Dark

Chapter 25

Eleanor
Thanks to the numerous secret passageways in this school I was able to sneak up to the library after the second task. Now that I no longer needed to prepare for potential underwater threats, I could get back to what I truly enjoyed. I couldn’t let anyone know what I was doing though. Malfoy had been right before, I could easily be expelled if a teacher knew what I was up to. It took me hours to find just what I was looking for, but I was certain that it would help me continue what I had already started.
By the time I was making my way back to the common room I had a heavy book tucked under my arm, fresh concealment charms placed upon it to hide its contents from any potential prying eyes. With a quick mutter of the password – “Barnabas” – the Slytherin entrance melted away. I was immediately bombarded by a wave of noise.
There were Slytherin students filling the common room. Drinks and food were everywhere and music was playing from somewhere, though I couldn’t quite tell where. There was a large poster on one wall that contained my picture from the first Daily Prophet article about the chosen champions. I was thankful to find that even my picture seemed annoyed by the loud atmosphere and was looking around completely uninterested.
I was half way across the room, hoping to disappear into my dorm, when a hand wrapped around my wrist. I turned to find Malfoy had latched onto me, holding me back from the peace and quiet I was desperate to achieve.
“Where are you going? Don’t you want to enjoy your party?” Malfoy asked me.
My party? Why would this be my party? I suppose that would explain that creepily oversized poster of me.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, my eyebrows furrowing.
“They’re throwing this party for you. They do actually want you to win, you know?” He answered.
I looked around the room again. This had to be a trick of some sort. Right? Sure the Slytherins had been tolerating me, but I wouldn’t go as far as to say they liked me. They certainly hated Harry, and seeing as he and I were a team in this tournament, I just couldn’t imagine them rooting for me when it meant rooting for him as well.
“Look, I don’t know what kind of sick joke this all is, but I’m not interested.” I told Malfoy, trying to turn away.
“It’s not a joke, Potter. It’s just a party. Why do you act like every normal thing will kill you?” he asked, a hint of annoyance in his voice though he was still smirking at me when I looked up at him again.
I looked away from him, planning to just leave the party anyway. Then my eyes fell upon something that did finally interest me. A measly ten feet away was one of the study tables that usually filled the common room, but now it was filled with bottles of what looked like Butterbeer, and behind those were larger bottles of what was likely some sort of stronger liquor.
A familiar sensation of wanting to forget seemed to wash over me. I didn’t want to think about the task. I didn’t want to think about how Harry had almost wasted too much time and what could have happened if I hadn’t been able to pull him to the surface. I didn’t want to think about the fact that I was so alone in the world that there wasn’t anyone for me to rescue from the lake. I just didn’t want to think, and I didn’t want to remember.
So I gave in.
“Fine, I’ll stay.” I said, wrenching my arm out of Malfoy’s grasp and making my way to the liquor table.
I had been right, the table was mostly filled with Butterbeers, but behind those were a number of bottles that read Ogden’s Old Firewhisky. That should be strong enough. I took an entire bottle off of the table and made my way toward one of the couches. It wasn’t until I had sat down and opened the bottle that I noticed Malfoy had followed me.
“You probably don’t want to drink that,” he said, eyeing me strangely. “Firewhisky is pretty strong.”
I narrowed my eyes at Malfoy, contemplating him for a moment. Deciding that my annoyance with him would dissipate about halfway through the bottle in my hands I decided to repress my urge to hit him. So I threw my head back and took a large swig of the amber liquid. A burning sensation seemed to travel down my throat with the liquid and my head was filled with a familiar buzz immediately. I closed my eyes and let the feeling wash over me for a moment. This was exactly what my brain needed.

Draco
At the beginning of the year I probably would have found it hilarious that Eleanor Potter was quickly getting wasted in the Slytherin common room. Now that it was actually happening though I didn’t find anything about the situation to be funny. Eleanor had a firm grasp on a nearly empty bottle of firewhisky. The more she drank, the stranger she got.
For the first time since I had met her she seemed to be having fun. It was odd to see her constantly smiling and to hear her laughing every few minutes. This wasn’t who she normally was. Rather than the cold and calculating Eleanor Potter that I had known for the past few months, she had suddenly turned into a warm and bubbly girl. After weeks and weeks of hoping that she would let her walls down long enough for me figure out her secrets, I was now seeing her walls disappear completely.
“Slow down, Potter.” I reached out to take the bottle out of Eleanor’s hand, but she moved it further away and stumbled back a couple of steps.
“Oh fuck off, Malfoy!” Eleanor said loudly before doubling over in laughter. Where the bloody hell has this version of Eleanor been hiding? This was all too strange.
“Seriously, Eleanor. This isn’t funny. You’re completely wasted.” I reached out to help steady Eleanor as her feet shifted clumsily beneath her.
