𝑨𝑺𝑻𝑹𝑶𝑷𝑯𝑰𝑳𝑰𝑨

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Eva stood motionless in a graveyard. She recognized it almost instantly; it was the graveyard her aunt Adelaide had been buried in almost 10 years ago.

They had buried her in Godric's Hollow, in a tomb of white marble that shone in the night's darkness. On the day of her burial, the headstone had been embellished with peachy pink roses in contrast to the grey of the yard. But now, as Eva stared behind foggy eyes, the flowers were black and rotted.

Finally circling, she saw the graveyard was empty. Dead empty. It wasn't just that no living creature or being was in the area, but it appeared as if the cemetery had not been visited in a very, very, long time.

Death wasn't kind. Eva knew that and had known it for a very long time. It nabbed where it could, taking people who were far too youthful, far too good. It didn't pretend to care, it didn't pretend to distinguish.

The hooded vale of death had hung over the world for a long time, always threatening. It had never touched Eva herself, but it found every way conceivable to har her. Death had ripped away a part of her, the part of her that she loved.

It had taken her aunt Adelaide on November 27th, 1967.

It had taken the woman who taught her almost everything she knew. How to fly, how to bake, how to prepare a proper cup of tea, her first spells, how to braid hair... Eva admired the woman's independence and strength and strived every day to be like her.

She turned back to the headstone of her deceased aunt. It was black, the color of obsidian. The roses had vanished.

A hand grabbed her harshly by the arm. Eva whipped around.

She met the gaze of the ever so familiar woman she loved and missed every single day. Her usually warm hazel gaze wasn't there. Her eyes were icy and cold, nothing Eva had ever seen on her before.

As much as she tried to hold it in, the pain came out like an uproar from her throat in the form of a silent scream. The beads of water started falling one after another, without a sign of stopping.

Her aunt broke out into a devilish and diabolic grin. Her teeth were gleaming a pearly white and seemed to have an extra sharpness to them.

Eva let out another blood-curling scream.

"Didn't you miss me, dearie?"

An ominous crack shook Eva out of her abysmal nightmare. Her cheeks were stone dry but her body was washed in a frigid sweat. The sheets of her bed were twisted around her limbs, most likely because she was thrashing in her sleep. Her heart throbbed against her chest. Eva trembled. The room was entirely dark. No light anywhere. The remnants of her nightmare still clung to her mind, haunting her. Even her breaths trembled. She swallowed and once again turned to see the endless darkness of her room. She couldn't see anything.

It reminded her too much of the graveyard. It was dark, the only noise being the light snores of her dormmates.

She needed out. Now.

Scrambling out of her blankets, Eva quickly tugged on a wool sweater and escaped the dorm room. Not caring to spare a glance around the common room, she swung open the wooden door. Who cares if somebody saw her?

She softly and quietly descended from the Ravenclaw tower, her breath remaining shaky.

Running one hand frantically through her hair, she used the other to tickle the pear on the painting of fruit. It opened slowly and she rushed into the warmth and sweet aroma of the kitchens.

"Good evening, Ms. Potter, can I get something for you?"

"Thank would be lovely, Diminda. Just a peach muffin and some hot tea," she muttered kindly.

Eva sunk in a cushioned chair towards the corner of the kitchens. It was calm and peaceful, without many of the house-elves who occupied the area during the day time. Burying her tired eyes in the palms of her hands, she rocked herself slowly back and forth.

After the precious house-elf brought her muffin and tea, she began to feel herself soothe once again. Her jaw moved in a mechanical movement, chewing and eventually swallowing the treat.

She rested her head back against the chair, softly closing her eyes. She sat silently for a few minutes, left with herself, and her thoughts.

It had been a long time since she had a nightmare about her aunt Adelaide, or even a dream of her.

Innocence. Love. Happiness. Childhood. She pondered on that now and then; thinking about the old days when things were so simple. If only now she would feel free, unrestricted, like a feather in the sky. Floating. Flying. Everything new. Nothing boring, plain, or repetitive. As years ticked by, memories were born, but the best memories were when she was youthful.

Now things were complicated, frightening, and nerve-wracking. She only wished for her aunt to be there to guide her, talk to her. Not the aunt she found in the graveyard with icy eyes and sharpened teeth, but the one with a warm gaze and a loving heart.

Eva jolted out of her thoughts as she heard the portrait of the kitchen swing open. When laughter rang through the tranquil and warm area, she immediately recognized her company.

"Bloody hell," she muttered.

James halted for a fleeting moment, taken aback by the distraught appearance of her younger sister, and even seeing her at that.

"Eva?"

"James," she responded nonchalantly, turning back to her tea.

"Hey, what's wrong, Ev's?" Remus asked, making his way to crouch down beside her.

