Chapter 2: A fresh start

Helena and Mr. Weasley sat on the metro, they had the entire cart for themselves and it was very quiet. Mr. Weasley cleared his throat as he tried to break that silence; "So...euhm, it has been a rough summer so far hasn't it?"

Helena didn't reply and kept staring at the ground, as if her head was too heavy to lift up.

Mr. Weasley sighed; "You know? Ron and Hermione are worried about you, they wrote a lot of letters to you but they didn't hear back from you. Heck we're all worried, at some point George stated that you probably had died, i was almost about to believe him if i didn't just saw you with my own eyes".

He stared at Helena and continued with a worried tone; "You might as well be dead by the looks of it, have you looked in the mirror lately? You look like a ghost Helena, you're pale and lost so much weight i can practically see your cheekbones in your face".

Helena was finally able too lift up her head and stared at Mr. Weasley; "You are right... I might as well be dead".

Mr. Weasley stared at her with wide eyes, not believing what she had just said.

Helena continued; "You don't seem to understand the situation that I'm in right now. You and your family, Ron, Hermione, Hogwarts, the wizard world,... These are all the things i love, it is my home, it is my life... and I'm about to lose it all".

Tears ran down Helena's face, as she let her head hang and stared at the ground again. For the first time in his life, Mr. Weasley was in a loss for words. He laid his arm around Helena's shoulders and pulled her close to him. Helena rested her head against his shoulder and they made the rest of the journey in silence.

An hour had passed and they had finally made it to the ministry. It was a chaos there, as there were crowds and crowds of wizards and witches walking around, paper planes with nota's to the personnel of the ministry, owls with letters and so on. Mr. Weasley grabbed Helena tight by her arm to make sure she wouldn't get lost. They made their way to an nearby elevator, and got inside. Mr. Weasley pressed a button with the description 'courtroom/cellar'.

As the elevator made his way to the selected floor, Mr. Weasley stared at Helena. Helena had begun to shake a little, the closer they came to the courtroom, the more scared she became. Knowing Helena's feelings, Mr. Weasley still didn't know what to say, the only thing he could do, was stay with her and comfort her.

The elevator reached the selected floor and it's door opened slowly. Helena looked at Mr. Weasley as he stared at her in return with a reassuring soft smile. They both stepped out of the elevator and they found themselves in a long hallway with black shiny walls, the walls were decorated with silver torches, which had blue flames.

Mr. Weasley took Helena by the hand and they both made their way trough the hallway, until they reached a big wooden door with the description 'courtroom'. There was a hooded figure standing in front of the door, blocking their way.

"What is this?" ; Mr. Weasley asked with a stern voice.

Helena stared at him, shaking like a leaf. She had never been this tense and scared in her life.

The hooded figure spoke in a low, creepy sounding voice; "Only the suspect can enter".

"What, since when is that a thing?"; Mr. Weasley asked in a frustrated tone.

"No...No please... I don't want to go alone. Please!"; Helena begged.

The hooded man grabbed Helena by her wrist and dragged her to the big wooden door.

"Mr. Weasley please, stay with me... i can't do this alone...No!" ; Helena yelled as she tried to wring her wrist free from the figure's grasp.

Mr. Weasley ran towards them, but it was to late. In a matter of a second, the hooded figure had pushed Mr. Weasley back, threw Helena in the courtroom and locked the big wooden door behind them. Mr. Weasley ran to the door and banged his fists on it; "Please, i need to stay with her, she needs me".

Nothing.

Mr. Weasley dragged himself to the side of the hallway and went to sit on the floor, waiting. He waited and waited. Only two hours had passed, but it felt like a lifetime. Finally he heard the lock on the door move. He looked at the door as he jumped up, going towards it. He didn't know what to expect. He was about to push open the door, as the door was already being opened by someone else, it was the hooded figure.

Mr. Weasley took a few steps back to give the figure the space, to get out of the room.

"The verdict, has been made"; the figure stated as he took one step aside to let Mr. Weasley enter the room.

Mr. Weasley stared at the hooded man for a sec, as he made his way inside the room. The hooded man followed close after him. He enter a big round room, the walls of the room were decorated with wooden tribunes where the public and the jury usually sits. One of the tribunes was bigger, that is where the judge would have been. The center of the room was an open space, the floor was made with black and white tiles.

Mr. Weasley looked around. The room was abandoned. The public, jury and judge had already left, safe for Helena who was sitting on her knees, on the floor in the center of the room. Her arm's were hanging limp at her sides, her head aimed at the floor and her hair covering her face.

"Oh no... No, no, no, no, no"; Mr. Weasley shook his head while he walked slowly towards Helena. She didn't move a muscle or made any noise when Mr. Weasley came closer. He was standing right next to her, not saying or doing anything. He noticed something lying on the floor in front of Helena, it was none other than her wand, broken in two pieces. Mr. Weasley gasped, covered his mouth with both hands and took a few steps back while shaking his head in disbelieve.

