Dear Elodie,
I was sorry to hear about your splinching injury. Remus told me you are healing well and I wanted you to know if you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask, either with your own letter or via Remus. Splinching is something that we all have in the back of our minds, but it's only when someone we know is afflicted that we remember the cost of our easy transportation! I know you had overcome your fear of it admirably, when you first moved in, so I hope this hasn't dampened your faith in yourself.
This is usually the place where I would say, 'Remind me sometime to tell you of the time I splinched myself,' but I will be truthful with you, Elodie: I do not wish to remember it to tell you. That memory is resting safely in a vial somewhere, and I doubt I'll ever revisit it.
I had another reason for sending you this Owl, though. Remus told me about the encounter you had with Igor Karkaroff in Diagon Alley, and later in Knockturn. I knew that he had been an informant, and also that he'd been appointed the Headmaster of Durmstrang. I had hoped that this was an indication of his country's faith in his rehabilitation, but now, with your revelations, I have a mixed mind about it.
On the one hand, anyone uttering the phrase 'Dark Lord' unironically is a concern. On the other hand, his fear might be something we should look to as an encouragement. I won't be able to say either way until I get a chance to interact with him and Madame Maxime from Beauxbatons, which will happen at the end of this month. I will ask Remus in my next Owl, but I wanted to ask you and Sirius as well if you agree we should schedule an Order meeting to discuss these developments? I would set it up for later in November or early December, which hopefully will give me a chance to speak to him about various things to feel out his motives.
I will look for a reply from you soon,
Albus
Elodie put down the scroll and looked over at Remus, who was sitting on his chair.
"Remus?"
"Hmm?" he said, lifting his head as if to look at her without moving his eyes from the page he was reading.
"Got a message from Albus," she said. Then, hoping to catch him off guard, she added, "Can I head downstairs tonight? It's only one night early, and I got this shirt on without much pain at all, I think I'm ready."
Now, he looked up at her. "I'm not your jailer," he said mildly. "Do you want me to go down and cast a warming charm first?"
"Easy as that?" Elodie said, not sure whether to feel relieved or frustrated with him. Just the night before he'd acted very disappointed that she'd feel like she could risk her recovery by not listening to the mediwitch's advice.
"I hate to disappoint you," Remus said-and Elodie wondered for a scared second if she'd spoken her last thoughts out loud. "-but that was also part of the medical advice. 'Don't give in on the first day that seems reasonable,'" he quoted. Remus placed a bookmark in to hold his place, set the book down, and started for the basement stairs. "I'm glad you're feeling so much better," he said, right before he headed down.
She ended up conjuring a basket to levitate her book, blanket, and pillow in, among other small things she'd collected over the six days. She didn't dare take his bathrobe with her, though she did fold it up as small as she could make it initially, thinking she'd tuck it under her blanket. However, thinking of how she would possibly explain why it was missing to Remus led her to remove it again. After he'd shot her down a few days ago, there was no way she was going to offer him free ammunition that proved she was acting naive or childish about having feelings for him.
As she'd learned from the infrequent bathroom trips she'd made to and from her couch, the only thing that hurt badly was standing. As she slowly stood up, her basket hovering beside her, she thought about how best to tackle the stairs, and decided she would walk down them facing backwards. When she reached the last step and felt around with her foot for the solid basement floor, she heard Remus and turned to see a look of horror on his face.
"All I saw when I opened the door was you facing backwards, and your foot reaching down, and I thought I'd missed hearing you fall," he said in explanation.
"Ah," she said, pulling her wand back out and walking over to him. "Safer backwards, I thought."
"You should probably have waited for me."
"You're not my jailer, and you're definitely not my dad," she said, grinning up at him. He was still standing in her doorway, and she was in some ways glad that he was wearing his most Remus-y outfit, a button-down shirt with one of his adorably old man knitted vests. It was summer, but no, Remus was still Remus, no matter the weather. He didn't look at all like Moony.
That's what she was telling herself.
