━━━━━━ CHAPTER NINETEEN.
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"bet you loved that, didn't you, potter?" said a cold, wandering voice as they began to walk out of a great scene that lockhart had created. evelyn turned to look at a blond boy who was wearing an evident sneer.
"famous harry potter," he said. "can't even go into a bookshop without making the front page."
"leave him alone, malfoy," cindy scowled.
"you've got your girlfriend sticking up for you now, eh?" the malfoy boy sniggered.
after a whole lot of begging, harry potter had convinced his family to go back to school shopping with the weasleys, grangers, and diggorys. while trying to buy their textbooks, gilderoy lockhart had pulled harry in, making a huge fuss over 'the chosen one'. now, remus and lily were off to get lockhart's autograph, james, sirius, mr. and mrs. weasley were picking up books, fred, george, cedric, and sebastian were off somewhere, and they were face to face with a blonde git evelyn and lani had known all too well.
as cindy turned red, ron and hermione fought their way over, both clutching stacks of lockhart's books.
"oh, it's you," ron said, looking at malfoy as if he was something unpleasant on the sole of his shoe. "what, are you surprised to see harry here?"
"not as surprised as i am to see you in a shop, weasley," retorted malfoy. "i suppose your parents will go hungry for a month to pay for all those."
ron went even redder than cindy. he dropped his books into the cauldron, too, and started towards malfoy, but harry and hermione grabbed the back of his jacket.
"ron!" said mr. weasley, struggling over with fred, george, and ginny. "what are you doing? it's too crowded in here, let's go outside."
"well, well, well—arthur weasley."
it was mr. malfoy. he stood with his hand on his son's shoulder, sneering in just the same way.
"lucius," said mr. weasley, nodding coldly.
"busy time at the ministry, i hear," said mr. malfoy. "all those raids... i hope they're paying you overtime?"
he reached into ginny's cauldron and extracted, from amid the glossy lockhart books, a very old, very battered copy of a beginner's guide to transfiguration.
"obviously not," mr. malfoy said. "dear me, what's the use of being a disgrace to the name of wizard if they don't even pay you well for it?"
mr. weasley flushed darker than either ron or cindy.
"we have a very different idea of what disgraces the name of wizard, malfoy," he said.
"clearly," said mr. malfoy, his pale eyes straying to mr. and mrs. granger, who were watching apprehensively. "the company you keep, weasley... and i thought your family could sink no lower—"
there was a thud of metal as ginny's cauldron went flying; mr. weasley had thrown himself at mr. malfoy, knocking him backward into a bookshelf. dozens of heavy spellbooks came thundering down on all their heads; there was a yell of, "get him, dad!" from fred or george; mrs. weasley was shrieking, "no, arthur, no!" the crowd stampeded backward, knocking more shelves over; "gentlemen, please—please!" cried the assistant, and then, louder than all, "break it up, there, gents, break it up—"
hagrid was wading toward them through the sea of books. in an instant he had pulled mr. weasley and mr. malfoy apart. mr. weasley had a cut lip and mr. malfoy had been hit in the eye by an encyclopedia of toadstools. he was still holding ginny's old transfiguration book. he thrust it at her, his eyes glittering with malice.
"here, girl—take your book—it's the best your father can give you—" pulling himself out of hagrid's grip, he beckoned to draco and swept from the shop.
the memory had washed over evelyn's brain in a flash; she had now realized that she hadn't taken notice of the small blonde girl standing by lucius malfoy's side, nor the book that he had secretly slipped into ginny weasley's cauldron.
"i'm sorry," carina whispered, nervously looking into evelyn's face. "i'm sorry he did that, you know how he is—"
"doesn't matter," evelyn interrupted. "it's over now, she's okay."
"ev—"
"it's fine," she reassured carina again. it absolutely was not fine, yet evelyn figured that they did not need anything else getting in the way of everything going back to normal again. "let's go back in, shall we?"
***
now, evelyn thought the christmas feast was extraordinary, but this one had to be ten times better. the students of hogwarts were all in their pajamas, and the celebration lasted all night. the great hall was filled with children and teachers, even hagrid decided to show up. yet nothing compared to how they felt around fifteen minutes after midnight.
"hi potter," owen tapped on evelyn's shoulder shyly, smiling. not far behind him were thea, max, and max's revolting cologne smell. they were eyeing the group and speaking to each other quietly.
"hi!" evelyn turned from carina, who was drawing on her hand while rory and ginny were watching a very heated chess match between ron and cindy. evelyn awkwardly looked past owen's shoulder to look at his two friends. thea noticed her staring and hit max, who was in the middle of what looked like quite a disrespectful statement. she waved at evelyn, and evelyn waved back.
"y'know they can come over here right?"
owen shrugged, sighing at the two. just then, lani rushed towards them with a bowl.
