Hello all!
I'd like to start off by apologizing for the threat at the beginning of the last chapter (and if you don't know what I'm talking about, maybe you should go look again). I only did it because I wanted to know if I was wasting time on this story or not.
Now I know that I'm not.
A HUGE thanks to remuslives23, twinfeathers, cascade88, peace.love.and.becky, and my anonymous reviewer Em for their kind words and threats to not end this story :-)
I hope to see more reviews from you five and everyone else in the future.
Enjoy this overdue chapter everyone!
A/N: All you recognize is JK's...the rest is from my crazy brain.
Evey and George never brought up their almost kiss, not to each other or any of their friends. Fred and Angie were now officially a couple, though, attached at the lips and the hips, much to their friends annoyance.
Before they knew it, they were starting their Fifth Year, stressing about their OWL's and about the escape of notorious murderer Sirius Black. Evey had read about the man in the newspaper and was terrified to leave the castle, let alone go to Hogsmeade. So, during the Hogsmeade visit on Halloween, Evey hung back while the others went to the wizarding village.
After doing all her homework, some of which wasn't due for a few weeks, and cleaning out her trunk and knapsack, she tried seeing just how many books she could levitate before they fell, her experiment coming to a hasty end when ten heavy textbooks fell on a group of firsties. Unable to find any other distractions for her boredom in the common room, Evey decided to take a walk around the castle before the others came back.
She strolled casually through the empty halls, looking out the windows at the red and orange leaves. She loved the fall--the colours were so pretty! She stopped at one of the windows, leaning against the sill and watching the fallen leaves dance in the wind. It was a beautiful sight and it captured her full attention...so she didn't hear three seventh year Slytherin girls approaching until they were right behind her.
'Well, well, well, if it isn't the Gryffindor Whore.'
Evey spun around, startled by the voice so close to her. 'Odette! How wonderful to see you! Tell me, has the bleach burned through to your brain yet?'
Odette Saint-Pierre narrowed her crystal blue eyes, her straight blonde hair hanging perfectly over her shoulders.
'I'll have you know that this is my natural hair colour--besides, if I did want to change it, I'd use magic, not primitive means like I was a common Mudblood.'
Odette and her two lackeys laughed at the rather bad joke as Evey rolled her eyes and hoped they were done bothering her so she can continue her walk.
When the laughing finally ceased, Odette spoke, 'Now why are you out all by your lonesome? Where are your pimps? Aw, did they go to Hogsmeade without you?'
'At least we're still allowed to go, unlike some people,' Evey shot back.
It was true; Odette, Chrissi and Marianela had been banned from all Hogwarts trips this year because they were caught hexing a Hufflepuff firstie in the hall. Evey knew from personal experience that it wasn't the girls' first time torturing the younger students, just the first time they'd been caught.
Odette narrowed her eyes, 'Don't start with me, Collins.'
Despite herself, the look in Odette's eyes made Evey feel a little afraid and she wished with all her heart that she hadn't left her wand in the common room.
'Why not? Gonna attack an unarmed witch again? Tsk tsk tsk, Odette, I thought you were more original than that. But, then again, I suppose after all those years of inbreeding your poor little brain can't help but repeat the same tired old ideas.'
The last words had barely left her lips before Evey found herself flying across the hallway and into the wall.
'Wrong thing to say, Collins. You're definitely gonna pay for that,' the blonde Slytherin hissed.
Evey smiled, trying to hide the fact she was in a great deal of pain, 'Oh I am, am I? What are you gonna do, flip your hair at me?'
Seconds later a Cutting hex hit her left bicep, sending a searing pain through her arm.
'Clever,' Evey said through gritted teeth as she stood up slowly, her right hand gripping her arm as blood soaked through her shirt quickly. 'But you can't seriously consider that revenge.'
As if rehearsed, the three Slytherins raised their wands and shot three different spells right at Evey's chest. From Chrissi, a Jelly Legs Jinx; from Marianela, a Leg Locker Curse; and from Odette, a very powerful Stunner.
The strength from the combined spells slammed Evey's body back into the stone wall behind her, several protruding stones hitting her in the back of the head and in the left shoulder. She felt herself falling, and tried using her right hand to catch herself. But as her legs gave way beneath her, the heel of her hand jammed against the stone floor. A sharp pain went up her arm as a sickening CRACK resounded in the stone hall.
She collapsed on the ground, involuntarily tears of pain leaking from her eyes. She could hear Odette laughing as she stood over her.
