Chasing Love

Chapter Eighty-Six - End of Seventh Year and Hogwarts

Wandering around the castle Eliza found it very hard to think about anything other than Sirius's death, another person she cared for gone. Everyone else was outside enjoying the warm sun but she couldn't handle being out there, she needed some time alone.  

Suddenly, she bumped into something, or rather someone, "Sorry - Harry!" Eliza was glad it was him, "How are you?"

"I'm alright," He replied, "How are you?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "I'm okay, as good as you can be. The weathers really good, isn't it?" She was rambling on, probably nervous about what he was going to say.

"Your brother, how old is he?" Harry asked her quietly.

Eliza stared at him before answering, "He's twenty-two years old."

"His name is Dominic?" She nodded at him, "He was at the Department of Mysteries with Malfoy and the other death-eaters."

"Well him being a true Dawlish, he's a loyal servant to Voldemort." Eliza smiled sadly, "They all have been, except my aunt and I. And then before Voldemort they were loyal to Grindelwald."

"Whose Grindelwald?" Harry asked her.

"The man that started the first wizarding war."

Harry nodded his head before looking at her seriously again, "Your father -"

Eliza cut him off, "Was at the graveyard when Cedric was killed."

"How did you know?"

"Malfoy was there so of course my father was, he's very loyal to Voldemort so wouldn't dare go against him." Before she could say anything else, "I'm sorry Harry, I'm sorry for my family and everything they have done."

"You're not your family Eliza! You're so much better than them!"

"When I was young I would spend all my time with my aunt - my father and mother never had any time for me - and Sirius would always come round and help look after me. They were the parents I never had and then over the summer when I was living with him, it felt as though I had a father, as though my aunt was still there. But now they're both gone, I am so terribly sorry Harry."

"I know what you mean, being with Sirius felt as though I finally had a family. He asked me to live with him but now, well now I won't be able to."

She hugged him tightly, "You have a family, the Weasleys' and I, well we're all one big family."

"Thank you Eliza."

"If your parents and my aunt never died then we would have been very close. Evelyn and Lily were the best of friends." A small smile made it's way onto her face, "They became friends on the first day at their time on Hogwarts and continued to be best friends until they're deaths. You know Harry, we never did get round to talking about them."

"No, no we didn't." He then asked her in a small voice, "Can you tell me about them?"

The day before term ended Professor Umbridge left Hogwarts, she had tried to leave quietly but Peeves caught her in the act. Just like Fred had instructed him to, he began to chase her away from the school with a walking stick and a sock full of chalk. Eliza had been among the students to run out into the Entrance Hall so they could see her rush down the path away, all the teachers tried only slightly to restrain them - really they too wanted to run after her like Peeves had done.

Angelina, Alicia and Eliza had finished packing all of their things up, the three of them all feeling very bittersweet about the moment - they were glad the year was over, it had been a horrible one, but they would never be returning to Hogwarts again, not as a student anyway.