Ella Kierston, Minerva McGonagall's goddaughter, begins her 6th year at Hogwarts as the Wizarding World is on the high alert for the notorious Azkaban escapee, Sirius Black. There is much more to Ella than meets the eye, something that quickly catch...
Ella woke to find herself cringing against the light of the full moon that shone too brightly through the windows by her cot in the Hospital Wing. Blinking harshly in an attempt to adjust to the light and right her blurred vision, Ella contemplated the strange sleep Black had managed to send her into. Though the more she thought about it, Ella didn't think she could describe it as dreaming, exactly. Instead, it felt more like she was able to see flashes of memories she hadn't even remembered having, as if a veil over the deepest trenches of a mind forced into forgetting had finally been lifted. Ella remembered there was a distinct lemon mint wash her father always used and the gentlest way her mother would brush the stray hairs that had found their way out of plaits and ponytails from Ella's face while saying that her daughter's starry eyes were much too pretty ever to be hidden; there were meetings at a large table headed by Uncle Albus in strange houses that had Ella cuddled tightly on the lap of the ever lovely Lily Potter, while surrounded by a sea blurry faces; there were countless afternoon teas that inevitably turned into sleepovers at the Potter's house because her mother and father were working too late again.
In the last year of her parents' lives, Ella had—truthfully—spent hardly any time with them at all. Her mother, Lisa, was a coveted Auror, who always seemed to be needed when the Ministry decided it was going to chase down Death Eaters. When she wasn't at the Ministry, Lisa was taking up posts of covert protection offered to various members of the Order of the Phoenix rumored to be Voldemort's next target at Dumbledore's request. Ella's father was a healer who logged increasingly long and unpredictable hours at St. Mungo's as the Wizarding War began to take hold. Lily had always been more than willing to nanny Ella for her former schoolmate—the two women had become friends over the years spent sharing Prefect duties for their respective houses. The Kierstons were happy to have someone they could trust watching over their young daughter while they worked, though they could never be rid of the immense guilt of missing out on their child's formative years. The only thing that seemed to ease that guilt at all came from watching their daughter run around gleefully in the Potter's garden with a radiant smile as an equally enthusiastic dog barking at her heels.
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The image of the Potter's large, goofy dog, stuck out in the forefront of Ella's mind more so than any of her recollected memories, much to Ella's confusion. She rubbed harshly at her eyes as if she hoped that the stars she was seeing from the pressure of her cold hands against her face might somehow spark an epiphany for her subconscious. Though she quickly realized that this was a bad idea, as she still had the raging headache at her temples that had begun at dinner as well as a lump forming at the back of her head from where she had fallen outside of the Fat Lady's portrait. Before Ella could call out to Madam Pomphrey for a dose of Pepper Up Potion or some other magical remedy that might improve the throbbing in her head, she heard hurried footsteps and strained whispers that were drawing nearer to the curtains shielding her bed. Ella dropped silently to her pillow and began to feign sleep.
"And what good could come from telling her after all this time, Albus?" Minnie demanded in barely a whisper. Ella could easily imagine her godmother's pursed lips and the severity of her arched brow used to stare down the Headmaster. Instead of cracking a smile as she normally would have done at the sight of Minnie disciplining someone with a single distinctive stare, Ella's features quickly contorted with confusion.
"Who needed to be told what," Ella wondered, as she tried to lay still and breathe evenly as she could while the silhouette of her godmother neared closer to the thin curtains concealing Ella's bed.
"Miss. Kierston deserves to know that Sirius Black has just as compelling reasons to target her as he has for going after Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said calmly. He paused for only a moment—Ella assumed to make sure he would not be overheard by any of the other students asleep in the infirmary—before he added, "And, she deserves to know why."
"So I suppose this means we're going to tell Potter the truth as well?" The Transfiguration Professor returned sharply.
Ella cautiously opened one eye to see that the Headmaster's shadow revealed a silently raised hand in an attempt to placate Minnie's rising temper before he spoke again.
"We both know that informing Mr. Potter about Sirius Black's history with his parents will only bring the boy more pain. If anything, I'm afraid it would only encourage Mr. Potter to track down Black himself." Dumbledore said quietly though gravely.
"And what good do you expect will come from obliterating someone's entire identity?" Minnie demanded again, this time hardly keeping from shouting.
Ella's heart sunk like a stone, heavy and cold, to her stomach at her godmother's words. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't dare move, either. What didn't she know about herself and why had it been kept from her? And how, in the name of Merlin, how was it connected to Sirius Black? The thoughts reverberated through her skull with increasing volatility the longer Ella was in suspense. Whether the silence was to make sure no one had woken at the outburst or to give Uncle Albus time to articulate an answer that Minnie would find acceptable, Ella had no idea.
Before Dumbledore could reply, Minnie began fervently again, though this time more quietly, "I was there the day the girl was born, Albus. Lisa couldn't have been more clear."
Softly, Dumbledore began, "Lisa Kierston made it clear that if there were ever a situation in which she was unable to protect Ella herself, she knew that you would do everything that you could to keep her daughter safe. I think that if Lisa could have foreseen these circumstances, she would want you to arm Miss. Kierston with all of the information available to her, Minerva."
All that could be heard was Minnie's soft sniffling.
Ella was struggling to keep her mind closed and maintain the facade of sleep. She hated hearing Minnie so torn up, but she was now plagued with countless questions about an apparent mystery about herself that her own family had gone to lengths to conceal. Ella wanted nothing more than to burst through the curtains separating her from Minnie and demand that she be told what was going on.
"I don't like this, Albus. This isn't the way this should come out and you know it."
There was another pause.
"I told Mr. Potter once that truth is both simultaneously beautiful and terrible. It will be hard, I do not underestimate that, Minerva. It is time for Miss. Kierston to know all of who she is. Black attacking her and moving so boldly for Harry leaves us no choice."
A\N: Thank you, thank you, thank you for all the reads and votes! I appreciate them (and how patient you have all been for these next chapters that involve a LOT more interactions between Remus and Ella) more thank you know. I am [hopefully] over the painful writer's block that has plagued me all summer. I had little inspiration for this transition chapter, but I could think of countless waits to spin Goblet of Fire into a sequel for Ella, Harry, and many other of our beloved HP characters. What do you think? Also, I can't get over how cute this Padfoot is. I found the image on Pinterest.