'Had enough, Mudblood?' she said with a smirk, and didn't even wait for a response before continuing. 'Well, we aren't through with you quite yet.'
And so the three Slytherins kicked, hexed and beat the now passed out Gryffindor before eventually deciding they were bored and left Evey alone, unconscious and bleeding, on the cold stone floor of the hall.
Meanwhile, back in the Gryffindor common room, Fred, George, Lee, Angie and Aliciahad arrived back at the castle and were looking over their purchases. The boys were laughing over the new joke items they had bought at Zonko's, and the girls were swapping candy that they had purchased at Honeydukes.
'Oh, did you get any liquorice wands? I forgot to grab some,' Alicia asked Angie as she took a bite of a chocolate bar.
Angie nodded, 'Yea, but I got them for Evey...speaking of Evey, where is she?'
The boys looked up. 'Isn't she up in the dorm?' Fred asked.
Angie shook her head, 'No; when we went to put our cloaks away the dorm was empty.'
'Maybe she's in the Great Hall?'
'No; its too late for lunch and too early for dinner,' George said.
'Library?' Fred suggested.
'All of her books are on her bed,' Angie said.
'Well should we wait for her to come back or go look for her?' Alicia asked the group.
'Maybe we should wait until dinner; if she doesn't show up by the time we decide to go down, we'll skive and go look for her,' Fred suggested.
The group agreed, and decided to wait another hour before looking for their missing friend. When it came time to go to dinner and Evey still had not shown up, the group of friends decided it was time to search for her. As Angie and Alicia immediately headed out, the boys raced up the stairs in search of the Marauder's Map.
It was under George's mattress, and after activating it the three boys searched the map for Evey's name. Finally, they saw a little banner which read "C. EVELYN COLLINS." The boysdidn't know what the "C" at the beginning of her name stood for but had learned long ago not to question the it unless you want to be in the hospital wing overnight.
'She's down by the Trophy Room...but that corridor's a dead end. Why would she be down there?' Lee said.
'And why isn't she moving?' George asked worriedly, after noticing the small dot representing his friend hadn't moved since they spotted it.
'Let's go,' Fred declared, clearing the map and stuffing it under his mattress before the three sprinted out of their dorm, through the common room, and out the Portrait Hole.
The three boys ran as fast as their legs could carry them, taking all the short cuts they could and even jumping down flights of stairs. Their pounding footsteps echoed off the abandoned corridor by the Trophy room.
'Where is she?' Lee said as they started to look around.
As they looked up and down the hall, the sun came out from behind a cloud, shining through the windows and onto a collapsed figure on the floor.
'Dear Merlin,' George gasped before dashing forward, Fred and Lee at his heels.
He fell to his knees besides Evey, and sharply inhaled as he saw how bruised and bloody she was, and how uneven and strained her breathing seemed.
'Bloody hell,' Fred whispered as he kneeled next to his twin.
'Who could've done something like this?' Lee said as he stared down in horror at just how awful Evey looked.
'If I ever find out, I'll kill them,' George said strongly. 'For now, we've got to get her to the Hospital Wing.'
'Wait!' Fred said, halting George's action as he moved to lift Evey off the ground. 'What if it isn't safe to move her? What if it makes things worse.'
At this George whipped his wand out of his pocket, 'That's where this comes in handy.'
Using the Mobilicorpus spell, he quickly but carefully manoeuvred Evey's limp body through hallways and down a flight of stairs to the Hospital Wing on the first floor. Fred and Lee pushed the doors open and started yelling for Madam Pomfrey as George carefully laid Evey on the nearest bed. Quickly the Matron appeared, angered by the screaming but immediately silencing when she saw the state of young Miss Collins.
She shooed the boys out the door, saying they could come back later after she had fixed her up. George looked back and caught the quick glimpse of bruised alabaster skin and a pink bra before the Hospital Wing doors shut him and the others out.
So what did you all think? I know its a little cliche and Mary-Sue to have the main character critically injured but ya know what its my story and I like it. I don't even wanna tell you how long it took me to figure out exactly how Evey would hit the wall then fall to the ground; I actually mimed it in my bedroom so I'd get it exactly right. Dorky? Yes, but I don't care cause I love how it came out.
And now I'm gonna borrow and slightly modify a line from my dear friend Julie (remuslives23...btw, go read her new one-shot called "Body and Heart" as yours truly helped with it...though keep in mind its not for the non-smut-minded people like Julie and me):
If you leave a review, I'll give you the chocolate covered character of your choice! But stay away from George; he's mine ;-)