Elysia

Chapter Two ~ The Caged Bird

The hardest part was watching them torture the students.

Two weeks in and even Filch was flinching as the students were publicly punished, the way he had always bitterly wished for. He swallowed his words, but it didn't give me any satisfaction. Three students, a first year and two third years had been beaten in their common rooms, to set an example.

The Carrow’s were notorious for using the weakest students as their guinea pigs. Amycus Carrow had been appointed the Dark Arts teacher, a post he utilized most prudently, transforming eager students initial fears for the Dark Arts in to curiosity; the seeds of evil.

"Come on, there isn't anything we can do." I whispered to Neville, turning from the student that Alecto was torturing with muggle tools, a part of her Muggle Studies classes.

"We can't leave them!" he hissed in reply, shaking my hand off.

"You know we only make it worse." I croaked, flinching as Carrow cracked her whip once more, piercing the childs flesh.

"You said you would protect them, not watch them." Neville growled, his shoulder brushing against me as he stormed away.

My mouth squirmed like a restless caterpillar as I tried to control my emotions, unknowingly scratching my fingernail sharply against the scar on my wrist.

"Enough!" I screamed, barging through the crowd to the young boy’s side.

The crowd gasped, but Neville's back didn't turn. Slapping Alecto's hands away from the boy, I whispered my newest incantations to heal the child. I had had to make charms of a different sort now, soothing the body and the mind; it was the only thing that helped.

"Your name!?" roared Alecto, ripping me from the child.

"Elysia James." I replied through clenched teeth, my spell continuing despite the teacher’s interference.

"I think you'll be presented at the Feast tonight, let's have all the houses see what disobedience will get them." she retorted, narrowing her bitter eyes.

I nodded in a military style, before heaving the child to her feet and returning her to her class. It was a study period for me, and I had spent it prowling the hallways to prevent this exact occurrence, dragging an injured child away from the teachers.

It was painful to see our professors helpless as their students were tortured, but they did what they could. There were absolutely no punishments in their classes, no more detentions, no more writing out lines. What was the point when they would be hurt for some miniscule reason by the Death Eater's?

A bell sounded in the distance, alerting me of my next class. I left the child in the Hufflepuff common room, staring in to the distance as if there were something of substance in the thin air; perhaps there was. I sighed with relief as I saw my next lesson was with McGonagall, a break at last.

She reminded me of Dumbledore, in her firm but content manner, less content now but now defeated. I often stared at the walls of the school, thinking of how it used to be. I remember running amok with Leon, my little red panda that had run away to join the centaurs and the unicorns.