Home
Boarding the Hogwarts Express, Elles couldn't help but sigh. Her first year had gone so quickly it was hard to believe it was really over. Even harder to believe was that she wouldn't see her friends for three whole months. Elles followed Rose and Sebastian into an empty compartment and stared forlornly at the castle that now held her entire life; she smiled wryly at the thought that such a statement no longer meant Sev alone. After Christmas Break, everyone had been busier. Lily was being invited to more of Slughorn's gatherings; Sev, Elles and Sebastian, and Rose by extension, were studying ever harder for their end of year exams; and Sirius, Remus, Peter and Potter seemed much more exhausted lately. Elles smiled at the memory of Madame Pince's shocked expression when Sirius Black checked out a Transfiguration book for extra reading. The year was over now, though, and Elles and Sev were returning to Spinner's End. Taking a deep breath to steel herself, Elles turned back to her two best friends.
"Mum says you can both come over for as long as you want!" Rose announced excitedly. "I just got the owl this morning. You'll come for a while, right?"
"Of course!" Sebastian immediately enthused. "My brother promised my old friends I'd see them all first week back, but after that I'll come for as long as my parents let me."
"Er, well, I was sort of planning on spending most of the summer with Sev, but I can come for a little while," Elles muttered, blushing. Truthfully, she didn't want to leave Sev alone at Spinner's End; with his pride, she didn't think would he would be comfortable escaping alone to the Evanses as regularly as he was when he had Elles as an excuse.
"Well, you'd better find some time to come visit us or I'll have to have a talk with that brother of yours. And you know me, my fists do my best talking," Rose declared with a smirk.
"I'll make it over, I promise," Elles laughed.
"You better," Sebastian agreed.
"Elles!" Sirius jerked the door open with a clang and leapt into their compartment. Rose groaned good-naturedly and Sebastian grimaced.
"Hi Sirius," Elles said, trying hard not to giggle. "How are you this morning?"
"I'm awful, Elles," he replied despondently. "I'm not gonna see my favorite first year for months! I don't how I'll survive."
"Actually, you're never gonna see your favorite first year again," Sebastian corrected brightly.
Sirius blanched. "Elles, what's he talking about?" Elles, who understood exactly what her friend was doing, put on her best consoling face and shook her head slowly.
"You're not." She broke the act then to grin triumphantly at his dismay. "I'll be a second year next year, so I won't be your favorite first year ever again."
"You – you're – you are both—" Sirius spluttered, then, thinking it through, beamed. "geniuses. You are both geniuses."
"C'mon, Sirius, let's stop bothering the ickle firsties and find our own compartment," Potter drawled from the compartment entrance behind Sirius, rolling his eyes and grabbing his friend's collar to drag him out.
"Nah," Sirius replied, twisting out of Potter's grip. "I'll catch up. I'm gonna stay and get to know my future favorite second year."
Elles beamed at him. Rose and Sebastian grinned and turned to continue talk of summer plans.
"So," Sirius said to Elles, quietly enough not to bother the chatting pair on the opposite bench. "You'll write to me, right?"
"Of course," Elles said, pleasantly surprised at his request. Sirius nodded. "Are – are you going home this summer?"
"Yeah," he said, giving her a sharp look. "Why do you make it sound like a bad thing?"
Elles was surprised. He'd shown her one of his scars all those months ago, and as she'd spent time with him, she had noticed more silvery lines threading across his skin.
"Because it is," she answered in a soft whisper. "Your scars say so. And I met Regulus, you know, on the boat before my sorting. He was really scared of your family. So that says so too. And, well, the way you never talk about it. That's what really proves it."
"You never talk about home, either." Those clever grey eyes were trained on her so intently that she had to look away, blushing.
"No, I don't." She forced herself to return his gaze. Even more softly, she continued. "Like I said, that's what proves it."
A/N Hi all, I know it's short, but it needs to be done. Time's gonna start moving faster for a bit coming up (technically starting with this chapter, I guess.)
I'm sending in my computer tomorrow morning, so I don't know when I'll be able to post next. I'll try to live at the library as much as possible, but, sadly, I can make no promises :( It's supposedly only going to be gone for a week, so hopefully the weekend after this one I'll have an update, but I don't really trust corporate time estimates. I'm super psyched to see that people are reading and following and favoriting and reviewing this (ahhh!) so I'll do my best!