1996: The Beginning of the End

September 1st, 1996.
Today will be different. If I say it's different, it's different, right? I don't want to go back, but I have nowhere else to go. I have to go back, she would want me to go back. Mum would want me to go back.

Eloise Vance has never been alone but since July she has been terribly and utterly alone. It's time to go back to school, back to normal life, back to whatever was meant to be normal. But nothing was normal now. Everything was changing.

The second wizarding war is under way and over the summer of 1996 the Order of the Phoenix has suffered serious losses to its ranks. The new school term has begun at Hogwarts. Harry Potter is finding his way following the death of Sirius Black, Draco Malfoy is acting strangely, Professeur Snape is now the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher and Eloise Vance is covered in shadows following the death of her other at the hands of Voldemort's followers. Lost, sad and full of anger Eloise finds solace and friendship in an unusual place, but could this solace turn out to be the difference between the beginning of her life and the beginning of the end?

*I DO NOT OWN Harry Potter*