Hey all! Long time no chapter! I've apparently been sitting on this for a while, but here it is now. I am still working on the story, just a bit stuck on some niggling little filler bits. But once I get past that, I have a lot of stuff already written, at least through the end of book 7. So there's plenty more to come! Apparently FF had some issues with showing the chapter and all, so hopefully it will work this time! I'd have fixed it sooner, but my computer was down (fortunately now fixed). All that aside, you didn't come here for the author's chit chat and excuses, you came for story! So read on, dear readers!

Chapter 9: Return to Reality

Elaine had finally read her grandmother's will, which she had been putting off for as long as she could. To her dismay she found she had been saddled with sorting through the rest of her mother's belongings and house. Most of this had been done already, in the eight years since Jemevra's death, but since there had been so much in the house, there was still some things left to do.

Elaine was wary of anything her mother left behind. Because Jenevra was particularly vindictive towards her mother, she left numerous traps in the items of her will. Elaine caught on to this fact early on, when she picked up a box and it bit her. Fortunately, she knew what the poison was, and made herself the antidote before it did any lasting damage, never quite so glad she had stuck it out in Snape's class. From then on, she was careful what she touched with bare skin.

Going through the remainder of her mother's will was what lead to the disaster with the amulet containing Dark Magic, the event that got her into so much trouble with Scrimgeour. This was briefly before his election as Minister of Magic; he was still head of the Auror Office. Elaine had found the amulet in a nice, but dusty velvet box, and it looked very old. It was silver set with emeralds in the shape of a curled snake. Its eye was a tiny ruby chip that glinted malevolently when she tilted the box to the light. It struck her as a bad idea to handle it; years of living with her mother had given her a sort of sense of evil magic. This amulet, on its broken silver chain, sent chills down her back. Shutting the lid of the box again carefully, she wrapped a piece of string around it to hold it shut.

Her next step was to take it to the Ministry, to Scrimgeour in particular, for he was described as the most knowledgeable about Dark Magic Artifacts in the Auror Office. As much as she disliked the man, from their previous encounter, he was the best one to tell her what exactly the Amulet could do and dispose of it properly. Elaine Apparated into the Ministry, a bit apprehensively. She made her way to the Auror Office, remarkably without being questioned. She would have figured they would want to upgrade their security given what had happened not too long ago, with Voldemort and all.

Elaine went up to the secretary and inquired about Scrimgeour. The secretary looked at her blankly. "I need to see Scrimgeour, I have this amulet, you see. It's -"

"Oh yes, the amulet we ordered. Leave it with me, I'll put it on his desk. He's so busy these days," the secretary cut her off and grabbed the box. She started to walk away.

"Wait! It's not, it's -" But the secretary was gone, off around the corner and beyond hearing. "Dark Magic," Elaine finished lamely to herself. Hoping it wouldn't be too much of a problem, but at the same time sure it would come back to haunt her, she headed back to the Atrium. It was probably smarter to hang around the Auror office, but the place had too many bad memories of people shouting at her to make her comfortable staying. So she got into one of the elevators. When she arrived, she decided to hang around for a little bit, to catch her breath after all the rushing around she was doing, and just in case the secretary finally caught onto the fact that it wasn't the expected amulet. If the secretary finally decided to do a proper job, and come collect all the relevant information about the artifact, she thought, considering the level of incompetence displayed. As she was sitting at the Fountain of Magical Brethren trying to decide how long she should hang around, Elaine was surrounded by Aurors and the secretary from the Auror Office.

"That's her!" the secretary said pointing. Elaine was confused; she didn't know what she had done. Without saying anything, she was grabbed by the arms, and escorted back to the lifts. There was no reason to treat her this way, just to get a little information about the amulet.

"Release me! I haven't done anything you morons!" Elaine shouted at them. Her escorts maintained a stony silence. The secretary merely glared. Elaine was starting to get angry now. She did not appreciate being manhandled this way. They took her straight into Scrimgeour's office, where he sat, amulet box open in front of him. He waved off the other Aurors and the secretary.

"So what is this? Some badly-conceived assassination attempt on the leading candidate for Minister of Magic?" Elaine finally realized what had happened with a horrible sinking feeling. If they really thought she had tried to kill him, Azkaban was doubtless in her future. Scrimgeour frowned at her, recognition lighting a little in his eyes. "I remember you, girl. You used Dark Magic to break your Trace."

