I thought I knew my ending - Year 1 and 2

Chapter 23 - The Heir of Slytherin

I came to a skidding halt in front of the Great Hall. Put my hands on my hips to catch my breath. I had run all the way from the clearing to the castle.

'You clearly need some exercise, Evans,' said Sirius, walking past grinning, a stack of books in his arms. I looked at him, wanting to make a joke about him, but changed my mind at the last minute. The anti-Gryffindor rule was still in force. And so, without saying another word to him, I walked into the Great Hall, straight towards Evelyne and Severus.

'I did it!' I whispered as I sat down over them, interrupting them in the middle of a conversation, 'are you coming?'

'What?' asked Evelyne yawning. She had only just woken up. I stood up and tugged at Severus arm.

'Come now... I want to show you.' Severus rolled his eyes as he allowed himself to be dragged by me. In passing, I noticed Sirius following us curiously with his gaze before sitting down at the table with his friends. 

'Hey, can you guys slow down a bit, please? It's morning!' whined Evelyne.

'You were so eager to learn, weren't you?' I asked, grinning as I pulled her forward by her hand.

'Learn what? What on earth are you talking about?' she sighed. Severus had remained still. Looked at me with wide eyes.

'You did it,' he repeated, 'you managed to...'

I looked at my friends, smiling broadly. We had walked a bit into the Forbidden Forest so no one would be able to see us from the castle.

'What?' asked Evelyne who looked from me to Severus, yawning. I pointed my wand out in front of me, looked at my friends and realised that I didn't need memories if they were with me. 'Expecto Patronum!'

Again the dog came out of my wand, first as a faint glow, but then it became clearer and clearer until it took on an almost solid form.

Severus and Evelyne walked up to him, looking open-mouthed from me to the luminous animal. I had to laugh at the puzzled expression on their faces.

'Why a dog?' asked Severus after a while when I made my patronus disappear.

'No idea,' I said, but felt my cheeks burn as I thought of my dreams about the dog, the deer, the rat and the werewolf.

'Are you teaching us?' asked Evelyne who still wasn't over her surprise. I chuckled and nodded. 

For the rest of the weekend, Severus, Evelyne and I practised on forming a patronus. We actually had to study for exams, but decided that one weekend wouldn't hurt and now that they had seen mine, they were both determined to be able to produce one too. By the end of the weekend, Severus had managed to produce a white glow the size of a mini-cooper. To my surprise, Evelyne was even better at it and, like me, had managed to hurl the dummy into the trees on her last attempt. When the beam of white light disappeared from her wand, she looked at me grinning and said, 'You're a good teacher!'

'Better than Peterson,' Severus grumbled, looking with a jealous glance at the dummy that was hanging awkwardly between some branches. My stomach contracted at hearing that name. I still had to speak with Malfoy about Peterson. 

The week passed far to fast and every day at breakfast Narcissa sat alone at our table in the Great Hall. She had moved away from her friends, so I had made a habit of eating breakfast with her. She looked tired, almost defeated, but still wouldn't tell me what was going on.

On Thursday morning, I sat over her at the table and held out the bowl of fruit for her to eat something.

'No, Lily,' she sighed, 'I still don't know when he's coming back.'