On the way back to the dorms, E.J didn't say anything, even as James continued to stare at her during their walk. There had been more bad news—and honestly, she was taking it surprisingly well. Actually…well, no—no, she wasn't. The angrier she was, the quieter she was. And the fact that she was this quiet scared him half to death. And when they got to the head common room, the group was lounging around doing…nothing productive. And when E.J whisked past all of them and to the room that had to be hers, Remus took off in her direction, making Sirius scoff.
"Not now, Pads. She's not feeling too well." James said, sitting down and looking around. When no one said anything, James looked at Kay who was lying down on a couch and raised his eyebrows. "McGonagall will be here in a bit. It's a small Gryffindor meeting, so, you guys will have to leave." Kay looked at him and closed her eyes before getting up.
"Fine. But, write me." She said, kissing his cheek and pulling Emily away from Sirius, who looked grateful. Once those two were gone, Sirius looked at James.
"Liar." He sang, making James look at him and shrug.
"Are you complaining?" Sirius said nothing and looked away. Again…there was silence, until E.J and Remus walked out of her room about twenty minutes later. I mean, come on, man. How could they really have been silent for that twenty minutes? I don't mean silence as in awkward word-here-and awkward-word-there. I mean silence as in dead silence. Nada was going on. But, as soon as Remus and E.J walked in, Sirius stood at attention and stared at them, before his nostrils flared and his kissed his teeth. Remus was walking E.J down the stairs and she chuckled sadly, before they sat on the couch together, like a couple that's been together for quite some time and had already figured out where they stood in the others' eyes. They were completely comfortable sitting there together, and that's what made this little charade so damn believable. She curled into him, laughed with him, held his hand, joked with him, and kissed him like they were an actual couple. So, even those who doubted their relationship couldn't actually doubt it, because there was amazing chemistry there. Slowly, Lily smiled at them and began to accept what she believed. And what she believed was that E.J was her friend, and that this girl was crazy and an amazing friend. So much more, but nothing less.
"E.J, what's wrong?" Lily asked, making E.J look at James, even while Remus played with her hair. James inhaled deeply and looked at them.
"She's been suspended indefinitely." He said, making E.J scoff. "And there'll be a hearing. And, the parents of the girls are accusing her of kidnapping…saying that she endangered the lives of their children and harmed them. Her father will be heading the case against her, and if she is found guilty, she'll be going to Azkaban. Oh- and this whole thing is about her being charged with the murder of three ministry officials."
"You mean the death eaters that tried to kill her?" Lily asked, making James nod.
"Yes." James said, nodding. "That is what I mean."
"No, wait- you guys are serious." Lily said, making E.J bury her head in Remus' neck and whine, while he cradled her head and played with her curls. For a minute, no one but Remus said anything. And all he was doing was whispering comforting words into her hair while he rubbed her back and palmed her head. There was of course through the scoffing that Sirius was doing as he muttered under his breath. Then, James looked at Lily and nodded again.
"And they took her wand." He said, making Lily close her eyes. That was like a frigging red flag. The ministry didn't just take your wand away for anything. The wand being taken away usually preceded being carted off to prison, and they all knew that. But, Lily reopened her eyes and looked at them all.
"Well, what are we going to do?" she asked, making E.J shake her head.
"Absolutely nothing. I'm not going. They're gonna have to just throw me in prison." E.J said, making Lily look at her.
"E.J, this is not a joke. This is your life."
"No, Lily dear, those two words are synonymous. My life is a joke."
"Come on, E.J. Why are you being like this?" E.J looked up.
"I did everything that they say I did. Self defense or not. Well- no…I didn't fire off any unforgivable curses, but I took the girls, and I…I mean, I endangered them."
"You saved their lives."
"But at what cost? A month of misery, and sleep deprivation, and running—playing dead, crawling through mud and having their teeth pulled. Having them have to see their own corpses on the floor- having them watch me perform dark magic, it wasn't worth it."
"Which parents are for the hearing?"
"The important ones." E.J said, running her had through her hair and rolling her eyes. "Mayan's parents."
"What's so special about Mayan?" Sirius asked, making E.J laugh.
"You couldn't tell by her hair color and eyes?" E.J asked, making them all look at her as they tried to remember which one Mayan was. Mayan was the little girl with golden brown hair that had an undertone of orange red whenever the light hit it. Her eyes were also an ember color. "She's a sun goddess. By the time she's 15, she'll be able to kill people anywhere in the world, just by looking at the sun." If you didn't know, a sun goddess is slang for a supernova firewitch. A supernova firewitch is a firewitch who gains immense power from the sun or anything that the sun gives energy or power to, which is essentially everything. If tended to without caution, the powers of a supernova firewitch can be cataclysmic, and the chances of finding one are one in a million.
