Disclaimer: You like Harry Potter? So do I, but he's not mine. He and his
fellow Hogwartians all belong to the great J.K. Only Elena and the plot
are mine.
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12
(Flashback)
Elena swept into her dormitory room with a small smile gracing her features. Her visit home had been canceled due to wizardpox - a non- threatening but highly inconvenient disease contracted by magical folk once in their lifetime. Elena remembered her own experience with the illness, the spiky green and pink dots that had covered her six-year old self.
Oh well, it was uncomfortable and you had to catch it sometime, so she had more gratitude than sympathy for Gertie, her ailing younger sister, since it allowed her to visit Fel Abbey this weekend.
Her parting with Salazar the previous evening had been painful. She wondered if it natural to actually feel physical pain when parting with your beloved, but dismissed the idle thought as she quickly used a series of packing and shrinking spells.
Turning to her fireplace she paused with a handful of floo powder clutched in her small hand. A wicked smile crossed her face as she decided on a whim to surprise her fiancé. Salazar was always giving her wonderful surprises, and she felt that she gave so little back in their relationship.
Decided upon her course of action, Elena penned a quick note to her roommate, Emma, and summoned her broom, a present that Salazar had made himself. Tucking her shrunken bags in the pocket of her traveling cloak Elena perched sidesaddle on the polished ash and shot out of her window.
Little did she know that she was flying toward the worst experience of her life.
13
As Elena flew onto the grounds of Fel Abbey she felt peace fill her veins. These lands recognized her presence, Salazar had ensured that long ago. She felt the wards, wards which would have meant a painful death to any intruders, brush her presence gently, producing a warm tickling sensation that ran along her limbs.
Below her, English tea gardens, hedge mazes, and beautifully landscaped grounds glowed magically in the rust-colored rays of the setting sun. The more time Elena spent at Fel the harder it was to tear herself away from its loveliness.
Setting down gently within the keep's courtyard, Elena hoisted her broom over her shoulder and marched up to the main entrance. The door, a magnificent creation of carved oak and iron, opened before her when she placed a hand on the knocker.
Wanting to genuinely surprise her love, Elena snapped her fingers to summon a house-elf rather than contacting Salazar though the elaborate portrait system that ran through the manse.
A wretched looking creature popped into existence before her and made a clumsy curtsy. "Wilty is surprised you is here, Lady Elena. Master is not telling house-elves to expect Lady Elena, and we is not prepared." The house-elf cringed as she twisted one of her floppy ears.
Elena rolled her eyes. Neither she nor Salazar had ever spoken a harsh word to one of the elves, so she had no idea why they treated their master and soon-to-be-mistress with such painful deference.
"That's fine, Wilty. Your master did not know I would be coming this weekend, so you couldn't have prepared anything."
The elf's eyes widened. "Oh, my Lady. Master is not liking surprises. Master will be," she gulped loudly, "very upset."
"Nonsense, Wilty. Salazar may get cranky sometimes, but I seriously doubt he'll be unhappy that I'm here for the weekend."
The elf looked unconvinced, but nodded her head violently in false agreement.
"Wilty, can you please tell me where Salazar is?" The elf turned pale green in response to what Elena had thought was an innocuous question. "What is it, Wilty? Is he with someone else?" Elena could feel her heart rate pick up as Wilty nodded her head miserably in the affirmative.
"Where is he, Wilty?" The house-elf smacked her palm over her mouth and shook her head, backing away from the upset young woman. "Damn it, Wilty, just tell me where he is. I promise you won't get in trouble."
The elf shook her head more agitatedly and slumped back against a stone wall. Elena took a deep, calming breath. "Wilty, I am giving you an order. Tell me where Salazar is. Now."
Unable to contradict a direct order, Wilty blurted out a squeaky, "Dungeons!"
At this Elena's eyebrows rose. "I didn't know that Fel has dungeons. Are you sure you don't mean labs?" The nervous elf squealed a quick, "Yes!"
Absorbing this information, Elena gave another order to the creature. "Winky, show me where the dungeons are." The elf, looking as though she was being led to her own torture session, limped towards a massive suit of armor that Elena had always admired.
Floating upward, Winky tapped on the figure's breastplate three times in quick succession, followed by two slow taps to the helmet.
Elena watched as the armor became semi-translucent, revealing a set of dark stairs that led downward. Elena gestured to Winky to leave.
