The Problems Associated with the Name Gaston
Elise stared at the gargoyle and looked back at the letter in her hands. She reread Dumbledore's swooped handwriting hoping to find some sort of instruction to go to his office but instead the note only had the date and time. She even had to ask the head girl where the office was. Elise looked back at the gargoyle and reached over to tickle it like the pear that goes to the kitchens when a deep somber sounding voice stopped her.
"Butterbeer," the voice said and when Elise turned around she saw Theodore Nott. Sometimes it still surprised her how much he had changed from being outspoken to a secluded person but she had supposed that happened to anyone if a major loss had occurred in front of them. Elise must have stared too long at him because Nott raised a thick dark brow and Elise blushed a little before running up the stairs, ignoring the moving stairs and almost tripping over herself. She heard a chuckle as Nott probably stood on the stairs waiting to go up but she ignored it before slamming Dumbledore's door open, leading to a flurry of papers and Fawkes looking at her angrily. The Sorting Hat grumbled and seemed to shift around to get comfortable and the portraits behind Dumbledore ignored her. Though she heard one of them mutter something about imbeciles from the continent.
"Oh flobberworms," Elise yelled with a wince. She reluctantly met Dumbledore's eyes but he was smiling at her and with a wave of his wand his office was in the state of how it was before. Elise sat down, her face burning, and meekly spat out a sorry. She felt a warm presence beside her and from her peripheral vision she saw Nott sit down, his face impassive and his sharp eyes trained on Dumbledore.
"Miss Bellarosa-Grey and Mr. Nott, would you like a lemon drop?"
Elise mumbled a yes and quickly put one in her mouth when Dumbledore reached one out towards her. The taste was tangy but sweet and she soon regretted biting in on the sweet as her teeth felt like it was stuck together. Nott had declined and still had not let up with his stiff position in his chair. Dumbledore still had offered another one to Nott, not letting up, and Nott had taken it and quickly tossed it to Elise. Elise was surprised: although her Chaser reflexes stopped the candy from hitting her in the face, it didn't stop her hand. She just rubbed the spot near her eye and straightened up, waiting for Dumbledore to continue.
"Miss Bellarosa-Grey and Mr. Nott, I think you both will feel surprised to know that I have met you both before, about fifty years in the past." At this Elise felt Nott stiffen next to her and she was sure that her eyes had doubled in size. Dumbledore paused and looked at them and their expressions before pressing a kind expression onto his face again.
"If I remember correctly, you both had come to Hogwarts as refugees from France escaping Grindlewald's reign of terror. And now that we are once again in front of each other and I have grown older, I know why. You see, the war isn't getting any better. Voldemort's forces are increasing at a rapid rate," at this Elise sharply breathed in because Dumbledore had spoken the Dark Lord's name and she felt her respect for Dumbledore grow an inch or two. If Nott was surprised or if he felt any emotion, he did not show it on his impassive face though at the mention of the Dark Lord, his face seemed to pale.
"I need you both to go back to a young Voldemort's time as you have done before and retrieve something for me. Something that in his hands will ruin the Wizarding World as we know it. I want you both to retrieve an amulet. Ravenclaw's Amulet to be exact." At this Elise narrowed her eyes slightly as she thought. She's never heard of Ravenclaw having an amulet; she's only heard of the diadem. Dumbledore continued.
"The Amulet was forged by Rowena Ravenclaw for her daughter as a gift for her as Rowena had known that Death was near. But her daughter had stolen her diadem and ran away, hurting Rowena. Rowena in return hid the Amulet in Hogwarts."
"Professor," Elise started. "What had happened to her daughter?" At this Dumbledore smiled.
"Am I supposed to take this as you'll do this small favor for me?" Elise stared at her hands, conflicted. While she did want to help Dumbledore, she did have her own life and she didn't even know what she would do even if she did meet a younger Dark Lord. It has crossed her mind multiple times to kill him. Kill him and maybe her mother would be more lively and less sickly. Her family would be more together. But killing him would mean that there could be a chance of someone else rising to power.
