"may i live like the lotus, at ease in muddy water"

*

Eva's paintbrush swished across the large square canvas with the delicacy of one longing to get lost in the colors. She closed her eyes and pictured the ocean, its rolling waves and swirls of blue, before diving back into her work with newfound clarity.

Eva grew up in a creative household, a place where music wafted out the windows and ink spilled out of the doorways. Her parents, Amelia and Jonathon, lived as artists. Not a steady profession, even in the Muggle world, but the joy in their hearts always meant more to them than the money in their pockets.

Jonathan Taylor worked all thirty years of his too-short life on the docks, hauling boxes from sea to shore for minimum wage. By day, he appeared as an average man trying to make something of himself. By night, poetry spilled onto pages of a leather journal he'd bought at a five-and-dime because he simply couldn't contain his thoughts anymore. Someone had caught his fancy, a girl he met on the boat one day, a girl with a curly blonde ponytail and a dream to leave a legacy. She never did change the world, but she changed his.

Amelia Bell ran away from home at the age of eighteen, not because she hated her home, but because she couldn't wait a minute more. There was so much world out there, so much to discover. How could she stay in that same town longer than she had to? She hopped on a boat and just sailed for years. Somewhere in the time passed is where she met Jonathan, a man who could use words in a way she never knew possible.

After eight months of knowing each other, they got married, and after two years, they had a daughter, Eva Brandi. Eva because it meant 'life,' and Brandi for the song of the same name (though a different spelling). She brought joy to life that they had never experienced. After a long day at the docks, Jonathan always knew he'd return to his home where his two favorite girls would be waiting with identical grins. After dinner, Amelia would play guitar by the window while Jonathan wrote his poems and Eva played with her dolls. And life was perfect.

Amelia and Jonathan talked of having other children, but money was tight enough with one child. He continued to work for the boat company, but also continued to write. His words no longer were an escape from life, but instead a way to document just how blessed he was. Amelia stayed in their paint-chipped ranch, watching little Eva and writing songs to sing her to sleep. Her soft voice rose and fell like the June wind, warm in the fading sun and carrying a wistful nostalgia of long ago.

Eva skipped through her early days wearing a bright smile on her face and her heart on her secondhand sleeve. Her mother's words always echoed in her mind: Let your smile change the world, but never let the world change your smile.

Her parents worried: Eva seemed lonely for such a sweet child. Soon, though, their worries shifted, because Jonathan's cough never went away like the doctors said it would. It only grew worse.

In the years after, every harsh cough made Eva cringe, every sickness caused a new wave of anxiety. Cancer, they told their nine-year-old daughter, each parent holding one of her hands tightly. Cancer, this disgusting word they somehow had to fight now. The girl pictured it not as a disease, but as a black monster eating away at her precious father's lungs, weathering them like the sea erodes rock. Because you can fight a monster in the closet. Even a fairytale knight can't fight a complicated-sounding disease. Neither could Jonathan.

A month after her tenth birthday, no one was there to protect her from the monsters anymore. Her mother's music took a dark turn, incorporating pitiful wails and unfinishable lyrics. No more than twenty people attended his funeral. Fate gave him a quiet beginning, a quiet middle, and a quiet end. She didn't cry a single tear in the church. She didn't cry for days. When she found his leather notebook of poems a week later, though, the emotions overflowed her. The man she admired most of all, the man who spent his life watching his dream slip away so others could have theirs, was truly gone.

Slowly, though, music returned to the house. Eva began painting at her mother's recommendation and found a way to lose herself for a while. Her smile returned through brush strokes.

About a year later, a strange visitor knocked on the ranch's door. Introducing herself as a school professor, Minerva McGonagall bent down to shake the small girl's hand, noting the tremble in her fingers and the loneliness in her eyes. In as few words as possible, she explained about a magical place called Hogwarts, a school for children with special talents. She meant to only stay for a little while, but while conversing with Amelia in the kitchen, she caught sight of Eva in the backyard trying to play soccer by herself. Minerva had never played the sport before, but in her time as a student, she had been the star of Gryffindor's Quidditch team. She ended up trying to kick the ball past the girl, who blocked with perfect coordination. Minerva smiled a bit, sensing a future player and hoping she'd be a Gryffindor.

When Eva entered Hogwarts, she had no idea of the prejudice she'd face, but she wasn't alone. Her first friend, Marlene, helped her survive the first few weeks in the Wizarding World. She met Lily soon after, and then the mischievous boys who shared her house. Minerva also kept a special eye on the girl, and was the first to congratulate her when she successfully made the Quidditch team the first year she tried out.

So as Eva bit her lip and stared down at her canvas in concentration, she naturally thought of her parents and the gift they'd given her: a way to express herself and the courage to be unapologetically Eva Brandi Taylor.

