September first
1st September 1974
He lay in his bed with his eyes open, staring upwards. By the moonlight that shone through the open windows into his room, he could vaguely see the small paintings and filigree notches on the ceiling of his room.
When he was younger, he would often lie here next to his twin sister and the two of them would spend hours making up stories about the figures on his wall.
His favorite story was the one in which the two youngest of the many people ran away from the others because they wanted to experience an adventure. They ran and ran until they were sure the others would never find them. They built themselves a camp and made a fire while they told each other all their secrets. The two adventurers were named Pandora and Evan.
With an outstretched arm, Evan traced their contours and smiled at the thought. How the time flies.
He turned to his side and a quick glance at his alarm clock told him that it was already 5 o'clock in the morning. He had not slept again, and he doubted whether it would be worth taking a sleeping pill. He had to get up in two hours anyway.
Moaning, he stood up and swung his legs out of bed. With quick steps he was at the door of his room and as quietly as possible he pushed the handle down. The hallway was black and quiet.
Quietly he slipped down the long hallway to the stairs. He didn't want to wake anyone. However, he saw a small light rising from below. Who was awake?
He went down the stairs and through the entrance hall to the right into the large kitchen of the house. Evan was not here often, as the house elves usually prepared all the meals for the Rosier family. However, he was not surprised when he saw his twin sister Pandora standing in the kitchen, where she was just getting a giant cake out of the oven.
He stopped in the door frame and watched her as she skillfully put the cake on a plate and at the same time touched a glaze. His sister was sometimes a mystery to him. Pandora was often lost in her own world and hardly noticed what was happening around her.
"Why are you awake?"
Oh, so she'd noticed him.
“Why are you awake, Panda?”
“I couldn’t sleep. Today is such an exciting day, don’t you think? It’s a new school year and all. I’m really excited to finally see everyone again. ”
“Yes, super exciting, you’re right.” Evan muttered softly.
School wasn't really fun for him. Except for his sister and her friends, he had very few people in Hogwarts to talk to who liked him. He was an outsider and alone. However, this is something he would never admit to his sister.
After all, it wasn't that he didn't want friends. It was just incredibly hard for him to approach people and reach out to them, and after three years in Hogwarts, most of them had already found their friend groups. He didn't think there was room for Evan Rosier anywhere.
And then there's the thing about the dormitories. Unfortunately, he had to share a dorm with Severus Snape, Mulciber and Avery. It was not that he particularly liked the three and wanted to be friends with them. No, it was the opposite.
Evan was sure he had never met a disgusting person like Severus Snape in his entire life. Snape was a half-blood but was very arrogant despite these circumstances.
He particularly liked fighting with the filthy Gryffindors. Not that they didn't deserve it, but Snape was very stupid about the whole thing. Too often he has fallen on the nose while trying to make fun of James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin. It's embarrassing.
When he wasn't making a fool of himself, he ran after his two friends Mulciber and Avery. The two came from very powerful wizard families and Evan understood why someone like Snape would befriend them. Especially in these times.
“And you, brother, why are you awake?”
‘Insomnia. ’
Pandora said nothing but smiled at him sympathetically.
Ever since he was little, he had trouble sleeping. Sometimes he couldn't sleep for days and sometimes he couldn't get out of bed for days and was constantly tired. His sleep rhythm often disturbed him, and during school it was especially difficult for Evan to concentrate or to keep up with homework.
His parents sent him to see Madame Pomfrey in his first year of school, hoping that she would have a solution to his problems. His 11-year-old-self summoned all his courage, went to the friendly looking woman and asked her with big eyes for help. However, she only laughed and told him to just have a cup of tea before going to sleep.
On that day, he had sworn to himself that he would hate her forever and never set foot in the hospital wing again.
Because, of course, he had tried tea. And hot chocolate. And meditation. And reading. And count to 1,000. Nothing worked. Until his mother, the summer after his first year at Hogwarts, brought him little pills made from special herbs.
When he took the pills for the first time, he was in one of his insomnia phases. At first Evan didn't think they were going to help in any way, but then he swallowed one and woke up 10 hours later refreshed and rested.