"Caretaking for someone who's been injured is hardly just our parents' job," he said, finally scooting out of her way. She didn't let her basket hit him in the chest, even though she thought he could use a little knocking down off of his high horse. She used words, instead.
"I seem to recall making a similar comment how I'm not trying to be your mother, but maybe that was another Elodie Merriman," she said, wishing she could cross her arms in front of her chest, but knowing it would hurt like a bitch if she did. Before she could change her mind, she added, "Not to mention, a mother figure wouldn't have asked you out!"
"Not this again," he muttered.
"You are the one who sanctimoniously pointed out how taking care of someone is not something just our own parents do!" she said, her voice full of scorn. "God forbid I prove to you I'm paying attention to the times you might need something!"
"I do not need you to insert yourself into things I've taken care of my entire adult life," he snapped. "I know when I'm going to need help, and it's not the week before my transformation, when you went nosing over to Hollyfield to find out-"
"Nosing." Elodie crossed her arms in front of her chest anyway. "Nosing. As if it's none of my business how my friend is faring in my own house, during a predictable event I can prepare for. Nosing."
The word had lost all meaning for her, now that she'd used it so many times, but that was fine, because it meant that neither of them had any idea what the word meant, at that point.
"If I'd have wanted your help, I would have asked for it," Remus said, sounding less angry than weary. For some reason, that made her even more angry, as though he were wearing the actual mantle of an angry father who was finally just tired of making the same argument over and over to a child who didn't get it.
"Really? You're so sure about that? Because I'm pretty sure you'd rather die a noble death, secure in the knowledge that you haven't committed a possible impropriety than to ever be caught asking for help."
Remus pulled himself up to a full stand, something he hardly ever did, as he always seemed to hold his body as if he were ashamed of how much space he took up in a room. "Just because I never asked doesn't mean I wouldn't, Elodie. I'm sorry it's so difficult to tell the difference." He'd maintained the quiet tone, and she was almost convinced by his demeanor. Almost, but not quite, because you can't tell the difference between two things that have never happened.
He turned to leave, then, as though he'd won something, and she felt an irrational urge to hurt him as much as her heart hurt when they fought. Couldn't he see she loved him? How much more obvious did she need to be?
"I was thinking about our fight, when I Apparated," she said, feeling as if the words sliced through her lips and tongue as she said them, as harsh and biting as anything she'd ever said to anyone. "I should have known better than to try. I was so upset," she said, forcing out a bitter laugh that tasted like ashes in her mouth. "I should have known better."
As she repeated her last statement, she turned away from him, so secure in her knowledge that she'd hurt him that she didn't want to see, didn't want to care about how much. She only turned around when she heard his footsteps on the stairs, and it was only then that she registered just how tightly she'd crossed her arms in front of her injured chest.
Elodie just barely had time to cast a silencing charm on herself before she let out a soundless, agonized scream. The pain in her chest was awful, and she didn't know which was worse, the pain in her heart or that of the healing wounds on her skin.
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Elodie had nightmares for days, after that. The atmosphere at the house was decidedly frosty, as Elodie mostly kept to the couch or her room and simply read, Remus kept to his room and likely did the same, and Sirius was outside with Buckbeak and his motorcycle almost all the time. She knew she'd hurt Remus's feelings, but she had no idea how to ask his forgiveness, and the more she tried to come up with scenarios where she said she was sorry, the more those scenarios ended up as screaming matches. It got to the point where Elodie had built up a Remus in her head that definitely never existed, one that was haughty and cutting and unbothered by their current lack of a relationship.
What finally broke the dam was a day of important Wolfsbane activities, and the fact that Elodie was planning to do them by herself, for once. She had added the Aconite last time, but she'd been supervised. After watching and participating so much in tandem with Horace, she felt ready, but at the same time, she didn't feel like she could responsibly take such a big step when she was in so much unspoken conflict with the potion's intended recipient.
So, on the seventeenth of October, with her heart in her throat, Elodie went to knock on Remus Lupin's bedroom door.
