Last Chapter Ending:
"Um … well, I think it has something to do with another dream I had on my fifteenth birthday, last year," Elisa said, thoughtfully.
Chapter Eighteen:
"It was really weird – I was sleeping, normally, dreaming of nothing in particular, when suddenly whatever it was I was dreaming about – I can't remember what it was now, but it all disappeared. I was in this place that was filled with bright white light.
"I don't know how, but I could tell that there were presences there, I could almost see their faces – they were smiling at me. They spoke, too, and I can still remember every word they said, I don't think I'll ever be able to forget … I doubt I'd ever want to.
"They said: Soon your birthright will be upon you, your life has been one meaningless string of information, but it has all been working towards something – when you find him, guard him with your life, as your ancestors guarded his. He holds your life in his hands, and he can do nothing about it. Ask the star what your birthright is, find the Panther and you'll have found Him. Odd huh? I can't figure it out, except that someone – the Panther, holds my life in his hands, and I have to guard him, and that my ancestors guarded his.
"Well, I know that you're the Panther – dad still calls you that, sometimes, and it's your Animagus form, too, but I have know idea what they meant by 'ask the star'," Elisa said, she seemed thoughtful.
"I think I do – Sirius, that's the Dog Star, it spoke of your ancestors. I think that it probably meant Sirius's side of the family, since your father was best friends with mine …" Harry said, thinking hard.
"That's it!" Elisa said, bounding to her feet. "Let's go find dad!"
"Eli, it's midnight, he'll be sleeping – this can wait till morning, it's waited in your head for months!" Harry said, staring into her eyes, trying to get her to see reason, to calm down.
She did. "You're right. Shall we just sleep here, or do you want to go up to our rooms?"
"Going up to the rooms will take too much effort," Harry replied, flopping down on the couch. "I'm too tired to bother with that now." Acting on his words, he closed his eyes, breathing slowing into the depths of sleep.
Wondering at the ability her god-brother had when it came to falling asleep, Elisa lay down again on the couch and tried to sleep – with everything that was racing through her mind, it was a long time coming, and many a time her train of thought was interrupted by a stab of envy that Harry had gone to sleep in seconds despite all this upheaval that must be in his mind as well.
Maybe it was something that they taught at Seekers Academy? With that one, last thought, Elisa drifted into the welcome arms of sleep.
Harry woke up as the sun sent its first tendrils of light over the horizon, striking his eyes, forcing him to cover them and blink away the spots so that he could see again.
He allowed himself to relish in the act of waking up and stretching for a moment, then stood up, glanced over at Elisa, who was still sleeping. Much as he was tempted to shake her awake and go and jump on Sirius's bed like a four year old on his birthday, Harry went outside for a run, letting all of his thoughts flow away in the easy, continual pumping of his legs.
When he returned the sun was somewhat higher in the sky, and Elisa was just stirring as he entered the room. "Harry?" She asked sleepily, without opening her eyes, as the sun was still in them.
Harry obligingly moved to stand between her and the sun, causing a shadow to be cast over her face. "Yeah, it's me. Wanna go and see if Sirius is up yet? He should be by now, since I heard Menolly moving in the kitchen on my way in."
"You were out?" She asked him sleepily, standing up and stretching with a smooth, feline grace.
"Yeah, for a run, I just got back," Harry replied, as he headed out of the room.
"Wow," Elisa muttered, still waking up. "I don't know how you do that." They walked on in silence, though a companionable one, until they reached Sirius's room.
The man in question was still half asleep when his two children opened the door and walked into the room, the expressions on their faces were serious, and that did not look promising.
"If you have something serious to discuss, it's too early in the morning," Sirius told them.
"You've gotten out of habit," Harry told him sternly. "You should be up and training already … the suns been up for an hour man!"
Sirius mocked scowled. "Fine, I'll start getting up early tomorrow. Today, however, is still today," he remarked coolly.
"Too bad," Elisa told him, grinning wickedly.
"Why do I feel that we are doing to have a deep and meaningful conversation before I've even properly woken up?" Sirius asked, apparently addressing the ceiling of his room.
