The Girl who Survived (Fred Weasley)

CH 60. Patronus

When Elodie's psychic abilities begin to become unmanageable, afternoon tea shines some light on a possible way to help. However, after the DA is discovered Hogwarts becomes a different place all together.

Songs used to write this chapter:

Eyes on fire - Blue Foundation 

Season of the Witch - Donovan

Breath of Life - Florence + The Machine

Leather and Lace - Stevie Nicks & Don Henley

Hey Lovies! A bit of a longer chapter today. It was originally 5K words, but I shortened it to just over 4K. You know I love interacting with you in the comments, so let me know all your thoughts, what you love, what you want to see next. I shy away from reacting to predictions cause even if it's wrong, I don't want to give any spoilers. But once you get to the end of this chapter, I can guarantee you'll know what's about to come next. - XXOO Val

~Elodie's POV~

"It's absolute rubbish! I can't believe they haven't found him and thrown him back in Azkaban to rot!" I heard a girl from Ravenclaw house say behind us.

The Daily Prophet was reporting that mass escape from Azkaban was plotted and executed by Sirius. I'd been working with Minerva, Dumbledore and Scrimgeour to see what we could do to clear his name, but with Fudge continually denying the truth, that didn't seem like it would be happening anytime soon.

I'd been frozen at the breakfast table as I listened to everyone's snide comments about Sirius. I had absolutely no tolerance for small mindedness. The worst was that, to an outsider, it looked believable. Bellatrix Lestrange was one of the escapee's, and she just so happened to be Sirius's cousin. So yeah, I saw how the odds were stacked against him. But if that's the game everyone was going to play, how would they feel knowing that their potions teacher was a known death eater not all that long ago.

I felt a tiny hand rub my back as Ginny pulled me out of my trance. She looked into my eyes and gave me an apologetic look before putting her arm around my waist and giving me a little squeeze. "Do you want to talk about it Neville?" I asked and reached my hand across the table, accidentally seeing in.

"Not yet," He said simply and folded the newspaper, tucking it away, holding onto his angry demeanor. The thoughts going through his head were the same as mine anytime the thought of Voldemort arose. Bellatrix had made him an orphan, and to a child, there's nothing worse a person could do.

My days felt as if they were passing in a repetitive blur since the party. Every night I'd sit either in the library or the common room studying for my exit exams. Oh, what I wouldn't give to have my Time Turner back just so I could have some time to catch up on my sleep. My hangover after Katie's party was enough to make me not want to drink again for a very long time. Madam Pomfrey said what made it worse was that I'd caught the stomach bug that goes around every year early. She'd given me a potion to flush my system, and quite honestly, I would have rather taken the hangover or the flu rather than to do that again. Between studying, DA sessions, and using Minerva's empty classroom from time to time to work on control I felt like I was dead on my feet most of the time.

After an incident where I'd accidentally looked into one of Alicia's memories of a night she'd spent with Oliva, I'd been doing my best to avoid physical contact with most people. I'd looked into possibilities of charming a pair of gloves so they could help me only see when I wanted to, but Umbridge confiscated a pair of gloves I'd tried to wear during her class saying that the weather was not appropriate and she wanted to make sure my nails were in dress code. She'd taken it upon herself to make colored nails against the dress code, which was especially annoying since one of my favorite pastimes had become painting Fred's nails and teaching him to do mine.