September 28, 2015 (Evangeline)

"Everyone out of bed this instant! Up, now!"

Eva groaned, wanting nothing more than to sleep in after another grueling week of classes. It was a Saturday morning, and though the sun was already rising outside, she felt she had earned the right to sleep in at least once. But Ginny Weasley had other ideas, raising a racket in all the dormitories of Gryffindor Tower and forcing the entire House downstairs. Once she had every Gryffindor before her, bleary-eyed and crammed into the common room, she addressed them all.

"The Headmaster has just given me concerning news," Ginny said sternly. "He has detected electronic signals from a Muggle device coming from Gryffindor Tower. Such devices are banned on Hogwarts grounds, and operating one can result in severe punishment, including expulsion. If the person responsible comes clean this instant, they will avoid such a fate."

The room was deathly quiet at this. Nobody moved a muscle at the threat of expulsion, even if they believed themselves innocent of this alleged crime.

"No volunteers, eh?" Ginny frowned. "I suppose we'll let the Aurors tear apart your rooms, then, until they find what they're looking for. Then the person responsible will be—"

"P-professor?" a timid voice from the back of the room squeaked. All eyes turned to a terrified-looking first-year girl with her hand raised shakily in the air. "It was me. I'm s-sorry."

"Caldwell, is it?" Ginny said appraisingly, looking down at the girl. "Go and fetch the device this instant."

The girl stood frozen for a moment, feeling the heat of everyone's stares upon her. Then, she reached into the waistband of her pajama bottoms and procured a small device: a smartphone, in a sparkling pink-and-purple case. Eva's stomach dropped when she saw it.

Ginny strode across the room and snatched the phone from her. "What were you thinking, girl?" she demanded. "Why are you using a Muggle device in a wizarding castle?"

"P-please, Professor," the girl heaved, clearly on the verge of tears. "M-my parents are Muggles...they w-wanted me to keep in touch...after the K-King's Cross attack…"

"Then you can use the school owls to deliver messages, like the rest of your classmates," Ginny admonished her. "How did you even manage to get this thing to work through the school wards?"

The girl said nothing, staring at her feet in fear.

"Tell me the truth, or I'm taking you straight to the Headmaster's office," Ginny warned her.

"It was me, Professor," Eva blurted out. "She asked me for help getting her phone to work, so I enchanted it to get around the wards."

Ginny rounded on Eva, glaring at the new target of her ire. "You should have known better than that, Miss Prewitt," she growled. "You've been at Hogwarts for a full year now, so you cannot use your transfer status as an excuse—"

"It's just a stupid phone!" Eva protested. "She's Muggle-born and away from home! Give her a break!"

Ginny's good eye widened at her audacity. For a moment, Eva was sure she was about to be expelled. "Detention, Miss Caldwell," Ginny snapped, turning back to the first-year girl. "And fifty points from Gryffindor for possessing illegal contraband. I will be writing to your parents to express my disappointment." The girl dropped her head, face burning red with embarrassment.

"As for you," Ginny said to Eva, whose face was also turning red (but for a very different reason). "Your fate lies with the Headmaster for such a blatant breach of school policy. If it were up to me, your wand would already be snapped for your insolence."

"Good thing it isn't up to you, then," Eva said coolly, eliciting gasps from her fellow classmates. Eva no longer cared about keeping up appearances: she and Ginny had never gotten along, and she was tired of making nice when she felt strongly that she had done nothing wrong. Ginny was going purple with rage now, looking like she wanted to hex Eva where she stood. They stared at one another for a long while, Ginny no doubt cycling through every possible punishment she could throw at the girl, Eva silently daring her to.

Instead, Ginny turned to the rest of the room and held up the phone. "This is what Muggles call a smartphone," she said, earning giggles from the pure-blood students at the name. "It is not to be underestimated! Muggle tech has vastly improved in recent years, and they now have the ability to transmit photos, videos, audio and text instantly. Such a device could be used to gather intel on us wizards and deliver it to dangerous people who wish to do us harm. That is why they are banned on school grounds. You are just children; you know not the dangers that await you on the outside. But items like this one will be your undoing, believe you me." And without another glance at Eva, Ginny turned to exit the common room, taking the offending phone with her.

At once the common room, which moments before had been sleepy and lethargic, began buzzing with excited gossip. "What a piece of work she is," Eva huffed, turning to Victoire and Candace with an annoyed smirk. But to her surprise, they looked furious with her.

"How could you put us in danger like that, Prewitt?" Victoire demanded.

"Yeah, what's your angle?" Candace frowned.

"Angle?" Eva laughed. "I was helping the poor kid with her phone! She probably just wants to watch YouTube and FaceTime her mum every once in a while."

