Eva at Hogwarts: Everyone Needs Therapy

Dora took me out to muggle London the next day, having gotten training off. I was amazed by the hustle and bustle of the city, all the people walking to work, and the traffic. I dragged the amused Hufflepuff alumni into every pet store we passed before finally finding the perfect pet for the soul-bound pair. 

“You have to get him!” I squeal, holding the hairless cat to my chest.

“But it’s so ugly,” Dora weakly protested even as she accepts the feline into her arms. I leave Dora to bond with the cat as I start looking at the supplies they have stocked on the shelves. I throw the essentials into a basket and grab a handful of toys to let her choose from. 

“Bill is going to Avada me,” Dora had an associate following her as she joins me to look at sweaters, instantly picking out the black and yellow one. 

“He is going to love him,” I waved her concerns off. I put the sweater Dora picked out on the cat as she pays for everything at the front counter. I have the young woman put the cat in her jacket to give him additional warmth as we walk back to her apartment. Dora put the cat down as soon as we get back to let the little guy explore his new home while we set up. 

The cat gets comfortable faster than I thought and was soon playing with Dora. I sit watching, glad I had convinced her to get him. After playing, we turn on the television and watch what was on, the cat having migrated to lay on my chest as my head rests in Dora’s lap. 

“Do you have any name ideas?” I turn my head to face my older sister. 

“Severus,” There was no hesitation in her answer. I lift my head a bit to get a good look at the sphinx cat, studying how he was purring in contentment with Dora petting him.

“You can’t leave him alone even after you graduate?” I huff with a fond smile. 

“Nope,” Dora popped the p on her answer and I settle back in to watch the show as the commercials ended. 

“What have you done,” Bill questions as the door opens. I pop my head out of the kitchen to see him staring down Sev. 

“Bill, meet your new son. Severus looked very lonely at the pet store and how can you say no to that face?” I skip over to stroke the cat’s back. 

“Dora, My one and only, Love of my life, why do we have a cat?” Bill finally looks away to give his girlfriend a slightly exasperated look.

“How can you say no to this face?” She repeated my words but squished my cheeks in one hand as she kissed the top of my head. He just sighs in resignation and holds his hand out for Sev to sniff. The rest of the night was spent playing with the new addition to the family and cuddling on the couch with a movie playing. 

“Come on, Pip! I’m going to be late!” Dora yelled as she ran around gathering her training robes and homework. 

“I wasn’t the one who woke up late,” I roll my eyes at her, standing ready to go. I pick her homework up off the coffee table and put it in her bag before holding it out to the ruffled witch. Her hair kept changing from red to canary yellow to pink as she searched for her things. 

“Moody is going to make me do extra laps,” Dora groaned, gripping my arm and turning. 

“I don’t think I like apparating with you,” I mumble as I stumble away from the witch.

“Eva!” I fall to the ground with an oof, not having had the balance to catch my friend.

“Careful, Gin. Don’t break my sister,” Dora warned before hauling us up off the ground. “Either Bill or I will be by to pick you up after work, behave yourself okay?” I give her a big hug and accept the kiss to my crown before she was gone with a crack. 

“You have wrackspurts.” Luna hugged me once she reached where we were standing.

“I’m sure I knocked a few away,” Ginny bragged, throwing her arms around our shoulders as she guides us to the Rook. 

“There was too much going on in the castle,” I sigh, relaxing into her hold, my arm wrapping around her waist.

“Harry Potter started this year, right? Mum was supposed to help him to the platform but we never saw him.” Ginny asked and we wave to Xeno as we pass to go up the stairs to Luna’s room. 

“Mamaidh and Mia found Harry first. I don’t like the situation Dumbledore left him in,” I shake my head. I catch them up on everything that happened so far this year and Ginny was starting to get restless. 

“Oh! We should go in town, the bakery gives away hot chocolate and a cookie to kids!” The redhead jumps up and Luna leads the way downstairs to ask her dad. It wasn’t long before we were bundled up and trekking through the snow. I gasp when a snowball hits the back of my head. 

