As it had a way of doing; life moved on.
The weight of Jormy’s death lessened as the months passed. She had days where it felt like she had just lost him, and days where she could smile happily knowing wherever he was Death would be watching over him, and perhaps he would finally be with Salazar. Daphne had helped her fix Jormy’s fang onto one of her ear-rings and Eliza never took it out, letting it dangle from her ear as a mark of pride for her fallen friend.
No one dared to ask about it which saved a lot of unnecessary questions. Although she was sure Jormy was a bit of an open secret at this point. No matter what they tried to say Slytherins gossiped and she was sure the fact that the basilisk had still been guarding the chamber had circulated the whole school twice over every single year that passed.
The weeks seemed to fly by almost unfairly, one month shifting into another as their last year at Hogwarts disappeared from them. And for the first time in a while Eliza set aside her plans for world domination – the NEWT exams had arrived.
To say everyone was stressed would be the biggest understatement Eliza had ever heard and she gained a newfound respect for her older peers. How anyone had taken their NEWTS when Eliza had been busy enacting her own brand of bullshit completely baffled her.
Her time-turner was confiscated to prevent cheating and that was when everyone really knew exam time was upon them. She found her court passed out in the common room many times, slumped over alchemy textbooks and transfiguration essays alike. They practiced duelling, stole Theo’s history of magic notes and Eliza revised so much she could barely think of anything outside of the periodic table and Gamp’s laws for the next few days.
She wished the wizarding world had energy drinks, but soon discovered that pouring pepper-up potion into black coffee did almost the exact same job. Unhealthy to a dangerous degree? Possibly. Ridiculously helpful? Indubitably.
“If someone dies none of us have to take our NEWTS” Blaise pondered one day as Draco tested Eliza on sixth years charm work “Draco I think you should have the honours”
“Why me?” he squawked, tossing the flashcards aside in righteous offence. Eliza gathered them up calmly and turned to Theo, silently asking him for help instead.
Blaise shrugged, herbology book balanced precariously on his face “You’re the most dramatic – people would probably believe you”
“Why can’t Daphne drop dead instead of me?”
“Merlin I wish” Daphne pleaded, surrounded by a mountain of past potions essays as she tried to memorize the most likely potions to appear on the exam. She had told them all she was still seriously considering becoming a healer and she would have to do incredibly good in potions to be accepted into the academy.
Lucky for them that Hogwarts still employed Severus Snape. Even though Slughorn was their potions professor, and quite formidable in his own right even he couldn’t deny that Severus was insanely talented.
It was also lucky for them that after seven years of knowing Eliza the man was a lot easier to bribe, some part of his stubborn dislike of them all having worn off under Eliza’s obstinate nature.
“I want to beat Eliza at History of Magic – none of you are allowed to die and take that away from me” Theo somewhat threatened, glancing up from his own textbooks to glare at them warningly. Draco let out a little squeak of terror and nodded his head vehemently.
“Of course Theo – wouldn’t dream of it Theo”
Blaise let out a distraught groan and finally removed the textbook from his face.
Back to revising it was.
~
Eliza blinked and suddenly the exams were upon them. Each day was a new type of hell and Eliza cursed the man who put three theory exams on one day – or perhaps she should be cursing herself for taking so many subjects. But with every exam sat the stress lessened and soon Eliza was even somewhat looking forward to them, even if it were only just because of the promise that soon it would all be over.
The potions practical went smoothly although alchemy could have perhaps gone better. Care of Magical creatures asked to tame the most dangerous creature on the grounds and Eliza took great pride in diving to the bottom of the lake and emerging with Nyctaeus. Hagrid beamed in the background and her examiner almost passed out at the sight of the ruthless kelpie and Eliza couldn’t have been happier. Defence was a breeze, and Eliza excelled in the duelling component. Her opponents were all past duelling champions and when she egged them on to raise the stakes she soon found herself duelling three of them at once. They were challenging, but Eliza had more than enough experience. She wondered if they could see that, in the way she duelled.
That she moved with the steps of a killer.
Eliza blinked and suddenly the last week of exams had arrived. If she wasn’t feeling so relieved over the prospect of actually having some of her free time back she might have felt a bid odd, knowing that her last weeks in the castle were coming to an end. As it were though Eliza bounded into the hall with the enthusiasm of someone who knew they were sitting their final exam.