Clearly neither of her pure-blood roommates knew what this meant, and they didn't care. "I thought you were smarter than that, Eva," Victoire sighed. Eva opened her mouth to laugh, but quickly realized Vic wasn't joking; furthermore, half the common room was also eyeing her with disapproval. She hadn't expected to face such criticism for her rule-breaking.

Luckily for her sense of sanity, a few of the Muggle-born Gryffindors (some of whom she knew from the summer program) quietly came up to thank her. Apparently most of them had been borrowing the phone to call or text their own parents, which was probably what got them caught. Poor little Rebecca Caldwell said nothing, merely slinking up to Eva and wrapping her arms around her in silent thanks. Eva patted her consolingly on the back, grateful for the reminder of why she had done it in the first place. Screw this backwards-ass school and their antiquated rules, she thought to herself. We should be allowed to own phones if we want to. Willoughby never had any such problems…

Eva caught up with Roxanne on the way to breakfast soon after. "Can you believe that bitch?" she asked with a chuckle. "She looked like she wanted to wind up and sock me in the eye!"

But to Eva's surprise, Roxanne seemed cold and distant at the moment. "You shouldn't have been so disrespectful," she said icily.

"Are you joking?" Eva gaped at her. "Did you hear how she chewed out that poor Caldwell girl? I couldn't let her get away with that!"

"Maybe she deserved to be chewed out a little!" Roxanne snapped, stopping in her tracks and turning to face Eva. "You don't think it was reckless to give her access to a weapon like that?"

"A weapon?" Eva laughed incredulously. "Are you mental? It's a cell phone! She's eleven years old!"

"Her parents aren't," Roxanne retorted. "And if they sympathize with C.A.W., they could coerce her into feeding them information about us. Did you even think about that?"

Eva couldn't believe her ears. "You sound like a blood purist right now," she scoffed. "You aren't buying into this 'all Muggles are terrorists' crap they're trying to feed us, are you?"

"Do you even know who my father is?" Roxanne roared. "Do you understand the depths of evil these people are capable of? Did you even see what happened at King's Cross?"

"Yeah, and I saved all of our lives...you're welcome!" Eva snapped back. "That doesn't mean every eleven year old with a phone is a goddamn spy! You're delusional!"

Roxanne glared daggers at her. "And here I thought I was the reckless one," she said, "when you're willing to compromise everyone's safety on a hunch. Maybe you Aussies don't value student safety, but I would take a bullet for everyone in this castle if their lives were in danger."

"Oh, how noble of you," Eva said mockingly. "If Potter told you to jump in front of the Hogwarts Express to spite a few first-years, would you?"

Roxanne's response was to slap Eva, hard, across the face, and stalk off down the corridor. Eva stood in shock, reeling not from the pain, but from surprise. Out of everyone at Hogwarts, she had expected Roxanne to understand. Why was she so adamant about sticking to Potter's outdated rules about technology? Did she really buy into the propaganda and paranoia that the Prophet was peddling every single day? The magical and Muggle worlds were interconnected permanently now – what was the point in trying to keep them separate any longer?

Eva got the cold shoulder from her classmates for the remainder of the weekend. The pure-bloods believed she was a traitor to her own kind, while the Muggle-borns were terrified to be seen around her, certain that she would be expelled in a matter of days anyway. Eva assumed as much herself – the Headmaster was away from the castle at the moment, but as soon as he returned, she was sure he would give her the boot. So she instead spent her time coaching Rebecca Caldwell and a handful of other young Muggle-born students on how to write letters by hand and take them to the Owlery to be delivered by a school owl. Perhaps, if she survived another couple of days, she would work on her side project of enchanting handheld mirrors for face-to-face communication with one's parents.

The silent treatment continued when classes resumed on Monday. By now the whole school seemed to have heard about the phone incident and Eva's argument with Ginny Weasley, and she was treated as if she had the plague. Eva couldn't even bring herself to feel badly about it; she was starting to find the whole thing amusing. Part of her hoped she got chucked out of Hogwarts so she could go back to Willoughby, where at least the students weren't brainwashed and the local Muggles weren't chucking bombs at eleven year olds. Britain had been a nice experiment, but she was ready to go back to a country that was a little more sane.

Professor Babbling held Eva back after Ancient Runes that afternoon, and Eva packed her bag, certain she was about to get sent to the Headmaster's Office for the last time. "The staff room is in quite the tizzy because of you, Miss Prewitt," said Babbling, clicking her tongue disapprovingly.

Eva just shrugged at this news. "What's left to say?" she said. "I broke a rule I disagreed with. What's done is done."

"Oh, spare me your defeatist attitude," Babbling scoffed. "I didn't summon you here to scold you. I'm more interested in how you did it."

