- Chapter Three -
"Sebastian Hargreaves."

A/N: quite a long chapter!! mainly just a recap

THE SECRET GATE THAT SEBASTIAN MADE HAD BEEN REMOVED. Unfortunately, he found out the hard way; after having been shoved out of the house by Isaac, he cursed the redhead with the power of all 4 founders before rushing away from the window that exposed him to the tall man in the kitchen, brunette and seemingly throwing nuts into the air and catching them in his mouth.

Sebastian rolled his eyes as he walked away, wand still gripped in his hand for protection as he sought out the piece of gate that stood opposite Elladora's bedroom that had now turned to Isaac's.

It took him quite a while more than he would've liked since walking past the usually bare gardens, his attention was stolen by all of the colourful flowers that had replaced them. Roses, tulips, crocuses, bluebells, baby's breath...all blooming with splendour in the blazing rays of the golden sun.

Purple, red, pink, orange, yellow, blue, every single colour of the rainbow planted there. Sebastian's breath heaved a little as he strut past them, trying to reach the gate.

Avoiding another run in would make his day 5 times better.

That was a lie. Surely nothing could make his day better. Isaac had told him his sister was dead, that he was 20 years in the future and had no idea, the house had been abandoned for a decade and there was a grave in the forest. Sebastian didn't believe him, he didn't want to believe him; he wanted hard, solid proof that Elladora was no longer living.

Which he probably won't find because there was no chance that Elladora Hargreeves had died at 17 years old, there was no chance that she even lived to be 17 because Elladora was 11 years old, she spent every day poring over books in their library. She was not dead.

Sebastian had just simply apparated to the wrong house. That was all. No matter how much it looked like his old one, no matter the memories that it brought back to him. This wasn't his house.

That was perfectly exemplified and proven as Sebastian reached the gate that sat opposite Isaac's bedroom, the window looking down at the very piece of metal that they used to escape from.

Looking up to check that he was in the right spot, he spotted the red hair of Isaac Allen retreating away from the window.

Such a freak, Sebastian thought as he pulled his wand out once more and waved it in front of the metal.

The metal bars did not melt into a door for him that he could use to exit the house into the forest. That settled it then, this wasn't Sebastian's house, he had stumbled upon a strangers mansion and that nefarious little Isaac had lied to Sebastian.

How funny would he find it if Sebastian killed all of his siblings?

Speaking of the millions of babies that Isaac's mother seemed to have produced, a childish giggle echoed out from the forest. A forest so familiar that it almost tricked Sebastian back into believing that this was this house.

The blossom floating around was so alike the other forest, and the towering branches just screamed familiarity. But it couldn't be. It wasn't.

Despite the fact that he knew for certain this house wasn't the one he had grown up in, Sebastian grabbed onto the bars of the gate in front of him and hoisted himself up like he had done with the gates to the general house before.

At least now he had an explanation as to why his magic hadn't worked on anything. Quickly, he dropped down to the ground with his bent knees, now officially being able to walk around casually without any repercussions of who are you and why are you here.

He was Sebastian Hargreaves and he was there to prove Isaac Allen wrong.

The journey into the forest was also familiar, a path being paved past the opening trees towards a childish giggle of an old memory which made Sebastian's steps begin to slow down.

His mind was swimming with old reminiscence, and his heart picked up in fear, in terror as he walked further into the woods.

Twigs and sticks cracked under his heavy feet, splitting in half and being abandoned in the soil that sprouted greenery all around Sebastian.

Greenery that he recognised, that his little sister had picked once before, greenery that sent his vision blurring and his mind spinning a little whilst he continued through the forest.

Whispers of a song, a melody of peace and tranquility, one that he greatly missed feeling every day. He never knew how much until now, the prospect of his baby sister almost not being alive any more.

The large oak loomed over Sebastian like an old friend turned enemy after he turned the last corner. The tree. The memories. The picnic. A carving lower down on the tree, it's thick base highlighted a stone before it. The stone. The one that wasn't real, the one that Isaac had lied to him about.

The stone that marked the death of his missing piece. 1959-1977.

Sebastian had never felt grief. Not even when his grandmother died. He hadn't felt it like Elladora had, maybe that was because he knew what she believed in, what she had done.

Even though she posed as a loving grandma, she was evil to the bone, a death eater at heart. When her time came, Sebastian hadn't shed a tear but had been there for Elladora when she did. No one else close to him had died, he was lucky enough for that.

But now...now grief consumed him.

A plague that consumed his whole being all at once, filling him from the head to the toe with terrible anguish. His muscles gave up and so did his joints, all at once he felt himself needing to drop to the floor, to rest, to give into his aching limbs but his body would not allow him to move.

