Chapter 1 – Captured
Eliza looked up from her small camp fire in the middle of New Forest in Hampshire at the sound of cracking twigs underfoot. She waved her hand at the fire and it immediately went out and with another hand wave, the smoke and heat dissipated. She got up from her perch on the wet and muddy ground, ignoring the mud stains on her already worn jeans and went closer to the sounds which seemed to be moving closer. Keeping behind trees and in the shadows created by the setting sun, she crept silently away from her campsite and she could just make out the movement of men through the woods and she immediately recognised them as aurors despite their muggle clothing, mainly from the wands but also as they were in the middle of the forest with no camping equipment.
Determining that there was only the two of them with no dementors, she decided that she could risk a quick trip back to camp before making a run for it. She had never managed to master the way that the wizards managed to appear and disappear but she imagined that the skill required training and not some sixteen year old girl who had never even owned a wand. She kept an eye on the two men as long as she could before they went out of sight. She waved her hand once more and found that nothing happened. She sighed and concentrated harder and waved her hand once more towards her tent which packed itself up and placed itself in her black backpack. She rubbed her foot across the fire that had taken her ages to build up and, making sure she hadn't missed anything that could be a clue; she began making her way through the woods in the opposite direction to the two aurors and desperately hoped that they hadn't split up or changed direction.
Half an hour later, Eliza slowed down, happy that she must have outrun the men and allowed herself a break as her feet were beginning to ache and she needed to figure out how the men had found her so she could avoid it happening again. The aurors and dementors had been becoming a less frequent occurrence as she grew older and came to understand how they tracked her. When she had been young, she had stolen from muggle shops frequently for food and water but she realised that a day after each of these trips, someone would turn up, ready to take her to the ministry. So she had worked out what water was safe to drink from the land and stole food to last for longer but she had begun to kill rabbits for food as the attacks from the ministry became harsher like the one time that she had been captured. A group of seven wizards had caught her which was where she was told about the ministry and Azkaban and the dementors, she had only been thirteen but she vowed to never get sent to that place. She had escaped with some major injuries and that was when she had learnt how to do stitches and had begun to experiment with healing magic although she later concluded that this was dangerous without a wand.
Suddenly there was a crack of twigs and the rustle of leaves being pushes aside and Eliza looked up, searching for the commotion, hoping beyond hope that it was just a deer. There was a flash of red and a pain in her chest before she collapsed on the ground, covered in mud. A second later, she was up and running, leaving behind her bag which was closer to the auror who had emerged from the cover of the trees. The other auror came from the other side and she had to dodge another shot of red, weaving behind larger trees in the hope of their vision or shots being obstructed. She was hit by a glancing blow to her shoulder but she shook it off and kept moving. Getting caught was not an option. She pushed her body to run faster, not caring about the racket she was making anymore, but her lungs and legs were burning and she was moving slower and slower. Suddenly one of the aurors appeared in front of her and shot red straight at her and she collapsed against a tree, dark spots beginning to dance in her vision. The other auror came to stand by the first one and they kept their wands pointed straight at her heart.
Careful not to move too fast and get stunned again, Eliza sat up, using the tree to support her small frame. She lifted her green eyes up to study the two men. She looked at the first one that had stunned her. He had jet black hair, was of average height and had glasses and the other had a shock of greying red hair and had a slightly larger build as though he enjoyed his cake a bit too much. She studied their stances and knew that now would not be a time to try and escape but it would have to be done before reaching the ministry or Azkaban as she knew that there was no escaping from there. Steadily, she raised herself to standing and looked at the aurors expectantly, wondering what they would say and do next. Preferably something stupid that would allow her an easy escape when she was so tired. The dark haired one glanced at his colleague as if confirming before looking back at Eliza who stood stock still.