"Sorry?" asked Eva, surprised.

"The wards around Hogwarts have long been a mystery to me," said Babbling excitedly. "I've searched for the runestones that power this castle for years and never found them. How did you manage to get around the anti-technology field?"

"Er…" said Eva, unsure if she ought to incriminate herself. But she figured Potter would figure it out eventually anyway, so she might as well take credit for it. "I traced the blocked signal from the phone to a runestone atop the Astronomy Tower. Then I just charmed the phone with the inverse sign to override the block."

This was a partial truth – she had determined that something atop the Astronomy Tower was blocking the signal, but she merely used the Sight to determine which strands of magic were repressing the phone's WiFi capabilities. These strands had been composed of a squiggly symbol resembling a pig's tail, so she merely imbued the phone with the same symbol, inscribed within an upside-down triangle – the universal inverse symbol, which she'd learned from The Language of Magic. It worked perfectly, allowing the outgoing electronic signals to ignore the wards blocking them and travel out of the school bounds effortlessly.

"Brilliant," said Babbling in a pleased tone. "Of course it would be atop that tower; it's the highest point of the castle, after all. I never thought to check the roof...how you managed to find it is another matter...but you Quidditch players have always been so fond of heights anyway…"

"Professor?" asked Eva, interrupting the excited professor's train of thought. "Do you reckon I'll be expelled for this?"

"For the phone? Good heavens, no," Babbling chuckled. "Students have been attempting to smuggle in working devices every year since I got here. One particularly clever Ravenclaw even managed to get a flat-screen television connected to five hundred channels a few years back; Potter was more impressed than anything." Eva smiled in spite of herself; she was rather proud of her accomplishment with the phone, even if no one else was.

"As for talking back to your Head of House," Babbling went on in a more stern tone, "that I'm less certain will pass unpunished. Professor Weasley is famously hot-tempered and will no doubt seek your head on a platter. Whether the Headmaster agrees with her is another matter. I would strongly suggest apologizing to Weasley as soon as possible, to improve your odds."

"Right," Eva muttered. She didn't particularly want to apologize to Ginny, but she had been out of line, whether she disagreed with the school policy or not.

"One last thing," said Babbling. "I notice you haven't been paying much attention in lectures this term, but your rune work is still pristine. I take it you've read ahead in the material?"

"I have," Eva admitted. Much of the sixth-year Ancient Runes material covered outdated theory and other irrelevant information that she no longer needed to produce functional runes. She didn't need to understand the relationships between the various runesigns and their strengths and weaknesses when she could simply use her Sight to intuitively understand how they operate.

"Good," said Babbling. "Then I have a proposition for you. Rather than force you to sit through all the quizzes and homework assignments I know you can pass with ease, I'd like for you to make me something. A self-directed project, if you will."

"Erm...okay," Eva said slowly. "What kind of 'something' are you looking for?"

"Surprise me," Babbling winked at her. "Impress me. Wow me! Show me something I haven't seen before, like you did on your very first day. Push the envelope and try to make something that the textbooks can't teach you to."

Eva considered this idea. It was both enticing and terrifying – she loved the prospect of experimentation with runes that she rarely had the time for, but worried that she wouldn't come up with anything sufficient to impress Babbling. What if she wasn't actually a prodigy at this like the professor believed, and her Sight was just a cheap shortcut? Worse yet, what if she made something so out of the box that it drew further unwanted attention to herself? Well, I'm already getting chucked out; might as well break a few more rules, she thought to herself with a laugh.

"Alright, I'll do it," she agreed.

Babbling beamed at her. "Good girl. I'll check in with you before winter break, and you can turn it in before end-of-year exams."

"Agreed," said Eva. She left Babbling's classroom and headed to the library to spend her free period working on some Charms homework, but changed course halfway through, heading for the History of Magic classroom that she had avoided ever since dropping the subject last year. She found Ginny Weasley in her office, grading papers with a sour expression on her face.

"Professor Weasley?" Eva said meekly. Ginny looked up at her, frowning, and before she could say anything, Eva continued, "I apologize for talking back to you the other day. I lost my temper and should not have said what I said. I respect your wisdom and did not intend to insult you in front of the other students."

Eva stood there, heart pounding, waiting for a response. Ginny surveyed her, face inscrutable, her magical eye whizzing about as though checking her pockets for contraband. "You know, if you weren't so impulsive, you would have made quite the Slytherin," she finally said.

"S-sorry, Professor?" asked Eva.

"You have a way of talking your way out of tight corners," Ginny remarked. "All of my fellow professors adore you, despite your consistent disregard for the rules."

