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Elspeth sat at the dinner table in her home the very evening that her parents ventured to Hogsmeade as the Hogwarts term came to an end and the students were free for the summer. Sorcha and Caelan had expressed their concern when Elspeth had opted out of taking the train home like she normally did, they knew something was wrong and while they had gone to Hades, the God merely claimed that it was Elspeth's business to tell and no one else's. He would not interfere unless she wished him too and so far, she had made it quite clear that she wished to leave the matter alone. However, her parents were worried as Elspeth hardly spoke even when it came to talking about other matters outside of her friends.
When they asked about the exams, she shrugged it off or gave one worded responses, not in the mood to really talk about anything. The atmosphere around the dinner table was cold and quiet, the family might as well have started dinner off in space, it probably would have been warmer and louder than what they were experiencing in the Hayes household. Sitting at the ends of the table with Elspeth sitting in the middle of them, Sorcha and Caelan exchanged glances. Mainly Sorcha continued to look at her husband, urging him to say something to the girl to get her to open up about what happened, or at least to get Elspeth to talk about something.
So far that school year, Elspeth had gone from having the most friends she ever had in her life at once to having no friends at all. Elspeth wasn't an introverted person either, she was hardly quiet unless a situation called for it. But she enjoyed being social, having other people around, but when it came to maintaining friends, Penelope had been her longest friendship to date and that had come to an end as well.
"I'm finished," Elspeth told them, holding her empty plate up for their view," can I go to my room now?"
It was quiet for a moment as Elspeth waited for one of her parents to answer and finally, Caelan nodded his head, allowing her to leave. She dropped the plate gently into the wash basin behind her and then left to her room in the home. Suddenly, Sorcha reached her leg out under the table and kicked her husband.
"Ow, what was that for?!" He asked rubbing his shin.
"You let her go! You were supposed to talk to her."
"Sweetheart, she is not in the mood to talk about it. Trust me, I hate not hearing her talk too, but I'm going to sit there and harass the poor girl. She's still clearly upset about the whole matter and I have a feeling when she's really to talk about it, she will open up. For now, I think we ought to just give her some space. She hasn't even been home for a full day."
Sorcha didn't look all too pleased with the arrangement but she agreed to it silently as she returned back to her own plate of food. Upstairs, the couple could hear the door to their daughter's bedroom closed before the house fell silent once more.
In her room, Elspeth sat on her bed, wand in hand, trying to figure out what her summer plans were going to be. She didn't want to sit around and mope all summer, she wanted to have some fun before the term started up all over again. But she didn't have Penelope with her to attend the parties that they normally snuck off to, she didn't have the boys to keep her entertained, it was just her. It was settling in more than ever with how lonely she felt without the company of someone. She was more than aware that her parents were downstairs but she didn't want to talk to them in the moment because she knew they wanted to hear the story of what happened.
They meant well, Elspeth knew they were just trying to look out and protect her, but for the time being, she really didn't want to show her parents that her poor lack of judgement resulted in her making poor choices with friends. First, it was Penelope, who pretty much thought she was a slag and worried about her reputation within the school if she was seen with Elspeth. Then there was Lily, they got along until Elspeth made the girl realise that she wasn't perfect and that she actually had flaws. It was better for a friend to point them out before others did, wasn't it?
But the biggest heartbreak of it all was losing her friendship with the boys. One could argue that she was the one that ended she was the one who ended the friendship but in fact, the boys ended the friendship as soon as they proved her wrong. She didn't want to be friends with bullies, she had condemned Lily for hanging out with Severus, how could she just stand there and become a hypocrite? Not to mention, as many times as she had informed James and Sirius...all of them really, that it bothered her when they did things like that, they didn't care. They didn't care because they did it anyway.
Sure, they attempted to apologise, but did it honestly count? Would they have apologised if she didn't proceed to smack all of them in the face after the incident? They didn't even seem to care in the slightest beforehand on what she would think of the situation. Remus had practically ignored her pleas to become involved, that was probably the most surprising factor of it all. He wanted people to accept him for who he was, he wanted people to treat him with respect, yet he turned a blind eye to his friends that were doing quite the opposite to other people.
Elspeth knew that Severus was equally as guilty in a lot of respects, but there was only one of him and when all four boys were there against him, it just looked so bad on their behalf.
