Evie was in, to say the least, a very bad mood for the entire rest of the week. She had attempted to shoot a response, in her mind, to the darkest Dark Wizard in the entire world, Voldemort (who's name nobody ever said), only to get no reply at all. She had no idea what was going on, why he had popped in her mind and then popped out just as suddenly, but she only knew that it was going to drive her crazy. Anybody--and this includes the teachers--anybody at all who tried to talk to her--who even said a single word!--she shot down with a single death glare and a one word reply: "What?"

Hermione had told her in their room once, "You could be more friendly, you know. All they want to do is talk to you."

"I don't want to hear that from you, so suck it, Princess," She snapped right back. She had said that phrase--'suck it, princess'-- to so many people already this school year, it was kind of becoming like her punchline. Hermione, of course, had huffed and stormed down the stairs at this. Another one of their roommates, besides the Patil twins, was a shy girl named Aurora Nott, who cast Evie a frightened glance and rushed down the stairs after Hermione.

Evie slammed the door shut behind her and stalked down the hallway, seething with rage still. The nerve! She stopped by the common room, however, shoving through all the other people (who parted automatically) to stare at the note on the board. Flying lessons started Thursday, and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.

Great. Just great.

Evie hadn't spoken a single word to Draco Malfoy since the day they first met in Diagon Alley, but he still wasn't one of her favorite people in the world. Shoving through the people on her way out, she sighed heavily.

"What's been up with you lately?" Neptunia asked as the two of them (if Neptunia counts as one) padded away from the crowd. "Is that still bothering you?"

"Yes," Evie growled. "Of all the stupid freaking--"

"Evie, language," Neptunia reminded her absently.

"I don't want to hear that from a talking cat!"

"Ah, yes, I forgot again, didn't I?"

They passed by Harry and Ron, during which Harry was just grumbling, "Typical. Just what I wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."

"You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," said Ron reasonably. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk."

"If you're worried about a stupid piece of crap like him, then you must be more pathetic than I thought," Evie scowled as she stormed past them.

"What's been up with you this past week?" Ron asked skeptically.

"Nothing you normal people would understand."

"Excuse me then."

Evie noticed that a lot of people did talk about flying a broomstick with long and adventurous tales with a roll of her eyes. But she did more than that--she actually flew in the courtyards before and after school. The only ones who actually seemed worried about flying were Neville and Hermione, naturally. Evie clicked her tongue at them while insulting them.

On Thursday morning, Evie again sat at the table in boredom with nothing else to do. This time she was surrounded by Harry, Ron, Hermione (who had borrowed a library book and was reading stupid flying facts up until Evie tried to set her pages on fire), Neville, and some of the other boys (like Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnnigan). Then the mail arrived, and a barn owl and a black owl flew for their table.

The barn owl headed for Neville with a small package. Evie sighed at the sight of Pluto, slamming her hands on the table (and giving everyone a surprise) as she pushed back her chair. "Again, Pluto?" She whistled, lifting her arm again in routine, but this startled Neville so much that the owl dropped the package on his head. Pluto handed her the letter and she frowned as she read the name. "What is it with this woman?" She asked aloud as she read her aunt's name on the letter. "Seriously..." She lifted her wand and set it on fire again, slowly, from the bottom right-hand corner.

Neville, on the other hand, opened his packet excitedly. He showed them a Remembrall in his hand, which Evie had stolen only once back when she was two--it was the first thing she ever took by force--and still had it in her pocket as of now.

"It's a Remembrall!" he explained. "Gran knows I forget things--this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red--oh..." The ball turned scarlet in his hand, and his face fell. "...you've forgotten something..."

Then Malfoy was walking by and snatched the Remembrall from his hand.

Harry and Ron jumped to their feet, but Evie proceeded in watching the flickering flames protruding from her wand tip, licking the contents of the letter away. She couldn't care less about Malfoy. But no sooner than all this had happened did Professor McGonagall, who could spy trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, was there.

"What's going on?"

"Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor."

Scowling, Malfoy dropped the Remembrall back on the table.

"Just looking," he said, and he sloped away with his two 'minions' Crabbe and Goyle behind him.

"Ahem. My I ask what you're doing, Miss Mystic?"

Evie looked up and realized there was a trail of smoke fluttering up above the letter. She put it out absently, though the flame still flickered on the letter. "I'm almost done."

She dropped the ashes of the letter on the table before pushing her chair back and stalking from the hall.

***

Three-thirty that afternoon.

Evie made her way down the front steps carelessly onto the grounds for the flying lesson. The Slytherins weren't there yet and neither were any of the Gryffindors, but there was Madam Hooch, the professor, setting broomsticks on the floor. She looked up in surprise at the sound of Evie's footsteps. "You're here already?"

Evie scowled, whistling and holding up a free hand--not her wrist, the way she did with Pluto, but an open palm. A broomstick--a Firebolt, to be precise--flew from a second story window and into her hand, for which she hopped on and zoomed through the sky. Madam Hooch left a while after that, still muttering to herself about Evie breaking the rules, and the Slytherins started arriving. Evie landed on the floor quickly and dropped her Firebolt on the ground next to the other twenty broomsticks that were lying on the ground as well.

