No Place Like Home

December 1997
Ellie

Ellie tossed the last of her things into her carry-all and then closed it up, preparing to go down with the rest of the students to catch the Hogwarts Express. McGonagall had found her the night before in the common room and told her that as far as she was aware, there was nothing Alecto Carrow could actually do to keep her there, so to proceed ahead with all the others and according to the plan that had been set out to get her to the manor.

"Do you think she'll try to stop you?" Ginny asked from where she was sitting on Ellie's bed, her own knapsack next to her.

"Let her try," Ellie retorted. "Even if she does, I seriously doubt McGonagall would stand for it."

"I wouldn't mind seeing those two go head to head. Fairly sure that McGonagall would smoke her," Moira said from where she was lounging on her bed. Ellie chuckled. She had to agree. There was no doubt in her mind that if it came down to a battle of the wills or even a duel, McGonagall would win.

"You think you'll come back after the break?" Meredith asked. Ellie frowned over at her friend.

"Course I'm coming back. Why wouldn't I?" she asked. Meredith just gave her a look.

"Right. The fact that your mum's Death Eater ex could be potentially trying to keep you at the castle over the holidays so that he can kidnap you isn't slightly dangerous at all," she said sarcastically. Ellie rolled her eyes.

"There's no way he can get to me during term," she scoffed.

"What makes you think that? I'm sure the Carrows are more than willing to let him in," Meredith said. "Regardless, we all know that there's no way your mother is going to let you come back."

"She most certainly will. I'm my own person and I can make my own decisions," Ellie declared, though even she saw Ginny roll her eyes. "Don't you want me to come back to school?"

"Of course, I do, but really… your mum barely let you come back for first term. How do you think she's going to react when she finds out the Carrows tried to keep you here?" Ginny said reasonably. "Or about your detention?"

Ellie pulled at her sleeve again, remembering the scar on her arm.

"Obviously I'm not going to tell her any of that," she said.

"She probably already knows. At least about Alecto Carrow trying to keep you here," Moira pointed out. "And you know she's not going to be happy about Nott." Ellie chewed on her lower lip. It did seem like she had a rather lot to try and keep from her mother over the holiday break. But it was only two weeks. Surely, she could keep her secrets that long.

And somehow convince her that she would be safe enough returning to Hogwarts. Though even she had to admit that it was looking doubtful.

"Come on then. Time to get to the train," Ginny said, standing from the bed.

The four girls made their way down through the common room and out of the tower. They joined the throng of other students making their way down to the village for the train. Ellie couldn't help but wonder just how many wouldn't be returning at the start of the second term.

Maybe it was foolish of her to insist on coming back.

"Ellie," a voice called out. She stopped and looked over, seeing Theodore walk up to her. Of course. She had forgotten that they were supposed to walk together. With everything going on, she sometimes forgot that he was supposed to be her boyfriend. She smiled at him slightly as she waved to Ginny and the others, then took off. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Seamus with a slightly forlorn look on his face.

Nott took her hand and led the way out of the castle. Ellie couldn't help as her nerves jumped slightly as she saw Alecto and Amycus standing at the main gate, watching as each student passed through.

"She won't stop you. I made sure of it," Nott said softly, bending down towards her. Ellie nodded, though a frown came over her face.

"Just where do you think you're going, Ms. Black?" Alecto asked, stepping slightly in front of her to bar her way.

"To the train," Ellie retorted.

"I thought I told you that you were not to leave the castle grounds," Alecto countered.

"And I thought my father told you to let her go," Nott retorted, his brow furrowed. Alecto raised an eyebrow in his direction as Amycus noticeably sighed. He started to open his mouth to say something as Ellie and Theo held their stare down with Alecto. But before he could, there was a swishing sound and Ellie's eyes widened as she saw Snape approach.

"Stop bothering these students and let them through, Alecto. I do not want to deal with angry parents asking just why their children were not on the train," he droned.

"Bu-"

"You heard me," Snape said, now glaring at her. Alecto narrowed her eyes and then stepped back, allowing Ellie and Theodore to pass. Ellie breathed a bit easier the farther they got from the castle.

