The sweet, almost melodious sound of Cassiopeia's breathing filled the dark dormitory. It contrasted greatly to Olive Hornby's gentle, yet rather nasty snores, which were being muffled by her own pillow.
Evangeline, on the other hand, made no noise as she slipped from her sheets, wrapped her shivering figure in a cloak, and exited the dormitory with her book bag in hand. Once she had ensured that she had no unwanted company in the common room, the half-angel pulled her wand from her robes and pressed it to the parting in her hair. She muttered an incantation under her breath and watched as it slowly turned her hands invisible in front of her very own eyes.
She gave a satisfactory sigh and swiftly exited Ravenclaw Tower to make her way to the Hogwarts Library. Soon after a very close encounter with a particularly rowdy poltergeist, Evangeline found herself standing in front of rows and rows of bookshelves that could not have been shorter than ten meters. The isles had all sorts of categorical markings, including "Sea Creatures," "Muggle Electricity," and "Wizarding Heroes of the 19th Century."
The only isle that caught her eyes, however, was the one marked "Human Transfiguration." She took a few long strides towards the shelves, only to stop several meters away when she realized a large lock had been chained across that section of the library to block off the shelf she was headed towards and a handful of others that had much gorier labels.
She blinked, nonplussed, and looked down to read the sign below the rusting lock:
Restricted Section
Not meant for the use of students without a teacher's signed permission. Offenders of this rule will face serious repercussions.
The girl pulled a face.
Do I look like I give a shit? ...Oh Merlin, how I love freedom of speech. Let's see just how far I can push my boundaries, shall we?
And with that, Evangeline pressed a finger to the lock and felt her mouth pull into a smug position when she heard the click and soft thud of the lock opening and falling heavily to the carpeted floor. Rule-breaking was truly exhilarating.
Evangeline stepped over the fallen chains that now lay in a line across the entrance to the room and immediately found the books on Animagi in the human transfiguration shelves. She had always been fascinated with the idea of a spirit animal and having the ability to transform into the animal embodiment of your own soul.
She had been sitting on the floor, poring over books under wandlight for around an hour when she heard breathing behind her. Expecting it to be a professor coming to reprimand her for being out of bed after curfew, she turned and opened her mouth with the intention of giving a well-prepared excuse as to why she was where she was.
Instead, she saw another student in green and black robes, towering over her with an unreadable expression on his familiar features. Evangeline's expression became annoyed as she looked down at her very much visible hands.
The spell must have worn off. How long have I been sitting here?
Her question was answered for her when the dark-haired Slytherin said, "It's three in the morning."
"That it is," the girl scowled up at him before returning to her reading.
"What are you doing out of bed?" Riddle now sounded just as annoyed as the Ravenclaw on the ground.
"Reading," she answered shortly.
"I'm a prefect."
Evangeline sighed in frustration, not moving her stormy eyes from her reading, as she replied, "That you are."
"I can report you," he snapped.
"No, you can't."
"What did you just say?" His voice was seething with unconcealed rage.
The girl finally looked back up from her reading, a bored expression on her face. "You're a prefect, not a professor. They don't ask prefects to patrol the corridors at... what time did you say it was?" She feigned confusion before continuing, deadpan. "Right, three in the morning."
A condescending sneer grew on Riddle's face. "Only been here for a day, and you've already been stalking my schedule? Pathetic."
Evangeline snorted. "That's precious, coming from a boy who first made several relentless and unsuccessful attempts to read my mind and then somehow ended up in the Restricted Section after curfew at the same time I was in here minding my own bloody business and reading. I'm not the stalker here, prefect."
She spat out the last word in a mocking way that surprised even herself, though she didn't allow it to show on her face. It was unexplainably liberating to finally be capable of speaking her mind.
A murderous glare settled into Riddle's eyes. She saw the nonverbal wandless hex coming before it could hit her and easily deflected it with a flick of her hand.
"Come now, stalker, you can do better than that." Evangeline didn't move from her place on the floor, instead leaning farther back and planting the palm of her left hand on the carpet behind her; it was quite comfortable there and she really wasn't concerned with this boy's dueling abilities.
His expression showed brief shock under the glow of the wand light before quickly resuming its enraged position.
