Elaine sighed as she looked at Colin. He's so dreamy, she thought. Colin was a sixth year in Gryffindor, as was Elaine. Elaine had moved from America to England when she was ten and had gotten her acceptance letter on her eleventh birthday, December fifth, which was strange, as no one ever got their letters in December. But that didn't matter to Elaine. She was a witch, a magical person, a person who could do… the extraordinary. She knew that she was special ever since her fifth birthday party when some bullies had been riding bikes past her house. The bullies had come to her party in the front yard, where all the kids were playing in the snow, and started screaming at all the little girls, making them shriek and run away. Elaine was so angry that she began thinking of something strange happening to them, like turning blue. But the weird part was that they did turn blue. No kid was ever found as Elaine's friend after that, they were all frightened of her strangeness and the thought that they would be turned blue if they were stuck on her bad side.
But then, five years later, her mom's company gave her a transfer to England from America. England was different, but Elaine loved it. When she turned eleven, a letter came by owl and landed in Elaine's hands. She opened it, and read:
Elaine Marie,
You have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please purchase the items on the following page for the new term. Term begins on Sep
But by the time Elaine reached that point in the letter, she was on the ground blacked out from total shock.
When Elaine had woken up, her parents were sitting at the dining room table in tears. Elaine remembered this moment, as it was one of the proudest moments of her life.
"Elaine, dearie, did…did… did you know you're a-a witch?" her mother asked.
"I swear mom! I didn't know!" she exclaimed in response.
"Darling, it's okay, but there's something we need to tell you," her father attempted at calming her.
"What?" she asked, confusion crossing over her face.
"Now, I want you to be calm when we tell you this. It's going to be… haywire…but, everything's all right. We kept this from you for your own good, okay?" Elaine nodded at this.
"Darling, I-I'm a witch, too. We didn't want you to be-," but Elaine's mother, Esmerelda, was cut off by her daughter stomping away from the dining room table and up the stairs to her room.
"I guess I knew this would happen," sighed her father, Tim.
Now, you see, Elaine was proud of this moment for unobvious reasons. She was proud of her mother. She was proud her mom was a witch. It was a wonderful feeling, being related to one of her own kind: a witch.
Elaine stomped up to her room in utter shock. How can they do this to me? she thought, anger crossing over her features once again. I can't believe them! I can't! she thought again, but this time, she noticed something different. The mirror on her dresser was shaking, shaking, shaking, shattered. Elaine stared at her hands, embarrassed that her magic had caused such a stupid thing to happen.
"Darling? Are you okay? I heard glass, and-," began Esmerelda, but stopped when she saw the shattered mirror and the way her daughter was staring at her feet. "Oh, honey, it's okay. Nothing's your fault here. I should have told you when you were younger, it's just that it's such a big burden on you, especially if it turned out you weren't a witch," she soothed.
Most neighbors would say that it was like a bomb going off that day. Windows shattered as Elaine's accidental magic erupted from within her. Distrust fled from her eyes as she stared at her mother in absolute horror.
"You thought I wasn't going to be a witch? Get away from me!"
There went the door to the room.
"Darling, we didn't know! Your father is a Muggle – a nonmagical person, we weren't certain if you would be or not. It could have gone either way!" supplied Esmerelda.
And there went the roof over Elaine's bedroom.
Of course Elaine and her parents made up, after the rest of the house was left smoldering to pieces. Let's just say the Muggle Secrecy was not going too well. The Ministry of Magic had a hard time covering that one up. They made up a story about how the residence of the house was studying bombs of small scale. That sure did cause an uproar.
Anyways, Elaine was looking forward to the trip to Diagon Alley, some magical shopping area that her mom was always chattering on about.
When August the twenty-fifth arrived, Elaine was awake at five in the morning and jumping on her parents' bed to wake them up.
"Get up! We have shopping to do!" screeched Elaine at the top of her lungs.
"I'm getting up…in… three hours," replied Esmerelda, looking at the clock on her bedside table. "And then I have to make breakfast and take a shower and then get dressed and ready to go." And with that, Elaine's mom fell back asleep.
