Her Dark Artifice [t.r]

Chapter 5: Desire

V

September 15th, 1942

FOUR DAYS PLAGUED BY A MALEVOLENT WHISPER IN THE WALLS, late on a Tuesday evening, Evadne couldn't get to sleep again. Her and Tom had already patrolled the Castle, Katherine and Lilian Clearwater were both fast asleep in their own four-posters with the emerald curtains drawn, but Evadne's mind - like a malison she couldn't escape - was reeling. She was exhausted from gargantuan piles of homework, and with a formidable pang of regret and guilt, Evadne suddenly remembered her promise to write to Rose Macaulay a fortnight since departing Greycoat House.

Evadne threw her Slytherin robe over her long, satin nightgown and slid her feet into a pair of slippers. She grabbed her wand, a piece of parchment, her emerald quill and an inkpot, and quietly departed the girl's dormitory.

*

The Owlery was located at the other side of the castle from the Slytherin dungeons. With a great deal of luck, Evadne had managed to make it there without confronting Peeves, the impish polturgeist, that somehow managed to annoy everyone who lived at Hogwarts - both students and the professors alike, and even the other ghosts. The Bloody Baron, especially.

By the light of the stars, Evadne dipped her quill into the inkpot and began to write onto the parchment. The wind whispered and brushed against her skin, perfumed by the redolence of long-fallen rain from the storm that had ensued throughout the entirety of the weekend, and carried on through to Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Dearest Rose,

Forgive me for not writing sooner. I've been so busy, and I am so tremendously sorry. How are you? How is everyone? Does Janet still have those creepy dolls on her bed - or was it Ophelia? I'm sorry, I seem to have forgotten.

I think of you everyday and I hope you are keeping well.

Your Friend,

Evadne V

"Who is that for?"

Evadne jumped and dropped the quill onto the stone floor below. She looked up to see Osric Avery standing there in his pyjamas, his hands in his pockets. He was frowning at her, but she couldn't tell if he was pissed off or just tired.

Evadne cleared her throat. The memory of Nicholas jinxing him and Abraxas Malfoy resurfaced on her mind, and she did her best to hold in a chuckle. Surprisingly, the perpetrator hadn't been identified yet, even at the behest of Mr Malfoy, Abraxas's father, who was absolutely incensed at the ordeal.