After a restless night, I woke up from the bright sunlight peeking through the curtains. Shit, is it that late already?
Apart from Tracey, the other girls in our dorm had already left for breakfast. I slid out of bed and roughly shook her awake.
"Evelyn, stop it!" Tracey angrily yelled at me, and covered her head under her blankets. OK, I admit, she had a good reason for yelling at me, I'm not the most tactful person, I suppose.
"We're getting late for breakfast, I'm hungry!" I called back. Tracey grunted in protest.
"I'm not hungry, leave me alone," she said with a muffled voice from underneath her blanket. It was only now that I noticed a foul smell oozing from my friend.
"Tracey, are you well?" I asked, annoyance transformed into concern for my friend's well-being.
"Leave me alone, I've got a headache," she mumbled. I looked at her and felt bad for her as she lay in her bed, so hopelessly hung over. I grabbed my wand and pointed it at her head as I whispered the healing spell - Episkey.
"Ouch, Evelyn! Stop it! What are you doing?" Tracey shouted out angrily. OK, so that didn't work the way I'd planned it.
I gave up on getting Tracey out of bed and went down to the Great Hall to get us some food and water, but when I got there breakfast was already finished. My stomach grumbled in protest but there was nothing I could do.
Hungry and disappointed (eating is my favourite hobby in case you didn't know) I headed back to the Common Room when I was stopped in my tracks by the delicious smell of freshly baked bacon and eggs.
I followed my nose into an undiscovered corridor until I reached what was soon to be my favourite part of the castle: the Kitchens!
The room was enormous, perhaps as large as the Great Hall. There were heaps of pots and pans hanging on the stone walls. Long, yet low wooden tables stood in the centre and at the end of the room there was a big fireplace. Strange creatures were working hard, cleaning dishes and scrubbing pots. They looked kind of like a small, hairless child, but with bigger eyes and pointy ears. Instead of clothes, they wore old rags.
"Hi again!" I heard a faintly familiar voice to my left. It was one of the red-haired boys - Fred and George - who'd told me how to get to the Defence Against the Dark Arts class a few days ago. He and his brother were sitting at one of the large tables, enjoying a plate filled with the bacon and eggs I had smelled before.
"Hi!" I smiled as I sat down opposite them. "Thanks for giving me directions to class the other day! I hope Snape didn't give you any trouble for being late?"
"Nah, he wouldn't dare," Fred said.
"He loves us too much to be mad at us for long," George added. We chuckled at the joke.
My stomach grumbled loudly as a whiff of bacon entered my nostrils.
"Did you miss breakfast too? Tabby will cook you something up!" Fred said as he gestured towards one of the creatures. He or she - I couldn't really tell - immediately put a frying pan on the fire.
"Thanks, Fred. What are these creatures?" The boys dropped their jaws and raised their eyebrows. I guess that's another thing I'm expected to know as a witch, I suppose.
"I can't believe it!" Fred said and George agreed incredulously. "You must be the first person ever who is able to tell us apart!"
"Not even our own mother has that ability!" They were staring at me in awe for quite some time. I got a bit uncomfortable, to be honest.
"I have a knack for remembering faces, I guess?" I said, trying to break the awkward silence.
The twins responded with a huge smile. Tabby was done with cooking the bacon and eggs and put a filled plate in front of me. My stomach grumbled again and I dug in.
"So what kind of creature is Tabby?" I whispered to Fred and George as I did not want to insult Tabby and the other creatures.
"She's a house-elf, of course!" Fred said, slightly surprised.
"So you're Muggle-born?" George asked. I shook my head and explained the situation to them. They were very understanding and didn't seem to hold a grudge against Muggles. They kept me company while I finished my breakfast and they told me very brave and somewhat unbelievable stories about the pranks they pulled during their time at Hogwarts.
"Oh, the things we've seen and done, Evelyn," George mused after telling me a story on how they supplied the poltergeist Peeves with some dung bombs to throw at Filch - the Hogwarts caretaker.
"You should've seen it, Evelyn. It was hilarious, I've never seen Filch so angry before," Fred said.
"And the smell! The smell lasted for several weeks!" George laughed.
I was happy to have befriended the twins, I imagined I would run into them more often now that I'd discovered where to get food, whenever I wanted.
Still grinning from Fred and George's jokes, I returned to the common room with a plate of bacon for Tracey. She was nowhere to be found though, so I put the plate on her bedside table.
I wanted to go downstairs again, when I remembered the promise I'd made to Theodore the night before. I opened my trunk and took out the leather-bound diary. I felt butterflies rising in my belly again. I hadn't looked at it anymore since that fateful night.
The photo of my Mum was moving again. I ignored it and turned the first page and started reading.