Eva said nothing, unsure of where this line of thought was going, but the cold look on Ginny's face told her it wasn't good.

"I see right through your goodie-two-shoes charade," Ginny said. "You're up to something, Prewitt. I know you sneak around this castle at your leisure, and not just to see that obnoxious girlfriend of yours."

"Roxanne is not obnoxious," Eva protested.

"I also looked you up in the Willoughby records," Ginny went on without acknowledging her point. "There was never an Evangeline Prewitt at that school. Only an Evangeline Thomas, a fifth-year Muggle-born, whose records were mysteriously scrubbed last fall, with no mentions of a transfer."

Eva felt a chill run down her spine at this. Had her secret identity been found out? She said nothing, unwilling to give away anything more. It felt as though Ginny's magical eye was boring straight into her soul, peering into her deepest secrets, trying to unravel her sins.

"The Headmaster favors you for some reason," Ginny continued. "But even he cannot protect you if you are attempting to undermine the safety of the school. There is a war brewing, Miss Prewitt or whoever you are, and if I find you are attempting to help the enemy, I will drag you into Azkaban myself."

It took all of Eva's Occlumency practice not to quiver in fear at Ginny's icy words as she glared dangerously at her. She took several deep breaths to steady herself. She was of half a mind to tell her off again, but remembered why she had come in here in the first place and swallowed her retort. "I would never do anything that knowingly put my fellow students in danger," she said simply. "I hope to earn your trust back someday, Professor. Good day." And Eva turned to exit the room before she could say anything she would regret later.

As much as she wanted to hate Ginny for what she had said, Eva knew she was partially correct. She was hiding things from the staff, brewing a highly illegal potion and using banned literature to get ahead in her classes. But to insinuate that Eva was somehow conspiring with the Muggles against Hogwarts? Ginny clearly didn't know that her real parents were murdered by C.A.W., or she never would have made such a ludicrous claim.

Speaking of which, why didn't she know this? Eva didn't realize that her Willoughby records had been scrubbed, along with all evidence of her transfer. Was this Potter's doing? Had he covered her tracks to protect her identity from C.A.W.? That made sense to her. But as always, something in the back of her mind told her that there was more going on than she was privy to. And as long as that continued to be the case, she could not stop in her quest to find the truth, even if that meant breaking more school rules, Ginny Weasley be damned.

Those were the least of Eva's worries at the moment, though. Roxanne had continued to avoid her for the past few days, and she was the only person in the castle whose opinion mattered to her. Everyone else in the castle could hate her guts and call her whatever names they liked, but if Roxanne was no longer on her side, she might as well leave Hogwarts of her own volition.

So late that night, Eva scribbled a little note and folded into a small origami swan, charming it to zoom out of the room and up to the seventh-year girls' dorms. It read:

Rox,

You know I'd be a rubbish terrorist all by myself. If I ever decide to overthrow Potter and murder the student body, I promise I'll consult with you first.

Please don't jump in front of the Hogwarts Express. I'd miss you terribly.

Sorry for being an idiot.

Love,

Eva xoxo

Eva waited for several long minutes for a reply. It came in the form of a jagged paper airplane, which shot through the room like a bullet and dived straight in between Eva's eyes. Smarting from the sting, Eva snatched the airplane and unfolded it to read the return note:

Dearest Idiot,

Damn you for being impossible to stay mad at.

I'm sorry too. In my defense, your face is very soft and fun to slap.

P.S. - Are you just apologizing to keep your spot on the Quidditch team? I can be a vindictive captain if I want to, you know.

Forever yours,

Roxxxx

Eva felt a sense of peace as these words washed over her. She clutched the note to her chest and fell into a restful sleep, forgetting all about the stresses of the previous few days.


It took all of two minutes for Eva and Roxanne to fall back into their regular routines the next morning. From the time they kissed and made up in the common room to the time they reached the Great Hall for breakfast, they were back to laughing and holding hands as though nothing had happened between them. Even the other Gryffindors at the table seemed more relaxed and upbeat than usual, as though the positive energy between the two lovebirds was infectious. Nature was healing at Hogwarts.

To be fair, Eva knew it would be simple to win her back over once she described the encounter with Ginny the previous day. "That bitch!" Roxanne said, scandalized. "I mean, I thought you were being an idiot, but you'd have to be truly brain-dead to think you were conspiring against the school!"

"I know!" Eva laughed, glad that she finally had somebody to commiserate with. "I wonder why my old records got scrubbed, though?"

"Just Potter being paranoid, I imagine," Roxanne shrugged. "Maybe he didn't want to cause some kind of international incident by making it public that he's kidnapping orphans."

