Chapter Text
Evelyn spent a pleasant trip to Hogwarts with her friends, hopping from compartment to compartment. With, of course, the exception of Malfoy's intrusion.
Malfoy looked like he was fuming as he opened the door to their compartment.
"What's the matter?" Evelyn cooed, standing up and getting right in Malfoy's personal space, pinching his cheeks like he was a toddler. "Daddy disappointed in Drakie-dearest? Did pwoor Drakie do worse than a Mwuggleborn with an eidetic memowy?"
There was a strangled laugh that sounded like a dying goose behind her.
Malfoy slapped her hands away, face brick red, and stomped out of the compartment.
Evelyn sighed as she sat down. "Oh, that was marvelous. I love winding him up."
The compartment burst into laughter.
A week after the Welcoming Feast, Neville, Daphne, and Evelyn got together to make sure that Evelyn grasped everything correctly. When they finished with the review, Neville dug into his bag and brought out a book and gave it to her. "It's as boring as Binns, but it's come in handy every once in a while," was the accompanying comment.
Then he left, with Daphne and Evelyn in the room alone. Before she could lose the opportunity (and her nerve), Evelyn said, "I have a confession to make."
Daphne looked up from her bookbag, which she was packing. "Yeah?"
Her stomach was doing flips. "I'm a girl."
The expected reaction was widened eyes at the very least. It was not Daphne staring at her for a minute and then bursting into laughter. "No wonder half the guys think they're gay!"
Evelyn just stared at her. "What?"
"They think you're pretty, girl! And there's no way in hell that they're going to admit it to your face!"
Evelyn buried her head in her hands.
"So, what's your name? Because, I mean, Harry can't be your actual name, where on earth did they get Harry from, anyway—"
"Evelyn," Evelyn said, cutting the suddenly babbling Daphne off. "My name is Evelyn."
Daphne shook her head. "I can't believe that I didn't see it. You hid for an entire year."
"No one was looking for it," Evelyn said.
"Am I the first?"
Evelyn nodded.
"When are you going public?"
"Beginning of fourth year."
Daphne looked at her strangely. "Why then?"
"It was a bargain with the Hat."
Unusually for Daphne, it took her a moment to realize what hat Evelyn meant. "Oh. OH! Wait, why did you have to bargain with him?"
"He wanted to put me in Slytherin. He offered to put me in Gryffindor, where I knew I needed to go, if I revealed my gender by the time I got to fifth year. I told him the beginning of fourth year if he helped me."
"So I'm not the first."
"You're the first I've willingly told," Evelyn corrected herself. "The Hat I really had no choice."
Daphne shook her head. "You are amazing Ha—Evelyn. Wait, why did you tell me in the first place?"
"I need to know both male and female roles," Evelyn said, shrugging. "I was going to tell Neville, but I wasn't sure if he knew the female roles. I knew you knew both roles, so…"
"You are brilliant. And you came to the right person. Okay, tell me everything…"
Evelyn told her of her plan, the phases, explained what she had done to secure the knowledge that she was a girl, explained what she needed to know to further secure the knowledge that she was a girl, and explained what she needed to know for when she revealed herself.
Daphne let out a low whistle. "You don't ask for much, do you?"
Evelyn swatted her, eyes gleaming with mirth.
"Okay, I'll teach you," Daphne acquiesced. "For one thing."
"Name it," Evelyn said.
"When you decide to reveal yourself, come get me. I'll help you make a statement," Daphne said.
"It has to be tasteful," Evelyn warned.
"It shall be done, my lady," Daphne said with a sweeping bow. She held her stoic face for a moment longer after she straightened up, and then both girls burst into giggles.
She hated Halloween. There was no changing her opinion. Especially not after Filch burst into the Great Hall during the Halloween Feast and demanded to know who killed Mrs. Norris, then turned to Evelyn and screamed that it was her. The cool, slightly angry look that she gave the caretaker scared more than a few.
November first, she and a bunch of her friends/associates investigated the crime scene. She paced around the water, eyes looking for even the slightest hint, remembering Mrs. Norris's stiff posture.
"Okay, we know that Mrs. Norris was petrified, and not by a Body Bind that one can undo in with a simple Finite."
"We know that it happened here," Daphne added.
"We know that the only possible witnesses to the crime are either unstable or petrified," Hermione said, rolling her eyes at the mention of Moaning Myrtle.
"We know that, supposedly, the Chamber of Secrets has been opened and unleashed Slytherin's monster," Blaise said.
"From that information, we can deduce that this monster has the power to petrify, either with venom or with some magical property." Daphne said.
"We can also guess that, from the way Mrs. Norris was frozen, said power had been reflected off the reflection of the surface of the water, and might be even more dangerous than a simple petrification." Evelyn finished.