"I don't think that the roof can answer that question," Harry told him practically. "So I guess I'll have to do so for it."
He sat down on the bed and he and Elisa told Sirius of what they'd been discussing the night before. Sirius looked wide awake now, and didn't interrupt once.
When they'd finished, Sirius's expression was serious, and when he spoke he made no jokes, nor did he complain about little things that weren't going to change like he usually did.
"The dream refers to something that has been going on between the Potter and Black family's way back into the mists of time, so far back that no one knows quite how long it's actually been around.
"The only thing we know is that one of my ancestors was friends with one of yours, Harry, and one day found him lying, half dead from grievous wounds from a fight.
"My ancestor was sorely grieved, for he loved the other man as the brother that he'd never had, and hated to see him lying helpless, almost killed by dark wizards that had been plaguing the ancient world – I think that was before Avada Kedavra was created.
"Anyway, he'd heard of an ancient spell, one that went back beyond his memory and one that is lost to all bar our families today. He took a dagger and opened a cut in his own arm, severing a main vein, and held it over Potter (it was a different name then, but since no one knows what it was, Potter will do as well as any) Potter allowed the blood to touch his lips, and swallowed, not knowing what he was doing.
"At the same time, Black (again, not his name, but it's unknown as well) swore that by the blood that now linked them, he'd always be there to help his friend, and that every one of his descendants would do the same.
"The blood that he gave to Potter worked miracles, for the life blood, freely given, is one of the most potent magics … I think that's part of the reason that Voldemort used your blood to come back, although because it was enemy blood, forcibly taken, it was different, but had a better effect than a friends blood would.
"Anyway, that blood saved Potter's life, and since then one of the Blacks is always born within a year of a Potter, and they link up. That binding oath comes into play when the youngest of the pair turns sixteen, but somehow, it's different this time … I don't know why, but it is. Maybe urgency is making it happen faster.
"Since this is already happening, you'll have to swear the oath – it's renewed every generation, and the power in it now is something astronomical.
"The oath has changed a little over the time, apparently. Now we swear on the blood that we share that no Black will ever betray a Potter, that a Black will, whenever possible, shed blood before a Potter, and die before a Potter.
"That's one of the other reasons why I could not have been the Secret Keeper for you parents – I'd never have been able to think of betraying them to Voldemort except in jest, and if I ever did anything to act on those jests, the magical energy that's built up would have bounced back on me and destroyed me completely."
Harry and Elisa were staring at Sirius in a quiet awe.
"So you've got quite a reputation to live up to, Elisa, and you too, Harry. The only reason I still live is that a Potter lives still, and while the Potter line lives on, so does the Black. With the death of the last Potter, all the Blacks will die," he finished.
Elisa and Harry looked at one another in surprise.
"The ceremony has simplified as well, there's no need to go severing a main vein any more, just a pinprick of blood from both, and have the wounds touch, then swear the oath and you're bound for life," Sirius continued. "And Harry, you must swear, after Elisa has, never to betray the trust that she's put into, and always remain loyal to your cause, never to lay down your life for a foolish reason, for it could kill you both.
"The only reason James's death didn't kill me was that he made me promise – swear by the blood bond – that if anything happened to him, I'd take care of you, and Lily, if she lived as well. Remember that Harry, you don't just stay alive for yourself anymore, or you will not, once you both swear the oath, and I think that we'd best get that over and done with as quick as possible, given the circumstances … tonight the moon is full, we'll do it then. I've got to talk to Menolly about it anyway.
"Now, off you go, you two, I'm sure you've got some homework to do, especially you, Eli, since you have all of that catch up work that Albus was kind enough to give you!" Sirius shooed them from his room so that he could get up and changed in peace and quiet.
"Wow," Elisa remarked, walking down the corridors with Harry. "I thought something weird was going on with that dream, and the one that we had last night, but I didn't think that it'd be that weird."
"Neither," Harry added truthfully. "Come on, Syr was right about one thing, you've got a lot of work to do, starting with memorizing those ancient ruins!"
Elisa had chosen the same elective subjects as Harry had, Care of Magic Creatures and Ancient Ruins (A/N: was there a third? I can't remember it ever being mentioned …), so he could help her with that homework, and with that from the 'normal' subjects.