Reading the diary again, now that I had a broader understanding of the magic world, made me realise a few things. My Mum had written about the Book of Acceptance (which I hadn't picked up on during my previous reads). It wasn't much, but it was something:
"I accidentally dropped Evelyn. She did not get hurt as she landed on a pillow, created by her own imagination. The child is already exhibiting magical tendencies. I feel like I should be proud. In a way I am, but she reminds me of her father. Which reminds me of that horrid night. She makes me sick.
I cannot be associated with that slippery eel, no one can know about her. It is highly likely that her name is now written in the Book of Acceptance since she exhibited magic. I will send the Elf to resolve it."
And the next entry read:
"It is done. Her name has been erased from the book for good. At least there is one thing that Elf is good for."
That was all. There were no details about how she'd done it. And the Elf she's talking about, could it have been a House Elf? I kept reading the entries over and over again, hoping to figure out the answers, but it was pointless.
"Hey, what are you reading?" Tracey said as she walked into the dorm. I looked up from the diary and smiled at her.
"Feeling any better?"
She smirked. "A little. I'm still a bit dizzy, though." She sat down next to me on my bed, forcing a sleepy Dusk onto her lap. He didn't like it and tried to escape in vain.
"Is that your diary?" Tracey said, shamelessly reading along over my shoulder.
"No, it's my Mum's," I admitted. I felt like I could trust Tracey, but still...I found it difficult to entrust her with the contents of the diary since my Mum had written down her opinion of me quite bluntly. Furthermore, my Mum was not very fond of Muggles and mudbloods, which might be offensive to Tracey given the fact that her grandfather was a Muggle.
I decided that it was too soon to throw something like this on her, even though it would be nice to read it together with someone who has a better understanding of the magic world.
"Let's go to the library, we still have a ton of work to do!" I proposed.
The library was filled with students, yet it was very quiet. Madam Pince did an excellent job in keeping it so. Tracey and I had found a spot somewhere at the back, tucked away in a corner. Half a dozen books littered our desks while we were writing an essay for our next History of Magic class on Abramalin the Mage, who had been a talented Egyptian wizard in the 15th century.
I have to say, reading about this stuff was a lot more interesting than listening to that dreary, monotonous voice of Professor Binns. Still, it was all in the past so I didn't really see the point of studying it and couldn't keep my attention for long.
"I'm done for today with this boring, dry stuff. I still need to write an essay for Transfigurations as well," I said while getting up, dragging my chair across the wooden floor noisily.
Even though we were sitting quite far away from her desk, Pince quickly walked up to me and ssh'd me. Wow, she's made for this job. I rolled my eyes at Tracey, but kept my mouth shut and decided to be more careful next time.
I had no idea where the Transfiguration section was so I was walking around the library a bit lost. It was fine though, some of the titles I came across sounded very interesting: How to Train a Dragon, Five Charms for your In-Laws and The Muggle Survival Handbook - how to survive the Muggle World without Magic.
I turned another corner and found myself face-to-face with the white-haired boy with the pointy face.
"Draco!" I blurted.
"Evelyn, hi," he said, avoiding eye contact. I could taste the tension between us. Time to clear the air, Evelyn!
"Draco, about what happened at the Owlery the other day–" I began, but he cut me short.
"Forget about, I get it. You're in love with someone else."
I gasped. I knew I shouldn't have talked to Tracey about this with other people around.
"No, I'm not," I said with a slight of irritation in my voice. I was still mad at Tom, and even more so because even though he was out of my life he was still ruining things.
Draco looked me in the eyes and I felt something stir in my belly.
"I'm sorry I ruined our moment..." I had wanted to say more, but we were interrupted by Pince - could her timing have been more off?
"You again!" she snapped at me. "This is your final warning!" I nodded quickly. This woman's fierce! I was hoping she'd go away so I could talk to Draco a bit more, but she just stood there, watching us.
"See you around, Evelyn," Draco said and he turned around.
Still a bit perplexed I turned around to face Pince. Should I ask her where to find the Transfiguration section?
Right after dinner - we had shepherd's pie, and chocolate pudding for desert - Tracey and I were lost in deep conversation on the Holyhead Harpies when all of a sudden Snape stood behind me.
"Ross?" he asked in his low voice. Or well, actually it was more of a statement than a question. Anyway, as I hadn't noticed him standing behind me, he gave me quite a start.
"Yes?" I asked, anticipating some kind of reprimand or whatever.
"The Headmaster wishes to speak to you, Ross. In his office, now," he stated curtly. Could you look more enthusiastic?
"Oh, why?" I asked. Snape rolled his eyes.
"I don't know, nor do I care. Follow me."
He's such a pleasant man, what's not to love about him?
I looked at Tracey with my eyebrows raised and she gave me a thumbs up for support. Whatever could it be that Professor Dumbledore wanted to see me about, I wondered?