How to Live Life
Chapter 12
I ADDED A PROLOGUE TO THIS STORY, PLEASE READ IT IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY!
A/N: Hello readers of this story, thanks for returning! I'm so, so, sorry this chapter is late, but I really didn't have time to write at all this past two weeks. That is because of snow days, having to catch up on a lot of work because of the snow days, and having the quarter ending on the 8th, then National History Day projects were due on the 10th, so yeah it's been a busy two weeks. BUT IT WAS A BIT OVER TWO WEEKS AND THATS JUST REALLY UNACCEPTABLE, I'M REALLY DISAPPOINTED IN MYSELF AND I REALLY WANT TO APOLOGIZE ANOUT THE WAIT, I FEEL REALLY BAD. I really should've wrote this two Sunday's ago, but instead I edited previous chapters and added a prologue. I don't regret doing so, because a lot of my chapters had some errors I overlooked because I rushed to get chapters in, but I do wish I spent some time on this chapter two weekends ago. But oh well, I didn't, and here's chapter 12 anyway, and I'll try not to make you guys wait two weeks for a chapter again!
VLASTA'S MOTHER CONTEST: Okay everyone, I see that everyone is voting Bellatrix, which doesn't really surprise me at all. I really did expect that multiple people would vote for her, I mean, really, she is the most obvious choice. I will say this though, this is your choice, I don't have a say in who her mother is, it's all up to you, as long as it fits my guidelines (see A/N at the end of last chapter for guidelines.) Also, I had this contest to see if anyone had any ideas for a plot twist, you know? Like for her mom to be someone you'd never suspect causing for some action and change of events. But like I already said THIS IS COMPLETELY UP TO YOU, so if you don't want a plot twist and to stick with Bellatrix, that's completely alright, like I said multiple times now, the choice it up to you. So if you want to be heard, please, either write your vote in a review, or you can just PM if you'd rather do that, whatever you want. Right now we have three votes for Bellatrix, and none for anyone else, the contest is not over yet though, it may go on for another week or two, so stay tuned!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, zero, squat, nothing...
Now for the story...
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Ella gulped, this is a topic she never wanted to discuss again in her life. She believed for her to be dead, so before she found the box, any discussion of Celeste was very hard for Ella to discuss. Now though, now it made her angry, because it turns out that Celeste is a traitor.
Chloe could see her sister trying to get up the courage to discuss Celeste, but she could also see it was still hard for her, if not harder. She was about to tell everyone herself until she heard Ella say, "Celeste was my former best friend, who was supposed to be dead."
This caused for a long silence amongst the Potter-Weasley clan and friends. I mean, how could you respond to something like that? No one had personal experience to something like this before. The only people who did were dead, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Remus Lupin. Yes, they heard Sirius and Remus discuss it, but they didn't really know how to connect seeing they haven't been through it themselves.
That's when Harry spoke up, "I know this seems to be a touchy subject for you, but could you please explain it further?"
Ella looked like she could cry, she shook her head in disagreement then gestured for Chloe to continue for her, "Well, Celeste and Ella were very good friends, they did everything together. Our families have always been close, the Smith's and Morgart's, and since Ella and Celeste were around the same age, they immediately became best friends. They were best friends up until her supposed death, which happened the summer before they started magical school."
Everyone nodded their heads as they comprehended what Chloe told them, she then continued, "That's really all there is. They were inseparable best friends until her death. We thought she was dead, but it looks like it was a faked death, and it looks like it was all so she could go and work for Vlasta."
Chloe then hugged her sister, she knew her sister really needed it, poor Ella was just full of water works today. Then James asked, "How could she fake her death, are you sure she is still alive?"
Ella finally said something when asked this, "Yeah, these things were put in her grave."
"Couldn't someone just take them out, so they could trick you?" Hermione asked her, thinking how Voldemort got ahold of the Elder Wand by taking it out of Dumbledore's grave.
Ella sighed and said, "As much as I wish that was the case, there's no way that could be true. Only Celeste knew the true meanings and importance of these items, not even Chloe knows. The picture, is a drawing I made for her on our first day of muggle school. The invisible ink and light? Our secret way to pass notes in muggle school and not get caught. Then the friendship bracelet, the one that was on her arm when buried, put on with a charm only she or myself could take off," Ella said, as she took a matching bracket off her wrist, then squeezed tightly in her hands.
"Are you sure that's her bracelet?" Ron asked her, just for clarification.
Ella nodded, while she grabbed both bracelets and brought them together. When she did so they glowed, then she told everyone, "they're charmed to glow when together, like I said, she's alive. Alive and probably one of Vlasta's favorite followers."