The teachers' mouths were all hanging open, with the exception of Snape, who looked like he was expecting this but didn't know what exactly they were going to say.
"Slytherin was normally affiliated with snakes, hence the House's badge," Neville offered.
Susan seized the information. "So, to sum it all up, Slytherin's monster is most likely going to be a snake with some seriously dangerous magical properties and is probably sentient."
"Sentient?" Evelyn questioned, a confused look on her face.
Susan gestured at the blood on the wall. "It's pretty obvious that the monster is taking orders. Unless you specifically train something to do a certain thing in reaction to some kind of cue, you pretty much need some form of sentience in order to take orders from someone."
"So, going off of that deduction, we can figure the 'heir of Slytherin' is pureblooded and a first year," quiet Su Li spoke up.
They all looked at her in askance. "What?" she asked defensively. "We certainly didn't have this problem last year, did we?! And Slytherin was notorious for hating the Muggles and Muggleborn—he would have to be a hypocrite, not to mention placing his own life on the line, if he sent the monster after all those not pure of blood."
Evelyn shrugged and nodded with that conclusion. "Good job, all—especially you two, Susan, Su Li. Okay, folks, let's get the ball rolling. Suspicious first years and dangerous snakes are afoot—and you have no idea how ridiculous I feel for saying that—" Several chuckled, and she continued, "keep your eyes open, and if Mrs. Norris really was petrified because she looked at the reflection of the monster, keep a mirror on you at all times and look around corners with it. Better petrified than dead. Travel in groups. Spread the word. Daphne, Hermione, Su Li, could you get a good group together to scour the library for any and all monsters that have the power to petrify or kill through some kind of magical property?"
The three looked at each other, sizing each other up, and nodded at Evelyn.
"This mysterious monster will probably strike again before we can stop it. Who's good at drawing? I need a basic floor plan of Hogwarts. If we mark where the monster strikes, we can narrow down the area where we need to search for the entrance to the so-called Chamber of Secrets."
Several hands shot into the air. "Good, you five work together. If you need to explore the castle to make sure you have the map right, do so carefully. Keep yourself in a group with no less than three other people if you have to explore, understood?"
They nodded firmly. "Where should we put the map when we're done with it?"
"Hermione, Daphne, Su Li, you three work together with Dean, Mandy, Wayne, and Hannah to find one of the unused classrooms that would suit your needs."
"Where do you think it should be?" Hermione asked seriously.
"First floor would probably be safest," Evelyn admitted. "Definitely not the second floor."
"If we have something important that we need the others to know, we should probably write it down on a sheet of parchment before moving from the current location, just in case we get petrified on our way to find Harry or one of the others," Wayne said.
"Yes!" Evelyn said, pointing at Wayne. "Anyone have a pad of paper so I can write everything down so that I don't forget?"
"Tony's got your back," Hermione said, gesturing to the Ravenclaw boy. "I tried, but I couldn't keep up with the rapid-fire ping-pong match of Sherlock Holmes."
All the Muggleborn and Muggle-raised burst out laughing.
"Shorthand," Tony explained shortly, looking up expectantly.
"Thank you," Evelyn said fervently. "Okay, let's sum this back up again to make sure that I'm not missing anything and neither is Tony. We are looking for suspicious first years who are controlling Slytherin's monster. Said monster is most likely a sentient snake with highly dangerous magical prowess. We are taking over an unused classroom on the first floor to house the map of Hogwarts that Dean from Gryffindor, Mandy from Ravenclaw, and Wayne and Hannah from Hufflepuff are drawing. Research from Hermione from Gryffindor, Daphne from Slytherin, and Su Li from Ravenclaw and whomever they want to work with to raid the library for dangerous magical creatures that match the aforementioned description of the monster, sans the snake part. Precautions for walking amongst the halls of Hogwarts include checking around corners with mirrors, writing important information down before moving from your location, and sticking together in groups. Have I gotten everything?"
There was a round of nods.
Evelyn clapped her hands together. "Alrighty, then. If anyone finds anything—or anyone—write it down and go find myself or one of the teachers behind us."
She struggled not to laugh as she heard a chorus of clicks as her teachers snapped their jaws shut. People scattered—up the stairs to the library, or down the stairs to the first floor to find a good headquarters for hunting down Slytherin's monster.
Evelyn turned to face her professors. The majority of them looked amazed. Snape just looked resigned.
"Mr. Potter, that was…" McGonagall said, apparently at a loss for words.
"Forty points to Gryffindor for an excellent show of leadership," Flitwick said.
Evelyn gave them a crooked grin and a sweeping bow, hearing the muttered words of, "I would swear he's Lily through and through, but then he goes and pulls that…" as she left.