"I guess," Eva chuckled. "I wonder if he wanted to hide something else, though? Like maybe my parents dying wasn't the only reason I was brought here?"

"There goes Prewitt again, with her inflated sense of self-worth," Roxanne teased. "You think Potter's been recruiting smart-asses from around the world? Where are the ambassadors from the other schools, then?"

"I know; it's stupid," Eva said quickly with a sheepish grin. "Still, I would love to know what he's really up to. You have to admit he's been scheming something."

"Probably planning to run for Minister in the spring," said Roxanne, just as the owls arrived to deliver their morning papers. "Granger's been taking it in the shins for weeks now. I'm certain he'll beat her if he throws his hat in the ring."

"And why hasn't he?" Eva wondered aloud. "He could have won at any point in the past four elections, but Granger's run unopposed every time."

"One of Britain's many mysteries," Roxanne sighed dramatically as she unfolded her copy of the Prophet. Eva stole a glance at the headline:

MIN. GRANGER RETURNS TO BRITAIN; VOWS TO ADDRESS NAT'L SECURITY CONCERNS

"She's back in the country for good, then?" Eva asked. "Hasn't she been working in America with their Muggle President all this time?"

"Yeah," Roxanne grunted, deeply engrossed in the article. "Check to see if the Advocate has anything to say on the matter."

"The what?" Eva asked. Roxanne merely gestured to the second, unopened paper on the table in front of her. She picked up and unfolded the New York Advocate and began to read the top story from across the pond:

HEALTH POTION MANUFACTURING PUT ON HOLD AFTER PLANT ATTACK

NEW YORK – A manufacturing plant outside Poughkeepsie was temporarily shut down after explosives were detonated in the parking lot over the weekend, damaging the building and killing two No-Maj workers. The plant was producing an experimental new health potion designed for Muggle consumption, which has been endorsed by both President George Rodriguez and British Minister of Magic Hermione Granger in recent months.

"We will investigate those responsible for these attacks and bring the perpetrators to justice," Pres. Rodriguez said in a statement yesterday evening. "Project Well-being will not be deterred by such petty acts of violence. Minister Granger and I believe in our mission to improve the lives of everyday Americans, and hope to continue our research without delay."

Rodriguez and Granger's ongoing efforts to combine magical and No-Maj technology have proven widely unpopular in both communities. A recent poll conducted by The New York Times found that just 4% of Americans would buy the new health potion if offered, with just an additional 9% saying they'd drink it if offered for free. Rodriguez's poll numbers continue to plummet ever since he announced the project with Granger, and he is unlikely to seek re-election next year as a result.

MACUSA Minister of Magic Jay Walsh declined to comment on the recent plant attack. Walsh has been critical of Rodriguez in recent months, and told the press that he believed Project Well-being was 'an admirable but foolish endeavor'.

Minister Granger could not be reached for comment. She has returned home to Britain to address growing social unrest in the country, leaving the future of her American pursuits uncertain.

"Bunch of rubbish," Roxanne was muttering as she read the Prophet article.

"What're they saying about Granger now?" Eva asked, setting down the Advocate.

"Granger's saying some nonsense about cracking down on C.A.W.," Roxanne responded. "As if that isn't the least she could be doing. Where has she been all this time? Sucking up to foreign Muggles to further her own career? It's tragic to see how much she's failed this nation."

"Huh," said Eva diplomatically. She wanted to retort, but had no intention of creating another argument with Roxanne so soon after making peace with her. Surely Roxanne didn't actually agree with the Prophet's assessment of Hermione Granger? Was she actually buying into the blatant propaganda trying to make her look bad? As if she's the root cause of all this violence! Eva thought, frustrated. At least she's trying to help the Muggles, not insult them publicly like Potter!

Eva didn't have the bandwidth to worry about what was happening outside Hogwarts at the moment. She had too much on her plate as it was, between classwork, studying, the upcoming Quidditch season, and her rekindled relationship with Roxanne. Luckily, she had a plan to knock out several birds with one stone. "Say, I have a free period after Arithmancy today," she told Roxanne as the bell rang and students began filing out of the Hall. "Wanna meet me you-know-where to help with a new project?"

"Hmm...I have double Care of Magical Creatures then," Roxanne frowned. "Eh, maybe I can goad one of his Skrewts into setting me on fire so I can leave early. Count me in."

This was enough to get Eva through the day. She was eager to get through her classes so she could sneak off to the Room of Requirement, where she could not only spend time with her girlfriend, but get to work on her Ancient Runes project. She'd spent a few hours the night before fishing stones from the shallow end of the lake, finding ones large enough to carve runes onto, and wanted to begin experimenting straight away. She hadn't the faintest idea what her project would be about, but the endless possibilities excited her.