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"If it isn't my favorite follower!" Vlasta exclaimed as Celeste entered her office, head down.
Celeste didn't respond, she couldn't, not after what just happened. This came to Vlasta's attention and she questioned her, "What? Did you not catch them?"
Celeste shook her head then said, "No, I did."
"Then what the hell is wrong with you? Shouldn't you be happy, because I know I'm happy. I mean my least favorite little rebels finally got captured, what's there not to be happy about?" Vlasta asked the young witch.
"I feel horrible, you know my past Big V!" Celeste told her as she collapsed in her rolling chair.
"Don't call me Big V!" Vlasta yelled at her, all Celeste did was glare, she obviously didn't care, she probably couldn't care less.
"Whatever, I'll let it slide this one time because of what you did for me, don't expect me to do it again. Now Celeste, don't show weakness, don't feel bad, stay strong," Vlasta exclaimed.
Celeste just shook her head and then said, "I don't know how you expect me to do this to Chloe and Ella. If it was hard to capture Jack and Rachel, how on earth will I be able to do it to my best friend."
"Former best friend," Vlasta hissed to her.
"Yeah, whatever," Celeste said as she started, to once again, roll out of the room.
"Don't tell me you still want to be her friend," Vlasta yelled back at her.
But Celeste didn't respond, she continued to exit from the room, feeling incredibly guilty. And that wouldn't change, no matter what Vlasta or anybody told her. No matter what, she would feel like a traitor, because she was one.
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"Any ideas what the cause of the fire was?" Kingsley Shacklebot, the Minister of Magic, asked Harry.
Harry hated that he had to lie, especially to the Minister, his boss, but most importantly his friend of many years, "No, I have no idea."
Kingsley was pacing around the room now, "It was obviously fiendfyre, that was no muggle fire, if it was, it wouldn't have happened so quickly, and don't forget that loud boom at the end."
Harry hated going to work nowadays, because he was always lying because he was a man of his word, and he wouldn't brake his promise to the Smith's. He also hated going to work because he was recently told that Vlasta's new headquarters are in London, she could attack his family any minute, "Well Minister, there's really nothing we can do."
Kingsley sighed and said, "I know, Harry, but I feel this is the start of something bigger. Could you and your aurors please investigate it?"
Harry closed his eyes and said, "Yes, Sir."
Kingsley gave Harry a raised eyebrow then asked, "Is there something you're not telling me, Harry?"
Harry said rather too soon, "No, no, nothing."
This just increased Kingsley's suspicions, but he motioned for Harry to leave and get back to his aurors.
As Harry walked back he felt like shit. Hiding information again, war again, when could his life be peaceful? Then when he was only half way back to his office in the Auror department, he heard a large crash. Then the sound of people screaming. Oh shit, it's happening, Harry thought to himself, as he started to run back to Kingsley's office.
He ran as fast as his legs could take him, he probably hadn't ran this fast since the days when he was running from Voldemort. He then stumbled upon a dazed Kingsley before he reached Kingsley's office.
"Potter! You bloody well know we're under attack, why aren't you with your aurors?" Kingsley asked Harry.
Harry then sent a patronus before dragging Kingsley to an empty corner.
Harry remembered what Rachel told him and he knew it was time to do whatever the hell he wanted, because she was attacking them now, it was his business now.
Harry looked Kingsley in the eyes seriously, then said, "I have to tell you something, it can't wait."
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"CELESTE! DON'T JUST STAND THERE! FIGHT," Vlasta screamed while she dueled a Ministry official.
"Okay, I'll be over on the other side, it seems everyone's over here," Celeste said as she ran off.
She wasn't going to the other side of the large room to fight though, she was getting as far away as she could as possible. Truth is, Celeste didn't want to fight. Especially not now, she had enough devastating events today.
She ran as fast as her legs could take her, eventually getting on an elevator, not noticing there was someone else already on it.
This person was Harry Potter. Celeste'e heart stopped, this wasn't going to be good.
Harry didn't recognize the young girl who just ran into the lift looking frazzled. He did note that she was about the same age as James, but what he couldn't comprehend was why a girl this age was at the Ministry?
"Are you okay?" he asked her.
Celeste looked around nervously then said, "Yeah."
"You should get out of here, there's a bad fight going on out there," Harry told the girl sternly.
"Oh, I know," Celeste said with an evil grin.
"Then why are you taking the lift! You should be on your way out," Harry asked, currently confused.
