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Eva woke up as she always did at home: to the sound of noise. Except for this time, the noise was four times louder. The girl highly disliked her brothers choice of people he had over for the holidays. Of course, her friends used their brains and decided it best to not spend Christmas with the marauders.
Excluding that factor, Eva loved the Christmas holiday, especially at the Potter household.
Stockings were filled to the brim and hung above the crackling fireplace. Garlands were strung throughout the house, sprinkled with red berries. Poinsettia had been planted just in front of the house. As for outside, there was a light snowfall just that night. The whole neighborhood had become a white pillow. Frost spikes hung off of the window like icy fingers. But to Eva, by far, the Christmas tree was the best decoration put up for the holidays. Everything from ornaments to popcorn to candy canes was hung on the tree, but it stood tall. A small angel sat on the top, watching over everyone with pure delight. Heaps upon mounds of presents could be seen beneath the tree. The Potter family always managed to outdo themselves.
You see, the Potter family has quite a large amount of money. The wizarding family of Potters descends from the twelfth-century wizard Linfred of Stinchcombe. His series of experiments laid the foundation of the Potter family's fortune. Linfred was the originator of a number of remedies that evolved into potions still used to date, such as Skele-gro and Pepperup Potion. The Potters continued to marry their neighbors, occasionally Muggles, and to live in the West of England, for several generations, each one adding to the family coffers by their hard work and, it must be said, by the quiet brand of ingenuity that had characterized their forebear, Linfred. Occasionally, one of the Potters made it all the way to London, and a member of the family has twice sat on the Wizengamot including Henry Potter, Fleamonts dad, and Eva's grandfather.
Henry caused a minor stir when he publicly condemned the Minister for Magic, Archer Evermonde, who had forbidden the magical community to aid Muggles waging the First World War. His outspokenness on the behalf of the Muggle community was a strong contributing factor in the family's exclusion from the 'Sacred Twenty-Eight'. The Potter surname would have been put into the sacred 28, for they were one of the longest-lasting purebloods as well. One other reason for the exclusion being that Potter is a not uncommon Muggle surname. The anonymous compiler of that supposedly definitive list of pure-bloods suspected that they had sprung from what he considered to be tainted blood. Anyways, enough about the Potter's.
Eva was very tempted to leave to someone else's house for Christmas, but her family valued their time together over the winter, and she didn't want to ruin that.
"Oh, c'mon Evs! Are you still upset?" James groaned.
"When is she not upset with you," Remus muttered, Peter nodding in agreement.
"It was only a prank," Sirius told her, his tone strikingly similar to James'.
They had trashed her entire room and filled it with stink bombs.
"Would you like me to take a round?" Eva snapped. "Fill your room to the brim with stink bombs and ruin everything inside it. I'd have a laugh for days."
"Who are we laughing at?" The five kids spun their heads around to see Fleamont Potter, who had just entered the living room.
"Nobody. It's nothing," the girl said monotonously.
The four boys stared at her curiously. Why not tell her parents? It would get James in trouble, at least a bit. Surely they would be furious; at least Remus and Peter would be, but Sirius and James were far too hot-headed to even give it a thought. Although for Eva, the prank had definitely put her in a bad mood, and she did not want to talk about it anymore.
Eva had already received two gifts in the morning, from you guessed it, Adan and Kaelyn. Kaelyn had gifted her a bundle of chocolate frogs. You could call their little obsession an inside joke. It was the first sweet they shared together, having been on Hogwarts express their first year. From Adan, she had received a photo book of the three of them.
"Who is that from?" James asked her.
"My boyfriend," she teased, knowing the topic pulled a few strings when it came to James. "It's none of your business."
"It's just a question!?" he complained.
"I gave you an answer," Eva shot back at him.
"Evaleigne Adelaide Potter," James growled.
Eva's face went red, all the way up to the tips of her ears. James suddenly realized his mistake and cowered back. The three others scooted far away, watching her with curious but frightened expressions. The girl stormed up to him until their faces were only inches away.
"Never. Say. That. Name," Eva sneered, and James quickly nodded.
Eva was beyond protective of her middle name. Not even any of James' buddies had heard it before, and she wanted to keep it that way.
Adelaide Briathewaite was Euphemia Potter's sister, making herself Eva's aunt. She had never married and kept their family name. Eva admired the woman's independence and strength and strived every day to be like her. Her response to being called by her full name wasn't out of hate, but of love.
You see, Adelaide had meant so much to the young girl. She had taught her some of her first spells, how to fly, how to braid her hair, and how to bake peach muffins. Loved and cared for wouldn't come even close to how the woman had made Eva feel. And then she died. Just like that. Someone had killed her, and Eva still didn't know why. At her funeral, Eva cried and cried and cried. She realized then and there that tears could not be wasted on tedious things. That tears were not to be shed unless completely necessary. And that is why she never cried since the age of 6 years old.
