The Girl Everyone Forgot About

Chapter 11

Hurriedly making her way down the winding steps into the common room, Evie slid on her red, puffy coat. She pulled the fur covered hood up against her neck as she had not picked up a scarf on her way out of her room. Nor had she picked up a hat either, so this coat was the only thing that was going to keep her warm in the bitter, wintery conditions that where raging outside.

After receiving the letter from Grandma Hope, Evie became over run with both sadness and anger. This wasn't direct at anyone, but at the situation she now found herself in. Though Hope had tried to tell Evie to remain positive, she wasn't feeling very positive right now. The only thing Evie felt like doing right now, was crying. She loved Christmas, everything about it: the food, the Christmas songs, the joyous feeling of watching Muggle Christmas movies, snuggled underneath a hand knitted blanket as the snow fell outside. But the one thing she enjoyed above all else was spending time with her loved ones, to be told she couldn't do that this year was like a dagger to her heart.

She didn't blame Remus, nor did she blame Hope for asking her to stay at Hogwarts. Usually, Evie would be sent to aunt Andromeda and uncle Ted's house on a Full moon. Only when they couldn't afford the ingredients for Remus' Wolfsbane potion, but this had never happened at Christmas before, or not that she could remember.

Evie made her way down the long corridors of the castle, past the great hall, through the passage way under the bell tower and down the stone steps into the snow covered court yard. As she crunched her way through the crisp snow, Evie saw Hallie and Addie building the snow fortress on the left side of the courtyard. They were being helped by Leo, Reggie, Cedric, Rodney Botlebard (a fourth year Hufflepuff) and Susan. While on the right side of the courtyard, Gryffindor seem to have set up camp, building their own fortress. Evie could see Ginny, Fred and George Weasley diligently building the impressive snow fortress, helped by Lee Jordan (a third year), Dean Wood and Seamus Finnegan (second years) and Delilah Pendergast (a first year).

Evie couldn't help but smile, seeing everyone working together like they were it was heart warming. Even more so, Ginny was brighter than she had been in weeks! Evie continued to walk over to the Hufflepuff fortress when Ginny saw her and came bounding over like an excitable puppy.

"Evie! Guess what? We are all staying at Hogwarts this Christmas," Ginny motioned to her brothers who were busy finishing off the fortress behind her. "Please tell me you are staying too?" Ginny squealed.

Caught off guard, Evie hadn't expected to have to talk about Christmas right now. It brought a swell of tears to her eyes, which she was fiercely trying to keep from falling. "Oh, hey Gin! Erm well actually as it happens," She paused, sniffling slightly as she continued. "Yes, I am staying at the castle this Christmas,".

"YES! Oh that's brilliant news," she hugged Evie then turned to run back to her side of the courtyard. "Hey Fred, George Evie is staying at Hogwarts for Christmas too!" she shouted towards her brothers as she ran.

"Excellent!" The boys said in unison.

Evie eventually made it to Hallie and Addie without slipping in the snow. They informed her that Hufflepuff and Gryffindor had decided to have a snowball fight. As both houses wanted to build a snow fortress in the courtyard, they would see who's fortress was better by how long it was able to stand against an attack.

It wasn't long before both sides had finished and the snowballs were being prepared for launch. Evie hadn't even picked up any gloves, so she knew she would be freezing soon but she didn't mind. This was the perfect remedy for how she was feeling, in fact she was beginning to feel better already. Spending time with her friends in the snow, was taking her mind off the fact she wouldn't be going home this Christmas. She balled up her first bit of snow and waited for the signal to start launching.