It was the ancient runes practical and she paused in surprise when the same examiner from her OWLS appeared, beckoning her over to the table in the corner.
“Miss Potter” she greeted as Eliza took a seat “Did you ever get around to naming your OWL submission project?”
The magic eight ball, that she had said she would name at some point, that she definitely hadn’t.
“It’s been a busy few years” Eliza said instead and the examiner let out a little laugh that told Eliza she had an idea on just how busy these years had been. She had been causing political chaos for quite some time after all, either overtly or secretly. And that wasn’t even beginning to mention the whole murdering Dumbledore business.
“Now what have you brought for me today Miss Potter? Fair warning my colleagues and I expect to be impressed”
Eliza gave her a smile that said she would meet her expectations and surpass them. It wasn’t arrogance, not when she knew where her own skill-set sat, not with how long and hard she had worked. Dipping her hand into her pocket Eliza pulled out her compass, placing it flat down on the table so her examiner could see it.
The bronze gleamed softly, twining around the plate of the compass like vines, or roots and on the back the Black Family crest had been intricately carved into it by her own hand. The bloodstone needle rested in the casing, currently pointing north. A normal compass would have used a metal needle but Eliza wasn’t bound by the laws of science, she worked with magic and the possibilities were limitless. It really did look quite beautiful, Frank’s shop had the best finds.
“Care to explain Miss Potter?” her examiner asked running a critical eye over the compass and Eliza leaped at the chance. She reached over and grabbed the compass, carefully unlocking the back so her examiner could see the set of runes she had painstakingly worked into the compass.
“These are a set of locator runes” Eliza explained happily gesturing to the first set “and this here is the runic equivalent of a spell creation of my own, an adapted homenum revelio – it’s all in my notes”
The heavy stack of research papers, all sourced and cited that she had handed in the day previous. The examiner pulled them out of the giant stack beside her and started parsing through them an impressed look in her eyes.
“So the locator runes will give you a general location and the compass will change temperature depending on how close you are too said location” Eliza explained cheerfully, setting the compass down before she accidentally flung it somewhere with how much she was gesturing.
The examiner peered at the compass, eagle sharp eyes picking up the parts of Eliza’s explanation that she had missed “There are two extra runic-sets here, and I only recognise one of them”
And so the explanations began again “One is a simple mending and protection set, the other was inspired by the Foe Glass. If the location you are trying to get to is in danger then the compass will light up - red like a Remembrall”
“Well” the examiner said lightly “You can consider me impressed; but for some reason I think you’re holding out on me. Where does this compass take you?”
With a grin Eliza flipped over the compass again, revealing an inscription around the edges of the plate. Carved in her own handwriting, which could never hope to be as elegant as Tom’s, rested the words ‘your home’
“The compass is connected to the Black Ancestral home”
Silence, the examiner gawped at her “Ancestral homes are unplottable”
Eliza nodded and felt her grin grow “I could have connected it to Hogwarts itself if I wanted too”
“Explain. Now”
But the examiner didn’t sound stern, instead she sounds excited, an almost childish glee in her eyes as she examined the compass carefully and Eliza had to stifle a laugh. And everyone thought she was the mad genius, in comparison to most researchers Eliza considered herself pretty tame.
“All ancestral homes are protected by Olde Wards, they absorb the ambient magic around them and the people inside. It’s an equal give and take and hardly even noticeable. If you study them carefully the wards are basically alive and are connected to the family magic. And ancestral manors are only unplottable to those outside of it so-
“You made the compass and extension of the ancestral manor” the examiner breathed in shock and Eliza didn’t even attempt to hide her smug smile. Ward manipulation was challenging even without ancestral magic coming into play – and the fact that Eliza had translated all of that over to runes? Whilst creating her own spells?
If she wasn’t getting a commendation after this she’d by damned.
~
She blinked and then the exams were over. Her last weeks at Hogwarts had arrived faster than any of them thought they would, and she intended to make the most of them. Raiding the stash of pranks Fred and George had left her Eliza ran wild over the castle. She charmed the armour to scream when anyone came too close, pinned refilling buckets of colour changing dye above teacher’s offices and one day rigged the entrance of the great hall with one of the infamous portable swamps. And just for one last memento she broke into Filch’s office, planting the Marauder’s Map back in the drawer Fred and George stole it from.