“I’m having fun, Malfoy. What’s wrong with that?” She asked me, holding her arms out to her sides and bumping into the person next to her.
“Come on…” I grabbed hold of Eleanor’s arm and pulled her across the common room.
“What are we doing?” She asked.
“Going for a walk, you need to get out of here.” I answered, pushing her through the common room entrance.
As the wall closed up again behind us Eleanor ripped her arm out of my grasp and stumbled sideways. She threw an arm out and caught herself against the wall. Pushing herself off the wall she clumsily began making her way down the corridor.
“What were you thinking?” I hissed at her.
An entire bottle of firewhisky? Who in their right mind decides to spend their first time drinking downing an entire bottle of firewhisky?
“I was thinking that I like alcohol.” Eleanor slurred.
We turned a corner and before I could ask Eleanor what she meant by that, she ran into someone, bouncing back off them and falling to the floor.
“Oh look,” Eleanor giggled as she waved the bottle around in her hand, “I saved the whisky.”
I hadn’t bothered to see who Eleanor had ran into as I reached down to help her back up. This night was quickly turning into a disaster.
“Eleanor?!”
I immediately recognized that voice without even having to look back up. What in the world was he of all people doing down here?
“Harry!” Eleanor sang out from where she was still lying on the floor. “It’s you!”

Harry
“What is going on here?” I asked shortly, staring wide-eyed at the strange scene before me.
Eleanor was lying on the floor. She had fallen backwards after turning the corner into the corridor Ron and Hermione and I were in and running into me. That wasn’t the strangest thing though, not by far. Not only was Eleanor here, but she was with Malfoy. Worse than that though, if possible, was the liquor bottle clutched tightly in her hand and the large uncharacteristic smile across her face.
“Get lost, Potter.” Malfoy spat as he helped Eleanor up from the ground.
“Hey! Don’t be mean to him.” Eleanor said. It didn’t quite sound like her though. Her voice wasn’t strong and sure, it was thick and slurred. Between that and the bottle in her hand, the only answer could be that she had been drinking.
“Did you get her drunk?!” Ron asked loudly from beside me.
“I didn’t do anything, Weasley.” Malfoy spoke up again. “She did this to herself.”
“Get away from her, Malfoy.” I narrowed my eyes at him. Nothing about this seemed right. Why was Eleanor drunk in the first place and why was she out here alone with Malfoy? What could he have been planning to do with her? “Eleanor, give me that.”
As I reached forward to pull the bottle out her hand she moved back, colliding with Malfoy.
“Why are you both so mean?” Eleanor asked, her eyes oddly wide and watching me. She jabbed her finger hard into Malfoy’s chest as she continued, “He tried to take my liquor too. You two are no fun.”
With that, Eleanor raised the bottle again to take what was likely the final sip of the firewhisky. As the bottle reached her lips though I stepped forward and wrenched it harshly out her hands.
“Hey!” Eleanor shouted, reaching out for the liquor. “That’s mine!”
“Not anymore, Eleanor. I think you’ve had enough.” I told her, trying to decide what to do with the crazy situation that I had walked into.
“You know, if I weren’t drunk…I’d punch you right now.” She slowly slurred. “But you’re much more tolerable when I’m wasted.”
Nodding her head slowly she turned around and took another corridor.
“You guys are acting like I’ve never been drunk before. But I’m fine.” Eleanor called over her shoulder. I made to follow her, Ron and Hermione on my heels. To my great discomfort, Malfoy tagged along as well.
“You’ve been drunk before?” Ron asked.
“Yeah. I like alcohol. It makes you all warm and fuzzy inside. Keeps me warm when I sleep in the park.” Eleanor turned to face us, stumbling her way down the hall backward. “It makes your brain all fuzzy too.”
Nothing was making sense. Eleanor is all of thirteen and here she is telling me that she’s had alcohol before, that she’s been drunk before even, and that she’s been sleeping in a park? What about the orphanage, the one that she never talks about? What could any of this mean?
“What do you mean sleep in the park?” I asked her.
I was stopped in my tracks as Eleanor stopped in front of me and took a large and dramatic breath.
“Harry!” She was nearly shouting with excitement as another wide smile spread across her face. “I should show you the tree sometime!”
“The tree? What tree?” I asked, absolutely confused.
“The tree, Harry! I have to show you the tree!”
“No, wait. Eleanor…what do you mean by sleep in the park?”
“The park?” Eleanor tilted her head to the side and furrowed her eyebrows.
I was sure that she was completely lost somewhere in her own mind for a moment. Then her smile faded and her eyes widened.
“Sometimes I sleep in the park…it’s safer than the alleyways…” Eleanor said quietly. She was looking in my direction but it felt like she wasn’t seeing me at all.