"No, I need to stay, otherwise I'm dead. Just taking a breather before heading back," Celeste partially lied.
"Why would you be dead?" Harry asked.
"The real question is, why is Mr. Head Auror not on his way to the fight?" Celeste asked cheekily.
"I don't have to answer to you," Harry spit out.
"What? Do you think me, a thirteen year old witch, is fighting with Vlasta," Celeste laughed.
Then everything started to make sense to Harry. She knew who Vlasta was! Only purebloods outside of England knew about her. She was obviously American too, she had the accent. Then it hit him completely. This is Celeste, "Celeste?"
Celeste eyes widened in shock, what did she say? How'd he know about her, surely Ella wouldn't tell him, right? Who was she kidding she knew she did, problem was, what to do now?
"I know your you're a little traitor, Celeste," Harty spit out, looking her in the eyes.
"Okay, okay, I am, what do you know?" Celeste asked him worryingly.
"That's see? That you're Miss Ella Smith's former best friend, who faked her death to join Vlasta," Harry told her.
"I didn't meaningly fake my death!" Celeste almost screamed, she just had to tell someone her burning secret.
"What do you mean? You either fake your death by not coming open about being alive, or you literally die," Harry told the young girl.
Celeste looked at the floor sheepishly then said, "It's more complicated than that, please let me explain."
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"Check mate," James exclaimed happily.
"No fair, I demand a rematch!" Fred exclaimed.
"He always beats you Freddie, why waste your time?" Louis told his friend.
"Well it's not like we have anything else better to do, we're stuck in this bloody old house where there's nothing to do," Freddie whined.
"I could entertain you with my singing," Ella chirped in.
"NOOOO! No, no, no," Louis yelled.
"What's wrong with Ella singing?" James asked as he laughed.
"She sang sometimes back at my house, and it was bloody awful," Louis complained.
Ella rolled her eyes then said, "Are you really that thick? I was purposely singing bad just to annoy you."
"Why would you do that?" Louis asked in mock hurt, James and Freddie laughed at this, Louis really was thick.
Ella too laughed then said, "You just proved my point, you are thick. Anywho, I was trying to annoy you because you and your fellow golden marauders always annoy me."
Louis's mouth formed into an o, realizing how obvious it really was. Just causing James, Fred, and Ella to laugh more.
Then to cut the mood they heard a pop go off in the kitchen. On instinct, they ran in there to see what the hell was happening. Finding a beat up Harry.
"Dad!" James yelled in surprise at the state of his fathers well being, he then rushed over to make sure he was alright.
"James, get your mother," Harry managed to say before passing out on the floor.
"MOM! GET IN HERE, NOW! ITS AN EMERGENCY," James yelled, not tearing his eyes away from his unconscious father.
"James, running out of donuts is not an emergen-, WHAT THE BLOODY HELL HAPPENED," Ginny said. Starting out calm but becoming worried by the end.
"I don't know! He apparated in here like this then told me to call for you before passing out," James said tearfully.
"It's okay James, he'll be okay, calm down," Ginny said while stroking his head.
Meanwhile Ella, Fred, and Louis were staring at the scene before them with wide eyes, feeling like awkward third wheels, so that just exited the room.
"Mummy, what's with Daddy? Is he d-dead?" Lily said while entering the room in tears.
"No! No, sweetie he's not, he'll be okay," Ginny told her only daughter, now stroking his hair.
"Then why won't he get up! DADDY!" Lily sobbed.
"Lils, he just fainted, it looks like he lost a lot of blood, don't worry though, I found a pulse, he's most definitely not dead," Ginny told her daughter.
"Speaking of the fact Dad had lost a lot of blood, shouldn't we be preventing him from losing more, or he will die," James told his mother urgently.
"Mommy fix him, he can't die," Lily sobbed after hearing James statement, she was a Daddy's girl after all.
"I'm not good at healing spells! Where's Grandma?" Ginny asked, becoming more worried by the second.
"She's talking to Al, let me get her, do you want me to get him too?" Lily asked her mother, fighting back the urge to cry her little heart out.
"Yes Lils, that'll be great," Ginny told her, putting her attention back on her bleeding husband.
"Mom, he's losing a lot of blood, we should just take him to St. Mongo," James told his mother as he looked at all the blood surrounding his father.
Ginny too observed it, then nodded at her son.
"What's wrong? Oh dear! What happened to Harry?" Molly screamed as she rushed over to Harry.
"Don't know, but can you fix him, please fix him mom," Ginny said, by the end falling apart.
