- Seventy-Four -
"Um, because they lactose."

Silent. Tense. Unbelievable. Three words to describe the quiet atmosphere of the Defence Against The Dark Arts classroom once the bright silver phoenix that had spurted from the end of Elladora's wand like water would from a fountain had disappeared and let its bright lights float out into nothingness. A wintry shiver passed over the class as they stood in the polar conditions of the classroom, the sun had been silence and despite its rays shining desperately through the windows, it provided no heat. Goosebumps arose on the skin of the students under their jumpers and cloaks, the bitter pass of the small wind affecting them.

Not even a breath could be heard, only the slight shuffling of some student's feet as they waited in silence for something to happen. Elladora was too preoccupied with staring at the wand in her hand like she had never used it before in her life to notice the cold that had washed over them all, her eyes were wide and the sunlight shining down onto the polished floor did nothing to affect her eyesight. She didn't even squint as she gripped her wand tightly between her fingers, continuing to stare at it shockingly.

"Right." The cold, hard voice of Yaxley rang out across the room and Elladora willed herself not to flinch as she snapped her head over to him. His jaw was clenched slightly and his eyes were flicking back between her and the space where the bright phoenix had been a moment before.

Surprisingly, he only jerked his head back to where she had first been standing, the wide-eyed looks of the marauders staring back at Elladora when she made her way back over quickly to try and rid of the feeling of the stares. She took her place back next to Remus and Peter with added haste, settling herself in between them silently; she was still in the midst of shock.

"Good first example." Yaxley spoke again and moved to the centre of the classroom again, his eyes zeroing on the girl who had just returned to her place after the show of bright light that had come out of her wand. "Very rare. The phoenix is known as the resurrection bird, dying in a glorious pyre of flames and then rising again to new life from the ashes. Their tears have healing powers and they can carry very heavy loads."

His last sentence wad meant to shake her, she knew that. Very heavy loads, the amount of pressure she was put under from being in the Death Eaters. It may have been a warning but she took it as a taunt and shifted in her place slightly, glancing down at her feet before glancing back up at Yaxley in fear of him shouting at her again.

"Why do you think you relate to a phoenix, Miss Hargreaves?" He asked, Elladora biting her tongue slightly as she became slightly nervous by the stares. Although she knew most of them meant well, she had just seen her first ever patronus and it was one of the rarest ones ever.

"Emotional baggage." Someone mumbled from near the door and she immediately knew it was Avery.

"You wanna say that again?" Sirius spoke up threateningly, going to walk towards him but Yaxley stopped him by cutting across the boys sharply.

"Black!" He snapped, glaring as Sirius backed away with a huff and Avery smirked at the lack of punishment he had gotten. Yaxley turned back to Elladora with that same taunting look, he was supposed to be an adult so why was he acting like a child? "Go on, Miss Hargreaves."

"Uh, I suppose that..." She started off, shaking her head ever so slightly. She didn't know what it meant. "I guess I'm happier now than I was before?" She tried, grimacing slightly at her words.

Yaxley quirked his first smile of the lesson, nodding his head slowly. "Yes...I suppose. The matter that younger Mr. Black told me about, yes?" He asked, sending a knowing look to her as she tensed up slightly.

She didn't know why she was surprised that they all had to tell the adults of their plan since if Yaxley saw her hanging around with the marauders and didn't know what they though she was doing, she would've been in big trouble. But then again, they didn't know that she was lying to them and just trying to live her life in safety as best she could without her whole life changing.

"What does he mean?" Remus whispered to her, his lips barely moving in an attempt not to be caught as he spoke and Yaxley moved onto a different student.

Elladora glanced up at him for a moment, parting her lips in an attempt to force something out but when he looked down at her whilst waiting for an answer, she fell silent and closed her mouth once more. The small buzzing feeling in her stomach returned as they locked eyes and she raised a hand to it again, frowning in confusion. Remus looked down to where she held her stomach and furrowed his eyebrows before looking back up at her.

"I don't know what he meant." She said quietly and he nodded slightly, sending a small smile before their attention got taken away from each other and put towards a bright light that came out of Lily Evan's one.

A silver doe trotted around her before disappearing and Elladora, Remus, Peter and Sirius all turned to look at James who was staring at the redhead with his mouth hung agape. Lily didn't seem to have picked up on what they did and just smiled in satisfaction before going to stand with Marlene, Mary and Dorcas again, James was practically frozen in place whilst still staring at Lily.

"No fucking way." Peter murmured as they all turned their heads to stare at Lily who was watching another students patronus sprout out of their wand.

•*•*•*•*•

"I'm fucking sweltered." Sirius complained as the group walked down to find a tree they could find shade under, they had just gotten out of Defence Against The Dark Arts with an essay to do for the next day and Elladora had to refrain from groaning out loud when he brought up the topic of Resisting the Imperius Curse. Memories of previous summer had her frowning uncomfortably.

Still, the coldness of the classroom had disappeared when they stepped out of it and were immediately welcomed by the burning sunlight that filtered through the gaps in the stone. The lamps were lit around school for some reason and the increased heat left the group no other choice than to walk out to the big tree that stood by itself and provided plenty of shade for students to cool under.