Harry still had to finish the last parts of his holiday homework – he had laughed when he saw Snape's essay, it referred to a Potion that was not even taught in schools, hoping that Harry wouldn't be able to get it. He'd finished it in one day, including making a sample of the Potion to make sure that he could make it properly.
It may not be taught in wizarding schools, but that by no means meant that it wouldn't be taught in the Seekers Academy. Besides, with the library that Harry had at his disposal, finding information on a Potion was as easy as breathing.
Elisa's work, because it was given to her by Dumbledore rather than Snape, was fairly easy, as was the rest of her holiday homework – the week before school went back, Dumbledore was going to have her set the O.W.L's for her subjects, just to make sure.
Elisa was nervous about that, and Harry was helping her learn spells, memorize Ruins, make Potions and many other things, though Dumbledore had already warned them that the test would be slightly different from the test that Harry had done, because they didn't want her cheating.
Elisa wouldn't have cheated anyway; she wasn't that sort of person. She worked hard to achieve what she wanted, and this was no exception.
Today, though, they were both distracted by what Sirius had told them, and so learning anything was proving a bit of a challenge, and they eventually gave up. "We can do extra tomorrow, that'll make up for what we've lost today," Elisa said, standing up. "Wanna go for a fly?"
Harry was on his feet in seconds and the pair of them were out of the library and racing along the corridor, like, although they didn't know it, Sirius and James had, in times past.
All through the day, no one mentioned what was going to happen that night, no one knew why, but they just didn't. The night seemed to crawl along, and as soon as it was fully dark, Sirius led Harry and Elisa outside.
Out in the darkness both Harry and Elisa were shivering slightly, because it was already August, and winter wasn't too far away. No one carried a light, though they all had there wands, Sirius had told them not to light them.
The moon hadn't risen yet, but it would soon, and when it did, they were performing the ceremony. Both Harry and Elisa were somewhat scared, but they knew that Sirius would do nothing to hurt them.
Finally the moon had risen, and the ceremony could begin.
Sirius took out a small knife with a sharp point, he gently pricked Elisa's finger so that it bled slightly, a bead of red glowing faintly in the moonlight.
He then repeated the prick on Harry's finger, Harry didn't flinch, hardly even felt the prick, he'd gotten far worse in training sessions. Then they both reached out and touched the tips of their fingers so that the blood mixed.
Sirius was speaking in a different language. Harry listened hard, but he couldn't understand it, the words fell into something like a chant, and finally Sirius yelled one last word, and then, for a moment, there was silence.
When Sirius spoke next, he again used a different language, but this time they could understand him. He asked Elisa to swear the oath that he had spoken of that morning, and she swore.
Then he turned to Harry, but said nothing, Harry already knew what to do. He spoke his oath, at the same time accepting Elisa's one, and as he spoke golden light began to gather around them, he could sense the power of great wandless magic, greater than any he'd felt before, as it had built up so much over the ages.
The gold grew brighter and brighter, and then, as Harry spoke his last word, it flared and was gone, leaving them blinking in the darkness.
'Freaky,' a voice, Elisa's, spoke, but in his mind, not in his ears.
'Hey, I can hear what you were thinking!' Harry thought back at her, laughing.
"Did you just say something?" Elisa asked him aloud.
"No, I was speaking to you mind-to-mind," Harry replied, grinning, then turned to Sirius, "did this happen to you and James, because you didn't mention it when you were telling us about it?" he asked his godfather.
Sirius was looking slightly shaken. "No … and the golden light didn't either," he said, "I don't know what's happening – this is completely different from anything that's happened over the last millennium and longer, I've never heard of any differences in the ceremony ever occurring, and now three have happened at once."
Harry nodded. "I had a feeling that might be it." 'Mum, dad, do you know what might have caused this?' he asked in his mind, careful to block anyone from hearing those thoughts, though he couldn't isolate her exactly, he didn't want Elisa hearing him thinking to his parents.
'There might be something … there are tests … tell Sirius that it's what we – that is, James and I – thought might be the case. Everything that's happened so far points to that, and this just makes it even more likely,' Lily told him.
