The Gryffindor Common Room was packed full of cheering students and the Quidditch team (including Harry) had just come back freshly clean from the showers. El and Jada loved parties, no matter what the occasion was. If the spirits were high, then that's all that mattered. Ron, Harry, El, Jada, Ginny, Seamus, Dean and the Weasley twins were all scattered amongst the fireplace drinking Butterbeer and Pumpkin Juice, talking about whatever came to mind at that moment. They had avoided talking about what they had discovered within the forest and all agreed that they would get through the rest of the week first until a Hogsmeade trip was in order on the weekend.
"Does anyone know where Hermione is? She's not in our dormitory or the showers." El asked, feeling a sense of worry since deep down she knew that Hermione had most likely snitched on them all. Harry and Ron looked at each before shaking their heads. "No idea. Dumbledore most likely." Ron muttered, taking a swig of his Butterbeer. Seamus spoke up, "Oh whatta' you done now?" He asked, in his very Irish accent, looking between the two boys. "Don't look at me!" Ron insisted, glancing at El, "Look at her!" El shot Ron a dirty look, "Cheers Ron. But you'll be disappointed to know that I haven't done anything out of the ordinary. You know what Hermione's like. Goody two shoes and all." El told a rather curious looking Seamus. Dean turned away from the fireplace and offered his help, "I saw Hermione in Remus' classroom when I was walking back from my detention. She's probably gone to get extra lessons or something." Dean smiled up at El, thinking he'd saved the day, but El was signing her death certificate as they spoke. "Just great." El muttered, sinking her body into the comfort of the sofa and began to think of a million ways she could riddle herself out of Remus' endless fatherly lecture and possible (no, a certain) detention she was about to be given. "I'm going to kill her, Jada." El whispered, staring up at the great flames that had formed within the fire. They weren't as big as she had done to them before but they were noticeably a lot bigger. "No, you're not. I'm going to kill her." Jada joked, turning her attention towards El. Seamus laughed slightly after hearing the conversation, causing everyone's heads to turn their way. "Has she ratted you both out or something?" He laughed again, from his position on the floor looking between everyone for some sort of confirmation. El raised her hand and with her index finger and thumb, leaving a slight space between them, indicated that she had gotten them into trouble just slightly. El had thankfully hidden the necklace in her jacket pocket, so if anyone searched her room for it, they wouldn't be able to find it without going through her first.
A few more minutes had passed before the party had come to a sudden awkward halt as Professor McGonagall swiftly walked through the portrait hole and scanned the room. El and Jada sank into their chairs so they couldn't be seen, (if one was found, the other was always close by) and shushed everyone that was sat around them. They both knew that she had come to retrieve one of them, most likely El, and tried their best to hide. Where was the invisibility cloak when you needed it?
McGonagall's loud voice echoed throughout the room, over the booming music, just as El had expected it to. "Has anyone seen Miss Elektra Black." El felt her insides twist and she internally rolled her eyes, bracing herself for the storm that was about to rattle through her. The music turned off, everyone fell completely silent. A few moments had passed. "Anyone?" She asked hurriedly again. El remained quiet. She looked at Harry who was avoiding the sofa that they were sat on. Her footsteps moved across the room quickly and abruptly stopped at what sounded like where they-
"If you two blithering idiots believe you can avoid me by hiding behind a sofa, then you both need to sort your heads out!" El and Jada slowly peered up from their positions at a very cross Professor, who had her hands on her waist above them. Think on your feet, Black, think on your feet! El thought to herself, trying to come up with a good comeback and as quick as a flash said, "Minerva! Didn't see you there! So how did you find the match?" El cheekily asked, saying the first thing that had come to mind. McGonagall's eyes had turned to a piercing stare and chose to ignore her, "You have been requested. Follow me." She turned around as El let out a defeated and heavy sigh, seeing nowhere to hide, she followed. "It was me as well." Harry jumped up, stopping McGonagall from walking any further away. They both turned around, "I'm sure it was, as it always is, Potter. But Miss Black has been asked for. Not yourself this time." She turned back around, El giving a small smile to Harry to say thanks, before heading out of the portrait hole.