"hey," she smirked, jumping onto the gryffindor table and taking a seat on it, rubbing a grape in between her fingers. "hey, ev. catch?"
before evelyn could answer, max came over and walked straight to lani.
"what did i tell you?" he folded his arms. "i told you—there was no way slytherin's heir was a slytherin. what do you have to say now?"
lani gave him a disgusted look. "get lost, rowle."
"you're quite bold, black," thea had now stepped forward, slightly moving max back with her hand on his shoulder. "we haven't done anything to you, and last time i checked, we weren't talking to you either."
lani opened her mouth furiously to respond, but owen interrupted.
"c'mon, have a heart," he frowned. "they're cool."
she closed her mouth slowly, looking at max and thea one last time. thea pressed her lips together and max narrowed his eyes.
"sure," she said dully before turning back to evelyn. "you ready?"
evelyn rose an eyebrow playfully and opened her mouth widely. she mumbled out a, "try me."
her mouth continued to hang open, waiting for her friend to make her attempt of throwing the grape; but the grape never came. it had to be about fifteen seconds when evelyn clamped her mouth shut and opened her eyes puzzled.
"why—"
but her words seemed to drift away from her mouth as she followed lani's eyes to where they were planted across the great hall. about five feet away was benjamin, unpetrified, dashing down the hall with a huge grin on his face. rory spent no time bolting in his direction.
"benji!" she screeched, jumping into his arms. her arms wrapped around his neck as he giggled into her shoulder. "oh, benji, you're alright!"
"'course he is," lani laughed, her and carina now joining in on the hug. "you can never kill a protector."
rory, lani, and carina then pulled away, revealing benjamin to the rest of them.
"ev?" he smiled. "you miss me?"
evelyn let out a scoff, "not a chance."
but her words were said as she rushed towards him tearfully, embracing him. she felt his arms close around her and she closed her eyes, afraid that if she opened them again this would all be some sort of dream. yet when he pulled away and she opened her eyes, there he was. benjamin, their benjamin, as real as ever.
"ginny," he then said, sighing. "merlin, gin, how did you get caught up in all this?"
"i could ask you the same question," ginny shrugged as she grinned sheepishly. "i'm sorry, ben."
"couldn't get upset at you even if i tried," he smiled. "i have to give it to you lani, you were right about one thing this whole time."
lani smiled broadly as the others looked between them in confusion. "i had told him that i thought ginny had something to do with all this during christmas. i didn't think you'd be working right alongside the dark lord himself—but doesn't sound so stupid after all, does it?"
benjamin shook his head at lani's small remark and ginny bit her lip, mumbling another, "sorry."
"it's good to have you back," owen stepped forward, his hand outstretched. evelyn smiled amusingly at his modesty.
"i—thank you?" benjamin responded with slightly widened eyes, hesitantly shaking his hand.
max, however, turned away from them without saying a word. thea scowled as she watched him bitterly make his way back to the slytherin table.
"let's go, owen?"
"sure," he said and waved at the others. "bye!"
"bye," they all said in unison.
"bloody idiot," lani snarled in max's direction. "he's got a lot of nerve, showing up to the gryffindor table, and—"
evelyn had no interest in whatever leilani was about to pull out of her ass, so she made her way to her brother.
"hermione!" she gasped. hermione granger was sat in between harry and neville longbottom, smiling as she glanced around the great hall. "you're back!"
"hi, evelyn!" hermione got up to give her a hug. "good to see you again, i can't believe you all solved it!"
"good to see you too," evelyn attempted not to look too happy about her brief statement on them defeating tom riddle. she turned to harry, who was already looking up at her knowingly.
"harry james," she frowned.
"evelyn lily," he automatically responded.
"i told you to be careful."
"i reckon you should follow your own advice," he tilted his head at her.
evelyn rolled her eyes amusingly, "i guess i should."
harry nodded proudly, knowing he had won as she had closed the topic so easily. she refrained from rolling her eyes again.
"thanks for saving ginny's body," she suddenly said.
harry shrugged nonchalantly. "thanks for saving her soul, i guess i—"
he winced before finishing his sentence.
"—underestimated you."
this time, evelyn had no problem showing her grin. no matter how many times harry had won an argument, she had always found a way to bounce up to his level.
the rest of the final term passed in a haze of blazing sunshine. hogwarts was back to normal with only a few, small differences—defense against the dark arts classes were canceled and lucius malfoy had been sacked as a school governor. draco was no longer strutting around the school as though he owned the place. on the contrary, he looked resentful and sulky. on the other hand, ginny was perfectly happy again.
the day of departure rolled around sooner or later. the morning of, evelyn and ginny had hurriedly packed everything in her dormitory, as they left it last minute. in the process, she had found the walkie-talkies she meant to give carina and rory during christmas. she had also found the christmas present her family had sent her from home, it being the usual bag of sweets and goods they usually gave her. remus had also thrown in a muggle novel, writing a short note on the cover page on how it was 'meant to be a good one'.
