The Divergence

Evie thought she was doing rather well the closer they go to the school; showing nothing but her excitement for arriving at the school. For finally getting off the train, out of the small compartment, and seeing the magnificent castle she had only ever got to see and explore during the summer when the children were gone. When she had accompanied her father while he prepared for the upcoming year of school.

It was easy to forget about the upcoming trial she was to face when Greg’s voice had easily lulled her into a bit of a doze. Or during the conversation she and Theo had gotten into regarding the application of magical theory to herbology, and how influencing the growth of different plants through magical means could affect the magical attributes of plants. Just a nonsense talk of two children with the passion and naivety of beginners in their naturally gifted paths.

But then the train pulled into the station and they all trooped out, Blaise and Theo first, followed by Greg and Vince, who were holding a conversation about Quidditch with Harry, explaining the sport with an exuberance the two rarely showed, and showing a bit of the intelligence that lurked in their big, bulky bodies. The intelligence of the physically inclined rather than the book and classroom inclined. It would have made her smile, except that she no longer had a distraction from what was coming. They were in the corridor of the train and moving slowly to the outside, Draco walking next to her. When she felt his hand entangle with hers she looked over to see that slight smile hidden as a cocky smirk, but the softness about his eyes told her the truth. The kind of smile he gave her when he was aware of his father or others watching him.

Evie smiled in return, though it was tight lipped, and gave his hand a squeeze that she did not relent on. Outside the booming voice of the half-giant, Hagrid, could be heard calling on the first years and Evie forced herself to take slow breaths. In and out, even and steady. She wouldn’t panic, it had been a while since she had panicked over something as little as a boat ride, and a short one at that. But she didn’t like it.

“What’s wrong?” Evie looked over to see Harry now walking on the other side of Draco, leaning forward a bit to look at her, brows scrunched in worry.

“Its the boats. She’s not a fan of them, and we’re to take a boat ride over to the castle. To awe us little kids by the majesty of the castle,” Draco drawled in a bored and unimpressed tone.

“Any sane person wouldn’t be a fan of them,” Evie snapped, sighing when the words came out harsher than she intended. “Our feet are meant to be on solid ground. If we were meant for water, then we would be merpeople. And we’re not.”

“And if we were meant to fly, we would be birds. Yes, yes. I know,” Draco replied, that same bored tone. Draco then turned to Harry to add, “Her argument against flying brooms.”

“Well, you almost drown and bust your head open.” And no, that was not a sulking tone in her voice. Not at all.

She then felt as Draco lifted up her hand, the one still clutching his, and felt a little pat to it that had her lifting her eyes to him again, eyes narrowing into a glare at his words. “Not everyone can be gifted with my level of grace, someone had to suffer in the world for me to gain such perfection.”

“Oh, you!” Evie said, yanking her hand from his and itching to smack him… but the eyes of the students around them kept her from doing so, and that smirk on Draco’s lips told her he knew that too. “Your ego is going to get you in trouble…” she groused softly for only the two boys to hear, which had Harry laughing behind a hand.

“Oi, ‘arry! There you are, come ‘ere, give meh a ‘ug.” The bellowing call drew their attentions as Harry, grinning, moved over to Hagrid and gave him a big hug, which had Draco wincing at the sight. Evie elbowed him in the side and gave him a sigh of long suffering. “I see yeh be mixed up with this lot again. Ye three be careful to stay out of trouble. Now, on the boats with ye. Promise yer goin’ to love this, ‘arry.”

Evie watched as Hagrid gave Harry a big pat on his back that had him stumbling a bit, which had Draco muttering about the ‘great big oaf’, which in turn had Evie rolling her eyes at him.

“Got your potion, Evie? Should take it now,” Draco said, reminding her of it, for which she was thankful.

“Potion?” Harry asked, poised before an empty boat and about to get on it, but looking back at them instead.

“My da makes me potions for motion sickness. Trains and motor vehicles are fine, they seem… stable enough. But boats and brooms…” she gave a shudder as she reached for the little vial in her pocket and knocked back the potion, making a face at the taste.

“She says they seems stable, but really she means she hasn’t had a serious accident involving one… yet,” Evie heard Draco mutter as he followed Harry onto the boat.

Evie was about to open her mouth and reply when a voice interrupted her.

“Hey… is it alright if we join you?”

Evie turned around at the unfamiliar voice, only to be stalled by the mess of red hair and the freckled, if rather common looking, face before her. A boy her age… one she vaguely remembered as belonging to the Weasley brood, but that hardly mattered, because she was simply fascinated by all of the red hair.

