that the vampire was up well before dark. Shouldn't he be asleep? She dismissed her interrogations for the time being. There were more pressing matters.
Dolohov surveyed them all with a dark scowl, and Ginny felt Ron recoil slightly beside her. "There's no need to be like that," the Death Eater said eventually. Ginny wasn't sure what she'd expected, but his voice sounded surprisingly…normal. Human. "We were just watching television. And Evey was about to leave, anyway."
"Well, I'm not leaving now," Evey said flatly. Without another glance at them, she stomped inside the Death Eaters' room.
The vampire frowned after her, then returned his attention to them – to George, more specifically, as if he knew fair well that he was the one who had spoken so harshly to Evey a moment ago. "What's wrong with you, lad? Who says things like that?" he asked in a low growl. "I'm far from perfect, but at least I don't upset girls on purpose." He sighed resignedly. "Go tell your mother, if you must. I'll take whatever's coming."
And with that, he shut the door in their faces.