"I'll do it." At this Elise whipped her head around to stare at Nott. His dark silver eyes were determined and he was staring at Dumbledore.
"But you don't have to do it," he whispered to Elise. At this, Elise had swallowed and stared at Nott.
"I'll also do it," Elise said as she stared at Nott. He was staring right at her and she looked away, blushing. If he noticed the air of tension around them, Dumbledore ignored it and started pulling a file and waving his wand to make another copy of it.
"This file can only be read by you two. There is basic information in here about what you have to do and I am giving you both a week to prepare yourselves. You might want to look into your genealogy and come up with a backstory. But no matter what you do," at this Dumbledore peered over at them from behind his glasses. "Remember that you should not change the past and that includes informing my past self about what you both are doing."
Elise nodded. Dumbledore looked up at the clock and directed his gaze upon them once again. "I think that it is time that you both return to enjoying your holiday and I will see you both once more within a week's time." At this Nott stood up and strode towards the door. Elise stayed where she was seated and took another lemon drop before murmuring a goodbye to Dumbledore with an incline of her head.
As she was exiting, she had popped the lemon drop in her mouth and had started her trek towards the Ravenclaw tower when someone grabbed her hand. Surprised, she grabbed the person's wrist and yanked them in front of her and glared. When she saw Nott she intensified her glare. Just because he was a bloody Slytherin didn't mean he had to sneak up on her from the shadows. If Nott noticed her glare, he ignored it and instead walked next to her. Elise felt it hard to keep up with the glare and instead made her face impassive again though that was rather difficult to do as the lemon drop had once again stuck to her teeth.
They walked in silence and Elise kept noticing the glances that Nott shot her whenever he thought she wouldn't notice. It was quite irritating and Elise was ready to demand what was wrong when he mumbled something. At this Elise looked up at him and stopped walking. Nott stopped too and sighed before grabbing her wrist and walking again. Elise pried his fingers a little to loosen his grip when she heard him.
"What are you doing at Hogwarts?"
"My parents are in the States right now. So, I'm stuck at Hogwarts until this Saturday and I can go spend Christmas with Grand-mère and Grand-père. What are you doing here," Elise asked staring at her shoes as they continued walking. Nott seemed to be processing this new bout of information and took his time with his answer.
"I just chose to be here," he replied but Elise knew that wasn't the full answer. Instead of prying and leading to Nott shutting down, she instead walked with him. She didn't say anything when his hand lightly brushed hers as he let go of her wrist and grabbed her hand instead; she didn't say anything when he took a turn that led in the direction of the library. Instead, she followed behind him and when they reached the library, they took a seat near the restricted area.
Elise pulled out her folder and Nott followed suit. When she opened up the folder she was met with parchment about the Gringotts account that she and Nott would use during their stay, their last names but not their first, a list of books they may want to use, and extensive report on Tom Riddle, who was said to be the young version of the Dark Lord. Elise felt herself deflate a little when she noticed that there was no picture of Tom Riddle and the description was barely a paragraph long. She instead bit her lip and furrowed her eyebrows as she read through what their identities were supposed to be.
In front of her was a document that described her along with her age but what confused her more than what year of Hogwarts she was supposed to be entering was her name. Her name was supposed to be Arielle Tempest Flauxwood according to the small book with a list of people and she was supposed to be a fifth year. But instead on the papers it stated that she would be going into her sixth year. Elise then looked over at Nott's papers and tried to stifle a laugh. He had chosen to be someone named Gaston!
When Elise pointed it out to him he just looked at her blankly.
"What's wrong with the name Gaston," Nott asked with a tilt of his head. Elise went into a one sided rant of how he represented the people that society favors, the people that seem to step on others, and at the end of it when she looked up at Nott he was nodding his head slightly. He picked up his quill and crossed out Gaston before writing Mikhael over it, leaving his name to be Mikhael Olivier Petrov.