A tap came on her window, bringing Elspeth to turn her head and see a familiar looking owl resting outside the glass. Immediately, her frown increased as she recognised the Potter owl. The small tawny owl was carrying what appeared to be a thick envelope and while Elspeth could figure out who the letter was from, she wasn't about to punish the owl. Setting her wand aside, she pushed herself up and made her way over to push open her window. The envelope was dropped to the floor and the owl looked as though it could use a bit of a rest. She allowed her window to remain open as the owl settled for a few moments.
Of course, as she suspected it was addressed to her by James and Sirius. She could recognise both of their handwriting as soon as the separate letters spilt onto her bed. Both of them started off with the typical apology but she really wasn't in the mood to read "I'm sorry" over and over. She lifted up the letter from Sirius first, skipping over the first few lines that seemed just to be a repeat of sorry.
"...El, please don't think that I didn't mean it when I claimed I loved you. I know I didn't say in the most romantic of ways, but that didn't mean that I didn't mean it. What happened with Severus, it didn't reflect how I felt about you. I really do love you-"
Quickly, she set the letter aside, feeling a surge of anger, but it was mostly attempting to mask the hurt she felt at the moment. He was still claiming to love her and it shouldn't have made her heart flutter the way it did. But it didn't erase the fact of what he did, of what he allowed to happen. Maybe it wasn't the way they treated Severus that made her as angry as she thought, but the way they treated Lily. To bully who she considered being her best friend and then for James to try and ask her out on a date, it was so disrespectful. And Sirius encouraged his friend's behaviour, which made it worse in her mind.
Picking up James' letter, she ended up putting it down faster than she did with Sirius'.
"...You shouldn't blame the others for what I did-"
What? So the Great James Potter didn't want Elspeth to hold his friends accountable for what they did or what they didn't do? No, they equally played their roles in the entire incident and she would be damned if she was going to listen to James Potter telling her what to do. She ripped up his letter so fast and grabbed her wand to set every little piece of parchment on fire.
But just as she was about to, she heard a knock come from downstairs. It was past seven in the evening, normally the Hayes family never expected company past five unless something was wrong or if it was during the times that Penelope would come over to spend the nights. Ignoring the shredded pieces of James' letter, Elspeth walked outside of her room and made her way to the staircase. She peered around the corner of it, wondering if other Aurors were showing up for something as she heard her father approach the door.
Crouching down, hoping to listen in on some Ministry news, Elspeth held the bannister of the stairs as her father answered the door without even asking who it was. However as soon as he opened the door, Elspeth shot straight up in surprise. Instantly, a smile appeared on the girl's face as she was left stunned by who stood on the other side of the door.
Immediately, she raced down the stairs and her father took quick action to step aside or he would have knocked down or trampled by his daughter as she ran right over the threshold of the door.
"Frank!" She practically threw herself at the man, nearly knocking him back, and almost down the small stairs behind him. But it earned a laugh out of him as he held onto her and balanced himself out.
Just when she thought she was alone, Frank Longbottom showed up at her door and Elspeth couldn't have been any more thrilled than in that moment. Between Frank and Alice, they had been everything to Elspeth back when they were still in Hogwarts and not having them around had certainly left her feeling distressed. Yet somehow, one of them always knew when she needed someone and they always showed up, even if she didn't contact them.
It was only Frank that evening, but that was fine for Elspeth, she had become friends with him first back when they all met.
"It looks like someone missed me!" Frank chuckled. "Okay, but now you're squeezing me a little too tight there..."
Elspeth released her arms and quickly slid down so that she was standing again, however, the smile didn't fade from her face. Her father watched from inside the home and eventually, her mother came to join him in the hall, looking awfully pleased that Elspeth seemed to be in much brighter spirits.
"I didn't know you were coming!" Elspeth exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
"Do have to have a reason to visit you?" Frank asked. "I simply knew that you were due back from Hogwarts today and I figured since I had a couple of days off that I needed to see you. After all, too much time has passed since we spent some time together. So I have a feeling that we have a lot to catch up on."
The dark haired man looked up at Elspeth's parents, his blue eyes wide as he was about to ask for something. "Do you mind if I steal her for a couple of hours? I promise to have her back before she turns into a pumpkin."
Elspeth snorted before looking over her shoulder to await her parents' answer. They glanced over at her to see the smile on her face and the eagerness to go.
"Yes, go ahead," Caelan said, " have fun."
Elspeth let out a happy screech before running inside, hugging her parents and then running back outside to launch herself onto Frank's back.
"Alrighty, let's go, trusted steed!"