As the house-elf popped out of sight Elena muttered "lumos" and began her descent into the murky depths of Fel. With each step she felt her dread grow, as if she were stepping closer and closer to her doom.
When she reached the end of the stairs Elena carefully pulled a vial from her pocket. In it was a sample of the Occaeco potion, one of she and Salazar's newest successes. As she downed the berry-flavored liquid she doused her wand light and set out into the dungeons invisible.
She found herself in was a hall lit by several torches, with cells on each side. Many were empty, but a few held prisoners, people so emaciated and pale that Elena would have thought they were dead, but for the small movements of breathing and the occasional whimper she heard.
Shaking in disbelief Elena continued toward the end of the hallway, where she could hear muffled noises coming from behind a wooden door.
Since there was no way she could enter the room without opening the door in her present form, Elena realized she would have to shift to her animagus shape. When she had finally become an animagus several months ago, she had been surprised, but pleased with her form.
Salazar, though, had laughed for several minutes before shaking his head in dismay. She remembered his exact words as she felt her body shrink to the delicate shape of a holly blue, a small blue butterfly with black spots. "Only you, my dear Elena, would turn into something so utterly beautiful and so utterly useless. Why, I shan't even be able to let you outside in that form. You would be crushed or eaten within moments."
When he saw tears in her eyes after she had transformed back, Salazar had taken her in his arms and whispered, "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, love. It is a wonderful accomplishment to become an animagus. It's only that butterflies are such dainty, fragile things. I would worry about you if you were to fly about outside. You shall only change when I'm with you. Understand?"
As Elena was about to protest he covered her lips with his own, silencing any signs of disagreement she might have shown.
Recalling the incident with far less nostalgia than she had previously held, Elena flattened her wings and crawled under the door. Once she had cleared the oaken obstacle, she returned to her true self and viewed the scene before her with rising horror.
Salazar stood before a laboratory table, his clothes and face spattered with blood, his hands soaking in the sticky red substance.
The figure on the table was barely recognizable as a human being. The parts that were not covered in gore were a sickly, marble-white. Cuts, shallow and deep, covered what, Elena realized upon closer examination, was a man. In places the cuts were so deep that white bone showed.
Elena felt light-headed, but dug her nails into her palms to keep from fainting. Before her was her fiancé, her love, the man she thought she knew better than anybody else on the planet, the man she would have called infinitely gentle only minutes ago.
As wild thoughts tumbled in her mind, she heard Salazar's voice addressing the pitiful figure. The same voice that had taught her, that had comforted and complimented her, came out not in the sensuous baritone she was accustomed to, but in a bitter hiss.
"My, my, Alexander what do we have here." Elena thought she might be sick as Salazar held up what appeared to be a toe. " Clumsy of me," Salazar said as he tossed the appendage into a corner. "You always did admire me for my magic skills, were jealous of me and Elena's love, but did you also covet my dexterity with a knife?"
To her shock and revulsion, Elena realized that the figure on the table was Alexander Marchand, a boy she had been friends with since childhood. She recalled with vivid detail all the times that Salazar had complained that she spent too much time with Alex, that the boy would distract her from her studies with his frivolity.
She also recalled Salazar telling her that Alex had been accepted as an apprentice to a dragon-slayer in Persia, explaining his sudden departure from Hogwarts. She had thought it strange that her dear friend had not said goodbye to her, but, lost in her romance with Salazar, Elena had not thought to question it. Now she was horrified by her revelation.
Unable to stand the sight before her and too frightened to confront Salazar, Elena hastily changed back into a butterfly, crawled under the door, and shifted back into her human form.
She ran clumsily down the hallway and up the stairs. As she emerged into the well-lit front hall, Elena hastily removed another vial from the folds of her robe. Gulping down the antidote Elena watched as her arms became visible.
Snapping her fingers, she summoned Wilty once again. In a shaky voice, she pleaded, "Wilty, I'm ordering you to not tell Salazar that I was here. Do you understand?" Wilty blinked up at her.
"Wilty likes Lady Elena, but Wilty cannot lie to Master. House-elves is never lying to Master."
Frustrated, Elena shook her head sharply. "I know that, Wilty. I'm not asking you to lie. Just don't tell Salazar unless he asks you specifically if I was here this weekend, alright?"
"Alright," she squeaked, wringing her hands. "You must be taking care of yourself, Lady Elena. You is looking sick."