"You don't want to duel me," the Slytherin said through gritted teeth, his dark eyes flashing dangerously at her.
Evangeline pushed her lips together, trying her best not to laugh at his feeble attempt at intimidation, but failed miserably. She held it in for about a second and a half before bursting out into an uncontrollable fit of giggles. Although she had been trying to stay on the quiet side, his expression, which looked like a cross between confused and infuriated, was making it very hard to contain her laughter.
"What's so funny?" Riddle's voice shook with anger.
The half angel took a few seconds to regain her composition and stood up to face the boy, yet letting her expression remain extremely amused. He was still significantly taller, but that didn't faze her. Instead, she took it as an opportunity to reach a hand up and ruffle his dark locks, which were far too neat for it being so late at night.
"I never tried to duel you. And trust me sweetheart, it's you that doesn't want to duel me." She looked up at him in a manner reminiscent of how one might look at a naive child. That simple look was enough to push his bubbling anger over the edge.
He pulled out his wand and jabbed it in the direction of Evangeline's calm figure, smirking slightly as a large snake slithered out and hissed menacingly at her.
Evangeline's smile only grew as she hissed right back. The prefect's eyes widened as he realized what she was doing.
The snake, on the other hand, immediately lost its threatening demeanor and glided its way around the girl's neck, affectionately resting there like a living scarf.
"You're a Parselmouth." His tone calmed from a voice of anger to one of mild intrigue.
"Surely you know what my surname is?" Her lashes dropped to admire the snake as she stroked the its smooth jade scales.
His jaw clenched stubbornly. "No. And I don't care to find out."
She pushed herself into his mind briefly and chuckled, leaning closer to hiss into his ear. "Liar."
The serpent, upon hearing its own tongue again hissed at him as well, though neither of them were paying attention to its words.
"You read my mind."
Evangeline fought a strong urge to roll her eyes. "You should really stop stating the obvious, stalker. It's getting rather boring."
"You should stop reading my mind."
"Stop being so shit at Occlumency," she shrugged dismissively. "Anyways, as you already know because you've been watching my every move, my surname is Serpens. Do you really expect a family named after the snake shaped constellation to be devoid of Parselmouths?"
Riddle didn't answer, a stony look in his dark eyes.
"Exactly."
"But you're not in Slytherin," he spoke again.
Evangeline finally got so bored with his mundane, matter-of-factly dialogue that she groaned and let her forehead fall defeatedly with a 'smack' onto the book she had been reading.
"Get to the point. Why are you here and what do you want?"
He narrowed his eyes as though she was hiding something (which, to be fair, she was) and said, "I think I should be the one asking you that question."
"That's not how it works, silly. You are the one who sought me out, so you must want something from me."
When the Slytherin didn't speak, she raised an eyebrow and entered his mind again.
'I want to know you,' was all Evangeline heard. Upon returning to her own thoughts, she sent the Slytherin a quizzical look.
"If you wanted to be friends with me, you could have just said so, stalker," she said, her voice edging along the borders of kind and amused.
"I don't want to be friends with you," Riddle said stiffly, clearly irate that she had used Legilimensy on him again, but not voicing his annoyance this time -- most likely to avoid another stab at his Occlumensy skills.
Evangeline didn't try to stop herself from rolling her eyes this time. "Okay, you'd like to know me."
Silence again.
She gave him a disbelieving stare before brushing it off and determinedly continuing. "I'd say the best way to do this is to momentarily forget you've already tracked down all the information you could find on me. So," -- she stuck out a hand and grinned -- "Hi. I'm Evangeline Serpens, a fifth year transfer from Beauxbatons."
There was an awkward moment in which Riddle simply glared suspiciously at her outstretched hand. It was broken by the now impatient Ravenclaw pressing on, "And you are?"
His eyes snapped up from her hand to her eyes, causing Evangeline's breath to hitch suddenly. She'd never seen such dark eyes boring into hers up close, being used to the pale hues that all angels carried in their irises. Even then, however, there was something different about the darkness in the Slytherin's eyes that she could not quite put a finger on. She had a strange feeling that not even eyes the color of obsidian would look darker than his coffee pair.