As they swiftly walked down the staircase just outside of the common room, El asked her burning question, "Does this have something to do with Hermione, Professor?" McGonagall looked briefly back around at El with a displeased look on her face, "You should be glad that you are alive, Miss Black! For goodness sake, we all thought that you and the rest of your friends had possibly gotten yourself killed before Professor Lupin made a note that you were in the common room." She tutted her head and carried on walking. El remained quiet and realised she was in deep, deep trouble. Remus had quite clearly found her on the Marauders Map but what had Hermione even told them? That she was seeing a ghost-like woman strutting about the seventh floor? If only they knew what was currently sitting in her pocket! She swiftly guided a very silent El towards Dumbledore's office on the second floor. A place that she seemed to frequently visit...
The golden bird that was at the entrance to his office turned almost immediately as if Dumbledore was watching her. El turned back to look at McGonagall with dread in her eyes but she was not having any of it, instead, she simply raised her arm and motioned to the stairs that had revealed themselves. With a deep sigh, El started to climb the stairs until she reached a brass door handle to his office. When she had gone there during the summer, the door was wide open in a welcoming manner but now she could hear the muffled voices of many people coming from inside. McGonagall caught up and strode straight to the door, knocking a few times and paused briefly before it had swung open. She walked inside and as El did the same, the faces of Professor Lupin, Dumbledore, Professor Snape and Hermione all stared back at her. El was beyond furious. How could she! She would never in her wildest dreams tell on Hermione... and after everything she had gotten up to with Harry and Ron in their first year. This wasn't fair.
"Take a seat, Miss Black." Dumbledore's naturally calm voice called out from his desk as he pointed to the seat in front of him. She noticed the piercing stare of Snape, the unbelievably disappointed and just as furious Remus staring down at her as she moved into the room. She glanced at a nervous-looking Hermione, "You're not my friend, Granger." El spat, looking her up and down with disgust. She couldn't help it! Anyone who broke Elektra's trust was no more than a wimp who liked to sweet talk their way to the top. El couldn't stand the sight of her. Dumbledore intervened quickly before the tears that had formed in Hermione's eyes could run down her face. "You should be thanking Miss Granger, rather than treating her as an enemy, Miss Black. If something had happened to you and your friends, without our knowledge, we would never have been able to retrieve your bodies." Dumbledore told her, placing his hands onto the table. El's temper had risen and she snapped again, "Do I look dead?" Remus, as fast as a lightning strike, raised his voice, "Do not speak to your headmaster like that." Dumbledore's hand raised slightly at Remus, asking him without words, to let him handle the situation. El was too worked up on the fact that a friend had betrayed her trust to care about how she was acting. "Hermione, thank you for your brave honesty. You may go straight back to your common room now. Do not speak of this with anyone." Dumbledore asked a sniffling Hermione who was stood in the corner. She hesitated to speak but Dumbledore smiled and nodded his head, understanding whatever she had tried to come out with. She swiftly ran out of the room and back down the winding stairs. El was also on the verge of tears, but not sad tears, more like anger was the only thing she could feel running through her veins tears.
Elektra glanced at the bright red Phoenix that Dumbledore had in his office, noticing his resemblance to how she was feeling on the inside. The colour of a fire. El took in all of the birds features, studying it as she had never seen one before (the last time she was here it was merely a baby bird) but now it was fully grown and beautiful. It made her start to feel more calm the more she looked at it, which caught the attention of Dumbledore. "He's quite the bird, is he not?" He didn't move his eyes from El, studying her as she was with the bird. "He's amazing..." She breathed out, letting go of all the negativity she was holding inside of her. Why did creatures have this effect on her?
Dumbledore pulled out her mother's diary from his drawer next to him and placed it on the table, his hands covering it. El looked towards the light brown leather diary, it had a swirling pattern that cascaded down the side of it, it's pages slightly torn and dirty. "Hermione mentioned you have been seeing an entity wandering the castle halls. She said you saw it after the Quidditch match to which you went and followed it. Is that correct?" He asked, not moving from his position. El slowly nodded her head. Guilty as charged. "And did you so happen to find it?" He asked curiously, still remaining as calm as a summer sea. El wondered how he had been alive all of these years as a calm man, battled Grindelwald when he was younger and still became the most powerful Wizard of the century. Maybe she needed to take a page out of his book this time. "Not exactly. I found a ball of light instead." She heard Snape move quietly around the room, pacing gently, his black cloak flowing through the air. "A Patronus perhaps?" Dumbledore asked, not taking his eyes off of El. "I'm not sure, Sir." El politely told him, feeling herself calm down fully.