"I did not!" Elaine shouted, indignant at the accusation, fear of Azkaban forgotten for the moment. "I didn't do anything! I only brought that stupid thing in so you could tell me what it is! And get rid of it!"

Scrimgeour studied her face for a moment. "Let's just say for a minute that I believe you. Why were you not here to explain this?"

"I dunno, ask your secretary. I tried to come talk to you, but she ran off with the amulet before I had a chance to fully explain." Elaine's exasperated tone indicated that she was thoroughly fed up with the whole situation. "Maybe you should look into hiring a new one that actually knows how to do the job properly before blaming innocent concerned citizens!"

"Very well," Scrimgeour said slowly. "This amulet contains a powerful curse, one that most likely would kill anyone who touched it." Elaine's shocked face showed her innocence. With a sigh he added, "I suppose you are innocent and this was all just a misunderstanding. I'll let you off this time, but I'm afraid I must make a report of the incident."

"Fine, whatever. Can I go now? Will that vile thing be destroyed?"

"Yes to both questions, Miss Kellswater." Elaine wrinkled her nose a little at the use of her last name, surprised he remembered it, but left without another word.

The awful weather this summer was doing nothing to improve Elaine's mood, nor did Abby's sudden disappearance, shortly after the incident at the Ministry. Elaine had gone over to the Stewarts, to see if Abby wanted to join her, Ally, and Lara. Their house was empty, quiet, dead. It had the air of hurried abandonment, which Elaine didn't like at all. Using her key to the house, she let herself in. The house was entirely silent and unwelcoming. There were dishes set to dry next to the sink in the kitchen, the cupboards still open and empty of food. Out of habit more than anything, she put the dishes away and closed the cupboards before looking around the rest of the house.

In Abby's room, she found a note, written hastily. "Elaine, don't worry we're fine. It's not safe for us anymore. I won't be able to keep in touch. I'll see you when it's safe again. Your best friend, Abby," she read out loud. It was vague, unhelpful, and only made Elaine more worried for her friend. After folding the note carefully and putting it in her pocket, she left the Stewart's house. When Ally and Lara asked, she told them Abby had gone on a last minute trip, and she didn't know when she'd be back.

At home again, later that day, she called Phillip, desperate for information. He knew less than she did. All Abby had told him was that her family was going into hiding because it wasn't safe for them to be exposed anymore. There were some very bad people after them. Because Phillip was a Muggle, he didn't know anything about Voldemort or the Death Eaters. His speculations tended towards witness protection and violent drug cartels, murderers, or terrorists. Well, Voldemort certainly qualified as a murderer and terrorist, but Elaine didn't know what the Stewarts had done to fear him so. She reassured the poor boy as best she could, at the very least letting him know that his girlfriend and her family were not involved in drug cartels. Elaine didn't see why Abby would be out of total contact; most wizards ignored cell phones and telephones in general. Surely they wouldn't think of intercepting messages that way? But maybe she was out of service range because she was staying so far away from population centers. Feeling a little lost, Elaine almost didn't know what to do with herself, now that her best friend had vanished off the face of the planet.

Living on her own was not as easy as Elaine thought it would be, and it was never worse the day she found out her Muggle friends were dead. She had seen a lot of Ally and Lara this summer. They were so excited that they were going to start their last year of school, and then be off to exotic locales for their university studies. Elaine didn't have the heart to tell them that she was already done with school, and dodged their questions about her university plans. Seeing as she didn't have any, she couldn't really give any information.

This particular day, the two girls had invited Elaine to go about the town with them, just hanging out and perhaps doing a little shopping to take their minds off the dismal weather. Unfortunately, she had made an appointment with an antiques dealer, to see about selling some of her mother's uncursed family heirlooms and getting rid of the last of the things in her mother's house. She really wanted to join her friends, but this dealer was incredibly hard to get a meeting with and she had been lucky to get the one she had. She mentally cursed her mother, who, even from the grave, was ruining her life.

Haggling with the dealer took the better part of the day and by the time everything had been handed over, she was worn out and irritated. She collapsed into an armchair the moment the door shut behind the merchant. Elaine dozed off, waking up about an hour later when the phone rang. It was Lara's mother, asking if she had heard from Lara or Ally at all. Puzzled and feeling a growing sense of foreboding, she replied that she had not. The worry in the woman's voice prompted Elaine to turn on the television the moment she hung up the phone. Flipping to the news, cold dread settled on her chest.

