"He's not even good looking!" Hermione complained as she, Evie and Harry sat in the library trying to study. It was not going very well, however, since Viktor Krum was also in the library and being swooned over by his usually gaggle of girls.

It had been a few weeks since Evie's unfortunate detention experience and she and Hermione were now working together, at Hermione's suggestion of course. She had started helping Evie try to get Harry to master the Summoning Charm. Hermione has suggested that it might help for Harry to study the theory. Evie doubted it would, but she had studying of her own to do, so she'd agreed to go to the library with the pair of them.

Unfortunately, for the third time that week, Viktor Krum was also in the library and it was becoming increasingly harder to study over the noise of his fans. This was the current cause of Hermione's irritation.

"They wouldn't look twice at him if he couldn't do that Wonky Faint thing –"

"Wronski Feint," Evie and Harry corrected in unison.

Evie's correction had been colored in bemusement at her friend's complete lack of Quidditch knowledge. Harry's, however, had been downright hostile, spoken through gritted teeth and glaring eyes. Evie turned to him with a frown, only slightly relieved to find he was glaring at Krum and not Hermione.

In the weeks leading up to that moment Harry had been in an increasingly foul mood. Evie found she was a little hesitant to spend time around him because of it. She could not say she didn't understand what was leading him to feel that way, but she didn't like that he was taking it out on her, Hermione and a few unsuspecting victims, namely Cho.

After the whole business with the article Harry became subject to worse teasing at the hands of Malfoy and his group. To make matters worse, Hermione became a target of some very nasty harassment at the hands of Parkinson and the Slytherin girls. Hermione seemed to be taking all the insults in her stride, something Evie wasn't sure she'd have been able to do had it been her. Harry, on the other hand, was cracking.

Just the week previous Evie had been informed by Cedric that Harry had snapped at Cho when she'd tried to tell him he'd lost his quill. Cedric was not happy about the incident at all, but after some coaxing from Evie he'd decided against confronting Harry.

Evie had cornered Harry later, only to find him still in a foul mood. He apologized but it had not been much of one and his constant attitude was putting them on the outs. She wasn't saying she didn't understand that he was stressed, or that he was getting picked on left and right. But she and Hermione had also been on the receiving end of hateful comments and glares, and they had not turned on their friends because of them.

Sighing, Evie stood and closed the book she hadn't been reading anyway.

"Where are you going?" Hermione turned to her.

"Back to the common room, I s'pose. I can't focus in here and I think Ron might be up there. Haven't talked to him yet today."

"You two have fun," Harry sniped.

"I'd say the same, but you've been an unbelievable prat today." Evie turned on her heels and with a backwards wave to Hermione marched off.

On her way out of the library Evie caught up to Neville, who was carrying a large pile of Herbology books. She quickened her pace and managed to grab the top three books before they toppled over. Neville spun around in surprise and smiled gratefully when he saw her.

"Thanks, Evie," He moved to take the books back from her.

"Let me help," Evie smiled, refusing him the books. "You couldn't even see over that stack. What are all these for?"

"Well, I enjoyed the book Professor Moody gave me so much, I started reading up on everything the library has on Herbology," Neville explained excitedly.

"And instead of coming back you decided to take the whole lot of them?" Evie teased.

Neville chuckled with a blush. "Well, I read through them so fast, and coming back to the library every time I finished one was becoming such a hassle…"

"I understand, Neville. Don't worry, I'm only teasing."

Opening the door to get out of the library, Evie heard a gasp and the sound of quick shuffling. Peering over her pile of books she saw a flash of red hair, attached to a body too short to be Ron or the twins, followed by a flowing mass of blonde seemingly dancing after the redhead.

"Is that Ginny?"

"Oh, hey Evie! Hey Neville," Ginny giggled. "Are you alright?"

"Just helping Neville take some books back to the common room."

"Oh, well Luna and I are going to get some homework done," Ginny explained.

"You might want to find another place to do that," Evie smiled apologetically.

"Why?"

"Krum's in there. He's got that gaggle of girls with him too," Evie rolled her eyes at the memory of the constant giggling. "He might actually be trying to work, but the girls are very annoying and made it impossible for me to concentrate…well, them and Harry's silent sulking."