When he opened it, she stood in front of him and prepared herself to tell him how sorry she was, how awful she felt, how much of a complete asshole she had been. In her hand she had the book about Mandela he'd given her. Instead of saying anything, though, Elodie found herself just staring at him, taking in the tiredness in his features that she usually didn't see unless it was the week after the full moon. She saw ink on the fingers of his right hand, and looking past him, saw that he'd transfigured one of his chairs into a desk, and the other into a desk chair. There were papers strewn everywhere, and a few books lay open on his bed. All that was missing was a garbage can with a collection of perfectly crumpled pieces of parchment in it, or maybe an upended inkwell. Elodie was fascinated, but she'd come there to do a job, so she did an Elodie job at fulfilling it.
"I came here to tell you I'm a complete asshole, and I promise I'm not saying that just to get you to tell me what you've been doing in here for the last few days," she said, looking from his ink stained fingers to his shaggy hair. "Also, you are in serious need of a haircut. I'm really sorry."
Remus coughed, and it sounded suspiciously like he was trying to hide laughter. "Your sympathy about the state of my hair is duly noted," he said. "Would you like to come in? You can't sit anywhere, but you can lean against the wall. I have it on good authority it's decently comfortable."
Instead of moving to the side, though, Remus searched her face for a minute as if looking for further questions or accusations. When she just looked at him, bemused at his strange mood, he then looked her up and down, probably noting her high-necked shirt, definitely seeing the book in her hand.
"Thanks for this, I loved it," she said, handing the book to him. "I'd ask for another, but I don't know if that would read as too fatherly a role, book recommending. I don't want to foster that kind of a dynamic with you."
She hadn't really meant it as a snide comment on him rejecting her, but he clearly took it so.
"Not at all, if you can stand to be in this messy a room without needing to tidy it like a mum," he shot back. "Unless you wanted to ask me out so you could teach me how to properly take care of myself?"
"Wait," Elodie said. She held her hand out for the book she'd given Remus, and said, with as much dignity as she could muster, "Can I start over?"
The call back to their first meeting gave her goosebumps, and she could tell by his expression that he was remembering it, too. He nodded and handed her the book. She walked over to the door and closed it behind her, waiting a few seconds before she knocked.
When Remus opened the door, she took a little breath to steady her nerves, and said, "Hi. I'm here to tell you I'm really sorry for being a jerk. I'm working on it, but I'll probably screw up again?"
Remus leaned against the doorframe with one lifted arm. "Well, in that case, I'll have to forgive you again."
Elodie shut her eyes in relief for a second.
"Do you want to come in? I have some news," he said, moving away from the door. She walked past him into the room, and he said, "Sorry there's nowhere to sit, but I have it on good authority that the wall is comfortable to lean against."
"I'll give it a go," Elodie said, stepping carefully around the papers on the floor.
"Ah, sorry about those." Remus lifted his wand.
"No, no-this is clearly some chaotic, creative process," she protested, carefully phrasing her comment to sound neutral.
"Kind of you, but no. Well, sort of," Remus said as he used magic to lift each page into a neat pile on the bed. "I got a job. At a newspaper. It's one step above freelance, but it's something."
Elodie was stunned. She realized she looked stunned, and also realized that the longer she stood there looking stunned, the more it would say about her opinion of his new job.
"That's wonderful," she finally said. "I'll be honest, I don't really see you as a reporter type." She hoped this explained her initial silence.
"Neither do I," Remus said. "This is a biweekly column, in Orion's Belt. It's a European-centric publication. I write about the origins of commonly used spells, and then offer a more obscure one that is similar."
Elodie clasped her hands in front of her in delight. "I love that!"
"I've written one, and it's already sent in, and I've actually got two more that are more or less done," Remus said, looking pleased but a bit shy about it. "The other benefit is that I get a chance to submit a longer piece, every other month, for consideration."
"So you've been holed up in here writing your hand sore, then?" she asked, unable to keep the pride from coloring the tone of her voice.
It had taken this long for him to gather up his papers, and he picked up the stack and leafed through them. "Pretty much, yes."