"What're you working on?" Marlene asked as she entered the dorm and found her friend sitting on her bed with art supplies strewn everywhere. Eva glanced up like a deer in headlights before she processed the question, a few specks of blue paint on her face and her messy curls held up by her wand.

"I'm painting the ocean," she explained. "For my mum's Christmas present. I wanted to get ahead."

Marlene leaned over Eva's shoulder to examine her work. While her paintings never moved like magic portraits, Marlene thought they had a movement of their own.  The way the blues and greens blended with white sea foam tracing the waves, she could almost smell the salt of the sea, feel the breeze on her face.

"It's beautiful, Eve."

"Thanks. I just finished something for Sirius, too." She pointed to a neatly wrapped present sitting on the corner of her bed.

Marlene sat down next to her, careful not to sit in the paint. "The party's tomorrow. What did you get him?"

"Shh, it's a surprise," Eva said, drawing a finger across her lips. "I hope he likes it."

Marlene McKinnon had never been the quietest member of their group. Her friends knew her as a massive fan of Muggle Studies who loved traveling to other countries and was easily the best hugger in Gryffindor Tower. She got to know the Marauders through Eva, and she'd dated Sirius a few times over their years at school. Snogging in empty hallways, having dates to Hogsmeade, cuddling on the couch at night. All fun, nothing concrete. These tended to be flings, though, because neither of them ever harbored the feelings necessary to call it a relationship. The last time, it was Sirius who ended it, and he admitted the breakup was due to his feelings for someone else. Marlene would have had to be blind to not see who it was.

When she kissed him, Marlene only felt longing in his lips. Never satisfaction. That was the look in his eyes, too. Always needing something more, something she didn't possess. It never hurt her. Sometimes she left, sometimes he did, but they always had fun, and they always fell apart.

This is why she never envied Eva for holding his affections. She loved Sirius in a one-that-got-away sense, as a boy who she would always love in a way she could never determine. There was too much history to ever simply be friends again, but she knew without a doubt that she didn't love him, not in the way he loved Eva.

"I know he will."

Eva considered the half-finished painting before her before sliding off and pulling the wand out of her hair. Her curls fell, cascading messily past her shoulders as she cleaned her workspace with magic.

"I better get going, I have Quidditch practice."

"Eva, it's raining!" Marlene pointed out. Eva groaned and grabbed Sirius' leather jacket, trusting that it would keep her both warm and dry. She ran down the spiral stairs and right into Sirius himself, who was halfway through yelling something obnoxiously at Remus, but caught Eva instead. He tripped backwards and she landed right on top of him. Remus stifled a laugh behind his book as he watched it all unfold. "Hey! I am so, so sorry, I'm just running late."

"Don't worry, I'm okay." He flashed her a smile as he helped her up. "Six years and you always miss that step, Blondie."

"Consider it a bad sign if I ever make it down the stairs without a new bruise," she joked. Remus glanced up from his book at his normal chair, smiled, and returned to his book.

"You going to Quidditch? James was looking for you maybe ten minutes ago. He left. Figured you already headed down."

"I know!" She began to search the room wildly for her shoes. She knew she'd left somewhere, but the exact location was a mystery. "I just lost track of time, and now Mitchell's going to humiliate me in front of the team because he's like that, and-"

"Eva, breathe." He put his hands on her shoulders and looked at her, his dark eyes earnest. After hours of staring at paint, she found herself staring at him with the same perspective. Eyes the color of a storm, charcoal hair, and a little half-smirk that could get him anything he wanted. He was a work of art. "You're fine. Everyone runs late sometimes, and if McKinnon has something to say about that, then I'll deal with him after."

She sighed, a little smile spreading across her face again. "You're right." She spotted the shoes and slid them on. "I'd better get going, then."

"I'll walk with you."

Sirius didn't mention the real reason he offered. Yes, he did love her, but the newest edition of the Daily Prophet proclaimed more Muggle Borns murdered in London by Death Eaters. It scared all of the Marauders, Sirius especially, because he knew of his brother's true colors. They had a long conversation about this potential danger and resolved to keep a closer eye on both Lily and Eva, the only Muggle Borns in their group. Walking around at night alone could be risky for anyone, let alone one of them. They knew the two would never outwardly accept their protection, so they agreed to keep it a secret. Their friends meant too much to them to take chances.

"You sure?" She asked hesitantly. "Its bad enough that Mitchell's got the team out there. It's pouring outside, and it's cold. You're going to get all wet."

"I don't mind." He shoved her playfully sideways and winked before taking off at top speed, her right on his heels.

After the two disappeared through the portrait hole, Remus turned to Marlene, who had just come down from the dormitory.

"I'm going to win that bet," he said cockily. Marlene smiled, sat on the arm of his chair, and messed up his hair. He swatted her away, but not in an angry way.

"Honestly? I hope you do."