Body or brain, he didn't know, but whatever part of him was in control, it kept him frozen. It made him stare at the name so delicately carved into the stone starting to show a little debris, stare at the flowers placed down there, fresh and colourful.

Sebastian stared at the man who had been at the grave when he arrived.

At first he had taken no notice.

Now he wondered who the hell was mourning his little sister with a face so downtrodden, a frown so crestfallen and eyes so red that Sebastian wondered if he'd been crying for the same amount of time Sebastian had been missing.

His hair was a mess, a shaggy head of light brown. Across his face there were deep scars, pale lines from where the skin had healed itself. He was skinny, pale, almost like Sebastian.

But whilst Sebastian's clothes were in perfect condition yet slightly damp from being in the cave, this man's clothes were frayed and patched.

The boy didn't care to look at him any longer, he only stumbled closer to the gravestone and let his gaze take in every inch of the commemoration.

Elladora was lying breathless and dead below the soil he stood near and he didn't know if his heart could take it, it physically pained him, he could feel the tear in his organ the more he thought, the more he realised that his baby sister, his little tiny baby sister was dead.

And he had missed 7 years of her life. 7 years where he could've been by her side, 7 years where he could've prevented her tragic end. 7 years that she had been alone.

Or so he thought. But the other man, looking like he was in his thirties or close to it, made him think a little differently.

Staring at the grave once more, Sebastian counted backwards from 1995 until her year of death, noting that this man, if he was in his thirties like Seb presumed...This man would've known her. He would've known her when Sebastian didn't. This man was there when his little angel was alone...he was there.

"How?" Sebastian spoke, his voice had turned rough like stone scraping against gravel instead of the freshness it felt like when he had gotten out of the water with the Inferni.

He was choked up, close to breaking at the sight of the headstone, the thought of his saviour...he had never felt like this before.

The man, with the ragged clothing and messy hair, took a breath in that almost sounded like he was holding back a sob before he turned his head to face the boy beside him. But Sebastian didn't turn, he kept his eyes on her name, on her name meaning and tried not to collapse on the dirt beneath him.

The dirt where he belonged for leaving such a girl for such a time. Below this blinding anguish, there was a haze of confusion. He didn't know how the hell he was there, he just wanted to know how the hell Elladora had gotten where she was.

"She saved the world." The stranger gulped, sniffling as he rubbed his nose; he had something clutched in his hand, maybe a piece of paper whereas in his other hand there was a singular flower. A rose. Elladora's favourite.

"I knew her in school. She was a quiet girl...never talked, never laughed, never reacted. You wouldn't even have realised she was there half of the time. One day she dodged a prank of mine, no one ever did that, but she did. And my friends were curious so we asked her about it. She only had to look at the clock to change the time so the bell would ring early and we would leave her alone."

Sebastian felt an immense pride swim up in him, but his face showed no emotion at all at the news of his sibling's skill in magic.

It wasn't surprising in the slightest, he had always known she was powerful and to hear her classmate telling him about all the little things she could do could've punctured Sebastian's tear ducts and sent the hot water spiralling down his cheeks at the sound of it.

But he said nothing because the man seemed eager to carry on.

"After that we started noticing her more," He said. "This boy called Peter, he was my friend, he had this huge crush on her. Practically in love. We encouraged him to talk to her someday but she just wouldn't have any of it. Especially in Defence. Uh, two days later I was looking at this magic map I had and I saw her, uh, on the top of the astronomy tower and I thought to myself 'that can't be good', you know? So I went there, and...and she was about to jump off."

"But I stopped her. She wouldn't come down because she didn't trust me, so I told her everything about myself. She, uh, she came down eventually. And she sat down with me, thanked me, ran her finger down my scar before she ran off and disappeared for two weeks." He laughed humourlessly, like everything was a fond memory, Sebastian simply turned and stared at the man who had saved his sister's life.

"I asked Dumbledore to check on her for me and then I get a little note in the mail from her, something short and so Dora-like. My friends saw and it came out that she tried to kill herself. Our other friend got this stupid idea to try and cheer her up so she didn't feel like that anymore. And...damn, I don't know what I would've done with myself if we didn't do that."

"At first she refused. Then she agreed. But it was rough and awkward and we kind of just threw her in the deep end without really realising it. But even then she helped me out so much and we barely even knew each other. Her birthday was on Halloween, and she hated it with a passion, but we snuck her out of the castle to Hogsmeade because her parents hadn't signed the slip. And we gave her the best birthday she ever had, followed by her first taste of chocolate."

"That's a day I will remember forever. After that we all became closer than ever...she did pranks with us, she went to Quidditch matches with us. She even swore at the teacher for us. We became...tight-knit."