Completely mystified, Harry obeyed. Sirius looked at him oddly. "I don't know how you could know of that, unless you are indeed what we thought," he said after a moment. "But that is a tale for another time, kid, it's dangerous for you to learn to early … I'll tell you when I can, I promise you that," he said.
"Great, more mysteries," Harry grumbled, but only half-heartedly. "Oh well, if I have to wait, then I will, even if it would be nice to get a proper explanation for this stuff …"
"I'd like one of them too," Elisa remarked. "What are we supposed to do until then?" She added to Sirius.
"The only thing you can do – perform the duty that was given to you by your ancestors. From what happened last night, I'd say that you can guard Harry's dreams, so that he is safe from dark forces even while he sleeps – don't worry, it won't impact at all on your own sleep, you'll still get the rest that you need unless you both have to fight something … I'll give you a book in the morning that explains all this, I'm afraid I'm not the best of teachers," Sirius replied after a moment.
"That makes no sense whatsoever," Elisa remarked, shaking her head. "But then, nothing has made much sense since we came to England … or maybe it was meeting you," she pointed at Harry.
"Probably meeting me," Harry grinned. "I have that effect on people and events sometimes, more so now than ever before." Elisa gave him a light punch on the shoulder.
"We can talk in the morning, kids," Sirius said, "I need sleep."
"Oh, stop being such an adult!" Harry said with a grin – Sirius hated being likened to adults, since he held a rather clichéd idea of them, thinking them to be people who existed solely to stop pranks, give out detentions and so on.
He knew that it was unformed and stupid, of course, but he loved being able to explode about things like being called an 'adult' or a 'grown-up' just because he could act childishly.
And, as Harry had known, his godfather chased him in dog form all the way to Harry's bedroom, leaving Elisa to race after them, since she had no Animagus form of her own.
'Remind me to get you to teach me how to become one,' she thought-growled to Harry. 'This will get annoying if happens often.'
'Will do, oh honoured protector,' Harry sent back sleepily, and flopped onto his bed. 'I think I like being able to talk to you, it makes after bed-time conversations far easier.'
He could sense her laughter. 'I'm really worn out,' she remarked to him. 'That ceremony took out of me like nothing I've ever felt before.'
'That's because it was magically draining as well as physically so,' Harry told her. 'Don't worry, you'll feel better after a good nights sleep and some good meals tomorrow. It drained me too … I think it must be something to do with the ceremony, that it drains me more than it does you, because my magic can handle it … that's probably why there was the golden light … although I could be wrong on that – I'm in the dark as much as you are.'
'Let's sleep then,' Elisa said, and Harry could sense her weariness fading away into sleep, before he followed the example. The questions that he'd wanted to ask his parents before he slept while there was no chance of Elisa overhearing were forgotten.
Harry smiled as he slept, the first time he'd done so in longer than he could remember, he felt safer now than he ever had before, with Elisa joined to him by their ancestors pledge, he could feel the difference that they shared. He had no idea how much that difference would mean in the upcoming battles to keep back the dark.
Morning was well underway by the time Harry woke, and for a while he simply lay dozing on the bed, knowing that he should have been up hours ago, and for once not caring enough to move.
He'd not been awake long when he felt that Elisa had woken too, and they talked for a while, mind to mind so that they didn't have to extend the effort of moving together and talking normally.
Finally hunger forced them out of their beds and downstairs to eat. Menolly and Sirius were nowhere to be seen, but neither of the two teenagers particularly cared.
Raiding the fridge, they ate a large meal before going outside to lounge in the sun. Sirius found them there not much later, though by that time they had once more fallen into the arms of sleep.
He smiled faintly and left two books lying beside them, for when they woke again.
It was afternoon by the time they did, and when they headed inside, books held in hands, though unopened, because the thought of reading them and actually comprehending what was written would be a near-impossibility in their current state, they found Menolly and Sirius in the kitchen, with a meal laid out with four places at the table.
"I thought that you might be awake by now," Sirius told them with a grin, "you'd best eat – we saw the remainders of your brunch earlier, and you were obviously pretty hungry."
