I Need Her

Chapter 4

1976

6th Year

//Black's Question and Partners//

Evangeline sat in the library with her books open out in front of her and her hair tied up in a messy bun on top of her head. Her dark eyes ran over the words and she jotted down a few notes on her pieces of parchment. Her homework from Professor Slughorn had been to answer the question: Explain and give reasons for the use of berna wax in a potion for a swore throat. Her eyebrows furrowed as her eyes ran over the words before her in confusion and she muttered under the breath as she read. She was so focused on reading that she didn't notice the messy black haired boy that sat across from her. That was, of course, until her book was snatched from under the eyes. Her coffee eyes widened and they shot upward to see Black leaning back in his chair and running his eyes over the words.

"Hay!" she exclaimed then flushed under the gazes of the few students that looked at them "Give it back." she whispered quietly but Black ignored her read the words, almost out of bordum.

"What are you doing reading this?" Black questioned shoving the book back at her. Evangeline caught it quickly before it fell off the table. She placed it back on the table and opened it back to the page she was on before. Evangeline was under the impression that Black would leave, not that there was any reason for him to be here anyway. It shocked her enough that he even knew what a library was. Evangeline was constantly aware of Black's eyes on her. She forced herself not to look up at him and kept her eyes on the words before her. Her quill scratched the partchment with her eyes flicking up to the words in her books.

"So..." Black trailed off tapping his fingers on the desk "Have you seen Monny - I mean Remus." Evangeline kept her eyes down on her work as she replied quietly,

"No."

"Okay." Black shrugged and Evangeline sighed and lifted her head up to look at him,

"What are you doing here?" she asked him, her voice tired and slightly frustrated.

"Nothing, nothing....just looking for Moony." Evangeline raised an eyebrow and looked at him,

"Then why are you here?" she questioned in confusion

"Well," Black began sitting up straighter "first, is this Moony's lair. Second, i assumed that Remus could be here with you." Evangeline went back to writing her homework "But..I observe that he's not here....so....what do you think of him?" Evangeline's head snapped up and she looked at him with her eyebrows furrowed,

"Why?"

"Just answer the question." Black snapped and Evangeline gulped and ducked her head slightly. Evangeline wasn't as confident as Lily. Whilst Lily would have scolded Black for snapping at her rudely but Evangeline would just sit quietly and answer what ever he asked. Even in class Evangeline found it hard to raise her hand and answer a question. It was a great inconvenience. She was a shy person, she wasn't denying it.

"Um..." Evangeline bit her lip and looked down "He's nice?" it was almost a question by the way she said her answer.

"Yes, yes, anything else?" Black asked her impatiently

"He's sweet." Evangeline said slowly. Honestly? She liked Remus as a friend. He was the perfect boy, a straight O student with shiny blonde hair. I mean, she thought he was attractive - who wouldn't - but she preferred him as a friend. Evangeline didn't exactly get crushes, she found people attractive but wouldn't want to date anyone.

"Come on, Jenner." Black groaned "What to you think of Moony? Do you think of dating him? Or maybe kissing him? How about - "

"Padfoot!" Evangeline felt relief flood her as Remus walked over to her table with his eyebrows furrowed "What are you doing?" he hissed as he stopped by her table. Black looked up at Remus innocently,

"Just making conversation with Evie." Black told him and Evangeline flinched slightly, only her friends were allowed to call her Evie.

"Is he bothering you?" Evangeline looked up at Remus and shrugged slightly,

"It's okay. I need to go anyway." she stood and picked up her books "See you in Arathmancy, Remus." she then hurried out the library.

***

Sirius grinned innocently as Remus sat in the place where Evangeline had just been sitting. Remus had a frustrated expression on his face,

"What are you playing at?" Remus whispered in an anger tone.

"What?" Sirius shrugged as he pulled out a flask of fire-whisky from his trouser pocked and took a swig and placed his feet on the table, as he watched his friends eyes narrowed dangerously at him,

"If you're thinking of her becoming one of you 'girls', Sirius, I swear - "

"Oh stop your worrying, Remmy." Sirius chuckled as he removed his feet from the table and took another twig of whisky

"I wont go after your 'girlfriend'" Remus shot him a glare,

"She's not my girlfriend." Remus snapped and Sirius flung his head back barked a laugh then looked back down at Remus,

"What ever you say, mate." Sirius stood and slipped the flask back into his pocket "Anyway," he looked down at his watch "I've got to go see Amelia Laurence, we've got a study date." a smirk appeared on Sirius handsome face then he wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at Remus "If you know what I mean."

"What happened to Fiona?" Remus questioned in confusion. Sirius just shrugged,

"Too boring." he commented "See you later, Moony!"

***

"Come on, you have to admit that he's cute." Alice Fortescue pointed out as she, Lily and Evangeline headed to the common room for their free after Herbology. At current, they were speaking about what they thought about the boys in Gryffindor house. Lily rolled her eyes playfully and looked at Evangeline who was smiling slightly.

"Okay, fine, I suppose Frank is cute but I mean it's Frank Longbottom." Lily commented and Evangeline nodded in agreement and added,

"He's more like a brother than anything else." Alice shrugged as she entered through the portrait whole and into the Gryffindor Common room. Evangeline smiled and sat down on once of the couches. Lily slumped beside her whilst Alice curled up in an arm chair.

"What about...James Potter?" Evangeline asked looking specifically at Lily who shot her a playful glare. Evangeline smirked triumphantly.