"You weren't avoiding me because I'd hit on you, or because we were fighting," she added, covering her face with one hand in mortification.
"I will say that the majority of my time spent in here was work related," Remus said in his infuriating way of stepping around uncomfortable truths. He'd left her more wiggle room with this one than he usually did, though, and when she moved her hand slightly to the side to peek at him, he did a tiny little shrug, and added. "Almost all."
"I feel an overwhelming urge to hug you," Elodie confessed. "Is that okay? I promise I won't read into anything."
Her heart was beating like crazy; she hadn't actually meant to say it, and no matter what his reaction would be, she was a nervous wreck. This was the question she'd risked going to visit him a half hour before the full moon to avoid, all that time ago, and she'd just come right out with it, standing in his bedroom, no less. Was this progress, or was Elodie just so affected by her feelings that she couldn't keep them inside, anymore?
"I- That's fine," Remus said, looking a bit surprised. "I don't think I'm all that intimidating, am I?" he added, when she came over to throw her arms around him.
"Oh, Remus, you have no idea, sometimes," Elodie said, pouring her pride in his accomplishment into how hard she squeezed. When after a few seconds, his arms came around her in return, she let out the deep breath she'd been holding, and just grinned.
When she moved back and away, Elodie just couldn't resist adding one last comment.
"You do know that Sirius is going to start calling you Lois Lane, right?"
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Elodie's Wolfsbane tasks went perfectly, and so did everything else. It seemed like the news of Remus's job and her botched apology had finally patched up their differences, and so the three of them settled into easy domesticity.
That didn't mean that Sirius didn't give her shit about it, of course. He just waited until she wasn't expecting it. Elodie got a letter from Albus asking if she'd like to come to Hogwarts to watch the schools arrive for the Tri-Wizard Tournament on the 30th of October. That was the full moon, and so after she got the letter, she went looking for Sirius.
"Thanks for kissing and making up with Remus," he told her when she handed him his sandwich.
"I don't think you'd actually tease me about it if you thought that's what happened, so I'm ignoring that," she sassed at him. "How's the motorcycle going?"
"There's a lot of small charms and protective nonsense that I need to do with it before it's ready to be modified the way I want," Sirius said, taking an enormous bite of his sandwich and, of course, still talking. It sounded like the next thing he said was, "So, I'll be happy when that's all done," but Elodie wasn't sure. She went ahead with what she had come to ask him before he'd started to tease her.
"I need to ask your help. I'm in mothering mode, and Remus won't like it, but he's going to have to deal."
"Lay it on me," he replied.
"So the full moon is in two days, and I think it's safe to say that Moony may be under the impression that there is a kind of theme going, visit-before-moonrise-wise," she admitted, biting her lip. Sirius sat up to look at her, his eyebrows raised. "But, I just got a letter from Albus about the schools that are coming for the Tournament this year."
"Including Durmstrang, with Karkaroff," Sirius said.
"Exactly. He's invited me to see them arrive, and I want to go. I have a feeling it'll be… cinematic, for the lack of a better term. And I might be able to see him, at a distance, because oh my god, no thank you for anything closer, if Karkaroff even recognizes me."
"Elodie, you make me feel good about how my recovery from Azkaban is going," Sirius said as he finished up with his sandwich and dusted off his hands. "There's no way that I'd ever be able to follow that sentence if I had brain damage."
Elodie couldn't really argue with that. "Can you watch out for Remus that night, for me?"
"Does Remus know you see that as your job?" he asked, bluntly.
"Nope," Elodie replied, popping the 'P.'
"Then yes, I can wander down there and cram some Wolfsbane down him, make sure the wards are cast," Sirius said. "But I'm not kissing Moony."
"I really ought to have seen that quip coming," Elodie grumbled as she walked back to the house.