"Still not made up with Ron then?"

"No," Evie sighed and turned to notice Luna. "Oh, we're being rude. It's nice to finally meet you, Luna. Ginny's told me a lot about you."

"She's told me a lot about you too," Luna smiled and she seemed to be off in a world kilometers from their own. "You've got wrackspurts."

"I'm sorry?"

"Wrackspurts, they're invisible. They climb in through your ear and make your brain fuzzy." Luna smiled as though she'd had to explain it a thousand times before.

"Well, that does sound like my brain right now," Evie smiled without a hint of humor.

"You can get rid of them by thinking positively. Here," she pulled a copy of The Quibbler out of her stack of books and set it gently on top of Evie's pile. "This is Dad's magazine. It will explain all about wrackspurts and some other creatures you might want to look out for."

"Thanks," Evie grinned a bit, actually feeling a little better. She turned to Neville, who was staring at Luna like he didn't know what to make of her. "This is Neville, by the way."

"It's nice to meet you, Neville. Ginny and I are going to try to study, or I'll study and she'll watch Krum." Luna seemed completely oblivious to the fact that she'd just told something Ginny didn't want others to know.

Evie snorted at the sudden revelation, before turning to Ginny whose face was as red as her hair. "You two have fun," her voice got progressively higher as she spoke, a giggle threatening to spill over into her words. Clearing her throat, Evie forced as straight a face as she could muster. "Let's go Neville, these books are getting heavy. It was lovely meeting you Luna, I hope we'll speak again-"

"We will," she answered airily.

"Right, see you later," Evie nodded once she remembered she could not wave and quickly walked off down the hall. The sound of Neville's footsteps only half a step behind her. Evie slowed when they got far enough away from the library and she heard Neville's breathing turn into struggling puffs of air. "Sorry, Neville," she said as she slowed to a crawl.

"It's…alright," Neville smiled, but a hint of sweat was forming on his forehead.

Evie frowned slightly, but didn't contradict him. "So, Luna… she's a bit odd yeah?"

"I don't think I've ever met a person like her before," Neville seemed a bit shell shocked still after the impression Luna left.

"I doubt that I have either. But she seems fun," Evie smiled, looking at her borrowed copy of The Quibbler.

"Are you actually going to read that?"

"I dunno yet. I mean, what if I meet her in the halls and she asks me about it? I'd feel bad saying I hadn't read it."

"You could always pretend you had."

"Yeah, but I feel like she'd know I was lying."

"Yeah, I know what you mean."

"I'll read it eventually," Evie shrugged. "Were you planning on reading one of these today?" She nudged her head towards the books they were carrying.

"Yeah, but I've got to finish an essay first."

"The one for Transfiguration?"

"No, I've finished that one already. Hermione helped me. I've got one due for Divination too."

"Oh," Evie's nose scrunched on its own. "Good luck with that. I can't say that I can help you, I'm hardly about to survive Arithmancy. I'm starting to think future telling is not for me."

"Well, that's alright. I sort of like not knowing, but Divination is one of the easiest classes to take so I stuck with it."

"We could take Muggle Studies next year," Evie offered with a smile. She hadn't told Hermione but she'd been considering it since their second week in Arithmancy.

"Muggle Studies might be nice," Neville smiled at the thought.

They reached the Portrait of the Fat Lady and told her the password. She was so busy chatting away with a woman from another portrait she didn't both talking to them. She just swung open and let them pass.

"I think I prefer this to her singing," Evie smirked as the crawled into the common room.

"I know, I do too. She could make my ears bleed," Neville winced at the memory. "Alright, I think I can take the books from here."

"Don't be ridiculous, I'll help you get them to your room at least."

Neville turned bright red, "But," he paused turning even redder if that was at all possible. "you're a girl."

"That was very observant of you, Neville. What's your point?"

"You can't go to the boys' dorm."

"Technically I can. The room was designed to keep boys out of the girls' dorms, not the other way around."

"But –"

"Neville," Evie chuckled lightly. "I promise I won't look at anything, but you could hurt yourself trying to get up the stairs with all these books. Just let me help you," when Neville paused, Evie added, "I'll leave the books on your bed and then run out."

