long way to heaven || marauder ff

1- hogwarts

1st of September, 1976

Everything had happened super fast. One second, Elaine hat sat in her families' mansion in the outskirts of Paris, and the next she was in Albus Dumbledore's office in Great Britain.

 The room was beautiful, that much was obvious. It must have been situated quite high up, in order to be offering the view Elaine was enjoying at the second. She had been told to wait for her new headmaster Albus Dumbledore so he could introduce her to the rest of the students before the start of the year banquet. 

It was weird to think of the wizard as her new headmaster. She loved the headmistress of Beauxbatons, Madame Archambeault, with her whole heart, as she had known the kind woman for her whole life. Elaine knew that she would miss their discussions over a cup of coffee or the lessons she would share with the teacher sometimes. 

She didn't even have the chance to say goodbye. Everything had happened so fast. It wasn't like her parents left her a choice what to do. If her father had decided something, there was nothing to be said against that. As soon as the three of them- her father, her brother and herself obviously- had arrived in the Sauveur' estate in Paris, she had been whisked away to her mother so the woman could tend to her wounds. As soon as she had finished, her father had initiated her to the plan that was supposed to protect and save her life.

And that was how she had ended up at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in the middle of the Scottish highlands. 

It was a breathtaking castle, as much as Elaine could judge from the view that the window gave her. However, it was nothing compared to Beauxbatons. There were no white walls, no petite archways or romantic towers. Hogwarts was medieval where Beauxbatons was romantic, hard where her home had been soft. 

With a sigh, the young girl turned away from the window, just to look right into the eyes of Albus Dumbledore. 

She had met him before, quite a few times actually. Now, she jumped away in shock though.

"I am terribly sorry to have startled you, Miss Sauveur. Lemondrop?", the old man asked kindly, holding out a yellow candy in his hand. 

That was certainly not how Elaine had expected her talk with her new headmaster to go. 

"I- no, thank you Sir. I ate at home", she answered, realising a feeling of sorrow at her own words. Home. How was Hogwarts supposed to become her new home? She could already feel her tongue stumbling over the foreign English words, uncomfortable with speaking the different language. She was incredibly glad that she had gotten English lessons from the pure age of 5 on, as her father persisted on her being educated in multiple languages. Over the course of the last years, English had been put away into a far corner of her head though, as students at Beauxbatons were either French, Spanish, or partly German as well as Dutch or Belgian. 

"I hope that you will feel at home here soon" Dumbledore's words pulled Elaine out of her thought spiral. It was as if the wizard knew exactly what she was thinking about. "All teachers have been informed about the circumstances that ushered you to come here. As we are speaking, they are preparing for the banquet in the Great Hall. Your fellow students should be arriving in this moment, so it is time for us to join them. Have your parents informed you about the Housing system at our school?" 

Elaine tried to think of everything her far cousins had told her about the British school on the few occasions they had met up, always due to some lavish family party being thrown either in France or Britain. "I remember parts of it, yes. There are four houses, I believe? And one is sorted due to their abilities and attitudes?"