"hey, ginny?" evelyn said whilst being underneath her bed.
"yeah?"
"did you actually send harry that valentine's poem?"
evelyn peaked her head out just in time to see ginny's face to red. her eyes narrowed.
"i—um—" ginny stuttered. "it was just—i didn't mean—"
"i don't care," evelyn chuckled, hiding her disgusted expression by going back under her bed. "you can like him."
she heard ginny let out a breath before saying, "he's cute."
"sure he is," evelyn responded impassively.
too soon, it was time for their journey back to king's cross. the group had agreed to sharing a compartment with harry, ron, hermione, and cindy.
"so, the book helped you out?" benjamin whispered to evelyn as they got on the hogwarts express.
"it did," she nodded. "a lot. like, i wouldn't have been able to do anything without it."
"so this is really helpful?" carina let out a whistle. "guess we better hold onto it."
"who wants it?" evelyn asked.
"i wouldn't mind taking it," rory replied. "it's not everyday a muggle girl owns something like this, y'know."
so they agreed on rory's possession of the book before sitting in their compartment. they made the most of the last few hours in which they were allowed to do magic before the holidays. they played exploding snap before they were interrupted by fred, george, and sebastian entering, sebastian muttering something about leaving cedric and lee jordan to deal with the ladies. regardless, they continued to play, set off the very last of fred and george's filibuster fireworks, and practiced disarming each other by magic.
"ginny—what did you see percy doing, that he didn't want you to tell anyone?" harry suddenly asked.
"oh, that," ginny giggled. "well—percy's got a girlfriend."
fred dropped a stack of books on george's head.
"what?"
"it's that ravenclaw prefect, penelope clearwater," said ginny. "that's who he was writing to all last summer. he's been meeting her all over the school in secret. i walked in on them kissing in an empty classroom one day. he was so upset when she was—you know—attacked. you won't tease him, will you?" she added anxiously.
"wouldn't dream of it," said fred, who was looking like his birthday had come early.
"definitely not," said george, sniggering.
the hogwarts express eventually came to a stop.
"oh, ginny, ron, fred, george!" mrs. weasley came right to the opening of the train, kissing each of her children as they walked past her. ron and ginny exchanged embarrassed looks.
"hello mrs. weasley," evelyn said polietly, smiling.
"hello, dearie," she gave evelyn a hug. "i believe i saw your family over there."
evelyn turned to where her finger was pointed, but instead of seeing her family, she saw a great black dog rushing towards them.
"padfoot!" she groaned, stifling her laughter as the dog now licked her face affectionately. evelyn wiped her face as the canine pounced on sebastian.
"carina!" they heard a cold voice call. the malfoys were planted in the center of king's cross, looking at their surroundings dully. lucius was calling his daughter over bitterly. "carina, get over here now, don't be a fool."
carina's breath hitched. "yes, father."
before she had taken a step, rory grabbed her wrist.
"write to us, please?"
carina nodded, anxiously rushing over to her family.
"you'll need to wash your hand after that mudblood touched you," evelyn heard draco malfoy spit at his sister. "don't forget to scrub!"
"shush, draco!" carina whined, pushing him away. draco opened his mouth to respond, but quickly shut it under his father's glare.
"awful, aren't they?" benjamin whispered.
"they sure are," they now heard sirius' voice behind them. evelyn gave him a knowing look before letting him pull her and lani in for a hug. james, lily, and remus eventually made their way to them, beaming.
"there are my little monster killers!" james roared.
"i'm think i'm going to be sick," harry shook his head, hiding his face in cindy's back.
"relax," cindy laughed, watching cedric get off the train. "i better head out, are we going to see each other this summer?"
"i'm going to be away on vacation for some time," hermione replied. "but i would love to once i get back!"
"yep, you know where to find me," harry nodded. "and you're always welcome at my place."
"we know," cindy smiled, hugging her best friends. "see you soon, stay safe."
"bye," harry and hermione said in unison.
"shouldn't we get going too?" remus asked.
"yes," lily agreed. "yes, we should."
"okay," evelyn said.
"you better write," rory's eyebrows rose.
"sure, in between every meal," lani replied sarcastically.
"if you need to reach me, we always have the talkie things," evelyn gave them a wink.
"walkie-talkies," benjamin sighed.
"those," she nodded. "i'll see you guys soon?"
"goodbye, ev, lani," rory hugged them. "i wish you both well."
"yeah, bye!" benjamin gave them a friendly wave.
and they waved back happily, turning away from the crowd of witches and wizards, walking back through the gateway to the muggle world.
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b's notes
why am i lowkey emotional over the fact that their first year is officially over
i also wrote most of this at like 3 am before school so bear with me if this chapter doesn't make sense