“Oh, it’s on,” I scoop up a handful of snow and smash it on Ginny’s head. We were a giggling mess covered in snow by the time we reached the town, Luna skipping ahead of Ginny and me. I was looking at something Ginny had pointed out to me when a yelp had my head whipping around to find Luna on the ground and a group of boys standing over her.

“Oi! Leave her alone!” Ginny shouts, getting in his face as I help the blonde up. 

“Loony Lovegood brought her ginger guard dog!” The words leave the group laughing.

“Ginny,” Luna grabs the back of her jacket, but the Weasley doesn’t stand down. 

“Apologize,” She demands and I can feel my shoulders curling when one of the boys sneers at me. 

“No,” The leader crosses his arms as his chest puffs out. 

“Gin,” Luna tries again but she was too late, the redhead was on the leader with a war cry. When the other boys go to remove her, fury fills my veins and I launch myself at the biggest boy in a tackle.

“Don’t touch her!” I growl, grunting in pain as an elbow connects with my side. I was ruthless in taking the bullies down, by the time they were running away with their tails between their legs I had bruised ribs, a forming black eye, and an aching leg. 

“You two are idiots,” Luna brushed snow off of our jackets before bringing us to the bakery. 

“They shouldn’t keep talking about you like that!” Ginny huffs, holding her arm to her side. "They make my nickname for you sound mean." Luna doesn’t say anything else, only pointing to us to sit at a table before going to the front counter. 

“This happens a lot?” I observe the blonde talking to the baker, her twinkling laugh reaching us.

“The Lovegoods aren’t the most normal of people, the townspeople call them freaks.” Ginny closes her eyes as she leans back in her chair. Luna comes back with the cookies and hot chocolates, there was a small frown on her face as her eyes raked over my bruising eye. 

“I’m fine, Gealach. Xeno can heal us when we get back.” I reassure the blonde, taking a careful sip of the drink in front of me. Luna still looked worried even as she started talking about her latest fascination. Ginny slumped further in her chair with a hiss a few minutes later and I follow her gaze to find Molly Weasley marching through the street with a frown on her face.

“That bloody clock,” Ginny grumbles as Molly spots us through the window.

“There you are! Come on girls, it’s time to go home.” Molly ushered us out of our seats and out of the shop as Luna throws one last wave to the baker. 

“What were you thinking? A fight! You are on your last straw, Ginerva!” Molly rants as we walk. Once we were out of sight over the hill, Molly heals Ginny’s arm and my eye with a glare.

“They were making fun of Luna, Mum! I wasn’t going to let them do that,” Ginny defended her actions. I fall to the back of the group with my head hanging low, preparing for my scolding. Luna takes my hand in a show of support as we listen to the two Weasleys fight. 

“And you! How could you let her get into a fight? I thought you were supposed to be responsible!” Molly finally turns to me. My eyes remain on the snow surrounding my feet as I formulate a response.

“I was the one who started the fight, Ginny was only helping me.” I take the blame, refusing to let Ginny get in trouble for defending our Gealach. 

“I will walk you two back but then Ginny is coming home,” Molly decides, turning on her heel to lead the way back to The Rook. The cold numbed the pain in my leg and side, allowing me to walk normally. Ginny glares at her mother but doesn’t complain as she brackets me between her and Luna.

“You shouldn’t have taken the blame,” Ginny whispered, our arms linking to let me lean on her. 

“We shouldn’t be getting in trouble at all. Bullies never learn if the victims are the ones being punished,” I think back to all the times I had been bullied for being an orphan at school. We don’t say anything else the rest of the walk, listening to Molly’s grumblings ahead of us. Luna gave Ginny a big hug once we reached her home, whispering another thanks in her ear before letting me say goodbye. I hold in a wince at the pressure on my ribs, not wanting to worry her. 