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The thirtieth of October was a clear, cool day. Elodie used the Floo to head over to Hogwarts after breakfast, and while Albus had offered her the run of Hogwarts, but she had decided to curl up with a book in his office for a few hours before the schools were set to arrive. She didn't want to sit up front with the professors, during the banquet, because that would draw Karkaroff's attention, she felt. Her memories of how the great hall had been described in the book would probably not compare to the real thing, so she didn't want to decide exactly where she'd go until she saw it. Albus had told her that some of the students would be congregating in the various towers that had views of the lake, as the Durmstrang ship would be coming up through there. The flight of the Beauxbatons carriage would be visible from there, too. The rest of the school's population would be gathered at the two locations as an in-person welcoming party.
Elodie settled into a chair against the wall in the office, and it wasn't until she'd tucked her feet underneath her and opened her book that she heard the voice of the portrait hanging above her.
"You again," the former Black Headmaster sneered.
"Before I ignore you, I want you to know I can hear you, and I'm not interested in anything you have to say," Elodie said calmly. Then, she lifted her wand in preparation to cast a sound-dampening charm for the air around her.
"Raising your wand against a portrait? While I appreciate and value your fear of me, I should inform you that attacking the Headmaster portraits is a crime even if you aren't a current student," Black told her smugly.
"Do you know what Muggles say about assuming things, Finny?" Elodie asked, tempering her annoyance at her own inability to ignore him by using a nickname she expected the man would hate. "It makes an ass out of U and Me."
For added effect, Elodie used the magical spell that drew on walls to hover the word in the air in front of the portrait. She even separated the letters to illustrate her point.
"You have to be the most inane creature I've ever encountered in this office, and I'm including all of the first years."
Elodie counted this as a win. She refocused on her book, wondering if the portrait was able to see the room with varying degrees of clarity based on the limitations of his frame. She forgot that the portrait subjects were able to move.
"The picture on the front of your book looks like it's a Muggle," Black complained a few minutes later. His voice came from a portrait across the room.
"That's because it is a Muggle-at least, I think he is. He's the current President of Poland," Elodie said, putting a great deal of irritation into her voice. She aimed her book, The Struggle and the Triumph, an Autobiography by Lech Wałęsa, so that the book covered her face and was aimed at the portrait Phineas Nigellus was currently standing in.
"Sounds useless," Black sniffed.
"That's where your biases end up screwing you over," Elodie said in a tone that implied he was being tiresome. "Which is so predictable! The subject of this book is worth a million wizards who can't see past the ends of their noses."
"I suppose I have nothing better to do than let myself be drawn into this construction you've created for yourself. What could this Muggle leader possibly have done to make him so valuable?"
"That depends," Elodie said. "Have you heard of the Soviet Union? The Iron Curtain? Solidarity?"
"You do know that I was dead during those events, most probably?"
"Are those portraits indestructible? Because I feel like Stalin would have hated you. He had a habit of destroying the images of the people he didn't like."
"As if he would have been able to stand against-"
Elodie lifted her wand and cast the sound-dampening charm around herself. She schooled her face into a calm, pleased expression and sighed, happy to get to read her book in peace. She'd let herself gloat about one-upping the blood purist Headmaster another time. It was difficult not to check to see how he was handling this, but it helped that she couldn't hear a thing.
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After about two and a half hours, Elodie heard the sounds of the statues at the doorway of Albus's office start to move, and she made a note of what page she was on in her book, miniaturized it, and tucked it into her trouser pocket. A minute later, a tall woman wearing deep emerald green robes came up the stairs and into the room. Elodie knew who it was right away, but waited to be introduced. At the very last minute, she grabbed her wand and cast Finite, hoping she didn't seem too rude. McGonagall, though, simply looked around at the mostly sleeping portraits around the room, found the one which wasn't asleep, and then nodded knowingly.
"Most long-term visitors try to cast the silencing charms on the actual portraits, which doesn't work. Sound dampening works wonders, however." She sounded impressed, and reached out a hand in greeting to Elodie. "Minerva McGonagall, Albus sent me to find you."
"Elodie Merriman, and before I forget, thank you so very much for your help in getting me Albus's message from America," Elodie said, shaking the woman's cold but strong hand.