Dumbledore opened the diary that was in his hands and flicked to a page inside as if he knew every single one by heart. He swivelled it around so it was now facing her. "Did you see this, by any chance?" He asked as El peered over the desk and felt a sudden sense of urgency to run away at the sight of the drawing on the page. Her mother had drawn the exact same woman and ball of light that she was seeing! El sunk back down into her chair with a sense of relief flushing over her. "Good to know that I'm not going insane." El huffed, rubbing her hand over her forehead since she was starting to feel a headache coming on. "You are not going insane, no. But I do wish you would have told one of us instead of taking matters into your own hands." Dumbledore insisted, turning the diary round back to face him. El peered over her shoulder at Snape with a subtle look of disgust on her face, "Or more importantly Professor Lupin." He interjected realising El and Snape were not on talking terms with each other, apart from being forced too within the walls of a classroom. El turned the other way, facing a very concerned but deeply disappointed Remus. She sighed heavily, "I did consider telling him but I- I don't know. I came in very late to his class because I followed the woman who-" El hesitated looking between Remus and an even more curious Dumbledore. "I got locked in a broom closet with her on the seventh floor." Remus' eyes softened as he realised he was too harsh on her in class especially after experiencing something like that! It explained to him why she was more distant, had a lot more attitude and had put her guard up during. "I raised you, El! Why didn't you feel like you could tell me something like this?" Remus said, walking over to where El was sitting and crouched down next to her chair. She sighed heavily and shrugged her shoulders. She didn't want to start a conversation about this because El wanted independence and freedom. Running to Remus every single time something bad had happened was not the answer El was looking for. But since she was already here, she told them all exactly what had happened in the closet and they seemed rather happy that she had done. "Elektra let me make this very clear to you, if you are to be visited by this woman again, I demand you to not follow her. You are to come to straight to a Professor or an adult. Your mother followed her, and terrible things became of it." Dumbledore insisted and El snapped her head up, "What terrible things?" Dumbledore looked to the diary in his hands, "The entity led her to something that, from the looks of what your mother has described, was a sort of map to where she found the energy matter." El felt her insides go weak again and she gulped hard knowing that same something was sitting right in her pocket. But how could a necklace be a map?
"You said she couldn't find it again; if she had the map how is that possible?" El questioned, giving her time to figure out if she should be completely honest and show them the necklace. "She hid the map, never to be found again. She never let on what it was, so that if anyone were to open this diary, they wouldn't know where to even begin. I haven't the faintest idea but my conclusion is that she had erased her own memory of the whereabouts of the map and the energy matter. She was scared of it, Elektra. Terrified of it." El felt her stomach drop and the thought of her mother being frightened of it, the possible 'it' that was coursing through her veins, made her just as scared. "Now might be a good time to tell you that I have found the map." Dumbledore looked up from the diary, Remus took a sharp intake in as McGonagall quickly walked over, "You've brought it into the school haven't you! Oh, Dumbledore are the children safe?" She was terrified, and it was all El's fault. Dumbledore ignored McGonagall and stared directly at El. "Is it in this room with us now?" He asked, his voice becoming slightly more stern than his usual calmness. El slowly nodded her head, tears rolling down her cheeks. What had she done! Remus noticed, reached out his faintly bruised hand and ever so gently wiped her tears away. "Could you put it on his desk, El? No one will be mad at you, I promise." Remus reassured her, taking his hand and popping it into her shaking one. This is the price you pay for being curious! "Are you going to tell my dad? He doesn't need this on top of the stress of everything else he's going through." She worryingly whispered to Remus, which caused McGonagall and Snape to perk their ears up. "Her father? She's been in contact with that man!" Snape roared, pacing across the room to the desk. Remus ignored him, letting Dumbledore handle the situation. "He is innocent and it will be proven at his plea next week." Dumbledore simple stated, looking towards a very angered potions master. "He is no innocent man. Remember when he tried to murder me." Snape sneered, ignoring a very frightened Elektra. The necklace ordeal had seemed to be forgotten about! All because Snape was being as selfish as usual. Remus stood up, "He was sixteen years old. You were a bully yourself back in school and I had taken my potion so I would have been in complete control." El wiped her eyes, from her silent crying, and peered around at the two teachers. "Are you excusing his behaviour, Lupin?" Snape jabbed, looking disgusted at Remus. "What he did was terrible. But he was still a child. Thankfully Potter saved your life that night despite the bad blood