A Redheaded Evans

"So, this is how this works." Kenneth had the whole group gathered in Julia and Draco's den around a bank of networked laptops. "One of you has to be on one of these from three in the afternoon till ten at night. At all other times you won't be receiving any messages." He maneuvered the cursor on the screen and brought up a neat, professional-looking web page.

It read "The Mutual Muggle-Magic Society" in bold golden letters that occasionally glimmered. Beneath it read, "Are you a muggle? Or a magic-user? Or a bit of both? Do you know that the Dark Lord has risen? Do you want to help fight? If yes, click on the owl below." Kenneth had inserted an animated graphic of a snowy owl.

"It looks just like Hedwig!" Harry cried. "Wicked!"

"Hedwig? As in the band?" Nicola asked.

Draco sighed. "I told you Hedwig was someone's pet owl."

"Wizards use owls to deliver their mail," Ron explained.

Draco studied the rest of the web page. "If no, click on the red heart."

Julia's brow furrowed. "Why do you have a red heart as the exit graphic?"

Kenneth beamed. "It leads to the official Disney site."
The others laughed, although Ron looked quite confused. Hermione just patted his hand and whispered that she would explain later.

Kenneth moved the cursor to the counter below the text. "This shows you how many people have visited. But this - " And he moved the cursor to another counter - "will show you how many have clicked yes. I have a separate database where we'll store the numbers and data for recruits. Hermione, Ron, Harry and Draco are going to have to come up with a bunch of screening questions so that no one untrustworthy gets in," Kenneth said. "The Internet is tricky that way - you can't see anyone face to face. I did set up a robot blocker, however."

"It will be unlikely that too many of the Dark Lord's minions will catch on," Draco said, "since this is a muggle method and they scorn all things muggle. However, if they catch wind that a load of muggles and wizards and witches are suddenly banding together they might try to investigate."

"We'll do what we can," Harry said.

"Okay. Now, I'll show you how to log on and operate the questioning." Kenneth showed them all the admin routes, then assigned them all usernames and private passwords.

"Think you can all remember that?" he asked.

They nodded, except Ron who looked a little confused.

"We'll go over it with him," Hermione assured them. She taped a piece of paper to the wall. "I worked with everyone's schedules and set up a screening time-table, with two alternates for each time slot in case of emergencies."

Draco smiled. "You're brilliant."

"Why Draco, I do believe that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me." She smiled back.

Kenneth glanced at his watch. "Well, I have to go. Call if you have any problems."

The group bid him and Lisa farewell. Nicola and Steven departed soon after.

"How are those potions coming along?" Draco asked, standing up. Fiona and Andy were taking first shift at the computers.

"Just fine," Hermione assured him, leading him into the kitchen. "I reckon we'll hang around for a few days to make sure that Kenneth's website is working, and then head back to England."

Draco nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

"Hermione! Draco! Come help us write questions!" Harry called from the den.

Julia was sitting in the den also, working on her literature.

The four former Hogwarts students clustered around a notebook.

"First question should be 'how many C's did it take during your choosing?' It's something most wizards will answer without thinking," Draco said.

Hermione wrote it down. "What does that mean?"

"My choosing didn't take any C's," Ron said.

"What's a choosing?" Harry asked.

"Traditional wizarding ritual," Hermione said. "It involves the choosing of the young witch or wizard's most powerful wand."

Harry blinked. "You mean you don't keep your school wand?"

"Of course not." Draco shook his head. "You usually get your choosing wand when you graduate. That's why Ron had to go through school with a hand-me-down wand and now has a new one. His parents were wise and invested their most money in good wands for their children. Magic is a waste if you don't have a good wand to wield it."

"I noticed you had a new wand," Harry said, "but I thought you just bought it with your first paycheck or something. I still have my school wand."

"No, this was the wand I had at my choosing," Ron said. "Draco's right." He looked a little perturbed at admitting it. "I'm sure that eventually you and Hermione will get your true wands."

"What happened to yours, Draco?" Hermione asked.

