As quiet, introverted Evelyn Berman agrees to spend her sixth year studying at Hogwarts School of witchcraft and Wizardry, she is introduced to the school's adored Marauders.
From the moment she meets Sirius Black, there's something about the boy t...
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"Sirius, please tell me this isn't what I think it is," Evelyn muttered, her eyes locked on the cluster of cloaked figures gathered outside the pale, brick house. The question was unnecessary—she already knew the answer. And, by the look of shock on his face, Sirius knew it too.
Evelyn's mind was racing as her eyes drifted to the sky; the glowing green skull with a striking serpent protruding from its mouth was a sight she had seen far too many times on the front page of the Daily Profit, and she knew exactly what it meant. It meant that innocent lives had been taken at the hands of Death Eaters once more.
A shiver ran down her spine as she pictured the ill-fated family that resided in the home, their lives taken from them out of undeserved hatred and perceived unworthiness because of the blood that ran through them.
They could have been innocent muggles like her parents and sister, their lives ripped away by a force that they didn't even know existed. They could have been muggle-borns like herself, somehow seen as less worthy simply because the magic coursing through their veins wasn't passed down by their ancestors, but instead miraculously born from inside them. If anything, the latter seemed more impressive to her—however, to the ruthless leader of the Death Eaters, the disgrace of a man that they referred to as Voldemort, her blood status was nothing but a target on her back.
A familiar, slightly calloused hand grabbed hers, dragging her away from her thoughts, and it was only when she looked to Sirius that she realized her vision had been blurred by tears swelling in her eyes.
"Evie, look at me," Sirius whispered, using his free hand to wipe a stray tear away from her pale cheek. "We're safe here, they can't hurt us in our dreams—they can't even see us."
They can't hurt us in our dreams. But, they could hurt them in real life.
She had seen the articles in the Daily Profit—they all had—but there had still been some part of her that had held on to the hope that the tragedies they wrote about would be just that—tragedies...horrible, awful tragedies that could be put to an end soon. The Profit spoke of the threat of war that was among the wizarding world. Perhaps it was ignorance or the feeling of invincibility that came with being a teenager, but she had never genuinely considered that these tragedies could lead to something as immense as a war. A war that could destroy the world that she knew... a war that could killher friends...a war that could kill her.
That threat became real the moment she saw that emerald skull in the sky with her own two eyes.
She felt a gentle tug on her hand as Sirius began to step past the trees that edged the forest and guarded them against the horror that took place in the quiet village.
"Sirius, where the hell are you going?!" Evelyn gasped, pulling the boy back around to face her.
Sirius let out a sigh, "They won't even know that we're there, Ev. I need to see who's down there. I need to see if—"
