The Godmother

10. winter

THE AIR HAD GROWN THICK, COLD AND TENSE. Elizabeth felt like her bones were trying to blanket each other just to stay warm. A flu passed through Hufflepuff house and quickly infected Ravenclaw, who quarantined the sick. The flu then hit Gryffindor hard, knocking back a majority of students, then Slytherin was infected and began blaming the rest of the school.

It was a mess of the blaming game, bullying arose and Elizabeth had to break up several fights between the senior students. Then, overnight, every student that once had the cold was suddenly cured. An investigation was held, and McGonagall managed to find hundreds of orders for Flu Fudge underneath Fred Weasley's bed, and the mysterious flu was gone.

Elizabeth had gotten busy with classes. There was homework to mark, assessment to create and not enough time. She often retreated to Sirius' tent in the darkest arms of the night, leaving in black and coming back in black. She only stayed for an hour, no more than two.

They made love and talked for the most part. Elizabeth would restock his food supply and do the laundry that Sirius was too lazy to do then kiss him goodbye and leave. The biggest issue that she had to face was getting Sirius a wand.

Elizabeth had drawn up the details of what Sirius' wand had been- Hawthorn with a dragon heart-string core, 10 ½ inches with no flexibility. She hid the notes in the drawer to her desk, but knew there wasn't much to go on. Elizabeth didn't have enough contacts or any clue as to where to buy a wand from. She didn't want to go to Knockturn Alley or resort to a stranger who would most likely sell her a jinxed wand anyway.

With no hope, Elizabeth was left to leave Sirius alone. Day in and day out, worry consumed her like a black cloud. It ate everything inside of her.

It was a Monday.

She had finished off the Third Years, sending them onto their next period. Her heart wavered at the sight of Harry.

He looked like James- incredibly, uncannily like James, with the same burning emerald eyes that Lily had. Her chest went into a frenzy. Her heart searched for anything that it could hold onto for some sort of relief; an escape- but none could be found. Not without Sirius there to help her anyway.

His vibrant eyes made contact with Elizabeth as he left with Hermione and Ron. Elizabeth found that they were a quiet bunch. They worked well together and alone. It seemed Hermione helped Harry with school and stress while Ron was Harry's anchor, almost like what Lily had been to Elizabeth.

There were other kids that Elizabeth had found a rather joy or challenge to teach. Draco Malfoy and his gang of boney Slytherins were quite often their own division of trouble. When Malfoy had injured his arm after provoking Buckbeak, he wore a sling for two weeks, yet Elizabeth watched him write with the hand with ease. All of his handwriting from his homework was no different to what it had been before the injury.

There were the Gryffindor girls who Elizabeth was surprised that they hadn't been placed in Hufflepuff, Ravenclaws that kept bitterly to themselves and loud Slytherins that were the centre of the social population.

The fifth years were the hardest to teach by far.

It seemed that Dumbledore had gathered the worst of the worst from the fifth year level, placed them in a classroom and ordered Elizabeth to teach them without warning of what she'd endure.

Fred and George Weasley were by far the worst. On several occasions Elizabeth had found slime in her desk and bed, walls were frequently covered in permanent spray paint, small creatures found their way into her wing of the castle and the rest of the children in the class watched on in awe.

The fifth years strolled in, loudly taking their seats and not bothering to set up for class. It took minutes for Elizabeth to get the volume to a quiet enough level before she could even begin teaching.