It was Brockdale Bridge. Its collapse had resulted in numerous casualties and they were still working on identifying the dead. That bridge had been on the list of places in her friends' agenda, to go observe the tourists and potentially pick up guys. Hanging there had been a sort of tradition for the set of friends, a holdover from the time when they thought it was great fun just to be on a bridge and test their balance on the railings. Frozen, she listened to the news report. It reeked of Death Eaters to her. The awful feeling in her gut just got bigger and bigger as she waited for a call, a text, anything that could tell her that her friends were alright. The hours ticked by and it was night before she heard anything.

The phone rang and she pounced on it before the first ring had finished. It was Lara's mother, choked with tears. Elaine felt the world close in around her as her disbelieving mind tried to understand that two of her friends were dead. Their bodies had been identified and the families notified by the police. Lara's mother felt that Elaine would want to know as well. After she hung up the phone again, she turned off the television and walked up the stairs to her room mechanically. Wracked with survivor's guilt, she burst into tears. She could have died too, had she been with them. Or maybe she could have saved them. Either way, she had let them down and now she'd never see them again. She felt miserable and wanted nothing more than to not be alone. But this time there was no shoulder to cry on. Curled up on her bed, she cried herself to sleep, feeling more alone than she had ever felt in her entire life.

Not long after this, she met up with the first set of Death Eaters sent after her. Though they weren't trying to kill her, she saw looking back now, and kept trying to talk to her, she had been in no mood to deal with them at all, let alone listen to what they had to say. They hadn't exactly been dressed as Death Eaters, but she had seen the Dark Mark on one when he lifted his arm to catch hold of hers. Furious, and vindictively pleased to have an opportunity to avenge her friends, Elaine set upon them with death in her heart, vision going red. Her last conscious thought was that she wanted death, death and pain for them.

In her rage blackout, she snapped bones, broke necks, turning the graceful motions she had learned into something viscious. One man she kicked in the throat, feeling such satisfaction at the crunching sound of it crushing. Instinctively, she used the spell she had created levitating one so she could get a better angle of attack. All five of the Death Eaters were on the ground when she was done with them, not moving at all. She slowly came back to herself, the red draining slowly out of her vision, hearing her heartbeat pounding in her ears. Looking around, suddenly afraid of what she had done, she ran home. She didn't stop to think about why the Death Eaters could possibly have wanted her, other than to think of it as an attack of opportunity; she had been walking around alone after all. But after this, she was far more wary of everyone she met, scoping them out and profiling them as threats or not.

As the summer progressed, Elaine started to look for work. Diagon Alley was a dismal place to begin, but it was the closest to where she lived. Fortescue had been dragged off from the look of his place and Ollivander was gone without a trace. Every time she walked down the street, she had a craving for Fortescue's ice cream and looked sadly at her cherry and phoenix feather wand she had gotten at Ollivander's all those years ago. As the school lists arrived, Diagon Alley grew more crowded, but there was a subdued and hurried feel about the crowds. Shopping was all done in groups, and it was all about business and purpose. Elaine felt the suspicions of everyone around, since she was on her own. This was not by choice; if she knew someone she could ask to join her, she would have. But seeing as all her family was dead and buried, two of her friends in the grave as well, the other friend completely AWOL, and her classmates not there doing shopping anymore, there wasn't anyone around to ask. She bore the glances well and attempted to fade into the background whenever she could, despite her promise to herself to stop doing that.

The job search was not going well for Elaine. It seemed like everyone was closing out and no one wanted to hire anyone. As September 1st rolled around, she still didn't have a job. Keeping to her promise at the end of the last school year, that very day she went to a salon and had all her hair chopped off at shoulder length. At first her short hair felt strange. Her neck felt long and rubbery, and her whole body light. There was a spring to her step suddenly, as though a great load had been lifted from her shoulders. I should have done this ages ago, Elaine thought, as she bounced around the house, setting things in order and getting ready for job interviews. Not too long after that, she saw a sign at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, asking for workers and giving a time to inquire. Might as well, she thought, there's no way my own shop is going to get off the ground that fast. They've got the market pretty well cornered. Hey, if you can't beat 'em, why not join 'em? And the rest, as they say, is history. Very recent history.