James wrapped his arms around his sobbing mother, she needed someone right now.
"I'm sorry dear, it's too bad, we have to take him to St. Mongo's," Molly told her as she levitated him up so they could get him go St. Mongo's.
"Lily, Albus, James, take my hands," Ginny told them while she took their hands and apparated after Molly to St. Mongo's
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"No need to worry, he'll be fine, he just needs to stay here for a couple days," Healer Cessna told the Potter's.
Ginny let go of a breath she didn't realize she was holding as the Healer told her this.
"So Daddy's not dead?" Lily as for conformation.
"Yes, he's going to be good as new in a couple days," Healer Cessna told Lily as she patted Lily's head.
Lily nodded as she clutched both her brothers hands.
"Mrs. Potter, Kingsley Shacklebot is here, he wants to talk to you," A passing Healer told her.
"Kids, go find grandma," Ginny told her kids as she followed the healer to Kingsley.
"Aw, Ginny, it's been too long," Kingsley said as he got up to hug her.
"Hey Kingsley, it has indeed been too long," Ginny said as she too, Hugged him.
"So I've called you here to tell you what's happened to your husband," Kingsley told her.
"What happened," Ginny asked.
"Okay, so there was an attack on the Ministry today, and from what Harry's told me about who's in charge, you too know about Vlasta," Kingsley told her.
"Yeah I do, but Harry wasn't supposed to tell you," Ginny told him.
"Mrs. Potter. Harry only told me when the attack started. He said something along the lines of this being his business now," Kingsley told her.
Ginny nodded, Kingsley then continued, "Harry gave me some of his memories on the attack before rushing home, and I thought it would be best if we saw them together."
"That's nice of you Kingsley, thank you," Ginny told him gratefully.
"Let's go to my office, there is a pensive in there we can use," Kingsley told him while she took his hand and landed in his office.
They then entered the pensive.
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In the pensive...
Celeste looked at the floor sheepishly then said, "It's more complicated than that, please let me explain."
Harry gave her a stern glare and said, "You can try to explain, but there's no excuse for being a traitor."
"I know there's not, I just want to explain why I did it," Celeste said.
"Okay then, continue," Harry told her as the elevator stopped.
"Wait, let's go over here," Harry said while he grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the elevator and to an empty corner, "Now explain."
"Okay, so this happened the summer before Ella and I were going to start wizarding school. We were both very sad because I was staying in America, while she went to join her sister at Hogwarts. We were inseparable, this was going to be very hard for us," Celeste said, eyes never leaving the floor.
"Continue," Harry told her, understanding her feelings of having to leave someone you care about.
"We just got back from our annual vacation to Hawaii, where I joined the Smith's at their beach house. When we arrived back, we arrived in MACUSA, so Ella's parents could get the work they missed. What we found broke me though," Celeste said as she struggled to continue.
Harry looked at her sympathetically, even though she followed Vlasta, he couldn't help but to feel for her, he could tell this was hard for her, she then continued, "Everyone was running around crazily, disturbed by what we soon found to be was the front page of our newspaper. Title was, 'John and Elizabeth Morgart dead.'"
"Who were John and Elizabeth Morgart?" Harry asked her carefully.
Celeste finally looked up and stared into his emerald green eyes and said, "Nice to meet you Harry Potter, my name is Celeste Morgart."
Harry didn't expect this though, "Your parents?"
Celeste gave him a cheeky grin and said, "My my, for the wizard who defeated Voldemort at only 17, you're pretty slow."
Harry just rolled his eyes, "What I don't understand though is why you joined Vlasta? Didn't she kill them?" He asked her.
Celeste'e grin turned into a frown while she said, "No, it was someone who was fighting Vlasta's cause, apparently they thought my parents supported her."
Harry now understood. She was upset about leaving her best friend and mad about someone against Vlasta killed her parents, but her parents were also against Vlasta.
"So you see it was a thing of the moment. I was about to lose my best friend, by parents were murdered for being wrongly accused. I was alone, I felt betrayed, I no longer wanted to fight on the side of the war that killed my parents, so I joined the other side, I joined Vlasta," Celeste told him.
"Why did you fake your death though?" Harry asked.
"I stilled cared about the Smith's, I knew they didn't suspect my family, and we were all away on vacation, so there was no way they could've prevented their death. I didn't want them to think of me as a traitor, rather think of me as a good person who had an early death. I really didn't want to disappoint them, so I got Vlasta to fake kill me and create me a fake dead body. She did it for me because I was, and still am, important to her. I have all kinds of information that she needed and still needs, and she said something else, like I was special or something, don't know what that means," she told Harry.
