'I'll miss you' murmured Alfie into Elektra Black's ear as he tightly wrapped his arms around her.
'It's only until December. You'll hardly notice I'm gone' the daughter of Hecate replied, screwing her grey eyes closed in an attempt to prevent the tears trickling out.
'Yeah, because that's likely' snorted Clarisse as Elektra gave the boy's hand a final squeeze. Elektra's closest friends had gathered at Thalia's pine to say goodbye to Elektra who was heading off to boarding school in the United Kingdom. She had said goodbye to some of the older campers, (most importantly Selina, Luke, and her only half-brother Alabaster), after a final training session. Sam Hargreaves, son of Apollo, and Hermes' youngest children, Tyler Fritz and Isla-Mae Paris (better known as Imp due to her small size, cheeky personality, and initials) had left Camp Half-Blood two weeks prior once the official summer camp had come to an end, leaving Annabeth Chase, Clarisse La Rue, Daisy Ritcombe and Alfie Edgewere to bid Elektra goodbye. The five of them were a tight knit group, being the youngest year-round campers (Clarisse pretended not to give a damn about any of them, but did in fact have a caring side that few saw).
Elektra had saved Alfie's goodbye until last. The two had become rather inseparable in their two years together, best friends to the point of becoming non-biological siblings. Alfie had run from foster home to foster home before arriving at CHB at the age of ten. Elektra had been hidden in the Lotus Hotel and Casino since she was a month old to keep her safe from the war that was raging in her father's world until she was nine. Elektra was the daughter of Hecate, and Alfie unclaimed, so both lived in the Hermes cabin. The pair spent the majority of their time singing with their Apollo friends or riding pegasi, and were very rarely apart. It was leaving Alfie that Elektra had been dreading most about accepting her Hogwarts letter, and the fact that she couldn't tell him the truth about the school she was to attend didn't help the feeling of betrayal as she began to trudge down the hill towards the Delphi Strawberry Service minibus, subtly wiping a tear off her cheek.
Argus lifted her luggage into the vehicle, sliding the door closed, and as they pulled away to begin the journey to the airport, the eleven year old pressing her face against the back window and waving furiously, she couldn't help but think of all the memories she had made, all the magic she had worked on controlling, all the defence she had learnt, and that she was leaving one home to discover another.
There were many things that Elektra was looking forward to about Hogwarts. The lessons, of course, sounded magnificent. She was buzzing to learn how to control her wizarding magic (she had discovered, with Chiron's help, that her godly magic felt as if it came from the gut and the wizarding magic from the heart). Of course the feasts were something not to be missed. Merely thinking about the sorting seemed to cause the world's butterfly population to congregate in her stomach. The multitude of activities available, from the choirs to the duelling clubs, sparked the girl's interest. And then there was Harry Potter - a boy about to begin his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. However, unlike most eleven year olds who were soon to board the Hogwarts Express for the first time, Elektra was not excited to get a peek of his scar, or get a signed photograph with The-Boy-Who-Lived. No. Elektra Black wanted to meet her godbrother. She wanted to meet his friends. She wanted to find out if he was like his mother and father, whom she had heard so many stories about that it seemed as if she knew them personally. The only issue was that, with her father supposedly being the man who caused the murder of his parents, Harry could not know of her relation to Sirius Black, and nor could the rest of the student population. A story had been fabricated that had to stick to, else she would be sure to be shunned or made fun of. Despite her protests through multiple letters to and from Professor Dumbledore, whoever became her Head of House must know of her parentage. I'm sure they'll love that, the demigod thought bitterly.
Elektra's dad had told her that his years at Hogwarts were the best of his life. He never stopped raving about the pranks and the teachers and the quidditch, but he always tried to avoid the name 'Peter Pettigrew', only uttering it if absolutely necessary and with enough venom to poison the rat ten times over. True, Sirius Black was locked up in Azkaban, surrounded by Dementors, but Elektra's mother had managed to create a mental link between the two. However, the goddess (or Titan, if one wanted to be particular) was unable to help Sirius to escape as the Dementors had too much of an effect on her many thousand year old memories. What was particularly worrying Elektra however, was that she had not heard from her dad since the beginning of summer, and while her mother was more active than many of the gods, she would definitely not be in the running for the mother-of-the-year award, and this meant that she had got no information out of Hecate either.
