Magical Discoveries
A/N I tried not to make this a Mary Sue, sorry if it seems like one. Please read and review. I wrote this for an English assignment last year and decided to post it. Also, I will soon be updating Harry Potter and the Founders of Hogwarts. Just so you know this is an AU story, I am never killing off Sirius he is one of my favorite characters.
"Boom!" the lights in 25 Peach Blossom Lane went out after a lightning bolt struck very close to the house, making the ground shake. This abrupt blackout left Mr. and Mrs. Kalic furious, while fifteen year old Elaine Black was silently counting her blessings. Mr. and Mrs. Kalic or Kevin and Margaret as Elaine thought of them, had been screaming at her to make them dinner when the lightning struck. Elaine had been growing quite angry and knew that she probably would have said something she would regret later. To cool her temper she just kept reminding herself that she wasn't actually related to them, thank God!
You see Elaine was adopted; she had lived with the Kalics for as long as she could remember.
She looked nothing like them; Elaine was a little tall for her age, with shoulder length black hair, and startling blue eyes. The Kalics were quite a different matter. Kevin Kalic was tall, with dark brown hair and brown eyes. Margaret Kalic was short, fat, and had dark brown hair and hazel eyes. This alone would have convinced Elaine, except the Kalics never let her forget who she was. While some girls had nicknames such as Princess or Sunshine, hers was Orphan.
Elaine hated her guardians and they returned the feeling whole heartedly. But what could she do, it wasn't like she could run away, where would she go? The Kalics weren't going to let her go any where. They just loved telling everyone who would listen to them how they had taken her from the orphanage when she was two years old, and what a handful she was, but how they really couldn't burden others with their problems. Then they would modestly accept everyone's sympathies and praises. It turned Elaine's stomach.
It really was a good thing that lightning struck when it did, Elaine thought to herself as she walked down the cellar steps to try and get the power back on. Whenever she made her so called parents angry, they would make her life miserable. Oh, they never beat her, but they ordered her to do the worst chores and made comments as to what kind of people would leave their daughter in an orphanage, and that she would probably turn out just the same.
A thing like the lightning striking when Elaine was at her angriest wasn't all that new though. Once when Margaret had been telling her off about only getting an A when all her other grades were A+, when suddenly Margaret's skin turned orange. After screaming, Margaret decided it must have been an allergic reaction to her new body lotion, it changed back to normal two days later. Elaine had found this extremely odd, but had dismissed it, after all how could she have done anything like that, it was impossible.
Meanwhile in a school in Scotland, a very odd discussion was going on, for you see, this wasn't just any school. This was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the discussion was between Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, one of the greatest wizards alive, and also Sirius Black, an escaped convict wanted by the Ministry of Magic.
"Albus, how could you have not told me, this is my daughter we're talking about!" Exclaimed Sirius.
"Stop, sit," said the headmaster in a very low but firm voice. Sirius quickly took his seat, looking down at his shoes like he had when he was still a student. Professor Dumbledore sat back in his chair, behind his desk. Albus Dumbledore was one hundred and seventy though he never gave the impression of being old, quite the opposite in fact. He had twinkling blue eyes, though right now the light behind them seemed to have gone out. His silver hair and beard were long enough to tuck into his belt that is if he had a belt, he was wearing flowing purple robes with crescent moons and stars.
He surveyed the haggard looking wizard before him. He didn't look as bad as he had little over two years ago when he had escaped the dreaded wizard prison Azkaban. He thought to himself, Sirius Black the only wizard in history to break out of the wizard prison.
Azkaban was guarded by Dementors, foul monsters who enjoyed sucking every happy thought from a person. The reason Sirius was not insane like everyone else who stayed in the prison, was because he was innocent, this wasn't a happy thought and therefore the Dementors couldn't take it away from him, he remembered who he was. Also he was an animagus, which is a wizard who can change at will to an animal. He no longer looked like a vampire with his gaunt face, waxy skin, and sunken eyes. Now he was filling out, and his blue eyes were starting to get their sparkle back.
At last Dumbledore cleared his throat, and said, "Sirius I did not tell you where Elaine was because you had other things to do, it was important that you gather the old crowd, and tell them that Voldemort, the dark lord is back. I know you Sirius, you would want to run off, and get her despite the consequences—"
"Damn right I would," interrupted Sirius.
"Sirius, as I was saying, not many people know of your innocence. Mr. Potter, his friends, the Weasleys, and Professors Lupin and Snape. You are still a wanted man in both the magic and non-magic societies alike. You spent twelve years in that prison, I doubt you want to go back. If the Dementors catch you, you'll be given the kiss, in case you've forgotten what that is let me remind you. Your soul will be sucked out of your body; you will be nothing more than an empty husk."
"I'm sorry Professor it's just when Gwen died, I promised I'd look after our daughter, and then I failed. Just like I failed James, when I said I'd look after Harry and be a good godfather."
"Sirius, you didn't fail you were sent to Azkaban without a trial, imprisoned for being a spy of the dark lord, for being the secret keeper for the Potters, when in fact it had been Peter Pettigrew, I'm only sorry that I had believed you guilty until a year ago," the Headmaster said.
"It had seemed like the perfect bluff, I mean everyone would think I was the Potter's secret keeper, no one would ever think it would be Peter, and then the Potters would be safe. No one would be able to find them, while they were magically hidden, as long as the secret keeper didn't decide to tell where they were."
"Enough of this, back to the matter at hand, Sirius, after the Death Eaters killed Gwen--" began Dumbledore.
