In Her Eyes

Chapter Five

The first week of November was always hard for Alastriona.

On the fourth of November in 1981, her father had been murdered and she'd been left for dead in his arms until the eighth of November when the two were discovered by Aurors.

Every year since her fathers death Uncle Finn brought her back to Scotland where Finn and his brother and their parents had lived when they were children... where Alastriona's father was buried. Alastriona's grandparents had lived in Scotland for the better part of their lives, her grandfather was born and raised in Scotland and had met his wife in Ireland when he was young, just in his twenties, the two had fallen in love instantly and moved back to Scotland where they continued to live today.

Finn would take Alastriona on the long drive to Lothbeg in the Scottish Highlands where he and his brother grew up together with his mother Maeve and father Sloane.

Now she was at Hogwarts it was different, last year she'd been by herself and simply sat at the lake and stared out at the water until the sunset and just accepted the detention she received for skipping all her classes. And just like last year Uncle Finn would have to make the trip all alone and she wouldn't be able to visit her fathers grave.

Alastriona was on edge, she wanted to be there for her family but it was impossible and the others had noticed that Alastriona was looking a little upset for the past few days but every time they asked her about it she simply put on a smile and turned them away, they all knew it was only a matter of time before Alastriona cracked completely... they didn't have to wait long.

"Justin!" Alastriona finally snapped one night in the common room a couple weeks after Halloween, "You need to stop talking about Harry like that! I'm sick of it! He isn't the Heir of Slytherin!"

Justin stood up his face turning beet red, "How could you possibly know that? He might be plotting against me right this second because my blood isn't good enough for him!"

Alastriona threw her hands in the air, "This is ridiculous, you're impossible to reason with!" She had been fighting with Justin every time he mentioned Harry being the Heir of Slytherin and she was bloody tired of all the nonsense. She advanced on Justin and waved her hand manically at him, "You're just trying to cause all this drama so you have something to do! It's pathetic! Get a bloody hobby, for Merlin's sake!"

Alastriona hastily put her books away, panting from all the yelling, and marched towards the entrance of the common room, "Where are you going?" Ernie called out after her.

"Somewhere where the people talk sense!" 

"Right, well don't get attacked by Harry Potter on your way!" He jokingly yelled out but Alastriona was in no mood to hear it. The class had heard all about the legend of Salazar Slytherin's monster from Professor Binns and now all they talked about was Harry being the Heir of Slytherin which just seemed ridiculous to Alastriona, but no one listened to sense anymore! Especially not Justin and he wouldn't stop gossiping about it.

It didn't take long for the others to hear what happened and the three friends found Alastriona down by the Great Lake staring out at the calm water with her legs curled up to her chest. Theo flopped down next to her, "I reckon you should've hit him with a spell."

Blaise sat down on her other side, "You can always tell us what's wrong with you, we're happy to just sit and listen."

"And really, Alastriona," Darcy came on sat on the other side of Theo, "even though we'd love to see you duel Justin, Finn would be so mad if you got any more detentions."

At their words Alastriona let out a breath of air and the tears she was holding back made steady tracks down her cheeks, "Right now my uncle is in Scotland with my grandparents... they'll be at my fathers grave for the anniversary of his death. Until I came to Hogwarts every year I would be with my uncle and I'd hold his hand through it all."
She breathed deeply and smiled out at the lake, "My father was a really great man, that's what Uncle Finn always tells me, he always talks about how brave and talented he was. He was captain of the quidditch team, you know? He'd just been accepted into professional quidditch when-" Alastriona paused with a shaky breath and smiled wistfully.