Eveline's first name came from her paternal grandmother. The woman was very well-respected in the Ashcombe family, and to name a daughter after her was an honor. Her middle name, Celestia, was chosen because of its meaning. 'Of the Sky'. It was meant to remind Eveline of the ambition and goals that came with the family name Ashcombe.

Cassian Ashcombe, Eveline's father, upon hitting the age of seventeen, did what many witches and wizards did at that crucial age. He performed magic at every possibly opportunity. With his freedom from the restrictions that being underage had brought, Cassian traveled the UK. He didn't visit magical locations. As a pure blood, he'd seen enough of those for a lifetime. Instead, he visited muggle sites. Then, in the bustling muggle city of London, he met Hailey Wells.

It was love at first sight. He'd met her at her job, tending a muggle bakery. He'd visited every morning for weeks just to see her smile. At last, she asked him round for coffee, and he accepted. Their romance was a firestorm of chemistry and affection. Cassian told his family nothing about it, but he wasn't nearly as subtle as he thought he was.

The secret romance carried on for two years before Cassian's mother, Eveline's namesake, decided something had to be done. Cassian's mother hired a well-known hit wizard, Rufus Fletcher, with instructions to 'bring a discreet end to the whole thing.' He accepted the job. He'd have been mad not to with the size of the sack of galleons thrown at his feet by the Ashcombe house elf. Rufus did his job, leaving Hailey in such a state that she would be seen as a muggle tragedy, not a magical assassination. Only after completing the job did Rufus hear the baby crying.

Cassian's family hadn't known about Cassian's daughter. The elder Eveline Ashcombe became hard at work covering the whole scandal up - Cassian's romance with a muggle, her own involvement in the demise of the muggle, and, of course, the young baby with her own name who, despite being an Ashcombe, was a mudblood.

Seraphine Duskmere came from a disgraced family who'd supported the wrong side of the First and Second Wizarding Wars financially and through other means. When Cassian Ashcombe fell in love with a muggle and bore a child, Seraphine's family was desperate enough to agree to the marriage to hide the scandal. Very, very few people knew about young Eveline's true parentage. Cassian, his parents, Seraphine, and her parents were meant to be the only ones who knew. However, the hitwizard who'd discovered young Eveline's existence was forgotten by the Ashcombes in all the excitement, and he had a terrible drinking habit, so there were undeniably some pure families aware of the secret and simply biding their time for the information to be useful.

Seraphine raised Eveline as her own. That was a blessing and a curse, in a way. While Eveline had the security of 'knowing' both of her parents growing up, Seraphine always treated her more like something she owned than a daughter. Something to be molded and shaped to bring honor once more to the Duskmere name. Seraphine offered affection, but it was always transactional. When Eveline was well-behaved or thrived in her lessons, Seraphine hugged her. Rewarded her. Made her feel like a good daughter. When Eveline fell short, Seraphine was colder, withdrawn.

Cassian was complicated in his affection for his daughter. He loved Eveline more than anything. She was, after all, all that remained of his long since deceased muggle lover, so he clung desperately to his love for his daughter, but when every glance at this little girl who looked just like her actual mother simply reminded him of his loss, he, too, would pull back emotionally. He lavished Eveline with gifts. Expensive toys, expensive clothes, the finest wand handle money could buy once she was old enough for her wand. He even bought her first edition copies of all of her schoolbooks. But his affection, while genuine, was rare. Eveline saw this as her own failure, as if she'd fallen short and not earned his affection, just like with her mother.

Eveline grew up, as a result, understanding the importance of perfection. Her mother fostered a general sense of superiority from the 'pure' blood Eveline supposedly possessed, while also teaching subtlety and veiled kindness to mask it. She taught Eveline to wield insults as compliments, and vice versa, while maintaining an elegance that didn't belong on an eleven year old child.

Her studies were elaborate. Tutors educated Eveline in general matters such as maths, sciences, reading and writing. But Seraphine personally took over the magical side of Eveline's education. While Eveline wasn't allowed to actually do magic growing up, her mother allowed her to hold her wand and get used to gripping it once she had bought it from Ollivanders. She taught her the proper way to hold it to not only maximize efficiency, but to look elegant and represent the family well while wielding magic. Otherwise, Seraphine focused on teaching Eveline all about both families' histories, which the young witch-to-be could recite six generations back from memory.

Eveline's social life was a kilometer wide and an inch deep. She had many friends from other pure-blood circles, but they were friends in the way a stranger on the street was a friend. Conversation was carefully curated, emotions were never discussed, and most gatherings were simply veiled excuses to brag about what their parents had bought for them, or what they'd managed to accomplish magically since the last gathering. They weren't true friends, not that Eveline would know the difference.

First instance of magic:

At a dinner featuring various other pure wizarding families at the Ashcombe estate, Eveline, only seven at the time, spoke out of turn, correcting an adult witch's assertion about types of wood used in wands. She was correct, of course, but her mother had always taught that correcting others directly was far too abrasive as opposed to gently guiding others to the correct conclusion. Several sets of eyes landed on her, and she assumed the guests were silently judging her.

Humiliation rose in Eveline's chest, but she didn't show it. Even as her face remained calm, a storm of regret, embarrassment, and self-directed rage burned in her chest. She had no control as, far across the table, a wine glass shattered.

The guest, who'd been holding it, apologized for the broken wine glass, and attention was no longer on Eveline. Eveline learned that day that attention could be redirected. Her mother chastised her in private for the comment and for causing a scene, even if no one had known it was her that caused the broken glass.