Harry and Elisa fell on the food, suddenly ravenous, before Sirius sent them to bed, not sure if they'd be able to reach it in their current state – his fears proved unjustified … but only by a very narrow margin.
Neither of them even had the energy to undress themselves, and fell onto the beds, fully clothed, asleep before they hit the beds. A while later Menolly appeared to put them under the blankets and cover them up gently. Neither one so much as stirred when this happened, but Sirius said they would be alright the next morning, and she believed him – she knew he wouldn't let anything bad happen to the two children.
And Sirius turned out to be right – when they woke in the morning both felt right as rain, although Elisa was a little peeved because she'd woken up earlier than she was used to.
Since no one else was up they both settled and read the books that Sirius had left them, detailing the notes taken by various Potters and Blacks from the eons that had passed before them.
They learned many interesting things, 'it says here that if you get badly hurt, I'll feel it like I was hurt, even though I'll have not a mark on me, and if you die it'll kill me too, unless you gave me some task to complete after you'd died, as your father gave mine,' Elisa remarked once.
'Sirius mentioned something like that … this is confusing, there are so many chances, so many guesses … but no one's been able to find out much for sure, we are pretty much stumbling around in the dark, and I don't like it – there are way too many places for abysses to turn up for us to fall into …' Harry thought back.
'There are some lights though, Harry. We'll be fine, I'm sure of it. At least until we can find out for certain, and from what you've told me, the best place to do that is in Atlantis …' Elisa said.
'Yeah. I don't know when we should go there, though. Not now, I don't think … we need to wait and let some of the questions accumulate, so that we don't need to make another trip back a few weeks later – there are only two more visits that we can make, and we don't dare waste them,' Harry thought, frustrated.
They didn't get the chance to meet up with Ron and Hermione before August the twentieth, when they met up in Diagon Alley, so there was not going to be a chance to tell them about the events of the holidays until school went back.
Sirius, Lily and James were being very stubborn and not saying anything about what they'd meant by their 'explanation' of what had happened that night.
Elisa had found out about his parents, despite Harry's best efforts to prevent it – he didn't know why he wanted to keep them from her, since she wouldn't think that he was mad, but he had.
Elisa was delighted by the prospect of talking to the woman who would have been her godmother, and the man who would have been her godfather, if Voldemort hadn't been around.
They'd worked out ways to keep their lives separate even though their minds were linked in many ways, because they both loved their privacy.
Finally the twentieth came around and both Harry and Elisa were looking forward to meeting Hermione and the Weasley's again – Elisa loved the family as much as Harry did.
Finally the day came around; Sirius and Menolly were both woken by a pair of all-to-eager teenagers early in the morning. "I'm glad that I bypassed the younger kid stage of both their lives," Sirius grumbled.
Menolly punched him in the shoulder and went off to make breakfast. "What happened to getting up early?" Harry demanded, scowling at his godfather. "You'd been doing so well!"
"I was having a sleep in because Menolly keeps threatening to kill me if I keep waking her up early," Sirius replied loftily. Harry laughed and headed off to breakfast.
'Harry, can we go and practice the Animagus stuff when mum and dad get ready?' Elisa asked. Harry had been training her so that she'd be able to get around as fast as he could; she had also lost her American accent very quickly, in the company of the Britains in her family.
'Sure,' he told her, since Menolly would take some time to get ready, and Sirius would also, because Menolly would insist that he wear clothes that went with each other, and with Sirius, finding clean clothing that went together was always difficult.
Harry and Elisa were dressed very quickly. Once again Harry was wearing 'normal' clothes so that he wouldn't attract attention, to either himself or Menolly and Elisa. He didn't want to put them in the spotlight for the moment, and Sirius was doing the same.
He settled, with Elisa's help, for loose blue jeans and a black t-shirt, since they'd be going through Muggle London, and they had to blend in then as well. Elisa was wearing flared stretch jeans and a sparkling black t-shirt with 'I'm Cute. Sue me,' which she'd had since she'd been in America.
They met up in Harry's room, because it was better suited to the training they were doing. Elisa was having an easier time of it than Harry had, because Harry could help her by sharing some of his magics with her – they'd discovered that a short time before and it was proving very useful.