"I'm so sorry for your loss, Albus spoke to me about his trip after he came back, and he was taken with your mother. I don't mind telling you his voice turned a bit vicious when he described the way your mentor was found." McGonagall added the last with a look of pride on her face that made Elodie like her immensely.
"Thank you, that helps," Elodie told her.
"So I'll take you up to the outer walkway at Gryffindor tower, we'll have one of the best views, I think!"
There wasn't time to talk as the deputy Headmistress walked briskly through throngs of students and up stairs until they came out on an enclosed stone terrace. Despite the view being quite good, there weren't as many students there, and Elodie commented on this to McGonagall.
"This particular area is essentially Gryffindor only, Miss Merriman," McGonagall told her.
"Oh, call me Elodie, please," Elodie rushed to say.
"Thank you, Elodie. I would say call me Minerva but I'll ask that you do so amongst the adults only?"
"I'd be honored, thank you," Elodie told Minerva, trying to keep her eyes from going wide.
"I wanted to say," and here, Minerva turned to look at Elodie, a kindly smile on her somewhat severe face. "I feel you've earned the right to this space by what you've done for Remus. Despite knowing about the curse on that professorship, I was quite disappointed when he had to leave. That he found someone where he ended up afterwards who made such sacrifices to ensure his comfort means a lot to the friends he left behind, and I wanted you to know that."
Elodie held Minerva's gaze for a long minute, speechless. She finally nodded and smiled, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye sheepishly. Minerva smiled as well, and then she turned to the gathering students and hollered harshly at them to behave with respect toward each other, or else. The shift in demeanor was practically instant, and it was a treat to watch.
Suddenly there was commotion at the window nearest to Elodie and Minerva. "I see something!" several voices cried out, and the push to catch a glimpse led to a small crowd of Gryffindors rushing over past them. Elodie was incredibly impressed to see that, despite pushing incidentally against Elodie, the students kept a wide, respectful gap between themselves and their Head of House. When she looked over at Minerva to see what her reaction was, the look of pride on the older woman's pinched face was obvious.
As she was taller than the younger students, but shorter than a good deal of the older ones, Elodie walked over to a window with more of the younger kids. Very far off in the distance, she saw a collection of black specks undulating in the sky. The specks seemed unremarkable, but they were exciting to see, because she knew that they'd only seem more and more impressive, the closer they got.
"Oh, I remember you. Elodie, right?"
Elodie looked down and saw a red haired student in Gryffindor robes. It was Ginny.
"Hello Ginny, or should I say, Miss Weasley?" Elodie said playfully.
"Miss Weasley is what Professor Snape calls me," Ginny frowned. "Please, let's stick with 'Ginny.'"
"I have never met the man, but his reputation tells me that I'd be happy to avoid sounding anything like him," Elodie whispered back. Ginny's look of approval made Elodie grin, and the two of them watched with the rest of the school population as the gorgeous flying horses swooped the carriage from Beauxbatons toward the designated landing area. She didn't even want to imagine how many stabilizing charms were in effect inside!
"I wonder if they're using the Thestral carriages to take them to the entrance?" one child asked from behind her.
"They are," another said quietly. "I can see them."
"Where?!" a chorus of voices called out. Everyone at the windows within earshot craned their necks to see the area around where the carriage had landed, and sure enough, there were a collection of small, roofless carriages trotting toward the landing zone. They appeared to be self-propelled, to Elodie, and she realized that this meant she'd never seen anyone die. She stood transfixed, watching the carriages move up into position for the small human figures to climb into them, even as the current of students eddied and swirled past and around her to the lake-facing windows. Would she still be in this universe in four years? Would she watch some of these students die in the final battle? Could she do anything to prevent that?
"You're missing it, come on!" a voice said, and even though it wasn't said directly to her, Elodie felt like it was urging her out of her reverie.