She was about to leave when she caught sight of the almost falling-over filing cabinet, piles upon piles upon pile of student records, every misdeed ever committed in the halls of Hogwarts. She spotted Fred and George’s easily and stuffed it into her bag knowing they would appreciate it. Knowing that Peeves was keeping Filch occupied she went back to digging through the cabinets until she let out a victorious laugh.
Black, Sirius.
Grabbing the file she eventually tracked down Remus’ as well, just as she heard Filch stomping down the corridor and quickly made her escape.
At least some of her Yule gifts were sorted for this year.
She was quite satisfied with how her week was going; but she had more to do.
Walking past Myrtle’s bathroom Eliza felt a pang of sadness, hand coming up to play with the basilisk fang now hanging from her ear. She hadn’t opened the chamber since, it didn’t feel right to intrude and so Eliza had left it be.
Perhaps it would never be opened again, an unshakable finality.
Shaking her head Eliza continued to trot on through the castle, carefully side-stepping triggering her own pranks as she walked. With only two weeks left of her time at Hogwarts she decided they all needed a proper graduation celebration. She knew, as they all knew at Hogwarts, that if they wanted an actual celebration they had to organise it themselves. It was a mutual understanding they had with the professors. All their teachers had spent too long stopping them from getting into trouble to help them organise even more trouble, but they were willing to turn a blind eye if they did it themselves.
It was win-win really.
Usually the party was only on a house by house basis but at the end of the day she was Eliza damn Potter and she never did anything by halves. Plus half of Hufflepuff were already planning on spending the night in Slytherin just because of Susan and Daphne. At this point Eliza figured she might as well go all out and make Sirius proud.
Knocking on the portrait that leads into Gryffidnor tower Eliza waited, ignoring the Fat Lady’s indignant complaints. Tapping her foot impatiently Eliza allowed an easy grin to slip onto her face when the portrait door opened, only for her to grimace when she caught sight of who was stood in front of her.
“What are you doing here?” Weasley grumpled, crossing his arms in a poor attempt of intimidation. Rolling her eyes Eliza tried to peer behind him only for her view to be blocked.
“I’m looking for Granger” she said loudly hoping that the girl herself would miraculously appear and spare her from this horrid interaction.
“Why? Why should we listen to whatever you have to say?”
Merlin Weasley’s were annoying. Aside from Fred and George, well actually Charlie seemed alright as well – and Bill.
Maybe it was just Ron?
Sighing Eliza rolled her eyes “Because Weasley I could have broken into this common room at any point and found Granger myself, instead I’m pretending to be polite. Now will you please bring Granger out here?”
Weasley stared at her, Eliza stared right back. She used to have staring competitions with a basilisk, Weasley was absolutely nothing. He let out a huff and stalked into the common room calling for Granger and Eliza smirked victoriously.
Would it really be her last week at Hogwarts if she didn’t terrorise some Gryffindors?
Rocking back and forth on her heels Eliza genuinely smiled when Granger hopped out of the portrait hole, a questioning look on her face.
“Potter? What did you want to talk about?”
“Well” Eliza drawled out “I was thinking, because our year is obviously the most superior year that Hogwarts has ever seen we also need the most superior graduation party ever”
Granger quirked an eyebrow, it wasn’t an outright denial and Eliza counted it as a win.
“Us Slytherins and Hufflepuffs are already celebrating together and so I figured y’know why not just involve everyone, and as you’re the only tolerable Gryffindor I know-
“Not exactly the most inspiring premise for a school-wide party”
“Why not get you to help” Eliza continued brushing past Granger’s albeit correct snarky comment. Granger seemed to be considering her proposal before a grimace settled on her face.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed Eliza but I’m not exactly a party person, I don’t think I’ll be much help”
Eliza waved a dismissive hand “Neither am I but I happen to know Blaise Zabini who is more than happy to deal with all that for me. You just have to get everyone to turn up”
“Blaise is organising it? You trust him with that?” Granger asked incredulously and Eliza barely restrained a blink of surprise. Blaise? Since when were those two on a first name basis?