It was their free period before break anyway until they had to get to Charms so they had about an hour and 15 minutes before they had to make their way back up to castle to be on time for their lesson. The classes had been working on their Blackboard Writing last lesson and would probably continue it today; Elladora had done it flawlessly, as had Lily, Remus, James, Sirius and other people that she didn't deem that important. Peter had gotten half-way there, trying to write something simple like 'The Marauders' but he messed it up and it instead wrote 'The Murderers'.

Elladora found it both amusing and unsettling but she comforted Peter nonetheless when he frowned at his inability, she tried to help him by starting with smaller words and stuff but he seemed distracted, looking enviously at the full sentences that Sirius, James and Remus were creating. Elladora had wiped her blackboard clean with one flick of her wand before she helped Peter, feeling as though it would be quite insensitive if she kept the introduction of one of her essays on there whist he was struggling with a couple of words.

He hadn't been able to improve much that lesson but Elladora had hope for the one in an hour.

"I know." Peter muttered in reply to Sirius, pulling off his jumper after having pulled off his cloak as soon as they started walking. He draped both of them over his arm and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt as they grew closer to the tree. "Think it will be summer uniform soon?"

Summer uniform was where students did not have to wear their jumpers or cloaks if they wished not to but it also meant that their shirts could no longer be untucked and their ties had to be longer than the messy short ones that people usually throw on. Elladora had been the model example of summer uniform when it go too tight, long-sleeved shirt, long tie, perfectly ironed shirt thanks to the house-elves and her bag still slung around her shoulder.

But now, she was terrified of them seeing the mark on her arm if it began to be noticeable through her long-sleeve. All four of them had their cloaks shed, James and Sirius taking their jumpers off after Peter had done his but Remus kept his on.

"I think Minnie said something about it happening next week." James told them as they reached the tree, he flopped himself down on the ground and sighed at the cool grass tickling his barre arms as they were all wearing short-sleeved shirts. "Refreshing."

Sirius joined him lying flat on the floor whilst Remus and Elladora sat with their backs against the tree and their legs crossed, Peter put his cloak down before sitting on it with his legs crossed but with nothing to lean his back against. Remus reached back and grabbed the back f his jumper before pulling it over his head and tossing it into his bag with a huff.

"All right, Dora?" He looked at her, his eyes squinting slightly at the sight of her full uniform on as well as the obvious heat on her cheeks.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She replied with a small smile, sounding slightly exhausted or breathless.

"Take your cloak and jumper off." Sirius advised, snatching his jumper from where he had dumped it and bunching it up under where his head was laying previously. "You'll overheat otherwise."

"Guys," She said and they all looked at her as she gave them what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "I'm fine, seriously."

They all looked at her for a moment before nodding and turning away, Pete began picking at the grass and ripping each one in half before sprinkling them back down. Remus leant his head back and rested it against the tree behind him, James was squinting up at the sky though the branches of the tree and watching as the clouds moved slowly, Sirius was nearly asleep already. Elladora looked around at them all and sighed quietly, she felt so out of place now.

Maybe it was just her or maybe they felt it too but she felt awkward around them again like the first month of their friendship and she hated it, it hadn't been that awkward when she had seen Remus over the holidays but now that she was back at school and constantly keeping secrets from them, she felt bad and awkward and stressed and like she always wanted to cry. It felt as though the earned friendship was slipping away slowly and the thought almost made her cry.

"Wanna hear a joke?" She mumbled into the silence, thinking back to all the words Sebastian had said to her to try and make her smile or laugh at least once and although she found humour in it, not once did her lips quirk.

"Of course we wanna hear a joke." Sirius chuckled, leaning his head back to grin at her upside down. Even then she laughed and realised that all she need to do was break the ice she was hovering on. "Go ahead."

"Why do cows have hooves instead of feet?" She asked unsurely, the four boys in front of her smiling and looking back at her with a chorus of 'why?'. "Um, because they lactose."

It was an awkward silence for a moment before James started cackling, his laugh amplified by his lying position. Sirius laughed next, his chest jerking slightly as he did so and Peter joined in, contiuning to pick at the grass. She glanced around at them proudly before looking over at Remus when she hadn't heard his laughs, he was instead just smiling softly at her from where she was sat and she took a quick intake of breath before smiling and beginning to laugh. At the sight of her laughter, he finally joined.

For a moment, Elladora believed that this was going to be easy. The ice had broken it would no longer be awkward between the group from her perspective and it would look to the others as if she was just doing what they wanted her to. She smiled more widely at that as the boys kept coming up with more jokes and she looked around at them admirably. They made her feel like everything was okay.

It was good whilst it lasted.

•*•*•*•*•
A/N: A lot of Moonra because I love them and I have no problem with finally revealing the love interest to you guys. Of course it's Remus, I love that mf and he makes me happy.

Also, the buzzing feeling was butterflies! SHE IS NOT PREGNANT. I REPEAT, SHE IS NOT PREGNANT. MISS ME WITH THAT SHIT, I HATE PREGNANCY ARCS WHEN THERE ARE NO NEED FOR THEM.