- Chapter Thirty-One -
"Regulus, I would've stayed with you."
And just like the holidays never happened, the marauders were on the train back to Hogwarts. Remus and Elladora were shattered, neither of them slept a wink after the events of the night before. The morning had come quicker than expected and both were sluggishly pulling up their trunks whilst fighting to keep their eyes open enough to see.
Elladora wouldn't normally be like that, but thanks to the freezing cold after effect and the early start to the day, it felt a whole damn war was raging inside of her head. Hexes and curses being ricocheted off of her brain, only to go back, over and over like a broken record stuck on repeat. Over and over. Over and over. Over and over. Over and- wait.
It explain why her mouth was currently slightly agape and her head rested on Sirius' shoulder, with her cloak draped over her as a sort of blanket. She was sound asleep, not dreaming, nor storing, it didn't even look like she was breathing. But she was, just asleep, peaceful with her facial features resting silently.
Remus was trying his absolute best to read a book, key word: trying. His eyes were skipping lines and they often came blurry, until he had to screw his eyes shut before opening them to look at his book and piece the words together again so they make sense. Peter, James and Sirius were chatting away, albeit quietly so that Elladora could stay asleep.
A rustling from the doorway of their compartment drew all their attention and their heads turned to see someone at their door. The ends of Sirius' hair skimmed Elladora's head and she stirred slightly, her head getting comfortable on his shoulder whilst her small exhales blew the boys hair back and forth slightly.
Lily Evans stood at the doorway and opened it with some extra effort. James' eyes lit up and he sat up straighter, looking towards the redhead with a smile on his face. Remus glanced up tiredly but slowly returned to his book, rereading the lines again and again, and again, but he couldn't seem to grasp them. Peter just gave the girl a small nod of acknowledgment.
"Oh." Was all she muttered, looking at the girl on Sirius's shoulder.
"What?" James furrowed his eyebrows together slightly, glancing in between the two.
"I just came to see if maybe Elladora wanted to sit with us for a second, get some girlfriends, but I see she's occupied." Lily frowned slightly.
"Well, I'm not occupied." James smirked slightly and Lily scoffed, rolling her eyes with a smile whilst she turned on her heel and left, her red hair swishing after her in the wind.
"And she already has four boyfriends!" Peter shouted after her before realising what he said. "Wait-what?"
The four boys chuckled quietly, Remus set his book down and looked up, rubbing his eyes.
"Why are you so tired?" Sirius asked, looking at his friend. "It's like-" He checked his watch. "-11:30 and you're normally up and at it at 9:00 at max."
"Rough night." He shrugged and walked over to the compartment door, his head poked out of it and he looked up and down the hallway, spotting the normal trolley piled up with sugary treats in small packets and bottles of butterbeer organised on the bottom shelf, as well as two teapots, one filled with tea and one filled with coffee, different assortments of sugars and sweetness next to it with a rather large jug of milk. "Trolleys coming."
The boys all began to root in their pockets and Sirius tried his best to manoeuvre around with Elladora putting her weight on him, but couldn't really grab his coin sack that was sitting in his pocket. "Help." He whispered to Peter and the boy quickly rushed over, gently lifting the girl from Sirius's shoulder as the boy rummaged for his money.
He found it quickly and pulled out a couple of sickles, enough for a chocolate frog, before he pushed it back into his pocket again. "Okay, you can put her back now." He said and turned to see her head resting on Peter's shoulder instead as he grinned sheepishly, burning red.
"Anything from the trolley, dears?"
"Oh yeah, I'll have a chocolate frog please." Sirius stood and got his sweets, letting the other go next. James got a chocolate frog also, as well as a packet of Bertie Botts every flavour beans. Peter got some fizzing whizbees and a sugar quill, beginning to suck straight away.
Remus was last and he got two bars of milk chocolate for himself, as well as two caramel for Elladora. When the trolley lady glanced around the compartment, getting ready to push the sweet down the rest of the hallway, she caught a glimpse of Elladora laid on Peter's shoulder and smiled slightly.
At the start of the year, she sat alone, great posture and not any time for sweets or anything. Now she was sat with a group of friends, slouching into her sleep, with caramel chocolate being saved for her. Oh, how far she has come, but oh, how little she's got left.
•*•*•*•*•
The thestrals trotted down the slippery pathway, towering trees causing tall shadows to cast over the carriages. Hogsmeade station was rather empty, save for the hundreds of students coming back home from Christmas, there were no other witches or wizards waiting at another platform to get to say, the ministry or to another family members house. Just the Hogwarts students, walking to find a carriage with their friends.
Elladora woke from her sleep shortly after the trolley lady visited their compartment, it was from the argument that Sirius and James were having about chocolate frogs and Bertie Botts every flavour beans, Sirius said that the frogs were better and that the beans were 'loathsome, monstrous, detestable little round things with no purpose other than to make you barf.'
