Redemption

Part 2: Slytherin ties

It had been two years since that fateful night when Elissa last set foot inside of her mother’s old study. She had been tempted back to it yet found that the room had been moved or, to Elissa’s horror, destroyed. But now she was embarking on a new adventure, one that was a relief to her. She was beginning Hogwarts. Elissa didn’t know much about the school other than the random things about her parents. Now Elissa slowly made her way out of the Leaky Cauldron and into a back courtyard where her grandmother paused just in front of a stone wall.

"We need to go to Gringotts first, then we’ll get your robes," Lautitia said to herself as she grabbed Elissa’s hand and dragged her up the street until a large white building loomed before them. She was jostled up the wide marble stairs and in through the silver and bronze doors to a large corridor with different goblins working at each counter. At first, she wasn't sure what was going to happen; she only knew that this was a wizarding bank.

"Madame Redgrove, a pleasure to see you again," an older looking goblin chortled as he took Lautitia’s hand and kissed it gingerly.

"Thank you, Adimville. We are here to pick up some money."

Adimville nodded his head before motioning for another goblin and they were soon tumbling down a roller coaster like ride into the bottom of Gringotts. They finally stopped outside an extremely small looking vault which the goblin stepped up to importantly, gently stroking his fingers across the door causing it to melt away. Contrary to the outside, the inside was nearly three times as big as a football field and at least thirty feet high. The room was overflowing with Galleons, Knuts, Sickles, rubies, diamonds and various amounts of gold and silver. Lautitia simply strode in, removing a large velvet pouch from her pocket and filling it to the brim. She repeated this three more times before exiting the vault and re-entering the cart for another wild ride into the gleaming sunshine.

***

Elissa had already been fitted for new robes and received her books by the time she began the process of buying an animal, which Lautitia thought disgraceful.

"You shouldn’t have an animal. Disgusting, the lot of them," Lautitia cursed, waiting outside the Animal Menagerie. Elissa couldn’t help but smile at the animals, obviously trying to show their talents and abilities. Elissa careened around the various cages and boxes before coming upon the most beautiful animal she had ever encountered. It was a raven, young and brightly shining in the light from the sun. The bird clucked its beak at her before taking off from its perch and soaring to her shoulder where it rested peacefully.

"Dear God! I am so sorry! Domna, back to your perch!" the shopkeeper hissed to the bird, which squawked indignantly at her and flew back hesitantly.

"Oh, no! Please, I would love to buy that bird. How much is he?"

The lady paused for a moment before looking the girl up and down. "Hogwarts, right?"

Elissa nodded her head, giving her most patronizing look towards the woman. Immediately the shopkeeper recoiled, not moving her eyes from Elissa. "But of course. SHE is fifteen galleons and is named Domna, Latin Greek for ‘lady’ or ‘mistress.’"

Elissa removed the smallest of the four pouches that Lautitia had given her and took out fifteen galleons.

"You understand, child, that wild birds, including Ravens, are nearly impossible to tame?"

Elissa nodded her head eagerly and jerked her head for the bird to come to her. She followed easily, nipping affectionately at her ear before leaving the shop, a cage in hand.

"ELISSA MADREL REDGROVE! WHAT IS THAT THING ON YOUR SHOULDER?" Lautitia shrieked, folding into herself out of fear.

"Her name is Domna…she is my new messenger bird," Elissa cooed softly before noticing the look on Lautitia’s face. "What? She is perfectly friendly."

Lautitia became stricken with anger. She grabbed Elissa’s shoulder and steered her towards Ollivander’s wand shop, taking a backward glance at the Animal Menagerie in the process. She stumbled unhappily as Lautitia, who followed, smoothing her hair and robes in front of Elissa.

"Ah, Madame Redgrove, Miss," Ollivander said in his slow and soft voice. He beckoned Elissa forward before taking out a magical tape measure and watching as it measured the width of her armpits. Ollivander disappeared into the back room before re-entering with a load of boxes in his arms. He waved at the tape measurer and it dropped to the floor without much incident. Ollivander smiled weakly at Elissa before handing her a wand. She waved it slowly before he snatched it out of her hands and replaced it with another, and another…and another…until Elissa felt as though her arm would fall off.

"Tricky, very tricky. I must say, your father and mother--" Ollivander stopped at the look Lautitia was giving him. "Try this…Ash, unicorn hair, 7 ¼ inches. Nice for potion charms and transfiguration."

Elissa took the wand in her right hand and felt the warmth spread through her fingertips. She dropped her arm and sent green sparks flying over her head. Lautitia looked mildly impressed while Ollivander took the wand back from her and set it back in its box. He wrapped it with the now familiar brown paper wrapping and accepted eight galleons for it.