Elaine finally dragged her brain up from the mire of her school memories and looked around. Her "walk" had taken her very far out of the city and nearly to Ireland. A new sun was rising and she realized she'd been driving through the night, lost in her memories, at least, the ones she could remember. Elaine thought of poor Verity, who was probably wondering where she was and if she was okay, having never come back from her walk. Her eyes drooped tiredly, but she forced herself awake. She had to get back and soon. Throttling the bike again, she turned around and sped into high gear, high up in the clouds.

Fred and George arrived back at their shop after dealing with the aftermath of the attack at Bill and Fleur's wedding. They had not been in the marquee when Kingsley's Patronus had announced the fall of the Ministry and the death of Scrimgeour. They had been off showing the veela cousins some of the scenery and doing a little bit of snogging with them. The veela had been a great distraction, but George felt dark hair intruding on his thoughts every time he saw their silvery blond locks. They had all been walking back when the Patronus arrived and heard the message. Fred immediately conjured his Patronus and sent a message back to the shop. Then the Death Eaters and Ministry people came.

Fluer was angry at the interruption to her wedding, but kept her anger well in check as the interlopers went around, less than occasionally blasting bits of furniture in their way. The guests who had not Apparated right away regretted it because then began the hours of interrogation as the Burrow was searched top to bottom. They had found Ron's surrogate, the ghoul, and thankfully didn't try to question it. The intruders were demanding answers to where Harry Potter might be, but since Harry had been disguised at the wedding, only the Order members knew he had been there at all. And since they didn't know where Harry had gone too, they suffered through their interrogations without revealing anything.

George was glad that Elaine had not come in the end, since he doubted her ability to put up with the interrogations. She would just have done with it all and take on all the Death Eaters single-handedly. He bit back a laugh as he imagined her wading into the initial confusion, wielding sword and wand with devastating effect. All the while he was being questioned, he could just see her throwing a punch there, at a personal question, or in irritation shoving her wand tip into the interrogator's face, Death Eater or not. At last, concluding there was no more information to be gleaned, the wedding wreckers departed.

The once beautiful marquee was a complete mess. Hardly anything was left intact. There had been no casualties however, something they considered very lucky. Fred and George set about putting things right, along with several other members of the Order. Mrs. Weasley was sobbing hard over the disaster the wedding had become, but Fleur's parents were comforting her. At last all was well again, at least well enough, and the twins returned to their shop, the Burrow still far too crowded with guests. Despite it being nearly dawn, Verity was still there, waiting for them, but Elaine was nowhere to be found. The blond witch told them that she had gone for a walk, but hadn't come back yet. Frowning, George had walked to her house, but all the lights were off and when the ferret opened the door, it was clear Elaine wasn't there. He walked back to the shop, worried. On the way back, the moonlight glinted off something on the cobbles of Diagon Alley.

It was an engagement ring, and such an odd thing to find just lying about on the street. Reasoning that someone would come looking for it eventually, he bent down and picked it up. He set it on the counter when he arrived back at the shop, and stooped to tie his shoe, which had come undone sometime during the last few hours. Verity's gasp made him return upright so quickly he nearly banged his head on the edge of the counter. "What, what's wrong?" he asked.

"That's Elaine's. Matt gave it to her. She showed it to me earlier." Verity's eyes stayed fixed on the ring.

Mixed feeling surged through him, hope that perhaps she had ended it with Matt, and fear for her safety because the ring was the only evidence left of whatever had happened with her. No corpse was a good sign, but he wondered if the Death Eaters had finally dragged her off. All the emotions surging through him made him restless as he settled into bed, but when he finally closed his eyes he fell asleep quickly. Tomorrow was another day and the shop was still open for business.

It was evening again when Elaine finally made it back to London. She parked the bike at the Leaky Cauldron, forcibly ignoring the place where Matt's body had been, and decided to walk home to stretch her stiff muscles. Elaine saw the crowd gathered first. Then she registered where they were. Her house. Her house was gone, obliterated. Her stomach twisted. She could feel the tears prickling behind her eyes. The last relic of her grandmother gone, turned into rubble. Her animals, no, her family, buried in it. She didn't go any closer. She turned and ran, as if running could take her away from the pain inside her.

George was down in the shop, closing up after a long day of business, when there was a knock on the door. Frowning, he walked to the door. The shop was closed. He opened the door ready to tell the person on the other side to come back tomorrow. His mouth opened in shock when he saw it was Elaine. There were tears running down her face, pouring out of her eyes. He never thought he'd see her cry; so little ever fazed her, he thought her nerves had to be steel or stone. But now it looked as though something had hit her shatter point. His jaw dropped even more when she threw her arms around him and sobbed into his robes. As he put an arm around her to comfort her, he remembered at last where he'd seen her before.

