Chapter 11
Elle sat herself down on the light dusting of snow that covered the familiar clearing. She breathed in the cool Sunday morning air, gathering her thoughts. She'd called this meeting in the thestral clearing as soon as breakfast had adjourned, and now she was looking at the loose circle of her friends, who were waiting politely for her to speak.
"I've been learning some more about how Hogwarts works" Elle started, not sure how to explain to everyone that she had been hanging out in the school's kitchens by herself after hours. Her late-night wanderings were private – little moments of grief that she chose not to share. Elle decided to stick to the facts. "It's come to my attention that someone had access to my school trunk between the train and the dorms." "Does that mean you don't think your mum wrote the letter anymore?" Sam interrupted. Elle smoothed her hands over the pleats of her trousers. "I didn't say that. But I haven't got another letter. So, I think it's about time we investigated other options." Elle didn't add that she'd spent most of last night in the owlery crying about it. Private grief.
Elle cleared her throat. "As I was saying, there's someone who handles the luggage before it gets to the castle. Goyle." At this last word, Albus let out a weird choked noise, and all eyes turned to him. Elle listened intently as Albus relayed his and Scorpius's story, starting with the welcoming feast, and ending with what they'd seen the night before. The pit in Elle's stomach started to grow deeper. She didn't want this to be true. She wanted her mum to have written the letter. She wanted her mum, full stop.
"Right" said Elle, trying not to sound like she wanted to cry. "That settles it. All evidence points to Goyle." "What are we going to do about it?" asked Isidre, looking nervous. "Go and tell McGonagall?" Rose suggested. "No" Elle said, more harshly than she intended. "I just mean I think we need more information first. We need to start watching Goyle every night. See what types of moves he makes. We need to figure out what he's doing with those students before we tell McGonagall, or she'll never take us seriously." All of Elle's friends nodded along to that, and Rose volunteered to make a schedule for their watch. Elle signed up for the upcoming night.
With the schedule sorted, Elle and her friends started to file out of the clearing. Isidre hung back, clearly hoping to see the thestrals he was so fond of. Albus and Scorpius led the way out, in deep conversation, and Ruth and Sam followed after them, leaving Elle to walk the two-abreast path with Rose. "Er… Elle?" Rose started, sounding uncharacteristically unsure of herself. "Yeah?" Elle asked, curious. "DoyouwanttocomeoverforChristmas?" Rose asked in a rush. Elle was touched, and for a moment did not know how to express her gratitude at the request. Rose took this for hesitation, and quickly explained "I asked my mum and she said McGonagall said it was okay, and we'll be going to the burrow for most of it so you can see Albus as well, it's okay if you'd rather stay with him or stay at school but…" Elle cut Rose off from her rambling "I would love to come." Rose smiled, blushing slightly.
Elle was truly happy to go to Ruth's for Christmas. Isidre had already let her know that he was going home for the holidays this year, so she didn't have to worry about leaving him back at the castle alone. And while it was true that Elle wasn't particularly close with Rose (which was probably why she'd been so shy about asking Elle to stay with her), she was excited at the opportunity to get to know her a bit better. Elle had been debating whether or not she should ask Albus or Scorpius if she could stay with them over the break, but hadn't wanted to invite herself over, since she knew that was rude. She also had to admit that she hadn't been excited at the prospect of having to either stay at the same house as Mr. Potter or meet Scorpius' deatheater grandfather. This solved all her problems. The excitement at the prospect of having a good (as good as it could be without her mum) Christmas helped dampen the anxiety she felt over the Goyle situation.
Between Quidditch practice, the heavy course load, and the new night shifts spent in the broom closet watching Goyle's door, the next three weeks passed in a blur. Before Elle knew it, it was the weekend before Christmas holidays. Through the combined efforts of Elle and her friends, they had realized that Goyle met with the same group of students every week, but never on the same day, as far as they could tell. Albus had tried using something called 'extendable ears' to listen in to what the students were discussing, but soon found out the door to his office had certain spells to ward off eavesdroppers. The whole crew was researching ways around these incantations but had made no progress yet. For the time being, they had to contend themselves with attempting to make a list of all the participants in this odd club and try to catch whatever snippets of conversation they could as Goyle lead them back to their dorms. Nothing important had been overheard yet.
The Sunday afternoon before her last week of classes was a rare one where Elle found herself completely alone. Isidre had gone off to see his thestrals again and would probably be gone for several hours. This wasn't particularly unusual for him, since Elle knew he often stayed out there with a book, just sitting with the animals. She'd even joined him a few times, though she never felt as if she was quite as accepted by the herd. Ruth and Sam had set off immediately after lunch to join in on a tournament their gobstones club was hosting, and Rose was spending the afternoon in Gryffindor tower, studying with a few of her dormmates. Albus and Scorpius had not told her why they were busy this afternoon, but Elle had a suspicion that Scorpius was giving Albus private flying lessons and didn't want to embarrass Albus by inviting herself to tag along.