Unfortunately, her plans were immediately squashed, as a second-year boy cut her off when she raced out of the Arithmancy classroom. "Are you Evangeline Prewitt?" he asked her. When she nodded, he continued, "The Headmaster wants to see you in his office straight away."

Eva's stomach dropped. She'd forgotten all about the phone incident and the prospect of being expelled. Now that she'd made up with Roxanne and been assigned a fun new project by Professor Babbling, she very much would like to stay at Hogwarts after all. Heart racing, she made her way straight to the Headmaster's Office, announcing the password and striding up the spiral steps.

Harry was absent when she walked into the large circular room. The portraits on the wall were snoozing lazily, as the sun cast warm, sleepy rays into the space. Eva was too restless to sit down, so she paced about the office, examining the trinkets on Potter's desk, reading the titles of the books on the shelves. Some of them sounded extremely dark and foreboding, like Magick Moste Evile; she dared not even run her finger down the spine out of caution.

She strolled over to a glass display case on the far wall and examined it. With a start, she recognized the objects within at once. A frayed leather diary; a broken locket; a shattered tiara; a pierced cup; a fractured ring; a rotting snake skin. Lord Voldemort's Horcruxes, once housing pieces of his soul, now destroyed and kept as mementos. A chill ran down Eva's spine as she examined the artifacts, recognizing just how dangerous they once were.

"Admiring my collection?" a voice said from across the room. Eva jumped; Harry had appeared behind his desk without a sound, smiling mysteriously at her.

"Yes, sir," Eva said reverently. "I've read about them, of course, but never thought—"

"That I would keep them?" Harry chuckled. "I considered keeping it all a secret, you know. How he became immortal. But I thought it would be the easiest way to show people how truly depraved he was, and why he needed to be stopped."

"How long did it take you after the war ended?" Eva asked. "To find them all?"

"Oh, within a few weeks," Harry shrugged. "Quite simple, actually. But come, we have much to discuss and not a lot of time."

Eva frowned at the vague answer but did not press the issue. She sat tentatively across the desk from the Headmaster, studying his gaze. "I'd just like to say that I'm sorry, sir," she blurted out before he could say anything. "I was out of line with Professor Weasley."

"Yes, you were," Harry nodded.

"I have apologized to her, and I do not intend to help any other students with their Muggle devices in the future," she said.

"Professor Babbling told me how you managed it," said Harry. "Quite an impressive combination of charms and runes. Very innovative."

"I accept whatever punishment you have for me," Eva said in conclusion. "Even expulsion."

Harry unexpectedly laughed at this. "Miss Weasley was quite adamant on that point," he said. "I was forced to remind her of the many rules she and I broke during our time at the school. Did you know she once set a basilisk on the student body and Petrified six people? Unknowingly, of course, but I figure if she got off with a slap on the wrist then, a simple phone infraction should warrant nothing different."

"Thank you, sir," Eva said, relieved.

"Incidentally, that is not the reason I have summoned you here today," Harry went on.

"It's not?" Eva frowned.

"It is time," Harry said, "for me to explain to you what I have been studying for the past few years. I have encountered several obstacles along the way, and I think it's best that I bring in a fresh set of eyes to see if there's anything I might have missed."

"Oh," said Eva, heart thumping a little. Was she about to learn more about the motives behind the Headmaster's odd behavior over the past year? Did he truly trust her enough to divulge secrets with her? "What have you been studying, sir?"

"It is time," Harry repeated, absentmindedly playing with the black ring on his finger.

"You've said that already, Professor," Eva frowned, confused.

"No, Miss Prewitt," said Harry, turning to face her fully. "It is time."

"Time, sir?"

"Have you said hello to Archimedes since you walked in?" Harry asked her.

Eva turned towards the magnificent phoenix in his cage, but to her horror, he looked decrepit and wilting. His feathers had turned a dull coppery gray, and his head drooped low, clearly lacking the energy to hold it upright.

"He's dying!" Eva gasped.

"It is Burning Day," Harry corrected, walking over to the cage and opening it. "A wondrous day for a phoenix. A day of rebirth and rejuvenation." Harry reached into the cage and carefully lifted the bird from its perch. Archimedes clucked his beak in irritation, but didn't have the strength to fight. Harry carried the bird over to his desk and set it directly at its center, where Archimedes swayed slightly but maintained his balance.

"We are going to observe the process carefully, Miss Prewitt," said Harry. "And you are going to use the Sight."

"The Sight?" Eva asked, feigning ignorance, but Harry pinned her with a knowing stare.

"My contact at the Ministry notified me that a Hogwarts student checked out Essence of Thought last winter," Harry explained. "It didn't take long to put two and two together. You've been experimenting with the Draught of Omniscience; do not deny it."

