Better - The Marauders

SIXTY-TWO

It was absolutely ridiculous that this is what she had known all her life, it even felt odd now that she had spent a lot of her days in her friends baggy clothes that sometimes she looked messy or even homeless. She much preferred wearing her friend's clothes, if she could even call them her friend's anymore. Merlin knows how they'd react to seeing the Dark Mark on her arm but then again she wasn't planning on letting them see that anyway.

These kind of formalities made her feel like she was in a dark fantasy book but she suspected that she wasn't going to save the world in high heels and a long dress with a thigh-strapped knife anytime soon.

"Finally." Cassiopeia grumbled and stepped away from her daughter who felt like she was going to faint at any second but quickly regained herself. "I didn't see it at first but now I do, I shall contact Professor Slughorn soon about your eating arrangements. Now, I suspect you won't need my help with the rest. Come down when you're ready."

Quite a bit nicer than she normally was.

When the door closed behind her, Elladora held a hand up to the stomach on her corset where her flattened stomach was hid behind. It surely couldn't have been healthy yet no one seemed to care. She was beginning to think she didn't care herself, used to the mistreatment she had been getting compared to how gentle Remus, Sirius, James and Peter were with her.

When she thought she was eating too much, Peter always ate more. When she thought she was talking too much, James always talked more. When she thought she was laughing at the most unfunniest of things, Sirius would be laughing with her. When she thought that she was studying too much and they were getting sick of her nose being in a book the whole time, Remus was by her side doing the exact same thing.

They weren't good for her, they were too good for her and she didn't deserve them. But they always went out of their way to tell her that she did.

Not wanting to dwell over how much weight she had put on and damage her self-esteem further, Elladora moved away from the mirror in front of her and towards the bed where the rest of the dress lay still, waiting for her to wear it but she didn't want to. She didn't want to spend the night talking to adults she had mostly never met, she didn't want to be ogled at by creepy men who were only seeing her for the first time, she didn't want to be reintroduced to the people that made her education miserable.

She wanted to be sat at the Potter's with James and Sirius drinking that hot chocolate that Remus had introduced her to, she wanted to be walking through their massive garden with the cloak Peter bought her wrapped securely around her, she wanted to dance in the cold night with Remus again.

Knowing that wishing wouldn't get her anywhere, she made quick work with the rest of the dress, an emotionless expression the whole time except for when she accidently caught her finger on the zip and drew a small bit of blood. Her hair was fine when she observed it in a mirror and just put on a headpiece before walking out of her room.

The sound of people downstairs could already be heard from the landing and she inwardly rolled her eyes at the sound of it before walking over to Regulus's door to see if he was there or if he had already gone down. Her fist knocked a couple of times with no answer and she huffed at the revelation that she'll have to go downstairs by herself.

Downstairs in the actual room where everybody was gathering, Regulus was stuck with Avery, Mulciber and Snape at the side of the room whilst their parents all conversed with others. He was having a terrible time so far and was just waiting until Elladora walked in so he could escape and spend time with the one person he actually liked there although they had spent all day together anyway.

"So I didn't know you were a Death Eater." Avery said to Snape, sipping a drink he had got himself. "Thought you were getting it done at Easter like Regulus."