third book in the Evelyn Black series
• • mature - language, drugs, alcohol, sex • •
• slow slow-burn friends to lovers •
• soft burn romance •
[ all books listed in prologue via chronological order ]
George can't take the silence any longer, and he...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
She follows them at a distance; it's fairly slow-moving, as Harry and an elder woman struggle for a moment to carry a bigger boy (who she's assumed to be Dudley at this point) until he starts dragging his feet along with them.
It's much easier to follow four-legged. It's low and undetected. Strange, too... she wobbles a bit as she struggles to keep sight of them turning corners or her getting caught behind a low-ridding bush.
She's never been to Surrey (that one instance with the flying car she had stayed at The Burrow to cover for the twins and Ron— though, that didn't go over too well anyhow), but it honestly looks like every other middle-class British suburb across the country. Identical brown-brick houses with dark, sleek shingles and carefully curated yards; marigold bushes are trimmed and parked beside colorful Vauxhalls, Volkswagens, and second-series BMWs with rusty wheel rims.
The gold-plated numbers decline the longer they walk. Once they hit single digits, Evelyn's panting.
There's a particularly bulky truck at the end of the drive at Number 8 Privet Drive, and she ducks under the long boot and lays down between the back tires as Harry, Dudley, and the elder woman come to a stop in the middle of the road. She can't hear them, not even vaguely with her ears perked alertly, but they part ways fairly quickly... the elder woman to the left, and Harry to the right. He waddles his way with Dudley up a drive (not the next from where Evelyn is watching, but the next after that).
She's quick to catch up, watching Harry haul the nearly lifeless boy in through a warmly-lit doorway before closing it promptly behind him.
The side gate to the backyard, however, is open and Evelyn helps herself in on account of... well... knocking at this point seems to be a bit of an awkward, and moot, route of things.
The fenced-in space was as neatly trimmed as the front. There's a stout wooden shed in the corner and a shallow-fenced patch of raw soil and spuds. Evelyn almost pads her way across the yard to take a peek at what they were gardening, but her ears involuntarily turn at the sound of questioning.
"And just what happened to him?" A man's staunch tone shouts. "What did you do?!"
"I didn't do anything besides save him!" Harry defends.
"Save him?" The voice questions. "Look at him! This is it. Do you hear me? This is the last I'm going to take of you and your nonsense."
Evelyn takes a new more trots forward, turning her head to peek in through the tall glass doors at Harry. It draws his attention almost instantly.
He does a double take, his brows knit together at the second sight of the dog. "Sirius?" He calls aloud.
She hears his aunt's shrill voice snap. "What?"
Evelyn's view raises, her hands and her feet coming into themselves as she transforms back to herself.
Harry's eyes widen, completely bewildered, as she bolts toward him.