“I understand your concern” she said instead because Merlin she did. Blaise was one of the most chaotic individuals she had ever met and the thought of him in charge of anything made her want to cry.
“But he throws damn good parties”
Granger tilted her head slightly, as if to say ‘fair enough’ before she smiled “I suppose we’ll see you there”
“We’ll send you the time and place soon” she said and grinned in return before spinning on her heels, bounding away down the hallway.
She supposed she could have let Granger know they needed to change the password to the tower – but where would the fun in that be?
~
It was nice going to a party that for once wasn’t a formal pain in the arse. Yule Balls were nice and Slug Club partiers were always a good opportunity but Eliza always had an ulterior motive, someone else to charm, some other person to meet.
Tonight she had one motive; to have fun. And possibly cause mass chaos, but that was only secondary.
Shimmying into her leather pants Eliza hopped around the room trying to find her boots. Shoving her feet into the heeled boots Eliza cursed when she heard a knock at the door.
“Are you decent?” Blaise called through the door as Eliza gave one last attempt at taming her unruly hair.
“Come on in, doors unlocked” she shouted back scrutinising herself in the mirror before adjusting Tom’s necklace so it wasn’t crooked. Sue her, it was a nice necklace. She saw Blaise walk into the room through the mirror and also saw the way he practically choked on nothing when he caught sight of her.
“You’re going to give people heart attacks Eliza”
She shrugged unapologetically “Not my fault purebloods are stuffy. Also don’t tell Sirius”
“And what if I do?” Blaise challenged coming to stand next to her, striking a ridiculous pose in the mirror.
“I’ll tell him you stole his leather jacket”
The leather jacket Blaise was actually currently wearing. He flushed slightly and fiddled with the sleeves “He gave it to me actually”
She knew he saw the shit-eating grin on her face, Blaise was just ignoring it.
“Are you two really going to be late to your own party?” Daphne drawled, stopping in Eliza’s doorway.
“Not my party Daphne” Blaise said, dragging Eliza out of her room and leading them all down to the common room “It’s our party”
Daphne scoffed and smoothed out her dress before following after them “Of course the only time Hogwarts would display inter-house relations is when we all want to go and get pissed”
“That just means we know our priorities” Blaise shot back as they reached the main common room, Draco and Theo waiting for them by the entrance. Draco let out a long whistle as he glanced around them all, an impressed preening look crossing his face.
“Damn we all look hot”
Theo let out a despairing groan next to him as the rest of them cackled. Draco span around to face the boy, clearly affronted.
“What Theo? What does Sinclair have that I don’t?”
Eliza only laughed harder when Theo walked out of the common rooms completely, Draco dashing after him squawking about betrayal.
“Great start to the night, really” Daphne said and dragged a still laughing Blaise and Eliza out behind her.
The party was already in full swing by the time they arrived, the Room of Requirement transformed into a room as big as the great hall and twice as lively. Every house had taken it upon themselves to bring their own supplies – from fire whiskey to Fred and George’s Canary Creams.
Daphne immediately disappeared into the crowd of dancers searching for Susan and Blaise soon followed after her, a damning smirk on his face.
“This isn’t going to end well” Theo prophesised and Draco shoved him in retaliation.
“Shut up you’ll be fine” he replied with a grin “Now lets show them what a proper Slytherin party looks like”
The hours passed by in a blur. It was near midnight when they arrived and by the time they reached 2am Eliza could freely admit she was well past sober. The Weird Sisters blared out from across the room and she grinned when she and Blaise started jumping about madly and only the muggle-borns among them recognised the sign of a soon to be mosh-pit and either scurried out of the way or joined in. Over the course of the night the dancing wound down and small cosy set ups were scattered about the room, bean bag and armchairs as everyone spoke and chatted.
By 4am half of the party had left and Eliza found herself sat down in a large ring of people. Her court were there, Granger and a few Gryffindors, Susan, Terry Boot, Anthony Goldstein and Zacharias Smith. There were a few other people scattered around them, idly watching the chaos unfold but Eliza couldn’t recall their names for the life of her.
“Okay okay okay” Smith exclaimed, gesturing wildly and honestly looking like he wouldn’t last the next few minutes “Potter”
Eliza hummed in acknowledgment, quirking an eyebrow to get him to continue.