"Those vile followers of Voldemort, if I ever…"
"Sirius! As I was saying you know that the Death Eaters killed Gwen, right before you were imprisoned. After you had been locked up, the Ministry was afraid that people would take out their anger on Elaine. So they decided the best thing to do would be to take her away from England. They took her to Ridgefield Connecticut in America. They put her into an orphanage where she was adopted by a family of muggles." Dumbledore stopped speaking, but something about his demeanor made Sirius think there was more going on.
"Perfect, just perfect, my daughter was not only raised by muggles, but muggle Yanks! Well she's fifteen now, so she at least knows she's a witch," Sirius said calmly, but stopped form saying anything else as he saw the look on the headmaster's face.
"What? What is it? Elaine does go to the SalemWitches Institute in America, doesn't she?" He asked.
"Sirius, the ministry put many spells around Elaine, to keep wizards from finding her, and causing her trouble because of who her father is. However in doing so, they inadvertently blocked her magic from registering in any schools. So I am sorry Sirius, but Elaine most likely doesn't know magic even exists."
"Elaine doesn't even know who she is," Sirius whispered to himself in a lost voice.
"She doesn't know anything about me, her mother, magic…" he couldn't believe it, there was no way, it had to have been a mistake, but the look on Albus's face told him it wasn't.
"I have a mission for you; Voldemort has been sending some of his Death Eaters to America, to gather support. It seems as though many of them are meeting in Ridgefield, Connecticut. While you're there, if you should happen to meet anyone, perhaps you can explain things." The twinkle in his blue eyes was back as he said this.
"I told Fudge that he should have been careful when he put those wards around Elaine," the professor said.
"Cornelius Fudge, that imbecile, who dares to call himself the Minister of Magic," was said in an almost growl.
"She should have gone to Hogwarts… but it does not do to dwell in the past. I daresay that the magic community has completely forgotten Elaine Black," put in Dumbledore.
"Now Sirius, I'm sure you'll understand, but I'm afraid I must go and have a talk with Professor Snape, it simply won't do, if he gives Mr. Neville Longbottom a heart attack during Potions Class. I've just received a letter from Neville's Grandmother; it appears as though he was still stuttering when he got off the train, at the end of the school year." As he was saying this he walked around his office to a fireplace. He gently took a pot from a side table, took a dash of dust from it, and threw it into the flames. They promptly turned green and rose several feet. Then the old wizard stepped into the flames, shouted "Professor Snape's Office," and was whipped out of sight.
Sirius just sat there for a few minutes thinking over everything that had happened, before he got up, and left the office, to begin his mission.
"Come on Buckbeak, wake up, we've got a long way to go," said Sirius clapping his hands, and smiling excitedly. He had gotten over the shock of finding out his daughter was not only alive, but living in America, and not knowing she was a witch. He now had a purpose, while he was in Connecticut, he would find his daughter, and start to teach her how to use her powers. After all it was dangerous for her to not know how to control them. If she got angry or scared, who knows what she might do by accident. Before he could reunite with his daughter, he would have to get this infernal beast to move. Buckbeak really is a great hippogriff, possibly one of the best magical creatures in my opinion. What with the bodies, tails, and hind legs of horses, and heads, wings, front legs, and steel beaks of giant eagles, thought Sirius to himself. They have brilliant orange eyes these were right now surveying Sirius with a fair amount of irritation.
"Please Buckbeak," said Sirius in a very charming manner which was accompanied with a smile and a bow. Hippogriffs are very polite and proud, insult one, and you'll be lucky to ever see the light of day again.
After a minute of surveying him carefully Buckbeak too sank into a bow, and allowed Sirius to hoist himself on his back, swinging his leg over in a manner that clearly showed he had done this numerous times. Then Buckbeak's wings began to rise and fall on either side of Sirius as Buckbeak took off. As they flew, Sirius was gently rocked back and forth with the movement of Buckbeak's wings. He hardly noticed as they flew through clouds full of sunlight or the unending ocean thousands of feet below them. All he could think about was his daughter. What did she look like? Would she like him? The question which was at the front of his mind was would he be a good father?
Elaine who had been staring into space, deep in thought was brought back to reality roughly when Margaret screamed in her ear.
"What is it?" Elaine asked testily as she brought a hand up to rub her ear. Margaret pursed her lips for a few seconds, her eyes flashed dangerously telling Elaine to tread lightly.
"You haven't tended the garden in ages, and it's beginning to look like a jungle, now go and do it," Margaret said harshly.
"Why don't you go and do it, I'm not a slave," replied Elaine indignantly.
Margaret seemed to blow up, in her anger. "We take you in, out of the orphanage; put a roof over your head, and this is how you repay us. Of course I don't know why I expect anything else; I mean your parents were probably just the same if they dumped their daughter in an orphanage. Or maybe they weren't even married, maybe your mother just got pregnant by some…"
Elaine could tell she was not going to stop anytime soon, so she got up, and left through the back door. She went to the shed at the back of the garden, and got out the push mower, as well as bags of fertilizer, shears to prune the flowers. She had from an early age learned not to get upset by comments about her parents, and after all it's not as though she knew them, or that they had loved her. Still though, Elaine found it worked best if she just avoided such discussions, or else she'd wind up saying something, and get a chore list, that was several feet long. She was so used to doing chores such as these that she did them automatically, which allowed her mind to wander, if she had been paying attention, she might have noticed a pair of bright blue eyes, quite like her own actually, stare at her through some bushes. What did break Elaine's reverie was Kevin's hand on her shoulder, and turning her around quite forcefully, she was half expecting something to snap. She blinked a few times before realizing what had happened.
