Chapter 6; Evelyn
Evelyn had risen at dawn out of habit or nerves. She fidgeted with her school robes and yanked on the hem of the skirt. The fabric and design of the clothing felt unnatural; her attire at home had always consisted of simple comforts, long-sleeved shirts, jeans, and leather boots. The plain black shoes cramped her feet and were incredibly stiff. She huffed and collapsed onto the plush couches in the common room. The dark blue calmed her as she pulled out her class schedule for the millionth time.
Schedule
Potions - Mondays and Fridays (third and fourth period)
Advanced Care of Magical Creatures - Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays (first and second period)
Fifth and sixth period are free - Flying lessons available during seventh and eighth
Advanced History of Magic - Tuesdays and Thursdays; every other Saturday (11 am to 1 pm) (seventh and eighth period)
Advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts - Tuesdays and Thursdays (fourth and fifth period)
Herbology - Tuesdays and Thursdays (first and second period)
Third and sixth period are free - Dueling Club offered
Aberforth had taught Evelyn a lot, she had all of her generals done except for Herbology and Potions. Most of the electives had been covered by him as well, leaving her no choice but to enroll in mostly Advanced classes. The flying lessons and Dueling Club ought to be fun. "You must confess yourself a squib" the words were a nasty reminder that she couldn't do anything! It was ridiculous. How would it look, saying she's a squib when she's enrolled in a school of WITCH CRAFT AND WIZARDRY for Christ's sake? Crumpling her schedule Evelyn stood and began to pace. It was quarter to six, breakfast being at 6, giving Evelyn a good thirty minutes to come up with an escape plan. She was mortified at the mere thought of confessing herself to be a squib. She wasn't even sure she was able to utter the filthy lie.
An owl hooted from the open window. The windows in the common room were openable, and now Evelyn understood why. She examined the owl who was sitting in front of her, it's leg extended expectantly. Delicately, she pulled the letter from the leg of the owl, who hooted in appreciation and took off into the morning sun. Aberforth's writing was scrawled on the envelope.
Evelyn -
I hope you've settled in well and are enjoying yourself. I received a rather unwelcome visit yesterday in the form of a house elf informing me that Albus did not wish for you to proclaim yourself a squib. After much thought on the matter I realized he was right. I do not want you to face the pressure of having to answer for being a squib whilst enrolled in a school of magic. However, I don't want anyone, especially my dear brother to know of the extent, or even the existence of your powers. As you know, you do possess some wizarding magic, enough to make a wand operational in your hand. Albus has agreed to lend you a spare wand of his (I don't know where he procured it or from who, so please, I stress please, be very careful when handling and using said wand). He will have it delivered to you at some point today. The magic will be hard, but I know you'll be able to pull it off, just remember, never expose who you really are. It is of paramount importance.
I love you very much, have fun!
- Aberforth
P.S. Rubeus Hagrid, the groundskeeper and your Care of Magical Creatures teacher, has agreed to board Arggie outdoors, don't protest, we both know it's better than having her cooped up indoors. Just go early to his class today and he'll get her set.
Evelyn whooped! The letter was an answer to all her prayers. She tried to ignore the part about her still not being allowed to use her powers, win some lose some. Reading over the letter one last time Evelyn chucked it into the fireplace, watching the corners of the letter blacken and curl, she headed off to breakfast.
The Great Hall looked glorious that morning. The ceiling showed the bright and clear skies the students has to look forward to that day. Evelyn allowed herself a smile as she made her way to the empty Ravenclaw table, practically the whole hall was empty. Despite the emptiness, the golden platters were still chalk full of food. All sorts of variations of bacon, sausage, egg, cheese, potatoes, cereals, muffins, pancakes, waffles, toast, and bowls of fruits and veggies were spread across the vast table. Aberforth's letter had put Evelyn in a particularly good mood and she filled her plate with all the nearest foods: egg, bacon, and cheese bagels, blueberry muffins, and succulent fruit bowls. She found herself wishing she had brought a book as she began to devour her plate of food, there was hardly any noise in the Hall and the few Ravenclaw's that had joined the table sat beady eyed and unmoving.