"Alright, I suppose I could still use the help."

"Excellent, lead the way."

They walked up the stairs to the boys' dorms and Evie could not hide her intrigue. The spiral stair case matched the one leading up to the girls' dorms in an exactly parallel way. It felt off to her, like she was experiencing life on the other side of a mirror.

They stopped at the very top, and Neville paused. He turned to Evie as if he wanted to say something else, but then closed his mouth and sighed. Opening the door, he walked into the room and stepped aside for her to enter.

"Wow." Evie stared around the room in complete shock. She had expected it to be a complete chaos. Instead, she found that for the most part, it was neater than her room. Lavender and Parvati had clothes strewn around their entire half of the room, but the boys seemed to keep to themselves even if the smell was less than pleasant.

"My bed's just here," Neville led her to the bed nearest the door on the right. As he said this the curtains to the bed beside his opened and Ron's head popped out.

"Evie?" Ron asked in absolute horror. Instinctively he pulled the curtain partially closed again, covering all of himself except his head.

"Oh my goodness, Ron, please tell me you aren't naked!" Evie shrieked and turned away from him quickly, still holding Neville's books.

"What? No!"

"Oh," Evie sighed and then turned back with a smile. "Then why are you covering yourself?"

Ron looked himself over before throwing the curtain back with a roll of his eyes. "I was just shocked is all. You shouldn't be up here. You're a girl."

"Why is everyone just realizing I'm female?" Rolling her eyes, Evie smirked, "Anyway, technically boys aren't allowed in the girls dorms, not the other way around. Besides, I was only helping Neville carry some books up here. I was going to come see you, too, but I thought you'd be in the common room."

"We can go down there," Ron rushed off the bed.

"You all act like it's the end of the world when a girl gets up here. Fine, I'm leaving." Evie finally set Neville's books down and turned towards the door.

"Thanks for the help, Evie."

"No problem, Neville."

Ron ushered her from the room and quickly closed the door behind them. Then he practically started pushing her down the stairs. When they got to the common room, Evie finally turned around to glare at Ron.

"Honestly! Is it really that terrible having me up there?"

"You shouldn't be up there."

"Alright, fine. I won't tell anyone else I was up there, yeah?"

"Thank you."

"Oh, you made me leave my magazine," Evie frowned and then smacked Ron on the arm. "Go back up there and get it."

"You don't read magazines." Ron rubbed his arm.

"It was given to me. Go get it."

Rolling his eyes, Ron turned and went right back up the stairs. Three minutes later he returned and handed the magazine to Evie with a look of pure disbelief on his face. "The Quibbler?"

"Ginny's friend Luna gave it to me when Neville and I ran into them."

"This magazine is barking mad."

"Well, I'll be the judge of that. I told her I'd read it and I'm going to." Evie puffed out her chest, daring Ron to make fun of her. He said nothing else though, just shook his head and smiled.

"What did you wanna do, anyway?"

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you."

"If this is about Harry, you can save your breath," Ron started, his mood instantly turning foul.

"Ronald Weasley, you sit down on that couch and shut up," Evie pulled out the full strength of her voice and authority and was pleased to find that Ron actually listened. She hardened her face again and sat in the chair closest to him.

"Now look," she started. "I know why you are upset. I'm not stupid, I get it." Ron looked at her, seemingly shocked to hear she wasn't scolding him. "It's not easy being Harry's best friend. It's not easy risking your life every year and never being recognized the same way. It's hard being forgotten behind five older brothers and one younger sister. You just want to stand out, be seen for who you are and what you do," Evie smiled sadly before her face hardened. "But have you honestly forgotten what it's like for Harry to be recognized the way that he is? Rita Skeeter is making a joke out of him. People aren't praising him, they're laughing at him. Can you imagine the pressure being put on him? It's not easy being his best friend, but it's no easier being him."

Ron looked down at the ground as Evie's words sunk in. He opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, but stopped himself.