Elaine took things into her own hands when her mom fell asleep. She went into her mom's bathroom and got a bucket used for when Elaine was sick the last week (that's another story) and filled it to the brim with ice cold water, not taking notice of the fact that the water was icy cold or that the bucket had yet to be cleaned, as her father did not want that certain responsibility. So Elaine took the bucket and dumped it over her mother's head, causing a loud shriek of surprise and two loud thuds as husband and wife fell from the bed, tangling in the covers.
"There's your shower, mom! I've got breakfast started, so get up!" called Elaine as she went downstairs.
"No! You haven't even-ewww! What is this gunk on my head? Elaine, what bucket did you use?"
"Oh, that blue one. The one I used when I was throwing up last…oh."
"ELAINE!" cried her father, smelling the horrific smell coming from his wife. "GET OVER HERE NOW AND HELP YOUR MOTHER!"
"Uh, sorry, the… oh crap."
"Language, Elaine!" scolded Esmerelda.
"Sorry, mom, but-," began Elaine.
"No. Room. NOW!"
"But mom-," Elaine started again.
"No. Go. To. Your. Room. Right. Now."
"Fine. Your loss."
"What are you talking about?" asked Tim, but Elaine had already left the room.
Needless to say, Elaine had left the burners on for the stove and the house burned down.
Two days later, nearly all that the Maries owned (which was quite a bit even after the fire) was in their third house that year, which turned out to be the best yet. Elaine learned from her parents that this was one of the twelve (now ten) estates that their family owned in the wizarding world.
Later that week they were in Diagon Alley.
The first stop was at Gringott's. Elaine watched in absolute shock as her mother pulled galleon after galleon from the vault. It was a LOT of money.
After loading up on galleons, Esmerelda decided to go to Ollivander's for a wand. After what seemed like she went through nearly the whole shop's stock of wands, Elaine finally produced red sparks out of the end of a wand. It was made of holly wood, ten inches, with a phoenix feather as the core.
"Mom, it's beautiful!" Elaine exclaimed after they bought the wand.
"It's expensive. Don't break it, harm it, lose it, or anything else. I will NOT replace this. Okay?"
"Okay."
After buying herself a beautiful golden brown owl and all the school supplies necessary, the family was back at Marie Estate in London.
Soon the morning of September First arrived, bringing the family to tears as Elaine shrank away into the scenery of London as she rode on the Hogwarts Express.
"No worries, dear, she'll be all right," soothed Tim to Esmerelda.
"I hope so. She's so clumsy."
"That may be so, but she's smart. She knows what is right and what is wrong. She knows the basics of magic since you've taught her. And don't forget: we promised to teach her Occlumency this summer, so she'll be well protected from mind predators."
"I guess so… but I'm so worried!"
"Don't be. She'll write to us. That's why we got her Tawny."
"I sure hope that owl can get to us."
"It will," finished Tim.
"GRYFFINDOR!" cried the Sorting Hat.
"YES!" exclaimed Elaine. "Gryffindor! It's the best house! It's the house my mom was in, oh, YES!"
"You can sit here, Elaine," said a blonde-haired boy with barely any muscles that wasn't even good-looking either.
"Thanks!" said Elaine with a smile.
"Welcome. The name's Colin Creevey," said the boy, sticking out his hand. Elaine took it and shook it hard.
"Quite a firm grip, you have there."
"Yeah. So would you mind introducing me to everyone?" asked Elaine.
"That there is Harry Potter," continued Colin, "The Harry Potter. He's the leader of the Golden Trio: Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are the other two in the group. They're all best friends and saved Hogwarts from You-Know-Who last year."
"How do you know all this? I mean, you're a first year like me!" exclaimed the girl.
"I listen. Plus, everyone knows about Harry Potter and his group!"
"Oh. Okay," replied Elaine uncertainly.
"Yeah, well, anyways, let's start on this food!" The blonde-haired boy suddenly turned to his plate and filled it with turkey and mashed potatoes.
Elaine spent her first year studying hard and following in Hermione's footsteps as a study bug. She never truly noticed boys, but kept an eye out for some cute ones.
That summer she was back at Marie Estate. Her mom decided she needed to learn Occlumency, so they spent numerous days working on it.
"Now, honey, this will take several years to learn, so you must understand it won't come easily."