"Did you know that the Nargle is know to infest mistletoe and be a mischievous thief? People who kiss under a Nargle infested mistletoe often find themselves missing their jewelry." The dreamy voice from yesterday came from nowhere. Evelyn jumped in surprise, dumping her entire pumpkin juice into her lap. She sat in shock for a moment before turning to the strange girl sitting next to her. The dirty blonde hair was much longer than Evelyn had originally thought, her eyes seemed to protrude from her head and she was chuckling at the sight of Evelyn, completely drenched in pumpkin juice. Evelyn blushed and quickly began to try and mop up the mess. The girl quickly pulled out her wand, shaking her head at Evelyn's efforts.
"Impervius!" The juice soaked out of Evelyn's uniform and disappeared into the air, "I'm Luna, Luna Lovegood. Sorry about that."
"Thanks, don't worry about it. I'm Evelyn Winters." Evelyn extended her hand but Luna was already moving on.
"You're new, aren't you? I've never seen you before, but that's impossible unless you're new." She waited expectantly for Evelyn to explain herself. Evelyn felt her face heating up. She had never had to introduce herself before, or explain the complicated story that was her life. She scratched her nose, stalling. "It's okay that you don't want to talk about it. People always touch their face whenever they're uncomfortable, which I tend to make them." At this Evelyn looked up in shock, but the girl just sat there buttering her toast, humming a light tune under her breath.
"No!" The word was out of Evelyn's mouth before she could stop it. Luna looked at her curiously, "I-I mean...you aren't making me uncomfortable...I'm just not used to new...things." The sentenced ended very awkwardly and Evelyn slap herself mentally but Luna just smiled.
"Well that's alright. Hogwarts is an easy place to fall in love with." The dreamy look in her eyes returned as she became focused in her breakfast again. Evelyn began to breath easy again. She liked Luna, even if she did seem a little batty. They finished their breakfast in silence, but when Evelyn got up to leave, Luna followed her. Evelyn took a deep breath, you can do this. you can do this. YOU CAN DO THIS!
"I've actually been home schooled my entire life, this is my first encounter with a public school." There, that sounded normal. Well, minus the homeschool thing.
"My father is the editor for The Quibbler, he home schooled me until I was of age to go to Hogwarts." Evelyn had read The Quibbler, she now understood Luna's battiness, but, she reasoned, it was the good kind of battiness. The interesting kind. A lot of boring afternoons had been saved by reading issues from the magazine. Evelyn suddenly realized that Luna had continued talking, her newest subject made Evelyn's skin crawl. "My mother died in front of me when I was nine, it was terrible. My dad always struggles to fill the hole she left...what about your parents?" Evelyn closed her eyes, squeezing them tight before she continued,
"My parents didn't want me. Left me on my grandfather's doorstep when I was three." There was a momentary silence, then, "I'm sorry about your mother, Luna." Luna just smiled, her eyes a bit sad.
"I'm more sorry for you, at least I knew my mother. I'm sure they wanted you...but sometimes things just go wrong." The truth in Luna's words both stung and warmed Evelyn. Aberforth had always been harsh about the subject of her parents, never sharing much more than the fact that they didn't want Evelyn any farther than they could throw her. Yet Luna's words, naive as they were, helped ease the pain of the truth.
They continued down the hall in silence, contemplating their lives until they reached Ravenclaw toward. Luna reached the bronze Eagle first and asked for entrance. A silky voice inquired,
"I am the beginning of the end, and the end of time and space. I am essential to creation, and I surround every place. What am I?" Luna stood in silence, eyes closed, thinking. Evelyn had never been good with these type of riddles. She excelled at the problem solving riddles, she wondered if Ravenclaw was the right House for her. Luna's head snapped up, her eyes bright,
"The letter E; End, timE, spacE, Every placE!" The eagle bowed it's head and the tower opened to the two Ravenclaws. Luna was smiling, obviously please with herself. Evelyn smiled,
"Good thing I have you with me, wit beyond measure I certainly do not have! Now if you'll excuse me." Evelyn bounded up the staircase to her room. It was already half past seven, her first class of Advance Care of Magical Creatures started at eight. She threw her hair up and called Arggie to her. The fox came slinking towards her, obviously put out about being inside on such a beautiful day.
"Don't worry, I'm taking you out right now!" Arggie gently licked Evelyn's hand before giving her a light nip. The fox then ran under the bed and retrieved a slender piece of wood. Evelyn recognized it immediately. Her new wand. She handled the wand with care, sensing the power it held in it's core. She slipped it into the folds of her robe, figuring she would experiment with it later, and headed out of the castle.
