In the midst of war and chaos, Eve struggles to find and keep her true love - but also herself.
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Eve and Regulus desperately wish to find their way out of their siblings' shadows - but they might just find that the darkness is the best place to be...
"Being good, doing good... in my experience, it just ends badly."
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EVE SPENDS MOST OF HER WEEK avoid everyone and anyone she possibly can. It's unsurprisingly easy; she doesn't actually have any good friends that aren't also her brother's, except for the Slytherins, and as a Ravenclaw she doesn't have many classes with them.
People have began to stare at her in the hallways, at the girl who publicly embarrassed one of the most popular boys in school and got away with it. Eve stops showing up at dinner time when the staring and whispers only get worse, and instead she just goes to the kitchens.
The thing is, she had never been referred to as anything other than "James Potter's sister" before, and suddenly there were whispers following Evelyn. It was all Eve had really ever wanted, but it was incredibly, irrevocably lonely, and Eve was left with all her Gryffindor friends giving her dirty glares, as if she was the one who did something wrong. No one was brave enough to approach her, either, even in her own house for fear of siding against the great marauders, so Eve was always alone.
It was... well, it didn't completely suck. Eve was used to being alone. She was good at it. For now, all she could do was keep her head held high, shoulders back, walk prideful because she did nothing wrong.
On Friday night, everything seemed to catch up with her at once. So for the first time ever, Eve snuck out of her dorm room and practically ran, on soft feet, to the Astronomy tower. She felt a bit like a spy from those muggle movies.
She probably should have checked if anyone was up there - according to rumor mills, more than one couple had lost their innocence on these stone floors - but the sky was just so beautiful. A blue so dark it was almost black, the skies were clear and the stars were brighter than Eve had seen in ages and ages. She traced the Aquila star with her eyes, and then the Cygnus. They were prominent in the sky and Eve never wanted to leave.
Someone coughed from behind her, and Eve jumped a foot in the air, turning around with her wand held tightly in her fist.
"Oh," said Eve, tucking her wand back into its holster on her wrist, "It's just you."
"Just me?" Regulus Black said, looking actually offended, "I could be up here to murder you, you know."
Eve laughed, a tinkling, soft thing. "I don't think you will, Black."
He stared at her for a long moment before his lip twitched upwards, and he sighed, coming to sit next to her. Their legs dangled off the side of the tower, and Eve couldn't even see the bottom. If she fell, or Regulus pushed her, then that was it. Bam, dead.
"What are you thinking about?" asked Regulus.
Eve turned her head to look at him. He was pale, but naturally so he didn't look like the disgustingly vampire Snape, and his skin practically shone in the moonlight. His hair was lighter than his brother's, more of a dark brown than a black, and his eyes were much more silver than Sirius' plain grey. Regulus was sharper than his brother though, all high cheekbones and cutting jawlines; he was cloudy while Sirius was clear, and Eve wondered how she ever though these two boys looked anything alike.
"Doing the right thing," admits Eve, strangely honest. "Did I do the right thing, pouring that juice on James?"
Regulus let out a loud laugh; it echoed against the walls, but he didn't try to make himself quieter. "It was funny, at least. You're practically a hero in Slytherin."
"But was it the right thing?" Eve pressed, smiling faintly.
Regulus turned away from her and stared up at the stars. "Doing good, being good... in my experience, it just ends badly."
They sat quietly for a long while before Regulus pointed above him. "Do you see that, Potter?"
She tilted her head up and sideways. "I think so. I've never seen that constellation before, though. It's beautiful."
He smiled smugly. "It's me. My star, I mean. Regulus."
She grinned at him, not embarrassed in the slightest. Regulus really was a beautiful star, one of the brightest along Earth's sky, and Eve would stare at it all night if she could.
"You're named after the stars," Eve stated, "So your mother, she knew you would be her brightest?"
He glanced at her. "I suppose. Your name means 'wished for a child', doesn't it?"
Eve scowled. Not at him; one of the pureblood lessons you got as a child was to know the names and meanings of all fellow purebloods, and it was fine - but at her name itself. Evelyn sounded beautiful, but it was incredibly demeaning, to be known as 'the wish' or even 'the extra' because her parents never would've realized they were having twins, much less a daughter.
"Just Eve is fine," she said stiffly.
"Life," Regulus mused. "It's fitting. Why does no one call you it?"
"My parents thought that the nickname 'Lyn' was more fitting," said Eve quietly, "It means pretty. Pretty demeaning, more like."
Eve had no idea why she was telling Regulus Black of all people these things, these secret things she had never really told anyone, but maybe it seemed he would understand.
"Well, I can see where they were coming from," he said, honestly, like it's a fact, and it is. Eve is pretty, she knows she is, and he knows she is, he doesn't have to validate her any more than what he's already said. "I still think Eve is better."
She smiled at him, and then glanced down at her watch, "Oh, Merlin, it's nearly two in the morning. I best be going."
He watched in amusement as she jumped up from her seat, "Do you want me to walk you back to your common room?"
She stopped fussing for a moment, and gave a soft smile. "No, it's quite alright. Thank you, Bl- Regulus. Good night."
"Good night, Eve," he said, and then she was gone.