She stared into Kevin's muddy brown eyes and asked quite calmly. "What did I do now?"
"Why you little…" began Kevin, but quickly stopped, he suddenly gave Elaine a smile which made a shiver go up Elaine's spine.
"The head of my law firm, Mr. Williams came to my office today and told me a very interesting story," Kevin said, the harshness of his voice showing his suppressed rage. "How am I supposed to become a partner in that firm, when you do something like this? His son Chad, who's around your age, as I'm sure you know came up to you during lunch a few days ago before school ended for the summer, and was trying to be nice and make conversation…" at this moment he paused, and it seemed as though he was about to explode. "You poured a soda down his pants!" He screamed in indignation.
Elaine recalled the event well, it had been hilarious, but there were a few minor changes to the story. Chad had been hitting on her and wouldn't go away. He had refused to let her leave, he had been about to kiss her, so she did the first thing that came to mind. She would have laughed at the memory, if the situation hadn't been so serious. Kevin had never hit her, but then again she had never seen him quite this worked up before.
"I can explain…" she began in an urgent voice, but was quickly interrupted.
"I don't want to hear any of your lies, you orphan, your lucky Margaret and I let you stay here…" she topped paying attention to the insults, it was better that way, her shoulder was beginning to ache from where he still had it in a vice like grip, he began to shake her roughly every few seconds.
She gasped as a huge black blur jumped between her and Kevin. She immediately fell to the ground now that there was nothing holding her up.
"AAHHHH!" was the last thing she heard Kevin say, before he ran to the back door, occasionally looking back at the bear like dog that was bearing it's sharp teeth at him, and growling deeply in it's throat.
Elaine, who had just gotten over the shock of falling on the ground, gave a start when the dog turned to face her.
She quickly closed her eyes, waiting to feel hard sharp teeth sink into her skin, and cause white hot pain. She was shaking like a leaf, and nearly died of shock when she felt, something long and wet touch her cheek. The dog was nuzzling her! Her eyes snapped open, and sure enough there was the beast practically standing on top of her, nuzzling its nose against her, and whimpering!
Their eyes met, and Elaine was almost positive she saw an emotion like concern in the eyes of the animal.
"I've finally lost it haven't I?" She asked hoarsely. For the second time that day she nearly jumped out of her skin when the dog barked and started padding away from her. Don't leave me, she thought desperately. For a few seconds she had felt warm and safe, she couldn't remember the last time she had felt that way. The dog had reached the edge of the backyard, and looked back at her. It cocked its' head to the side, and had a look that seemed to say come on.
Elaine slowly got to her feet, and followed him.
"Yeah, now I know I'm losing it. I'm definitely certifiably insane." She muttered to herself.
Meanwhile the dog had taken her into a small forest that was about a half mile away from the Kalics.
Elaine stopped when the dog did, and if she hadn't known better, she would have sworn he was both nervous and impatient by the way his tail was swishing, and how his eyes looked. Wonderful, he has rabies, she thought to herself dully.
Suddenly with a pop, the shaggy black dog was gone and in his place was a tall lean man, with shoulder length black hair, and blue eyes.
She would have screamed had she any control over her vocal chords, but her body seemed to have shut down.
She slowly sank to the ground, and leaned against a tree. She simply stared ahead of her... at this strange man.
The man looked at her, but quickly averted his eyes; he took a deep breath as he ran a hand through his long black hair.
"Look Elaine… this isn't the way I wanted to do this, but when I saw that guy. I mean I couldn't stand seeing anyone treat you that way." The man said with a slight quiver in his voice.
After several times of trying and failing to make a noise, Elaine was finally able to speak. "Who… Who are you?" She asked in a breathless voice.
The man looked if possible even more nervous at this question, but finally he answered. "Sirius Black."
That name sounds so familiar, but where… of course! He's that murderer that escaped; the government thought he might have gone to a different country. Elaine suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe. I have to get out of here, she thought fiercely.
She tried to stand up and run, but before she had gone ten feet, the man had grabbed her, and held her tightly to his chest. He covered her mouth with his hand. What's he going to do to me? Was the only thought that could get through her fogged brain.
"Listen, I know you must think I'm a murderer, but please you have to listen to me. I was framed." He whispered into her ear.
His voice was very nice and soothing Elaine decided. Once again she was feeling that sense of safety envelope her. She realized that he was no longer covering her mouth, and that while she was still held protectively against him, it was very loose. One good tug and I'd be free to escape, she thought, but something stopped her. She instead turned around to face him.
"Why are you telling me this?" She couldn't explain why, it just seemed important that she know.
"Because I'm your father," he answered in a voice that clearly stated he was waiting for her to run.
But she didn't, perhaps it was everything that had happened, but she collapsed into his arms, and burst into tears.
Sirius just stood there holding her, a look of complete bafflement on his face. Of everything he had expected that hadn't been it. After all the last time, he had dealt with Elaine crying, was when she was one year old. Well what did I do then? He thought quickly, panicking as Elaine gave another sob into his chest. He gently put his arms around her and made calming noises. Just as he was about to say something, he was shoved roughly away, and only just managed to regain his balance before he fell. He looked up, and saw his daughter wipe her tears away, her blue eyes flashed warningly.
"You aren't my father," she said coldly.
"What makes you think I'm not?" he asked in a pained voice.