between you both. Maybe you should learn to get over it, just like Sirius has done by spending twelve years being locked away somewhere he shouldn't have been. Pettigrew is still alive, was the secret keeper for James and Lily and Sirius was the decoy as he will always be known as his best friend." Remus had raised his voice a little bit, clearly becoming very protective over her father. El noticed it, wondering for a second. "Where's the proof he's alive?" Snape asked, not believing a word he had said. Dumbledore spoke up, "He was sighted by two Ministry Aurors. He's been using his rat form to sneak around. He was Ron Weasley's pet for a very long time. Besides the point gentlemen, Elektra-" Dumbledore looked at her swollen face, "Hand it over, please. It is safer in the hands of myself, rather than a fifteen-year-old. As Remus has just put it nicely, you are still a child. Your heroic bravery is not of a child, I will admit. But if this map can make a grown woman terrified of it, then I say it won't do much good being kept with you." El looked at Dumbledore with a guilty expression before slowly reaching into her pocket and retrieving the aqua coloured necklace in her shaky hands. The Professor's eyes all glistened with curiosity at the foreign object. "A necklace!" Cried McGonagall, putting a hand to her mouth. "Indeed a necklace. Not just any necklace. My, my, I have not seen this object in quite some time." Muttered Dumbledore who had picked up his wand and flicked it upwards as the necklace gently moved from her hand, onto the table. Dread filled Elektra's very muddled head. Why didn't he want to touch it? "This necklace went missing from the archives of the Ministry within the Dangerous Artefact room about 70 years ago when I was just a Professor here. The story goes, whoever wore it could destroy cities with one single thought alone if they did not know how to control the power it gave people. It makes sense now, it wasn't the necklace that gave people the power, it was the map inside of it that showed them where the energy was so they could possess it." El was lost for words, she was just thankful that she and none of her friends had worn it! "I didn't put it on. No one touched it except for me. I swear." El insisted, moving back into her seat more, away from the object. "I trust that. Did you feel anything when you touched it?" He asked, looking at the necklace with intent. "No. Although, I saw waves crashing inside of it when I touched it. But then they disappeared." El opened up, feeling rather proud of herself, despite her breaking a few laws to get to it, that she had retrieved a missing Ministry object that was highly dangerous, a student as well!
"Waves you say? Like the ocean?" Remus asked, staring at the necklace and then back at El with his usual worried face. "Yes, just like the ocean! I think the energy is on a beach somewhere." El said. "I shall let the Ministry know. I will also be giving this diary in as well." Dumbledore put the necklace down onto the desk with his wand, and opened up the pages, tearing out a page carefully. El gasped, "What are you doing!" Dumbledore chuckled, "You have a page here that's addressed to you. It was the very the last thing she wrote." El felt her throat tighten up as he handed her the now-folded up page. She couldn't believe it! She'd never had anything that belonged to her mother! She decided to put it into her pocket as she wanted to read it when she was alone. "Thank you." El said, giving Dumbledore a soft smile. "Where did the diary come from?" She asked innocently. "I am not entirely sure how it came to be in my possession or how it even got into my office to begin with. I think she may have known that one day you would come to Hogwarts. She knew that there was a possibility she could be dying and couldn't homeschool you. Maybe since Sirius was a bit of a known troublemaker, it would be in safer hands with me than himself." Dumbledore chuckled, closing the dairy tight shut. "I think it is time for a nice mug of hot chocolate and a good hearty dinner, don't you?" He warmly smiled at El, getting up out of his seat, patting down his grey robes. "Remus, would you mind walking Miss Black to the Great Hall. Miss Black, I think it would be most favourable to make amends with Miss Granger, don't you? She saved your life after all." He softly winked at her, moving down the steps into the spacious study. Remus stuck his hand out and El grabbed tightly hold of it as he pulled her up out of the chair. "I guess so." She mumbled into Remus's chest as he pulled her into a hug. Both relieved to be in each other's arms again. "I'm so glad you're alive." Remus whispered into her hair, "I don't know what I would have done with the rest of my life if you were dead." El looked up to a saddened Remus and stroked his scars that ran down his face, clearly from an attack he had been in during his transformation. "I'm going to have to tell Sirius what has happened, I hope you know this." He whispered to her again, stroking the top of her hair. She nodded regretfully, sinking her head back into his chest, fearing the owl that was about to be sent. Maybe a howler? Oh no...
"I couldn't imagine my life without you either. I'm sorry." El mumbled, listening to his calmed heartbeat. "Let's get some food in you" Remus suggested, quickly wiping a tear that had rolled down his cheek suddenly. She nodded as he pulled her out of the room past a judgemental Snape, and down the darkened staircase.