The death of Sirius Black, accused murderer and Death Eater, passed rather smoothly. Black's body was carried away and the Chamber of Secrets explored and looted for any artifacts of historical importance, and then quickly sealed, and Harry's memories were called for, and given. They tried to get Elizabetha's as well, since she was the only other witness of the event, but she sent a reply to their letter saying that she refused to take any part in their investigation, and, oddly enough, that she hoped they were ashamed of themselves. The next day the papers ran the story, albeit a rather distorted version, painting Harry Potter as the hero who had discovered the Chamber and saved the public from the imfamous Sirius Black. It was old news within weeks, and life simply moved on, as life is wont to do.
Yet a few mourned him. The remaining prisoners of Azkaban, both those escaped and on the run, and those still there. A small group of Slytherin and Ravenclaw Hogwarts students, now home for the holidays. A werewolf who used to be his best friend.
And a little girl sat in her room on her cot for days, crying for the first time in her life as she suddenly realized that some deaths just have no reason or cause.
And that those ones are the worst.
When Ginny saw Elizabetha for their next year at Hogwarts, she knew that her best friend had changed drastically.
They met at the train station before boarding. Elizabetha was alone, which now that Ginny knew where she came from, made obvious sense. Having dementors dropping off a student each year would cause quite the fuss. But still... seeing her skinnier-then-ever-before friend standing there, all alone, pale skin gone ashen, dressed in a ruffled black dress with puffy sleeves and a white collar, curly honey hair in dry and tangled ringlets and her icy emotionless eyes surrounded by even darker circles then before, Ginny got a very distinct impression.
Elizabetha looked like death. Like someone had scraped what little flesh she had previously away from her tiny bones and replaced her eyes with tinted white glass, then drawn under them with a muggle sharpie and thrown her limp body into a cute dress in a pathetic attempt to make her seem normal again. And it did the exact opposite. The black silk just served as the shroud she lacked.
So Ginny went over and gave her a hug.
Because she looked like she really needed one.
When they reached Hogwarts, and entered the great hall to sit at the Slytherin table, she noticed Elizabetha glaring at the other houses, especially Gryffindor, but Ginny just wrote it off as Elizabetha being her usual strange self. She'd always been somewhat fickle.
It soon became obvious that it was not that simple. Because over the next few weeks, Elizabetha became a bully. It wasn't blatantly obvious, in fact Ginny sometimes had to look to see it, and the only reason she had noticed herself was because Luna had mentioned it one day during a free period when Elizabetha was off wandering. But sure enough, Ginny noticed once she was looking out for it. The way that suddenly Gryffindors left and right were finding their things ripped to pieces in a way that Ginny knew only Elizabetha did. The way her blond friend was suddenly pushing others in the halls. The way she snapped and snarled and glared whenever someone not in her circle attempted to even speak to her.
Elizabetha had never been the most accepting of slights. She wasn't one of those people who took a laugh directed her way graciously, or an offense against her friends with no action. So her new actions blended in, somewhat. But now she needed little to no prompting to lash out. A single look could set her off against a perceived threat that wasn't really there.
Not to mention that she was now more likely to kick a cat then to coo over it, much to Ginny's and, oddly enough, Draco's, horror.
Ginny or Luna weren't the only ones to be watching Elizabetha. Harry had been too, not that he really told anyone. Goodness knows Hermione would make a fuss if she knew, considering her last run-in with the little Slytherin.
Ever since that night in the chamber, he'd become fascinated with the girl. Why was she there? Why had she been so upset? Why had she refused to give her memories, and said those things in her letter? During the time he had stayed at Hogwarts over Christmas, he had gone around asking everyone who he could find what they thought of her, as subtly as he could.
Ron, of course, thought she was a monster, probably because of his earlier head trauma caused by the little girl, not to mention how she had "snatched" Ginny.
Yet, the more Harry had asked, the more he found out that people generally thought she was okay, or at least the ones who didn't immediately discount her as being a Slytherin and therefore evil, had.
Minerva admitted she was good in her class.
The twins said they kind of admired her for the stuff she pulled.
Moaning Myrtle, of all people, or ghosts, had told him Elizabetha was polite, and brought her rotting fruit to eat sometimes.
Snape had sneered at Harry, but practically sang the girl's praises the moment her name was mentioned, albeit in a very Snape-ish way.
Even Dumbledore had said Elizabetha had a lot of potential to be good.
So why was she being so bad, Harry wondered as he watched the skinny little blond girl snap and snarl at a Hufflepuff. Her pale eyes had finally came to life, the sad dead look banished and replaced with glittering anger as she raged at the quivering boy in black and yellow. Behind her stood a sneering Malfoy and Zabini, and a boy with freckles and a severe look of annoyance, Ginny and Luna absent from her side for once.
"How dare you?!" Elizabetha shrieked hoarsely. Her voice was terrible, like screeching tires and nails on a blackboard.
"I'm sorry! What did I do? I'm so sorry!" The Hufflepuff boy wailed, looking immensely confused but trying to remedy the situation nonetheless, becasue that's what Hufflepuffs did. They were obsessive peacekeepers.
"How dare you dishonor his memory! Take back what you said!" Elizabetha ordered, and the boy hurriedly mumbled something about Sirius Black in reply before scurrying off. Harry's eyes narrowed. What was with this girl and Sirius Black? She had been there the night he killed the monster of a man too, and now she was defending him?
There had to be a connection.
Time to go talk to Dumbledore.
People! Look! An update! Ahahaha... I'm so sorry. I know, this is terrible of me. It's not even that long. I'm sorry. I miss updating every other day.
But uh... if it's any comfort, I'm almost finished with what has been taking up my time. Just a few more paragraphs and it will be up under the title "Dark Magic and Tea Parties." And even if you don't play Boarderlands, or get all the references, I promise it's fairly understandable regardless. And I posted "Eggshell Minds," so if you like stories where a character has to live their life all over again, you might like it? Please? I want to write another chapter of it, but nobody's reading it, and I'm not going to if nobody is going to appreciate it.
That's all, and since you're part of why I got out of my funk, thank you to all my reviewers, especially you, TomRiddlesTwin. I think the realization that someone who is related to Tom Riddle is reading this really perked me up! Possibly because of my not-so-minor obsession with him...
Anyhow, thank you all for reading this mess, have a great day, and byeeeeeeee!