"Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. "
― Edna St. Vincent Millay
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"Elaine, could you please focus for a second? My potions mark is literally hanging at a string and you are too busy ogling some bo- are you kidding me? My brother?"
Elaine jumped up in shock as she was pulled out of her thoughts by a fuming Luana Dolohow. The two girls had sat in the courtyard for quite a while, as Luana had asked her friend to help her with a potions essay that was due a lesson from now. While they had been revising, Elaine's thoughts had periodically jumped over to where a certain Slytherin boy was sitting, unaware that it had been so obvious to her opposite.
"Elaine, please be honest with me. Are. You. Fancying. My brother?", Luana asked her, enunciating each word, eyes dangerously close to each other.
The French was lost for words. Surely, she was not exactly fancying Louis Dolohow, but she did truly enjoy the boy's company.
Especially since she wasn't precisely on speaking terms with two other boys that had helped her escape and forget a few weeks ago.
Since her little fall-out with James and Sirius their ways had only crossed during Quidditch practice or when the whole group of Gryffindors was sitting together. Elaine had gone on to spend her free time with her roommates, especially Luana, the two girls building up a close relationship, coming as far that Elaine considered the Dolohow her best friend at Hogwarts.
Other than that, she had done her best to follow her father's instructions. Dutifully, she spent many afternoons studying in the library, often together with Dorcas and Olivia, or sometimes even Remus Lupin, the boy being the only marauder she still conversed with.
And, more often than not, she could be found in the company of a certain dark-haired Slytherin.
Whenever Elaine was lost in the darkness still trying to consume her, Louis would know exactly how to cheer her up and bring her thoughts to sunnier dimensions.
He never pushed her to talk about her problems or secrets, instead taking her on a walk around the Black lake or flying over the grounds of Hogwarts. He was so remarkably different from other guys Elaine had had things with, that she actually had never thought about the possibility of them being more than just friends.
"I don't fancy your brother"
"Oh of course you don't. You just happen to stare at him for ages", Luana snorted.
"I do NOT!", Elaine exclaimed, feeling extremely uncomfortable. Her opposite only laughed at the force the French threw in those words. "Sure you don't, hun"
Elaine was thankful that Luana chose to drop the topic after that, attention brought back to her essay. The two girls spent the rest of their free period perfecting the pieces Luana had taken done about common antidotes, finishing the paper just before the bell rung.
"Are you sitting with us at lunch?", the taller girl asked Elaine, smirking when she started squirming. "Oh, stupid me, I forgot that Fridays are for my brother. Well, send him my best regards", she instructed, relishing in the sudden awkwardness.
"I sometimes really hate you", Elaine mumbled, trying her best to hide her blush.
The two girls made their way to the Great hall together, only parting ways as they entered it, with Luana moving to the Gryffindor table while Elaine made her way over to the far end of the Slytherin table, where she knew Louis to be waiting for her.
"Hello beautiful", the dark-haired boy greeted her, a smile stretching out over his face. Elaine let herself be infected by his good mood, raising the corners of her lips as well.
The two of them had started spending more time together after Louis had taken it upon himself to help Elaine in Arithmancy, seeing as she was missing half of the curriculum of the 5th year. The French hadn't been very opposed to the idea of appealing to her grandparents by spending more time with 'appropriate' pure bloods, especially not as she realized how similar Luana and Louis were in character.
"Are you nervous about the game tomorrow?", Louis asked his opposite, startling Elaine out of her thoughts.
"A little bit, I guess. But James has been taking his role as captain very seriously, so I think we should be good", Elaine answered honestly.
Well, as honestly as she convinced herself to be. In fact, she was quite petrified of the game against Hufflepuff. A lot was hanging by a strang, and as the seeker she was directly responsible for the result of the game. She needed to fly at her absolute best tomorrow, as many students in Gryffindor were still not convinced about her loyalties, them having the image of Elaine being a snobby pureblood that was wrongfully sorted into Gryffindor but didn't set her priorities in that direction.
Her spending time with Louis didn't really help against that gossip.
At least the self-proclaimed fan clubs of Sirius and James had left her alone as they figured she wasn't worth the trouble anymore. Currently, Sirius was parading around with some Hufflepuff girl that Elaine was sure to have seen at a Quidditch friendly. She was silently pretty excited to see how it would be to see the two play against each other on the pitch tomorrow, especially since she was convinced that the girl she remembered to be Lin Andrews to play on the team as well.
As her thoughts went to the Quidditch game once again, Elaine couldn't help but remember how games had went at Beauxbatons, where she was known as one half of the Dream Team, her being the seeker catching the snitch with a quite remarkable speed while the other half didn't let one quaffle through the goalposts.