"My mother snapped it. She gave it to me at my graduation ceremony. And I'd just begun to get the hang of it, too." Draco frowned.

"Yes, but you don't need a wand to do magic," Ron pointed out.

"True, but using a wand is far less tiring." Draco shrugged. "Anyway, the choosing I'm talking about is when a Death Eater receives the Dark Mark. Death Eaters are given a different wand - a more powerful wand. The Death Eater may offer a sacrifice, and the wand is proportionally more powerful. And the number of times a Death Eater can withstand the Cruciatus Curse before passing out. The more, the merrier."
Hermione and Ron looked sick.

"Sounds like something Voldemort would do," Harry muttered.

"Yes. My father wouldn't be half as strong as he is without his new wand," Draco said. "After all, his sacrifice was the greatest."

"You're so modest," Julia teased, poking him in the ribs.

Draco threw his head back and lifted a hand to his forehead melodramatically. "I'm the ultimate virgin sacrifice. Someone throw me into a volcano, now."
Andy and Fiona burst into laughter. Hermione, Julia and Harry giggled.

But Ron said, "You're a virgin?"

Draco resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Did you not hear what Pansy and the other girls called me?"

"I just remember watching loads of girls flirt with you, and you never turned them down," Ron said.

"They called him the Ice Prince," Hermione said, "because he was so frigid with girls." She darted a glance at Draco and said, "Some of the boys thought you were a shirt-lifter until that day in potions..."
Harry stifled a laugh behind his hand.

Draco frowned. "What day in potions? We had many days in potions together."

Ron began to snicker as well. "I remember."

Hermione giggled. "Don't you remember?"
Draco shook his head impatiently. "No."

"It was during Third Year, when you finally stopped using that awful hair gel," Hermione said.

Harry managed to choke out, "And Seamus came up to you..."

"And he said," Ron gasped out.

Draco raised one eyebrow, unimpressed when the three Gryffindors began to laugh uncontrollably.

As one they managed to chorus, " 'Can I touch your wand?'"
Fiona's eyes went wide, and she went into a fit of coughs. Andy pounded her back, holding in laughter.

Julia bit her lip, grinning.

Hermione had tears coming out of her eyes she was laughing so hard.

"And then," Harry said, "you held out your wand and let him look at it. 'Silver birch,' you said, 'thirteen inches with a dragon's heartstring'."

"That's what my school wand was," Draco said indignantly.

That just set them off more.

Draco shook his head, scribbling down some more questions. "Honestly. I don't see what's so funny about that Irish lout asking if he could touch my wand..." The pen fell from his limp fingers, and he turned an astounding shade of scarlet.

"Look at him blush!" Fiona cried.

Between fits of giggles, Julia said, "I thought Malfoys didn't blush."

Harry, Ron and Andy fell out of their chairs they were laughing to hard.

Draco picked up the pen and continued writing determinedly. "I could use some help with these questions, you know." Then he lifted his head. "The other blokes thought I was a shirt-lifter?"

Harry nodded apologetically, his laughter subsiding. "Yeah. You never dated any girls, but you spent hours in the morning gelling your hair into perfection, you always dressed neatly, and you always smelled nice."
Draco blinked. "I certainly didn't smell very nice after a game of Quidditch. I used this nice herbal soap my mother sent me. And as you saw, I got over the hair gel. As for always dressing neatly - prefects could take off points for a messy uniform." He sniffed indignantly.

"But you made fun of Ron's dress robes Fourth Year because they didn't match his complexion," Hermione pointed out.

"Anyone with a decent pair of eyes - including Harry without his glasses - could see that maroon is an awful color for someone with Ron's particular shade of red hair," Draco snapped.

"Actually, it was the lace that sort of got me," Harry confessed. "I didn't see anything wrong with the color, exactly."
Hermione rolled her eyes and muttered, "Boys."

"Hey! I noticed how pretty Hermione was that year at the ball," Draco protested when Andy and Fiona raised their eyebrows at him.

"Yet your ever-constant companions were a pair of two massive boys who grew into rugby tacklers," Ron pointed out.

