- Chapter Seventeen -
"Deja-vu?"

Once again, Elladora was sat at the Gryffindor table waiting for the boys to come and sit with her, it was November 3rd and she was on her final pages of Narnia, it was actually quite sad that it was coming to an end already, considering she didn't have the rest of the books but oh well, she'll find another to read.

"Once a King or Queen of Narnia. Always a king or Queen. Bear it well, sons of Adam, Daughters of Eve!" Said Aslan.
And through the eastern door, which was wide open, came the voices of the mermen and the mermaids swimming close to the shore and singing in honour of their new Kings and Queens.
So the children sat in their throne-

"Hello." Sirius grinned giddily, taking a seat opposite her, he looked even more excited for today than he did any other day which was actually quite worrying. The others sat around her too, also smiling, like they always did.

A piece of red paper stuck out in Remus' hair and Elladora reached forward, picking it out of the shaggy locks that sat on top of his head. It was wrapping paper, there was some in Sirius's hair too, why on earth would they have wrapping paper in their hair.

"It's my birthday." Sirius said and suddenly it all made sense. Elladora , however, felt bad as she didn't have anything to give him, so she held a finger up to the boys and read the rest of her book at an incredible speed, scanning the last few lines before tapping the book with her wand, letting white wrapping paper tie itself around the rectangular box.

"Happy birthday."

She held it out to the boy and he smiled amusedly, taking it and pulling the paper off. He gasped in mock surprise and scanned the book, reading the blurb too. "Narnia. Is it good?"

"It's amazing." Remus said, his eyes lighting up at the mention of the book. "Did you like it?" He turned to Elladora.

"Yes." She answered, scooping a spoonful of her porridge into her mouth.

"Have you read Prince Caspian?" Remus asked again and she furrowed her eyebrows, shaking her head. What was...Prince Caspian?

"What is Prince Caspian?" She asked.

"It's the second Narnia book..." He trailed off when no one else was understanding what he was saying. His lips pulled into a tight smile and he nodded his head slowly.

The rest of them returned to whatever they were doing before, Peter, James and Sirius examining the Narnia book and Elladora eating her porridge, nearly finished with the bowl of oats. A bang on the table made her jump up to see that Sirius had slammed the book on the wooden surface, looking around at his friends whilst grinning devilishly.

"Hit me with the birthday ideas." He said and closed his eyes, clasping his hands together dramatically. "Give them to me."

"Quidditch." James suggested.

"Fire whiskey." Peter piped up.

"Prank?" Remus shrugged and Sirius unclamped his hands, opening his eyes and staring straight forward, which happened to also be at Elladora as she shrunk back in her seat slightly.

"Prank." Sirius said again. "I've done it again, came up with my brilliant birthday idea." He smiled.

"I thought-" Elladora started, pointing to Remus, but he leaned closer to her to whisper.

"Just leave it." He said and she nodded, waiting for the long-haired Gryffindor to continue.

"Today we will pull a prank." His voice turned into a whisper and he leaned forwards, which made the group huddle together. Elladora joined shortly after, finishing her porridge first before she could lean down to conspire with her friends. "You all in?"

The boys agreed but Elladora was still a bit hesitant, she wasn't that good with pranks and even though she was powerful and stealthy, something in her head told her that she would mess up. She didn't want to ruin Sirius' birthday, especially after he made hers the best she'd ever had.

"Come on, Dora." James pouted, putting on those damn puppy dog eyes that she couldn't resist.

"I don't know, guys."

"We'll prank the Slytherins."

"I'm in." She said almost immediately, glancing up at the Slytherin table to see Mulciber, Avery and Snape in a huddle just like theirs, whispering over a book. She remembered seeing the piece of paper stored in a book about the dark arts, Snape's handwriting. He hadn't listened to her warning that she gave him last year. He hadn't listened and that was on him, yet Elladora still felt a little bit of weighing guilt. "I'm in." She repeated.

"Sweet." Sirius laughed. "We don't even have to eavesdrop on the password anymore." He smiled and winked at the girl opposite, who was still staring at the three at the house of then snake.

Severus seemed to notice someone was staring as he glanced up from the huddle, making eye contact with the girl. They kept it for about a minute as the boys around her launched into conversation once again and Mulciber and Avery kept whispering. Their eyes were conversing on their own, Elladora's were pleading as well as warning, Severus' were scared yet stubborn.

She bit the inside of her cheek as he shook his head and looked away, back to his friends as Elladora went back to hers, they were already making plans on what to do once they're in the Slytherin common room.

She scooped a little bit more porridge into her bowl and ate it with occasional sips of her pumpkin juice as she listened to the boys talk.

It was like when they hadn't approached her and she would be able to hear them from a mile away, due to the quietness that constantly surrounded her. But now she was with them, she could pop into their conversation at any time and they wouldn't think it was weird. She had to admit that she preferred this way, she was happy that they approached her in the library.

•*•*•*•*•

"James, you're walking too loud!" Sirius scolded as the group of five walked under the invisibility cloak towards the Slytherin common room. They had a bucket full of toilet paper with them as well as food from the kitchens that they were going to spread all over the common room and the dorm rooms.

Elladora had only agreed to it when they promised her that she could sleep in their dorm room instead of her toilet papered one. Of course, she made it clear that she was to sleep on the floor, which was agreed by all five of them.