"You're a good person, Ron," Evie spoke again, remembering what Cedric had told her so she could forgive herself earlier. "Good people don't leave their best friends hanging. Harry needs you now more than ever. He's about to deal with another life threatening thing and this time we can't go with him, but we can stand by him and help prepare him the best we can." Pursing her lips, Evie stood from the chair and walked towards the girls dorms. "I'm not telling you to be perfect, Ron. I'm just trying to remind you of who you are."

She didn't give him a chance to answer. He needed time to process everything she'd said without feeling pressured to feel some sort of way about it. Evie knew him well enough for that. She could only hope that he finally got over whatever brooding teenaged nonsense he was on so that he and Harry could become enjoyable to be around again.

Two weekends later Evie was coming back from Hogsmeade with Harry and Hermione when she heard her name being called somewhere behind her. When the trio turned they realized it was Ron. Harry muttered something under his breath about Evie choosing sides as she waved. She responded by purposefully knocking him upside the head with her arm.

"You want to come, Hermione?"

"Well, it'd look weird if I didn't, wouldn't it?"

"Are you going to stay here and wait Harry?"

"No, I'd love to hear what he has to say when he thinks I'm not there." She couldn't see him but she knew that under his Invisibility Cloak, Harry was smirking.

"Whatever," Evie rolled her eyes and the three made their way back towards Ron. "What's up Ron?"

"I had a message I thought you could take to Harry."

"Why don't you just tell him yourself?" Hermione urged.

"Seamus says that Hagrid wants Harry to go see him tonight, and he wants him to bring a cloak. I think he meant the Invisibility Cloak, but Seamus thought he meant because it's getting cold."

"Yeah, I'd bet money on the Invisibility Cloak. That was smart of Hagrid not telling Seamus Harry has one." Hermione smiled.

"Yeah, but why would he tell Seamus to get the message to Harry? And why didn't Seamus just tell Harry himself?" Evie furrowed her brow.

"Well, none of us has seen Hagrid, have we? And maybe he didn't think he'd see Harry before tonight, he didn't even come down today, did he?" Ron asked.

"No, we couldn't convince him to come."

"Seamus told me because he figured I'd see Harry first, since I'm heading back to the castle now anyway."

"But he also knows you're not talking to each other." Evie pointed out.

"Well…" There was a pause in which Evie and Hermione stared expectantly at Ron. "Alright, Hagrid told me to tell Harry he wanted him to come down, late he said."

"Why did you lie?" Hermione stared dumbfounded.

"Well, I didn't know if he was with you, and I just…"

"You two are absolutely ridiculous, I hope you know that."

"This is at least progress, I'd say." Hermione smiled. "We'll let him know. Do you want to walk back to the castle with us?"

Ron nodded and the four made their way back to the Gryffindor common room with Ron none the wiser to the fact that Harry had heard everything already.

Evie and Hermione had tried to stay up in order to find out what Hagrid had to say to Harry, but they'd been tired after a long day, so the two girls fell asleep on the couch in the common room and waited for Harry to return. When he did, it was none too quietly and the portrait slammed shut behind him, causing both to jolt awake and search around, half asleep, for the cause of their waking.

"Harry!" Evie stated once he'd torn off the cloak. The realization of why they were down there in the first place hit both girls simultaneously and they became instantly fully awake. "So, what did Hagrid want?"

"He was surprised to see me," Harry said. "He had a date with Madam Maxime."

"So…he didn't tell Ron to ask you to meet him?"

"I don't think so, but Charlie was there, with dragons. That's the first task, getting past dragons."

"Oh, do you know what that means?" Hermione smiled in absolute delight. Evie nodded and Harry shook his head slightly, and then nodded. "He knew what the task was going to be because of Charlie and he must've bumped into Hagrid and heard he was taking Madam Maxime to see the dragons, because that's just such a Hagrid thing to do and so he told us to tell you Hagrid wanted to see you so he'd take you to see the dragons as well and you'd be prepared!"

"If you two weren't so stubborn he could've just told you about the bloody dragons himself instead of doing all this complicated business," Evie rolled her eyes. "Hagrid took Madam Maxime on a date? That's so cute." Her tone immediately changed as she registered that bit.

"They really are cute together. But dragons on the first date?"

