Chapter 11

Elle spent the next two weeks with Isidre. She felt very close to him, especially after he hadn't brought any cool presents down to the dining hall to show off on Christmas morning. Something told Elle that Isidre had a good reason to stay at the castle over the holidays as well.

It was the last day of winter holidays, and both Elle and Isidre had mastered the snowball charm at this point, and were huddling behind their respective snow forts, trying to get their snowballs to collide midair. Elle was patiently waiting for Isidre to find some courage. It was obvious that he'd been trying to build up to something for a few days now.

It took fifteen more minutes of failed attempts for Elle to grow impatient. She yawned and stretched. "This isn't working" she said, getting up and pretending to gather her things to head towards the castle. "Wait" cried Isidre desperately. Elle paused and turned to him. "I want to show you something" he said shyly. Elle smiled. "Alright" she said.

Elle's curiosity was piqued when Isidre produced a leather bag from a shed that she'd never seen before, tucked away behind a crumbling wall in a disused courtyard. When isidre replied "Hagrid never locks it" to her raised eyebrow, her curiosity grew. When Isidre marched straight to the forbidden forest, Elle was downright intrigued. She followed him into the forest, trying to match his confidence. The change in atmosphere was instant, and breathtaking. Elle felt, oddly, at home. Isidre turned to Elle's awed expression, grinning "You feel it too then?" he asked. Elle could only nod. She thought the towering trees might remind her of the soaring cityscape, though the eery quiet could never had been found in London. She followed as Isidre wove around trees, seeming to follow a path that Elle could not see. Finally, he stopped at the edge of a small clearing, his breath puffing out in small clouds in front of him.

Isidre removed from the leather bag a slab of raw meat. At this point, Elle had given up hope of figuring out what was going on and was resigned to watching it all unfold without a hint of understanding. Isidre tossed the meat into the middle of the clearing. A few moments passed, and Elle was about to open her mouth to ask if this was all some big joke, when Isidre said, "look." Elle turned her head to where he was pointing and took in a sharp inhale of breath.

Entering the clearing now was a creature that Elle had never seen before in her life. She stared at the leathery wings and reptilian faces of the figures before her. "Are those dragons?" Elle asked incredulously. Isidre snorted. "Definitely not. They're thestrals. Wait" he said suddenly, realizing something "you can see them too?" Elle stared at Isidre, concerned for his sanity. "Of course I can see them" she said. "I thought I was crazy the first time I saw them flying up over the forest" Isidre said "no one else in my cohort pointed to them during our first flying lesson. Professor Blanco had to pull me over and explain. You can only see thestrals if you've seen death."

"Oh" Elle said quietly. She watched as the long, skinny legged thestral tore strips off the meat Isidre had thrown it. More of them were now appearing in the shadows of the trees, and Isidre tossed the rest of the contents of his bag to the center of the clearing. "I looked them up in a book. Figured out what they ate. They're scavengers you see, they only eat carrion" Isidre pronounced the last word carefully. Elle nodded thoughtfully, only half listening. "Hagrid caught me trying find them in the forest, two bloody steaks in my pockets. I thought he was going to give me detention, but he was chuffed. Said I was the only student who appreciated their beauty, He showed me where to find them, and told me I can come and feed them sometimes, as long as it's not too often. They still need to scavenge on their own, or they'll get too domesticated." Elle nodded again but didn't reply.

Finally, Elle found the weight of the unsaid question unbearable. "Who did you see die" she said quickly, immediately looking down at her feet. She knew it was a rude question. "My grandfather" Isidre said, an edge in his voice. "Good riddance" he spat out, unprompted, kicking the snow around his feet. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets, his ears burning scarlet. Partly to make him feel better about his outburst, and partly to get it off her chest, Elle told her story. "It was late one night. Really late. I was slee- I was out on the streets. I saw a man stumble into an alleyway. I watched him sit down. I thought he fell asleep, and I was scared, so I left. But the next morning, I walked past the same alleyway and there was police tape everywhere. I wasn't sure if he'd died. Not until right now."

Isidre didn't say anything, but the silence felt comfortable to her. It felt respectful. They watched the thestrals until they had finished the meat in front of them. Once the last of them had retreated back into the dark woods, the two first years turned back towards the castle. It was unspoken, but Elle knew that at that moment, the two had decided their friendship would last beyond the winter holiday bubble.

Later that night, Elle and Isidre were in the library. Isidre was cramming to finish a potions essay Elle had finished two weeks ago. She was half-heartedly attempting to take notes on the next chapter of history of magic, but she couldn't focus. She was thinking about the return of all her friends the next morning and dreading the recounts of all the presents and lovely holiday celebrations they had had. "What's that" Isidre said suddenly, looking up from his essay. "Hmmm?" Elle asked, coming out of her thoughts. "That" said Isidre, pointing to the end of Elle's quill, where she had been doodling the symbol of her mother's locket without even realizing. "Oh" said Elle, blushing. "Nothing. Just a family necklace."

"Do you know what the symbol means?" Isidre asked curiously. "No. Do you?" Elle asked, sitting up in her chair eagerly. "No," said Isidre immediately, but his brow was knitted in concentration. "But I think… I think it looks like an ancient rune." "Interesting" said Elle, re-examining her sketch. She stood up abruptly. "I'm sorry Isidre. I've got to go write to my friends. I've just remembered." Isidre looked sad. "I'll see you tomorrow at breakfast though?" he asked. Elle smiled and nodded.