The Gryffindors arrived shortly after, and Madam Hooch a while after that. "Well, what are you all waiting for?" She barked. Evie wondered if she had changed from the last five minutes, but then just decided that it was she hadn't heard her over the noise of the wind. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up."

Standing next to Evie was Harry, whose broom was old and its twigs stuck out at odd angles. Evie rolled her eyes, tucking her wand in a notch of her belt.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!'"

"UP!" Everyone shouted.

Well, almost everyone shouted. Harry's broomstick was one of the few who did what was commanded, Evie noticed in amusement, as some of them had rolled over on the ground and others hadn't moved at all. Evie hadn't said a word. She simply raised her hand above her broomstick and it automatically jumped into her hand. Madam Hooch noticed this but said nothing, only scowling.

Madam Hooch then proceeded to teach them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. She also mentioned to Malfoy that he'd been doing it wrong for years, to which Harry and Ron were delighted.

She grudgingly admitted that Evie's was correct, as Evie knew the correct way to riding a broomstick, but she never did it. It was too much of a pain.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle--"

As she proceeded to count down, Evie saw the disaster come before it happened. Right after her count of three, she mounted her broomstick swiftly and shot into the sky the same time Neville did, obviously frightened, nervous, and jumpy of being on a broomstick for the first time. She didn't know why she tried to stop him, but it was instinctive as her broomstick spiraled into the sky and she shot forward, ahead of Neville.

"Come back, both of you!" Madam Hooch shouted, but Neville kept rising up--twelve feet--twenty feet. His face was white and scared as he looked down at the ground. Evie had a determined face as she shot even higher--going thirty feet by accident--when Neville's gasp caused her to stop sharply and whirl around without even spinning herself off. Neville slipped sideways off the broom and--

Evie dove sharply , grabbing Neville's wrist with one hand and his broomstick with the other. Dropping the broomstick on the ground and lowering her own slowly, she reached for Neville's wrist with both hands when--

WHAM--a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay facedown on the grass in a heap. Evie grimaced and wringed her sleeves. Whoops. Neville's robe had slipped from her fingers and crashed him down from ten feet high. Hey, she tried, and besides, at least she had lessened the drop by ten feet. His robe had just been too slippery. But really, she thought as she swung her other leg over and sat on her broomstick incorrectly and bridal style, her broomstick floating lazily around in the sky, it was just an excuse to get in the air.

Madam Hooch bent over Neville, her face white. She seemed to mutter something, but Evie was too far away to hear. But she heard very clearly when she turned to the rest of the class and yelled, "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear." She and Neville hobbled off.

Well, if you look at it technically, Evie wasn't breaking her rule. Evie had never touched a broom on the ground, and her own broomstick hadn't moved from the sky. Besides, why did she care if she were expelled from Hogwarts, and why in the world would she ever say the word 'Quidditch'?

But Malfoy had started laughing the moment they were out of earshot. "Did you see his face, the great lump?"

The other Slytherins joined in.

Evie scowled. Parvati Patil, her roommate, seemed to share the same thoughts, as she snapped, "Shut up, Malfoy."

"Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" said a Slytherin girl that Evie didn't know nor care. "Never thought you'd like fat little crybabies, Parvati."

"If he's a fat little crybaby, that makes me wonder what you are," Evie said flatly with no tone to her voice at all. The girl's face turned red as she snapped her head sharply upward.

"Look!" said Malfoy, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."

The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up.

"Give that here, Malfoy," said Harry quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch. Evie leaned back on her broomstick, an amused smile on her face.

Malfoy smiled nastily.

"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find--how about--up a tree?"

"Give it here!" Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off. Evie would never admit it, but he wasn't bad of a flier. Of course, not as good as her, but still pretty good. Evie floated over lightly along the wind as he hovered level with the topmost branches of an oak, calling, "Come and get it, Potter!"

Harry grabbed his broom.

"No!" shouted Hermione, and Evie rolled her eyes. "Madam Hooch told us not to move--you'll get us all into trouble."

"SUCK IT, PRINCESS!" Evie yelled at her.

Luckily, Harry listened to her instead of Hermione. He mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground and up into the air. Evie swiveled around a branch and Malfoy expertly to let the two of the face each other. Harry turned his broomstick sharply to do so, and Malfoy looked stunned.

"Give it here," Harry called, "or I'll knock you off that broom!"

"Oh, yeah?" said Malfoy, trying to sneer, but looking worried.

Evie snorted. "Not so tough anymore, are you?"

Harry leaned forward and he and his broomstick shot forward towards Malfoy like a javelin. Evie again curved out of the way without any effort at all, but Malfoy only just got out of the way in time. Harry held the broom steady. A few people below clapped.

"No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy," Harry called.

The same thought seemed to have struck Malfoy, and Evie put her hand over her mouth to hide a smile. "So he's a chicken."

"Catch it if you can, then!" Malfoy shouted, and he threw the glass ball high into the air and streaked back toward the ground.

A/N: Sorry, sorry! I wasn't paying attention as I copied off the book, so this was a bit of a long chapter and another cliffhanger. Well, not really, because you should know what happened if you've read the book but...yeah. Sorry, I'll be sure to pay more attention next time. But enjoy otherwise!

(=>.<=)

~Princess_Fairytale

Word count: 2270