Soon, Lautitia and Elissa were moving towards the Leaky Cauldron, but not before stopping at the local apothecary and astronomy stores. They bought her some potions ingredients and a cauldron, and then a telescope and planet globe, which showed all nine planets revolving around the sun, and headed back through the wall where a red-haired witch was comforting a sobbing boy and scolding twin boys at the same time.

"I told the both of you to leave Ron alone, now apologize," the woman hollered at a set of twins who looked up at their mother sheepishly and mumbled apologies to their younger brother, Ron.

"Molly? Is that you?" Lautitia asked cautiously before the woman looked up, her scowl turning into a forced looking smile, which Lautitia didn’t seem to notice.

"Lautitia! How wonderful to see you! This must be Elissa," the woman named Molly cooed, moving her sour looking gaze down to Elissa. Her expression turned into a rather warm smile before she stood up again. Elissa looked behind the slightly plump woman to the twins, who were snickering evilly at their older brothers. One of their brothers had shaggy bright red hair and wore normal Muggle clothes; the other elder brother sported horn-rimmed glasses and a sour expression similar to his mother's, arms folded disapprovingly.

"So, who are you?" one of the twins asked, an evil grin tugging at his mouth. The two older brothers and other twin turned their attention on her.

"Elissa Redgrove, Lautitia’s granddaughter. Who might you be?" Elissa asked, smiling.

"Gred and Forge," the boy tentatively named ‘Forge’ announced. The oldest of the brothers standing there approached her and stuck out his hand. "Charlie Weasley. This is Percy."

Percy nodded his head slightly before turning his attention back to his mother and Lautitia.

"Pleasure to meet you. Would you happen to go to Hogwarts?" Elissa asked, setting down the remaining parcels in her arms inside the cauldron.

"I’m a seventh year," Charlie announced smugly, before turning his attention to his brothers.

"Percy here is a third year while Fred and George will be first years, that is if they survive the next week." Elissa giggled nervously before noticing that ‘Forge’ was goggling at her. "Oh, and we’re all in Gryffindor," Charlie added.

"Really? I reckon I might be in Slytherin because both of my parents supposedly were," Elissa stated, immediately wishing she hadn’t. Charlie, Percy, and ‘Gred’ recoiled while ‘Forge’ merely stared. "That isn’t a bad thing, is it?"

Charlie and Percy looked at one another before opening their mouths once again. "I would have thought that by your friendliness you would have at least been a Gryffindor, possibly Ravenclaw, but never a Slytherin."

Percy and ‘Gred’ stared at her as though she was some sort of space slug. ‘Forge’, however, seemed undaunted by her. "Well, children, time to get the shopping done," Molly called from over her shoulder. Elissa let out a sigh of relief before Lautitia snatched her arm.

"Nice to meet you all," Elissa whimpered, as her grandmother nearly dislocated her arm. Lautitia mumbled a charm on the cauldron and made it follow them into the Leaky Cauldron and into the fireplace where they eventually made it back into the foyer of the Redgrove mansion.

***

George stepped out of the fireplace carrying his second hand cauldron and new school things still in awe over the girl he had just met. Beautiful, he thought, she is simply beautiful. It was new to George to have a crush on a girl, even though many of the local girls of Ottery St. Catchpole admired the boys of the Weasley family. George moved his things out of the way of the fireplace before Fred came stumbling through, laughing his head off.

"George, that was hilarious! The way that girl looked when we turned her hair green! Charlie was furious…" Fred stopped, looking at the glazed over look on his brother’s face. "What happened? Hit the hearth again?" George snapped back into reality and lifted his face to meet Fred’s.

"Well…no, although I think that would have been better to describe than how I am feeling now," George mumbled before Charlie appeared beside them, clutching his packages.

"What’s wrong with him?" Charlie whispered into Fred’s ear.

"I think our brother might be up to something," Fred whispered back.

"What did you all honestly think of Elissa?" George asked randomly. Charlie and Fred looked at each other before Charlie spoke, realization dawning on him.

"You like her, don’t you?" Charlie cooed, sitting down beside his brother. "Jeez George, a Slytherin?" George glared at his brother before Fred answered him.

"I think she’s alright."

"And she is rather pretty…that dark hair and those eyes are quite stunning," Charlie reflected before standing up and reclaiming his belongings. "Don’t blame you, George. Not one bit."

Charlie then left the room, hauling his possessions up the stairs. Fred left the room at the look George was flashing him, not before stumbling over himself.

***

The weeks after Elissa’s first visit to Diagon Alley passed in a blur around her. Lautitia and Magnus had given her a spotty lecture on her behavior at Hogwarts the day before she was to leave.