This worry, however, transomed into elation only eight hours later as the girl arrived at the muggle section of Heathrow airport. A familiar face was staring up at her from the newspaper stand along with the headline 'Dangerous Convict Escapes High Security Jail'. Her father's mug shot covered the front page, his thick, black, wavy hair (which his daughter had inherited) hanging limp and knotted from his worn out face. Elektra's heart swelled with pride and excitement and worry and love as she touched her fingers to his black and white inked face, a huge grin spreading across her young features.
'You alright, love?' asked the stand keeper. 'You're looking awfully happy about his escape'
'I get quite excited by criminal cases' the girl smoothly lied. 'A bit of action - it's quite exciting really!' she shrugged before grabbing the handle of her trunk and heading to Exit 7.65 (which had a similar system to Platform 9 3/4, as when one walked straight into the door of an 'off-limits storage cupboard' by the muggle Exit 7, they would enter the part of the airport run by the Department of International Magical Cooperation where there were floo stations, magical taxis, and a Knight Bus stop). Within this hidden section of the airport, the same mugshot of her father plastered the walls on WANTED posters, but these ones moved with an anger - teeth bared, hands shaking the prison cell bars. Elektra tore her eyes away from the aggressive image, hardened her jaw, and strode purposefully towards a floo station that would take her to the infamous Diagon Alley.
It was August 31st when Elektra first arrived in England - the day before the Hogwarts Express left for the beginning of the school year. This meant that few people were left to buy their school books, robes, and potion supplies, so herself and Hagrid, the Hogwarts groundskeeper had very few queues to deal with. Professor Dumbledore had assigned the twelve foot man to help the eleven year old with school shopping, and they set off to complete the task as soon as Elektra had dropped her trunk off in her room at the Leaky Cauldron. Elektra had never understood just how rich the pureblooded Black line was until their trip to Gringotts. The vault was filled to the brim with gold, silver and bronze coins.
'You might wan' 'a close tha' before a toad jumps in' joked Hagrid as Elektra's jaw hit the ground. The man scooped up two handfuls of gold coins, not making a dent in the mountains of cash, and put them into a large leather pouch, then repeated this action, slipping them both into one of the many pockets of his very large coat. 'One fer today and fer school. Don' you worry, I'll be keep'n it safe until ye' have your trunk with ye'' he reassured Elektra, and she knew she could trust him, having heard nothing but great things about the man from her dad. She protested against Hagrid for not allowing her to buy the very expensive diamond cauldron ('But there's surely enough in my vault for it!' 'It says ye need pewt'r!), and catwalked her new school robes across Madam Malkine's shop. She grimaced at some of the ingredients on display in the apothecary ('They seem to forget that some wizards are vegetarian…'), and by the time the pair reached Ollivander's wand shop, Elektra may as well have been transfigured into a rabbit she was bouncing so much with excitement.
The door to the old shop creaked as Elektra pushed it inwards and stepped through the doorframe. A little bell tinkled and the door slammed, causing a small eruption of dust.
'a-CHOO!'. The force of Hagrid's sneeze sent a few wand boxes flying off the wall. In the same instant, a ladder slid speedily into view, and Ollivander himself was looking down at Elektra from the top of his ladder (Hagrid was so tall that his face was in fact level with the shopkeeper's).
'Ah,' sighed the old man. 'Elektra Black. I knew there was one new student I was yet to serve'.
'How do you know my name?' demanded the girl, perhaps slightly too aggressively, but she had quickly learnt from CHB that if someone you had never met knew your name, you were in deep trouble. It was often the first clue of a monster in disguise.
'Don' ye worry, now,' reassured Hagrid. 'Mr Ollivander knows of jus' abou' everybody'.
'My memory is one of particular excellence' the old man agreed, 'and it's not difficult to match a name to a face. I remember the day your father entered through that very door for his first and only wand-'
'You know who my dad is?'
'Dragon heartstring, oak, twelve inches, brittle, a fine wand that one… The core belonged to a rather temperamental Romanian Longhorn… Particularly good at hexes… It suited Sirius Black very well I believe… A shame it was snapped by the ministry, but precautions must be made'
'Yeah,' swallowed Elektra, 'precautions… So, uh, how does this work then? The wand choosing the wizard and all?'