“Let’s go Ginerva, we aren’t done talking about this,” Molly called. I let the redhead go with a nod before Luna gently guides me into the house. 

“Daddy? Ginny went back home,” Luna informs Xeno, motioning for me to go upstairs ahead of her. I prop myself up on her bed to rest my ribs and pull my sleeve up to see what my soulmates were saying about my fight.

What happened? Flower, Cub? Who got hurt?  

School just started and you go are getting hurt, are you okay? 

It is not me, Mére just dropped me off at school. Cub? Mon amour are you okay? 

Cub, I thought you said you were in a good house now?

Who do I have to kill? Flower, help me hide the body while Kitten comes up with an alibi

Dove, no!

Kitten, yes! Someone is out there hurting our soulmate! I will not be restrained!

Hi, this is Dove’s friend. We had to restrain her before she broke out of the castle in search of someone to kill. Or, she killed someone in the library.

Mon colombe, calm down. You will be of no use in the murder if you get in trouble. Besides, there is no reason to hide a body when I will just turn it to ashes. 

Should I be worried about finding money for bail? 

Not unless you can come up with airtight alibis for both of us.

Why are you two so destructive? I question after getting a jolt of pain from laughing.

It can’t be helped, Darling.

Have you never noticed how fire is trés belle to look at? I will have to show you with the corpse of whoever hurt you. 

Please stop, it hurts to laugh I hold my breath to try and stop the giggles. Talking to my soulmates always lifts my spirits. I grow somber as I remember that I have to tell them what happened.

It wasn’t my guardian, it was a bully that picked on my friend.

We are gonna need a name Love. 

Welcome to the dark side Chaton, we have trés belle flames and witches.

Yes! With PiscÍn on our side, we will never be caught!

No thank you, I want to be able to meet you three outside of a prison thank you very much. I felt warmed by their concern, only for guilt to crush my heart. I wish I was ready to tell them but the very thought had me panicking. 

“Eva?” Luna came up the stairs with a sandwich. 

“They’re worried. Threatened to kill whoever it was that hurt me,” I smile at her, holding the plate as she gets on the bed as well. 

“Gabby has done that a few times. I think it has something to do with whatever is making our bond stronger,” Luna hummed, taking half of the sandwich while shoving the other half into my mouth. 

“Mumnf!” I was surprised at her actions, struggling to swallow the bite before laughing. “You could have just told me that it was my half!” Luna just shrugs and we finish our lunch in silence with Luna occasionally batting around my head to get rid of the wrackspurts. 

“Today has been fun, I can’t wait until you and Cleasan-teine can join me at Hogwarts next year! I can show you everything!” I turn to face the blonde, who had a soft knowing smile on her face. 

“Neville writes to Ginny every night. He can’t stop talking about how he has more friends than he ever dreamed of having. That's all thanks to you,” Luna leaned her head on my shoulder as I blush at the praise. 

“I think everyone in the group is going to love you and Ginny, you don’t have to worry about bullies there. I can be there to protect you,” I promise, the blonde squeezing my hand in thanks before taking me out to explore their property until Bill pops in to take me home. 

“Did you have fun with Luni and Gin?” He asked as Sev jumps onto his shoulders. 

“We got into a fight,” I carefully sit on the couch as my leg starts to hurt again as it warms up. 

“You went into town then,” Bill sighed. He sat on the coffee table to wave his wand over me in a diagnostic spell. “Merlin, why didn’t you say anything to Xeno?”

“It doesn’t hurt too much, I didn’t want to bother him.” I wince as Bill cast a healing spell on the damaged areas. 

“You don’t have to worry about bothering someone if you’re hurt,” The Weasley gently lifted my chin so I was looking him in the eye. “We all love you, Eva, we want you to be safe and healthy.” I snuggle into his chest and let my eyes rest as I listen to his heartbeat. Little Sev curls up against my chest, purring as he bumps his head against my chin. We stay like this as Bill’s breathing begins to slow. I don’t move from the risk of waking the man and cat up, the soothing sound of their collective breathing surrounding me as the light outside dimmed. Our bubble was broken by the door opening and the smell of pizza filling the flat.