The boy didn't allow her enough time to think of exactly where she recognized the darkness from, though, because the next thing she knew, his cold hand had gripped firmly onto hers. A little too firmly. His eyes were still focused intensely on hers, almost as though he was trying to see if it would hurt her, or even provoke a reaction. It didn't.
He sighed, seemingly unsatisfied with the lack of response. "Tom Riddle, fifth year Slytherin prefect."
His impassive expression left Evangeline confused as to whether or not he was being playful with his imitation of her emphasis on the last word. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, she permitted a smirk to play at her lips.
"Pleasure."
There was silence again for what felt like the thousandth time in the past ten minutes. Only this time, the undisturbed air was comfortable instead of filled with unsaid tense and irritable words. Until-
"Where did the snake go?" Riddle's low, typically composed voice rose an iota at the realization.
Evangeline's hands rushed up to touch the skin on her neck where the magically conjured serpent had been only minutes before. She let out a short chortle that quickly escalated into badly suppressed laughter when, surely enough, all she felt was her bare collarbone.
"What's so funny?" the Slytherin said for the second time that night, although the anger from the former had been replaced with a trace of bewilderment.
She chose to ignore his question, finding that she didn't quite have an answer to give. Instead, she bent to gather her books, an amused expression lingering stubbornly on her features, before walking past the boy.
"See you in...?" The half-angel's voice trailed off as she looked questioningly back at Riddle from the other side of the chains she'd broken.
"Defense Against the Dark A-" the prefect suddenly clamped his mouth shut, realizing his mistake.
Evangeline let her smirk break out into a triumphant grin as she repeated his words from earlier in the night with a delightedness in her voice that made it evident she had been itching to do so since the moment they'd first come out of his mouth.
"Only been here for a day, and you've already been stalking my schedule?" Her tone, however, held much less spite than his had, a playful nature happily settling in its place. "Good night, stalker."
As she turned to leave, waving a hand to refasten the silver locks that were meant to be guarding the Restricted Section, an irritated voice cut through the soothing hum of the crickets.
"Don't call me that."
Evangeline didn't allow the demand to slow her down on her way out, instead waving her hand dismissively as she tried desperately to tune back into the tranquil chirping of the early morning.
"Anything for you, creeper."
She renewed the invisibility spell and set off walking along the wide halls of the school again, this time not quite sure where she was going. As she wandered aimlessly through the castle, she allowed her fingers to trail gently along the intricate architecture of the walls, stopping only to examine or admire the carvings that travelled across the seemingly ancient stone.
Just as Evangeline was about to walk around a statue of a particularly nasty looking witch, her fingers inadvertently found in a groove right between the statue and the wall. Upon further inspection of the groove, she realized that there was a space concealed behind the stone one-eyed witch where the wall separated to form a small archway. Curious to know more and having nothing else to do, Evangeline attempted to push the witch aside. When manual force did nothing to aid her she tried moving it with magic. She sighed in frustration after that failed as well.
"Specialis Revelio," she whispered, grazing her fingers across the statue, suspecting there might be special enchantments placed on it to ensure only a select few could make use of whatever might be behind the archway.
Evangeline bounced on her toes triumphantly when an image made of light floated itself into the space above the statue. She watched intently as the professor in the image performed a long incantation on the statue and then locked it into place by saying the word, "Dissendium."
The image disappeared, leaving the girl to assume that the professor had been setting up a lock on the statue and that his last word had been the password he'd set. So, clearing her throat, Evangeline whispered "dissendium" to the statue, tapping its hump with her wand to imitate the professor from the image.
She watched with a satisfied expression as the one-eyed witch jumped aside at her gentle tap to reveal a dimly lit passageway.
The half-angel lit her wand to further illuminate the cramped space and peered in. It seemed to go on for miles, so with a resigned sigh, Evangeline stepped back out and allowed the statue to resume its protective position. She didn't exactly feel like setting about too far from the grounds at the moment, but made a mental note to come back another time.
For the time being, Evangeline decided to continue exploring the castle, and soon found herself at the foot of a spiral staircase not too far from the entrance of the school. She was about to begin the journey up the winding steps when she realized she had yet to check if her wings were still functioning. God had told her she wouldn't lose them even if they were in their invisible form, but hadn't specified whether or not she's be able to make use of them.