"We spent Christmas together. She wasn't going home but we were all going to James' house for our tradition stuff so we invited her, and she came along. It was the most amazing Christmas I think I've ever had. One thing that I always remember was the fact that we were making cookies, all five of us, and it ended up being just me and her in the kitchen."

"I accidentally poured flour over her and it turned into some massive food fight...it was invigorating and-and it was such a key moment for me. Not to mention the fact that we took her to a Christmas ball the next day and she looked so incredibly ethereal in her white dress that I- I- I don't even know how to explain what I felt. We all danced with her. And then she smiled."

"What?" Sebastian widened his eyes at the man who was now crying, the red eyes leaking stinging tears. Shuddering breaths came from his mouth and his chest heaved a couple of times before he regained the strength to start talking again.

But Sebastian was still stuck on the fact that his little sister smiled.

"Yeah. Bearing in mind, she never ever smiled. Ever. And she did, after we passed her around like a hot potato when dancing. I'll never forget the look on her face, the whiteness of her teeth, the joy in her eyes, it was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. And then the laugh. Oh my god, the laugh was out of this world entirely."

"And I heard it again the next day opening presents and again the day after when we danced in the snow in the early hours of the morning because at that moment we were the only two people in the world. We were walking in the air, dancing on the moon...safe, s-s-secure."

"Then we went back to school again. It wasn't so great the first couple of days. You see she got cursed by dark magic in Defence, there was blood everywhere and I almost thought she wouldn't make it. But it was Elladora, she always pulled through. Even if she was in there for a matter of weeks, which she was, she returned again in the most badass way."

"Helping me out with a problem I had, it was such a relief to see her again. Healthy. She would've stayed healthy if she didn't get into a fight the next day. With these Slytherins, they hit her and so our friend hit them, James joined in and soon everyone was on everyone. Punching, kicking, all that shit. It was insane."

"Luckily, we got off scot-free. Apart from a couple of detentions, but that was to be expected. At least they didn't get in the way of Lily Evans' birthday party where Dora got drunk for the first time. What a time. She did the funky chicken in the middle of the room about 12 times before James took her up to bed. When he was putting her to sleep, she called him 'sebastian'." The stranger rubbed his nose a little, not noticing the way that the boy's breath hitched. "That was her brothers name. We asked her who he was the next day and she told us he lived over in America but that wasn't the whole truth."

"She got asked on her first date a couple of days later and it was a disaster. She didn't even think it was a date at first so we tried to help her and she ended up meeting Newt fucking Scammander, which was...crazy. Like so insane. Anyway...Easter was where it all started. Where it all fucked up." He scuffed the ground with his shoe a little.

"She was terrified to go home for Easter, so terrified that we probably shouldn't have let her. Stupidly we did and the first thing that her mother did when they met was manhandle her, I couldn't even stand the sight of it. She was gone moments later."

"I don't know much about what happened over Easter because I wasn't there but long story short...Elladora got recruited as a Death Eater and was forced to take the Unbreakable Vow for You-Know-Who." His tone was so low and so solemn, in his own head so much that Sebastian's harshly clenched jaw was not noticeable. "She killed someone. She had to. And-and she got raped."

At once, Sebastian's hands had clasped into tight fists as he snapped his head over to the stranger again. But the man looked as though he was in just as much anguish and was feeling just as much anger as Sebastian because the stem of the rose in his hand could've broken in half at the tightness of his grip. Knuckles were white and his cheeks were flushed, the mere memory enough for him to get heated.

"It was after I visited her in the holidays. We danced in the kitchen together, we cooked and we cleaned and after I left it happened to her. God, she didn't even know what was happening because she was so fucking pure and so fucking innocent. She got tricked. And the truth came out when we were back in school."

"The brother of one of our friends, who we didn't even think was that good friends with Elladora, tried to beat up the guy who did it when he found out. But Elladora pried them apart and sent them on their separate ways. I wanted to smash the guys face in but she didn't let me."

"That was the day she produced her first patronus. A phoenix. Proving she was the most powerful, that she was the one to fear. If you weren't scared of pissing Elladora off, you were a fool. She didn't take any shit from anyone, that's part of the reason why I loved her so much. God, I loved her. She-She was my life, my soul, the reason I got out of bed on my worst days. We weren't even together in the slightest but she was my whole heart and I only lived for her and-"

"And she kissed me...at a Quidditch party one night. Queen was playing in the background, it was at the top of the stairs in the Gryffindor Common Room and she looked so nervous. I was worried for her. And then we kissed and my whole body came alive, my heart set on fire and I just- I just always wanted to be with her. Now I feel so stupid when I think back because one night, her life took the roughest turn and I wasn't that comforting. She confided in me that her brother wasn't in America, he was dead and she told me who had killed him."