"So help me…if we receive one letter from a teacher, young lady, you won’t want to return to this house anymore!" Magnus had yelled, causing dust to release itself from the rafters. But now the train rolled passed cows grazing in deep green fields. Elissa, after the meager farewell from her grandparents, had taken refuge in her compartment, which she occupied by herself. She was a tiny bit scared of the ‘ceremony,’ as she heard numerous older students dub it on the platform. Not only that, she didn’t know anyone there, causing her to feel more alone than she had ever felt before in her life. It was then that the compartment door swung open, letting in the twin boys from Diagon Alley as well as another taller boy who were laughing hysterically.

"Did you see his face, Fred? Priceless!" the unfamiliar boy laughed as he slapped Fred’s hand. The boy moved to sit down before he saw Elissa. "Oh, sorry about that…didn’t realize anyone."

"ELISSA! My dear lady, you look simply spiffing today!" Fred chortled, sticking out his hand for her to shake. George, who was still standing by the door, carried an unreadable expression on his face.

"Elissa," he said lightly before shaking her hand. Fred looked at her then George curiously before the other boy stepped forward.

"Lee Jordan. Sidekick to the soon to be infamous Weasley twins," he said before receiving a kick in the shins from Fred.

"Anyway," Fred grumbled before continuing on. "You wouldn’t mind if we sat in here with you, would you?"

"No, not at all," she managed to say while holding back her laughter.

"So, what are you doing in here by yourself?"

Elissa shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t feel like mingling up and down the train, including since she wasn’t the type to do that. Fred, George and Lee sat down and engaged themselves into a game of exploding snap, which eventually led to Lee singeing off his eyebrows. The trip to Hogwarts consisted of a hearty amount of laughing, including from Elissa. After getting lunch, Fred and Lee settled down for a game of wizarding chess while Elissa and George sat picking out Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans.

"So…excited about Hogwarts?" George asked lightly.

"In a way, yes."

George nodded his head and reclined back into his seat. "Bill, Charlie and Percy all say that it can be a lot of fun."

"Bill?" she asked.

"Yeah. My oldest brother. Head Boy, chaser in Quidditch, excellent at breaking hexes. Right now he works at Gringotts in London, but we suspect he might get promoted…possibly out of London."

"Really? Where do you think he might end up?"

"I don’t really know…possibly Egypt or France. I kind of hopes he stays near us, so I guess France would be my bet."

"Hmmm, he sounds like he might be a lot of fun to work with," Elissa said with a large smile on her face. There was no apparent reason for it other than she would have loved to travel. George grinned madly before popping a nasty brown Bean into his mouth. Almost immediately, he spit it out, gulping down loads of pumpkin juice. "I don’t really want to know what that flavor was."

Elissa giggled for a few moments before the train began to slow down. A large wooden platform developed from far off, with many lights blazing in the distance.

"Looks like we’re here."

A voice announced through the train that they had arrived at Hogsmeade station. Fred, Lee and George said they would meet her on the platform before she arose from her seat and changed into her robes, placing her wand in her front pocket and leaving the compartment.

***

The first years arrived at the castle doors by way of boat, led by a huge man called Hagrid. They wandered through the entrance hall, which was bigger than anything Elissa had seen before, even inside her grandparents’ mansion. Marble staircases lead up towards classrooms while another set led off into dungeons. A set of huge oak doors led into an even bigger room where chatter was rising in steady shouts.

"I read somewhere that the ceiling inside is enchanted to look like the sky outside," a young girl squealed excitedly. The group paused outside of the great hall before an older-looking witch, who stopped them and introduced herself as Professor McGonagall, the Deputy Headmistress.

"You will all be attending the Sorting ceremony this evening. You will be Sorted into one of four houses: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff or Slytherin, and you will stay there throughout your seven years. Your House will become like your family; you will eat with them, take classes with them, and support Quidditch with them. If you will all please follow me in a straight line, we will begin."

McGonagall pushed open the doors into the main hall where the clatter and small talk immediately hushed. Stars twinkled merrily overhead as the teacher’s table came closer. Placed in front of the headmaster's place was a three-legged stool with an extremely dirty and ragged hat. McGonagall led the line of students over to the tattered hat, and stood next to it, a roll of parchment in her hand and a look of determination on her face. A hole at the brim of that hat opened and it began to sing a song.

The applause rang with cheers as McGonagall unrolled the parchment in front of her and began reciting names.

"Anglin, Michelle."

Elissa watched as an averaged sized girl scuttled up to the stool, her russet curls bouncing on her shoulders. She sat down and jammed the hat onto her head, only to hear ‘Slytherin!’ The girl squealed excitedly as a table to the far left exploded with cheers and whoops. She joined the table and was immediately greeted by applauds and handshakes. McGonagall soon resumed her original pace. Student after student strutted, ran, or struggled their way over towards the stool before sitting down and placing the hat on their heads.

"Randin, Andrew."

"Redgrove, Elissa."