"First off you're a Brit," said Elaine with a snort.
"Okay, you do realize, that virtually the only difference is the accent, and since you didn't grow up there you didn't pick it up," he retorted in an exasperated voice.
"Fine then if you're my father, why did you give me up for adoption?" She snapped venomously.
Sirius sighed dejectedly. "Look I didn't give you up, it's a long story, but before I tell it, there's one more thing you've got to know about me… about you." He stopped here and said in a very tired voice. "You might want to sit down for this."
Elaine slowly lowered herself to the grass, never taking her eyes off of Sirius.
"You saw me transform from my dog shape, and I know you're thinking you were just hallucinating, but you weren't, you see, I'm a wizard and you're a witch." He stopped here waiting for her reaction.
Elaine simply stared at him, with one eyebrow raised slightly. Okay, she thought to herself, if I am related to this guy, I could have lived without knowing that insanity runs in our family. Her thoughts must have shown on her face because the man who claimed to be her father sighed.
"All right obviously I'm going to have to prove it to you. What would you like to see?" He asked calmly taking out a thin piece of wood from his pocket.
It was only then that Elaine became aware of what he was wearing, they seemed to be long black robes, though the edges were a bit frayed. He seemed to be waiting for an answer so she said the first thing that came to mind. "Huh?"
"What sort of magic do you want me to do? Just please don't ask me for a potion, it was always my worst subject, I'd probably end up poisoning you." He said seriously.
"Um… anything I guess,' she found herself answering.
"Well transfiguration is what I'm best at, that's turning something into something else," he said casually. He cast his eyes around, and they fell onto a grasshopper, a few feet away. He said something Elaine couldn't quite catch and flicked his wand (which Elaine had identified the thin piece of wood to be) at the grasshopper. There were bright purple sparks, and then instead of the grasshopper there was a white tiger cub. It lifted its head, and its blue eyes fixed on hers, it walked over to her slowly, and started to walk around her, as though inspecting her.
Elaine was speechless, white tigers had always been her favorite animal; there was just something about them.
Sirius watched all of this with a sad smile. "When you were a baby, I got you a white tiger stuffed animal. I used to transfigure it to become alive, you never went anywhere without it."
She slowly raised her eyes to meet his. "All right I believe that you're a wizard, but still there's no way that I'm a … a …" she trailed off.
"Has anything ever happened, something strange and unexpected when you were angry or frightened?" He asked, though he clearly already knew the answer or at least suspected it.
Elaine immediately thought back to the lightning bolt that had struck two days ago, right when the Kalics were yelling at her. Come to think of it, it had been a very sunny day and then poof, it was pouring, and the lights had gone out. She racked her brain and came up with a large number of similar incidents.
"I don't believe it," she finally whispered.
"Oh, but you do, I can see it," Sirius said softly. He took a deep breath and began speaking again. "Now as to explain why you have been living here, well it's a long story. You see when I was at Hogwarts, that's a school for magic, I had three great friends: James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew," this last name was spat like a curse. "Well James, Peter, and I found out that Remus was a werewolf. People are very prejudiced about that sort of thing. He didn't want to tell us, because he thought we would desert him. But instead we decided to become animagi, wizards who can transform into animals at will, it's very difficult. We couldn't be with Remus when he transformed as humans, so we did it as animals."
"That's how you changed from a dog into a human," Elaine blurted out.
"Exactly, my friends nicknamed me Padfoot. Remus was Moony, James changed into a stag, so his was Prongs, and Peter who became a rat was given the name Wormtail," he paused and a shadow seemed to fall onto his very soul, making his eyes appear half dead. "Now I'll have to give you some background information. There was this evil wizard who thought that muggles, people without magic, and muggle borns, wizards who were born into muggle families didn't deserve to live. He believed only pure bloods, wizards from families who were nothing but witches and wizards deserved to learn magic. He was something like that muggle guy, what's his name, Hipker?
"Hitler," Elaine corrected.
