Disclaimer - It's been a while, but I still don't own Harry Potter. So far, Elena is the only character who is born of my own imagination. Of course the plot is also mine...
AN - I found this chapter a little hard to write, though I think that had to do with writer's block, and loads of ongoing family drama. It's also crazy to realize that right now, I have 478 followers and 281 favorites on this story. When did that happen? AAH! I love you guys so much! Thank you all!
Anyways, enjoy!
Love of An Aunt
A Harry Potter FanFiction
Chapter 6
2:08 pm, 16th June 1994
"Well," Elena sighed. Harry and Neville were seated on the sofa facing her armchair. Augusta had taken the other armchair while Sirius and Remus took the other sofa.
The six had finished lunch and relocated to the sitting room on the second floor. The sitting room was decorated in shades of green that somehow looked warm and inviting without looking overwhelming, though neither Harry or Neville noticed it. The small group quickly took seats, then looked at Elena expectantly.
"Here goes nothing," she muttered softly before clearing her throat.
"I was born in 1962, two years after James. As I told you before, Harry," she looked at the two boys in front of her, "James was a surprise to mom and dad, and I was even more so..." Sirius snorted. Remus frowned at him.
Elena ignored them both. "Growing up, James and I were very close to each other. Mon taught us the basics of studies, and she taught me how to be a proper lady while dad taught James about his duties as heir..." Her eyes gazed past them, lost in memories. "It was just the four of us, and we were happy."
"Eventually, when I was nine, James went off to Hogwarts, where he ended up creating the Marauders. I'd never met Wormtail or Moony, but Sirius, James and I were often grouped together on playdates, so I knew, and most definitely did not," she smirked, "like him. I thought he was a little terror, actually."
She chuckled when she looked at Sirius to find him glaring at her, shaking her head before looking at the boys. Both their faces practically demanded for her to hurry up already.
"Unofficially, I was a Marauder the since they were in their first year when I helped them out with a prank."
Harry blurted out "unofficially" the same time as Neville who asked, "the Marauders?"
Elena shot an apologetic look at him, "I didn't explain that, did I?" She frowned. Before Neville could say anything though, she continued, "The Marauders were a group of five if us - James, Remus, Sirius," she gestured at the two on the other sofa, "myself, and Peter Pettigrew." The last name was said through her teeth, startling Neville. Harry also looked angry, while Sirius and Remus were just murderous.
"I was a more of a behind the scenes member, though, which is why my name is not on the Map I know Harry showed you," she said pointedly. Harry just grinned.
She just rolled her eyes fondly. "James and I would write to each other almost all the time..."
"I remember that!" Sirius exclaimed. Elena just closed her eyes in exasperation, though she was glad that even after all these years with the dementors, he still remembered something so small. "After the feast he'd write to her with Aquila, and then around evening Elena would reply back. Next evening again James would send his letter. First and second year that kept going on. Every evening James would either receive a letter, or send one."
"Anyways," she shot Sirius a pointed look, "I met Remus that winter. He'd decided not to go home for Christmas, so James invited him here," she smirked, "without telling mom! The tongue lashing he received when he just announced that Remus was coming home with us..."
"Two years later, I joined Hogwarts. Frank was in fourth year, and the boys, Lily and Alice were in third. I didn't really enjoy spending time with many people in my year, though, at least, not the ones in Gryffindor."
"Why not?" Neville asked.
"I didn't really belong in Gryffindor house, Neville. Sure, I asked the Hat to place me there, but I really shouldn't have been there. I should have been in Slytherin."
"What? Then why'd you ask for Gryffindor?" Neville spluttered.
"Things were getting bad, Neville. It wasn't apparent, but we knew because dad was the head of the Auror office. Muggleborns were being attacked, though they were being covered up, and Slytherin had a lot of children from pureblood families - ones that were outspoken for less muggleborn rights. And while I am all for preserving family traditions and all that, they were going too far. I knew that even at eleven. Slytherin was a very bad idea at that point.
"Anyways, the boys were quite well known in school by then. They had admirers. And since James was my brother, I knew the rest of them well enough that most people wanted me to introduce them. The girls in my dorm were particularly vain, which is why most of my friends in my year were Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, though I did interact with the occasional Slytherin.. I got to know Lily and Alice a few months into first year. I could always go rant to Lily whenever James was being a prat," she chuckled.
"Sirius and I became close in my third year when he did something stupid enough that James and Remus were both angry at him." Padfoot lowered his head. "Just a little while before that, all of us had become Animagi..."
"You're an Animagus?!" Neville exclaimed.
Elena looked at him, and in the next second, a silver fox was curled up on the couch where she had been sitting. At the same time, Sirius had turned into Padfoot. Poor Neville's head kept whipping between the two, seemingly undecided on where to look, while Harry, who was familiar with Padfoot, stared at Elena. A few minutes later, she transformed back, though Sirius did not.
"I spent some of my time in school with them, tried to joined the Quidditch team in third year as Seeker, not that it worked out - and I didn't want it to either, considering I'd only tired out on James' persuasion. Things were more relaxed there, though the rest of the wizarding world was a different story entirely. James chased Lily, she kept rejecting him, Sirius was a prat, Remus was nice, Alice was always a riot... I didn't get to know Frank until just a few weeks before he left Hogwarts."
