The Godmother

15. gone

ELIZABETH COULDN'T SEE STRAIGHT. A numbness coursed through her veins. The cold didn't matter. It wasn't even there. She felt like there was a rock wedged tightly in her throat, constricting her ability to breathe.

She stumbled from Sirius' tent. She turned around. It was gone. Behind the bush where the white canvas tent once sat, was nothing. It was just more shrubs. Sirius had enchanted it so that she couldn't see it.

She tried to swallow the rock in her throat. It hurt.

How was she going to live without Sirius? Knowing that he was OK was apart of her weekly ritual. The desperation to make sure that he was still in the tent burnt her alive even when she was only away for days at a time. The end of the year was months away- It was still only the middle of February.

Down in her gut she understood where Sirius came from. Elizabeth was tasked to make sure Harry would stay safe. That she could safe him at the end of the year from his inevitable death. If it was possible. But what if she failed? What if the future was already set?

She wandered into the forest, blinded by sadness and fear. Fear. What if she couldn't save Harry? He was the only blood that Elizabeth had left and he was going to die. Who could stop that? Dumbledore had been a fool to task her with something so important. Why wouldn't he give her even the slightest hint of how it was going to happen so that she could save him?

The forest was dark. Pitch black. Elizabeth was too delirious to reach for her wand. She stumbled forwards with her hands out. Her palms caught a tree. She held on tightly. She felt her cheek reach the hard bark, her arms held on stickily. She let out a sob and let a tear climb down her cheek.

Everything was bad. So, so bad. How had she gotten to this point? Sirius was letting himself live a lie. He was convinced the world hated him and that he would always be like that. He didn't understand that reconciliation was a real word that had meaning and wasn't just a hollow sound. The world wasn't out to get him. He had to let it absorb and let the universe flow.

Elizabeth cried. She burst. Tears streaked down her cheeks, racing to fall from her tip of her jaw onto the earth below. She felt like a stranger again. A mere shadow that was still searching for Sirius, except now she didn't have Remus anymore. She couldn't even tell Harry.

She cried. Then, the air felt tight. It was once still, but a cool breeze of wind washed through the trees as though they weren't even there. It was a wave. Unbroken by the trees that stood around like guards protecting a castle.

Elizabeth turned around. She couldn't see. Her eyes were useless in the dark of the night and the trees. Everything began to grow colder. Frozen. Freezing.

She took a breath in. Her mouth felt icy and dry. She tried to blink but couldn't tell whether her eyes were open or closed. Then, the feeling came.

Something felt like it was reaching down into her mouth and tugging at her soul. It was horrifying. Elizabeth felt paralysed. She briefly remembered the faint feeling of a tree on her back. Her cheek hit something hard. The world was spinning. A hollow, deep-pitched cry emanated through the forest. Everything went dark.

Elizabeth didn't realise that she woke up.

Everything was dark, and then it wasn't. Light streamed in through tall, wide windows. Beds surrounded Elizabeth. She was staring at a roof.

It was archetectuarly beautiful. Hand carved with intricate details that must have taken years to do. She looked down. She was in a bed in the Hospital Wing.

Her eyes looked around, adjusting to where she was. Her body felt sore, like she'd been in a marathon. What had happened? She couldn't remember anything. The last thing her mind scrambled for was when she was fighting with Sirius. Elizabeth had forgotten what it was about. What had they been arguing over?