"Yeah, that's it; well he got a lot of followers. His followers called themselves Death Eaters; they started killing muggles and muggle borns, and using dark magic. There was however a resistance, led by Albus Dumbledore, said to be the only person Voldemort's afraid of. James and his wife Lily Potter were strong supporters of light magic; therefore Lord Voldemort started trying to kill them. Luckily for us we had a spy in Voldemort's inner circle, who warned us. Dumbledore alerted them, and said their best chance was the Fidelous Charm. A spell that would hide their location inside a person's soul. It would make the Potter's location invisible to Voldemort as long as the secret keeper didn't tell anyone about it. James immediately chose me, but at the last second I made James choose Peter instead. I mean, I was the obvious choice, but no one would suspect Peter, he had never been quite as good at magic as the rest of us. It was the perfect bluff, Voldemort would go after me. I made a grave error in my reasoning though, it turns out that Peter was a Death Eater, he told the dark lord where they were and he immediately went after them. However something unexpected happened, Voldemort killed Lily and James, but for some unexplainable reason he could not kill their one year old son, my godson, Harry Potter. He cast the killing curse, but it rebounded, and hit him instead. Voldemort had been looking for a way to become immortal, and had partly succeeded as he didn't die, but he was left weakened and without powers, he fled. Everyone believed that I had been the Potter's secret keeper, they thought I had betrayed them, no one knew about the switch. I went looking for Peter, I wasn't in my right mind, maddened by grief, I cornered him in a crowded muggle street, and before I could do anything he yelled for the street to hear that I had betrayed Lily and James. Then he blew up the street, killing twelve muggles, before the smoke cleared he cut off his own finger, and transformed into a rat, he ran into the sewers and left me surrounded by dead bodies. When the ministry of magic came, they locked me up without a trial. I was sent to Azkaban, a prison with foul horrible monsters called dementors who suck all the happieness out of a person, which usually causes them to become insane. I didn't though, I knew I was innocent, and I could change into a dog, so the dementors didn't affect me so much. No one knew I could do this, as my friends and I had become illegal animagi. After twelve years though I found out that Peter was at Hogwarts disguised as a boy's pet, and that he could easily kill Harry if he heard that Voldemort was coming back to power. I escaped, and went after him, I'm sorry to say he got away, but I was able to prove to Dumbledore, Remus, Harry and his friends of my innocence. When Peter escaped he went and found Voldemort, he helped him to regain his power." He stopped and looked at Elaine before he continued, "As to what this has to do with you, well your mother, Gwen had been killed a few months before Voldemort's fall, and with me in Azkaban, there was no where to put you. The Ministry was afraid that someone would hurt you because of who I was, so they sent you to America, and put a lot of spells on you so that no one could find you. However when those idiots did this they made a huge blunder, the spells stopped your magic from registering in any schools, which is why you were never sent to learn magic. I didn't even know where you were, until Albus tracked you down. He sent me here on a mission, you see, now that Voldemort's back, he's looking for more followers, many of them, were caught and sent to Azkaban, he only has about forty, in England, so he sent some of them here to try and get more. I'm also here to get you of course, and because your fifteen your to old to go to Hogwarts, kids go when they're eleven, you'd never catch up, Remus and I are to home school you. I mean it's dangerous, you need to know how to control your powers." His eyes started to search hers, for what she wasn't sure.
"I know I haven't been there for you, believe me, if it had been my choice I would have, I hope that you'll let me be a part of your life now." He held his breath as he waited for a reply.
"I don't know, to be totally honest I really don't know you, but… I think that I would like to get to know you." There she had said it, she wasn't sure if she could deal with all of this I mean it's a lot to handle.
"Well that's a start at least," he cleared his throat, and said "I guess it's time for us to get going." He once more waved his wand "there now all of your belongings have been moved from the Kalics to the little house Remus and I rented, I also put a memory charm on the muggles you live with, so they'll forget you're supposed to be with them." He stood still a moment before he declared, "well I think that is everything, we'd better start walking now, if we want to get there before it gets dark."
"Uh…Dad" Elaine stated hesitatingly, it felt so weird to use the word.
"Huh?" He looked back at her, and became aware of the tiger cub that was curled up on Elaine's lap fast asleep. "Oh yeah, I forgot about him." He said as he blushed, a second later the tiger was gone, and he helped his daughter to her feet.
They set off, walking through the forest, when they reached the edge; Sirius changed back into Padfoot, and led the way. Elaine wasn't sure how long they had been walking, but the sun was starting to set. The houses had been getting fewer and far between, at last Sirius stopped and turned into the long driveway of a large house, it had three floors, and it was dark blue, all of the curtains seemed to be drawn, making it impossible to see inside with an extremely large backyard that seemed to have stables for horses. The large black dog, trotted up to the door and with a move that was obviously practiced he twisted the knob between his two massive front paws. The door swung open with a click and they stepped inside, Elaine closed the door behind her, and Sirius changed back. He looked around for a second before looking up the large staircase "Moony, come here I got her!" He shouted out excitedly, a few moments later, they heard the soft click of shoes on polished wooden floors.
"What on Earth are you shouting about Sirius, do you want to tell the whole neighborhood that we're here?" Asked Remus as he came into view from around the corner and began making his way down the stairs.
Elaine examined him closely; he was very thin with light brown hair that was flecked with gray. He had warm brown eyes; he was in his early thirties like her Dad.
Remus seemed to realize he was being watched for he looked up, and his eyes widened when he caught sight of her. Once he reached the landing he began a close inspection of Elaine as well.
"Elaine?"
Elaine wasn't entirely sure how she was supposed to respond so she settled on a polite "Yes sir."
"Please don't call me sir, just call me Remus or Moony," he said kindly.
"All right… Remus" Elaine said awkwardly. She stood there while both Remus and her father looked at her silently; she shifted from one foot to the other feeling as though she were on display in a zoo. Remus at least seemed to realize how she felt, because he said "Well, why don't I show Elaine where she'll be staying… you did tell her everything right Sirius?" He said giving Sirius a look Elaine couldn't decipher.
"Of course I did you prat, what do you take me for, an idiot?" Sirius retorted, as Remus opened his mouth to reply Sirius said "never mind, don't answer that."
Elaine followed them both up one flight of stairs and then another, once they were on the third floor, they took her to the first door on the right. Remus opened the door and motioned for her to go in first, as she stepped into the room, she gasped slightly. The walls were painted a dark blue, and there were stars on the ceiling and walls, that were shining brightly and some that were zooming this way and that. The bed was covered in glowing stars; that matched the walls perfectly. The room itself was fairly large; there was an enormous bay window that overlooked the backyard, where she could see the stars slowly coming into view now that the sun was gone, it was the only window that didn't have the curtains drawn. It was breathtaking; she turned to look at Remus and Sirius. Remus was watching her reaction with a smile while Sirius seemed to have become very interested in his shoes, as he wouldn't take his eyes from them.
Finally Remus broke the silence "Sirius decorated it; he thought you might like it, and surprisingly enough he didn't blow it up."