'Aye, that is the most important aspect of wandlore'
'I noticed. It says it on the front of your shop' she pointed out, gesturing towards the latin inscription below the name.
'You know Latin?' the wand maker questioned.
'A little, but I'm better at Greek. It's important to have a vague knowledge of latin to understand how spells work though' Elektra justified before holding her arms out for the tape measure to wrap around.
One by one, the wands were snatched out of her hand, some before she had even managed to wave it. It was taking a lot of will power to contain her godly magic and release only the wizardly side, but she was proud of the progress in this since she had first arrived at CHB where it all mixed together, resulting in some powerful but incredibly draining accidental magic. Ollivander narrowed his eyes and reached for an emerald box on the top shelf.
'Try this one,' he suggested. 'Pear and unicorn hair, eleven and a half inches, springy. Consistent, loyal, a combination that would prove particularly difficult to turn Dark.'
As Elektra wrapped her hand around the fresh wood, a comforting warmth spread throughout her body. Unlike the other wands, it did not feel like a burden, but an extension of her arm and a security blanket. The girl smiled, took a deep breath, and waved the want, releasing a trail of silvery white sparks. She looked over to Ollivander apprehensively. 'It seems that your wand has chosen you, Elektra Black' he smiled. Hagrid was positively beaming as they handed Ollivander seven galleons and left the shop, the emerald box stored safely in a pocket close to Hagrid's heart.
Hagrid thought it necessary to celebrate the find with an ice cream from the celebrated Florence Fortescue's. Elektra was tucking into a Cookies n' Cauldron Cakes flavour ice-cream (she had joked about ordering the Troll Bogies flavour, but after Hagrid confirmed that the texture was just as accurate as the flavour she decided against it).
'We were all quite surprised when we learnt tha' Sirius Black had a littl'n' Hagrid mumbled, clearing his throat.
'My mother took me away to live in America when I was only a month old because of the war,' Elektra explained. 'Dad obliviated everyone who knew about me straight after as protection. No body had any memory of me'. Hagrid took a moment to contemplate the explanation.
'Profess'r Dumbledore said that you should switch you mother and father's positions. Ye dad's a muggle from America and ye mum was a half-blood a' Hogwarts. 'Will prevent the unwanted attention'
'I don't see why I can't just tell people of his innocence'
'Even if he is, Elektra, by put'ng yerself out there like tha' will only mean bad things for everyone. Not to mention the Ministry would be after ye'. Ye have't seen the man since ye' were a littl'n. He tunr'd mad, I'm tellin' ye… no, it's best to follow Dumbledore'. Elektra huffed but reluctantly agreed, if only so they could buy a pet. There was no point trying to defend her dad to anybody. They wouldn't listen and it would only arouse suspicion.
The eleven year old had decided to get a cat as regular letters to America would go through the international floo system, and there was no body else she could send letters to (although if she did need to, she could use the school's owls). Elektra walked slowly through the isle of cages, spotting everything from the typical black cat to magical cross breeds, all fixing their beady eyes on her. Then she spotted a rather large ball of white and grey tabby fur curled up in a cage on the far end of the shop. She sped up, asking the shopkeeper to have a look at the cat in there. The young apprentice in the shop unlocked the cage, and out padded a beautiful grey and white metre long main coon. At first, Elektra mistook its hobbling movements for a kitten's lack of balance and grace, but soon noticed that its front left leg ended at the knee joint, and a chunk had been bitten out of its right ear. The cat circled Elektra, and then started to rub against her legs and Elektra bent down to stroke it. 'We found her in a dumpster in one of the side streets,' explained the woman. 'There was a bad curse making its way up her leg, we suspect it was non-intentional, but after the culprit realised what they had done, decided she was no use to them any more and there her out. Unfortunately the only way to save her was to amputate. It seems she was a part of a cat fight as well. We managed to heal the cuts but she managed to lose a chunk from her ear anyway. She's very loyal to those she likes, and she seems to have taken a liking to you' she noted, nodding in the direction of the cat who had her eyes closed, purring in pleasure as Elektra scratched her behind the ears.
'I'll take her,' Elektra decided, signalling to Hagrid for the pouch of money. 'What's her name?'
'A familiar's name is for the witch to decide' the woman smiled, accepting the money. 'She's all yours'.
Wheyyyy managed to get the next chapter up a week later :') #proud... Hope you enjoy and please remember to review!