When Elodie got to the other side of the tower, where most everyone else was congregated, the top-most part of Durmstrang's ship mast was already piercing the water. Even with only that much visible, it was majestic, she thought. The view here was closer than that for Beauxbatons, and she could see the rich red-brown of the wood on the ship. There was a pause, with only the top-most part showing, until something under the water seemed to give way, and the prow sliced through the churning water. Everyone cheered at this, and Elodie clapped along with them, watching the full body of the ship proudly slide up through the water to sit mostly above it. The streams of lake water flowing off of every surface glinted in the afternoon sun, and the banners and pennants that hung on the deck and from the rigging flapped in the breeze, dried magically within seconds of pulling free from the lake.
It was magnificent to watch, and Elodie was grateful that Albus had invited her to see it.
Though the ship was still making its way to the makeshift dock that had been expanded to accommodate it, Elodie made her way down the stairs from the Gryffindor tower, passing the portrait hole on her way down. She couldn't resist waving happily at the Fat Lady, glad to that she couldn't see any lasting effects on the portrait from Sirius's angry attack the previous year. It was to her benefit that there were many students who were all walking to and talking about the Great Hall, so Elodie didn't feel lost or out of place. She'd told Albus earlier that she wasn't staying to eat, but he'd done the thing where he'd disagreed with her with such enthusiasm that she hadn't realized she'd agreed to stay until he'd already left the room.
When Elodie walked into the Great Hall with the other students, she saw that each of the four student tables were extended almost to the back wall, which felt like it was different for today, rather than a habitual thing. The other interesting thing was that each Head of House was standing at the very bottom end of the tables as well, and Elodie realized that this was probably to accommodate the addition of two delegations of students and their accompanying adults. This made it feel like less of an imposition when she went to stand at Gryffindor's table, not quite at the very foot of the table near Minerva, but close. She caught a nod of approval from Albus, when she had turned her head to look up at the teachers' table on the dais.
When she had found her place at the table, there were only a few Gryffindors already there, and none near her. After about ten minutes (during which Elodie stared openly at the enchanted ceiling, the House banners, and the other details that aren't as grand in one's own imagination no matter how much one pictures them), a small knot of students walked in and around Minerva to her side of the table.
"Hello again," Ron said, coming to stand next to her. "Did Dumbledore invite you?"
"It's Professor Dumbledore, Ron," Hermione corrected him before smiling at her stiffly in greeting. She looked a bit stressed, and Elodie smiled back, but Hermione had already turned her head.
Harry sat beside Ron, with Hermione on his other side, and slowly, the rest of the students from all four houses filled in their spaces, most avoiding the new, extended table areas. Finally, Albus called everyone to attention, and recapped the reason they were all there in such ceremony: the Beauxbatons and Durmstrang delegations had arrived. He made a grand gesture, and though he was almost as far from the large doors at the entrance to the hall as anyone could be, the doors opened within a split second. A tall, rather garishly dressed woman entered. Her furs and lavish clothing seemed off, somehow, and it wasn't until two rows of students filed in to stand at either side of her that Elodie realized why.
The tall doors to the Great Hall had obscured the fact that this woman was very, very tall. Elodie knew she had to be Madame Maxime. The Beauxbatons students she'd brought with her had to be over a certain age to even be allowed to come, so the fact that Maxime towered over them, even the boys, was impressive. That was the other thing Elodie was surprised to see: there were boys that had been brought with the delegation.
Elodie had seen the film version of the fourth book, and the visually striking entrances from the two schools had left an impression so strong that she'd completely forgotten that they were co-ed institutions. Now she watched as the male and female representatives from Beauxbatons walked with cool confidence into the room, pausing with precision every time their Headmistress stopped. Their uniforms were less feminine than the movie version, but the color was similar. The cornflower blue color and tailored skirts and slacks the students wore were quite attractive, and their unsmiling, fresh faces reminded Elodie of a high fashion runway show. They weren't split by gender in their two lines that followed Madame Maxime, and Elodie was happy to see this when she saw the tall woman gesture with her hands, seeming to send each line to a half of the hall to find seating. Of the line that was nearest to Gryffindor's far wall, almost all moved to sit with the Ravenclaws, which made an odd sort of sense, given the blue coloring and nearness to where they'd come in the door.
