Clash During the Match

By the time they finished bandaging Alain Bel, it was completely dark.

After being busy for so long, Evita belatedly felt a little hungry, so she took a detour to the kitchen before returning to her dormitory.

She had always been on good terms with the Hogwarts House-elves, and as soon as she walked in, they brought her a plate piled high with food.

"Thank you so much." Evita washed down beef jerky and sesame pies with cola, and stuffed plenty of candy into her mouth as well. Only when she was nearly full did she reluctantly leave.

She returned to her dormitory and looked in the mirror. Ever since her visit to the Hospital Wing, she had started paying more attention to her health. Since she was still growing, she ate at least four meals a day and, mindful of future troubles, made sure to eat sesame seeds to ward off the threat of baldness.

Now, the complexion reflected in the mirror was finally no longer almost translucent with pallor, but a different kind of luminous white.

Evita looked at herself from side to side and asked in puzzlement, "I go out in the sun on the Quidditch Pitch every two days, so why am I still this pale? Has the weather in Britain gotten this bad?"

"It's a racial trait." Adele was doing who knew what, and took a while to answer. "The hallmarks of a Veela's human form are skin that glows with a soft, moonlike radiance, and hair that billows behind her head even without wind."

"Veela can turn into swans, eagles, and even snakes without becoming Animagi," Evita said, aggrieved. "Why can't I? That would be so cool."

"Your eyesight is good," Adele said. "You're a Half-blood, so you should count yourself lucky you have the advantage of good eyesight and that your hair retained its magic, among other things. But judging by your Animagus form, if you were a Pure-blood Veela, you'd probably be able to turn into a peregrine falcon."

"All right." Evita pinched her own cheek. "So what race is the other part of my blood from, exactly?"

Adele hesitated. "All in all, I suppose you're about three-quarters human?"

Evita said, "Care to elaborate?"

"You're a cross between a Veela and a human. I modeled your Veela mother on you, and your other genetic connection is the host's body from her previous life..."

Evita said, "But I should have been a Muggle in my last life, right?"

"The system is great, enough said. Humans have advantages that Veela don't, so you're a combination of advantages."

"...Thanks."

"Wait-" Evita suddenly took a deep breath. "So that means my mom and my mom and I all have the same face?"

"Seventy percent resemblance."

"Fine..."

"Wait-" Adele took a deep breath too. "I seem to have a bit too much work on my hands. Is this what humans are like?"

"I'm going to bed." Evita made an emergency exit. "Bye."

Evita fell asleep as soon as she lay down. The revelations about her origins from Adele had been such a shock that she missed breakfast in the Great Hall and had to go to class with a piece of bread she had dug up from who knew where clenched between her teeth.

"Good morning, Evita," her classmates greeted her warmly.

Evita returned their greetings indistinctly. Professor Binns floated slowly toward them, and she hurriedly stuffed all the bread into her mouth, nearly choking to death on an ordinary morning in her fourth year.

Hogwarts had very few students. Each house had three hundred at most, and there were even fewer in each year, so most classes were shared by two houses.

Unfortunately, Hufflepuff had History of Magic with Slytherin this year.

Before, the two houses had kept out of each other's way, but after their conflict had landed them all in detention, the atmosphere between them had dropped to freezing for a time. Professor Binns in particular was a teacher who didn't much care what his students did in class.

Fortunately, Evita was not to be trifled with and wouldn't let anyone pick on Hufflepuff students either. The Slytherin students were no fools, so things remained relatively peaceful for the time being.

But storms often came under a heavy, oppressive sky, as in the first Quidditch Match of March.

As usual, Evita mounted her broom and began searching for the Golden Snitch.

A fine, dense drizzle came first, gradually turning into a downpour. Rain cascaded down like a waterfall, pelting the players.

Evita cast "Impervius" and concentrated on searching for the Golden Snitch.

Slytherin's Seeker was still that big oaf. As the rain drenched him, a devious idea quietly occurred to him.

Look at her. In the pouring rain, the silver-haired girl looked so frail, so easy to knock down... If he could just knock her off her broom, those Hufflepuff idiots were no match at all for Slytherin's Seeker and Beaters. Even their Keeper just stood stupidly in front of the hoops with nothing to do.

Of course it was dishonorable, unacceptable, and even against the rules of the match, but what did that matter? It was just a small means to victory. The trophy they would lift in the end was what mattered.

He steered his broom toward the silver-haired girl, pretending it was an accident.

Evita was concentrating fully on finding the Golden Snitch. Her Veela blood gave her excellent eyesight—not as good as a real eagle's, but far better than an ordinary person's.

However, everything had two sides: most birds' eyesight deteriorated severely at night, and in her case, that meant she was nearly half-blind.

For that reason, she brought a lamp whenever she went out at night, or used a great deal of magic to cast Lumos. Together with the moderating effect of her human blood, that kept her from actually going blind.

But the heavy rain had darkened the entire sky. If she couldn't find the Golden Snitch soon... Evita grew anxious. Then she wouldn't be able to find it at all!

She blinked hard. The little figure she could usually spot quickly had vanished without a trace, and the more anxious she became, the less able she was to find it.

Oh, come on, please come out, Evita thought anxiously, unable to spare any attention for anything else.

Not until the Slytherin Seeker silently approached and slammed into her...

The sudden, tremendous impact nearly knocked Evita off, but fortunately she reacted in time to grab the tail of her broom, hanging precariously in midair.

Madam Hooch's whistle blew, and she screamed to stop play. "A serious foul by Slytherin! Hufflepuff-" She practically strained her voice shouting it. "Hufflepuff gets a penalty!"

Professor Sprout had already risen to her feet in the stands, her face full of anxiety.

Evita climbed back onto her broom and glanced down involuntarily. She saw it, that little gleaming thing... right near the grass.

There was no sending players off in Quidditch, and the big oaf of a Slytherin Seeker still wanted to try the same trick again, but she no longer needed to worry about him.

Evita abruptly wheeled her broom around, fixed her eyes on the Golden Snitch, and dived toward it at top speed.

Three seconds, two seconds, one second...

Close, closer...

Her arm scraped hard against the ground, but it didn't matter, because she had already seized victory firmly in her hand.

The whole crowd cheered.