Déjà Vu

Chapter 17

~ Evelyn ~

She spends the entirety of the following day avoiding Fred. She forces Nick to spend his entire day either holed up in her room with her playing board games or outside the castle completely, which he luckily doesn't argue about much. It's nice, anyway, taking a day for themselves to relax with each other. Sure, she'd rather be hanging out over at Gryffindor with everyone else, but what can you do? She doesn't want to run into the man that's been haunting her every thought ever since the night before.

She's even able to avoid looking at him when she grabs herself and Nick some breakfast. She can see him looking at her from the corner of her eye -- can feel his stare crawling all over her -- but she still doesn't look. She can also see the smirk on his face in her peripheral vision; the one that he fails to hide into his cup of tea whenever he goes to take a sip.

It's hard, though, not looking at him. There's always been a sort of magnetic pull between them -- it's the thing that makes her so terrified of him sometimes -- but it's never affected her as much as it has recently. And, oh, has it been affecting her recently. She'd like to say that none of what he's been doing has been getting to her, but that would be a lie. It's confusing, it's aggravating, and it makes her want to punch him in the face. And then maybe kiss him a little afterwards.

But, no. Nick. She loves Nick. Fred has just been messing with her head.

Maybe it's just because she's sexually frustrated; she's going on three months without an orgasm that's not from her own fingers. Maybe that's why she's missing him more than normal. Maybe it's because she's hormonal, maybe it's because seeing Nick once a month isn't enough for her, or maybe it's just because she wants Fred. She doesn't know, and it's messing with her head.

She tries to push him out of her thoughts, if not just for the rest of the day. She tries not to think of him while she plays a game of cards with Nick, she tries when they go on a walk, she tries when they go out to dinner, and she tries on the walk back. She fails each and every time. She can't push out the images of tussled auburn hair and small, pink nipples and that little trail of hair that leads below his waistband and that goddamn smile.

She tries not to think about him later that night when she and Nick have sex, too. She doesn't want to admit whether or not she fails.

She sees Nick off the next morning and cries a bit less than she had the last time. It's not that she's not sad to see him go, she just feels like she's gotten her fill. They hug goodbye, he presses a quick parting kiss to her lips, and then he's gone. She watches him go with a sad smile, thankful that she's not as much of a wreck as she'd been the previous time.

She stares at her feet for the entire walk back to Ravenclaw, watching as her feet lift from the ground from her toes and then step back down on her heel. She eventually concentrates on it too much and starts to walk funny, so she turns her gaze elsewhere to observe the hung portraits while she walks up.

She isn't met with paintings when she looks up, though. No. She's instead met with the smiling face of none other than Angelina Johnson. Angelina seems to have been seeking her out, smiling and coming to a stop in front of her.

"Hey, Evelyn!" she says brightly.

Evelyn frowns. Has she ever once had a conversation with this girl? "Um, hey. Angelina, right?"

Angelina nods. "Yup, that's me." She takes a step closer and reaches her hand out. Evelyn almost takes a step back, wary of the girl standing in front of her that she knows so little about, but the girl's hand stops once she brushes her fingers over the silver of Evelyn's necklace. "Wow, I really love your Necklace. It's gorgeous."