Dose of Darkness | Tom Riddle |

Chapter Twenty Seven: Graduation

June 1, 1945

The slates of scribbles and deep scratches that had been Eleanor's past seven years had finally run out of room. There was no more space for the next chapter of her life therefore she wouldn't be able to turn the side this time; she would have to start on an entirely new and blank canvas. 

Eleanor had never thought that the day that she would leave Hogwarts would have come so fast and that she would be having her last breakfast in the Great Hall now among her friends. Despite her eagerness to leave at times, the bittersweet feeling of leaving had not quite hit her all the way yet and she felt the bitterness of leaving before the sweet.

"What if we never see each other again after this? The biggest parts of our lives gone like a candle run out of wax to burn!" Lillian said.

The girl hadn't stopped crying and hugging all morning.

"People never really leave each other if there has to be a goodbye involved." Eleanor shrugged, sipping the sugary coffee in her hands. 

Every detail of this morning was retained and she wouldn't admit that she didn't want to forget a single minute of this. 

"On the contrary, people never really leave each other if they wonder why there was never a goodbye said." Julius commented slyly, nudging her with his elbow. 

Julius was yet another detail she never wanted to forget either. 

"Oh, will you all stop already! We don't have to say goodbye because this summer we are going all across the world and live a little before we have to come back here and get back into the routine with the normal Ministry jobs we'll all have." Marcella cried. 

Eleanor realized just then how painfully normal her life was going to be. 

Since her mother's death, she has become better at coping then ultimately better at being herself. 
But nothing felt right or whole again.
Just two years of a life of war and yet she felt like she had gone so deep into it that she never really fully returned from it. It was hard trying to find the strength that she had in that time because it was the only time it was useful. Now what was she?

"Sounds about right." Eleanor smiled. 

Maybe she could try to live life the way it was before all of this happened if she tried hard enough to remember it. 

Once the breakfast concluded, the Seventh Year students tearfully pulled themselves away from the Great Hall to go get ready for the ceremony that would take place in just a few short hours. She never saw what happened when students graduate; not even her own siblings. It was probably because the moment itself was so extravagant and yet heart wrenching that it was meant to be experienced only when one was graduation and nothing short of that. 

The tradition was for all the boys to wear a tailored suit with their robes and the girls to wear a dress of their house of their house color with a robe as well. That was as far as she knew.

Nonetheless, she was feeling the sweetness now as she dolled herself up with Marcella, Lillian, and all the girls of Ravenclaw. 
Eleanor wore a deep blue dress that fell short at her knees, bellowing out just slightly, and the sleeves of the dress hanging down her shoulders, revealing her defined collar bones and the Deathly Hallows pendant she wished she could have thrown away long ago. It had already been burned into her skin just down her arm.  Her hair had been waved like the ripple of a stone hitting water and pinned to one side. 

It was fitting for the warm June air. 

Once she grabbed her robes and her cap, she met the rest of her friends in the Common Room of their house.