Sirius looked up long enough to throw a glare in his friend's direction.
"I love it," Elaine finally got out, and indeed she did, it was nothing like she had ever seen before, no one had ever gone to so much trouble for her. When Sirius looked at her, she smiled slightly, and said so softly he almost didn't hear her "it's great thank you."
Before she could say anything else though, there was a small popping noise in the middle of the room, both Remus and her father took out there wands and pointed them at the intruder, once they saw who it was though they quickly put them down.
"Now really you should have warned us you were coming, I was about to turn you into a pineapple," snapped Sirius.
The man was very old with silvery eyes, he didn't answer Sirius, he merely looked at Elaine and walked up to her, he stared at her for a moment in complete silence, before abruptly saying "My my my, Elaine Black, well you do look like your father,"
"If I may ask what you are doing here Mr. Olivander?" Inquired Remus, staring at the newcomer intently.
Elaine was just glad that he had taken his eyes off of her; he was a little disconcerting to say the least.
"Ah, yes, sorry for barging in like that but Albus wanted me to come here and find a wand for the girl, unless of course you planned on teaching her without one," he said dryly.
Both Remus and Sirius blushed, apparently they hadn't thought of that.
Mr. Olivander meanwhile took out a measuring tape which began to measure Elaine around the waist, arm to shoulder, head to foot, and so on, all on its' own.
When Mr. Olivander said that was enough it abruptly dropped to the floor lifeless, he turned back to Elaine "You're right handed are you not?" At her nod he took out a thin box from his pocket. "Try this nine inches, ebony, and dragon heart string." She had barely taken the wand when he snatched it out of her hand. "No, no that won't do, try this twelve inches, maple, and phoenix feather." Again she had barely taken it when it too was snatched away. They went through dozens of wands with all sorts of different combinations in them. Mr. Olivander got more excited with each wand that was discarded, "I love a tricky customer, and the wand chooses the wizard." Pretty soon there was a large pile of thin boxes covering the floor, Elaine had given up trying to figure out how he kept pulling box after box out of his robes long ago. He took out another box and said "eleven inches, willow, unicorn hair," as he handed it to her Elaine felt a tingling sensation in her fingers, she frowned slightly and flicked the end of it. Purple sparks immediately shot out of the end and illuminated the room; once the light disappeared she became aware of the applause she was getting.
She turned slightly, and found both Remus and her father clapping loudly, even Mr. Olivander was smiling. "Yes, I've had that wand for quite, a while I was beginning to think it would never choose an owner. That wand is very special; it's very good for transfiguration, and especially defense against the dark arts. The unicorn whose hair is in that wand was very strong willed and feisty. Now Miss Black keep in mind that the wand chooses the wizard, and while you can use another wizard's wand, your will never get as wonderful results." He turned around and walked back to the middle of the room, with a wave of his wand, all of the other wands disappeared, "Oh, yes one more thing Albus asked me to bring the books Miss Black will need to study, before anyone could reply he vanished with a pop.
Sure enough when he was gone, several large shopping bags suddenly appeared next to a large trunk, which Elaine assumed contained all of her belongings from the Kalics. Remus and her father soon left, leaving her to unpack and go to sleep, as she placed her clothes into the large walk in closet she thought of everything that had happened; it was so unbelievable. Once she crawled into her bed, she found herself staring at the stars that surrounded her, she began to relax and soon fell asleep.
Several hours later, Sirius Black was pulled out of sleep by a heart wrenching scream from the room next door, he immediately jumped out of bed and ran into Elaine's room where he found her, sobbing, and she was tossing and turning. He ran to her side, and tried to shake her, but stopped immediately when she flinched away, she curled into a tight ball. It felt as though his heart was being ripped out, his daughter was in pain, and she was scared by his touch. He tried reaching out to her once again, this time she slowly opened her eyes, and blinked away the tears that were forming, he wiped them away, and said gently "what's the matter?"
Elaine gasped for breath, and after a few seconds whispered "I dreamt that all of this... was just a dream, and that… this time when Kevin came to me in the garden and started yelling… you weren't there… you didn't stop him… and he… he…" she gave another sob.
"Shh…shh… it's all right, I promise you this isn't a dream, I'm not leaving, and you're never going to go back to those people again, I promise. Now why don't you lie back down, and try to get some more sleep." He told her gently.
"Please don't leave me," she whispered hoarsely.
"Never again, never again," he answered, and he stayed there until he was sure she was asleep, before he walked over and brought a chair next to her bed. As he sat down he heard someone come up from behind him.
"You handled that well," said Remus.
"You think so Moony?" he asked uncertainly.
"Yes, you'll do just fine, Padfoot, don't worry, that's my job remember." Remus then walked out of the room, and left Sirius to his very confused thoughts.
The next morning Elaine woke up to find Sirius watching her silently, she blushed when she remembered what happened the night before. I don't believe I cried like a baby, he probably thinks I'm a wimp. Maybe I can blame it on being that time of the month, she thought to herself.
Sirius stood up, and said, "I'll just let you get dressed, I'll be down stairs in the kitchen with Moony, he's cooking breakfast."
After she changed into a pair of jeans, and a purple t-shirt she made her way down stairs, she stopped to listen when she heard the two adults bickering.
"Why don't you let me cook Moony?"
"Because when you cooked yesterday, the house nearly burned down," was the retort.
"Oh, it was only a small fire, how was I to know you can't put silverware in that micoberaver, thingy," was Sirius's response.