“Now come on, who really gave you Hufflepuff’s cup in third year?”
Well, she supposed there really wasn’t any harm in answering now.
“It was Tom – Tom Gaunt” she answered and watched amusedly as money exchanged multiple hands. Their year really did have a betting problem.
“I have an idea” Daphne said with a smirk Eliza really didn’t trust, she knew it didn’t bode well for any of them “What if we play a game?”
What followed was the most chaotic game of never have I ever she had ever seen.’ Never have I ever exploded anything in class’ caused both her and Seamus Finnegan to take commiserating drinks, ‘never have I ever had a crush on Gilderoy Lockhart’ forced Granger to take a drink and for her to retaliate with ‘never have I spoken to a basilisk’
From there they got increasingly more targeted (never have I tamed a kelpie, produced a corporeal Patronus, won the Triwizard tournament) and Eliza had never been more thankful for the secret stash of hangover cures she kept in her bedroom.
“Never have I ever” Eliza proclaimed dramatically, pausing to gulp down some much-needed water before continuing “Made out with someone in a broom cupboard”
Daphne and Susan both shoot her dirty looks and Blaise took a shot unabashedly.
“Really Potter?” Ernie Macmillan questioned dubiously “Never?”
“No” Draco answered for her, muttering grumpily “Eliza’s too busy snogging Lord Gaunt in my family manor”
Eliza squawked indignantly, launching herself at Draco as they wrestled on the floor “You take that back”
“Never” he choked out form underneath her but their play fighting was interrupted by Daphne clearing her throat.
“Never have I ever” she drawled out, a vindictive look on her face that made Eliza want to pray to the Gods for mercy “Became an illegal animagus”
Eliza took a guilty sip, and across the way so did Anthony Goldstein – the head boy.
A whole new round of questions picked up.
The hours bled away and soon it was nearing 6am instead of it still being 4. Eliza and her court stumbled back through the castle to their common room, arms linked and slung over each other’s shoulders. They didn’t care about subtlety now, not this early in the morning in their last week, tired and excited and content. They bellowed the Hogwarts school song down the corridors and Eliza and Draco took great pleasure in charming the stationary armour to join in their rounds.
McGonagall found them like that in front of the Great Hall because Draco had wanted pancakes and who were they to deny them? She took in the sight of them, leaning against each other trying to break into the great hall for pancakes, still valiantly singing the school song and McGonagall couldn’t even level them with a disapproving stare. Instead she gave an expectant accepting sigh and ushered them all off to bed, with reassurances that the pancakes would still be there after they had all gotten some sleep. Before they leave Eliza swore she heard something about ‘bloody Potter’s’ but then suddenly they were all back in the common room.
They fell asleep on top of each other by their usual sofa, a seven year long tradition being continued for one last night.
~
They woke up with hangovers and a mysterious plate of pancakes in front of them. Eliza stole a pancake from Draco’s plate to go with her strawberries and made a mental note to thank McGonagall and the house elves later. She and her court recovered and joked about the night before and in their moment of distraction (they were trying to read the newest letter from Sinclair to Theo) Eliza slipped out of the common room.
Tomorrow she will spend the full day with her court, tomorrow she will say goodbye to professors and fellow students, tomorrow she will graduate.
Today was for her.
Eliza walked down the halls alone, it was eerily quiet for a Sunday afternoon but a glance outside showed that everyone was making the most of the summer weather and had decided to relax by the lake. Eliza decided it was a strange feeling, knowing seven years had passed so quickly and everywhere she walked she was flooded by memories.
“Why should I let you into my court?” Eliza questioned the boy in front of her.
“Why shouldn’t you?” Nott responded.
She walked past the Great Hall, recalling her first year, her first Yule, the troll, the bitter rivalry with Sev. She’d ended her first year in a hospital bed surrounded by three of her four best friends – if they’d had any sense they would have jumped ship then.
Eliza wandered up by the first floor and onto the second, loitering briefly in front of Myrtle’s Bathroom, the Chamber of Secrets – Jormy’s final resting place. Slytherin house had been hers by second year and Eliza laughed as she wandered past Lockhart’s old office remembering how much they had terrorised the dithering dolt.
It was the year she had first met Tom.