“Honey, I’m home!” Dora called before pausing, “Babe?” I listen to her footsteps get closer before pausing. The click of a camera had me opening my eyes to see the soft smile on the witch’s face. 

“How was work?” I whisper, shushing Little Sev back to sleep when he stirs. 

“It was brutal. Moody is the best of the best but he is so intense,” Dora sighed, stretching out her back as she entered the kitchen. She returned with plates and the pizza box, clearing the coffee table off to set it all out. 

“That just means you are going to be the best,” I smile at her, sitting up with Sev cupped to stay against my chest. He meowed in protest before I manage to get him back to sleep. Bill continued to snooze away as Dora handed me food, placing the leftovers under a stasis charm. 

“Your birthday is coming up here soon, is there anything you want?” The conversation took a turn as Dora washed the used dishes and I fed the cat. 

“I don’t know,” I stop to think if there was anything I need, “My Hogwarts letter would be great.” 

“Well, I can’t get you that. How about some new Quidditch gear? Or maybe there is a subject you are focusing on at the moment. I can get you a book or something,” Dora threw her arm around my shoulders to guide me back to the living room where she smacked Bill’s foot off the couch, startling him awake. 

“Whaz ‘appenin?” He mumbled as he rubbed his eyes.

“Go get ready for bed, the couch will leave a crick in your neck,” Dora instructed, kissing his head as he shuffles by. 

“Oh! I haven’t told you!” I shift on the couch to face the older girl. She copied my actions and summoned fingernail polish so we could do our nails while I talked. 

“I found a book about old rituals that used to be performed for soulmates. They would use their bond to make it so that they were able to always feel when their soulmate was close. The only drawback was if they were separated by too great of a distance then they would die.” I explain.

“How would that kill them?” Dora pauses in her movements to give me a confused look.

“Fire was used in the ritual, making it so that the closer the soulmates were, the warmer they would feel. The more distance between them, the colder they got, if it was a great enough distance the soulmates would die of hypothermia.” I bite my lip to contain my excited bouncing. 

“That sounds stupid, no offense.” Dora scoffed and I nodded in agreement.

“That's why it's no longer used today, hasn’t been for a couple of centuries. But I was able to adapt it with Uncle Filius’ help. I found a way to do the same thing, but I cast the charm on necklaces instead of myself.” Dora gave me an impressed look and a light clap.

“Please tell me you aren’t going to be starting all over next year, you would be so bored in class if you had to relearn first-year material.” Dora started removing her chipped polish as mine dried. 

“Don’t know. I haven’t talked to Mamaidh about it.” I shrug before gasping. “I forgot to mention! The spell on the necklaces only works if one of my soulmates is holding it. The spell draws on our bond to fuel itself, it never needs to be reapplied.” 

“So if I was to hold the necklace,” Dora tilted her head in thought.

“It would just be a regular necklace.” I nod.

“And you gave these to your soulmates? How did you explain that to them?” 

“I might have fibbed a bit.” I look down to where Sev had curled up on a pillow. “I told them it only worked for a few people, not the soulmate thing.” 

“How long do you think you can keep lying to them?” Dora’s voice was gentle, care rolling off her in waves. 

“At least until the start of next year, that way I can say I attend Hogwarts and have an entire year of people for them to go through before figuring it out. I need more time,” I whisper, grabbing a black to make the base of her nails. She lets the subject drop as I work, finishing her design with yellow stripes.

“Fudge sticks!” I suddenly groan, slumping back on the couch.

“What?! What happened?” Dora sat up straighter at my abrupt exclamation.

“One of my soulmates can sense magic! Do you think she can feel the pull of her necklace?” I peer up at the amused auror. 

“That sucks for you,” Dora cackled. I puff out my cheeks in frustration as I roll off the couch to stomp to my room.