Elena nodded distractedly and snatched up her broom. Within moments she was flying to her family home.
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12
(Flashback)
Elena swept into her dormitory room with a small smile gracing her features. Her visit home had been canceled due to wizardpox - a non- threatening but highly inconvenient disease contracted by magical folk once in their lifetime. Elena remembered her own experience with the illness, the spiky green and pink dots that had covered her six-year old self.
Oh well, it was uncomfortable and you had to catch it sometime, so she had more gratitude than sympathy for Gertie, her ailing younger sister, since it allowed her to visit Fel Abbey this weekend.
Her parting with Salazar the previous evening had been painful. She wondered if it natural to actually feel physical pain when parting with your beloved, but dismissed the idle thought as she quickly used a series of packing and shrinking spells.
Turning to her fireplace she paused with a handful of floo powder clutched in her small hand. A wicked smile crossed her face as she decided on a whim to surprise her fiancé. Salazar was always giving her wonderful surprises, and she felt that she gave so little back in their relationship.
Decided upon her course of action, Elena penned a quick note to her roommate, Emma, and summoned her broom, a present that Salazar had made himself. Tucking her shrunken bags in the pocket of her traveling cloak Elena perched sidesaddle on the polished ash and shot out of her window.
Little did she know that she was flying toward the worst experience of her life.
13
As Elena flew onto the grounds of Fel Abbey she felt peace fill her veins. These lands recognized her presence, Salazar had ensured that long ago. She felt the wards, wards which would have meant a painful death to any intruders, brush her presence gently, producing a warm tickling sensation that ran along her limbs.
Below her, English tea gardens, hedge mazes, and beautifully landscaped grounds glowed magically in the rust-colored rays of the setting sun. The more time Elena spent at Fel the harder it was to tear herself away from its loveliness.
Setting down gently within the keep's courtyard, Elena hoisted her broom over her shoulder and marched up to the main entrance. The door, a magnificent creation of carved oak and iron, opened before her when she placed a hand on the knocker.
Wanting to genuinely surprise her love, Elena snapped her fingers to summon a house-elf rather than contacting Salazar though the elaborate portrait system that ran through the manse.
A wretched looking creature popped into existence before her and made a clumsy curtsy. "Wilty is surprised you is here, Lady Elena. Master is not telling house-elves to expect Lady Elena, and we is not prepared." The house-elf cringed as she twisted one of her floppy ears.
Elena rolled her eyes. Neither she nor Salazar had ever spoken a harsh word to one of the elves, so she had no idea why they treated their master and soon-to-be-mistress with such painful deference.
"That's fine, Wilty. Your master did not know I would be coming this weekend, so you couldn't have prepared anything."
The elf's eyes widened. "Oh, my Lady. Master is not liking surprises. Master will be," she gulped loudly, "very upset."
"Nonsense, Wilty. Salazar may get cranky sometimes, but I seriously doubt he'll be unhappy that I'm here for the weekend."
The elf looked unconvinced, but nodded her head violently in false agreement.
"Wilty, can you please tell me where Salazar is?" The elf turned pale green in response to what Elena had thought was an innocuous question. "What is it, Wilty? Is he with someone else?" Elena could feel her heart rate pick up as Wilty nodded her head miserably in the affirmative.
"Where is he, Wilty?" The house-elf smacked her palm over her mouth and shook her head, backing away from the upset young woman. "Damn it, Wilty, just tell me where he is. I promise you won't get in trouble."
The elf shook her head more agitatedly and slumped back against a stone wall. Elena took a deep, calming breath. "Wilty, I am giving you an order. Tell me where Salazar is. Now."
Unable to contradict a direct order, Wilty blurted out a squeaky, "Dungeons!"
At this Elena's eyebrows rose. "I didn't know that Fel has dungeons. Are you sure you don't mean labs?" The nervous elf squealed a quick, "Yes!"
Absorbing this information, Elena gave another order to the creature. "Winky, show me where the dungeons are." The elf, looking as though she was being led to her own torture session, limped towards a massive suit of armor that Elena had always admired.
Floating upward, Winky tapped on the figure's breastplate three times in quick succession, followed by two slow taps to the helmet.
Elena watched as the armor became semi-translucent, revealing a set of dark stairs that led downward. Elena gestured to Winky to leave.
As the house-elf popped out of sight Elena muttered "lumos" and began her descent into the murky depths of Fel. With each step she felt her dread grow, as if she were stepping closer and closer to her doom.
