Redamancy - R. Lupin

Chapter 31 - Zephyr

Zephyr - (n.) a gentle breeze

When speech is in italics, that means French is being spoken. I hope that makes sense.

E V A N G E L I N E

Eight Years Ago

Fifteen year old Evangeline Love was sat on the porch of her grandmother's summer house, soaking in the afternoon French sun. The Love family had come for their annual vacation to grandmother's house in France, a tradition Evangeline loved, especially when she was in the company of her best friend, one Nymphadora Tonks, who had come with them the past four years.

But, the Tonks family had taken their own vacation to Amsterdam. This left Evangeline in a rather pouty mood, her head held lazily in her hands. Without Tonks, she was incredibly bored. Elio was off in town flirty his way through the small village, her cousins weren't old enough to really provide Evangeline with much entertainment at the moment, her father, aunt and uncle, and her grandparents were inside being adults, and Lillian was probably off with her nose in a book.

This meant Evangeline was all alone, stranded to find some way to keep herself occupied until they were all set to have a campfire later that night.

She'd left all her books at home, didn't want to play the piano, and had already flown around on her broom for the past hour and half. So, the best option she had was to sit on the porch and pout. She briefly debated sending Tonks a letter and asking how Amsterdam was, but she didn't want to seem annoying (she would later find out that Tonks had been just as miserable the whole time without Evangeline, confirming Elio's theory about the pair having separation problems).

The minutes ticked away, her eyes mindlessly watching some birds flying around the trees. She was so incredibly bored.

She was about to give up and find her little cousins when an idea popped up in her head. Jumping off the railing of the porch, Evangeline took a few deep breaths, focusing her mind and body onto the image of a golden retriever. It was a painful ten seconds in which her body stretched and morphed, bones snapping and realigning, but she was bored enough to sit through it.

Once she was done and the pain eased into a distant ache, she set off, bounding across the yard filled with wildflowers and perfectly green grass. She pumped her legs, zooming every which way through she trees. She used her heightened hearing to find the river, running to it quickly. Lillian always reads by the river, she says it 'keeps her calm'. Evangeline didn't like to be calm, she liked to be loud and free.

Evangeline and Lillian were almost polar opposites. Lillian enjoyed the sun, loved reading and learning, painted often, and preferred to live a laid back life. Evangeline, however, did not like a laid back life. She loved running through the rain, flying around as all sorts of birds, and was constantly moving about. The only times she ever settled down was in Herbology, dinner, and when she was playing the piano.

She could hear the river get louder and louder and she quickly saw Lillian sat by the edge on a towel, feet in the water and book in hand. Her wavy hair was pulled perfectly into a ponytail, not a hair out of line. She was always like that, nothing out of line. Evangeline couldn't understand it, but she respected it to a degree.

Without faltering, Evangeline ran over the pebbles and rocks lining the shore and pounced onto an unsuspecting and startled Lillian. This wasn't the first time she'd done something like this, so she knew what was going to happen; Lillian would shout at her, scold her, and then promptly drag her to the house and have their father lecture her.

But, this time was different.

When Evangeline pounced on her, Lillian jumped at first, startled. But then a smile spread across her face and she set her book down. 'Pride and Prejudice', what an odd name.