September 21, 1980
"So..." Caren began to say after taking a sip of her black tea. "Have you spoken with Acacius lately?" she asked curiously.
Eleana stopped stirring her tea and placed the little spoon on the saucer. "No." She then said while not meeting Caren's eyes; Instead she gazed out through one of the café's windows. It was a quite small café they were in, yet it had charm.
"Why not? I'm positive he would like to hear from you."
"Are you?" Eleana said doubtfully and looked at her friend.
"Yes!" Caren said. "Of course he would."
"I doubt it... Ever since I turned him down he's not been to our house even once."
"He's embarrassed." Caren explained as if it was obvious. "He thinks you don't want to see him. That is why you must contact him, 'cause he doesn't want to bother you."
"I do want to see him." Eleana said. "I didn't mean to make him embarrassed." She began to stir her tea again without touching the silvery spoon. "I just don't want to marry him."
Caren was taking another sip of her hot tea and then put it down rather quickly to speak her mind. "Now, see that I cannot understand." She said. "He completely adores you, he is rich, he's from a good family – also your family loves him - and he's a good guy, which is a personality trait I know you prefer."
Eleana shook her head, she had heard this too many times. Nobody understood her reasons, or what she wanted, so there was no use in trying to explain it again. "He's just not the one for me."
"The one?" Caren said as if she had not heard quite right. "I hope you aren't gettin' influenced by Camilla and her love stories. That girl lives in a fairytale, always has. She might've married her prince charmin' Alexandre, but I will never think there is such a thing as 'the one'."
Eleana took a sip of the transparent golden liquid in her cup and felt the hot tea warm her insides as she drank.
"I mean... no doubt there is someone out there whom I might tolerate better than most men. But there might be more than one out there." Caren was staring out the window now, sort of lost in her own thoughts for a slight moment.
Eleana nodded and thought of Sirius, she could not help it. Where was he now?
"A fire whiskey" Sirius said to the bartender. He rested his elbow on the bar as he waited patiently. A woman with dark curls eyed him from where she was sitting by the end of the bar. She wore red lipstick on her dark lips as a contrast to her black dress. He found her appealing, that he could not deny; still he did not want her more than he wanted Eleana. Sirius shot the stranger a charming smile and then let his eyes wander away from her.
After all these years he still could not stop thinking about her, even when he encountered with other women she was still there in the back of his mind impinging his thoughts.
He did not really know what he was doing here. Perhaps he was bored now when he had left James and Lily to sleep. He had spent all day at their house, just as he had this whole week. Harry, their son, had been born just a few weeks ago and he was already getting quite attached to him. They had made Sirius the godfather of their child and Sirius would honour that title to death. Harry was merely nine weeks old, and being his godfather was the most important purpose he had in this world right now; That, and fighting for the order of course. The fight had for him become less for the thrill and more for the ones he loved and those he called family.
The glass was placed beside him on the bar counter, it had been filled up to half. Sirius paid the bartender by placing the money next to it. Afterwards he took the glass in his grasp and was about to put it to his mouth when the liquid began to drip from the glass, down on his hand and then his arm.
"What in Merlin's..?!" he said angrily while holding the glass further away from him so it would not drip on his pants. He saw how the fire whiskey slipped right through the glass and down on the floor. Someone was fiddling with it and he searched the room with his infuriated eyes. It did not take long before he saw, and heard, a man laughing from a table not far away. He immediately recognized him and stormed towards him.
Eithan Adela tried to steady his drunk laughter as soon as he saw Sirius approaching him.
"Don't you have better things to do?" Sirius asked. "Or did Voldemort personally put you up to this?"
People had begun to stare at them, and a woman sitting in a table close to them squealed when hearing the name aloud.
Eithan Adela's amused expression faltered and his stare became hard. "I could ask you the same thing. Is the order proud of you drinking away your days instead of protecting what little you have?" he said. His finger trailed along the edge of his glass. "Shouldn't you be protecting that little godson of yours? You never know what might happen to him..." he let the meaning of that sentence dig into Sirius for a while before he began to smile wickedly.