“Actually…” Draco began from behind her, but Evie did not let him finish. He could put up with the company.

“Yes, please,” she said with a bright smile. It would serve Draco right to put up with people he saw as beneath him for the duration of the trip. The perfect revenge for his teasing of her.

She was pleased to the point of blushing lightly when the boy, and his friend, let her get on the boat first, and then followed after her. Though when Draco ungracefully pulled her down on the bench seat between him and Harry she wasn’t very pleased, as it set the boat to rocking and her already relatively pale complexion became even more so, her hands reaching out to clutch at either boy beside her; Draco’s hand and the sleeve of Harry’s robe.

“Careful,” she said in a rushed, almost panicked whisper. At least the potion kept her stomach from rolling.

“Hello.”

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

The greetings went around, with the red haired Weasley saying first, then his friend, followed by Harry, a smile from Evie, and a derisive snort from Draco, crossed arms and all.

“Is… is there room for one more?” Came an out of breath female voice.

Evie watched as both the red haired boy and Draco gave sighs as the redhead’s friend and Harry both spoke up with “Sure” and “Go ahead”. The girl, with ungodly bushy hair, ended up squeezing onto the bench with the other two boys, the redheads friend squished in the middle much like Evie herself was – though it seemed she had a bit more wiggle room than he did, being slight as both her mother and father were.

“I’m Evelyn Snape,” Evie said immediately after, reaching her hand out across the way toward the red headed Weasley for shaking, starting the round of introductions. She learned his name was Ronald, but asked to be called Ron, and his friend was Neville Longbottom. And then girl was Hermione Granger. Not that Draco was very impressed by any of this, though he introduced himself still. However, Harry, like herself, was happy to introduce himself, if a bit on the hesitant side, likely remembering how overwhelmed he had felt when he had first seen the boy with his family paired with the shock the three initially showed over his name. But… there was a simple enjoyment in Harry and meeting new people that even Evie, as young as she was, could notice. Although she couldn’t possibly understand all the reasons that could be lurking behind it.

And as would be want for them to do, they immediately started in on talking about Houses and which ones they wanted to be in. It was different from when the same conversation had come up on the Train among Evie and Draco's friends. Other than playfully teasing Evie with Hufflepuff – or not so playfully on Pansy's end – the general consensus had been a hope between Slytherin and Ravenclaw. But here were two boys who steadfastly hoped for Gryffindor, and the young witch who, as it turned out, only knew what she read about and nothing more, because she was muggleborn. When Draco had almost called her a 'mudblood' he had earned Evie's elbow into his side and stern glare.

Ron and Neville both looked shocked that Evie and Draco wanted Slytherin, and spoke about it being a place for bad wizards. That had Draco scoffing that only idiots thought that, but Evie didn't bat an eye at Draco's words, and instead leaned forward to defend her father's House.

"Oh no, not at all! Uncle Lucius," a title only ever spoken out of ear shot of her father, and Draco's as well, "is a bit prickly, but he's not evil. Not really. OK, sorry Draco, but he's just not very nice, but that's not evil. And da isn't evil at all! Mum would have never been with him if he was. And he is very nice, and so is Aunt Cissa, and so many others. Plus, da says just as many people turn bad from other Houses as they do in Slytherin, people just want to look badly on us because we tend to hold more respect toward wizarding traditions, and are more vocal about advocating for it than the other Houses. That's all. And that isn't really evil, right?"

Evie watched as the two boys blinked at her, Ron with his mouth opened, as if they had no real idea how to respond to her.

"That makes sense," was the reply that came, though from the muggleborn witch, Hermione. "Its silly to think that Slytherin would be inherently evil. Its just all traits meant to sort people, right? And traits are not one way over the other."

"Well..." Evie began, but Draco was the one to take over.

"Traits play a role, but so does tradition. Malfoy's have traditionally been Slytherin, as were the Blacks, my mother's family. Strong tradition in Slytherin both, so I will be as well. And the... Weasley's have been known to be Gryffindor's, so Ronald will likely be one as well." Of course Draco stuck his nose up about that, and she could have sworn Ronald muttered something about Malfoy's. As much as she found the conversation distracting from what she was currently doing... it was still a relief when they turned the bend and the castle came into view awing them all as they caught their first glimpse of the school. Well, all but Evie, but she still smiled, seeing it from a new angle for once.

"Welcome to 'ogwarts!" Called out Hagrid at the lead of the line of boats gliding through the lake.