Eva stammered for an explanation, an excuse to explain away her actions. But before she could do so, Archimedes began to glow white-hot and flames began to consume him. "Quickly now, Eva, the Sight!" said Harry urgently. There was no time to argue. Legilimens, Eva thought, and she turned her mental efforts towards the majestic bird.

The flames burned so bright that Eva had to close her eyes and watch only through the Sight. The jagged semi-circle of fire swirled around Archimedes as he was consumed in the inferno. Then, the symbol of death appeared, the same one attributed to the Killing Curse in Granger's book: a seven-pointed star, emerging in multitudes from the bird. Eva heard a soft thump as Archimedes slumped over on the desk, dead, and the symbols ceased.

"Now, look closely, Eva," Harry instructed. Eva opened her eyes to see that the flames had subsided, and Archimedes had crumbled to ash. But from the center of the charred pile emerged a small figure, as a baby phoenix emerged from the rubble, blinking its tiny eyes to adjust to the light. A new symbol was wafting off of the tiny thing, one that Eva had never seen before: a perfect circle inscribed with a vertical line. She frowned; she didn't recognize it from The Language of Magic or any other spell she'd ever seen.

"Time," Harry said, answering the unspoken question. "A mysterious property we wizards have only begun to grasp. For the phoenix, it is second-nature: a never-ending cycle of death and rebirth. And yet the nature of the thing itself is unchanged, bounded by time, which is woven into its very being."

"How do you know the symbol represents time, sir?" asked Eva.

Harry responded by drawing his wand. "Tempus," he said. Above the desk, the current time was displayed in midair. With her Sight still active, Eva could see the same circular symbol floating among the shimmering digits. She had never thought to study that spell during her experiments, but it made perfect sense to her now.

"So the phoenix doesn't actually die," Eva said slowly, trying to wrap her head around this development. "Instead time prevents it from death, and the rebirth can begin immediately?"

"That is the question I have been trying to answer," Harry acknowledged. He scooped up the baby bird from his desk and gently placed it at the bottom of its cage. "Some form of death certainly seems to occur, given the appearance of the star symbol. My suspicion is that rather than prevent death, time instead accelerates it. Rather than allow the organic material of the phoenix to reenter the natural world and seek life in some new form elsewhere, it maintains its original form."

"That makes sense," Eva nodded slowly.

"What you must understand," said Harry, returning to his seat behind the desk, "is that I am not actually studying phoenixes. Archimedes here was useful in helping me grasp the concept of time, but it did not address the problem I was actually attempting to solve."

"Which is what, sir?" Eva asked, trying not to sound too eager.

Harry continued playing with the ring on his finger, deep in thought. "What do you know of the Deathly Hallows, Evangeline?" he asked.

Eva's eyebrows shot up. "The Hallows?" she repeated. "Only schoolyard fairy tales, sir. They were three mythical objects said to be created by Death. A powerful wand, a resurrection stone, and an infallible invisibility cloak."

"Do you recall the symbol of the Hallows?" Harry asked.

"Erm...I don't, sir," Eva frowned.

Harry once more brandished his wand and waved it in the air. "The stone," he said, drawing a circle in bright light above their heads. "The wand." He drew a straight vertical line within the circle. "And the cloak." He traced a triangle around the circle. "Now, I always thought a triangle was an odd way to represent a cloak. But can you see what else this symbol might represent?"

Eva studied the odd symbol for a moment. Then, she gasped. The inscribed circle. The triangle. She knew exactly what it represented now.

"Time, Miss Prewitt," Harry smiled, waving his wand to rotate the symbol so the triangle was upside-down. "Time, and prevention. Two symbols joined into one." He separated the symbol into its two halves, side by side, to demonstrate the two effects. The circle and line, representing time, as seen in the phoenix; and the triangle, representing the inverse.

"So you think the Hallows can stop time?" Eva asked.

"You tell me," Harry asked. "Use the Sight." And he removed the black ring from his finger, placing it on the desk directly in front of her. Eva picked it up, using the Sight to examine it. To her astonishment, the symbol of the Deathly Hallows was wafting off of the stone inset within the ring, swirling all around it. And when she looked closer, the symbol was actually inscribed into the stone itself, making it visible even without the Sight.

"This is a Hallow?" Eva asked breathlessly. "This is the Resurrection Stone?"

Harry responded by placing his wand on the desk between them. He then shrugged out of the silvery cloak draped over his shoulders and folded it neatly beside the wand, inviting Eva to look more closely. Both the wand and the cloak too were surrounded by the swirling symbol of the Hallows. Her stomach lurched.

"They really exist," she whispered reverently.