"You'll easily be able to change before Christmas … in the first month of school, probably," Harry told her. "This will be good, because you can help me with Ron and Hermione."
Elisa laughed happily. "Then we can really be Marauders," she said. "We'll have to think up nicknames too … you can't just stay Panther, we'll have to think up something better than that," she added thoughtfully.
"Come on, sounds like everyone's ready to go," Harry said a moment later, standing up and heading downstairs. They'd loaded everything into the car already.
Sirius and Menolly were also ready now, Sirius actually looked presentable, which seemed kind of odd still, even though Harry had seen him this way on several other occasions.
They all went to the fire place and took out of the Floo powder. Harry went first, and then Sirius, they moved away to allow Menolly and Elisa to come through.
They were going to keep a little ways apart, just in case there were people who might target companions of Harry and Sirius – both of them were capable of defending themselves against any sort of attack, but they didn't want to put anyone else at risk.
Ron and Hermione joined Harry and Sirius when they came through into the crowded street. "We don't know Eli," Harry muttered. "We are going to meet up in Flourish Blott's, we can have a conversation there, but Eli and Menolly have to go get everything that they need for school, including robes and such."
"Ok, let's go then!"
An hour later everyone made their way to the bookshop, where Harry, Ron, Elisa and Hermione had a chance for a short conversation, but they saved most things up for on the train.
"Wish we could talk more, but we don't dare speak openly around here, who knows who's listening," Hermione said, when Mrs. Weasley called out that it was time to go.
Harry and Elisa nodded, and everyone parted ways again. 'Oh well, it won't be too long before we see them again, thank Merlin.'
'Yeah,' Elisa replied, and went to join Menolly while Harry returned to Sirius with the books that he needed.
The next eleven days went fast, and Harry and Elisa spent as much time as possible working on the Animagus transformation spell. Harry knew that Elisa wouldn't get to the end of the preparation for the spell before the end of the holidays, but it wouldn't long before she was able to transform.
When September the first arrived, Harry and Elisa were practicing in Harry's room in the early morning before the adults were awake. "I wish we could have finished this before the end of the holidays," Elisa remarked with a sigh.
"So do I, but we can't, so we'll just get as far as is possible," Harry said, shrugging. "Come on, let's go and make some breakfast, I want to get to the station, and sitting around here isn't going to make it happen faster."
They'd both already packed and repacked their trunks three times in the night before, made a few check-lists and skim-read half of the books.
Elisa welcomed the idea; it would take her mind of her nerves at the thought of going to a new school. She wasn't worried about the work itself, she'd passed the O.W.L.'s with flying colours (she got in the top fifteen of the year), a few weeks ago.
Just as they finished Sirius bounded downstairs, Menolly was probably making sure his clothes were at least slightly clean, and getting dressed herself.
Sirius wasn't wearing his Seekers Robes yet, both he and Harry would change on the train so as not to make an appearance with the Muggles watching – there would be plenty of things to do once they got onto the Platform.
Elisa and Harry shared identical grins of pure mischievousness as they entered the car, they knew that Menolly was going to go back to the Ministry to re-join the Aurors, which is what she had been before Sirius was arrested and she left for the states.
The Ministry had offered her job back, since she'd neither been fired nor quit, she'd just up and left, so technically she was still employed, which had made the teenagers asked if she had gotten paid all that time, to which she replied no. "Bummer," Elisa had said when she learnt that.
There was a little bit of a fuss getting out when Menolly refused to let Sirius drive, "I don't want to have an accident, attract the attention of Muggle police, or get lost, therefore I am driving!" She informed him.
The argument continued full scale all the two hour drive to the train station, Harry made the car invisible as they went through the gates, as well as putting a soundless charm on it, just in case the Death Eaters were still there.
No one inside of the car noticed, because of the argument going on in the front, and Harry didn't see any reason to tell them, either. He kept a look out for the Death Eaters, but saw none … that didn't mean that they weren't there, of course, but it was most likely that they weren't.