"She has been declared guilty. The penalty... Getting rid of the wand and banishment of Hogwarts. She's been forbidden to come in contact with the wizard world" ; the hooded man explained with a creepy grin. The man was clearly enjoying Helena's torment.

The restatement from her verdict was like a stab in Helena's chest and the last straw that made her mentally break. She started to scream and cry as she looked up at the ceiling of the room. Mr. Weasley was now able to see her face clearly and became instantly heartbroken at the sight. Tears were also forming in his eyes as he couldn't handle to see Helena like that. Not only was she the best friend of his son, he always saw Helena as one of his own children.

"Pathetic"; the hooded man stated at the sight of the two crying in front of him. He huffed and left the room.

Mr. Weasley wanted to go to Helena to comfort her, but was glued to the floor as he didn't dare to disturb her. It seems like he didn't even needed to do anything. Out of nowhere Helena stopped crying, she looked back at her broken wand and sighed. She slowly lifted up her head to look at Mr. Weasley. To Mr. Weasley's surprise she was smiling.

Slowly Helena rose from the floor and walked up to Mr. Weasley until she was standing right in front of him. She looked him straight in his eyes; "Give the greetings to everyone for me... Goodbye".

Mr. Weasley wasn't able to move or say a word. Helena gave him one last hug as she let him go and walked away. Mr. Weasley remained nailed to the ground until Helena was out of sight. He wanted to chase Helena, he wanted to fix things but just stood there, frozen out of shock, watching Helena go.

Helena entered the elevator that would take her outside, as the lift took her up she used the silence to think. She felt calm, why was she so calm? She wasn't going to be able to see her friends, go to Hogwarts, but also... She didn't need to fight in the upcoming war... it was all over, she wasn't allowed to use magic, which meant she didn't need to deal with "the one who should not be named"...SHE IS FREE. She was calm because she was relieved.

The elevator reached the floor with the exit. The doors slowly opened as Helena walked slowly towards it. Wizards and Witches walked all around her as she made her way to the exit. They all stopped dead in their tracks as they al watched "The Chosen one" leave. Just as she was about to walk out of the exit door another elevator arrived at the floor and Mr. Weasley came running out of it. He was about to stop Helena but it was too late, she had just gone outside.

"...What have we done?"; was all Mr. Weasley could utter, as Helena was officially gone out of their lives.

It was bright outside, the sky was blue and the sun was up, Helena looked up with a smile and continued her journey back "home", back with the Dursleys. She took the metro and walked the rest of the way until she arrived at the house. She was surprised to find her aunt, uncle and cousin at the front door. They were waiting for her?

Helena was kind of hesitant, but made her way towards them. As she stood right in front of them, she barely dared to look into their eyes. Vernon cleared his throat; "And?"

Still, too scared to look at them, Helena sighed and shook her head. She was certain that now they knew she was no longer a Witch, they would make her pay for all the times she had gone to Hogwarts and had used magic in their presence or made weird things happen. But instead Vernon sighed and laid his hand on her shoulder and stated with a stern face; "We need to talk".

Helena nodded and they all made their way inside the house towards the dining room. Helena found that the table was set with four cups, a plate of cookies and a can of coffee.

"I-Is someone here?"; Helena asked.

Normally the table was set for three, since Helena had to drink what remained of the coffee in her room. The stern face of Vernon loosened a little and he made a seating gesture at Helena. Surprised, Helena obeyed and took a seat at the table, Vernon, Petunia and Dudley followed her example. Petunia took the can and started to pour coffee into everyone's cup, even the cup of Helena.

For a second Helena thought she was hallucinating, but everything that happened is nothing more than real. Dudley started to snack on the cookies as Petunia took a sip of her cup, she looked at Dudley and cleared her throat. Dudley looked at his mother who was in turn looking at Helena. Dudley knew what his mother meant. He wiped the crumbs of his mouth and shoved the plate of cookies to Helena; "You want one"?

Helena took a cookie and thanked her cousin. After she ate the cookie it became silent for a while. Eventually Vernon sighed; "Look, i know this is awkward. This is all new for us to you know. We had a talk when you were to court. We realized that we haven't always treaded you with the respect you deserve. I mean you are still family after all. It's just we were so scared, we don't know what the magic world is capable off. I just wanted my family to be safe. In a way you were a threat to that...do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

Helena slowly nodded.

"I know that we went too far some times, but I'll promise that we will try to make things better. We decided to make a new start, a new beginning. Starting with a new home, we found a new home in America, as far away from this place as possible ... far from our past. We start to pack our stuff tomorrow and can enter our new home within one month"; Vernon continued.

It was silent again, Helena didn't know how to react to this. In a way she was happy, maybe she finally had the family she longed for, but she left behind her past which meant leaving behind her memories of Hogwarts and her friends. Well, she was banned from the wizarding world anyway, might as well have that new start, she thought by herself. She could use the month before the move, to practice her new wandless magic, in secret of course.

She nodded, thanked her aunt, uncle and cousin and went to her room. She had a lot to think about, so much so, that it made her sleepy. Helena laid on her bed and thought about a better future as she drifted off to sleep. Little did she know that that same new future would bring new dangers.