Evan Rosier (Harry Potter Fanfic/ Prequel)

1 | 2 | You Say It Like It's An Insult

Tuesday, September 7, 1971

Evan Rosier has been trying to catch my attention ever since my first day here.

I don't give it him, of course. It's not like he likes me. He's just trying to bother me and the more I resist the worse he becomes. I can keep my cool, though. I always do.

One thing I've noticed about Evan is his natural egotistical facade. He can keep up his pretend arrogance but he's not. He is a true, pure-blooded wizard and he will be damned if he let anyone say otherwise. He also wants to seem like a perfect son for his parents. He's brilliant at pretending.

So am I.

Lying comes easy to me, as does pretending to be sad, happy, excited, anything, really. Call me a sociopath, but it's true.

With this in common, I can't hate Evan. Sure, I'd like to because of the way he spoke to me and because his family members are Death Eaters. As awful as they seem, Evan isn't that bad.

One day he walks beside me to our Charms class, since we share almost every class. I know, how annoying.

"Hey, Belle," he greets.

I turn to him with a sigh. "Don't call me that."

"Why?" He must think I'm joking.

"Only my family can call me that," I growl, speeding up.

He easily catches up. "Why not me?"

"You're not my family," I scoff. "You're a stupid Death Eater child, born and bred to cower behind You-Know-You's shadow."

This doesn't faze him at all. Does he enjoy people calling him a Death Eater? He's disgusting. "I'm serious," I continue. "I don't want to be around you."

"Okay," he says, and to my relief, he leaves my side.

It goes like that throughout the month. "Go away."

"I won't tell you again."

"Filthy Death Eater!" I finally shout at him, my wand in my hand. "Get out of here!"

Before I can see if it means anything to him, I run into my next class and take a seat in the back. Trying not to hyperventilate, I look through my notes and read over them for this class.

"Hey." I look up to see a student I haven't talked to but have seen in a few of my classes. What is his name again?

"Hey?" It was more of a question than a greeting.

"I'm Severus." He holds out his hand and I peer at it.

"Snape?" I ask.

He nods.

"Nice to meet you, Severus," I reply, deciding he didn't seem so bad after months of seeing him in my class. He does hang out with Evan, Rupert Wilkes, and some other of those nasty kids but he isn't that bad. "I'm Arabelle (L/N)."

He takes a seat beside me and we begin to chat about nothing in particular until class starts.

After that, we basically begin to sit near each other in every class we have together so we can talk. I was right about Severus, he isn't as bad as Evan. He was also funny. I catch myself uncontrollably giggling when he jokes.

I suppose it makes Evan, who's not even my friend, jealous.

He pulls me aside one afternoon and demands to know what I'm doing with his friend. Wrinkling my nose at his touch, I pull away and escape, heading to my common room. He can't talk to me there.

I cannot believe Evan is going to try to reprimand me about being friends with Severus. If he really wanted to be my friend, he could at least try not to be so obnoxious.

I remind myself that the only reason he was rude to me before the train ride was to protect his reputation. And to be fair, he is trying to be my friend. Every day he tries to walk with me, alone and without the eyes of his friends, and he tries to chat. I don't exactly know why I'm pushing him away. Besides, the only other people I have are Blair and Severus.

I try a different approach the next time I see him. It seems as if my insults are bothering him, so he doesn't exactly walk beside me anymore.

"Rosier," I call.

"Belle?"

"Don't call me that," I snap, and then sigh. I didn't start talking to him to scold him. "Anyway, what is your intention exactly?"

How do I put that I'm willing to be his acquaintance?

"Huh?"

I refrain from rolling my eyes. "You keep walking near me every day. You wanted to talk to me before I scared you off."

"First of all-" he laughs- "we have almost every class together. Of course I'm going to walk with you. And also, you didn't scare me off. I was respecting your wishes."

I try to think of what to retaliate with, but while I'm racking my brain, he says, "Do you want me to continue annoying you?"

"No!" I immediately respond.

"Do you miss me?"

I shake my head, keeping my cool. "We have something in common... Something that's really kept me away from anyone that could have been my friend."

"Oh?"

I nod, looking away. "We're good at hiding things from other people. You're not the arrogant, flashy pure-blood everyone thinks. You don't want to boast about your blood and you most certainly aren't a follower of You-Know-You."

He pushes me against the wall and covers my mouth with a hand, a fierce look in his eyes that I haven't seen before on him.

"Shut up. If anyone hears you, I'm in trouble. I could get killed if anyone suspects we aren't followers." He scowls. "I'm definitely a follower. You can't change my mind. As for my arrogance and flashiness, I have to do what it takes to survive, which means if I have to seem like a fearless, powerful wizard, I will become one. You don't know anything about me."

For someone who's only eleven years old, he can sure get scary. "Get off me!" I cry out, pushing him away.

"I was trying to sympathize with you!" I step back from him, scowling at how he actually scared me. "Stay away from me!"

Before he can call me, I run away yet again from him and into the arms of Severus Snape. He looks at me up and down, wondering what just happened until he sees Evan at the corner, eyes mad, uniform tussled.

Evan doesn't try to talk to me again after that for a long time. I'm glad. I don't want to ever see that filthy coward again.

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Published 5-20-19

Wow. Things are off on a bad start, huh? It'll get better, don't worry.