'Eli, want to plan some pranks?' He asked her, once they got onto the highway, because the argument was over and Sirius and Menolly were talking of the 'good old days' although they didn't call them that.
'Sure. I've only heard what you, Hermione and the Weasley's have to say about Snape, but he doesn't sound like a nice guy … I've heard dad talk about him too, sometimes, and he really hates our Potions teacher.'
'Sure he does, and with good reason,' Harry hadn't told her about his first meeting with the human Sirius Black, and did so now. She knew of all of Sirius's previous grievances, but not this one.
'Oooh, I hate him too now!' Elisa hissed in Harry's mind when he finished the tale. 'Let's see, what can we do to Snape …'
The rest of the long journey was spent discussing various tortures for the Potions teacher – Harry could almost feel sorry for the man, if he didn't dislike him as much as he did.
"Nearly there," Sirius remarked. "You guys have been quiet back there, did you fall asleep or sometime?" he added, twisting around in his seat to see what the two teenagers were doing.
Both looked at him calmly. "Of course not, we were talking mind-to-mind," Harry told him. "We didn't want to disturb you."
"Ah, that makes a certain sense," Sirius said, You don't fool me, you were talking about pranks and didn't want a teacher to hear you, he added, using their sign language.
Harry inclined his slightly. As a teacher, you'd have been forced to stop us, if you heard someone discussing pranks to play, he signalled back.
I know. Pity. Oh well, that'll be make it a surprise! Sirius signalled. Then spoke aloud. "You too bring your trunks, and I'll bring mine," he said. "I'm not about to carry yours as well."
Harry performed a feather-weight charm on both his and Elisa's trunks, but didn't do the same for Sirius, in slight revenge for the remark, even though he didn't really mind it at all.
They made it onto the platform easily, but Elisa was caught in a group of people and tugged away from Harry. 'Don't worry about it, get on the train and I'll find you there, and bring you back to say goodbye to Menolly and Sirius,' Harry told her.
'Right Harry. I'll see if I can find Ron and Hermione too!' Elisa sent back, and Harry relayed what had happened to his godparents. "Right, that's fine," Sirius said. "Let's find the Weasley's, and then you can head up to the Prefects compartment."
*Elisa's POV*
Caught up in the gaggle of students, Elisa fought her way through to try and get some breathing room; she nearly tripped several times, but eventually succeeded in getting her trunk and herself out of the mob, thanking her god brother for making it light and easier to move.
She was uncomfortable here – there were a lot of guys around, and they were all looking at her. Sometimes she wished she'd been ugly. Suddenly one of them, a slick blond with cruel eyes and a sharp face came over.
His clothes were beaurocratic and his smile,
while it looked like an attempt to be friendly, was scary. "Hello, are you
new?" He asked her, and at her nod continued, "what year are you in?"
"Sixth," she told, thinking up ways to
back away without being impolite.
"What a co-incidence. I'm a sixth year too, I hope you'll be in Slytherin – it's obviously the best house, even though we haven't won the house cup since that git Potter came," Elisa felt anger rising in his mind, she was about ready to kill this boy, whoever he was.
"My names Draco Malfoy, by the way, maybe we can be friends?" he looked at her, with a delicately arched eyebrow and an infuriating sneer on his lips.
She knew him now, the one that had always hated Harry. Looking over him again, the wind blew his cloak out of the way, and she was a badge pinned to his shirt with 'Potter Stinks' written on it.
He saw where she was looking. "Cool huh? I made it two years ago when Potter somehow sneaked his name into the Goblet of Fire."
Elisa had been yelling for Harry to get his arse over here and do something about Malfoy – before she did. At that moment he burst from the crowd behind her, and sprang neatly to her side.
Resting a hand on her shoulder, Harry turned to Malfoy. "Have you ever thought that she might not be interested in any of this, Malfoy?" he asked the Slytherin boy coolly.
"Who asked you Potter?" Malfoy sneered back at him.
"She did actually. My god-sister has been politely attempting to refrain from killing you since you started talking to her," Harry replied, eyes cold.
"Your sister?" Malfoy stared at Elisa in surprise.