"Hold on, that little princess is a supernova firewitch?" Lily asked, making E.J smile and nod her head.
"That's why she asked if the bad men would kill her." Remus said, making E.J nod. "She's probably had people trying to kill her for her entire life." At a time like this, when people were turning up missing and being killed day by day, a supernova firewitch is no longer considered a person. They're considered a weapon of mass destruction. And for fear that the wrong person will hone the power of said firewitch or wizard, people attempt to wipe them out even before they realize their power. Mayan, from what E.J knew, had been the victim of many failed murder attempts.
"Yes, and it was so difficult to travel with her, because we didn't have a regulator…" E.J said, making them all stare at her. E.J stopped midsentence, and looked at them. "A regulator is a regular weather witch. The two work to create a balance in the same group or atmosphere. For every firewitch that you have, you need a regulator weather witch. The reason why—weather witches can only generate weather that generates from the absence of weakness of sun."
"Wait—what?" Sirius asked, making E.J look at him. "Weather witch?"
"A witch who by birth can control weather. They're like the magical counterparts of firewitches. Except, with Mayan, I'd have needed two weather witches. We only had another firewitch, whose parents are also for the hearing."
"Hold on, so, the girl who he wants…the girl who he wants, the reason that you did all that you did was for this little girl, and her parents are the ones that are pushing for this hearing." Sirius said, making E.J sigh.
"Look, it doesn't matter. The parents are right. Leaving with Mayan and without a regulator could have killed us, especially because she needs to release double the sun energy that she absorbs, or it will kill her."
"Then how did you make it three weeks?"
"I poisoned her." E.J said, making them all look at her. "There's this potion, undetectable—created by a witch who studied supernovas for her whole career. She created a potion that converts energy into bile."
"That could kill her." Lily said, making E.J nod.
"Not if you do it right." E.J closed her eyes. "The trick with the potion is slipping it into food—the worst sorts of food for children, vegetables. It helps the gag reflex, making it easier and making them more prone to vomiting."
"Who taught you that potion, E.J? That's restricted—and it could kill her."
"Mayan releasing energy could've killed her faster, because she can't control it. She can't even do a fire breath without almost burning herself. What was I thinking?" E.J muttered, making Remus look at her and lean his forehead against hers.
"Do you not understand that you saved their lives, and that you were almost killed by death eaters twice?" Remus asked, as he brushed his lips over her forehead. E.J shrugged.
"It doesn't matter, because in black and white I've done exactly as they say." Wow…how do you save someone that won't save themselves? James looked at her for a minute before he sighed and went to his room. When he came out an hour later, E.J and Remus were on the couch…doing…well, you know. Well, not that, but…I mean, they looked like 20 more minutes there, and they would be heading for it. So, he cleared his throat, making E.J open her eyes and look at him. However, the creepy part is that, she didn't really stop, she kinda just multi tasked, speaking to James with her eyes while kissing Remus.
"Okay, E.J, that's scary, so stop before I start to hose you both down." James said, making E.J sit up and look at him, even though she was straddling Remus.
"What?" E.J asked, making James look at her.
"Your mother is on her way." E.J's eyes widened and she stared at James, making him nod. "Yeah, I called her."
"Are you serious?" E.J asked, making James nod.
"Dumbledore asked me to, when I told him that you weren't going to take this seriously."
"You talk too much, James." E.J growled and she began to pant nervously. Then she rolled off of Remus and walked out of the head common room, making James run after her. When he got outside, E.J popped up out of nowhere and punched him in the face, making him hold his nose. "You know what she's going to make me do now."
"That hurt." James said, making E.J punch him in the same spot again. "Okay- that hurt." Then E.J tapped his nose with her wand twice. "Yeah, I know what she'll make you do."
"And you know that I don't want to do that."
"I know." James said softly. "But I also know that it's the one thing that you have right now. And it'll get you off the hook. So, you, your mom, and Dumbledore are going to the ministry tomorrow morning." E.J closed her eyes and looked off to the right, before she walked back into the common room, where Remus was gathering his things. E.J looked at him and raised her eyebrows.
"You're leaving me?" she asked, making him smile and kiss her cheek.
"I'll see you tomorrow." He said against her cheek, making her laugh and kick him on the bottom as he walked out. When he was gone, James just looked at E.J for a minute before he shook his head.
"What?" she asked, making him shake his head and say goodnight.