"I didn't believe her. But I didn't want to make her more distraught so I hugged her close, kissed her and told her that everything would be okay. That I wouldn't go breaking her heart. But-But I didn't believe her and I think she knew that. Something else happened to her though, she fell out with our friend's brother and at the time I didn't know why, but now I do. She was trying to stop a war. And nobody believed her. Nobody. They shunned her, and one time she came back from a Death Eater meeting that I didn't know she had been at. And there was something...off."

"I look back on it now and what happened afterwards and I just think, why, why the hell did I have to act like such a fucking prick?...I found her Death Eater mark, she didn't show me, I found it. And I freaked out which made her freak out and we started hurling so many hurtful things at each other. I felt betrayed, she felt guilty, we both felt angry and I stormed off. If-If-if I could just fucking take back every second of that argument I would...because the next day she came to sort things out. But I didn't want to."

"I left her with James. This caused them to fall out too because she showed him her mark, she tried to explain and he didn't listen. Well, he did and then she explained that You-Know-Who had asked her to kill Dumbledore and then James didn't want to listen anymore. So she stormed out. Then she met up with Peter, who decided to profess his undying love to her which I always think is what I should've done instead of yelling at her. Elladora refused, Peter got angry and ran off. Leaving her with our final friend and god..."

"He knew, he knew that she'd killed someone but he'd been lied to and he'd been manipulated. His brother, who Elladora had fallen out with, had gone up to him and fed him lies concocted by the other Slytherin boys. They said how Elladora had ruthlessly murdered an innocent man which was not true in the slightest, but Sirius believed that and not her. Then they argued and Dora lost everybody...everybody. Except for herself."

"On the night that she died I was called up to the Astronomy Tower with my friends to speak to Dumbledore. He told us everything that had happened with Dora, absolutely everything and he told us that she was on her way to kill him. But-but she was under the fucking unbreakable vow and she didn't kill him. She-She didn't do it because she is the purest of heart that Hogwarts had ever seen...and she died in my arms because she wasn't a murderer, she was a lover and she wanted to have a life which no one gave her. I didn't even-even get to tell her I loved her!"

"She was dead when the clock struck 10, and I was dead as soon as I felt her weight fall into me." The stranger finished, tears pouring and streaking down his red cheeks as he sobbed; he looked similar to Sebastian who also had tears pouring down his face but he didn't sob. Sebastian didn't make a sound, he just stared at Elladora's grave and hated himself because no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't imagine his baby sister in any of those situations. "So that's the story."

He looked down at his hand with the paper in it, opening his hand so that it didn't get too crumpled. In Sebastian's silence that followed, the stranger decided to flatten out the slight crinkles that had formed in the photo, waiting for the boy beside him to say something or waiting to think of something to say himself.

Whilst waiting, he placed the rose he had in his hand down by the other fresh bouquet who must've been from someone in their past too.

"I try to come here once a year on her birthday but uh, Harry, James' son asked about her in an order meeting the other day and I..." The man spoke, looking down at the photo and Sebastian tried to sneak a little glance but the sun was too bright to see it. "I suggested burying her here because I thought she would like it. She told me it was where she used to hang out with her brother and I didn't know where he was buried so this was the next best thing. I really miss her."

"I really miss her too." Sebastian sniffed, his voice quiet and choked up because he couldn't fathom what he had just heard. He couldn't take any of that on board, because it wasn't possible, none of it was possible.

The stranger looked over curiously, narrowing his eyes in question but Sebastian didn't even look at him as a single tear slid slowly down his cheek before dropping off of his jawline.

The man began fidgeting a little, he folded the picture up and brought out his wallet, sliding the photo inside of it before he pocketed the wallet and looked back up at Sebastian. His hands travelled to his pockets.

"Wh-Whats your name?" He asked, prompting Sebastian to turn around and stare at him through his red eyes, lip quivering a little slightly in anger, mostly in sadness. This boy abandoned his sister when she needed help the most.

They stared at each other, Sebastian had no reaction or expression towards the man who stared at him warily. His fingertips brushed his wand and he went to pull it out but Sebastian presumed that if he told this stranger his name, if he revealed himself and begged for information, this man would not be so hostile.

"Sebastian." Sebastian said, watching as the man faltered immediately, his hand went loose and the wand fell to the dirty ground. He took this as an advantage to reach into his own pocket and grab his wand, pointing at the stranger himself. "Sebastian Hargreaves."

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A/N: this is mainly just a recap chapter