"Well, we both know that answer to that one." Alice said teasingly. As much as Lily tried to deny it, she like James Potter. Most girls in the school thought he was attractive - even Evangeline and Alice thought he was. It was common knowledge that James as obsessed with Lily. It was only because Evangeline and Alice had known Lily for six years, that they could tell that James was winning Lily over - even it was extremely slow.

"Whatever." Lily muttered and Evangeline giggled at her expression. Lily rolled her eyes then thought for a moment

"Remus Lupin."

"He's alright." Alice shrugged "I mean, he's quiet but he's really sweet when he does to talk to you."

"I think he's attractive, he'd be more so if he didn't hang around with Black and Potter." Evangeline shrugged,

"Don't lie." Lily teased "We know you like him." Evangeline furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She didn't like Remus like that, she did in third year but that was three years ago. It seemed that everyone thought she had a crush on Remus, first Black, then Potter and now Lily.

"I don't have a crush on him" Evangeline told them seriously

"Evie, Evie, you can trust us." Alice assured her but Evangeline furrowed her eyebrows,

"I know but I'm being honest. I don't like Remus like that." Evangeline persisted and the two girls nodded slowly, it was clear that they didn't believe her at all.

"Okay, next boy." Alice said and she thought for a moment "Sirius Black." Evangeline bit back a groan of annoyance. Yes, Black was handsome the problem was, he knew that he was handsome. He uses his charm to lure girls to him. Evangeline only knew one girl that Black had yet to kiss and that would be Lily Evans - like Potter would let Black make any kind of advance on his 'Lily-flower'. Yes, Evangeline had been kissed by Sirius Black. In third year, it was a dare from Potter to kiss the next girl that walked through into the common room. She knew that Black had no idea who was at the time.

"He's handsome." Evangeline shrugged "But hes way to full of himself to be attractive."

"Exactly, he's handsome but his attitude is ugly." Lily confirmed. The three girls continued to talk about boys for a little longer before they fell into a comfortable silence.

"Have you spoken to your brother?" Alice asked Evangeline in a quiet voice after a few minuets. Evangeline frowned and looked down,

"No." she muttered.

Her elder brother, Sebastian Jenner, had graduated from Hogwarts two years ago. Since then Sebastian had distanced himself from his sister and father. Sebastian was more of a father than a brother, he'd raised her himself since his father had gone into depression after the death of their mother when Evangeline and Simon were much younger. It seemed, to Evangeline anyway, that Sebastian had been waiting to leave the house as soon as possible. Once he'd left Hogwarts Sebastian had moved to France to pursue his career as as a translator for the ministry. Evangeline had only seen her brother four times in the past three years. He didn't even come back on the anniversary of their mothers death. Sebastian wrote to her on occasion, but it wasn't often.

Evangeline looked down and lifted her knees to her chest and rested her chin on her knees.

"Evie..." Lily said in a pitiful tone and she wrapped her arms around her and pulled her into a hug. Evangeline leaned on her friend, Alice and Lily had been there for her since they first found about her broken family.

"Can I have a hug, Lily-flower?" Evangeline looked up to see James Potter standing beside their couch with his arms open wide with a pout on his lips "Please Lily?" Evangeline glanced at Lily who rolled her eyes,

"Go away Potter. Don't you have some first years to antagonize?" she snapped as she pulled away from Evangeline and sat beside her. James frowned then flung himself at Black,

"S-She's being mean to me." Potter sniffed dramatically and Black rubbed his back and shot Lily dirty look,

"Don't listen to her, Prongs." Black said playing along with Potter's over-dramatic scene "My hugs are better than hers anyway." Evangeline rolled her eyes and stood then looked down at Lily,

"I think I'm going to head to History of Magic." Evangeline said to Lily and Alice quietly.

"I know someone that needs a hug!" Black shouted loudly and then Evangeline tumbled to the floor with Remus on top of her, having being pushed into Evangeline by Black,

"Black!" Lily screamed, Evangeline looked up at Remus wide eyed

"I am so sorry." Remus gulped as he pulled himself off her before helping her up. Evangeline looked at Lily who was shoving Black out of anger. Remus let out his hand to help up Evangeline up who took it and looked back at Lily and Alice.

"Come on." she muttered and she, Lily and Alice ran out the common room with Remus shouting down Black and Potter.

Evangeline entered her History of Magic class room and took her seat at the front of the class. She placed her books on the table and pulled out her quill. Professor Binn's stared forward with a blank expression as the students took their seats and sat down, chatting loudly. Evangeline found herself beginning to regret taking this subject, mostly because she didn't talk to anyone in the class and that both Black and Potter were in this class. Speaking of Potter and Black, the two rowdy boys entered the class and took their seats at the back of the class talking boisterously about who had kissed the most girls.

"Settle down." Professor Binn's boring voice dragged and a few of the students, like Evangeline, listened whilst most continued to speak, like Black.

The class dragged on extremely slowly. There was only a few more minuets left of the lesson and Evangeline thought she would have no problem getting through the remainder of the class, how wrong she was. Professor Binns turned to them and spoke,

"Your homework will be to produce a presentation on how the Vampire war in the sixteenth century lead to the revolt of Trolls in the seventeenth century." Evangeline groaned quietly, along with the rest of the class "Now, now, you'll be glad to hear that you will be doing it in partners." Evangeline gulped, that did not help. The rest of the class cheered and she heard Potter shout loudly,

"Padfoot is mine!"

"Settle down, please." Binns told the class tiredly "I have chosen your partners." the class began to shout in protest but Binn's payed them no heed and began to read out the names. Evangeline leaned on her hand. No matter who she was with she knew that she was going to be doing all the work, so it didn't really effect who she was with. Well, unless it was -

"And finally, Jenner and Black."

...unless it was Sirius Black.