The other half of the Dream Team being Raphael Beaulieu.
A few days ago, Elaine had received a letter by his younger sister, Gabrielle. She had been two years under the two friends, Raphael always looking out to protect her from anything and everything. Gabrielle had sent her pictures of the two friends and told Elaine not to beat herself up about not being at the funeral. Additionally, she had attached Raphael's team sweater, writing Elaine that she was convinced the girl would find more use for it.
Elaine had done her best not to break into tears at the breakfast table, instead she stuffed the pictures as well the letter into her bag, carrying the sweater with her to the dorms, all while doing her best not to let the other Gryffindors see her pain.
She had gotten a lot better at that. The other girls in her dorm were never awake before 7, giving Elaine enough time to go running in the morning (never as a human though) and take her prescribed potion without them even opening their eyes. In the night, they were not able to hear her having nightmares, as she protected her bed with a muffliato charm. And over the course of the day, Elaine managed to live after her motto of 'if they don't know it, it doesn't hurt them'
Still, she was thankful for the friendships she was able to build up with the girls. While Elaine might not take pride in actually letting people in easily, the Gryffindor girls had wormed their way into her heart, each in a different way than the other.
It was Lily who Elaine could count on being a responsible mother friend, who cared for the girls like no other.
It was Marlene, who made Quidditch practices a lot less awkward and always gave Elaine a reason to laugh.
It was Mary, who was the absolute sweetheart of the group, her careless mood and always present smile being a ray of sunshine on rainy days.
And Luana- well, she prided herself in being an absolute crackhead.
"Are you sure that you are alright? I feel like your thoughts are somewhere entirely else today", Louis suddenly piped into the endless highway in her brain again.
"I'm sorry. I don't really know what is going on with me today", Elaine answered truthfully.
"Well, we should get going to Defence against the Dark Arts. Professor Tumrag would hate it if his favorite student were to appear late", Louis snorted, making Elaine blush. It was a bit embarrassing how true his words were. Ever since their first DADA lesson, the young professor had taken an almost scary liking in the newest addition to his course, quite often praising her in front of the whole class and letting her show off whatever he wanted to see.
If it was only that easy in every subject.
As Louis and Elaine got up from the Slytherin table, the girl frowned upon seeing Louis' house mates join them in their track up the stairs to their DADA classroom. Apart from Liam Marchbanks and Narcissa Black, who Elaine could at least have somewhat of a conversation with, Avery, Mulciber and Evan Rosier were also a part of the group having a lesson with Professor Tumrag now.
Since her small duel with Avery and Mulciber, the two boys had done everything in their power to humiliate and annoy Elaine without getting in too much trouble. It was honestly quite annoying, as it made her dread the time with Louis more.
Letting herself fall behind the group slightly, Elaine was overjoyed to spot her roommates also making their way out of the Great hall. It was Lily who saw her first, waving excitedly to the small Blonde skipping over to them. "Elaine, what a pleasure to have you join us. We would of course have also understood it if you were to rather walk with your boyf-"
Elaine cut of the smirking redhead at exactly that point, as the marauders in front of them were already turning around to listen to the girls' conversation. "You shut up, Lily-flower", she growled at the girl, "And you, Dolohow, sleep with an eye open because I know where your bed is!", Elaine threatened the taller girl that broke out into a laugh.
"Merlin, El you really are as scary as a small baby puppy", Luana let out between her laughs, making the younger girl frown at her. "That is not true!", she exclaimed, stomping with her foot, before realizing that that was maybe not helpful in her argumentation. "Remus tell her I'm not as scary as a baby puppy", she instructed the boy walking next to Lily.
"Luana, Elaine is obviously not as scary as a baby puppy", the boy agreed, making Elaine smile in satisfaction. "It is more like a teeny tiny baby kitten", he added, high-fiving Luana afterwards.
"Watch your back, Lupin", Elaine barked as an answer, pulling out her wand.
"Ahh, Miss Sauveur! Save that power for the lesson, darling. Students, you can come in now!", a suddenly appeared man said from behind Elaine. As Professor Tumrag turned his back to Elaine, she quickly pretended to vomit, causing the rest of the girls to break out into a laugh.
The students started making their way into the classroom, splitting up at the tables until Elaine was sat next to James on one side and Lily on the other. It hadn't been her that chose that seat, but instead Professor Tumrag, who grew terribly annoyed of James constantly pestering Lily, until he sat Elaine between them.
"Class, listen up. Today we will be our first practical dueling session. I want you all to move to the sides of the room, so we can clear out the tables", the teacher instructed, satisfied as most students seemed to ecstatic about finally being given a chance to duel each other, after weeks of only learning the theory behind it. With a switch of his wand, the man moved all tables to the far back of the room, leaving enough space for two students to stand opposite to each other.