"Now she knows what the first task is and she'll obviously tell that stuck up Fleur," Evie spoke the name in a nasally mimicked version of adoration.

"That's not all. On my way back I also ran into Karkaroff."

"What was he doing walking around the grounds so late?" Hermione frowned.

"He probably saw Hagrid and Maxime walking and followed them. They aren't exactly an inconspicuous pair, are they?"

"Yeah, but Hermione is right, even with that it doesn't explain why he'd been out around midnight in the first place." Evie frowned, then her eyes went wide. "Wait! If Karkaroff knows the first task is dragons as well that means the only person who won't know is Cedric. Harry you have to tell him."

"What? Me? Why don't you do it?"

"Because if I do it he'll probably fuss at me for breaking the rules since technically none of you are supposed to know. Also you need to do some damage control after that incident with Cho. Your position as my friend is pretty much a sore spot in my house already, since Dad and Cedric are almost positive it's your fault I've almost died the past three years. Never mind that it's perfectly alright for Cedric to enter a dangerous competition and Dad just cheers him on the entire time. How is that not –"

"Evie!" Harry cut off her mindless rant.

"What? Right, sorry." She cleared her throat. "So, are we making a call or what?"

"Already here, Miss Diggory," a familiar voice came from embers in the fireplace. The three jumped and then turned to see the much younger and healthier looking disembodied head of Sirius Black staring at them.

Harry's face broke into the first smile Evie had seen from him in days as he rushed closer to the fire to look over his Godfather. "Sirius, how're you doing?"

"Never mind me, how are you?"

That simple question opened the floodgates. Harry started talking, saying more about how he was feeling and what was happening to Sirius than he had to Evie and Hermione since everything had started. He told him about being picked, and how few people believed he'd not put his name in. He talked about all the buttons and Rita Skeeter, but mostly he talked about Ron. Talked about his anger at Ron and Ron's jealousy and missing Ron, something he had been too stubborn to admit to either of the girls he must've forgotten were standing behind him.

All the while Sirius just listened. He let Harry talk until his sentence trailed off somewhere after dragons and goner and Harry finally had nothing left to say. When Sirius finally started talking again, Evie was just as shocked as Harry to find he was not concerned about the dragons. He told them, well mostly Harry, that there were other things to worry about, things bigger than dragons.

"Karkaroff was a Death Eater." The words filled Evie with a hollow sort of horror and hatred.

"He was in Azkaban with me, but he got released."

"How could they do that?" Evie felt her anger welling up in her chest. She had meant to keep quiet, to just listen as Harry and Sirius talked, but that last statement had caused her mouth to move of its own accord.

"He made a deal with the Ministry of Magic," Sirius answered bitterly. "He claimed to have seen the error of his ways and named names…lots of them. Azkaban got a lot of people in his place and I can tell you, he's not too popular in there. But that's probably why Dumbledore wanted an Auror at Hogwarts. Moody's the one who caught Karkaroff. He'll keep an eye on him."

Evie felt a smile cross her face quickly. She couldn't help but find that choice of wording quite hilarious considering Moody had an eye he could literally take off and place on someone. She faked a cough to cover the sudden trickle of laughter she could not stop.

When she gained control of herself again, Sirius was telling Harry that Moody was attacked the night before he left for Hogwarts. He said that he didn't think Rita was right about it being a false alarm, something Evie was altogether not the least bit shocked to hear. He seemed to be hinting to the fact that it might be Karkaroff, something Harry picked up on as well. When Harry asked why, Sirius paused.

As Evie listened to Sirius and Harry talk, keeping herself from interrupting again, she couldn't help but think back to the conversation she'd had with Hermione on their first day of classes. All the strange things going on, a missing Ministry worker and Moody being attack, not to mention the World Cup attack, she was more sure than ever that they had been right. Dumbledore had known those thing were happening, he had known something was coming and he was trying his best to combat it.

"Right, these dragons. Now, you can't stun them, it would take a dozen stunners to take down one."

"I saw." Harry's jaw was clinched tight as he spoke those words.

"But you can do it alone. A simple spell's all you need. Just –"

"Wait," Harry whispered.

