The Max-Level Muggle-Born: Hogwarts Isekai

With her tribute complete, Evelyn began scouting her mission location. She spent her afternoons by the shore of the Black Lake, not fishing or skipping stones like the other students, but observing. She watched the way the light hit the water, the patterns of the currents, a spot where the Grindylows were most active.

It was during one of these scouting sessions that she saw them. The Trio. They were down by the water's edge, Ron daring Harry to skip a stone all the way to the other side. Hermione was, predictably, reading a book, occasionally looking up to tell them to be careful.

Then, Malfoy and his cronies arrived.

"Well, well, well," Malfoy drawled, his voice dripping with condescension. "If it isn't the famous Potter and his fan club. Come down to the lake to admire your reflection, Potter?"

"Shove off, Malfoy," Harry said, not even turning around.

"Temper, temper," Malfoy sneered. "I'm surprised they let you out of the castle, Weasley. Thought your family could only afford one set of robes, wouldn't want to get them dirty."

"At least my robes aren't paid for by groveling to Dark wizards," Ron shot back, his face turning red.

The verbal sparring continued, a familiar, low-level random encounter. But then it escalated. Goyle, at Malfoy's urging, shoved Ron. Hard.

Ron stumbled backward, his feet tangling at the slick, mossy edge of the lake. He lost his balance and fell with a loud splash into the dark, cold water.

For a moment, everyone just stared. Then, panic. Ron was flailing, his robes pulling him down. But that wasn't the real danger. Evelyn saw it instantly—a pale, green hand with long, spindly fingers gripping Ron's ankle from beneath the surface. A Grindylow.

"Harry!" Hermione screamed, pointing. "Something's got him!"

Harry and Hermione were shouting, pointing, but they were too far away, too slow to react.

Without a second thought, Evelyn, hidden behind a large boulder fifty yards away, raised her wand. There was no time for a flashy spell. A silent, non-verbal Relashio shot from her wand. The spell, designed to force a target to release whatever it was holding, struck the water.

Beneath the surface, the Grindylow shrieked in pain and surprise, its hand forced open. Ron, suddenly free, managed to find his footing and scramble back onto the shore, sputtering and soaked.

"Something grabbed me!" he yelled, pointing at the water. "It was slimy!"

By the time Harry and Hermione had helped him up, the Grindylow was long gone. Malfoy and his friends, having lost their nerve at the sight of a real magical creature, were already retreating back to the castle, laughing nervously.

The Trio would assume the creature had simply let go. They would never know that a silent, unseen guardian was watching over them from the shadows.

Evelyn lowered her wand, her heart pounding. Her intervention had been successful. But it had also been instinctual. She hadn't calculated the odds or weighed the risks. She had simply acted to protect one of the "NPCs" she was growing to see as... something more. This was getting complicated.