"I like pretty girls!" Draco cried. He sat down next to Julia and wound an arm around her waist. "See? Pretty girl. And I'm married to her."

"But you're still a virgin?" Ron asked.

Draco glared. "We only found out that we loved each other recently."

"Only because you're thick when it comes to women," Hermione shot back. "Which proves that I'm entirely straight!" Draco cried.

Andy and Fiona were watching, fascinated, as if the conversation were a tennis match.

"But you're married to a pretty girl whom you love and you're a virgin," Ron said.

Draco narrowed his eyes. "We are not going to pursue this line of thought any further."

Hermione elbowed Ron in the ribs. "Come on - back to those questions."

Julia giggled. "Draco, you didn't realize that Seamus was hitting on you?"

"I rarely noticed when girls were chatting me up when I was younger," Draco said. "I always ignored it because they were usually more after money and power than they were after me."

"Well, if boys fancied you and they couldn't have any of that by marrying you, I suppose you were more attractive than you thought." Julia reached up and ran her fingers through her hair absently.

"I knew I had veela blood, but I rarely used its effects as a child," Draco confessed. "It was something of a game to me, to see how many people I could sweet-talk into my court with how little effort."

"That sounds more like the Draco I know and love." Julia kissed his cheek. "Now help your friends - I have English to complete."

The doorbell rang suddenly.

"I'll get it," Julia said.

"I'll hide the potions." Hermione scrambled for the kitchen.

Harry, Ron and Draco considered their list of questions.

"We need more," Ron murmured.

Draco went rigid when he heard Julia's voice.

"Mom. Dad. What a surprise!"

"Hey girl," a woman with an American accent said boisterously. "I thought we could come up and see your new place while your father is in town."

"Hello, Julia," a man said, with a surprisingly British accent.

"Hi," she answered, sounding slightly nervous. "I - wow. This is a complete and total surprise. Well, come on in."

"We can only be here for a short while. I wasn't sure if you were in class or not so I called Nicola," Julia's mother said.

The front door closed, a footsteps sounded in the foyer.

Harry and Ron turned terrified gazes on Draco, who was panicking internally. He stood up and began straightening his clothes and hair.

"This is a nice place you've got here," Julia's father said. "How much a month?"

"Two-fifty," Julia said. Her voice was getting louder.

"It looks really great, girl," her mother said. "How are classes?"

"Good. I have French with Fiona and Andy, and history with Nicola, and English with Nicola and Steven." Julia's voice was hurried and slightly panicked.

"Is everything all right, dear?" her father asked. "Is this a bad time? Or has that git Tony been bothering you?"

"Tony and Christie - no, they've been more or less out of my life," Julia said. "I, well, I have a surprise for you two as well. I was going to come down this weekend and visit."

"Really? What sort of surprise?" Julia's mother asked.

Everyone in the den tensed when Julia and her parents stepped through the doorway.

Mrs. Evans was just as she appeared in the pictures. She had warm blue eyes, wavy brown hair and a kind smile. Beside her, Mr. Evans was tall with thinning red hair and eyes the same shade of green as Julia's.

Draco felt his blood run cold when Mr. Evans looked at him.

The couple in the doorway froze.

Suddenly Mr. Evans said, "Harry Potter?"

Harry blinked. "Yes, that's me." He stood up and approached them nervously.

Draco thought that over the years Harry would be used to people recognizing him, even though this time it was different.

Harry held out one hand. "Pleased to meet you. You must be Julia's parents."

Mr. Evans shook Harry's hand, staring at him. "You have Lily's eyes."

Harry blinked, but then Mr. Evans pulled him into a hug.

Ron and Hermione looked alarmed.

Harry looked a little frightened when Mr. Evans released him and studied his face for a long moment.

"You look like your father as well," Mr. Evans said. "For years we fought Petunia and her awful husband for custody of you and we just kept losing. How did you find us?"

"Actually, Julia sort of found me," Harry confessed.

Mrs. Evans looked a little teary-eyed. "We knew how horrible those people were to you, and every time we offered to take you for the summer they would refuse and we even tried to find you a few times - managed when Julia was about six. It's so good to see you're all right."