After giving the area around her a quick once-over to ensure she was alone, she lifted her hand to the back of her neck and let it graze the skin on the nape of her neck. Her fingers met the delicate image of her initials nestled between two tiny angel wings drawn onto her skin. It was so small and seemingly ordinary that anyone oblivious to its true uses might think it was simply a minimalistic tattoo akin to the ones muggles often penned into their skin.
She closed her eyes and whispered, "Aumentare vertiginosamente." To the Ravenclaw's relief, her wings immediately made themselves visible to her in their translucent silvery form, cascading from the ink on her neck down to the small of her back before extending to either side of her.
Although Evangeline knew no humans could see her wings, she cast a spell onto the halls around her to reassure herself that no one was watching. If anyone saw what she did next, there'd be too many questions to handle and she surely wouldn't be allowed to return to Heaven if she even came close to revealing her secret.
"Homenum Revelio."
When nothing happened, Evangeline couldn't help but allow an excited grin to tug at her lips. She leaped into the air and hovered momentarily before beaming and spinning in airborne circles around herself. The young angel shot up into the circular space wrapped in the staircase's spirals.
A few days had felt like centuries to her and walking was, to be frank, quite tiresome for angels, who were accustomed to flying most places unless they were going to pay God a visit. Angels must always ensure they are being watched over by God, and not looking down upon Her. The easiest way to ensure this was to always be on ground level in Her presence.
When Evangeline finally reached the top of the tower, which was even higher up than Ravenclaw tower, she found herself looking over a magnificent view of the castle grounds and clear night sky. It was beautiful, possibly even more so than the view from her common room, which Myrtle had told her was one of the best in the entire castle. She could faintly make out the giant squid swimming in the Black Lake, and a couple wearing Hufflepuff robes sneaking onto the grounds, giggling as they went in search of a secluded spot to spend time together in. Evangeline's feet silently returned to the ground and she brushed the winged tattoo again to draw her wings back into their discreet position under her hair. She stepped up to the railing and leaned over it, craning her neck to get a better view of the parts of the castle next to the tower. The only light she could spot was coming from a window in a turret atop a tower that she could only assume was Gryffindor's due to the red tapestries and sofas that were visible from where she stood. Evangeline had seen much grander, more expansive views from the Heavens, but there was something different about what she was seeing in that moment. Maybe it was the freedom that coursed so lazily through the fall breeze, or the imperfections of the night that Heaven could never understand, like the browning leaves of the Forbidden Forest or the venomous shrubbery she could smell off of one of the many Greenhouses. Or perhaps it was the simple matter that she had never been awake when all those around her were asleep.
Angels didn't sleep. They couldn't. It was the very reason Evangeline's eyes were open in that very moment while all her classmates slept soundly. Well, most of them. Angels couldn't eat, either. Instead, they carried around flasks of nectar curated by the Angels that specialized in Health and Well-being. Evangeline remembered this suddenly and began to wonder how she was expected to hide this from her new classmates. Surely they would notice she wasn't eating.
She stood pondering this awhile, but when she could come up with no excuse for not eating or showing up at mealtimes, she pulled one of the books she had taken from the Restricted Section out of her bag, which was still slung over her shoulder, and sat down to resume the reading she had been doing before the dark-eyed boy had come in the library. Evangeline had been poring over the information on Animagi for around an hour when a curtain of sunlight began to creep slowly across the pages, turning the wand-lit pages from a pale white to a glowing golden. She looked up from her reading wearily to see the sun rising slowly and dramatically from the horizon of the lake.
Lights all around the castle slowly started to flicker on, one by one, like a slow climb from a spring drizzle to a pattering downpour. Curtains were drawn back from windows and students could be seen waking from their slumbers to prepare for their first day back. Some were first-years with wide eyes and timid, friendly smiles, while others displayed wide, mischievous grins as they pounced on their sleeping friends' beds to shake them awake.
Evangeline walked down the stairs of the tower, which the portraits lining the staircase had informed her was the Astronomy Tower one of Hogwarts' three tallest towers, the other two being the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor towers. Although she had originally planned on going back to her dorm just to convince her dorm mates she had been there the entire night, she decided it would be better to just pretend she had woken up and gone to breakfast early. That way she could put off questions about her eating for the time being.
