Breaking Free- Fred Weasley

Chapter 67

*Unedited*
Eva's POV

I shove a forkful of eggs into my mouth and rub my left arm. Last night it had been burning a terrible amount and nothing could stop the pain, even now a ghost of pain was still there.

"Eva," Kala nudges me, "your cousin's escaped from Azkaban."

"What?" I say after swallowing the food. "I don't have a cousin in Azkaban."

"Look in the Daily Prophet-"

"Hey!" Luna interjects. "Why are you reading that rubbish paper over The Quibbler?"

"Sorry Lu, but look it says Sirius Black's cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange, and nine others have escaped from Azkaban. Most likely the work out Sirius Black. What do you think Sirius would say-"

"Hello." The three of us turn to see Laurie sitting next to us.

"Uh...hello Laurie. How are you feeling?" Kala asks politely.

"Oh much better," she smiles. I notice she's cradling her left arm, probably because of the pain. "Happy late birthday, Eva and Kala."

"Thanks Laurie," I say turning back to my food. "By the way, Kala, are you signing up for appearating lessons?"

"Sure," she shrugs. "Then this summer the three-er, four of us could apparate anywhere we want!"

"Oh I want to go to Romania!" Luna gasps. "Eva could show us the dragons from when she stayed."

"Yeah sounds fun," I say monotonously, more focused on Laurie and why she finally came out of hiding.

The next weeks get more dreadful by the day, Umbridge is now at every Care of Magical Creatures lesson following poor Hagrid around. Umbridge also pulled new decrees out of her pocket left and right, and kept a special eye on me since the Azkaban breakout. I couldn't even glance at Fred without her reminding me to get to class, or taking points for walking too slow. The only time we get to see each other is D.A. meetings, and even those we spend most of the time practicing spells than actually hanging out.

As we are leaving our last meeting of January, Fred pulls me aside. "Hey Ev, I just wanted to see if we're going to go to Hogsmeade together in a two weeks."

"Of course!"

"Good because I feel like I barely see you anymore."

"That's because Umbridge follows me everywhere. The other day, when you gave me the password for your common room, she caught me trying to get in and took twenty points. And-thank you," I say as Fred let's me go up the stairs first. "And don't even get me started on Lau-"

"Eva!" Fred and I look up to see Laurie standing right there.

"Speak of the devil," I whisper to him, earning a quiet laugh. "I'll see you tomorrow Fred." He mouths at me, good luck and moves away towards his common room.

"What were you doing?" She asks too happily.

"Just hanging out with Fred. Don't get much time to do that with Umbridge."

"Oh, well I was just wondering if you wanted to study together?"

"Don't we have different classes?"

"Well yeah..." she smile fades a little and I can't help but to look down at her arm.

"I got to go Laurie, first apparation class tomorrow." We silently make our way into our common room and to our separate dorms.

Professor Twycross stands across from us in the table less Great Hall. "Now those who haven't paid the twelve Galleons, please come up and do so now." Me, Kala, and almost the entire class go up and cough up the money. Luckily for me, Sirius has a size able amount of money at Gringotts.

"Wait for me Professor!" The Great Hall doors burst open to reveal Laurie. "Sorry I'm late." She hands her money to Professor Twycross and I whisper to Kala. "Great she's here too."

"I don't get why you hate her now," Kala whispers back.

"W-what? You're the one that hated her last year."

"I was jealous, but I realized Luna would never cheat on me so I matured." Laurie slides next to us right as we end our conversation.

"So! These hoops," Twycross claps her hands and multiple hoops appear across the Great Hall. "You will all go inside each one and focus on apparating to another one in the room. The Anti-Apparation charm will be lifted for one hour and please do your best not to splinch."

"That was so inspiring," I laugh.

"Very," Kala laughs as well.

Everyone makes their way to a hoop and starts to practice. It takes thirty minutes for anyone to move at all, and it's only a Slytherin who moved right outside their hoop. By the end of the lesson, only seven people apparated at all and one successfully made it to another hoop.

"Apparating is too hard," I complain as we walk back to the dorms.

"I like it," Kala smiles successfully.

"That's because you actually did it. Well only a few centimeters away from your hoop."

"I enjoyed it," Laurie adds from next to us.

"See Eva," Kala smirks. "It's just you."