Now he was addicted to those pills. His parents didn't know about it. Evan had heard them talk before about young Muggles who were addicted to alcohol or other drugs and how disgusted they were by them. If they were their children, they'd be incredibly disappointed.
And here he was, addicted to fucking sleeping pills. How did it get this far? He didn't know exactly. All he knew was that he longed for sleep so much he didn't care what he had to do to get some.
Sometimes he played a game with himself. Sometimes he tested how long he could resist the urge to sleep and take the pills. Sometimes he wouldn't sleep for three or four days. For everyday he could go through without sleep, he was allowed to take a pill at the end of the game. His record was five pills. After that, he slept for 39 hours.
With a sigh he went into the kitchen and stood beside his sister.
“Hey, do you think we can have this for breakfast?” He asked with a hungry look at the cake.
“Ha, you’d like that. No, no, it’s for later. I promised to bring something tasty for the train ride.” Pandora replied.
“What about the candy trolley? There are plenty of delicious things there. I’ll even give you money, if you’ll let me eat at least one piece of this cake. It looks so incredibly delicious.”
"Evan, stop. " She hissed as she pushed his wandering fingers away from the cake. “It’s for Dorcas. It's her birthday! “
“Oh, right. I totally forgot.” Evan muttered.
It was Dorcas' birthday? Why didn't he know it was one of his best friends' birthdays? He could have sworn that her birthday was in the winter. . .
“Yes, and that’s why we’re having a party tonight. Dorcas has decided it’s finally time to throw a birthday party. I’m so excited Evan, aren’t you? I’m already looking forward to our birthday. 14 is so old. No, I can’t believe you’re getting so old. You’re my baby brother. ”
“Panda. Stop. First, our birthday isn’t until December, and secondly, you’re the same age as me. ”
“Yes, you’re right. ”
For a while none of them spoke. Pandora decorated her cake with a green lettering. She wrote Dorcas’ name and put a lot of hearts beside it.
Evan thought about sleeping. Would he have time to sleep on the train? Normally, yes, but since it was Dorcas' birthday, it probably wouldn't be such a good idea. He could find an empty carriage. No, that's a bad idea. Pandora would never allow this, and he didn't want annoying first-graders sitting next to him.
But if he wanted to go to the party tonight, he needed at least one or two hours of sleep beforehand. Should he cancel the party? No, disrespectful.
Maybe he could lie down for a while after dinner. . .
“Children? Are you awake yet?” His father’s deep voice ripped him out of his mind.
His father was a tall, slender man who wore a suit at all times of the day. Evan used to think he slept in a suit, too. At night, he sneaked to his parents and pretended to have nightmares. When they allowed him to sleep in their bed, he crawled under the blanket and tried to find out if he was really sleeping in a suit. This wasn’t the case and Evan was able to move on with his life.
“Good morning, Father. We both couldn’t sleep.”
Pandora and her father continued to talk, but Evan apologized himself after a while. He went up the stairs and back to his room. He sat down at his desk across from his bed. Evan looked through his room and enjoyed his final moments alone. His room was his favorite place. The entire left side of his room was made of glass, and he had a perfect view of the large garden and the paddocks on which their horses grazed.
His whole family loved to ride. This was a bit untypical in the wizarding world, but he firmly believed that his family was strange in general.
Ever since he was a little boy, horses have been his favorite animals, and he can still remember the moment when he got his first pony on his7th birthday.
It was a little black pony and he loved it more than anything. By now he was much too big to ride ponies, so he had got a horse last Christmas.
She was a black mare and Evan had named her after David Bowie's Lady Stardust.
It was Evans guilty pleasure. Muggle music. He couldn't do anything about it. No matter how much he hated Muggles, you had to give them one thing. They make damn good music.
David Bowie, T-Rex, Queen, the Beatles, Abba, Fleetwood Mac, whatever, he listened to it all.