Besides, Elle had a few things she wanted to do. Now that she knew for sure that she wouldn't be in the castle this Christmas, she had a few gifts to deliver. Elle made her way first to a familiar little hut at the border of the forbidden forest. Hagrid answered the door in his usual flowery apron, greeting Elle warmly. Elle accepted a cup of tea, before shyly presenting Hagrid with her gift. She'd wanted desperately to give Hagrid a good gift, fondly remembering the lumpy package of rock-hard cakes she'd unexpectedly found at the bottom of her bed the previous year. It had been one of the few gifts she had received, and she had cherished it, even if she couldn't actually eat any of it, for fear of breaking a tooth.
Elle shyly presented Hagrid with a small package, wrapped in last week's Daily Prophet that she'd stolen from Scorpius. She watched as he unwrapped a dog brush. "I took it from your hut last time I visited, I hope you don't mind" Elle blurted out. "But I charmed it! Look" Elle said, grabbing the brush and heading over to Dirk, the sleeping bloodhound, and running the brush over his back three times. She then lifted her hand off the brush, demonstrating that it would keep grooming the dog by itself. "And when you want it to stop you just grab it and brush it three times again." Elle said, placing the now stationary brush back on the table. "I hope you like it" she said, blushing.
Elle blushed even harder when she realized the giant man was holding back tears. "Why Elle.. it's lovely" Hagrid said thickly, pulling out a large spotted handkerchief from his jacket and dabbing at his eyes. "it was nothing, really" Elle said, neglecting to mention that it had taken three extra-credit sessions with Flitwick to get it to work. Elle didn't leave the Hagrid's hut for another hour, and when she did, she had so many rock cakes in her pockets she thought they might burst at the seams.
Elle's next stop was the kitchens, where she presented the collective staff with her gift for them, a bunch of Sam's mum's old muggle recipe magazines, that she'd convinced Sam to write home for in exchange for doing his charms homework for two weeks. The house elves were very excited to look through the funny muggle books, and to her surprise, presented Elle with her own Christmas gift. It was a locket, very similar to the ones that many of the house elves wore themselves. Elle wore it proudly on her neck, biting back the sweeping feeling of sadness that she felt at the fact that it was empty. The only person she'd want in her locket was her mother, and Elle didn't have any pictures of her. Sometimes, Elle thought she might forget what her mother looked like. The thought made her feel like she was drowning.
A few hours later, Elle and Albus made their way to the concealed broom closet. Albus' hair was particularly messy in a windswept sort of way, confirming to Elle that he had spent the afternoon on his broom. She didn't bring it up.
Once settled, Albus and Elle started playing some quiet games on a slip of parchment. Elle was shocked to learn that Albus didn't know any of the classic muggle school games – hangman, M.A.S.H., or even tic tac toe. "Did you not go to primary?" Elle asked in a whisper. Albus shook his head and wrote onto the parchment in his scratchy handwriting "my gran taught me to read and write. No school before Hogwarts. Rose went, though." Elle shook her head in disbelief.
Albus caught on to the rules quick enough however, and soon they were filling the page with hangman and doodles. Elle was just trying to solve the puzzle O_l _ropping Per_ _me when a sudden noise brought the two out of their concentration. Elle looked at Albus with wide, questioning eyes, and saw her expression mirrored in his face. It was much too early for the meeting with Goyle to be adjourned, but it was well past curfew.
Elle and Albus both hastily stood up, peering through the small peephole. What Elle saw next gave her a swooping, sinking feeling in her chest. The sound they had heard was a crash, as if a body had knocked up against a suit of armor, and as Elle watched, a flash of colour, followed by an arm free floating in the air became visible before quickly disappearing again. Elle could see Albus' eyebrows knit in confusion. The sound of muttered voices became more distinct in the empty hallway.
"Idiot" she heard a familiar voice hiss, the whispered voice so easy to make out that she knew they must be standing directly in front of the concealed door. "Goyle's door is right there. Shut up." Elle looked worriedly to Albus, trying to see if he had recognized the voice in the same way Elle had. It was clearly James Potter. Albus was standing stock still, his face a mask of concentration. The whispers immediately cut out when the familiar creaking of Goyle's door sounded, and Elle could practically feel the air come to a standstill as all four students out of bed held their breath. Goyle stuck his head out and looked up and down the corridor. He waited a moment, and then closed the door again. Elle internally sighed in relief.
A few more seconds passed, before Elle heard Daffyd's distinct laugh, slightly muffled. "Sorry mate" he finally said, and Elle heard James tsk. "The cloak is invisible not sound-proof you ninny." The sound of Daffyd's muffled laughter slowly grew farther and farther away, until the corridor was completely silent once again. Elle turned slowly to Albus, who asked her a question in a quiet, measured tone. "Am I mad or was that my brother's voice?" Elle tried to look confused, replying "I… err… I'm not sure… but it might've been, yeah." Albus nodded slowly. "Right" he replied and sat back down on the stone floor.
Elle joined him uncertainly, still looking at Albus' face, which displayed no further reaction. He held up his quill expectantly, looking at Elle to make her next guess in hangman. "Um… 'S'?" Elle guessed, and Albus shook his head, drawing the final leg on the crude sketch. "He's dead" Albus said, his mouth a firm line. Elle nodded. "Do you-" Elle started, before Albus cut her off. "Your turn" he said, handing the parchment over to her. Elle took the parchment from Albus's grasp. His hand was shaking slightly.
The incident was not mentioned for the rest of the night.