In Her Eyes

Chapter Fourteen

At the start of November Alastriona felt like she had a grip on herself, the dreamless sleep potion worked wonders and she was finally getting back on top of all her homework.

It took a huge amount of effort to get back into Professor Snape's good books considering how far behind she had become. Alastriona knew she had his approval after one Potions class, she had brewed a perfect Shrinking Solution and he'd awarded Hufflepuff ten points! 

The first week of November, as always, brought chilling memories to Alastriona and the ache of family and an alternative future she had lost.

This year though she had a goal in mind, Professor Lupin had just dismissed them from class but Alastriona hung back and waved Darcy on. "Professor..."

He looked up from packing away his notes and smiled, "How can I help you Miss Breen?"

Alastriona stood in front of his desk and reached into the pocket of her robes and pulled out the old photograph, wizards waved up at them both as she placed it on the table in between them. "I want to hear about this group and I want to hear about my father." 

"I--" He looked ready to bolt but hesitated as the people in the photograph shuffled around so they could all get a good look at who was peering down at them, he picked it up and sat back down in his chair. "I forgot about this photo," he glanced up quickly at Alastriona, "there weren't many copies made, you see?"
He smiled sadly down at the faces he saw before leaning back in his seat and looked up at Alastriona, she pulled up a chair and sat in front of his desk. "I can't tell you much about this group, but everyone in it was or is a hero, including your father."

"Tomorrow is the anniversary of his death," Professor Lupin nodded sadly at her statement, "I want to hear about him... from someone who knew him as a friend. Can you tell me about him?"

At this he smiled and relaxed in his chair, it hurt him to talk about the people he'd lost but occasionally it was worth the pain that came with the old memories.

"Your father was a fantastic artist, and he showcased it in the best ways, I remember one of the first times I met him his hands were covered in blue and bronze paint, he'd just come from redecorating the Gryffindor locker room." Lupin leaned forward, "It was a huge scandal, he was captain of the Ravenclaw team at the time and he had a massive feud with the Gryffindor captain so they were constantly pulling stunts like that. He had painted every locker, the entire ceiling and right down to the floors blue and bronze stripes with the Ravenclaw emblem on the ceiling too. I bumped into him right after he'd done it, by pure accident, of course he was a couple years older than me at the time so I didn't say anything about it and no one ever knew he was the one who did it. There was no proof whatsoever, the Gryffindor captain swore up and down it was Elliot," he shrugged, "but there was no evidence."

Alastriona smiled and rested back in her chair.

"The whole school knew, with absolute certainty, that Elliot could've done anything he'd wanted when he left school. There wasn't anything he was bad at, but everyone also knew his passion was quidditch, Ravenclaw had the worst time replacing him after he left Hogwarts."

He smiled now, recalling all the fond memories of him. "Elliot extended a helping hand wherever he could, tutoring younger students, it didn't matter if they were from Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hufflepuff or Gryffindor, if they asked for help he'd be there without question. No one was all that surprised when he became a Prefect." Lupin leaned forward, "In his final year he was captain of the quidditch team, Head Boy and he was being watched by several professional quidditch teams."

Alastriona looked down at her hands in her lap, she thought it might make her feel closer to her father but now all she felt was a weight pushing down on her shoulders. "He sounds perfect..."