ELIXIR: A Harry Potter Fan Fiction

Twenty Nine. The Apparation Test.

"What?" asked Sean.

Evelyn had just shut her paper very quickly.

"Just thought I saw a bug," she said. "Got a bit jumpy." But she gave Sean a significant look when Marlowe wasn't looking.

"Ah," he said, frowning at her in suspicion.

But she needn't have worried. Marlowe was preoccupied, staring down the breakfast table at Caiti who was now refusing to sit with them or with Theo and had instead situated herself all alone. Evelyn had tried to go and sit with her, but Caiti had only said she was nervous about her apparation test that morning and didn't want to speak to anyone.

"D'you really think she doesn't want to talk to anyone or d'you think she just felt bad keeping you away from Sean?" asked Marlowe.

"She really didn't want to talk to anyone," said Evelyn, folding up her paper carefully and placing it inside her bag.

"God, I want to talk to her so bad," he said.

"She'll come around," said Evelyn. She shot Sean a look because he'd been staring at her with a curious frown through this whole exchange and she didn't want Marlowe to pick up on it. He could not know about what she'd just read. Not yet anyway.

A few minutes later, Marlowe sat up a little straighter. Evelyn followed his gaze to where Caiti had been sitting a moment earlier. She was now just beginning to head for the door, following a couple of her fellow sixth years at a distance. Something about the way Marlowe was looking at her made an idea take seed in Evelyn's head.

"Be right back," she said. She grabbed her bag and headed down the aisle after her.

She caught up just outside the door. "Caiti," she said, putting a hand on her shoulder. Caiti stopped and turned around. Her face was ghostly white.

Evelyn dug into her bag for the paper and opened up to the second page which held the article she had been reading when she had shut the paper all of a sudden. "Geminio," she said. The page duplicated and she handed the copy to Caiti. "Read the top article, okay? Whenever you have time."

Caiti hesitated and then, very slowly, she took it, folded it a few times and stuck it in her bag. Evelyn stood there until she'd finished and then she took a deep breath and said, "You'll be fine. Just breathe. Don't worry too much. You can do it, okay?" She pulled Caiti into a tight hug.

"Thanks," said Caiti quietly.

"Alright- I should let you go-"

"Yeah," said Caiti. She didn't move for another few seconds, but when she did, she did so without a word.

Evelyn watched her go before she headed back to the boys.

"What was that about?" asked Sean.

"Just wanted to wish her good luck," said Evelyn.

"With your bag?"

Evelyn waved a hand in dismissal. "Habit," she said.

Marlowe's face had fallen even more.

"I'm gonna go," he said.

When he was safely out the door, Sean turned to her and said. "Show me that article."

Evelyn took it out of her back once again, but when he reached for it, she pulled it back. "Don't you dare tell Marlowe what it says," she said. And then she handed it to him.

---

The sixth years who had already turned seventeen headed into Hogsmeade for their apparation test early one April Saturday. Theo was somewhere at the front of the group, chatting with his friends noisily, but Caiti had fallen behind to walk on her own, glad for the relative silence and no one taking her attention from herself. The morning was perfect: warm and breezy with a hint of afternoon rain hanging in the air. The clouds shone pink and orange with the sunrise. She watched the sky change and her whole self felt blank. It was refreshing to be that way.