'My name is Harry Potter and this is my colleague Ron Weasley.' The dark haired one said. Eliza considered the names and knew that she recognised them but couldn't quite place them; her wizarding knowledge was sketchy at the best of times. Instead of voicing this, she simply nodded lightly, urging him to continue. 'We are aurors at the Ministry of Magic, as I think you knew and we have come to arrest you on the charges of the murders of Mary and Steven Queen, the assault of seven aurors and of evading the law for the past five years.' Eliza nodded again, fully aware of what she had done, although assault seemed slightly strong to her when concerning the aurors as they did happen to give her some nasty cuts in her attempt to escape (not intentionally but she was still angry about it).
Potter and Weasley looked at each other again before moving slowly towards the young girl that they had not expected to see. They had been told that they were looking for a murder that had been on the run for five years. Ron had even taken time off from helping at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes to help him capture the girl. However, they had not expected to see a girl who looked no more than sixteen or seventeen with muddy clothes that were too small, tangled hair and a small frame that showed the edges of her bones clearly. How the girl could have killed when she was only eleven was beyond Harry. They saw her flinch as they took hold of her arms and led her back through the woods towards their campsite, not wanting to apparate as they had been advised that she had be splinched badly with the last set of aurors.
Eliza made sure to track their steps through the woods so that she knew where to go when she made her escape so that she would be able to get back to her bag before going a different way. The two aurors with her seemed to be uncomfortable with her age which Eliza knew she could use to her advantage as they were likely to underestimate her powers, especially as she didn't carry a wand which wizards seemed to think meant you couldn't perform magic. How wrong they were. How they couldn't remember the things they did before that school of theirs was beyond her, all she had done was develop those skills until she could use them to her will. Eventually, they came to their camp which consisted of one very small tent but Eliza could sense the extension charm, another skill she had come to develop – a detection of magic in order to help her avoid capture. There was a fire that was better built than hers had ever been and not much else, just a rucksack flung on the floor that looked to be filled with food.
A thought popped in Eliza's mind just as she was planning to run away when they set her down on the floor by the tent; she needed to know how they had found her otherwise she would be caught again and not just by two wizards. Contemplating her options, she decided that direct was the way to get the best information.
'How did you find me?' Eliza asked, raising her voice to carry to the aurors. Ron started a little but they both turned to her with impassive faces.
'We know not to tell you that, Miss Queen.' Potter said sternly but with a hint of kindness. 'You have become wise to most of our tricks over the years and we can't risk you escaping again with more knowledge than before.' Eliza silently cursed her luck, how had she come to be captured by wizards with actual common sense?
'Not that you will be escaping this time, we leave for the ministry as soon as we have eaten and packed away.' Weasley added making sure the girl knew that she was not going to get away this time. She had taken too much time and resources to be allowed to leave before her trial at the ministry. Potter nodded behind him and waved his wand at the tent but not before bringing out a couple of blankets which he placed over the muddy ground. The tent collapsed and Potter shoved it into the backpack and came back to the fire with some bread rolls and two cans of tomato soup. Weasley heated the soup over the fire and Potter went over to Eliza who had watched the scene unfolding, looking for escape exits despite Weasley's warning.
'You know,' Potter said. 'Things may not turn out as bad as you seem to think that they will.' He said it softly as if to a scared deer he didn't want to scare off but Eliza only became more suspicious of the pair as Potter walked over to help Weasley with the food. Despite this, she had a nagging feeling at the back of her mind that told her to trust these two men but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Not after the last time. The men had captured her and had treated her splinches (which they had caused) but despite this kindness, she was kept locked up by dementors. They had been so close to her and she had no defences whilst they hid behind their silver animals. She was still plagued by nightmares of those creatures, which was why she had vowed to never be sent to Azkaban, no matter the cost.
'Miss Queen, come and eat. You may not get a chance for a while with everything that will happen when we return.' Weasley said. It was then that the name clicked, as she stared at the red hair, the famous red hair. These two had been involved in some war with a dark wizard. She now felt the last shreds of hope she had drain away. They would not be beaten by a girl with no magical training when they had beaten someone with so much more power than her, and a wand. She really needed to get her hands on one of those.