"It's nothing," she mumbled, plastering a pitiful faux smile on her features.

"I'm sure it's not nothing," Peter said with a raised eyebrow.

"No, I'm fine, I just couldn't fall asleep," Eva reasoned.

"I know that's not the reason," Remus chuckled sympathetically. "Tell me, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing."

"Eva, tell me what's wrong," James demanded loudly, making her flinch and drop her tea to the ground, so the glass mug splintered and cracked into fragments.

"I said it's nothing!" she yelled, making both Remus and Peter flinch away slightly. "Just leave me alone, James. You don't care, so don't pretend as you do."

With her final word, she stormed out of the kitchen, leaving both James and his best friends looking like a lost school of gaping fish.

...

Eva sat at the Ravenclaw table, pushing around her soggy cereal with her spoon. It had been left untouched in the milk for at least 10 minutes to the point.

There's a type of tired that needs a long night's sleep and one that needs so much more. For Eva, one became the other, starting as the "one-night kind" until one day it was ever-present - like it once was a heavy jacket but became heavy bones. It was then she knew that being tired could be wearing of the emotions too, that it can come together with a tired body, and become an ingrained part of a life that isn't lived but survived, endured. She wasn't born for that and neither were you.

We didn't come to be on a planet of such beauty and abundance to live like this, so drained, stressed, too thin to cope with life's storms, and help others with theirs. When is the time for dancing, for play, laughter, and long evenings of happy chatter? Because that is the medicine we all need: fun, friendship, good times. Perhaps most people are too tired to think of how to change these busy lives we lead, but Eva, she can't think of anything I'd rather spend her last ounces of energy on.

It had been one week since her nightmare and interaction with her older brother. She feared shutting her eyes, not wanting to see anything worse than what she had already seen. Yes, it had been one nightmare, but when her aunt first died, it was so much worse. The thing is, during that time, she would sleep, but sleep was the most frightening thing to do with nightmares.

She didn't wish to go back to a time like that and simply resolved the issue by draining herself of close-eye.

"You should eat something," Adan coaxed, pushing her a slice of toast with sweet orange marmalade.

"I'm alright," she smiled. "I'm not too hungry. Just a bit of nerves."

"Are you sure?" Kaelyn asked, concerned for her friend. "You don't usually get like this before quidditch games."

"I had a late-night, I'll be okay," she laughed airily. "Don't stress about me, let's just win this game."

"Maybe you should sit out this one," Adan told her.

"If you're making decisions while tired, you're basically 'drunk driving' your life. So sleep, rest, and decide nothing until you feel okay. That's the best advice I can give you," Kaelyn said. "There's always next time."

"I told you, I'm okay. You're going to need all the help you can get against Slytherin anyway."

A few hours later, to her friends' dismay, Eva sat atop her broom, her hazel eyes looking and calculating.

"Eva!"

She spun around and caught the quaffle Ben had sent her way, quickly darting madly down the pitch. She daintily dodged a few green blurs, titling her broom to go faster to the three hoops. With a large toss in the air, the quaffle went up before flying back down. Eva spun so the quaffle was hit with the back of her broom, but unlike every other time she acted, the ball missed her target. It skimmed the edge of the right hoop, falling into the hands of an opposing player.

Groaning to herself, she turned around to head to the other side of the field. Adan sent her a concerned look, but she simply shook her head and averted her gaze.

Once again, Ben was able to throw her the ball. Eva didn't hesitate one wink to rush her broom forward, darting swiftly around multiple players. She felt a breeze whistle in her ears as she scaled the field. As she approached the hoops, a Chaser on the opposing team came to her left shoulder. He shoved her slightly, but she jerked her broom to the side before he could try again. It was only a few seconds before the Slytherin caught up again, and lined his arm square with hers. Eva put all of her strength into her left side, and with one good shoulder-to-shoulder shove he flew to the side.

With a satisfied smirk, she was able to get her first 10 points of the game.

But Slytherin was still beating Ravenclaw, with a gaping score of 160-50.

"Kamryn, pass it here!" she called, before wrapping her thin fingers around the thrown quaffle.

She pushed forward before she spotted the same chaser she had battled earlier. She continued in a straight direction, hoping the boy would move if he figured out she wouldn't. Her broom was directed straight at the Slytherin, and his smirk dropped for a moment before appearing again.

He jerked his broom out of the way, leaving a satisfied smirk on the girl's face. However, it didn't stay for long.

"Eva!"

Eva realized with a start and a terrible sensation in her stomach that she's still rushing straight towards the wall of the pitch. She tried pulling up her broom but it was far too late.

The world around her seemed to fold into an endless black sky as she crashed headfirst into the wall of the pitch.