In the half hour Evangeline had before her first class, she decided to sit at the edge of the Black Lake and dip her feet into the water. The water was cold, and the half-angel's sensitive porcelain skin did not take to it well, so she quickly waved a hand to nonverbally warm the water and breathed out in relief as she felt her limbs fill with heat again.
"Curious."
Evangeline tore her eyes away from the calm water at the presence of an obscurely familiar body dipping her legs into the lake beside her.
"Good morning, Cassi." She smiled upon recognizing her pale-haired roommate.
Cassiopeia beamed back at her with wide green-blue eyes. "Hello, Eva."
"What's curious?" she asked, remembering the one-worded sentence the girl had greeted her with.
"Wandless nonverbal magic. It's quite unusual for a sixth-year student," Cassiopeia replied simply, not asking for an explanation or showing any signs of accusation.
"Oh.. er, yeah. I suppose it is." Desperate to remove the focus of the conversation away from herself, Evangeline spoke, "Already had breakfast, then?" She immediately mentally kicked herself for bringing up food, seeing as it was yet another thing that would be sure to raise questions. But Cassi didn't return the question. Instead, her demeanor immediately turned uncharacteristically tense.
"Yes. Of course. The pudding was spectacular."
Evangeline hadn't known Cassiopeia for very long, so she didn't think much of her sudden shift in demeanor and simply nodded and hummed in response. It wasn't until they had been sitting and talking for a few minutes that the Ravenclaw suddenly realized the Hogwarts kitchens probably didn't serve pudding for breakfast. But then again, she hadn't been in the Great Hall that morning to see for herself, so she kept her mouth shut for fear of slipping up again.
"Which lesson do you have first?" the half-angel asked instead. "I've got Defense with Merrythought. She's our Head of House, right?" Evangeline thought back to the blonde, curly-haired witch who had escorted Olive out of the Great Hall the night before and let a smile come to her lips at the fond memory of her least favorite roommate's sealed lips.
"Yeah. I've got her, too." The smile that seemed to reside persistently on Cassi's lips widened.
"Is she any good?"
"Yes, one of the best. Also very strict about punctuality, so we should get going." She jumped up and held out a hand for Evangeline to pull herself up with before taking out her wand pointing it downwards. The girl pushed her voluminous platinum blonde hair behind her ear and gave her wand a complicated little wave while keeping it trained on their bare feet.
"Siccesco," Cassi declared, drying both their feet immediately. Evangeline sent her an appreciative smile, following it with a concerned look when a worrisome thought planted itself in her brain.
"I don't suppose Merrythought would be too keen on us attending class barefoot?"
An agitated expression flickered across Cassi's face before she cleared her throat and said, "Well, it's much too late to climb all the way back up to Ravenclaw tower and get shoes, but I can think of something that might work. It might not be the most convenient, though."
Evangeline chuckled in amusement at their predicament. "Go on, then."
"Er... alright then." She cleared her throat again before speaking clearly and determinedly. "Accio Eva's and my shoes!"
Eva's eyebrows shot up as she realized exactly what might be so inconvenient about this method of acquiring their footwear. Both Ravenclaws slapped a hand over her mouths when they heard a crash coming from above them in the general direction of Ravenclaw Tower. A small smattering of students' screams followed as they noticed the two pairs of shoes zooming down towards Black Lake from a broken window in the Ravenclaw dorms. Eva and Cassie attempted to catch both pairs in their arms as they plunged into their stomachs but failed spectacularly, instead succeeding in being flung backwards over the edge of the lake from the force of the flying shoes.
Thinking fast, Evangeline thrust out the hand that wasn't clutching her shoes to her chest to form an invisible cushion above the water for the pair to hover on. Cassi's hair whipped around her immobilized self in a flurry of vanilla foam as she tried frantically to comprehend what had just happened before coming to rest on her roommate's outstretched hand and relaxing significantly. The two girls stared at each other, bemused, for half a second before simultaneously erupting into fits of laughter, gasping for breath and rolling around on the magically conjured invisible cushion that had rescued both of them from extreme embarrassment and a presumably unpleasant encounter with the giant squid, garnering them a mix of peevish and baffled looks from the students who had witnessed the whirlwind of events.