The Story of Venice Evans

A Stroll in Hogsmeade

As soon as Venice knew, finals were coming up. All her teachers assigned her massive amounts of homework, and she had to study for tests on all her subjects. She was especially afraid for her Divination test, as professor Trelawney didn't like her too much. Venice would always hear her muttering to herself after she left her table to check on her, and whenever she saw her in the halls. The final task for the Triwizard tournament was also coming up, and whenever she went to the library, she would always find Harry, Hermione, and Ron there. She would always come by and say hi to them. Hermione would often study with Venice, as they were really good friends. But, Venice never seemed to find much time to spend with Draco. It seemed that he would be hard to find at times, and she only really saw him in classes. Of course, she would sit beside him in the ones that they had together, but ever since the Christmas incident, things had been a bit awkward even though it was nearly the end of the school year.

The last Hogsmeade trip seemed to have come by surprise. It was the morning of, and Draco didn't really know if he would go. He just didn't think it would be worth his while. He'd already been in all the shops there, and gotten kicked out in a lot of them. Draco got out of bed, and got dressed. He walked down into the great hall, and saw Venice sitting all by herself. She was reading a magazine, which was of course the Daily Prophet. He sat down across from her and said, "You realize that thing is full of rubbish," indicating the magazine. "Of course I know that, I just wanted to see what foul stuff they put in here about Harry," Venice said. She put down her magazine, and looked at Draco. "Want to go to Hogsmeade together?" She asked. "Hm, I don't know. I was planning to stay in the common room and sulk all day. Buuuut, I guess could make an exception this time." He replied, smirking. "Sorry to ruin your extravagant plans, it's just I thought it was an O.K. day for a stroll outside, you know?" said Venice. "Hogsmeade! All who are going to Hogsmeade, please come line up!" Filch yelled from across the hall. "Well, shall we go?" Draco said, standing up. He held out his hand, motioning for Venice to take it. She grabbed it, and pulled herself up. Unlike their first encounter, she did not let go. They walked hand in hand to go line up. Draco started talking about Quidditch, and how they were doing alright. "I'm the seeker, as you've probably noticed. I can beat Potter at finding the snitch if I really tried, but sometimes I let him win because of his situation, you know," he whispered to her. Venice gave him a smirk, "I'm sure you can" she said cheekily. Once they reached Filch, he checked their names off the list and they proceeded to walk to the village.

"So, where should we go first?" Venice asked Draco. "Um, we could go to the candy shop if you want to look around," "Alright," They walked down the streets to the candy shop, but paused abruptly when they saw Crabbe and Goyle pulling out their wands on Harry. "Potter, you git, you stepped on my shoe!" Draco heard Goyle say. Venice ran over to where they were and started pointing a finger on Goyle, and saying what seemed like some really harsh things. She looked so focused in the movements of her lips when she talked, it looked almost un-human. Draco saw Harry's expression to be a mix of scared and surprised when Venice started talking. Once Malfoy had reached them, Crabbe and Goyle were almost stumbling over eachother to get away from Venice. "I didn't know you could- oh, um, I'll talk to you later, Venice," Harry stammered at her, as he started walking away. "Be careful Harry, good luck in the last task!" She called after him as he went to go rejoin Hermione and Ron. "What in the hell was that all about?" Draco asked Venice after Harry seemed a good distance away. "Nothing, I just gave Goyle a right piece of my mind," she said. She smiled and took his hand again, resuming walking to the candy store.

They looked around the candy story for a bit, rating the candy on most to least likely they would eat. Then, they went to Zonko's to see if they had any new jokes or toys, but it seemed like it was all the same. "Shall we go for a Butterbeer?" Draco suggested. "My treat,". Venice smiled at him and said, "Sure,". They walked to the Three Broomsticks, and found a table right by the window. They sat down, and told the waitress their order. They sat there in silence for a bit and stared out the window. It was quite a nice day actually, with the sun beaming down in the village, and it shined on the castle in such a way that it looked even more magical. "I've missed your company, Evans," Draco said suddenly as Venice was examining who else was in the pub. She looked at him and said, "I've missed yours, too". The waitress then brought their drinks, and they sat in silence once again while taking sips of their Butterbeer.

They returned to the castle hand in hand, and went to get ready for dinner. But before they went up to their dorms, Venice stopped Draco in his tracks and pulled him into a hug. Draco hugged her like he hadn't seen her in years, and felt like he was the most cared for person in the world. They were embraced for about a minute before they broke apart, and resumed what they were doing. Venice knew that her summer would be okay after all, even without her Aunt.