"Do you know what they say about the Hallows when they are united, Miss Prewitt?" asked Harry, taking the three objects back from her. "What it does to the holder?"

"Master of Death," she breathed, heart pounding excitedly in her chest.

"Yes, an unfortunate misnomer, I'm afraid," Harry smiled sadly. "You see, as much as I would love to be immortal, holding these three objects does not prevent me from dying. You could strike me down with a Killing Curse and I would fall like any mortal man. But it appears to grant mastery of something else. Something we understand even less than death itself."

"Time," Eva realized.

"How old do you think I am, Miss Prewitt?" Harry asked. "If you had to venture a guess."

"Thirty-five," she said confidently. She knew precisely the day he'd been born, in 1980. But now that she said it, she realized what an odd answer it was. Half of her professors were of the same age, and they were starting to display signs of their aging. Receding hair lines, wrinkled brows, graying hair color. But Harry appeared as youthful and fair-skinned as many of the teenagers who roamed these halls. His hair was still pitch-black and vibrant; his green eyes unmarred by wrinkles.

"I was twenty-three years old when I defeated Voldemort," said Harry. "And I won this from him, uniting the Hallows." He twirled the Elder Wand in his fingers contemplatively. "Ever since then, I don't believe I have aged a day. Something about possessing these objects has allowed me to retain my twenty-three year old body, even as my peers continue to age. Why do you suppose that is?"

Eva considered the effects that the triangle and time symbols put together might have. "Perhaps the Hallows prevent time from acting upon your body," she suggested. "So the natural aging process cannot occur."

"I believe that is correct," said Harry. "Watch closely now."

Harry pointed his wand at Archimedes' cage and closed his eyes to channel a spell. Eva watched with the Sight as the time symbol materialized around his wand, then shot across the room towards the phoenix. To her astonishment, the baby bird began to rapidly grow, filling the cage rapidly as Archimedes progressed into adult form, furiously squawking his discontent. The phoenix's feathers turned a bright red, then gradually back to the burnt copper Eva had seen earlier. Then, with a mighty burst of flames, Archimedes burnt to ash, and he was back to baby form, cooing softly from the bottom of the cage once more.

"Time marches on in a single direction," Harry explained. "It can be slowed, and it can be accelerated, but it cannot be reversed. Archimedes here is repulsed by the Hallows, as though they represent something unnatural to him. To stop or even slow time is against the nature of a phoenix, for whom death is a part of life."

"Is that the problem you're trying to solve?" Eva asked. "How to be reborn after death?"

Harry chuckled. "No, but good guess," he said. "Unlike Lord Voldemort, I do not crave immortality. When the moment comes, I will remove these objects and accept the unstoppable march of time. But there is something I must do before I allow my body to begin the degeneration process. Something I have yet to understand, but is necessary to save this failing planet we live upon."

"And what is that?" asked Eva.

"That, I'm afraid, is a topic for another day," Harry grinned cryptically. "But I would like for you to think about what we've discussed today, and see what you can learn about the mysteries of time. I would hate for that Draught of yours to go to waste."

Eva still wasn't entirely sure if Harry disapproved of her illegal brewing activities. But as long as he said nothing explicitly against it, she wouldn't say anything confirming or denying his claims. Ask forgiveness, not permission, as they say, Eva thought.

Something else was weighing on her mind, however. "S-sir?" she asked tentatively. "Would it be possible to...to use that Stone of yours? So I can speak to my parents one last time?" Her voice caught in her throat at these words, choked by emotion as she realized the immense power of that black stone before her and what it could mean to use it.

Harry surveyed Eva carefully, a pained expression visible on his brow. "I'm afraid not, Miss Thomas," he said softly. "You must realize that the spirits produced by the Stone have only one purpose: to draw you closer to your own death. No matter who you summon, they will always seek to drive you over the edge to suicide, to drag you to the afterlife alongside them. Such is the tragedy of Cadmus Peverell, and I would hate to see you make the same mistake."

Eva figured as much. Her heart sank a little as the prospect of seeing her mum and dad faded, but she knew it was for the best. "Thank you, sir," she said, bowing politely and standing. "I will see what I can learn about time in my own research."

"One last thing before you go, Eva," said Harry. "A riddle...what happens when an unblockable spell meets an unbreakable rune?"

"Erm...I'm not sure, Professor," Eva said, frowning at the odd turn of phrase, tilting her head in search of an answer.

"Only time will tell," Harry smiled cryptically. "Good night, Miss Thomas."

Eva exited the office, mind racing. She had no idea what to make of this riddle, or what Harry hoped to achieve in his study of time. All she knew was that she had a decent idea of what her Ancient Runes self-study project would be about…