Elaine couldn't help it; she burst into giggles, which of course, alerted the two adults, that they had company.
Remus motioned for her to come in, and sit at the table, which she did, finally she asked, "how can you not know how to use a microwave?"
Remus answered, "Sirius is a pureblood, so are you actually, but he grew up like one, which means he's never had to use muggle technology."
"Oh and you have," Sirius snapped.
"No but I did take muggle studies in Hogwarts, so there."
They spent the day talking, and Elaine read through some of her schoolbooks, they really were quite interesting. In what seemed like no time at all, weeks had passed, Remus had taught her Defense Against the Dark Arts, charms, and herbology. Sirius taught history of magic and transfiguration. Neither were skilled enough to teach potions they also regaled her with stories of their time at Hogwarts, about how James, Peter and they had called themselves the Marauders, and how they used to pull prank after prank especially on Severus Snape, who according to Sirius was a greasy git.
One day Elaine was just going downstairs to ask Remus for some help with her charms homework when she heard yelling.
"Albus, you can't expect me to allow that slimy bastard anywhere near my daughter!" Roared Sirius. When Elaine looked around the corner she saw Remus, Sirius, and two people who she had never seen before. The silver haired man must be Professor Dumbledore, when she looked at the other man; she immediately knew that this was Professor Snape. He looks just like Dad said, tall, hook nosed, sallow skin, and long greasy hair.
She nearly jumped a foot in the air when Professor Dumbledore addressed her, "Elaine could you please come here a moment."
Fighting the urge to look guilty and failing miserably she entered the living room.
Professor Dumbledore looked quite amused and gave her a cheery smile; Remus didn't look surprised, which is probably because he knew I was there. It hadn't taken long for Elaine to discover that because of his lyncanthropy, he had excellent eyesight, sense of smell, and of course very good hearing. Snape was glaring at her, and her father was glaring at Snape.
"Elaine, may I introduce you to Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master. It has been decided that he will teach you potions while he is here to help Mr. Black and Mr. Lupin with their mission." Professor Dumbledore announced.
Snape looked as though he was about to start foaming at the mouth.
"Headmaster, this mission is very important, I don't have time to teach this girl," he hissed.
"Oh don't worry, Severus, I'm sure you'll figure something out, you will also be staying here, until you mission is completed." With a pop he disappeared, Remus had told Elaine this was called apparition, going from one place to another, in a second.
Remus finally broke the tense silence, "Severus, you may settle into the second floor, the bedroom is third one on the right."
He nodded to show he understood, and began to sweep out of the room, but paused next to Elaine, "I will meet you in the basement at 9:00 sharp, for your first lesson do not be late."
She looked to Sirius and Remus and noticed that Sirius was beside himself, as soon as Snape was in his room, he started cursing, using several words Elaine had never heard before, and probably wasn't supposed to.
After getting Remus's help on her charms essay, she went back up stairs and went to bed. It felt as though she had just shut her eyes, when she woke up in the morning, she went downstairs and had breakfast with Remus and her Dad, before she knew it, it was 8:55, and she slowly made her way to the basement. She opened the door, and found that the basement had been drastically changed; it now resembled a dungeon, which was where potions was taught at Hogwarts according to Remus. She found a desk, where she laid all of her supplies and waited. A few minutes later, Professor Snape swept into the room. Dad's right, he really does resemble an overgrown bas she thought. He swept in front of her his bottomless black eyes sparking with dislike.
"You really do look like your father," he spat with distaste.
Elaine merely raised an eyebrow.
"Well let's just see, if you are as hopeless at potions as your father is. Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"
"The stomach of a goat," she answered immediately.
"Correct," Snape spat apparently upset that she had gotten the right answer. "Let's try again, shall we. What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" He asked maliciously.
"A sleeping potion so powerful, it's known as the Draught of Living Death."
Tell me Black what is the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?" He asked sneering, apparently sure that she would not get this one right. When she was silent for a few seconds he said, "It seems as though you can't even get a question that I ask my first years…"
"They're the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite." She said smiling slightly.
Snape gritted his teeth and hissed, "Well it appears that you do have some brains after all, it must have come from your mother's side." The lesson proceeded in this manner, Snape trying to make her feel stupid, but she always managed to have the right answer, and to top it all off her potion came out perfect. He kept badmouthing her father; she did her best to ignore him, refusing to let herself rise to the bait. When the lesson was over she walked out with a loud sigh; it's a good thing I have such a great memory, when it comes to something I've read.
Several days past in a blur of activity, amazingly enough Elaine was very good at potions though Snape would never admit it. Elaine was just finishing her homework and thinking vaguely of going into the fields and riding one of the horses, she was a natural rider. However just as she was putting her things away, she heard Remus calling her downstairs.
She ran into the living room, and just stopped herself from running into Professor Dumbledore; she gulped and said, "Sorry sir."
He gave her a smile, and his eyes twinkled from behind his half moon spectacles.
"Don't worry Miss Black; I wanted to have a word with you." He led her into the kitchen where Snape, Remus and her father were waiting. Elaine sat down in a chair by Sirius.
Dumbledore cleared his throat and began, "Miss Black we have run into a small problem in our mission, you see to stop Voldemort from gaining supporters in America, we must catch all who go to attend this meeting, and then any wizards left will hopefully reconsider joining. To catch these wizards we need someone to cast a caging spell; it will immediately hold the Death Eaters captive until reinforcements can arrive. However none of us can get close enough to cast the spell, you would need to be surrounded by them, and both Sirius and Remus are to well known, and Professor Snape is already suspected of being a spy, we can't afford to blow his cover."