"We should watch this movie that you're talking about," Nott said, staring into her eyes. Elise nodded and mumbled a yes while trying to fight off the blush on her cheeks. Nott seemed to take great pleasure in making her flustered and it was starting to annoy her that whenever he did, he seemed to have a mischievous glint in his eyes. Elise quickly stood up and tripped over her chair's leg slightly before walking to the wizard genealogy section.
She skimmed the books and was happy with the three books she had found about European purebloods, purebloods, and a book with the family trees of every pureblood wizarding family that apparently kept itself updated. When returned to the table that they were seated at, Nott was absorbed into reading about Tom Riddle.
While Elise was curious about Riddle and had wanted to read more about him, she was also scared. This boy was the young Dark Lord. This boy would become the wizarding world's mass murderer, hunting those who he said he wouldn't. But she was also curious to see why someone would ever want to take the path that Tom Riddle did. She couldn't understand why someone who had lived through two wars occurring around the same time would want to cause more war and destruction.
As she traced back the genealogy of the Flauxwood and Petrov families, she was surprised that they were also twisted into her family. The Flauxwood family was an influential French family whose main business seemed to be exporting different materials for wands. They even went as far as having unicorns and phoenixes at their many homes. The Petrov family was milder as they worked in the ministry and seemed to have moved to France when Communism was spreading in muggle Russia.
"Look for anyone who could have been alive in 1942," Nott said as he skimmed through the details of Riddle's profile, "and I guess I can go look for more books about Grindelwald and the muggle war. Maybe see how they correlate." Elise nodded and stared at Nott's back as he left, watching as how he put his hands in his pockets when he walked. She returned to reading when she found her persona, Arielle, in the book.
Arielle was said to have died in 1941 and when she checked under the Petrov family she found that both of their immediate families were dead around the same time. Though the Flauxwood family tree was missing some of their names, it was more apparent in the Petrov family. Elise felt a sprout of guilt grow in her, but she squashed it down with the promise that she wouldn't do anything deemed as terrible under the dead girl's name.
When she traced through the Petrov family tree she was surprised to see a Hogwarts professor listed. Apparently, she was what Elise was going to call Mikhael's aunt and according to the book she had found about the purebloods of Europe, she was the Defense teacher sent from the ministry after the Chamber of Secrets had been opened.
Elise quickly wrote down her name and picked up the parchment that the details about Riddle on it. She was expecting lots of information to be on there but instead was met with brief information about his upbringing and how he looks. The rest of the profile was about his courses and his interests along with information about the Amulet.
When Nott returned, Elise quickly shared what she discovered and they both stopped and agreed to meet in the library again when it opened tomorrow. Throughout the week, they spent their time reading through and researching the Amulet and building up their story. They studied the war and the fashion there and when it came time to meet Dumbledore again, Elise didn't feel as nervous as she thought she would.
Dumbledore stood in front of them and assessed the way they were dressed. He smiled and nodded approvingly, "Your choice of clothing reminds me of my younger days when I was just a professor."
Elise had made sure that she and Nott were dressed appropriately to the times. They simply had clothing made for them and with what they could make themselves, they did. Their trunks were furnished with era appropriate clothing and the materials they would need for their trip along with some money they may need. With their trunks shrunken and put in Elise's clasp purse, she thought of the inn they were supposed to floo to and from there travel back.
Dumbledore gave them a last farewell and Elise floo'd herself to the inn first with Nott following behind her. With her great-grandmother's authentic niffler fur cloak accentuated with unicorn hair and Nott's similar cloak to hers along with his shoes made of dragon scale, they were a sight to see in the inn. Most of the habitants that were up at this time openly gawked at them, but Elise ignored them knowing that they were dressed appropriately to the times.
Quickly, Elise and Nott exited the inn and they entered a dark alley area where they wouldn't be noticed. Elise stared at Nott and watched as he took out the time turner and wrapped the chain around both of their necks. Dumbledore said this time turner was different and more complicated than others as it was to take them a maximum of one hundred years into the past and therefore had more mechanisms.
Focusing her attention on what he was doing, Elise watched as he put the date and time in and with a final spin, they were both officially in the past. Elise looked up at Nott with a grin and said, "Let's spice it up Nott."