"God-sister, moron. I'm Sirius Black's daughter, and the Black's have always been friends of the Potter's, and if not always enemies of the Malfoys, never friends. Your family has always been dark; mine has been dedicated to fighting the dark for as long as anyone can remember. If I ever hear you insult Harry or my father or my house, for that matter – I've already been sorted into Gryffindor – you are going to get it real bad, got that?"
He was staring at her, but without giving him a chance to respond, she turned and marched off, Harry striding easily at her side. "I see why you hate him," Elisa told Harry, her eyes still snapping in anger.
"Calm down, Eli. It doesn't do any good to have too much anger in your mind. I'm here now, and you're with friends, we'll get Malfoy back when we have a really good prank, until then, just try and ignore him, if you can," Harry told her, resting a gentle hand on her shoulder again.
'I'll try, but I think that it was something to do with the ceremony, he insulted you and it became even harder to keep from killing him,' Elisa told him.
'I'm sorry, I should've thought of that. We'll just have to keep you away from him as much as possible then,' Harry said. She smiled at him.
'Thanks bro,' she told him. "Hey look! There they are!" Sirius, Menolly, Hermione and the Weasley's were all grouped together waiting for them arrive.
"Harry! Eli!" Hermione and Ron rushed over – they and Ginny where the only Weasley children present, which seemed almost odd. Percy was obviously at work, and Harry supposed that the twins were busy setting up their shop on Diagon Alley.
Harry and Elisa bounded forward to greet their friends happily. "How have you been?" Elisa asked.
"We'll talk on the train, we have to say goodbye now," Hermione said, hugging her. Elisa nodded and they joined the adults.
Menolly hugged her daughter. "Watch your father, make sure he doesn't get in too much trouble, and owl me if does anything really funny," she told her.
"Sure mum," Elisa said, hugging back and rolling her eyes.
After saying goodbye to all of the adults minus Sirius, who would be Apparating to Hogsmeade and going to Hogwarts that way, they boarded the train and made their way up to the Prefect compartments. Even though Elisa wasn't a Prefect, she could come into the compartment because she'd been invited by the Prefects.
"So what's been happening?" Hermione asked, Harry cast a charm to make sure no one could over hear them, and they settled down with the Prefects, minus Pansy Parkinson.
Blaise Zabini had been a Prefect, so they could all talk together now without it looking odd. Pansy was off with Draco Malfoy somewhere, so she wasn't likely to come in any time soon.
Just in case, Zabani sat a little way away from everyone else with an open book in her lap, so she could make it seem like she was just reading and seated in the same compartment should any of her house mates come looking for her.
The Young Phoenixes who were present were happy to greet Elisa and made her feel like on of the group, because they hadn't had much of a chance at Harry's birthday party, and were amazed to find out the role that she played in her god-brothers life.
"Wow! You can talk mind-to-mind … that's amazing!" Hermione exclaimed when she found out. The others were just as surprised, although they didn't have quite as good idea of how rare it was as Hermione did.
Harry cast a wandless charm that wouldn't let them speak of anything about the occurrence to anyone outside of the Young Phoenixes, it wasn't that he didn't trust them, but he had been trained to be suspicious, and it was easy to let a wrong word slip somewhere.
They'd been on the tracks for almost an hour when there was a sudden flash of light and an explosion that made the whole train shudder and stop.
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Haha! Cliffies! Don't you just love them?? *grins* Review and I'll tell you what happened!
Haha! Cliffies! Don't you just love them?? *grins* Review and I'll tell you what happened!
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36 reviews! Thanks guys! They are much appreciated! I have 555 reviews now! *celebrates* can we try to get REALLY close to 600 this time? It's only 45 reviews!! *looks pleadingly at reviewers* and I left a nice cliffie to encourage some reponse from you!! REVIEW!!
~WolfMoon~
Oh and the pairings in this story are: Ron/Hermione, Sirius/Menolly and Harry/OC (NOT Elisa!!) but I'm not telling you who the mystery girl is! And it IS a girl, I'm not a slash fan! I have yet to decide who Elisa will be with, if anyone. BTW, there will be NO intimate scenes between characters! I'm not much of a romance writer and I'm only having pairings here because they fit in with the story!