Reluctantly, she got up from her place on the floor and walked on stiff legs over to the fire, placing herself as far from them as possible in the small space. Weasley handed her a bowl with tomato soup and a chunk of bread.
'I thought you were working in a joke shop.' Eliza said, startling the aurors. Her voice was soft and slightly melodic without sounding too girlish. Harry saw that, even though she didn't trust them, she wolfed down the food as if she was starved. He looked over to her and thought that maybe she was, her frame was small and the clothes hid the worst but he could see the juts that the bones made against her skin. He felt sorry for the girl once again, he couldn't bring himself to see her as somebody who would harm another person.
'I was. I am. I am just helping out with you before I go back. How did you know that?' Ron replied.
'Just for me? How special I feel.' Eliza said before continuing. 'I recognise you from a few of the newspapers I picked up in wizarding villages. They do seem to like you a lot. Although, not as much as your sons, the first one especially seems to cause rather a fuss.' She directed her last statement to Harry who merely smiled.
'Yes. James does enjoy causing trouble. However, this is not what I had intended to discuss with you. I want to know what you have done to warrant such as search. I know only the charges, no circumstances or reasons. If you tell us then we may be able to help you.' Eliza considered the words carefully. She had never told anyone what had happened that night but she knew that these two held sway within the ministry and she knew them to be trustworthy. However, she hated thinking about that night. She decided that if she was to tell this story, she wold want something in return.
'I will tell you my story on two conditions. The first is that you must promise that I will not be taken near any dementors and the second is that you must tell me how you found me.' They didn't seem to like her terms but they each gave a nod after looking at each other for a moment, having a silent conversation that she could only guess at.
'As you know, I am charged with killing my parents, Mary and Steven Queen. It was the night that I received my Hogwarts letter, they had been so proud that morning but they came home after work and something had changed. They didn't seem to see me anymore, their eyes were glassed over and were unfocused and yet they came straight towards me. My father pushed me to the ground and kicked me over and over again but that was nothing compared to my mother,' Eliza paused to take a breath, her voice remaining emotionless as she told the story. 'She took a knife from the kitchen and sliced it down my back. It was horrific, the pain, like fire burning through me and I screamed but they didn't stop. She came at me again but I couldn't bear the thought of that pain again and I screamed. I screamed and they were pushed back against the wall as my magic burst out of me. It killed them, my magic. I felt anger and I let it loose and it killed them.' Eliza let out a breath quietly and looked down at the ground in embarrassment. She couldn't believe that she had just told her greatest secret to two people that she had never met on a hunch that they were trustworthy.
'Eliza.' Harry said. His voice held concern and pity but it didn't conceal the fear. Eliza could sense their wariness at her confession that in her anger, she had killed people with her magic. Magic that she still had not fully learnt to control. 'We are sorry for everything you have been through. We had no idea that you had no control over your actions and that they were purely as self defence against people who were likely under the imperious curse.'
'You asked two things.' Ron said, taking over the conversation. 'We promise that the dementors will not come near you and I will tell you how we found you.' Eliza looked up expectantly, watching his face and body language so as to determine if he told the truth with his next words. 'You used to be easy to catch when you used magic to steal from muggle stores, in the same way we can detect underage wizards when they use magic. You became aware of this and used magic less and less and you found ways to use it that we could not detect, spells you felt safe using. We asked some of our brightest people to figure out a way of detecting your instinctual magic as we call it. Yesterday, we finally created a spell that could detect magic within a person, without them having to use it and we could then trace your movements.'
Eliza nodded, glad that is had not been something that she had done herself but she was annoyed that she would no longer be able to evade capture, even if she somehow managed to escape the two aurors. Ron took the bowl that was now empty and said a spell so that it cleaned itself before he placed it with the others in their bag which must have some form of charm on it as it didn't look big enough for even one bowl.
'Now, Eliza.' Potter said. 'Are you ready to go to the ministry?'