It was the night before his father was attacked by the snake. He couldn't sleep, so he walked down to the common room. He was on the bottom stair when he heard someone crying softly. He figured it was a homesick first year or something of the sort, so when he finally saw the girl in the light of the fire, he was surprised to note she looked about his age. She was curled up in one of the armchairs, a letter crumpled in her hand.

"Er, are you alright there?" he asked when he stood right in front her. She looked up, her eyes so swollen from crying he couldn't believe she could see out of them. He didn't recognize her, but that didn't seem surprising given the state she was in. Suddenly, she threw her arms around him and buried her face in his bathrobe. He patted her back awkwardly. He tried to back up, but she didn't seem like she was going to let him go. He pushed her over on the chair a little so he could sit.

In between sobs he could make out what she was saying. "Foul Umbridge cow...I'll kill her...stupid arrogant b...too blind to see...people who die of old age...don't drop dead...middle of the living room...ruddy Ministry can't tell...natural causes from a curse...Grandma, oh Grandma..."

"What happened? Did Umbridge do something to you?" he asked a little hesitantly.

She looked up at him again. "My grandma died. She's the one who raised me. That evil Umbridge woman practically gloated as she told me and showed me the photo. Couldn't cry in front of her. Even if McGonagall was there." She lapsed into indiscernible mumbling and crying agin. "...Order...they knew...I'll kill her, I will..." None of it made sense to him, but he comforted her nonetheless. If she wasn't crying, she'd be pretty he thought. Eventually she fell asleep, still clinging to him. He didn't notice; he'd drifted off himself.

When he woke up the next morning, the girl was gone. There was no trace of her anywhere. He was convinced he'd dreamt the whole thing.

That wasn't the only place he remembered her from. It was the short hair and attitude change that threw him off. She was in his class; they'd met on the train to Hogwarts their first year. Now that he remembered who she was, he could see her everywhere in his memories, just at the periphery of his awareness. He couldn't believe that he'd forgotten who she was by their seventh year, including the fact she'd been a part of the D.A. It wasn't so much that he'd forgotten her, he realized, but more that she had done less and less to stand out from the background as the years had gone on, until she had shown up at the shop, transformed from the silent introvert to the laughing extrovert she was as he knew her now.

All that aside, she was clinging to him again, crying. There was almost something amusing about the fact it had happened more than once, nearly exactly the same way, except that something horrible had happened to her. Feeling a sense of deja vu, he asked, "What happened Elaine?"

"My house. Death Eaters. It's gone. Luck I wasn't there when they came." Her voice was muffled in his robes.

"What about your pets?" he asked, noticing they weren't with her. She looked up and the agonized look on her face told him everything he wanted to know. George held her tight. "You can stay here for tonight. We'll go find your animals in the morning." He guided her upstairs to the flat. "Here, use my bed. Everything will be fine." He turned to go, but she snagged his arm.

"Don't leave me! Please don't leave me. Everyone else is gone." That last bit made no sense to him at all, but George sat down on the edge of the bed anyway. She held tight to his arm, clinging as though it was a lifeline and if she let go, she would drown. He watched her subside into dreams uneasy and nightmarish, if the twitches and flinches in her sleep were anything to go by.

Elaine dreamt that she was standing at the edge of a giant pensieve. "No, I don't want to swim in it," she kept saying to the figure shrouded in darkness on the other side. But the figure kept pointing at the memories. The figure flickered then suddenly it was next to her. It was Voldemort. He pushed her in. "I don't want to remember!" she screamed as she was drowning in the memories. In response, the pensieve grew large thorny brambles. Like a Devil's Snare, they began to choke her as they drew her down into memories, thorns scratching and stabbing. Voldemort stood on the edge laughing as the memories covered her head. She couldn't help it. She remembered everything.

Her eyes flew open. There was no light coming in through the window, telling her it still must be night. She still held tight to George's arm and he lay behind her, snoring softly. She remembered a similar situation, not too long ago. She had kissed him lightly on the cheek and returned to her dormitory. This time, however, she pulled him a little closer, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Oddly enough, she felt safe. She hadn't felt like this since her grandmother died. Perhaps, she thought as she drifted off to better sleep, everything would turn out alright in spite of itself.