(CoS) CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Hogwarts: A Darker History

That night, Ellie and Fred slipped out of the Gryffindor Tower beneath the protection of the Invisibility Cloak.

"D'you reckon George is upset?" she whispered to him as they walked. He had the Map out, scanning it for any stray teachers or caretakers.

"He'll be fine. The Golden Trio might fit under this thing, but George and I are a good bit larger than them—we wouldn't have all fit."

She chuckled to herself at his use of the term "the golden trio." In another world, she might have been jealous of the closeness of Harry, Ron, and Hermione. But she had her own trio, and she wouldn't trade them for anything.

They made it to the library without incident, though it was hard for Ellie to ignore the way their closeness got her heart rate pumping. Once they were safely inside the restricted section, they slipped out of the cloak to free up their hands for searching. Fred propped the Marauder's Map up on one of the shelves so he could keep an eye out.

They scanned in silence for several minutes until Ellie found something that sparker her attention: Hogwarts: A Darker History.

"I wonder if Hermione knows this exists," she whispered to Fred with a small grin as she pulled it out. "I think the Bathilda Bagshot version is her favourite book."

He chuckled at that, then continued scanning his own half of the area as she opened the book. There was nothing in the table of contents about the Chamber or Sirius Black, so she flipped to the index, instead. To her amazement, she found both.

She flipped to the section about the Chamber first. It was inside a chapter called The 1940's: the Muggle World War and the Magical Renaissance.

"Wow," she managed, shaking her head. "Glad the magical world was doing so well while the Muggle one was nearly overtaken by a tyrannical dictator."

He glanced curiously back at her, clearly not having heard of Hitler or even of World War II. "Yikes. That does sound in keeping with witch and wizard values, though, I'm sorry to say."

Ellie didn't like that aspect of the wizarding world. She had no idea what she would end up doing with her life as of yet, but she made a mental note to do her best to find a job where she could at least try to change that perspective.

She scanned the page for mention of the Chamber of Secrets, and gasped when she saw it. "Fred—look at this."

He came over to her, reading silently over her shoulder as she scanned the page.

During the 1942-1943 school year, a series of attacks on Muggle-born students occurred, culminating in the death of one Myrtle Elizabeth Warren. Many speculated that the attacks were in conjunction with the legend of Salazar Slytherin's Chamber of Secrets, but such a Chamber was never found. However, the attacks were traced to a magical creature under the protection of a student at the time, Rubeus Hagrid, who was subsequently expelled and his magic privileges revoked.

"I don't understand," Ellie said, staring down at the page in disbelief. "Hagrid was responsible for opening the Chamber of Secrets the last time?"

"No way," said Fred quickly. "It says 'a magical creature under his protection.' Whatever the thing was, I'm sure Hagrid didn't know it was attacking those people."

"But…" She was struggling to understand. "Wouldn't he know what's attacking people this time, then? If he did the last time?"

He seemed inclined to agree, though no less confused than her. "Surely Dumbledore knew, though—he was already teaching at Hogwarts in the forties. He will have asked Hagrid all about this by now."

Ellie sighed, frustrated by her own inability to make sense of it. "We've got to talk to Hagrid."

"I s'pose we do—but we'd better be gentle about it. Something tells me it's going to be quite a sore subject for him."

Ellie nodded in agreement, then flipped back to the index to find the subject that interested her even more than the Chamber of Secrets: Sirius Black. She found him in a chapter entitled The 1970's: The First Wizarding War.

Sirius Black has become widely known for his infamous killing of twelve Muggles and one wizard, Peter Pettigrew, directly following the fall of the Dark Lord in 1981. Less commonly known, however, is that, during his tenure as a Gryffindor at Hogwarts, Black was close friends not only with Pettigrew, but also with James Potter, father to Harry Potter, who was murdered by the Dark Lord that very night. Rumors suggest that Black may have been the one who sold out the location of the Potters to the Dark Lord, and that Pettigrew came to Black that night to avenge their fallen friends. Witnesses' reports of Pettigrew accusing Black of betraying the Potters seem to support these claims, but no further proof was ever documented.

When she was finished reading, Ellie stared down at the book for several seconds, utterly frozen, until, suddenly, she dropped it altogether.

"Hey!" hissed Fred in a harsh whisper, reaching frantically for the Map to ensure that no one was close enough to have heard. "What the—" But he stopped short when he saw the expression on her face.

"El?" he whispered.

"You…" It was hard to talk. It was hard to breathe. Never had she expected the truth about her father to be even worse than the masses thought. Never had she expected to learn that he had betrayed his own friends—Harry's parents, no less.

She was starting to understand why her mother hated magic so much.

"You were right," she finally whispered, forcing herself to look him in the eye. As always, it made her feel better—though the pain he was feeling for her was evident. "To tell me not to bring Harry."

She reached down for the book at that, opened it back up to the page about Sirius, and handed it to him.

He scanned the page for about a minute before looking back up at her. When he did, he looked more heartbroken than she had ever seen him.

Which was about how she felt.

"Maybe there's another explanation," he said softly. "Maybe there's more to the story. Maybe…"

But he didn't finish his sentence, and they both knew why.

"I don't want to know more to the story," she whispered to him as a tear slipped down her cheek. "I… can't. I can't do this anymore, Fred."

He took her in his arms at that, and she closed her eyes, squeezed him as tight as she could, and tried to convince herself that as long as she had him, she didn't need a family.


Pretty rough words to read about your own father... If only she knew the full truth! But Sirius isn't scheduled to break free from Azkaban for many months, based on the books' schedule. Any predictions here? As always, reviews are heavily encouraged!

Also, heads up - I'll be traveling this weekend and probably can't upload again until Monday evening. Hopefully the 2 in one day helped, and rest assured we'll be back to frequent updates then!