The sound of footsteps could be heard coming from the stairs leading to the boys dorms. Evie could hear her heart begin to pound in her chest. They had no time to hide or run up the stairs. They'd be heard anyway.

"Go!" Harry hissed at Sirius, and with a quick little pop, he was gone.

"I was going to ask him about Professor Lupin." Evie whispered as an afterthought just as a lanky and freckled redhead appeared, looking around curiously. "Ron," she sighed in relief.

"What are you doing down here?" Harry snapped angrily.

"I was just wondering where you –" He stopped, taking in the scene in front of him fully and Harry's tone before he frowned and shook his head. "Nothing. I'm going back to bed."

"Ron, wait," Hermione started, but her statement was drowned out by a sudden burst of anger from Harry.

"Just thought you'd come nosing around, did you?"

Ron face began to redden with anger as well. "Sorry about that. Should've realized you didn't want to be disturbed. I'll let you get on with practicing for your next interview in peace."

Evie watched Harry reach for one of the buttons the Creevey brothers had been trying to fix, but had only succeeded in making the insult worse. Before he could throw it, she stepped between the two. "That's enough!" She managed to whisper and yell at the same time. "Put the bloody button down, Harry and both of you sit down."

"I'm going to bed." Harry snapped dropping the button.

"I swear to Merlin I will bind you both to that couch if you don't sit down right now." Evie's voice held that eerie calm that always sent shivers down Harry and Ron's backs. They both sat without further argument.

"What are you doing?" Hermione turned to Evie in shock.

Evie scrunched her face a bit as though in pain. "You…may have been right." The smug grin on forming on Hermione's face made powering through even harder. "I might have underestimated the stubbornness of our male cohorts," Hermione began to open her mouth. "Though! Though, in my defense, right up until this moment of absolute insanity from Harry I was probably going to be right."

Hermione pursed her lips in thought. "I'll allow that. You did seem to have been correct until Harry lost his temper there. In fact, you could've just held out. They'd have probably made up by the end of the first task."

"I'm impatient."

"Why did you want us sitting?" Ron broke through Evie and Hermione's hushed conversation.

"We know you lied about Hagrid wanting to see Harry."

"Harry said Hagrid had not expected him. He also said he saw Charlie when Hagrid took Madame Maxime to see the dragons."

"The only reason he's acting as completely insufferable as he just was is because he was just talking to…" Evie paused still not sure what to call Sirius.

"Padfoot, that's what my dad and Professor Lupin used to call him."

"Yes, good. He was talking to Padfoot when you started down the stairs and we didn't get to hear how to deal with the dragons."

"He said he misses you," Hermione added in quickly.

"And we know you tried to help him, so why are you two still acting like this?"

"He won't admit I didn't put my name in the Goblet."

"He's always the center of attention."

"Both of you are idiots!" That shut them up. "You're best friends, for Merlin's sake! Everything you've been through and you're just going to throw it away because Harry doesn't acknowledge enough that he has help and Ron asked the same questions I did?"

"You forgave her?"

"She believed me." Then a pause, "I don't acknowledge you enough?"

"Nah, you're alright. I don't know what she's talking about. Honestly the way that Rita Skeeter's been talking about you I don't even want the attention."

"Then why didn't you say anything?"

"I did."

"When?"

"I sent you to Hagrid, didn't I?"

"If Hagrid hadn't told me he wasn't expecting me I would've never known."

"Yeah, I guess I hadn't thought about that." Then they were both just chuckling and shaking their heads.

Evie and Hermione shared looks, which contained a mix of exasperation, relief, and confusion. How could it have possibly been that easy to get their boys talking again? All the effort she had put in behind the scenes suddenly flashed before Evie's eyes and she felt the beginnings of a headache coming on.

"Harry, we trust you'll fill Ron in on everything he's missed when we were chatting with Padfoot and you two were not talking. I'm going to bed. Hermione?"

"Yes, I'm quite tired as well." She sighed and shook her head. As they walked up the stairs towards their room, Hermione turned to Evie. "I don't understand what just happened."

"Of course you don't, they're boys. We aren't meant to understand them."

"Why do we hang out with them?"

"They'd have died without us."