“Safer than alleyways?” Ron asked, stepping forward so that he was level with me. His face was screwed up in concern and I knew then that we were both thinking the same thing: that Eleanor had been living on the streets.
“Why would you have been sleeping in an alleyway, Eleanor?” I wasn’t sure that she had heard the question at first, my voice had been so quiet.
In that moment Eleanor seemed to crumble on the inside. I could see it in the way that her shoulders seemed to slump forward, how she had started to open her mouth to say something but couldn’t and simply left her lips slightly parted. I could also see it in her eyes. For the first time I could see vulnerability there. She was no longer a strong-willed teenager that could stand comfortable on her own two feet and deal with whatever was thrown her way. Not in that moment.
No.
In that moment she was just a kid. She was just a kid who looked lost and scared.
“Why? Why, Harry?” Eleanor said quietly, finally meeting my gaze again and truly seeing me standing there in front of her. “Why do you have to ruin everything?”
“What do you –“
“I was fine! I wasn’t thinking about it.” Eleanor said harshly, “I wasn’t thinking about any of it and you had to ruin that! I didn’t want to think about all of those things, Harry!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Eleanor.” I told her, trying to reach forward toward her but she just stumbled away from again. “What things? What is going on?!”
I felt something slam into my shoulder and realized that Malfoy was walking past me. He reached out for Eleanor’s arm and as he grabbed hold of her he tried to pull her farther down the hall.
“Come on, we’re going to get caught out here.”
“No!” Eleanor shouted. With a strong and sudden movement I wouldn’t have known possible for Eleanor to achieve while drunk, she wrenched Malfoy’s hand off of her arm and shoved him away from her. “He ruined everything!”
I didn’t know what to say, or what to do. Eleanor was quickly losing it right before my very eyes and I had no idea what to do. How do you help someone who hates you, something who thinks you hate them? That was why I was down here in the first place. I needed to let Eleanor know that what she said wasn’t true. I had to tell her that what she said earlier wasn’t true, that I didn’t hate her.
“You got everything, Harry.” Eleanor continued, watching me intently. “You turned eleven and you got to come here. You got to make friends and find a new family.” Her eyes flitted toward Ron before moving back to me. “You have people who love you and care about you…but I don’t have any of that…When I turned eleven, Harry…that was the first time the orphanage kicked me out.”
“They what?”
“They kicked me out…they do terrible things there, Harry…and no one ever stops them…and the kids they really hate…well, they just get tired of us being around…” Eleanor said slowly, her hands trembling at her sides, “so they kick those kids out every couple of months…they leave us to fend for ourselves for a week or so before they’ll let us go back…”
Eleanor took a shuddering breath, and it was like she was crumbling even further. She looked almost incapable of holding herself together and I just stood there, unsure of what to do.
“So when you turned eleven, Harry…you got all of this…” She looked around at Ron and Hermione and the castle walls that surrounded us, “and when I turned eleven…I was kicked out of the orphanage, left to wander the streets like some lost puppy…” Eleanor was shifting again, from vulnerability to anger as she narrowed her eyes at me and her voice got louder and louder,”…I was cold, and hungry…I didn’t have friends or family…I was alone and scared…and when I needed someone most there was no one there…there was no one to protect me when I was attacked!”
As the last word crossed her mouth her eyes widened in horror. She took quick shaking breaths, every last ounce of composure she always maintained crumbling away into nothing. As she fell apart all I could hear were her words repeating in my mind, “when I was attacked!” What did that mean? Who attacked her? How? Why? Why was there no one there to protect her? How could no one have cared? How could our parents have left her to suffer at the hands of some tormented orphanage? How could the people there get away with something like this?
Other than Eleanor’s rapid breathing there was no sound. The rest of us were silent, just standing there trying to get a grasp on what we had just learned. Then Eleanor raised her hands, gripping the sides of her head tightly and mumbling, “No, I can’t think about that…I can’t…”
“Eleanor?” Hermione spoke up for the first time, stepping forward toward Eleanor with caution.
“No!” Eleanor shouted so loudly and suddenly that we nearly all jumped in surprise. “Just…just stay away from me, Harry!”
Then she was dashing up the corridor and away from us.
None of moved for a minute, none of us said anything. Even Malfoy stood there, looking just as thrown for a loop as the rest of us.
I had wanted to know more about the orphanage, I had wanted to know why someone bringing it up always set Eleanor off. But even the couple of answers I got tonight only spawned more questions. I had thought that this would be easy for a moment. That I could come down here and seek out Eleanor and explain that I wanted to make things right. I thought I could tell her that I wanted to get to know her, that I didn’t hate her. But it couldn’t be that easy, not when I was only just beginning to understand how truly broken she was.