Better - The Marauders

EIGHTY-ONE

Regulus had been a bit upset that Slytherin had lost, nearly crying in frustration and mumbling about not being a good Quidditch player whilst Elladora sat by his side and rubbed his back as he basked in his own self-pity. But on the Sunday, he was just as impassive as her in the company of the others.

Elladora hated to admit it but in a way she was looking forward to the next Hogsmeade weekend because then she would be seeing Evan again and he wouldn't allow them to be prejudiced or misogynistic towards her and make...comments like they had done in the past and she had to just sit there and listen in fear of what they would do if she stood up for herself. It was times like those that she looked for the bright side, at least she was still allowed to talk to the boys so she didn't always feel horrible about herself. She wouldn't know what to do if she had to sneak around with them in secret, probably end up having a breakdown every other day.

But it was the first day of May and it was a Monday, meaning that she had to spend little time around them and a lot of time with the boys. She was sure she was the first one up, keeping in the barrier of her curtains whilst she bent over the side of the bed to grab the hoodie she had stuffed under there at some point. She slipped it on for a moment, only to hide her mark as she grabbed her uniform from where she had hung it out the previous night.

It was quick to put on and she found herself going down the stairs to the Common Room already, a bounce in her step as she exited the stone passageway and made her way through through the dungeons that were actually an average temperature due to the heat compared to the ice court it normally was. When she arrived at the stairs, before ascending she glanced back to the portrait of the fruit bowl that lead into the kitchens and let her hand drop from the banister that was against the walls that went up with the stairs.

Why not give Flick a little visit? Elladora felt a sense of guilt rise up in her as she realised the last time she had visited Flick was all the way back at the end of September when she had let the house-elf know that she was still alive and sat with her for her meals in the weeks she barely went out of her room following the incident.

The pear on the portrait let out a high-pitched giggle as Elladora wriggled her fingers on the paint, making it laugh as it swung the door open. Breakfast had clearly just been sent up, the house-elves looking as busy as always but not as busy as they would be normally, some were cooking more food to replace any plates that emptied quickly and some were squeezing and making drinks to fill the jugs up with when all of the liquid was drained from them and into the goblets of thirsty students.

Randal and Dixy, two house elves, ran past her legs with butter and little plastic pots of jam and lemon curd in five small wicker bowls. They placed one on each large table that were placed directly under the tables of the Great Hall and Elladora watched them fade away, probably showing up on the tables upstairs.

"Miss Hargreaves! Miss Hargreaves!" A squeaky voice was calling and then she felt a pull on her cloak; she looked down to see Umpty stood below her, his wide brown eyes glinting up at her as he smiled the widest one he could. "Welcome back! Welcome back!"

Umpty had the tendency to repeat himself a lot.

"Thank you, Umpty." She smiled down at him, a warm one which made the elf laugh happily as he had never seen her smile, neither had lots of the other house-elves but Elladora would never really talk to the rest of them. Umpty was the one who always offered her food.

"Would you like some bread rolls? Bread rolls?" He began to walk towards a large basket of bread rolls, his hand outstretched as he grabbed two and shoved them back into her arms and she took them without any complaints. "Flick is in the corner, miss! Flick is in the corner."

"Thank you, Umpty." Elladora smiled, patting his bald head affectionally before making her way over to the familiar corner with two bread rolls in her hand.

Seeing Flick made even more remorse wash over her, she had become thinner, her face even more sunken and she had a bottle of what looked like some sort of wine next to her as she swung her feet back and forth whilst sat on the small wooden stool she often sat on. Elladora smiled to herself despite her guilt and got closer to the elf, crouching down and holding out a bread roll.

At the sight of the bread roll, Flick jerked her head up and stared at Elladora as though she was seeing a ghost. The girl smiled at the house-elf softly who just barrelled into her, her thin arms wrapping tightly around her as she sobbed loudly into her shoulder which actually sounded like she was squawking like a bird of some sort. Some house-elves looked over with a reprimanding glance at the loud noise distracting them but looked away quickly. Flick pulled her thin body away, still sobbing in a way that reminded Elladora sadly of Dobby.

"Are you doing okay, Flick? I'm terribly sorry I haven't visited since September, I've been very preoccupied and couldn't find a time to make a trip down here." She frowned at the elf, who began wiping her tears on her dish cloth she wore as a top. As much as Elladora wanted the house-elves to have proper clothes, she knew they would reject them as although it would just be to replace their dish rags, they would see it as her trying to free them and they didn't like that.

Flick only stared at her, teary-eyed and not talking. Elladora tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and pulled up another stool, sitting opposite the house-elf with another kind smile.

"I'm doing a lot better, Flick." She smiled softly and the elf did too, a watery smile that nearly made Elladora tear up but the elf scratched her bare head and looked back up at the witch next to her, urging her to go on. "I've made really good friends, four at first and then along the way I've gotten more. Like Lily and even Ernie, although he liked me at first I think. Still, I spent Christmas at one of my friend's house and smiled for the first time and I made a snowman which is three balls of snow piled on top of each other, a carrot stuck in the top one, three stones going from the middle to the bottom and then other stones for the eyes and face. It was rather creepy, but Peter's mother got a picture of both of us standing next to it anyway."

Flick smiled absentmindedly as her friend continued. "We had a competition with our other three friends, you see. It was me and Peter against Sirius, James and...Remus. They won, of course, they had three and we had too, one of them didn't even know how to make one but I think it was rather impressive for my first go. Then I danced with Remus, he's lovely; we didn't get to dance at a Christmas part we went to so we did it very early on a cold morning and although freezing, it was fun."

Elladora stopped there, she didn't want to talk about Easter or even admit to being a Death Eater. She hadn't even said it out loud yet, just nodded her head or said 'yes' in a chorus of people. Yes, she had killed someone and had marks on her arm from both her 'initiation' and her Unbreakable Vow but she feared that if she told someone about it or admitted it that it would feel even more real than it was and she didn't like that. Flick smiled at her anyway, there was definitely something else that the witch had to say but the elf didn't push her.

"It sounds very lovely." Flick croaked out and Elladora's head snapped over to her, smiling.

She spent the rest of the morning in the kitchens, deciding to put off seeing Remus until first period where they shared their Defence class although they weren't next to each other anymore as Yaxley had changed the seating plan from when Penhurst had been teaching them. Elladora never thought that she'd ever miss that man, but life has funny ways of proving you wrong.

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A/N: little filler

also, i've had bo burnham's inside on repeat for like...two hours