Elektra Black III

Chapter 8 | My Darling

Author's Notes:

Extra chapter this week because I feel like spoiling you all... enjoy x

"You're mentally insane running off like that!" Jada shrieked, causing their fellow Gryffindors to moan at Jada's funny but rather annoying loudness that had been (thankfully) missing the last few months. El and Ron both placed Hermione on the couch near to the roaring fire whilst Ginny stood with Harry, making sure he, too, was alright.

"Merlin, Jada." Ron groaned, utterly exhausted from the nightmare fuelled day they had been through. "You sure will do well if you end up with George, y'know? You sound just like my mum." He grumbled as Jada began to blush, ignoring his remark to face El, who was watching her with teary eyes. "I'm so sorry I left without a goodbye. I wasn't in the right mind, you're right-" El began, walking over to her. Jada cut her off, "You bloody well weren't in your right mind! You're Elektra Black! When do you run after boys!" She tried to be angry, but the closer El got, the more she wanted to wrap her arms around her wet, fragile body.

"It's my fault. If I had been better with my communication, this all wouldn't have happened." Harry began, appearing somewhat out of place with all the new first-year Gryffindors staring at him with a mixture of nerves and awe. He was a fully-fledged celebrity now, so he ought to get used to the feeling.

"So-" A voice rose out of the crowd. Harry spun around, scanning the heads and landed on a bold Seamus Finnigan. Harry swallowed hard, knowing a conversation with Seamus could go either two ways. "I'm guessing your hiding spot didn't go according to plan. You know, considering you've brought the trouble here." Seamus spat as Harry internally groaned, "Don't speak on what you know nothing about, Finnigan." Seamus chuckled, "I know plenty, thanks."

Elektra considerately let go of Jada, who had been quietly embracing her best friend when her anger subsided and marched up towards Seamus. "Does the Daily Prophet tell you that? The one your mum reads?" She started, piercing her eyes into the boy who did not back down. El looked around the room at the startled faces of children who were not ready for the war looming over the mountain tops. She looked behind her and stood up on one of the brown oak desks that just so happened to be there.

"Since you're all listening, and I know you're all reading the shit they publish-" El pointed her finger to a newspaper sprawled out on the coffee table by the fire. It was glorifying a war, a better society without the likes of Harry Potter and Dumbledore. "You should recognise that the Ministry has been taken over by Death Eaters whether you like it or not. They're feeding you bullshit to gain more followers and if you believe them, like Seamus over here so naively does-" She threw a look to the boy who was sinking back into the crowd out of embarrassment, "-then you might as well walk out those doors now and join them because you are not welcome here. Look what they did to Hermione!" The students peered at the helpless girl, who slightly lifted her arm to show the mess Bellatrix made. The younger kids gasped, and some even clung onto the older ones in shock. "If you want to walk freely without being discriminated against the way you look, who you choose to love or what blood status you are, then fight alongside us. We're Gryffindors, for Merlin's sake! Be brave, you cowards. Be brave for the sake of our future."

Jada leaned over to Ginny and whispered into her ear, "I think the war is starting to get to her head, don't you?" Ginny turned towards Jada and smiled at her friend's lighthearted joke before she raised her wand into the air, causing a wave of other students to follow in a stand with El's hard-hitting speech. Harry looked up at El, and instead of seeing the girl he fancied, a girl he grew up with, a girl obsessed over creatures that he found odd and weird, he saw a brilliant young woman he couldn't imagine life without.