After she'd watched the students settle in their seats, Elodie looked up to see that Dumbledore was completely dwarfed by the Beauxbatons headmistress, but typically, he didn't look fazed by this at all. He simply gestured to a place at the teachers' table (conveniently left by the fact that each Head of House was seated with the students) that had been prepared for her. It was as wide as two chairs, and Elodie smiled to think that someone had known to make the space comfortable for the half-giantess.
A loud banging sound from the large doors startled Elodie into looking in that direction, and she shrunk back into the sweater she was wearing when she saw who had entered the room. Igor Karkaroff strode in, wearing a giant fur cap and incredibly long winter coat, despite the mild weather. He cut an imposing and compelling figure, though, all angles and harsh lines, and she suspected that he'd chosen his outfit for the impression it made, rather than his own comfort. Behind him his students walked forward, not in two lines, but as a triangle, with one student taking the lead. Beside her, Ron sucked in a shocked breath.
"It's him!" he whimpered, clearly starstruck. "It's Krum!"
"Big for a Seeker," Elodie couldn't help noting out loud.
He was a fitting leader for his group of students, with a cardinal red coat and a determined expression. The fact that his Headmaster was so much taller than he was did nothing to diminish the impact of Viktor Krum's presence, Elodie thought. He led his fellow students toward where Karkaroff stood in the middle of the aisle, and for a few seconds, Elodie wondered if the two would collide. Karkaroff started walking right before his wedge of students caught up with him, though, and like the Beauxbatons students' symmetry, this was visually impressive. She'd forgotten to count the number of Beauxbatons students, but she saw there were just under 20 students from Durmstrang, both boys and girls. There were fewer girls than there had been boys from the previous school, but they had the same look of almost aggressive confidence as their male counterparts.
Elodie felt oddly grateful that the Tournament was hosted at Hogwarts, as she could not imagine any group of random older Hogwarts students projecting confidence at the level that either of these schools had managed.
Right before the Durmstrang group reached Albus Dumbledore's position on the dais, Igor Karkaroff lifted his right hand and snapped his fingers. The students behind Viktor Krum all turned in unison, half to the left, half to the right, and made a guttural noise as they turned, stomping their right feet as they came to a halt. Then, they walked toward the four House tables, thankfully clustering into normal groups rather than maintaining the angry sort of discipline they'd displayed as they had walked in. Krum conferred with Karkaroff for a second, who shook his head sharply at whatever the young man had said. At this, Krum nodded, clearly unhappy, and turned in the direction of the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables. Elodie could sense the tension in Ron Weasley as Krum walked past them to whisper in the ear of one of his fellow students. Then, the boy walked away, probably headed for the Slytherin table, as she recalled from the books. She didn't let herself get too distracted by this, though-her goal was to see how Karkaroff would greet Albus.
Before that greeting, Karkaroff turned and surveyed the room, as if needing to reassure himself that his students were behaving themselves before he allowed his disciplined attitude to slip at all. As if they'd expected this, each Durmstrang student looked forward, only re-integrating themselves to their surroundings when their Headmaster nodded. Only then did he lower his right hand, but just for a few seconds, before he offered it to Dumbledore in greeting.
"Albus!" she heard the man say. Elodie frowned at that. It felt disrespectful, but at the same time, she had no idea if there was some sort of protocol of forced friendliness between the heads of various magical schools. Just as in the film version, Albus and Igor embraced, but the glimpse Elodie caught of the man's face during that embrace didn't leave her with any sense that he was happy to be there.
It was in that moment, while looking at the way Igor Karkaroff's broad smile didn't reach his eyes, that Elodie was grateful Albus had persuaded her to stay. She remembered that aspect of him from her own encounter, and she saw that Albus chose to sit beside the man, after exhorting them all to eat. There was no way she wanted to wait for a letter to find out what they would talk about. Moony would have to wait a moon cycle, she decided. She was going to stay at Hogwarts until she could talk to Albus.