"I will be calling out the names of those competing against each other, You can all watch and learn during each duel, so please pay attention", he continued, pulling out a scroll. "Based on your performances so far, I've put together opponents. First up, Alice Fortescue against Liam Marchbanks"
The first half of the lesson went on quite uneventful, as most duels were quickly decided or neither of the opponents dared to actually make a move. More often than not it was Slytherins and Gryffindors dueling each other, and as Elaine looked at the pleased smirk on her teacher's face, she was sure that the house rivalry had played a big part in his arrangement.
The first actually interesting duel came along when it was Lily's turn to duel Evan Rosier. The tall Slytherin boy was known for his extreme dislike against muggleborns, and his determined face showed how serious he took the duel against a Gryffindor. Elaine was thankful to her teacher for putting Lily against the boy, as she was quite fantastic in dueling, having joined one of the dueling clubs of the school a year ago.
It was about time somebody put that bloody idiot back in his place.
Their fight started out way fiercer than the ones before, as Rosier immediately began sending curse after curse in the redhead's direction. A few people away from her, Elaine could hear James muttering under his breath, insulting the pure-blood fairly vividly.
For a second, Elaine thought the Slytherin to be winning, as one of his spells came rather close to hitting Lily. The Slytherin seemed to think the same, as he lowered his wand slightly and started smirking. Only a mere second later, he was hit by a disarming spell hurled in his direction, a silent 'petrificus totalus' following directly.
"THAT'S MY GIRL!", an excited James Potter exclaimed loudly, pointing to Lily while jumping up and down. "YOU SHOW HIM LILY-FLOWER-POWER", he added, uncaring of the weird looks he was receiving. Lily only blushed slightly, takin in a compliment from Professor Tumrag as well.
"Next up, Mr. Avery and Miss Sauveur please", the teacher instructed, giving Elaine a smile she couldn't replicate. "I am quite excited for this one", he added, looking at Elaine only.
After taking in a last deep breath, she walked to stand opposite a smirking Avery who already had his wand up in the air. "Students, please remember, no dark curses, bla bla, you've seen it all. Go!", were the last words the professor uttered before moving out of the way.
Dueling had always been a key component of Elaine's upbringing. Her grandfather had invited powerful wizards to battle his granddaughter, wanting her to excel in any fight. That way, it took only a few exchanged spells until Elaine fell back in the flow. She was clearly able to see the surprise in Avery's face as she started hurling unspoken spells in his direction while blocking anything coming out from his wand. Obviously, he had been taught as well, dueling being a part in the curriculum of any pureblood.
But as a Sauveur, or maybe the Sauveur, her education had been a little extended compared to others.
The French slowly became tired of the boring exchange, causing her to put all her force into a disarming spell. Elaine sent a scarlet light into the Slytherin's direction, sending his wand in her direction and his body on the floor.
"Excellent, Miss Sauveur, excellent!", the professor exclaimed while the Blonde threw the newly acquired wand back to its owner. "Especially the unspoken spells were fantastic! This is what I mean by watch and learn, students!"
Elaine smiled shortly at her professor before turning her back to the middle and heading back to her friends. That way, she only saw their surprise for a quick second, as there was unexpectedly a tumult behind her.
"Black, Avery, AWAY FROM EACH OTHER!", Professor Tumrag suddenly shouted. Turning around, Elaine was met with the unlikely picture of Sirius Black holding Avery's arm with his, wand raised in the air.
"Professor, he was trying to hex Elaine behind her back even though the duel was over", Sirius defended himself. "Stupid whore had it coming", the Slytherin boy mumbled under his breath.
"AVERY, IN MY OFFICE, RIGHT NOW!", the professor exclaimed, head turning red. "Class dismissed", he added more calmly, waving his arm around. "Oh, and 20 points to Gryffindor, ten for the excellent duel and ten for Mr. Blacks help"
Elaine could only stare in shock as Avery was pulled out of the classroom by their fuming professor, as the other Slytherins followed behind him, not without sending hateful glances in both Sirius' and Elaine's direction. Taking in a breath, the Blonde walked over to where the boy was just standing up from the ground. As she stood in front of him, he merely raised an eyebrow.
"Thank you for that", she whispered, looking up at him shyly.
It was the first time they had really had a one-on-one conversation.
"You would have done the same", the marauder shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets.
"See you on the field tomorrow?", Elaine asked carefully.
"We're going to transport the Puffs in a whole new dimension", Sirius confirmed, smiling at her softly.
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