"Oh, I'm sorry Padfoot let me turn my steps down." James retorted sarcastically whilst his voice echoed around the corridors. Elladora brought her foot back, stepping on both of their feet to shut them up, Filch would come jogging around the corner if they kept it up. "Ouch."

"Hey, I'm the birthday boy." Sirius pouted.

She ignored him held tightly onto the bucket of toilet paper as Remus and Peter kept the cloak up from the front and back. They were close now, but of course Filch's cat, Mrs. Norris, had to come around the corner.

Knowing this corridor like the back of her hand, Elladora quickly snatched the cloak from above their heads, revealing themselves, the boys squeaked in protest but she quickly pushed them into a closet.

"Deja-vu?" Sirius wiggled his eyebrows as they all squeezed in and he and Elladora were squeezed up against each other again. She gave him a look before looking away, towards the door.

"Was there a reason you needed to snatch the cloak?" James whispered.

"Yes, if we still had it held up, we wouldn't have been able to fit inside here." She said, he thought over it for a second and opened his mouth to say something, maybe even argue. But footsteps quieted him.

Sirius and Elladora both felt a wave of familiarity as Filch stalked past the cupboard, muttering things under his breath as the group held theirs. "There's nothing here my precious." He said and the corridor was quiet once more, leaving Peter to poke his head out, seeing it empty an deserted. He waved a hand to his friend and one by one, they piled out of the cupboard and Elladora draped the cloak back over their heads.

They travelled the rest of the ways to the dungeons and stopped outside of the stone wall. "Serpens." The girl whispered and the stone wall rumbled slightly, until it parted, being sucked into another wall. It opened and the five of them stepped into the green common room.

The boys hadn't ever been in here before, causing them to stare around, open-mouthed as they examined the torch-lit walls, the green couches and the odd looking antiques that were scattered over the mahogany cabinets. Elladora grimaced at the place as if it left a sour taste in her mouth, which it did. She hated the common room, yes it was comfortable and had all the finest furniture, but it just reminded her even more of her family, the constant ridiculing, the constant teasing and the constant torture.

"Right," Elladora whispered, placing down the bucket in the middle of the floor. "Let's fuck things up." She grabbed a roll and slipped off up the stairs, towards the girls dormitories.

"Badass." All four boys sighed in a quiet voice as they watched her walk up the stairs. James picked up a roll and handed it to Sirius. "Happy birthday, mate." He grinned and Sirius grinned back and got started.

So Elladora took all of the girls dormitories, being extra stealthy whilst she went around the beds, carefully looping toilet paper around the four posters and the rest of the room. Peter, the one less likely to bump into anything, took the boys dormitories, even though he was extremely nervous to do so.

James and Sirius took the common room, putting the paper everywhere, over the sofas, around the artefacts, twisting it around the chandelier. And they all did it without magic, just normal pranksters, it was fun, exciting even.

Elladora was halfway down the stairs back to the common room, when the stairs turned into a slide and she toppled down it with a yelp of surprise, falling to the bottom of the slide but bumping into someone's legs, sending them to the floor too. She looked up to see James Potter lay on top of her whilst she harshly shoved him off, hitting his shoulder. "After six years, you don't know that boys aren't allowed up to the girls dorms?" She whispered, pushing herself off of the ground.

"I thought it was only for Gryffindors." He raised his hands in defence, taking Remus' hand that he had offered to help him up.

"We were coming to get you to see if you were finished." Sirius said and eyed the empty cardboard cylinders sticking out of the pockets of her robes. "Which you have, let's go."

Elladora looked around the common room in satisfaction, there was toilet paper everywhere and some food splattered all over the walls. She nodded at the mess they had made and exited the Slytherin common room, stepping out into the corridor quietly and covering themselves with the invisibility cloaks.

"Best birthday ever." Sirius grinned whilst he whispered and they set off down the hallways.

"It's not over yet, mate." James patted him on the shoulder. "We've still got loads of Honeydukes candy in the dorm." He said and threw an arm over Elladora's shoulder, she didn't object, which all four boys saw as massive progress.

She left it there but made no move to edge closer. They reached Gryffindor Tower and Remus said the password, letting the fat lady in the picture swing open, revealing a hole in the wall which they walked through.

Once the portrait had closed behind them, they all let out sighs of relief, taking the cloak off. The boys' hair was ruffled due to the friction of the material rubbing against their hair, Elladora's hair, however, looked perfect as always.

They went up the stairs and into the dormitory. "You've cleaned." Elladora commented as she grabbed a large blanket that was on Sirius' bed. Peter threw her a pillow and she fixed a make-shift bed next to Remus'. "It's much more appealing."

"Was that..." Sirius started, sitting up his bed. "Sarcasm?"

"I think it might've been, Padfoot." James swung around his four-poster bed, looking at the girl on the floor. "She's growing up so fast." He wiped a fake year as she grabbed a pillow off of Remus' bed and chucked it at him. The boy caught it and blew her a raspberry.

Peter then threw one at James just as he threw the one he was holding to Elladora, but instead it hit Remus, who threw it back to James, who fell back onto Sirius' bed. Soon the five were all in a small pillow fight. The boys were laughing but Elladora was still straight-faced and good-postured, but she was having fun, she was feeling just a little bit happier.

•*•*•*•*•