"Okay, mom."
Esmerelda showed Elaine the basics behind Occlumency. Elaine learned that she needed to separate EVERY memory and categorize that memory. She needed to make boxes and fill those boxes with memories. Each box could have multiple boxes inside of it, as well. Storing the memories was not easy. In the end, she came up with at least twenty boxes for her mind's barriers. Inside each box was at least ten other boxes. And inside each of those ten boxes were at least two hundred memories. Elaine never knew she had so many memories of herself and friends and family and animals and everything else. By the time she had sifted through most of her memories, the end of the summer was near.
As her second year approached, she was sure she could make it through another year. After her first year, where she was one of those petrified by that stupid basilisk controlled by V-v-You-Know-Who, she was almost frightened to go back to Hogwarts. But there was a new presence within her heart, keeping her stable, keeping her firm in her beliefs. She had a vague feeling someone had been with her while she was petrified, but she didn't know what it was. It was… unexpected and strange.
Elaine's second and third years were uneventful except for the fact that Elaine had a werewolf as a teacher and the Triwizard Tournament had come to Hogwarts. Harry Potter had been one of TWO Hogwarts champions and witnessed the death of the second, Cedric Diggory, and the uprising of Voldemort… again. Meanwhile, Elaine's feeling in her heart was growing, especially around a certain sandy haired boy.
Elaine's Occlumency was finally completed when she reached her fourth year. She was specifically greatful for it, because she knew Professor Snape was using Legilimency on his students, and she couldn't be caught because she was in the DA (Dumbledore's Army). Unfortunately the stupid Professor Umbridge caught them and attempted to suspend and expel most of them, and even tried to put Harry Potter under the Cruciatus Curse. But this made Harry angry and he even left for the Department of Mysteries where he thought his godfather, Sirius Black, was being tortured by Voldemort himself. Eventually the Ministry believed Harry about Voldemort being back.
Elaine's fifth year was filled with adventure. The DA was called back into action when Death Eaters attacked Hogwarts. Snape ended up joining Voldemort and killing Dumbledore. That was when everyone noticed Harry and Ginny being a couple. They could be found consoling each other during the funeral, and soon after, Harry left Ginny. It was rumored that they had broken up. But Elaine didn't care about the great Harry Potter… she cared about a blonde-haired boy that was definitely turning out to be quite the man.
The summer before sixth year, Elaine worked on becoming an Animagus all by herself. Of course, nothing happened, but she was working hard all the same.
Soon after returning to Hogwarts, she began to lose focus during her Animagi studies. She found herself thinking of a blonde boy who was in Gryffindor. Colin Creevey. That hunky piece of work. He was all she could think of.
He's so dreamy, she thought.
"Miss Marie?" asked Professor McGonagall.
"Yes?"
"Were you listening?"
"No, ma'am. I apologize."
"Five points from Gryffindor. Listen now. And put that notebook away."
"Yes, ma'am," replied Elaine. She was frightened of the Transfiguration professor.
Minutes later Elaine's hand was in the air. "That would be Animagi, ma'am."
"Correct. Ten points to Gryffindor!" exclaimed Professor Minerva McGonagall with pleasure.
"Now can anyone tell me how you transfer yourself into an animal? Yes? Miss… Dondleworm? How?" the professor called on a Slytherin who was quite the underachiever.
"Y-you, ah, hell, I don't know," responded the large Slytherin.
"Language. Twenty points from Slytherin."
"Damn."
"Another twenty. Keep that mouth going and it'll be more," Professor McGonagall said strictly.
Dondleworm muttered something completely inappropriate and lost another twenty points from Slytherin and was then sent to Dumbledore's office.
"Anyone else want to try to answer the question?" asked the professor.
"I do!" exclaimed Elaine eagerly, waving her hand in a crazy fashion above her head. "You think extremely hard on what you want to change into and focus all your magical energy into the thought. Hopefully you'll turn into what you're thinking of."
"Correct! Take another ten points to Gryffindor!" And so it continued for the remainder of her class. In total, Elaine earned her class another fifty points, totaling seventy for that class time.
Little did she know… a sandy haired boy was watching her the whole time.