As she neared the front doors, she heard shouting along with some bumping and snarling.
"You bleeding idiotic git! There's a reason fanged frisbees are banned, and this is why!" A darker skinned boy with dreadlocks rounded the corner. He was holding his left hand gingerly, it looked like a wild animal had tried to rip it off. He was being led by a tall laughing red haired boy. For a moment Evelyn panicked, thinking it was the strange boy from dinner, the one who had stared. But something told her it wasn't him. He couldn't stop laughing though, despite the blood coming from his friend's hand.
"Dammit George! Stop laughing, it bloody hurts. And Fred! Hurry the hell up. Merlin's beard man...you been dragging all morning." The laughing one, George, tried to contain his guffaws.
"Aw Lee, get a sense of humor! We'll get the firstie back no sweat!" George clapped the bleeding boy, Lee, on the back. Lee glared at his companion before cracking a smile. Neither of them had taken notice of their audience. Evelyn could feeling Arggie against her leg, tense, frightened. Evelyn began to slowly back away. Maybe there was another way out of the castle. She was almost to the corner when she heard the voice of their missing companion, Fred they had called him.
"Oi! You prat!" Evelyn turned to see a tall redhead dart into view, chasing a snarling green frisbee while the owner of the frisbee took of in the other direction. Lee and George began to laugh all over again, the disfigured hand temporarily forgotten. The boy suddenly leaped towards Evelyn, who moved to get out of the way but instead tripped over Arggie and slammed herself into the wall. The frisbee swerved towards her just as Fred caught it, his momentum sending him straight for her. Evelyn shrieked and covered her face, preparing for the impact. But it never came.
She peeked out from her shield of fingers. Fred had caught himself, barely, and was leaning into the wall right in front of her. His face was so close she could feel his breath mixing with hers. Embarrassment washed over her, but thank Merlin he wasn't paying attention. Instead he was holding up the snarling frisbee in triumph, having A. successfully caught the bugger, and B. done it without being injured. George and Lee were cheering.
Evelyn tried to extract herself, but the redhead was too close. She risked a glance at his face and froze. It was the boy, the boy from dinner. His fiery hair matched George's, she assumed they were twins, but this one just looked...felt...different. It was definitely him. She felt even more embarrassed than before and tried to squeeze by the arms that caged her between Fred and the wall. She couldn't help but notice how well defined his arms were. The guy was definitely in good shape. Unfortunately, her decision to escape turned to be a tactical error. George's voice suddenly piped up over the laughter and cheers,
"Hey, who's that you got pinned there?" Evelyn froze. Fred turned towards her, a smile on his face. The second he saw her though, he froze as well. His smile faltered...his mouth opened but nothing came out.
Evelyn could feel how red her face was. Fred had not moved away from her and had apparently forgotten about the fanged frisbee in his hand. Sensing it's captor was distracted the creature bit down. He yelped and jumped back. Evelyn darted out from under him only to trip over Arggie again! She sprawled onto the floor and whipped around towards the fox who turned and slunk towards the laughing George. The other red haired boy glared at his twin and leaned down towards Evelyn. He offered his hand.
"You alright?" His voice was quiet and she could tell he was embarrassed as well. He searched her face, an air of familiarity in his eyes. Hesitantly she took his hand, noticing right away how small her hand seemed in his own calloused hand as it completely swallowed hers as he helped her to her feet. "Sorry about that..." He stepped away from her and rubbed the back of his neck, averting his gaze, a blush rising in his cheeks. Evelyn laughed nervously,
"Don't worry about it...no harm done." He peeked at her from under his eye lashes, a hint of a smile on his face.
"Pretty loyal fox you got yourself." Evelyn smiled and glared at the silver thing,
"Worthless piece of...she's the whole reason I was down here this early you know. I spoil her.." She faded off as she realized that this guy probably couldn't give a rat's ass, but he was smiling at her, waiting for her to continue, "I better go," his face fell a fraction of an inch, "I-I'm gonna be late." she stammered and whistled for Arggie. She took off down the hall as he called after her,
"I'm Fred, by the way! Fred Weasley." She turned towards him as he ran a hand through his hair, staring after her.
"Evelyn...Evelyn Winters." Then she turned and ran out the castle and to the cabin by the woods.