Chapter Twenty-two
Avenging Alliance
It was still too early for the sunrise. I rose higher. The broom beneath me felt like an excited horse. It reminded me of home, where my parents had taught me to ride a Muggle horse before being allowed to get on a broomstick with my father. I took a look backwards and saw figures hurrying towards me on the ground.
"Elixa get down." I saw Snape standing on the ground below me. I shook my head.
"It's not true!" I shouted at him.
"She's dead Elixa." Snape called.
"She's not!" I could feel the tears on my cheeks, anger and frustration in tiny drops of salt water. I put a hand to wipe them away, and felt the broom gently lowering through the night's air.
"No…" I sobbed, repeating and shaking my head. I wanted to see my mother, to help her get better. She wasn't dead! Snape caught my shoulder and his broom.
"I don't believe you." I told him, but he caught my face in his hands, wiping away streaks of tears with his thumbs and looking at me sadly. He put my head onto his shoulder and put his arms around me. We were both grieving, be it sister for him and mother for me.
Kerry and Draco were the only student visitors I received that day. Kerry brought a copy of the Daily Prophet to show me. I thanked her for it, although I didn't read it, the headlines were enough: 'Dark Lord takes lives of two ministry'. She told me that Snape was teaching, as she'd seen him about the dungeons, his face paler, and walking as if he carried a great weight. I understood his way of grieving was to concentrate on his teaching, and mine was to remember the dead as glorious. I showed Kerry some photographs of my parents and she too saw the now true similarities between my mother and the potion professor. Late evening, Snape came to fetch me to Dumbledore.
"Any easier?" He asked me. I shook my head.
"Nor me." He admitted. We walked in silence to the office, the corridors almost empty apart from Prefects and the ghosts. Hermione Granger, Prefect and friend to Harry Potter watched us along the corridor.
"Miss Granger haven't you better things to do than gawk at Miss Amethyst and I?"
"I'm sorry Professor, I'm sorry too about your parents Elixa…" I thanked her quietly, and she moved on.
"Gryffindors can never keep their nose out
of anyone's business-."
"Lysander couldn't either." I interrupted him, the Gryffindor side
of me making the comment.
"True." He agreed.
The staff room was full; all of the attendants professors apart from the minister of magic himself, Cornelius Fudge. Snape walked behind me and gently sat me down on the chair next to the minister. Snape then sat down beside me, rearranging his robes in an irritated way. I looked around and saw Quirrell's ghostly form hovering two heads higher than the majority of the congregation. Dumbledore stood up.
"Witches and Wizards, Professors of Hogwarts, may I introduce Miss Elixa Amethyst, Adia and Cassius Amethyst's only child." I swallowed, trying to look humble.
"As you've all been informed, the Amethysts are both dead. Lord Voldermort's work." I shivered at the name. Snape put his hand on my arm.
"Professor Quirrell, Professor Snape would you like to inform the meeting of the necklace?" Dumbledore invited. Snape got up and I saw he and Quirrell exchange looks.
"The necklace is made of elven silver, and the design is a crescent moon with star, a snake and a dragon. It was originally meant to be a lion, but I was advised to make it a dragon." Snape said. Quirrell was watching the necklace hang from Snape's fingers with a sort of jealous look. Whether it was because Snape was able to hold things, or that he wanted the necklace, I didn't know.
"The possessor experiences severe changes in power without having to particularly concentrate, which is useful in combat, but can cause grievous harm accidentally. For example, Miss Amethyst accidentally sliced my finger in her potion class, and as Madame Pomfrey will tell you, the hand became inflamed and untreatable. However, Miss Amethyst healed it as she examined the hand. A few days later the hand did return to the inflamed state, but was again healed by Miss Amethyst, and has remained completely normal." There was a murmur amongst the lines of those present. As Quirrell began to speak, I heard a voice behind me, and turned. There was nobody standing behind me. It was as if I was the only person to hear it.
"Elixa, are you listening to me?" The voice said.
"Mum?" I asked gently, trying not to be heard by those around me.
"Of course it is dear, you didn't think I'd leave you that easily? You have to talk with Mr Potter Elixa, and beware of the Malfoy boy. Your father sends his love too, although he's too weak to talk. Good luck Elixa…"
"Don't go." I told her voice. "Mum, don't go, tell me why I need to talk to Harry?" There was no reply. I looked up and saw Dumbledore was watching me.