"Well that was a bit anticlimactic," she finally said, glancing at him. He smiled slightly and glanced back over his shoulder.

"I told you she couldn't keep you at the castle," he said, looking back down at her. There was a hint of a smile on his face. Ellie looked back to the path, continuing on.

"So… any plans for the break?" she ventured, wanting to fill the silence.

"The usual galas and such," Theodore said, the smile fading quickly. "Holidays aren't so great. I'll likely spend most of it staying out of my parents' way."

"That's… horrible," she said, frowning. Even though things were tense more often than not with her mother, she was eager to see her and her brother. She was even looking forward to seeing Lupin. There would be presents and loads of food. Laughter. Music. Likely more so now that there were so many staying at the manor. She couldn't imagine a holiday void of all of that.

"You know what it's like," he said. And she did. Though her mother did her best to make the holidays wonderful when she was with Evan, there was still an underlying tension there. A foreboding. One wrong step and that calm facade would come crashing down. She could only imagine how bad it was for Theo with two parents that were on the other side.

"Have you ever thought about running away?" she asked softly, glancing at him. For a moment, Theo's grip tightened around her hand, but then he loosened it. He shook his head slightly, though glanced around cautiously.

"Not so easy for some of us. They'd track me down," he said softly. Ellie nodded and looked back at the ground. She should have known, of course. Though her mother ran away when she was 17, she wasn't running away from Death Eaters. That came later. She was only running from her mother who hadn't been on the other side of things. Not really. She then looked at her bag and stopped. "Something wrong?"

She smiled slightly as she let go of his hand and reached into her bag, then pulled out a small package. She handed it over to him.

"Christmas might not be so fun, but… I got you this," she said, holding out awkwardly. "Just, ehm… wait until you're home to open it." She blushed slightly as she started walking again, not realizing that he wasn't following. She then stopped and looked back at him.

"Theo?" she said. He looked up at her and smiled nervously as he tucked the package into his bag. He then caught up to her and took her hand again.

"Thanks," he said softly, a blush coming over his own cheeks.

Ellie smiled to herself as they continued walking, thinking perhaps Nott wasn't so bad. He just needed to be given a chance.

Despite everything, Ellie couldn't help the joy that ran through her as she hugged her mother. Aurora held onto her a bit more tightly than she had in the past, but it was good to be home. She stepped back and looked around the den, seeing Lupin standing with Ryan in his arms.

"And how is my little brother?" she asked, walking over to them and making faces at the baby, who giggled in return.

"Growing more every day," Remus said, smiling down at her. "It is good to see you here in one piece." She glanced at him before taking Ryan out of his arms.

"It hasn't been that bad," she said lightly, finding it easy to hide just how bad things really were. One glance at the dark circles under her mother's eyes and the quiet strain in Professor Lupin's told her that the last thing she needed to do was to tell either of them the full truth of things.

"I've been so worried about you," Aurora said, taking a step towards her.

"Seriously, mother. I'm fine," Ellie said slightly exasperated as she looked over at her. "Though the sheer amount of homework I'm dealing with may just kill me. I don't know how I'm going to survive O.W.L.s."

"I'm sure you'll do just fine," Lupin said, patting her on the shoulder. "I'll go see to dinner." He then walked out of the room as Ellie sat on the floor with Ryan and reached for one of his toys. She had noticed the look that Lupin gave her mother. And how she attempted to keep her distance from him. Something had most definitely happened between them while she was gone. Not to mention, Lupin seemed to have taken over more of the daily running of the manor.

"So… what have you been up to while I was away?" Ellie asked, looking over at her mother as she sat on the sofa. Aurora's eyes widened and she quickly looked away.

"Not much of anything. It would be rather boring without Ryan and the greenhouse to keep me busy, actually," she said, reaching down to pick up some stray toys. Ellie could tell she was hiding something.

"Figured there'd be tons going on with so many people in the house," Ellie said, still making faces at the baby.

"Yes… suppose. They are in and out a lot," Aurora said, staring down at the toy. Ellie looked over at her mother.