When she reached the end of the stairs Elena carefully pulled a vial from her pocket. In it was a sample of the Occaeco potion, one of she and Salazar's newest successes. As she downed the berry-flavored liquid she doused her wand light and set out into the dungeons invisible.
She found herself in was a hall lit by several torches, with cells on each side. Many were empty, but a few held prisoners, people so emaciated and pale that Elena would have thought they were dead, but for the small movements of breathing and the occasional whimper she heard.
Shaking in disbelief Elena continued toward the end of the hallway, where she could hear muffled noises coming from behind a wooden door.
Since there was no way she could enter the room without opening the door in her present form, Elena realized she would have to shift to her animagus shape. When she had finally become an animagus several months ago, she had been surprised, but pleased with her form.
Salazar, though, had laughed for several minutes before shaking his head in dismay. She remembered his exact words as she felt her body shrink to the delicate shape of a holly blue, a small blue butterfly with black spots. "Only you, my dear Elena, would turn into something so utterly beautiful and so utterly useless. Why, I shan't even be able to let you outside in that form. You would be crushed or eaten within moments."
When he saw tears in her eyes after she had transformed back, Salazar had taken her in his arms and whispered, "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings, love. It is a wonderful accomplishment to become an animagus. It's only that butterflies are such dainty, fragile things. I would worry about you if you were to fly about outside. You shall only change when I'm with you. Understand?"
As Elena was about to protest he covered her lips with his own, silencing any signs of disagreement she might have shown.
Recalling the incident with far less nostalgia than she had previously held, Elena flattened her wings and crawled under the door. Once she had cleared the oaken obstacle, she returned to her true self and viewed the scene before her with rising horror.
Salazar stood before a laboratory table, his clothes and face spattered with blood, his hands soaking in the sticky red substance.
The figure on the table was barely recognizable as a human being. The parts that were not covered in gore were a sickly, marble-white. Cuts, shallow and deep, covered what, Elena realized upon closer examination, was a man. In places the cuts were so deep that white bone showed.
Elena felt light-headed, but dug her nails into her palms to keep from fainting. Before her was her fiancé, her love, the man she thought she knew better than anybody else on the planet, the man she would have called infinitely gentle only minutes ago.
As wild thoughts tumbled in her mind, she heard Salazar's voice addressing the pitiful figure. The same voice that had taught her, that had comforted and complimented her, came out not in the sensuous baritone she was accustomed to, but in a bitter hiss.
"My, my, Alexander what do we have here." Elena thought she might be sick as Salazar held up what appeared to be a toe. " Clumsy of me," Salazar said as he tossed the appendage into a corner. "You always did admire me for my magic skills, were jealous of me and Elena's love, but did you also covet my dexterity with a knife?"
To her shock and revulsion, Elena realized that the figure on the table was Alexander Marchand, a boy she had been friends with since childhood. She recalled with vivid detail all the times that Salazar had complained that she spent too much time with Alex, that the boy would distract her from her studies with his frivolity.
She also recalled Salazar telling her that Alex had been accepted as an apprentice to a dragon-slayer in Persia, explaining his sudden departure from Hogwarts. She had thought it strange that her dear friend had not said goodbye to her, but, lost in her romance with Salazar, Elena had not thought to question it. Now she was horrified by her revelation.
Unable to stand the sight before her and too frightened to confront Salazar, Elena hastily changed back into a butterfly, crawled under the door, and shifted back into her human form.
She ran clumsily down the hallway and up the stairs. As she emerged into the well-lit front hall, Elena hastily removed another vial from the folds of her robe. Gulping down the antidote Elena watched as her arms became visible.
Snapping her fingers, she summoned Wilty once again. In a shaky voice, she pleaded, "Wilty, I'm ordering you to not tell Salazar that I was here. Do you understand?" Wilty blinked up at her.
"Wilty likes Lady Elena, but Wilty cannot lie to Master. House-elves is never lying to Master."
Frustrated, Elena shook her head sharply. "I know that, Wilty. I'm not asking you to lie. Just don't tell Salazar unless he asks you specifically if I was here this weekend, alright?"
"Alright," she squeaked, wringing her hands. "You must be taking care of yourself, Lady Elena. You is looking sick."
Elena nodded distractedly and snatched up her broom. Within moments she was flying to her family home.