long way to heaven || marauder ff

8- dreams

"Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand,

For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand."

― William Butler Yeats, The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

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If Elaine thought back on past events in her life, there had been a few occasions where she had been the reason for a sudden silence.

One of the first times she was able to remember was sometime around her 5th birthday. The young child had been left to play with her older cousins, and it was only when the parents came back that they saw her changing her hair colors in order to entertain her relatives. This had caused all the adults to stare at the young witch stunned, never having seen such magic in a girl not classified as a metamorphmagus.

Another time was when she began studying at Beauxbatons and the other students realized that the daughter of the minister was under them, making them stunned at the student, not expecting the small and at that time quiet girl to be the most influential child their age.

A third occasion had been when she and Liam Marchbanks revealed their relationship, an expose that caused the student body of their school to sit in silence, as they had never expected the two polar opposite teenagers to heavily make out during lunch.

This time proved to be a lot different. Never had Elaine been as stunned at her actions as the people around her. It was as if everyone still had to wrap their heads around what the petite girl just disclosed to them.

If Elaine was honest, she had no idea why she hadn't run off to Merlin-knows-where yet. Instead, she chose to bring the bottle of butterbeer to her lips, swallowing a chug of it, only to finally break the silence surrounding the Gryffindors, that seemed eerie and unnatural in the midst of the party around them.

"You don't have to act surprised. I suppose you had put the pieces together before I told you this", she shrugged, doing her best to stay as nonchalant as possible. Still, the others sat stunned, Marlene's mouth agape like a fish, Sirius still clutching his hand around the air where the bottle of butterbeer had been seconds before.

"We didn't want to rush you into anything"

Lily was the one to break the silence. Elaine wasn't surprised at that. After all, Lily was the one she would come to first if she had a problem needing to be solved, an issue she wasn't able to comprehend.

"And it's still alright if you don't want to actually talk about it", Remus added, causing Elaine to smile at him shyly.

The others didn't seem as relaxed. Mary and Marlene were caught in a state of shock, while James and Sirius seemingly tried everything to not burst out with anything inappropriate their alcohol-dazed brains were thinking.

"At this moment I might not be able to talk about everything that happened", Elaine voiced out her thoughts, "And I might not ever, especially not in a surrounding like this-", she gestured to the party around them, "But I just wanted to let you know how thankful I am for the support you have shown me so far"

"And that is completely alright, like we all understand that!", Lily jumped in hurriedly, looking for confirmation in the group. "Right?", she asked more insistent as the others failed to answer, making them all nod and let out "yeah's".