How did he come up with that? In his second year at Hogwarts, he overheard two Ravenclaws talking about Muggle music. They sounded so enthusiastic that when he came home in the summer, he had sneaked into a Muggle record store. When his parents weren't home, he went to his father’s office, where he had a record player, and played the record.
It was Aladdin Sane by David Bowie. For hours he sat there and listened to the melodies. His favorite songs were Watch That Man and The Prettiest Star. He wondered if it would be possible to take the music with him to Hogwarts. But how was he supposed to do that? After all, he didn't have a record player.
In the end, he gave up pondering and realized that it was impossible for him to take a record player and his record with him to Hogwarts.
His gaze wandered from his window to his large bed. It was way too big for him. He’d never grow so much that he needed such a big bed. But it was cozy. Maybe it was so big because Pandora used to sleep with him in it. The two of them still had plenty of room in the bed though. Evan wished Pandora could sleep with him in his bed every night. Even in Hogwarts. Everything was easier with her. She made him forget his worries.
Evan got up from his desk and walked over to his wardrobe. His suitcase was already packed, but he still had to choose clothes for the ride. He chose a gray sweater and black pants. After getting dressed, he went into the bathroom, which was attached to his room, and looked into the mirror. His skin was tanned from the sun and his freckles were spread all over his face.
Despite the tan, he had deep eye bags and his green eyes seemed exhausted. No wonder.
He stroked his thick, brown eyebrows with one hand, going through his rumbly strawberry-blond hair with the other. His hair was way too long again. He should have asked his mother to cut it. Anyway, it was too late now.
With a sigh he went out of the bathroom and back down into the kitchen. His mother was awake now too.
Evan walked up to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She brushed his hair and muttered “Good Morning” while reading The Daily Prophet and drinking coffee.
Evan grabbed a loaf of bread from the basket and smeared it with butter and jam. Next to him a glass filled with orange juice, and he thanked Milly the house elf.
Pandora sat at the other end of the table, rocking excitedly back and forth. She was acting like a toddler, Evan thought. For the third time she asked when they were finally leaving. Evan couldn’t understand why she was so excited. Has she always been this excited before leaving for Hogwarts? Maybe, Evan couldn’t remember.
When their parents finally announced that they were leaving, Evan was glad, too. Maybe Pandora would stop talking. His head was booming, and he didn't know if he would have lasted another minute.
He quickly got his suitcase and put on his jacket and shoes. But when he had just finished tying his shoes and wanted to stand up again, everything suddenly turned black. Ohh.
Evan had to hold on to something fast to keep him from tipping over. With pinching eyes, he waited for the dizziness to pass, and when it was over, he opened his eyes carefully.
What was that?
Maybe he should have eaten more? Or should he ask his mother if she had anything against the headache? No better not, she shouldn't worry about him now.
His family gathered in the entrance hall, and Evan and Pandora reached for the arms of their parents. They apparated to King's Cross Station.
...
Pandora and Evan were hardly on the train when Dorcas throw herself around their necks.
“Oh, how nice to have you here! I have missed you so much. ”
With a shy smile, he embraced Dorcas and when it was Pandora's turn, the two would not let go of each other for three minutes. Did Evan miss anything? No, it's probably just normal for you to miss your best friend when you haven't seen them in a while.
Dorcas led them to a carriage where there was a girl whose name Evan couldn’t remember, and another girl whom Evan knew very well.
Marlene McKinnon.
What was she doing here? Marlene was in Gryffindor and therefore someone Evan would never want to get involved with. He figured the others thought about it the same way. Apparently not.
But Evan knew her for another reason. Quidditch. Not that he'd play Quidditch, no. Marlene, on the other hand, was like the Quidditch Goddess of Hogwarts.
He didn't know why Dorcas was friends with her, or why she was sitting in that carriage at all and not with her mud-blood friends.
With a stiff nod he greeted the nameless girl and ignored Marlene.
Luckily he had been able to get a seat at the window, because he could lean his head against the window for a short time until . . . . .
“Oi, Rosier” He was startled when he heard a loud voice saying his name, “Why aren’t you sitting with us?”
It was Regulus Black and Barty Crouch Jr.