“If you smudge your nails I’m not redoing them,” I warn her before closing my door on her laughs. I get ready for bed and slip under the covers to read before actually trying to fall asleep. A gentle knock sounds on the door and I sigh before calling for her to enter.

“Hey, just wanted to remind you of your appointment with Dr. Condie tomorrow.” Dora pokes her head in and I give her a grateful smile.

“Thanks, Dora, goodnight.” She fully enters the room to press a kiss to my head and give me a tight hug before closing behind her. 

The next morning we aparate directly into the mind healer's office for my appointment. Dora sits with me tucked into her side as we wait for Dr. Condie to be available. We weren’t waiting long before I was called back. I enter the room to see that there was a hot chocolate waiting by my chair while Dr. Condie sipped at her tea. 

“Eva, I wasn’t expecting to see you so soon. Did something happen?” Her concern was real, something that I liked about her. She cared about me and how I was doing, not about her paycheck. 

“There is so much I have to tell you,” I flop into my chair and start from the beginning. She listens to me rant about how the year had gone, quietly watching me pace as I retell the tale of the troll on Halloween, thus figuring out who my soulmates were. She gently interrupted me after telling her about the necklaces though.

“You reworked a spell that has not been used in centuries to make it safe,” Her look had me blushing and examining her bookshelf as I nod. “Eva, that is amazing!” 

“I didn’t do all the work, I had Professor Flitwick help me with most of it.” I wave off the praise.

“Don’t wave that off, this is a big deal!” Dr. Condie insisted, but she took one look at my face and sighed. “Why don’t we move on? Do you want to talk about your soulmates?” 

“I don’t know what I’m doing! How do you tell two of your closest friends who know about my past that they are stuck with me forever? How do you tell them that I have been lying to them since November? What if they don’t want me?” I sniff as I wipe the tears off my face. 

“Let’s unpack this one thing at a time.” Dr. Condie offered. I motion for her to continue.

“First off, no one knows what they are doing when it comes to any aspect of life, especially soulmates. Yes, they are predestined to be the most compatible with you but that is not always a guarantee. This also goes into your second concern. It is better to figure out that your best friend is your soulmate instead of some stranger.” Dr. Condie raises her hand to halt what I was going to say. I sink back into my chair and fold my arms with a nod to show I was listening.

“You already know a lot about your soulmates if they are some of your best friends. You have a leg up on this! You don’t have to go through that awkward stage of getting to know one another. And the fact that they are ‘stuck with you forever’ might not be as bad as you think it is if they are your best friends. They already know you and are still there. They have already chosen you, you just need to give them the option to choose you as a soulmate as well.”

“But I have been lying to them! That’s something to hate about me!” I try to disprove all the really good points she has made so far.

“If they know about your past, then they know about how you grew up. If they are really your friends surely they are already making accommodations for your dislike of unexpected touch, your hatred for yelling, and sudden movements. Accepting that you needed time to get used to the thought of them being your soulmate should not be a big hurdle for them.” Dr. Condie had a soft smile as she closed her argument. I let her words swirl in my head, analyzing every argument against my fears. 

“You can never know how people will react to something, we are unpredictable. But isn’t it better to have tried than to never know what could have been?” Dr. Condie offered one last statement on the fact. “For your assignment, I want you to try and accept compliments as well as continue with your emotions journal. How is that going by the way?” 

“I might have forgotten about it with everything that has been going on,” I admit with a sheepish smile.

“That’s okay, but please try to remember to do it.” Dr. Condie looked at the clock and stood with a soft clap of her hands. “And this is the end of our session today. Do you want to schedule your next one now or wait until the summer?”

“I should wait and talk to Mamaidh before making another appointment,” I shake her hand and she walks me out to the waiting room where Dora has pulled out some documents to read.

“What's the verdict Doc, will she live?” Dora jumps up and pulls me tight against her.

“She will live to see another day,” Dr. Condie humors her, waving goodbye as she goes behind the counter to talk to her assistant. 