"If you touch a hair on his head I will−"
"You'll what?"
Sirius stilled his anger somewhat. "I'll kill you and feed you to the crows" Sirius assured with a calm yet threatening tone.
"Oh.. What I wouldn't give to end you right now." Eithan said through his teeth.
"I'd like to see you try." Sirius challenged.
Eithan got up so fast that the chair fell over behind of him, and he then pulled out his wand. Sirius took out his own wand from the inside of his jacket and managed to deflect the spell Eithan sent to him. He answered it with a red flash and jumped aside when Eithan sent another spell his way. A glass shattered as the spell hit it from across the room. People fled from the scene and if they could not flee they hid.
Adela which had taken a glass or two was still able to fend Sirius's spell, but his balance, Sirius noticed, was not as good as it ought to be. It made Sirius smile. "Had a little too much to drink, eh?" he mocked.
"I still do better when drunk then you do completely sober."
Spells were casted at one another while keeping up the conversation.
Sirius adverted Adela's spell skilfully. "We'll see about that." He said with a grin.
Suddenly a part of the wall was blasted away as Sirius stood by it and he flew backwards, as if he was sucked out with it. Eithan laughed as he stepped out to the street on which Sirius had landed. Bricks were scattered all around him.
Sirius felt his back and head ache since he had landed on them, however he was quickly up on his feet again, ready to face Eithan.
Eithan Adela pointed his wand at Sirius and again they began to fire spells at one another.
"I'm glad my sister threw away such skill-less trash!"
"Skill-less?" Sirius said with a laugh. "Are you referring to the ugly toad which I'm looking at?"
"She's better off without you, I've told her that before and now she knows she is."
Sirius's spell hit Eithan's shoulder and he grabbed it while grunting with a laugh. Then he sent a spell which nearly made Sirius drop his wand. Eithan continued to laugh as he saw Sirius's angry face expression. He knew he was getting to him.
"Did you really believe she would stay with you? Give it all up... For what..? You?"
Another spell nearly hit him before he quickly ducked. Eithan simply laughed as he realised Sirius was getting angrier for every word.
"Anyone with brains would give up a family such as yours! She just doesn't know anythin' better yet!" Sirius shouted, a teasing spark had lit his eyes.
Eithan's smile slightly faded and he sent a flash of green towards Sirius. His opponent found a way to dodge it, and entered an alley. It was quite dark, and a dumpster was placed by one of the other brick walls.
"You're not going to have another go with her!"
"Well it isn't up to you is it? It's her choice."
"You're only causing her pain!"
"Pain? I'm causing her pain?!"
"Yes! Stay away from her or she'll get hurt again." Eithan shouted heatedly. He had meant it both as a threat and as a demand. After he said it the words echoed deftly throughout the slim alley, and they were not drowned by a reply from Sirius. It became quiet instead.
"Hurt again?" Sirius said after the echo had died out completely. He was confused. He had done nothing to hurt her that night before she had chosen not to see him anymore. She had seemed happy, even blissful. It was rather the other way around, she was the one who had hurt him. "What d'you mean by that?"
Eithan did not answer.
Then Sirius began to understand by Eithan's expression; He had said too much and to Sirius's advantage. "You did something to her..."
Eithan looked away.
"You bastard!"
Eithan quickly warded Sirius's attack. "Don't blame me!" Eithan shouted angrily. "You've only got yourself to blame."
"What did you do to her?!" Sirius did not send another spell at his enemy this time, instead they both simply stared at one another, with tense rage reflecting in their eyes.
"Not me." Eithan said innocently, although wicked amusement flickered in his eyes and Sirius felt his own blood boil inside of him.
"Who then?" Sirius demanded to know.
"Our father of course. He did what had to be done, it was either to teach her the family rules or to throw her out on the street."
"With other words; she was forced." Sirius said through his teeth.
"She was protected." Eithan affirmed. "Our family can take care of her."
"Oh! How merciful of you." Sirius said sarcastically.
"If it were up to me - I'd rather have her killed than thrown out on the street and burned from the family tree."
"Do you hear yourself?! It's your own sister!"
