Quiet in the Eve

A Slytherin Scamander

Evelyn sat at the Slytherin table, pushing her food around her plate. Helen tapped on her shoulder.

Helen: Are you feeling okay? You haven't touched your meal.

Evelyn: (sighing and taking the smallest bite possible) Look. I've touched it.

Helen: (looking at her) That's not what I meant and you know it.

Evelyn: (setting her fork down on her plate) No. I guess I'm just homesick. Is it bad that I already miss my parents?

Helen: (rubbing her back, soothingly) No, Evie. To miss your parents is not a bad thing. Now, if you take it too far and run back home, then I think your homesickness was something to worry about.

Evelyn: (smiling a little) Thanks, Helen.

Evelyn ate the most of the food on her plate, but stopped after a quarter of the food on her plate was left. She didn't really eat that much anyway. The food disappeared and was replaced with all kinds of dessert. Evelyn has always liked sweets, so she had to hold herself from taking one of everything.

Instead, she took a few muffins from a nearby tray and ate them slowly. The sixth year sitting next to her offered her some ice cream, but she refused it.

Evelyn: I'm lactose intolerant. Sorry.

Helen: (taking some brownies off of a platter near her) Are you actually lactose intolerant? I ask, because my little brother, Fenston, used to say he was when he wasn't, so our cook secretly put cheese in his meal one day. He was completely fine until he was done. That was when she told him what was in it.

Evelyn: (laughing) Yeah. I'm really lactose intolerant. Got it bad, too. Most people can eat or drink dairy products with the minor consequence of getting bloated. Every time I eat or drink dairy, I vomit from the nausea.

Helen: (giving an astonished breath of air) Whew. That sounds bad. Glad he's not lactose intolerant.

Evelyn and Helen continued eating until they were done. Sitting there, they watched the dishes disappear.

Headmaster Dippet: Now first years. Please follow your prefects to your common rooms. The rest of you, make your way to your common rooms quickly. No dawdling!

Evelyn and Helen found their prefect and waited for Lauren, Ella, Petunia, Mason, and Aleric at the front of the table.

Aleric: (under his breath) I can't believe I'm in the same house as a Morsbury.

Evelyn felt her entire face turn red and before she could stop herself, she kicked the back of his knee, making him fall to the ground. She and Helen kept walking forward to catch up with the others; leaving Aleric to run behind them.

Helen: Hey, why'd you kick him? I could've ignored him.

Evelyn: (shrugging her shoulders) I don't know. Something just came over me.

Helen: (laughing) My father and brother say that your mother has strong temper. I see you must've inherited it.

Evelyn chuckled and linked her arm through Helen's and the two girls walked side by side after Joan Rinley, their prefect.

As they walked down into the dungeons of the castle, they were stopped abruptly when Joan raised her hand up behind her head. Ella came to a stop after running into Petunia and Lauren.

Ella: (nervously quiet) S-sorry......

Lauren: (looking at Ella kindly) It's alright, Ella.

Petunia: (looking at Ella less kindly) As long as she doesn't do it again!

Evelyn stood behind them, listening to the tone in their voices. From the way Petunia spoke to Ella's clear tone of fear, Evelyn could tell that she wasn't someone Evelyn wanted to be friends with. But she listened to Lauren's tone of sympathy and decided she wanted to be on good terms with her.

Joan: Mirepoix! (pronounced meer-PWAH)

Evelyn followed Joan and the rest of the first years through the door of the open brick wall. They were lead into a grandly decorated common room with leather couches in front of a roaring fireplace. A couple desks sat across the walls with staircases on either side, leading down into what Evelyn assumed were the dormitories.

Joan: (pointing down to the staircases) Girls dormitories are down the left. Boys on the right.

She walked off to the left stairs and down into the hall. Evelyn, Helen, Petunia, Ella, and Lauren followed after her, looking around the doors lining the halls at the plaques hanging on the doors. When they stopped at their door, the plaque said:

"Petunia Griffin, Ella Hastings, Lauren Johns, Helen Morsbury, Evelyn Scamander"

Evelyn looked at the plaque before walking into the room, following Helen. For some reason, she felt it strange to see her name written in green on a silver plaque, hanging on a dark oak door. She didn't understand why.

Evelyn: (to herself) I guess it's because I'm a Scamander in Slytherin. That's not a bad thing, is it?

She realized maybe it wasn't. And maybe she should write a letter home, telling her parents all about her first evening at Hogwarts. Sitting down on her bed, she pulled out a notebook and quill and began to write.

Finishing it, she proof read over twice.

'Dear Mum and Dad,

I miss you very much and started to feel homesick after the sorting ceremony. I was sorted into Slytherin. It's kind of weird to me to see my name in Slytherin colors on my dormitory door. I don't think it's that bad, though. Yeah, the common room is a little too grand for me, but the girls in my dorm are nice.

I made a friend on the train. Her name's Helen Morsbury. Yes, her father is Benedict Morsbury, but she's not bad. She was a little solemn on the train, but when she warmed up to me, we talked for miles.

While we were waiting to be let into the Great Hall, Peeves tried to play a prank on us and popped balloons right next to our ears. I guess my jumpiness got the better of me, because he popped one next to my ear and I swung wand at him. I apparently used wordless magic that almost disintegrated him. He's now scared of me, which I wouldn't say is a bad thing.

Say hello to the creatures for me.

I love you,

Evelyn'

Evelyn folded up the letter and slipped it into an envelope that she set on her bedside table. She'd go to the Owlery tomorrow morning. She changed into her pajama's and crawled into bed. Turning out the lamp on her end table, she shut her eyes and fell into a dreamless sleep.