In Her Eyes Lies Her Heart

“I swear, on my life, I’m not lying!” Eve protested, laughing so hard she could barely speak.
“No way!” said George. “No way, how could you have been?” He was goggling at her as if he had never seen her before in his life.
The group was all sitting in a circle next to the fire in the Gryffindor common room. Fred and George had provided them all with food and butterbeer stolen from the kitchen, and Eve had somehow gotten her hands on three bottle of mead, which had them all a little tipsy. She had begun to explain some of what she had told Harry about her age, though, he noticed, she had omitted the part about being cursed.
“I already told you, Edward the sixth named me his heir. The real Lady Jane Grey died of consumption right after her wedding, and since I had such a striking resemblance to her, I took her place. I confunded anyone who seemed to notice I was different, and her husband, Guildford, was apparently more interested in the servant boys than he was in her, so I didn’t have to worry about any of his advances. Anyway, I’d been masquerading around as Lady Jane Grey for only a month and a half, and right before he died King Edward made me his heir. Then Parliament had to stick their fat noses in it, and they decided Mary should be queen, so I was queen of England for nine days before they put Mary in my place and charged me with Treason.” Eve took a swig of her butterbeer mixed with mead, smiling. The fire flickered behind her, making her hair glow red.
“But – wait, I though Jane Grey was beheaded,” said Hermione, her face scrunched up in an effort to remember.
“They sure did try,” Eve said smirking, a look of vindictive pleasure on her face that made Harry’s skin crawl.
“Okay, so you were queen of England for nine days, you were an actress for William Shakespeare, you snuck into the British Army in the First World War…” Ginny counted on her fingers. “You were a pirate in the Caribbean colonies, you speak about fifteen languages, and you’ve been to nearly every country in the world. Is there anything you haven’t done?” Ginny asked her, open mouthed.
“There’s plenty I haven’t done,” said Eve. “I haven’t finished school, or taken my N.E.W.Ts. I never played quidditch, though I’m a fair flyer. I haven’t gotten married. I was close once, but it didn’t work out…” Eve said, the last part in a whisper. Harry caught her longing glance into the fire.
“You never finished school?” said Hermione. Harry stifled a laugh. Of course she would notice that. “You’ve been here three times, why didn’t you finish?”
“Well, the first time, Slytherin and Gryffindor were fighting, and the school was in uproar. Everyone thought that Hogwarts was going to be finished, with a civil war going on. A lot of students left to study abroad or get private teachers, like I did. Besides, back then it wasn’t mandatory to get an education. I saw an opportunity to apprentice with a great wizard, so I left in my third year.” Eve took another sip from her mead and butterbeer to whet her throat and continued. The second time, I was attacked, and should have died, but I didn’t. I didn’t want the Ministry to get suspicious and try to lock me up in the Department of Mysteries with unspeakables poking me, so I faked my death and went abroad for a while.”
“You were attacked?” said George, concern on his face, though it was plain she was alive and well, sitting on the floor before him. “What happened?”
“I was at school when the Chamber of secrets was opened, fifty two years ago. I got in the way of the Basilisk.” She said. Harry felt the breath leave him with a whoosh. That meant she was in school with Voldemort. Did she know that? Was she one of his classmates? Or worse, his followers?
“How did you get out of that?” Said Ron, eyes so wide, they were in danger of popping out.
“You’ll find I am surprisingly hard to kill,” Eve said, vaguely. “So the third time, Voldemort was beginning to rise to great power here, and I was needed outside of school. I had already learned much, I was just about to take the N.E.W.Ts, and I decided I was more use fighting than studying. I had certain skills that were useful to those fighting Voldemort.”
“Like having the uncanny ability to not die when you’re supposed to?” said Fred.
Eve chuckled, “Yes, like that.”
The fire had burnt low, the butterbeer had run out, and the sky outside was dark when Eve finally stood to bid them farewell.
“Well, I’m off to bed, I don’t know if I’ll be around for mealtimes, but I’ll see you all at next week’s dance lesson?” She said it as a question, but with the tone that said she expected them to anyway.
“Of course!” Said Fred, jumping to his feet.
“We wouldn’t miss it for the world!” Said George, joining his twin in a mockery of a waltz around the common room.
Eve laughed, “Goodnight, all.”
“Goodnight!” the others called together.
Harry turned to go to his dormitory, but Eve called him back. “Harry!” she said, waving him over. “A quick word?”
He walked to the portrait and out onto the landing with her.
“Yeah?” he said, trying to make his tone light. He still didn’t know how to feel about the revelation of Eve’s old schoolmate.
“Have you picked a partner yet?” Eve asked.
“What?” said Harry, caught off-guard.
“A partner for the Yule Ball! McGonagall has requested that I ensure you have a date. As Champion, you must open the first dance.” She said, sounding exasperated.
“Oh, er- well I had a person in mind, but I- er- haven’t gotten around to asking yet,” Harry said, embarrassed.
“Well, get to it, or I’ll pick one for you. Plenty of girls are willing to claw some eyes out to get a dance with you.” Eve said, mixing threat and warning together.
As she walked away, Harry felt a growing sense of panic. A week ago he would have said finding a partner for a dance would be a cinch compared to taking on a Hungarian Horntail. But now that he had done the latter, and was facing the prospect of asking a girl to the ball, he thought he’d rather have another round with the dragon.