Elysia - The Story Continues

Willow

I'd been out there fighting, too, that night. Not that I told anyone ever. Death Eater's seemed to evaporate the night she died; I was a coward like the rest, I said it was the Imperius curse and whimpered in fear. It didn't matter particularly; everyone remembered me and who I was, so employment was out of the question.

Just because I was fighting for the wrong team, didn't mean I wasn’t scarred. I killed people that night, I squeamed as children died at my hand, and I flung curses at the teachers who cared for me and students who had been my friends. It wasn't as if I really believed in any of it any more, the night they beat Elysia into a quite literal pulp, my doubts were well formed.

I can't really articulate the fear, this carnal madness that overtook me whenever I felt tempted to leave. The night I discovered the Dorm burns in my mind; I'd been patrolling the 'Proxy Dorms' that Elysia had created to mislead us, endlessly roaming the path she laid for us. Our orders were to open to door and see, open the door and see, open the door and see.

Malfoy's lot was in charge that night. Perhaps they were the only ones who reveled in the new leadership of the school; every sinister idea that crossed their minds was encouraged by the Dark Lord's associates and then enacted.

When I close my eyes, I see my bony hand protruding from the black cloak to the bronze door handle, barely exerting any pressure, and to my surprise the knob turned.

I could barely force any air into my lungs in that moment as a flood of warmth sprung into the cold hallway, a welcoming embrace in the form of a gust. Barely treading, I leaned forward and dug my head into the dark depths of the room. I saw rows upon rows of beds and hammocks, the darkness perturbed only by the glowing cinders of the fireplaces.

Cinnamon hung in the air, I cannot determine whether I invented that fragrance or not, and I saw my freedom. Elysia had once been my closest friends, lost in the undercurrent of my own selfishness and manipulation. But still, she had the heart I never did, a good one. She would surely forgive me.

My heart swelled and shrunk, swelled and shrunk, inhaling breaths of hope like my lungs were inhaling the warm fragrance of the room. Behind me stood Voldemort and his cruelty… My cruelty too, now. Behind me stood the winning team, very possibly the future of the modern world, yet despite the mounting odds against Elysia, I felt the sudden urge to die free and good rather than live in perpetual hell.

I exhaled all of my fears and realised that it was my destiny to enter Elysia's dorm and atone for all that I had done. My future was glowing and hot, begging to be grasped. As I extended my arm to open the mouth of the door to its farthest width, my forearm protruded from the black of my cloak. In disgust I saw the dark mark, the deadly skull wriggling ever so slightly on the surface of my skin.

Recoiling in self-loathing my grasp slipped from the door and as the Room sensed danger, the door shut swiftly and silently despite my protestations. A glow like a lit wick set around the edge of the door, sealing it into the walls of the hallway. Tears sprung to my eyes rapidly and indefiably, my hands began to beat again and again against the heavy oak of the door, weeping for it to let me in.

I have never been so lonely than the moment in which my I let my salvation slip away in a breath of self-hatred.

Splinters buried themselves beneath the surface of my raw skin after what felt like hours of knocking, my eyes were swollen from tears of anguish. Across from me, Merlin gazed down with a look of disgust, shaking his head slowly and glaring at me through his beady spectacles. Footsteps told me to recollect myself, yet the tears would not return to whence they came.

Draco turned the corner, alone, icy hair slicked back and an even icier demeanor quite open. Patting my eyes and wishing that the redness would leave my face, I rose to my feet and gathered myself.