The Girl Who Lived

A Burst of Light

Elena's outfit for the chapter & I think you know the drill with the + and music!
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May 31st, 1996.
Grimmauld Place, London.
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Elena Clairmont sat in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place, a steaming cup of coffee in her hands. The cup burned her hands, coloring them patchy red, and the steam flowed in front of her eyes. She knew that the steam wasn't from the heat of the coffee.

It had been days since Umbridge had last used the Fyre-Death on Elena... The effects were slowly but surely wearing off. Nothing- nothing had ever made her so happy. So when Elena tried to conjure the flame just for the hell of it and she felt the heat pulsating through her fingers, she smiled and tried again.

"Do you think we should..." Harry muttered out of the corner of his mouth. He gestured towards Sirius and Remus quietly speaking near the door.

She shrugged, sipping her coffee. "Starting family drama before breakfast? That's risky."

He rolled his eyes, his pink lips hinting at a smirk.

Since waking up in a dogpile in her bed with Remus, Sirius and Harry tangled in all of her sheets, Harry relentlessly tried to sway Elena into talking to them about the memory they intruded on in Snape's office.

He wouldn't stop sneaking glances or jabbing Elena in the ribs to try and remind her to say something... He knew he could rely on her to always say whatever she needed to without a problem.

Today was different though. Usually, he would just poke her cheek or kick her shin and she would jump into action, demanding answers without a ferocity Harry rarely saw. But he couldn't push her today... Not after he had seen her have a horrible nightmare and cry over someone that only Sirius knew.

Of course he assumed she had nightmares. Ginny had told him that Elena would place silencing charms around her bed sometimes in order to prevent anyone from noticing her lack of sleep. She would willingly suffer through the nightmares in order to make sure nobody else was disturbed. He wished he had thought of doing the same.

But seeing the nightmares become something physical and real was so- so... He couldn't even place it. It stirred something inside of him, something dreadfully sad and angry. And although it would make him a terrible person if he ever admitted it aloud, he was relieved he wasn't the only one who couldn't find an ounce of peace in his life- not even behind the safety of his own eyes.

He wouldn't push her today, he had promised himself. He swore it on his life. Harry would stay out of her way and let her be. Giving her space should help, shouldn't it? After all, he had given her loads of space over the past year and look at her now: cheery and calm in Grimmauld Place with Sirius and Remus.

Today, Remus would head back out to his own flat in London to finish up some loose ends for the Order and their plan to secure information on the werewolf groups underground in order to find Fenrir Greyback. Remus hated doing it by himself but he didn't have an option... He never did.

In the first war, Dumbledore handed out assignments with Mad-eye and the only assignments ever given to Remus were to do with going underground to live with the other werewolves to find Greyback. He had nearly died time after time but nothing, not even Sirius's threats to Dumbledore or James's and Thomas's pleading to Dumbledore or Isabella's hexes aimed at Moody alongside Lily's, made the old man cave in and bring Remus back to their world.

Once the Order reformed last year after Voldemort's resurrection, Remus was handed out the assignment he was all too familiar with. Both Elena and Sirius went mad when they found out. Sirius went to Dumbledore and pleaded the way his friends had done once but nothing came from it.