"So mum and dad didn't get along?" Harry asked, eager to know more about his parents, though he also seemed a bit upset at that.
"Harry, Lily had her reasons for saying no every time. It wasn't until the end of their sixth year, my fourth, that things changed."
"What happened then?" Neville asked.
"I got attacked."
The boys' eyes widened, while Padfoot growled and Remus flinched.
"I met with a friend, then spent time with some other Ravenclaw friends, and was on my way back to Gryffindor tower. They attacked me from behind. It wasn't pretty; broken bones, my lung was punctured, my skull was fractured, but their biggest concern was a cut to my stomach, which wouldn't stop bleeding. I had to regularly be given Blood Replenishing Potions so that I wouldn't bleed out... They had to call in help from St. Mungo's. The only reason they didn't take me there was because they couldn't risk moving me, even by Portkey."
"It was that bad?" Augusta asked. Elena jumped slightly, having forgotten she was even there, then nodded.
"I was dead for three minutes," she revealed. Sirius, who'd turned back into himself, gasped and jumped up. Remus was pale, and Harry and Neville both looked at each other, their faces devoid of any color. "Three minutes and twelve seconds exactly before they managed to restart my heart. The boys were the ones to find me. I doubt I would have survived if they were not close by, preparing for the end of year prank."
"James was franctic," Remus' voice was grave. "Their parents were away and couldn't be reached and Elena was in a coma. She woke up after five days, and was on bedrest for a week more."
Elena spoke again. "I think that was when it struck us that there was actually a war going on, or at least would be soon - none of us had actually been hurt until then..." Her eyes looked hollow as she remembered, "it was when we all grew up." She smiled wryly.
"Fifth year was tense. I had a reputation for being able to hold my own in a duel, but I'd been attacked despite that. The boys worked out a schedule with Lily and Alice so that I was never alone, and as annoyed as I was at the time, they proved right for doing it when there were other attempts on me. So towards the end of the year, after my O.W.L. exams, we decided that I wouldn't be returning to Hogwarts. It wasn't safe anymore, and I was already a target."
"But what about your N.E.W.T. exams?" Neville wondered.
"Mum, dad, Lily and James helped me learn, and I had their notes and everything. I gave them a year later, when the rest of my Hogwarts classmates were still giving their sixth year exams. Soon after, James and Lily and Alice and Frank got married, and then mum and dad were attacked.
"It wasnt long after James and Lily came back from their honeymoon, in August. Lily had gone to visit her parents, and James was accompanying mom and dad to an appointment at St. Mungo's. All five of us were supposed to meet at Diagon Alley for lunch. We were at Fortescue's when Death Eaters stormed the Alley.
"Mom was struck by a stray curse which killed her immediately," she remembered sadly. "Dad was enraged. He fought like a person possessed. He'd singlehandedly killed almost half of them before a Killing Curse hit him in the back."
"The entire Wizarding World mourned their deaths," Augusta recalled.
"We locked up Potter Manor and moved to London after that. Sirius and Remus lived there as well, which helped James and Lily a lot. In December we found out that Lily and Alice were pregnant," she nodded to the sofa where the boys were.
"It was something to smile about, something to be excited about in an atmosphere that was grim with fighting all the time. Then, about a month before you were born, in Dumbledore called us to Hogwarts. Frank and Alice met us there." Elena looked at both boys squarely.
"He revealed something that changed our lives, and sent us into hiding. James, Lil and I moved to Godric's Hollow since Frank and Alice had a house there. Lily and Alice gave birth in a Muggle hospital within fifteen minutes of each other. Once they were released, we went back to Godric's Hollow. I'd switch between both houses every fifteen days.
"All five of us were going nuts in hiding, but we had no choice. James would occasionally sneak out when he could, and sometimes take someone with him under the Cloak. Your birthdays passed, and then came Halloween." She could see everyone, even Augusta tense. Elena herself was already drained out.
"It was the second half of the month, so I was staying at Frank and Alice's. We put Neville to bed, and then went to the living room to listen to the Wireless. And there it was," she smiled humorlessly. "The announcer was celebrating Voldemort's death. And then he said that James and Lily were dead, but that Harry was aliveā¦
"I rushed home, only to find the house in ruins. The front door was blasted open, and James was," she gasped, "on the ground near the staircase. His eyes were open," her voice shook, "but I needed to find Lily and Harry. So I rushed upstairs to Harry's nursery, where I could hear his crying, and I entered the room.
"It was blasted apart," Elena paused to suck in a breath, far, far away from the present. "Lily was on the ground and Harry was crying and his forehead was bleeding, and I was going to go to him but I couldn't stop staring at Lily," she gasped, shaking. Augusta was sobbing in the background and Elena could hear both Moony and Padfoot sniffing. She didn't look at the boys, though she could feel their gazes burning into her. After a few minutes she cleared her throat and continued, her voice stronger.
"I had just started crossing the room to go to Harry when something, a spell, hit me in the back.
"I woke up a month later in a magical hospital in Salem, America, with no memory of my past."
Yes, it's a cliffhanger, and I will try my best to get the next chapter up as fast as I can. And the story does speed up after this, I promise.
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Loads of Love xD