"Yes, she is my sister! My sister - and she needs to be protected from foul people such as yourself."
"The only one she needs to be protected from is you and your twisted family!" Sirius felt sick to his stomach at the same time his head was nearly spinning from the fuming anger he felt. Eleana's father had done something horrible to her in order to scare her enough to never see him again. All sorts of thoughts began to form inside Sirius's head, what could he possibly have done to her to prevent her from even taking contact with Sirius again. He could have done anything, no doubt anything.
Sirius began to walk with the intention of leaving; Eithan was not going to let him go easily though, since he suspected that Sirius was on his way to his sister.
"We're not finished here." Eithan said, and so Sirius turned around. As soon as Sirius's back was not turned to Eithan anymore he attacked. The spell he casted was soon warded off by Sirius.
"You're sure you'll be alright? It's quite dark." Caren said as Eleana was about to leave the little café which they had been in until closing.
"I'll be perfectly fine, Caren." Eleana replied with a smile. She had decided to walk home, she enjoyed walking under the starry sky. Caren was going to use apparition, although she did not want to bring another person with her while she did it since she feared she might not be able to do it and so leave an arm behind or something akin. Caren was confident in a lot of things but apparition was not one of them. Eleana on the other hand still had not learned the art of apparition, and she actually enjoyed walking.
"Alright..." Caren said, realising she would not get another answer from her friend. "Be careful." She warned.
"I will, don't worry."
"I'll see you on Friday." Caren reminded her.
Eleana nodded; her, Camilla and Caren were going to meet up on Friday. "Yes, see you then." She waved as they parted from one another.
Perhaps this was unwise; it was a dark night in the middle of what they had begun to call a war. A war was chaos, and what Eleana saw in front of her this night was the opposite of chaos, it was a quiet and calm atmosphere. Streetlights were lighting up the paved street she was walking on. Stars decorated the dark sky while glistening beautifully.
Their house was just outside of London city, it would take a while to walk there but not too long. With no indication of fear inside of her she let her mind wander while she adored the stars above of her. The evening air had become quite cold compared to what the weather had been during midday.
Suddenly she heard the scream of a woman somewhere to her left. Eleana stopped and quickly turned her head towards the alley from which the sound was heard. There was silence, dead silence, then another scream was heard which made the hair on the back of Eleana's neck rise unpleasantly.
She pulled out her wand from inside her grey coat and hurriedly approached the alley. When she could look into the alley she saw two young men, dressed in black, tormenting a young woman. They did it with their wands pointed at her, seeming amused while she screamed. Eleana felt her own insides twist inside of her as she saw the scene before her. It was obvious that the two men were death eaters and the woman was a muggle.
Without really thinking of the consequences Eleana disarmed them both, only wanting to end the poor woman's misery. The two men who both had lost their wands turned to Eleana with confused expressions. When they turned, Eleana drew a breath of shock as she recognised their faces; It was Avery and Wilkes.
"Eleana?" Avery said curiously.
Eleana simply stared at him, not letting her guard down.
"Don't you recognise us?" Wilkes said, thinking she was not lowering her wand for that reason. Avery on the other hand had a better guess for the resentful look in her eyes.
"She recognises us." Avery said to Wilkes. "She just doesn't approve of our ways of entertaining ourselves."
Eleana swallowed, glancing on the shaking woman which had crawled to the dirty corner of the alley. Completely scared out of her wits she had closed her eyes and held herself protectively.
"It's a sick form of entertaining." She told them, while tears were forming in her eyes.
Avery began to smile. "Eleana, don't worry... She's a plain muggle - worthless. We would never hurt you." Avery began to take a step closer to Eleana.
"Stay where you are!" Eleana pointed her wand directly at Avery's head.
Avery stopped and his amusement disappeared. "Eleana... We know each other. We're on the same side, are we not?"
The question was tricky, they both knew it since Avery had his doubts about her loyalty to her family, and also the affection she seemed to have for muggles and muggle-borns were something they both knew she possessed since long ago.
"If you leave her alone." Eleana said.