"Is that it?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, please tell Ella, I don't have the heart to face her," Celeste told Harry.
"I will, but I doubt this will clear anything up, I must be going now though," Harry said while he walked off.
"Sorry, you can't do that," Celeste said evilly.
"What do you umph-" Harry started to say until she threw a nasty curse at him and stabbed him in the arm with a knife.
Harry luckily got away in time to live and he ran away as fast as he could in pain, muttering, "Damn, she's bipolar," and eventually arriving upon a concerned Kingsley.
Harry said, "Take the memory," before apparating away, while the memory finished.
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"Shit," Ginny muttered to herself.
"So who exactly is that girl?" Kingsley asked, not having the background knowledge that Ella gave.
"Well, there's this girl named Ella, she's James crush, and Victoire's best friends sister. Apparently she had this friend, Celeste, who faked her death, as you heard. She's also Vlasta's favorite follower, we just recently found out the truth about her when she captured Ella's parents. You know Rachel and Jack Smith, the very successful aurors from America," Ginny told him.
"Well, thanks for your time Ginny, you should probably be getting back to Harry and your kids," Kingsley told her.
Ginny exited the room saying, "Thanks again Kingsley!"
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"Ella, stop pacing," Chloe told her sister.
Yet Ella kept pacing, she couldn't help it, she was too nervous. She needed to know more about what happened at the Ministry, but she had to wait until the Potter's got back. They've been gone for about three hours now.
"Ella, please? You're just making us more nervous," Victoire told her.
Ella finally sat down, now feeling guilty about pacing, just as they saw the Potter's arrive in the fire place.
"How's Harry?" Hermione and Ron asked them, very worried about their brother-in-law, but more importantly, their best friend.
"He's going to be okay, he'll just be in their for about five days to a week. He is pretty beat up after all," Ginny told them, as she brushed the fireplace soot off of her robes.
Everyone let go of a breath they didn't realize they were holding after Ginny said that. He was pretty beat up when they saw him in here.
Their still was a burning question on everyone's tongue though, no one knew quite how to ask and if it was a good time to say it, but Ron asked anyway, "What the bloody hell happened to Harry though? Was it an attack?"
Ginny looked at the floor, but then straight in Chloe, then Ella's eyes, before she said, "Apparently Vlasta, and whatever she calls her followers, but it doesn't matter, her and her followers attacked the Ministry, Harry just happened to get on a girls bad side."
Ella stared at Ginny, Ella knew she knew who attacked him, "I know you know who attacked him, who?"
Ginny's eyes widened, she really didn't want to be the one to tell her about Celeste and the things she did, so she lied, "Harry wants to tell you tomorrow, come with us when we go to check on him."
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A/N: So did you guys like this chapter? I'm sorry it's not the usual 7000 words but I really wanted to get a chapter in soon, it's still 4000-5000 words though, pretty decent size, longer than most people's fanfic chapters. Tell me what you thought in your reviews, I really want to know what y'all think of Celeste, I haven't gotten any feedback on her, but I really want your overall view of this chapter. Again if you haven't read the Prologue I added, please read it, and if you haven't voted for who Vlasta's mother is, please do so, you vote can make a difference!
I'll try not to have you guys wait two weeks again, but it may be that way, but hopefully it won't.
Thank you to my reviewers ChristiangirlKCU, Skoliver4Ever, and Kayla DeLana.
ChristiangirlKCU: Thank you for reviewing and I'm glad you liked the chapter! I see that you voted Bellatrix, like everyone else. I see you said you like plot twists so if you want Vlasta's mother to cause one you can change your answer at any time. But hey, Bellatrix is a pretty good choice, I'm happy either way :) hope you enjoyed this chapter as well?
Skoliver4Ever/Harper/Snuffles: It's okay that you don't review much, just knowing that you're reading the story makes me happy, and reviewing isn't for everyone! Thank you for voting too, Bellatrix is a good choice :) I'm glad you also like Ella and James, and I will take your suggestion into account when getting to more of Ella mourning over her parents. Thank you for reviewing, and thanks for the suggestion. Hope this chapter didn't disappoint!
Kayla DeLana: Thanks for reviewing! I see you too, like everyone else, voted for Bellatrix, good choice :) I as well will take your suggestion into account, it's a good idea, and I will always take my readers opinion into account. I'm glad you enjoyed James and Ella as well! I hope this chapter didn't disappoint!
Till next time ;)
~~~SoccerDiva (aka Lanie)~~~