with love, george |g. weasley|

chapter twelve

chapter twelve; puppet 

Stepping out of the portrait, Eloise was startled to see her Professor standing on the opposite side, seemingly waiting for someone.

"Professor." Eloise nodded trying to be polite, navigating around the man.

 Professor Moody stood beside the Fat lady, Eloise looked at the woman with a questioning look but was only met by the wide-eyed portrait. Looking at the woman, she noticed she shook her head, nodding for Eloise to leave. 

"Ms. Cossette, I thought I would find you here." Mad eye Moody looked down at Eloise, a cold look on his scarred face.

Eloise smiled tightly, nodding to the Fat lady before moving to leave the awkward interaction.

"Excuse me-" Eloise took a step, to go around the man, She jumped when he suddenly grabbed her wrist.

"I need your help, Ms. Cossette." He grunted, making Eloise try to wiggle out of his grasp.

"I go by Black now, if you don't mind." Eloise took her hand from the man, rubbing where the man roughly grabbed her.

"Ah yes, Sirius Black is your father. You could be his twin you know." Mad eye hummed, his cane suddenly pounded onto the stone floor, making it echo down the corridor.

"I get that a lot." Eloise felt for her wand in her pocket since she was greeted by the man, the hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up, something was very wrong with this man and both the Fat Lady and Eloise could feel it.

"I need your help with Potter," Moody admitted suddenly, gaining Eloise's attention.

"Harry?" Eloise dropped her hand from her pocket, seemingly distracted.

"I'm going to mentor him during the tournament. You're close so I've asked Dumbledore if you could assist me with the matter." Moody lied through his teeth, watching Eloise marvel over the information.

"Dumbledore?" Eloise's most prominent flaw was how naive she was. 

She pondered this information the man gave her, trusting him blindly. The man gave her no valid reason not to trust him, so she nodded her head slowly. If Dumbledore said it was okay, she was all in. He was her teacher, why would he lie to her. Not to mention, Harry meant a great deal to her and if she could help him in any way, she would do it.

"What do I need to do?" Eloise asked, glancing at the Fat Lady who opened her mouth to object, but she closed it once Moody gave her a glare.

"You'll soon find out, Puppet," Moody muttered to himself, placing a heavy hand on Eloise's dainty shoulder, guiding her down the hallway.

"Eloise!" The Fat Lady called, she looked back to the portrait before Moody shoved her along.

"Goodnight, Lady!" Moody called, trudging on with his student.

Ushering Eloise inside his office, Moody stood behind his desk looking down at Eloise. Frowning as Moody used his wand to slam the door shut and lock it.

"Professor, you can't be alone with a student with the door shut without a third party, That's school policy." Eloise wasn't always stuck up on rules, but this made her very uncomfortable being alone with a teacher this late into the evening.

"This will just take a moment," Moody whispered, looking down in a way that made her inwardly gag.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Eloise sat stunned in her seat, eyes wide. She wasn't fast enough to respond. She thought back to the off feeling she felt alongside the Fat Lady, she cursed herself for not trusting her instinct.