"So he wants to send you in there, where you will be surrounded by killers," Sirius stated furiously.
You have the best chance of getting in there, you will simply state that you are a representative for your father, who is an American pure blood wizard, interested in joining Voldemort's ranks." Dumbledore elaborated. "We will teach you the spell, and it works out perfectly, because you did not grow up in England you do not have an accent to give you away." Dumbledore's eyes rested on hers, and she got the impression that he could see inside her very soul. "I will leave you three to settle the details." With those parting words he was gone.
Remus spent the next few hours teaching her the spell; she picked it up fairly quickly, as she had a knack for Defence Against the Dark Arts. Several hours later, just as the sun was about to set, the four of them set off in the direction of the meeting. They came to a deserted field, before Elaine could ask why they were there, Snape pointed out what was there. Of course there was a spell on the house making it invisible to people unless they knew it was there or had it pointed out to them.
"We can't go any farther, you'll have to go the rest of the way, by yourself," said Sirius, he looked at her for a second, before giving her a hug.
"Black I do believe the girl needs to breathe," sneered Snape.
Her father let go of her, and glared at Snape, before turning back to her once again, "Just be careful."
Elaine nodded and began walking toward the large manor in the distance. She was wearing long purple robes, Sirius had bought for her, and she was getting close to the people that congregated in front of the manor now. Finally she drew the attention of a tall blond haired man, Lucius Malfoy, she thought to herself, Snape had described him, and told her he would be the one she would have to convince.
He looked at her for a moment, his eyes trailing up and down her body, she resisted the urge to turn and run. He gave her a cold smile that did not reach his eyes, "Hello and you would be?" He inquired politely.
"Emily Fairchild, my father was unable to attend this meeting, so he sent me," she said looking him directly in the eyes.
"Ah it is a pleasure to meet you Emily, I hope you do not mind, but we can't be too careful." He took out his wand and said, "Puritus," for a few seconds Elaine shined with a white glow. Snape had warned her this would happen it was a spell to determine whether or not she was pure blooded, and she had passed. "Well that all seems to be in order then," he eyed her for a moment before asking, "If I may ask, how old you are my dear?"
"Fifteen," she answered.
"Wonderful, you're the same age as my son." He looked behind him and called, "Draco!"
A blond boy with a pale pointed face came to a stop beside Mr. Malfoy. "Draco, this is Emily Fairchild, she is here to represent her father, why don't' you keep her entertained until the meeting begins." This was not a question.
"Certainly father," said Draco, just as coldly. He turned to face her; he too looked her up and down before offering her his arm, which she took politely. They walked a little ways, before he began to speak to her, "So where do you go to school?"
"Salem Witch's Institute," was the reply she had been told to give if asked. He was slowly leading her into the middle of the crowd, which was exactly what Elaine was hoping for.
"Why don't' we wait for the meeting to start, over there?" He pointed to a shadowy spot that was hidden from most of the people. She simply rolled her eyes; "I don't think so." She pulled her arm out of his, took a deep breath and yelled, "CAGELIUSS MAXIMUS!" Silver light streaked from her wand, breaking into several directions; they wrapped themselves around everyone in the clearing, except Elaine herself. Immediately she fell to the ground on her knees, the spell was advanced magic, and had drained a lot of her energy. She felt hands on her shoulders, and was about to scream when she suddenly realized that it was Sirius who held her, her father. She allowed herself to be held, as Remus and Severus, stunned all of the Death Eaters, everything after that was a blur.
Elaine slowly opened her eyes, trying to remember when she closed them; she realized it was the middle of the day, according to the position of the sun that was shining through the window in her room. She got dressed and opened her door slowly not knowing what she would find; she made her way down stairs and into the kitchen where she found Remus, making a sandwich.
"Ah, so you're finally awake then, good," he said kindly.
"What happened?" She asked thoroughly bewildered.
"Well you fell into a deep sleep after you cast that spell; it took a lot of energy out of you. We were able to round up all the Death Eaters there, all though I'm sure some of them will be able to get out of punishment, like the Malfoys…"
He was suddenly interrupted as Sirius ran into the room, "Elaine you're awake, wonderful come here, you too Remus!"
Remus looked at him warily, "Sirius if anything explodes, catches fire, or turns into a goat, I swear…"
"It's nothing like that…this time…come on!" He ushered them into the next room where Professor Dumbledore was waiting. "Ah hello all, I just wanted to give you the good news in person. It seems as though Peter Pettigrew was at the Death Eater meeting, he was given a trial, found guilty, and Sirius has been pardoned." He said cheerfully.
"That's wonderful," said Elaine jumping slightly with all of her enthusiasm.
"Does this mean what I think it means?" Remus asked looking at both Sirius and Dumbledore, before his eyes once more rested on Elaine.
"Yeah, I was just getting there. Elaine now that I'm free, that is if it's all right with you… would you be all right with moving back to England with Remus and I, I'm going to be staying with him for a while, and Harry my godson, will probably come and live with us also." He asked hesitatingly.
Elaine just looked at him for a moment before launching herself at him, and hugging him tightly, "Of course I want to, and you and Moony would still teach me right?" She asked.
They both nodded their heads, "In that case I definitely want to live with you Dad."
A/N Should I make a sequel, probably won't be as long as this, but I don't know. I may make a romance between Elaine and Harry when they meet.