Elle reluctantly dipped into her very small bag of savings from Diagon Alley to pay a school owl to send her letter. She wrote to Scorpius about Isidre's theory, asking him to try and spread it around to the others before they returned to Hogwarts tomorrow. She watched the owl soar off into the fading light of the evening sky, hope swelling in her chest. This felt like she might be onto something. For the first time since her mother left, she felt like she might be one step closer to finding her.

The Hogwarts express pulled into Hogsmeade around nightfall. Elle waited patiently near the front steps, until she spotted a group of first years approaching her. "Elle" shouted Rose, pulling her into a hug. Elle grinned, smiling at all the faces around her. "You get by alright without us?" teased Albus. "Of course she didn't" Sam said, "there was no one around to drag her out of the library." Elle laughed. "Actually, I was hanging out with a Hufflepuff! Isidre" Elle craned her neck, looking around to the crowded hall to try and spot him. Sam frowned "I don't know who that is" he said, shrugging "there are a lot of first year Hufflepuffs though."

The friends all trailed into the crowded dining hall, where the four large tables had been set back up. Elle noticed that Scorpius was shuffling rather oddly, and took the nearest spot, sitting stiffly. She made a note of it, but didn't ask, because at that moment she finally spotted Isidre. "There you are" she said, tugging on the back of his sweater as he passed by their table. Isidre looked around confusedly, finally looking to Elle when she tugged his sweater again. "Come sit with us!" Elle said, shuffling over to make a spot for him at the table. Isidre did so, his ears burning red. Ruth and Sam, sitting across from him, tried to smile at his encouragingly. Rose was just about to open her mouth to make introductions, as was her custom, when chaos broke out.

Seemingly from nowhere, thousands of snowballs starting streaming through the doors of the great hall. Students started yelling and laughing, trying to dive for cover under the tables. Elle caught a glimpse of James Potter two tables down, grinning broadly. She narrowed her eyes. Pulling out her wand, she cast a quick charm on a snowball that was aiming directly at her face, leading it to smash against the wall. An upper year student noticed Elle's strategy, and started redirecting their own snowballs. "Snowball fight!" roared a nearby Gryffindor. Soon there were dozens of students redirecting snowballs at each other. James Potter was standing atop his table now, gleefully blocking all the projectiles being aimed his way.

Elle made eye contact with Isidre, who was crouching below the table bench. She knelt down and whispered her plan in his ear. His eyes got wide, but he nodded in understanding. Slowly, Elle crept along the wall until she was standing on the opposite side of the room. She climbed atop the table, making eye contact with Isidre, who had done the same at the table she had left behind. She nodded, and the two raised their wands together, directing a snowball each. The two snowballs collided mid-air with a satisfying explosion. The snow tumbled down from the collision site, falling directly where she had been aiming – James Potter's popped collar. It took him a moment to register what had just happened, being too focused on blocking the snowballs being aimed his way by his two best friends, Dafydd Jones and Arturo Goshawk. He turned every which way, incredulously, wiggling absurdly as the snow melted down his back. Elle giggled.

James Potter turned to Elle, locking eyes with her. Elle imitated the little dance James had done to remove the snow from his shirt. He pointed at her incredulously. She nodded in response to the mouthed question 'was that you?'. He laughed, raising his wand in retaliation. Just as Elle was regretting her actions, not knowing any good shielding charms, all the snowballs in the great hall were immobilized.

"Silence" boomed McGonagall's voice, her voice magically augmented to reverberate around the room. Immediately, the room was quiet. Elle quickly slipped underneath the table, hoping to look like another innocent first year. "Potter. Jones. Goshawk. With me." The three Gryffindors, who always seemed to be at the center of trouble, followed McGonagall, looking unconcerned. Dafydd Jones shook out his shaggy brown hair, a shower of snow falling out and eliciting a few stifled giggles from under the table.

When Elle returned to her table, Albus was already congratulating Isidre enthusiastically. "Did you see James' face when the snow started melting" Albus was laughing "he so deserved that. He's been dropping hints about an exciting feast all break. He's insufferable when he can play the I-know-something-you-don't game." Elle joined in the laughter, taking a seat. "Where did you learn that snowball charm?" Rose asked curiously. "Charms Three" Elle said, taking a seat "I found it in the library." "You didn't tell me that was third year magic" Isidre said incredulously. Elle shrugged "upper year magic isn't impossible to learn, it just takes a bit more practice." Sam laughed "Elle, I didn't manage a consistent wingardium leviosa until right before the break. You're just good at charms." Elle looked up from the peas she had been spooning on to her plate to see all her friends nodding in agreement. She blushed.

The rest of the dinner went better than Elle had hoped it would. Though all her friends did chat quite a lot about the holidays, Elle didn't mind half as much as she had thought she would. She stayed up late that night, curled up in bed, her lit wand held aloft over the dusty copy of Charms Three she had found in the library two weeks ago. She was good at something, she thought with a smile. Elle found herself wondering if her mother had been any good at charms when she was a student. Suddenly, she sat bolt upright. Had her mother been a student? She must have learned magic somewhere…