The Girl Who Lived

The Department of Mysteries

June 18th, 1996
Department of Mysteries,
Ministry of Magic,
London.
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Elena Clairmont ran through the ninth level of the Ministry of Magic with her cloak billowing behind her in her wake. Draco was on her heels and Harry was followed close behind.

Her heart was thudding so deeply and roughly in her chest that she was sure that the sound was bouncing off of the jeweled-toned walls. This had to be the worst day of her goddamned life. Having to run this many times in one day in addition to having to come to the Ministry and find Sirius was genuinely the worst day of her life.

All she wanted was to curl up on the couch in Grimmauld Place, eat pizza with Draco and Daphne, get more stick and poke tattoos with Sirius and Remus, and binge watch the Star Wars trilogy.

She loved Star Wars. So much, she loved it and it made her emotional each damned time she watched Anakin Skywalker die for his son. Sometimes, she couldn't help but relate herself to Leia Organa. There was so much fire, passion and anger- so much goddamned anger in her heart, just the way Leia did. Sure, she was nothing more than a fictional character but there was such a lack of strong women in the media world and this was the first she had grown up with.

Her first halloween costume she could remember was Princess Leia.

Whenever she was sad or stressed or angry or anything negative, Elena would watch the Star Wars trilogy with her mother or by herself, but mainly, it was the most time she would spend with her mother at once.

Right now, sprinting through the hallway in the Ministry of Magic in search of her godfather, all she wanted was to watch Star Wars and own a lightsaber.

The group stopped as Elena stared at the large door that both her and Harry had been dreaming about for months.

"Is this it?" Ron asked. His throat bobbed up and down nervously. This was the door where his father had been attacked. This was the place that Ron had been having nightmares about for months and judging by the color draining from his sister's face, she felt the same as he did.

Harry gulped and nodded. "This is it."

The hall looked exactly the same from when Elena had those blasted nightmares but she also remembered it from the night she escaped her cell, freed Andromeda and heard Cedric's voice calling out to her from inside the door.

Even now, she said nothing but listened to the faint calling of her name by him. His voice was nothing but a brush against her cheek, a breath in her ear but she could hear it. It was warm and kind, just as she remembered it the first time he had spoken to her.

It had been the day of the Quidditch World Cup and he had helped her to her feet after the Portkey had sent her crashing into a grassy prairie. He was so kind and gentle, so warm and she couldn't understand how someone was naturally open in that way.

Sometimes, just sometimes, she missed him. It used to consume her to the point where nothing would be able to bring her back from her circling pit of grief but there was a life waiting for her to live and she would not waste another moment of it. So, she missed him in the quiet moments where she could peacefully mourn and not be swallowed by pain.

The day she had escaped her cell and vowed herself to Lucius's demise seemed so far away now. She supposed it was, considering how far everything had progressed in a matter of two weeks.

A flash of a nightmare passed through her eyes and she could hear multiple voices calling out, tortured screams and flashes of red lights... She had this nightmare before, being by this door. She couldn't remember the last time she had that nightmare but she could easily remember the way the nightmare had made her sit up while choking back tears.