"Why'd you care?" Wilkes said with a laugh.
"Quiet, Wilkes." Avery encouraged his friend. "We will." He then said to Eleana with a nod, not breaking eye contact.
Eleana watched him carefully and then looked at Wilkes who nodded, however not as solemnly as Avery. Eleana lowered her wand carefully and relaxed a bit.
A little smiled formed on Avery's lips and he went to pick up his wand from the street. Wilkes did the same and Eleana went closer to the woman in the corner, then stopped when Wilkes spoke to her.
"You need any help gettin' home?" he asked politely.
"No... I'll manage." Eleana said after turning around to face him. She withstood the instinct to bite her lip while waiting for them to leave.
"Are you sure?" Wilkes asked.
"Yes." Eleana said with a harsher tone than she had intended. The anger she felt towards the two young men suddenly rushed through her and it was hard for her not to reveal it in her eyes; therefore she looked down in order to hide her gaze from them.
"Alright." Wilkes said.
"Let's leave." Avery said to Wilkes and so they both began to walk away from the dim alley. Eleana watched them go, they soon disappeared around the lit corner and into the darkness. After they had gone she turned to the frightened woman and went to her with rushed steps. She was covered with dirt from the filthy pavement, her knees and elbows were bruised and red from the blood of scrapes. She was covering her head against her knees while trembling.
"Ms?" Eleana said carefully.
Then woman slowly raised her head to meet Eleana's eyes. When she saw her she simply stared at her, while tears slowly began to fill her terrified eyes.
"I won't hurt you." Eleana informed. "I am here to help."
"I saw you... talking to them." The dark haired woman said with a weak voice. "Do you know them?"
"I do..." Eleana said, then quickly continued to say, when she saw the woman's frightful expression. "However I think what they've done to you, whatever it is, is completely awful and despicable... I feel repulsed." Eleana looked away, thinking what kind of madness had made them even come up with an idea this vile.
The woman hugged her knees tighter. Eleana noticed the woman's reaction in the corner of her eye and looked at her again, apologizing.
"They had these sticks..." she began, while strands of hair fell over her eyes, she did not put them back in place. "It was as if they used them to hurt me, to cause me pain... I don't understand how, they never touched me, yet I was turned in the air... there was pain... all over... I don't understand... I don't know how, they just..." her words died out when a sob caused her to become quiet.
Eleana watched her and felt her own throat become thick with sad compassion. "I will help you... I will take you somewhere safe where you can forget what just happened, all the pain will be gone."
A person in their right mind would probably have suspected that offer and with no doubt questioned it, but this woman was in shock and the pain she felt was only growing worse. She wanted the memories from it to stop replaying in her head, she wanted the pain to vanish, she would give anything - Therefore she let Eleana help her up on her feet without resisting.
Eleana supported the woman, which was a little bigger than herself, by holding her around the waist and letting her hold her shoulders. They walked out the alley and not a single person was within sight in that moment. Eleana wondered if she would use magic to help her, then realised she should probably avoid that since this woman was already traumatised by magic; the last thing she needed right now was to be shown another example of it. Besides, St Mungo's was not very far away, they would manage.
"What is your name?" She asked when they had walked a few steps from the alley, the streetlight was casting a light on them both.
"Monica." The woman said while struggling with her right leg, it seemed to be quite damaged. "What's your name?"
"Eleana."
Suddenly they both caught sight of a person coming towards them by the end of the street. It was a man, possibly young, Eleana figured. Monica looked at him hesitantly and Eleana noticed that she became slower in her movements. The man came closer now, Eleana definitely saw that it was a young man, a dark haired one, with grey eyes and a firm jaw line. It was Sirius. She also saw that he had recognised her and was now rushing towards them.
Author's note: Cliff-hanger... haha! I hope you were somewhat entertained by this chapter. There are only a few chapters left now until this story is finished. I am writing as much as I can, and I hope I will be able to finish it within just a few weeks, but I don't want to make it official yet. If you have any thoughts or opinions just leave a little review for me to look at. Next chapter will be up within a week. Thank you for reading ;)
-Fondofreading