(Do you believe in Fate Little Star?)
It was also the year she had befriended Draco, the missing piece to her court – to her family.
Eliza walked and walked throughout the castle. She passed by Remus’ old office remembering afternoons of tea and biscuits. The year she gained a proper family, with the Malfoy’s, with Sirius and Remus. She smiled slightly remembering Buckbeak and the diadem, learning how to dance.
Fourth year was nothing but chaos incarnate and yet Eliza was flooded with nostalgia all the same. Causing chaos with Tom, researching with her court – the dragon, the kelpie. Merlin Sirius attempted to give Tom the shovel talk that year. It felt like it happened a life-time ago, not three years.
(As long as Eliza remembers what we spoke about, meditation before murder)
She laughed to herself remembering that, she still meditated to this day but it seemed Theo had been out of luck when he thought it would stop her from murdering Umbridge. Or the people that came after that. In fact looking back Hogwarts really had calmed down over the years. After Umbridge there really hadn’t been anything terrorising the castle apart from Eliza herself.
Her sixth year had been quiet outside of the tedious meetings with Dumbledore and this year had been almost domestically peaceful. Eliza was too busy causing chaos outside the castle walls to cause much trouble inside of them.
She stopped in front of the room of requirement and slowly paced back and forth watching as the door appeared in front of her.
The room itself was almost empty, completely barren except for the lone familiar mirror standing in the middle. Hogwarts would always know what she needed more than she did herself. Smiling softly Eliza walked towards it, her reflection growing clearer and clearer as she stopped in front of it.
At one point in time all Eliza had wanted was freedom – from the orphanage, from Dumbledore, for anyone exerting control over her. At one point in time all Eliza had wanted was a family, Sirius and Remus, The Malfoy’s, her court, Severus.
But Eliza had always been a hungry girl – she would forever be wanting for more.
She stared into her reflection and her reflection stared back. Her mirror image lifted up her hand, drawing Eliza’s focus onto the book held in the mirror. Her reflection flicked through the pages, her ‘bucket list’ full of written aspirations that had yet to be ticked off.
She shared a smile with her reflection and walked away, leaving her heart’s desire behind her for now. She had forever to try and attain it.
She didn’t know for how long she had been wandering through the castle, she had no clue when she and her court had actually even woken up today but by the time she reached the top of the astronomy tower the sun was sinking down, dark skies stretching above her.
She watched as slowly the stars began to appear in the sky. It wasn’t a cold night, a summer breeze wrapped itself around her as she relaxed. She could see all of Hogwarts from up here, the forest, the lake, the whomping willow.
The stars continued to shine and silently her court come and gather around her.
They all sat in silence, pressed against each other as they took in their last night at Hogwarts. They would be gone in the morning but they still had the rest of tonight to hold their most precious memories close to them, to say goodbye.
“I love you guys” Eliza whispered into the night.
Not a minute later she was tackled by her court, her laughter echoing out around them all.
~
Eliza blinked and suddenly she was leaving the first home she had ever known.
Their professors were all lined up around the bank of the lake and she and her court immediately approached Severus who was looking at them all with a fond smile.
“Tell me we’re the best year you’ve ever taught” Eliza demanded immediately and heard McGonagall snort somewhere behind them. Severus looked at her and the pride in his eyes was almost too much for her to deal with.
“You were the best year I’ve ever taught” he complied and Eliza smiled shakily before involving her court in the rest of the conversation. She wandered off to say goodbye to Slughorn, McGonagall wished her luck and by the time she made it back to Severus the two of them were stood alone. The boats were behind them, waiting to take her onward, and Hogwarts stood tall in front of her.
“Were you scared as well?” Eliza asked quietly, a choked feeling settling in her throat “To leave the first home you’d ever had?”
Severus nodded, resting a hand on her shoulder in an offer of small comfort.
“I was” he acknowledged “But then again I have always been a coward”
Slowly he turned them both so Eliza could see the boats resting on the shore “You Eliza, you’re braver than I’ll ever be”
This time when the boats sailed across the Black Lake Hogwarts was behind them instead of in front of them. None of them broke the silence as they travelled across the silent lake, leaving their second home, their childhood – a castle full of memories behind them.
Eliza blinked and suddenly a whole new life had begun.