Harry darted a pleading glance at Ron and Hermione. "I'm doing well, actually. Finished high school and am working on an internship."

"Did you go to Lily's school?" Mr. Evans asked in a low voice.

Harry blinked again, then nodded.

Mr. Evans smiled. "That's wonderful. Petunia was so jealous of Lily's magic, but I was proud of my little sister. So...you've taken a wizarding internship then?"

Julia looked mystified. "Dad, you never told me about Aunt Lily doing magic."

Mr. Evans sighed and turned to his daughter. "We didn't want you to get your hopes up. But Lily was a fantastic witch. Petunia was so horrible about it all."

"Julia, how ever did you find Harry? This is so wonderful!" Mrs. Evans hugged her daughter.

Draco gazed at Julia and realized that she could have grown up knowing about the wizarding world after all.

"Well, these are some of Harry's friends from school." Julia moved into the room. Ron and Hermione took the hint and stood up. "This is Hermione Granger. And this is Ron Weasley. And this is Draco Malfoy who is, incidentally, my husband."

Mr. Evans froze mid-handshake with Hermione. "What?"

Julia reached out and grabbed Draco's hand, dragging him close.

He smiled politely and held out one hand, trying to ignore the terror racing through him. "Mr. and Mrs. Evans, so nice to finally meet you."

Mrs. Evans whirled on Julia, causing Ron and Harry to back up.

"You got married and you didn't tell me?" she shrieked.

"Well, you did always tell me to elope," Julia said weakly. She squeezed Draco's hand in a plea for help.

"I expected to know who the boy was first!" Mrs. Evans yelled.

"It's sort of my fault," Draco broke in. "I asked this summer and sort of swept her off her feet before she could protest."

"How long have you lot known?" Mr. Evans demanded, turning to Andy and Fiona.

"We just barely found out ourselves," Fiona protested. "We thought it best if Julia told you herself."

"How long have you two known each other?" Mrs. Evans asked, her eyes blazing.

Julia squeaked.

Draco, who had faced down Snape many times, had to swallow hard. "Since we were fifteen or sixteen."

"And how come I never heard about this boy from you then?" Mrs. Evans glared at Julia. "And didn't I warn you not to marry young? Look at what happened to Sarah and Lawrence!"

"How old are you?" Mr. Evans demanded.

"Nineteen, sir," Draco answered.

"And you are a wizard as well?"

"Yes, sir."

"Are you working with Harry and his friends, then?"

"No, sir. I work the day shift down at the Holiday Inn."

Mrs. Evans wailed. "This is just like Sarah and Lawrence!"

"Actually, it's not," Julia said, having finally found her voice.

Draco gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Draco's working while I go to school, and then he's going to go to work once I'm graduated," Julia said.

"You're not going to school?" Mrs. Evans turned her fury on Draco.

He shook his head. "No - there are few wizarding universities. I would probably end up working with Harry and the rest, but Julia wants to finish school so I moved here."

"After Julia finishes school you're moving back to England, then?" Mrs. Evans asked. She turned back to Julia. "And just when were you planning on telling me, young lady?"

"This weekend," Julia said. "I was going to bring Draco and Harry down so you could see them both."

"And how do you plan on providing for Julia while working at a dead end job at the hotel?" Mr. Evans asked.

"Once the paperwork goes through I do have an ancestral fortune," Draco said.

Mr. Evans blinked. "Ancestral fortune?"

Draco nodded, beginning to gain some of his courage back. Money was something he could always talk about. "Yes. My parents died rather recently and I have as such inherited all of their estates and accounts."

"What sort of ancestral fortune?" Mrs. Evans asked.

Draco disentangled his hand from Julia's and slid off the signet ring. He handed it to Mr. Evans. "This sort."

Mr. Evans turned the ring over in his hands. "That - that's impossible. Only the oldest, wealthiest families in England have these. And I've never heard the name Malfoy before."

"I come from a very long line of wizards," Draco said. "My family is well-established in the European wizarding community."