"Something happen with Professor Lupin?" she pushed. Her mother stared at her, her eyes widening again as color filled her cheeks.

"No, what would give you that idea?" she asked quickly. "How is school?"

Ellie looked back down at the baby, her own cheeks coloring.

"Told you. Fine. Just loads of homework is all," she said quickly.

From the entryway, Remus silently watched the mother and daughter as they continued their conversation, carefully dancing around the things they didn't want to say. He sighed and shook his head as he walked away.

They really were alike in more ways than one.

Ellie smiled as Ginny turned up the music in her room and danced around. It wasn't much, but for a few days, it seemed as though they had all managed to forget what was going on outside of their homes. Though it had ways of sneaking in. It was in the shadows that always seemed to be lurking just in her mother's eyes or in the corners of the manor. She could see it in the hushed conversations she had with Tonks and Shacklebolt when she thought Ellie wasn't paying attention. And the more she was home, the more she was certain that something had happened between her mother and Lupin. They were cordial and putting up a good front, but there was an awkwardness between them that wasn't there before.

But Ellie pushed it all aside to have a few moments of fun with her best friend.

"How are your brothers?" she asked as Ginny flopped down on the bed next to her. She rolled her eyes.

"Fred and George are driving me batty," she replied. "But they're in good spirits. Bill and Fleur are happy at Shell Cottage. Charlie's safe in Romania, but he's thinking of coming back. And well…" A pained expression came over her face.

"Still no word from Ron and Percy," Ellie asked softly. Ginny sighed as she laid back and stared at the ceiling.

"There've been sightings… but not sure what's true," she admitted. "And well… no one likes to talk about Percy… Though every so often Mum bursts into tears and rushes out of the room." Ellie stared at her friend a few moments before lying down next to her and looking up at the ceiling as well.

"They'll make it," she said softly, knowing that Ginny was not only thinking about her older brother, but of Harry as well. And Hermione. "They have to…"

"It's easy to think that… sometimes hard to believe," Ginny said with a sigh. "We don't even know what he's doing…"

"But whatever it is, Dumbledore told him to do it," Ellie said, looking over at her. "So… must mean something. That he can do it. And he's got Ron and Hermione with him. It'll work out. We both know Hermione's got more smarts than the two boys put together."

Ginny cracked a small smile and looked over at her, nodding.

"Yea, she won't let anything happen to them," she said. Her eyes then lit up slightly. "So… how did it go over telling your mum about your boyfriends?"

Ellie groaned as she sat up, now frowning.

"I haven't said a word about either of them," she replied. "And I'm not going to. Mum doesn't need to know about that."

"But you always tell your mum everything," Ginny said, sitting up as well. Ellie looked down at her arm, lifting up her sleeve to see the scar.

"Yea, well… I get a feeling there's only so much she can handle at the moment. And that she's got enough going on as it is," she said before quickly pulling her sleeve down. She looked over at Ginny. "And well… if I tell her everything, we both know she won't let me go back."

"You sure you want to?" Ginny asked softly. "It could be easier… safer… to stay here. At least there's no way he can get to either of you. It'll be hard for him to get into Hogwarts, sure, but it's possible there…" Ellie sighed and shook her head.

"I need to go back," she said, resolution filling her grey eyes. "It's the right thing to do. We don't know how things are going to go and… I know I'd regret it if something were to happen there and I stayed here… didn't do something - anything - to help."

Ginny put her arm around her shoulders.

"I get it. That's how I think too," she said. "Haven't been completely honest with my parents either. Granted, they're so worried about Ron at the moment that they haven't put up much of a fight about keeping me home." Ellie smiled slightly as she looked over at her best friend.

"We've got each other. And all the others. We can handle this," she said. Ginny smiled at her and nodded.

"Yea, we can," she replied. She then hopped up off the bed, pulling Ellie with her.

"What are you doing?" Ellie asked, laughing.

"Well… in about a week we have to go back and face the Carrows and such again. I think we deserve to forget a bit and have some fun," she said, starting to dance around the room. Ellie couldn't help but grin.

"Yea… think you're right…"