“Whew! I thought you were dying there for a second!” Dora lets me go and pretends to wipe sweat from her brow. “Now that you have a clean bill of health we can continue with the rest of our day,” I follow her to the aparation site and let her take us home to go snuggle with Little Sev. Only we don’t land in the alley near their flat, we land in Diagon Alley.

“Dora? What are we doing here?” I look to the mischievous girl who only smiles and gently guides me over to Florean’s place. 

“You are here for only a week! I need to get your birthday celebration in at some point!” Dora does a little skip in her excitement. Bill was sitting at a table already when we enter the shop, a book open in front of him along with a mug of butter beer. 

“Happy birthday Eva,” Bill stands to pull me into a hug as Dora goes over to the counter to start ordering. 

“You guys don’t need to do all of this,” I weakly protest even as I order the peppermint with a bit of whipped cream.

“And not spoil you for your big eleventh? How dare you suggest such a blasphemous thing?!” Bill gasped, hand on his chest as if I physically struck him. 

“Now look what you’ve done,” Dora giggled, “We need to give him the proper treatment to make him all better.” 

“And what would that be?” I raised an eyebrow as I follow the pair back to the table.

“A trip to Flourish and Blotts! Followed by a stop at the menagerie. Oh, woe is me,” Bill leans to the side so I was trapped between the two of them, hand thrown over his forehead. 

“Oh no! The absolute worst punishment, I mean treatment, there is!” I was laughing so hard at their antics that tears were running down my face. I shove Bill back into his spot to give myself more room and we had a pleasant time joking around and eating our ice cream. I gained a few more books in Flourish and Blotts and left Dora and Bill to catch up with me in the menagerie. 

“There’s the birthday girl! Bill told me you would be stopping by,” Agate greeted me as she finished checking out a man. She waved as he left before scooping me up in a hug. “And how is my favorite employee today?”

“I’m your only employee,” I roll my eyes, picking up Crookshanks before he could start yowling for attention. 

“That doesn’t mean you aren’t my favorite!” Agate laughed. I turn to my guardians for the day and wait for them to tell me why I’m here. 

“What? I know you like playing with the snakes, so I figured you would want to come here.” Dora explained as she shooed me over to the snake section.

“You should be in school,” Mataline slithered to the front of her tank when she sees me.

“I had a therapy session today,” I tell her, stroking her back with a finger. 

“Did something happen?” Yukina reared up to look me over for any sign of something wrong.

“I fought a troll a few weeks ago,” I shrug, eliciting a hiss from the white snake. 

“They let a child fight a troll?!” 

“Let is a strong word,” I defend the school.

“How did a troll even get into the school? Aren’t trolls supposed to be as dumb as the rocks they sleep on?” Shaka bared his fangs in agitation. 

“I don’t know how it got in. All I know is one second I was comforting my friend and the next I was dodging a swinging club.” I raise my hands in defense. 

“How did you defeat it?” Mataline curled up my arm to rest on my bicep.

“I had help from two boys, they had come to warn my friend of the troll but ended up locking it in the bathroom with us.” I scowl at the reminder of what Ron had done. I distract the angry reptiles by telling them about the spell I had helped Flitwick come up with. I had caught them up with everything and answered all their questions by the time I had to leave. 

The next day, both Bill and Dora had to go to work so I was once again dropped off at the Lovegood household to spend the day with Luna and Ginny, who celebrated my and Luna’s birthdays right before I was due to go back to Hogwarts. Minnie greeted me with a big hug and kisses all over my face as I giggled. She congratulated Dora on keeping me in one piece with a teasing smile that had the former Hufflepuff roll her eyes. 

There was one thing that I only remembered when we were sitting in the carriage going up to the castle. I left for a week without telling anyone. My friends who see me every day were left in the dark. Hermione and Pansy are going to be mad. I have given them the one thing they need to track me down. In conclusion, I am going to die.