Of course James didn't agree and said that the beans were better and described chocolate frogs as 'repulsive, nauseating, grotty little things'. They were both wrong, both sweets were good. Elladora took a bite of Sirius's chocolate frog and stole a bean from James, luckily it was cherry, but it was still to prove a point, which it did.
Dora - 27 : Boys - 0
The Great Hall decorations had been taken down and replaced with the normal Hogwarts banners and lights. Flames were lit in the normal lanterns and the Christmas tree that had once been raking up nearly the entire staff table, was now nowhere in sight and McGonagall looked slightly more chuffed than usual about being able to sit in her normal place beside Dumbledore instead o having to charm branches out of the way like she had to do the dinner before they all went home for the holidays.
The Slytherin table looked as uninviting as it usually did, but the familiar mop of black curly hair that draped over his head as he looked down caught her eyes. She smiled slightly and turned back to the boys who were next to her.
"See you after dinner." She waved slightly and manoeuvred her way over to her house table, sliding in the seat opposite Regulus Black as he looked up. For a moment, it seemed as though he was glaring, when really he was just narrowing his eyes at her, he seemed suspicious.
"What?" The question came out quietly as she raised her hand to her mouth, surely the boys would've told her if she had chocolate around her mouth. Unless-
"There's something about you." Regulus said, his eyes fluttering over her face before over her whole appearance. "You seem...I don't know." He shrugged, leaning slightly closer.
"Well, I don't know what you're seeing." She shrugged with a small smile and he clapped his hand together once, drawing the attention of the Slytherins around them.
"You're smiling." He stated with his own small smile, his eyes seemed wide with delight as her eyebrows oincjed together before catching on.
"Oh, yeah." She nodded with a small chuckle. "It happened at Christmas, I'm really happy."
"I'm glad." He grinned, tapping his fingers on the table. "So, how were your holidays?"
"Oh, amazing. I've seen and tried so many things I've never heard of in my life!" She told him. "I got bright clothes, I wore a dress, I danced and I even wore makeup."
"You wore makeup?" He laughed slightly and she tilted her head, frowning slightly. "No-no it's nothing bad, just, I'm used to you always being so natural."
"Well, I'm a whole new woman." She joked and he laughed along, grinning for the first time since before the holidays. Her smile faltered slightly as she said the next sentence. "How was your holidays?" She knew that he didn't like being at home, but he's too scared to leave, not as brave as Sirius.
"Boring. The dinners at Hogwarts are as awkward as they sound..." His voice trailed off as he realised he had just told her that he had indeed not been at his house and instead been here alone all along.
"You told me you were going home." Elladora said, leaning her head closer to him so she could whisper in case it got quite deep, like their first conversation, though it seemed so far away that she forgot what they were crying about. "You were alone this whole time?"
"Well, it's not that different from being at home." He shrugged.
"Regulus, I would've stayed with you." She shook her head at him.
"And miss your chance to smile and be happy? No thank you, besides, I got loads of studying for my O.W.Ls in." He smiled half-heartedly. "Exams start on the first of June."
"Don't worry about what would have and wouldn't have happened, if you wanted me to stay then you should've told me, okay?"
"Yeah." He glanced down at his empty golden plate in shame. "Sorry."
"Don't apologise." She told him softly. "We can work on your weaknesses later, yeah?"
"Okay." He hummed and then gestured to Dumbledore, who stepped up to his golden podium, holding his hands out to the four tables and asking for silence.
The hall quieted almost immediately and every head turned to their headmaster.
"Welcome students to another term at Hogwarts. And welcome back to those who went home for the holidays." He beamed at them all. "I have been asked to inform you now that this years examinations start on the 1st of June, so I encourage you all to work hard in preparation. It is equally as important for the other years as much as it is important for our fifth and seventh years."
Elladora glanced to Regulus and back up to Dumbledore.
"As always, now more than ever, I want you all to stay safe. Do not go looking for danger and certainly don't go encouraging it, make the right choices and know what to stand up for. You are safe from evil inside of these walls, just don't let that get to your head." Dumbledore warned them gravely and the two Slytherin friends looked to one another. "Now, the feast." His face quirked into a smile and a variety of different foods popped up onto the plates, looking inviting.
The basket of bread rolls was conveniently right in front of her plate, giving a perfect chance for her to swipe a good couple, piling them onto her plate with a piece of lasagne, it may be a weird combination, but she loves bread rolls and she loved lasagne, so why not have both?
Regulus also spooned a portion of lasagne on his plate, grabbing a fork and dipping into the food with a delightful gleam in his eyes. He was alright, for now, maybe he just needed the same thing that the boys did for Elladora.
"Hey," She caught his attention, swallowing a mouthful of bread roll. The boy looked towards her, raising his eyebrows in expectation. "Let's break into the kitchens later." She suggested and he grinned mischievously.
"You got it."
•*•*•*•*•