Ron rolled his eyes.

Then Mrs. Evans narrowed her eyes. "Daniel, don't you remember your sister saying she and her husband were looking for someone named Malfoy once? Something to do with their wizard work?"

"My father was a less than pleasant fellow, I'll admit," Draco said, sliding the signet ring back onto his hand. "And yes, Harry's parents were probably after him. But I am not my father."

Mr. Evans sighed. "I don't know what to say, Julia. I really don't know what to say. You lied to us and went against our advice..."
Julia looked ready to cry. "Mom, Dad, believe me, I wanted to tell you, but it all happened so fast and we couldn't figure out when the right time was - "
Mr. Evans was on Draco in a flash. "It was you, wasn't it? You tricked my daughter into this runaway marriage and then convinced her not to tell."

"Dad, no!" Julia cried.

Draco fought to keep his composure. "Mr. Evans, I would do no such thing to your daughter. It would be an insult to both her intelligence and her integrity if I tried to trick her into marrying me. I love her and I would never purposefully do anything to hurt her." He slid an arm around Julia's waist. "Perhaps all of us need some time to cool down and then we can talk about this later."

"How did you two meet?" Mrs. Evans asked.

"We were pen-pals for a long time," Julia said. "When Nicola went over to work in England for the first time during the summer, she put a personal ad for me in the paper as a joke, and Draco found it. We wrote for years, and this summer we met up and fell in love and got married."

Mrs. Evans narrowed her eyes. "Julia, that's too fast."

"We were friends before we fell in love. We were honest with each other in our letters," Julia said. "It's almost the same as any other relationship."

"For all you knew, Draco was a serial killer!" Mrs. Evans shrieked.

"And for all Draco knew, I would send people to burn him alive when he told me he was a wizard," Julia returned.

"What did your parents have to say about this?" Mr. Evans asked, transferring his gaze back to Draco.

"They didn't know we wrote, same as you. And they died before Julia and I met up," he said calmly.

"What would they have said?" Mr. Evans asked.

"My father wouldn't have said anything - he would have killed me on the spot," Draco said flatly. "And maybe come after Julia when he was done."

Mrs. Evans blinked. "What?"

"My father was a pureblood bigoted bastard," Draco said. "He would have wanted me to marry another pureblood girl. My mother would have agreed and then they would figure out some way to get themselves another heir. I was useless to them if I didn't conform to what they wanted."

"Are you sure you didn't marry my daughter just to spite them?" Mr. Evans asked.

"There are much worse things I could do to spite my parents," Draco said.

"What about you, Julia?" Mrs. Evans asked. "Did you just marry Draco because he's a hot blond with money?"
Julia looked a little confused. "Mom, you think my husband's hot? That's a little weird. And no, I didn't marry him for his money."

Mrs. Evans blushed. "That's not what I meant."

Mr. Evans turned to Fiona and Andy. "What do you think? Is Draco good to my daughter?"

Fiona nodded. "Yes. He's wonderful to Julia."

"What sort of things does he do for her?" Mrs. Evans asked.

"He makes her happy," Andy said quietly.

A hush fell over the room.

"Well, I guess that's all we can ask for in the end, isn't it?" Mr. Evans said finally.

Mrs. Evans sighed. "I'm still not sure I approve, but honey, if he makes you happy, then we're happy for you, all right?"

Draco let go of Julia so she could hug her parents. He watched with solemn eyes - his parents would never have done this. It would have been a flash of green and the end of his life. His parents didn't love him like the Evans loved their daughter.

"You be good to her," Mrs. Evans warned, shaking a finger at Draco.

He nodded and slipped his hand into Julia's.

Mr. Evans looked him up and down, sighing and shaking his head. "Too tall. Too thin. Too blond. A wizard. But you're a Brit, so I guess you're all right."

"Thank you, sir," Draco said.

Mr. Evans extended one hand. "Welcome to the family, Draco."

Draco shook his hand. "Thank you, sir."

Then Mr. Evans frowned. "Doesn't Draco mean 'snake' in Latin?"

Everyone burst out laughing.