The next morning, an editorial was run about E.J. It was so much worse than the editorial that they'd run about her a few days earlier, and this time it involved interviews with the parents of the little girls and it was all about the charges that were being pressed against her. And when she got back to the school with her mother, people looked at her with even more hate and question than they had the night that she came back. That of course, prompted a group of Slytherins to corner her once her mom had gone, making E.J just look at them and shake her head. What could she do? She had no wand, and the world knew that. However, with a blink of her eye, they all collapsed, and E.J walked away unscathed, making the other students that just watched stare at her in shock After that, she avoided people that whole day and decided to walk around the grounds. Of course, hanging out in the forest was frowned upon, but her life was shit anyway, so…what more could the world do to her? While she was out there, she was surrounded by Thestrals and other mythical creatures that took an immediate liking to her. And then there was Hagrid. She had never really spoken to the gentle giant, not as much as she'd like to. But, there was no time like the present.
"Can you see them?" she asked, when he noticed her petting something that was mostly supposed to be invisible. Hagrid nodded his head and then shook his head.
"I'm mostly saddened that you can see them." He said, making E.J shrug her shoulders and shake her head.
"The first time is the hardest, but after the third time, it's not the worst thing in the world. You're kind of just happy that you don't watch anyone suffer. But then you get really scared when you begin to wish that they had." She said, shaking her head at her own loud thought and making Hagrid hold his hand out to her. "There have to be things worse than death."
"Like what?"
"Like…being in a world full of possibilities and still not being able to know truth." E.J said, before she wiped her moist eyes. Hagrid touched her shoulder gently, and then lifted her up onto a high up tree stump, before sitting down also. That tree stump was huge. "I've never killed anyone, Hagrid. I just can't understand why this is happening to me." All of a sudden, she heard branches rustling, before she saw Sirius, James, Remus, and Lily walking around and looking around.
"It says that she's right here." James said, making E.J groan, before Hagrid helped her off of the stump. When they saw her, James looked at her.
"You can cry?" he asked in shock, making E.J look at him. "I'm sorry, I've just never seen it happen."
"Guys, I was just talking to Hagrid." E.J said, looking at Hagrid and smiling. "We'll talk again, if I'm not in prison." Hagrid touched her head and smiled. "I'm E.J, by the way."
"I know who you are, E.J." Hagrid said, before he waved at them, then walked off into the woods. When he was gone, they were all looking at her.
"You don't have a wand. Why would you come out here without a wand?" Sirius asked, making E.J look around at them, before she just began to walk off. "E.J, what's wrong with you?"
"I'm not too eager about being reprimanded after five hours of groveling and pleading my innocence. But, this should make the world a better place…I am most likely going to prison. And today, I had to publicly apologize to the wives of the men that tried to kill me, because that's what the chairs of the Wizengamot wanted me to do. And I couldn't label them Death Eaters, because they were trialing me and that would slant the crowd. All the evidence that was had was from my wand, because the wands of the death eaters mysteriously disappeared, and so…there's no real evidence. And when I noted that there was no unforgiveable on my wand, they said no, my test scores showed my promise in the arts of magic, so they didn't know what I could do. So, I was reprimanded for being a good student. And so, in conclusion, my case is against me, I'm not allowed to have character witnesses, and there are no witnesses to the crime. And for the kidnapping and harassment suit, all of the little girls, including Mayan, have turned against me. And the families of the girls who died are also against me, because I didn't die that night. So…that is what is wrong with me. I am going to prison because I didn't drag those little girls or myself to our deaths. And the one thing that I can do will do more harm than good. So…there you have it. Excuse me if I don't wish to live my last few days in desolation and the isolation of the castle, while everyone there stares at me like I'm a monster, including the people of my house. And I don't regret anything that I did, because I can't close my eyes without seeing and hearing Mayan ask me if they're going to kill her. And I can't close my eyes without seeing that man grab Mayan up before I hit him with a stunner. And then there's you guys. You guys tiptoe around me, so much so that even when I feel like I'm going to die…I also feel like my friends are afraid of me or afraid for me…either way, it's never going to be the same. And neither am I…so…now you know." E.J said, before she turned around and began to lead them out of the forest. Well…what was there to say after that? There was nothing to say after that. When they got back to the castle, E.J walked straight to her room, making the others sit around the common room and wonder what they could do to help their friend.
"So, what're we gonna do to help E.J?" Sirius asked, making them all look at him.
"I thought you were mad at her." Lily said. Her statement made Sirius stare at her, before he shook his head.
"She's our best friend. She's my best friend—I can't see one reason not to help her." Lily looked around, running her hand over her face and looking at Sirius.
"What about your family?" she asked, making them all look at her. They didn't really talk about Sirius' family because it wasn't a pleasant topic. Her words made him look down for a minute…not angrily, just uncomfortably. Lily had a point, yes, but doing this would connect Sirius to his family in a way that he neither wanted, nor imagined.