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Chapter 34 'Horcruxes'

Chapter 34 ‘Horcruxes’

Patches of bright blue sky were beginning to appear over the castle turrets, but these signs of approaching summer did not lift Evanna’s mood. She was sad and looked gloomily down at her breakfast when Hermione hurled a paper towards her.

Evanna looked up to check if anyone was looking at her but no, so, she steadily opened the paper to see Hagrid’s messy writing;

Dear Harry, Ron, Evanna and Hermione!

Aragog died last night. Harry and Ron, you met him and you know how special he was.

Hermione and Evanna, I know you girls would have liked him. It would mean a lot to me if you’d nip down for the burial later this evening. I’m planning on doing it round dusk, which was his favourite time of day.

I know you’re not supposed to be out that late, but you can use the cloak. Wouldn’t ask, but I can’t face it alone.

Hagrid

Evanna eavesdropped to listen if the others were going or not and heard;

“Harry, you can’t be thinking of going,” said Hermione, “It’s such a pointless thing to get detention for.”

Harry sighed. “Yeah, I know,” he said. “I s’pose Hagrid’ll have to bury Aragog without us.”

Evanna stared down at all the inky blotches all over the letter. Tears had clearly fallen thick and fast upon the parchment and on seeing that she decided to go. One detention wouldn’t hurt. 

Evanna looked towards the Slytherin table to find Draco looking at his food with a sulky expression. It could not have been plainer that he thought food was a waste of time. Undoubtedly, Evanna thought, watching him, Draco Malfoy was begrudging the time he could otherwise be spending in the Room of Requirement.

Draco was also looking thinner! Certainly he looked paler; his skin still had that greyish tinge, probably because he so rarely saw daylight these days. But there was no air of smugness, excitement, or superiority; none of the swagger that he had on the Hogwarts Express, when he had boasted openly of the mission he had been given by Voldemort that Harry had heard.

But all the characteristics that she saw in Draco fitted her perfectly as well; she was thinner, paler and had a greyish tinge to her skin and in addition she also had dark circles forming, with that she had a heavy heart behind her ribs all the time.

*

Evanna casted the dis-illusionist charm on herself and slipped out of the great doors of Hogwarts’ Castle that Filch had forgotten to lock. It was already dusk and she just hoped that she wasn’t late for Aragog’s burial.

Finally, she reached the Hogwarts’ ground after a lengthy walk and wasn’t able to find any horrible sight of the enormous dead spider lying on its back outside, its legs curled and tangled, the picture she was expecting to see.

“I’m late!” Evanna said to the empty grounds and signed.

She decided to go and meet Hagrid to show some sympathy for the death of the beast he loved so much.

“Love is weird! You don’t have to be beautiful to be loved,” -she touched her beautiful face- “love is what makes you beautiful, I guess…Maybe that is why Hagrid thought Aragog was a beauty…”

There was light coming out from the hut, so surely Hagrid was awake. As Evanna moved nearer the hut she saw a large block of stone standing near the pumpkin patch. There was something written on it. Evanna narrowed her eyes to read it and this was written in Hagrid’s messy writing with black ink;